Through Hell or High Water by georgiewho
Summary: No one ever said that being the leader of the NCIS team was an easy job, but when Gibbs left the job to him, DiNozzo was confident he could handle it. He hadn't expected to be kidnapped, tortured, and sexually abused. Gibbs must return to NCIS to help find and rescue Tony, but his return gets him more than he bargained for, and more than he would have ever expected from Tony.
Categories: Gibbs/DiNozzo Characters: Abby Sciuto, Anthony DiNozzo, Donald Mallard, Jimmy Palmer, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Original character, Timothy McGee, Ziva David
Genre: Action, Angst, Case, Drama, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Pairing: Gibbs/DiNozzo
Warnings: BDSM, Dark story, Disturbing imaginery, Rape, Torture, Violence
Challenges:
Series: None
Chapters: 6 Completed: No Word count: 6872 Read: 30363 Published: 01/04/2013 Updated: 01/04/2013

1. The One Where Abby Plays Messenger. by georgiewho

2. Typical, Tony's In Trouble. by georgiewho

3. Up Shit Creek Without A Pedal. by georgiewho

4. The One Where You Think You're Alone, But You're Not. by georgiewho

5. Ziva On His Six And Good Rules To Follow. by georgiewho

6. You Should Always Expect The Unexpected. by georgiewho

The One Where Abby Plays Messenger. by georgiewho
Ziva had tried talking to both McGee and Ducky, the two she was closest to at work, and both had tried to convince her that everything was fine, that it was all some big misunderstanding. And as much as Ziva wanted to believe that, she knew it wasn't the truth. Their new director was a friend of her father, although one she had never met. What clued her in, though, was when she forgot her purse at the office and came back one evening to find a group of men she did recognize in his office. She hadn't had a chance to get photos or anything, but when she saw them meeting up at a cafe in town another day, she'd gotten photos and gone right to Abby.

It wasn't something she wanted to tell the girl, because Abby worried enough about everyone on the team as well as the man Tony had taken over for. She worried too much sometimes, and Ziva hadn't wanted to add even more to her plate, but she couldn't avoid it, so she brought a Caf-Pow in with her to soften the blow a little.

"Hey Abby, can I talk to you about something?" she asked, setting the drink on the table in front of the other woman.

"Hold on just a second, Ziva," Abby replied as she peered through the microscope for a moment longer, writing down the results before she spun on the stool and grabbed up the drink. "Ziva! You shouldn't have, thank you!" she said enthusiastically, throwing her arms around her and giving her a hug before taking a big drink of her soda. "What is it?"

"It's about the new director," Ziva told her. Right to the point. "I wasn't sure at first. I suspected, but I'd never seen him before." She was rambling, and she knew it, but she felt like she needed to explain since McGee and Ducky hadn't believed her. But now she was sure, and she had proof. "He's a friend of my father's, Abby. I've seen men in his office that I know are some of my father's men, and that's... it's not good, Abby. My father's not a good man."

Leaning forward to listen to the woman, Abby's eyes widened and she sucked hard on the straw between her lip, seeming transfixed by her words. "Did you tell Tony?" Abby asked right away, almost having said 'Gibbs' instead of Tony.

"No," Ziva admitted, shaking her head and furrowing her brow as she started to pace in front of Abby, a hand dragging through her curls. "I told McGee and Ducky when I first suspected something was up, but they tried to reassure me and tell me that I was mistaken. I have proof, Abby, photos. Do you think Tony would even believe me?"

"Well, it depends, Ziva," Abby said seriously, once she'd unwrapped her black lips from around the straw, "There's not much proof you can get from a lunch date, not without knowing what they were doing," she explain. "But maybe... maybe if I talk to him instead..."

"Could you, Abby?" Ziva asked right away, the relief clear on her face. "It's just that... some of the men know me, and if they know I suspect something, things would be even worse. I haven't wanted to get too close for that reason."

Abby nodded. "Good thinking," she said seriously, tapping her lip with a fingertip before, spinning back to face the microscope, removing the sample, covering it and slipping it back into the fridge. "Well, Tony usually comes down here in his lunch break, I'll talk to him then." It was decided, there wouldn't be anything said, no questions asked, she would do it.

