Famous Last Words

Author: Anime Ronin

Rating: PG

Summary: knee-jerk reaction to NCIS season 2 finale – The Gang says goodbye in their own ways.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Grrrrr, they killed Katie, my second-favorite female on the show (fave is Abby, of course – gotta love the Goth Brainy chick) – oh well, nothing I can do about it except write this.

AN2: Semi sequel to my first NCIS fic, Never Break Her Heart – has elements of it at the end.

1/1

(Riverside Cemetery)

"You know, Anthony, that this is not necessary," Ducky said to the quiet man as they walked over towards Kate's grave. "I am quiet capable of saying goodbye on my own."

"I'm not letting Ari get another shot, Ducky," Tony said to the ME, his voice rough and his eyes scanning the area, never stopping for a second.

Ducky stopped him with a hand across his chest, "Tony, that bastard is not coming after me, or any of us – he's completed his mission." Tony glared down at him for a second but Ducky did not back off, "I know that you are angry, Tony, believe me I KNOW, but doing this is not going to change anything – Caitlin is dead, she died almost instantly from a 7 millimeter jacketed rifle round that hit her just above the brow ridge and tore through her frontal cortex before exiting her parietal lobe."

Tony glared down at the old man some more, the sounds, smells, even the feel of Kate's blood on his face replaying over, and over, and OVER again in his mind, but then he sighed and sat down on a handy grave marker, "I know, Duck, I was there for her autopsy, remember? It's just …"

Ducky nodded at the man as he sighed, "I know, Tony – I'd give almost anything to switch places with her right now … but as that is highly unlikely to happen, we must settle for putting these flowers on her grave."

The pair of men then walked down to the spot just below a large oak where a simple black slab of granite stood, but it was not alone – there, sitting next to it, was Abby, talking animatedly to the grave even as they held back, "- and you'd never guess what happened next, Kate – Tim said that Tony was going off of the deep end trying to find this guy, said that he even we so far as to ask him to hijack a NSA satellite with facial recognition software to hunt him down." The Goth smiled sadly as they crept towards her, "Of course Gibbs is about, you know, homicidal now, because his resignation was accepted. All he's doing now, though, is working on his boat non-stop – you'd like it, Kate, you really would."

A silence settled in for a second before Tony broke it by walking over the grass and sitting next to Abby, who looked to be doing her best to not break into tears, putting his arm around her and pulling her into his side – she turned and hugged him for all she was worth, pressing her face into his neck as her shoulders began to shake as heaving sobs consumed her. He watched his two 'children' comfort one another, Tony looking as if he had not slept in the past few weeks, Abby looking almost as bad, though in other ways, and he sighed before walking over and placing the bouquet of flowers he had brought with him in front of her marker, thinking, 'Caitlin, how I wish you were here – this world is just not the same without you.' With that, done, though, Ducky took his place on the other side of Abby and calmly stroked her back as she continued to sob into Tony's chest – this would go on until darkness fell … just as it did ever other time they found themselves at her grave.

(Elsewhere)

"Looks good, Boss."

He pulled back from where he was about to start painting the name on the hull, looking over at his newest helper, McGee, "I'm not your boss anymore, McGee." Stenciled out in white cardboard in front of him was the finishing touch on the boat he had been building for over two years now, the majority of the work having been done in the past few months … ever since Kate had been killed.

"Doesn't change anything." McGee would be a good agent one day, if he ever got out of this damned-annoying stage he was in, one that all newbies went through – he had, Tony had, even Pachee had, but McGee was taking longer than most. Tim then walked over and ran his hand over the finished hull, "We still taking her out in the morning?"

He nodded as he began to stencil the name onto the hull, "Yeah, McGee, we put her out on the water tomorrow."

Tim nodded as his former boss began to paint the name on the hull of the ship, "I just have one question, boss." Gibbs stopped and looked over at him, motioning him to go on, "How are we going to get it out of your basement?"

(Next Day – Dawn)

"How in the hell did he get that thing out of his basement?" He looked over at the sleepy-eyed Abby, who was dressed in a regulation Navy blacks, wearing the marks of a Petty Officer Second Class, and she looked up at him, "I mean, I've seen his place – solid concrete walls, hill-side placement … no way it came out easily."

McGee walked over, carrying two cups of coffee, "I thought you knew, Abs, that Gibbs knows all about demolitions."

Tony looked at him oddly, "You mean he blew out the side of his basement to get that boat out?"

Tim looked at the pair for a second before he snickered, "Nah, that'd be too Gibbs – he rented a hydraulic lift and jacked it up from the basement to the garage above it. He blew out the concrete of the floor, though that was kinda cool, though it got a bit messy as far as the falling concrete went."

"Enough gabbing, McGee," Gibbs growled at them as he approached them, Ducky at his side with a bottle of champagne. "We're here for a christening."

"Indeed we are, Jethro," Ducky said as they took up position around the boat's prow. "I hereby do christen thee the 'Caitlin', may you suffer fair winds, good waters and a good-tempered man at your rudder." He plainly ignored the pointed look he was getting for Jethro, the snickers from both Tony and Abigail and the look of worry from Timothy as he bent forwards and smashed the bottle against the railing, "Now, let's go for a sail, shall we? It's been ages since I've done this."

Tony nodded and grabbed McGee by the shoulder, HARD, "Come on, Probie, let's get the anchors … and you can tell me all about that girl that was in the long t-shirt and little else in your bedroom when Kate and I came to get you a few weeks ago."

Tim blinked several times at Tony even as Ducky and Gibbs both helped Abby across to the water, noticing for the first time there were several concrete blocks in the bottom of the boat and lots of rope, "Uh, Tony, what are you talking about?"

Tony just smiled at the younger agent, his grip intensifying, "Trust me, McGee, I notice beautiful half-naked women and Kate didn't miss the … scent … filling the place when we got in."

Tim began to back away, running out of room as Gibbs grabbed his arm, "Nothing happened!"

(Elsewhere)

He read Agent DiNozzo's lips as he spoke to the very scared younger agent, 'Oh, sure, that's what they all say, Probie.' His lips drew back into a tight grin as he centered his crosshairs on the American's back as he got into the boat, his finger reaching down to pull the trigger of the rifle he had used to kill Caitlin only months before – neither Gibbs nor DiNozzo had given up looking for him, Ari had to give them that much, and they had rattled every cage in both the FBI and MOSAD to find him.

He pulled back, though, his finger pulling away from the trigger as he pulled up – there would be no second shot out of the rifle, never again, not after he had shot Kate after reading her lips, 'I thought I'd die before I ever heard …'; those would be the only last words ever silenced by the rifle in his hands.

"You did not shoot any of them." It was not a question as his second-in-command walked over, "Why?"

"Because it would serve no purpose, Hassan." He packed the rifle away and loaded the case into the back of the van they had rented, "I have taken something from them, something that cannot be regained – ever."

"But we could KILL them, Ari!"

He spun and glared at his second, "NO, I will not and you will not." He walked up to the front of the van and pulled on the hat and glasses he used for a disguise, "We have them where we want them, so be quiet and prepare to get to work." With that, he started the engine and a harsh, too-cheerful tune began to play over the loudspeaker – after all, who would look for terrorists in an ice-cream truck?

End Note – Reviews, please.