Chapter 10-

Tony drove up Kate's driveway and set the car in park. He stepped out and looked around, seeing a guard agent a few yards from the driveway. "Hey, you, the girl still in the house?" DiNozzo called and proceeded to the door when the man just simply nodded. "Kate!" Tony called through the door. He jiggled the door handle, wondering if it was locked. It wasn't. Slowly, he opened the door. "Kate? You in here?" When Tony didn't get an answer he searched the whole house, not finding a trace of the young girl. "Crap..." He muttered and grabbed his phone to call Gibbs.

An hour later a black Ford Charger parked in the Bergon driveway. Gibbs, Ziva, and McGee stepped out of the car and went around back. The first thing they saw was Tony, arguing with one of the guarding agents.

"How the hell did she manage to slip past you? You're standing right outside the door!" DiNozzo shouted, not noticing his team.

"I-I d-don't know…I didn't hear anything. Well…besides a dog barking." The agent stuttered.

Tony rolled his eyes, saw the three staring at him, and walked over. "Hey Boss, you guys get Wilkerson?" He tried to avoid the subject of losing Kate, again.

"Not good DiNozzo, he wasn't at work, or at home." Gibbs said immediately. "How long has Kate been gone?"

"About half an hour."

"So she's had half an hour to run, into the woods, where she could use trees so we wouldn't be able to follow her." The team leader nodded. "You better find her, DiNozzo."

"How?" Tony exclaimed then shut his mouth. "Sorry, Boss…" He looked around when an idea suddenly hit him. DiNozzo grinned widely at the idea forming in his head.

"Speak, DiNozzo." Gibbs commanded Tony like he was a dog.

"Exactly Boss! Ziva, what happened both when we first came here, and when we left?"

Ziva shrugged, "Well you tried to get Kate to listen to you." She smirked slightly then continued when she got what Tony had in mind. "Muds snapped at you."

The senior field agent nodded, "But not when I showed up this time. When I searched the house, Kate was nowhere to be seen, and neither were Muds or Arcal."

"What's your point?" Gibbs asked, clearly agitated.

"She took the dogs! That's how we track her, by tracking the dogs' scents. Unless they can climb trees…I bet they can though. It would be so cool, like the dog in Karate Dog. Best dog movie ever…"

"What are you talking about Tony?" Ziva asked.

"Y'know, the 2004 movie Karate Dog starring Jon Voight, Simon Rex, and Jamie Pressly? It was so cool! The dog could kick, punch, talk, and…" He started rambling about the movie until Tony saw the glare Gibbs was giving him. "Back to the point, Boss, right. Well, uh, we could get search dogs to get the scent of Muds and Arcal from toys or something and track them down. She wouldn't have left her dogs out on their own, so she must be close."

The silver haired leader nodded. "Good. DiNozzo, get the toys. I'll get the search dogs. David, McGee, go search around for clues as to where to start looking for the scent." With those orders given out, Gibbs walked away to make a few calls.

Tony grinned at McGee, "Don't worry Probie, there's no poison ivy in this forest. Well there could be, I don't know…" He smirked and walked away to the house.

McGee rolled his eyes and headed to the forest behind Ziva.

Within a few minutes, five blood hounds and their handlers were at the house, being given instruction by Ziva as to where the dogs should start looking for a scent trail. They nodded and walked off to the woods. The team met together by the back door. Gibbs handed out orders once again. "David, DiNozzo, go out with the search team. Make sure Kate is back here within the next half hour." He nodded for them to go, which they did immediately. "McGee, we're going to search the mother's room for any info on her weapon dress company." The two agents walked inside.

Tony and Ziva jogged through the forest, side by side, trying to keep up with the search dogs. The dogs seemed to walk around randomly, not really having a scent. Once the group reached a stream and all the dogs sat down, not finding a trail anywhere. DiNozzo sighed and leaned against a tree. "That girl is good…"

Ziva stood by him. "Yes, very." She looked around, taking in every detail, and spotted a white blur by a clearing. "Tony, the crime scene was in that clearing over there, yes?"

Tony looked up and over to the clearing, "Yeah, I think so, why?"

"Unless you have giant white squirrels in America, I found Arcal." She crossed the stream and headed for the clearing, her partner right behind her.

Tony walked up to the clearing and saw Arcal and Muds lying by a bush. Once Muds saw Tony she got to her paws and growled deeply. Arcal just stared at Tony and Ziva as the growl got deeper and she advanced on Tony.

A voice came from behind Tony, making him jump and flinch away. "Relax Muds, he won't kill me yet." Kate jumped down to the ground from a tree that was on the edge of the clearing. She bent down and her dogs came running to her.

Tony looked down at Kate. "Why did you run off?" He asked, coming close to shouting. The girl ignored the agent's question and scratched her dogs' heads. "Well?" DiNozzo shouted.

"What did my mom say? She in trouble?" Kate answered his question with another one.

Ziva answered instead. "That she has a secret company. So no, she is not in trouble for anything yet…"

"Yet? Wonderful…you get the killer?"

Ziva opened her mouth to answer again but Tony cut her off. "No, too busy looking for you. Which is why I ask again, why did you run off?"

Kate sighed and looked at Ziva with a hint of sadness in her eyes. The former Mossad officer nodded and walked off. "I will go call off the search."

Tony watched Ziva curiously then looked back at Kate and raised his eyebrow at her questioningly.

"I needed to think, okay? From the tone of your voice I knew my mom was in trouble and no matter how much I hate her, I can't deal with her leaving." Kate explained.

"Because you love her?"

"No! If she gets arrested, then I get sent to a foster home or whatever and lose my dogs." She shut her eyes tight to hold back tears and hugged Muds and Arcal. "I could lose everything in my life, but I can't lose them…"

DiNozzo shut his eyes for a moment and nodded. "Alright…we have to get back to your house before Gibbs gets too mad." He looked around, not sure how to get back to her house. "Do you know…"

Kate immediately nodded and stood up. "Yeah, I know this forest like the back of my hand." She walked off with Muds and Arcal. Tony followed her, careful to avoid any thorn bushes.

When they got to the house, Kate immediately went inside with the dogs, leaving the team of four outside by the back door to talk.

~~~~At NCIS Headquarters (Abby's Lab) ~~~~

Abby stood in front of her computer, typing away at her keyboard and occasionally taking sips of her Caf-Pow. She turned to look at her doorway when she heard the familiar ding of the elevator. A young man with light brown hair like McGee, in light blue scrubs, walked into the lab. "Jimmy!" The forensic scientist exclaimed. "What brings you to my humble lab?"

Jimmy looked up at Abby and shrugged. "Well, Ducky said there was no need to be down in autopsy. No bodies besides Lagneron, and he turns out to be useless so I thought I'd come up here to talk."

"Yeah, same here. No forensics at the crime scene." She frowned for a moment then perked up. "Did you meet Kate?"

"No." The autopsy gremlin shook his head. "Glad too. I saw her once; she looked like she could kill someone if she needed to, kinda like Ziva."

"You think she's like Ziva? I think she's like Tony. She is constantly picking on Tim. I feel bad, but it's funny, mostly because he overreacts, and that it's exactly what Tony would do." She took a breath from talking. Jimmy opened his mouth to say something but Abby started talking against. "The weird thing is that she is so smart! Like, creepy smart, like Gibbs! She can also sneak up on people. She's cute, devious, and has a funky side." She smiled, done talking about Kate for now.

Jimmy finally spoke up, "So you like her?" He chuckled a little when the scientist nodded.