Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A.N.: Thank you to Romantic Southerner, alix33, Huddly, Mrs. Elizabeth Gibbs, , black widow mistress, MissJayne and HesMines for reviewing!
"What is this exactly?" the FBI Agents converged on Tony's desk and looked over the paper they had seen there, exchanging significant glances as they read the contents. "A list of houses, how interesting." One of the Agents said to the other.
"Very interesting since the case we are working on turned up the same house list." The other, older Agent said, dangling the paper in front of DiNozzo to get a reaction. To his credit, Tony simply stared at them and leaned back in his chair nonchalantly, crossing his arms behind his head.
"Oh really? What a strange coincidence." Ziva said, making the agents put the paper back on Tony's desk and turn to look at her, so Tony could pick up the paper and exchange worried glances with Gibbs.
"Yeah, this is a list of houses I was browsing when I decided to move house, but after checking up on them a moment ago, I found they had all been bought already." Tony added, grimacing at the last part when the Agents turned back to him, as if the loss of all those houses from the market caused him physical pain.
"How inconvenient for you." the younger Agent said dryly and Tony grinned at him.
"Yeah, but I'm happy to stay where I am for now." The FBI Agents scowled but then decided to move away from him. Gibbs and Mann moved closer to Tony, who swiftly passed the house list to Hollis, who moved over to Ziva. Ziva took the paper and passed it over to the Agent behind her, who sandwiched it in a folder and handed it to Agent Sandy Jones, one of Taylor's team. She slipped the folder into Taylor's top drawer while pretending to put something else in his in tray.
"Then you won't mind if we take a look around your desks for anything that could be FBI case related?" they said, already checking through draws in McGee's desk. The team left their desks and stood by Gibbs while the FBI looked for the evidence they had already moved.
"By all means knock yourselves out. There is nothing for you to find." Gibbs said smugly. The older FBI Agent looked up at Fornell and narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"Why are you in NCIS Fornell? You should be at home waiting for news or hostage demands." Tobias bristled in anger and stood up from behind Gibbs' desk, taking a step out towards the other Agent. Sacks loyally moved with him, giving him the backup he might find himself needing.
"Don't tell me what I should be doing Ellis. Oliver, you were trained better than this." Oliver avoided Fornell's eyes, not able to look at him and see the disappointment. All of the Agents in the FBI that knew Fornell and liked him had been shocked when his family had been killed, and outraged when he had been removed from the case, but what could they do? Complain? The handbook was very specific about cases like this and to complain would be to go against the rules. That could give them a suspension if they pushed too far.
"He was helping me look through my house list." Tony spoke up and Ellis turned to him doubtfully. This game was getting tiring, and he hoped to find what he needed soon.
"Really." he said, his tone flat with disbelief.
"Yeah, after his divorce he had to go house hunting, so he does have experience in this area." Gibbs said, exchanging a conspiratorial but encouraging look with Tobias. Fornell gave him a small smile, remembering the time Emily had let Gibbs use her room when his house had termites. He had told Gibbs that if he had listened to him about Diane he would still have a house with a guest bedroom for him. His heart constricted, Emily.
"Nothing here sir, there is no evidence they were looking into our case." Oliver reported after looking through all of Team Gibbs' desks. Ellis clenched his jaw in frustration; they had won, this time, but there were plenty of chances for them to be caught out.
"What case is that by the way?" Gibbs asked, his voice dripping with forced civility and curiosity.
"We'll be watching your people, Gibbs. You'll slip up eventually." Ellis said confidently, his fists clenching when Gibbs just stared at him condescendingly. Of course I will, you've outwitted me so far, the look said and Ellis decided he had never met a more annoying man.
"I doubt it; his shoes have a sturdy grip." Ziva said, in her most 'confused Israeli' voice, making the FBI guys give her strange looks and her team to barely suppress their laughter. Ellis and Oliver were not impressed, but they didn't want to stick around where the only thing waiting for them was ridicule.
"Whatever." Ellis groused. "Sacks take him home and make sure he stays there." Sacks stood completely still, not moving from Fornell's side and not ushering him out of the building, making Ellis even more annoyed. What was it with this building? Did it brainwash all of their Agents to disobey?
"I don't think so, he's staying here." Gibbs declared, his tone brooked no argument from a lesser Agent perhaps, but Ellis was just as experienced as Fornell, and he wasn't going to back down.
"Excuse me?" he said, almost in disbelief. Did Gibbs think he could order FBI Agents around?
