Together

Being fine

Washington DC
Washington General
5:49 am, the next day


Vance, Gibbs, Jack and McGee are in the room with Ellie and Nick. Jack is sitting between Ellie and Nick, holding Ellie's right hand while Gibbs, McGee and Vance are standing. Nick awakes and realizes he is in the hospital. He looks around and sees that McGee, Gibbs, Jack and Vance are with him in the room. He sees another bed in the room, and on closer inspection he sees that Ellie is lying in it. Only now does he notice the bandage around his head, the cast on his right hand, more precisely on his right thumb and right index and middle finger, the bandage on his right forearm, and the bandage around his chest. Vance notices that Nick has woken up and leaves the room to get a doctor. McGee and Gibbs sit on Nick's right side. "How are you doing, Nick?", asks Gibbs. Nick shrugs. Vance comes back with a doctor to examine Nick first. "When do I get out?", Nick wants to know. "Agent Torres, you have a concussion, multiple cracked ribs and three broken fingers. You will be released in three days at the earliest", the doctor replies and leaves the room. "Agent Torres, what exactly happened? Before we had to save you?", asks Vance. Nick tells: "We made breads for the children, as we do every day. While we waited for the breads to be ready, we talked. About very normal topics. Suddenly, one of Kent's trusted friends came up to us and called us by our normal first names. We ignored him. Then he tried our real last names. We kept ignoring him until he called us by our undercover names. That's when we reacted. We followed him into Kent's office. Kent asked us two questions. The first was whether we were Eleanor and Nicholas. And the second was whether we met at work. Every time we said the opposite of what he asked us, he punched us in the face. When he realized it doesn't change anything in our answers, he took our cell phones and guns and locked us in his office. He came back with ropes and duct tape and tied us to the chairs; Ellie first. She fought back and when he tried to tie her legs, she kicked him in the face. In response, he kicked her against both shinbones. And he warned me that if I resisted, he would punish us both. After that, every time we didn't answer or didn't answer satisfactorily, he broke a finger of each of us. He threatened to break all of our fingers if we continued not to answer him, but one of his men convinced him that we would still be silent. He knocked me out with his baseball bat. I woke up in the basement when Kent's men were supposed to tie us up. We struggled, and they knocked me out. Pretty soon after, Kent dumped a bucket of ice-cold water in my face to wake me up. He tased Ellie in the right arm. It knocked her out, and he called her weak. He hit the two of us again, and then he got his baseball bat. He hit Ellie at her chest with it. And then he kicked me in the chest, and I passed out. Later I woke up tied up in the room where you found us. Ellie was still unconscious." Gibbs was taking notes. "Did you save all the children?", Nick asks. "Yes. They're here at the hospital, too. And since some of Kent's people wanted a deal, we also arrested all the buyers", McGee replies. Gibbs, Jack, Vance and McGee leave the room with the promise to come back later.

An hour later: Nick lies in the hospital bed, looks at Ellie and thinks. "What if we hadn't gone undercover. Would we be in bed at one of us right now? Would I get up and make pancakes or waffles? Or a burrito? Would I even have told her? Or dared to even bring it up in anyway? She didn't even hear me. She was unconscious. Will I ever have the courage to tell her again?" Nick could've probably gone on thinking about it for hours, but Ellie woke up. "I'm hungry", she says and looks around. "Nick? Where am I?", she then asks. Nick smiles. Then he replies: "At Washington General. It's good to see you awake again." Nick beckons a passing doctor in to give Ellie a quick checkup. "What happened?", Ellie asks Nick confused. "We were undercover and Kent figured out our real identities. In short, we've been blown", replies Nick. Ellie thinks and contradicts Nick: "No, we're not." "Yes, we are. And then he tortured us", replies Nick. Ellie shakes her head and wants to get up, but the doctor holds her back. "Agent Bishop, you stay down!" "But I need to talk to Gibbs right away!", shouts Ellie. Agent Bishop, you stay down!" Ellie wants to disagree, but Nick gets there first. "Do you know if Special Agent Gibbs is still here?", Nick asks the doctor.  The doctor asks a colleague and replies to Nick: "You're lucky. A colleague goes to get him. So he will be here in about five minutes." "Ellie, can you wait five more minutes?", Nick asks. Ellie sighs, then she replies: "But only because I'm not allowed to get up. When can I go?" "In five days at the earliest. Your shoulder was dislocated and needs to be examined more often. You also have a broken arm, three broken fingers and several cracked ribs", the doctor replies.  Five minutes later Gibbs, Jack, McGee, and Vance come to Ellie's and Nick's room. "Bishop, you're awake", says McGee as Jack goes to Ellie and she hugs Ellie. Ellie flinches and moans. "Excuse me, Ellie. Was it the shoulder or was it the ribs?", Jack apologizes. "Both, I guess", replies Ellie. "Ellie, what were you going to tell Gibbs?", asks Nick. "We are not blown!", says Ellie. "Yes, you are. We had to save you. But we were able to arrest the entire Kent child trafficking ring for this", McGee contradicts. "Kent's got a girlfriend. Her name is Kim and she works at NCIS. She's how he knew our identities", says Ellie. "But why didn't you get blown earlier?", asks Vance. McGee realizes something: "Probably because this Kim has been in the hospital for the past two weeks." "Agent McGee, do you mean Kim Roberts?", asks Vance. "Yes. She hasn't been at work for the last two weeks. Then she asks us what we're doing and why we're chasing a child trafficker. And that same night, Kent tortures Bishop and Torres. That can't be a coincidence, especially since there is rule 39", McGee explains his theory. "Let's go. Let's arrest this Kim Roberts", says Gibbs, and they want to leave the room. But now Kasie, Jimmy and Ducky are coming in. Jimmy goes straight to Ellie and hugs her. Ellie winces and moans. "Sorry, Ellie. Was it the shoulder or was it the ribs?", Jimmy apologizes. "Both, I guess", replies Ellie and laughs. "Ouch", she says. Nick and Jack grin. "Dr. Mallard, Dr. Palmer, Miss Hines, I told you to sleep in. Agent Bishop and Agent Torres will be at the hospital a little longer. So what are you doing here?", asks Vance. "We wanted to make sure Ellie and Nick are okay", replies Kasie. "Bishop, Torres, we'll come back later. We'll arrest Kim Roberts first", says Gibbs and McGee, Jack, Vance and he leave the room. "Kim Roberts who? I thought the case was closed", Kasie asks in surprise. "She is Kent's girlfriend and betrayed us to him", replies Nick. "I'm glad Kent didn't hurt you any worse. Nicholas, Eleanor, how are you doing?", asks Ducky. "I'm fine", replies Ellie and is looked at skeptically. Nick notices the looks. "I agree with her. Her first words after waking up were "I'm hungry", he says. Everyone laughs.