"Ducky, are you keeping up with us okay?" Tony asked into his cell as he sped down the highway.

"My dear boy, you, Gibbs, and Ziva are not the only people who can drive crazily. Don't you worry, we're right behind you."

"Thanks, Ducky." Tony said before snapping his phone shut.

Ducky was following behind him in the NCIS van with Palmer. The doctor had loaded the van down with everything thing he could possibly use to help Alex and his scorpion sting. They just needed enough to keep Alex stabilized until they could get him to a hospital. They couldn't risk bringing in paramedics into an unsecure scene and they wouldn't have time to wait on an ambulance.

"Okay, we have a list of all the beach house owners within the area of the region of where Gibbs called. And I've been able to narrow it down a bit by making calls to the police station." McGee said as he braced himself as Tony took a particularly sharp turn.

"How many do we have to check out then?" Ben asked from his seat in the back with Ziva.

"Close to fifteen. The general fix we got was pretty barren. There wasn't many houses around to check. And if we get lost Abby has us on GPS to right us." McGee replied.

Ben nodded as, once again, everyone in the car braced themselves.

"Do, uh, you guys always drive like this?" Ben asked uncertainly.

The three NCIS agents all shared a look before shrugging.

"Yeah," they all answered in unison.

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Gibbs sat quietly in the cell while he absentmindedly ran his hand through Alex's hair while the boy was out. Even in the boy's sleep Alex's breathing was coming in ragged gasps. Gibbs repeatedly checked Alex's pulse. It was rapidly fluttering underneath his fingers. All of the cuts on Alex's body were red and angry looking. Gibbs took the time that Alex was out cold to once again run the wet T-shirt over Alex's cuts, then he laid the wet cloth over the swollen sting.

Gibbs thought back to the cell phone he had taken. He had gotten a look at the date and was almost surprised to see that he and Alex had been missing for almost a day and a half. That was something he had not been expecting. He figured maybe a day, but nearly two was unexpected. He was counting on his team not to make it a day more. He knew Alex wouldn't make it a day more without some sort of medical help.

Gibbs was nearly shocked out of his skin as Alex's eyes suddenly shot open and he began struggling.

"What's wrong?" Gibbs demanded, not knowing whether to let Alex move or not.

"G'nna be sick," Alex slurred as he crawled a few paces away from Gibbs and braced himself on his hands and knees as his stomach heaved violently. The boy groaned in between each heave as each time it sent waves of pain through his body.

Gibbs, refusing to stand by and watch, came over and wrapped his arm gently around Alex, mindful of his cuts so the teen didn't lose his balance and fall into his own puke.

"Easy," he murmured into the boy's ear, feeling the tremors coursing through Alex's body.

Soon, the heaving stopped and Alex slumped limply into Gibbs' arms.

"Shit," Gibbs mumbled as he unexpectedly took all of Alex's weight.

The teen's breathing had gotten shorter and panicky.

"I can't breathe," Alex gasped.

"Damn, this is going downhill way too fast." Gibbs thought darkly.

"Yes, you can. Just breathe deeply and slow. In through your nose out through your mouth." Gibbs advised.

But it was falling on deaf ears, he wasn't getting through to the boy.

Desperately he reverted back to Tony's plague days. He sat Alex up like they had Tony to help him breathe better. As Alex's shivering got worse he pulled the teen close to him slinging an arm around his shuddering shoulders. He discarded the teen's embarrassment, he didn't have time.

Gibbs put his hand on the back of Alex's head and pulled it to his chest, holding it there.

"Alex, I want to you to focus on my breathing. Match your breathes with mine," Gibbs said, deliberately slowing his breathing so Alex could better match it.

He felt the blonde shake his head jerkily as he tried to pull away but Gibbs' firm hand held it there.

Gibbs watched as Alex's tried to match his breathing. Soon, he was getting the hang of it but his breathing was still jerky and shallow no matter how hard he tried to even it. It seemed as though Alex was dependent on Gibbs' breathing for his own.

Soon he felt Alex's battered body finally slump into his own as once again the boy passed out.

