Disclaimer: Not mine
Summery: Post Living Doll. The team searches for Sara with the help of our favorite NCIS Team. Because you've got to love a good crossover. GSR
A/N: Starts with a short flashback before we catch up with the present.
Washington DC
McConnell's Pub
Ten years ago
Gibbs stopped into the unfamiliar pub on his way home from work. It had been a long day but he couldn't face going home. The case had been a hard one. A Petty Officer with wife and a new baby had been shot during a convenient store robbery. They had caught the shooter and his accomplices but after telling the widow about her husbands death, finding the culprit felt like a hollow victory.
"Bourbon." Gibbs said to the bartender, who poured him a generous drink without saying a word. He seemed to sense his mood and left him alone. He appreciated it and sat quietly for a few minutes, watching a football game playing on a an ancient TV mounted over the bar.
"Usual?" The bartender walked up to the women who had sat down at the end of the bar.
"Yeah thanks." The tall brunette sat down with a large backpack and began removing several text books and a legal pad full of notes and equations. The bartender placed a beer and a double shot of tequila in front of the young women who quickly took the shot, singled for another and opened her text books to begin reading.
"Can I get another?" Gibbs asked the bartender, as he payed for his first drink, leaving a generous tip. The bartender refilled his glass before heading towards the young women and refilling her shot glass.
"Long day?" He asked the women
"You could say that." She sighed and sipped her beer and took half the shot.
"What do you do?" Gibbs asked smiling flirtatiously at the young women. She gave him a weary look.
"I'm a graduate student" She answered shortly, "Physics. I taught two classes today. 300 hundred students who had no desire to be there. Plus the first draft of my thesis is due in four days and I can't make head or tails of my latest test results. Not to mention the fact that I got a letter from my mother and... let's just say..."
"Don't get along?" Gibbs asked with practiced understand.
"You look like you haven't had the best day either." Said Sara, easily changing the subject.
"No classes to teach." Said Gibbs deciding not to share the details of his day. "So at least I can be happy about that."
"You don't know how lucky you are." She looked at him and for the fist time since entering the bar smiled. The smile was all it took to make him want her.
She was not his usual type but since Shannon died, his usual type was painful to look at. So he took a chance on a brunet with a gap tooth smile who happened to be about ten times smarter than he would ever be.
He walked her home, carrying her surprisingly heavy book bag. He waited until they reached her door before he kissed her. To his surprise, she invited him in. To her surprised, he stayed for a year.
Psychiatric Ward: Nevada State Hospital
Natalie's Room
Time Missing: 12 ½ Hours
"Who are you?" Natalie asked, looking at Catherine.
"Catherine." She answered softly, still holding her hand, "How do you feel?"
"Tired." She answered plainly, "I know you."
"Yes you do." Catherine answered, "I guess you really do have a good memory." She said.
"You're not the one he loves." Natalie said, "You're not the one he loves." She repeated
"No I'm not." Catherine answered
"Is that why you took her?" Gibbs asked from his place in the corner, "Because Grissom loves her?"
"He took everything from me." Natalie said.
"Than why not hurt Sara?" Gibbs asked
"Because the only way to hurt him was to hurt her." Natalie's voice rose.
"I need you tell me where she is." Catherine asked, beginning to get desperate.
"I can't do that." Answered Natalie
"You can't or you won't?" Asked Gibbs as he opened his cell phone and made a call, "Ziva, Get to Nevada State hospital room 314... No Ziva, I'm sure they have bleach here" He snapped the phone shut and starred at Natalie.
"Natalie, please." Catherine said, looking at Gibbs in shock. Natalie laughed at Gibbs.
"You're trying to scare me." Natalie said in a sing song voice, "You can't scare me."
"Oh maybe not me." Gibbs answered, "But you haven't met Ziva yet."
Las Vegas Crime Lab
Archie's Lab
Time Missing: 13 Hours
"Abby." Nick called as he walked into Abby's lab carrying a four pack of Red Bull. He handed them to Abby, Proudly.
"Nicky, I love you." Abby hugged him, "Thank you."
"I promised one to Tony." Said Nick, blushing, "But the rest are all yours."
"Sorry we couldn't find any Caf!Pow." Said Tony.
"I could only get an hour of Satellite time after that we loose daylight anyway." Abby said, "We've got three hours to narrow down the search area."
