A/N: My humblest apologies for the long delay in updating. It took a while to get it to feel right.
A thousand "Thank You's go to Gottahavemyncis and Shelbylou - couldn't do this without you!
Thank you to all the readers and reviewers, too!
WARNING: Bumpy road ahead - Brace yourselves!
…the next click of her mouse, bringing up the owner of the blood sample taken from their fresh crime scene - Tim McGee
It's so sudden and the shock that holds them in place like a rubber band stretched to its limits, finally snaps. It's the strength of the band's snapping that jerks them out of stasis and make them all start moving towards the door with Abby's question reverberating through the air stopping them in their tracks. "Where is he, Gibbs? Why wasn't he kept safe until we got him back here? You need to find hi…"
"You think I don't know that!" Gibbs reacts angrily as he stops in his tracks and turns to respond to her from the doorway. "What is it you think we're tryin' to do here, Abbs?"
Abby blanches at Gibbs' tone and leans heavily into her work table, as if letting it hold her up. "I know…I…"
"Damn it!" Gibbs sighs heavily. "Look, we don't have time for this. You need to pull it together and run the damn evidence, Abby!"
At his clipped tone, Abby nods and turns to pull up the information so that she can start trying to find Tim. She feels tears of fear, frustration, pain, and, in a way, loss that prickle at her eyes and she sniffles to try to keep them at bay until everyone has gone.
Gibbs stands and watches Abby as she uses her computer table to hold herself up while she starts to pull up information on the screen. The dejected body language and sniffles emanating from her don't go unnoticed. He feels the anger drain away slowly as realization hits him that his Forensic Scientist not only misses the young man who loves her dearly, but that she's just as worried about Tim as he is; as they all are.
The sense of urgency runs through him again. He knows he has little time to get her back on track so she can run the evidence without letting her emotions get the better of her. The Team Leader moves from the door and walks up to his Forensic Scientist so he can offer her what he is able to give her in terms of reassurance. One of his arms wraps around her shoulder just long enough for her to feel the comfort she needs, even as he takes advantage of the moment to remind her of what it was she seems to have forgotten. "We all want him back, all of them back. But time is against us. We need your best game face on here. McGee's counting on you."
Abby sniffles and momentarily allows herself to melt into the comforting embrace.
"We will find him, Abbs. We will. But not without all the information you can give us from that evidence."
Abby straightens up and takes a deep cleansing breath. Gibbs can see the moment her mask slips back in place. "You're right, Gibbs. We will find him!"
With one last fleeting kiss to her temple, he turns and turns back to the evidence table to rejoin the team. "There a reason you're standing around doing nothing?" He snaps, pulling the team out of the conversation they've been having.
"We've been discussing the case, Gibbs." Ziva scowls, "I know you want to find Tim as do we, but right now we should be focusing on where he could be, and we are not going figure that out by letting anger cloud our judgment."
Gibbs narrows his eyes and is about to retort when Tony cuts in angrily.
"So who has McGee and why, if that psycho Martin's in FBI custody?"
"He's not." Tobias Fornell's somber, guilt-ridden voice comes from the doorway behind them.
****NCIS****
Fear. That all-consuming, tremor-inducing emotion that paralyses you and leaves you so helpless all you can do is silently scream in your head. The anger is overwhelming, especially when that fear isn't for yourself but for the life of your child. That's what grips Megan McGee's heart so tightly it feels like she's suffocating as she watches the man who raped her and damn near killed her over thirty years ago, leaving her to die in an alley, broken, violated, battered and alone in the middle of nowhere, steps towards her and her child. Sarah!
With every breath she has to give, Megan is determined that this monster is NOT going to get his evil hands on her little girl. It's bad enough her precious little boy, now a man, has been gunned down in front of her as he tried valiantly to catch up to them to save them back at the gas station. Even now, her heart cries for him. Tim!
