Warnings: Slight spoilers for "Spider and the Fly"

A/N: Hello everyone, I didn't want to keep you waiting too long for the next part. Hope you enjoy it!

Tony didn't wait for Gibbs to tell him what to do, he'd take the wrath of his boss again later if he had too. He hung the phone up and shoved it back into his pocket. Sixty seconds, I only had my back to her for sixty seconds! But then again, that was probably all it took for someone to lure her away from the bar without him noticing.

He grabbed a hold of her bag and looked inside. Her gun was still there, neatly tucked amongst make-up and her cell phone. Tony glanced up to see a different bartender, not the hunky one that they had been suspecting... but a slender, tanned, blonde girl. "Where did she go?" he snapped.

"Pardon?" the young woman asked, confused. "Where did who go?"

"The woman sitting here! In a blue dress! Brown hair!" Tony shouted, his voice catching the eye of several other patrons.

Stepping back the bartender gulped. "Sorry, sir. She, um, she looked a little dazed. Maybe my co-worker took her back to her hotel room."

Tony knew damn well that wasn't what happened. His cell phone began to ring wildly in his pocket. Not know Gibbs! He was going to have to blow his cover to find Natalie. He knew that the young woman was covering up for her friend. He grabbed his badge and flashed it at her. "That woman was a United States Federal Agent, she didn't just go wandering off with a stranger! She wasn't drinking heavily enough to be dazed!"

She wavered, eyes growing wider the louder his raised. "Must have slipped something in her drink. He drugs women all the time okay! Just to loosen them up after they ask for sex! I thought she was one of his clients when I saw him put the drugs in her glass!"

He clenched his jaw. Natalie had not asked that bartender for sex. She'd been drugged unwillingly. "Did you hear her ask for it?"

"Ask for what?"

"Sex!"

"Not... not that I heard..."

Tony was dangerously close to losing whatever control he had at the moment. "Where does he take these women?" he inquired, his voice husky, dark, almost threatening in tone. "And if you say you don't know, I swear to God..."

She shouted and interrupted him. "The beach! They went to the beach!"

He grabbed Natalie's bag and headed off in that direction. The wind was blowing about, whipping his shirt against his body as he trudged through the sand. Dropping Natalie's bag at his feet he glanced around. There were hardly any people on the beach at this hour. The sun had set, there wasn't much light... it was the perfect place really for the hunky bartender to bring his clients for a quick romp before going back to his patrons.

His phone was ringing again. Tony felt the urge to just shut it off once again. Gibbs. Let me handle this. He'd take the risk of Gibbs cutting his balls off if it meant he found Natalie alive and well. Right now, it was looking hopeless. Until he spotted something on the horizon—immediately he stripped off his blazer, lost his shoes and socks, his weapon... and was heading straight for the surf.

Natalie was standing chest deep in the water, the ocean waves angrily crashing around her. A red caution flag had been up all day thanks to a hurricane off the coast that was just going to miss Florida. The surf was violent. Life guards didn't want swimmers to be carried out to sea by the powerful rip tides... Holy shit... it's the perfect murder... Tony thought as he crashed into the ocean, shouting her name. Lure her to the ocean let Mother Nature do her work!

Tony watched as her chiffon dress swirled around her in the waves, the higher ones crashing into her face. She remained unmoving, lifeless in stance. "Natalie!" he gasped, swimming and fighting against the pull of the current to get to her. His scarred lungs were going to hate him later... "NATALIE!"

She only flinched when he grabbed her around the waist and began to swim back towards shore. But even then it wasn't much of a reaction... just a slight twitch. It was like pulling dead weight, it was like pulling Gibbs and Maddie from that car in the river.

Adrenaline had fueled him then, it was fueling him now. But even as he got closer to the shore, saw a few on-lookers... his muscles began to give out. The ocean current was much stronger than he was and he was pulling another person with him. On of the on-lookers, a young, muscular man in his early twenties, dashed into the surf to help him and together they pulled Natalie to shore.

Gasping, Tony dropped to his knees besides her and began to take deep breaths, letting air fill his lungs. In her bag nearby he heard her phone ringing. Damn it, my phone was in my pocket... Wiping the salt water from his eyes, he gestured for on of the on-lookers to give him the bag. "Gibbs..." he gasped, trying to catch his breath, desperately.

"What did I tell you about not being available?" Gibbs shouted. "What the hell is going on?"

"Found... found her," Tony panted, his lungs burning. "She's... she's safe."

