I realize this chapter is horridly overdue, and I really have no excuse besides pure procrastination and laziness. I am really sorry for the wait, but expect at least one more update on this glorious, long, President's Day weekend.

Toss me a review if you can, and please enjoy!

*Previously on NCIS and NCIS: L.A.*

The room was silent once more, both teams knowing they had reached somewhat of a dead-end.

At last Tony clasped a hand on McGee's shoulder and said. "It was a nice try, Probie, even if we didn't get anything out of it."

"Oh, we got something out of it." Gibbs contradicted.

"What?"

"The sack. The men carried out a sack. They weren't there to take Ziva and Kensi; they had no way of knowing you would be there. They were there to find something, and they obviously found it. You just got there before they could make an escape."

Sam squinted at the screen, thinking a thousand thoughts a second.

"What were they looking for?"

Nobody answered. Nobody knew.

Chapter 8: Abby's Always Right

"Eric! Get the pictures from the original crime scene up!" Gibbs hollered, pissed at just about everything, and everyone, in his sight.

Immediately, Eric's fingers were flying across his keyboard, opening files, and putting the appropriate pictures up on the screen for everyone to see. Once they were up, Gibbs instructed Eric to put the newest pictures from after the kidnapping up. Eric complied, scared of Gibbs, not daring to defy him.

Sam, Callen, Tony, McGee, and Abby shared looks, having no idea what Gibbs was doing. Gibbs however was staring at the monitor as pictures from the original crime scene and the newest crime scene flew across the screen.

Several moments passed before Gibbs spotted what he was looking for.

"Stop it. Go back a few."

Eric submitted to the demand, going back through the last few images at a much slower pace. As the screen was filled with two pictures of the throw rug resting on the wooden floors before Dom's sofa, Gibbs commanded Eric to stop again.

"There, do you see it?" He asked the group of agents, plus Abby, who had been standing off to the side.

"See what, Gibbs?" asked Abby.

"The rugs, Abs." Gibbs pointed to the pictures to emphasize his point. "The rug moved a couple of inches some time between the pictures being taken."

No one seemed to understand the significance of the rug for several moments, before a light bulb went off in Abby's raven-haired head.

"The rugs! Way to go Boss-Man!" she exclaimed punching him excitedly in the arm, staring happily at the screen.

Several instances passed by before Tony called out in an exasperated voice, "Can someone please fill the rest of us in?"

Immediately, Abby started speaking as if she was presenting evidence back in her lab in D.C. "As you can see, the rug moved quite a bit somewhere between the pictures taken after Dom's kidnapping, and Ziva's and Kensi's. Does everyone accept that as a fact?"

Everyone nodded their heads and murmured affirmations. That much was obvious.

"Now, it is also safe to say that Dom's kidnappers went back to his place to get something they had left there, ergo the sack they carried out in the video. Does everyone accept the creepy evil bad men went back to get something in Dom's apartment as a fact?"

Again, everyone agreed with her.

Abby allowed herself a small smile before continuing, "Gibbs, with his keen, yet slightly questioned, eye-sight spotted the change in the rug's location as the only major change in the apartment. Dom's apartment has wooden floors, and as you all know, wooden floors are made of individual floorboards, well unless they are those fake wooden floors. You know the kind that has pieces of the floor together and you just snap them in place? Supposedly they are way cheaper than real wood floors and easier to clean, but personally I find that original—"

"Abby!" Gibbs boomed, snapping Abby out of her ramble and getting her back on track.

"Right, sorry. Okay, so the individual floorboards can be pulled up and stuff can be stashed underneath. You've all seen the movies. Not now, Tony." Abby warned, swiveling to face Tony who already had his mouth open, titles of movies pertaining to their current predicament just ready to spill out. Tony closed his mouth and motioned with his hands that the floor was all hers.

Abby turned to address the rest of the group and continued, "So me and the Boss-Man are both thinking, yes I know he's thinking the same thing, that whoever took Dom, went back to his apartment to get something they stashed below those floorboards under the rug, and were too sloppy to fix it properly. I bet if you guys go back there, those boards will come right up!" Abby smiled.

"No offense Abs, but there were agents and investigators swarming that apartment. Don't you think it's more likely one of them moved the carpet?" Tony asked, skeptical about the idea of their supposed-pro kidnappers not thinking to put the carpet back exactly where they found it.

"Well I guess we'll find out when McGee and Sam go check it out, won't we?" Abby defended, plopping her hands on her hips.

McGee and Sam shared looks, but didn't move.

"You heard her. Go check it out." Gibbs ordered, backing Abby up, making her smile.

McGee and Sam automatically grabbed their coats and headed out of the tech-room, sending mock-glares at Abby who waved sweetly back.

Sam and McGee walked in silence to the car, Sam getting into the driver's seat, and McGee in the passenger's seat.

Sam started the car and they smoothly slid out of their parking space and into the busy street. They drove for several minutes in complete silence before McGee spoke, "Do you think they're still alive, Dom, Kensi, and Ziva?"

Sam looked a bit startled at the sudden question but knew his answer quickly, having thought about this quite a bit that day. "Kensi and Ziva? Definitely. Kensi may look like just a pretty girl, but she packs a pretty hard punch."

