I came to in the back of the ambulance on the way to Bethesda. Which didn't make a great deal of sense to me, until Tony managed to explain it. Apparently my dive for the team had stopped the bullet with my vest, but during the moment of impact I had hit my head and knocked myself cold.
I knew it was Ari on that other roof top. No, I didn't have x-ray vision or anything like that, I couldn't read the future. I knew the same way Gibbs knows things. Gut, intuition, call it whatever you like, it's that same sinking feeling you get when you know something is going to go badly wrong and you are powerless to prevent it.
Ari was going to die.
I knew it as surely as I knew that my name was Caitlin Todd. As surely as I knew I was in love with a man who had taken on a suicide mission and was going to see it through to the bitter end.
Ari Haswari was not doing it for the glory, or the virgins, or any other sense of conviction. He was walking into hell because he could see no other way out and he was tired of it all.
And I was surely going to stop him. Whatever it took. I was going to bring this to a close and save a life.
I made them stop the ambulance, I made Tony get me back to my car and I borrowed a leaf from the Gibbs' school of driving. I had to make it. I had to beat whoever Ari was expecting to take his life, protect him, and if necessary stop him from harming Gibbs.
Ari Haswari had made me like this; and he was going to have to take some of the damn responsibility for making me love him. I knew why he was doing this. He couldn't do it anymore. He thought everything was finished, and his life was forfeit.
Ari was a master at pushing it.
I shoved my foot down harder on the gas pedal. I'd worry about speeding tickets later. I had to get there. And I knew pretty much exactly what I was going have to do. I was going to have shoot Ari. He wouldn't stop just because I would be begging. He thought his life was finished. I had to put him in a position that he would be unable to harm either himself or anyone else.
I could not falter or fail, I had to put a bullet in him somewhere that would take him out of play. I was going to have to hurt him. As much as I hated the idea, the idea of Ari succeeding in his suicide quest was anathema to me.
He wasn't going to be allowed to quit that easily.
I reached Gibbs' place, the back door was open. I slid my Glock out, and moved in. I was running on pure adrenaline. It was late in the game and everything hung in the balance. There was someone there ahead of me.
I could hear voices. Ari, Gibbs, the silent tread of the other shooter.
Now or never. I stepped through the doorway, sighted and fired, as she snapped off a shot.
My bullet struck home first.
How do I know? Ari screamed in agony as he went down. Not from the kill shot to the head, but from my bullet which punched into his shoulder.
She was ahead of me on the stairs, her pretty face blank with the emotional stress, I had no idea why, I was concentrated on Ari.
Clear weapons from his reach, and put pressure on the wound. My hands grasped his shoulder and he howled. Through, and I checked, no through. The bullet was still in there. There was so much blood.
Hands reached out, grasped mine and pulled them away from the gaping hole in Ari's shoulder, two field dressings and I grasped the wounded shoulder again.
"Why, Caitlin?" he ground out between tortured moans of agony.
I looked him in the eye. He stared up at me for a second. We had an audience, Gibbs and the girl, but I wanted Ari to know, and get it.
"You made me love you. You didn't have to do it."
I didn't care who knew right then. Somehow we were going to be alright. But only with my declaration. I was going to fight for my love.