This one's gonna have a few different phrases in a few different languages mixed in. So if you can't tell just by looking at it or inferring, I'll add a translation. But... yeah.

Ellie's P.O.V.

The bathroom door was pushed open while I was shoving my contacts onto my eyes. A furry little something brushed up against my right foot. I was used to this feeling early in the morning. So I smiled, and squatted down, looking the little ginger furball at my feet.

This Layne Dernier

This is the rescue cat that Jack and I adopted.

"Hiya Layne." I picked her up, laying her over my shoulder. Layne was a 3-legged, deF cat, that Jack and I had adopted when we first moved here. She was currently 4 years old.

Layne mewed, snuggling into the nape of my neck. She was only about a foot long, so she fit well.

Jack and I had also adopted two other cats.

Isla Agrest, who's been blind from birth,

And Stevie Connalee,

I finished getting ready for the day, and entered the bedroom again. I set Layne on the bed, next to Isla and Stevie who had joined while I was in the bathroom.

"Anna?" Jack asked sluggishly, rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, good, you're awake." I commented, flicking the light switch up. "You really should be thinking about leaving soon."

"What do you mean?"

"It's about 7am. Doesn't your class start at 8?"

"Oh, dang it. Did our alarm not go off?" Jack asked, throwing the blanket off of him, covering all three of the cats. "Oh, sorry girls." He folded the blanket back again, 

"No, it did. It was ringing for like 3 minutes, you just didn't wake up."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Oh, you're too cute when you're asleep. Also, I tried. You were hard sleeping."

"Aah, alright." Jack agreed, throwing the blanket off of him, and stumbling into the bathroom. I made the bed, got dressed, and was brushing my hair when Jack came back.

Laurel half-waddled into our bedroom about 2 minutes later.

We all prayed together, ate breakfast, then drove in quite literally separate ways, Jack taking Laurel to school because he worked at the same school she attended.

I was the first to the cubical that morning, but 2nd in the set of 2 cubicles that took up most of this floor.

"Hey Leah." Thomas Farris greeted me, leaning on the grey wall separating our two cubicles. "How's your morning been so far?"

"Alright," I replied, taking off my coat, and draping it over the back of my chair. "How's your morning?"

"Good, good. Especially since I'm 1 day older than you." I giggled, and rolled my eyes. Thomas was born May 18th, and he liked to lord that over me.

"Yeah, okay. 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America. 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery. 1643 - The French army defeated a Spanish army at Rocroi, France. At least my birthday has historical significance."

"Yeah, but on my birthday, Helens in southwestern Washington state erupted, blowing the top off the mountain and killing 57 people." Thomas countered, taking one of my black pens out of the pen holder, living in the corner of my desk.

(So, Leah has this thing where the smell of pen ink makes her stupidly nauseous. I have the same thing, and the pens I use are magic. The pen ink doesn't make me want to vomit, it's really great. If you have the same thing as me and Leah, here's the pen brand that's good. It's Pilot Precise V5 RT. Great quality, non-smear, no smell. Anyhoo, back to the story.)

Casey Tabell walked in at that moment with Mark Sturdivant. Mark, Casey, Thomas, and Peter Michel were all on a team together. Alexa Turner, Peter Michel, and Natalia Parker walked in right behind Casey and Mark.

"Morning, fair maiden." Peter greeted, bowing to me. Peter was quite a character, and I loved it.

"And to you good sir." I replied, curtsying to him. Casey nodded at me, I nodded back.

Mark, who was about 6 inches taller than me, set his elbow on the top of my head, using me an an arm rest. I giggled, and planted my heel into his toes. He stepped back, pretending it hurt more than I know it did.

"Hey Ravenger."

"Morning Ravenger!" Alexa and Natalia greeted me, setting up at their officer, and senior field agent desks.

"Hello guys." I replied, smiling, and taking my pen back from Thomas.

"And how are you this fine morn?" Peter asked, switching back to the 1800's.

"Quite fine. E tu?"

