Hey guys! Another update : ) I had this one written before I went back and rewrote the first chapter, so I figured today was a good day to post this : ) Like I said in the last chapter, I'm very keen to get regular updates for this story up, so I'm going to try to get at least one chapter up a week, at least until I've got this story caught up with some of my other ones : ) No promises, but I'm going to do my best : )
Yay! I'm glad everyone seemed to enjoy the rewrite of the first chapter : ) I was a little worried that people would be annoyed at me from wanting to knock the whole thing down to start all over again, but I'm glad that wasn't the case : )
Anyway, thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter/PMed me about it since they already reviewed the original version. The support means a lot so if you guys keep it coming, I'll keep the chapters coming : )
Please remember that NCIS is not mine, and I hope you enjoy this chapter : )
Kill Ari
Kill Ari - Part 1
Darkness had fallen over Washington. The blackened sky was heavy with the sound of thunder. Great torrents of rain lashed down upon the city. The storm had arrived.
And the foul temperament of the night matched Kate's dour mood perfectly.
The special agent in question was standing just outside of the bull-pen at N.C.I.S. Headquarters. She was stood by the window, watching the raindrops dripping down the glass, eerily reminiscent of fallen tears.
A sigh slipped through her lips.
"I know you're out there somewhere" she whispered, a haunted look in her eyes as she looked out across the city, "And I promise, I will find you Ari".
A fork of lightning flashed across the sky, briefly illuminating the city.
"I will find you and I will end you" Kate swore, both to herself and Ari's victims.
This game had gone on long enough.
It was time it ended. And Kate was determined to win.
She turned away from the window as she heard the soft thump of someone falling into a chair behind her. Looking over into the bull-pen, Kate saw that Gibbs had returned to the squad room, and was sitting at his desk, looking... pensive.
Or at least, more pensive than usual, if that was even possible.
Silently, Kate headed to her desk and slowly lowered herself into the chair behind it. She glanced over at Gibbs, who was staring distractedly into space, wondering if she ought to break the terribly awkward silence engulfing them.
It was an unnerving prospect.
But when she finally decided to do it, and managed to muster up the courage required, Kate found that there wasn't anything for her to say.
So instead she decided to wait.
Wait for Gibbs to break the silence; perhaps to make a demand for information, or perhaps to shout at her simply to vent his frustration.
There was nothing else she could do.
Kate wished that there was.
But when Gibbs did break the silence, five painfully long minutes later, he said the last two words that Kate had ever expected to hear from him.
"I'm sorry".
Two simple words.
They could hold as much or as little meaning as the speaker wanted. Coming from Gibbs in that moment, they were enough to lift some of the pressure crushing down on Kate's shoulders. But his words confused her, despite how much better they made her feel.
What was his apologising for?
"I'm sorry Kate" Gibbs repeated, before answering the question she never got chance to ask, "If I hadn't been so... so obsessed with catching Ari... you wouldn't have almost lost your life today".
Kate let out an exhausted sigh. It had been far too long of a day.
"Don't apologise Gibbs" she recited, although it wasn't mocking, "It's a sign of weakness".
"Not in this case" Gibbs whispered mournfully.
Kate fell silent. She had no idea how to respond to that.
"You almost took a bullet in the head today, because of me..." Gibbs continued, shame burning in his voice.
There was a very awkward pause. Kate still had no idea what to say. This was a completely unprecedented situation for her. Not once had Kate seen Gibbs act so... vulnerable.
She didn't much care for it.
Kate wanted so badly to reply, to tell him that she didn't blame him in the slightest, anything to get him to stop sounding so... defeated, but he spoke up before she got the chance too.
"How's the...?" Gibbs trailed off, gesturing at the graze to Kate's temple.
"It's just a scratch" Kate shrugged uncomfortably, "Ducky checked it for me. Just deep enough to draw blood, but it barely even scraped the surface".
"Good" Gibbs said, nodding distractedly, "That's good".
"Apparently I am one hell of a lucky woman. If that gust of wind hadn't blown right at that exact moment..." Kate's blood ran cold, but she forced a strained smile, "Well, Ducky would probably be getting up close and personal with my splattered brain right about now".
Gibbs looked at her in horror.
