So finally something big is happening, lol!
Betrayal of Trust, Part II
"What is Gibbs hoping we find?" Kate turns to Tony as he glances around the living room of the late Chief Petty Officer and his girlfriend's one bedroom apartment.
"Hopefully a clue," Kate says shaking her head obviously not convinced that what they are doing is even worth it.
"But there are a million things in this apartment and I highly doubt that a copy of how to shape you butt in five minutes is his," Kate has to agree with that.
"So does it work?" he throws out at her and she turns and gives him an icy glare at him.
"Why do you think I would know?" Kate asks and she is prepared for some sexual comment.
"Because you are the only woman I know who does Pilates, Yoga, and boxes and still has time to run," Kate raises her eyebrow at the fact that he knows all of that.
"I didn't know you cared that much about my workout habits DiNozzo and frankly it's a little creepy that you know that. Are you looking through my trash again?" he shakes his head with a laugh and even though he obviously thinks it's ridiculous she wouldn't put it past him knowing he has done it in the past on more than one occasion.
"Besides most of the décor tells me that it is someone that has a basic understanding of interior design and based off what Brianna told me it is most likely that all of this stuff is hers," Kate says and she isn't sure if Tony is listening anymore as she goes about searching through the bookshelves. She glances back at him and when he quickly glances back to where he is looking. Kate can't help a smile spread over her lips because she is positive that the man had just been checking her out. He has been amazingly nice lately and even if it makes her heart swell she doesn't want to get her hopes up because player is Tony's middle name.
"I'm going to check in the bedroom," when Tony doesn't say anything she is pretty sure that he has found the porn or something and decides to leave him to his sick fantasizing.
It is pretty orderly and Kate prays that works to her advantage as she goes through the room. She quickly checks under the bed and in small spaces before going for the more obvious places in the drawers. She quickly goes through the drawers that are the girlfriends and finds nothing other than overly priced lingerie interspersed with some everyday delicates. She does a meticulous check over his things and she is surprised that Tony hasn't joined her in this room for the search.
She finally gets to his sock drawer and as she is moving one she realizes one is way heavier and thicker than the others. "It wasn't a withdrawal, it was a cashier's check," Kate says pulling the jewelry box loose from inside the sock.
"Oh come on, Kate, there is no way you know that," Kate chuckles as she hears the man's footsteps in the bathroom across the hall.
"I'm just that good, Tony," she says with a chuckle as she opens the lid of the black velvet box. The ring is simple, but she knows for five thousand bucks buying anything intricate or big would be nearly impossible. She feels even worse that the Chief Petty Officer is dead now. She closes the box and she needs to make sure that Brianna gets this since it isn't evidence.
"Sure, you are, Kate," she turns and looks back at the man who is now leaning against the door frame.
"I just found the only thing in this place that would cost five thousand bucks," she tosses the box to him and Tony chuckles as he catches it with an ease of the athlete he is. "Men are so predictable the sock drawer is the first place women know to look."
"And how would you know that, Kate?" Kate knows that Tony is trying to either rile her up or extract personal information that she would never otherwise tell him.
"Not gonna happen, DiNozzo," she bits her lip looking around at the room. There is barely anything other than clothes in the room that are his, most are the girlfriend's for understandable reasons.
"So, how did you do it?" she asks looking around the room for hopefully anything that would point to why this guy got murdered.
"Do what?" Kate shakes her head realizing that either Tony is playing dumb or he really doesn't have any idea what she is talking about.
"Propose?" she is actually really interested to hear how the then Baltimore detective proposed to his music teacher girlfriend.
"Well…" she knows that he remembers because it was only six years ago that he proposed to Wendy, but she wonders if he hesitates because it is too painful to think about or because it is really intricate or something or he doesn't feel comfortable telling her.
