Warnings: None for this chapter.

A/N: Resolution of the first cliffhanger... sort of lol. Please let me know what you are thinking, lovelies. BTW I do plan to have Senior make his appearance soon, just wondering what your thoughts are on that. I was thinking of making him more like the show's Senior, but with a little bit of a darker past.

Natalie floored the Charger and brought it to an abrupt halt in a parking space at the naval hospital. Gibbs would have been proud, she realized as she jumped out of the car and ran through the snow towards the entrance.

Her heart had been beating madly since she and Gibbs had stumbled upon the crash scene. Gibbs instincts were spot on. He followed Tony's route back to the Navy Yard, he had jut known this was the way Tony would have gone. It led them to skid marks and broken guardrails and Tony, desperately trying to climb to safety. His blood covered her jeans, her windbreaker, her hair was tied back in some messy bun that had been shoved under her cap—and she didn't care. Tony was hurt. Her Tony was hurt.

And Tim. Natalie wanted to vomit just thinking about Tim.

"Excuse me, where did they take Special Agent DiNozzo?" Natalie asked the woman at the front desk.

"Down the hall, two doors to the left," the nurse said, but when she saw Natalie moving she shouted, "WAIT! Only next of kin can go back there!"

Natalie spun on her heel, pulled out her badge and snapped, "He's my partner. I am his next of kin!" She didn't let the nurse argue with her, she continued on her way. They were going to have to have security drag her out in handcuffs if they didn't want her back there. Tony wouldn't leave her alone in this horrible place. She wasn't about to do the same to him.

Outside the second door she collided with a tall, solid form. Damnit, Tony, if you were going to try to check yourself out of this hospital… but glancing up she realized that she had bumped into a doctor coming out of the room. "I was actually wondering if Gibbs would be the one to show up first," the doctor said with a chuckle. He held his hand out to her. "I believe we haven't met yet… I'm Doctor Brad Pitt. You must be Natalie? Tony kept asking for you."

"Brad Pitt?" Natalie repeated, uncertain as she shook his hand. "Really? That's your name?"

"Really. Being on Tony's team you have to realize the utter irony in him having a doctor with a celebrity name," Pitt said, jokingly.

Natalie chewed on her lower lip nervously. "Tony… is he…"

Pitt nodded. "He's fine. I was just checking his lungs. He's got a nasty contusion on his right leg, the cut needed stiches but it didn't hit any major arteries. And I think he's been hit harder on the back of the head before by your boss—few days rest and he'll be good to go… for desk work at least."

She felt relief wash through her. Tony was fine. It was hard to believe because of all the blood loss from his head wound and the wound on his right leg… but the doctor wouldn't lie to her… Natalie thanked him and asked if she could see Tony. Pitt didn't see the harm and let her into the room.

Tony was propped on the bed, wearing a hospital gown and his lower half of his body was covered by a thin hospital blanket. He had the remote in his hand and he was trying to find something on the small, outdated television. He must have sensed her being in the room. His eyes lifted and found her, a lopsided grin began to cross his face, but she nearly jumped onto the bed, and crashed her lips into his, kissing him, fiercely.

"Guess you're happy to see me," Tony drawled, in a bit of a haze.

"Are you kidding?" Natalie asked, holding his face between her hands. "Damnit, Tony, I thought I was going to lose you."

"Aw, Nat," he said, gently, "Everything is fine now."

Natalie fought her tears and she slid off the bed into a nearby chair, grabbing a hold of his hand. It really wasn't fine. Not with Tim in worse condition than Tony. She'd see the junior agent trapped in the twisted metal of Tony's car.

Tony titled his head to one side, his green eyes glazed over. "What's the matter baby?"

"Baby?" Gibbs voice questioned from the doorway. "How doped up are you, DiNozzo?"

"Oh, hey boss," Tony greeted, grinning in his obvious drug induced haze. "Just to be clear… you're not my baby. She is."

Natalie startled, her eyes darting towards Gibbs, wide and absolutely terrified. But he just chuckled, pat her on the shoulder and went to sit in the chair opposite her. Her heart was in her throat. Tony had just effectively told their team leader that they were… well… it wasn't dating yet since they hadn't been on a date… but they wanted to be together. And Gibbs didn't seem to be bothered by it… either that… or he just found Tony drugged amusing.

Tony drifted off to sleep, a slight smile on his lips. Natalie swallowed and eyed Gibbs. She saw the tension in his body, the tightness of his jaw. "McGee?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer. "Is he… is he alright?"

