We have searched a total of five states looking for Gibbs. Director Morrow, and every other team have refused to help us find him now, believing we're chasing after something nonexistent and that he's gone. We've followed his mysterious calls to Ducky from DC to Virginia, to West Virginia, to Maryland, to Delaware. Every time we got there they had left. Luckily though, I noticed a pattern in where Ari was taking Gibbs. Ari was taking Gibbs to all of their most painful places. The most recent place we tracked was Stillwater Pennsylvania, Gibbs' Hometown. Working off my realization of the pattern, Tony deduced that the next place they would go would be DC again, at the warehouse where Ari held me hostage. McGee and Abby hacked a satellite and got footage of Ari moving in there. Now, McGee, Tony and I are geared for battle, and are planning an elaborate extraction plan for Gibbs.
I have four guns in hidden locations around the warehouse, one in a tree knot, one under a bale of hay, one in a small hole in the ground and one wedged between two rocks in some grass. They are strategically placed so I will have one near every entrance and exit. Next, carrying no weapons but the knife concealed as my left book buckle, I walk towards the main warehouse door.
"I am Special Agent Caitlin Todd! NCIS!" I say, loud and clear as the guards raise their weapons.
I see them hesitate the moment I say my name.
They quickly walk forward, check me for any weapons, and then lead me inside.
This part of the plan was my idea and it took me two hours to convince Tony that it was safe because I am sure that in some twisted way, Ari loves me and wouldn't hurt me.
They lead me through the main room, to the back, where I see Ari.
"Hello Caitlin. Took you longer than I thought to find me." He smirks
"Yeah? Well it is a lot harder for me to move fast these days." I retaliate, placing my hand on my very round and full stomach.
His smile vanishes the instant I refer to the fact I'm pregnant.
"Well we have business to attend to. I'm sure that you're here to rescue Gibbs?" he moves on
"Nope." I answer, semi-truthfully "Not my job"
"Why did you come here then?" he asks, coyly
"To deliver a message."
"From who?"
"The team and I."
"By all means." Smirks Ari
"You are a filthy bastard and we would sooner die than let you succeed in any of your plans. So if any of us die at your hands, trying to save our family, by family we mean Gibbs, Abby, Tony, McGee, Ducky, the baby and I, then we have succeeded in life. We hope you're happy because nothing stops Gibbs and nothing stops his team so no matter what as long as you live, we will hunt you down. We will cherish the moment one of Tony, my, McGee or Gibbs' bullets removes you from our world, where Abby does forensic analysis on your dead skin cells and your spilled blood and where Ducky is doing an autopsy on your dead corpse. You have messed with the wrong people, Ari, and you will pay for it." I finish, slightly breathless, before I turn around and start walking towards the front door.
"Well, I certainly hope you didn't plan on leaving so soon!" Ari's cold voice breaks the silence.
"Actually, I did. I have other things to do than waste my time in your filthy presence." I provoke him deliberately, as I continue walking.
I don't hear Ari say anything, but in sync his guards grab my arms and pin them behind my back, thrusting me back towards Ari.
"Put her in the prison cell with her beloved Gibbs." Snarls Ari.
Little does he know, this is the plan.
While I was stalling and provoking Ari, McGee was hacking into the servers of the video cameras. As soon as I started yelling at Ari, it gave him the 30 seconds he needed and now Tony should be wriggling through the air vents, thanks to McGee looping the video feeds, so it shows no one in the hallway. Ari's men will lead me to Gibbs' cell, the only prison cell in the base, and Tony will get there by air vent, and sit perched in there until Ari comes to interrogate us, which is when Tony should shoot the shit out of him.
The guard opens the door, and roughly sits me down in the chair across from Gibbs, and ties my ankles together and my wrists to the arms of the chair. Gibbs' eyes are closed and his head is back and it looks like he's sleeping.
The guards leave and lock the doors.
I kick Gibbs' foot.