"It was classic, tuxedo, candles, Sinatra playing in the background. I set up while she was still at work and surprised her when she got home, I even shed a tear." Kate sees the entire scene in her head except instead of Tony's ex-fiancé, the music teacher, it's her and they are surrounded by their closest friends and family and it is a couple years from now after she and Tony had sorted out all of their feelings and the entire mess of having a personal relationship and working together. Kate shakes her to get rid of the fantasy and knows that if she doesn't throw make a biting retort to Tony's overly cliché proposal he'll accuse her of being a sap or a not so closest romantic.
"I didn't know you had functioning tear ducts, DiNozzo," when Tony laughs at this she knows that her question hadn't been out of line or too far out of left field for him to come up with a solid answer. Kate looks down and notices that when Tony thinks she isn't looking he has an almost saddened contemplative look and it takes all of Kate not to ask whether the man misses his ex-fiancée.
She doesn't know how she would react if she and Damian had gotten that close to getting married and he had called it off. In some ways she knows that her break up with Damian had probably been for the better—no, scratch that it was definitely for the better because they hadn't worked even in the slightest.
"I'm not finding anything, you?" Tony throws over his shoulder and
"It looks like whatever got Dempsey killed isn't here," Kate doesn't know if that worries her or makes her relieved because it most likely isn't the girlfriend.
"Gibbs isn't going to like that," Kate shrugs in response because honestly Gibbs doesn't like anything.
As Kate and Tony arrive back in the squad room they quickly get ushered over to McGee's desk where Ziva and Gibbs are looking on expectantly as the Junior Agent waits for them.
"I was able to track the Chief's movements through tracking his cell phone and because the girlfriend couldn't account for his whereabouts around ten the evening before too well after twelve and the few hours leading up to his death."
"Though it would be hard for her to track his movements when she was so focused on her thesis. She said she has been working hard to finish a solid draft before the end of fall semester that even though she wanted to spend time him with him that was more pressing," Kate adds hoping that it will finally put to bed Gibbs over suspicious nature on the girlfriend front.
"What did you come up with McSpy?" Tony asks and Kate tries to not roll her eyes.
"His cell phone at least binged off one of the cell towers surrounding the campus of American University, I was able to narrow it down to a mile area, but there is a lot of buildings in that area and some are frat houses and dorms, but most around there are frat houses and off campus housing," Kate wonders if it is anywhere close to where the brother lives.
"Where is the library that Brianna Dawson was at?" Ziva asks and Kate gives her an accusing look for siding with Gibbs. Ziva gives her an apologetic shrug.
"Across campus, his cell phone never went near that part of campus even when he was obviously leaving to go back to the apartment," McGee supplies and it is obvious that Gibb's overactive imagination is going to be proven wrong.
"Well, how are we going to narrow that down?" Gibbs asks as they all stare at the very densely populated area section of the map surrounding the University.
"Like this," Abby says triumphantly strolling into the squad room and Kate smiles knowing that she had finally gotten around to analyzing the voicemail Ryan left for Brianna on the night before he was murdered that she had recovered from the woman's deleted files on her phone. He hadn't had much phone traffic after that and quite honestly not having his actual phone as evidence was hindering their investigation because his computer had revealed nothing to point to why he was murderer or what he possibly got mixed up in.
"Rocking party," Tony says with a smile as they enter the frat house and he sees that everyone is dressed in tropical themed clothes and all the girls are wearing bikinis.
"Dempsey, was really here the night before he was killed?" Tony can hear Kate ask Ziva from behind him.
"According to what McGee found from tracking the cell phone through cell towers he was in this radius for the campus and using one of the voicemails he left for his girlfriend he and Abby heard the sounds of a major party in the background and she did some digging and found out that this was where the party to be at last night was and his cell phone pinged off the cell tower in this general area."
"Thanks for the recap, Ziva, I got all of that, but I am just trying to wrap my mind around the fact that a straight arrow enlisted navy guy was here especially after what his girlfriend said. He sounded like all he was focused on was his job working at the Navy and the only thing that mattered to him besides that was her and his brother. I mean come on she said she had almost never seen him drink besides maybe a beer ever once in a while with a meal and even that was pretty rare. She told me she had hoped that he would lighten up even with how much she loved him," Ziva gives Kate a curt nod.
