"Missing In Action, Pt. 3"
Colombian Motel...
Tony's Room...
Tony is asleep on the bed in his motel room.
His body language, even though he's asleep, tells a story filled with sorrow and pain.
.........DREAM-LIKE SEQUENCE.........
Tony and the marines, the DEA Agent, and the woman, Marta, raced through the dense foliage heading in the direction of what Tony hoped was the extraction point.
"It shouldn't be much further!" Tony shouted, as they ran forward through the dense foliage of the forest.
By now Tony figured that they should be in the clear as far as actually reaching the extraction point in one piece.
Tony halted where we was.
"Keep going it should just beyond the next break!" he shouted to the group.
The group paused and turned towards Tony.
"Wh-where are you going?" one of the marines asked.
That was Corporal Toby Masters, Tony thought. He was being held up by PFC (Private First Class) Craig Dunsworth.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be right behind you." Tony reassured them, before heading back into the forest from where they had originally come.
As Tony ran back towards the point where he and Gibbs had separated he could hear shouting, and some gun fire.
"Gibbs!" he shouted out as loud as he could, as he ran.
No answer.
"Gi-" Tony started, as he slipped through another thick pocket, only to feel something hard strike the back of his head.
The blow sent him sprawling across the ground.
It took him a second to regain his bearings and shake the disorientation from his head, but when he did he realized that one of Cota's men was now charging at him at full speed with a bayoneted rifle.
Tony hopped to his feet quickly, and was just barely able to use the goon's momentum against him, flipping him over onto his back.
Tony tossed the rifle aside, and turned to finish the job when the goon lashed out with his legs kicking Tony in the shins.
Tony feel to his knees uttering a cry of pain. The goon jumped to his feet and threw a left hook which Tony quickly deflected by grabbing the goon's arm in mid-swing and the throwing a punch of his own which hit the goon square in the stomach.
The goon fell to the ground, and Tony quickly scrambled to locate his dropped Sig.
Then, suddenly, from behind him he heard the familiar click of a gun priming to fire.
He turned his head slowly only to find his own Sig pointed at him. It looked to Tony as if the goon had actually won this one.
The goon shouted something in his native tongue, loudly, so that his comrades could hear him, and then he turned back to Tony.
The goon uttered something that Tony couldn't understand.
Then, suddenly, there was the sound of a gun shot, and then the goon dropped to the ground dead--with a bullet hole in his head.
Tony turned to see Gibbs running towards him.
"What the hell are you doing here!?" Gibbs barked, angrily.
"I told you to get to the extraction point!" Gibbs snapped.
"I came back to find you." Tony said, breathing heavily.
As he helped Tony to his feet, that's when they realized that Tony had somehow, during the struggle, sprained his ankle.
"Ow, ow." Tony moaned.
"It's sprained." Gibbs said, as he helped Tony balance against him. "Think you can walk on just one?" Gibbs asked, rhetorically of course.
The two of them started to make their way back towards the extraction point as quickly as possible, but from the sounds that they heard that wasn't quite fast enough.
"They'll be on us in a matter of minutes, Boss." Tony pointed out, panting.
"Yeah." Gibbs replied.
"Leave me." Tony said suddenly. "You'll get there faster if I'm not slowing you down."
Gibbs didn't stop, didn't hesitate, he just kept pulling Tony along as fast as they could go.
"Not gonna happen, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, breathing heavily, but seriously. "A Marine never leaves a man down...ever."
With Cota's men close behind them, Tony and Gibbs finally emerged in the clearing where the helicopter was waiting for them.
They paused a moment so that Tony could re-balance himself, but then they heard the shouts coming from only a few yards away.
Gibbs pulled Tony towards the helicopter as fast as he could move the two of them.
They approached the chopper just as Cota's men were reaching the clearing.
Gibbs helped hoist Tony up into the helicopter and they had him part ways into the helicopter when the shot tore right through Gibbs' side.
