A/N: After seeing the trailer/preview for 'Semper Fidelis' I kind of started to freak out, most anyone who saw it heard the ominous voice say 'one of them will not survive' as it flashed pictures of Tony, Ziva and Micheal across the screen. Now that I've had a few days to calm down, I decided to write what I think would happen if one of them were to die. It was thrown together rather hastily so it's probably not my best, but I kind of had to get it out there, so I hope you enjoy it. They're each just snippets, a bit of character work, so there may not be any real resolution to the fact that someone has died. Sorry. -pj

The Good - Micheal Dies

"I think I have the worst taste in men imaginable." Ziva announced to the crowded bar in speech that was only slightly slurred.

Abby shook her head and sipped her drink.

"Not even close."

"No, I think I do." Ziva nodded and knocked back another shot. Four empty glasses crowded the space in front of her, "the men I fall for are either dead, dying or murders."

"Dead?" Abby tilted her head and just barely caught kept from tumbling to the floor when the room continued didn't stop so she could right herself. Ziva shrugged, less defensive for the liquor.

"News sometimes does not travel fast in Tel Aviv."

Abby nodded and then shook her head again, "I still got you beat. I've had boyfriends who tried to run me over with my own motorcycle," she began ticking them off on her fingers, "who dumped me because I'm not a little person, who stalked me with plans to fake my suicide and who held me at knife point because I figured out they were a sneaky sneaky murderer."

Ziva paused, "wasn't that last one your assistant?"

Abby shrugged, "we had a thing."

"Abby!" Ziva said, looking appalled.

"What? It wasn't serious," she defended, "we just…I was worried and stressed and he was…there."

Ziva's jaw dropped and her eyebrows flew up, "does Gibbs know?" she asked conspiratorially, though nothing could be heard over the pound of music in the room.

"Gibbs knows everything," Abby replied, unrepentantly, and finished her drink.

In that moment there was a presence behind them and they both looked up.

"Evening ladies," Tony said, his hand at Ziva's back and nodded at Abby. He caught the bartenders' eyes and jerked his chin once, placing his order, "what are we in such deep discussion about?"

Tim appeared beside her as Abby answered, "we're talking about men. Ziva thinks she has bad taste. I told her mine was worse."

"Hey!" McGee cried indignantly, sipping a coke.

Abby grinned lazily, "of course, there are exceptions, McGee," then, she turned back to Ziva and, with a devilish glint in her eye continued, "McGee, take me to dance." She stood, grabbing Tim's arm to keep from falling over and then turned to Tony, all but pushing him down on her vacated stool, "you can sit here, Tony."

Ziva gave her a wide-eyed, disbelieving look.

"You wouldn't."

Abby smiled, "I already have, Ziver," she looked at Tony and planted a quick kiss on his cheek, "now show her what a gentleman you can be, Tony. It's time Ziva turned over a new leaf."

And with that, she sauntered - or, stumbled, as the case may be - away, with McGee at her elbow, allowing her friends the anonymity of drink and music to drown their (irrational) fears, and leaving the night open to infinite possibilities.

The Bad- Ziva Dies

"Sitrep."

Tony breezed into the lab, a sharp designer suit crisp and tailored to his frame, hair gelled in place, his voice all business.

Abby looked up from her computer and turned to him.

"Where's my Caf-Pow?"

She saw a slight tightening of his features and the way his jaw clenched and realized her mistake. Raising her eyebrows she turned back to her computer slowly and exchanged a brief, careful glance with McGee beside her, "never mind."

"Sit. Rep." Tony said again, his tone sharp and Abby straightened involuntarily.

"Um, okay well I ran the blood from the scene, still no matches yet, and I fired a few rounds from the bullet you found, it doesn't match the one from our victim," she glanced over her shoulder, "McGee and I have also been running dozens of code breakers and alignment protocols trying to get into the Sergeant's hard drive, so far nothing."

"Well, why not?" Tony asked, and Abby turned to look at him, a bit taken aback by the short impatience in his tone.

"Um, well it's really complicated," she glanced again at McGee, but he merely stared between herself and Tony, providing no help, "the guy has more encryptions and firewalls than secure files in Area 51. I mean, his encryptions have encryptions, it's going to take some times-"

"Time is something we don't have, Abby," Tony snapped, "there's a grieving family out there that needs answers and I damn well am not going back to them and saying out computer geeks just can't hack it."

A wash of hurt flooded Abby's face.

"Tony-" she squeaked, nearly inaudibly, unmasked vulnerability in her voice.

"DiNozzo that's enough," McGee said as he moved to stand, taking a defensive position between the two.

"Oh, that's enough, is it Probie?" Tony took another step forward, purposefully invading McGee's space. Tim squared his shoulders under the attack. It wasn't the first time he'd been challenged by Tony, but it was the first time he felt any hint of malice behind it.

