Here's the next chapter guys, unfortunately the guys aren't in it. They're in the next chapter though. The eighth chapter was my favorite to write and I'm really glad you guys liked it, Tim and Tony are just gold when they're together. The writers need them to get kidnapped or something. Thanks all of you, the reviews you guys leave are amazing.
Chapter Nine
Ziva and Davies stood lost in the neighbor's house. Davies shifted uncomfortably and looked to Ziva, unsure of what to do next. Ziva was watching the open door impatiently, but even those who knew her well couldn't see through the mask to her anxiousness and distress. She needed to be doing something. Anything! Not just standing here like a marker, for someone else to come in and do the work. Ziva breathed out, she had been holding her breath for some reason. Ziva clenched her teeth together; this was not the time to be emotional. There was work to be done, friends to save.
"Ziva," Davies timidly gazed at her. Ziva raised an eyebrow, she must have lost control over her features for a moment and shown her frustrations.
"Yes, Davies?"
"Are you alright?" He swallowed as she gave him a look. "Of course you're not alright, your coworkers are missing. Sorry." Ziva almost snorted, he reminded her of the Tim she had first met so many years ago. More memories floated to the top of her subconscious. She really hoped they were alright. Gibbs and the Officer finally arrived, the Officer panting just as Davies had been. Only a lock of Gibbs' hair was astray. Gibbs opened his mouth to ask, but caught sight of the bloodstain and the ID.
He turned to Ziva and nodded. Ziva began to analyze the crime scene and take samples of the blood. She then took the fingerprint kit from Gibbs who had grabbed it from the car before he came and handed it to Davies. Who dutifully accepted it. Gibbs pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.
"Hey Abbs, I-"
"Gibbs, did you find them!"
"Not yet."
"When then? Gibbs they're in the hands of a killer! They might be tortured or worse! We need to-"
"Abby," Gibbs cut through Abby's rambling, panicked monologue. "I need the name of the owner for," He glanced at the address. "418 Rosewood Avenue, Norfolk." There was a small pause, taps and then,
"Claire Parkinsom. Her record is spotless though, she's been really good, Gibbs. Why are you in her house?"
"Found dried blood and Petty Officer Stephenson's ID there."
"Ooh, perhaps someone's been flying under the radar."
"Call me if you have anything, bye Abbs.
Gibbs hung up.
o-o
Abby listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before hanging up her phone too. She sighed.
"Why do you guys always have to get in trouble?" She asked, no one answered though. Abby may talk to her machines, but she wasn't insane enough (Yet.) to expect them to answer back.
Ding!
Abby jumped, and then stumbled slightly on her platform boots. She had forgotten about the DNA that she had been searching on CODIS. Finally a bit of luck! A small smile on her face, she turned and looked to her computer screen.
The smile fell, and dread took root. "Oh, no." She whispered. The grim face of Daniel Hart stared blankly out into the lab, and a warrant for his arrest was typed next to his picture in big, bolded print, along with his crimes. Multiple homicide, manslaughter, assault of a federal officer, murder of a federal officer. A cop killer. Abby felt panic return in full force. Her hands shaking, she opened her phone and tried twice to call Gibbs and finally succeeded.
"Gibbs."
"Gibbs! Gibbs, oh my gosh-"
"Abby?"
"Yes, yes it's me! Gibbs you know that DNA match I was running? You know from the DNA found in the Petty Officer's fingernails?" Abby blurted out.
"Abbs, calm down. You're hyperventilating. Yeah I remember." Gibbs was worried now, Abby spoke quickly, especially under the influence of caffeine, but this was something else.
"I got a match. Daniel Hart." There was a beat before Gibbs responded.
"Daniel Hart, the one that broke out of jail and injured those two guards?"
"Killed actually, they both died a few hours ago from their injuries, but yeah. The one and only. Gibbs, you have to find them! This guy, he kills for no reason. He's unstable Gibbs."
"He killed four people, Abbs. He's a bit more than 'unstable'. We'll be back in about an hour if we're lucky, call me if you got anything else." And without waiting for a reply, he hung up. Gibbs looked to Ziva, who gazed determinedly back at him.
"Done." Ziva stated. Gibbs then looked to the Officer.
"Looks like we'll be working together a bit more." The Officer said with a slight smile.
"You guys have a forensics specialist?"
The Officer's face turned slightly bitter. "Not anymore. Budget cuts, we send our samples out."
Gibbs smiled, but then his face turned grim. "Ours can take care of it then. We need to get back, fast." He raised an eyebrow. "Police escort?"
