AN: Thank you again, all the people who weren't logged in.

Apologies for not much Tony , but everyone's talking about him!

Cowboy Tony Rides Again

Chapter 8

Ziva put a finger in one ear, in order to hear the voice on the phone that was clamped to the other, as a convoy of vehicles drove off with the arrestees from both dams. A driver decided to use his siren, and the other two cars joined in. Fornell, watching from the doorway, rolled his eyes.

"I understand. Thank you, Mary." Ziva disconnected, and looked at the others. "Mary and Adam have followed the ambulance," she told them. "Gibbs has taken Doris home, at Tony's insistence."

"He's OK, then?"

"I do not know, Tim. But clearly he is conscious. Simon has gone to be checked out as well."

Ty grimaced. "I could have killed them both," he said harshly. "If I could have maybe opened the sluice more slowly... but it only has one speed... what could I -"

"Mr. Frodsham," Ziva said, "From what Agent McGee has told me, you had absolutely no choice. You could not let them hurt a child; there was no other possible action. Do not blame yourself for what was forced on you – the one at fault is the one who gave the order. And he has just commenced the long process of paying for it."

Ty found the Mossad officer's formal way of speaking intriguing, and she made her last remark sound like a judge handing down a ninety-nine year sentence, which mesmerised the engineer so much he forgot his misplaced guilt. Ziva caught Tim's impressed, eyebrows-raised grin, but was quite puzzled as to what she'd done to deserve it.

Fornell turned back towards them, jerking his head towards the departing police cars. "Same old story... They're peeved that feds have come along and taken over. Attempted murder of a Federal Agent, and a former member of the services, to say nothing of attempted manipulation of a Federal Authority – nice work digging out those accords, McGee – makes it our business. They'll hold them in town until I can get them picked up." His tone actually softened a little. "So, DiNozzo's OK?"

"We think so."

"Hmmph. What sort of mood's Gibbs in? And who's Doris?"

"I have not spoken to Gibbs; he gave Simon his cell phone. I will call the Frames if you wish." Poor Tobias looked blank. "Doris is Tony's horse, and the Frames are friends of his, who run the riding establishment where he keeps her."

"Tony's horse. DiNozzo has a horse," Fornell said heavily.

"She was instrumental in the rescue," Ziva said cheerfully, enjoying the look on their favourite adversary, or was that colleague's face. "And when he has attended to her, Gibbs will take Tony's car to the hospital. We should go there too, unless you wish us to give statements now."

"I'm sure if you email me copies of your reports that'll do fine," Tobias said. "Agents Sacks and Rawdon will take statements from Mr. Frodsham and Mr. Hawkes, and, er -"

"Ross Macklin," Joel supplied. "He's walking the lake perimeters right now, checking... he'll be down soon. He found that plank, floating at the top end of Old Lake – he pulled it out, and we can collect it later with the truck if you want it as evidence. He found a a whole cuff of Tony's shirt caught in it, so there's no doubt it's the right plank – not that we'd expect to find two railway sleepers in our lake on the same day."

Fornell actually smiled. "Good thinking. Not the weirdest evidence I've ever had, but comes close. OK, Sacks can decide how to take charge of that. Guess I'll go to the hospital and take statements from Ms. Lesniak and the Townleys, then we're all done and I can go -" His phone shrilled. He listened, and frowned. "Where?" He looked around for something to write on, and Joel pushed a FDA ball-point and a notepad towards him. "OK... yeah... no, tell them to do nothing." He put his phone back in his pocket with a grunt of anger, and everyone else looked at him curiously.

"Something is wrong, Agent Fornell?" Ziva asked.

"Our friendly neighbourhood LEOs... spotted someone who looked like our three that got away, at a service station near Duet. They went in there with a lot of sirens and shouting; the upshot is the guys are inside with the counter clerk as hostage. They sound thoroughly nervous and spooked apparently..."

