Earlier That Day
Kate didn't know why she had accepted his invitation to dance with him. She knew that, with all that she felt inside, the appropriate response would have been to tell him that she was tired or to refuse because of their mission to protect the admiral.
But instead she had taken his hand and allowed him to lead her to the middle of the room where other couples had been dancing.
At first, both of them had remained silent when he had pulled her closer and they started to move with the music.
Kate wasn't able to look at him, although she could feel his eyes resting on her. The feelings inside her were too strong and she was afraid that they were reflected in her eyes – open for him to read.
Gibbs had always had the gift of knowing exactly, what was going on in the heads of his subordinates – and what was going through her mind was something that she really didn't want him to know. It was enough to fill a feature length porn movie – an erotic, romantic one of course. Not one of those dirty ones that Tony most likely watched.
She had been so focused on not letting her guard down, that he had sensed her tension. Of course he had no idea that he was the reason for it – at least she hoped he hadn't.
When she had accidentally stepped on his foot, murmuring a hasty apology and explaining that she hadn't danced in a long time, he had eventually bend to her ear, pulling her closer.
"Loosen up, Kate. Just let me lead," he had requested softly and just that softness in his voice was the reason why she had finally looked at him, half surprised, half fascinated by this new side of him – a side she had thought she would never see.
For a moment she had still tried to fight this feeling of drowning in his eyes, then she had surrendered to his lead and given up all her control. And suddenly it had felt so easy and natural to dance with him, to follow his steps and his directions.
She had started to chat casually with him; softly and flirtatious, the way that she sometimes did and that had made him smile. She had complimented him on being an excellent dancer and he had informed her, rather dryly, that he used to dance regularly with his first wife. She knew that it meant a lot, even if it was only a tiny piece of information. For Gibbs, who never really talked about his private life, it was a huge revelation and she gratified him with a soft, open smile.
When the music had finally stopped, she had felt all dizzy and flushed – and drugged from his scent and the warmth of his body so close to her. It had taken some time for both of them to realize, that he was still holding her close, although the other couples were already making their ways back to the tables they were seated at.
Slightly embarrassed, Kate had brought distance between them and turned around to catch herself and be able to focus on the case again.
And that was when she had realized that something was wrong. At first she hadn't been able to determine what exactly disturbed her, but when she had sobered up from the dose of pheromones, that was circulating through her bloodstream, she had realized just what it was.
"Gibbs, where's the admiral?" she had asked and after a short, muttered "Damned" from his part, they had separated and started to search for their protege.
In retrospect, Kate couldn't believe that she had acted like an amateur and left the man that she was tasked to protect out of her eyes. She was angry – and every minute that she couldn't find the admiral made her more furious. At herself – and at Gibbs, who had been the reason for her unawareness.
That was exactly why she had stopped her affair with Tim when she had still been working on Air Force One. And it was why she shouldn't start something with Gibbs – one of the reasons at least. Yet, the best one to finally get him out of her head and her fantasies.
She was good at her job, mainly because she was a perfectionist. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing well, that had always been her motto. She didn't perform good in her job to fulfill Gibbs' or anybody else's expectations. Her own expectations were way higher, she didn't allow herself one tiny slip – usually.
But since their kiss, she was unable to control her fantasies about her boss and she made mistakes. It had been tiny ones like spelling mistakes in reports, but it had been enough to disturb the usual professional routine that she performed her day's work with.
And now she had lost the person that she was tasked to protect, because she had danced with the man that filled her dreams at night.
Caitlin Todd hurried through the darkened floors of the hotel, here and there catching outraged or confused glances from maids who passed her by in the areas of the hotel that were meant for staff members only.
After fifteen minutes of searching every inch of the ground floor, she finally activated her microphone and informed her boss that she had been unsuccessful in finding the admiral.
Grumpily, Gibbs ordered her to return to the room upstairs and see if they found something on the footage of the surveillance cameras of the hotel. Kate sighed when, again, he didn't leave her any chance to answer but turned his microphone off.
His voice indicated that he was just as angry as she was – she just hoped that his anger wasn't directed at her. After all it had been his suggestion to dance in the first place. And obviously she had not been the only one who had gotten distracted by the dance.
She hurried up the stairs to the second floor and entered the small room that served as their personal headquarters for the time being. Gibbs was there already, leaning on the table where the computer was standing on. Intensely he stared at the screen, where McGee replayed the footage from half an hour ago.
"No sign of him," she informed at her entry and closed the door. "It is as if he just vanished."
Tony, who was sitting on the bed, made her a hasty sign to shut up and gesticulated wildly. All that Kate could understand was, that Gibbs was obviously more than outraged, and so she decided to remain silent.
