Title: Shaitan

Author: CSIphile/Redwing

Disclaimers and the like are on the first chapter.

AN: This is the last chapter; there is an epilogue, however, so expect that around Sunday. It's also the longest chapter by far, hope that doesn't dissuade you. grin It's been a fabulous journey, and a long one, but I've enjoyed it, hope you have too.

AN2: Again, thank you for the great reviews; they really do feed a writer's soul and it only takes a quick second to do it. So please, even though this is the last chapter, feel free to leave a note telling me you liked it.

Chapter 10: The Conclusion

"You're going to be sore for a couple days. We have prescribed some pain medication -- take it as needed, but don't take more than 6 a day. It's going to take some getting used to with the cast, but just take it easy and don't get it wet."

Elliot nodded for what felt like the 18th time already, he just wanted to get the hell out of there and do it yesterday. Now that the pain was at a bearable limit, he was ready to get back to finding this asshole, and maybe get a lick in for himself and Kate. Lucky for him, Munch had stopped at the house and picked him up a bag, so he had showered that morning, carefully of course, and was ready to go. Kathy had been called before she left her mother's and told it wasn't serious and there was no need to bring the kids down. Elliot didn't want them seeing him like this anyway, not until the guy was caught.

"Ok, you're all set, detective."

The words I've been waiting to hear, he thought as Olivia grabbed the papers and prescription from the doctor, thanking him. All Elliot was ready to thank him for was the escape notice.

He got off the bed slowly and stood behind Olivia as close as he could get, prodding her with his right hand toward the door. She quickly wrapped up the conversation with the doctor, asking something about concussions as she walked out the door, with him hot on her heels.

"What the hell was that about?" she asked as they walked out into the daylight.

"I wanted out, got people to hunt down."

"Ohhhh no, Stabler. You are going right home to rest."

"Ohhhh no, Benson. You are taking me to the station," he said as they approached the car.

"Nuh uh. Doctor said you needed rest, and you're getting it."

"It's a broken arm, Liv, not a gunshot wound. Besides, I broke my arm as a kid in an unfortunate tree incident. I can handle it."

"Elliot…."

"Did you call Cragen today?" he asked, seemingly out of the blue.

She eyed him suspiciously. "Yes, why?"

"Where are the NCIS guys?" he asked smoothly.

"Tony is with Fin and Munch on background, Kate and Gibbs went to see Huang." As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized what he was digging for. The expression on his face confirmed it: Kate was working, so why couldn't he.

"Let's go," he grinned at her, and got into the now-unlocked car. She stood outside for a minute and he could hear her grumbling incoherently before getting behind the wheel and shooting him an evil look.

Halfway to the stationhouse, though, Olivia's phone rang and they promptly turned around, heading back to the trace lab. They had some information for the two of them.

Predictably, the sedan issued to Kate and Gibbs was already parked in front of the building, with Fin's just to the other side. Olivia secured a spot three down and they got out of the car. Olivia hadn't spoken to him for most of the ride except to make sure he was feeling ok. She wasn't mad at him, but at herself for letting him get the info he wanted out of her so easily.

They walked to the double doors, but just as she was about to open the doors, he stopped her.

She turned and looked at him curiously.

"I'm sorry."

It was a rare occasion that Elliot Stabler apologized willingly, and she smiled.

"It's ok, you didn't do anything. I'm just being…" She paused.

"Protective."

"Yeah."

"So, we good?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're good."

"Let's get this bastard."

She nodded and opened the door, hoping to find the answers within.

Elliot raised one eyebrow at the technician. "Drywall dust?"

The tech nodded and handed him a sheet. On the plain paper was a graph with peaks and valleys -- a GMCS test, no doubt. Elliot stared at it a moment and looked in the result column, which confirmed what the tech said.

"That…doesn't help." Tony stated the obvious for everyone.

"Maybe it does. You only come by drywall dust if you're working with the stuff…" Olivia said.

"Pull his work history; see if he's done construction. Maybe on an unfinished project," Elliot finished.

Gibbs watched the two; they were comfortable with each other, more so even than when he first saw them. But they were also right.

"Kate…" he snapped, but she was already stepping to the back of the room, phone in hand. They needed to make sure both his civilian and military work history was faxed over.

