Hey folks, sorry this took me so dang long! I just got promoted at work, so between settling into living in a different state, and a whole new job, it's been pretty chaotic. I now have full access to the internet, no more having to wait to get to the library, so now that things have slowed down a little, I should be able to get a chapter up a week at the least.
~Erin
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Kate and Colleen were in the middle of another kid-friendly meal they had been provided with when Baria returned. She aimed a gun at Colleen, and motioned for Kate to get up. Keeping the gun trained on the frightened girl, Baria moved further into the room, Paul and Troy stepping in behind her. Once again they carried the video camera and tripod.
Forcing Kate painfully into the chair again, Paul set up the camera, and Troy picked Colleen up and headed back behind the camera to the bed. He sat down and held the struggling girl in his lap. He whispered something in her ear, and she stopped fighting him, and sat shaking, but silent.
Turning the camera on, Paul returned to Baria's side, and placed a hand on Kate's shoulder to encourage her to stay put. Baria stepped in front of her and addressed the camera once again.
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Jenny paused for a moment to let Ziva process what she had said before continuing, "You already know I don't blame you for anything in your past, and that like I've told you many times over, the best way to deal with your past is to forgive and forget, with an emphasis on the latter." With that, the Director turned to Gibbs, "You on the other hand, are another story. I knew that something was off in your report, but because you had just lost Kate, I wasn't going to push it, and by the time you would have been willing to talk, we were on to other cases, and everything about Kate and Ari had been locked away, not to be disturbed by anyone. I do wish you had let me in on the plan however. If Ari hadn't taken the bait, or if Ziva had chosen family over us, things could have turned out very differently."
Gibbs didn't reply, but instead he stood, and looked to Ziva, and giving a slight nod, left. She knew that the first thing he would so would be to find Tony and make sure the younger agent was thinking about the whole situation rationally, or at least as rationally as one could be expected to think under the circumstances.
Ziva moved to Abby and pulled the lab tech to her feet, "We need to find something on that video that can help us, it is the only lead we have, and there is no way to tell how much time we have before she decides that she needs to hurt Colleen again as a demonstration."
Gibbs found Tony about an hour later. He knew exactly where the younger man would be, but he wanted to give him a chance to work everything around in his head for a bit before trying to talk some sense into him.
As he approached Tony on the rooftop, Gibbs could see that he was staring at the spot on the tar that was still stained, however faintly, with Kate's blood.
When Gibbs laid a hand on his shoulder, Tony looked at his boss, eyes glazed and his mind a million miles away and two years back.
Gibbs spoke, his voice unusually soft, "Ziva thinks you hate her now."
This simple sentence was enough to snap Tony out of his reverie and bring his mind back to the present, and the events at hand.
"I don't hate her Gibbs. I couldn't, not after everything. It's just a bit of a shock finding out that one of my best friends is the sister of the bastard who killed the only woman I ever… that killed Kate."
Gibbs only nodded, and waited for Tony to continue, "Boss, I get why she didn't want to tell us, but if you knew, why didn't you say something?"
Gibbs was back to his usual self when he replied, "I didn't tell you because you didn't need to know DiNozzo, and because if Ziva had wanted you to know, she would have told you. Now, if you're ready to stop moping around, we have a missing girl to find, and a kidnapper to catch."
Almost as soon as Gibbs left to find Tony, another package arrived from the woman they now knew to be Baria Haswari.
McGee was the one to find it on Gibbs' desk. Ducky had gone back to the morgue, and Ziva had followed him, intent on finding out his analysis of the whole situation, and the Director had gone to inform Lance Corporal Finnegan of the progress they had made towards finding his daughter.
Reluctant to open the package before Gibbs returned, but equally unwilling to let it out of his sight, McGee took it with him, and headed to Abby's lab to see what she had been able to make from the first two videos.
As soon as he stepped foot into the lab, he knew something was wrong. Abby's usual, pulse-pounding music was conspicuously absent. He found her sitting at her computer, Kate's image frozen on the screen, and the picture Kate had drawn of Abby as a bat propped up next to it.
At the SWOOSH of the doors, Abby turned around to face McGee. Instead of the tears he expected to see, she was smiling, "Tim, did you know that Kate had a tattoo?"
The question caught McGee completely off guard, and he stuttered out his reply, "N…no, I didn't. Tony thought she might. He spent hours obsessing over what and where it was."
Abby started to chuckle, "Why does that not surprise me? I did talk her into getting one eventually, though she didn't have one when she first told him that she had one. It was fun to watch him try to figure out what and where, especially after Gibbs joined in and hinted that he knew."
