Wow! I had the chapters really messed up! My apologies!
Gibbs knew there was going to be a trap. He had no idea how it had been tripped, maybe it was as simple as something that was on a timer and they'd tripped it the second they came through the door. It didn't make him feel any less helpless as he stood by doing nothing while Tony moaned in pain from the electricity coursing through his body.
He couldn't do it, he couldn't just stand there. He pulled two latex gloves from a pocket and put them both on the same hand. He only touched as much of the latch as he had to and slid it aside.
"Tony," he called desperately.
If Tony could just get across the cage, Gibbs would pull him out. He had to do something even if they both ended up electrocuted. But Tony wasn't moving, he pressed himself against the back of the cage shaking as more and more voltage went through the cage and into his body.
Gibbs swung the wire door open as far as it would go. His intention was to reach inside and pull Tony out when Tony's body went limp inside the cage with a suddenness that alarmed Gibbs.
"Get an ambulance now," he shouted for anyone that might be listening.
Grabbing Tony's shoulders, Gibbs gulled him from the cage. Tony's body was limp in his arms, he didn't even stir as Gibbs wrestled him from the small enclosure. He brushed the edge of the door and jerked away only to find that the electricity had been turned off, which meant McGee must have figured out how to turn the damn thing off. It was a small break, right now he'd take whatever he could get.
With infinite care, he laid Tony out on the concrete, cradling his head so it wouldn't impact on the hard ground. He wasn't really surprised to find Tony's eyes were open and peering up at him.
"Gibbs?" His whole body was shaking in reaction to the electrical shock, but he reached out a hand and snagged Gibbs' sleeve.
"Real?" he mumbled.
Gibbs nodded, not really trusting his voice at the moment.
"No! Not real!" As weak as he was, as hurt as he was, Tony jerked away from him.
There was fear in Tony's eyes that hurt worse than any wound Gibbs had ever had. He knew the bastards had hurt Tony, but to make him doubt even his friends was going too far. Tony scuttled away, nearly crawling as he put as much distance between himself and Gibbs as he could.
"Tony, listen to me, it's really me, Gibbs," he spoke quietly, soothingly, "Kate and McGee are here, too, even Fornell."
Tony stopped at Gibbs' voice and looked back over his shoulder, confusion in his eyes. Tears were running down his cheeks, washing a track through the accumulated grime and filth.
"Really here?" Tony whispered. He almost wavered; Gibbs could see he wanted to believe. Then he pushed himself away, even though Gibbs could see the effort it took. "No."
Gibbs edged closer. They needed to get Tony to medical help and fast, but he didn't want to have to do it by force. He'd endured enough already.
"Really, Tony, we found you. We're here to take you home."
Tony had reached the wall, there was nowhere else for him to go. There was terror in his eyes, fear that none of this was real, and he was going to wake up again back in the cage, alone.
Gibbs took a chance. "Get with the program, DiNozzo," he forced the harsh voice of command, "don't make me come over there and hit you." He held his breath waiting for Tony's reaction.
When it came there was a ghost of a smile on his lips, "Took you long enough," Tony said before his eyes rolled back and he slipped down the wall unconscious.
--NCIS--
The force of the electrical blast knocked McGee across the floor. He lay where he was thrown like a broken doll with arms and legs askew.
Kate dropped to her knees beside him automatically feeling for a pulse. She almost screamed when there was nothing beneath her fingertips. She bent down with her ear to his mouth trying to feel his breath on her cheek, but there was nothing.
"Come on, Tim," she shouted at him, "don't do this."
Quickly she got rid of the Kevlar vest he was wearing. She tilted his head back and checked to make sure the airway was clear.
"I could use some help here," she breathed into the radio.
Placing her hands firmly on his chest, she began chest compressions. Before she got to 15, there was someone at her side, one of Fornell's agents. She nodded at 15 and the man bent over and breathed twice into McGee's mouth. Kate began the next round of compressions that would keep her friend's blood flowing until his heart started beating on its own again.
She could hear the alarm still going off around them, but she couldn't spare any attention to wonder what it was or what might be going on. Tim's life depended on her. Two more breaths and she started on the compressions again.
Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. It was Fornell. She tried to jerk herself free. She was totally focused on McGee, he needed her.
"Agent Todd," he shouted at her, "we have got to get out of this building now."
She tried to plant her feet and refuse to move. He just pulled her along with a firm hand hooked under her arm. When she saw that two of his men were carrying McGee, she followed along more willingly.
