Chapter Four: Guns N Roses
Hotch was doing his best to ignore the NCIS Agent searching the second bedroom of Theadora Whitt's home. The NCIS agent seemed to feel the same way so the two men worked quietly for a few moments.
They'd just finished the hallway and its two bedrooms when the first of the rifle shots blasted.
The two men stopped what they were doing and their eyes met for the first time since Gibbs had placed the coffee in front of Emily. Both could easily see what the other was thinking.
Hotch pressed the call button on his radio, knowing that all the members of his team would be listening on the same frequency. "Prentiss, check in, please."
No answer. Hotchner bolted out the door, Agent Gibbs on his heels. They ran up the driveway to the neighbor's house. They paused only when the line of pine trees broke, taking cover beneath the thick bows and branches. They were maybe one hundred feet from the house's porch and could see no sign of agents David or Prentiss. Both men had there weapons out and ready to fire—as soon as they located their missing agents.
Right now they couldn't risk shooting either Emily or Ziva. They waited for several minutes for some sign of activity from the house. Finally, the door opened and a man in his mid-forties stepped out, placing a large hunting rifle against the side of the house. He paused a moment to inspect the damage to his porch before, grabbing a mop from the corner. He began mopping a section directly in front of the door, sliding the liquid over the edge, to the grass below.
It was then Hotch and Gibbs realized what they were seeing. The man was casually mopping blood off his porch.
Hotch motioned to Gibbs and on the silent count of three the two men yelled, "Federal Agents, Freeze!"
They rushed the porch, Gibbs covering Hotch's movements as the SSA moved in closer to secure the man.
The man kept screaming and singing in an horribly high-pitched voice, "Roses, and ashes, gone, gone, gone. Angels of death, harbingers of hell, done, done, done. Evil women, gone to hell, hell, hell."
Gibbs waited until the prisoner was secured and turned over to the waiting McGee—would come running at the sounds of gunshots, as well. He'd been but two minutes behind Gibbs and Hotchner.
Gibbs went to the door first, knowing the scene would have to be secured before they could search for Ziva and Emily. He was about to motion Hotchner in, when he heard a faint cry from beneath his feet.
He jumped the eighteen inch step, and fell to his knees beside the porch. There, huddled in the space between the house and the lawn was the two women.
"Gibbs. We must hurry. She is bleeding badly. I have stopped what I can, but I think he hit a vein." Ziva said, as the three men began jerking the old boards off the porch. Luckily, the wood had rotted so badly none of the nails could hold the softened material. Soon they had a section big enough to lift the bleeding Prentiss from the hole.
Had Ziva not acted as quickly as she had, pulling Prentiss under the porch with her, the man would have had a clear shot at Prentiss. That much was evident from the obvious marks where Emily had been dragged.
She was conscious, but she couldn't really focus on what was being said around her. She knew Hotch was with her, as was Gibbs. But she wasn't entirely clear on what had happened. All she knew was that her neck and arm hurt like hell, and she was covered in dirt and blood.
Hotch held her close, as Gibbs kept pressure on the hole in her arm. The man's second shot had caught her just below her shoulder as she'd moved to knock Ziva out of the way. Had she not moved—the bullet would have entered Ziva's chest.
It was close for both of them. Everyone realized it. McGee had called for backup the instant he'd heard shots and an ambulance and four local units came roaring up the drive. Hotch and Gibbs wasted no time loading the two women in the ambulance. The two men didn't take it too lightly when they were informed there wasn't room for the two of them.
They did just as McGee expected they would and ran back to the SUV—leaving McGee to deal with the entire mess with the madman, who was still singing his weird and macabre song.
Agents Morgan and Rossi were clear across town when they first heard Hotch's call for Prentiss to check in. They also didn't miss the way there had been no response.
Spencer hadn't missed it either, and he had loudly silenced the agent DiNozzo while waiting for some response.
Penelope and JJ also waited with anxious breaths, sitting in the middle of Abby's lab.
It was Abby, however, who placed the first call to McGee to find out why the Feebies were suddenly so tense. She'd been having a good time with Garcia and JJ when they'd both grabbed their earpieces and went strangely silent. It was Abby who rallied the troops to meet Hotch and Gibbs at the George Washington Memorial Hospital.