Hey readers - Here we are with another new chapter : )
Hehe - nervous gulp - so you remember how I told you guys last time that this would be the final chapter of the episode 'Mind Games'? Well it turns out I inadvertently lied to you all, for which I'm very sorry.
You see, when I posted that message in the last chapter I honestly thought this would be the final one, except I had the second part of it written and not the first part; i.e. - the part of the chapter containing Kate's fight for survival. I honestly thought it would be a lot shorter of a scene than it ended up becoming, which is why I ultimately made the decision to split a ridiculous long chapter into two smaller ones.
Once again, I'm very sorry for the miscommunication on my part, but I'm still very proud of what this chapter ended up becoming, and I hope you guys all really enjoy it.
Beyond that however, I would like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone that has reviewed, favourited and followed this story. The support you guys have shown to it continuously blows me away, and I really appreciate it, so please keep it up : )
Please remember that NCIS does not belong to me : )
I hope you enjoy this chapter : )
Mind Games - Part 8
Unfortunately for all of them however, time was running out. Fast.
That was why it came as no small relief when the thin cord binding Kate's hands finally fell apart with a small, sharp snap, having at last given-way under the unrelenting assault of her teeth. A soft gasp of delighted surprise slipped past the female federal agent's delicate lips as the ruined pieces of cord fell away from her, before they quickly curled into a triumphant grin. Kate briefly rubbed at her wrists tenderly, noting how raw the skin felt beneath the passing glance of her fingertips, but Kate knew that that was the least of her worries right now. She may have restored mobility in her hands - which naturally improved the chances of her surviving this immensely - but she was still ultimately a prisoner whilst held in the back of this unfamiliar vehicle's trunk. The intelligent woman knew that escaping from the inside whilst it was closed would be a lot more difficult than freeing herself from her bindings had been, if not near impossible. She knew that given time she would be able to do it, but Kate wasn't an idiot. She may have attended a few courses on the subject as part of her training as a federal agent under Gibbs' instruction, but she was by no means an expert on any of the escape techniques, and there was no way she would be able to pull off such a stunt without attracting the attention of her abductor. Kate also knew that they had to be fast approaching the endgame, that time had to be running out for her by now, and so she had best use it wisely.
It was for that reason that Kate opted against trying to force her way out of the vehicle's trunk by brute force, nor did she start calling for help. There was no guarantee that there would be anybody around to hear her anyway if she started screaming, and Kate felt that the best play here was to let her abductor believe that she was still unconscious, at least for the moment. No sense in tipping whoever it was off too early after all, although if she was honest with herself, Kate was beginning to suspect that this might actually be an amateur job. Anybody that knew what they were doing after all would have had the foresight to bind her feet as well as her wrists, along with putting a secure gag over her mouth, to prevent her from doing exactly what she had just done. The first inklings of the theory were enough to give Kate hope that she might just escape from this daunting situation unscathed yet.
But now was not the time to be focusing on such trivialities. Kate had a job to do.
So turning her attention away from whoever it was that had done this to her for the moment, the female federal agent decided to focus on the more pressing matters at hand here. Determining just what assets she had at hand to work with. Some people - the kind who usually lost their heads and grew frantic in an emergency - might find that a strange way to be spending these most terrifying and dangerous moments. Kate on the other hand knew better. She knew that any one of the objects littering the bottom of this vehicle's trunk had the potential to save her life. As a result, the female federal agent was squinting through the semi-darkness that surrounded her, giving each object the careful consideration that it was due.
What she found wasn't overly promising.
A few crumpled up pieces of paper. What felt like an relatively outdated polaroid camera as she turned it over in her hands. A heavy briefcase which may have had potential to be used as a rudimentary makeshift weapon, save for the fact that Kate was in such a confined space, and would therefore be unlikely to swing it with enough momentum to do any serious damage to an attacker. With a disappointed sigh, Kate pushed the briefcase away, and instead turned the focus of her assessment of the situation back on to herself.
She began patting herself down to see what she had on her person, or at least, she did the best she could given the limited space she had to work in. The first observation that the female federal agent made was that both her cellphone and her gun were missing from her person. Neither of those came as any great surprise however. Even an amateur would know to remove those items from their captive, the first obviously to prevent anybody from tracking them via GPS, and the second to remove what they would probably perceive as her only method of self-defence. Kate couldn't quite manage to contain a somewhat smug smile at that particular thought.
If whoever had done this to her truly believed that she was helpless just because she had been stripped of her weapon, then they would be in for quite a rude awakening.
Curling herself up into as tighter ball as she could physically manage, Kate's wandering fingers grazed over the top of her left boot, and she felt the pleasantly cool surface of metal beneath her touch. It honestly took every ounce of self-restraint that the young woman possessed not to laugh out loud in pure and unadulterated relief. She could scarcely believe that she still had it on her person, that her abductor hadn't noticed it and stolen it away from her. The perks of dealing with an amateur, she guessed. But what discovery could have possibly invoked such a strong and ecstatic reaction in the captive woman, one might wonder? Well the answer to that was really very simple.
