AN: Yall…it's been seven damn years. Here's the thing…LOL. I have no excuses. Well I do but ain't nobody got time for that. Look, I don't make any promises here. I will say I've recently gone back and read all my stuff because I've been getting comments in my inbox lately and I'm like "oh yeah I used to do this all day every day and I loved nothing else". This series was my favorite and honestly I really felt compelled to continue it. I always have but the changes that have taken place on the show keep screwing with my mojo and the amount of bs I'd have to do to finagle everything together I mean damn… No way Tony is exiting this series. Not THIS one. But I read this latest addition and I'm like "well Bish has gotta go but how am I gonna exit her?" and I thought about kindly killing her off but idk about all that. Do we want Jess? Do we want Alden? Do we need them honestly? I think I'll let yall be the judge of that I mean…I feel like I can squeeze everyone in if I have to. Shit I mean I gotta kill Ducky ffs this is gonna suck. I laughed at how passively I off'd Ziva and just zero fuqs were given. Oh man I gotta get rid of Abby too huh? See this is all very… It's a lot. Don't get me wrong, I won't miss Abby. I'm so over her. I mean I miss her and I don't. It could've gone on without her and still been NCIS. But with Gibbs gone…ugh. Without Tony more like NCI-meh. I'll still watch it forever. I love McGee and I REALLY love Nick. I just miss my OG crew.

Anyway that's what WE are here for. I'm just kinda sorry my brain doesn't live here very much anymore. It has a mass. I think that might be partly why I don't find joy in the same things anymore but I don't honestly know. But I felt like opening up the ol' laptop and giving this a whirl today. If I can manage to avoid this gd trackpad with my palm 5 billion times, I can maybe get a chapter out to you.

Anyone still interested in this? This is gonna be a big ol transition chapter…not a HUGE time jump but an obvious jump nonetheless…

WARNING: Major character death. I mean gtf over it already though.

~.~*

"Yeeeesss! Finally a girl's night! And finally everyone actually showed uuup!" Abby bounced excitedly where she stood at the counter of the bar with Ellie and Rhoda.

"Except it's not just a girl's night," McGee added where he sat behind her, his hand playing with the straw in his club soda.

"Girl's night plus Timmy!" Abby amended. "We needed a respectable, responsible designated driver! Thank you for volunteering, good sir."

"Yeah sure. Volunteering." He sarcastically replied with a small smile.

"You don't have to stay sober the whole night, McGee," Bishop told him, leaning forward a bit. "It's early yet. We're not going anywhere for a bit."

"And the concert is gonna be at least an hour and a half, so relax and have a good time with us!" Abby insisted.

"I'm supposed to be watching out for you," Tim reminded them.

"We can take care of ourselves," Rhoda replied with a smirk.

"I know you can," Tim replied. "You more than most people." It was an understatement of course. It had been months since her abduction; since they came back to DC and found her holed up in McGee's storage already redecorating like nothing had ever happened.

She hadn't talked about any of it. Not really. She had explained how she'd escaped and gotten back to DC, how she had remembered how to get into Tony's place and how to get into Tim's storage unit. The only reason they found her when they did was because the place was rigged to let him know if it had been accessed.

They hadn't known what to expect when they stormed the place. They hadn't thought it would be Rhoda. They certainly hadn't expected her to be okay. Of course, 'okay' was always a relative term. But no one on the team had a psychic connection to this one, so they had nothing else to go by.

"I can't stay drunk for long," Rhoda broke Tim's train of thought.

"Ziva could drink us all under the table," Abby said with a grin that then faded. "Man…now I feel like we should've invited Tony."

"And Gibbs," Bishop added.

"We're lucky we got to come out as it is," Tim said. "Don't jinx it."

They were barely an hour into the live music at the club when Tim decided to take a seat again. It was time to back off on the drinks the ladies insisted he join in on. He had been pleasantly buzzed for a while now and there was no need to continue anyway.

He ordered another soda and leaned back on the bar observing his friends as they continued to dance with each other and laugh at who knows what. It didn't matter what, honestly, as long as they were having a good time. McGee was glad for it. He smiled and took a long drink of his soda.

