A/N:

CINDERELLA Revisited

Chapter Seventeen

Previously

The elevator dinged its arrival and Gibbs and McGee looked up expecting Tony. Ziva studiously ignored it all. What they saw though was a beautiful, tall, dark haired woman with a frown of worry on her face being escorted to MCRT by security.

"Margret?" Tim jumped from his seat to meet her halfway. "Oh, Tim. I was hoping he would be here. Her hands were trembling.

"Margret, what are you doing here?"

"Agent Gibbs. Have you seen Tony?"

"Tony? No he hasn't come in yet. Margret, tell us what happened."

Gibbs no nonsense voice had a calming effect on her beginning panic. Tony had the utmost trust in this man. He would figure this out. McGee led her to his chair where she sat and filled them in. Both Gibbs and Ziva were now standing at McGee's desk.

"He went for a run this morning around 5 a.m. We were supposed to go for breakfast when he came back. I waited but he never came back. His car is still there. He took his wallet and phone but left his gun and keys. I've tried calling but there's no answer just a voice message." She was visibly upset but composed trying to include everything she could remember.

"McGee?" Ziva had remained stoically observant but had run out of patience. Again, she felt left out. Everyone knew this woman but her. Tony had never mentioned her, not a word, no bragging, nothing. Even when she, Ziva, was throwing herself at him. That to her meant he was not really serious about this Margret but was getting what he could from her before dropping her.

"Oh, sorry, Ziva. Margret, this is Agent David. Ziva, Tony's girlfriend Margret."

Tim strode around Margret to his computer and started typing. "I got a signal boss...stationary about three miles from his house." He grabbed his gear even before Gibbs', 'grab your gear'.

Vance was coming down the stairs with some folders and saw the controlled commotion. "What's going on?"

"This is Tony's girlfriend Margret, Director." Gibbs explained as they moved quickly to the elevator. "Says Tony went for a run and never returned."

"Stay here Margret, we'll have someone come and get you." McGee reached for his phone to call Ducky. "I'll take care of it. Just go!" Vance ordered.

Gibbs drove, and they arrived quickly at Tony's home. McGee ran inside to check if Tony had returned home and was injured or for some reason could not answer his phone, but he wasn't there. They followed Tony's running route, checking the side of the road for...well, just in case.

"Tony would have taken the road from his house down to the main street, travelled to the little mom-and-pop store then come back using the path through the woods, six miles altogether."

"You've done it?"

"Yeah, Boss, a couple of times."

"Any place good for an ambush?"

"Not really. Just the woods and that trail is pretty well traveled, Boss. Stop! Signals coming from...the garbage can."

Gibbs screeched to a halt sideways in front of a residential garbage can at the side of the road. Filled to capacity with garbage, they found Tony's cellphone and wallet inside. The home owners, an elderly couple, were just having coffee and had not been awake by the time Tony had gotten this far, thus had seen nothing. It had rained earlier, too much to expect any evidence in the road but they looked anyway. No footprints. No drag marks, no blood. Tony had been expertly taken.

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"Where is he, where is he, where is he?" Abby repeated under her breath. She hadn't been able to apologize to him yet so they needed to find him. She was in the bull pen sitting at the empty desk behind Gibbs' desk trying to remain quiet and unobtrusive less Vance forces her to go back down to her lab. Agents were milling around in silent support. DiNozzo was a popular guy. Fornell had shown up with Sacks and the Police Captain from the small municipality three-man Sheriff's office that patrolled the rural area around Tony's home had brought maps just in case.

"Thanks Captain for coming but we're working on the premise that Agent DiNozzo was taken for an ongoing case regarding organ harvesting...we..."

"Yeah, I read about that," the Captain told McGee. "Those poor people, I read they were trying to find their families back in their own countries but..."

"So if you'll excuse me Captain, I'm on my..."

"No, no, go take care of business. I'll just leave these maps here in case it becomes a...well you know, a search and rescue. Find him alive, Agent McGee, he's a good man." They shook hands as the Captain entered the elevator and McGee made a beeline to the NCIS training room which could hold more people.

Tobias Fornell was up front giving a sit-rep to the acting SECNAV and Director Vance along with everyone else who could fit in the room.