Her knife.
Kate was still in possession of her knife.
It had all come about in a rather unusual way to be perfectly honest. When Kate had first joined Gibbs' team at NCIS, the very notion of carrying a knife on her person at all times seemed utterly ludicrous. Then, when she had found out that her fearless silver haired boss actually had one disguised as a belt buckle of all things, she had thought him paranoid, and the whole idea idea had seemed even more ridiculous.
Boy, had she been proven wrong. Big time.
It had started off as a routine case, perhaps seven or eight months after Kate had first become a member of Gibbs' team, a lifetime ago now it felt like. She and Tony had been sent by Gibbs to meet up with one of Tony's rather... shadier contacts from the streets, a man he had arrested several times back when he'd been a Baltimore cop before the man had turned super-grass for the authorities. The plan had been simple. Meet up with the man, determine whether or not he had any useful information that would bring their investigation at the time to a speedy resolution, job done.
It hadn't taken even five seconds for that plan to be derailed entirely.
Almost immediately upon arrival, Kate and Tony had been forced to take cover when multiple gunshots had suddenly rung out around them from a mysterious black SUV. It quickly transpired however that the two federal agents were not the unidentified shooter's intended targets, but rather the very man they were supposed to be meeting. The super-grass had taken a round straight to the thigh, and Tony and Kate had to be left with no alternative but to all-but drag the man into a nearby abandoned warehouse. He had been bleeding heavily, and probably would not have made it without their intervention. Unfortunately however, in all the confusion, it had taken Kate and Tony a moment too long to realise that they had allowed the mysterious shooter to slip past them without so much as even clapping eyes on him or her. They still had no idea to this very day who that shooter had been.
The super-grass had been beyond hysterical, pleading with them both to help him. Kate never felt so helpless as she had in that moment, unable to do anything but hold his hand to offer him some small degree of comfort as he lay on the floor, quite literally dying. Tony meanwhile had been better prepared, and in a flash, had brought out his own small pocket knife. He had then proceeded to use it to dig out the bullet buried in the man's thigh, before covering the wound with his own jacket to staunch the bleeding. Later, once an ambulance had been called and the paramedics had arrived, they had told Tony and Kate that the senior field agent had without a doubt saved his informant's life.
After that, the idea of carrying a knife around with her at all times hadn't seemed quite so silly to Kate anymore.
So taking the hard-learned lesson to heart, the female federal agent had approached Gibbs for his advice on the subject. And once the seasoned silver haired man had finished suitably chastening her for not already obeying that particular rule if his, he had of course agreed to help her. He had put her in touch with his tailor of all people, a man who specialised in designing covert clothing for not only federal agents such as themselves, but also the military at large.
Kate had got in contact with him, and after specifying exactly the type of thing she was looking for, Gibbs' contact really came through for her. He had designed for her a pair of stylish but functional heavy-wearing leather boots, ones which would not only be suitable for processing crime scenes in, but were also inconspicuous enough that they wouldn't attract any unwanted attention. In fact, if Kate hadn't commissioned the production of these particular boots herself, she would never have been any the wiser that they actually carried a secret with them.
A secret... and her knife.
In a hidden sleeve of leather running from her ankle to the heel of her boot, concealed in a way that it merely looked like a stylised design, Kate was able to carry her knife around without anyone being any the wiser. The handle of the blade had also been custom designed, so that it looked exactly like all the other buckles attached to the boot. The end result was that she could carry the additional weapon around in public without anyone being able to see it, a fact which may very well have saved her life in these particular circumstances.
Feeling much better now that she had knew she still an actual weapon with which to defend herself when she reached the final showdown, Kate quickly transferred her knife from the hidden compartment on her boot to the sleeve of her jacket instead, angling it in such a way that you wouldn't accidentally hurt herself with the blade. She wanted to keep it hidden so that she had the element of surprise, should she need it.
Kate had to admit however, that the idea of using her knife the moment the car's trunk was opened, was very very tempting.
She was quick to push that dark thought away though. Whilst most people would probably call it self-defence if she stabbed her attacker right from the off, Kate had always held a strong belief that it was better to take criminals in alive if at all possible. In her mind, killing should only be used at the last resort, when if she didn't then somebody else's life maybe at risk, but that it should never be the first port of call. It was because she stuck to that belief as firmly as she could that Kate was able to sleep at night. She didn't want the event of today to change all that.
So with the decision made that she would try to take her abductor in alive if at all possible, Kate quickly began racking her brains, trying to think of an alternative way of getting herself out of this horrible situation. It was at that moment that the female federal agent's attention was brought back to the Polaroid camera she had earlier dismissed as junk, and she couldn't help but smile smugly to herself.
