The facial reconstruction proved much harder I'd anticipated. It soon became apparent that the only memories I had of my attackers were blurred and out of reach. A fair amount of time had passed since Tony left, and we were still nowhere near finished: hell, we'd barely even started…

Abby had somehow managed to maintain a positive attitude throughout despite my inability to grasp at the swirling sea of facial features in my head long enough to capture any usable images, but I got the feeling that she was about ready to throw in the towel.

I rubbed my temples, feeling a rare headache looming, and stared out of the window. It was pretty dark, despite it only being around 16:30.

"Maybe we should take a break?" She offered tentatively. I detected a hint of concern in her tone.

Frustration was pooling in my stomach like lead, telling me that I was no longer in the right frame of mind to continue, that I needed a break; but this was so typical of me. How could I forget the faces of the two men who almost killed me?

I shook my head angrily, ripping my eyes away from the window.

"No, I know I'll remember something. I just need to think."

She nodded understandably. "Take as much time as you need."

But it was no use. I wasn't going to get any inspirational flashes of insight, my mind was a static void and this wasn't a movie. I rubbed my eyes, my cooler than usual hands relieving the dull throbbing a little, and I tried my best to think through the haze caused by both my increasing headache and anxiety. No luck.

After what must have been about five minutes, I heard the unmistakable sound of someone entering the lab.

It was Tony. Abby got up quietly from her seat beside me and went to greet him. Their hushed voices weaved their way towards me as I sat, eyes scrunched shut, trying to force my mind to cooperate, and I soon found myself hanging onto their words instead of foraging through my own memories.

"So, how's it going?" I heard Tony ask quietly.

"Not so great. She's having trouble remembering."

Tony sighed. I felt it as a sharp stab to my gut. Was he disappointed?

"Have we got anything?"

No. I answered self-pityingly in my head. We have nothing because I'm an idiot.

Abby must have shaken her head.

There was a pause.

I heard Tony move towards me.

"Hey, how're you doing?" He asked softly, his eyes scanning mine.

I was afraid of what I'd see in his expression, so I just shook my head and stared at the wall. "Not good. I've been trying but I can't – I just … I don't remember."

There was a pause and then –

"C'mon, you look exhausted. Let's take a break – grab some coffee."

I was all set to decline the offer, when thankfully one of the more rational parts of my brain finally took charge in reminding myself that I would be of no use to anyone in this state; and so I found myself agreeing.

Tony seemed relieved, it's possible he thought I would've put up more of a fight – perhaps I would've if it hadn't been for the now quite painful headache pounding at my skull.

"Although I'm not a huge fan of coffee" I admitted, standing up anyway, my muscles a little stiff. "But I'm up for getting some tea."

Tony laughed. "The English and their tea. Sure."

I saw Abby grin from where she stood slightly behind Tony.

He waited for me to move ahead of him towards the door, but before I did, I threw a small smile at Abby. "Thanks for helping, I'm just sorry we didn't get very far." I said.

"It was no problem! And don't worry about it! I know you'll remember something soon." She gave me a reassuring smile.

I nodded unconvincingly. I was grateful for her confidence, but lacked any real certainty of my own.

I moved out the door, Tony following behind after saying goodbye to Abby.

It turns out that Tony hadn't meant for us to 'grab coffee' from NCIS' own café, and instead I found myself being lead outside the building completely.

The sky had darkened marginally since just a few minutes ago and the wind was bracing: but cold as it was, I was still glad to be out.

However, after a few minutes of walking god knows where, I was beginning to miss the warmth of NCIS.

"Where are we going?" I asked after another minute. My curiosity having been effectively peaked; combined, though, with a familiar sense of dread – the influence of which forced me to entertain an unwelcome notion. What if I couldn't trust Tony?

I impatiently pushed the unsettling thoughts of unwarranted paranoia away and listened out for the agent's reply, which I knew would be difficult to interpret over the collective rush of traffic and howling wind.