"Judge Reynolds is pleading the fifth. But Archer Hedley and the rest of those guys involved in this are spilling their guts including the surgeon who manipulated Gregor DiNozzo's name to the top of the list. And they're all saying that we got everybody at the top. The couriers we're picking up slowly. Once they heard their income was being curtailed except for the pennies they'd make hammering out license plates in jail, they started disappearing like rats in a sinking ship."

"The only people who'd still want DiNozzo then is the DiNozzo family itself." Vance reasoned. "Have we been able to contact any of them at all? Anton, DiNozzo, Sr? What about Angela DiNozzo, has she been found?"

Ziva had no good news either. "No one is answering phones at the mansion, even the servants. Senior is out of the Country in Peru. My sources say that his mistress, who usually travels with him, lives in Peru and they went there for the Holidays."

"Steve DiNozzo?" Vance was running out of people and didn't look happy. Gibbs was furious and spoke in flat grim coldness at what seemed their futile efforts to find his senior field agent, "He's away on business and can't be contacted." It was never spoken out loud but most people there knew what that meant. "I left a message with his emergency contact number." As far as Gibbs was concerned, whoever had taken DiNozzo had a death warrant on their heads and he would be first in line to execute judgment.

The acting SECNAV needed to know. "Does this have anything to do with national security? Is Agent DiNozzo privy to any classified military information?"

"No Mr SECNAV." Vance assured him. "He wasn't undercover and our Agents are not ordinarily classified for that information unless there is a special mission need-to-know only basis. And there isn't."

"Very well, I'll take what information I have back to brief others. Please keep me informed."

After he left the room was quiet. DiNozzo had been gone for four hours. Not much time in the scheme of things but long enough. Then Gibbs' phone rang. He stood while answering the phone and gestured to his team to go.

"Mrs DiNozzo is reported to have come back to the mansion. We're leaving now for Long Island, Director."

"Very good. I wouldn't object if you hauled her ass back here, 'scuse me, Mrs DiNozzo back here. I'll have a warrant standing by if you need it. It's amazing that woman is still not in jail..." He was talking to the rest of the room as Gibbs and his team including Dorneget had left as had Fornell and Sacks.

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They were in the air over New York getting ready to land. "Boss, we still haven't been able to locate Michael Bristly, the guy in the diner I almost bumped into and who was taking pictures of Tony. He can't be found." McGee had his laptop on his lap where it had grown permanent residence since Tony turned up missing. He couldn't have looked more grim than if he had been Gibbs himself.

"I showed that picture to most of our suspects and none of them say they know this man. He's an unknown element, Gibbs." Sacks was trying to get brownie points to make up for his last encounter with this group where he was made to look foolish by the creepy brother and the genius big mouth here.

Gibbs sat back in his seat thinking before turning to the senior FBI agent. "Fornell, you've already had a go at this woman. We'll show up en masse but I'll take McGee with me to actually talk to her. If she doesn't cooperate, we have the warrant to handcuff her and bring her to the Navy Yard for questioning and there won't be a thing she or her lawyer son can do about it."

The trip was not long. Fornell and Sacks had moved to the back of the plane talking. Gibbs and McGee sat side by side separated by the aisle. Dorneget was up front and Ziva chose to sit as far away from him as she could a few seats behind.

"Boss? Tim Finally lifted his sights from the computer.

"You got something, McGee?"

"Boss, you ever feel like you're going to lose your nerve and wet your pants or something."

When Gibbs looked at him and frowned, McGee swiftly backtracked. "Never mind, Boss. Forget it." And looked down at his laptop although there was nothing there at the moment but his screensaver.

"McGee? Did I tell you that DiNozzo briefed me on your actions during that shoot out at the OK Corral? That's what he called it by the way. He referred to you as sidekick to John Wayne because, I quote, he would always be Wayne. But he said that having you next to him with your strength kept him glued to the spot because he didn't want to fail in the face of your courage."

"He said that? Because, Boss, there was no way I was going anywhere other than right where I was because Tony was unflinching. He was not leaving those people. I could stay there like that because he made it easier for me to face...whatever was coming, death probably. But I was scared."