"Thanks for the Caf-Pow, Ziva!" And that was it, she wasn't paying any more attention, going back to her work, since she was the only one here that could do it-and she preferred it that way.

"It's no problem, Abby. Thank you for talking to Tony," Ziva told her sincerely before getting back to her own work, not wanting to raise any sort of suspicion.

It was a couple of hours before Tony showed up for lunch, having been busy with an interrogation. He'd picked up lunch for both him and Abby, something he often did since the new job title had come with a hefty paycheck, and one that he didn't even need since he was single, lived on his own, had no kids, and a car that was paid for. Why not take care of his team? He had Chinese food in one hand and a Caf-Pow in the other, and he set it all down.

"Sorry I'm a bit late, Abs. Got a bit busy. Anything new going on down here?" he asked her, since it had been she and Ducky communicating back and forth today instead of him relaying the messages like he normally would.

"Not really," Abby said, pausing a few moments after, thinking about what Ziva had told her, not sure if she really wanted to bother Tony with it, but that was his job, wasn't it? "Well, I talked to Ziva today... I'm worried, Tony."

Abby worrying was never a good thing, even if what had her worried wasn't a big deal. Gibbs had never been able to stand when she was worried, and he seemed to have passed that along to Tony when he'd passed along the job title. Tony stopped pulling the food out of the bag and gave Abby his full attention.

"What is it, Abby? Something to do with the case?" he asked with a slight frown.

"No, well, I mean it could be, Tony, but I don't think it is. It's about the new director," Abby said with a serious expression leaning in closer. "Ziva has photos of him eating with her fathers men, or was it with Ziva's father? She talked a lot about her father, but Tony, I think she might be right, that guy always does give me the creeps!" she wailed the last bit.

This wasn't good. The details weren't clear, but the emotion Abby was showing made it clear that she was worried, and it sounded as though she had reason to be. Ziva hadn't told him much about her family when he'd hired her, but she'd told him what he needed to know, and even that had been enough for him to know that she did not come from a good background, and that her family was not a force to be reckoned with.

"Her father's men, you're sure?" he asked Abby, trying to keep from looking as worried as he felt, for Abby's sake.

"Yes, she has photos and I think if you don't do something she'll probably do something stupid, she has that look, Tony," Abby told him seriously.

That definitely got Tony's attention. "The boss mentioned something about having plans tonight when he was on the phone earlier. I'll follow him and look into it, see if I can find anything out," Tony told Abby reassuringly. All he needed was proof and then he and Ziva could go and talk to someone that was higher up-together.

With that sorted, he went back to pulling the food out of the bad, pushing one of the containers toward Abby. "Got your favorite, and there's some rice, if you want some," he told her, placing another container between them before holding up the drink. "Also got you this, but I suppose you don't want it since I see you already have one..." he teased with a grin.

"You can never have too many, Tony," Abby beamed at him and took it over to the fridge storing it inside for later when everyone was too busy to bring her one. She tugged at a ponytail before picking up the food and starting to dig him the frown disappearing from her face now that she knew Tony was going to take care of things.

"Thanks Tony," she said and kissed his cheek before settling in and getting comfortable.

"Abby, what sort of boss would I be if I didn't look into things like this?" he asked her pointedly, taking (or more like scarfing) a bite of his own food, not having eaten all day.
Typical, Tony's In Trouble. by georgiewho
Later that night, after everyone had gone home, Tony was pretending to work late on a case, waiting for the director to leave. By the time he finally left, the other man didn't seem to suspect a thing, just wished Tony a good night, and good luck on the information he'd lied about looking for before he slipped out of the building. Tony only waited long enough to make sure the director wouldn't suspect that he was being followed before he shut his computer down and left as well.

It didn't look suspicious at first, the man just getting into his car and pulling out of his parking space, heading for the highway. Still, Tony followed, because he'd promised Abby, and he stayed far enough behind that he wouldn't look suspicious. When the car stopped outside a cafe and the director went inside, it looked as though he would just be having dinner alone, but nearly fifteen minutes later, three more men joined him, two of them he recognized from when Ziva had been warning him about her past.

