A/N: Hello, hello! Thanks to all the new views! I hope the story has been keeping you interested! To the Guest that reviewed most recently: yes, Strigoi inherently are 'serial killers' since they kill often. It's more the fact that the Strigoi has caught the attention of the human feds and therefore, would be labeled as a serial killer form the multiple kills. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
Quiet, eerily quiet, almost as if the atmosphere itself was holding its breath, waiting for the eventual fallout that would occur down here. I felt the guardians behind me beginning to dissipate into teams of two down hallways or into rooms that branched off the hallway we were running down. I was falling into a cold determination, refusing to think about what Rose and the others could be going through, I couldn't let my emotions blind me and potentially cause more problems for the others because I lost focus at the wrong time. I stopped when I heard someone pounding on a door a few feet in front of me on the right and gripped my stake tightly, hoping that I had found someone. The guardian with me, Guardian Lee, moved in front of me to open the door while I tensed, ready to strike or embrace, depending on what awaited me. I nodded at Guardian Lee and she pulled the door open in one swift movement, causing the figured to fall onto the floor.
"I'm going to kill that stupid bloodwhore, right after I fuck her brains out, I'm going to drain her and watch her die as slowly and painfully as possible…" The figure growled as he struggled to right himself. I felt my steely resolve begin to snap as I heard this figure, this poor excuse of a creature, utter those words. It didn't matter who he was talking about, but I had a sinking feeling he was talking about Rose.
I felt my grip on the stake tighten, nearly to the point of pain as I strode forward and grabbed him by his throat and threw him into the wall. I faltered for a second when I realized who it was, "where is she, Jesse, what did you do with her?" My voice sounded dark and iced, even to me, making me flinch slightly. His eyes widened with apprehension for a second before they gleamed with malicious laughter. I slammed him back against the wall and held my stake up against his chest, "I will NOT ask again. Where. Is. She?"
Jesse sneered at me, "why, afraid that she has gotten a taste of the good stuff and doesn't want your sorry ass anymore? She gets to experience those lovely endorphins that you used to give her, poor thing was practically begging for them that I just HAD to indulge in her desires. After all, who wouldn't want to taste such a lovely creature and have her for their very own? I'm sure you know what I mean," he drawled, a look of sadistic satisfaction drew over his features as he watched me pale. I forced myself to still, thinking about the image I saw, that look of almost hatred that had crossed her face, enough irritation to fight off the endorphins that were clearly there. I felt my hand tighten against Jesse's throat as I realized that it had been him, he had touched her, bit her, hit her, cut her hair, and took her picture.
I didn't even realize I had done it, but before I could think, I slid my stake slowly into his chest, hearing him scream in pain as I hissed in his ear, "I warned you once, Jesse, there would be repercussions for giving unwanted advances on a female, particularly Rose, and now I can, without concern for you," I shoved my stake to the hilt in a swift motion and watched the light leave his eyes as they turned back, the red retreating from his irises.
Normally, I felt a mix of guilt and relief that I had taken a life but also freed a soul from entrapment. This time, however, I felt that same darkness that I had felt in that alley when we had killed Donovan all those months ago. The only thing keeping me from falling into that black abyss was the single thought of making sure Rose was okay. I backed away from the wall and let Jesse's body crumple to the floor, forcing myself to control my breathing. Now that he had been killed, I was able to take a closer look at his state and noticed that his shirt was very rumpled, and he was only in his boxers. That set me on edge, but I forced it back down, needing to look in the room to see if there was something, anything in there, that might clue me in as to where Roza was or if she, God forbid, was in there now. I walked in and noted there had been some sort of scuffle in the room seeing as there were scuffs and a nasty indent in the wall and floor. Other than that, the room was empty so I closed the door and continued down the hall with Guardian Lee trailing behind me, a concerned look etched on her face but she knew better than to comment on it since we had not completed our mission yet.
