Title: Grab Your Gear
Author: Jasmine
Date: April 2, 2011
Universe: NCIS, Season 8
Rated: PG
Warnings: None
Subject: The catch phrase "Grab Your Gear" takes on new meaning for one Very Special Agent.

Chapter 1

"Grab your gear— dead Petty Officer in Shenandoah National Park."

Ziva, Tim and Tony snatched up their guns and backpacks and followed their boss into the elevator. "Finally!"

Gibbs shot his senior field agent a sideways glance.

"Not that I'm happy there's a dead Petty Officer…it's just that it's been really quiet around here and I'm tired of listening to McClick pound away on his keyboard and Davίd flirt with her computer screen."

"Jealous, Tony?" she cooed.

"Not really."

"Envious then?" McGee said.

"Of you? Not even a little. I'd rather admit I was a virgin than have your computer brain."

"Then why the excitement?"

"I don't know… Just bored, I guess."

Chapter 2

Gibbs stood on the bank, looking around. "Where's the body?" he asked, raising his shoulders and lifting his arms in perplexity.

Ducky and Palmer, holding their bags of medical supplies, looked at each other and wondered the same thing.

"Nothing down here, Boss!" McGee yelled up from the bottom of a ravine where he had been canvassing, "…except poison ivy," he muttered under his breath.

Two minutes later, Ziva and Tony emerged from a stand of trees and joined them. "If there is a body here," Ziva said, "we cannot find it."

Tony opened his mouth to add his thoughts on the mystery, but then shut it abruptly when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. He turned and looked behind him.

"What is it?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm not sure—" The last thing he remembered hearing was the sound of a gunshot, and the last thing he remembered feeling was the searing hot pain of a bullet grazing his head.

"Get down!" Gibbs shouted as he and McGee grabbed Tony by the jacket and dragged him behind a tree. "Anybody see anything?"

"Nothing!" Ziva yelled. "The shot came from over there." She pointed to a cluster of trees two hundred yards away."

Gibbs glanced down at his unconscious agent, "How is he, Ducky!"

His pulse was strong, but he was out cold, "He's alive. His wound appears superficial, but a quarter inch to the left and our Tony would be no longer."

"McGee, Ziva—with me."

Ducky and Palmer watched the three skulk away. When they were out of sight, the two used the tree as cover and opened their bags and began a more thorough assessment of the unconscious man.

"Got something, Boss!" McGee yelled. "Looks like the shooter perched on the limb of this tree."

Gibbs studied the trampled area, looked up and then across the open field where Tony had been standing.

"If that's where he was, he policed his brass," Ziva said.

"I wouldn't take a shot from this distance on a tree limb," Gibbs said. "It's unstable."

"Maybe that's the reason Tony's alive?"

"Search the area. Bag everything."

"On it, Boss."

For the third time, Ducky listened to Tony's heartbeat through his stethoscope. "I don't get much of an opportunity to use this thing anymore. It was a gift from my mother back in 1986. Now THAT, Mr. Palmer, was a decade to remember."

Admiring the instrument, Palmer replied, "It's very nice, Dr. Mallard."

"It's made of platinum. This one instrument alone could pay for an entire year of your medical school, including books."

"How is he?" Gibbs asked, emerging from the brush.

"Nice eighth-of-an-inch bullet-graze across his skull. He'll live, but he's going to have one hell of a headache."

"He's still unconscious?"

"It's better this way. If you want, I can bring him around with some smelling salts. Did you find anything?"

Gibbs shrugged, conveying both a yes and a no at the same time. "We think the shooter took the shot from a tree."

"That's an odd place to shoot someone. I haven't seen that since Vietnam, and it wasn't very effective then." He mused a moment before adding, "Maybe we should be thankful." He took the white capsule from his assistant, broke it in half and waved it under the unconscious man's nostrils. It only took a few swipes before Tony jerked his head away from the odor, and blinked his eyes.

"Whad…Whad happ'nd?"

"You were shot," McGee answered, thinking for a graze there was an awful lot of blood trickling down the side of his face.

Tony moved his hands to his chest, " 'm I dead?"

"Goodness no, my boy," Ducky answered, "but you might wish you were in a few hours."

"Fortunately for you, Tony," Ziva said, "you were shot in the head."

"Thad migh' splain why I'm seein' four of ya."

Ducky looked down the street in the direction of the siren, "Relax, Anthony, you'll be resting comfortably very soon."

Gibbs looked around. Finally he hissed, "I want that bullet!"

Chapter 3

Ziva and McGee exited the elevator together. "I left the hospital last night at ten and he was still sleeping," she commented.

"How long do you think he'll be out? I thought I might defrag his hard drive while he's gone."

She stopped in her tracks and stared, "I don't know if I would do that."

McGee followed her gaze and, there, sitting behind his desk was Tony pressing an icepack to the side of his head. "Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital?"

Tony looked up, squinting, "No, they let me go this morning."

"Like Hell they did, DiNozzo," Gibbs said rounding the corner and glaring down at him.

Tony lifted his head, allowing the ice pack to fall back revealing a large gauze bandage covering his forehead. "Oh, hey Boss. They said they were going to let me go home today, so I left. Do we have any idea who shot me?"

Gibbs studied him a moment longer, and put himself in his shoes. If he were sitting there nursing a headache worse than his worst hangover because someone took a potshot at him, he'd want answers too. Convinced that Tony probably wasn't any worse for wear, he replied, "Not yet. Did you see anyone or anything when you turned around?"

He slowly shook his head, "I don't remember much… Actually, I don't remember anything. Did we ever find a body?"

Ignoring the question, Gibbs addressed the other two agents, "What'd ya got for me?"

McGee walked to the plasma and clicked the remote. A large satellite photo appeared, "This is the part of Shenandoah National Park where Tony was shot. If we pull back, we can see that there are only two ways to access the area: from the east, which is the way we came in, and from the south. Both have Ranger stations and parking lots."

Ziva continued, "We've checked with the rangers and run through all the license plates. There's nothing to suggest bird play."

McGee and Tony looked at each other. "Foul play," McGee corrected.

"Yes, that is what I said."

"What about hunters in the area?"

"None of the visitors had permits to hunt," McGee said. "And this area of the park is too populated with people to make it attractive to hunters. The animals favor the more dense vegetation on the western side."

"Who the hell called in the dead Petty Officer?" Gibbs demanded.

"We don't know," Ziva answered. "We are running phone records right now."

"I want a name!"

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