Summary: When a case becomes very personal for FBI Agent Tobias Fornell, he turns to his only friend in his time of need. A little Mibbs, until it becomes Jibbs.

Rating: T, not sure if it should be M

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A.N.: This story is set during season 4, around the middle, after Sharif returns.

The streets on the housing estate were dark, the shadows long, indicating the night was half way through. Dozens of pairs of eyes watched one house in particular, from vans parked strategically around it, front and back. Inside the vans were FBI agents, a few wearing surveillance gear and the rest were armed and wore bullet proof vests. This op had been running a long time and tonight they finally had the Intel they needed to find the perpetrators location. He wasn't getting away again. Here on this housing estate, the man they had been chasing for three years was living, mingling with the families around him, none of them aware of what he was. He was a murderer, a rapist of young boys. His MO was brutal. He beat them with whatever he had laying around; a golf club was his favourite, until they were practically unconscious. Then he would sexually assault them so violently they usually didn't survive the encounter, and if they did, he would strangle them. He always dumped their bodies in an alley by the child's home, his sick games torturing the parents as they went to put the bins out, only to find the bodies of their sons, the glassy eyes staring at them unseeingly. Only one boy had survived long enough to give them a description of the man before he had succumbed to his injuries. That was almost a year ago, and they had successfully tied fifteen murder cases to this one man. There could be more still, but they hoped he would tell them how many he had killed in interrogation. They always arrived too late, but not this time.

FBI Agent Tobias Fornell was heading this investigation, having been the agent first assigned to the case three years ago. This was not the first break like this that he had caught, and he knew from experience this guy was cunning. He watched his surroundings carefully, so it was imperative they went in soon. He strapped on his vest and checked his gun. The last of the backup vehicles had arrived, so they could get the mission underway.

"Are all the vans in place?" he asked Benjamin, the surveillance guy in this van.

"Yes sir, number six just arrived." He reported, watching number six pull into position.

"Alright that's good enough for me. Suit up guys; we're going in on my mark." The other FBI Agents in the van loaded their guns and checked their vests, putting the FBI caps on their heads, grabbing a torch and then standing by the sliding door, ready to run to the house. Tobias put in his earwig and checked in with his team.

"Sacks, report."

"All ready sir, vans 2 through 6 are standing by for your order." Tobias nodded to himself and then watched the surveillance screens, looking for any signs of life in the house. There were none, and he couldn't help feeling like they were missing something. He tried to shake of the sense of foreboding and decided not to waste anymore time.

"Mark!" he shouted to everyone through his earwig and he heard his order being relayed by Sacks, and the Agents all threw open the doors to their van and ran across the street towards the house, kicking the door in and then advancing through into the dark building.

"FBI Freeze!" every Agent shouted as they entered the house, announcing their presence to each other as well as anyone inside, just so a defence lawyer can't claim they broke in and didn't do it. Tobias walked through the hall, knowing from experience where to look for the guy and any 'house guests' he may have. He took the stairs two at a time, following a few Agents as they bashed open doors and shouted out its status to the others.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Cle-" one Agent stopped what he was about to say, standing back from the doorway and dropping his head, one of his hands coming up to press against his mouth, swallowing reflexively in an attempt to stop himself from vomiting, and Tobias knew what they were going to find. With a heavy heart, he stepped around the Agent and walked into the dark room, the windows covered in bin bags to stop light coming through, and so no neighbours could see what the fiend was doing to the child he abducted. Tobias shone his torch into the room, seeing that the only thing contained in there was the bed, a single soiled bed, with a young boy lying across it on his back, his head hanging off the end and his sightless, bloodshot eyes staring at the door. Sorrow blanketed his mind as he looked at another child he had failed to protect by bringing this monster in, already seeing the grief and distress of the parents he would have to inform later.

He couldn't be much older than five; he was naked save for the bed sheet wrapped almost fully around him, the purple bruising from the beatings he had endured showing up harshly against the background of pale white skin. Blood soaked the sheet around his middle, and Tobias could almost hear the autopsy report already. It would be the same as the others, only with a more violent conclusion. The beast responsible was getting more and more sadistic with every child, despite the fact he was managing to keep them alive for longer. The look of this boy suggested that the killer had been getting ready to dump him in an alley. They must have disturbed him when he had been getting ready to move the body, which meant that he had slipped away when the surveillance van had been watching the house. How could they have missed that?

