A Dare, Or Something More Sinister?

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS... I'm just taking the characters for a spin!

Author's Notes: Thank-you all for the reviews, I'm glad you all like it... as always a few more wouldn't go unnoticed! Please!

This chapter is a bit shorter than the rest of them, but hopefully the upcoming chapters will more than make up for it.

And of course, again a gigantic thankyou to Kate for her fantastic inspiration and fantastic work!

Tony finished talking with the captain of the ship and turned to Kate who was pacing back and forth. Tony sighed and approached her, "Kate?" he asked, but got no response. "Kate?" this time she looked at him

"He shouldn't have gone off on his own. He should have taken one of us with him" she replied

"We both know he would never have allowed that. He's been doing this for 19 years, Kate" Tony said, putting his hands on her shoulders, "We're gonna find him, we're gonna get him back"

"Yeah, preferably alive and well" Kate replied, "And asking for coffee"

Tony smirked, "But then he'd lose the bet"

Kate gave a small smile, "He'd better be ok, otherwise I gonna have to kick his ass" she said, then looked down

Tony watched her, then pulled her into to a hug and rested his chin on her head, "He'll be fine, everything's gonna be okay. We'll have him back in no time," he said, trying to lighten her mood, "He'll be demanding coffee and be his normal grumpy self in no-time"

They stood there as one for a moment, gathering their thoughts, then slowly pulled out of each others grasp. Kate sighed and nodded her thanks at Tony.

"In the meantime, however, I have declared him MIA" Tony said, "And as I am the senior field agent, I'm coordinating the search. The captain has said he'd give us his full cooperation, he's gonna lend us a few officers to help with the search. Gibbs is on this ship somewhere, we are going to find him" Tony emphasized each word. "Brown's cabin has already been checked, nobody is there. Nobody leaves the ship without our okay either. We're checking the cabins near the top of the ship first, the ones with the higher ranking officers, then working our way down. Any questions?"

McGee sighed; it'd been a long day. He threw the paper from his lunch to the bin and missed. He'd have to work on that, he thought as he got up from his chair and put the paper in the bin. He looked up at the clock and stretched, 3 o'clock, he yawned and wondered if the rest of the team had turned up anything on the ship. He went back to his computer and sat down, looking back at the screen. The words all merged into one, completely indistinguishable, McGee frowned, and focused on the screen. Eventually he coaxed the words back to their rightful place and started reading again. He sighed again, this was getting him nowhere fast. He looked back at the clock, only 5 minutes had passed. He wondered if the clock had the ability to go backwards, he watched as the second hand made its way around the clock, going so slowly it almost stopped. The hand lingered on the 4, for a bit longer than usual, then moved forwards again, then stopped. McGee frowned as the hand didn't move forwards again, he couldn't have made time stop, he continued staring at the clock, the hand didn't move. He slowly tore his eyes away from the clock and looked around the office, half-expecting to see everybody frozen in place. But he was slightly surprised to see people still moving, he looked back at the clock. The hand was still slightly over the 4. He raised his eye-brows; it must have run out of batteries. He shook his head and got up, heading for the elevator, being with Abby always made the time go faster, he thought with a smile.

"Tony this is pointless" Kate snapped as they shut the door to what seemed like this thousandth cabin

"Do you have a better idea, Kate?" Tony snapped back, as he banged on another door to another cabin "NCIS, open up!" he yelled

"We are wasting time, Tony" Kate replied as Tony banged on the door again

Before Tony could reply, the door opened and a sailor looking like he'd just woken up stood in the doorway, in only his boxers.

"What do ya want?" the sailor asked

"Looking for either of these men" Tony said, holding up pictures of Gibbs and Brown

"Never seen 'em" the sailor replied without looking at the pictures, moving to close the door

"We don't have time for this" Kate scowled

Tony rolled his eyes, wedging his foot in the door, kicking it open and drawing his gun "To the back of the room, now!" he shouted, loosing his patience

The sailor put up his hands and did as he was commanded, muttering under his breath. Tony and Kate moved in and searched the cabin, looking for any sign of their lost team mate.

As one they found nothing and left the room, heading to the next, knowing they wouldn't find anything. "Tony, this is pointless" Kate repeated, more to herself than to him

"Don't you think I know that, Kate? We have nothing! He's not answering his cell! He hasn't left us a note saying where he is! He could be anywhere on this goddamn boat! It could take weeks to search this place! I'm handling this, the best way I know how! So, if you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it!" he snapped. They were standing out the front of the next cabin.

Kate stared at Tony after his outburst, she hadn't realised it had affected him this much. She looked at the door in front of them, "Well, I don't have a better way" she said, pulling out her gun again "But I have a faster way". With that, Kate kicked open the door, yelling "NCIS, against the wall, now!"

That's it for chapter 15... I hope you like it! Please review, please!