Disclaimer: I do not own the characters to NCIS. They are owned by CBS. I'm placing this at Season 3, but it's been a long time since I've seen that season, please forgive me if I've overlooked anything and point them out in a review. I hope to make a few more chapters to make this feel like an entire episode. Enjoy.
Washington D.C in the fall. The leaves of the American Beech and American Elmwere turning beautiful shades of red and yellow as the wind brushed over the limbs taking hundreds away at a time where they fluttered and twirled before landing in the green grass of a park. This park had a jungle gym, slides, monkey bars and many children playing on them with their parents watching or reading their books or playing on their phones. Down a concrete path around the play area walked a man in silence. He wasn't conspicuous, just a man in a gray windbreaker jacket and no hat showing his short, well groomed black hair over a set of dark brown eyes. The man was lean, trim with a fair complexion and walked with a slow stride. In his right hand was a thick, worn book with a faded blue cover. He sat down on a park bench across from the playground just a stone's throw away and cracked open the book to a bookmarked page and began reading while hunched forward in his seat. His eyes went over the characters being defined carefully, trying to picture the scenes in his head with the well-crafted characters and dialog. The words were warming to his body as he was teleported from the park and into a whole new world, but just minutes into his relaxing venture there was a high pitched squeal that perked his ears coming from a little girl a short distance away. She had kicked her ball and it went bouncing towards the man by accident. With one hand he caught the ball and held it as the little girl came bounding up with her small hands reaching out for it and a beaming smile on his face, "Thank you!" she said, but as she was about to take the ball back the man's eyes caught something moving out of the corner of his right eye and his head jerked in that direction. A figure had emerged from thin air and in his hand was a small pistol. Dropping his book and the ball, the man rose up, grabbed the little girl, and spun her away from the threat-putting himself between her and the weapon.
BANG!
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open revealing NCIS Agent Anthony DiNozzo in a fine business suit and dark tie, his brown hair short but a bit of spike to it holding in one hand a cup of hot coffee and the other his brief case. Walking side by side with his partner Ziva, the former Israeli Mossad agent also carrying a cup of coffee. During the whole elevator ride up they had been talking about movies with Ziva saying, "I've noticed that the American cinemas have put out more remakes lately. Why is that?"
"Companies can't come up with any new ideas, so they put the knife to old ones and tell them to dance" DiNozzo replied with a bit of disdain. He loved movies, watching the same ones over and over until they were engraved in his mind to the point he would recite lines repeatedly, but was disheartened to see so many remakes that butchered the ones he loved. To him, every one of them was just a rip off. "You can't remake classics, Ziva" DiNozzo replied as he placed his suitcase onto his desk and turned back towards her still holding his coffee in his left hand. "They tried to remake the Wizard of Oz, and look how that turned out."
Holding up a slender, yet deadly, finger to him Ziva replied, "Some remakes are good. Like the 'Dawn of the Dead' where the zombies can run. I'll admit, I got a little nervous when that husband turned and broke through the bathroom door."
"Oh?" DiNozzo furrowed an eyebrow, "Did you get scared?" smiling at her.
"I don't get scared" she replied, "You should know that."
"Right," he nodded, "Well then, how would you feel if they remade…" his eyes glanced up at the ceiling trying to come up with a good one. "Oh! Princess Bride! A classic. The perfect movie for everyone; a bit of action, sword fighting, magic…"
"And romance" Ziva smirked before lifting her cup to her lips and taking another hot sip.
"…I was getting to that" he hesitantly responded.
Knowing that he was holding back, Ziva sat on the edge of her desk, "Cary Elwes makes a dashing pirate" in a bid to make DiNozzo jealous.
"Women only like him because of that accent" he huffed and looked away, silently wishing he had a distinct English accent.
"True!" Ziva replied.
Looking back at her DiNozzo said, "C'mon now, Ziva. What happens if they remade the Princess Bride? Gone will be Andre the Giant. Can you imagine anyone else say…" his feet spread shoulder width apart, switching his coffee to the right hand and pressing it forward and his left hand raised up and behind his head in a posture similar to Inigo Montoya's stance when confronting the Six-Fingered Man as his voice dropped to mimic the Spanish accent as he stared intently at his partner, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father…"
"Prepare to die" a commanding voice shook him from his vision and returned to a rigid state. It was coming from Agent Gibbs, their boss. He marched in with a commanding aura around him with his strong figure, combed silver hair, and rugged face and steel blue eyes. He went for his desk and removed his sidearm from one of the drawers and clipped it to his belt. "A sailor was shot in Emery Park," Gibbs said going towards the elevator with DiNozzo and Ziva following close behind, "Ducky and McGee will meet us there."
The three rode together to the park and along the way McGee sent a text message to DiNozzo that he read to the others, "Newbie says 'There was a little girl involved in the shooting. She is safe and with her parents at the park". It was hard to miss with the area taped off by police and crowds of people all around it making a wall of its own. Approaching the perimeter they showed their badges and signed a sheet before being allowed in. There was Ducky with his stone colored Fedora hat styled safari hat standing beside the park bench where it happened. It was surprising to see Mallard and his assistant Jimmy actually there before them, but wasn't there was the body, an item DiNozzo quickly pointed out after taking off his sunglasses, "Where's the sailor?" If there wasn't a body, then why were they here?
"He's alive" Ducky replied taking off his glasses, "Quite fortunate, really. Good Samaritans stopped the bleeding, but he will be touch-in-go. The bullet just missed his heart."
"And the girl?" Gibbs said in a whisper.
Ducky pointed with two fingers over to a large tree where at the base a mother and father were holding onto the girl tightly as she held onto her ball. "Ziva. DiNozzo, go talk to the parents and the little girl" Gibbs said.
"On it, boss" DiNozzo replied.
"McGee is talking to witnesses, or those that stuck around. From what they have said; this man came up to the two of them and pulled out a pistol. The sailor grabbed the girl and put his body in front of her own" his eyes slowly fell onto the spot where the sailor fell. His tone was mixed with a bit of sadness and joy, sadness at being shot but that the man survived and the little girl as well.
There was a dark spot on the concrete-blood from the sailor Gibbs stared at it intently trying to put together this attack, but he was missing key pieces of the puzzle and here came the answers in McGee with notepad in hand.
"Boss, I spoke to over twenty eyewitnesses including a nurse that helped the victim," his eyes looking at the pad of paper where he jotted down everything, "From what they said, this man in a dark gray shirt, long blonde hair in a ponytail, sunglasses, and running pants came up to the sailor and the little girl, fired a single shot from a small silver pistol and then took off running to the west" pointing over Gibb's right shoulder. "He didn't say anything and didn't take anything from the victims." Closing the pad and sliding it into his jacket's breast pocket he asked, "Is this a terror attack? A lone wolf prowling the area looking for random victim?"
Gibbs didn't respond immediately. Ducky had walked away while McGee was talking and came back a moment later with something in an evidence bag, the book the sailor was reading. "He was reading this," Ducky said handing the book to Gibbs.
Holding it in the palm of his hand Gibbs looked at the face, it was a fad fabric blue so he looked at the spine, "The Caine Mutiny" a classic Navy book set during the Second World War about the relief of a captain with a questionable mental state by one of his subordinates during a typhoon. "This isn't a lone wolf" he said staring at the book as if able to read the text through the cover, "This is personal. One of these two was the target of a personal hit."