Rhoda was borrowing an outfit from Abby this evening and it was like it was made for her if he were to be completely honest. Which was kind of silly since before tonight he'd have always said it was definitely made for Abby. It was one of those cheerleader length skirts, black and red with little chains on it and a matching corset top. The leather jacket was Rhoda's, but the knee-high leather platform boots were Abby's as well. In those shoes she was about the same height as the forensic and he wondered if those things actually fit her or if she'd had to stuff the toes. Her dark skin made the outfit look different somehow then when Abby wore it. Like a carbon copy. And he really wished she didn't feel the need to wear that patch over her eye…

Ellie looked like she didn't belong in the party of three. It made Tim smirk as he took another drink. She definitely belonged, but you wouldn't be able to tell to look at them. Her white, sensible top and camel colored pencil skirt and…God help her, those sensible dress shoes.

Suddenly she was looking over at him with a strange gaping smile on her face and pointing somewhere. Tim furrowed his brow and looked toward where she pointed. Abby had her back up against Rhoda and they were seductively dancing with each other to the music now, pumping and grinding and Ellie apparently thought it was the best thing ever. She raised her glass and signaled for him to bring more. He shook his head and felt his phone buzzing in his pocket.

He turned toward the bar as he fished it out to answer. "Hello?"

"If you don't show me exactly what's going on over there right now, I will never forgive you, Probie," Tony sounded on the other line. Tim grinned.

"Of course you've been tapping in." He pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed the video call button, pointing to aim at the dance floor. "Take a good look at what you're missing out on, Tony. All because you didn't volunteer for girl's night." He let him watch for a moment as he glanced around the rest of the club.

"You should be recording this. What am I saying? I can record this…"

His gaze shifted back to the ladies for a moment to see Ellie had joined in a bit awkwardly in the dancing. It was more cringe than anything and he laughed for a moment before looking away again. It was then that something caught his eye at the entrance to the club. There was a commotion it seemed. Some men coming in and maybe having some kind of argument with security at the door.

He recognized one of the men.

"Hey Tony?" He moved the phone so the camera was facing the entrance now.

"What the hell, Tim, that was getting good!"

"Look who just came into the club. Isn't that-"

"Denny Valdez… Shit. Is anyone with him?"

"I don't think he's alone. And I don't think he's here coincidentally…"

~.~*

"McGee, get the girls and get the hell outta there now, you hear me?" Tony shouted as he grabbed his gun from his desk and scrambled for his keys.

"What the hell is going on?" Nick asked.

"Valdez found them," Tony explained as he started toward the elevator. "Tell Gibbs! Get to the Grand—I'll send you the location!"

~.~*

Tim hadn't hung up the phone but merely pocketed it and made his way through the crowd back toward his group. Why did crowds always thicken in times like these, he wondered? Ellie happened to see him coming and noticed the concern on his face. She was tipsy, yes, but she was an agent first. When his gaze shifted toward the door, so did hers.

It was as if Valdez sensed her eyes on him in that moment because his soon after met hers. This wasn't supposed to happen. Valdez was supposed to be halfway across the ocean by now, expedited back to where he'd committed war crimes that Bishop had helped uncover and track down his identity for before he'd struck again in DC this time. How was he still here? Why was he in this club right now?

But she knew the answer to that last question. He was here for her. For Bishop and anyone else he could take down with her if his MO was anything to go by. She couldn't let him succeed, but there was nothing she could do to stop him either. She hadn't even brought her sidearm…

It was as if the entire world had slowed to a near stop, time moving so slowly not even breath could manage to get in. Ellie's gaze shifted back to Tim's in pure panic mode. He knew she didn't have her gun, but she saw he had already drawn his. Screams were already coming from the entrance side of the building indicating Valdez and his men had pulled their own.

She could see McGee shouting "Get down! Get down!" to her and her companions before he changed direction to head toward the assailants. Just like that, Ellie snapped back into focus, turning to the girls.

"We gotta go," she said, grabbing them both by an arm. They'd stopped dancing when the commotion began but weren't sure what was going on.

