Okay all you lovely people here is the next chapter! Thank you to all the people that have poked me over the last year or two. I did lose quite a lot of my ideas when my laptop went up in a poof of blue smoke! I want to kick myself for the ending of the last chapter leaving it like that for a few years! Evil Cliffy! But alas here it is!

Chapter 10

But then Tony started convulsing….

Gibbs, Ducky and Kate had all been swiftly moved out of the way and out of the recovery area. Forced to stay behind a staff only door when one of their own was possibly dying.

And it was killing them.

Gibbs had been growling for the last half an hour, looking ready to kill anyone who spoke to him.

Ducky was sighing and hoping beyond anything that he would have been allowed back there, considering his own medical knowledge.

Kate's expression was lost, everything she thought she knew had been ripped away by the last few horror filled days she had spent with her partner; of whom she realised she knew nothing about.

And now she knew that she had been completely wrong in her assumptions. The way that both Gibbs and Ducky were acting showed that they had been here before and it spoke of a deeper connection between the three of them that she knew little about. Now that her eyes had been opened she was willing to take the time to get to know them rather than her own preconceived notions about them.

But what if he….

No, she shook her head and stood up from the hard seat she had been sitting on and walked to the staff only door, resting her head on it and hoping that it would open purely because she wanted it to. The solid feeling of the door reminding her of how resolute Tony had been to get her out of that place, a few tears escaped her eyes without her permission as she stood against the door. She was no longer ashamed of the reasons she was crying for. She couldn't lie any longer, not to herself and not to the others. She cared about Tony more than a partner, more than just a friend and it was ripping her apart that she was separated by this door. It was almost as if she was deaf and blind again like she had been at times when they had been captured. She couldn't see or hear him from here and this damn door just wasn't budging no matter how hard she had started pushing on it.

It was then that McGee found the group and asked.

"What's happened?"

He saw Kate facing the heavy door, oblivious to the looks of sadness and pain she was receiving from both Ducky and Gibbs.

It was Ducky who responded to the question but the voice wasn't what he remembered of the ME that he had gotten used to.

"Tony has taken a turn for the worse."

There were no stories, no lengthy explanations, and no reassurances that everything was going to be okay.

McGee paled, he was new to the team but that didn't mean he didn't care nor looked up to them all. Especially Tony, he was pained to admit that Tony was like an older brother to him not that he would tell him that but he always knew without doubt that even though Tony annoyed him he would be there for him if he needed it.

Kate switched from pushing against the door to banging both fists against it, drawing everyone's attention back to her. Tony's words were tormenting her.

Take Care Now

Said almost as if he knew that they would never see each other again, as if it was okay that he was going to ensure her safety even at the cost of his own.

As if his sole purpose of being was to protect everyone else but himself.

And she couldn't keep more tears from falling.

No one should feel like that.

She flinched when Ducky put his arm around her shoulder as he led her to the seat she had vacated earlier.

"Why, Ducky?" Her voice wavering on the tears falling in earnest since this whole thing had started.

Everyone knew what she was asking, but no one had the heart to answer.

Not right now.

Not when his life hung in the balance by such a small thread.

Gibbs growled low and wiped his hands over his face, this wasn't how this was supposed to go now that they had rescued the wayward agents. It was supposed to all be fine and they could get on with their lives. He couldn't look at anyone else; fearing they might see just how he felt about Tony. He felt awful that he hadn't stopped what Kate had said; and while Tony hadn't really admitted anything directly, he could have stopped it and maybe then he wouldn't have worked himself up trying to explain something Kate should have already known given her history as a profiler. He felt wholly responsible for Tony's deterioration and nothing that anyone said would relieve that until her knew Tony was out of the woods.

"What happened, Kate?" Gibbs' voice wasn't cruel just questioning.

He hadn't forgotten Tony by any means, but it was obvious that they would have to wait until someone came and updated them on his condition.

Kate stared up at him for a moment, her eyes asking 'why now' but it was obvious to them all that she had remembered something given her reaction a few moment ago. So with Ducky sitting beside her and McGee on the other side she gathered herself and started.

"He told me to run…"

x-X-x

The fear that gripped around her throat and chest was the strongest she had ever felt in her life after hearing Tony's last few words. She almost couldn't breathe with the strength of it. There was a deep unsettling pain that flared up in her chest as if she would never see him again, or at least not alive.

She struggled against the person holding her but it was to no avail, his grip was far stronger than her training.

You can't! She screamed in her head.

She tried to get one last look at Tony's face but it was obscured in seconds by the heavy door closing, blocking him out for what felt like the umpteenth time today. Were they even in the same day she wondered not for the first time? In her worry she wasn't expecting to be tied up again to the chair she had previously escaped from.

