Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters.
Chase
Anthony DiNozzo kept running through the underbrush of the dense forest in a full out sprint, gracefully avoiding the trees in his path. By now he could hear his own heartbeat pound in his ears and his lungs burned with the intense effort. He knew they had to catch up to their suspect soon, the sun had already set and the forest around them was almost completely dark.
Without missing a step, he glanced quickly to his left, where he saw his partner, not even two feet behind. "What do you think tipped him off?" He asked, fixing his eyes back on the darkening path. They were supposed to bring in the prime suspect in the murder of two naval officers. Andrew Connor. They had received a hit on their BOLO late this afternoon and he and Ziva had gone to check it out. When they´d arrived at the Roadside Diner, they´d found Connor´s car in the parking lot. But something must have tipped him off, because when they entered the Diner, he had already made his way out the back. By the time they´d made it to the back door, they could just see how their suspect disappeared in the woods behind the restaurant. And then they gave chase.
"I do not know," Ziva stated, slightly speeding up to run right next to her partner. "Maybe he could smell us coming, yes?"
"You mean he could see us coming." He corrected her in his usual manner.
She turned her head towards him and gave him a quick smirk, "I suppose if he was seated at the window, he could have seen us coming. But if you did not take a shower this morning, it is also entirely possible that he could have smelled us coming."
He chanced another side wards glance at her, amusement shining in his eyes. "You're a weird chick, David." Then his expression turned serious and with his right hand he pointed straight ahead. "I can see a clearing just up ahead. We should be able to see him again, once we break through the trees."
Once they stepped out into the open, their vision improved, the fading light of the evening sky not being obscured by the trees. They stopped for just a second to take in their surroundings and the whereabouts of their suspect. The clearing stretched out about sixty feet before them, going slightly downhill. At the end of the clearing they could see a bridge stretching over a thirty feet drop, leading back into the forest on the other side. There seemed to be no water running underneath, just a dried out riverbed. The Bridge was entirely made of concrete and featured a low concrete wall on both sides, about hip high, which was construed to be the railing. They could see Connor now, at the end of the clearing, stepping foot on the bridge. Tony quickly drew his weapon and set off in a dead run after him, knowing Ziva would follow suit. Sure enough, after only three strides he could hear her voice, "We cannot let him get to the other side, Tony. If he reaches the forest, he will actually have a chance to disappear in the dark."
"Yeah, you´re right," Tony stated, making his way down the slope. "I was just thinking the same thing. Also, I´m really not in the mood to keep chasing this clown any longer, we´ll take him down once we get on that bridge." They both knew, they couldn´t let Connor get away. They knew exactly how dangerous he could be, having both seen the badly beaten bodies of the two dead officers. And the evidence they had against him left no doubt, Connor was the one responsible.
Upon setting foot on the concrete they both stopped running and aimed their weapons at Connor´s thigh, preparing to take the shot if need be. Their suspect had made it half way across the bridge, "Federal Agents. Hold it right there, Connor, or I will shoot you," Tony yelled, hoping to stop Connor, before this went any further. Connor however didn't slow down, so he fired a couple of warning shots just above Connor´s head, which seemed to have the desired effect as it brought him to a dead stop, right next to the railing on the left side, with his arms raised above his head, "ok, ok, just stop shooting at me, you crazy cop."
Using a voice which left no room for suggestion, Ziva demanded, "Turn around and keep your hands up over your head," as they slowly moved closer, their guns never wavering. Connor followed her order and slowly turned to face them. As they got within fifteen feet of him, Tony stood back, with his gun still trained on their killer. He motioned his head sideways towards Connor. Ziva instantly understood what he wanted her to do. Still approaching, she holstered her Sig as she came within arm reach. Just as she was about to search him for possible weapons, Connor slung his left arm around her neck, simultaneously turning her with his right to face her partner, using his superior muscle strengths to hold her tight by pressing her body into his, effectively using her as a shield. At the action, Tony took two steps towards Connor and his newly acquired hostage, "let her go Connor. Now! You´ll only regret it." As if on cue, Ziva reacted by bringing her heel down hard on Connor´s right foot and ramming her elbow into his rips with brute force. The blow had Connor stumbling backwards, but his left arm was still firmly locked around Ziva´s throat, who tried to loosen his grip with her own hands. Tony´s eyes widened in shock when he saw Connor lose his balance as his thighs made contact with the concrete wall. As Tony realized what was going to happen next, he started immediately towards the both of them, just as Connor went sideways over the railing, taking Ziva with him.
