Chap. 3
Awareness
'You're dangerous
Just get it up
The way you move so scandalous
It's all about the two of us
A one night stand just ain't enough
I need more stimulation baby
A little more conversation maybe
You got me spinning out like crazy
There goes my baby'
Back home Kate had just finished her intense workout, she padded her face dry and headed to her shower, unlike her usual showers, she couldn't enjoy it like she usually would, she felt hostage in her own home, and Kate never took that too lightly. She kept shaking the feeling she was being watched. She hurriedly squeezed shampoo into her hand and lathered quickly. Not letting the flavor of peach and vanilla puncture her nostrils. Next came conditioner, she caked it on and while she waited she soaped up real well. After she rinsed off the suds and conditioner she quickly jumped out and put back on her workout clothes. She didn't care if it smelled slightly like sweat; it was the only thing she owned that she could move with full capacity and strength.
She placed the gun, so it stuck out from her lower back just above the famous rumored tattoo. She walked into the kitchen and took out her knife from the drawer. She kept the knife close and her gun even closer. She then opened the fridge to take out the many assorted greens onto the counter. She also got out a bowl and cutting board from under the sink. Kate slowly began cutting her vegetables, stopping once in a while to listen to ambient noises and things that didn't belong. When she was done her salad she put all her ingredients back and retrieved the 'Italian House' dressing and poured a fair amount onto her supper.
Retreating back to the living she put down her bowl and glace of red whine on the table and went over to open the curtains a bit to let the summer sun blaze through her haunted window. She sat down and took a sip from her whine and looked up at the Ram across the street, she cheersed them and took another sip.
"Bastards!" She mumbled, hoping they would somehow hear the way she truly felt about them.
The video was set in color, though not the best amount of pixels. Even if it were in black and white it still wouldn't alter the affect it possessed on the viewers. Gibbs had dropped his coffee, black liquid pooling over his black shoes and lower pant cuff. Tony had fallen off of McGee's desk and was sitting on the floor arms flayed beside him, and McGee, well McGee couldn't do anything he was frozen in place.
On screen was Kate; blind-folded, gagged and restrained by ropes to her bed post. They saw her struggle, pulling and tugging against her restraints. They saw her wrists bleeding from the trauma she was enduring. Her hair was tousled, sprayed over her face and pillow. Her top was ripped off, exposing a yellow flower-laced bra. Her pants were also among the missing revealing the twin to her bra, and her feet were bare. The more Gibbs saw her thrash in place the angrier he became, until he couldn't handle it any more.
"McGee! Trace the e-mail!" Gibbs yelled; it made McGee un-freeze and Tony slowly get up.
"On it." McGee said and with further ado he furiously hit at keys and dragged his mouse, pointing and clicking feverously.
"DiNozzo, review every case Kate was on and tell me if any of them had a grudge on her!" Tony ran to his desk and booted up his computer, he opened the file cabinet and flicked through every file.
Gibbs ran, making his way to the staircase and bolting down the stairs to the nearest car. Thank god it's Tony's! He thought, he always knew Tony was a sports car fanatic and by the sight of this one, he'd get to Kate's in no time. He started the red 93' mustang and automatically hit the accelerator, causing it to screech out of the parking lot and running through a red light. He made a quick donut left; nearly causing an accident; at the moment it was the last thing on his mind. His Katie was somewhere, probably hurt, and like hell if he would obey the rules of the road at the moment. He was pretty lucky, he was by himself on this stretch of road he sped on 90…100…110…120! Km/ph. He took out the ear piece from a tiny compartment on his right and inserted the ear piece in his ear and dial using the 'speed dial' button.
"Anything on trace?" Gibbs asked the minute he heard the line pickup. He made another tight right turn and slammed on the brakes; causing the wheels to screech; he could smell burnt rubber as he stopped short from the end of a very long line cars, trucks, campers and vans alike. He slammed his fist on the wheel and swore loudly.
"Damn it!" He cut the ignition and jumped out of the car slamming the door shut and bolting for the side walk. He kept the connection as he made his was running towards Kate's house.
"The IP address matches the same address as the case concerning the little blind girl and her mother's kidnapping." McGee said furiously typing away at the computer trying to get a specific address. Gibbs sprinted through yard after yard; sometimes leaping over fences and hedges. He only had one street to go.