"Don't say that" he swallowed hoarsely.
Kate couldn't stand to see her boss, her mentor, her friend, like this anymore. It was so, so wrong for him to be blaming himself like this. She stood up and approached his desk. Gibbs couldn't even look her in the eye.
Enough was enough.
"It wasn't your fault Gibbs" she told him, her tone inviting no argument, "If we hadn't gone to that warehouse, then that pier packed with the families of the navy would be a smoking crater right now".
"I know, I know" Gibbs assured her, "But losing you... it would have left a very large hole in this team. And it would have been my fault entirely".
"Stop it!" Kate snapped, losing patience.
Gibbs looked up at her sharply, surprised by her outburst.
"Every day when we walk into this office, we do so knowing that by nightfall, we might not be leaving it ever again" Kate began passionately, "When we go out into the field, we do it knowing that there's a strong chance that not all of our friends, no... not all of our family, will return with us. Those are the stakes that come with upholding the law and protecting this country Gibbs... and if Ari had killed me, well, I'd have been proud to die knowing that I was fighting against his campaign of terror".
By the end of her speech, Gibbs was almost speechless.
Almost.
"I'd have been proud too Kate. Pissed off, but proud of you" he told her sincerely, "I am so proud of you. When I look at the person you were when I first met you, and I look at you today... well, you've grown a lot".
He smiled at her, and Kate felt her eyes prickle. Coming from the man she considered as a second father to her, that meant a lot.
But this wasn't the time for such things.
They still had a terrorist on the loose, so Kate decided it was time to get down to business. She quickly blinked away her unshed tears of pride.
"The point I'm trying to make Gibbs, is that we all made it" she reminded him, "Me, Tony, McGee, you. We all survived the battle, but the war is still ongoing".
"War?" Gibbs frowned.
"You're not seriously going to pretend you're going to sit here in the office whilst Ari's still on the loose out there somewhere?" Kate scoffed.
There was another awkward pause.
"You want his head on a platter" Gibbs noted grimly after a moment.
"You don't?" Kate challenged him.
"Oh, you know I do... but...well, Ari seems to keep on targeting you" he frowned thoughtfully.
Kate's eyes flashed dangerously when she realised what he was implying.
"Don't you dare" she growled fiercely, "Don't you dare try to bench me on this one, Gibbs! That man almost stole my life today. I might have survived, but it was by pure chance, and we all know it! Ari has held me hostage, twice, once right here in our own damn autopsy suite! I want him gone, out of our lives, forever".
"And if it came down to it, would you arrest him, or kill him?" Gibbs probed, curious as to her answer.
This was a test.
One Kate had better pass if she wanted to stay on this case and out of a safe house, under protective custody if Gibbs had too.
"I said forever. I want that bastard to burn in hell, where he can't hurt anyone else ever again" Kate growled.
"Didn't answer my question" Gibbs stated bluntly.
"Fine! Yes! I'd kill him!" Kate admitted, throwing up her arms in frustration, "God knows, if I could turn back time, I'd have stabbed Ari in the neck with that knife when I had the chance. None of this would be happening right now if I had".
"I thought you said his eyes looked kind" Gibbs reminded her mockingly, needing to be sure of her conviction.
"What do you want me to say?" Kate glared hotly at him for pushing her like this, "I know Gibbs! I got that one wrong, okay?!"
Silence fell between them once more.
A very intense silence.
"Okay" Gibbs said at long last.
"Okay?" Kate repeated flatly.
"You can stay on the case. I trust that when the time comes, you won't hesitate again" Gibbs smiled at her.
"Damn right I won't" Kate nodded curtly, although a smile began tugging at her lips, "So, where do we start?"
"That, Special Agent Todd, is where Tony and McGee come in" Gibbs informed her.
"Tony and McGee?" Kate repeated, frowning, "But I thought...".
The elevator pinged open behind her, and Tony and McGee, both drenched to the bone, came striding out, dripping water everywhere. Kate stared at them in astonishment, wondering how in the name of hell Gibbs could have possibly known there was someone coming up in the elevator, let alone who was riding it.
"Found Ari's sniper's nest, Boss" Tony reported as he and McGee came into the bull-pen.
"Roof of an abandoned office building to the east" McGee elaborated.
