Discovery – Part Nine by Ladyholder

Reading Time:
11 Minutes

Art by Polaris

“DiNozzo, is there a range time slot open?”

Tony eyed Gibbs for several seconds before he opened the appointment calendar for the range NCIS used and checked it. “We’ve got a slot open in an hour.”

“Great. Sign the three of us up,” Gibbs directed.

“Feeling itchy?” Tony asked as he submitted their request for a team slot. “We’ve got the slot, Boss.”

“Good,” Gibbs said. “Start packing up, Kate. We’re going to go do some target shooting.”

“You’re not using my cap on a target to inspire me, Boss,” Tony said. He snagged his backpack and jacket before looking at Kate. “Leave anything you don’t want to shoot at, here, Kate. Or in your car.”

“What?” Kate looked confused as she picked up her own backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“When Gibbs decides to do surprise range time, he’s going to nitpick our shooting,” Tony said. He smirked as she paled. “And to motivate us, he’ll use something we like a lot as a target to make sure we can hit what we’re aiming at.”

“Wow,” Kate muttered. “Are we taking our cars?”

“It’s late afternoon, and we’ve got nothing on deck for us,” Gibbs said before heading for the stairs. “So yes, take your own car, and I’ll meet you at the range.”

“You know how to get to the range?” Tony asked as he checked his pockets to make sure that his keys were still in place. Since he wasn’t going to be coming back to the office, he snagged his coffee mug and his lunchbox and started for the elevator. “Better get moving, Kate!”

“Damn it,” Kate muttered as she snatched up her purse and followed him into the elevator. “Why did he decide to do this?”

“Are you asking me to read Gibbs’ mind?” Tony asked. When she nodded, he huffed. “I don’t know. Maybe he got bored. Maybe it’s because we’re going to be having our fit rep in a month. Maybe he wants to be an asshole and watch us twitch as we try to figure him out.”

“The man is frustrating,” Kate complained. She walked out towards her car, and her irritation trailed behind her like a dank cloud. “See you there.”

Tony smirked as he headed for his car. If Kate thought Gibbs was frustrating in the office, she was going to be horrified by what he was like on the range. He didn’t have too much to worry about there, since range time was one of the ways that he and Mike spent time together. Shooting a few hundred rounds down range on a weekly basis was the start of a nice date night for them.

Wings and beer were a good finish today, too. Tony sat in his car for a moment and texted Mike to see if he wanted to hit up their favorite bar after they got off work. Personal chore done, Tony headed out to the range.

Just over an hour later, the three of them were in firing lanes. shooting their service pistols at targets.

“Why is he like this?” Kate bitched as she lined up another set of shots with her off hand

“I told you, I can’t read his mind,” Tony said cheerfully as he concentrated on his shooting. He was functionally ambidextrous on a day-to-day basis, but shooting that way had been a learned thing. Since he didn’t want to lose the skill, he was concentrating on shooting with his left hand. It was fun.

“Pretty sure you wouldn’t want to read my mind if you could, DiNozzo,” Gibbs called from his own lane.

“Why? The continuous chant of ‘coffee’ that you’ve got going as a background mantra might get old, but the rest could be interesting,” Tony said, teasing. The range bell tolled, and he set his gun down after he took the mag out and flicked the switch to bring his target back to him. He glanced over at Gibbs and sighed at the tight groupings the man had. Head and chest, the holes of the groupings were no longer individual spots. Instead. They were blended into two quarter-sized voids.

His target wasn’t quite as tight, but all his shots hit very close to the center of the head and chest, with a wild one that had hit the corner nearest Kate. Tony frowned at it before he pulled the target down and examined the paper. From the way the paper feathered at the back, the bullet that had fired it had come from Kate’s direction

For fucks sake.

“Kate,” Tony started before he paused to take a deep breath. He stepped back from the firing line on his lane and leaned against the partition to stare at her, “You shoot for shit.”