"Bien bien!" He replied. "¿Quieres seguir aprendiendo en diferentes idiomas porque nadie más puede entendernos?" (You want to keep taking in different languages because no one else can understand us?; Spanish)

"Puedo entenderte," (I can understand you; Spanish) Alexa replied, crossing her arms, smirking.

"Beh, non riesco a capire nessuno di voi, quindi state zitti o parlate in inglese. (Well I can't understand either of you. So shut up or talk in English; Italian)" I said, leaning back in my chair.

"Ego similis populus cum diversis linguis quae graves errores.(I like confusing people with other languages; Latin)" Thomas added in.

"Can we just speak English please?" Casey pleaded.

'What if we don't want to?'  Natalia asked in sign.

'You know, we could just sign the whole time.' I agreed, also signing.

"What are we talking about?" Ryan Winslow asked, filling the probie seat at my teams cubical.

"The fact that we're all going to start talking in English now!" Casey said before anyone else could get a word in.

"Okay fine." Peter agreed annoyed.

"So what do you all have to do today?" I asked, clicking an unclicking one of my pens over and over and over again.

"We don't have a case." Thomas replied, sitting on my desk. I had a monitor, a key board, a mouse, basic stationary, and a wine glass on my desk. It was all organized, and only took up one of the sides of the desk, and the bend. It left an entire side open for whatever case we were working on, or something like that.

Why do I have a wine glass next to my monitor you ask? No, I don't drink. I just like drinking out of a wine glass, fight me. I just kinda fill up my water bottle at the water cooler, then pour the water into my wine glass before I drink it. Why? I dunno, why do you constantly wear hoodies? Idothattoosometimes. It's just a preference! Fight me!

"Anyone got paperwork left?" Natalia asked, leaning her chin onto her wrists.

"Nope,"
"Nope,"
"Nope,"
"Nope,"
"Nope,"
"Nope,"
"Nope," We all replied. We were all really good at keeping up with our paper work.

"Huh. Slow easy day then?"

"Yup."

"I think that the Ravenclaw motto should be changed to 'caw caw mf'.(But they actually says it but I'm not going to spell it out because that's not the kinda thing I do.)" Thomas said out of the blue after about 4 seconds silence.

"Yeah, Gryffindor's would be 'roar roar mf'." Peter added.

"Slytherin's would be 'hiss hiss mf'." Casey chimed in. "Is the Hufflepuff one missing cuz they're too polite to say mf, or because no one knows what a badger sounds like?"

"It's because no one's heard a Hufflepuff's battle cry and survived." I explained. Casey took a step back from me, furrowing his brow whilst doing so. Which made us all laugh a little.

"And here, we see two teams working a case together." Agent Borall said, leading a group of teenagers to where Alexa, Natalia, Ryan, Casey, Thomas, Peter, Mark, and I were talking. We weren't working a case though. 

"Hey Borall," I greeted, standing up, and moving around my desk. "Who are these people?"

"This is a class from one of the local high schools." He explained.

"We're on a field trip with our government class." One of the teenagers explained. As I looked through them, they were all wearing hoodies, jackets, gloves, snow boots, and some even had blankets wrapped around them.

"Was it cold this morning?" I asked, turning back to talk to Natalia Parker, my senior field agent.

"Only like 17 (Fahrenheit) or so." She replied, nodding.

"Oh,"

"Why is it that teenagers feel safe in blankets?" Peter asked, "I was like that too. I mean, it's not like a murderer is gonna come in saying "I'm gonna kill y- ah danmit. She's under a blanket." I mean. I know you were like that too Leah, but why it that how we just are?"

Peter was right. Peter, Jack, Brock, and I all went to high school together, and he moved out to here about right after high school ended.

"Blankets help with the release of neurotransmitters that make people feel more relaxed. In fact, some research suggests the feel of a blanket can stimulate portions of the limbic system. Plus, they're just cozy too!" One of the teenagers replied immediately.

"Physiology pathway?" I asked, slightly impressed. He nodded in return.

