SquidgeWorld Archive

1. Cut Off Your Ear to Spite Your Face.

When they get back to headquarters and after Tony washes the blood off of his face, Gibbs grants him his last week of sick leave. There's no paperwork. Gibbs just walks into the men's room as Tony's toweling off his face and orders him home. He rattles off some line about how the emotional stress will make Tony relapse if he doesn't get some rest and kicks him out of the building. Something dangerous flashes in Tony's eyes, but Gibbs ignores it.

A week later, Tony's back at work. He's pale and tired-looking, but he's mildly healthier than he was. He stares at Cait's desk for long measures of time when he should be doing paperwork, but Gibbs doesn't yell at him, and McGee doesn't try to push his buttons. They're all quieter than they should be, but none of them know how to talk to each other when there's an empty desk that still has personal belongings tucked into the bottom drawer.

And then, two days after Tony gets back, a headless and handless body is found in the dumpster behind the FBI building. The security tapes don't show anything, and it takes two days and a trip to the morgue for Fornell to figure out who the body is. The body has a scar in it's left shoulder that's instantly recognizable to him. He storms into NCIS and points a finger at Gibbs's nose.

"What the fuck did you do, Gibbs?"

Gibbs stares at Fornell's finger. "If you don't want that bitten off, move it." He smiles for the first time in a week and a half when Fornell instantly drops his hand. "What do you want?"

"Ari just showed up in our morgue. Dead. Without his head and hands."

"Pity." Gibbs's voice lets Fornell know that he doesn't actually feel that way. "Would you like to know my whereabouts?" His tone is patronizing.

Fornell looks ready to smack him. "Yes."

"I was here, and I was at home, and I went to a funeral." Gibb's eyes are cold. "Anything else?"

"I'll be around." Fornell storms out.

Gibbs immediately zeros in on Tony. "How was your sick leave?"

Tony shrugs and shuffles papers on his desk. "Uneventful."

Gibbs stands up, walks over to Tony's desk, and leans in until they're nose-to-nose. "Why, Dinozzo?"

"Because you would have been too obvious a choice." Tony looks Gibbs's in the eye and doesn't blink. "We gonna have a problem, boss?"

"I don't know," Gibbs turns his head to look at McGee. "We gonna have a problem, McGee?" He waits for a stutter, a stammer, or some kind of backpedaling.

McGee sets his chin and shakes his bed. "No problem here, boss."

Gibbs nods. "Good."

2. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

When the shooting finally stops, McGee pulls himself out from behind the car and stands up slowly. He's careful to double-check all the possible angles around him as he walks into the open. The last thing he needs is to get a bullet in the back after making it through the actual shoot-out. He squints up at the top of the building and sees Gibbs, Dinozzo, and Cait standing by the edge of the roof. They're smiling. McGee smiles. They all made it out okay. He takes a step towards his broken equipment, and he hears a shot. He whips around, gun out, and immediately looks up. Gibbs is there. Dinozzo is there. Cait's not there. McGee spins around in the other direction and looks upwards. There's a smudge on a rooftop a block away.

He forgot to check the rooftops.

And suddenly, he's running, pounding across the pavement as fast as he can go. He rips off his vest with one hand and leaves it on the ground as he pushes himself harder. He gets to the building and waits outside, panting, until Ari comes out the back door at a solid run with a pistol in his hand. McGee raises his gun, aims, and yells, "NCIS! Stop!" Ari keeps running, and McGee shoots him in the shoulder. When Ari spins and raises his gun, McGee shoots him in the other shoulder.

Ari laughs. "The runt of the litter. I didn't think you could bite." He seems unaware that he is bleeding. He takes a step towards McGee. "Tell me, what did you think of Caitlin?"

McGee shoots him between the eyes and watches him fall. He stands there as the sound of his own gunshots ring in his ears and listens to the sound of running footsteps headed his way. He comes out of his haze long enough to yell his location. When they round the corner of the building, McGee doesn't bother to look up. "He was running, Boss." He feels Gibbs clasp his shoulder, but he still doesn't look up. "Cait?"

"Dead." Gibbs steps forward and kneels next to Ari's body. "Two warning shots?" His tone is brisk, professional.

"Yes."

Dinozzo crouches on the other side of Ari's body and inspects the head wound. "Good job, Probie." He gives McGee a nod and stands up. "I'll call it in."

McGee doesn't know how long it takes for Fornell to show up, but it's only when he does that McGee looks away from the body. "He was running. I identified myself and told him to stop. He kept running. I shot him in the shoulder. He turned around, raised his gun, and I shot him in the other shoulder. He kept advancing. I shot him in the head."

Fornell gives McGee a hard look. "That's your story?"

