A/N: Yola! Thanks to all my loyal readers who haven't given up on me, despite my extreme slacking in updates and poop like that. Anyways, without further ado, NEW CHAPTER!
Previously: (Angel) "Vance- he works for Itex! He kidnapped them!"
I blinked, trying to process this new information in my already fuzzy brain.
"Whaaaat?" I asked brilliantly. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I was used to having to deal with a lot of crap being dumped on me at a time, but this seemed a bit extreme. My remaining Flock members, plus Gibbs, Tony and Ziva (who had mysteriously appeared…?), Ducky, and Palmer stared at me, as if I was supposed to do something. What could I do? Magically make them reappear in front of me? As weird as my life was, I didn't think that I would become Harry Potter all of a sudden.
"Max? What are we gonna do?" asked Angel fearfully, burying her face in my chest. I stroked her soft blonde curls like a mother comforting her child.
"I dunno, Sweetie, but what did you mean about Vance?" Because that was a lot to just blurt out at random.
"I picked up some of his thoughts while we were coming down here, and he was escaping. They weren't normal. He was thinking something about his mission, and that the new director was going to be pleased by his accomplishment. He said some bad things about Abby, who apparently got in his way. She attacked him with a pen," she giggled, before continuing, "and almost got away. He's going to kill her if we don't get to them soon. And I don't think he knows that we know. We can use that to our advantage, can't we, Max?" I smiled. That was my little mind reader.
"'Course we can, Hon. And we're going to save them, no matter what happens."
The next morning, I sighed, rolled out of bed, and trudged down the stairs without bothering to put myself together first. Whoever was down there would just have to deal with it.
As I entered the kitchen, I immediately took notice of the presence of another person. I scanned the room and found that it was only Tony, slumped in a chair in the island. He was sporting ruffled hair, droopy eyelids, and wrinkled sweat pants.
"Lovely morning, isn't it?" he asked bitterly when I sat down in the chair next to him.
"Couldn't be better," I reply in the same bitter, sarcastic tone. He frowns and runs a hand across his face in frustration.
"I've had friends and co-workers kidnapped before," he tells me. Unsure of what to do with this information, I nod.
"And?"
"It never gets better." I nod again, this time in agreement.
"It doesn't help that it's someone you care about. I bet McGee is broken. He looked awful when we told him what happened to her," I commented. He raised his eyebrow.
"McGoogle? We're all upset," he replied. I shrugged.
"Yeah, but he seemed particularly so. I figured it was because they're kinda in love." The comment seemed to catch him off guard. It had sort of caught me off guard, too. I'm usually the last one to notice things like that. Maybe my relationship with Fang had sharpened my couple-spotting senses. Jeezums, I'm starting to sound like Nudge! I thought fearfully.
"Abby and McGoo? No way! Why would you think that?" Tony asked.
"I dunno. Just the way he looks at her- it kinda reminds me of how Fang looks at me sometimes. It's not much different from the way you look at Ziva. Nudge and Angel have been gushing about you two all week. It's annoying."
"Me? Look at Ziva? Ha!" he argued unconvincingly. I snorted.
"Alright. If you say so," I replied. After a moment of awkward silence, I blurted, "You know they're going to be okay, right? You watch lots of movies. You must know that the good guys always win." I wondered where that had come from. Since when was I good at comforting people? I hate all that touchy-feely crap. At least Tony seemed to perk up a little at the mention of movies.
"Not always." I looked up, surprised. He was smirking.
"What do you mean, 'not always'?" I asked skeptically. "What kind of movie lets the bad guy win?"
"Seven with Brad Pitt. The killer murders his wife and unborn child. I'd say the bad guy won in that one," he answered smugly.
"Yeah, but who listens to Brad Pitt anyway?" I countered. He shrugged.
"You don't respect the Pitt?" I chuckled.
"Think about what you just said, Agent DiNozzo. You just called a man that has desperate teenage girls fawning over him 'the Pitt.' Am I the only one that finds fault in that?" He rolled his eyes at me, and I smiled.
"You know, you don't have to call me 'Agent DiNozzo'. That's just a formality, and I think we're past being formal by now. Don't you?" I laughed again.
"Alright, Tony, then you won't mind if I ask you something?" I questioned hesitantly, not sure how to go about what I wanted to say. His eyebrows went up.
"Shoot."
"Why- why did you become an NCIS agent?" I asked carefully. He brought his eyebrows together thoughtfully and rubbed his chin with his hand.
