Author's Note: Thanks again to the people who have been reading and reviewing to this story. I guess I was feeling particularly productive cause I am posting two chapters in one night. Who know at the rate that I am going I may just end up posting the ending tonight too. :)

Chapter Six

This couldn't be happening again. First Kate, then Abby, and now Ducky. Ducky wasn't stupid, he wouldn't have disobeyed his order not to leave the building without a reason, but what was the reason? There certainly was nothing here, nothing but rain and an empty residential street.

Before he had been mad, but now he was far from mad, he was worried, worried sick. Ducky was the closest thing that he had to a best friend. The only one who he suspected had even an inkling about what he felt for Kate. The cross around his neck was proof of that. All this was why he was now standing here in the rain, looking for something that wasn't there, yelling over the phone to McGee and Abby.

The moment he spotted the beer can with the bullet hole her voice came back. "It's going to happen again isn't it? Ducky's going to take a bullet for you." No it wasn't going to happen again. It couldn't, he wouldn't allow it. He tried to tell his mind this, tried to tell it that the Kate standing behind him was an illusion. Why the hell wasn't it working? Why couldn't she just go away until he had figured out where Ducky was, so that he wouldn't have to worry about going to the funeral of another member of his team.

"He won't kill Ducky." He said it out loud attempting to put his doubts to rest. He would find Ducky, and when he did the doctor would be alive and well and waiting to tell him some crazy story just like always. Kate though seemed to have other ideas. No she wasn't Kate, his Katie was dead and it was his fault. This was just a hallucination, a product of his deranged mind.

"Why not? Because you couldn't live with the guilt." Well it was true, he couldn't, and he shouldn't have to. God damn it, this is what happens when you let your feelings come to the surface. Feelings should be like lights, when you didn't want them on, they were simply off. None of this coming back to haunt you crap.

"Maybe Ari knows that. Maybe that's his plan." No. No, not even a sick bastard like Ari would do that to another human being. Wouldn't prescribe to such a cruel form of torture. This was the twenty-first century, things like that didn't happen anymore. "Maybe the only way to save Ducky, Abby and McGee is to kill yourself?"

It could be true, you couldn't cause pain to a dead person. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about it before, hadn't held the pistol in his lap and pointed it at his head. Hadn't felt the cold steel warm up from the heat of his body. Hadn't had the faces of his lost family flash before his eyes, begging him to join them in death. Was that what Kate was doing, asking him in some weird way to join her in the afterlife?

His breathing became gasping and he couldn't get enough air into his lungs. Guilt washed over him as easy as the rain that ran over his face, soaking his jacket, his shirt and undershirt. He couldn't think like that. Not again. The cross around his neck felt like a dead weight as it burned against his chest. Heaven wasn't for him. Heaven was for children and good men and women. Kate, Shannon, and Kelly, not him. Not for old grumpy bastards like him.

He wasn't going to die tonight, or if he was it wouldn't be at his own hand. Taking deep breaths he forced air into his lungs. Forced himself to focus on the rain that was falling, and running down the back of his neck as he half crouched. Pulling up his cell phone he dialed Ducky's speed dial number. He had to find those cell phones, and then he had to get back to headquarters and make sure that Abby and McGee were safe before he went out again.

--

She couldn't stop herself from smiling as she watched him cross the street and get into what had to be his boss's car. Tony DiNozzo apparently could be quite smart when he wanted to be. Sure she had known he was following her, but she had been sure that Gibbs would have put a tail on her, so she just let him follow. She had preformed the drop just like she had always done it, and had been both surprised and happy when he had figured it out.

She may have wanted Ari to be caught but there was no way that she was going to make it easy for the NCIS team. Though it seemed that she didn't need to worry about their abilities. She continued to watch from her position crouched in the dark in front of her window. It was too dark to see what was going on in the car, but she did see when he was kicked out, just in time for Gibbs to go chasing off after her colleague.