"Gibbs!" tony shouted.
The chopper medics quickly finished dragging Tony the rest of the way in.
Gibbs slumped forward against the side of the chopper, every muscle in his body straining to keep him steady.
Tony tried to wriggle himself free of the chopper's medic so that he could get to Gibbs, and help him in.
"GO!" They heard Gibbs shout weakly over the shouting of Cota's men and the whirring of the chopper blades. "Get them out of here!"
The pilot starred out at Gibbs for a brief moment.
"Sir?" The pilot replied, unsure.
The pilot had been told that he was to follow Gibbs' orders, but...
"I said G-" Gibbs started.
Just then a second shot tore through his left shoulder, and another gasp of pain escaped from his lips.
The chopper began to rise, slowly, up off of the ground as Gibbs sank backwards to the ground no longer able to hold himself up or hold onto the side of the chopper.
The chopper began to rise up into the air, moving farther and farther away from Gibbs.
"NO!" Tony shouted, again. "No, w-we have to go back!" He shouted at the pilot.
"We can't leave him here, we can't-" Tony pleaded with the helicopter pilot.
But his pleas went unheeded, as the pilot continued to push the chopper forward away from the danger zone.
"NO!" Tony cried out, as he watched his boss and friend slowly disappear as the chopper got further and further away.
.........END OF DREAM-LIKE SEQUENCE.........
"NO!" Tony shouted as he sat bolt-upright in the motel bed.
Tony's face was soaked in sweat, and he was breathing quite heavily.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat there his face buried in his hands.
It was a dream that he'd had often--since he'd gotten back from Colombia the first time.
'Why do you always have to be the hero, Gibbs?' Tony thought to himself.
"It should've been me...not you." Tony said aloud, quietly.
Tony wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt.
'What time is it?" he wondered to himself.
Tony looked at his watch, and since he hadn't bothered to reset it, he had to manually compensate for the difference in the time zone(s).
"Better get ready I guess." he said aloud. "First, a shower."
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Colombian Motel…
Bathroom…
Tony stood in the shower letting the hot water run over him.
He had to remind himself not to drink any of it, and to keep his mouth closed.
“Never leave a man down!” A voice shouted in Tony’s ears.
Tony jumped backwards slamming into the back wall of the shower.
“What? Who?” he gasped.
His heart raced wildly in his chest.
He looked around, but there was no one there.
“Not again.” He muttered under his breath, as he righted himself up, and tried to regain his composure.
“Never!” the voice cried out in his ears.
“I know, I know!” Tony shouted back.
And then everything was quiet again.
Tony reached up and switched off the water, stepped out of the shower, grabbed his towel and dried himself off.
He stood looking into the mirror at himself (his face) for a brief moment.
“I will find you, Gibbs…that’s a promise.” He said to himself.
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Colombian Forest...
Cave...
The three men had finally given up their chase/search and now Gibbs could finally breathe...at least for the moment anyway.
He sat down on the hard floor of the small cave, which luckily for him he'd found it to be vacant.
As he sat there he raised his tattered shirt, and examined the scars that his injuries had left behind.
The first had been a knife wound on the left side of his mid-torso, the second was a GSW on the right side, and the third was the GSW in his left shoulder.
Cota's men had left him for dead, but he'd been fortunate enough that the kindly old man, Raul, had found him when he did. Raul had nursed him back to health, and had kept him hidden from Cota and his men.
And in the end, Raul had paid for helping Gibbs with his life.
He'd dreamed, more than once, of being found and rescued but so much time had already passed that he knew his chances were very slim if even at all.
He figured if help were to come the first place they would look would be at the old extraction point--but that was in the heart of Cota's territory--so getting there would be far from easy.
For now he needed some rest. He needed to conserve his energy for the fight to come.
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An Hour or So Later...
Cantina/Bar in Colombia...
It had been almost an hour since Hatcher had said he would meet Tony here, but as of yet, he had not shown.