"Not much further." He was walking quite swiftly and whilst I'd usually have had no issue keeping up, the effects of the cold and constant movement was beginning to put a painful strain on my shoulder. This, and the fact that I hadn't eaten in a while, considerably slowed my pace.

I had just about had enough, and was about to call out for him to slow down a little when I was suddenly accosted by the vague blur of someone running for (I gathered from the parked vehicle I had passed a moment ago) the bus. This was fine, and as a person who had experienced their fair share of sporadically scheduled public transport, I even sympathised with this dudes plight.

What wasn't fine is what happened next. I made a move so as to give the runner some space to move past me on the pavement when without any warning, another person – this time from behind, barrelled past me, inadvertently full on crashing into my left shoulder as he bolted away. I swear to god, I could literally taste the pain.

For the next couple of seconds I was essentially dead to the world, but thankfully I must have made some form of noise to alert Tony, for when I 'came to', he was standing in front of me looking stricken. I, on the other hand, must have looked like I was ready to keel over.

"What happened?" Tony pressed urgently, his eyes scanning the area; one hand now hovering over the weapon I knew to be concealed at his waist.

I shook my head to communicate across that there was no need for his gun. "It was just some idiot, he knocked into my shoulder when he ran past."

Concern immediately washed over his face, I saw his eyes go to my shoulder. "Shit, are you okay?"

My shoulder was throbbing, making a powerful addition to the strong ache in my head. "I'll get back to you on that."

I then stupidly decided to move a little closer to the wall on the right, my intention being to lean against it; but the moment I took a step, I was instead overtook by the sudden and overwhelming urge to throw up.

Through the haze I was vaguely aware of Tony saying my name, but the way I was feeling reminded me all too much of the awful car sickness I used to get as a child, and his voice just washed over me. I just groaned, and squeezing my eyes closed, let my head fall against Tony's chest in a vain attempt to stop the pounding in my skull.

As irritated as I was at myself for doing that, I was somewhat pleased to note that it did actually help ease the noise of the wind, which in turn helped my headache.

He gently placed both hands on my arms to steady me, and although my world was still spinning slightly, I got the impression that we were moving somewhere.

I don't think that I'd passed out, but my consciousness had definitely taken a short break because I realised that I had no recollection of having gotten to where I was now – where I was now being surrounded by shelves of what looked to be books in a small library. I was situated in one of the aisles, propped up against the wall.

I sluggishly came to realise that Tony was knelt down in front of me. I caught his expression change from worry to relief once he saw that I was awake. "Hey, glad to have you back." He spoke quietly – we are in a library after all; my superstar of a brain rationalised.

I tried to say something other than "Mmmghh" but didn't have much luck. After sighing and resting my head against the wall for a moment, I went in for a second attempt at the whole speaking thing. "I'm good… just give me a minute."

"You don't half attract trouble, do you?" I heard him sigh, but I could tell he was a touch amused.

This thought had occurred to me. I squinted up at him, feeling a little sheepish. "Tell me about it…" Then I laughed, wincing at the dulled pain in my head. "I swear that usually my life is pretty uneventful. It's just these last couple of days… Jesus, it's like something out of a thriller."

Tony shuffled around to position himself against the wall next to me, "I'm more of an action/crime drama guy myself – you ever seen The Godfather?"

I shook my head. The vague image of a severed horse's head had floated to the forefront of my mind, but I didn't really know what to make of that.

"Ah," he sighed, "now that is a great movie. It's got everything – action, suspense…the Mafia… Did you know that actual members of the Gambino crime family supposedly came to visit the set? Man, I tell ya, I'd have loved to see that…." He cleared his throat abruptly, "…to arrest them, of course."

I grinned. "Gibbs isn't here, you know."

He turned his head to me conspiratorially. "The boss-man has eyes and ears everywhere."

