AN: This is the last of the chapters that I missed on my first go-round. So I'll be re-watching the rest of season 1 t fill in the blanks. Thanks for sticking with it!
Six little claws. That is what he had told his friend. The type of ammunition that had been outlawed for its brutality. A copper nose that was scored evenly so that when it impacted and began to mushroom the front of the bullet would open like a flower peeling away like six separate missiles all intent on doing as much damage as possible.
Ducky could imagine the scene as it had been retold to him. Gibbs had pulled his car up behind the green Jeep with the blinking hazard lights. They had known there was a twin. Something the suspect had said about a sister. Then drivers licenses had been pulled and the identical images displayed on the screens in the bullpen. The light bulb had gone off. That was how the alibi had been air tight. How one person could be in two places.
So Gibbs had gotten out of the car with his gun in hand. He had approached the car cautiously moving up the driver's side while Cait had flanked the passenger side and DiNozzo had stood to the rear of the car and covered both. Gibbs had tapped the nose of the gun on the window and shone his flashlight in to get her attention.
From Cait's account that was when it went to hell. The flashlight had covered the suspect but had also momentarily shone through the car blinding the federal agent. Before her eyes could adjust to the bright beam Gibbs' cry of "gun" and two shots had rung out.
Cait yanked the passenger door open only to find the woman slumped lifeless in her seat. The side of her head contained a yawning hole where Gibbs' bullet had torn through. DiNozzo would later recall that Gibbs hesitated a minute to shuffle forward and change the angle of his shot. Presumably it was to prevent the bullet from going through the car and hitting his agent. As it was, his bullet had traveled through the suspect's head and shattered the rear passenger side window. A shot straight across the car would have struck the momentarily blinded Agent Todd.
The split second delay had been enough though. Unlike the woman in the car there was no exit wound.
Ducky looked down at the still form of his friend illuminated by the harsh light of the overhead lamp. His chest was open in a classic Y incision. Ducky dropped the sixth tiny metal claw in the basin to his right and shook his head trying to keep the tears at bay. Six little claws was all it had taken to topple a giant.