"What's wrong with being afraid? I've been afraid plenty of times. It's what you do with the fear that counts, McGee." The conversation appeared to be over when the pilot announced fasten your seat belts. Gibbs drank the last dregs of his coffee and buckled up.

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They took two vehicle's after disembarking the FBI Cessna airplane and drove to the estate in Long Island where a vehicle with Fornell's men was waiting. Dorneget was thinking, Overkill, for one woman, paleese. But did not have the temerity to question his superiors.

Ziva gazed at the extensive grounds and large impressive mansion atop a slight incline where Tony had grown to puberty. "Tony had a privileged upbringing then. The way he eats sometimes, it appears he was raised in a zoo. Ziva commented as she stared out of the window at the opulent estate.

Dorneget glared at the back of her head while McGee's grin came and went and Gibbs' dry comment, "Zoo's can't order take out pizza, Ziva," made Ned realize it was an inside joke and said in fond nostalgia.

They proceeded through the gates and mile long winding road to the front of the mansion and lavish double doors. The bell could not be heard ringing from the outside but an appropriately dressed butler was soon bidding them, "Good afternoon, how may I help you?"

"Here to speak to Mrs Angela DiNozzo. Federal Agents, NCIS Gibbs, McGee, Dorneget and David."

The butler tried but failed to keep his poker face, part of his job requirement, as his eyes rounded in shock. "Please come in. I'll see if Mrs DiNozzo is available.

He showed them into the foyer where Ziva recognized the Louis XV table and side chair covered in vintage needlepoint, the 18th century Italian mirror and the oversized honey colored antique table. There were two antique Italian commodes and a 17th century armchair. The chandelier in 24 kt gold sparkled with Shass crystal globes, the floors were of dark bluestone, and the grandeur staircase was accentuated with marble stone balustrades.

Ziva categorized the furniture quickly and recognized most of it from her mother's fondness for old things and her father's showy display to catch the eye.

The butler quickly led them to another room filled with antiques and glitz. "Please wait here in the drawing room." And the man moved quickly to find someone to talk to them other than himself as though four guns were pointing at his head with deadly aim.

"What's wrong with him?" Dorneget spoke what was on all their minds.

"Guilty conscience." Gibbs summed him up. Guilt over what, he did not know.

"This way please." The butler returned quickly and led Gibbs and McGee to another room filled with flowers and plants. Mrs DiNozzo was seated at a table covered in cut flowers, scissors, vases and pots and soil, and she wore a pair of gardening gloves and had shears in her right hand. She did not rise from her chair or remove her gloves or offer them any hospitality whatsoever.

What Gibbs thought was, Good, makes it easier to cuff the bitch around the gloves.

"Where's Tony DiNozzo, Jr?" He spoke bluntly without a thought for her sensibilities. Alley cats didn't scare him; he had been married to three of the wildest.

The woman seemed unperturbed and serene. She eyed him with blue guileless eyes, even a hint of playful candor. He admitted she was still a beautiful woman with unblemished skin and some might say perfect features. Her hair was expertly coiffed and her casual sweater and pants outfit probably cost more than to gas his truck for a year. But she hadn't fooled him because he had her number. And as she stared back at him, she did the arithmetic and figured out the math also.

No, seducing this man was a last resort. Cunning and stealth, conniving and maneuvering that's the kind of game he enjoyed most of all with women portraying the cat and sometimes the mouse. So, she played the cards she thought she had been dealt. And Gibbs' mouth quirked at her predictability.

"I do not know where he is. Is he missing?" Coyly said with charming insincerity. She rose gracefully from her chair, removed her soil covered gloves and dropped them carelessly on the table as she walked to the mud room sink to wash off the grime.

She spoke over her shoulder dismissively. "Is there anything else?"

"McGee?"

"Yeah, there's something else. How about this? You are under arrest for felony one count of bribery of a Judicial official which is a violation of Title 18 of the United States Federal code." McGee took great pleasure in stalking over to her and grasping her right wrist to handcuff.

Utterly shocked, she turned to face Tim, yanking her arm out of his grasp.

"You can't arrest me! On what charge? You have no proof. How dare you! I want my lawyer!"