"Didn't police his brass" Tony informed Gibbs and Kate.
He held an exhibit bag out to Gibbs, and Kate saw three evidence jars inside it, each with a small golden casing of separate bullets within. Gibbs took the bag from Tony, and held it under the lamp on his desk, trying to read the tiny writing on the golden surfaces.
"They're Lapua 308's" McGee said, before suddenly stammering "Uh...I... err... didn't mean that you couldn't see that, boss".
"I can't without my glasses" Gibbs shrugged it off, "Lapua's match grade sniper ammo. You guys find any bullets?"
The other three watched as Gibbs walked over to the window Kate had previously been standing in front of, holding the casings up high, trying to get a better visual examination of them in the darkened office.
"Uh, non that matched the casings" Tony replied, "I left three guys on the roof searching".
"Why would Ari leave the casings for us to find?" Kate wondered aloud, "I mean, I thought for a sniper, leaving a casing is like signing the crime with your signature?"
"It is" Gibbs confirmed grimly.
"So then why would Ari... oh..." Kate scowled darkly.
"What?" Tony looked at her.
"He's playing with us" Kate growled angrily, fire burning in her eyes, "Ari left those casings because he wanted us to find them. This is a game. One he thinks we're going to lose".
"Well that son of a bitch has another thing coming" Gibbs growled, just as angry as Kate was over Ari's gall, "McGee, can you bring up a visual of Ari's sniper nest on the plasma?"
"Sure thing, Boss" McGee nodded.
The young agent rushed over to his computer, booted it up, and began typing away. Gibbs, Kate, and Tony all gathered around the plasma screen, and within moments, McGee had brought up a satellite image of the desired area. Kate suppressed a shiver at the sight of the rooftop their battle had been on.
The place where she had almost lost her life...
She forced that haunting thought away in favour of listening to Gibbs.
"Ari's rooftop wasn't much higher than ours" Gibbs commented.
"And the rooflines behind our's are lower" Kate added with a frown, "Which means there's no telling how far a bullet would go after missing me".
Tony glanced over at her, looking concerned. He could honestly say he had been terrified when that final gunshot had rung out and they had been caught completely off-guard. But more than that, he had been shaken to his core at the thought of Kate or Gibbs being killed right in front of him. If that had of happened... well... Tony didn't know what he would have done.
Probably have murdered the bastard responsible before going on one hell of a bender.
"Three rounds?" Gibbs said suddenly, looking... troubled, "And only one came close to hitting any of us?"
"He must've popped off a couple of rounds while we were all weaving across the roof" Tony shrugged nonchalantly.
"I don't think so" Kate shook her head, "I didn't see any bullets flying around that I couldn't see the source of".
"Things were kind of chaotic up there Kate" Tony rolled his eyes.
"We were all standing still just before I was almost hit!" Kate argued back.
"How did Ari even miss anyway?" McGee asked.
"Gee, thanks McGee" Kate scoffed in annoyance.
"No!" McGee cried when he realised how that sounded, "O-obviously I'm very glad he missed... I was just wondering...".
He hung his head, looking ashamed, under Kate's withering glare.
"We lasered the distance at nearly 600 meters" Tony piped up, partly to bail him out.
"572" McGee corrected.
"High winds before the storm, one big gust knocks us all sideways, he misses Gibbs, and almost hits Kate" Tony concluded.
"No" Gibbs shook his head.
"No?" Tony repeated blankly.
"Gibbs is under the impression that Ari was aiming at me" Kate informed, although she too believed that she had been Ari's target, "And that the gust of wind blew us aside and the bullet enough off course so that I escaped with just a graze".
"Why would Ari be aiming at you?" Tony frowned at her in concern, "Gibbs is the one he wants to kill!"
Tony was very troubled by what they were saying. After all, Kate was his partner, and it was his job to have her back and her was to have his. And if some little piece of shit dared to hurt her, Tony would rain down fire on the person responsible.
"You said that Ari has a thing for you, Kate" McGee piped up.
"What are you talking about?" Tony turned to him in confusion.
McGee however continued looking at Kate thoughtfully.
"You said that he was always coming on to you" McGee reminded her, oblivious to Kate trying to subtly shake her head, wanting him to shut up, "In autopsy, when he kidnapped you and let you go".
