Really, I should wait for a bit for more reviews and stuff before posting this chapter, but as an apology for my awful, awful updating skills, I'm posting it now. I think you'll like it.

Penultimate (yes, there is another one to come yet) chapter, people – it's all kicking off. Lol.

And thank you to everyone who mentioned chapter names in their reviews. I was touched that you made the effort. :) Your positive feedback means that it will be something I do a lot more in future stories.

It was Kate who saw Joseph disappear out the window, and up the fire escape. Without really thinking, she ran after him.

Kate's hands felt clammy as she climbed up the fire escape, after Joseph. A week ago she had been worrying about whether or not she was going to get her college assignments done on time, and now she was chasing a psychopath onto a rooftop.

Funnily enough, it was not the sight if the gun in Joseph's hand that frightened her so much. It was the fact that he didn't use it as soon as she popped her head over the edge of the roof. What the hell did he have planned?

"Come up slowly, Agent Todd. Don't make me do anything that you might regret."

Joseph almost laughed at himself. He was talking like a villain in a low-budget James Bond rip off. He didn't really care though. He'd always believed in ending in style.

"Now, we just have to wait for the others to join us."

The only had to wait for a couple of seconds.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs struggled to keep himself calm as he maneuvered his way up the fire escape one handed, his other hand cradling his gun. He could see Kate stood dangerously near to the edge of the building, her hands behind her head, her own gun on the ground in front of her.

Dean, you idiot, what are you doing? His gut was screaming at him, but he could not work out what it was trying to tell him.

"Dean! Put your weapon down, and put your hands in the air!"

With a lazy grin, Joseph did so. Gibbs frowned confusedly. He could hear McGee and DiNozzo breathing heavily, lower down on the ladder, wondering what was going on. Deciding that there was no way that Dean could do anything without a weapon, Gibbs climbed onto the roof top, his gun still pointed at the man opposite him. It was only once he was on the roof that he saw the reason for Dean's grin.

"What is it, boss?" asked Kate, worriedly.

She was oblivious to the red dot dancing on her forehead.

Joseph picked up his gun again, and smirked arrogantly as he pointed it at Gibbs and the rest of the team, who had come up onto the roof top.

"Right, guys, you'll do what I say, or I will have her shot, and I can assure you that there is nothing fake about this."

"What's going on?" asked Kate, her voice a notch higher than usual, her feet frozen to the spot.

"There is, my dear Agent Todd, a highly skilled sniper with a gun pointed at your head right now. A real one."

Though she despised herself for it at the back of her mind, Kate felt tears well up in her eyes.

Joseph simply smiled.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Tony doubted he had ever been less concerned about a gun pointed at his head. He found he was far more worried about the one pointed at Kate's. Suddenly every feeling he'd had last time she was "shot" descended on him once more.

Having her back had been so like the old days, that he had almost forgotten that she had been gone. He had forgotten the terrifying, hollow emptiness he had felt over losing her. He had forgotten about all the nights he had spent wishing that he could have told her the thing that he should have told everyday since he had met her.

If only he could have held her in his arms, just once.

"I love you!" he yelled, hopelessly.

The tears that had been forming in Kate's eyes began to flow thick and fast at his words. Dean's smile, on the other hand, grew even more pronounced and demented as he watched the team crumble hopelessly. It was exactly how he had planned it.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Kate was struggling to stand. Her knees felt less substantial than water. She had been the one to tell the others how desperate he was to make them suffer. How far he would go. She knew that she was going to die. There was no way off the roof top alive. Well, not for her. Joseph would let the others shoot him once she was dead. No doubt, the sniper would have been instructed to run directly after killing her.

Suddenly, the strangest things seemed important. Things like confessing one of her deepest, darkest secrets to the most annoying colleague she had ever had.

"I love you!" The sound of his words brought even denser floods of tears to her eyes.

Endings always seem to bring with them so many questions. Most of these questions can be encapsulated simply in the word, "why?" Why had they never told each other? Why had she not once kissed those lips, cradled that hand lovingly in her own? Why was she only asking herself these questions now, when it was too late?

It was odd, but the one person who had caused her the most stress and anger and annoyance in the whole world, would probably be the one thing she missed most of all in the whole world.

If only she could have held him in her arms, just once.

"I love you too," she mouthed back, feeling her own hot, salty tears trickle into her mouth and onto her tongue.

She closed her eyes, and waited.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs watched hopelessly as the tragedy unfolded in front of his eyes. He was about to lose his agent, his colleague, his friend. Again. He didn't think he could face burying her once more. Saying goodbye for the last time. Again. He tried to see a way out, but it was hopeless. All he could do was wait to kill the evil monster who was the cause of all of this.

He would make sure they couldn't identify the body.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Of course, nobody on the rooftop was expecting Dean to fall to the floor at that moment with a bullet hole through his head.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Two minutes earlier

Ziva whipped around the bedroom with her gun held in front of her. It was empty.

"Clear!" she yelled, hearing various similar cries from her colleagues at different points in the apartment.

She was about to leave the room, when something outside caught her eye through the window: a laser sight. She heard as the rest of the team made their way out of the window in the next room. It looked like she was going to have to save them on her own.

Sprinting faster than she had possibly done in her whole life Ziva made her way onto the roof of the opposite building.

She shot the sniper from the other side of the roof, and then made her way to the rifle he had been sat with. Looking through the sights, she could see that Dean had his gun pointed at the rest of the team. She had no choice. Holding her breath, she took aim, and sent a bullet through the air to Dean's head.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Present moment

For a couple of seconds, her brain had trouble registering what had happened. However, once it had become clear, Kate's knees did what they had been threatening to do for the past few minutes, and gave way. She sank to the ground, and this time her sobs were those of relief.

Oh, come on! You didn't seriously think I'd kill her, did you? Lol.

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