Author's Note: Long chapter. Jacked up. Please enjoy!
WARNING: There's another M rating moment here. Just want to let you know.
Disclaimer: NCIS does not belong to me. It belongs to its rightful owners.
Only a couple of minutes have passed but for McGee, it felt like an eternity. His strength was gradually draining out of him. His arms ached a lot, and his head was violently throbbing. His breathing was forced; it felt like he was sucking air out of a small plastic bag. Words have failed to come up from his throat anymore as it was slowly drying up.
He placed his right arm down. Exhaustion and drowsiness have started to overwhelm every inch of his body, and it sent his hope into oblivion. McGee closed his eyes. It was no use to fight anymore. This had been his consequence since the beginning, since he wrote the book, and he knew well enough that the responsibility was his. Other people should not get involved. If he couldn't overcome what was taking place, he should not expect other people to pull him out of it.
There was no other choice but to surrender.
Surprisingly, he was becoming more relaxed. He didn't know why, but that was how he felt. Then, his worries and terror fled away from him, and there was only calmness. One by one, he began to forget the faced of the people engraved in his memory. His mother, his father. Sarah. Abby. Tony. Jimmy. Director Vance. Ducky. Gibbs. Ziva. He also remembered Kate and Jenny, although the seemed far away from him now.
………………………………....
Annah looked upward to the sky and watched the dense, dark clouds shift to the left. A hint of light was contaminating the all too perfect dimness. It made her frown, thinking that she could have gotten Timothy earlier so that no one would see them after they leave the cemetery.
She turned her head to the left and gazed at the countless tombstones that lied ahead. Adrian was there, somewhere. She could remember his face—how handsome and lovely it was—and it saddened her. He loved her a lot, and she loved him, too. He always made sure that she knew that. She missed his voice dearly, and his kisses. Adrian was her special life, an exclusive blessing that only belonged to her. But now that he was gone, she loved someone else.
Annah was sure that he would understand that.
"They're here," Jared said, bolting up on his seat. "The NCIS agents. They're here."
Annah tore her gaze away from the tombstones irritably. She pulled the glove compartment open, then drew out a gun. Jared's eyes widened. Before he could snatch the weapon away from her, she was already directing it towards him. "Out of the car," she said.
"What—"
"Out. Now."
Gibbs' team and Samuels' team got out of their cars, the latter team having their gun at the ready as they focused on Annah's car alertly. Annah and Jared also came out. Swiftly, Samuels' team raised their weapons. Ziva did the same, but Gibbs did not. McGee was nowhere in sight, and he was absolute that they needed her alive above everything else.
"Annah Corbett?" Gibbs asked through the heavy rain. She only glared at him. He took a step forward, only to be halted by the threatening gun pointed to him.
"Stay where you are," Annah said, "or I'll take him out."
"Let go of Jared, Annah. He doesn't need to be involved."
"And what? You're going to shoot me after? I'm not stupid," she said, pressing the gun farther to Jared's back.
"Gibbs," Ziva called. "I can take her."
Gibbs shook his head. "You're surrounded. You can't escape anymore," he insisted. He saw Annah's eyes sweep through the faces of the agents standing by. Not once did her eyes flicker.
She glanced at the skies again and as she expected, more blurry daylight had come. "I've done what I need to," she replied softly. "I'm not scared."
The glimpse of contentment that swung by her eyes told Gibbs how all would end, and it alarmed him. He had to act fast. "Where's McGee?" he asked.
"Now you care?" Annah scoffed scornfully. "What fake people you are."
"Annah. Tell us where Tim is."
"You're just going to make him miserable again," she shook her head. "I've seen ho you people are. All of you are far worst than I am. I'm doing Timothy a favor. Leave him to it because he's happy now."
"Whatever you're thinking—"
"I know what I'm doing!" she asserted. "Leroy Jethro Gibbs. You're a joke. You think you're everything. You think that you can do anything. You think that you could just slam anyone you want just because you're that great? Well, you're not. Two people have died because of you. I know that. Kate and Jenny will never forgive what you did."
"Hey!" Ziva yelled after she saw what Annah was trying to do.
Annah rotated towards her. "And you," she began, her eyes watering with the heartbreak she was feeling. "Do you know what's going to happen to Timothy? He's going to die because of you. And you're never see him again."
Ziva became more incensed. At the same time, it made her think. She lost her focus on hr target for a second.
"You won't find him again," Annah nodded, as if what she said was for a fact.
"Annah," agent Samuels began. "Whatever it is that was done to agent McGee, I'm sure it was never intentional. Whatever it is that anyone did to you, too, may not be meant to happen." He saw Annah thinking, and it told him that he was victorious of his attempt. He glanced at Gibbs, who only gave him a nod.
"But no one's sorry about it," Annah replied. "No one cares."
"How would you know?" Gibbs calmly continued. He took more steps forward. Annah's gun was unable to stop him. "How do you know that what you're doing to Tim is right?"
Annah's hands quivered. "Because he's better off without the world, without people like us. He's happy now."
