disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...
Author's note: I'm not that familiar with the characters, so they aren't very acurate. Plus, it's not like this scenario ever would have popped up anyway. I guess I'm just having fun...
Kate was awoken by a pounding sound. Someone was knocking on the apartment door. "Oh God! Tony!" she swore to herself. "If you've forgotten your keys again…This is the last time I'm letting you in!" She shouted, perturbed at having to get out of bed. There was only another set of knocks in response. That wasn't like Tony, she thought as she got out of bed and slipped on her flip-flops. He would usual shout right back at her. She went to answer the door. Who she found was someone she didn't expect to see.
"Gibbs. What's going on?" she asked, nonplussed by his appearance at her door in the middle of the night. She opened the door a little wider to let him in. Then realization dawned on her, and she backed towards the wall for support to prevent herself from collapsing. "What's happened to Tony?" she asked shakily, trying to hold herself up against the wall. A small fear in the back of her mind-which was growing stronger by the second- told her that the father of her baby was dead. What was she going to do without him? He was dead. What was she going to do? She felt herself being pulled into the depths of despair. The few seconds until Gibbs' response dragged on for what felt like an eternity to Kate. He grabbed her arm to stop her from sinking to the floor in hysterics. He looked her in the face but she wouldn't meet his eyes. If she didn't look at him, he couldn't tell her that Tony was dead, and then Tony couldn't be dead.
"Look at me, Kate," Gibbs ordered her. She couldn't resist the authoritative tone of his voice. She reluctantly met his eyes and braced herself for the worse. "We went to apprehend a suspect and Tony was shot. We took him to the hospital. He's in surgery right now," Gibbs explained as clearly and calmly as possible.
A wave of relief came over Kate. He was still alive. Another part of her warned her that he could still die, that just because he made it to the hospital didn't mean anything. The fear started to overwhelm her again. She looked to Gibbs for reassurance. "How serious is it?" she asked, barely holding herself together.
Gibbs took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "He will be fine," he informed her in his most commanding voice. Kate sighed in relief. If Gibbs said it, it was true. It didn't matter whether or not it was probable, or even if it was possible. Gibbs said it, and Gibbs was always right. That was enough to pull Kate out of her despair.
"Let's go," she said, grabbing a jacket off the coat rack near the door. She was still in a state of shock, even if the fear had finally left her. She didn't even know if she needed a jacket. She couldn't even remember if it was summer or winter. She only knew that she wanted to get to Tony, to see him again. Kate and Gibbs left the apartment, and she took the keys from her coat pocket to lock the door behind them. She couldn't manage to get the key into the lock she was shaking so badly. Gibbs took the key from her hand and locked the door for her. Then he guided her down to his car, and opened the rear passenger-side door for her. "Airbags," he explained. "You should sit in the back."
She nodded at him, not really understanding, and got into the car. He closed the door and walked around to the driver's side and got in. It took Kate three tries to get the seatbelt buckled, misjudging the length necessary to circumnavigate her swollen belly. He started the engine and they drove in silence to the hospital.