"What's happening?" Abby yelled.

"Just get down and follow me now!" Ellie replied as she pulled them down with her toward the floor. They could hear McGee yelling for everyone to get down, trying like mad to save civilians from what might happen. Within moments of him saying it however, gunshots began. Ellie's blood ran cold.

"Timmy!" Abby yelled and Bishop turned her head to see Abby pushing up off of the floor.

"No, Abby! Get down!" she screamed, scrambling back to reach for her, Rhoda going to do the same.

"Those are automatic weapons! He's outnumbered!" Abby shouted.

"And you're gonna do what?"

"We can't leave him here!" Abby replied, tears now streaming her face.

"They're gonna kill as many of us as they can if we don't get out right now, Abby!" she yelled as she tugged on her sleeve. Abby looked down at her and glanced back toward where McGee had disappeared once more. "Abby!" she shouted again.

Gunfire sounded again and Abby's body was moving, but not the way Ellie expected it to. Not the way she'd expected it to at all…

"Abby nooo!" Rhoda was screaming as Abby's body convulsed and fell beside them riddled with bloody holes the size of fists. There was no more movement from her then. Just complete stillness. Eyes still open, staring at nothing. Ellie's ears were ringing too loudly to hear Rhoda's continued grief beside them, nor anything else happening in the club. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't speak. Everything she'd trained for was just gone from her brain currently and replaced with the bloodied body of the beautiful woman lying before her. The girl she was supposed to protect. Gibbs' favorite girl…

Her breath drew in almost involuntarily then and she grabbed the shoulder of Abby's shirt in a fist. Her eyes filling with unshed tears, she turned around still on her hands and knees and began crawling toward the back exit again dragging Abby's body with her.

"Ellie!" Rhoda called after her, crawling to catch up. "Ell…where are we going? What do we do?"

"We get Abby out of here and we get Tony," she replied, trying to get herself together. "Tony can…"

"Tony can what?" she replied. "Tony can what, Ell?" she shouted when she didn't reply.

"He saved McGee once! Maybe He can save Abby," she said as she continued. Ellie squeezed her eyes closed as fresh tears spilled. That's not how it worked. They both knew that. If he could do that, he'd have done it for Ziva. Hell, he'd tried…

"Ell!" Rhoda called again but Ellie didn't want to listen. Not until she heard the gun shot. She jumped and fell, spinning onto her back to find her friend.

"Rho?" Rhoda had somehow managed to get the upper hand on her attacker, taking his weapon and shooting him before her could shoot her. She was standing there now looking back at Ellie, breathing hard.

"Go. Get her out of here."

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna go find McGee. It's what Abby would've wanted," she said, eyes shining again before she turned to go back into the now thinned crowd.

Bishop watched her for a moment. Something inside her told her she should probably stop her. Another thing told her she would be fine. She was like Tony after all. And then that last thing…What the ever-loving hell? Bishop was supposed to be the badass. It should be Bishop going in there with the gun to find McGee. Instead she was running away. Drunk, cowardly, crying and crawling across a clubroom floor with her dead friend…

She heard gunshots again and cursed herself every time she jumped. She pushed the back door open with a grunt and pulled Abby's dead-weight out into the alleyway with her. Once she got herself pressed up against the brick wall she shoved her hand into the pocket of her skirt and fished out her phone. The screen was cracked but it was still working. There was a missed call from Nick. She pressed return call.

~.~*

"It's Bishop, Gibbs!" Nick said when his phone rang. They were headed full speed toward the club just behind Tony. "Ellie?" he said once he answered. She was on the screen, video call, breathing labored and was clearly distressed. She was bloody. "Are you injured?"

"Nick, please tell me you guys are on your way here," she said.

"We're just a couple minutes out," Gibbs answered for him. "Local PD should be there by now!"

"If they are, they're gonna need backup," she said, her breath hitching.

"Bishop, are you hurt?" Gibbs repeated the question.

"Talk to me, Ellie, where is Tim?" Nick asked. "Looks like you're outside? What about the rest of you?"