As they weave through the crowd of students who are dancing he can't help, but notice how many beautiful young co-eds there are and how little they are wearing. Tony shakes his head to rid himself of that thought because he knows he has to look past all of the pretty on the outside girls to keep his eye on the one woman who is as magnificent on the outside as she is inside.
"You should be one to talk. I distinctly remember you telling me that you use to have fun while in college. Is it possible that the Petty Officer was like that," he glances back towards her and the woman gives him a small glare, but he can tell she is relieved that he hadn't brought up the wet t-shirt photo.
"In high school maybe, but I don't think so. And what I did was grow up, DiNozzo, I know that is a foreign concept to you, but it does happen to people and, sometimes they change," Tony knows that there is more of the party girl underneath there than the woman will admit and the fact that she got so defensive proves his theory. When he catches Ziva's eye and she raises any eyebrow he knows the Israeli woman thinks so too.
They move through the party and even though they get some weird looks from some of the partygoers no one stops and talked to them as they move through the downstairs of the frat house looking for someone who looked sober enough to possible give them a lead on why Ryan Dempsey was here the day before he was killed.
They enter the kitchen and one of the kids gives them a nod before skirting by them with a serving tray full of shots.
"Do you see anyone who looks like they are up to talking?" Kate asks and he shakes his head because he hadn't noticed anyone who wasn't engaged in a conversation or drunk off their asses. There were no people out in the main rooms who were being wallflowers who could possible give them some info or at least point them in the right direction.
"It is not even worth going upstairs because I do not think I want to be interrupt any of these hormonal collegiate going to it as you Americans say," Tony tries to not even laugh because he is sure she knows that idiom already.
"It's going at it, Ziva," Tony says with a roll of the eyes and he can see Kate's intense focus where is observing the coming and goings of the co-eds.
As they head back into the main room it seems like almost everyone is in the same position as they were just moments ago with the exception of those who probably left to go upstairs. When a boy lumbers towards them obviously heading for the kitchen Tony is almost hopeful that they might be able to pull this guy away. When he sees them he flees rather quickly for someone who is probably drunk or high.
"We have a runner," he screams and before he can even turn to register where either Kate or Ziva are they are already gone to cut the guy off.
"Why did you run?" Ziva fires off as they now have the guy cuffed and leaning on a support beam on the back of the frat house.
"Because you look like Five-O you know and I…" Tony gives him a look indicating that they do not in fact know what he is talking about, but as he pats the guy down he finds why the kid had run.
"Genius, here has enough weed in his pocket to keep the party going all night long," Tony says holding up the back for the two women to see and when Kate diverts her eyes away as if the little baggy of marijuana is going to cause her to go to hell and Tony can't help the smirk that forms on his lips.
"If you don't want us to call the campus cops or better yet D.C. metro you better answer our questions," the college student looks up with an almost skittish expression before nodding at Kate's assertion.
"Ever seen this guy before?" Ziva says pulling Ryan Dempsey's service photo from her jacket pocket.
When the kid stares blankly at the photo, Tony thinks about reaching for his cell phone and pretending to call the campus cops."Umm… I don't know I've been pretty high…haha… for the last few days ever since my finals got finished, so I could have seen him, but I might not remember. We don't really get a lot of soldiers on campus, but you know you could check with… crap… I can't remember… please don't arrest me or give me up to the campus cops," Tony is in a state of disbelief at how dumb the witness is not only has he given no information at all. Tony shares an incredulous look with Kate and Ziva who each have looks of disbelief on their faces as they glance at the teenager in front of them. Tony is fully aware that the guy is stoned out of his mind, but Tony is pretty sure that if this guy were not stoned he would be as dumb as he is right now. Tony knows he majored in Physical Education, but this kid is pathetic even by his standard. How the hell did this guy into a major university, a private university for that matter?
"Were you at the party last night?"
