A/N: This chapter found a life of it's own and has grown to be way more than what I even intended. It is still the continuation of chp 3 (Sacrifice) but has been retitled. Not really much of a drabble, but I'm going to roll with it. Hope y'all will too. The ending is solid btw, no cliffy this time.

A/N II: I have decided to take request prompts if anyone has a Chris centered scene they would like to see played out in drabble or two-shot let me know.

Mild Warning for a tiny bit of course language.

The Bait Part I

Blindfolded and bound, Chris willingly takes the beating of his life. It's the price he has to pay for trading his life for Laurels. But at the same time he's relieved. Laurel is at the safe house where he left her waiting for Pride. Taking Laurel's phone had definitely been a plus when it came convincing Jenk's men that he had used it as a deco. It wasn't hard to figure out that they were tracking Laurel through her phone. In fact, he kicked himself for not realizing it sooner.

What he hadn't counted on however was getting clocked in the head during the middle of a gun fight.

From across the room, Paul Jenks pondered as he watched his men beat the shit out his captive. Chris LaSalle isn't Laurel Pride and that angers him. But he can still use LaSalle to make a point. It won't be quite as much fun as turning Pride's daughter into a crack whore and feeding her to the streets. But there are others ways to hurt Pride. Losing his number one might not cause him as much pain as losing his daughter but he can certainly slow down his old nemesis and make him think twice about trying to take down his operation.

Bored with watching LaSalle's head get kicked back and forth like a soccer ball, Jenk's commanded his men to stop.

Chris hears the sound of a gun being drawn and his heart stops. Somehow he didn't think the end would come so soon. Bracing himself, he hears the gun go off followed by the thud of a body. A second shot goes off and Chris knows his turn is coming. He never imagined that he would go down this way, but he's ready. He knows that Pride will look after Cade and that he will tell his Mom and his sister that he died honorably.

He felt the warm and rancid breath of his killer against the side of his face as Jenks leaned over to whisper something in his ear. "Don't worry, Boy. The real fun is just beginning. When I finish with you you're going wish you never heard the name Dwayne Cassius Pride."

A sinking feeling begins to form in Chris's stomach as he realizes that he's just become the new bait in Jenk's plan to draw Pride out.

Twenty Four hours later, Pride and Percy stand in the middle of one of Jenk's known hideouts, near the river, looking down at a couple of dead bodies.

Percy kneels down for a closer look. "These are most likely the men, Jenks sent after your daughter." She recognizes them from her previous dealings with Baitfish.

"Are they the men that took Chris?"

Percy nods as she rises to her feet. "My guess is they've handed him off to Jenks."

"And Jenks killed them for not bringing him Laurel." Pride finished. His guess is that LaSalle was still alive but for what purpose he didn't know, other than the obvious. Jenks wanted Pride to suffer.

Reaching for his phone, he debates about trying to arrange protective custody for Laurel. He knows that just because Baitfish has Chris doesn't mean he still wouldn't come after Laurel or for that matter Linda.

Linda he sighed. She would be devastated if anything were to happen to Chris. Eternally grateful for saving Laurel's life, but nevertheless, she like Pride thought of Chris as a part of their immediate family.

Pride dropped the phone to his side as he was approached by a uniformed officer. In the man's hands are Chris's NCIS credentials. "We found these floating in the river."

A pause lapses as Pride feels his stomach twist.

"You want us to start dragging the river, sir?" the officer adds meekly.

"No," he replied earning a stunned look from Percy. "Jenks is not going to kill Chris that easily."

"He baiting you," Sonja says. "And it's working."

"Right now, I don't care." Pride starts to move away from her. "I just need you to show me every place you ever worked with Jenks."

"He's not going to be hiding LaSalle anywhere near his old stomping grounds," Percy starts to argue. Jenks was too smart for that. Even since her cover was blown, he's pulled up operations and moved elsewhere.

