"Early, Daddy, still dark."
"I know, baby." Tim kissed her forehead as he gathered her and her blankets into his arms. It was actually easier to carry her the block to Maggie's house than to wake her up enough to get her into the car seat. Jethro walked right at his heels.
Maggie was waiting on her front porch and took the bag from his shoulder. "I know how long these kind of days can last. Don't worry about a thing here. Unless the scuttlebutt is worrisome, I'll take her to pre-school and pick her up for you and then she can stay here as long as you need."
"Thanks, Maggie." Tim understood what she wasn't saying. If rumors of the raid going bad hit the Yard, she'd keep Tiana away from there so she wouldn't be scared, then do whatever was necessary to deal with it until he or Gibbs could. It was the unspoken reason why Maggie took care of so many children of agents. He followed her into the house and laid Tiana on one of the daybeds in the front bedroom while Jethro curled up on the floor next to the foot of the bed. Tim stroked Tia's forehead and kissed the top of her head, breathing deeply to ingrain the moment deeply into his memory before standing up. "I'll call when it's over."
Maggie nodded and squeezed his hand. We're okay. We're safe. No one important died. The three unasked questions answered with those simple words – it's over. "I'll be waiting."
Forcing his mind to the task ahead, McGee jogged back to his car and left for the Yard, his headlights illuminating the mostly deserted road.
-NCIS-
Are we sure they're potty-trained, Boss?
Gibbs gave a snort at DiNozzo's question, but he had a valid point. The Army soldiers backing up the CID in Kentucky didn't even look old enough to shave. He turned away from the screen to focus on the team ready to move in on the building. "Don't worry about them, concentrate on your own part." You guys ready to move in?"
Twenty miles away, outside a group of warehouses and office buildings west of Fairfax, Tony nodded to McGee and Ziva before turning his attention to the FBI agents and CID soldiers with them. "Okay guys, just like we went over. The power will get cut and that's our signal. We're going to take one floor at a time, make sure we don't miss anyone or anything. Wagner, you and the Sergeant will take your team and maintain the perimeter while the rest of us sweep the buildings. Okay, let's go."
-NCIS-
In MTAC, Gibbs paced as he watched the screen. The three members of his team and one of the Army soldiers each wore a camera on their helmet. Two were standard, while two were night vision cameras to see better in the dim emergency light in the interior rooms. Combined, the four incoming images gave him a range of views of what was happening. He barked out orders when something caught his eye, but for the most part it was going smoothly, until they reached the eighth floor, where auxiliary power was coming from somewhere. Tony and a small team veered off to track down the source of the power while the rest of them continued on.
-NCIS-
"Freeze, hands up where we can see them."
The short, nervous man looked up then back down at the shredding machine before looking at the papers in his hands.
"Don't even think about it." Tim edged closer, weapon directly aimed at the suspect's face as Ziva reached down to unplug the shredder. Once she had done that, she grabbed the suspect's arms and pulled them back, snapping the cuffs on him before leading him out to where the rest of the suspects were being held. Two DoD agents and the soldiers continued to clear the room. Once they had circled the room they moved on, ignoring the fact that Tim had lagged behind and was still securing the computers, trying to stop the data dump that was destroying their evidence as well as tracking any contact made by the one still operating computer. Tim continued to work, his fingers flying across the keyboard, unaware that he was alone with no back-up.
-NCIS-
Gibbs had lost track of how many times he'd wiped his sweaty palms across his pant legs, but his gut was screaming at him to halt the mission. He watched carefully as the team started to sweep the eighth floor. The layout was different up here with more individual offices and less open area. They'd have to split up, using two teams, as sweeping in opposite directions was the only way to handle it. Gibbs found his hand touching the key for his mike before his movement even registered. "Don't move out until the clean up teams have all the stairwells secured."
Even if Ziva hadn't been looking at him, Gibbs knew Tony was rolling his eyes. Just like the last seven floors, Boss.
If it had been said face to face, that would have earned DiNozzo a head slap. The distance and the fact that he put Ziva and Tim on the same team earned him a pass – for the moment.
A call finally came through that the stairwells were secure. Each time it was taking longer as the support team had further to move the suspects down to the prisoner transports. Tony and his team moved out to search the northern side of the floor while Tim and Ziva led the remaining team to the southern side. From what they'd been able to determine from the building schematics, the electrical draw had been much heavier up here so Tim and Vance had decided the computers were most likely on that side of the executive floor. That was Tim's target while Tony was tasked with rounding up the masterminds that were probably using the large offices on the north side. Of course, the discovery of power on that floor had rewritten the game plan.
For the first time since the raid had started, they were following two different actions in MTAC. The lower floors had been open enough that no matter how spread out they were the cameras were picking up regular glimpses of the rest of his team. Now, the only time he saw any of his three team members was when either they or Agent Sanchez from the FBI were actually looking at each other. It was disconcerting and did nothing to settle Gibbs' gut.
-NCIS-
"Clear."
"Clear."
"Clear."
Back from delivering her prisoner, Ziva nodded at Sanchez as they spread out. McGee was bent down, examining one of the computers on the far side. Of the five workstations, that one was the only one where a screen saver wasn't scrolling across the monitor. They'd expected to find more than just the one suspect on this floor and she stayed sharp as she carefully moved around, looking for any hiding places they could have missed. She was almost to the main corridor when she heard a noise and turned in time to see an access panel swing free from the ceiling. "McGee! Behind you."
-NCIS-
All of the computers had data dumps in progress, but this one was the one in control. Tim sat down and quickly started working. It would take too long to stop the dump, so he instead worked to shunt the data to the secure server he'd set up at the Yard. He'd just managed the reroute when Ziva yelled at him.
"McGee! Behind you."
Tim turned just in time to see a pair of feet flying toward him as a muscular man dressed in black swung down out of the ceiling. There wasn't even time to stand or move before the heavy boots hit him squarely in the chest and knocked him and the rolling chair toward the wall of windows. Tim tried to twist enough to pull his weapon, but there wasn't time before the suspect was on him again. He was vaguely aware of Ziva trying to get a bead on the suspect, but they were too tangled for her to get a clear shot. For his part, he was just trying to stay on his feet and keep the suspect from gaining control of his gun. A punch to the side of his head knocked his mic off and left him reeling. He managed to shove him back once, but the guy charged again, slamming into him even harder this time.
-NCIS-
"McGee!" Ziva sighted down the barrel of her SIG as she rushed closer, but she was on the wrong side of the cubicles. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sanchez also coming to help, but he was even further away. McGee and his attacker were up against the tall windows and for a split second McGee gained some space before he was slammed into again. There was the sound of breaking glass, and then – "McGee, no!"