"See, ever since I was 11 when my anxiety got diagnosed, I started sleeping under a weighted blanket. Why do weighed blankets he-"

"The pressure of weighted blankets puts your autonomic nervous system into "rest" mode, reducing some of the symptoms of anxiety, such as a quickened heart rate or breathing. This can provide an overall sense of calm." He replied before I could finish my sentence.

"What's your name?"

"Connor, I'm the android sent by cyber life."

This made Casey, Natalia, and Ryan laugh really hard, but I didn't quite understand.

"It's nice to meet you Connor."

"He reminds me of you Leah." Peter whispered to me. "All facts."

"Oh shut up." I replied.

"So what case are you working agents?" Borall asked.

"Uh... we're no-" Ryan started, but my desk phone rang cutting him off.

"Yeeeeeeeeellow." I replied, picking it up.

"We need you and Farris' team at Gyner elementary school. No body, but it's a 2-team thing." The person on the other side of the phone said.

"On our way." I replied. I set the phone back down in it's thing Istilldon'tknowwhatit'scalled. "Thomas," I said, making a circle in the air with my finger. "Team, get your gear. Going to Gyner."

"That's my little sisters school." The girl, wrapped in a blanket, next to Connor, said.

"I'm sure everything's fine." Natalia replied, her naturally soothing voice apparent. As soon as the girl realized her sister was at that school, I came to a realization too. 

Laurel attended that school. That was the school Jack worked at.

I turned to see Thomas staring right at me. He must've realized too.

"Borall, why don't you take these kids down to autopsy, or to Louise's lab." Ryan offered. Louise Miller was our forensic specialist.

"Right, come along kids." Borall called to the assembled teenagers.

"We'll make sure nothing goes wrong." Casey called after them.

"EVERYONE GET IN A VAN." I said loud enough so that both teams could hear me.

On the way to the elementary school, I used my right hand to hit the 2 on my speed dial. It rang.

And kept ringing.

And kept ringing.

And kept ringing.

"Come on, pick up Jack." I pleaded.

"Hi! You've reached Jacks voicemail. Sorry I didn't pick up, I'm sure I'm doing something super important right now.  Just remember to leave your name and number even though that information already came up when you CALLED MY PHONE!" And the voicemail introduction cut off abruptly.

"Jack I swear to you that if you're hurt I'll kill you." I hissed into the receiver before switching off my phone, and slamming the gas pedal, reminding myself of Gibbs.

When we got to the elementary school, we could tell immediately that something was wrong. The entire school seemed to be outside. Everyone was talking, running around, it was just chaos.

"Count of 3?" Thomas offered, joining me at the school doors.

"Yup." I agreed. Our team members were next to us, and got the message too.

"1, 2, 3." Thomas counted.

As this was an elementary school, yelling at them probably wasn't a good idea. So we clapped. Clap, clap, clap clap clap.

CLAP, CLAP, CLAP CLAP CLAP.

Clap, clap, clap clap clap.

CLAP, CLAP, CLAP CLAP CLAP.

"WHAT HAPPENED? ONE PERSON." I asked the crowd at large.

"A sailor ran in, he's got a gun and took a class hostage. Then told everyone else to evacuate or he'd blow us all up!" A frantic looking 5th grade teacher replied. I nodded, looking through the doors.

"Okay, Turner, Parker (Alexa and Natalia if you forgot) set up a home base in the library." I ordered, walking into the school.

"Sturdivent, Tabell, (Mark and Casey if you forgot) go with them." Thomas added.

"Winslow, (Ryan) I know you want to be in there, but I need you to do crowd control out here okay?"

"Michel, (Peter) stay with him out here." Thomas added.

"Hold on one second Farris." I walked back outside, and looked around frantically for my daughter.

"MUMMY!" I heard from behind me. I turned to see a little blonde girl running up to me. She crashed into me, and hugged me tightly. I returned the hug, a sigh of relief coming from my lips.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay."

"Jack's-"

"I know. I know. You're safe, all of these kids are safe, and that's what matters. I have to go inside now, but listen to the agents okay?"

