Hi guys! Finally, I got some reviews! Thank you soooooooo much guys! Please keep reviewing and I will keep updating, promise! I also promise that from now on there will be more Tate action than ever! And don't worry; Kate will be back for good in a couple of chapters! Here is her first appearance; I hope you'll enjoy! And remember; reviews make writers happy…

DISCLAIMER; I, sadly, don't own any of the NCIS characters mentioned in this fic.

HOPE MADE OF SILK

January 25th; outside the NCIS office building; 4 thirty in the afternoon;

'How did it all come down to this?' Tony thought, trying to take better cover behind a black van that was parked in the NCIS parking lot. The whole team (agents Gibbs, McGee, David and off course Tony) were taking cover behind the parked cars, trying to avoid the enemy fire.

'How did they manage to get so close without being noticed?' Tony thought while trying to escape death and the same time shoot back to their attackers.

'This was supposed to be just a car ride to a safe location. We weren't supposed to be attacked right in frond of the office…' Tony took a quick look around, making sure that the rest of the team was still alive and kicking. Gibbs was the one closer to him; he looked absolutely concentrated and had already taken down one of their attackers. Ziva was stationed behind a red convertible and was at the moment focused on firing back. McGee was situated right next to Ziva and, despite his lack of experience in situations like this one, he was holding his own. A shot came from a rooftop across the office building.

'Snipers!' Tony thought frantically. 'Snipers are never good news…' his mind wondered for a second to his last encounter with a sniper; Ari. He had taken the most valuable thing in his life away from him that day. He took his Kate. He took his heart.

'No! Focus on the attackers in frond of you DiNozzo!' He ordered himself. 'You are out of his shooting range. You can deal with him later.' He re-examined the situation; there were six attackers in total. Four were shooting in frond of him, one was dead or fatally injured by Gibbs and the other one was obviously the shooter on the rooftop. He took a look through the windows of the van and saw an opportunity; one of the attackers was trying to go around the car he was hiding behind, so he could hit Gibbs from the side.

'Do not hesitate.' He thought to himself as he aimed from where he was hiding and shot Gibbs's murderer wannabe. He hit him in the head, so he knew it was over. At the same time he saw Ziva with the corner of his eye taking another one of the attackers down.

'Two down, two to go.' He thought only to correct himself after Gibbs fired yet another shot. 'Scratch that. Three down, one to go.' He then looked around for the last attacker. What he saw however made his heart skip a beat; the last attacker had somehow managed to sneak behind them and was ready to take a shot at McGee.

Tony was the only one that had seen him. He knew he didn't have time to warn Probie, as he knew that if he wanted to save him he would have to shoot the attacker himself. To get a clear shot however, in order not to risk injuring Gibbs, who was standing right between his and McGee's location, he had to stand up, ruining his cover. Not seeing any other possible option, he rose up and took the shot; the attacker was dead before he hit the ground. The whole team looked at him. Tony closed his eyes at their expressions. Their faces didn't look happy that McGee was saved. They didn't even look surprised by Tony's sudden action.

Their expressions were the same mask of dread and agony. Off course Tony knew the reason for their reaction. He had known since he rose to take the shot that had saved McGee's life. He knew that by standing up he had given the sniper a clear shot at him. He also knew that right now his colleagues could see the little red spot right between his eyes.

'A bit poetical' Tony thought 'to die the way she did, protecting a friend. At least I will see her again…' He knew the end was near. For a moment as he held his eyes closed, he thought he saw her face and a wave of tranquility washed over him; 'If being with her means that I have to die,' he thought 'then it's a price I am willing to pay.'

All he managed to whisper, mostly to himself, since he knew no one could hear him was; "I love you Kate."

Then, he heard a gunshot and he knew it was all over.

NCIS office building; January 25th; 4 in the afternoon;

Tony was working on a report he was supposed to submit until the end of the day. As usually McGee had finished his paperwork and Ziva was just beginning to do hers.

