A/N: I was going to leave the story there for the night. But than a few of you made me feel guilty for making you think Zach was dead. Enjoy...
Zach woke up groggily; he wondered why he must have thought it to be a good idea to go out drinking when he knew he would wake up like this.
A thought struck him and he was more awake now. He didn't go out drinking. The last thing he remembered was finding that folder and a box of ears. He panicked now, looking around where he was.
He was tied with his hands behind his back and each ankle strapped to a leg of the chair he was sitting on. The room was cold, dark and dank with no windows, suggesting it was underground. There were a lot of pipes running around the walls to different parts of the building he was in, and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time, if ever.
"I was wondering when you would wake up" A cold voice came from behind him, footsteps slowly making their way around to the front of him.
"You sick bastard!" Zach spat at him "Let me go!"
Whack!He backhanded him in the previous spot, making the barely healed cut break open once more "I thought you'd learnt your lesson the last time about how you talk to me"
"Your not going to get away with this you know" The blond glared at him "My dad is going to come a save me"
"I wouldn't be so sure if I was you" The man had a trace of humour in his eyes.
"Why?"
"I'll let Jason tell you that story when he gets back" The man laughed humourlessly. "He shouldn't be too long. In the mean time, why don't you have a little nap?"
Zach was about to ask why the hell would he nap at a time like this when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and the world went black.
"Looks like Dr Mallard was right" Winterbottom commentated looking through the folder on the principles desk.
"About?" Sacks asked while he searched the rest of the office.
"That it was the Gemini symbol he carved into their chests. The only bit he got wrong is that it wasn't senior that had the twin, it was Jason"
The lanky agent looked through the folder, looking at the many pictures of a younger Jason with an identical twin. Some pictures had the parents in, but mostly it was just the two boys.
"Get this…" He said, reading off a newspaper clipping that was in the folder "Brutal murder of eight-year-old Lucas Walters and his mother Kerry Walters at the hands of a sixteen-year-old pupil (not named for safety reasons) after Husband and father of the victims failed him, resulting him in sitting the year again. Lucas' identical twin watched in horror as he saw all the graphic details…"
He trailed off, not needing to say anything more about how they were killed. He flipped the page over finding another article and read it out aloud for the benefit of his team member.
"Murderer of Kerry and Lucas Walters allowed to walk free today just after one year of imprisonment. He is given a new identity and a new home in a location unknown. James Walters is said to be outraged and disgusted that he is set free"
He closed the folder and looked in the silver box next to it. "And looks like we've found his souvenirs"
Abby was running the evidence they had found through her lap and waiting for Jimmy to bring up any samples. Ziva, Tony and Tim were trying to track down where the Walters were.
Ducky and Jimmy were examining the body in autopsy, trying to determine if it was Zach or not. And Gibbs was pacing Autopsy, waiting impatiently for Ducky to finish, while Franks sat on an empty table keeping an eye on his probie.
"It is not going to get done any faster with you breathing down our necks Jethro" Ducky said a little testy once Gibbs had craned his neck over his shoulder for the fifth time.
Gibbs didn't say anything; he just blanked him and carried on pacing the room, his fingers still tracing the name.
"Mr Palmer, run these up to Abby" Ducky said, handing him a pot. The medical assistant tore out of the room, trying to get to her as fast as possible.
Ducky then looked up from the body, looking at Gibbs who had stilled and took the place Jimmy had just previously vacated.
"Jethro.." The Scottish man sighed "As much as it pains me to think about it… in all probability, this is Zacharriah"
"Don't. say. That." The silver haired man ground out.
"You must know that yourself Jethro. He was found in the car he was taken in, with his dog tags around his neck. And the body is the same height, structure and even age as Zach"
"It doesn't fit though" Mike spoke up before Gibbs could do some serious damage to his friendship with the other man "He is a serial killer, he's perfected the way he kills, so why would he change it now?"
"That trouble me too" Ducky admitted "Why go to all the trouble of knocking the boy out, if he was just going to blow the car up?"
"Because that's not Zach!" Gibbs declared grinning madly now with a new burst of energy.
"How do you know that?" Mike asked, jumping off the table and joining the examining of the remains.
"Zach told me he broke his collar bone once playing rugby, and this body doesn't look like it has" He looked over to Ducky for answers.
The ME quickly looked at the collar bones, before a smile graced his face "You're right Jethro. This isn't our lad"
Tony was busy looking through the camera footage of the school, managing to get a tape of the footage from when Walters had kicked them out of the frequency. Ziva and Tim were both trying to find a way to track the father and son down.
"Hey, guys!" Tony called excitedly "Watch this!"
He pointed to the screen, letting the film play out. It was Jason putting lining up bones in the back of his dad's car, and putting the dog tags around them, before driving off.
"It wasn't Zach!" He jumped happily "And Walters senior hasn't left the building; him and Zach must be still in there!"
"I'll phone up Fornell, Tony I think you should go and tell Gibbs the good news" Ziva said with the phone to her ear.
Tony ran down to autopsy, opting to take the chairs rather than the lift because it was quicker. "He's still alive! Boss, he's still alive!"
"We know Tony" Gibbs didn't bother to suppress his grin; he was too happy his son was alive.
"He is still in the school somewhere" The Italian man informed them, sobering up more now at the thought that his nephew was still in danger.
"What you waiting for? Lets go" The three of them practically sprinted out of the autopsy, Ducky following behind at a more sedate space to speak with Abby and Jimmy.
He woke up a second time; he didn't think he had been out long because Jason still wasn't back, and the man was pacing around impatiently.
"Don't you just hate it when people are late?" Zach didn't know why he was saying it, but it felt better to be his cocky self rather than be scared of what was to come "I mean, you've got a murder to do here! And he doesn't turn up! Bloody outrage!" he grinned sarcastically, watching as the man's eyes flashed anger.
"Shut up!" He punching him in the face this time "The other boys were no where near as annoying as you. I should have gagged you"
Zach spat the blood from his bleeding gum on the floor "Oh you're into kinky shit are you? You sick freak, I should have known"
He got two hard whacks across the face for that, and Walters actually looked disgusted by the thought. It was weird; a serial killer had limitations, who knew?
"I may be a lot of things Zacharriah, but I am not a rapist or a paedophile."
"Oh just a serial killer?" The blond rolled his eyes, feeling courage course through him, or maybe it was just stupidity "Because that is so much better"
"I am not a serial killer either. I am simply making sure people like you don't harm another innocent family like you did mine" He didn't hit him this time, he didn't even look at him. His attention was on something on the table in front of him.
"I haven't hurt anyone"
"Maybe not yet" He look up at him, an evil glint in his eye again "But I'm here to stop you before you do"
He picked up whatever it was that was on the table, holding it behind his back as he walked around, coming closer and closer to Zach. He was only half a metre away when he showed him what he had behind his back. A pocket knife.
"Jason is taking too long. It's a shame, he always loves this bit"
