Hidden Bullets
Disclaimer: Hi. I do not own Navy NCIS. I want to own it. I doubt I ever will. I will settle for meeting Pauley Perrette!
A/N: This was initially a one-shot, going to be left at the point I wrote as I had no more ideas. At reader's protests, and a friend's advice, I found inspiration to add another page or so. Hopefully it feels more complete now. So, in deference to the reviewers, attempt two:
"Drip. Drip. Drip." The sound of water hitting metal was the first sound I heard as I began to wake up. Dazed, I tried to lift myself onto my elbows, but a searing pain on my temple made me fall back on my shoulders. A groan sounded from beside me, and I rolled my head toward the sound, hoping I could crack my eyes open wipe enough to see whoever was next to me.
"DiNozzo! McGee!" echoed into my thoughts, making my head pound. "Congratulations! You are the first agents I've had knocked unconscious during a routine training mission. Get back to the truck, now!"
"Boss, my head hurts!" I managed to whine. Even the slightest effort made that pain worse.
Footsteps approached, light in the heavy boots our team wore for the training mission. "Stop whining, my little hairy butt. My blade only grazed your head. Might need a hair… snippy-thing… when we get back."
I leapt to my feet. "You not only knocked me out, but you wrecked my hair? Boss, this isn't fair!"
"DiNozzo, get McGee and creep out the back way to the truck. I don't want to be embarrassed by the fact that you two were defeated by a single agent on her first training mission." Gibbs shook his head, then took a long draught of coffee before stomping out of the storage bunker. Ziva followed closely behind, the hint of a smirk playing with the corners of her mouth.
I turned to the unconscious form of McGee beside me, then felt a prickling along the back of my neck. Abby stood behind me, an evil look causing her eyes to almost glow. "Which one of you fired on Ziva? I was watching in the surveillance van, and a gunshot came from your direction and nearly struck her!"
I grabbed at my Sig, then pulled it out of the holster. Pulling the magazine from it, I handed it to Abby. "Look. It is still full," I said.
"So McGee shot her?" Abby raced over to the prone man, and grabbed his Sig, pausing to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. His magazine was full as well. Shock registered across her face. "Get him out of here Tony! I have to talk to Gibbs about this!" She fled the building.
I groaned, then slung the unconscious McGee's arm across his shoulder. I dragged him over to a dolly and strapped him on, then rushed to the back exit. With a great heave, I lifted the dolly over the steps and set it next to Palmer. Ducky clucked his tongue and began to check McGee, then moved to cover the gash on my head.
"What happened, Tony?" the kindly medical examiner asked.
With a shake of my head, clearing the cobwebs that I felt beginning to form, I began to explain. "We entered the bunker, then heard a gunshot. Before we had a chance to react, Ziva knocked us unconscious because she thought we had fired on her. Neither of us had touched our weapons though."
Ducky was shocked. "Someone else was in the bunker as well?" he enquired.
"Well, obviously."
"Does Jethro know?"
"Yeah, Abby went to tell him. He was pretty mad at the fact that it only took Ziva a few seconds to knock us out. We didn't even mark her. Of course, she has at least three weapons and extensive martial arts training against our single weapons…"
Ducky shook his head, then gestured for me to assist Palmer in moving the still unconscious and quite heavy McGee into the back of the van. We belted themselves into the jump seats in the medical portion of the van, and Palmer got in the front. "Palmer," Ducky ordered in his kindly way, "Pull us around to the front. I don't feel comfortable with the idea that someone with a weapon is shooting at agents in that bunker. We need to rejoin the group." Next, he turned to me. "You know," he continued, "this reminds me of my work in Britain with a group of Feds. The team was on a mission that had a criminal shooting at one of the members, resulting in him ambushing the rest of his team. If I remember correctly, unlike Ziva who uses non-lethal force, he shot them all."
"Thanks Ducky. That was reassuring," I sarcastically commented.
"Sorry to interrupt Doctor Mallard, Tony," Palmer intervened. "We have reached the front of the bunker. Special Agent Gibbs looks very upset. Um… he's coming over here, Doctor."
"Thank you Palmer." Ducky opened the doors and climbed out, and I followed closely. Since Abby would have reported to Gibbs, he was probably pretty mad at whoever shot that bullet, and not at McGee and me. "Jethro, have you discovered who shot at Ziva?"
"David has enemies in Hamas. We flooded the bunker with light because Abby wanted to recover the bullet and casing that had been fired at her. What we saw took even our breath away. The knife that grazed DiNozzo was embedded between the eyes of a man in the corner. He had a rifle next to him. David identified him as a Hamas agent, and Abby verified that on the terrorist alerts."
"So there is a cell attempting to assassinate Ziva?" I asked, shocked. I mean, sure, I've wanted to kill her for her barbed comments but a planned assassination? That is serious!
"Obviously DiNozzo. We'll be returning to headquarters. The FBI has already notified us in no uncertain terms that we are banned from this investigation. At least with MTAC, we can feel a semblance of involvement as we have also been ordered by our own director to return. We will all be living in the building until further notice." Gibbs gestured them back to the vehicles, and the NCIS teams involved in the training mission began their long trek back to headquarters. One team in particular was particularly upset by the day's occurrences, though it shocked every single agent.