Chapter Eight

8.30am

(Previously - Gibbs advanced slowly towards Tony. 'You are going to tell Abby that her precious Timmy is currently MIA and that it appears to be your fault!' Tony paled at the though of the impending conversation and was suddenly glad that Abby was still back in Washington. 'Do it DiNozzo!' Gibbs glared and handed Tony his phone, which was already ringing, 'And don't forget to tell her about getting to work on the footage.'

'Hi yah Gibbs! Watcha up to over there?' Tony heard Abby pick up the call in her lab. He gulped 'Um Abbs I have something to tell you…')

'Hey Tony, before you start your new PDA's arrived.'

'Wait, what? I didn't order a new one yet?'

'Yeh well, McGee knew you were having trouble with your old one so he arranged to get you the newest latest whiz bang version complete with GPS so when your late again we will be able to find you'. She laughed happily while Tony's tongue stuck to the roof of his dry mouth.

McGee had managed to embarrass him and he wasn't even around. There was Tim staying back organising him a gift and all he had been doing was picking on him – again.

Gibbs nudged Tony with his elbow.

'Um Abby?' Tony licked his dry lips and started again. If he thought about it he wouldn't know what to say so he just came out with it and in an instant found himself in the middle of the explanation.

'McGee's been missing for nearly nine hours now. I played a stupid trick on him and pushed him outside the house last night. I thought he would get mad and come back inside. He didn't. We have some security footage of what looks like an SUV pulling up outside the house at the same time. We think McGee went off in the car. We need you to check out the footage and see if you can pull up anymore detail as its pretty rough and we don't have a lot to go on at the moment.' Tony sucked in a breath and waited for the onslaught.

'McGee's lost?' Abby voice was quiet and she sounded confused at this abrupt change of events. 'What do you mean he's lost? Where is he? Her voice was starting to get louder.

'Um that's just it Abs we don't know. That's why he is lost.'

'How did he get lost? I mean how do you get lost in the middle of a Navy Base? I mean well McGee, I could see he could get lost, disoriented at night but I mean even McGee couldn't get lost for … WHAT?? NINE Hours!! Nine hours he has been missing and I'm only hearing about it now??? Tony was beginning to hold the phone away from his ear.

'What the hell is going on over there? I leave you guys to go off for a few interviews and you lose someone? In less than a day you have LOST a quarter of your team? What happened? Why doesn't he phone? He would always phone because he would know we would worry, not that I'm worried because well he will be fine I mean you guys get into situations all the time and your always fine. I mean well not McGee ok usually its you Tony or Gibbs or Ziva who gets blown up, or shot at or run over or or well who gets the plague????? And you always come back! I mean normally Timmy is here in the lab with me and we work it out together, that's part of what we do we are a team but… but I'm sure he will be fine. Why doesn't he phone? Why would he get into a strange car? What aren't you telling me?? Why didn't you tell me earlier??? When did you notice he was gone????

Gibbs hearing the increasing decibels and constant stream of words pouring forth reached for the phone which Tony gratefully released.

"Shhhhhh Abby it's going to be alright. Take a deep breath'. Gibbs soothing voice came down the phone to Abby and she instinctively stood taller and took a deep cleansing breath. 'We need you to take a look at this footage and try and get us some leads to go on so we can find him. Ok?'

'Ok . Ok' Abby breathed deeply again slowing herself down.'I need to concentrate'

Gibbs heard a breath and could see in his minds eye the familiar figure of Abby moving her arm out as she inhaled

'Your right Gibbs. McGee is going to turn up just fine with some stupid story about how he saw a sad puppy…..alone...injured….. down a hole….. and when he tried to rescue it he fell in…and he spent the night in a cold dark hole with a puppy which turned out to be a a a' Abby failed in her little Timmy story and Gibbs could hear the fear behind her voice 'which was really a stinky chipmunk who bit him and had rabies which would serve him right Gibbs for making us all worry about him so!' Abby smiled again as she got a little mad at her silly Timothy who was so hopeless to have fallen down a hole.

Gibbs smiled. 'That a girl. Now I will have the footage over to you ASAP and I need you to let me know as soon as you pick up anything, as we don't have much to go on at the moment.'

Gibbs could swear he could hear her thinking down the phone. Her voice was quiet again as she asked 'Why hasn't he phoned Gibbs?'

'Well, Abby that might be a bit difficult. He didn't have his phone, or badge or gun with him when he went missing. He didn't have much of anything actually. You see he was naked except for a towel when he disappeared.'

"What? Why on earth was he wearing just a towel??? What the hell have you guys been doing over there?' Gibbs sighed and handed the phone back to Tony, before gesturing to Ziva to follow him.

'Are we just going to leave him there?' Ziva watched as Tony winced at the questions flying at him through the phone.

'Neither one is going to be much use until they get that out of their system.'

'They?'

'Well, Tony feels he deserves to be yelled at – which he does and Abby needs all the background info to make sense of the footage anyway. So I might as well kill two birds with one stone.'

'Come on lets see what they are doing about this search.' Gibbs hurried down the corridor and Ziva with one last look at her partner still trying to defend himself against a torrent of words followed him.

……………………………………………………………………………………. Ok review people. I will beg if I have to. I personally like the Timmy down a hole bit (I suppose I should really as I wrote it Duh!) Just a short one, didn't want to rehash the video footage again. So what would you like next chapter Tim or the Team?