Sorry for the slight delay, I'm a lazy writer and my beta can't beta the chapter when it's still in my head. Anyway, thanks to my FABULOUS beta AsItThunders and my reviewers:

aoki-reiko

1Styx and Stones1

Zivalover

Since I am newly beta-ed, feel free to go back and read the previous chapters that now have a bunch fewer errors!

Snapshot: Abby with tears streaming down her face and her cellphone pressed to her ear.

Agent Hunter Allen was used to spending hours doing monotonous research in quiet offices, but his new office at NCIS was anything but quiet. People from all over the building kept stopping by to ask how the search was going or dropping off information they had found while 'doing research for their cases' that might pertain to his team's case.

And everyone had some insane story to tell about Team Gibbs. All the cases they had solved, all the people they had helped or put behind bars and all the things that his team had gone through. And it just kept coming. Going on and on and on...

Not that he was complaining or anything; he was just making an observation. Team Gibbs was good and they were well liked. The whole plus side of this was the extra help he was getting…and the chicks,; Wow! Who knew the NCIS office had so many lovely women. Most, of whom, had either a: slept with DiNozzo; b: wanted to sleep with DiNozzo; or c: had creepily stalked DiNozzo from afar.

Sighing, he yanked a clean sheet of paper from the bottom drawer of his borrowed desk. His partner was forever making fun of him, but sometimes he had to make lists. By hand. It helped clear his usually clogged mind.

This list looked something like this:

Things To Find Out-

1. Who the two girls are
2. Why they were at the Carney House
3. Who killed the corporal
4. WHY the corporal was killed
5. Try and locate the suspect that Agent David had been chasing before she was injured
6. More about the Carney House and its owner(s)
7. More about the corporal's background
8.

Drumming his fingers on the desk, he resisted the urge to check his phone for a text from his partner. From what he got out of Gibbs, she was probably still getting her stitches…and most likely, she wasn't going to be in the best of moods afterwards.

Giving himself a mental shake, he returned to his work, thinking that he wasn't going to be able to focus. Twenty minutes later his attention was riveted to the screen in front of him as he scanned the Corporal's bank records for anything out of the ordinary. His search paid off. For the last three years, the corporal had been receiving payments ranging from fifteen thousand dollars to nearly fifty thousand dollars. That was a lot more than her regular paycheck.

The elevator dinged and one of the pretty ladies that had been fawning over him since he arrived in D.C. dramatically entered the bullpen. Ava Esposito, the beautiful Italian, "Well, that was a hassle!"

Hunter smiled patiently, "Did you find anything new, Ava?"

She nodded, "Most of the stuff had already been pilfered and sent down to Abby, but when I dropped my lipstick in front of her fireplace, I found this."

She pulled a blue evidence bag from her purse, waving it under Hunter's nose. It was a mostly burned picture but he could still make out a dark haired man with his arms wrapped around someone (whose face was gone but you could just make out the uniform and the corporal stripes). Hunter's grin grew, "Nice find…You say it was in the fireplace?"

"Yeah, it was shoved way in the back. It looks like the corporal wasn't too happy with this guy. It reminds me of the fifth time I broke up with my boyfriend…" Ava murmured, prattleing on while Hunter's face grew thoughtful.

"This guy could fit the description of the man that Agent David saw running away from the house the day the Corporal's body was found," Hunter interrupted, " Take this down to Abby and see if she can do any sort of face recognition thing."

Ava rolled her perfectly made up eyes but nodded at Hunter, wondering idly if all partners were in love. Hunter and Tatyanna, Tony and Ziva. Maybe I should find a straight, male partner, she thought with a sigh, that might help my love life.

After spending four straight hours meticulously checking and rechecking the map of the area surrounding the Carney House where McGee and Ziva had disappeared from, Abby was about three seconds from imploding all over the next person who dared to interrupt her. Like that ridiculously annoying Probie who had been sniffing around all morning, claiming that he 'just wanted to help find the missing agents'.

