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Gibbs came hurtling through the door and froze at the sight before him. A pale, unmoving body lay on the floor in front of him, in a huge pool of blood. Tony's eyes were closed and he was lying on his back, hand resting feebly over his wound.

"Tony!" Gibbs cried, kneeling beside his agent. He felt a brief surge of relief as the agent's eyes flickered open. His eyelids drooped and his eyes were cloudy, but Tony managed to focus on Gibbs's face.

"H-hey, B-Boss," Tony rasped out. "About…t-time you…showed up." He tried to smile, but couldn't. All he could manage was a lopsided smirk which came off as more of a grimace.

"Sorry about the holdup, DiNozzo. We had some stuff to take care of."

"You…got him, r-right?" Tony said quietly.

"Of course."

Tony looked at his boss more closely, seeing his arm. "You're…b-bleeding," he said with concern.

Gibbs laughed. "Yeah, so are you, in case you didn't notice."

Tony grimaced. Just then, Ziva and McGee came sprinting into the room. Both gasped and went pale when they saw Tony.

Gibbs looked up quickly. "You got the guard?" They nodded silently, their eyes not leaving their fallen partner. "Knocked him out," McGee whispered.

Tony's breathing hitched and his face was pinched in concentration, trying to control it. Gibbs put one hand on Tony's forehead, while the other kept pressure on his wound. He cringed when he felt the layer of perspiration. It was as if Tony had run a marathon, yet all he was trying to do was breathe.

"Hold on, DiNozzo. Help will be here soon," Gibbs said, trying to reassure both his agent and himself. "McGee, go check on that ambulance! They needed to be here 10 minutes ago!" McGee scurried out.

Tony's eyes kept closing, then opening momentarily, before closing once more. His breathing had slowed so much that the rise and fall of his chest was barely visible.

"Stay with me, DiNozzo. You need to keep fighting. I know you're tired, but-" Gibbs stopped mid-sentence as they heard a yelp from McGee and a commotion in the hallway. Ziva was out the door in a millisecond.

Gibbs looked from the peaked face of his senior agent to the hallway, where an obvious struggle was taking place. An inner conflict was brewing inside. Ziva and McGee are in trouble…they need my help. But I can't just leave Tony here.

"Go," Tony said in a whisper. Even clouded with pain and fatigue, his eyes locked Gibbs's in an intense gaze. In that gaze, his message was clear. In that one word, he had exercised a sort of desperate authority over Gibbs.

With a last look at his agent, Gibbs squeezed Tony's shoulder and said firmly, "Hang in there, DiNozzo. I'll be back." He ran out the door.

Tony watched his boss's back disappear into the hallway. He prayed his friends would make it out ok, even if he wouldn't. Tony drew a final, long breath and released it, surrendering to the darkness. The same darkness which he had been fighting so hard. He couldn't imagine why. The unknown black was strangely comforting. It didn't hurt in the blackness. The blazing pain in his abdomen, the pounding in his head, the sting of each intake of air…It was all gone. It's better here, Tony thought. And with that, Tony DiNozzo's heart ceased to beat.

. . .

Gibbs leapt into the ongoing fight, landing a few punches on the guard. Ziva was recovering from a blow to the head, stumbling a bit before regaining her composure. McGee was trying to wrestle the guard's gun away from him.

"I thought you said you took care of him?!" Gibbs shouted angrily.

"I guess we didn't hit him hard enough," McGee said apologetically. "I swear I thought he was-" McGee blocked a punch. "-unconscious."

Gibbs kneed the guard in the gut, then twisted his arms behind his back. "You got handcuffs?" he asked impatiently.

"I do," Ziva said. She grabbed the cuffs from her belt, and threw them to Gibbs. "McGee, keep an eye on him." McGee nodded.

Gibbs and Ziva quickly turned the corner into the room Tony was in. Gibbs's face fell as he saw that Tony wasn't moving. The small rise and fall of his chest had stopped. "Tony!"

In less than a second, Gibbs and Ziva were at Tony's side.

"Dammit, DiNozzo, don't do this to me," Gibbs said, feeling Tony's neck for a pulse. Nothing. No steady beat beneath his fingers. He laid his ear against Tony's chest, willing himself to hear something…anything. Nothing. No sound came.

The silence was deafening.

Ziva looked worriedly at Gibbs, panic in her eyes.

"You need to breathe for him, Ziva," Gibbs ordered. He placed his hands on Tony's sternum and used his body weight as leverage to pump his chest. After a round of compressions, he said "Now." And Ziva pressed her lips to Tony's. She forced her air into his lungs. His lips are so blue, she thought to herself.

"Come on, DiNozzo! Come on!" Gibbs said, continuing compressions. "You're not gonna let a scumbag like that get the best of you, are you?"

Ziva gave Tony two more breaths. Wake up, Tony, she pleaded. Please.

With each thrust to his chest, Tony's head lolled a little. Other than that, his pale body was completely still.

Another round of breaths and compressions, and Tony was still unresponsive.

"Where's that goddamn ambulance?!" Gibbs shouted, to no one in particular. He was still pumping Tony's heart, keeping the blood flowing.

Ziva's vision was blurred by the tears in her eyes as she breathed into Tony. Gibbs pressed his fingers to Tony's neck, feeling nothing.

