OKAY ALL - I stayed up super late tonight to get this up for you so I hope you really like it! I will correct any tiny errors later like I always do if I missed any!

PLEASE PLEASE KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING - I LOVE YOU ALL FOR TAKING THE TIME - THEY MEAN A LOT TO ME!!

~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~

Last Time On The Long Flight Home:

Finally breaking the disturbing echo, distress calls could now be heard from the direction of the cockpit as the Co-Pilot started to yell every procedure out loud for the flight tower to hear through their open frequency. He ran through each and every course of action that was part of the emergency protocol now that he was finally able to speak. Up to that point he and the Captain had been far too focused on controlling the precarious state of the plane but once they felt they had established some level of control, they knew they had to verbally announce each move since the infamous 'Black Box' would be used to determine what happened and the information would be used whether the ending result was a positive one, or a negative and deadly outcome.

~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~ncis~

The Long Flight Home

Chapter X

Israel – Inside The Tel-Aviv Airplane Hangar . . .

Ziva had barged into one of the break rooms after she and Amit Hadar had researched all of the employees whom had been working at the hangar for at least one month or longer, they didn't skip anyone from the owner of the hangar all the way down to the Janitor! Amit had at least some inside scoop to get them started seeing as he had been the one whom Eli had assigned to go check and see if his orders had been followed.

Eli had forced three of the maintenance staff to do his bidding by simply informing each of him that he could "produce" false charges against each one of them that would stand up in court and result in nothing short of a life sentence. It had been easy, the men were already somewhat shady so Eli probably hadn't even needed to be so dramatic with his threats. He also assured the men that they would be handsomely rewarded once he knew that the 'mission' had been successful.

"You WILL tell me exactly WHAT you did to that plane – and you will tell me NOW!" Ziva commanded one of the men who had the unfortunate pleasure of laying face down on the ground with the fired up brown haired beauty straddled on top of his back. He would have enjoyed it other than the fact that his right arm was pulled up so high and tightly behind him that he was sure it would snap if the pressure forcing his arm upward was even to be increased even a fraction!

"Aaauuuggghh I TOLD YOU!! You do not listen!!" he had the gall to fire back. "We just inserted a couple of delayed timing devices that were attached to the smallest amount of C4 that one can use and still get some kind of explosion – it was only meant to cause minimal damage. Any more C4 would have blown the damn engines clean off the plane!!" he explained again.

"WHO ordered you to do this?!! And DON'T even THINK of lying to me! I will snap your arm like a twig and use it to beat the rest of you to death – although I would - taake – myyy – TIME!!" she screamed into his ear as she laid her body flat against his entire backside. Amit just stood nearby smirking as he leaned against the door frame 'advising' anyone who arrived and expected to enter the break room, that it would be best for their health if they re-thought that decision.

"If I TELL you then I am as good as dead!! What's going on anyway?!" He grunted the words out through clenched teeth as sweat poured from his face from the pain of the awkward and unnatural position of his arm. Someone else has been digging into this from somewhere in America! Do you know anything . . . about . . . THAT?! Some- uugghh - someone has been hacking into the computer database here among other things and the owner has put a special . . . tt-team in p-place to uncover the hacker's IP . . . IP addresses and . . . and to attempt to regain control over their firewalls and other security measures that had failed."

Ziva knew immediately who was looking into this – it had to be McGee, and possibly Abby. That made her feel relieved since that meant that Gibbs had figured out that something was going on – something sinister. That also meant he was still alive – or at least he was at the time he alerted McGee!

Ziva continued her 'interrogation' of the man, finding out what was done and what effect the sabotage was to have had on the plane and it's passengers. Eventually with the help of Amit, she was able to obtain the same information from one of the other two conspirators. Unfortunately the third man had fled as soon as he got wind that someone was not only digging into his past, but also his employment record at the airfield. He knew that somehow the cat had been let out of the bag so to speak and he didn't plan to hang around to find out how – or by whom.

Ziva and Amit's next step was to utilize some of their underground connections to dig a little deeper to see if there were any other maniacal orders placed by her Father to bring further harm - or 'warnings' as Eli preferred to call them – to Gibbs, Tony or anyone else from NCIS, and although they had already obtained the flight number as well as more details surrounding both the plane and the crew, they still needed to find out when it was to land in DC, assuming that it was still flying and still on course for DC per the original flight plan.

On Board Flight CD77319Z – Annapolis Naval Academy Airstrip . . .

