A/N: Not entirely happy with this chapter but if I try and fix it anymore I might just throw it all out. lol. Hope you guys like it and sorry for the wait. Happy Thanksgiving to all the US peeps out there. And Happy 25th of November to everyone else. :)
Chapter Nine
"You taking the ATV out son?" Allie's father, Patrick Campbell, asked as he walked out onto the screened in porch.
"Yes sir," Tony nodded, setting his crutches against the barn wall as he settled on the machine, "Cisco was going to come with me."
"Ever since the first time you brought him down here, he sure loves to ride on those things," Patrick, or Pat as everyone called him, smiled and shook his head, "Is Allie going with you?"
"No Colonel," Tony shook his head, "She's staying with Kayla and the dogs."
Kayla and Pat owned a nice piece of land a few hours outside the nearest city with a few horses and two Labs. Both Labradors had gotten along great with Axel and Cisco. It did help that the labs, Sadie and Boots, were both females.
"Let me go get some boots," Pat said, "And I'll join you."
"Alright," Tony said, not knowing whether or not to get nervous about the talk that the Colonel would no doubt give him. Tony liked Allie's father, had liked him ever since he had been introduced to him when they had started dating. But Tony had no doubt in his mind that Pat knew of the troubles his daughter and he had gone through.
Never one to shy away from things though, Tony waited patiently for the older, but still very active, man to fuel up a ATV and follow Tony into the woods and trails behind their house.
Cisco loved riding along with Tony. He would stay seated behind Tony, using the flatbed on the ATV (something Tony and Pat had made to help give the dogs more room to stand as both Pat's dogs rode everywhere with him). Cisco would stay patiently seated until their reached a river and pond that was a mile or so behind the house. There he would jump off the ATV and explore the reeds and wildlife that was hidden there, only rarely getting into the water.
"So Tony," Colonel Pat finally asked when they had been driving around the forest for an hour or so, "Allie told me about everything that happened before you guys came down to visit."
"About…our fights?" Tony supplemented, turning to face the Colonel as he spoke but looking back out over the pond when he was done. The pond was calm, quiet. Something Tony's soul hadn't been in quite some time.
But he was getting there, slowly.
"That," Colonel nodded, "But every couple has their ups and downs son. I don't expect you to be perfect, just as I know my daughter isn't. She can be quite the stubborn woman when she wants to be. Takes after he mother in that respect."
Tony smiled, not saying anything. Pat wanted to talk to him and Tony would make sure not to cut him off until the Colonel had told him what he wanted to say.
"What I was talking about," Pat finally said, "Was about your friend dying."
"I'm alright," Tony said, becoming instantly defensive. The Campbell's knew about his alcoholism, he kept no secrets from his family, but he hated the fact that everyone kept assuming just because a friend of his died-
"Woah now," Pat raised his hands, chuckling, "Calm down son. I can see your hackles rising and you don't even know what I was gonna tell you."
"If it's about me falling off the wagon-"
"Simmer down Tony," Pat smiled, "You Yankees are always so high strung."
Hearing the familiar joke between them, Tony felt himself relaxed, "That's what you all say ever since we won the war."
Pat laughed at that, "Alright then. You ready to hear what I'm going to say now?"
"Yes sir."
"Alright then," Pat took off his cowboy hat before rubbing his forehead with a hanky. Even in nice weather Pat sweated when he wore his cowboy hat. It was something the women of the family loved teasing him about, "Now. As I was saying, your friend died a month or so before you came down here. You thinking of transferring?"
Tony gave a pained smile at the admission, "Am I that transparent?"
Pat smiled and slapped Tony gently on the shoulder, "Just to your family son. And I asked you because if you were, would you consider moving down here?"
Tony smiled at Pat's question, "You just want us down here so you can spoil our kids."
"Now, I know my reasons aren't all altruistic," Pat shrugged, "But really, I want you and Allie, and my future grandkids to experience the comforts of southern living."