'So boring.' Tony thought. 'We haven't had a good case since Christmas…' He had to seriously fight with his oncoming chuckle. 'Abby will never leave forget about the whole 'chase the bad guy through the forest while on horseback' stand of mine.' He mused. 'And since I am so lucky, I should have expected that one of the guests would have a camera with him.' He added a bit annoyed. He had to watch the whole chase over and over again. Plus that after the news had spread around, he had somewhat become the talk of the office. 'I mean I can get it with jumping off windows and riding horses through forests, but what good all this fame does if Kate isn't here to know?'

He sighed adding the final sentences in his report. 'I thought time was supposed to heal all wounds' he said to himself starring at his computer screen pointlessly for a couple of seconds. Well that must be the worst lie I've ever heard.' And it was true. The pain he felt while thinking about Kate had only intensified during the past month. And with no serious case to distract him Tony actually felt worse than ever.

'I swear if nothing new and exciting doesn't happen soon, I am going to snap. I can't stop thinking of her and the nightmares do nothing but get worse all the time…'

He was having nightmares ever since Kate got shot on that rooftop. The scene was always the same; He saw Kate right in front of him giving him one of her amazing smiles that never failed to make his heart beat faster every time. He wanted to run hold her in his arms and tell her he loved her. He really did. But since it was nothing but a dream, nothing but a nightmare, he couldn't move from his place. Then he always saw the red spot right in the middle of her forehead. He tried to scream to her, to tell her to move, to save herself, only to discover his voice wouldn't come out. And then…

Tony let out a gasp remembering Kate getting shot. 'Don't think about it DiNozzo.' he ordered himself. 'It is enough that you dream about it every night. Damn! Am I talking to myself I second person now? I must be loosing it…'

"Is everything o.k. Tony?" Tony looked up from his computer only to see Ziva looking at him with a worried expression on her face.

'She must have heard me gasping' he thought.

"No, I am perfectly fine." He lied. "Just a bit bored with writing my report, I guess." It was always a bit uncomfortable to be around Ziva; she made her feelings toward Tony quite clear during the past month and he wasn't sure as to how to tell her he wasn't interested without hurting her feelings. To tell the truth, since the whole horse riding episode, it was a bit uncomfortable to be near to any female agent in the office. Ziva however seemed to thing his report excuse was the truth since she said with a knowing look; "Yeah, I know. I hate writing reports too. I wish we could get a new case. This is really…" But she didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. However, it seemed that she got her wish as Gibbs exited director Shepard's office, looking more pissed of than ever;

"DiNozzo, McGee, David; get here right now!" He ordered.

'This is going to be fun…' Tony thought looking at Gibbs's angry face. 'I wonder who is going to ask him what happened. Surely not me.' It turned out that the brave one that day was McGee who asked in the most professional tone he could manage;

"What happened boss?" He asked, waiting for the outbreak. And off course it came;

"Retarded federal agents McGee, that is what happened." Gibbs yelled back.

"What do you mean boss?" Tony asked, curiosity overwhelming his fear of an enraged Gibbs.

"Do you remember two months ago when we arrested Rosenberg for trying to sell imported missiles from Russia?" Everybody nodded giving Gibbs a look that spelled; 'Isn't it obvious?'

'Like I can forget jumping off an airport window along with a guy that had just threatened to blow that said airport to smithereens…' Tony thought.

"Well the feds arrested the remaining members of the so called 'New Army' and they were sentenced to sixty years imprisonment…" Gibbs said.

"Then what is the problem?" Ziva interrupted.

"The problem is," Gibbs continued even more pissed that he was interrupted "that six of them managed to escape two days ago. According to all sources, they know we are the reason for their arrest. In their minds we interrupted their work to purify the Army. So they decided to kill us and then continue their 'work'" Gibbs concluded.

Everyone fell silent for a second. Tony was the one to snap out of it first. "Wait a second boss." He said. "You said the feds knew about their escape for two days. How comes we didn't find out earlier?" he asked now as pissed off as Gibbs. "We are after all the ones that are immediately interested." He added.

