Gibbs POV

I was floating away from the pain, away from the cursed desert, away from humanity itself. I felt so free, the pain and the stress that had been building for over 20 years was now lifted and I could just let it all go.

I looked up into the sky and saw the bright sunset, it's colors a soft orange, yellow, and pink, with golden gates shinning in the distance. I reached out with my hand, eager to push through those gates and take my place in the long awaited haven.

But I couldn't reach the gates. I felt something holding me back, and looked down to see that my feet were ties with a thick metal coil, attaching me to the compound.

At first, I was so confused. Why wasn't I pushing through the gates? Why was I still attached to that place?

I made myself float down wards and through the wooden roof to find the source of the metal coil. To my surprise, it was a woman. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen, her hair a tangled mess, and yet still so soft and silky as it framed her face, her eyes, a chocolate mocha brown, so blissfully sweet I could drown in them.

But why was she crying? Tears were pouring out of those sweet brown eyes, and her delicate, soft pink lips were yelling something. I came closer and heard her voice, like a siren's song, I wasn't able to pull away.

"Gibbs, don't do this, please, Gibbs," she begged, and I saw her yanking violently against the shiny metal chains encasing her to the floor.

I felt rage bubble up within me, who would date chain such an angel? Why couldn't I just bring her with me into that haven, so that we could both be free?

"Gibbs," she tried again, her voice sounding so small and heart broken, I felt myself breaking.

I followed her beautiful eyes and saw . . . me.

I was sitting perfectly still against the wall, my head had a black bag over it. She was yanking, trying to get to me again. I could now see that the cuffs around her wrists were now stained a rusty red.

This was why I couldn't leave, I thought, as I looked away form me and back at her. I couldn't leave her here, only God knows what they would do to her if I did.

Her ties to me were too strong, I couldn't just clip them like a simple string from a balloon. She needed me here, and suddenly, the haven I had thought was so perfect, now dissipated into a faint memory.

"I'm coming, Katie, hang on."

Kate POV

I lunged at his body with all my strength, ignoring the pain as the cuffs cut deep within my wrists, grinding against them.

"Gibbs," I whispered, my voice sounded so hollow and weak that it scared me.

I couldn't keep this up much longer, I was fading in and out, the nausea was over taking my brain and the dizziness was no help. I needed water, and food, I realized, and stopped, my eyes just glued to his form.

"I'm coming, Katie, hang on."

His voice jerked me out of my stupor of dizziness and I turned so I could fully face him, still unsure if what he said was real or just a hallucination.

"Jethro?"

"Kate, I'm here, don't cry, please, I'm here," he whispered, and tugged the black bag over his head and threw it on the floor despite the handcuffs.

I gasped at what I saw. He was still the man I loved, no doubt about that, but his face was marked with black and blue bruising, his nose had long sense stopped bleeding, but the trail of blood it left behind made me want to hurt the men that did this to him more then anything.

He hesitantly walked over to me and bent down on his knees so that we were eye level and let his hand cup my cheek.

"Gibbs you scared the crap out of me, don't ever do that," I whispered, trying to stop the inevitable tear that traced itself down my cheek.

He gave me a smirk, "Did you honestly think that you could get rid of me so easily?"

I shook my head, "Not for a second."

He brought his lips on mine in a sweet kiss, and I felt my body respond. I tried to wrap my arms around his neck, but the chains wouldn't let me get anywhere close.

"Dammit," I cursed under my breath and broke apart.

His eyes went towards my wrists, eyeing them up with an indescribable expression, one full of anger and frustration.

"Stop struggling against them, you're scratching your wrists raw, Katie. We need all of our strength to get out of this hell hole," he murmured.

I looked at his hand cuffs, they looked simple enough to get out of, so why hadn't he started picking them yet?

"I'm sure there's something we can use to pick your cuffs," I told him, looking around the mostly barren room.

"Go get out of those, and then you can tell me what to do," I told him, smiling.

He nodded and walked away from me, scouring the room up and down, almost pacing, his eyes glued to the wooden floor in search of any type of medal.