"Am I interrupting?" Gibbs appeared at Tony's shoulder, staring at all three of his people with a closed expression. He needn't have heard the defensive tone in McGee's words, nor the hurt in Abby's to know the dynamics of the current situation. McGee and Tony's body language gave everything away. And anything they left out, the genuinely wounded look on Abby's face filled in.

"I, um…I have to go. To the bathroom. I'll, uh…I'll be back, McGee," with that Abby stepped away from all three men. Giving Tony a wide berth, she took the long way around, past the refrigerator and High Precision Data Optimizer, to make her way toward the door all the while keeping her gaze on the ground.

Gibbs eyes followed her, not missing the tears standing in her eyes and the red tinge to her cheeks. He didn't need an explanation to know what had happened.

But he was going to get one anyway.

"You two have something to say?"

Finally, Tony backed down, not looking at Gibbs as he too turned to leave the lab, "I've got to go run a background check on the widow."

That left McGee, and Gibbs raised eyebrow meant he was running out of patience.

McGee's shoulder's slumped, "Abby was giving Tony an update, Tony kind of…snapped at her," he glanced toward the door as Gibbs tilted his head slightly and turned to leave, "Um, Boss?"

He stopped but didn't turn.

McGee sighed, as if unsure if he wanted to say what was on his mind. He glanced again in the direction Tony and Abby had gone, "it's…been a tough couple of weeks."

"Yeah," Gibbs nodded and continued on his way, "I know, McGee."

---

Gibbs slipped into the elevator just as the doors were closing and immediately flipped the switch. He turned to face Tony, who remained looking straight ahead.

"I'll apologize to Abby, Gibbs," he said flatly.

"Damn straight."

Tony clenched his jaw, but said nothing more, and that in itself worried Gibbs. The flow of the team had been off for a while now. But it was to be expected.

Like McGee said…it had been a rough couple of weeks.

Still he'd thought it was getting better. But, after seeing the look on Abby's face as she slinked out of her own lab, hardly daring to look anyone in the face. And knowing Tony too well to think he'd do that to her on purpose if everything was working itself out as it should, he knew he'd been wrong.

"Something on your mind, DiNozzo?" He asked quietly, though the way he asked made it obvious that he already knew the answer.

Tony remained insubordinately quiet for several moments, but Gibbs waited with extraordinary patience. They weren't going anywhere until he got to the bottom of this.

Unfortunately, he was pretty sure he already knew where that was.

"I saw the files," Tony sad finally.

Gibbs' eyes narrowed minutely, "the files?"

Tony nodded, "the personnel files in your desk," he swallowed and glanced out of the corner of his eye, "I was looking for a pen."

Gibbs shifted on his feet. So that was the problem, or at least part of it. He beat down his rapidly flaring temper with a deep breath, determined to remain calm enough to see this through.

"Yeah. So?"

That did it. Tony whirled on him, his face red with frustration as he fought to keep the slight distance between them that the small space allowed.

"Damnit Gibbs, Ziva's barely been gone for a month."

"I know that, DiNozzo," Gibbs countered, "and we're a man down."

"No. No, not a man," Tony shook his head, pacing away one and a half steps and then back again, "a woman down. We're a woman down, Boss."

Gibbs could see the rage and pain flaring behind the Italian's eyes, knew the way this was eating away at him. The way it ate away at himself. He remained quiet and watched Tony pace in the ridiculously small space as he rambled on, finally letting go, the way he should have done three and a half weeks ago.

"When we lost Kate," he stopped short and ran a hand over his face, standing with his back to his boss, "Todd was my partner," he turned back, more resignation and exhaustion written in the lines of his face than Gibbs was accustomed to seeing, "but Ziva…Ziva was my Agent."

He sighed, leaning back against the wall, letting his head drop back and closing his eyes, a vulnerability evident in that single act of weariness that he only allowed Gibbs to see.

"When you were in Mexico, when I was running a case…when you were gone and I was in charge. She was my agent. My responsibility," he began shaking his head again and the anger in his tone gave way to guilt, "I knew she was holding out on me. I was supposed to be watching her six and I…I let her down" he dropped his hands and stared straight ahead at a spot on the wall just to the right of Gibbs' head, "I got her killed."

Gibbs' fingers twitched with the urge to slap the man, but he clenched them into his palm instead. That wasn't what Tony needed. Not right now.

"Hey," he took a step forward, his tone commanding, "you're right, she was your agent. And she was your responsibility," he tilted his head, assuring himself that he had the man's eyes, "but that does not mean her death was your fault."

"But Boss I-"

"We can't always be there when our Agents make a mistake. We do our best. We teach them to be smart, to read the signs and call for backup. But we can't be everywhere all the time," he took another step into Tony's space and the man looked down at him with tortured, tear-filled green eyes, "sometimes you're going to lose a man, or woman, under your command. It happens. You hope to hell it doesn't and you work them and train them so it won't, but…that's the job, Tony. The sooner you figure that out, the easier this will be."