"Damn," Tim said. "I was rather hoping to go to the hospital... never mind. Will you tell Gibbs we'll be there soon?"

Both Tobias and Ziva looked at him in some surprise, and the truth was, his decisiveness surprised him; but only a little... what else would Gibbs – or Tony – expect of him?

"I'll do that," Fornell said amenably.

"Keep us posted," Ty added.

Tim nodded. Outside, he took his life in his hands. "You drive," he told Ziva.

NCISNCISNCIS

Four riders coming up the trail... all experienced horsemen by the looks of them. Gibbs didn't recognise anyone, but he did recognise Jezebel, the red-head mare who'd tried to give him a hard time. He moved over, but they pulled up and exchanged greetings. Gibbs saw that the man riding Jezebel was looking at Doris curiously, and he raised an enquiring eyebrow. The man grinned. "No offence... but that's surely Tony's horse. She doesn't let just anyone ride her... nor does Amos. Or DiNozzo."

Gibbs wondered how to answer, and patted Doris's neck while he thought. "I work with DiNozzo... he got caught up in something else, asked me to take Doris home. She and I are old friends, aren't we, girl." The mare huffed amiably, and they all went on their respective ways again. "You're something else, Doris... you don't let just anybody ride you, but you waded into a raging river because I asked you to. And somehow, the way you came down that trail... it was to save Tony. You trusted me to do that." He shook his head... he was getting worse than DiNozzo for flights of fancy.

But she was steadfast, just like he was, and Gibbs was lucky to know them both...

Had he done right? He'd wanted to give him space; he'd seen the lost look in his SFA's eyes as he stood in that baby's room, and then he'd overdone it with the Heidi thing. Dammit, when he'd heard DiNozzo say how much he was going to hate that job, he'd taken a perverse pleasure in giving it to him anyway – that'd teach him to take Jenny's orders over his... Dammit again, what choice did Tony have? Why wasn't he on Jenny's case, not Tony's? And as for giving him space... Why hadn't he dragged him home last night and got him drunk? Been there for him?

"Aahhh, shit..." He hadn't realised he'd spoken aloud until he saw a brown ear rotate towards him. "I can't win, Doris... if I had done, a whole town would be dead right now! And that's supposed to make me feel better."

The Morgan's shod hooves clattered on the cobbled stone as she moved from the track onto the yard, and Sally emerged almost at once from the tack room. "So now are you going to explain, To-"

She stopped stock still, and stared at Gibbs for a long moment, then let out a long-held breath. "He got hurt again, didn't he."

Gibbs slid out of the saddle, and Sally's experienced eyes took in the water marks, on the leather, the riders jeans, and in Doris's brown coat. On the point of asking (demanding with a side order of accusing, she told Amos later,) what happened, she saw the weariness and distress on the Marine's face, and waited.

"Can we fix Doris first, Miz Frame? I promised Tony I would."

They unsaddled her, and rubbed her down in almost silence, only speaking to fuss her, until Sally asked softly about the water mark.

"She was a heroine," Gibbs told her. "She might be a bit unsettled after it all..."

Sally nodded thoughtfully. "We'll turn her out with Bugs and Elmer," she said. "They're as steady as rocks, and they love her." She gathered a pocketful of apples, and Gibbs and Doris both followed her meekly down to the far paddock, where a great big bay mule with buck teeth let out a bray of welcome. Another mule looked up, but it was clear from the way he cocked his head to one side that his eyes weren't worth relying on much. When Doris snorted a greeting, he sloped over to the gate, and she went in and greeted her friends. "People don't want to ride mules," Sally said, "It ruins their street cred... their loss, these two are the best there are." After the apples were handed out the three ambled off.

"She'll be fine," Sally said, carefully studying the mare as she moved away. "She's been used to not seeing him for long periods at a time, and she deals with it... but she's never happier than when he's around. She loves him, you see... we all do. Now, Special Agent Gibbs, tell me what happened... and explain to me why, as long as I've known him, that boy has been pretending he wasn't in pieces on the inside."