He had the proof he needed, and he took a few snapshots of his own, making sure it had the time and date stamps in case they needed them for some reason. "Gotcha," he said to himself, flipping through the photos he had to make sure the men were visible.

DiNozzo was so absorbed in the photos that he didn't notice anyone approaching until they were on his and everything had gone black, three new men standing over him, one with a tire iron in his hand, the others being motioned over as someone barked through the radio in his hand.

Eight hours later had Abby worried, but this was Tony and Tony could take care of himself, that's what she kept telling herself as she walked around her lab, hugging her stuffed hippo, giving him a squeeze and finding herself oddly relaxed from the flatulent sound coming out of her stuffed friends rear end. "Oh Tony, why did you go?!" she huffed as she passed, she couldn't go to McGee or Ziva-Ziva would blame herself and McGee would probably tell someone, the only person she could trust with this was Tony-or Gibbs.

After chewing at her fingernail and staring at the phone for a moment, she finally shoved the stuffed hippo onto the table and grabbed the phone, dialing Gibbs' number and waiting for him to pick up. She almost hung up, but if nothing else, Gibbs could assure her that Tony was fine-he had always been good at calming her nerves.

"Gibbs."

"Gibbs," Abby repeated with a frown, the worry clear in her voice.

"Abby! I haven't heard from you in weeks."

"I think something's wrong with Tony." 'There was no time for small talk right now!' Abby thought to herself and just jumped right in.

"What's wrong with Tony?"

Abby took a deep breath, preparing herself for the small speech that she needed to give to explain what had been going on. "We had to get a new director and he's a real creep, Gibbs. And Ziva wasn't very sure about him either, and now he's been hanging around friends of her father's and her family is dangerous, Gibbs, they're really dangerous! Worse than Ari! So I did what I had to do, right? I told Tony about it because you left and you made him the director of the team, so I told him. He needed to know, Gibbs, and I thought he would be fine, he was just going to check it out. But he said he was going to look into it last night, and now it's morning, Gibbs, and he's not at work and he hasn't called, and I just don't know what to do!" she rattled out, only stopping to take in one breath in the midst of all her talking , and by the end she was panting into the phone, sounding even more worried than she had been before she'd made the call.

"Why the hell did he go out there alone?! Why didn't he have back-up, Abby?!"

Abby pursed her lips and flailed her free hand a little, looking frustrated and almost ready to cry. "I didn't think about it, Gibbs. He was only supposed to be having a look," she said after a few moments of trying to come up with a good reason.

"And what am I supposed to do about it? I'm not exactly a short drive away."

"I don't know, Gibbs," Abby admitted after a second, still frowning. "I just... I just need you here. We all do, Gibbs."

Putting the phone down without answering her, Gibbs rubbed at his sun darkened face, feeling the facial hair rough under his hand before he was turning around and looking at everything he had here. He hadn't wanted to go back at all, but he supposed they needed him-DiNozzo needed him to save his ass again, why wasn't that surprising? He remembered the first day he'd met him, how unkempt he'd been, late to the interview after having resigned from his last job as a Baltimore cop after finding out his partner was a dirty cop.

He'd been there working a laundering case which had overlapped the young man's and he-Gibbs had helped Tony find out the truth before he invited the cop to join NCIS. From the moment he'd met him he'd felt protective over him and he'd known in his gut then that Tony was a good man and that he was more than just trouble.

Gibbs had a bad feeling in his gut right now.

The older NCIS agent headed into the bedroom, dialing the number for the airport to book a flight back to Washington, D.C.

It was time to find Tony.
Up Shit Creek Without A Pedal. by georgiewho
Having taken the red eye back to D.C, Gibbs had gone straight to NCIS headquarters, heading inside without even signing in, walking past security. He slipped into the elevator just as it closed and he looked over at the young woman staring at him. He reached up and rubbed a hand over his unshaven face-there was no time for that, though. Waiting until the woman stepped out at her stop, Gibbs hit the floor the basement, heading down to the morgue.

He was only planning to go see Ducky and found himself pleasantly surprised to find them all gathered and talking-about him, even. "Hope who shows up, Abby?" he asked, stealing McGee's coffee out of his hand and taking a sip.

