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Sorry for the wait, but with finals and papers and stuff, I've been preoccupied.
NCIS
It had been over a week since Lexi had talked to Ziva, yet neither Ziva nor her father had done anything or admitted anything. The only thing that she could tell had happened had something to do with learning to communicate again.
Abby had been teaching her, McGee and Palmer sign language while Gibbs worked with Tony and Ziva. Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, Ducky had learned sign language many years ago. Tony had told his daughter that the medical examiner had launched into a story about learning on the job while still in school at University.
Lexi had smiled sadly when her dad told her that. It was then she had realized she would never be able to hear one of his rambling stories. It saddened her more than she cared to admit.
Lexi's dad had just left and they'd had a small conversation with sign language, although not very deep stuff. They weren't quite far enough to do much without the marker board.
She laid down to rest, only to dream of the time she was kidnapped a few weeks before. She had been doing that a lot, but this dream was something else completely, something she hadn't remembered until then.
FLASHBACK
Lexi was rocking herself, trying to ignore the growing pain in her leg. She could hear muffled voices mumbling in the back of her mind, and couldn't even begin to figure out what they were telling her about.
It was then that she realized that there was a second man's voice, only because if they had been the same person they would've passed out by then from lack of oxygen, speaking more frantically than Aunt Abby did when she was scared or upset.
She looked and could see the second man was lighter skinned than the one that now stood behind a door unseen. He had a slightly darker colored hair color as well.
The biggest tell-tale sign of the second man was the smell though. He was wearing some kind of cologne or something that she'd never smelled before.
And just like the smell of Axe Deodorant, it was giving her a migraine. He was either wearing way too much or it was way too strong.
END FLASHBACK
Lexi sat straight up in her bed, and knew exactly why she had that specific memory. That scent, that specific cologne, she could smell it.
That strong smell was close, and Lexi was not waiting around to see where it came from or why she smelled it.
The teenager pulled out the IV and ignored the shooting pain running up her leg. Lexi made her way to the door, and when she opened it, the smell became much stronger.
She ignored the migraine and the pain, before grabbing the nearest and easiest weapon, which was the iron poker by the entranceway.
Lexi grabbed the iron poker slowly, trying to not making a sound even if she didn't know how quiet she was being.
The smell led her to the living room. She saw from the den, standing in the doorway, there was a man who looked like the profile she remembered and smelled the same way standing over Ziva with a gun in hand. Their mouths were moving indicating some sort of conversation, but she wasn't sure what they were talking about.
Lexi noticed her Uncle Tim laying unconscious with another man standing over him. The second man was older than smelly man, but looked to be just as lethal.
She noticed Ziva's phone just inside the doorway to the den. Apparently, they had tossed the phone away so she couldn't ask for help.
Lexi could see something was wrong with Ziva. She was holding her stomach and leaning over, trying to control the pain. Lexi had seen enough pregnant women in movies to know that she was having contractions. McGee was bleeding from his shoulder and unconscious as well.
Lexi hid behind the door, so she wouldn't be seen. She opened the phone, looking for text messaging, ignoring her mother's voice from her head saying she may have to pay for text messaging, this was too important to worry about money. She'd deal with it later.
911! MCG SHOT! 2 MEN W/ GUNS IN LR AN Z N LABOR! HELP!
She sent two messages. The first one to Gibbs, knowing he would have a more level head and the second to Jimmy in case Gibbs didn't know how to use a text message. She was tempted to send one to her father but he would run in without thinking about his own safety first. Gibbs would come up with a plan, a feasible plan, and get them all out safely.
She knew her dad had told her that there was another gun somewhere hidden in the house, but she was having trouble remembering where.
The phone vibrated and she saw Jimmy's assurance that he'd go tell Gibbs, apparently realizing why she hadn't texted her dad.
Lexi knew it was selfish, but he was the only real family she had left. She loved him. She didn't want him to die no matter what.
Lexi started searching quietly for something more dangerous than a poker. She saw pools of blood where her leg had been while she was on the phone, looking down to find a stitch undone.
She looked in the room again to see that McGee had regained consciousness and they'd moved him over next to Ziva. Ziva held no emotion on his face, but Uncle Tim's face betrayed his fear. He was smarting off though. Lexi could see the same twinkle of amusement in Ziva's eyes as they normally held with the banter between Ziva and her dad.
She knew McGee had taken some of her dad's attributes, and it was possible he was pretending to be Tony so that the men didn't think someone else would be checking on them. It would've been Ziva's idea, she knew, but McGee was doing an excellent impression of her dad.
Again, she went off to find the gun her dad had left. When she saw the record player, she remembered her father telling her about his childhood hiding place helping to solve a case in one of the stories where he mentioned Kate.
She hid herself safely behind the door, only to find the younger, smellier man holding a gun so close to her Uncle Tim's head that she could see the imprint of the barrel starting to show on her head.
Why did she keep being put in these positions? There was no telling what was going to happen when Gibbs showed up.
Gibbs had taken her to the shooting range soon after she had began living with her dad, claiming that he would not have a child of one of his agents unable to protect herself, especially if that agent was Tony "get the plague, chained to a psycho killer, car blown up several times" DiNozzo. Even she had to admit from the stories that her father was more than a bit accident prone.
So, instead of thinking more about having to grow up too fast and reflecting on the 'lessons' her step-dad had tried to ingrain on her mind, Lexi kept her attention on the process Gibbs had taught her.
Seconds later, the gun went off, lodging itself into Smelly Man's shoulder. She smiled when she saw the gun fall into her Uncle Tim's lap and him using the arm that wasn't bleeding to point it between the two men.
Ziva's eyes immediately went toward the direction the bullet came from, along with the older man who was making himself toward me, while Smelly Man struggled to get his gun back from Uncle Tim. Our eyes locked, before she doubled over from yet another contraction.
Older Man tried to talk to Lexi, apparently unaware of her deafness. He kept coming closer, and looked to be getting angrier.
Lexi simply smiled though, when she looked past Older Man to see Smelly Man unconscious, while McGee tried to help Ziva, well on her way to delivery.
Gibbs, her dad, and a man she had met once in Gibbs' basement, FBI Agent Tobias Fornell, stood pointing guns at Older Man. As soon as the man lowered his gun, she limped to her dad, barely noticing that Gibbs and Fornell stepped protectively in front of them.
She was in her dad's arms.
She was safe.
The only problem was that Ziva was in labor, a month early, and she and Tony hadn't discussed marriage.
She was safe.
Her baby brother/sister wasn't…yet…
She would find a way to fix that, somehow, if she had to kidnap them and take them to a wedding chapel in Vegas. There was no doubt that Aunt Abby would help her bully Uncle Tim and Jimmy into helping them.
Smelly Guy was dead, and no matter who Older Man was, Gibbs would make sure Ziva and Lexi were safe.
He was a marine, and marines left no man (or woman) behind.