We walked in silence down the hall until we heard shouting emanating down from the room at the end. I noted there were only two doors between us and the end room so Guardian Lee took the room on the right and I took the left and we scanned the rooms as we ran by, making sure there weren't Strigoi in them. The last thing we needed was to have our backs blocked off as we retreated from the impending fight. Noticing there were no Strigoi in either-although Lee did motion that there was someone in the room she had looked in- we made our way to the end of the hall. This time, I grabbed the door and waited for Lee to get into position before I wrenched it open. I nearly faltered when I saw what was happening in front of me.
"GET UP YOU STUPID WHORE!" I saw Rose lying on the ground, barely moving and covered in injuries with McGee being held up by one of the three Strigoi in the room by his throat. Lee ran up to one of the Strigoi and kicked him, hard. The Strigoi who had addressed Rose was too distracted in his taunting to notice that I had approached him until I was nearly on top of him. His head snapped up as I threw myself against him, slamming him into the wall next to him. I felt Rose attempt to get up but I refused to look at her until I dealt with the current danger here and engaged the Strigoi in front of me, forcing him back and away from the third Strigoi, Rose, and McGee. Apparently, I had picked the "leader" of this little group and he was old. He and I began to fight, ignoring almost everything else in the room but each other. Vaguely, I heard Lee stake the Strigoi she had engaged and she moved to the other one who was holding McGee just as I heard Rose pull herself off the ground and saw, from the corner of my eye, her slam into the other Strigoi and grab McGee, pulling him to the ground and throwing herself on top of him. I smirked to myself for a moment before the Strigoi I had been fighting used the temporary distraction to throw me against the wall and pin me there.
I fought against him but felt his grip tighten around my throat, effectively cutting off my air supply and causing me to slowly black out. I thrashed harder against him, feeling my body beginning to shut down from lack of oxygen. I forced my hands out from under his grip and managed to punch him hard in the throat, causing him to cough and loosen his grip long enough for me to wrench him off me and thrust my stake into his heart. I collapsed against the wall, my breathing shallow and rough from the Strigoi pressing against my neck so hard. I looked around and took account of what was in the room: Guardian Lee looked a little worse for wear, her shirt torn and stained with blood, and a rather nasty bruise starting to form on her cheek. I saw Rose still slung over McGee but both were slowly moving into a sitting position, both looking beaten and bloody, but alive. McGee had that glazed look over his eyes, indicating still high off a bite and a few cuts and bruises along his neck and upper chest where they appeared to have grabbed him rougher than intended or he had managed, even high, to fight back. Rose looked disheveled and ready to pass out, her hair looked sleek with blood on the back and she had a nasty scrape across her stomach considering she wasn't wearing a shirt. I also noticed the pants she was wearing had rolled down a bit, sitting dangerously low on her hips, ah, so that's where Jesse's pants must have gone. I raised an eyebrow at her attire and she just shrugged, giving me a slightly unfocused smile, making me wonder if she had a concussion or something.
"Hey, he owed me after he took away my clothes and tried to convince me that I was missing out, ugh, no thank you. He wasn't good as a Moroi and he certainly wasn't good as a Strigoi," she shuddered, clearly trying to force humor and Hathaway sarcasm into her statement, but all it did was cause me to bristle and wish I had spent longer taking my anger out on him, "well, doesn't matter, we had better go let Tony out of his room. Apparently, they had to knock him out because he wouldn't shut up, even high on a Strigoi bite! I just got lucky and picked Tim's room first and found three Strigoi attempting to bite him to oblivion and take off his clothes," she made a face at the statement and hauled herself up onto unsteady feet before pulling McGee with her.
I shook my head and looked at her hands where a pair of handcuffs were bound tightly to her wrists, "I knew you were a bit haughty, but fighting with your hands literally tied and without a stake seems a little extreme, even for you, Roza," I couldn't help but inject my own humor, now that I knew she was safe and, somewhat, unharmed. I wouldn't dare touch her while we were on mission and certainly not with the immediate danger nearby, but I had to let her know that I was glad she was safe and okay.