"Don't let her out of your sight," Gibbs snapped. He paused for a moment, realizing something. "Why are you so out of breath?"

"Had to... had to dive in the...ocean to get... her," Tony replied, eyes watching as Natalie's face remained almost expressionless.

"Ocean?"

"She was drugged..."

Gibbs was angry now, Tony didn't need to see his boss to know it. "Get her back to the hotel room and stay with her. Lock the doors. Don't answer for anyone unless you know who they are, do you understand me?"

Tony nodded his head and took a few more deep breathes. "Yes, boss," he managed to rasp before hanging up. He turned towards the on-looker that had helped him pull his partner from the water. "See if... see if you can... find any... injuries."

He nodded and reached for Natalie's right arm. She panicked then, pulling away and getting to her feet. The soaking wet dress weighed her down at bit as she stumbled trying to get away from them. Natalie collapsed into the sand.

"Natalie," Tony said, gently crawling towards her. He took her by the shoulders gently. "It's okay. It's me, it's Tony."

"Tony... where... why am I wet?" Natalie asked, still dazed and confused. "Why are you wet?"

He didn't want to tell her what had happened. Not until she was thinking clearly. Maybe then she would remember something. With a grunt he pulled himself to his feet. He found his weapon and put it back on, found his blazer and shoes—grabbed her bag. Gently he gave her his hand, helping her to her feet. "Come on... I'll take you back to the hotel room."

One of the on-lookers gazed at him, anxiously. "How do we know you weren't hurt her?"

Tony found his soaking wet ID and showed it to her. "Federal Agent, ma'am. She's my partner."

"He led her out into the waves you know..."

"Who?"

"Guy who tends the bar... the really, really hot one," the woman replied.

"We thought they were just daring one another," her husband said, "We didn't realize she was in trouble until you went in after her. Thank goodness our son used to lifeguard."

Tony nodded at the younger man. "Yeah, thank goodness indeed." Because if that kid hadn't been trained as a lifeguard and gone into the water after both Tony and Natalie then the agents were going to be dead... and somehow Tony knew that was what the bartender had been paid to do.

Cold and wet, Tony managed to help Natalie into the hotel room and closed the door, latching the dead bolt.

Natalie was like dead weight against him. From all his years as a cop he would venture to guess that she had been given ketamine or perhaps GHB... once again, recalling their first undercover operation together. I need to stop turning my back on her at bars. Gently he laid her down onto the bed, slipping her wet shoes off.

Tony sighed and slowly got Natalie out of the wet dress, her bra and underwear. He found a dry sweatshirt in his bag and slipped it on her. "Nat, I'm going to call the Miami P.D, have them come over and draw your blood, okay?"

He wasn't expecting a response. She had been pretty much unresponsive since he pulled her from the water. Natalie limply fell back against the pillows, closed her eyes and fell asleep. Tony sighed and pulled out his cell phone to call the police. He was going to need some back-up on this and with Gibbs so far away the local LEO's were going to have to do until the rest of his team could get here. After he called the police in, read them in on the case and they were on their way with detectives and a CSI unit to take Natalie's blood... there was a knock on their hotel room door.

Pistol cocked and ready, Tony went to the door and peered out the peephole into the hallway. Natalie's friend from the bar was standing there, his hand around the arm of the bartender. How the hell did he find the bartender? And how the hell did he know where our room is?

"Okay," Tony snapped, opening the door and aiming his gun at the two men. "I'm officially curious—how the hell did you find us?"

"When you work with the CIA you can find anyone, anywhere," the man said with a sly smile.

Tony looked at him, brow furrowed. "You're CIA?"

He nodded. "Ray Cruz, here on official business, which is classified."

"What isn't with the CIA?" Tony snarled. "How did you find him?" He asked pointing towards the bartender.

"Running away from the beach just shortly after your outburst at the bar," Cruz said. "He wasn't fast enough, apparently."

Tony was showing remarkable restraint. He wanted to slug the bartender for leading Natalie out into that water, for almost being the cause of her death. "Someone pay you to give my partner drugs and drag her out to sea so she would drown?"

The bartender looked nervously at Cruz before answering. "She told me that she was going to report my sex selling to the police. I needed the extra cash. Bartending wasn't paying all the bills. She gave me the GHB, told me what to do, and once the federal agent was taken care of... she would forget all about my...sexual services."

"I need a name, playboy," Tony snapped, eyes dark with fury.

