Sooo so far it seems these shit is gonna be all about the bitch ziva ugh shouldn't of come up in a tony hurt search i dont wanna read about the abusive 2 faced bitch Ziva

Good story but even NCIS knows it's cheaper to send an instructor to DC than to send a whole team to Cincinnati... or Philly or anywhere else.

This fic was awesome! It was a good old fashioned whodunit, with fantastic up, down and sideways twists. Though I must say the team had some rotten luck. I was pissed right along with Tony when they ruined his moment; that jump was epic. I also wasn't expecting the second decoy. All in all I was completely captivated from start to finish. A

Absolutely top notch excellent story. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time. And for ONCE McGee didn't do something silly to get into trouble. Also for ONCE - it's McGee who's getting hurt instead of Gibbs, DiNozzo or Ziva. I'm so tired of the stories with McGee making mistakes that get everyone else hurt or into trouble.
Loved your story - very professionally written. Awesome plot. Excellent work. Did I mention that I loved it being a McGee story?
I would so love to read a great many more of your NCIS - McGee stories - so I'm heading to the next one with fingers and toes crossed ...

Hi, I know that this story was written a long time ago but have you given any thought to finishing it. Please do! Tracy

"Ducky," he started to say. "Jethro, these lovely nurses just spent several minutes making sure that your bandage is white," Ducky told him in no uncertain terms, gesturing at the pair of ladies in scrubs hovering in the background. "They also administered some rather potent narcotics for pain control." "I'm aware of that, Ducky." He was. His backside still felt the supposedly pain-killing drug burning its way into his flesh. "Then you are clearly not aware that the pain medication is likely to cause extreme dizziness and that you will fall over onto the floor and onto your injury and muss up those dressings, Jethro." Ducky indicated the wheelchair once again. "Sit down, Jethro. Or I will ask these two gentlemen to assist you." Gibbs eyed the two that Ducky had indicated: fellow Marines. They were the pair that Director Shepard had requisitioned to act as bodyguards for each of the NCIS team until McGee woke up and gave them the intel that would lead to the capture of the Hacksaw of Hormuz. Gibbs scowled. His fellow Marines ought to help him out of this mess; esprit de corps, and all that. Not here. Shepard and Ducky had gotten to them first, telling them that not only was Gunny Sergeant Gibbs wounded in combat but was also at risk for being shot at again by foreign agents who thought that he too possessed McGee's information. He sighed." - Hehehe.

"Oh, Tony," Abby wailed, her eyes big. "I can't believe that they did that to you. Are you all right?" "I'm fine, Abbs." Accuracy was fine for her lab but outside Abby Sciutto preferred to live in her own world, a world that didn't include friends who were hurting. DiNozzo's eyes narrowed as he took in the sling hung around Gibbs's neck. "Gibbs?" "A scratch." Gibbs wasn't above a few lies himself. "You should have seen the other guy," Shepard put in, trying for normalcy. Didn't work. Dr. Mallard didn't cooperate. "I did, Director," he said testily. "Both at the cabin when called to attend several more living victims, and then again in my morgue with the other poor souls." "Yes, well." Shepard sent him a glare, which the medical examiner prudently ignored, and turned to the occupant of the other bed." - Hehehe.

Abby swung the screen of the laptop around to face her friend. "Shape of face?" "Square. Make it a little bit longer, Abby. That's better." "Eyes?" "Brown. Round. Try the third set. No, that's not quite right; use the fifth instead. That's it. No, maybe not. Try sixteen." Shepard drew Gibbs back. "This is going to take a while, Jethro. Let me buy you some coffee." Gibbs, seeing the pair of geeks going at it, had to agree." - Hehehe.

"There are others here that I must see to." Others that would rather slit his medical examiner's throat than be treated by him. Gibbs didn't need to tell Ducky that; his friend of long-standing was well aware of the situation and wasn't about to be denied adherence to his Hippocratic oath despite the danger. Nothing he could do about that, either, but he could make sure that another of his team didn't fall victim to these bastards that had turned DiNozzo into spaghetti sauce, heavy on the tomato paste. "You, you, and you," he pointed to three of the biggest Marines. "I want you at Dr. Mallard's side. Any one of those bastards gets to him, you'll answer to me. Understand?" Gibbs wasn't in their chain of command, but each of the three understood where the NCIS team leader was coming from and where he had been. "Yes, sir," one answered for all of them. "Don't worry about your doc. You just go after your other man." - Yay for Ducky's Marine protection detail!

OH NO! Haksim and company just found Tim!

Yay for the good aims of the Marines, director Shephard, Gibbs and Ziva!