"I know, I will. Be safe mummy."

"I will." I kissed the top of her head, before walking back inside the school.

Thomas and I got the room number, and found it easily enough. "Okay, what's the plan? Who's in charge here?" Thomas asked as we stood right outside the room.

"Let's just work together." I offered.

"Okay. So what's teh plan?"

"LSORR." I replied. "Look, scan, observe, react, run. But we run back to the library and figure out what's going on." Thomas nodded, and started looking through the class room windows. I crouched down to see what I could through the crack under the door. But it had been taped shut.

"Sugar," I muttered.

"Ugh... Leah?"

"It's Jack's room. I know that. I didn't see him in the crowd, and 203 is his room number." I replied, not giving him a chance to inform me that Jack was the teacher trapped inside with the sailor. "Let's go check on the agents. They should have a base up by now." We walked to the library, to find that Casey, Issac, Alexa, and Natalia had a solid base up, and Mark was already starting to try and hack the computer cameras in the room to get video of what was happening inside.

"How's it going Sturdivant?" Thomas asked, joining him at the laptop.

"Fine," He replied, his fingers darting across the keyboard. "I'm almost into the camera's, I just can't figure out his password. And my algorithms aren't working. Ravenger, when's his birthday?" On a job, we always referred to each other by our last names. 

"February 27th 1992." I replied.

"Nope. Your birthday?"

"You don't know my birthday? It's May 19th 1993."

"That didn't work either. When'd you guys get married?"

"August 13th 2015, you were there."

"You expect me to remember that?" Sturdivant groaned in frusturation. "I can't get it."

"Let me." I replied, trying to gently push him out of the way.

"No offence DiNozzo, (Remember Leah has 3 last names. Her name is DiNozzo-Kreezy-Ravenger, so any of the three would be correct.) but I don't trust you around computers." I rolled my eyes, and pushed him out of the way.

"Jack has about 12 passwords he uses over and over. Question is, which one. Let's try..." I typed in March 14th 1991, Brock's birthday. Nope. "What about..." .- ..- --. ..- ... - / .---- ...-- / ..--- ----- .---- ..... Our wedding date in morse code. Nope. "Come on Jack, what's your password?"

"What would Jack chose as a password?" Farris asked, running a hand through his hair.

.--. . -. --. ..- .. -.

"I got it." I said, moving so Mark could control the computer again.

"What was it?"

"Penguin. In morse code."

"What the fu-"

"Don't ask." I replied. We got into the camera on Jack's computer. But it didn't show Jack like I had predicted it to. No, it showed the room. All of the students, and the guy who had broken in.

"Smart man you got there Leah." Casey observed, joining us.

"Now if only he could turn around." Mark said, a bit frusturated.

"Where did Turner and Parker go?" I asked, realizing that they were missing.

"They wet to go help outside, this library is tiny. Also, there's some guy here who wants to talk to you two. Some general or something. They're-"

"Right here boy." Someone from the other side of the library said, approaching.

"There." Casey and Mark went back to the computer, as Farris and I walked over to the general.

"What is it General...."

"Robber. General Robber." He shook both of our hands, and I pulled out of mine very quickly. I didn't much like the feel of his. "I need all of the information you have, all of the resources, and we'll take it from here."

"Excuse me, no. Who even are you?" I asked defiantly.

"General Robber from the Navy. My boy are in there." He explained. 

"Excuse me, no." I repeated before Thomas could say anything. "If we're getting personal, my husband is also in there, and my daughter is outside. And that man is a sailor from a Navy ship. He's a Navy personnel officer, which makes it our jurisdiction. "

"You're welcome to help us with the case, but we stay at the head." Thomas added.

We turned before he could reply. One thing I learned from Gibbs was to not let anyone kick you out of top spot. Especially when it came to a case.

"We figure out what he wants?" I asked as we reached Tambell and Sturdivant again.

"He wants his brother to be released from prison." Tambell replied.

"Who's his brother?"

