A/N: This story was written for the NFA Phobia Challenge. It's not very long, only 3 chapters and an epilogue. It's set basically in the present, but there aren't any spoilers for season 11.

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters and I'm making no money off this story. I'm just having fun.

Spelunk
by Enthusiastic Fish

Chapter 1

"I'm not scared," Tim said to himself. "I'm not scared."

He coughed in the dust that was still lingering in the air. Then, he looked at the flashlight lying just out of his reach. When he had tried to reach it once, he had only managed to knock it further away.

At least it was on.

"I'm not scared," he said again. "I'm afraid of heights. I'm not afraid of..." He took a deep breath. "I'm not afraid of being in here."

It felt so close and empty.

At first, he had tried to shout to Tony, hoping that he'd hear some kind of answer, but there had been nothing.

"Are the batteries new? I don't remember if I checked," he said aloud.

Speaking aloud made it seem like he wasn't so alone.

Tentatively, he shifted his weight to see if anything had changed from the last time he'd checked.

He gritted his teeth against the pain.

Nope. Nothing had changed.

It was so quiet.

"Why did I just wander in here? What an idiot," he said aloud. "Tony was coming behind me. What sense does it make to go off by myself into a space like this?"

He was trying not to say the word. Saying the word conjured up images from his childhood, from reading Tom Sawyer in school...from the horror he'd felt when they had found Injun Joe.

In the cave.

"No. Don't think about that. It's a silly kid's story and Injun Joe was the villain. No reason to freak out, Tim. Stop being stupid."

He stretched out his hand, trying to get to the flashlight again.

He scrabbled against the pebbles on the ground, trying to wriggle his body forward. He stretched and stretched, pushing with his one free leg against the rock pile that had buried his other leg. If his ankle wasn't completely broken by this, it would be a miracle.

"Come on! Closer!" he said in the suffocating silence.

He tried to ignore the pain in his leg and stretch far enough to get to the flashlight that mocked him.

Seconds of stretching expanded to minutes. One single finger could barely touch it.

"If I can just get the right angle," he muttered.

His body was stretched as far as it could be, and he could feel the pain of his trapped leg, but he really wanted that flashlight in his control. Tentatively, he tried to move the flashlight his direction.

It began to roll away.

"No, no, no, no, no," Tim said, feeling the panic. "No, don't roll away!"

He sighed with relief as the flashlight stopped...but now, it was facing away from him.

His surroundings seemed much darker now. He sighed and let himself fall back to the ground.

It was definitely out of his reach now.

Tim lay on his side, breathing heavily. Some of it was from the pain he'd inflicted on himself by trying to get the flashlight. Some of it was because he was trying not to panic at the fact that he was stuck.

He'd been avoiding looking at what was trapping him where he was. Now, with the flashlight permanently out of reach and the changed angle of light casting disturbing shadows, Tim forced himself to look back.

Looming over him was a pile of rocks. When this had first happened, he had thought he would be able to dig himself out, at least to free his foot, but that wasn't coming to pass. One little shift had told him that there was more than a pile of rocks on his leg. He had been knocked out briefly by the collapse of the ceiling; so he didn't really remember what had happened, but he had realized that his foot was actually in a hole. When he tried to move it, he found that it was wedged...and extremely painful. In order to get it out, he would have to be able to move every single rock, and he had no guarantee that there weren't more just waiting to fall.

"I'm stuck," he said aloud. "I'm stuck...in a...cave."

Saying the word aloud made his stomach churn.

He felt so alone. He didn't know how long it would last. Surely, Tony would be getting help. Surely, he wouldn't leave Tim alone.

...so long as he hadn't been caught in the same collapse.

Panic briefly overwhelmed him, and Tim began pounding on the rocks trapping him in the cave. He shouted at the rocks and then fell back when more began to fall from the ceiling. He tried to protect his head, but the sprinkling of small rocks became a secondary rock fall.

As the rocks fell, Tim hoped he wasn't going to be completely buried this time.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Tim! Can you hear me? Tim!"

Tony listened for any response, but he didn't hear anything. He stared at the rocks that were settling. They had filled the entire space. Where had they come from? This didn't look like a simple cave fall. Tim had only been about ten feet ahead of him.

"Tim!"

He tried to move some rocks out of the way, but every rock he shifted was replaced by at least two or three more. For a long moment, he stared at the rocks. What was the best thing to do? Should he try to clear away the rocks himself or should he go and get help?

"Tim, can you hear me? Are you in there?"

He listened.

Still nothing.

Finally, he decided he needed more help to do this and he ran out of the cave, hoping against hope that he wasn't abandoning his friend.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The rocks stopped falling and Tim lay where he was, a bit more battered, but not buried.

He lay there for a few minutes, trembling. He was really trying not to panic again. That hadn't gone so well. He coughed in the new dust and breathed deeply, trying to calm down.

It was quiet again. The solitude was pressing in on him, making him wish for anyone to be there. Anyone at all.

