It was approaching midnight when the NCIS team arrived in the sleepy town of Stillwater. It was a long anxious drive, each member of the team concerned for their boss. Tony and Ziva travelled in one car. McGee, Abby and Ducky followed behind them. Conversation was light, no one really in the mood to share their thoughts on the fate of their fearless leader. The first thing they noticed when they arrived into Stillwater, was the boarded up shop front of Jackson Gibbs' store. Fire damage was evident on the outside walls.

"I guess that's what he meant by a little trouble," Tony quipped as he parked alongside the store. The street was dimly lit. There were little signs of life at that hour. As they got out of the cars, a lone figure crossed the street towards them. It was Gibbs' father.

"Hello, Agent DiNozzo. Ms. David," he said acknowledging them by name.

"I told you last time to call me Tony," DiNozzo replied, shaking his hand. "You remember McGee and Abby. This is Dr. Mallard, he's our M.E.," he said introducing Ducky for the first time.

"I hope you're not here in your professional capacity," Jack said seriously, as he shook Ducky's hand.

"Goodness, I hope not. I'm more a concerned friend," Ducky explained, sensing Jackson's unease.

"Is there any news?" Abby asks, foregoing the niceties.

"Unfortunately not. Seth, the sheriff, called out to Winslow's place. There was no sign of him. Chuck Winslow said he hadn't seen him since he arrested his son in law a few months back. There's no sign of the car or evidence of an accident. He called the lumber yard early this morning and ordered the sheets of lumber to board up the windows. That's the last anyone's seen or heard from him," Jackson explained.

"Jack, you need to go through everything with us. Is there somewhere we can set up?" Tony asked, patting Jack's shoulder.

"Sure. My old friend Gus has been letting me stay with him. You can set up in his place or else you can use up above the store. It smells of smoke but there's no damage," Jack explained. Tony looked at the rest of the team.

"Why doesn't Abby and Ziva go with you to Gus' house and McGee, Ducky and I will set up above the store? We'll have less interruption there," Tony suggested. Everyone agreed so they went their separate ways.

Ziva and Abby sat with Jack and listened as he explained about the trouble he had been experiencing over the last few months, culminating in the store being set on fire the previous night. He told how he suspected Winslow and his guys were behind the intimidation. He also explained how Jethro had been slightly injured and how he was determined to have it out with Winslow. His eyes became teary when he spoke of his belief that Winslow was capable of many things and how he feared for his son's life. Abby felt ever ounce of his pain. She did her best to control her emotions in front of Jack, not wanting to upset him any further. Ziva was her usual calm, collected self on the outside. Though she hid it well, she cared deeply for Gibbs and was very uneasy about the whole thing.

Meanwhile the lads were busy bringing in equipment in to Jack's store. McGee set up his laptop while Ducky and Tony helped bring in Abby's mini lab. Ducky suggested that they get some rest as there was little they could do until sunrise. They each found a spot to crash for the night. Tony used Gibbs old room, Ducky slept on Jackson's bed while Tim ended up on the sofa.

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Back in the mine, Gibbs was waking up again. He couldn't remember going to sleep. He figured that he must have passed out at some stage. He had no idea how long he had been out. He remembered trying to move and find a way out of this nightmare. He had no idea how far he had dragged himself, but he could still see no light. Upon waking the first thing he noticed was the cold. He was trembling uncontrollably. Then for the first time, he noticed how thirsty he was. His mouth and lips were dry. He knew that without water he wouldn't survive for very long. He knew he had to keep moving. At least the nausea seemed to have left him he thought. He felt down along his injured leg. As his hand got near his knee, he could feel the swelling. It was so badly swollen that his trouser leg was tight around it. He was finding it very uncomfortable but it was the only thing offering support to his injured limb so he decided to put up with it. So using his uninjured leg he pushed himself along on his backside, sliding along the floor of the mine like a child. Even taking his time and being tentative, the pain was excruciating. He was sweating profusely, the effort telling on his injured body, yet he pushed himself further and further up the mine. He was exhausted after about twenty minutes and lay down to rest. His knee was throbbing and he began to feel light headed once more. He closed his eyes and rested. Just for a while, he thought.

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It's just before dawn when DiNozzo was shaken awake by a none too impressed Abby Sciuto.

"Tony! What are you doing? Gibbs is missing and all you can do is sleep!" Abby shouted, her disgust evident in her voice.

"What?" Tony said sitting up sleepily, completely disorientated. "Abby? What, was I asleep?"

"How could you, Tony?" Abby wails, the commotion waking Ducky and McGee.

