Alex groaned loudly as he pushed himself up to rest his back against the wall. He forced his eyes open and gazed at Gibbs' prone form. He tried to force his body over the the unconscious man, but the pain radiating through his body was unfathomable.
He couldn't remember how long it was before Gibbs began to wake up, and by then Alex was nearly out of his mind with pain. His body felt like it was on fire, his breathing was out of control and he was pale and sweating.
He could hardly acknowledge Gibbs as the man hurried over to him and began questioning him.
"Alex? Come on, talk to me, what happened?" Gibbs asked, trying to get a look at the arm the teen kept to his body protectively.
The marine had to bite his lip as his head pounded loudly in his skull. He needed to get Alex taken care of before he worried about his own headache.
He could see Alex doing his best to form words.
"Scorpion," Alex finally whispered. He was so low that Gibbs had to struggle to hear him.
"He made a scorpion sting you? How original," Gibbs said sarcastically as he pried Alex's arm away from his body to get a look at it.
Alex didn't reply as he tried to concentrate on breathing.
Gibbs wasn't a stranger to scorpion stings. He had seen soldiers with quite a few of them in Desert Storm. And during his 'retirement' in Mexico Mike Franks had been stung two different times by scorpions. But all of those times aid was available at some point, now was going to be a different story.
He let Alex have his hurt arm back but then picked up the teen's uninjured on e causing Alex to sigh frustratedly. Gibbs felt for a pulse and was surprised at how rapid it was already beating, making him wonder how long he was really knocked out, leaving Alex alone with his pain.
Gibbs looked up to Alex's face and into his eyes. The boy wasn't focusing on anything, his eyes were roaming freely behind heavy lids.
Dread was filling into his gut like scolding coffee. Alex was in trouble. Some scorpion stings could mild but this one was shaping up to be a pretty bad one. He could feel Alex beginning to relax some which told Gibbs that the pain in his arm was receding, whether that was a good or not Gibbs couldn't tell.
"You okay?" Gibbs asked carefully.
Alex brought his unfocused eyes in the direction of Gibbs' voice.
"Fantastic," Alex slurred.
Gibbs couldn't hide his chuckle at the boy's sarcasm. But at the same time he checked off another symptom of scorpion stings off the list. Slurred speech.
"Yeah, stupid question, I know. I mean, is there anything I can help you with?" He asked. He felt helpless sitting here as the teen beside him was in pain. He didn't know what to do.
Alex shook his head.
Gibbs nodded and sat back beside the teen. He knew they weren't out of the water yet. It would take four hours for the venom to really kick in.
But the Marine refused to wait around for Alex's health to keep deteriorating.
He just needed someone to open that door...
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"I don't care how late it is! Do not hang up on me, Sergeant! I-...damn it!" Tony said as he was hung up on by the Maryland Police Department.
Abby's salinity findings did nothing but give them information that the ocean water came from somewhere near Maryland. Not much to go on. And the Police over in Maryland was being less than helpful.
"This is ridiculous. They couldn't just disappear. How can we not have any leads?" Tony asked as he looked frustratedly out the large window nearest his desk and into the clear night sky.
Ziva shrugged from her desk that was opposite Tony's. She had he legs up on her desk as she stared at phone on her desk, willing it to ring with word from a BOLO. She knew as well as anyone that every minute that ticked by meant that the assassins could be just one step farther away with Gibbs and Alex.
"These are not civilian murderers, Tony. They're assassins. They're not just going to leave traces." Ziva said.
Tony turned to shrug at the woman.
"Yes, Ziva, I know how assassins work. I've worked with you for quite a while now." He replied icily.
Ziva glared menacingly back at the man but let it go. She knew he was just venting.
"Where's Probie?" Tony asked turning to look at his friend's empty desk.
"He's down with Abby trying to find something more to go on than water salinity." Ziva answered.
Tony nodded and looked longingly over to Gibbs' desk. He hated it when Gibbs was MIA. And even though Alex had only been with them for a short time, he already felt a bit loss without the blonde around. A sure sign that the boy was meant to be in their little makeshift family.
He was surprised when Ziva stood up with her cell phone in hand.
"I'm going to make some calls to Tel Aviv. Maybe someone from Mossad has been in contact with SCORPIA and can get some intel." She said.
Tony nodded.
"Do your thing, my Little Ninja." He replied and then smiled as he saw Ziva's mouth form into her own small smile at the mention her nickname.
