I do not own this; please don't sue me.
Author's note: Finally, we get to know who the mystery woman is- sort of.
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Tony and Gibbs walked around the Waynes' house, snapping pictures of some blood droplets they had found. "It looks like someone was injured."
"Ya think, DiNozzo?"
Tony sighed and followed the trail around the corner of the house. "There's more blood here. Maybe they stopped to rest?"
Gibbs was collecting samples from the trail. He looked up at Tony's voice. "Abby will tell us, but it's probably the woman's blood."
"Yep. By the way, any particular reason why Kate is keeping an eye on her, and not me?"
"Yeah, DiNozzo. And no; I'm not going to tell you."
The back door was kicked in. Someone had grabbed the entire key rack and dumped it out all over the kitchen table. "So they do have the clicker. That settles it, then."
Gibbs glanced around. "There's nothing else here; we'd be better off back at the office."
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"What d'you got, Abs?"
Abby spun around, pigtails flaring out. "That's more like it." She reached for the Caf-Pow! Gibbs held, but he yanked it out of her reach. "Tell me what you found."
She was disappointed, but she continued. "Using the blood patterns, the way she was positioned, and the injury report, I can pretty much reconstruct much of what happened." She hit a couple of keys on her computer, bringing up photos of the blood trail. "I'm presuming it's her blood, but I'm checking the DNA anyway. It's kind of hard to tell if she was walking or if someone else was carrying her, - I think someone was probably carrying her- but whoever it walked around the house-"
"Yeah, I got that."
"-then they set her down against the wall, broke into the house, stole the keys, picked her up again, and dragged her to the car-"
"They didn't want to leave her for any longer than they had to."
"And I know why, but we'll get to that in a bit."
"What?"
Abby hit some more keys and pictures of the back seat of the car appeared. "There's some smearing on the carpet, and blood from the injuries soaked into the cloth on the seat. The Waynes' are really going to want to get this cleaned once they get back. Anyway, she was treated after she'd been in the car for a little while."
"So they put her in the car, drove her somewhere safe, bandaged her up, drove her to a crowded street, and left a message in her blood so we'd find her."
"Except it's not her blood."
"You got a match on the DNA? I thought it would take longer."
"It does; I don't have a name for either one yet, but it's not her DNA. The blood belongs -belonged, I guess- to her paternal half brother."
"So that's why he was taking care of her."
Abby nodded. "Can I have my Caf-Pow! now?"
Gibbs handed her the drink, kissed her on the cheek, and walked out of her lab.
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"Anything?"
"Tony, I told you I'd tell you as soon as I got anything."
"But Gibbs is going to want something and we have nothing yet!"
"Relax; I just got something while you were whining. There's a shot of the-" he took a quick look at the computer screen before posting it on the plasma- "guy who left her in the car, but I can't get a look at his face- the picture quality isn't that great."
"So we have nothing."
"Not quite. He's of average height and build, short, dark hair, and he's wearing black."
"And he left his jacket with the woman. I wonder if there was other clothing removal going on-"
Tony reeled as Gibbs smacked him on the back of his head. "Get your mind out of the gutter, DiNozzo; Abby says they're half siblings."
"Oh. That makes sense, too, I suppose."
"Yeah. Now get back to work; I'm going to see if there's any change-"
McGee's computer dinged. It had been scanning through photos since the previous day, and had finally gotten a hit.
"Hey, guys- I got a match!"
Tony put down the copy of GSM he had been reading and sat up. "Finally! We've been waiting long enough. Who is she?"
Typing away, McGee started to answer, than hesitated.
"McGee! It's not a trick question!" Gibbs was quickly becoming infuriated with his youngest agent.
"Well, there's kind of a trick answer. It says here her name's Elena Ranier, but-"
"What?"
"I can't find any record of her before or since, so I'm assuming it's a fake name."
"Is there anything else?"
"She came from France to the U.S. about 3 weeks ago. I'll get security cameras from the airport."
"Did she say why she's here?"
"Um-" McGee hit a few more keys. "No, nothing."
Gibbs sighed. "My asking was a formality, McGee. You're required to give a reason."
"Yeah, but she didn't."
Tony was seriously perplexed. "How's that possible?"
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "She's a pretty woman, DiNozzo. How hard could it be for her to get a customs guy to do what she wants?"
Tony opened his mouth, but then closed it, realizing that Gibbs was right. "So basically all we have is that she's here to do something illegal –probably what got her shot- and we really need to find her brother."
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The trigger was cold.
Cold and deadly. Just like him.
Unless, of course, she was around. She could still, somehow, find a way to thaw him out.
The original target walked across the window he was watching. Lining up the rifle to aim it at the man, he waited. After a few minutes, his two bodyguards came into view.
Finally- those bastards who hurt her.
He wanted it to hurt. Wanted them to suffer. But he knew better than to draw it out. The important thing was to kill them.
Which he would.
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Kate sat in a chair near the bed, watching the woman sleep. She was pretty, with dark, curly hair that had been tied back in a ponytail. Flipping her own hair over her shoulder, Kate inspected it, suddenly reminded of the time Tony had made up a story about a dog named Kate.
Laughing, she walked over to the window and surveyed the street below. A motorcycle parked along the opposite curb caught her attention. Someone –too far away for her to see clearly- was watching the window. Kate shaded her eyes, trying to see better- and the motorcycle drove off like Gibbs on a case that was seriously personal.
What just happened?
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Author's note: So, how am I doing?