Just then the sound of his ringtone filled the air – causing someone a couple aisles over to actually 'shush' us. Tony fished around in his jacket, retrieving his phone. He checked the caller I.D and raised his eyebrows knowingly, a quick glance at the screen revealed the caller to be none other than Gibbs.

I had to admit, the man had impeccable timing.

Tony flipped the phone open. "Yeah, boss." He threw a glance at me.

I could hear Gibb's voice, but I couldn't fully make out the words.

"Yeah, got it boss." He snapped the phone shut and stood up.

I frowned. "That was quick. What does he want?"

"He basically told us to get our butts back to NCIS pronto."

I smirked. "Gibbs said pronto?"

"I was keeping it PG. He didn't quite use the word 'butts' either."

I laughed and, with the combined help of the shelf and Tony, managed to stand up.

"Do you think you're okay to walk?" Tony asked, I could practically see the doubt radiating from him in waves as he observed how unsteady I was.

Admittedly, I wasn't feeling as good as I could have been; I was a little bit shaky, sure, but I didn't see why I couldn't walk the couple of blocks back to NCIS. I got the nagging feeling that I was being somewhat irrational when I lazily chalked my instability down to adrenaline, but I pushed this aside. I wanted to walk.

"I should be, I didn't injure my legs." I replied somewhat tersely.

"We can catch a cab back if you'd prefer?" He asked. "We should also have Ducky take another look at your shoulder too."

I rolled my eyes. "It's fine…"

Grinning, Tony threw his arms up slightly in a gesture of resignation. "You're about as stubborn as Ziva in your own way." He muttered, partly to himself.

That caught my attention. "Who is Ziva, anyway?" I asked curiously, as we exchanged the comforting warmth of the library for the chilly night's air – Tony all the while keeping a close eye on me. "You mentioned her before."

"Ziva is an NCIS agent, she used to work for Mossad so she's got serious ninja skills. She's away on assignment at the moment, but you'd like her."

"When's she coming back?"

He paused, a distant look in his eye. "When she gets the job done, I suppose."

I got the sense that this topic of discussion was a doorway to something a whole lot more complicated, so I decided to change the subject to something else that had been nagging at me.

"Where were we going anyway, you know; before? Were we really just going for coffee?"

Tony flashed a look of confusion, "Yeah, I usually go to this great coffee joint about fifteen minutes away…Why?" He suddenly grinned. "Did you think I was leading you to my awesome secret special agent lair?"

I shrugged, not feeling the pain in my shoulder at all. …must be healing…

"You seemed to be in a real big rush for just coffee."

He seemed genuinely offended. "Just coffee?" He echoed, "Jus- … Unbelievable…"

I chuckled, shaking my head, causing me to accidentally let out a gasp as an unexpected spike of pain sliced through my skull, before dulling considerably. The ground lurched and I stumbled slightly.

"What?" Tony asked, coming to a stop. "You want to call a cab?"

I frowned, trying to keep my irritation at bay. No matter how annoying my body was being, Tony was just being nice. "No, I just have a headache. I'll live."

Tony looked dubious.

"Come on," I laughed, walking forwards unsteadily, but turning to look back at him. "isn't fresh air supposed to help these things anyway?"

He still appeared doubtful. I sighed, coming to a wobbly stop too, but only because my sense of direction was about as operational as my ability to convince people that I wasn't marked for death, and without Tony I'd have no chance of finding my way back to NCIS.

I turned back towards Tony somewhat dejectedly, walking until I was in front of him.

I was about to turn on the full force of my persuasive skills when something in my mind shifted and I suddenly realised that maybe there was something wrong. I was feeling strangely drowsy, then there was the lack of pain in my shoulder…and since when were there two Tony's'?

I felt a stab of fear, my mind automatically flashing back to the man who had bumped into me earlier, alighting on the sharp prick I'd felt – and then forgotten, as it was overtaken by the tidal wave of pain in my shoulder.

