Chapter 2 - Connecting the Dots

Agent Jethro Gibbs walked into the bullpen early on Wednesday morning carrying a large cup of coffee. He sat down in his chair, hoping to get some paperwork done before Kate and Tony arrived. They were good agents, but they just talked way too much! He took a sip of coffee, and then started on the mountain of paperwork that lay before him.

xxxxxx

Travis pulled his van up to the curb in front of the Fed-Ex office. He put on his sunglasses, grabbed the tape-which was packaged and addressed-and went inside. He waited in line for a while and, when it was his turn, he told them that he wanted same-day delivery. He paid the outrageous fee and left.

xxxxxx

Gibbs had been working for about half an hour when he heard the elevator ping. Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Caitlin Todd stepped out together and ambled over to their desks, chatting all the way.

"You actually met a hot blonde that you didn't like?" Kate asked, incredulous.

"Her name was Hannah and she was a psychologist, Kate, not a model," Tony replied. "Anytime I said anything, she would always correct my grammar. It was so annoying."

"Poor you," Kate said with mock sympathy. "Maybe if you used proper English once in a while, you could have added her to your ever-growing list of girlfriends."

"Maybe. But there was this time that we got along. Me and her were-"

"She and I," Kate corrected with a grin.

Tony glared at her, and she smirked back. "You do that just to bug me, don't you?"

"Wow, you catch on quick."

"Anyways, she and I went to this night clu-"

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs interrupted. "That paperwork isn't gonna fill itself out!" He gestured to the tall stack on Tony's desk.

"Right, boss." Before resigning himself to the hours of paperwork that lay ahead, he whispered to Kate, "I'll tell you the rest at lunch." Kate rolled her eyes.

Noting the empty desk beside him, Tony asked, "Boss, where's McGee? He should know better than to be late like this."

"He had a dentist appointment," Gibbs said, not looking up.

"Lucky son of a gun," Tony muttered, "he gets to miss all of this fun paperwork."

"No, he's going to work through lunch, and so will you if you don't get a move on."

Kate grinned as Tony quickly grabbed a pen and a stack of papers.

"Kate," Gibbs called.

"I know, I know," she sighed. "Paperwork."

"No, I want you to go and get those last test results from Abby."

"But Sergeant Nichols already confessed to the murder."

"I don't care. I want the fingerprint match anyway," he said, annoyed.

"Alright, alright," she threw up her hands in resignation and walked over to the elevator. Once inside, she pressed the button that would take her down to Abby's lab. She stepped off the elevator and thought it odd that, as she neared the lab, she heard no rock music blaring. She thought it was even stranger that all the lights were off. "Abby?" She called, walking into the lab. She flipped the lights on and began searching for the perky technician. She didn't find her anywhere, and began to get worried when she saw the Goth's lab coat hanging on its hook; Abby almost always wore her lab coat.

She immediately ran back upstairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator. She walked quickly over to Gibbs' desk. "Abby isn't here."

Tony looked up from his paperwork, a confused expression on his face.

Gibbs glanced up from his paperwork, looking annoyed. "What do you mean 'isn't here'?"

"I went down to the lab and all the lights were off. There was no of trace of her; I looked everywhere. She's not in the lab."

Tony could tell that Kate was worried. "Relax, Kate, I'll bet she just had a late night party and slept in or something."

"Call her house and see what's up. And if she has a hangover, tell her not to come in today."

Kate smiled slightly at Gibbs' latter comment, and sat down at her desk. She picked up her phone and dialed Abby's number. The phone rang five times, then the answering machine picked up and Kate heard Abby's cheery voice.

"Hey! You've reached Abby Sciuto. I'm not here right now, but if you leave me a message, I'll call you back."

"Abby, it's Kate. I hope you're alright. Gibbs is kind of annoyed that you're not here, but he says that if you have a hangover or something then you can stay home. Bye." She hung up the phone.

"Kate?" Gibbs said without looking up.

"Yeah, Gibbs?"

"Now you can start on that paperwork."

xxxxxx

They had been working steadily for several hours, when Tony's stomach growled. "Hey, boss, can we break for lunch?"