She shrugged and sighed dramatically, "apparently, they trusted Jesse with a set of keys for the doors, but not for my bindings…" she wiggled her chest at me and I watched, partially mesmerized by her breasts, as a large set of keys found their way out of her bra and onto the floor where Guardian Lee bent down and picked them up, heading towards the door she had seen the figure behind, assuming that was DiNozzo.
McGee had managed to find his bearings and blinked a few times, staring almost drunkenly between the two of us before he coughed and sighed, "not the worst feeling in the world, although coming off the bite will be… quite the uh… experience?" He looked at Rose who just nodded, a smirk ghosting across her face. He rubbed his hands over his face and neck, wincing as he felt the bite marks and bruises decorating his neck like a necklace of sorts, "I could say that this is worse than being stuck on a ship and being sea sick the entire time I was on mission, but it's not… Being sick on a boat for months while investigating a 'top secret murder' is waaaay worse," he grimaced as he wobbled towards the hallway.
I shook my head and offered him a shoulder, which he gladly took and I handed my stake to Rose so she could be lead while Lee and I half-walked half-dragged McGee and DiNozzo back up the stairs and out. As soon as we cleared to the main floor, I radioed to Gibbs that we had his people, handing them over to the EMTs that had come surging forward to snatch anyone who came out of the building. They moved towards Rose, Lee, and myself but we all stepped back, turning and heading back into the building to take care of Robert. Now that my primary objective was completed, I wanted, no needed, to make sure his heart was stopped by my own stake (or at least, Rose's). Rose snatched a shirt that had been offered by Ziva and threw it on before picking up the stake I had loaned her. She turned questioningly to me and I reached into my duster and pulled out my second stake before we ran back into the building. I radioed into the other teams, trying to locate where Robert could be hiding, but, so far, none had seen him. On the positive side, we had seemed to take down quite the network of Strigoi, albeit most were new bloods and easily over-confident in their abilities. Not much longer, we had received word that the building had been declared "all clear" and we had to assume that Robert had, somehow, managed to escape the building in the middle of the day, or had not been here when he had called in the first place. Both seemed highly unlikely, however, so we had to assume we missed something. I was about to suggest we go back down stairs and do a re-sweep of the area, when I noticed Rose sway, her face ashen. She must have suffered more trauma than I had initially thought and I walked up to her, staring at her with worry. She tried to shrug off my concern, but even that little movement caused her to pitch towards the ground.
I was about to comment when I heard a cold, almost maniacal laugh echo from behind us, "well, I am impressed. Too bad Mr. Zeklos had to meet his untimely demise earlier, because I would have congratulated him on actually being as useful as he had claimed to be. I feel so lucky that my men had chosen to believe his pitying speech about being more use to us alive than dead, because that kid certainly knew how to make a potent neurotoxin. And, what's more? It seems to have quite the delayed effect. Ah well, it is nice to know that even as my empire falls, my greatest enemies will crumble along with me. Although, you may not die, Belikov, but I'm sure seeing your sweet heart perish before your eyes will do quite a bit of psychologic damage, maybe enough to send you into your own dark spiral, hmm?" I turned to the voice to see Robert Doru standing, well, leaning heavily against the wall, right in front of us. He looked as crazed as he did before, except for the addition of the dark, cold gleam in his eyes. I found myself unable to move, but luckily, the guardians from the other floors had arrived and the grabbed him, pinning him to the ground.
I stared at him for a moment before I found my voice, barely above a whisper, "what did you do to her, to them? How… How do I…" I trailed off as my thoughts began to race. I had to hope that someone could help fix this, but I wasn't sure where to go from here or even what to do. I forced myself to calm down and looked at Robert, "you got one thing right, you and your 'empire' will fall. But, Rose will pull out of this, as will McGee and DiNozzo. I'm assuming they had been poisoned as well," his eyes sparkled with dark amusement, meaning I had been correct in my assumption. I wasted no more time as I stood up and strode to him. In one swift and efficient movement, I shoved my stake into his heart and removed it before the red had a chance to leave his irises. I turned to the groups, "search the building, find anything that looks like a lab. Maybe he left the formula or instructions somewhere. I have a feeling we will need them if we want a chance to save them."
