"We should have noticed!" shouted Ziva on the passenger seat of the car, while she and Tony rode to headquarters after processing McGee's place. Gibbs had taken another car earlier and was going to ask Vance to take the team off the dead kid's case so they could investigate whatever had happened to his agent.

"How did we miss that? We should have called, we should have made sure he was with Abby instead of making assumptions and losing time! He was gone and we just ignored him! What is wrong with us?"

Tony didn't need to add more guilt to the one he already felt, but he understood that Ziva was angry with herself and that she needed to express it somehow.

"We gain nothing blaming ourselves, Ziva." Said Tony, strangely solemn. "Yeah, it was wrong on our part, but now we have to focus on the investigation and don't let our feelings distract us. The faster we figure out who was the bastard who took Tim and catch him the faster we'll make amends. "

As calm as he might have sounded on the outside, Tony was all guilt inside. He had been too absorbed on his problems and himself to notice something as big as that. Even Ziva and Abby had figured it out before him…. And even before that, he hadn't been an extraordinary friend. How many times had he teased Tim? How many times had he ridiculed his love life, his hobbies, all those things he cared about? Yes, it was all joking, but sometimes he'd been quite nasty. And now something had happened to him.

And all that blood… Tony really wished it wasn't his partner's, but it seemed like the only logical explanation. He lived alone, and if he had attacked someone for some reason (which seemed unlikely) he would've gone straight to Gibbs. But maybe Tim had gotten some of the attacker's blood on that sheet while fighting back... Damn, it hurt just to think about it. McGood guy, attacked in his own home. Tony only wished it could be solved quickly and without lasting consequences. Suddenly, DiNozzo remembered Kate, and shuddered, suddenly afraid. This could NOT end that way.

Ziva, on her part, had experienced a similar turmoil on the ride. When they had finished processing she had been confident that they would catch this guy and everything would be fine in no time, but the more she thought about it, more uncertain she felt. At first it was just anger, at whoever it was the attacker (How did they dare?) but then she felt angry with herself. She should've known, she should've asked.

And she feared something real bad had happened to poor McGee and she felt helpless. It was those moments of not knowing anything that killed her. If she knew something, if she was given a lead then she could focus on that, form an accurate picture in her mind and set a course of action. But for that she needed to know something. Right now, all she had was her intuition and that bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

When they finally arrived they had to deal with something even worse: Abby. She'd been happy to see them arrive because she was anxious for news, but when she saw those bloodstained sheets she almost lost it. It was proof that something was officially wrong, a physical undeniable reason for her to be worried. And all of that mess had been so sudden, so unexpected…. One minute McGee was perfectly fine but too busy to go down and visit and the next he was missing. Usually there was a period of threats, a be-careful-and-take-care-of-yourself period (responded by a comforting "Don't you worry, I'll be fine") and then it was when people went missing. But this… blood, a broken door, all the phones turned off… it was almost too much to digest.

But she was a professional, so she took the evidence and ran the usual tests, like in any other case. She had a million questions for Tony and Ziva, but they seemed to know little more than she did. So, instead she just waited for her machines to tell her something. It was an agonic wait, but when Abby saw Gibbs coming at her door she knew the results were going to be there in no time. She had barely said a "Hi, Gibbs" when the computer beeped, showing a picture of the person whose DNA matched the bloodstains.

The blood was Tim's. All of it.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" McGee asked to his captor, not letting the pain he was in slip in his voice.

"I'm someone who simply needed you out of the way. I decided to take you down before you caused some trouble, because I've always a fan of prevention. It's cleaner." The guy said, slowly walking towards him. It was a white guy, really tall, probably in his mid-to-late-thirties.

"Why? What could I do to you?" Tim asked, trying to get more information on the man. As he approached, he started seeing better his attacker's face, and it was familiar. McGee had recently seen it… Yes, in some pictures…. Suddenly, it all clicked.

"You're Abby's new boyfriend!"

The guy (which was his name? Karl? Kurt) knelt in front of Tim and gave him an angry look.

"Exactly, I am Abby's boyfriend, and you, my dear friend, were nothing but an obstacle. Abby spoke too well of you, I couldn't take the risk of you stealing her, now could I? Now you'll be just the memory of the best friend who sadly disappeared and was never found. She'll shed a few tears and always remember comforting I was in those difficult moments. It will bring us closer. And I get to eliminate the competition. Perfect plan, isn't it?"

The arrogance of the guy had gotten to Tim.

"No, it's not. I'm an NCIS agent, my team will find me in no time. You've chosen the wrong people to mess with."

"Au contraire, my dear friend, your NCIS team will be conducting a complex investigation on navy related kidnapping series, thinking that you are the last victim. I've planted a very nice trail of evidence to distract them, using all the things Abby has told me about her job. It's very nice info. I told you, it's a perfect plan."

"No." Tim said, stubborn "Abby will find out that you're a psycho and the team will find me. I know they will."

"My dear friend, abandon all hope. It's pointless. I'll play with you a bit: maybe a couple of beatings, I'll make you scream a bit and when you're too broken to play with I'll kill you, and burn your pathetic remains. It's a perfect plan. And there's no hope. You'll spend your last days as my toy and die alone, as sadly as you lived. That's it."

Tim held the man's gaze, a dignified look of strength in his eyes.

But when the captor was gone and he was in the darkness again, his eyes were suddenly filled with tears.

What if they never found him again?

A/N: Hope you liked it! Sorry the huge delay, I've been on a trip in London (awesome!) and with a lot college papers. Next one will have more Gibbs ^^ Please tell me what you think! You know you want to review!