"McGee and Rho are inside still," she explained. "Abby is…" She stopped and shook her head. "Abby…she wouldn't stay down and…" Nick's eyes widened. Gibbs' heart sunk in his chest. He swallowed down the bile that rose in his throat. "I'm so sorry…" She said again, then she began to stand up and take a few deep breaths. "I've gotta go back in."

"Whoa there Bishop, it's not safe to go back inside. It's not secure yet. We haven't gotten word."

"I can't leave them in there by themselves."

"You didn't bring your weapon, Bishop, don't be an idiot!" Nick yelled.

"I'll get one off Valdez's men like Rho did. Get here quick, okay?" She ended the call before they could further protest.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Nick said as he looked over at Gibbs.

"She's gotta be in shock," he replied as he fished out his phone and pressed Tony's speed-dial.

"Boss, I've lost all contact with McGee," Tony said when he answered his call. "I'm at the scene. Looking for another way in. PD has the front covered but there's no one else coming out."

"Bishop is in there without a weapon. We think she may be in shock. DiNozzo, listen to me. There's been a casualty."

"Probably quite a few."

"I mean one of us."

"Boss? I…I said I lost all contact with McGee. Is he…"

"I don't know about McGee. I… Tony it's—"

"Oh god…Abby?!" He had found her then. The other way in. Abby was there at the other way in…

~.~*

Tony wanted nothing more than to try what he'd tried with Ziva; what he'd done for Tim years ago although then he hadn't tried…it had just happened. It had been an accident. It didn't work with Ziva and it probably wasn't going to work for Abby either, but he wanted to try. He couldn't though. Not right now. There were more people inside he needed to save.

So Tony DiNozzo shoved all of that pain right back down inside and swiped the tears from his face before pulling his gun back out and reaching for the door. He entered quietly. It was quiet. Strange. So many people had been in this room not that long ago. There were several bodies on the floor now. Maybe some of them weren't dead…

~.~*

"I know she's here!" Valdez called out. "The blond! She's wearing a white shirt! Hand her over and I will spare the rest of you!"

"You can't have her," Tony heard the distinct voice of Rhoda. It sounded like she was struggling. He moved more quickly toward the front of the club, noting some of Valdez's men had been taken out, their guns still at their sides.

"The girlfriend here will be the next one to go," Valdez called out. "She's very pretty," he said as he bent down to move her hair from her face. "Very…interesting looking." He moved the patch from her eye. She spat in his face. "But she's been giving me a giant headache!" he said before kicking her down to the floor and aiming his gun at her again.

"That's enough, Valdez!" Tony shouted as he came out from behind the wall he'd taken cover behind, aiming his gun at the man. "You're done! Drop it!"

"Oh good! DiNozzo joins the party! Get your little Bishop out here to me and I won't kill your teammate, eh?"

"Not gonna happen. Your men are dead, Valdez, what's your endgame here?"

"Not all of them," he replied. "I've got one here at the bar with your partner. He's asleep on the job. Not mine. Yours. He probably needs a doctor, but if you don't give me Bishop he'll need a coroner instead. You try anything with me, he shoots your partner. You try anything with him, I shoot this innocent lady here whom I am pretty sure is friends with your little Bishop. She seems very…concerned about her well-being."

Where the hell was Gibbs? Tony wondered. What the hell were the cops even doing out front? Sure it was a hostage situation but had they even bothered to start negotiations? He supposed that a fair amount of people had gotten out of the club and first responders were tending to them outside, but what was he supposed to do in there by himself?

There was no line of sight to the outside, which meant they couldn't see in to them. Hell, he was lucky he could see much of anything in that place at the moment. It was dark and kind of smoky as the concert atmosphere had earlier called for. Just neon lights and the bluish glow from the bar. He could only partially see where Valdez had said McGee was. How could he even be sure he was alive?

That's when he remembered. "Duh…I have x-ray vision."

