"Boss?" Tim called for me.
"What, McGee?" I called, lifting my head up from my desk, looking straight into his eyes.
"US Marshalls are here for Corporal Baker," Tim answered back, voice slightly wavering with fear.
"Tell Ziva to get her from interrogation."
"On it, Boss."
As he left, I set my head back on my desk. A month after, Ari shot Kate, and we had yet to get a lead on him. My gut has been overload, knowing that he had struck again. Still, there was no way of knowing where he could possibly be or if there was yet another victim out there that he could harm. I know that he is coming for the people closest to me, and since he was no longer in DC, there was no telling where he could possibly be. The closest people in my life outside of DC were my sister Renee, in Phoenix, her ex-husband Charlie and their daughter Bella, in a little town called Forks. Thinking about Forks brought my gut to overdrive.
As I heard Ziva pull Corporal Baker into the willing arms of the Marshalls, I listened to my cell phone go off. I quickly looked at the caller idea and recognized that area code as one of Forks, Washington. Hoping it was just one of Charlie's routine calls telling me how much of a danger magnet my niece was and how much trouble she may or may not have gotten in the last month.
"Hello."
"Yes. Gibbs, are you there?" I recognized Charlie's voice on the phone, but there was something off about his tone.
"Charlie. What's going on? You sound scared?"
"It's Bella."
"Well, she does attract trouble," I say. Tony, Ziva, and Tim look up from their work, surprised by the humorous tone of voice that I used. I game them a look that tells them to get back to work. "What could it be this time?"
"She's gone!" Charlie responds, sounding more panicked than when he first answered the phone. "There are messages with your name on them and sign by this guy name Ari and..."
I quickly cut him off. Speaking rapidly into the phone, I say, "I'm on the way with my team. Make sure to touch nothing!" I hung up before Charlie could respond again.
"Get your gear!" I tell my team who are already getting their stuff from what they overhead on the phone.
"What's going on, Boss?" Tony asks.
"Ari."
That's all I say, and it answers everything.
"Where is he?" Ziva asks, almost sounding like a worried sister.
"Forks," I answer as we head toward the elevators. While heading down to the first floor, the team gives me questioning looks, not knowing what the world Forks was. "It's in Washington," answering their questioning glances.
"What's the situation?" Tim finally asks.
"Possibly a kidnapping, but we'll know more when we get there." I see Tony wanting to ask me a question, as well as the rest of them, so I decide to put him out of his misery. "What is it, DiNozzo?"
"Why exactly are we going to Forks? he started as the elevator opens, and we start heading for the car lot. "I mean, there are probably closer agencies to where ever this Forks place is, and how is this exactly our jurisdiction, and how did we know about this so quickly?"
"That pretty much sums it up, Boss," McGee follows up, followed by Ziva nodding.
"To answer you questions, since Ari is known for terrorism against the US and NCIS, this falls into our jurisdiction, our agency has had the most problems with him and is the only one that really knows about what he has done, and we know so fast because I know people what happen to live there. Anyone have any more questions?"
Tony, Ziva, and Tim looked toward each other and shook their heads no. By this time, we were already in the car. Surprisingly, there wasn't an argument about who sat where. Ziva sat shotgun, and the guys sat in the backseat.
"Alright," I started to say while exiting the car lot. "when we get to your homes, you have twenty minutes and pack and be out and ready to go to the airport. You," Looking toward Ziva first, "David, will go first, then McGee and lastly DiNozzo. Got it?"
"Yes, Boss," the three say in unison.
Driving as fast as traffic would allow, we arrived at Ziva's apartment complex first. As soon as the car stopped, she rushed up the stairs into her building. Five minutes later, we pulled up to Tim's apartment complex. Same as Ziva, he ran into his apartment. As soon as we set out on the road again, Tony finally spoke up.
"There's something that you're hiding from us, isn't there?"
"Yeah, Tony, You'll figure it out soon," I replied.
"You're not going to break one of your rules, are you?" Tony asked, trying to lighten the mood some, but it was not working for the already built up tension.
"Hopefully not," I answered hoarsely.
