Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva walked swiftly down the wooden dock, scanning the numbers of each berth they passed until finally they found the one they were looking for.

"This is it Boss," Tony informed the group, "256."

All three drew their weapons and took up positions surrounding the front of the boat.

"Not a sound," Gibbs said in a tight whisper and the other two nodded.

Gibbs went first and he was almost through the door when Ziva's order cut the air.

"Stop!"

It was instinct, built into him after years of being a Marine, following orders. He looked to Ziva for an explanation and she had her hand held up, signaling for none of them to move. Scant inches in front of him, she knelt and barely touched the taut wire pulled across the entrance to the boats' cabin.

He drew a shaky breath. "Trip wire."

Tony's eyes widened. "Good catch Ziva."

Ziva ignored both of them and examined the area with hard eyes. "He could have this whole place booby-trapped."

Gibbs stepped over the wire. "Then we go slowly."

"What if there are motion sensors?" she hissed, clearly reluctant to move without confirmation. One wrong move in Israel could mean being blown to pieces by a disguised IED. She'd learned all those lessons the hard way.

"Rush had to walk out of here Ziva," Gibbs said. "Now we're going to walk in."

They swept the first room slowly, where the steering wheel and instrument panel were. A narrow, slanted opening in the floor led below decks to the sleeping quarters, galley, and restroom. Again, Gibbs took point, determined that it was not one of his people that would take the first hit, if one were coming.

The ceiling downstairs was barely high enough for the men to stand comfortably, and the whole room could be taken in at a glance. Ziva began checking the corners and searching cupboards, always careful of possible traps. Tony checked under the bed and the bedside tables. Gibbs went for the storage closet in the middle of the room.

Suddenly he put his finger to his lips. "Shh," he warned the team.

Before even touching the doorknob, Gibbs ran his eyes up and down the length of the wooden door and stilled. "Ziva."

The quiet command brought the Mossad agent to his side. He pointed to the thin black wire wedged under the door. Tony glanced over their shoulders.

"It's rigged to blow?"

Ziva was examining what she could see, following the wire up to where it was tucked into the cupboard next to the closet. She slowly opened the cupboard door to find a timer, wrapped in duct tape and wires, strapped to a bundle of C4, and drew in her breath.

Gibbs eyed her reaction. "Can you disarm it?" he asked.

Ziva already had her knife out, examining the entire contraption with only her eyes until she dared to lay a finger on it. "It could be a motion trigger, move the bomb and it goes off. Or it could be linked to turning the door handle, a pressure point inside the locking mechanism. There is no way to know for sure."

The guys stayed quiet, letting Ziva work. They knew better than to interrupt her concentration. Once she had satisfied herself that touching the explosive would not cause it to go off, Ziva carefully started checking the wires, deliberating between green, blue, and red for what seemed like an eternity.

10:00, 9:59, 9:59, 9:57...the timer counted down, each second moving faster and faster as Ziva worked her magic. She unscrewed one of the connectors and was able to remove part of the face of the bomb, getting a better look at its' innards. The wires criss-crossed over each other into a maze that would make Houdini hesitate in his ability to get out alive. Ziva tapped each wire gently, looking for what they didn't know. Once she made her decision and checked with them silently over her shoulder, to which they nodded, Tony held his breath, preparing to die. Gibbs just stared at Ziva's fingers, willing them to be swift and true.

SNAP! She cut the green wire and the timer died at 8:47. Gibbs reached for the door but Ziva wasn't through yet. "Wait!" She traced the black wire connected to the door back to it's source, double checking before she also cut the black and red wires, leaving only the blue untouched. At last she let out a breath.

"It is disarmed."

Gibbs put his hand on her shoulder. "Good work Ziva."

Then he reached for the closet door, and Tony and Ziva took up positions with their guns. He yanked the door open and they took aim. But there was no need. Jasmine and Gabriella sat curled up at the back of the closet, their tear stained faces looking up at their rescuers. Fear leapt into their eyes as they took in the three armed adults, but weapons were quickly lowered as each hurried to untie the ropes binding their hands and feet together, and slowly pull the duct tape off their mouths.

Gibbs was the first to speak. "Jaz, Bri, I'm Agent Gibbs. This is Tony," he smiled, "and Ziva. We're friends of your mom and dad, and we're here to take you home."

