Disclaimer: All NCIS characters and the world in which they live are owned by Bellisarius. Writer is just borrowing their world while the Writer's Strike leaves her with no new episodes. C'mon, Guys. Negotiate a contract already!!!

The day had already dragged out far longer than any of the team would have liked and it wasn't over yet. They approached the hotel where Paul Stratton lived and took guard at the entrance before going to the second floor.

Tony's cellphone rang as they exited the car and Gibbs slapped him on the head. Tony silenced the phone and let the caller go to voice mail without looking at it. He could call whoever it was later on.

"You want to keep that thing quiet or should we just announce ourselves to the whole building?" Gibbs said.

Tracking down U.A. Sailors wasn't usually their task but when Petty Officer Brian Chatham turned up dead earlier that week, everything pointed them to Stratton, his alleged lover. Accounts of this were varied and many who knew Chatham aboard ship refused to believe that their shipmate was homosexual. His off duty activities, however, suggested otherwise and led them to Stratton. The discrepancies bothered Gibbs, as discrepancies usually did and something in his infamous gut was telling him that there was more than a clandestine relationship between two men in this case.

Cautiously, the team split up, Gibbs and McGee taking the front, Tony taking the rear exit and Ziva on the fire escape. A palpable quiet overtook the building as if the NCIS presence alone was enough to silence even the tiniest noise. Stratton left his room and took a few steps down the hallway before stopping to check a gun in his possession.

"Federal agents, NCIS, drop your weapon!" Gibbs ordered.

Stratton turned to see both exits were blocked and quickly lifted his hands and backed against the door nearest him. With one swift move, he managed to open the door and ran into the room. The team closed in and there was a shot fired. A woman screamed. Gibbs looked into the room and saw Stratton holding a gun to a pregnant woman's head. She was holding her stomach and there was blood flowing freely from a gunshot wound.

"Back off or I will blow her head off!" Stratton yelled out.

Gibbs waved DiNozzo and McGee off. "You have got no where to go, Stratton. Give yourself up and let the woman go. Let us get her medical attention before she dies."

"No," Stratton replied squeezing the woman's neck who cried out in response. "I swear to God, I will blow this bitch's brains all over the room if you don't back off!"

"All right, Stratton. We're backing off," Gibbs said.

"No," the woman called out pleading. "Don't leave! He'll kill me!"

"Shut up!" Stratton growled at the woman. "I'll kill her if you don't leave!"

DiNozzo got a puzzled look on his face. "Carrie?" he whispered.

Gibbs looked over to Tony and mouthed. 'You know her?' Tony nodded in response as he kept his gun ready to fire.

"All right, Stratton. Everyone's backing off, okay? The woman needs help and you don't want to have her and her baby's murder on your hands? She's just an innocent bystander. Let me come in and get her some help."

A sudden blood spray erupted from Stratton's head as he looked surprised by his own unexpected death. The man dropped and Ziva appeared in the window behind him, her pistol still aimed at the dead man as she stepped through the open window. His hostage slipped to the floor with him, pale from her blood loss and the situation she'd been unwillingly sucked into.

Ensuring that the man was indeed dead and not going to reach for his gun, Gibbs knelt next to the woman to render first aid until the paramedics arrived. She looked up at Gibbs and could only ask, "Why?"

"I dunno," he replied, truthfully as he applied pressure to the gunshot wound. "What's your name?"

"Carolyn," she answered in pain wracked breaths. "Carolyn..."

"Bensen, Boss," Tony finished for her as he walked in the room. Gibbs gave him his patented 'tell me how you are involved in this situation and why didn't you tell me before now' stare. "Carrie's my cousin, Boss."

"Tony? How in the hell..." Carrie began to ask as the paramedics arrived on the scene just after Ducky and Palmer. "You could have just returned my call, y'know."

Tony gave his cousin a grin. "You know me. Always like to make an appearance. What're you doing here, Chubs?"

"I'm sorry, but family reunion will have to wait," Ducky said, checking the woman's vitals, looking grave. "She needs to be off to the hospital."

Gibbs nodded to the paramedics as they lifted her onto a stretcher and pulled Ducky to the side. "She going to live, Duck?"

Ducky nodded. "Yes, she will," he replied. "Something puzzles me, however. He didn't shoot the mother. He aimed for the baby."

Note: This is my first fanfiction, and not yet complete. Reviews and Constructive Criticisms welcomed. Flames aren't.