Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of its characters…yadda …yadda… yadda :p
"Where is she?"
Michelle smiled, this might go easier then she thought "She's asleep downstairs, should be waking up any minute. In the meantime feel free to pick my brain with any questions you guys have".
"I do not believe you" Ziva who finally found her voice declared with a murderous look. "You say you are trying to protect us from these supposed vampires, yet you are the one who kidnapped us, drugged us and tied us up. Then you tell a story about Gibbs daughter who is supposedly alive yet she is nowhere to be seen, neither is this mystery woman who is supposedly asleep "downstairs" which is absurd when we are clearly already in the basement. I think you are lying".
"Ziva…" Tim started noticing the expression on their captors face turning into a frown. They were in no position to piss this woman off either way. He was about to say something to that effect when the Michelle started to speak.
"Truthfully I expected that from you sooner Ziva" she stated mildly as she pushed herself off the couch with a whimper. "But as I told Mr. Gibbs I am not lying and you will see that I'm not in just a few minutes. You know her so you should recognize her when you see her.
All eyes immediately turned to Ziva who scowled at the woman. "What do you mean I will…recognize her?"
Michelle who had disappeared behind them returned with what looked like a drink except it was blood red. "Exactly what I said….you know her". Shaking her head she smiled tiredly and took a sip. "Since the cats out of the bag now might as well let it out fully. You've known her for years, and you know she's who I say she is because of that who fiasco with your brother a few years back".
Knowing exactly what this woman was referring to Ziva was at a loss for a reply, if she couldn't feel eyes boring into her from all directions before she sure as hell could now. How would she explain this to her boss? That she knew his daughter and never told him…it would break all the trust she had earned up till now. He would never forgive her, not for this?
"Ziva…" Gibbs, his voice taking on a dangerous tone as he addressed her, his eyes focused solely on her for the first time since they woke up. "Is what she's saying true?" Tony looked nervously between the two.
She swallowed nervously, deciding there was no way around this she told the truth. "Yes, I am sorry Gibbs. I knew a woman named Kelly from my days with Mossad, she was a vampire hired by my father for training purposes" the look on her face told them it was more than just a working relationship. "We…we had not been in contact for some time. I had no idea I would see her again until the incident with Ari. After Kate…." She wisely looked down knowing she was entering dangerous territory with everyone. "After Kate was shot Kelly came to me, she was beyond furious. She told me she was not about to let him kill any more of you and if I didn't do something to make him stop, she would take care of it herself. I had no doubt she would kill him".
"Wait a minute…." Tony interrupted looking from Ziva to the vampire with a confused and what looked like a frustrated expression on his face. "If you guys were supposed to be watching over us like you said, then why did that bastard get the shot off?" he asked somewhat disrespectfully. Kate was a sore subject for him…even still.
"Anthony…." Ducky started to warn.
"Ducky it's alright" Michelle waved it off. "The reason is because there were two snipers, each on buildings opposite the roof you were on. It was a trap for a reason, you were never meant to make it off that roof, any of you. Aside from his obsession with killing you…" she nodded briefly to Gibbs before looking back to Tony. "Ari had this ridiculous obsession with Kate and would not listen to reason when we told him to back off. The only reason we hadn't killed him then is because we have rules. Kelly has been a vampire longer then I have, when she made me it was one of her rules. No killing humans, no feeding off of them without consent, in either case the other sniper had been given the order to take out her father so she of course went after that one; I was on the ground immobilizing some of the other shooters who were trying to kill Timmy". She gestured to McGee who swallowed nervously clearly remembering the incident. "They had it well planned, and there were a lot of them. As I said none of you were ever supposed to make it out of there alive".
"What did she do to him?" Gibbs asked quietly looking at her. He knew what he would have done if the situations were reversed, and what he had done to the man that took his family from him in the first place.
Michelle looked at him with a sad smile before answering "She broke her own rule, the second sniper might have made it to the roof, but he never got to take the shot".
He nodded avoiding the eyes of his team. This was all too much to take in. After Ziva's little tirade he had no doubt the woman in front of them was telling the truth. His baby girl was alive…well not alive but a vampire. She's been out there all this time in the company of assassins and criminals and he had no idea, no way of protecting her. And the joke of it all was, for the last three years she's been here watching over them, protecting them. He fought hard to keep his emotions in check.