"Damn it," Tony screamed, as he holstered his gun mid stride, reaching out for his partner. While she was falling backwards, Ziva had finally managed to loosen Connor´s hold on her throat. Hearing the desperate scream of the man behind her, she frantically swung both her arms forward and narrowly managed to hold on to the railing. As she looked up, Tony was already there, bracing his legs on the low wall, bending over and reaching for her arms. He encircled both of her wrists firmly with his hands, just as she let go of the railing to grab his wrists in turn. Locking eyes with his partner and trying to mask the concern he had felt for her only a second ago, he sported a half smile and managed, "you ok there, ninja?" Looking back at him, holding his gaze, she replied, "I will be, Tony. Once you pull me back up." He nodded his head in agreement, but before he could even move a muscle a shot rang out. And then another.
In his mad attempt to get to Ziva he had lost track of Connor. As the sound of the first gunshot reached his ears, his eyes darted to the riverbed below. Tony could see Connor sitting on the ground and even in the dim lighting he could clearly recognize that both of his legs were broken. Connor´s face was distorted in pain, but this just seemed to fuel the white hot anger in his eyes as he aimed his weapon at them. "The bastard has a gun." Tony stated the obvious, he knew. "Hold on, Ziva." Then, in one fluid motion, he tightened his grip around Ziva´s right wrist with his left hand, at the same time letting go of her with his right, reaching back to draw his gun. Ziva gasped in surprise at the sudden loss of his secure grip, now only being held by his left arm. She trusted that he knew what he was doing, but she still tried to help him by grasping on to the railing once again with her left hand, trying to deflect part of her weight off of her partner. As she heard the second shot ring out, she lifted up her head to look at her partner, gasping again, but this time in shock, as she saw blood trenching Tony´s black sweatshirt, making its way slowly down his right arm. He didn´t even seem to notice though, as he quickly aimed his gun and fired two shots of his own in rapid succession. Tony didn´t take his eyes off of Connor as he saw his bullets hit home, double tap, and his opponent went down. Only when he saw Connor´s gun slip through his lax fingers, he dropped his own weapon next to his feet, so he could reach for Ziva once again.
While he was reaching for her left arm, his gaze locked with hers and he saw something flash in her eyes; concern, guilt? "You are bleeding, Tony," she stated, as he firmly encircled her wrist. First, his brow drew together in confusion, but at his first attempt to pull her up, he felt the agonizing pain for the first time, piercing through his right shoulder and arm, taking the air out of his lungs. Gasping for breath, he looked down at the damage and ground out through gritted teeth "aww, hell" before bracing his legs once more against the railing so he could start to slowly pull Ziva back up and over. When her stomach came to rest on top of the wall, she brought up her right leg to assist and pushed herself over the rest of the way.
They fell back onto the bridge together, Tony on his back and Ziva on her stomach, landing half way on top of him, her head on his chest, both of them breathing heavily. Between breaths and through the blinding pain in his arm Tony managed to say, "You didn´t think I was gonna drop you, did ya? Because, when I let go of your arm you looked kinda scared there, for a second," He would never admit it out loud, but he needed her reassurance, needed to hear that she trusted him. Because truth be told, he would have rather gone over the railing with her, than let go of her arm. Still panting herself and still resting on his chest, trying to catch her breath, she replied honestly, "No, I did not believe you would drop me. You just surprised me. That is all." She lifted up her head, to look into his eyes, letting him see the truth in them, "I do trust you, Tony."
