A/N: Hey guys! FINALLY, the next chapter! I'm sorry to everyone for not writing for so long, and if anyone still reads or likes this story - you're amazing :) I had to re-read the past chapters to catch up with the story—I've gotten rusty on the details, so if something doesn't make sense, don't hesitate to point it out in a review ;] Anyway, great to be back, and thank you thank you so much for everyone's seat-clinging patience; the ending of that last chapter wasn't quite the best note to end on… (and don't ask why I made such a big deal over that MCR song; why'd I use that song? Don't ask.) Anyway, enjoy~!
A sunset shone bright before them. Yellow streaked with orange and highlighted with red colored the entire wall of the sky.
Abby held Jason tighter in her arms, while he did the same. The sun had never shone so bright before, at least not to either of them. She rested her head on his shoulder. They snuggled even closer together under the giant blanket they brought with them. The sun continued to slowly dip itself into the water.
Riiiing-riiing! Riiiing-riiiing!
"Abby," Jason's voice failed to hide his disappointment.
The Goth girl flinched and unwrapped herself from Jason. "It's probably no one, relax," she smiled. She left their spot and stepped over to her purse, which lay by the circle of stones that would house their campfire. When she checked her caller ID, guilt weighed her shoulders down, but at the same time, a flicker of joy danced across her face.
"I know that look," Jason eyed her. He grinned at first; nevertheless, when he turned to gaze at the sunset, a crease was scored between his brows.
Abby ignored him. She whispered to herself, "Gibbs."
Abby stirred.
She tried to turn over and coughed a little. The more than firm surface beneath her pierced her back. A chill wind blew from above her, and goosebumps replaced the skin on her arms and legs. She embraced herself, filling her head with happy thoughts of golden skies and silver hair. Abby took a deep breath… Her eyes widened.
"Oh sh—!" Abby sat up too quickly.
Abby sat at the concrete edge of either an unfinished, more-than-five-story-soon-to-be building, or an abandoned parking lot, she still couldn't tell. She was too distracted by the distance separating her from the ground. Abby breathed in and out trying to keep calm and to not say "Oh my God" repeatedly, as she usually would do at times like this. She turned too quickly toward a shifting noise behind her in the darkness. Abby held her throbbing head, and an amused chuckle echoed against the concrete, unfinished walls haphazardly covered with plastic and tarp and other constructiony details. Abby made a mental note in the midst of her growing ire.
"I really thought Jason had a better taste in women," the vile man said as he approached her. The pale evening moonlight unveiled his disgusting face….his square jaw that jutted out of his head, his dark brown bed-hair, and his even darker irises that were now pure onyx pits. His black, v-necked, shortsleeved shirt hugged his muscular body.
Abby knew enough about Jason to brazenly say, "He had an even worse taste in men, apparently."
Sheldon the bartender laughed, unfazed. "Oh, you're so funny," he laughed. "By the way, I drugged your drink—that was sugar Jason used—and now," he dramatically paused, crouching down and holding Abby's jaw in his firm hand, "you're going to die. And I'll make sure you do." He moved her face and made sure she saw nothing but his eyes. "It's just you and me this time."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Anger welled up inside him like a balloon stretched to its limits. The silence in Director Vance's office began to grow unbearably annoying.
BANG!
"ANSWER ME!" Gibbs smacked the table.
Jamie Leigh looked at her lap as if trying to hide her wounded, bandaged face.
The moment Gibbs received an emergency call from both Ducky, and subsequently Director Vance, he left the second crime scene. Through unfortunately bad timing, Ducky went up to see Ms. Leigh before he and Palmer left for the second body in this case, only to find her alone and on the floor coming in and out of consciousness. It was then that security concluded that Ms. Leigh's ex-boyfriend, Sheldon Blake, carried off Abby and escaped through a back entrance. By now, the rest of the team would be coming back to NCIS, awaiting a plan of action to save his Abby—their Abby.
"Well?" Gibbs roared.
"I thought my personal life was irrelevant, Agent Gibbs," Jamie finally answered, still not looking at him. "I didn't know Sheldon swung both ways and was involved with Jason in more ways than I'd like to imagine…at least not 'til today."
Gibbs shifted his fiery stare at the director.
"Agent Gibbs," Vance started, "if you even fathom about losing your temper with me—"
"No, Vance." The special agent shot out of his chair and started pacing close to the exit. "I'm only upset because a homicidal bartender decided he can screw with my people!" He stopped pacing and stopped short of the director. "I can't imagine losing my temper over that. Sir."
Vance squinted, his eyelids as tight as the restraint on his own temper. "What about the new victim?"
"That's," Jamie instantly answered, "Jason's brother, Arnold..." She spoke slowly after Gibbs threw her a paralyzing look. "They all went to college together...but I heard Sheldon had a falling out with Jason this year, so he...so he spent more time with Arnold..." Tears began to choke the victimized girl. "Oh God. I always thought Jason and Arnold were just Sheldon's friends. He would always talk about them...I never knew...I never knew he..."
