Disclaimer-I own absolutely nothing to do with NCIS
21
The blood thundered in her ears and suddenly she was four years old again and at her grandmother's country house in Surrey, running from her cousin Liam as he chased her with a water balloon. She dove in and out of the trees, flurries of dead leaves and dirty snow flying up at her feet and she sucked in the cold air greedily. Her lungs felt ready to explode, and she stopped to hide behind a tree and suppressed a giggle.
Becca shook her head fiercely-she was not four, she was twenty five and her and McGee were running for their lives from a madman and she was by herself, no McGee, even being with a serial killer might be better than being alone in the woods without a clue where she was. She couldn't catch her breath and she was more scared now then she had been tied to that hideous chair. She wanted McGee.
A hand pulled her down to the ground and just before she screamed familiar fingers clamped themselves over her mouth. She breathed in the scent of his skin and instantly relaxed.
"Stay down and put this over your head," McGee whispered in her ear as he tore off the bottom half of a pants leg and tied it under her chin. "You can see your hair from a mile away."
"Bet you don't like it so much now huh?" He pinched her arm.
"How can you possibly joke at a time like this? Come one, we've got to get to someplace defensible. Stay down."
He stood up and looked around then crouched back down to join her.
"There's a large rock over to our west-follow me and try to be quiet."
They wove through the trees until Becca felt McGee press her back against wet cold stone.
"Shit," he hissed as he smacked the rock. "That bastard took my gun."
Becca rubbed her arms. "Where are we?"
"Caledon. Virgina side of the bottom swoop of the Potomac."
"How do you know that?
"Oak trees. Loblolly pine cones. Virginia Park Services emblem on the back wall. Bald eagle feathers. We've got the advantage now-he's only been here five months and I've been coming to this forest every summer since I was six. I can smell the water north of us. If we can just stay clear of him for a few days we can follow the river up to Quantico."
"He's been with NCIS for five months?"
"Yeah. Contrary to popular belief, I did notice other things at the end of September besides you. Okay Bex, what I need you to do is keep your eyes north. I don't know how far we are from the water so watch out for things that'll protect our back-rocks like this one, big trees, hollows. We're gonna sneak from spot to spot until we hit the bank. Right now we're heading for that oak tree."
He took her hand and they rushed forward. The bark of the trees scratched her hands and she gulped in swallows of air. McGee shook her hand.
"You ready? That rock straight ahead." She threw an arm over his chest.
"McGee, what are we going to do? Hanover's out there looking for us, and it's gonna get dark, and cold, and neither one of us has our piece." He turned to her and took her head between his hands.
"I don't know, Bex! God I just..." It suddenly hit him, how close he had come to losing her, how if he hadn't realized Hanover was in Navy Yard, how if he hadn't run after her...he pulled her to him and pressed her chest against his to feel her heart beating.
"You're alive and I'm gonna keep you that way," he whispered as he kissed her hair. "I'm gonna keep you that way."
"I can take care of myself you know," she mumbled against his neck.
"Yeah, and if we were in the city I would totally trust you, but we're hiding in the woods and you'll do what I tell you to do now we're going to that next rock, okay?"
"If we're running you have to let me go."
He'd carry her before he let her go.
"Yeah, ok. Come on."
On the top of the ridge above them, Hanover watched the two tiny figures pinballing between sheltered spots-his eyes drifted up to the river's edge, and measured the distance between the two. He'd let them get there. Once they hit the river he could find them anytime he wanted.
"There's two types of land along this area," Gibbs said as he traced his finger across the map. "Private land and national forest. We can try to track everyone who comes into the national forest." DiNozzo nodded as he slipped his gun into its holster.
"We're looking for a dark blue '98 Ford F-150, 67U-5GT3."
Ziva grabbed DiNozzo's arm. "What if he's on private land?" Her partner had a look on his face she hadn't seen in a long time, the hard blank look he wore when he turned from clownish to deadly dangerous.
"He better not be. If he makes this difficult for me he's not gonna make it from NCIS custody to prison in one piece."
"Tony..."
"Ziva, I won't go through this again!"
"Go through what?"
"I tease him and make fun of him and bully him, I know that, but you and McGee are my best friends and Becca's important to me too. I will not go through Somalia again, Ziva. I won't."
"What will you do? What will you do that Gibbs cannot?"
"I'm gonna find the fucking bastard and kill him." He kicked the trashcan and a load of crumpled paper went flying. "I should have gone with him! He knew Hanover was here, he ran after Becca and I should have gone with him! I let him go after a serial killer by himself, Ziva! No way in hell that skinny piece of shit could have taken down the two of us."
Ziva took his hands and pinned his arms to his side before he started tearing up the furniture. "We'll find them, Tony. McGee has spent a lot of time in the woods and I know Becca is young but she's a cop-we will find them."
"No we won't," he whispered. "We'll find a body because McGee'll die before he lets him get within ten feet of her."
Gibbs walked back into the quad and grabbed his coat. "Up on the roof."
"What?"
"I requisitioned a squad of choppers-there's no way to find him electronically. We're doing a visual sweep search."