"The whole house is clear, sir. He isn't here." Agent Sacks told him softly, appearing by his side and taking in the scene. He had been on Fornell's team for two years now, and his reaction to seeing this fiend's work had been the same as the agent by the door, who was being removed from the building before he contaminated the scene. It was something you couldn't get used to seeing, just better at hiding your reaction to it. Tobias moved closer to the child curiously, having seen something glinting in the torch light. Sacks moved to the light switch and flicked it on, flooding the room in bright light, making the full horror of what had happened to this boy easier to see. Fornell cast his eye over the corpse, hoping that the killer had left some clue by accident. Upon closer inspection however, he realised that the boy had something shiny grasped in his right hand.

"The kid is holding something…" he said out loud, pulling out a pair of latex gloves and putting them on. He bent closer and lifted a wad of paper out of the boy's hand. He held the wad closer to himself and turned over the first piece, the shiny glinting being now easily recognisable as the glossy side of photo paper. "Pictures. Pictures of…" he trailed off as the cold fingers of dread gripped his heart. The first was a picture of a familiar house, his ex-wife Diane's house. Surely the killer didn't know who he was personally… he flipped to the next picture and he began to find it difficult to breathe. It showed him holding a little girl's hand as he walked her to Diane's front door. The next picture however, was the one that almost stopped his heart. It was a close up of his daughter, clutching her strawberry shortcake doll close to her while looking suspiciously at the camera, the picture having been taken from across the road. "Emily?" he choked out, dropping the pictures and bolting through the corridors of the house, running to his car and speeding off, unheeding of Agent Sacks throwing himself in the passenger side just in time.

He couldn't think straight, couldn't function objectively when his little girl was at risk, and he knew she was. There was only one reason this sadistic son of a bitch would leave pictures of his daughter on the person of a dead little boy, and that was if he knew he would be the one that found them. He was torturing him, by showing him that his family isn't safe, that he knew where they lived and on what day he picked Emily up from Diane's for the weekend, and dropped her off again. Tobias floored the accelerator, trying to maintain a sense of calm by making his mind focus completely on the road, so he didn't crash. He didn't want to acknowledge what else those pictures could mean; he wouldn't be able to handle the thought of his young daughter being in that monsters presence, for any reason. It was usually a good forty minute drive to Diane's, but today he made it in ten.

Upon arrival at Diane's house, Tobias parked opposite and jumped straight out of the car, marching up the garden to the front door, unheeding of the danger, and reached out for the handle. Sacks reached it first though, blocking him from opening it and then firmly pressing Fornell back against the wall, giving him a warning glare.

"What do you think you are doing? He could be waiting for you in there!" he whispered to him angrily, and Fornell growled and pushed the younger Agent off of him. How dare he speak to him like that when his daughter could be in danger?

"Exactly! That man may have my daughter!" he hissed back. Sacks nodded and then gestured at the darkened houses over the road.

"Or he's waiting across the street to pick you off! I'll go first, stay behind me and try to get your head in the game." Tobias didn't like getting told off by his own rookie, but he realised that this time he was right. He was running straight into a potentially hostile situation without thinking. Even if Emily and Diane were ok, he would have to dodge a few missiles thrown by his irate ex because they were breaking into her home. Sacks got his gun out and crept to the front door, turning the handle experimentally. His eyebrows shot up momentarily when the door swung partially open, and then he readied his gun to fire. Pushing the door open more fully, he looked around the frame and then sighed heavily at what he saw. Tobias couldn't wait any longer and pushed past him, stopping abruptly in the hallway as he saw what the light from the door highlighted.

Diane was sprawled on the stairs, her head close to the bottom step, red hair blanketing her face, and blood soaking the carpet from where a knife had been plunged in her back. A child's headband was still clutched in her left hand, rigor-mortis making sure it stayed in place. Tobias rushed towards her, checking for a pulse even though he knew there wasn't one, while Sacks checked out the ground floor for intruders. Fornell sat back on his heels, staring at Diane and not feeling anything. Shock made him cold, but it also temporarily prevented him from feeling anything which was a blessing, because he knew that Emily wasn't here, she was with the killer. It hadn't penetrated his mind yet, that his daughter had been kidnapped and his ex-wife murdered. He stood and moved to get passed Diane and up the stairs, just in case he was wrong.

He wasn't. Emily was gone.