#navycis

Crouching he sat beside you, holding the cell phone in front of the bars that separated him from you, while you said the probably last words of your life to your boss. Shortly after you asked that he should find you, the cell phone was aggressively closed and the man stood up laughing.

The phone found it's way to the floor with a bang and with another, it had jumped into thousand of tiny electrical particles under the sole of his shoe. „I’m going to prepare our little game outside and look for a playmate. Enjoy the last hours of your miserable life.“

You sat squashed in a small dog cage with your hands tied behind your back and looked around in panic. Even if you tried to stay calm and think of something to get yourself out of here, you couldn’t withstand the pressure you were under.

You were a trained agent and had already experienced worse than that, but this time it was different. You were never the main victim in a case, you always stood there as a minor character, observing and trying to find out what had happened.

And now you were in the middle of the action. You were the one who now had to experience firsthand how bad it was and what an incredible fear everyone must have felt who was once in such a situation.

You desperately tried to break the zip tie on a broken wire of the cage, but the only thing you destroyed was your own palms with this hopeless attempt. The burning and throbbing in your hands, the red liquid that ran from your arms made your hands too slippery to break free from the shackled and so you saw it as a waste of time to continue destroying them. You stopped, even if unintentionally.

Fidgeting, however, you managed to get down on your knees and look around. The small wooden hut was full of rubbish, the furniture was covered with brown, dried blood and you couldn't shake the visions before your eyes of how the others died helplessly here.

And now it seems it was your turn. But you didn't give up that easily, you would fight to the very last breath. Until then, you had to collect all your strength and energy and use it for your protection and safety.

Within a very short time your survival instincts that you were taught at the academy kicked in and your eyes wandered along the room until they stopped on a hook that held nothing but the key to this prison in which you were stuck.

Always paying attention to the door and the noises around you, you looked for something wide and thin that could access the keys like and arm substitute. But even if there was all sorts of rubbish lying everywhere, nothing like that was to be seen far and wide.

Annoyed and carelessly you let yourself fall back and noticed that the cage wasn't as strong as you thought. The thin iron was slightly rusted and probably several years old, it could no longer withstand tremendous force.

Tremendous force, that was it.

It was very risky and loud, but it was the only possible way out of this situation. You had to be quick; kick in the bars, somehow crawl out and run.

With the first kick you bent the door and with the second it popped open.

You escaped your prison crawling and were now standing in the cabin. Once again you looked around the upper level of your field of vision and found what you needed to destroy the bonds. The secateurs were the only thing you saw and took, so you cut them open and didn't often miss a few areas on your arms, but you didn't care.

You had to leave.

The door was open, he hadn't locked it before, thinking he was sure you couldn't leave. You ran out quickly and stopped shortly afterwards to examine the area. The cold air of winter and the snow that was falling made it difficult for you to have a clear view to see where you were at all.

You only knew that you were in some forest through the wooden hut and that it was freezing. You only had a thin coat on that was not prepared for this temperature. The ice-cold air ached in your lungs when you took deep breaths and the fine and yet so sharp wind cut like knife stabs into your already reddened cheeks.

To warm up, you crossed your arms under your chest and rubbed your upper arms before you set off into the unknown distance. Your boots sank into deep snow and made it harder and harder for you to move. Your energy also dwindled with every minute you spent out there, but far and wide you couldn't find anything where you could get help or hide.

A few meters deeper into the forest, you heard a female voice, followed by a male laugh. Quickly you ran as best as you could to the next big tree and hid behind it. You put your head on the cold wood and looked to the side in the direction where the screams were coming from.

The woman you heard earlier was scared for her life, away from her tormentor. But she didn't get far. Instead, he caught up with her, grabbed her and knocked her down.

Helplessly but defending she tried to push him away but he was stronger than her, she had no chance. You hid again and closed your eyes while you listened to her cries for help before you took another deep breath and released yourself from your little hiding place.

You walked to the place they were standing, only a small river separated you. "Leave her alone. Come and take me, but let her go!" your lips were already blue and trembling, your words were just a mix of chattering teeth and slurred words.

The focus of the two fighting on the ground was now on you. In the woman's eyes you could clearly see the fear but also the liberation that she was not alone. While you tried to keep his attention and talk to him, the woman below had become too impatient and began to tear the stone out of his hand, with which he presumably, like all his other victims, wanted to kill her.

