Gibbs was running...phone to his ear as he attempted to call his agents who were still in the garage, to no avail. He could hear Ziva and Mike yelling, directing the few dozen employees to exit via the stairwell as quickly as possible. He panicked for a moment, realizing there was no way he'd get down those stairs as quickly as he needed to with all those people in his way. "Ziva!" he yelled and she spun around and approached him. "You get a hold of them?"
"No," she shouted above the noise. "I do not believe they are getting reception down there!"
"I need to get down there...is there another exit?"
"Fire escape," the guard shouted and pointed toward the far corner of the room. "You two go on ahead; I've got this!"
With a quick nod, the two of them headed toward the window that lead out to the emergency metal staircase. It was four floors down. Gibbs dialed Tony again...
*~.~*
"Whoever shot him must've policed his brass," Tony said as they gave up their search for something that was obviously not there. "This his car?"
"The blue Jetta? Yeah. I don't think anyone's been through it yet." Tony got into the driver's seat and began looking through the console and glove compartment. "I'm gonna call Gibbs and let him know we didn't find anything," he said as he pulled out his cell. "Crap...no signal. I'm gonna walk outside and see if I can get one. Be right back," he told him as he turned to head out.
"'Kay, Probie!" Tony shouted right before finding a stack of CDs. "Ah...what do we have here?"
*~.~*
As soon as Tim reached the edge of the garage, his phone rang before he even began to dial. It was Gibbs. "Hey, Boss, I was just about to call-"
"McGee, you and DiNozzo need to get outta there, now!" his voice rang out on the other line.
"What...what's going on?" he panicked.
"There might be a bomb. Don't wanna take any chances. Get outta there!"
Tim's eyes widened as he turned back around, dropping his phone into his pocket before he began to sprint back toward his partner. "Tony!" he yelled. He could see him in the distance, but he hadn't heard him. There was a faint sound of music coming from the car and Tony was looking down at the radio. "Tony!" he yelled again. Fifty yards away, he was amazed when Tony made eye-contact with him finally. "We gotta get outta-"
Before he could get the sentence out, the room was suddenly lit up; a loud cracking sound and a force that knocked Tim on his back...
*~.~*
Gibbs and Ziva felt the stairs quake beneath them, and were tossed into the railing as they heard the sound of the explosion. Sharing a quick, panicked glance, they resumed quick pace down the last set of stairs...
*~.~*
McGee pushed himself up and coughed against the smoke, searching out in front of him for the source of the blast. "Oh god..." he felt tears sting his eyes as he realized the blazing vehicle, a mere five car-lengths from where Tony was... The Jetta was covered in debris to the point that he could barely see it anymore. He looked up, realizing that the ceiling had caved in. He could literally see the floor above them... "Tony!" he yelled as he sprinted toward where his friend was buried...
Gibbs and Ziva came running into the garage when they realized the other agents were not outside. They were yelling out for them, but not getting a reply. Through the smoke, Gibbs could see McGee working frantically to remove debris from a vehicle. "McGee!" he shouted as they approached him. Tim didn't respond. Gibbs reached out to grab his arm. "McGee, what are you doin'?" Tim turned to look at him; anguish clearly written on his face. "Where's DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, feeling his heart suddenly clench in his chest.
"H- he's in here..." he replied, turning back to continue his efforts. "I was coming back to get him...he was in Pierson's car...he couldn't hear me...then the bomb..."
"Tony is in this?" Ziva asked, horrified. There was no need for an answer. She looked up at the gaping hole in the ceiling. "There is no way..." she said in barely a whisper.
"Don't say that!" McGee shouted as he looked at her in anger; tears brimming his eyes. And just as quickly, he turned away from her and began throwing debris away from the crushed vehicle.
Gibbs had frozen for a few moments, taking in the damage of the vehicle in front of them. The top of it was completely caved flat in line with the hood by the collapsed concrete ceiling. There was no way they could move that... But Gibbs suddenly pushed himself toward the debris to assist in removing what he could. "Ziva, call...call and see how long before help arrives," he told her. "Call Duck...tell him to get back here..."
She nodded and turned to sprint out of the garage. Tim cleared big bits of broken concrete from beside the car, attempting to get to the door. "Tony?" he shouted, hoping to hear some kind of response. Gibbs stilled for a moment, straining to hear as well. When they heard nothing, Gibbs climbed onto the hood and pulled another large piece of debris from where the dome of the car used to be. "DiNozzo?" he yelled as they stilled their movements. Nothing...
