AN: Got my laptop back long enough to post this. I wrote it all on my cellphone and holy balls I don't recommend it LOL. I'm gonna try to get more done while I've got the chance, but do continue to bear with me!

*~.~*

His head was killing him. It was dark, but he figured out quickly enough that that was because his eyes were closed. Why was it so hard to open them? He couldn't bring his arms in front of them. They were tied at the wrist, he could feel, and the rope was so tight it was cutting into his skin. His back was up against something cold and hard; a pole, he assumed.

He could hear voices in the distance growing closer, scuffing of shoes on pavement like someone was stumbling along, and a couple more walking heavily. He tried again to open his eyes and this time got them to crack open enough for the light to cut like a knife through his skull. He squeezed them shut again, groaning through the wave of nausea that followed.

"Aww what's the matter, Anthony DiNozzo Jr?" the familiar voice sounded above him; one of the henchmen to the leader Tony had been undercover investigating. He was one of the four guys he'd gotten pretty close to while integrating into their system.

Obviously he'd figured Tony out. "You didn't think I was stupid, did you? That I wouldn't find out?"

Here's where Tony could shine, though. He summoned up all of his strength, trying to push down the pain and concentrate on attempting to save his own ass. "My name is Tony," he said with his infamous grin taking its place on his face. "Tony Haas. You know that, Johnny. Could you," he began laughing. "Could you imagine if I was a Junior? I never even knew my father, let alone shared his name. I told you, man, I took my mom's name."

"It was a nice cover, kid, I'll give ya that. But like I said, I'm not stupid."

"What are you even talking about, man? How did I get here and who the hell is feeding you this load of bullshit?"

"Quit while you're ahead, Tone. I know everything. And I've got your piece of crap partner." The man motioned to someone in the shadows behind him, and Tony watched two men come forward, Fornell between them. They shoved him to his knees, and Fornell lifted his eyes apologetically at Tony.

Well fuck.

"Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. Yeah we got our own set of hackers. Why do you think they can't get to us?" Tony didn't reply. His instinctive reaction would be to say something derogatory, but he was finding it difficult to think of anything at the moment. They were there alone. No one knew where they were. No one would even know they were gone... "It's too bad, Tone. I was starting to really like you. I didn't wanna believe Andy when he said what he found out. But then we find this guy, and it's pretty hard to ignore the facts."

"Johnny, look," Tony began, but Johnny wasn't in the mood to hear more lies.

"It really breaks my heart," he said, motioning to his goons to stand Fornell up.

"I'm sorry, Johnny," Tony said, his nerves suddenly on fire.

"Nah. Not you, kid. It breaks my heart that I gotta kill an old man."

"No no, now wait!"

"So to make myself feel a little better, I'm gonna give 'im a head start."

"Johnny, listen to me," Tony tried to reason with him. "You don't have to do this. We have nothing on you! You haven't done anything wrong here yet!"

He didn't listen. Instead he watched the FBI agent until Fornell dared to attempt to get away. The sound of the gun being fired was both terrifying and deafening. The building they were in, Tony realized, was the old hanger Johnny often used to do interrogations, and the echo off of all the empty space made it hurt all the worse.

It was all so fast. The gun shot, then Fornell dropping lifeless to the pavement. The moonlight coming through the door lightened his bloodied face.

"Nooo!"

*~.~*

"McGee!" Ellie had a hold of Tim's shoulder and arm, concern washing her face at the display. They'd just been talking when Tim had curled in on himself in his seat, his hands balling into fists at his temples as he made a pained noise. Gibbs looked over from his seat, recognizing the familiar behavior Tony used to show with his visions. He stood and went to his agent.

"Talk to me, Tim," Gibbs said as he knelt in front of the younger agent, placing his hand on Tim's other shoulder. "What is it?"

"We need to get there," he replied in a pained voice. He brought his head up to look at his boss. His eyes were red. Not quite as awful as when it happened to Tony, but enough for Gibbs to get a terrible feeling in his gut. "Whatever's happening...it's bad..."

"We've been cleared to land," Prentiss told them. "We'll touch down right where your vision lead us."

*~.~*

"Go ahead and untie 'im," Johnny told his goons. Tony could feel his entire body shaking both in anger and fear. He'd messed up. They'd figured him out and now Fornell was dead, and he would soon be following.

