Thank everyone for the prayers. They are desperately needed and it's wonderful to have such beautiful people thinking of Lynn. Thank you!

As for why there is a new chapter so soon- I write when I'm stressed. Interesting coping mechanism.

Yes, I know. Convenient. Once again, things have to be explained later. Be patient. Enjoy. Also the line "I was blown up three months ago!" I could only hear Christopher Lloyd screaming "I was frozen today!" when I wrote it. If you don't know that glorious, glorious line, youtube it, and watch the Nostalgia Critic clip with it. It's just lovely. Then picture Gibbs yelling that like Christopher Lloyd.

Tony shoved Gibbs away from his side and staggered to his feet. Thin grey wisps were trailing from the bottom of the door.

"Shit." he looked around himself desperately, they needed out of this room, now. "Gibbs, see if you can do anything, anything, about the window. We need to move." Gibbs blinked at him slowly, looking disoriented. "Gibbs! Now!" He coughed heavily, his body curling in on itself but he pushed it back, waving Gibbs away and to the opposite wall.

The man nodded and hurried over to the window, glancing worriedly over his shoulder back to Tony.

"Okay okay okay okay. Door opens inward… hinges. We could remove the hinges. Pry the door back...Still locked… who the hell installs a deadbolt on a bedroom door? Damn controlling parents… Maybe we can get the door to splinter..."

Gibbs ran his fingers over the edges of the window, trying to focus on an escape rather than Tony's rambling mutters. He changed position, trying to see if there was something he could use to lever the window open, and grunted. His head ached with half remembered emotions and confusion.

Something...blue and clean… too clean. Dark and blue and stifling. Fear. There was blood on pale lips, dark shadows pressing deeper into sunken skin. Hands that shook and resignation in the eyes meeting his. Fear and anger and loss and pain and death and No! No no no no no no no no no no no!

"Gibbs!"

He started pulling away from the window and catching Tony's concerned gaze. Apparently he had been calling for a bit now. He shook his head, regaining his bearings and rushed over to Tony.

"What have we got?"

Tony tapped the door hinge and eyed the thickening smoke with a troubling look. "We need to get these off. The door with sag and-"

"-with enough force. Right." Gibbs jumped ahead and turned scanning the room for something they could pry the hinges off with.

Spotting a metal picture frame he moved towards it when Tony suddenly called him back. "Wait! Did they take your knife?"

Gibbs blinked and started to reach for the blade always hidden in his belt. "No."

Tony shook his head. "Mine neither. What kind of bad guy leaves you your weapons?" They each grabbed their knives and started to work them in the joints of the hinges.

Gibbs shot a look down to Tony while the younger man was attempting to pry to bottom hinge. "Why the hell didn't you think of this before?"

Tony gave a half-hearted glare and snapped the slender piece of metal from its place. "I'm a bit distracted from dying of pneumonia and how I'm going to explain this Jenny. What's your excuse?"

Gibbs' hinge fell to the ground next to Tony's and he took a step back while the agent removed the last piece. "I was blown up three months ago!" he paused then and stared at Tony with undisguised panic. "Did you say dying?"

Tony rolled his eyes and smiled victoriously as the door sagged. "We need to get this pulled back. Grab the bottom." He closed his knife and stuck started to pull but his chest clenched when he saw the billowing grey fog creeping the hall. The stench of burning plastic and wood was filling the room and he could feel heat coming from the first floor.

There was a fire.

And it was moving too fast.

Gibbs didn't move. "DiNozzo."

Tony sighed and spun, his hands outstretched. "Gibbs, we don't have time for this. I was kidding. I'm not dying, I'm fine, now we have to go!"

No. No something was so so wrong. Pneumonia was bad. Was… Tony and sick were to be kept far far apart. But why? What was going on?

Gibbs' face was folding, trying to grasp the fleeting thoughts and Tony lurched forward, resting his hands on Gibbs' cheeks.

"Boss. Listen to me. I'm okay. We'll figure it out, whatever's going on in your head right now, whatever you're trying to remember, we'll figure it out. But right now we have to get out here. You with me?"

He nodded and Tony pulled away, gripping the door tightly in his hands. "You ready?"

Gibbs braced himself. "On three."

Xxx

Tobias leaned forward and tapped the screen. "Jeanne Benoit. His ticket in." he lowered his head and sighed.

None of this was right.

Abby bounced from one foot to another. "Can she tell us where her father is?"

McGee crossed his arms and shook his head, staring blankly at the computer from his spot leaning against the table in the middle of the lab. "No. She's completely oblivious to her father's doings. She thinks he's staying in a hotel downtown."

Jimmy poked his head out from behind the computers. "But she's his daughter? Doesn't she have a way of contacting him? A cell only she can use? She must have a number, even if she doesn't realize it."

Tobias grinned despite himself. The medical assistant was getting to be quite observant. "We tried that, the phone was ditched. We're expecting him to get in contact again with her soon but until he does, she's a dead end."

McGee tapped his foot a couple times and glanced over at the far screen. They had been running a constant trace on both Tony and Gibbs' phones in case one of them turned back on but so far the monitor had been silent.

