Title: Rule 52
Characters: Tony, Tim, Ziva, Vance, Dr. Rachel Cranston
Ratings: PG
Notes/Warnings: AU - Major character death! Spoilers up to 9x1 "Nature of the Beast"
Summary: In the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy, the team struggle to come to terms with their grief...and how to deal with their new reality.
A/N: This was written for K9Lasko for the 2013 White Elephant Exchange on NFA Community. The prompt was:
Four things they regretted telling Tony (and one thing they didn't tell him, and regretted.)
The story is 9 chapters, and I'll be posting in instalments ('cos I'm evil like that.) Please heed the warnings.
INTRODUCTION
"You should know better than to leave your door unlocked in this day and age, Agent Gibbs. You never know who might walk in on you."
His arm froze at the familiar yet unwelcome voice on the steps behind him, and he gripped the chisel tightly against the wood. A light touch was what was required for the task at hand, but with this interruption it was no longer a chisel that he needed. His Sig lay tantalizingly on the workbench, not five feet away. Instinct struggled with practicality: reaching for it would be suicide. Then again, NOT reaching for it was likely to produce pretty much the same result. Might as well go down fighting.
Oo-rah…
They'd been trying to track down this bastard for weeks, and now he'd shown up at Gibbs' own doorstep. The irony was not lost on him; his own basement was about to become a crime scene, and there was not a damned thing he could do about it. Game over. The best he could hope for was to bring the bastard down with him.
He took a calming breath, spun around and chucked the chisel at Marsden's head, buying him a couple of seconds to reach for his weapon. Three muffled shots rang out, then two more, louder and slightly higher in pitch.
The echo of a bullet ricocheting against a steel beam drew the attention of Princess, the scrawny little diva chihuahua his next-door neighbour called the family pet. Moments later, a light went on in an upstairs window across the street. Just as abruptly, darkness returned.
"Stupid dog."
"Go back to sleep, honey. It's just that damned raccoon in the garbage cans again."
A slow, thick trickle of deep red oozed across the concrete floor, seeking egress…
TBC