"Gibbs!" Abby cried gleefully, almost as though she'd forgotten why she had asked him to come in the first place. She rushed past Ziva and McGee, who were blocking her path to Gibbs, and practically launched herself at the older man, throwing her arms around his neck in a tight hug. "I wasn't sure you'd come! You just hung up and now you're here!"

"Abby, you might want to let him breathe before we find ourselves with an even bigger problem on our hands," Ducky advised, having been on the receiving end of one of those death grip hugs.

Not even smiling, because of the situation, Gibbs pulled away and gave the coffee back after making a face. "What have you got?" he asked briskly, getting right to business.

"Boss, we think we have their location..." McGee started to say, already pulling out a case file from his bag and passing it to Gibbs as spoke.

"You think, McGee?"

"Well, we're waiting for confirmation..." McGee explained, swallowing hard.

"Confirmation from who, McGee?"

It was Ziva who jumped in this time, knowing more about the situation than any of them. "One of my contacts. These men... they're friends of my father, and my father is not a good man. But there are some of them that are more loyal to me than to my family and they've told me that they might know whe-" She stopped, noticing the look she was getting from the older man. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"How do you know they're loyal? I won't take any chances. This is one of my team," Gibbs said forgetting that he'd just left them and wasn't even on the team anymore-he just would always consider himself a part of it. "How do you know?" he asked stepping closer to her, his tone having a biting edge to it now, Gibbs not sure if he could trust her people after what had happened with Ari. Jenny may have hired her before he'd left but it didn't mean he had to trust her 'contacts'. Trust had to be earned, not given freely.

Having earned that trust from the rest of the team, Ziva wasn't used to this sort of suspicion any longer and her jaw clenched as she stepped forward. "You know what I've been through, Special Agent Gibbs," she told him in an equally biting tone. He had been the one to get her the job, for crying out loud! Why would he have done that if he hadn't trusted her judgement? "I know better than anyone to watch my back. I would not go to just anyone with this situation, especially when my father is the one behind it in the first place. I trust them with my life," she told him seriously.

"Good," Gibbs replied and turned away from her, holding the case file out in front of him, having left his glasses with his stuff. He turned to Tim and handed it back to him. "Give me the short version, McGee."

"We think they're located downtown in an old storage warehouse," McGee told him, showing him some of the photos that had been taken. "It doesn't looked to be heavily armed, but appearances are deceiving. But I'm sure you already knew that..."

"Then what are we waiting for?" he asked them almost angrily before he was heading towards the doors of the morgue. "And someone get me a coffee."

"On it, Gibbs!" Abby told him with a salute, using the wrong hand to do so as she started out of the lab past them.

"Abby," Gibbs stopped her and nodded at Ducky who was over by his table looking worried. "Work with Ducky on keeping that new director distracted," he told her before he was grabbing up his stuff and then leading Ziva and McGee out of autopsy and into the elevator.

Though Abby looked disappointed about not being able to go and help find Tony, she knew that the director would have to be kept distracted, so she saluted him once again as the three of them left. "Good to have you back, Gibbs!" she called after him, just before the elevator doors closed so that she wouldn't get any argument.

When they'd stepped off the elevator, McGee veered off to get Gibbs some coffee, leaving him and Ziva to discuss the case more thoroughly. Ziva jumped right into it now that she felt as though Gibbs had a little bit more confidence in her.

"The men that I saw aren't the most dangerous, so I'm sure Tony is still alive," she assured Gibbs in a hushed tone as they headed for the exit, knowing McGee would follow them once he'd gotten the coffee. "But they're still very ruthless, and I'm sure he's already up shit creek without a pedal, even though they haven't had him in their custody for long," she said seriously, not catching that she'd messed up the phrase since Tony wasn't there to correct her.

The corner of Gibbs' lips curled up in amusement, the older man pushing open the door and letting Ziva through before following after. "Well, I guess we'll have to be just as ruthless," he said and pulled out his sidearm, double checking that it was in order before he was slipping it away again. There was a serious look on his face as he pulled the keys from his pocket, unlocking the rental car. It was a lot smaller than he would have liked, but they would manage. He didn't get in, waiting for McGee.

"Can you do that for me, Ziva?" he asked her, giving her a look that was granting her permission to use any means necessary to get Tony out of there.