"You never told me that" Tony rounded on Kate, tone accusing.
"Nice one McGee" Kate scowled at him, before turning to face an expectant Tony, "Alright, he has this thing for me. I never told you because... well, you'd probably make some sleazy innuendo about him wanting to throw me down on to one of the autopsy tables and the like".
"And the like?" Tony raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah... you know... sex!" Kate cried, looking uncomfortable.
"I would not" Tony pouted indignantly.
"Yes you would" McGee piped up.
"Anyone talking to you, Probie?" Tony glared at him.
McGee cowered and silently lowered his head.
"Don't pick on him, Tony" Gibbs sighed tiredly from his position back at his desk.
Whilst the others had been talking, Gibbs had been examining the jammer which McGee had been using to try to stop the drone. Actually he was looking at the wreckage of it. It had two large bullet holes in it and wires were falling out of the destroyed device.
Tony stared at him in bewilderment. Since when did Gibbs care to step in when he was going a little too far with McGee?
"When was this hit, Tim?" Gibbs suddenly asked.
McGee frowned, a little confused. It was very rare of Gibbs, or any of the team, to call him by his first name. It felt… kind of nice. McGee had always felt a little insecure about his place in the team's structure. After all, Gibbs always called DiNozzo and Todd, Tony and Kate, so why did he not get his first name too?
He quickly pulled himself out of those thoughts and replied to Gibbs' question.
"When I was pinned down" he answered.
Gibbs paused, deep in thought, before looking back up at him again.
"Ari have a shot at it?" he asked.
Kate watched as McGee's eyes widened in realisation. He had thought it had been the terrorist firing at him that had damaged the jammer, but now he realised that it couldn't have been. The jammer had been hidden behind the car at the time.
"Our car was between the terrorist and the controller. There's no way he could have hit it. Boss, I'm...I'm sorry. I should've realized that it was Ari" McGee stammered.
"Why didn't he pop McGee?" Tony wondered aloud.
"Oh, thanks, Tony" McGee glared at him, despite him making a comment of the same sort in regards to Kate, albeit accidently.
"All I'm saying is, you're a sizable target" Tony shrugged, a mocking expression on his face, "The controller isn't".
"You saying I'm fat?" McGee asked incredulously.
"No" Tony smirked, unable to resist a little teasing, "I mean, maybe a little around the waist, under the chin".
"Tony has a point" Kate piped up.
"You think I'm fat too?" McGee gawked at her.
"What? No! Not a point about you, McGee" Kate shook her head, "I mean... let's just presume that Ari didn't fire at me because of his...".
"Thing for you?" Tony supplied, smirking suggestively.
Kate rolled her eyes.
"Yeah. That. What else would he have to gain by killing me?" she asked.
There was a long pause, before...
"He gets at Gibbs" Tony realised with a sigh, "He knows that if he kills a member of Gibbs' team, there's no way he'd be able to resist entering Ari's game and trying to kill him".
"He's right" Gibbs growled, angry that Ari might have targeted Kate simply to get at him, "As if I didn't want to kill the bastard enough already!"
"The point is, if that was his intention, why didn't he kill McGee?" Kate wondered, "I mean, it's obviously good he didn't, but surely taking out as many members of Team Gibbs as he can would ensnare you further into his game?"
"It would" Gibbs agreed slowly, before saying - "But Ari didn't have an angle on Tim".
It took a moment for the others to realise what he meant.
"Wow" Tony shook his head in amazement, "You owe that shooter from the warehouse a thank you, McGee. He saved your life".
McGee looked stunned, and very disturbed.
Kate knew the feeling only too well.
"The bullet entered here" Gibbs noted, talking through his observations of the controller, "It could've ricocheted into the car".
"Well, I'll get on it" McGee nodded at him.
"Abby should be here by now" Gibbs said, turning to Kate, "Kate, see what the two of you can pull off that brass".
"Sure thing, Gibbs" Kate agreed.
"What about me Boss?" Tony asked, "You want me to go back to the roof?"
"Tony..." Gibbs looked at him as if seeing him for the first time, "You're soaking wet. You and McGee take a break and go put some dry clothes on".
