A/N: make sure you've read chaps 14 and 15 before this or it'll make no sense ;)
…
"My god what happened?" Ducky gasped when he saw Gibbs drag himself through the autopsy doors, blood covering his shirt.
"Miller shot him," Kate appeared right behind him, hands held out ready to offer support if needed with an anxious looking McGee trailing on her heels.
Ducky looked over at Jethro for some kind of explanation, but he offered nothing more than a grunt of agreement as he pulled himself up onto a free table and gingerly lay down.
"Well have you called an ambulance?" Ducky asked the two younger agents incredulously.
"No they haven't, and they won't," Gibbs managed to give each of them a pointed look from his prone position on the table, the effort to speak a struggle in and of itself, "get back… upstairs… B-"
"Bolo out on the van boss," McGee blurted and ran from the room looking extremely pleased to have somewhere else to be.
"Gibbs-" Kate chastised and stepped toward him.
"Go…" Jethro growled sounding tired and overwrought.
"But-"
"Please…"
Kate's jaw dropped as did Ducky's. She hesitated, looking lost in confusion for mere seconds before finding her feet and managing to walk out without further protest. Jethro flopped bonelessly to the table and Ducky stared contemplatively at the doors as they closed behind her, his mind working through what questions to ask first when his attention was drawn prematurely back to Gibbs.
"You're in pain." He stated in chastisement, seeing Gibbs was struggling to sit back up.
"You could say that," Gibbs groused removing his blood soaked jacket with a groan.
Ducky sighed heavily, but didn't push. Turning his back to fetch his living people medical bag he held in all the burning questions, knowing that his friend would tell him what he needed to know soon enough. However, on turning back to find him walking steadily over to the sink Ducky couldn't contain his concerns any longer.
"Jethro!"
"Stand down Duck." Gibbs dismissed him with a half-hearted wave, removing his Jacket and shirt carefully.
Seeing, not the expected bullet wound hole, but a tack vest Ducky hardened.
"Jethro what the hell is going on?" He shouted, outraged that Gibbs had let them all believe he'd been shot.
"Contingency plan," Jethro told him straight and without apology.
He dropped his jacket and shirt to the floor and undid the vest to reveal some spectacular bruising where the bullet had hit the vest at close range and sent him to the floor.
"Tell me." Ducky commanded.
He watched him wash away the obviously fake blood and handed him a towel, which was accepted with a nod of thanks. Ducky then folded his arms, making it clear he was going nowhere until he knew exactly what was going on.
"We had an argument." Gibbs sighed impatiently, arms braced against the side of the sink refusing to look at him.
"Jethro you may believe that explains this but it really doesn't." Ducky stressed with forced patience.
Gibbs pushed away from the sink, a look of pure desolation falling over his face. He paced the room without answering, surprising Ducky when he formed his hand into a fist and lashed out at the wall opening his palm at the last second so it slammed flat against the solid surface.
Broken hand narrowly averted Ducky still flinched from the impact. He was well aware of Gibbs' unorthodox methods of dealing with emotions, but this behaviour seemed completely over the top. He dreaded to think what young Anthony could have done to cause this reaction in his usually rather resilient friend.
"Where is he?" Ducky looked around, half expecting to see Tony looking sheepish in a corner.
Realisation quickly set in though when he was nowhere in sight. Gibbs wasn't the only one with gut instincts.
"With Miller," Gibbs answered resignedly, confirming his thoughts, a note of failure in his voice.
Ducky stepped sadly towards him "How?"
Gibbs dropped the hands covering his head, almost tearing his hair out and turned to face him, "Damn fool walked out and went with the bastard. His daughter too."
"Well do you care to share why?" Ducky demanded, feeling the familiar anger beginning to surface, "Because I don't believe for second despite the issues with his father or his upset over this whole affair Tony would just give up and side with a potential murderer!"
Instead of the expected heated rebuttal that he'd not done or said anything to Tony that hadn't needed to be said Gibbs turned away from him, a look of despair Ducky couldn't remember ever seeing before marring his face.
"He had an idea and I shot it down," Gibbs huffed looking defeated, like he'd misjudged the entire situation. "Idiot's gone and done it anyway."
