Sunlight

A/N: For starters, this is completely AU because well… Kate's not dead. It's a rewrite of the end of that-episode-which-no-longer-exists-in-my-mind ;) (Yes, Twilight…) And then some. I'm going to completely ignore season 3, Ziva, and all that. No offence to Ziva… I haven't seen a single episode with her in so I can't judge her. Anyway, this is my idea of keeping Tate alive, has probably been done before, but I don't care. Please let me know what you think, it's my first NCIS fic and I'm struggling with some of the characters (okay only 3 appear in this chapter… just let me know if they're in character or not).

Disclaimers: Don't own anything NCIS related… honest.

-

"I thought I'd die before I ever got a…"

But before Kate could finish, Tony was shoving her to the ground, gunshots echoing through her ears again. Startled, she looked around, only to see him lying on the floor, completely lifeless looking. She quickly scrambled onto her hands and knees, and, followed by Gibbs, crawled over to him. They knelt one either side of DiNozzo, Kate grabbing his hand without a second thought, Gibbs trying to see where the bullet had hit, if it had of course. From the amount of blood surrounding his left side, it was pretty safe to say it had. Tears of panic were already building up in Kate's eyes as Gibbs rolled Tony onto his side. The bullet had gone through his shoulder.

"Damnit DiNozzo, I told you to wear a vest!" Gibbs muttered, quickly ripping open the other man's shirt.

Looking around, Kate realized they were hidden behind the opening on the roof, which was why the shooter had stopped. Her breathing slowed slightly, "Gibbs, the moment we move, we get shot," The thought that a couple seconds earlier it would have been her lying there had crossed her mind, but she pushed it away.

Tony was taller than her. If that had been her, the bullet wouldn't have hit as low as her shoulder. She'd be dead.

"Stay still," Gibbs invaded into her thoughts, "Stay under cover with DiNozzo,"

Nodding, Kate tightened her grip on Tony's hand and took a deep breath. He was conscious now, the shock probably making him pass out earlier even though according to him 'DiNozzos don't pass out'. Now, he was muttering nonsense through clenched teeth, sweat dripping down his face. She stopped herself from looking at the blood, knowing it was somehow different when the person bleeding wasn't just anybody. And Tony definitely wasn't just 'anybody'.

Gunshots forced her to tilt her head in Gibbs' direction. From what she could see, he'd spotted the shooter and they were frantically firing at one another. Kate did as she was told and ducked down next to Tony so she wasn't in the line of fire. This did, however, mean lying flat on her stomach next to Tony's bleeding body. If he could, he'd make a rude remark right now she thought, realizing she actually wished he would.

-

Ari Haswari was dead. The FBI had tried to tell Gibbs it wasn't him that shot DiNozzo but ballistics had proved them wrong. 'He wasn't one of the good guys after all', that's what they'd said, that was their apology, Kate thought bitterly. She was sat at Tony's bedside, watching him sleep, listening to him breathe. The doctors said he was lucky to be alive, if the bullet had strayed just a little further to the right, it would have hit an artery and he'd almost certainly have died as they'd been stuck on that rooftop so long. The words still played on Kate's mind, even though she tried to block them out.

"Kate?"

Dropping his hand, she looked up at him, tears in her eyes, "Hey,"

"Ha, Probie was right, you do care about me," He said with a slight smirk.

Grinning, she nodded, "Yeah well in my defence, McGee was crying more than I was," Kate paused, "Thank you Tony,"

"Thank you?"

He gave her a questioning look, trying to ignore the pain his shoulder but giving up and leaning over to the switch that let him up your morphine. The whole time he could feel Kate's eyes on him. Once he was finally facing her again, she spoke, her voice shaking slightly and her eyes filled with fear. Tony wanted to lean over and hug her, but it wasn't a very 'Tony thing to do' and there was also the fact that he could barely move.

"You saved my life Tony. If it weren't for you, I'd be lying on Ducky's table right now," She murmured, "Ari was aiming for me… for my head,"

Shaking his head, Tony gently touched her arm, "Hey, don't think about it like that,"

"Gibbs is pissed off," She said with a small laugh.

"Oh really?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her, "When isn't he?"

Smiling, she nodded, "Good point. But seriously, you should have been wearing your vest,"

"Well sorry, Mom,"

"Better believe it DiNozzo; you're staying with me,"

"Excuse me!" Tony exclaimed, suddenly sounding like his old self again.

Brushing the tears from her eyes, Kate gave him a smug look that he'd seen many times before, although truthfully, she was worried as hell. This was precisely why she wanted him to stay with her, in case he did anything stupid shut up in his apartment all alone. It made people go crazy, hell it had probably almost sent him crazy all that time in there with the plague. She'd been worried then too, though she'd never admit to it.

"You're coming to stay in my apartment,"

Tony raised an eyebrow but didn't say a word, allowing Kate to continue.

"It's better than having you all alone at your place," She said quietly.

"Yeah, I get to be all alone in your place instead. Great!" He said sarcastically, although he didn't look quite as annoyed as he was pretending to be.

Crossing her arms across her, Kate shrugged, "This isn't a discussion Tony,"

"Fine, but if I get bored and start going through your underwear draw… let's just say you've been warned,"

END OF PART ONE… to be continued