Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of it's characters.

Chapter 3

When Jason and Taylor figured they were deep enough in the forest to feel a bit safer, they stopped to take in their surroundings. Taylor turned three hundred and sixty degrees. "Ah…. Jason ….do you have any idea where we are?"

He spun round too, looking for any feature that looked familiar. He shook his head, and for one awful moment Taylor thought he was going to cry. She couldn't blame him if he did, she was trying hard not to do the same. Grabbing his arm she pulled him over to a nearby tree.

"Come on, sit down, we need a plan." Taylor gave him the opportunity to suggest something, but he just leant his head back against the trunk and stared at the sky.

"Okay, we can't go to the police, because 'HE' might be there, and they probably wouldn't believe us anyway. Right?"

When Jason didn't answer she hit him a dig in the ribs with her elbow. "Jason!"

"Ow! Yeah, definitely no cops. What about going to your dad, or back to school?"

"By now my mom's probably told him we're not in school, he'll be out lookin' for us. We can't go home, that'll be the first place that cop looks for us. NCIS or school would be safe, but we'd stand out too much on the streets at this time of the day, we'd be picked up in no time."

"Then what?" Jason kicked at the dirt beneath his foot.

"First thing we gotta do is find our way back to one of the trails."

"Yeah, like that's gonna be easy!"

"It might take a while, but we'll find a way out of here, come on, we've been lost in these woods plenty of times."

"We didn't have someone chasing us with a gun before!"

Ignoring his last comment she continued "I think we should lie low in here until it starts to get dark. Then we'll try and get home."

Jason nodded, feeling a bit better now they knew what they were gonna do. "You got any food in there?" He pointed to her backpack.

Taylor grinned, that was more like the Jason she knew. "Peanut butter."

Leaning forward she slipped her arms out of the straps and lifted it in front of her to open it. Her eyes were drawn to a spot of dirt on the outer pocket, and she brushed her hand over it. When it didn't move Taylor looked at it more closely. It wasn't dirt, it was a hole. She poked her finger into it. The hole went right through the fabric. Taylor was starting to get a real bad feeling about this, and quickly unzipped the main section of the bag, before lifting everything out bit by bit.

Lunch bag, hole right through.

Pencil case, hole right through.

Homework, hole right through.

File block, hole right through.

Math book, hole right through.

Her history book was last, and Taylor swallowed hard when she spotted the bullet lodged deep in the front of it.

"He shot me!"

Jason went pale when Taylor reached him the book. "He's definitely not just gonna forget about us is he?"

"No." She quickly dismissed any thoughts of what might have happened, and handed him half of her sandwich. "When we've eaten, we'd better start looking for a path or something, cause it might take a while, and we need to know exactly where we are before it gets dark."

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Gibbs had the whole team trying to track down his daughter. Tim was standing in front of him now, trying to explain that the GPS must have been switched off in Taylor's phone, and the only way they could trace it would be if she made a call. He'd already tried phoning her a number of times, but there had been no answer. Tony and Ziva were both out checking and rechecking anywhere they thought the two kids would be. Tony in the woods, and Ziva scouring the streets. He was starting to run out of options, and that was only leaving him with time to worry. What if Taylor and Jason had been caught up in the shooting? Were they scared and hiding? Hurt? Dead? Then his mind automatically jumped back to Kelly and Shannon, he already knew the lengths people would go to, just to keep themselves out of prison. It couldn't happen again, he wouldn't let it.

Gibbs slammed his hand down hard on the desk, making Tim jump. "Just keep trying McGee!"

"Yes, boss." Tim returned to his own desk, and started the whole process over again.

Grabbing his gun and coat, he headed out of the building, he was going to get Tony to meet him at he crime scene, maybe they could find something there to go on.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Jason and Taylor had walked for hours, before finding an area they were familiar with. After a while everything had started to look the same, and they must have wasted a lot of time walking round in circles. But now they could relax a little. They knew the clearing they were sitting in now, really well. Evidence of their previous shooting exploits were still there. Part of Jason's target was still stuck to one of the trees, and quite a lot of bullet holes, although greener now, were still evident on a couple of the tree trunks.

As the sun began to go down, so did the temperature, and Taylor and Jason huddled together to keep warm. They said very little, both worrying about whether or not they would be able to make it home okay. Taylor was positive that as soon as they got back, her dad would be able to sort everything out. She glanced at the darkening sky again. It wouldn't be long now before they could make a move.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Patricia went straight home after school, she'd been allocated the job of waiting at the house in case the kids showed up. So far no one had managed to find any trace of either Taylor or Jason. Jethro was just about holding it together, and was still out searching, but with the light fading, she knew the situation was becoming a lot more serious.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the front door. Hoping it was Taylor she almost ran through from the kitchen to answer it. When she opened the door however, any hope she had quickly evaporated. Standing on the porch was a police officer, but it wasn't him she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from. It was the clear plastic bag in his right hand, containing what she was sure was Taylor's mobile phone.