Author's Note:
Hey all. Here I am finally updating the next chapter. I know it's been so long. Life and studies and lots of other things got in the way but now I have started writing once again and have many stories planned but before all that will definitely finish this story. So here is a new chapter.
Here's a small recap on what has happened so far in the story:
Gibbs and Jack have been tasked with staking out a suspect's house on Christmas Eve. When the suspect arrives guns are drawn and thus a chase ensues leading Gibbs and Jack into an abandoned building. Where the suspect gets the jump on them traps both Gibbs and Jack inside a room and takes off. This chapter continues from there.
After five minutes...Inside the room where Gibbs and Jack are trapped….
Trapping both Gibbs and Jack inside, the metal doors stood there gigantically, shut tight, impossible for anyone to pry it open or even create a small dent in it no matter how hard one tried.
But it did not stop Gibbs. He kept trying his best to pry the door open while Jack stood behind him, watching him, rolling her eyes behind his back.
It always surprised her how a wise and experienced man like him could sometimes behave like a complete child. He had to know that it was impossible to open those doors with bare hands, but the fact that Gibbs kept banging and kicking the door only made Jack roll her eyes. She liked to sometimes fantasise that Gibbs was a superhero in many aspects but even he couldn't pry open a metal door with his bare hands.
"Gibbs. Gibbs.," After being unable to watch the sight of him banging on the poor door she finally stepped in, " You do know that the door is made of metal right???"
He abruptly stopped the banging and threw her a questioning look at her. His patented "You-got-a-point?" Look.
"I know you are a cowboy. I know that you always do all kinds of crazy stuff," She continued ignoring the look he gave her," But even you cannot win a kicking match with a metal door."
Gibbs kept up his staring contest with her but she wasn't fooled by it. By now she knew him well enough to know that Gibbs always brought up his starring facade whenever he didn't have anything to say or when he didn't want the other person to know what he was feeling.
Suppressing a smile Jack decided to leave him to his kicking match with the door and decided to start looking around the room in the hopes of finding a light switch or lamp or anything to shed some light to see what they were dealing with.
"We both sure picked one hell of a place huh?," Walking around the room Jack commented, " To be locked inside together??"
"You think Jack?" He scoffed, making Jack throw a look at him.
While Jack was looking around, touching the walls and the tables in the room searching for the light switch, Gibbs found the switch within just a single swing of his hands in front of him and he immediately flipped it on, making waves of brightness lighting the dark room.
At the sudden brightness, they both squinted their eyes and tried to adjust their sight. Once they got comfortable, they slowly blinked and started looking around.
"What is this place???" Jack queried furrowing his brows while looking at the room they were trapped in for the foreseeable future.
Everything in that room screamed creepyness. The room was a little bigger than the size of their squadron but the difference was that instead of orange walls thick, mystic blue colour filled the walls in that room and dust had collected all over the place like it had seen no occupant in over a decade or so. And with that the room was packed with all kinds of weird stuff. Stuff which you wouldn't expect to see in any normal room.
A rusted metal table and chair sat in one corner of the room with a few torn maps and papers scattered all over it. And also stood an old vintage style cupboard standing gigantically beside it with a dense and large wooden doll placed above it. But that was not the strange part. There was a plastic skeleton which hung over on the left end of the room and a coffin which was sitting beside it along with a heavy looking crate. And Not to mention the dozens and dozens of pirate-like dolls sitting all over the room as if they were alive and watching. The lone rapidly blinking broken lamp at the corner seemed to be the only source of light inside the room. Except the door there seemed to be no other way in or out of the room. Not even a single window in sight.
Jack turned and faced Gibbs who was looking around the room with a wary expression. She could tell that he did not like what he was seeing. He had his 'You have gotta be kidding me' expression on his face. Seeing Gibbs's put upon look Jack momentarily forgot all about their predicament and burst out laughing.
"What is so funny, Jack?" Confused by her reaction Gibbs queried while he inspected a plastic pirate doll between his fingers.
Jack continued laughing as she slumped into a nearby chair, "Only we… Only we would get ourselves trapped in a place like this on Christmas Eve of all days."
Gibbs ignored her comment and kept looking around. Determined to get the hell out of that room he kept looking for anything suitable and big enough for prying the door open since it didn't look like anyone left the keys were lying around.
After looking around and coming up empty, sighing Gibbs took out his flip phone from his belt in hopes of making a phone call. But the bar-less phone made him even more pissed than he already was.