"So what now?" Tony asked, resigned now with acceptance of his fate. "Gonna give me a head start too? Try to make yourself feel better about murdering me?" A noise that had started out a distant whir had become a lot louder and closer. Johnny motioned for his goons to go check it out.

"You made me care about you, ya damn Fed bastard," Johnny replied calmly. "And that's a real shame. I thought you were gonna be a great asset to the team. Turns out you were here to destroy it. What do you honestly think I should do, huh? Just...let you go? You said you had nothing on me, but you just witnessed me murder a Federal agent. You leave here, I'll be targeted, and the boss will have me killed before your people ever had a chance to catch me."

"Or you come with me," Tony offered. "You help us get the rest of them and you'll be protected," he attempted to bargain for his life.

"You know...before I found out you were a traitor, I might've taken you up on an offer like that. Like if you'd told me before..." Johnny paused in his statement. "I would've been game to get out. Hell, nobody gets into this kinda life in purpose. But it's too late, Tone. Now it's kill or be killed. All I can do is give you a running start."

"Well," Tony replied, holding out his newly free arms. "That's too bad, 'cause you don't get to feel better about this, John. You're gonna have to shoot me right here. Right in front of you." Tony closed his eyes for a moment, thinking of his team back home. Thinking of what Gibbs might think of his surrender. Thinking of how he'd take the news about Tobias...

"You think I can't?" Johnny asked.

"Johnny!" one of the goons yelled into the building over the loud engine sound outside. "There's a plane landing right here! We need to get out now!"

"Now or never, man," Tony drew John's attention back to him.

"We gotta go now!" the goon yelled, then took off.

"I will be back to finish this!" Johnny yelled at Tony, then took off out the door.

For a long moment, Tony stood there waiting for him to come back. He barely registered the sound of the landing jet outside. After a moment, he started into action, searching pointlessly for a phone to call for help. Maybe the pilot could help... He trudged forward, the ache in his head renewing as he got closer to the door. The nausea hit him again. He paused in the doorway looking tearfully at the fallen agent on the ground beneath him before stepping around him to get outside...

*~.~*

"That's it right there!" Tim yelled, pointing toward the doorway on the side of the hanger as they deboarded the jet and stood on the pavement. They could see the faint light coming from the open door. They could see a body lying in its threshold. The team drew their weapons and began a quick approach toward the opening.

"Tony!" Gibbs spotted him slipping out the doorway. Tony winced but looked up at the voice.

"Gibbs?" he said in disbelief. "How...?"

"Are you okay?" he asked, holstering his gun before grabbing the agent's arms in attempt to get a look at him. Tony's eyes darted around at the others as they went to check the hanger.

"They're gone," he told them, then looked to his boss. "Gibbs, I'm so sorry," he said wetly. Gibbs narrowed his eyes at him before the figure on the floor caught his attention.

"Tobias?" he said to no one in particular. Tim was kneeling beside him checking for a pulse.

"He's alive!" Tim said, surprised. "Ellie, call for an ambulance!"

Gibbs looked back at Tony, who was looking like he was in some state of shock. "What happened, Tony?"

Tony met his eyes again. "They found me out," he replied. "They shot Fornell and they were gonna shoot me, but you...they ran off."

Gibbs took one hand off Tony's arm and examined the bloody gash on the younger man's temple. "You hurt anywhere else?"

Tony shook his head, and something changed in his eyes then, as though just coming to grips with the reality in front of him. "I'm real glad to see you," he said, hardly able to contain the tears building in his eyes.

Gibbs pulled him into an embrace. "Damn good to see you too, DiNozzo," he said, scruffing the back of Tony's head.

"How did you find us?" he asked pulling away.

"McGee," he replied, glancing at the other agent as he stood.

"Prentiss has the local Leo's on the way here," Tim told Gibbs before looking to Tony. "Man am I glad to see you," he smiled as he held out his hand to him.

"Aw, c'mere, probie," Tony said pulling him into a hug. "I'm glad that big brain of yours could track me down. I'd be dead if you hadn't shown up when you did." He pulled away. "How exactly did you do that?"

"The ambulance is on its way. Should be here in two minutes," Bishop said. Then she smiled at Tony. "I'm glad you're okay," she said, still processing the fact that Tim's visions were real and everything she'd been told was not some big joke. Tony could tell she was holding something back, but before he could think about it, he felt something white hot burn through his head.