"Gibbs made a command decision. "You two okay to get back to your parents?" he asked, stifling his urge to 'whack 'em upside the heads' as his own father used to do." - Hehehe, so Gibbs at least got THAT from Jackson Gibbs if he never got a single one of his rules from his own dad?

"A small squad of burly Marines, automatic weaponry in full view and ready for use, rumbled in with feet creating a miniature earthquake, dumping used 'chutes as they went. Each one wore a set expression on their face that said that they meant business and that the mountains of West Virginia had just been opened for hunting season with no set limit on the amount of terrorists that each one could bag. They were the most beautiful sight that Gibbs had seen. Maybe not. Their leader looked even better. "I want those bastards alive!" NCIS Director Jenny Shepard bawled. "They don't talk very well with holes in their chests." In full body armor, the slender woman was hard to identify but Gibbs had no problem recognizing that voice—or the objective. Jenny Shepard had been a damn fine field agent before taking the Director position and she wasn't about to let a little thing like a desk stand in her way now. Dropping to one knee, she brought her own handgun up into the approved position, one hand steadying the other, and fired. A shriek of pain. A fallen body. Suspect apprehended, advanced medical support to follow at NCIS convenience. Jethro Gibbs could kiss that woman." - Yay for director Shephard AND the Marines she brought along.

"Director Shepard wasn't finished yet. She took one look at Gibbs, on his feet, and at DiNozzo, propping up the cave wall with blood drying on his face, and yelled, "Ducky! We need you over here!" "Quite so, Director." Dr. Ducky Mallard, little black bag in hand that hadn't been used in a couple of decades, hustled forward from the chopper with a speed that belied his apparent age. "Anthony, you appear to have been tussling with the neighborhood bullies. Hasn't anyone discussed with you the inherent unpleasant ramifications of actions such as those?" - I LOVE the way the Duckman talks!

"The Marines filtered their way back to the camp as they talked, taking charge of the prisoners and giving the pair plenty of space. Overhearing NCIS intelligence was not something that they were eager to do, especially after the first two were glared away by the NCIS director." - Hehehe, big, strong Marines are scared of director Shephard!

"Ziva blocked the blow that the last man aimed at her, glorying in his culture shock that a mere woman would think to oppose him. Palm-strike to the nose, too far off center to kill him, but it rattled his brains nonetheless. "Whore," he hissed at her in Arabic, staggering back. "Jew bitch! I will rape you and teach you your place among your betters!" Ziva laughed at him. "A eunuch cannot rape anyone," she sneered back at him, pleased at the astonishment on his face that she understood his words. She blocked the wild punch that he aimed at her face, and returned it with a better-aimed blow. His eyes rolled up in his head, and he toppled over backwards to land beside his previous victim." - Yay! for Ziva.

AW, Timmy!

"McGee hadn't stopped coughing for more than five minutes, hacking up a lung along with all the soot he'd inhaled and sipping at the soothing water bottle that he held in his hand. DiNozzo didn't envy him; pneumonia was a real possibility, and going out in this weather was not what the doctor would have ordered." - Only slightly off-topic question (I think): has DiNozzo had plague in your NCIS-verse for this fic, like he did at the end of season 2 in the RL show?

"McGee?" Gibbs couldn't wait. What would the director say if McGee died and there was no clue as to who that al-Qaida guy was? Worse, what would Abby say to him if she found out that he'd let her favorite computer geek die out here?" - AW!

"Stay still, Tony," McGee ordered. He raised his voice. "Fielding! Figgerworth! Over here, now!" Didn't know you could be so forceful, McGee. I may have to up the percentage of practical jokes I aim at you." - Forceful Timmy? I LIKE it!

"The kid, fortunately, was squalling loudly and in terror, arms waving, trapped in the contrivance that had probably saved her life—yes, it was a her. Even these days, not too many mothers dressed their sons in that particular shade of pink." - AW!

"DiNozzo: sub-dermal hematoma where the SUV had rolled onto his hip. Gibbs called it a bruise with an attitude." - Hehehe.

"Gibbs himself boasted a sling for a wrenched shoulder. Fortunately it was his left, so he could still whack whichever agent needed whacking with his right." - Poor Bossman! His shoulders are forever taking a hammering!

"Gibbs himself was too tired to think straight, and he'd blow past a clue even if it was sending up fireworks. His people were the same: tired and sore and more than ready for some of those prescription pain-killers in little vials with their names on them. They were good agents—not that he'd ever tell them that. Swelled heads also got in the way of clear thinking." - AW! Don't worry, Bossman! They sort of know, but their heads do not go swollen with that knowledge.

