Disclaimer on chapter one.

AN: Since you guys gave me six reviews so quickly, I thought I'd share chapter 26 with you just as quickly. Enjoy and as always leave your comments behind. Thanks, dark rolling sea.

Chapter Twenty Six

Dusty was still breathing for Levi in the dark and wondering if he could continue until help arrived. He had no idea how long Levi had laid without breathing before he got to him, but his heart had still been beating slowly. That was enough for Dusty to try to keep him alive.

Janie had come over and held tightly to Levi's hand. Dusty hadn't said a word to her, but he could tell she knew it was bad. She continually looked over her shoulder at Grayson, but Dusty wouldn't break his concentration. His friend's life hung in his hands.

"Grayson's passing out," Janie said the worry evident in her voice. Dusty continued to breathe into Levi.

"Concussion," he said as he pulled back before returning to Levi. He saw Janie nod out of the corner of his eye but he wasn't paying all the much attention. He heard someone coming and his spirits started to lift a little. Hopefully he was hearing help arriving. Janie left Levi's side but he continued his pattern.

A few seconds later he was being nudged aside by a man in a blue jumpsuit. Dusty reluctantly gave up his position and moved over to Grayson, watching the new man work on his best friend. Squatting down beside Grayson, he noticed the young man was out again. He checked his vitals before sitting next down.

Kate could feel Gibbs' breathing slowing and becoming irregular. Alarms went off inside her head as she placed her hand on his chest to see if she could feel the rise and fall. Suddenly she felt the panic surge again and she grabbed Tony's wrist.

"Tony, he's not breathing," she said in a rush of air. Tony glanced at her a moment before checking Gibbs himself.

"Sonofabitch," Tony mumbled as he came to the same realization. "Lay him flat. Can you scoot out from under him?"

Kate did as Tony asked ignoring the pain and stiffness of her injured leg. Gibbs' body was flat on the ground as Tony hovered over it. He felt for a pulse and wanted to scream, but fought to keep his mind calm. He started CPR and Kate couldn't stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks.

"Dammit, Gibbs!" Tony growled between giving Gibbs' breaths.

"Is his heart still beating?" Kate asked in a whisper. Tony could only nod as he continued to breathe for Gibbs. Kate felt her world coming undone. Everything was spinning wildly out of her control and she was letting it. It was simply getting too hard for her to hold it all together.

"Don't you die on us, Boss," Tony yelled as Kate heard someone coming towards them. She looked up through the blur of tears and saw McGee and another man coming at them in a hurry.

"McGee, he's not breathing," Kate said in a strangled voice. Tony continued to breathe for Gibbs until the other man shoved him aside.

"How long has he been down?" The new man asked.

"Not long, he just stopped breathing. He was shot maybe ten minutes ago," Tony replied. "Lost a lot of blood."

The man nodded quickly before he went about examining Gibbs. "Here, squeeze this every five seconds," he said to Tony. Tony took the bag in his hand and counted to five slowly then squeezed the bag.

"Kate's also shot in the leg," Tony told the man but his attention was solely on Gibbs at the moment. Tony knew from the way he was frantically examining Gibbs that something was very wrong.

"He needs an air lift. Put pressure here," the man instructed and McGee knelt down and did as he was told. "I'll be right back."

"Kate, squeeze this thing," Tony said as he ran after that first responder. He followed the man over by Levi as the two men discussed the problem. More EMS were showing up on scene as the man that worked on Gibbs moved away from them. Tony followed him listening to him talk into his radio.

"We need two air lifts from Denver to our location," the man said into his radio.

"Need a landing zone," a voice came back over the radio.

"There's a clearing by the address dispatched to. We'll get the criticals there."

"Choppers are ten minutes out," the voice said over the radio. Tony looked at the man with the radio with concern.

"Ten minutes? Do they have that long?" Tony asked.

The man didn't answer him and Tony felt his world coming apart. Everything was going wrong. He turned and followed the man back to the scene and saw two more people working on Levi, as well as one attending to Grayson. He walked back towards the shelter and saw McGee and an EMS worker helping Kate from the rocks. He looked down past them and saw two more men working on Gibbs.

"They won't tell me what's wrong with Gibbs," Kate said to Tony with pleading in her eyes. Tony nodded and took a deep breath. Dusty stood and walked to him.

"Zack's at the Gladstone cabin. He's hurt, needs medical attention," he said to Tony. Tony nodded and looked around.

"Grab an EMS and get over there then, Christ this is a mess."

"It's over, they just need to survive now," Dusty replied and Tony wondered how he remained so calm with his friend on death's doorstep.

Tony and McGee helped as two EMS moved Gibbs from the rocks to a stretcher. They were still breathing for him and Tony could see they had tried to slow the bleeding from his chest.

With both Gibbs and Levi on stretchers the first responders and EMS were discussing how to get them back to the cabin, without doing too much more damage to them. They decided that they would just have to risk carrying them down, four men to a stretcher. Tony looked at Kate and Grayson.

"What about those two?" Tony asked the man who was in charge.

