Chapter Twenty Four

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It'd been two weeks since Liam broke into my apartment and I still couldn't sleep. Every night I woke up sweating or screaming because I had some dream about Liam killing or raping me. I hadn't eaten a proper meal either, nothing but chips and bread.

Staying at Gibbs' place hadn't been easy either. Keeping my relationship with Tim under wraps was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Gibbs had almost seen us kiss a couple times and I had to push Tim to the floor one night we slept in the bed together.

Every day that went by I felt a stronger and stronger need to go to my family's graves and talk to them. I knew I wouldn't be able to go alone though, not unless I snuck out somehow. But between me living with Gibbs and Tim not letting me out of his sight, I knew it was impossible.

I heard Gibbs coming up the stairs and I immediately pushed Tim onto the floor and he landed with a soft thump. He looked up at me with annoyance in his tired eyes and I mouthed "sorry" to him before rolling over and pretending to be asleep. The door opened slowly and creaked just a little bit. I sat up and smiled at Gibbs who had a cup of coffee in his hands.

"How are you holding up?" He asked quietly.

I shrugged. "I've been better."

"Do you want to take some time off?"

I shook my head. "Definitely not. Work keeps my mind off of it all."

He nodded and looked at McGee. "He really hasn't left your side has he?"

I smiled. "He's a good friend."

"Whenever you're ready for breakfast come on down."

I smiled as he left, closing the door behind him and I whipped a pillow at Tim's head. He rolled over to face me with an annoyed face.

"First you push me off the bed and then you hit me with a pillow? You're just plain rude today," He said with a smile.

"Oh shut up. Let's go get food; I'm starving."

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Tim and I walked around Rock Creek Park with coffees, trying to keep my mind off of Liam. No matter what we talked about though, I couldn't get my mind off him. I think a part of it was that I was so sleep deprived I couldn't think straight.

"Are you okay?" Tim asked, stopping in his tracks.

I smiled. "Yeah, why?"

"Well you started staring at the tree and then you stopped walking."

I sighed. "I'm just really tired." I wiped my hand down my face to try to wake myself up.

He nodded. "Understandably so. Are you sure talking to your family won't make things any better?"

"Yes I'm sure," I snapped. He looked taken aback and I sighed. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap. I'm just overwhelmed."

He took my hand in his and looked me in the eyes. "I'm here for you Naomi. I'm not going anywhere and if I can do anything to help you, I want to."

I smiled. "You're amazing." I kissed his cheek. "I'm so lucky to have you in my life."

He blushed and kissed my forehead. "This will be the last time I will ask you, but do you want me to come with you to talk to your family?"

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I'll go. But I don't know how much it's going to help."

He smiled. "I know that it will."

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We drove down the winding roads of the country while I nervously fiddled with my fingers. I was nervous about how he would feel when he realized I was taking him to a cemetery and not my parent's house. I was mostly worried he would be freaked out that I talk to my family at their graves. 

"Are we almost there?" Tim asked, not taking his attention off the road.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah. It's just up there on the right." We reached the edge of the cemetery and within a minute I told him to turn into it. He blindly followed my instructions and we drove up the hill into the cemetery. "You can park here."

Once he pulled over, I got out of the car without looking at Tim and started walking towards the gravestones that held my family members' names. I sat down in front of my mom's with my legs crossed and took a deep breath.

"Hi mom. Hi dad. Hi Ash." I heard Tim walk up behind me as I began talking. "Things have been hard lately. I don't think I've told you about all the good things though so I'll start there. I got a new job. I'm a special agent for the government. I work on this team of four other people and it's so great; you'd really love all of them. Especially you Ash. There's this one guy who reminds me a lot of you and it makes me miss you all the time. 

"This is Tim. He wanted me to come here even though I didn't want to. I didn't want to tell you about all the crap that's been going on. But he convinced me." I wiped a tear from my eye. "He's my boyfriend. You guys would have really loved him if you'd gotten to meet him.

"Do you remember me telling you about Liam? Yeah, well he's out of prison now. He broke into my apartment and ransacked it. I'm living with my boss now and Tim stays with me a lot of the time. I haven't slept in weeks and I'm so exhausted. Mom I am so exhausted I don't know what to do. I wish you were here so you could tell me what to do. Ash I wish you could just sit with me and tell me everything was going to be all right." I felt my throat start to burn and I knew that if I didn't stop talking I was going to break down crying. "I love you guys." I said before I starting sobbing.

I felt Tim sit down next to me and put his arm around me to pull me into his chest. I closed my eyes and put my hand over my face in a bad attempt to control my tears. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Cahn," Tim started, "your daughter is an amazing woman. I am so happy to have met her. She is the single strongest person I have ever known in my life. Ashton, I wish I could have gotten to meet you, but you probably would've threatened to beat me up if I hurt Naomi." I giggled, imagining my brother being threatening. "I promise I will do everything I can to protect your daughter. I don't know what I would do without her." He took a deep breath and he looked at me before speaking again. "I love you."

My heart skipped a beat and I smiled as I spoke. "I love you too." I snuggled back into his chest. "I think I want to go."

He nodded and helped me stand up. "Want to get some ice cream and watch a movie?"

I nodded. "How did you know?" We started walking away before I realized I didn't say goodbye to my family. I ran back and stood in front of their graves again. "Until next time. I love you guys."

I walked back to Tim, trying to keep my tears at bay. When I put my hand in his, I felt warmth and I knew that everything was going to be okay.

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A/N: Hello! I am so so so sorry for not updating in like a million years. I've been crazy trying to graduate college with a Chemistry degree so like life is hard haha. I'm going to try to be better about updating, but I can't make any promises! Thanks y'all for reading my story, it means so much to me!<3


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