note: I hope you enjoy this. there is a lot more action in this one than in the previous chapters and it is longer. I love it when Jack goes into the field and picks up an AK47. so I wanted to write something about that. I hope you enjoy this and let me know what you think.
Jack is asked by Gibbs to tag along on a major arrest of a drug-dealing group of sailors. There are expected to be at least 10 young sailors in the warehouse they are about to storm so they are going to need all hands on deck that has tactical training. Another reason why Gibbs asked Jack to tag along is that she has been making profiles on each of the members of the gang and has profiled homicide and suicidal tendencies with at least 2 of the youngest members of the gang. Jack is standing outside the NCIS car and is getting her gear on. The cars har parked in a nearby ally that is out of sight from the warehouse but still in close enough proximity. Jack is putting her NCIS-vest over her head and straps it on when Gibbs walks around the corner to her. He is all geared up with a bulletproof west under his NCIS jacket and his service weapon strap to his belt along with several rounds of ammunition strapped to his leg. He walks over to Jack who seems a bit nervous about the situation. Gibbs hands her a Colt M4.
"it is heave firepower, Gibbs" Jack takes it and puts it over her head and her shoulder.
"you are going to be okay Jack," Gibbs says more as a statement then as a question. She nods. She has done this before, but it has been a while since she was last in the field.
"I'm going to have your back, Jack." He says reassuring. He has his sniper rifle hanging on his back over his shoulder. She nods. the rest of the team joins them.
"good to go, boss," McGee announces. "Waiting on your order, boss."
"McGee, you and Torres covering the back entrance and Jack and Bishop cover the front. Gibbs says. Everyone nods in understanding.
"where are you going to be?" Jack asks. She looks up at the building around them. She knows snipers seek high ground.
"up there." Gibbs points to a window in a 5-storage empty warehouse across the street from the warehouse they are going into.
"I'm going to watch your six," Gibbs says directly to Jack with a small reassuring smile. The exchange of a sneaky smile between Torres and Bishop doesn't go unnoticed by Jack who shoots Torres an annoyed look and mimics the words shot up to which she receives a shocked smug from Nick.
"Watch your six." Gibbs orders but the look in his eyes shows deep concern for his team. They all know this could go sideways in many ways and real fast. They all split up and take their assigned positions. Soon after they all get the order to breach the warehouse and Jack follows Bishop into the warehouse by announcing their presence with the standard: "NCIS Don't move." They are quickly greeted by gunshots from the tenants of the building who is as they expected a group of young men. Torres and McGee come in through the back door and they receive almost the same amount of gunshots as a greeting. After a few minutes of heavy exchange of gunfire, the NCIS-team manage to get most of the remaining breathing men down on the ground and in handcuffs. Gibbs managed to take out a few too from a distance who were getting a little too creative with what they were throwing at the NCIS-team. Gibbs saw one of them where fabricating Molotov cocktails to throw at Jack and Bishop so Gibbs fired a shot and blow up the Molotov cocktails before the suspects could throw them but the minor explain that created also caused a diversion and an opportunity for one guy to make a run for his freedom.
"I got him," Jack yells and runs after the guy out of the warehouse to catch him.
Jack chases the guy for a few blocks until she finally catches up to him on the waterfront just a few meters from the edge. She draws her gun and points it at him.
"don't move." Jack orders. The young man stops running and raises his hands above his head.
"turn around." Jack orders. The young man turns around. Jack recognizes him. he is a smug 21-year-old who was in a lot of trouble as a teenager and who has been in a lot of trouble since he joined the service. It is petty officer 3rd class Jared Holders. According to what Jack read in his file and what she profiled he is an outsider and a smug ass a male chauvinist who has zero regards for female servicemembers whom he has been in a lot of conflict with. He has had several altercations with disrespect for female superior officers.
"Listen, honey." He says and he turns around to face Jack with a smug smile on his face. "you can't handle me. I'm too much work for you so let's just call it a day. Accept your defeat and you just walk back to your secretary-job." Jack is really struggling not to just pull the trigger.
"keep your hands on your head." Jack orders. The young man does as she says with a smug smile. She walks closer to him as she takes out her handcuffs.