She smiled at him slightly as she moved back and opened the cell. Kate knew he would ask her, he always did. It seemed to be a habit: Kate did background work.

Quickly she used the speed dial to get Abby's office, but after one mere ring, the phone cut out on her. She pulled it back and looked at the LCD display…no signal. Frustrated, she moved around a bit, but still her signal light remained red. Nothing. Sighing, she looked back to the group -- Tony noticed her and she indicated she was going outside to make the call. He nodded and she stepped into the hall…still no signal.

I'm actually going to have to go outside for this. What the hell! Very rarely did Kate lose signal on the phone. NCIS had been careful to get contracts with companies that had signals all over the country.

She took the elevator up to the ground floor; she had been in the basement, so maybe that had something to do with it. Stepping outside, she noted that the early October air was warmer than usual. The street was actually pretty quiet; not many pedestrians came down this way -- it was mostly law enforcement.

Glancing at her phone once more, Kate was relieved to see a green light instead of a red one. A signal. Again she opened the phone and pressed 5. Several seconds later, Abby's voice floated over the line.

"Hey, Kate! How are you? Gibbs told us what happened. Did you just call?"

Kate startled at the multiple questions. "Hey, Abs. I'm fine, thanks. Yeah, I did, phone cut out. Can you do me a favor?"

"Certainly."

"The background Gibbs asked for on Hamilton? Could you make sure that includes military and civilian work history? You can probably get it faster than the NYPD anyway."

"Not a problem -- I have military, let me dig up civilian. Won't take long. Seriously, Kate, you ok?"

Kate opened her mouth to answer, but a strange sensation washed over her, causing the hairs at the back of her neck to stand on end. It felt like someone was watching her. Slowly she turned, looking around her, the phone still pressed to her ear.

"Kate?"

Abby's voice pulled her back and she stopped moving. "Yeah, seriously, nothing major. A couple bumps." She was distracted, that feeling tugging at her subconscious, and she continued the turn, still not seeing anything. "How's everything there?" she asked, absently.

"Great! McGee has been here since you guys left to lend a hand."

Kate could feel her pulse start to race -- something was not right -- but she answered Abby anyway. "Well, you guys must be having fun without Gibbs around."

"Are you kidding? Gibbs IS the fun, Kate."

Kate managed a small laugh, but her tone alerted Abby something was up. "Kate? Everything ok?"

As quickly as it had come, the feeling went away, and she went back to concentrating on the call. "Yeah, fine. I'm just paranoid."

"It's not paranoia if someone is after you, Kate."

She was about to respond when someone ran into her from behind. She swiveled quickly, one hand going to her sidearm, but it was too late. She could feel his gun pressed into her side and now could see the face of Richard Hamilton under a hooded sweatshirt, staring at her with smug satisfaction.

"End the call."

She complied, snapping the phone shut loudly.

On the other end, Abby called her name; she could have sworn she heard someone speaking to Kate. Looking at the clock, Abby decided to give her 2 minutes to call back.

Kate licked her lips, and gave him an evil look.

"Start walking north. If you attempt to signal anyone, you're dead, understand?"

"I'm dead anyway, aren't I, Richard?"

"Yes, but your friends will be also if you don't comply, so move."

Something about him just coming right out and admitting her death was imminent rocked Kate to the core. But she complied, walking in the direction he indicated. Richard walked right next to her, the gun still pressed into her abdomen. Kate had a feeling this was not going to end well.

As the clock ticked through one minute forty-five seconds, Abby picked up the phone and dialed Kate's cell. It rang 5 times before going to voicemail, but Abby knew if Kate didn't have a signal; it would have gone straight to voicemail. Kate wasn't answering. Panic rose through the tech, and she hung up, dialing another number.

They were just finishing a discussion on the next step when Gibbs' cell phone rang. He looked down at the display…Abby. Before answering, he turned quickly, scanning the room for Kate; she was gone, supposedly on the phone with Abby. This didn't add up.

As he opened the phone, he spoke aloud to the group. "Where's Kate?"

Tony answered him as the phone came to his ear. "She went outside; I think she had a bad signal down here."

"Gibbs," he said into the phone.