The Officer sighed.
o-o
Abby stood impatiently in the middle of the bullpen, watching the elevator. Starting slightly as it opened with a ding, she rushed over to greet the occupants, but stopped in disappointment as it was neither Gibbs nor Ziva. And then retreated back to the bullpen, shoulders slumped.
She looked to Tim's desk, and shuffled his pens around for lack of anything better to do. She smiled slightly. Tim hated it when people took his pens, well, hated really wasn't the word. He always knew it was Tony or herself, and acted irritated but had this funny little half smile on his face. He knew the pens would find their way home by the end of the day.
The elevator door dinged and slid open, revealing a worried looking Ziva, a determined Gibbs, and two harried looking local officers.
"Gibbs!" Abby practically flew over to him and into a hug. Gibbs stepped back slightly as she fiercely enveloped him. They parted.
"Got a present for you, Abby." Gibbs held up evidence bags, blood samples and fingerprints pulled from both houses and the barn. Squaring her jaw slightly, Abby took the bags.
"We'll find them, Gibbs. We have forensics on our side, and it's almost never wrong." Abby then set off to her lab. The Officer and Davies glanced a little confused at each other, and back to the retreating form of Abby as she turned a corner and passed out of sight.
"Ziva," Gibbs turned to Ziva, who gazed at him.
"Look for anything connecting Claire Parkinsom and Daniel Hart to Petty Officer Stephenson. And then check both of their bank accounts for anything recent." Ziva nodded and rushed over to her computer, determination and a slight vindictiveness on her face. Gibbs didn't want to be in her way once they found Tony and Tim's kidnappers. Of course that would be after he dealt with them, Gibbs thought with some satisfaction.
"I'll call our ME and get the autopsy reports." The Officer took out his cell phone and walked away to get a bit of quiet to make his call.
o-o
The elevator door began to slide softly at the ding, but Gibbs strode out impatiently before the door even fully opened.
"Gibbs, it's only been," Abby looked to her clock, her eyebrows rising in surprise. "Oh, half an hour?" Gibbs firmly placed the Caf Pow on the desk and Abby instinctively wrapped her hand around it, though her face clearly said that she wasn't actually interested in drinking it.
"What do you got?" He asked gently, but there was an undercurrent of tenseness there. Abby gestured to the plasma, which shown two fingerprint matches.
"These are the fingerprints you found in the barn and the Brent's house," She nodded to the ones on the left "And these are the ones you found, in Claire Parkinsom's house. I compared them to Daniel Hart's, and Claire Parkinsom's. They were both in the Brent's home and the barn." Abby then pulled up a different screen, this is from the drops of blood in the Brent's living room." Her lip trembled slightly. "It's O-, neither the Brents nor Parkinsom or Hart have that blood type."
"Who does?"
"McGee. Gibbs,"
"Anything else?" He stopped her gently, and tried to redirect. He didn't need Abby freaking out. Abby took a breath.
"The blood from the kitchen matches both of the Brents and the blood from Parkinsom's entryway matches Petty Officer Stephenson's." Abby looked, worried, to Gibbs. Who gently hugged her.
"Don't worry, Abbs."
"Just promise me one thing."
"What?" Gibbs tried to not think that he was shooting himself in the foot; if she asked for something he couldn't give.
"Once you find those bastards, can I at least have a few minutes alone with them?" Abby looked positively murderous. Gibbs grinned. He leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"I'd like them alive, Abby." He kissed her softly on the cheek, and she gave a small smile.
o-o
"Our ME says that the Brents both died from blunt force trauma to their heads. Someone really went to town on them." The Officer stepped back into the bullpen as Ziva and Davies both looked up from Ziva's computer screen. "She found some wood fragments in both wounds, probably from-"
"-A baseball bat." Gibbs entered the bullpen.
"I thought you said we were sharing info." The Officer said, a bemused expression on his face.
"You didn't ask." Gibbs looked out the large windows; the sky was slowly darkening as the day retreated. Damn, they were going too slow. "The blood in the kitchen belonged to the Brents, the blood in the entryway belongs to our Petty Officer, and the blood in the dining room belongs to one of my agents." He saw Ziva narrow her eyes slightly. Between her and Abby, Parkinsom and Hart had a snowball's chance in hell of hiding. "Ziva,"
"There have been no recent transactions, nor any purchases. And there is nothing connecting either Hart or Parkinsom to Petty Officer Stephenson. They most likely never met before now. The Brents have no connection with them either."
"I don't believe in coincidences." Gibbs pressed his lips tightly together.
"But that's what looks like happened." The Officer interjected. Gibbs turned to Ziva, who stared back and to Davies, who shifted uncomfortably, looking a bit anxious. He turned, and took another look out the window. The moon had begun to peek over the horizon.
They were running out of time.