AN: Just want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have been reviewing. I can't tell you how much it means to me and I hope you continue to like the story :)

*****

Gibbs remained standing for a long moment after the door had closed. He was shaken to the core by what had just transpired. He couldn't even believe it had happened. After a very long couple of minutes, he managed to force his limbs to move. He made his way over to his agent's side and put his arm around his shoulders. The younger man looked shell-shocked and was unresponsive to Gibbs' touch. "Tony? Come on, Tony, Come over here and sit down." Gibbs voice was as gentle as if he was talking to a child as he led his agent over to the side of the wall they had been sitting at earlier. Tony obediently followed his boss and sank down to the floor as Gibbs followed suit.

Gibbs was at a loss as to what to say. He stared at Dinozzo, willing him to say something...anything at all, but the young man remained eerily silent. "I...I'm really sorry about this, Dinozzo...I..." He trailed off, unable to continue. Anything he could say would only sound trivial...empty words...useless...he was useless. He'd stood there and had been unable to do a thing as that freak injected, God only knew what, into Tony's body.

"Don't..." Dinozzo's voice was barely a whisper, so soft that Gibbs almost didn't even hear him speak.

"Don't? Don't what, Dinozzo?"

"Apologize...d...don't apologize, boss..."

"I don't know, Tony...I'd say I definitely owe you one this time. Anyhow...apologies are okay between friends."

"I just...you never apologize to me, boss..." Tony slowly pulled his knees up to his chest. "If you apologize, it means it isn't going to be okay.. so just don't do it, okay?"

"Okay, okay...I won't..."

Tony could feel his whole body trembling, He didn't think he had ever felt such pure unadulterated fear before. He wasn't at all sure how to cope with this. He had no idea how long he had to live...seconds, minutes, hours, days...the not knowing when or how the drug would affect him was just as frightening as the fear of death itself. He wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face, partly to try to comfort himself and partly to hide the tears which were welling in his eyes beyond his control. "I wish we could get to Ducky and Abby," he said with a hitch in his voice. He knew they would move heaven and earth to try to save him, but he doubted they would ever get the chance to do so.

*****

Abby frowned as her umpteenth call to Gibbs went unanswered. This was so unlike him, especially when she had answers on some key evidence, information needed to tie up the loose ends on Tony's undercover case. Tony wasn't answering his calls either, but he had looked so wiped out last night that it was possible Gibbs had given him the day off. Frustrated, Abby decided to call McGee. "McGee!" she shrieked when he answered the phone. "Where's Gibbs?"

"Don't know. He and Tony aren't here yet." McGee replied.

"And you don't think that's strange?" she asked as she took a big gulp of her Caf Pow. "What's wrong with you, Tim? You know Gibbs is never late and he definitely wouldn't be this late without letting you know."

"Yeah...yeah, you're right," Tim replied slowly as the reality of the situation finally began to hit home. He'd been too happy about his own lateness being undiscovered that he hadn't even considered Gibbs and Dinozzo could possibly be in trouble. "Ziva and I will get right on it. I'll let you know what we find out."

"You find them, Timmy," Abby pleaded. She knew she could be totally overreacting but she had a really bad feeling about this. "Find them and bring them back safely."

*****

Sheldon followed along behind Bellingam, but his mind was definitely not on his boss or following his orders. He had been frankly bored when Bellingam ranted about the loss of his daughter and wife. He could see how that would be upsetting, but he really didn't get how it was Gibbs' fault. A job was a job though and he went where the money was. That Dinozzo guy had been annoying the crap out of him, but then Bellingham had started talking about his rich daddy and his irritation had changed to fascination. Bellingham might not need the money, but he sure as hell did. Maybe he ought to think about getting in touch with Mr. Anthony Dinozzo, Sr.

*****

Tony had gradually drifted off to sleep. When he had first done so, Gibbs had just about had heart failure, fearing the young man had died, but the steady rise and fall of his chest had reassured him. Tony's breathing remained quiet and even and he didn't appear to be in any distress. Every so often, Gibbs would lightly feel Tony's forehead, but so far it remained cool with no evidence of fever. "I know you don't want me to apologize, Dinozzo," Gibbs whispered, "But, I can't help feeling responsible for getting you into this mess. It should have been me who got that injection, not you." The fact that he, himself, was just as much a victim as Dinozzo did nothing to assuage his feelings of guilt. Tony was his agent, a valued member of his team, and it was up to Gibbs to protect him. He had miserably failed in that regard.

Eventually, Gibbs nodded off. After only about 15 minutes or so, he awoke with a start, cursing himself for falling asleep when he needed to be watching over Dinozzo. He turned his eyes toward his agent and was unnerved to see him sitting, backed up against the wall as far as he could go, with a look of pure terror on his face. He approached Tony cautiously. "Dinozzo? Tony, what's wrong?" he asked softly, as he lightly grasped his shoulder. For the most part, Dinozzo always appeared fearless, displaying a cocky bravado. To see him like this was more than a little bit unsettling. "Are you in pain?"