All he got in return was half a conversation, Abby's words were being cut off due to the poor signal, but what he got was enough. "Kate….with….gone."

Faster than he had moved in his life, Gibbs bolted out of the room and down the hall to the stairs, taking two at a time. The rest of the group was hot on his heels, despite being in the dark about what exactly was going on.

He ran through the front doors and down the steps…to nothing. She wasn't there. He looked at his phone, full signal, and put it back to his ear. Abby was still on the line.

"Abs, what happened?"

"She's not with you?" Abby's voice was strained.

"No, what happened?" Agitation was seeping into his voice.

"I was talking to her and suddenly the phone cut off. I assume she lost signal again, since it happened before. But…" She paused.

"But what?" His voice was terse.

"I tried to call back and she didn't answer, and I could have sworn I heard someone say something to her before the phone shut off."

"What did he say, Abby?" Somewhere inside, Gibbs knew what had happened.

"Hang on; I'm pulling the conversation now."

Gibbs waited not so patiently as Abby pulled up the DAT recording; NCIS recorded every conversation that came through the landlines. He looked at the rest of the group and filled them in. Quickly they scattered down the block, looking for the missing agent, hoping she just walked away from the building. Of course that didn't explain why she wasn't answering her cell.

As he stood at the bottom of the stairs, he looked around carefully: there was nothing, no indication where she went. Kate had vanished without a trace.

"Ok, Gibbs, I got it. Let me put you on speaker."

He heard her fiddle with buttons and put the headset down.

"Let's replay this bad boy…"

There was a distinct voice next to Kate, but neither could make out the words.

"Hang on, lemme clean it up, remove some background noise."

Again more clicking on the computer. "Ahh better!"

"End the call."

"Again," Gibbs whispered.

"End the call."

It was him; in his heart Gibbs knew it was Richard. And he had Kate. Gibbs had promised her, and failed.

Kate quietly got in the car; she sensed this was not the time to be difficult, and she had little doubt he would kill her that second if she resisted, despite his plans for her. Dead was dead. Kate preferred to prolong her life and attempt escape when it was more prudent.

The car was a green GM – an older model, she didn't know the make. The passenger door appeared to be jimmied so she couldn't get out. She had to get in the driver's side with a gun trained on her and slide across. He had parked in an alley surrounded by taller buildings, so very little light flooded down to where they were. She doubted anyone could see them from the street since they were parked so far in.

Great, just great.

He hadn't spoken a word, but the expression on Hamilton's face was enough to send fear through her. It was a mix of glee and anger, something she had never seen before. Not even from the terrorist who held her, Ducky and Gerald hostage.

Nice, Kate. You seem to make a habit of getting captured. Gibbs oughta fire you for this.

Gibbs. She could only hope that he found her.

"Abby, I'm going to try calling her. If her phone is on, trace her." His strong voice hid the terror rising.

"Got it."

Gibbs heard clicking and hung up with Abby just as Tony returned. "Call Abby now," he commanded, and the younger agent complied.

Pressing speed 3, Gibbs prayed that she would answer and tell him she just ran to the local Starbucks for coffee. But his heart knew better. He was surprised when the phone picked up after three rings….

"Yes."

…And his heart sunk at the male voice that answered.

"Where is Agent Todd?" he asked in a tone that was all business.

"She's with me now. She will pay like the others, she will be the end. The final trophy."

Gibbs felt the bile rise in his throat. "Let me talk to her."

"No."

And the phone clicked off.

Gibbs barely suppressed a scream of rage, instead grabbing the phone out of Tony's hand.

"Abby, where is she?"

"North side, heading west…." Abby stopped a minute, then swore. "Shit!"

"Abby?" Gibbs asked slowly.

"She's gone. The phone is off." Her voice was distant. "I…she's gone."

Tony instantly knew what happened when Gibbs' face turned a chalk white and he slumped to the ground, sitting on the steps.

"Boss…."

"Not now, Tony. He's got her." Gibbs put his head in his hand, bile rising in his throat. He failed her; the thought made him angry, furious and he resisted the urge to scream out loud. Instead he whispered, "Oh God…"

Kate heard her phone ring, but that was the last thing before she felt a prick in her neck and slumped against the window, quickly losing consciousness. When she woke next, she found herself in a small room; there was a window on the long wall and a door on the opposite side. Carefully she got up, ignoring the slight dizzy spell, and walked over toward the window.