"They thought they could handle the situation without us." Gibbs answered. "Plus they are still pissed that we were the ones that broke the case and not them…"

"So now what boss?" McGee asked.

"Since they know where we work, I have arranged with the director for all of us to be transported in a safe location until they are arrested." And then added with a sigh; "That is all we can do at such short notice. We are leaving right now. We are already two days late." And with that he grabbed his jacket and headed for the exit. The three agents followed him, Tony having that odd feeling once again.

'Something is going to go wrong. I can feel it.' He thought, following Gibbs in the elevator.

Outside the NCIS office building; 4 twenty five in the afternoon;

As the four agents walked outside the office building and headed for the parking lot Tony's bad feeling was only getting worse by the second. For some unknown reason, he felt the urge to look at the rooftop of the building behind the parking lot. For only a second he felt that something really important, even crucial for his life, was situated at the moment at that roof. But he immediately dismissed that thought as a gun shot came from behind one of the parking cars.

"Take cover!" Gibbs ordered.

Tony didn't need a second order he run tacking cover behind a van that was right in frond of him, noticing Gibbs taking down one of the attackers while tacking cover himself.

Unknown to them however, they had audience in their little gunfight. Right on that rooftop where Tony looked only seconds before, two people were watching the turn of events, each waiting for the right time to act and each for a different reason.

Rooftop across the NCIS office building; 4 twenty in the afternoon;

'I've been waiting here for an hour at least' she thought. 'Surely the feds must have informed them by now. What is taking them so long?'

She had actually been situated on the same location for about an hour and thirty two minutes exactly -but who's counting? Anyways it had felt so much longer to her. She knew he was inside that building. And that thought was almost enough to make her run trough the frond doors all the way to his office and kiss him till they both run out of air. But she knew she couldn't and that was killing her. For real this time.

Though she wasn't there she was always watching out for him. Well after she left intensive care that is. 'Nobody takes a shot to the head and is fine the next day I guess.' She thought while rubbing the spot where the bullet had hit her. There really was no scar, since she had it removed three months ago, not wanting to have a permanent reminder of that specific event of her life.

Since she had come back to field action she always kept an eye on him. She saw him turning from the always happy and carefree guy to this perfectly professional and unbelievably reckless man; the kind of man who jumps of windows and rides horses in order to catch the criminals he was after. She always knew that he could be the best agent in his field if he wanted to. 'I just wanted us to be the best team of agents, me and him, as stupid and disgustingly romantic this might sound.' She thought. 'I am so proud of him though. He really did it. And on his own.'

But she had more pressing matters on her mind to keep daydreaming about him. 'Those morons from the 'New Army' are here.' She thought. She silently watched as five of them hid behind some parked cars at the parking lot.

'I guess I am lucky I decided to watch them from up here.' She thought. 'The moment I found out those morons wanted to kill my friends, wanted to kill him, I knew I had to find a place from where I could watch them until they left the office…' But she was unable to continue with her thoughts as she heard someone climbing the stairs to the rooftop. She quickly hid behind a pile of old pipes, that she had no idea how they got there, still able to watch what was happening four stories beneath her and keep an eye on the man who climbed the stairs.

'A sniper.' She thought with fear. She then looked at the agents that were taking cover beneath her. She heard the sniper shoot a warning shot, trying to scare them.

'Stupid action really' she thought as he looked at the sniper's location. 'Now they know he is here, so they are going to be twice as careful' she thought, a bit more relaxed, yet ready to move if she had to.

For the next five minutes she watched, holding her breath as the agents took down their attackers one by one. She would have already taken the sniper down herself, but she had direct orders not to compromise her cover. At least not for the next week, or else it would take even longer for her to be allowed to come back. She simply couldn't risk that; even the thought of spending an extra second away from him would be enough to drive her crazy and she knew it.

