A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but I've been frantically writing and re-writing. Thanks to all for the reviews and feedback.

Chapter 10

Alice's almost inhuman cry echoed around the derelict barn and beyond, as she stood at the entrance to the now empty shelter.

Her tortured mind was unwilling to accept Barbara's betrayal, deciding instead that Tony must have coerced her into it somehow. Well he was sure going to pay for it when she caught up with him.

Still clutching the knife and the med kit Alice ran outside, knowing exactly where the couple would go and that they couldn't have much of a lead, not with the dose of sedative she'd given Tony that morning.

Shouting Barbara's name again and again, Alice followed them into the woods.

Ziva threw caution to the wind and broke cover, at almost the same moment Alice Spurlock came out of the big barn and started running towards the line of trees beyond the farm house.

To Tony's drug addled brain the escape into the creepy woods seemed surreal, almost like some freakish 'Blair Witch' hallucination.

The thing was, he couldn't actually remember what he was running from, just that it was really bad. Knew from the way that someone was tugging on his hand and practically dragging him along, urging him breathlessly to move faster, that maybe his life depended on it.

They fought their way through dense undergrowth, where sharp jagged branches snagged at his thin layer of clothing or caught in his hair, some gauging deep scratches along exposed flesh; and clambered over steep mounds of woodland detritus, stumbling occasionally at some hidden obstacle along the way. After a time Tony started to flag noticeably and it was all he could do to put one leaden foot in front of the other. Then his bare feet caught in a tangle of shrubbery and he went down sprawling, his breathing labored and ragged from the exertion.

Despite a freaked Barbara's efforts to urge him up and on, he was determined to stay right where he was for a few minutes - or at least until the trees overhead stopped that crazy spinning thing.

He was lucid enough to realize that they hadn't made much ground, but he just didn't have the energy or inclination to move right at that moment. Days of lying inert, trussed up and drugged out of his head had taken their toll, and he was suddenly weak as a proverbial kitten. Only adrenalin and Barbara's constant nagging had got him out of his underground prison and kept him going, but now he wasn't sure he had anything left..

"Tony, you have to get up. She's coming."

"S'nice, "he slurred, rolling onto his back. "Ya know what. I'm just gonna lay here for a minute."

Actually it really was a nice place to be, if you ignored the prickly things digging into his barely clad ass. The late afternoon sun filtering through the trees bathed him in a warm all over tingly glow.

"We have to keep moving," Barbara was clawing desperately at his arm again. What was it with her! "Alice is going to kill you."

It was true to say that nothing worked quite like the threat of imminent death to clear a foggy brain, and with a lot of effort Tony managed to push himself up on his elbows to gaze back along the deserted track. From there he rolled onto all fours and struggled sluggishly to his feet, using Barbara and the trunk of an old spruce as support. He had just enough time to take a few steadying breaths before Barbara grabbed his hand and they were on the move again.

They had nearly made it all the way across a clearing, when a shrill scream from Barbara was the only warning before something heavy slammed into Tony and took him back down - hard. His temple struck the edge of a rock as he landed, and his brain had just a few scant seconds to register that pain before it was joined by another one burning a hot trail across his chest and then back and forth across his exposed forearms, as he raised them instinctively to shield himself.

Some innate sense of survival or a pure stubborn streak wouldn't let him go down without some sort of fight back, so he struck out with his feet and was rewarded by a yelp and then a curse as he connected with soft flesh. But it didn't take long at all for Alice Spurlock to recover from his weak attempt at self-preservation before she resumed her frenzied attack; lashing out again and again until Tony did the only thing he could under the circumstances and curled his body into a tight ball in a vain attempt to protect it. He couldn't suppress the hiss of pain each time the edge of the blade scored another long bloody line down his exposed back.

He lay there, breathing hard and trembling, waiting for another strike or for the blade to finally plunge into his flesh. But instead Alice grabbed his arm forcefully and literally dragged him the few feet to where Barbara cowered in abject terror, dumping him in a heap in front of her.

"Now look what you've made me do," Alice snarled accusingly at the younger woman, before rewarding Tony's groan with a spiteful kick to his side. Barbara started to cry, but Alice was too far gone to be moved by tears. "You've ruined everything."

"I…I didn't mean to," Barbara whimpered "Alice please don't hurt him any more. I promise to be good."

The big woman shook her head. "I took good care of you, didn't I? Everybody else let you down but me. You wanted him," she spat out, emphasizing the point with yet another kick," and I got him for you. And what do I get in return, huh? Disloyalty that's what."

Barbara shook her head in denial, wiping the back of her hand over her tear-stained and grimy face.

All the while Alice kept up her furious verbal invective directed at Barbara, Tony was suffering from the physical onslaught, with a series of blows and slashes that finally stole what remaining strength he had and left him barely conscious, bloodied and hurting. With not much effort at all, Alice knelt down beside the inert form and easily flipped him over onto his back.

