Influence

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: Kate is dating and starts to change. When she takes a drastic step, the rest of the team starts to wonder. A series of murder turns up and they find themselves in the middle of a nightmare…

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6- To the rescue

The man with the knife had a mad look in his eyes. "We shall offer our price to the immortal spirits." He cried and raised his arm to finish what he had started. The knife clattered onto the stone plate only seconds later as he was thrown backwards from the impact of three bullets. McGee and Dinozzo forced the circle to open and held the people in check. The group seemed too surprised to try and get away, which was a good thing since they were too many to catch at once.

Gibbs shoved the body of the shot man out of his way and shoved the second one into Tony´s direction. It took only seconds until he had the situation cleared and knelt down next to the lifeless form. There were candles giving off a soft light. It wasn´t very bright, but enough to see that she had been beaten badly. He reached for a pulse, cringing at the look of the bloody gash on her forehead. After a few seconds, he felt a steady beat under his fingers and sighed. "Dinozzo, we need an ambulance. McGee, get the police here ASAP." He ordered and cradled her head into his lap. "Hold on, Kate. We´re here now." He whispered as he put one hand on her shoulder, as if to reassure her that she was save.

With his free hand, he pulled out his cell. "Duck, I need you to meet us at Bethesda. Yes, I know what time it is. It´s Kate, so just get there." He said and tried to pull her tangled hair out of her face. It seemed to take forever until some police officers and two EMTs ran into the clearing. Everyone was taken away immediately until there were only four people beside the medics left. "Take her to Bethesda." Gibbs ordered as he walked to his agents. "Both of you okay?"

They nodded, but he noticed that both looked a bit pale. McGee put his gun away and brushed through his hair. "Gee...how did you know, boss? I mean, a second later and that guy would have killed her."

"Just a gut feeling. When you told me about Cuttling being Kate´s boyfriend and the confirmation that he had seen those other girls too, I just took the chance. We could have been wrong, but luckily we weren´t. That´s what this job is about. This and a large chunk of teamspirit." Gibbs said and turned back to where the medics were preparing Kate for transport. "Tony, you´re going with her. We follow in the truck." He finally said and headed out towards the road.

"Boss? Everything okay?" McGee suddenly asked when they got into the truck again. It surprised him a bit to hear that question from his youngest agent. "You look pale."

"I´m fine, McGee." He replied and started the truck as the ambulance pulled out of the road in front of them. The drive was silent and when he parked in front of Bethesda, he saw a familiar green car parked out front. Mallard stood right next to it, along with a second figure. Her pigtails gave her away, eventhough her face was hidden in the shadows.

"Jethro, what happened?" Ducky asked as he watched the ambulance approach the entrance. Concern was in his features and as they walked closer, Gibbs noted that Abby had streaks of black mascara on her cheeks. He had never seen her cry before.

"We found the guy who killed those 11 women -he was about to get his 12th victim. Go look after her, Duck." He told his friend and put an arm around Abby. "She´ll be okay, Abbs. We got to her before they could do any serious harm to her."

She looked at him with wide eyes, which were still wet from tears. "I´m just thinking what would have been if you had been too late –what if my computer would have crashed again? She could be dead…" Abby said and leaned onto his shoulder.

Gibbs stroked her head. "She´ll be fine, Abbs. We were there in time –thanks to the map you got for us. We wouldn´t have found her without your help, so don´t you dare to blame yourself or anything. Got that?" He asked in a much more commanding tone and she nodded.

"Yes, Sir, Gibbs, Sir." She replied with a slight smile. "Thanks." With that, Abby turned to where McGee and Dinozzo stood. Gibbs watched her rushing into a hug from his youngest agent and smiled a bit. He knew that they were more than just colleagues, but he didn´t mind. Rule 12 was his rule. It was his way to keep himself from becoming emotionally attached to anyone again. It was his way of keeping himself from being hurt again.

He turned towards the entrance and walked into the waiting room. His team followed closely and they just sat in silence for a while. Ducky came back around 3 am, finding all except for Gibbs asleep on their chairs. Both men walked into the hallway. "How is she, Duck?"

The older man sighed and searched for the right words. "Caitlin has been drugged and obviously beaten rather badly. She has a cracked rib and some severe bruising all over her body, but I believe she will recover just fine. They sedated her to give her body time to get rid of the drugs, but it will take a while. They didn´t want to wash her blood since it would put additional strain on her system. I´m not going to make things any brighter than they are, but I believe she will be okay, at least physically. There is no way to say what scars this will leave on her soul though. Time will tell, Jethro, but she will need a lot of time to heal, if she ever does." Mallard said and watched his reaction.

"Okay. I want someone to be with her all the time –if one of that freaky group tries to go after her, I want to be prepared." Gibbs replied, trying to sound as professional as he could muster. Deep inside he was relieved, very relieved. If Kate had died or seriously hurt, he would have never forgiven himself for not being there to save her. "I´ll wake up the others and…"

Ducky simply shook his head. "I can see it in your eyes that you can´t wait to see her, Jethro. Just go and sit with her for a while. I shall take care of the rest of your team." He said and strode off into the waiting room again.

Gibbs smiled a bit, silently thanking his friend for his sensitivity and walked into the elevator. Ducky had given him the room number on a piece of paper. It was located right next to the break room, which had a coffee maker too. Armed with a large cup of extra strong coffee, he opened the door and walked into a semi-darkness.