I'm so sorry about the delay in this update! We are all moved in and I have found and started a new job so hopefully life will allow me some time to update more often. I think we're nearing the end... ish of the story :)
In answer to some of your questions... I'm still working on the whole Kate and Ziva, don't want to kill Kate but like Ziva and want her on the team issue... I think I have an idea though so I just need to get to that point in the story.
USA- Jeanette: I honestly have no idea why I made Kingsley minister besides the fact that the only thing we know about Pius Thickness in the books is that he was hit with the imperius right away. I guess I just like Kingsley as minister and it worked a bit better for Harry... let's just say Pius was a casualty of war and Kingsley stepped up? maybe? :)
Crazyjim87: Sorry... I think in another story Harry would work well with Ziva, but I just don't see "Ryan" with any of the NCIS ladies. Plus him and Hermione together is a way to keep him involved with the wizarding world in his new life, since the US, NCIS, and MI6 are totally away from that. At least in my own stories I can tell Harry that Ginny is a fangirl and to STAY AWAY! haha
Everyone else, THANK YOU THANK YOU so much for your reviews! I have the rest of the story mapped out and just need to sit down and write it, we had some trouble with the internet and my laptop is still not connecting very well in our new home so it might take a bit longer to finish but I have a few ideas for a Hawaii Five-O story too... who knows... I always sit down with the best intentions of writing another chapter and end up finding a new story to read!
Again, thank you all for sticking with me and for your amazing reviews!
I don't own Harry Potter or NCIS (I tried to buy season 7 of NCIS the other day... and WHAT THE HECK? it's discontinued or something! sigh...).
P.S. If the formatting is off on this chapter it's because I had to type it in Notepad since our desktop doesn't actually have Word. I know. Who does that?
A few weeks after his arrival at NCIS and in the United States, Ryan was finally mostly settled in. Of course, his weeks with NCIS hadn't been boring in the slightest. After he briefed the team on all of the information he had on Ari Haswari he was informed by his director at MI6 that there was chatter indicating the terrorist would be coming to the US. Ryan let the team know but it was classified information so they had to pretend they were unaware.
In Ryan's second week of work at NCIS he ended up going on a mission for MI6 that ended up having him follow a newly arrived Ari around the Washington DC area. He had to avoid being noticed by the other federal agencies as the FBI and CIA also had tails on the Mossad agent. Ryan knew that the FBI and CIA were following Haswari to prove that he was taking down the Hamas cell, while Ryan was following him simply to keep track of his whereabouts. The man had already struck NCIS and his intel indicated that Ari was going to go after them again.
While he was on his mission he missed being exposed to YPestis, or The Plague as it is more widely known. Tony had opened a letter and inhaled and powder containing the virus and had almost died. As soon as he was back in contact and heard the story from his team, Ryan went to the hospital and checked on his new friend. Tony reminded him a bit of Fred and George and his heart ached to see his friend so pale and weak. Kate had stayed in the quarantine room as long as the doctors would let her, but when it became completely apparent that she simply had a cold, she was kicked out.
Harry was an experienced Healer, but had no ideas on how to help battle the virus that was destroying Tony's lungs; luckily Tony was strong and had pulled through.
The following week put Ryan to the test as he had his MI6 duties of watching Ari, plus picking up a bit more work with NCIS to cover for Tony since he was still out on sick leave. Ryan had definitely learned all of the procedures and ways to handle evidence as well as learning the NCIS computer system. He had become good friends with Tim, the guy was a genius on computers just as Ryan had suspected and Ryan loved picking his brain to learn new programs or ideas. Timothy McGee was always able to think around a computer issue. If he hit a roadblock and couldn't access something one way, he thought for a moment and almost always came up with a different way to get the information. It was refreshing.
Ryan had also gotten to know Kate better. He hadn't spent much time with her before Tony was out, as they were paired together a lot and Tim and Ryan ended up partnered as well. She was very brave, and had a lot of experience from the Secret Service. It seemed like she was still learning the ropes of NCIS so Ryan felt like they were kindred spirits of a sort. Kate also teased him about Hermione constantly, she was like an annoying sister, but she reminded him so much of Tonks that he sometimes got a bit homesick when she was in her teasing mode.
Needless to say, Ryan was enjoying his new team and was making friends. He'd had dinner with Gibbs a few times and visited with Ducky and Palmer down in autopsy as well as Abby in her lab, he always laughed when he went to see Abby, he couldn't shake the feeling that Abby was the exact opposite of Luna Lovegood in every way.