"Gibbs!" I hiss
His head snaps up, and he looks wildly around before his eyes find me. He is covered in bruises, his clothes are ragged and dirty and dried blood stains them and parts of his face.
"Kate." Whispers Gibbs, shocked, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Saving you." I hiss,
"I told you not to find me!"
"Please, Gibbs, do you really think any of us were just going to leave you here?"
"Not them! You! Ari wants you, and he wanted to kill me but now, he wants to kill both of us! You're not safe here!" he says, angrily.
"Trust me Gibbs, we have a plan." I reassure him.
No sooner than I say that the door opens and McGee is tossed in, unconscious.
That was not part of the plan.
He lands in a heap on the floor and doesn't move. Ari follows, neatly stepping over McGee's inert body and standing beside Gibbs.
"My friends are currently hunting down your other friend right now, Caitlin." Ari smirks and my blood runs cold.
I don't speak, because if they find Tony then we have zero backup and we're all screwed.
I look at Gibbs, and try not to panic. I am about to say something when I see a tiny red light in the vent above Gibbs' head and I realize that Ari was bluffing. Tony is fine, and in position, but Ari doesn't know that. I quickly realize the choice is rescue Gibbs and have all of us leave safely, or kill Ari, and maybe rescue Gibbs and have at least one of us die in the process. If we try to kill Ari, and succeed, his guards will wreck havoc on us, and with Gibbs not being as strong as usual, McGee unconscious and I pregnant, we wont be able to escape the compound efficiently, unless someone distracts them, and Tony will no doubt volunteer for that, which would kill him. If we just leave, we wont be fast, but Ari will pursue us at a safe distance so we cant take him out which hopefully would give us enough time to survive.
Therefore, I go to plan B.
"Tango Oscar November Yankee Sierra Tango Oscar Papa!" I yell, and to Ari it's just spouting nonsense, but I am yelling Tony Stop, In Marine alphabet acronyms.
"Papa, Lima, Alpha, November, Bravo!" Plan B! I cry, and Ari storms over to me and smacks my face. My lip splits and my nose starts to bleed, but I don' do anything to stop the blood.
"What are you saying?" Ari growls
I don't respond, so he smacks me again.
"What are you saying? Who are you talking to?' he demands
"No one and nothing." I answer
He grabs my chin forcefully, and brings my face towards him.
"Tell me now."
"No." I hiss,
He pulls out his gun and points it a McGee's motionless body on the floor. "Tell me or I shoot him." Growls Ari
I decide to bluff, "We predicted you'd go here and installed special micro-radio transmitters so that we could communicate with our back up team. I just told them everything was going according to plan."
"Liar." Snarls Ari
"Are you sure?" I challenge, and just as I do, the sound of gunfire sounds from the other side of the door. Ari's head shoots up and all interest in me is lost as he moves the gun from pointed at McGee to in a defensive position and opens the door the slightest bit. Whatever he saw infuriated him, because he ran out, and slammed the door shut behind him.
As soon as he's gone, I try to reach my knife from my boot. It's impossible for me to get it.
"Gibbs. I have a knife in my boot, left boot buckle, can you grab it?" I ask
"Put your foot in my lap." He orders and I do
He leans down and with his teeth, removes the knife from my boot, and saws through his right wrists' tie. Then, he grabs the knife and cuts the rest of himself and myself loose.
McGee is awake by now, though groggy, and heaves himself up. We peek out the door to see six or seven armed guards shooting at a couple of metal containers, where it appears Tony is hiding, as he gets a few shots off before hiding again.
I need to signal to him that we need to leave without attracting attention, so I take my knife from Gibbs and use it to reflect the ceiling lights into Tony's area.
Tony's eyes follow the light and he sees us crouching in the doorway.
He takes a gun and tosses it across the floor at us, and it slides to the base of the door. Gibbs grabs it and takes out two of the men, the rest of which are now shooting at us.
