Disclaimer: NCIS and its characters do not belong to me and I am making no money from this.

Many thanks to Mr VP for the Beta. Any remaining mistakes are mine.

Thanks again for your lovely reviews they really help the writing process. I'm sorry not to have replied to all of them personally yet but I've been writing. Hope you like the results.

Gibbs looked up warily at the muzzle of a gun pointing directly at him. His head was pounding and there was a weight on his legs pinning him to the deck. He squinted downwards, finally making out the still form of his senior field agent lying half on top of him. The realisation brought his senses rushing back. Tony was unconscious with fresh blood marring the white T shirt as his wounds had reopened when he fell. Keeping his eyes on the gun Gibbs eased his legs out from beneath DiNozzo, being careful to keep a hand under the younger man's head. Tony stirred and moaned slightly his eyes fluttering open as Gibbs settled his head onto his lap.

"Boss?" he whispered.

"Sshh," Gibbs soothed, his hand on the younger man's arm keeping him still. DiNozzo brought his knees up in pain and Gibbs moved a hand to his forehead both to check his temperature and to prevent himself from hurting Tony further. DiNozzo stilled under his touch, relaxing slightly and Gibbs looked up past the gun into the emotionless face of a man wearing marine combat uniform, he wore breathing apparatus dangling from his neck. Beyond him were several more equally expressionless men holding weapons on those of Surreptitious' crew who remained in the control room.

"Here we go again"

Tony's muttered curse drew Gibbs' attention and he followed his gaze back into the face of the first marine. The uniform looked genuine enough but you could get a hold of combats readily if you knew where to look. As he watched an officer walked back into the control room from the rear compartment, he looked around the control room until his eyes fell on the NCIS agents.

"You Gibbs?" he asked quietly.

Gibbs nodded but offered nothing further, preferring to wait for more information.

"Are you alright Sir," the officer continued, eyeing the rest of the crew cautiously.

"More or less Major," Gibbs answered indicating DiNozzo who was struggling to get up from his lap, hating to feel at a disadvantage. Jethro eased a hand behind his back and supported him carefully until he was upright, leaving his hand there when the younger man wavered.

"We found four men in restraints Sir," the Major said without inflection.

Gibbs nodded again. "Michaels the chief engineer is in the wardroom, he's catatonic. Stevenson and the others are in crew quarters," he said carefully, unsure of the major's intent.

"Any others?"

Gibbs paused; this was the crunch, if their present captors were who they seemed to be all was well, if not the man in front of him was seeking information. He felt Tony tense beside him, ready to follow his lead.

The major obviously realised his problem as he suddenly stood to attention before speaking again. "I'm sorry Sir; I can see your dilemma. We are attached to the USS Gonzalez. We were sent to assist when Surreptitious first sent out her distress call but had to take refuge from the storm. We were separated from our sister ship at that time. When we picked up your signal we knew it was you but we didn't know whether you had been compromised or not. I'm sorry about your heads," he concluded ruefully, looking around the control room sympathetically.

Root struggled to his feet and extended his hand. "I'm sure we would all rather have a headache than be back in enemy hands Major?"

"Sorry again Captain, Major Halls."

"How could you have been sure it was us?" DiNozzo asked quietly, still leaning slightly against Gibbs.

"You'll have to ask the captain for the full details I'm afraid," Halls smiled. "Something about a Miss Sciuto and a satellite."

Gibbs smiled and relaxed somewhat even as Tony burst out. "I knew it; she tracked our cells when we came to the surface."

"Gonzalez's sonar operators had picked up your signal but, as I said, we couldn't be sure either if it was you or indeed if you had been taken. Your people," Halls indicated Gibbs, "have kept us informed of the situation. We knew about Stevenson and they had their own suspicions about Michaels."

"I need to speak with them," Gibbs said, putting his arm carefully under DiNozzo's elbow and getting them both to their feet. "Michaels was expecting support, they must be out there somewhere."

"The captain was hoping to rendezvous with the Roosevelt within the hour Sir; we re-established contact shortly before boarding Surreptitious."

"Any other activity?" Gibbs directed his question to both Root and Halls.

"The Enterprise and an escort have been despatched to the area but will not arrive for another twenty three hours," Halls supplied, consulting his watch. "Sonar hadn't picked up any further activity when we left Gonzalez."

"We need to get over there," Gibbs decided. "Can you arrange for Michaels and the others to be transported across as well?" he asked Root.

Root nodded and began issuing orders, both for the transfer and to the XO and his men waiting by the forward escape hatch.

NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS

Twenty painful minutes later DiNozzo stood with Gibbs on the deck of the Gonzalez. Not wanting to suffer the indignity of being stretchered over he had instead insisted on climbing the conning tower ladder and then scrambling down into the waiting boat and back up the Gonzalez's side. A decision he was now, in part, regretting. It was cold on deck after Surreptitious' control room and the chill was aggravating his already throbbing shoulders. Shivering slightly he turned his back to the wind. Gibbs was talking with Gonzalez' commander and Tony tuned into their conversation just as Commander Jackson turned away to escort them to the captain. He followed them up yet more steps until they reached the bridge and they were introduced to Gonzalez' captain, a no nonsense, cut to the chase man if appearances were anything to go by. He and Gibbs should get along well.

Captain Fenner took them into his day cabin and nodded at Jackson to close the door. "What can you tell us Gibbs?" he asked as soon as they were alone.

