Chapter Text
Gibbs frowned as the clock turned to 6pm and Tony still wasn’t home. They were supposed to have date night tonight. Gibbs turned the steaks in the fireplace as he prepared their date night meal. However, it couldn’t be date night if Tony didn’t come home.
When Gibbs left the office Tony had given him a look along with a finger to indicate he should only be another hour at the most. Maybe Gibbs was worrying too soon, but it had already been an hour and usually Tony overestimated, a skill he’d learned to save himself from Gibbs’ wrath early on in their work partnership.
Gibbs heard the sound of a car pulling into his driveway and breathed a sigh of relief. He could hear Tony’s steps coming up the walkway to the front door. There was no mistaking Tony’s soft tread and even steps. He had a sort of canter that no one else could duplicate.
Gibbs listened for the soft rattle of keys to come. He could imagine Tony shaking his head fondly as he shoved them into his jacket pocket realizing they wouldn’t be needed since Gibbs had undoubtedly left the door unlocked when he came home. Gibbs tilted his head as he heard a rustling sound as Tony opened the door with a snickt.
Glancing over, he smiled as he realized just what the rustling sound was. “Thanks, beautiful.”
Tony toed off his shoes and padded bare foot over to Gibbs. Dropping a soft kiss on Gibbs lips, he handed him the Old Log Cabin Bourbon Whiskey that he knew Gibbs liked. Gibbs had stumbled upon it at a woodworking show, but never bought it for himself as he considered it too expensive. “You’re welcome.” Tony murmured in Gibbs ear as he trailed his lips around Gibbs neck.
“The steak is almost done.” Gibbs whispered.
“Uh huh.” Tony mumbled, not really paying attention to Gibbs words as he concentrated on licking Gibbs skin.
Gibbs shook his head softly at Tony’s antics. Tony followed Gibbs as Gibbs leaned over and pulled the steaks from the fire and set them onto plates. Fortunately, it turned out as a loud boom was heard and the living room glass shattered somehow managing to miss both of them as they immediately hit the deck.
Gibbs pulled his service weapon out, raising it up enough that it could now shoot through the hole in the living room window while he and Tony stayed ducked down. Immediately bullets rained through where his gun was visible. Sighing, he pulled his gun and hand back down before they could get hit and tilted his head for Tony to carefully move to the opposite side of the window from him.
Apparently that was just what the shooters wanted as they immediately took aim for DiNozzo and fired bullet after bullet in his direction. Gibbs took advantage of their distraction to shoot back while Tony tried to stay out of the way of the flying bullets and make himself less of a target. As was often the way with these things one of the shooters got lucky and clipped Tony.
Gibbs glanced over at the muffled curse he heard from Tony and had to quickly dodge his own set of bullets. Apparently they thought they’d hurt Tony worse than they really had and decided he was the next target. Rolling out of the way of the bullets, he signalled to DiNozzo to call NCIS and get their team out here right away as well as Vance. He knew they should probably involve the cops, but if they did that chances are they’d never see the evidence until it became a cold case in the cops files.
Tony nodded and pulled out his phone, automatically dialing McGee.
“Shoot out in progress at Gibbs’ place. Call Vance. Bring backup and an ambulance.” Tony interrupted McGee’s greeting before taking a line out of Gibbs’ book and hanging up. He knew the longer he was on the phone the easier of a target he’d be.
The current bullet wound had just clipped Tony’s shoulder. It hurt like the dickens, but did not severely impair his movement currently. However, Tony wanted an ambulance on scene just in case. The shoot out was far from over, after all.
Gibbs popped his gun back up and shot blindly in the hopes of hitting one of them before quickly returning his hand behind cover to prevent injury to himself. Tony slowly moved to a more defensible position while also trying to get a better view of who was shooting at them. Unfortunately, the best defensible position was behind the couch and there was a lot of open ground between the wall beneath the window and there.
He gestured with his head towards the couch and Gibbs nodded. They both lifted their guns. Tony had to use his left hand as his right shoulder was the injured one. Gibbs mouthed one, two, and three. They both raised and fired on three.
Tony immediately dived for the couch and rolled behind it. The shooters got another lucky shot in hitting him in the lower back where it lodged in some of his muscles. Tony groaned. He’d really done it now. Well at least he was behind the couch, so he didn’t need to move immediately.
Gibbs had also turned and ran for the couch, but he’d managed to avoid getting hit by all the bullets. Moving towards Tony, he asked. “You ok, DiNozzo?”
