Chapter 5
Gibbs walked back to the NCIS building, feeling weaker than he had earlier. He slowed his pace down but could feel the sweat trickling down his back at the effort it was taking him just to stay on his feet.
Gibbs groaned as he pictured the looks on Abby and Ducky's face when they saw him like this. He felt his stomach begin to spasm and a burning sensation start in his throat. Perhaps he should have stayed at home he thought sourly, wishing that this wasn't happening.
Gibbs passed a small communal garden with a little wooden bench and decided to sit down for a few moments, in the hope that this would pass quickly. As he lowered himself to it he felt the phone in his pocket begin to vibrate moments before it rang. With a groan he reached inside and with gritted teeth flipped it open.
"Gibbs" he growled into the phone, trying to prevent himself from retching.
"Hello my friend" he heard the cultured and accented voice of Ari Haswari. Kate's murderer and an Al Queda double agent, working for MOSAD.
"Ari" Gibbs said, his tone making the name more of an insult than a greeting.
"How are you Agent Gibbs?" Ari queried politely as if they were life long friends.
"I'll be fine when you're dead" Gibbs growled, the pain in his stomach intensifying. But Gibbs refused to let Ari know there was any kind of a problem and used every ounce of self control he had to keep his tone even.
"That may be sooner than you think" Ari murmured as if to himself. Gibbs sat up straighter for a moment forgetting the pain in his stomach.
"Why?" he demanded. Gibbs had had the opportunity to kill Ari a few months ago but had let him live, knowing that he was in the unique position of having infiltrated the higher legions of the Al Queda terror cells in the USA. Something that few others could even dream of doing, let alone actually achieve. Through Ari kidnapping Abby he had led them to a terror cell that had planned to blow up a shopping mall in downtown DC, with enough explosives to have killed hundreds. Although Gibbs didn't like Ari's methods he had to admit that sadly someone like Ari was needed in the war against terrorism.
"I believe that they may have found out who I am" Ari said carefully, his tone betraying no fear or despair just the cold hard truth. "But that isn't why I called" Ari continued as if nothing was wrong. "I called to warn you that they are going to take you out my friend" He said as if he had just told Gibbs that they were throwing him a party. "Be on your guard" Ari said before the dial tone rang in Gibbs's ear.
Gibbs stared at the phone for a long moment before slowly replacing it in his pocket, the pain in his stomach forgotten for the moment. Why had Ari warned him? Gibbs had no doubts that if it served Ari's purpose then he would happily kill Gibbs and anyone else that might stand in his way. Gibbs stared into the distance, seeing nothing as his mind replayed what Ari had told him.
Gibbs felt his stomach revolt as he stood but ignored it as best as he could, praying that it would go away. If what he thought was true he was going to need all his wits about him.
Gibbs pulled his phone out of his pocket again and hit speed dial, he waited for impatientely as the phone rang, and then a voice answered.
"Fornell. Ari has been made" he said calmly, no sense of urgency or emotion displayed in his tone.
"Good" Fornell replied, not bothering to hide his distaste over the double agent. "Let the bastard rot" he continued before sighing deeply. "How do you know?" Fornell asked as he managed to get his personal feelings under control.
"Because he told me" Gibbs replied calmly before hanging up and rushing for the waste bin in the corner of the park, the contents of his stomach hitting the trash in the bottom of it.
Gibbs retched into the bin before wiping his mouth with a tissue in his pocket, his body shaking and weak as he made his way over to the bench again. His hand shaking as he reached once more for his phone.
"Ducky" he croaked as his friend answered his phone in the morgue. The voice on the other end sending a shiver of relief through his pain racked body. Gibbs just prayed Ducky made it to him before the blackness pulled him down into unconsciousness.
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Jules Therese stood across the street and watched Gibbs silently, a small smile on her lips as she watched his obvious pain. Time for it to end she thought to herself, as she moved down the street slightly before crossing the street and heading back towards the park.
She wondered who he had called as he sat clutching his stomach on the bench, from what she knew he wasn't the type to ask for help. Not unless he was dying she thought with an evil smile. But then he was she laughed to herself, he just didn't know it yet. But he would soon she thought as she walked along side the park, schooling her features into the rather vapid expression of Rose Stellar.
Jules pulled out her mobile phone and began to text a message, making it look as if she was engrossed in what she was doing; she waited until she had passed the park entrance before looking up and catching sight of Gibbs on the bench. She did a double take and then hurried back to the park entrance.
