diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/version/VersionFetchSubPhase.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/version/VersionFetchSubPhase.java
index 6ecc1a2988a..0ee1112d9b9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/version/VersionFetchSubPhase.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/fetch/version/VersionFetchSubPhase.java
@@ -18,12 +18,10 @@
  */
 package org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.version;
 
-import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
+import org.apache.lucene.index.NumericDocValues;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.uid.Versions;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.Uid;
-import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.UidFieldMapper;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.VersionFieldMapper;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.fetch.FetchSubPhase;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.internal.SearchContext;
 
@@ -36,18 +34,14 @@ public final class VersionFetchSubPhase implements FetchSubPhase {
         if (context.version() == false) {
             return;
         }
-        // it might make sense to cache the TermDocs on a shared fetch context and just skip here)
-        // it is going to mean we work on the high level multi reader and not the lower level reader as is
-        // the case below...
-        final long version;
+        long version = Versions.NOT_FOUND;
         try {
-            BytesRef uid = Uid.createUidAsBytes(hitContext.hit().type(), hitContext.hit().id());
-            version = Versions.loadVersion(
-                    hitContext.readerContext().reader(),
-                    new Term(UidFieldMapper.NAME, uid)
-            );
+            NumericDocValues versions = hitContext.reader().getNumericDocValues(VersionFieldMapper.NAME);
+            if (versions != null) {
+                version = versions.get(hitContext.docId());
+            }
         } catch (IOException e) {
-            throw new ElasticsearchException("Could not query index for _version", e);
+            throw new ElasticsearchException("Could not retrieve version", e);
         }
         hitContext.hit().version(version < 0 ? -1 : version);
     }