Inwardly, you cursed her for making an unnecessary attempt that left her even more of a mess. You ran at them both through the freezing shallow water that cut through your skin with full force and threw yourself on him.

When your weight hit his body, he fell forward and you landed in front of him, barely able to move due to the cold. "Bitch!" he yelled and crawled over to you once he had collected himself and processed what had happened.

Only your arms had the strength to fight him off, your legs were almost useless and you cursed yourself for your decision to run through the river, but it was your job to help the others.

Your panicked gaze wandered from him to the woman who was still on the floor and dared not to move; she acted like a deer in the headlights. "Run!" you screamed at her before his fist collided with your face and she took the time to realize what you said before leaning on her legs and moving towards freedom.

Fully equipped, McGee and you stood at the door of the house where your suspect lived while Gibbs ran around the house to secure the back area and keep an eye on the back door in case Mike Lander thought he had to leave. Guns drawn, he nodded to you once more before knocking and leaning his body against the wall to prevent him from being shot through the door.

„NCIS, open the door!“

When nobody answered and there was silence in the house, McGee kicked the wooden door in. While he walked in front of you and secured the left to the kitchen, you walked further in and secured the bedroom. Nobody was there, but the special agent and you noticed quickly that the pot full of coffee was still relatively hot and the smell of freshly burned wood and ashes stung your eyes and nose; a fire has definitely been kindled recently.

„Tim, he is still here.“ you whispered to your partner.

„Y/N!“ did you heard him scream before something hit you with full force from the side and you flew through the entire room only to come to a standstill on the little coffee table that collapsed under you.

The impact took all of the air you had from your lungs and you closed your eyes while grimacing in pain. Your head felt like a cinder block and you felt something run down the back of your neck. Your vision was blurry and the corners of your eyes darkened. At that moment you were unable to move, as if your body was paralyzed.

„Boss, he is out front.“ Yelled McGee from the balcony before running to you but Gibbs was already gone. He had probably saw everything that had just happened in the glass front from his position.

He was kneeling in front of you and wanted to help you get up, but you just raised your hand and pointed towards the door. „Go get him, I’m fine.“ You said in a hushed voice and even if you saw that he hesitated and wanted to stay with you, he decided to chase after this guy.

You were left alone and gathered all your strength to free yourself from the table. Standing up didn’t work, so you turned to the right and dumped yourself from the hard wood to the rug on the floor.  With a sigh you tried to support yourself with your shaky arms to get up but before you pulled your legs up to shift your body weight onto your knees, two hands grabbed your elbows and pulled you up slowly.

"Easy. Are you okay?" it was Gibbs looking at you worriedly and reaching under your arms, you still weren't in the control of your own body.

"M'fine."

But that didn't work for him. "Let me see," he slowly tilted your head to the side to get a better view of the back of your head and neck. "The hell you are, you're bleeding."

You hissed at his touch and winced when the gray-haired repeatedly went to the wound. Another wave of dizziness settled around you and you fell back a little. If he didn't still have a firm grip on you, you would probably be back on the ground.

"Does Tim got the bastard?" you asked after you slowly moved in the direction of the exit, Gibbs being your support while having an protective arm around your back.

"It doesn't matter now, I will take you to the hospital."

---

Patiently, Gibbs waited in the emergency doctors waiting room until they were done with your tests and he was called in by a nurse. While he sat on the chair across from your bed and vigorously checked you from top to bottom, you sat on the edge of the bed with a stapled wound on the side of your skull and still a little dazed from the painkillers you were given before.

After a while, a younger doctor came into the room and introduced himself to Gibbs. "How is she doing, doc?"

"So.." he started and took the stool out from under the desk. "The tests are inconclusive, which is good. However, from the impact you described to me, she got two broken ribs and suffered a moderate concussion, which is why she will probably continue to complain of headaches for a while."

"I can handle the complaints, I just want to know whether my agent can go home." he laughed and looked over at you.

You rolled your eyes playfully and couldn't help but laugh. Even if he was a hard shell on the outside that was very difficult to see through, he was on the inside gentle with his family, almost overprotective.

"She can go home. I will give her a few more painkillers for the next few days." said the brown-haired doctor and immediately turned to the computer to enter the recipes into the system. "However, she should not do any field activity until she has been 100% cleared by the on-duty doctor."

"Desk duty? How fun." you said sarcastically and turned to the doctor, but your head got stuck in half, the pain was too strong that you still felt despite the painkiller.

