A/N: Hi everyone, this is just a little OneShot that came into my head. Hope you like it! A healthy dose of team affection, Tony heroism, Gibbs drama and leader McGee. :)
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
Hope you like this! :)
Ain't No Mountain High Enough.
"Remind me; why are we here again?" Tony DiNozzo questioned for the billionth time as he looked down the ridiculously high face of a mountain.
McGee sighed and reported from MTAC back to Tony and Gibbs earpieces. Gibbs was just about over hearing the same conversation repeat itself.
"Because it's a dumping ground Tony, there is a suspected body count of six navy personal down there. You're meant to secure the scene and wait a couple of hours for a chopper to airlift the bodies out and down the mountain."
They just recently found and arrested the man responsible for the deaths of the six navy personal in one of the craters of this mountain. Gibbs had made him confess to where he had dumped the bodies and had volunteered DiNozzo to go with him for the mission of assisting the airlift of the bodies and the processing of the scene.
"Stop complaining Tony!" Ziva exclaimed as she stood beside McGee in MTAC watching them live on the monitor.
"Maybe you'd like to take my place up here on Mt. Everest Zee-vah?" DiNozzo shot back through the headset.
She simply rolled her eyes. "Please Tony it is not that high!"
"All I can see is snow, ice and rocks! I can't even see the ground; that's how high up we are!" Tony exclaimed.
Gibbs had just gotten the ropes ready and they were both wearing their harnesses.
"DiNozzo! Shut up and hold the rope." He ordered.
Tony stopped the banter in a split second and grabbed the rope connected to Gibbs' harness; snapping to attention as soon as Gibbs needed him to have his six. Tony tightened his hold on the rope as Gibbs began to abseil down the mountain.
Gibbs was climbing down the boulders and everything was on track until he was halfway down towards the pit in the mountain face. His foot contacted the next boulder down and Gibbs put his whole body weight on it for just a second; it came loose. A deafening rumble of stone erupted as the rock face crumbled underneath his feet and he was sent plummeting down across the jagged stone as it sliced into his skin over and over again.
DiNozzo struggled to hold his grip on the rope as Gibbs' full weight came onto it. He pulled the rope as hard as he could as it sliced the palms of his hands open.
The other rocks came free of the mountain side and rained down on top of Gibbs as he crumbled into the pit. They covered his body, crushing him.
Tony thought he almost had a grip when the weight increased tenfold and the rope cut almost halfway through his hands and he was forced to let go, as he yelled a second's cry of agony.
Gibbs saw the rocks coming but couldn't move as it slammed into his head and the world went out like a light.
"Boss!" Tony yelled in a panic. "Gibbs!" He tried again, desperate for an answer, any indication that Gibbs was still alive.
Ziva and McGee couldn't believe what they'd just seen.
"Boss can you hear me?" McGee tried desperately as he yelled down the line but the radio had gone into static on Gibbs end.
"Gibbs' radio is dead Tony." Ziva told him, worry creeping into her voice despite her best efforts to suppress it.
"I'm going down!" DiNozzo yelled to McGee and Ziva.
"Tony wait!" Ziva cried.
"You can't climb down there; your harness isn't secured to a rope!" Tim finished.
Tony wasn't in the mood for listening and all they could do was watch as he climbed down the unstable mountain face unaided after Gibbs.
The rocks slashed at Tony's already bleeding hands but he didn't stop. He kept stumbling down until he reached the crater.
"Boss?" He called as he started to heave the boulders away, trying to find were Gibbs was buried.
He threw a rock from the pile to reveal a hand, limp and smeared with fresh blood; it had to be Gibbs.
"Hold on Boss, I gotcha!" He assured, mostly for himself, as he started flinging more stones away from his mentor, trapped underneath.
McGee and Ziva each breathed a short sigh of relief knowing that Tony was safely in position and he had at least found Gibbs. Knowing that much, McGee took control on his end.
"Inform the Director!" He called to the techs working on the side. "I want a rescue chopper in the air and patch me through to the forensics lab and autopsy." They nodded and scrambled for their phones and to establish the connections.
Ziva just looked at him. When Tim turned and caught her staring he asked confused, "What?"
Breaking out of her state she smiled and said kindly. "They have taught you well McGee."
