#sid (ncis)

[le-amewzing]

the end of the world (and no one’s fine)

Decided to go way out of my comfort zone just for the holiday, so have some Parknight with a twist! XD *Note: This is a zombie apocalypse AU, so please check the closing A/N for a full list of trigger warnings.

Fic: "the end of the world (and no one's fine)" [FFN] [AO3]

Pairings/Characters: Jess Knight/Alden Parker, with Ronnie Tyler, Dale Sawyer, Sid (from Cyber XD), Tony Francis, & Curtis Hubley in supporting roles; cameos from Delilah Fielding–McGee & Victoria Palmer, as well as minor bkgd OCs

Rating: M

Words: ~10,330

Additional info: romance, family, angst, hurt/comfort, horror, supernatural, AU, 3rd person POV

Summary: The world's fallen apart in just a few months, loved ones are gone or scattered, but…but they've still got each other to depend on.

      The world outside these orange walls was not supposed to look like this, Knight thought when she got up from her desk in the bullpen to go have a peek between the shutters across the way.

      Outside NCIS, the sky was a sickly, greenish–gray. Clouds of smog permanently hovered close these days, just below the skyline, despite the efforts of those who remained at the necessary facilities trying to clean up the air across the country. Worse still, what was above was much the same below, and she didn't need a glimpse to know the parking lot here was as grimy as ever, strewn with debris and refuse and who knew what else, even though few cars and no people were present. Below that, underground, the water had become yet another situation.

      "Antsy?" Parker asked, drawing up on her left side at the window.

      Knight grinned without turning his way, but she knew it was a tight expression. There was no use in lying to him. "No. Yes? Maybe," she settled on. She glanced at him, copper eyes briefly meeting hazel. "Any word?"

      He shrugged. "I thought we were luckier, being here at headquarters, since it has a lot of what we need… But Cyber guys are Cyber guys. I don't know how Piper and Sid ever put up with Hubley's whining. Sid already kicked Hubley out, so Francis is helping him work on the filtration system."

      "Probably for the best. The filtration system is half tech, half mech. No offense to Hubley, but I'd rather Francis follow Sid's orders on which items need muscling into proper place." This time, when she smiled, it felt more genuine.

      Parker, too, smiled a little. Then he resumed staring out the window with Knight. "So, any word?" he asked.

      Knight scrunched her nose up briefly, hearing her own words and at how he asked right now, especially since he knew the likelihood of the answer. "…no. Ronnie and Sawyer are due back from patrol soon, but the satphone's been quiet." She paused. "Alden. It's been days since we last heard from Torres."

      He ran a hand through his hair, which had more white threaded through it these last few months, and cupped the back of his neck. Then he sighed and pursed his lips. "Jess—"

      "I know what you're going to say. I know," she insisted, half turning towards him, her attention no longer on how wrong things looked outside the window. "I know that he's busy. I know that he and Bishop are exceptional tools in the hands of that—Odette woman," Knight said, almost as if Odette Malone's name were a curse any time someone at NCIS mentioned her, "and that their coordination between here and other NCIS agencies, coordinating on the ground…it's what they do best."

      Parker raised his eyebrows.

      "And it takes time."

      He brushed back a lock of hair from her face and shoulder and let his hand trail down her arm until their fingers were linked together. Parker gave her fingers a squeeze.

      Knight squeezed back and took half a step forward, hiding her face in his chest. "But it's been days, Alden," she repeated. "And we can't lose Nick the way we lost Tim."

      At that, Parker's other hand came up to rest on her back, and he held her gently, without uttering a single word and yet saying everything on his mind in that moment.

      Ronnie and Sawyer came back inside a few minutes late—not yet late enough that Knight and Parker were suiting up to go fetch them, but late enough that all pairs of eyes in the bullpen turned when the partners did appear.

      "It's nothing, I promise," Ronnie swore up and down, shuffling ahead of Sawyer as she removed her rifle and passed it to the younger agent.

      "Uh, correction: It is something," Sawyer said with a mild glare at his boss' back. He checked the ammunition and safeties on the guns before standing them along the wall with other weapons by the elevator, ever at the ready.

      "Ronnie," Knight began, getting up to join the other woman on the other side of her desk.

      "She sprained her ankle out there," Sawyer tattled.

      There was a collective sigh of relief from their fellow survivors, although Knight could've sworn she heard Ronnie flare her nostrils when she glared at Sawyer over her shoulder for blabbing.

      Parker stood up straight from where he'd been leaning against the edge of Knight's desk. He hooked a finger at Ronnie, gesturing for her to follow him. "C'mon, Ronnie. First aid, even for a sprain."

      But Ronnie vigorously shook her head, sending her curls flying. "No. I don't need it."

      Parker exhaled a calming breath. "Ronnie—"

      "I am not going down there!"

      Her sharp tone pierced the quiet of the bullpen. Sid and Hubley, sitting on the floor already, ducked their eyes at her outburst. Sawyer continued to frown at his boss' back, and Francis glanced between Knight and Parker, the two senior-most agents present.

      Ronnie shook, slightly, in the middle of what had once been the squad room, though. With her fists clenched at her sides, dark knuckles blanching, she shook her head again and met Parker's stare head on. But, where she'd glared at Parker before, her anger abandoned her now. Those were the wide eyes of a frightened woman. Knight knew; she'd seen them countless times during her tenure with REACT.

      "Ronnie, it's the best place to keep the medical supplies," Parker reminded her. "And the place is clear. It's been that way since Zero Day."

      She flinched at his casual mention of the start of…well, Armageddon, Knight supposed, but Ronnie swallowed and found her voice. "I don't care, Parker. You won't get me down in Autopsy."

      Parker grimaced. The good humor left his posture, given the squaring of his shoulders and that tautness of his jawline, even though the latter was hidden by his whiskers to a less trained eye.

      That was why Knight stepped between them and offered Ronnie her chair. "Ronnie, just have a seat. I don't see why we can't pop down for an ice pack and wrap," she aimed at Parker, "and it'll be faster with the two of us."

      The tension in his jaw relaxed, and Parker conceded with a subtle nod.

      But Ronnie furrowed her brow. "Honestly, Knight, Sawyer's just being a worrywart. I simply tripped over that stupid tree root that broke up the foot path. You know the one over on the left side of the building. If I can get my foot up for an hour or two, I'll be fine."

      Knight smiled and shoved her notebooks and old paperwork—what use was there for case files when cases would no longer be closed?—onto the floor to clear room for Ronnie's foot. She even patted the spot for good measure. "Then get it up already." She glanced behind her. "Curtis, toss Ronnie two protein bars and go fill her a bottle, would you?"

      Ronnie's eyes went wide again as Hubley grumbled but left to fetch the items. "No! The water filters are back in place? No more stale water bottles?"

      "You're welcome," Sid said from the floor, though he still kept his eyes glued to…ah, he and Hubley had been playing some card game.

      Knight took a headcount, reminded herself that Hubley would be right back to join the other four, and followed Parker out of the bullpen, towards the back hallway. One they'd rounded the corner and stepped into the elevator to head down to Autopsy, she mumbled, "Kid gloves with Ronnie, Alden."

      He huffed. "I know. But—" He put his hands on his hips and turned away from the doors, as if Ronnie would be right outside when they next opened. "It's been months. Nothing's changed about Autopsy. Jimmy happened to have it empty that week, and it's been that way ever since."

      The elevator dinged, and they stepped into the short hallway before Autopsy's doors. But Knight didn't enter just yet. "It's been months," she agreed, "…but you don't just get over the loss of family like that. It was her daughter, Alden."

      Parker's shoulders sagged. He didn't say anything to that, so they went inside.

      Where Autopsy before had been just another aspect of their jobs, its chill sterility creeped Knight out more than it ever had now. She knew Parker was right—none of the slabs held any bodies, no dead, no reanimated, not even any parts—but being here, while the world was falling to pieces, weighed her down and threatened to bring on a headache.

      Months, she'd had to remind him. It'd taken the world two full weeks to grasp the reality of the situation, that this wasn't some large prank orchestrated nationally or globally by some select, dedicated horror buffs with elaborate designs and too much time and money on their hands. In two full weeks, they'd seen countries fall and the rest descend into chaos, ordered and not.

      The U.S. was a bit of a mix. Certain leaders had bit the dust or disappeared altogether, at every level. …no agency had been spared, not even NCIS.

      Knight bit her lower lip as her thoughts drifted to Director Vance. Supposedly, he'd located Kayla and Jared and gone into hiding with them. But it'd been almost two months since Knight and Parker had heard from him, and Torres and Bishop were constantly on the move between agencies, so it wasn't likely that they'd heard from him or tracked him down yet either.

      But she shook her head free of such dismal thoughts. Bad enough that she was worried about not hearing from Torres in a while. She'd already brought up McGee's death once today. She didn't want to entertain any others right now.

      "Ah, found the wraps," Parker announced from the storage closet. He emerged with one in hand and tucking another into his pocket. He did a double-take at Knight's expression. "Jess?"

      "Hmm?"

      "Your face is flushed. What's wrong?"

      Tears threatened to spill forth, but Knight shook her head and went to the freezer. She pulled out two packs, tossing one to Parker and pressing the other to her eyes. The cold helped anchor her. "Nah, it's just me being in my head too much."

      Parker went quiet long enough that Knight pulled her head out of the freezer and stole a peek at him. He cocked his head to one side. "Who's on your mind right now?"

      Damn, he was so good at that… She laughed, which helped to beat back the tears. Knight returned the second ice pack and closed the freezer door. "All of them."

      They returned to the elevator, and Parker cleared his throat. "You know… Just because we're waiting to hear from Torres and Bishop…hell, even from Malone…doesn't mean you can't touch base with the others."

      Knight chuckled. "I dunno… Calls mostly are for emergencies in end times, Alden."

      "They don't have to be."

      She nodded. Maybe they didn't have to be, but Knight hated to admit that she was scared to call and get no answer.

      "…what people have deemed 'Z-Day' is, in fact, the zombie apocalypse—" one of the announcers began on ZNN early in the evening.

      But a second announcer cut in. "Please excuse my colleague for such language. We here at ZNN do not identify such things as being real. Zero Day, as dubbed by early researchers of the phenomenon, is of course the name for the inciting incident, five months ago, when the recently deceased began to regain movement in city morgues and in hospitals. Though currently we still have no medical treatment for the cause, scientists have been able to study a few viable samples, and they say the name 'Zero Day' is apt. Not unlike a software vulnerability, the 'reinfection,' as some are calling it, appears to stem from the uncontrolled regeneration of white blood cells, cells everyone has, meaning it's rather like a human software bug that these white blood cells on steroids are exploiting." The second announcer narrowed her eyes at the camera and adjusted the papers on her desk, which was showing its wear and tear from the small crew holing up at the television studio. She cleared her throat and continued, "Scientists, in the same vein as software developers, are desperate to come up with, at the very least, a patch. In the meantime, other researchers are more concerned with what precisely would spur white blood cells' behavior in this manner, going from causing cancer to causing a transformation—and if that's even a fraction of the whole picture."

      Knight pulled a face and leaned forward to grab the remote, but Sid beat her to it, and the Cyber agent clicked around, trying to find something a little less doom-and-gloom for them to watch on the screen in the bullpen while they waited for Francis and Hubley to return from their patrol.

      "You'd think, even a few months in, they'd have agreed on the source of what's going on," Sawyer griped, breaking the quiet of the room that was only moderately filled by the television's low volume.

      Each of the rest of them settled him with a dry look. Even Sid bothered to crane his neck up, since he still sat on the floor and Sawyer had dragged what used to be McGee's chair out into the middle of the room.

      "What?" Sawyer gestured at the television with a mild scowl. "It's just history repeating itself, you know."

      Ronnie groaned and started in with, "Dale, you have got to learn to read the room…," so Knight took that as her cue to get up and stretch her legs. And, her mind flashing back to her chat with Parker at lunchtime, she grabbed the satphone to bring with her.

      Knight headed upstairs. She walked past MTAC and Vance's office, the latter with a wince, and kept going until she reached an empty conference room. There, she closed the door behind her and moved towards the window. She checked outside.

      Nothing. That stained sky remained, but there was no movement.

      Knight checked the signal on the satphone's screen. Its strength was best here or up on the roof, but Knight kept her visits to the roof limited ever since Zero Day… She heaved a sigh and scrolled through the short list of saved contacts.

      It took two rings, but Delilah answered. "We're fine, Knight," she said by way of greeting.

      Knight blinked. "How'd you know it was me?"

      "Because, like clockwork, you call around suppertime, every other day." She sounded tired.

      There was an apology on the tip of Knight's tongue, but she withheld it; Delilah had heard a lot of those in the first few weeks since losing McGee. "How're things at Sarah's?"

      Delilah inhaled, paused, and exhaled. "Not…terrible. Could've been worse, holing up with my mother."

      Knight's eyes widened. How Delilah managed to find any humor in the situation, she'd love to know!

      "But I think it's good for the twins, to be with their aunt." She went quiet.

      Knight asked what she was supposed to ask: "How're the twins?"

      "The same," Delilah answered, her voice breaking so slightly. "Johnny cries when he stops to think about his dad, but Morgan's—she's withdrawn, Knight. She's here, but she's not, you know?" Delilah dropped her voice to a whisper. "…it's as if I've seen the light go out in my little girl's eyes."

      "Delilah…" Words escaped Knight. They all knew what had happened to the McGees… All the years she'd known Timothy McGee, it made sense to Knight that he sacrificed himself to ensure his wife and twins made it to safety at his sister's at the start of this mess. But no one could've counted on any in his family witnessing that sacrifice, like Morgan.

      Delilah sniffled and cleared her throat. "But, otherwise, we're okay. You and Parker?"

      Knight frowned. "We're all right. Still have our tiny crew here, and we've shored up defenses as best we can, so it's not the worst bunker in the world."

      "Good, good…"

      "I'll…let you go then, Delilah."

      "Yeah. Catch you in two nights' time."

      Knight smiled to herself. Had she become that predictable these past few months? "Oh, hold on."

      "Something up?"

      "Have you heard from Torres lately?"

      "Mm… Maybe last week? Nick said he'd arrange for more supplies soon and asked what we needed, but I heard Ellie bugging him in the background that he was overdue to pay Lucia and Amanda a visit, too. Maybe he's with his family."

      "Yeah, maybe… Thanks, Delilah."

      "Sure thing. Thanks for always checking in, Knight. Bye."

      The line went dead, and Knight tapped the satphone's antenna to her chin. Could that be it? Torres and Bishop had just…made a detour? She desperately wanted to believe it and not think of other possible outcomes, so Knight chose to bury those concerns under other priorities for now.

      Scrolling down a little further in the contact list, Knight selected another name—but then the phone beeped obnoxiously with an incoming text. And the text had arrived from that number:

-Jess?

      Knight furrowed her brow and quickly typed back:

-Jimmy? Kasie?

      The reply was a bigger surprise:

-Victoria

      Not entirely odd… Victoria of course was at home with her dad, who'd taken in Kasie and Piper, as well, when everything had gone to shit. But it still raised Knight's hackles that the kid and not one of the adults was texting on the satphone. And Knight tried to convey her curiosity without showing her concern:

-Hey, V. U guys running low on anything? Uncle Nick should b making delivery soon, this week or next. We're keeping a good lookout here, so we're safe.

      She wished she could conclude the message with a thumbs-up emoji, but, sadly, this satphone wasn't quite current enough. But perhaps the emoji wouldn't've helped, considering Victoria's next few texts:

-No, we're good on stuff

-but Aunt Kasie & Piper don't see it

-something's off about Dad

      Knight reread the last message five times before the words registered with her. She blindly groped for the back of the nearest chair and gripped it once she found it. Knight sank into the seat as another message came in:

-Aunt Jess?

      Right. She couldn't leave Victoria hanging. Knight's thumbs flew over the keypad:

-Tell me everything that happened. And then I want you to start sequestering your dad in another room—tell Kasie & Piper this is on my orders—and move whatever supplies you need out of the way.

      She didn't want to sound alarmist, but it felt right, especially as Victoria filled her in on Jimmy's "milk run" yesterday late in the morning on his own… Knight shook her head, because her friend was a fighter and resourceful, but he lacked training.

      When Victoria signed off (just a quick "Thanks"), Knight set the satphone down and rested her head atop her arms on the dusty conference table. So much for touching base with others to lift her spirits….

      Knight woke with a start, nightmares filled with gunshots and screams echoing in her ears as she sat up in the conference room. She checked the time on the satphone.

      Oh, thank fuck. She'd only been out for fifteen-ish minutes.

      She yawned and stretched her arms and back before getting to her feet. Knight tucked the phone into her pants pocket and exited the room. But, coming down the hallway, she spied a familiar silhouette walking towards her. She smiled and met him closer by the top of the staircase, and they leaned together on the railing, looking out over the office floor. "I was long," she admitted.

      "Yeah, I was coming to see if something were up," Parker remarked. He rested on his forearms with his hands loosely clasped. "And the verdict is?"

      Knight raised her eyebrows and twisted her lips around. But she didn't have the energy to explain it all, so she pulled the satphone from her pocket and scrolled to the top of her exchange with Victoria. Then she passed the device to him.

      Parker read every last line. "…oh," he said, his voice low and final.

      "Yeah, 'oh.'" Knight took the phone back. Then she stood up straight and gripped the railing hard enough to turn her knuckles whiter than—well, than the way Parker's Oxfords used to look, before they'd begun holing up here, reduced to half a dozen outfits each and little means to clean anything. "It's like Tim all over again. We're not going to have the chance to say goodbye to Jimmy either, Alden."

      "I know."

      Still, she sighed. "I…don't even know how I can still get angry. Half our NCIS family is gone or going. The same goes for my blood relatives, the ones who aren't staying safe on the water, avoiding all this for now." Knight looked Parker's way.

      He nodded. "Trust me, Jess, I get it. My family's faring little better."

      She frowned and released the railing, moving to touch his nearer arm. "Oh, Alden, I didn't mean—"

      But Parker shook his head. "I'm lucky Viv still considers me a friend and took Dad into hiding with her. But Roman Parker was a crotchety curmudgeon when I was a kid and that wasn't going to change now. So he got antsy from being holed up and went outside when Viv's back was turned and got bit." He shrugged, but that hard line had returned to his jaw. His father's death was still too fresh and raw.

      Knight pinched his sleeve and rested her forehead on his shoulder. They stood together like that for a few moments, quiet, tired, and worn out. It was hard not to feel those things ten times over, really, when they kept replaying their losses like a scratched DVD. The comparison got Knight thinking, though. "I think…I've had enough dwelling on the past for this lifetime."

      Her words piqued his curiosity. Parker did half a turn, resting on one elbow on the railing now and facing her. "This lifetime?" He raised his eyebrows. "Dreaming of what life would look like if none of this"—he waved out at the floor, but Knight knew he meant outside the building—"had happened?"

      Knight blinked, not expecting Parker to take her idea and run with it. But the idea now felt so absurd, she almost wanted to laugh. "Oh, God. Can you imagine a different world? Just…no reanimated corpses. Just regular cases." She paused, squinting while her thoughts churned. "Or, bizarre in a different way. Instead of dead sailors, we investigate, I dunno, a storage container full of—cheese."

      One of those eyebrows sank as Parker settled her with a skeptical stare. "Cheese, Jess?"