Now she and Sarah are at this monster's mercy, trapped in some god-forsaken backwoods log cabin with no one else to hear them or help and with nothing to lose but their lives. It fills her heart with dread. Their last hope of help had been the cab driver, but he had proved himself to be a survivalist first, hero, not at all. He'd been too frightened out of his wits to do anything but stare straight ahead as he drove, doing exactly what Martin ordered him to do, no questions asked. Not even for a split second had the man tried to look anywhere else, an unwilling bystander uncaring of whatever horrors she and her daughter were being subjected to.
With her eyes locked on the fugitive murdering rapist, Megan draws her shell-shocked and shaking daughter into her arms now, whispering to her to stay quiet, calm and above all else, if she has the chance, without risk of getting shot, to slip away and run to safety. All the while, she forces herself to hold on tight to the façade of calm that has held the strong mother of two together ever since Martin appeared behind her at the airport taxi-stand, a gun thrust against her spine, ordering both of them to silence with the threat of tragic consequences if his orders weren't obeyed to the letter.
Seeing her normally incautious daughter reduced to this state in which she can't function for fear that every moment, every movement will get her mother killed, churns Megan's anger to the boiling point. It's enough to break through the fear, but not enough to cause her to think or act impulsively. The fact that this stare down has been continuous for the last hour seems to help the anger rise up through the fear. Gently, she lets go of Sarah and steps out around her, completely blocking her innocent daughter from Martin's reach, at least for the moment
"How long you gonna pretend to fight the idea, doll?" Martin asks arrogantly as he speaks for the first time in over thirty long silent minutes. "I've already told you the sharp image of our passion filled roll in the hay all those years ago stayed with me so well that I had to go to any lengths to be with you again. I even told you everything I did to find you as soon as I broke out of prison! That seem to you like I'd have reason to willingly walk away without getting what I came for?"
Megan refuses to give in to his taunting, no matter how normal his tone seems. That's what he wants from her, her fearful begging for her life, for her daughter's life. What's more, she doesn't want Sarah to get the idea that begging this monster will get them anywhere. She's never forgotten what little effect that had on him while he was raping her all those years ago and she's not about to even give him an ounce of the satisfaction he cackled with then. Martin's mind is set; had been as soon as he'd set eyes on their son back in December. She knows that now just as she knows it's fruitless to fight him or even try to talk him down. She will not waste her energy or her focus on false expectations like that. Their survival depends on her being smarter than he is giving her credit for – and on relying on instincts.
****NCIS****
"What?"
"You lost him again?"
"What do you mean you don't have him?" Abby cries out as she points to her computer screen. "He did this, didn't he? He has Timmy!"
"HEY!" Gibbs yells out, backing his team down at least long enough to get a word in edgewise.
"Your office?" Fornell asks, clearly expecting them to talk about his bombshell in private. Having four pairs of eyes throwing daggers at you is difficult enough without having to tell them the whys and wherefores of what had happened to their teammate.
"No time." Gibbs answers as he digs out his phone. "We all deserve answers. Abbs! Get back to the evidence," he snaps as he flips open his phone and hits the speed dial.
****NCIS****
Awareness returns suddenly, bringing with it a hellacious headache and too many other shards of agony slicing though him to encourage any movement. It isn't long before the cold permeates his clothes or what's left of them, bringing back the shivering, keeping the vicious cycle running. He deliberately takes small, even breaths, as anything else brings agony to his chest cavity, leaving him without adequate air to breathe.
What the hell happened and where the hell is he? He can't remember being this cold in a very long time and nowhere in his memory banks is there an incident of having anywhere near this much pain. Having spent too much time making that assessment, his mind finally seems to wander to things more important. He's alive. Now how does he go about staying that way?
