Work Text:
Title: Fatal Dilemma
Author: Ceindreadh
Email: Ceindreadh@eircom.net
Fandom(s): NCIS
Genre (general, hetero or slash) Gen
Pairing/Characters: n/a
Rating: FRT 13
Summary: What if you had a chance to change what had happened?
Warnings: Twilight inspired fic, so yeah there's going to be character death. Also, you may need tissues.
Disclaimer. I don't own them and I'm only borrowing them and I promise to return them in good condition when I'm finished.
Fatal Dilemma
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"You did good," said Tony as he helped pull Kate to her feet.
"For once, DiNozzo's right," Gibbs added making them all laugh.
"Wow, I thought I'd die before I ever heard a com..." The bullet that shattered her skull cut off her words and she crumpled to the ground.
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"That's not the way it's supposed to be, dammit." Kate turned to the shrouded figure beside her. "I'm not supposed to die like that. I should have died in the line of duty...not been murdered by that bastard Ari, it's not *fair*..."
"Life seldom is," said the figure. "And most of the time, neither am I."
They were standing before a plasma screen, almost like the one back at N.C.I.S. headquarters. In fact, as Kate looked closer, it *was* the screen from headquarters, or at least its identical twin. There was even the same dent on the frame from where one of DiNozzo's games of office hockey had gone wrong.
"It's from your memory," the figure said. "As is everything on this plane."
"How did you...oh yeah, you're Death, you know everything," said Kate. She was still a bit frustrated by what had just happened. One second she had been standing on the rooftop with Gibbs and Tony. There had been a gunshot, and everything had faded away to be replaced by...well, it was like standing in a fog bank. She could have been there for seconds, or maybe hours before a figure in a shroud had appeared beside her and showed her her last few moments of life in an effort to convince her that they had indeed been her last few moments of life.
"As I said before, I am not Death, merely one of his servants. I am merely here to ease your transition into the next stage."
"You mean Heaven or Hell, right? What if I don't want to go? There's got to be a way around this, everything has a loophole, a way to change what happened, right?"
Death's servant gestured at the screen, which now showed a close up of Kate's body, the blood pooling around her head. "Does that *look* as if there's a loophole?"
Faced with the facts, Kate couldn't help but agree that it did look pretty final. "But can't I get a second chance? I mean, if I'd just moved a fraction of a second earlier then maybe the bullet would have missed me. I've been a good person all my life, I've served my country...please, I don't want to die...not...not like this. I wanted my life, my *death* to mean something." Kate found tears springing to her eyes. "I was supposed to protect Gibbs, to throw myself in front of a bullet for him. Not...not get shot down like this. Please, there's got to be a way you can change things...give me a second chance..."
Death's servant looked as if he was pondering the matter. Finally he spoke, "There is a chance...the outcome of this situation hung in the balance until the very last. My superiors..." He was silent for a moment as if listening to instructions. "Very well, Caitlin Todd. You have been granted a chance to make a change. However, you should be aware that the decisions you make will have consequences. What would have happened has been written, but you are about to rewrite it. Are you sure that you want to do this?"
"Yes, oh yes," Kate was definite about this. Anything was better than dying.
"Very well." Death's servant reached out and touched her on the forehead.
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Kate found herself lying on the ground with Gibbs and Tony standing over her.
"Protection detail over, Kate," said Gibbs as he reached out to pull her to her feet.
Kate hesitated as she took his hand. This was all so familiar, but something...in a flash she remembered what had happened the first time round and knew she had to do something to stop it. This time as Tony and Gibbs pulled her up, she managed to stumble and almost fall into Tony's arms.
"Whoa, no need to throw yourself at me like that, Kate," grinned Tony.
"You okay there Kate," said Gibbs, taking a step towards her. "You look..." The bullet shattered his skull cutting off his words and he folded to his knees and pitched forward onto the ground.
"NO!!" screamed Kate, even as she drew her gun and pointed it in the direction of where the shot had been fired.
"Gibbs? GIBBS!!!" Tony's scream of anguish stopped Kate in her tracks and she watched as Tony sank to his knees beside Gibbs's body, rolling it over quickly. The bullet hole in Gibbs's forehead was significantly larger than had been the one on her face she thought, even as she remembered the variation in size between entrance and exit wounds. "Oh man, no, this isn't right. Boss, come on, you can't be dead." Tony was moaning as if in pain. "Boss, come on." He shook Gibbs body and then realizing that it was no use, he crawled away and threw up.
Kate turned around and screamed into the air, "This wasn't supposed to happen, dammit!"
"And what did you think was going to happen, Caitlin?" The voice came from behind her, and when Kate turned around, she was back in the fog bank, with Death's servant beside her.
"I thought I was going to live..."
"And you did, but because you made the choice to step out of the path of the bullet, Gibbs made the choice to step into it."
"But Gibbs can't die, he *can't*...not because of me, not when I was protecting him."
"As it is written now, Gibbs is indeed dead," said Death's servant.
"Wait, as it is written *now*...but before it was written a different way, right? So maybe I can go back and change things, make sure that Gibbs doesn't die. Third time's the charm, holy Trinity and everything, right? Please, you have to let me do this. I was charged with the responsibility of protecting him, I can't fail him." Without being able to see the spirit's face, Kate couldn't tell if her words were getting through to him, "Please, you have to give me another chance."
