Contingency: Rebound

AN: This is the third installment of the Contingency series.

I have been very absent in the fanfiction world for years now. But it appears that I'm bouncing back into it. This will be my third story in the past couple of weeks. I'm hoping this motivation/inspiration sticks around.

Enjoy!

*~.~*

Having time on your hands is more often than not, just the worst. If you have things to occupy that time, great! If not, however... If you're spending all that time doing so much of just nothing it gives your brain a whole lot of time to think about dreaded feelings. Mostly the not good feelings, of course. Because it's not so much about being alone that makes all of the nothing seem so terrible, but more about the lack of anything that makes you feel some inkling of good.

Well that was Tony's dilemma right now. It had been his dilemma for months now, actually, and why did they always have to come to him with the high profile undercover cases, huh? Where did he have to click to unsubscribe from that option? It was bad enough when he was doing something like this while also balancing his busy work schedule with the MCRT. As difficult as that had been, he had to admit that being halfway across the country and forbidden to contact anyone outside of the job itself and Agent Fornell for reports, was really beginning to hurt. Not even just emotionally. Emotionally it'd started hurting way back in the beginning. It was kinda like when he'd been forced Agent Afloat all those years ago, except at least he got to communicate with the team in some fashion. Now the best he could do was get a thumbs up from Fornell that everyone was alive and okay back home.

Tony rubbed his hands down his face and let out a long breath. The color glowing from the crap TV was the only thing that lit up the hell hole of an apartment he was stuck in. He was tired of all of this waiting around, as that seemed to be most of what this entire crap case was at this point. No end in sight. If he didn't think it'd cost him his job, he'd quit just so he could go home now. Which was kind of ironic since he didn't even work for the goddamn FBI. Stupid SecNav and its stupid PR bullshit...

He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the couch, planting his elbows on his knees. It was late, and he should really be trying harder to sleep, but it just wasn't going to happen. All of the doing nothing made for a poor combination come bedtime. If Fornell would just give him some damn instructions so he could keep his mind occupied, that'd be amazing. Alas...the phone remained silent. His stomach felt empty and achy, and his head felt heavy. Sometimes he really hated his job...

*~.~*

"It's been three and a half months, Tobias!" Gibbs yelled into his phone. "Leon's tryin' to stick me with a replacement now!"

"We didn't realize it'd take this much time, Jethro, but we're close. I can feel it."

"And if you're wrong?" Gibbs heard Fornell sigh on the other line. "I want my agent back. You shouldn't have taken him for this in the first place."

"You know he's the best man for it, much as I hate to admit."

"And you know he doesn't like havin' to do these things anymore." His tone had softened some, but the heat behind it hadn't faded. "You've got him cut off from everyone. He's got nobody, Tobi."

"He's got me," he countered with a hint of sarcasm. "And you know as well as I do, he needs to stay in his cover. He can't be a man with nothing to lose if he's got you checkin' in on 'im."

"I want this done. You get this done with, you hear me? Finish the damn case!" He ended the call, tossing his phone to the workbench in his basement. Aside from Ziva leaving, the team hadn't been separated like this in ages. Especially not since the Contingency incident. Not that there had been any repeats of any abilities in the years leading up to Tony's assignment, but still...the closeness developed between them had only grown stronger, and now he wasn't there. He missed the hell out of the SFA, and he knew the rest of them did, too. Hell, lately he could swear McGee had looked on the verge of tears on a few unexpected occasions, but he'd never called him out on it. He knew Tim worried about Tony. Especially after Ziva went back to Tel Aviv and ended up being killed. How could he not relate the two?

The longer Tony was gone, the worse it seemed to get. The only joy Abby seemed to derive was when she, Bishop and Tim thought they were secretly teaming up after hours to try and figure out where Fornell had Tony. Not that Gibbs was going to stop them from doing so. As long as they were playing it safe, they secretly had his blessing. He just wished he could do something more to help, besides chewing Fornell's head off.

The sound of his front door closing drew Gibbs out of his thoughts. He looked up at the door at the top of the staircase, expecting whoever it was to come down, but after a few moments of nothing, his gut had him going upstairs instead, grabbing his gun from the bench before doing so. He peered around the corner from the doorway, squinting his eyes in concentration, then turned towards the living room. He lowered the gun when he saw McGee standing in the foyer, his head down and his fists clenched at his sides.

"Tim?" Gibbs slowly approached. The younger man's head picked up as he met Gibbs' eyes, and Gibbs' breath caught at the sight of him. Tim's eyes were red, face wet with tears and a mixture of embarrassment and devastation plastered his features. "Oh god...what did they find?" Gibbs thought as he set his gun down on the table. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked as he approached him the rest of the way.

