𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 ━━ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐳𝐳𝐨

TWENTY SEVEN | jonas cobb

Mike Franks.

The very person to have made Gibbs into an N.C.I.S. agent was stabbed in the chest by the Port-to-Port Killer, now identified as Jonas Cobb.

Gibbs hasn't left the autopsy unit since Mike's body had been brought in, opting to watch the process in silence.

"Prints on the murder weapon?" He questions the moment Tony and I walk in.

"Yeah. Abby matched them to Jonas Cobb." Tony nods once. "We canvassed a twenty-block radius around the crime scene. No trace of him. Or Mike's firearm."

I question quietly. "How many shots were fired?"

"Five."

"We found five shell casings. McGee's dropping a net on the city and red-flagged every possible identity."

"Mike kept eight in the mag, one in the chamber. Assume Cobb's armed."

"We did pull a slug embedded in a parked car. Traces of blood on it, through and through. We can assume Cobb got hit at least once."

From my peripheral vision, I watch Ducky and Palmer conduct the autopsy and snap photographs of the cold body, taking measurements and making notes as needed.

"I. . .I need to go."

And I storm out of the lab. Before I can make it onto the elevator on my own, Tony squeezes through the closing doors.

"You can't shut me out, Ev." He braces his hands against his hips. "I'm not gonna let you shut out me or Ziva or McGee or-or —"

"Why do we always make ourselves the target?"

"Better us than someone who didn't sign up for it."

"Sometimes, I just. . .I just wanna quit. I wanna leave this place and-and move to somewhere peaceful like-like a farm."

He cups an arm around my form, soothing me before I can burst into tears.

"We're gonna get him."

His thumb pads under my eyes to wipe away any stray tears, and I press a soft kiss to the corner of his lips.

The elevator doors slide open to reveal McGee, Abby, and Ziva silently hugging one another on the other side. Tony and I beckon them to us, and the five of us remain in the elevator.

Only an hour or so later, when Barrett and her team went to pursue Cobb, they lost all communication with us. Gibbs and Tony venture to the warehouse in search of them. Only to find Levin dead, Cade in need of emergency treatment, and Barrett left to die in the trunk of a car.

Early the next morning, after another sleepless night due to Cobb, Ziva leaves to find Ray after retrieving a hotel address. Only for Ray to show up at the N.C.I.S. headquarters and notify us he never checked in.

"Why would he just give himself like that? So easily?"

"He knows where Ziva is. There's nothing easy about it."

A smug-looking Jonas Cobb sits in the interrogation room, with me and Tony watching his every movement from the back room.

"He has to be playing us."

"Playing Leroy Jethro Gibbs? Guy must have a death wish."

I brace my palms against my thighs and instead head towards the bathroom. Tony attempts to follow behind me, but I silently brush him off.

Once I confirm the women's bathroom is empty, I lock the door behind me.

"Why are you playing this game? I mean, what sort of pleasure does it bring you putting a target on each of our backs?"

I pace the tiled floor.

"Ziva has done nothing for you to put her through this kind of hell. I mean, she was finally happy. She found Ray, she was on her way to becoming a full-fledged N.C.I.S. agent."

My hands clench and unclench every so often.

"What else do you want from us?"

Gibbs takes every one of us to Cobb's family home in Maryland with a theory in the back of his mind that that is where he's keeping Ziva.

Cling. Cling. Cling.

A dusty monkey with a pair of cymbals hits the two pieces together.

"Heads up."

Behind a bale of hay is Ziva's struggling body, her wrists bound behind her back and a strip of duct tape over her mouth.

"Ziva." Ray immediately drops to the ground to her side and carefully removes the covering. "Are you alright?"

She grunts out. "I'm alright. But hiding me is a decoy, Gibbs. It's a distraction. Cobb needed to keep you occupied."

"Why?"

"He surrendered because he needed to get inside N.C.I.S.. It is the only way he can get close to the person he holds responsible."

"Close to whom? Vance?"

"SECNAV?"

"No, Davenport's got 24-hour security on him."

"Yeah, well, his niece, Special Agent Barrett, doesn't."

". . .she's SECNAV'S niece? You don't think that's something to mention when you meet a person?"

"Evaline?"

"Right."

Security tapes reveal Cobb took Palmer and Barrett hostage so as to drag SECNAV away from his security detail.

So when Cobb insists on meeting the secretary himself, Gibbs and Vance gear up to follow him there.

"You know I love you, don't you?"

"Of course I do. You've never given me a reason to think otherwise."

Tony secures an arm over my shoulders, our go-bags held in the other hand, and we venture out of the building.

"And if I ever die on the job, just know. . .you'll be the last thing I think of."

"Tony. . ."

"Because whether I die from a gun or of old age, I will die happy knowing I got to experience joy with you."