“Just peachy, boss.” Tony automatically slipped into his work persona when the bullets started flying.
“Where are you hurt?” Gibbs prodded as he moved to touch Tony not liking the way he was just laying there.
“Shoulder graze and I’m pretty sure there’s a bullet in my back somewhere.” Tony stated.
“Let me see.” Gibbs moved to take a closer look at Tony’s back. There were still bullets flying all around, but they were harmlessly impacting into the couch. Gibbs hoped the team and the ambulance arrived soon. He didn’t like the look of Tony. While the bullet seemed to have stopped the bleeding for the most part it was lodged in a location that made Gibbs very leery to move him without paramedic approval.
He heard the ambulance siren before he heard any NCIS vehicles which annoyed him. It wasn't safe for them anyplace if the NCIS agents weren't there to round up the shooters. Fortunately or unfortunately, the shooters decided they didn't want to get caught and high tailed it out of there when they heard the ambulance sirens.
Gibbs didn't want to wait for NCIS to get here, he wanted to go with Tony to the hospital. Yanking his phone out of his pocket, he dialed McGee, “Where are you?”
“Just pulling up, boss. Balboa and his team are right behind us,” McGee kept it short and to the point knowing Gibbs had other things on his mind currently.
“Good. Secure the scene. I'm going with Dinozzo as soon as the paramedics get him loaded,” Gibbs grunted.
Moving slowly towards the door he peeked out to make sure the gunmen really were gone. Seeing no sign of them, he opened the door staying out of the way in case they were trying to lull him into a false sense of security. When no bullets came raining in, he left the door open for the paramedics to come through and went back to wait with Tony.
He grabbed Tony's hand and squeezed it to reassure him as the paramedics walked in. They asked Tony a few questions, glad to see he was cognizant before carefully moving him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. Gibbs followed holding Tony's hand the whole way.
They hooked him up to oxygen and a few other tubes that Gibbs didn’t know what they were for as they quickly made their way to Bethesda Hospital. Gibbs told them about DiNozzo’s bout with the plague and asked that Dr. Brad Pitt be notified they were coming in as he was Tony’s doctor.
Meanwhile, Balboa took control of the scene at Gibbs house. He knew since it was Gibbs house that had been shot up that neither Gibbs nor his team could take point on this. McGee and Bishop would have to work with his team if they wanted to stay in the loop. Though he was sure McGee and Bishop would want to visit Tony at the hospital as soon as he was settled.
For now, McGee, Bishop and Balboa's team rounded up the bullets that were scattered around the house and in the yard and bagged them for evidence. They picked up any shell casings they could and took imprints of the tire markings for Abby. They even bagged up the remains of dinner and the bourbon just in case. McGee and Bishop stared curiously at the dinner that was obviously for two and wondered just what was going on between their SFA and team lead.
Once Balboa was sure they had all possible evidence, he sent one of his agents over to the hospital to take Gibbs statement and DiNozzo’s when he was available, while the rest of them trooped back to headquarters to give the evidence to Abby. They left the crime scene taped off and a couple of the agents stayed behind to make sure nothing further happened to Gibbs' house.
This was one of their own. They’d make sure there was around the clock protection on the house even if it was unlikely that the gunmen would return. Especially as they didn’t know why the gunmen had started shooting at Gibbs and DiNozzo.
Of course, since this was directed at a federal agent, Fornell was soon sniffing around to find out what they knew and trying to take over since Gibbs was out of the office with Tony. Of course, he knew he couldn’t get away with completely taking over. He’d have to at least share the investigation with NCIS, but it didn’t stop him from trying.
Gibbs waited impatiently at the hospital for news of Tony. He’d already filled out the required forms with insurance and what not that they needed since he was listed as Tony’s next of kin. He’d been cognizant when he went in, so Gibbs didn’t know what was taking the doctor’s so long. Was Tony hurt even worse than he’d thought? The bullet to the back hadn’t looked good. He hoped Tony wasn’t paralyzed or worse.
He nodded in greeting at the NCIS agent that showed up. He’d assumed they’d eventually come and get his and Tony’s statement. He’d called Ducky and asked him to come since Ducky was usually better at getting information from the doctors. Plus with Tony hurt he didn’t have the patience for anything.
The NCIS agent asked, “How is DiNozzo doing?”
“I don’t know. He’s still in surgery,” Gibbs clipped out in response.
Gibbs appreciated that the agent in question left him alone after that. He breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted Ducky entering their area. “Over here, Ducky.”
