Chapter 2

A fire burned besides Gibbs' unconscious form, his body was covered by Tony's Staff Jacket and sweater, and his head rested on Tony's T-Shirt. This was one time the Special Agent was glad he'd worn layers.

Tony sat, shivering and exhausted on the ground, trying desperately to get a signal, he heard a groan escaping Gibbs lips and looked towards him, "Boss?" He asked, standing up and walking to him. Tony got on his knees next to Gibbs and felt his head.

"You're freezing DiNozzo." Gibbs strained to say the words, just speaking seemed to take a lot of effort.

"Sorry." Tony moved his hand away, and started to cough loudly, pain evident on his face.

"DiNozzo, get out of here..." Gibbs gasped, "That's an order."

"No way Boss, I'm not going anywhere." Tony sat in a more comfortable position besides him, "And anyway, a Marine never leaves a man behind."

"You're...not a Marine DiNozzo, Marines know how to...follow...orders."

"Hey, I follow orders." Tony retorted, "Most of the time."

"Yeah, well follow the order I just gave you, or you're fired." Gibbs sounded intimidating, even when wheezing.

Tony gave a small smile, "I said most of the time."

Gibbs was sitting in a more upright position, leaning against a tree for support. He and Tony sat in silence, both concentrating on their breathing, trying to take breaths that were as least painful as possible.

Gibbs had been in quite a lot of pain since the crash, which was why he'd been walking so slowly. As soon as he'd felt the impact of the crash he'd been fairly certain that at least one of his ribs were fractured.

"You should have told me you were injured Boss." Tony broke the silence.

Gibbs looked across at where his Agent was sitting, "Why? It's not like you could have done anything."

"I know that, but it would have been nice to have a little heads up." Tony started to cough again, "How long do you think it'll be before they realise we need rescuing?"

"I wouldn't...count on it being any time soon DiNozzo."

The activities throughout the next hour became quite routine, Tony would get up and walk around every few minutes to check for a signal and then return to check on Gibbs, whilst Gibbs tried to persuade Tony to put more clothes on, knowing his Agent was in danger of becoming Hypothermic. It was no use however, Tony was stubborn and as far as he was concerned, Gibbs, who he was pretty sure was suffering from more than just a fractured rib, needed to keep warm more than he did.

"I think your breathing's getting worse Boss." Gibbs just gave him a look, "But obviously 'you' would know that."

"Yeah." Gibbs wheezed, "Yeah, I would..."

Tony stuck his hands out towards the flames of the fire, "I'm gonna go get some more wood."

Gibbs sighed as he saw his Agent walk off again, shivering and waving his phone in the air. There was very little chance that they would get a signal, Gibbs knew it and he was pretty sure Tony did too, although giving up wasn't something Tony would have learned from observing him so his persistence wasn't surprising.

Tony returned a while later, carrying small branches in his arms, "Well, at least we're not short on wood."

"Or twigs..."

"Hey, I got the fire going didn't I?"

"Yeah...I'm just...sorry I missed it." Gibbs quipped.

Gibbs eventually managed to persuade Tony to at least put his T-Shirt back on over his vest, although it didn't stop the shivering any and he couldn't help but notice how pale his Agent was looking.

It had been a while since Tony had walked around to try and get a signal or stretch his legs, instead he just sat across from Gibbs, listening to the older mans breathing and noticing the pain on his face as he did so.

"Didn't you say something...about Ziva climbing a tree one time...to get a signal?"

"Actually I think she might have jumped." Tony answered, then noticed the expectant look on Gibbs' face, "Wait, you want me to climb a tree?"

"Well no DiNozzo, not if you'd rather we freeze here"

Tony stood up, a whimper escaping his lips as he did so, walking over to a tall nearby tree he couldn't help but wonder how he was going to manage to climb up the thing when every part of his body ached just getting to it.

Tony started to climb the tree slowly, the effort was exhausting but he managed to climb up about half way until he needed to stop. He took out his phone, begging it to work.

"Boss I got a signal!" Tony yelled, as he looked down at Gibbs he realised he hadn't climbed up as high as he'd thought, "I'll phone Ducky." He added, quieter than before.

"DiNozzo..."

"I know, get Abby to trace our location." Tony started to call Ducky, his cold hands and shivering making it more difficult than it should have been. Ducky answered it almost immediately and Tony briefly explained what had happened.

"So, how bad is Jethro?" Ducky asked.

"I think he has a punctured lung, his breathing doesn't sound too good."

"Does he look like he's in a lot of pain when he breathes?"

"Yeah, he seems to be getting worse too."

Ducky paused for a moment, "Yes, I think your diagnosis is correct Tony, a Pneumothorax does seem like the most likely cause."

"Well what can I do to help?"

Tony listened as Ducky explained that excess air would be building up in Gibbs' lung, air which they would need to release via a chest tube. Obviously a chest tube wasn't available so they would have come up with another solution.

