Can't Stand Eternity (With DiNozzo and Todd)
Gibbs stood next to Tony, his hands up in the air in surrender, his gun in the hands of the serial killer that had somehow managed to get the drop on him. The serial killer that had a personal vendetta against him. Seven years ago he had busted the serial killer's brother for drug imports and exports. However, his brother had tried to run, and ended up getting himself shot to death. Since Gibbs had been the one to shoot his brother, the serial killer decided that he should get the same treatment.
That was, until, Tony had come looking for Gibbs and had surrendered when he saw the gun pointed at his Boss' head.
"You killed my brother! You didn't even give him a chance!"
"Your brother ran. I was doing my job."
"Your job? Your job wasn't to kill him! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL HIM!"
The serial killer's ragged breathing filled the room, and when he next spoke, his voice was calm and without emotion.
"And now the past comes back to punish you."
Gibbs felt helpless for one of the rare few times in his life, plans and thoughts running through his head of how to get out of the current mess he found himself in.
The two gun shots sounded incredibly loud, being fired from a gun that close to him, and seemed to echo around the empty warehouse. Gibbs felt the spray of warm blood on his face before he heard the startled hoarse gasp from Tony.
He heard Tony's body hit the floor from the impact of the bullets before the gunshots had stopped echoing in his head.
Gibbs turned towards Tony's fallen body and crouched down beside him, horrified by the growing pool of blood surrounding Tony's body already. He reached out a hand to Tony and held it against the side of Tony's face and gently turned Tony's head to face him. Tony's eyes were huge and red, filled with blood from the capillaries that had burst from the impact of both bullets slamming into and tearing through his heart.
Tony stared into Gibbs' eyes; only Gibbs had the feeling that he wasn't even seeing him. Tony was struggling to breathe, unable to draw air into his body, his ruined heart pumping out his vital blood. Blood was spilling from his mouth as Tony attempted to speak, but was unable to say a single word. The next rasping, gurgling breathe wasn't accompanied by an exhale, and even though Tony's wide open eyes still stared into his, Gibbs knew that Tony was dead and gone forever.
When Gibbs finally took his eyes off Tony's dead glassy ones to now discover his fate and looked up, the serial killer had disappeared into the shadows of the dark warehouse.
Three days later…
After three agonisingly painful days, Gibbs had finally tracked the serial killer down once more. His grief had clouded his judgement and made him reckless, and the serial killer had managed to fire and shoot Gibbs in the stomach before Gibbs had disarmed him.
Now, Gibbs realised, he could finally have his revenge.
The cold, ice blue steel of Gibbs' eyes stared down the weaker, brown ones of the man standing in front of him. Stared into the eyes of the man who had killed his senior agent, Tony DiNozzo. Gibbs only had one thing to say to this man who had caused him so much pain.
"He was my friend."
Gibbs raised his gun and double tapped the man in the heart, killing him in cold blood.
Just like the man had done to Tony.
Gibbs lowered his gun and stared at the dead man lying on the ground. He didn't feel happiness, or satisfaction, or even relief. He only felt a cold, empty sensation where his heart should be. It was then that Gibbs felt the physical pain as well, and dropped to his knees as he placed a hand on the open wound on his chest, where he had been shot earlier.
Gibbs couldn't be bothered moving from the spot in which he was currently sitting. He let all the pain from the last few months wash over him, as he recalled what he had lost. First it was Kate, just a mere three months ago, killed on a rooftop by Ari. And now Tony, just three days ago; killed in cold blood by the serial killer they had been pursuing for the last week. The serial killer that now lay dead in front of him.
He slowly laid his head on the cold hard concrete of the warehouse floor, and his final thoughts before he fell into dark depths of his unconscious mind were of Tony and Kate, and of what was going to become of the future.
Gibbs was confused.
He felt more peaceful than he had in years, he wasn't in any pain, and felt like he was floating through space. Yet, at the same time, every part of his body burned and he felt uncomfortable and achy all over. He didn't understand how he could feel both at the same time, and decided a logical action would be to open his eyes and discover where he was. As he slowly opened his eyes, he tried to focus on what seemed to be a blurry but familiar face right in front of his.
"Hey Bossman! Good to see your grumpy face!"
"Tony? You're dead. He shot you dead." Gibbs looked on at Tony in disbelief.
Gibbs chuckled. "I suppose that means I didn't make it then."
"Well actually Boss, you're still alive… kinda. Well, a bit anyway. Basically, you're not quite dead yet. Count yourself lucky, here I was thinking death would be peaceful and all, and then I open my eyes and BAM! There's Kate's ugly features right in my face!"
"TONY!"
It was only then that Gibbs realised that Kate was there too, standing slightly to his side. He had been so preoccupied with seeing Tony again that he hadn't even noticed Kate standing there silently. Until now.
"Ugly features?" Came Kate's high-pitched angry voice. "You looked in a mirror lately Tony?"
"Well actually, I haven't Kate, because in case you haven't noticed, there's not actually any mirrors round here! Anyway, you're leading me off track."
