Rating: T
Classification: Tragedy/Angst
Spoilers: Switch
Disclaimers: I promise you – if I owned them – I would never have written this.
Summary: "I've got about 50 of these rules…My job is to teach them to you." For the October 2005 Challenge. This does contain a character death.
I seem to put an extra requirement when it comes to following the challenges – try and pull a serious story out no matter how crazy the lines sound. But this is a new level even for me. By the way, the source for Rule 50 was actually an episode of the Canadian series Counterstrike.
"I like it with peanut butter and chocolate." The young woman was laughing so hard she could barely talk. "My brother never tried grossing me out again!"
The agent was only half aware of the words coming from the neighboring cubicle as he glanced across the room. He'd been hoping the Israeli agent would leave the desk area, but she showed no signs of moving and he was running out of time. Soon the other members of that team would be back. No, he had to make his move now.
The agent surreptitiously pulled the firearm from his ankle holster and slid it under the stack of papers on his desk. Picking up the whole set, he started walking towards the filing cabinet behind the cubicle wall.
Agent Gibbs was bent over a file, apparently oblivious to what was going on behind him. The agent smiled wryly and reached his arm out as though looking for one of the file folders.
He'd been waiting a long time for this.
0
It was sudden, whatever it was. One moment Gibbs was trying to make out Tony's doctor-like scrawl. The next, he was shoved forward by the searing pain moving through his back and chest.
He could hear shouting around him as he fell to the floor. And what sounded like gunshots.
The pain was getting worse. Part of it was familiar. He'd been shot again. But there was something different about it this time.
"GIBBS!" Someone pushed him onto his back, leaned over him, pressed a hand onto the burning area of his chest. The face blurred, then became clear for a moment. Ziva. He opened his mouth to try and say something.
"Don't." He saw her eyes and realized what was different about this time. It was time to tell her.
"Rule…rule fif..ty."
She understood, and shook her head. He tried to nod.
"There…there's no…" It was getting really cold. He closed his eyes, forced out the next word. "…just…tice."
"Gibbs…"
"Just…" It was getting really hard to breathe now. He opened his eyes again, summoning all his strength for one final word. "…us."
His eyes closed.
0
Tony walked over and sat next to Ziva on the third stair before the landing. Their backs were to their desk area, but he knew she was still seeing it. Gibbs' sheet-covered form, lying next to his desk.
"How did that…that …" Trying to find the appropriate English expression was a challenge at the best of times. Finding the precise word for the man who had done this…it couldn't be done. "That skunk get in here?"
"He came over from his desk…and used his back-up weapon. Pretending to grab some files." Tony hugged her tightly. "He worked here."
She just turned that broken gaze back to him. "Yeah, but how did that skunk get in here?"
Don't kill me for this, guys! I already feel like crap for writing it:) But it came into my head and wouldn't go away.