"You told Allie your plans?" Tony knew that Pat was serious with his offer but also knew that Pat was asking the same question he did every time they came down to visit. Pat wanted his daughter close to home although he trusted Tony in taking care of her since they lived far away.
"Not yet," Pat shook his head and laughed, "I fought in a war son, so I know a thing or two about facing the enemy. And you don't go asking my daughter those sort of things without a full proof plan."
Tony smiled and whistled, calling Cisco back. The German Shepherd's head appear out of the bushes and he let out a loud bark, bounding over the bushes to reach Tony's ATV.
"I think you are a smart man Colonel," Tony started up his engine and put his helmet back on.
"And you be sure," Pat said over the rumble of the ATV, "That you don't tell the misses I let you out on an ATV. Allie would skin me alive if she knew what you were doing so soon after you got shot."
"I promise," Tony nodded as he made sure all the sutures were holding and that his leg was okay.
Pat looked at Tony and Tony understood he had promised a lot more than what Pat had asked of him. And he knew that Pat understood that. It was just one of those things that made Tony love his father-in-law.
"Good job son," Pat said before starting his own machine and heading back towards the house.
"Hey McGee, I guess you're at work. Just wanted to call and tell you me and Allie are heading back with the dogs tomorrow so we should be there late. If you get this before then just give us a call and we can figure out when you can pick up Axel."
"So I'm guessing you're either ignoring me or Gibbs is keeping you at the office. It better be the latter McAbsent because Axel is depressed, I can tell. He's looking at me right now begging to go on a walk and since Allie won't let me leave the house because she caught me riding an ATV back at her parent's house and I swear she could top Gibbs glar-"
"Tim, you seriously need to get a better machine. It totally cut me off mid rant. Now I lost my train of thought. Anyway, we've been back since last night. Give me a call when you can. I'll try your cell later but you're being unreachable McGoo. Isn't that breaking one of your rules or something?"
"Alright. Seriously, it's been two days. The dogs are going stir crazy and since Allie went back to work, I'm hobbling around our house throwing the tennis ball for them and hiding their treats in the laundry basket which is giving them quite the challenge in finding the little pieces of meat because that pile is awful but Physical Therapy is kicking my as-"
"Again. Really. Anyway, hope everything's alright Tim. Call me when you get this message. If you don't, I'll have the dogs track your sorry ass down and then we'll see who doesn't answer their messages."
"Come on Tim. Call me back. You're alright right? I swear Axel won't bite you. Cisco might but I swear they don't hold a grudge…Call me back."
"One more day and I'm going to call Gibbs McGee. Do you know what that means? What I'm going to put myself through? So, be okay and call me back. You'd call right, if you fainted and landed in the hospital or something? Call me. I ran out of batteries and Allie won't get me more. Be a buddy. I'll talk to you soon."
Gibbs shook his head. McGee had nine messages on his machine and seven of them had been from Officer Tony DiNozzo. The other two had been from McGee's publishing company and his editor.
Rubbing his face, Gibbs turned on Tim's home phone and scrolled through the numbers until he landed on the one he was looking for. This wasn't going to be pleasant.
The phone rang three times before the person on the other end picked it up, cursing in Italian as he did, "McGee, what the heck man you really scared me. You're alright, right? McGee? If you lost your voice you should have considered texting or smoke signals-"
"DiNozzo," Gibbs said, cutting off the man before he continued rambling. Gibbs didn't have time for this.
"Gibbs," Tony said slowly and very carefully, as if Tony's mind was already calculating the reasons why McGee's Boss was calling him using McGee's phone line, "Where's McGee?"
"He's missing," Gibbs closed his eyes and let out a weary sigh, "Him and our ME assistant went missing during our last case."
"Palmer?" Tony asked, "When? Where? And why the hell am I only finding out about it now?"
"Because I've been busy," Gibbs growled into the receiver, "And I figured you wouldn't mind watching McGee's dog, considering he's missing."
