Viva Mexico

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Post-Hiatus. Gibbs moves to Mexico after resigning from duty. The team is ambushed and soon news are out that an old enemy is back. Will Gibbs come back to save them or does it need a little more to convince him that the team needs him?

8- Making Waves

Franks´ eyes were just about to pop out of their sockets when he learned this piece of news. "You´re an NCIS agent?" He asked and saw her nod.

"My name is not Linda. I know it might seem odd to you, but for everyone back in Washington, I died a little over a year ago. Gibbs told you about me -I know he took it really hard, but I couldn´t do anything about it."

Franks stared at the young woman who sat across from him, his mind racing. "Linda D´Cotti...it´s just an anagram, isn´t it? But Jethro said you were shot in the head."

She smiled. "It wasn´t me -they had someone else, but nobody knew about it. I´m not sure how exactly they did it, but I was already on a plane when they got to the warehouses. I hope you´re not too mad at me, Mike." It sounded honest and for the first time since he had met her, Mike knew that she was absolutely herself.

"I´m not, but why are you telling me all this now, Lin...I mean, Kate." He asked and noticed how she flinched at the sound of her real name.

"I got a call last night. I knew some bits from you already, but Agent Fornell filled me in about the rest. He and Director Shepard were the only ones to know the truth." She said and sighed. "Two days ago, the team was called to a crime scene, but it was an ambush. Tony and Tim were taken hostage, Ziva was shot and brought to hospital. They have no clue where they are holding them, but Ziva insists that it was Ari Haswari, who shot her. He was supposed to be dead, but obviously our setup a year ago didn´t work out as we planned it. I was supposed to stay in hiding until his El Quaida cell is busted, which hasn´t happened yet, but with my friends kidnapped and this man obviously alive, they need me in DC...me and probably most of all Gibbs."

Franks nodded. "He didn´t take the news well that this Haswari is possibly still alive. I can take you to the beach where he´s at, but you got to do the rest. I really don´t know how he´s going to take this." He said and got up. For some reason he felt relieved to know the whole truth and he felt that it would do his friend good to hear this truth as well.

They arrived at the beach around sunset. The blue sedan was parked near the road and Franks pulled up next to it. "Good luck, Kate." He said and watched her walk towards the beach. He didn´t wait for what would happen next, but pulled back onto the road and drove back home.

Kate stood on the parking lot for a moment and ran her hand over the hood of the sedan. She smiled when she remembered how many times she had sat in that car and how often she had bumped her head on the window when Gibbs had been driving. Long rows of stone that almost looked like tongues lead into the ocean, some as far as 150 yards. At the end of one of those rows she spotted a lone figure. He seemed to be staring at something at the distance.

She climbed over the stones until she stood a mere 15 ft behind him. The waves rolling against the stones, breaking there with a deep rumbling sound. Some doves were circling above and a bit away she could see a whale breaking through the water. The sun had started to set, causing the whole scene to seem somewhat unreal. Her heart was beating like mad when she finally found the strength to speak. "Gibbs?" She called at him, but he didn´t move.

She took another two steps until she had almost reached him. "Gibbs?" She tried again and saw his back straightening. After what seemed like forever, he turned around and looked at her, but he didn´t say a word. "They need our help, Gibbs." She said and saw something in his eyes that really hurt. There was not a single emotion.

He shook his head and broke into a sad smile. "Great, now I´m seeing ghosts." He mumbled to himself and she noticed an empty scotch bottle in his hand. She had seen him drinking that awful stuff more than once, but she had never seen him drunk like this. He staggered past her, not even trying to reach out for her. The bottle broke when he lost his balance, leaving a bleeding cut on his hand.

Kate followed him until they reached the beach. Gibbs let himself fall to the ground and stared into a distance. He didn´t seem to notice the cut on his hand that was now full of sand. She walked up to him and took his hand, carefully cleaning out the cut. "That´s going to be a nasty infection, you know that?"

He looked at her for a moment, still not comprehending what was going on. "If you only knew how much I wish that this was true, Katie. I never told them how much I miss you. How much it hurts to know that you had to die in my place." His speech was slurred and she saw a tear sliding down his face when he reached out to run his finger over her cheek.

She pulled him back up and forced him towards his car, taking the keys from him. "Let´s get you home." She said and started the car while he fell into a slumber on the passenger seat. It was almost 10 pm when they arrived at his house. Kate found the key and unlocked the front door while she tried to hold him steady with her other arm.

The inside of the house shocked her quite a bit. A bare lightbulb was dangling from the ceiling in what was supposed to be a livingroom. A couch stood somewhere in the middle of the room, a small coffee table in front of that. There was a pillow and a blanket on the couch, a few boxes stood around, but nothing else. She lowered Gibbs onto the couch where he fell asleep again.

After making sure that he was really sleeping she walked over to Franks´ place and got a first aid kit from him. Mike didn´t ask or even follow her. He knew that this was something those two had to finish and he wasn´t going to stick his nose into other people´s stuff.

Kate cleaned out the cut on Gibbs´ hand and put a bandage on it. She still wasn´t sure if she had cleaned it enough, but she hoped that they would be back in DC soon. Ducky would take care of it then. Afterwards she sat down against the wall and continued to watch him until she fell asleep.