Hey folks!
Okay so I know that some of you aren't going to like the way I ended this chapter but here's the deal – I'm moving this weekend and I'm afraid that in the craziness, it might be a while before I can update again. So I figured it was better to post this chapter now (even if it is another one of my famous evil cliffies, lol), rather than have y'all wait even longer for another update.
So here ya go, enjoy!
Oh and bonus points to anyone who can guess what song Tony is singing in the end. ;o)
-Moki
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Chapter Nine
Unfortunately, he never got out the next note.
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"C'mon Major, you can't be serious! What exactly am I supposed to do with that bit of information, huh? HUH?"
"Problems?"
Abby spun around to face the visitor who'd just entered her lab, hands on her hips and her lips turned down into one very serious pout.
"Oh hi Ducky. No, not really. Major Mass Spec has just given me the most ridiculous composition of a sample that Agent Roberts brought back from his crime scene. Now I can't make heads or tails of it."
Abby turned back to the recalcitrant machine, wagging her finger at it. "You and I are going to discuss this later, Mister."
Turning back to the ME, Abby was once again her cheerful and smiling self. "What can I do for ya, Ducky?"
"Ah, just a bit of tissue for a DNA match on an old case, nothing that needs a rush my dear."
The forensic scientist took the tiny sample jar and put it down on her table, quickly pulling out a pen from her lab coat and signing the plastic bag to show the proper chain of evidence.
"Why didn't you send Palmer down, Ducky?" Abby asked, eager for a little conversation. With Team Gibbs away on their so-called 'vacation' (which Abby happened to know wasn't a vacation at all), she didn't have too many people to talk to all day.
"Oh, he's busy studying for another exam and since we finally got a slight lull in cases, I thought I'd stretch my legs a bit and come for a visit."
"I'm so glad you did, I was getting so lonely I was thinking of breaking out my cardboard Tony and Ziva again."
"But not a cardboard Gibbs and McGee?" Ducky asked with jaunty wink.
"Well yeah them too, but it's just that I already have the cardboard Tony and Ziva so I thought I'd start with them. Then make cardboard Gibbs and McGee if those two didn't keep me company enough."
Ducky chuckled, then quickly reached for a handkerchief as he felt a sneeze coming on. "My apologies, we had a case recently where a body was found in a field of wildflowers and my poor sinuses haven't forgiven me since."
"No problem Ducky, I was just worried for a second there that you had caught what Tony had."
"Anthony has been ill?"
"Oh yeah, I mean he tried to hide it but I saw and I'm sure the boss-man saw it too. I think it was just a cold, but you know Tony, hiding the serious stuff one second and then complaining about the littlest thing the next. He's been sick for weeks but never says a word, then McGee tells me that when they got on the plane all Tony did was complain about how much his legs hurt….on a three hour flight! He's too funny."
As Abby spoke, Ducky's brow furrowed slightly. "When did you say Tony got sick?"
"Oh maybe about two weeks ago, I guess? Right about the time that he and Gibbs got back from Arizona the first time."
"And what did Timothy say about the flight? Was Tony complaining about his legs hurting? Perhaps all of his muscles?"
Ducky may not have been known for his gut like Gibbs was, but the truth was that he still had very good instincts when it came to putting together clues from what bodies told him. Even live bodies told him their stories and he was starting to get a very bad feeling about the message from Tony's body.
Abby looked at Ducky suspiciously. "Actually that's exactly what McGee said, why?"
"Oh dear, I'm afraid we might have a problem."
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Spotting the opening he needed, Gibbs launched forward and shoved Elizabeth, causing the woman to temporarily lose her balance and take a couple stumbling steps. For a few precious seconds the rifle wasn't pointed at any of them and Gibbs gave Tony a quick command.
"Get her out of here!"
Tony had already started moving the moment he'd seen his boss' muscles tense. Before Gibbs got to Elizabeth, Tony had grabbed Dina and dragged her to her feet. Still tied and gagged, she leaned on him heavily as he helped her to run.
Getting the woman behind the biggest and closest boulder he could find, Tony lowered her to the ground and took off the gag, then untied her bindings.
"Agent DiNozzo, I am so sorry…" she began.
"Nothing to be sorry about, Dina. This is what we do. We're the heroes and right now….well I guess right now you're kinda the damsel in distress. Nice job on going so far as to get yourself tied up, by the way. Not everyone is willing to get that much into a role, but you did and I admire that kind of tenacity."
