He felt the burning in his eyes as he stepped toward the man he'd known for over eight years... His senior agent; his friend. Everything replayed in his head of that last day before he'd gone missing. Every regretful thing he'd said and done that ended up being the last...

Gibbs heard the sudden intakes of breath from his agents who had just entered the room. He was now directly in front of Tony, and he needed to keep his composure for their sake, at least. With a shaky hand, after he holstered his gun, he reached up with two fingers toward Tony's neck for verification. But he stopped short, holding back from the inevitable.

"Boss..." McGee's voice sounded far away, but in reality, the two had moved closer. "Is he..."

Suddenly, Tony's body arched and he sucked in a breath, causing all of the agents to jump in surprise; scared possibly to the point of freezing. What came out of Tony's mouth then was what would've been a strangled scream, had he the strength to do so.

"Tony!" Gibbs' hands came up to either side of the agent's face. "Tony, it's okay...We're gonna get you outta here. You hear me?" For a short moment, faded green eyes met his, and then lolled back into his head. "Tony, stay with me! Ziva, McGee, help me get these ropes off him!" he stripped himself of his jacket and threw it across the back of a nearby chair.

They were quick to comply, each pulling out their knives and being careful not to further harm his raw, bloody wrists. Neither of them missed the rows of track marks up and down his arms. Gibbs secured his arms around Tony's torso, letting the agent's head lay on his shoulder, and they lowered his arms, slowly. The movement caused Tony to be pulled violently back into consciousness, and he cried out against the pain.

"It's okay," Gibbs soothed as he supported Tony's full weight, which didn't amount to much at the moment. "It's okay; we've got you." Tim and Ziva had taken to very slowly lowering his arms the rest of the way, avoiding him any more pain than necessary.

"I can hear the chopper, Boss," Tim nearly whispered.

"Ziva, go," Gibbs directed. "Lead them in." She nodded, hesitant to leave Tony, but aware of the importance to do so. "McGee, my jacket," he motioned with his head toward the chair. That's when the younger agent realized that Tony was shaking. He quickly moved to grab the garment and wrapped it around Tony's back, holding it there until Gibbs could rearrange his arms to hold it on. "We need to move him. Need to lay him down and I can't do that over here."

McGee's gaze dropped to the bloody, urine-stained floor beneath them and understood immediately. "Do you need me to..."

"I've got him. Just need direction."

"Okay," as Tim moved forward, he realized his legs were shaking. But he made great effort to ignore it. "Over here, Boss," he indicated a clear patch of floor closer to the door. Gibbs moved to it and slowly lowered himself down, cradling Tony in his arms with Tim's help. McGee shed himself of his own coat and draped it over Tony's front.

Tony wrapped his arms around himself, curling in tightly as if to make up for all the forced time stretched out.

"Boss, I think he might be severely dehydrated," Tim said. "The...dark circles around his eyes..."

"He's been here alone for three days, McGee. Think it's safe to say you're right." Gibbs looked back down at the agent in his arms. "Tony, can you hear me?" Tony's head turned slightly towards the voice, and his eyes moved unfocused, reminding Gibbs of when Kelly was a newborn and couldn't quite understand what she was seeing. "Think that's a yes. Sorry it took so long, DiNozzo. But we're gettin' you outta here now. You're gonna be okay."

They heard movement in the hall and saw beams from flashlights before medics poured into the room. Before he knew what was happening, Tony was being pulled from his arms and Gibbs was being shoved aside so they could get the agent on a modified stretcher as they checked his vitals. The stretcher was designed to hold the patient vertically for pulling them out of the confined exit up to the ground level.

As soon as Tony had been torn from Gibbs, he began to make high-pitched sounds that could only be translated as fear, and began struggling against the restraints of the stretcher.

Gibbs fought his way through the medics to take Tony's hand in his and leaned down to the agent's ear, "It's alright, Tony. These people are here to help you. I won't let anyone hurt you again. You're safe now. You're gonna be okay, I promise you..."

Tony was shaking, but he stopped struggling when Gibbs spoke. The medics, who earlier had been annoyed by the lead agent's intrusion, were surprised and grateful for the man's efforts. But no sooner had he calmed, that Tony began seizing without warning.

Gibbs was pushed aside again; his grip on Tony's hand slipping away as the medics shouted to one another with medical lingo he didn't even begin to try to understand. The things he had picked up, were things they'd already assumed, like 'severe dehydration' and 'malnutrition'. After stopping the seizure with an injection, they started IV fluids and made to move him out.

Gibbs turned to McGee, who was looking pale and zoned out. "I'm goin' with him," he told the agent. McGee looked at him. "You good to drive?"

"Yes, Boss," he replied in barely a whisper.

Gibbs put a hand on Tim's arm, "You sure?" Tim nodded. "I'm gonna have them bring him to Bethesda. You and Ziva stay with Duck; I want verification that the body in the yard belongs to Cullen," he told him as they followed behind the medics. "Then you tell Fornell to get his team over here and run this scene. I wanna know what went on in this room, and the only one, besides Tony, who knows that right now is buried," he said as he fished out his keys and handed them to Tim. "You tell Fornell, if he scratches my car, I'll have his neck."

"Boss, you'll let us know...?"

"Soon as I do..."

