***Disclaimer: see previous

The snow was swirling outside the large windows that encompassed NCIS. Lizzy had been walking back from the vending machines and stopped to stare at the white fluff that was falling. She heard the elevators open and a voice was singing White Christmas, Sinatra style. Tony came to stand next to her. He stared out the window and all of a sudden changed his tune.

"Snow…," he sang in a deep Bing Crosby voice. She smiled. It was one of her favorite songs from that movie. She followed his lead.

"Snow…"

"Snow…

"Snow…."

"Snow…," they both sang together with their arms spread wide. She grinned and they walked to their desks. Ziva and McGee were already at their desks starting on paperwork. Lizzy sat at her desk and smiled when she saw a small cat figurine in front of her keyboard. It was sitting on a post-it note that said 'Curiosity will get you everywhere'. She smiled and let her finger trace the outline of the cat. She picked up the note and the figurine and tucked them away in her purse. Three and a half months, she thought. She hadn't been with anyone in her 28 years that had made her feel like Gibbs had in these past three months. They understood each other. They understood the role that the job played. And so far they had been able to keep the two separate. So far. Lately, though, Lizzy had noticed a very small shift. She thought she noticed him taking extra precautions here and there just to make sure she was out of harms way. Extra precautions that had never been there before and certainly didn't need to be there now. She was part of a damn good team and didn't need him watching over her. She didn't need another father. Just because there was an age difference didn't mean that was the kind of relationship she was after. She understood the whole protection thing. Who wouldn't want to protect the ones they care about? She knew Ziva and Tony were the same way but they were partners. Long time partners. They knew each other backwards and forwards, on the job and off. They had it down to a science. But she wasn't Gibbs partner. She was his… His…. And for that she had no answer.

She had just began sifting through the emails on her computer when DiNozzo jumped up from his desk.

"Get your gear. Gibbs and Abby found him. And make sure you bring your boots."

"Boots? I, uh, I didn't bring my boots," McGee said as he stood, looking a little scared.

"Then you get to man the phones and hold down the fort, Probie Wan Kenobi," Tony said as he and the others headed or the elevator.

They met Gibbs at the car and piled in. He gave them the details of the location as they drove through the near whiteout conditions. Lizzy was a little concerned when she noticed that his speed was increasing instead of decreasing. The roads were covered with more than a few inches but she knew Gibbs would not stop until this killer, this crazy, whacked out son of a bitch was taken down, dead or alive. Gibbs white knuckled grip on the wheel even caused Tony to go slightly pale. It took them a half hour to reach the abandoned airstrip. They did a powerslide into the open area next to the hanger and unloaded. Guns drawn, they made their way to a side door. Gibbs motioned for Tony and Ziva to circle to the back entrance. Lizzy tested the door that was in front of her and Gibbs. It was unlocked. Must have a Gibbs complex, she thought with a smile. She pulled the door open quickly and Gibbs entered first, swinging his gun around to clear the area. But as she stepped inside she immediately figured out that that task was going to be easier said than done. There wasn't a plane in sight. Instead there were rows and rows of crates, stacked ten or fifteen high, zigging and zagging across the entire space. She looked at Gibbs and took a breath. He motioned her down a different path than him, but not before she caught the look in his eyes. The pure male urge to protect the one he loves, to the death if necessary. She didn't like that look. That was the kind of look that caused mistakes, she thought. She nodded at Gibbs and they proceeded forward. She tried to stay focused, tried to be aware of all that was around her. But if she looked left, she would hear a noise at the right. She looked ahead and could make out a figure. It looked like Ziva. But it was gone a half second later. She moved passed another set of crates and saw Gibbs far to her left. He nodded and pointed ahead. She put up a hand and kept moving. She moved a little faster now, gaining confidence. She looked again for Gibbs but could not find him. She saw Dinozzo fall back to cover Ziva. She saw the end of her crates up ahead and moved to secure that area. She cleared the right and swung to the left to see if Gibbs had cleared his side yet. In that second, she felt an arm around her neck and she reacted. She pounded her elbow into a gut and her attacker took the blow but never released her. Why, she thought. Why couldn't they have grabbed the trained Mossad ninja? How do they always know the weakest zebra in the herd? Her attacker slammed her hand into the hanger wall and her gun dropped unceremoniously to the floor. Her hands flew to the arm that encompasses her neck and tried, unsuccessfully, to pry it away. He was strong, she thought. She remembered his picture McGee had brought up on the plasma. He wasn't just strong, he was a beast. She wasn't even sure Ziva could take him down without taking a helluva beating. If only she'd had a better grip on her gun. But he had grabbed it and now it was trained on her, pressing hard against her left temple as he dragged her through a hallway and then out a door into the storm. The snow was blowing every which way and though it all she thought she heard a voice. She knew they would find her. She fought harder to get away. The gun barrel pressed harder into her temple. She knew she had to stop panicking and think. Kinda hard to do when there's a real good chance of being shot. Then the voices became real.

