Hey everyone : ) I know, I know - there's no excuse for what has turned into nearly a YEAR's absence from Fanfiction and this story. If it makes it any better, it's not just this story but all of my stories I've been away from. That really doesn't make it better at all, does it? Anyway, I'm back now but I'm not going to promise any sort of update schedule. All I'll promise is that I'll do my very best not to let a story go so long without any updates again : )

Thank you to those that have stuck with this story for so long, and thank you to those that reviewed the last chapter : ) Your support is always appreciated very much : )

Please remember that NCIS is not mine, and I hope you enjoy this chapter : )

Kill Ari - Part 4

Tony watched with growing curiosity as Kate, who was hunched over her notepad, scribbled furiously whilst alternating between looking at her computer screen and the pad. He was racking his brains, but for the life of him, he just couldn't figure out what she was up too. She sure was being sneaky though.

And Tony really liked it.

A sneaky Kate was a smart Kate, and Tony had a feeling that she might just be cooking them up a tasty lead in their current investigation. He was just about to open his mouth to ask her what she was up to, when Kate suddenly threw her hands up in the air, grinning from ear to ear.

"Oho! Gotcha!" she smirked triumphantly.

"Got what?" Tony asked.

Kate beamed at him, before excitedly beckoning him over. Tony jumped to his feet and hurried over to her desk, standing behind her and peering at the screen over her shoulder. Whatever he was expecting, it was not what he saw.

"Google Translate?" he scoffed, "You're getting excited because you managed to find Google Translate? Kate, sweetie, even Gibbs could find that!"

"It's not Google Translate I'm cheering about" Kate playfully slapped him on the arm, "It's what it's translating for me" she paused, before adding as an afterthought, "And don't call me sweetie".

"Aw..." Tony pouted, flashing her his best puppy dog eyes, "I think it suits you. Can't I call you that? Please?"

Kate smirked a very mischievous smile.

"Oh sure" she smiled sweetly, and Tony grinned, before she added - "But I'll have to come up with a nickname for you... one I'll call you in front of Gibbs".

That wiped the smile off Tony's face.

"Okay, okay, that's a no on the 'sweetie', I get it" he said, before grinning, "What nickname would you give me? Handsome?"

Kate smiled, but didn't reply.

"Gorgeous?" Tony probed.

Kate ducked her head, still refusing to comment.

"Sexy?" he winked playfully.

Kate couldn't keep it in anymore.

She promptly burst out into a fit of giggles. Tony smiled. He knew that coming as close to death as Kate had was not just something a person could easily bounce back from. She was doing a good job at hiding her terror, throwing herself into the case to avoid thinking about it, but Tony knew that once the case was over and done with, it would really hit home to Kate just how close her brush with death had been. So for him to be able to make her laugh, when he had been so terrified he'd never hear that sound again, well... it spoke volumes about their relationship, to him at least.

Kate gasped breathlessly, but was finally able to speak again.

"Actually, I was thinking something like 'Cutie McPrettyson'" Kate giggled.

Tony's grin threatened to split his face.

"Oho! So you think I'm both cute and pretty, huh?" he winked.

Kate laughed again, shaking her head fondly at him.

"Well I never thought I'd hear the day that Special Agent Caitlin Todd would say something nice about me" Tony smiled good-naturedly at her, before he reminded himself they were meant to be working, so sadly, he changed the subject, "So if you're not cheering at opening Google Translate, what are you cheering about?"

"This" Kate said, getting back on track.

She held up the notepad for him to see. Tony frowned in confusion, unable to make any sense out of the gibberish in Kate's immaculate handwriting.

"And this is?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"This is a certain female Mossad Officer's half of a very suspicious telephone conversation" Kate grinned at him.

Tony was confused for a moment, before it clicked, and his eyes went very wide.

"You... you..." he floundered, unable to believe what he was hearing, "You... and her...".

"Yeah" Kate winked playfully.