"I think we both know that I can, Gibbs," Ziva affirmed seriously. "Would you like me to be discreet about it, or is discretion not an issue this time around?"

Before Gibbs even had a chance to answer, McGee was opening the back door of the car and slipping into the small space, passing a large cup of coffee through the space between the seats. "Here you go, Boss," he told him, disregarding the fact that Gibbs was no longer his boss.

Finally getting into the car, Gibbs paused a moment. "There's no need for that, they weren't discreet when they took Anthony," he said, taking the coffee from McGee. Knowing it would be too hot, he put it in the cup holder and started the car, Ziva getting into the passenger seat and looking over at Jethro.

"Anything you say, Gibbs," Ziva said, already planning the things she'd do to the idiots who had taken and hurt Tony. "They'll be walking like cows when I'm done with them."

"Uh, Ziva..." Tim started as he put his seat belt on, just in time for Gibbs to pull out onto the road with a squeal of the tires. "It's 'walking like cowboys'... at least that's what I think you meant."

"They'll be lucky to be walking at all when I've finished with them," Ziva told McGee with a bitter laugh, doing up her own seat belt, although Gibbs drove much better than she did.

"Remind me not to piss you off," McGee mumbled before pulling up the coordinates on his phone, having gotten them from Abby before leaving. "Alright, Boss, you're going to turn left at the second light and follow it all the way down to the road just before the highway. I'll tell you where to turn once you're on that road," he told him, watching the GPS as Gibbs swerved around a slow moving vehicle, taking a left like directed.
The One Where You Think You're Alone, But You're Not. by georgiewho
Tony had lost track of time, but he was sure that it had been days by then, and if that was the case, then it wouldn't be long before his team was able to locate him. Or at least, Tony was hoping so. He'd been beaten more times than he could count, they'd nearly drowned him several times from dunking his head underwater for long periods of time, they'd electrocuted him. But that wasn't even the worst of things. On top of all that, he'd had two fingers broken, been shot in the foot, and he'd been raped over and over and over again. That last part, he wouldn't tell anyone, how could he? It was embarrassing, demeaning, and all he could feel now was pain, no matter how he moved. The only time he'd felt any relief was when he'd been unconscious and hadn't been able to feel anything.

Now, though, he'd just woken up from being unconscious, and for once, it wasn't to men surrounding him. It was only him in the dark room, at least as far as he could tell, but when he lifted his head to try and confirm that, he almost immediately dropped his head back down with a groan, wincing. He needed to get out of here.

What Tony didn't realize was that he wasn't alone like he'd thought, in fact, they all sat quietly in the shadows watching him, letting him stew for a while, while they took a break. They knew he was awake and they left him like that for another few minutes before there was a sharp, quick sound and flame lit into the air as Nadav stepped forwards, lighting his cigarette.

"How are you feeling, Special Agent DiNozzo? Would you like something to drink?"

Out of the dark stepped another man, tipping a bucket of water over the agent's head, the man throwing the bucket away and stepping back as Nadav stepped forward, the glint of a knife catching the light of his cigarette in the dark.

Shit.

Managing to hold back a sigh, DiNozzo kept his face as straight as he could manage, not willing to give these assholes the pleasure of seeing him scared or intimidated. They'd brought out a knife before, but not much had come from it at the time. It had been shortly after he'd first arrived, and they'd held it to his throat then, as they laid down some of the ground rules, letting him know just who was in charge. He'd come out of it with only one wound from where they'd pressed the blade into the skin of his neck as a warning. He wasn't sure that would be the case this time.

"Knifes and cigarettes?" he rasped. "Look out, we've got a badass over here." He never had learned the art of keeping his mouth shut.

Nadav swung the handle of his knife around, connecting it with Tony's shoulder before two of his men were grabbing the man, one holding Tony's hand up and out as the knife barer approached. "It's such a shame you couldn't keep your abnormally big nose out of things, Tony," he said before shoving the tip of his knife under the nail of his index finger, blood welling up around the nail now. "I won't be asking you this again. Who else knows?!"