Dinozzo shook his head. "Get...get it away from me, boss...shoot it, kill it...please boss.." His breathing quickened and became erratic as his gaze was fixed on the biggest, ugliest spider he had ever seen, except maybe in a horor movie. It was very large, over a foot long, brown and covered in fine hair and it was slowly creeping towards him. Tony tried to back away further, but was impeded by the wall. "Boss...please do something," he begged with a tremor in his voice.

Gibbs stared at the blank wall Tony was fixated on and could only imagine what Tony was seeing to terrify him this way. "Tony...Dinozzo, look at me," Gibbs demanded sharply. "Come on, Dinozzo...that's an order. Look at me!"

Tony shifted his eyes towards his boss, but his distress only increased as he did so. "God, there's another one, boss. It's coming up behind you. You need to do something."

"Dinozzo": Gibbs gently seized the younger man's chin and turned his head so their eyes met. "Tony, there's nothing there."

"Yes, there is...yes there is," he insisted. "They're right there. I can see them, plain as day."

"Its the drug, Tony. Its messing with your mind," Gibbs explained patiently, trying to get his agent back in reality. "You're just hallucinating...I promise you, there's nothing there."

"Its not the drug...its not..."

Gibbs could feel his heart wrench at the panic-stricken look on Tony's face. He wanted to rip Bellingham from limb-to-limb over what he had done to him. "Listen, Tony,,," you trust me, don't you?" he asked coaxingly.

Tony nibbled on his lip for a moment before nodding hesitantly. "Yeah...yeah, you know I trust you, boss," he murmured.

"Okay then...I want you to close your eyes."

Tony shook his head frantically. "No."

"Come on, Tony...It'll be alright. I promise."

Tony looked back at Gibbs, doubt written all over his face.

"Its okay," Gibbs soothed. He gently placed his hand on Tony's forehead and moved it slowly down over Tony's eyes. "Just close your eyes and rest, Tony." Overwrought from all he was going through and with a last look at the spiders that were terrorizing him so badly, Tony allowed his eyes to close. It only took a few minutes for the exhaustion to catch up with him and he was once again asleep.

*****

"Gibbs' car is here," Tim commented as Ziva pulled up in front of his house. The two agents got out of the car and approached the vehicle, keeping their eyes open for anything that appeared amiss. McGee tried the driver's side door of the car and found it locked as Ziva did the same with the passenger side door. They then peered into the windows but nothing looked suspicious.

"Come on, let's check out the house," Ziva said. They walked towards the house and made their way to the front door. "Are we going to break in?" McGee asked. He knew they had to get in there but somehow the idea of breaking into Gibbs' home seemed wrong to him. Just then, his cell phone rang and Abby's name flashed onto the caller ID. "Hey Abby, what's up?"

"Tim, Tony's car is still here in the garage," Abby replied. "He must have left with Gibbs last night."

"We're at Gibbs' house now. His car is here. We're about to go into the house."

"Okay. Keep me posted."

Tim clicked off with Abby and turned his attention to Ziva who, it turned out, had just picked the lock to Gibbs' front door. "Come on, McGee...let's go in." Weapons drawn, the two entered the house. A thorough search turned up empty-handed and the two headed back outside.

"Why don't we canvas the neighborhood," McGeee suggested. "Maybe someone saw something that can help,"

Ziva nodded and the two set out to try to find some clue to Giibbs' and Dnozzzo's whereabouts.

*****

Tony slept for a little over an hour before he began to stir and opened his eyes. It took him a few moments to get his bearings but then he remembered everything that had happened.

"Hey Dinozzo, how are you doing?" Gibbs studied his agent closely. He was very pale and the dark circles under his eyes were becoming more pronounced. He just looked generally unwell.

"I'm doing okay....just really thirsty," Tony replied. His lips were bone dry and his throat parched. He'd give just about anything for an ice cold glass of water. "Guess Bellingham won't be giving us anything to drink..."

Gibbs shrugged. "I'll try to get him to give us some next time he comes in here."

Tony sighed, "Doesn't really matter...he'd probably just drug it anyway."

Do you remember what happened?"

"Yeah...kinda hard to forget.. Saw some really butt ugly, big ass spiders." He shuddered involuntarily. "God, boss...they were so real..."

"I'm sure they were." Gibbs reached over and felt Tony's forehead once again then frowned. "You feel a little warm."

Irritated, Tony shoved Gibbs' hand away from him. "Leave me alone. I'm fine."

Gibbs just stared back at Tony, but didn't say a word.

"What?" Tony asked defiantly. "Aren't you going to headslap me? You know you want to."

Gibbs sighed. "I'm not going to hit you, Dinozzo."

"Why not?" Tony challenged. He knew he was behaving unreasonably but he couldn't seem to stop himself. His emotions were all over the place. "Because you think I'm sick? Because you think I'm going to die?"

Gibbs shook his head. This whole situation was really getting to him. He wanted to kick and scream and pound Bellingham into oblivion. But instead, he had to sit in this damn room and try to keep his wits about him, pretending that everything was going to be alright, when he and Dinozzo both knew it was anything but alright. "I don't think you're going to die, Dinozzo." He stared back at the young man meaningfully then very lightly tapped his head. "You are not going to die."