"You... Caitlin Todd... you invaded someone's privacy?!" Tony's jaw was hanging open and he didn't care.

This was... unprecedented.

Kate, the woman who got so riled up, so angry, so pissed whenever he went through her desk, her purse, her diary, her computer, her cellphone, hell even her trash, had just eavesdropped on a private conversation and made a transcript of it.

He just couldn't believe it.

"Ziva is clearly hiding something, and this is an important investigation" Kate shrugged it off nonchalantly, "We can't afford to leave any stone unturned".

"Oh, no, no, no" Tony laughed, shaking his head, highly amused, "Don't try that line with me Katie. You eavesdropped".

"For a legitimate reason" Kate insisted.

"You eavesdropped" Tony repeated, grinning.

"Tony" Kate sighed.

"Eavesdropped" Tony sing-songed.

"I guess you don't want to hear what Ziva was talking about then" Kate pretended to sigh.

That shut Tony up in record time.

"No, no!" Tony protested, flashing the puppy-eyes again, "I wanna hear!"

Kate couldn't help but smile. He was just so damn playfully and funny. He never failed to make her smile. And that was one of her favourite things about him.

"Well, alright then" Kate 'gave in', and Tony beamed at her, "You see, I wasn't sure what language Ziva was speaking, and I could hardly go up and ask her, so I just had to spend some time guessing. That's what took so long".

"But you figured it out?" Tony assumed.

"I sure did" Kate smiled, looking proud of herself, which Tony found rather endearing, "It was Hebrew... which means...".

"You can run your transcript through the translator" Tony realised, eyes wide.

Kate nodded, beaming at him.

"I already did it" she told him.

"Great!" Tony cheered, "Then let's hear it".

Kate shuffled some papers in her notepad, picking it up so she could read her translations.

"Now remember, this isn't a perfect translation, but it gives us a fairly accurate script of what Ziva said on the phone" Kate reminded him.

Tony just waved his hand, silently telling her to go ahead.

"Okay, the first thing I heard her say translated too - 'I have a relationship with the new director and may be able to convince her of your innocence. But not...' - that part refused to translate, but it's fairly clear she was going to say somebody's name" Kate reasoned logically.

"Ten bucks says that Miss David said 'Special Agent Gibbs' right there" Tony smirked.

"Probably, considering the next sentence translated too - 'He's a man with blood in his eyes'" Kate replied.

"Yeah, definitely Gibbs" Tony chuckled in dark amusement.

"Then there was a pause whilst the other person said something, and then Ziva said 'Yes' to them" Kate informed Tony.

"Yes to what?" Tony mused thoughtfully.

"No idea, but then there was another pause, before Ziva said 'I want to see you', which I personally think is very suspicious" Kate said, frowning darkly.

"More like very interesting!" Tony grinned, "I bet she's off to meet a boyfriend! I wonder what her type is".

"Probably not the 'Cutie McPrettyson type'" Kate quipped.

Tony smirked.

"Never say never" he wagged his eyebrows.

Kate chuckled, before shaking her head and getting back to her translations.

"Anyway, the other person said something, and then Ziva replied" Kate explained, before adding - 'I think the sentence started with a name but it wouldn't translate again, but the rest of the sentence was 'I don't want to lose you, too'... draw your own conclusions".

"Ziva lost someone" Tony sighed, feeling sorry for the mysterious woman, "Someone close".

"And is worried about losing someone else close too" Kate added, sighing.

They both pondered that in silence for a moment.

"Anything else?" Tony was naturally the one to break the silence.

Kate glanced down at her notes.

"No... the other person said some more stuff before Ziva hung up. She didn't say another word" Kate informed him.

"Well, you were right to eavesdrop on that, it made for interesting listening" Tony smiled at her, "And I think we can both guess who the caller was".

"Ari" they said together.

There was no one else that it logically could be.