"He'll leave clues," Pride counters holding up Chris's badge. "He'll want me to be the one to find Christopher." This Pride knew for a fact. His plan to kidnap and do God knows what to Laurel blown, King wouldn't be surprised, if Jenks paraded Chris around through the streets and strung him on display.

"He's leaving you clues to find a dead body." Percy said, trying not to sound too nonchalant about it. She was rooting for Pride to find Chris, but at the same time she was realist and knew that Paul Jenks wouldn't hesitate to gut the young agent should the chance arise.

"And for the moment, I'm going to follow them," Pride said with conviction. "You can either follow them with me or you can get the hell out my way. With or without you, I will find LaSalle."

"I never said, I didn't want to help you find LaSalle," the portly agent replied curt as Pride's cell phone buzzed to life.

It was Brody she was calling to say that Patton had just received a hit on Chris's service weapon. A pawn shop owner in Baton Rouge had inquired about the serial number on the weapon and was in the process of trading it for cash.

"Have Patton instruct him to make the transaction but get an address." Pride told her.

"Already done," Brody replied. "The address that came up is an old warehouse in the 9th ward. I can meet you there in twenty minutes."

"Make it fifteen."

Pride turned his ball cap around as he, Brody and Percy entered the warehouse with weapons drawn. Inching forward, they found the remains of a drug lab that had been recently used, most likely to cook up a batch of poisoned oxy. Cautiously, they continued to move until Brody's eye caught something on the floor.

"I've got an empty syringe."

"Bag it and we'll have it sent to the lab," Pride instructed as he and Percy continued onward until they met a gristly sight: blood and lots of it. The word Baitfish was written on the south wall.

"Do you think that belongs to-" Percy started only to have Pride cut her off.

"No" Pride said quickly. He refused to believe that the blood in question was LaSalle's. If it were then that would mean that the young agent was no longer on this Earth and that was not an option that he was willing to accept.

"How can you be sure?"

"I just know," Pride returned holstering his weapon as Percy's eyes landed on a metal style brief case. Curious, she crossed over to it and touched the tabs, causing it to spring open. Her eyes widened in horror, as they roamed across several rows of C4 connected to a timer.

"BOMB!" Whirling around, she took off in dead run trailing Brody and Pride. The trio had just made it out of the building when the bomb blew, sending pieces of hot flaming debris raining down upon them.

"Ow!" Chris rose up and hit his head on something hard as the sound of the explosion broke him free of a drug induced sleep. Still blindfolded and bound it was difficult to tell where he was exactly but he had the sensation of motion. The trunk of a car maybe? After the hellacious beating he'd taken and whatever fucked up drugs they gave him he couldn't be certain. For all he knew, his mind could just be playing tricks on him.

Nope, he was definitely moving he concluded as the vehicle spun around to hard stop which prompted his battered body to be tossed about the small confined space like a racquetball. His stomach started to roll violently as the car tore down a side road before finally coming to another quick stop.

Outside, Baitfish stood his hand placed firmly on top of the trunk of his Dodge Charger, admiring his handy work. "It's your lucky day, Christopher. Looks like your friends are little more intuitive than I thought," he sneered watching as the three agents went sprawling onto the concrete as a result of the little surprise he had left for them.

"Aw, Pride looks a little disappointed," Baitfish continued. "But don't worry, I'll get him eventually and then I'll probably wind up killin' that pretty little daughter of his too."

More than a few choice words permeated from inside the trunk along with the sound of limbs thrashing up against the metal hood, prompting Jenks to believe the captive agent was throwing a tantrum.

"I'd save my oxygen if I were you. You're gonna need it!" Jenks taunted, giving the hatch of the trunk a good drum roll.

Inside the trunk, Chris was absolutely livid that he was so helpless. Wresting around he managed to turn his body so that he was almost forced into the fetal position with his feet facing the backseat. Bracing his shoulders up against the hatch he began to kick at the backseat for all that it was worth.

