Shattered

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: Twilight left them shattered. When Ari is killed 6 months later, the team learns surprising news, but will those news come soon enough to keep one of them from breaking?

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3- WITSEC

A few seconds later the door was opened and Tony almost fell backwards off the porch. At first it was just a shadow at the door, but when she stepped forward a bit, he didn´t believe his eyes. Her hair was up in a ponytail, her brown eyes glistened with tears. He found himself completely lost for words and simply stared at the woman he had seen die six months ago. "Are you going to just stare at me, Dinozzo?" Kate finally asked and tears started to roll down her face. She had waited for this moment for what seemed like forever. She watched how the color slowly returned to his face and tried to smile, but she wasn´t sure what to think right now.

Tony regained his composture and closed the space between them. "But...but you...I saw you die...how..." He stuttered and finally dared to pull her into an embrace. The smell of her hair and the feeling of her body against his seemed so unreal. He felt her pull back and let go again. "You´re really here." He stated and pulled a strand of hair from her face. He was still too confused to realize what these news meant for the team.

"Come on in and I´ll try to explain it to you...Tony, is Ari really dead?" She asked hesitantly and lead him into the livingroom. Her furniture had been brought here right after everyone had been convinced that she had died. Autopsy had been performed by a CIA doctor, making sure that nobody from NCIS was present. They had simply taken all data from her file and shot some photographs that had been altered on a computer to make them look real.

Tony sat down on the couch and brushed his hand through his hair. "He´s dead all right. Morrow called me in today to tell me. Now I know what he meant with implications." He said and smiled a bit. "I missed you, Kate. Don´t get me wrong, okay? I mean, I really loved you as a friend and losing you was the worst thing that ever happened to me." It was odd to admit this, but much to his surprise she smiled.

"I know. When they came up to me and told me about the plan, they said it was a matter of days or weeks -not months. That´s why I agreed. They didn´t tell you then?" Kate asked and got up to find something to drink for them. She got two cans of soda from the fridge and handed one to Tony.

"Not a word. I mean, even Ducky thought you were dead -and he´s not easy to be fooled. There was a funeral and everything. We got that replacement and tried to go on, but it wasn´t the same..." His voice trailed off when he remembered what this had done to Gibbs, but he didn´t feel like telling her about him right away. The two of them had always seemed close, even if that was unusual. Tony had tried to get her around for a date, but he had learned soon enough that her friendship was worth more than a one-night-stand or something like that.

"Don´t ask me how they did the thing with the blood -I have no clue. I could play dead rather well because I know yoga, that´s probably why they chose me as bait. I was moved here and got a new identity. I was told not to contact anyone since it might endanger not only me, but you guys as well...I missed all of you so much, Tony. How did they cope?" She asked and took a sip from her soda, running her hand through her hair.

Tony sighed and tried to find the right words. "Abby had a nervous breakdown when we told her. She never listens to any music in her lab anymore, I think she really misses you a lot -she keeps talking about your girl night´s out. McGee turned out to be a great agent -he had to take over most of your tasks ever since all that happened. He´s still really subdued though. I´m not sure about Ducky, he seems to be the same as always, but maybe he´s just good hiding it." He told her and hoped that she would leave it there for the moment, but when he looked into her eyes, he knew she wouldn´t.

"What about Gibbs?" She immediately asked and tried to read his eyes. What she saw there caused a chill to run down her back. She had never seen so much pain in his eyes before. A bunch of butterflies started to roam around her stomach, not because she was flattered, but because she could sense that something wasn´t right. "He´s okay, isn´t he?"

Tony´s voice was different somehow when he finally started to speak. He had to fight back the emotions that threatened to dwell up again. "When you were down, Gibbs was at your side immediately. You died in his arms, at least that´s what all of us thought. When the EMTs came, we had to drag him away from you. If Ducky hadn´t been there, we wouldn´t have managed." He said and saw new tears forming in her eyes. "He hasn´t spoken a word ever since and they admitted him to 7 West. Ducky doesn´t know if he´ll come out of that shock ever. They say its a posttraumatic stress disorder, but it almost seems like he died with you that day."

Kate felt new tears streaming down her face and threw herself against Tony´s chest. She felt her heart aching at the thought of Gibbs hurting so much because of her. "I didn´t want to hurt anyone..." She whispered after a moment and felt him stroking over her head. After a while she straightened again. "They will move my stuff back to my apartment tonight. Since it´s over, I´m supposed to go back to my old life, but I´m not sure if that life is still there. Life after WITSEC is difficult -that´s what they told me and I guess that´s true."

Tony got up and looked at her. "We´ll see. You can stay at my place tonight and we´ll get your badge and gun back tomorrow. We can have some Chinese tonight -I´m paying." He offered and held out his hand to her. Normally, she would have fired some remark at him for that, but today it was different. It was not like he was trying to get her on a date or something. For once, Tony was just being nice. With a little smile, Kate accepted his hand and they left the safe house that had been her home for so many months.