"McGee, DiNozzo."
Gibbs seems chipper and Tony just stares at him as he sits down at his desk and starts reading the files that were still stacked there.
"Something wrong Tony?"
Gibbs notices Tony starring and smiles. Tony starts shaking his head and looks back at the file he had been reading. Every once in a while Tony looks up at Gibbs again and the look on his face says he's worried about Gibbs, each time Tony would look, Gibbs had a smile on his face. He finally closes the file and starts to walk out of the bullpen heading for the autopsy room.
"Where are you going?"
Tony turns around and points to the elevator.
"Talk to Ducky."
Gibbs shakes his head and points Tony right back to his seat.
The hotel room looks expensive, it having its own hot tub and everything. The second Kate walks into the room she drops her stuff on the floor and got into the hot tub, the candles lit and the lights down low, her sigh of relief echoes through the whole room. The steam slowly fills the room coming to rest on the furniture that stood in its way. Stuffed away in the deepest pocket of her suitcase she could find her beeper starts going off, the sound getting muffled by the clothes laying on top of it. As Kate slowly steps out of the tub she cleans off the mirror and smiles. Now this was easy, no calls, no work. She walks into the room and unpacks her suitcase, placing every bit of clothing in a drawer as if she was going to stay for a lifetime.
The house is dark and empty every shade that had been closed remained that way. The ringing of the phone echoes through the house like it is the only thing there. The beep of the machine and Kate's voice echoes in the same menacing way. The voice that comes out of the speaker is the same one as before, the woman's screams travel to each room and echoes off the walls. The speaker on the machine distorts the words yet every once in a while you hear her call for Kate. The slam of the phone is the last noise the house took in.
Gibbs picks up the phone for the fourth time this morning and dials a number only he knew, he listens to it ring and then hangs up after just a few seconds. Tony watched as Gibbs continued this schedule for the rest of the morning. The thing that made Tony jump up was the ringing from his own phone. He quickly picks it up and listens to the frantic woman on the other end.
"Slow down, what is it?" Tony's voice is calm but he sounds really confused.
"Okay, I'll be there in a minute."
Gibbs gives Tony a look, trying to keep him from getting up and walking away. Tony's pile of files on his desk had grown over the past couple of days that now they were about to topple over. Tony ignores Gibbs' warning glare and walks to the elevator, looking as worried as ever.
Gibbs tries to fight the urge to follow him but it didn't work, he walks over to the elevator and watches as it counts down to the floor that housed Abby's lab. He pushes the button to get it back up and gets on as soon as it arrives.
"What was so important?"
Tony asks, suspicious that she just wanted him to get something for her.
"Oh, not important, really cool."
Tony rolls his eyes as Abby reaches around the desk and pulls out a huge picture to hang on her wall. Abby proudly shows it off in front of her.
"Cool."
Tony said as his eyes widened.
"Yeah I know."
Gibbs comes in the door and freezes; the doors barely have room to close.
"Tony!"
Tony turns around slowly his innocent smile on his face as Abby peeks over the top of the gunshot wound she is about to hang up.
"What was so important that you left you desk for?" Abby quickly realizes that she might have very well just gotten Tony into trouble.
"Hi Abbs."
Gibbs said just knowing who was behind it all. She quickly helps Tony out, her voice slightly muffled by the photo she still held in front of her.
"It was me Gibbs, I called him."
Gibbs smiles and chuckles a little. As he turns around and heads out the door Tony grabs one end of the photo and helps Abby hoist it up to the empty spot on the wall.
"Gibbs."
His phone that sat on the corner of his desk was ringing when he got up there and he picked it up, hoping for a break in the slow week.
"Hey Gibbs, stop beeping me."
It's Kate, she sounds a little happier than the last time he had talked to her and he could hear the waves crashing on the beach in the background.
"Come on Kate, you left a note."
He smiles and finally sits down in his chair.
"You could have least called."
The breeze blows through her hair and she takes a deep breath exhaling slowly as if she is savoring the moment.
"At least I didn't beep you a hundred times."
The cry of gulls is heard in the background; the screams of vacationing students can also be heard.
"So when you coming back?"
He gets right back on track just so she wouldn't hear the relief in his voice from knowing she was okay.
"Thursday."
With that she hangs up the phone and starts walking towards the warm beach. Gibbs is left with a dial tone on the other end along with a smile.
Her day had started at noon, her breakfast had come as lunch, and the knock on the door is what brought her back to reality. As she walks the beautiful beach she would be on for another couple of days her thoughts drifted. Kate knew it was a bad thing for her thoughts to do this, every time her thoughts went on a trip they always ended up at the town where she grew up. This is why she left her house, to get away from the calls that originated from her hometown, probably her old house. Kate couldn't run away from her thoughts the same way, they had followed her here to the hotel they would follow her everywhere. She sits down, buries her feet in the sand and closes her eyes.
"Kate I told you never to touch that, it's your sister's. Leave it alone!"
Two little girls running around a small house with a mother running after them, behind them is a trail of food that fell off the table. They had always bickered and today was just another one of those days. The oldest one finally threw the object in question to the floor, breaking it into little pieces.
"No!"
The younger child yelled, tears running down her face. The fight between the two girls that followed wasn't a pretty one but changed the whole routine forever.
"Stop it girls, your gonna get hurt."
The genuine care in the mother's voice was directed really to only one of the two bickering girls. They finally let go of one another and the oldest one ran out the door and on to the street, leaving the mother and daughter alone.
When Kate opened her eyes the sun was setting and the warm spot she had been lying in was slowly disappearing, a tear fell down her cheek as she walked back to the hotel room.
Gibbs now knew that Kate had brought along her beeper and as a result he started to call it more often. Tony had finally returned to his desk and started working on the many files that covered his desk. McGee had been silently working at Kate's desk all day; his only real purpose was to fill in for Kate if a case were to come in. As Gibbs watches him he can see his eyes start to wander, it was nearly quitting time and even Gibbs had had enough.
"Done, head home guys."
This statement seemed a little more friendly than Gibbs had originally intended and he bolted for the elevator, managing to get the door closed before the two agents even started getting up. The confused look is shared between the both of them, but as soon as they both realize what they just heard the two bolted for the elevator.
TBC