oNCISo

Tony could see Gibbs running toward him, his face contorted in grief. He seemed to be moving in slow motion, and even though he was speaking, Tony couldn't hear anything through the loud buzzing in his head.

He blinked, and he was suddenly lying on the floor looking up at Gibbs, who was leaning against a crate smoking a cigarette as bullets flew past in slow motion.

The incongruity of the situation made Tony frown. "Boss?"

"It's about time you woke up, DiNozzo. Your show is about to start."

Tony shook his head, trying to clear out the cobwebs. "My show?"

"Magnum P.I. You said you wanted to watch this episode."

"I did?"

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Never mind. You're too late." He suddenly pulled out an old Colt revolver and spun, putting two rounds in the chest of Black – who, Tony belatedly realized, was the one who had been shooting at them.

Black looked down at the two spots of color that were rapidly darkening, and then looked back up at Tony. "I told you this was a bad idea."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that." Tony got to his feet and looked around. Booth was a few feet away, speaking with what appeared to be a skeleton.

"So Bones, how do you like my family?"

The skeleton peered at Tony with its hollow eyes. "Objectively, I'd have to say you're right. He is obfuscating."

Booth narrowed his eyes. "I don't know what that means."

The skeleton draped an arm around his shoulders. "He's hiding something."

Tony had seen some very creepy things in his line of work, but even he had trouble keeping the contents of his stomach from coming up when the skeleton suddenly pulled Booth toward it with a leash that had suddenly appeared around the man's neck and started kissing him passionately. Tony whirled around, coming face to face with Ziva.

"What are you doing here?"

"McGee and I were in your apartment."

"So I've heard."

She smiled wickedly. "We opened your record player."

McGee suddenly appeared behind her. "I never knew you kept Kate's badge. Any other secrets we can use against you?"

Tony whirled again when he felt a tap on the back of his head.

"DiNozzo, I told you to watch your damn show. Are you disobeying a direct order?"

Tony followed Gibbs' gaze upwards, where he saw Trista dancing with Tom Selleck on the catwalk. It looked to be a very complicated waltz – made even more difficult by the guns they each held in their hands.

Tony couldn't believe his eyes. "Tom Selleck? What are you doing here?"

Selleck bowed to Trista as the dance ended, and then turned to Tony. "Beats me, kid. When I write my book on how to be a world class private investigator, I'm going to include a chapter on dreams."

"Dreams?"

"Yeah, kid. Does this look like reality to you?"

Tony felt another sharp pain in the back of his head and he turned again to face Gibbs. "What the hell was that for, Boss?"

"Time to wake up, DiNozzo."

"Wake up?"

"DiNozzo, I swear to God, if you don't open your eyes right now I'm putting you on desk duty for a month."

Tony's eyes flew open at the sound of Gibbs' voice. His boss was kneeling at his side, looking relieved.

Tony blinked at the harsh lights on the ceiling. "Did Tom leave already?"

Gibbs narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Booth is keeping an eye on the lovebirds upstairs. I don't think Trista likes Lincoln much anymore, though. He tried to kill her." Gibbs tried to restrain Tony from getting up. "DiNozzo, sit down before you fall down!"

Tony ignored his boss, staggering over to the stairs and pulling himself up the metal railing. Lying down, he had seen what Gibbs hadn't – Lincoln rushing Booth. As Tony reached the top of the stairs, Lincoln aimed a nasty right hook at Booth's head, felling the man. He grabbed his gun, training it on Tony as he stepped toward him. Tony held up his hands, leaning against the railing to keep his balance as his head starting spinning.

"Tom, stop! You don't want to do this!"

Thomas Lincoln laughed, kicking Booth in the head to ensure he'd stay down. "Really? That is so cliché, Tony. Surely you have better material?"

"Enough with the games, Tom." Tony shook his head. "Why would you do something like this?"

"The same reason everyone does something like this – money. My new friends were looking to make a statement; I had the means to do it."

"And what? Blowing yourself up was the way to financial freedom?"

"Nonsense. I would have been long gone by the time the action started."

"Didn't count on us dropping in, did you?"

Tom frowned. "I confess, I had hoped Hamid could be taken care of before the colors of the rainbow got involved. But it has been amusing watching you all scurry around, trying to save the day."

"Looks like we succeeded." Tony was having a hard time staying upright. Gibbs was at his back, gun trained on Lincoln.

"Doesn't matter. I got what I wanted, and I even had some fun while I was at it." He leered in Trista's direction. "She's quite a tiger in the sack. I can see why Kyle was so interested. Shame I had to kill him before he got a taste of the goods."

"You killed Kyle?" Trista had been quiet until now, cowering against the railing. She stood now, shaking. "You lied to me. You said Black had arranged the hit, that Kyle was trying to take over. That's why you asked me to help you, to stay and keep tabs on things while you gathered evidence against Black. Why would you lie to me?"

It was all starting to come together for Tony. "Kyle knew you were dirty, didn't he, Tom? He got too close to one of your secrets, started asking the wrong questions. So you had to shut him up. But we couldn't quite trust you after that. Black would have never given you access to the quality of information you needed to pay the bills."

"Kyle was a fool. All of you are. Don't you see the potential? You have all this information at your fingertips, and you just give it away."

"We use it to protect our country! That used to mean something to you."