Ducky sighed and walked over to his desk. He sensed there was going to be a whole lot more he needed to know before he could offer anything reassembling useful advice for this situation.
"I think you better explain." He said gravely, pulling out a chair, "Everything Jethro."
…
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god," Abby ran into the bullpen, black boots clomping, impeding her progress as she headed straight for Kate and McGee stood in deep conversation front of the plasma.
"Abby, calm down," Kate stepped forward to greet her, holding out her hands.
Abby grabbed hold clamping her fingers around Kate's wrists and squeezed tightly.
"Calm down?" She screamed, "Calm down? Gibbs has been shot! Tony's missing! I can't calm down!"
"Okay," Kate nodded, pulling out of her iron grip and pushing her back to perch on Tony's desk, "but we are trying to find Tony and Gibbs is fine."
"Fine?!" she screamed again, jumping to her feet. "How can being shot be fine? And Tony's with that, that man! You going to tell me that's fine too?!"
Kate frowned and took a breath, not sure how she was going to sell it. It was taking everything she had to stay calm herself, what with Gibbs refusing to go to hospital, they didn't know how serious the wound was, it had looked like a direct hit, but then if it was Gibbs would hardly be walking...
"Ahhh, I don't know, it makes no sense." She stepped away, her own mind being her worst enemy right now.
Abby was doing what Abby did when bad stuff happened and was freaking out, but she couldn't afford to do that. Gibbs was indisposed and Tony was missing, which left her in charge of what was left of the team until those circumstances changed. The reality of it hit her hard. No matter how often she'd claimed to have done a better job or expressed her belief she'd be the wiser choice as second lead given Tony's often demonstrated immaturity, she wasn't ready for this. Suddenly regretting every derogatory mean word she'd said about him Kate was only saved from her unravelling despair by Palmer, who came running into the empty squad room looking more suspicious than panicked.
"Palmer? What are you still doing here?" Kate checked her watch, it was officially Saturday and they were reduced to mere hours to solve the case and find Tony before the little power they did have was lost.
"Jimmy, how's Gibbs?" Abby pushed Kate aside.
"He's er good," Palmer wrung his hands together, "Dr Mallard sent me up here to get, erm, that's to say he asked me to-"
"What do you mean good? He was shot Palmer!" Abby shouted at him, "That's never good!"
Unlike Kate, Palmer had a very thin defence barrier and she felt great sympathy when he flinched away, nearly knocking into McGee who was rifling through the file cabinet.
"Sorry, he's fine." Palmer cleared his throat and spoke with more confidence. "Just needs a clean shirt."
"That's all? Gibbs' isn't going to hospital?" Abby asked sounding as confused as Kate felt.
"Yep," Palmer smiled, nodding his thanks as McGee handed him exactly what he wanted. "And he said we should all go home."
Kate's eyes nearly popped out of her head and looking over she could see both McGee and Abby sharing the same shocked expression while Palmer was looking at each of them as if he was hoping for a hi-five or something.
"Go home?" McGee echoed.
"No. Gibbs did not say that." Abby shouted stubbornly, stomping her feet and moving off at speed towards the elevator. "I'm going to see him."
"No, wait!" Palmer called out, running after her and planting himself between her and the doors.
She took a step sideways to go around him but Palmer matched it, backing up ever so slightly when Abby leaned in so she was mere centimetres from his face.
"Jimmy, get out of my way," Abby growled at him, narrowing her eyes trying to look scary.
"You can't, can't go down there," he spoke bravely, risking the wrath of one very pissed off forensic scientist.
Kate would have felt sorry for him if she weren't suspicious of his actions and instead elected to join Abby.
"Why?" Kate dragged the word out eyeing Palmer with severer distrust.
"Because, er, he told me to tell you… not to," He stuttered, obviously lying.
"But he's hurt! And Tony's missing!" Abby shouted at him.
"Yes and, er well no…" Palmer flinched when Abby suddenly raised her fist.
"No?" Kate parroted in disbelief.
"Palmer?" McGee, caught up to them, having been hovering somewhere in the background watching how the confrontation played out. "Tell us what we want to know."
