I'm a DiNozzo

Field Test (19)

Ellie's P.O.V.

"Go talk to him. Talk him out of it. Bring him down." Gibbs said, pointing to the man on the ledge. A sailor had climbed to the top of a building, and fixated himself on a ledge, threatening to jump.

"Wait what?" I asked, not taking in what he had said. He wanted me to do it? This was my third consecutive field assignment for goodness's sake! I had had some sporadic ones earlier.

"You were the one who said you wanted field experience." Gibbs reminded me, handing me an earpiece. "Go get experience." I nodded confidently, and took it from him. I pushed it into my ear, and put a foot on the ledge.

Then my second foot.

And made my way over to the man.

"His name is Michel-" McGee started but he was cut off by the man.

"Don't move!" The man -Michel- shouted at me. "Or I'll do it. I swear."

"Michel," I started, walking sideways on the ledge till he was 2 feet from me.

"Don't take another step!" He insisted. I nodded, stopping.

"Michel, I'm not going to say 'you don't want to do this'. Because I know you do." Michel looked confused.

"Leah what are you doing?" Ziva.

"Ellie, are you crazy?" Dad.

"That's not the kind of encouragement he needs." McGee.

"All of you, shut up." Gibbs. Thank you, Gibbs.

"Aren't you here to talk me out of this?" Michel asked confused.

"That is my end goal, yes." I agreed. "But how about we start with this. Put your gun on the floor."

"No! I see yours too! We're even."

"If you put yours down, I'll put mine down." I offered, taking my gun out of its holster. Michel did the same. We bent down at the same time and set our guns on the floor.

"Good," I said as we stood up. "Now, let's talk."

"I'm not coming down. Don't try and talk me out of it, or I swear I'll jump. I'll do it!" He threatened, but it didn't faze me.

"I know you will. I know you want to. I empathize with you. I was in your position 3 years ago, when I was 16. You want to do it. You want to jump. End it. End it all. I get it. I did too."

"So what stopped ya?"

"Thoughts." I replied simply. "If you do it, you'll never see any of your family again. You'll never get to hug them."

"He has a sister named Sarah." McGee told me through the earpiece.

"I was never going to be able to talk to my boyfriend Jack again. Or taste ice cream. Make music. Be in a play. Brush my hair, or my teeth. Never be able to drink ice water again and have my teeth freak out at me. Laugh. Hear laughter."

"Yeah, but all the pain would end if I were dead."

"But is not feeling the pain, really worth your life? Is it worth never seeing or hugging Sarah again? Laughing with her?

"How about this. Rate whatever pain you're feeling now on a scale from one to ten."

"What?"

"Just... do it. Trust me."

"10."

"Be realistic."

"10!"

"Okay. I trust you. But pain ends Michel. Do you really want your life to end in pain? In the middle of a 10? Or would you like to come down with me, and we can figure out a way to end the pain. You can go home. See Sarah."

...

I pulled back my right sleeve to let him see the semi-colon tattooed there. "Put a semi-colon on this sentence. Not a period. Continue your sentence." I reached out for him, and he took my hand. He took a step towards me.

BANG

I yelped as his body went limp, but I was still holding on. He took me down with him.

"ELLIE."
"LEAH."

In a last-ditch effort, I grabbed onto the ledge with my left hand. "I can't hold on!" I insisted as Gibbs face appeared above me.

"Let go of the body Leah." He insisted.

"I can't!" I grunted, as I repositioned my fingers. "He's still alive."

"No, he is not." Ziva contradicted, looking down at Michel. I looked down to, and realized he wasn't holding onto me, just I onto him. So, I let go. His body fell to the ground with a dull thud, and dad and Gibbs hulled me back up.

Once I was up, and had my gun again, Gibbs pulled me to the side.

He slapped the back of my head. He had done this before, but I had seen it a lot more than I had felt it.

"What was that for?" I asked confused.

"Almost dying. Don't risk your life saving a dead man." He insisted, turning and leaving.

I know its's short, so sorry about that. I'm working I swear, but I'm caught up in a few things rn and our fridge broke so I can't even make and eat cookie dough.

I hope you liked it.

Promise an update's coming soon.

<3 Love you lot!

-Eliza