"Gibbs? Tony?" She asked, realizing she hadn't yet seen them emerge from the concrete room.
"We're getting them, Agent Todd, now go."
He gave her a push toward the door. Seeing the men carrying McGee disappear through it, she stumbled after them into the late-afternoon sunlight. After the gloom of the building, it nearly blinded her. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. She blinked, her eyes tearing up. She wiped them frantically, needing to figure out what had happened to McGee.
She was gratified to find an ambulance already there, parked down the street. Tim was laid gently on a gurney and the paramedics swiftly began their work.
"Is he going to be alright?" she asked anxiously.
The paramedic didn't even look up as he answered, "He's going to be fine, ma'am. Just let us do our job. What's his name?"
"Tim," she answered, "Timothy McGee."
"What happened?"
"He was electrocuted," she wrapped her arms around herself, cold despite the sunshine as she remembered Tim's body fly through the air.
"Alright," the paramedic looked up and smiled, trying to reassure her, "he really is going to be alright. If you'll just stand over there, we'll let you know when we're ready to transport him." He nodded to indicate the sidewalk.
She moved away a few feet, close enough she could monitor their work, but far enough away that she wouldn't be in the way. There was no way she was leaving Tim alone. She spared a glance for the building, hoping to see Gibbs and Tony emerge soon.
--NCIS--
Fornell shoved Kate towards the door and watched long enough to make sure she was heading in that direction before moving into the concrete room to get Gibbs and DiNozzo. The weird alarm was still sounding and he knew it wasn't good. Weird alarms never were.
He found Gibbs kneeling on the floor next to the kid's body. DiNozzo was slumped over unconscious. He didn't look good at all.
"Gibbs," he called urgently. "We need to get out of here now."
Gibbs nodded and put an arm under Tony's shoulder. "I need a hand here."
Fornell was already there, pulling Tony up on the other side. Between them, they supported Tony's body as they ran from the building; the warm sunshine was welcome after the dim interior of the building. The alarm went silent and for one moment Fornell thought he was wrong, that it had been a false alarm. Then there was an explosion behind them as the building blew.
They both dropped to the ground, using their bodies to shield Tony from the flaming debris now falling from the sky.
--NCIS--
Tony found himself wandering in a bleak, barren landscape with no memory of how he got there or what had happened. Around him the buildings were blasted into rubble, the roadway he walked on was cracked and buckled. Cars were strewn like children's toys, upended and stacked like cordwood. Stopping to peer inside, he found that some even had the remains of their passengers still strapped inside, fetid, rotting corpses grinning out at Tony. They were privy to the punch line of a joke that he had yet to hear.
While the sun could be seen shining dimly overhead, it was obscured by thick black smog that smothered everything making visibility only a scant few feet. It swirled around Tony enfolding him like a shroud.
He walked in the scorched remnant of a city, feeling like a ghost as he stumbled through the rubble. He picked up shattered objects, trying to make some sense of where he found himself, looking for something familiar to tell him where he was or what had happened.
There was no bird song, no sound of the wind through the trees, the trees being barren stumps devoid of life. There was no greens or yellows or bright blues in the place he found himself. All was black, grey or muddy charcoal.
"Imagine if you will the end of the world." He talked to himself because the silence was so complete and overwhelming. "Our hero, young Anthony DiNozzo finds himself alone and destitute with no friends and no memory of the events that have led him to this place.
"He sees a signpost up ahead and finds that he has found his way... to the Twilight Zone. Duh du, duh du, duh du, duh du," he sang to himself.
He found it odd that his voice held no echo in the thick smog, it was flat and pressed in upon him, weighing him down.
"Hello?" he called, needing to find some semblance of life in the place. Someone had to be left, he couldn't be the only one left alive. Where were Gibbs and Abby or Kate and McGee? Hell he'd take Ducky and Palmer if it meant he wouldn't be alone.
"Hell, Ducky and Palmer might even be useful," he said as he surveyed the carnage that was literally at his feet.
He ran then, seeking something of life, some small sign that there was something alive beside himself. There had to be some survivors to whatever terrible fate had befallen the city. And yet he found nothing, just desecration where there had once been life.
Falling to his knees, he tried to breath through the black smog. The smell of the place was suffocating him as much as the smog that covered everything. The smell was cloying, it clung to him like a live thing, refusing to be brushed off or ignored.