"Who?"
"Tony and Gibbs; you sounded just like them."
"Really?" He asked surprised.
She nodded. "They would be proud, as I am." She told him truthfully.
He smiled just as one of the techs called, "Sir the Director has been notified and we have patched you through."
"Abby, Ducky?" He asked into the headset.
"What's going on Timmy?" Abby asked him and Ducky added, "Yes Timothy what is happening?" McGee figured Palmer was listening with Ducky too.
"I want you three in MTAC, ASAP!" He told them without offering an answer before signalling for the techs to cut the connections. With them offline he ordered, "I want an ETA on the rescue chopper!"
"ETA is approximately fifty-two minutes Sir." One of them answered.
Ziva cursed something in her native tongue just as the door to MTAC opened and Director Vance entered followed closely by Abby, Ducky and Palmer.
"Tony, the rescue choppers ETA is fifty-two minutes." McGee said into the headset. He turned around and gave the group his full attention, not expecting an answer from DiNozzo.
"Sit rep." Vance demanded and McGee began to fill them in.
When Tony heard the ETA he had just managed to get up to Gibbs' waist clear of rocks. By now, Tony had bleeding cuts all over his hands, arms and legs; but Gibbs looked far worse. The senior agent had fresh blood smeared over most of his face, some of it from smaller gashes but most coming from the still bleeding cut to his head. His arms were cut open in several places and soaked in blood like the rest of his once white shirt under the climbing jacket.
DiNozzo checked for a pulse, fearing the worst. He breathed a deep sigh of relief as he found one, slow but steady.
"He's alive." Tony announced through to MTAC and could almost feel some of the heaviness lifted from the team on the other end.
There was so much blood Tony was a little lost as to what wound to attend to first. He figured the head wound was the biggest problem right then so he pulled off his own protective jacket and, ignoring the cold, pressed it firmly to Gibbs head over the gash to try and stop the bleeding. He also knew he had to try get Gibbs conscious.
"Boss? Hey come on Gibbs would you let me get away with laying down on the job?" He chastised weakly.
"Boss open your eyes, I need you awake." He tried again.
"Boss?" He breathed as he leant close to Gibbs ear, just like the older man had done to him when he'd had the plague. "Please?"
He heard a soft groan from Gibbs in response which lifted his face into a grateful ghost of a smile.
"Good, that's a start. Now I need ya to open your eyes. Come on Boss." Tony coaxed.
To his relief, Gibbs did just that. "Tony?" Gibbs asked, his vision still a little out of focus.
Tony smiled encouragingly. "Yeah Boss, right here." His smile faulted as he saw the deep lines of pain cross Gibbs face. "Where does it hurt most Boss?"
"'m fine." Gibbs defended and Tony rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, you just fell down part of the mountain side, your cut up like a thanksgiving turkey and you're half buried in rocks; I'm sure you're fine." He responded sarcastically.
"Wise ass." Gibbs mumbled and Tony smirked until the mumble broke into a coughing fit.
Tony grimaced in sympathy. He knew what it was like to feel like there was a crushing weight on your chest so much that you couldn't get a breath into your lungs. He thought back to the blue lights in the hospital room; back to the plague. Except Gibbs really did have a crushing weight on him. When he stopped coughing Tony asked again, "Where does it hurt most?"
Reluctantly, Gibbs told him. "Head and chest."
"Okay, what about your stomach and legs?"
Gibbs brow furrowed in confusion before he looked up, meeting Tony's eye. Now Tony was on edge, he could have sworn he'd just seen a glimpse of fear flash in Gibbs' blue eyes. When he answered, Tony knew why. "I can't feel 'em."
Tony prayed to god Gibbs hadn't broken his back in the fall. He took a deep breath to calm himself before he answered with more certainly than he felt. "Don't jump to conclusions; it could just be the pressure of the rocks on them limiting the circulation. I'm gonna try and get them off you, okay?" Tony warned.
"Do it." Gibbs nodded as Tony began to haul the rocks off him. He hoped Tony was right, that it was just the circulation.
Tony winced, just a little as the gashes across his hands were torn further, that's when Gibbs noticed that a fair amount of the blood was DiNozzo's. "Tony, you okay?" Gibbs asked sincerely.