"Damn it. I don't have any signal. " He hissed under his breath and then turned towards Jack, " What about you?? Do you have signal on your phone??"
Jack took out her phone and gave Gibbs a disappointed look before showing her phone in front of him, " Nope. Same here."
Since there was no way they could contact anyone on the outside, Gibbs once again tried to open the metal doors but all his efforts went in vain. The doors were too thick to even carry their voices outside, much less break it open. Only something strong and large enough like a crowbars could pry that thing open or a key and neither of which were to be found on sight. Within a few minutes it became clear for both of them that they were indeed trapped inside that room with no means of communication with the outside world.
Jack sat slumped in a half broken chair with her hands buried in her face while Gibbs paced restlessly all over the room in hopes of finding something, anything that could help us and that's when his eyes landed on the wooden crate at the end of the room. He immediately started for that and once he reached the crate he used his full strength to heave the entire thing up leaving a trail of dust particles at its wake. Coughing slightly Jack got up from her seat and joined him by his side. Together they both peered inside.
"Is that what I think that is?" Jack whispered slightly, clutching Gibbs by his coat sleeve. "Man, Could this day get any worse?."
Gibbs took out his pocket knife, tore open a package and confirmed Jack's suspicions about the content that was inside. Peering back at them from inside the crate were piles and piles of heroine wrapped in cellophane sheets.
" Pure and uncut." Gibbs murmured, " Looks like at least 10 to 20 mil street value of worth of product right there. "
" Great. Just Great. " Jack scoffed and slumped against the wall and drew her knees to her chest,
"So we are stuck inside a room with no way out and no means of communication along with millions of dollars worth of heroin? " Slumping her shoulders Jack continued her ranting, ''There is no way the bad guys are gonna leave that much worth behind. "
Gibbs walked over to where Jack was sitting by the wall gently nudged her shoulders. " Look on the bright side, Jack. That means they are gonna come back here sooner or later."
"Yeah. And when they find two federal agents here with their tons and tons of heroin? Do you think they're gonna just let us go??." Jack snapped, burying her face into her hands. "Man, I really should not have gotten out of bed today."
"Ahh,This is not happening." Gibbs grumbled, rubbing his forehead with the back of his thumb.
" Hey, I don't want to be stuck in here any more than you do, okay." Jack looked up scoffing, " After all this is all your fault, you don't see me complaining."
Gibbs' head snapped up at that, "Come again????"
" Yeah, You heard me. It is all your fault."
"How come any of this is my fault, Jack?"
" Well, For one Instead of running into this room blindly, If you had followed the suspect then you might have actually caught him and at least you would have been on the outside when the doors closed and so you could have gotten me out."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow, "Seriously, Jack?"
" But nooooo, 'Mr. Charge in and ask questions later' did not think about that." Jack continued as if he hadn't spoken at all. "All you do is always react and charge in towards everything and run everywhere without ever thinking first, about anything."
" Oh, forgive me for being concerned about you and coming to check up on your well being." Gibbs snapped angrily, "Next time when we chase a maniac who slams you into the floor, and takes off leaving you bleeding, I'll be sure to go after him without a thought to you.."
" I was totally fine. I am completely capable of taking care of myself. " Jack got up and marched towards him , " Besides I didn't need you to come running to check on me when you should have been chasing after the suspect. If you had done that then none of this would have happened. And we wouldn't be stuck here. "
Gibbs opened his mouth to respond how unreasonable she was being, but stopped himself when he looked at her. Like really, looked at her. Jack had both her hands clenched into fists, shoulders drawn up and her entire body looked posed for fight or flight, she was also breathing heavily and her face had gone pale with the small wound on her forehead already turning into a shade of purple.
"Jack, you alright." Gibbs asked softly in a calm voice despite his heart thudding in concern, he stepped closer to her and gently placed his hand on her cheek, stroking it with his thumb, " You look a little pale there, You okay?"
Jack instantly sucked in a huge breath at his touch, all her anger instantly leaving her but she didn't flinch away from him. If anything she leaned slightly into his touch and confessed, "I really don't like being trapped, Gibbs."
All at once Gibbs understood what had her reacting like this. Her anger made sense. He knew enough about trauma to know how easily it could be triggered. How being trapped can feel for someone who went through captivity. How one might try to hide behind anger in hopes of masking the fear. And he did not like Jack being scared. All his instincts were immediately screaming at him to comfort her. Soothe her and make it better for her.
