Kate sighed as she dropped to the ground in relief. Ari's second bullet had missed her by inches.

Tony, Gibbs and McGee had already begun shooting back at him but, by the sounds of it, Ari had already escaped. They stopped their pointless fire and turned their attention to Kate, who was crying in hysterical gratitude for coming so close to death but surviving.

Tony bent down to his knees beside Kate and put his arms around her. Kate sat half-crying half-laughing with her head on Tony's shoulder as he held her tight.

"I don't ever want to lose you Kate." Tony whispered, stroking her hair.

"Um...McGee, why don't we give these two some time alone." Gibbs said, giving a wink of approval to Tony who had looked up as he realized Gibbs and McGee were still there.

Tony lifted Kate's head off of his shoulder and held it with two hands in front of him. Kate wiped away her tears and smiled. She had never thought she'd feel the way she felt right now about a man like Tony. She had never thought Tony would feel any way for her either, apart from in a friendly co-worker bantering kinda way.

Tony brought Kate's head closer to his own and kissed her. He couldn't believe he'd never noticed how much he loved her before. She was always right there in front of him.

Kate was thinking the same thing. All thoughts of Tony only being a skirt chaser were forgotten.

Eventually they broke apart (reluctantly) and headed for the car where McGee stood, eyes wide in shock, and Gibbs was almost shaking his head and laughing in disbelief that the two had never even thought about breaking rule 12 with each other before.

Suddenly a shot was fired. Tony turned automatically to protect Kate but it was too late. She was lying in a pool of her own blood with a hole in between her eyes.

Tony's phone rang.

"Ari Haswari never misses a target." Tony heard the familiar Israeli voice through his phone.