It was the scent of the dead that surrounded him wherever he looked, black and charred beyond recognition. They had been left to rot where they lay, men and women and children at play. The carnage was on such a massive scale, he couldn't comprehend it.
How could someone do this? He wondered, grief-stricken at the death he found wherever he looked.
How could someone kill all these people and live with themselves afterwards?
Stumbling along, no longer paying attention to where he was going, he came to a place he thought he recognized. Wildly he tore at the debris to unearth a sign – Naval Criminal Investigative Services Headquarters. It took him a full five seconds of staring blankly at the sign to realize the implications. He was in DC. The barren blasted landscape around him was his home – Washington, DC.
He dropped the sign and backed up, suddenly desperate to be away.
He didn't want to see this.
He didn't want to know.
He ran blindly, not looking where he was going, just running. In his blind haste he nearly ran over the edge of a precipice. He tottered on the edge, looking down into a deep chasm.
A single ray of sun broke through the clouds then and he could see what lay within the hole, and then he wished he couldn't. For the chasm was a grave that was filled with layers of bodies. All manner of horrors had been visited upon the bodies he saw there. The violence was reflected in the fear and terror on the faces that gazed up at him in mute appeal. He dropped to his knees, tears running down his face.
"Why? Why did this happen?" he cried to the heavens.
"I told you that you would come to no good, Anthony."
The voice behind him made him whirl.
He found his father standing there. He was impeccably dressed in one of his designer suits, and he looked as if he had just come from his club. In one hand he held a drink, the amber liquid in the cut crystal glass the only color that Tony had spied yet in the bleak land he now found himself.
Tony backed away. "What happened here? Where are my friends?"
His father smiled. It was a bare curving of his lips and there was no warmth to it. It was the cold smile he reserved for Tony alone that spoke of his supreme disappointment in his only son. "Don't you know? This," he swept a well-manicured hand to take in the rubble and the carnage and the smog, "is all your fault, after all."
"No," Tony denied violently taking another step back and the soil under his feet crumbled. He found himself sliding down the slope, down into the chasm filled with bodies.
He scrambled trying to get back up, digging with his hands and his feet, but it was no use. The dirt just kept sliding away under him and he tumbled down the hill until he came to rest in the arms of the dead.
Breathing hard, his heart hammering in his chest, Tony inched away, desperately trying not to look. One of the bodies caught his eye though, maybe it was the color of the hair, dark and long, there was something familiar about it. He paused in his struggle to escape. He crept closer and tentatively turned the body over.
He gave a choked cry at what he saw.
"Kate!"
She fell with one hand thrown out, as if she were reaching to him.
He gathered her body to him, crying, trying to remember what had happened. How had he survived when everyone else he knew was dead?
He felt the body in his arms stir and he drew back in dread. She turned her head to him and spoke.
"You did this to us, Tony, don't you remember?"
She grabbed his hand then and pulled. He tried to jerk away but she was too strong, she was pulling him into the grave. The rest of the bodies were stirring to life and they were grabbing him, pulling him down until the earth was covering him over and all he could do was scream but there was no one left alive to hear.
"No!"
Tony came awake with a suddenness that startled Gibbs. There was no in-between state. One minute he had been, if not sleeping peacefully, at least resting. The next he was sitting upright in bed, tearing wildly at the lines and tubes connecting him to the machinery surrounding him, hell bent on something, Gibbs wasn't sure what. His eyes were wide and dilated and Gibbs didn't really think he was awake yet, but still caught up in some nightmare world.
"Tony," he threw himself on the young man, trying to hold him down, trying to keep him from hurting himself more in his frenzy.
Tony might have been dehydrated and concussed and weak as a kitten when he was rescued, but his terror gave him strength and he threw Gibbs away. Gibbs hit the floor with a whoosh as the air was knocked from him.
"Boss?" he heard McGee call in astonishment from the neighboring bed.
"Call someone, McGee," Gibbs instructed tersely as he picked himself up off the floor.
Tony had managed to free himself of his bed and was making his way to the door. Gibbs grabbed his arm, being careful this time to stay out of range of the punch when it came.
"DiNozzo!" he said sharply in the voice of authority that Tony always responded to.
Tony paused in his headlong rush to the door and blinked. "Boss?"
"Where in the hell do you think you're going?"