      "What? So I'm hungry."

      His pink complexion grew rosier and his dimples made an appearance under his whiskers the harder he tried to stifle his laughter, especially when she smacked him in the arm for laughing at her.

      Little moments of levity like these were the only things Knight tried to hold on to anymore, though. The weeks had quickly built up into months, but the days were running together since everything seemed to be on repeat.

      Her imagination didn't seem that farfetched or anything like a laugh to her, though. Before Zero Day, NCIS headquarters had been just that—headquarters. Ronnie and Sawyer covered the night shift, Sid and Piper were still down in Cyber, Hubley was still wet behind his ears as a field agent and was considering returning to Cyber, Francis was a glorified paper-pusher who should've had his shot with the MCRT under Gibbs' supervision back in the day, and the MCRT… Well, the MCRT was Parker's and had been for a few years now, Knight thought with another glance to the man beside her. McGee had only just started talking about switching gears and setting aside the fieldwork, for the sake of his family, and Torres seemed itching to leave NCIS and pursue the nonexistent trail Bishop had left years ago.

      But Knight was still going to be here, at Parker's side, MCRT or no. Which reminded her… "C'mon, we might as well catch some shuteye now, while Sawyer and Sid head out for the nighttime patrol." She pecked his cheek and got him turned around to march downstairs.

      Parker huffed. "Tell me again why we took the morning shift…," he groused.

      She smiled at his back. "Obviously, because you're a morning person, Alden. Pastries in the office every morning? Then it was pastries at the little coffee klatch near your place on the weekends… Hell, sometimes it was pastries and coffee to end the night." Knight chuckled and poked him in the back. "You made a morning person out of me, you know."

      Despite all his grumping, Parker couldn't hide that smug smile of his. Yeah, he knew.

      Had the skies been clearer, they would've revealed the bright sun of the not-too-early morning this October day. But that green–gray tint clung to the clouds, even when Knight and Parker woke before their colleagues and friends in order to suit up.

      More than five months ago, "suiting up" would've been as simple as grabbing one's go bag and NCIS jacket and cap. Nowadays, Knight, Parker, and the others didn't bother with too much of their branded gear. Instead, they made use of some spare REACT body armor that had been available in the building at the time—Torres and Bishop hadn't been able to bring them more pieces yet, so no one had a full set—and they constantly combed the armory for weapons and ammunition, hoping to find useful items they'd missed on initial searches.

      They had a limited number of rifles and more handguns than that, but Knight wasn't as concerned about the ammunition, since that was one supply Torres and Bishop always managed to come through for them and have along with each delivery. Even if their group didn't see the couple until next week, they should still have enough ammo to last until the end of the month, used smartly.

      Knight finished adjusting her body armor (which covered her torso, her arms, her shins, and the front of her thighs…it'd have to do) and wound her hair up into a bun to keep it from swinging free into her face. She glanced across the small ground floor office-turned-equipment room and motioned to Parker with a jerk of her chin. "You good to go?"

      He pursed his lips but nodded. Parker did well keeping his calm, easygoing attitude in front of the others, but he didn't fake his fear with Knight, not after all this time. And, especially in the last several weeks, as more and more bad news reached them, he'd gone quiet when they prepped to head out each morning.

      Knight strapped on her SIG and slipped two spare magazines into her pocket before slinging her sniper's rifle across her chest. Then she held a hand out to Parker.

      Parker tucked spare magazines into his vest and placed two SIGs in separate holsters at each hip. A third one waited for him within reach on the nearby table, but he took Knight's hand first and drew her towards him, seizing the rare bit of privacy to kiss her.

      Knight lingered in the kiss, her head angled up, their foreheads resting together. Then she patted his scruffy cheek and broke away. "It won't be long," she reminded him, her tone light.

      He exhaled, trying to cover his huff. But Parker led the way out of the small office out into the lobby. He paused by the doors and, at Knight's signal, unlocked the heavy chains holding them together.

      Patrol wasn't a game, even though that was Sid's closest experience with heavy weapons until now, since he hadn't gone through FLETC as the rest of them had. But even for the most experienced agents like Knight and Parker, there was no real way to prepare for…this.

      "This" was the horrid stench that came with the tainted sky and foul-looking streets. Knight coughed as she stepped outside with Parker and wondered if they'd ever get used to the reek. "I know they confirmed it's not an airborne pathogen, but I still wouldn't turn down a gas mask if Nick comes across a box of them," she bitched to Parker.

      "Seconded," he said. But then he briefly touched her back, locking eyes with her, and slowly began his prowl out front, his eyes peeled for odd movements.

      Knight frowned. Patrol was the rare time when she and Parker had to split up, as he covered the front perimeter and she walked the rest since she was faster with the rifle. Even knowing it was the best use of their skills, she didn't have to like it. But Knight swung her rifle around into her hands anyway and got to walking.

      More than hating the current stench of grime and rot, which was hard to forget when sometimes one stepped and heard a stomach-churning squelch underfoot, Knight missed the saltiness of the air of the Navy Yard. She headed towards the motor pool, aiming to round the building eventually, but her eyes darted left, wishing she'd look out and see water beyond the gross, hazy fog. Hell, maybe if she wished hard enough, she'd hear the crashing waves.

      But, since Zero Day, there'd been an eerie nothingness. No waves, no wind, barely a rustled leaf. Just…nothing.

      The only sounds were the ones Knight made. Dead, mostly wet leaves squished under her feet as she walked across slick pavement. Her rifle made small clinks as it gently bounced against her chest and in her hands. The earwig connecting her to Parker via radio hummed lowly in her ear.

      She made it past the motor pool. The garage doors were sealed up tight, and their group of survivors staying here hadn't tried using the vehicles in inventory to go anywhere precisely because there was nowhere to go. No, the cars were better served as parts, if Torres and Bishop needed them for themselves or people elsewhere, or even just as a change of scenery. Usually, Knight and Parker slept in their chairs or in sleeping bags in the bullpen close by Ronnie and the rest. But, every now and then, it was nice to get away and pretend they were someplace else.

      Knight definitely could go for someplace else. She meant what she'd said to Parker earlier, about being done dwelling on what had transpired. But she wasn't exactly done imagining… Yes, Greece was one of the several countries that had fallen hard from the start, but Knight liked to think that, in that other life, she could see her dream, could have a vacation in Grecian waters with a handsome, whiskered silver fox at her side, laughing as he turned red as a lobster in the sun—

      Her ears pricked up when she heard the softest of snaps.

      She whirled around. Had that come from behind? Knight scanned the view behind her, tracking it with her rifle, but she saw nothing.

      Knight faced forward again and rounded the building, getting behind the motor pool. That either had been her imagination or the earwig, well, wigging out. She tapped on the comm just to make sure. "Alden?"

      No answer.

      Her pulse sped up, her mind filling in the blanks as to what the yard in front of NCIS might look like right then. She pressed on the comm again. "Alden, come on, answer me."

      Was it her stupid heart racing? She couldn't even hear the earwig's electric hum anymore.

      Knight turned heel and began jogging back. Their patrol was screwed, whether Knight didn't finish it or Parker were hurt. But, even knowing they had more people inside to protect, there was still a whole building for their friends to hide in; they had time. Parker didn't.

      As she picked up speed and ran, Knight fumbled with the battery pack in her vest. She plucked it out—and the damn light was out. Sonuvabitch, they'd checked their comms before coming outside, and the batteries had worked twenty minutes ago, but they must not have had enough juice, and—

      Her thoughts vanished the next second, for something slammed into Knight, hard as a concrete wall, sending her flying when she was halfway back to the front of the building.

      Instinctively, Knight clung to her gun and tucked her head in as she rolled, shoulder over shoulder, as if she'd been sent merrily down a hill. But this was part of the NCIS lot, not some damn hill out of a jaunty children's book, and she wasn't a little kid come out to play with her friends. When she came to a stop and got her bearings, Knight pushed herself upright with her free hand and searched for the source of her pain.

      There. Barely thirty yards away.

      One of the reanimated.

      "Fuck," she mumbled under her breath. Knight struggled to her feet, her eyes never breaking from its gaze. Even when she got her rifle aimed, she didn't break the eye contact…if it could be called that.

      There was footage of the reanimated, of course, but seeing one up close and personal was a new sensation. The skin was pulled taut over bones and decaying muscles, and the color was all wrong; Knight was put in mind of the rare floaters that appeared on Jimmy's autopsy table, bloated and a desaturated blue–green from all the chemicals and microorganisms that would enter a victim's body when submerged underwater for too long.

      Knight didn't waste another second. She pulled the trigger—but the gun jammed. Her heart and eyes fell, and her panic swelled. The rifle must've taken her tumble harder than she realized.

      The reanimated being took her movement as an opportunity. Its neck cracked as it turned its head impossibly at a ninety-degree angle, and other of its joints crackled and groaned when the reanimated took one step forward.

      "Oh, no, you don't!" Knight growled at the thing, swinging the rifle around so the stock was out of her hands and at the ready to use as a bat. She took a running step forward and swung.

      But the reanimated cracked its head the other direction and ducked her attack as it closed in, broken claws outstretched to grab her.

      Knight swung the rifle around and swiped the arms away, but she went down with the damn monster on top of her. She clenched her teeth and pushed the rifle against its neck, keeping the gnashing teeth above her barely six inches from her face.

      If this thing turned out not to be here alone…

      Knight wouldn't last in this current stalemate either, though, she knew that. Her mind spun until it settled on one crazy idea. The next second, she pushed the rifle against the reanimated's neck with just her left hand and clawed her right thigh for her SIG.

      The monster took the opening and pressed in closer to her, sliding down her body.

      Bile rose in the back of her throat. Her thumb shook to get the safety off—

      —teeth sank in to the side of her right thigh, beyond the protection of her body armor, and she bit back her scream and closed her eyes—

      —Knight got the safety off and unleashed one, two, three, four rounds into the reanimated's left eye socket—

      —finally, the thing stopped moving. Knight's blood, red and fresh, dribbled out of its mouth, and she spied some of her skin between its teeth, but the burst eye and leaking vitreous fluid were sure things. She could even see through the new hole in its head as she rolled it off her.

      Two thoughts struck her at once. Not one before the other, but at the same time and with equal weight:

      Parker would've heard those gunshots and would come running, the yard patrol be damned.

      And she couldn't let him see this wound.

      So Knight got to work and fast. Since the reanimated had sent her into the lot, she stumbled to her feet and dragged the true corpse closer to the building, behind the bushes. She had no bandages on her, but she'd take care of that once she made it back inside. For now—

      She glanced at her mutilated leg. The blood made barely a stain against the black of her jeans.

      Knight yanked off her boot and pulled off her sock, using it to cover over the wound. She hissed—stitches weren't going to make up for a missing chunk of thigh—but it'd do for now. At a glance, it was barely noticeable, that there was even a hole in her pants. So Knight crammed her foot back into her boot and returned her attention to the true corpse.

      Just in case, she flipped her rifle again. Then she jammed the butt of her gun against the head, smashing it over and over and over, until bits and pieces detached from the neck. There was nothing to reanimate when she was done.

      Knight wiped the rifle butt on nearby grass and emerged from behind the bushes. She jogged back towards the front and, unsurprisingly, Parker met her halfway.

      Parker's brow was furrowed, his eyes wide and his gun drawn. He lowered it two inches when he found Knight. "Jess, what the hell?! I heard gunshots!"

      She nodded. "I got one," she said. Knight put it out of her mind, the memory of being blindsided. "But it's fine. I took care of it." She cocked her head, indicating the spot behind her shoulder.

      For thirty seconds, Parker said nothing. Finally, he lowered his gun the rest of the way. "…all right."

      Knight gave him a tight smile. Then she blinked and held up her rifle. "Oh, hey. We need to duck back in. Thought this one was all good, but it jammed. Had to use my SIG. I'd rather have a working rifle strapped to my back than a gun-shaped baseball bat."

      He narrowed his eyes, but eventually he nodded, and the couple made their way back inside. Parker remained by the equipment room's door, though, while Knight swapped out her gun. "Jess, is that really all?"

      "Yeah, why?"

      "You look anxious as hell." His frown was small and concerned when she glimpsed it.

      But Knight shook her head and shrugged. "Meeting one of those things was not fun," she said with a forced smile and laugh.

      "Does that thing explain your leg then?"

      She froze. But Knight didn't stop smiling. "Kinda." Knight slipped the strap of a working rifle over her head. "It happened during the fight. I scraped my leg on a broken bit of brick out there," she fibbed. But she met his eyes and hoped he wouldn't press the topic.

      Parker held her gaze. He grimaced, but he gave her a curt nod. "All right," he said, accepting her truth, and he turned to lead the way back outside.

      But, behind him, Knight's heart broke a little, lying to him…but also that Parker wholeheartedly believed her.

      He'll know the truth soon enough, she thought as they descended the steps outside the brick building. It's only a matter of time.

      Their morning ended the way it should've: uneventfully.

      Knight and Parker had no further sightings of reanimated, and Parker didn't press her again on her earlier tussle. But she thought she caught him sparing her a few extra glances, so she mustered a tired but true smile for him, a sign that she was all right.

      Inside, everyone else was awake and waiting for them, and Ronnie and Hubley wore matching expressions of concern. "We heard gunshots," Ronnie said.

      "We're all good," Knight assured them. "What's for breakfast?"

      Francis held up an untouched plate. "It was going to be bagels, but they've gone stale, so water and protein bars again, plus a fruit purée pouch from Torres' ration stash, if you like."

      Parker looked around at the others. "Just—stale bagels? Not moldy?"

      They shrugged and nodded in response.

      Parker held his hand out for the plate. "All right, gimme. We have 'stale' bagels and a working microwave. I can make these things edible again," he promised. He turned for the kitchen but paused beside Knight. "Jess, breakfast?"

      "Mm, not yet. I'll hit the showers first. But save a bagel for me, thanks."

      "Got it." And, without hesitation, he brushed his lips against her temple before leaving the room.

      That had her doing a double-take. Parker was friendly with everyone, but she'd never known him to be good with PDA in their romance… Nevertheless, Knight decided to chock it up to their stressful morning and grabbed her gym bag from under her desk on her way to the showers.

      A shower was a luxury, especially since Sid and Francis had gotten the filtration system back up and running and they needed as much water as possible redirected to the faucets for drinking. But Knight had to wash the morning off her. Not to mention—

      She locked the door to the women's locker room and dropped onto the closest bench. With some effort, Knight shimmied out of her jeans and peeled away the sock-as-gauze covering. She snapped a hand over her nose and mouth when air hit her wound.

      Dried blood tracked down her thigh and over her knee, but the bite mark itself shockingly had stopped bleeding. The mark… Knight's thoughts went right back to outside, because once more something was the wrong color. The reanimated had taken a chunk out of her an hour ago, but no way should the torn skin look burnt brown, nor the flesh underneath rotten, that same kind of rancid green one might find when meat's been sitting too long in the fridge.

      Worse, her nose caught the faintest whiff of earthiness. Knight checked her jeans and the used sock, as well the rest of her clothing. Only the sock smelled the least bit like it. When Knight hunched over, getting her nose as close as she could stand to the wound on her thigh, the stench grew.

      That turning earthiness was her.

      Knight sat up slowly, her shoulders sinking. There was no way she'd be able to hide the smell forever, no matter how many showers she took or how hard she scrubbed.

      Nevertheless, Knight shed the rest of this morning's outfit and hobbled into the nearest stall. She bit down on her knuckle when the lukewarm water hit the bite mark, but Knight took several calming breaths and focused on that to get her through her task. In, out, in, out—there wasn't much dirt or sweat to wash away, but the rest of her felt a smidgeon better afterwards.

      At least until her eyes landed on her wound in the mirror.

      Knight quickly dressed. She didn't have a proper bandage mixed in with her belongings, but she selected her darkest t-shirt and tore it into strips. She wasn't going to need that shirt in the near future, but keeping this bite mark hidden was a top priority. Even with a spare pair of jeans to change into, she still needed this damn thing covered, just in case someone else had as good a sense of smell as did she.

      Finished, Knight stood and walked around on her injured leg. …it hurt like hell, and she hobbled when exhausted, but she could fake it for a little while longer, before the infection turned her.

      She took a deep, shaky breath and gritted her teeth, trying not to think of how much longer she had. Knight shouldered her bag and exited the showers, and she smiled when she returned to the main floor and heard sounds of laughter.

      "What'd I miss?" she asked when she rounded the short cubicle wall and slid her bag back underneath her desk.

      "Sharing FLETC stories since Sid never had the opportunity," Francis answered with a grin. He jabbed a thumb in Hubley's direction. "We all have our ups and downs, but Curtis here really takes the cake."

      "I did not mean to discharge my weapon at the instructor's feet—it was the firearm malfunctioning!" Hubley rushed to explain, sending another ripple of chuckles through their group.

      Knight couldn't help grinning, too, and the lighter moment made her feel more present and less preoccupied with her predicament.

      While Sawyer launched into the tale of what he assured them was a "near-perfect score" at training, Parker came over and slid a plate of food over to Knight. "As you wished," he murmured, a hint of a smirk on his lips.

      Knight returned the smirk. "Paraphrasing Westley now, are we?"

      "You've sat through every last Terminator movie and series with me and are still here. The least I could do was watch The Princess Bride with you, Jess."

      She snorted around a mouthful of bagel. "I'm not the one quoting it, though."

      He shrugged. "Well, true. The Princess Bride may not be sci-fi, but it's practically required watching for anyone who likes movies." That smirk was full-blown now. "Besides, Westley's not a bad guy to emulate, last I knew."

      Knight shook her head, but her eyes lingered on his. She found it hard to swallow and maintain her smile. "No…no, he's not."

      Parker quirked an eyebrow and brushed back a damp lock of hair behind her ear that had fallen forward, since she'd left it down to finish air-drying after her shower. Yet again, he did this in plain view of their friends, and Knight thought she saw Ronnie glimpse and quickly avert her eyes to the otherwise private moment.

      Even if Parker were being more deliberate in his actions, Knight swore to herself right then that she'd have a few more hours. She just wanted until the end of today with Parker.

      And then she'd head to her thinking spot on the roof, alone and armed.

      All to keep him safe.

      Even with her mind set, Knight found today dragging on, but she quickly put her finger on why.

      At lunchtime, when Ronnie and Sawyer were set to head out on patrol, Parker piped up, "Hey, you two—double-check the rifles you use."

      They and Knight stared at him, and Ronnie scoffed. "Uh, something I'm missing, Parker?"

      "Not a call on technique, I assure you." He glanced at Knight and briefly ducked his eyes before nodding at the nightshift pair. "Jess' jammed this morning, so I want us all taking extra precautions in going over the weapons we select."

      "Oh." Ronnie's shoulders slackened, and she nodded. "Thanks for the head's up." She narrowed her eyes at Knight. "Damn, Knight—you really took out one of those things with your pistol?"

      Knight mustered a grin, to which Ronnie made an impressed face and Sawyer whistled. "But, when in doubt, a rifle makes a great bat!" she added, and the pair chuckled at her humble attitude before they left. Then Knight turned around and settled Parker with a tiny glare. "Was there really no other way to alert them?"

      He rubbed her upper arms, but the gesture wasn't comforting like usual. "We've all gotta know how to protect our sixes, Jess."