Gibbs sighed, heavily. "The impact snapped several of his ribs. One punctured his lung. He has a broken leg and internal bleeding that has to be stopped—he's looking at a lot of surgery and recovery time. The doctor said he would come find me when Tim was out." His blue eyes fixated on her. "Perhaps, Natalie… you should start to pray."

"If you think it would help…"

"It wouldn't hurt."

Natalie choked back her tears. If Tim didn't pull through this it would throw the team into turmoil, it would devastate Tony. Sure, the accident had not been his fault. It had been a patch of black ice that he had realized probably too late was there and gone sliding off the road and down a slope into a large evergreen tree. But she knew Tony… how he blamed himself so easily… how he had blamed himself for what happened to her in Somalia. "Prayer is more powerful if… if someone is there… praying with you."

Gibbs looked at her, earnestly. He was not a religious man, but didn't begrudge people that were. Kate had been deeply religious, at least he always suspected that she was and Abby went to church faithfully every Sunday morning when she could. He leaned forward and gently took the hand she was offering. She laced her fingers through his and bowed her head, but instead of praying out loud, she simply offered it in silence. There was something soothing, calming, in her quiet moment of faith that made him believe that everything was going to fine. Despite the odds stacked against them at the moment.

"Ms. Sciuto," Vance said, surprised to see her enter the office. "I'm surprised to see you here. I would have thought you would be at the hospital."

"I was… I mean I am going," Abby replied, nervously. "But I wanted to bring my findings to you."

Vance was interested. What findings was she talking about? Gibbs had requested that this team be pulled from Lieutenant Hill's case and Vance had reassigned it to another team, and to another forensic specialist knowing that Abby wouldn't available. "What findings are you talking about, Ms. Sciuto?"

Abby took a deep breath, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears. "Tony and McGee's accident… wasn't an accident… someone wanted Tony's brakes to fail."

"Call Gibbs," Vance ordered, sternly, anger simmering that someone had intentionally hurt his agents. "Get him and Callahan back here, now."

Everything came at him in flashes. Gibbs' face, Natalie's face, surrounded by mad flurries of snow. Faces of strangers putting oxygen masks on him, IV lines. The inside of an ambulance, the outside of an ER… Natalie's black windbreaker and jeans stained with blood… lights in his eyes, voices he couldn't recognize or even understand. And finally the steady, droning beep…

"Tony?" Natalie's voice called from somewhere in the distance. "Ducky. I think he's waking up."

Blurred images greeted him when he finally managed to open his eyes. Tony blinked, slowly, noticing the throbbing in his head and the heavy weight of a brace on his leg. There were three blurbs of people surrounding him… but he couldn't make out their faces… but he did smell Natalie's lavender perfume. "Nat?"

One of the blurbs moved closer and he could make her face, but just barely. "Yes. I'm here, Tony. So aren't Ducky and Jimmy," she said in a gentle tone. He felt her fingers, warm, soft, wrap around his and give his hand a squeeze.

"I… I can't… I can't see you," he whimpered, feeling weak. Vulnerable. "You're fuzzy."

"Yes, your vision has been effected by your concussion, Anthony," Ducky answered. "Don't worry, your physician believes it will be restored in time."

"What… what else is… wrong with me?"

"Severe contusions on your right leg, the brace is there to help you walk. Cuts, bruises, and a concussion… you should be fine in no time, Anthony."

Tony shut his eyes, hands shaking slightly. Natalie tightened her grip on him and he felt a sense of security, was that how he made her feel? This was a horrible way to start a relationship… hurdling his car over a guardrail into a tree. "I'm sorry, Nat…" he mumbled, almost incoherently, "not really the way we wanted things to start out, huh?"

Natalie nervously looked between Ducky and Jimmy—who both were slightly perplexed by Tony's comments—but then Ducky shook his head. "Oh dear, the painkillers have started to kick in," the medical examiner replied. "I guess we should have warned you, my dear, painkillers can make Anthony a tad bit on the loopy side."

"Yeah," Jimmy agreed, "He really starts to talk nonsense when he's drugged up."

"So… anything I tell him… he's probably going to forget?" Natalie guessed. She was silently grateful that Gibbs would write off Tony calling her baby as something painkiller related.

Tony rolled his shoulders and felt how numb his body was. His eyes fluttered open but remained half shut. The corner of his mouth pulled into a lopsided grin and he looked like he was about to say something, probably rather inappropriate knowing Tony on painkillers, but then his eyes widened. "Natalie! You're bleeding! You're hurt… you need a doctor!"

