Wrapped in a Blanket
by channelD
written: as an NFA Haiti Relief auction ficlet than ran a little over.
rating: K plus
characters: the team
genre: drama
prompt: baby, pink
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disclaimer: I still own nothing of NCIS.
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On this mid-February afternoon, the MCRT truck unexpectedly slid in the deep snow, and then skidded off the road. After this heart-thumping moment, Gibbs, the driver, silently cursed whoever had started dubbing the 2010 series of storms Snowmageddon (they were now up to Snowmageddon 3) and snapped out an order. "DiNozzo! Go make sure the tail pipe isn't blocked."
Tony obediently jumped out, and carefully cleaned the small amount of snow out of the tail pipe. Travelling in this storm was hairy enough without worrying about carbon monoxide building up. They were in deep in forestland in Virginia, and the going was extremely slow. If they could get back to NCIS, all would be well…but they might have to stop at the first motel and just wait for the snow to stop and the roads to be cleared. In the last two hours, they'd probably gone no further than ten miles.
When Tony had gotten out, Ziva had as well, desiring a stretch despite the blowing snow. Visibility was low in the storm. They might as well be the only ones on the highway. She listened, half-enjoying the sound of the soft whoosh of the flying snow on the wind; something she had not grown up with. Turning, she frowned. "Tony, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"I thought I heard…there it is again!" She bounded off the shoulder and into the gloom, down a small embankment.
"Ziva! Ziva!!" Tony ran to the edge of the embankment, straining to see. Gibbs and Tim piled out of the truck and joined him.
"There is a car down here!" Ziva called back up. "It must have gone off the road. I can hear a baby crying, I am positive of that!"
The others got ropes out of the back of the truck. After tying one end to the truck's rear bumper, they went slowly down the embankment, following Ziva's voice. A white sedan was soon visible.
Ziva wanted to shout back her progress, or the lack of it, but words stuck in her throat. A baby! Who knew what state any of the passengers would be in. But before she could think twice, the others were at her side. "Do you see anyone?" Gibbs asked, pulling a flashlight from his pocket.
"No," said Ziva, feeling courage start to leave her. "But—" She shined her own light in the car. And then she saw something. Something pink. And wiggling. "There is a baby in a car seat!"
Tim shone his own flashlight through the windshield. "Where's the driver of the car? Who would leave a baby here?"
"Snow's falling fast," said Tony. "It's covered tracks…just like it's covered the tire tracks of the car going off the road."
"Start looking, anyway," Gibbs ordered. "See what you can find. McGee—go back up to the road and see if you can find a mile marker so we can call this in. Don't go so far that you can't see the truck, you hear me?"
"Got it, boss," Tim said, with a gulp. He knew the dangers of getting disoriented and lost in a snowstorm. Climbing back up the embankment, he started walking back along the shoulder, every few feet looking back to make sure that he could still see the truck. It started to recede into the fading light.
The sedan's door opened easily, and the baby, who wore a small red hat, was soon in Ziva's arms, still wrapped in its pink blanket. "And what is your name, little one?" Ziva cooed. "Something pretty, like 'Rose' or 'Daisy'? Or perhaps something trendy, like 'Isabella or 'Olivia', hmmm?"
Gibbs nodded with satisfaction on seeing Ziva tuck the baby, who looked to be only a few months old, inside her own coat. That would keep it as warm as could be expected, for the time being. He snapped open his cell phone. "McGee! Got a number for me yet?"
"Yeah, boss. I was just going to call you. 184.3 is the number. I'm heading back for the truck now."
"Boss! Over here!" Tony called.
They followed his voice. He was about a hundred yards away, crouching beside the snow-covered body of a young woman. "She's alive, I think," he said, as Gibbs called on his phone.
"She must have tried to go for help," said Ziva. "Leaving the baby in the car was probably the hardest decision she ever had to make."
"Medevac helicopter will be here within an hour," Gibbs announced, putting away the phone again. "She doesn't look injured; just a victim of the cold. Let's get her up into the truck in the meantime."
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They all sat in the truck, the heater going. Tony and Tim watched over the young mother in the rear of the truck, having wrapped her core in thermal blankets. She had not yet regained consciousness.
In the front seat, Ziva rocked the baby, enjoying the feel of it in her arms. "If you were mine, I would call you 'Chamanit'. It means 'sunflower'. Because you are like a sweet little flower…"
"Hell of a name to give a boy," Gibbs grunted.
"Well, of course I would not call a son of mine that, but…what are you saying, Gibbs?"
"That baby's a boy. Not a girl."
In surprise, Ziva held the infant out at arm's length. It liked this new game, and wiggled and burbled in appreciation. "But it…the blanket…"
"Maybe the mother has another child at home. Maybe she grabbed the wrong blanket this morning. A father can always tell. That's a boy."
Tony heard the conversation. " 'A Boy Named Sue', boss? Like the old Johnny Cash song?" He strummed an air guitar. "My daddy left home when I was three / And he didn't leave much to ma and me / Just this old guitar and—"
"Can it, DiNozzo. That's no lullaby." Gibbs glared at him, and then, hearing a sound, peered out his window. He flashed the van's headlights several times as a helicopter touched down ahead on the road.
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"We'll take the baby, too. The little guy should be checked out at the hospital as well, and any other family can pick him up there," said the helicopter's medic. Reluctant to let her charge go, Ziva nonetheless deposited the slumbering babe in the man's arms.
"I do not understand," she said. "The baby is only a few months old, and bundled up. How can you be sure that it is a boy? The pink blanket—"
"A father can always tell, ma'am. I've got two boys and two girls at home."
Ziva shook her head, watching the helicopter lift off and speed away.
"Maybe," Tim said, "it has to do with the fact that the back of the kid's hat had the words 'baby boy' on it?"
"McGee!" Tony scolded, and head slapped him. "Don't give away all of our manly secrets!"
-END-