Things weren’t looking good for Kate. After a nasty explosion, she fell into a coma. it had been almost a week and she still hadn’t woken up. The team was confused, wondering if she would ever wake up. All of them had shed a worried tear through the tough week, hoping and praying that Kate would wake up so they could talk to her once more.

“You never know how much you’d miss someone until they’re gone.” Tony had said aloud, but mostly to himself. He and Kate fought all the time, she was his partner, and his best friend.

“She’s not gone Tony.” Abby had replied, “She’ll wake up, right Gibbs?” she looked over to him for reassurence, but Gibbs didn’t answer, he didn’t even look up. For the past week he had been sitting next to Kate, staring down at her scratched and burned face, feeling that he could have done something, and that it should be him in that hospital bed, not her.

Mcgee stood across the room from Kate’s bed. He hated seeing the strong, funny, sweet partner of his so weak and beaten down. It hurt him physically and mentally. He couldn’t stand that pain, it hurt too much. He stood as a statue, he hardly ever moved, and he never spoke. Every once and a while, Abby would come over and talk to him, trying to get him to talk to her, or even look away from Kate, but he wouldn’t, he was paralyzed with pain.

Once, Mcgee had looked over at Tony, to see how he was holding up. Truth be told, he was doing worse than he was. Tony was staring at Kate too, just waiting for her eyes to flutter open, to see her smile, and to tell him everything was okay. But he was worried. He would begin to think things like ‘what if she never wakes up?’ and when he did that, silent tears would fall down his face. He had to leave the room a lot, ashamed of his tears.

Abby was a wreck. She was almost always crying, worried about her best friend. And since Gibbs and Mcgge weren’t able to comfort her, Ducky spent his time comforting Abby. Ducky tried to keep calm, but every once in a while, you could see a tear fell slowly down his cheek.

And then there was a wimper. It was small and weak, but everyone heard it. The wimper was followed by a groan, again small and weak. All eyes turned to kate to see her slowly open her eyes. The doctors came in and asked the team to step back, and they did as they were told. After the doctors did a small examination, they left Kate alone with the team.

“Kate, it’s so good to see you awake, you don’t know how worried we were.” Tony told her, sincerly.

“I’m sorry,” she replied, “do I know you?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~After seeing Kate not recgognize Tony, or anyone else for that matter, Abby stormed out of the room.

“What did you do to her!?!” She shouted at the doctor. “She just woke up, and she doesn’t know any of us! WHat did you do!?!”

“Abigail, calm down.” Ducky told her as he walked over to talk to the doctor.

“I can’t Ducky, she doesn’t recgognize us. She doesn’t recgognize me.” She sobbed. Ducky tried to calm her dow, but failed at doing so. He called for Gibbs, and soon, Gibbs was leading Abby away from Kate’s room and down the hall somewhere.

“I do apologize for Miss Scutio,” Ducky told the doctor, “but the poor girl just needs someone to blame for this.”

“It’s okay.” replied the doctor.

“How is Caitlin, will she regain her memory?” Ducky asked as he refocused on Kate.

“I don’t know.” the doctor answered. “You see, we can’t find any cause for the memory loss, everything looks normal.”

“I would say that is is physciological,” Ducky started, “but I can’t think of what could have brought that on.”

“Hmm, hold on one minute.” The doctor said, and he entered Kate’s room, while Ducky followed close behind.

“Hello, Caitlin,” the doctor said politly, “may I ask you a few questions.” Kate nodded and the doctor proceeded, “What year is it?”

“I don’t know.” Kate answered.

“How old are you?”

“I don’t know.” she answered again.

“Hmm,” the doctor left the room, and again, Ducky followed. “It seems that she has lost her full memory. BUt what would cause that to happen, I don’t know.”

“Other than the memory loss, is she medically stable?” Ducky asked.

“Yes, we’d like to keep her immitted for a while though, to see if her memory comes back...”

“No.” Gibbs interuppted the doctor as he came to join him and Ducky. “If she is medically stable, other than the memory loss, send her home.”

“I wouldn’t advise...”

“I don’t give a damn about what you’d advise!” GIbbs shouted, interuppting the doctor again. “Kate is my agent and I’ll be damned if she doesn’t regain her memory, and that isn’t going to happen while she’s cooped up in a hospital. So discharge her, because I’m taking her home tonight!” Gibbs finished and walked into Kate’s room.

“Hey, Kate.” Gibbs said softly, trying to keep her calm.

“Do I know you?” she asked, wondering while a bunch of random people that she didn’t know were coming to talk to her.

“Yes, but you just don’t remember me.” Gibbs answered. “I’m going to take you home, do you know where that is?” Kate shook her head to answer the question. “Okay, well, I’m going to take you to your room in the housing units at NCIS.”

“Where?” Kate asked, really confused.

“NCIS headquarters.” Gibbs repeated, “Oh, you don’t know what that is do you? NCIS is Naval Criminal Investigative Services, basically it the Navy’s own private government agency.” Kate nodded to tell Gibbs she understood what he had just said. “Okay, well, Abby should be here with a change of clothes...”

“Right now.” Abby interuppted as she walked into the room. “Here you go Kate.”

“Thanks.” Kate managed to say.

