AN: Sorry for the delay. I lost my groove for a while...like seriously with EVERYTHING. But I think I'm getting it back. This is my first attempt back into writing anything in over a week. Let's see where it goes...
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The team of SUVs and prisoner transport vehicle were about an hour into their trip back to DC. Gibbs was driving directly behind the transport, Tony sitting in the passenger seat beside him. In front of the transport Tim and Ziva lead the way. Hotchner had volunteered himself and his team to man the transport. They would meet back at NCIS and debrief as a group, bringing in Ducky, Abby and Penelope as well, since they had taken part in the investigation.
The trip would take a total of four hours if they were lucky enough not to hit traffic. Gibbs could've made it back faster, but the group had to maintain a safe speed for the entire journey. They were just grateful that the road so far seemed fairly vacant.
Tony had been quiet for the entire trip so far. It had begun to worry Gibbs. His SFA was usually an endless chatter-box. The only time he wasn't was when he was worried or asleep. And he was definitely far from sleeping right now. But whatever he might be thinking about, Gibbs couldn't stop him. He might be able to make him shut up, but one thing he had very little control over was the man's thoughts. The only thing he could attempt was to divert them. So he considered the topic of the effect of milk.
"Not sure, Boss," Tony broke the silence. "Whatever it is, it works. And I'm pretty well okay with that." Gibbs glanced to him for a moment before looking back to the road. He hadn't even asked the question yet, and Tony was answering it. "I think I'm gonna have Abby look into it. Maybe give her a sample of my blood and let her test it with the ingredients in milk to see if it's one this in partic-"
"Tony," he interrupted. "What are you talkin' about?"
Tony looked over at him, eyes narrowed for a moment. "The milk, Boss," he replied. "You wanted to know why it helps me."
Gibbs looked at him again. "I never said anything," he looked back at the road.
"You were... You..." Tony shook his head as if confused.
"I was thinking about asking. But I never asked."
Tony's face broke into a smile, "Well that'd mean I read your..." the smile faded from his face, and it blanched white. His eyes flickered back and forth at nothing, and he turned his head back to face forward, looking out the windshield as the look remained. His breathing audibly sped up, and he seemed to be in a slight state of panic.
"Hey," Gibbs tried to calm him. "Not a big deal, DiNozzo. Never happened before, right? Could just be a fluke thing." But Tony wasn't responding. Gibbs had assumed that he'd been having a freak-out about what had just happened, but when he saw the agent's hands clenched, his left on the seat beside him and his right to the grip on the door, he examined his face again. Something was happening. Tony was hearing something else, right now, and it was terrifying him...
"Tony...let me go. I've changed my mind. I don't want to be imprisoned. An eternity of imprisonment, Tony. I couldn't take it. I couldn't... You have to let me go. You don't need me locked away. You can do the research with me out of here, still."
"No..." Tony said.
"Tony, what's happening?" Gibbs asked, starting to worry a bit more. But it seemed Tony couldn't hear him.
"Let me go, Anthony! Let me go or you'll be sorry!"
"I won't!"
"Hey!" Gibbs shouted, hoping to pull him out of whatever what going on in his head. "Talk to me, DiNozzo!"
"I...I c-can't!" he said. Gibbs wasn't sure if he was even speaking to him.
"If you don't get me out of here, I'll destroy everything you love. I will end what time you have left with your friends. Do you want that? Do you want to be without them, already?"
"You can't do that. You can't do that!" Tony shouted.
Gibbs seemed to get what was going on, and he lifted his foot off of the accelerator a bit, pulling out his cell and dialing. "McGee, we need to pull off," he shouted into the phone. "I think Gideon is going something to Tony. Call Hotch. Tell him what's going on. See if we can sedate that bastard!"
"It's up to you to take that risk, Tony. It's on your hands if they die before their time. Are you willing to take that risk?"
"I won't let you!" Tony yelled out with a strength he didn't know he had, and something shattered in him; in his head something something closed down and stopped the voice from reaching him, and the force of it slammed into him like a brick wall, pushing all of the breath out of him at once.
"Tony!" Gibbs yelled, jerking the car off the road onto the thankfully wide shoulder that led into grass. Somewhere in the corner of his mind he was aware that the other vehicles had pulled over as well, as his protective mode kicked into overdrive at he sight of his agent's distress. Tony had himself pressed back into the seat, the once pale skin of his face now flushed red as he struggled for breath. "Hey! Tony, breathe!" he gripped the man's shoulder, shaking him as if to pull him back to reality. But Tony still struggled, and Gibbs could only think to get out of the car and rush around to open Tony's. And by the time he'd managed to do that, the younger man had already begun to claw his way out of it himself.
Gibbs caught him in time to stop his inevitable tumble to the ground, and Tony tried to push him away as he madly tried to take in a breath. But then he was suddenly clinging to Gibbs, fear evident in his eyes before they rolled back into his head. His body began violently quaking in Gibbs' arms, forcing them both to the ground.
