A/N: I'm gonna go ahead and warn how much of a bastard I am.

Disclaimer: NCIS doesn't belong to me.

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Contingency

Blue January skies made the downtown search for witnesses in the most recent ongoing investigation by the MCRT at NCIS a little less dreary. Popping something in his back as he stretched, Tony turned to McGee as they made their way up the sidewalk. "Thunder in the Valley," he told his colleague.

McGee furrowed his brows as he looked over at him, "Uh...it doesn't look like rain."

"No, the film, McSilly," he replied. "I think we should watch that one this weekend."

"Is it movie weekend?"

"It is," he happily replied. "Pending a case, of course."

"Never heard of Thunder in the Valley. Or is that the one with the cars and...Tom Cruise? Wait, no, that's Days of Thunder."

"Days of Thunder is good. I've got that. We can totally watch that."

"Well what about-"

"No. Now I'm thinking about the pre-insanity days of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Gotta watch that, instead. We'll save the Valley for another day."

"There's our next location," McGee indicated with a nod toward the building across the street.

"Yep. And it looks like we're about to finally meet up in the middle. There's Gibbs and Zee-vah," he glanced a block up the road. "Hey, Boss!" he cheerfully waved. But Gibbs was looking past him, pausing in his steps and holding Ziva back as well. That's when Tony realized there was honking in the distance behind him. And yelling. No...it was screams.

He and McGee turned around to see a tanker trunk coming down the street at a rate that was indicative of it being out of control, as if the brakes were out. The driver was swerving side to side, presumably attempting to slow it down some, to no avail, and honking the horn loud so people would get out of the way.

Tony saw it when Gibbs did; there was a slight embankment just eight hundred feet in front of it, and it was already going at least fifty miles per hour. If he hit it, it would flip.

"Everybody get inside the buildings!" Tony shouted. "Get somewhere safe, now!" he and McGee started leading people from the sidewalks into the shops and other businesses. Gibbs and Ziva were doing the same. There was so much shouting and noise, Tony could barely hear his teammates. But there was a voice he did hear.

"Aaron!" a woman cried out. "Aaron, come on! Come here!" she called, and Tony found her, and followed her gaze to the middle of the street. His eyes widened as he realized how close the truck was.

Knowing his team was safely inside the buildings, Tony bolted out toward the boy.

"Tony!" he heard McGee call after him, but he kept going. The boy, maybe six years old, was staring in awe at the oncoming truck. Tony had never run so fast and so hard, that he could remember, in his life, toward him. He heard the truck hit the embankment; the sick squealing of metal, crunching of the tank hitting the street. And then he had the boy, but he knew it was too late. With all of his strength, he threw Aaron to the other side of the street, watching him land and roll, as Tony fell to the asphalt, himself. The boy was out of harm's way.

Tony expected a hit. He expected the giant tank to roll over and crush him. Instead, he felt something wet. For an fraction of a second, it felt cool. Then hot. And then pain.

Tony heard screaming. It wouldn't stop, and it was starting to hurt his ears. Then he realized...it was him...

TBC...

A/N: Told you. More soon... In all honesty, I'm gonna write tonight depending on how many people seem interested and/or want to kill me if I don't continue very soon. So...depending on that, I could theoretically have another chapter done by tonight.