A group of guardians who had gone on the main floor got up immediately and left towards the way they had come, making me wonder if they had spotted something similar to my description earlier. A few others followed behind them and I pulled Rose to my chest, mumbling comforting words to her as I strode out of the building. I saw the EMTs working frantically over McGee and DiNozzo, both looking paler than the last I saw them, a few minutes ago. I marched over to the ambulance and told them what Robert had told me and that I was having a team search for any clues on what the neurotoxin could be. Just as I finished, Abby, Ziva, and Gibbs had all joined us and I repeated what I had said to the EMTs.
Abby nodded, "that will hopefully work. If I can get a formula, it'll be that much easier, but if not, that's okay! If I can get a sample of their blood, I might be able to figure out the neurotoxin myself and counteract it. Let's get Rose back to the lab and to Ducky. Ziva, go with the EMTs and Tim and Tony. I'm assuming that they all were poisoned with the same toxin and I'll send word to the doctors at the hospital. They can keep those boys alive while I figure this out. We'll get them back to normal," I nodded and followed Abby, still clinging to Rose and hoping that things were going to be okay.
Gibbs followed us and Ziva stayed behind, jumping into the ambulance with DiNozzo and McGee. Abby quickly unlocked the car and I slid in the back, gently laying Rose across my lap while Gibbs slid into the driver's seat, snatching the keys from Abby who had moved to the front passenger's seat. We were off well over the legal speed limit, but I didn't care. Rose was shivering and twitching in my arms, despite my best efforts to keep her warm.
Abby seemed to notice Rose's movements and nodded, "okay, looks like that's a side-effect of whatever toxin got into her body, that's good! That's very good," seeing my confused look she continued, "if it was a very deadly toxin, it would have been more severe and she would be dead or pretty much comatose at this point. We may have lucked out or it's because of her Dhampir genes that she's not dead yet, or near death. Either way, we'll get her taken care of, don't you worry about that."
All I could do is nod and pray that I wouldn't lose her, not again, and not like this. Mentally, I cursed myself again for getting carried away in my own self-loathing that I had wasted precious moments with her in the past and I cursed myself for getting so frustrated with her that we had argued, and she had opted to go with McGee and DiNozzo instead of me. Her and I both put her and them into this situation one way or another and if they died or suffered permanent damage, it would be on my head.
We arrived at NCIS headquarters and went in through the underground garage where Abby explained they ran forensics on vehicles or larger objects that couldn't be done in her lab. Gibbs leaned over a scanner, performing a retinal scan then stood as the elevator opened to us. By this point, Rose was sweating and very, very pale. I vaguely wondered if this is what she would have looked like should she have been Turned instead but quickly shook it off. We exited into Dr. Mallard's autopsy lab and noticed one of the slabs was covered in blankets and had what appeared to be a heating lamp hovering over it. I gripped her tightly to me again before laying her gently on the slab and forced my mind from considering that the next I saw her, would be on this slab again, but without the need for blankets. Abby quickly grabbed her arm and searched for a vein, drawing out enough blood into a few vials when my phone rang.
"Belikov," I listened for a moment then placed the phone onto speaker, "repeat what you said."
"We found the lab again, sir, and we scoured everywhere. There appears to be a few different formulations the Strigoi were working on. There were some neurotoxins and what appears to be some chemical warfare modifications to make them more potent in Moroi and Dhampir."
I nodded and looked at Abby, "take pictures and send them to me of everything you found, then get the Alchemists in there so they can grab what they need and burn the place down. The last thing we need is for people to discover these modifications, whether they be human or not."
"Affirmative," the call went dead. After a few moments, I received some messages containing the images I had asked for and Abby motioned for me to follow her. I hesitated, looking at Rose but knew that if we were going to figure this out, I had to believe in her own stubbornness and will to fight anything to her last breath.
