Author's Note: Hello, everyone! I'm back! I just returned from a marvelous 2-week vacation in San Diego with a close friend. I apologize that I didn't post an update announcing my departure on my story, but I prefer to keep any and all updates on this story simply that- a new, updated chapter.

For those of you who haven't read it yet, I recently published a short, 10-chapter story called "McGee's Birthday Surprise" and it can be found under my profile. You don't have to read it if you don't want to, though. It's a little gift that I wrote for one of my BFFF's, ILoveCrimes. Anyways, I apologize for the long delay on this chapter, but please bear with me! It is a work in progress.

And an EXTRA BIG 'thank you!' goes to everyone of you kind people who continue to bear with me and read my story! Thank you for taking the time to read and review my story, and thanks again for your patience. Your reviews are loved!

And without further ado, here is Chapter 16! Please enjoy!

Chapter 16

Nightmare and an Unexpeted Surprise

McGee was standing in a patch of poison ivy. He was surrounded by clouds of mist and fog, and everything including the sky was gray. Suddenly, several figures started to take shape in the mist. He couldn't quite make out who they were yet; the fog was too thick.

As the fog around him started to clear, McGee had a clearer view and was able to see the figures in more detail. He gasped when he realized who they were. Standing right in front of him were Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, Abby, Ducky and Palmer. McGee yelled, trying to get their attention, but it was no use.

Gibbs stared coldly at him and said, "We're not here to rescue you, McGee. We're leaving you here for good. And we're never coming back. We'll never come back for you."

Tim's blood ran cold and goose bumps shivered up and down his spine. This couldn't be happening. Could it? Gibbs would never abandon him or kick him off the team for good, would he?

Tony spoke up. "It was nice knowing you, Probie. Not! You're not of any use to any of us on team! You were never supposed to be assigned with us in the first place! Good riddance, I say!"

McGee was shocked after he heard Tony's words. He thought that Tony was his friend, his colleague! McGee often times looked up to Tony as an older brother, as a mentor! What did he do to make Tony so eager to get rid of him so quickly?

Tim couldn't make out Ziva and Abby's words, but he cold tell from their tones of their voices that they were disgusted and disappointed.

Ducky and Palmer remained silent, but McGee could see the disappointment and loathing in their eyes. He looked at Palmer and saw fear radiating in his eyes.

What on earth had he done wrong? What had he done to make everyone on his team turn their backs on him?

McGee called out to his team, taking several steps forward as he did so.

"Guys? Boss? Tony, Ziva? What have I done wrong? Why are you leaving me here? Why don't you trust me anymore? I thought that you considered me to be your friend! Ducky, you can tell me what's going on, can't you? Please? Anyone? Why won't you guys answer me? No! Wait! Wait for me! Please don't go!" he cried out.

McGee broke out into a run as the members on the team started to disappear back into the fog.

"Guys, please wait! Wait for me! I'm sorry, for whatever it is I've done wrong! I don't even know what I've done wrong!"

The members on Team Gibbs were almost completely gone from sight now, but that didn't stop McGee from running towards them.

He was less than three steps away from where they had disappeared when McGee felt himself stumbling and then falling, falling down through the air. He reached out with his arms and hands desperately, searching for something, anything he could hold onto. His hands only grasped the air.

He was falling, to his death, and he knew it. The last thing he heard before he hit the ground below were the voices of his teammates.

"Goodbye, McGee." Ziva said.

"Good riddance."

"We're never coming back… never coming back… we're never coming back for you."

McGee woke up from his sleep with a jolt. He was now wide awake with shock. His head jerked up from against his chest and slammed into the back of the chair that he had been tied to.

BANG!

"Oww…" he moaned, squinting his eyes shut as the pain came in searing waves through his head. He didn't want to close his eyes again after the nightmare he had just experienced, but it was the only thing he could do to relieve the pain as much as he could.

After the initial pain had died down to a dull throb, McGee opened his eyes once more and looked around the room. He was still downstairs in that nasty dark basement, tied down tightly to a chair.

"It was only a nightmare. Only a dream. Gibbs would never leave me here. Heck, he'd never abandon me in the first place! And Tony isn't that mean! The team will come for me. I know they will!" McGee spoke aloud, trying to convince himself.

McGee sat in silence, lost inside his thoughts.

After several moments, he came out of his daze and talked to himself quietly.

"Great," he said aloud to himself sarcastically. "First the nightmare, and now this. I'm still here, tied to a chair and waiting for Gibbs and the rest of the team to come rescue me. Fan-tastic." He muttered.

