Ch. 3 I DON'T OWN NCIS!
Tony stayed silent for a while before looking directly in her eyes and saying, "Sarah, I know what happened. I've read your papers." Tony pulled Sarah into a hug after she got the meaning of his words and started balling her eyes out. "I wanted to discuss this at home, but you wanted an answer now. I'm sorry I hurt you." He pulled away slightly so he could look into her eyes. "Let's go home ok? Does that sound good?" The girl nodded her head a couple of times then she walked to the elevator and pressed the down button. "I'll be back in twenty-five minutes guys, is that fine, Boss?"
"Twenty-five minutes DiNozzo, I'm timing you," replied Gibbs, waving Tony off. When he turned around, Gibbs smiled at Tony's love for his ward. Gibbs knew that Tony would be a good father for Sarah. "Tony's a kind person underneath under all the sarcasm. When he gets to care for someone dear to him, he knows how to be good to them. This time though, I wonder how well he'll do," thought Gibbs, a frown forming back on his face.
"Boss?" asked Ziva, looking over at her superior. Gibbs gave her the OK, so she continued, "Do you think both of them will be alright?"
"It all depends, David."
"It all depends on what, Boss?"
"On whether Tony is the man I think he is, and the man I know he is." The group silently went back to work.
Once Tony and Sarah got back to the apartment, Tony grabbed some water for Sarah to sip on while they talk.
"First of all, please show me your wrists." Tony looked at the girl with saddened eyes, pleading her not to hide it anymore. Sarah looked at him with terror in her eyes, but then she pulled her silly bands off her revealing the cuts she had made that day. "When did you do these?" he asked his voice soft, with concern sparkling in his eyes.
Sarah started to visibly relax, trusting Tony not to yell at her or beat her for doing such a thing. "When… I went back to NCIS's car at the crime scene," she told him, looking out the window towards the city; flinching when Tony stood from his seat, went to squat down in front of her, taking her wrist, and feeling the cuts. When she flinched from his touch Tony took his hands away from her wrist and looked up at her face.
"With what?" he asked her, looking straight into her eyes, wanting the truth from the girl.
"There… Was a knife… Under the… driver's seat." Sarah couldn't look at Tony anymore, she was ashamed of herself. "Please… Don't send me away from you, Tony! I really do like it here! I LOVE it here! I can't stand to be away from the team one day! Plus… You make me feel safe, unlike my old family."
"Can you tell me what happened with your old family, Sarah?" Tony couldn't bear making his ward so upset. His reason told him to call the office and tell them what happened, but his heart told him to let her stay.
"They… Beat me, until I was black and blue. It started when I was in fifth grade when they started hitting me. Every, last, one of them did. If they were angry, I was their punching bag. If I did something wrong, they would beat even more than they did before, but they never dared to break a bone. They didn't want to get caught because the hospital would ask questions about all the bruises I got. They'd send me to hospitals every now and then because I would cut and starve myself, and have a mental break down every so often."
Sarah paused for a few seconds, but then continued on by saying, "The last time I broke, I was in really bad shape. I was ninety-nine pounds, had more than 200 cuts in all on my body, and I fell down a flight of concrete stairs and I was in a coma for a month. When I woke up, they immediately started asking questions, like 'How did you so many bruises on you?' 'Why did you cut yourself?' Things like that… When I finished answering them, truthfully, they took me to the behavior health center and put me on the red zone list. That's where the… worst people with disorders are. While I was there, they told me that I would be put on the ward list because my parents confessed to beating me, I had underdeveloped lungs, I had major anxiety and depression, I had first stage breast cancer, and I had seizers every so often from my medications mixing."
Tony pulled Sarah into a hug, hoping to ease her pain. She had a few more things to say before she was finished though. "A month ago, was when we first met actually." Tony pulled back in surprise, looking at the girl with a shocked expression. "The social workers moved me to Virginia two months ago because my parents wanted me back and that they were sorry. They tried sneaking into the health center a couple of times to try busting me out of there. Well, when you came that day, I thought you were one of those fancy nurses at the hospital because I had just gotten there and I didn't know my way around. You said you weren't a nurse and you starting joking around a little, making me laugh. You made me feel something I hadn't felt in a long time, Tony. What you made me feel, was happiness." Tony started to remember now: the girl, their talking, her troubles, his troubles, and his job. Everything.
"That was you?" he asked shocked the pieces finally fitting together. "It was you! I remember now. Oh sweetie." He hugged the girl tightly to him, afraid to let go. "I won't let you go, but this is the only time, you got it? That's it. Promise me to try your best, please?"
"I promise Tony. I really do promise. Thank you so much, Tony." Sarah hugged him back. When she felt him pull away so she pulled away also.
"I got to go back to work now, Sarah. I'm going to ask one of my neighbors to watch you. I'll be right back, please, be good," he asked of her and she nodded her head to relaxed in her seat.