Upon hearing her words he gave her a genuine smile. Then he suddenly screwed his eyes shut as another slicing stab of pain went through his arm. He tried to take slow deep breaths as the nausea hit, trying to breathe through it. Ziva noticed that his face seemed to have lost all color. She quickly sat up onto her knees, "I have to take a look at your arm," she stated, as she unzipped his sweatshirt and moved his right sleeve off of his shoulder, exposing the wound to her, "try not to move, Tony, this will probably hurt." With some effort, he managed to open his eyes and look up at her, "it´s ok. I trust ya." At his statement, she took her eyes off his wound for a second and shot him a quick smile in acknowledgment of the words she had used herself, only moments before. Then she went back down to business.
She heard his sharp intake of breath, when she lifted his elbow of the ground carefully and with her free hand slowly felt around the back of his upper arm for the exit wound. She found it almost immediately.
He opened only one of his eyes, giving her the best smile he could muster under the circumstances and trying to mask the pain he was in but not fully succeeding, he asked, "So Ziva, how long exactly have you been waiting for a reason to undress me and feel me up?"
A short sound of laughter escaped her throat, as she stared at him in disbelieve. Leave it to Tony to describe the examination of a gunshot wound as an enjoyable experience. She quickly recovered and stated confidently, "hmm, if I wanted to undress you and feel you up Tony, I would not need a reason, I would just do so." Lifting up a finger in front of his face, she continued, "and do not, even for one second, believe you would have the willpower to stop me." Secretly she was relieved to hear him joking around. As long as his humor was still intact, things were not too bad.
Wiping her bloody hands on her jeans, her face grew serious once again, as she unzipped her own hooded sweater, "ok, the entry wound is about four inches from your shoulder, on your upper arm. It is almost half an inch in diameter, which means the bullet was probably a 9mm. I also found the exit wound, Tony. It seems to me, the projectile missed your humerus, but I cannot tell for sure. And you are losing blood, so I will try and stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down," she explained, as she took off her sweater and the long sleeve shirt she was wearing underneath. She was still wearing another t-shirt and quickly put her sweater back on over it. She used the long sleeve shirt to form a makeshift bandage around Tony´s upper arm, securing it tightly and as best as she could. He was just about to make another comment about her, stripping off for him, when he suddenly had to gasp for breath and screw his eyes shut against the pain, all rational thought leaving his mind. The only thing he could feel was the agony elicited by the pressure she put on his wound. She could see the pain clearly etched on his face and wished there was something more she could do for him, "I am sorry Tony, but I have to make sure it will hold until we get you out of here," she stated, while she pulled his sweater back over his shoulder and zipped it up again.
He desperately tried to calm down and fight off the pain by deeply breathing in and out. When it finally eased off somewhat, he let out a groan as he pushed himself up on his left elbow, cradling his right arm close to his chest, looking at her and giving her a tired smile, "it´s ok Ziva, I´ll be fine. And thanks to you, I´m not leaking so badly anymore," he said, while fumbling around in his jeans pocket with his left hand, producing his cell phone. "We should probably call Gibbs though."
Quickly standing up, she got out her own cell phone, as she suggested, "I will call Gibbs. You should rest for now, Tony. We are probably going to have to walk back to the Diner, since they can hardly bring the ambulance out here to pick you up."
As she pressed her speed dial for Gibbs, she watched as Tony slowly turned himself around, leaning back against the wall, closing his eyes in pain and exhaustion. She could see the fatigue on his pale face. His skin was clammy and his breathing rapid.
He must have felt her eyes on him, because she heard him say, "I´m fine Ziva, I told you. Just talk to Gibbs and then we´ll get out of here," but his voice lacked conviction.
"You are not fine, Tony," she stated, while trying to keep the worry out of her voice, but not fully succeeding. "You are losing blood and you look like crap."
"Who looks like crap?" Gibbs´ voice sounded gruffly in her ear, repeating her last statement. "And where the hell are you?"
