A/N's: thanks again for Lynette, who was kind enough to beta this!

THE TOBIAS FAMILY PROPERTY, IN THE KITCHEN

Steven Robbs, Maria Wood and Robin Baynes, another member of this part of the NID rogue group, were desperately trying to stem the water flow that was steadily and rapidly turning the property's big kitchen into a swimming pool.

While Maria used a mop and a brush to sweep the water out of the door onto the porch, Steven and Robin were breaking their way through the cabinet in search of the hole in the water-pipe.

"Who did the freaking plumbing in this house anyway," Steven grumbled as he threw pots and pans out of his way. Crawling on his hands and knees to get to the source of the leak had gotten him soaking wet. In his rush he'd already cut his left hand on some kitchen tools he'd pushed away and he'd hit his head against the counter when he'd slipped, crouching down in the water.

"Stop complaining and find that damn hole," his girlfriend hissed. Sweeping the water outside was a tiring job. Her arms and shoulders were already complaining from the constant movement and it was nearly impossible to wipe it all out faster than it was gushing inside.

"We should call for somebody," Robin muttered, as he broke off a part of the cabinet to get closer to where the water was coming from. There was hardly any room for the both of them to get to source of the water-flow, so it was hard for him to reach past Steven and help.

"And draw everyone's attention to the house?" Maria snarled. "So not going to happen."

"You should have paid more attention to the maintenance," Robin responded angrily.

"And maybe you should keep your mouth shut," Maria snapped.

Steven, meanwhile, was finally getting closer to the leak and cursed when he realized it would have been much quicker if he'd approached the area from the room behind the wall. "Damn," he cursed. Unwilling to get up and go around he just reached for the sledgehammer and slammed a hole in the wall.

"What's taking Harm so long to shut the water off?" Robin wondered as he passed the necessary tools to Steven. Making the repairs to the pipe would be much easier if the main water flow was shut down.

Steven cursed under his breath and worked, desperate to stem the flow. He'd been wondering about Harm himself, but it really was the least of his problems. He was soaking wet, the water kept pouring out of the hole at a force that made his hands slip every time he tried to put something over the gap, his headache was slowly reaching the point where he couldn't ignore it any longer and his annoyance had already reached a level of serious frustration.

He should have gone to work that morning.

---oo---oo---

THE TOBIAS FAMILY PROPERTY, AT THE BACK OF THE HOUSE

Tony DiNozzo was situated behind a bush at the back of the house. He estimated that Major Carter and Daniel would have reached their destination by now and studied the movements of the guard that was walking up and down the path, trying to figure out the best way to approach.

The guard was a tall man, who had dark brown hair and eyebrows just as dark. Those eyebrows, together with the hard lines of the face and the thin, faint lips gave his countenance a brutal expression.

Tony briefly wondered why the bad guys always looked bad as well. At least, they did, as soon as you knew they were as Gibbs would call them, dirtbags. It must be a trick of the mind, he figured, as if the brain tried to justify the conclusion of the evidence at hand. A bit similar to the old western movies, where the good guys wore white cowboy hats and the bad guys black.

Of course, there were exceptions to the rule. He remembered many cases where the a person's looks fooled him, although in the end, they all looked bad. And, being totally honest, most of the times he was fooled, it were women. There was just something about evil women that didn't fit for him. Women shouldn't be bad. They should be loving, caring, sexy if they were the right age, or even like sweet old grandmas handing out chocolate bars.

He couldn't help grinning thinking back briefly to his own grandma. He loved her dearly, but there had been nothing sweet about her. Old, yes, but sweet? She would slap his hand every time she caught him trying to taste the pizza she was preparing. She would grab him by the ear and drag him out of the kitchen when he was unable to resist the delicious smell of her famous pasta sauce. She certainly and seriously kicked his butt when he was peeking at the neighbor's teenage daughter getting dressed, through her bedroom window, from a pile of boxes and branches he'd stuck together, at the age of what, eight or nine?

Shaking his head to clear the train of thought from his mind, Tony fixed his eyes on his target. This was definitely a bad guy and he was so going to take him out.

Waiting for the right moment, Tony did a Gibbs impression of sneaking up on the guy and simply tapped him on the shoulder.

Surprised for a split second the man made the mistake of glancing sideways before responding but then it was already too late. Tony smirked as he knocked the wind out of the guy, caught him as he fell and dragged him behind the bush. As he placed the handcuffs around the unconscious man's wrist, Tony smiled. His actions had been quick, fluid and successful. He imagined it even would have impressed Steven Seagal.

---oo---oo---

SOMEWHERE AT THE EAST SIDE OF THE TOBIAS PROPERTY

"Uh, Sam..." Daniel started with a soft voice, alerting his teammate.

"Yeah," she acknowledged as she stopped. "Looks like they have a problem..."

They had just arrived at the west side of the house, where they were supposed to take out the guard and they had found a good hiding spot to observe the area. Sam had already located the guard, but what had really caught her attention was what was happening at the house itself.