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Gibbs hadn't moved from his spot beside Alex, the boy's head still laying against him. The marine was mildly panicking at how shallow and uneven Alex's breathing was. It seemed like they just kept coming shorter and shorter. He finally made a move to snag his jacket and the bottle of water.

He made sure Alex was covered before he uncapped the water and took a small drink of the precious liquid.

He made sure it was small but enough to get him a little hydrated. He couldn't help Alex if he was about to pass out himself from dehydration. But he left more than enough in case Alex was thirsty again.

Then a sharp noise echoed from the other side of the door and Gibbs could only look on in hope that his team was about to bound through the doors. His hope was lost, however, when Yokov sauntered into the room carelessly.

"Well, isn't this a sweet sight. A tough ex Marine cuddled up to his new adopted son. That's beautiful. A little cliche but I still like it." The cocky assassin taunted.

"What do you want? You're not taking Alex again." Gibbs defied, he could feel Alex waking up, glancing down he saw the teen's eyes flutter open and look around before he became tense as his eyes landed on the assassin in front of him.

This time Yokov just laughed.

"No, this time I'm afraid it's you I've come for. We've decided that taking you with us in our move to Malagosto would prove to be too risky." Yokov replied calmly.

"So you're just going to kill me?" Gibbs asked bluntly.

He felt Alex shake his head in protest. The marine gripped his shoulders tightly in reassurance. Gibbs could also hear the gasping breathing that was alarmingly short.

"Well, kind of, I mean what would SCORPIA be without giving you a little something to remember us by as you take your last breathes? We have to make sure that Alex knows just what he's done with getting you involved in this. It'll give him something to think about in Malagosto." Yokov responded.

"Get up." He ordered the marine as he pointed his gun at the man.

"I'm not leaving, Alex." Gibbs replied.

Yokov shrugged with a smile.

"That's fine with me, Agent Gibbs. I thought I was doing Alex some kind of favor by not making him watch you die but, you know, if you want to punish the child for getting you mixed up in his mess then I'm all for it."

Gibbs aimed his murderous glare at Yokov before gently easing Alex off of his shoulder.

"Gibbs...no...M'sorry." Alex mumbled, despair and pain clearly shown in his eyes. This was Jack all over again and just like last time there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Gibbs put his mouth to Alex's ear.

"Listen to me. The team's on their way here now. You have to hold on, Alex. You better fight tooth and nail to hold on until they get here. I'll know if you haven't."

"But you..."

"You don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Gibbs lied. He didn't know what was going to happen to him or Alex when he stepped out of the room they were being held in.

"Hey! Come on, I don't have all day." Yokov said impatiently.

Gibbs helped Alex lay down on his side before he stepped back and turned to the SCORPIA assassin.

Yokov motioned with a nod, "Come on. Out."

Gibbs slowly made his way out of the room and waited as Yokov walked out and locked the room that was holding Alex. Keeping his glance discreet he watched where Yokov put the key. Zippered breast pocket in his jacket.

They didn't go far just three doorways up from Alex's room.

Yokov opened the door and Gibbs filed in followed by Yokov himself.

The room was almost just as bare as the previous one except that there was a small bed that looked like if you sat on it that it would fall through. Not that Gibbs was planning on being in this room long enough to use the bed.

He slowly turned to face the assassin and stared at him expectantly.

"You made a mistake helping that boy, Gibbs." Yokov started.

"I don't regret helping Alex. I regret not hunting you down myself and killing you before you got your hands on Alex in the first place."

Yokov laughed again.

"That maybe. But you're too late. Now I have six bullets here, do you think I can get all of them into your body before you bleed out?" He asked before taking aim at Gibbs' left leg.

Gibbs shrugged.

"Take your best shot."

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Alex was back on his hands and knees dry heaving, making breathing all the more difficult. By the time he was done he was gasping loudly. Shivers ran down his spine from the cold.

The teen fell over onto his side with a thump. He wanted to help Gibbs but he knew he was more than stuck in this room and even if he could manage to get out he wouldn't do Gibbs much help anyways.

Alex was only barely conscious when he heard the sound of a gunshot ringing out before his stomach dropped to the floor.

Gibbs.

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Tony had made Ducky and Palmer park a bit away from the houses they were checking out so that they were out of harms way until they had the scenes secure. Then they would call them in.

