Dust Choked Air

Gibbs sat at his desk working on papers, his wife was sitting on the couch watching a TV show about ghosts. He never understood why she liked them so much. He thought it was because of the cuddling they did afterwards. Gibbs chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?" Fiona asked.

"Nothing sweetie." Gibbs said.

"Oh, oh, come here." She replied.

Gibbs rushed over thinking something was wrong."What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing. Just feel." She put his hand on her buldging stomach. "He's kicking!" She exclailmed.

"Awesome!" Gibbs said. He sat down next to her and put his ear to her stomach. "Wow." He whispered. "Hi, there, it's your daddy." He rubbed Fiona's stomach.

Fiona shook her head. "You are too much." He continued to talk like he was talking to a baby. "Okay." Fiona kissed the back of his head. "You done?" She asked.

"I hope he looks like you." Gibbs said, leaning back on the couch.

"Well, if he's a boy, I actually hope he looks like you, because if he looked like me he'd be one feminie boy." Fiona laughed.

"Good point. But I hope he has your hair." Gibbs kissed her lips.

"Yeah." Fiona ran her hand through his. "I'm really tired. I'm going to go to bed."

"All right. I still have some work to do, but I'll be there in a few." Gibbs replied.

"Sure." Fiona walked back to their bedroom. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. Gibbs was always working, especially since she got pregnant. It's like he didn't want to be with her. She thought it was because she was fat and wasn't pretty anymore, but she would never say anything to him about it.

The next day...

Fiona shifted her weight and looked over her shoulder. Gibbs wasn't in bed. A note was on his pillow. Fiona picked it up and read it. "I found a break in the case. I left early. I didn't want to wake you, you look so beautiful sleeping. I'll see you at work. I love you. L.J." She smiled to herself. "I love you too." She kissed the paper and then got out of bed. The phone on the nightstand started to ring. "Hello?" Fiona smiled. "Yeah, sure. I have time. I don't have to be at work until 10." She nodded, picking a pink shirt and knaki's out of her closet. "Yeah. Thanks. I'll see you in a few. I'll be waiting outside."

Later...

Fiona and Giselle pulled up to NCIS. "No, don't worry about letting me off here. I'll walk with you from the car."

"Are you sure?" Giselle asked.

"Yes." Fiona answered.

"All right." Giselle said. She pulled the car out and drove halfway down the block when a explosion rocked the street. Giselle slammed on the breaks. The car behind her was crushed by a piece of building.

"What the hell was that?" Fiona asked over blaring car alarms and people screaming. They looked back over their shoulders. The NCIS Building was no longer recognizable. What stood where the building once was was a pile of debri and rubble. Men and women staggered around on the sidewalk and street. Dust choked the air. Fiona and Giselle quickly climbed out of the car. Fiona held her shirt up over her nose and mouth.

"Come on. We have to see if anyone needs medical attention!" Giselle called out. She ran to the car behind her. The man inside was already dead. "Damn." She helped people to the sidewalk. She tore a piece off her shirt to make a tourniquet for a man. "Don't move." She herded people next to one another out of the way of the debri.

Fiona stared at the rubble that was once her work. "Jethro." She whispered. She quickly walked to the building. "People are trapped inside. We need to get them out."

A man behind her said that it was terrorists. "Did someone call the fire department?" She asked. You could hear sirens in the distance. "What do we do?" She asked. Another man tapped her on the shoulder.Fiona embraced him in a big hug. "Tony."

"I was sick this morning." He said. "I should've been here at 8. I should've been here at eight." He kept saying. He staggered to the curb and sat down. "I should've been here at eight."

Giselle was checking the wound on a man's head. "Who's in charge here?" A fireman asked.

"I'm supposed to be." Fiona replied.

"All right. What do we need to do?" He asked.

" We need to get the wounded away from the building so we can start excavation. I'll need a perimeter set up down the block for the bodies and we'll need a couple of doctors here on the sight." She explained.

"Good. All right people, let's get a move on." He called out.

Fiona helped them move patients down the street to a mobile hospital that was being set up. Giselle went in the opposite direction to help set up a temporary morgue. The equipment was being brought in to help with the excavation and the news media was also arriving. "We need to get the news media back from the building." Cops from all over were also coming, along with Federal agents from the FBI and the other NCIS headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia.

Giselle tapped on Fiona's shoulder. "You should go get checked out you look a little shaken up."

Fiona turned and looked at her friend. "I'm not leaving until I find Jethro." She looked at the ground. "Any news on Tim?" She asked.

"No. If I hear anything about Gibbs I'll let you know." Giselle replied.

"Same here." Fiona said half heartedly.

"All right." Giselle answered quickly and walked back to the morgue. They already had 20 bodies. Giselle couldn't tell Fiona that most couldn't be identified right now, but she would make sure they all were.

A Federal Agent walked up to Giselle in the morgue. "Are you Dr. McGee?" She asked.

"Yes, I am."

"We need you to come to the scene. We found a bunch of people." The woman said.

Giselle brought her hand to her mouth. "How many?" She asked.

"Um, ma'am. We're not sure." The agent said.

"Jesus." Giselle followed her to the scene. "Okay, we're going to need stretchers. Very carefully, we'll place the bodies on them and take them back to the tent."

"We got a live one!" A man called out from the corner of the building.