She started to walk away from him under the assumption she was still a free woman to do as she pleased. McGee glanced at Gibbs who was waiting for McGee to take care of business. And Tim suddenly realized that Gibbs was taking precautions by having him do the confining because if Gibbs laid hands on her, he'd twist her scrawny neck.

McGee stepped in front of her as she made to pass and with a deft maneuver, had her wrists in handcuffs behind her back. She struggled and tried to kick him crying out at the same time, "You're hurting me, stop!"

McGee frogged marched her out of the room and to the foyer where several house staff members had gathered. "Don't just stand there! Call Anton! Call my husband. Get him out of his bitch's bed and get him here, now!"

Her normally pale face was purple with rage and her shrieks could be heard by Fornell and his men waiting outside. The woman tried to stop being propelled forward by collapsing to the floor but Ziva grabbed her from the other side and they practically carried her outside to the waiting car.

"Pretty feisty senior citizen. All we need is for her to have a heart attack. Can you imagine the commotion that might cause?" Fornell wasn't joking and Gibbs wasn't laughing. DiNozzo was still missing.

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It was the second day and there was no clue whether DiNozzo was dead or alive. All the hospitals had been checked, no DiNozzo and no John Doe's that fit his description in the morgues. His friends, frat brothers, his lawyer CC hadn't heard from him. All the snitches were questioned discretely and there was no word on the street who had taken the man.

Needless to say, tempers were short. Gibbs was living up to his second B. Tim's nervous tic was back. Ziva did every thing she could to keep Margret out of and away from the office claiming that she prevented them from giving their full attention to finding Tony. Gibbs ignored her complaint and obvious animosity and allowed Margret to occupy the empty chair behind him whenever she felt the need to be close to Tony's friends and workplace.

When they had returned to the office with Mrs DiNozzo, Gibbs had only had twenty five minutes to interrogate her before her lawyer, who was not Anton, had showed up. Her spitfire and hell raising had subsided and she was the picture of poise.

In the long run, though, he was able to learn something from her in spite of her attempts at distraction, smoke screens and distorted mirrors which she was most expert. He had only one question for her.

"Where is Tony DiNozzo?"

"My husband is out of town and I really don't know where at the moment but I do have a number to call in case I might need him. Can you imagine? Are you married, Agent Gibbs?" She asked sweetly as she looked at him across the interrogation room table, blue eyes sparkling with good humor.

"Because marriage is a wonderful institution when handled right. For instance, I'm not ashamed to say that my husband and I have not been intimate for years. He has his dalliances, you see, and I have mine and we are both more comfortable that way. We stay together because it is more sociably acceptable to be married then not and our children although adults now, still benefit from our example."

Someone had re-shackled her hands in front of her and she had pushed her chair away from the table so she could sit with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap. A bottle of water was on the table and a pad and pen.

"Where is Tony DiNozzo, Jr?"

"Oh, him." Her tinkled laughter was spontaneous and genuine as though to say silly little ole me for not having known that.But even she couldn't hide the moue of distaste that flittered across her features briefly at the mention of his name.

"Probably in the gutter somewhere. I do not know nor do I care to know. I've always been fair and impartial, Agent Gibbs, when it came to the children. But you see, if you had any children of your own you would know how difficult it was to try and raise a child who was just plain evil."

She continued to speak to him as though they were at a social tea discussing the mundane every day things. She uncrossed her legs to scoot forward and lean on the table to gaze at him earnestly from blue, docile eyes as she repeatedly misdirected the question.

"But, I can't believe that such a forceful man as yourself is unmarried and has no son's or daughter's to carry on your name. My one son, Anton, is a doctor and a lawyer, but I'm sure you know that. My other son, Antoney, runs our company and does other mysterious things that I know nothing about. It worries me so but what is a mother to do? Boys will be boys. And then there are the grandchildren. My husband and I just dote on our grandchildren as they are such a blessing to have. But then, you wouldn't know about that would you?

"You know, there is an organization some friends had a luncheon to raise money for. It's called Grandparents by proxy or something like that, quaint and unpretentious. I believe they pair up older couples or singles such as yourself with children who are in need of tender comfort and love that only a grandparent can give. I was happy to make a large donation in the DiNozzo name and I would be more than delighted to look up the telephone number for you."