"You heard me. You don't have the authority to remove anyone from this building, least of all a welcome guest." He said; his voice even, but with a subtle undertone of a threat. Ellis moved closer to Gibbs until he was almost toe to toe with him.
"Are you interfering with FBI Agents and their business?" he asked, his voice not even attempting to hide the threat in it. Gibbs smirked at him, not backing down.
"Of course not, but if you want him removed, you'll have to have your Director give my Director a call." Gibbs replied, not at all intimidated by Ellis.
"We may just do that." He said and then he turned on his heel and walked to the elevator, Oliver following. As soon as the elevator doors closed on the FBI Agents, the room gave a sigh of relief and everyone returned to their desks, putting everything Oliver had removed back into its original place.
"Thank you, Jethro." Tobias said, his gratitude completely heartfelt. That had been a very close thing. Who would have thought the FBI Agents would take the stairs in an attempt to catch them out?
Samuel Addams, the resident tech of Team Taylor, was rubbing his eyes and squinting at his report, which he had been writing for nearly the entire hour that Director Shepard had given them to write it and have it on her desk. Something was bothering him about this, he just couldn't figure out what it was. He sighed and pushed his chair back away from his desk, jumping into the air when a squeal of pain erupted from behind him. McGee hopped on the spot for a moment, his foot having been run over by Samuel's chair.
"Oh my god, Agent McGee, I'm so sorry." Sam exclaimed.
"Forget it; it's nothing… sign of weakness." McGee mumbled and stopped jumping, trying to breath evenly. "What was your hurry anyway?" he asked while retrieving the folder from Taylor's top drawer that contained the house list.
"Oh, well I've got to write a report on a dead guy's movements and have it on the Director's desk before the hour is up, but there is something bothering me. You see, we tailed this guy, he was supposed to be finishing an auction online but he never went anywhere with internet access." Samuel said. Trying to remember every step the deceased had made was exhausting. McGee leaned close to Sam's computer and read through his report, his brow drawing together in concentration.
"Are you sure? It says here that he went to a café; I know that a lot in that area are internet café's. Did he stay long in any?" McGee asked, a small smile playing around the corner of his lips as Samuel's eyes lit up.
"Agent McGee, you're a genius! Yes he did, he was in one for about ten minutes. Thank you." he swiftly ran off to the stairs, taking him to the Director's office. He narrowly avoided a collision with Gibbs and Agent Taylor, who were bringing the rest of the evidence on Fornell's case back down to the bullpen, and had to catch his breath before Cynthia could understand a word he had said to her when he came to a stop in her office. "I… need… see… Director… information." He took a deep breath and Cynthia nodded. He turned on the intercom and spoke into it.
"Agent Addams to see you Director, he has information he'd like to share with you."
"Send him in, Cynthia." Cynthia showed him in and closed the door behind him, and Samuel realised it was the first time he had set foot in the Director's office alone. She watched him catch his breath patiently and then spoke to him.
"Agent Addams, you're early, however I can't help but notice you are empty handed." She had been expecting his report, but he hadn't thought to bring it, the information he had was much more exciting.
"Madam- err, ma'am- err Director Shepard I just thought of something." Jenny endured his stumbling over her title with good humour but her patience was wearing thin. It was his and Agent Jones' fault that Harrow was dead. "He was in an internet café ma'am; he may have concluded his auction." Jenny's eyes lit up, and she stood from her desk.
"Can you find out for sure?"
"If I can hack the server, ma'am, yes." She nodded and pointed to her computer.
"Do it."
Emily Fornell curled up into a little ball and tried to stifle her tears. The bad man had his friends over again. Last time he had warned her to stay as silent as the grave, because if they heard her, that was where she would end up. They liked girls, he had said, and the last thing he wanted was for his little game to be over so quickly because one of the guys got frisky. She shuddered in fear and covered her mouth and nose with a hand in an attempt to quiet herself. She didn't know what 'frisky' was, but it gave her a very bad feeling, the kind that let you know when you are about to throw up so you can get to a toilet before it happens.
A whimper from the other side of the room made her jump and she glared sharply at the other occupant of the small, dark room. It was a boy, just younger than herself, which her captor had brought in late last night. He had said his name was Neil, and that he had been dragged into the bad man's van from an alley, where he had been taking a shortcut home from the local swimming pool. The bad man had been ever so excited to have Neil in the house, and Emily knew that could only mean terrible things for both her and him.
