No Way Out

As the NCIS Team still struggles with the sudden departure of Ellie Bishop, the news of an explosion on a river and the discovery of all too familiar dog marks cause some more turbulence…

Chapter 1

Gibbs couldn't help but ask himself if his timing had been a little bit off, when it came to detonating the bomb and calculating the time he needed for not only jumping off the boat but also reaching the safe shore. A lot of the debris had hit him, what had caused some nasty wounds on his head and his vision to become blurry for a while before he had been able to exactly determine where he was. As much as he hated to leave them there he had left his dog marks on the boat, because he and Marcie had seen this as the only way to make his death believable to Max Pearson that sick serial killer that they had been chasing together during the time he had been suspended from his job at NCIS.

Twenty Years ago

The NIS had been kept on their toes by Max Pearson for quite some time now, as he had been able to always be one step ahead of the law enforcement. Five Navy soldiers had been killed and Pearson left no trace behind at any of the crime scenes, but somehow every serial killer made a mistake some point or was Pearson the exception? Gibbs was so engrossed into the file of their latest case, that didn't notice Mike Franks approaching his desk from behind and after Franks watched his colleague for a while, he finally said:

"Let me guess Probie you've slept at the office again last night in the vain effort to find something to finally nail that Pearson guy to the wall."

It was no news to Gibbs that Franks could read him so well and of course he had slept the last two nights in the office, as he always had been a persistent guy but especially when it came to those tough cases where the solution wasn't that easy. Of course he didn't discover anything that would get them any closer to end Max Pearson's path of destruction but at the same time he still wasn't willing to admit that Pearson was smarter than him.

An Empty Factory outside of Washington

At the same time Max Pearson was right in the middle of looking at his trophies collection and he couldn't help but laugh at the fact that he had been able to outsmart the NIS so far. The more he thought about it he kind of had admit to himself: *This fight his already getting boring and I wish that my opponents would be much more of a challenge for me* He had watched the NIS work from a distance, knowing very well that the Agents would find nothing at the crime scenes that would lead them to him and it was such a satisfaction for the imperialistic US Navy to finally get their well deserved punishment.

NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC

One hour had passed since their former colleague Ellie Bishop had revealed that she would leave NCIS to go on a undercover mission for the NSA. Tim and Torres had been surprised by this revelation, after it looked like Ellie had leaked a top secret document what had caused both of them to second guess the fact that they really knew her.

Especially Nick had been hit hard by Ellie's departure, as he and Ellie had become more than just friends over the course of the last years and even if he didn't want to admit it to Tim right now: He didn't look like that big rock that nothing could bring down at the moment.

The two Agents where so lost in their thoughts that they didn't notice Director Vance coming down the steps and directly walking up to their desks. Of course Vance knew that the Agents McGee and Torres did have to take a lot today, but as much as he felt sorry for them he also knew at the same time that there was no use in looking back and that getting back to work would be a good distraction for both of them.

"I know it has been a hard day but you both know well that crime doesn't make any breaks. So it is for the best of both of you if work with Agent Carmichael's Team until I make a final decision regarding the last to remaining members of your inactive team."

Ten hours earlier

Being suspended had the advantage that Gibbs finally had the time to go for some fishing on that lovely lake not far away from his house. His career at NCIS was over, that was one thing that was clear to him at this point because the negative impact had been just too big and maybe now he would be able to bring one of his boats to the water instead of just building them in his basement.

As Gibbs was in the middle of getting situated on one side of the lake, hidden behind a lot of trees sitting in a self built tree house, was an old nemesis from his past: Max Pearson. The last years had been hard for him and surely had lost the strength of a young man, but he was determined to not let age be an obstacle when it came to getting his revenge. He did go to great lengths to locate his long time enemy and one thing was for sure: *Agent Gibbs I'm going to enjoy to torture you and this is just the being of an odyssey.* He watched Agent Gibbs for quite a while, having all this planned out from the start to the end he didn't need to rush and he had always loved to watched his victims for some time before pulling the trigger. As expected it was hard to get any fish and so Gibbs grabbed his thermos of coffee to take a little sip out of it. Even if he didn't expect anything to happen in his second living room, he paid close attention to his surroundings the whole time. It took quite a while but he finally felt something pull on his hinge and at the same moment he saw a red dot that was aimed right at his heart. Without any hesitation he threw away the hinge, ducked down in hard stones as a couple of shots rang out around them but he couldn't help but think: *Whoever is at the end of this rifle he doesn't want to take me out right here*.

AN: How will the battle between Gibbs and the nemesis from his past continue? Will Max Pearson fall for the trap that Marcie and Gibbs have prepared?