She watched for a few more minutes as he stood with his pizza box underneath the awning. He had to have flashed his badge at the doorman, or else he would have been kicked off the property long ago for loitering. She felt a little sorry for him, after all if she had really wanted to get out of the hotel she wouldn't have used the front door anyway, therefore his presence there was pretty pointless.

Leaving her position she went to the phone placing a call to Jenny before she went down stairs and purchased two espressos, she might as well make his job a little easier if he was planning on staying up all night. She might even open up to him a little, the secrets were pushing in on her, and it was time to let a few of the non important ones go.

--

For the time being his people were safe. Abby, McGee and Ducky were all back at NCIS headquarters. Tony was with Ziva and for the moment he could take care of himself. Plus he thought that is wasn't very likely that Air would try and contact Ziva, he had to know that she had become compromised, and was now at least half working with the NCIS team. The only person unaccounted for was one Director Jenny Shepard.

Sure she could take care of herself, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't feel better if he was covering her place. There had been times when he had thought about doing this with Kate, but he never had, he had been sure that if he had he would have ended up shot. He couldn't suppress the grin that formed on his face as he remembered their first meeting. He had no doubts that if he had pushed her buttons some more he probably would have ended up with at least a graze.

His cell interrupted his reminiscing and after hearing that McGee had Ari's address and license plate he knew that he could stand out here no longer. Which meant that she was going to come with him, if only because that was the only way that he could keep her safe. He suffered through their usual banter, and he had to admit amusement when she thought that he was asking her for sex.

He filled her in on the way to Ari's supposed house. He was certain that they wouldn't find him. It had all been too easy in a way, like it was just another case. That wasn't to say that their normal cases were easy they were normally anything but. Though nothing could compare to this and Gibbs's knew that he never wanted anything to compare. He may have seemed stable but he still remembered Kate in the park asking him to kill himself, remembered actually taking the time to think about weather or not he should do it.

When he saw the license plate he knew that trouble was just beginning and he readied his weapon, though he didn't suspect the shot that was aimed at Jen. She wasn't supposed to be here, no one knew she was but him. What would make someone aim for the passenger side of his car when no one was even supposed to be there.

He hit the gas now was not the time to think about the why now was time to act and kill before he himself was killed. The shots rang out from both Jen and himself, the muzzle flashes gave light in the darkness and their man fell. It was only when they rolled him over that they found out that it wasn't Ari. What the hell was going on?

--

Ziva marched into Director Shepard's office, but she did not barge in. There was still some protocol ingrained in her. When the Director called her in, she knew that they were both thinking the same thing. Where the hell was Ari? Followed in short order by 'what the hell was going on'? The predictability of the situation had been thrown out the window.

"Jen, we blew it. I have no idea where Ari is, and I don't want to contact him and risk him knowing about our sham." She was dejected, her ops always worked, always.

"Ziva, we didn't blow it. Look at what you have done, we know that the FBI will never trust Ari again, that alone is a big development. Plus you saved the life of an NCIS agent."

"Yeah I saved her so that she can live a secret life in the Mossad. It may have been a life that I choose but she didn't have that option. We forced her to do what we wanted. We convinced ourselves that we were in control of a situation when we weren't. Part of me believes that we never were in control. For all we know Ari knew that I would figure out that he had turned and would come to you for help. I may know him but he knows me as well."

"Calm down. Take a seat so that we can think about this." The Mossad agent stood tall under the other woman's glare for about three seconds, before taking a seat. It wasn't that she was surrendering it was just that she saw her point. "Let's look at what we know for certain."

"Ari is still out there, somewhere."

"Yes, and we can still use that to our advantage. I talked to Ducky and he is convinced that Ari is out to kill Jethro. So eventually he has to take a chance, take the shot. Knowing Gibbs's he won't make it easy for Ari to kill him."