“Okay, we’ll leave you alone to change, and be back to drive you to NCIS headquaters in... fifteen minutes okay?” Kate nodded and Gibbs and Abby left.

“Gibbs, why are we taking her to headquaters?” Abby asked, a little confused.

“Because, Abbs, I hope that when she sees her room in the housing units, and sees her desk and work stuff, that she might remember something.” Gibbs answered.

“I hope she will to.” Abby agreed, and followed Gibbs as he went around to finish the paper work to release Kate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The drive to headquaters was too quiet, even for Gibbs. Gibbs was used to Kate talking to him, or at least someone, while he was in the car with her. But, since she lost her memory, she didn’t know anyone in the car and didn’t know what to talk about. So, they just sat in silence. When they arrived, Gibbs took Kate stright to her room, still hoping that she’d remember something.

Kate and Abby shared one bedroom in their housing unit. There room was purple and black, with a black desk and a coffin on one side, and a purple desk and a full size bed on the other. Mcgee and Tony also shared a room in the unit, and GIbbs had his own. After tkaing Kate on a tour of the place he asked, “Does anything seem fimilair?”

“No... I mean yes... I mean...” Kate stammered.

“Yes?” Gibbs asked.

“It feels fimliar, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen this place.” Kate explained.

“Ok then,” Gibbs said heading for the door. “Make yourself at home, since this will probably be your home for a while.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A week and a half had passed, and Kate still didn’t remember anything. No one thought she would never remember, but they were all worried. Then, on the 11th night that Kate was at the unit house, Tony was walking over to her room to talk to her. When he reached the door, he heard someone crying on the inside. Tony knocked and waited for Kate to say it was okay for him to come in, which she did. When Tony entered he saw kates face, her eyes were red from crying and tears had stained her cheeks.

“Kate, what’s wrong?” Tony asked concerned.

“I have to remember, I just can’t.” Kate answered.

“You will Kate.” Tony reassured her.

“But, I feel as though I;ve known you for years, but I only met you like two weeks ago.” Kate said, tears filling her eyes again, “And I guess I’m Abby’s best friend, but I don’t know anything about her.”

“Kate it’s okay.” She had reallly started to cry now, the pain she was feeling, of feeling one thing, but knowing another, hit her hard. She didn’t like it.

“Here, Kate, I’m gonna help you.” Tony said. He slowly took her hand, and with it, started to trace his face. Soon, Kate understood what he was trying to do, and took over, running her hand down him, tracing his face, chest, arms, and legs. WHile tracing his chest, she pushed a little too hard on the area above his lungs causing a little fit of coughing.

“I’m sorry.” she apologized quickly, seeing that she had hurt him.

“It’s okay, my lungs are weak from having the paluge. When I had it, you stayed by my side the whole time, even though you knew you could get sick too. Do you remember?” Tony asked. Kate got this blank look on her face.

~Flashback~

She’s in a room, with a bunch of blue lights. He’s in a bed on the opposite end of this room.A doctor... Dr. Brad Pitt, just told her that he has the plauge. SHe begins to fear for his life, he’s the only one who has it. SHe doesn’t want to leaver him so she says, “Yes, Tony, I have it too.”

~End Flashback~

“I...I..I.. TONY!” Kate shouts and hugs him. She laughs into his chest, and he holds her close. “Tony, I remember, you opened the letter that was covered in y-petist, and and...” She stops, trying to remember something else.

“Kate, you alright?” It’s Gibbs, he heard kate’s scream and came to check on her.

“Gibbs!” Kate shouts she runs over and hugs him, “He gave you a reason to live, he saved your life...” By now, the whole team was in the little bedroom. Kate continued to tell the story of Tony’s whole plague situation. By the time she was done, she pretty much remembered everything.

“My name is Caitlin Todd, I am 31 years old. I am a NCIs agent. My boss is Gibbs, my partners are Mcgee and Tony, my best friend is Abby and Ducky is the ME who is more like a father to me than my father ever was.” Kate said. “And I love you all and I am back!”

Tony, extremely overjoyed, ran up to her, wrapped her in his arms and spun her around. Everyone hugged Kate, including Gibbs (who was almost in tears by this point).

“How did you remember everything?” Ducky asked, since this was one medical case that made no sense to him what so ever.

“I don’t know, but it was Tony who did it.” Kate addmitted, she turned to Tony. “I owe you Tony.” She said coming over to hug him again. “I owe you whatever you want.”

“Whatever, really... Ow!” Tony shouted as kate elbowed him in the side.

“Within reason DiNozzo.” She said. He came over and hugged her again.

“You don’t owe me anything Kate, I’m just glad your back.” As he pulled out of the hug, Kate lightly kissed him on the check, which made Tony blush a little.

“DiNozzo, whatever you did... I'm proud of you Tony.” Gibbs finally choked out.

“Thanks Boss.” Tony replied, enjoying the praise. Everyone began to leave the room, and Kate was about to follow them, when Tony stopped her.

“Hey Kate, if that whole I owe you thing is still on the table...”

“Yes, Tony?” Kate asked.

“May I trace you?” He asked. Kate nodded and Tony started to trace her face, her arms, her legs, and her back, remebering alll of the moments he spent with Kate.