Even with the knowledge that Tony couldn't die, the seizures scared Gibbs more than any of the other stuff. Though the Contingency compound gave Tony the ability of miraculous self-healing, factoring in that Gideon's mind was ever-degrading over the course of time, seemed to indicate that its application for healing the human brain was flawed. Gibbs worried that injury to it could mean that something horrific would happen to his agent. And that thought scared him beyond comprehension.
As he held Tony's body on its side, waiting for it to stop its fit, he forced himself to look away, and realized that Tim, Ziva and Aaron were running toward them. Hotch having been closest reached him first. "What's going on, Agent Gibbs?" he asked, eyes wide. "I couldn't get my cell to make a call out. I'd been trying to reach you. Gideon was acting strange, and now..." he glanced back at the transport where Morgan and Reid stood with guns pointed at the man in the cell, then and back to Gibbs.
"How?" Gibbs asked. "What do you mean strange?"
"He started breathing oddly, talking to himself, but nothing we could make out. And then right before you pulled over, he collapsed and started screaming. He's still screaming." And it hadn't been necessary to tell him that, because he could hear it from where he was.
He looked back down at Tony, still quaking as strongly in his arms. Then he made the only obvious decision. "Shut him up," he said.
"What?" Hotch asked.
"Shoot him." There was a moment of no response, and he decided to repeat himself louder, "Shoot him!" he looked back up at the man. "He won't stay dead! Just shut him the hell up!"
Hotchner shook his head, hesitantly, but McGee had already turned and started a fast walk back to the transport, drew his weapon, aimed and fired at Gideon's head, effectively ending the bloodied screams. Morgan and Reid stood stunned, watching as Tim made his way back to the rest of the group, and then they holstered their weapons and closed the doors to the transport.
Upon the shot, Tony's seizure stopped, and Gibbs turned him onto his back where he lay in his lap. Whether it was coincidence or not, Gibbs didn't know. For a moment, he feared it'd killed him. Tony wasn't breathing. Gibbs' heart jumped to his throat. And then suddenly Tony's eyes shot open, bloodshot and hemorrhaged, and he was gasping for air, arms flailing and grabbing at Gibbs' shirt as if to keep from falling to his death.
"Tony, I've got you," Gibbs said loud enough for him to hear over his struggled breathing as he grabbed hold of the side of Tony's head. "You're okay. Ya hear me?"
Tony's eyes made their way to meet Gibbs', with some effort, and the older man's heart clenched in his chest as a tear fell from the corner of the younger's eye, trailing to his ear unseen by the others. He made a sound like a whimper; a plea as he gripped tighter on the front of Gibbs' shirt.
"Pain?" Gibbs confirmed, and Tony's eyes squeezed shut. The lead agent looked up to Ziva. "Cooler in the back of our SUV," he commanded. "Milk."
She nodded, understanding immediately, and quickly fetched it for him. "Milk?" Morgan inquired as he and Reid joined them, crouching down as the rest of them were.
"Helps him when it gets like this," Tim explained, knowing that Gibbs didn't have the patience to care about anything but his agent right then and there.
"What exactly is this?" Morgan asked. "What's happening to him?"
"This happens when his...abilities are used in excess to what he is used to," Ziva explained. "Though I have not seen a seizure happen..."
"In the hospital, when it first began," Gibbs told her. "Here, Tony. I'm gonna sit you up so you can drink this, alright?" he slowly moved him a bit upright so that he wouldn't choke. Hotcher instinctively moved in to help, getting behind Tony and offering his arms to support his back. Tony couldn't let go of his grip on Gibbs' shirt, even when the lead agent expected him to take the quart of milk from him. Instead, Gibbs held the bottle to Tony's lips and tipped it, allowing Tony to drink.
After a few swallows, Tony's hand released Gibbs' shirt and took hold of the container, drinking it a bit faster. They started helping him to sit up a bit more as he chugged the milk down. After a moment, he finished and Gibbs took the empty container from him. Tony seemed to want to get up, though he said nothing.
As Gibbs and Hotch helped him up, Gibbs nodded to his agents to head back to their SUV. "Let's get outta here," he told them, and Morgan and Reid began to head back as well, Aaron staying to help get Tony back to the car once they got him standing.
But then Tony was pushing away, and it wasn't until he lurched forward and vomited the milk he'd just ingested, that they understood why. Gibbs moved back toward him and Tony staggered to the side, then collapsed face-first into the grass before either agent could catch him.
Gibbs was at his side in an instant, instinctively checking for a pulse. After the relief of feeling his pulse, he sighed, "Tony. What's going on with you?"
"Is he okay?" Hotchner asked as he knelt at Tony's other side.
"Just unconscious. Help me get him into the car and let's get to DC..."
Tbc...
AN: As always, there's probably typos. Forgive me and them. lol