Tony sucked in a sharp breath and let it out with a shudder, barely holding back a scream. He didn't want to give these men the satisfaction of knowing he was in pain. "No one," he gritted out, puffing out a breath. "I heard the new director on the phone," he told them for the first time, having held back that information for as long as he could. It was the truth, even if it wasn't the entire truth. He would never tell them that the rest of his team knew about what was going on, but he would tell them what he could without putting his team in danger. He was, admittedly, losing his control, becoming weak. He just wanted this to stop.

It wasn't enough to please Nadav, however, and the man moved to the next finger, doing the same, sliding the tip of his knife into the nerves under his nail. "I didn't ask how you found out, DiNozzo, I asked you who else knows-and I don't believe you. Bring the slithers of bamboo," he said, slipping his knife away as he took one up when they were brought to him.

Grabbing the special agents hand, the man inhaled sharply on his cigarette before he shoved the splinter of wood under DiNozzo's thumb nail, leaving it there and grabbing another piece, moving to his other hand now, wanting to inflict as much pain as possible.

"Let's try this again, Agent DiNozzo..."
Ziva On His Six And Good Rules To Follow. by georgiewho
Gibbs took no time at all to get to the warehouse that Tim called out directions for. He pulled up outside with a sound of tires burning and he climbed out, not even turning the car off-a determined look on his face. "Ziva, I want you on my six, Timothy, you make sure no one gets in and out unless it's us," he told him over his shoulder, Ziva catching up to him, gun already drawn.

With the way she'd been raised, Ziva had to be alert and aware, and it wasn't long before she saw the slightest movement out of the corner of her eye and spun on her heel, only taking a second to aim her gun before she was shooting twice, hearing the man fall to the ground with a thud and a groan. He'd gotten one shot in before going down, but it had flown past Ziva's head, his aim terrible.

"Keep your eyes open, Gibbs. I know you're good, but so are these guys," she told the man in a hushed tone. "Most of them, anyway." She assumed they had the best of them working closer to wherever they were keeping Tony.

"Rule number-" Gibbs started only to be interrupted by Ziva.

"Three, never underestimate your opponent."

"That's not rule three, rule three is 'Don't believe what you're told. Double check.'"

"Those are Tony's rules... he doesn't have as many as you apparently," Ziva told him seriously, clearing the the area as they closed in on the warehouse in front of them.

Gibbs smiled a bit. "That's a good rule," he said before he was all business again, Ziva kicking in the door on his count and the two of them rushing into blackness, their guns going off as they brought down the men in the room. It wasn't until the room fell into silence that they dropped their guard and Gibbs headed over to where Tony was tied up, only to find him out like a light. He brought his hand up and checked his pulse, finding it strong and steady despite the blood he could smell strongly. Pulling out his knife, the older man, cut Tony free and pulled his arm around his shoulder lifting him and shouting at Ziva.

"Grab his other arm!"

The two of them managed to drag Tony's almost lifeless body out of the warehouse just as the dead man's cigarette caught fire on an old newspaper, smoke starting to rise. Ziva stumbled and Gibbs took most of DiNozzo's weight, pausing to wait for her to right herself. He was hit before he could even realize that they were in trouble, the shot to his shoulder sending him and DiNozzo stumbling backwards into the sunlight.

There were a few more gunshots, two from McGee's gun, one from the man who had shot Gibbs, and one from Ziva. It was a shot from McGee's gun that sent the shooter to the ground, his gun sliding a few feet away.

"Gibbs!" Ziva shouted, putting her gun at her hip before she was grabbing Tony again, taking some of the weight once again so that Gibbs could worry about himself. Once McGee had checked to make sure the man was dead, he kicked the weapon even further out of the way-just in case-and rushed over to help.

"Gibbs, are you alright?" he asked, the concern in his voice almost overwhelming, nerves rattled from not knowing what had gone on inside.

"I'll be fine, it's just a scratch," Gibbs grumbled. There was sweat at his brow, but he slipped Tony's arm back over his shoulder, actually looking furious when Tim tried to take him from him so he could tend to his wounded shoulder. "I said I'm fine, McGee!"

"Yes, Boss, but it-Okay, Boss," Timothy fell silent, knowing not to argue by this point.

"We need to get both of you to a hospital," Ziva said, leaving no room for arguments. "I'm driving."