"I agree that Ari is still after Gibbs, but what about the other sniper. It doesn't make sense that all the evidence would point to him. I know that the man I saw through my scope was my brother. I know. It doesn't make any sense."

For moments they sat in silence. Analyzing the evidence, trying to come up with a solution to the problem they faced. There was something that just wasn't adding up. There was no way for Ari to know that they had seen him make the shot that suposedly killed Kate. There was no reason for him to suspect that Ziva had been on the rooftop. They had kept the plan compartmentalized, followed 'need to know' procedure to the letter and then some.

There was no paper work on the whole event. Even Ziva's father at the Mossad didn't know. There could be no mole, no leak, so therefore it was safe to assume that Ari didn't know that they knew he had betrayed the Mossad. Ziva had every reason to be at NCIS headquarters and try to stop the killing of her brother. So what were they missing. It was Jenny who spoke first.

"What if we made Gibbs's a target. He would do it. It isn't something that I would want him to do but he would do it. Without backup as well." She looked across her desk to see the younger woman deep in thought. Finally she looked up.

"It could work. It's risky but it could work. We have the mace in the hole so to speak."

"It's an ace in the hole, Ziva." Was all that was said before the planning commenced. When Ziva left the room twenty minutes later she was ready to put on her act again, and so was Jenny. Gibbs's hadn't let them down yet, hopefully the trend would continue.

--

He didn't need this, didn't need his people to tell him things that he didn't want to hear with looks of sorrow on their faces. Didn't need them to tell him that it was looking like it hadn't been Ari who had killed Kate. That it looked like it hadn't been Ari who had shot at Abby. But that was just it, it looked like it hadn't been Ari. But looks could always be deceiving and he was sure that they were being deceiving this time. It had been Ari who had done this to him, to his people and it was Ari who was going to pay.

It was raining, for days now all it seemed to do was rain. Cold rain, rain that chilled a body to the bone, taking everything right down to the warmth of the blood. It had been this realization that had caused him to move the poor dog that he had found under the bench. He had picked him up hugging him against his chest, before depositing him in the gazebo. No one should have to sit outside in the pouring rain, not even a dog.

But he did. He sat motionless, watching the raindrops fall. Some would hit leaves and then slide to the ground. Others would splash against mud sending up little mud projectiles. But it didn't matter how they got to the ground they still did, weather their path was straight or crooked, they all still ended up in the same place. Just like people, eventually people all ended up dead, and right now that is how he felt; dead.

There was a different sound, the sound of good shoes being squished into the wet grass. It caused him to look up, seeing Fornell he looked back down. He didn't want to talk to the man who called him a friend. That was the reason why he was sitting on a park bench in the middle of nowhere. Though as the umbrella was held over his head he knew that he was going to end up talking regardless of weather he wanted to talk or not.

At the start it was mindless chatter of rain, dogs and lies. It was the kind of talking that men of the three letter acronyms favored, weather they be FBI, CIA, or NSA. But there was always a point, he didn't know if it was the rain or the cold that kept him from catching on sooner. He was off to rent the Peacemaker whatever the hell that was, he hoped that it would give him some of the answers he wanted.

--

She had no intention of letting it slip that she knew what kind of ammunition Gibbs had used in the Marine Corps she had been shocked with herself. She didn't want them to know that she had profiled the team, didn't want Tony to know that was how she knew practically his whole life story. She looked to Jen for help but only found amused eyes, so much for helping each other out.

When he had asked to speak to her alone she knew he had figured it out. Knew that she knew his biggest secret, something that she was certain even Jenny and Ducky didn't know. Her nervousness when he came toward her wasn't acting, and when she said she was sorry she really was. The surprise in her eyes as he asked for her help to set him up certainly wasn't acting. It had taken herself and the Director half an hour to come up with that plan yet he seemed to have come up with it in ten seconds. With a head nod she agreed. This plan was already half in place.