"Tony…Something's wrong…"

I was thinking fast. I was fairly certain that whoever drugged me had assumed that I was out alone, since Tony had been walking ahead. I was less certain as to whether or not they had anything else planned by way of kidnap or assault; the bottom line being, I had to tell Tony.

"Tony." My speech was a little slurred. How had I not noticed that before? And I now had pretty severe double vision, but I could see enough of the agent's face to know that he was distracted by something I had my back to.

"Emily!" He warned, pushing me behind him, and going for his gun. I was thrown slightly off balance, but was able to regain composure by clinging on to the lamppost beside me. I frowned at the perplexing scene unfolding before me.

There were four guys…no, I squinted through the haze; there were two guys at the end of the street just a few metres away from Tony, who announced himself to be an NCIS agent. His words reverberated impossibly into the still night. Tony said something else, but I was having difficulty concentrating, and there was a slight pause, before I saw both guys… no … one guy pull out a gun ….that turned into a knife… It glinted, throwing me momentarily back into the other memory…I shook my head. Concentrate. The assailant raised the knife…no, the gun, it was a gun…

Tony shouted something, his words made ripples in the air … I turned a corner, running headfirst into the second attacker, who threw me down to the ground… No! With effort, I zoned back in, my head pounding… this makes no sense. More yelling, rising into the night like a tsunami and then there was a crescendo; a rapid series of gunshots shattering the atmosphere like glass. A figure crumpled to the ground in a heap. Tony! No..."TONY!"

Tony! There was still someone moving, but I was too sick to care. I was on the floor now. The dim shadow creature was moving towards me. I think I was shaking, still mumbling Tony's name. Everything was too unstable, and I just couldn't think. The person crouched down in front of me, and reached a hand out towards my face. I shrank away, wondering why they were dragging this out, why they weren't shooting me too…

Out from the curious stillness drifted a voice that sounded painfully familiar.

"Emily… It's okay."

My brain was telling me this was Tony. Which was implausible. Tony was dead… Tony was dead…dead…dead…

The voice was soft. "I'm not dead, Em. You have to open your eyes."

I was done with this. I have to open my eyes…to what, the truth? That sounds like the sort of vague advice a ghost would give…

"No. Em, literally open your eyes – you have your eyes closed."

It took a while for the words to register in the thick folds of my mind, and a little bit longer for me to get my eyelids to cooperate, but when I did, I was greeted by a very hazy, but otherwise 100% alive Tony crouched down in front of me.

I didn't understand. "I don't understand." I said simply.

Tony carefully reached a hand up to my face to wipe something away, that's when I realised I must have been crying.

"I saw you die." I told him, clutching onto his arm, relieved to actually feel him here. He let me fall forwards, enveloping me in a warm hug.

He sighed, gently pulling away. "I know, but I'm okay." He was looking at me oddly, his face swimming in and out of focus, "Ducky'll have a field day with this…"

"Ducky's coming here?" I asked, desperate for any kind of understanding to dawn on me, but also having the innate feeling that I wouldn't be experiencing much of that for the time being.

Particles of air shifted around DiNozzo's head as he nodded, reminding me of little beads of light in water. That makes no sense, a voice in my head stated.

"Why?" I squinted up at him.

He frowned, gesturing to the ground. "Because of the bodies…"

I had no real awareness of the passage of time; the drugs had messed that up for the moment, but considering how close we were to NCIS, I knew that it probably didn't take too long for Ducky to arrive on the scene, followed by Gibbs and McGee.

"DiNozzo? What happened?" Gibbs barked – just like a dog, I mused internally; or maybe not quite as internally as I'd imagined judging by the looks of surprise thrown at me by McGee and Ducky.

"Well boss, as you can see, there was an incident." Tony grimaced. He moved closer to me.

I decided that now was a brilliant time to stand up; my legs, on the other hand, did not fully agree.

I most likely would've fallen had it not been for Tony, who readily caught me, once again stopping my descent. I should've stayed sat down, everything was spinning again…

"Oh my…" Ducky raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Ugh, some help, boss?"

