Just My Luck

Summary: 7 years ago, Ari Haswari murdered Annabelle Todd's big sister, Kate. After the case she resigned from NCIS, and accepted an offer at the FBI. When the decomposed body of a Navy Petty officer is found and taken to the Jeffersonian, her partner Seeley Booth, calls in the NCIS MCRT, without her knowledge. How will Annie react to seeing her old team, and why is one of them not surprised to see her there? – Set I don't know when…Rated T coz I'm paranoid! TIVA (They hid it well…), B&B (Because this is set when B&B are expecting, 7 weeks), MCABBY (towards the end), HODGELLA (Because they are married and have a kid, Michael who is 6 months old!).

Disclaimer

Me: Okay, here goes… CBS just sold me the right to NCIS and Fox just sold me the rights to Bones, so anything I write is what is going to happen! Yay… That means TIVA, and definitely a crossover episode!

Gibbs: Lilliana… *Does that cool arched eyebrow thing that I wish I could do*

Tony: Lilli…

Ziva: ...*Holds up paperclip*

Abby: ... *Holds up a test tube of fizzing clear liquid*

Me: Fine, fine, FINE! I give! I do NOT own NCIS, Bones, or any of the characters that you may recognise from those two AMAZING shows… If I did… Ahhh, think of the possibilities! *Goes off in to dream land*

Gibbs: Now that is settled. Let's see what she's got.

A/N: Not really that much to say, except to those of you who have patiently awaited this chapter, I thank you! Every time I get an email telling me that I have a new follower or someone has added this story to their favourites list, it makes me amazingly happy, and it really does make my day My story will still keep going, even though Cote has left NCIS (Even though I wish she didn't, but what an episode! Not ashamed to say I cried at the end :') ) I'm soooo sorry that this took so long, it's just that I went through a really hectic year 12 last year, and so I had literally no time, but now that I have finished high school, and am going to Uni this year, I should have a lot more time on my hands since I barely have a social life!

I would also like to point out to anyone who DIDN'T read the authors note before Chapter 3, This is called FANFICTION for a reason! Now without further ado...

Chapter 4

The ride to Petty Officer Phillips-Stone's apartment was silent, not the companionable silence that normally occurred around Gibbs, but an awkward silence that permeated the car. Annie was getting fed up with all the questions that she knew were circulating around that silver-grey head, but because he was too stubborn to voice them, Annie snapped him out of his internal debate.

"So, Jethro, are you going to interrogate me, like I know you are desperate to do, or are you going to sit there in silence the whole ride?"

Gibbs turned to look at the young woman sitting in the passenger seat. Her words were playful, but her blue eyes were serious, as was the small frown, creating a small crease in her forehead.

"You want to be interrogated?" Came the reply from the driver's seat.

"Not particularly, but I've already been interrogated once today, so I might as well, get it all over with. Ask away, Jethro." Annie explained, and Ziva chuckled from the backseat.

"Why'd you leave?" Gibbs asked bluntly, and Annie sighed. She should have known that would be his first question.

"Why do you think, Jethro? Everyone was so caught up in their own grief that they completely forgot about me, and that I hadn't just lost a teammate; I'd lost my big sister. She basically raised me, and then suddenly she was gone, and my NCIS family basically ignored me. None of you would talk to me unless it was case related, and even then it was only 5 or 6 words. I don't think you even said 10 words to me before the funeral, and at the funeral the only thing you said to me was asking me whether I was going to the airport with you. None of you ever asked whether I was okay or how I was doing. None of you held me when I was crying, or offered to do anything, like help me pack up Kate's things in her apartment, or her desk. I was left to do all that on my own, and that made her death hurt more, having to sort through those memories and keepsakes all on my own."

"We didn't realise. You should have said something. We didn't know we were hurting you." Gibbs tried to defend his and the teams actions, or lack thereof. None of the team had realised how much they had been hurting Annie. She was right. In saying that though, he got Annie mad.

"I shouldn't have needed to! Everything fell apart around me that day, Jethro! My whole life was thrown into turmoil because the one person who had always been there for me, the person who did everything for me, was gone! And on top of that I broke up with my boyfriend the day of the funeral for the very same reasons that I left NCIS! And when I needed you, none of you were there! I shouldn't have had to say anything to you to get you guys to talk to me! It should have been pretty damn obvious that I needed someone, anyone, to at least talk to me, or hold me when I was crying! Someone to tell me it wasn't my fault that she was dead!" Annie exclaimed her voice sharp, and her eyes welling up with tears of hurt that she had held in for almost 7 years.