Finally after what could equally well have been a few seconds or an hour, the spirit spoke again. "You may have one more chance to rewrite what has been written, but I warn you Caitlin Todd, that there are consequences to all your actions and eventually you will have to decide which version of what has been written is the final act. Make your choices wisely." This time his touch on Kate's forehead was more forceful and Kate felt herself falling backward...
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Only to find herself flat on her back for the third time that day.
"Protection detail over, Kate," said Gibbs as he reached out to pull her to her feet.
Kate hesitated as she took his hand, hoping to find some way to keep them both out of the way of the bullet. Then she saw her chance. As Gibbs pulled her to her feet, she lunged at him yelling "Gun!"
The shot rang out as she knocked Gibbs to the ground. Kate landed on top him and held her breath, hardly able to believe that she'd done it.
Gibbs looked up at her, an expression of shock and puzzlement on his face. "How the hell did you know?"
Kate thought quickly, "I saw a red dot on your face...knew somebody had a tracer on you..."
"Ari, that bastard." Gibbs pushed Kate away and looked in the direction the shot had come from. "He's probably long gone by now, dammit to hell."
"Come on, let's get out of here." Kate pushed herself to her feet, as did Gibbs. "Hey DiNozzo..." Her voice trailed off as she saw the look on Gibbs face, and when she turned around to see what he had seen, she gasped in shock. "Oh no, not Tony."
Gibbs pushed past her and sank to his knees beside Tony, who was lying flat on his back, a pool of blood around his head, his sightless eyes staring up into the sky. "Oh God, Tony," he said, his voice almost cracking. "That bastard Ari, I swear he's going to pay for this." His voice rose into a scream, "DO YOU HEAR ME ARI? I WILL *KILL* YOU FOR THIS!"
Kate could only slump against the wall, eyes shut, thinking of how she had completely managed to screw things up. "It's not supposed to be like this," she sobbed, "This isn't supposed to happen."
"All things are supposed to happen, and none of them. The time has come for you to choose which one of them *will* happen."
Kate wasn't really surprised when she opened her eyes to see that she was back in the fog bank with Death's servant standing beside her. "What?" she asked wearily. "What do you mean I have to choose? Hasn't it already happened?"
"All things have happened. Events that were set in motion by your actions today have resulted in three paths. Each has their own consequences and rewards, but you will have to choose between them."
"I get to choose which of us bites the bullet. Oh that's just great," snapped Kate, frustrated by the whole thing. She pushed her hair back from her face. "Can't you make it so that we all survive?"
"That path is not within my power to offer you." The spirit seemed to hesitate briefly before continuing, "It is however within my power to tell you of the consequences of your possible choices. If you wish to know, that is."
"Yes, yes, tell me. What happens if Gibbs dies?" Kate didn't really want to know the answers, but she couldn't make an uninformed choice.
"If Jethro Gibbs dies on this rooftop, then Anthony DiNozzo will follow him to the grave six months later. He will devote his life to finding the man you know as Ari, but without the steadying influence of his 'Boss', he will become even more reckless and take unnecessary risks. Eventually he will be captured by factions close to Ari...and he will die...but not before they torture him for every last bit of information they can find."
Kate turned away from the plasma screen, fighting back the tears at the images that the spirit had shown her. "Don't, I can't let that happen." It took her a few minutes to compose herself and ask her next question. "And if Tony takes the bullet?" she asked, but not really wanting to hear the answer. "Will Gibbs be killed by Ari as well?"
"No," said the spirit, even as the plasma screen flared to life again.
Kate's relief was short lived as the spirit described to her how Gibbs would go completely off the rails without Tony around to curb his excesses. "Jethro Gibbs has always played things close to the line, but now...now he steps right over it. Twelve months after Anthony DiNozzo's death, ironically it's exactly a year to the day later, Gibbs is suspended from duty at N.C.I.S. pending an investigation into the death of a suspect he was supposed to bring in for interrogation. There's even talk of a prosecution for murder."
Kate was unable to tear her eyes away from the screen as she watched Gibbs - completely white haired by now - sit in his basement drinking from a bottle of bourbon. When he reached for his spare gun - his N.C.I.S. issue weapon having been taken from him already - she knew what he was planning on doing and yelled at the spirit to shut it off.
The screen went blank and then faded away completely leaving just Kate and Death's servant in the middle of the fog.
Kate's voice was breaking as she asked, "How...how can you expect me to choose between them? Whichever choice I make, they're both going to suffer..." Her voice trailed off as she realized that there was still one choice she could make.
The spirit nodded at her as the realization hit her.
"It's me," Kate said finally. "I'm the one who has to die...Tony and Gibbs, if one of them dies, the other will be damaged beyond repair...but together...they can survive my death...and bring Ari down. So...so I'm going to choose...my death, not theirs."
She looked up at the spirit. "This was never about me making a choice between them, was it?"
The spirit shook its head, "There was a choice to make, but it was a choice between accepting your fate and denying it. Only by seeing the alternatives could you allow yourself to move on to the next plane."
"Then I guess," Kate took a deep breath before saying, "It's time to move on."
She took hold of the spirits outstretched hand as the fog bank faded away.
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The End