A/N: My sincerest apologies, dear readers, for my lack of updates this week. It seems like the days have just flown by and I have had some trouble getting motivated to write the next few chapters just because they are going to be complicated and involved. But I finally stopped procrastinating today and got a good start on them. Please enjoy. As always, I love every single review I get. A special thanks to alix33 and Silverfox2159 who have flooded my inbox with reviews over the last two days as they caught up on my story. You guys are amazing and it absolutely made my day yesterday to read all your lovely reviews. Thanks to everyone who is reading, has read, and is still hanging in there for the end. You are awesome!
Monday morning Jenny woke up before her husband, and for a moment just lay in bed and listened to the soothing sound of his breathing. Then she turned to him and pressed a light kiss to his cheek before getting up and going into the bathroom. She turned the shower on and tuned the radio to a good station, smiling when the opening notes of her favourite song began to play. She hummed along as she got out of her pjs and stepped beneath the hot water.
In the bedroom, Gibbs smiled when he heard the sound of music. It had been a long time since Jenny had been comfortable enough, or focused on something other than how she didn't like to be naked, to play music while showering. He touched the spot on his cheek that she'd kissed. That was what woke him up, plus he'd felt the change in the mattress when she left their bed.
Gibbs got up then, to answer nature's call. When he was finished, he leaned against the counter, enjoying the sight of his wife dancing in the shower. She was oblivious to his presence, singing along to the song and it was an unveiled moment. Just Jenny with no barriers. He'd missed that. For right now she was happy and carefree and he would give anything to have her stay that way.
The phone rang and Gibbs' hand automatically went to his hip before he realized his phone was sitting on the dresser in their room. Taking long strides through the door and across the floor, Gibbs grabbed the phone on the third ring and snapped it open, rubbing his eyes. When he got a call at 0610, it was never a good thing.
"Yeah, Gibbs."
"Uh Boss? It's McGee."
"Yeah, I can hear that. What?"
"We got a case."
Gibbs was already reaching for his shirt, grabbing pants off the hanger, looking for where he'd kicked his shoes off last night.
"Gonna tell me about it McGee?" he asked when the agent paused.
"Oh, right. Umm...call came in to dispatch from Metro. Twin daughters of a Navy Lieutenant disappeared from their bedroom around 0530 this morning. Possible kidnapping." He recited all the information quickly from the sheet he held.
"Ya think McGee?" Gibbs grunted as he finished getting dressed. "Alright, wake everyone else up. Tony and Ziva, Abby - unless she's right there."
McGee blushed at the insinuation. "Uh, no Boss. I mean, I'll get everyone up."
Gibbs hung up, reaching for his jacket. He tapped on the closed bathroom door. "Jen?"
His wife answered the door in a towel, her wet hair tousled. She looked gorgeous like that, but he didn't even have time to appreciate it.
"Call came in, gotta go."
Jenny's forehead wrinkled. "How bad?"
Gibbs sighed. "Kidnapping. Twin girls."
"I'll see you at the office." Jenny's eyes looked pained.
He brushed her cheek. "Love you Jen."
She smiled slightly. "Me too. Bye."
"Bye."
Gibbs rushed down the stairs and gave the heads up to Jenny's security detail that they were in charge of her today. Jenny sped up her getting ready process, wanting to be at the office when the team got back from their crime scene. Kids always hit her husband hard and two little girls...she shuddered, not wanting to think about it. Today was going to be a dark day.
NCIS
Abby yawned when the phone rang, reaching out of her coffin and trying to find her cell without opening her eyes. Her fingers closed around the slim object and she opened it and held it to her ear, snuggling down in her covers.
"H'lo?"
McGee had to smile at her sleepy voice. "Morning Beautiful."
"Timmy." Abby yawned again. "Not that I don't love hearing your voice first thing in the morning, but why are you calling me," she squinted at the clock and sounded disappointed, "oh, only fifteen minutes before my alarm goes off?" She really should've gotten more sleep.
"Sorry Abbs," he apologized, "but we're about to regret staying up so late last night. Team got a case and we're gonna need your expertise."
Abby forced herself to wake up. "What is it?"
