Disclaimer: See previous chapters

A/N: Thanks for all reviews received. This chapter should explain what has been happening for the whole time Kate has been away.

Chapter 11

At 4pm Kate and Charlotte entered the agency office. She spoke to the receptionist and then went up to meet Bob in his office. Charlotte went off to sit in the corner of the room to get out her activity books.

"Hi Kate," Bob stood and embraced her. "You're really scaring everyone at the moment!" Kate smiled.

"I know Bob. This wasn't planned. You know I want the sign-off from Homeland security so that I can concentrate on teaching. I just want to get my life back on track. I really didn't need all of this now."

"I know things are difficult. However, we are concerned that this body isn't a coincidence. We think Fedorov is behind it and that he is on to you."

"I have no doubt about that." Kate replied. She had been tracking Fedorov, a Russian militant, for the last 4 years. In fact, it was his recent movement into the US that had allowed Kate to move back. But comments and sudden changes that were being made to the groups she had infiltrated meant that she had been getting suspicious. She had been pretty convinced that the dead marine being found at her school had not been a coincidence but a way to take her eye away while something went down. She just wasn't sure what exactly was happening that they didn't want her to know about.

"Well," Bob continued, "Director Morrow is very worried. He wants to talk to you about next steps. I think he is planning to pull you out of this." Kate shrugged. She actually didn't care about being pulled out of the case. She had made up her mind to retire from being a federal agent and she loved teaching. That was what she wanted to do now. At that point, Director Tom Morrow walked into the room.

"Kate! How lovely to see you again! Come through both of you. We're in a video conference in 5 minutes. Do you have your notes Kate? We will need your input on what Fedorov is up to." Kate nodded, and the three walked into the next room.

Just before 4.15, Vance, Gibbs and the rest of the team walked into MTAC. Tony had returned with coffee and remained in the bullpen with the rest of the team until their time to go into MTAC. As they had been waiting, Gibbs had come and stood in front of Tony's desk.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

"As good as can be expected, Gibbs," Tony responded, then continued, "Boss, how do you think you would feel if Shannon suddenly appeared?"

"To be honest, DiNozzo, I don't know. It's not the kind of thing you expect." Tony nodded.

"But it happened to me. What do I do about it?"

"Go with your gut Tony," Gibbs responded. McGee had been listening to this exchange and looked at Tony.

"Um, Tony. Was there something going on with you and Kate?" Tony laughed.

"She was my wife Probie! We were married for about 3 weeks and then she was shot." McGee looked at Tony, shocked.

"And you never told anybody?" Tony shook his head. They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes before Gibbs called them to join him on the way to MTAC – Tony in thought and McGee frantically taking in the new information. What neither of them realised was that there was another person who was also taking in the information silently. Ziva was just behind the screen and had heard every word. She ducked out of sight when Gibbs rounded the corner, making her way into the bullpen from the other side and following on behind the other agents. Nobody realised she had been there.

The four agents and Director Vance gathered around the screen and waited for the transmission from Homeland Security to come in. At exactly 4.15 it did, and none of the team were prepared for who they saw. If Tom Morrow, formerly Director of NCIS noticed, he did not show it.

"Director Vance, Gibbs, Tony, McGee," he nodded to them, "it's good to see the old team again." Gibbs recovered first.

"Director Morrow it's good to see you too. Congratulations on your promotion."

"Thank you Gibbs. Now I'm sure you are all keen to know the situation. We suspect your body is related to our case. Only, I am sure you'll appreciate that a 4-year undercover operation is highly important to us and we need to take this carefully. May I introduce to you Bob Thornton? Bob has been the agent overseeing the whole operation." The agents' acknowledged Bob.

"And then I realise you know Kate. And I realise there are a few questions regarding Kate, in that you all thought Kate died many years ago. And clearly she didn't. Let me just state that Kate is not to blame for any of the secrets, we had our reasons for keeping Kate away from you and, on successful completion of this final mission, she has chosen to retire from federal agency work. However, for the last 7 years she has been in a deep undercover operation which started in England infiltrating a Russian network that we believed to be planning terrorist operations." At this point Gibbs stepped in.

"There were markings on the body of the marine we found. We have determined it was a message in Morse code threatening Kate." Kate paled slightly and spoke up.

"What exactly did the message say?" she asked.

"We'll do better and show you," Vance stepped in and signalled for the image to be displayed. Kate stared at the message and composing herself. She had been convinced the other week that her cover had been blown, but she hadn't realised how much. This changed a lot of things, Kate started going through in her head how she could get herself and Charlotte back onto a plane to England. Although... would that be any safer?

Tony found himself starting at Kate's face. 'What was she thinking?' he wondered. There wasn't a sign on her face now that this news bothered her. It was almost as if she knew this was going to happen. Tony realised he was angry again, but this time angry with Director Morrow. This man was putting his Kate's life at risk. He was pulled out of his thoughts when Tom Morrow started to talk again.

"We had thought that Kate may be compromised from something earlier in the week. Now we know the answer. Rest assured that your dead Marine was just an unfortunate player in a terrorist situation and his death will be punished. There is no need for you to continue your investigation. Our team will add it to their details as we deal with the whole situation. We would be grateful if you would discontinue with your investigation now, since it will only interfere with our agents in bringing down the terrorists. As you will appreciate, there has been a huge amount of resources put into this and we all need to see the closure for this."

"What about Kate?" Tony realised he had voiced his concerns out loud when everyone looked at him.

"I'll be fine Tony."

"Kate will be under protection while we bring the terrorist cell down. We need her to fill us in on all the information she has been gathering whilst undercover, we'll need her to consult on the operation." Tom Morrow stepped in.

"Could we move Kate into NCIS protection?" Gibbs asked then. He was worried about Tony. Morrow hesitated, but Vance backed him up.

"I think a lot of people here need to know what happened. We can give the same level of protection and take some pressure off of your resources." Morrow looked to Kate for agreement, she nodded.

"Ok, but we need to have access to Kate 24/7 in case we need information. We need a full update on information before you go anywhere Kate. Probably about an hour."

"I'll have people with you within the hour." Gibbs replied.

It was agreed then. NCIS would collect Kate from Homeland offices in an hour. The video link was cut and the agents looked at each other. Gibbs couldn't help but smile inwardly when he realised Kate was coming home.