He spoke low and dangerous, like he'd been gearing up for this for weeks, not 30 seconds. It wasn't a McGee move to be threatening, but then Palmer being about the only person at NCIS McGee could possibly intimidate he didn't often get the chance.
"Look they told me not to say anything," Palmer caved immediately, unsurprisingly to everyone present.
"What?" Kate and Abby demanded, standing side by side with matching glares.
"What?" Palmer parroted.
"That's what I asked you." Abby stamped her foot, closing in on him Kate mirroring her on the other side.
"Who told you not to say anything?"
"I…" he paused, seeing he was surrounded.
"Wait Gibbs said go home?" McGee dropped his threatening persona.
Kate looked over at him, she could see he was thinking something and Palmer was watching them nervously.
"What McGee?" Abby snapped.
"We should do as he says." Everyone was looking at him like he was out of his mind, including her. "Well he didn't say whose home, did he?"
…
"You mind telling us what's going on Gibbs?" Kate's angry voice travelled over to him as her heels clinked down his basement steps.
Gibbs looked at Ducky with raised eyebrows, indicating he knew he was in for a tongue lashing worthy of an ex-wife and reached for the bourbon to prepare himself for what he knew he had coming. As it turned out Kate wasn't his only visitor, her swift steps were quickly followed by Palmer's less than graceful ones running down the stairs, Abby and McGee joining close behind.
"Doctor Mallard I'm so sorry," Palmer excused immediately. "I know you told me not to say anything but-"
"It's okay Mr Palmer. You did very well." Ducky reached out and patted Jimmy on the arm.
Gibbs smiled in the face of the one worried glance and three other pissed off ones aimed his way.
"But you told me…" Palmer gaped at Ducky first then Gibbs. "You set me up?"
"You set us up?" Kate repeated outraged, hands going immediately to her hips.
Gibbs downed his drink, well aware they had a lot of ground to cover here and not a lot of time so saw no point in denying anything. Surveying the mood of the room, Palmer looked hurt, McGee was doing his best to blend into the background behind a still very angry Kate and Abby was practically bouncing with excitement.
"Oh this is why I love working with Gibbs!"
Abby broke from the group and bounced over to him giving him a hug. He nearly toppled back with the force. Between her and DiNozzo he could imagine if he didn't die on the job, it would by suffocation if they ever decided to double team him.
"We saw you get shot…" McGee brought them back on topic
"I was." He pointed out casually.
"You were wearing a vest." Kate growled eyes narrowed showing her disappointment. "What the hell is going on? Where's Tony?"
"Yeah Gibbs, where's Tony, is he all right?" Abby sobered slightly, pulling away.
"I'm sorry," Ducky said to the rest on his behalf when he couldn't bring himself to answer that last question, "but the subterfuge was necessary. We couldn't risk having this conversation within the walls of NCIS. Tony's life may well depend on it."
"Why?" Abby demanded not seeing what everyone else had.
Gibbs shared a look with Kate and McGee
"Because there's a mole inside NCIS," McGee spoke first.
"Or at least the Navy yard, someone's been allowing Miller access." Kate continued.
"Assuming whoever it is has been in contact with them since they left with Tony I wanted to make sure that Miller thinks there's no chance he's being pursued." Gibbs clarified the reasons for his deception.
"Okay," Abby said forcing herself to remain calm, "but why does Miller and that psycho Shauna have Tony in the first place?"
Gibbs poured another drink and sipped it this time. "DiNozzo came to me with an idea." He started resignedly.
"And?" Kate snapped, still extremely irked and clearly unwilling to let him even pause for breath.
"And I told him it was stupid." He eyed her, matching her tone making it clear, though he understood she was mad, he wasn't going to be apologising anytime soon.
"I'm afraid young Anthony being Anthony has decided to go ahead with his plan without our assistance and has unfortunately put himself in harm's way." Ducky picked up the narrative, divulging what Gibbs had already explained to him back in autopsy.
Harm's way was an understatement, Gibbs almost chuckled. Ducky really had a way of communicating even the most horrendous news with the utmost amount of calm.
"Why would he do that?" Abby whined, "He knows we're here for him."
"It's not you Abs," Gibbs corrected her immediately. He didn't want any of them thinking this was anyone's fault but his.