Instead she sat down on the bed next to Tony and stretched her legs. Her feet were hurting from the high heels that she had been wearing all evening, and she had to fight the need to just pull them off.
All of a sudden, from the corner of her eye, she noticed that Tony was looking at her. When she turned her head, she realized that his eyes were very indecently looking down her dress. Without warning, she smacked him hard.
"Ouch," he exclaimed indignantly, shooting her one of those looks that would have made a stranger believe that he was completely innocent.
"Watch your eyes," Kate snapped and got up to join Gibbs and McGee at the table.
Tony grinned and lifted from the bed as well, casually strolling over to the desk. Interestingly he looked at the screen, where McGee replayed the security footage and watched the scene in the hall where the admiral could clearly be seen joking with two men who were standing next to him.
"You know, what I don't understand?" he finally informed his colleagues with an amused undertone. "How could you lose him in a hall like that? I mean, even a jerk would have..."
He interrupted himself when his eyes met Gibbs', and instantly wondered what had gotten into his mind to even try mocking them right now when his boss was in a mood to kill.
Gibbs was looking at him darkly, slowly lifting himself to his full size and closing the space between his subordinate and himself.
"A jerk, Dinozzo? Did you just call me a jerk?" he asked dangerously low, looking down at his younger subordinate, and Tony started to stutter and grin stupidly.
"No boss... of course not... boss... I was just joking. I mean, I'm sure everybody could have lost him... even me!"
"EVEN you, Dinozzo?" Gibbs voice betrayed that he was absolutely not in the mood for Tony's little games. It was one of those days where Tony could swear, that his boss was ready to kill people who stepped in his way. He wondered for a moment if the change in his mood had only been caused by the fact that he had lost the admiral, or if there was more behind it.
"ESPECIALLY me, boss..." he stammered hastily and Gibbs glared at him for a few more seconds, then he turned his attention back on the screen.
Tony exhaled visibly, deciding that keeping silent and not commenting on what had happened would be the best way to survive this evening.
"There," Kate suddenly murmured and pointed at a small figure on the screen who was standing at one of the entrance doors and signaling something over to the admiral. "She gives the admiral a sign – and then, here, he looks around and leaves."
Her eyes widened when the woman turned and Kate caught a full view of her face.
"That's the blonde waitress. I've seen her before. I thought I saw her passing the admiral a note earlier, but wasn't sure about it. Obviously I was right."
"What?!?" Gibbs snapped out and both, Tony and McGee, started at his tone and brought distance between them and their boss. Kate turned her head to look at Gibbs, instantly realizing that now he would reproach her for her unawareness.
"I'm sorry, I thought it was just... I mean, I observed both of them and neither of them acted suspiciously. I assumed that she had just handed him a paper towel!" she justified her decision not to say anything, although inside she wanted to kick her own butt for having been so negligent to ignore an observation and leave a possible suspect unchecked.
"You assumed, agent Todd?" Gibbs asked, dangerously leveled, and approached her. "Rule Number 5! Don't ever assume, double check! Is there anything more that you assumed and failed to inform me about?"
He didn't wait for an answer, but checked his weapon and went to the door. Kate followed him with her eyes, shocked at his rage. Then she turned her head, when Tony approached her slowly, his expression compassionate.
"Did you drink his coffee?" her colleague asked lowly and the woman looked at him somewhat incredulously, not understanding what his question had to do with their case and the admiral's whereabouts.
"What?"
"Well, I've never seen him like that – except that one day when one of the secretaries accidentally drank his coffee."
"Kate!" Gibbs barked from the door. "Move it! Tony, stop chitchatting! McGee, I expect to know everything about that waitress within five minutes."
"Yes boss," the young computer freak nodded and turned to tap the keys and access the hotel's personnel files. When his boss was that angry, he didn't want to draw the man's rage onto himself, therefore he hacked on his keys even more hastily than usual.
As usual, Gibbs didn't turn around to check whether his subordinates were following his orders. He just knew they would, and so he stormed out of the room.
Kate hurried to follow him – a task that turned out more difficult than expected, since his speed was incompatible with the high heels that she was wearing. A fact that obviously didn't concern him at all.
"Gibbs!" she requested him to slow down and when he didn't react, louder and more aggressive, "Gibbs, where are you going?"
The man stopped and turned so suddenly, that Kate almost ran directly against his chest. "We are going to search this damned hotel from top to bottom. And this time, we just won't assume anything, but follow every lead," he growled, barely hiding his rage anymore. She held his glare for a moment, and was just about to open her mouth and apologize for her negligent behavior when he turned around and continued his way through the corridor towards the stairs.