"Sorry about that, Agent L/N." he said and handed the instructions for taking the pills to your boss. "If she complains of very bad headaches, dizziness, nausea or even passes out, bring her back to the hospital immediately."

Gibbs nodded in understanding and took a closer look at the discharge papers while the doctor talked to you. "You are not allowed to wash your hair with shampoo, initially for the next 48 hours. You can get the blood out with lukewarm water, but let someone help you and please don't comb your hair in that area to prevent removing the clips."

After this instruction, he wished you a speedy recovery and disappeared from the door.

---

It was the next day you worked off your old files that you still had to work on anyway. Other than that, you were not allowed to do anything other than put information you found on the screen and go down to Abby to see what she'd found for you.

You didn't want to admit it but you felt worse than yesterday. The waves of dizziness you felt when you moved too quickly and the nausea you felt since yesterday evening made it hard for you to concentrate. You had already two pills of painkillers and you wouldn't get a third one from Gibbs, he clearly told you and you didn't want to draw any further attention to yourself.

"Hey, look. I brought you your favorite donuts." did you hear  a male voice speak and you looked up. Tim stood in front of you with a pack of 12 donuts and a big grin on his face.

Smiling, you took the box over to you and placed it on the free side of the desk."Thank you, Timmy but you don't have to give me anything. It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is. I didn't offer you the protection a partner has to offer." before he uttered the last words of the sentence, you talked in between. "Tim, it's okay. This is our job. You did what you had to do, we just didn't looked clearer the first time we went in."

He nodded, the guilt was written on his face while he stole one of your donuts and walked back to his place. He was worried and even if you said it wasn't his fault, he felt more than guilty so he tried it with small gifts and gestures, like helping you with your old files in his free time when you needed a break.

Hours went by that you worked, Ellie, Nick and Gibbs had also returned from field work and now were back at their desks. Your otherwise so happy charisma was betrayed by your face contorted with pain. You felt the worried looks from the squad on you so you tried to get away from them by going down to Abbys.

At least for a few minutes.

Abby let you know every single detail she found and about the evening with her brother but it just didn't seem to get into you head. As soon as you walked out of her door, almost everything she said was forgotten.

The dizziness seemed to get worse and you just barely made it to the top. In the middle of the bullpen you came to a standstill, your breath shallow and heavy. "Abby found out that.."

You couldn't go on talking. Something in you refused to speak, this abnormal dizziness took away your sight and you couldn't see anything but a blurred vision. "Y/N, what did she find out?" Gibbs asked you in concern.

He already stood up from his chair when he saw that you came walking, your face almost paler than the walls of the hospital he had to stare at. Almost immediately, he knew that something was wrong with you so he rounded his desk if he had to intervene and be near you.

A new day had dawned and Gibbs took the elevator to his office. With his own and three other coffees, he stepped out of the square meter room and set off to his team. The two boys were already there, mocking each other as always. He had to clear his throat to get the attention of the two before they looked up at him and notices who was standing in front of them.

„Good morning, boss.“ Tony spoke in a low, whispering tone as he took two coffee cups from him. One for Tim and the other for himself.

The gray-haired stomped to the blonde’s place and put her hot cup on the table where she wasn’t sitting yet. Your cup also found his place at your desk, waiting for you. „Where are Ellie and Y/N?“ „Bishop is down with Abby and is checking if she has anything new about the traces we found on the victim.“ Tim started before sipping on his drink. „Y/N hasn’t appeared yet.“

He looked at your desk again and brooded. Usually you were always the first at the office and worked on old files while the others slowly came dawdled. It had never happened before that you were late, which worried him, even if he would not openly admit it.

„Thanks for the Coffee.“ Said a female voice and pulled him out of his thoughts. „Well, our lab rat didn’t find anything again. The perpetrator left nothing for us. No DNA, no fingerprint, not even a damn hair!“ „The victim was also been washed clean from everything. Not a single trace that leads to him except once again a small note in the skull wound with a number.“ Tony interfered in the conversation. „We have nothing. No clue, we don’t even know where to start. We are looking for a ghost.“

„We have something, the numbers. We just have to find out what they stand for, in which order they should be set up and how many victims there will still be to solve the puzzle.“ McGee looked from his computer to Gibbs and waited for his answer.

„What are you waiting for then?“

While the three o them stood together at the monitor and went to work, Gibbs tried to reach you on your cell phone, but even after several times nobody answered except the mailbox.