Tony turned towards Gibbs, suddenly becoming rather serious. "Gibbs, you gotta get better. You've got to wake up, and go back to Abby, McGee, Ziva and Ducky. They really need you. They lost Kate a few months ago, they've just lost me, and now they're going to lose you too? They can't deal with that Boss."
"As much as I loathe to say it Gibbs, Tony's right. Eurgh." Kate gave a shudder. "I feel dirty just having said that!"
"Awww come on Kate, you know I'm always right!"
"Oh really? Name one time."
"Ummm… there's been heaps of times! There's too many."
"Well, I want you to just say even one!"
"Come on Kate, that's putting way too much pressure on me at the moment! I can't think of just one time."
"That's because there hasn't been even one time you were right!"
"There has too!"
"Has not!"
"Has too!"
"Has not!"
"HAS TOO!"
"WELL PROVE IT TONY!"
Gibbs stood up and looked on in astonished silence as Tony and Kate continued bickering as if they were four year olds. When their voices started escalating, Gibbs decided he needed to break it up. Now.
"HEY!" That shut them up he noticed, but he gave them both simultaneous head slaps anyway. God that felt good doing that.
"Boss! Show a little respect for the dead!" Tony complained.
"I will when you two stop giving me a headache and started acting your age!"
Tony and Kate looked at each other sheepishly, for a moment having forgotten their purpose as the easy banter between them took over. It was Kate who spoke first, softly addressing Gibbs.
"They're not ready for you to go yet Gibbs. The others, they still need you to teach them more. It will kill them if you give up and die as well. I know it hurts, but you have to go back.
"I can't. I've lost too much."
"You haven't lost them yet, Gibbs," Tony whispered. "You need to carry on. You have to go back to Abs, Ziva, McGee and Ducky. I know it's tough, but you can make it. They need you to make it."
Kate rolled her eyes at Tony's 'inspirational' speech to Gibbs.
"Eurgh. Can you be any more clichéd, Tony? This isn't one of your stupid movies!"
"Hey! My movies aren't stupid! And that was totally not clichéd Katie. That was from the heart!"
"Tony, the only thing that comes from your heart is cholesterol and bad pick-up lines!"
"Well, at least I have a heart!"
"Oooh! Tony, I've had it up to hear with you! Why do you have to be so insufferable!?"
"Well Katie, I—
"Okay, okay!" Gibbs interrupted bad-temperedly. "You've convinced me! I'll go back. I'm sure Earth is going to be more peaceful then heaven if you two aren't there! But… I'm not sure I know how to go back."
Tony turned back to Gibbs, a look of peace now settled over his face.
"It's okay. Just close your eyes Gibbs."
Kate took Gibbs' hand gently in her own. "Just let your mind go. Let your heart feel the way back to everyone."
Gibbs took one last look at his fallen agents as his eyes slowly slipped closed and he felt Kate's hand being tugged from his own as his mind cut out and he fell back into a state of unawareness.
Abby, Ziva, McGee and Ducky were all seated in various chairs in Gibb's room, all lost in their own thoughts of memories of their fearless leader.
They all snapped back to reality however, when startled by a quiet "bloody hell!" coming from Gibbs' bed.
"Gibbs!" Abby cried. "You're awake! The doctors didn't think you were going to wake up! We thought we'd lost you!"
"Nah, I had to come back, Tony and Kate were driving me crazy!" Gibbs informed an astonished and bewildered Abby, Ducky, McGee and Ziva.
"Couldn't stand another moment with them, let alone eternity." Gibbs grumbled.
"Errr…perhaps it's the medication he is on at the moment – it's quite strong," a confused Ducky explained quietly to the little group huddled around him.
"Do you think it worked?" a worried Kate asked Tony.
"I hope so." was the quiet reply. "He'll be ok, you know. He's Gibbs."
"I know. But I think the last few months have been rather rough on him."
"On him?? I'm dead Kate! One moment I'm trying to catch that freakin' serial killer, the next moment your face is grinning me. How do you think I feel?!"
"Ahhhhh, you'll live." Kate smirked at Tony.
Tony, in return, glared at her and mumbled under his breath, "Actually Kate, no, no I won't live!"
They stood next to each other in silence for awhile, watching Gibbs sleep soundly for the first time in months.
Until Tony's hand reached around Kate's back, grabbed her hair, and tugged. Hard. And then proceeded to look around the room innocently as Kate yelled.
"Tony! We agreed that we would not do this! That we would be civil to each other! I mean, come on, we have to spend the rest of eternity with each other!"
"Yes, but then we started it up again. I do believe that means that the game is back on."
"Tony, the only reason why we did that was to help Gibbs."
"Yes. But there was nothing in our agreement about starting it up again for Gibbs' sake. That means that the deal's off."
Kate glared at Tony and then turned away to look at Gibbs again.
Tony took this chance to pull her hair again.
"TONY!"
"Yes Kate?"
The End