The first part was easy; Sally Frame's emotions went from incredulity to fury to anxiety to admiration, although she listened in silence as the agent told the story of the day's events. "Last I saw they were on their way to hospital, doin' OK." He paused. "The other thing... don't know where to start. He's never said anything?"

He was alarmed to see tears welling up in Sally's eyes. "Miz Frame?"

"No," she said shakily, and there was a world of bewilderment and frustration in that one word. "Special Agent Gibbs, it's as clear as day, even if your eyesight's only as good as Elmer's, that the boy needs more love than an adolescent Labrador... what has his life been that he'll only dare accept it from a horse?"

A lot of things fell into place for Gibbs at that point, and the emotions that fought for priority on a face she'd always considered impassive, made Sally Frame's breath catch in her throat. "Ah," she said finally. "I see I've asked a loaded question. I need a good answer or none at all, and you haven't the time – you need to be there for him, at the hospital." She sighed. "Amos has gone with one of the trail rides – too many inexperienced riders to send out by themselves. If I don't hear from you we'll come as soon as we can after he gets back. I need to know, Gibbs; we can't go on like this."

"A good answer or none at all..." Gibbs sighed. He momentarily debated refusing to talk about his agent behind his back, he'd already had this particular conversation once today; but he saw Sally's point, and steeled himself to reply. "He raised himself, Miz Frame... without love from anyone. The neglect he endured bordered on abuse." He left out the whole Wendy thing, which just made things worse after all. "He... fell in love... got in too deep, lost her... it was never going to happen any other way, but he risked everything because he needed her... I'll tell you what I can if he'll let me, but it's his story."

"Any other way – this was a case? She was a criminal?" Sally was outraged. "What sort of job -"

"No... she wasn't. We signed up for this job, Miz Frame – doesn't make it any easier... And you're right, I need to be there for him. I'll... talk to you later, if you come there."

"Oh, we'll be there. Get gone, and look after him."

NCISNCISNCIS

Ziva was still driving, a lot slower than she had been earlier, as Tim sat silently in the passenger seat. Both were deep in thought.

Tim was hearing Tony's voice in his mind saying solemnly, "W.W.G.D., McGee?" Hell, Tony, it worked!

Ziva was wondering how the Probie had marched up to the cop in charge of a siege, told him what orders to give his men to contain the scene, and talked three nervy, out of their depth young men into giving up their guns and their hostage, instead of dying in a hail of bullets.

"You come any nearer, we'll shoot him!"

"You know you don't mean that. And I really wouldn't if I were you... you do realise that you're only alive as long as he is? If he dies, the officers will start shooting... and my partner, she's Mossad, she doesn't miss... and if any of you survive, you'll end up in Gitmo."

"Gitmo?" The voice rose an octave with horror

Tim had spread his arms and taken another step towards the store front, while Ziva ground her teeth, as she rested the rifle from the trunk of their sedan on the roof of a police car. "Tim," she hissed, "there is no need to test whether or not your vest will work!" Tim had feigned not to hear.

"Eames... the guy who hired you... you don't know who hired you, do you? He's under arrest, along with your three friends... we know he chose you for your ethnic group... he was planning to whisper the word 'terrorist'..."

"We're not terrorists!"

"I know. Just make sure everyone else does. Throw your guns out, and let Mr. Choi walk out unharmed."

It had been that simple, and Tim still couldn't believe it... and the odd thing was, he was thinking, 'Tony would be proud of me', not 'Gibbs'. W.W.T.D...

Ziva drove gently, her nerves as rattled as his... each step he'd taken closer to the store, had brought him nearer to the range of the handguns – and the hands they were in were rash and unpredictable. But she also knew that seeing the negotiator had been better for them than simply hearing an anonymous voice from a bull-horn... it was the sort of thing Gibbs would do... or Tony...

"You did well, Tim," she broke the silence eventually.