"I'm coming in," Tony said and Gibbs could hear a crashing and then Tony's colorful Italian language as he more than likely banged his leg on something, "I'll meet you at NCIS in twenty."
"DiNozzo," Gibbs tried to tell him to wait but it was too late, Tony had already hung up on him.
"Murder's dead," Gibbs briefed Tony who was spinning his cane in his hand. That and his unruly hair and five o'clock shadow reminded Gibbs of that show on TV about a cranky doctor who used a cane to walk, "Ziva killed him when he tried to run her over with a car."
"Nice shot," Tony leant forward to look at the crime scene photos, "Did they go missing before this?"
"A few hours before, yeah," Gibbs glared at the screen, "This was four days ago. We've been looking for them since."
"Hmm," Tony hummed as Cisco whined at his feet, "It's alright boy. We'll find 'em."
"And soon," Ziva stood, "If they have been locked up somewhere, they only have a day, two at the most, if they do not have water handy."
Tony didn't seem to hear her. He kept flipping back and forward between two pictures.
"What's that?" Tony said, pointing to what looked to be a flat board on the forest floor, right by the body.
"Old mine shaft," Gibbs said, "Dogs didn't find anything."
Tony glared at the picture before turning to Gibbs, "They're in there."
"Our Boss has gut feelings," Ziva looked down at Tony's gut before looking at Tony, "What do you have?"
"St. Jude," Tony deadpanned.
"You have…a saint?" Ziva asked bewildered, looking at Tony's abdominal region with a new level of horror.
"When I was young my mom," Tony said, looking at Ziva out of the corner of his eye, "She gave me this," Tony lifted a pendant out of his jacket, "It's St. Jude. Patron Saint for Lost Causes."
"Did she believe you to be a lost cause?" Ziva said jokingly at the man who had become a very good friend with her partner.
"I don't know," Tony scowled at the pendant, "Never found out though. She died a few days later."
"Oh," Ziva asked, "I am sorry, I did not know. Was it sudden?"
"Car crash," Tony's face pinched up momentarily, "She was drunk supposedly at the time and to this day my dad claims it was an accident but my mom could drive a stick shift straight after drinking a bottle of wine so," Tony shrugged and laughed, "You're the first person I've ever told that to other than my wife."
Ziva nodded, "I lost my mother too, when I was young."
"Time doesn't help nearly as much as they promised it would, huh?" Tony looked at Ziva with a mutual understanding.
"No, Officer DiNozzo," Ziva shook her head, "It does not."
"Good," Tony mumbled, settling into the seat, "I thought I was the only one."
"We've searched the area DiNozzo," Gibbs scowled at Tony who was poking around the brush with his cane and good leg, "Dog's have already been through the area."
"The area's really wet," Tony looked around, "One of the first things we learn in tracking is that moisture can really kill any scent that's in the area. So, I'm looking for any dry patches…"
"Entrance to the mine's over here Tony," Gibbs said, calling down the hill. Tony had limped, although he tried his hardest to hide it, and he had practically fallen down the rather steep hill, though he had made Ziva and Gibbs stay up top. Cisco was going to have a hard enough job smelling for any sign of the missing guys that he didn't need…
"Gibbs!" Tony called down, pushing a huge thorn bush aside so Cisco wouldn't getting anything in his coat and paws, "Bring the flashlights!"
"This entrance doesn't even look like it's been used in the past century DiNozzo," Gibbs said as he helped Tony move the planks of wood.
"I know," Tony grunted, pulling the board out thanks to the deterioration of the nails, "But the way I figure it, you guys found the body right by the other entrance, right?"
"A couple hundred feet away but close enough," Gibbs handed the board to Ziva, who put the board far enough away so that the rusty nails would not harm any of them.
"Well," Tony gasped for breath. Man he was out of shape, "When I was in a kid, me and my best friend got lost in an old coal mine in Philadelphia when I was ten."