Gibbs surveyed the stacks of paperwork on all three desks and noticed that they were significantly smaller than before. "Alright," he consented, "but don't take forever."

Tony stood up from his desk and grinned at Kate. "Now you can hear the rest of my story."

"I can't wait," she said sarcastically, as she stood up and stretched. She followed Tony out of the bullpen, but stopped suddenly. "Oh, crud! I left my lunch in the car! I knew I forgot something."

"I'll be in the lunchroom," Tony said as Kate stormed back to get her keys. She grabbed them and headed out to the parking lot. She retrieved her now-warm lunch from her car and was making her way back to the building when she saw something that surprised her: Abby's car was there, and it hadn't moved from the previous day's parking place.

'Maybe she just got here,' Kate thought. She started for the back entrance, the fastest route from her present location to the lab. As she walked through the alley behind the building, something on the ground caught her eye; it was Abby's bracelet. She stooped to pick it up. She examined it, and then strapped it on her wrist. 'The snap works fine,' she thought. 'The bracelet didn't fall off. But this is Abby's favorite bracelet; she wouldn't have taken it off and left it out here.' She felt a pang of fear in the pit of her stomach with her next thought. 'What if someone else ripped it off?'

She bolted for the door and when she reached the lab, her fears were justified: there was no Abby. She hadn't just arrived, her car had been there all night. Abby had never gone home. Kate took the stairs two at a time and burst into the lunchroom, faced flushed and breathing heavily.

"Whoa! Kate, I didn't know you were that anxious to hear my story." Tony grinned, his mouth full of sandwich.

"Something's happened to Abby!" she gasped.

Tony swallowed. "Calm down, Kate, I'm sure she's fine."

"What's all the excitement about?" Gibbs asked, entering the room with his lunch.

"Something's happened to Abby!" she repeated.

"What makes you think she's not asleep at home with a hangover?" Gibbs asked, retrieving an apple from his bag and taking a bite.

"Her car hasn't moved since yesterday. She never went home! And I found this in the alley by the back entrance." She held up Abby's bracelet.

Tony froze with his sandwich an inch away for his open mouth.

Kate handed the bracelet to Gibbs. "Now do you believe me?"

He nodded solemnly.

She sat in a chair next to Tony and tried to calm her frazzled nerves.

"So what are we gonna do, boss?" Tony wondered, standing and getting a glass of water for Kate.

Gibbs opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the intercom.

"Attention, Agent Gibbs - you have an urgent package waiting at the receptionist's desk."

Gibbs gently placed the bracelet in his pocket. "Break time's over. Come on."

Tony stood and threw away his trash. As he and Kate followed Gibbs out of the room they looked at each other worriedly.

Gibbs got the package from the receptionist. It was small, wrapped in brown paper, and addressed to "Agent Gibbs c/o NCIS". It was stamped with the word urgent. The trio returned to the bullpen. Tony and Kate crowded around Gibbs' desk as he put on a pair of gloves. He carefully unwrapped the parcel and pulled out an 8mm video cassette. "McGee!" he roared.

Agent Timothy McGee, who had arrived just as Gibbs was going to lunch, winced as his boss bellowed for him. He immediately jumped out of his chair and ran over to his superior's desk. "Yes, boss?"

"You in the middle of writing anything important?" Gibbs asked, still examining the tape.

"No, not really, I-"

"Good," Gibbs handed the younger agent a pair of gloves. McGee put them on, and Gibbs placed the cassette in the agent's hands.

McGee inspected the tape, and then looked up at Gibbs. "If you don't mind me saying so, boss, Abby is more experienced than I at lifting prints. Why don't you get her to do it?"

"Because," Gibbs informed him, growing irritated, "Abby isn't here."

"Oh," McGee timidly replied.

As they walked to the elevator, Gibbs questioned the younger agent. "You didn't by any chance take Abby out on a date anywhere last night, did you?"

McGee winced; the agency's strangest couple had switched from romantic to platonic last week. "No, and we're just friends now," he answered, somewhat subdued.

Tony put a hand on McGee's shoulder as they stepped into the elevator. "I told you from the beginning, McGee, you really weren't her type. Almost convinced me with that tat...her, too, I guess. It's not removable, is it?"

