I'm not sure if it's been two weeks or longer…but the good news here is I got out of basketball! HALLEULIAAAAA! I suck basketballs. Haha, I am so hilarious.

So anyways, I give a hearty thanks to my reviewers here in fan fiction land…because rereading my story makes me want to cry it's so bad.

1Styx and Stones1

smush68

LivieLi

aoki-reiko

ChEmMiE (true, it was probably unrealistic…but the plot when that way, it has a mind of it's own)

So, this is the next chapter laddies and ladies! OH! And what did you think of Tony's worst fear? I laughed so hard!

Snapshot: A short Hispanic woman standing next to a tall, redheaded man, both holding out NCIS badges.

Abby's lab was hardly ever quiet. There was usually music blasting, machines humming, playful banter, or just general noise.

Tonight was different however. The only light in the room came from the streetlights shining through the windows and the only sound was breathing of the usually hyper Goth.

She was sitting with her back against the wall under the windows staring off into the space. She had gotten the call about the little girls and the missing agents just as she was leaving for a quick Caf-Pow run. As much as he tried, Tony couldn't conceal his worried tone. She didn't know all of the facts, but it wasn't looking very good. It was making her think of the phone call she got after…after Kate died.

Losing Kate had been a horrible, horrible searing pain, but she was dead and there was nothing anybody could do to bring her back. Ziva and Tim were missing, and she couldn't be sure that they were dead or alive, which in her mind was a thousand times worse.

Rubbing her sweaty hands down her bare arms, she seriously considered curling up in a ball on the floor and bursting into tears…but she didn't. Instead she got angry, got strong, stood up, and wiped her eyes, and heading purposely towards the light switch, clicked it on with more force then usual. Strutting around her lab, she turned on all of her babies, jacking up the music slightly louder than usual to fill the empty space around her.

Gibbs was always one to multi-task, and as he paced in the waiting room of the hospital, he was also listening to DiNozzo's description of the area that had been searched so far. And as of four hours of searching, nobody had found hide nor hair of the two agents. It had begun to rain and the wind was picking up. The Director had decided that, quote 'There was nothing more to be done tonight, the search party will continue searching in the morning" end quote.

Slamming his phone shut, Gibbs seriously considered hurling it across the room at the two young nurses who stood innocently chatting, all smiley and innocent. He couldn't understand why it was fair that some people had the world handed to them on a platter and others were completely forgotten about.

Gibbs knew that it wasn't fair to blame random people for things that other random people had done, but it was distracting his mind long enough that it had cooled down a little bit. He paced his ninth circle around the waiting room, watching the hallway where the little girl had disappeared down, surrounded by a half a dozen medical personnel.

From what he had been able to hear before he was banished to the waiting room, the girl was not in as bad of shape as her companion had been. Words like shock and dehydration had been flying around as well as some more that seemed like babble to him.

"Agent Gibbs?" The slightly over-educated and overly-socially-awkward young doctor cleared his throat and nervously toyed with his glasses.

"What?" Gibbs growled, mostly to scare the young man. His anger was slowly defusing.

The doctor shrunk back slightly, "Uh-we've finished the evaluations of both girls. The older one has lapsed into a comma, trauma related, she's suffering from dehydration, malnutrition and has several broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and there are lacerations on her back that may have become infected, we need more time to tell for sure. We firmly believe that she will make a full recovery…well, that is if she ever wakes up."

Gibbs really didn't like insecure people. "And the younger one?"

"She is also suffering from dehydration and malnutrition…and she has severe lacerations on her wrists that are very infected, but we got to them in time. She will have some scaring, but there won't be too much damage beyond that. We gave her some sedatives so we could examine her, and we all agree that it would be best if she spent the night here so that if there are any complications…"

Gibbs didn't particularly like hanging sentences, but he let this one slide. He let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Can I see the younger one?"

The doctor nodded, "For a few minutes."

"Lead the way," Gibbs commanded.

The doctor's hand moved toward his brow as if to salute Gibbs, but he caught it just in time, "Yesss, sir," he stuttered, wiping at his brows.

Tony cursed the rain that was falling in curtains across the road in front of him, making it almost impossible to see. The slow speed that he was forced to travel at was driving him insane and the static of the radio wasn't really helping either.

The silence in the cab of the NCIS van kept dredging up memories that he really didn't want to think about. The van was usually filled with mindless chatter and laughter, but tonight the loudest noise was the rain on the roof. He hoped that Tim and Ziva were someplace dry.

He was playing the denial game, and he knew it. If they were even alive, bring dry was probably not one of their top-most priorities.

Flinching as more water dripped from his hair and down his back, he tried to focus his mind on any other topic. Even the thought of having to tell Gibbs the rest of the Director's message (the part he hadn't been able to relay before Gibbs hung up on him) wasn't enough to keep his mind busy.

He kept hearing the gunshots and seeing the blood that was probably his partner's on the step. And McGee's radio silence made him think of poor Abby, working with the stuff he had sent back alone in her lab.

Pressing his foot on the gas, he turned up the speed of the windshield wipers and watched the miles slowly crawl back. He still had part of a team to get back to and the rest of his team to bring home safely.

Gibbs stepped off the elevator and into the offices, feeling slightly better than he had earlier in the afternoon. Both the girls from that hellhole were okay and he had gotten a message from Abby saying that she had found something. All he had to do was grab the Caf-Pow he had stuck in the refrigerator then he could go talk to the Goth.

However, Gibbs hadn't been expecting to see anyone sitting at any of the desks. A short, dark haired figure sat hunched over something at Ziva's desk and a lanky one was stretched out at McGee's desk.

"Who the hell are you two?"

The tall guy jerked to his feet but the short one took his, no, her time. Stepping around the desk, she reached into her pocket and flipped open her wallet to reveal a badge a lot like his own, and her partner did the same.

"Agents Tatyanna Rodríguez and Hunter Allen. Director Shepard sent for us; we're your replacement agents."

Snapshot: A short Hispanic woman standing next to a tall, redheaded man, both holding out NCIS badges.

Yes, I am aware that Jenny is dead. Which is a very sad fact, I liked how she and Gibbs interacted. So this story is officially set BEFORE she died…this is so that I can write this story without worrying about making it accurate with the 9th season...and I don't particually like Vance Peachy keen?

I am going to start the next chapter tonight, so I will attempt to update THREE more time before Christmas, how does that sound?

Reviews make Striker SOOOOOO happy. It's what she wants for Christmas.

Love,

Agent Striker