Tony sat sullenly at his computer, trying to think of any place they had not searched for information on Lance Corporal Finnegan and his family. He leaned forward and buried his head in his hands, thinking back over all that they knew about Finnegan. He was 32, a bit old for a Lance Corporal, but he had joined up late and had been slow to rise through the ranks. He was Irish born and raised. He had married Aidan O’Reiley when he was 21 and she was 19. They had moved to America three years later, and he had joined the military within a few months.
There was nothing of interest on either of them since then, aside from the fact that Colleen had been born four years ago, and the now explained medical history on Aidan and the girl. Tony pulled up the summary of what they had and looked at it again, and then it hit him. They had been so focused on Finnegan’s military career that they had overlooked anything before that. Tony pulled up anything and everything he could find on the Finnegan’s before they came to America. As the files loaded into the computer, he let his mind drift.
As he thought about the package, which was at this moment in Abby’s lab being run through the entire arsenal of tests, his mind, like those of his co-workers, wandered back to the SWAK event. His thoughts however were not focused on the bad times, but on the good.
The week following his release from the hospital had been one of the best weeks of his life. When he had been told that he had the plague, it had made him stop and think. He knew it sounded a bit cliché, but he had taken a good look at his life; where it was, and where it was going, and he had not been completely happy with what he saw. Sure, he had great friends, and a job that couldn’t be beat, and just about his pick of the women but he, Anthony DiNozzo, actually wanted something more. It wasn’t until Kate had told him that she was sick too, that he had found out exactly what it was that was missing. Then, when he had realized that she was not sick, but was staying for him, he allowed himself to consider that she might feel the same about him. He came too close to loosing her before he had the chance to tell her, and he was not going to let that happen again, he planned on taking full advantage of his week off.
Kate had been the one to drive him home the day he got out of the hospital, which was fine by him, and it had only gotten better from there. She had walked him to his door, and always the gentleman, he had invited her in for pizza and a movie. She had been reluctant at first, but he insisted. He had finally won when he reminded her that he owed her for not only bringing him home, but for staying with him when he was sick. After making sure that he was comfortable on the couch, she went over to his collection of movies, and turned back towards him, waiting for him to decide what he was in the mood for.
Of course he couldn’t tell her what he was really in the mood for, so he settled for watching Sabrina. It was not his usual, but Tony knew that she would enjoy it, and he could deal, after all, it was a classic. After getting the movie started, she headed for the kitchen. She pulled a pizza out of his freezer and popped it into the oven. Pulling a couple of glasses from the cupboard, she filled them with ice, and split a diet cola between the two. Making sure the timer was set on the oven; she had made her way back to the couch. She handed Tony one of the glasses and settled herself on the other end of the couch.
They had watched the movie in a comfortable silence for a while, until Tony had turned to ask Kate a question and seen the tears sliding silently down her face. Her knees were pulled up, her head resting on her hands. She was watching the television without really seeing any of what was going on. It had taken him a full minute to get over the shock of it. He sat his glass down on the coffee table, and scooted closer to her. When he laid a hand on her arm, she started, and hastily, but unsuccessfully, tried to wipe the tears from her face. Without saying a word, he wrapped his arms around her, and just held her. She had stiffened at first, but after a while, she had relaxed into him. It wasn’t until the timer went off on the oven that Tony discovered that she had cried herself to sleep. He had reached around behind himself and grabbed a pillow. As he slowly disentangled himself, Tony slipped the pillow under her head. Kate shifted, and mumbled something under her breath, but didn’t wake up. He grabbed the blanket off of the back of the couch and gently laid it over her. The last few days had been hard on her, and he knew that she had not gotten any sleep. She had spent the entire time either working on the loose ends of the cases Gibbs wanted closed, or sitting in his hospital. Sometimes she had even done both, bringing stacks of files and papers to his room to work on. He shut off the TV, and pulled the pizza out of the oven. He put a couple slices on a plate for himself, and stuck the rest in the fridge. As he ate, he contemplated his options; Kate was in no shape to be driving home, besides, she had used his car to get them here, with Abby’s promise to pick her up for work in the morning. So, as he saw it, he had two options, he could leave her on the couch, or he could move her to his bed and take the couch himself, so in his mind, there was really only one option, she would get the bed.
He shook her shoulder gently to wake her. It took a minute to wake her up, and a little longer for her to gain her bearings. As soon as he offered to let her sleep in his bed, she began objecting, first saying that she needed to get home, and when he shot that down with reminders that she didn’t have a car, she tried to argue that she could take the couch. He only won out when he told her that no matter what she said he was sleeping on the couch, so she could take the bed, sleep on the floor, or share the couch with him.
The next morning had started with awkward apologies from Kate about falling asleep during the movie over pancakes and bacon. To thank him for letting her use his bed, she had made breakfast for him. After they finished eating, they had migrated to the living room. On the way home the night before, Kate had mentioned that she wanted to talk to him about something important. It took quite a bit of coaxing on Tony’s part, but Kate finally told him how she felt about him. It was what he had wanting to hear for a very long time.
The moment could not have been more perfect in Tony’s eyes, she had told Tony that almost losing him had made her realize that she wanted to be more than friends, and had told him flat out that if he felt the same way, she was more than willing to say “screw rule 12”. She left the question hanging in the air, letting him decide where they would go from there. He thought for a minute before he answered. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, but it was a big step, and it would mean a lot of changes both in his private life and at work. It didn’t take him very long to decide that he would rather follow his heart than the rules. Instead of voicing his thoughts, he leaned forward and kissed her gently. When he sat back, Kate’s eyes were wide, and she was speechless for the first time in a long time. When it finally clicked in her head what had just happened, she smiled and leaned in to kiss him again, only to be interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.