"Shessh," Gibbs said while Ziva just raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Anyway," Tony said, adjusting the hold he had on Cisco's leash, "We had some water bottles so as soon as I figured we were lost, I made sure me and my friend ration them. From what my dad told me afterwards, none of the dogs could track us because of the scents in the mine and the less than favorable conditions. It took this old man, he was a miner and had worked in the mines until the day they closed, to find us. By then we were so scared and tired and hungry that we had just sat in one spot and cried until this old guy, and Gibbs, he was old like, twice as old as you are right now, and he just scooped me and my friend up like we weighed nothing and he carried us all the way back to the light."
"What does this have to do with our case at the moment?" Ziva asked, untying the rope Tony had asked for and tying it to a nearby tree.
"Well the old guy," Tony said, "He showed me and my friend a trick about mines and how they're built. So I think if McGee and Palmer are in here, which I think they are because the killer didn't have time to stash them anywhere else, then they can only be in one place in the mine."
"Care to enlighten us on where that is?" Gibbs asked.
"Sworn to secrecy Gibbs," Tony limped forward now, Cisco at heel. He had his working backpack on and Tony had stuffed a few granola bars and bottle of waters in the pockets on the side so that if- when they found his friend and Palmer they would be ready to give them some much needed water, "But don't let go of the rope."
"McGee I swear, if you aren't in this stupid mine I'm going to hit you over the head with my cane when we find- oooff." Tony fell to the ground as he tripped over something.
"Holy crap McGee!" Tony said, rolling the lump of what was formerly know at Timothy McGee over so that he could assess the McGee's health.
Grabbing a bottle of water, Tony unscrew the lid and frantically poured it over McGee's face as Gibbs' worked to wake up Palmer, who was also tied up to what looked to be a ventilation pipe, the same pipe they had been following this whole time. Tony had remembered that the pipes lead to larger room that allowed for the men working the mines to not suffocate and to provide fresh air in case of a cave in.
"Wha," McGee coughed and sputtered for a good minute before opening his eyes, "I'm hallucinating again Jimmy."
"Not this time McCaptive," Tony used what was left of one bottled water and slowly poured it into Tim's mouth as Ziva cut McGee's bindings off, "Can't leave town for a week without you getting into trouble. Like an annoying little brother."
McGee swallowed the water greedily and wanted more but Tony shook his head, knowing too much too soon would present a problem to McGee's stomach, "You have siblings Tony?" McGee asked, his eyes opening and closing on their own accord.
Tony slapped McGee gently, wanting to keep the agent awake, "Nope. Always wanted a younger brother though."
"Umm," McGee nodded, "I have a sister."
"Younger?" Tony glanced over at Gibbs who was standing Palmer up. He looked to be in better shape than McGee, more than likely because the man was near a dripping rock overhang. He wasn't as dehydrated as McGee.
"Yeah," McGee nodded, "She was a surprise."
Tony laughed, "So was I."
Tim nodded and smiled at Tony, "Didn't think you'd come."
Tony smiled, before pouring some more water in McGee's mouth.
"Let's get you out of here McGee. Axel misses you."
Tony was being attended to by a lovely nurse, who no doubt knew his wife and had probably already called her. Just one of the many reason's Tony knew he was in for it the moment they had taken Palmer and McGee to Memorial Hospital.
"I'm going to chain you to the bed," Allie walked in and slapped Tony hard on the shoulder, "You scared me half to death when a nurse paged me and told me you where in the ER. Do you know," Allie's voice caught and she shook her head. Allie was the head social worker for this hospital and knew everyone in it. So as soon as Tony had told the nurse checking his leg wound who he was, she had nodded and left the room.
"I could kill you if you don't stop almost dying," Allie leaned into Tony and hugged him close, tucking her head in the crook of his neck.