In any other situation the seat would have collapsed. But not this time. Baitfish had seen to that.

Breathing hard, Chris repositioned himself so that his head was aligned with the passenger's side door.

He didn't know what on God's green Earth was going to happen next but there was truth in the oxygen statement. If he didn't settle down he was going to run out of air. As it was his lungs were already starting to burn.

He needed a plan. Calm down and learn things a little voice said. Ironically, the voice sounded just like King which made him think that he was hallucinating. He tried to think back to the last he'd been locked inside a trunk. It had been a while but it had happened. There had been a release lever on the left hand side of the vehicle near the brake light.

If only he had the use of his hands he thought waiting for Jenks to get back into the car. He waited until the car was back in motion before he started rooting around in effort to break the zip ties that were binding his wrists.

If he positioned the lock just right he might be able to use his backside as leverage. It was worth a try. Struggling, he groaned as the zip ties cut into his wrists, breaking the skin. It had taken several attempts but after a while the plastic finally started to give and the lock broke.

Success was his as he reached up and tore the blindfold away from his eyes. Not that he could see through the pitch black darkness of the trunk, but at least it was less constricting. Using the heel of his boot, Chris started to kick at the back tail light until he heard it shatter.

For several moments he just laid there gasping as fresh oxygen flowed through the tiny opening. He was almost there. The broken tail light provided just enough light for Chris to find the emergency trunk release. Reaching for the latch, he gave it a tug popping trunk the open as the car veered off of the main thoroughfare and onto a dirt road.

His only choice now was to jump or try to take on Baitfish when the car stopped, neither of which sounded viable. He was in no condition to fight he thought as the car hit a rock sending a white flash of pain through his broken body.

If he jumped he would more than likely become the hunted. Jenks would track him down like a rabid dog and put a bullet through his head before he could get very far.

No matter which option he chose, he was going to wind up a dead man. But if it kept Pride and Brody from walking into another trap it would be worth it.

Pride stared vacantly across the room looking at Chris's empty desk. He knew that every minute that ebbed by his odds of finding his protégé alive decreased. Percy was right, every clue that they followed lead them to straight into a potential death sentence.

"Here," Brody said, placing a plate in front of him. "You need to eat."

"I'm not hungry." he said, pushing the plate away. "Did you hear back from the lab yet?"

Brody frowned as she sank into the folding chair beside him. "The blood trace found on the syringe is definite match to Chris."

"What about the contents?"

"There was trace residue of Oxy and nine other potentially dangerous compounds," Brody answered watching Pride's face change.

Jenks own special blend.

"If Chris is still alive we will find him." Brody added softly.

"If?" Pride snapped harshly, prompting Brody to throw her hands up in defense.

"I'm sorry," Brody swallowed. She could hardly blame Pride for being more than a little edgy. "I didn't mean to say, if."

"It's okay." Pride returned, channeling his anger. "I know you and Christopher are close."

Brody gave a simple nod. Over the course of the last year, Chris had become more than just her friend. He was her partner in every sense of the word.

"You got any chips to go with this sandwich," he asked forcing a half smile.

"There's a new bag in the pantry."

Once Brody was gone, Pride raked his hand over his face. His entire team had nearly been taken out today. He didn't want to admit it but he was beginning to fear that he was going to lose Chris.

He was about to pull to his feet when his cell phone suddenly came to life sporting a blocked number.

"This is Pride."

"Open your back door," an unfamiliar voice replied.

Pride's eye brows pinched together. "Who is this?"

"You have a delivery," the voice said. "You want it or not?"

Drawing his weapon, he met Brody in the kitchen and instructed her to do the same. Together, they made their way to the back door where Pride then held up his fingers counting to three. Slowly, Brody opened the door, weapon trained.

Their eyes widened as their so called delivery came into view. Chris was slumped over looking like death warmed over, leaning on Ross P.

"I believe this belongs to you."