      She grumbled under her breath, but he did have a point.

      Still, it wasn't just him being more vocal then. When everyone was together later in the day, too, and Francis had stepped upstairs while borrowing the satphone to check on family, and Sid once more tried doom-surfing the remaining dozen channels on the television, Parker sat closer to Knight than normal in the bullpen.

      That one actually took her a moment, because she was so accustomed to them lazing together at home that she didn't realize she was half leaning out of her chair and into Parker. It wasn't until she'd reached up to toy with his fingers that Knight became aware he'd slung an arm around her shoulders. They really must look as if they were cozy like two people at home in their own little world!

      And, driving that fact, er, home was Ronnie catching her eye and subsequently raising her eyebrows. Ronnie smiled a bit, too, before looking away and chatting with Sawyer, but still.

      Knight pushed Parker's hand away and sat up. She tried scooting her chair away, too, but something caught in the wheels. She glanced down.

      Ah. Parker had his foot wedged under one of the legs.

      Knight slowly met his unamused stare.

      Without a word, Parker pointed upstairs. He waited for Knight to stand first, and they ignored the others as they climbed the stairs, passing Francis on his way down. But Parker and Knight weren't simply heading to the next floor.

      No, Parker continued to the silver-plated retinal scanner and stood before it. The scan took, and the door to MTAC opened. He stepped aside and let Knight in first.

      When the door closed, Parker stuck his hands in his pockets and blew out a slow breath. "Want to tell me why you're antsy around me today, Jess?"

      Knight stared at the big, empty screen, wishing it would come alive with happy news for once. "You're weirdly affectionate today," she blurted, still facing away from him.

      "Okay… I thought that's one way for people in love to show their feelings. Unless that's changed?"

      His tone in asking that made Knight turn. She hated seeing his frown. "Alden, no. That hasn't changed. I'm just—" Knight bit her lower lip. "You're suddenly quite affectionate with me in front of everyone else, is what I mean. It's strange. Normally, you're PDA-averse."

      She expected annoyance or anger. Instead, Alden Parker's fear was plain as day in his features, deepening the lines around his eyes and even the dimples she loved so much that appeared whether he smiled or frowned. He blinked once, twice, and it took her a second to understand why: Parker, normally brave Parker, was fighting back tears. "…because I know I'm losing you."

      Her blood turned to ice. "What?"

      "Not because we're holed up here." Parker took a step forward; she took a step back. "You've been off since this morning's patrol." His eyes roved over her, sadly. "The thing that came after you—it got you in the leg, didn't it?"

      Knight opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She coughed and licked her lips. "I—"

      "I'm not stupid. And it's not easy to hide, Jess. Least of all from me."

      "But—!"

      Parker took another step and a half forward. "With each hour that passes, I feel as though I just have more proof. You're literally turning cold as ice, no matter how much I warm you up." He rubbed her upper arms once more and pouted.

      Ah. So that explained part of today's coziness. Knight's chest ached, being told that he'd known the truth all along. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and she clutched the front of his shirt. "…I lied to you, Alden. I'm so sorry," she said, shaking her head.

      He shrugged. "Easily forgiven, considering the circumstances."

      Knight stared up into his eyes, feeling incredibly lucky to be holding down this fort with him, knowing it had to be hard for the others downstairs without their loved ones, knowing it probably hurt as much as it helped Delilah to hear from her and Parker all the time as it did to see Torres and Bishop in the wake of her loss.

      Parker rested his forehead against hers, sighing a little. His nose brushed hers, too, and he leaned in closer—

      —but Knight blocked his kiss with her hand. "No, we don't—we don't know—" She couldn't bear to finish the sentence. It wasn't an airborne pathogen, no, but it was spread through bites. As far as they knew, any sort of contact with saliva…anything…

      "Hmm. Well, do you feel ravenous?"

      That threw her. "?? No?" Knight stared at him as if Parker had two heads.

      "A shame. And here we have MTAC all to ourselves."

      She blushed. How this scoundrel could turn a morbid joke into a sexual one and muster a smirk during this heightened tension, she would love to know…!

      Still, Parker remained right here in front of her, not ready to move away. And, despite the brief spot of dark humor, his gaze was still heavy-lidded and morose.

      So Knight conceded with a slight turn of her head, letting Parker kiss her cheek. The temptation was real, though, with his mouth so close to her lips. But she didn't want to risk it, to risk him.

      Parker exhaled, his breath tickling her cheek and rustling her hair, and he squeezed her against him, but this amount of intimacy would have to do.

      It would have to do for both of them, Knight knew as she squeezed him back and inhaled his scent, not yet ready to return downstairs.

      Parker's pain was something Knight shared in as the day bled into evening.

      But it was not her sole pain as the hours ticked by.

      After discussing the severity of the situation, they returned downstairs at Knight's behest. "I don't want to alarm any of them," she'd told Parker earlier in the day.

      He, of course, had settled her with one of his I-Am-Not-Amused stares, but he relented. Parker wasn't wholly content with idling away her remaining hours, but he would rather spend them together then not at all. At the very least, he got Knight to come around to his open affection, since it'd be the last.

      But, when evening arrived, Knight began to feel pain, emanating from her leg. She was standing one second, bickering with Hubley over who got which dehydrated meat for dinner, and then Knight yanked her desk chair under her the next, for fear she might collapse.

      Hubley eyed her strangely. "Uhh, Parker?" he called.

      Parker rounded the corner, returning from the restroom, and his eyes widened a fraction when they landed on Knight. But he kept his calm and walked up to them as though he meant to be part of the dinner conversation. "What, Hubley?"

      Hubley furrowed his brow and looked between the two, confused. "I, uh—"

      Knight forced a smile to her face. "Curtis, I'll set aside some turkey for you, I promise. Now please get a move on, because no one does patrol alone, and you're due right now with Francis. So get going, yeah?"

      The former Cyber agent pursed his lips, thoroughly befuddled, but he skedaddled as instructed anyway. And, with Ronnie in the break room, Sawyer upstairs borrowing the satphone, and Sid taking a nap elsewhere, Parker and Knight had a rare moment in the bullpen to themselves. Parker didn't waste it. "Why did we just fake Hubley out?"

      "Because I'm in a shit-ton of pain and I'm a crap actress, Alden."

      His face fell. Parker knelt before her and eyed her bad leg. "So…it's spreading."

      Knight nodded. "Yeah."

      Parker heaved an angry sigh. "I wish we knew how long. Of all the millions of things the experts don't know, it's how long."

      Knight leaned forward and cupped his cheek with her hand. "They've noted a bunch of quick cases, but there are too many factors. Health. Metabolism." She shrugged. "Maybe even the will to fight it." At that, her smile turned genuine. "I'm crap at acting, but you know I'm a fighter, Alden."

      He chuckled, but it was a wet sound. Parker covered her hand with one of his. "Yeah… Yeah, I do know."

      "Hey. Promise me this?"

      Parker peered up at her quizzically.

      "Once it gets really bad…keep me away from the others. Ronnie already lost her daughter, so she'd freak, seeing me like this. And I want to go out on my own terms."

      Parker closed his eyes, squeezing them shut tight, long enough that Knight thought he'd turn her down. "As you wish," he uttered, his head low, his brow touching her knees.

      Knight's heart surprisingly felt light, hearing his answer, knowing he saw the reason in her request. So she leaned down and pressed a soft kiss atop his head.

      The pain began in her leg, and it spread like tree roots, thirsty for her life.

      Slowly, slowly it became harder to stand. That was easy enough to solve, with her rolling desk chair right there in the bullpen. But then came the shooting pain up her sides, shooting up high and descending down into her arms.

      That was harder to hide. Those pains made Knight's hands convulse, and she endeavored to hide her hands in her lap, under her desk.

      By the time of the nighttime shift, as Sawyer and Sid prepped to head out and the others got ready to hit the lights and the hay, Knight noticed something new. In the light of her desk lamp, she was the wrong color.

      Was she seeing things now?

      Another wave of pain crashed through her, and Knight winced and gritted her teeth, knocking into her lamp. Parker was beside her in an instant, and she vaguely grasped the excuses he offered Ronnie, Francis, and Hubley as he escorted her to the men's room, where he could see her in better light and, more importantly, lock the door.

      "Jess, hey, Jess," Parker said, guiding her to the counter.

      Knight bent over the sink. The pain was bad enough she wanted to hurl. But just leaning on the edge, gripping it, steadied her. "Yeah. Yeah, Alden, I'm. I'm okay. I'm here."

      But Parker was running the tap, and he had it turned completely to the left until steam emerged. He touched her, ran his fingers under the hot water, and touched her skin again to compare. "…Jess, you are not okay."

      She lifted her head and eyed the people in the glass' reflection. In it, she saw Parker, same as ever yet more concerned than ever. Yet, beside him, she saw a woman she didn't recognize. She looked like a woman an artist had painted if given a vague, poor description of Jessica Knight. Her complexion was waxy, yellow and washed out…lacking warmth. And her hair, dark though it was, hung dull and limp; it looked as if it might begin falling out.

      "Jess—"

      "You promised," she reminded him. A shock tore through her, and her back arched as she bit back a cry of pain.

      Parker caught her before she could fall or crack her head open on the counter ledge. "Jess, please…"

      "Move me," she rasped. Knight licked her lips and clung to his arm. "Move me away from everyone else. If I can't make it on my own, get me to the roof."

      Despite his fretting, Parker got her right arm over his shoulders and unlocked the door. He checked the corridor and shuffled the two of them out since the coast was clear. They took the back stairwell, though, since anything else would catch their friends' attention.

      It was just a few flights of stairs, but those flights drained Knight of her remaining energy. For the last few steps, Parker all but carried her in his arms, including through the door that led outside.

      Yet…the air didn't hit her as it usually did tonight. Knight exhaled a tiny sigh of relief in the cool, damp air.

      "Ha, maybe I just needed some fresh air," she joked as Parker set her down against the brickwork beside the door.

      The cloud coverage filtered light, so it never got very bright or very dark anymore, and Knight therefore caught the little glare Parker shot her way for her ill attempt at humor. He settled down beside her, one leg outstretched and the other drawn up. He rested his arm on his closer knee, gun in hand, just in case they learned tonight, of all nights, that these things did indeed know how to scale buildings. "Definitely not what I'd call 'fresh,'" he grumbled.

      Knight hummed and leaned against his side. "Maybe not. But I feel a little better. …thanks for bringing me outside, Alden."

      He was quiet for a whole minute. Then: "Do you intend to sleep out here tonight?"

      Knight opened her eyes and stared at the brick wall in front of her. "I don't exactly have a choice. It won't be long."

      Parker didn't comment.

      Knight closed her eyes again and, eventually, she nodded off, matching her breathing with his…and then slowing it down…and dreaming, once more, of other lifetimes…

      When Knight's eyes snapped open, she had no clue how much time had passed, but she knew:

      The time was now.

      A fresh wave of pain rolled through her, primarily through her back and shoulders, into her neck—but it wasn't entirely pain. No, this something else was different and had Knight shoving Parker away while she shot to her feet, fighting the turn for real.

      Behind her, Parker stood. "Jess—"

      But she shoved him again, never minding the frailty that came with his age. She backed away from him with a frown, nearing the short brick wall that edged the roof.

      Again, he stood. "Jess, don't do it," he begged. "We'll—We'll figure something out. Maybe there's something the researchers are developing and haven't released yet. Maybe you have more time than you realize! You've been fighting this all day—don't give up now!"

      Knight climbed onto the ledge and narrowed her eyes at him, palming her gun.

      But Parker ran for her. He reached out for her—

      —and some part of her reached out for him, too, and managed to snag the front of his shirt—

      —they locked eyes, his going wide and white and round (was it fear? was it concern, for the one he lovingly called "Jess"?)—

      —right before she took those two steps backwards off the ledge.

Full trigger warnings (including spoilers): Zombies/zombie apocalypse, psychological horror, character death (implied and/or mentioned), discussion of death, consideration of self-harm/suicide (which is implied to occur), murder, and gore/graphic violence.

WELL. Happy Halloween? :O In the closing A/N to my oneshot, "Zeptosecond," I mentioned that I believe the two biggest challenges a shipper can write are breaking an OTP up and OTP death (either or both partners), and that I'd never write the latter. Then I got to thinking about Halloween coming up…and originally I had a more lighthearted, silly idea ("Who would even survive the zombie apocalypse of the current team?"). But then my muse took the dial, cranked it up to eleven, and ripped the fucking knob off, because I know for certain that, while I've written charrie death in other stories/fandoms, I sure af have never written anything like this. So—challenge met! That said, and triggers noted, my heart does rly hurt to think about what these charries might do for their loved ones at the end of the world, hence painting the picture I did for the McGees, for Ellick, for the Palmers, and, yeah, for Parknight, too. Nearly every action taken, tho, is an act of love. The only thing I want you, my readers, to doubt is that ambiguous ending. Was that Knight pulling Parker off the roof with her or one of the newly reanimated about to take his life, too? Was Parker about to see a chance to save her or at least save himself because, perhaps, he realized he'd already lost the love of his life? :3c I'll never tell~ This is, in some ways, both trick and treat. ;}

As for some housekeeping: Btw, I actually delayed another monster-sized (but not monster AU XD) fic to get this done in time for the holiday, so yay for long Parknights! :D All charries mentioned in the story are canon minor charries, with Sid, Piper, and Curtis Hubley being the newest additions from s19 (Ronnie Tyler and Dale Sawyer ofc have made several appearances and Tony Francis had cameos yrs ago during the Gibbs era—poor beefy guy rly was curious about joining Gibbs' team!). So there are a lot of Easter eggs/nods to canon for fans of all eras/seasons. :') I'm not certain whether it's stated that Cyber agents deffo have to pass FLETC same as field agents, so pls take Sid's lack of training with a grain of salt. Parker's mention of Westley and Parknight's brief chat about The Princess Bride is just an allusion meant to highlight Parker tryna be Knight's hero, ofc. :'D Also, Parker's "ravenous" joke srsly is just a play on the word's definition; it deffo was not a vore joke. XD The fic's title is also a spin on the awesome hit by R.E.M., "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"—I grew up with this song and it honestly never loses relevance, no matter the crisis. But, interestingly enough, and as with my other story, "through and through," the vibes for this story were influenced by some of my fav survival/horror videogames, such as the BioShock series, Amnesia, the Silent Hill franchise, and the Resident Evil franchise (altho I deffo prefer RE's explanation of zombies to mine, *lol* XD). Finally, the soft, melancholic tunes of the album Balance by softy & Kendall Miles got me through this fic, and I just. Have a listen and have some feels. c: Aaaand, with this fic, I've officially written more than 100,000 words of Parknight content~ -w-

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave an anon/unsigned review via the FFN link or comment via the AO3 link at the top of the post, especially if you enjoyed this!

~mew

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, August 31

Faith: B! Gotta go! (Buffy misses another swing, but has a determined look on her face.) Buffy: We came for the amulet. (She jabs the sword straight at Vincent... Buffy pulls the amulet from the sword and holds it in her hand.) Faith: (breathing heavily) Tell me you don't get off on this! Buffy: (smiles at the amulet) It didn't suck.

~~Bad Girls~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Falling Into Place by Glitterangelem (Loki xover, PG)

Digits by Beriaearwen (Mission Impossible, PG-13)

Bambi by 3am_moonlight (Walking Dead xover, T)

Big Happy Family by Jedi Buttercup (Firefly xover, T)

Hey Taxi! by acswatwst (Joyce, multiple xover, FR13)

Return from Phase by acswatwst (Joyce, multiple xover, FR13)

Cryptic by badly_knitted (Buffy/Angel, PG)

After Love by Vashti (Buffy, Marry Me xover, PG)

From the Mouth by apachefirecat (Spike/Buffy, PG)

Luckiest Girl with the Best Moms by apachefirecat (Willow/Tara, G)

One Minute In Time by apachefirecat (Spike/Buffy, PG)

Creatures of Extraordinary Grace by Jedi Buttercup (Buffy & Serenity crew, Firefly xover, T)

Bambi by Mirrored_Illusions (Buffy, Walking Dead xover, T)

Outside the Roadhouse by CookieDoughMe (Faith/Dean, Supernatural xover, E)

Shiver by calenlily (Faith/Buffy, T)

The United Front of Tara and Willow by AuthorByNight (Tara/Willow, T)

Bambi by MirroredIllusions (Walking Dead xover, FR13)

Arriving at a New Station by madimpossibledreamer (Dresden xover, T)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Happiness - Ch. 9 by hermione2be (multiple xover, PG)

In the Afterlife - Ch. 6 by mmooch (Buffy, MCU xover, FR-13)

You can’t get rid of me that easily - Ch. 1 by Sylvesterthecrow (Angel/Spike, unrated)

The Simple Job - Ch. 7 (COMPLETE!) by StorygirlSidhe (Faith/Buffy, M)

an endless road to rediscover - Ch. 3 (COMPLETE!) by Jedi Buttercup (jedibuttercup) (Buffy, Fast and Furious xover, T)

Who are You in Twenty Years? - Ch. 6 (COMPLETE!) by StrangeBint (Faith/multi, Sandman xover, M)

Inquisition - Ch. 10 (COMPLETE!) by Mirrored_Illusions (Buffy, NCIS xover, T)

Alternating Skies and, of course, the Hellmouth - Ch. 36 (COMPLETE!) by Popsy (Spike/Buffy, E)

A Night Without Day - Ch. 13 by HappyWhenItRains (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Her Vampire - Ch. 15 by AmyAndrews20 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Her Vampire - Ch. 14 by AmyAndrews20 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Who Watches the Watchers - Ch. 19 by blue_sweater_spike (Buffy/Spike, R)

Marriage, Sunnydale-Style - Ch. 13 by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, R)

The (Demon) Parent Trap - Ch. 5 by MaggieLaFey (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Time We Had - Ch. 17 by Dusty (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Unforeseeable Paths - Ch. 9 by Axell (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Slayer and the Vampire - Ch. 63 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

The Eleventh Hour - Ch. 6 by Wonder and Ashes (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Seven - Ch. 29 by Holly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

SE: Second Generation - Ch. 18: Cake Eater by Myrabeth (Buffy/Spike, unrated)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Fanvid: Stand By Your Man by Katharine Scarritt (Thomas) (NSFW, canon scenes)

Manip: 2014 edits by emmatheslayer (various, SFW)

Artwork: Lilah appreciation post by Catezero (Lilah, SFW)

Textpost: BTVS + Tumblr text posts by teatimewithgiles (various, SFW)

Textpost: Drusilla + reductress by deadwivesclub (Drusilla, SFW)

Gifset: wesley/lilah + side by side by gothamstreetcat (Wesley/Lilah, NSFW)

Gifset: there's something so personal about a forehead kiss by charismascarpenter (Spike/Angel, Faith/Buffy, SFW)

Gifset: [for Giles' sordid past they stuck his 17-year-old head onto the body of Sid Vicious] by andremichaux (Giles, SFW)

Gifset: WILLOW ROSENBERG by andremichaux (Willow, SFW)

[Reviews & Recaps]

3.03 The Harsh Light of Day - Rewatch 2k22 by handsofabitterman

PODCAST: PODCAST: 7.20 Touched by Buffering the Vampire Slayer

PODCAST: PODCAST: 4.20 Sacrifice by Angel on Top

[Community Announcements]

Discussion of honeygirl51885's Spuffy story Young at Heart will start on the 9th of September at BuffyForums

The September Scooby Celebration is about to start at Sunnydale After Dark

[Fandom Discussions]

discussion of meaning of Buffy and others drenched in water... by herinsectreflection

oh my god Riley is such an asshole (warning: rant...) by wikiangela

how is Anya so clueless about humans and doesn't know how to interact with them? by wikiangela

Angel vs. Angelus - when Faith is in Angel's mind... by we-pay-for-everything

BTVS comic #34 (process) by theartofthecover (art by Veronica Fish)

wishverse buffy and wishverse willow should have kissed... by mollyspeak

Cordelia in BTVS S2 vs. Lilah in ATS S3 by gothamstreetcat

willow/amy has the potential to be buffy/faith.... by faith-thee-slayer

S04E04 Fear, Itself by becomingbuffypodcast

If you could pick one iconic scene for each season of Buffy... by jdpm1991

Unpopular opinion: Buffy and Cordelia would have made a great couple by willow212

How do ya'll feel about Season 8 and the rest of the canon Buffyverse Comics? by Almighty_Push91

Top 3 episodes each season (What are yours) by danlhart8789

Season 6 Anya in Flooded by GroggyWaffleRumble

How do you feel about what (MAJOR SPOILERS) in "Not Fade Away" in ATS by jdpm1991

What are... one-off villains that creeped you out? by Defvac2

Just rewatched ‘Who Are You’ and I have to ask... by HummusOffensive

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[ktofbvb]

Overall thoughts of NCIS Sydney Season One Spoilers Ahead

Best Episode: EP 5

Focusing on the medical examiner so early on was a great choice as Doc is a great character. Tragic story about the sick child and the sister doing what she can. The dog cafe is unique as America has cat cafes. Doc is a great character and having the reveal of his wife having dementia was both heartbreaking and slightly expected that you have to have him some tragedy in his past. 8/10

Worst Episode: EP 7

Pregnant woman in danger trope turned fake pregnancy trope and it sucks. I can't stand this trope and it makes me pissed.  The bunker trope is also classic but it didn't quite fit into NCIS until the woman was revealed to be the woman who escaped from EP 1. The kiss marry kill while dying is also fun but still the pregnant woman instantly takes the episode from a 6/10 to a 1/10.