****NCIS****
"Jethro, this had better be damned important since I just had to reschedule a meeting with the SecNav." Jenny warns angrily as she storms into Abby's lab barely two minutes later, the recollection of busily gathering the information she needed for the meeting and the interruption in the form of the terse, cryptic message from Gibbs, as well as the meeting she was compelled to cancel at the last minute wasn't any more pleasant than the stern berating it had earned her from her boss. "Need you in Abby's Lab – now! Doesn't really give me much information as to why I have to rearrange my schedule!"
"Well yeah, Jen. I think my missing man is pretty damn important; especially seeing as we have a probable suspect." Gibbs snaps out with a nod of his head towards the refrigerator. Jenny follows his direction and sees Tobias Fornell standing there looking damn near devastated.
"Agent Fornell? I'm guessing this isn't a social call." She remarks dryly, her eyes roaming from the FBI Agent to the angry and now silent Team Leader, his eyes locked on Fornell.
She briefly glances at Tony and Ziva and notes that their expressions hold the same anger and despair as Gibbs. Fornell shifts uncomfortably in the silence as he weighs how to break the news; his attention briefly torn away from Jenny's when Abby turns around and carries on processing the evidence she had already gotten started on. "Judging by the tone of Gibbs' voice and the look on his face, I'd say you have something to tell me regarding our missing Agent?"
When the silence continues on for a shade too long, Jenny frowns. No one is offering answers and Gibbs' posture is getting more and more rigid with every passing second. "What's this about?"
"That is a very good question." Ducky intones as he enters slightly out of breath after being summoned by Gibbs and rushing to the lab.
"THIS! Is. About. My. Missing. Agent! Damn it! We were working with information provided by the FBI – and yet somehow Fornell, fails to mention until now, that they ha…"
"Gibbs…" Fornell tries but gets cut off when the man sends him a glare that would instill the fear of death in anyone else.
"What? You forgot? You're sorry?" Gibbs turns and glares at Jenny. "You find them yet?" he demands harshly.
Shaking her head, Jenny gives the information she knows he doesn't want to hear. "I know how you feel about apologies, but I am sorry, Jethro. We haven't located them yet."
"So we got nothing! We don't even have that bastard Martin to give us what we need!" Gibbs voice is getting louder and louder and booms around the lab causing Abby to partially turn where she stands. "So while we're all standing here doing nothing, McGee AND his mother and sister, are all probably being tortured if they're NOT ALREADY DEAD! DiNozzo! Ziva…" The Goth puts her hand on Gibbs' arm to stop him, earning her a glare.
"Please, Fornell, tell us what you have to tell us!" Abby implores, desperate for details in hopes it will tell her that her Timmy is alive and well, despite what the evidence has been pointing towards.
When Tobias can't seem to find the words, Gibbs quickly becomes nearly incoherent with rage and impatience, his strident voice bouncing off the walls of Abby's lab. He has no time for this kind of stuff with his agent and family missing. He is already pissed beyond reason that they've wasted an hour down here and he's itching to get back to the squad room to do what they can to find their friend and his family; hopefully alive. "You said Martin wasn't in your custody, Fornell, what the hell happened?
The guilty FBI Agent sighs knowing that the next bit of information isn't going to go down well with any of them. "We never had him, Jethro. I'm sorry. We've got a BOLO out on him now and at this moment he's at the top of our Most Wanted List."
"You lied to a federal agency about that murderer being in your custody and all you can say is you're sorry?" Jenny explodes at him. "My agent and his family's lives are in danger!"
Gibbs rounds on Tobias as Jenny expresses her fury at the news. "Tobias, you better have a damn good explanation!"
"Oh dear, heavens!" Ducky exclaims sadly as he begins to understand the ramifications of what he's heard. With a glance towards Abby, he frowns at the wall of stoicism she's quickly erected around herself. Silently, he moves to stand beside her in silent support.
"Gibbs, I…" Fornell shakes his head and sighs heavily. "I'm sorry."