An idea had began to take shape in her mind.
Wasting not even a single moment since she knew that every second was precious right now, Kate quickly grabbed hold of the polaroid camera and began examining it as best as she could in the little light that the car's trunk provided. She beamed in delight when she realised that it was the type of camera which had an obnoxiously bright flash on it, exactly as she had been hoping for.
Filled with a renewed sense of hope, she quickly put the next phase of her half-cobbled together plan in action, praying with every fibre of her being that it would work.
Contorting her body with all the grace and skill of a trained acrobat, Kate carefully manoeuvered herself so that she was half tucked into a ball with her back against the floor of the trunk. Then, once she was in a relatively comfortable position, she gently placed both of the souls of her feet against the hood of the trunk, being especially cautious not to make a sound. Finally, she brought the Polaroid camera up to her face and held it there, poised as if ready to take a photograph. A smirk graced Kate's pretty features.
She was ready for a fight now.
It was not a moment too soon either, for barely ten seconds after Kate had gotten into position, she heard a gentle clunk, and a split-second later the vibration of the engine cut out, a sure signal that the vehicle she was currently trapped inside of had stopped somewhere. The female federal agent then heard the muffled but unmistakable sounds of a car door opening, before it was quickly slammed shut again, only to be followed by the sound of approaching footsteps, growing closer and closer to the car's trunk with each passing moment.
Kate mentally braced herself. She knew what to expect next.
Sure enough, the female federal agent soon heard the trunk's locking mechanism being popped, swiftly followed by the noise of hands being placed on either side of it, no doubt to open it so that whoever had abducted her could have their wicked way with her. Well, Kate thought smugly to herself, they'd be in for quite a surprise then, wouldn't they? The hood was lifted, a tiny slither of light shined into the confined darkened space, and...
And Kate immediately lunged into action.
Like a mare lashing out in a frenzied attack against a threat to her young, Kate poured every ounce of strength her body possessed into kicking out as hard as she could. The end result - instead of rising at a gentle pace under her abductor's careful control, the hood of the trunk practically skyrocketed upwards. Kate couldn't help but feel a stab of smug satisfaction when she heard the edge of the trunk's hood collide hard with something, immediately being followed by a surprised 'Ooooomph!"
Sunlight immediately flooded into the car's trunk as it was fully opened, but Kate didn't allow that to distract her. Instead, when the indistinctive shape of a person at the rear of the vehicle looked down at her, clearly startled to discover that Kate was very much awake and conscious, she put the next phase of her escape plan into action. Without missing so much as a single beat, Kate activated the polaroid camera in her hands, taking her abductor's photograph and producing an obnoxiously bright flash of light in the process.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" a voice, most definitely male but also vaguely familiar to her, cried out in shock.
Kate saw the still-indistinctive shape of the person immediately move to shield his eyes, clearly dazzled by her sneak attack light show just as she'd been hoping for. The female federal agent wasted no time in revelling in her success however, and did what, to her at least, seemed like the most logical thing to do next in this situation. She threw his own polaroid camera at his head as hard as she could.
"OWW!" the man yelped in pained shock, still stunned and temporarily blinded by the earlier intense flash of light.
Again, Kate registered that the voice was vaguely familiar to her but not in a way that was exceedingly obvious. She didn't allow that particular mystery to trip her up however, and instead the female federal agent channelled her efforts in scrambling out of the trunk as fast as humanly possible. Her feet met with the earth, and Kate could have cried out in pure and unadulterated relief. Her arms and legs were aching with scarcely imaginable cramps, not to mention she still had a banging headache, but at least she was out of that god awful trunk. At least if she did die today, it wouldn't be in there.
Now she just had to make sure she didn't die at all today.
To that effect, Kate whirled in the spot, doing a quick survey of her surroundings as she did so. To her immense surprise, it immediately dawned on Kate that not only did she recognise the place that her abductor had brought her to, but that she had in fact been there very, very recently.
It was the Boone Family Farm.
To be more accurate, it was the barn of the Boone Family Farm, the very place where a jar of human female tongues had been discovered, which in turn had instigated Gibbs' team's involvement in this case to begin with. Recovering quickly from the surprise that this knowledge brought her, Kate snapped her attention back to her abductor, who was still staggering around blindly and rubbing at his eyes, grumbling all the whilst about the two separate blows that Kate had managed to land on him. It was only when the man had recovered enough of his eyesight to be able to move his hands away from his face that Kate caught a good look at him. Her eyes widened in surprise, her breathing hitched, and her jaw dropped wide open in incredulous disbelief.
"You?!" she gasped in utter astonishment.
