"Damnit, Kate, you are not as light as you look!" Tony muttered as he trudged through the ankle deep snow. Sighing he looked skyward as the flakes continued to fall lightly and he wondered if they would end soon or if they would get heavier as the night wore on. He winced with every step as he continued walking; he found himself wishing that she could elbow him and tell him to quit whining and that she were awake so he didn't have to carry her. He cursed Mother Nature for the snow and the bad luck of the car crash happening in December; at least there was a portion of the moon hanging in the sky to provide some kind of light. The last thing he needed to do was trip over himself and hurt either of them further.
"Seriously Kate…" he grumbled, adjusting the balance of her weight in his arms, "how much do you weigh?" He mentally slapped himself, knowing what would happen if she knew about his thoughts. Suddenly he found himself missing the sharp pain in his side that often resulted when she was irritated with him. As he continued walking he felt Kate move slightly, just enough for him to notice. His heart leapt from his chest at the simple movement and he thought he'd drop her when she groaned softly; it was as if she was scolding him when she wasn't even conscious.
Maneuvering through the trees would be hard enough with the pain he was in, holding his partner made it even worse. Suddenly he found himself in an open space, faced with a darkened cabin; it seemed as though it was abandoned, empty until spring. The moon shone brightly over head, and Tony thanked the stars above for keeping the clouds away from the moon. If the moon were covered, Kate would surely be in a worse condition than he could deal with in such awful conditions. Tony walked slightly faster, needing to reach the cabin before it was lost in the darkness of the clouds, despite what he had wished for. Then something happened, faster than he could think about it; he slipped. Just as it felt like he was going to lose his balance, both of his feet found non-icy ground where he and his partner would be safe.
"…Tony..?" a groggy voice asked, seeming like it was miles away. He practically dropped her in happiness at the sound of a voice. He was almost to the cabin's door, keeping her in his arms was getting extremely hard. Climbing up the three stairs in front of the cabin, he made the movement of a kick. No give, no budge. "Must be a stronger door than I thought…" Tony said to himself, not acknowledging he may be weaker. He went through the motion once more, exerting more energy and force. The wood splintered from the door, slamming against the inner wall. "At least the thing didn't break…" he thought. Then the same groggy voice sounded again, sounding more annoyed than the last time.
"What the hell was that DiNozzo?" Kate groaned, sounding a little more like her normal self.
"Just a wooden door," Tony answered, unable to hide his smirk.
"What!" Kate asked, appearing to gain full consciousness in less than a second, "again I ask you, Anthony DiNozzo, what happened?"
"Calm down…I want to get you to sit down on the floor here," he explained, hoping that the floor wouldn't be too hard, "then I'll tell you everything."
"Ok…" she said, "where are we first of all?"
"Somewhere in the mountains in Virginia," Tony said, letting his uncertainty slip into his voice. Blindly he reached up for a cord, figuring that this place might have a light bulb. Squinting to see better in the moonlight, he glanced around the whole perimeter again he found a lantern. Opening the drawer under the lantern, he was relieved to find that the owner's stored their matches there.
"What happened?" she asked, rubbing her head startled to find she was bleeding.
"Car accident," he said, sitting down across from her. Placing the lantern between them, he watched her mannerisms as she tried to figure out what happened and stop the bleeding on her head at the same time.
"I knew you were too tired to drive…" Kate said, beginning to scold him in her normal way.
"You're one to talk, you were asleep before I'd even started the engine," Tony shot back.
"So what happened?" she asked, "My head is killing me…"
"Yea…I hit an ice patch and we skidded pretty bad…hit a tree, you got pretty banged up, and you lost consciousness," he explained trying not to remember her body, limp in the passengers seat.
"Could you try moving your legs for me? The impact was on your side of the car," he began growing worried again, "I could get you out ok, so I just assumed it'd be fine."
"Sure…" Kate asked, wondering if her partner had gone crazy in this cold weather they were apparently stuck in.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me Ms. Todd…" Tony said, smirking.
"You say it like that would be a change, DiNozzo," she said moving her legs, proving that she would be fine.
Tony couldn't help but grin. Kate was back, he'd missed that biting sarcasm in those few hours when he was completely uncertain of their fate. Now that she was back to normal, he was growing more confident in himself and how the next hours or days would turn out. The lack of food and warmth could prove to be challenging, but now that the two of them were conscious, he felt like they could survive.