Gibbs and Tony helped the two girls to their feet, but neither would speak, they just stood pressed close together, silent tears running down their cheeks. Gibbs rubbed his hand over his face, wondering brokenly what Rush had done to them to cause this much damage. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see, but not being able to forget the tears Kelly had cried one day, when the school bully pushed her off her bike and stole her favourite baseball cap. She'd sprained her ankle when she fell and had to limp home. When he came out of the garage and saw his little girl in tears, Gibbs had known that whoever caused her pain was going to pay. That's exactly what he was thinking now as he looked down into Jaz and Bri's blue and green eyes.

First things first though, he had to make sure they were okay. "Girls, I don't want you to be afraid but I'm just going to check you quickly to make sure you're okay. You tell me if anything hurts, okay?"

They did little more than nod but Gibbs took it as a positive sign. With practiced gentleness a man only gets after becoming a father, Gibbs ran his hands quickly up and down their thin arms and legs. Bri winced when he hit a bruise on her calf, and he tugged the leg of her pants up to see. Of course, bruises had many different causes, but Gibbs had a feeling this one was caused by a size ten boot and he wanted to strangle the guy who could willingly hurt children. Jaz favoured her shoulder, probably hurt when he was shoving them into vehicles or dragging them on board his ship.

"Nothing serious," Gibbs finally pronounced to Tony and Ziva. He looked down at the girls. "I think it's time to go see your parents, what do you think?"

The girls exchanged glances and nodded, ghosts of smiles beginning to appear on their faces. Gibbs put an arm around each of them and slowly led them out the side door of the boat, one that didn't include crossing the trip wire. Tony and Ziva followed behind, a little unsure of themselves. Tony didn't know what to do or say, kids never liked him no matter how hard he tried. And Ziva hadn't been around children much, and she rarely had the chance to show compassion to them. So they let Gibbs take the lead, just thankful that the girls were safe.

A breeze blew up as they walked down the long dock, and Gibbs could feel the girls shivering. He shrugged out of his black, NCIS windbreaker and without any prompting, Tony did the same and the coats were wrapped around Jaz and Bri's shoulders. About halfway through their walk back to the car, Jasmine looked up at Gibbs.

"Agent Gibbs, are you mad at us?"

Gibbs brow furrowed. "No sweetie, I'm not mad. Why would I be?"

Bri took over. "That man," she swallowed, looking around as fear creased her features, "the one who took me and Jaz, said that you'd be angry at us because we were causing you all this trouble."

"We didn't mean to cause trouble Agent Gibbs," Jaz continued. "We didn't want to go with him, but he said he'd hurt our mom and dad if we didn't come. We just wanted to go home the whole time."

"He was angry," Bri told Gibbs, their thoughts flowing from each other, no longer hindered by fear. "He kept yelling and jerking us around and telling us," she bit her lip, "bad things."

The group arrived at the car and Gibbs saw the twins settled safely in the back seat with Ziva squished in beside them and Tony up front. Gibbs looked in the rearview mirror at the girls. "We're going to find him girls, I promise."

"Yeah," Tony added, feeling kind of left out of this whole exchange, "bad guys don't stand a chance with Agent Gibbs around." He winced, expecting a headslap, but Gibbs refrained, if only so the girls wouldn't have to witness anymore violence this day. It's a good thing they wouldn't be around to see what Gibbs was planning on doing to their kidnapper. Tony knew it wouldn't be pretty.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs barked in a quieter voice than usual, "call headquarters and get a back up team to meet us at the Shorey's residence. We're not taking any more chances." He lowered his voice so the twins wouldn't hear, they were busy trying to engage Ziva in a conversation.

"I like your hair Ziva," Jaz smiled and Ziva was glad to see the expression.

"Thank you Jasmine," Ziva replied, doing what she did best and pretending to be at ease in a situation she did not feel comfortable in. "Yours is very pretty as well. I like your braids."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Jaz always wants braids. Two of them. She can't have just one." She fingered her own french braid and added, "I don't like it in my face."

"I like french braids," Ziva said, glad to have something small in common with the girls, "but they are hard to do, no?"

Bri shrugged. "I don't know. Mom does it for me. It takes a long time." She looked up at the agent. "Does your mom do your hair Ziva?"

Gibbs tuned the conversation out and focused serious eyes on Tony. "I don't think he meant for us to find them alive."

Tony shot a quick glance to the backseat, the expression in his eyes filled with revulsion. "Was he this crazy when you knew him Boss?"