"Don't worry, Duck and I will stay with her. You and I are both worried for our people, so let's get this fixed," I nodded once and followed Abby, feeling my mask fall into place. He was right, I had to fix this and now. Getting emotional would not help anyone. I followed Abby into the lift and we were whisked away to her lab.
We entered her lab and she set herself up right away, working on the blood she had drawn from Rose while directing me to send the pictures they acquired from my phone to her computer, so she could go through them, "judging from the fact that none of those exposed have died quite yet, we can knock out the seriously dangerous neurotoxins and focus our search. I would bet that it was an ingested neurotoxin, indicating that it's probably an inhibitor of some kind since it took so long for them to react to the substance. Assuming that they had been poisoned within the last few hours or so, it's got to be something that can be slower acting and very potent or reactive once it hits its target. Again, points to an inhibitor of some sort," I watched as Abby whirled around the lab, unsure if she was telling me her thoughts or if she was just speaking aloud. I stood by her computer and plugged my phone in, accessing the images and pulling them up on her screens.
I heard Abby move towards me and place a hand on my arm. I flinched slightly at the contact, for once caught off guard and turned towards her, "don't worry, Dimitri, they'll be okay. I promise that I can fix this!" I nodded at her and forced my body to relax, needing to focus on the problem at hand. Abby nodded and turned her attention to the screen while the machines behind us whirred to life, analyzing Rose's blood to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Abby told me it might take some time so for me to head back to Rose. She would call Ducky's lab once she had some more information and would keep me updated.
I walked into the elevator and chose Ducky's floor, watching the doors slide shut. Once they did, I felt my guardian mask slip off. I leaned against the wall and felt my breathing come in short, ragged gasps. I had to get a grip if I was going to be any use to Roza or anyone else. We just had to get through this and then, once Rose was safe and healing, I could let go. I sighed as I recalled the last time I had felt this way: the day she had been shot. It should have been fatal, she was lucky, the doctors had said, but I knew then she was a fighter. Sure, a bit of luck probably helped too, but she fought and she was stubborn, heaven help me I knew she was stubborn. She would be damned, in her words, if she left me, Lissa, and Christian to our own devices. I smiled at that and had to believe that she would pull through, just like she did before.
The doors to the elevator opened back up and I stepped out, walking towards Ducky's lab where Rose was. Ducky and Gibbs were standing in there, talking quietly to each other. Well, Ducky was talking while looking over files at his desk and Gibbs was leaning against the wall, watching Rose's sleeping form with a dark look in his eyes, "Jethro, are you listening?" His head snapped towards Ducky as I walked in. He looked about to respond but trailed off as I walked up.
"Are you alright, Gibbs?"
"Yeah. Got anything for us?"
I shook my head, "no, Abby sent me back down here to check on Rose while she runs her tests and checks the images for anything that might help," Gibbs nodded and sighed.
"Well, if you're here, I'm going to update Leon and call Ziva for some information. Let me know what you find out, Belikov. See you later, Duck," he pulled out his phone and stepped out of the lab towards the elevator.
I raised my eyebrow at Ducky who just shrugged and sighed, "don't try to analyze him. He's an enigmatic person with a long, long past. He does what he does because he's found it works, and that includes treating his team like a family. Don't let his brusqueness throw you, he's worried. He's worried for his team and he's worried for you and Rose."
I nodded, "oh I can tell. He hides well, but guardians are just as good at hiding, and even better at reading, emotions. I appreciate the worry and I'm sorry that his people got put into danger and were dragged into our fight."
Ducky smiled and shook his head, "as Gibbs would say: rule 6, never say you're sorry, it shows weakness. Gibbs doesn't believe in it being your fault. Or, at least, not completely your fault. Everyone makes their choices and must pay the consequences, whether they are good consequences or bad."
I was about to respond when I heard a weak laugh behind me, "oh, Comrade, you've found your Zen life lessons' soul mate. I'm impressed," I turned towards Rose to see her eyes were open. She looked pale and covered in sweat, but she was awake, for now.