Saying there was a window was actually giving it more credit than was due. There was a hole for a window, but it appeared to her that the actual frame and glass had never been put in the empty space. As she looked out, quickly she realized this was not an escape option; she was at least 6 stories up, a minimum of sixty feet and it looked more than that to her. The only other building around her appeared empty also. Based on the outside condition of the buildings, it looked like she was in an unfinished apartment or condo complex.

The room she was in, however, was finished, which would be why the vics had no drywall dust on them. She looked around the brightly lit room and cringed. There were leg irons attached to a u-bolt in the floor. Kate noticed instantly she was not attached to them and wondered why; she also noticed her shoes were gone and she was in her bare feet. Something else caught her eye, a speck of…something on the floor. She approached slowly, trying not to disturb the evidence. She squatted next to the spot, not so far from the u-bolt and recoiled instantly. It was blood, a smear of it maybe 3 inches long. She had only caught one end in the light.

"Oh, God," she whispered and searched her pockets in the small hope he had left her phone. No such luck. So she moved over to the door, hoping it would somehow magically open, but was not surprised when she found it locked. A couple hard shoves and the door didn't move an inch. Silently Kate moved to the opposite corner of the room and sat down, pulling her knees to her chest.

SVU Squad room

"Where the hell is it?!" Gibbs hollered at Tony.

The younger man just shook his head in an "I don't know" gesture. They had been waiting for the fax from Abby; they had most of it, but Hamilton's military work history had done little good. Gibbs had a feeling what they wanted was in the civilian part.

"Get it, Tony -- I want that right now."

Tony nodded and moved to Elliot's phone. Meanwhile, Elliot came to Gibbs' side.

"Man, I know you're frustrated, but we'll find her." Elliot honestly couldn't chide the man much, because Elliot had to admit he would be doing the same thing if Olivia disappeared.

Gibbs' gaze turned on him and Elliot resisted stepping back from the intensity. "Let's just hope we don't find her dead."

He wasn't sure why he did it, but something in Elliot --actually something in the NCIS agent's behavior – made him ask: "Is there something going on with you and Kate?"

"What? I'm her boss."

Elliot narrowed his eyes and lowered his tone. "But you…have feelings for her. I understand, Gibbs, I really do. But snapping at Tony isn't going to get her back. We need to focus."

Gibbs' expression softened slightly. "You're right, I'm sorry. I just…I made a promise to her and I broke it." And he walked away.

It took Elliot a minute to realize Gibbs never denied what was going on between him and Kate. Smart man.

Tony's voice rang through the bullpen right after Elliot perched himself on Olivia's desk. "Got it, boss! She's faxing it over."

All eyes turned to the fax machine, which began spitting out paper that Gibbs retrieved. He read each page as it came through, distressed by the number of W2's the man had filed in the past 5 years since leaving the military.

Once the last page had spooled out and he read it, Gibbs turned to them. "Hamilton has been with 6 construction companies over the last 5 years." He handed the pages to Elliot. "Split 'em up, everyone call one and check what properties Hamilton worked, particularly ones that were never completed and are still mostly habitable."

Within minutes everyone was on the phone, each repeating basically the same words to different people. Elliot finished his conversation quickly: Hamilton had worked a mere 3 weeks at Nelson Construction before being fired for his behavior, and he never even made it to a project. Standing, he walked to Olivia's desk; she was nodding and writing something down.

"Yeah, can you fax that to me? Great, thank you."

She hung up and looked at Elliot, who was leaning against her desk.

"How's your arm?"

"Not bad, kinda itches."

"Need some meds?"

"Only if you have something for the itching."

"Nope." She looked at him with a sad expression.

Elliot leaned in closer to her. "What's wrong?"

"Kate. I can….she must be terrified. She knew what happened to those women, she knows what's going to happen to her. It's…frightening. I know"

Uncaring of their location, Elliot reached out and put one hand on hers, stroking the skin slowly with his thumb. She looked at him sadly and sighed, pulling her hand out from his.

"Not here."