"I'm sorry I scared you," Tony hugged her back just as hard, "But McGee was missing. And I had this feeling…"
"St. Jude again huh?" Allie laughed at the joke. Glad that Allie wasn't scared or angry enough not to laugh, Tony nodded.
"Did you find them?" Allie asked a few moments later when the nurse came in with another leg brace and a wheelchair.
"Yeah," Tony said, "And is that just for getting out of here?"
"You've been demoted," the nurse smiled at Allie before helping Tony strap on the brace, "We called your doctor and he wants you to rest the leg just in case you aggravated the healing muscle. And you are wheelchair bound for the next two weeks for tearing your hamstring muscle Mr. DiNozzo."
"Why didn't you tell me that?" Allie said, scowling at Tony, "Annabelle, did he tear the healing muscle?"
"No," the nursed applied a wrap to Tony's non-injured leg, "He hurt his good leg, thus the wheelchair. Mrs. DiNozzo, when you told me your husband was thickskulled, I didn't believe he was this stubborn."
Allie smiled and signed Tony's discharge papers.
"Come on," Allie pushed Tony towards the elevator, "Leo picked up Cisco. And Agent Gibbs ran into me in the hall. McGee and Mr. Palmer were transferred upstairs already."
"I think I'm going to be claustrophobic for the rest of my life," McGee wheezed slightly from his bed. Tony and Allie had said hello to Palmer already, who was up and moving around. Tony had waited for McGee's mother and father to leave their son's room before wheeling himself in.
"I was buried alive once," Tony said as he ate McGee's pudding. Most of the hospital food was disgusting but the pudding was Tony's weakness, "Took my partner, I was a detective at the time, almost a whole day to find me."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Tony nodded, "Coffin had these see through walls and I could see the worms and ants right outside," Tony shuddered in memory, "Right after that I transferred to this little city in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. I transferred again a few months later. While I love the open air, I loved the city a lot more. I couldn't sleep under my covers for a few weeks though."
"Gibbs told me you found me," Tim said, eating his ice chips and drinking the melted ones, "How did you know where to look for me?"
"Gibbs did most of the work before I even got there," Tony shrugged, "They had searched everywhere else with a fine tooth comb. I just figured you'd be in the mine. Killer didn't have enough time to stash you anywhere else."
"He hit me with a shovel I think," McGee touched his head gingerly, "Jimmy dragged me to that place you found me. We figured when the tunnel caved in a day later then we were pretty much dead."
"I got lost in a mine once too, so I knew there'd have to be another way in. They started doing that after too many miners died in cave ins."
"Anything you haven't had happen to you Tony?" McGee asked.
"Never fallen out of a plane," Tony smiled, "Or contracted the pneumonic plague."
"How'd you know about that?" McGee asked.
"Ducky told me," Tony said, "He said that's why they're keeping an eye on your lungs."
"This is not as bad," McGee smiled, "Back then, Kate would stay up with me all night and read me stories from this mystery novel. She said the desire to know the ending would keep me alive…"
"Kate?" Tony asked when McGee trailed off.
"She died in the line of duty," McGee sighed, "My partner, first one actually."
"I'm sorry," Tony said quietly, "She's seems like a nice gal. Wish I could have met her."
"You would have liked her," McGee smiled, "But I don't think she would have liked you."
Tony laughed at the omission and settled down in the wheelchair.
Allie would be back soon with a pillow and the keys to his car so they could head home but until then, he would make sure McGee had company until the Gibbs and Ziva came back from wherever they had disappeared to.
Tony looked at McGee and saw the darkness starting to encroach on him again so he did the only thing he knew how to do very well. He started talking about movies, and how surprisingly, this whole situation reminded him of one in particular.
But he just couldn't remember the title.
That was okay though. McGee didn't really seem to mind much anyway.
It would never be what it might have been, both McGee and Tony decided at the same time, but at the moment, both were alive and happy.
Everything else would fall in to place sooner or later.
A/N2: Last chapter will be up soon. :) Reviews are always welcomed and very much appreciated.