"Paloma Reynosa," the bartender whispered.

His jaw clenched so tightly that there was a possibility it was going to snap. Tony decided that if he caught up with Paloma, here in Miami... well... there was nothing stopping him from shooting her. "Do me a favor C-I Ray... can you hold this nut job until the cops get here?"

Cruz grinned and started to pull the bartender away, "We'll be hanging out downstairs in the hotel security office."

Tony slammed the room door shut and latched the lock. He glanced at Natalie asleep on the bed. Right now she looked peaceful, her chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. It wouldn't have taken much for that ocean to swallow her whole he realized. It had nearly swallowed the two of them whole...

Dropping down onto the edge of the bed Tony buried his face in his hands. Paloma had gotten to her, when he'd promised her that she was going to be safe. Not Kate, I cannot go through something like that all over again!

Natalie stirred, moving lazily on the bed, the sheets swishing underneath her. "Tony?"

"Yes?" Tony responded to her, softly. "I'm here."

"I don't remember... I don't remember coming back to the room," Natalie mumbled.

"Why don't you go back to sleep?" Tony suggested, reaching over and tucking her hair behind her ears. "We'll talk in the morning."

She blinked and looked at him confused. "Talk about what? Is something wrong? Was it something I did earlier?" Suddenly she shot up, eyes wide with tears. "Did you not like me being in control? I don't have to do that again!"

He hushed her and wiped the tears from her eyes. As long as the drug was raging in her system she wasn't going to be thinking clearly. In fact, she probably wouldn't remember this conversation come morning. "Natalie, you didn't do anything wrong. Go back to sleep, darling."

Natalie cried, still convinced that she had done something wrong, and laid back down on the bed. "His drinks made me feel funny," she whispered.

Tony stroked her back. "Who's drinks made you feel funny?"

"Bartender," she replied, so softly he almost didn't hear her. "He was taking my glass away... told me to go with him... for a swim."

"Hotel security has him in custody," he told her. "You're safe."

Her shoulders eased and her eyes fluttered shut. He sat there watching her sleep for a few moments. Taking a deep breath, he stretched out next to her and decided that it was all right if he took a short nap for a moment while waiting for the Miami police to get there.

Gibbs got off the phone with the Miami P.D and slammed the receiver down.

McGee and Abby looked up from the junior agent's desk, sheepishly. "Is everything okay boss?"

"Everything is just peachy," Gibbs grumbled. "Miami P.D just booked the bartender for assault for giving Natalie the roofie. Sounds like he'll be getting a deal though because he can hand over the one truly responsible for nearly drowning her. He confirmed that Paloma Reynosa hired him to give Natalie the drug and then make sure she wasn't found."

"Luring her out into the middle of the ocean to be swept away by the tide is a good way to make sure someone disappears," McGee muttered. "I saw that five people were swept out to see in the South Florida area this week alone thanks to the hurricane."

Gibbs clenched his fists. It would have been the perfect way to dispose of Natalie. Thank God his senior field agent had been on top of things and managed to find her before it was too late... although Ducky was not happy that Tony had swam out that far on his own, with his scarred lungs, to rescue her... "I want everyone to focus their efforts on Miami. That's where she is."

McGee ran his tongue over his lips. "I've updated BOLO's on what we know so far thanks to the bartender. Haven't gotten any bites yet."

"Alright, I'm going to restock us on coffee," Gibbs said, getting to his feet and grabbing his keys. "You check in with Tony."

"On it boss," McGee said as the team leader walked away. He picked up his phone and dialed Tony's cell number. He wasn't answering. "Ah, come on Tony, not again."

Tony heard the door lock click into place while he was in the bathroom washing his face. Drying off with a near by towel he listened, intently. The person trying to get in was struggling with the dead bolt.

Gripping his pistol, Tony stepped out into the hall. He had plenty of guesses as to who was trying to break into their hotel room—another poor sap conned into doing work for the ever elusive Paloma Reynosa, the woman herself, or perhaps, C-I Ray... never did trust the CIA...

A gunshot blew the door off its hinges. Natalie sprang up from the bed with a startled cry, still too disoriented to find her own weapon. It wasn't going to be needed. While the intruder attempted to get a shot off at Tony, the senior field agent had been ready. He let one round off. It was precise and hit it's mark. He watched as the intruder fell backwards into the main hallway, blood pooling underneath their head.

Natalie stumbled into him and then she rocked back on her heals. Laying in the hall—dead—was Reynosa.