He was occupying himself by imagining the different ways he could escape when the door at the top of the basement stairs opened. Through the dim light, McGee could just barely make out the form of Christopher walking down the wooden stairs.

"Here comes trouble," McGee thought.

"Ah, it's good to see that you're awake," Christopher said when he came to a halt in front of McGee. "I was about to come down and wake you up myself. How are you feeling?"

"Peachy. Just peachy," McGee answered, not wanting to tell Christopher that he was in pain.

Christopher chose to ignore McGee's sarcasm and dragged a table in front of McGee. Then he placed a laptop flat on the table and turned it on. Immediately after he turned the computer on he connected some wires from a nearby outlet to the laptop's charging source.

"Well, that's good to hear! I'm glad to hear that you're feeling fine. That means that you must be feeling well enough to do what I'm about to tell you to do."

"Yeah, right. Like I'm going to hack into the CIA database for you, or even better yet, the NCIS network. I'll never do that! Over my dead body!" McGee thought.

"What is it exactly that you want me to do? Oh, and you haven't told me why you've kidnapped me and brought me here to this… particular location. Will you be discussing that with me anytime soon?"

Christopher wheeled around from where he was bent over connecting wires and punched McGee hard on the chin.

"I would appreciate it if you would cut the sarcastic tone there, McGee. It's really beginning to get under my nerves. You know, my nerves can be real jumpy sometimes, making my fingers slip. I've been known to as someone who is 'trigger happy'. You get my drift?" Christopher asked menacingly, in an icy cool tone of voice.

McGee shook his head in an attempt to ease the pain that was flaring in his jaw. He frowned, sighed a long internal sigh, then nodded his head 'yes'.

"I get it, I get it. I just want to know what exactly it is you want me to do, and why you've brought me here in the first place. What did I do to make you feel the need to kidnap me?"

Christopher stood up straight and looked down at McGee.

"It's nothing you did, Tim. It's what they did. At NCIS. It's all about revenge, really. And I abducted you because you were my first choice. That's all you need to know, for now."

McGee was confused and somewhat surprised, but he tried not to let it show. He decided to ask more questions to gain more information from Christopher.

"I don't get it. I mean, why was I your first choice? What's so special about me? What could I possibly have that would drive you to go so far as to kidnap me? And how does this have anything to do with NCIS?"

Christopher paced back in forth, making gestures with his hands as he spoke.

"First off, I meant what I said when I told you that I abducted you because you were my first choice. You were my first and only choice. Why? Because you were the perfect target. Secondly, I have a need for your expertise hacking skills."

Christopher stopped moving for a second and looked McGee in the eyes. He smirked, after seeing McGee's expression. It was priceless.

"Don't look so surprised, McGee. Or would you like it better if I called you 'Timmy'? I've done my research and I know all about you and your team, McGee. I'm not stupid. I've been learning as much as I can about Team Gibbs over the past few weeks, but I've spent most of my time studying you instead. Yes, I know all about your so-called 'Incredible' hacking skills. It seems like you're quite well-known for your computer skills in general, actually. I wouldn't say that you're famous, but believe me- a fair amount of people are interested in your abilities. More than you would expect."

This time McGee couldn't hide his shock when Christopher mentioned that he knew of his hacking and computer skills in general. Christopher smirked even more, and then continued on with his speech.

"Anyways… I brought you here because I need you for your hacking skills, which I've heard are something else. You have talent, and you know it. Computers appear to be your strength. Not many people can say that they've graduated from MIT in less than 3 years, and that they have two Master of Science degrees, including one in computer forensics. And it seems to me that you're the brain behind every case Team Gibbs has ever worked on."

Before he could say his next sentence, McGee interrupted Christopher, saying,

"You're wrong! I don't deny owning a computer forensics degree, but honestly, my hacking skills aren't that extraordinary. I only hack into networks and databases when I need to. Computer Forensics is my area of strength and expertise, but I'm not the brain behind all the cases that we've worked on! There's nothing special about me."

Christopher was a little surprised; he had not expected to hear a sudden outburst from McGee. McGee carried on.

"I may be smart, sure, but so is everyone else on the Team! Gibbs is exceptionally smart, Ziva's incredibly wise, and Tony may make some stupid decisions every now and then but he's still pretty smart for the most part. I'm not the one individual who solves each case, and I'm not the person who does the most work out of everyone else! You've got it all wrong. We work together to solve each case, and that's why we're a team! My strength comes from working with everyone on Team Gibbs. In other words, I'm at my best when I work with them. Call me crazy, but Team Gibbs is my strength. And my team, Gibbs' Team, aka Team Gibbs will be your downfall."