"JJ Maxwell."

"Oh, so he's Oliver Maxwell?"

"Yeah." JJ Maxwell was the man who kidnapped Jacks parents and held them for randsome a year ago. We locked him up, but it unfortunately resulted in the loss of both my parent-in-laws.

I frowned. It had been 15 minutes and we hadn't made any headway. The only improvement we had gotten, was we hacked the mic on Jacks computer. "Call him again." Tambell asked, rubbing his eyebrow.

I picked up my phone, and called Jack again. 

"Who is it?" Oliver asks.

"My wife, Anna," Jack replies, recognizing the ringtone associated with my contact -Armor by Landon Austin. (Highly recommend btw)

"Pick up." We hear Oliver tell Jack gruffly. Jack's stood up by now, checking on his students. Jack walks off camera, and picks up the call. He made Jack put it on speaker.

"Hey what up Anna?" Jack asks casually. 

"Hey Bear," I replied. "I figured lunch was the best time to call you." Jack and I decided that we would call the other 'Bear' if the other was in danger, we knew, and were in a position to help.

"Well, you were right! What do you need?" Jack sounded bright, normal... cheery.

"I just wanted you to help me logic something out."

"Shoot!"

"Okay, so I'm trying out a scene for my book, and it's a weird scene where this man -Rylee who's secretly the bad guy but we don't know that yet- takes Ethan captive. How do we get him out is what I can't figure out."

"Well who else is there?"

"Ethan's little sister and his little twin brothers." I replied.

"Well, I would make getting the kids out the priority and not worry about Ethan."

"But what if Ethan has a girlfriend who's super worried about him, and wants him to be safe, while is also worried about the other kids in the room with him?"

"I dunno Anna. But kids take priority. Rule 2 remember."

"Unless absolutely necessary, never ever involve children." I replied, sighing. "Alright, thanks Jack. Remember we're going out for diner tomorrow night, we need to call the sitter for the kids."

"Yup. I can do that on my way home today."

"Sounds goo, I'll let you go back to your lunch now. Love you!"

"Love you too, bye."

"Bye bye!" And I hung up. I placed my phone down again, and strode out of the library.

"Where are you going?" Thomas asked, following close behind me.

"I'm done with this bs. I'm going in." I replied.

"How's it going in here?" (Natalia) Parker asked approaching. I threw my gun, my knife, and my gun re-fills at her, continuing to walk. She understood what I was going to do. "Be safe." She called after us. I waved in acknowledgement of what she had said.

I knocked 3 times on Jack's classroom door. "Who is it?" Oliver asked gruffly.

"My name is Lori DiNi," I replied. Taking my school name. "I'm here with Tommy Simon. We just want to come in and talk to you." Next to me, Thomas was silently taking all of his gear off. I pulled my worry dolls off from around the bun in my hair, stuffing them into my sock where they wouldn't find them if he patted me down. I also, took the hairbands out of my hair, letting it fall down to my midriff. Thomas put my hat on. We were trying to make ourselves look as little as possible as how we looked when we locked up his brother.

"You feds?"

I looked at Thomas, who shrugged. "N-Yes we are, but we're both unarmed."

A second of silence. "Okay, come in. But if you're armed, the teacher dies." Panic rippled through me, and I pushed open the door.

Thomas and I were shoved into the classroom, both of us slamming to our knees. We got up with a grunt, and were searched. We had nothing on us of course.

"Okay, what do you want?" Oliver asked, making the gun in his hand apparent. Thomas and I exchanged a glance, and I moved to the back of the classroom. Thomas started talking to Oliver, as I slowly, silently, opened the door to the bathroom built into the classroom.  At Gyner, and every elementary school that I know of, there's a bathroom in the classroom of all k-2nd grader classrooms. Have I said classroom enough? Well then... classroom. 

I started with the kids in the back, slowly, one by one, silently, getting them into the bathroom. A few of them were silently crying, holding one of their friends hands, or hugging each other. I love kid love for each other. It's absolutely the purest form of love to exist on this witch of an Earth.