Tony answered without stopping. "Yeah just a few cuts." He hauled the last stone off Gibbs' stomach with a great amount of effort. Gibbs instantly felt how much easier it was to breathe and took in a deep breath of air.
"Better?" Tony asked.
"Yeah." Gibbs confirmed quietly. "The breathing."
Tony nodded, knowing what Gibbs meant.
"I'll get these rocks off your legs and we'll go from there, yeah?"
Gibbs nodded and Tony got started. The physical strain of lifting one heavy stone after another was taking its toll on Tony's already damaged body, he was a little light headed from all the blood he'd lost from the several gashes, but he refused to stop. A good twenty minutes later and Gibbs' body was completely free of the stones. They hadn't been gone long before the feeling began coming back into Gibbs' legs, and with feeling, came pain.
They were both relived that he could feel them, but far less pleased about the pain that accompanied having sensation back.
After checking both legs quickly Tony reported, "You broke both of them pretty badly." He tried not to focus on the bone sticking out of one of Gibbs' shins.
"Ya think DiNozzo?"
"How bad?" Tony questioned, referring to the pain, as Gibbs began to breathe a little more quickly.
Gibbs looked at Tony in the eyes and that look told the younger agent all he needed to know. Gibbs was in total agony.
"Okay, I'm right here; just breathe through it, deep breaths." Tony began coaxing again, feeling like their roles had been reversed; usually Gibbs was helping him through his suffering. Tony was more than willing to return the favour. He grabbed onto Gibbs hand and said, "Squeeze it to cope through the pain."
"There sliced." Gibbs pointed out between sharp, laboured breaths. He didn't want to put Tony through any more pain and squeezing the kid's hand as hard as he would right then would do just that.
"If it helps get you through the agony…" Tony pushed. "I can handle it." If it would help Gibbs cope then he wanted the older man to do it.
"Not gonna happen DiNozzo." Gibbs said just before another wave of pain tore through him. He arched his back a little in response to the pure agony and Tony clasped Gibbs hand a little tighter, giving him the option again. Against what he'd said, Gibbs squeezed Tony hand in a vise-like grip. The younger man winced a little and bit his lip until it bleed, but he refused to pull away.
From MTAC, the group heard the conversation and could see the agony that both men were in, mainly Gibbs.
Each one of them marvelled at the bond between the two agents. How they could read each other's thoughts through a single look and know exactly what the other needed. Both Tony's determination and unwavering support and Gibbs complete faith in his second were undeniable.
"The rescue chopper's ETA is one minute." One of the techs called. To say the group were relived was a huge understatement.
When Tony heard the blades of the chopper overhead, he could have collapsed in relief. It was only then that Tony pulled out of Gibbs grip so that he could wave his arms to flag down the aircraft.
A suspension rope was thrown out of the chopper and Tony caught it. He fastened it to the clasp on both his and Gibbs' harnesses and gave the signal that they could be lifted. Tony clasped onto Gibbs, who was fading fast since being moved. They were lifted into the air and were suspended as they were flown down the mountain.
Not long after, Tony and Gibbs found themselves in a hospital, beds side by side. Abby, Ducky, Ziva, McGee, Palmer and even Vance had been sure to give them well wishes from Washington DC. Gibbs and Tony prepared to wait until they could be flown back in a medical plane to Bethsaida Hospital to be with their 'family'.
"Tony." Gibbs spoke from his bed. "I didn't mean to latch onto..."
"I know." Tony interrupted him with a small smile as he looked up at the white ceiling. "You would've done the same for me." Tony shrugged. "Besides, I'll be back at work before you will!" Tony smirked.
"Wise ass." Gibbs mumbled for the second time that day. He wasn't sure when but somewhere along the line, Gibbs had begun to love Tony like a son.
DiNozzo was back at work as normal come the start of the next week. Gibbs was going to be out of action a little longer while his legs healed so he'd taken the time to go back to Stillwater and get in touch with his father again.
As acting team leader, Tony was relishing the chance he got to annoy McGee and Ziva as 'the boss'. He didn't mind being in charge, but it was comforting to know that Gibbs was coming back to re-claim his place. For one Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, life was good.
A/N: So, what did you guys think? I hope you liked it.