"Sorry, Abs. I was tired. I'd just driven for four hours and it was late. Is it morning?" he asked, looking out the window. It was still dark outside.

"Almost. It's 6.15am. Jack sent over some coffee and toast. I left it on the kitchen counter. Ziva is showering. She'll be over in a while so get up. We've got to find him today," Abby said with a look of determination on her face.

By this time, Ducky and McGee were standing in the hallway, trying to look like they'd been awake all the time. McGee's shirt was sticking out of his trousers and he wasn't wearing any shoes. Ducky's hair was standing on end and he was still trying to put on his glasses. Abby tutted as she brushed past them to go back downstairs.

As morning broke and the sun rose, DiNozzo and Ducky headed to the sheriff's office to formally notify them that they were carrying out an investigation in their jurisdiction. It was close to 8am when Sheriff Seth Welch turned up for work that morning. He remembered DiNozzo from the previous case they had worked in Stillwater a few months back.

"So, you guys really think Leroy is missing?" he asked sceptically.

"Yes we do, Sheriff," Ducky replied. "Why else would we be here?"

"I believe you went out to Chuck Winslow's place yesterday evening. We'd be grateful if you'd fill us in on what he had to say," DiNozzo asked.

"Of course. Have a seat," Seth offered as he sat behind his desk. "Chuck said he hadn't seen him," he explained briefly.

"That's it. You just accepted it," DiNozzo asked brusquely his distrust evident.

"Well, I've known Chuck all my life and he's not one to lie to me," Seth told him.

"Oh, well that's just great then. Let's just all pack up and leave then. Looks like you've got it covered," Tony snapped, standing up and banging the desk. "Did it ever occur to you that he might just lie to protect himself? What kind of a law man are you? You can't interview a friend as a suspect. We're going to need to talk to this Winslow fella ourselves," Tony insisted.

"Look here, you can't just come into my town and belittle my police department," Seth replied, taking offense at Tony's remarks. Tony was about to respond then Ducky cut in.

"Gentlemen, please," Ducky interrupted as he saw things might get ugly. "Squabbling amongst ourselves won't find Jethro, now will it? I do think that Agent DiNozzo has a point and that an outsider should talk to Mr. Winslow. Our only concern has to be finding Jethro. Are we agreed?" he asked, looking at both men.

They both nodded, feeling a little like they had been chastised by their father.

"Would you like one of my deputies to accompany you?" Sheriff Welch asked.

"Thanks, but I think we'll find it okay," DiNozzo answered, shaking the Sheriff's hand loosely. He and Ducky left the police station and drove straight up to Winslow's house.

Meanwhile back at the store, McGee and Abby were working a little magic of their own. Between them, they had managed to access the Department of Defence's satellite photo bank. They were attempting to find Gibb's car on the images and trace where he went from the pictures. They began their search at the time Gibbs called the lumber yard. Zooming in on Stillwater they could see Gibbs yellow car parked at the front of the store. With the car being an unusual colour, they reckoned it would be easy enough to track it. In the same image 10 minutes later, the car was gone. Abby brought up the picture a few miles east at Winslow's property. No sign of the car yet. She changed the search parameters to 5 minutes later, still no sign. Another 5 minutes later and the car is in the shot.

"There!" she announced to Tim, pointing to the screen.

"So, it looks like he did go up there," McGee said, leaning in to see. "Okay, so now try and see how long he was there."

Abby brought up another couple of photographs each had the yellow Hemi visible.

"Okay, here. It's not in this one," she pointed out to Tim.

"What's the time line on that?" he asked.

"Almost an hour," she told him.

"Alright. So he was there, for almonst an hour, but we can't prove that he had any contact with Winslow or if he went inside. Can we see where he went from there?" McGee asked.

"We can try. At the bottom of this road, he can turn left or right back into town. Presuming that he didn't come back to town, let's follow the pictures along the road and see does he show up," she suggested as she busily tapped in more information in the PC. After a short while they had looked at several other pictures showing Gibbs' car travelling along this route before it disappeared.

"Okay, he must have taken a turn between here and here," Tim presumed, pointing to the road map. The only possible roads were either up into mountainous region or down to a lake.

"Fancy a drive?" McGee asked Abby.

"Sure. We should take Ziva and Jack. They could search the other route," Abby suggested.

"Problem is we've only one car. Tony and Ducky have the other," Tim explained.

"I forgot. Maybe Gus has a car," Abby smiled as she bounded down the stairs and across the road to where Jack and Ziva were waiting for news.

"I'll call Tony!" McGee shouted after her.

Okay, I realise that the satellite tracking thingy is a bit far fetched, but hey...it's only a story!!