"That was two years ago; I thought the bastard was locked up." Gibbs said his voice straining slightly but not enough to notice it. He turned on her street and hurried towards her house, deeply trying to remember the number.
"Apparently it says in his file that he skipped death row and Petty Officer McGraw bailed him out; no one knows where he resides right now…not even his wife." McGee added matter-of-factly clicking the buttons of his keyboard then shifting over to the mouse, clicking on it furiously. Gibbs swore again and shot across the street; launching himself and sliding over a hood of a black Ram, headed to her door gun out. He hung up his connection and ran up the lawn.
Kate was silently walking through her house towards the door; gun raised poised and off safety towards the ceiling; somehow she sensed something was about to happen and she'd be damned if it caught her by surprise. As she reached the front entrance she heard a body slamming in her front door. She quickly bolted beside it ready for when the jerk would burst it down, and when he did he would bet his ass she'd be waiting ready and dangerous.
Gibbs backed up a few steps and ran shoulder first towards the door. He heard the wood splinter slightly and ran at it one more time until it flew off its hinges. Upon reflex he pulled out his gun from his holster and step in the dark entrance hall gun first.
Kate blinked when her door splintered off its hinges but took a breath and waited for the opportune moment. She watched as a gun appeared in sight she waited a second for the person to step in front of her; it was then that she reacted; she grabbed the wrist holding the gun and slammed it repeatedly hard against the door frame. She heard the man grunt in pain at every hit until he released his gun. Kate then slid behind him, wrenching his arm behind his back and shoving the nozzle of her Smith and Wesson in his lower back.
"You choose the wrong girl to piss off!" She spat out venomously. She was about to pull the trigger when her prisoner spoke in gasped breaths.
"DiNozzo…thinks…you're a…girl; now I plainly see you as a woman with way too much gym time." She slid her gun on safety and let go of his arm in shock.
"Gibbs, what the hell!..." She said sticking her gun in the rim of her pants once more.
Gibbs interrupted her by him checking her; he ran his hand down her cheek bones and tilted her head to view her neck.
"What did they do to you?" He asked as he grabbed her wrist and inspected the perfect skin. ((Where was the torn skin, the bloody lip, beaten body?))
She yanked her hand out of his grip still mad at him for almost making her shoot him.
"We received…" He stopped mid-sentence when the first array of bullets ruptured through Kate's house. Gibbs wrapped his arms tightly around her and threw out of the open doorway and on to the ground hard, causing her to land on a splinter that tore through her elbow. She bit her lip and tucked her head under chin seeking safety. He held onto her tightly; one hand on her lower back and the other in the back of her head. When the bullets finally stopped Gibbs slowly raised his head and looked up. Kate rolled out from underneath him and laid there to catch her breath a second. Her brown eyes met his worried blue ones.
"You okay?" He asked getting to his feet and going over to help her up. She slowly got up and pulled the 10cm long splinter out of behind her arm. She bit back a yell as she threw it on the ground.
They slowly looked at the damage her house sustained. Lamps were broken, her grandmother's ancient glass coffee table in pieces on the floor, the couch was leaking of its stuffing from the arms to its backing, pictures that were once hanging from the walls were broken on the ground and beyond that many pelted walls made her house look more like a shooting range then a suburban home. As Gibbs went for the window Kate bent over and picked up a bullet with a wad of Kleenex.
"AK-47, looks like they had 75 bullet barrel attached to it, they must have emptied about 3 rounds each." She let the bullet fall to floor; oblivious of the warm blood trickling down her arm.
From the window Gibbs looked out and noticed two men walking up the driveway, and both of them barring AK-47 rifles.
"Kate, we have company!" He urgently whispered running to her side. She met his worried gaze and looked at the entrance hall to be greeted with shadows and approaching voice. Without another thought she crumpled to the ground on her back and shut her eyes. Gibbs followed suit but on his stomach. Both their legs were uphazardly placed and their hands randomly thrown around them, fingers slightly touching the others for both support and warmth.
The men came in wearing skiing mask and supporting their weapons with one arm and kicking their way through the debris leading to the bodies. They looked at the woman and the man slumped on the ground; the woman was bleeding from her arm and the man had a smear of blood on his cheek. To these miscreants it was all they needed. One of the men took out a cell phone and clicked speed dial and waited.