Vance's eyes shot back open, having been squeezed shut in prayer, forced open when the nose of the plane took a more severe and sharp turn to the left, throwing all of them abruptly towards the right. The first thing that caught his attention through the now smoky haze in the air, was Gibbs body sprawled over Tony's stretcher, from his angle he couldn't see that Gibb's was not at all touching Tony but rather slightly arched over the stretcher just to protect Tony's abdomen wherein his delicate spleen wouldn't have stood a chance if any of the falling debris had landed on top of the horizontal man.

Leon's first thought was that Gibbs had been hurt, "JETHRO!" he yelled over the roaring and screeching going on all around them.

Gibbs turned his head towards the Director - "WHAT?!" he yelled back.

It only took a second for Leon to register what the man was doing, especially as he looked around the rest of the plane and noticed how many items were strewn from one end of the plane to the next. But before he could tell his Lead Agent never mind, he spun his head back towards the floor boards of the plane further back but not all the way into the tail section – flames were licking up from below as they fought their way inside the cabin.

Leon was unharnessed and up in a flash as he ran for the nearest fire extinguisher that every plan had, and started to spray the snow white foam all over the area trying to prevent them from eating away at the plane like moth to an old wool sweater! His adrenaline had taken over so his body to such a degree that he no longer registered the pain from his own minor injuries which included a most likely fractured wrist.

Gibbs was still on his knees and leaning halfway over Tony's stretcher but his head was turned toward the Director and alerting him to any other flare ups he detected so Vance could snuff them out – or at least keep them at bay for the time being. Gibbs was too focused on the task at hand to notice the intense green eyes that were looking up at him as the injured man on the floor was staring upwards, trying to figure out why his boss was leaning over his body like that, but too weak to ask. He sniffed at the air trying to figure out where he was and get his bearings. 'What was that smell?' He knew something was burning but what? 'Did someone burn Gibbs' boat?' he thought, his mind completely muddled and misleading his brain to jump to the craziest conclusions. 'Is that why Bossman is laying over me? Is he that distraught over losing his FIFTH precious sailboat that he can't get up?'. It seemed alike a thousand thoughts were running through his mind at the same time.

"B-b-ossss?" Tony slurred the words out, his mouth and throat extremely dry and raspy to the point that he wasn't even quite sure if he had actually said the words out loud.

The next thing he started to register was nauseating dizziness and pain – indescribable pain. He coughed and blinked trying to shake off the queasy feeling and figure out where he was. He struggled to move but only found himself so weak that he felt like his limbs were suddenly made of lead, he realized that he actually felt somewhat trapped – though he could not figure out why.

'Why can't I move?' he thought . . . 'Why am I tied up like a damn Christmas turkey? He nearly began to panic thinking he was being held captive or something – but one more look to his side he was reminded that Gibbs was with him and if he was with him, they would be fine.

Once Gibbs heard his Agent's weak voice calling out to him, everything else around him was instantly forgotten. He spun his head towards the voice, immediately regretting the move as his concussed brain struggling to keep up with the sudden movement of his head. Gibbs had to blink his eyes a few times until he finally got his skull and his brain working in unison again.

"TONY?!" he yelled his agent's name but the deafening sounds of the buckling plane competed against him, Gibbs was not sure whether to be relieved or disheartened at seeing his agent awake.

He knew that meant that the morphine had worn off for the most part and that would only mean that shortly, Tony's body was going to realize that too and start to make his injuries known once again, with a vengeance! He could only hope that this . . . never ending landing – would soon come to a happy conclusion and they could get him more medication for the pain sooner rather than later.

But first thing was first, they had to survive the here and now!

"Tony, " *cough* just – lay – still!" he shouted to him over the roar, the smoke was really getting thick – the visibility inside the plane was becoming worse and worse. Suddenly Gibbs was thrown off of his guard post over Tony as the nose of the plane swung drastically to the right, the strap that was wrapped around his arm however, thankfully did it's job for the most part and kept him from falling too far off to the side. At the same time he was thrown, he heard Vance stumble as the plane continued rocking and swaying causing the man to lose his footing and drop the extinguisher reaching out for anything to keep from falling all the way down.

Neither man had even noticed that some of the intense heat and some small flames had managed to burn through or melt and weaken part of the strapping that had held Tony's stretcher in place so when the plane's intense shift to the right that had caused Gibbs and Vance to stumble, now also caused the stretcher to spin partially sideways with the top end of the shallow basket that cocooned Tony to swing outwards toward the opposite side of the plane.

Upon seeing this, Gibbs acted fast and physically threw his own body down onto the floor landing on the right side of the moving stretcher to act as a roadblock and keeping him from continuing to spin around any further. It all happened so fast that Tony barely registered the movement, his eyes had long ago closed again due to the intense smoke that was now billowing from the floor.

