Chapter 26: Showdown
Disclaimer: Man, if they wanna buy this, I'll sell it. (Which should be a hint that I don't own NCIS)
Author's Note: Okay, everyone, take a deep, calming, cleansing breath. This is the chapter that you have been waiting for (maybe).
When they got to Hector, there were two black Arkansas State Police SUVs waiting for them.
Two ASP officers, Gary Turner, and Sturgis Wood were already loading one. Gibbs and McGee climbed in the second along with Beau and Brice Talbot.
"How far out are we?" Gibbs asked.
"About 20 miles. In these hills, that'll take us about half an hour," Brice replied, taking off down the narrow highway.
Gibbs sat back and did what everyone in the two SUVs were doing: prepared himself.
They all knew that this wouldn't end well.
They didn't know if Justin was alive.
They didn't know if David was alive.
They didn't know if David was armed.
They didn't know if David was alone.
What they didn't know was a hell of a lot more than what they did know.
In fact, right now all Gibbs was conscious of was that he was going out there to save a kid and avenge a Marine. To avenge a fallen brother. You don't mess with us.
This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with us
The SUVs pulled off onto a narrow, winding dirt road. They trekked several miles into the woods before coming to a clearing. On the far side of the clearing was a dilapidated old barn. Inside that barn was David Cooper.
The killer stood at the wall of the barn. He watched the vehicles approach through a hole in the rotted wood. He recognized the state police star on the side. It was time.
But I'm ready, yes, I'm ready for you
I'm standing on my own two feet
He went and set up a makeshift barricade to stand behind. He checked his weapon. He looked out the window and watched the eight men skulk across the field toward him. He wasn't going down without a fight. He was going down swinging.
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
Repeating to the sound of the beat
He got down behind his barricade and waited. He heard the footsteps lightly approaching the barn. They had him surrounded and he knew it. He wouldn't be coming out of this alive; but if he had his way, at least one of them wouldn't either.
Gibbs and Beau led into the barn from the front, McGee and another ASP officer had the left, Sturgis and Gary had the right, and the remaining ASP officer and Brice were in the back.
Another one bites the dust
Gibbs stood on one side of the doorway and Beau on the other. Beau gave a short nod to Gibbs, who shouted, "Federal Agents!"
Beau and Gary also identified their departments.
They were answered with a manic yell, "You'll have to come in here and kill me, 'cause I'm not goin' to prison! I won't do it!"
"David! Put down your weapon!" Gibbs shouted.
"How do you know who I am?!" David responded, angrily.
"We know all about you David! Now, is this what Cade would want you to do?!" Beau shouted.
"Cade wanted that mission! That bastard, Daniel Stewart, took it from him!"
"David, you know that's not what happened!" Gibbs shouted back.
"Well, that's how I see it! Why don't you come in here and look at me?! I'm gonna die one way or another!" David bellowed back.
"That's not how it has to end, David!" Gary yelled.
"It's either death or life in prison or death row! I'd rather go down fighting! FACE ME!" David demanded. He fired a round toward the front door; it splintered the wall above Beau's head.
Gibbs nodded at Beau and they went into the barn, weapons drawn.
"Drop your gun, David!" Gibbs demanded.
"Never!" David shouted, blindly firing at Gibbs.
Gibbs returned fire, purposely shooting close to David without hitting him.
The others joined them, weapons drawn.
David looked around, panning his gun from one man to the next.
"Put it down, David. It's over," Gibbs demanded.
"I don't freakin' think so," David said with a maniacal gleam in his eye.
Beau looked up in time to see David point the gun at Gibbs; he ran and jumped on Gibbs, knocking him to the ground.
David fired just as Beau had stepped in front of Gibbs. The bullet shot into Beau's shoulder with a sickening sound. Beau arched his back and shouted out in pain as he fell over. From behind, the ASP officer took a shot at David. It struck David's back and he crumpled to the ground.
McGee, Gary, and an ASP officer ran to Beau. The others ran to David. Gibbs walked over to David and watched the boy struggling to breathe. In his last breath he looked up at Gibbs with a look of satisfaction and said, "Tell Cade I'm sorry." Then he was gone.
Seeing that the ASP officer and the Park Rangers were taking care of Beau and that one officer was calling ambulances and the coroner, he called McGee over to help him open the trailer.
They lifted the heavy metal door of the trailer and prepared themselves for the worst.
Gibbs ran to the back of the trailer and found Justin tied up and blindfolded; he checked his pulse then he called back to McGee. "We need another ambulance! He's alive!"
Gibbs ran over and began untying the ropes that bound Justin.
Gibbs held Justin and saw that he was breathing, "Wake up!" Gibbs shouted, "You can't sleep now."
Justin opened his eyes but only a little bit.
"What's...what's goin' on?"
"I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I'm with NCIS, came here to save you."
"Yeah?"
Gibbs heard the ambulances pull up; he heard Beau arguing about having to be taken away in one. Finally, two paramedics with a gurney wheeled it into the trailer and put Justin on the cot. Gibbs followed them into the ambulance, giving McGee a look.
Once the ambulance had began moving and the paramedics were busy putting I.V.'s and other things on Justin, his eyes began to droop.
"He can't go to sleep," one of the paramedics demanded.
Gibbs stood over Justin's face and looked at him.
The boy's eyes drooped and you could tell that he was fighting back the pain. His body was telling him to go to sleep, but his mind knew that if he did, he would die.
Gibbs spoke to him, "What's your name?"
The boy slurred a response, "Hunh?"
"Tell me your name, soldier!" Gibbs said, with more aggression this time.
"My name is...my name is...my name's Private Justin Lloyd Spencer," Justin answered weakly.
"Who do you serve with, Private?" Gibbs asked, keeping a little force to his voice.
"The...the National Guard..." Justin replied, softly.
"Tell me about yourself, Private," Gibbs ordered.
"I'm 18 years old...I graduate from Judson Hill High School this May...I have a little brother named Frankie and a little sister named Stasha...I leave for Iraq at the end of May...I wanted to be a Marine, but I couldn't stand to wait..." Justin replied, his voice fading.
"You shoulda waited, Private," Gibbs said, softly patting Justin's shoulder.
"Why's that, sir?" Justin asked, working hard to stay awake.
"Because, you woulda made a damn fine Marine, Private Spencer," Gibbs replied, soothingly and honestly.
A.N.: Okay, before I start venting about this chapter I need to get this out of the way.
The first song was Karma Police by Radiohead, the other lyrics were all from Another One Bites the Dust by Queen.
Now, about this chapter. It was really hard for me to write. Here's some of the things that I almost let happen: David lived; Beau died; Gibbs was shot; Gibbs shot David; David tried to shoot Beau and Gibbs jumped in front of Beau, but Beau still was shot. In the end, this is the version that came out and I'm okay with that. I was really not sure about killing David, but I didn't see anywhere to take the character after this. I mean, he wanted to die. And for the record, I knew through the whole thing that Justin would live. I just couldn't tell you...It would ruin the ending.
Hey, I found a new Tiva word, whaddya think of this:
Mamihlapinatapei
From Yagan, the indigenous language of the Tierra del Fuego region of South America. This word has been translated in several ways in English, always implying a wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.
This isn't completely over yet, guys. We still have to wrap up Tony and Ziva's story.
Please review for David, the basis of, well...David. In real life, he isn't a kidnapper/murderer or anything like that. I just want to be sure that on the off chance that David reads this I have vindicated myself. (Sorry, David)