Tony couldn't get the image of the demonic figures that stuffed him into the box, out of his head. The immediate relation of the dark, shadowy figures from the movie, 'Ghost', had always freaked him out a bit, secretly. And had he not been so completely terrified, he would've made a clever quote in effort to defuse the seriousness of the situation. After all, it's what he did...it's what he always did when things got scary.
But those shadowy figures that held him, in combination with the immense fear of being in that damned box, rendered him completely useless. He'd felt like he could barely breathe before he'd been put in the box again. Now it was even worse. Folded unnaturally, muscles cramping in his stomach, he couldn't focus on any one thing.
The creepy image of the offending creatures that put him in the box, reappeared in his mind whenever he closed his eyes. So he desperately tried to keep them open, although the level of darkness was just as hopeless. He tried to ignore the strange sounds that began to stir around him; remembering what his boss had told him about being drugged. It was all in his head...all in his head...
The voices that called to him now...all in his head. "I'm sorry, Tony," it was Gibbs' voice. "I can't keep my promise. I can't save you..."
"Please don't leave me here, Boss..." he was ashamed of the sound of tears in his own voice.
"I have to, Tony. There's no way out..."
"There's always a way out," he recited shakily. But there was no response. He felt a pang in his chest. "Boss?"
"I have to go," came the final reply.
"No, Boss...please don't leave me!" he cried. The silence was deafening. It made his ears burn with the pounding beat of his heart, and it was hardest to breathe now, more than ever. He wanted to cry out; call out to him...convince him to come back so he wasn't alone. But his voice came as a whisper; unable to even form a single word. So his thoughts would have to suffice. 'It's all in my head...all in my head...all in my head...'
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"Tell me you've got something," Vance said as he entered Abby's lab with Fornell.
McGee turned toward them, "Harvey Griswald has no known current address or any registered vehicles. But we've managed to track most of Ashaw's journey."
"I'm still uploading footage for the street we saw him turn down," Abby told him. The computer beeped, as if on cue. "Here we go," she said as she pulled up the surveillance clip and clicked play. They all looked closely at the street as cars drove past. But they saw no sign of the van. "I don't understand," Abby said as she rewound and replayed. "This is the correct time-stamp, and the van turned the corner right before this video."
"Well you must've missed something, Abs," McGee said as he took over the mouse and clicked back.
"Excuse me?" Abby snarled and Tim turned to see the furious look on her face and immediately backed away.
"I uh...I mean...we must have overlooked something..." he stumbled.
"This is the closest street cam from that corner, McGee," she said. "The only possibility is that they stopped between that corner and where this cam is set up."
"That's Anchorage Boulevard, isn't it?" Fornell asked.
"Yeah," McGee told him. "The street he turned off of is 5th."
"There's an abandoned car garage near there," he told them. "It's got a basement level under it where they could reach the underbelly of cars without a lift. Pretty sure there's storage under there, too."
"Let's head over there," Vance said. "We'll check it out without approaching the building till we know for sure they're in there. He's supposed to call about the trade; we'll keep post until then, and when they move out, that's when we can take them down. Where's Agent David?" he asked as he looked around the lab.
"She uh...went down to talk to Ducky," Tim told him.
"What for?" Vance narrowed his eyes.
"To go over the autopsy reports of the Griswald victims," he replied. When they continued to look at him for elaboration, he glanced briefly at Abby before looking at them again. "She wants to know what we might have to be prepared for...if we..." he swallowed, "If we're too late..."
"Don't you dare say that, McGee!" Abby punched his arm.
"Ow, Abby!" he rubbed the sore spot as he looked at her with a furrowed brow, and they watched from their peripheral vision as the older men silently left the room.
"We're not gonna be too late!"
"Do you think I want that to happen?" he retorted angrily. "Do you think I'm any less scared than you are?" his voice cracked, and she saw the glassiness in his eyes.
Suddenly, her features softened and her own eyes collected tears before she threw her arms around him. "Oh, Timmy...I'm sorry," she whispered. "Go." She pulled gently away. "Bring them home..."
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"Vance," the director's voice rang from the speaker of the phone that Griswald held in front of Gibbs' face.
"You ready to make the trade, Leon?" Gibbs asked, as directed.
"What's the plan, Gibbs?"
"He's gonna give me a phone with a GPS locator," he told him. "He's gonna leave here, then call you, at which point you'll need to give him a name. In trade, he'll give you the number to the phone he's leavin' with me. I can't make out-going calls, so you won't be able to find us until you've got the number and can call me."
"How long before he leaves?"
Gibbs looked up at Griswald, who in turn stood. "Looks like it'll be real soon," Gibbs replied. "He also mentioned that if the name you give him is wrong, this'll happen again, and a lot of innocent people will die. So I hope you're givin' him the right name..."