She was interrupted suddenly when the door opened and Ziva stuck her head in. "Mrs DiNozzo's lawyer is here, Agent Gibbs. He is being escorted up now and she is being released on her own recognizance."

Gibbs nodded at Ziva and she entered the room and released the woman's bound hand's from the handcuffs before turning and leaving just the two of them in the room again. Mrs DiNozzo genteelly rubbed at her wrists where the cuff links had been, first one, then the other. And indeed, the cuffs had not been especially tight but her wrists were a little red and puffy. "My wounds of war, Agent Gibbs?" She pulled up her sweater sleeves and held out both hands so he could observe her wrists.

The signs of posterity in her perfectly manicured nails with pale pink nail polish, creamy youthful hands and diamond encrusted rings contrasted unbecomingly with the unseemly red lines around her wrists. Gibbs looked, but ignored her obvious bid for sympathy. Or admiration?

"One last chance to tell me what I want to know, Mrs DiNozzo. Where is Tony DiNozzo, Jr?"

Angela DiNozzo sat back and pulled down her sleeves. She smiled at him showing her perfect white teeth. Her triumph was palpable. Her adversary upon whom she had used subterfuge and stalling to her great amusement had lost. She was the winner, the ultimate manipulator. Nine times out of ten, she would push the right button to put her antagonist on the defensive and they would never know what happened. She had bested this man who had had the gall to make his disdain of her so blatantly obvious. She had out manipulated his attempts to get her to answer one single question, the only one he had.

"You find this funny, Mrs DiNozzo?"

"Of course it is funny, Agent Gibbs. You will never know how funny it really is and I am highly amused. You dragged me out of my house like I was a common criminal and yet you are the one sitting here with nothing to show for your aggression except egg on your face. A pity but that is what happens when there is nothing going on in your life but a gun and a badge.

"I can not emphasize it enough. One needs a family in order to live a happy and fulfilled like, don't you think that is so, Agent?" She laughed, wickedly delighted at her too clever by half question to a poker faced Gibbs. She stood when the door opened and her lawyer was presented. "I shall be leaving now, Agent Gibbs."

"Don't say another word, Angela. We're through here."

"Oh, I know that, John. I do not believe Agent Gibbs will be bothering me again. And by the way, Agent Gibbs, I will be filing a lawsuit against you and your agency for unlawful arrest and detainment."

"Angela, enough said. Let's go." Her lawyer tried ushering her out hurriedly but gloating was second nature to her. She leaned over and murmured in Gibbs ear. "If I weren't already happily involved, Agent Gibbs, I would invite you back to the mansion and we could role play at you being big bad agent and me being just little ole me again." And her mocking laugh could be heard all the way down the hall as she left.

Fornell's, "What the hell?" Was all that was heard in the quiet observation room. McGee and Dorneget were shocked into silence at that whole travesty of an interrogation. Ziva was saying something under her breath in another language. They had learned nothing. It was all for nothing. They watched as Gibbs removed a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped at the ear that had just recently been whispered into.

"You three get in here. Fornell too." Gibbs strident voice startled them all. Not only because they thought he might be, not embarrassed exactly, but close to it that he had gotten nothing from this so called interrogation, but because his voice sounded anything but defeated.

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Agent Fornell entered the interrogation room first with McGee, David and the probie dragging their feet behind him.

"What in the hell kind of questioning was that, Jethro? If you said more than ten words, I'll eat my shoe." Fornell sputtered in disbelief at the Lead Agent.

"Get the mustard then, I said over thirty." Gibbs said dryly as he rose from his chair and walked to the door.

"Boss, we got nothing from her." Noting the despair in McGee's voice and on the faces of the others, he slapped his hand against the door frame and said impatiently.

"Of course we got something from that conniving bitch. You think I sat here listening to her crap cause I liked the sound of her voice? Her ego is her downfall. Find this 'dalliance' of hers. Who is he? Probably in the medical field. You got a clue, Fornell? The FBI catch her 'dalliances' with some guy?" Got a picture of him?" He mocked.