She had been called in to work, and hadn’t gotten off until late. She had been exhausted, with Tony out on sick leave; they were a member short on the team, meaning more work for everyone. They had curled up on the couch, and she had fallen asleep halfway through the movie. The rest of the week went by in a similar fashion. They spent as much time together as they could, both knowing that when he came back to work they would be together more often, but they would have to make sure they kept their relationship out of the field of Gibbs would kill them.
The best week of his life had ended in the worst day ever. He could still recall every detail of those few seconds. The sound of the bullet as it hit Kate, the feel of her warm blood spattering his face, the dead silence after she hit the roof. They were the memories his nightmares were made of.
As the computer in front of him beeped, Tony shook his head to clear it. It was bad enough that the memories still plagued him in his dreams; he didn’t need to focus on them when he was awake.
Tony watched the whole exchange between Gibbs, Abby, and McGee from his desk. He waited for his page to finish printing, and then he jumped up to follow them to MTAC. He had not been able to find much on where the package had come from, but he had finally found something interesting on Lance Corporal Finnegan. He carried the pages with him as he bounded up the stairs. He reached for the MTAC door without looking, his eyes focused on the papers in his hands, trying to figure out exactly what they meant. He jumped when his hand touched not the cold metal of the door handle, but a warm hand. He looked up to find Ziva staring back at him.
She couldn’t resist the perfect opportunity to tease him, as he so often did to her, “I’ve told you time and time again, I will not hold hands with you Tony.” Unabashed, he pushed her out of the way and opened the door. She started to follow him when he let the door go behind him. He had expected her to be ready to catch it, the way they usually did when they were in a hurry, what he had not expected was to hear a dull thunk, then a thud from behind him, followed by a string of curses in mixed Hebrew, English, and a few other languages he couldn’t place.
Everyone in MTAC turned to find an embarrassed and shame faced Tony pulling a very angry Ziva to her feet. As they made their way over to the rest of the team, Ziva grumbled under her breath to Tony, “To think that some people say chivalry isn’t dead.” He opened his mouth to return a smart retort, but was cut off when Gibbs smacked the back of his head. He shut his mouth again and turned to face the screen, where the video from the package was waiting to start playing.
The image that played before them was not a pleasant one, a little girl, whom they confirmed to be Colleen Finnegan, was tied to a chair, tears rolling down her small face. She was pale, and they could tell she was in a lot of pain. A man stood behind her and spoke to the camera,” Lance Corporal Finnegan, I’m sure by now you have figured out that your wife is dead and your little brat is missing. We have her, and as long as she complies with our rules, and you follow our every directive, she will not be harmed. I am sorry to say that she has already had to learn the hard way what it means to disobey. As long as everything goes as we say, there is no need for her to be hurt any further.”
All through this little speech, he kept shooting angry, threatening glares at someone or something behind the camera. The same thought ran through all of their minds, was he looking at the camera operator, or another hostage? This was quickly followed by another question, if it was another hostage, who was it, and why were they being held?
The man on the screen stood up and walked to the camera, looking directly in, and glared, “Expect our first call within two hours.”
McGee was the first to speak, “Did he mean two hours after he made the tape, two hours after we got it, or two hours after we watched it?”
Tony turned to him in frustration, “Well Probie, I guess we’ll know when the phone rings won’t we.”
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The door banged open, startling Kate out of the light sleep she had finally been able to fall into. Colleen had woken every hour or so in extreme pain until their captors had gotten fed up with her screams and brought some stronger pain meds, which had the bonus affect of keeping her asleep longer.
When Kate focused on who had come barging into the room so abruptly, she was met with a face she had never seen before. It was a woman, and all of the captors she had met were men. The woman walked directly over to her and, grabbing a handful of Kate’s hair, pulled her to her feet. Kate didn’t make a sound, for fear of waking Colleen. Pressing a gun into her side, the woman walked Kate down the hall into a small, windowless room with nothing in it but a chair. Looking closer at the chair Kate realized that there were handcuffs attached to the back and the legs.
Forcing her into the chair, the woman cuffed Kate to the chair, effectively immobilizing her arms and legs. She then turned to face her with an evil grin.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?”
Kate looked at the woman before her, confused. She had never seen the woman before, and had never heard any of the others talk about a woman. If this woman was the reason she had been here, why had it taken this long for her to talk to Kate. She answered the woman’s question with as much strength and venom as she could, “I have no idea who the hell you are or why the hell I’m here, care to fill me in?”
The woman laughed lightly when Kate replied, and then came over to kneel directly in front of her, “My name is Baria. I didn’t figure he would have told you about me. You on the other hand were all he could talk about. He was obsessed with you, and it got him killed.”
Kate continued to glare at Baria, even as her confusion mounted, “Who didn’t tell me about you?”
Baria stood and smiled down at Kate, “You are the reason my husband is dead. He was obsessed with your boss, and you, and he paid for that obsession with his life. Now, you and your boss both will pay for my loss with your suffering, and eventually, Katelyn, with your life.”
As her question had still not been answered, Kate continued to glare at Baria in silence. She felt a jolt of fear when Baria talked about hurting her and Gibbs, and killing her, but she did not let the other woman see that fear. She would not give Baria the pleasure of knowing that she was scared.
Baria laughed again, and finally told Kate what she wanted to know, “You will suffer for the death of my husband, Ari Haswari.”
Eyes by Willow_Eris