No Twilight for Kate

May 24, 2005

Special Agent Caitlin Todd stood on the roof of an old warehouse with her boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and her partner, Tony DiNozzo. They had just prevented a drone from striking a sailors' homecoming, and for a split second, Kate thought the fight was over.

Suddenly, Kate spotted a shooter through the roof access door, and her boss was in direct line of fire.

"Shooter!" she shouted as she leapt in front of Gibbs and was hit with the bullet.

As soon as she hit the ground, Gibbs and Tony shot multiple times at the perpetrator until they were sure he was dead.

"Kate!" Tony called to her in concern as he ran towards her, turning her body so she was laying on her back. Gibbs quickly unzipped her jacket to reveal the bullet was lodged in her Kevlar.

Tony and Gibbs both let out a sigh of relief and Kate opened her eyes.

"You okay?" Tony asked.

"Ow," Kate moaned. "I just got shot at point-blank range, DiNozzo. What do you think?"

"You're not gonna be going to Pilates class tomorrow?" Tony joked.

Kate groaned as Gibbs and Tony helped her up.

"Protection detail's over, Kate," Gibbs said.

"You did good," Tony told her, smiling.

Gibbs huffed softly and smiled as well. "For once, DiNozzo's right."

Kate chuckled. "Wow. I thought I'd die before I ever heard…"

"Agents! Get down!" a voice yelled.

All three agents looked toward the source of the voice. Before they knew it, Kate was being tackled to the ground as a shot rang out.

Gibbs turned to determine where the shot came from as the mystery man climbed off of Kate. Before the man could even stand up, Gibbs could hear the familiar sound of two guns being drawn. His head snapped back around and there stood Ari Haswari, guns pointed at him by both Tony and Kate, the latter of whom was still on the ground.

Gibbs drew his gun as well as he glared at the perceived terrorist. "Give me one reason I shouldn't shoot you right now," he all but growled.

"He just saved one of your agents," a woman's voice said.

Tony shifted toward the voice to point his gun at the woman who had joined them. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"My name is Ziva David," the olive-skinned woman answered. "Ari here is my brother. He is an undercover Mossad agent, as am I."

"Excuse me?" Gibbs questioned in disbelief, gripping his gun tighter and stepping closer to Ari.

"It is true, Gibbs," Ari said, putting his hands up defensively. "If you will just let me reach for my badge."

Gibbs and Tony narrowed their eyes and Kate took the opportunity to stand up as Ari slowly reached into his back pocket. Out of it he pulled a leather-encased badge, which he opened and showed to all three agents.

"See?" he said, handing the badge to Gibbs so he could get a closer look.

"You can even call our father, the director of Mossad, if you refuse to believe him," Ziva offered.

Gibbs handed the badge to DiNozzo, still not completely convinced. "If you're undercover, then why have you been targeting me?"

"I went undercover as a hit-man and terrorist to get an Israeli terrorist by the name of Amos Shalev to surface," Ari explained.

"I don't recognize that name," Gibbs said. "Why did this guy pick me?"

"Shalev's wife and son were killed by a special-ops NCIS team on the ground in Israel 5 years ago during a search for another terrorist," Ziva continued. "Shalev's family was an unintended casualty. They lived in a building that exploded during the search."

"When Shalev came to America looking for revenge, the special-ops team had been disbanded, but the leader of that team looked a lot like you, Gibbs. We believe he only targeted you because he could not get to the real source of his rage," Ari finished.

"Please, Agent Gibbs," Ziva said. "This is the truth. Ari never intended to hurt you and he just blew his cover to save the life of Agent Todd. Shalev is still at large and it is now more important than ever that we find him."

Gibbs gave Ziva and Ari one last glance over and observed the sincerity in their facial expressions. Still, he wasn't completely convinced.

"DiNozzo, Kate, keep your guns drawn, I want to double check," Gibbs said as he pulled out his phone.

The two agents nodded while Ziva and Ari simultaneously sighed.

"Abby," Gibbs called into the phone. "I need you to check something for me." Gibbs began walking towards the roof door, wanting to get out of any possible line of fire, motioning to the others to follow him. Tony and Kate kept their guns drawn on the other two as they walked.

'What is it, Gibbs? Is everything okay over there?'

"Who is the director of Mossad?" Gibbs asked.

'Uh, hold on Gibbs…his name is Eli David.'

"Does he have any children?" he questioned further.

'I'm not sure hold on…oh, yes, he has three! Oh no one of them died when she was 16.'

Gibbs grunted. "Abby, what are their names?"

'It's only showing me one. A Ziva David. The other one is redacted. Gibbs, what is going on?'

"I'll explain later, Abbs," he said as he quickly hung up the phone before she could continue. "Okay, you two," he glanced at Ziva and Ari, "have been vouched for."

Tony and Kate let out a breath neither realized they had been holding. Tony then handed the badge back to Ari, who slipped it back in his pocket. All three agents holstered their weapons and continued walking down the stairs, the two Mossad officers between them.

Once they reached McGee, still safely perched behind a car, McGee automatically pulled out his weapon before Gibbs could tell him otherwise.

"Stand down, McGee," Gibbs commanded of his most junior agent.

"Boss?" McGee questioned, gun still pointed at Ari.

"It's okay, Tim," Kate assured him. "He actually just saved my life."

"He's one of the good guys McGoo. Undercover Mossad. Same with his lovely sister here," Tony confirmed with a smirk.

Everyone except McGee glared at him while McGee holstered his weapon, confusion still evident on his face.

"No time to explain, McGee, we've still got a terrorist to catch," Gibbs said to him, already taking off towards the vehicle they had arrived in.

McGee followed obediently, in line with the rest of the group, and quickly leaned over to Tony.

"What the hell, Tony?" he whispered.

"Like Gibbs said, Probie, no time to explain. We'll fill you in later," Tony repeated as he picked up the pace to walk next to Gibbs.

McGee huffed in frustration but gave up as he trusted his team to fill him eventually. He looked to Kate on his left, taking in her blank facial expression. He knew she was tough, but an attempt on her life must have rattled her at least a little bit.

And that it did. Once safely in the car, Kate felt like she was finally able to breathe normally. As she tried to maintain her composure in front of her teammates and boss, she thought about how her life could have ended only 10 minutes prior.

But she was still here.

Ari Haswari saved her life.