I walked up to her side and put my hand on her cheek, "please tell me, why do you constantly feel the need to give me a heart attack? I know I'm 'old' but please stop making me age faster than necessary. I would like to make it to 30 without grey hairs you know."
She just smirked at me, pain in her eyes but they also sparkled with her usual mischief, "where's the fun in that, Comrade? I've got to keep you on your toes. Good for the reflexes and all that."
I sighed and shook my head, "go ahead and sleep, Roza. You need to focus on fighting whatever you managed to get into. I'll be here when you wake up," Rose nodded and drifted back rather quickly. That worried me more than if she had actually told me how she was feeling. I knew she was not feeling well if she was listening to me. Ducky grabbed a chair from his desk and placed it next to the table that Rose lay on. He walked over to the desk again and seemingly tuned out while I sat down and held Rose's hand, watching her face carefully.
I heard a pinging sound for what felt like an eternity later and heard Ducky move to a device on his desk, "Dr. Mallard. Ah, Abby. So, have you managed to isolate what this could be?"
"I have Ducky! We got really, really lucky. It looks like the Strigoi injected them with concentrated tetrodotoxin. Rose's blood showed high levels of it so I'm guessing it had been injected right before we had arrived to get them."
I strode over to the desk, "so, what does that mean?"
"It means that she basically was injected with a toxin that puffer fish have. It's common enough in humans. Most often, humans are exposed to it via ingestion because the puffer fish wasn't cooked or prepared properly. For the most part, we have to just let it pass her system and keep her as comfortable as we can. It'll go away on its own. If things get a bit hairy, we can give her some medicine but she, Tim, and Tony should all come out of this relatively safe. I'll send word to the hospital where the boys are and let them know what I found. Oh, you might want to show your Alchemist friends what the Guardians found in the lab. I couldn't understand all of it, but there appeared to be some chemical enhancements that had been specifically designed to combat Dhampir and even a way to reverse "Anti-Strigoism" as the sheet says. Anyway, I'm going to make up an injection for Rose that'll help clear out the worst of it from her blood-stream and we'll go from there."
I nodded and fell back in relief, she was going to be okay. Abby would see to it, "we recently made a discovery with restorations. If a dhampir is restored, they are unable to Turn back due to the Spirit's magic that flows through them permanently. We are curious if we can recreate such a measure without having to Restore since it takes so much magic to do so. Sonya, a friend of ours, is hoping to find a way to fuse the magic into our bodies directly. We haven't been successful yet, but we are hopeful to find the links soon. If they are hoping to reverse our process, it concerns me that they might have inside information from someone at Court. It'll have to be investigated at a later date, but thank you, Abby. This will help us immensely, and thank you for helping Rose, DiNozzo, and McGee."
I heard Abby chuckle, "it's what I do! And I am fantastic at my job. Hey, once things are done here, can you send me Sonya's information? I would love to get into contact with her and maybe offer another opinion, especially since I have a basic grasp on how things work in your world!"
I shook my head, slightly amused at this woman's unending enthusiasm and spirit, but promised to let Sonya know if that would be okay and give Sonya Abby's information instead, should she choose to contact her. Abby signed off, promising to get to work on an injection to help speed up Rose's recovery. I turned to Ducky who just smiled at me and nodded, walking towards the elevator, mentioning going to find his assistant who had disappeared on him. I took this time to pull Rose up into a sitting position and hop up on the table behind her, cradling her fevered body to my own and wrapping her in my duster. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, whispering to Rose and rocking her gently as she slept.
I blinked as the lights turned back on. They must have turned off since I had barely moved, making me wonder if they had some sort of motion sensor in them. I noticed that I was no longer sitting up straight, instead half slumped over, showing I must have dozed off. It was incredibly hard to remain in this position for extended periods of time, especially asleep, but my body and mind had been pushed pretty far after the ordeals of the day and it must have shut down on its own. I snorted at the thought of my body overcoming my own control and willpower, making note to keep that silent from Rose, lest she ever let me live that down. I turned my attention to the reason the lights had flickered back to life, noticing Abby and Ziva standing in the doorway, smirking at me.