The man looked up at her, his eyes full of pure and unadulterated rage, before his little rat-like face twisted into a cold condescending sneer. The little man smirked, clearly revelling in Kate's horrified amazement.
"Me" he replied simply, still smiling that creepy little smile of his.
It was Adam O'Neill.
Kate couldn't help but stand there gaping at the man, the little runt she had met and had immediately taken a strong disliking to, in disbelief for just a moment longer, before her mouth curved into a frown, and her eyes became as hard as diamonds.
"Well... I knew from the moment I clapped eyes on you that you were a little rat O'Neil, but I never would have expected you to have the balls to kidnap a federal agent" Kate spat at him, her tone and expression both practically acidic, "Well done. I'd even be impressed if you hadn't been so easy to get the drop on".
O'Neill snorted, not angered in the slightest by Kate's taunting, but seemingly amused.
"Got the drop on me?" the attorney-turned-abductor repeated with a dark chuckle, "Perhaps. But let's not forget who it was that got the drop on who first. That was very sloppy for a federal agent to allow me to sneak upon you like that".
Kate narrowed her eyes angrily at the reminder.
"Yes... what did you do to me?" the dark haired young woman wanted to know, watching O'Neill warily as they kept a short distance from one another. O'Neill smile became a touch more savage.
"I hit you in the head with a shovel, my dear" he boosted, clearly pleased with himself for the cowardly act of attacking a person from behind.
It was Kate who smirked darkly this time around.
"And yet even with a bang on the head, I was still able to keep my wits together enough to outsmart you" she taunted him gleefully, hoping to provoke him into doing something rash and therefore make a colossal mistake, "Has that ever happened before O'Neill? I'm guessing I'm not the first woman you've abducted after all. How many have you killed already?"
A nasty mockery of a smile appeared on the twisted little man's face.
"Let's see, there is uh...there's one, there's two, three, four" O'Neill pretended to count on his fingers, before he eagerly pointed at Kate and licked his lips like some sort of wild beast, "You will make five".
This time it was Kate that let out a dark chuckle.
"I doubt that very much. Bigger, smarter and definitely more intimidating people than you have tried to take me down, and look - I'm still here" Kate continued mocking, pleased when she finally saw traces of real anger beginning to appear in O'Neill's eyes, "But tell me, I'm curious. How did Boone turn his lawyer into his replacement? Or was it simply a case that you deliberately sought him out?"
Looking a little peeved at the realisation that Kate neither feared him nor was she impressed by his numerous crimes, O'Neill curtly responded.
"Clever girl" he muttered sarcastically, his tone condescending, "Yes, I made sure that I became Boone's lawyer so I could get close to him. So I could learn from him. Learn from the best. And you... you're my graduation present".
Kate couldn't help but scoff at his words, her lip curling in disgust.
"You know it's funny though" O'Neill continued before the woman he still saw as his captive - more fool him - could reply, "Kyle told me how you refused to give him your first name. He actually got pretty excited when I told him that I knew what it was, Caitlin. Oh, but don't worry - I haven't told him yet".
This time Kate raised an eyebrow out of sheer curiosity.
"Why not?" she inquired of him, figuring that the best way to play this situation was to just keep him talking for as long as possible. O'Neill's lips curled into that creepy little smile of his again.
"I told him that I wanted it to be my gift to him - my thank you for teaching me all he knows - and that I would give it to him once you were dead" the attorney-turned-killer gloated happily, and again Kate found herself almost overcome with disgust for the perverted animal that stood before her, "As whilst we're on that topic..."
Kate's stance became slightly stiffer when O'Neill produced a pocket knife and flicked open the blade. The dark haired young woman mentally braced herself. The fight with very nearly upon them...
"Now Kyle says he wants Agent Gibbs to remember him for a long, long time after he's gone" O'Neill leered as he began to close the distance between himself and Kate, obviously feeling a lot bigger now that he had a weapon in his hand, "So you and me, Caitlin... we're going to take this nice and slow".
But then in contrary to his own words, O'Neill suddenly lashed out with his knife much quicker than Kate had been expecting him to.
The female federal agent was just barely able to block the blow in time, so instead of sustaining a deeper, much more serious wound, Kate got away with only a small cut on her arm. Hissing in pain, she swung out at O'Neill, effortlessly knocking him back a few steps. The little runt actually had the gall her laugh at her.
"Oh... oh... a fighter, huh?" he grinned like the cat who'd got the cream, and just like all the other times, Kate felt a little shiver of disgust run through her, "I haven't had one of those before".
"Shocking" Kate rolled her eyes sarcastically, "Because that's who you are, isn't it, Adam? A little boy that can only feel like a man when he's attacked a woman from behind, tied her up and then killed her whilst she can't fight back. You know there's a word for people like you... Pathetic".
O'Neill actually snarled at her.
