a/n - While this is being posted, I'm steadily working on Slave of my Heart, so my posting schedule will go straight from this to that one. Hopefully I'll have lots of chapters for you (already have two done).
A soft moan and Kort was instantly awake, biting back his own moan as he crawled closer. "McGee? Tim, you back with me?" He held his breath, hoping for a more coherent response than the last few times McGee had awakened.
"D...dad? I'm sorry, too many of them... Don't be mad, please. I tried... tried to fight back..."
"Shh, you're safe now." Kort snaked one arm under Tim, shifting them until the younger man was draped across his chest. When Tim burrowed closer, pressing his face against Kort's neck, Kort wrapped his arms tighter around him. "I won't let anyone hurt you again, Tim."
-NCIS-
Abby looked up when Gibbs walked into the lab, then immediately headed into her office. Gibbs followed her in, locking the door behind him. "Abby..."
"I don't have anything else, Gibbs, not yet."
"Go home, Abs."
"What? No, I can't go home until we find Timmy, and I sure can't leave the lab with the CIA sneaking around. What if they try to tamper with the evidence we're working on?"
Ignoring her words, Gibbs picked up her coat and bag. "You need a few hours rest, so Palmer is going to drive you home. Ducky and I will watch the lab." True to his words, Ducky and Palmer were standing outside her office, so Gibbs kissed her cheek and sent her on her way.
Once Abby and Palmer were out the door, Ducky joined Gibbs in Abby's office. "Are we..." He broke off, looking around.
"We're clear in here, Duck. Bugs are audio only. One's on the underside of Abby's workbench and the other is on the back of McGee's computer. Vance made sure they can't hack into any of the security cameras."
"That reminds me, Jethro, the Director has surveillance set up on Hicks. If he tries to contact anyone, we'll know about it. Now, I'll take the first watch while you get a few hours sleep."
-NCIS-
After making sure they had no tails, Tony and Ziva found an all-night restaurant that they'd never been to and quickly slid into a booth. Under normal circumstances Tony would have flirted with the pretty, young waitress, but today he barely glanced at her before ordering the daily special sight unseen. Ziva ordered the same, adding orange juice for both of them. Over the unidentified meat and pasta dish they planned out their next move. Plans made, the two agents retreated to Ziva's apartment and, after a few hours sleep, they recorded several hours of casual banter, discussion of leads they knew would go nowhere and mixed in were random comments about upcoming events and what they would do when McGee was found.
-NCIS-
"Have you found them yet, Nikolai?" Petar Cvetko stormed around the small room before grinding his cigar into the table next to Nikolai Dolenec's hand.
The nervous assistant shook his head. "No, there is no sign of them yet."
"How can that be? You cannot find a washed up spy and a geek when they are cut off from all of their resources?"
Nikolai tried to lean away from the still red-hot cigar that was now inches from his face. "I will find them, I give you my word."
"You had better. That geek managed to intercept my codes. The missiles are useless without them."
-NCIS-
Abby arrived back at the lab just as the sun rose, Vance at her heels. The Director went directly into the office to check in with Gibbs as Abby reviewed the computer searches she'd left running.
"Quiet night?"
Gibbs rubbed his face, keeping his voice low in deference to the sleeping Medical Examiner next to him. "Yeah, nobody made a run at the evidence. Not sure if that's good or bad. What about Hicks?
"Guess you had him too tired to cause any mischief last night. He went straight home and then straight to bed. I've got a team on the roof across the street with eyes and ears in his apartment and they tell me he didn't even bother getting undressed, just kicked his shoes off and fell across the bed. Got up about five minutes ago to take his shower." Vance looked amused. "Apparently they don't make spies as tough as they used to."
Despite his worry, Gibbs had to grin at that, too. "Apparently not."
Abby came into the office, silent until the door closed behind her. "I got hits on some of the prints, Gibbs, and it's not good." She leaned across Ducky's sleeping form and pulled up the pictures on her office computer.
Three pictures came up and Vance's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the middle image as one that was also up on their wall of most wanted. "That's Petar Cvetko, a Chechen arms dealer. He's wanted in at least a dozen countries."
Now awake, Ducky silently studied the mug shots as Gibbs shook his head. "Cvetko wouldn't waste his time with a truck load of handguns, so what in the hell did they stumble into?"
Neither Abby nor Director Vance had an answer for the senior agent.
-NCIS-
Kort always knew where he was when he awoke, a trait that had kept him alive many times, but he was still surprised at the sensation of having McGee draped across him. McGee was very still, but the even puffs of air from his steady breathing told Kort that he was, at least, no worse. Idly stroking one hand up and down McGee's back, Kort squinted to see his watch, still set to Eastern time. Guessing the local time from the rising sun and comparing it to the time in DC, he estimated that they were more than half way across the country. With the train showing no sign of slowing, Kort wrapped his other arm around McGee and pulled him closer.
-NCIS-
Gibbs returns to squad room, to find DiNozzo already there. Tony gave him a sad and worried smile and waited for orders. Gibbs didn't waste any time as Hicks arrived from the elevator. "I want you to find a connection between the train that the phones were found on, and the first crime scene. Let's start tracking their possible movements and give me an exact timeline of what they could have done."
Ziva arrived in the squad room and started handing out coffees. "Good morning, Gibbs. I thought we could use this, this morning."
Gibbs gratefully takes the offered cup before dropping a file on Ziva's desk. "Let's make sure somebody from McGee's past didn't see this as a chance to even the score. Start checking the status of anyone McGee helped put away."
She nodded and opened the file, quickly reading the hand written note inside Once her computer was running the search Gibbs had verbally requested in one window, Ziva turned her attention to any large scale weapons that might have gone missing anywhere in the world, something big enough to catch the attention of one of the most notorious and brutal arms dealers to come out of the break-up of the former Soviet Union.
Hicks watched the two NCIS agents settle in with a plan. "Umm, Agent Gibbs, sir, what do you want me to do?"
Gibbs glared until he saw Hicks flinch. "You figure out what it is you're not supposed to tell me."
"And when I do?" Hicks was pretty sure it was a trick question, but he couldn't figure out the punchline.
The glare continued as Gibbs acted like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Then you tell me, Hicks."