Chapter 12
“Sarah?” he stuttered, walking the last few paces to her extremely slowly, as if he was hallucinating.
“Hey Dave, how’s it going?” she asked cheerily, plastering her face with a grin.
“But I thought…you are…I was at your funeral!” he stuttered, his eyes widening.
“I know. Me too.” She nodded.
“Wait,” Gibbs interrupted with a wave of his hand. “You were at your funeral?”
“Yeah, I thought I’d see what it was like. Way to depressing though.” She shook her head jokingly.
“I know, it was…um...” he searched for the words.
“Boring and miserable?” she suggested, raising her eyebrows.
“Yup pretty much.” He took another swig of his beer.
“But…how?” David managed to utter, his forehead crinkled in confusion.
“You see, I kind of faked my death. Not just for the banter though!” she defensively held up both hands, palms towards him. “I was on the run from the mafia.”
“I hate those guys.” Gibbs muttered to no one, still staring inconspicuously into the bottom of his bottle.
“Join the club boss.” She knelt her elbows on the bar, burying her head in her hands.
“Well anyway. I am not dead and I just forgot to tell everyone. Ta da!” she held her hands up nervously like a magician. David didn’t reply, but instead knocked Mac off her stool in a giant hug. She was shocked, but relaxed into it when her instinctual thoughts of defending herself wore off. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. When he finally let her go, the scene was a bit too awkward, but all of them missed the glare Tony was sporting from across the room. “So…” Mac broke the ice, “I take it Em is here too? Considering you two are married.”
“Yeah, we own the place.” He blushed.
“Really?” Mac was taken aback. “Good for you.” She patted a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, but not fully. Izzy owns the other half.” He admitted.
“Izzy?” Mac’s head snapped up, her face turned dangerously pale dangerously quick.
“Yeah. He was the most broken up at your funeral. God, he hasn’t seen you for years.”
“I know Dave.” She whispered, looking as if she was about to cry. This worried Gibbs more than anything. Mac never cried. Never.
“He’s in the back. I’ll go get him!” David’s voice was filled with excitement at their current high school/college reunion.
“David don’t…” she managed, but the loudest she could muster was a throaty whisper.
“Mac, what’s wrong?” the older man looked directly into her troubled eyes.
“Gibbs, what’s the date?” the frequency of her breathing increased.
“October 22nd.” He grew even more confused with each sentence she managed to form.
“Exactly. It’s coming up for the 25th Gibbs.” She sighed, slamming her head against the bar repeatedly. “Damn it, damn it, damn it.” She repeated, nerves rising in her voice. She heard the kitchen doors swing open with enthusiasm and looked up expecting to see the one man she had trouble facing. Instead she was confronted with a woman she knew so well. She was pretty, with curly blond hair and blue eyes. Her pale skin was an unusual sight to this mainly Hispanic society she was surrounded by. “Hey Em.” Mac sighed, contorting her face into a smile. Em, who had received news of Mac’s non-death from her husband, was just as happy as he to see her old best friend. Emily threw her arms round Mac’s neck and clutched on for dear life. “Em…Emily!” Mac coughed. “I can’t breathe!” she spluttered. Em let go and drew away with a guilty look on her face. Mac gasped for breath and steadied herself on the bar, with a little help from Gibbs.
“Sarah! You’re alive!” Emily yelped, jumping up and down on the spot.
“Yeah, I am.” Mac smiled, putting thoughts of Izzy to the back of her mind and focusing
on the female.
“Mac!” came a male cry from across the restaurant. She recognised Tony’s voice and peered round Emily to see her partner. She held up her index finger as a pause while she took a deep breath and then flipped her hand round to give Tony a thumbs up. He gazed at her for another minute before being convinced that she could handle it and turned back to the appealing waitress. David came bursting back through the swing doors and Mac’s breath caught in her throat, until she realised it was only him.
“Izzy’s gonna come out soon. You should have seen his face when I mentioned you. He is so excited!” Dave was practically leaping into the air with anticipation.
“Sciuto,” Gibbs growled softy on her ear. “You are not ok. I don’t care what you say. Something is wrong.” He stated, staring into her eyes. The gaze he met was a strange sight to him. Mac’s eyes were hurt. There was a pain he had seldom seen, the few occasions he had there was a perfectly justified reason. Mac possessed a talent few could handle; the ability to hide all emotion without fault. For many, the eyes gave them away. They are unable to hide feelings from their eyes, leading to foiling from another party. With Mac this was not the case. If the circumstances called for it, she could make her eyes so blank- or force them to display a lie- that few others could distinguish her true thoughts. He watched her blink slowly, and then once again look up into his eyes. He had anticipated her reaction before the results blossomed. The deep blue colour was brimming with cheer- contradicting the concern of five seconds ago. “That doesn’t work on me Mac.” He said knowingly.
“What did I do?” she asked him innocently.
“You know damn well what you did. You may be able to pull that innocent look with DiNozzo, but I’m not so easily distracted by your charms.” He didn’t take his eyes off her just instead deepened the glare.
“Well I guess I will have to try harder then.” She cocked her head to the side and moved her chair closer to his.
“Stop it.” He nudged her.
“I was kidding Gibbs.” She smiled, the happiness in her eyes legitimate this time.
“Check out Gibbs.” Mac vaguely heard a small voice whisper in Spanish. She didn’t turn to it, but concentrated on the conversation.
“What about him?” a male replied to the female.
“Don’t you think she’s a little young for him Emilio?” she woman asked, a little shocked.
“And she’s not even a redhead.” She shook her head. Mac gave out a chuckle before focusing her attention back on Gibbs.
“Anyway,” she cut the silence, “Gibbs, I am fine. Done worry about…” she trailed off and her face contradicted her previous statement. She was ghostly pale and worry welled in her eyes as they tracked the man slowly exiting the kitchen. To Gibbs, he looked as nervous and upset as she was. The man presented himself to Mac and she hopped off her stool, measuring only a few inches shorter than him. He moved close to her, attracting the attention of Tony from across the room. Mac did something Gibbs had never seen her do before; she looked down at the floor instead of up into his dark eyes. He placed a warm hand under her chin and moved her head up until their eyes met.
“Hello Sarah.” He spoke softly so only a select few could hear.
“Hey Izzy.” She whispered back, wrapping her arms around his neck.
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