The only one who could now know where you were and what was going on was the blonde agent on his team. You were good partners and always took care of each other when working outside, he knew how close you had been since day one and that you were best friends, both at work and after.

Without further ado, he decided to interrupt Ellie’s work and bring her to his desk. „Ellie, do you have a minute?“

„Sure, boss.“ With a clear answer, she put the Television remote in Tony’s hands and walked quickly to close the distance between her and Gibbs. „Is everything okay?“

„Do you know where Y/N is?“

„No, but I like to know it, too.“ She answered straight away. He noticed the fear and concern in her eyes and in the posture she took in front of him.  

Slowly he felt a quesy feeling spreading in his stomach, something was wrong.

„When was the last time you saw her?“ „Yesterday afternoon. She had an appointment with her doctor and, with your consent, went earlier. She wasn’t noticeably tense or nervous. She acted totally normal and even made jokes with Tony.“ Whispered the blonde and propped herself up with her hands on the older agent’s counter. „I haven’t heard from her since then. I wrote her a few messages last night if everything went well, but when nothing came back I thought she was already asleep.“

He couldn’t do anything with this information, but he tried to convince himself that you were fine and that you only slept because the pills you had to take for the various tests were just knocking you out, even if these thoughts failed miserably and the negative thoughts kept coming to the fore.

And they should prove to be right.

He was at Abby’s when his cell phone started to ring in his jacket. Inwardly, he hoped that you would finally give him a sign of life and that you assured him that you were okay so that he wouldn’t be so nervous. But when he answered, only a veiled, dark voice could be heard.

„Agent Gibbs,” someone started on the other side of the line. “I got something that is yours.“

Immediately alarmed, he run the stairs up to the office and switched on speaker when he entered the bullpen and let everyone overhear the conversation. With a hand signal, he gestured to McGee to start tracking the conversation.

„Who’s there?“

„Someone you will never be able to find.“ the male caller laughed mischievously.

„What do you want?“

„Me? Nothing. But I guess you want something back that is very close to your heart.“ A small pause. „Special Agent Gibbs, say hello to Agent L/N. It will probably be the last time you will ever hear her sweet voice.“  

It was like the caller wasn’t in an enclosed building or room and the snow and wind mixed into the duct. He huffed and the grey-haired agent could hear a kind of rattle on the line before he heard something, that struck his and the breath of the other agents in the team.

◤ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ:

ꜱᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅɪᴇ ɪ ꜱᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅɪᴇ ɪɪ ꜱᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅɪᴇ ɪɪɪ

ꜰᴀɪɴᴛ

ɢᴜɪʟᴛʏ

A/N: It is really really short and I guess crappy because I still don’t feel well but I felt bad for not posting. I am sorry.

---

Outside the sun was shining but she didn't care, her world had been gray for weeks. She was no longer sleeping properly, thick blue-purple circles under her eyes adorned her once so beautiful and happy blue eyes. They were almost as deep as the hole in her once so bright soul. Now there was nothing more to be seen than sadness, anger and despair.

She no longer listened properly, all attempts to get her to take part on the work were unsuccessful and hopeless. Her eyes only stared at the table, her partner's table, that was already empty, but it took all her attention to itself and enveloped the room with feelings of guilt and bewilderment.

There was no word that could describe this emptiness and unbearability in her. Despair and excessive demands of the events flooded her body. So many questions were buzzing in her head and it seemed to her as if she only knew the 'why?' to which she still couldn't find an answer to this day.

'Why you?' just buzzed around, she absolutely didn't deserve to die. 'Why?'

Why hadn't she sacrifice herself for her partner? She deserved to live.

She placed the flowers that she had previously bought from the little cemetery shop on the gray marbled grave with the slightly lighter gravestone.

Fuerteventura flowers, they were her favorite flowers.

She knelt in the green grass and in front of it and left read the big squiggly writing. Her name should have been there, not hers. She was too young to die and yet she sacrificed herself. Sacrificed herself for her best friend.

The blonde wiped away some tears, she didn't move, didn't say anything, just watched the cold white stone. It wasn't fair, she had solved many cases, including many where she almost died. She knew the dangers and yet..

Tears after tears ran down her cheeks and again she hoped that it was all just a stupid joked and that the brunette would start laugh behind her. But it wasn't a joke or a stupid dream, it was a reality.

And reality hit her harder than she had ever imagined.