The door on the porch was open and now and then a silhouette appeared with a mop. She obviously was brushing a serious amount of water outside.

"That's a bit overdone for cleaning the floor," Daniel remarked as he watched how another flow of water ran down the porch onto the grass. "You think Jack's got something to do with it?"

Carter glanced sideways, frowning. It was in fact a perfect distraction. "It's possible," she concluded.

Daniel thought about it, then nodded, "Way to go, Jack!"

"We're going to have to change plans, though," Carter whispered. "We can't take out that guard now. They will see that."

"So now what?" Daniel asked the obvious, then looked up as some movement close to the house caught his attention. "Err, Sam..." he said as he knelt even closer to the ground so stay out of sight.

"I see him," she hissed. Another guard came walking around the corner of the house, greeting his colleague with a sharp wave of the hand as he took up another position.

Carter observed the guards, secretly hoping one of them would leave. They obviously had no intention of leaving though. The first one lit a cigarette while the second one walked up and down the path.

"We'll have to wait. Hopefully somebody manages to shut off the water. I'll get closer to him," she pointed to the second guard, "while you stay here. On my mark, you take him down. Can you do that?"

Daniel threw her a look. He was an archeologist. A linguist. Trained by Jack O'Neill himself in basic hand combat, handling weapons like knives and guns and other military stuff that Jack thought to be important. Of course he could. So he gave her a thumbs up. "Good luck," he whispered and watched her leave.

---oo---oo---

THE TOBIAS FAMILY PROPERTY, THE FRONT YARD

Special Agent Kate Todd was worried.

Although she could understand Colonel O'Neill's reasoning, she really didn't like the fact that both he and Gibbs, neither of them a hundred percent fit, were going in. Sure, they were tough. Not like the macho kind of guys who just acted that way, she'd seen them all before, more bravado than true courage. Those guys were just clever in using their image and in taking advantage of their power to pretend they were tough, but she could easily see through that. No, the real tough ones didn't act on it deliberately, not to make an impression, if anything they even downplayed their own abilities. She knew Gibbs, and she liked to think she'd been able to understand what Colonel O'Neill was made of by reading his file. He was an interesting non-standard subject to profile and she imagined the character of Colonel O'Neill had been the subject of many psychological studies within the Air Force alone.

Yet, they were both injured. Colonel O'Neill's hand needed treatment, and from the looks of it, that was not all they had done to him. And Gibbs? Well, he could pretend that he was all right, but she knew better. The gunshot wound to his shoulder wasn't healing the way it was supposed to; she could see it in the way he moved, or rather how he unconsciously kept the arm stiffly pressed to his chest. She could also see it in his eyes. She'd always had the ability to read people through their eyes. Gibbs' eyes were no different. She could tell when he was furious, well, not that he tried to hide that --his voice usually was a dead give-away-- but still. She could tell when he was hurting, emotionally, although she had no clue about the reasons behind that hurt, and she could tell when he was in physical pain. He didn't show it, he never did, but she knew. His eyes told her that much. She'd also seen a glistering in his eyes when she was sitting across from him in the chopper, telling her he was running at least a low-grade fever. Their next stop was going to be Bethesda.

First things first, though.

The house was surrounded and if everything went according to plan, nobody would get away.

McGee had taken up his position in front of the house while she covered the east-side. She couldn't actually see Tim, but she knew where he was.

Kate glanced at her watch. Tony, Major Carter and Daniel had been gone fifteen minutes, O'Neill and Gibbs about five. The guards on the other side would have been neutralized by now. It shouldn't be long before everybody would come out and they could all go home.

At her side of the house, nothing specific was happening. Nobody came running around the corner, nobody tried to escape through the only two windows located on the second floor. Her part of the plan turned out to be pretty boring.

A slight movement far to her left caught her eye. Just as she turned her head to glance in the general direction, she saw a flash of a blue electrical discharge, right where she knew McGee had been hiding.

She cursed inwardly, realizing McGee must have been hit by the same kind of stun gun that had taken Gibbs out in his basement when they had kidnapped O'Neill.

She saw somebody running, head down, away from the house. Weapon drawn, she jumped up and quickly ran after him. The guy had quite a head-start, but she had to try. He was still too far to take a good shot at, so she sprinted as fast as she could to get closer.

Kate was a good runner. She practiced every day to keep in shape. She was gaining, running past trees, jumping through and around bushes that were blocking her way. The man apparently realized she was chasing him as he was picking up the pace as well before he disappeared into an area with more trees growing close together.

Kate had to slow down and take precaution. She needed to catch the guy and wouldn't manage that by acting stupid and getting herself shot. She picked another spot to dash through the trees when she suddenly heard an engine start.

A dark blue sedan appeared thirty or forty yards ahead of her, speeding away, in the direction of the main road.

Pointing her weapon at the back of the car she realized it was no use. "Shit!" she cried out, shaking her head in anger.

Knowing there was nothing she could do about it now, Kate lowered her weapon, put the safety back on and turned to get back and check on McGee, all the while shaking her head in frustration.

Gibbs was going to be pissed.

---oo---oo---