"Okay, let's think about this a different way. The only logical answer is Benoit, right?"

Everyone nodded and McGee pushed himself off the table, pacing back and forth as he sorted his thoughts. "Tony's been feeding information as he gets it to the Director. There's more than enough to launch a case, but she wanted something direct, something solid and unbreakable that Tony could only give if he interacted directly with Benoit?"

Tobias leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "We know all this McGee."

Tim waved his hands. "No, I know, I'm getting somewhere with this. I'm saying Tony knows how to use a situation to his advantage and he already has details on Benoit's operation. If Gibbs wasn't there, he'd talk himself out of this."

Fornell narrowed his eyes and looked at McGee with appreciation. "But Gibbs is there. What now?"

"He'll buy himself time until he figure how to get Gibbs out. We're going to get a sign. I"m telling you, Tony kicks it into gear when he's watching out for someone, he's going to let us know. We just have to keep our eyes open."

Tobias stepped forward and Abby moved away, watching him warily as he sized up McGee. "You know, you seem to have a lot of positive insight towards someone you've been treating like leftover shit."

McGee flushed red but he met Tobias' eyes. "I know and I'm going to make it up to him. As soon as we find him, I'm going to make it better."

Tobias held his gaze for a moment longer before nodding to himself and looking to Jimmy. The young doctor was looking anxiously out the window.

"Palmer?"

Jimmy clenched his fists as he stared at the cool fall night. "The temperature is dropping."

Fornell straightened. "If it turns into pneumonia how long until a hospital would be an absolute?"

Jimmy pursed his lips and didn't answer.

Xxx

The door splintered inwards and the two men fell back. The triumphant look they shared disappeared quickly as the smoke began to pour into the room without the door holding it at bay. The men nodded at each other and they pulled their shirts over their faces, trying to block the smoke from their airways.

Tony pointed to the hall floor and Gibbs blinked twice. Simultaneously they dropped to the full rich carpet and began to crawl across the floor.

Hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder they moved together to the stairs. Once they reached the top, Tony stood and peered carefully down to the first floor. The flames were moving up the staircase, flickering and hungry.

Tony stifled the need to take a deep breath and tapped Gibbs once on his shoulder.

"We're going to have to power through it. It's a straight shot from the bottom to the door. Follow close."

Gibbs shook his head. "Let me be in front."

Tony put his hand firmly on Gibbs' chest. "You're following me. No arguments."

Gibbs hesitated for the briefest of moments and then nodded. "What do we do if the doors locked?"

Tony turned towards the steps and started down, feeling Gibbs sticking tightly behind. "Then we're screwed." he said to himself.

Xxx

The monitor beeped twice and the four jumped towards it as one.

"Did a phone come back on?" Tobias strained to see over the woman typing furiously.

Abby shook her head and tried to control the waver of excitement and worry in her voice. "No. The new phones the director issued last month have a new feature, if they undergo significant damage they automatically send out a GPS beacon before they are completely destroyed. Doesn't matter if they're turned off or not. It's just a prototype, no one's had a chance to find out if they work successfully."

Tobias noted the address Abby pulled up and turned away, running to the lab door. "We do now."

McGee gripped Abby's shoulder and went running after the FBI agent.

Jimmy sidled up to Abby and watched them go. "Since when do all our cell phones send off a homing signal?"

Abby rubbed the back of her neck. "They don't. Just um… just Tony, Tim and Ziva's. I… may have made my own modifications."

Jimmy raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know you could do that."

She shrugged. "If you haven't noticed, bad things tend to happen to us. I thought I should give it a shot."

"Huh." Jimmy pulled in breath of fresh air. "Let's hope it works."

Xxx

The air was toxic. Tony could feel his hands trembling with the exertion of moving towards the door, a door he was determined was getting further away with every step.

He blinked again, sweat was pouring into his eyes and the smoke stung.

"Tony?"

Gibbs' voice was muffled but his concern was coming in loud and clear. Tony waved a hand and eyed the bottom three steps, while they had been sidestepping the hot patches on the upper steps, the flames were unavoidable on the the bottom. He steeled himself and turned his back so he could make eye contact with his friend.

"Stay right behind me we need to rush this."

Gibbs' eyes flashed. "Tony let me-"

"Shut up. We're going."

Gibbs dug his hands into Tony's shirt and Tony put his arms in front of his face, attempting, just trying, to keep himself safe.

And then they were running and it was hot and everything was burning and he thought he should be feeling pain but instead it was just hot, so so hot and everything itched and he wanted out he wanted to breathe to move and someone was shouting in ear but he couldn't hear anything and it was hot.

Tony slammed into the door hard, his long sleeve covered hands scrambling for the doorknob.

Like Joe Pesci in Home Alone. Don't get burned.

Tony blinked. He was drifting. He wrapped his fingers around the knob and turned.

Please. Please don't let this be it for us.

Mercifully, amazingly, miraculously- the door swung open and Tony and Gibbs fell out, landing on a hot porch. Tony grabbed Gibbs' arm, shoving him down the porch steps and into the browning prickling grass.