"honey you should know I like it rough." He says and laughs. Jack walks over and grabs his wrist to place the handcuffs. She grabs his arm hard and twists it down on his back.
"wow, easy honey." He laughs.
"didn't you say you like it rough." Jack says with the same smug smile as he has. "don't worry the guys you are going to be in prison with from now on likes it real rough too." Jack says as promise and suddenly the young man's smug smile changes to pure anger. Jack read in his file that he had homophobic tendencies and knew her last comment would piss him off, but she didn't expect him to turn in to hulk-like strength. He somehow manages to get one hand out of the handcuffs and attack Jack, and they get into a fistfight. Jack gets her knife out that she is carrying, and she manages to attack him with it a few times to try and get him down in pain, but he seems to be so worked up in anger that the pain doesn't seem to affect him. they fight for a few more manage and Jack also managed to get quite a few punches in. she finally gets him on the ground and she is on top of him and she punches his face so his nose seems broken. He finally stops fighting back and Jack stands up.
"too much of for you, honey." She says with a smug smile and walks over and picks up the handcuffs that are on the ground by his feet. "Jack." That is Bishop coming towards her followed by Torres and McGee and Gibbs. As she picks them up the handcuffs and looks over at her co-workers Jared moves and he kicks her in the stomach, and she loses her balance and falls backward right over the edges and into the water.
Her body is sore from the fight and from the swimming as she reaches one of the latter's hanging on the edge of the harbor. The latter was a good 5 minutes of swimming from where she fell into the water. She felt in right in front of that smug ass who has told her he was too much to handle for her. the whole morning, she had been nervous about it has been a while since she was last in the field, but Gibbs had trusted her enough to send her in having Bishops back. She was supposed to have his youngest agents back. she failed Gibbs's trust today and she embarrassed herself in the field.
As she climbs up the latter a hand is reached out to her. she is embarrassed and doesn't really want to see who it is. She thinks to herself that the whole office is going to know how she embarrassed herself in the field once she is back at the office.
"you are okay Jack?" that is the familiar sound of Gibbs's voice.
"yeah." She says never looking up at him as she gets back on solid ground. He hands her, her knife that she must have dropped before she falls into the water. She securely places it back on her angle. He takes off his dry jacket and places it around her.
"It is going to get wet Gibbs you need your jacket." She says and is about to take his jacket off, but he insists on her keeping it on. They walk over to the rest of the team. The ME van has shown up by now and a black van is driving away.
"Finally, that guy stopped whining," McGee says. Jack and Gibbs walk over to the rest of the team.
"what did you do to that guy, Jack?" Bishop asks.
"what I did?" Jack asks surprised.
"yeah, he was whined like a baby over you broke his face," Torres says with a big smile.
"I defended my self," Jack explains casually.
"I detected at least 4 stab wounds, a broken nose, 3 broken teeth, a dislocated shoulder, a fractured collarbone, and multiple superficial wounds, scratches, and bruises. And that is only the visible injuries that man sustained." Ducky informs them as he joins the group. Everyone looks impressed with Jack.
"dang… Jack. I don't want to get on your bad side." Bishop says and everyone starts laughing.
"you where bad-ass" Bishop says impressed. Jack doesn't say anything. She still feels embarrassed and she isn't sure if they are just mocking her or really impressed. Gibbs has an arm around her shoulders, and she feels a reassuring squeeze on her arm from him which makes her feel a bit better.
"Jacquelin. How are you feeling?" Ducky asks concerned turning his attention to Jack.
"I'm fine Ducky," Jack says trying to put on a brave face. Her body is sore, and she must admit that she was on the receiving end of at least a few punches in the fight with the petty officer.
"it seems like you have a split eyebrow and split lip," Jimmy says squinting his eyes at her to look closer at her bruised face.
"I'm fine," Jack says pulling Gibbs jacket a bit tighter around her. she is shivering.
"let's get you to the hospital, Jack."
"I'm fine Gibbs." Jack insists.
"your finger appears to be broken or at least sprained Jack," Jimmy observes the few of Jack's fingers there are visible.