Christopher paid no attention to what McGee said and continued to speak.

"How humble of you, McGee. I should have known that you would say something like that. You're the only humble person on Team Gibbs. Now as I was saying, you appear to be super smart, and that's another reason why I kidnapped you in the first place. You possess raw genius, I would even dare to say. And your IQ is way up there past 110. Gibbs knows that. Even I know that."

"Finally, I kidnapped you because you were the easiest target. I mean, there are five simple reasons that made you an easy target. First of all, you had the longest commute out of everyone who works on Team Gibbs. Secondly, you live alone, with the exception of that stupid German Shepard dog of yours. Third of all, you don't even come close to possessing the martial arts skills that your fellow colleague Ziva has. That meant that you wouldn't be able to defend yourself in a close combat fight or a situation in which someone (like me) chose to abduct you. Fourth of all, I've noticed that you lack the amount of experience that Tony DiNozzo has, mostly because you aren't as bold or outgoing as he is. I'll put my next point bluntly. You're weak, and you're the underdog. You're too caring, too gentle and way too compassionate! There are the five reasons that you were an easy target!"

"But do you want to know the main reason why I kidnapped you? I kidnapped you because you are a major part of Team Gibbs! You play a major role on that team… several roles, actually. You're Gibbs' geek, the brain of the team, and a fierce field agent who does most of his work in the shelter of the NCIS building. You seem to mean something to each and every individual on Team Gibbs, so I'm assuming that you are very important to them. That's why I expect that your team will be searching for you as soon as they discover that you're missing. But they'll never find you here. And that brings me to the task I have for you at hand…"

McGee truly didn't know what to say. Seriously, Christopher had freaked him out. How did he know so much about his life and Team Gibbs? McGee didn't know how Christopher had managed to acquire so much accurate information about him and the team, but he knew that Christopher was dead on when he spoke about the role he played on Team Gibbs.

"And how does this have to do with NCIS again?" McGee asked, his voice quivering slightly.

Christopher's expression hardened, and he roared out loud.

"I told you that it has to do with revenge! This is all about revenge, right here and right now! NCIS has, and always will be my number one enemy. Why? This is why. Years and years ago your so-called 'leader', the infamous 'Leroy Jethro Gibbs' made my life a living hell. His entire team did, actually. I've hated NCIS, especially Gibbs ever since he turned my life upside down."

Christopher paused for a moment, taking in deep breaths as he struggled to control his temper. He stared directly at McGee with intense anger in his eyes, and said in a forced low voice,

"I've waited to take my revenge for 10 long, hate-filled years, and now I can finally do just that. TEN years! I've waited for ten years to do this. I can finally hit Gibbs where he'll least expect it, and everyone at NCIS will suffer as a result! I only wish that I could see his reaction when he realizes that I've taken you, his best agent and the heart and glue of his team, away from him, never to be seen again."

McGee thought that he couldn't be shocked anymore, but boy was he wrong. He suddenly felt nauseous after hearing Christopher's cruel, heartless plan to hurt Team Gibbs and the rest of NCIS by abducting him. Just when he thought that things couldn't get any worse, they did.

Christopher wasn't finished speaking yet.

"That's why you're here, McGee. Now you know why I've kidnapped you, but you still don't know why I've kept you alive. I mentioned earlier that I have a need for your hacking skills. I need your help. You see, I've kind of run into a jam- your team is getting awfully close to discovering the identity of the murderer on the case that you're currently working on now, and I'm afraid that I can't allow that to happen."

McGee was confused. "Why does Christopher need my help, and what does he mean about 'keeping me alive'? Does he plan on killing me? McGee quickly rid the thought from his head. "No, I can't think about that right now. What does he know about the case that we're working on now? He shouldn't know anything at all, and how does he know that we're close to discovering the murderer's identity? He shouldn't know that, he couldn't know anything about our case unless… unless… it can't be. The only way he could know anything about our case is if he…he's the murderer."

McGee dropped his jaw in sudden shock and realization. Christopher saw his reaction, and chuckled softly.

"I see that you've figured everything out, McGee. I knew that you were smart. And yes, you are right."

He bent down until he was standing over, eye-to-eye in front of McGee and whispered,

"I'm the murderer."

Author's Note: Gasp! Just kidding. I hope that you guys liked the chapter! Please feel free to leave a review. I will try harder to reply to all of them, when I get the chance! Thanks again!

~Optimisticat :D