McGee nods once, turns away, and starts the walk to the car. His equipment still needs to be picked up.

3. Two Men Walk into a Basement

He's not surprised when the phone rings very late that night. He's been at the office for hours, pretending to work when he's really just waiting and rearranging the papers on his desk. "Ari."

"Oh, you've ruined my surprise, Agent Gibbs." Ari's voice is light and cheerful, like he's calling from a vacation or with a funny story. "You warned me off of her. I couldn't allow that."

"When I find you, I will kill you."

"You have to find me first." There's a challenge in Ari's tone.

Gibbs looks down at his phone, sees the light that indicates the call came from within the building. He doesn't have to think at all to figure out where Ari is. "Her body's not down there."

"I'm not down here to see her."

Gibbs is out of his chair and at the stairs before Ari's laugh can fade away. It's after two in the morning, but Abby works very, very late some nights. Gibbs will be damned if he loses another member of his team to that son of a bitch. He hits the bottom of the stairs at a dead run and kicks open the door with his gun drawn. Ari's waiting for him; his gun out and no one else in sight. Gibbs shoots first and gets him between the eyes. He falls to the floor, and Gibbs doesn't give him a second glance as he hurries down the hall. Abby's lab is empty. He breathes a sigh of relief and dials Fornell from his cell phone.

"Gibbs, what the hell?"

"You've got a mess to clean up." He slams his phone shut and ignores it when it immediately starts ringing. He walks around Ari's body, raises his gun again, and shoots him in the same shoulder as before.

He takes the elevator back to his desk.

4. I See You

Something's still not right. Cait can feel it. She's got that crawling sensation she gets up the back of her neck when the hard part should be over but isn't. She stops listening to Tony and Gibbs and does a quick scan of the rooftops. She sees him across the way, can tell from his posture that he's looking through the rifle that's pointed directly at her. She takes aim and fires. His body goes flying backwards, and Gibbs and Tony both whirl around, guns up.

"Cait, what the hell are you aiming at?"

"The dead man on the roof over there." Cait gestures with her gun and looks over at Gibbs. "I think it was Ari."

"One way to find out." Gibbs crooks his finger at Cait and Tony and leads the way downstairs. They grab McGee as they run down the block, and the four of them hit the roof on the other building at full tilt. Ari's dead on the ground, the space just above his eyes showing a bullet hole set nearly dead center. Gibbs crouches down to examine the body while Cait walks over to the rifle.

It's still standing. The tripod is top-notch, as is the rifle, and it's morbid curiosity that makes Cait lean down and see just exactly where Ari had been pointing. She's been trained in bullets and guns, and she knows the trajectory without having to run the numbers through her head. He had been aiming for them. This isn't a surprise. But it's who would have died first that puts Cait back a step. She touches her own forehead, where she should have a bullet hole, and stands up. When she turns around, Tony, McGee, and Gibbs are all watching her, waiting for her to say something. "He was aiming for me."

Gibbs stands up and strides over to the rifle. He looks through the scope, and his curse is mutterd but intense. "Good shot, Cait."

"Yeah." Cait stands over Ari's body and can't help but snark when Tony puts a hand on her shoulder. "Who needs 20/10, huh?" Tony, for once, doesn't take the bait.

"You've got good reflexes," he says instead as he and McGee lead her to the other side of the roof.

5. And Now, for the Actual Story

Fornell meets him in an alley three blocks from the warehouse. His gun is in his hand, but it's pointing at the ground. "I've been told you shot Agent Todd."

"I had to." Ari smiles and shrugs as though it's nothing. "If I'm to pass inspection, someone had to end up dead. Give my sympathies to Agent Gibbs."

"I don't think he'd appreciate them." Fornell glances down at the gun in his hand and holsters it. "He wants you dead."

"You need me."

"True."

"So, I will go, then?" Ari moves to step around Fornell.

Fornell steps so that he's blocking Ari. "We're not done." He puts a hand on Ari's chest and pushes him back a step. "You work for us. You're infiltrating for us. You're not supposed to shoot us."

"It was for the greater good." Ari smiles again. "I had to prove my loyalty to the cell."

"Too bad." Fornell scratches his ear, and a shot comes out of nowhere. He watches Ari fall to the ground, a bullet hole between his eyes. He twists his wrist and speaks into his mic. "Satisfied?"

"You still owe me." Gibb's voice is completely devoid of any emotion. "He killed a member of my team. I assisted you in ridding the world of a dangerous terrorist."

"Yeah. Sure." Fornell's not surprised when the only response he gets is the high-pitched squeal of a mic being destroyed. When he gets back to his car, the rifle is in its case on his hood.