A/N: Ok, this is going to switch perspectives fairly often. Hope you're enjoying it.
As always, thanks goes to Trina109 for being my awesome beta :)
Gibbs looked at Abby for a long moment. He knew that Abby and McGee had had... something... going on before the young agent joined his team, but he'd thought that part of their relationship was long finished.
From behind him he heard Tony's question. "Why didn't he tell us?"
"We didn't tell anyone, Tony. Not just you." Abby replied with a sideways glance at Gibbs; the reason was clear to him, but he ignored the breach of Rule 12 for now. They had more important things to worry about.
"How long, Abs?"
"Two months."
He nodded. Ziva was right; McGee's change in behaviour had been explained by a girlfriend. The fact that it was Abby made their job easier, in a way.
"Have you noticed anything hinky going on with him, Abs?" Gibbs asked. He knew how she reacted to any of the team being in danger; the fact that there was a personal relationship involved this time had to make it harder for her, and he hated pushing her. But they had to know. They needed any information they could get that might lead them to McGee- and to the person that had kidnapped him.
She shook her head.
"Nothing at all? No unusual phone calls or emails?"
"Nothing, Gibbs."
He could see she was telling the truth- Abby was a terrible liar at the best of times, and she was even worse at it when she was under stress. He sighed.
"Do you have anything else for me, Abs?"
"Not yet, Gibbs. The paper used for the note was just ordinary yellow legal paper, available practically everywhere. It probably came from the pad McGee keeps on his desk. I don't have matches for some of the fingerprints you found in his apartment yet. There were 4 different sets of prints; one was Tim's, one was mine, one was Tony's and then there's the ones I haven't got matches for yet."
She turned away from the fingerprint computer, a worried frown on her face. "Gibbs, do...do Tim's family know yet? That he's missing, I mean."
"Not yet, Abs." That was a phone call he was dreading having to make.
...
Back at his desk Gibbs pulled McGee's personnel file. He was chagrined to note that not only did he not know McGee's parents names, but he didn't even know where they lived. He knew the names of Tony, Ziva and Abby's surviving parents, and Ducky's mother was unforgettable. McGee was the most reticent about his personal life, and the only member of his family that he'd ever talked about was his sister, Sarah- but even that was only because the rest of the team had met her when she was suspected of murder.
Finding the information he needed, he picked up his desk phone and dialled. A bright female voice answered at the other end.
"McGee residence."
"Hello, this is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs-"
"Agent Gibbs. You're Tim's boss. I'm Maureen McGee, Tim's mother."The previously chirpy voice became guarded and the worry came clearly through the phone line. "Has something happened to Tim?"
He took a deep breath; he hated making phone calls like this one. "I don't know how to tell you this, but... Tim is missing."
...
After hanging up from talking to McGee's sister, Sarah, Gibbs sat lost in thought for a long moment. Maureen and Tim's father, Brett, would be flying in late that night; they'd insisted on coming to Washington after they'd heard. Sarah was on her way in to provide her fingerprints for elimination purposes; she was a frequent visitor to McGee's apartment.
He stood and made his way up the stairs to the mezzanine. Until they knew more about why McGee had been taken, he needed to organise protective details for his team.
...
Abby grumbled to herself as she climbed the stairs to her floor, behind Agent McMillan, her new protective detail officer. She'd tried to convince Gibbs that she didn't need a detail, but he'd insisted. So she'd given in, and now they were going back to her apartment so she could grab a few things. She fully intended to stay at Headquarters until they found Timmy; she wanted to be there when they brought him home. She refused to think about the possibility that they wouldn't find him.
She rounded the last corner and went to her door, fishing in her pocket for her key. It was taken out of her hand by McMillan.
"Stand back, ma'am."
Indignant, she opened her mouth to frame a reply as he stepped into her lounge room. She only just had time to see him begin to fall before something hit her across the back of the neck and she descended into blackness.