A/N: This story needs a little explanation. I began writing it before season 11 started, but I forgot about Delilah since she hadn't been mentioned much at that point. So there is no Delilah. I also started it right after CdP decided to leave, and so Ellie Bishop is in this, but Ziva is still very much on people's minds. Also, I'm using my personal fanon for Tim's family background rather than the inferior show canon (yes, I think my story for Tim is better). This makes it slightly AU from what the show is, but know that the differences you see are mostly due to when I started writing and pretend that it's still around the middle of season 11, rather than the end of season 12. :)

As of this post, I'm not quite finished writing it. There are 35 chapters so far, and I'm hoping that beginning to post will finally get me to finish it.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, its characters or the franchise. I'm not making money off of this story. It's completely fiction, although you'll find details about farming that reveal some of my own background. :)

When a Tree Falls
by Enthusiastic Fish

Chapter 1

The lights flickered and went out. The hoarse screams that had previously dominated the sound in the room faded to nothing but pained gasps for air.

One of the men in the room looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

"The breakers got tripped again."

The door to the extra room opened and another man joined them.

"He's still not talking. After all this time, we should have got something. Maybe we should change tactics. We can't take the chance that we cause permanent damage before we get what we need."

"Maybe, we should just kill him. No reason to think that he'll give us anything at this point. That will still help."

"He'll have to break sometime. No one is immune. Regardless, we can't do anything more right now. The power's not flowing at all."

"There's supposed to be a big storm coming through. We might not have power, anyway. We lost it for a week two months ago. Had to go old school."

They got the lights back on, but they decided to let their guest rest for a while. They ate dinner and watched as the clouds thickened and darkened. In very little time, it seemed, the rain was pouring down in torrents. A few rumbles of thunder, a couple of lightning flashes and the power went out. They could complain, but they were cautious about getting attention on this place. They'd had their guest for over six months so far. He had been very resistant to their requests for information. Luckily, they weren't in a hurry. Patience was the highest virtue in this situation. They just needed to keep him from revealing their location.

One went in to check on their guest at the height of the storm. The wind was roaring, lashing the rain violently against the windows, and the lightning flashed almost constantly.

The sound covered up the scuffle.

Their guest had been waiting for just this opportunity, although he hadn't really thought about it for a long time. It was more an instinct than a conscious thought.

In moments, the window was broken and their guest was running into the forest. They began to pursue him. They wanted what he could tell them, but given the choice between being discovered and killing their guest, they'd take killing him. It would be the loss of a lot of effort, but if they were found, they'd lose a lot more than effort.

They began firing, but then, they got to a road. He got across the road and a car was coming. Terrible timing. They were forced to stay back in the shelter of the trees. By the time it was safe to move, they couldn't track him. Too much rain. Too dark. Too much wind. Too noisy to hear movements in the trees. Branches were coming down in the forest. They tried to find him, but in the end, they had to give up after an hour of searching. Once the rain stopped and the storm passed, they might be able to find some sign, but they were practical enough to realize that they ran more of a risk of injury and discovery than they did of finding their escaped guest at this point.

They made their way back to the cabin and began to plan their next course of action.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

He ran through the trees, trying to figure out where he was and how he was going to get out. He had long since stopped worrying about anything else. It had become hard to remember important things over the time he had been with them. But he had realized that it was better to forget than to remember. Instead of trying to remember, he had tried to forget in the hopes of thwarting them...no matter what they wanted. He didn't even know that at this point.

Now, however, he was struggling to make headway. It didn't matter where he was going. He just needed to get there.

It was so dark.

Suddenly, the ground fell away and he was plunging downward in the darkness.

Before he knew it, he was in water. He tried to get up, but there was a dark mass coming toward him.

The darkness became black.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Well, that was quite the storm. Do we have anything left or did all the cows get blown to Oz?" Kelly asked.

"The cattle stuck around, but I think that was more because of the fences than because they love us so much," her father, Stephen said with a smile. "You want to check them?"

"I'd love to. You can check the oats and see if they survived that mess."

"When is your brother getting here?"

"Am I my brother's keeper?" Kelly asked.

"Absolutely."

"Well, Suzette is still sick. Paul probably has to get the kids off to school."

"Isn't it summer vacation yet?"

Kelly laughed. "No, Dad. Not yet. You'll have to wait a bit longer for your slave labor."

"Don't fall in the canal."

"Dad, I'm very familiar with the layout of the farm."

"You've been away for a few years. You might have forgotten."

"I haven't. I've also been back for months."

Kelly grabbed her jacket and her boots and headed out to the pasture. A quick glance hadn't revealed any places where the fences had given way to freaked out cattle, but that was no guarantee that they wouldn't find a weakness now, by the light of day.

They had lucked out and avoided any hail, but that didn't mean that they'd avoid any damage at all. As she walked through the pastures, she felt the same mixed feelings about being back on the farm as she always had. It would help if this was something she had chosen, rather than her last resort.

But the cattle didn't care about her ambivalence. They mooed at her as she made her way to the back field.

"You all sound beautiful," she said. "I think you need to work on the harmony, though."

She walked along all the fences and they seemed secure enough. Thank goodness. She hated fixing fence. The barbed wire hated her and she had the scars to prove it. She made a full circuit and then headed for the canal to see how much debris was there. After a spring storm like that, she assumed that there'd be a lot.

She was right, but none of it was completely blocking the flow of the water. Still, she'd probably be assigned to clean it all out. No sense in letting it go down to the check and block the water there. The last thing they needed was a flood because the check got blocked. After all that chaos last night, she wouldn't be surprised if there was flooding from the river downstream.

A large pile of junk was just beside the bank a little ways down. She walked over, thinking that she could pull it out right now and get a head start.

Kelly started to yank at what looked like an entire tree that had come down. She couldn't budge the large branch. It was bigger than she was and nearly as thick.

She found a clump of smaller branches and started clearing them out instead. As she pulled at a large-ish branch, there was something that grabbed at her hand. She let out an undignified scream and dropped the branch.

What she heard next wasn't what she expected.

"...h-help..."

She hesitated and then moved back down to the branch. She pulled at it again and caught a glimpse of...a person. She swore and pulled out her cell phone.

"Dad, get down to the canal just above the third check."

"Why? A break in the fence? Did the cows get out?"

"No. There's a man stuck in some debris in the canal."

"A man? Alive, you mean?"

"Yeah. I can't get him out on my own unless I can loosen the junk. I'm going to try."

"On my way."

Kelly hung up and bent over. She tried to pull off some of the branches before her dad got there.

"I'm right here. We'll get you out of there. Don't worry."

She grabbed at a branch and gave it strong pull. It came loose, and she was treated to her first view of the man...

...as the entire clump of debris began to drift apart and float downstream to the check, taking the man along with it.

"Oh, crap."

The man's eyes were closed and he didn't seem conscious of the fact that he was now in water, where before, he'd mostly just been enclosed in tree branches.

Kelly took off her boots and waded out into the canal, cursing the freezing cold water, and managed to snag the man's foot before he floated away or sank.

"I've got you," she said.

She pulled him to the bank and out of the water. He was shivering now.

"Sir?" she asked.

He was so covered with debris and mud that she couldn't even tell how old he was.

"Sir?"

He groaned and his eyes opened for just a moment.

"Don't...let them...find...me..." he whispered.

"Who?"

His eyes closed again and he continued to shake. Kelly didn't want to move him until her dad got there, just in case there were more serious injuries to worry about than what she could see. As she waited, she looked upstream.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Where did you come from?"

He didn't answer.