"Dennis said, still eyeing how DiNozzo's trousers fit over slim hips." - EW! Humongous dose of creepy!

"Gloria favored him with a slow look up and down, not missing the various cuts and bruises—or the slim hips that Dennis had also just undressed with his eyes. There was a lot of that going on, Gibbs decided sourly. Yet another reason to finish up this case and get the hell out of Starksville." - Only very slightly less creepy!

"McGee's got something. Throw the tarps over the SUV, and let's head in." "Finally," DiNozzo couldn't help but groan. "McGee, I love you." Dennis's eyes narrowed." - Yay for DiNozzo!

"Bam! Another explosion: another grenade. Gibbs didn't hear it—he felt it. The mini-van raced off as fast as it could limp with a wounded tire, heading into the night, its deadly work done. The noise had been another grenade, this one tossed out through the opposite window of the mini-van. This one had been tossed through the window into the police station. This one had been thrown into the room where McGee was working, where he'd just reported finding a computer file with a terrorist on it in living color. This grenade had just blown out the police station, with McGee in it." - OH NO! Timmy!

"Gibb snorted." - "Gibbs snorted."

"Mind if I watch?" "Fine, but there's not much to see," McGee warned him, slipping the data stick into his pocket. "I think there is," Dennis assured him. The man wasn't looking at the computer screen. McGee uneasily turned his attention back to his laptop and his work. Was Dennis undressing him with his eyes?" - I am now quite a bit creeped out by this Dennis character.

"You've probably met my other agent, McGee?" "The one with the computer, right?" Jasper made a face. "Dennis made off with him, straight away. They're thick as thieves in the back room." "Just as long as they get the job done," was Gibbs' reply. "Your guy any good with computers?" "Who, Dennis?" Jasper sniggered. "He thinks he is. Why do you think the dang computer Gary bought is still in the box?" One corner of Gibbs' mouth crept skyward. "Why don't we see if my agent is any better?" "Why don't we do that thing, Gibbs?" - Hehehe.

Gibbs' eruption made me laugh - mostly in relief that it was not directed at any of his team members, I think!

"Some of these small places pool their resources: schools, post offices, even police forces." "Not this one," Ziva reminded him. "They have their own police. All four of them. Children." "Ziva, we've only seen the chief of police. The others might have more experience." "McGee, I do not consider the ability to herd sheep as experience in law enforcement." McGee opened his mouth to object, and then closed it again. There was no point." - Hehehe.

Mossad carjackers?

"He also remembered Ducky's senile mother equally well, and privately thought that Ducky was welcome to her." - Shame on you, DiNozzo! She likes Gibbs, which shows she is still a woman of taste...

"Gibbs' admonition still echoed in the back of his skull: suck it up, DiNozzo. It's only a day and a half. Murders occur in much less time, had been DiNozzo's response. Gibbs had had a response, too. DiNozzo's brains were still rattling from it." - Hehehe.

"At least McGee was driving. If it were Gibbs, they'd be home by now although a few vital organs such as livers and lungs would have been left back in Philly at the hotel. Ziva? They'd never make it home alive. McGee, on the other hand, drove like a little old lady, nice and sedate. He allowed others to cut in front of him on the turnpike. He pulled over so that speeders could dash by him on the left doing ninety in a sixty-five speed limit, clucking at the state trooper who was parked on the side of the highway, ticketing the unlucky one who'd gotten himself caught. With McGee driving, DiNozzo could catch up on lost sleep." - I have nice and sedate driving in common with McGee! Yay!

"Gibbs slowed down as the buildings that constituted Starksville came into view in the distance, the sedan kicking up dirt from the edges of the road where ditches hadn't yet dropped away. McGee was now his co-pilot, his laptop open and whirring, reporting from the information that headquarters had sent through. McGee was also trying to brace both himself and his laptop against the side of the sedan to keep from being flung through the window at top speed." - Hehehe, poor McGee!

"Uh, maybe your secretary could answer the phone..?" Gibbs manfully suppressed the guffaw that wanted to emerge. "Officer David isn't a secretary, Chief Fielding." "And you wouldn't want her answering your phone," DiNozzo couldn't help but add. To her credit, the smile stayed frozen on Ziva's face. It did, however, grow sharp edges that promised a certain level of mayhem should any inappropriate comments arise. Ziva felt on solid ground with this topic, since the four were returning from a mandatory seminar on sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Ziva had ammunition. Ziva could wait." - Hehehe, Chief Fielding is in deeper trouble than he has ever been in his life before!

Poor Petty officer Mathis!