Chapter 7
Gibbs stared down the two young men in front of him. Suddenly, he whipped out his gun and pointed it at Sam.
"Tell me how to get him back!"
"Whoa! Gibbs!" McGee grabbed him by the arm, holding him back. "They can't help us if you shoot them."
"For all we know, they did this to Tony... I want to know what in the hell just happened here!"
"Come on, Gibbs... please put away the gun. We can all work together. We'll find him."
Gibbs shakily put away his gun. He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to calm down.
"We—we need to search the river. For his body."
"It won't be there," Dean said. "While that demon is in him, he's indestructible. He probably already made it to shore."
"Everyone stop, please," Gibbs said, holding out his hand. "I'm having a hard time with this. I just saw one of my best friends jump off this bridge, and you're telling me he's not dead?"
Sam stepped forward.
"Is there someplace else we can talk, in private?"
"Yeah, let's go to my house." Gibbs turned to Tim. "Call headquarters and get an APB out on Tony. We need to find him before that thing does anything else to hurt him."
"On it right now."
Gibbs started to his car.
"Follow me."
-
Twenty minutes later, the group was gathered in Gibbs' basement.
"Okay you two," Gibbs started as he snatched a bottle of bourbon from his workbench. "Start talking. How do we get that, whatever it is, out of Tony when we find him?"
Sam stepped forward and pulled an old piece of paper from his pocket. He laid it out on Gibbs' table. There was a drawing of a pentacle on the paper.
"Demons can be trapped. We need to draw this in a place where we can lure Tony in. Once the demon is in this circle, it can't escape. Then we can exorcise it."
"Will it hurt Tony?" Abby asked with trepidation.
"The exorcism itself shouldn't hurt him, but-" Sam paused a moment and shared a quick glance with Dean, who nodded. "Tony has already jumped off a bridge. He may not look hurt when we catch him, but when we exorcise the demon, there's a good chance Tony himself will be injured from his fall."
Sam hesitated again, and Gibbs noticed this.
"Kid, what aren't you telling us?"
Sam looked at his brother again. He knew what he needed to tell them wasn't going to be received well. At all. Dean understood his brother's hesitation, and stepped forward.
"The first time we went up against a demon like this, it had possessed a college student. By the time we figured out she was possessed, we-" he hesitated, but kept his composure. "We knocked her out a window in self-defense."
"What happened to her?" Abby asked, terrified of Dean's answer.
"After we exorcised the demon, the girl was seriously injured from her fall. We called 911, but she – didn't make it."
Abby gasped.
"Are you saying Tony could already be dead?" she asked, tears in her eyes.
Dean nodded.
"We're sorry. This isn't how we wanted to tell you this, but you need to know what's going to happen when everything goes down."
Abby buried her face in Tim's shoulder.
Gibbs poured himself another glass of bourbon. After everything he'd just heard, he was going to need it.
"So now what?" he asked, taking a drink.
"We have to pick a place to do this... a place where we're sure no one is going to call 911 when we do it. It's going to be... noisy."
"Boss, what about Autopsy? It's practically soundproof down there. We can read Ducky in when we get there."
"That'll work. Let's get to NCIS."
"I'll ride with Sam and Dean, give them directions," Abby said.
Gibbs nodded, and Abby left with Sam and Dean. Tim turned to follow, but Gibbs grabbed his hand.
"Tim..."
"We're going to find him, Gibbs."
"How did we let this happen? How did we not – how did none of us see what was happening to him?"
Tim's eyes darted down to the floor for a brief moment, and anger flashed over Gibbs' face.
"You knew?"
"Not exactly. "
"You knew something was up with Tony and you didn't tell me?"
"It's not like that-"
Gibbs threw a punch, sending Tim backward a few steps.
"Listen! I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner! I just thought—I thought he wasn't getting enough sleep or something. I didn't know any of this."
Gibbs stood quietly, chest heaving. He looked over his Agent. A bruise was already forming on Tim's face.
"I'm sorry," he said finally.
"Come on," Tim said. "Let's get to NCIS. It's time to bring Tony home."
TBC...