"My country – a political boundary, it means nothing."

"It means everything," Tony shouted. "And you dragged Trista down with you."

"She's nothing," Tom said dismissively. "Enough of this. We're done talking about the past. Let's start talking about- what are you doing?"

Trista had apparently had enough. Tony had been watching her face as Tom talked. She was angry, betrayed, and his comment that she was nothing had apparently made her snap. She leapt on him, grabbing for the gun, kicking and swinging.

Tony ran forward, but it was far too late. Tom was unbalanced, and the force of Trista crashing into her slammed them both into the railing. It gave way, and the two were sent plummeting to the concrete floor below.

Silence reigned, and then a wave of vertigo overtook Tony. He stumbled closer to the edge before an arm pulled him back.

"Easy now," said Gibbs, laying him down. Tony heard him calling out to Booth, telling him to wake up, but then there was silence. Tony saw his lips move, but couldn't make out the words as the events of the past few days came crashing down on him.

"I really have to read Magnum's book," Tony muttered, and then allowed his eyes to slip shut.

xXxXx

It was the voices that persuaded Tony to wake up. He reached for the radio, but connected instead with something soft. When he opened his eyes, he realized that the something soft was an arm belonging to the person who was speaking.

Gibbs.

Tony sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance, his vest off and shirt open, revealing what were promising to be two spectacular bruises on his chest and side. The back doors of the bus were open, revealing the warehouse and the pre-dawn light across the bay.

It really was quite beautiful, but the events of the early morning made it all just a little too surreal for Tony to fully appreciate it. Instead, he focused his attention on the conversation happening over his head. Gibbs' arm was resting on the rail of the stretcher, and he was looking across at a gorgeous red-haired EMT.

"…not the first time he's hit his head," Gibbs was saying.

"We should probably get a CT scan then, just in case."

Tony decided that was his cue to intervene.

"N't gon' nowh're."

Well. That had come out better than he'd expected.

Gibbs turned his attention to his senior field agent, raising an eyebrow. "You kept telling me to get a picture of Tom Selleck and the crazy dancing skeleton."

"I di'?"

"Yes, you did."

"Oh." That was news to him, though now that he thought about it, he seemed to recall a lot of weird things happening in the past few hours. "What happened?" He spoke slowly, enunciating carefully in an effort to prove his mental wellbeing.

"Trista and Lincoln took a swan dive off the catwalk."

Tony suddenly remembered looking down at two bodies on a concrete floor. "Dead?"

"Lincoln is. Trista was taken to the hospital. Not sure if she's going to make it. Cracked her head pretty hard."

"Others?"

With a glance at the EMT, Gibbs leaned closer. "Booth confirmed that the other sites have been neutralized. Black's letting the CIA handle clean up. He'll be here in a few hours."

"Not tha' intres'ed in talking to him."

Gibbs looked smug as he shrugged slightly. "Well, you can tell him that when he arrives."

Tony rolled his eyes, and then regretted it as Gibbs swam in and out of focus. "Ugh…so what happens now?"

"Now-" Gibbs was cut off by the ringing of his cell phone. He winced as he glanced at the screen. "It's Abby. She's been calling me since five this morning."

"What time is it now?"

"A little after six." Gibbs sighed, and then flipped his phone open. "Gibbs."

Tony could hear Abby's voice through the small speaker on the phone. "Gibbs! Where's Tony? I had another dream, and it was really weird! There was this dancing skeleton, and Tony was dancing with Tom Selleck."

Gibbs interrupted. "That's really more than I needed to know, Abs."

"But he's okay, right?"

"Yeah, Abs, he's right here. Hang on." He covered the mouthpiece to speak to Tony. "Think you can convince her you're fine so she stops calling every five minutes?"

"What does she know?"

"That you're not in Philly, and that she can't tell anyone about it."

"And what happened this morning?"

"Your choice."

Tony gestured for the phone, closed his eyes to keep his head from swimming, and then said brightly, "Hey Abs! What's up?"

"Tony! I thought you were dead, and we couldn't find you, only Gibbs said you were fine, but I couldn't really believe it until I heard from you myself, you know? But then I had that other dream, and it was just really freaky, and Gibbs said you weren't in Philly, but he wouldn't tell me what was going on and so I did some checking, only I can't find you anywhere, and I was just so worried!"

Tony let her go until she seemed to have run out of words, knowing that he wouldn't have been able to get a word in edgewise anyway. "Abby, I promise I'll tell you everything when I get back, okay?"

"When?"

That was a good question. "I'm not really sure, Abs. Maybe tomorrow."

"But you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Abs, I swear."

"Put Gibbs back on."

"Sure." As he handed the phone back, he felt a twinge in his ribs. His head was starting to make his stomach do somersaults, and he thought maybe the hospital wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Gibbs seemed to sense this, so after assuring Abby that Tony was, in fact, okay and still alive, and that Tom Selleck was not anywhere in the vicinity, and no, he couldn't arrange for her to meet him, he was able to hang up and send a meaningful look at the red-haired EMT, who promptly told her partner to close the doors and get them moving.

As Tony settled back for the trip, he silently thought over the events of the last few days. It had been a whirlwind adventure, and he wasn't sure he'd ever understand everything that had happened. One thing was for sure, though.

He was ready for a break.

oNCISo