Thomas had Oliver looking right at him. Oliver's back was to the rest of the classroom. Oh, bless you Farris. There were 2 kids left when Thomas mentioned my name. Judging by the name tags on their desk, it was 2 girls named Annya and Tatayanna. They were the 2 kids closest to Jack's desk. Jack hadn't moved from his position at his desk. From the footage we saw, whenever he tried, Oliver threatened to shoot one of the kids.

"My partner Leah and I-" Oliver spun around, and faced me. And the empty classroom I was standing in. I had closed the bathroom door, and instructed the kids inside to lock it when I heard my name. We would fine Annya and Tatyanna another place to hide.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" Oliver asked, making Annya and Tatyanna gasp, and clutch each other tighter.

"They're gone. You can't use them as bargaining chips." I replied, defiant. Oliver pulled out his gun, aiming it at me.

"Where. Are. They?" He asked again. I wasn't directly in front of the bathroom door anymore, instead, I was in front of the outside door.

Jack and I exchanged a look. Hide the last 2 kids. I signed quickly to him. "What was that?" Oliver asked.

"Nothing." I replied. "Just telling him that his tie's coming undone." Which wasn't a lie, the tie Jack was wearing was coming undone. But that's not what I told him. Convincingly, Jack started fixing up his tie. Oliver looked unconvinced, but turned back to me.

"Give me my brother back."

"No."

Oliver moved to pull the trigger on his gun, but Thomas jumped on him, knocking him over. Jack ushered Annya and Tatyanna under his desk, before joining them himself. Smart man. He knew I'd never forgive him if he started fighting with Thomas and I.

I ran at Oliver too, who had gotten up from the floor. I tried to tackle him, but he was a lot heavier than I was, so it was to no avail.

He pushed me into a desk, making my back arch over it. I groaned, standing up, pain rippling up and down my spine. Thomas hand one of Oliver's arms pinned, and I tried to grab the other one, but he fired his gun into the white board, making me take a step back.

This gave Oliver time to wrench his arm out of Thomas' grasp. Oliver swung his fist around, connecting it to the side of my head, causing me to fall over another desk. I stood up and shook my head, ignoring the black dots sparkling around the corners of my vision.

Thomas kicked Oliver's gun away, and tried to push him down, but Oliver got there first. Oliver pushed Thomas into me, making us tumble over a set of desks again. Thomas was the first to recover, but Oliver was already on top of me.

"I just wanted my brother back." He snarled at me, twisting my leg in two different directions, tearing... something. Probably my ACL. I 'stood' up, leaning on an over turned chair.

"You brother murdered 5 people." I replied, keeping the pain out of my voice. Oliver tried to charge at me, but Thomas had reached his gun.

"DON'T MOVE." He called.

"I took down your friend I can take down you." He taunted.

"You can't take down all of us." It was Sturdivant. Mark, and Natalia were in the doorway, guns raised, pointing them at Oliver. We arrested him, and Thomas wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me up.

"You okay?" He asked, breathing hard.

"F-F-Fine." I replied, leaning my weight into him. "The kids-" I realized, motioning to the bathroom. But Alexa and Casey were already taking care of them. "Are Annya and Tatyanna okay?"

"Yeah." I turned to look at Jacks desk again, and saw him, hugging Annya and Tatyanna on his knees. Thomas and I tried to walk a little bit, but I inhaled sharply, closing my eyes in pain.

"Stop, stop stop stop stop stop stop." I insisted, groaning, and holding Thomas tighter. "I can't walk. He did... something to me."

"Where?"

"My knee." I explained quickly. 

"Alright, let's get you out of here. Tabell, Turner, and Parker will take care of everything in here."

"Ravenger, you okay?" Turner asked, shifting her attention to me for a second.

"Wait, Ravenger?" Oliver asked from he was being held on the floor. "YOU BIT**! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LOCKED UP MY BROTHER! YOU LITTLE-" But Thomas started helping me out of the classroom, away from Oliver.