"Hey, it's okay. It's okay, Jack." He wrapped both his arms around her head and hugged her to his chest and gently drew soothing circles behind her back until he felt her relax and slump into his chest. " You are not alone, Jack. I'm right here. We'll find a way out. I promise. It'll be okay. Just breathe."
He held for a few more breaths murmuring soft words and relished in the feel of her until she calmed down.
Jack finally let him go, much to his displeasure, mumbling, "Thanks." and nodded numbly. Gibbs hated looking at her like that. Without that spark in her eyes. That mischief and happiness which always filled her eyes with that light that made her Jack. Her eyes now looked dull and wary and scared with a fareway expression on her face as she stepped away from him. Like she wasn't really here right now, as if she was reliving some past nightmare.
Gibbs captured her face tenderly between his forefinger and thumb and made her look at him,
"It'll be okay. We'll find a way out. Okay?" When she didn't respond and instead looked wary he corrected," I'll find a way out, Jack. Trust me. And you're not alone here."
Jack sucked in a greedy breath and nodded but she still looked wary. In a futile attempt to make her feel better he grumbled good naturally, "Ahh Cheer up, I know I might not look like the ideal candidate to be stuck inside a room with, But you could do worse. "When she raised her eyebrows confusedly he shrugged nonchalantly, " You could be stuck in here with Fornell or Leon. Can you imagine? Fornell would probably talk your ear off and Leon probably would be planning on who he should fire for this mishap."
Jack's lips twitched slowly and smiled reluctantly. Satisfied at himself Gibbs kept going, "Or you could be in here with Torres and he probably would have broken and knocked out half the stuff in here already in an attempt to break out."
Jack swatted his arms and now she was full on laughing, "So you are saying I lucked out by getting trapped in here with you?" He nodded a little smugly which only made her laugh more.
After a few more brief moments of laughing Jack wiped a tear of her face and gave him a soft look. Saying without saying a thousand things with that single look, from Thank you to How much she appreciated what he was trying to do to that she was glad to have him with her. There were so many unsaid words in that one look and Gibbs felt a pang of warmth glow in his chest. This was not the first time he was on the receiving end of such a look from Jack. Over the years she had become way more than just a colleague and even way more than just a friend to him and they both had somehow mastered the art of saying so much and understanding each other without actually saying a single word. And with Jack being able to share something like that felt so beautiful just like her. She had a way of making him feel both comfortable and warm and happy just by her single look.
He cleared his throat and looked away first hoping to calm his racing heart and not do something stupid like grab her face and kiss her breathless. Yeah that would not go well. But no matter how much he wanted it, he wouldn't do it. Because knew he could not come back after crossing a line like that and he wouldn't do anything that would risk their friendship. No….. He couldn't do that no matter how desperately he wanted it. But damn it he really wanted to kiss her.
" So, you gotta plan Cowboy?" Thankfully Jack's question snapped him out of his dangerous thoughts and gave himself something to focus on. " Without the door there seems to be no way out of this place. You got any bright ideas on how exactly we are gonna get out of here?"
He really wanted to tell her Yes. Yes that he did have some sort of plan to get them out of here. Especially get her out of here. He did not like Jack being trapped inside a room full of heroin, without any backup, where they were vulnerable to any attack and from which he wasn't sure he could protect her from. Yeah, he really did not like Jack being trapped inside this room. But at that moment he did not have any clue to how he was gonna get them both out of here. When he didn't answer her question Jack nodded gravely like she knew exactly what he was thinking.
" Right! So trapped in here for the foreseeable future then." She once again slumped against the wall and made herself comfortable, well as comfortable as one could get in a cold floor filled with dirt, Jack then looked up at him seriously, " Well, Happy Christmas Eve, Gibbs."
They might be trapped here without food or water or without a way out, they might be also in immediate danger, they might have no idea what they were gonna do next, but still he would not have wanted to be anywhere else on the earth than being right here trapped together with Jack. Chucking to himself he walked over to her and took his seat right by her side. Jack nudged his shoulders playfully and he nudged back. Yeah. He wouldn't want to be anywhere but here right now.
With her….With his Jack…
( ……….. To be continued…….)
Author's note:
Yay! Congratulations you made it to the end. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I don't know when I'll be posting the next one but I'll try my best to post it soon. All your thoughts and comments are always welcome. I'm so glad and thankful to you for reading my story.
-With love K