"Yeah for like an hour, but then I went back to my…" laughs before continuing, "to my dorm to smoke some very special blend…"
"He doesn't know anything," Tony says turning to the two woman and they nod in understanding knowing that they probably won't get any good leads or interviews while they are here.
The kid looks at them expectantly and Kate turns and looks at him with a glare before saying after unlocking the cuffs from his wrists, "Run along and don't even think about smoking anymore tonight and we won't call the campus cops."
Ziva lets out an annoyed huff as the round the corner off the house that leads out to the street. They pass some people too drunk to even notice them and Tony wonders how much more beer he can chug than these kids. They get to the street and Tony notices there are more people milling outside than there were when they entered the house.
"I love myself some cougar," the boy says with a cocky smile and Tony doesn't even have time to react before the man's hand is twisted back and he is forced towards their car.
"Move along now!" he screams at the rest of the kids hanging out in the cold weather and they scram like ants away from a shoe stepping on an ant hill.
"AH, oh my god that hurts!" screams the guy and Tony is actually surprised the man's hand isn't broken. Kate forces the man onto the hood of the Charger and withdraws her cuffs from her belt and gives him and Ziva an eye roll.
"Hey, that hurts you stupid bitch!" the man spits out as she halls him up.
"Have you ever heard of assault on a federal agent?" the frat boy's eyes widen and she chuckles sarcastically and he can tell that Kate is trying hard to not hurt the boy even more in anger.
"Yeah, that's right, buddy we are federal agents. NCIS, to be exact," Tony smirks crossing his arms.
"That means at least a year in prison and tens of thousands of dollars in fines," Kate says as she puts him in the back of the car.
"I thought you guys were the campus cops," the man says as he tries to shift against the cuffs.
"You wish," Ziva says as she slides in the seat across from the suspect and Kate walks around the back to get in the front seat.
"Oh crap," the young man says finally getting how bad his actions are.
"Though how you would think doing that to a campus police officer wouldn't have the same result is beyond my comprehension," Ziva asks and the boy looks like her words have flown over his head.
Thirty minutes later they are back at the Naval Yard with the drunk college student in tow.
"Who the hell is this guy?" their silver haired boss asks obviously pissed that they have brought some shmuck back with them.
"He kind of slapped Kate's ass," Kate gives him a look indicating that kind of doesn't cover it.
"And he is alive?" Kate sends Gibbs a glare, but the man chuckles and Tony can't help, but shrug because he knows Kate has quite a temper and the woman did know how to beat the crap out of just about anyone.
"We thought it was best to bring him in because he was at the fraternity party that Dempsey was at the night before he died and it is obvious that he knows more than he is saying," Ziva adds trying to lessen the blow a bit.
"I'm surprised she didn't make it so he can't have kids," Tony says and he can tell from her facial expression that Kate can't believe she hadn't thought of that.
"At this point that might be a good idea. Because the world is already full of enough imbeciles," Kate turns to Tony and throws him a teasing glare. When Tony pales Kate can't help, but think that Tony is remembering the way that Kate had kicked McGee in the balls when they had been practicing close quarter combat.
"How long are you going to let him sit in there?" Tony asks turning to look at the woman who had brought the man into the interrogation room a little over a half an hour ago.
"A little while longer. I'm going to let him sweat a little bit for what he did, but mostly so he sobers up," Kate rolls her eyes as she watches the boy start to doze off in a drunk stupor.
"I think getting arrested for assault on a federal official cleared some of the beer from his system," Tony lets out with a snort.
"Would it have sobered you up, DiNozzo?" Tony laughs because the woman is probably right.
"No, probably not," Kate picks up the file from the desk in the observation room and gives him a nod before heading out of the observation room towards the interrogation room where the kid they had hauled in with an obvious fake id.
"Wake up, this isn't your dorm room or the floor of a frat house and don't even for a minute think about vomiting in here," the woman says slamming the door of interrogation closed and Tony just smiles from the observation room when the guy raises his head looking groggy at best.