"They're non life threatening. They'll have to wait until we can get the criticals down and on the choppers," he replied hastily before moving away from Tony.

"It's ok, Tony," McGee said. "I can go with Gibbs; you stay with Kate and secure the body."

"What body?" an EMS guy asked as he was walking by. The three NCIS agents looked at him for a moment.

"The dead asshole he did all this," Tony ground out. "Don't worry about him; NCIS will take care of that body."

The man nodded slowly as he backed away. McGee helped carry Gibbs' body down the mountain on the stretcher, squeezing the bag every five seconds to keep giving him air. Tony watched as the EMS worked quickly getting the two criticals to the landing zone.

Janie looked up at him from beside Grayson. "Grayson is unconscious again."

"They said he's not critical. They're coming back for these two," Tony replied.

"He has a severe head injury. Double blow to the head."

"You're arm is injured."

"I'll live. That young man that did all this set my arm. Grayson's going to need help."

"I can only go by what the EMS say," Tony said softly. He looked at Kate and saw she was near a breakdown. He walked to her and draped his arm around her shoulders.

Before Dusty could reach the cabin he heard two helicopters in the distance. Things might just work out he thought. By the time they were in the door Dusty knew the choppers were on the ground. The two EMS rushed across the cabin and came to a halt next to Zack.

One unwound the cord wrapped around the sweatshirt that was covering the wound on Zack's side. Instantly the other man set to work examining and caring for the wound. He looked up at Dusty.

"It's a through and through. Looks like it missed the major arteries and organs. He should pull through. He's lost a lot of blood but I think he'll be ok," he said as he pulled his radio out.

"He better," Dusty replied.

"Let's get him in the bus and to the ER," the second man said. Dusty stood out of their way as they loaded Zack onto a gurney and wheeled him out the door.

McGee let out a grunt of relief when he heard the sound of a helicopter over head. He looked up and was happy to see two air lift units circling the cabin. They had been sitting in the driveway of the cabin for almost five minutes trying to keep Levi and Gibbs alive long enough to be transported.

The first helicopter came down and Gibbs was loaded into it. McGee climbed aboard as a man was arguing with him that he wasn't allowed. McGee simply sat down next to Gibbs and didn't budge. The pilot looked at the medic and decided they didn't have time to argue.

McGee strapped himself to the bench and nodded to the other man in the back with him as the paramedic started hooking up IV lines to Gibbs. The helicopter jolted slightly as they lifted off and McGee breathed a small sigh of relief that they were on their way to a trauma unit in Denver.

As they were leaving, he looked back and saw the second helicopter on the ground, as they rushed to load Levi's body into the bay. McGee saw some of the EMS workers heading back up the mountain and let himself relax slightly. He turned his attention to Gibbs and watched as the EMS worker hurriedly worked on his unconscious boss.

"How bad is it?" McGee shouted over the roar of the helicopter's rotor blades.

"I'm John," the man yelled back at him.

"Agent McGee."

"He's critical, very critcal. He's losing a lot of blood, which is why I'm hooking up this line. The bullet must of have severed a main artery line when it went through," John replied stopping in order to give the bag a squeeze.

"I can do that if you need help," McGee said pointing to the bag. John nodded and moved off to continue working on getting a blood unit hooked up to Gibbs' IV line. McGee counted to five slowly and squeezed the bag.

Kate sat waiting for the paramedics to come back. They had heard the helicopters come in. Tony had left her alone to go up and look over the dead body, so she sat staring at Grayson and his aunt. Grayson was still unconscious and Janie was staring at him.

"He'll be ok, he's a tough kid," Kate said trying to distract herself from thinking about Gibbs. Janie looked up at her.

"But everyone has that point where it's just too much," Janie said with a small smile. "He's been through a lot in his life. I'm not sure how he still functions mentally."

"He's tougher than most," Kate said reassuringly.

"Yes, that is for sure. I know he had a difficult time after shooting his stepfather. He won't really talk about that part of his life. And then his ordeals in the army have weighted heavily on his mind, especially when he lost those men."

"He told Agent Gibbs about that," Kate said. Her voice wavered when she said Gibbs' name.

"And now, with Levi dying, I don't know how he'd handle that."

"He has support now," Kate said.

"He has me," Janie said with a shrug.

"He's got us too," Kate said with a smile. Janie looked at her and nodded.

They sat quietly waiting for something to happen. Shortly two men came back up the mountain side. One squatted next to Grayson while the other tended to Kate. Tony came down and kneeled on the other side of Kate.

"We're going to take these two by ambulance to St. Luke's," the man by Grayson told them.

"Where did they take the others?" Tony asked.

"St. Anthony Central Hospital."

Tony nodded and walked away. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, but still had no service. He needed to call NCIS and let them know what happened. They finally had Kate and Grayson ready to go down the mountain and Tony walked behind them.

After the ride to St. Luke's, Tony stood in the parking lot of the ER and checked his phone. He had signal again. Kate and Grayson had been checked in already and Kate was in surgery for her leg. He watched as the sun started to peak up over the horizon and called NCIS waiting for the Director's secretary to pick up the phone.

TBC…