Chapter 4: Arrival

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.

As they neared the town McGee felt both relief and dread. He felt relieved that they were finally there, and dread at the thought of seeing Vicki in the hospital, bruised and broken.

"Which way, McGee?" He heard Gibbs say.

With some effort McGee made himself concentrate on the practical stuff like where they were. "I'll give Sherriff Black a call and see where the best place to go is." Replied McGee.
He pulled out his mobile and rang Jack, who quickly answered his phone.

"Hello".

"Jack, its Tim, how's Vicki?"

"She's out of surgery; they've her to ICU and she is resting, doctors say it will be hours before the sedatives wear off. You just arriving?"

"Yeah. My boss wanted to know where to go."

"I'm at the hospital so you all might as well come here first. I can go over what we have so far."

"Yeah, see you soon."

"Right." Said Sherriff Black before he hang up.

McGee himself hung up his phone and turned to Gibbs. They were already on the main street heading toward the centre of town.

"Take the third left, then the second right, and then the first left. That will get you to the hospital." He told Gibbs.

When they arrived they were greeted by Sherriff Black, who completely ignored the others and went straight to McGee, who shook his hand.

"Tim. She's in ICU room 6, closest to the nurses' station on level two. This is your team?" Said Black, seemingly without taking a breath.

"Hi Jack." Replied McGee. "This is Special Agents Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo, and Ziva David." He turned to Gibbs. "Boss, this is Sherriff Jack Black."

"Jack Black?" Came the incredulous response from DiNozzo. "Sounds like something from a movie!"

McGee rolled his eyes "Ignore him."

Black turned to Gibbs and said "Shall we walk and talk, coffees' inside."

"Huhm." Was all Gibbs, who had had the same idea, said as they followed Black inside.

As they made their way over to the elevator Black started telling them what had happened early that morning. They all listen intently, and all heard the anger and pain seep into his voice as the story progressed.

"Got a call around 5am this morning from Katrina on her mobile. She said she and her sister were in the field near their house, her father had shown up about 10 minutes before that and her mother had stayed behind to stall him; that I needed to get there quickly and get an ambulance there. She sounded frightened- something I had never heard from her before, so I did just that. When my deputies and I got there 20 minutes after Katrina's call I saw a strange car in the drive and lights on throughout the house. The door had been kicked in. Although there was complete silence inside there were other signs of a struggle. We made our way in quietly, touched as little as possible. We found Vicki splayed out on the lounge room floor, unconscious but breathing. Her clothes had been ripped and she was covered in bruises and cuts- small ones, as if she had lain on broken glass- of which there was a lot around. While my deputies secured the house and yard I stayed with her and checked her out for big injuries, wasn't anything I could do though. EMT's arrived about five minutes after we did, they're a little further away. They did their job quickly and got her here. As soon as they had left I called Katrina, make sure she was still safe. She had made it over to the next door neighbours, who were taking good care of them so I spent some more time there with my men canvassing the area, trying to catch the bastard. No offence Tim."

"Bastard about sums him up Jack." Said McGee, himself sounding very angry. By now the elevator had arrived and they were heading upstairs.

Black continued. "Once we were absolutely sure that the area was clear, took a couple of hours, we made our way back to the house, where one of my men had stayed to keep watch. I left three of them there- told them not to go inside, sent one back to the station, picked up the girls and came here." He looked around the group. They all looked angry, Tim was the only one who wasn't trying hide it. The female agent- what was it, oh yeah David- was the best at hiding her emotions, but they could just be seen under the surface, anger and curiosity.

"There are two girls?" She asked.

"Well, yeah." Said Black, wondering why they didn't seem to know much about their colleagues family.

McGee smiled slightly and decided they could wait 2 minutes to find out the truth upstairs - he would rather listen to Black than dealing with their shock. "Vicki has another daughter, Izzie." He said, looking at Black- hopping he would leave it at that.

Black nodded and continued, understanding that Tim needed to hear what he had to say. "After I got them here and got an update on Vicki I went to the station. Called the local radio station told them to get people on the lookout for Rick- sent over a picture for them to use for a description. Called the Navy Base did the same with them, then called your Director- seeing as Vicki is NCIS, and Rick is Navy."

"You have no problem with jurisdiction?" Asked DiNozzo, amazed that the Sherriff seemed happy to hand this over to them- he was used to having to fight for jurisdiction.

"Son, ten years ago this was a small, quiet town. Then they opened a university 30 minutes west of here and a Navy base 20 minutes down the coast. Our population tripled in one year as students, professors and Navy families came to live here. With the new cinemas, shopping centre, bowling alley, skate rings and other such things, we are the biggest town for another two and a half hours in all directions. Even so our biggest problems have been drunk driving, disturbance of the peace- loud parties, fights and the kin- theft and other misdemeanours. My deputies and I all took a short aptitude test and weapons training- that is the only accreditation we have. Vicki, in her position with NCIS and also working with me as a detective, is the closest we have to a detective, even B&Es are investigated under her supervision. Before she arrived we had to get a detective from the city to deal with anything heavier than speeding tickets or breaking up a fight. I have learnt a lot from her and Jenna, but not enough that I feel confident tackling this. So yes, I am happy to hand this over to you. Besides that, the main victim is a friend and colleague, no way I can be objective on this."

This silenced the whole group as they arrived on the second floor and stepped out of elevator.