A/N: Yepp. Another one shot for all you folks. Wondering about 'The Frozen Touch?' My profile explains all. Enjoy.
"Ari…" Gibbs circled the rooftop, searching from where the shot had come from. His gun trailed on the rooftops in the surrounding areas, using his sniper skills to try and locate the target. He only stopped when he heard a mutter from behind him.
"Kate?" It was only a small whimper of a word but it reverberated around his whole being, hitting against his eardrums. Gibbs turned and watched as Tony got onto one knee beside the fallen agent, one of his hands covering his mouth in either shock or trying to hold in the repulsive bile, Gibbs wasn't sure.
His eyes travelled over to the ex-secret service agent, lying strewn on her back, the round hole perfectly shaped on her forehead. Kate's eyes were shut tight, holding in any pain that could have been seen in her eyes. Tony still had blood on his face, dribbling slowly and disgustingly down his cheek like a tear.
Gibbs found himself on the other side of Kate, his hands moving to rest on her smooth tanned cheek. His eyes shut for just a moment before they opened to look at his unmoving senior field agent across from him.
"Tony." It came out to weak, so he cleared his throat and tried again. "DiNozzo."
It took a minute or so for DiNozzo's eyes to move to Gibbs', hardly realizing the change in his boss. Tony's eyes were not wet, just wide and open for Gibbs to see his emotion. It was a rare occasion, seeing the young man laid bare in front of him.
"Instruct the team the buildings clear."
"Boss?" Tony moved to object before Gibbs cut him off.
"Please." The sincerity in his boss' voice almost caught him off guard, only almost.
Without another word Anthony DiNozzo stood on the cold concrete and with one last lingering look at the fallen Kate, sidestepped his way down the stairs where McGee was waiting.
Gibbs kept his hands on Kate's face but his eyes followed Tony until he left. Once the agent was gone, Jethro looked down at Kate and her broken face.
"I will find the bastard Kate. I will."
Tony took each step as it came, his feet padding heavily on each. His mind filled with past conversations…
"You were lucky, Tony." Kate smiled as they clambered out of the van. Tony scoffed at her as they met around the front of the van. Unfortunately, it caused a short coughing spree to start.
"I wasn't lucky, Kate." Tony smiled smugly as he returned to his full height. "I was merely strong willed and determined."
"Or you didn't want Gibbs to have to bring you back and then kill you himself for disobeying a direct order." Tony walked alongside Special Agent Todd towards the crime scene. Deciding she was probably right, he shrugged.
"Well then… I thank God." He put his hands together as if praying and grinned cheekily at her.
"You need to go to church for that." She teased.
"And become a catholic goody two shoes like you, Kate? Anyway, when I was younger I always though Church was a weird place. They would tell me to control my own life and then they would ask me to play 'Simon says."
She punched him lightly in the arm and rolled her eyes at his behaviour.
"Hey…" He called after her as she walked on ahead, "Let's play Simon says now!"
"How about Gibbs says?" The voice behind him made Tony jump.
"Yes Boss."
McGee came running up to him as he reached the ground floor, bombarding Tony with questions he couldn't hear… or rather chose not to. There was something about 'Why was he bleeding?' but DiNozzo simply brushed it off, walking past the younger agent, bumping his shoulder that made McGee spin slightly with a confused look upon his face.
"Tony?" Tim called after him, "Where are you going?"
Once again, Tony ignored him. He didn't feel there was a need to answer the questions when everything had just been answered on the roof mere minutes ago. He reached the sedan and leaned on it, his hands pushing against the hot roof. Something dripped past his eyes and his hand instinctively went to touch the liquid. It was blood red. Tony gazed at it for a moment before wiping it away, now scrubbing away the remaining substance from his face.
"Sir?" A member of the back-up team ran up to him and asked about the building.
"Yeah, it's clear of terrorists." DiNozzo said simply, still wiping away at the blood that he still thought he could feel.