"The lights are really bright in here can you, please turn them down," Kate lets out a loud sarcastic laugh before taking a seat across from them wasted teenager.
"No," she states with a cold glare that wakes the kid up.
"I'm sorry… I was just blowing off some steam from midterms with my buddies at the AKG party. They throw the best parties and they always have the hottest chicks," the kid gives a lazy smile and tries to through a charming smile.
"Oh, so I can charge you with under-aged drinking too?" the kid blanches at this.
"How do you know I'm not 21?" Kate raises her eyebrow in a seriously fashion.
"Because first of all you don't look like a Samar Olwasi," he wonders if the campus cops even look at those.
"What it is a family name," Tony laughs and Ziva smiles because they both can tell that there is no possible way that, that is true because the boy is the definition of skinny white boy.
"Well also you don't look 32 to me and honestly I can tell this is a crappy fake ID, it is missing the hologram and there several watermarks and security threads that are missing along with the fact that it isn't laminated correctly. I mean seriously did someone glue this thing together and hope for the best," once again the words seem to fly over his head.
"What is your real name?!" this sobers the kid up a little and he thinks for a moment before answering.
"Adam Scott," the boy answers barely over a whisper.
"Well, Adam, I will let you off on the underage drinking charges if you answer some of my question and we will seem about those assault charges," the boy thinks it over before a long before nodding.
"Have you ever seen this guy before?" Kate opens the file in front of her and shows Dempsey service photo.
"I don't know…" Tony can tell that even if he is more sober he is still pretty drunk.
"Have you ever seen this guy before?!" when the boy looks like he has had the living daylight scared out of him he knows that Kate is really scary and it will mostly like garner some more info than the stoned kid from earlier.
"Alright, I think so... I'm not sure. I was pretty drunk, but yeah I think so. I thought it was kind of weird that some guy in his thirties who was all nicely dressed was there, but what the hell he could have just come for the free booze and the killer drugs. Then he went straight for some guy at the back of the party and they just started arguing and dude the fight it was awesome! My friend Zack got a video of it. Dude, he beat the shit out of the other guy, but then it got all talky and we lost interest."
"Thank you Adam, feel free to call you parents and explain this one to them and get yourself a lawyer. And NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service so they don't confuse us with some other law enforcement agency," she gets up from her seat leaving the kid in state of utter confusion.
"If you succeeded at one thing, Kate it was scaring the crap out of the poor kid," the woman gives him a look of triumph.
"Well, maybe it will make him scared to drink for a while. I feel bad for not telling him that he won't get charged for assault or underage drinking, but I figure it will help for him to sweat out until his rich mommy and daddy get here with an overpriced lawyer," Kate says with what sounds like more cynicism than he thought was possible to leave Kate Todd's both.
"Oh, I'm sure, but I do believe you just saved the whole female student population at American University from having to deal with the same treatment," Tony sees the roll of her eyes and he can tell that this kid is going to get in a lot of trouble even if he isn't being charged with anything.
"I might also have stopped that kid from getting charged for sexual assault in the future," Tony doesn't know if he buys that.
"At least maybe we can figure out who Dempsey was arguing with right before his death. This might break the case because honestly up until know I've been a little concerned because this guy is such a Boy Scout," Ziva adds after a long moment and Kate gives a thankful nod.
Tony watches Kate squint at the video currently playing on plasma in Abby's lab the next day and even though it is bright and early Tony doesn't feel that tired because when he looks at Kate he can tell she is in a good mood.
"I tried to clean up the resolution and exclude the excess background noise, but let's just say that whoever took this video has an old or partly broken phone because the audio is suspect at best, I can barely get anything they are saying in audio, but most of the info on the video that isn't corrupted is the images and what I can see from this less than stellar is that Dempsey is yelling at someone who is off camera."
"Dempsey is yelling something about how long and…" Kate says after a moment of watching the video.
"Very good, Kate that is what I go too, but if you slow it down after that ignoring all of the hand motions he clearly say something about drugs, but after that the video cuts away and because the audio isn't worth anything, that's all I've got," Gibbs eyes Abby with careful consideration.