"Ziva... I don't think that's a good idea, we don't need one of them to have a heart attack on top of all this," McGee spoke up, trailing behind them as they headed for the car.

Turning around to glare, Ziva was tempted to flip him off, but she was having a hard enough time carrying Tony that she held back. "They need medical attention and you drive like a banana, McGee," she pointed out. "Why don't you make yourself useful and get the door open?"

McGee's mouth opened to argue before he just seemed to decide to forget about it, rushing in front and opening the back door so they could get Tony inside.

It wasn't easy.

It was a small car and Jethro was injured, not to mention the fact that Tony was just dead weight, not helping in any way. They finally managed to get him in, his head leaning against the window, the agent on a sort of angle, half sitting up, half slumped.

Both Gibbs and McGee went for the front door and all it took was a look from Gibbs and McGee was climbing in the back with Tony. The older man climbed into the passenger seat, his hand instantly coming up to put pressure on the wound that had now soaked a good quarter of his shirt with blood. Ziva didn't even give them a chance to put on a seat belt before she was pulling out into traffic, heading for the hospital. She was a lot better than she had been, but she was still dangerous and drove around cars and even onto footpaths on occasion.

They made it to the hospital in record time, something Tony would have no doubt teased Ziva for, had he been awake to do so. The woman actually missed being scolded, and glanced in the rearview mirror at him to check up on him.

Apparently, McGee had made a call while they were en route, because before Ziva even had a chance to get out of the car, there were nurses rushing out with a couple of wheelchairs, ready to help in whatever way they could. Ziva helped one of them get Tony into a wheelchair, the other two nurses that had come out left trying to convince Gibbs to sit down in the other.

"Sir, we need to get you inside," one of them tried, reaching up to place a hand on his uninjured shoulder to try and guide him to sit in the chair.

"I still have legs," Gibbs told them before he was walking around them and following Tony and the nurses into the hospital, leaving an exasperated looking nurse behind.

"Is he always like that?" She asked Ziva, putting her hands on her hips.

"I haven't known him very long, but from what I can tell-"

"Yes," McGee finished for her, circling around the nurses to follow Gibbs inside the hospital, wanting to make sure he was alright-he'd lost a lot of blood already. "Boss, you're at least going to let them get the bullet out and stitch you up, aren't you?" he asked the older man, aware of the fact that Tony was the priority right now, but knowing that Gibbs wouldn't be of any help if he didn't take care of himself.

"Of course he is," Ziva replied for him, earning a glare from the older man, one she returned with a smile and a look of her own. "Aren't you, Gibbs?"
Gibbs arched his brow and didn't answer just carried on walking, allowing the nurse to attend to him as he walked, the woman helping him off with his blood soaked shirt, pressing a handful of gauze against the wound. The nurses took Tony through to emergency, the double doors closing behind them as the nurse forced Gibbs to sit down on a bed.

"The Doctor will be here shortly..."

"Give me what I need and I can do it myself," Gibbs said, irritated that he would have to wait. he would have been better off letting Ducky do it.

"We're... not allowed to-" she paused, taking note of the look he was giving her-sort of... scolding and expectant, as though she wasn't doing what was expected of her. "I'll see what I can do," she mumbled before scurrying out of the room right as Ziva walked in.

"What in the world did you do to scare that poor girl off already?" she asked, sounding rather amused by it.

"He wants to take the bullet out of his shoulder himself," McGee explained, frowning in obvious disapproval. "She's gone to get him what he needs."

"I'm not sitting here waiting around for a Doctor to do something I can do myself," Gibbs said gruffly, worried about Tony.

"Go outside and wait for any news to do with Tony," Ziva instructed McGee, pointing to the door and giving him quite the look. She felt a little bad for it, knowing that McGee was only worrying for Gibbs, but she also understood why the older man didn't want to wait. She could already imagine the scene if McGee realized that she planned to pull the bullet out of his shoulder. "You'll have a lot of trouble getting it out one handed. Let me help," she offered, sitting next to him to wait for the nurse to return.
You Should Always Expect The Unexpected. by georgiewho
When she'd been certain that Tony and Gibbs would be alright, Ziva had gone to take care of the director on her own, knowing that none of them were likely to want to watch how she did that. She left Gibbs asleep in the chair beside Tony's bed, and McGee was in the hall nodding off as well when she left. That had been a good three hours ago.