"Torres, get me one of the thermal blankets from the back of your car will you," Ducky asks and Nick starts running towards the black SUV to grab a blanket.
"come with me here Jacqueline," Ducky says and reaches a handout for Jack to take. She accepts unwillingly and walks with Ducky to the back of the ME van. McGee and Bishop follow them. Ducky places Jack at the edge of the van in the back. Torres comes back with the thermal blanket and hands it to Ducky. He firmly wraps it around Jack.
"give us some privacy agents." Ducky orders and Bishop, McGee, and Jimmy take a few steps away. "Mr. Palmer." Ducky calls out and Palmer steps back to the van. "Will you make Agent Sloane a cop of hot tea? I have some tea leaves in my bag." Ducky orders.
"I don't drink Tea, Ducky. But thanks. I am fine."
"We need to get you heated up both from the inside and the outside. The blanket won't do it alone." Ducky informs her. then at the same moment, Gibbs comes running over to them. He hands Jack a coffee cup.
"a cup of sugar with a hint of caffeine." He informs her with a smile. Gibbs joking about her coffee makes her smile and the little exchange of glance between them doesn't go unnoticed by Ducky.
"Thanks, Gibbs." She says with a smile and takes a sip of the coffee.
"Agent Sloane do you have a set of changing clothing?" Ducky asks trying not to pay attention to the sweet smile between Gibbs and Jack that is impossible for the experienced doctor to not notice.
"not here. I do in the office." Jack informs snapping out of her little moment with Gibbs.
"I got a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt you can wear until we get back," Gibbs says and before Jack can interrupt or object he is gone. soon after Gibbs comes back with a pair of black sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie.
"I'm not wearing anything USMC," Jack says to Jack.
"it isn't. it is NIS. Put it on." Gibbs says more as an order than as a request. But he doesn't leave to give her the privacy to get changed. He just stays there looking at her. Their eyes meet in a sweet glance and it doesn't go unnoticed by Ducky. It seems like the self-aware mood with Jack caused by her embarrassment about her defeat in the fight has faded away for now.
"let's give her some privacy," Ducky says grabbing Gibbs's arm firmly to pull him out of the glaze with Jack. Jack gets snapped out of starring into Gibbs's steal-blue eyes too and gets up from her seat on the edge of the van.
"you can just close the doors and change in the van, agent Sloane," Ducky informs her and then Ducky almost drags Gibbs away.
Once Jack has changed Ducky and Gibbs come back to the van. Jack is sitting on a bench that is placed along the side inside the van. Gibbs jumps into the van and sits down next to her.
"How are you doing?" he asks and wraps his arms around her. she is still freezing and shaking from the cold water.
"I'm sorry I let you down, Gibbs," Jack says.
"you never let me down, Jack," Gibbs says and places a kiss on her forehead.
"I shouldn't have gone after him myself. I completely humiliated myself and I almost let the suspect get away."
"don't blame yourself." He says almost whispering into her hair. His thumb is gently brushing over her brushed face. she is shivering and he pulls the blanket closer around her to warm her up. It feels so comfortable and strangely familiar to Jack the way he is holding her in his arms. The kiss on her forehead and the blanket he has wrapped around her. she can't quite figure out where the familiarity comes from until their moment is interrupted by McGee who asks Gibbs to step out so they can give him an update. Gibbs passes Ducky who is on his way to check up on Jack. "gt her patched up ducky. Take her to the hospital.
"I'm not going to the hospital," Jack calls out and receives a demanding look from Gibbs but she isn't going to give up. She feels enough humiliated already. She doesn't want to be the agent who has to go to the ER after a field trip. Ducky steps into the van.
"How are you feeling Jacqueline?" Ducky asks.
"I'm fine Ducky," Jack says and takes a sip of her coffee. She looks after Gibbs. It suddenly hits her. It was her dream. That is why it all felt so familiar. Gibbs holding her in his arms. The thumb brushing over her face, the kiss on her forehead, the blanket wrapped around her. it was just like in her dream. She is now 100% sure it was Gibbs she dreamed about, but she still can't figure out whether it was a dream or real. She keeps thinking about her dream and how everything Gibbs just did was the exact same thing that happened in her dream.