As Tony had been sitting in the back corner of the bar/cantina he'd seen the evening hours make the place become more and more crowded with drunks, and other low-lifes.
Tony had waited patiently for this long in the back corner of the cantina/bar silently.
An agitated Tony stood to leave, as his satellite phone beeped. He answered it as he headed for the door.
"DiNozzo." he said into the phone.
"Did you make contact?" Came Director Vance's voice over the satellite phone.
"Negative, Director." Tony said. "Contact never showed."
"Hmm, figures." Vance said. "Well that's what ya get for working with the DEA I suppose."
"Guess so." Tony agreed.
"I guess we pull out then, Agent DiNozzo." Vance said.
"Actually, sir, with all due respect...I'd like the chance to look around a bit." Tony said, quietly. "See what I can find out-"
Suddenly...
"H-H-Help M-Me." came a familiar voice from outside the cantina.
It caught Tony's attention and he looked up just in time to see a man in torn and tattered clothing, covered in what looked like blood perhaps, limp past one of the cantina's windows. And somehow, for some reason he looked oddly familiar.
"Director, could you hold on a sec." Tony said, slowly, as he pulled a photo out of his back pocket and looked at it.
He was right. The man he had just seen was DEA Agent Zach Hatcher.
He shoved the photo back into his back pocket.
"Director Vance, I'm gonna have to call you back." Tony said, quickly, as he hung up on Director Vance and then bolted for the door.
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Outside Cantina/Bar...
Tony exited the bar/cantina and found the DEA Agent leaning against the outside wall, panting and gasping for air, his body and clothes stained with blood.
"Hatcher." Tony said, as he quickly approached the agent.
Hatcher looked up, and a relieved expression crossed his face--but then just as quickly it disappeared.
Hatcher took a step forward and then collapsed into Tony's arms.
Tony gently lowered Agent Hatcher to the ground.
"Somebody get me a medic!" he yelled into the crowd of gathering spectators, but to no avail. No one, not one person, even so much as budged from their spots.
Tony held Agent Hatcher in his arms on the ground there outside the cantina/bar.
Covered in his own blood, Agent Hatcher, gasped and gurgled desperately for air.
"C-C-Cota Kn-Knows." Hatcher gasped.
"Cota knows...Cota knows what Hatcher?" Tony pressed the dying DEA agent.
"R-Raul is d-dead." Hatcher continued, desperately.
"Raul." Tony repeated.
"Raul...Raul...that's who Gibbs was staying with, isn't it?" Tony pressed.
Tony shook his head.
By this time a group/crowd of spectators had gathered to watch the scene unfolding outside of the cantina.
"Hatcher, Hatcher listen...Hatcher listen to me." Tony said, leaning the agent upwards slightly to bring him closer. "Where's Agent Gibbs?"
"G-G-Gibbs." Hatcher sputtered.
"Yes, Gibbs." Tony nodded. "Where is he?" Tony continued to press the agent.
"G-Gibbs...Raul would have s-s-sent him to-to-to..." Hatcher sputtered incoherently.
"To where, Hatcher, sent him to where!?" Tony demanded, hating himself inside for acting this way to a dying man, but this was important.
"Hatcher, where is he!?" Tony tried again.
"to-to P-Pasto." Hatcher sputtered, finally.
After relaying that last vital piece of information, Tony watched as Agent Hatcher breathed his last breath.
Tony sat silently for a few brief moments, letting everything that he'd just been told sink in, before he finally decided on his next move.
His mind, at this point, was spinning rather wildly. This wasn't going to be as easy as he had originally planned...but then again, he'd already had that particular 'gut' feeling.
One thought that constantly invaded his thoughts was that they'd been compromised, already.
Tony wiped beads of sweat from his forehead as he pulled out his satellite phone, and dialed Vance's number, as he sat in a squatting position next to Hatcher's lifeless body.
