A/N: Super short chapter again. My hope is to be able to get more up soon- but there's an emergency with a good friend, and I'm on babysitting duty! So there's no tellin'! But I wanted to give ya something, since yesterday was kinda null...

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Gibbs was fixing breakfast, when Tony's cell rang. The younger agent answered it where he was on the couch, and Gibbs couldn't help but to overhear.

"This is Tony DiNozzo," he answered warily.

"Mr. DiNozzo! Hello! How are you?" an unfamiliar voice sounded on the other line.

"I'm...uh...who is this?"

"My name is Marcia Livingston, and I'm with BMZ magazine. I was wondering if you might be up to answer a few questions?"

"What kinda questions?"

"Well, first of all, how is your recovery going?"

"Um...I'm not exactly sure I'm comfortable answering these-"

"That's okay. We'll skip to the next one. Do you plan to sue the airline?"

"I have to go," he told her, abruptly. "Please don't call me back." He ended the call and tossed the phone onto the coffee table.

Gibbs peeked around the doorway from the kitchen, "Reporters again?"

"Yeah," Tony took a breath. "Will it ever stop?"

"People are curious," Gibbs cocked his head a bit to the side. "You're a hero, in their eyes."

Tony scoffed, "Hero...right."

"You survived a plane crash; the only one on board who did."

"No, I survived a twenty-six thousand foot fall," he countered. "Cheryl. She survived the crash. But she died from her injuries, hours afterward." His gaze drifted for a moment, in thought. "She died, because she was on the job. She died in the line of duty. Cheryl's the hero. Not me."

"They don't know about Cheryl," Gibbs told him, though proud of his conclusion about the flight attendant. "They hear the story, and they think of you like that...Bruce Willis guy, in that movie with the train..." he circled his finger in the air as he tried to recall the movie.

"Unbreakable."

"Yeah, that's it."

"Bruce was a super-hero, in that movie. He walked away without a scratch. I've got injuries. I don't think it's the same. Maybe more like...Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Except without the island and all the cool packages and Wilson..."

"And the beard."

"You've seen Cast Away, Boss?" he asked with a surprised look on his face.

"Who hasn't seen Cast Away?" he retorted. "Was on two straight weeks in a row, over the summer."

"I dunno. It's just, you've made two perfectly logical movie references in a row. It's makin' me wonder if I got hit in the head harder than I thought..." he gave a small smile, then watched as conflict flashed over Gibbs face. It stayed there long enough, that Tony began to really worry, and the smile faded from his own face. "Boss? What's wrong?"

Gibbs shook his head, then met the younger man's eyes, "I dunno what to do to replace the head-slaps, until your head heals..." After a long moment, simply staring open-mouthed at his boss, Tony burst out laughing. Seeing Tony's laughter gave Gibbs a feeling of warmth. He couldn't help but to join him.

It took a few minutes for it to die down, and Tony's hand over his chest, had Gibbs on alert. Tony noticed the concern, and held up a hand, "I'm okay, Boss. Just a little soreness breakin' through. I'm not due to take anything for a couple hours." Gibbs nodded, after a moment, acknowledging the information. "Know what's weird?"

"What's that?"

"That reporter asked if I was gonna sue the airline. Why would she ask something like that?"

Gibbs didn't really have an answer to that, and before he could think too deeply about it, there was a knock at the door. "Expecting more company?" Tony asked. Gibbs simply shook his head, before making his way to the door.

He peeked out the side window, surprised by who he saw, but only because he figured he'd have heard something before them showing up. He opened the door, allowing his agent in. "Ziva. Wasn't expecting you..."

"I am sorry I didn't call," she told him.

"You should've let us know you were even heading home. Are you okay?" he asked, pulling her into a protective hug, after appraising her, and coming to the conclusion that she probably hadn't slept much in the past few days.

"I am fine," she told him. "Tony is here, yes? With you..."

"Yeah, he is. Come in," he pulled her inside and shut the door behind them. "In the living room."

Tony had heard her, before he saw her enter. He hadn't expected her to look exhausted. "Hey, Ziva," he half-smiled at her.

"Hi," she smiled at him, and he could've sworn he saw her start to tear up, before she ducked her head and took a seat beside him on the couch. "I came straight here from the airport," she told him. "I wanted to tell you what we found out about the plane." Tony straightened, preparing himself to listen to the news. "Apparently, the plane had encountered large amounts of turbulence, several flights ago, damaging a small part of the hull. It had been repaired, but obviously they were not thorough enough to realize that it had significantly weakened. The jolts that you felt, before the aircraft began to lose altitude, were small pieces of the outer hull separating and compromising the fuel supply hold. The captain was actually attempting to bring the plane down closer to land, knowing the the fuel was depleted. What he did not take into consideration, was the compromised hull. Several of the families of the victims are planning a lawsuit against the airline..."

Tony's eyes drifted down a bit in the air between them, as he allowed the information to settle in his mind. "Must be why that reporter asked if I was suing," he said, meaning for it to seem amusing, but missing the emotion behind it.

"You okay, Tony?" Gibbs asked.

"Yeah...ah...I guess I didn't really think it'd make a difference why the plane went down," he admitted. "But knowing it was...someone's...negligence? I...I just..." he shook his head. "All those people... My friend... They're all dead because someone couldn't be bothered to do their damn job properly." He huffed out a breath, "Sorry...I...I guess I'm kinda pissed."

"You have a right to be," Gibbs told him.

"The airline is being investigated, as we speak," Ziva told them. "Any aircraft that passed through the engineers' hands, has been grounded until further inspection can be done. The FBI is involved in the investigation. In fact, I met a few very nice agents, while I was in Arizona. They were particularly kind to me, even when I was not so, to them."

"Was one of them named J.J?" Tony asked.

"How did you know that?" Ziva's eyes widened.

"We caught a ride with the rest of that team," Gibbs told her. "We were wondering if you'd run into them."

"They're really nice," Tony added. "Maybe you can meet the rest of them..." A ringing started in his ears. Not really a ringing, but a sudden muting of everything else, and a sound he couldn't quite place, covering it. His vision began to blur, for a moment, and he blinked a few times, hard, trying to clear it up.

Around him, he could see his teammates were trying to talk to him, concern written clearly on their faces now. But he couldn't hear what they were saying. And suddenly he was slamming his eyes shut, as pain shot through his skull. They must've understood, since he'd grabbed his head in turn. He didn't know what to do; didn't know why this was happening, or how to stop it. But he was hit with a wave of nausea that had him opening his eyes in a panic. Then, though he couldn't hear himself say it, he told them, "Bathroom..." and somehow summoned the strength to get up and run for it, the other agents clearing the way for him, reaching out to help, but only able to follow behind him.

The last few moments he could remember, was vomiting stomach acid into the toilet, and then watching as the room tilted in his vision, ending with his head on the floor, and the stand-base for the sink in his vision. Then there was darkness...

TBC...