"Drugs?" Gibbs looks unconvinced, but he allows Abby to continue.
"Yes, drugs, Gibbs, I finally got the test results on that brown residue on the bullet, that wasn't from an obvious source or found anywhere else at the crime scene, but after running it through ever test I know I found out it was brown sugar heroin, it's purity is in the high 60 range. Whoever got their hands on this stuff obviously hadn't cut it yet. And before you ask Gibbs there wasn't any evidence of drugs in his system. He's completely clean, I had Duck look for track marks and for evidence that he smoked it, but there isn't any," Abby cuts through Gibbs single word question and provides even more questions for the team.
"Is there any way to identify who he is pushing around even the he isn't in the shot at all?" Kate asks even though she looks unconvinced that Abby can do it based on the video or the audio from it.
"No, sorry, guys," Tony is surprised because it isn't like Abby to come up so blank.
They go back to working in the squad room and less than an hour later McGee gives a proud smile as he has found the answer.
"So, I went through MySpace and found more images from the party on Thursday and I found who Ryan was fighting with. No other than his own brother," the junior agent says in triumph pulling the picture up onto the plasma for them all to see.
Kate gives a heavy hearted sigh as she thinks about the fact that most likely Dempsey's brother killed him as she, McGee, and Ziva head towards the University in search of someone that can tell them for sure if Nick Dempsey is one of the on campus drug dealers.
Kate eyes flickers in recognition as she realizes that the facts of the case doesn't add up and that there is something missing from their information that would not only solve the case, but makes sense because of what they had learned from the two witnesses from the college. Dempsey's little brother was the on campus drug dealer at American University and the Chief Petty Officer had gone there looking for him to try and stop him from making an even bigger mess of his life or end up dead because he tried to con some even scary people into letting the brother out of the game.
"Do you think the girlfriend knew?" she poses to the team.
"If she did she didn't tell us did she," Gibbs says and Kate rolls her eyes because Gibbs always thinks everyone is guilty of something.
"She is a Grad. student at the university is it possible she was working with the brother on the side to make money, graduate school is expensive?" McGee poses. Kate gives a yeah right expression, but doesn't utter a single word in defense of the Brianna even though she had appeared truthful. Though, if there was one thing she had found out in the last few years that even the most trustworthy people could be lying.
"Let's go find out. DiNozzo, McGee with me. Kate, Ziva go interview the brother again and see if there is something that doesn't add up in his story. We just need to find something that indicates that he possibly did this to hid his drug dealing or that of his boyfriend," Kate nods and she sends a nod to Gibbs before grabbing her gear and heading out with Ziva. Kate knows Gibbs' tactic is to hopefully get more info from the boyfriend since he hadn't been very receptive to Tony's questions.
As she and Ziva pull up in front of the apartment building she is surprised to see how busy it is in this area of town.
When they arrive at the second level and knock on 2B she is shocked to hear no noise even though it is well into the evening on Saturday night. She suppose they are probably out, but she knows they have to come back eventually.
She gives Ziva shrugs and instead of kicking in the door like she assume Gibbs would do. She makes a decision as one of the Senior Field Agent's to wait the boys out.
As they exit the building Kate scans for them and Ziva gives her a quick nod assessing their surrounding before heading to the Charger across the street.
When Kate turns her head towards West back where the college her eyes narrow as two men who she recognizes from pictures make their way towards her.
"Hey, Nick," she says to him as he gets in closer and in a split second he makes the realization that she is with NCIS and before she can even blink both he and his companion are running away from her obviously fleeing from what seems like her arresting them.
Kate takes off down one of the neighboring streets near American University which is a very busy streets after the victim's brother and the brother's boyfriend. She glances over at Ziva who had gone back to the Charger to get her notepad hoping to pass this off as another family interview even if they are going to be standing waiting for them at their door. Thankfully the other woman has notices the guys and takes off running too barely skirting by an unsuspecting couple walking down the street on an evening walk.