In a few minutes they reached the southern bend of the river and the pilot took the chopper down low.
"Start on the north end!" Gibbs shouted over the roar of the blades. "Virginia's got denser woods than the Maryland side!"
They swept over Purse and Wildwater, and just as they hit the edge of Caledon Ziva pointed to a dark grey square.
"I thought all the service stations inside the national forests were supposed to have colored roofs!"
"They are!" Gibbs answered, then leaned in to the pilot. "Take us lower!"
He hovered as close as he dared until the blades almost touched the soaring tops of the pines. Just visible next to the obviously abandoned station sat a navy blue pick-up. Gibbs signaled to the pilot to find a landing spot.
As soon as they hit ground the pilot took off again, and the three agents headed into the trees.
"McGee," Becca whispered as she looked up at the sun, "it's a ways past noon and it's the end of February. We don't have a lot of time left before it gets dark." He laid his fingers over her lips.
"Shhh. Listen. Running water. And the ground's starting to slope downward." He yanked her along for a few more yards and suddenly they popped out of a dense stand of maple and the wide brown expanse of the river stretched out before them. He sighed.
"Okay. Okay."
They jogged in silence for a while until Becca stopped to catch her breath.
"I thought I was in such great shape," she panted. "When we get home I am so adding variable incline training to the treadmill routine."
"The ground here is really soft and springy-it's like running on a balance ball. It's a skill you have to learn. Before he died my dad used to take me camping out here with just a tent and some fishing poles. He'd blindfold me and take me out two, three hours walk from our site and then tell me it was up to me to find the way back."
"How old were you?" McGee shrugged.
"Eight. Nine."
She swallowed hard. "McGee, just because he hasn't been here that long doesn't mean Hanover doesn't know these woods. He wouldn't have taken us here if he wasn't comfortable."
"I know."
She hadn't expected that. "Yeah, well, isn't following the river the obvious thing to do?" He smiled sadly at her.
"It's our only chance of getting back to a populated area."
"I know, I just...he knows we're down here. He'll find us."
"I know."
"What do we do?" He looked at her and she had never seen his eyes so resolute-it reassured her and terrified her.
"I'll protect you," he whispered.
"Who's gonna protect you?"
He drew her into his arms and laid his forehead on hers. "Don't worry about me."
Their breaths mingled in a hazy warmth and she suddenly felt closer to him than any other person she had ever known.
"We should keep going," she whispered. He sushed her.
"Listen."
They both stopped breathing for a moment and in the silence they heard it; the distinct Rice-Krispie crunch of hard-soled shoes on frozen soil. Without a word McGee pulled her down to him and they rolled into the small hole under the roots of the enormous oak tree behind them. Their eye line was level with the ground. He slipped his hand over her mouth and his arm around her waist. The crunching sounds got louder, and were soon joined by the labored wheeze McGee remembered in his ear. In the clearing before them they suddenly saw two tan work boots, their dirty suede flecked with a dark fine spray of dried blood. The next victim's blood? Becca's brain refused to process that thought. Then she realized it could be McGee's, and fought the resultant nausea. Hanover lowered his hand, and peaking out from below the great roots above their heads Becca saw the late sun glint of the tip of the knife. There was no where they could move, no way out. If Hanover caught them in this hollow he would kill McGee. A certainty.
After a few minute, when Becca felt sure her heart would never start beating again, the boots moved on until they were out of their sightline. The wheezing faded away, and shortly even the cold crushing footsteps were too far away to hear. Not until he let her go did Becca realize just how tightly McGee had been holding her- her ribs felt the absence of his arm like a too tight dress that's finally been unzipped. He slid over the top of her out of their hiding place
Just as Becca moved to follow him an explosion of ground debris and wet earth came flying at her face. She scrambled to her feet to see Hanover behind McGee, one hand fisted in his hair to forcibly expose his throat and the other pressing the enormous hunting knife to the tender pulse of his adam's apple.
"Did you really think I was that stupid?" Hanover whispered to McGee. "Did you really think I'd head east when I know the only choice you have is to go west with the river?"
Becca reached for McGee. Hanover pressed the knife harder, and she froze when she saw the tiny drop of ruby blood collecting on its edge.
"Don't make a move towards him! I'll cut his throat right here!"
"Connor," Becca said slowly, ignoring the shock in McGee's eyes, "you don't want to do that. Killing him would make me very upset, and you don't want to upset me, do you?"
"He's your choice, isn't he? Isn't he? Did you not pay any attention to the lessons I gave you? His blood is sacred to the earth. I won't hesitate to spill it!"
"You don't have to do that. Look, Connor, just let him go. Just let him go and you and I can go wherever you like. We'll run away together-just let him go."
She could see the wheels turning in Hanover's mind, and she knew she had to play his two desires off one another; how badly he wanted to be with her versus how desperately he needed to eliminate any rivals. Suddenly his eyes hardened and she knew she'd hesitated too long-she'd lost him.
"No," he said. "I'm going to keep him and you're going to follow us. We're all going back where we came from."
She had only a second to wonder if he meant the abandoned station or the earth itself before he dragged McGee into the woods.