Overall: 8/10

This was a really fun spinoff, and while the connection of America and Australia and America as a world cop isn't a favorite. Doc and Blue are super fun, unique characters, and Doc is like Ducky from NCIS OG and Sid from CSI: NY. Blue is like Abby from NCIS OG, Spencer from Criminal Minds, and Bobby Goren from Law and Order Criminal Intent. Mackey can be like Mac from CSI: NY but not the best bits of Mac the worst bits. The characters all meddled together well, which made the show fun, and the poking fun of the other from cultural differences never felt mean but more showcasing.

[rose-edith]

My inbox is OPEN!

My inbox is open for all fandoms I’ve previously listed, but I will add a list of these in case you don’t know, or are new (if so, welcome!)

I do accept platonic, love-full, smut/18+ requests, as well as angsty, rawly emotive ideas! So you can be as specific or as vague as you like- pretty much anything goes!

Here is a list of characters and shows I write for (under the cut because it’s quite a list):

Father Brown:

•Father Brown

•Mrs McCarthy

•Lady Felicia

•Sidney Carter

•Bunty Windermere

•Hercule Flambeau

•Inspector Valentine

•Inspector Sullivan

•Inspector Mallory

•Sergeant Goodfellow

NCIS:

•Leroy Jethro Gibbs

•Ziva David

• ‘Very Special Agent’ Anthony DiNozzo

•Timothy McGee

BBC The Musketeers:

•Captain Treville

•Athos

•Aramis

•Porthos

•D’Artagnan

•Cardinal Richelieu

•King Louis

•Queen Anne

•Constance

Poirot:

•Hercule Poirot

•Captain Hastings

•Inspector Japp

•Miss Lemon

LOTR/The Hobbit:

•Aragorn

•Legolas

•Gimli

•Lord Elrond

•Boromir

•Thorin

•Bard

•King Thranduil

•Fili

•Kili

The Walking Dead:

•Rick Grimes

•Daryl Dixon

•Negan Smith

Supernatural:

•Dean Winchester

•Sam Winchester

•John Winchester

•Castiel

•Crowley

BBC Merlin:

•Merlin

•Arthur

•Morgana

•Gwen

Doctor Who:

•3rd Doctor

•Sarah-Jane Smith (young and older, please specify)

•4th Doctor

•7th Doctor

•9th Doctor

•Rose Tyler

•Captain Jack Harkness

•10th Doctor

•Martha Jones

•Donna Noble

•11th Doctor

•River Song

•Amy Pond

•Rory Williams

•12th Doctor

•Clara Oswald

•Bill Potts

•Nardole

•13th Doctor

•Yasmin Kahn

North & South:

•John Thornton

•Margaret Hale

Downton Abbey:

•Lady Mary Crawley

•Lady Edith Crawley

•Lady Sybil Crawley

•Dowager Countess Violet Crawley

•Tom Branson

•Matthew Crawley

•Michael Gregson

Bridgerton:

•Violet Bridgerton

•Anthony Bridgerton

•Benedict Bridgerton

•Colin Bridgerton

•Daphne Bridgerton

•Eloise Bridgerton

•Lady Danbury

•Penelope Featherington

[romancemedia]

Best TV Medical Examiners

[zombiesama]

You've unlocked Rice Lore(TM)

So when I was 12-ish i was homeless for a summer actually & lived without wifi in my grandma's garage and all i had was NCIS in the house, music on my phone, and old movies on the TV we set up in the garage so I spent like 99% of my time on the swings listening to jrock and anime covers and all the music I had at the time was illegally downloaded from youtube so some of it even had youtuber outros still bc I never trimmed them

I still have all that music saved on Google drive I think? or dropbox. one of the two.

Most of it is L'arc~en~Ciel and SID bc they did openings/endings for FMA/FMAB and I fuckin loved READY STEADY GO and USO so I ended up going down the rabbit hole of those two bands specifically

[nothingconsoled]

do I accept gif/icon requests?   not at the moment.

do I accept gif/icon suggestions?   yes,   always!

this post serves as a collection of direct links to all the fc resources I’ve uploaded to this blog.   you’re welcome to like this post to check back in later for more!   you can also view my gif packs here if you prefer to see example gifs,   and  here  is the side - blog where I reblog other people’s resources.  (If you’re struggling to find posts on tumblr I suggest searching using  this helpful site).   

my gif packs

William Fichtner,   Finding Steve McQueen (2018)

Alun Armstrong,   Possum (2018)

Richard Brake,   Perfect Skin (2018), The Dare (2019)

Robert De Niro,   Cape Fear (1991),  Heat (1995),  Being Flynn (2012)

Jessica Lange,   The Gambler (2014), AHS S1E1 (2011), Cape Fear (1991)

Jane Seymour,   Lake Effects (2012)

Laurence Fishburne,   Standoff (2016)

Lily Rabe,   Finding Steve McQueen (2018)

David Bradley,   The Lodgers (2017), Harry Brown (2009), Roy (2021), Edmund the Magnificent (2019), and Broadchurch S1E1

Michael Caine,   Youth (2015), Harry Brown (2009)

Scott Turner Schofield,   The Conductor (2018)

Bradley Cooper,   The Hangover III (2013)

Alex Blue Davis,   NCIS (2017)

Drew Barrymore,   Boys on the Side (1995)

Cameron Diaz,   In Her Shoes (2005)

John Goodman,   10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

John Gallagher,   10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Dame Judi Dench,   Notes On A Scandal (2006)

Joaquin Phoenix,   [ gif icons ]   Joker (2019)

Paul Dano,   Being Flynn (2012)

Josh Brolin,   Labor Day (2013) *(accidentally deleted this. kill me. I’ll try to find a backup of this somewhere and repost it. rip.)

Jaz Sinclair,   When The Bough Breaks (2016)

Jonathan Rhys Meyers,   6 Souls/Shelter (2010)

Dermot Mulroney (gif icons),   The Wedding Date (2005), and the Griffin & Phoenix (2006).

both

Tilda Swinton (gif icons & static icons),   We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011), Burn After Reading (2008), Constantine (2005), Thumbsucker (2005)

my icon packs

Keeley Forsyth,   The Devil Outside (2018)

Juno Temple,   Small Apartments (2012)

Peter Stormare,   Small Apartments (2012)

Johnny Knoxville,   Small Apartments (2012)

Rebel Wilson,   Small Apartments (2012)

James Caan,   Small Apartments (2012)

Billy Blair,   Whitetail (2021)

James Jordan,   Home (2020)

Kathy Bates,   Bad Santa II (2016), Home (2020)

Jena Malone,   The Public (2021)

Richard Brake,   Bingo Hell (2021)

Daniel Grogan,   Recipe For Abduction (2021)

Barabra Hershey,   The Manor (2021)

Sean Whalen,   Employee of the Month (2006)

Matthew Rhys,   The Americans S1E1

Noah Emmerich,   The Americans S1E1

Dax Shepard,   Employee of the Month (2006)

Danny Woodburn,   Employee of the Month (2006)

Doug Jones,   Pans Labyrinth (2006)

William Fichtner,   Finding Steve Mcqueen (2018)

Alun Armstrong,   Possum (2018)

Rosamund Pike,   Return To Sender (2015)

Richard Moll,   Lake Effects (2012)

Lara Flynn Boyle,   Twin Peaks: S1 (1990) & S2E1-4

Jacob Wysocki,   Loosely Exactly Nicole: S1E1-4 (2016), Fat Kid Rules The World (2012)

Nicole Byer, (pt one two three four)   Loosely Exactly Nicole: S1E1-4 (2016)

Brandon Scott (pt one two),   Loosely Exactly Nicole: S1E4-5 (2016)

Stanley Weber (pt one two),   Not Another Happy Ending (2013)

Sam Coleman,   Leatherface (2017)

James Bloor,   Leatherface (2017)

Lili Taylor,   Leatherface (2017)

Naveen Andrews,   Sense8: S1 (2015)

Helen Mirren,   Collateral Beauty (2016)

Octavia Spencer,   Gifted (2017)

Cate Blanchett,   Notes On A Scandal (2006)

Keiynan Lonsdale,   Love, Simon (2018)

Jonah Hill,   Acceptance (2006), Grandma’s Boy (2006)

Amy Aquino,   Bosch: S3 (2017)

Claudia Doumit,   Timeless: S2E1 and E3 (2018)

Nathan Page,   Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012-2015)

my screencaps

Sid Haig,   Spider Baby (1967)

Danny Woodburn,   Employee of the month (2006)

[disposablestar]

Me: she/her, 30s, queer, brown, U.K., fairly new Pens fan, lurker in various fandoms forever. 18+ followers only please. Always looking for mutuals!

Fandoms:

Hockey RPF - Sid/Geno, Sid/almost NHL player as long as everyone understands he is a precious who needs protecting.

Numb3rs - Charlie/Colby, Charlie/Ian

NCIS - Tony/Gibbs

White Collar - Neal/Peter/El

Suits - Harvey/Mike

[tabloidtoc]

TV Guide, October 14-27

Cover: Supernatural -- I received Jared Padalecki in the mail. There are 4 different covers 

Page 2: Contents, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins covers and editor’s letter 

Page 4: Ask Matt -- The Emmys were bad, Fleabag, Your Feedback, Coming Next Issue -- Law & Order: SVU 

Page 5: Ratings -- Premiere Week: Failure to Launch? 

Page 6: Good Medicine -- The Good Doctor, Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet, Chasing the Cure 

Page 10: The Roush Review -- Modern Love 

Page 11: The Unicorn, Pasty and Loretta, Catherine the Great 

Page 12: Cover Story -- Supernatural End Times 

Page 16: Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin of The Kominsky Method 

Page 18: Patsy & Loretta -- the remarkable friendship of country queens Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn 

Page 22: What’s Worth Watching -- October 14-20 -- Week 1 -- Sid & Judy 

Page 23: Monday, October 14 -- Disney night on Dancing With the Stars, The Terror: Infamy, Catch 21, The Voice 

Page 24: Tuesday, October 15 -- Treadstone, Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Conners, Arrow, New Amsterdam 

Page 25: Wednesday, October 16 -- Chicago Fire and Chicago Med and Chicago P.D., 2019 CMT Artists of the Year, Little Giants 

Page 26: Thursday, October 17 -- The Holzer Files, Grey’s Anatomy, Liberty: Mother of Exiles, Live PD: Wanted, NFL Football 

Page 27: Friday, October 18 -- The Wendy Williams Show, The Blacklist, Long Island Medium, The Graham Norton Show 

Page 28: Saturday, October 19 -- Twin Peaks, The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes, Good Witch: Curse From a Rose, Sunday, October 20 -- The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, Watchmen, NCIS: Los Angeles, Leavenworth 

Page 44: Streaming -- Netflix -- The Laundromat, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Dolemite Is My Name, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul 

Page 45: Prime Video -- Modern Love, Unforgotten, Hulu -- Castle Rock 

Page 46: New Movie Releases 

Page 47: Series, Specials and Documentaries 

Page 48: What’s Worth Watching -- Week 2 -- October 21-27 -- This Is Us -- Jennifer Morrison 

Page 49: Monday, October 21 -- Catherine the Great, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Rock the Block, American Pickers, Prodigal Son, Bull 

Page 50: Tuesday, October 22 -- Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, NCIS 

Page 51: Wednesday, October 23 -- The Cry, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Life from Above, Thursday, October 24 -- NBA Basketball, The Unicorn, How to Get Away With Murder, Law & Order: SVU 

Page 52: Friday, October 25 -- Halloween comes early -- Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-0, American Housewife, Fresh Off the Boat 

Page 53: Saturday, October 26 -- And Christmas comes even earlier -- Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses, The Road Home for Christmas 

Page 54: Sunday, October 27 -- The Munsters, Island Life, Poldark, Inside the Actors Studio -- Pedro Pascal and Willem Dafoe, Silicon Valley, Mrs. Fletcher 

Page 76: Cheers & Jeers -- Cheers to The Masked Singer, Bluff City Law’s appeal, A Million Little Things, Jeers to Chicago Med, NCIS, American Horror Story: 1984 

[slouchingprovocatively]

a lot of love, a lot of loose ends

summary: a fic pulling together the threads of 13x24, Family First, after the confirmation in Daughters that Ziva definitely faked her own death. follows Ziva and her sending Tali to DC, Tony spending time with Tali, and just why Tony headed to Paris, complete with many many feelings.

note: still rusty with this lot, hopefully the voices felt right. this gets kinda sappy and is pushing 10,000 words, bc i couldn’t get through all this in the detail it deserved in just 1k.

She's woken by the telltale noise of a mortar soaring through the sky. She's lived in war zones throughout her life, so it's not an uncommon noise to her, but the fact that she's hearing it here, now, in the middle of the country in her father's old safe farmhouse, is an immediate concern.

In a second, she's out of bed, racing toward the other wing of the house, screaming out her daughter's name. She runs toward Tali's room, faster than she's run in years, and tumbles into her little girl's space, seeing her sitting up in bed, frowning worriedly, hair rumpled from sleep. Ziva shuts the door, races toward Tali and cradles her close, but before either of them can say a word, the blast hits, and the building around them falls to pieces.

*

She groans in relief as the car pulls up into the forest, finally. Tali is a sleepy heavy weight in her arms; the go-bag on Ziva's shoulder, stuffed full of as many of the little girl's things as she could grab, just the same.

The car door thunks, and Ziva tugs it open, sliding into the car.

"You look worse than you said on the phone," Orli remarks, and Ziva looks the way of her sort-of-friend, eyebrow raised.

"Thank you," she deadpans, shifting Tali on her lap to get the little girl sat more comfortably on her, before the car eases away slowly, winding through the forest once more. "What have you learned?"

Orli sighs, eyes darting down to Tali in sympathy.

"We believe it to be the CIA." Ziva mutters a curse under her breath, but Orli keeps going. "The news has reached major outlets, it is being reported that Eli David's farmhouse has been hit. Currently they have little information to go on, but word is spreading."

Ziva gnaws on her lower lip, knowing what Orli isn't saying. Where that word will spread. "It will reach the US."

"If it hasn't already. And with it, the CIA and other agencies." One of which they both know too well. Ziva sighs, runs a hand through Tali's hair, mind running. Her little girl sighs a happy breath against her, soft, at ease, very unlike her mother at this very moment.

"Orli, what did they want?" she asks, tired and lost. "What purpose is there by eliminating the farmhouse so many years after Eli's death?" The event itself scarred them all enough, they both remember that well, but this kind of hit so many years later makes so little sense. Ziva is out of NCIS, Eli is dead, there is nothing there worth targeting anymore. And yet her house is gone, and she has nowhere to go, no place to be.

Before her, Orli shrugs slowly, sadly. "It is hard to know right now. The place was well known as Eli's. Perhaps they were trying to eliminate something, files or information, or trying to send a message..." She trails off, discomfort and tension in her frame.

Ziva raises an eyebrow once more, less sarcastic this time and more concerned. "What kind of message?" What isn't Orli saying?

"Ziva..." Orli swallows, looks down at Tali again, and Ziva clutches her little girl closer instinctively. "It may not be safe for a while. If they are trying to destroy Eli and his legacy..."

"They'll go after his blood," Ziva completes, squeezing the bridge of her nose and trying to stem the inevitable headache. It's no use; she feels it blooming regardless. "I could go into hiding if necessary, but--"

"Not with Tali, I agree." They both nod, staying in silence a few moments until Orli asks the obvious, unsaid, question. "So what are you going to do?"

Ziva gulps down a breath, trying to think of what she once would have done in these circumstances. Strangely enough, not just her Mossad training prevails, but her NCIS training, too. She could go dark right away, or blindly seek out those responsible, or she could be more thoughtful, considered. Clever.

"Is the news reporting any casualties?"

"As there were none, no," Orli says, and Ziva nods, thinking it over, piecing it together.

"Put out word that there was one casualty, me, killed in the explosion. The CIA know me, I've met... too many of their agents." A list of names and faces flits behind her eyes, and she's suddenly glad once more that she walked away from a man who almost pulled her into that world. "They are not unlike Mossad-- they would not accept me living, if they wished to bring down everything Eli once built."

"And Tali?"

She sighs, running a hand through her daughter's curls again, wishing for just a second that she'd wake, let Ziva see those eyes so much like her father's. Those eyes that bring so much comfort.

"Nobody knows about her." She pauses, bites her lip, but she knows what she has to do, what the best course is, the only course she wants to follow. And, honestly, it's due. "Take her to Tony."

Orli freezes, eyes wide. "Ziva, are you sure--"

"Yes. He'll protect her-- NCIS will protect her. And he deserves to know, they deserve to have each other. For now, until the CIA back down..." She spares a thought for Tony, Gibbs, her once-family, knowing how all of this could impact them. So much at once, so overwhelming, her supposed death and then Tali coming into their lives too. But she doesn't know what else to do to keep the threat against her down, and keep Tali protected. She sighs. "If you go to them, you can tell them I was killed but Tali survived. If Tony asks, about her... Just tell him anything, Orli. I know he would never turn her away, but--"

"I understand," Orli says, reaching out and squeezing Ziva's arm. "And after?"