It was clear to Kate that she had struck a great blow to his ego with that remark. With a self-satisfied smirk, the female federal agent kept up her taunting.
"But this time... this time you've bitten off more than you can chew" she chuckled, but it wasn't a nice one. It was one that carried both a warning and a promise to the little runt before her, "So I'm gonna give you just one chance to make this easier on yourself. Put down that knife right now, and come in with me quietly. I promise it'll be a lot less painful if you do".
O'Neill gaped at her incredulously for a couple of moments, before he threw back his head and laughed long and hard. The sound was enough to literally make Kate's skin crawl.
"Beautiful, gutsy and hilarious too!" the little leech practically crowed in gleeful delight, "Seriously though, you must be joking! Why would I give myself up when I have you exactly where I want you?"
Kate smiled coldly at him.
"Because if you don't, I can't guarantee that you'll be leaving this barn alive" she told him bluntly. Rather than heed her words however, O'Neill simply snorted at them.
"Yeah right!" it was his tone that sounded sarcastic this time around, "You might be all of those things I listed off before, but you're also remarkably dim, aren't you? In case you've forgotten, my dear, I'm the one still holding the knife!"
It took all the blagging skills that Kate possessed in order to keep her expression completely neutral. After all, there was no need to tip off O'Neill that she too carried a knife on her person. Not just yet anyway.
"Yeah? Try and hit me again with that knife, Adam!" Kate with practically inviting him to attack her now, and yet the little runt still wasn't intelligent enough to realise that she was deliberately trying to bait him into making a mistake, so encompassed in his own arrogant confidence. And he had the nerve to call her dim, "I promise that you won't like what happens if you do!"
Grinning at his captive in a manner that a hawk might a corner field mouse, O'Neill was only too happy to take her up on the challenge.
"We'll see about that, Caitlin!" the attorney-turned-killer sneered down his nose at her condescendingly, before with surprising speed and agility, he lunged at Kate with his blade held aloft.
Kate didn't even have to consciously think about her next move. She simply reacted.
Putting all of the specialised training that one might expect from a federal agent that had formerly protected the President of America to good use, Kate knew exactly what to do. Before O'Neill had even the slightest clue what was happening, the female federal agent had seized his knife arm in a death-grip, and using all the strength she could muster, she used the man's own momentum to swing him around and sent him sprawling in the direction of his car.
"Oomph!" he grunted as his body collided with the side of the vehicle. It was clear from his expression that he was taken aback by how strong Kate was for her size.
The female federal agent was not left with much time to rest on her laurels however, for with another ferocious snarl of outrage, O'Neill pivoted on his heel and swung his knife around for another go. Once again, Kate was just barely able to block the blow in time, sustaining yet another cut to one of her arms. It stung, and was a little deeper than the last one, but it was still better than having her entire face slashed to ribbons.
"Ha!" O'Neill beamed triumphant, revelling in the brief grimace of pain he had managed to produce on Kate's delicate features, "Not so cocky now, eh?"
Kate's smile became as thin and as chilly as springtime ice.
Not wanting to give the perverted animal before her the satisfaction of hearing a verbal response this time, the female federal agent did the next best thing. Without missing so much as a single beat, Kate swung her leg up high in a round arch, and with a single well-placed kick, she was able to knock the knife out of O'Neill's hand and send it spiralling away underneath O'Neill's car. The whole thing was so fluid and graceful that Kate had actually made it look almost effortless.
Needless to say, O'Neill was rather stunned by this latest turn of events.
"Huh?" the madman tilted his head to the side in an almost curious manner. He was clearly trying to not let on, but Kate could tell that she had rattled him with that tricky little manoeuvre, "Perhaps you're not as spineless and weak as the rest of your gender".
Kate couldn't quite manage to refrain from scoffing at the predictable cliché.
"Is that what turned you into a killer?" she asked in a manner that could almost be classified as conversational, watching warily as O'Neill straightened up, "What? You felt like a girlfriend didn't show you enough respect? Or was it simply that a woman refused to go out with you in the first place?"
An ugly expression flashed across O'Neill's rat-like features, and Kate could tell that she had struck a nerve.
"Something like that" O'Neill admitted, aiming a punch at Kate's head which she deftly sidestepped, "The first bitch I gutted thought it would be funny to lead me on in a nightclub and then reject me in front of all ten of her friends. Bunch of harpies were all stood around laughing at me... but I got the last laugh in the end!"
Kate couldn't help it when she felt a wave of pure and unadulterated nausea hit her. No matter how many times she heard the same story in her line of work, it never failed to make her feel sick to her stomach to think that an innocent woman had been robbed of her life over something so downright... petty.
"I wish you could have seen the look on her stupid little face when she realised who it was that had taken her and stuffed her in the trunk of a car" the deranged lunatic continued gloating, swinging at Kate with his fists again only for her to defensively block him once more, "I think it might have genuinely been my happiest moment alive".
