Disclaimer: I ... DIDN'T BREATH LIFE INTO ZEUS. (You were really expecting me to say something about NCIS, weren't you?)

Spoilers: Major 10x16 "Detour" and basically Jimmy and Breena.

I'm not used to writing this pairing (which Anne has affectionately nicknamed 'Jeena,' hmm) and I'm certainly not used to writing Breena, so please forgive me if anything seems out of character. When writing, I usually try to capture the characters' dynamics with one another, but I had practically nothing to run with when it came to Breena and I personally think everything turned out a little weird, but I hope you enjoy regardless.

-Soph

Await

She paced back and forth in front of the telephone, watching the candles across the room flicker and burn low on the dining table.

They were dying, and Jimmy was going to be dead as soon as she got her hands on him because it was their nine-month wedding anniversary and he had promised to be home in time to celebrate—but he was not. Despite being used to having to cancel plans because of last-minute cases, Breena still found it off-putting that he hadn't called: Jimmy always called, even when he was busy, and his not calling (or answering his cell phone, for that matter) signified things she didn't want to think about.

She sighed and flattened down the waist of her aquamarine-coloured satin dress with damp palms, debating whether the weight in her stomach was because of anxiety or something else altogether. We should do something together, he'd said before he kissed her and left that morning in a hurry, and yet she had no idea where he was right now.

Heaving another sigh, she turned towards the phone and reached out a hand. Just then, it rung, and she jumped about a foot into the air. Swearing as she tried to calm herself, she picked up the receiver.

"You better have a good reason for not being here, darling," she barked into the phone, and the pregnant pause on the other end of the line alerted her as to the fact that it most definitely wasn't Jimmy.

"Uh … Breena?" the voice asked eventually, and Breena's own voice wavered as she gave the affirmative. "It's Ziva. You know, Jimmy's colleague from NCIS."

"Ziva, yeah. I remember." Breena's sense of dread increased, nearly suffocating her. "Something's happened to Jimmy, hasn't it?"

"Umm … why do you say that?"

"You wouldn't have called our home otherwise, and Jimmy does work a dangerous job, and—please tell me," she begged, and she thought she could hear Ziva swallow over the line.

"I wouldn't usually want to be the one telling you this," the woman began, "but everyone is … a little busy to call, and I thought you might still want to know: We aren't very sure where Jimmy is at the moment. He was taken along with Ducky early this afternoon, and we're working very hard on finding them, but—"

"'Taken'?" Breena interrupted, her voice trembling.

"Um…" Ziva sighed. "Yes. Taken by-… taken hostage."

Breena ignored the hasty correction. "Taken where?"

"Well…" Ziva seemed confused. "We're trying to find that out."

"No." A sob caught in Breena's throat. "I meant, how could he have been taken? Where was he?"

"On the way back to the headquarters from a crime scene," Ziva answered gently.

Breena rubbed a hand underneath her nose. "But didn't you try to stop them from taking him?"

"We weren't there at the time, but we've been trying to find him and Ducky ever since then," Ziva explained, sounding flustered.

A sob managed to slip past Breena's lips, and she leant heavily against the polished wooden end table, trying to collect her thoughts yet failing spectacularly. As she sank ungracefully down to the floor, she heard Ziva's voice inquiring if she wanted to go down to the Navy Yard.

"I'll be there in fifteen," she promised brokenly, but it was ten minutes before she could even pull herself together enough to get into her car.

xoxo

She'd barely stepped into the lobby of the headquarters before Agent Dorneget—the agent who'd been sent to escort her—told her the team was out following a lead. With the vague feeling that Dorneget had been frightened by the team into waiting in the lobby for her arrival, she followed him down to Abby's lab.

"They're looking for Jimmy, right?" she asked, and Dorneget muttered a vague I don't know, ma'am before depositing her (with what seemed like great relief) in the arms of the warm-hearted, black-haired Goth.

"Breena!" Abby cried. "I'm so sorry—well, I mean, I'm not sorry, that's the wrong phrase, but I'm worried about Jimmy too and would you like Bert?"

"Uh…" Breena took a moment to catch up with Abby's train of thought. "Um, who's Bert?"

"Oh, my hippo." The furry soft toy was promptly dropped into her arms. "Squeeze him—he farts."

Breena stared at the pig-tailed woman before her.

"No, I'm serious!" Abby insisted. "He does! But I guess you're not interested in that kinda thing right now. Um, how 'bout we look at some DNA instead?"

"I think I would just like to … wait, until they find Jimmy," Breena answered haltingly, and Abby appeared to bite her lip.

"They'll find him, you know," the Goth assured her.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Breena asked, and the woman before her had no answer.

xoxo

The shrill ringing of a telephone broke the quiet in the lab and startled them both.

Abby dropped the task she was working on to answer the call, and Breena watched as the lab technician listened for a few seconds and then murmured an uh-huh, passing the phone to her.

"It's for you," Abby said, and the smile growing on the Goth's face was unrestrained. Breena felt the iron grip around her heart ease.

It had to be good news.

Bad news was never delivered with a smile.

She took the phone receiver with shaky fingers and held it tentatively up to her ear. "Hello?" she whispered.

"B-Bree," the voice on the other end of the line stuttered, and Breena's tears started anew.

"Jimmy," she gasped, clutching the hippopotamus to her chest. "Jimmy, you're safe."

"Yeah, I am," Jimmy breathed. "I'm so sorry, Breena."

"For what?" She sniffled.

"For going missing—I know today was our nine-month anniversary and I'm—"

"I don't even care about that," Breena answered, laughing at the ridiculousness of her beloved husband through her tears. "I'm just glad you're coming home."

"I care about it," Jimmy replied seriously. "And I'm going to make it up to you as soon as I get back, I promise."

"I will hold you to that promise."

"I expect you to." A muffled sob made its way through the line, and it made Breena's vision blur again. "I love you so much, Bree."

"I love you too," Breena answered gladly, even when she heard someone that sounded like Tony DiNozzo say in the background something that sounded like, Aww, look at the Big Bad Black Lung's squishy heart!

And then she chuckled; Jimmy was telling her that he had to go because the team was picking on him again.

Yeah, her husband may work a dangerous job, but there was no other team in the world that she would rather entrust him to.