Thank you to LittleSammy and Lou C for leaving food out for my muse and creating the no safety pin community on LJ.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Maybe next year.
Her heart thumps in her chest; a low, dull thud that keeps time and records the seconds.
The murky blanket of night presses down, suffocating her as she keeps vigil through the telescopic sight of her rifle.
She counts moments, seconds.
Counts breaths.
His breath and hers.
Keeping time, she wills him to breathe. Wills his heart to keep beating.
She can see him through the sight. Badly bruised and his arms and legs bound with splintery rope to a thick wooden chair, his face is colored with dark clouds of pooling blood.
Her breath catches in her throat and her heart skips a beat.
But she waits.
She waits for the cue but none comes as the shot is not clear and the target is unknowingly protected by a wounded human shield.
All in black, she keeps position with her stomach pressed against the pavement still bearing heat from an overly warm summer sun. Sweat trickles along her brow, but she does not move.
Tony.
And then the moment comes.
A split second in time. She doesn't wait for the cue, she can't.
The shot is there and she takes it.
A bullet, her bullet, slashes through its intended target immediately prior to Gibbs's voice whispering Go! into her earpiece. She watches just long enough to see him fall.
And then she is running with her pulse hammering and the sound of her own breath filling her ears.
Dimly aware of the voice barking orders to wait directly into her brain, she claws at the device crammed into her ear and yanks it free.
She is upon him, a whirlwind of tightly coiled energy sliding to her knees and pulling free the knife concealed at her waist in one fluid movement. She whispers his name urgently as she frantically cuts through the rope, careful to avoid his torn flesh.
The bindings give and she yanks his hands desperately as some cosmic force intervenes and a jolt of adrenaline pumps through his veins allowing him to assist in his own rescue.
A blink, a breath and a heartbeat and they are through the threshold as the building collapses in on itself in a fiery crush of shrapnel and debris.
Glowing embers rain down around them and they breathe once more.
Thank you for reading...