"I've been where you are, DiNozzo. I came through for you, now I need you to do the same," Gibbs said, with a note of desperation in his voice. "Dammit, you didn't make it through all this to die in some grimy warehouse! Breathe!"

He pounded his fist into Tony's chest before taking a moment to compose himself. He laid his head on his agent's unmoving chest. Thump. Gibbs's head shot up. He put his ear over Tony's heart. Thump…Thump…Thump…The beat was slow, but it was better than nothing.

A wave of relief washed over Gibbs. "We have a heartbeat, Ziva, but he's still not breathing. Continue the rescue breaths, ok?"

Ziva nodded just as the EMTs came in. They worked over Tony for a few seconds, before loading him onto the gurney and speeding out.

Gibbs followed right behind. "I'm coming with him," he said to the EMT, as they loaded Tony into the ambulance. The paramedics looked hesitant, but realizing they had no time to waste, just nodded.

Gibbs sat next to his senior agent, blue eyes fixed worriedly on the pale face. The paramedics began cleaning the wound and trying to stop the bleeding. After a few seconds, Tony's heart monitor began erratically beeping. The paramedics shouted instructions to each other as a solitary line spread across the screen. Gibbs clenched his trembling hands together. Not this again, DiNozzo.

. . .

Ziva walked out of the room, tears streaming down her face. McGee went to her side. "What's wrong? What's going on? Is Tony going to be ok?" he asked nervously.

Ziva wiped her eyes. "Gibbs and I had to do CPR…we brought him back, but…" Her voice cracked, "He looks pretty bad."

McGee tried to mask the shock he felt. Tony had always seemed so…invincible. The thought of his heart stopping, of him actually dying… He pushed the thought out of his mind and grabbed Ziva's arm.

"Come on, let's follow the ambulance," he said gently. "We'll call Abby and Ducky on the way to let them know what's going on." They hopped in the car and took off flying down the road, both silently worrying for their fallen colleague.

. . .

Gibbs watched the nurses and doctors flock around Tony's gurney, ushering it into the Trauma area. He began to push his way through the doors when a nurse pulled him back.

"I'm sorry, sir. No one's allowed back there, not even family."

Gibbs gave the woman his best and most intimidating stare, but she stood resolutely in front of him. The woman's eyes softened a bit. "I know you're worried, sir. But the best thing for Mr. DiNozzo right now is for you to have a seat in the waiting room and let the doctors do their jobs."

Knowing she was right, but not wanting to admit it, Gibbs just spun around and sat in one of the comfortable chairs in the waiting room.

He buried his face in his hands, unable to forget the image of DiNozzo in the ambulance. The hum of the defibrillator charging up. The way Tony's body jerked when they shocked him with the paddles…They had almost lost Tony twice. That was twice too many in Gibbs's book.

He leaned back in the chair, preparing for the rest of the team's arrival.

. . .

A few minutes later, Ziva and McGee came rushing through the door, both their faces tense with fatigue, and more so, concern. Upon seeing Gibbs, they sat in the chairs next to him.

Ziva opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, Gibbs said, "He flatlined in the ambulance, but they brought him back. He's in Trauma now. They won't let us see him, but they'll send someone to talk to us as soon as they have news."

Ziva's lip trembled and McGee's face was pale. As they took a moment to digest the information, Abby, Ducky and Palmer came crashing into the waiting room, Abby leading the pack. Her eyes were wild with panic. She came sprinting up to the group, almost running McGee over in the process.

"Where is he? Is he gonna be ok? 'Cause I know he's not ok now, that's obvious, especially after the way McGee sounded on the phone. He wouldn't say what exactly was wrong but his voice was all low and haggard-like. So just how not-ok is he? I assume it's not good- I mean you should have heard McGee's voice, and I don't think it was just the bad connection. Plus, we're in the waiting room, not with Tony, which is where we would be if he wasn't hurt that bad. How bad is he hurt exactly? And why aren't you with him, Gibbs? You're his next of kin, they should let you back there- I'll go talk to them," Abby said, taking a huge breathe after the long flurry of words. She spun around and began walking toward the large circular desk, when Gibbs's strong arm held her gently back.

"Abs," he said, looking straight into her eyes. "You need to calm down. Tony's in Trauma now. The doctors are taking good care of him and they'll give us news as soon as they have any."

"So what happened?" Abby asked quietly.

"He was stabbed," Gibbs said, his eyes not leaving hers.

Abby's face brightened. "Well that's not so bad! I mean-yeah it's bad, but Tony's been stabbed before. He showed me the scars! He said he barely felt it and recovered really quickly." Her eyes shone with hope.

Gibbs's gaze softened, and he said quietly, "It's not like that, Abs." Her eyes looked at him questioningly. "He was stabbed with an 8-inch knife. He bled out for at least 40 minutes before we got to him…probably more. His heart has stopped twice since." Gibbs squeezed Abby's hand sympathetically. "We're gonna be here for a while, Abs. You want to grab some coffee with me?" Abby nodded silently, tears spilling over her eyes. Gibbs gently led her down the hall.

Ducky, Palmer, McGee, and Ziva sat quietly, each of them lost in thought, worry present in all their faces.