Caitlin Todd sat at her desk in the squad room. Once again she glanced at the desk next to hers, it was still empty and it was a bit after 8am, it was not like him to be late. She put down the pen she was holding and picked up her cell phone instead. She used the speed-dial function to call his cell, but she just reached voice mail. Frustrated she slammed it back down onto her desk, causing the agent sitting opposite her to glance up from his computer.

"What's wrong with you?" Tony DiNozzo asked curiously, as he secretly had watched her all morning; he knew she had been in an unusually bad mood. Kate looked up at him; she almost appeared to be surprised to see he was there.

"Nothing's wrong with me!" she snapped at him and Tony raised his eyebrows. Kate sighed and glanced down at the floor before gazing up at him again.

"Fine, I'm worried about Gibbs, Tony" she confessed as Timothy McGee entered the bull pen, walking between their desks to get to his own, but before he sat down, he placed a cup of fresh coffee on Gibbs' empty desk.

"Just wasted your money there, probie; the boss is not here" Tony greeted him and McGee glanced at his partner.

"Well, where is he?" he asked as he took a sip from his own cup. Tony held up his hands in the classic how-should-I-know gesture.

"That's what we're trying to find out, McGee" Kate answered and leaned back in her chair.

"He's probably just late" he replied simply

"McGee," Tony said calmly, but with a hint of underlying annoyance "when was the last time Gibbs was late?"

McGee sat in silence and appeared to be trying to remember a time when Gibbs had been late. He opened his mouth as to speak, but closed it again when he couldn't think of anything to say.

"That's right, Elf-lord. Gibbs is never late" Tony stated and McGee found he had to agree with that.

"Well, whatever's holding him, I bet it's something important" McGee shot back and drank from his coffee again.

"Probably the mysterious red-head that keeps picking him up every now and then" Tony chuckled "I mean that's gotta be his girlfriend, right?"

Kate looked very disturbed at Tony's words; she narrowed her eyes at him and felt her cheeks blush. She knew he was not with the red-head. She just had an odd feeling something was wrong, it was like her gut was trying to tell her something.

"Have you tried calling him?" McGee suggested and Tony hit himself gently on the forehead.

"Jeez, why didn't I think of that? Of course we've called him!" he burst out, and then he looked at Kate sceptically "You have called him, right, Kate?" he added calmly, pulling her from her thoughts.

"What? Oh, yes, I have called, he didn't answer" she sounded a bit distracted. She noticed Tony was eyeing her suspiciously, and as she couldn't stand to meet his eyes, she started to massage her shoulder to keep herself preoccupied with something.

"I could do a GPS search" McGee offered and was already typing furiously when Tony agreed to the suggestion. "Let's see…" McGee muttered to himself as he worked.

"Well," he said a minute later and frowned at his computer screen, as if it the result was not like he had expected.

"What is it?" Tony wondered, a hint of worry hiding in his voice.

"It's turned off at the moment" McGee said defeated and sighed, but then his face lit up again "But I could check where it was last on"

He went back to typing as Tony glanced at Kate again. She was still massaging her shoulder with calm but hard strokes, but her face was oddly pale and her eyes were dim.

"It was last on at his house at 05.26 this morning" McGee's voice made Tony take his eyes off Kate "Then he must have turned it off"

"Why would Gibbs turn off his cell?" Tony frowned as he shot the question at McGee, who shrugged.

"How should I know? Battery could have died…" he suggested but the suggestion was met with a snort from Tony. "Well, I'm sorry DiNozzo, but I don't know what else to say!" Kate glanced up at McGee as he apparently lost his temper.

Tony stared at him in surprise; he had never seen McGee loose control like this before. "Probie, what the hell is going on with you?"

McGee sighed and shook his head. "Never mind, I just… I don't know where he is ok?"

"Fine" Tony mumbled and turned back to Kate, who had stopped massaging herself and now simply had her hand still resting on her shoulder.

"Maybe, you know, maybe we're worrying for nothing. I mean, this is Gibbs we're talking about, he'll probably show up when we least expects it" Tony said softly to her and then looked up toward the elevators, half-expecting to see Gibbs coming out, being in his usual bad mood and complaining about traffic or something. "He's probably just stuck in traffic" he told them.

Kate thought about it for a second. Yes, that was likely; morning traffic in DC was always a nightmare. She could picture Gibbs sitting in his car at that very moment, cursing under his breath as he was stuck in the middle of the highway on his way to work. She leaned forward and stretched her arms a little.

"I guess you're right Tony. He's stuck in traffic and will be in a little later than usual" she said and Tony smiled when she said he was right, it was a rare thing to hear from her. But as Tony went back to work, Kate couldn't help but to think she had said that to assure herself rather than Tony. She still had a strange feeling inside of her; a feeling at something was not right with this whole situation. Reluctantly she followed Tony's example and turned back to her computer, though she kept looking up every two minutes, still hoping to see Gibbs walk past her desk being in a grumpy mood.

It was a few hours after lunch, and the coffee on Gibbs' desk stood still untouched, ice-cold by now…

What has happened to Gibbs? Are Kate's feelings that something's terribly wrong with him very much true?

Hope the chapter was ok and I will update as soon as I can. Please review and let me know what you think, ok? Thanks for reading!

Take care,

Emma