Chapter one

Why couldn't he catch his breath? He knew he'd overtaxed his lungs, but there should be enough air getting to them now he'd stopped mouth to mouth. Shouldn't there?

Tony looked over to Gibbs and then to Maddie, wanting to make sure that they were still in the land of the living. He knew that he should get up, call for help but he just couldn't seem to find the energy. Maybe if he just sat still for a few minutes, he'd get his strength back, he didn't think a few minutes would hurt.

"DiNozzo?" a voice spoke from his left.

He looked over to see his boss staring at him, probably wondering why Tony was just sitting there when he should be up and about and sorting things out. Tony opened his mouth to answer his boss but found that he couldn't seem to get any words out.

"Tony?" Gibbs spoke again.

God his boss was persistent, he'd just saved the man's life, couldn't he give him a couple of minutes to get his breath back. He knew he'd better speak or he'd never hear the end of it.

"I'm...good...boss." There he'd gotten it out. Maybe now Gibbs would leave him alone, another minute then he would get up, see if his phone had survived the trip in the water and call for some help.

"You don't look fine DiNozzo," Gibbs said, propping himself up onto his elbows. "Did you come here alone?"

Clearly his boss wasn't going to give him a reprieve, oh well breathing was overrated anyway. He took one last deep breath in and then proceeded to push himself up from the dock. Apparently his body had other ideas though, as he was only on his feet for a few seconds when his legs turned to jelly and he found himself back on the floor, only just managing to stop himself from face planting the wood.

"Tony!" Gibbs exclaimed, trying to get to his feet himself to help his senior field agent.

"Don't think...that...was such...a good...idea."

"Ya think DiNozzo."

The two men sat on the dock supporting each other, both wanting to help the other. As each man was deciding on the next course of action they heard sirens in the distance, the noise getting closer by the second.

"Looks like help is on its way," Gibbs said. He then turned to Maddie, checking that she was still ok.

"I'll be ok," Maddie spoke before Gibbs could, sensing that he was going to ask the question. "Just a little cold."

"Hear hear," Tony said, his body shaking from the water dripping off of it.

"Gibbs? Tony?" a voice called from a distance away.

"Over here," Gibbs replied, recognising it to be Ziva.

A moment later she appeared, McGee only a few steps behind.

"What happened," McGee asked.

"We need an ambulance," Gibbs said, ignoring McGee's question. He wasn't sure how to tell the story, especially as he was unconscious for some of it.

"The paramedics will be hear shortly," Ziva said, she then turned to McGee. "Get the blankets out of the car."

McGee nodded and turned, heading back the way they had come. Ziva stepped further towards her fallen teammates and crouched in front of Tony, worried that he had yet to speak.

"Tony, are you ok?"

Tony looked up at Ziva and smiled, hoping that it would reassure her that he was fine. The problem was he didn't think he was, he was shaking so much that he found it difficult to remain upright, he still couldn't catch his breath, feeling like there was an elephant sitting on his chest and to top it off his vision was going in and out of focus, he was worried that he was going to pass out.

"Maybe you should lay down before you fall down," Ziva said, concerned that her partner looked so bad.

"DiNozzo's...don't...pass o..out." Tony managed to get out, even though she just said exactly what he was thinking.

"Well maybe this one should, yes?" Ziva said, sending a worried look to Gibbs.

As if his body had listened to her, Tony found himself losing his grip on consciousness, he tried with all his might to hold on and stay upright but unfortunately he didn't succeed and would have crashed to the dock if Ziva hadn't been there to catch him as he fell.

"Tony!" Gibbs exclaimed as his agent went down. "Where is that damn ambulance."

"They're here boss," McGee said, coming over carrying a couple of blankets. "Is Tony ok?"

"Does he look ok McGee!"

"Sorry boss, I'll go bring the paramedics. Ziva, the blankets."

"Thank you McGee."

Ziva made sure to cover Tony in one of the blankets and then turned to put one over Maddie. The last she gave to Gibbs. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Gibbs replied, annoyance in his voice. "Be glad to be off this dock."

A minute later and there was a flurry of activity, paramedics checking on the fallen agents and civilian. It was determined after a short while that Maddie and Gibbs were ok but needed to be checked over more thoroughly at the hospital. Their main concern was Tony, he was unresponsive and his breathing seemed to be getting worse.

It was decided fairly quickly that Tony would go in the first ambulance and he was soon lifted onto a stretcher and put into the back of the bus. The sirens were turned on and the ambulance drove away in a cloud of dust. Another ambulance arrived and Gibbs and Maddie were loaded in, just before the doors shut, Gibbs spoke.

"Stay and process the scene."

Ziva and McGee looked at the departing ambulance and then at each other, wanting to follow their team members to the hospital, but knowing that they couldn't disobey an order from Gibbs. They soon set to work, trying to find out what had happened.

There were two dead bad guys, skid marks from a car heading towards the water and all three of the people on their way to the hospital were soaked to the skin. It was easy to make assumptions, but they wouldn't know exactly what happened until they spoke to their teammates. Hoping to finish up quickly they shot, sketched and measured, waiting patiently for Ducky to collect the bodies so they could make their way to the hospital.