"Vance isn't gonna like this." Tony mumbled to himself.
"DiNozzo, is that you?" Vance asked, answering Tony's call, in a not too happy tone of voice, over the satellite phone.
"Yeah, its me." Tony replied, quietly.
"Care to explain why you hung up on me, Special Agent DiNozzo." Vance said. "And why you're whispering." he added at the end.
Tony sighed, and it was a sigh that was meant to let Vance know that now was not the time to jump all over his case.
"Hatcher's dead." Tony replied.
"Dead!?" Vance repeated, a degree of shock and surprise in his voice.
"Yeah, Dead." Tony re-affirmed for Director Vance.
"And, apparently, so is the guy that Gibbs was supposedly staying with." Tony then added.
"Damn!" Tony heard Vance swear over the satellite phone.
"Can this thing possibly get any worse?" Vance asked, rhetorically of course.
"Actually, Director, it can." Tony said, as he looked around, quickly.
"How's that?" Vance said, angrily.
Tony didn't say anything at first because he knew what was coming next.
"As far as we know the only two people on Earth who could lead us to Gibbs are dead, and as if that wasn't bad enough Gibbs has amnesia, and can't remember who he is or what he is...and now he's lost, probably dead himself." Vance ranted in Tony's ear.
"So tell me, DiNozzo, how can it get any worse than that!" Vance barked.
"Cota knows." Tony replied, quietly.
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NCIS HQ...
MTAC...
"That Gibbs is alive?" Vance asked.
"Yeah." Tony replied.
"Damn!" Vance swore, again.
"Which means Cota will probably be looking for Gibbs, too." Tony added.
"It means that Cota is probably the one who killed Raul and Hatcher." Vance added, in a slightly agitated tone.
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Outside Cantina/Bar...
"Well, according to Hatcher--provided Gibbs is still alive, and he is, Raul would've sent him to Pasto at the first sign of trouble." Tony informed Vance.
"There's nothing down there, DiNozzo." Vance replied.
"I know that, Director." Tony reminded Vance.
"But there has to be a reason for sending him there." Tony said.
"That 'Gut' feeling, of yours again?" Vance asked.
"Yeah." Tony replied. "Director, there's more going on down here than we know." Tony added, quietly.
"Alright, I'll bite, so what now?" Vance asked.
Tony drew in a deep breath, as his mind worked out different scenarios, to best decide what their next move should be.
"I'm gonna need everyone in on this one." Tony said, quietly.
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NCIS HQ...
MTAC...
"In that case I'll have your team standing by." Vance said.
"Good." Tony replied.
"I'll report back in 2200 hours." Tony said.
"I have a feeling if we're gonna do anything to find Gibbs...we need to make our move, soon."
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Outside Cantina/Bar...
"DiNozzo out." Tony said, into the satellite phone.
He hung up on Director Vance and shoved the satellite phone back down into its side-holster.
He slid his hands/arms up under Hatcher's body and lifted him up and carried him off, with all the spectators watching him.
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Later...
Behind The Motel...
Tony found himself behind the small motel where he was staying.
He had Hatcher's body laid out on the ground, which wasn't exactly the most sanitary he'd ever seen, but it was all he had at the moment.
Tony spent the next 45 minutes to an hour slowly and painstakingly taking photos of every inch of Hatcher's body with a digital camera that he'd brought with him, as well as collecting trace evidence (which he wasn't exactly sure what he would do with it, but he figured 'Why Not') and putting what ever he found in little plastic baggies that he'd brought with him from his 'Gear Pack'.
He found himself making some weird and funny faces as he carried out the work he was currently engaged in.
After all of that was said and done he took Hatcher's body and dropped it off anonymously at the nearest/local morgue.
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.........To Be Continued in "Missing In Action, Pt. 4".........
Author's Chapter Notes:
When Tony meets with DEA Agent Zach Hatcher, things start to get really ugly really fast.