But so far they hadn't had any luck.

Tony sighed as they gathered around the Charger once again.

"Okay, McGee. Where's the next house? You weren't kidding when you said that these houses were spaced far out." He said.

"Actually this one's really close, you can see it right..." McGee's reply was cut off by the sounds of a very muffled gunshot echoed from the house McGee was gesturing to.

Tony slapped the hood of the car.

"Let's get 'em."

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Gibbs lunged at Yokov just as the bullet exited the chamber. It was so close that he felt the bullet graze the calf of his left leg. But that didn't stop him. It was just him and Yokov now.

He knew none of the other SCORPIA agents would barrel down to save Yokov. They were expecting screams and gunshots. Little did they know that it would be their Boss doing the screaming.

Gibbs latched onto Yokov's hand with the gun and slammed it against the wall until the assassin's hand released the weapon. It clattered to the floor and out of their reach. Then the Marine laid a generous punch to the man's stomach.

Yokov shoved Gibbs back and they stared each other down.

"You just made a big mistake, Agent Gibbs."

Ignoring the pain in his leg he replied, "You were going to kill me anyways. Might as well go down swinging."

Then he attacked.

Both he and Yokov tumbled to the floor of the dirty room and there they began to fight for the upper hand. Yokov tried to get out a yell for his partners but the call for help was quickly cut off by Gibbs' fist ramming back into the man's stomach.

Gibbs was suddenly pushed back roughly by Yokov who had managed to somehow get the upperhand. Yokov advanced on the man and landed a kick to the Marine's already bleeding leg. The injured man gave a groan of pain.

Then Yokov was gone and Gibbs could see him trying to find his gun. He couldn't let that happen. So, despite the pain in his leg he forced himself up, his leg nearly gave out from weight.

Then, before he could take step, there was loud bang coming from above them.

Music to Gibbs' ears. He could hear the muffled voices of his second in command followed by several loud gunshots.

Yokov had a look of confusion on his face.

"My team is here, Yokov. This is over." Gibbs said hoarsely, out of breathe from the scuffle.

The assassin seemed to be talking to himself.

"I failed...SCORPIA will never forgive." Was all Gibbs managed to catch.

Then Yokov looked wildly at the door and Gibbs knew what he was thinking.

If he could kill Alex at least his job will have been completed.

He saw Yokov make for the door but Gibbs grabbed him by the back and slung him into the wall.

Then he went over and grabbed the gun that had fallen discarded to the floor.

Yokov stumbled and stood in the middle of the doorway as he saw that his gun was being aimed at him.

Yokov looked at the gun and then to the marine and raised his hands in surrender.

"So, what now? You're going to kill me?" Yokov asked.

Gibbs chuckled darkly.

"I've got five bullets here. Do you think I can get them all into your body before you bleed out?" He asked, mimicking the assassin.

Gibbs heard footsteps coming their way followed by a "Boss?" The voice was from his Second in Command.

He saw Tony at the side of the doorway.

Tony saw Gibbs with the gun on Yokov and he made the assumption that he was going to arrest the assassin.

Eying his boss he pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

"Put your hands behind your back."

But Gibbs was suddenly saw Alex's eyes in the back of his mind. He saw the fear in the teen's eyes even though he would deny it otherwise.

SCORPIA had ruined this kid's life and severely endangered it.

He fired twice. Each bullet landed in Yokov's chest.

DiNozzo was momentarily stunned.

"Boss?" He asked.

"Get an ambulance in here now." Gibbs said, ignoring his senior agent. He limped over to the dead assassin and fished around in his breast pocket for the key to the cell.

"We got Ducky on standby." Tony replied.

He talked into his cuff mic.

"Ziva, get Ducky and Palmer down here the area is...secured." Tony said looking down to Yokov's body.

Then he turned and followed Gibbs who was already putting the key into the lock of Alex's room.

Gibbs opened the door and entered the room. Tony followed soon after but he stopped short as he saw Alex.

Now he knew why Gibbs shot the man.

Alex was a gasping heap on the floor beside a pool of his own vomit. The teen's torso was covered in cuts and he looked to be in a tremendous amount of pain.