Just before Gibbs could fully lose it, Vance literally held Gibbs back with his hand. "Start talking, Ms. Leigh. Something you should have done before I called you here..."
"Indeed, sir, forgive me," Jamie wiped a few more tears. In the midst of them, she choked, "I'm sorry, Agent Gibbs—"
"Don't," Gibbs stopped her. "Don't apologize..." Enough tears today have moved him in a thousand directions. "...it's a sign of weakness..."
Back at the bullpen, Ziva was petrified with guilt. McGee observed from his desk, worried; he thought Ziva's skin would crack if he tried to poke her with a pencil, she seemed so still. She stared somewhere beyond the keyboard at her desk. Tony was at the plasma, gathering everything they knew about the entire case, including the second crime scene.
"So," Tony interjected, almost shouted. "According to Ducky...Arnold Knight was killed about an hour or so after Gibbs and I were at Plush 9 this afternoon—by that bastard at the bar." The agent made a face and, crossing his arms, growled next, "Arnold Knight didn't come up in any of our databases, so the dogtags must have been some kind of gift shop souvenir. None of the evidence has come back from the lab yet….but I'm pretty damn sure we have our guy." Tony came back to his desk and grimaced some more. "I knew he couldn't be for real. Sheldon. What kind of name is Sheldon?"
McGee eyed his partner. Usually, he could let Tony's antics pass up to a point, but right now he couldn't. "Who cares?" Tim walked up to Tony and stole the plasma remote.
"Hey!" Tony tried to snatch it back.
McGee clicked the remote; the mugshot Sheldon Blake appeared on the screen along with background info. "This wackjob already had a restraining order issued by Seaman Knight, on top of past instances of stalking both women and men…"
Tony blinked and shook his head. "Something's wrong about that."
"…but why would he want to kill Abby and Seaman Knight?"
"The bartending gig was a farce," Tony grumbled.
"You can say that," McGee said, "'cuz another screw up like this would put him behind bars…again."
"He almost swept it all under the rug, that scumbag…" Tony seethed.
"And now…with Jamie and Gibbs in Vance's office," McGee sighed, "and nobody in the lab to look at the new evidence—"
"Abby's gone. Because of me."
Tony and McGee both turned to Ziva. "It's not your fault, Ziva," Tony uttered. Tim nodded.
Ziva still hit her desk and rose. "I let her out of the room against Gibbs's strict orders. I feel that I am as responsible as the kidnapper."
"Why'd you do it?" Tony asked.
The Israeli pummeled Tony with her glare. "Gibbs reduced Abby to a caged animal—don't tell me otherwise, Tony," she interrupted Tony's opening mouth with her pointing finger, "because I always knew Abby was innocent."
"Maybe Gibbs kept her there to protect her," McGee said. It wouldn't be out of his character to do that. Underneath the silent gruffness that is Gibbs, there are good intentions, he thought.
Ziva stared at McGee for the longest time.
"Mhmm," Tony cleared his throat and looked up. "I believe all will be set right prett-tee soon…"
Everyone followed his eyes and saw Gibbs trailing down the stairs, followed by a bandaged Jamie. Jamie silently made her way to the back elevator and avoided eye contact with most of them—McGee was able to snag a guilty glance from the forensic specialist, before she disappeared into the shadows.
"McGee—"
Everyone turned, but McGee especially whipped around and stood breaths from Gibbs. The look on his face reminded Tim of a wolf in the alpine wilderness, gazing at the snowy road ahead. Or as Abby probably would have described him...a fox a pounce away from his prey. Either way, the intimidating glare nearly made McGee sick.
"—pull up the security footage from the lab and the yard entrance. Now." Gibbs walked up to the plasma. "That bastard couldn't have gone far."
Tony, still sour, muttered, "Our security stinks—" Smack! "—ow."
A window appeared with the security camera feed from outside Abby's lab. Much to the team's confusion, Sheldon entered the lab through the elevator, like anyone else would. Gibbs wiped a palm down his face. "Jamie…" he muttered.
"Jamie let him in?" Tim questioned, astonished.
"Sheldon Blake is Jamie's…" Gibbs answered through tight lips. "…and Seaman Knight's ex."
Everyone else's jaws fell to the floor. "He's bisexual," Ziva spoke rather than questioned.
"Or in denial," Tony grimaced.
"That…" McGee collected his thoughts. "...would make sense for a motive. He sees Seaman Knight with Abby. Gets jealous." He shrugged. "Tries to kill them."
Gibbs nearly divulged what Abby said in her frenzied state. He'd find out for himself once they catch Sheldon; suddenly, Gibbs panicked inside over Abby's safety and what that pervert might do to her again…
"But that doesn't explain the second killing," McGee said.
Ziva thought about it. "Maybe the brother knew too much."
"He did," Gibbs said.
"Jamie," McGee guessed but was pretty sure she was the one who told Gibbs.
Staring at the screen, Tony reviewed everyone's locations aloud. "Wait wait wait...Abby was in interrogation, and we were all at the second crime scene…"
Gibbs checked the time on the bottom corner of the screen. "You and McGee only," he said. "Ziva and I were just leaving Abby..." He looked over at the officer briefly, but the touch of his glance bored through Ziva. "Fast-forward."