Ziva pauses, thinking on that. Because hopefully this will be over soon, and even if it isn't, she's not sure she can leave her daughter for more than a few weeks, a month, at most. And she can't just waltz up to Tony's apartment and demand her daughter back because she's not actually dead, thank you very much, and then disappear back to Israel again. This requires more care, kindness, and frankly just a better plan. As she searches her brain for an idea, suddenly, the very thing she'd done so Tony could find her here those years ago, comes back to her, and she blinks.

"The, um, the go-bag," she starts, and Orli reaches for it. "There's some photos in it, I grabbed them when we were escaping. The black-and-white one. Make sure that it stays in there and Tony gets the bag and can find it. He will know what it means."

It had taken him a while, before, to put together the photo she'd sent him of her and Ari as children, smiling innocently at the camera, and realize she was staying at the house she'd grown up in. She hopes Tony makes the same connection this time.

Orli rummages around a moment before pulling out the correct photo, and the older woman smiles a little softly at it. "Oh, Ziva, you did love him,"

She smiles a little, runs a hand through Tali's hair. "I still do."

And she hopes that, if he finds her clue, if he knows what she's leading him to do, if she sees him again, she can tell him that in person. She just needs to hope he finds his way to Paris.

She clutches her little girl closer, wondering how she'll cope with being apart from her for the first time in so long, but she knows surely within her heart that Tali will be safe with Tony. Will be happy, and well with him. Finally. She should have told him so long ago, she knows, but she couldn't find the right way to uproot his whole life, when she wished to stay in Israel, and she'd just hurt him so much in not following him home. Once a week, if not more, she's contemplated calling him and letting him know, rather than keeping his daughter from him, but she couldn't work out how, and days turned to weeks which turned to months, until right now, when she just can't keep away anymore. Her little girl's safety depends on it. Their little girl's safety.

She just hopes Tony will be okay before she finds him.

*

He sits back down as the rest of the team slowly move into the conference room, make their way toward the sleeping little girl across the table. His little girl. Tony's. His and Ziva's daughter.

He slumps back, tries to process... everything. Orli by his side, Tali opposite him, the image of her mother. And Ziva, dead, apparently. He doesn't know which is more overwhelming: that he has a daughter with the love of his life, or that the love of his life is dead, and he's found out both of these things in the space of a day.

When they'd seen the fire on the news, he'd been so sure Ziva was alive, he'd felt it in his gut. She couldn't be dead without him knowing. He'd always felt that the moment she left this earth, he'd know, he'd sense it. Years ago, a lifetime, when Gibbs had given the news about the Damocles, Tony had been so stunned because he just couldn't think that Ziva could have been dead for months without him knowing. That he'd been carrying on his life and she'd been gone.

The moment the hood had lifted before him, he'd known he was right.

And yet this time it seems to have happened again.

Tali sighs out a sleepy breath, shifts again but stays out of it. He doesn't blame her; Tony rather wishes he could sleep the day away, too.

He has a daughter. And he has no idea what to feel about that. Obviously, love, instinctual love for his own child, the child he made with Ziva, who lets her live on now. That's a given, he can't even help it-- the moment Orli had explained who Tali was he just felt love rushing through his blood.

But Ziva didn't tell him. She never let him know he had a child, halfway around the world. He wasn't lying to Orli minutes ago; if he'd known Ziva was pregnant, oh, he'd have been there. He wishes he'd been there. By her side, to hold her hand, feel every little kick, hit every milestone, let her curse and scream him as Tali was born, to hold their little girl for the first time, see those eyes like his and the features like hers... Ziva didn't let him have that.

And he knows he should be angry with her, could so easily be, but he can't. Not just because she's dead, no, but just because she's Ziva. He could never hate her. He's frustrated, sure, to have missed out on all that, but he knows her so well, he always has done, he knows how scared she would've been to tell him, he knows how much she struggles with giant emotional things like this, he knows she would've worried what he'd thought and been concerned he'd give up his whole life to be in Israel with her. Which he would've done.

As Tali shifts again, Tony wonders absentmindedly quite when he'll be able to think of Ziva in the past tense. He's not sure he ever will.

"She's so like Ziva," Abby murmurs softly, and Tony snaps out of it, sees his team still around Tali, cooing and smiling like she's the cutest little thing. She is. Jimmy hums in agreement.

"Really, Tony, she's adorable," Ellie says, turning back to him with a grin, and he sniffs a little, wondering if he should make the DiNozzo joke about such genes being expected and inherited, or stay stoic as this monumental event necessitates, or neither.

In the end, Tali makes the decision for him, stretching out and yawning audibly, clearly waking. One of her eyes peels open, and she frowns a little, brow furrowing incredibly like her mother's does, and Tony realizes she's probably incredibly confused. In a brand new country, new place, surrounded by complete strangers apart from maybe Orli, with four people very close and staring right at her. The frown gets deeper, the tiniest quiet whimper coming from her, and Tony's standing before he realizes it.

"Okay, here we go," he murmurs, for Tali and her only, immediately swooping round the conference table, stepping past McGee and Ellie, and stepping before Tali, lightly lifting her up out of her stroller and settling her on his hip, mumbling reassurances and bouncing her a little. She sits, practiced, and Tony tries not to think about how many times Ziva will have done this with her. He wonders if she ever thought about him doing it, too.

Tali looks at him, blinks once, then relaxes, settling into his grasp and looking around the room, less warily this time. She seems completely comfortable in his arms, like it's the most normal thing in the world. Except it's not.

Tony can't help but realize this is the first time he's ever held his daughter. Earlier, in the director's office, he'd just crouched down and offered a tight smile, to which she'd blinked, and then she'd crawled into her stroller and fallen asleep before they'd made it to the conference room. This, now, is the first time she's been in his arms, her father's arms, his daughter. Somehow the sensation is more overwhelming than just looking at her, even learning of her, feeling this real, tangible moment, a milestone. He wishes to god he'd been able to do this when she was just minutes old, but now, here, feels pretty monumental too. He shifts her on his hip, pulls her a little closer.

His daughter. He has a daughter.

As she looks around at the team again, Tony forces himself out of his thoughts once more, something he senses he'll have to do a lot-- to his knowledge, children don't allow much thinking time, or moments for introspection. Clearing his throat, he smiles Tali's way. She smiles back softly, adorably.

"Guys," he says to the team. "This is Tali. Tali, this is the team,"

Everyone coos again, steps closer, Abby taking one of Tali's tiny hands in a baby handshake, Ellie running a finger through one of her curls, McGee making a quiet introduction, Jimmy just beaming from the side, and Tony tries not to stand bemused throughout it all, wondering what on earth has just happened to his life. But when they stop, and Abby gets a text from her lab about blood work, something shifts in Tony, and he realizes that he's not going to be able to stay in NCIS with Tali forever, today. He'll have to take her home, he supposes, as her only living guardian, have to stay with her, raise her, take it all on within a day. She's his life, now, his future. He suddenly thinks he understands Senior's parenting issues. It's a whole lot to handle when you're not prepared.

Clearing his throat, he steps back. "I think me and the little lady are gonna head home for the day, guys, get out of everyone's hair."

"Take all the time you need, Tony," McGee says, with a comforting brotherly pat on the shoulder, and Tony nods, then looks across at the Director of Mossad, still sat at the table, watching everything.

"Is this everything?" he asks, gesturing to the stroller, the chunky well-filled go-bag underneath.

"You can take the car seat we brought her here in, too," she says in her usual low tone, and he sends her a tight smile. Everything Tali has is in one bag. Just one. Her whole world has been destroyed in fire and her entire life is now in one bag. He can't ignore the sudden urge to go buy her a million things- - not just practically, though that too since she'll need more clothes and every day things, but a billion toys, useless items, things just for her, for fun. So she can have fun. He thinks she more than deserves it.

"Thanks."

Orli rises, heads his way, and passes by the still-watching team to hand him a slip of paper. "If you need anything, any assistance..."

He's far more likely to contact the people around him than Orli, he knows, but he still appreciates her effort. That she's not storming through his life, handing him a child, and leaving unreachable again. And who knows, maybe he'll need Mossad's assistance, or at least a contact in Israel, at some point.

"Thanks," he murmurs, taking the card and slipping it into his pocket, before looking back at Tali, mustering up a goofy grin for her. She giggles at him, reaches out and pats his cheek with a tiny hand, and he grins a little more authentically this time. Maybe this won't be so hard, sometimes. "Alrighty, Tali, let's go home. You can meet my fish, I think you'll like 'em."

And so, with quick goodbyes to the team, he heads out, Tali still in his arms while he pushes the stroller one-handed, and he heads down to the parking garage. As he does so, he wonders idly if he should call his Dad. Four hands might be better than two, after all, even if neither of them have the slightest clue what they're doing.

*

Senior comes back not long after Tali had started napping on the couch, faithful Kalev in her arms. If she hadn't looked enough like her mother, Tali had been pure Ziva when getting fussy and wanting her little dog. But she's got him now, and she's happily sleeping again and Tony's determined not to wake her. And so the moment he hears the click of his door, he rises, heading over just before his father steps inside.

"She just went down," he says quietly, and Senior closes his mouth, previously open in speech, before nodding.

"I got plenty of things for her," he replies, lifting the bags in his hands, stuffed full of clothes and toys and food, all of which Tony is grateful for. Under Senior's arm is a pop-up toddler bed, the best either of them could think of at such short notice. In time, he'll get Tali a proper bed, a proper room, but he's hardly equipped for housing an almost-two-year-old right now, so quick and easy solutions are going to have to suffice for the moment. As Senior steps into the apartment, Tony takes a quick look around his home. It's funny, he loves this place, and he's lived here for years, but he somehow can't imagine raising a child in here. It just doesn't fit, in his mind-- there's hardly any room, and for Tali to have her own room he'd basically have to do a whole lot of renovation. He'd always thought that when he had children, he'd buy a house, move in there, a place with plenty of space, room for the kids, maybe a basketball hoop by the garage, probably one of those separate little rooms solely for like, a washer and dryer, that only houses seem to have, a big master bedroom where him and Ziva could--

He swallows. For so long now, he'd only thought about that kind of future with Ziva. Now he has it, but by no means in the way he'd always dreamed. Now, she isn't by his side. He tries not to think of the scent of her, still so pronounced in that scarf.

Clearing his throat, he steps into the kitchen, Senior following so they can talk well enough without waking Tali. As the older man sets his purchases down on the counter, Tony leans against it, looking out at his sleeping daughter.

"How was she?" Senior asks, and Tony shrugs.

"Good, we watched some TV and she played a little before knocking out. Thanks for watching her earlier, stupid office messed up my leave paperwork."

Senior waves a hand, shrugging him off. "Of course, Junior, you know that. Besides, she's quite the sweet kid."

"I know," A joke is on Tony's tongue about not knowing where Tali got her frequent quiet, calm disposition from considering his constant energy and Ziva's constant... Ziva-ness, but he swallows it down again. Ziva's gone, and such jokes aren't really funny. Besides, the Ziva he'd left in Israel was quiet, and calm, and thoughtful and introspective to a heady degree. He'd known for years that she could be like that, of course, weighed down in feelings, but often she pushed that side of her away, let herself be the wild flirty assassin she was trained to be, or at least pretended to be that, instead. Tony wouldn't be surprised if she was sometimes quiet and calm with Tali, though. Either way, from the brief time he's spent with his daughter, he knows Ziva did a hell of a job in raising her. She's fun, and kind, smiley and happy, content with him despite being torn from her mother. She's a brilliant child. He’s lucked out with her, really.

"And how are you doing?" Senior asks suddenly, voice lower and more serious. Tony has been expecting the question since his father followed him to NCIS and witnessed his not so brilliant "all hands on deck" moment-slash-breakdown, let alone the whole Tali situation on top of it all. But, as he'd noted earlier, having a child around leaves little time for introspection, conversations. Tali takes up everything, and right now, trying not to think about Ziva, Tony's pretty glad for it.

Shrugging, he runs a hand over his face. "As good as I can be, I guess. I, uh... I found Ziva's scarf in, in the go-bag. It--" He cuts himself off as his voice starts to break and his eyes start to burn for the billionth time.

"It smells like her, doesn't it?" There's a knowingness to Senior's tone, so much Tony doesn't need him to keep going because he knows it's just gonna hurt, but he continues nonetheless. "I did the same thing with your mother, that big white sweater she loved."

Tony gnaws on his lip at his father's words, trying desperately not to let the tears fall. Because he'd always sworn, as a child, that he'd never become like his father. Never become a sad man mourning the love of his life, never getting over her, lonely and by himself, left with a child he doesn't quite know how to care for. But here he is.

Except now, Tony swears, now he'll be better. He won't get over Ziva, no, but he'll be the best father he can be. Senior might be trying now, but neither of them will deny his failures when Tony was young. But no, Tony will be there, for Tali, he'll be by her side, he'll spoil her, care for her, fight for her, try and try. He'll be better than Senior, he promises. Because it's what Ziva would want. And, he hopes, what she knew he could be.

He clears his throat again, turns to the bags stuffed full of toddler things.

"Okay, I gotta put this stuff away before she wakes up," he says, blinking away the mist in his eyes and pulling out the groceries. As he puts them away, though, he can't shake the thought that these things won't be here for that long. The more he thinks about it, the more he wants to take Tali somewhere else, to a new home, a proper home.

*

She lets out a sigh of relief when she finally sees the familiar contact pop up on her phone screen. Although she hasn't been waiting long, really, and she knows her friend has been busy and unable to contact her, she's still found herself incredibly impatient. She can't help it, she's a mother away from her child.

"Tali is fine." Orli says, the moment Ziva picks up the call. Clearly, Ziva muses, she's spent enough time with the woman that she knows exactly what her first thought would be. She breathes out a sigh of relief at the news. Although she'd sent Tali to America solely so she would be safe, and she had faith in Orli to get her there safely and in Tony and the others to keep her safe and secure, she couldn't help but worry. She hasn't spent this long away from her little girl since she was born, after all, and having her so far away is somewhat terrifying.

"Thank you," she says, then moves into the issue next most pressing to her. "And how is Tony?"

"Heartbroken," Orli replies, plain and swift. Almost removed, but not entirely, there's a hint of sadness in her tone, which just leads Ziva to wonder quite what the usually stoic, impassive Director saw to make her feel such sympathy for someone she doesn't know.

At the word, Ziva can't help but sigh, closing her eyes and biting her lip. God, she hopes this is worth it, she really does. This extent, these lengths solely to keep them safe. Is it worth hurting Tony this much? She wonders if he'll ever forgive her when he finds out the truth.

"Do-- do you know if he is coming to Paris, has he found the photo?"

"He said nothing to me," Orli says, somehow a shrug in her voice, and Ziva sighs again. "However, he has my number. If he needs to contact me, he can, and I believe he will if he wishes to."

Ziva slumps back in her seat, worrying a thread on her shorts. She really hopes he wishes to. Since she can hardly force that, right now, she asks the question next most pressing to her.

"How was he," she mumbles, voice a little caught in her throat. "With Tali?"

Orli laughs, softly, briefly. "Wonderful, Ziva. Scared at first, of course, he hardly knew how to react-- when I first told him he was so confused," There's light humour in her voice, but Ziva can't quite find it in her to smirk. It's not funny. Tony shouldn't have had to be confused, he should have known he had a daughter. She should have told him. As much as she can't undo it, now, Ziva knows she will always regret her choice. Orli chuckles again, continuing. "But while we spoke, Tali fell asleep, and some of his team members came in to see her-- they all adored her, of course-- but then she woke, and the moment she started to fuss over all the people looking at her, Tony rushed right in and picked her up. Ziva, he was perfect with her. And she was so comfortable with him."

Before Ziva knows it, tears are springing from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. She wishes she could've seen it-- Tony, with their daughter for the first time. Calming her, comforting her instinctively. Tali, content with him, relaxing in his presence. She wishes she could've seen both of them, the two people she loves most in this world, together and happy. She just wants to be with them. Swallowing, her throat sticking as she does so, she sniffs, and Orli clearly catches where her head's at.

"I have no doubt that they will be fine together, Ziva, but I am also sure he will find your photo. He will come to you."

Oh, she hopes so. More than anything.

Since she's done all this for a reason, though, she moves onto the pressing issue keeping her from her daughter at all. "Have you heard more, about the CIA?"

"Ah, yes, well your Agent Gibbs and his team are investigating, of course. It seems that one man in particular is responsible, an Agent Kort."

Ziva raises an eyebrow at that, surprised though not stunned. Her mind flashes back to being on a rooftop, rifle in hand, to The Frog, to eyeballs in ice cubes, conversations with Tony that got interrupted. "We have all had run-ins with Trent Kort before, although I am not sure why he would have targeted me or my father."

"I heard from some of the agents-- unofficially, of course--" Of course, Ziva muses. Orli is sneaky like that. "That he was looking to destroy your father's private files from his time as Director. He could not just ask Mossad, apparently, since we have the only remaining copies. NCIS is hunting him down-- I doubt he will remain alive once he is found. Nobody is feeling merciful around here, Ziva."

She swallows a little. The team potentially avenging her isn't that unexpected, really, she worked with them long enough to see how they reacted to the deaths of other agents. She tried to stop them avenging Kate, after all, then ended up pulling the trigger herself. But of course, she isn't dead, right now, and she should feel guilty over an innocent man dying for blood he didn't spill. However, it's blood he almost spilled. He didn't kill her, but he could've done, he almost did. If she hadn't ran to Tali's side of the farmhouse, Ziva would've died. Tali would've been left alone, in a burning building, scared and by herself. If the strike had been a meter off, Tali could've been hit herself. Either way, Kort still fired on her, still sent the strike her way, all for a few files, with no regard for the potential casualties. Even without that, at the most basic level, he almost hurt her little girl. To Ziva, that alone is enough to make him need to hurt, too.

"I see. So, you think that I would be safe?"

"If you come out of hiding for Tony, yes, I do," Orli answers, completing the query Ziva had left unasked. "This seems to have been the CIA and their lack of subtlety, nothing more personal, and nothing about you."

She sighs in relief, the feeling better than she could've imagined. The tension she's been holding for days leaves her, lightness sitting on her shoulders instead. Sending Tali away might not have been necessary, now, but it's a precaution Ziva's glad she took, just in case.

And she also knows, now that she's definitely safe, Tali too, that if Tony doesn't come to Paris in the next few days, she's going to go to him. She's going to find him, and her daughter, and be with them, together, finally. For all their sakes. This situation reminded her of how much she loves him, but also how Tony would think of her, know of her, if this all happened for real, and how Tali’s life could be so easily altered. If Ziva really had died, she'd be leaving Tali alone forever, leaving this all on Tony for the rest of his life. She thinks, idly, of something his father had said to her, once. That Tony's mother was the love of his life and he never got over her after she died. And how that impacted Tony, as the child left behind. If she really had died, like he thinks she did, then she would just turn him into his father, in so many ways. So no, she has to go to him, has to change things, make things better, if he doesn't come to her first. She's hiding no more.

She promises herself: if he isn't on his way to Paris in a week, she's getting on the next flight to DC. She'll deal with the fallout from her leaving and her 'death' then.

And yet, she still finds herself hoping he finds that photo. Paris has always been theirs.