Ziva was there to stop them from killing Ari after all. She'd admitted that much to them. Who else would she realistically have to convince the innocence of to the new director? And assuming they were right about Gibbs being the one 'with blood in his eyes', well who else would he want dead right now?

No.

Ziva had to have been talking to Ari. They were sure of it.

"So who is Ari to Ziva?" Tony wondered aloud.

"Gotta be a lover from that conversation" Kate reasoned logically.

"Shame, she was smoking" Tony looked put out.

Kate scoffed in disbelief.

"Seriously?" she couldn't help but ask, "You really think she's hot?"

"Are you kidding?" Tony looked down at her incredulously, "She could be sitting on top of the sun and she wouldn't get any hotter".

"Well it's a shame she apparently goes for the psychotic type" Kate reminded him.

"Yeah..." Tony grumbled.

"Although thinking about it, you wouldn't actually have to change that much to fit into that category" Kate teased him playfully.

Tony smirked at her light-hearted banter.

"You're right, and you know what?" he grinned down at her, "You could teach me! You know, since you're already in it".

Kate grinned. She would admit that he'd won that round.

"So, what do you think we should do about this?" Kate asked instead of retorting, holding up her translated transcript, "Should we confront Ziva, or take this to Gibbs?"

"Take it to Gibbs" Tony immediately said, "No way are we making any moves on our own on this one".

Kate quickly saw his point, grimacing as she imagined Gibbs' reaction to the two of them flying solo without him.

"Good point" she agreed, barely supressing a shudder, "Alright, but we'll have to do it when Ziva isn't around. Best to wait until that new director isn't with him as well, if she's close to Ziva".

"Yeah" Tony nodded, "We don't know that she won't tell Ziva what we did".

"We? You mean what I did. I'm taking the credit for this DiNozzo, since I did all the work" Kate told him bluntly.

"Fine, you can have it" Tony scowled.

"Good" Kate nodded, "Glad we've established that. Any luck matching the tyre tracks?"

"Not yet" Tony sighed, stepping around Kate and heading back over to his own desk, "I'm sticking at it... mostly because I don't know where else to look".

"Well maybe Gibbs is having a gut feeling we can follow" Kate shrugged. It was something they'd relied on in the past after all, "As for me, I'm going to do some discreet digging into the background of one Miss Ziva David".

"Oh! Sounds good! Wanna trade?" Tony asked hopefully.

"Not a chance" Kate smirked at him.

Tony huffed, looking a little put out that he wouldn't get to dig into Ziva's background. They both turned back to their work, ready to find some answers. They had barely gotten started however, when Ziva returned to the bullpen.

"My apologies for that" she said, alerting them to her presence, "I needed to use the bathroom after my phone call. Where are Gibbs and Director Shepard?" she inquired.

"Errr..." Tony made of show of looking around, deliberately attracting Ziva's attention onto him, so that Kate could hide her transcript whilst Ziva's back was turned, "Oh! There they are! And they've got coffee... I notice they didn't bring us any" he whispered those last few words.

"Last time I asked you refused, DiNozzo" Gibbs said for them all to hear as he and Jenny returned.

Kate shook her head in amusement. No matter how many times she or Tony would whisper something, Gibbs always had a way of hearing them just fine. She had no idea how he did it. And she had a feeling that she didn't want to either.

Gibbs approached his own desk and sat in his chair behind it. Jenny stood in front of him, calmly sipping her coffee. Ziva walked over to them as well. Kate and Tony both watched, curious about how this would go down.

Kate was trying her best not to allow her emotions to show on her face, but she was seriously having to fight hard against the urge to call Ziva out on her phone-call to Ari and demand some kind of explanation.

The bastard had kidnapped her, twice, after all. He had tried to assassinate her. He had fired into a federal agency building in what was probably a second attempt on her life. He clearly wanted her dead just as much as she did him.

The question was, why?