"Come on, what are you standing around for?" He stood beside the open door and waited for them to exit.

"Boss...how do you...what did she say...what clue...?" McGee was floundering and confused. What had he missed?

"Do you think she's the only one who can read a 'tell', McGee? She's an expert at finding the right button to shove home with a mallet." Felt more like a knife shoved in the gut but he had let her see the effect the loss of his family had on him without saying a word. He played her overconfidence, and observed the observer.

The brief glimpses he got of her smugness well hidden. Her grandiose view of her own cleverness at keeping her secret close to her heart, that she knew something that he would never find out. That quick smirk, the curl of her lip at his apparent stupidity, and her pathologic craving for admiration all subtly observed by him.

So he noticed when there was a softening of lip and posture, the dreamy quality of eyes, the slight tremor at mention of her lover and he knew that that was the clue he had been waiting for.

"You're telling me you got 'the boyfriend's involved' out of her twenty minutes of putdown and insults at your barbaric lack of a family, and her swooning at mention of her lover without opening your mouth, Jethro?"

Fornell had followed Gibbs back to the bullpen after the other's had left. "That's what I'm telling you Tobias, and right now, that's all we've got. Now what about it, who is this guy she's seeing?"

Fornell contacted his office and called for all the surveillance tapes on Mrs DiNozzo and left soon after to collect them.

"Agent Gibbs? Gibbs looked up at the newest agent standing over his desk. He rubbed at his tired eyes and chin, and thought about sending Dorneget on a coffee run.

"Yeah, you got something, Dorneget?"

"That butler? At the mansion? I went looking for him when you were in with Mrs DiNozzo but I couldn't find him. I thought he was acting suspicious like he knew something."

Ziva, on her computer at her desk, gave the man's back a lethal glare. She had especially told him not to leave the drawing room but he blatantly ignored her as though she hadn't spoken and slipped out.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. Get him on the phone, Donerget. Let's see what he knows."

"Me, Agent Gibbs?" Gibbs eyed the man at that brief moment of panic before Dorneget straightened his shoulders and turned to his desk. "Right, Agent Gibbs." Good man.

"Anything, McGee, Ziva?"

"I've got her phone records, Boss. No repeat phone numbers on her house phone or cell called or received in excess over the last six months."

"Gibbs, when Steve DiNozzo was here, I overheard he and Tony talking about how Tony could slip in and out of the mansion without being detected through hidden doors."

Ziva sat at her desk for a moment then spoke after some thought. "Perhaps that is how her lover has never been seen by Fornell's men, Gibbs? Perhaps we should pay a visit to one of these clandestine meetings through one of the mysterious doors and catch them in the act, hmmm?

"Hold that thought, Ziva. Anything else?"

"Yes, I spoke to the butler; the retired one, Janes who lives at the mansion." She couldn't help giving Dorneget a quick smug look before continuing.

"He said that he had not observed a stranger in the mansion but that he doesn't get around like he used to and stays mostly in his suite of rooms unless Mr DiNozzo is there which is very seldom these days. He said the other butler, his name is Stewart Stuart, would have more information."

Dorneget hung up his phone. "I finally contacted the man, Agent Gibbs. He didn't want to lose his cozy job which is why he didn't say anything when we were there. But he said that it wasn't worth going to jail for. I sorta threatened him with obstruction of justice.

"So he said that he saw her lover accidentally one time when he was slipping out of her room. She threatened he'd lose his job and she would make sure that he never got another butler position in this country if he every spoke to anyone about seeing this guy.

"Mr Stuart said for his own protection, he looked through the guy's car hidden in the back on the grounds behind a shed for some ID. His name is Dr. Henry Shue."

"McGee find out what you can on this Shue" Just then, Gibbs phone rang. "Jethro, we have no surveillance pictures of this boyfriend. I think you're barking up the wrong tree here and..."

"Fornell, his name is Dr Henry Shue. Get us all the information the FBI has on this guy if any."

"What! How'd you identify..." Click. Fornell looked at his phone. The bastard had hung up on him.

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He had to have been in a train wreck or car accident, he understood that. That's why he was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV bag, and from the most unpleasant twinge, a catheter invaded his privates.