He nodded imperceptibly and she got up, moving to the fax, reading the pages. Olivia slowly walked to the board and put two green pins in the locations that Hamilton had worked. Hers were swiftly joined by two more from Tony and then one each from Munch and Fin. Gibbs added two more, making a total of eight.

Standing back, the four members of the NYPD and two members of NCIS inspected the map. There were two yellow pins indicating where Allison and Carmen had been dumped, and one red one indicating Kate's last known location. They focused on sites close to the two drop locations, which where were a mere 3 blocks from each other. Kate's last known location on the GPS had been 4 blocks north of the marina where Carmen was found.

Tony's and Munch's pins where discarded immediately; they were nowhere near anything. That left five.

"Where are the property descriptions?" Elliot asked and everyone handed their sheets over. He put down the three that had been eliminated and started from the top.

He scrunched his nose at the first. "Fin, this one was demolished three weeks ago," Elliot stated and dropped it in the "No" pile. Elliot pointed at one of Olivia's pins. "Four story apartment complex -- it was being refurbished, owner went bankrupt halfway through, they are looking for new buyers."

"What's around it?" Gibbs asked.

Olivia looked closer at the map and pursed her lips. "It's a mixed retail and residential section of town. There's other filled units around."

"Nope," Gibbs said. "It would be somewhere no one could hear them or see him bringing them in and out."

Elliot put that in the "No" pile and scanned the next one, repeating the motion. "Well that eliminates this one. Midtown."

"Down to two," Tony stated.

"Hmmmm, this looks promising." He handed the file to Gibbs. "It's a group of four six story buildings in a formerly industrial zone. They were never finished due to zoning issues that haven't been resolved, and the rest of the area is pretty empty."

Gibbs looked up at the pin on the map and stated emphatically, "This is it."

Olivia was on the phone in a second, calling for backup and alerting the hostage team.

Elliot walked over to him. "I told you we'd find her."

"Hopefully she's still alive."

"It's only been a few hours, Gibbs."

"I don't think he's going to be following the usual pattern, Elliot."

The other man nodded and patted Gibbs on the back as he walked away.

She was starting to shiver now, the waning sun no longer warming the small room for her. Pulling her arms tighter around her, she pressed her chest to her thighs and was rewarded with a brief sensation of heat. Kate wondered if he was just planning on leaving her here to starve to death.

The sound of the door unlocking made her wish he would leave her to starve, because the alternate scenario scared her more than anything else. Hamilton walked in and crossed the room toward her, apparently unconcerned with the fact she was not restrained.

"It's time, bitch." He tilted his head at her.

Kate didn't move a muscle or speak, so he came over and grasped her upper arm, yanking her to her feet. As soon as she was upright, Kate swung one hand out, palm first, making contact with his nose, and she felt the satisfaction of hearing something snap. Hamilton screamed, bringing the other hand to his nose, but never letting go of her. Kate pulled at his grip, trying desperately to get away, and for one second he removed the hand on her arm and she started to flee. But Kate swiftly realized why he let go of her when a brutal punch to the stomach dropped her to the floor.

Now he grabbed her ponytail, lifted her again to her feet and threw her against the wall. She felt the air explode out of her lungs and struggled to catch her breath.

"Stupid bitch," he muttered and walked over to her, his nose and hand bloody from her attack. He grabbed her by the back of the neck with his red-tinted hand and forced her out of the room and into the enormous living room. One look around and she knew this was where he did the killings. There was some minor blood splatter on the walls in addition to some signs of a struggle. Plastic sheeting hung down some walls that only had studs on them, probably left by the construction company. Several pieces were only hanging by a thread -- they looked like they had been violent ripped down. The lighting in here was moderately better, only due to two floor-to-ceiling windows on the west side; it would have been a beautiful view had they been finished. But the swiftly setting sun set the room in a ghastly orangey-red glow.

Midway through her observation, Kate was thrown to the ground, landing on all fours.

"Beg for your life, bitch," he hissed.

"Fuck you," she spat back.

His eyes flashed with anger and one foot came out, coming in hard contact with her side. Kate felt her body lift slightly at the contact, but she didn't fall over. She had, however, bitten her tongue hard and spit the blood out on the plywood floor.

"Trust me, that's coming. That's all you women are good for, a good lay. You shouldn't be allowed in the military, you take away good spots from decent men -- hardworking men who deserve it."

