Tony sighed as he flipped through his magazine, looking at all the costumes from Halloween Express, he still didn't know what he wanted to be for Halloween and it was only two days away now. "There is absolutely nothing catching my eye this year…" Tony said sadly as he tossed the magazine haphazardly on his desk.
"Well, have you had any original ideas?" Ellie asked as she came over to Tony's desk and lifted the magazine, flipping through the pages slowly.
Tony nodded slightly "Thought about stealing Jethro's old marine uniform… But, he said that that's what he's wearing to the party." Tony said sadly as he tapped his fingers on his desk "Then I thought about doing Detective DiNozzo, but… My hair isn't long enough for that anymore." Tony said, sighing as he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Why not go as Ezio Auditore? Or Robin hood? They're both great costumes." Ellie said, turning the magazine around and pointing at both costumes.
Tony looked at the magazine and shook his head "Me and tights, really El? I will look absolutely ridiculous! Almost as bad as McGee in a dress!" Tony stated, laughing humorlessly as he sat up again and pressed his elbows against the desk.
"Count Dracula? Without tights – Slacks would work… OR an Italian mobster! You'd be perfect for that, I mean, you already have the Italian thing going for you… And with your background in undercover work… Mobster would be easy." Ellie said as she set the magazine down, grinning down at Tony.
Tony raised an eyebrow, rubbing his chin between his index finger and thumb "Mobster…" Tony thought out loud, a slow grin spreading across his face, "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." Tony said, lowering and rasping his voice slightly to sound like Vito Corleone, flaring his Italian accent out perfectly.
Ellie giggled as she nodded her head "It's damn believable Tony, I think you should do it… And you have so many good suits to make it work!" Ellie exclaimed, grinning widely.
"All right, you proved your point. You broke into my vault. Congratulations, you're a dead man." Tony said as he slowly stood up, swaggering away from his desk with a grin.
Ellie continued giggling "Okay… One more! Then we should get back to work before Gibbs' has my head and your-… never mind." Ellie said, blushing a crimson red.
"I'm not mad, I'm proud o' ya! You took your first pinch like a man, and you learned the two greatest things in life… Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut!" Tony said, whirling around and pinning Ellie with a dazzling, full-DiNozzo grin.
Ellie laughed as she walked back to her desk, "You have a line for pretty much everything someone says to you, don't you?" Ellie asked as she sat down.
"I respectfully decline to answer because I honestly believe my answer might tend to incriminate me." Tony stated as he sat back down at his desk and grinned slightly.
"Was that even from a movie?" Ellie asked curiously.
Tony shrugged slightly "Can't remember… Joey Gallo from the Profaci crime family in New York City said it… Not sure if it was from the movie Crazy Joe, or just a random quote that was said by him in the past…" Tony said, raising an eyebrow as he turned to his computer and tapped randomly at the keys.
Ellie sighed slightly as she rested her chin on her palm "Do you have a specific quote you'd use for you and Gibbs?" Ellie asked, batting her eyelashes slightly.
Tony nodded, "There is a line you cross, and you don't never come back from. Point of no return. Dave crossed it. I'm here with him. That means I am going along for the ride. The whole ride. All the way to the end of the line, wherever that is." Tony said, sighing slightly as he shook his head "Of course, Dave can be substituted for myself or Jethro, but I thought if I gave you the direct quote, you'd know the movie?" Tony asked curiously.
Ellie nodded her head slowly "Carlito? Carlito's way?" Ellie asked, grinning slightly. Tony laughed as he nodded his head and turned back to his computer, a permanent smile on his face as they returned back to their work.
Two nights later, Gibbs and Tony stood outside of the large estate where the Halloween party was being hosted this year, they stared up the height of the house, "I don't know about this Jethro… I'm starting to get that creepy crawly feeling." Tony said as he crossed his arms over his stomach.
Gibbs sighed as he placed his arms over Tony's waist, "Nothing to worry about – It's just a party… Nothing is going to happen." Gibbs said as he kissed Tony gently on the back of the neck.
Tony shook his head as he extracted himself from Gibbs' arms and headed towards the house slowly and cautiously "Yeah, you said that about the haunted pub crawl… Look where that left us." Tony said, rolling his eyes as he opened the front door slowly.
A cold chill ran up Tony's back as the door creaked open eerily, Gibbs sighed as he set his hand on Tony's shoulder "Relax Tony… I've got your six." Gibbs said softly as he walked into the front entry hall with Tony in front of him, still holding the younger man's shoulder.
"Tony! Gibbs! You guys are here finally!" Abby exclaimed as she bounded over to the men, giving them both a rather mundane squeeze and a gentle kiss on their cheeks, "I'd hug you harder, but I don't want to break my nails… They took forever to stick on!" Abby said, lifting her hands and curling her hands like a cat would, letting out a cat-like hiss – She was after all, dressed up as a 'skeletal cat'.