"SORRY? Not good enough!" Gibbs turns to his team. "We don't have time for this. Got an agent and his family to find!" Pointing to his agents, he plowed on. "You two! Get back to your desks and find out every step this bastard took after he killed the van driver…and I mean every step. And while you're at it, find out everything there is to know about Martin! Abby, you keep running the evidence. I want anything you have on this guy, yesterday!" Gibbs bites out and with white hot fury coursing through his veins he turns to Fornell. "Spit it out, Fornell. What are you not telling us?"
When silence remains, his friend's reluctance to speak and completely stricken expression stops the Team Leader nearly cold as he takes time to look deep into the other man's eyes. Tobias Fornell is as honest as his job allows him to be, as is Gibbs himself. They all knew that about him. Something has to have driven him to lie for the murdering bastard. As an experienced Federal Agent, Gibbs knows that there is only thing that means enough to an honest man to make him compromise his morals and put innocent lives in danger like this. Family.
"He got hold of Emily." Gibbs surmises quietly, his compassion evident in his voice.
Tobias looks Gibbs straight on for the first time since Jenny has walked in. "Held a GUN to her head. MY gun! Cocky bastard forced me to get my weapon from the safe; traded his for mine and kept his finger on the trigger, not even an inch from her head. Trust me, Jethro. That's not a something I ever want to see again."
"Start at the beginning, Tobias. Don't leave anything out." The directive is issued in a much calmer tone from the one person in the room who can understand the position the FBI agent had to have been in to have made the choice he did.
****NCIS****
Megan McGee knows she needs something to stall Martin, something plausible. Food. Bastard's gotta be as hungry as we are; probably more. As he reaches and nearly invades her personal space, his hot stinky breath nauseating her, she questions him for the first time since he'd taken them hostage.
"What's for dinner?"
Stopped cold by the completely unexpected question, Martin frowns. He knows she's stalling but she does have a point. He's so hungry, his stomach is growling. Pleased that she's obviously accepted their fate, he allows himself to focus on his basic survival needs, including food.
"Cabin's stocked. Find something. Cook it right – no funny business."
"My daughter needs to help me." Megan reaches out desperately for a way to keep Sarah safely out of reach of the monster.
"No. She doesn't. But, don't worry, Mama. Your little chickadee's safe from me – for now. I'm gonna keep both of you company right where I am since I can see both rooms just fine from here. Go cook us some grub."
The sneer that accompanies that statement sends a shiver of unease up Megan's spine. Just recollecting now, what this monster did to her all those years ago and can potentially do to her again and worse, her daughter, makes her feel sick to her stomach. She knows she has no choice but to do Martin's bidding to try to keep them safe. With a final glance and a small, weak, smile to her daughter, she stands up and starts to make her way into the tiny, open kitchen. It's all she can do to leave the room without her child because leaving her baby in the hands of…of…that is unthinkable. At least I'm not far she thinks, but even that doesn't ease the pang of guilt and worry that she feels. It nearly breaks her resolve to stand strong as Sarah's example. God, she hopes they'll be rescued soon – somehow. If ever she needed a miracle, it's now!
****NCIS****
"Put yourself in my shoes, Jethro! What would you have done if it had been Kelly's head that bastard held a gun to? You don't think you would have given him exactly what he wanted?" Tobias demands desperately as soon as he finishes relaying everything to the crowd gathered in the lab. Tony and Ziva had started to make their way up to the squad room but stopped when the Director belayed Gibbs' last order so that they can have all the information. The FBI agent is obviously expecting a serious backlash and trying to cut it off at the pass. "There isn't a person in this room who can understand the position I was in better than you! I didn't have a choice!"
"Is Emily all right?" Ziva asks coolly. Even though her voice is calm, she is still angry at the fact that the case they'd been building had been marred by this lie and angrier still that her friend's life and those of his family members have been placed in very grave danger as a direct result of it.
"Shaken and pretty damn traumatized, but she's safe now. "
"Where is the poor child?" Ducky asks.
"Upstairs in one of your conference rooms with an entourage of body guards."
