Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or Warehouse 13. They belong to CBS and SyFy respectively. I am only creating a fictional story using some of their characters.

I'm Coming Home

Walking into the bar, I sat down next to a man with light brown hair. He was making a corny joke to the foreign woman next to him as she was getting up to leave, and the joke brought back floods of memories. It sounded so much like something Pete would say, and the very thought of Pete made my heart clench with grief. My reverie was broken by the bartender, asking if I was ready to order something.

"Vodka Ton- Actually I'll just have water. I can't drink alcohol." The bartender gave me a knowing look. What he knew, I wasn't sure of. But one thing I did know. Alcohol wouldn't cure anything.

"Why no alcohol for the pretty lady?" The man beside me finally spoke up, and I found his voice had a friendly tone that just made me want to really open up and spill all my problems to him.

"My partner's been sober for 8 years, and I just get used to ordering something non-alcoholic." The man shot me a questioning glance. "Your joke you made to the woman that just left reminded me of him, and I can never bring myself to order alcohol around him. I'd feel like I was taunting him with Pandora's Box." He nodded in understanding.

"So you're married?" I quickly shook my head no, so he guessed again. "Boyfriend?" Again I shook my head. "Business partners?" The man was getting exasperated.

"Not quite business partners… more like work partners."

"You a fed?" When I shook my head yes, his whole face lit up like a Christmas tree and he proceeded to introduce himself. "Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, NCIS. You can call me Tony. Glad to meet you…?"

"Agent Myka Bering, Secret Service. You can call me Myka. Nice to meet you too." I noticed that as I said Secret Service, a look of sadness came across his face, but vanished only seconds later.

"By any chance have you heard of an Agent Caitlin Todd? She was on Presidential Protection Detail for a while before she made the jump to NCIS. She was my partner until… a while ago. The woman you saw leaving as you walked in was my current partner, Special Agent Ziva David."

"I may have heard the name once or twice, but I don't believe I've met her yet." When I said yet, the sadness came back, and stayed for a bit longer this time around.

"You won't get the chance to meet her. She was killed in the line of duty protecting our boss quite a few years ago." I started to apologize for the comment, but he held up his hand to stop me. "No big deal. It wasn't your fault. So, where's your partner now? Shouldn't he be sitting here with you instead of some Navy cop like me?"

"He's not even on the East Coast… He's where I should be. But I can't trust myself there anymore." Tony looked at me curiously, urging me to explain myself.

"We had a bit of a mishap over the summer, one that could've ended very badly for everyone, so I left. I told my boss that I couldn't trust myself anymore and I wrote a letter to the rest of my team. Probably the hardest thing for me to do was to drive away from them. They were like my family. Claudia was like my little sister, Pete, my partner, was like an older brother and then some, Artie was like our father, and Leena was our mother." As I finished my rambling, a single tear rolled down my face. Tony leaned forward and hugged me.

"I know the feeling. A while back I got assigned to be NCIS Agent Afloat, and I missed my team like hell. When you work together closely enough, you just become that happy, dysfunctional family." I nodded against his chest. Tony suddenly got up, pulling me with him, and dragged me to the door. When I shot him a questioning glare, he simply smiled and laughed.

We got as far as his car before I asked what he was doing. Instead of giving me an answer, he simply asked if I had walked or driven here. I informed him that I had walked, and he swiftly opened his door for me and helped me into the vehicle. After closing my door and getting into the car, we sped away towards the airport.

"So where should I get the tickets for, Myka?"

"Huh?"

"You said it yourself. You belong wherever Pete is. So I am going to deliver you home to your family. If I'm going to do that, I need to know where to deliver you to." I rolled my eyes.

"Get tickets to South Dakota. But can we at least stop at my apartment so I can get clothing?" He nodded, so I began to give him directions to my apartment.

When we arrived at my apartment, I quickly grabbed my suitcase and laptop, bringing everything I could fit in my suitcase and carry-on. Tony waited in my kitchen, leaning against the counter. I made sure to grab all the pictures I had of the Warehouse gang, and I also grabbed my service weapon and badge. As I exited my room, I could hear Tony on the phone, negotiating with some buddy to get us a ride on some military helicopter. He motioned for me to write down the coordinates of where I would need to be taken, and then continued his conversation.

"Good news. If we're at the Navy Yard in twenty, I can get us a helo to the coordinates you gave me. Sound good?"

"Yeah, let's get going." We hurried out of my apartment after I locked up and raced to the Navy Yard so we didn't miss our timeframe. After clearing the base's security gate, we sped along to the helicopter launch pad. We made it to the helicopter pad with a minute and a half to spare, so we hurriedly loaded my suitcase onboard and took off.