She pulls her sig from her holster and hopes that this would make them stop, "Federal Agent, Freeze," they both just kept running and she is doing her best to keep up on the busy street full of pedestrians who are just either getting home from a day out in the nice weather of early September, studying or are walking down towards the nearest restaurant.
The men only give her a brief glance back as they run faster down the street pushing people out of the way as the attempt to flee. She sends Ziva a look telling her that she needs to cut them off, but it is almost impossible because the side of the street that Ziva is on is just as busy and there is a constant flow of cars on the street so the other woman can't not cross over and possibly cut them off. She holsters her gun unclips her phone from her belt all the time continuing to run.
The phone only rings once before she hears the husky voice of her boss, "What?"
"We need back up Gibbs, the brother and his boyfriend ran," she says through harsh breaths.
'"We are on our way, Kate," she hears the sound of Gibbs' accelerating the car. He, Tim, and Tony had gone to interview the victim's girlfriend again because there are things that had come to light during the day after they had spoken to both of the loved ones.
The two men have now managed to cross the street a good half a block ahead of Ziva and Kate is right on their heels, but even with her intense work regiment and training, both the men are each a good six inches taller than her and their strides are making them get farther and farther away.
Ziva catches up to her not a moment later and the other woman nods and they both draw their guns ready for anything.
They came upon an alley and Kate's eyes narrow as she looks for signs of movement as she and Ziva creep down the alley silently and before she can even react to the scuffling noises a gunshot rings out and she narrows her eyes and she shoots in the general direction as she listens for any hint of movement after the fact.
She narrows her eyes again as movement comes from Ziva's side of the alley and the other woman gives her a nod.
"Nick Dempsey and John Calhoun come out with your hands raised," a second shot rings out and this time it is considerably closer to both of them. She finally is able to see both of them as they rise from behind two facing dumpsters. John fires first and Kate responds quickly and as Nick joins in she shoots towards him put misses just barely because he has the dumpster to duck behind.
She fires and hits the suspect closer to her just below his neck as soon as he pops up to roll off a shot and she is surprised when instead of falling he gets another shot off and as her second shot collides with his chest, Nick's shot from a diagonal angle hits its target, her, and for not even the second time ever, she feels the bullet piercing her skin. The pain that comes with it is like a white hot fire that she has only felt once before and this time the space in time for which it exists is much longer. She hears the muffled sound of a second gunshot and then like she is in water she hears Ziva scream from what seems like several hundred feet away, "KATE!"
Tony gets out of the car at a run having heard the ringing of consecutive shots coming from different guns. Gibbs who had been driving is at his heels as is McGee. They enter the alley from the opposite direction then Ziva and Kate would have followed the suspects in. His eyes narrow as he sees Ziva leaning over someone obviously holding pressure on someone's bullet wound.
"Ziva," Gibbs barks out as Tony holds his gun ready to shoot if he needs to. As they make it about a hundred yards from Ziva Tony notices the brother of the victim laying lifeless behind a trash can, when he glances in the other direction he notices the brother's boyfriend also obviously dead. Ziva must have rushed to check on them because both of their guns had been kicked away already.
Oh God, that meant— he runs even faster and what he sees sucks the air out of his lungs. Ziva is holding constant pressure on her wound and as Tony scrambles to her left side he is at least relived to find her eyes are open, but they are completely glassy and he can tell she is holding onto consciousness by a very thin thread. Tony has watched many people including her as they faded away and given into the pain.
Tony hears Gibbs on the phone requesting immediate medical assistance for a federal agent. After that he blocks everything out, but the woman he loves who has just been shot.
Tony holds Kate's head up and he stares into her hazel eyes. She attempts to smile through the pain and it makes his heart ache even more. All the background noise of Ziva, McGee and Gibbs talking along with the siren's coming closer seem to be in a different place. Everything sounds so far away as if the other team members are halfway down the alleyway rather than the fact that the three of them are all kneeling beside him where he is holding Kate's hand. Ziva continues to hold pressure on the GSW and even though the Mossad officer is trained in some emergency medicine it is obvious that the bleeding has yet to stop or slow down. Tony is glad that at least the bullet had landed on the right side away from her heart, but he also knows that her previous wound will just make matters worse because there has got to be a lot if scar tissue build up from the three inch in diameter exit wound on her chest.