“That’s not nice to say,” Kate protested. She was pulling her own target back in, and Tony glanced at it before sighing. She turned to look at it and huffed. “Damn it. I did.”

The target had holes in the designated head and heart areas, but it also had several stray shots littering the rest of the sheet. Tony turned to eye Kate, and he knew that his face was showing how unimpressed he was with her. “What in the hell? You’ve been in law enforcement for years now, Kate. Your shooting should be better than this. How often are you going to the range?”

“Once a month,” Kate said softly.

“Once a month?” Tony took a deep breath and pushed his irritation down so he didn’t shift from the pressure of the emotion. “Kate.”

“I know. It’s not enough,” Kate interrupted. She stared at her target and frowned. “I need to do better.”

“You do,” Tony agreed. He could hear Gibbs walking over to them and waved him off behind his back. He needed the man to give him a few minutes to deal with her. “You need to be serious about this skill, Kate. Unlike most LEO’s, MCRTs are a breed apart, and I’ve pulled my gun more here at NCIS than I did at any other department I’ve ever been at. Being able to shoot and shoot on target can and will save your life.”

“And at present, my shooting is more likely to cost me my life than save it,” she concluded. “Damn it.”‘

“Yes,” Tony said simply. “This range has classes. You need to sign up for one, take it seriously, and practice. At least twice a week, every week, and at least 100 rounds a session. More would be better.”

“Damn it,” Kate muttered with a wince. “That’s going to be expensive.”

“Getting shot is expensive. Dying from being outshot due to not being able to shoot is dumb. You are not dumb, Kate,” Tony cautioned. “Besides, this range is for the Naval Yard. Since you’re stationed out here, you’re automatically a part of it, so you have access to the classes that are taught here. Use that access.”

Kate frowned again as she stared at the target. “They won’t give me guff about how I shoot?”

“I can’t promise that, Kate,” Tony said. He nodded towards the target. “Are you going to let possible embarrassment hold you back?”

“No,” Kate said finally. She nodded once and then took the target off the clip and firmly pinned another into place. “Okay. I’ll set up the lessons and book slots out for the next month, so I can’t get out of it. Cases willing.”

“Cases willing,” Tony agreed. “I’ll make sure that you get out in time to go to the lesson.”

“Thank you, Tony,” Kate said. She leaned back and looked at Gibbs and nodded at him. “Thank you for letting him handle this.”

Tony smirked at the surprise he could smell pouring off Gibbs. As much as Kate was oblivious to some social cues, she did pay attention at the damndest times. “We’ve still got 30 minutes, so we’re going to keep shooting,” Gibbs said. He moved around him to stand beside him. “When you do this next round, don’t try to shoot at the same speed we are. Take your time. Aim. Make sure your stance is correct. Go for technical precision. Nothing else.”

“Okay. I can do that,” Kate said. She nodded firmly and turned back to her lane.

“Good suggestion, Boss,” Tony said as he turned back to his own lane. “Hopefully this will stick.”

“Hopefully,” Gibbs said with a frown before lowering his voice. “Could you check with Mike to see what her range scores were while she was in the Secret Service?”

“I got those not long after she joined NCIS. She passed, but wasn’t spectacular,” Tony said, “I think this is just disuse. So, a refresher course and plenty of practice should help.”

“Okay. We’ll see what happens with her groupings by the end of our time here,” Gibbs decided. “I’ll have a word with the range masters after we finish to see if they can make any suggestions. Good catch.”

Tony smiled and nodded before he got back in his lane. It was the work of only moments to send his target back down the lane to lock into place, and he kept his hands at his sides as he waited for the range master to confirm the range was hot.

As soon as the bell sounded, Tony picked up his gun, loaded it, and started shooting. This time, he wasn’t aiming to kill his target; he was aiming to incapacitate them. And that meant hitting the shoulders, the arms, and down where the legs would be on the extra-long target he’d sent out. It took more skill, but Tony was satisfied with his shots.