The ride was relatively quiet, since I was mostly thinking about what the reactions of my friends would be. Would Claudia hate me? Would Artie still trust me? Would Leena like my aura? My thoughts were cut short by a well-placed jab to my ribs, courtesy of one Anthony DiNozzo. I glared at him, and he sheepishly motioned me to take out my phone. When I did, he stole it and saved his phone number into my contact list. I, in turn, stole his and added my number.

As I was about to return his phone, the helicopter began its descent, and the device plummeted out of my grip and onto the cold steel floor of the large aircraft. After being given the okay to get out, Tony and I exited the helicopter with my bags and his phone, which I had retrieved after I unbuckled myself from the seat.

"Mind telling me why we are in the middle of nowhere? These are the correct coordinates, right?" I smiled and informed him that it was only a short walk from here, and that this was as far as I could take him. Tony didn't need to be thrown into my world, full of supernatural occurrences. He was fine as he was. "Hey, call me whenever you need to, okay? My ears are always open."

"Okay, Tony. Oh, and by the way, thank you. I wouldn't have come back if you hadn't pushed me to." He gave me a wide grin.

"Eh, a buddy owed me a favor, and you seemed like you needed to be back with your family. Plus, you reminded me of Kate, with the Secret Service and all…." He walked over and gave me a friendly hug goodbye. "Maybe I'll see you round D.C. sometime, Myka." With that last goodbye, he hopped back in the helicopter and took off towards D.C.

I grabbed the handle of my suitcase, slung my carry-on over my shoulder, and began walking the half mile up the road to the Warehouse. The walk was tedious, and gave me time to think about what I was going to say to my 'family' when I saw them. If they hated me, how could I blame them? I had walked out on them at a bad time. If any time was a good time to walk out. Artie had been injured again, Kelly had left Pete, and Claudia was finally adjusting to having a solid home. And I had probably screwed that all up. I was so deep in thought that I didn't hear the car stop behind me, nor did I hear the person hop out of the car and run towards me. But I did feel the impact of the person as they bear hugged me from behind.

"Myka! Oh my god you're really back! I was so mad at you for leaving, but now that I see you here, just oh my god!" Claudia was the first to see me, and her reaction was definitely not what I had been planning for. She spun me around and gave me a real hug, and the joy was evident on her face. It reminded me of the expression Tracy had when I came back from my Freshman year of college. "Here, throw your bags in the truck and we can drive the rest of the way to the Warehouse. I'm the only one here right now, by the way, Pete and Artie are out on a mission. But they should be back later today."

As she explained the details of the retrieval they were on, we drove up to the Warehouse. She cut the gas as we pulled up, and unlocked the door. I let her scan her eye, unsure if they had wiped mine from the system or not. When the airlocked door unsealed, I was greeted by the familiar smell of Artie's office. The familiar sound of a Farnsworth ringing sounded, cutting through Claudia's babble. When she answered it, the faces of both Pete and Artie popped up, and they announced that they were en route and would be dropping off the artifact before they headed over to Leena's to take a nap. Claudia nodded and hung up.

"So since they didn't see you, I think we should surprise them. You wanna take my SUV and drive over to Leena's to get your room set up again and surprise them there, or do you want to stay here?" Claudia's thoughts were obviously going a million miles a minute, and I had to laugh before responding.

"I'll stay here. It'll look suspicious if you're here without a vehicle. Plus, if I wait until they get here, then we can all drive back at the same time." She nodded.

"Okay, but what's the game plan for when they get here? I wonder how they'll react. And I wonder how Pete will react. I bet he'll just be anxious for your shoes…." I gave her the strangest stare I could muster, before asking her what she was talking about. "Your ferret! Not human Pete, ferret Pete!" At that, I lost it. I started laughing uncontrollably. I tried to explain between my fit of giggles, but it didn't work out too well.

"I- thought- you meant- human Pete!" After I wheezed out that sentence, Claudia broke down into fits of giggles as well, and that was how Pete and Artie found us. Laying on the floor of the Warehouse, laughing uncontrollably, with tears streaking down our faces. I only stopped laughing when I heard Pete's voice.

"Myka?" He sounded so much like a little boy who had lost his mother, that I immediately stopped laughing and stood up. I quickly hugged him close to me, and that was when I broke down. The tears started to flow faster and faster as I clung to Pete's shirt, and in no time, I was silently sobbing against his chest as he held me closer than I would've thought possible.

When I finally stopped sobbing and turned to face Artie, he had one question for me. "How did you get here?" He must've seen that I didn't have a car.

I ran my hands through my hair before answering his question. "Well, it's a pretty long story…"

Well, that's it. Just an idea that had been floating around in my head for a while. I fixed a few errors that I noticed recently. Reviews are appreciated! (They tell me if you guys actually like my writing or not!)

Usa-Chan7