"NCIS. Drop your weapon," she heard Ziva yell.

But they kept moving. She kept dragging. Then came another voice. Gibbs. And she heard it all in his voice.

"Drop your weapon. NCIS. Stop and drop your weapon."

Her attacker stopped. He yanked her to her feet, never loosening the grip around her neck or the gun to her head.

"She will die. Leave me be or she will die," he said as they now stood facing Gibbs, Ziva, and Tony. Tony stepped forward and lowered his gun.

"You don't want to do this, man. She is an NCIS special agent. You let her go now and you'll walk out of here without any trouble from us."

What is he doing, she thought. This wasn't the greatest negotiating technique. Let the suspect go? Obviously the man with the gun to her head didn't think it was such a great technique either, she thought as she heard the click that signaled it was ready to fire. Tony dropped back to stand next to Gibbs. The snow was blowing fiercely now and though they were only hundreds of yards away, she could barely make them in the worsening conditions. This was it, she thought. Her mind raced. She had to get the grip loosened. She had to be able to speak. She reached down with her right hand and grabbed the family jewels and yanked. Hard. She had to hand it to the guy, He barely flinched. Either there wasn't that much there to start with or he had what every guy in America dreams of…balls of steel. But it was enough, just enough to get a grunt of pain from him and a slight loosening around her neck.

"Bomb on bus, Gibbs. Bomb on bus," she yelled as she was severely disciplined for her previous actions. This time he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back, gun still expertly trained right above her ear. She couldn't tell if he had heard or even understood. She was praying that if Gibbs hadn't caught the reference, maybe Tony would. And he did.

Gibbs heard her yelling through the wind and snow. He caught the words but couldn't figure out what the hell she was talking about. Then it hit him. The movie. Speed. Relationships based on intense circumstances… Shoot the hostage… He said it out loud the same time Tony did. Tony moved closer.

"Boss?" Tony said, a thin line of concern in his voice.

"No."

"No?"

"No, dammit. I'm not shooting the hostage. I'm not shooting Lizzy," Gibb said, with a thousand thoughts screaming through his mind. He couldn't shoot her. Not Lizzy. But she had told him to. She wanted him to. She knew that shooting her would solve the problem. But it wouldn't be a kill shot, he thought. He would wound her but leave her attacker free for the takedown. But still, he couldn't do it. He heard her yelling again and wondered what those screams were costing her. He took a deep breath and trained the gun at the two figures in the snow. He moved forward with Ziva and Tony on his five and seven. He stopped a hundred yards away and caught Lizzy's eye. He saw the fierceness in them. The determination. But he couldn't do it. The snow momentarily stopped, frozen in place, as did the rest of the world as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs hesitated.

***

She held his gaze for what seemed like eons. And then she saw it. She blinked to check herself. She witnessed the impossible. He hesitated. Gibbs. The man made of stone. The steely eyed, hard nosed, marine to the core…hesitated. She saw it in his eyes. She read the pain, the frustration, and she watched it keep him from making a decision. Because of her. Because of his feelings for her. I guess this is the reason for Rule #12, she thought, watching Tony and Ziva move ahead of Gibbs, ready to take the lead if necessary. Her mind was still doing double time. She had to figure a way to take the beast down. They needed him. Well, more to the point, they needed his testimony. He was the leading supplier to an arms dealer the likes of NCIS' favorite frog. What would Gibbs do, she thought. Scratch that. Gibbs had hesitated. What would Tony do? Tony would make some stupid movie reference and try to talk his way out of it. Wait. That was it. Movie reference, movie reference. Where had she seen this before? Then it came to her. She stared at Gibbs, hoping that he would understand what she was about to do. Praying that she would still have a job the next day. Praying that she would still have a life the next day. Her mind screamed at her not to do it. It wasn't the pain she was worried about. It was… it was…something that couldn't be reversed. Something she stood to lose if even the slightest move didn't go right. But she had to. It was her job. It's what she was trained to do.

