WILD CARD

NCIS- flippy325

Half-drunk Special Agent Anthony 'Tony' Dinozzo walks up to a blonde at the counter of a bar, downtown. He does smile #29 at her, then successfully asking her out. Then she threw her drink at him without hesitation.Feeling the alcohol running down his shirt, he wakes up from his dream.

Slowly opening his eyes, the sun shone in through the window blinding his eyes. He lifted his arm to block the sun, but accidentally knocking over the vase. Then finally realizing he wasn't alone in the room. Beside his bed were Gibbs, McGee, Abby and Ducky who were just about to leave. As he shuffled into a sitting position, they noticed that he was awake. Then he was greeted with two words: "You're awake!"

"Where am I?" he asked finally recovering consciousness.

"At the hospital." Gibbs answered sleepily.

"Where's Kate?"

After turning his head to look at the others, Gibbs answered, "She died almost 2 months ago, during the shoot-out against Ari Haswari and you were injured which sent you into a coma."

"Kate's dead?" pausing for a second then starting again "So I didn't imagine it?"

"You dream about Kate?!" they all asked.

"No, and that's besides the point." he answered.

"What happened to Ari?"

"I shot him." Gibbs answered bluntly.

"When can I get out of here?"

"Tomorrow, if your tests tell us that you're fine.But we're giving you a sick leave."

"Where's Kate buried?"

"Where every other agent is buried. And Tony, there's a new agent at NCIS."

Special Agent Dinozzo's car pulled out of the driveway and drove for a while until it reached the gate of the cemetery. As it drove into the car park, he felt a quick but distinct shudder. It felt to him as if Kate was there … with him. He approached the grave and kneeled in front. The grass felt as if it shuffled around him.

"Kate, why did you have to die?" Then he paused as if he was waiting for her to answer." You must have known somewhere in your brain that I loved you." His tears dropped heavier and quicker than it had ever done before. He had never felt so sad before in his life. Not even when his dad died.

He kneeled there for over an hour then he walked back to his car and drove away.

For the next 2 weeks of his sick leave he spent most of his time dozing off on the sofa or watching movies. Occasionally, he goes back to his local bar to get drunk. Then he returned back to NCIS since he could no longer bear it any longer. He was first greeted by Abby with a big hug and he almost hoped he would get another one. The NCIS Squad room hadn't changed at all. Except Kate's table is now empty, and Gibbs wasn't there. At first he thought that he might be in MTAC with the Director. But then he realized that McGee wasn't there also. So he spent the rest of the day in Abby's lab. Since she has the ability to do many things at once, Abby kept Dinozzo entertained while she was working on the current case. A dead marine found in the engine turbine of Flight 816. Dinozzo would have joined in on the case but he was very busy dozing off… with Bert the farting hippo. Abby, however, was working away on the fragments fount inside the engine.

About 2 hours later, Gibbs and McGee entered the room and found Dinozzo sleeping near the freezer. As they and Abby were talking, Dinozzo finally woke up.

"Hey!" he said cheerfully.

"Dinozzo." Gibbs answered, not even half as cheerful as Dinozzo.

"Dinozzo." McGee answered, this time it was just a quiet whimper.

'What's up with Probie?"

"Bad day. GF dumped him." Agent Ziva David answered while entering the room. "Oh hey, Ziva David." she said, finally noticing Dinozzo.

"Hey, Anthony Dinozzo. Call me Tony." he said while flashing one of his smiles.

"Gibbs, Webber's not cracking," she stated, ignoring Tony's last remark.

"I'm going up."

"50 on Gibbs." McGee said, following Gibbs out the door.

"Deal," Ziva said while following McGee.

Of course, McGee won the bet since this is basically what had happened in the 20 minutes of hell (For the suspect) in the interrogation room:

"Who are you protecting?" demanded Gibbs.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The bullet we found at the crime scene matches your gun. But the thing is, we found another pair of prints on the weapon. Either you tell us, or we'll find out."

"I guess you'll have to find out."

"We will, and when we do the charges are heavier, for you and the person you're protecting."

"I am willing to take that risk."

"Before or after you get shot?" he asked while drawing his handgun from the holster.

"Before," he answered.

"Choose again," he said while clocking the safety switch and aiming at Webber.

"Okay, I'm just 30, I don't want to die. That's the only reason I'll talk."

"Spill or there'll be blood, your blood."

"Okay, his name is John Reed; he hangs out at the abandoned warehouse near Wisconsin."

"Now you cooperate, only after I put your life on the line."

The place was torched, Reed was injured; he tried to commit suicide.

Later in the squad room, McGee was still melancholy about the break-up, that was until he received his cash (they doubled to 100) and received dating tips from Dinozzo who was once again bragging about his latest one night stand.