"Got two of 'em, actually. Tell him we're ready when he is. I hope to see you soon, Agent Gibbs."
"Back at ya, Director." Griswald ended the call and reached down to release Gibbs' restraints.
"You'll be returning to your cell, which I'm sure you're pleased about. I'll be leaving immediately. Here's the phone," he handed him a small black cell phone and motioned for one of the masked men to come lead him to the cell. "The door can only open from the outside. So I hope your agents will be able to track you without a problem." Harvey's calm, emotionless demeanor caused Gibbs to believe the man was actually feeling relieved that this would soon be over.
"Before you go," Gibbs needed to ask, "When you've finished avenging your brother, what will you do?" he heard the door to the cell opening behind him.
A small smile played on Griswald's lips as he motioned for his guard to leave. "It turns out that I'm quite ill, Agent Gibbs," he told him. "So, I suppose I'll be going away...to die." Gibbs narrowed his eyes for a moment as he backed into his cell. "Thank you for your help," Harvey told him, sincerely. "And...I am ...sorry," he seemed pained to say the words as he shut the door and clicked the lock in place.
Once the lights came on, Gibbs rushed to the box, throwing open the latches and lifted the lid. "Tony..." he reached down to his senior agent. Tony's eyes were open and fixed in front of him, but he didn't respond to Gibbs' voice. "Come on, DiNozzo," he squeezed his shoulder in attempt to gain his attention. But he didn't respond; didn't even seem to be aware he was there.
Gibbs felt a shiver run through his body. Tony was breathing shallowly; pulse quick and weak. Gibbs began to pull him out of the box, careful not to cause him and further harm. Even this movement didn't bring a response from him, and Gibbs was suddenly hit with an overwhelming feeling of dread.
Tony's skin felt cold to the touch as he pulled him into his lap and scooted them back against the wall. "Tony, come on," his voice cracked as he cradled his agent's head against his chest with one hand, securing his other around his back. "They're gone now... Need ya to come back to me."
Tony's eyes closed and he let out what sounded like something between a cough and a sob. Gibbs felt Tony's hand come up to clench the front of his shirt, as if making sure this was real, and clung to him as if he were the only thing keeping him from going back to a bad place.
"Everything's gonna be okay," Gibbs told him as he petted down the side of Tony's head. Then he heard him let out a struggled sob, immediately sucking in a shaky breath as he squeezed closer to his boss. "I've got you, Tony," Gibbs reassured him, feeling his own heart sink even further in his chest, and tears stung his eyes. "It's gonna be okay..."
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Ziva and McGee sat in the car behind the closed down car shop. There were three teams out front in unmarked SUVs. But Gibbs' agents' job was to go in and retrieve the hostages once Griswald and his men left the building.
Ziva had been unusually silent since they'd left the NCIS garage. It heightened Tim's nerves even more than they'd already been. "Are you okay?" he asked her, finally.
She looked at him briefly, before returning her eyes to the rear of the building. "I am fine," she told him. After a few moments of silence, she looked over at him again. "Are you?"
"I will be," he replied. "As soon as we get them out of there." She nodded in agreement. "Did Ducky tell you anything we didn't already know from the report?"
"No," she replied quickly. "But he explained a few things I did not realize. For instance, none of Griswald's victims survived..." her gaze turned out her window for a moment. "And the condition in which the bodies were discovered, suggested that they had been contorted in an unnatural position for an extended period of time. I was not exactly clear as to what that meant, but he told me that they had most likely been held in a very small space, like a cage or suitcase."
"Yeah...one of the first bodies was left inside a mini-fridge. Griswald killed at least eight people before they put him away. Well...before they put one of them away, anyway. Gibbs didn't get the case until they found those Petty Officers." He had to stop talking as the thought made his stomach queasy.
But their thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the radio static as Vance's voice signaled them. "Three vehicles just exited the garage. We're going to pursue. David, McGee; enter with caution."
"On it, Boss," McGee replied, flinching at his own words before they exited the car and approached the building. As they stealthily made their way toward the front of the building, Tim pulled out his phone and dialed Ducky's number. "We're headed inside, Ducky," he told him when he answered. "It's safe for you to bring the van closer to the building now."
"I've got an ambulance on stand-by as well, Timothy. Good luck, my boy. I'll be right behind you once you've given us the clear."
McGee put his phone away as they entered through the garage door with weapons drawn. They made quick search of the empty space before entering into the stairwell. Once they reached the basement level, McGee went through the open door first, quickly scanning from side to side before motioning for Ziva to follow. The room was dim, but not too dark that they couldn't have seen a person in the room.