Ducky waved genially at Gibbs, but stopped to talk to the NCIS agent on his way over. The NCIS agent nodded to whatever he said and turned and made his way out of the hospital.
“Jethro, how is our boy doing?” Ducky questioned concerned as to the possible extent of Anthony’s injuries.
“I don’t know, Duck. They haven’t told me anything.” Gibbs snarled in frustration at the lack of news.
“Well then I shall go right over and find out,” Ducky stated, getting ready to do just that.
“Do you have any updates on the case?” Gibbs asked before Ducky could leave.
“Only that Fornell will be over later to question you and Anthony,” Ducky revealed, knowing Gibbs wouldn't like that answer, but it was the only one he had.
Gibbs grumbled “I should have known,” but refrained from delaying Ducky further. He wanted to know what was going on with Tony, too. He wished he could be with Tony, but knew that wouldn’t be possible until Tony was moved to a recovery room.
Back at NCIS Headquarters, they were scrambling to figure out who had targeted Gibbs and DiNozzo and why. They weren’t currently working on a case; no one they’d put away had gotten out recently. Even Vance was unhappy with this turn of events and wanted to be kept in the loop.
Balboa hated cases like these. They reminded him how paper multiplied faster than rabbits. They had no leads. It was obvious a vehicle had been parked across the street from Gibbs, but as the ambulance had beat them there the vehicle had been long gone when they arrived.
They’d canvassed the neighbors who reported nothing unusual besides a vague black vehicle that had been parked across the street from Gibbs. Balboa assumed that was the vehicle that had hightailed it out of there when they heard the sirens approaching. He hoped Abby would be able to identify the vehicle from the tire tracks, but so far they had nothing.
Fornell was looking into possible terrorist cells that could be behind this as well as mafia hits or anything else from either DiNozzo or Gibbs backgrounds that could be behind this threat. He and his FBI agents were not having any better luck than Balboa. Abby finally identified the tire tracks as belonging to a Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Equinox, or Toyota RAV4. Of course, those were some of the most common SUVs in America so narrowing down their suspects based on that information was near impossible.
The casings and bullets Abby had matched to a Kel-Tec PMR-30, which was one of the most popular guns in America, so also was not overly helpful in narrowing down just exactly who might be behind this. They didn’t even know how many shooters there were. Though it appeared that all of the bullets and casings were the same, so all of the shooters used the same type of gun.
After hearing this, Fornell headed over to the hospital to take Gibbs and DiNozzo’s statements. He really hoped that one of them had seen something useful as they were quickly getting nowhere fast on who was targeting them. Fornell had sent some FBI agents over to the hospital earlier to make sure that DiNozzo was kept under guard at all times, since whoever did this may come back to finish the job.
“Gibbs,” Fornell nodded in greeting.
“Tobias,” Gibbs grunted.
Gibbs had hoped Ducky would be back with information by now, but he was still gone.
“Can you give me a statement now?” Fornell interrupted Gibbs musing.
“Only until Ducky appears or Tony is moved. DiNozzo is my priority right now,” Gibbs stated in no uncertain terms. He didn’t want to chance missing out on anything vital, right now.
Fornell nodded. That was fair. “Can you tell me what happened tonight?”
“DiNozzo came over. I was cooking steaks. We were both ducked down, luckily, when they fired the opening salvo which shattered my living room window. DiNozzo and I separated. I stayed on the side of the room we were on and he moved over to the other side to see if he could get a better vantage point,” Gibbs dry voice revealed the facts and nothing else.
Fornell scribbled down notes and nodded for Gibbs to continue. He’d have to have Gibbs sign his official statement later, but for now he just wanted as much information as possible.
“There had to be at least 4 different gunmen based on the rapidity of the gunfire and the direction the bullets came from. They seemed to be all clustered together, but bullets arrived too close together to be from only one or two people. I’d guess they were firing from a vehicle of some sort,” Gibbs continued to report as he watched for any indication that DiNozzo was out of surgery or a doctor was coming to update him or anything like that.
“Anything unusual or identifiable about the gunmen?” Fornell probed, hoping for something, anything to work with.
“They seemed to be focused on DiNozzo. I’m not sure if that’s because they had a better shot on his position or if he was the main target. They never let us get a good look at them keeping up the gunfire pretty much non stop until they heard the ambulance.” Gibbs grumbled at this. He was rather pissed with NCIS that the ambulance had beat them there.
