Hidden Enemy

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: Someone attacks Kate, almost killing her. Why is her blood found on Gibbs´ shirt and just why is his DNA under her nails?

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3- Lab work

Abby was working on a shirt stained with blood. Nobody had told her why, but she knew to whom it belonged anyway. The smell of sawdust and coffee stuck to all his clothes anyway. She cut a piece out and put it into the separator. Her hands were shaking as she did so, being worried about this as nobody actually told her why she did this. She had to isolate the blood to get a possible DNA match later on. The elevator opened and Tony came in. "Hey, Abby. Ducky wants you to run this blood. Gibbs just collapsed in interrogation and Ducky wants to make sure he hasn´t been drugged or anything. Has been acting weird, if you ask me. I never saw Gibbs having a blank." He told her and threw a small vial with blood at her.

Abby caught it andmanaged a smile. "He never had a blank in his life -believe me, I would know." She said and put the blood sample on the desk for a moment. The fabric was in the thermocycler and she was just waiting for the results. "What´s going on, Tony? First I get called in on Christmas day, they bring his shirt down here without telling me it´s his and tell me to get the DNA from that blood. I heard Kate´s been hurt..." She seemed confused and he pulled her into a hug.

"Kate was stabbed last night. She´s at the hospital now. Ducky is seeing her at this moment, I think. Police found skin under her nails and it matches Gibbs. He was arrested at home, still wearing that shirt with all the blood on it. Morrow wants us to investigate, so that´s what we´ll do, okay? We need to be careful with all of this, Abbs. He´d want us to be thorough." He replied and looked up as the analyzing device gave a beep.

She nodded, still looking a bit pale and put the results on screen, biting her lip immediately. "The blood matches Kate." She just whispered and buried her face in her hands. This was a nightmare. All evidence was speaking a plain language and it was not in his favor.

Tony took her shoulders. "Check another sample -every single stain if you have to. If there´s as much as a pinch of other DNA on that shirt, I want to know. They said that Kate was stabbed by someone from the driver side of the car, so check the marks if the direction is right or whatever you can think of. He didn´t do it, Abbs, that´s what I think. We just need to find evidence that will support that." He told her and returned to the bullpen. Mallard and McGee were waiting for him.

"Jethro has been brought to Bethesda. He´ll be kept under constant observation for the time being. It looks like a shock, but they will run his blood to be sure." The doctor said and looked troubled.

"The blood on his shirt matches Kate. Gee, I mean, everything looks like he really did it, doesn´t it?" Dinozzo said and dropped onto his chair, brushing through his hair.

"I talked to the witnesswho saw his car. She saiditwasparked behind Kate´s car around 1:45 am. She just walked by with her dog and didn´t see more, but she remembers a black sedan that would match his pretty good. They got a tire print too and it matches the all-seasons he got on his car too. Doesn´t look good, Tony." McGee said and sighed. They had been through bad cases before, but none had been so straining on any of them. It was barely 10 am and he felt like working through the whole night already. "I wish Kate was here to help us..." He pulled out the report from the police again. "I´m lost here, Tony... I try to see a shred of evidence telling us that he didn´t do it, but there´s none."

Tony just nodded. "Let´s go down to the lab. We have to put our heads together with Abby. Maybe her analysis will bring something up. Ducky should be at the hospital for the next few hours." He said and got up. For some reason, he felt tired and worn out already, eventhough it wasn´t quite noon yet. It wasn´t from not sleeping much or having a few drinks, this was different.

There was no music in the lab, which was really odd. Abby sat at her desk and looked at something on the screen. "What you got there, Abbs?" Dinozzo asked and she looked up.

"I´m not sure. There´s something in his blood that shouldn´t be there. I asked the hospital to take another sample and send me the results on it plus I checked with our medical department to get the results from the checkup two months ago. Still waiting for those. I mean, he could have thrown in some Tylenol or anything, but it could be something different as well. How´s it going for you?" She asked and tossed two candy bars at her colleagues. None of them had taken time for breakfast today, so she had pulled out her emergency kit consisting of lots of chocolate.

"Not very much, just putting the picture together." Tony said and pulled a large whiteboard out from behind a curtain. He took the pen and started to write down all information they had so far. "The witness saw Kate´s and Gibbs´ car parked in front of her apartment around 1:45 am. Hospital says she was attacked around 2 am, give or take 10 minutes. Gibbs didn´t remember anything about last night from when he left the building for a short moment. That was after Abby did her table dance...I remember looking at my watch around that time and it was 1 am. It´s a 20 minute drive to Kate´s place. Kate left around 1:30 am. None of them had so much to drink to be unable to drive -most drinks were non-alcoholic anyway." He said and put times and places onto the board. It was going to be a long day and all those happy thoughts usually associated with Christmas were gone.