Abby muttered somewhat ominously to herself as her eyes continued to search the few digital maps in the Carolina County archives. "Whoever scanned these maps in here has some serious eye problems." She was beginning to think that a trip to the county archives was going to be unnecessary when a fuzzy circle at the corner of the screen caught her attention.

Moving closer to the screen, she hammered something out on the keyboard and the corner grew to fill the entire screen and the fuzzy words could just be made out.

Old Tar Road Cistern

She let out a five star screech, then flung her self around her lab in search of the phone, forgetting about the sleeping six year old on her old futon with Burt in the back. After she finally found the phone (under the nine CafPow cups in one of the corners) she was on a completely new level of Abby-Energy, "GIBBS! I THINK I MIGHT KNOW WHERE TIMMY IS! IF THE MAP IS RIGHT AND-"

She paused her screeching to listen to Gibbs for a second.

"OKAY! HURRY GIBBS, HURRY! TIMMY NEEDS US!"

All the screaming might have brought people running from every direction if it was anybody but Abby, but one of younger 'paper pushers' stuck her head inside the door, "Umm, is everything alright in here?"

Abby spun around, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU IN MY LAB?"

"Oh, oh, I'msorrytobotheryou-" The young woman was probably six feet tall in her stocking feet, but the Goth had startled her into a cowering position which made her seem a lot shorter.

Abby was on a roll, "ANSWER ME!"

"I'mJamieEmersonI'," she stuttered in a single breath.

Stalking over to Jamie, Abby looked down her nose (or at least gave that impression) at the skinny, frizzy-haired blond with some interest, "Well Jamie Emerson. Since you were considerate enough to come and check on me, I will give you the details of my life until Gibbs arrives. Capicé?"

She nodded and shuffled a few more steps into the lab, "Yes ma'am."

Abby cocked one of her black eyebrows, "Abby rule seven, never call me ma'am."

"Yes m- I mean yes sir- I mean-"

Abby cut off her new protégé with a wave of her hand, "I know what you mean. Anyway, back to the screaming. I have a new breakthrough on the case of my missing Timmy."

Jamie nodded enthusiastically, "Oh, is he one of the two agents who went missing yesterday?"

Abby nodded distractedly as she turned back to her computer, waving Jamie to follow her, "Was it only yesterday? It seems like a lot longer. But take a look at this Jamie."

Pointing at the screen with one hand and typing with the other, Abby explained her theory breathlessly, "Okay, so I think that, for some reason still unknown, he strayed off his path and ended up either following someone following or falling into one of the cisterns around the house."

"What's a cistern?" Jamie asked bravely.

"Water storage thingy, like a rain barrel."

"Oh, okay."

Abby hit another key on her keyboard and a different map popped up. It had several large red rectangles and squares all connected by thin red lines. Jamie opened her mouth, most likely to ask a question, but Abby cut her off, "This is a map of the cisterns around the house. I can't figure out why there are so many…or why they aren't all connected directly to the house, but we can get back to that. Where is Gibbs?" she wondered aloud.

"Right here Abs, what do you have?"

"GIBBS!" Abby let out a little squeal, "I KNOW WHERE MCGEE IS!"

Gibbs nodded patiently, "I gathered that from your phone call. Can you tell me where he is?"

Abby nodded and restlessly re-explained her theory to Gibbs, bouncing up and down, her pigtails swinging excitedly. Jamie Emerson had evaporated at the sight of the blue eyed, steel gray haired agent who everyone in the building either reveared or feared. Jamie just wasn't a brave person.

Gibbs however, didn't really seem to notice the girl. "I'll call the sheriff then I'll head out there myself. I'll call you as soon as I get anything." Glancing around as he dug his phone out of his pocket he asked, "Where's Lacey?"

"Asleep in the back, she's fine. Go find Timmy," Abby said, stamping her platform boots. Gibbs planted a reassuring kiss on her cheek then was out of the lab door, shouting orders into his phone.

"Oh! Gibbs, wait! How's Ziva?" Abby Gibbs-slapped herself for being so callous. She waited for an answer, but the ding of the elevator was the only sound.

She stood looking at the door for a long moment before the elevator dinged again. The whole room had taken on a misty glow, and Abby spun around and wiped furiously at her eyes.

