A/N
A/N. Nearly at the end. This is the last proper chapter and will be followed by an epilogue. Let me know if you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading! :)
--
'Ouch, that hurt,' McGee muttered pulling himself out from under his human shield. 'Damn you're heavy, Tony.' He looked up to see that Ziva had disarmed Vance and dropped him to the ground. She was now kneeling on his back looking for all the world like she only needed the slightest excuse to kill him. McGee looked down at his shirt, surprised to see the splotches of blood soaking through his shirt. He hadn't been hit, had he? He turned to check on his friend. DiNozzo remained lying on the floor; he was awake and breathing but his eyes were glassy with pain. McGee began to search Tony's torso for signs of blood. 'Where are you hit, Tony?' he demanded. Tony focused on controlling his breathing. Rather than answering McGee's question, he reached for his radio.
'All units, move in,' he ordered, 'prisoner and hostage secure, hostage may require medical attention, prisoner requires very strong handcuffs.' His duty almost fulfilled, DiNozzo pulled himself to a sitting position. 'I'm fine, McGee. Help Abby,' he answered belatedly. He stood shakily and made his way over to where Ziva still had Vance secured. 'Leon Vance you're under arrest for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping.' He turned to one of the agents who were streaming through the door. 'Read him his rights,' he ordered. He stopped briefly to check on Abby, who now had her arms tightly wrapped around McGee, before heading for the door.
--
Tony staggered out of the farmhouse and kept walking. Once he was sure he was alone, he sank to his knees. He looked down at his left sleeve, which was now completely soaked with his blood. He had reacted slightly too late, and Vance's bullet had taken a huge chunk out of his upper arm. His arm was pouring with blood and he felt sick and dizzy. Maybe he shouldn't have wandered so far from the house. He had to use all his willpower to stop himself from collapsing and didn't have enough energy left to get his queasiness under control. He leaned forward and emptied the contents of his stomach. Just as he thought he was going to pass out, he felt a soft touch on his shoulder. Forcing himself to remain in the present he turned around to see Ziva standing behind him.
'Abby's been checked out by the paramedics,' she informed him. 'She has a mild concussion but nothing that requires hospital treatment. You should let them check you out too.'
'I'm okay,' he protested at once.
'You're hurt and you're in shock,' she corrected gently, 'the sooner you let them check you over, the sooner we can get back.'
'I need to finish this, Ziva.' He was adamant. She smiled and shook her head, gently reaching down and brushing his sweat-soaked hear away from his face. 'We will finish this together,' she promised and pulled him to his feet, 'after you speak to the paramedics.'
--
It was 10a.m. before Tony found himself back in MTAC. The paramedics had been forced to stitch up his arm at the scene since he had refused to go to the hospital and he had fallen asleep in the car on the way back to NCIS despite Ziva's driving. As a result, he was feeling a little better. He had left the interrogation to Ziva, who had easily extracted a confession. Vance had asked to have several other murders taken into account and was now on his way to the state penitentiary where he would stay until his preliminary hearing.
'You seem to have tied everything up quite neatly,' the SECNAV was saying. Tony forced himself to focus. 'There will need to be further investigations into the Russian angle,' he continued, 'but I think that is best left to another team. I understand you are due to ship out to the Reagan today.' Tony's heart sank. After everything the team had put themselves through, surely the SECNAV wasn't just going to uphold Vance's orders. He stiffened.
'Yes, sir.'
'Well you aren't going to be any use to them looking like that,' the man decided. Tony's hopes increased a little. 'I'll send somebody else,' he continued. 'In fact, given the mess you appear to have gotten yourself into in only twenty-four hours away from Gibbs' command, I'm inclined to force you to work for Gibbs for the next twenty years. As for the rest of your team, if they were stupid enough to follow you into this, you deserve each other. Consider your team reinstated.' Tony sighed with relief.
'Thank you sir.'
'Take the week off, DiNozzo, you look like crap.'
'Yes sir.' Tony turned round to leave.
'And DiNozzo?' the SECNAV called out from behind him. 'Good work.'
'Thank you sir.'
--
'I'm telling you Jethro, you're not going anywhere,' Ducky insisted again.
Gibbs had awoken to find his team gone and Ducky without a plausible explanation. He had forced himself to shower and dress, despite the continuous protestations of his physician. Having finally summoned the energy to walk downstairs, however, he hit upon another problem. He really wasn't in any fit state to drive and Ducky was refusing to take him anywhere. In addition to this, the older man had blocked his car into the driveway and was now blocking the front door. Gibbs knew that right now, he wouldn't even have the energy to manhandle his friend out of the way. He wasn't even sure which of the two Duckys he was seeing was the real one.
'My team are out there Ducky.' Ducky sighed and attempted once again to talk some sense into his friend.
'Jethro, they are professional federal agents and you don't even know where it is they've gone. In your current state, you couldn't even outmanoeuvre me. How much use do you think you'd be even if you found them? You need to go back to bed.'
'I need to know what's happening to my team, Duck.' The older man glanced out of the window and smiled.
'Well if you really must know, it would appear that they are pulling into the driveway.' Relief flooded through Gibbs' body and the remnants of the adrenaline that had been keeping him standing disappeared. His knees buckled and he crashed to the floor. With Ducky's help he managed to stand again and was just collapsing onto the couch when the team walked through the door.
'Gibbs, what are you doing out of bed?' Abby's concussion didn't seem to slow her down as she flung herself into his arms.
'Was worried, Abbs,' he managed to say as she hugged him so tightly that he thought he was going to pass out.
'We're okay, silly,' she answered at once, 'Well, I got knocked out and Tony got shot, but we're fine, really. You should go back to bed.' Gibbs' eyes widened and he turned to take a closer look at his senior field agent, who had collapsed onto the couch next to him.
'You look like crap, DiNozzo,' he concluded.
'Pot, kettle, Boss. Have you seen yourself lately?' He grunted. Time to steer the conversation in a different direction.
'What happened?'
'Let's just say the only thing Vance is going to be in charge of for the foreseeable future is his cell at the state penitentiary,' Tony answered tiredly. Gibbs raised an eyebrow.
'You obviously did a good job.'
'Well, you know how it is,' Tony answered. 'Got the bad guy, saved the girl, upset the SECNAV…' At Gibbs' questioning glance, he decided to elucidate. 'He used words like stupid and mess… Said he was going to punish me by making me stay on your team for the next twenty years,' he gestured towards Ziva and McGee. 'Them too.'
The two men shared a smile.
--
Former NCIS director Leon Vance took a deep breath as he walked into the exercise yard. He still couldn't believe this was happening. The Russians had outnumbered the NCIS team five to three and they had just stood up and walked away. It was unbelievable – he had thought he knew too much for the Russians to just let him go. Maybe he had been wrong. He glanced up questioningly as a large man began walking towards him. He didn't see the knife that killed him until it was too late. As he lay on the ground bleeding to death he realised that the Russians hadn't just let him go after all…
