prettybirdy979

I figured I might as well start posting things to this. So here is one of my stories.

Title: A Night to Forget 1/?
Rating: PG-13ish (some violence later on...)
Character(s): Tim, Tony, Ziva, Gibbs, Ducky and Abby (but mainly the first three)
Genre: Supernatural, Angst, Drama.
Summary: Tim, Ziva and Tony after a unusual occurrence find themselves struggling to escape a doomed ship in a night they may not survive.
Spoilers: Chimera (very slight spoilers)
Warnings: Not as yet... Maybe violence in later chapters?
Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Prologue

He jumped clear of the ship, attempting to keep his body straight. He expected a short jump, after all the ship was sinking. However the jump seemed to last forever, a continuous fall towards a dark, forbidding end.

Suddenly he plunged into the water, the cold knocking his breath away. Opening his eyes under all he saw was black. Unsure as to the direction of the surface, he picked at random, hoping his luck held out and he would chose the right way. Swimming upwards, his clothes dragging him down (or was it up? He couldn't tell), he began to wonder if he had chosen correctly.

Then his head broke the surface, precious air flooding his lungs. Blinking the water out of his eyes, he searched for the ship he had just left. He saw it, still looming over him a good fifty metres away, with its bow submerged beneath the surface. Noticing the items and people going overboard, he began to swim away. He knew that the ship would have little suction as it went down, but instinct was hard to ignore. Plus all the lifeboats had left, headed away from the ship. He wasn't that fast a swimmer but someone was going to come back for them. He just had to survive this for a few minutes.

Could he? A figure he had read somewhere entered his mind. A person could survive in the Atlantic waters he was in for as much as fifteen mintues. How long had he been in the water? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Fifteen? How much longer did he have?

A shiver ran though his body. Did he have hypothermia yet? No, not yet. He still knew it was cold. Wasn't a symptom of hypothermia not knowing if it was cold or not?

Cold. He kept using the word cold. Why wasn't he using any of the other words that meant cold? Like chilly, freezing, icy, frosty, bitter, frosty, chilly…Wait…didn't he already say that…?

A thought then occurred to his befuddled mind. Where was his team? The cold was making it hard to think. Ziva was… Ziva was… she was…somewhere. Somewhere safe, he thought. I remember her being safe…Or was it that she had been safe and now she was in danger. He knew someone had been hurt…Gibbs? No, Gibbs was okay…wasn't he? Oh the cold was making it hard to think.

Suddenly a large crash broke though the confusion of his thoughts. Realising where it came from, he turned back towards the ship. The bow was gone, and the stern was rising into the air. Like the Titanic, he thought, then frowned. That's not right… there's something wrong with comparing this ship to the Titanic. Why's that?

A second splash sounded though the night. Looking up, he couldn't see what had hit the water. But he did watch as the ship's stern rose fully into the air before gently sinking beneath the water's surface.

The screams began then.

Screams of the scared and the dying. Calls for lost loved ones, who haven't made it off. Cries for help, begging for the lifeboats to return. Begging for God to have mercy and sent help. Or death. The loudest voices of all were the ones who stopped crying, whose voices disappeared from the dim as their owners passed beyond reach.

He didn't cry out. He knew it was pointless. The only two people he wanted to call to could not hear him. One was probably safe while the other…the other was one of those beyond reach.

The cold was affecting him. He could feel it. His breath had been knocked out of him by the cold when he first entered the water. He had never regained it. He was beginning to feel himself blackout, the darkness overcoming his senses. He was so tired…

I must stay awake. He thought as he shook his head. If I go to sleep I'll never wake up. And that's something Gibbs will never forgive…especially since I didn't ask permission first.

Treading water he looked around. There were bodies floating in the water with him. The full horror of the disaster finally hit him. As a child's body floated pass he began to lose the little hope he had of being rescued. What chance did he have? Why should he keep fighting only to die later?

Even as he thought it, it became harder and harder to tread water. His swimming ability had never been great, much to his father's dismay but it was enough to keep him afloat…or it should have been. His clothes dragged him down once more he slipped beneath the surface.

He struggled for a moment, fighting to return to the surface when the child's body flashed before his eyes. As did the bodies of the hundreds who surrounded him, having already succumbed to the chilly waters of the Atlantic. He was about to give up and let the darkness take him, when the faces of his team appeared among the bodies.

Realising he was about to leave them, to force them back to the place they went when they lost a team…no a family member, he fought his way back to the surface. Drawing in a large breath as he broke though, he searched for a piece of debris he could rest on while he waited for the rescuers.

Finding a deck chair, he rested his weight on it. As he did, his watch caught his eye. The numbers 2:27 were flashing on the watch. The date also registers in his now frozen mind. My birthday. Ironic. I'm going to die on my birthday. And Abby had this huge surprise party planned as well…

He felt himself losing hope once more, as the silence became deafening. There were still cries, but fewer, as more and more joined the ranks of the dead. He glanced around, searching once more for the lifeboats he knew must return. Although he was still fighting to live he had no hope he would survive. His only reason to keep fighting was so when he met Kate in heaven, he could say he didn't give up.

He checked his watch again. 2:30. If they were coming, they would be here by now. Why aren't they here? Ziva said she would make them come. Ziva? Wait… does that mean she's okay? I hope so…

Confused, cold and losing hope, Timothy McGee closed his eyes, knowing that his fate had long since been placed in the hands of others.

Where are they?

Chapter One