Chapter 8
It was just past 2 am when a scream from the other room brought three rattled agents barging into the adjoining room with guns drawn. What they found was Gibbs in bed with Annie who was sobbing hysterically. He was rocking her back and forth trying to sooth her. They lowered their guns not sure what to do. He glanced over at them motioning them out of the room.
"I've got it." he said waving them away.
Tony looked at Ziva and she at him both doing a double take as they tried to straighten up their clothes and smooth down bed hair.
"It's your turn." McGee said to Tony as he went back to the couch to lay down.
"Right, McSleepy." Tony said taking a chair at the table while Ziva crawled back on the bed.
Annie slowly calmed down as Gibbs continued to rock her and talk softly to her. He laid back down with her in his arms. She tucked her body as tight to his body as she could. He kept rubbing her back in slow circles trying to put her back to sleep.
Sleep did not come easy to Gibbs as he tried to decide how to help her stave off the nightmares that plagued her. Sleep finally over came him as he drifted off forty-five minutes later.
An hour later Annie began whimpering in her sleep, she cried out softly but did not completely wake up. Tony stuck his head in and saw Gibbs comforting her. He slipped back to the table and continued to roam thru the TV channels. It still perplexed him that Boss was acting different. This little spry of a woman was actually making him seem more human. Of the women he had met that Gibbs had been involved with, Annie seemed the exact opposite.
Annie was gripped in another nightmare an hour before dawn. Ziva was on watch so she checked on them. Seeing nothing wrong in the room, she pulled the door almost shut and jumped on the bed waking Tony. He slapped at her and rolled back over.
Gibbs' internal clock went off and he glanced over at Annie who was still asleep. He slipped out from under the covers and headed for the bathroom, snagging his bag along the way. Starting the shower, he stripped down and stepped into the spray. He washed the tiredness off his face and let the hot water beat on his back. Some of the knots loosened as he stretched his shoulders. Gibbs finished his shower and was towelling off when Annie came into the bathroom.
"Sorry," she said mumbled looking away.
"It's not like you haven't seen me naked before." he said reaching for his clothes.
"Still," she said shrugging her shoulders. "Didn't mean to invade your privacy." He finished dressing and kissed the top of her head.
"Do you want help with a shower?" he asked.
"No, I don't feel that great, I may lay back down." she said flushing the toilet.
"Do you feel hot?" he inquired feeling her face and looking into her eyes. He helped her hobble back to the bed and lay down.
"Annie, when you told me you pulled some metals off of the uniform of the military man what did you do with them?" he asked.
"I hid them and took them with me." she answered.
"Do you remember the rank of this man?" he kept probing.
"I don't know anything about that." she said.
"Do you remember what was on the collar of his shirt?" he continued.
"I think it was a bird or some kind." she said squinting her eyes trying to remember.
"Captain," he mumbled. "Do you remember any other metals?"
Annie drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She bit her lower lip and said, "There was a yellow with blue strip, blue and black maybe. I'm sorry I don't remember."
"What do you remember about him?" he asked taking out a pen and pad of paper.
"He was about your height, maybe a little heavier, he had dark hair, big hands, commanding voice, I never saw his face." she started as her voice began to shake.
"I know this is hard but it will help us catch him." he whispered urging her to continue.
"He ordered me around and if I didn't do as he said, he had a riding crop and he would whip me. He liked to bite too. There was some type of tattoo on his arm, he kept himself in shape. The metals I took are hidden at my apartment in the bottom of a statue." she finished feeling drained.
"Did you tell the FBI this?" he inquired.
"The description, yes, not about the metals, by then people started dying and I got scared." she said as a tear trickled down he cheek.
"You did good," he said kissing away the tears as the three adult kids fell into the room.
"You pushed me."
"Did not!"
"Don't touch me!"
"Hey Boss."
"Like I said children." he said straightening up and giving them a stern look of disapproval. They straightened and lined up not sure what else to do since being caught ease dropping.
"Ziva, you stay with Annie." he started. "McGee take this info and see what you can find out." he continued handing him some papers.
"Tony, road trip" he ended. "Get Annie's home address and keys and go look for this evidence."
"Road trip!" Tony cried trying to do a high-five. "Sorry Boss."
"Annie your keys?" Gibbs asked her.
"I lost them. There's a spare key hidden behind a brick, three down four across two up." she said to Tony who was trying to figure out the puzzle.
"Can you repeat…." Tony started.
"Write it down." Gibbs said handing her his note pad and pen. She wrote the address and instructions and where to look then handed it back. Tony took the paper and headed for the door.
"I'll go get you two some breakfast." Gibbs told Ziva picking up his jacket. He kissed Annie on the cheek and headed for the door. Once outside, he called McGee and gave him instructions for an errand he needed him to run.
