Chapter Nine: Team Spirit

He was lying on the floor, his eyes just starting to flicker shut, blood was pouring out of the wound in his side. It looked painful but as soon as it had happened his agents had responded with direct fire for the fatal shot.

Mrs Bentley dropped to her knees and sobbed as her husband staggered back and slid down the wall.

Tony rushed over to where Gibbs lay on the floor in a pool of blood, of course in true Gibbs fashion, without his bullet-proof vest.

Ziva arrested Mrs Bentley and McGee grabbed his phone and called an ambulance.

In ten minutes the ambulance arrived, the famous L. J. Gibbs had lost a lot of blood and was looking particularly pale, it was touch and go for a while and it was an anxious wait until the paramedics decided to air lift him to the emergency department at Georgetown University Hospital. Soon DiNozzo, David, McGee and Gower where clearing the street for the helicopter to land.

In a matter of thirty minutes the helicopter had landed, Gibbs had been bundled on and take off had been accomplished successfully.

As soon as he left they all took a sigh of relief, it had been very stressful and all where worried for his health. Annabel immediately ran over to Tim and hugged him, after their talk she knew how much Gibbs meant to him. Ziva went to her partner and hugged him too, now more than ever they needed to stick together.

- - - - - - - -

After a coupe of minutes clearing up the scene they got Annabel to charm one of the local L.E.O.'s into taking Mrs Bentley back to NCIS for interrogation before they themselves headed back to meet Gibbs at the hospital.

- - - - - - - -

After about 30 minutes of silence in the car they had got nearly half way. Tony had conceded to let Ziva drive so they could get there more quickly. Tim had called Abbey and told her what had happened then said they would meet her and Ducky at the hospital in about 45 minutes.

The time soon passed and they where pulling into the hospital car park. All set on 'auto' before they knew it, they were in the emergency department looking for Abbey and Ducky.

Tony walked up to the nurse at the desk,

"Excuse me, we're looking for Special Agent Gibbs, he was brought here by helicopter from Cambridge," she still looked blank, "gunshot wound to the abdomen…"

"Ah yes…" Tony waited but was becoming increasingly impatient as she was not actually telling him anything he didn't already know, "he was admitted about 20 minutes ago after being flown here Cambridge– "

"I KNOW."

"So how can I help you?"

"Tell me where he is." Tony said bluntly.

"In the emergency ward, just about to undergo emergency surgery."

"Thank you very much." Tony said as he angrily headed over the door closely followed by his group of supporters. When he reached the door he nearly walked straight into it, of course it was locked. "I can't believe women can be so annoying sometimes." He said under his breath to Ziva. She let off a diminutive smile but soon replaced it with her serious face as Tony once again strutted over to the nurse. "The door's locked."

"I know."

"Just let me through."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, when there is an injury like that the department goes into lock down, no one is allowed in or out."

"Look," he flashed his bag and gun, "I need to see Special Agent Gibbs."

"No." She started to turn away.

"I'm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, now let me and my co-workers through or I'll arrest you for disrupting a federal investigation." His eyes flashed dangerously, she looked scared and hastily let them through.

Once through to the emergency department it was not hard to find Gibbs, he was laying unconscious with tubes coming out of his mouth, surrounded by doctors.

Abbey ran and gave Tony a hug and started crying when she saw Gibbs looking like a cripple in a bed. One of the doctors came over,

"I'm afraid Agent Gibbs has lost a lot of blood. We've had to put him in an induced coma to try and reduce the amount of blood he's loosing. We're just about to take him into surgery to try and clean up the wound. Fortunately the bullet went straight through him so there is a bit of a," he paused, "hole but not as much internal damage. Anyway we have a theatre free so we have to take him to surgery." He told his captive audience. They continued to stare, "As long as this goes smoothly, which it should, he'll be ok."

"Thank you." Ducky said earnestly.

"It's going to be a couple of hours so if you want to go to the lounge and wait–" He said before getting rushed off his feet into the theatre.

They stood out as a crowd so took the doctors advice and moved into the lounge. There Tony, Ziva, Tim and Annabel said good-bye to Ducky and Abbey so they could return to the Navy base and interrogate Mrs Bentley.

- - - - - - - - -

Mrs Bentley was sitting quietly in Interrogation One. She was still in the clothes that had been covered in her husband's blood just hours earlier, her hands were covering her blood shot eyes and she was clutching a tissue.

Outside Tony, Ziva, Annabel and McGee where watching her.

"I think Annabel should interrogate her." McGee said confidently.

"Probie," Tony looked over to him, "why?"

"They just got on really well, I think she'll be able to connect with her, get her to open up."

"If I don't succeed you can always have a go your self, a nice man like you could get her to talk, surely!" She teased and flicked Tony's tie as she walked past. He looked at Ziva as she gave off a big smile and small laugh, she and Annabel where obviously closer than he had thought.

Soon Annabel walked in and gently put a cup of coffee down on the table for Vickie. She had decided she was going to use as much empathy as she could muster and make this a friend to friend conversation.

"How are you?" Annabel said as she sat down.

"How do you think?" She said harshly.

"I do understand, you know."

"Yeah, how?" Vickie was angry but Annabel knew it was just part of the process.

"I was engaged once," Vickie looked up into her eyes but Annabel quickly looked down at her hands. She knew Gibbs and Tim knew but now Tony and Ziva knew and she felt ashamed – it felt as if she was telling the whole world, "His name was Josh Woodford. He was my fiancée, my best friend and the love of my life." She paused for a second but got interrupted.

"I know what you mean. James and I met at Harvard, I never intended to do anything wrong but he had that streak in him. We had fun at Uni, all those parties!" She laughed as she gave a sniff, it was clear her grief was recent, "Then before I knew it we where married, gorgeous day, beautiful wedding, it never occurred to me then that he paid for it by selling the intelligence of a French spy in the US who he later killed." She looked ashamed, "Then we moved to Boston so he could go to MIT, I still didn't know anything. Then we lived in México city for a while, I knew he was doing business behind my back, so" she took a deep sigh, "I confronted him and he didn't like it but after that he kinda included me."

"And Adam Bryant?" Annabel led her.

"He was– well I don't really know how much he did, he was in James' employment for the longest time and James didn't seem to complain which was something, but at the same time James never raved about the work, which he normally did. Anyway one day he, Adam Bryant, stormed out and slammed the door behind him. It was the biggest mistake he ever made. I never saw him again."

"Then how did he end up dead?" Annabel pushed her for more answers.

"James killed him." She sobbed.

"Do you know how?" She tried to ask in her most caring tone.

"He agreed to meet James once more but on the naval base. He got him in successfully but was to dumb to realise that once you've worked for James, you never stop. Earlier he'd poisoned him with Iron -52; it's a radioactive isotope with a half-life of about 8 hours so it's practically untraceable in 24. It did the damage and it didn't take long after that. James kind of just went there to make sure the job was done."

"How do you know this? Where you there?"

"Lord! No I wasn't there; James would never let me see him kill anyone. He told me." She started sobbing again.

"Vickie, I need to know one more thing before we take a break," she looked up and nodded, "Where did you get the Iron -52?"

"I'm not exactly sure, James dealt with that sort of thing but I think it was somewhere near Oak Ridge in Tennessee."

"Thank you very much." Annabel said as she left the room, he others met her outside. "So, what d'you think?" She asked with a smile.

"Good job, we can arrest her now but first, Ziva can you get then names of the other people she thinks Bentley killed etc." Tony instructed.

They all stood silently and watched Ziva at her work.

Now they had a murderer off the streets, they could all return to Gibbs with their only worry being paperwork.