McGee swallowed. Kid cases were never good for Abby. "Kidnapping," he said softly, "two little girls."
Abby sat up. "I'll be right there."
"Wish I could give you a ride, but the team's meeting at their house. See you later Abby. Love you," Tim said quickly.
Abby still loved the novelty of those words and the freedom to say them. "Love you too Timmy. Find them."
He sighed. "We'll do our best." And hope it's good enough.
NCIS
Crime scene tape littered the yard. Cop cars with flashing lights were parked at weird angles on the street as uniformed officers took the statements of housecoat clad witnesses and observers. Gibbs arrived first, followed closely by McGee, then Tony and Ziva in her car. There wasn't time for Gibbs to do more than wonder fleetingly why, but judging from the dark looks Ziva was threatening Tony with, probably because he'd been complaining about her driving again, Gibbs guessed it wasn't because they spent the night together.
Gibbs approached the lead officer from DCPD with the others following closely behind him. He flashed his badge.
"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS." He gestured behind him. "My team."
They all nodded solemnly at one another.
"Officer Blye," the cop introduced himself. "This is Mr. and Mrs. Shorey."
"Trevor," the man with his arm tightly around the shaking woman who stood beside him said. "And my wife, Michelle. Please Agent Gibbs," he tried to keep his composure but his voice broke, "you've got to find our girls."
Gibbs met Trevor's eyes. "We'll find them," he replied, knowing there was no other answer to give the grieving parents. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Michelle sniffed. "I had to get up about twenty after five this morning for a glass of water. I checked on the girls, Jaz and Bri, and they were both sleeping. But when Trevor got up fifteen minutes later," she grasped her husband's hand, "they were gone. We didn't hear anything."
The agents were all taking notes. Ziva looked up. "Jaz and Bri?"
Michelle nodded. "Jasmine and Gabriella. We call them our little princesses." She turned pleading eyes back to Gibbs as tears slipped down her cheeks. "Please Agent Gibbs, they're only eight, you have to bring them home. Please," she begged.
For a moment Gibbs couldn't hear anything else. They're only eight. The words echoed in his head and suddenly all he could see was his sweet, eight year old girl, running and laughing as he chased her in the park. "Come get me Daddy!" she giggled. "I'm going to beat you," she called as she raced towards the bench. But instead of catching her like he had that day, scooping her up and putting her on the soft grass, tickling her until she could hardly breathe, Kelly kept running further and further away until she disappeared. He had to stop himself from yelling her name.
Gibbs was jerked back to the present by DiNozzo's tap on his shoulder.
"Boss?" the senior field agent questioned.
Gibbs shook his head to clear it. "DiNozzo, David, take the house. Anything even remotely relevant goes to Abby ASAP. McGee, perimeter. I want you to comb every blade of grass for two hundred feet in all directions. Get me something we can work with."
He turned back to the couple. "Mr. and Mrs. Shorey, I need you to think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt you or your daughters. Did you notice anyone hanging around recently? Were you being followed? Has anyone approached the girls? Any repairs or work being done at the house by outside help?"
Gibbs hated having to ask these questions but it was the only way. "And I need a picture of your daughters. We want to get their faces out to the public. We are going to find them. We'll also set agents up here with you in case you receive a ransom demand."
The parents nodded and Trevor reached into his wallet and pulled out two small pictures. The twins smiled out of the small boxes, one blonde and one brunette. Their hair was in braided pigtails and a french braid, each missing two of their baby teeth. The innocent gaps reminded onlookers of their tender years.
Gibbs took them carefully, his eyes seeing only one little girl with long brown hair and dark blue eyes, a mix of his and Shannon's colours. He coughed, trying to play off the emotions. "Thank you. These will help."
It was a couple of hours before the team made it back to the Navy Yard. Abby was swamped with evidence as everything that looked even a little close to being helpful in the case had been bagged and tagged. McGee squeezed her shoulder gently after putting down one of the boxes, Tony and Ziva bringing in more behind him. He hated to leave her, seeing the devastated look on her face as she surveyed all the girl's stuff - the teddy bears and dolls that had been on their beds, hair brushes for DNA samples, pyjamas similar to those the girls had been wearing when they were taken.
