Gibbs POV

I felt something cold pressing against my bare back and the unmistakable feel of a woman's soft skin pressed against my chest.

I tried to sort out my thoughts while still keeping my eyes closed and gently rousing myself from my semi-unconscious state. I remembered the last night clearly, the way her lips felt on my chest, my lips, all over my body, the way she fit perfectly against my side.

I remembered the surge of love flooding throughout my body, filling me to the brim, making all the dark thoughts of today seem like it was eons away when it had been only a few hours away.

I opened my eyes and was met with the tiled walls of the women's bathroom, the lights shinning bright, temporarily blinding me. I looked down to see Kate still peacefully asleep, her head on my chest, her hand resting on my shoulder.

We were both shockingly naked, which brought a smile to my lips as I lifted my hand and brushed away a stray strand of hair away from her face.

I looked at my watch; 06:00, we had only slept for three hours, not enough. I contemplated letting her sleep more, but realized that we still had so many plans, so much detail to cover.

"Kate," I whispered softly, sitting up straighter and pulling her gently up with me.

She stirred and mumbled something, but quickly settled back into my chest, a small smile on her face.

I hated to break her dream, make her see that tonight, at precisely midnight; our lives could very well be over and done with.

"Katie, I need you to wake up for me, please," I whispered, pressing a soft kiss into her hair, my arms encircling her waist.

She moaned a little and then her eyes opened, her brown eyes searching immediately for mine and holding my gaze.

I gave her a small smile and hugged her to me a little bit tighter.

"Gibbs," she mumbled, looking around, "What happened?"

I laughed, "What does it look like, Kate?"

She giggled and reached for her panties and slipped them back on. She turned slightly and planted a soft kiss on my lips and pulled away before I had a chance to deepen it.

"It looks like we had a fun night," she smiled.

I nodded, "Yeah, we did, among other things."

I helped her stand and handed her her bra, putting it on her and clasping it behind her back, planting a string of kisses down her shoulder, smiling at our reflections in the mirror.

"We should really get dressed before another agent comes in here and sees you naked," she commented idly, a small smile playing over her features.

I sighed and slipped on my boxers, pulling my polo over my head and picking up my pants, quickly putting them on and doing the belt.

I turned to see that she was already fully dressed, her smile gone, replaced by a slight frown, her eyes now dark.

"We have to get back out there," she whispered finally.

I nodded, "Yeah, we have a lot to do today."

She nodded and stepped closer to me, her hand slipping behind my neck and pulling my lips down to meet hers in an earth shattering kiss.

Her lips were soft as they worked against mine, our tongues dancing together.

I pulled away from her, my arms around her waist, and planted a firm kiss to her forehead.

"Everything's going to be alright, Katie, I won't let anything happen to you."

She gave me a small smile, "I know you'll try your best, Jethro, but anything can happen tonight."

With that said, she walked out of the women's restroom, and I followed her out.

"Today's gonna be hell," I murmured and closed the door behind me as we entered the bullpen.

Kate POV

I walked out of the bathroom, forcing the night we had to become a memory. I had to stay focused, we had to figure out what it is that we had to do.

I walked into the bullpen to find Tony slumped on his desk fast asleep and McGee with his coat around his shoulder, typing rapidly on the computer.

He looked up as soon as I stepped towards my desk.

"Hey Kate," he whispered, giving me a small smile.

I smiled back, "Any luck tracing the call Gibbs got?"

He sighed, and shook his head, "It's from a burnt phone, whoever bought it certainly knew his stuff. I can't even give you a 10 mile radius of where it's calling from, the guy's bouncing it off several international towers."

I nodded, I hadn't expected him to find much anyways.

"DiNozzo! Get your ass up, call every senior field agent and tell 'em to meet me down in the basement," Gibbs barked, and without breaking stride, her walked, well more like jogged, towards the elevator.

I heard a crash and then a slightly sleepy, "On it, boss!"

I turned towards Tony's desk to see him getting up off of the floor, dusting himself up and trying desperately to fix his hair with a small comb.

I laughed, and he looked up, shocked.

"What's got you so happy?" He asked, picking up the phone.

I shrugged, "Had a good nights sleep."

Suddenly, I heard a crackled, and then Tony's voice filled the speakers surrounding the office.

"Attention all Senior Field Agents, we are all ordered by Special Agent Gibbs to report to the basement on special assignment. Drop whatever it is you're doing and get down there! This is urgent."

He clicked the phone off and hurried towards the elevator, a steady flow of ten or so agents following behind him, the Director looked down at the flow of Agents and sent me a questioning look before coming down to join us.

"Agent Todd, what the hell is going on? Gibbs isn't authorized to ask every senior agent to drop what their doing and play house with him."

"Director, this could very well mean life or death. You remember when the mob had taken Special Agent Gibbs and myself out to Arizona and almost killed us? Well now he has Gibbs's son and he's asking for a negotiation; me for his son. You know Gibbs can't pull this off and the guy is very likely to have several of his members with him."

