Title: Footsteps
Summary: Sleep is interrupted by footsteps heard in the middle of the night. Do the footsteps belong to a friend, a foe, or someone else?
Disclaimer: NCIS is not mine. I'm just borrowing the concepts and characters for a little while.
Spoilers: None.
A/N: No beta. All mistakes are mine.
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My gun is in my hands before I'm even fully awake. But why? What woke me up?
I lie there, gun in hand, heart beating fast, listening to the night – straining to hear what may have awakened me.
There's nothing.
Only the usual night sounds and the normal settling of this old building I live in.
Then, I hear them.
Footsteps.
They're light but I hear them running over my head on the roof. Is the owner of the footsteps a threat?
The footsteps suddenly stop.
The apartment I live in has two fire escapes. One outside the kitchen and one here outside my bedroom window. I decide to wait for the footsteps to make up their mind as to which they'll use.
Another few moments pass and I can hear the footsteps again. It seems they have chosen to go towards the kitchen.
But, do the footsteps belong to a friend or foe?
My gut is strangely silent on this point – maybe it's still asleep. I wish I was.
I push my sheets back and sit up on the edge of the bed listening.
The footsteps are not trying very hard to be quiet, but by their position I can tell that they've made it to the fire escape.
I can now hear the footsteps on the fire escape. Their owner is trying to be quiet but is failing miserably.
Deciding to make my move, I get up and open the bedroom door. At this point, I'm almost dying to know who the footsteps belong to. Hmm. Maybe using the word 'dying' is not such a great idea at this point in time.
I cross the hall, gun in hand and safety off, and head toward the kitchen. An assassin wouldn't be so noisy – would they?
My gut is still silent on the situation before me. Well, silent except for the gurgle in my stomach that is telling me I shouldn't have eaten so much spicy food for dinner. I ignore it for now and make a mental note to get some antacids after this is all over.
Getting into position in my kitchen, I choose a spot where I can clearly see the fire escape through the window and still be able to defend myself if necessary. A creak of the metal fire escape alerts me to the footsteps' proximity and I know that in the next few seconds my question of friend or foe will be answered.
Finally the owner of the footsteps comes into view – and his feet are bare. No socks. No shoes – just bare feet!
I stay vigilant in case this is some sort of hinky ruse. Legs come into view and then I see the rest of the person whose footsteps had taken me away from my bed.
His pants are partially unzipped and his shirt is mostly unbuttoned and not tucked in. Then, as he continues down, I'm finally able to see his face – it looks both frantic and panicked.
I almost laugh out loud right then, but I don't want to scare the poor guy and have him accidentally fall to his death.
I lower my gun and shake my head. It could be only one thing – lovers almost caught in the act and the guy is using my building's fire escape to make his hasty retreat.
I move to the window just after he moves out of sight and watch him continue to descend towards the ground. By the light coming through the window, I double check to make sure the gun's safety is on, and then turn back towards my bedroom.
Chuckling at the ridiculousness of the situation, I mourn at the loss of sleep. I place my gun back in my bedside table and flop onto my bed face first. I take a deep breath and as I release it, I roll over to get more comfortable.
An image of the almost-caught lover's appearance comes to mind as I adjust my bedding. I laugh and wonder how the woman is going to explain the man's left-behind shoes to her significant other.
A couple of movies with scenes featuring lovers getting caught in the act fleetingly come to mind. As I start to fall back asleep, I realize that when properly and tastefully embellished, I'll have a great story to tell my teammates in the morning.
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The end.
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A/N: The sound of footsteps on my roof woke me up this morning. I'm guessing (hoping) they belonged to a cat. I didn't check. ;D
Can you guess which character I had in mind when I wrote this?
Thanks for reading!