A/N: I know it's been forever and I'm really sorry! I don't even have a good excuse to justify the lack of updates. And I also know that this chapter kinda sucks; sorry about that, too. The good thing is that I already written the next chapter and that is way better than this - at least I think it is. I hope you guys are still reading this! I fully intend to finish this story.

Anyway, hope the new year is treating you well. What is your resolution? One of mine is to update my stories more often. I'm trying! :P

Did you hear that Sasha Alexander had baby #2?

Did you notice how handsome is Michael Weatherly? I mean, seriously!

As always, read and review! xoxo

Kate was driving recklessly through the grey landscape, heading towards New York, following the only lead she had managed to get with Abby's help. She rolled down the car window to breath some fresh air and clear her thoughts. Her pulse was racing and some tears were stubbornly running down her cheeks; the cold air was blowing painfully on her tears-covered cheeks and she couldn't help but feeling the most alive she had felt in quite a while; rolling the window of the car as far down as it went, she took deep breaths of stingy cold air that made her shiver.

She had been driving for almost six hours but she wasn't showing any signs of fatigue; she was on a mission and she just wanted to succeed and get Tony back. As much as she claimed she was just annoyed by him, she perfectly knew that she would never be able to live with herself again if anything had to happen to him because of her. Not only because she knew that he utterly trusted her when it came to working on the field, but also because her feelings for him ran way deeper than she let out. She wasn't fully aware of how to classify the raging emotions that the man was able to awake in her, but she was sure it meant trouble. She'd rather to stay away from any kind of human contact that had the possibility to become a source of emotional pain for her. She put up a strong shield to cover up her insecurity. Her weapon was a well placed pre-emptive strike; the "I'll hurt you before you'll hurt me" philosophy had worked quite well for her so far. Sure, she had allowed herself to let her guard down from time to time, but she had never felt as vulnerable as she felt with Tony. She was fully aware of how dangerous letting her mind wander through that line of thoughts was. If she were wiser she would have just pushed it all somewhere deep in her brain where her darkest dreams and desires were, almost forgotten, without a chance of coming to surface ever again. She just was not able to do that with Tony. Seeing him after so long had definitely affected her in a way she didn't realize it had until that very moment, when he was in danger and all she could do about it, was hoping to save him before things got completely out of control.

As she crossed the New Jersey state line, she let herself indulge in thinking that maybe, just maybe, she would have been able to get her life back. After all her secret wasn't a secret anymore. That promising thought, was ruined by the her more rational side that didn't fail to remind her that she had walked out of that life a long time ago, and that nothing had stayed the same. People had moved on and there was nothing left for her anymore. Or was there?

It was almost 10 PM when she reached the small building in Queens where Abby had managed to trace the kidnapper's car. Frowning at the dark surroundings and the deserted street, she stepped out of the car, grasping the knife in her belt holster with one hand and grabbing her glock with the other. She silently crossed the street and took a few seconds to study the surroundings. She noticed the rusty sign warning the tenants that the premises had abnormally high levels of asbestos.

"Welcome back to America," she said with a smirk.

With a smooth movement she managed to climb on the crumbling and rusted fire escape on the side of the building. Trying to be as quiet as she could, she looked through the windows of the first of the three floors. She couldn't see much, but from the visual she had, it appeared a sleeping family occupied the first floor. Not a threat, she decided. Climbing up the shaky stairs, she made it to the second floor. A dim light flickered in the middle of the room, but there were apparently no people in the unit. With a well-placed kick she broke the window and sneaked into the apparently empty apartment.

She started looking around the place; bottles of beer and bullet cases were scattered on the floor. There also was a cloth with what she assumed was anti septic. After clearing the whole place, she went back out from the window and proceeded to climb the last flight of stairs leading to the third floor. She heard the voices of people arguing and tried to steal a glance of what was going on without being seen.

She immediately spotted Tony tied up to a chair in a corner. Two other men were standing on the other side of the room, speaking in Arabic. She couldn't understand everything that they were saying, but from the bits she caught, she understood that the reason of their disagreement was what to do with Tony.

As she looked inside again her gaze met Tony's, who widened his eyes in a mixture of shock and relief. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to find a way to get herself and Tony out of the situation alive. Not having a plan, she did the only thing she could think of at the moment hoping that those two men were the only ones who were in the building to guard her ex partner.

She took her gun out of the holster and fired aiming at the window. The glass broke in thousand pieces as her two opponents turned around caught by surprise by the unexpected noise, holding their weapons and taking aim. She fired two shots and one of the men dropped dead while the other had the time to fire back before getting shot twice in the middle of the chest.

R&R!