Everything seemed normal that morning, which passed uneventfully, slowly. Tony had been busy trying to investigate the case while receiving in all his phones and mail adresses the insistent calls of a woman she'd seen some nights before and who wouldn't leave her alone. He then went to lunch on his own while Ziva was deep in research, trying to get something worth reporting.

It was early afternoon when things started happenning. Ziva and Tony were researching some clues from the case of the dead kid in Bethesda and playfully teasing each other, until the stern voice of Gibbs interrupted them.

"What you got?"

Both agents proudly explianed their advances on the case, trying to impress the boss and trying to sound better than the other, as juvenile as it could seem. They hadn't found anything that stood out on the boy's background, but his CO had been calling him an alarmingly high number of times on the day prior to his death, which looked suspicious. Gibbs decided to take Tony with him to interview the suspect and get Ziva and McGee to talk to the family, when he realized that the latter was not on his desk.

"Where's McGee?"

"I haven't seen him today, but there was something wrong with his computer, he's probably in the lab with Abby." Answered Tony.

"Ziva, you find him and go with him talk with the parents, see if you can get something interesting, anything they know about why the boy joined the navy, if he was happy... Anything you can on his personal life. He didn't have time to make enemies on the navy, it had to be personal."

"No problem, boss."

Ziva went down to the lab to find McGee, realizing that he hadn't seen him at all that day, but figuring that he would be with Abby in the lab, because the man was NEVER late. She was glad Gibbs had paired her with Tim, he was always a nice person to work with, and she had barely seen him the previous day with all the turmoil of the new case. Abby's music filled the air as soon as the elevator opened, and Ziva started looking for her partner with her eyes, but she only saw Abby doing something on her computer.

"Hey, Abby"

"Zivaaa! What brings you down to my dungeon?" The forensic expert chanted happily when she realized she wasn't alone anymore.

"I am looking for McGee, Gibbs has asked us to go interrogate the family of the boy. Where is he?"

"I don't know." She said, her smile suddenly dropping "I haven't seen him all day, and he usually comes to say hello... He wasn't up there with you?"

"No, he was not. Strange. He usually is here before anyone else."

"He's probably just caught in one of those virtual worlds, or writing his new novel. Let's give him a call!" Abby said, trying to minimize her growing concern. Yesterday he had that sad look in his eyes,she thought, and today he's late.I have a bad feeling about this.

But there was no way to reach him, since all of his phones were turned off. Ziva and Abby looked at each other anxiously, wondering what the hell was going on.

"Maybe Sarah knows where he is." Said Abby, really hoping she was right before strating to worry full-mode.

"Hello?" Sarah's voice said on the other end.

"Hey, Sarah? I'm Abby from..." But she was interrupted by the energetic girl.

"Oh, Abby, I was just about to call you! I need to talk with Tim but I can't locate him. Could you tell him to call me as soon as he can?"

"You don't know where he is?" Abby asked, the concern evident in her voice.

"No, I don't... Why?"

"No reason. Take care!" Abby said, and quickly hung up, not wanting to worry the girl no reason. "He probably needed some time for himself, we all need to be alone from time" The goth concluded, trying to calm herself.

"I will stop by his place to check on him and bring him back to work then." Ziva said, feeling quite anxious too. Shouldn't have noticed Tim's absence earlier? What if something had happenned?

She promised to inform Abby if she learnt anything and headed for McGee's apartment. She knew that Gibbs would call soon wanting an update on the case, but she had to do this first. The ride seemed endless, the minutes too long. The moment she found McGee he was going to hear her. How dare he worry them all like that? An agent is supposed to be reachable at all times!

Ziva finally made it to Tim's apartment and, without even looking at it, started knocking on the door and the bell.

"McGee! It is Ziva! Open the door!"

But no one came, and there wasn't any sound on the other side. Something was definitely going on. She knocked on the door again, and after a particularly harsh blow the door opened itself. Horrified, Ziva saw that the lock on her colleague's door was completely destroyed. Instinctively, she drew her weapon and went into the apartment. The place was deserted and nothing stood out on the neatly organized apartment. Gibbs called her just as she was entering the bedroom.

"Ziva, what did the parents say?"

She had almost forgotten about the case and was trying to find a way to start explaining the situation. That was when she saw it.

"The pa... Oh, no!"

"Ziva... What is it?" Gibbs urged on the other end.

"Boss, we have a big problem. You have to send a whole team here, and bring Tony, too."

"Where? Ziva, is this case related?"

"Forget the case!" she yelled "McGee is missing, his door was broken and... and there's blood all over his bed. I am at his apartment. You need to come too."

"We'll be right there."

Ziva hung up and looked at the scene before her. It painfully stood out, among the perfectly cleaned white sheets a huge crimsom stain that could only be blood. Where are you, Tim? she wondered, hoping it was all a big misunderstanding, a big joke, anything that was not what it looked like.

7777777777777777777777777777

Tim woke up to a terrible pain in his stomach. The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't move his hands, something seemed to be tying them on his back. That was strange. He also appeared to be sitting on the floor and leaning into some cold stone wall. He opened his eyes and found himself sprawled in a deserted white room with no windows and a big door in front of him, a place he had never been before. And then he remembered.

He remembered feeling someone on him while was still half sleep, he remembered screaming and fighting and the blade his attacker plunged in his stomach to make him stop fighting. He tried to move, he tried to get up, but couldn't. A short while later, the door opened, and a long shadow appeared on the other side of the door.

"Hello, Tim" it said "Welcome to hell."

A/N: Like it? Not? Please let me know what you think! And a very big thank you to those who did on the previous chapter! Hoped you like this one too ^^ In the next chapter we'll find out the identity of the attacker! You know you want to review!