Kate turned her head and looked at Hamilton, weighing her options. She had two choices: agree with him, or be aggressive and agitate him. She chose the former. "Sometimes, yeah, that happens."

Apparently she had picked the wrong one, though honestly she wasn't sure if there was a right answer with this guy, because he bent down next to her and roughly grabbed her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. "You don't know anything about it, so shut the hell up."

With that he released her chin and punched her hard across the right side of her face. "Now you have matching bruises. How does it feel?"

She was silent.

"How. Does. It. Feel?" he said slowly.

"It hurts, god damn it."

"Do you want me to stop, Agent?" Glee skittered across his face.

"Doesn't matter what I want, you're going to do it anyway."

"You are smarter than the others, Agent. They begged for their lives…screamed actually. Each of them, you should have heard the screams, and the bargaining, they would have done just about anything for me to let them go. Just shows you that they didn't deserve their rank." Again he leaned into her, bringing his lips right next to her ear. "You'll be begging soon enough." And he stood up, grabbing something nearby.

She turned her head just in time to see the two by four coming down onto her back.

The four police cars, one SWAT van and one hostage rescue van pulled to a stop a mile from the apartments. The NYPD, NCIS and leader of SWAT and HRT gathered by the hood of Elliot's car, looking at the floor plans of the buildings.

"The problem is," the SWAT guy started, "we don't know which building, or which floor."

"I think we can safely say he is in the building farthest from the main street." Tony said and Gibbs nodded in agreement.

"He'll want to be far away from the main road." Gibbs pointed at the road that led to the unfinished entrance.

"Ok," SWAT started again. "Any clue WHERE in the building?"

"Top floor, any closer than that and he runs the risk of the girls jumping out. None of the buildings had their windows installed according to the builder," Olivia stated. "The top floor is split into two penthouse apartments. One facing east, one west. On this building, the west apartment faces into the others, and I bet that's where he is. He wouldn't want her facing the other way; there's a lightly traveled avenue on the backside of the buildings."

Again, Gibbs nodded, impressed.

The SWAT commander seemed to consider this. "Here's the deal. To be safe, we split the teams: half go into the west apartment, half to the east, just in case. We'll park on the other side of the tree line and walk to the building; it's not even twenty yards, and we should be in before he sees us."

Gibbs looked at Tony. "You're with Munch and Fin in the east side."

Tony nodded and checked the clip on his 9 mm.

"Let's move."

The group got back in the cars and drove the last mile. Gibbs was sitting with Elliot and Olivia, hoping like hell they weren't too late.

Despite the cracking sound and the pain spiking through her back, Kate didn't fall. She swayed slightly, but fought off the blackness and shook her head, terrified of what would happen if she closed her eyes.

"You're strong, defiant….it couldn't be more perfect."

Now he grabbed her shoulder and pushed her hard, forcing her to fall sideways into a sitting position against the nearest stud wall. None of these walls had drywall, and she wondered where exactly the trace came from.

Kate managed a deep breath in, but it only caused more pain to move down her beaten back. He kicked out one of her legs, forcing it to lie out flat. He picked up the two by four used on her back and started a nice back swing, bringing the board into a crashing halt against her ankle.

Now she screamed in pain; she wasn't sure if the bone broke, but it hurt like hell.

"Ahhhh, she does scream."

Immediately Kate closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing, pushing the pain from her mind.

He stood in front of her and again dragged her to her feet. Kate tried to keep the weight off her left foot as best she could, but it wasn't easy. Hamilton took a step toward her, reaching one hand out and lifting her sweater slightly, touching the toned muscles of her abdomen.

"Well, I must say this. The military keeps its whores in shape."

Now she was getting angry and spit in his face.

Immediate retribution followed, he kicked her legs apart and pressed his body against her. She could feel his breath moving along her cheek to her ear where he licked the lobe.

"Oh, you so deserve this. It'll be special for you," he whispered and slid one hand under her shirt again, inching his way up.

The two teams came to a stop at the landing on the top floor. Two SWAT members per team, with the NCIS and NYPD split between them and HRT on the ground floor. At a motion by the lead SWAT with Gibbs' team, both simultaneously kicked open the doors into the penthouses.