Gibbs quickly outlined everything that they knew and what they surmised ending with his conviction that Michael's had been expecting company and that they couldn't be far away. "I need to speak to my people in Washington Captain," he concluded five minutes later.

Fenner nodded. "Of course, we have been in contact ourselves since the storm abated and allowed communication. Indeed it was your Miss Sciuto who identified Surreptitious' location."

Gibbs' eyes warmed slightly in acknowledgement before he and DiNozzo followed Fenner back onto the bridge and into the radio shack. The shack was, in reality, little more than an alcove off the main bridge deck but it offered a degree of privacy and the NCIS agents were left alone once the radio operator had established contact.

Abby's voice burst from the speakers. "Captain! Did it work? Was it them? Are they OK?"

Gibbs' lips twitched, picturing the excitable Goth, beside him DiNozzo smiled tiredly. "We're fine Abbs," he said, knowing that Tony would forgive the white lie. Telling Abby that her friend had been injured would only worry her. He instinctively stepped back waiting for the expected scream.

"Gibbs," the shriek must have carried on to the bridge but Abby continued on at a slightly lower volume. "Oh I'm so glad to see you, well not to see you because we're only talking but to hear you and…"

"Abbs," Gibbs interrupted gently, then a second time more forcefully until she stopped and took a breath. It certainly sounded as though she had been living on caffeine for the past couple of days, probably had. He tried a third time. "Abbs, what can you tell me?"

Recognising the tone in Gibbs' voice Abby slipped into reporting mode. "Well you must know how we found you from the captain, that was so cool," she stopped again, correcting herself. "But you don't want to hear about that now. Right. Anyhow, I think your cell must be almost out of power by the way, nowhere near as strong a signal as Tony's."

Gibbs exchanged a fondly exasperated look with DiNozzo but didn't have long to wait before Abby continued. "Well, anyway, McGee was looking around in," she paused momentarily before continuing. "Um McGee was looking and he found out that one of the crew's records was almost too perfect. So perfect in fact that he started digging deeper. Turns out that William Michaels the Chief Engineer is actually dead. Well I know he is dead now because he drowned in the explosion that flooded the engine room but the real William Michaels died as a teenager along with the rest of his immediate family in a car wreck."

"It was very tragic Jethro," Ducky's voice piped up over the speaker. "But as a result of the entire family being lost someone was able to take over the young man's identity a few years later."

"He's not dead," Tony supplied helpfully.

"The records were quite clear Tony," McGee took his turn at the mike. "They were well buried but once I found them it was an easy trail to trace back."

"That Will Michaels may be dead McGee but ours is very much alive. No-one in engineering died in the explosion, they caused it and faked the readings that made everyone think that engineering had been flooded."

"Oh dear," Ducky muttered darkly, his agile mind already seeing the possibilities.

"Exactly Duck," Gibbs cut in. "We think that he was a sleeper but don't know whose agent he was. He took some of the crew hostage and he and his friends took over the ship for a while. It's a long story," he spoke quickly to cut off the expected interruptions. "No time to go into it now. His friends are still out there. Have you tracked down any of Michaels' contacts? What about the cadets?"

"I completed the autopsies but there's nothing to add. I surmised that both knew their killers and saw no reason to try to escape."

"I interviewed the other cadets in their group," Ziva spoke up, her calm delivery in marked contrast to Abby. "They reported seeing both Blake and Stevenson arguing at a bar with a couple they drank with regularly. They left in a car together the same night that the cadets were killed. We have identified one of the men on the CCTV footage from the traffic cameras outside the bar. Wayne Gibson, he's wanted in Maryland for murder."

Gibbs exchanged a look with DiNozzo but McGee spoke again before they could ask anything further. "I found a money trail Boss, it took some tracking through multiple servers and dummy accounts but the trail leads back to Michaels, he was the one who hired them. We figured he must have hired Gibson and his partner to put pressure on Stevenson and somehow they either got confused or Blake got in the way."

"Damn," Tony muttered, "dead end."

"When did you pick up Michaels' trail McGee?" Gibbs asked.

"Haven't found anything definite until he started basic training Boss," McGee sounded frustrated. "There are a few things to dig deeper into but nothing concrete yet."

"So we're still guessing who Michaels was working for," Gibbs mused.

"Perhaps not for much longer," Fenner interrupted having come into the radio shack in time to hear Gibbs' speak. 'Sonar's picked up a signal."

"Keep at it." Gibbs ordered, "We'll be in touch." With that he broke the connection and followed Fenner and DiNozzo out onto the bridge.

The sky was heavily overcast, the storm clouds still visible on the horizon but the rain had stopped although the wind screamed overhead, scurrying into every nook and cranny. Tony shivered, pulling his borrowed windbreaker more tightly around himself. He was beyond tired, everything ached and all he wanted was a hot shower, pizza and his bed, not necessarily in that order. He looked across at Gibbs noting that the older man was looking pretty haggard himself; it had been a long couple of days. His attention was caught by the sonar operator reporting his findings and he realised that it hadn't been the first time the man had spoken. Pulling himself together he moved closer to the small group.

"Contact is definitely a sub Sir and there are two further contacts, they seem to be escorting the sub, flanking her. Both appear to be on the surface."

"Thank you Jarvis," Fenner said moving over to the chart table where he conferred quietly with his navigating officer for a moment before asking. "How long before Roosevelt joins us?"

"Just received word Sir," the radio operator reported. "They are approaching from the west and should resume position within twenty minutes."

"And the contact?"

"We will rendezvous in approximately ten minutes Sir."

TBC