Tony woke up all at once, taking in the hospital room and Gibbs standing there. He began to tremble all over before collapsing. Gibbs caught him before he hit the floor and wrestled him back into the bed as the hospital personnel arrived to sort out all the lines and tubes and make sure he was settled again.
Gibbs stood out of the way next to McGee scowling as he watched them work.
"Boss?" McGee asked, "What happened?"
"Hell if I know, McGee," he growled. "But I will before this is over. I will." he promised.
And someone would pay for the hell that they'd put DiNozzo through.
--NCIS--
Tony floated in the comfortable haze of the non-place he found himself in. He knew he should wake up; there were important matters to be dealt with. The urgency hovered there at the edges of his consciousness just waiting for him to notice it. At the moment though he was feeling no pain, feeling nothing as a matter of fact and he was reluctant to leave only to be forced to face the pain and the questions he knew would be waiting for him the moment he opened his eyes.
"Comfy, DiNozzo?"
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. Tony couldn't really tell where it was coming from in the grey haze that surrounded him. It was a familiar voice, he knew who it belonged to, but he didn't want to think about it. He was too comfortable, the place where he found himself was a good place to rest and that was all he wanted to do, rest and not think.
"There'll be time to rest later, DiNozzo, you really need to wake up."
The voice demanded that he face things – Kate and her forced cheerfulness as she tried to ignore what had happened to him. Or McGee, whose way of coping would be to try and analyze what had happened. He'd probably want a blow-by-blow account of what had happened. And Gibbs... Gibbs would want to know what he'd found out about his captors, what they wanted, what Tony had told them...
But he had nothing, nothing to give them, nothing to tell them. And nothing wasn't acceptable, not for Gibbs and not for him. And he couldn't face it, so he burrowed further into the comfort of the non-place.
The voice followed him relentlessly, pursuing him, "So, what you gonna do, DiNozzo? You just going to keep hiding here in your nice little hidey-hole?
Tony resented the voice. If he wanted to hide for a while, well he'd earned it.
"Come on, DiNozzo, I've never known you to hide from anything. What? You just gonna stay here forever? Are you too afraid to wake up and deal with things?"
Tony resented the insinuation that he was a coward and couldn't... wouldn't face what he needed to face. But there was time for that later, right now he just wanted to float.
"There are people who are worried about you, DiNozzo, people who risked their life to save you. Is this how you're going to repay them?"
The voice was getting steadily more demanding, using that note of command that Tony always found difficult to ignore, but this time if he could cover his ears he would. He would stick his fingers in his ears and sing, 'la, la, la, la, la, la, la.'
"I can't hear you," he told the voice. "Leave me alone."
"Is that what you really want, DiNozzo?" the voice sounded curious, genuinely interested in his answer. "Do you really want to be left alone?"
Did he want to be alone? It felt like he'd been alone all his life. Growing up, he craved the contact of other people, but he always kept them at arms length, not many people knew the real Tony DiNozzo. Only lately had he begun to let people in, to let them see his true self. But he was afraid to show them too much because if they really knew who he was they might leave him, too, and then he'd be alone again. Like now.
"That's where you're wrong, DiNozzo. You're not alone. We're all here with you, and we won't leave you."
"Do you promise, boss?" he whispered into the nothingness.
"I promise, we're here, DiNozzo, just waiting for you to wake up."
The voice spoke with authority and Tony's eyes opened almost of their own accord.
He was surprised to find that he was no longer in the cage. The rescue was such a jumble of blurred memories that he'd been sure he dreamed it.
He stirred a little, feeling the cool, clean sheets and the weight of a blanket providing warmth. It felt good after so much time shivering, pressed against the bars of his cage.
He was in the hospital if he could judge by the soft beeps and hums and the too-clean smell of things. He felt strangely disconnected from his body, and recalling his condition the last time he remembered being in the cage, that was probably for the best. The lights around him were dim, but he could hear a soft snore from somewhere in the room with him.
Turning his head, he could just make out a body sleeping in the bed next to him. It was dark in the room so he couldn't really see who it was, but he thought he recognized the snore from all night stakeouts when Tim napped in the car next to him.
Alarm seized him then. Had more of the team been taken? He'd always just assumed he was the only one, because he hadn't seen anyone else. But that was a bad assumption. Gibbs rule number 3 – never assume, always check out the facts for yourself. They could have all been in cells next to his, enduring the same things he'd experienced... God, no...
