Okay, I apologise for the delay, I've been writing so much for One Time Thing, then I had the ideas for my two latest stories and yet again this one got forgotten about. Poor little fanfic. Anyway, I'm changing something I said at the start. I said it took time around series seven but I haven't seen rule fifty one so I'm going to make it a bit AU, where Judgement Day never happened and Jenny's still director and Vance is still plotting his coup (haha!). Also I have no surgical/autopsy experience (I'd puke really quickly) so sorry if I make any blaring mistakes. Enjoy!
Christina x
NCISNCISNCIS
Gibbs stared at the faces of the men Tony had killed that morning. All were Middle Eastern, all four. The call still hadn't come through saying DiNozzo was out of surgery. He knew enough about injuries to know that if someone was in surgery for five hours it was Not Good.
"What can you tell me Duck?" he asked.
"Not much I'm afraid Jethro," Ducky replied. "This first one died from a bullet wound to the chest, as did the third one, next to you. The second one died of a bullet to the head but it's the fourth one that had the most gruesome and painful death I'm afraid."
"Duck, these guys tried to kill McGee, and might've killed DiNozzo, I don't care how much pain these guys were in," Gibbs said. "How'd he die?"
"Of course. He had a single bullet wound in his throat. It cut through his wind pipe, making it impossible for the poor man to breath. After a few minutes, he would have suffocated from lack of air."
"Thanks Duck," Gibbs said, leaving autopsy.
XOXOXOX
"Gibbs!" Abby launched herself at him. "Are they okay? Is Tony out of surgery? When will he be awake? When can McGee come back? Can I visit them? Where's Ziva? Is she okay? Ducky said you two were okay but I thought he might just be saying that to make me feel better. You are okay, aren't you? Of course you're okay, you're Gibbs. You're always okay, well except for that time when you were in that bomb blast and went into the coma and couldn't remember anything after 1991 and then you retired but-"
"Abs!" Gibbs said when she finally drew a breath. "Breath, breath."
"Sorry Gibbs."
"You know how I feel about apologies."
"Gibbs, the penguins know how you feel about apologies. Just like the pigmies know how you feel about coincidences."
"What've you got?" he asked.
"All four bullets from the dead dirtbags downstairs came from Tony's gun," Abby replied. "So did the bullet you found. I'm running the blood from it now and I'll call you as soon as I have the results."
"Thanks Abs." He kissed her cheek and handed her a CafPow. "They'll be okay Abby, I haven't given them permission to die."
XOXOXOX
Gibbs returned to the squad room and saw Ziva sitting at her desk, staring at Tony's. He knew she was remembering all of Tony's stupid antics and jokes and wishing he was still here to pull all those dumb pranks all over again. He knew because he was wishing it too. Wishing he was about to walk in on DiNozzo teasing McGee or going off topic or speculating whether there was ever anything more between him and Jenny. Wishing he could smack his hand off the back of DiNozzo's head, hear him apologise and say on your six. Instead, he headslapped Ziva, although not as hard as he would've DiNozzo.
"If you want to help him, we find the two who are still out there and bring them in," he said.
"To autopsy?"
"Yeah, to autopsy."
He began to walk towars the stairs, then turned back to Ziva.
"He'll be okay Ziva."