Chapter 1
He pulled his gun out of its holster and crept along the side of the house, listening intently for any sound. "Mike?" Nothing. "Mike!" Still nothing. Damn. Where the hell did you go Mike? Gibbs is going to kill me. He looked cautiously around the corner into the backyard. Then the world went black.

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"Tony. DiNozzo? Tony!" Damnit, DiNozzo. It sounded like he'd been a little late with his warning of a security breech. He ran out of MTAC and out of the building. He broke every single traffic law in the District of Columbia on his way to the safe house, alternately swearing at other motorists, the idiot that he was attempting to get a sit rep from and just swearing at the world in general. He screeched to a halt mere inches from the ambulance that was parked in front of the house. He moved quickly through the house to the backyard, ignoring the agents that were now scouring the house for anything that could identify the people that had taken Mike and attacked Tony.
When he got to the backyard he stopped short. He had expected to see Tony there, probably flirting with one of the EMT's, but when he saw Tony it was on a stretcher, still unconscious, blood on his jacket. Damn. It looked bad. Whoever attacked Tony must have hit him pretty hard, to cause that. He headed for the nearest paramedic "How is he?" He asked gruffly.

"It's hard to say. He lost a lot of blood, head wounds tend to do that. We won't know anything until we get him to the hospital or he wakes up," she told him.

He moved over to the stretcher, looking at his Senior Field Agent grimly. He should have just kept Mike at NCIS. Or at least on the Naval Base. He should have had more people outside the house. Mike was sneaky and he really didn't want to have the agents guarding him.

He saw a paramedic walking towards him from the corner of his eye, but didn't look up from Tony's face. "Sir, we have to take him to the hospital now. Would you like to ride with him?" The man questioned Gibbs as the others prepared to move Tony.

"Yeah." Gibbs said absent mindedly, following the gurney. The ambulance had been moved so that the back was hanging over the front lawn. They loaded Tony in the back and Gibbs followed, taking hold of the younger agent's hand. The ride to the hospital passed in a blur and the next thing he knew he was standing in the waiting room dialing the number for Abby's lab.

"You're on the air!" Abby cheerful voice answered. He had to smile slightly at her always unique way of answering the phone.

"Abbs… Tony got hit on the head by-"He started to say, but Abby interrupted him.

"Again! That man needs to wear a football helmet 24/7 or something. Seriously." Abby sounded exasperated.

"Abbs, he hasn't woken up yet. And he lost a lot of blood. Whoever hit him really did a number on him." He heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line and continued quickly "Abby, I'm sure he'll be fine. This is DiNozzo we're talking about. The man that survived the plague. This is nothing for him." He wasn't really sure who he was trying to convince.

"But Gibbs! That's just it! Tony's luck has to run out sometime! No one can be that insanely lucky forever!" She sounded close to tears.

"He'll be fine. I'll call you as soon as I get any news. I have to call McGee and Ziva and tell them what's going on." Gibbs told her in an attempt to placate her.

"What about Ducky? He'll want to know about it. And maybe he could translate medical into English for you." Abby questioned Gibbs.

"Can you call him?" Gibbs asked her tiredly. He really didn't want to deal with Ducky's new found coolness towards him right now.

"Sure, Gibbs. What hospital are you guys at?"

"Bethesda. Thanks Abbs."

"No prob. But you'd better call me the minute there's any news!" She warned him.

"Sure Abbs. Bye." He ended the call and dialed Ziva's number. She was much easier to talk to in a stressful situation than McGee, who still tended to get flustered.

"David," she answered curtly. She sounded as if she was ready to commit murder. Then again, she probably was. She and McGee had, after all, spent the day looking through puke.

His conversation with Ziva was quick and succinct. She was a straight to the point kind of person. They had found the particular pile of vomit that they had been searching for and were just packing up. After they took it to Abby he told them to go over to the safe house and lead the investigation there.

After that he had to call the Director and tell her what was going on. The conversation had ended when she suggested that Franks might have been the mole and that he had attacked Tony. Gibbs had hung up on her mid-sentence.

But as he sat there now, he couldn't help but wonder how far Mike was willing to go to stop these guys. He was wondering if this was Mike's Ari, or as Tony had put it, Moby Dick. He didn't think that Mike would be capable of this- oh, who the hell was he kidding, Mike was capable of it. But being capable of something and actually doing it were two totally different things. But then he thought back to the times when he had been looking for Ari. Mike had been drinking Corona on a Mexican Beach for 10 years and he didn't really give a damn about DiNozzo.

God help him, if Mike was the one that hit DiNozzo, he would kill him. He didn't give a damn how much Mike wanted these guys, nobody got away with hurting his people. Especially DiNozzo.

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After what felt like an eternity he spotted a doctor walking towards him and stood up quickly.
"Are you here with Special Agent DiNozzo?" The doctor asked. Gibbs nodded and the man continued. "He's currently in a coma. We're hoping that he will come out of it in the next day or so. We can't know the extent of the damage until he wakes up, but it doesn't appear that there will be any permanent damage if he wakes up."

"If? What the hell do you mean if!"

"His file shows… an impressive amount of head traumas. Each one increases his risk of falling into a permanent coma. However, we are hopeful that he will wake up. He is young, healthy and in excellent physical shape." The doctor told him.

"Can I see him?" Gibbs asked resignedly. He was definitely going to make sure whoever had done this to Tony died a slow and painful death.

"Of course. Follow me, please," the doctor smiled reassuringly at him. Gibbs simply glared. The doctor shifted uncomfortably and turned away from Gibbs, leading him down sterile white hallways. God, he hated hospitals.

The doctor stopped outside of a room and turned to Gibbs "Would you happen to know how I can get hold of a-" he flipped over a page on his clipboard "Leroy Jethro Gibbs, he's listed as Agent DiNozzo's next of kin." The doctor asked.

"Yeah. Two feet in front of you," Gibbs said, exasperated.

"Oh. Well, in that case. Never mind," the doctor smiled at him.

"Why did you need next of kin?"

"Well, it's procedure to notify them and we wanted to make sure they were in the area, in case anything needed to be signed." The doctor explained. "He's in this room here. I'll be back to check on him in a few hours. If you need anything, just ask one of the nurses."

Gibbs took a deep breath and opened the door. What he saw made him stop short. Tony looked so vulnerable. Gibbs cursed softly as he stared at the figure on the bed. He moved over to the chair that sat beside the bed and once more took hold of Tony's hand, silently urging him to open his eyes.