*

He finds himself rushing home after leaving the woods. Gibbs and the others had assured him they had the scene, and he didn’t need to rush his statement. His boss had dismissed him with a brief, but soft, “Go be with your daughter” before turning back to Trent Kort’s bullet-ridden body.

It had felt good to kill him, Tony thinks. But not as good as he’d expected. Something had felt a little hollow within him, pointless, about the whole thing. Maybe it was the little girl waiting for him at home, all smiles and cuteness and murmured “Abba"s. She alone was why he hesitated before following the team to Kort’s location; looking at her soft, innocent smile, Ziva’s necklace around her neck, he’d suddenly realized just how easily he could be taken from her. If Kort was armed, fought back, Tali would have nobody, essentially. He already knows now that in the next few days he’ll be heading down to Gibbs’ basement, leaving NCIS behind, being there for Tali all the time, as much as he can, as safe as he can be, all for his little girl.

But that wasn’t the only reason killing Kort hadn’t felt overwhelmingly good. The strange feeling stirring in Tony’s stomach contributed to that, too.

He doesn’t feel like Ziva is dead, he hadn’t felt it when she died, or supposedly died. He’d been right before, he could be right again. And there’s a very specific photo of them in Tali’s go-bag. She’s been less subtle in hints before.

And so, he leaves the scene, heads home as quickly as he can, and he feels relief and a strange contentment wash over him as he turns the key in the lock, steps into the apartment, and sees Tali sitting on the couch, Kalev in her arms, a cartoon on the TV. She’s kicking her feet in excitement. He sees his Dad in the kitchen, smells something cooking in the air. The whole place feels like home, missing just one piece. Ziva.

As Tony closes the door, Tali turns his way, evidently at the noise (Tony doesn’t think it a wild guess that good hearing is another thing she got from her mother), and her face melts into the sweetest widest grin ever.

"Abba!” she calls, leaping up off the couch and running toward him. The word sends something rushing through him, love and warmth, just like it did the first time and the few times she’d said it between that and when he left to meet the team. Now Tali’s said it once, she seems unable to stop– it’s like she was just waiting for the right time, for it to feel right and for her to feel comfortable enough with Tony for him to earn the title. Tony doesn’t think the novelty will ever wear off. He’s her dad.

She tackles him into a hug, leaping up just as he crouches down enough to catch her, and he scoops her up into a cuddle, squeezing her tight.

“Oof, hey there cutie-pie,” he says, and she wriggles happily in his grip. He pulls back a little and grins down at her. “Did you miss me?” He boops her nose and she giggles, and he takes that as her answer. She isn’t really saying much in any language, anyway, but he’s not sure how much English she really knows, how much of it Ziva spoke around her. So far they’ve gotten by fine on gestures and signals, and of course, the odd Hebrew term. They can work out the rest later on.

Senior walks in from the kitchen, wearing an apron and smiling softer than Tony thinks he’s ever known. He figures his dad probably expected this moment– Tony, home from work, greeted happily by his little girl, cuddling her in his arms– even less than Tony did himself, at times. He knows how disappointed the older man was when he’d realized how lonely and solitary Tony deliberately lived his life, not even a double bed to share with someone, a plain sophisticated apartment devoid of much warmth or love, save for a fish. This scene, right now, seemed beyond possible at times.

“Junior,” the older man says, nodding. “How are you?”

Tony hears what’s unsaid: how was it? “I’m fine.” He shifts Tali up a little, tickles her side. “It’s done.”

Senior nods. “That’s good,” he says, but Tony just shrugs, tickling Tali again, focusing on her happy squealing laughter rather than the life he took. She wriggles again, and he chuckles down at her, runs a hand through her hair. Looking at her, he knows he can’t put off what he wants to do any longer.

“I, um, I just gotta make a call,” He bounces Tali a moment, nods his head toward her then looks back up at his dad. “Could you take this jumping bean for a minute?”

Laughing softly, Senior steps closer, takes his granddaughter as Tony hands her over. “Of course!” Tali goes happily, and Senior must sense what Tony’s wanting– space–, for he takes her into the kitchen. “Now, little one, let’s check on dinner…”

Slumping onto the couch the moment they’re turned around, Tony loosens his tie, tugs it off, undoes the top button on his shirt and shoves off his jacket. As he rolls up his sleeves, he leans forward, looking again at the photo on the coffee table. Black and white, smiling faces betraying feelings still so newly realized. Paris, a lifetime ago, memories of a night of warmth and love and healing from summer-long hurt. And now, Ima and Abba.

He swallows. It has to mean what he thinks it does– right? She’s sent the same message before, it would make sense, and he can’t shake the feeling that he’s right. But maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s just a wounded, mourning lonely man, suffering under the weight of too much at once. A loss and a child. Death and life. Maybe he’s going mad, losing his mind, too wracked with sorrow and pain to realize it. But then, if he’s questioning it, surely he’s perfectly sane?

Shaking his head, he pulls out his phone and the small slip of paper in his pocket, too. He’s kept it on his person every day since just in case, but now he thinks he knows why Orli gave it to him. He hopes, anyway. He types in the number, lifts the phone to his ear.

It rings three times before she picks up, despite the time difference.

“Orli.” she states, and he takes a deep, steadying breath. Now or never.

“How much d'you think flights for two to Paris are nowadays?”

“You are better than I gave you credit for, Agent DiNozzo. I thought it would be another week at least before you figured it out.”

His stomach falls to the floor in the best, excited, anticipatory way. Hope takes hold, steadfast and unrelenting. “So she’s–”

“Tony, this line isn’t secure.” Orli interrupts, hushed, and he swallows back his words, a little. Except that wasn’t a no, that wasn’t a what are you talking about? Hope grips tighter.

“But…"

"Do not tell your team– but yes.”

Oh, thank god. She’s alive. Ziva’s alive. She’s okay and she’s safe and alive and in Paris waiting for him, for them. For him and Tali.

And he might have a billion questions and he might wonder what happened to make her pretend to die and he might miss her like hell and he might be frustrated still that she never told him about Tali and he might wonder if she ever thought about the emotional impact this last week has had on him and he might want to talk to her for months about everything he’s missed and he might be curious why she doesn’t seem to want the others to know she’s okay in sending such a subtle clue just his way and Orli instructing him not to tell but god, Ziva David is still alive and that is the best damn news he’s ever, ever, heard.

And he fucking knew it.

He lets out a tearful, joyous laugh, uncontrollable, and hears Orli chuckle softly across the line, just once. “I gotta get to Paris, I gotta–”

“You will, I can help with that,” she says, voice still removed and calm, business-like. “But first, I recommend you come here. Several of Ms. David’s possessions were recovered and saved from the fire that destroyed her and her home.”

Although he hates to delay even another second, he knows there must be a reason to go to Israel, a reason Orli wants him there. Perhaps it really just is to get more of Ziva and Tali’s things and take them to her, perhaps there’s more, but he knows he’ll go, since Orli’s words suggest she’s about the only person who knows the truth about Ziva, and it’s not knowledge to even be spoken about. Besides, he doesn’t mind taking Tali back home, too. She clearly knows Orli, and though she’s adjusted remarkably well here, Tony’s keen to keep her around people she knows, too, keep her calm and grounded.

Clearing his throat, trying to slow his racing pulse just a little, he nods although Orli can’t see it. “Of course.”

“Then, you can proceed to Paris. I believe you know which accommodation to book?”

He frowns momentarily, before logic clicks, and he tries not to smile again. Ziva had left the photo from Paris, where they’d spent a significant night in a certain hotel room, and so that’s where they’ll meet this time. “Got it.”

Thinking of it, he suddenly knows he really will have to go to Gibbs and resign, leave everything here behind, for Ziva, for Tali. Just to get to Paris, leave for an unspecified amount of time, be with Ziva while the team still thinks she’s dead and gone. Maybe Ziva intends to come home, tell them she’s alive herself, but maybe she doesn’t, and maybe they’ll stay in Paris. Once upon a time the idea would’ve terrified him, made him feel sick at just the idea of leaving his father-figure, his family. But he has another family, now: he has a daughter, with Ziva, and she, and them, are the most important things he can think of in this world. He’ll leave anything if it means being with them, safe, happy.

Leaving will be tough, but for them, it’s worth it. Justified. To get to be safe, anew, with Ziva and Tali.

“If that is all, Agent DiNozzo? It is late, here,”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He clears his throat, sobers a little. “Thank you, Orli. Thank you."

He hopes she knows what he means. That he’s thanking her for this phone call, this confirmation, but for trusting him, for caring for Ziva, for carrying her message to him, for bringing Tali safely to him, for making his life complete in the way it’s suddenly become. Sniffing a little, he hears her hum.

"Goodnight, Tony,”

With that, she hangs up, and Tony sets his phone down, letting out another disbelieving teary laugh. He can hardly believe it, and yet, he can. He never felt she was dead, after all. Running his hands through his hair, then over his face to wipe away the tears– oh, such joyous tears, after so many tears of pain and loss this week– he stands, turning around and finding Senior in the kitchen, Tali wandering by his heels and babbling to herself.

“Everything okay?” His father asks, eyebrow raised.

Tony laughs, rushes in and scoops up Tali. “More than okay. Perfect. Perfect.” He smiles a goofy grin. “Oh, Tali it’s just perfect isn’t it?”

She just blinks at him, his eyes behind Ziva’s face, and babbles out a sentence he’s pretty sure is a mix of five languages, and he can’t help but think how much he loves this little girl, and how much he loves Ziva. So much is still uncertain, so much is up in the air, but they’re okay, and Ziva is okay, and that’s truly all that matters.

Senior raises an eyebrow. “Okay,” he says, tone a little confused but a little knowing, too, like he thinks he knows what’s just happened solely by his son’s happiness, but doesn’t know if he should voice it. He turns to the oven, pulls out a bubbling casserole dish. “How about we dig into this Mac and Cheese and we can talk about it all?”

Chuckling at his father’s sudden domestic god side, Tony brushes a kiss against Tali’s temple, swings her around into her high chair and ruffles her hair as she giggles over and over, and helps his father serve up dinner, brimming with excitement and happiness the whole time.

*

The moment she’d got the call from Orli her heart had stopped racing, her restless anxious stomach had calmed, and her fear had faded. Until she’d thought for a minute, and immediate worry had swarmed her, all over what Tony will have to say to her. Orli had assured her he sounded happy when he’d called her, having worked out Ziva’s clue, but happiness over someone not being dead can easily ebb away, replaced by anger that she’d never told him about his only daughter, that she’d kept that from him for over two years, pregnancy included. That while he was in DC, likely struggling over leaving her– she knows him, or she used to, at least– she had discovered she was pregnant, and chose not to tell him. Not to seek him out. And apparently was never going to until she had to fake her death, which she made him think was real, made him mourn.

And that is the truth. Ziva had always intended to tell him, sure, but she’d been intending to since she took the first pregnancy test. She just couldn’t work out how, kept putting it off, until she was three months pregnant, six months, a week away from her due date, until Tali was born, then it seemed too late, like every occasion and milestone would just rub it in even more, how long she’d kept it from him. She was seriously planning to find him when Tali turned two so soon, she knows, but she could have put that off too when the time came. And while he might be glad she’s not dead, Ziva has no idea if Tony will care enough still to want her, want to be with her, if he’ll care enough to forgive her for the past two and a half years, if this is something they can get through, or something that will always prevent them from being anything ever again.

But he’s coming to Paris, she knows that.

He’d left NCIS. That was the first bombshell Orli had informed her of last week. He had taken Tali to Israel for a week, visiting places and collecting the things Ziva hadn’t been able to save from their house before fleeing to the forest with Tali. While there, he’d let Orli know of his departure from the agency– permanently. When Ziva had found out, she couldn’t stop the guilt that rushed over her, sudden and immediate. NCIS was Tony’s world, his family, his home for so many years after moving from assignment and job, place to place, dream to dream, and he’d finally settled, just like she’d wanted to do once. She’d never wanted him to leave it for her, that’s why she’d insisted so so much on him returning there those years ago, even after the night they’d spent together. Yet, on the phone Orli had told Ziva that Tony was perfectly happy with his decision, that he’d said it felt right, to leave, have no obligations other than raising Tali. He’d said something about being everything to her, apparently. While the guilt had ebbed, Ziva’s still not sure what to make of his decision, really. It’s something she’ll need to talk to him about, find out exactly why he did it, and perhaps comfort him with it if he needs it, if he’ll accept it from her. Leaving it all, leaving Gibbs, that can’t have been easy even if Tony wanted to go.

The other bombshell came earlier today: the moment Tony and Tali’s flight had left for Charles de Gaulle, Orli had phoned Ziva with their landing time and their room number. The hotel, Ziva had already presumed.

It had been easy to get into the room, simply saying at reception that she was a good friend and sending a sweet smile at the young girl, wearing a Stagiaire / In Training badge, behind the desk, and Ziva had gained a key. She’d slipped in, smiled seeing the pop-up cot on the floor already for Tali, and looked around the oh so familiar room. That night here with Tony might’ve been so many years ago, but she remembers it clear as day. How soft and loving he’d been with her, how strong his arms had been around her, just how much he’d helped her heal. That night, and his last night in the farmhouse with her, are ones she’ll never forget, not a single detail. Few things have changed here; not the wallpaper, the crack in the marble vase filled with a fake fern, the wide space of the mirror, the plush thickness of the carpet beneath her feet, the curve of the curtains and the way the sun creeps between the buildings outside the window in the late-evening. It’s all the same, and all of it is burned into her mind.

Checking her watch, she clears her throat, knowing that Tony and Tali should only be fifteen minutes or so away, if their arrival at the airport went smoothly, which Orli’s intervention should have helped with. Nodding to herself, Ziva shifts her bag on her shoulder. She hasn’t brought many things with her, here, just her routine-driven usual spare shirt for Tali, sippy cup of water, and a few packs of snacks along with things Ziva keeps in her purse daily anyway. More of her own things, her clothes, belongings, aren’t on her person, but in the apartment she’s been living in since leaving Israel in hiding after the attack on the farmhouse. She’s just renting the place here, and there’s enough room for Tali, and Tony too if he wants that, but she’s been looking at more permanent places in the area, too.

A place to call a home. If Tony wants that, too.

She hopes he does, prays he does, but she knows it’s uncertain. All she knows for sure is that he’s coming here, soon, and she’ll get to see him for the first time in years, the first time since they’d kissed a painful goodbye on the tarmac, Tali barely beginning inside her, unbeknownst to both of them. And she’ll get to see her little girl for the first time in a few weeks, which hasn’t been quite as painful or hard but still extremely difficult.

Checking her watch, and knowing they’ll be here soon, she takes a deep breath, allows herself a look at the peaceful Paris view from the window one more time, and, since she doesn’t want to ambush both of them before they’re even through the door, she heads into the bathroom.

They’re early.

The lock clicks just a few minutes later, and Ziva hears Tali’s familiar babbling before the door is even open. She stands up, watching from the bathroom entryway, heart pounding faster than she thinks it’s ever done so before. It’s been similar, at times, her first kill, the moment the hood was lifted in Somalia, her first kiss with Tony in Israel, the moment her water broke, but never this fast, this wild. She swallows, makes herself breathe, as the door pushes open and Tali toddles in happily, Kalev in one tiny hand, oblivious to what’s about to happen in this room. A moment later, a figure follows her, and Ziva feels her heart leap into her throat as she lays her eyes on Tony for the first time since that moment on the tarmac. He looks older, a little weary and tired, and slightly crumpled from the flight, but otherwise just the same. Just the same man she adores, the man who fought for her, the father of her child, the man she’s put through far too much the past few weeks.

She doesn’t know if he doesn’t sense her or if he’s just preoccupied with Tali tearing through the room toward the rather wide window, but he turns away, back towards her, to close the door rather than immediately looking at her, and as the lock clicks again she steps forward, clears her throat.

Tali looks around first, just by a second, bursting out into a wide wide grin that Ziva’s always known is most definitely from the DiNozzo line. “Ima!” she almost shouts, diverting her run from the window and toward Ziva, instead, throwing herself at her in a giant, ferocious hug. Ziva laughs tearily as she pulls her little girl in close, presses her face into her soft little neck and her mass of curls and takes a deep breath. Tali cuddles her back just as tight, saying fast words, scraps of hebrew, and Ziva takes the strength she knows she needs, from her little girl’s grip. After a few moments Tali loosens her grip, and Ziva pulls back to smile at her, murmur a hello and kiss her soft cheek, to which Tali beams.

But then, as she must, Ziva lets go, stands up, keeping her eyes on her daughter a few beats longer than really necessary, until finally, finally, she looks up.

And there, across from her, eyes shining and the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips, is Tony DiNozzo. She loves him more than she thought possible.

He makes no move to get closer to her, just stands, looking, staring, and she swallows, wiping her hands on her thighs nervously. She smiles his way, finding her eyes shining too.

“Hi,” she says.

And just like that, he’s striding towards her, breathing heavy and ragged, eyes open and teary and full of warmth, and when he meets her his arms wrap around her tight and her knees almost give way at the feeling of being in his arms, finally, the strength the comfort, the love.

She hugs him back, so tight, presses her face into his shoulder and sobs and she feels him do the same, leaning into her hair, tears dripping onto her neck. She murmurs words against him, fears and hopes and nonsense, and he just keeps clutching at her, hands moving to different spots to hold her even closer, nearer, like he’s checking she’s really here, real and tangible beneath his hands. They stay that way for seconds, minutes, until Tali babbles below them, tugging on their legs, and they slowly pull apart.

He smiles down at the little girl, their little girl, but Ziva finds she can’t take her own eyes off him, wondering what he’ll do next, what he’s thinking, how their future will unfold. She sees as he looks up at her again, and a smile blooms on his features, softly, warmly. His hands come up to cup her face, thumb swiping away continuing tears, and she breaks as he looks at her the way he always used to: love, warmth, everything.

“Tony, I’m–”

“Hey,” he interrupts, lifting a shoulder. He shakes his head minutely, not dismissing her, she knows, but just letting her know, that’s not his biggest concern right now. Everything can wait. “You’re– you’re okay."

Whether he’s telling her, or confirming it to himself, she’s not sure. She thinks maybe it’s a bit of both.

Either way, she sends him a watery smile, nods, and a grin spreads across his lips. Tali’s grin. As if he knows where her mind’s at, he reaches down, scoops up their little girl before she can tug on them even more. He reassures her quietly as he stands and sets her on his hip, and Ziva’s mouth goes dry at the sight of her daughter in his arms, the arms of her father. Somehow it looks more perfect before her than she’d ever thought.

More tears spring in her eyes, matching ones reappearing in Tony’s, and she can’t help but laugh, giddy, overwhelmed with happiness. Tony does the same, slipping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer again, and Tali, looking between her parents, both of them, giggles too, and Ziva tickles her neck lightly until the little girl squeals in delight.

The moment is so, so perfect, Ziva just leans in, brushes her lips against Tony’s smiling grin, softly, briefly. His stubble brushes her skin, his scent fills her, the same spice and warmth as always, as years ago, decades. He kisses her back in the brief moment before she pulls back, and she rests her head in the crook of his neck, breathing everything in. His arm around her squeezes her waist gently, and they watch Tali grinning at them both, listening as she starts to talk at them both. And there they stand, in the middle of a Paris hotel room, a family for the first time.