Kate knew he was psychotic, perhaps even insane, and he had some weird thing about her, but was all that really enough to motivate him into killing her? She didn't think so. Kate thought there was more to it than that. It was likely it was just part of his vendetta against Gibbs, and she was just a pawn in his game, but Kate was still curious. And Ziva might be able to provide some answers, but Kate couldn't demand them of her. Not yet.

It was little wonder that Kate was sporting an angry scowl on her face though.

"So Miss David" Gibbs started politely, as if they were about to how a lovely chat about a baseball game, "Whose get cut off if Ari is not a Mossad mole, but a terrorist?"

Kate smirked. Typical 'Gibbs tact'.

"Mine, I suppose, since I'm his control officer" Ziva replied, completely unfazed.

"Ah, they promote control officers young in Mossad" Gibbs observed.

"They have to" Ziva shrugged nonchalantly, "The good ones are dead at your age".

"Do you know how I located Ari's terrorist cell?" Gibbs smirked at her.

"GPS fix off his encrypted cell phone" Ziva replied with a shrug, "He wanted you to know the terrorists' location so you could stop the missile instead of him, which would have necessitated blowing his cover".

Kate scoffed loudly, and Ziva turned to her, eyebrows raised.

"I'm sorry" Kate shook her head, "I just find that very difficult to believe".

"It's the truth" Ziva glared at her.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows, sensing there was a little more to Kate's scepticism than met the eye. Especially considering the look he caught her and Tony sharing. A look that said they knew more than they were letting on. He could hardly question her about it now though, so instead he decided to speak up before an argument could break out.

"Only an NSA satellite can GPS an encrypted phone" he said, and Ziva turned back to him, still looking annoyed, "Ari didn't know I had that asset".

Ziva chuckled, amused.

"You give him less credit than he gives you" she stated, tone patronizing, "Who hung up first? You or him?"

Gibbs' stony silence was the only answer Ziva received.

"Ari knows a fix takes only nineteen seconds" the Israeli woman smirked, considering his silence a small victory, "When Sharon visited Bush, Ari's Hamas cell kidnapped Agent Todd. Why didn't he kill her instead of freeing her to warn the Secret Service?"

Truth be told, Kate had been wondering the same thing herself for quite some time. And she had only managed to come up with one realistic theory.

"To prolong this sick game of his" Kate growled.

"This is not a game Special Agent Todd" Ziva snapped, losing her patience with the other woman, "A Mossad Officer's - an innocent man's - life is at stake unless you people see reason".

"Reason?!" Kate shouted, "If memory serves, reason didn't factor into Ari's plan when he kidnapped myself and two other people and held us hostage in this very building. And as for innocent, why don't you ask the defenceless man your Mossad Officer shot in cold blood if he thinks Ari's innocent?"

Ziva's face turned extremely sour, but she didn't respond. Instead, she turned to Jenny, a somewhat expectant look on her face.

"Nobody has forgotten what Ari Haswari has put you through Special Agent Todd, nor how or why Gerald Jackson was shot" Jenny spoke in a placating voice, "But there's a bigger picture to consider here. Ari has provided Mossad with intel that's stopped what could have been catastrophic terrorist attacks".

"If that's true, why isn't Ari here to defend himself?" Gibbs chipped in, annoyed Jenny would take Ziva's side over his and his team's.

"Because we all know you'd shoot him before he had a chance to open his mouth" Ziva snapped angrily, "You're not interested in hearing what he has to say. But the simple truth is this - Ari Haswari is a Mossad operative undercover in Hamas. He hasn't turned on us, or you".

"Ahem" Kate tapped the cut on her temple pointedly.

Ziva narrowed her eyes, fury raging in them.

"He was not the person that attempted to kill you, Agent Todd" Ziva growled.

"Yeah right" Kate scoffed in disbelief.

"Even" Jenny said pointedly, cutting off the argument before Ziva could retort, "If you're right, and Ari has turned traitor, we owe them proof".

"That's all we ask" a somewhat mollified Ziva stated, "Don't kill the wrong man".

