"Puchalski, DiNozzo grab your gear." Gibbs stalked passed stopping momentarily at his desk to grab his sidearm before heading towards the elevator.
"What we got bossman?" Tony asked scrambling to get his bag and gun and follow behind Gibbs. Puchalski was right behind him looking decidedly more collected.
"Work DiNozzo." Stated Gibbs as the elevator doors closed and they started their decent to the garage.
"Newbie, newbie, newbie don't anger the bossman." Puchalski smirked.
"What angers him?" Tony looked to the younger but more experienced agent. From what Tony knew about Luis Puchalski's past which was very little, he had been discharged - honourably or not Tony did not know - from the Marines and neither Puchalski or Gibbs were exactly forthcoming about how he came to be a part of NCIS. Luis was young, cocky and Tony had seen that he could have authority issues, somehow he had the respect of Gibbs and Tony was dying to know how he'd earned that.
"It'd be easier to list what doesn't." Puchalski laughed and out of the corner of Tony's eye he could see a smirk from Gibbs.
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"Tony, get the fire escape. Kate, with me. McGee, start jamming." Gibbs yelled, McGee hunkered down using the car as cover while the other three took off running into the alley beside the building Ari's cell were using as a base.
Tony started his ascent up the fire escape located just in front of the door Gibbs and Kate were preparing to go through. His lungs burned, he knew it was far too soon to be back at work. There was a big difference between feeling 100% at home doing nothing to jumping around trying to apprehend terrorists.
Kate and Gibbs burst through the door to be confronted with gunfire, Tony could hear the bullets fly as he neared the roof. He however did not hear the flight of Ari's bullet as it sailed through the air catching him and boring a hole through his clothing, flesh and bone. Searng pain was the last thing he felt as he fell, the sound of his body hitting the pavement masked by the flare of the drone.
"Boss, they fired the drone!" McGee yelled, watching the sky.
"Jam it, McGee!" Gibbs bounded up the stairs to the top level, just one staircase in the far corner to be navigated and then he and Kate would be on the roof. A bullet tore through the wooden post inches in front of him, returning fire Gibbs dodged behind a crate that was being used as a coffee table as Kate came up the stairs.
McGee sat huddled beside the car "I can do this, I can do this." He tried to convince himself. He knew his technical ability, he was more than capable of this but he'd never been in a situation such as this. MIT had never prepared him for this, they didn't offer computing under fire as a class.
Kate backed her way up the last of the stairs still anticipating gunfire from below. Gibbs was pressed against the door awaiting DiNozzo's assessment from his position.
"DiNozzo! What've we got on the roof?" Gibbs spoke harshly, receiving only silence in return. He turned to kate, seeing the worry in her eyes. "Guess we're going in blind."
The roof door flew open as Gibbs and Kate burst through guns drawn. Gibbs dove as shots came from his left, Kate jumped back careful not to go tumbling back down the stairs. Gibbs using the door for cover, shot blindly in the direction of the initial shots. When no return fire came Kate darted her head out. One dead terrorist.
There was still one left, partly using the stolen transmitter as a shield. Kate dropped the shotgun she carried, taking her sidearm and cocking it she circled around the makeshift workstation to get a clear shot. Gibbs followed suit and soon they had the last of the cell cornered. With blatant disregard for his life he reached for a pistol but the shots from both Gibbs and Kate got to him first. The two agents breathed in relief for a few seconds.
"McGee, this thing is still flying!" Gibbs shouted, looking down from his perch on the rooftop to the car McGee was huddled behind. Shots were still coming from somewhere below them.
"Boss, one of them shot my transmitter!" McGee's voice rang out from Gibbs' earpiece. "Destroy the other and it'll bring the drone down!" The shots from below stopped as Gibbs took his shotgun and aimed at the transmitter.
The single shot seemed deafening in the relative silence.
"McGee?" Kate spoke.
"I'm good, finally got him." Came the response.
Kate walked to the edge of the fire escape looking over the edge she saw Tony's prostrate body. "Gibbs!" She yelled, turning to face Gibbs.
Gibbs' head shot up from where he had been inspecting the transmitter to see Kate, head turning in his direction. He walked to her position, looking over the edge. "McGee, Tony is down! Fire escape!" There was a whoosh and Gibbs turned to see Kate fall back, blood splattered behind her. A single gun shot wound in the centre of her forehead.
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"I'm putting in for a transfer." Luis stood over Gibbs' desk.
"Not accepted, you're on my team Puchalski." Gibbs spoke without looking up from the file he was reading.
"Listen it's not really my choice, Monica just found out she's pregnant and she wants me somewhere less bullet ridden." Luis shrugged, resigned to his fate. "I've passed the paperwork up to the Director." Turning around Luis sat at his desk.
"Sorry man." Tony looked over towards Lucas as he prepared for the day. They'd been a team for almost two years, Luis had only been seeing Monica for seven months.
"I'll miss dodging bombs and bullets with you guys but i'm having a kid so I can't really complain." The sad smile on his face said something else. Truthfully he wasn't ready, he loved his job. The adventure and danger appealed to him more than minivans and diapers that was for sure.
"I told you that women were more trouble than they're worth." That got a smirk from Luis, he turned to smile at Gibbs.
"After which divorce did you learn this Gibbs?" Tony sure had come a long way since he had first joined NCIS going on two years prior.
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Gibbs walked rainsoaked into autopsy, the doors soft hiss sounding so loud in the silent room. A single overhead lamp illuminated the table that Kate now lay on, covered with a single loose sheet protecting her modesty.
"An awful night Jethro." Ducky looked up from his hunched position next to Kate's head, her blank eyes staring. Ducky moved the sheet higher, covering her face.
"You should've brought in another ME Duck." Gibbs strode over to the table, grabbing a stool on his way. Placing the stool down he sat on the opposite side of the table from Ducky, conversing over the top of Kate's unmoving body.
"I couldn't." A sad grimace flashed across the doctors face as he looked down at the sheet where Kate's eyes stared almost through the cotton. "Not for Caitlin." Ducky looked up from the table and in what seemed like such a sudden move, stood and walked to a counter top. "I had DiNozzo's doctor send me his films to look over. A nice man, met him once at a conference in San Diego." Ducky let out a soft chuckle. "Funny story when we checked into the…"
"Duck." Gibbs interrupted impatiently.
Ducky sighed a look of sympathy on his face, he placed an x-ray on the light screen. "It does not look very good Jethro. The bullet entered through his left hip and lodged itself in his pelvis. Most of the damage looks to be from his fall though." Ducky put up a series of x-rays. "His second lumbar vertebrae is completely shattered, the first lumbar and twelfth thoracic have significant fractures." Looking from the light screen to Gibbs, Ducky announced. "It's doubtful he will walk again Jethro." Taking two films down he replaced them with two others. "A large skull fracture, three broken ribs, a punctured lung, lacerated spleen and internal bleeding. He should be dead Jethro."
"He's too singlemided to figure that out. He'll be fine Duck."
Ducky ignored the comment. "He's in surgery right now, they will most likely remove his spleen and patch up the internal injuries before moving on to his vertebral column, pinning together what they can." Turning from the light screen Ducky leaned against the wall, folding his arms. "He certainly wont be able to return to field duties Jethro. If he even returns at all."
Gibbs nodded before stalking out of autopsy heading to MTAC to consult with the director.
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The Return by tdawg
Author's Chapter Notes:
An alternative ending to S2 and S3. Tony is injured during the Ari shootout. An old team member comes back to help Gibbs & Co