Ziva found the light switch panel and flicked them on. McGee had made his way across the room by this time, and when the lights lit up that part of the room, he saw the metallic table fitted with restraints. Beside it, a tray containing small, bloody, metal posts, and a drill with a bloodied drill bit. His stomach turned and his eyes fell upon the voltage machine, causing him to put together what had happened there.
Quickly, he pulled himself away from the area and resumed the search. Ziva called to him from across the room, "Every room is open and empty except for this one."
"Call Ducky," Tim told her as he approached the door and turned the lock. Ziva picked up her phone to dial. McGee pushed the door open; eyes darting around to make sure no one else was in there, before settling on his team members. He swallowed as he holstered his gun and approached them. He heard himself tell Gibbs that Ducky was right behind them and an ambulance was on its way. But his eyes scanned them over, realizing that Gibbs, other than looking completely exhausted, seemed unharmed. But Tony... his face covered in dried blood from scratches; his chest and stomach revealed that he was the recipient of the torture devices he'd seen in the other room. Remnants of stitching pulled out from each wound, surrounded by more dried blood, and some not so dry.
But what worried him most of all was how his paled body was shaking in Gibbs' arms. Tim slowly crouched down in front of them, meeting Gibbs' eyes with a furrowed brow, and noticing a rarely seen fear in the man's expression. "Boss...is he okay?" he asked as quietly as he could. Gibbs responded with a barely noticeable shake of his head. Tim blinked as he processed that. Then reached a hand to Tony's shoulder for barely a moment, and flinched back when Tony immediately recoiled, pulling closer to Gibbs with a whimper.
"It's okay, Tony," Gibbs reassured him. "Just McGee. He's here to help us." Tim stood and backed away slightly as Tony mumbled something apparently only Gibbs could understand. "They're not gonna put you back in the box," Gibbs said quietly as he petted the side of his head in attempt to calm him again.
McGee's eyes darted back and forth as he processed that statement, then looked over beside them and saw the box. It took him less then a moment to understand. As he looked back over at Tony, he had to blink back tears before turning away to leave the room, just as Ducky rushed in. He stood up against the wall just outside the open door, out of sight so he could swipe at his eyes. He listened as Gibbs explained what happened to Tony, in detail.
Tony had spent the first six or so hours of his captivity, in that box. Was drilled into; electrocuted to the point of tachycardia and brought back; injected with a high dose of PCP before being shoved back into that box; suffered hallucinatory terror, causing him to reopen his wounds and cause the many tears in his own skin; then crudely shoved back into that box for hours before they allowed Gibbs to come get him out again.
Tim didn't notice Ziva standing in front of him until he felt her hand on his arm. "They got them," she told him. "Griswald and his men have been captured. Vance is handing the scene to Fornell's team," she told him. "He feels we should allow them to bag and tag, and he wants us to go home. He says we can wait until tomorrow to fill out our report."
After a few moments of allowing her words to register, he nodded in acknowledgment. EMTs made their way into the sub-level and they moved out of the way so they could make their way into the cell. Just as Tim and Ziva were going to head upstairs, they heard Tony yell out.
"No...no, don't!"
"Tony, it's okay," Gibbs tried to calm him.
"Don't let 'em put me back in there, Boss! Please!"
"Sshh, Tony, they're not gonna hurt you." They looked into the room from a distance, watching as Tony clung to their boss in fear; Ducky telling the medics that they should sedate him for the ride to the hospital, as Gibbs tried desperately to calm the distraught agent. They kept watching as Tony fought against being injected; Gibbs, Ducky and the other EMT holding him still in order for them to succeed. And soon, Tony's body became lax; the medics guiding him gently to the stretcher before securing safety straps around his body.
"I'm stayin' with him, Duck," Gibbs said as they followed behind the stretcher.
"It's probably a good idea, Jethro. Though I do suggest you allow them to check you over. You've been through a lot."
"I haven't been through anything. Tony was the only one they touched," his voice cracked.
"And they forced you to witness it all," Ducky said.
"I don't need you to remind me that," he replied. The doctor decided against arguing further, despite the fact that his friend had suffered a great deal more than he'd admit to, trying to talk him into being seen, would only prove to further aggravate him.
But he did pause at the bottom of the steps and turn toward the two younger agents. "Go home and get some rest," the M.E told them. "I'll notify you if anything should happen." But when the agents seemed unconvinced, he took a step toward them and lay a hand on one of each of their shoulders. "You found them in time," he reassured them. "You did a remarkable job today. Things could've gone...so much worse. Anthony will heal with time. But he needs the two of you; so take care of yourselves...go get some rest. I'll look after them both..."
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tbc...