Hey everyone!

I am SO SORRY about the long time before this update! Though it's a terrible, far over-used excuse . . . I was out of town. Really, I just got in yesterday. But still. I'm so sorry and you have every right to be furious!

. . . :(

Anyway, I really hope that you enjoy this update, and I will post the next bit asap!

Please Read and Review, let me know your thoughts or ideas :) I'd love to hear from you!

Disclaimer: Though I love them dearly, I own none of these phenomenal characters.

"KATE!" Tony dropped his gun, running to the edge of the building. Time had slowed down, and he was moving through molasses. It was ages, eons before he reached the slick stone edge and fell to his knees, peering over. What he saw, then, took a short forever to process.

There, ten feet below, handing for dear life (and I do mean life) onto a rusty fire escape was his partner, her mocha hair plastered to her shoulders and a spectacular bruise blooming up her entire right side where she had hit the edge of the building. She would look at that bruise later, in the mirror, and thank God for it. Hitting the edge was the only thing that slowed her down enough to catch hold of the fire escape.

"Hey Tony, you just gonna stand there or are you going to pull me up?" Had the situation not been so dire, Tony would have laughed. The remark was classic Kate, if you ignored the slight tremor in her voice and the unmasked look of sheer terror in her eyes.

Tony nodded, eyeing his partner nervously. "Any way you can climb onto the platform, Kate?" As Tony watched, Kate clamored slowly and painfully up onto the platform part of the fire-escape, leveraging herself on her elbows, making tensely slow progress as she fought the wind that threatened to plaster her to the rough brick wall. Tony mentally thanked Gibbs for his strict workout regime that had enabled Kate to pull herself up. "Just hang on a minute more, Katie."

"No duh, DiNozzo." Again, classic Kate. The special agent was determinedly looking up, away from the stomach churning drop beneath her, but she was pale, her knuckles white as she clung to the metal structure. Multiple scratches along her face and neck bled, the thick red liquid mixing with the rain that continued to stream down her body. If they both got out of this without pneumonia, it would be a miracle.

Behind Tony, the metal door to the staircase slammed as a third set of shoes, loafers, this time, joined them at a run.

"DiNozzo! Grab her left arm!" Gibbs growled, dropping to his knees and leaning over the edge. "And don't you fall over, either." And then Gibbs was there, pulling. And then Tony was heaving and Kate was fighting for footholds against the wet brick building. And then she was over the edge and the three of them were collapsing back onto the rooftop and Kate was huddled against her friends as the rain continued to pour.

Ten minutes later, Tony and Kate were swaddled in blankets sitting in the back of the Sudan as Gibbs practically flew them back to headquarters, barely avoiding half a dozen wrecks in the process.

"Autopsy. Now. Both of you." Gibbs growled as soon as the car was parked, eyeing his dripping and bloodied agents with worry.

"Gibbs, I'm fine!"
"Really Gibbs, it's not necessary!" Kate and Tony protested simultaneously.

Gibbs did not respond, worry clear on his face. Kate's voice had lost much of its volume and had taken on a certain unhealthy rasp. Tony was shivering despite the warmth of the car.

"Until you both remember to bring rain jackets to our crime scenes, you have no argument." He muttered sarcastically, ushering them forward. These were his agents. His. He was responsible. Pure luck and God's grace had kept Kate alive, and Tony had just recovered from the Plague. He hadn't been able to protect them then, but no way in the world he was letting them off without a visit to Ducky. Quite frankly, they were lucky he wasn't sending them straight to Bethesda.

Gibb's searching eyes found Kate, leaning up against the wall of the elevator, water dripping from her dark hair. Her face was tense, and she was clearly replaying the day's events, her near exit from their world. They then drifted to Tony, his Senior Field, standing with a soaked sort of defiance, determinedly not touching the elevator sides. But Gibbs saw the tell-tale shivering that cascaded through DiNozzo's body as the water leaked off of him. And, knowing his agent, the more defiant he was of his mortality, the worse he felt.

Yes. Maybe they would both be fine. Hopefully, they would both be fine. But Kate and Tony were his.

And they were most certainly going to Ducky's.