Had he only listened to not just the words, but also what Tony wasn't telling him, then maybe this could have all been avoided. He was a stubborn bastard alright, DiNozzo being the one that usually warned others of that fact, if only the stupid kid had remembered his own advice he'd have never followed him into the head and this could have all been avoided. But then that wasn't fair, not really. Tony needed him to not be a bastard for a change, needed him to stop being Boss and start being Dad. Ducky had told him enough times to tread carefully, Abby had tried to warn him when it looked like he was missing a big honking piece of the puzzle, hell even Kate had added her two cents, but he'd never listened to either one. Gibbs knew, deep down he knew, whatever happened to them from this point forward, he'd pushed Tony into this.
"What was his plan?" McGee asked.
Gibbs felt uncomfortable for a second, remembering the last conversation he'd had with Tony. He certainly wasn't proud of his reaction when DiNozzo had first made the suggestion, hell it didn't even compare to the argument they'd had in the car the other day. As for his plan, well the very idea made him mad just thinking about it.
"To offer himself up to Miller, find the money and shut this down for good." He summarised the best he could, leaving out the more personal aspects.
"Bait?" Kate spat the word. Gibbs nodded, he couldn't agree more. "Of all the stupid-"
"-Which is why I said no." Gibbs pointed out sensibly before things got too out of hand.
"Yeah, but Gibbs you knew he'd try it anyway," Kate glared at him.
She'd tried to talk to him after his confrontation with Tony, going so far as to follow him all the way to interrogation, but he'd shut her down. Now she was seething that he hadn't told her about Tony's idea or his own little counterplan that his gut had insisted he needed.
"Maybe I did, but what's done is done," Gibbs took a big gulp of his whiskey, aiming to push all thoughts other than rescuing Tony out of his mind for the time being.
"So he's put himself undercover? Without backup?" McGee squeaked, as if he couldn't believe Tony would ever take such a risk.
"He's right, that's stupid - even for Tony." Kate folded her arms, getting over her anger enough to be constructive.
"Yep," Gibbs tossed back the rest of his drink, "and when I catch him, I'm going to kick his ass."
"But does he know we know?" McGee continued, "Or does he think we think he's been kidnapped?"
"He thinks he just got me shot McGee." Gibbs snapped sadly.
"You mean that wasn't part of the plan?" Abby shot up from where she'd perched on his half-finished boat.
"Not to him it wasn't."
"Oh Gibbs-"
"It's the best way to keep him safe," He turned to Abby, about the only other person next to Ducky he'd feel the need to explain himself to, "if Miller thinks I'm dead he won't question Tony's loyalty to him."
Everyone, Ducky, Palmer, McGee, Kate and Abby all fell silent, contemplating the grave situation. Gibbs knew exactly how they felt, even if he didn't show it well. He wasn't sure where to go from here, all he was sure about was that they had to get Tony back. Their last words to each other could not be their last words. He couldn't live with yet another voice echoing in his head, another voice begging him not to leave.
"But what about Tony thinking you're dead?" Abby spoke softly into the silence, pulling him away from his overlapping memories.
Gibbs nodded that he understood what she was saying, but he didn't have an answer for her. He'd made many decisions in his life, done many things based on what he thought was best. Many for Tony in particular, but nothing quite compared to what he was inflicting on him right now.
Abby, ever astute caught onto to his train of thought. "Gibbs that's risky."
Yeah and he knew how risky, because he knew exactly how Tony would react to seeing him hurt. It didn't take Gibbs long to realise the kid from Baltimore had no one he could readily depend on in a crisis. He had some casual friends, but no family. No one to turn to when it hit the fan, no one to look out for him, no one to keep him safe.
"So is going undercover without the proper back up, but that's DiNozzo," Gibbs smiled in spite of himself, "if he doesn't have a concussion by the end of this I'm going to damn well give him one."
"Well we need to get back to NCIS, find that van and where they're taking him." Kate started walking, heading for the stairs.
"I know where they're taking him." Gibbs spoke, his words drawing her back.
Palmer surprisingly spoke up next, "Where?"
He looked at each of them, the weight of what he was about to impart heavy in his heart.
"New York."
TBC…