Tony rubbed his eyes. "This is everything Abs. Fiber and hair samples from the girl's room, samples from them and the parents." He looked at her. "We need to know something. So far there are no leads at all."
Abby took a deep breath to focus and nodded. "I'll do my best."
Ziva offered her a small smile. "You always do Abby."
The team rode in silence up to the bullpen, where Gibbs was just walking in from the other direction with a coffee.
"McGee!" he barked. "Whaddaya got?"
McGee eyed his boss nervously as he dropped his backpack beside his desk and reached for the camera. Ten seconds later pictures from the crime scene appeared on the plasma.
"Okay, there were two distinct footprints from the scene Boss, they're with Abby for measuring and details." He opened his mouth to continue, then shrugged. "But that's it. Whoever this guy is, he was careful, probably carried the girls out. Maybe he had an accomplice."
Gibbs glared at him. "Phone records and bank statements McGee. If even one penny is out of the ordinary, I want to know about it. Tony and Ziva, you're on the Lieutenant's colleagues and shipmates. Look for anything even remotely suspicious. We haven't gotten a ransom call yet so right now this could be anything. I've got the wife's friends and places she and the girls have been recently. Maybe somebody saw something."
He looked down at his desk and saw for the first time the folded piece of paper there. Gibbs picked it up. The note was simple, consisting of only five words. Look up, it said, I love you.
Gibbs raised his eyes towards MTAC and there was Jenny, her green eyes seeing straight into his heart. He nodded once, a small smile all he could manage, and Jenny repeated her declaration in ASL. Gibbs put his fingers in position for the letter 'y' and moved it back and forth between them. Me too Jen, he thought, me too. He was grateful that she wouldn't let him forget the simple, important stuff, even in a case like this.
Then the moment was over because two little girls were missing and no one was leaving the building, sleeping, eating, or using the head until they had something to work with.
NCIS
Jenny watched her husband leave and walked slowly back to her office, glad she had no meetings or phone calls scheduled until later. This case was going to be a difficult one for all of them. Jethro because of Kelly, the team because none of them liked cases involving children. And Jenny...this case was too close to her recent experience. She sat in her chair and stared out the window, hoping those two little girls were okay, knowing they were scared, praying nothing worse would happen to them before they were rescued.
NCIS
"It's a size ten boot print Gibbs," Abby was telling him, "like from a steel toed work boot that is worn at a construction site or something. The tread is very unique." She grinned. "These are custom boots. They're only sold at a handful of stores in the DC area."
"Addresses?" Gibbs demanded.
"Do you even have to ask?" Abby said as she pressed a yellow sticky note onto his shoulder. "I think we have our first lead."
"Good work Abby," Gibbs said, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. But she moved away, shaking her head.
"Not yet Gibbs. When I find this creep, then you can tell me 'good work Abs', but not now."
Gibbs' phone rang as the elevator stopped at his floor. "Yeah, Gibbs."
"Hello Agent Gibbs," a smooth voice said in a patronizing tone, "have you solved the case yet?"
Gibbs strode quickly into the bullpen and snapped his fingers at McGee, pointing to his phone. Everyone else froze but McGee got the message and snapped into action, tracing the call.
"We're working on it," Gibbs said slowly, knowing he needed to keep this guy on the phone for at least nineteen seconds so they could pinpoint his location.
"I don't think you are going to find what you're looking for, the Lieutenant and I have never met. But you better hurry Agent Gibbs, time is running out for his little girls."
Gibbs heard the muffled cry of a child before the click of the hang up registered and the line went dead. He slammed his hand down on his desk.
"McGee!"
"Just one second," he said. "There, got it. He's at a warehouse in Wesley Heights." Tim scribbled down the address and Gibbs tore it out of his hands. "It's fifteen minutes away."
Tony and Ziva were just getting off the elevator when McGee and Gibbs walked onto it.
"Let's go," Gibbs said. "We can be there in ten minutes."
The agents braced themselves for a crazier drive than usual with their boss, but Gibbs tossed the keys to Ziva."
"Two little girls Ziva," he said quietly. "Get us there fast."
Ziva met his serious gaze with one of her own and got in the driver's door. Tony didn't even groan. Now wasn't the time.