I don't own NCIS. That fact has not changed since the last chapter. What has changed is that I turned 17, my siblings came home, and one of my cats (Caroline) died, in that order. Sigh. Well, on to the story. I hope you enjoy.
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"McGee!"
"Yeah, Boss?"
Gibbs tossed his phone over. "It's flashing weirdly. Fix it."
"Uh, Boss? That's the voicemail icon… On it!"
Gibbs rolled his eyes, sipping his coffee as he waited for McGee to finish. The young agent's eyes grew wide as the message played. After it ended, he handed the phone to Gibbs.
"You'd better hear this, and I'm going to trace it. I'll check all the calls coming through the cell towers at the time of the call, and then…"
Gibbs glared at him with his usual "just do it" look.
McGee decided that it would be a good idea to just do it.
Tony poked his head around his computer and watched as Gibbs' face changed from mildly curious to slightly startled to absolutely furious.
"What's up, Boss?"
Gibbs tossed him the phone. "Listen to this, then figure out how that asshole got my number. McGee, are you done tracing that thing yet?"
McGee quickly got done tracing that thing yet. "It's a house right by- here's the address."
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When the team pulled up at the house, they were unsure whether or not to be surprised at the number of police cars encircling the residence across the street. They figured that they should probably check out the second house first. Which made it the first house. Whatever.
There were three bodies lying on the kitchen floor, each with blood stains around the holes in their heads.
"What happened here?" Tony wondered aloud. "It looks like they got shot."
"Really, DiNozzo; what tipped you off? The holes in their heads? The holes in the window? Move over." Gibbs walked over to where the nearest body had been standing. "So I'm right here and I get hit by a bullet through the window… Shooter was on the roof over- right where the call came from. Go check it out. I'll get Ducky in here."
!i!i!i!i!i!i!
An odd assortment of objects cluttered the roof- a few dead leaves, a lost Frisbee, a dozen or so dead bugs, a live kitten, and three shell casings.
"I'll bag and tag the shell casings, McProbie."
"Thanks Tony; that's really nice-"
"You get the McKitten back on solid ground."
"Tony, I-"
"You what?"
"Never mind; I'll get the kitten."
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The woman shifted under the blanket, which slid off her. Kate moved to drag it back over her, but then noticed something strange. Grabbing her phone, she left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Gibbs, when you eventually listen to your messages, this is Kate, and no; the woman hasn't woken up yet, but I noticed she has a scar on her shoulder- it almost looks like an old bullet wound… I'm not very good at scars, but if it was, that could explain Ari's habit of shooting people's shoulders out, like it's some sort of revenge fantasy…"
!i!i!i!i!i!i!
Her eyes abruptly flew open. Where the Hamas am I? This is NOT where I was… Oh, it's a hospital. Good call, whoever's it was…
She felt around her neck for her Star of David. Good. It was still there. But there was something stuck to the back of it…
!i!i!i!i!i!i!
Kate walked back into the room. Her inner profiler automatically knew that the woman was pretending to be asleep. "'Elena'? How are you-"
The woman blew on one of her hands, which had been resting near her mouth. Kate barely registered some sort of powder before it knocked her out like a dark.
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Flashback:
A swarm of bullets ricocheted overhead. She was reasonably protected inside a doorway that lead to- well, she wasn't entirely interested in the floor plan of the warehouse. All she knew was that their target –a former Mossad officer- used the building as a base for smuggling weapons for Hamas.
All she knew was that he had to die.
Really, that was all either of them ever bothered to know.
Glancing over to her brother, she caught his eye just as their enemies ceased firing and reloaded their guns.
One of the guards made the final, fatal mistake of looking up. A bullet from her gun drove the point home. Do not mess with the deadly duo. It will be the last thing you ever do.
One down, three guards and one target to go.
Ari jumped back behind a stack of boxes, but the time his sister had taken to kill the guard had cost her, and put her squarely in range of the remaining guards.
Fortunately, most of the bullets missed her.
Unfortunately, one didn't, and buried itself in her knee.
Caught in the danger zone, she struggled to drag herself to safety. Ari ran out from behind the boxes, worried. Flinching, he tried to shake off the déjà vu crashing down. It didn't work.
As bad memories threatened to overwhelm him, he managed to grab her and drag her behind the wall she'd been using for her cover. Mercifully, the physical exertion drove the memories of Tali's death from his mind. He had to focus on helping the sister he had left.
She gasped in pain, trying to shut off her demon nociceptors. Come on, block it out, block it out…
Her usual technique kicked in quickly enough for her to realize that Ari was dragging her back behind the wall. Back in relative safety, Ari gave his sister a quick checkup. The bullet hadn't done much damage, but it still hurt.