He began to pull on the lines that connected his body to the machines. He had to get up. The voice was right. He couldn't just lie around in bed and escape from things. He had to deal with keeping his friends safe.
Hands caught his, holding him down, preventing him from doing what he needed to do.
"Tony, stop, you're going to hurt yourself," someone said.
The voice was familiar; he recognized it from that other place.
"Gibbs?" he whispered trying to focus on the person standing over him.
Gibbs was there, standing over him, with a firm hold on him. Then, for a second he saw a ghostly image, a second Gibbs staring down at him, smiling sadly. He blinked and the second Gibbs was gone and he was alone again with just the real Gibbs for company.
A pissed real Gibbs by the looks of it.
"You with me, DiNozzo?" he asked tersely.
Tony gathered himself and gave a small nod. Slowly Gibbs released him, body tensed to jump into action again if it turned out Tony was still asleep or tried to hurt himself again.
He asked the question uppermost in his mind, "McGee?"
Gibbs huffed out a breath, "He's alright. We just had a small... mishap getting to you."
Tony swallowed, his throat dry and dusty. Gibbs must have seen the motion. He picked up a cup with a straw and held it to Tony's lips.
"What happened?" Tony asked, sipping the water.
It was the best thing he'd ever tasted in his life. He'd never thought that water would be the thing he craved most in the world. Long before he was done, Gibbs pulled the cup away and set it aside.
Gibbs took a step back, his gaze narrowed. Tony could feel it assessing him, "I was actually hoping you were going to tell me, DiNozzo."
Gibbs didn't know? That took him by surprise, Gibbs was supposed to know everything. Tony swallowed again, a little easier this time. His gaze wandered to McGee. At least he was sleeping peacefully. That was something.
"There's not much, boss," he confessed, sleepily.
He could feel the drugs pulling him down again, but he forced himself to stay awake. He needed to talk now, to tell Gibbs what he knew.
"The cage, they put me in a cage... and they strapped me in a chair sometimes... I didn't know what they wanted..." he tried to shove himself up and found he lacked the strength for it. Frustrated he struck out at the mattress with a fist.
"Tony," Gibbs laid a soothing hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. I wasn't asking you to report. You need to rest."
The sense of urgency was building inside Tony. There wasn't time to rest, but his body was agreeing with Gibbs. He could feel his eyes closing against his will.
"Need to find... answers," he insisted.
"We will," he heard Gibbs answer as he slid unwillingly back into sleep. "We will."
--NCIS--
The next time Tony woke up, the sun was streaming in the windows, making the room bright.
Kate sat in a chair at his side, leafing through a magazine. He could see she wasn't really reading, but she wasn't in the hospital room either. Her forehead was crinkled in serious thought and her mouth pursed as if she'd just eaten something seriously sour, she seemed to be a million miles away.
Tony tried to speak and it just came out as a squeak. Kate heard him anyway. She jumped up, dumping the magazine onto the ground. Picking up the cup from the table next to his bed, she held it so he could drink.
"Tony? Is something wrong? Do I need to call the doctor?" she asked anxiously.
She was so earnest. He needed to say something to break the tension, make her smile. "Cosmo, Kate?" he whispered.
"What?" she stared at him, trying to decide if he was delirious, "I'll call the doctor..."
He caught her hand as she reached for the call button. "The magazine. In His Pants?" He pointed at where he imagined the magazine must be on the floor. "What would your mother say?"
She blushed a little.
"It was all they had at the nurse's station," she informed him primly. "I can see that you're feeling better."
She picked up the magazine and sat, trying to look like she was ignoring him, but Tony could see that she was a little more relaxed now. She peaked over the magazine and smiled back at him.
"Are you okay? Do I need to call the doctor?" she asked again, this time with an ironic lift of her eyebrow.
It felt good. It felt normal.
He could feel the pull of his body, but it was still distant enough that he could ignore it, at least for a while. He wanted to be clear-headed and start to process what had happened. To everyone. Obviously he wasn't the only one affected by his imprisonment.
"I'm good."
His gaze shifted to the other bed where he thought he remembered McGee had been the night before. The bed was empty now, but the sheets were askew like someone had been in it recently.
"Probie?"
Kate looked back down at the magazine and Tony could see her trying to decide what to tell him. He pushed himself up with an elbow and began to pull on the IV in his arm.
"What in the hell are you doing?" Kate demanded as she pulled his hand away. He was so weak; it was ridiculously easy for her.