"Where's Diane, Tobias?" Gibbs asks quietly, wanting to lower the man's agitation down to a manageable level and get back to their primary task, finding Tim and his family.
"Out of town. Isn't that the kicker? Says she'll be here to pick Emily up within the hour and when she does, I'm never gonna see her again." Tobias moves to one of the chairs in the lab and sits down heavily. "I'm never going to see my little girl after this, Gibbs. You know what Diane's like."
"So she blames you." Ziva surmises.
"Mothers tend to do that." Tobias replies dryly with a touch of bitterness.
"What haven't you told her?" Gibbs asks knowingly.
"That she's the one that Martin followed around for the past week! That's why we couldn't find him. He was hiding in plain sight, stalking Diane to get to me."
"Through your weekend visitation with Emily." Ziva states. "Gibbs…"
"Damn plan of his worked like a charm because that woman's so self-absorbed, she never even noticed she and Emily were being stalked!" Fornell fumes with a quiet fury. "And now he's out there hurting someone else. Gibbs, I'll give you what we have to work with. It's not much but it might help."
"Tobias, you should have come to me." Gibbs growls angrily. "I get where you were at, but your silence might just have cost McGee and his family their lives."
"I know." Tobias says sadly. "I know. All I can do now is help find them."
"How'd Martin know about your visitation arrangements?" Tony asks, finally getting over his shock enough to voice a question, his focus concentrated on finding their missing people before it's too late. He knows that his shock has to be reined in now because, while this information is important, they still don't have anything to go by.
"That's what we need to find out." The FBI Agent replies.
"Later." Gibbs orders. "First, we find Martin. We find him; he'll lead us to McGee and his family."
"Wait! All of them are missing?" Fornell asks in horrified shock.
"Well, yeah, Tobias! Who the hell do you think he was after to begin with?" Gibbs asks angrily. "Haven't you been listenin'? That SOB has all three of them and I don't plan on wasting any more time here." He starts to storm out of the lab once again but Jenny blocked his path. "Jen…"
"Jethro, as much as I know how important it is you go back to your desk, we still need the information from the FBI."
"WHAT INFORMATION?" Gibbs bellows. "Every minute we waste down here is another minute they are in the hands of that psycho doing who knows what, especially to McGee's mother! Or have you forgotten what kind of monster he is?"
"Oh, Jesus. I am sorry." Tobias' head drops in regret for the pain and fear the McGee family is likely now experiencing because of him. He genuinely likes Tim and knows this must be very difficult for the entire team. He also knows, has known since that gun had been pointed at Emily, that he'd had no choice in the matter. He'll have to live with the choice he'd been forced to make.
"We need to find them; we don't have time for anything else." Gibbs spits out the words, his gut twisting in rage against everything and all the screw-ups, from Fornell to Shepard, but unwilling to focus on anything but finding the McGees, all of them! Turning now to his team, he issues the orders to get them moving. "Orders still stand. DiNozzo, BOLO's! Then trace his steps! Ziva, get everything you can on Martin. Financials, phone records…EVERYTHING!" He waits for them to nod and leave the room before turning to Abby "You id that blood yet?"
"What? Gibbs! No, I can't. I mean Major Mass Spec isn't finished with it yet. The only reason we got a hit on Timmy's blood so fast is because he's already in the NCIS Database!"
As if the fates were listening, the FBI Agent's cell phone rings at that moment. Impatiently, the man snags it out of his pocket, snaps it open and practically growling into "Yeah!"
"Agent Fornell?
"Who is this?"
"Sergeant Wilson, Metro PD. Got a possible hit on your BOLO."
"Which BOLO?" Fornell demands snappishly as he turns and heads out of the room with Gibbs leading the way to the elevator where Tony and Ziva are still waiting for the machine.
"That escaped murderer, Martin? We've got a positive ID on him."
"Where?"