It took only seconds to carry out the plan that had been forming in her mind. If Gibbs wouldn't take her out of the equation, she would taker herself out of it. In one swift move, she released her hands from her attackers arm and with both hands, reached for the gun that was aimed at her head. She pulled it to her chest and fired.

The bullet ripped and twisted, first through her, then her attacker. He held steady for a minute before dropping at her feet, blood seeping through his sweatshirt. The gun still in her hand, she looked down at the man on the ground. He was still alive, barely, looking up at her. Tony and Ziva came to stand next to her. She had the slightest hint of a smile as she spoke.

"Yippy ky yay, motherf******."

She dropped to her knees, then laid flat in the snow, the pain slowly gripping her body. It was a clean shot. She had made a clean shot through herself into the crazed maniac. Tony ripped off his jacket and pressed it to her wound. She looked around for Gibbs. He was still rooted to the same spot, gun in hand. She was waiting. Waiting for the explosion that she knew was coming. That would reduce her to nothing in his eyes. Ziva was already running to the hanger to call for ambulances. The storm had made it impossible to get a clear signal. Tony leaned over her, after securing the prisoner.

"You gonna make it, Bruce?" he said with a smile.

"Live Free or Die Hard," she said smiling back at him.

"That was crazy, you know."

"I know."

"And you do know that if you don't die from the gunshot wound, Gibbs is gonna kill you anyway."

"I know that too," she said as she shifted slightly. The blood seeping out of her back was leaving a crimson stain in the snow where she was laying. She closed her eyes and the reality of what just happened washed over her. Like a tidal wave, she began to think clearly. Oh, God, she thought. What have I done? What if I lose too much blood? What if I lose—

Her thoughts were interrupted as a shadow fell across her body. She opened her eyes to see ice crystals of blue staring back at her. He said nothing. She didn't expect him too. Tony had walked over to talk to Ziva and Lizzy thought she could hear the wail of a siren. Gibbs crouched down and brushed a strand of hair away from her face. She started to feel sleepy. Am I supposed to feel sleepy, she thought. It must be the moonshine talking. But she hadn't had any moonshine. And that was her last thought as she drifted into unconsciousness.

Gibbs watched her as her eyes fluttered shut. He stood again, damning the ambulances for taking too long, damning the weather for making the ambulances take too long. He looked down at the growing pool of blood that was next to Lizzy. Damnit, he thought. What had she been thinking? He knew the answer. She had been doing her job. Something that he had been unable to do. He had frozen. Hesitated. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He heard the sirens and turned to watch the emergency vehicles move slowly across the airstrip that was blanketed in snow. He backed away as the EMT's unpacked their gear. He watched Lizzy as she lay on the ground. He watched her chest rise and fall. He remembered how it had felt to have her on top of him, skin to skin, feeling her chest rise and fall against his. He wanted to push the EMT's aside and gather her in his arms and hold her. Hold her until the pain went away. Until the wounds healed. But his anger got the better of him. It had won in the fight that had raged in his mind. He saw her eyes flutter open as they transferred both her and her attacker to the gurney's. Her eyes searched wildly for him. But they never found him. He had moved away quickly. He walked over to Tony and Ziva who were standing next to the ambulances.

"Will she be ok?" Ziva asked, worry lines crisscrossing her face.

Gibbs couldn't speak. He knew the question had been directed at him but the words wouldn't come. What if she wasn't ok? What if she left him like the others had? Shannon. Kate. Jenny. And now Lizzy. He watched the gurney carrying Lizzy move closer and closer. As the doors to the ambulance were opened, Gibbs met her eyes. She had found him. Finally. And she smiled. Damn her, he thought. What the hell was she smiling about? He couldn't do this. He wouldn't.

"Tony," he barked as Lizzy was lifted into the ambulance.

"Yea Boss?"

"In the ambulance with her."

When he hesitated, Gibbs voice got louder. "Now, Tony."

"No."

The voice had come from inside the ambulance. She was holding her stomach, trying to sit up as the medical personnel tried to restrain her.

"No," Lizzy said. "Not Tony… Ziva."

"Fine. Agent David," Gibbs said gesturing towards the vehicle. Ziva looked as puzzled as Tony but she shrugged her shoulders and stepped into the ambulance. She reached over and took Lizzy's hand. Lizzy nodded her head and closed her eyes.

A/N: This one ran a little long but I had a lot to get out and I'm still not done. Hope everybody's still as curious as the cat….