Giselle left the other workers and rushed to the person that was still alive. "Who is it?" She asked, pushing her way past the other workers. She stopped when she finally got to the front of the people. "Abby. Oh, god." They were pulling her onto a stretcher.

"How am I doc?" She asked.

Giselle looked her over. "You're going to be fine." She choked out.

"You're a horrible liar." Abby replied.

Giselle felt tears again. "You'll be fine."

"Tell Palmer I'm okay." She replied.

"I will." Giselle said. She turned back to look over the rubble. She hadn't been in the heart of it all yet. Fiona was throwing up in the corner. "Fiona!" She called out.

Fiona looked up. "Sorry."

"No, no, it's all right. What are you doing?" She asked. Fiona looked at her funny. "Not what I mean. You should be sitting down."

"I can't. I have to find Jethro." Fiona replied. "I'm the boss."

Giselle wiped her bangs out of her face. "Come on." She started to lead her friend out of the rubble.

"We got another live one!" Someone called out.

Giselle and Fiona both looked back. "Keep going." She pointed towards the sidewalk. Giselle ran over to the man. "Tim." She smiled. "Oh, god." She wrapped her arms around him. "God."

"Hey, I'm all right." He replied.

"Oh, god." Giselle kissed him.

Fiona looked back and smiled. She sat down on the curb and surveyed the area.

"Tim, do you know where Gibbs was?" Giselle asked, as they helped him onto a stretcher.

"Um...he was in MTAC with Fornell and Kate. Did you find them yet?" McGee asked.

"No." Giselle replied.

McGee looked around. "They're still alive." He said.

"I hope." Giselle whispered. She followed them to the makeshift hospital.

The next day...

Fiona stirred her coffee and watched the morning news. She slept in one of Jethro's old Marine t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants.

"This is Hank Benson reporting to you live from what is now left of NCIS Headquarters in Washington D.C." The reporter said. He walked as close as he could get to the rubble. "What you see used to be a Federal Building. We have confirmed reports that a terrorist cell is responsible, although none have yet claimed it. At this time, 23 people are reported dead and hundreds were wounded. We spoke to Medical Examiner Giselle McGee this morning, she implied that many more are dead, but have not been identified at this time." He walked over to the makeshift morgue. Fiona wiped tears from her eyes. The doorbell rang. She got up and walked to the door, expecting it to be her mother, who was supposed to be here. She was flying in from Pennsylvania. Fiona opened the door and almost collapsed. "Jethro." She threw her arms around him. "Oh, sweet jesus." She collapsed to the floor. Jethro fell to his knees and hugged her.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you." Fiona got out between tears. "Oh, god."

He cupped her chin with his hand. "Fiona." He said. She looked up at him. "I'm fine." She continued to cry. He helped her up from the floor and led her to the couch.

"You look like you don't have a scratch on you." She said, still crying.

"There, there." He rocked her in his arms on the couch.

"Oh, god." She whispered. "I can't believe this. I thought you were dead."

"I thought I was too." Gibbs replied.

She looked up at him and then buried her face back in his chest. "Will you tell me about it?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yes. I was sitting at my desk when Fornell came in. He said we had Vince Jenkins on an NSA satelite from Russia."

Fiona nodded. "All right."

"Kate and I went with Fornell to watch at MTAC. We had only been in there for 5 minutes when the whole building shook and the walls and floor just disappeared. It went black after that and then I remember regaining consciousness and trying to move, but I couldn't. It was still dark, and I remember not being able to see much of anything. I could hear people screaming around me, or it was in my head. I think my ears were ringing actually. I heard sirens and I could hear people moving above me. I thought I was in a bad nightmare or something. I remember thinking about you, that's all I thought about was, oh, dear god, please don't let her be here." Gibbs looked up.

"I wasn't. Giselle and I had just pulled up. I told her I could walk so we went further down the block to park. That's when it happened. A hunk of the building hit the car behind us." Fiona replied.

Gibbs hugged her. "Do you know who didn't make it?"

"No. They haven't released the names yet, Giselle is still trying to identify all the bodies." Fiona replied.

A year later...

"Today we're here to dedicate the new building to all the people who lost their lives on August 19, 2005 at the NCIS Building." Fiona said. "I'd like to read all the names of those who perished. After I'm done I'd like to have a moment of silence." She said. Fiona cleared her throat. "David Bell, Edie Belushi, Noah Berry, Chastidy Bob, Nina Buckley, Pamela Campbell, Brittany Chow, Jackie Coople, Grant Creely, Hillary Dee, Marilynn Drake, Amber Flynn, Robin Garcia, Lynette Gullant, Gillian Hatcher, Ryan Hoffman, Francis Hughes, Mariah Jackson, Catherine Jennings, Ann Juhnke, Joan King, Jason Kirschling, Alex McMahn, Frank Mallory, William O'Quinn, Jimmy Palmer, Jane Rice, Abby Scuito, Jennifer Shepard, Erin Smith, Maura Sylvester, and Katelin Todd." Fiona paused." I'd also like to dedicate the building to the survivors too." Fiona replied. The audience paused for a moment of silence. As they looked back up a flock of white doves were released from the roof of the building. The audience clapped as music was played in the background. A memioral was also erected with the names of all those who were killed at the entrance. Every member of the audience laid a rose in front of the wall.