Kate, Tony, and McGee all stared at him in disbelief.
Did he really just say 'Take a break'?
"I'm going for coffee" their boss suddenly announced, "Can I get any of you some?"
Again, the three of them stared at him, dumbfounded.
Gibbs never offered to get them coffee.
"No, thanks" Tony eventually said, looked confused.
"None for me either, thank you" a bewildered Kate added.
"Me neither Boss" McGee echoed.
Gibbs nodded at them distractedly before he walked over to the elevator and entered it. The doors slid shut and he was gone.
"That was weird" Tony said as soon as he was gone.
"He called me Tim" McGee noted, bewildered.
"He told me to take a break" Tony shook his head.
"It's kind of nice" McGee began to smile.
"Nice?" Tony scoffed, rounding on him, "I don't want nice. He's not Gibbs if he's nice".
"Well I like it" McGee told him, "What about you Kate?"
The two men turned to her expectantly. Kate looked between them, somewhat conflicted.
"Well... I never thought I'd say this... but err... I agree with Tony" she said, although she sounded uncertain.
"Ha!" Tony smirked victoriously at McGee.
"He feels guilty" Kate said before either of them could comment further.
"Huh?" Tony blinked.
"Gibbs. He feels guilty about all this" Kate gestured at the graze on her head, "He believes that I almost lost my life today because of his obsession with trying to take down Ari".
"That's crazy!" Tony scoffed in disbelief, "He didn't pull the trigger".
"Well, he actually apologised to me" Kate told him.
"Gibbs apologised?!" Tony's eyes bulged out of his head.
"I know" Kate shook her head, "Weird right?"
"But Gibbs hates apologies" McGee frowned, "They're a sign of weakness!"
"And he's going to be like this until he finally takes Ari down once and for all" Kate predicted sadly.
"Well then we've gotta help him kill the bastard" Tony said determinedly, "I want the real Gibbs back".
"Me too Tony, me too" Kate sighed tiredly.
With nothing else to say, she turned, picked up the evidence bag with the three jars inside, and walked out of the bull-pen to head down to Abby's lab.
If they wanted this to be over, then they all had work to do.
When Kate entered Abby's lab, it took her several attempts to attract the forensic specialist's attention. Her usual rock music was blaring out from the speakers, so Kate had to yell to get Abby to realise she was there.
"Abby!" Kate yelled over the music, "ABBY!"
"Whoa!" Abby jumped and turned around.
When she saw that it was Kate, she immediately closed the distance between them.
"Kate! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" she gasped. She gently ran her finger along the graze to Kate's temple, almost in tears.
"Abby, calm down" Kate sighed tiredly.
"Oh my god!" Abby was still in the first phase of her panic mode.
"Abby!" Kate shouted abruptly, and Abby finally fell silent, "You can relax. It's barely even a cut... I was lucky".
"Are you sure?" Abby's lip wobbled, eyes shining as she tried not to cry, "Did you get it checked by a doctor? Ducky? Anyone?"
"Ducky checked it for me" Kate confirmed calmly, "It barely even grazed me. Like I said, I was lucky".
"Lucky?" Abby scoffed, "When McGee called me back in he told me what happened. Is it true that the wind blew the bullet off course and that's what saved your life?"
"Yeah" Kate shrugged, very uncomfortable thinking about how close to death she'd come.
"That's not lucky Kate" Abby shook her head at her, "That's nothing short of a miracle. OH!" she suddenly gasped, making Kate jump in surprise.
"What?" Kate stared at her.
"We should totally put this on this cool website I found!" Abby said cheerfully, no longer worried now that she'd satisfied herself that Kate was alive and well, "It's for people that have had insane near death experiences. There's this one guy who survived 9/11 because he fell on top of a chunk of concrete and surfed his way down to safety, unconscious".
"I'd really rather not Abby" Kate said, looking somewhat amused by her shift in attitude.
"Meh, you're probably right" Abby shrugged, "Gibbs probably wouldn't like us making the details about this case public like that".
"Exactly" Kate nodded, "And speaking of Gibbs, he sent me down here to work with you on these".
She handed the evidence bag containing the casings to Abby.
