April Fool´s Day 5: Lesson learned?

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!

Summary: Tony comes up with a very special prank for Gibbs and everyone seems to be in, but will they live long enough to have a good laugh?

Additional note: I came up with this around 2 am last night and it just wouldn´t go away, so I thought I´d just go ahead and share it with you.

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They remained in their hideout for another 10 minutes before Abby slowly got up. "Let´s go face him then." She said and swallowed hard. She trusted Ducky and that was the only reason she was willing to move out of this safe place. She felt the pain in her wrist again and supported herself with her elbow on the rail. McGee got up too, putting an arm around her to keep her steady.

Kate tried to get up, but she couldn´t. Tony knelt down next to her. "What´s wrong?" He asked and saw that she was holding her left leg. Her face was a mask of pain and he knew something had to be wrong.

"I got a cramp, but I couldn´t move. I think I´ve ripped something." She said, her teeth clenched together tightly. He tried to help her up, but the second she put weight onto her leg, she fell back down. "It´s no use..." She felt tears in her eyes. That´s not how it had been planned.

McGee put the ladder back in place and helped Abby to climb into the still darkened gym. Tony put his arm around Kate. "Let´s get you down there." He said, but when she winced in pain, he let her down again. "I´ll carry you, but you have to hold on, right?" He said and they eventually made it down to the floor without falling, but Tony almost lost his grip twice. The second time, he hit the ladder with his head and saw bright flashes dancing in front of his right eyes. "Damn..." He muttered, but continued to climb down.

Abby looked rather pale by now and Kate knew she was in a lot of pain. Tony rubbed his eye andhe would surely be sporting a wonderful bruise there by morning. McGee put his arm around Abby and supported her as they walked towards the door. Tony helped Kate and they followed the other pair.

Ducky had been walking around the building, trying to get them out of their hiding place. He walked back into the bullpen now and looked at his friend. "I have checked every room, but I didn´t see them anywhere, Jethro. I´m not sure they will come out -they seemed really scared. Tony sent me a text message, begging me to get the police to help them. You scared them to death." Ducky said and sat down on Tony´s desk.

Gibbs was standing in the middle of the bullpen, his face unreadable as always. He tried to calm himself, after all, no harm had been done and he actually liked the things that were sitting on his desk. He was going to tell them off right now, but there wouldn´t be other consequences. Ducky had told him all about their prank during the drive and it had surely been a very unique idea. He had actually smiled about the whole thing, but he wouldn´t let them know right away.

"Believe me, they will. Don´t worry, I will only give them hell tonight. It´s been quite a unique idea to tear the wall down and let the boat vanish for a day or two. I would have never thought of anything like this. Besides, now I know how easy it will be to get the boat out when it´s done." Gibbs said and smiled. There were steps in the hallway just outside the bullpen now.

Ducky walked out to the hallway to take them in, but the moment he opened the door, his face fell. He immediately turned back to Gibbs. "Jethro, I believe we will need an ambulance. Would you please call for one?" He said in his calm manner and then disappeared into the hallway.

Gibbs was confused, but did as Mallard had told him. When he walked out into the hallway, he realized why Ducky had asked for an ambulance. Kate was leaning on Tony, obviously in pain from something on her leg. Tony himself was sporting a purple bruise around his right eye. McGee was kneeling on the floor over a lifeless form, which he recognized as Abby. "Her wrist is broken. Timothy, walk out the front and see that the ambulance canfind us." Mallard commanded and the young agent immediately sprinted out.

Kate felt her vision narrowing and tried to focus again, but her energy was draining now. Her leg hurt like hell and she felt herself slipping out of Tony´s grasp. The pain in her leg doubled for a short moment before she blacked out. Tony caught her before she hit the ground. "Ducky!" He called out and settled her onto the ground.

"Jethro, would you please have an eye on Abigail for a moment." Ducky said and Gibbs felt his mind returning to reality. He knelt down next to the blackhaired lab assistant. She had her eyes closed and her face was evenpaler than normal. Both her hands were covered with blood and her right wrist looked bad. It was swollen and the joint was blue and black from internal bleeding.

Half an hour later, both women were loaded into the ambulance. Kate had regained consciousness and was sitting up while Abby was put on the stretcher. When the ambulance tore out of the parking lot, their four male co-workers stood in complete silence. Gibbs looked at the faces of his agents and knew that they had probably learned more than just their lesson tonight. "Let´s get home. It´s late." He just said and started to walk over to his car. "C´mon, Duck. I´ll drop you off to get your car."

Tony looked at McGee with a puzzled expression, but neither one talked. After a moment, Gibbs turned back around. "We´ll talk about all this later, but thanks for the equipment." He called at them and got into the car.

"Well, that did go rather well, don´t you think?" McGee said and met a glaring look from his colleague.

"Not taking into account that both Kate and Abby got hurt and that he almost killed us, yeah, it went all right." Tony replied and held the wet towel over his eye again. He sighed and started to walk over to McGee´s car, who had offered to drive him home. Next year, he would get a really special prank rolling for Gibbs, something bigger than this, but it was another year until that chance came. After all, nothing had really happened or had it?

END