Chapter 4

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The rest of the journey back to NCIS was quiet and mostly uneventful. At one point Tony drove through a puddle at a small dip in the highway that proved to be a lot deeper than expected, but by driving very slowly, the sedan escaped flooding and the brakes held. They all sighed with relief. Unspoken were the thoughts of being stranded on the highway with the other side of the hurricane fast approaching.

The streets of Washington were quiet…creepy quiet, as Tony put it. People evidently were heeding the warnings and staying in sheltered areas. Trees were down here and there. Many street signs, stop signs, even a few stop lights were blown over. Dark stoplights in some areas indicated power outages. Freestanding signs had toppled, and even some rooftops had peeled off. Bus shelters and other small structures were down; some lying in the roads. And the wind was picking up, and the rain falling again.

It was short work to get to the O Street gate after the exit off the highway…but halfway down the street, fallen trees blocked the way. Tony grimaced and turned the car around, hoping that the Hull gate was open.

It was. The checkpoint guards waved them in quickly, after just a glance at their IDs. Tony parked the car in the NCIS garage and they stumbled through the rain to the front entrance.

A sympathetic guard said to them, “Man! I’m glad I don’t have your job, agents! I’m to direct you to the subbasement—that’s where everyone’s hiding out. The upper floors aren’t safe.”

“We’re all about safety,” Tony nodded. Glumly, the threesome took the elevator to the subbasement.

- - - - -

Gibbs turned at the ding of the elevator, close by. His team saw anger race across his face, followed by a shimmer of worry, and then gentleness as he took in the sight of them: clothing stained with mud; faces still bloody and bruised. His voice cracked just a little as he said quietly, “Go see Ducky. Get your cuts cleaned up. Then, we’ll talk.”

“Oh, man; oh, man; that’s a scary word: ‘talk’,” Tony mumbled as they headed for Autopsy. “What a day!”

Ducky blinked on seeing them. “It is true, then. You were out in the storm.”

“The hurricane and a tornado,” Tim said, almost in disbelief.

“Have you no sense, people?! There are five deaths in the area attributed to the storm. We feared you might be among them.”

“We almost were,” said Ziva, and she started to cry.

“Good heavens! What’s all this?” Tears were not what Ducky was expecting. Certainly not from Ziva. Nor even, really from Tony and Tim…who weren’t crying, but who looked like they might.

“I was so scared, Ducky,” Ziva sobbed. “I am supposed to be strong. To have no fear. But now I cannot stop…”

“Suppose you start at the beginning,” the ME said softly, “and tell me everything that happened.”

- - - - -

Gibbs appeared in the doorway at the end of the long tale. Ducky saw him, and stepped out into the corridor to talk, letting the door close behind him. “How long does it take to treat a few cuts, Duck? We have work to do.”

“Oh, I’m not recommending any work today, Jethro. They’ve had a horrible shock.”

Fixing him with a skeptical eye, Gibbs said, “I’m listening, but this better be good. DiNozzo and McGee should have been back hours ago. David snuck out, without requesting leave.”

Ducky told him. “If it can make a strong warrior like Ziva sob, it’s serious. I suspect we’re seeing the early stages of post-traumatic stress disorder. I would hope that they’ll just get over their fears, but we should watch them, in case they don’t.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Not once, but twice, they were sure they would die…and were powerless to fight back. It’s the ultimate terror.”

Gibbs looked distracted, annoyed at something in his head. “Can I talk to them now?”

“Oh, I know that they shouldn’t have been out there. But this is not the time to scold them, Jethro.”

With just a slight nod, Gibbs went into Autopsy.

They looked startled on seeing him, sitting loosely, like broken toys, on an autopsy table, their faces and hands now attended with tiny bandages and ointment. “Oh! Boss!” said Tony. “I, uh…” Words died in his throat and he looked down at the floor.

“DiNozzo,” Gibbs acknowledged. “Any trouble getting the car back?”

“Well, uh…the tires are all fine. Good tires, that car has.”

Gibbs held in his wince at what was left out of Tony’s speech.

“It is all my fault, Gibbs,” said Ziva. “I wanted to see a hurricane. I detained Tony and McGee to watch it.”

“No way, boss. I’m to blame. Or, McGee and I are.”

“Right,” said Tim, after a mild glare at Tony.

“You could have been killed out there,” Gibbs said, trying to sound calm.

Ziva started crying again, and Gibbs quickly backpedaled. “All I care about right now is that you’re back here, where it’s safe. That’s all that matters.” He enveloped them in a hug. “The second half of the storm is just starting here. Stay here tonight, and then take the day off tomorrow. Relax. Calm down.”

“We should never have left here,” Ziva said, dabbing at tears. “It was safe here.”

“Relatively,” said Gibbs. “Remember how I had to nag you to come down to the subbasement, Ziva? During that first half of the storm, at some point a tree came flying through one of our squad room windows. It landed on your desk and mine. Maintenance will be a while clearing that out tomorrow.”

“A tree…I could have been…”

“There’s risk in everything. What’s important is that we cut down the risk by not taking unnecessary chances.”

“We screwed up. And almost got ourselves…”

“There was this tree, boss. Flying at us! I thought…”

“The tornado was the worst part. It was coming toward us, and we had no way to get off the highway. It started to lift me off the ground…”

Gibbs held up a hand, and stopped himself from saying the word counselors. Too soon. “When you’re ready, come join us in the Cybercrime room. We have soda and microwaved soup. Better than nothing.” He walked out.

After a moment of silence, Tony, who was the one in the middle, put an arm around Ziva and Tim. “Thanks, guys. You kept me sane, and alive, today.”

“Teamwork,” said Ziva.

“Amen,” said Tim. They looked up as thunder shook the building. “Amen.”

-END-