He wasn't half as angry at Kate, as he was at himself for letting his guard down during an investigation. He should have known better than to dance with her. After all the experiences that he had with women, he should have guessed that she would distract him to a point where he wouldn't be able to think professionally anymore.
Don't ever mix your personal life with your professional one, that had always been his work ethics.
He had acted against his better judgement. And it had led to them losing their protege. The last thing he wanted to do was to explain to the NCIS director, why a high ranking admiral had been killed while protected by two of NCIS' best agents.
He had to push Kate away in order to regain his professionalism. Hiding his feelings behind a mask of distance and anger was the best way to do so. Aside from that, it would be easier to forget her smile and how her body had felt against his, when he talked himself into rage.
"We can't just search the whole damned hotel like headless chicken!" he heard her snap behind him. "We would have to enter every hotel room – illegally as I might want to add and..."
"If you have a better idea, Agent Todd, I am open for suggestions. If not, any useless discussion will cost us time which we don't have!" he replied grumpily, not slowing down. They almost ran through the corridors for the next few minutes, lively engaged in a discussion about the usefulness of their disorganized search, when they were interrupted by the sound of static that filled their ears.
"Boss," McGee's voice could be heard and Gibbs growled impatiently.
"What's her name?" A glance at his watch showed him that his agents had taken more than five minutes and that didn't serve to improve his mood.
"Anna Fuentes, boss! She has been maid in this hotel for about three months, but before that she lived in the States." McGee informed him hastily, then he was interrupted by Dinozzo's voice.
"Guess where, boss!"
"Dinozzo!" Gibbs barked angrily, not in the mood for one of the man's guessing games.
"DC, boss. She lived in DC. And she knows the admiral, but he probably doesn't know her." Tony hurried to explain, before McGee took over again.
"Her sister was engaged to a Commander Wilson. She killed herself four months ago. I ran a background check on Wilson. He filed about a dozen complaints against the admiral, among them disrespect towards female subordinate officers and sexual harassment of females under his command. No evidence was ever found since none of the women was willing to talk. But..." The sound of sheets of paper being moved around could be heard. "...the interesting point is that the coroner, who found the body of Isabella Fuentes made a note that indicated, that she had been raped. Not at the same day, but approximately twenty-four to forty-eight hours before - which was most likely the reason for her suicide. The coroner took a DNA sample of the sperm, but never found a match. Since she had neither suspects, nor proof that Isabella had indeed been raped, the case was closed as a simple suicide by the local authorities." McGee explained.
"So, Isabella's fiancé Wilson and her sister Anna suspect that the admiral has something to do with it?" Kate asked, unable to see the connection between Anna and the admiral.
"I don't know." McGee murmured, and then hurried to go on when he realized that this was exactly one of the phrases that Gibbs never wanted to hear from the mouth of one of his agents. "But I do know that a Commander Wilson has booked a room in our hotel until tomorrow morning!"
"And how could that go unnoticed by us, Agent McGee?" Gibbs growled and the addressed started to stutter.
"Well, we focused on those guests of the hotel who had entrance to the gala room – which was not nearly all of the guests who are presently staying at the hotel. Commander Wilson wasn't invited to the gala... he didn't have access to any of the rooms."
"But his 'almost-sister-in-law' had!" Gibbs clarified. "McGee, the room number of Wilson!"
"467, sir... um... boss..." McGee replied hastily.
"Good job! Dinozzo, meet us in front of the room!" He turned off his microphone and both agents hurried to run along the corridor to the stairs.
"You think, Anna wants to take revenge for the death of her sister?" Kate asked out of breath when they were running up the stairs.
"If the admiral played a part in it, I would say it's a definite possibility." Gibbs replied, checking for his weapon.
Not even two minutes later, they were approaching the room silently.
Tony Dinozzo was already standing in front of it, his weapon drawn while he waited for his colleagues to arrive. Gibbs released the safety catch of his own weapon and approached the door.
Kate fumbled with her dress to reach her own weapon, that was clipped to her upper thigh, revealing her bare legs to the men's glances. When Tony muttered a 'wow, Katie-girl, I had no idea', he caught himself a slap on the back of his head from his boss and could swear that it was a little harder than usual.
Gibbs nodded at his agents, signaling them to go in. What came next was routine that they had gotten used to over the years. They pushed open the door while two of them immediately scanned the room for possible threats. Then they entered the room, guns drawn.
"Look at that!" Tony smirked at the situation which presented itself in front of them. "That man's a tiger!" His comment was directed at the two shocked and half-naked persons that were lying on the bed, looking rather disheveled.