Ducky looked on sympathetically for a moment before turning back to Michelle, all of the excitement had not deterred him from the fact that she was obviously seriously wounded. She was paler then she was when they woke up and blood was still flowing from some of her wounds "My dear girl you are not healing as you should. I do wish you would do me the courtesy of untying me so I can take a look at you or at least go ahead and wake up our Kelly so that she can take care of you". He felt all eyes turn to him expectantly and sighed before continuing "Yes I'm afraid I must all apologize as well. I have known about our two girls here for quite some time. You see I met them some two years ago when they came to me for help after a particularly nasty fight with another group of vampires and given my prior knowledge of the species I had taken them in and have been tending to them ever since. Kelly confided her identity to me shortly after and asked that I not saying anything to spare our Jethro any further grief. I gave her my word although I didn't necessarily agree and two years later here we are. Now my girl…" he focused his attention back to Michelle. "You are going to need to get those wounds closed up and will need more blood then what those little bottles will provide".
She almost laughed at the panicked look that crossed some of their faces. "He is not referring to human blood….don't worry". She sighed and made her way over to the far side of the room lifting a rug to reveal a trap door. Bring her foot down on loudly a few times she called for Kelly to wake up. Coming back over she started to explain "I took a few more hits then I should have, after a certain point this…" she raised the bottle she was holding "doesn't do much. When a vampire gets too injured in battle they would need to drink from their maker which is not something I want to do" she said looking pointedly at Ducky who gave her a questioning look. "Duck, she hasn't been sleeping. She will tell you she has but she hasn't I'm not stupid. She makes me sleep and before anyone ask yes as my maker she can make me sleep…with a command actually but that's not the point. The point is she's running herself into the ground and given the danger that's out there right now she really doesn't need me draining anymore of her energy by drinking from her".
"Why isn't she sleeping?" Palmer chimed in for the first time since this all started.
"This whole thing with these other vampires has gotten out of hand". She frowned deeply as she went over and started to untie Ducky. "There are a lot of them. Shit we've taken out a good thirty or more already and they just keep coming. Add that to their human workers who are plotting during the day, added your already dangerous jobs its pretty much non-stop".
"Ah thank you my dear" Ducky said as he got up rubbing his wrists. She began to apologize and he quickly shushed her "Nonsense, now why don't you go sit and rest and I will un-tie the rest of our friends"
As Ducky began untying everyone a thump could be heard from below them. Gibbs eyes immediately went to the trap door; his breathe catching in his throat knowing he would see her any second. A few choice curse words could be heard before the door began to open. "Dammit Michelle…what the hell did I tell you about drugging me?" the young redhead yelled emerging from the door partially stumbling while holding her forehead. Everyone was stuck in this stunned silence. She wasn't facing them since the door didn't open that way and he watched as she headed towards the bathroom. She had long red hair just like he remembered and was wearing pajama pants and a tank top. He hadn't seen the front of her yet but could see long scars down her arms and bit back a growl knowing she went through so much without him.
"You needed the sleep" Michelle stated matter of factly as she closed her eyes leaning back into the couch. "We have company"
"Thrilling…" Kelly said sarcastically from the bathroom as she turned on the water to wash her face. "Now back to my question…what the hell did you drug me for? You know I hate this feeling…ugh I'm gonna be off all day now, and you know that's the type of shit that could get one of us killed…."
Ducky intervened before the girl in question could reply "Kelly my dear girl yelling will help no one, could you please come out here?" he called before turning to Gibbs. "She is more like you then I would care to admit" the smirk he held quickly disappeared seeing the look on his friends face. He could see the hurt in his eyes. Yes it would be some time before their relationship would be back the way it was.
"Ducky…what are you doing here?" she asked shutting the water off. "Oh god is something wrong? Did something happen to my da…" she emerged quickly from the bathroom to see all of them including her father staring at her and stopped short. "Dad?" she asked with a shaky voice, her eyes fixed to him. They stared at each other for what seemed like several minutes before she slowly started to smile.
As much as he didn't want to interfere Ducky made his way over to her "My dear as much as I hate to interrupt this much needed reunion I believe it will need to wait, dear Michelle here is in dire need of your assistance.
Instantly snapping out of her trance her eyes went to the couch "What happened?" she asked rushing over. The second she came around to the other side she gasped her eyes widening. "What the hell happened? Michelle…"
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