A/N. I know I keep on saying this, but thanks again for all the fab reviews – it really does make it worth sharing my mad ideas. I shall reward you with another chapter. ;-) The only question is, how long can the author survive on a diet of chocolate, celery and beer? No, that's not it. I know - what evilness have I found to inflict on our boys now? :D Only one way to find out. Enjoy…

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Gibbs regained consciousness for the second time that day and groaned. He was getting a definite sense of déjà vu, but what the hell had happened this time? The last thing he remembered was knocking out those two guys and getting into the van. His head had been swimming, and he had been desperately trying not to…damn. He had. He'd passed out. Talk about timing! He'd been doing seventy at least – trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the guys he'd just taken out. DiNozzo had been on the phone to Abby, then nothing. He guessed DiNozzo had done his best to keep them on the road, but he knew from first hand experience how difficult it was to steer with someone lying on the wheel. Damn! Damn! Damn! He moved his head, slowly at first – his neck appeared intact at least. Crashed van. Check. Tree through driver's side window. Check. Make that trees. And branches. One particularly sharp branch had speared him in the thigh. He supposed he should be grateful it had hit the muscle rather than the femoral artery. He'd have bled to death long before now if that had been the case. He moved the rest of his limbs one by one. Aside from the aforementioned branch, his left shoulder felt dislocated. All in all, it could be worse. His side of the van had taken most of the impact – he hoped that meant DiNozzo was relatively intact. He looked to his right. The younger man was upright in his seat, eyes closed. He could see the younger man's chest moving with each breath. He was alive, but Gibbs couldn't tell whether he was conscious. He called out tentatively.

'Hey DiNozzo? Tony? You with me?'

'Y'know, boss,' came the response. 'I knew this mission was going to get me killed. I figured that after a couple of days in a house together maybe you'd throttle me, maybe shoot me in the head to put me out of my misery. This though, this is creative. I never in a million years thought I could die from the combined effects of poisoned tea, a blow to the head and a car crash. I have to wonder. What's next? A meteor shower? Alien invasion?'

Gibbs snorted. Even after the events of the last thirty-six hours, the kid still hasn't lost his sense of humour. Gibbs knew DiNozzo was scared – hell, they were badly injured, their kidnappers could turn up at any minute and they had no idea whether backup was three minutes or three hours away. Gibbs had served in war zones, and he was scared. He'd been in situations like this many times, but that didn't stop the fear. The key was not to allow the fear to cloud your judgement. There had been no trace of fear in DiNozzo's voice. In fact, Gibbs had been continually impressed by the way his newest agent was handling himself. Despite his initial reservations, he had no doubt that DiNozzo had definitely been the right man for his team. Blackadder wasn't half the agent this kid was, and once you got used to him, Tony was a hell of a lot easier to get along with.

'Hey DiNozzo, we need to get out of here. Are you hurt?'

'Legs and arms feel ok,' DiNozzo replied. Ribs too. Neck's a little stiff. Smacked my head on the dash on impact, but at this point, how much more damage can it do?'

Gibbs grimaced. Another blow to the head so soon after a brain injury was no laughing matter, but at least the junior agent appeared to be making sense. A small mercy.

'I'm going to need some help here,' he admitted. 'I need to you hold this branch still while I cut through it.' He pulled out his knife with his intact right arm. Tony turned and moved his arms in Gibbs' direction, but appeared to be having trouble getting hold of the branch. He remembered Tony mentioning that lack of muscular coordination was a symptom of their initial poisoning. Gibbs hoped that was all it was. He took hold of the younger man's wrist and guided it to the correct position. 'Hold tight,' he instructed. This is going to hurt me a hell of a lot more than it hurts you.

He sawed slowly through the branch, each vibration causing agonising pain to shoot through his leg, but he knew that to remove the branch completely would cause more blood loss he couldn't afford. He almost passed out again, but his determination won through, and after fifteen minutes, his leg was finally free.

'We'll get out your side,' he instructed. He watched as the younger man climbed out of the van and stood, staring vacantly into the distance. There was definitely something odd about his demeanour. Still, Gibbs could deal with that later. He crawled across the van, pausing only to grab the cell phone from the floor before climbing out to stand beside DiNozzo. His legs threatened to collapse there and then, but he willed himself to remain standing.

'We can do this,' he muttered, more to himself than to DiNozzo. He could see what he guessed was some kind of apple storage shed in the distance. They would head for that. If the worst happened, at least they would have food, and the apples could be good for stopping a few bullets. Once they were a little safer, he could call Abby and get a progress update on their backup. He slung DiNozzo's arm over his shoulder, and the two stumbled, supporting each other, towards their target. They fell several times, but each time they forced themselves to stand up and keep going. Eventually, they were rewarded.

Gibbs sighed as they sank onto the floor next to a huge pile of apples. He grabbed one and handed it to DiNozzo, who sucked thirstily at the juicy fruit. It had only been a few hours since they had topped up with water, but both of them were very dehydrated. Drugging and blood injury could do that to a man, he thought angrily. Before he indulged himself, however, he had a phone call to make. It took only a few seconds to get through to Abby.

'Gibbs! What happened? I was so worried! Is Tony ok?' came the familiar voice over the speaker.

'Calm down Abby,' I need an update on our backup,' the senior agent didn't have time to indulge the scientist.

'You're in the middle of nowhere, Gibbs. We sent out a team a couple of hours ago, but it'll take them a while to reach you. They should be there in fifteen, twenty minutes.'

'Uh Gibbs, I hear something,' Tony interrupted. The older man hadn't heard a thing, but he hadn't failed to notice the younger man's bat-like hearing back at the safehouse. Sure enough, when he glanced out through a gap between two boards, he saw three vans approaching. They were of the same design as the one he had 'borrowed' earlier.

'Tell them to step on it Abs, or they're not going to have anyone left to rescue.' He snapped the phone shut, ignoring the cry of 'Gibbs! Wait!' as he did so.

'How many?' DiNozzo asked.

'Three vans. Maybe six men if we're lucky. Could be as many as thirty.' he admitted. Until they exited the van, there was no way of telling. 'Backup's another twenty minutes away.' He suddenly remembered the two guns he had removed from their kidnappers – they were still stuffed down his socks where he had put them while he had carried DiNozzo to the van. 'Here,' he called, throwing one of the weapons towards the younger man. It hit him in the stomach.

'Ouch, you could warn a guy,' Tony complained, picking up the gun and making his way to where Gibbs was standing.

'I figured seeing the gun fly towards you would be all the warning you'd need,' Gibbs pointed out. 'I'll send you a memo next time.'

C'mon Gibbs, cut me some slack. It's too damn dark in here to see much of anything,' the younger man complained. Gibbs looked at his agent for a moment, then up at the sunlight streaming through the holes in the roof. Finally, he turned back to his agent, lifted his hand and waved it in front of DiNozzo's face.

'You can't see that?' he asked.

'I've already told you, Gibbs. It's too dark to make out more than a couple of shadows.' Gibbs shook his head.

'You couldn't have mentioned this?' he asked incredulously.

'Well Gibbs,' the younger man began sarcastically, 'I figured the complete absence of light would…' the younger man paused. 'It's too hot to be the middle of the night. It's not dark, is it?'

'No,' Gibbs confirmed.

'Crap.'

That was one word for it, Gibbs thought.