Gibbs went immediately over to Alex and put a hand under his neck and under the back of his knees and picked him up bridal style.

"Ducky's needs to look at him now." Gibbs demanded impatiently, obviously not waiting for the ME to make his way down the stairs.

DiNozzo moved aside as Gibbs went by him with the boy who looked like he had lost the battle to stay awake again. Gibbs made sure Alex still had a pulse and was still breathing. The boy's breath was a bit slow and uneven, nearly nonexistent.

Looking down as he saw Gibbs' slight limp, Tony had to marvel at his boss. He could see the bleeding leg that had been grazed by the bullet and yet here the marine was, carrying an, at least, 140 pound kid up a flight of stairs. Semper Fi. For that, Tony knew better than to offer to take the boy off of his hands.

As they approached the last step he saw Gibbs falter, he put out his own steadying hand.

"Easy, Boss." Tony mumbled.

Two SCORPIA agents were in handcuffs on the floor, being watched carefully by Ziva and the rest of them were lying on the floor beside a pool of their own blood.

Tony saw Gibbs begin to walk towards a nearby couch, so Tony shot forward to help lie the boy down.

They could hear Ducky and Palmer approaching them with all of the equipment they could carry.

"Jethro, it's good to see you well. Alex...Well we'll have you fixed up in no time. Scorpion bites are nothing to joke about." Ducky said as he started accessing Alex's condition with a trained eye before turning to talk to his assistant quickly.

"Mr. Palmer, he's beginning to go into respiratory arrest. Will you..."

But Gibbs heard no more, his head gave him a jolt of dizziness that made him fall flat on his butt and then he heard muffled shouting from Ducky to Palmer.

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Tony sighed, he hadn't been this anxious since he had to give Gibbs mouth to mouth on that pier.

The whole team, minus Ducky and Abby, was sitting in the waiting room waiting on some sort of news about Alex or Gibbs.

Ducky was trying to get some sort of an update from one of the nurses and Abby was still tied up at NCIS.

Tony glanced at his partners. McGee was sitting stiffly in his seat, clearly worried. It had been quite awhile since they saw Gibbs pass out.

Ziva was sitting a bit more relaxed but you could see the worried features on her face as she stared at her hands.

Palmer was a bit more comical with the way he kept fidgeting in his seat.

"You okay there, Palmer?" Tony finally asked, making the man jump.

"Huh? No...I'm...I'm fine." Jimmy assured them.

"Well get still there, would ya?" Tony replied with a smile.

"Yes, you look like you have crabs in your pants." Ziva said causing the three men around her to laugh.

"What?" She asked.

"It's 'ants in your pants', Zee-vah." Tony replied after a few more seconds of laughing.

"Well, what is so funny about the way I said it?" Ziva asked, clearly confused.

Tony looked to Palmer.

"Well, you're the medical expert. This one's up to you, Black Lung." He replied, just as he saw Ducky out of the corner of his eye.

He left them to sort out the confusion and went over to the ME.

"What's the prognosis, Duck?" Tony asked bluntly.

Ducky sighed.

"Jethro is going to be fine. He has a mild concussion and the way he was overexterting himself wasn't good for him. And the fact that he was bleeding profusely from a bullet graze wasn't helping matters. He's having to stay over night because he was very dehydrated."

Tony hung his head.

"I should've stopped him." He replied.

"Now, Anthony, we know Jethro's hard headed. Nothing you said would've stopped him. But let's not start placing blame. He's fine, he's not happy that he's having to stay the night in the hospital as a patient but he'll get over that." Ducky assured Tony firmly.

Tony nodded and sighed. Now it was time for the hard part.

"And Alex?"

"Ah, well, now that's a different story. Alex went into full respiratory failure when we arrived at the hospital. He's currently not breathing on his own. He's on a ventilator and there was a substantial amount of cuts on his torso that had become infected. It's not too bad but judging from the amount of grime on every other part of the teen I'm willing to bet that Jethro did his best to keep them clean. On top of that Alex isn't as dehydrated as Jethro. I'm willing to bet he had something to do with that too."

"But is he going to be okay? They got the antivenin in him, right?" Tony asked.

