Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

A/N: Thanks to all that have read, followed, reviewed or favorited 'Out of Sequence' already! Please read now the final part, you'll probably recognize a few scenes from earlier episodes.

Still sitting on his couch, holding his aching head, Gibbs tried to concentrate. He was still deprived of his daily coffee intake, and with the probable concussion, even a shot of Bourbon was out.

What had Ari Haswari's friend Sergei Mishnev in mind? He was more than messing with Gibbs family and friends. Diane was dead, and he didn't know who was next. Ari's game had been to drive Gibbs to kill himself. It hadn't worked then. Killing Kate had not made him suicidal in the least. Well, apart from mutating into Captain Ahab. Today he'd already filled his quota of descent into folly. Tony would not let him do it again anytime soon, even if the whole team was straining at the leash to avenge Diane. Curiously his ex-wife had made friends among his extended team, Ziva in particularly had liked working with Agent Stirling, and so had Abby. Earlier today he'd walked in on Palmer declaring "No!" to Ducky. Because losing another friend of their close knit community had pushed the younger M.E. to the brink, and maybe beyond. He'd watched numbly as Jimmy walked to the wall, before walking himself over to Ducky's side, there where the body bag awaited handling.

Gibbs knew he'd been acting strange for hours. He'd walked around with Diane's blood on his face, in his ear, on his clothes, and his team had let him be. Until he'd grabbed his keys to drive over to Tobias. Then Tony had collared him and marched him to the bathroom. His second in command had not let him leave before he'd gotten every speck cleaned off. Even if he'd been sidetracked on the way there, Gibbs was glad Tony had his six. He couldn't imagine, if he'd shown up covered in Diane's blood at Fornell's place. It was hard enough to tell Tobias that their ex-wife had died in his arms. Then watch a heartbroken Tobias tell his daughter that they had lost her mother.

Gibbs had never liked or trusted electronic records. And now he was royally screwed, there was too much information about himself and those he cared for available in the NCIS electronic vaults. Those that IT-Kevin had helped breach, his only saving grace that he had changed his mind about selling the program. Nevertheless, the program had been run, easily penetrating the isolation, jumping firewalls ... Gibbs hadn't followed that explanation too well. Kevin had helped Abby clean up the virus, but now it seemed it had not only messed with their computers, the program had given Sergei access to secured files, his in particular, and those who had worked with him.

Abby was still working on identifying which files had been poached, on top of Gibbs' personnel file. Mike Franks, Jennifer Sheppard, Caitlin Todd, how deeply had those files been penetrated?

That poor Navy officer murdered like Mike Franks, was he just a placeholder? Was Sergei telling him he was going after Mike's family? Then the female Captain, bled out like Jenny, surrounded by four other bodies in the diner. How had he not seen the parallel immediately? But he had never seen the bodies on the original crime scene, although Tony had. Hearing Abby retell the shooting in a weird echo of the then Assistant Director Vance was bound to bring up the nightmares that had plagued him after Jenny died. Not that he expected to escape the new nightmares any time soon.

Was Ziva in danger? He hoped the NCIS files had not been amended to show who had truly shot her half-brother. He wondered distractedly how Doctor Bashan had known the truth. Maybe Eli had told his never-to-be daughter-in-law? Would warning Ziva do Sergei's work for him? Was she better off out of touch? Or was she already involved? He remembered her cryptic goal "Stop this for him." She had said "him" was Gibbs, but the rest remained unclear.

Gibbs was trying to think who else was in danger outside of his NCIS family, simply by a mention in a case-file attributed to his name.

Stephanie Bronwyn Flynn of course, both ex-wife and once a major witness in a case. But she no longer lived in DC, and they had not been in touch since she'd moved. He'd get Tony to whistle up police protection for her and her sister's family. Discreetly, and safely outside of anything related to NCIS.

Then there was his goddaughter, she was a dependent in Mike's file. How was he going to protect Amira and her mother Leyla? Maybe he'd ask Leon to get in touch with Shada Shakarji? He couldn't risk sending an NCIS Agent to pick them up. The constellation was too close to what happened to Shannon and Kelly.

That last thought had been too much. Gibbs barely made it to the kitchen sink before throwing up. He was still heaving when Tony showed up, and handed him a wet towel. DiNozzo didn't ask if he was okay. For once Tony was keeping quiet, with that worried face he almost never let show.

He'd refused to get checked out at the hospital, after being knocked out earlier. But when Ducky arrived at the scene, he'd looked at Gibbs and decreed that he was on an hourly concussion check, and not to be left alone. Tony had dogged his every step since they had left together. After telling Fornell to stay put over the phone, Tony had taken Gibbs keys and driven him over.

All the people he'd lost, had left deep craters in his soul. And now Diane was dead too. He would probably never forgive himself. Oh, he knew the theory ... it was not his fault. But it felt like it was. Gibbs carefree words to a Mafia boss who had threatened to kill his family long ago came to haunt him now: "My father's dead, but I can give you the address of my exes!"

He'd never meant it, yet his father was dead and buried, and his ex-wives were targets now! A low moan escaped Gibbs' tightly closed lips. Once more he saw himself lowering Diane, her body ... he needed to get a grip. He knew Ducky had talked about cranial trauma only, as he'd have refused treatment for shock. Even to himself he wanted to deny the emotional trauma, but it wasn't working.

NCIS had become a fortress, since everyone he'd ever worked with was a potential target. Yet he'd gone home, to the house Diane had inhabited for a time. His human anti-depressant after he'd been alone for less than a year as a widower. He'd never meant to get her hurt, not then, and certainly not now. And he'd catastrophically failed.

- finis -