"Look, man, I don't even know where Bishop is," he called back in effort to stall for time as he glanced over at the bar, concentrating on the area he knew where McGee should be. "I don't know if she's been hurt or…or killed already and is somewhere in here or if she's gotten out." His vision pressed through the layers of the wooden bar and to the two men behind it. One laying on his side and the other sitting up with a gun pointed at the others head. He looked deeper at the one lying down. He looked until he could see inside…a heart.

Beating.

"But how about this? How about everybody just relax for a minute, huh? How about we all just take a deep breath and—"

"If you don't find her and bring her to me in the next thirty seconds, everyone is dead," Valdez stated.

Tony blinked. "Everyone? Does that include—"

"Find her!"

Tony glanced to Rhoda for a moment. He could tell she was filled with rage but also deep in thought. Then he turned his focus on his surroundings. He knew Ellie was in there. Gibbs had said as much. But was she alive? And what the hell was he gonna do if he found her? Just hand her over to this psycho?

It didn't take the thirty seconds. Hell, it didn't take ten. He spotted her under a table up against a wall, her knees pulled up to her chest and her eyes far away. Her white shirt stained red. The only evidence of life was the way her body shook. It didn't look like Bishop at all if he was to be perfectly honest with himself. So much for that.

Tony looked back over to Valdez who was busy checking his gun, then glanced to Rhoda who had spotted Ellie the same time Tony had. She met Tony's eyes then. Now Rhoda and Tony didn't have any type of psychic connection, but Rhoda had a way about her…this thing about saying what she needed to say with just a look. Tony being Tony, well he did a great job translating signals on most occasions, so when it came to Rhoda, it was almost like they did have a connection. So when she looked at him right then, he could tell she had come to some sort of revelation. She'd concocted a plan and he wasn't going to like it.

Tony took a breath and glanced up at Valdez again who was looking at his watch, then back to Rhoda. She looked over in the direction of McGee then back to Tony then relaxed her face before giving him a calm nod.

Everything clicked together in place like a tall straight line in Tetris breaking five rows. He knew what she meant immediately. It was both genius and horrifying and the absolute only way this was going to work…

~.~*

Ellie was frozen in the dark. She hugged her knees and tried to remember where she was and why she was so damn cold. Why were her hands covered in blood and why did her ears keep ringing? She could smell the blood. She could smell the smoke from the gun powder. There'd been a shooting. Had she shot someone? Was she shot? Why was she so cold? Was that…Tony? He was yelling out at someone. A familiar voice… Something was very wrong.

She carefully pushed forward onto her knees and crept slowly up toward the end of the bench that sat behind the table she was under until she could see. Tony was there. Off further to the right was Rhoda on her knees looking bloody but somehow calm. Behind her…Valdez. Ellie wanted to yell out to her but her voice refused to work.

She looked over to Tony as he raised his gun toward the bar to his left, and that's when she noticed the man over there and McGee still out cold on the floor. More shouting but this time from Valdez. She looked back to see the man aiming at Rhoda now and furiously shouting something—something she couldn't hear over the ringing in her ears but he was red in the face with his anger. Rhoda, though, was calm. Her eyes closed; resigned maybe, but something else. Ellie studied her even as she was horrified at what was happening. There seemed to be an aura around her…not like a color, but more like a wave. Like when the sun is hitting the Charger's hood after they'd been sitting at a stakeout for hours in the summer…

A shot went off in front of her and she looked over where Tony had fired at the man that had held McGee. That man had fallen over, and Tony was quickly changing his aim over to Valdez, but Ellie knew it would be too late. She looked back over to Rhoda at Valdez and Tony's guns went off at the same time…

~.~*

Tony took his shot at the man behind the bar and swung his aim over to Valdez. He knew his shot wouldn't go off in time to save Rho, but she would be okay. She was like him. He still had to take out Valdez though. But the moment he pulled the trigger his eye caught the strange aura emanating from the woman in front of Valdez. Only he knew it was something completely different. His eyes widened, and he heard the gasp beside him, his gaze shooting over toward Bishop who had half crawled out from under the table.

"Bish, get down!" he yelled out as the bullets ignited the strange aura that had come from Rhoda, lighting up the air around her in a fiery explosion that knocked him off his feet and straight into the table he'd been aiming for…

~.~*