Tony nodded as he looked around the dark interior of the house, "Yeah… Yep, we're here." Tony squeaked out, his hand curling around Gibbs' wrist tightly.
Gibbs shook his head as he extracted his wrist from Tony's iron-like grip and turned to face the younger man "There are nine of us here, Tony – Seven of which are trained in combat, eight if you include yourself. Nothing is going to happen to you! Now calm the hell down and just relax!" Gibbs said in his no-nonsense 'bosses' voice.
Tony nodded slowly "Got it, boss." Tony said without thought as he straightened himself up, and plastered on a 'masked' goofball grin as he took charge and headed through the black double doors, the group trailing behind him.
As the group continued walking through the 'haunted house' Tony continually fell behind, his eyes constantly searching the area around him, his entire body was covered in goosebumps, jumping at each sound that wasn't a part of the elaborate house.
After a while, Gibbs turned around, "Where the hell did Tony go?" Gibbs asked, looking over the heads of his team and glancing past them.
"Maybe he went outside? You know how he is with haunted houses…" McGee questioned, turning around and looking down the dark corridor that everyone was standing in.
Gibbs shook his head slowly "Doubt it, he would have told me… Or at least texted someone – Everyone check your phones." Gibbs stated as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over to Ellie. Everyone else pulled their phones from their pockets, shaking their heads, saying that they hadn't received a message from Tony.
Gibbs growled as he clenched his fists together "Alright – Tim, you take Ned and Annie and head back down the hall. Ellie and Abby you're with me. Keith, you take Carolyn and head down that other hall we passed. Palmer, you go find the director and the owner of this damn place and get the lights turned on. I want Tony found!" Gibbs bellowed as he turned abruptly on his heels and headed off down another corridor, with Ellie and Abby trying to keep up with him.
"Where do you think he went, boss man?" Abby asked as she practically ran to keep up with the older man.
Gibbs scowled slightly as he continued flexing his fists tightly "I don't know Abs! But I damn sure plan on finding out, and when I do, I'm going to kill him!" Gibbs growled as he continued forging ahead, ignoring the worried glances going on between the two women.
Palmer skidded to a halt in the main dining room, "Director! We've got a major-huge-big problem!" Palmer announced as he stood in front of Vance and the curator of the house.
"Well, what's the problem Mr. Palmer?" Vance asked, raising his eyebrow as he looked the young medical examiner up and down slowly.
"Tony has gone missing somewhere in the house – Gibbs is on a manhunt rampage looking for him… We need the lights turned back on so they can see what they're doing!" Palmer said quickly, looking frantically between the curator and director.
The curator sighed as he moved to the switchboard panel on the dining table, he pressed several buttons and the lights slowly went from barely lit to fully bright, "I do hope you find the young man… Is there anything else I can do to possibly help?" the curator asked, looking between the two men.
"Do you have blueprints to the house? Or anything we can go off of?" Vance asked curiously, sticking a plastic toothpick in between his teeth.
The curator nodded as he walked over to a desk in the corner of the room, he pulled out a tightly rolled blue paper and spread it out on the desk, pinning the corners down with paper-weights "It's the original blueprints to the home, so this should give you a good idea of all the old structures that may have been blocked off a long time ago." The curator stated.
Vance nodded as he walked over to the desk and stared down at the blueprints "Mr. Palmer, call Gibbs and tell him we have blueprints to the house, that is, if they haven't found Tony yet." Vance said, looking over his shoulder at the younger man. Palmer nodded as he pulled out his cellphone and dialed Gibbs' number and placing the phone to his ear.
McGee sighed as he stood in the front hallway, "Okay so, we're back at the beginning… And we didn't see any clues that would lead us to Tony…" McGee said glumly as he leaned against the wall.
"Perhaps we should go outside and check the grounds? Maybe he went outside and got lost, and doesn't have cell reception?" Ned suggested as he looked at the front door.
McGee shrugged as he pulled out a small Maglite from his back pocket and headed outside with Annie and Ned trailing behind him "Alright, we'll split up and report back at the front door in ten minutes – Everyone have a flashlight and some sort of weapon?" McGee asked, turning to look at his two colleagues.
Ned and Annie both nodded as they pulled out similar Maglite flashlights and pocket knives, "Good, alright let's find Tony before Gibbs decides to kill all of us." McGee stated as he headed in one direction, Ned and Annie taking two other directions.
Keith sighed as he stood in one of the bedrooms, his hands rested on his hips "This is so weird…" Keith stated as he looked at Carolyn who was standing across the hall in another bedroom.
"How does a six-foot-two, two-hundred-twenty pound man just vanish into thin air?!" Carolyn asked, her brows knitting together angrily.