We use the door as a shield as Gibbs and Tony alternate shots, until all but one of the guards are dead. He flees into the back control room. We hurry over to Tony.
"Are you okay?" I ask,
"Yes. Are you? DO you feel-?"
"I'm fine."
"Ow." hisses McGee under his breath. I turn to see his left arm is bleeding.
"Ar you alright?" I demand, hurrying over
"It's fine, just a through and through." He waves me off, and I hear Tony yell, and suddenly he's in front of me, and then he's on the ground the sound of a gunshot ringing in my ears.
"Tony!" I yell, hurrying to my knees. I frantically open his jacket to reveal a flesh wound on his abdomen. It seems to have been a through and through, but there's a lot of blood. I press my hands to the wound, in effort to stop the bleeding.
"Kit Kat?" mutters Tony, as his eyes grow unfocused
"Focus on me, Tony. Breathe, it's going to be just fine." I order him, in awe and respect since he just took a bullet aimed for me.
Looking up, I see Gibbs has his gun drawn, but hasn't found the man who took a shot at us. McGee is doing the same.
"Gibbs! We have to go!" I yell, "Let Ari go, or Tony won't live! You know that, come on. Let him go, Gibbs."
His eyes like fire, Gibbs, puts his gun away, grabs Tony, and tosses him over his shoulder.
"Let's go." Gibbs growls.
McGee watches our six as we hurry to the main entrance. Gibbs is about to open it, when I notice the trip wire on top of it.
"Stop!" I yell, "It's a bomb!"
Gibbs freezes, and says "Where?"
"The door, it's got trip wire." I point to it, and Gibbs turns to McGee and yells "Are there any other exits?"
"Three! This way!" answers McGee, and with a loud boom, the prison cell erupts into flames. The fire spreads quickly, and soon the room is thick with smoke.
We stumble towards the side exit and McGee leads the way, out into the hay field, where no more the thirty seconds after we exited, the whole building explodes, sending us all onto our backs and stomachs.
We keep going, until we get to the sedan McGee, Tony and I took here.
We all stand in the elevator, slightly baffled by our escape. Tony's stomach is bandaged, McGee's arm is dressed and in a sling, Gibbs' cuts were stitched up and my lip and nose were patched up. In the elevator's reflection we look like hell. All of us are covered in soot, and dirt. Sweat stains and the like making our clothes dingy. Our hair is full of soot and it's beyond unkempt. There are bags under all of our eyes, and Gibbs looks distant.
We exit the elevator on our floor to see Abby and Ducky, nervously waiting. Abby is pacing in the hall between our desks, Ducky is twiddling his thumbs staring off into space while he sits on Tony's desk.
As soon as the elevator dings, Abby whirls around and with a squeal, she races towards us and throws herself into Gibbs' arms.
I don't here what they're saying, but she starts to sob, and he gently kisses the side of her head before holding her close once again. I give Ducky a side hug, the best I can manage right now, and he is completely jubilant. He gives Tony a hug and McGee, and by then Abby is done with Gibbs and promptly throws herself at me.
"I was so worried about you!" she whispers in my ear tearfully as she leans over my stomach to wrap her arms around me.
"It's okay Abs. We got Gibbs. We did it. We did good." I say, and she squeezes me even tighter. "You know, McGee was really brave in there. He hardly even complained and took a bullet to the arm!" I tell her
She promptly throws herself at McGee, completely ignoring his squawk of pain.
Only now, do I recognize the dull roar of applause. I look to see the entire floor on their feet, applauding us.
I look at Tony, and see he's smiling, and we sit at our desks together, McGee following suit, Abby hovering nearby, Ducky and Gibbs chat quietly, while Gibbs heads over to his desk, sitting down as Ducky leans on his desk, still talking.
I look at our team, my family and I can't help but feel so thankful that I have this perfect and perfectly dysfunctional family.