Title: When I'm Gone
Author: Redwing/csiphile
AN: Finally we get to the meat of the plotline, the good stuff as it were. Enjoy!
Im posting this at the same time as Chapter 3 because I feel guilty for going so long without. That doesnt mean you can slack on reviews....keep em up!
Last chapter title was a song..."Getting Away With Murder" by Papa Roach. This chapter is also another song...can you guess the artist?
Chapter 4: Vermillion
"Yeah, tomorrow at 2 is fine. See you then." Kate hung up the phone and looked back down at the paper in her hand. His drawing had been grisly in detail, his father hunched against the wall, blood pooling at the floor, dripping from the slice across his neck. Elizabeth was depicted in the exact spot she was found. It inspired Kate to call the Quantico psychologist and make an appointment to speak with her about what she should do.
"She going to see you?" Gibbs asked.
"Yeah, Dr. Barren squeezed me in for thirty minutes at 2 tomorrow. Is that ok?"
"Fine."
She nodded and put the picture away for the moment.
Gibbs looked at her a moment and took in the sad expression on her face. He trusted her to tell him when it was too much for her, but right now Gibbs wasn't sure she would recognize when that happened. His train of thought was broken when she lifted one hand, pushed hair behind her shoulder and started kneading her neck muscle in a slow steady pace.
Gibbs watched as her fingers dug into the tan skin, and for one second he wished it was his fingers rubbing the stress away. No, Gibbs. Enough of this, she's your co-worker, your friend, and completely off-limits, he told himself yet again. It was becoming a recurring mantra of his, a way of keeping himself sane - even as she let out a low groan as her fingers dug into her skin. He was so focused on her and his thoughts that he nearly missed Tony's arrival, only managing to tear his eyes from Kate a second before the younger man came to his desk.
"What have you got?" Gibbs asked, his brain quickly switching gears.
"Not much. Seems that after the charges were dropped, James Mason disappeared off the planet. His family hasn't heard from him, and I followed a trail of friends that ended 3 months ago in Langley. After that, nothing. I'm betting his buddy Jacobs contacted him, asked for a favor, and he disappears -- only popping up again to kill the Carters."
Gibbs nodded and looked at Kate, who had turned her attention to their conversation. "We need to ID his accomplice."
She nodded. "I'll try tonight."
Gibbs looked at his watch -- it was already 5 pm. "Ok, you get out of here. Take him home and see what you can do. Tony and I are going to dig farther into Jacob and Martin's backgrounds, see if we can find anything."
"Ok." She quickly stood up and gathered her things. Gibbs watched her until she disappeared down the hall before turning back to Tony.
"Pull their jackets, we'll make a list of people to talk to in the morning," he said and started to pick up the phone to call for their prison records.
"She ok, boss?"
Gibbs paused his actions. "She's fine," he finally stated simply and stared at Tony, who hadn't moved and was staring at him with a peculiar expression. "Files, DiNozzo."
Finally the younger agent walked back to his desk. Gibbs glanced at Kate's empty one and sighed; he wasn't sure if Kate was actually fine or not.
Todd Apartment
8 pm
Kate sat on the couch, feet curled beneath her, as she watched Jake color in a book on the coffee table. She had tried earlier to get another sketch from him, but he couldn't picture the other killer as well as the first. Number two had been standing behind Mason, in his shadow. Jake had done his best, but in the end, they wound up with a completely unusable picture that could have been anyone, including Gibbs or Tony.
Reaching behind her, Kate pulled her bag over the couch and reached in, grabbing the drawings he had made for her earlier. Keeping one eye on him, she flipped through again, stopping at the gruesome crime scene done in crayons. It was a disturbing image still.
"Jake…" she called but he pretended to ignore her. She pursed her lips and uncurled herself, moving to the floor next to him. "Jake, we need to talk."
"'Bout what?" he asked and completed the red in a fire engine, his hand going for the brown color. She paused him with a gentle hand on his.
"About this," she said and showed him the picture in her hand.
"I don't wanna."
"I know you don't, Jake. But we need to," she paused, contemplating. "Remember how we drew the bad guys?" He nodded, still not looking directly at her. "We did that to help find your parents, and you know what, it was a HUGE help, Jake. I know this is hard, buddy, but you trust me, right?"
"Yes," his small voice told her he knew what she wanted from him.
"I need you to tell me what happened that night…after your Dad put you to bed. How you got into the attic… when you went into the living room." With that, she pointed at the picture.
He shook his head. "I don't wanna, Kate."
She softened her tone. "I know you don't, but Jake, you might know something that finds the people who did this."
He looked at her with sad eyes and Kate nearly gave up, not wanting to hurt him further. But he started talking instead, keeping his eyes focused on the picture in front of him. "I woke up when the dog next door started barking -- he always does that when people walk by the house. It sounded like they were real close, so I got up and looked. That's when I saw them, they just…opened the door."