"Help," he whispered. "Help, please."

At this point, it wasn't even the pain in his leg, although that was pretty bad. It was being alone that was getting to him. It was not knowing if anyone would find him before it was too late. It was not knowing if Tony had seen what happened and had been able to get help.

It was being alone that terrified him beyond measure.

Tim closed his eyes and began to breathe more quickly, trying not to panic, but panicking all the same. He couldn't relax. He couldn't calm down, not really. ...and he had no idea how long he'd been stuck in here.

In the cave.

It had been days before Injun Joe had been found...dead. Starved to death, sealed inside the cave.

Days.

Alone.

Wandering...looking for a way out and finding nothing.

Tim clenched his hands into tight fists, trying not to let the panic take over his brain again. He almost wished for the unbearable pain he'd first felt from his leg. Now, it was a constant throbbing that didn't go away, but wasn't making him want to tear his leg off.

What if he was stuck here for a lot longer?

"Should I just pull until my leg comes free...or my foot breaks off?"

That was gross to think about, but it might become part of his future if no one showed up to help him. He could easily become that desperate.

The ground was rock, not dirt. The rocks were wedged tightly together. Tim had seen the danger of moving rocks. It seemed that there was no end to the rocks that could fall on him. As much as he hated his current position, he didn't want to be buried any more than he already was.

It was so quiet.

Worse. The flashlight began to dim.

"No. No, please, don't go out," Tim said. "Please don't go out."

But it did continue to dim. Dimmer and dimmer until it was almost completely dark. Only a faint orange glow kept it from being totally black. Tim felt his heart rate increase the dimmer the light was.

"At least, I can breathe," Tim whispered. "I can breathe. I'm alive. I'm not scared of the dark."

Another long silence.

"I'm terrified."

He didn't know how long he lay there, feeling his throbbing leg, doing nothing.

Nothing broke the silence. Nothing broke the darkness.

Alone.

He lay there in a panic so deep that he couldn't even move.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"We can't leave him in there! It's already been nearly a day!" Tony said.

"Agent DiNozzo, if we do this wrong and Agent McGee is alive in there, we could bring the whole mountain down on him. If we do it right, he gets out in a few more hours."

Tony looked back at the cave entrance where there were now a number of people carrying equipment in. There had been way too much talking and way too little actual moving of rocks.

"We'll get him out, Agent DiNozzo...but we're going to do it right."

Tony looked at Gibbs and Ellie who were both here now, waiting to see them get Tim out.

"He was...ten feet ahead of me, Boss. That's all!"

"You said that already, Tony. It's not your fault."

"Feels like it is," Tony muttered. "What if he's dead in there? We haven't had any response from him."

"We don't know how far the rock fall goes," Ellie said. "Once it started, he would have tried to get as far away as possible."

"We just have to wait. They're going to start now."

Tony hated waiting.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The rocks started to shift, grinding against his leg. The resulting pain made Tim scream for the first time. Tears leaked from his eyes as he sat up and tried to pull back from the rock pile.

It didn't work. It just hurt more.

The rocks continued to shift.

"Stop!" he shouted as loudly as he could.

The shifting stopped.

Then...faintly.

"Tim?"

The voice was too muffled for him to tell who it was.

"Help!" he screamed.

"Tim! We hear you!"

"Stop moving the rocks!" he shouted.

There was silence. Silence. Horrible, deadly silence. Black and silent. He felt his heart start to pound even faster until it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.

The silence kept on.

His leg hurt a lot more now than it had before. He tried to pull it out again, but all that did was make it hurt even more.

Time passed. It seemed interminable...and silent. Tears escaped from his eyes, even though he didn't want them to. He tried to hold them back as the time got longer and longer.

...but then, there was noise.

A few rocks tumbled down and bounced harmlessly off his arm. It let in a little bit of light. Not enough to see by, but more than he'd had. Tim was thrilled.

"Tim? Are you in there?"

"Tony?" Tim asked.

"Tim! Where are you?"

"On the ground," Tim said, trying to sound like he hadn't been ready to sob just moments before.

"Where?"

"My...l-leg is pinned under the rocks," he said. "I can't get away from the pile. I'm stuck."

"Oh. Okay. We'll get you out, Tim. Don't worry."

Then...silence.

"T-Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't go away, okay?"

"Okay, Tim. No worries. As soon as we can, we'll get you out."

"Why not now?"

"There are too many rocks and we don't want to bury the rest of you by moving the pile. They need to be careful."

"Okay."

Tim tried not to be afraid. He shouldn't be afraid. They were getting him out. That was what he wanted. No reason to be scared now. No reason at all.

So...why was he still ready to freak out?

Silence.

"Tony?"

"Still here, Tim. They're starting to move the rocks. Gibbs and Ellie are out here, too."

"G-Great. Could you...tell Gibbs that...I don't think I'll be on field duty for a while?"

"Oh, come on, McGee. You're going to let a little rock fall knock you off your feet?"

