AN: Thanks for all the awesome reviews! Some of you, like agent-mac and shirik, totally read my mind for what's going to happen…eventually. As always, please review and let me know what you think!

Holy Water: Chapter 4

Even though Kate was emotionally exhausted she had no intention of sleeping, terrified of the nightmares that she knew would haunt her. But as she relaxed into Tony's embrace she felt her lids become heavy. Each time she blinked it became harder and harder to open her eyes again. She tried her hardest to fight it, to tell her body that she didn't need sleep, but it wasn't working.

Tony had put a movie on in the hopes it would give her something else to focus on instead of Greg. Even though she'd been paying more attention to Tony than the TV in front of her, she tried to force herself to get caught up in the movie. It was The Longest Yard but, even though she usually loved Adam Sandler movies, she couldn't concentrate on it.

She knew they both needed the humor right now, but even though she knew it was funny she couldn't make herself laugh. It was like she was watching everything from a million miles away, totally detached. She started to panic that she'd never be able to feel anything ever again, but it was like Tony could sense her thoughts and hugged her even tighter. She felt his arms and immediately calmed down, feeling a relaxing warmth spread through her. She could still feel Tony, so everything was going to be okay.

Tony could feel her fighting sleep and knew she had to be exhausted. He knew he wouldn't sleep, needing to stay fully alert so he could protect her if that stupid S.O.B. dared to get near her, but Kate definitely needed the sleep.. He had hoped she would finally give in after he put the movie on, especially since that would mean he got to hold her while she slept, but that obviously wasn't going to happen.

"Hey, Kate." He leaned down until he was breathing the words into her ear, keeping his voice low and soft so that he wouldn't startle her out of her sleepy state. "You've been through way too much today. How 'bout I show you to the bedroom and you can take a nap before dinner. I'll make us something great and wake you when it's ready, ok?" He held his breath, hoping she'd agree.

She was silent for a moment. It was tempting but she was terrified of what would happen if she fell asleep. Either Greg would come to her in a nightmare or he could come for real, but as she thought of the latter she mentally smacked herself. She knew she was safe with Tony but that still left the dreams, which would haunt her again just as they had when everything had first happened. She was so tired but she just couldn't take the dreams again. She couldn't sleep until it was over, even though she knew it would never really be over.

Tony knew she was about to say no so he jumped in before she had a chance. "C'mon, you can barely keep your eyes open." Her eyes felt even heavier now that he'd pointed out the truth, making it unable to deny it. His lips curled up in a half-smile as he saw her lids close for a few seconds before slowly opening again. His plan was working, so he continued in a soft, soothing voice to try and lull her to sleep. "You don't have to be afraid. I'm here, and I promise I won't let anything hurt you." He brushed his fingers through her hair and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Sleep," he commanded, gently but forcefully.

Her eyes started to drift shut and she couldn't fight it anymore. She felt Tony, so solid beneath her, and she knew his words were true. She trusted him to protect her, and she believed he really could chase the dreams, and the rest of the world, away. Her last thought before she drifted to sleep was that, after all these years, she was finally safe.

Tony was ecstatic to be holding her in his arms and watching her sleep for the past hour, but underneath rippled the blinding rage he felt for what she'd been through. While she slept, he was trying to get in the mind of that sick bastard to figure out what his next move should be. It seemed like this asshole wanted to go through the men from Kate's past before he came after Kate, so NCIS had to find them first. They could even use the guys to set a trap. He'd talk to Gibbs about it tomorrow.

Just then, his phone started to vibrate on the kitchen counter and he knew it had to be Gibbs. He looked at Kate's sleeping form and hated having to leave her, but this was important. He slowly slid out from under her, careful not to wake her, then grabbed a pillow to slide under her head.

"DiNozzo." He answered the phone after glancing at the display to make sure it was Gibbs.

"We got all the information on Greg Patterson and Abby is sending you his mug shot. You were right about the photo albums. It looks like some pictures are missing, and he scribbled on every picture of Kate with a guy, which includes members of the Secret Service and us. He used a black sharpie to X out every guy, put a black dot in the middle of his head, and wrote the word "MINE" in caps around Kate. All the pictures were labeled but only with a first name, so I'll bring them by tomorrow so Kate can tell us last names and where we can find them. We looked for an address book but didn't find one. She could just have everything in her PDA but check to make sure."