"I need you to contact Ari and tell him that I am going to go back to the rooftop were Kate died. Say I am going there to put out flowers or something. You say anything as long as it gets him there, so that I can kill him." With that he left, leaving her alone in the dismal lab.

She didn't call after him and tell him that he had just asked her to set up her brother. Didn't voice any doubts that she might have had with the plan she just pulled out her cell and made the calls. Her first went to Jen to fill her in on the plan. The second went to Ari himself telling him that she knew where Gibbs was going to be. Her third had been a spur of the moment call to Mia Rief asking her to keep watch over Gibbs's house on the off chance that Ari would try something there. Little did she know, it was the last call that was the one that saved Gibbs life.

--

He tired to hurry through the packed streets of DC, a dozen red roses from Martha's Garden sitting on the passenger seat. There seemed to be endless streams of traffic, why was it that there always seemed to be traffic when he was on a mission. Today was certainly a mission, maybe one of the most important of his life. The sniper rifle that he kept in the basement was calling his name, and he had all intentions of answering the call.

Today was the day that Ari Haswari died, there was no way the psychopath would not show up on the rooftop today, he was presenting too good of a target. Had he been in Ari's shoes he certainly wouldn't have passed up the opportunity. And then he really would place the flowers on the spot where Kate had died. Then he would allow himself the time he needed to get on with his life.

Parking in the driveway he did a quick survey of the property, you could never be too careful when you didn't lock your door. Maybe it was time for him to break that habit. Seeing nothing amiss he continued up the steps and entered into the kitchen. He didn't pause to take off his shoes or coat, didn't have the time or the patience to put such items back on. Walking into the basement he didn't look around the shadows, this was were he had always felt safe why should today be any different. Never again would he be that negligent. His riffle was missing, though it didn't take him long to find it, clasped by one Ari Haswari who emerged from the shadows. Shit.

--

She walked fast, glad for the flat-soled shoes that the Mossad had provided her. She had parked half a block away on the opposite side of the street not wanting to draw attention to herself, in case Ari was inside Gibbs's house. Her red hair billowed around her as she walked, she hadn't bothered to take the time to tie it back, and time was of the essence. Ziva's call had frightened her, she didn't agree with the supposed plan no matter who had come up with it. Gibbs wasn't infallible, wasn't this whole situation proof of that?

Noticing Gibbs's car in the driveway she tried to avoid walking by the basement windows. If he was home that was probably where he would be. Walking up the steps to the front door, she placed one hand on the knob and the other on her sidearm. She knew that Gibbs always kept his door unlocked so if she found it locked she would know something was up. Twisting it gently she held back a sigh as if gave under her slight pressure.

She walked softly through the kitchen seeing no sign of life. A Chinese take out container sat lonely on the counter. Moving into the living room she saw that it too was empty, a portable DVD player set open on the coffee table. It surprised her she didn't think that Gibbs was the kind of man who would watch too many movies.

Moving towards the hallway she saw that the basement door was open, and that voices were coming softly from the opening. Men's voices, Ari's voice. She moved close enough to the opening so that she could see what was going on inside, what she saw could have been part of her nightmare. Ari was holding an unarmed Gibbs hostage with a sniper rifle.

Gibbs was walking backwards slowly, keeping Ari in his line of vision as the other man walked around the skeleton of the unfinished boat. She brought her weapon up slowly, taking the time to aim carefully, she had the opportunity to end this now. She watched as Ari brought the rifle up preparing to kill the men she loved. But he wouldn't get the chance. She took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger noting with satisfaction that her bullet lodged in his forehead the same place where he had attempted to shoot her.

Gibbs turned around looking for who had saved him, and indecision seized her. Should she give in to her emotions and run down the steps to throw herself into his arms. Should she attempt to salvage her cover by leaving the scene before he could get a good look at her. After all she had sworn that she would avoid all contact with her former teammates, though surely Ziva knew that she couldn't have come into his house and still be able to avoid him. Making up her mind she stepped forward, and began to walk slowly down the stairs.