"Already has," Tim said, trying to sound like he was just inconvenienced, not scared out of his mind.

"I suppose so."

Silence again. It wasn't light enough for Tim to see anything. It was too quiet.

"Keep talking, Tony."

"Sure thing, Tim. What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything." Tim couldn't admit that he didn't want the silence. So he lied. "Just to distract me from my leg. It hurts. A lot."

"Okay. I guess you don't want any comments about spelunking?"

"About what?"

"Exploring caves."

"Oh. No, please."

"Okay. Oh...hang on a minute, Tim."

"What?"

No response.

"Tony?"

Nothing. Tim tried to keep himself from panicking again. He closed his eyes and started breathing heavily again.

Then, there was noise. Distant, unfamiliar noise. More rocks began to tumble down the pile. Not big ones but they were letting more light in.

Rocks tumbled down and then, there was a large shape blocking out all the light.

"I can see him!"

The shape withdrew.

"Hello?" Tim asked, almost pleading for a response.

Then, the shape was back and approaching him.

"Hey, McGee. How's it going?"

Tim couldn't discern any of Tony's features, but he could recognize his voice.

"Hey, Tony. ...I've been better."

"Yeah, looks like it. They need to get the rocks moved, but they want to try and make it so they don't crush your leg any more than it already is."

"Sounds good...but I'd really like to get out of here," Tim said, feeling himself start to shake.

"Yeah, I don't blame you, but we need to take our time so that everything goes right."

"Already went wrong."

"That's why we need to get it right this time."

"How long?" Tim asked.

"I don't know, but we're getting you out."

"Good."

Tim tried to stay still, tried to stay calm. Other people came into the dark space. They fiddled around with the rocks. All Tim did was focus on not acting like a complete wimp. Certainly, he didn't want anyone to know that what really bothered him was not his leg (although that really hurt), but rather being left alone in the dark. He could hear Tony talking and that was good. He didn't care what Tony was saying. He just cared that he was there and not leaving Tim in the oppressive silence.

"Agent McGee, we're going to try prying up the rocks over your leg. We've got a brace rigged up, and we'll do the best we can to keep from making you hurt any more."

"Fine," Tim said.

There was more fiddling around. Tim just waited.

Then, after an unknown length of time, he felt the pressure on his leg ease just a bit.

"Just hang on, Agent McGee. We're getting there."

"Come on, hurry up," Tony said.

Tim realized that, at some point, he had started holding Tony's hand...which was weird. He wondered when that had happened because he didn't remember it at all.

"Stay with us, Tim."

"Huh?"

"No more drifting off, okay?"

"I didn't know I h-had."

"You did. Don't do it again, got it?"

"Sure, okay. Don't go anywhere, okay?"

"I haven't."

"Okay. Good."

Another easing of the pressure and, for some odd reason, that seemed to make it hurt more.

"Almost there."

"Good."

Someone propped him up at some point and gave him water. Tim accepted that as a good thing.

"Oh, I see the problem. His foot got wedged in a hole. No wonder he couldn't move it at all. Agent McGee, this is going to hurt."

"Big s-surprise," Tim said.

Then, Tim found out that, no matter how much pain he'd felt before, it was nothing to what he could feel. It wrung another scream out of him, and he'd been trying so hard to be stoic.

"It's all right, Tim. They're almost done. Hurry it up, will you?"

"Okay. Move him. Slowly. Very slowly."

Tim heard Tony swear. For some reason, that made him laugh.

"You're out, Tim."

"I'm still i-in th-the c-c-cave," Tim said, annoyed that his voice wasn't working right.

"Not for long."

"P-P-Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay."

Then, he was being moved. Then, he was being strapped onto something hard and flat. Then, he was being moved again. Then, he could see more light.

That was a good thing.

"Agent McGee, we're going to get you to the hospital as soon as we can."

"Okay."

Then, he was moving again.

"You're going to be just fine, Agent McGee."

"See you at the hospital, Tim."

"O-Okay...T-Tony." Tim hadn't realized that Tony was going to be gone.

...but when he was in the ambulance, there was still someone there.

But it was too quiet, even with the siren.

"C-Can you talk?" Tim asked the other person in the room.

"What was that, Agent McGee?"

"It's...too quiet," Tim said, thinking he'd managed to keep his fear out of his voice.

"Okay."

There was a comforting wash of words that carried him to the hospital. Then, he was moving again. Then, he was in a room with a lot of people. A doctor was saying something about his foot and his leg. He nodded when he was asked a question, although he hadn't heard what was being said. It was just a wash of words that he was supposed to agree with...so he did.

Then, he was moving yet again. Then, there was something happening and he was starting to fade into darkness.

"N-N-No...not...back in...the dark," he mumbled.

"You're just falling asleep, Agent McGee. When you wake up, you'll be in a hospital room, not the cave."

Tim tried to resist the darkness and the silence, but he couldn't.

He fell into black.