McGee resumed his frantic attempt to clear the space beside the car. Gibbs ran a hand down his face, trying to keep hold of whatever hope he might have of finding his agent alive. He swallowed against the lump in his throat and bit back tears that threatened to fall... Why had he let him come to work today? He could've had every reason to make him stay home...at least today... But now, Tony could be dead...they might have already lost him.
Gibbs frowned, pushing the thought from his mind as he bent down to continue his efforts. And then, as if a sign from above, they heard it... They heard Tony calling out...
*~.~*
Tony forced his eyes open, unaware of what had happened for a few moments. All he knew right then, was that he was in the dark. His head and chest hurt, and he coughed in attempt to stop the fluttering in his chest. He tried to move, and was stopped immediately by a sharp pain in his leg. He felt himself cry out, but didn't hear it...
He began to panic, trying to remember what was happening; how he got in this position yet again. He reached out in front of him, hands hitting what he immediately recognized as a car stereo. Then he remembered...
McGee had called out to him and he looked over, just before an...explosion? Tony remembered seeing it, and ducking down into the seat. But then everything came crashing down on top of him. Now he was trapped...again. And there was no way of knowing whether or not he would get out of there...or if they even thought he was still alive.
Tony decided to assess the situation, however that might come to be. He pressed his hands above him, realizing there was very little room between where he was laying and the hood of the car, which was now mere inches over his horizontal form. He reached down toward the pain in his leg and realized that the steering wheel was folded over and crushing him right above the knee. Knowing this fact somehow made the pain worse.
Tony wished he'd not left his backpack outside of the car... that's where he'd left his flashlight. Then he had a thought and reached out in front of him again, feeling for the glove compartment. He soon found it and forced it open; a soft light poured from it, but only lit up enough to see inside the compartment. To his luck, there was a small flashlight there, and he grabbed it, flicking it on quickly and shining it all around him.
What he thought would be comforting, having a source of light, seemed to only backfire as it revealed a clearer picture of the situation. There was no opening; no sign of escape around him. He could see the concrete that he surmised was rubble from the ceiling of the garage... That was it. He was buried alive. No one would be able to get him out of this...
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"Sir! You need to get out of here!" a fireman shouted to Gibbs. "There's no telling if the rest of this place is gonna come down!"
"My agent is trapped under here!" he yelled back over the loudness of the emergency vehicles. "I'm not leavin' here without him!"
"There's no way you can get that concrete off of there, Sir! And even if you did, there's a high possibility the rest of that ceiling will collapse right back on top of it!"
"What part of what I said, don't you understand?" Gibbs glared. "You need me to sign a damn waiver or somethin'? 'Cause unless you've got a way to get him outta here, I'm not leavin'!"
The fireman met Gibbs' glare for a moment, then squinted in thought, seemingly understanding the man's thoughts. "I'll see if I can find something to help break through," he told him and turned to sprint out of the garage.
Gibbs took a deep breath as he watched him go. It'd been half an hour since the bomb went off. He'd sent Ziva back to the office to track down the owner of the car while he and McGee stayed behind attempting to remove the debris and free their friend.
He turned around to see Tim struggling to pull a large block of concrete and he moved to help him. "McGee," he put a hand over his to stop him. "Hold on a second. Your hand's bleeding."
"It's nothing, Boss. Just scraped it on some debris. We can't stop right now..."
"Tim-"
"We can't stop, Boss!" he said louder, his frustration clear on his face. "Tony could be bleeding...running out of air! We haven't heard him in over twenty minutes..." he turned back to the block of debris and gripped onto it. Gibbs gripped the other side of it, without responding verbally to McGee's words.
"On three," he told him. He counted, and they pulled with all their might, grunting with their efforts. They were about to give up, when suddenly it began to pull loose and they had to duck out of the way as it fell backward onto the ground. The hole revealed was maybe a foot in diameter.
McGee scrambled to look in, "Tony?" he called into the darkness. There was no sign of a reply from inside. "Can't see anything," he said as he fumbled for his flashlight on his key-chain. Gibbs peered into the hole as McGee shined the light into it. Both men froze as they saw him lying there, unmoving...
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Tbc...