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

Annie: Lilli doesn't own NCIS or Bones, as much as she would like to, she doesn't. She didn't mean to give you the impression that she does in the previous chapter, that was just Lilli being crazier than usual.

Me: Thanks, Annie… Now let's get this chapter going!

A/N: Hey Guys! I got this one out a lot quicker than the last update, huh? :P See, I told you I have more time on my hands! Again, thanks for the reviews, and faves and follows, they really mean a lot! Hope you like this chapter guys, this is dedicated to all of you who have stuck by me from the start of this story, of which the first chapter was posted like 2 years ago, now… So thanks!

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my very best friends in the whole wide world, Charlie! Enjoy being 18! And thanks for lending me your name for the purpose of this story! xx

Chapter Five

As Gibbs, Ziva and Annie walked up the steps to the Petty Officer's apartment, Annie head was spinning with possible scenarios as to why one of her best friends, who she had known since she was 16, was acting so unlike himself. In the years that she'd known Charlie, Annie had only ever known him to call in sick was if she or Nat had forced him to, and neither Annie nor Nat had seen Charlie for over 3 weeks, but that wasn't unusual because Charlie was married to his job.

Looking over to the young woman walking next to her, Ziva noticed that Annie was gnawing on her lip. Because Ziva knew her so well, she knew that this was one of Annie's most prominent nervous habits. Ziva quickly grabbed hold of Annie's hand and pulled her to a stop.

"Annie, I'm sure there is a logical explanation for the Petty Officer's absence. You do not need to stress so much." Ziva suggested to her best friend, squeezing her hand. Annie squeezed back, and smiled slightly at her, before going back to chewing her lip, before continuing her walk to the third floor, and her friend's apartment, walking quicker to catch up to Gibbs. Ziva shook her head, smiling slightly. It was going to take a lot more reassuring to get Annie to stop worrying about her friends. Ziva started moving again, jogging slightly up the rest of the stairs to catch up with her fellow agents. Gibbs knocked on the door.

"Petty Officer Phillips-Stone? NCIS. We'd like to have a word with you." Gibbs said loudly, so that the sound carried through the door. Annie shifted her weight from one foot to the other and absently rubbed at the old scar on her left shoulder, the one she had received on her first undercover operation with the FBI, six months after she started there. Ziva glanced at Annie, watching her unconscious nervous habits, and reached out again to clasp her best friend's hand, and squeezing it gently to try and get the young woman to calm down, slightly. Annie smiles slightly, squeezing back, before letting go of the Israeli woman's hand and took a few, deep calming breaths, before moving to stand beside Gibbs and knocking a second time on the door.

"Charlie? You home? We need to talk to you. Please open up." Annie called, and stepped back from the door, which opened almost immediately, revealing a slightly dishevelled looking man, looking about the same age as Annie. He was about 5' 10, maybe 5' 11, with pale blue eyes and slightly longer hair than a military buzz cut, in a mousey-brown colour. He had bloodshot eyes, and a 5 o'clock shadow, and basically looked like he had seen better days, dressed in sweats and a ratty Navy t-shirt with a few holes in the fabric. He did look unwell, and Annie let out the breath that she didn't realise she had been holding. Ziva looked over to the younger agent and raised her eyebrow in a 'see I told you there was an explanation' sort of way. Annie smiled weakly back in response.

"Annie? What are you doing here? Why are you with NCIS? I thought you said you couldn't work with them after what happened to your sister." Charlie questioned his best friend of 11 years, slightly groggy.

"Joint case. This is NCIS agents, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Ziva David. Can we come in?" Annie asked, introducing the two agents who had now moved to stand beside her.

"Sure, Annie. Come in, but just be warned, the apartment is a bit of a mess. I haven't been feeling well enough to do any cleaning." The dishevelled man opened the door wider, and moved aside to allow the three agents to move inside, closing the door behind them. Charlie led the way into his small living area and seated himself heavily on the couch. Annie moved to sit next to him, while the two NCIS agents remaining standing.

"Wow, Charlie. You really don't look well. Are you okay?" Annie started by asking. It was rare that Charlie got sick, so when he did, it was usually pretty bad, and this was about the worst Annie had seen him. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, and he had definitely had lost weight, meaning that he hadn't eaten, which was exceedingly unusual since Charlie always said he was married to his food. "Have you been to see the corpsman yet?" She asked, very concerned.

