Going the Distance Chapter 7: Hurry Up and Save Me, a ncis fanfic

Going the Distance

Disclaimer:
As always, I own nothing.

Rating:
M

Genre:
Romance/Hurt/Comfort/Family

Pairing:
Tibbs

Lyrics Used:
Tiffany Giardina "Hurry Up and Save Me"
Taylor Swift "Safe and Sound"

Hurry Up and Save Me

"Tony!" Agent Ziva David proclaimed, surprised to see the senior field agent returning to the office at such an odd hour. "What are you doing here, so late?" She asked, finishing up the overdue paperwork she'd stayed late to catch up on. Her curiosity soon turned to concern. "Tony, what is going on?" She demanded, turning to see Auggie following him into the bullpen. "Auggie?" She asked, completely at a loss as to what business the CIA operative would have at the NCIS headquarters. "What are you doing here?"

"Ziva David …" Auggie greeted, trying to keep up his normal care-free humor, though, he suspected that the skilled agents around him saw right through the facade.

"Auggie and I are here because …" Tony began, sighing heavily as McGee stepped off the elevator.

"Tony!" McGee greeted, jogging lightly to catch up to the senior field agent in the bullpen. "I got your '9-1-1' text! What's the emergency?"

"'9-1-1' text?" Ziva repeated, curious as to why Tony would resort to texting McGee their designated emergency code. "Tony, what is going on?!"

"I was just getting to that." Tony began, reluctantly. "Look, there's no easy way to say this, so, I'm just gonna come right out and say it … Annie Gibbs has been shot, in her home."

"Annie?!" Timothy McGee gasped in shock. "My god … Well, i-i-is she okay?! What the hell happened?!"

"That's what Tony and I are here to figure out." Auggie interjected. "So far, all that we know – for sure – is that somebody gained entry to Annie's house and shot her and this man." He added, pulling a photo from the scene out of his jacket pocket.

"Who is that?" Ziva questioned, slipping into Agent David.

"His name is Simon Fischer." Auggie replied. "He was an FSB operative Annie was assigned to get close to."

"So, she was sleeping with him?" Ziva concluded.

"Ziva!" Tim chastised. "You can't just go around making assumptions like that about people! Especially Gibbs' baby sister! … Rule number eight – never take anything for granted!"

"Actually, Agent McGee … in this instance, Agent David was correct." Auggie conceded, sighing lightly. "The op was assigned to Annie by this woman." Auggie continued as Tony uploaded a photo of Lena Smith onto the big screen. "Her name is Lena Smith."

"I remember that name." Tim interjected. "Wasn't she the one Annie worked for when she was reassigned to a new division after Jai's death?"

There was a brief moment of silence when the group of agents realized how casually McGee had referenced their fearless leader's lover's death. Finally, Tony broke the silence. "Yes, it was." He added, gruffly.

"Annie told me that Lena's exact words were 'get intimate enough with a man and he'll tell you everything'." Auggie confirmed.

"That is very true." Ziva confirmed, mischievously. "What?!"

"Anyway … I called Annie to give her a heads up that OIG was going through her desk at the office and she called me back a little while later. Said that she was comin' in … But … she never made it in." Auggie replied, stepping over Ziva's interjection.

"Why would OIG be going through her desk?" McGee questioned.

"After Langley launched their investigation into Annie's shooting …" Auggie began, trailing off as he tried to wrap his mind around everything that had happened, today.

"Annie's being accused of treason." Tony finished, figuring that now was not the time to dance around the issue.

"That is the most absurd thing I have every heard!" Ziva interjected. "Annie's as patriotic as they come – her and Gibbs both – neither of them would ever even entertain the thought of considering treason!"

"Yeah, well, apparently someone at Langley thinks they know better." Auggie spat the words out as if they tasted bitter.

"How's that?" Tim questioned, curiously.

"Scuttlebutt says that someone at Langley's built a rather compelling case against Annie." Tony replied, still dumbfounded that the implications were even being thrown.

"Who?" Ziva inquired, confused.

"That bitch." Auggie spat, pointing in the direction where he hoped the big screen was located. However, as he occasionally did, he missed his mark as Tony silently pulled his hand back to point behind him at the big screen.

"Our intel says that Lena Smith is heading up the investigation." Tony replied, struggling to maintain his composure.

"What can we do to help?" Tim asked, ready, willing, and able to do whatever it took to clear his friend's name.

"Our orders are – since we have no way of accessing Langley's evidence – to collect evidence of our own … Prove Annie's innocence." Tony began, before turning to McGee. "McGee! Start running down every single alias Annie has ever used – banks statements, credit cards, driver's licenses, passports … No stone unturned!" Tony ordered, stunning even himself with the air of authority he was putting out.

"What can I do?" Ziva asked, eager to help with the investigation.

"I've got a passport number I need your help to track down." Auggie interjected. "A buddy of mine at Langley – one of the few agents that has not completely abandoned Annie – ran it down for me as best he could without arousing suspicion." The CIA operative added. "All I know, so far, is that it's a forgery and that Langley did not issue it. Means that it was made by an off-book cobbler."

"And, that's good news?" Tim questioned, confused.

"Best news I've heard all day." Auggie replied. "I'm gonna need you to help track down all the best cobblers in the DC area." He instructed, turning in the direction of where he'd heard the female agent's voice come from.

"How is she?" Abby Sciuto asked, cautiously, standing across the hospital bed from her boss and father-figure. Looking around the hospital room, she saw all of the various machines carrying out life-sustaining functions for her.

"Doc says she's stable." Gibbs replied, clearly lost in thought. "Shit, Abs … When the hell is anything gonna go right for us?" He added, helplessly.