McGee typed his command; Sheldon and Jamie's argument escalated in a matter of seconds before Abby appeared in the footage. "Stop." Gibbs held out his hand. The mute struggle unfolded in clear black and white.
"She put up a fight," Tony said, eyes fixed on the screen.
"But how did he escape the building?" McGee asked.
Sheldon carried the incapacitated Abby in his arms instead of over his shoulder, but it still bothered Gibbs greatly. The two left the shot and left the team with an empty hallway.
"Check Ducky's feed," Gibbs ordered.
In a few seconds, a window from the camera by the morgue appeared. Both the hallway and the morgue were pitch black.
Gibbs growled in his throat. "Rewind."
"What?" Tony was standing next to Gibbs now.
"Look," McGee pointed.
Right before the morgue lights were shut off, Sheldon crept in the upper corner of the screen, this time with Abby slung like a shoulder bag.
"He escaped through the second elevator, inside the morgue," Gibbs said.
"Now what?" Tony went back to his desk and sat at the corner of it.
Gibbs stared at him.
McGee went into action before his boss could look at him. "I'll pull up security footage from all vehicular entrances in the yard."
"You won't need to." Gibbs pulled out a slip of paper and slapped it on McGee's desk. "License number for Sheldon's car.
"So, traffic cameras?"
"Uh huh," Gibbs said and turned to Tony again.
"I…can go to the lab and see if Jamie has anything on Arnold Knight—" Tony power-walked toward the back elevator.
Which left Ziva with Gibbs.
"Ziva."
The mossad looked at Gibbs with childlike fear, fear of the unknown, imminent punishments about to happen. "What I did was wrong," she admitted and looked at Gibbs' shirt the last second.
"I know."
Ziva looked at him.
"What I did was unforgivable." Gibbs kept his eyes on the floor, then looked back at Ziva.
A heaviness in Ziva evaporated. "She will forgive you." The mossad touched his shoulder.
"Got it!" McGee announced and clicked his mouse.
Before they could look at the screen, Gibbs' phone rang...and it echoed in his mind.
"Ziva, McGee gear up, go," he ordered on his way to his desk.
"Go where?" The tech-agent geared-up on command but still asked.
"To get Abby," Gibbs barked. "I'll follow."
"But, boss, it's just the intersection," McGee referred to the screen.
"Then go there and find her—" Gibbs picked up the phone and frowned, "Yeah, Gibbs."
"Special Agent Gibbs?"
McGee couldn't move—the look on Gibbs face kept him from leaving the bullpen. Ziva was heading for the elevator when she noticed the two motionless men and stopped as well.
"Gibbs! GIBBS!" Another voice on the line shouted in the background.
"Abbs?" Gibbs paled.
"Shut up!" Sharp struggling sounds went on for a second before the original voice returned. "Looking for your precious lab rat, old man?"
McGee hurried back to his desk and started to rapidly type at his computer while keeping an eye on Gibbs. Ziva came to the edge of the bullpen and craned her neck.
"You listen to me, you son of a bitch—" the special agent growled and pointed at an imaginary Sheldon.
"—no you better listen to me, Gibbs," the man laughed, "or I'll blow the bitch's head off."
Gibbs paused for a long time. "You're bluffing."
"Try me. Someone's going to die, and it'll be too late for you and your team."
"Gibbs, if you could stay on the line for just thirty seconds more…" McGee stage whispered.
"Oh, yeah," Gibbs spoke. "I'll make sure it's you."
Sheldon's laugh sent uncomfortable shivers through Gibbs. He remembered the bartender was young, and he thought the guy was going somewhere after his bartending days were done. Gibbs guessed he was right about one thing: Sheldon was going to jail. Or die. Whichever comes first.
"Keep dreaming, Agent Gibbs," he laughed. "I bet you're dying to know where we are."
"I will find you, Sheldon." Gibbs leaned on his desk and loomed over the phone cradle.
"Seriously. How?"
"Wouldn't you like to know..." He eyed McGee, who signaled Gibbs to talk a bit longer.
Sheldon couldn't stop laughing—one more amused note from his mouth would incense the special agent like a wildfire. "Would you like to know what fun I'm having with your lab rat..."
"Clank-clank-clank!" A cacophonous noise emerged in the background seconds later.
"Shh—no!" Gibbs could hear struggling noises again. "Stop it, bitch!"
"Let—go of me—!"
"—OW!"
"Gibbs, I'm right here, I'm at a—BLAM! Beeeeeeep…" The line went dead.
"Abbs—!" Gibbs uttered too late. "Dammit—McGee—!"
"I was able to get their location—"
"And?"
"They're at a navy construction site…" McGee told Gibbs and Ziva the address.
"Guess he couldn't get too far with our stinky security," Ziva commented. She checked and clicked her gun with a smile on her face. "How convenient."
A/N: Honestly, my writing's a bit rusty, so critiques are especially welcome :]