"Come on!" Kate shouted into the empty space before her.

No one responded to her call, not a single person came to shut her up (which spoke volumes about how alone they must be here), the same as all the other times she had screamed out her frustrations before now. She yanked her arm up, out hard once more, tested the strength of the chain at its far end. It too held strong against the repeated action. The only thing that had changed in the passing hours (or so it seemed to Kate) was the state of her wrist. It had quickly progressed from simply tender, to raw with blood pooling where the cuff bit into her skin. Kate couldn't bring herself to care about that. Or much of anything, actually. She struggled to think beyond Gibbs' body across the room, and how she had to fight back tears every time her eyes fell over it.

Kate exhaled a growl. She lowered her arm to the cool concrete below, and dropped her body back to rest against the wall behind her. She relaxed into her exhaustion, but carefully ignored it beyond that. It wouldn't take much to give in, to slip back into the deepness of sleep. She rolled her head forward instead, tried to force the muscles in her neck to give up a little of their tension.

She had already taken the time to catalog her injuries after she had woken up, found them to be mostly superficial, outside of the wound to the side of her skull. It felt fairly deep when her fingers had brushed over it, left her with a lingering headache (and likely a concussion) but the bleeding had stopped a while back. Kate felt confident that it wouldn't be the end of her.

Bigger things to think about

She had tried, in the hours she'd spent awake-between searching for something to pick their locks with, and attempting to force Gibbs back into the world-to fill in the gaps between their last moments in the bedroom and waking up in here. It remained out of her reach. The last thing Kate could recall was Gibbs fighting back, reaching out for her in the darkness. She didn't think she'd ever be able to forget how she felt in that moment, or the fear he had worn so honestly before it had all faded into nothing.

You shouldn't have fought back, Gibbs. Maybe then...

The thought left her breathless. She needed to see his chest rise and fall just one more time to believe that they hadn't erased him from the world in one horrible moment. Kate scooted forward slowly, tried to keep her stomach in balance-there were no liquids to replace any she lost. She moved out until her arm burned against the angle, the stretch, and hung useless in the air behind her. Kate twisted, leaned, until she didn't have another inch to give and laid her fingers against his foot.

"Gibbs," she said, blinking back tears once more. She pinched against the skin she could reach, soothed it away with her fingertips. " Damn it, you can't do this to me. You're tougher than this. Too stubborn to die now." Kate looked down at his face. " Please, Gibbs."

She watched him, waited. Kate counted seconds, added in minutes, and still managed to feel surprised when he failed to respond to her words. She sighed, shifted back away from him. The pain in her shoulder faded away first, but she didn't stop her retreat until her back bumped into her wall.

Kate let out a long breath. She looked around the barn for at least the hundredth time. The only light they had, fell across the floor between them, allowed in by the gap between the sliding door and the wood above. The air in here smelled, as if a thousand animals had once shared this space, so thick she could taste it if she breathed in too deeply.

Reality was cold, and hard, and oh-so-rank. It wouldn't go away if she ignored it-not that she hadn't spent a few indulgent moments trying like hell to do just that-and Kate refused to give in to the fear that kept bubbling up inside her.

"I've been thinking, Gibbs, "Kate said, leaning forward until she could see him clearly. "About how none of this makes any sense to me. I'd get killing us, right? It would fit, we're a couple-well, you know- pretending to be a couple anyway. We fit his pattern as such, yet, here we are. Alive. So, why? Why aren't we dead, Gibbs?"

The rational part of her brain suggested that no one intelligent would question their good fortune-if you could call it that- and wanted her to be nothing but grateful that they were both here alive. The rest of it couldn't settle down, refused to stop trying to think it over, even when she didn't have a lot of power to throw at the problem before her.

Kate bit into her lip, it cracked under her assault. Maybe this would be their end, the envisioned one anyway. Maybe it was meant to be a slow death, torture, hours crawling away from them until their bodies couldn't hold out a moment longer. That still didn't fit though, didn't belong in the picture they'd been painting before everything went hinky.

She thought of Abby, and smiled. God, she missed her, them. Where the hell are they? Kate sighed, tilted her head back, winced at the movement. She wouldn't sleep, couldn't sleep, just needed a moment to-

Kate's head jerked up, and her stomach rolled. A chain had been moving. She slowly lifted her arm, her brain struggling to catch up. She heard the sound again, saw movement across the room. Gibbs. Kate heard his groan, deep and full of pain, and she let out a breath that sounded closer to a sob than she would care to admit.

"Gibbs," She said, scooting forward as quickly as she could manage.

She ignored the sharp pain that came when she tugged her arm to a stop too quickly, and he looked up at her. It was more than worth any amount of pain to see his eyes open. Gibbs blinked a few times, reached up to rub a hand over his face, before he looked down to his own chain on his other arm.

When he looked back up at her, his expression was one of fear and relief and she felt confident she looked exactly the same.

"Been bleedin', Kate," he said, and she watched his throat move as he struggled to swallow a few times. "I don't feel-"

The sentence ended sharply, with a deep inhale from him, and he moved-faster than she would have expected from someone who had spent the last few hours in something close to a coma. He rolled up on his knees, dropped his palms hard against the concrete, fingers spread wide to hold his weight. Another noise of pain rolled off him, before he began to dry-heave. By the time he stopped, even her ribs felt the ache, but he had nothing in his stomach to leave behind on their floor.