Tony quickly dropped the subject, knowing that I couldn't answer any more of his questions. Soon, we arrived at his apartment, and he quickly ran inside. I soon made it to my house, where I slowly got out and walked in. Already knowing what the weather was like in gloomy old Forks, it wouldn't take me long to pack. Unlike the others who had never heard of the town before today, I quickly found some old T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. You never knew if you would have to track someone through the thick overgrowth that was there. And it almost always raining. I found an old duffle bag in the back of my closet and packed all of my stuff in it. Getting ready to leave the house, I put on my NCIS issued jacket and baseball cap and went to pick up Ziva, leaving the house unlocked as always.
I got to Ziva's apartment, leaving Ziva two minutes to spare as traffic had lightened up some on the way. Moments later, she came out with her usual T-shirt and cargo pant attire, now sporting the issued jacket and baseball cap. She returned to her original seat after putting her luggage and firearm case in the car's trunk. Next were Tim and Tony. Both, which picked up, like Ziva, had come out a minute later after I pulled up. Both had switched out the usual suits they wore and wore casual attire with old sneakers. Similarly, all of us were wearing their jackets and baseball caps.
"I see you tow changed into the right clothes," I told both Tim and Tony.
"Yeah," Tim started, "before packing, I looked up that Forks place we're going to and told everyone that it was usually always raining there, so it would be really damp no matter where we went. You seem to know all about the place for some reason, so we thought that you knew what the place was like, so we decided not to call you about it."
I noticed Toney was trying to avoid eye contact with me by looking out of the window, probably because Tim brought up the fact that I seemed to know all about the place. I was waiting for the name 'Forks' to ring a bell in Tony's head, but obviously, it didn't, for now.
"Is this Forks place really the rainiest place in the United States?" Ziva asked.
"Yes, it is," I responded. "It's near the Pacific Ocean, but there is a reservation called La Push that you go through to finally get to the beaches."
My last statement helped the lightbulb go off in Tony's head because he finally looked at me in the rearview mirror with understanding. His eyes were questioning me as if asking, "should I tell them?" I should my head no, saying "not yet."
Soon we arrived at the airport. Fortunately, today was one of those days where the airport didn't have many people walking around, so it was easy to buy tickets. The next flight taking us where we needed to go left in an hour, so we had plenty of time security, seeing as there was no trouble getting out firearm cases through. Carrying our luggage, firearm cases, and forensic kits, we went through security with ease. When we got through luggage, we could get to the place where we had a five-hour plane ride ahead of us.
As soon as we step off the plane at William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles, it started raining. It took forever to get the bag claim in the chaos when, in reality, it was only about ten minutes. After getting all of our stuff, we went to rent a car. It was comfortable seeing as most of the travelers already had cars waiting for them at the airport. We put our stuff in the truck, and the seating was pretty much the same except Tony was sitting in the passenger seat. Again, there was no arguing.
"I hope the rain doesn't ruin the evidence," I heard Tim murmur to Ziva.
"If there is any evidence that can be destroyed," Ziva responded.
"Hey, Tony!" Tim called to the front seat.
"What, McGoo?" Tony called back.
"Why haven't you been talking?" Tim asked, ignoring Tony's McGoo comment. "I mean, you have been talking the whole plane ride or through both car rides."
"Tim's right, Tony," Ziva agreed. "You're usually excited about going on a new case, and we have to tell you to be quiet. Now, you're not doing anything but looking depressed."
"Can't a guy not want to talk for a while?" Tony responded to their comments. "I can be quiet sometimes, you know."
"It's not that you can't be quiet; it's the fact that this is not like you." Ziva came back with. "I know I've only been on the team for a month, but I feel that I have the jazz of all your personalities."
"It's jist," Tim corrected Ziva, "not jazz. But Ziva's right. This isn't like you at all. I'm used to you making fun of us for no particular reason."
"I just don't feel like it, okay," Tony said, efficiently ending their conversation.
After a few moments, Ziva asked Tim exactly what jist was. Tim spent the next few minutes explaining it to her when I would have just gone with 'it's just what Americans say.' But then again, Tim has the longest explanations for the simplest of things. When I looked over at Tony, he did look as depressed as Ziva and Tim had said he was. I could tell that he was trying not to think about what could have possibly happened where we're going.
After a few minutes, we went past the sign that said, "WELCOME TO FORKS." Tony looked less tense, knowing that we were almost to our destination. The two had not changed at all. The same buildings that were here when I was in high school were still standing but worn with age. Knowing the people who lived here ever since my teen years were probably still here, everyone would know that the team was in town before we were done checking out Charlie's. No one would probably not recognized me by face except for the few people I kept in contact with.