She looked surprised; there was no evidence of lock picking. "Did it look like they had a key?"
"I dunno. But as soon as they came in, I heard my Dad shouting from the living room. I got up and peeked through the door, Mom was walking from her room…" He paused. "Toward the yelling. I ran and hid in my closet."
Kate considered his words. "How loud were they, Jake? Do you think the neighbors could hear?"
"I don't think so, 'cause they were doing that quiet yelling, you know?"
She smiled; Gibbs had quiet yelling down to an art. "Yeah, I know. When did you come out of your room?"
He shrugged. "After I got in the closet I didn't hear screaming anymore -- mostly just talking, moving around and thumping noises. Then I didn't hear anything for what seemed like forever." He stopped talking, his face turning ashen. "That's when I went into the living room," he whispered.
Kate scooted closer to him on the floor. "What did you see?"
He shook his head and pointed at the picture; it was apparent he was done talking, which worked out fine 'cause a sudden knock on the door had Kate jumping in her skin.
"God dammit," she muttered, stood and turned to Jake. "You stay here."
He nodded and she moved to the door, picking her Sig up off the table as she went. Without making a sound, she looked out the peep hole, unlocked the door and opened it to reveal Gibbs.
Kate merely stood in the door, one eyebrow raised, surprised by her boss's appearance.
"Kate," he said by way of greeting and indicated her apartment. "Can I come in?"
"Sure, of course." She stepped out of the way and noticed the pleased expression on his face when he realized she had her gun. Kate closed and locked the door and turned back to find that Gibbs had moved into the living room and was staring at Jake.
"You and Tony find anything?" she asked and breezed by him, setting the weapon back on the end table.
"We have a list of people to talk to tomorrow. You get anything?"
Kate looked at Jake and indicated with her head for them to move into the corner of the room where the boy couldn't hear them talking. Kate stood against the wall, Gibbs by the window in front of her.
"Yeah, actually," she started and quickly relayed what Jake had told her. "He still won't talk about seeing them, but I can't blame him."
"Nothing on the second guy?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. Apparently he stayed in the shadows." She stepped over to the coffee table and picked up a sketch. "This is what we got."
Gibbs scrunched his face as he looked. "This could be DiNozzo."
She smiled. "Yeah."
"Ok, tomorrow we are back on interviews."
Kate started to nod when the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Something wasn't right, she could feel an uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. And for one second, she thought they had been found. But there was no way.
And then she saw the red dot appear on Gibbs shirt, right above his heart.
Moving faster than she ever had in her life, Kate pushed off the wall and threw herself into her boss, sending them both unceremoniously crashing to the hardwood floor, Kate's landing softened by his body.
Gibbs didn't have time to question her actions because a second after she pushed him he heard the window break and the bullet wiz by his ear before being dropped painfully to the floor.
Kate quickly gathered herself and got up, running across the living room toward Jake, who was cowering under the table. Just as she reached him and bent down she felt another bullet pass dangerously close to her head – she could feel the heat - and heard Gibbs call her name.
"Kate! MOVE!"
She gathered Jake into her arms and started toward the front door, but not before their attackers gave up the subtle approach and started to riddle the apartment with bullets. They were coming so fast the first thought that came to mind was they had an H and K -- she recognized the noise from her Service training.
As she came around the couch heading for the front door, Gibbs met her and pushed her the other direction, down her hall.
"Bathroom," he yelled over the noise and she complied, running the short distance with Jake wrapped around her upper body. As she got into the small room, however, Kate noticed that Gibbs was not behind her. Putting Jake down, she stuck her head out the door.
No Gibbs.
And flung the door shut, sitting on the floor in front of it.
He threw open her apartment door, gun raised and bolted down the stairs and out her apartment building. The two FBI agents who had replaced the NCIS officers to watch over them were already out of the car, one on the phone, the other running over a small embankment.
By now the gunfire had stopped.
Gibbs looked at the one on the phone as he paused briefly. "Stay with them."
He then quickly followed the other agent and found the targets as he came over the rise. Two men were running in the other direction, but suddenly they split and ran in different directions. The FBI agent took one and Gibbs bolted after the other.
He forced as much into his legs as he could and found himself gaining on the suspect as they got to a road. The suspect bolted into traffic and Gibbs gave chase.
"Freeze!" he screamed as a horn honked at them both. "God dammit," he muttered to himself and thanked God he still ran 7 miles a day. Gibbs followed him into an alley and instantly knew he had the suspect trapped; there was no out.
Slowly Gibbs entered and could see the suspect at the end, the semi-auto slack at his side.
"Don't…move," Gibbs hissed.
Almost instantly the man raised the gun and Gibbs instinctively double tapped him in the chest.
"Shit!" he yelled and walked down the alley, finding a dead man at the end-not Mason. But he did bear a resemblance to the sketch Jake had done. Gibbs kicked his gun away and made a call.
