Chapter 2

The light was blinding, even through his closed eyelids. Two pairs of feet came running. One nudged Tony with his foot. Tony involuntarily moaned as the boot made contact with his broken ribs.

"What do you know, he's alive," the younger sneered. "Probably broke something on his way down." He roughly rolled Tony on his back and shone a light into his eyes. "Wake up Sleeping Beauty."

Tony faked moan (though he really wasn't faking much), as if he had just regained consciousness. He shielded his eyes from the light with a slightly bloody hand. He faked a second moan and lay back on the ground. Hope I'm not chalking this up too much.

"Doesn't look like he's really coherent. It'll be a pain to get him back."

"No kidding." The elder of the two nudged Tony's leg with his foot. "Come on boy, get up. We ain't going to carry you."

Tony stirred and sat up. He faked some dizziness by sinking heavily back to the ground and moaning. The movements were disturbing his ribs, so the moaning part was easy.

The younger of the two sighed. "Looks like he knocked himself out pretty good."

"Yeah. Let's just get this over with." A distant boom sounded. The elder looked at the cloudy sky. "The sooner we move, the less likely we are to get caught in the worse of the storm. I'm not interested in hiking through these woods in a thunderstorm." The two kneeled on the wet ground and grabbed Tony's arms.

A branch snapped loudly behind them. They turned around quickly. "What was that?"

"How would I know?" The two listened carefully. Together they picked up their flashlights and aimed them out further into the trees. The overhead canopy and the closeness of the trees made for poor visibility. Eerie shadows danced between the rocks and leaves. The falling rain made an almost sinister hissing noise, like something was being pulled over the leafy forest floor. A second crack of thunder boomed, closer than the first. They both sat, holding their breaths. Tony lay still, trying to make a plan. After a few moments the younger man let out his breath with a whoosh. He turned to his companion and gave a strained laugh. "I don't think-"

Something flew out from between the trees to their left. It hit one of the flashlights and caused the bulb to shatter into many pieces with a loud popping sound. The two sprang to their feet in unison. They scanned the forest, searching for the source of the attack.

Lightning flashed across the sky, blinding the party. A dark figure seemed to melt out of a tree and fly towards them. It hit the sole remaining flashlight and took the man down with it, knocking him out cold. The stranger jumped off him and melted back into the darkness. The younger man swept the flashlight up off the ground and swung it around, searching for the attacker.

"Who's there?" he stuttered. He swung in a full circle, shinning the bright light in wide arcs. Lightning arched across the dark, cloudy sky, lighting up the night but revealing nothing. A deafening crack of thunder followed almost instantaneously. The man backed up towards the steep slope. He grasped at the ground, looking for something that could be used as a weapon.

From behind him the dark shape seemed to materialize out of the slope. It hit him square in the back and knocked him over. Terrified, the young man swung the flashlight and hit his attacker. The attacker stumbled for a moment but recovered quickly. It moved behind a large pine tree.

"H-h-ey you," he stammered. "Get back here." He moved carefully toward the tree, holding the flashlight out in front of him like a shield. He moved slowly, stirring up leaves with his feet. The rain slowed for a moment as he neared the tree. "I-I-I'm warning you. Where'd you go?"

Tony saw something moving on his left. A flash of lightning lit the sky, illuminating a dark humanoid figure creeping up behind the man. It moved quickly under the sound cover of the thunder and hit the young man over the head. He crumpled to the ground with barely a sound.

Watching warily, Tony laid still. The figure slowly straightened up. Who? That's all Tony could think. It picked up the flashlight and shined it over towards Tony. Finding him, it walked over knelt on the ground. The bright light made it so Tony couldn't see who it was. The dark figure spoke, making Tony's heart leap for joy.

"Tony," said Ziva. "Are you okay?"

"Ziva? Is that you?"

The light moved and illuminated Ziva's face. Tony let out a deep sigh. "Thank goodness. Are you okay? What happened to you? Where's the goon who took you? What-"

Ziva held up a hand, smiling. "Calm down Tony, I'm fine. The one who took me thought he could overpower a mere woman by himself." She shifted closer to Tony and placed the flashlight on a nearby rock. "Needless to say I reeducated him."

Tony chuckled. "So where is he now?"

"Taking a nap in the car he was supposed to drive off with me in it."

"Wow. Remind me to never get on your bad side."

"You already knew that Tony." Ziva leaned over him. "I saw you fall. Are you hurt?"

Tony sobered quickly. "Yeah. Twisted my foot or something and I think I may have broken a few ribs."

Lightning flashed. Ziva mumbled in Hebrew than unzipped Tony's jacket. She ran her hand across Tony's ribcage. Tony hissed as she touched his side. "Yeah, right there."

"I don't feel any broken bones, but I don't want to probe too deeply." Ziva zipped his jacket back up, stood, and offered a hand. "Let's see if you can walk."

Tony took the offered hand and rose to his feet. Leaves were still stuck all over his body. Tony straightened and winced. He tried to take a step and had to grasp a nearby tree to keep from falling over. "Yeah, feels like a bad sprain or a break." Tony hopped to a nearby rock and sat down.

Ziva bit her lip in worry. She had felt the blood on Tony's hand as she helped him up. She shined the flashlight down, lifted his pant leg, and whistled. Tony's leg was wet, swollen, and bruised. "I don't dare take your shoe off for hurting you more. You need a doctor."

"Like we're going to find one out here."

Ziva straightened and looked around. She walked to a nearby tree and broke a large branch off. Using her knife, she cut all but one thick limb off. She handed it to Tony. "See if you can walk with this."

Tony grumbled and stood. Leaning heavily on the crutch he hobbled a few feet away and stopped. Looking at Ziva he grimaced. "Not exactly a pair of crutches."

"It will have to do." A moan caught their attention. The young man by the pine tree was starting to stir. Ziva looked at Tony. "Do you have your handcuffs still?"

"What? Um… yeah." Tony pulled them out. For whatever reason the two guys hadn't taken the cuffs when they took his badge and threw it in a garbage can.

"Good. Hand them over." Ziva took the cuffs walked over to the young man. She dragged him over to where the older man still lay and handcuffed them together. Then she pulled out her own handcuffs and attached them first to Tony's cuffs, then around a young, but strong sapling tree. Stepping away she looked at her handiwork and walked back to Tony. "That should hold them until we can get back here."

"Where are we going now?"

"To rescue McGee of course."

"How? He could be gone for all we know."

"Well we won't know until we go look, now will we." Ziva stood and gestured towards Tony's torso. "Unless you want to wait out in the rain for an ambulance to try and make its way down into this gulley."

Tony sighed. "Point taken." Using his tree branch Tony hobbled after Ziva, who led the way with the flashlight. "You know a good way back up this hill?"