Still not mine.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for…
Well, actually no. I've been waiting for it. The second half of this chapter (and part of the last one) is actually what I was originally visualizing when I started writing this story. Naturally, I had to figure out how Kate got here, and where she would be going, and all that. Anyway…
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around the room, packing up the bare necessities. Nothing she could easily replace or live without for a couple of days. Backpack slung over her shoulder, now to wait for-
who was she waiting for, again?
He was going to pick her up and get her out of here. She couldn't stay. It was too dangerous for them. They were in danger. That's why they had to leave. That's why she had asked him to get them somewhere safe, where nobody would find them.
Who was she with, again?
Someone she had to protect.
Someone she had only recently discov
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The sound of gunshots woke Kate up rather abruptly. Then the rather awkwardly familiar sound of a falling body.
With a loud crashing sound the door burst open and her captor raced in, turning not quite quickly enough to shut the door behind him before he, too, fell dead on the floor.
Footsteps echoed eerily in the metal room as the unidentified shooter entered the room. From her position on the floor, Kate couldn't quite see him, but he appeared to be wearing dark clothing. Right. Typical for assassins.
She tried to see around the pipe she was chained to, but her ribs weren't exactly co-operating, so she quickly desisted and-
did she really want to be noticed by someone who had just murdered at least two people? It certainly wasn't anyone she knew.
Then again, considering the alternative was probably starving to death before she got found...
Remembering the case involving missing Marines, one of whom they'd found starved to death chained in a sewer, she shuddered and decided she would rather take her chances with the room's mysterious third occupant.
Oh, right, fourth.
As far as Kate could tell, her cellmate hadn't moved. Now that it was lighter, she could see that the other woman wore khaki pants and a brown jacket. Nice clothes, or at least they had been several months ago. Perhaps the woman had been at work when she was captured.
Her ribs flared with pain again and she gasped. Ow…
The man in the doorway abruptly changed tack from scanning the room to staring right at her.
Considering the nameless woman was utterly incapacitated and her one-time captor was even more so, there were no observers to the moment of recognition. If there had been, they would not have noticed any difference in the expressions of shock on the faces of both Kate and the man.
The terrorist.
No, THE terrorist.
Maybe she should have stayed hidden.
Glancing over his shoulder at the near-comatose other hostage, he stepped closer and, before Kate's befuddled brain could even attempt to wrap itself around the situation, laid a hand on her cheek.
"Why hello there, Caitlyn."
Still gagged, she could only glare back.
Kate was strangely relieved when he turned on his heel and went back to the unconscious, dangling woman. Any idea what he wanted with either of them, she did not have, but at least he wasn't anywhere near her anymore.
Every movement controlled and calculated, he picked up a metal barrel from a corner of the room and dragged it under the woman in the middle of the room, supporting her weight with it while he unlocked her chains.
Kate was unsure what to think of the way he seemed almost protective of the woman, until he abruptly modified Kate's opinion of him by re-handcuffing the woman, hands behind her back, and shoving her to her feet. Another glance over his shoulder at Kate later, he walked out the door, half-marching/half-dragging his prisoner with him.
Then he was back.
"Now, Caitlyn, here's how this will work. I will modify your restraints so they will release you when fifteen minutes have passed, at which point you will be free to contact your team and go home. However, you will not inform them or anyone else that I was here. You slipped in and out of consciousness, and when you finally regained full awareness, you were unchained, and the entire warehouse was empty but for the dead bodies. You never got a good look at the woman in the room with you."
Kate nodded, not bothering to wonder what he would do to her if she did not agree. For all her bravado, she still had an annoying tendency to follow men's leads.
Never would she admit that to DiNozzo, but that's the way it was.
She flinched as the terrorist ran his fingers over her hands, unlocking her restraints and attatching them to a timer.
"Shh, Caitlyn. There is no danger."
Yeah, right.
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Director Morrow stood in MTAC, watching heat signatures on the main screen.
"Can I help you, Agent Gibbs?"
"You said you'd found something that might lead us to Kate."
"That I did."
The video played again, clearly showing several moving figures. Two appeared to be standing guard around a trio of others, until a third person moved in and both of them fell to the ground.
"Shot them?"
"Looks like it- but here's where it gets really interesting."
The shooter, if that's what he was, chased after one of the three remaining people before killing him, too. Then, for some reason, he started wandering back and forth between the last two heat signatures, before leaving, dragging one of them away.
"Where is this?"
"Warehouse in West Virginia. We got an anonymous tip of terrorist activity in the location, so I called in a favor from NSA and found this."
"Sir, I would bet that our shooter tipped us off."
"That seems likely. Get McGee on it."
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"McGee!"
The younger agent stood up. "Yeah, Boss?"
"Tip line got an anonymous call. Trace it."
"On it, Boss."
Tony glanced over. "Something to do with Kate?"
"Director thinks so. We're going to go check it out as soon as McGee gets done. Ahem- GETS DONE."
"Boss, it's really not as easy as you might think."
"I don't care, McGee, I really don't care."
Several tense moments passed before McGee stood up with a pleased look on his face. "Got it!"
"Well?"
"First I pinged all the towers in the DC area, but the call was from outside- you don't care about that. Point is, the nearest building is a-"
"Warehouse."
"Yeah, Boss, in southeastern-"
"West Virginia."
"Why did you even have me trace it?"
"Redundancy, McGee, redundancy."
The tech-savvy agent looked pretty ticked, even before Tony walked up to him and clapped his hands on his shoulders.
"Redundancy, McGee, redundancy."
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Kate's restraints finally gave way just as she heard a car pull up. Fearing more terrorists were arriving, she rapidly resorted to playing unconscious. The throbbing in her head made it rather easy.
"Kate? Kate!"
At the sound of her boss's voice, Kate raised her head and looked around blearily. Where are you...
"Kate, you okay?"
Tony's voice reached her next, cutting through the fog. Then Gibbs again: "Call an ambulance!"
Everything faded out again.
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First came the beeping of what appeared to be a heart monitor.
Next there was the feeling of several wires and tubes connected to her body.
Then, and only then, came the intense pain, albeit muffled slightly by what felt like some sort of heavy-duty painkillers.
Her eyelids were sticky as she opened them.
"Morning, Miss Todd."
A friendly-looking brunette nurse smiled down at her.
"You've been asleep for the past 32 hours; how do you feel?"
A hoarse chuckle forced its way through Kate's throat. "Tired and sore."
"Well, the sore part's to be expected; you broke two ribs, bruised three more, and tore a ligament in your ankle."
Slight hesitation then, giving Kate some pause.
"And…?"
An air of biting the bullet.
"Miss Todd, you were raped."
Author's note: I seriously hope this isn't bothering anyone. I have a feeling that if the subject matter offends you, the next couple of chapters might not be any better. Please adjust reading patterns accordingly.