Even an experienced federal agent like Kate couldn't help but blanch in horror at that particular declaration.
"And the others?" the dark haired young woman asked faintly, almost afraid to find out the answer, as she superbly dodged another punch aimed her way from her abductor. The madman in question merely shrugged his shoulders at the loaded question.
"Well... they were just there. And after I' got that first delicious taste of killing..." O'Neill licked his lips like a predatory wolf, all the while just barely dodging another skilfully executed punch which Kate had aimed at his head, "That first killing awoke something in me that night, my dear. Something I knew I couldn't ignore".
Kate, despite being very cautious to avoid letting her guard down, couldn't help but gape him incredulously as his words set in.
"And that's it?" the female federal agent whispered, her tone and expression both utterly horrified. Even with all of the specialised training which had made her the highly skilled psychological profiler that she was today, sometimes even Kate seriously struggled to comprehend the sheer level of craziness exhibited by those it was her job to investigate and, if absolutely necessary, take out. This was one such occasion.
Once again, O'Neill smiled that creepy little smile of his at Kate.
"It's a good a reason as any" the attorney-turned-killer replied, and he actually had the sheer gall to shrug his shoulders, as if the lives of those four women he had slaughtered were completely trivial and meaningless, "And then came you and Special Agent Gibbs. Both of you stood there looking down your noses at me as if I was dirt on your shoes. That really pissed me off, so when Kyle suggested that I take you as a means to get revenge on Gibbs for him... well, I knew it was too good of an idea to pass up".
"Yeah? How's that working out for you?" Kate retorted sarcastically, easily landing another punch on O'Neill's body and eliciting a small grunt of pain from the madman in question, "Because so far all you've managed to do is get yourself temporarily blinded and disarmed of your weapon".
A vein pulsed angrily in O'Neill's skinny little neck. It was clear that Kate pointing out his flaws to him was the quickest way to rile him up.
"Oh, I don't need my knife to finish you off, Caitlin" the attorney-turned-killer promised her darkly, his grin now becoming downright savage, "You might have saved yourself from my knife, but I can still kill you with my bare hands and get just as much pleasure out of it".
And that was all the warning Kate got.
Just like a cobra would uncoil as it prepared to strike an unsuspecting victim, O'Neill lunged towards Kate with both his arms raised, clearly intending to try and throttle the life out of her. Unfortunately for the deranged lunatic however, he had made one oversight. The female federal agent was far from unsuspecting. Knowing that if O'Neill managed to succeed at getting his hands around her neck it would be a lot harder to survive this encounter, Kate reacted quickly, and threw up her arm to block him. The result was that the attorney-turned-killer ended up grabbing her arm in both his hands, rather than her neck. Not ideal, but Kate would take what she could get.
"You really think that'll stop me?" O'Neill leered at her, and before Kate had a chance to respond, he vindictively twisted the female federal agent's arm.
"Aah!" despite herself, Kate allowed a short gasp of pain to slip her lips as she felt her arm being bent at a slightly unnatural angle. It wasn't done with enough force to inflict any serious or long-term damage, or at least Kate didn't think it was, but it still hurt like hell. Struggling to free herself from the madman's iron-like grip, Kate resorted to doing the one thing that she was a hundred percent positive would force him to let go of her. She kneed him as hard as she could in the balls.
The effect it had on O'Neill was immediate.
"Eeeeiiiiiii!" letting out a squeal of pain so highly pitched it was practically in falsetto, the attorney-turned-killer had no choice but to relinquish his grip on Kate's arm. The female federal agent tenderly held her injured arm as she looked on with a self-satisfied smirk, as the man crumpled to his knees, clutching at his manhood, whilst writhing about on the ground in agony.
"You bitch!" he screamed through the pain, his entire face turning a fantastic shade of purple in rage. Kate just smiled sweetly down at him, practically oozing sarcasm.
That seemed to be the final straw for O'Neill.
With a bellowing roar that was almost like war-cry it was so animalistic in nature, the deranged lunatic lashed out with his leg, swinging it around before his enemy had the chance to dodge out of the way. Kate gasped in alarm, clearly having been caught off guard, as her legs were swept out from under her. The end result was that the young woman collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap, much like O'Neill had just seconds prior to her. And despite the obvious agony he still had to be in, the attorney-turned-killer actually managed to muster up enough willpower to be able to smile that creepy little smile at her again, sending another cold shiver down Kate's spine.
"I think it's time to bring this little dance of ours to a close, my dear" O'Neill spat at her, and Kate mentally braced herself. It didn't take a genius to work out what was coming next after all. O'Neill was finally able to remove his hands away from his throbbing manhood, and made to attack Kate once again, "Say your prayers, you little bitch".
Then he lunged at her.
