Ducky poured out the drinks for both himself and Gibbs. His hand shook as he passed Gibbs the shot of whiskey.
They'd seen the nightmarish proof of the torture, from Tony's back and chest, down to about his knees. The stitches and the discoloration, and the occasional burn scar, ranged from angry red purple to green to yellow. The side where his ribs were fractured was almost black with bruising.
After getting rest of his clothes off, they switched him to one of the gurneys to make him more comfortable, placing a sheet over him.
And when Ducky had approached him with a needle to draw a blood sample, Tony had just about unraveled in front of them, losing focus and begging, "Please...no more drugs...please..." he shook his head, eyes filled with terror.
It had triggered a flashback of some kind, that had them scrambling to keep him on the gurney.
"Tony," Gibbs tried to soothe, "No one's going to hurt you. Ducky needs to take a little blood, that's all." He once again stood close, putting his hand on Tony's shoulder to steady him.
Suddenly, Tony had a strange look on his face. "Boss...I...they keep whispering things, I can't understand..." his green eyes were imploring and glassy. His voice rose a little "I can never hear what they're saying...that could drive you crazy…" he was starting to list to the side.
"Duck!" Gibbs called, as Tony seemed to be losing strength, and he eased him back to lie down. Ducky looked worriedly at their friend.
As Ducky raised a hand to Tony's forehead, as the agent mumbled something else, and stared languidly at Gibbs through half lidded eyes.
Ducky shook his head. "I need my thermometer. I believe that was a combination of his fever rising and those damned drugs."
Gibbs looked at Tony, pushing the sweaty hair from his face as he fell asleep. He'd never made this kind of contact with the younger man, but the condition he was in…Gibbs shook his head sadly.
Ducky ran the thermometer. "102. Not good, but… not dangerous. We will have to watch that. Let me take the blood while he's resting."
Tony only flinched when Ducky inserted the needle.
Just as he was finishing up, the door flew open, and Abby ran in saying loudly, "Where is he? Gibbs, you didn't tell me he was-"
She stopped in her tracks, seeing Tony, only half covered with a sheet. Gibbs quickly went to her, and she collapsed against him, breathless at the shock of how he looked.
"Oh...Tony..."she said quietly, starting to cry as she stared at him. She pushed away from Gibbs and went to him, hands up but uncertain what to do as her eyes scanned the visible injuries and then went to his face. "Tony..." she wept softly as she put her shaking fingertips to his jaw. He turned his head a bit, unknowingly in his fevered sleep, away from her touch.
"Abigail," Ducky began softly, with a hand on her back, "he's going to be-"
"Don't say okay, Ducky," she said, her gravelly voice filled with sorrow. How can this be okay?" she sniffed, turning to Gibbs, huge tears rolling away from her eyes.
"Gibbs," she choked, "who did this?" she was beyond rage. "Who?"
"We will handle it, Abs," Gibbs said to her, as stating a fact. He walked to stand at her other side, placing a hand on her back. "I promise you," it was almost a low growl, "they'll pay."
She looked at him for a moment, and then nodded.
She turned back to Ducky, grabbing him into an embrace. "Okay, now...now tell me he's gonna' be okay..."
They had Palmer take Tony in for x-rays while attempting to calm Abby. She was red eyed and shaken when Gibbs had McGee come down to get her and take her back to the lab with Tony's blood sample.
Once they were alone again, the ME. broke his own rule of never drinking during work hours.
Gibbs swallowed down the whiskey in one shot, feeling it burn for a moment. He leaned against the wall while Ducky sat.
They were quiet for a moment, before Ducky broke the silence.
"I haven't got words, for this, Jethro." he sighed, and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "I don't know how Tony survived it."
"I'm not sure he has yet, Duck...his mind..."
"Yes, I know, the body will heal, but the rest..." Ducky shook his head, "well it's unpredictable how much of a long term effect the hallucinogens will have. And then there's the trauma...he's going to have a difficult time of it..."
"Let's take it one day at a time, but we've got even bigger problems right now."
"Stratton and Latham," he said darkly. "There is no end too terrible for those two. I hope you make them pay, Jethro."
Gibbs nodded, taking note at how Ducky had said the words.
Palmer rolled the gurney back into the room, Tony lying on his good side, curled up with eyes closed.
The Assistant M.E. looked pale himself.
He spoke in a low tone to Ducky. "He had a lot of trouble lying flat when I took the incline down, and also standing up straight...he's in a lot of pain so it took a while to get the pictures."
Palmer's eyes were misty, as he leaned over and squeezed Tony's hand. "I'm sorry, Tony."
Tony kept his eyes closed as he murmured softly, "S'okay, Jimmy..."
Ducky patted Tony's shoulder very lightly, " Abby is checking your blood for me, and I'm going to make sure you get some pain medication as well as fluids. I just want to avoid doing you any more harm by not verifying what may still be in your system."
Tony nodded almost imperceptibly.
Palmer looked up at Gibbs. "How could this have happened?"
"It's about time I go ask Jarvis that myself."
Gibbs was furious.
He was clenching his hands into fists at his sides when he walked in unannounced to the Director's office. As he thought, Jarvis was there, talking to Vance.
They both stood up in surprise at his entrance.
"Jethro-" Vance began.
"Just what the Hell is wrong with you?" Gibbs immediately spat at Jarvis, with a glare that could freeze over the sun. "You blackmail one of my agents to go on a mission for you without any real backup? You're the freaking Secretary Of The Navy ! You obviously have your head up your own a-"
"Gibbs!" Vance stopped him as Jarvis shifted slightly on his feet.
Gibbs was almost shaking with rage.
"Special Agent Gibbs," Jarvis said calmly,"I realize my methods are not always-"
"Sane?"
"Conventional. But I assure you, I had no idea we were so compromised…it was Latham, he-"
"Conventional?" Hell, I think it's plenty conventional for a dictator."
"Okay!" Vance cried. "Enough! We need to stop this right now, and figure out what the next step is. Agent DiNozzo and Secretary Jarvis are both in danger, and we have a vital piece of U.S. intelligence going up for sale in two weeks. We also are now aware that other chips have been sold and need to find out to whom, before they pose any greater risk to our national security."
Gibbs continued to stare at Jarvis.
"Please, Agent Gibbs, sit down. If it makes any difference to you, I am truly sorry for what happened to Agent DiNozzo." Jarvis said sincerely.
Are you sorry for Cade and Barett too ? And O'Shea ? And how about all the people who are gonna' die trying to clean up your mess ? Gibbs thought it, but sat down, knowing they had to think fast.
Jarvis took a deep breath. "Leon and I want to get the C.I.A. involved. It won't make me look good, but at this point, that's unavoidable."
Gibbs continued to stare at him while Vance looked between the two.
"I think we need to get them on the microchips that have been sold already, but it would help to have a list of buyers. SO…we will need that. And to get Latham, I think we need to try and set up a sting. Catch him in the act. But that…I want us to do. It's our mess."
"It's your mess, Mr. Secretary. You made it ours." Gibbs stated it simply.
Vance ignored him for the moment, and said thoughtfully, "We're gonna' need a pretty large piece of bait, to catch this fish."
"No." Gibbs said, as Jarvis looked at him curiously.
"We're gonna' need more than that… we're gonna' need to cast a net."