"I knew coming here would be a good idea." Sarah let a tear fall down her face, and she wiped the evidence of her crying away and pulled up her bracelets back up. She smiled brightly, looked out the window, and enjoyed the silence while it lasted.
When Tony came back he let himself in and his next door neighbor, an older woman in her sixties named Mrs. Goldings. They both heard Sarah talking to herself, but what she was saying was the strangest part.
"… Why are you saying that to me? I thought we were friends, Angel… You agree with Angel, Chad? Why don't you trust my decision to stay here? ... Tony wouldn't take you guys away from me, tell them Aang! … See! Aang is probably the smartest out of all of you! He trusts Tony also!"
"Sarah?" asked Tony looking at the girl standing in the middle of the living room with no one there, yet arguing with someone.
"Yes, Tony?" she asked, hoping Tony didn't hear her arguing with the voices.
"Can you give us a minute Mrs. Goldings?"
"Sure thing, Anthony, take your time," replied the wise woman walking out of the door.
"Who were you just arguing with, Sarah?"
"My friends, Tony… Please don't make them go away! I really like them and they like me, but two of them don't trust you and they think you're going to make them go away. Please don't, Tony!" Sarah cried startling Tony slightly. She must have imagined them up when she was younger. They were probably the only people she could trust fully.
Tony sighed and said, "I won't take your friends away from you, Sarah. I promise you." Tony gave her one last hug before heading toward the door and opening so Mrs. Goldings can come in again. "Mrs. Goldings, this is my ward, Sarah. Please take special care of her while I'm gone please. Sarah, you're in trusting hands, so don't worry. I'll be back between ten and eleven."
"Thank you, Tony!" Sarah hugged him before he left and closed the door after waving to him.
"So, Sarah, what would you like to do?" asked Mrs. Goldings to the young girl.
"Um, we can see what movies Tony has and we can watch one of those," suggested Sarah starting to look through the movies.
"That sounds nice." Mrs. Goldings sat herself on the couch before the grand TV.
Tony walked into NCIS with a bounce in his step. "Hello my wonderful team!" He had the widest smile on his face that anyone has seen him wear the past few weeks.
"Tony, you look like you're in love," commented Ziva smiling. "You're not, I hope."
"No, little Ziva, I am just very happy to see that things are going smoothly."
"That's good, Tony. Now get back to work," ordered Gibbs.
"Yes, Boss!" Tony went straight to work, filling out a report about the case so far.
"Tony, I sent you an email of the interrogation we did of Lieutenant Steve. It gets feisty at some parts, but we got a confession out of him," Tim told Tony the ending results of the case, closing it for good.
"Thanks, McSmarty! That'll help me a lot on my report."
"Plus, I know why Sarah wanted to give the guy a good beating," Gibbs mumbled to himself, typing away at his computer. Tony laughed at the comment, nodding his head.
When Tony was about to listen to the recording when his work phone rang, he answered it saying, "Hello, this is-." He was cut off when someone on the other end started talking suddenly. "Sarah, calm down honey! What's the matter now?" He waved his team mates over and put the phone on speaker.
"Well, first there was this load explosion, and then- AHH!" the phone cut of at Sarah's screaming.
"Sarah? Sarah? Answer me!" yelled Tony to the phone, trying to get the girl to answer.
"Tony! She's not there anymore. McGee! Call Abby! Tell her to trace the call that just came in to DiNozzo's phone. Now!" Gibbs ordered and the team went as quickly as possible to get ready for travel and for a possible fight.
"Abby said it came from Sarah's phone. She says Sarah's traveling this way now!" Tim shouted to the team. "She is coming up the elevator." After Tim said that, the girl burst into the squad room, scaring many of the occupants in the room. Sarah ran over to Tony panting and with a wide eyed expression.
"T-Tony, some-something b-bad just happened. I d-don't under-understand what's going- what's going on," stuttered out the girl. Tony glanced over the girl. She had blood all over her clothes, and she had turns running down her face. "Some men in black tried-tried getting me, but before-but before they did they-they k-killed Mrs. Goldings while she was trying to pro-protect me. I ran after throwing the lamp at them-at them so I-so I could escape. That's-that's-that's what happened. I was so scared!"
"Sarah, honey, let's go see Abby now, OK? You're safe now. You're safe here at NCIS. We will protect you, don't worry," Tony tried comforting the small girl leading her to Abby's lab then to autopsy.
"Ziva, go with McGee to Tony's apartment and tape it off as a crime scene, I'll be there as soon as I can," instructed Gibbs following Tony and Sarah.
-And that is the end of chapter three! I'm sorry for having it shorter than the other two chapters! I really wanted to continue, but my friend was all like, I don't think you'll have a chance to anytime soon if you don't. So this is it. I hope you liked chapter three!-