"Aaauuugghh!"

Unfortunately in doing this, Gibbs felt one of his ribs crack from the force with which he landed as well as the awkward angle – causing him to unknowingly yell out in pain. He hadn't paid attention to how he landed since all he really cared about was stopping his critically injured agent from receiving any more damage. He took a second to regain his bearings and wait the pain to ease up, his teeth were clenched and his eyes screwed shut – until he heard the raspy coughing to his left and realized the smoke was starting to really get to Tony.

It was getting to ALL of them but for Tony, even the act of coughing could cause have a disastrous effect on the tear in his spleen, not to mention his scarred lungs made him way more susceptible to smoke damage and lung infections caused by the acrid smoke and fumes.

Up in the cockpit the pilots were pleased to see that the plane's speed was finally decreasing little by little as the back up measures that were taken in this type of dangerous and not so ideal landing, were succeeding in doing their job. But then due to a shift in the winds outside, they felt the plane jerk out of their exhausted manual control as the tail end suddenly spun outward to the right at more of a sharp angle than the previous swaying so that now the plane was literally sliding sideways down what was left of the disappearing runway!

All of the numerous emergency personnel all watched wide eyed with mouth's hanging open as they helplessly witnessed the scene unfold before them like some bad disaster movie.

Everyone held their breaths, including the pilots, as the plane was now in prime position to roll and tumble and in doing so, it would most likely be completely torn apart and then explode!

Then – just as quickly as the landing had turned sour, it was over! The plane's uncontrolled act of sliding sideways, ended up being a lifesaving move since it basically blocked the wind by providing a wider and flatter surface so the wind couldn't pass around it as easily as it could when it was heading nose-to-tail like an out of control missile. It seemed that everyone's silent prayers were answered as the screeching stopped and the plan finally came to rest!

All emergency vehicles received the go ahead from the tower over their radio's and immediately too off towards the plane - they still had to get those people to safety and fast!

The two pilots just sat there unmoving, breathing and thanking whomever they had each prayed to and allowing the adrenaline flowing within them to slowly ebb for really only a matter of seconds before they quickly started to unbuckle themselves and move to get everyone off the plane, knowing they could still be in danger from the massive amounts of leaking jet fuel that could still blow sky high.

In the rear section, Gibbs and Vance had both stabilized themselves as they too breathed in heavy sighs of relief, the silence around them now was as deafening as the screeching had been only minutes before since the decibel levels seemed to go from one extreme to the next. From ear shattering, to absolute stillness.

That was until Tony started really groaning as his pain souring back up to new heights! He was close to starting to thrash around as he tried to escape from the stabbing agony in his gut. Gibbs had already freed himself from the strap around his own arm and had been trying to find the oxygen masks they had used earlier in the flight, but he aborted that mission the second he heard and saw Tony's new frenzied state.

He kneeled back down near him and immediately pulled out his own sharp knife and cut through the straps that secured the stretcher to the legs of the seat, knowing that it would help the rescue team to extract Tony from the plane easier if they could just carry him out on the stretcher he was already affixed to. Vance had dropped to the ground since everyone knew smoke rose upwards and the lower you could stay, the better. He crawled over to assist Gibbs and knowing they would need to get the rear doors open or any other exit the could use.

Both Vance and Gibbs looked up through the thick haze of smoke towards the cockpit as they heard light coughing as the pilots were heading towards them. Both NCIS leaders wanted to shake their hands and thank them for the success of the frightful landing that they all knew they were lucky to be walking away from for the most part – battered and shaken – but alive! But they knew congratulations and praise would have to wait until they were free and clear of the smoldering and fuel leaking plane completely.

Then just when it seemed the worst was over, suddenly the Pilot, Lt. Andrew Carver whom had been walking ahead of his Co-Pilot, Lance Corporal Campbell, without any kind of warning whatsoever, plunged face first towards the floor, landing in front of his Co-Pilot in a lifeless heap – knocked out from behind by the butt of a 9mm semi-automatic pistol which was now aimed directly at the still frenzied and moaning – Tony.

Gibbs and Vance stopped dead in their tracks, completely taken aback by the unexpected act of violence they had just witnessed – both of them raised their hands up slightly as a signal that they understood the obvious warning.

"Hold on riiight there – no one's going anywhere!!"

To Be Continued . . .

Wow, I am so curious to see how you all like this chapter and the newest cliffie! I am only going to get 4 hrs of sleep tonight cuz I HAD to get this posted, I couldn't wait to share it with you all! Pls keep the reviews coming!! THANKS :-)