He paused for a moment as we entered the elevator, then gave me a look as the elevator began it's descent.

"Alright, but I need to be read in on every detail, do you hear me? I have to approve of the plans. When is this little switch up happening?"

I hesitated, "Midnight of tonight."

The Director turned a very nasty shade of purple.

Gibbs POV

The elevator doors opened and about ten agents walked out, slightly dazed and confused expressions on their faces with the Director at the head of the bunch.

I looked at Kate and she nodded, I nodded back and waited for the Agents to assemble themselves.

Tony stood to my right and Kate at my left, McGee at Tony's right.

"Alright, what we're about to pull of is extremely dangerous which means that there is a very large possibility that many of you won't be coming back from this if you don't do exactly as I say."

I let that thought sink in and watched as some Agents turned towards their neighbor, their eyes narrowed slightly.

"What the hell is going on, Gibbs?" Agent Mathews asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"You all remember when myself and Agent Todd were kidnapped and almost killed a few months ago by the mob in Arizona?"

There were several nods and so I went on.

"Well they have my son and if I don't trade in Agent Todd for him tonight by midnight, not only will he die, but there is a very real possibility that a bomb could go off in NCIS."

I felt Kate's eyes burning into the side of my head, Tony's as well, but I ignored it. I hadn't told them for a reason.

"Now, I need you all to make sure that not a single person is harmed during this deal, so I'll need 5 agents to stay here and look if this bomb and 5 other agents to come with Agents Todd, DiNozzo, McGee and myself to a hotel tonight at midnight."

I let the news sink in and watched as the Director stepped forward, trying to pin me with a cold hard stare which I promptly shook off.

"Are you sure that there's a bomb?" He whispered, his eyes narrowed.

I nodded, "You'll need to evacuate the navy yard as soon as we pull out, Director."

He sighed, "Dammit, Gibbs, why can't you just stay out of trouble for more than a few months."

I gave a small chuckle, "I don't know, sir."

I turned to look at the assemble of agents before me, they had already split themselves up into two groups.

"Who's coming with us to the hotel tonight?" I asked.

Agent Danforth promptly stepped forward, "I will sir, along with the agents behind me. Just tell us what you need us to do."

I nodded, "I need two of your best shots to be the snipers, they have to make sure that they have a clean shot at him if we need to take him down. The rest of you will be in the van as backup, in case something goes wrong," I paused, "and there is a very big chance something could go wrong."

He nodded, "Not a problem, sir, we won't let you down."

I nodded, "Good, make a plan for tonight, find a layout of the hotel and make sure that you're able to evacuate the hotel before midnight comes around."

Danforth nodded and lead his team towards the elevator, already whispering ideas.

I turned towards the 5 other agents, "I expect you to search this building from top to bottom, don't leave a single corner untouched, if there is a bomb, and there very well might be, then I want you to find it and have one of the bomb techs disarm it."

Agent Mathews nodded and lead her team up into the elevator as well.

I turned towards the Director, "Sir? Can I help you?"

"This is really happening, isn't it?" He asked quietly, "We could very well be loosing our lives here."

I nodded, "Yes sir, but we have good agents, they're our first line of defense, and you can bet on it that nothing will happen to this agency as long as I'm still breathing."

He nodded and turned away from me, giving me a small salute before entering the elevator doors.

"Gibbs, you never told us that they said there was a bomb!" Tony exclaimed, his eyes wide and slightly narrowed with anger.

I glared at him, "I couldn't, because I just got the text myself."

I turned to Kate, her cheeks were flushed a light pink, her eyes narrowed, her anger almost tangible.

"Gibbs, we have to evacuate now, we can't just wait until we leave," she whispered, looking from me to Tony.

"If we evacuate now, when there's a good chance they're watching us, then they'll let the bomb blow, killing more people. I can't let anyone else get hurt, Kate."

She sighed, resigned.

Suddenly, I heard my phone ring and quickly flipped it open, never taking my eyes away form Kate's face.

"Gibbs," I answered.

"Agent Gibbs, today's the day. Meet us in the underground parking lot of the hotel, midnight. I hope you got my text, and trust me, none of your agents will find the bomb. And remember, if you don't come, well, everyone will die. Would you like to speak to your son?"

"Dammit, yes, put him on."

There was a slight scuffling noise, then a soft moan.

"Dad? That you?"

I felt tears well up in my eyes, but quickly blinked them away. He sounded so broken already, hopeless, even.

"Yeah, Hutch, it's me. We'll be there soon, real soon, ok? Everything's going to work out."
"No, dad, don't you can't trade her in for me, you just can't, it's not -"

The phone was yanked away from him and I heard that sickening voice once again.

"Midnight, bring her, or everyone else dies."

The line went dead.