It was only now that Tony sucked in a deep breath, his eyes starting to flutter open slowly. The first thing that he noticed was the lack of pain and the steady beeps that filled the room. Immediately, he knew that he was in a hospital, and he turned his head to the side, expecting to see Abby only inches from his face, fretting over his well-being. He was surprised to find Gibbs with his shoulder bandaged, slouched down in the chair beside the bed, his chest rising and falling with even breaths, obviously asleep. He debated waking him for a moment, but decided that this was Gibbs, and he was likely to be more upset about not being woken up in a situation like this.

"Boss," he spoke, finding his voice to be gravelly and not very loud at all. He cleared his throat, wincing at the slight pain he felt from it, even with the medicine, and tried again, louder. "Boss."

Blinking awake, Gibbs' eyes found Tony's and he shifted, leaning towards him almost as if he hadn't been sleeping at all. "How are you feeling?" Gibbs asked him, stretching with a crack of old bones, the chair having not been the best place to sleep.

"Never been better, Boss," Tony lied, although whatever they'd put in his IV was working wonders. He at least couldn't feel it when he wasn't moving, and that was definitely an improvement. "What brings you back to D.C.?"

Instead of answering, Gibbs reached out and smacked him upside the head, glaring at him. "I had to clean up your mess again, DiNozzo," he told him gruffly. "Why the hell did you go alone?" he asked him. "You know you should have taken McGee, or Ziva, hell I would have taken the both of them!"

"Ow," Tony hissed, wincing when he reached up to rub the back of his head. "Don't you think I've been through enough without you abusing me too?" he asked, trying to milk the situation a bit. He wouldn't look for real sympathy, though, that wasn't his style. "I didn't expect things to get so... out of hand," he told Gibbs honestly, but he didn't elaborate on how out of hand it had gotten. There was plenty of physical damage that Gibbs could assume enough of what had happened.

"You should always expect the unexpected DiNozzo," Gibbs said pointedly. Now that Gibbs knew that Tony was all right he didn't feel the need to hang around, he had McGee for that. "You should get some sleep, you're going to need it," he told him as he stood up, stretching and walking around the bed, glancing out the door at McGee, seeing him asleep and he gave the chair a kick, almost sending Tim to his feet in fright.

"You make sure no one gets in here without my say," he told McGee, turning his eyes back to DiNozzo. "We'll talk in the morning, Tony."

"Not going to hang around, Boss?" DiNozzo asked, wincing and grunting as he tried to sit up. He trusted that Gibbs would be around in the morning, but he wasn't sure how long he would be around. He didn't want him to go yet.

Pausing in the doorway, Gibbs turned and looked at Tony with disbelief. "It's three am, DiNozzo," he told him, but the corners of his mouth curled up. He didn't make anymore of an attempt to leave, though, just watching as McGee scrambled into the room.

"Tony, you're awake," McGee looked relieved, but tried not to show it too much, knowing Tony would just give him hell about it, Boss or not.

"See you in the morning, Boss," Tony told Gibbs with a nod, not having realized how late it was. No longer worried about the older man, he turned his attention to McGee, eyebrows raised. "If I didn't know any better, Probie, I'd say you missed me," he told his co-worker with an amused tone. "If you're that worried about me, you can go find me something edible, and maybe one of those jello cups. I feel like I haven't eaten in a week. How long was I gone, anyway?" he asked curiously.

"About... twenty-one hours by the time we got to you," McGee told him after a moment of thinking about it.

"Twenty-one hours?" DiNozzo asked, surprised, and sounding almost disappointed. Not that he'd wanted to be there any longer, but it felt like he had been there a lot longer than he had, and it disappointed him that he had been ready to crack so early on. "Nevermind. I want a steak, medium well, and mashed potatoes."

Gibbs chuckled at the look on Tim's face and he nodded at Tony before he was quietly leaving, digging into his pocket for his painkillers, popping a couple into his palm and throwing them back, thinking about getting himself a good cup of coffee and a much needed sleep.
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