"Did you ask him? Did he tell you that?" Annah shook her head, mixture of tears and raindrops sliding down her cheeks. "None of us can tell of we don't ask. Annah, where is he? Where is McGee?"
Annah thought about what Gibbs said over and over. She was absolute that it was what Timothy needed before, so why did she doubt now? If she let him go back to them and allow them to lock her up, like what happened to Landon, Timothy would feel horrible again. He would be left with these people who only paid attention to him when they were in need.
But why did they bother to run after her if they didn't care? Was it because they wanted to show that they did? Pretend that they did? It had to be that. However, the warmth and anxiety in Gibbs' eyes perplexed her. The longing and regret on Ziva's face made her doubt. Even these other people that Timothy probably was not close to, there was something in their expressions also.
Did she fail? Was she taking something away from Timothy that she was unaware of? Above all things, she did not want to do that. She only wanted what was best for the person she loved. Once her grip loosened, Jared ran away from her and went towards the opposite side.
There was only disbelief in Annah's face. She looked up to Gibbs. "You're right," Annah told him with a sad smile. "I can't."
"Annah, no!" Jared yelled but before he could stop her, she had already fallen dead to the ground because of the shot she inflicted herself. He collapsed on his knees, the sound still ringing through his ears.
Ziva lowered her gun. She did not know what to make of what she had seen, but she knew she would remember it for a long time. Tony stepped outside of the car. He looked upon Annah's lifeless body lying on the mud, the blood issuing from her mouth and nose mingling with the murky puddles.
"She buried him," Jared said, remembering the agent they left under the ground some minutes ago. "I had to follow her. She told me to put him into a casket. He's four feet underground, and I'm not sure of he's still alive."
"Where is her?" Tony asked nervously.
"Back there. Meters away from the shovel."
Without waiting for Jared to continue, Gibbs ran towards the place. And you said it won't happen again this time, Kate pointed out to him.
………………………………....
When McGee opened his eyes again, it wasn't dark anymore. The walls of the casket and of the soil that was just above it were still there, but he could see bright clouds ahead. He sat up, and wondered why he didn't feel pain anymore. He checked his left elbow, but saw that the cast wasn't there. He wasn't even wearing a hospital gown. Instead, he was clad in his usual office suit.
"I see you're having fun, agent McGee?" someone familiar jovially asked.
McGee sought for the person and then, he smiled when he saw who it was. "Director Shepard."
"How are you, Tim?" Jenny asked as she sat down on the grass some feet above him.
"I'm better," he replied, then hurriedly added, "ma'am. You?"
"Not so good, since you're making me sound old by calling me 'ma'am'."
"Oh. Sorry. What should I call you then, ma'am?"
Jenny laughed softly. "I'll settle with Jenny," she answered, reciprocating his smile. She examined the place where Tim sat, and it made the latter crease his eyebrows. "How did you get yourself into this mess, Tim?" she asked.
McGee shrugged. "I don't know," he answered while he looked at the dirt inside the casket. "I think someone put me here. That was your question, right? Madam D—I mean, Jenny?"
"No. I was wondering why someone's going after you."
"Oh. W-Well, I guess…it was my book. I wrote too much," he answered, and then yawned. He was getting tired again.
Jenny nodded. "I know. Gibbs and I were there, am I right?"
"Ye—I mean, no," McGee lied.
"You're a good writer," Jenny said, "but a really bad liar." McGee scratched his head, and it made her chuckle. "You shouldn't be here," she added afterwards. "Go back to your family."
"I don't have any choice," McGee answered. "I'm stuck."
"I can see that," Jenny said. "I never knew you would stay long in a coffin. Of course, Miss Sciuto could've influenced you."
McGee creased his eyebrows again. Miss Sciuto. He have heard of that name before. Who was that again? "Director Shepard—"
"You're tired?" Jenny asked. "I know."
"Why is this place like this?" McGee inquired, all the while absorbing that beautiful and vivid landscape that extended to the horizon.
"Like what?"
"Beautiful," McGee yawned.
"Because that's what you're thinking about. A beautiful place."
"So this is just a dream."
It was Jenny's turn to shrug. "You could say that."
"Director Shepard—"
"You're getting sleepy?" Jenny asked. "I know. But don't you want to wait for Gibbs or Tony or Ziva?"
After lying back to the casket, McGee frowned. "Who?" he asked, unable to recognize any of the names mentioned to him. Whoever they were, they might have been important before along with Miss Sciuto. He couldn't remember them anymore, so it didn't matter now.
"Good night, agent McGee," Jenny said.
"Good night, Director Jenny," he muttered inattentively. McGee allowed the darkness to carry him away again. By then, everything turned to nothing.
………………………………....
The labored breathing underneath the ground, raspy and desperate it was, had ceased. There was only the sound of the tip of the shovel prying through the soil and clicking against the casket's lid. There was also the deafening peace that began to dominate.
And the silence of McGee's previously beating heart.
I do hope that you would leave reviews. A lot of people have put (?) an alert on this story, yet there's only one or three people saying something…
Beside that, one more chapter to go! =P