"Like Mossad did in Norway?" Gibbs taunted snidely.

The look Ziva gave him would have cowed a weaker man, but Gibbs was easily able to withstand it.

"That mistake cost us dearly" she growled, slamming her hand down on Gibbs' desk in frustration.

"Not as dearly as the Palestinian waiter your agency killed" Gibbs shot back at her.

Ziva's jaw clenched, her eyes as cold as steel. Her hopes of persuading Gibbs of Ari's innocence were clearly dead in the water at this point, and all this arguing was getting her nowhere.

There was a tense pause, which nobody seemed keen to break.

"Ziva, assure your deputy director that even though Ari Haswari is a suspect, no action will be taken unless we have evidentiary proof" Jenny finally said, in a voice not to be argued with.

Ziva nodded at her gratefully.

Jenny turned to Gibbs, her face incredibly stern, "Proof before action".

Gibbs glared at her heatedly, radiating anger.

Well if she wanted proof, then he would just have to go find her some.

Ten minutes later, after Jenny had taken Ziva up to her new office to speak in private, Gibbs stood up from his desk, and all but dragged Tony and Kate off in the direction of the elevator. Kate barely even had time to grab her translations before she was carted off. Once the metal doors slammed shut, Gibbs flicked the power button, and the elevator ground to a halt.

Now they could talk in private.

"Out with it" he grunted.

"Out with what, Boss?" Tony asked, somewhat perplexed.

"You two have found something out" Gibbs stated bluntly, and both of his agents raised their eyebrows in surprise, "You couldn't say what it was in front of Ziva, because you're both clever enough not to trust her, but she isn't here now. So tell me".

Tony and Kate shared a look, and Kate knew what he was saying without using words. 'It's your news to tell since you found it out'.

"We think Ziva's been in contact with Ari" Kate informed her boss.

Gibbs didn't look surprised.

"I figured as much. That's the only way she could know I hung up on him" Gibbs said, "But what made you think that? What did you find out?"

"You remember that phone call Ziva took earlier?" Kate asked, continuing once Gibbs had nodded his head, "Well, I listened in on the call and -".

"I'm sorry, you invaded someone's privacy" Gibbs cut her off incredulously, "You - Special Agent Caitlin Todd - eavesdropped".

"Shameful, isn't it?" Tony grinned smugly.

"Shut up" Kate flicked him on the ear, causing Tony to pout.

"So what did she say?" Gibbs wanted to know.

Instead of answering, Kate handed him the papers she was holding that contained Ziva's half of the conversation. Gibbs squinted at the papers - it was difficult to read Kate's writing without his glasses - but was soon caught up to speed with what Kate had overheard.

"Oh yeah" Gibbs smiled bitterly, "She's definitely in contact with that bastard".

"So what are we going to do?" Kate wanted to know.

She didn't care that Ziva was just trying to do her job. Kate would happily go through her first if she tried to stop them getting to Ari. This time, he wasn't getting away.

Kate was going to make damn sure of that.

"We start with her. She's our best chance of finding Ari right now" Gibbs said, before turning to Tony, "I want you on Ziva's ass".

Tony looked delighted to hear that.

"He means that metaphorically, not literally, DiNozzo" Kate smirked at him knowingly.

"I knew that" Tony scowled at her.

"I do hope you two are taking this seriously" Gibbs growled at them both.

Both Kate and Tony stood up straighter, a slight look of panic flashing across their faces.

"Sure we are Boss" Tony said quickly.

"Very seriously" Kate hastily added.

"Good" Gibbs nodded, glad to hear he wouldn't have to deal out any head-slaps just yet.

"Just one question" Tony couldn't help but voice something he'd had on his mind, "What if Ziva's right and Ari knew you traced the call?"

Kate stared at him in shock, and Tony reluctantly turned to her.

"Maybe he wasn't the sniper" he said with a wince.

"Do you honestly believe that?" she scoffed in disbelief.

