"Christina?" The thirteen-year-old felt a hand against her shoulder and she opened her eyes to see Gibbs smiling down at her. She smiled back.

"Is it safe?" Gibbs chuckled.

"You bet. Come on, let's get you out of here."

Christina quickly scrambled to her feet, ignoring the unconscious gunman lying a few feet away, then looked around. "What about his gun?"

Gibbs nodded down the aisle. "I kicked it down that way. We'll let the police secure it." Christina nodded, then reached down a hand to help Gibbs up. He staggered and she immediately wrapped an arm around his uninjured side, letting him lean on her.

"You know, if you ever decide to retire from horseback riding, you would make a great actress," Gibbs remarked as the walked towards the door. Christina laughed.

"You were pretty convincing too. Almost had me convinced I was dying." Gibbs chuckled again and Christina bit her lip. "Seriously, Gibbs, you saved our lives in there. Thank you."

Gibbs looked over at her and smiled. "I'd say we both saved each other, so thank you, too," he replied.

She flushed, before acknowledging his words with a shy smile. "You're welcome."

Gibbs nodded at the door. "Better put your hand up," he said, pulling out his ID and holding it in the air. Christina nodded and did so, before unlocking and pushing open the door.

"Federal agent!" Gibbs called out. "Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, NCIS. The gunman's inside, unconscious and disarmed. Weapon's on the floor down the last aisle."

"Christina!" Before she could react to the shout she was being pulled into her mother's tight embrace. "Oh, thank God."

"Mom." The emotions of the past few hours began to hit and Christina felt her shoulders start to shake uncontrollably.

"Quick, quick, get her down!" One of the police officers and her mother helped her into a sitting position, leaning against the wall. "Can we get a medic over here please?"

"Easy, Chris." She was half aware of Gibbs' calm voice talking to her and the gentle hand he put on her other shoulder. Breathing had suddenly become very difficult and someone pushed her head forward between her knees. Voices swarmed around her, including Gibbs again, saying to someone, "She's not diabetic. That was something I'd told the gunman when I was trying to subdue him."

That made enough of an impression on Christina enough for her to look up. "Gibbs is...though...hurt," she managed to gasp out.

"Easy, don't try and talk," Ashleigh said softly as an EMT knelt in front of her.

"Christina, I'm just going to give you some oxygen, all right?" She nodded and a mask was slipped over her face. "Now I want you to try and take a deep breath and hold it in for a minute, okay? Now let it out. Good. Let's try that again."

She wasn't sure how much longer it was before her breathing finally slowed to something resembling normal and both the EMT and Ashleigh's faces relaxed into smiles. Christina pulled the mask from her face.

"Where's Gibbs?" Ashleigh nodded towards Christina's left.

Gibbs was semi-sitting on a gurney a few feet away. He too had an oxygen mask on as well as an IV drip in his arm, and his side had been freshly bandaged. Jilly was standing next to the gurney, one hand protectively on his shoulder and she looked like she was about to cry. Christina looked back at her mother in confusion. "They know each other?"

Ashleigh chuckled and reached to smooth back her daughter's hair. "Chris, that's Jethro Gibbs, Jilly's cousin's son. The one who was going to have supper with us tonight."

0

It was almost noon the next day when Christina pushed open the door of Gibbs' hospital room. Jilly had just slipped downstairs, promising to try and bring up some type of contraband for lunch.

"Christina, hi." Gibbs smiled and nodded towards the second chair next to the windowsill. "It's good to see you. Come on in."

Hesitantly, the 13-year-old sat down. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, fair-to-middlin'," he reassured her. He studied her face, trying to gage her state of mind. She was smiling, but there was still a level of tension in her eyes. "What about you? How are you doing?"

"Well, they stabled my insulin levels," she joked. Gibbs chuckled, then did his best to cover the wince of pain the action produced. Christina's face sobered. "Seriously, I'm all right. Thanks to you."

"I thought we went through that yesterday," he prodded gently. Christina nodded sheepishly. "Jilly just slipped downstairs to grab us something to eat, she'll be right back."

"I still can't believe that that was you who was supposed to be coming over for dinner," Christina told him.

Gibbs shrugged, grinning. "Yeah, well, I was pretty surprised too when you told me who your Mom was. I remember her and Jilly walking me around the racetracks and the farm around the time they were training Wonder."

Christina gasped. "You're kidding."

"Nope. In fact Jilly's got a photo your Mom took of Jilly and I sitting on Wonder's back. There's one of me with your Mom, too."

The young girl shook her head. "Wow."

A burst of laughter came from behind the curtain, as one of Gibbs' visitor's roommates told a joke. It seemed to startle Christina out of her memories and she looked up at him.

"Gibbs, yesterday..." He tilted his head and looked at her and she smiled slightly. "I know." She took a deep breath. "I would have fallen apart in there if it hadn't been for you. You...you kept me together. Thank you."

Gibbs just stared at her, not sure what to say. His mind flashed back to seeing Christina's eyes as the gunman held his weapon against her temple, fired off the shots, asked him if they were going to really make it out. He'd felt so helpless, unable to do anything but sit there and try and keep her mind off the situation. And yet somehow, it had been—if not enough—something that had made a difference.

"You're welcome," he answered quietly. He could see her eyes beginning to glisten with tears, and he smiled. "Come here."

She stood up and approached and Gibbs put his arm around her in a gentle hug, his own eyes stinging with tears. He'd been right in the convenience store. She really was something else.

There was another laugh from the other side of the curtain. "You said he was wearing what?"

THE END