"Anna!" Jack caught up with Thomas and I half-way to the front door. "You okay? What happened? I heard gun shots, and grunts, and a lot of desks but I was with Annya and Tatyanna and I couldn't move, I had to protect them. Getting the kids in the bathroom was smart. What happened to your knee?" Jack picked me up bridal style, letting me wrap my arms around his neck.

"Thank you Thomas, where am I taking her?" Jack asked, calmer now.

"Ambulance. Just outside." Thomas replied. "You sure you got her?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I nuzzled my face into Jacks chest, trying to block out the pain rippling through my body. I had gotten shot before, but this still hurt. It hurt less sure. But the last time I got shot was almost 10 years ago, when I was 16.

No, I hadn't gotten shot, this was different. This... hurt, in a different way. More ache and burn than sting.

"MARK," I called back into the classroom.

"YEAH?"

"Take Laurel back to NCIS. Take care of her. Well come pick her up later. She knows you best so you shouldn't have any problem with cooperation."

I was taken to the emergency room, who sent us to the hospital. After about 2 hours of ACL surgery, I was conscious of what was going on around me again.

Jack was there. And so was Thomas. By husband, and my brother. "Jack, Thomas." I said grogily, raising my head off my pillows.

"Hey there Anna."

"Leah, no offence, but you look like literal shi-" I giggled.

"So, what happened to the kids?"

"They're all safe, with their parents. There would've been a lot of causalities if you hadn't been there Leah." Thomas explained, sitting on the foot of my bed.

"The guy tore your ACL so bad you had to get surgery. Crutches for 4 weeks, then you'll be fine to walk on it. But no running for 6 months." Jack finished.

"You do realize that I'm a fed and that that's not going to work right?" I asked.

"Well, too bad. The rest of your team, and all of mine are gonna be helping you whether you like it or not so, tough beans."

"Tough beans?"

"I said what I said, shut up." Jack chuckled, and I giggled.

That night... at home...

I groaned. I was already sick of crutches. They were big, bulky, and simply unnecessary. Jack and I had picked up Laurel, then gotten take out for dinner so neither of us had to cook after today.

We put Laurel to bed, or, Jack rather put her to bed, but I'm going to pretend it was a team effort.

After making it into our bedroom, I sat down on the bed, exhausted. "When are you going back in?" I asked Jack.

"Monday." He replied. It was currently Wednesday. 

'You have hydrogen and helium-' My phone started ringing. Abby was calling. I smiled, and picked up.

"Hey Abbs, what-"

"OH MY GOODNESS ELLIE ARE YOU OKAY!?!?! I WAS WA-"

"Okay, Abby, slow down. Softer. Start over. What?"

"I was watching the news of your city, and it says that Gyner elementary school was broken into? Isn't that where Jack works!? ISNT THAT WHERE LAUREL GOES TO SCHOOL?!?!?! Some guy came in with guns? And then NCIS showed up because the guy was a Navy personnel. Ellie, what happened?"

I told her everything. Every thing that happened. Our plans, the fight, getting the kids into the bathroom, my surgery, everything.

"Oh... Ellie.... are you okay?"

"Yeah Abby, I- I'm fine. Just, don't tell dad will you? I don't want him to worry." In my peripheral vision I could see Jack leaning on the doorway, looking at me.

"Okay. You probably need sleep huh?"

"Maybe? Sleep is for th-"

"The weak, I know. But Ellie, I worry about you you know. How's life in Vermont? Are you eating? Obviously you're not physically okay anymore."

"Other than my knee, I'm perfectly fine! Life up here's good. It's a lot colder which I like. Yes, I'm eating, Jack's making sure of it."

"He's really good for you huh?"

"Yeah. Yeah he is." I agreed, smiling up at Jack.

I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME SO LONG!!!!!! Next one won't take that long, promise. Again, sorry this was long over-due. I hope the word count makes up for it.

We're gonna see Ellie in middle school next! So that's exciting!

I hope you liked it.

Love you!

-Eliza

<3