Distracted as he was by brotherly protectiveness, Ari didn't catch the leader's shouted command, didn't hear the three remaining guards as they ran towards the hideout, didn't even notice when two of them discovered the siblings' temporary refuge.
She jumped up, ignoring the pain in her knee as she grabbed her brother's gun and shoved him out of the way. The nearest guard fell, dead.
The rest was mostly a blur- pain in her chest… Ari screaming her name… her own desire to be all right, just for him… a vague sense of movement… -then everything went black, leaving behind only a sense of bitter failure.
!i!i!i!i!i!i!
As the guard fell to the ground –a bullet in his head- the remaining two expeditiously ushered their leader out to his car. Ari ran after them and fired- Crap. Bullet-proof glass.
Well, he would have to deal with them later.
After quickly checking to make sure that the guards were, in fact, dead, he returned to his unconscious sibling. She stirred feverishly, then her eyes flickered open as she coughed. Blood trailed down her cheek.
Gathering her into his arms as gently as possible, he ran to the nearest house.
I've got to get out of here. That and get her some help…
Nobody was home, although a black car was parked in the driveway.
Why would they… Never mind. I'll just borrow their car for a bit.
Hoping they were equally careless with their keys, he jogged around to the back of the house, trying not to jostle the woman in his arms. Sure enough, the keys were on a hook next to the –unlocked- glass patio door.
Well.
Sometimes you have to work for it, and sometimes it just hands itself to you. Whatever "it" is.
After setting his sister down against the house, he opened the door, retrieved the key, put in his pocket, and dashed back to her.
Hold on, little sister. Not much longer, and then you can rest.
Lifting her again, he cuddled her for a moment before he ran out to the car, unlocked and opened it, and laid her on the back seat.
Now let's get out of here. Someone probably heard the gunshots.
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The safe house was hidden, back in the woods on a gravel road.
Part of the equipment that Ari always ensured was on location included some basic medical equipment, with which he stabilized his sister's condition. She needed more medical attention soon, but at least he had time to think of what they could possibly do next.
He had to get her to a hospital.
They had to eliminate their target.
She needed help.
They had a mission to complete.
He couldn't just leave her here. There was no way she would survive for that long. She was his sister, for crying out loud.
Their "superiors" would probably kill them both if they didn't complete the mission on time. Anyway, their target deserved to die. He had caused the deaths of thousands of innocents.
A few feet over, semiconscious on a nearby bed, she twitched uneasily.
"Ahwri?..."
He had to smile at her baby-talk name for him. Her first word.
He had to get her to a hospital.
Sigh. Back to the beginning, again? Well…
He could drop her off at a hospital, then go and- hope nobody noticed? Or tracked her down later? Hamas would jump at the chance to kill her, and to Mossad she was a liability…
I would have to stay with her to keep an eye on her, but if I don't kill that arms dealer, my fath- Eli will have both our heads… Sigh. I'll get someone else to protect her. Who? The FBI, maybe? But no- they talk to Eli too much. NCIS? Ha! That's utterly craz-
It could actually work. They hate me, but they wouldn't have to know that she's my sister- I just have to get their attention. I already have the car; I checked it and it belongs to a Navy guy, so-
She coughed, and more blood came up. Ari swore. I'd better just work it out as I go. This is going to work. It has to.
!i!i!i!i!i!i!
The street was reasonably busy, but he was confident he could slip away without being seen.
He parked the "borrowed" car along the curb (in a no-parking zone, both to be contrary and in the hopes of getting someone's attention) and got out. When he opened the back door, she didn't even flinch, just lay there, barely breathing. This is not good. She should have at least tried to kill me by now.
He peeled a tiny capsule off his watch and stuck it to her necklace. She would know what to do with it. Taking off his jacket, he wrapped it around her.
One last thing.
Hoping that nobody would see him and think he was emo or something and stage an intervention, he pulled out his knife from his belt and sliced his arm open. When the blood started to trail down his arm, he smeared it on the jacket. NCIS.
That's probably plenty. Have fun with that one, Agent Gibbs.
Stroking his sister's hair, he planted a kiss on her forehead.
Be safe, baby girl.
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Author's note: I had no idea that this chapter was going to be so long when I started writing it. I just never got around to posting, and kept scribbling on this notepad I have, and, well, you've just read the result. Please review? And anybody who can guess where I got the alias Elena Ranier (both parts of it) gets a free virtual Caf-Pow!.