Quickly reigning in her unwanted emotions, Ziva started her report, "We are currently about a mile south east of the Diner, where Connor was seen. He must have spotted us, because he ran out the back, before we even entered the restaurant. We chased him to our current location, you can tell McGee to triangulate our signal, he will be able to tell you where exactly."
"We´re already on it, Ziva. What else?" His voice sounded impatient to his own ears, but his gut told him that Ziva hadn´t delivered the bad news yet.
"You will need to send another team to our location. Connor is dead, Gibbs. He had a gun and we had to take him out. Also, you should have the EMT´s waiting for us at the Diner. Tony was shot."
At her last statement, Gibbs brought his left hand to the bridge of his nose, "of course he was," he mumbled sarcastically into his phone, knowing that if the injury was life threatening Ziva wouldn´t have wasted time with any explanation at all.
"Hey, I heard that, Boss," Tony´s voice sounded from his spot on the ground, as he lifted his head slightly and shot Ziva an irritated look. She just shrugged her shoulders at him.
Gibbs had heard his Agent´s voice in the background, but ignored it altogether when he asked, "how bad is it? Do you need a Medivac?"
Looking back at Tony, he shook his head at her in answer to Gibbs´ question, so she explained, "The bullet went through his right shoulder, there is an exit wound, but I cannot tell for sure if there is any damage to the bone, Gibbs. But he is being stubborn as usual, he wants to walk back." She ignored her partner when he rolled his eyes at her last statement.
"Sounds about right," Gibbs tersely replied. "What do you think? Is he up for it?"
"I stilled the bleeding as best as I could and the walk is not too long. I believe he should be fine. We are going to make our way back now, but it is going to take us some time since it is almost completely dark out here."
"Ok, we got your exact location. McGee and I are on the way. I´ll have the EMT´s waiting for you. Also I´ll bring Ducky and another team to collect Connor´s body. If you run into trouble on your way back, let me know."
As the line went dead, Ziva pocketed her phone and turned her attention back to her partner, "Ok Tony, Gibbs is on the way. It is time to get you out of here." At her last statement she bent down towards him, reaching for his left hand she slowly pulled him into a standing position. As he swayed on his feet for a second, she eyed him suspiciously, "are you sure, you are alright?"
"I´m peachy, Ziva, aside from the small hole in my arm," he replied sarcastically, "come on, let´s get going."
He only took one step, before he was stopped by her voice, not missing the urgency in it, "Wait Tony, there is something I need to say." He turned around to face her once more, recognizing the same emotions in her eyes he had seen there earlier, when she had first realized he was shot. Still, he waited for her to continue, "I am sorry, Tony. This," she said, gesturing towards his cradled arm, "is my fault. If I would have reacted faster, none of this would have happened."
He moved forward until he stood right in front of her, his face only inches from hers, looking directly into her eyes as he replied in an exasperated tone, "ok, that is crazy. This was not your fault, Ziva. If anything if I had reacted faster he wouldn´t have been able to grab you in the first place."
She still looked unsure of herself, so he reached for her hand in the dimming light, squeezing it tightly, but not taking his eyes from hers, "Thank you" he said quietly, "for looking out for me, and for caring. But there is absolutely no reason you should feel guilty over this."
She searched his eyes for the truth and once she found what she was looking for she nodded her head once in agreement, squeezing his hand in turn to let him know she understood.
After a long moment, he noticed that he was still holding on to her. He cleared his throat, reluctantly letting go of her hand he tried to force his feelings back below the surface by using his usual glib humor, "What do you say we get out of here, before Gibbs sends search and rescue after us?"
"Why do you say us, Tony? I do not need to be rescued," she replied smugly as she started walking.
"Ha," he playfully shot back at her, "you could have fooled me when you were dangling off that bridge back there."
"I was not dangling, Tony. I was just…," she paused as she seemingly searched for the best way to finish her sentence.
"Exercising? Enjoying the view? Breathing the fresh air?" he supplied helpfully, all the while grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
She turned and gave his left shoulder a gentle shove, while they slowly made their way back up the slope. They were both content to just continue their light hearted banter.
At least for now.
The End