Dina couldn't help but smile as Tony finished untying her hands. When he was done, gave her shoulders a quick squeeze before flashing her with his most reassuring grin. "Now you just stay here, got it?"
Dina nodded and Tony quickly took a look around. He sighed as he saw his boss standing with hands raised, the shotgun pointed squarely at his chest. Only able to get Elizabeth slightly off balance, Gibbs had gained just enough time for Tony and Dina to get away before she'd caught herself and turned the weapon back on him again.
Elizabeth looked around in the general direction where Tony and Dina had gone, raising her voice as she called out to the missing agent.
"Come on out, Agent DiNozzo, or are you ready to watch Agent Gibbs die?" She emphasized her point by raising the weapon and walking a step closer to her target.
From his vantage point, Tony knew she wasn't kidding around. Now that Dina was safe, he did the only thing he could.
"We really need to stop meeting like this, Boss," Tony said, coming out from behind the rock with his hands held up again. Turning to his boss, he raised his eyebrows and cocked his head inquiringly. "Are you getting old, Gibbs? 'Cause I thought you had her."
"Must be the bum knee."
Tony had managed to place himself squarely behind Elizabeth, forcing the assassin to pivot the gun quickly back and forth between the two of them to keep both covered.
"Get over next to your boss, Agent DiNozzo. Now!"
"Nah, I don't think so. You see, he likes to slap me on the back of the head when I make smartass comments and, well, calling him old probably wasn't the best idea. Nope, I think I'm gonna stay right where I am. Right now I'd rather be facing your shotgun than him."
"You think I can't headslap you from here, DiNozzo? Just keep up with the 'old' talk and you'll see how far I can do it." Gibbs growled.
Tony's eyes widened for half a millisecond at his boss' words. Normally distracting someone was his job, but Tony was sure that his boss must have a plan. The two shared a quick glance and Tony went right on with barely a pause, turning up the anger a notch.
"You know what? I'd like to see you try it….old man. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be standing here right now. You were supposed to take her down. What the hell happened?"
"Well if I had better back-up with me, maybe we wouldn't be here at all. Did you ever think of that, DiNozzo?"
Elizabeth looked frantically back and forth between the two men, momentarily shaken by the unforeseen turn of events. That the two agents would turn on each other and basically ignore her was completely unexpected.
"Hey! Both of you shut up…and you…," she pointed the shotgun at Tony. "Get over here right now or I swear that I will blow his head off."
"You think I care lady?" Tony asked snidely. "Go ahead and do it. Hell, you'll be doing me a favor. Seven years I've been working for this bastard and all he ever does is yell at me and wallop me upside the head."
Gibbs eyes glinted and his mouth twitched in an almost smile. He nearly broke, but kept it together as he continued the charade, leveling an angry gaze at the younger man. "I got a better idea Sax, why don't you go ahead and shoot him. That'll save me the trouble of having to request another Senior Field Agent."
Back behind her rock, Dina couldn't believe her ears. The last time she'd been with the agents, she'd never have guessed that their relationship was this bad. In fact she could've sworn she saw real (if cleverly hidden) affection between the two.
Afraid that the two of them were going to get themselves killed on her behalf and unable to take it any longer, Dina did a very dumb thing.
She jumped out from behind the rock with her hands up.
"Stop! Please, don't shoot them!"
Tony and Gibbs turned in unison.
"NO!"
It was too late. Elizabeth spun around at the new threat and instinctively fired her weapon. Dina went down as Tony ran for her and Gibbs ran towards Elizabeth. When Tony reached the fallen woman he was relieved to see that the assassin had indeed been thrown off by their tirade, firing without thinking and missing a kill shot. The bullet had gone straight through Dina's thigh – a painful but thankfully not life threatening wound.
Taking full advantage of the woman's complete confusion, Gibbs was able to slap the shotgun out of Elizabeth's hands. Before the woman could reach for the agents' Sigs in her pockets, he grabbed one of her arms, twisting it painfully behind her back as he reached for his cuffs.
"DiNozzo?"
"Through and through boss, I think she's gonna be…." Tony paused as a strange sound could be heard echoing around the mountain. He opened his mouth to ask what it was when the source suddenly made itself visible. A helicopter crested the nearest ridge and came straight for them.