"Dinozzo!" Gibbs admonished, and then focused his attention back on the two persons. "Admiral, we searched the entire hotel for you – and your guest. Now would you please get up slowly? You too, Ms. Fuentes... and please keep your hands up!"
Tony's grin grew wider when the two persons got up from the bed now and he caught an excellent view of the woman's body, that was only covered by expensive lingerie and stockings.
"Nice," he commented lewdly.
"I don't understand!" The admiral noted, somewhat outraged. "Am I not allowed to enjoy my stay here with a nice company?" He was standing half-naked next to the bed, his eyes glaring at Gibbs and silently expecting an explanation.
"No," Gibbs replied dryly and approached the woman. "Not if your company, as you put it so nicely, intends to kill you." He glared at the young woman, who was holding his eyes, putting on an innocent and incredulous expression.
"I have no idea what you are talking about!" she denied and shook her head at his accusation. "Why should I want to kill him?"
"We know everything," Kate explained dryly. "We know about your sister!"
She noticed that the expression on Anna's face darkened a little. "He did it, didn't he?" Kate asked softly and then continued, her eyes locking with those of the admiral, "He raped her and she didn't know how to live with it, so she killed herself."
Deadly silence filled the room, as the admiral looked incredulously at Kate, then at her superior, who didn't make any attempt to stop her speech. "Special Agent Gibbs, this is ridiculous. Would you get your agent under control?" he stated outraged, but Gibbs didn't move, nor did he order Kate to stop.
"Isn't that what you did, admiral?" the female special agent asked, openly holding the man's eyes.
The admiral shook his head. "I assure you, I never..."
"Shut up!" A voice suddenly started them. Tony spun around, but it was too late. He had already pressed a gun to his forehead. When he looked up at the man, he sighed inwardly as he recognized him as Commander Jeffrey Wilson. Of course, they should have known that he was around somewhere, after all the room was booked on his name and paid for with his credit card.
Gibbs shot Tony one of those looks where the younger agent wished, he could just vanish. It had been his task to search the rest of the suite, but he had been too distracted by the half-naked woman on the bed. Surely, that would earn him a slap from Gibbs later – if not worse...
Commander Wilson held Tony's gaze for a moment, then he looked at the admiral. "He is lying! Every word that leaves that bastard's mouth is a damned lie!"
"Wilson, put the weapon down!" Gibbs requested sharply, not lowering his gun which was now pointing at the Commander, while Kate kept an eye on Anna Fuentes and the admiral.
"No Sir! With all due respect, I am going to correct the mistakes that your agents did when they investigated the death of my fiancée! I told them what happened, but they declared her death to be suicide and were not interested in the reasons!" The man had now tears standing in his eyes. "He raped my girl, and then he used his position to convince the investigators that she was a liar! I want him to suffer for that!"
"Commander, the investigation was conducted by local authorities," Gibbs explained firmly, "but I assure you, NCIS will reopen the case, if you lower your weapon now. If the admiral has committed a crime he will be held responsible for it."
"No Sir! I already killed a man – there's nothing you can do for me! I am going to finish it here and now." He wiped the tears out of his eyes hastily, a split second of unawareness, that offered Tony the chance to act. He grabbed the man's hand and turned his wrist so quickly, that he had to drop the weapon and cried out in pain.
For a moment, the situation got out of control as the commander tried to fight Tony, and Kate's attention was turned from the young woman to her colleagues. It were only split seconds, but enough for Anna Fuentes to act. With an outcry, she pounded on the admiral, a syringe blinking in her hand. Kate shot, but missed her, and then didn't dare to fire again because she feared to accidentally hit the admiral.
Instead she jumped forwards to grab Anna. Both women fell onto the bed, wrestling until Anna dropped the syringe. When the young woman saw, that she was on a lost cause and there was no way that she would be able to kill the man who was responsible for the death of her sister, she slammed her elbow into Kate's stomach and pushed herself off the bed to storm out of the room.
But she hadn't expected Kate to recover so quickly and shrieked in shock when, two meters before she had reached the door, she was pulled down to the ground by the female special agent. The two women started to fight, a task that turned out difficult for Kate since, although she was trained in hand-to-hand combat, she wasn't used to the methods that Anna Fuentes applied now and that consisted of scratching and pulling her hair to a point that really hurt.
Every second that she was unable to overpower the woman made Kate more furious. That was exactly, why she hated women and rather enjoyed the company of men, she thought to herself, while she desperately tried to loosen the woman's steel grip of one of the strands of her hair.
In the meantime, Gibbs and Tony had managed to press the raging commander to the ground and hold him there, now looking in disbelief at the two fighting women only three meters away from them.