A short story written for Gibbs' Rules challenge on NFA.
I don't own NCIS.
Never Be Unreachable
The blow that rained down on his body made him fall to his knees. He might have been a marine but he wasn't invincible, and even Gibbs would have a hard time fighting off an ambush of five people in the dark. He saw the flash of silver in one man's hand and the next thing he knew was a sharp pain in his side. His vision started to go blurry as he touched his hand to his side feeling the warmth of blood pulsating through severed veins and arteries.
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Gibbs sat up in bed and yawned. He'd spent last night (what little of it he could remember) in a bar with some of his friends in the Marines celebrating their return home from Kuwait. He'd left around 11.30 and then come home to his wife. It was a relief to be back here in America, not having to worry about when the next attack would come. He rolled over and saw his beautiful wife lying next to him; she had been so overjoyed that he was back.
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The men's panicked hushed tones only just registered in his brain.
"What did you do that for? We only wanted the money."
"My hand just slipped guys, okay? You shouldn't have been jostling me."
"Oh man, he's dying. Look, this is serious guys; I didn't sign up for this."
"Run."
"Run?"
"Yeah, let's get out of here quick."
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He dressed quickly and walked down to the kitchen and put two pieces of toast in the toaster. He leaned against the counter just looking round at the kitchen until his eyes stopped on the unplugged phone. He sighed and then went over to plug it back in.
He had yanked it out last night after he had gotten back and his wife had looked at him strangely. "No interruptions tonight," he had said and she had grinned back at him. The answering machine was beeping, two new messages, so he pressed play.
"Hey Gibbs," he recognised the voice as one of the men in his squad. "You should get down to the hospital immediately. They've taken Sampson in, he was stabbed walking home, and they don't think he's going to make it. Just…." There was a pause, "when you get this you should probably come in." The man hung up.
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The men scattered, running out of the dirty alley but it didn't concern him much as he struggled to breathe and blood bubbled up out of his mouth. All the colours started to fade except for the bright red of the blood painting his body accompanying the metallic smell drifting around the alley. He tried to get up and made it onto his knees before he collapsed again.
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Gibbs stood there in shock. They were marines, they were used to death but it wasn't supposed to happen here. They were risking their life for the country, if someone died over there it was never okay, but it wasn't a total shock. But to die at the hand of some of the people you were fighting to protect, well….. it was just wrong. He left a note for his wife on the side and then got in the car to drive to the hospital.
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His vision started swimming as he thought heard wailing of an ambulance. A few seconds later bright blue and red lights flickered down the alley as people rushed down calling to him. Why couldn't they just be quiet? He tried to open his mouth to tell them that but no words came out.
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Gibbs walked up to the hospital desk.
"I'm here about Paul Sampson, he was brought in last night, stabbing."
"Okay," the woman behind the desk, looking bored and clicking the mouse a few times. She paused, reading the screen for a minute before she looked up at him with compassion in her eyes.
"I'm sorry sir, but he didn't make it. He only survived about half an hour after he was brought in." Gibbs swallowed, turned around an left the hospital. He took to the road and just kept driving fast, going to no where in particular. He finally made his way home to the smell of burnt toast in the air. He noticed his phone was still beeping and that there was another message. He pressed play and started as he heard Sampson's voice coming through the phone.
"Hey Gibbs, don't worry, I was going to ask you if you could give me a lift home, I'm not really in the right kind of state to be driving but as you're occupied never mind. I'll just walk or get a cab or something. See you on Monday."
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They man handled him onto a stretcher pleading with him to stay awake but try as he might the call of the peaceful darkness was to strong. His last thoughts before he went were that he shouldn't have walked home, it was idiotic, he should have just taken the damn cab.
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Gibbs stared at the phone like he'd never seen it before. He had turned off his phone for one evening, just one. He had been unreachable for one night and it had cost a good man his life.
Hope you enjoyed it.