Keith shrugged as he walked back into the hallway "I don't know, but at least the lights are on now, so if we see anything out of the ordinary…" Keith said as he and Carolyn continued walking down the hall together.
"And what exactly are we going to see Keith? This house – despite all the decorations – is immaculate. Not a thing out of place anywhere… Except this crooked picture…" Carolyn said as she stood in front of the picture, slowly adjusting it to its proper position.
A loud creaking noise echoed down the cavernous hall, making both Carolyn and Keith jump as they looked around the hallway, noticing a section of the wall had opened up at the far end of the hall "Uh… Okay, that was weird… Feels like we just stepped into an episode of Scooby Doo…" Keith said as he cautiously walked towards the opening in the wall.
Carolyn shook her head as she grabbed her flashlight and turned it on, shining it into the dark opening "We should call the team – What if Tony is down there, and he's hurt or something? If we found Tony and didn't tell Gibbs about what we found… He'd skin us alive, for sure." Carolyn stated as she took a tentative step into the dark room.
Keith nodded as he withdrew his cellphone "Yeah, I'll call him, and you go down there and see what it is!" Keith exclaimed as he turned away from the wall and back down the hallway a few steps to call Gibbs.
Gibbs exhaled shakily as he leaned against the dead-end wall, "That's it… We've searched the entire third floor of this house, and Tony isn't anywhere… I've lost him… I… I can't believe I lost him…" Gibbs said quietly, running a shaky hand through his hair.
"Oh Gibbs! You haven't lost him! We just… haven't found him yet!" Abby exclaimed sadly as she leaned against Gibbs, resting her head on his slumped shoulder.
"Yeah boss, we'll find him – This house isn't that big!" Ellie chimed in, trying to lighten the sullen mood of her boss and closest friend.
Everyone nearly jumped out of their skins when Gibbs' cellphone rang for the second time, "Yeah, Gibbs." Gibbs answered his phone quickly and curtly "Alright, we're on our way… No, just stay outside and wait for us damn it!" Gibbs barked into the phone and quickly hung up, high-tailing it down the hall.
Ellie and Abby both sighed noisily as they chased after Gibbs down the several halls and stairs leading to the floor below where Carolyn and Keith were located.
The entire MCRT and Vance stood in front of the dark opening in the wall, Vance with the blueprint in his hands, "This isn't even in the blueprints… What the hell?" Vance growled as he rolled the paper up and tossed it onto the floor.
Gibbs sighed as he twisted his flashlight in his hands "I don't care if it's on the blueprints or not, we need to find Tony, Leon… and if he's down there…" Gibbs said, shining his light down the rickety wooden stairs "We… We just need to find him." Gibbs stated as he forged past his team and took the first three steps, grimacing as each step screamed in protest of Gibbs' footfalls.
The team all carefully walked behind Gibbs, everyone had their hand on anothers shoulder as they traversed down the winding wooden stairs "Jesus… How far down do these stairs go?" McGee asked as he flashed his light downward, gulping at the endless darkness that stared back up at him.
"Feels like we walking into Frankenstein's Lab… Geez… Tony would love that!" Keith exclaimed, then frowned as soon as the words came out of his mouth "Sorry boss… I didn't... I wasn't thinking." Keith said sheepishly.
Gibbs shook his head slowly "Tony doesn't like Frankenstein anyway… Thinks it was one of the thirties worst film ideas…" Gibbs said sullenly as they went around another circle of wooden steps, each step creaking and cracking worse than the last.
Once the team got to the bottom of the winding staircase, they all looked at the cement wall staring back at them – it was a large room, that was completely barren – "Okay… Well… This house has already proven to us that it has hidden mysteries within its depths… so spread out, find anything that looks even remotely out of place… Tug, push, rip… Do whatever you have too to see if anything budges…" Gibbs stated as he went to one corner of the room.
Everyone else split up and began searching the walls with their hands, occasional blocks of cinder chipping off and falling to the ground. After an hour of searching the cavernous room "I GOT SOMETHING!" McGee shouted from his end of the room.
Everyone ran to McGee's location and watched expectantly as McGee pulled a single brick from the wall, a loud mechanical gear started churning somewhere in the room, and then a few seconds later, the room was flooded with an eerie red light, everyone gasped as they stared into the room as it was opened up to them.
Quotes from this chapter were from the following:
The Godfather - Vito Corleone
Ocean's Eleven - Terry Benedict
Goodfellas - Jimmy Conway
Carlito's Way - Carlito
Joey Gallo (Unsure if it was in the movie or not, never seen it)
Oh and by the way, BAM! How was that for a halloween thriller? ;) Second part coming soon, hold onto your hats boys and girls, it's going to be a bumpy ride! MWAHAHAHA... Sucks it's not halloween, would have made a great story to post around halloween... Oh well, there's always one-shots!