He watched as Ziva disappeared into the elevator for some privacy.
"Do you give pet names to all of your co-workers?" A voice came up from behind him.
Startled, Tony turned around and came to the face of Ben Daniels.
"Most of them," Tony said carefully, "How did you get in here?"
Ben chuckled.
"Spy, remember? Well, that, and I still have my credentials from MI6. Told security Vance needed to see me." He shrugged.
Tony laughed at the spy's guts.
"Well, what are you doing here?" He asked.
"I obviously have nothing else to do at the moment. So, I figured I should be here to help you guys find your boss and Alex." Ben replied coming to stand in front of Tony's desk.
Tony thought for a moment.
"I don't see why not." Tony said shaking Ben's hand.
"Welcome aboard, Daniels."
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Gibbs opportunity arrived nearly two hours later.
A guard entered the room with his gun in hand and a plate with a couple pieces of bread and another bottle of water.
Gibbs seized the opportunity and bull rushed the man. He grabbed the hand with the gun in it and slammed it against the wall. The gun clattered to the ground. The guard was quick though, he brought a fist back and connected it with Gibbs' right side. Then the man began to try to yell. The marine silenced the man by a quick punch to the throat. He threw another punch to the man's temple and the man slumped to the ground unconscious.
Not wasting any time he began searching the man's pockets before he found what he was looking for. A cell phone. The trick here was not going to be escaping. That would be impossible with Alex injured the way he was. He would undoubtedly get himself or Alex killed. No, he needed his team to find him.
He flipped the phone open and dialed his Senior Field Agent. Gibbs was about to give a growl of frustration when he suddenly heard, "DiNozzo," come onto the line.
"Tony, get McGee to trace this call. Now." Gibbs demanded quickly, refusing to waste any time.
"Boss? Where are you?" DiNozzo asked.
"A beach house in Maryland. I don't have an address. Get McGee to trace his now. I don't know how much time I have."
"Probie's working on it now, Boss. Just sit tight. Give me a sit rep."
Gibbs tried to reply but a yell cut him off. From the hallway.
"Kaiel, what the hell's taking so long in there?" Yokov's voice asked.
"Damn it, Tony listen when you get here bring an ambulance. Alex was stung by a scorpion. Bad. He's not doing too good. I'm counting on you, DiNozzo." Gibbs replied down the phone.
"No, Boss, wait!-"
But it was too late, Gibbs could hear footsteps coming to the door. He snapped the phone shut and put it back into the unconscious man's pocket.
Gibbs then slumped down to the floor and made his breathing more labored, like he had just come in from a fight.
Yokov barreled into the room.
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"Damn it! McGee, tell me you got a location on that call!" Tony yelled, making all of Abby's lab echo.
Tony and Ben had walked down to see what progress Abby and McGee were having.
Ziva was still talking to her contacts so they were forced to take the stairs. So, they had just entered the lab when Tony got the call.
McGee sighed and shook his head.
"I didn't get an exact location. But I got close. They're somewhere within this area." He replied pointing to the red area highlighted on the computer screen he was staring at.
"That's all you got McGee?" Tony asked.
"Tony, like I've told you guy's before I'm not a miracle worker here. You're lucky we got that." McGee retorted.
"He's right, Tony. Now we have a place to start. And as long as Gibbs wasn't caught making that phone call then they're still somewhere in this region." Daniels put in.
Tony sighed, "I know. You're right. And Gibbs confirmed that they're in a beach house. We can narrow the search down even more with that. Good job, McGeek. Let's get agents on that scene now." Tony said clapping McGee on the back apologetically.
McGee nodded in acceptance and they went to walk out of the room but then Tony was stopped by Abby's hand on his shoulder.
"Are they okay, Tony?" She asked urgently.
Tony hung his head and sighed.
"Gibbs sounded okay. But he, uh, said Alex wasn't doing too good. Apparently he's been stung by a scorpion. He said it was bad. We have to get them help. Now." Tony said before kissing Abby's concerned face.
As Tony left and began making orders for them to begin searching McGee stopped at the doorway.
"They're going to be okay, Abby. Gibbs isn't going to let anything happen to Alex." McGee comforted before disappearing to catch up with Tony and Ben.
Abby sighed heavily and hoped that her Elflord was right.
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"What he hell are you doing?" Yokov asked going over to his man and grabbing the gun that had fell to the ground earlier so that Gibbs couldn't grab it.