"But it wasn't your fault! Ari had a thing for Kate, we all knew that." Gibbs said gruffly.

"I know that now, but then I thought that if I had only been standing a foot to the left, then it would have been me instead of her. Survivors guilt. I just needed someone to tell me that back then." Annie explained sadly.

"I should have realised you needed someone. I should have been there for you." Gibbs said, somewhat glumly. He should have noticed that Annie needed someone. He failed her. Maybe if he'd been there for her back then, she wouldn't have left.

"Yes you should have. But it wasn't just you, Jethro. It hurt most with Tim." Annie explained.

"McGee? Why would it hurt more that McGee ignored you?" Gibbs asked perplexed. He didn't realise Annie and McGee were that close, but then again he missed a lot of things, according to Annie.

"Didn't you listen to what I said, that I broke up with my boyfriend on the day of the funeral. Was McGee, by any chance, holding onto an envelope for dear life on the plane ride back to DC? I gave him that letter. It was a Dear John letter, and probably not the best way to end a relationship, but he wouldn't talk to me at all, so that was the only way I could see that I could have done it." Annie explained, hurt evident in her eyes, and because Annie had always worn her heart on her sleeve, Gibbs could see all her pain and regret that she felt, and had kept with her these past 7 years.

"Wait? You two broke Rule 12?" Gibbs asked, flabbergasted. He would never have guessed that Annie and McGee had been dating. Maybe he needed to keep better tabs on his agents in future.

"Yeah, but that was 7 years ago, though." Annie laughed quietly at her former boss' reaction to the news that one of his most precious rules had been broken, and he hadn't known about it.

"Okay, next question."

"Why the FBI?"

"Because I didn't think you would look for me there. I mean, I was in DC the whole time, except for those 6 months when I was in LA a year and a half ago, and you never once thought to look for me in the federal agencies. And because a friend offered me a job. " Annie explained, now with a hint of mischief in her eyes. Ziva chuckled from the backseat.

"A friend?" Gibbs asked curiously.

"You know him too, Jethro. Uncle Toby. " Annie stated, smiling mischievously at Gibbs, and another chuckle came from the backseat. "I could call him to prove it to you if you want."

Annie pulled her phone from her pocket and hit number 3 on her speed dial, then put the phone on speaker. The phone rang once, twice and a third time before someone picked up.

"What's up Anne? Has Booth gone over your head again? Do I need to give him the Talk again?" a very familiar voice asked.

"Hey Uncle Toby. Yes, he did go over my head, but it's okay, I'm dealing with it." Annie answered sweetly.

"Hey, how's your case going? The body found out near the Marine base? You got an ID yet?"

"Yeah, Angie and I got one this morning. Dead Petty Officer. Cullen made us do a joint investigation with NCIS. Booth called Cullen, and Cullen called Vance, and so we got some new blood in the Jeffersonian for a bit."

"Which team got assigned the case?" The voice queried. Annie nodded at Gibbs, signalling that he should say something to mess with Tobias Fornell.

"That would be mine, Tobias." Gibbs said in his usual gruff voice.

"GIBBS! Annie! You said you weren't ready! I am going to kill Booth!" Fornell fumed. He had offered Annie a job on behalf of the Director of the FBI as soon as he found out that she had quit NCIS, and after a LOT of deliberation she accepted, so Fornell had always sort of felt like he was responsible for the young woman. It also helped that she was an excellent babysitter, if he ever needed to work late and Diane wasn't available.

"You knew I was going to have to face them eventually, and so did I. It's okay. As for killing Booth, I sort of need him for investigations, and I told you, I'm taking care of him."

"They better have apologised, though Annie." Fornell said, his voice surly.

"Got a rule for that, Tobias. Never apologise. It's a sign of weakness." Gibbs quoted his internal rule book.

"Yeah, yeah, I know your rules, Gibbs, but she sure as hell deserves one, after everything you and your team put her through." Fornell rebuts.

"Yeah, I know she does. She deserves a hell of a lot more than that." Gibbs agreed.

"But an apology's a good start." Annie said, and smiled slightly at Gibbs.

"This apology better include some hands-and-knees grovelling." Fornell muttered, grumpily.

"Okay, Uncle Toby. More threatening can be done at a later stage. Right now we have to go. Almost at one of the victim's friend's place."

"Okay then but they'd all better be grovelling for forgiveness, the next time we talk." Fornell grouched and the line went dead.