"911 call reported shots fired at a local gas station just off the Beltway and your guy fits the description given by the only eyewitness."
"How long ago?" Fornell demands as he glances at Gibbs; they both step into the elevator as it opens, with Jenny and the others following behind.
"Been a while."
"How long's a while?" He bites out; fast losing patience with this hick LEO who seems intent on making this conversation difficult. With everyone in the elevator, the doors close behind them as they all listen to Fornell's side of the conversation.
"'Bout four and a half hours?
"Four and a half hours! You didn't think it important to let us know earlier?" Fornell yells into the small space, his eyes locked on Gibbs.
"Sir, we only got to talk to the clerk that was shot when he woke up from surgery, not thirty minutes ago. He was in surgery for several hours."
"Send the address to my cell." Fornell snaps and hung up. Just as he did, the message with the address came through.
"Damn it, Tobias!" Gibbs barks.
"LEO's responded to a 911 call at a local gas station off the beltway. I have the address. The clerk ID'd Martin and Metro linked him to the Bolo. Only problem is…"
"It happened four hours ago." Jenny supplies. Fornell nods sadly and Gibbs jabs his finger angrily on the button for the squad room. When the doors of the elevator open up, they spill out, more than ready to gear up and get out there and find their probie and his family.
****NCIS****
"My, my, my." Martin sneers as he continues to let his eyes move repeatedly back and forth from the mother to the docile daughter, as if he doesn't trust them to continue to obey his orders the minute he looks away. "Who would have thought such a strong woman like you would whelp a wimpy mama's girl? She can't take her eyes off you."
Megan refuses to answer him, her eyes constantly darting from the hamburgers she's cooking to her daughter, sitting frozen in place across the room. The monster is right; Sarah has yet to look anywhere but her mom's face. Megan knows and understands Sarah's need to feed off her strength because Megan is the parent; the person who protects her young with everything she has and all that she is on the inside. She nods her head slightly at Sarah to let her know everything will be okay and sighs.
How can she give her daughter a glimmer of hope when she feels hopelessness starting to flow through her own veins, leaving her feeling cold and lost? No! She can't think this way! Not when one of her own flesh and blood needs her to be the strength, the hope and the one keeping the situation stable. Sarah needs her! That's all that matters and that needs to be her focus. With a soft sigh, Megan takes a huge risk and addressing her daughter verbally for the very first time since their ordeal began, needing, wanting her to snap out of it and get her senses back online.
"Honey, do you need something to drink?" Megan leans against the doorframe holding a dish towel.
"Hey! Don't you dare speak out of turn like that! I didn't give you permission to speak!" Martin lurches to his feet, the scowl on his face enough to scare most ordinary people. The distance between him and Megan is eaten up in three strides, as he grabs her arm and throws her to the ground just outside the kitchen. She winces as her elbow crashes against the hard floor but stays strong and silently sits up only to face the barrel of the gun.
The sight shocks Megan and makes her flinch and it's all she can do not to cry out when Martin's sneer returns while his gun arm moves slowly so that the aim is squarely and unmistakably on Sarah's heart. His eyes gleam with a malicious glee that reminds Megan of a rabid animal waiting to pounce.
She realizes she should know by now that his actions aren't normal. She's had to deal with him before. He's still crazy and cruel and taking her eyes off of that part of who he is was a grave mistake. She's horrified to find that her simple question, born out of the need to nurture, has caused the monster to violently overreact like this.
Megan shakes her head in apology but it does no good, Martin simply laughs in her face. Still, she stays silent, respecting the danger her baby is in. This is obviously what he wants because he leans forward, locking his dark, dangerous eyes onto Megan's and snarls with such ferocity that it causes Megan's heart to skip a beat.
"You just signed your baby's death certificate!" He jeers as he cocks the trigger and squeezes it. The accompanying roar of gunshot is deafening as it shatters the devastated mother's heart and an earth shattering scream pierces the air "NO!"