When the bell sounded again, Tony took the magazine out of his gun and set it down before stepping back. He glanced over at Kate’s target and raised an eyebrow at her groupings. They were much, much better than her previous set had been. When he got his target back, every single shot on it had hit the areas he’d aimed at. Which meant that Kate hadn’t fired off lane.

Excellent.

“Looking better, Kate,” Tony called.

“Thanks, Tony,” Kate said as she stepped around the barrier between lanes and waved her target. “It does look better when I take my time. Are we doing another round?”

Tony checked his watch. They had 20 minutes until the official end of their day. He leaned back and raised an eyebrow at Gibbs in question. The chances of the man not hearing Kate were below nil, and he wasn’t going to try to play it otherwise. “Well?”

“I can shoot another round,” Gibbs confirmed. “You?”

“Yeah, I’m good for that,” Tony said. “Another round, Kate, and then clean up your area before checking in with the range to see what classes they can offer you.”

“Sounds good. I’m going to do another head and heart round,” Kate said. She snagged the fresh target he handed her and took a deep breath. “No rushing, careful aim, and do it all technically correct, right?”

“Exactly,” Tony confirmed. He held his peace as she ducked back around the barrier. He had no idea if she’d learn the lesson they were trying to teach, but he hoped she would. It would suck if she didn’t.

“We have a body being transferred to us,” Gibbs announced. He looked up from his email and frowned at the room at large. “Suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist named Yasir Qassam.”

“Isn’t he on the wall?” Tony asked, waving at the ‘Most Wanted’ wall the office had set up.

“Nope,” Gibbs said. “He’s on the deck of cards that are issued to all the troops in Iraq.”

“Interesting. Why is he here?” Tony asked. “And why do we have him?”

“No idea. On either front,” Gibbs said with a frown. He turned his attention back to his email and shrugged before typing at something quickly. “I’m going to check in with the Director to see if he has any idea of what’s going on.”

“Sounds good,” Tony said. “I can reach out to some of my sources to see if they can get me a heads up?”

“Don’t burn any favors on this right now,” Gibbs said after several seconds of thought. “We may need them later, and while he’s not someone I’d expect to show up here, since he is, we might as well take care of the body.”

“I’ll warn Ducky he can expect to get a new guest,” Tony said. “And that we’ve got no information on him.”

“Where’s Kate?” Gibbs asked as he got ready to head up to Morrow’s office.

“Still in the building, but other than that? No idea,” Tony said as he dialed Autopsy. “I’ll let her know what’s up when she gets back.”

“Sounds good,” Gibbs said. He headed up the stairs, and Tony stopped paying attention to him as Gerald picked up.

“Autopsy.”

“Gerald, it’s Tony. Per Gibbs, you’ve got a body incoming. Word is that it’s a suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist by the name of Yasir Qassam. Make sure that from the instant you get the body into Autopsy, you’re running the cameras. We don’t want any questions to come back on us regarding this.”

“Will do, Tony. Any idea why we’re getting this guy?” Gerald asked. Tony could hear him moving around the main room of Autopsy, pulling things out of the various drawers.

“No, we don’t know why us, but Gibbs is checking with Morrow to see if he can get an update on what’s happening,” Tony said. He scanned the email Gibbs had forwarded him. “We’ve got no information other than the name, that’s he a suspected terrorist, and we can expect him in about 30 minutes.”

“Weird,” Gerald muttered. “We don’t have anyone else down here, so we’ll be able to get right to that. I’ll update you when our new guest arrives.”

Tony smiled at that. “Thanks, Gerald. Warn Ducky that this may be fishy?”

“Will do. You know he’s sharper than almost anyone believes,” Gerald reminded him.

“Oh, I know,” Tony said. “But it never hurts to remind him.”

“Gotcha. We’ll be standing by. I need both hands to get the rest of this ready, so I’ll let you go,” Gerald said before ending the call.

“This whole damn agency needs to do a phone etiquette class,” Tony muttered before hanging up his phone and trying to think of who on his contact list might have some useful information for him regarding this.

So far, he was coming up blank. And that bothered him.