"Oh, don't let us disturb you. I just came in to check on Rose. I had come in earlier with the injection, but you were both asleep. I couldn't move either of you, so I just turned the lights off after I gave it to her. I'm surprised that neither of you noticed me come in and leave, you both must really be out of it!"
I raised my eyebrow at Abby and nodded, "I guess. I don't get easily snuck up on. You must have some serious stealth skills or something."
Abby nodded, "Ziva's taught me a lot. It's a great way to spook people. I'm determined to be as good at sneaking up on people mid conversation as Gibbs, especially when people are talking about me! He is fantastic at doing-"
"Doing what, Abbs?"
Abby gestured behind her, "see? He knows!"
Gibbs looked at Abby for a moment longer before turning towards Ziva, "so, how are our boys doing?"
Ziva pulled herself away from the doorway and held her phone up, "they are both on their way to recovery. It must be very effective considering they were both complaining about the 'food and company being of equal disgust' before I left. I do not understand how those two can manage to claim to be, as Tony says, 'bros' when they are constantly bickering."
I chuckled before I looked at Rose, noticing her skin color was back to normal, "does that mean Rose should be waking up soon?"
Before anyone had a chance to answer, Rose opened her eyes and smirked up at me, her eyes sparkling with mischief, "I woke up a-while ago, Comrade, but you looked so cute that I didn't have the heart to wake you up. I must have dozed back off. If you don't mind though, I am a bit toasty and my butt is completely numb from this metal slab, so, let's get off this thing so I can go to the bathroom. I would like to not feel totally disgusting," I unwrapped my arms from her and she slid off, stretching and groaning at the feeling, "oh, Ziva. It's really easy to understand that 'bros' tend to argue and fight. It's how they communicate. Us sarcastic folks tend to do that. We do that to cover up emotions, especially ones we might not be good at showing or processing. I do it with Christian all the time. I love the dude like a brother, but he drives me absolutely batty!"
Ziva looked at Rose like she had a second head, "I am sorry, batty? What is 'batty'?"
"It means he drives me nuts, insane, crazy?" Her eyes crinkled as Ziva's lit up in recognition, "it's similar to the feeling siblings or close friends often feel. You absolutely love them and will do anything for them, but there are times they will get on your nerves, right?"
Ziva shrugged but nodded, "my sister never drove me 'batty' but there are times that working here can make me feel like I am part of a very, quirky, family."
Rose snickered, "that's exactly it! Tim and Tony just drive each other up the wall because that's just what they do and who they are, but at the end of the day, they care about each other and will do anything to help the other, yes?" Ziva nodded, "well, I'm going to go to the bathroom before I explode, 'scuse me all."
She stumbled a bit but managed to get to the bathroom and closed the door, "well, once she's back on her feet. You two need to come upstairs and finish briefing us on what the hell happened. Of course, we need to get our paperwork straightened out and get copies to your people, so we can call this case officially closed," I looked at Gibbs and nodded as he and Ziva walked towards the elevator.
A few minutes later, we were gathered in front of the screen and on call with Lissa and a representative from the main Alchemist branch in the US. We had debriefed both Lissa and the Alchemist quickly and efficiently. The Alchemist told us that they were expecting and official report as soon as we had returned to Court to be filed with Guardian Croft and copy sent to them, including any and all pictures or paper taken from the scene. I agreed and told them that we would be returning at the end of the week. The Alchemist signed off and Lissa turned her attention to Rose and myself, keeping up her regal façade but clearly worried and distressed at hearing what happened. Rose shook her head, indicating now was not the time nor place, but she would tell her when we got home. Lissa signed off and we turned towards Gibbs and Vance.