Tears rolled down both cheeks, and now that she had let them out, she didn't know how to convince them to stop. He slowly seemed to calm, curled his fingers up into his palms and rested there a few moments. Finally, he shifted his weight around until he was on his butt, stretched out and facing her again. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, and the circles beneath his eyes were the darkest she had ever seen. Don't even think about dying on me, Gibbs.

It seemed to take forever, but he finally met her eyes again. He looked her over carefully, searching out something.

"The hell they give me?" he asked. "You okay?"

She didn't know how to answer either of those questions, so she settled for a quick nod.

"What about you?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

"Alive," he said, shifting his weight, looking around them. "Been better. More worried 'bout you."

It was so him, so stupidly selfless and unaware that maybe he mattered too. She wanted to slap him, and kiss him, and thankfully couldn't do either.

"I tried...looking for a way out," she said, and his eyes moved back to her at once. "Something to pick the locks, a weakness somewhere."

She couldn't believe how proud he looked for a moment, as if he didn't even try to hide it from her. She always wanted that, for him to express it instead of burying it, and now he did-in the face of their potential deaths. He might actually be the most frustrating man in the universe.

"I know ya did, Kate," he said, his tone gentle, voice gravely from dehydration. "Course you did, you're smart. Clever."

Kate blinked. The clear expression of pride had been one thing, nearly understandable really-a simple 'if there's no other chance to say it' sort of thing- but Gibbs didn't do compliments. At least not any so direct. What had they done to him?

"Gibbs," she said, trying to think of a way to ask that he wouldn't just completely shrug off. "You're really okay? How are you feeling? What's hurt?"

He'd been on the move again, getting a good look around them, prodding at the cuff of his chain. If he pulled out a knife from his pajamas, she might just marry him.

"Fine, Katie," he said, stopping again. He lowered his arm, stretched to fill in as much of the gap between them as he could. "Head hurts like hell. Whatever they gave me isn't settlin' right.

That was far more of an answer than she had been expecting, anyway.

Kate nodded, watched him as they faded back into silence. She didn't want it, didn't know how to stomach it now that he was awake, but couldn't think of a single good reason to pull him out of his thoughts. She'd been awake for far longer, it was only fair he got a chance to catch up.

Gibbs solved the problem for her.

"What do you remember, Kate?" Gibbs asked, lowering his head to look at her.

She closed her eyes. She had to push past the headache and haze to pick out the unbroken bits of memory. "Going to bed, again. You know, after we searched. I was asleep. I heard something, felt something. You were pulled out of bed first, I was pinned down. There were two of them, I think. They were fast, like they had it all planned. Knew they could get us."

Gibbs let out an exhale.

"How did they get past McGee and Tony, Gibbs?" she asked, regretted the accusation in her own voice.

Gibbs shook his head, stretched a bit farther and curled his fingers around hers.

"I don't know, Kate," he said, sighing. "Still tryin' to work it all out myself."

Abby

Beep. Abby opened her eyes at the sound, jerked her head off the desk, and her body followed the movement up. Her mind took a few more sluggish moments to catch up, to remember everything that had happened. Not that she had wanted to linger in that sleep, anyway-or even a moment longer in that dream. Nothing in this world would feel right again until Gibbs and Kate made it home.

She glanced over her shoulder, searching out which machine had been the first to finish processing the new evidence-which one had saved her from her own twisted mind for a few minutes more. Abby spotted it, then rolled her neck with a small sigh. She hated falling asleep at her desk, hadn't seen her own bed in days. Still, nothing compared to what Kate and Gibbs were likely going through.

Next to her, McGee remained somewhere in his dreams, arms up on her desk. He had one folded over the other, a makeshift pillow for him to use. He seemed smaller to her, younger, and exactly like someone had reached out and shredded the last of his innocence with one quick strike. It'd been a long time since she'd felt that way herself, but she still remembered it clearly. At least in his sleep, for a few short moments, his face lost some stress and the guilt he'd been wearing since he arrived in her lab searching for some kind of absolution.

Not your fault, McGee

She should actually tell him that at some point, actually break down and say those words. Even if, in the darker moments, she sure wanted to blame him and Tony and even herself.

Abby shifted, leaned her weight over McGee (who muttered something unintelligible) and grabbed the nearly empty cup from hours before. She slurped up the last few precious drops of Caf-Pow, before tossing it down into the trash. Even watered down, the taste remained a comfort. She stood, stretched, then rubbed at her eyes. Abby still felt the clinging grasp of sleep, but she had no more time to offer it right now.

She stepped away, finished up the rest of her work with the blood, before returning to the desk. Abby leaned forward, laid her fingers over her keyboard, and brought up the information.

Her breath rushed out of her-undeniable results filled her screen.

The first two were matches and, well, they were exactly as expected. She already had prepared herself, was ready to compare their blood against the results, from the moment the evidence had been unloaded.