"Nice to talk to you too, Uncle Toby. " Annie mumbled into the dead phone, which made Ziva laugh from the backseat.

"Surely you have more questions for Annie, Gibbs. I mean, you have not seen her for 7 years." Ziva spoke for the first time, her voice playful.

"Yeah, how do you two know each other?" Both women laughed, and Gibbs looked back and forth between the two for a moment before Ziva spoke.

"Annie saved my life. While she was still doing her FLETC training for NCIS. I was in the US, to do something or other, and my apartment was across the hall from Annie's. Someone had obviously figured out I was Mossad, and planted a bomb in my apartment. Annie and I were both at our doors, and Annie said she heard a beeping from inside my apartment. She slammed my apartment door closed-" Ziva started, but Annie butted in.

"And I shoved her none too ceremoniously into my own apartment, and then we heard a bang and Ziva's apartment was blown to bits." Annie finished, and Ziva snorted.

"Do not make it sound so dramatic, Annie. It was only a small explosion, but all my belongings were destroyed, and my apartment was unliveable. Annie offered for me to stay with her-"

"Wait, you'd basically just met each other and you offered for Ziva to stay with you, Annie? Had Kate taught you nothing? You don't offer a complete stranger your guest bedroom!" Gibbs burst out, and Annie and Ziva burst into laughter.

"I already knew that Ziva was Mossad, before I saved her life. My mentor at FLETC pointed her out to me, and she knew Ziva pretty well. They ran anti-terrorist ops in the Middle East together." Annie explained, with a hint of cheekiness. Annie knew that no one except Ziva and Kate knew who Annie's mentor was. And it should have been pretty obvious from that statement, because it's what Jenny Shepard said to introduce Ziva to Gibbs all those years ago.

"Wait. So Jenny was you mentor at FLETC? Is that why you seemed to know so much about me when you started with my team?" Gibbs questioned, and Annie chuckled.

"It's also one of the reasons I know so much about what has happened at NCIS over the past seven years. I'm surprised you didn't see me at Jen's funeral, Jethro. I was sitting up the front row, although I did have blonde hair at the time. Jen was like a mother to me. She left me everything she had, including her house. Thanks for burning it to the ground, by the way." Annie explained smugly, and Gibbs' eyes widened a fraction. He did remember a young blonde woman, sitting in the front row of the church, clinging to a tall man with sandy blonde hair, sobbing.

"And, let me guess. Your other source is Ziva." Gibbs stated.

"Yes, that would be correct. Between Jenny and Ziva I know everything. I know about Abby's assistant trying to frame Tony for murder, and trying to kill her. I know about you getting blown up, and the your 'retirement' to Mexico. I know about Hollis Mann. I know about the Frog, and Jeanne Benoit, I actually acquired some of the intel for Jenny on the Frog. I was there when Jenny died, and Mike Franks covered for me, because I was supposed to be in deep cover at the time. I know about the mole and Vance splitting up the team. I know about Rivkin and Somalia. I know about Merton Bell and M. Allison Hart, and the Reynosa Cartel, and the Port to Port Killer, and Mike Frank's death. I know everything up until now… My sources are very good." Annie ran through the list of major events for the MCRT, and it was then that Gibbs realised how much Annie had kept tabs on the team that was once her family. Gibbs' smiled slightly and Annie narrowed her eyes.

"What's that smile for, Jethro?" She asked. In her experience, when Gibbs smiled, that means he'd figured out something that you didn't know, or didn't want him to know.

"Just that you may not have wanted to see us for seven years, but you still cared enough about us to check up on us."

"Of course I still cared, Jethro!" Annie exclaimed, outraged. "You guys were my family. Those feelings don't go away overnight, they still haven't gone away!"

"Then why didn't you want to see us?" Gibbs asked.

"It hurt too much." Annie said simply, putting an end to that line of questioning, and then changing the subject completely.

"Turn here, Jethro. Charlie's apartment is the first building."

They had finally arrived at Petty Officer Phillips-Stone's building. Time to get some answers.

A/N: Hey, guys! Long time no talk! I've finally gotten another chapter up! Even though this is just a filler chapter, hey, it's better than nothing right?

Thanks to all of you for sticking by me and my inconsistent muse! I love you all! I should be able to update a lot more frequently now, because with going to Uni this year, I should have a lot more time on my hands, and not be as stressed!

Until next time, guys,

~ Lilliana-Lissa xx