And in that single split-second, Kate knew that the moment to choose was finally upon her, that even a single second of hesitancy or indecision might be the factor that could very well cost her life. She had to pick who to save. Herself or her enemy.
The young woman had to force herself to hold back a deep sigh as she chose to save herself.
It was never easy, and she hated it whenever violence and death were the only answers left, but sometimes they truly were necessary. And whilst Kate always preferred to bring a suspect in alive wherever possible so that proper justice could be served, she wasn't about to sacrifice herself over that's strongly held belief. And she knew that O'Neill was too far gone to reason with. She knew that bringing him in alive just wasn't feasible anymore.
As such, she acted without hesitation.
It wasn't so much the act itself that bothered Kate. There was no grey area in this situation after all, it was completely black and white. Kill or be killed. It was more of the horrible sound that was made as Kate revealed the knife she'd had hidden up her sleeve. That horrible squelch as Kate was forced to plunge it deep into O'Neill chest. It all happened so fast that the deranged madman didn't even have a chance to register that she had been concealing a lethal weapon all this time. Feeling the pain in his chest, O'Neill simply looked down, stunned to see his shirt being stained with a dark crimson colour, and the metal handle of Kate's blade stick out of the area directly over his heart.
"How..." He breathed out, before blood began pooling in his throat and spilling out of his mouth. With what must have been a tremendous force of will the attorney-turned-killer managed to force out just two more words, "You... bitch..."
When he slumped to the ground, his eyes drifted shut, and he inhaled his last breath.
Adam O'Neill was dead.
Kate had survived against all the odds once more.
The female federal agent simply stared at the serial killer's lifeless body for one long, hard moment. She truly wished that things could have been different, and yet deep down in her heart, she also knew that what she done had been for the best. At least now he could harm nor further innocent women, and Kate could rest easy in her bed knowing that she had at least given him a fair chance to surrender, which was more than he'd ever done. Shakily, Kate began pulling herself up to her feet.
And naturally, now that the danger had passed and everything was okay again, that was the exact moment when the cavalry finally decided to turn up. Typical.
"ADAM O'NEILL! THIS IS NCIS!" a voice suddenly bellowed from outside, one that was so painstakingly familiar to Kate that she nearly fell back down to the ground again, though this time from sheer relief, "ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS HAVE THIS ENTIRE BUILDING SURROUNDED! LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND COME OUT WITH YOUR ABOVE YOUR HEAD!"
Joyful tears threatened to stream from her eyes, and Kate had to work hard to rein in her emotions before she could call back a coherent response.
"Gibbs! It's okay!" she yelled out, her voice carrying like a trumpet call through the heavy silence that seemed to have fallen over the barn with Gibbs' fierce declaration, "I'm fine! Everything's fine now! You can come in!"
The words had barely had time to pass her lips before the barn doors suddenly exploded open and in came charging three people.
It wouldn't have been surprising to Kate if her face threatened to split clean in half, she was grinning so widely. She watched as Gibbs came running into the barn first, leading the way for the others which was only to be expected. Tony swiftly came into view as well, but it was the identity of the third person that was truly surprising to Kate. Her pretty eyes grew wide when Paula Cassidy of all people came rushing in with Kate's teammates. All three of them had their guns drawn cautiously, but when they spotted Kate looking alive and relatively unharmed, the relief in all of their expressions was practically palpable.
"Kate?!" Tony breathed in awe, scarcely able to believed his eyes.
Before the handsome Italian federal agent was even aware that he was moving, Tony had holstered his gun and was moving towards Kate as fast as was humanly possible. His legs burned with the effort but Tony honestly didn't care, and the moment he reached his dishevelled and bruised partner's side, he all-but threw his arms around her and pulled her into the tightest hug imaginable.
Since the whole hugging thing was a relatively new thing between the two of them, Kate was slightly taken aback by the action at first. Those slightly stunned feelings quickly faded however, and she smiled, finding herself surprisingly glad for the comfort her partner was offering. Kate immediately buried her face in his shoulder, and hugged him back, her relief at being alive to see him again almost too much for her mind to comprehend.
"Thank god, thank god, thank god..." she heard Tony whisper into her hair a moment before he pulled back from the hug and looked down at her in concern, "Are you okay? You're not too badly injured are you? What happened?"
Unable to help but smile at her partner's obvious concern for her, Kate reached out and squeezed his arm reassuringly.
"I'm fine" she quickly assured the other federal agents in the room, but seeing Tony's somewhat sceptical look, she quickly elaborated, "Honestly, I'm not too badly hurt. I probably look a lot worse than I actually am".
"Yes, well I think we'll let a doctor be the judge of that" Gibbs chimed into the conversation, giving his female agent one of his rare smiles. He quickly continued before Kate had the opportunity to protest that a doctor's visit wasn't necessary, "But like DiNozzo said - what actually happened?"