They still have a lot to figure out, where they go from here, Ziva explaining things to him, telling him everything about Tali, Tony talking about the past few weeks, and years, at NCIS, working out their future, especially his with Tali, being open about their feelings, finally, and they both know it. Everything is uncertain and murky, and they can’t stay wrapped up here forever, they will have to address it, they must.

But somehow, in Tony’s arms, their daughter by their side, Ziva knows, they’ll be okay.

[the-girl-who-used-to-write]

Masterlist (Finally, I know)

Series names will be in bold

Character and ship names will be in italics

Teen Wolf

Choices of Love (Incomplete) (Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski) Chapter 1 

Which Alpha (Incomplete) (Scott McCall and Theo Raeken) Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Manipulation (complete) (Theo Raeken) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

You Should Have Told Me (Liam Dunbar)

You’re Back (Liam Dunbar)

She’ll Be Loved (Scott McCall)

It’s Her Life (Theo Raeken)

You Cannot Leave Me (Liam Dunbar) (16 Days Of Songs)

Bad Things (Theo Raeken) (16 Days Of Songs)

Halo (Scott McCall) (16 Days Of Songs)

Smile (Stiles Stilinski) (16 Days Of Songs)

I’ll Help You (Brett Talbot)

Lucky (Stiles Stilinski)

Another Species (Derek Hale)

Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing (Scott McCall)

Save Me (Peter Hale)

Feelings For The Alpha (Peter Hale)

Not My Family (Scott McCall)

Honourable Injuries (McCall Pack)

Big Brother, Little Brother (Stiles Stilinksi)

Down To Gown Town (Stiles Stilinski)

Where Did You Go? (New Year, New Prompts) (Void Stiles)

Ha, Yeah, You’re Not Doing That (Complete) (Stiles Stilinski) (Part 2)

Familial Warnings (Liam Dunbar)

Not Our Last Hurrah (Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski)

Not So Evil Stepsister (Stiles Stilinski)

Charmed

Costumes (Chris Halliwell)

Huntress (Chris Halliwell)

Creepy and Kooky (Complete) (Chris Halliwell) Prologue  Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5  Ending 1 Ending 2

We Could Have Lost You (Chris Halliwell)

I’m Here Now (Chris Halliwell)

Baby Steps (Chris Halliwell)

Is She Ok? (Halliwell Sisters)

I’ll Be Back (Chris Halliwell)

Damn, You’re Pretty Scary (Cole Turner)

Who’s The Scared Girl? (Complete) (Cole Turner) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 

Sorry For My Evil Brother (Chris Halliwell)

Let’s Be Bad Together (Chris Halliwell)

Right Back At You (Chris Halliwell)

I Fell In Love With The Devil (Cole Turner)

Just A User (Cole Turner)

Memories (Chris Halliwell and Wyatt Halliwell)

Hunting For My Heart (Chris Halliwell and TVD Crossover)

Never Stop (Chris Halliwell)

The Feeling Of Power (Chris Halliwell)

Taken With You (Cole Turner)

The Best Brother (Chris Halliwell and Wyatt Halliwell)

Try To Get Along (Chris Halliwell)

Never Stop (Chris Halliwell)

How They React To Your Death (Preference) (Chris Halliwell and Cole Turner)

My One And Only Demon (Chris Halliwell)

Advice Columnist (Chris Halliwell)

Saved By A Demon (Wyatt Halliwell)

Liking You But Being Scared Of Wyatt Would Include: (Chris Halliwell) (Headcanon)

Full Moon Routine (The Sisters)

In The Future (Wyatt Halliwell)

Treat You Better (Chris Halliwell)

In A World Of Our Own (Wyatt Halliwell and Supernatural Crossover)

Black And White Movie (New Year, New Prompts) (Chris Halliwell)

Whoever I Want (New Year, New Prompts) (Chris Halliwell)

How Many Times?! (New Year, New Prompts) (Wyatt Halliwell)

Don’t You Remember? (New Year, New Prompts) (Chris Halliwell)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Was This Just A One Time Thing? (Spike)

Try To Be Subtle (Spike)

It’s A New Life For Us (Spike)

That’s What I Do (Spike)

Big Bad Wolf (Oz Osbourne)

Piece Of Work (Spike)

Old-Fashioned (Spike)

My Sister?! (Spike)

Poetry In Motion (Spike)

Vampires Need Saving Too (Angel)

The Best Pair Of Matchmakers (Xander Harris)

Cute Date (Spike)

Secret Vampire Lover (Spike)

Courage (Doyle)

Yes, I Bought You A Leather Jacket (New Year, New Prompts) (Spike)

Peter Pan 2003

Out Loud (Peter Pan)

Nothing Can Break Us Apart (James Hook)

Never Gonna Land (incomplete) (Peter Pan) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 

Once Upon A Time

No Longer Lost (Peter Pan)

Really, Him?! (Peter Pan)

You’re Still Perfect (Peter Pan)

Animals (Peter Pan) (16 Days Of Songs)

Finally (Peter Pan)

Boyfriend (Peter Pan)

Puppy Love (Peter Pan)

The Truth (Once Upon A Time)

You’ll Never Take Us Alive (New Year, New Prompts) (Peter Pan)

The Walking Dead

Back Off (Carl Grimes)

I’m Sorry, Are You Ok? (Mitch)

I Choose (Mitch and Louis)

Guns Are So Out Of Style (Carl Grimes)

American Horror Story

Co-Leaders (Kai Anderson)

Meant To Be Yours (Tate Langdon)

Devil’s Playground (Tate Langdon) (16 Days Of Songs)

You’re Not A Freak To Us (Jimmy Darling)

You’re Everything I Ever Wanted (Jimmy Darling)

Never Meant To Hurt You (Michael Langdon)

No Dinner This Time (Michael Langdon)

We’re Not Going Back There (Kit Walker)

Powerful Scares (Michael Langdon)

First Day Of School (Coven)

Toxic (Tate Langdon)

Happy And All (New Year, New Prompts) (Kyle Spencer)

High?! (New Year, New Prompts) (Tate Langdon)

It (2017)

In Derry, No One Can Hear You Scream (incomplete) (Loser’s Club) Chapter 1  Chapter 2

You Couldn’t Guess? (Henry Bowers)

Hope For The Underrated Youth (Bowers Gang)

Original Me (Henry Bowers)

How Much?! (New Year, New Prompts) (Bill Denbrough)

Nowhere Boys

Trust Fund Baby (Sam Conte)

Doctor Who

That’s Me! (10th Doctor)

Romeo and Juliet

A Rose By Any Other Name (incomplete) (Romeo Montague) Chapter 1  Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Shadowhunters/The Mortal Instruments

Shadows Follow Me Home (Sebastian Verlac)

You’ll Be In My Heart (Jace Herondale) (16 Days Of Songs)

Just Say (Alec Lightwood) (16 Days Of Songs)

Let’s Be Friends (Alec Lightwood)

Narnia

Princess Of The Telmarines (complete) (Edmund Pevensie) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 

Knight In Shining Armour (New Year, New Prompts) (Edmund Pevensie)

Gotham

The Wayne Girl (Complete) (Jerome Valeska) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Get Away From My Daughter You Bastard (Jonathan Crane)

Don’t Be Scared Of Me (complete) (Jonathan Crane) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 

Marvel

Legendary (incomplete) (Peter Parker) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

He’d Be Proud Of Us (Peter Parker)

I Miss My Old Friends (Peter Parker)

Monster (Erik Lehnsherr) 

Hold Onto Me (Logan Howlett)

Your Dream Will Be My Dream (Warren Worthington III) (16 Days Of Songs)

You’re My Best Friend (Peter Parker) (16 Days Of Songs)

Forgotten (Charles Xavier)

I’m With You (Peter Parker)

Somebody Else (Erik Lehnsherr)

Stay With Me (Erik Lehnsherr)

Gravity (Charles Xavier)

Sleep Peacefully (Scott Summers)

Coward (Charles Xavier)

Ocean Eyes (Erik Lehnsherr)

Get Well Soon (Stephen Strange)

Motorbike (Scott Summers)

E-Boy (New Year, New Prompts) (Peter Parker)

Game Of Thrones

Hellfire (Joffrey Baratheon)

Thank You Kind Sir (Renly Baratheon)

Bates Motel

It’s Always Been You (Dylan Massett)

Harry Potter

I Have No Choice (Draco Malfoy)

Together Or Apart (Fred Weasley)

Misguided Ghosts (Golden Trio)

Slipped Away (Cedric Diggory)

Wish You Were Here (Sirius Black)

Pictures Off The Wall (Draco Malfoy)

Because Of You (Sirius Black)

The Tournament (Cedric Diggory)

How Much Did You Pay? (New Year, New Prompts) (Draco Malfoy)

Friends

Are You Sure About This (Joey Tribbiani)

Baby Of The Group (Joey Tribbiani)

You

How Predictable (Incomplete) (Joe Goldberg) Chapter 1  

Bohemian Rhapsody

10 Things I Hate About You (Roger Taylor)

The Society

I Have A Separate Masterlist For This

NCIS Los Angeles

Welcome To The Madhouse (Platonic Team)

Rescue (G Callen)

The Umbrella Academy

Ghost Of You (Ben Hargreeves)

Mona Lisa (Diego Hargreeves)

Paralyzed (Klaus Hargreeves)

Me! (Klaus Hargreeves) (16 Days Of Songs)

Heart By Heart (Five Hargeeves) (16 Days Of Songs)

I See Dead People (Klaus Hargreeves)

Z-Nation

Shallow (10k) (16 Days Of Songs)

From The Start (Murphy)

Be More Careful (Murphy)

The Vampire Diaries

A Thousand Years (Damon Salvatore) (16 Days Of Songs)

Mysterious Feelings (Matt Donovan)

Perks Of Being His Girlfriend (Jeremy Gilbert)

What A Buzzkill (Damon Salvatore and Enzo St John)

Hunting For My Heart (Jeremy Gilbert and Charmed Crossover)

Pushy (Damon Salvatore and Enzo St John)

This Complicates Things (Matt Donovan and Jeremy Gilbert)

Feel Like Arguing (Kol Mikaelson)

Gifts (Stefan Salvatore)

Why Don’t You Care (Damon Salvatore)

Always In Trouble (Klaus Mikaelson)

How They React To Your Death (Preference) (Kol Mikaelson and Jeremy Gilbert)

Study Buddies (Jeremy Gilbert)

Vampire Twin (Elijah Mikaelson)

Listen (Klaus Mikaelson)

The Only Mikaelson For Me (Kol Mikaelson)

Regular Customer (Kai Parker)

Memories Lost (Damon Salvatore)

Date Ruined (Kol Mikaelson and Enzo St John)

All I’m Saying (New Year, New Prompts) (Damon Salvatore)

So, What Are You Gonna Say? (New Year, New Prompts) (Damon Salvatore)

Pretty Little Liars

Old Friends (Toby Cavanaugh)

Six Feet Under (Ezra Fitz)

Never Meant (Jason DiLaurentis)

All I Wanted (Toby Cavanaugh)

I Miss You (Jason DiLaurentis)

Just My Imagination (The Girls)

Skins UK

Uptown Girl (James Cook)

On The Bus (Sid Jenkins)

Our Last Moments (Chris Miles)

Karma Hit You Hard (Tony Stonem)

Perfect Wedding Song (New Year, New Prompts) (Tony Stonem)

Maze Runner

Piggy Back (Newt)

Master Chef (Newt)

Into The Unknown (New Year, New Prompts) (Aris)

Supernatural

In A World Of Our Own (Dean Winchester and Charmed Crossover)

Grimm

Fairy Tales (Nick Burkhardt)

Our Kinds (New Year, New Prompts) (Nick Burkhardt)

The Hunger Games

Panic Room (New Year, New Prompts) (Finnick Odair)

Supernatural

Devil On My Shoulder (New Year, New Prompts) (Lucifer)

[kjimagine]

FAQ’S; Kjimagine

Who do you write for?

KnJ household

Everyone

the Vlog Squad

Everyone

Riverdale

Sweet Pea

Fangs Fogarty

Toni Topaz

On My Block

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Prudence Weird

Sabrina Spellman

Helda Spellman

Zelda Spellman

Theo Putnam

Roz Walker

Nicholas Scratch

Ambrose Spellman

Harvey Kinkle

Caliban

Skins

Chris

Sid

Cook

Freddie

Stranger Things

Steve Harrington

Robin Buckley

Jonathan Byers

Alexi

American Horror Story Seasons 1-7, 9

NCIS

People, Movies, or shows not listed may also be requested, these are just the ones I could think of.

Are requests open?

CLOSED UNTIL JANUARY(if you still send em in, don’t worry, they’ll still be taken care of)

When do you update?

I’m a fulltime student, so one month I may be posting every other day and the next I may only post once. 

When is my request being posted?

I am working on requests currently, I know I have a lot and some people have been waiting a while, but they’re coming

MASTERLIST

[typingtess]

Tiptoeing through the guest cast of "A Diamond in the Rough"

Before we start today’s tiptoe, a note - Nia Long is not listed in the “Regular Cast” part of this press release.  She was not listed in the “One of Us” press release and is not in “The Heist” in December.  She is listed in the social media stuff at the end of the press release but that all seems boilerplate.  According to a few websites, Nia Long is apart of a film called “The Banker”, that is filming in Atlanta.  

Linda Hunt is listed every week.  Miguel Ferrer was listed throughout season eight.  Not sure what all this means.

x-x-x

Pamela Reed as Roberta Deeks "Bertie" was last seen in "This Is What We Do" – episode 200.

Esai Morales as NCIS Deputy Director Louis Ochoa Back from "The Patton Project" last week.

Ravi Kapoor as General Omer Abidi Played Dr. Sid Shandar in Gideon's Crossing and Dr.Mahesh 'Bug' Vijayaraghavensatanaryanamurthy in Crossing Jordan.

Was one of the terrorist, Bashir Malik, involved in the bombing where Deliah was injured in NCIS in season 11.

Appeared in number of British series as well as the US's Century City, My Name is Earl, 24 (season seven), Fringe, Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, Flashforward, Hawthorne, The Game, The Mentalist, Burn Notice, Touch, The Young and the Restless, The Brink, Hand of God, Bones, Madam Secretary and Wisdom of the Crowd.

Meera Simhan as Sahar Abidi Meera Simhan and Ravi Kapoor are married in real life.

Played Mira in Anger Management and appeared in episodes of The District, ER, Gideon's Crossing, The Practice, The Court, MD's, NYPD Blue, Cold Case, The Guardian, Crossing Jordan, Century City, Judging Amy, Invasion, Nip/Tuck, Without A Trace, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, House, Numb3rs, The Mentalist, Heroes, Parenthood, The Young and the Restless, Touch, New Girl, Castle, Married, Major Crimes and How to Get Away with Murder.

Michelle Clunie as Luanne Hadlow Was DeeDee Landrow in The Jeff Foxworthy Show, Melanie Marcus in Queer as Folk (US) and Mrs. Finch in Teen Wolf.

Was Sally Wexler in the “Contemptuous Words" episode of JAG in season five and Meredith Dunn in the "Hit and Run" episode of NCIS in season ten.

Guest starred in episodes of Silk Stalkings, Hot Line, The Preston Episodes, Space: Above and Beyond, ER Life with Roger, Boy Meets World, Chicago Sons NightMan, Pensacola: Wings of Gold, Players, Players, The Tony Danza Show, Maggie Winters, Pacific Blue, V.I.P., The Strip, Diagnosis Murder, Battery Park, Judging Amy, 1-800-Missing, House, Without a Trace, The Closer, CSI, The Mentalist, Outlaw, Lie to Me, In Plain Sight, Bones and Satisfaction.

Michael Kostroff as Robert Fenton A working actor for years, appeared in episodes of Knots Landing, Partners, Port Charles, General Hospital, Dharma & Greg, NewsRadio, Ladies Man, The Geena Davis Show, Felicity, Malcolm in the Middle, The King of Queens, The West Wing, 8 Simple Rules, The West Wing, ER, Stacked, Charmed (2006), Boston Legal, Commander in Chief, The Closer, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, In Case of Emergency, Life, Eli Stone, Trust Me, Brothers & Sisters, Cold Case, The Middle, Party Down, Sons of Tucson, NYC 22, Made in Jersey, Banshee, Loui, Gotham, Deadbeat, Elementary, Bosch, Vinyl, The Good Wife, Madam Secretary, Billions and Instinct.

Played Maurice "Maury" Levy in The Wire, Mr. Pope in Veronica Mars, Miles Pike in Sonny with a Chance, Judge Richard Gearheart in Damages, Martin Wilcox in The Blacklist, Dr. Noah Burstein in Marvel’s Luke Cage, Evan Braun in Law & Order: SVU and Rizzi in The Deuce.

Kostroff on the Paramount lot.

Annalisa Cochrane as Emily Conway Played Yasmine in Cobra Kai and Shelby Dunnstock in Heathers.  Guest starred in episodes of Baby Daddy, Modern Family, Major Crimes, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Famous in Love, The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives.

Ajay Mehta as Ibrahim Alvi Was an Ambassador in season six of 24, Dr. Sanjay Rajapaksa in Eli Stone, Devesh Katdare in Royal Pains, Sanjay in Anger Management, Tarun Lahiri (Mindy's dad) on The Mindy Project and Waqas Al-Jamil in The Good Place.

Played Parviz Najar in NCIS's season four "Driven" episode.

Many guest credits over the years.  Appeared in soaps like All My Children, Guiding Light, As The World Turns  and The Young and the Restless.  Comedy roles include The Nanny, Soul Man and Sex in the City, Madigan Men, 2 Broke Girls, Rules of Engagement, New Girl, The Middle, Modern Family and Life in Pieces.

Dramas include The Sopranos, The $treet, The Beat, both Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Education of Max Bickford, Queens Supreme, Miss Match, Strong Medicine, Nip/Tuck, both CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, Numb3rs, Without a Trace, State of the Union, Cold Case, Private Practice, The Mentalist, The Mob Doctor, Perception and Rectify.

Christopher Goodman as Navy Captain Dean Hadlow Was Officer Neimeyer in the 2003 remake of Dragnet and Charles in Sequestered.  

Played a Marine Guard in the "Back in the Saddle" episode of JAG in season nine and was Special Agent Michael West in the "Recovery Road" episode of NCIS in season 13.

Guest roles include Threat Matrix, ER, Star Trek: Enterprise, Close to Home, Justice, Crossing Jordan, Raines, Big Shots, 'Til Death, Monk, Lincoln Heights, both CSI and CSI: Miami, Entourage, Ghost Whisperer, Dollhouse, Lie to Me, State of the Union, The Young and the Restless, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, Big Love, Greek, Castle, Desperate Housewives, The Finder, Harry's Law, Revenge, Hollywood Heights, Vegas, Secret Life of an American Teenager, Ray Donovan, Days of Our Lives, Parenthood, The Mentalist, Bones, Legit, Gang Related, The Fosters, Shameless, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Mistresses, Mom, The Middle and Jane the Virgin.

Casey King as Lucas Walker Guest role in Awkward and a number of short films.

Sharmita Bhattacharya as Rebecca Sadat Appeared in a few short films and web series.

Joe Spellman as Billy Friedman Part of the Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy group.  Was in episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Growing Up Fisher, Kingdom, Silicon Valley, Scorpion, The Comeback, Major Crimes, Adam Ruins Everything, Bones and American Horror Story.