"I'm going to find someone who can give me answers," he told her evenly. He didn't like not being in the loop, even if it was because he was laying flat on his back in the hospital.
"Give yourself a break, Tony," she said, "you've had a rough time."
He met her gaze and told her, "I don't think we have time, Kate. I... there's something... I just can't remember what."
He let himself fall back into the pillows in frustration. He was so weak and his head was beginning to hurt and there were funny little black dots in his vision. "Would you mind pulling the curtains? It's bright in here."
She got up and did as he requested, speaking the entire time, "God, Tony, you are so impossible. I can't believe you. You almost died, you know that?"
"I was there," he reminded her wryly. "And McGee?" he asked stubbornly.
She sat back in the chair. He thought she was going to refuse again, but then she finally gave in with a huff. "There was a booby trap. The... enclosure where we found you..."
"It was a cage, Kate," Tony told her. He didn't want to pull any punches or sugarcoat what had been done to him. He needed the anger to keep him awake and aware.
She flinched and continued. "The... cage was electrocuted. It was electrocuting you and we couldn't get it turned off."
He could read her distress in the way she shifted in her chair; in the way her eyes wouldn't meet his. He thought he remembered Gibbs' face as he was in the cage, but he hadn't known if it was the real or the imaginary one.
Time shifted and blended for him, forward and back. He was in the cage with the bars pressing in, and then he was back in the hospital lying between clean, cool sheets with Kate watching him, her eyes shadowed and worried.
"She thinks it's all over," his father's voice surprised him. He appeared behind Kate, tumbler in hand. He took a drink and regarded Kate, his head cocked thoughtfully.
"What?" Tony asked.
Kate thought he was talking to her. "The cage," she explained patiently. "McGee found a wire and when he cut it, well... He was electrocuted and his heart stopped. He was dead, Tony."
"She thinks she's safe," his father said watching Kate with narrowed eyes.
Tony wanted to know about McGee, the fact that 'heart stopped' and 'McGee' were used in the same sentence was bad, but the fact that his imaginary father was still walking and talking in his subconscious was bad, too. Tony didn't know who to concentrate on and his headache was getting worse, it throbbed in time with his heartbeat.
"Safe?" Tony said trying not to appear as distracted as he felt.
"He's fine, Tony, Tim is fine. The paramedics got his heart started again. " Kate assured him, patting the blanket next to his arm.
Tony wished she'd punch him or yell at him, anything but the solicitous care that was so unlike her.
"Such a lovely woman," his father said as he circled around Kate.
It reminded Tony of the specials on the Animal Planet where the predator was stalking its unsuspecting prey.
"Too bad she's too good for you," he pronounced at last.
"Fine?" Tony grabbed the word, trying to reassure Kate that he was fine. He didn't think he was doing such a good job. She kept following the line of his gaze trying to figure out what had him so interested behind her. There was nothing for her to see.
"The doctors said there wasn't any permanent damage. They kept him overnight just to keep an eye on him. He and Abby went for some breakfast. Gibbs went to find coffee. They should all be back any time now. We were waiting to debrief until you woke up to see if you could tell us anything." She was babbling.
Tony knew he was scaring her, because he couldn't decide who to focus on, her or his father. And his father knew the trouble he was causing. He just stood there, smirking, drinking his drink that never seemed to be any emptier.
Tony's headache was getting worse; the pain was almost more than he could stand.
"It's a pity they'll never be safe again with you around," his father pronounced before disappearing from sight.
"Tony," Kate asked anxiously, reaching for the call button that would summon help.
He pushed her away, "Go away, Kate," he told her roughly, "Before you die, too."
He could feel the ants marching across his body again. The hospital melted away and he was back strapped in the chair.
--NCIS--
Kate didn't know which scared her more – the fact that Tony was staring at something not there or the fact the machinery around him was beginning to beep faster. The one with his heartbeat was doing double time. Wasn't there someone on duty that was supposed to be watching those things?
And Tony was in pain, she could see that. He was playing the macho agent and wouldn't ask for anything. Well, she wasn't standing around watching him suffer. She reached for the call button and he gave her hand a painfully weak push.
"Go away, Kate, before you die, too," he told her.
She stood frozen, not knowing what to say. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and his body arched from the bed.
She ran for the door screaming, "Help, I need help in here."
The machine with Tony's heartbeat flat-lined then and all she heard was the steady, monotonous tone declaring him dead.
To be continued...
