Very small short that came to me when I was at work. I hope you like.
Ziva crouched in the undergrowth, her gun held tightly as the rain began to fall harder, obscuring the surrounding area. It had been drizzling all day, a dull mist that clung to everything it touched, drenching within moments.
A small curl of hair was plastered along her forehead, but that didn't matter, since the rest of her was soaked too. Muffling a groan, she slumped down until she was sitting on the mud, her jeans providing little protection from the elements. She was caked with dirt from head to toe and wished the day, everything, was over with. She wasn't designed to run through woods for her life for 9 hours with no rest, no food and no water.
A branch snapped to her left, and she whirled around, the barrel of her gun pointing at the intruder unwavering.
"Easy David." Tony whispered softly, slipping down into the hollow beneath the large bushes and half-falling to lie beside her. "Just me."
"Glad to see you are still alive." She whispered, her eyes showing a small measure of concern.
"Who else?" Tony asked quickly. He had been holed down in the hollow trunk of a dead tree for the past two hours with no contact with anyone else. He could hear the snap and crackle of footsteps around him, but after losing his gun in the river, he had no choice but to lay low and wait for the enemy to pass.
Ziva's eyes went distant, and she took a deep breath. "Just you and me. Gibbs is gone. I had to leave him behind, Tony."
Tony's eyes went wide and he opened and closed his mouth in shock. "You have gotta be kidding me! Gibbs?!" He hissed. Ziva nodded again.
"Cynthia shot the Director an hour and a half ago. Palmer and Michelle got Gooser and Simmons."
Tony suddenly looked lost and he shook his head again. "That can't be right…they can't have gotten both of them!"
Ziva shrugged. "All I know is that they were gotten. I managed to get away and run. A round just grazed me." She lifted her arm and showed him the red that stained her coat.
"I can't believe this." Tony sighed finally. "No way can this be happening."
"Maybe you shouldn't have pushed them so hard, Tony. They are obviously better than you ever gave them credit for."
Tony looked more lost than ever. "I just never thought…McGee has never given any indication he'd be capable of this, Ziva. Never! Neither has Abby."
"Well, I guess all those pointers that Gibbs gave him sunk in." Ziva retorted angrily.
"And he repaid him by gunning him down." Tony added softly. "I take it that it was McGee that shot him?"
Ziva gave a curt nod, remembering the impact of the round against Gibbs's back. "It was. He was…he was laughing. Not out loud, but I could see it in his eyes."
"Why the hell didn't you shoot him back?" Tony hissed angrily. "If you were close enough to see his eyes then you were close enough to shoot him."
Ziva pursed her lips, biting back the angry retort. "Because I have no rounds left, Tony." She snapped finally, opening the clip of the gun. "See? Nothing. I used my last one to take out Edwards. What would you have liked me to do? Throw it at him?"
"You could have done something!" Tony growled angrily. "What about all that Mossad training? Doesn't that teach you how to take down rogue agents?"
"I don't have my knives, Tony, I don't have any ammunition and I am gravely outnumbered. My Training taught me that in that case, run, run, runaway, live to fight another day."
"Well, it looks like we won't be fighting another day." Tony replied glumly. "I fell in the river, I couldn't even tell you where my gun is."
"Have you any rounds?"
He was shaking his head before she had gotten past 'have'. "Nadda. Gone."
"Surrender?" Ziva asked softly, just as the rain began to let up.
"Never give up. Never Surrender." Tony answered darkly. Ziva's eyebrows knitted together.
"Galaxy Quest?"
Despite their situation, Tony was impressed. "Wow, you actually got that one. I'm surprised."
"Not as surprised as I am." Ziva replied, her eyes focused on something past his left shoulder. There was a loud popping sound and Tony lurched forwards, revealing the rest of McGee, with Michelle and Abby standing on either side of him.
"I'm sorry, Ziva. But there's no other way to do this." To give him credit, McGee looked sorry, even though Abby was bouncing on her toes and Michelle had a decidedly smug look on her face. She had just enough time to take a deep breath when the round left the chamber and hit her square in the middle of her chest, sending her toppling backwards.
She fought to catch a breath as Abby slid down the bank towards her and calmly untied the ribbon from around the Mossad Officer's arm, taking the radio from her belt and crowing happily into it; "Team Beta wins!" She slugged Tony in the shoulder and helped him stand. From the trees around them, others began to appear, having gathered to watch the last few moments of the game play out.
Gibbs was shaking his head ruefully, finding it hard to comprehend how a team made up primarily of lab technicians, medical examiner assistants and members of the law department had managed to take down three trained teams of Special Agents.
"Alright!" Jenny clapped her hands loudly. "Team Beta has won this years Paint-Ball Championship! Well done!"
"No hard feelings Tony?" Tim asked nervously as the older agent nursed his beer. Opposite Tony, Ziva was holding a towel with ice in it to her chest, her eyes trained on the nervous man's face. "Ziva?"
"You did very well out there McGee." Gibbs announced, sliding into the booth with a fresh round of drinks. "Very professional."
Tim gave a hesitant smile and swallowed the praise gratefully. "Thanks Boss."
"Shoot me again and I'll kill you." Tony growled, flicking the beer mat at him.
"Tony, it's a game."
"That I should have won."
"Yeah, but I won. So let it go."
"But-"
"Let it go DiNozzo." Gibbs growled warningly.
Sullenly, Tony slumped back down, feeling his back muscles wince in protest. "Yes Boss."
"David?"
Ziva shrugged. "I just want to know where he learned his tactics from. I know officers in Mossad who wouldn't have thought of half of the traps that you did."
Unable to help himself, McGee gave a small but smug smile. "Well…"
Around them, the people in the other booths were listening hard to try and find out his secrets.
"Well, you all know that my World of Warcraft moniker is Elflord, right?"
Gibbs gave a curt nod, wondering where this was going.
"Well, I also play with an elite group of players in an underground MORPG. Three American Generals, Captains, some FBI guys, I think one or two CIA, but they don't say where they work. One guy is a groundskeeper in Scotland…Guess what my moniker is there…"
Tony shook his head and let it hang forwards, afraid of the direction it was going. "What?!" he cried out, lifting his head just enough so he could see McGee's smug smile.
"I am the Commander-in-Chief. And I worked my way up the ranks, too!"
Around them all, a loud groan went up and a small smile turned up the corners of Gibbs's mouth. He should have guessed