Gibbs flinched as something sprayed his face. He'd seen a flash out the corner of his eye, and he looked over, seeing the man with his gun pointed at Tony. He could see the others with their guns drawn, returning fire, but when he looked to Tony's now blank eyes and realized he was about to crumble to the ground, he caught him under his arms before he could.

The sudden dead weight dropped him to his knees, Tony falling with him.

"Tony?" he held the man's face in his hands now, realizing that the man's head was bloody and dripping down the side of his face. "No..." His voice barely made a sound, and he pulled Tony's body back into an embrace, unable to help tears from escaping him. "I'm so sorry."

"We got him, Gibbs-" Bishop's statement cut short at the sight before her. "Oh my God... Is..." and then she saw Tim. "McGee! Oh God was he shot too?!" she asked as she rushed to kneel beside him. Gibbs hadn't seen the other man go down. But Tim was lying beside them, still and pale and Gibbs didn't think he could handle any more...

"He's not hit!" she said. "He's unconscious but his heart is beating. What happened?"

Gibbs didn't have an answer for her. He couldn't think, not with his agent dead in his arms. As he heard the sirens getting closer, he gently laid Tony down on the pavement, then ran his fingers down over the agent's lids to close them...

*~.~*

Gibbs stood in the hallway outside of the morgue of the hospital, back against the wall as a thousand thoughts rolled around in his head. Too many for him to actually make sense of, except for the one huge, terrible one where Tony was dead in a body bag in one of the fridge drawers just beyond the door he was staring at.

They'd gotten there in time to save him, and lost him anyway. It wasn't fair. Nothing about the lives of his team had ever been fair. Not really. The things they'd been through, and the ones they'd lost. This family these people had become, torn away piece by piece. If he believed in curses, he could maybe think that he was just that.

But his family was in trouble right now. Both Tobias and McGee were keeping the neurology department swamped at the moment. Tobias was in surgery. Last Gibbs had heard, when Bishop had come down to give him an update, was that the bullet had cracked his skull but hadn't reached his brain. They were putting in a stent until the swelling could go down, but the prognosis was looking good so far.

McGee was being taken back for a CT and a possible MRI. That was one of the thoughts rolling around Gibbs' head as well. The sudden unconsciousness of the younger agent worried the hell out of him. Somehow, he'd been getting signals from Tony again, and it was obvious that his current state was a result of Tony's sudden demise... But what did that mean for Tim now?

God what did this mean for any of them? The thought of breaking all of this news to Abby, Ducky... Palmer. Hell, he'd need to track down Senior. Fuck... He wasn't ready for this. He would never be ready for this...

*~.~*

"JJ has arranged for us to be able to bring everyone back with us in the morning," Reid told Gibbs when he'd made his way back up to the intake floor. "That's assuming Agent Fornell doesn't take a turn overnight."

"Which I'm sure won't happen," Prentiss interjected. "The swelling is already starting to respond to the medication and the doc said the stent won't be an issue flying."

"Everyone?" Gibbs asked.

Reid knew what he was asking. "Everyone, Agent Gibbs. We can buckle him onto the couch. The jet won't accommodate a casket..." He swallowed and looked down.

Gibbs' heart had twinged at the thought of bringing Tony home in a body bag, but he saw the saddened look on the agent's face before him and remembered that he was in no way alone in the heartbreak.

He nodded to the young man and turned to Ellie.

"McGee?" he asked.

"Still unconscious," she replied. "But the scans didn't show any damage. They're waiting for toxicology to come back, but they think he's not in any immediate danger."

"Where is he?"

Bishop gestured with her head for him to follow her as she lead him up the hall. "The nurses understand our situation," she told him. "They won't give you a hard time about being in there." She stopped in front of the room Tim was in.

"You doing okay, Bishop?" he asked turning to her.

"I'm uh...still processing everything," she said as she looked down a bit. "I still can't wrap my head around..." she couldn't complete the sentence, but Gibbs saw her eyes as they became wet. "I didn't give him a hug," she said, a small smile trying to cut through her tears. "I was still wrapping my head around it all and I guess part of me was scared. I should've hugged him and told him how much we missed him, and now it's too late..." Her tears took over then, and Gibbs pulled her to him. He knew she'd been holding it all in for his sake, and now that they weren't terrified of losing more of their people, it had nowhere to hide anymore...

tbc...