The confident voice of Ava Esposito (who wasn't really one of the Goth's favorite NCIS agents) rang through the lab, "Hey Abby!"

"What do you want?" Abby snapped, annoyed by the tearful edge in her voice.

Ava cautiously entered the lab, "I have a picture that Hunter wants you to run through the system to see if we can get a match. It matches the description Ziva gave of the man that she followed out of the house."

This seemed to perk Abby up a bit and to tell the truth, the thought of any work to get her mind off of things was good. She snatched evidence bag without making eye contact, effectively dismissing Agent Esposito.

Ava stopped in the doorway and looked back at the shoulders of the Goth, "They'll find him."

"I know they'll find him. Gibbs won't rest until he does. But there's no guarantee that they'll find him alive."

What does a person say to that? Nothing, because sometimes actions speak louder than words. Hugs are support when times are bad and they form brand new friendships.

It took two hours, but just before sunset and twenty-three hours after McGee went missing, Gibbs had the search teams clearing brush around the cistern closest to the path that they assumed he had taken. "Hey, I think I found something!" The shout rang out, drawing everyone towards one of the deputies.

"What is it?" Gibbs demanded.

Pushing back the brush, the angular man kicked back some leaves to reveal what looked like a sinkhole. "This must be the opening, I almost fell in."

Dropping to his knees, Gibbs yanked a high power flashlight from his belt and got as close to the edge of the hole as he dared. The area looked like it was only ten feet deep or so and maybe eight or nine feet across. It wasn't just dug out, it had stone walls and ceiling; plus it looked pretty dry.

Gibbs couldn't see the whole cistern. Cursing, he gently moved closer and closer to the crumbing edge, "McGee! You down there?"

The whole group seemed to be holding their breath. Just when it seemed like there was no one down there, anyone who was alive at any rate, a groan rose from the debts of the pit. "Boss?"

Gibbs couldn't help it, he broke into a face-splitting grin, "It's me! Are you okay?"

"Alive. Okay is another matter. I think I'm gonna need help to get out of here-" he broke into a cough.

"Just stay where you are. We're coming!"

"On it boss."

"Tony?"

Tony glanced up from the release form he was filling out, "Abby, what are you doing here?"

"My machines were running without me and I wanted to come see you and Ziva."

Glancing around her, Tony looked slightly confused, "Where's Gibbs' little friend?"

"Asleep in the lab. Jamie's watching her. When did you meet Lacey?"

"Is that her name?" he asked. Abby nodded and he continued, "I was there when he found her."

Abby slapped her forehead, "Of course you were. I swear- I'm losing my mind…how's Ziva?"

Tony's skin turned a shade greener, "Okay I guess, she got out of surgery about half an hour before you called Gibbs. She's in intensive care now."

It was tempting to ask what had happened to Ziva, but there would be time for that, "Can I see her?"

Tony shrugged and stood, "We can ask."

After conversing in hushed tones for a short amount of time and a promise to be quick, Tony and Abby were granted permission to enter Ziva's room.

Seeing her almost made Abby burst into tears for the millionth time that day. Her beautiful hair was pulled back with a white wrap that encircled her whole head and she had two deep purple black eyes. She was lying so still on the bed Abby was terrified for a second that she wasn't breathing at all. All the monitors and the other medical equipment beeped and blinked in almost comforting regularity and Ziva slept on in blissful drugged sleep.

Stepping forward, Abby swallowed the lump in her throat and squeezed the sleeping agent's hand. "Get better Ziva, we can't loose you both."

As if Gibbs had read Abby's mind, her phone vibrated, "Gibbs?"

A soft, scratchy voice spoke instead, "It's me Abby. I wanted to tell you I'm okay."

She swore her heart stopped for a second, "Timmy?" she asked meekly.

There was a brittle laugh, "Yeah Abs, it's me."

The tears that were streaming from her eyes now were happy ones. "I thought I'd lost you."

"You'll never loose me Abs. I've always been here, always will be here for you."

Snapshot: Abby with tears streaming down her face and her cell phone pressed to her ear.

Like it? Review please!

~Striker