Defeated, she sighed heavily trying to keep her composure, not allowing anything but hate for her captors show on her face. With one last slap to her face the person who had stopped her from getting to her partner spun and left the room.

She was alone and nothing they had tried to do had worked.

All it had done was get them both hurt, especially Tony.

For once in her life she was not sure of anything that had happened, why they were here, nor why Tony had taken it upon himself to be her protector.

All her profile training was screaming at her something fierce about how someone could care so little about themselves. She didn't want to think about it because it did not fit with the happy-go-lucky persona that Tony showed the world every day. Though, even as she thought it she knew it wasn't true

Shivers wracked her tried body as she tried to process what had happened in the last few hours, days? Nothing made sense anymore.

Distant sounds caught her attention but she couldn't make any of them out.

Suddenly, ice coursed through her veins.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

No amount of skin being ripped off her wrists was going to change a thing.

Then out of nowhere the muffled sounds were getting louder as if they were outside the door.

Then the door splintered off its hinges as a large body flew through the entrance taking the door with it missing her by mere centimetres. She couldn't look but hoped beyond anything that it hadn't been Tony's body flying through the air.

When she did look, the blank eyes staring unseeingly back made her heart beat pound faster almost out of her chest. Tony? It can't be…

Then a voice startled her.

"It's okay, Kate we're getting out of here now." The voice was exhausted but soft and familiar!

Tony cupped Kate's check in his warm hand and encouraged her to look at him and away from the man he had just killed. One down, two to go hopefully.

"Tony!" When she finally looked at her partner she had so many questions to ask and wanted to know if he had been harmed more, trying to really look at him but the lights in the room were dismal. She started to ask her questions but was interrupted by the haste in Tony's voice.

"Kate, we need to go now." He didn't know how much longer he could stay standing after his last fight with their captors.

She had been released in seconds and moved with Tony as they both, with a strength they didn't feel, started to run down the dingy corridor. She didn't want to jinx anything but, she felt a small well of hope within her stomach that maybe they could survive this.

After running forever, she could tell Tony was waning, not that she was running faster than him but his complexion was more and more flushed as they went and she was worried that he was going to collapse. But before she could tell him to rest she heard large pounding footsteps behind her.

She found herself propelled without warning in front of Tony.

"Keep running! I'll be right behind you!"

So that's what she did.

She ran and didn't stop.

Just as ordered.

She didn't see the look on Tony's face in the darkness of the corridor, didn't she him turn back the other way, standing guard so their captors would go no further than him.

It was only when she saw Gibbs that she realised that she hadn't been followed.

That she had left her partner.

That she had failed.

As a partner.

As a friend.

x-X-x

"I left him, didn't even look back."

The guilt in Kate's voice was palpable. She didn't want to look up to see the disappointment in everyone's face.

"You did what he asked you to."

Surprisingly the response was from Gibbs, there was no blame in his voice just reassurance that she had done as ordered.

They were all trying to absorb what had been said when the staff only door finally opened.

They all stood and looked to the doctor for answers.

The doctor was taken aback by being stared down by the four of them but cleared his throat and spoke directly to Gibbs and Ducky.

"He is unconscious," when Gibbs glared the doctor put his hand up so he could continue, "He had a convulsion due to a very high temperature he developed due to his injuries and a chest infection that had already started before we even got him to surgery."

"Considering all of his injuries he is a very lucky man to be alive." The doctor continued as he could see everyone was worrying.

"What is his prognosis?" Ducky asked worriedly.

"Well we are concerned that he might end up on the ventilator due to his chest but as long as he is calm and rests I don't see why we would need to do that unless his condition were to worsen. He is on a lot of anti-biotics and pain medication so hopefully in the next day or so we will be able to safely say that he is out of the woods."

They all breathed a sigh of relief that, while he was not out of the woods completely he was still alive and for the moment stable.

"When can we see him?" Kate beat Gibbs to the question but looked towards the doctor for the answer. Waiting and hoping that he could see his agent.

"For the moment please try and keep the visits calm and a maximum of two at a time so we don't over tax him. Now, follow me."

They all followed the doctor to the waiting area on the floor that held their friend and settled in for a long night. Gibbs was the first to visit Tony, Kate almost protested but allowed it because she still felt guilty about what she had said.

But knowing he was alive would have to do for now and she breathed easier than she had since all this had started.

TBC

Well that was a long one. There is still more to come like hurt Tony and a good few bits to wrap up story wise but at least he is alive and safe in hospital right