"You succeeded?" The mysterious man said on the other side of the phone.
"Yes it's done we just have to locate the files on the bitch's background and then Gibbs's house next." The perpetrator hung up and turned towards his companion. "Let's get this over with and split before the police get whiff of it." He turned down towards the bodies and walked to their slightly adjoining hands and kicked their hands apart with his steel toe boot. He made his way towards the outdoors and decided to wait for his compadre.
White-hot pain seared through her hand and crept up her arm as she bit her lip gently and took a chance to open her eyes a little. She met Gibbs's steel blue ones; his tinged with concern. She shook her head lightly and shifted her head to the hallway leading towards her room. The other masked man was going through her private things. Gibbs seemed to have read her mind because he whispered sternly but very quietly beside her.
"Don't even think about it Kate! That's an order!" Gibbs's eyes portrayed a certain amount of worry but the other thing she couldn't tell what is was.
"It's one thing when Tony goes through my purse or my garbage, but when some complete stranger who just happens to shoot at me and my friend goes upstairs towards my bedroom the gloves go off…sorry Gibbs for the first time you orders have fallen on deaf ears." She didn't give him any warning but she merely held his bruising hand from where the masked man had kicked it and laid a gentle yet brief kiss on the tip and took out her gun from behind her back and tip-toed down the hall and up the stairs gun off safety and held towards the ceiling.
Gibbs looked at his fingers dazed for a second before he realized what had happened and he hurriedly yet quietly got up and chassed after her. Running what she had said over in his head repeatedly. "…shoot at me and my friend" She had said friend, not boss, but friend.
Kate reached the door jamb to her room and found the creep going through her drawers. Now that's the last stray! She advanced on him slowly and held out her gun just as he opened her underwear drawer and withdrew a laced bra she jabbed the nozzle in his neck.
"Drop it asshole!" Kate yelled, the man dropped the 'offensive piece of undergarment' and threw his hands up in the air. Gibbs came in right at that point and hit the AK-47 clear across the room. He took the man by his throat and slammed him backwards against the far wall.
"Found what you were looking for dirtbag!" Gibbs growled as he watched from the corner of his eyes Kate level her gun with the man's forehead, right between the eyes.
The guy just hastily smiled from behind the mask and chuckled.
"You think you're so smart do you Special Agent Gibbs?" Kate and Gibbs both knew that voice all too well. With the hand that wasn't clutching at the man's throat Gibbs tore off the mask and snarled.
"Tim McGraw, I was beginning to wonder when I would see you slimy-ass face again." Gibbs retorted venomously.
Kate approached weapon still poised in her hands, she stopped inches from the assailants face until the coolness of the nozzle could be felt against his skin.
"Thought I got rid of you two" He said between breaths.
"Sorry to disappoint you McGraw, but I couldn't stand to give you the satisfaction." Kate said menacingly between her teeth.
"On the contrary Special Agent Todd, you have not disappointed me at all; I never knew you for a quitter, especially since those incidents on Air Force One do you remember?" Gibbs kept his hand tightly around the man's throat but shot a quick glance at Kate.
"How could I forget? Well now at least it will be an opportune moment for revenge." She said menacingly. It was then that Tim started to laugh hysterically.
"You really think I wasn't ready for this?" He cackled evilly "You're both very popular to a lot of people you know. All of them would love to have both your heads on their wall." He said and lashed against Gibbs's restraints. Gibbs held tight and listened intently.
"What do you mean…we both have green lights on us?" Kate said surprised as she glared at him the most dangerous looking glare Gibbs had ever seen her do, it left his in the dust. She gently pulled back the trigger until a bullet slid in place in the chamber.
"Exactly, wow Gibbs, your Golden Girl's a smart cookie isn't she?" McGraw said as he struggled harder. This time he loosened Gibbs grip and slammed his knee in Gibbs's stomach hard. Gibbs's dropped to one knee and stiffened when he felt the nozzle against his left temple.
"See how fast the tables can turn Katie?" He said as he dug the gun in his temple until little dots appeared in his vision. "So what is it gonna be Katie? Save your boy toy or kill the bad guy, you're a trained Secret Service agent I'll leave the choice to you. Tick-tock Todd clock's ticking."
Author's Note: Surprised myself with the length of this one yippy! Please don't hesitate I can take the good with the bad