"He went after Alex. I'm not going to let you take him again. He's hurt enough." Gibbs lied wrapping a hand around his ribs, pretending to be in a tremendous amount of pain from them.
"He was just bringing you food, Agent Gibbs. No one wants to hurt Alex at the moment. Although, Kaiel is a bit headstrong." Yokov said, pulling the man up and pushing his limp body into the hall carelessly.
Gibbs was hoping that the man would just leave but then Yokov walked back into the room.
Alex's health was going faster than intended and Yokov seemed to realize this when he came in to gloat.
The assassin peered at the boy.
"Aw, is little Rider not feeling very well?" He sneered.
Gibbs stood up and glared at the man, nearly forgetting to pretend to be hurt.
"You're going to pay for this," He promised.
Yokov smiled and walked around but before Gibbs could do something Yokov casually pulled out his gun and turned pointed it to Alex.
"Probably. But not anytime soon," Yokov replied. "I'm just here to see how our little boy is doing."
Gibbs looked over to Alex who was fading in and out of consciousness. His face was still pale and sweating. The effects of the scorpion was hitting Alex harder and quicker than Gibbs was anticipating.
"You're going to kill him if he doesn't get some sort of help." Gibbs warned.
Yokov smiled.
"My orders are to make Alex Rider's last breathes the most unbearable ones he's ever taken. If he accidentally dies during one of my tortures it's no big deal. As long has he's in pain as he dies my bosses couldn't care less here, Agent Gibbs." He replied.
Yokov took one last look at Alex's still form before backing out of the room and locking the door.
Just as the sounds of Yokov's footsteps could no longer be heard, Alex started to groan loudly.
Gibbs spun around and went over to the boy.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Stomach hurts," Alex ground out, suddenly very wide awake.
"Like pain hurt or 'I'm going to barf hurt'?" Gibbs asked lightly.
"Pain," The teen answered as he wrapped his uninjured arm around his middle.
"Damn, damn, damn," Gibbs chanted in his head.
He grabbed his jacket that was wound around the teen's shoulders and spread it on the floor.
"Here, lay down. It might get help with the pain." Gibbs said sitting down and helped the teen stretch out and he laid Alex's head on his thigh again.
He took the Alex's shirt and wet it again. While Alex was laying down he took the opportunity to wipe Alex's cuts on his torso down again. Then, he took wiped Alex's face off.
However, as soon as Gibbs was done, Alex promptly turned onto his side and curled up. Gibbs wrapped the the parts of the jacket that Alex wasn't laying on around the teen. Luckily the jacket was a large Carhardtt and it practically swallowed the teen up.
The boy's breath was hitched and coming out in shallow bursts. Gibbs could also hear soft grunts as Alex did his best to hold back cries of pain.
Gibbs put his hand on Alex's back and began rubbing it in soothing circles and then he put his free hand in Alex's hair.
"Let it out, Alex. It's okay," Gibbs offered.
He felt Alex shake his head lightly.
Gibbs sighed.
"Hang in there, then. I'm working on getting us some help." He urged.
"Everything's blurry." Alex slurred breathlessly.
Gibbs nearly winced at the tone of the boy. He sounded terribly pained and tired and if the marine heard correctly, a little scared.
"Yeah, that's one of the milder side effects. Don't worry too much about it, once the team gets here, and we get you to a hospital, everything will right itself." He assured.
"I can't help us get out...You could get hurt."
Gibbs had to force the anger out of his voice when he replied to the boy.
"Alex, I'm going to get us out of here. Because that's my job. You let me worry about it. I got one thing I need you to do for me, and that's to hold on for as long as you can, understand?"
Tony's earlier words echoed through Alex's head.
"You know what the only thing that kept me going was? Gibbs. He sat with me through all the bad nights and ordered me not to die, ordering me to breath, ordering me beat a eighty-five percent chance of dying. And I did it. Not because I was scared of Gibbs, but because I didn't want to let him down."
Alex felt Gibbs' calloused hands rubbing his back and scalp. They were warm and protecting. He decided to follow the team's footsteps. He couldn't let Gibbs down, not after all he had done for him. Alex nodded his promise. Then, his stomach cramps began to get worse and he felt as though he couldn't get enough air into his lung and soon he felt himself begin to slide out of consciousness again.
A/N- Well here it is! Let me know what you think!