Suddenly, a thought struck me, "Gibbs! The clip in my hair, can you use that?"

He was at my side in an instant and with a quick nod, he undid my already messy bun and took out two clips.

He began working at picking the lock as I stared him down, checking his wounds. His shirt was dirty and I was willing to bet my life that there was a lot of bruising under the thin material. The men had worked him good.

After what felt like forever, I heard a subtle click and the rattling of handcuffs being thrown away.

"They don't have cameras here," he told me, "so they won't know that we're doing here."

I nodded and watched the door, my heart pounding as he bent over my right wrist, sliding the clip through the lock's opening smoothly and he began working it again.

"What are we going to do when we get out of this?" I asked him, trying to make my heart rate slow down.

My eyes were still glued to the door, my ears on high alert for any footsteps besides his own.

"We're going to take out a guard first, grab his gun, any water or food he has on him and move on. If we find a cell phone or even a land line, our first call goes to DiNozzo," he told me, his breath in my ear, tickling my neck.

I nodded, "How many men are there?"

I heard a click and was suddenly able to move my right wrist. I grimaced in pain as I stretched it, the cuffs had dug deep, clawing away skin and leaving my wrists raw.

"About seven," he told me, now working on my left.

I nodded again and felt the need for water over take me again, we both needed something to eat and drink or we would never make it out of the desert.

"Do you have any idea where they took us?" I asked him.

Suddenly, he was quiet.

Gibbs POV

"Do you have any idea where they took us?" She asked, a perfectly innocent question, but one that brought back so many harsh memories.

I remembered being roughly woken up after the water had practically burned me inside out and dragged out the door. I had forced myself to stay alert and as we walked out into the sunlight, I made out a town in the distance, not too far away, but far enough so that they wouldn't suspect anything.

The men brought me to a clearing where there was just sand, sand, and more sand. There, I was cuffed behind my back and watched as the sleek black baseball bat came down, over, and over again.

I had refused to let the worthless bastards hear my screams, and curled up into a tight ball on my side, trying to breathe through the excruciating pain that was now circulating up my side and making it hard to breathe. Every breath hurt worse then the water guns being trained on us.

The sound of rapid cursing brought me back to my senses and I saw the leader leaning over me and tug me to my feet. To my dismay, I could barely stand straight without the filthy bastard's help. He tugged the black bag over my head and then I felt one final blow, and everything went black once again.

Kate POV

"Gibbs?"

I watched his eyes get that far away look, as if he were somewhere else entirely, and then he was back again, those eyes once again a piercing blue.

"What'd you see?" I asked him quietly.

He looked at me, at first with a glimpse of the inner turmoil he was going through, and then he blinked, and it was all gone. I heard another click and knew that he had freed my other hand.

"Gibbs," I pressed on, "What did you see?"

He shook his head, "I'll tell you after we get out of this, Kate, it's better if I tell you later."

I let it go for now and a silence settled over us. The only sound was now the click of the locks popping open. When he undid the last one, he was back at my side and helped me to my feet.

"Can you walk?" He asked quietly, earlier traces of hurt and discomfort gone.

I nodded, "I'll be fine," I told him and took a few steps, his arm still around my waist. My ankles didn't hurt as bad as my wrists, thank god.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, and looked towards the all too silent door.

He shrugs, "We wait for them to open the door and we jump who ever the hell that person is and take 'em down."

I nodded at smiled at his frankness.

I stood behind the door and Gibbs took the other side. I watched as the lock slowly turned and clicked open. In walked the so called "aristocrat."

He didn't even get a chance to open his mouth. Just as he closed the door, Gibbs was on him, and quickly gave him a swift and powerful punch to the temple, effectively knocking him out cold.

I quickly slid off my tattered shirt and make shift shorts and slid on his cotton shirt, handing Gibbs the blazer, I took off his dress pants and pulled them on. Once the fabric touched my bullet wound, I winced.

I picked out a knife he had at his belt and took the bottle of water he had clutched in his hand.

I looked up at Gibbs and he nodded, pointing towards the door, we slowly eased it open.

The next chapter we see our favorite characters fight their way out!