Rule 12| Ellick

Vicious

We were all sitting at our desks trying to get things ready so we could be off for Christmas. It was going well, almost too well. But as long as we moved quickly enough and got on our plane to Colorado, there wasn't anything Gibbs could do to stop us, right?

"Alright," McGee said, looking up at me from his desk. "Final reports are almost done. How's that witness list coming along?

I hit send on my computer, "I am sending them to you right now. How's our confession summary, Nick?"

"I'm pressing 'print' in three, two, one," he said, clicking the button and literally clicking his heels.

I laughed at his movement as Jack walked to the elevators, "Ah, the sweet sweet sound of the last case before the holidays," she said with a sweet smile.

McGee looked at her disapprovingly, "Jack, please do not Jinx us."

Jack was going to Vermont for the holidays this year. She was going to have a blast. We were going to visit one of Nick's old work buddies in Colorado, we were also going to have a blast...hopefully.

"Are you ready to hop a plane to Chicago?" I asked, Tim

"Yep... time with the in-laws," he said, with a little smile on his face. "Delilah has had the twins there since Hanukkah, we're talking two whole weeks."

Nick leaned his desk and laughed, "I'm sure you appreciate the break."

Tim shook his head, "Well, the first day was nice and quiet but every day since then has been a little too quiet. You'll know what I mean someday."

"Yeah, no," Nick replied.

I raised my eyebrow, "excuse me? I thought you wanted kids."

He shrugged, "Playing Candy Land with Palmer's kid after dinner is plenty of parenting for me."

"I just love that Jimmy has you over when I'm out of town."

"I just love that you make it sounds like such a charity case," he said mocking my tone. "Anywho, the last bit of paperwork is donzo. Alright guys, first round of eggnog is on me."

Casie walked into the room, appearing out of nowhere, "ooh, count me in," she said.

"Woah," I said, standing up from my desk, "I thought you were supposed to be in New York by now."

She shook her head, "Mom and sister decided to go on a cruise so I decided to catch up on work."

Nick walked over and sat on my desk, "Geeze Cas, you are a bigger work-a-holic than Ellie."

I hit him on the head with a notebook, "Hey!"

He turned around and blew me a kiss, "You love me. Now, let's go. We are donzo."

"No we're not," Gibbs said. I don't know where he came from or how he heard Nick, but I have tried to stop asking at this point. "Dead Navy Vet in Columia Hights."

Casie got up out of Nick's chair, "Well, hopefully it's an open and shut case."

"Don't jinx us!" We all yelled back at her.

I went to pick up my bag, but Nick grabbed it and kissed the side of my head. We all got on the elevator and went to the crime scene.

The vetran was wedged in between a brick wall and a dumpster. He was laying on his stomach with two obvious blood stains on his back, that Jimmy confirmed to be stab wounds. Gibbs took in information from one of his friends at the scene of the crime. She was the person who called us to help figure out what was going on.

Seeing people die is part of my job. Almost dying is part if my job. But when it happens so close to the holidays, it makes you want to hold the people you love a little closer and spend more time with him.

I spun my ring on my finger, being pulled out of my thoughts when Gibbs spoke to us.

"Bishop, Torres, you're with me. McGee, head to the V.A. center that he was staying at. See what you can find," he looked me dead in the eyes, "Are you with us, Bishop?"

I shook my head, "yeah, I'm coming. I'm good, sorry."

Nick fell back and put his hand in the small of my back, "what's wrong?" He whispered.

I shook my head, "Nothing, I love you."

When we got to the suspects apartment we knocked on the door, "NCIS!" Gibbs yelled.

Vicious held his door open, "I told you, ain't nobody coming in here without a warrant."

"Why do they call you Vicious?" I asked

He leend closer to me, "Yeah, I wish I knew, Baby. You're looking at a law abiding citizen."

Nick stepped in front of me protectively, "Maybe it's because you are a Vicious liar. Also, she is Agent Bishop to you and anyone else, she is no ones Baby."

Vicious stepped towards Nick, still blocking us from the door. "I ain't lying, mijo. Me and Jerome maybe had a little misunderstanding the other day, but I ain't never kill nobody."

"Did he just...?" Nick asked me.

I bit my lip and looked up at him, "Mhmm."

"Did you just call me Mijo?" Nick asked, getting angry.

Vicious lauged, "Yeah, and if you don't mind I got things to do."

He tried to close the door, but Gibbs stoped it with his foot, "We mind."

"Get your foot off my door, man."

"Get your door off my foot," Gibbs busted through the door, "Man."

We all walked into the apartment. We let Gibbs take over for a while, explaining that we had questions and that we weren't going anywhere.

Vicious took out his phone, "I'm calling my lawyer. I know my damn rights."

I let out a small laugh, "I would hope so, because you've had them read to you so many times."

"Damn," Nick said, failing to hold back a laugh. "What's behind that door?"

Vicious stood in front of the door, "That ain't none of your business."

Nick plastered a fake smile on his face, "You saying that, makes it my business."

This made Vicious angry and he reached into his back pocket and pulled a gun at Nick. Triggering all of us to pull our guns, "Ooh," I said, trying to prevent frekaing out.

"Easy buddy," Nick said calmly.

Vicious moved the gun closer to his face, "Oh, yeah. You say easy. I told you I don't want you in there."

"Let's put the gun down before things get any worse," I said, still pointing my gun."

He whipped his gun at me, "Put yours down!" He yelled, shooting at me.

We all shot back.

Gibbs ran over to me, "Bishop, you okay?"

"Yeah," I said, falling back and catching myself on the sink. "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Gibbs softly grabbed my face and looked into my eyes, "Look at me, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"He's dead," Nick said, walking over to me. He pulled me into a hug, "Are you okay?"

I nodded, "Yeah, getting shot at is a whole hell of a lot better than getting shot."

We all heard a sound, a baby crying behind the door. We opened the door to reavel a baby in a stroller.