"Everything is going to be okay, Katie," just like last time Tony feels completely helpless, but at least this time she isn't already half unconscious like before.
"Tony, you know —how much I hate when you call me—that," Tony can barely hold the tears in his eyes back. Her voice is so weak, that he's afraid that these might be the last words he ever gets to say to her and those might be the final words he ever hears out of her mouth.
"Well, you have to keep holding on so you can continue to tell me that for the rest of time," Gibbs gives him a sad smile. Tony sighs as he stares down into her hazel eyes that her glassy from the pain and trying keep from falling unconscious from blood loss.
Ziva sends both he and Kate an encouraging smile and Ziva motions to him that the medics have arrived. Gibbs pulls him away and he tries to fight back, but gives up as the paramedics work on her. He leans down to hold her hand as they load her onto the gurney, he whispers into her hair, "I love you, Katie." He knows he has only said it because she has slipped out of consciousness.
Tony walks with the paramedics as they wheel her towards the parked ambulance. Gibbs gives him a nod and he climbs into the back of the ambulance with her. The long moments in the ambulance consist of Tony sitting there silently as the one of the paramedics goes to work on the woman. He holds her left hand between his much larger hands kissing her knuckles ever so often. This can't be the last time he gets to kiss her knuckles or gaze upon her beautiful face. He can't help, but regret the decision to not tell her how he feels because now he might not get the chance. He might never be able to kiss her the way that he had always wanted to. He might never get the chance to tell her how much he loves her and how he would love her forever. How she was the one. He might never get the chance to hear her beautiful voice again or her laughter. He might never get the chance to show her how great of a man he could be for her. He might never get the chance to show how much he loves her with actions, words, glances, touches, smiles, and finally an unwavering devotion that he knows he would only ever give to her. He is glad to see that even though her oxygen level have dropped significantly that she never has had any significant changes in her heart rate. The EMT working on her in the back has put on oxygen mask on her and had gone about stopping the bleeding. A few moments later when the EMT puts a breathing tube down her throat and starts to bag her, Tony does his best not gasp and scream at the paramedic to tell him what is going on. He also wants to yell at the man because he doesn't want Kate to have experience any more pain then she already has.
"She's is going to need emergency surgery when we get to the hospital," the younger man states simply and all Tony can do is nod and stares down at his partner, who almost looks too peaceful. He also notes that her cheeks are pale and he knows that isn't a good sign. E HE
As they arrive at the nearest hospital he awakes from his state of shock as they unload her from the ambulance.
"Sir!" he snaps his head and looks toward the paramedic who is closest to him and he signals for Tony to get out of the ambulance. He does as he is told and follows the man who is wheeling the gurney with Kate on into the Emergency Room. They stop him as soon as he gets into the ER and a medical team from the hospital takes over wheeling the gurney faster and farther away and he notes that someone takes over squeezing the Ambu bag.
"I have to stay with her!" he screams out and the nurse nearest to him gives a sympathetic look to him.
"She has to be okay!" he screams out and even though the nurse looks alarmed she gives him a look that tells him she can see the love he has for Kate.
"They are taking her into emergency surgery," a nurse says calmly and he does his best to calm down, but he can't because she could die!
"Here let me show you to the waiting room, Agent," he gives the Asian woman in front of him a nod. She leads him past a nurse's station through a hallway and finally she gives him a nod and he sees the waiting room. He collapses into a chair not far from the door and lets out a pained breath. He knits his fingers together and squeezes them so tightly together that they turn white. She can't die! Now all he has to do is wait to see if the love of his life would live or die.
The next chapter after this is done, so it should be up shortly! Peace! :) Please Review, I feel like I'm not hearing any feedback!