"As long as he's winged off the vent successfully then he should be fine baring any complications. They're doing tests to make sure that the poison didn't affect his heart like it did his lungs but it's just formality. His heart is in excellent condition from my observation." Ducky concluded.

Tony sighed in relief.

"Can we see them?"

"Alex is getting tests done at the moment but Jethro has been settled into a room."

"Is Gibbs awake?" He asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I think I heard his objecting tone as they were stitching up his leg. You can go ahead and look in on him first since you're his next of kin. I'll go ahead and inform the others on the situation." Ducky replied before giving him the room number.

Tony power walked down the hall and found Gibbs' room. He opened the door to find his Boss with his eyes closed, breathing deeply. Tony thought Gibbs was asleep so he started to back out of the room quietly.

"Where do you think you're going, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked without opening his eyes.

"Uh, no where, Boss. How do you feel?"

"Like crap. Now did Ducky tell you what room Alex was in?" Gibbs asked, finally opening his eyes to peer at his second in command.

Tony chuckled at the two men's relationship. Ducky had purposely kept what room Alex was in so that Gibbs couldn't slip out and wander the halls.

"No, actually he didn't. Either way, Alex is getting tests done so he's not even in his room." He announced.

"I want to see him. There's only so many rooms on the ICU floor and I will barge into every single one of them if I have to." Gibbs warned.

And Tony believed him.

"I'll figure it out, Boss. Until then, why don't you get some look beat." Tony replied wincing at his choice of words. Gibbs had a very colorful bruise on his left temple and he knew that he had a very big scuffle with Yokov before he arrived.

But Gibbs ignored him.

"I want people watching Alex's room. Yokov may be gone but that doesn't mean they can't send more agents to finish him off." Gibbs ordered.

But Tony was already nodding his head.

"I know, Boss. As soon as they settle him in, we're going to have two marines on the outside of the door and then an agent stationed in the room."

"That agent will be me, bone head." Gibbs said, pushing himself up into the sitting position.

Tony shook his head.

"No, Boss. Ziva, McGee and I will be in the room. You're hurt. You know as well as I do that if someone does come back to get Alex that there won't be anything you can do about it." He said firmly, but on the inside he was like jelly. It had been quite awhile since he had defied Gibbs.

Gibbs stared a moment at his Senior Field Agent.

"That an order, DiNozzo?" He challenged.

"Call it what you want, Boss. But you're hurt and that means I'm acting lead agent. Whatever I say goes." Tony said with just a hint of an ego. But he knew what he was doing, he couldn't let Gibbs potentially hurt himself trying to protect Alex when there was perfectly good agents who could help.

Gibbs glared at the man for a moment before breaking out into a small smile.

He gestured with his hand.

"Come here for a minute, DiNozzo." He said.

"Why?" Tony asked as he cautiously made his way to the side of Gibbs' bed.

"Bend down." Gibbs instructed calmly.

Tony did as he was told but he realized what was going on just a moment too late as the sting of a hand slapped the back of his head.

A/N- Wow, this took forever and I'm still not happy with this chapter. But nonetheless here we are.

I know there's more than a lot of loopholes in this chapter and I know Alex is kind of OOC but he is on the verge of dying so I think he's justified for a little OOC. But that's just my opinion.

And now for my unrelated notes:

First of all who all reading this is a Supernatural fan? Cause I've started a Supernatural/ Alex Rider crossover and I'm wanting to see if anyone would be interested in reading that? Drop me a line and let me know. I'm not sure how many Alex Rider and supernatural fans their actually are.

And geez the recent NCIS episodes? Amaaazing! Especially this weeks episode (Kill Screen) lol I don't wanna ruin the episode for anyone so I'll just say this: Never leave Gibbs alone with your computerXD.

And thanks to ChakramVampire for beta-ing for me. I'd be in trouble without her help!

Oookay, I'm done. I hope you liked the chapter! Review! More will be up soon and quicker hopefully.

Oh, and by the way I'm sooo happy we hit like 422 reviews last chapter! You guys are aaamazing. And I know that I have not been replying to your reviews like I usually do. That ends now:) if your review is long enough to comment on then you will get a reply. You guys definitely deserve it.