"We've eliminated 70 of Nevada as possible locations but that still leaves us 1000 square miles. We can't cover that in an hour of Satellite time." Said McGee
"Tell me something I don't know McGee."
"It's raining." McGee said as Abby chugged a Red Bull.
"That's not good." said Nick, looking at the miniature, catching Tony's attention, "You see what I see?" He asked
"I think so." Answered Tony gravely. "Someone get me a bottle of water."
"Got it." Said Warrick running into the room, handing Nick the water, "Brought it over as soon as I saw it was raining."
"Here goes nothing." The teams huddled around Nick and he poured water into the miniature.
"Water is collecting under the car."
"How long until it fills?" Asked Greg
"Depends on how much its raining." Answered Tony's
"Pulling up the latest weather graphs." Said Abby, "At least two inches of rain predicted for tonight." The team looked at each other and got back to work. It was now ore important than ever to find Sara quickly.
"Get everyone reading topographic maps." Said Tony to Warwick who nodded before heading out to the lab, "Abby continue scanning the computer files for anything that might point us in the right direction. Hopefully Ziva and Gibbs will get something out of Natalie."
Psychiatric Ward: Nevada State Hospital
Natalie's Room
Time Missing: 13 and a half Hours
"Gibbs" Said Ziva, walking in without a weapon, holding a large bottle of bleach, "You were right. They do have bleach here."
"How convenient." Said Catherine, still unsure where this was headed.
"You might want to wait in the hall." Said Gibbs warningly to Catherine
"I'm not leaving her alone with you." Catherine answered, feeling suddenly sorry for Natalie, whose eyes had grown wide at the sight of Ziva holding a gallon of bleach. Gibb's phone rang and he went into the hallway, leaving the girls alone.
"Abby." Gibbs said into the phone without a hello, "Tell me you've got something. I don't think we're going to get very far with Natalie."
"We've got Satellite time in two hours. I set up a link at the lab." Abby said, "Anything you can do to help us narrow down the search area..."
"I'm on it Abbs." Gibbs snapped his phone shut and went back into the room.
"I think we should see how Natalie would look as a blond, yes" Ziva smiled and poured the bleach into several different cups both slowly and deliberately.
Las Vegas Crime Lab
Archie's Lab
Time Missing: 15 Hours
"I'm comparing soil samples to try to eliminate as much as I can but it's taking too long to run it through the mass-spectrometer. Grissom is looking at the samples, running them under a microscope by hand. He could give the Mass-spec a run for it's money." She looked through the window at Grissom, alone in a adjoined room, "Drew can't get us any more satellite time until tomorrow."
"How long till we get an up link?" Asked Gibbs standing next to Grissom, both chugging coffee and starring at the screen.
"Any second now..." Abby said as the first satellite images popped up on the screen.
"Base to Vamperstien." Said the voice as the other end of the line.
"Reading you loud a clear Drew. Up-link established." Abby answered, "Gibbs lead the way." She handed him a headset and he put in on.
"We've set up a grid of possible search locations. Let's start with quadrant one." Gibbs said into his comm unit. "Take us through one at a time."
"They get anything out of Natalie?" Asked Warwick
"We wouldn't be looking for Sara via satellite if we did." Snapped Gibbs, his eyes combing the images of the desert for Sara and the car that she was under. It had been a long time since had been unable to get something he wanted from a suspect and it left him unsettled. On the plane traveling to Vegas Gibbs felt sure he would be able to get Sara's location from Natalie, after meeting her face to face he would be surprised if she even had any recollection of Sara's location. Leaving Ziva with Natalie had been more about punishing Natalie than trying to get information.
"We can eliminate quadrant four." Said Hodges, rushing into the room with a topographic map of the area, "Nothing even close to what we are looking for. Soil samples don't match and nothing matches on the map."
"That still leaves us a 800 mile search area." Said Nick, sharply
"Every little bit helps." Abby reminded him.
"Negative quadrant one." Said the satellite operator.
"Reposition the satellite for quadrant two." Demanded Gibbs.
"How far away is that camera?" asked Greg, starring at the screen in amazement.
"We've only got 30 minutes before we loose the satellite." Abby reminded them without taking her eyes off of the screen.
"Jenny must still be frog hunting." Answered Gibbs bitterly, "We loose daylight in two hours. I want helicopters doing a visual search of the remaining search area."
"Already on it." Answered Brass on the phone.
"Frog hunting?" Asked Hodges
"Out!" Gibbs shouted, pointing to the door.