"Ziva, I don't feel good." Annie said as she tried to get to the bathroom.
Ziva ran to her side and helped her to the bathroom. Annie tried to throw up but nothing was in her stomach so it was more dry heaves. Ziva wet a wash cloth and put it on the back of her neck. Annie sat on the floor beside the commode and leaned her head against the wall.
"Are you ok?" she asked feeling her forehead. Just by her touch, she could tell she was running a fever. Taking out her phone she dialed Gibbs. "Gibbs, Annie is sick. She is starting to run a fever."
Ziva opened the door at the first knock letting Gibbs come in. He set the bags on the table and went over to the bed.
"How do you feel?" he asked her touching her forehead. She was hot to the touch.
"I hurt all over." she said taking his hand for a moment.
"There's food in the bag Ziva." he said taking one of the other ones and dumping some medicine out. He looked at the bottles until finding the one he wanted. Shaking a couple of pills out he grabbed a ginger ale and took it to Annie.
"You need to take these." Gibbs told her holding up her head. He put the pills in her mouth and let her sip some drink. "Swallow."
Ziva opened her box to find eggs, bacon, toast and jam. She picked up a fork and started to stab at the eggs.
"Ziva give her two of these every four hours and try to get her to drink some more ginger ale or Gatorade." he said handing her the medicine.
"Yes Gibbs." she said holding the fork in midair.
"Call me if she gets worse." he said taking out his ringing phone as he started back out the door.
"I will." she said.
"Annie you need to drink something." Ziva said holding a ginger ale so she could sip from a straw.
"My throat hurts." she croaked.
"Here, Gibbs brought some throat spray." she said picking up a spray bottle. "Open your mouth."
She sprayed the medicine into Annie's mouth.
"Ugh!" Annie said coughing and gagging into her hand.
"Is it that bad?" Ziva asked spraying some on her finger and tasting it. "Oh yuk!" she spat. "Is he trying to poison you?"
Annie laughed weakly as she rolled to her side. Ziva sipped her coffee trying to get the taste out of her mouth. She took the wash cloth to the bathroom and ran cold water over it again to put on Annie's forehead.
McGee continued to search thru the military data base looking for the person Annie described. He paused as he tried to read Gibbs' handwriting. He turned the page one way and then the other.
"Anything." Gibbs asked him as he stopped by his desk.
"Boss is this a 5 or a 6." he asked holding up the paper.
"8 can't you read my writing?" he inquired.
"Well sometimes the words do run together." he said typing some more on the computer.
"Gibbs." he said into his cell phone. "What?" he blurred out. "You are where? I'm sending McGee."
"Grab you bag, Tony is in jail in Rockville. Go get him." he said impatiently.
"Yes Boss." he said grabbing his backpack and heading for the elevator.
"Ziva how is she?" Gibbs asked holding his phone with his shoulder as he went thru some papers on his desk.
"She still has a fever and is complaining of a sore throat. Right now she is resting." Ziva replied quietly so not to wake Annie.
"You know about her problem with nightmares?" he asked.
"Yes I will watch her very closely." she assured him.
"I'll bring you some food later, call me if you need me." he said hanging up.
"I will." she said hanging up.
Hours later Tony and McGee stepped off the elevator and made their way to their desks.
"Boss don't ever send me to another hick town with a hick police department. Said I was breaking and entering and carrying a concealed weapon wouldn't listen to me about who I was." he complained. "Though my badge was fake."
"Did you find anything?" he asked ignoring his complaining.
"Yes Boss, I have two metals and some dark hair." he said pulling out an evidence bag.
"Get it to Abby." he said. "You two finish up here, then stop and get something to eat and be back at the hotel by ten tonight."
"Will do Boss." Tony said heading for Abby's lab.
"Yes Boss." McGee said going back to his work on the computer.
"McGee did you get that errand done?" Gibbs asked McGee.
"Yes, Boss taken care of." he nodded.
It was after 5 pm when Gibbs made it back to the hotel room. He found Annie still in bed and looking worse. He put the bags on the table and went to check on her.
"Annie how do you feel?" he asked brushing her hair off her forehead. He could feel the heat on her face.
"I got her to take some medicine, last time a couple of hours ago. She has not been up all day, except for two bathroom breaks. I'm worried about her." Ziva told him.
"Should we get a doctor to see her?"
"I'm going to try putting her in a cool shower again to get the fever down." he said taking off his jacket. "You go eat and take a nap, the others will be here at 10."
"Do you need any help?" Ziva asked and then remembered the morning before. "I'll just eat my food in to the other room." she decided making tracks for the other room and closing the door most of the way behind her. "Idiot!" she hissed at herself.
So a little short, but I'm posting another shortly. Thanks to all who read and review and thanks to all who are reading and journeying along with me. I hope you are enjoying so far, there will be some major twists coming up soon.
NC
