Today will soon be gone
Like yesterday is gone, like history is gone
The world keeps spinning on, you're going, going, gone
Like summer break is gone, like Saturday is gone
Just try and prove me wrong
You pretend like you're immortal

-From "Gone" by Switchfoot

- - -

Kate Todd had always envisioned her death as happening blinding flash of glory. If she had to die, she wanted it to be purposeful, key in a chain of events that played catalyst for something important. She wanted to die fighting for something she believed in strongly enough that she would accept death in exchange for what it would bring.

She didn't think it was morbid that she had thought about it. Wondered what it would feel like to hurl herself in front of a bullet meant for someone else. Wondered what it would be like to be shot in a tense confrontation between officer and suspect. Wondered if it would hurt, having a small piece of metal launched at you, traveling tens of miles an hour faster than your brain could process. Would she have a sick, hollow fear roiling in her stomach?

In the end, Kate had decided that it would be calm. Serene. There would be a soft silence that muted all sounds of life as she jumped, a solid feeling of knowing she had the right timing, and would be able to accomplish what she needed to. And then there would be a few moments between when she took fate into her control and when she accepted what fate handed her. A few crucial moments when she would cough out her last words to the people crouching next to her. And then, peace. Just peace.

It was ironic, really, how she remembered that inner dialogue right before it happened. Right before she threw all her weight forward, between her boss and the shooter.

And her assessment? It was all wrong.

A shot of fear and adrenaline spiked from her gut, prickling down her legs and all the way to her fingertip. A small voice in her head whispered that she wasn't going to make it, that her timing was all wrong, that she was either too fast or too slow and that shot was going to kill Gibbs, and there was nothing she could do about it now but wait and see who it was that would die. She forgot all about the Kevlar she was wearing under her jacket, and she just prayed that everything would work out.

Just seconds later as she lay on the concrete, watching Tony yank open the zipper of her jacket and glimpsing the relief on his and Gibbs' faces, she decided maybe the experience wasn't so bad after all. Except, of course, for the fact that it felt like the bullet had broken a couple ribs on impact and she was beginning to think that there wasn't a part in her entire body that didn't hurt, and that included her hair. She blamed it on the adrenaline, and let Tony draw her attention back to the present with the stupidest question she had ever heard him utter in the entire time she had known him- and that was saying something.

"You okay?"

"Ow..." she moaned. "I just got shot at point blank range, DiNozzo. What do you think?"

Tony grinned.

"I guess you're not going to Pilates class tomorrow."

"Protection detail's over, Kate," Gibbs told her.

"You did good," Tony added as the pair of them hoisted her to her feet.

"For once, DiNozzo's right."

Kate would've laughed, but it would have taken too much effort and caused too much pain, so she settled for a smile. Things were going to be fine. No one was dying, or being wounded, or scarred for life.

"Wow," she said. "I thought I'd die before I heard you complim-"