The door was kicked down and they swept the area. Tony stayed to the left, entering the bedroom and holding his gun as his eyes trained around the room. Kate followed him and moved into the en-suite bathroom.
"Clear." He shouted out the rest of the team as they each spoke it, all apart from Kate. Tony's eyes moved to the bathroom and he inched his way towards it. Her voice rose from behind the door.
"Clear of Terrorists."
Tony relaxed his gun arm and moved into the bathroom where Kate was hiding. A small body lay in the tub, blood seeping down the plug.
"You should just call out clear, Kate." Tony chided gently. She looked at him with wide eyes and glanced at the body of the child in the tub.
"That's not 'just' clear Tony."
He refused to say the building was simply "clear." Because the truth was, it wasn't. Kate had died and her body still lay dumped on the top of the roof, a simple gun shot to the head. It wasn't clear. It would never be clear. Not now and not ever again.
McGee scowled. Tony had ignored him before, sure, but never when his face was covered in blood. Looking back at the building, he glanced up, trying to see the roof, but the sun blocked out his sight. His training kicked in, and a horrible thought crossed his head. What if someone had been hurt? He had yet to see Gibbs or Kate come out. His eyes quickly scanned the area for them, but once making sure they were not nearby he rushed his way up the stairs Tony had appeared from only moments before.
Tim reached the top and breathed a slight sigh of relief when he saw Gibbs standing upright, glancing into the distance. He still couldn't see Kate.
"You'll get there eventually, Tim." Kate smiled at him, happy to see him struggle to push the boxes Gibbs had demanded.
"You know, you could help me." He exclaimed from behind it.
"Are you sure you want Tony to know that you had to get help from a woman?" She smirked slyly, watching the probie try and push the box he had no hope of. His head appeared from behind the wood and it showed him thinking.
"You're right. He won't let me live it down." The head disappeared once again and a grunt sounded throughout the evidence locker. Moments later, it appeared again, eyes hopeful. "I'd rather take the abuse from Tony then Gibbs. Please Kate?"
She seemed to think about it briefly, eyes looking up and right before they returned to the struggling agents face.
"See it as a punishment for looking up my skirt when we climbed the ladder."
"I couldn't see anything!"
"So you did look?!"
He could only slightly make out a body in the background, on the floor, covered slightly by a jacket. His brain ticked over as he realised the significance and why Tony was acting as something had just eaten his sense box. Tim felt the bile rise up his throat and he struggled to keep it in. His hands moved onto his knees and he bent over, hidden by the door from sight. His breathing came out steadily once he managed to get it under control.
McGee had no idea how long he stood there, but the pattering of rain sounded above him, in his little box, alone, with the stairs brought him out of his reverie.
"Great, McProbie… now I'm drenched!" Tony's voice whined from behind them, in the backseat of the car. Kate was driving and Tim sat in the passenger seat, laptop on.
"It's not my fault you went for the hike up the side of the mountain." Kate grinned at him across the middle of the car.
"It was yours." Tim loved it when they ganged up on Tony… it gave him renewed confidence.
"Well you should have stopped me."
"You pulled rank… remember Tony?" Kate asked mock-sweetly, looking at the dripping Tony in the mirror.
"So if I was put in a box and left alone to die a most dishonourable death…. You wouldn't help me? Just because I pulled rank then too?" The senior Agent asked, surprised and sounding slightly hurt.
"Well that depends."
"On what?" Kate and McGee glanced at each other again, both sporting massive grins.
"Gibbs." Laughter erupted from the front of the car.
Tim heard footsteps come closer to where he was standing, and afraid of being caught red-handed, he headed back down the steps and found himself somehow in front of the god-awful, abandoned building. He noticed Tony, looking at the building with a slightly odd look on his face. They both caught each other's eye and everything was spoken between the two of them.
The moment had arrived. One of them had died… Kate had died.