fic_variations | NCIS: Dark Days (Round 13, Tony/Hannah) (Reply)

Title: Dark Days
Author: Sara (

callmedirk)
Rating: PG
fic_variations Prompt/Claim: Dark/Light-Tony DiNozzo/Hannah Chandler
Spoilers: NCIS: "Twilight" and possibly "Kill Ari: Pt 1 and 2".
Warnings: References character death.
Author's Notes: Part of my own Reasons Why 'verse. Hannah Chandler is my own creation.

She was startled out of bed at two in the morning by a knock at the door. Rubbing a hand over her face, she stumbled sleepily down the hall and peeked through the peephole. She saw the NCIS hat and she frowned. Hannah pulled the door open.

"Tony? Why didn't you just use your key?" she asked, letting him in. "You know you're welc--"

She stopped when she saw his pale face.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

He turned haunted eyes to stare at her.

"You—you don't know?" his voice was odd.

"Know what?"

"You haven’t turned on the news at all in the past few hours?" Tony asked.

"Hon, I just got in a couple of hours ago. I was at that conference in LA, remember? I crashed hard when I got home," Hannah said. "I know you knew I was gone—we talked yesterday morning about layovers in airports,"

Tony swallowed. His heart had dropped into his stomach.

"Hannah—Kate—Kate was killed this afternoon," he said, stumbling slightly over his words. "R—right in front of me and Gibbs. Sniper—Ari,"

She turned to stare at him, her gray eyes startled. She wordlessly held her arms out and Tony stepped into the embrace, his head falling to her shoulder. Hannah stroked his hair with a hand; still saying nothing, knowing that saying 'I'm sorry' would be useless.

Tony broke the silence first, pulling out of her arms and sighing.

"She was fine," he said. "She'd just taken a bullet into her vest and we'd gotten her up and she was fine. And then we heard this little whoosh of air and the next thing we knew, she was lying on the ground, a bullet hole in her head. And knowing that we couldn't save her made it worse."

"You didn't know," Hannah's voice was quiet.

"But we should have!" Tony's voice rose. Anger crept into his eyes. "We should have anticipated, we should have done more to capture the bastard, and we should have—"

"Tony, stop it," she said, gripping his arm. "You can't do this. You can't focus on the old what ifs in the past. You all need to re-focus on getting Ari. You've got to do it for Kate. But you can't do it angry, or there's going to be some very dark days ahead."

His hand covered hers and he swallowed.

"I know, Han," he said. "We know. We will find him—for Kate."

She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock.

What time do you have to be back?" she asked.

"Gibbs ordered us not to come back until 0800," he replied.

"Good," Hannah said. "Go shower and change. You need to sleep before you keel over and I can't take that, you know."

She gave him a nudge and he started walking toward the bathroom, peeling his jacket off along the way. She took it from him and hung it on a doorknob. Hannah climbed back into bed and burrowed under the covers. Twenty minutes later, she felt the bed dip slightly and she turned over. Tony lay next her, staring at the ceiling. She slipped her arm around his waist and tucked her head on his chest.

"This is going to be hard, isn't it?" he asked quietly.

"'Fraid so, hon," Hannah replied. "But if you just let it be hard, we'll get through it,"

He said nothing for a moment, just holding her close. Then he sighed. The sound of thunder filled the room and they saw the flash of lightning creeping through the blinds.

I know, Kate, he thought. We'll get him. I promise. Just show us the light, okay? We'll follow it.

The lightning suddenly stopped and Tony smiled as the room went dark again.