Gibbs shook his head. "I never saw behaviour that would explain this escalation, just to get my attention, but ten years in prison can do strange things to a man Tony. I want you to get ahold of the guards in his cellblock, and any prisoners he was close to. Find out if something happened that would help this make sense."

Tony already had his cell phone out, prepared to call and order McGee around since he was stuck at NCIS with Abby. "On it Boss."

The drive to the Shorey's didn't take very long but Gibbs was relieved to see the back up team had beat them there. He asked everyone to wait in the car for another minute, and gave quiet orders to the team leader that eyes were to be on the house and in it 24/7 until this case was wrapped.

"I don't want those parents to have anything else to worry about John," Gibbs said forcefully.

"I understand," the man replied. "I have three kids of my own Agent Gibbs, we'll keep them safe." Then he turned to deploy his team to strategic areas.

Gibbs walked back to the car and opened the back door. "Okay girls, let's go inside."

Trevor and Michelle were waiting at the window, having been called ahead of time. When Gibbs gave them the all clear, the front door was thrown open and they raced across the yard.

"Jaz! Bri!" Michelle called in delight.

The girls broke away from Gibbs and ran up to their parents with huge smiles plastered on their faces. "Mommy! Daddy!" they yelled and practically leapt into the waiting arms.

Trevor hugged Gabriella close. "Oh baby, I'm so glad to see you. Are you okay?"

Bri nodded against her dad's neck. "I just wanted to come home Daddy."

Trevor couldn't make himself let go of her. "I know honey. That's all Mommy and I wanted too."

Several feet away, Gibbs was trying to block out a picture of him hugging Kelly like that, after a three month deployment, like he would never let her go again. Watching the mother, he was reminded of how Shannon had welcomed Kelly home after her first time at sleep away camp, and he had to fight the tears that threatened. Now was not a time for weakness.

Right beside her husband, Michelle was embracing Jasmine tightly. "Oh Bri, thank God you guys are alright." She couldn't say much more for the tears.

A minute later, the parents reluctantly released the girl they held and switched twins, repeating the same sentiments of joy and relief over and over again. Finally they all stepped into a group hug before pulling away and turning shining eyes on the waiting agents.

Trevor held out his hand to Gibbs. "Agent Gibbs," he said in a choked voice, "thank you for bringing our girls home." He kissed the top of Jasmine's head but couldn't find the words to say more. "Thank you."

Michelle wasn't satisfied with a handshake when she thought these three agents should be awarded medals of honour for saving her daughters. She put her arms tightly around Gibbs' neck. "Thank you," she whispered. "You brought them home."

Tony and Ziva were subjected to the same treatment and both looked very uncomfortable with the praise and hugs. They knew their mission wasn't complete and didn't feel deserving of any congratulations just yet. They had to find the guy who did this first and let Gibbs take care of him.

Gibbs knelt down in front of the girls. "Jaz, Bri," he said, "you guys were very brave today. Thank you."

"Thank you Agent Gibbs," Jaz said, and Bri smiled and nodded.

Gibbs took off his NCIS hat and tugged it down over Jasmine's braids. "That means you're one of us now, an honorary NCIS agent. You guys ever need anything, you give me a call." He put his card in Trevor's hand. "Ziva," he jerked his head towards Gabriella and she willingly surrendered her cap as well.

"It was good to meet you Bri, you too Jasmine," she said softly.

"Bye guys," Tony waved, and the girls returned the motion.

"We'll get their statements in about an hour, when they've had a chance to breathe," Gibbs warned the parents. "I'll let you know when we're sending someone over."

Trevor nodded. "We can't thank you enough Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs watched as the girls started walking towards the house with their mom and nodded. "Seeing their smiles is enough. Take care of them Trevor, you've got some pretty amazing kids there."

The man smiled. "I will." And then he turned to follow his family.

Gibbs watched them for a moment and then headed back to the car where Ziva and Tony were fighting over shotgun.

"You're both in the back!" he said, silencing their argument. The subdued agents sat in the backseat, arms crossed. "Not the time," Gibbs said. "Sam Rush is still out there and I want him. No one sleeps until that guy is sitting in interrogation. Got it?"

Tony and Ziva both nodded solemnly, but their shared glances wondered if, for the final confrontation between Gibbs and Rush, cameras would be optional.