Then she saw it; the last of the attackers still standing was approaching McGee, trying to get a clear shot at him. She was ready to scream and warn him, but then she saw something that made her heart stop for something more than a second; he had seen the attacker too and decided to act. He broke his cover and shot the attacker, effectively saving McGee's life. But now his life was in danger.

She decided it was time for her to take action. As the sniper aimed at him, she moved carefully behind the still unsuspecting sniper kicking him in the head with all her strength. The result was immediate; the sniper did fire, but missed by four feet from his target since he moved the rifle while falling on the floor unconscious. She handcuffed him, happy she had remembered to wear gloves. 'No fingerprints, no worries' she thought.

She turned to leave, but thought of something in the process; 'I wonder if he will…' She bended over the riffle thinking; 'Please remember. Please do. I love you so much.' Then she turned to leave, whispering to herself; "I love you Tony. I love you with all my heart."

Outside the NCIS office building; 4 thirty five in the afternoon;

To say that Tony was bewildered would be the understatement of the century. He knew he was shot. He had to be.

'What did just happen?' he thought opening his eyes. He saw the same curious look on McGee's, Ziva's and even Gibbs's face.

"What did just happen?" Tony asked out loud this time.

"You should have been shot." Gibbs said, worry clear in his voice. Then however the worry turned to anger as he realized that Tony had once again put his life to danger. "What were you thinking DiNozzo? You could have been killed."

All four of them looked at the rooftop for a couple of seconds and when they realized the sniper was no longer an issue (he could have shot each one of them twice by now) they reached for Tony. McGee reached him first and pooled him once again in a brotherly hug.

"Ugh, I think we have talked about hugging in the past haven't we Probie?" He couldn't resist teasing McGee.

McGee surprisingly muttered something that sounded a lot like; "Shut up Tony". However that didn't preventing from turning tomato red as usual.

Then it was Ziva's turn; she literally hung herself from his neck while saying between sobs; "Why did you do that? You could have been killed!"

Tony, who couldn't thing of anything to say to her, turned to Gibbs and stated; "We should probably go and check what happened on that roof boss."

"You are right DiNozzo" Gibbs said, a bit less angry, realizing Tony had saved McGee's life. He then looked at Ziva, who was still crying, hugging from Tony's neck and said;

"Agent David, you stay here and inform the rest of the agents." he said pointing at the entrance of the office, where the rest NCIS agents started to gather, having heard the shooting. "DiNozzo and McGee, you are coming with me. Let's go see what happened on that rooftop."

Rooftop across the NCIS office building; 4 forty five in the afternoon;

Gibbs was the first one to reach the rooftop with McGee and Tony right behind him. Once he set eyes on the sniper he realized he was unconscious, probably knocked badly to the head. He also realized he was handcuffed. He then took a closer look at the riffle that lay next to the now unconscious sniper.

"What is that on the barrel of the rifle boss?" McGee asked.

"I don't know, McGee." Gibbs answered. "It seems like some kind of…" but he never finished his sentence as he at that moment looked at Tony; he had turned completely white and his gun had slipped from his hands. He seemed to be mesmerized by the rifle and unable to even breathe, let alone move.

"DiNozzo?" he asked, concern in his voice for the second time in less than fifteen minutes. "Are you all right?"

Tony barely heard him though. He felt dizzy and all of the voices around him seemed to become a buzzing blare as all he could hear at the moment was the sound of his own beating heart, hammering inside his chest.

'I must be dreaming' he thought numbly. 'This can't be true. No! It just can't be true. She is dead. No matter how much you hope, you know that it is true.' He tried to convince himself. 'Then what is this? Did the bullet actually hit me? Am I hallucinating?' But he couldn't deny the facts; Gibbs and McGee had seen it too. He heard them talking about it just seconds ago. He had to admit it. Against his logic, against all he knew was true, it was right in frond of his eyes;

A silky red ribbon, tied around the barrel of the weapon, waving slightly in the breeze.