Natalie startled, visibly, and glanced down at her jeans, still covered with Tony's blood. Crap. She shook her head, forcefully. "No, Tony. I'm fine. I wasn't in the car with you. That… that's your blood."

She wasn't in the car… she wasn't in the car… we drove together… but she wasn't in the car? Tony blinked the drug-induced cobwebs away or rather he tried to blink them away. It was nearly impossible to do. But if she wasn't the one in the car… oh God… "Gibbs! Where's Gibbs!"

"He's upstairs in ICU," Jimmy said, not thinking. The answer sent Tony over the edge, ripping and clawing at his IV lines and sending Natalie nearly crashing to the floor.

"Tony! STOP!" Natalie shouted, grabbing onto him as he thrashed about. "Gibbs isn't hurt! He wasn't in the car with you either!"

"But I wasn't alone! I know I wasn't alone!" Tony shouted back at her, fueled by an adrenaline rush. I crawled up that damn slope to get help…

"He's upstairs with Tim," Natalie told him, easing him back down against the pillows. Thankfully, because his body was weak he didn't have the strength to overpower her. "Tim was in the car with you, you were headed back to NCIS when you hit a patch of black ice."

Tony felt panic setting in. Probie. His probie. My fault this is my fault. "How… how bad?"

Natalie shook her head. "You need to focus on you. Let the rest of us worry about Tim."

He didn't like that answer and he actually had her cowering in fear as he managed to tear all the machines from his body and stumble out of the bed. It took a doctor and three nurses to get him back in the bed, pining him down while they shoved a needle containing a sedative in his arm. Tony drifted off quickly, peacefully—a stark comparison to the almost Hulk like being he had been just mere seconds before—and once again fell into a state where things only came at him in flashes.

Ducky put his hand on her shoulder after the doctor and nurses had sedated Tony and he had fallen back to sleep. "It was nothing you said, Natalie. Anthony becomes a different person on medications. Sometimes violent, although we don't often see that side, unless he perceives someone that he cares about being in danger."

Natalie knew he was telling her this on the assumption that she had not seen Tony in a violent, out of control state, but the truth was she had—in Somalia. She blinked back uncertain tears. What was his reaction going to be when he found out how serious Tim's condition was? She knew Tony, he was going to take this personally, blame himself when it wasn't his fault… they hit a patch of black ice… "I'm going to go get some coffee… anyone want anything?"

"Whatever this hospital is passing off as tea, my dear, would be nice," Ducky replied with an easy smile.

"Coffee sounds good," Jimmy said, "I have a bad feeling that it's going to be a long night."

"Ok, lots of coffee and lots of tea," Natalie quipped with a tired, sad smile as she left Tony's hospital room.

As she approached the elevator to go downstairs to the cafeteria the doors opened and Gibbs stood there. He flung some clean clothes at her that he had obviously taken from her desk. "Change. We're going back to the Navy Yard."

She was confused. Gibbs had handed the case of the dead lieutenant over to another team… what could NCIS need with only half the MCRT available to work? "Why? What's going on?"

Gibbs reached out and herded her in the direction of the ladies' room. "Something came up that needs us to look into it."

Natalie was even more confused but she had learned from Tony and McGee just to go with the flow sometimes. She disappeared into the restroom, quickly changed out of her bloody jeans and rejoined her boss. He was holding out an evidence bag. "Um… am I being charged with a crime?"

He shook his head. "Nope. We already have your windbreaker being test back at NCIS."

My windbreaker… and when exactly did he take it from me to take back to NCIS… to be tested? "Tested for what exactly?"

"Brake fluid."

"What? Brake fluid?"

Gibbs now grabbed her arm and herded her back towards the elevator. He pulled her inside and pressed the button for the lobby. "Metro found that the brake lines were leaking while investigating the cause of the crash."

Natalie frowned at him. "Okay… so that proves that Tony needs to take better care of his car."

"That's just it, Callahan. DiNozzo treats his cars like they're his babies."

"Just because the brakes were leaking fluid that doesn't mean they were tampered with."

Gibbs just gave her one of his looks. Natalie knew that there was no arguing with him. He had that predatory look in his eyes when one of them was in trouble, the look that Tony had warned her about… his Moby Dick look… she knew right then and there that this accident had possibly started them down a twisted, dark path to God only knew where.