Pulling the now handcuffed assassin behind him, Gibbs approached Dina and checked her injury over Tony's shoulder.
"This wasn't part of the plan," he told the wounded woman, with a gentle grin.
"Plan?" Dina asked painfully, gritting her teeth as Tony took off his belt and made a tourniquet above the wound on her leg. "You two had a plan?"
"Of course, all good agents have a plan," Tony said, as if it should have been extremely obvious. "Not just a Plan A, but also a Plan B and sometimes even a Plan C. You see, getting you out of the way was Plan A, setting up a fight to confuse our would-be assassin so we could disarm her was Plan B." Tony said cheerfully as he finished off his ministrations.
"What about the part about me getting shot?"
"Like I said, not part of the plan," Gibbs said, shooting a quick smile at Tony before giving a quick 'all clear' wave to the incoming chopper. Tony stood up behind him, shielding his eyes as the vehicle made preparations to land on a flat piece of land not too far away.
"McGee?" Tony asked.
"McGee." Gibbs confirmed, knowing that his third in charge must be behind the rescue. Though how he arranged for a chopper when they weren't even 'officially' there was beyond him.
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A while later, Dina was safely loaded on to the chopper as Gibbs and Tony escorted the prisoner, handing her over to Ziva and McGee.
"Okay McGee, I gotta ask….how the hell did you get a chopper out here on such short notice?" Tony asked after Ziva took Elizabeth inside the aircraft's cabin.
"Well Tony, as much as I'd like to take full credit, I have to say that this was a team effort. Ziva came up with the idea and then I thought of asking Sheriff Boyd. He was the one who called in a favor from the local fire rescue."
Gibbs marched up, "McGee, you and Ziva turn Sax over to the local LEO's and then I want a report on Dina's condition. DiNozzo and I will ride back and take her horse with us. Pick us up at the stable tomorrow afternoon."
McGee nodded. "You got it, Boss."
Once the chopper flew off, Tony turned to Gibbs. "I guess this means we're turning around and heading right back, huh?"
"Yep."
"Damn, and I was just telling my ass that it was gonna get a much needed break."
"DiNozzo how many times do I have to tell you not to involve me with what you tell your ass?."
"Sorry, Boss. Won't happen again."
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Two hours later and Gibbs was feeling something he didn't feel very often – he was happy. Not only that, but he was actually happy enough to admit that he was happy, and that was rare indeed.
Despite the less than perfect weather conditions (the wind kicking up again, this time much colder than before), he was enjoying the ride and from what he could tell, Tony was apparently enjoying it too.
The younger man had been singing every corny song in the book since they'd mounted up and so far, Gibbs hadn't the heart to order him to stop. Currently Tony was singing some jazzy little tune about being "bitter and blue". Gibbs had never heard the song before, but it sounded pretty good. He had to admit that Tony had a great voice and listening to him sing wasn't the worse way to spend an afternoon.
They had caught the bad guy (well "bad girl", might be more fitting), McGee had reported that Dina was going to be fine, Tony seemed to be feeling okay and the two of them had the next day and a half to enjoy being out alone with nothing but the open sky above them and a couple of good horses underneath them.
In fact, so engrossed was Gibbs in his happiness, he failed to notice the silence behind him until it was too late.
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Feeling much like his boss, Tony had started out the ride in a great mood. After making sure Dina was okay and putting away another killer, he felt like celebrating. The singing had just popped out of him and once he saw that Gibbs wasn't going to ride back and toss him off his horse to shut him up, he kept right on going.
In fact, he was so engrossed in his songs that he didn't even notice when his symptoms started getting worse – yet another of the many factors that led to Tony not realizing how sick he really was.
The dry, warm air at first had been such a nice change. It made his body feel deliciously warm for the first time in who knew how long, plus it cleared up his sinuses. Tony had no way of knowing that the air was carrying deadly spores into his damaged lungs, no way to know that the coughs he'd been fighting back, the tightness in his chest – all of it was leading somewhere very bad.
Tony truly hadn't meant to deceive Gibbs about how bad he'd been feeling, not this far anyway. He'd wanted some quiet relaxation with just the two of them before they had to get back to the craziness in DC. Two days on horseback had sounded so nice, he hadn't cared that he wasn't feeling 100%.
As Tony finished with his latest song, he took a deep breath to start on another one…
Unfortunately, he never got out the next note.