Kate's blood had been the one to soak deeply into the pillow. The thought of her friend hurt, and scared, and alone, grabbed at Abby. It made her heart race, and left her wanting to find the person who had hurt her-them- and rip them apart. And Gibbs. Gibbs' blood had been the stain on the carpet that she had stopped to stare at, while Tony rubbed her back and murmured words of comfort.

The last result though- that was the game changer.

"McGee," Abby said, smacking her hand against his shoulder at once. "McGee, wake up. Come on, Tim."

"Ouch, Abby," McGee muttered, sitting up and rubbing a hand over where she had slapped him. "What? What's going on?"

She pointed at the screen, and he narrowed his eyes, and then looked at her. McGee stood up, a small smile tugging at his lips. Relief. Hope.

"Find out if it's Ajax's, Abby," McGee said, turning for the door.

"Won't take long," Abby agreed, getting back to work.

"I'll get Tony down here," he said, pausing. "And good work, Abby."

Abby stopped in the silence, looked back over her shoulder at the now empty lab. Gibbs should be walking in, should already know she had something new to share. He would be quick to soothe away the constant burn in her veins, from the lack of sleep, with a fresh source of energy-with his own willpower lent to those around him. He should be the one to tell her she had done a good job, smile that proud smile. Nothing else would ever be an acceptable substitution.

Tony should still be here.

Abby sighed, and got back to work.

Gibbs

They weren't waiting on a rescue, exactly-though he'd gladly take one right about now. He'd get them out of here (well, probably Kate would get them out of here) in time, he just needed a bit longer to rest. If he could just convince the pain behind his eyes to stop doubling up his vision, that'd be a fine place to start. And maybe, if his stomach would settle a bit more, he might be able to process bigger thoughts. He might be able to come up with a way to break them free from their chains, and escape from this place.

Where the hell are we?

Gibbs didn't believe for one moment they were on their own in this fight. Teams would be out there (his included) looking for them, figuring out where everything went wrong. People, a lot of whom were smarter than he gave them credit for, would be working to get them back. And while Gibbs had a few words to say to his team, he wasn't free of guilt. He'd missed something, let himself relax too much. Someone had gotten too close, and it had hurt them. Hurt Kate. Maybe, if they made it out of here, he'd just call this whole mess even-long as he got to deal with their kidnappers personally.

In the meantime, he just tilted his head back. He kept his eyes and mouth closed, and prayed he didn't say something incredibly stupid while the drug burned itself the rest of the way out of his system. A few hours, then they'd make a move. A few hours-

"It'll be dark soon," Kate said. He heard her shuffling, the sound of her chain. A long sigh.

His head was killing him, everything seemed to hurt, but he felt helpless to do anything but open his eyes and look at her again. I'm so glad you're alive, Katie. So damn glad. She'd moved back to the wall earlier, they both had to take a break and ease the stretch of their bound arms. He'd been reluctant to leave the space they could both reach, to lessen his ability to see her so clearly, but she'd been insistent that he rest a little. He'd given in far too fast.

"C'mere, Kate," he said, reaching out. He scooted again, until he knew he could reach her hand. It was enough. "Not givin' up are you?"

"No," she said, moving back into the light. She reached across this time, wrapped her fingers around his. Her hand felt too warm, and he searched her face. "I'm just not sure what to do.. I want-I can't figure this out, Gibbs. I'm trying-but I can't..."

He looked her over sadly. Her cheek had finished bruising, dark and up around her temple. He clenched his jaw. She looked pale, and tired, and she had every reason to be on the verge of giving up-even if she was too stubborn to realize it yet. He wouldn't lose her to this, couldn't lose her to this.

"Gonna be fine, Kate," he said, squeezing her hand. "Listen. If ya get the chance, if I can't-you run. Don't look back."

She blinked in his direction. He wanted her to agree, needed her to see that he would always choose her to get out instead of him, if it came down to that. He'd lost enough, no way in hell was he adding Kate to that list if it could be helped.

"Yeah, not happening, Gibbs," she finally said.

He recognized the familiar narrowing of her eyes, the way her face tightened, and she shot him an almost-glare. She might not be at full strength at the moment, but it still nearly made him backtrack, revise.

Nearly.

"You're so stubborn," he said, fighting the clench of his jaw. "God, you're so damn stubborn, you know? You're so-it's no wonder that I- that I...hired you. You're just..."

He stopped himself short, closed his mouth with a rough exhale. Whatever they had given him had done more than just leave him nauseous and weak. He'd been struggling to keep the persistent thoughts about Kate from actually forming into words, and pouring out into her general direction. He'd ruined that now. The smart part of him wanted to avoid looking at her, the rest of him didn't give a damn what that part wanted. He needed to see her.

She stared at him, let out a long breath and drew it in again. A tear rolled down her cheek, and he squeezed her hand gently.

He didn't dare give his mouth free rein, not until he felt certain that he could be the Gibbs that she expected to be-to be the Gibbs she needed him to be.

"I'm not going to leave you, Gibbs," she said, eyes lifting to meet his.

He nodded, ran his thumb over her fingers. Gibbs let out a shaky breath.

"I know, Kate," he finally allowed himself to say. "I know."