McGee smirked and had to agree with Sam. "Yeah, that's pretty much true for Ziva too."

It was silent in the car for several moments, each thinking of their respective teammates, whom they each thought more of as sisters than coworkers.

"What do you think about Dom? Do you think he's still alive?"

Sam sighed, not sure what to think about Dom. "Well, he's been missing much longer than Kenz or Ziva, but I think it's possible he is. I just wish we had some idea of who took them. I mean, Kensi and Dom were both newbies, who would have a grudge against them?"

"Yeah, I guess Ziva would have a few more enemies than them, but Dom was the target, not her." McGee sat back in the comfortable leather seat of the car. Why did Ziva have to be kidnapped? They just got her back a few months ago from her summer imprisonment, and now someone else had snatched her from them. He knew it was ridiculous, that Ziva could take care of herself, and then some, but he felt the need to protect her. She was like a little sister to him, and not to be sexist, but she was also the only girl on the team. With their track-record with female coworkers, he was pretty sure that everyone on Team Gibbs felt a certain protectiveness to her, and Abby for that matter.

McGee thought about the events leading up to Ziva's captivity during the summer, about Michael Rivkin, Tony, her own father. McGee didn't know much about Ziva's family, only about her half-brother Ari and her father, but he could tell the David family wasn't exactly what you would call stable. It seemed like half the time it was Ziva's father getting her into the trouble she always seemed to be in.

McGee was pulled out of his thoughts as the car suddenly stopped outside of Dom's apartment building, and it took him a moment to remember where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. He quickly hopped out of the car, jogging a bit to catch up with Sam who was already halfway to the door.

He and Sam walked in silence to the elevator, only muttering a hello to Jim who was still manning the lift. They stepped into the tiny, empty box and started up to Dom's floor in silence. It was then that McGee realized he really liked Sam, his loyalty, trustworthiness, and dedication to the job. He hoped that he would stay friends with him, and all of the L.A. team after this ordeal was over, when they headed back to D.C. with Ziva, because he just knew they would get Ziva back.

The elevator door opened with a ding, reminding him so much of home, and they walked slowly to Dom's door. It was a nice sign to see all the agents guarding the floor, each one alert and conscious.

After flashing their badges, they were allowed into the apartment. Within the high-rise, several agents were standing guard throughout the space. Sam went straight towards the couch, while McGee's eyes subconsciously landed on a child's drawing on Dom's refrigerator.

For a reason not completely known to him, McGee felt an impulse to look at the picture. It was obviously done by a young child, with multi-colored shapes and lines flung haphazardly across the white paper. Amidst the scribble, scrawled in crayon was "Uncle Dom". It kind of broke McGee's heart. Dom had a brother or a sister, with a niece or nephew who obviously loved him dearly, and he was taken from them. He felt a stronger urge to save Dom and the others, not just for himself, but for the child who drew the picture hanging on the fridge.

McGee, slightly reluctant, turned away from the picture and walked over to Sam, who had just finished putting on latex gloves and was carefully sliding the carpet over. McGee crouched down and watched as Sam probed around the floorboards. Several moments passed, and McGee started to think that Abby might just have been wrong. As soon as this thought materialized in his mind however, one of the floorboards gave and Sam pulled it up.

Underneath, there was a cavity, not too large, but big enough to store something you didn't want people to find; money, drugs, and maybe even some small weapons. Instead of any of those things however, there was just a small piece of white paper, similar to the paper found at the original scene of Dom's kidnapping that had warned the Los Angeles team that they would be in touch with Dom's kidnappers.

Sam reached a latex-covered hand into the opening, carefully lifting the folded paper out and into the light. He carefully unfurled the paper and turned the paper so McGee could read the message as well.

It had a Skype username, "SillyAgents101", and a password, "password". Underneath, it had a picture of a clock, the hands showing it to be 12:30 P.M.

McGee and Sam looked at one another, then down to their watches on their wrists. Noon was one hour from now. The kidnappers were going to contact them in one hour.

"We gotta get back to HQ." Sam muttered. McGee didn't even answer as both men raced back to the car and started speeding back to headquarters. They made it back in record time and marched straight upstairs. Not much had changed since when they left. Everyone was either going through files or working on computers.

"We've got something!" Sam called out to the room full of people. All heads turned to look at them, and Hettie, as if on cue, walked in.

"Well don't be rude and make us wait, Mr. Hanna. Please, do spit it out." She drawled.

McGee, however, spoke up instead. "Abby was right."

"Oh Timmy, when aren't I?" Abby boasted from the computer she was working on.

Before they started getting themselves off topic, Sam spoke. "Underneath the floor was a hole, where something probably was stashed. However, whatever was there is gone now and this was left in its place." He finished, handing the note to Hettie, who in turn read the information out loud.

As if on autopilot, Eric brought up Skype on the big screen, logging onto their premade account. Everyone gathered around the screen and studied the display. They already had someone under their "Friends" list. The username was "Hot_in_Black". It seemed their hostage takers had a sense of humor, albeit a bit sick.

The clock on the bottom right corner of the screen read 11:25. Now, they just had to wait.

Any ideas on who took them? Did you have a favorite part or line? Do you have any problems or suggestions? Review if you can! They are much cherished and appreciated, and feed my muse. :)