"Ok, boss. She's asleep now but I'll check with her as soon as she wakes up. If he has the book we'll have to find these guys ASAP and put them under surveillance. We should be able to catch him whenever he shows up."

"Exactly, which is why I need to know. Now. Go wake her up and ask her or, better yet, let me talk to her." Gibbs was clearly getting pissed at being kept out of the loop when one of his agents, or really all of them, were in danger.

"I can't Gibbs, she needs to sleep and I'm not going to wake her up with something like this. I had to fight with her to get her to take a nap. She'll never sleep if she wakes up to an interrogation. I'll talk to her when she wakes up and let you know."

"Dammit, Tony, I do not take my orders from you, clear? Kate has to talk to me about this and you have to stop coddling her. You can't protect her from everything if you want to catch this guy, so either let me talk to her or I'll be knocking down you're door in twenty minutes. Which is it?" Gibbs couldn't believe Tony was being so stupid about everything. He needed to know everything so he could protect Kate and catch this bastard, but Tony wouldn't even let him near her. This is why you didn't get involved with another agent, it messed with your loyalties and made you take stupid risks. Kate and Tony may not have been dating but they were definitely involved.

Gibbs had known there was chemistry there and that something may eventually happen, but they'd been good agents who tried to ignore their feelings and stick to the rules. Caring about each other had actually made them better partners, had made them more in tune with each other. But seeing Kate in so much pain had obviously brought out the protectiveness in Tony and had made their feeling rush to the surface. He had to get Tony to listen and rejoin the team or he'd be forced to pull him off the case.

Tony knew that Gibbs had him so he did the only thing he could. He chose option 3. "I'll go wake her. I'll ask her about the address book and call you back in five, maybe ten minutes, ok?"

"Fine." At least he'd get some answer. "Tell her that she needs to start making a list of all the guys she was close to, including friends, boyfriends, and colleagues. Have her include any information she has on where they might be now. If she can, have her give us a rough time line of when she knew them. This guy will probably follow some kind of chronology, starting with either the guy who he sees as his replacement or the current one. Find out if she's dating anyone now and what guys she's close to. My money is on the most recent guys since it'll be like eliminating his competition."

"Plus, the current ones will cause the most pain, and one of his goals is to hurt Kate and to punish her for leaving him." Tony agreed with his boss' reasoning as he glanced through the doorway again to check on Kate. She'd started tossing and turning since he'd last looked in on her. Gibbs said something but all of his attention was focused on Kate. She whimpered and curled up tighter into the fetal position. Then, she screamed and jumped up so fast that she fell off of the couch. He immediately dropped the phone, which landed with a resounding thud as Gibbs, who'd heard Kate scream, yelled into the phone. But Tony only heard Kate.

"Tony!" She screamed, completely panicked, as her gaze darted around the room.

"Kate!" Tony rushed to her side, the worry clearly etched upon his face as he searched the room for an unseen threat. She hurried to meet him and buried herself in his arms. He hugged her tight, not seeing any threat and having no clue what had happened. "It's ok, I'm here." He murmured soothingly against her hair. "What happened?"

"S…S…Sorry." Kate choked out through the sobs. She knew it was stupid, that she'd worried him for nothing, but she had been terrified. And then she'd woken up and hadn't been in his arms and it was like her nightmare had come to life. She hugged him tighter, thankful that he was still here.

Tony led her to the couch, still holding her securely in his arms. They sat down and resumed their favorite position, with her head on his chest and wrapped in each others arms. "Shh, it's ok. You're awake and everything's fine now. Just take a deep breath and tell me what happened." He knew it had to be a dream but he needed to know the details, and she needed to talk about it.

"I had this great dream and then Greg came in and he hit you and me and tied us up and then…then…" It had all spilled out in one huge breath but she couldn't say the next part, didn't even want to think about it. She'd been dreaming the same dream she always had about the perfect life with Tony, only it had been better because she knew she was in his arms and she could smell his scent around her and feel his solid muscles beneath her cheek. Then it had all gotten ruined by her worst nightmare…Greg.

"It's ok. It's over. He can't hurt you." Tony smoothed her hair. "Just tell me what happened."

"He made me watch while he…while he…killed you." The last two words came out as barely a whisper as tears continued to slide down her cheeks. She hid her face in Tony's shirt. He gently rubbed her back as the words sank in and he wished he could make it all go away. He never should have left her. She would have been fine if he just hadn't left her. That's when he remembered Gibbs, who would think that Greg was there and was probably racing to their rescue right now.

He was right.