...
Ryan groaned as his alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 5:30am on a Monday morning. The past week he'd been splitting his time between NCIS and MI6, which meant he had spent full days at NCIS working cases and had stalked Ari on his off time. Even though the team knew Ari was in the States, MI6 had deemed his intelligence gathering (stalking) to be confidential unless Ari approached any of the NCIS members. They couldn't bring attention to MI6 by the FBI or CIA.
Feeling like his legs were made of lead, Ryan turned over and shut off his alarm and tried to convince himself to get out of bed. A few moments later he heard his door open and he smiled sleepily at his housemate. Hermione had been more and more worried about him as his duties started to take a toll on him. The first week Tony had been out on sick leave had been hard, but now another week later, Ryan could admit that Hermione probably should be worried, he was incredibly tired and it would be at least another week until Tony was back up to par even if he came to work.
"Hey sleepy, it's time to get up, you're looking kind of peaky, are you sure you have to go in to work today?" Hermione said softly while she sat down on the edge of the bed and ran her fingers through Ryan's hair. He reached out and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her into a hug and tugging her under the blankets. She laughed and put up a token struggle.
"I have to go to work, Tony's still out. But I don't have to be there just yet, I set my alarm early so I could spend some time with you today since I don't know what time I'll be home tonight and you're always up early." He grinned at her while she gave up and hugged him close.
Hermione smiled softly at him and ran her fingers under his eyes where he knew he was starting to get dark bags due to his lack of sleep and high stress levels.
"Ry, you should have slept longer, you're so tired, I'll always be here. You don't have to wake up early just to see me, I'll be here whenever you have time."
He held her a little closer and snuggled his face into her curls, "You're worth it Mione, I'd wake up early every morning just to spend a little time with you. I've missed you so much over the past years and I just want to be here with you for awhile. I know I haven't been able to spend much time with you and I can't tell you much about the missions I've been doing for MI6 but I promise as soon as this is over we can spend the whole weekend together. Can I take you out to dinner, maybe a walk around to see the monuments and stuff? I know this isn't the best way to ask, but I can't wait anymore Mione, will you go out with me? On a date and see where it goes? I've wanted to ask for so long." Ryan paused, hoping they were on the same page and she'd say yes.
Hermione smiled and hugged him a bit tighter. "That sounds wonderful Ryan, I would love to."
He grinned and snuggled even closer, his lips now close to her neck he couldn't help himself and he pressed them to the soft skin. He kissed from her shoulder up to her ear and then he reached down and started tickling her sides. He did have to go to work after all, he couldn't get too involved in his new favorite pastime.
"Ryan! haha stop tickling me and get ready to go, you don't want to be late! hehe" Hermione laughed at his antics, trying to wiggle her way out of the bed.
45 minutes later Ryan was on his way to the Navy Yard. As he drove he continued to think about what Ari had been up to. He'd made the obvious contacts with the Hamas cell, but Ryan had a bad feeling about what they were doing. From what he could tell, the FBI and CIA were letting Ari do as he wanted and had backed off, not even trailing the man anymore. Ryan knew that Ari was dealing with explosives and obviously had a few plans in place at the moment, but Ryan couldn't figure out what the terrorist was going to do.
Walking into the Navy Yard with coffee for everyone, Ryan was surprised to see Tony had returned, even if he did look less than stellar.
"Morning everyone, Jethro black coffee, Tim latte, Kate coffee with like 12 sugars... And Tony welcome back mate, you can have my coffee, it's a vanilla latte." Ryan passed out the coffee and grinned at Tony who took the coffee with a smile and truly grateful look.
A few minutes later they got the call to check out two murdered Navy officers found on the side of the road in their car.
"Grab your gear! Kate and McGee with Tony, Ryan with me. McGee, send Ducky the coordinates."
They all got ready and headed out, Ryan knowing Jethro would have something to say when they were in the car.
"Ryan you take my coffee, you obviously need it more than I do, you look awful kid. What's going on?" His boss and friend didn't even wait till they were out of the Navy Yard to start the questioning. Ryan relaxed back into his seat, trying to take advantage of a few moments to sit down before his day inevitably got busy.