"Agent Gibbs?" she called out her voice tinged with just the right amount of shock and concern at seeing the virile agent pale and shaking on the park bench.
"Agent Gibbs, are you ok?" she asked as she bent down to peer at him with wide concerned eyes. "Do you need a doctor?" Rose queried as she sat down next to Gibbs.
"Ms Stellar" Gibbs groaned, his stomach heaving. "I'll be fine in a moment" he croaked after he dry retched once more, the pain in his stomach intensifying, causing him to black out for a second.
"You're anything but ok" Rose demanded, "I'm calling for an ambulance" she said as she reached for her purse and the phone she had tucked inside it.
Gibbs reached out and stilled her hand, hating just how much effort it took to do that simple act, and how much his hand shook.
"No, a friend is coming, he's a doctor" Gibbs groaned and gasped at the same time, as pain washed over his body once more.
Rose looked indecisively at his hand and her handbag before she nodded.
"Ok, but have a sip of water" she said as she pulled a bottle of water from her purse, unscrewing the cap and handing it to Gibbs.
Gibbs reached out shakily, wanting the cool liquid, wanting to get rid of the taste of his own vomit, but also terrified that the liquid would intensify the pain in his stomach or worse cause him to vomit again. He stared at the cool clear water before nodding his head and taking a small sip, pleased that his stomach seemed to tolerate it. With that thought and with the taste of his own sick lessening he took another sip of the water, before handing the bottle back to Rose.
"Thank you" he croaked, laying his head back against the bench, wishing that it was Abby sitting next to him, wanting and needing the strength she exuded.
"Are you sure your friend is coming?" Rose asked in concern, her eyes searching the road outside the park.
"Yes, be here soon" Gibbs groaned, lurching off the bench and only just making it in time to the trash can again. Rose stood up and followed him, handing him a tissue as the vomiting stopped, before helping him back to the bench. Rose pressed the bottle of water into Gibbs's hand, encouraging him to take another sip of water from it.
"Have a sip to take the taste away" she told him soothingly, hoping he would take it before his friend arrived. Pleased when a shaking hand raised the bottle to his lips and sipped the clear water inside it. Rose nodded in satisfaction, as if pleased that she was helping him.When the truth was she knew the amount of arsenic in the bottle would soon begin to work as it melded with that already in his system. Rose took the bottle back after Gibbs finished drinking and slipped it into her coat pocket, out of sight of whoever Gibbs had called. No sooner had she done this than she heard the pounding footsteps of someone running. She and Gibbs both looked up at the same time to see a breathless Ducky rush into the park.
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Abby sat in her lab, peering down the high resolution microscope. Ducky had sent up a sample of blood for her to analyse, the computer had thrown up an abnormal reading so she had decided to take a look at the blood the old fashioned way. Her hand reached for the phone and she hit the speed dial for the morgue without even looking up. She listened to the ringing as she continued to analyse the sample, her phone set automatically to speaker phone.
"Morgue, Jimmy Palmer speaking" she heard come hesitantly from the phone, smiling at poor Jimmy. He always seemed to be waiting for the worst to happen, you could hear it in his voice all the while.
"Hi Jimmy, is my darling Ducky there" she asked teasingly, picturing the blush springing up on Jimmy's face as she used the flowery endearment.
"Um no Abby he had a call from Special Agent Gibbs and almost ran out of here" Jimmy told her softly, his tone confused at Ducky's actions.
"Damn him" Abby muttered as she hit the disconnect button, her finger hitting the button for Gibbs's phone almost in the same heartbeat.
She listened as it rang, her heart leaping into her mouth when he didn't answer.
"I am so going to kill you if you're dead" she muttered to the absent Gibbs. Fear coursing through her veins as the feeling of foreboding that had plagued her all day intensified.
Abby flew over to her computer screen and quickly pulled up the application that would allow her to track Gibbs down through his cell phone.
She tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited for it to lock onto his signal and triangulate his location. She jumped up and headed out the door at a run, not bothering to turn the application off or to put the blood sample back. Abby knew that something was wrong, she had known it all day but now the fear seemed to have a basis in reality.
Abby ran out of the building, not feeling the chill in the air and raced down the street. Heads turned as she passed by, some in admiration some in concern, wondering if the police would be hot on the heels of the Goth running down the street.Sure that someone who looked like her must have just mugged a little old lady.
Abby saw none of it, all she saw was Gibbs lying on the bed last night, pale and shaking looking as if he was about to die at any moment. An image superimposed itself over that and her feet flew faster down the street.