After going through the central part of town, we got to where Charlie lived, which wasn't far from everything else. As we drove in the driveway, I could already see Charlie's cruiser, two trucks, and no police tape insight. No tape was probably to keep people from knowing, which was pretty much useless in this town. As we all went to the front door, Tony quickly getting the Forensic kits for the others from the trunk. I rang the doorbell and heard footsteps coming to the door while I heard Tony, Ziva, and Tim coming up behind me.
Charlie came to the door with growing dark, black circles under his eyes from all the worry he had for the last six hours. He looked relieved as he saw Tony and I but confused when he saw Tim and Ziva as he had never seen them before.
"Hey, Gibbs, Tony," Charlie said, finally speaking up. "Sorry, I don't know you two," looking toward Tim and Ziva, "but thanks for coming nevertheless."
"Hey, Char," Tony said, speaking up in his normal as he would during a case.
"Hi," Tim said, introducing himself. "I'm Timothy McGee."
"I'm Ziva David," Ziva introduced. "Nive to meet you."
"Charlie Swan." Charlie opened the door. "Please come in."
As Charlie opened the door, I could see why he called for us so urgently. The others gasped as they saw the damage done to the house. Getting over the shock, Tony, Ziva, and Tim put their gloves on and tried to find as much evidence as they could. Knowing Ari's track record as well as I did, the evidence would be close to nothing.
"Whose trucks are in the driveway?" I asked, getting down to my usual position as questioning while the others looked for evidence.
"That's Bella's truck, and the other one is the Black's truck," Charlie stated. "You remember them from La Push? And also, he's here."
"Yes, I remember the Blacks. But who is this he you're talking about?"
"Bella's..."
"Bella's what?"
"Bella's boyfriend," Charlie whispered as if he didn't want to believe it nor hear himself say it.
"Where is he?"
"He's sitting on the stairs, just like he has been since I got here."
I decided to talk to Bella's boyfriend to see if he knew what was going on and how he was one of the first people on the scene. I walked up to him, and saying that he looked terrible would have been an understatement. He looked like the living dead.
"What's your name, son?"
"Edward, Edward Cullen, sir," he spoke up. At least he wasn't rude like some of our witnesses could be.
"What were you doing here?"
"I came here to see Bella after my family and I went camping over the weekend like we usually do. I came here hoping to see her, and I met the Blacks here. When she didn't answer, even though her truck was here, we tried to get in. The door was unlocked, so we walked in and... this is what it looked like when we came in here."
"Boss," Tim interrupted, "we went through the whole downstairs, and all we found was a small amount of blood by the doorway, some dirt around the house, and there was a point all over the wall that we took a sample of."
"Do you want us to look upstairs, Boss?" Tony asked next.
"There's nothing upstairs," said a boy that looked similar to Billy Black when he was younger sitting behind Edward on the stairs. "I checked upstairs, and the only things that were destroyed were worthless things that can be easily replaced, and it looks nothing like it does down here."
"Where's Ziva?" I asked, noticing she was not with us.
"She's deciphering the message that isn't in English," Tony answered.
Tony led me to where she was standing. I was in the living room that was utterly destroyed. On the wall, the first message read:
Come and Get your Daughter, Gibbs. ~Ari
He was obviously talking about Bella, seeing as Kelly wasn't around anymore. The next message was in a different language and read:
إلىزيفاشقيقتي، أناآسفلديكأنتشاركفيهذا. يجبأنتبقىأنتفقطبعيدا. ~ آري
'It's not for you," Ziva finally spoke up.
"Who's it for?" Billy asked the question on everyone's mind, finally making himself known.
"Me," she said simply.
"What does it say?" Knowing she was the only one who would ever know what it said.
"It loses some of its meaning in translation, but loosely says 'To my sister Ziva, I am sorry you have to be involved in this. You should have stayed away. Ari.'"
"So, you're the guy who kidnapped Bella's sister?" Billy's son asked.
"Yes, and who are you?"
"Jacob, but everyone calls me Jake."
"Not to be rude or anything," Edward started, "but how do all of you fit into Bella's kidnapping."
We would like to tell you in as little time as possible," Tony started before I could talk, "but that would be impossible."
"I think that before putting all my trust into you finding Bella, I need to know how you know her so personally when she has never talked about you before to me."
"That's a long story," I started to say, "but everyone probably needs to know before we continue."
I took a deep breath before I began with my story.