The Bracelet

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: What is the meaning of the bracelet Gibbs is wearing? Ducky knows, but is not telling.

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4- Man down

"Gunnery Seargent Ross." The young woman whispered and put her head into her hands, crying softly. Kate felt her mind racing. The name seemed to ring a bell, but she wasn´t really sure for about a second. After that second had passed, she pulled her phone out and dialed Gibbs´ number. She knew that hewas going to talk to him and that it was a little ways from the housing area they were at right now -Ross was living about half a mile from this area. There was no answer and she felt her heart beating faster.

She dialed a different number and almost immediately got an answer. "Tony, we´re on the wrong track, it´s Ross." She said and a moment later her partner came running out of the room at the other end of the building. Their eyes met and she saw the same horror in his eyes she knew he saw in hers.

As they sprinted out of the building, she heard Tony calling McGee, who was in a neighboring building. "Probie, we need to get to Gibbs, now." He called and threw the phone back into his pocket. "How could we miss that?" He asked and kept running. "Did you call him?"

"I tried, but he´s not answering. Tony, what if..." She started, but didn´t finish as he put his hand on her arm as they continued to run.

"Don´t even dare to think about that, Kate. He´s okay." He said and pulled his gun out of the holster. Deep inside, he was just really worried, but he wouldn´t let her notice. They needed to concentrate on the task ahead. "You take the left, I take the right." He told her when they stormed in. The building seemed deserted, lights were dimmed in the hallway. Most doors seemed to hold offices, which were dark as it was rather late already. At the end of the hallway there was light shining through a gap under a door.

The noise from inside the room sounded like a fight, but there was no way to be sure of that. It could be some movie, but both doubted that their boss would go and watch a movie during an investigation. Tony kicked the door, sending a large piece of the lock flying through the air. Two people were in the room, one of them pinned to the floor. There was blood, lots of blood.

Kate didn´t think twice when she took aim and shot the man who sat on top, a large shard of glass raised above his head. She hit his shoulder, sending him off the second person. She immediately handcuffed Ross and shoved him into a corner of the room, making sure that he couldn´t get back up without help. Tony had put his gun away and knelt down next to their boss. She heard him curse and he jumped up again. "Make sure he doesn´t move." He yelled and bolted out, phone at the ear again.

It took a few moments until Kate realized that Gibbs was still lying on the floor. Normally, he was up quickly, no matter how badly he had been beaten, but this time, he barely moved at all. She heard him gasping for air and was at his side immediately. He had a deep gash on his head and his hands were covered with blood. Ross must have tried to stab him with that piece of glass, causing him to deflect the attack with his hands, but she couldn´t see any wounds on his upper body though. "Help is on the way. Just lie still." She told him and noted that he finally looked at her. There something in his eyes she had never seen before -fear.

"Kate..." He whispered, but started to cough immediately. A thin trail of blood ran out the corner of his mouth and she started to pray that Tony came back quickly. Without thinking, she took his hand and held on to it in an attempt to reassure him that he would be okay. She wasn´t so sure about it at this moment though.

"Don´t talk, you´ll be okay." She whispered and noted that he tried to show her something. She noticed the thin silver bracelet and took it between her fingers. He had been wearing this thing for as long as she knew him. She kept holding his hand and turned the bracelet on his arm to see what was written on the metal plate. Her blood froze when she saw the emblem and read the words etched into the metal right next to it. "Gibbs...no..." Her voice failed her and she turned towards the door where she heard Tony on the phone. "Tony! Hurry up!" She called at him as panic started to grip her heart.

His breathing got more labored with every second and the trail of blood didn´t stop to run down over his chin. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later. They put him to sleep immediately and inserted a tube to help him breathe. Kate showed the bracelet to one of the medics and they doubled their efforts to bring him out quickly. Tony had not seen the bracelet, but he sensed that something wasvery wrong. When the ambulance tore out of the parking area, she looked at him. "We have to call Ducky." She said and tried to take her phone out, but her hands were shaking too much.

He put his hands onto her shoulders and forced her to look at him, realizing how much fear there was in her eyes. "What did they look at on his arm?" He asked and pulled his own phone out to call Ducky. He handed it to her, knowing that she could explain it better.

"Ducky, it´s Kate. Gibbs has been beaten upand they brought him to the hospital. You need to see him... He had trouble breathing and..." She stopped and listened for a moment. "I saw it, yes. Okay, we´re on the way." She handed the phone back to Tony and felt tears burning in her eyes. "Ducky said they will take him to Bethesda. We´re to meet him there."

Dinozzo still wondered what was going on, but he knew Kate well enough to notice her confusion. "Okay, let´s get McGee and go." Tim came running towards them as they approached the parking lot. He was out of breath and didn´t ask anything until they were in the car. "Kate, what was on that bracelet? That medic looked at it and suddenly they kinda panicked." Tony asked, catching a puzzled look from McGee.

Kate turned to their younger colleague first. "It was Ross, he beat Gibbs up badly. He was about to stab him when we came in. They took him to hospital." She told him and noticed how the color drained from his face. She tried to gather her thoughts. "You know those bracelets they give people who are haemophilic? It´s something like that."Kate said and felt a lump in her throat as the car tore out of the base, right behind the ambulance.She sighed and closed her eyes. "He had a lung transplant." The words echoed in her mind and she could see the words etched into the shiny metal again.