Gibbs moved closer and helped him slowly lower me to back to the ground. "What happened?"

"She was drugged."

"I got that, DiNozzo. I meant how?"

I heard Tony fill Gibbs in on everything that had happened since we'd left the building, but he seemed at a loss to pinpoint the exact moment I'd been dosed with whatever this was. I, however, was lucid enough to still remember, and something prodded me to speak up.

I'm not entirely sure what noise I made to attract the agent's attention, but whatever I did worked. Gibbs crouched down in front of me. I peered curiously at the multiple versions of him that swam before me. Tell him what happened. A voice prompted me. Right… I tried to concentrate.

"The man that bumped into me…" I managed in a slurred, but coherent enough manner, "I felt a …sting, but I forgot." The air around Gibbs was shimmering.

I could easily be imagining him, I thought, and so I lifted a finger intending to prod him experimentally. All of the Gibbs' suddenly wore a small smile, before disappearing out of view quite suddenly. I frowned. Then he was back.

"Where?" His voice floated oddly on the air and I felt that if I just reached out, I could grab the individual letters…

"Emily, look at me." He said, and waited patiently until I did. "Where abouts?"

Where abouts what? Where abouts… did the man inject - oh. "Arm…Somewhere."

Gibbs nodded and briefly rested a hand on my head before standing up and addressing Tony.

"DiNozzo,"

Tony perked. "Yeah, boss?"

"Take Emily back to NCIS, get Abby to run a tox screen. Take the car," Gibbs threw the keys to Tony, gesturing over to the silver car parked somewhat haphazardly across the road. "– then wait there for us."

"Got it, boss."

" – and Tony, try to keep her out of trouble."

Tony looked a little abashed, but nodded.

He turned to me, "Hey Em, we're gonna go for a car ride back to NCIS, okay?"

I saw nothing wrong with that, and nodded.

In the background, I heard the snap of a camera; it flashed in the window of my mind like lightning, and the low rumble of Gibbs' voice filled the air…I could see the syllables intertwining themselves through the darkness. I shook my head. Man, I'm high right now.

Tony helped me up, "Whoa, steady."

I was still extremely disoriented, but at least the drugs were good for keeping my headache at bay. He guided me to the car, a stabilising hand on my arm, the other unlocking the car. He then helped me slide into the passenger seat and went to buckle me in, but I was having none of that.

"No, no, I can do it." I told him confidently.

He raised his eyebrows doubtfully, but allowed me to handle it all the same. After shutting my door, he moved round to his side and plugged himself in. He then shifted around in my direction to make sure I was buckled in. I was not. I'd forgotten all about it.

He reached past me, grasped the seatbelt and fastened it with a click. "You good?" He asked.

"I feel floaty."

He chuckled. "I don't doubt that."

The drive went by in a disconcerting concoction of blurred lights and distorted sound, and before I knew it we were back at NCIS.

I heard Tony switch of the engine, and move around to help me out of the car. I tried to unplug myself, but was having a bit of trouble getting my body to cooperate. Fortunately, Tony had better luck. He unbuckled me quickly, and then carefully hoisted me out of the vehicle, holding me up when my legs failed to.

"Do you think you can walk?" He asked, concerned.

I grimaced, gripping onto him tightly. "No… I can't move properly." I was beginning to panic a little bit now, worried that something had gone wrong. Everything felt disturbingly numb.

He seemed to sense my increasing distress.

"You'll be okay, we just need to get you inside. Okay?" He spoke firmly, anxious to get through to me. I was still scared, but I nodded, believing him.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Just put your arm around me…" He scooted down and helped me to lift my left arm over his shoulder so that he could support most of my weight. Then he paused suddenly. "Wait, which shoulder is the one you dislocated?"

"My left." I replied. I felt him grimace. "But I can't feel anything right now." I assured him.

"You will in the morning." He replied, uneasily. "C'mon let's get you up to Abby's."