"Which site did these come from?" Abby asked as she turned the bag over in her hands, looking at the casings thoughtfully.
"Ari's sniper nest" Kate replied, and Abby's face darkened at the bastard's name, "They're 308 casings".
"You would have to give me the most popular caliber in the world" Abby playfully rolled her eyes.
"Blame Tony" Kate chuckled, "He's the one that found them. Can you tell what kind of gun Ari used from these?"
"Duh" Abby laughed, "A 308".
"I actually meant what model 308?" Kate elaborated.
"You don't know?" Abby blinked.
"Abby, I do not know" Kate smirked.
"Well, how am I supposed to know?" Abby asked.
Kate paused for a moment, before laughing.
"Because you're the best firearms expert in America?" she suggested.
"Ha! Try the entire planet!" Abby joked, "But even Super Girl has her limits. Actually I'm more like Wonder Woman... either way, I can tell you all sorts of things about these little devils".
"Yeah?" Kate grinned, taking the challenge, "Like what?"
"When I'm done, I will tell you: the propellant, the primer, the percentage of nickel and copper in the brass, whether or not all three rounds were fired from the same weapon, which you assume, but I can prove or disprove" Abby grinned happily, totally in her element.
Kate smiled, enjoying watching her friend being so happy and peppy. It was much better than her being all sad and freaking out.
"I will tell you who manufactured the ammo, the batch number, and perhaps where it was sold. I will also, with some degree of accuracy, tell you if it was fired from a lever action, a bolt action, a semi-automatic, or an automatic weapon" Abby concluded victoriously.
"So basically... everything I could ask for, except the model of the gun?" Kate smirked.
"Correct!" Abby cheered.
"Fantastic" Kate fondly rolled her eyes, "Although I can tell you something about the rounds too".
"Oh?" Abby raised an eyebrow.
"They're Lapua" Kate informed her.
"How'd you know that?" Abby asked, puzzled by her knowledge.
"Lapua made the ammo" Kate told her seriously, "The logo's on the round".
"That, Special Agent Todd, is cheating" Abby laughed.
"Is not" Kate stuck her tongue out.
"Is so" Abby stuck her tongue out too.
The girls broke out into giggles.
"Well, Wonder Woman, think you can get all that done for Gibbs by the time he gets back?" Kate was the one to return to seriousness first.
"Anything for the master" Abby happily confirmed, "Where'd he go?"
"Out for coffee" Kate informed her.
"Then I'd better get my skates on if I want answers for when he comes back" Abby grinned.
"I'll let you get started then... go get you a Caf-Pow before I help you" Kate told her.
She turned to leave, but Abby called out her name before she could exit the lab.
"Kate" Abby called her back.
"Yeah?" Kate turned back to her.
"You sure you're okay?" Abby wanted to be certain.
Kate smiled patiently, although she was glad that she had someone who cared as much as Abby did as a friend.
"Would a hug be enough to convince you?" she asked kindly.
"Definitely!" Abby cheered.
Laughing again, the two women embraced.
Sheltered in the lab against the furious, raging storm, neither woman could possibly be aware of the looming cross-hairs, lining up over their heads...
And there's the first part of Kill Ari Part 1 : )
Now, I know this chapter is shorter than you're used too, but that's because as part of my revamp for this story, I'm going to break the episodes up into four chapters instead of two. A chapter that's half an episode long is just so much to write, proof-read, and then for the viewer to actually read in one sitting. It's too much, and that's why updates always took so long. So now I'm going to do the episodes in four parts, which should hopefully make it easier to update once or twice a week. We hopefully won't go longer than a fortnight. I want this story up-to-par with my others as soon as possible : )
Let move onto the actual content. What did you guys think about Gibbs apologising to Kate? I was tempted to wait until the end of Kill Ari Part 2 to do so, but I just felt that the stormy night, Gibbs' depressed mood, and him and Kate alone in the squad room set up for it nicely, so I rolled with it : )
I also really enjoyed rewriting Abby's scene because that scene where she remembered Kate was one of the saddest scenes I've ever scene Abby in. Although it was a terrific performance by Pauley Perrette : )
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one. I'm aiming to have it up on Wednesday, but if not I'll definitely have it up by next Saturday : )
Until the next time, keep on reading : )