But what he didn't understand was why both his wrists and one of his ankle's were chained, in handcuffs no less, to the guardrails on either side of his bed. Hadn't he just recently been chained in a similar way in autopsy? His brain was foggy, his head hurt and his mouth was as dry as virgin cotton. What the hell had happened?

Running, he was running like a gazelle, no not manly or capable enough, more like a stag with feet flying and the wind trying to keep up with him. Then nothing. And this hospital room was odd. He could smell antiseptic and other odors a hospital gave off including the industrial sized wet mop and bucket smell.

But, seriously. What kind of room was this? There were other unmade gurney's and hospital beds with bare mattresses stacked against one wall, IV poles without the IV's, and bedside tables disbursed on the other side of the room. It appeared to be a big hospital storeroom for the surplus. Like in the Twilight Zone where the dummies were stored on the creepy 9th floor of a large urban eight floor department store with an abundance of the lifelike manikins present and quietly unpleasant.

Rattling his chains brought no release and yelling wasn't helping either. The light sheet over his practically nude body was not helping to dispel the chills or the chilly atmosphere, and the gloomy lack of light was more than starting to freak him out.

"SOMEONE?! ANYONE?! YOU HAVE JUST KIDNAPPED A FEDERAL OFFICER OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THAT IS! AND YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!"

He waited for a response plus, he needed some water after all that yelling. And waited, even dozing off briefly but he woke up quickly enough when the swish of automatic doors and low rumble of voices announced the presence of several people. A man in his mid fifties, short stature, slim with dark hair and cold eyes and a short salt and pepper mustache and beard entered the room and switched on some lights. He was clothed in jeans and a dark wool jacket and had an overcoat thrown over his arm and briefcase in hand.

The woman with him was taller than he was and could only be described as plump with short brown hair. Her eyes were dark and she wore stylish glasses. She was covered in a white lab coat so he couldn't describe what she wore except it was a dress or skirt. Her legs were bare or she wore stockings and dark pumps. She carried two more IV bags of clear liquid and a clipboard.

Their conversation continued as they approached him. "We can start the infusion treatment as soon as this IV bag is completed. The nurse will change the bag every two hours until the treatment is completed. I will stay on sight during the procedure to facilitate any untoward problems that may arise."

"Good. The tests results so far are conclusive. He is the closet six-antigen match via a half brother to the patient's father and random factors in the general population. We should get good results from this experiment and finally, the accolades you have been denied for so long, Dr Shue."

It was a long walk from the door to his little corner and his exceptional hearing took in the gist of the conversation which wasn't anything he wasn't expecting. The DiNozzo family had completed their original plan. So here he was.

"So, Dr Shue, is it? You know who you've kidnapped, right? You know who I work for and what I do for a living. And what Federal agencies are probably looking for me now, therefore there's no sense in my threatening you with incarceration, or death when my Boss gets his hands around your neck, because you've already factored that into your plans. Right?"

The glint of dark malevolent eyes from Dr Shue aimed at him caused a momentary disruption in Tony's observational chatter but not for long. Up close, the doctor looked smaller and thinner and Tony knew he would tower over the man if he was upright and not strapped down.

He also recognized the short man syndrome when he saw it; the mustache, the beard, the hollow sound of his built up heels, all character traits adopted to make himself feel taller, bigger, meaner. A bully and a tyrant as long as his victims were not able to fight back. Great. Just great. There would be no dealing with this imbecile.

The first thing he would do though if he ever got out of here was to show the midget doctor who really was the bigger man with one hand tied behind his back he'd kick the doctor's ratty ass.

He turned to the woman. Maybe she could be reasoned with.

"So, who are you and what exactly are you doing, lady?"

Neither Dr Shue nor the woman who was now changing the empty IV bag for the other two bags had anything to say. She hung both bags on the pole then hooked the one infusion bag to the IV line already in his arm and piggybacked the other bag onto it.

He realized by her determined placement of her equipment and the easy way she could ignore him this woman had no qualms about what she was doing. He was so far from being a living breathing person to her that he now knew what it felt like to be a guinea pig.