"I believe that, while I wish things had gone differently, this concludes our services. I know apologizing will do no good, however, I do regret that we had dragged two of your agents into our mess with us instead of just handling it ourselves. Honestly, I should have known that Robert would do anything to get his revenge on us, but I didn't think he would sink to this level and actually Turn."
Gibbs scoffed and shook his head, "it wasn't the first time they were hurt, and I doubt it will be the last. Whether they are human or not, our adversaries are often very, very dangerous and situations like this happen. We've all been kidnapped, drugged, hurt, shot at, tortured, and worse. It's reality for us as it is for you. I, on the other hand, am glad to have met the two of you. Should something like this occur again, in any of our locations or branches, be assured that we will be calling you or your cohorts. It's comforting to know that there are others fighting the 'monsters' that we often think only live in children's books or nightmares," he held out his hand to me, which I shook, before turning towards Rose and shaking hers as well, "I doubt we would be of much help, but should you need our services, you know where we are."
I nodded and turned to Vance who smirked, his toothpick sticking up at a strange angle as he took my hand and clasped it, "agreed with Gibbs. Call us if you need a stubborn federal agent to help clean up a mess or two. I'm sure we could send someone your way. Otherwise, consider us an ally and we will send any cases that seem 'supernatural' your way and keep them out of the hands of the police if possible."
We headed towards the door and grabbed our bags. We stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Rose gave Ziva and Abby tight hugs. I stood there as Abby gripped me into her grasp. I forced my muscles to move and held her tightly, thanking her for saving Rose one last time before shaking hands with Ziva. We moved to the elevator and went to step in as DiNozzo and McGee stepped out. Rose high-fived the guys before making a gallant bow and side-stepping into the elevator. I shook my head at her theatrics and turned towards the guys, "glad you two made a recovery. Although, it's unfortunate that our enemies put you in that position in the first place."
DiNozzo smirked, "glad to have made it. Second closest call I've ever had. First was easily when Kate and I were exposed Yersinia Pestis, now that sucked. I thought we were gonna die!"
McGee rolled his eyes, "anyway, don't worry too much, Belikov, seriously. This sort of stuff happens to all of us. You guys heading out now?"
I nodded, "I did promise Rose once we took care of things that we would to the 'touristy stuff' then head home. Her and I need a few date nights. We haven't had much time together, just the two of us y'know?"
McGee nodded, "hey, I get it. Well it was great to have met you two. I hope that next time, maybe we can come see your set up and how things work eh? It'd be interesting to see and all."
I laughed, "I'll run it by the Council and see how they feel about that."
"Let me guess, they would be ever so thrilled to have humans slinking around. Even better, human feds who have a penchant for sniffing out trouble and getting right into it, huh?"
I sighed and shook my head, "sadly, I don't see it ending well, but you never know. We'll give you a call if we need some feds' help on a case or two," I stepped into the elevator and waved at the group as the doors slid shut.
"Well, Comrade, now that it's just the two of us, shall we rent a hotel room and really enjoy the sights and sounds of Washington D.C.?"
I smirked and pulled her close to me, giving her a searing kiss that left us both breathless. I looked down into her eyes and winked, "I suppose we could… I am dying to see the Smithsonian, I hear they have an exhibit on the Western expansion that's to die for."
She laughed at me and kissed me one more time, "of course. And, I'll bet they have an exhibit on the Cold War and Soviet Russia. Let's be honest, I've needed some new material to tease you with lately. It's getting rather stale, my jokes about your taste in music."
I just laughed and pulled her out of the building and towards a taxi to cart us off to the hotel I had booked for us for the next few days, "you are quite an extraordinary woman, Roza, and I'm so glad that you're mine."
A/N: Sorry for the time away from the story: school has been crazy and keeping me busy! Anyway, I figured y'all deserved a really long chapter. This will probably be the final chapter. I will be posting a short Epilogue as a sort of tie it up and end it. Let me know what y'all thought? This is my first fanfic, so I'm sure it's not the best, but eh, I had to try right? Thanks for sticking around! I have a few other ideas floating around for another story or two!
Thanks again,
strangemind
