I can't actually believe that I have left you all hanging sooo long for this chapter. Well here it finally is. Enjoy….
Chapter 11- A Silent Shadow
Darkness.
Empty. Cold and Dark.
But it was safer there than in a reality that he no longer recognised.
Sure, he thought that he'd seen the team, the one from his nicer dreams, the one who always had his back. Gibbs. The one who always said what he meant and one who had made him feel safe when he had been scared in the past. He remembered blue lights and a strong ex-marine voice calming him.
But that was before he'd gotten use to the dark, the silence. Before the dark had become a silent friend; always engulfing him in its arms when his mind couldn't take anymore.
But it was fading and Tony knew that he was returning to consciousness, no matter how much it felt safer to stay where he'd been. Waking up meant remembering what he'd hoped for such a long time to be true; the hallucinations of the team who had come to rescue him. He found that he didn't want to give up on that hope just yet so he clung to the darkness for all he was worth.
Except, the hard ex-marine's voice was there, right next to him.
"DiNozzo, Tony, open your eyes." He wanted to move away but the pain in his body stopped him from even drifting back into darkness. He was just lying on the cold ground, not having the energy to move.
"Open your eyes." This time the voice was worried and stern, that was when Tony realised that he hadn't done what he was told. That always ended badly. Maybe, if he did as he was told then he could go back to the dark.
When he did half open his eyes, he wanted to shout that what he saw wasn't real, but a flash of memory saw him in that bedroom and Gibbs kneeling in front of him, his eyes pleading with him that it wasn't an illusion. He knew that that look shouldn't have been there then so he looked long and hard around the room, trying to figure out not how they were here now, but, why?
Why after so long? He knew that he was long past being helpful to them now.
He hadn't exactly been helpful to Ann the last time he'd seen her. Before images could drag him back to what had happened a worried voice broke through.
"Anthony, can you hear me?" The accent was familiar, Ducky? Looking from his position on the floor he saw that it was in fact, Ducky. Tony nodded, but only because they were looking at him like they were. He didn't quite know what the look was but he knew that he didn't like it. It seemed to be the right move when Ducky's strained expression lifted a little.
x-X-x
Gibbs was watching the interactions closely; after they had seen Tony go down they had immediately moved him from the threshold of the door and had laid him flat on the ground, elevating his head a little, and so that they weren't moving him too much.
McGee and Ziva had been sweeping the house and collecting evidence as Ducky and Gibbs had tended to Tony. They couldn't help but be pleased that they had something else to concentrate on rather then their ailing friend.
Ducky himself was wondering what had caused the poor boy to collapse like he did and hoped that Anthony would be able to tell them; because, by the looks of it, they couldn't move him until they figured out what was wrong.
Ducky was careful while examining Tony, trying not to disturb the younger man too much. What Ducky could see on the outside didn't seem promising though; bruises littered what could be seen of Tony's arms and could be seen around his neck, as if he'd been strangled and more than once by the different shades of blues, yellows, and greens. His hair was longer then he usually had it but had obviously been cut as it was no where near the length you would expect after three months. His face was relatively unscathed apart from the very pale complexion of his skin.
"He gonna be okay, Duck?" Only someone who knew Gibbs would have detected the hidden concern in his stern tone.
Ducky's lack of an answer only worried Gibbs more, Ducky was always one for having a story to tell, to have silence mean that there was something seriously wrong, but then nothing had been normal recently.
Before anything more could be said, Tony moved slightly in his sleep and Gibbs was immediately by his agent's side, as was Ducky.
Even though Gibbs encouraged the younger Agent to open his eyes, Ducky noticed that Tony had tensed and that he was trying not to waken at all. Tony seemed to flinch as much as he could when Gibbs had practically ordered him to open his eyes.
Their worry didn't dissipate even a fraction as Tony opened weary eyes. There seemed to be an absolute blankness about them that made both Ducky and Gibbs breathe a sharp breath. Though, that didn't worry them half as much as the shadow that seemed to linger behind the blankness.
A strained silence seemed to encompass the room now that Tony had reacted to them.
Nobody knew quite what to ask.
Questions circulated around everyone's heads, not settling on a specific one.
That was, until Ducky voiced a fear that they were all trying not to think about.
"Jethro, we need to get Anthony to a hospital." A small blood trail that seemed to have followed Tony as he'd moved didn't go unnoticed
Nobody missed the way Ducky was now looking it nor how Tony, who had pushed himself up and leant against the nearest wall, seemed to tense at the notion.
"C..c..can't" Tony's voice was a ragged whisper.
"And why the hell not?" Questioned Gibbs, remembering the words of the demented women now sitting a car; he'd seen the effects the last time of moving Tony out of the house but he needed answers now so Tony could get help.
Tony seemed to freeze up; Ducky and the team watched in horrid fascination as Gibbs closed the distance between himself and their friend. To those that didn't know Gibbs the stance would seem threatening, to those that did however, knew that he was scared for his Agent. Gibbs hadn't missed the blood either.
And he'd be damned if he was going to lose his Agent now they'd found him.
To their surprise Tony started to remove his shirt, revealing a mass of bruising covering his chest and stomach. He then turned around; exposing gashes that seemed to have been made with a whip, some were old and mostly healed, some more recent and still in the process of scabbing over.
However, that was not all.
Ducky noticed a precise cut when he saw one; Tony had a 3 inch incision in between his shoulder blades, again it seemed mostly healed, as if it had been done a while ago. Tony's raspy voice spoke again.
"Can't." Though it lacked any emotion whatsoever.
This caused Gibbs to curse, which in turn, caused Tony to flinch away from them a little more.
Maybe it wasn't what he had first thought, and maybe it really was because his Agent really couldn't leave, rather than not wanting to. He could hope, right?
Though, something was still bothering him about the shadow that still lingered within his Agent, and none of them were sure what it meant.
Where had the blood come from that they'd seen before? Where was Ann? These were just some of the questions going around in all of the Agents' and ME's minds.
Something else Ducky had noticed, were scars of a different nature, ones that seemed to cross over the original incision, slightly diagonal, as if the younger man had been trying to get at something.
"Anthony?" Ducky question but wait until the man was looking at him. "Did she put something in you?" Though it was an obvious question, he hoped that the younger man could tell him what it was.
"A chip…I tried to….couldn't." Tony looked down at his lap, while having turned back around so he could lean against the wall again, not sure quite what to do now.
A door slamming in the silence that followed that statement shook them all out of their thoughts on the matter. Looking around Gibbs noticed that Ziva was the one who had left.
He smiled at the thought that popped up in his mind. Ziva was very good at 'persuading' people to give her what she wanted and hoped that Eve wasn't going to be any different.
It may take a while to get to and from the local PD but he was sure that Ziva would get something before drastic actions would have to be taken.
Ducky, knowing only one other way to get their Agent out of there, hoped beyond anything that it would not come to that.
TBC
I know it's a short chapter but I do have an idea on where to go with this one now and what is going to happen next with Ziva and how are they going to get Tony out of there, also what did become of Ann…you will have to wait and see. Please review!