"Nah, I'm just waiting to get over it. I should be okay in a few days." Charlie replied, sounding slightly groggy as he did, which led Annie to believe that she and the other two agents had woken her sick friend up. Annie opened her mouth to speak again, but Gibbs looked at her, and the two agents shared a look, and understanding what Gibbs wanted, Annie closed her mouth and let Gibbs deliver the hard truth.

"When was the last time you saw or spoke to Petty Officer Amos?" Gibbs questioned, and Charlie blanched.

"Stephen? Umm… I saw him the day before he went missing. Have you found something? I'll do anything I can to help. I already told police everything I know, but if telling you helps find him, then I'll answer any questions you need me to answer." Charlie answered in a rush. Annie lowered her eyes from looking intently at her friend, and blinked rapidly to clear the forming tears, before she broke down like she did with Natalie earlier on in the day.

"We're sorry to be the ones to tell you this, Petty Officer," Ziva started, sneaking a glance at Annie's still bowed head. "Petty Officer Amos' body was found 2 days ago." Charlie's eyes glazed over and looked over at his friend, who had now raised her head, at looked back at him with tear-filled eyes.

"What? He's dead? How can he be dead?" Charlie whispered in almost a monotone. If it were possible he went even paler than he had been before. Annie looked at Gibbs, and Gibbs nodded in answer to her unasked question.

"He was stabbed, and killed, we estimate the day before Nat reported him missing, when he didn't come home. We came to ask you if you knew anyone who could have had something against Stephen. Any grudges that anyone may have had with him? We already asked Nat and Callum, and me I guess, but you and Stephen had known each other years before any of us entered the equation, so we thought you may be able to help us." Annie explained, rather sadly. She had already had to deal with this once already, but this was somehow harder to deal with than Natalie, because Charlie looked so out of it.

"Oh, God! That's horrible!" Charlie turned a slight shade of green, which made him look even more haggard. "Urgh... Umm, I can't think of anyone who'd hold a grudge against Stephen. Everyone loved him."

"Do you think anyone from your unit would have a grudge against the Petty Officer because he was up for promotion?" Ziva questioned softly.

"No! I don't think anyone would have had a problem with Stephen getting a promotion. He was a great Marine and an even better friend. He was always there for everyone. He even helped me through boot camp, when I was doing pretty crappy." Annie nodded, once Charlie had finished, agreeing with her friend.

"Any debts that he may have kept from Nat? Tabs he hadn't paid? Fights at bars? Anything that could help us narrow down who might have done this to him?" Annie asked anxiously, almost pleadingly. Their friendship group had never been one to keep secrets, which is why all of this was so odd. If anyone had a beef with Stephen, he would have told the rest of them, at the very least Natalie or Charlie.

"Not that I can think of. He did have a few arguments with Nicky DeBoer, about his Tom's death, but that's it. One of them did get pretty heated, a week or so after we got home, but I don't think anything happened after that." Charlie explained. His voice getting thicker with emotion that he would never try to show around even one of his best friends. He was always trying to put on a brave front, and not let it show that things bother him, and he was getting better at compartmentalising his emotions, but he wasn't quite at the point that he could compartmentalise a thing like his best friend's horrible death, especially when he was as sick as he was, and Annie knew this. After a quick, silent conversation with Gibbs and Ziva, she stood up slowly, and turned to Charlie.

"If that's all you can tell us, Charlie, then we'll leave you to recuperate. You've got my number if you think of anything else. But mainly just concentrate on getting yourself better." Annie said gently, moving forward to rub her friend's shoulder in a soothing manner. "I'll get Nat or Cal to call you tomorrow morning to see how you're doing."

"Thank you for your time, Petty Officer. We'll show ourselves out." Gibbs stated gruffly, and Ziva nodded, shooting a sympathetic smile in the sick man's direction, before following Gibbs on his way to the front door. Annie lingered a bit longer at her friend's side, before following the other two agents out the door, closing it soundly behind her.

"I think he's hiding something, Anne." Ziva stated, as the trio made their way down the stairs, and to the car. Gibbs said nothing, just nodded agreeably. When the trio were safely tucked inside the car, Annie exhaled and nodded.

"I think so too."

A/N: Hey guys! I got this one up a lot quicker than the last one, although this is a pretty short chapter, I think, for this story, anyway. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. Reviews are greatly appreciated!

Till next time,

Lilli xxx