Fornell nodded looking frustrated. “Is there really nothing you can give us to help identify them? Were there any demands or voices you heard or anything that would give us a clue? So far it’s looking like a professional hit or something as every piece of evidence is so generic that we can’t really narrow down the suspects at all.”
Gibbs thought back to the fire fight. He’d mostly been concerned about DiNozzo, so he had to work to recall other details. “I’m pretty sure I hit at least one of them, but no idea how badly as I was firing without looking just based on where the bullets were coming from. I think it has to be a professional hit or perhaps a bounty hunter of some sort. They were too quiet for anything else.”
Fornell sighed, but jotted down what Gibbs could tell them. “Call me when DiNozzo is well enough for us to take his statement. I’ll bring the official copy of your statement for you to sign at the same time.” With that Fornell briskly walked out of the hospital and headed back to see if anyone had come up with any serious suspects, yet.
Fortunately for Gibbs, Ducky came out shortly after Fornell left, so he didn’t have much time to worry about how badly it sounded like the case was going. He would personally guard Tony to prevent further attacks on him. “What you got, Ducky?”
“As I’m sure you’ve guessed from the position of the bullet in Tony’s back, paralysis was a real possibility. Fortunately the doctors were able to get it out without doing further damage. They currently expect him to make a full recovery. The shoulder wound will be painful and almost certainly require physical therapy to get it back to full motion,” Ducky briskly started explaining.
Ducky continued, “I’d expect him to be out at least a month if not more depending on how fast his back heals and how well he does with the physical therapy. He’ll probably be able to leave the hospital if someone is available to watch him in a couple of weeks to a month if there are no further complications.”
“When can I see him?” Gibbs demanded.
Ducky was honestly surprised that it had taken Gibbs this long to ask. “Soon. He’s being moved to a recovery room as we speak. Fornell already has guards posted to make sure the room is clean and that no one can get to him.”
“Good,” Gibbs grunted. “Let’s go.”
Ducky sighed, but led the way to the recovery room knowing it would be easier than fighting with Gibbs even if they had to wait outside of it while the hospital staff finished getting Anthony settled.
McGee, back at NCIS headquarters, busily typed away at the keyboard. Ever since he’d gotten back he’d been frantically searching for anyone who might want Gibbs or Tony dead. He was beginning to think that they’d have to wait for someone to try again to get anywhere on the case which he knew no one would like.
Ellie was busy contacting her NSA contacts in hopes that they’d picked up some chatter or heard something that might be useful to them. Balboa and his team had headed back over to Gibbs' place to go through it with a fine tooth comb in case they missed something.
Since the evidence they’d brought to Abby hadn’t really narrowed anything down, Abby had searched the traffic light cameras near Gibbs' place trying to find anything that might be the vehicle that left. Unfortunately, there weren’t that many traffic lights near Gibbs since he lived in a residential neighborhood, but Abby was determined to find something.
Gibbs was finally allowed in to see DiNozzo. He immediately settled into the chair next to DiNozzo’s bedside with no plans to leave it anytime soon as he grabbed Tony’s hand to comfort him. Tony was in a medicated sleep right now from his surgery, but the doctors expected him to wake anytime.
Ducky had returned to NCIS after watching Gibbs get settled in Anthony’s room. He hoped to be able to provide some forensic psychology help since there weren’t any bodies for him to operate on in this case.
Between Ellie’s contacts at the NSA and Fornell’s FBI team it sounded like they might have their first break in the case. They’d managed to get information on how the team of gunmen had been hired to shoot DiNozzo. They’d confirmed that it was DiNozzo they were after and that they’d actually been instructed to make sure Gibbs lived.
This meant that it was likely someone who was connected to both DiNozzo and Gibbs. McGee immediately started chasing down any possible leads and connections that would make someone want to kill DiNozzo, but keep Gibbs alive. They hadn’t yet ruled out revenge of the Ari type where they only wanted Gibbs alive to torture him more and were running down all possibilities that someone might want DiNozzo dead and Gibbs alive.
The gunmen were nowhere to be found, which meant they’d either given up and gone to ground and weren’t as professional as had originally been thought, or the more likely scenario was that they’d returned to their temporary base and were currently scouting and devising their next plan on DiNozzo’s life.
McGee had even researched DiNozzo Sr. to see if he was the one who’d placed the hit, but had found nothing to indicate DiNozzo Sr. was at all involved. McGee had taken the hit information that the NSA and FBI had found and had used it to start tracing the financials, as more often than not following the money is what lead you to the real killer.