He shrugged. "Loud-hailers... flashing blue lights... just the thing to calm down guys who'd bitten off more than they could chew. And before you lecture me, they'd have had a job shooting me from that range."

"But what if they had had a rifle?"

"I was trusting you to deal with that, Ziva."

"Oh."

His phone buzzed. "Simon? Yeah... why? Ah... OK." He disconnected and looked at his driver. "You can speed up, Ziva. We need to be at the hospital. Tony's not doing so well."

NCISNCISNCIS

There was a drip in Tony's arm, and an oxygen mask over his face, and the EMTs had propped the end of the gurney so he was half sitting up. They were trying to persuade Simon to accept the same treatment, but Tony's eyes held his, full of urgency. "No mask," he said softly, although he held his left arm out. If it made them happy to give him saline, fine. He sat on the end of Tony's gurney however, giving the female EMT a pleading look. "I'll lie down when we start to move... this is important."

A muffled agreement came from under Tony's mask.

"Not Gibbs' fault, huh? A year ago I wouldn't have believed you," Simon told him.

"Year ago... wouldn't have... bothered to say it."

"Don't make him talk," the EMT said reproachfully, but both men shook their heads.

"So..."

"Saying it now... not Gibbs. Made peace. A girl..."

"Ah."

"Yeah... ah. Don't... let Mary get away... not disloyal... to Jess, and... Adam likes her..." There, he'd said what he needed to say. Underneath the mask Tony's mouth lifted in a smile at the astonishment on Simon's face, but that was it... his eyes fluttered shut again.

"Mr. Townley, we need to get moving."

Simon lay reluctantly down and let them strap him in, and Tony didn't wake up again on the short journey to the emergency room.

NCISNCISNCIS

Gibbs drove slowly towards the small hospital in Appelt, the low grumble of the Mustang a background to his thoughts. He needed to be there for Tony, but he needed to sort out a few things before he saw him.

He recalled his odd feeling of embarrassment at the idea of a horse trusting him... expecting something from him... the sort of story he might have told Kelly, but since he lost her, flights of fancy had no joy for him, and expressing his emotions was next to impossible. Sally's tears, and her simple statement... she loves him.. we all do... had moved him, caused him pain on her account; but it had still been unbearably difficult to try and say anything.

He and DiNozzo were opposite sides of the same coin... he'd say nothing, while Tony said far too much, just to avoid having to say the things that mattered.

He didn't tell me... because he knew I'd put a stop to it with Jen... and he'd lose Jeanne. And he went in deeper and deeper... of course he thought it through, but he kept hoping he could make it work, no matter how impossible it seemed. Like I told Sally Frame, it could only end one way, with Tony the loser anyhows.

I remember how I felt... so why didn't I understand just where Tony is right now? He needs more than I gave –

He winced at his own thoughts from earlier, up at New Dam – broken hearted doesn't vanish overnight. He sighed, not for the first time that day. The missing infant had taken a huge priority over everything; he was always the same when a child was involved... and that was right too – who did children have to defend them if the adults were less than whole-hearted?

He brought the Mustang gently to a stop. The case was done... now it was time to give the child-man who brought himself up the same dedication. Open your mouth, Jethro, and just say it...

He went in search of the emergency department, pulling in his horns with every step he took; throwing his weight around and demanding instant answers, wasn't going to help Tony, even if it relieved his feelings. He was about to make his way to the nurses' station, when he saw a familiar figure sitting hunched on a chair in the waiting area; Simon Townley was dressed in scrubs and a hospital robe, and had a drip slung from one of those cumbersome poles that patients had to push round with them. His clasped hands dangled between his knees, and his head was down. He looked neither well nor happy. Gibbs went and sat opposite him.

"Hey... how're ya doing?"

He looked up and answered obliquely, "I can go when the drip's run... Mary and Adam have gone to get me some clothes. I'm fine." He looked Gibbs in the eyes. "Tony... not so good."

TBC

AN: Is Gibbs too vocal? In his thoughts?