Thunder
Ziva enters in her apartment and locks the door, throwing the key on the small kitchen counter. She walks to her bedroom without turning the lights on, and as she starts to take her jacket she freezes. Her Mossad honed senses sense something, and she slowly reaches her hand to one of her several knives she carries hidden on her body, and simply waits for the right time.
A shadow moves in her bedroom, and it jumps on her, the flash of a blade shining in the light coming from the window. As it comes down towards her, she retaliates, throwing her blade which sinks into her attacker's chest.
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Joy goes to her suite, which she sometimes shared with Tim, and closed the door. She left her hot tea on the small writing table, took her gun and her badge and put them inside the first drawer of her commode, and slowly started to take her clothes off so she may shower. She's too tired to take a bath. She yawns again, and puts on a soft plush robe and enters the bathroom.
However, as she turns on the shower, the doorknob of front door of the townhouse is slowly attacked until, with a click, it opens. Three men enter the house, and spread out in the living room. The last man to enter closes the door after himself, and points to the stairs that lead to the first floor. The men look around, and start walking towards the stairs, and towards the woman completely unaware of the danger she's in.
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Tony, as soon as he entered his apartment, went to his DVD collection and picked one of the classics he owned. Despite his fatigue, he was aware that only after he unwinds a little his brain will finally rest enough so he can catch a few winks. He pops the DVD in the player, and goes to the kitchen to prepare some microwave popcorn to go with the movie.
The first notes of the music of Casablanca fill the living room, and he grins, as he turns on the microwave for two minutes. He's whistling happily, just waiting for the popcorn to get ready.
Once it is done, he grabs the bag, pours the content in a plastic bowl, then heads to his living room. As soon as he gets out of the kitchen, he's hit with a punch to the face, and the popcorn bowl escapes from his grasp. Popcorn flies all over the place, as Tony's attacker gets ready to punch him again.
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"SARAH," shouts Tim to his sister, trying to be heard over the noise of the shower.
"WHAT?" comes the muffed answer.
"What do you want for dinner?" Tim asks leaning against the bathroom door.
"After all we ate in Norfolk, you're still hungry?" Sarah's voice is full of mirth.
He shrugs, even though she can't see him. Since he started dating Joy, she was the one responsible for the meals, as she's learnt how to cook with her mother and always cooked too much for only one person. His fridge, despite the grocery shopping she had done a couple of days ago, was full of things he had no idea how to prepare.
Therefore, takeout was in order.
"Yeah, and I won't sleep if we don't eat something," he says, as he glances at his watch. It was 11:21 pm.
"Could we order Chinese?" she says, and Timothy nods, "Chinese is ok." He goes to the kitchen and starts dialling.
Unbeknownst to them, two cars slowly drive into the alley behind McGee's apartment. The cars stop and six burly men are inside, just waiting. They start making their plans, getting ready for the action.
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After dropping Ziva and Tony at their own places, a very tired Gibbs drives the Charger into his garage, stopping it in front of his truck. He sighs tiredly, as this whole week seemed to be forged in the deepest fires from hell, from a case that seemed to hit dead end after dead end to the senseless shooting that shook the foundation of the relationships of his adopted family.
He takes the key from the car, steps out of the car and locks it. He will have to wake up early the following morning to pick up his agents. He enters his home, and slowly gets his jacket off. He looks down the corridor, towards the door that leads to his basement, and decides that a little bit of sanding would relax him enough to sleep.
He walks to his basement door and turns on the feeble light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling over the boat. He slowly goes down the steps, one hand sliding over the banister, his other was slowly creeping to his gun holster.
And, exactly as his gut had warned him, as soon as he got to the last step, one of the shadows in the basement moved.
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Joy finishes her shower, completely unaware of the danger she's in. She starts drying her body with one very big fluffy towel, and rolls another towel over her wet hair. She walks into her bedroom, and walks towards her commode, where her fragrant peach hand and body creams were, neatly organized.
As soon as she stands before the commode, however, she suddenly feels dizzy, and she had to support her hand on the commode top to avoid falling to the floor. She feels chills running through her body, and as she looks down she can clearly sees goose bumps appearing on her arms. She starts breathing deeply, and her breath starts to mist in the air, as if her bedroom had suddenly lost its warmth.
An ethereal light suddenly inundates the bedroom, on the other side of the bed, closer to the window, and Joy closes her eyes and gulps at the strong presence she feels in the room. She slowly turns, and her eyes hurt as she sees the celestial being, in its full glory, its feathered wings unfurled and twitching, illuminating the room with its raw power.
Its face was young and beautiful, piercing dark blue eyes that could see to the very deepest secret of a human's soul. Its blond hair moved softly, even though there was no wind or breeze in the room. In its hand, a huge sword, unsheathed and ready for battle.
She starts shaking as the scope of the visitation hits her, as it has been many years since the Commander of the Heavenly Hosts personally presented himself in full glory to her.
The angel looks at her, with battle wise eyes, and simply says, "They're here."
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In his home, Ducky was sitting quietly by the fire, with the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine open over his lap. He sighs, as he reads about the latest researches on stem cells and cancer vaccine attempts.
Down the access road, a car slowly rolls until it finally stops on the gravel road. A single man gets out of it.
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Ziva rushes to her attacker, and certifies that he's definitely dead. She goes through his pockets and the only ID she finds says that he's Nick Castello, from NY.
Oh crap, New York, she thinks as she immediately gets her mobile phone and starts ringing Gibbs to tell him what happened.
However, the telephone rings and he's not answering.
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The attacker tried to use his fists to rearrange DiNozzo's face, but he was on Tony's turf, his own kitchen, so Tony attacked the man as furiously as he was attacked. Finally, after three or four lucky punches from Tony, both men fall to the floor, the attacker over Tony, trying to strangle him. Tony looks to the left and sees one of his frying pans inside his cupboard, and before his life is finally over he hits the attacker in the head, knocking him for precious seconds. It was time enough for Tony to take a breath, and tackle his attacker to the floor, and with three furious punches, he was out.
Tony leans against his fridge, sitting on the floor, trying to catch his breath. His ribs and his side aches, but he's alive. He gingerly stands up, and goes to the living room, getting his handcuffs and cuffs the knocked out bastard to his kitchen sink, grabs his gun and badge and leaves the apartment, after turning off Casablanca.
Before he hit the streets to hail a cab, he dials Gibbs' number. It rings, but no one answers.
"No, no, this is not happening," he mutters, he sees a taxi driving by, "TAXI!"