"You can't focus on the negatives, Gibbs." Abby reminded him, gently. "I know it seems like you're surrounded by … lots of … bad stuff, right now." She conceded, reluctantly. "But, you've got your little girl … And, Tony … And, all of us …" She added. After a moment of silence on her father-figure's part, the forensic scientist sighed lightly. She hated seeing her father-figure and mentor in such pain. "I'm gonna go back to the office … See what I can do to help clear Annie's name."

Gibbs was grateful for all of the friends he had in his life. At times like this, he honestly didn't know what he would do without any of them. Leroy Jethro Gibbs always prided himself on being able to come out on top in any situation no matter how high the odds were stacked against him. It reminded him of a song that Annie always used to call her theme song. "When the cards are stacked against me I just play a different game" That was very true of the younger Gibbs. When she couldn't win the game she was faced with, she changed it. On some level, Jethro supposed he did the same thing. Hell … Where ya think she learned it? He chided himself as he stared down at the lifeless form on the bed before him.

"Tony." McGee called, carefully.

"What is it, McGee?!" Tony replied, his voice tired and quiet. He felt like he'd been at this for days – buried up to their ears in paperwork.

"'s not lookin' good for Annie." McGee elaborated, reluctantly.

"Well, judging by the looks of things …" McGee replied, trailing off as he reviewed the data on his monitor. " … I'd say Annie and Simon were doing more than just sleeping together." He added, puzzling his colleagues.

"You better not be saying what I think you're saying, McTraitor!" Tony hissed, in warning.

Despite the nickname, McGee still picked up on the smoldering anger burning in the background. "Well, I found a false identity that Fischer's been building for years … Bank statements, credit cards, passports, driver's licenses, you name it … " He began, speaking carefully. "Looks like he built one for Annie, too." He added, sighing reluctantly. He didn't want to believe that Annie was a traitor any more than any of the others did. But, he couldn't deny the facts in front of him. "You don't think …" He began, his voice trailing off when he realized he couldn't even bring himself to complete the thought.

"She was going to run away with him." Ziva surmised, shock and disbelief evident in her voice as she spoke, trying to reconcile what she knew of her mentor and father-figure's baby sister with the evidence that she was being presented with.

"You shut your mouth!" Tony barked, his temper finally bending past the breaking point and snapping, as he violently slammed both of his fists down on her desk – his face lunging toward hers, menacingly, scaring the living hell out of the Israeli-American.

"Tony, none of us wants to believe that!" McGee argued, gently. "But, we can't ignore the facts that are right in front of our faces, either."

"No." Auggie interjected, his voice quiet and his face pensive. "No, Annie wouldn't just abandon Jethro and the baby like that." He added. The rest of the group of agents surrounding him all watched in fascination as they could almost literally see the gears turning in his head. "Annie called me just before the shooting." He added, analyzing the facts as he knew them.

"What did she say?" Ziva asked, waiting for the CIA operative's response.

"Not much." Auggie conceded, running over the one-sided conversation in his head. "Just said that she was comin' in and hung up the phone."

"Does Langley know about that call?" Tony questioned, curiously.

"Yeah." Auggie affirmed. "Yeah, Barber – friend of mine in tech ops – said that they requisitioned the recording of the call."

"So, then, surely they must know that Annie cannot be guilty of any treasonous acts!" Ziva reasoned, frustrated.

"Not yet." Auggie sighed, dejectedly. "From what I hear, Lena's evidence is pretty damning. … All the higher ups have given up on Annie – abandoned her – left her out to dry." Auggie seethed.

After much coercion on Joan's part, Jethro had finally torn himself away from Annie's bedside long enough to go home for a shower, a meal, and some sleep – though he wasn't holding out much hope for that one. He'd just finished redressing after a hot shower that had done nothing to soothe his frayed nerves and thrown together a quick sandwich when his phone rang, again. Seeing Joan Campbell's name on the caller ID, he flipped the phone open, pressing it to his ear. "Yeah." He greeted, his voice echoing the physical and mental exhaustion screaming from every nerve in his body.

"Jethro! It's Joan!" Joan Campbell greeted, urgently, forgoing all frivolous pleasantries that she simply had no time for. "You need to get back to the hospital – now!" She added.

All but leaping out of his chair, Jethro grabbed his coat and was out the door in record time. "Talk to me, Joan!" He barked, masking his fears to the best of his ability, as he climbed inside his truck and fired up the engine. "What's goin' on?" He asked, hating the tremor in his voice as he spoke.

"Someone snuck into Annie's ICU room and tried to kill her a second time." Joan replied, willing her voice to soften with the compassion she felt for the elder Gibbs. "They tried to smother her."

Jethro's heart froze in his chest as the ice-cold vice-grip around his heart clenched painfully at the words as he pulled into the parking garage at the hospital, jumping out of his truck and punching the button on the elevator. "Is she okay?" He just managed to choke out around the growing lump in his throat, as he arrived on Annie's floor and raced down the hall.

"Just get here." Joan choked out as she hung up the phone, turning to see the elder Gibbs sibling racing toward him.

Approaching Annie's ICU room, Jethro couldn't breathe as he heard all sorts of alarms going crazy as he watched the heart rate monitor flat-lined. No … Oh, God, no … He thought to himself, desperately as he watched the team of doctors raced to save his sister. The God-awful sound of the paddles charging and shocking his sister's heart – her body convulsing with the electric shock … It was all too much. Annie had to be okay. Jethro needed her to be okay. By the third shock, Jethro was just about to begin losing hope when Annie gasped for breath – her eyes snapping open. She was alive. His baby sister was alive. They may have won this battle. But, the war was still raging on all around them.

Author's Note:
As always, I hope you've enjoyed this little snippet! Don't forget to drop me a review. The first seven (7) SIGNED reviews will get a Tony/Gibbs one-shot of their choosing.

~Skye Coulson