So updates are probably going to be once a week on this story, depending on how much I can write during the week. I'm so glad everyone seems to be liking this and reading it, it really does mean a lot to me. Sorry that there isn't much action in this chapter but the next few will more than make up for it (I hope).
Abby was in her lab several hours later, her music blaring and her fingers flying across the keyboard, trying to analyse the email that Gibbs had received that morning.
She didn't want any interruptions or distractions so had locked the door to her lab whilst she worked.
However, it also meant that she was unaware of Tim's banging on her door.
It was only when she whirled around to grab something from her desk that she saw his shadow and jumped.
"McGee, don't do that!"
Rushing to the door, Abby let Tim in before she quickly locked it again behind him.
"Abby, why'd you lock the door?"
Abby moved past Tim back to her desk and continued typing feverishly as she answered him.
"Well the only people who don't interrupt me with stupid stuff when I'm concentrating are Gibbs and Ziva, and you of course. And I know Gibbs and Ziva are on the plane right now so it only left you and well, I thought you were busy."
"I am, but I need your help. And I think neither of us should be alone right now. I know that there are all these thoughts running through my head. What if they don't get to her in time Abby?"
"No! Don't say that Tim!" Abby turned to Tim and he was a little scared at the intensity in her eyes.
"Gibbs won't ever let something happen to Jenny, she's too important to him. He loves her."
"Loved Abby."
"No Tim, loves. Have you seen how often he looks at the pictures on his desk? Or how he still talks about Jenny in present tense before correcting himself when he does occasionally mention her. He's been hurting so much since she 'died' and now that he has a chance to get her back, he won't stop. I've never seen him so keen to get out of this building. He loves her Timmy. I wish I would meet someone who looked at me like that."
Abby sighed softly before returning her attention to her work, meaning she missed the tender look that Tim gave her before he turned to his own work alongside her.
"Gibbs, walking around will not get us there faster. Why don't you sit down?" asked Ziva.
Watching her boss striding up and down the cargo bay had her getting antsy herself, and she knew that such an atmosphere would not be conducive to locating Jenny quickly and efficiently.
Turning to Tony beside her, she implored him to say something with a well-placed elbow in his side.
"Ow! OK, Boss, Ziva's right. Why don't you sit, conserve your energy? You're gonna get to kick ass soon enough."
Gibbs ignored his two agent's comments and continued to walk lengths of the plane.
In truth, he knew that if he sat down he would start to think and his imagination would undoubtedly run wild.
Which he couldn't deal with at that moment.
After rewatching the video, he could see every flinch and wince that Jenny made repeating in his mind.
He could see the pain and fear in her eyes and his brain wondered what had caused her to have such a visible reaction when she had carefully cultivated emotional barriers for years as she rose the ranks in NCIS.
So, instead of focusing on his brain's wild musings, he was instead mapping out his next boat in his head.
But that still left him restless, so he continued in his march.
"D'you think we could sedate him or something?" said Tony quietly to Ziva, both of them still watching for any reaction from Gibbs.
"I doubt it would work. And, I must say, I would also be pacing up and down if there were enough space. I hate sitting still whilst knowing that Jenny is in danger."
Tony realised that Ziva had indeed been unnaturally quiet over the past few hours and he remembered that the Israeli woman had a close friendship with the Director.
"How you holding up anyway?" he asked in a softer tone.
"I am fine. I will be better when we have Jenny back with us and when I have killed those men responsible for the harm that she has befallen. Not that I will not allow her the chance to hurt them first. That would be the honourable thing."
"I don't think she's gonna be in the state to be causing any physical harm for some time."
Tony suddenly realised silence had fallen and he looked up to see the ice-cold glare of Gibbs focused on him.
"I'm sorry Boss, I didn't mean it like that, it's just that-"
"Save it DiNozzo. I don't want to hear another word."
Tony grimaced at his own inability to think before he spoke and settled back into the uncomfortable atmosphere for the last hour of the flight.
As soon as the plane stopped moving, Gibbs stepped out of the door into the darkness of the night, heading across the tarmac towards a waiting car headlights.
Ziva and Tony hurried along behind him, trying their best not to get left behind in the wake of their boss' fury.
"Agent Gibbs, I'm Petty Officer Calligan, I'll be your driver whilst you're in Miami."
"I don't need a driver; I just need the wagon."
"I'm afraid that's non-negotiable. Director Vance has also ordered me to not disclose the location that you will be heading to so as you cannot - in his words - 'do one of your usual tricks' and run riot in Miami. No disrespect sir."
Gibbs growled at the nerve of Leon.
"Fine, but get us there quickly or I swear you'll spend the rest of your career in a recruitment office."
"Sir yes sir."
The soldier quickly headed around to the driver's door and got in, starting the engine and driving away as soon as Tony shut the door behind himself.
"OK, you got to admit, WitSec have some amazing properties. This place is gorgeous," mused Tony as they stepped out the car in front of Jenny's house.
The bungalow was right on the seafront and would have views across the coast during daylight, but as Gibbs approached the front door, his eye was drawn to the slightly ajar entrance.
"Guns..." he said quietly and carefully opened the front door before stepping inside.
As he flipped on a light, the scene that greeted Gibbs did not help the nerves he felt in his gut.
"She fought hard Gibbs," said Ziva as she surveyed the overturned chairs, table and smashed mirror.
"Yeah, but they fought back just as much. Come on."
Gibbs continued down the corridor, stepping over dislodged photo frames and discarded books.
The first door on the corridor led to a bathroom which had been untouched but the second door showed the epicentre of the fighting.
"They got her in bed. Oh come on, that's not playing fair"
Tony stepped around Gibbs and began surveying the mess.
The bedding had been thrown on the floor, her photographs and clothes were ripped and destroyed around the room and the bed itself seemed to have been moved during the struggle.
"Remember what they said? She saved a girl in the alley? Why was she here?"
Ziva looked to Gibbs as she asked, hoping he would have a theory.
"They must've let her go free Ziva, then followed her back here and got her when she was asleep. Although obviously she was still not as easy a target as they'd thought even then."
"Yeah, I'd say. Boss look, blood spatters."
Tony pointed to the trail of blood on the wall.
"That's not a lot of blood, probably a nose of something being bust."
"Sounds right Tony, the easiest move for a woman against a man who is attempting to take her by force is to go for the nose. It also leaves some evidence and DNA in the place of the attack. I taught her that in Cairo."
"Yeah, you two worked there together didn't you?"
Tony had tried to get information about the pair's history out of Ziva before with no success and, once again, she ignored the thinly veiled curiosity.
Gibbs' phone began to ring as Tony turned to him.
"So what now Boss? She's not here, what are we gonna do?"
Gibbs flipped open his phone and answered, leaving Tony's question hanging in the air.
"Abs, what you got for me?"
Ziva and Tony couldn't hear the reply from Abby but, by the calm look that passed over Gibbs' face, they knew it couldn't be anything good.
After a few moments he hung up and turned, walking straight out of the room, Ziva and Tony once again left to trail after him.
"Boss, what did Abby say?"
"She knows where Jenny is."