11 00 11 00 11

"Jesus H.," one of the agents cursed as they entered the rank area where Tony had been discovered.

"Watch your mouth, Pete," another agent warned.

"Shut up, Matthews," he smirked. "Don't be a dick. This place is just...I dunno. Never found where he'd tortured 'em before."

"This probably ain't the place he did the other two, Jeffries," Matthews said as he began snapping pictures. "I doubt he drove 'em out to Berkley an' Norfolk just to drop 'em off on the side of the road."

"Why the hell not? Sure as shit threw us off, anyway."

"Only way to find out is to process this room top to bottom," Fornell's voice sounded as he entered.

"Right, Sir," the two answered in unison.

"This is where they find DiNozzo, right?" Matthews asked, motioning toward the ropes still hanging in the chainlinks in the wall. Fornell nodded, narrowing his eyes as he approached, getting his first look at it himself. "He was here for 33 days?" he asked as he snapped pictures.

"That's right," Tobias replied. "The last three he spent alone."

"Yeah, I heard Cullen killed his brother and didn't even realize DiNozzo was still alive here," Jeffries said. "Frickin' prick probably did him a favor though, seein' what he did to those other two."

"Did they uh..." Matthews turned to Tobias with a grimace, "Did they say what condition DiNozzo was in? What Cullen might've done to him while he was here?"

"Won't know until the docs can do a full examination. But from what Gibbs' team told me, he looked like he'd been starved nearly to death. Track marks up and down his arms. And from bein' here three days alone, obviously dehydrated. He was too grimy to tell anything else at the time."

"Check this out," Jeffries pointed to a brown, faded music box before snapping a picture. He opened its lid, and there was a little, worn figurine of a bear twirling around slowly as a tune began to play. "Creepy," he said as the aged contraption caused the notes to play in a key that was semitone to the original, making it sound like something out of a bad horror film. "Why would Cullen have this?"

Fornell focused on the music box and became lost in thought. Something just didn't feel right about it...

28 days ago...

Tony was pulled from a drug induced sleep by the familiar sound of Cullen winding the music box and setting it on the table. The song began to play in all its eery glory, and Cullen sang along with it as he wandered the room...

"If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise."

"Look...Cullen..." Tony pleaded weakly, pulling against the ropes that held him to the wall. "I remember now, okay? I remember who you are. But you were cleared. I don't understand why you're doing this..."

Cullen ignored him, continuing to sing, "For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain, because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic."

"Why are you doing this?" Tony nearly whined. "Why are you keeping me here? I don't understand..."

"Ssshhhh..." Cullen approached him with a syringe. "It's time for the teddybear picnic, Anthony. If you want to play, you need to be a good little boy..."

"Nonono...no more drugs...please..." he let out a yelp as Cullen stuck the needle into his arm and emptied the contents with a push of the plunger.

As Tony's head began to loll, and his pleas to slur, Cullen continued to sing, "Every teddy bear who's been good is sure of a treat today. There's lots of marvelous things to eat and wonderful games to play..."

Present time...

Gibbs glanced at his watch for the hundredth time since they'd landed at Bethesda. It had been over two hours since they wheeled Tony off on the gurney into the E.R. Without Ducky here, there was really no way to get information sooner than simply waiting for someone to come out and bring him up to speed. Tony had remained unconscious the entire trip in the chopper, and Gibbs had no idea whether or not the agent would survive whatever Cullen had put him through.

He leaned his head back against the wall behind his seat and closed his eyes. The feeling he'd gotten when he discovered Tony in that room washed over him again. He couldn't erase the gruesome images of his agent; his friend... And he hadn't allowed himself to analyze any of it yet.

But now, there was nothing else he could do. Gibbs thought about the track marks on Tony's arms. His arms were the only part of him that seemed somewhat clean, aside from those marks and the sickly raw condition of his wrists from the rope. The rest of him looked as if Cullen might have hosed him down a time or two, but remained dust and dirt covered like the floor of that room, which led him to believe that he hadn't always simply been tied up there 24/7.

From the stubble on his face, it seemed as though Cullen had shaved him. Probably regularly, up until he stopped coming back, of course. And his hair had been kept a similar length as when he'd last seen him. Chances were, Cullen had done all of that so the identity wouldn't be mistaken or slowed to verify once he dumped the body...had he had the chance.

Aside from how thin Tony had appeared, perhaps it was his eyes that had worried Gibbs the most. He'd never seen that spark Tony had always had seem so lost and far away, since he'd known him. Sure, he'd seen it dim a bit in hard times. But Tony's eyes told a quiet story of pain and defeat; of loss and resignation...

Gibbs was pulled from his thoughts when his cell rang in his pocket. He hurriedly picked it up, "Gibbs."

"Jethro," Ducky's voice sounded on the other line. "Abigail and I have determined that the body exhumed in Cullen's backyard was, indeed, one of the Cullen brothers. I find this whole 'switch-a-roo' ordeal rather confusing, what with their DNA showing in the system as their alias's DNA. Ziva is interrogating Shaun now. How is Anthony?"

"No word yet, Duck. If you're done there-"

"I'll leave now. I'll bring you coffee and a bit of something to eat."

"Not hungry. Not even sure I can take coffee right now."

"You'll at least try. I'll see you shortly, Jethro," the call ended.

11 00 11 00 11

Tbc...