Shaun T. Benjamin as Al Guest roles include episodes of Dark Blue and Shameless as well as a number of short films.

Jay Pichardo as Cooper No credits.

Carin Chea as Valerie Had guest roles in The Hunted, State of Affairs, Castle, Fresh Off the Boat, 2 Broke Girls, Superstore, Shooter, Hand of God, Bosch, Alone Together, Shameless and Timeless as well as a number of webisodes and short films.  My favorite credit:  Sauce Girl in the Cooking with Coolio "Swashbucklin' Shrimp" episode.

Garrett Westton as Zak Appeared in episodes of Dr. Ken, 2 Broke Girls and American Horror Story.

Written By: Chad Mazero co-wrote “Internal Affairs”, “Revenge Deferred” and "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" and wrote "Tidings We Bring”, "Can I Get a Witness" and “All Is Bright”.  

Directed By: James Hanlon directed “War Cries”, “The Grey Man”, “Kolcheck, A”, “Driving Miss Diaz”, “Command and Control” (number 150), “Angels and Daemons", “Where There’s Smoke”, "Black Market", "Tidings We Bring"(written by Mazero), "Can I Get a Witness?" (written by Mazero) and "Cac Tu Nhan".

[ncisfranchise-source]

AFTER A CIVILIAN RESEARCH VESSEL RESCUES A SMALL BOAT OF WOUNDED NAVY OFFICERS, NCIS ARRIVES ON THE SHIP AND IS FORCED TO HIDE AFTER DISCOVERING TERRORISTS ON BOARD, ON “NCIS,” MONDAY, JAN. 17

“All Hands” – After a civilian research vessel in the North Atlantic picks up a small boat of wounded Navy officers, NCIS arrives on the ship and is forced to hide after discovering terrorists on board. Also, Agent Knight takes a paper doll with her on the mission to capture photos for her niece’s grade school class, on the CBS Original series NCIS, Monday, Jan. 17 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+*.

REGULAR CAST:

Mark Harmon

(NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs)

Sean Murray

(NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee)

Wilmer Valderrama

(NCIS Special Agent Nicholas “Nick” Torres)

Brian Dietzen

(Medical Examiner Jimmy Palmer)

Diona Reasonover

Katrina Law

(Forensic Scientist Kasie Hines)

(NCIS Special Agent Jessica Knight)

Rocky Carroll

Gary Cole

(NCIS Director Leon Vance)

(FBI Special Agent Alden Parker)

RECURRING CAST:

David McCallum

(Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard)

GUEST CAST:

Grant Harvey

(Ian Maddux)

A.J. Meijer

(Dutch Naga)

Monnae Michaell

(Navy Commander Leandra Womack)

Jesse Posey

(Navy Lieutenant Jesse Posey Emmanuel Vela)

Tess Aubert

(Piper)

Stephen Friedrich

(Sid)

Justin Huen

(Private Maritime Security Guard Lenny)

Tre Hall

(Private Mariteime Security Guard Carl Hammond)

Elizabeth Liang

(NCIS REACT Agent Jones)

WRITTEN BY: Christopher J. Waild

DIRECTED BY: Martha Mitchell

[antiquecompass]

@gingerwerk tagged me for a post about WIP Mountain. So, here we go.

Rules: List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets - anything at all!

Most of these are obvs verse related ficlets bc I can’t ever learn to let anything go. So this post won’t be approx 5k long in and out itself I’m just going to post about the WIPs I’ve actively been working on over the past three months.

1. The Most Recent Thing:

It’s the Gone Are All the Days 2018 Superbowl Fic. Thank you so much to the Eagles for actually winning and giving my fic the happier, but still bittersweet, of the two endings I was planning. This one better see the light of day before Valentine’s Day or I will slap myself.

Excerpt Time:

A lot had changed in Babe Heffron’s life since 2004. His Philly family had lost a few members, but gained a ton between new babies, a hell of a bunch of in-laws, and groups of folks that just got adopted in along the way. In those years Bill had lost an entire leg, gained a desk job, finally convinced Fran to marry his foolish ass, and started raising three kids. Ralph was an actual <i>doctor</i> now, running one of the Thibodaux Medical Clinics just outside Baton Rouge. Maggie lived with Ralph and Sid in their own place in St. Boniface these days, working at the clinic here and forging her own path like usual.

 And Babe?

 Babe went from being a bartender to working an actual office job for Nixon Development. He had most weekends and holidays off and a 401k and an actual accountant to handle his taxes now. He was <i>married</i> for Christ’s sake. To a friggin’ <i>doctor</i>. In Louisiana of all places. If he could’ve gone back in time and told teenage Babe he’d be settled down, far away from South Philly, with some Cajun doc he’d met during New Orleans, he probably would’ve punched himself.

 And there was no way, in any of his wildest dreams, he could’ve predicted having Merl-Francis as his brother-in-law.

2. The Why Wasn’t This Finished Ten Years Ago Thing:

Okay not ten, more like six or seven, but the point still stands. This is a post about both Old Haunts and the ACTUAL Gone Are All the Days fic. OH should be finished by March. I’m aiming for the actual GAATD fic to be posted in the summer, since it’s a fic that takes place during that most brutal of southern seasons.

Excerpt Time from the next OH chapter:

Babe laughed as Julian leaned in closer, damn near nuzzling his neck, as he petted Babe’s hair. “You’re so soft for someone so mean.”

 “Mean?” Babe asked.

 “You’re going to leave us like Ralphie over there,” Jules said. “Wooed away by that doctor.”

 “Wooed?” Bill asked, laughing as filled his coffee with sugar.

 “Woooooooed,” Julian said. He took a big gulp of his water. “Hey, has anyone heard from Ron yet?”

 Babe shrugged. “You know, Ron. He doesn’t like to be on the grid unless he has a reason. I’m not going to worry unless he misses dinner.”

 “He knows better than that,” Bill said. No one missed Nonna Guarnere’s dinner invite unless they were actually dying. And even then, they better have called first.

3. The You STILL Haven’t Finished That Yet?

Okay, this could be anything, but this is me, yelling at myself, about the NCIS fic.

4. The Crossover:

Aka the Star Trek fusion fic ‘verse with @scramjets. It’ll be awesome.

5. The I Owe Alex Approx 500 Gift Ficlets One:

Aka The Nate Fick/Mike Wynn fic set in the same ‘verse as The Holy Vow of a Teenage Kiss. Thanks to this gif set, a spark of inspiration was finally lit under my ass and I actually opened up Word and typed some things.

Excerpt Time:

Nate couldn’t help but let his eyes linger on the windows. Matilda and McKenzie waved at him from their shared bedroom, smiles wide on their faces and bathed in the yellow light from their shared teddy bear lamp. Nate grinned at them and waved back, wishing desperately to be inside that tiny home full of so much love, instead of on the outside and walking away. That wasn’t his life, though. Those weren’t his daughters and Mike wasn’t his anything no matter how much Nate wanted otherwise.

6. The Brian Fallon Has a New Album Coming Out And You Know There Will Be Ficspiration:

Nothing here yet, but give it until tomorrow and I’m sure they’ll be something.

That’s all for now. I’m going to go ahead and tag @warriorgays @floorlimes and @janoda, just to try and hit as many different fandoms as I can in one go.

[fixomnia-scribble]

Blue Bloods 8x10 Recap: “Heavy Lies the Head”

This is a very long ramble. And in fact it’s more of a legit recap.  Because for once, we got a full hour of really good cop drama and character development, with everyone really getting into the corners of their characters. Solid stuff.

Spoilers, as if it wasn’t abundantly obvious.

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In an opening more reminiscent of NCIS than Blue Bloods, we see Roberto Alonzo, an Average Family Man Rig Driver, viciously hauled from the cab of his truck and beaten by four masked thugs, who promise to remember his home address should he even think of saying a word. And truth be told, there’s not much to say. The team is masked and gloved, and only one of them, a white guy of average height and build, actually speaks aloud.

Abigail Baker (Say it with me: Baker! Baker! Baker!) has a job offer from an old boss, which would allow her to actually be a detective and not a general factotum to Frank. She’s been increasingly bored and sassy for a while now, and Frank, like the rest of us, has wondered if she isn’t wasting her talents. She’s been instrumental in getting Frank and his office where they need to be. Perhaps it’s time for a change, even if it means leaving “the Godfather she chose for herself”, as she calls him. And Garrett and Sid’s synchronized boggling, complete with deer-in-headlights eyes and open mouths, was utterly priceless.

And now in a scene more reminiscent of CSI-NY than Blue Bloods, a Random Young Dude literally stumbles into a girl making a frantic escape through a broken cellar window in a dingy alley. He hauls her out, stomping her attackers arm down onto the broken glass, just as Jamie and Eddie pull up. Because Jamie and Eddie are smart and in sync, they realize that Random Young Dude is actually the rescuer. They head into the building, and telepathically work together to clear each room, finding the attacker bleeding out on the floor before kicking in one last door, behind which two more young girls are sitting bound and gagged.

Eddie, always one to encourage innate goodness in people (God, I admire her faith in humanity despite the crap she’s been through and the crap she sees on the job) is just in the process of praising Parker Mack (Young Dude) in the precinct break room, when Jamie comes around the corner and promptly arrests Mack on an outstanding out of state warrant. Eddie sputters disapproval. Hallway banter in uniform ensues. Jamie reminds her that the legal system doesn’t work differently depending on whether you feel bad about arresting a decent guy or not. But his protest of “What do you want me to do? I’m not some kind of criminal justice magical genie!” had me cracking up. Oh, Jamie. Yes, you are. And then Eddie’s ABSOLUTELY GLEAMING GRIN and flying tight hug right in the middle of the precinct and “I knew I could count on you, Jameson Reagan!” and Jamie’s totally exasperated / deeply pleased eye-roll…

Speaking of being synched up, Danny and Baez have got their groove back. Baez has stopped treating Danny like he’s made of glass, and Danny is just itching to get his knuckles bruised in a good fight (I mean, um, a satisfyingly intense case with a clean ending.) And OH MY SWEET LORD it’s the Sassy Redheaded TARU A/V Tech that I adored, a few episodes back! Danny remembers her. And Baez comments on the fact that Danny remembers her. “I never forget a face,” says Danny, quickly sweeping his eyes from her knees up to her eyes as if he’s just nodding hello. Baez smirks and rolls her eyes like her bratty little brother is at it again, but in fact it’s Baez that the tech has come to see. (And my fanbrain just leaps sideways because hello, crazy hot, street-smart Baez and crazy-smart, nerdilicious, probably tattooed TARU tech who probably roller-derbys on weekends? AHEM. I mean.)

Redheaded TARU Tech has some good news in that the smashed dashcam from the rig driver’s truck gave up one complete image, which contains a partial license plate, leading them to three potential car owners. And in true big-sisterly fashion, Baez lets slip that one of the potential car owners is known to them, and has a special nickname for Danny: “Defective Reagan”. TARU tech goes off giggling. Danny looks properly cockblocked and Baez looks innocent.

Erin’s Office! Jamie has come to clink Wonder Twin Powers Rings with Erin to see if they can do anything about Mack. Erin thinks not. Jamie has a cunning plan that Erin might put in a good word for Mack with the Buck County DA. But he makes Erin say it out loud. And HA! Jamie pulls a page out of Eddie’s book with a “Thank you so much! You are the BEST!” despite Erin squawking “Oh, no no, no no, I didn’t say yes…Jamie! Come back!” as he beats a hasty retreat. Erin, unimpressed: “I hate my brothers.”

Cut to: Frank loping into the office of Baker’s old boss, recently made a Captain. Ooh. Turns out our girl Baker has been chasing her own destiny, and it was she who reached out to the Captain about making a career move, not the other way around. Good on you, Baker, but that was an interesting tidbit to omit. Frank is the soul of graciousness, and agrees that Baker is best of the best. But something’s not sitting right. Hmm.

Danny approaches Victor Lugo, as Lugo and his boys are admiring a new gunmetal-gray, custom-fitted Aston Martin Penis Extender, I mean, DX-11. Danny does not need a toy like that to make the others step back. He plays along good-naturedly with Lugo trying to bait him with tired old cop stereotypes, and then smacks down the information about the car being associated with the rig robbery AND that Nicky Furino, a fellow gangster, has actually talked about Alonzo’s beatdown and the theft of cash from the truck. And then Danny calmly leads Lugo around the corner to where Baez is standing guard over Furino. Dramatic music. Things just got real.

Or did they? Danny and Baez, back at the five-four, are plotting to make it appear as though Furino has talked and is signing a confession, while Lugo walks by. Baez feels that it feels wrong, like lying. (Though such tactics are entirely within cop regulations, and in fact she’s been part of them more than once. What gives?) Danny promises they can go to Confession afterwards. I think he’s quite serious about that, for all his joking around. Baez feels bad about lying, but it is sometimes critical for a cop to be able to. And it works. Lugo caves in approximately four seconds after seeing Furino signing a piece of paper in front of Baez. When suddenly…enter the Smarmy Lawyer, Stage Right, who hustles Lugo away.

Regan House. Evening drinks with Pop. Frank voices his concerns and conflicted feelings about Baker seeking out other work, or being sought for other work. Henry drills down on the data and comes out with the suggestion that the new Captain, who is head of IAB, would love to get Baker for all her intel from her past ten years at the 1PP and the Commissioner’s Office. Which settles Franks seeming indigestion at the thought of Baker actually looking to move away from him and work with IAB. He’s now convinced that the Captain sought out Baker, not the other way around. Atmospheric shot of Frank and Pop sitting in their wing chairs on either side of the fireplace, mirrored of posture and with whisky in hand. A flash-forward to two retired PC’s winding down together, as Frank keeps threatening to do?

Erin arrives at the one-two. Jamie knows nothing good has happened before even looking, because Reagans deliver bad news in person. Politically, it’s a bad time for the Bucks County DA to vacate an old felony arrest. Pennsylvania is going to try to extradite Mack the same day. Erin and Eddie share a resigned wave in greeting as Erin leaves. Erin hollers down the hallway, “Oh, and Jamie: MARRY THAT GIRL.” Oh, wait. No, she doesn’t.

Jamie looks shifty. He asks Eddie for Mack’s file, to expedite the process. Eddie looks despondent and hands it over. Jamie hides it under a pile in a random inbox. The two perform a note-perfect rendition of “I Thought You Had It Last”. Eddie quietly makes sure she’s not just imagining things, and grins at Jamie’s retreating back like he’s her quarterback boyfriend and it’s Homecoming.

Danny and Baez are working in silence. Baez comments upon the silence, and just as Danny insists he’s not mad…the episode slips from dramatic comedy to plain slapstick when a bushy-haired dude dressed as a donut appears, with a box of donuts in hand, and starts SINGING to Danny. A singing telegram from Lugo. Everyone claps, and Danny takes the donuts with about as much grace as could be expected. The singer apologizes and starts to say his own uncle’s a cop, but is quickly hustled out.

Frank and Abby are sitting across from each other at Frank’s desk, highly uncomfortable. Abby knows Frank knows something, but she doesn’t know exactly how much. They’re both pretending Frank knows nothing, and that Abby’s making the first move by approaching him. Frank then proceeds who metaphorically whisk Abby’s chair out from under her by flatly denying the transfer to IAB with no discussion. Abby goes from slightly wrecked to coldly pissed and returns to her desk.

Danny tries to convince Alonzo to testify against Lugo and his gang. Alonzo is way too scared for his family to even think of it. Despite that, Danny decides that it would be a good idea to tell Lugo that Alonzo fingered his photo. Music of impending drama. Baez notes that Danny just signed Alonzo’s death certificate. (Warrant, I think she means, but never mind.)

Act III, Resolution Time for Storylines

It’s dark. Alonzo crutches his way slowly across the warehouse parking lot as Lugo, with a pipe wrench, drops a balaclava over his face and follows him. Lugo raises the wrench…and yep. It’s Danny in a fake cast. Danny spins around and draws up. Baez comes in behind Lugo, with lights and sirens backing her up.

It’s end of shift at the one-two. Jamie has been making himself scarce, and not responding to Eddie’s texts. Eddie’s taken the brunt of their Sergeant’s ire, and had to turn over Mack’s file after all. She’s pissed, but more mystified that Jamie is just giving up and seems detached. Erin chooses that moment to come barrelling around the corner, fixing her little brother in her basilisk glare. Jamie plays innocent, but Erin has no time for that. Eddie does the tennis-match head swivel between the two siblings and demands to know what’s going on. “You’re a terrible liar,” Erin tells Jamie, softening somewhat, “But you’re a pretty damn good person.” Turns out that Jamie convinced all three women who were saved by Mack’s act of bravery to reverse their decision not to talk to the press, and instead to give interviews to the Pennsylvania press. Hence turning the Bucks County DA’s political position into a political hot potato. Mack’s arrest warrant in PA, which was probably bogus anyway, is vacated, and he’s a local hero.

Jamie lets Eddie see the most fleeting of shy happy smiles as he turns away. Eddie sends that my-quarterback-boyfriend-just-nailed-a-Hail-Mary-Pass grin after his retreating back, once again.

Reagan Dinner Table. Oh, man. Jamie and Erin come under fire from both sides and across the table as Pop, Frank and Danny lay into them about playing judge and jury, and making an end run around legal procedures. Danny in particular notes that he’s happy to see a return to law and order around the dinner table. Frank (be still my heart) actually asks the grandkids for their opinion. Nicky very nicely frames the programmatic approach to law as being like “having software and robots handing out the law” if well-trained, experienced cops and lawyers can’t exercise any agency in extenuating circumstances. And Sean and Jack back up Nicky to Pop’s FACE, even though Sean’s been the token hardass among the kids lately. BOOM. Except Pop and Frank bust out grinning and claim that they just orchestrated a “teaching moment” for the kids and that they’re very proud. Argh. Jamie grumbles they just gave him indigestion. Danny looks a little shocked.

Danny and Baez are – there is no pretty word for this – joyriding around in the Aston Martin that has been confiscated from Lugo, lapping cars all over the freeway. As they banter, Danny swerves so hard that Baez crashes into his side, and they end up driving alongside the NYPD bus to Rikers. Lugo looks down and gets surly real fast. Danny chews a sprinkle donut at him and he and Baez pull ahead.

Abby ambushes Frank in his usual bar, having convinced Garrett to let her take his place. Abby, being incredibly logical in addition to cop-smart AND knowing Frank as well as she does, has pretty well put all the pieces together. She knows Frank isn’t mean or petty, as hard as he is. She’s tapped her old boss again, and learned that he intimated to Frank that Abby had been looking to make a move, not that he’d offered her a berth. And Abby knows ALL the politics of 1PP, and that one does not simply walk into the Commissioner’s Office and poach the Commissioner’s right hand. Abby realizes her only value to the Captain would be as a hook into the 1PP. And that Frank couldn’t be the one to tell her that without insulting the living crap out of her. (Abby’s own words.) Frank concurs, but nevertheless, Abby thinks it might have been worth the risk to their personal friendship if he had. They agree to call it a closed case. Frank finishes with “Nice work, Detective.” Which is not just a Godfatherly pat on the head, but something that Abby, as a Second Grade NYPD Detective essentially stuck as an Executive Assistant, has long, LONG wished to hear.

And scene.