"I intended to give him something to send him on his way peacefully and painlessly." She tugged at the already torn and stained remnants of his pajama shirt Her cold eyes rose briefly to meet Barbara's. "But it's too late for that now. This is how you're always gonna remember him."

Alice pulled a boneless Tony into a sitting position and then moved in behind, holding him upright as one big hand got a bruising grip on his jaw and forced his head back so that she could lay the edge of the knife against his exposed throat. His eyes flickered open momentarily, but other than that there was no reaction or resistance at all; he was way past struggling now. "Once I've finished this we'll need to dump him somewhere, and be long gone before his Fed friends come back to snoop around some more."

"I don't think so!"

If Alice was shocked as Ziva David moved steadily and deliberately into her line of sight across the clearing, then she did a good job of concealing it. Only a muscle twitching in her jaw and a slight tremor in her knife hand attested to any emotion at all.

Doing her best not to let the sight of a battered DiNozzo distract her too much, Ziva kept her firearm leveled on the big woman. "Put down the knife and move far away from him. Now! Or so help me…"

"Or what, Officer Da-vid?" Alice sneered, relinquishing her grip on Tony's face to shift him slightly so that more of his upper body shielded her own. "Do you think you can stop me in time to save him?"

Even from several feet away Ziva could see the tiny trickle of crimson oozing from beneath the blade. "Don't tempt me."

That comment was met with a derisive snort. And then… "Let me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to put down your gun and move way across there." Alice indicated the spot with a jerk of her head. "And then me and Barb are going to leave…and we'll be taking Tony now." Alice nuzzled the back of his head. "When we get far enough away we'll leave him some place safe," she continued unconvincingly.

Ziva shook her head adamantly and stood her ground, her aim never wavering. "Not going to happen."

"Have it your way. " Alice deftly moved the knife so the tip was now resting at a point just below his Adam's apple. "You know I can do this so he chokes to death on his own blo..."

Her words were cut short and transformed abruptly into a pain-filled cry of pure agony as Tony appeared to slump forward pulling her slightly off-balance, and before she had the chance to right herself he jerked his head up and back with as much force as possible; relishing the satisfying crunch of bone and cartilage as his skull impacted with her nose.

"Lady, you are really starting to piss me off," he growled weakly, as he tried to scramble away in an attempt to give Ziva a clear shot. And he nearly made it too, until Alice struck out blindly with the knife plunging it into his left side.

"Oh, crap," was all he managed before he went down again, this time with Alice on top of him driving the blade in further - almost to the hilt. There was a shout - a familiar, commanding and most definitely pissed-off male voice - a scream, followed by a barrage of thunderous blasts that resonated in the normally tranquil setting. The woman's body jerked convulsively and then something warm, sticky and… hinky… pelted Tony's face a split second before the crushing weight was gone - just like that.

He lay there, listening to some guy's ragged, labored breathing, unaware that it was his own. More voices now, some raised in alarm, others barking out orders; but the sounds and the vaguely familiar faces looming above Tony lost any meaning as his world started to fade into a dull gray and then finally to black nothingness.

"Next time don't hesitate. Take the damn shot David," Jethro Gibbs growled as he ran past her to get to Tony, re-holstering his Sig Sauer as he dropped to his knees beside his stricken agent. He barely acknowledged Alice's Spurlock's corpse, even though it was spread out grotesquely just a couple of feet away, minus some of her skull. He'd leave it for others to deal with the clear up. All he cared about at this precise moment in time was Tony.

Off to the side, Sheriff Coltrane was helping a traumatized Barbara Swain to her feet and leading her away from the gory scene.

"Oh my god!"

The usually non--squeamish and composed Ziva started to take several unconscious steps backwards when she got her first real close up look at her friend.

If Gibbs was aware of her distress, he didn't show it. He was working on automatic; quickly removing his jacket and shirt and tearing the latter into long strips which he wound around the hilt of the knife to keep it in place. Tony didn't stir or murmur, which was worrying.

"Stop gawping David, and get your ass down here." Gibbs' tone was sharper than intended, but despite his outward calm he was having a tough time keeping it together.

Ziva took a hesitant step forward, but then stopped when a hand squeezed her shoulder slightly. Jake Liddell gave her a wan smile as he took her place and dropped to his knees opposite Gibbs, who was now doing his best to wipe away the mess covering Tony's face - a mix of grime and a fair amount of Alice Spurlock's blood and brain tissue.

Liddell reached down to search for a pulse.

Nothing.

He and Gibbs instantly began CPR.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs growled with a spiraling sense of panic in between timed chest compressions. "If you die on me now and make…Abby… grieve, I'll swear I'll find a way to follow you into the here after and put a foot up your skinny …"

"I got something," Liddell cried out incredulously. Where he would be willing to swear under oath there had been absolutely nothing just a scant few moments before, was now a pulse, weak and thready but a definite sign of life.

He grinned at Gibbs. "Do your agents always do as they're told?

"Damn right."