"Tony! Ziva! McGee!"
Gibbs cursed and launched himself out of the position he'd been in behind the car faster than he'd thought possible. Ears still ringing from the deafening blast of the bomb that had just detonated in the abandoned building they'd been called to investigate, the one that Tony, McGee and Ziva had just walked into, he ran to ensure their safety. He didn't want to consider what his reaction would be if they weren't all safe. His team, his second family, they'd helped fill the void left by Shannon and Kelly's deaths. He couldn't bear to lose one of them, let alone all three.
"One of you, respond, NOW!"
His mounting concern was manifesting itself as anger as the silence continued. Reaching the door, he tried to go in, only to be stopped by an officer of Metro PD.
"Sir, you can't go in there, we don't know how stable it is. You could get injured."
"I don't care, my team is in there, now MOVE!" Shoving past the cop, he rushed through the door. Choking on clouds of smoke, he vowed to head-slap them all into the next century if—no, when he found them. He had to believe he'd find them. Had to believe they were alive, and each passing second without confirmation that they were drove him to go faster through the building, searching for them. They had to be okay; he didn't want to think of trying to deal with a loss he knew he couldn't face again. It was hard enough after Kate died—after Kate was killed. By Ari. Ari killed Kate.
But Ziva killed Ari, her own brother. To save Gibbs. And now she was in this building somewhere, not responding. He couldn't allow her to die on his watch, he just couldn't.
Split-second memories of Ziva's ongoing (yet potentially futile) battle to conquer American idioms ran through his head as he cleared each room, growing more worried by the minute. He was finding it harder and harder to keep his hopes up that he'd find her, along with Tony and McGee.
"Tony, McGee, Ziva, one of you answer me!"
He started thinking about the time he'd spent with Tony, the first one on his team. All the playful banter, the head slaps…and the serious conversations, the cowboy-style steaks and the stories they'd shared…
He found several twisted, charred lumps of plastic that vaguely resembled the boxes McGee carried the equipment in and his panic went up a couple notches. McGee…he remembered how Ziva and Tony constantly picked on him, Tony always calling him "Probie", even though Ziva was now the Probationary Agent, how he'd always tried to keep the teasing light-hearted and tried to intervene on Tim's behalf.
Without a primary thought given to his personal well-being, let alone a second one, Gibbs sprinted up the stairs to the second floor to continue the search for his team.