McGee shook his head, a mournful look in his eyes.

The metal doors whooshed open and the four agents stepped out of the elevator and into the lab. The team brought McGee up to speed as they readied the equipment. Gibbs flipped on the lights, McGee booted up the computer, Kate turned on the large television screen, and Tony put on one of Abby's CDs. As hard core music filled the lab, the three agents watched McGee intently as he connected a camcorder to the TV, which he hooked up to the computer. Then they huddled around him as he hunched over the keyboard.

Gibbs noticed that McGee typed nearly as fast as Abby, but without the rings and bracelets scintillating as the fingers flew across the keyboard, it just wasn't the same.

Once the young agent had all three devices on-line, he pressed a button on the camcorder. "Okay, it should play on the screen." And play it did. There was a collective gasp when the agents saw the lively technician being held at knifepoint. Kate brought a hand up to her mouth as the listened to the demands of Abby's captor.

"…don't bring any cops." The man's harsh words echoed in the agents' minds long after static seized the screen. Kate sank into a nearby chair, her hand still over her gaping mouth. Tony put a comforting arm around her shoulders. McGee sat there with his head in his hands. Gibbs ran his hands through his hair.

Finally, Tony broke the silence, "What did he mean when he said that he wanted you, Gibbs?"

Gibbs sighed; he had an idea of who the man was, but he wanted to be sure. "McGee, get a close-up on the guy's face and freeze it." A few keystrokes from the agent and the man's face filled the screen. Gibbs' suspicions were confirmed.

Tony studied the screen. "Hey, that looks like…"

"Owen Steele, brother of former Marine, Nathan Steele," Gibbs finished Tony's thought.

"So he's after revenge?"

"That's what it looks like."

"McGee, are you following any of this?" Kate asked.

McGee shook his head, completely clueless.

"Nathan Steele was a former Marine who was caught stealing weapons and selling them on the black market," Tony related to them. "When he was dishonorably discharged, he turned into a serial killer. He murdered six Marines before we stopped him." Tony shook his head in remembrance.

"So what happened to him?" Kate pressed.

"Well, when we caught him, he opened fire, so Gibbs shot him." He looked at the older agent, who wore a grim expression on his face. Gibbs remembered the case like it had happened yesterday.

"So this guy wants to get back at Gibbs for shooting his brother?"

"These guys," Gibbs corrected her, "want to get back at me for killing their brother."

"What was the other one's name, boss? Thomas?" Tony tried to remember.

"Travis." Gibbs stated matter-of-factly.

"So what are we gonna do, Gibbs?" Kate wondered out loud.

Gibbs thought for a moment, then ordered, "Play it again. Look closely for any hints as to where they might be." Kate and Tony nodded and McGee complied.

They were halfway through it when suddenly Gibbs cried out, "Hold it!" The other three looked up at him simultaneously. "McGee, zoom in on her right hand!" He did so with a few clicks. "Now play it from the beginning." He rewound the tape, utterly confused as to what Gibbs saw. "My gosh, I know where she is!" Gibbs whispered as he watched Abby fingerspell her location. "She's at 613 Sunset Boulevard!"

"Are you sure?" Kate questioned.

"Yes! She signed it twice!" he informed her, but didn't tell her what Abby's last sign was. It was a sign that surprised him. Anyone else might have mistaken it for a rock-on sign, but Gibbs knew full well what it was. It was a sign consisting of three fingers, and it stood for three letters. The pinky, which represented and 'I'; the forefinger and thumb standing for an 'L'; and the pinky together with the thumb for a 'Y'. Putting them together was sign language for "I love you."

Author's Note: Muahaha, so now you know; it's GAbby. I hope this doesn't send anyone away, but that's the pairing I am sticking with. Thank you so much Hannah for catching my mistakes; it would be awful if Gibbs had to drink fake coffee, hahahahaha. I would also like to thank LJ a.k.a. Commodore Norrington for Tony's comment to McGee about Abby. And thanks so much to all of my reviewers. Roses are red. Violets are blue. I like flowers, but I'd love a review. Sorry about the technical goof of posting this on "Breaking the News". I'll bet that story made a whole lot of sense…