Tony kept up his one sided monologue as he watched the woman fiddling with her ready to inject poisons, and in spite of her lack of response. "I'm a match for Gregor DiNozzo, that's obvious but will you be taking one or both of my kidneys and how will you explain Gregor's sudden claim to good health?"

Tony breezily went on with his game face in place. A silent Dr Shue stood back and observed the woman and her ministrations while continuing to watch Tony with malice.

"Just asking in case you hadn't really thought this through. So, again the question. Should I expect to wake up in the morning as I doubt very much I could live any amount of time with both my kidneys gone so could you at least let me know if this is the last breath I'll breathe?

"Even though it'll be polluted with your stench of righteousness and your visions of Godly holiness you obviously must have for yourselves and each other that you could do this to me, certainly against my will. Still, if this is my last moments of life, it does call for a minute of reflection and possibly meditation and absolution, so..."

Finally, the man who pictured himself as mysterious and intriguing asked in a gravelly voice. "Why don't you beg and plead for your life? Angela said you were a coward and the only thing you were not afraid of was helpless women."

Oh boy, here we go again. And look who was talking about being a coward. Tony realized where this was going so he ignored Dr Shue alias Anton the clone and his rhetoric, and his obscene love affair with Angela the bitch, and turned his attention to the woman again.

"Sorry, we haven't been officially introduced and I don't expect anything humane coming from you but I'd like to know your name and just what it is you're injecting into me."

Instead of answering, she roughly adjusted the catheter as she was changing the urine bag hanging from the side of the bed. Tony yelped at the unexpected shock and the pain. "God damn..." He moaned.

"The doctor asked you a question and I suggest you answer him the next time he speaks to you." Right again, another fanatic.

"Never mind, Edna, none of that." Dr Shue moved closer to the bed and tapped the rail with the end of his stethoscope. "Listen up. This is Dr Edna Emerson. I am Dr Shue. We are involved in the break through field of tissue regeneration technology. We will be injecting serum invented by myself and the good doctor here which will immediately start to grow the tissue of your kidneys. When sufficient growth has been obtained that new part of the kidney will be harvested. We are expecting the new growth to behave as a kidney and thus we will be able to attach it to the recipients failing kidney to generate new growth.

"Now, we aren't asking for your permission to do this as in all great things, sacrifice is part of the process, however, you are under no danger and you will be released without harm once the process is complete. Unfortunately, I can not estimate when that will be; possibly two months, possibly two years or longer. Cooperation on your part is of the utmost importance as it will make your time here much easier. Struggling will only increase your discomfort. Do you understand?"

Tony had listened without interruption to the spiel of the good doctor. He was a prisoner to a mad scientist and his cohort partner, Mrs mad scientist. Talking wasn't going to get him out of this mess. His team was his only hope. No sense in wasting his breath on these two Frankensteins'

He was jerked to awareness by the female's jab to his chest with her sharp ballpoint pen. "I told you to answer the doctor when he speaks to you. Now he asked you a question."

What? He was feeling a little dizzy and nauseous. And he had the chills but he could feel the sweat beading on his forehead. His hearing was off too. God he felt sick. Tony managed to turn his head to the side and vomited onto his pillow. He felt the head of his bed being raised and an emesis bowl placed under his mouth as he continued to vomit until there was nothing left but bile. Now, instead of chilly, he was burning up.

"What are you doing to me? What was in that stuff?" He gasped as cramps now assaulted him. He turned his head from side to side restlessly as the sharp pains hit again and again and he couldn't hold his stomach or raise his legs to try to ease the pains.

The two doctor's and now another person, a nurse, huddled together talking before Dr Shue came over and released his wrist from the cuff to allow the nurse to turn him to the side so she could change the sheets. Tony took that opportunity to clutch at his stomach pressing down trying to relieve the gas-like pain but it didn't help.

The nurse quickly changed the sheet and his arm was roughly pulled back by Dr Emerson and the cuff reapplied. Lying on his back intensified the pain and he wasn't too proud to at least ask to be left on his side.

"Look, just let me lie on my side, okay...? He wasn't begging, never would he do that. Gibbs wouldn't beg, neither would he. "My side, let me..." The pain struck again and he couldn't help yelling out in sheer agony before he blessedly passed out.

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