"Tony!" Gibbs was shouting and gesturing at something but Tony ignored him, pulling on his arm.

"Come on!" He shouted and they moved further away until the heat no longer felt like it was reaching inside of them and the smoke wasn't covering their eyes. Once he was satisfied they were far enough from the blaze, Tony dropped to his knees.

He couldn't go anymore.

He looked up at Gibbs and was surprised when the older man abruptly pushed him on his back and started to beat at his jeans. Tony looked down wearily. The pants were scorched and blackened.

Tony sighed, the cool air biting into his burnt and aching lungs. He coughed and felt everything spin.

He was so tired.

Tony could feel his eyes start to drift closed but he wasn't sure when he stopped looking at Gibbs and smoke obscuring the starry night and started looking at emptiness.

He thought he should feeling something. Some sort of pain or relief or something other than the nothing that was threatening to consume him.

"Tony! DiNozzo! Tony!"

He should get up.

He needed to make sure Gibbs was okay.

And Jenny would want to know what happened.

And paperwork. There were case reports waiting for him to finish.

So many case reports, waiting at his leaky desk.

Why was the kid dressed like a Naval Officer?

He had work to do.

He needed to get up.

He needed to.

He needed.

Xxx

The sky was grey.

"No!" Tobias yelled as the car swung over the curb and to a stop on the lawn.

"Tony!" He screamed, jumping from the car and clenching his fists as he stared at the burning house.

"Tobias!"

He swiveled and saw Gibbs a few yards away, an unconscious DiNozzo leaning against him. Fornell ran from the car, McGee close behind.

Tobias hit his knees next to the men while McGee called for an ambulance behind him.

"Is he..."

"He's breathing, but he's having trouble." Gibbs adjusted himself slightly and Tony's head lolled on his shoulder. "He's… the jeans are sticking."

Fornell wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion and looked to Tony's legs. A gasp caught in his throat, coming out as a strangled cry. Patches of denim were missing, revealing burned and red legs, and he could see where the jeans had adhered to the sticky injuries.

McGee dropped next to the men. "Bus is on it's way."

Tobias reached out, meaning to touch Tony's damp forehead, but Gibbs shifted away, moving Tony from his reach.

The two men's eyes met and Gibbs voice was tired was sure. "I've got him."

Tobias tilted his head back but said nothing.

McGee looked Gibbs over carefully. He didn't appear to be injured… "What happened?"

Gibbs looked down at Tony, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he studied the strained lines on his former agents face.

"Locked us in an upstairs bedroom. Set the place on fire."

Tobias rolled his eyes and scooted closer, watching Tony's chest rising and falling carefully. "Obviously. How did Benoit get you?"

"Came up from behind when I was headed back up to see Tony." Gibbs grumbled, wiping a trail of sweat from Tony's temple.

Tobias felt the corners of lips just barely turn up. Tony was right. Gibbs was coming back. He knew him well. He knew he wouldn't let this go. That he couldn't let it go.

Flashing lights and overwhelming sirens cut through the moment a firetruck pulled up followed by an ambulance. McGee leaped to his feet and waved the paramedics over.

Tobias stood as they loaded him on the stretcher. "He has the beginnings of pneumonia but he's had pneumonic plague and-"

Gibbs stopped, the world rushing by him in an instant. The sirens were wailing in the background and the world was lit in pulsing light and one of the blue lights turned on Tony's haggard face.

Blue.

Plague. Pneumonic plague.

"The tests came back negative… not for DiNozzo"

The piece of paper crumbled in his fists. Tony was going to be fine. He was going to fix this. He could fix this.

"Hanna misunderstood. I developed a vaccine, not an antidote."

No! I need a cure for this! Now! The gun smashed against the glass. This wasn't right, this wasn't fair and this wasn't happening!

"He's dying." "The hell he is."

The blue lights were a disease of themselves. No one looked well. You could breathe in death.

"You will not die. You hear me DiNozzo. You will not die." "Gotcha Boss."

You don't get to leave me.

"Gibbs!" McGee shook his arm, jerking him from his thoughts.

His memories.

Tony.

"Tony!" He turned, ripping his arm from McGee's grip. "Where's Tony?"

Tim pointed to his car. "The ambulance is taking him to Bethesda. Fornell is with him."

"Tobias?"

"Do… do you want to go to the hospital?"

Gibbs was already pushing past him, sliding into the front seat. "Let's go."

Xxx

Tobias gripped the gathering fabric at Tony's shoulder. He would be okay. He had to be okay.

Gibbs couldn't survive this if he wasn't.

Tobias wasn't stupid. He knew Gibbs cared for Tony more than he ever let on and he was starting to remember. His returning, the stubborn possessiveness. Tony was Gibbs' and he was remembering that.

But that didn't mean he didn't have a hell of a lot to answer for.

Tobias brushed the hair out of Tony's face, ignoring the look he was getting from the paramedic.

"Come on Tony, you got wake up. Don't make me be the only one to put him through hell. Don't do this."