I'm so sorry for such a long wait! College has been super stressful lately. I'm working on the next chapter for this so hopefully it won't be long.
Trigger warning: this chapter mentions suicide.
Ziva's POV
As soon as Callie said those words, I sprang into action.
"Stef, do you have a backup on you?" I grabbed Stef's shoulders and shook her a little. Her face was blank, yet she looked completely terrified. "Stef! I need you to listen!"
She blinked a few times and seemed to come to the realization of what was happening. "Uh yeah, I do." She reached down to her ankle and grabbed a small pistol." She handed me her regular issue weapon.
"Jude, you stay in here with Callie. Do not leave under any circumstances." I pulled my knife out of its sheath and handed it to him. "You'll be okay." I cupped his face in my hands and tried to calm the fear that had taken over his face.
I grabbed Stef's wrist and pulled her into the hallway. We walked up to the nurse's station to inform them of what was happening.
"You need to lock this hospital down right now. There is potentially a shooter here. He's injured and will probably be moving slowly." I whispered quietly yet firmly to the young man sitting at the desk.
His eyes grew wide and he nodded quickly. He picked up the phone and shook nervously while he waited for someone on the other end to pick up. "Jenna, its Tom from pediatrics. I was just informed that we have a Code Red situation. No shots have been fired in the building but there is reason to believe that the assailant is still in the building." Tom pressed the phone into his shoulder and turned his attention back to me and Stef. "What does the shooter look like?"
I showed him a picture of Evan on my phone. "The shooter is a fourteen year old male, brown hair, green eyes. Also, he's injured." Tom gave Evan's description to the person on the other end of the phone. "Okay, Jenna. Yeah you stay safe too." He hung the phone up and looked at me, terrified. "Our head of security is alerting the guards. What do I do now?"
"You stay on this floor. Get all of the patients and their families into rooms. No one leaves!" I shouted as Stef and I ran down the hall.
Security guards were combing the hallways, searching in every possible hiding spot for Evan. We flashed our badges at one of the guards and he let us out of the wing we were on.
"Ziva!" Stef yelled quietly. I walked over to her and she pointed to the ground. "There's a blood trail. And it's fresh; it hasn't even started to dry." She pointed down a hallway. "He went that way."
I nodded and motioned for Stef to cover my back. We walked slowly towards closed doors, fearing what was on the other side. I pushed the double doors open and led with my gun. I heard groaning and held my hand up so Stef would stop walking.
"NCIS, let me see your hands!" I shouted. The groaning stopped and I heard what sounded like a gun being loaded.
"Evan, slide the gun into the middle of the hallway. Don't do anything stupid and you can walk out of here." Stef moved closer and repositioned her weapon.
"Go away! Get the hell out of here!" Evan's voice was weak and fatigued.
"We can't do that and you know it." I pleaded with the boy. I didn't want it to end the way it was playing out in my head.
Stef and I stood in silence for a few seconds, praying Evan would come to his senses. After a little while, we heard him stand up. He emerged slowly from behind a supply cabinet, his gun pressed firmly to his temple.
"Whoa! Put the gun down and slide it to me on the floor." Stef was at my side now.
"I didn't want to do any of it! They made me do it!" Evan had tears streaming down his face. His eyes were red and blood soaked his shirt.
"We know Evan. None of this is your fault. Why don't you come with us and we can have a doctor look at your injuries." I took a step closer and lowered my gun a little.
"No one can fix me!" He stepped back and laughed a little. "You know, when I was little I wanted to be in the Air Force. I wanted to fly planes and be a good Airmen! But New Intelligence ruined me! They turned me into a murderer! No matter how hard I try, I can't get their faces out of my head! I have dreams about them. 'Why did you do it Evan?' they ask. But I can't answer them because I don't know why I did it!"
"Who asks you that Evan? What did you do?" Stef questioned from behind me.
"The people I killed. Men, women, and even children! I see them all the time! We had to do it to be promoted to a command position. Callie and Jude had to do it too. After I shot into the NCIS lab, I promised myself that those bullets would be the last ones I ever fired. But, I have one more left. It would be a waste to not let it live up to its potential, wouldn't it?" He pushed the gun even harder into the side of his head.
"Evan, no!" I screamed. "You can walk out of here right now; just put the gun down!"
"I'm sorry." He stared into my eyes and let one final tear fall.
Everything else happened in slow motion. I saw him pull the trigger, heard the crack of the gun, and watched as his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.
Stef jumped across the hallway and pressed her fingers into his neck. She looked up at me and shook her head.
"Dammit!" I yelled as loud as my voice would let me. I slammed my fist into the cement wall. "Dammit…" I whispered.
A security guard ran into the hall. "I heard the shot and got here as fast as I could." He peered around me and gasped at Evan's body, crumpled on the floor like a doll. "Come on, let's get out this hall." He ushered Stef and me into the lobby of the pediatric wing.
I stood in the middle of the lobby in a daze. Stef must have informed the nurses that Evan was no longer a threat because patients and their families started to emerge from their rooms. A young doctor led me to an exam room to look at my hand. She said something about it not being broken, but severely bruised. She wrapped it and led me back to Callie's room.
"Ziva!" Jude ran up to me and threw his strong arms around me. "What happened? Where's Evan? Is Stef okay?"
I stared at the two children who had their eyes locked on me. I sat down in the chair next to Callie's bed and took Jude's hand in my uninjured one. "Stef is fine. She's talking to some other police officers right now." I blinked tears away before I continued. "But Evan… he uh…" I wiped a stray tear off the tip of my nose. "I'm sorry, but Evan killed himself."
Callie and Jude froze. They shared a look and immediately started to cry. Jude climbed into his sister's bed and held her in his arms.
After a little bit, Callie sat up and wiped tears away from her eyes. "We know that it must be strange to cry for the boy who tried to kill us, but he was our friend for ten years. He was corrupt, but he was family."
I explained to them that it was okay to feel sorrow for Evan; that it wasn't unusual at all.
The rest of the night was a blur. Lena showed up with the other kids and they all sat in Callie's room together, eating a sad dinner from the cafeteria. I called Gibbs and informed him of everything of that had happened over the last several hours. Later that night, Stef and Lena finally convinced Jude to go home with them with a little help from Callie.
I sat by her bed and just watched as she slept. She would stir every now and then, but was peaceful for most of the night. After the night nurse made her first round, I decided that I should get some sleep. I curled up in the dozed off to the steady beeping of Callie's heart monitor.
My dreams were filled with Evan, begging me to save him. But every time I failed.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! What would you like to see happen?
A) Lena and Stef want to adopt Jude and Callie, but there is a problem.
B) Callie reverts back to how she was at NI and gets sent to Juvie.
C) Connor comes into the picture and helps Jude cope with what he is feeling.
Let me know in the reviews OR pm me!