Kate heard the front door break off its hinges and then was being pushed through an open doorway into what looked like one end of a galley kitchen; on the opposite side was a large dining room with a hallway off it leading to the back of the apartment.

"Fuck," Hamilton hissed, obviously not pleased with the turn of events.

She pulled at his grasp some more, trying to slow them down. It worked for a moment, but as they got to dining area, the two SWAT guys popped through the opposite end, following their path, screaming for them to freeze.

Hamilton did, just long enough to put her in front of himself and pull a knife out of the nearest drawer, putting it to her throat. Kate could see blood caked on it and she swallowed. She had images of circles carved into flesh cycle through her head, instantly she felt nauseous.

Richard kept swaying back and forth, causing her ankle to flare with pain, but she tried to ignore it, focusing instead on the SWAT team, who had their guns trained on them.

She could see Gibbs with an infuriated look on his face, just behind the SWAT members, but he didn't look at her -- he was focused on Hamilton.

"Put the knife down," one of the black-clad SWAT members said.

"No way in hell. The bitch is going to die. It may not be the way I wanted, but it'll happen. Trust me, it'll happen. Dead is dead." With that he started to slide the knife across her throat and she felt a trickle of blood run down her neck. He pulled her farther into the dining room, toward the hallway and in the direction of probably the bedrooms. SWAT followed slowly, their guns never dropping. He forced her into the hall and followed the narrow path back; he obviously had a destination in mind.

Kate caught something out of the corner of her eye near the last door, but didn't give any indication of it. Hamilton hadn't seen it obviously; his focus was on the men following them.

"Make one more move toward me and I'll slit her throat right now."

With that, SWAT stopped moving, but kept the guns trained on them; they weren't prepared yet to shoot the hostage. Kate gave silent thanks for that.

Again he tugged at her, but this time her ankle refused to cooperate and she stumbled slightly, infuriating him.

"MOVE IT," he hissed in her ear and pressed the knife harder into her flesh.

She gathered herself and complied, leaning into him as support for her ankle. He turned back slightly to look at their destination and started walking faster. He opened the door to a closed and mostly finished room, yelling to the SWAT guys as he violently pushed her in. Kate stumbled to the floor rather unceremoniously, again landing on all fours.

"Better call HRT, you've got a hostage situation." His words echoed in the nearly empty penthouse.

Kate heard a female voice from inside the room call out…

"Not anymore you don't."

…Recognized it and heard the gunshot all at once. Olivia.

Kate pushed herself to sitting and looked back. Hamilton lay in a growing pool of his own blood, brain matter on the plastic sheeting behind where he had been standing. Olivia had hit him between the eyes, practically blowing out the back of his head.

She sat stunned for a moment before Olivia crouched in front of her. "You ok?"

All Kate could do was nod; she didn't trust herself to speak yet. Her eyes were glued to the body on the floor until she heard Gibbs calling her name. She looked up in time to see him come around the corner, carefully stepping over Hamilton.

"Gibbs…"

At once he was on the floor at her side, pulling her carefully into his arms. She wrapped hers around his neck and buried her face into his chest, trying to control the emotions running through her. Despite her efforts, unbidden tears started to fall down her face and she pulled herself closer to his warm body. Gibbs responded by holding her just a little bit tighter, and Kate ignored the pinpricks of pain this time.

It took several minutes for the tears to stop and she pulled her head away from his chest, looking at him carefully. His eyes held nothing back; she easily read the fear, anger, guilt and relief in them.

Finally he reached out and pushed her loose bangs behind her ear. "I'm sorry, Kate," he whispered.

"For what?" she asked, leaning into his touch. The rest of the world simply didn't exist for them, and neither cared if half the NYPD and NCIS saw them.

"I didn't keep my promise."

For a second, Kate swore she saw tears well in the man's blue eyes.

"You can't keep them all, Gibbs, you just can't. The important part is you found me and I'm fine."

He nodded silently and she placed her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat slowly. She felt him wrap his arms around her again and place a light kiss in her hair.

"It's over now," he whispered, and it sounded to Kate like he was trying to convince himself. "It's over…."

She nodded, finally safe in his arms, and closed her eyes briefly. It was all over.

Fin