He tapped him lightly on the bottom of his chin with two fingers and then abruptly stepped away to stand and stare at the doors, giving the man some privacy to compose himself.

He felt Tony's presence beside him a few seconds and several deep breaths later, "I don't know if I want it to be easier," he said, his voice rough.

Gibbs almost smiled, but squashed the impulse at the last moment as he looked over at his senior field agent, no evidence of the previous breakdown noticeable on his face, but the same hooded look was in his eyes, "good. It should never be easy to lose one of your own."

Tony barely withheld a wince as the faces of Pacci, Cassidy, Sheppard, Kate and Ziva all flashed briefly but vividly through his mind. He closed his eyes.

"Was there anything we couldv'e done?"

"I don't know, DiNozzo," Gibbs sighed and he reached over for the emergency stop switch again, setting the lift back in motion, "but I like to think if there was, Ziva would still be here now."

Tony nodded slowly at the ground and paused a beat before allowing his boss to exit the elevator and then hitting the button that would send him back down to Abby's lab.

"Me too."

The Ugly - Tony Dies

"Ohh, the East Coast Criminal Database," Abby grinned at her computer screen, pulled up a chair and settled a bowl of popcorn across her lap, "you watching Major Mass Spec?" She threw over her shoulder at the sputtering machine, "this is the best part."

They were almost through Maryland and on into Massachusetts when the feeling hit her. It was dark and cold and wrapped her insides in an uncomfortable vice that had her choking out her last handful of popcorn. She nearly dropped the bowl in her haste to stand and look around.

She bit her lip and looked at her Scanning Microscope, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked it, worrying her bottom lip as she started to pace, "you're right. It's probably nothing," she stopped, frowned, and then started pacing again, "but it might not be. It might be a very huge something," she rested her hands over her uncomfortable feeling stomach and glanced at the clock on the wall, "you don't think anything's happened to them, do you Captain?"

She waited a moment and then shook her head, still biting her lip, "me either."

Then she walked swiftly into her office, stripped her lab coat, snatched up her phone and made a bee-line for the elevator.

Her heart sank when she entered the Squad Room and, just as she'd expected, there was no one there. Gibbs and the team were all gone, out on a call or something. Still, the uncomfortable tightness in her stomach had now spread to her chest and, with her babies all busy working, she decided she might as well stay here until she could confirm to herself that they were all right and that she should just swear off discount Tofu from now on.

She set herself comfortably into Gibbs' chair, rested her cell phone on the desk in front of her and waited.

She zoned out a bit as 'worst case scenarios' began running through her head, which was why she jumped nearly clear out of the chair when Gibbs' desk phone began to shrill loudly.

"Gibbs' desk," she answered immediately.

"Abby?"

"McGee?"

"What are you doing answering Gibbs' phone?"

"What are you doing calling Gibbs' phone?" She answered in kind, already aware of the unusual strain in his voice, "Tim, what's going on? Where's Gibbs?"

"That's why I was calling, Abbs. He left before us but I wanted to give him an update…he…he's pretty upset."

Abby felt her stomach do a flip and closed her eyes, "McGee…what's going on?"

He never got a chance to answer, he was cut off by the sound of a dial tone. Abby opened her eyes and found Gibbs standing in front of her, one finger pushed down on the switch.

She put the reciever back without breaking eye contact with him.

"I got a hinky feeling, Gibbs," she began quietly, "I know you say I always have a hinky feeling but this one's different. In a bad way. Like the one I had before Tony started tailing that marine when he was put in thesewer. Or before Kate and Ari. Like before Tony and Ziva went to LA. And if you'll recall, none of those hinky feelings were wrong and they all had actually really really horrible outcomes..." She trailed off and Gibbs remained unnervingly still. His silence felt wrong. He should have told her to shut up by now. He should have kicked her out of his seat. He should have…done something.

"Why did McGee sound so upset on the phone?" she asked finally, a drop of moisture hit her still folded hands and she realized tears were streaming steadily out of both her eyes, "who is it this time Gibbs?"

Finally, he spoke. And when he did, Abby wished he hadn't.

"It's Tony, Abbs."

Immediately her eyes dropped to the floor, and then fell shut. She started to shake her head, and the rest of her body followed suit as the tears gained force and momentum.

"No. No. Not Tony, Gibbs. Please, please not Tony."

Suddenly she felt a hand on her arm and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet and wrapped in Gibbs embrace. She buried her face in his shirt and did her best to fold herself up inside him.

"Not Tony, Gibbs. Please not him."

Gibbs stroked her hair and held her tightly as she cried, knowing no amount of soothing words or comforting smiles could ease the pain that she felt - that they were all feeling - in that moment. Even as he did so, his eyes fell on the desk behind her. Tony's desk. And at the same time the strangest sense of surrealism and reality hit him.

Just that morning, Tony had been there. Teasing McGee, flirting with Ziva, irritating him.

That afternoon he was gone.

And now…things would never be the same.

END