"Gee thanks, ok yeah, you're right, I'm knackered. Wow and apparently my British upbringing comes out when I'm this tired. It's not a huge deal Jethro, I've just been working NCIS and MI6 the past two weeks. MI6 has taken all my off time and I'm getting close to finishing up the mission I think. I worked 7am to 6pm last night at NCIS and then ended up going straight to my MI6 duties and got home at about 2am. On the other hand, I asked Hermione out and she said yes." Ryan said, hoping to change the subject.
"Nice try, can you tell me what the MI6 mission is? If you need some time off just let me know, or you know Abby has a futon down in the lab. Although I was planning to send DiNozzo down there after we get back." Gibbs grinned at him, both knowing Tony would fight tooth and nail to prove he was fine.
"I have specific criteria that will allow me to read you in on the case, and it hasn't been met yet, but I say give it a few more days and you'll know what I've been up to, which honestly isn't a good thing." Ryan said, he truly thought that Ari would approach NCIS soon after the history of the break in and his goading of Gibbs.
"Alright, you let me know if you need some down time, you're one of my agents now and I can't have you unfocused and putting anyone at risk, which you know. I trust you to know your limits. You're also my friend and I don't want to see you get burnt out or end up sick because you're exhausted." Gibbs looked at Ryan to get the point across that he was being serious.
"I will, and thanks Jethro."
As their conversation ended, the car was pulling up to the crime scene. The NCIS team got out of the cars and headed toward the convertible with the two dead Navy men. Upon inspection, it was clear that the two men had both been shot multiple times at close range and one of the men was missing his hands. It wasn't the weirdest thing any of them had seen, but all of the agents thought hard about what the missing hands could be used for.
Ryan decided to go with Gibbs to help Ducky and Palmer and let McGee, Kate, and Tony look more closely at the car. As he was walking back up the hill, Ryan thought he saw movement in the trees across the road and motioned discreetly to Jethro to let him know he was going to check it out.
Walking behind the NCIS van that the medical examiner had just arrived in, Ryan was able to get to where he had seen the movement quite quickly. Unfortunately, he didn't find anything besides some foot prints and broken branches. Ryan studied the foot prints for a moment before realizing where he recognized the pattern, he had seen Ari's boot prints numerous times during his MI6 surveillance duties and these were a perfect match. He took a picture with his phone and sent it to his contact at MI6 to be sure, but quickly headed toward his team with a warning on his lips. Ari had just crossed the line into threatening the NCIS team and it was Ryan's job to let them know and try to protect them.
As he ran back toward where the van was parked, he saw Kate and McGee running up the hill and yelling about a bomb under the car. His battle training kicked in quickly and he noticed that Tony was not with the other agents. He wouldn't get to the other man in time, but as he continued to run toward the crime scene, he passed Kate and McGee, threw himself to the ground for protection, looked over the edge of the hill and with his wand now in hand, cast a hasty shield charm right as the explosion ripped through the air.
He hadn't meant to use magic at all in front of the NCIS agents, but protecting Tony had come on instinct. He always had his wand in an invisible holster attached to his arm and he could call it to his hand with just a quick flick of the wrist. He only hoped it was quick enough to help his friend. He knew Tony wasn't moving at his usual fast pace today and hoped he'd gotten far enough away from the flames.
His hopes were confirmed when his fellow agent crawled up the hill and laid down right next to him, making a joke to Gibbs to appease Kate's worrying, but also looking at Ryan as though he knew that the British man had helped him somehow. Ryan had tucked his wand away as soon as he had seen Tony moving up the hill.
Ryan just grinned, helped him up and then turned toward the rest of the team.
"Everyone ok? What the hell happened?" Gibbs started ranting and then turned to Ryan "And why were you running back to the crime scene? Did you find anything?"
After the other agents explained what happened on their side, everyone looked at Ryan, who had been quiet and looked very alert of his surroundings.
"What's going on agent Evans?" Gibbs demanded, using Ryan's last name to let the man know that he wanted answers given to a boss, not a friend.
"I was running back down here because the movement I saw on our way up to the van was Ari Haswari watching the crime scene. I was trying to warn everyone it was a trap when I saw Kate and Tim running back up the hill. And before you ask, yes, I have more information, no I'm not surprised to see Haswari, and yes you can be read in on the case, but it has to be back at the Navy Yard or somewhere else that is secure as it is highly confidential."
"You heard the man, gather everything you can save and get back, McGee ride with Ducky, maybe you can help navigate. Kate, you're driving, Tony try to get a nap on the way back you look like crap."