Kate sat on the floor of her bathroom for what seemed like forever, frustrated that she had left both her cell and gun in the living room.
After several minutes the apartment seemed silent; the gunfire had long since stopped. Jake was curled into her side, and she could feel him shaking.
"It's ok, everything is all right now -- I promise," she whispered. "You ok?"
He nodded and she gave him a quick once over as best she could with his head buried in her abdomen.
Kate counted to five minutes slowly and pulled Jake away slightly. "Buddy, I need to check, ok?"
"Don't…" he started.
"It's ok, they are gone -- I just want to make sure."
Now he looked up at her and his eyes widened. "Kate, you're bleeding."
"What?" she asked and lifted one hand to where he was pointing on her forehead. Pulling it away, she saw blood on her fingers. It wasn't a lot and it was sticky, starting to congeal. "It's fine, little scratch." That's when she realized that bullet she thought missed her almost didn't.
Swallowing, Kate pushed the thought out of her head.
She stood slowly and moved Jake to the far end of the room. "You stay right here."
He nodded and she slowly opened the door, peeking down the hall. Kate could see her phone sitting on the coffee table, her gun a few feet away where she left it. Quietly Kate slid through the door, her bare feet making almost no noise on the hardwood. Keeping on the balls of her feet to minimize noise, she pushed her back against the wall and moved into the living room.
Her very demolished living room. Bullet holes marred a good portion of her furniture, lamps were broken, the stuffing from one of the cushions now spilling out. Kate looked at her still-open door and scooted across, snatching up her gun.
As she picked up the phone, she became aware of a figure in the periphery of her vision. Starting, she pulled up the weapon and found herself pointing it at one of the FBI agents.
"Agent Todd…" he started.
"Jesus, you scared me."
"Sorry about that, ma'am."
She gave him a small glare for the term. "You get them?"
"Agent Mowers and Agent Gibbs went after them. Gibbs killed his man, Mowers escaped."
"Fabulous," she muttered.
Suddenly the agent walked into her living room and started pulling the curtains on all her windows.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"What I was told, ma'am."
"Stop calling me that."
He merely nodded and continued to close the apartment off.
Kate took one look at the damage and walked back down the hall, opening the bathroom door fully.
Jake was in the exact same position as before, but pounced as soon as he saw her, clinging to her waist.
"They're gone, it's ok. Come on…" Easily she picked him up on one hip and re-entered the living room.
Before she could attempt to put him down, she heard two familiar male voices in the hall. Turning, she saw Gibbs and Agent Fornell enter her apartment, the latter of which surveyed the damage and closed the door behind him.
"Someone seriously wanted you dead."
"You think?" she snarked back and spoke softly into Jake's ear. He shook his head and she sighed. "I'll be right back." She pinned the agent who had been closing her drapes with a glare. "You…come with me."
Gibbs watched as the agent looked confused a moment, but complied, following her and Jake down the hall. Several minutes later, she reappeared without the boy or agent, and Gibbs got a good look at her. The whole time he had been on the phone with the Director earlier he had been second guessing his choice to leave them, wondering if something had happened in his absence to both her and Jake. Gibbs always had a soft spot for kids, perhaps a result of never having one himself, and he certainly had a soft spot for his female agent. When he saw the blood on her forehead, Gibbs resisted some male instinct to go to her and make sure she was ok.
Kate stared at the two men. "So, I hear one of your agents let a bad guy get away."
Gibbs resisted laughing and watched as annoyance flashed across Fornell's face. "Well, thanks to that Agent Todd, you, Agent Gibbs and the boy are being placed in protective custody."
"What?" Came the simultaneous replies from Kate and Gibbs.
Fornell looked at them with a self-satisfied smirk - he had one-upped the agents - before pointing at Kate. "You and the child never made it out of this apartment, both killed by an unknown assailant. NCIS will be looking diligently into your deaths." Now he looked at Gibbs. "And you were killed in an alley by one of said unknown assailants, but not before taking him out first."
"I don't think so…" Kate started.
"You don't have a choice, Agent."
"Like hell!"
"You aren't being given a choice, your Director has already approved the action and the US Marshals have been called. They will be at a safe house - where you will be - in the morning with your papers."
"Gibbs…" she looked at him desperately.
Gibbs was about to use his phone when Fornell pulled out his. "Use mine -- you're dead, remember?"
"Not for long," he hissed and dialed the number without even looking down.
Kate watched with diminishing hope as Gibbs spoke, too many 'yes, sirs' coming from him. Gibbs hung up the phone and gave Kate a look that said he didn't have good news.
"For now we are being taking into custody. Pack a light bag, only what wouldn't be missed, same for Jake, and go with Fornell. Morrow is going to meet with us in the morning, hopefully we will get this all straightened out."
"Unbelievable," she muttered and walked down the hall.
tbc………………..
