Rule 39: There Is No Such Thing As Coincidence (Tony DiNozzo Love Story)

It's What You Become

Erin's POV

After Gibbs left, I paced my room. Unable to get his words out of my head. You could have gotten him and I wouldn't have lost a great agent.

I shake my head trying to shake his words but they just kept coming back around, despite Dr. Payne's words. I knew I was going to be held to blame for her death.

"Stop it. Stop doing this to yourself," I say as I continue to pace. My phone vibrates from my nightstand and I reach for it. Only to see a text from Tony.

Gibbs just got here, hope you're okay. We're going to get them. I promise.

I reply back to him, What have I told you about making promises you can't keep?

He replies once more, I will keep it, we're already making some leads.

I stare at his words and shake my head. Whatever they are finding is what is only being left to find. We led regular lives sure, but what we did was anything but regular. Any real proof of who we are as Ghosts will never be found. We don't exist as real people. The lives we live outside the Ghosts is just a figment of illusion. Nile said it himself as we landed into Cuba.

"You know, once you join the Ghosts that's what you become. A ghost, your true self is dead and you become something else. We can try but just as a ghost haunts a house or a place, all that can be done or seen are small things. Sometimes little residual flashes of our old selves, sometimes quick experiences. Once you're a Ghost, you're only real to those that believe someone is after them. To others you're not real and you never will be. I have a family, but they don't know me. They don't know the things I've done and they won't ever. Some of those things will haunt me until I'm dead. I'm sure of it, but some of them, they never phased me."

"Same goes for me," Michael says as he comes out of the cockpit.

"I think we've all done things that will stay with us, good and bad," I say. They nod.

"So, we ready to kill Santa Claus?" Nile says and I nod.

"Let's hit it."

The memory picking at my brain, I decide the only thing that will make any of this better will be a long hot shower.

Walking back towards my room in my robe I rub a towel over the ends of my hair to catch the additional water drops that I didn't fully dry out. About two steps away from my bedroom, I hear it. The back door click and the squeak of the floor just a half step from the door. Then a shuffle of fabric and low steps across the floor of the kitchen. My fight response immediately turns on and I take the two steps towards my room and over to my gun on my dresser. I reach for my phone on the bed and get myself in a corner that would be a blind spot for whoever it is that's in the house. Dialing for Gibbs it rings and I try to steady my breathing as I hear the steps moving towards the stairs.

"Hello?" Gibbs' voice shoots through the phone and I close my eyes briefly in thanks that he answered.

"Gibbs, there's someone in the house," I say quietly, the steps moving up the stairs. The creak on the fifth step echoing down the hall towards me.

"What?" He asks and I can hear him moving quickly. "Where are you?"

"I'm in my room, in the corner. Gibbs they're coming," I say, steps moving closer down the hall.

There's a lot of rustling and quick breathing on the line and I take a slow inhale as the steps stop outside my door. The edge of a barrel of a gun peaks past the doorframe and I exhale as they step forward and I recognize them.

"You."

They turn to look at me and without hesitation I fire twice, both hitting center. They fall back and I wait for the next person to come barreling around the corner. Second person comes rushing in and I aim higher, shooting them in the head. They fall and I stare at the two dead bodies on the floor, my breath slow and I just stand there staring at them. In the distance I can hear sirens but I can't take my eyes off the two people laying on the floor.