"So you want me to operate on him?" Tony's voice came out higher than he'd expected, "What am I gonna use?"

"Well, first of all you'll need to find something sharp."

Tony pulled out his knife, "Well that was easy."

"And then you'll need some alcohol."

"Where am I gonna get alcohol out here?"

"Bourbon...glove compartment." Gibbs called up to him.

"Wait, you keep Bourbon in your glove compartment?" Gibbs glared up at Tony, "Right, not important."

"And you'll also need to find something that can be used as a tube, a straw would do."

Tony tied his Cellphone to a tree branch using one of his shoe laces, keeping it switched on so that Abby could get a trace on their location. He started to climb down the tree just as slowly as he had walked up, until he slipped on one of the branches and came crashing down with a scream.

Tony groaned as he pushed himself upwards, "I'm good...I think." He sat up and looked around, "Where's my shoe?"

Tony's intention to get back to the car as quickly as possible was foiled by his body's refusal to do so. Although they had only walked about half a mile from the car Tony's slow pace was making it seem like a lot longer, he was also stumbling quite a bit which he put down to exhaustion.

Half an hour later he reached the car, the walk hadn't done anything to warm him up, in fact he was shivering considerably more than before. He slid down the ditch to the car below. As Tony was about to climb into the car he caught a glimpse of his face in the rear-view mirror, placing his index finger onto his lower lip he muttered, "Blue really isn't my colour." before ducking his head into the car and sitting down on the rather diagonally placed seat.

He opened the glove compartment and pulled out the quarter full bottle of Bourbon, before routing around for the paper bag he'd had the Cheeseburgers in, "Here we go." He smiled as his hand made contact with the paper bag. His smile grew wider when he opened it and saw what he was looking for, "I'm never gonna question why they put in extra straws again." He mumbled, leaning his head back onto the seat and closing his eyes.

When he opened his eye's again it was darker outside. Tony looked around in confusion, trying to work out where he was.

"Gibbs!" Tony gripped the bottle of Bourbon tightly and grabbed the straw, being careful not to squeeze it too hard. He headed back to Gibbs as quickly as possible, not knowing how long he'd been sitting in the car. He was glad to note that it wasn't too dark outside, the footprints he'd followed to get to the car were still visible.

"DiNozzo...what...took you...so...long?" Gibbs wheezed, studying his Agent carefully.

Tony noticed that his breathing had gotten worse, "I got the Bourbon, and the straw."

"You're...lips...are blue."

"So are yours." With that Tony put down the Bourbon and the straw and started to climb up the tree. When he got to his Cellphone he was pleased to see that it still had a signal. Ducky answered the phone straight away, and like Gibbs he questioned why it had taken Tony over an hour to get the stuff and call him back.

Tony looked down at Gibbs before answering, "Boss? Boss!" He shouted, "I think he's losing consciousness again Ducky."

Ducky told Tony to put him on answer-phone so he could talk him through the procedure. Tony climbed down from the tree, checking on Gibbs who was unconscious, "Ducky, can you hear me?" Tony shouted, adrenaline was now fuelling his body.

"Loud and clear Tony!" Ducky called back, "Now, shall we get started?"

"What do I do first?"

"First you need to pour alcohol onto your knife."

Tony took out his knife and poured Bourbon onto it, "OK, done that."

"Right, now I need you to make an incision..."

Ducky's voice trailed off and Tony stared at the knife in his hand, suddenly realising what he was about to do. Tony took a deep breath, taking little notice of his own coughs and slapped himself on the back of his head, "This ones on me Boss."

"Tony, are you alright?" Ducky called out, concerned with the lack of response. It would be too dark to do the procedure soon.

"I'm fine Ducky." Tony answered, "So, where do I make the incision?"

Tony made the small incision and pushed the straw through like Ducky had told him.

"Now usually you would have a water sealed bottle to stop the air getting back in, but unfortunately we don't have that."

"Would the Bourbon bottle do?" Tony asked, "I could use the straw packaging to wrap around the top."

"Well, I suppose it's worth a try, just make sure it doesn't pull the straw out of place."

Tony did just that and when he had done everything he could the adrenaline started to escape from his body. His eyelids felt heavy and he was finding it hard to keep them open. He wrapped his arms around his violently shivering body and let his eyelids drop slowly.

He opened his eye's to see flashing lights and people approaching, in a state of confusion his instinct was to fight them off, but his body wouldn't allow it. As everything became more clear he realised they were there to help and watched with strained as they put Gibbs onto a gurney and covered him carefully with blankets. Then he felt blankets being wrapped around himself and felt himself being lifted to his feet

As they helped him towards the Ambulance Gibbs opened his eye's slightly, "Good...work...DiNozzo." He wheezed as they passed each other.