That image started McGee laughing too, and for a few minutes they were both lost in funny memories of Kate. Through the laughter, Abby managed to choke out, "You should have been here when they got back from Gitmo. Kate had some great stories to tell."
McGee had heard some of the stories from when they had gone to Guantanamo Bay, mostly the ones that had to do with Paula Cassidy, but he had a feeling that he hadn't heard the best ones yet. With Gibbs, Kate, and Tony all staying together in one house in a foreign country, there had to be some real doozies.
Sobering herself up enough to talk, Abby continued, "Apparently Kate and Tony had a disagreement about who would get the only bedroom with a bathroom attached. Luckily for them, Gibbs stepped in and solved the problem."
When she ended it there, McGee shot her a questioning look. Still giggling, she asked, "Can't you what Gibbs did? Come on, you know Gibbs, and his problem solving methods."
When the answer came to him, it was so obvious; he couldn't believe it took him that long to figure it out. The image of Tony and Kate's reaction to Gibbs taking the room for himself started him laughing again.
Seeing that he had finally gotten the point she had been aiming at, the story went on, "Apparently after that room was taken out of the running, the other two rooms were, in Tony's words, 'equally crappy.' Tony, being his usual self, offered Kate the choice of the remaining rooms, only to push past her into the one that she was headed for. Of course the best part of the entire thing is the fact that Karma caught up with Tony first thing in the morning. He woke up with an unexpected bed guest, which to Tony wouldn't usually be something to complain about, except for the fact that it was an iguana."
At this, McGee started laughing so hard, he couldn't hear what Abby said next, and she had to wait for him to calm down enough so she could continue, "So Tony freaks out, jumping up, pulling his gun, and hollering 'FREEZE'. Of course this makes Gibbs and Kate come running, to find Tony, buck naked, pointing his gun at a two foot long lizard perched on his pillow."
When Gibbs and Tony found them ten minutes later, they were still laughing, and it took them a full two minutes to calm down enough to tell Gibbs that another package had been delivered.
By the time all of them had reassembled in Abby's lab, she had the video set up to play. Ziva, the last to arrive, shot Tony a furtive look, that he returned with a half smile, and a nod that told her they would talk later, that right now the video was more important. Somewhat reassured, she turned her focus to the image on the monitor once again.
A smug grin on her face, Baria addressed the NCIS team oncec again, "I hope that by now you have figured out who I am. If you have not, then you have not lived up to my expectations of you. If you are not as smart and resourceful as I think you are, I will fill you in on everything you need to know. My name is Baria Haswari. My husband was Ari Haswari, the man you tormented, hunted, and eventually killed. I know enough about you to know that you will not give up until you have found Colleen, and, as you say, 'put me out of business.' I will help you find Colleen, because now that I have your attention, she is no longer of any use to me. Don't worry, it's not what you're thinking, I am not going to kill her. I am no monster. Be back at the Finnegan residence at fourteen hundred tomorrow afternoon, and you will get the little girl back. Be warned though, if you or anyone else go anywhere near that neighborhood between now and then, this will not end the way any of us want.
As for my reason for catching your attention in the first place, well that is another story entirely. Now that you know who I am, I can imagine that you can guess what I want. In the end, my husband may have been completely oblivious to everything but his obsession with you, but I still love him, and I will have my revenge."
Baria stopped for a moment, and moved to Kate's side before she spoke again, "I know that by now you have all convinced yourselves that the fact that I am holding Katelyn prisoner is nothing but an illusion, some sort of computer trick. I guarantee you that it is not a trick of any sort, but I know that being the discerning detectives that you are; you will need some sort of proof." She turned and nodded to Paul, who pulled a syringe out of his back pocket and handed it to Baria. Baria in pulled the protective cover from the needle, and knelt down next to Kate, whispering in her ear, "I will get this blood from you one way or another, but if you fight this, you won't like my plans for you." With that, she pulled up Kate's sleeve, found a vein, and mercilessly plunged the needle into her arm. Drawing out a full syringe of blood, Baria put the cap back on the needle, and turned back to the camera, "I will send your proof that I do truly have Katelyn with Colleen tomorrow. Until then, I leave you with this…"
At that, she nodded to Paul who took his hand off of Kate's shoulder and turned to her with a smug grin, "You don't know how lucky you are that Baria wants you alive."
With that simple statement, he grabbed Kate by the arm, his fingers biting into her skin, and roughly pulled her to her feet. Once she was up, he let go of her arm, but before she had time to take advantage of the opening that he had presented, his other hand, balled into a fist, slammed into her stomach. She doubled over and sank back into the chair, trying to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her.
A sly smile on her face, Baria turned the camera off, and motioned for Paul to follow her out.