"We've gotta consider it" Tony said, trying to ignore to twin looks of tranquil anger he was receiving from both his boss and his partner, "None of us actually saw Ari at the warehouse".

"Ari wanted us to raid that warehouse" Gibbs growled in annoyance, "He set us up. And it almost cost Kate her life".

His tone was extremely guilty as he said those last words.

"Hey" Kate said to him encouragingly, "I told you - that's the price that comes with doing this job. Don't let that bastard make you believe any differently".

Gibbs didn't reply, but the guilt in his eyes was answer enough.

Nobody else said anything as Gibbs reactivated the power and the elevator went down. When it stopped, Gibbs got out, pulling Kate out with him, much to her bewilderment.

"One more thing" Tony said, holding back the door to prevent it from closing, "What do I do if Ziva leads me to Ari?"

"Shadow him and call me" Gibbs replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So you can bring him in?" Tony raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Yeah, so I can bring him in…" Gibbs said, smacking Tony's hand away from the elevator door, causing it to slam shut and whisk Tony away back upstairs, "…to Autopsy".

"Glad to hear that" Kate smirked darkly.

Gibbs looked down at her to see a steely determination set on her face. He smiled, pleased to have at least one person firmly in his corner.

Meanwhile, out in the pouring rain when he really should have been at home where it was nice and warm and dry, Gerald Jackson was exiting a pharmacy, carrying a paper bag full of his purchases. Gerald frowned as the rain battered down on him, so he quickened his pace and headed towards his car.

Once he was seated inside the vehicle, he removed a small bottle from the paper bag, twisted the lid off it, and poured a few pills into his hand. He then resealed the bottle, placed it back in the bag, before swallowing the pills.

He sighed in utter exhaustion.

Gerald longed for the days when he could move his arm without being in constant pain. He still remembered that awful day with horrifying clarity. He could almost still feel the bullet tearing a hole through his flesh...

He quickly shook those dark thoughts away. He didn't want to get consumed by those memories again.

Suddenly, a hand clapped him on the shoulder, whilst a gun was positioned near to his temple, startling poor Gerald out of his wits. The man let out of gasp that was a mixture of both shock and discomfort, and his dark eyes snapped towards his rearview mirror, trying to see who was in the back of his car and pointing a gun at him through the darkness.

His blood turned to ice in his veins.

Gerald would know that face anywhere - that sickeningly smug grin - those cold empty eyes so void of life. It was the face that still plagued his nightmares.

It was the face of Ari Haswari.

Kate was sat at her desk in the squad room, trying her best to focus on the task that Gibbs had assigned her, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate. Abby had narrowed down a list of potential firearm models that she thought Ari may have used, and the model at the top of her suspected weapon's list was a Bravo-51. That in itself wasn't what was troubling Kate though. She was troubled by the titbit of information Gibbs had revealed afterwards.

A sniper - like Gibbs for example - would call a Bravo-51 by a very specific name.

They'd call it a 'Kate.'

That could hardly be a coincidence, and Kate now felt sick to her stomach. At each and every step of the way, Ari had mocked them. Gibbs and herself alike. But to try and kill her with a gun that shared the same nickname as her...

Well, Kate couldn't really explain it, but that just felt like a pure violation.

The fact that her assignment wasn't going very well either only served to further sour her mood. Since Tony was trailing Ziva, Gibbs had Kate resume her efforts of digging into the woman's background. Not an easy task since every attempt was blocked by Mossad's red-tape.

A solemn sigh slipped her lips.

Were they ever going to stop playing catch-up and finally kill the bastard?

Ducky burst out of the Autopsy room with all the grace of a rampaging hurricane. The old doctor was doing his very best not to panic, trying desperately to remind himself that losing his head was the quickest way to fail.

And right now, failure was not an option.

