Gibbs meanwhile was snapping questions so fast that Tony could hardly keep up. "Kate, just hold on for a second, I need to fill Gibbs in. I'm right here though, if something happens. Gibbs, there's been a small plane crash, shortly after 1 am. Kate's building is somewhere in the damage path. She can see fire out of her bedroom window and her bedroom door is warm to the touch, but the doorknob isn't hot yet. Kate? Go and check and see if that's changed, okay?" Tony could hear her comply with his request. When she indicated that the door seemed only a little warmer and the knob now had a small amount of heat to it, he knew they were going to have to work fast. He relayed this information to Gibbs and said, "She has no way of knowing when the rescue workers are going to get to her building. She needs our help. Can you and Ducky call in some favors to find out what's going on?"
"I'll do more than that. Stay put, and stay on the line with her. As soon as I'm off the phone with Ducky, I'm coming to get you. We'll see if we can't get a little closer to where she is." Gibbs hung up the phone, vaguely irritated that Kate hadn't called him straight away. He was the team leader, she'd wasted valuable time calling DiNozzo. Oh, well, whatever the reason, the most important thing now was to get her safe. He grabbed his cell, made a few fast preparations, then called Ducky as he headed for the car.
"Jethro? An odd time to be calling. A body, I presume. Where shall I meet you?" Ducky sounded only slightly sleepy, but otherwise unruffled at having been woken in the middle of the night.
"No body yet, Duck. But there's been a small plane crash and Kate's building is in the damage path. We believe it's on fire, and we need to find out if rescue teams are in the area or if she needs our help before she…" Gibbs had wanted to make a smart remark to take the sting out of the reality. But suddenly faced with the thought of having to watch or, God forbid, listen as Kate burned to death, trapped in her own apartment, Gibbs suddenly had to fight the urge to vomit. This was one of his own. He would never lose one of his own again. "Listen Ducky, we've just got to pull every string we have. Kate needs us all right now. It's up to us to save her."
Ducky took down the address information that Gibbs gave him, Gibbs having looked it up in his dratted PDA before he left the house. He was barely on speaking terms with the device. But if the fact that he'd put his team's addresses in it saved Kate's life tonight, he might pardon it just this one last time. Right now, though Gibbs broke nearly every traffic law on the books to get to Tony's.
When Gibbs arrived, the younger man was already dressed and waiting for him outside his apartment building. He carried a duffle bag with him, which Gibbs looked at questioningly, but Tony was too absorbed in his conversation with Kate to care about answering his boss just then.
"Kate? What does it look like outside the window right now? Well, just get that little fanny of yours up and go over and look!" Tony breathed a huge sigh of relief as the loud and angry retort could be heard clearly by both occupants of the car.
"You sexist pig! How dare you, at a time like this, make comments about my anatomy!" Angrily she stomped over to the window and looked out. Suddenly the fear threatened to overwhelm her again. And then it dawned on her what Tony had done. As the sounds of the fire and possible building damage had become louder she had become more and more frightened until she'd backed herself in a corner. And somehow, he knew it and made her angry enough to get up again. All right, Kate; hold on to that anger. She became aware that she had let the hand with the phone fall to her side and she could hear not only Tony, but Gibbs as well, calling her name, the worry in both their voices evident. She snapped the phone back to her ear. "I'm here, it's okay. Thanks, Tony. I was just getting myself back together." She took a deep breath before continuing. "From what I can see the fire is getting much worse outside my bedroom window. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the jet lost some fuel over this way. The creaks and groans from overhead continue, but they don't seem to be getting worse. Whatever is causing it doesn't seem to be increasing whether it's fire or debris. However the door is perceptibly warmer and the floor is starting to feel warm. If had to make a guess based on the little info I have I'd say we have jet fuel on this side of my building, some of an engine on the roof and we're totally cut off from the rescue teams because of the fires in the area. I've heard a couple of gas explosions already and I'm afraid we'll go up anytime." Another breath, then, "Guys, I have to admit, I'm just a little scared here. I really don't…" She couldn't say it. "What have you found out?"
The two men in the car looked at each other. Tony had put his phone on speaker when they were afraid they had lost Kate, so they had both heard her recitation. The moment she had stopped speaking Gibbs had flipped open his phone and began calling some sources to find out the status of the fires and damage around Kate's building. He knew Ducky was on the rescue teams so he concentrated on trying to find a way in to have the team as close as possible for her when they got her out. He would not allow it to be otherwise. He would not lose her.