Neil was shaking in terror, just like she was, but he couldn't control his fear noises yet, he hadn't had as much time as she had to get used to the long hours with nothing to do but be scared. She didn't spend as much time thinking about what could happen as she had in the beginning; she tried to think of ways she could help her daddy to find her instead. She hadn't come up with anything yet, but it gave her something to occupy her mind and it kept her spirits up. This method had enabled her to not think about her mother's dead body, her scream of pain and terror when the bad man had plunged that knife into her back or the blood coating the stairs. Neil let out another whimper and Emily turned to him urgently.
"Please be quiet. If they hear you they will come over to see us, and I don't want them anywhere near me. Please." She whispered to him, her small voice shaking with fright. What if they heard her talking to him? Neil tried to nod and then covered his mouth and nose like she had done, his noises quieting quickly. She breathed a sigh of relief, noting that the sounds of laughter from down the hall hadn't stopped or come any closer. They were still relatively safe for now.
Cecelia Howard groaned and rolled her neck experimentally. She and her search partner, Jake Travis, had been to eight houses today, and the drive between each was long. Who knew that sitting in a car for hours on end would mess up the muscles in her neck so badly. Jake took his eyes off the road for a moment to throw a glance at her in amusement.
"What are you laughing at?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow at his not so subtle sniggers.
"You. I think your lack of physical fitness is finally catching up with you." he grinned cheekily at her and she sat up straighter in mock indignation.
"Keep dreaming, my body is never going to get to the sorry state yours is in Mr Beer gut." She threw back, pocking his toned stomach playfully. He swiped at her hand and she slapped at his, turning the boring drive into a play fight. It was over too soon and they both sat back, watching the houses pass by, looking for their next target. Jake took the turning into the housing estate and they parked outside number 45, the house on their list. It was a nice house, the garden had trees in that shielded the house from the neighbours and there were lights on, so someone was obviously home.
"Last house of the day, Ce." Jake said, unfastening his seat belt and looking once more at the photo of the kidnapper they were looking for.
"Yep. Let's get this done and go home." Cecelia replied, jumping out of the car and walking towards the front door of the house. Jake noticed a van parked around the side of the house and then called to his partner.
"Ce! Van, I'll check it out." He pointed to the vehicle and started walking towards it. Cecelia nodded and continued onto the front door. The van and location looked promising, and she began formulating a cover in case their man came to the door. They don't have the man power to take him down if he has guests, but alone she and Jake could take him out. She smiled slightly to herself, thinking about the moment she could hand over the living, breathing child to her father and she promised herself she would do it, she would make that thought a reality. She and Jake had been through Army training together; they had gone to CID together and they knew each other inside out. If anyone could do his job right, it was them.
She blinked, realising she was already standing in front of the door and rolled her eyes at herself. Yes they could do anything; if she could keep her head in the game rather than daydreaming. She raised her hand and knocked on the door. Voices sounded from inside and her hopes shattered, it sounded like at least four people. The door opened and Cecelia looked upon an unfamiliar man. It wasn't the man from the photo after all. She internally scolded herself for letting her imagination run wild.
"Yes? Who are you?" the man asked, looking her over curiously. She forced a smile on her face and pulled out a book, readying herself for her Jehovah's Witness act. The man took one look at her book and spoke before she could part her lips. "We don't believe in that! Go away!" Cecelia took a step forward to try and get her foot in the door but froze when she looked past the man into the house, seven men stood in the hallway, bottles of beer in hand, silly grins on their faces, but that wasn't what made her freeze. The man from the photo was with them. He'd been turning away from the door so she could only hope he hadn't seen the recognition in her expression. Not wasting any more time she calmly walked away from the door and towards the van, looking to see if Jake was finished checking it out.
"Jake? You done?" she called out in the loudest whisper she dared. Jake appeared from the side of the van, a camera in his hands and a troubled expression on his face.
"Yeah, you?" he asked, seeing the near panic in her expression. "Hey, are you ok?"
"He's here! He's in there I just saw him." she whispered, her voice shaking slightly. Jake smirked and put his camera away.
"Good, we can take him out now." Jake pulled out his gun, but Cecelia grabbed it and hid it.
"Put that away, they could be watching. He's got at least seven friends in there with him, we have to call the Colonel." Jake nodded and they walked sedately back to their car, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible. Once they were belted in Cecelia picked up her phone and dialled Colonel Mann, while Jake drove them around the corner and out of sight of the house. "Colonel Mann? It's Cecelia and Jake, team five. We found him."