The team sat at their assigned places, finishing the last of their painfully large amount of paperwork, Tony had the most, it literally dominated his desk, late reports, and the odd task set by Gibbs. Tony sighed miserably and looked over to the only thing keeping him sane, Ziva. He knew by the attractive grin on her face, that she had noticed him staring. But he didn't rely on her entirely, heck. Most of his dates ended up as one-night stands or a few weeks' tops. He would have forward carefully with this one though, not only could Ziva kill him in more than twenty painful ways, she had suffered a lot of pain in her life too. Not to mention she had a teenage daughter who had her fair share of dark secrets to tell. Speaking of, where was Kari?
"Well what stuff does she like?" Kari asked Abby, she needed an answer badly, and it was Ziva's birthday in 3 days. "Umm" Abby began, not sure what Ziva did like, well. The things she couldn't tell Kari. Abby was about to reply but a gun shot roared and passed through the window, pieces of glass flying everywhere. Now, why was this so familiar?
Abby had brought her arms around Kari protectively, bringing them down to the ground and behind a desk, "Jesus!" Abby exclaimed and drew out a long and aching breath, "You have your gun?" Abby asked, Kari shook her head in a No motion, her hands began to shake for a second, but she had seen worse, heard worse. And been in worse situations. They sat frozen with shock, two seemingly proud and brave people. Abby warily reached for her caf-pow! And took a long and loud slurp. Kari hushed her and listened out for any signs that someone was still out there and waiting to grimly strike again, who was it? And what did they want with Abby or Kari?
Kari was the first one to get up, she calmed far quicker than Abby, and she reached for the phone and brought it back down to the floor. Not wanting to risk getting shot at again. "I'll call Gibbs" Abby stuttered, trying to regain composure, trying to get back each scrap of her normality. She pressed a few buttons and Gibbs calm and restful voice began to speak. "Gibbs, my lab now!" Abby ordered, her voice tipping over the edge ever so slightly. Gibbs was the first to slam down the phone he was worried. So obviously worried.
Gibbs and Ziva burst through the doors first, followed by the equally concerned McGee and Tony, Ziva's eyes searched for Kari, she found her sitting on the floor, not as shook up as Abby, but still scared. Gibbs walked towards them both as Tony and McGee gave glances to the window, but he or she wouldn't stick around this long, right?
"Abby" Gibbs said simply and brought the fragile looking girl into his strong arms. "Its just like before Gibbs" she whispered to him, each one of her worries aching to be tended to. He shook his head "He's gone, no one will hurt you Abby" he soothed. As much as Abby wanted to believe him her nerves had taken over completely and she shook her head again. "That's not true Gibbs!" she cried out, this was getting to her a lot. It brought up too many disturbing and heart aching memories, they reminded her more of Kate, more than those sleepless nights.
Ziva helped Kari up, she had tried to comfort Kari but she told her that she was fine. "I think I might know who did this" Kari whispered just loud enough for Tony to hear too, he eagerly walked over to them and absent mindedly put his hands on Ziva's shoulders, they got pushed away by Ziva and a quick sharp reminder cruised into his head. Ziva nodded "One of the men, yes?" Ziva asked, almost begging her by the look in her eyes, hoping to god she wouldn't cry. Kari let a long sigh escape from her lips and she nodded "One of his friends, I'm guessing, he'd always get annoyed when I'd refuse to-" she stopped and looked to the ground. "I'd fight back if I had the energy" she replied and closed her eyes. Ziva looked up to Tony, he was hit just as hard as she was. "We should tell Gibbs" Tony whispered to Ziva, and walked off into the direction of the door, following the rest of the highly alert team and a shaken Abby.
Kari turned to walk out with the rest of the team, Ziva lightly grabbed her arm and forced her to turn around "I think we'll stay at Tony's tonight" Ziva said, not even bothering to ask Tony, she knew that Kari would feel a lot safer with Tony and herself. It was the wisest thing to do.
Short chapter I know! I'll make the next one longer I promise
It's just been busy around here lately! Thanks for the reviews! Every last one of you! Its really good encouragement.
Love
Jodie