He had just been catching up on some paperwork when his cellphone had rung. At first he had been delighted to receive a call from his old assistant and dear friend, Gerald. But that joy had quickly transformed into horror, when Gerald revealed that he hadn't called him just to catch up, but instead because he was being held hostage by that raving lunatic - Ari Haswari.

Claiming that he simply wished to speak with him, Ari told Ducky that he wanted to put forward his defence, swearing that it wasn't him that had tried to murder young Caitlin. Ducky naturally didn't believe him, but agreed to meet him on the condition that Gerald was set free.

Gerald had pleaded with him not to come, but Ducky knew he didn't have a choice. Gerald had already taken one bullet because of him. Ducky couldn't allow him to take another.

Even if Ducky himself had to take one instead.

He hurried into the elevator and hammered on the button, tapping his foot impatiently as the elevator began to ascend. Did this infernal contraption really have to move so slowly?!

He barely repressed a scowl as the elevator ground to a halt and the doors opened. There wasn't time for this! Gerald was in danger! He had to save him - he just had too.

Still, when he saw a 'blast-from-the-past' enter the elevator next to him, Ducky couldn't help but allow a genuine, albeit slightly strained, smile to cross his face.

"Ducky!" Jenny greeted him warmly, "How nice to see you again".

"And you" Ducky said with a forced smile, wishing the doors would hurry up and close so the elevator would get moving again, "Congratulations".

"Thank you" Jenny smiled at him gratefully, "Are you going home?"

"Uh... yeah" Ducky said nervously.

Jenny raised her eyebrows, sensing that he wasn't being entirely truthful, but she said nothing as the elevator doors clanged shut.

Gibbs slammed his fist into the elevator doors as they shut in his face. Ducky was up to something - he could feel it in his gut. Plus he had specifically told everyone that was part of his team that they were not to leave the building without his express permission.

Permission he most certainly had not given Doctor Mallard.

"Something wrong?" Kate looked up from her desk in alarm.

"Oh yeah" Gibbs growled, angry with Ducky for leaving and possibly putting himself in danger, whether he realised it or not.

"What is it?" Kate asked, concerned.

"I don't know yet" Gibbs grunted in frustration, "But I intend to find out".

"So, are you back at work, Gerald?" Ari asked conversationally, as though they were old friends catching up.

"Next week" Gerald replied, eyeing the gun held at his head warily.

"I've always found that work is the best way of keeping a sense of normality in a person's life" Ari nodded his approval.

Gerald refrained with great difficulty from rolling his eyes.

Thankfully, he was spared from humouring the bastard with a response as in the distance, just across the street, the sound of an engine could be heard, and a pair of headlights rounded the corner. Although he was deeply worried about Ducky and the risk he was taking in coming here, Gerald couldn't deny he was relieved to see the familiar vintage Morgan approaching.

"A vintage Morgan" Ari chuckled, seemingly amused as Ducky parked the aforementioned vehicle on the opposite side of the street, "How Ducky. Flash your lights" he instructed Gerald.

Gerald did as he was told.

Obviously receiving the signal, the two men watched as Ducky exited his car and began approaching Gerald's car.

"Roll down your window" Ari ordered calmly.

Again, Gerald complied without question.

"Now, wait in the good doctor's car while we talk" Ari smirked, lightly tapping his gun against Gerald's head to get him to move.

Gerald quickly disembarked from his car. Even from a distance, he could see the look of immense relief on Ducky's face at seeing his former assistant - and more importantly, his friend - was unharmed and relatively safe.

The two men slowly started approaching each other.

And although neither could see them, both were uncomfortably aware of the crosshairs looming over Ducky's forehead, as he took what could quite possibly be his final march into battle...

And there's the end of the first half of the Kill Ari arch : )

I hope this chapter was worth the ridiculously long wait. Again, I'm really sorry about that and I'll try not to let it happen again.

I hope you all enjoyed this long overdue chapter, and I hope to bring the next one out much, MUCH sooner : ) As always, please leave a review on your way out : )

Until the next time, keep on reading : )