Gibbs stayed in the elevator when Tony departed. He felt it was best if he weren't there. He know how emotionally fragile Tony was feeling. As he saw Tony walk into a room being guarded by FBI agents, he pressed the ground button.

Tony looked into the room. The first thing he saw was a man stood outside a curtain, which was closed.

"DiNozzo, NCIS", he said holding up his badge.

"what does NCIS have to do with this?"

"need to know, and you don't", replied an agitated Tony.

"woah, sorry, just doing my job"

"I know"

Tony moved towards the curtain and peeped round the opening.

And there she was.

Angela was curled up in the bed quietly sobbing to herself.

"Angie?"

"I wouldn't bother" shouted the FBI agent. "She hasn't said a word since waking up".

"She might respond to me"

"Why?"

Tony shot him a scathing look.

"Right, need to know" he said holding his hands up. Tony turned back to her.

"Angie?" he said but this time, putting a hand on her back and half sitting on the bed.

Angela reacted to the touch. She turned her head round and her eyes widened when she realised who was sat next to her.

"Tony?"

"Yeah, its me" he said with a half-smile.

She sat up next to him.

"Why are you here?"

"Phillips sent me a ransom video at work"

"Where do you work?" she asked quietly.

"NCIS", she looked at him questioningly, "Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It's a federal agency"

"I see"

The conversation was then followed by silence. Until Tony asked the inevitable question.

"Angie, erm, why didn't you tell me about her?" he said with small tears forming in his eyes.

She looked him in the eye, also with tears, "I don't know Tony. I was young and scared and felt you wouldn't have been interested and… maybe none of this would have happened"

And with those words, she cried even more than she had since waking up. Tony pulled her into a hug, and both let their emotions fully take over…

Gibbs looked on as he saw Tony comforting Angela and thought back to the conversation in the elevator. He knew he was hard on him but the last thing he needed was for Tony to give in to his anger and his confusion. He pressed the button in the elevator and made his way to his car.

Just as he started the ignition, his phone began to ring.

"yeah, Gibbs"

Gibbs recognized Fornell's voice, "We're based a couple of blocks from the house"

"Tobias, are you going on without me?"

"David has volunteered to go on with the mission"

"NO, Tobias, I am going to do it"

"too late Gibbs, things are already in motion. Petrov and the most important people in the cell are in this house. Hitting it with a SWAT team would eradicate it AND Peter is going to escape"

"but-"

And in the background, Gibbs heard a shower of gunfire in the distance"

"gotta go" and Fornell hung up.

Ziva was pinned down by gunfire behind an armchair. Well, "pinned down" in the sense that she could easily kill the man shooting at her but that wasn't the plan.

Seconds later, the man shooting suddenly grabbed her arm and lifted her up. Ziva recognized him as Peter.

"David?" whispered Peter.

"it is pronounced Dah-veed actually"

"Sorry. But we can't stop and chatl, time to go. Sorry if I hurt you at any point but-"

"it is necessary I know"

Peter then roughly smacked Ziva across the face, effectively knocking her out. And as the black took over Ziva, all she could think of was Tony…

Gibbs arrived at the street where Fornell was based. He was fuming. He knew that the gunfight had already finished because he could here the sirens of the ambulances in the distance. And the feeling in his gut was not a good one.

"Fornell, why did you send of my team into that house?"

"actually I sent two"

"you sent McGee in there as well? Why?"

"well, he is a field agent, it is what he is supposed to do"

Gibbs was truly speechless.

After a silence between the two that was only broken by the continuing sound of sirens.

"was it successful?"

"Alexei Petrov is dead, as are all his main men. Peter has just confirmed that he has "kidnapped" Officer David and that he and another member of the cell escaped. They should be arriving at the location of the hostage. The cell could easily rise again. Alexander Green's sentence ends soon"

"why couldn't he just tell you where she is?"

"he says that he doesn't thoroughly know where. This is why he is with the other member, because this guy DOES know"

"they never make it easy"

"that's the fun of the game"

"I'll make sure Tony and Angela know that when they bury their daughter", Gibbs said in a rather sinister tone.

"Don't be so dramatic Jethro. I'm on my way there now. You coming?"

"on my way"

By the time they reached the house, a lot of people were gathered round, intrigued by what was going on. Or "nosey" as Gibbs liked to call them.

The first thing that caught Gibb's eye was a familiar face: Tim McGee, on a gurney, heading for an ambulance… torso covered in blood.