"The guns and the chicks," he replied. I frowned at him.
"Tony," I warned. He put up his hands in surrender.
"Fine. I became an NCIS agent because I wanted to help people. Because I know murder is wrong. Because I want to give desperate, mourning families closure. Because I wanna put the sick people who commit crimes in jail, where they won't be able to hurt people anymore," he answered seriously.
"Wow, that was actually kinda nice," I replied, smiling lightly, pushing his arm teasingly.
"That and the chicks and guns," he added to ruin the moment. I didn't mind. Cheesy moments weren't really my forte either. I laughed, even though I didn't find it particularly funny. I laughed because I was thankful for the distraction from all the stress of my life. That is, of course, until he had to go and ruin that, too. "We'll save them, you know. I know you don't usually trust grown-ups, but-"
"Since when were you considered 'grown-ups'?" I interjected. He shot me a quick glare before continuing.
"True, but the point is, Max, you can trust us. We can and will keep you safe," he told me confidently.
"I've been promised safety before by people who said we could trust them." I stood up as I spoke. "-And that almost got us killed."
"Max-"
"Save it. I'll eat breakfast upstairs." And there went "The Queen of Charging Off," with a box of Wheaties in her hands and a gallon of milk in the other. If the others found out about this, I would never live it down.
"So…. What's the game-plan, Max?" asked Gazzy as we all sat around the dining room table that night for "dinner." When I say "we," I mean me, my remaining Flock members, and the rest of Gibbs's team. And why the quotes around dinner, you may ask? Well, my friends, when members of your family are kidnapped and taken by evil scientists who have yearned for your death for as long as you can remember, you tend to lose your appetite just a bit. Even if you are a mutant birdkid with an unusually high metabolism.
I sighed, not knowing how to answer the question. What is the game plan, Max? I asked myself. I sifted through all of my seriously jumbled thoughts and memories for the answer, and came up with nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero. The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I grew.
"Well, how do we know where to find them? Why don't we start with that? I mean, it'd be nice to know where we're going before we try to figure out how to get there," suggested Fang. I nodded, having nothing to contribute myself.
"That'd be a good idea… so… anyone got any ideas on how to find 'em?" I asked the table. I mean, I was used to quick, in-and-out rescue missions. But this would take more thought and fines. For all we knew, we could be walking in to a big trap. Actually, that was probably exactly what this was. Because everything's a test.
"That's it!" I exclaimed, standing from my chair. Every head in the room whipped around to face me, listening intently. I continued, "Everything's a test!"
"Uh, we're not following," Ziva stated.
"Everything's a test!" I repeated, but this time, I went on to explain. "If Vance doesn't know we know he's involved, we should use that, just like Angel said. We should ask Vance to help us find out where they hid Abby, Nudge, and Iggy!" I looked around at the others, to make sure they were following.
"But-if Vance is working for Itex- why would he help us?" asked Gazzy.
"Because he wants to keep his cover," guessed Gibbs. I nodded.
"And there's a pretty good chance that this whole thing is a trap to lure us into the arms of Itex, alone, so they can pick us off easy," I added grimly. "Once we get there, our first priority is to get our friends and any other poor saps they have holed up in there out. From there, well, it depends."
"On what?" asked McGee.
"How ready you guys are for battle. We need to get rid of these guys for good, so they can't hurt us anymore. But we can't do that until we know exactly who's on our side," I answered.
"I'm in," announced Fang fiercely, standing up and thrusting his fist in the middle of the circular dinner table. I grinned and stacked mine on top of his.
"How could I not be in?" asked Angel, placing her little fist on top of mine.
"Heck yeah!" yelled Gazzy, adding his hand to the stack. Tony was next, though a bit more hesitant. He turned to me and nodded resolutely. Then Ziva, who smiled devilishly my way. McGee bit his lip before putting his fist on hers. Palmer and Ducky's hands went out at the same time. We all stared at Gibbs, anxiously awaiting his answer.
"Let's do this!" he yelled, adding the last fist to our stack. And suddenly, we weren't alone anymore. We were no longer my Flock and Gibbs's team. In that moment, we became one Flock. One team. One family.
A/N: Yay! I like it. I don't know about you though... Why don't you tell me in a review? Oh, and again, I apologize for the super duper long wait for such a short chapter, but I had a bad case of writer's block that is slowly being cured. Yay!