Kate would have thought that was rather obvious, and so she merely shrugged her shoulders as she responded to her boss' question.
"O'Neill is... was, Kyle Boone's apprentice in training. Apparently that sicko thought that the best way to get revenge on you was for O'Neill to take me" Kate warily explained, feeling sympathetic when she saw a look of pure and unadulterated horror flash across the silver haired seasoned federal agent's face, "O'Neill thought that I was going to be his fifth murder victim. I proved him wrong".
Gibbs expression changed to look mildly impressed as his eyes flicker over to O'Neill's lifeless body still lying on the floor at their feet.
"Yeah... I can see that Kate" he nodded slowly as he surveyed the man's corpse, in particular the killing blow that Kate had struck against his heart, "Rule Nine?"
Kate couldn't help but beam at him.
"Rule Nine" she nodded happily in confirmation, before her expression turned much more grateful, "Thank you for imposing that rule so heavily on all of us Gibbs. I probably would be dead right now if it wasn't for that rule".
It was Gibbs who smiled warmly now.
"I'm just glad that you're okay, and that one of you actually listened to my rules for a change" the silver haired federal agent lightly quipped, coaxing a small laugh out of Kate and the others, "You sure you're good?"
Kate nodded her head again firmly, still grinning widely.
"I am" the dark haired young woman reassured him, "I'm just glad to see you guys again... although..." she paused and turned her attention to Paula, her expression morphing from a smile to a look of puzzled confusion, "I wasn't expecting you Paula. What are you doing here?"
Paula, who up until this point had remained silent out of politeness as she watched the heart-warming reunion between the three dear teammates, smiled warmly at the other woman.
"Well, almost everyone at NCIS headquarters heard about you being taken" the blonde haired female federal agent shrugged and smiled, "And since it was quiet on the team I was assigned to, I offered to come help rescue you... although I'd say you did just fine on your own".
"That's our Katie" Tony said with no small amount of pride in his voice, slinging an arm around his partner's shoulder and giving her an affectionate one armed squeeze, "Survive anything!"
Genuinely touched and humbled by the sheer number of people that had been worried for her, Kate gave the other woman a smile that practically shone with earnest gratitude and sincerity.
"Thank you".
Two simple words that could hold as much or as little meaning as the speaker wanted. Coming from Kate in that moment, they were enough to move mountains. Paula's smile was very kind and understanding.
"Think nothing of it" the blonde haired woman said warmly.
Kate smiled grateful at the other woman again, before she turned her attention back to the man in charge.
"So... what now Gibbs?" she asked, hoping for an answer that wouldn't involve staying in this damn barn for any longer than necessary, or a trip to the hospital for that matter. She'd had her fill of drama for the day, thank you very much.
Fortunately however, the silver haired federal agent appeared to have read her mind. He gave the young woman another one of those rare smiles of his.
"Well, now I'm gonna call in reinforcements so they can process the scene, whilst we all go back to the office for debriefing and a well deserved rest" Gibbs told her, and Kate beamed at him.
She knew that there would be a lot to clean up. Her cellphone and weapon which O'Neill had confiscated for example. But for once in her career as a federal agent, Kate was happy to let somebody else sort out all the mess. Gibbs was right. She needed a well deserved rest at the office, their home away from home.
Home.
Yes... Kate rather liked the thought of that.
And that marks the end of another chapter : )
Yay! Kate's all safe and sound again! I know it was pretty obvious that that was what was going to be the outcome, but it's still always nice to have it down it writing. I'm really wanted to use this particular chapter as an opportunity to show off just how much Kate has learned under Gibbs' guidance as a federal agent, and how it was ultimately him drilling Rule Nine into her head that saved her life in the end. I also thought that having a pair of boots with a secret compartment was a fun little quirk to give Kate's character, so we'll probably see them utilised again at a later date : )
And can I just say... Aww! Isn't it adorable how much Tony cares about Kate, and how he doesn't care who knows it? That big old bear hug at the end was a reviewer suggestion, for which I'm very grateful. I honestly think a hug sums up how relieved he was more than words could ever say : ) We'll have a few more relieved reactions in the next chapter, which this time I can say with absolute certainty, will definitely be the final chapter of Mind Games ; )
Finally, I know that the addition of Paula may have ended up being a bit redundant in this chapter, but I really wanted this to be the point in their relationship where a genuine friendship formed between her and Kate. I think having the blonde federal agent being so willing to step up to help will prove for an interesting dynamic later on in this story : )
And I think that's just about it from me for this week, so thank you for reading this chapter and my story in general, and I really hope you're enjoying it. Please also consider leaving a review as I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on how I'm doing so far, and like I said before, please also keep those suggestions coming in as well, because some of them have been extremely helpful : )
Until the next time, keep on reading : )