*Previously on NCIS and NCIS: L.A.*

"Everybody, grab a computer and go through Dom's life. I want everything about him from the second he was born until the moment he was captured. We also need all the information we can get on friends, family, past coworkers, anyone who had continuous contact with him."

"What about Kensi and Ziva, Boss?" Tony asked, already going through some files on Dom.

"Don't worry about them. The terrorists just took them as more leverage, just in case what they had wasn't enough. This has something to do with Dom; we just have to find it."

Chapter 12: Follow Your Gut

Gibbs watched the two teams in the room hard at work. McGee and Eric had gotten over their initial defeat at cracking the security to trace the video feed, and were now working as hard as ever to pull through for Dom, Kensi, and Ziva.

Abby was halfheartedly helping McGee and Eric. Although her cries had ceased quickly, she still had the strongest emotions out of any person Gibbs had ever met, and they were a bit disorienting for the poor girl.

While the computer geeks were doing their thing, Tony, Callen, and Sam had formed a circle with their chairs to go through Dom's life. Their setup reminded Gibbs of Tony's "campfire" technique while he was boss, and just hoped it worked as well now as it did back then.

Feeling secure in his team's ability, Callen had all but handed over his share of control over this investigation, he had gone off to do some of his own business. First, he had a meeting with Hettie, just a short debriefing and analysis of the situation. As soon as he left she made yet another phone call to Director Vance, while Gibbs stepped outside to call someone else still in Washington.

His conversation with Ducky was tiring. Of course the old Scotsman had been informed of the abductions of Ziva and Kensi, but no one really had the time to talk to him just yet. He was worried, Gibbs could see that. Ziva and Ducky had gotten quite close in the few years they had known each other. Ducky was one of the few people who wholeheartedly welcomed Ziva when she first became a part of the team. They became even closer after Ziva saved his life using her impressive knife skills, just days after she started doing fieldwork with the team.

Gibbs knew Ducky and Ziva had frequent talks over tea. They both came to America as foreigners, and spoke about their struggles adjusting to the strange American ways. They also shared several common interests, for example theatre, more specifically, ballet and the opera.

Gibbs also knew Ziva had slowly started to withdraw from Ducky and their talks after Jenny's death and Ziva's return to Israel. When she came back they didn't speak as much, something Ducky missed greatly. Ducky tried to talk to Ziva, losing a close friend like Jenny and nearly being killed in a bombing was quite a bit to handle in one summer, not to mention moving back to her home in Israel just to move back to Washington four months later.

One thing Gibbs wasn't sure on was their relationship now. Based on what Ducky told him thus far, Ziva never opened up about Somalia. Ducky gently prodded at her to talk to him, to trust him, but Ziva never did talk. Sure, he got the basic rundown and she went to the mandatory therapy meetings, but Ducky was afraid that wasn't enough. With her new imprisonment, Ducky was worried now more than ever for the well-being of their friend.

"Bring Ziva back safely, Jethro," the old M.E. had said. "The poor girl has been through so much. Get her and the others home safely, and pray for their swift recovery from this nightmare."

Without an answer Gibbs had hung up, something Ducky was quite used to. Gibbs took a few deep breaths, trying to figure out how he could do what Ducky wanted. This was an extremely delicate situation, one that was testing him professionally and personally. And he just couldn't fail.

Gibbs turned on his toe and retreated inside to escape from the intense heat of California. He passed the empty squad room and climbed the large staircase back up to his team.

Everyone was pretty much in the exact same position as when he left them twenty minutes ago. He glanced at the countdown on the screen and noted they had just over thirty minutes before the terrorists made contact with them again.

He walked over to where Eric, McGee, and Abby were working and looked at what they were doing by poking his head in-between Abby's and McGee's.

"Got anything?"

The typing did not cease at his question, if anything the speed of their dancing fingers increased. Eric looked to Gibbs with a strange expression.

"Uh…maybe? Together we have made a lot of progress on breaching through their security and we still have about half an hour so we could have it by then…" Eric trailed off as Gibbs sighed and wiped a hand across his face in frustration.

All three of them shared nervous looks, wondering what Gibbs thought of their small amount of progress.

To their immense surprise he clapped a hand down on McGee's shoulder and actually encouraged them. "Okay, keep working. Try and get this cracked within the thirty minutes. Hopefully we'll have more luck the second time around."

The trio expressed baffled looks as he turned to go see how the background check on Dom was going.

"Did he just praise and…motivate us?" Eric asked in disbelief.

"He put a hand on my shoulder." McGee stated the obvious.

Abby ignored her male companions and just watched her boss. This was affecting him; when was he nice? Except to her, of course. She decided not to let it bother her. Right now, she had work to do.

As Gibbs walked slowly across the large tech-room, Tony pretended to be looking through more files as he whispered through his teeth to Callen.

"Did you see that? Did you see that?"

Callen glanced at him and also feigned he hadn't seen a thing.

"If by "that" you mean the master of all that is strict and discouraging giving support and advice then yes, I did see that."

Sam listened to them speak and continued to read his file. Right then, Gibbs reached the group of men and bent down to their seated level.

"Whaddya got?"

The three men flinched visibly, as none of them really had anything.

DiNozzo took a breath before looking up at his mentor. "Uh, not much, Boss. Dom was pretty much an average guy. He had a normal childhood with his parents and younger sister. After college he went directly into training for NCIS, and then he came to work here."

"Anything else important?"

This time Sam spoke. "I'm not sure how relevant it is, but his parents divorced while he was in college. And, uh, Dom has a niece. She was born about a year after Dom graduated."

For some reason, that information made Gibbs's gut churn.

His mind raced until he asked the question his gut wanted him to.

"Anybody talk to the sister since this all started?"

Callen shook his head. "Just Dom's parents. Why? Do you think this has anything to do with his sister or niece?"

Gibbs stared for a moment at the screen before slowly shaking his head.

"I don't know." He sighed as the numbers on the countdown informed him they had only five minutes before the next video session was supposed to start.

"I don't know." he repeated. "We've only got five minutes. McGee!" The man looked up from his computer waiting for his order. "Get ready to track over there. Next video starts in five minutes!" McGee nodded and he, Abby, and Eric adjusted themselves and their computers to be ready to start tracking when the time came.

"The rest of you, in front of the screen with me." The men complied and soon everyone was in position.

Gibbs steely blue eyes never left the countdown clock as it neared just three minutes.

"Let's see what these bastards have to say now."