What's Going to Happen: NCIS

Chapter 52

Melissa's POV:

When I wake up, everything around me doesn't look familiar at all. My eyes are puffy, so I can't see everything clearly. I immediately panic and try to catch my breath that I didn't know I lost. I stumble out of the bed and catch myself. I made a loud noise with my feet that I freeze. Nothing around me looks familiar. As I start running, I realize I have socks on my feet and fall almost face first on the floor.

I hear footsteps running my way and I don't know what to do, but to scoot back onto the wall.

I keep my eyes on the door and I can't breathe. I don't think I could since I woke up.

Tony stumbles into the room and I couldn't be happier. "Melissa." He crouches down next to me and puts his hands on my shoulders. It reminds me of last night, the only thing I actually remember from then. "Melissa, it's just me."

I can feel like I can breathe again. I throw my arms around him and he holds me. "I'm sorry. I forgot with your past that waking up somewhere you don't know could scare you."

I catch my breath and let him go. "It's okay. I don't remember much of last night."

He helps me up and we walk into a living room. It's a beautiful apartment that is organized from top to bottom. He matches everything with white. Everything is so clean here. I don't know why I would expect anything else from him.

"So, this is your place?" I'm hoping.

"Yup. I made coffee." He heads to his kitchen which looks even more beautiful than the living room.

I look around some more and notice his couch is pulled out to a bed.

"Did you sleep here?" What is he, Gibbs number two?

I take a seat. I look down and notice I'm wearing boxers and a white T-shirt.

"Yeah. I wasn't going to have you sleep on the couch."

"Or my clothes?"

He comes over with the coffee and takes a seat next to me. "You really don't remember last night?"

I shake my head. We couldn't have done anything. I move around enough to know I still have my thong and bra on.

"You had a panic attack in the elevator at work."

"That's all I remember."

"Makes sense because before we even got to the ground floor, you were out cold."

I slept through that? I slept through everything that went on after? Damn.

"Do you ever get any sleep? Carrying you was no problem, but I could never sleep through all that."

I shrug. "Not lately." I tell him the truth. I've spent most of my nights crying myself to sleep that I never really notice the time I would actually fall asleep. Most recent nights I was thinking a murderer was cute and trying to justify it, but Tim would creep into my mind.

He doesn't say anything. He examines my face and I sip my coffee to see if that will block his eyes.

He looks down at his clothes that I'm wearing. "I'm sorry about your clothes. I couldn't have you sleep in jeans."

"Thanks." Oh, I knew it. I knew nothing could have happened. He was just being the gentleman I know he is.

"I didn't mean to cross any lines with you."

I hesitate. "Well, it was never my plan for you to see me like that, but I appreciate it after everything that's been going on."

He leans back. "If you don't mind me asking, what did happen last night?"

I don't want to relive all the ways I stepped out of line yesterday, but if I'm going to tell anyone it might as well be Tony. "I tried to forget someone and everything, and I used Pat to do it."

He's quiet but I know what he's thinking. "I didn't sleep with him, Tony."

He nearly chokes on his coffee. "No, no I wasn't thinking that."

"Mmhmm."

He clears his throat and the red rushes from his face. "Was it the new job that was making you crazy?"

He makes me laugh. "It wasn't just that and I wouldn't say anything made me crazy."

He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs. "Was it us?"

It wasn't. He knows almost everything besides the biggest part. The most important piece of the puzzle.

I ignore his question. "Do you know that Gibbs just came into my office that day and told me to come with him?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The day he brought me with you guys to go to Pat's. He just told me I was going. I never got to talk to him about the whole college thing."

He chuckles. "Melissa, I'm sorry, but if he didn't want to talk about it in the first place, then he definitely doesn't want to talk about it now."

It's almost as if I was drunk last night because I have a headache coming on. Gibbs hasn't wanted to talk about a lot of things, but I always made him. Well, I know I could never make him do anything, but he talks to me and I talk to him. We should be able to talk about this.

"Melissa." He takes me out of my memories. "If it wasn't us or the new job, I have to know what it was. I can't have another night like last, it was too scary even for me."

I can feel myself holding my breath.

"I was really worried about you. You made no sense. You weren't breathing until you were asleep. The tears were everywhere. I can't remember the last time I was so scared." He still sounds scared. I look at his eyes and he doesn't only look tired. He looks like he could cry. Is it because of me?

I remember back when I started, I told him I would never lie to him. Is keeping a secret a lie? If so, I've lied to all of them twice, but to Tim once. Thinking about it now, my secrets are the problem and the factor of not letting anyone move on. If Tony has been affected by them like this, then who knows what will happen if I keep carrying them on.

I don't think. I let my emotions take over me the past few days, and now is the time to end it. I need to get it all out there if anything around here is going to be fixed.

"I've been seeing Tim for a year."