Chapter 15 - So Close
McGee's PDA beeped an alert as a new weather forecast popped up onto the screen. McGee read it and smiled. "Guys, guess what? Apparently the storm has changed directions; it's headed for Ohio instead. It's going far enough west that most of it will miss Mohnton!" he exclaimed.
"That's great, Tim," Kate said from the front seat of the Suburban. They drove for another thirty minutes before anyone spoke.
Kate broke the silence, "Ok Tony, according to these directions, take the next left, and then it's about 5 more miles until we get to a fork in the road."
Those last five miles seemed to take forever. Tony eventually pulled the SUV to a stop and they all jumped out.
"This way!" Kate yelled as she sprinted off into the woods. She began yelling as she ran, "Gibbs! Gibbs where are you?"
'My God, she runs fast,' Tony thought as he followed Kate's tracks in the snow. McGee was right behind him; Abby and Ducky were close behind carrying blankets and a first aid kit.
Kate stopped as she made her way into a clearing. Sitting there, covered with snow, was a yellow snowmobile. Kate looked at the directions she were clutching in her fist. 'He should be around here,' she thought. "Gibbs! Can you hear me?" she yelled, then stopped and listened for any reply. There was no response.
"Kate, anything?" Tony asked as he came into the clearing where Kate was standing.
Kate shook her head as McGee came down the path, followed by Abby and Ducky. McGee could tell by the look on Kate's face that they still hadn't found any sign of Gibbs.
Kate looked down at the directions again. "This is it, there aren't anymore directions. He has to be close by!"
Tony nodded and headed off into the woods. "Ok guys, fan out," he said over his shoulder. Kate went in the opposite direction of Tony.
McGee looked at the snowmobile and made a face. "Abby, don't you think that's a little out of place?" he asked as he pointed to the sled. He walked over to it and brushed the snow off from it's frame. "This is pretty nice… and new, too. I don't think someone would just leave it out here. And those two guys never mentioned anything about snowmobiles."
Abby was about to make a smart comment to McGee when something colorful caught her eye. She walked to the edge of the clearing. "Hey guys, come take a look at this," she yelled back to McGee and Ducky. They came over to Abby as she said, "Look at this yellow rope. I think it leads down this hill," she said as she grabbed the rope and began to descend. Once she had made it to the bottom, Abby began to look around. "McGee! Get your butt down here, I think I found something!"
Ducky looked at the young field agent. "Go Timothy, I'll go get the others."
McGee backed slowly down the steep hill. "Abby?" he yelled.
"Over here!" Abby answered. "Look McGee."
McGee took the frozen rope pieces that Abby had been holding. Examining them, he noticed that someone had burned through the rope. Abby was also holding a backpack. On it were the initials 'T.L.H.'.
"Hey! Where are you two?" Tony yelled to Abby and McGee.
"Over here!" McGee answered back as Tony, Kate, andDucky came up next to them.
"Guys, I think whoever's backpack this is also left their snowmobile up there," she said as she pointed back up to the clearing. "And this rope has been burned through. But look here," she took the rope back from McGee and walked over to the tree where she had found it. "If Gibbs was tied to this tree, then someone else would have had to have burned through this rope!"
Kate shook her head in disbelief. She was positive that they would have found Gibbs out here. She was seriously beginning to think that they would never find him. "Abby, how can you be happy? We still don't know where Gibbs is. Or if he's even alive," she said as her face fell and her eyes filled with tears.
Abby went to Kate and put her hands on her shoulders. "Kate, look at me. Gibbs is alive. Someone has him. Now all we have to do is go back to those houses we passed and canvas the neighborhood. And, I mean, come on. There were only like 10 houses. He's gonna be in one of those, ok? Just believe, Kate, and The Big Man upstairs will take care of the rest," she smiled, pointing up to the sky.
Kate smiled back at Abby and hugged her. "Thanks Abby, I needed that," she whispered to her.
The team headed back in the direction of the Suburban. There were positive that it would only be a matter of time before they found their fearless leader.
A/N: Sorry guys. I couldn't do the usual 2 chapter update this time. I picked dumb classes this semester and all of the profs are evil - they find it fun to assign a lot of crap!