"I-" Tim's breath shook, and he tried to steady himself enough to inhale. "Uh...this is gonna sound...crazy, boss," he began. "But can I uh... Can I...hug you for a minute?" He looked back down after asking the question, and Gibbs surprised him by taking the small step forward to pull the younger man into an embrace.

Gibbs felt Tim's arms snake around his back to return the hug, somewhat melting into him. He could feel the silent, quaking sobs and it just about pushed him over, too.

"Hey, Tim, talk to me. What's goin' on?"

"It's...it's Tony," he replied wetly.

Something in Gibbs' chest burst. He pulled out of Tim's embrace just enough to look him in the eyes. "You found him?"

"W-what?" Tim's brows pinched in confusion. "Y-you knew we were... Wait, no. No that's-" he pulled away the rest of the way and swiped at his eyes as he made his way to the living room. "That's not what I meant, Gibbs." Tim plopped down onto the edge of the couch and wiped his hands over his face one more time as Gibbs sat in the chair across from him.

"You're not makin' much sense, Tim."

"I know. I didn't know what this was either, but I do now."

"Didn't know what what was?"

"This," he said gesturing to his face. "This...emotional vomit...thing that's been happening to me these past few weeks. I get hit with these overwhelming bouts of...emptiness, depression, loneliness...anger I think. And I thought I was just frustrated and missing Tony, and I do miss him, but this...this isn't all me, Gibbs."

Gibbs squinted in thought for a moment, his eyes shifting in the air between them. "You think..."

"I think it's Tony," he finished for him. "I've been having dreams that I couldn't understand until tonight. I think I'm dreaming what Tony's doing, wherever he is. And I think he's losing it over there."

Gibbs clamped his eyes shut, pressing rough circles in his forehead with his fingertips. This was a bit much to take in. It had been years since Tony and Tim had the weird psychic connection that had happened after Tony had used his ability to heal him. No signs of the Contingency effects had shown up at all since a little over a week after Tim's rescue from the hot car on the rooftop. They'd all just assumed that whatever it was, was gone.

"How?" Gibbs asked, laying his hand down on the arm rest.

"I know we thought this link was gone, but...what if it was just dormant? Like it's back because he needs help?"

"You sure about this?"

"No. I mean...Either it's him, or I'm losing my mind and need to be committed somewhere."

Gibbs exhaled and sat forward in the chair. "If this is Tony and he does need help, Fornell doesn't know about it, and we've got no idea where to look for him."

"I think I know where he is..."

*~.~*

"Okay, guys," Bishop said from her seat at the table aboard the jet, once again being loaned by the BAU, whose agents, Dr. Reid and Agent Prentice, were also tagging along to help out. "What is it we're doing now? Because all I've been told is to grab my gear and get on this jet. Where are we going, why are we going, and why all the secrecy? Does this have something to do with Tony?"

"Well you've got that part figured," Gibbs said.

"So we're going to Tony. Why?"

"He's in trouble."

"How do you even know this? Fornell hasn't given us any leeway with the undercover operation. We aren't allowed to communicate with him. Did Fornell call you in?"

"Doubt he knows we're even coming," Gibbs replied. "Hasn't answered my calls."

"And because of the nature of their mission, there is no GPS to track," McGee added.

"If there's no GPS to track, how do you even know where to go?" Bishop asked.

"It's uhh... It's complicated," Tim told her.

"We got a message," Gibbs supplied. "It was vague, but McGee decoded it."

"So Tony contacted you?"

"Yeah," Tim replied, knowing that technically he had, and that wasn't a lie. "In a way, yeah."

"I don't understand," Bishop said, shaking her head.

"Look, this is sensitive information that...well, in all honesty we didn't think we would ever need to divulge," Tim said. "But it looks like we might have to." He glanced to Gibbs, who glanced over at the two BAU agents who had been quietly observing the interaction.

"Yeah. Maybe it's time we tell her," Gibbs said. "You wanna do the honors?" he asked Tim.

Tim shrugged. "It's a long story, so...I need you to keep an open mind and trust what I'm telling you. I know you can keep a secret. There's only a handful of people who know about this..." Tim told her the story. He'd started by asking her if she'd remembered the tanker incident some years back with the unidentified agent who was victim to the spill, and ended with the rescue on the rooftop of the car lot, and how there'd been no sign of abilities since. She'd stayed silent for it, mostly. Her eyes danced about in the air between them as he'd explained, her brain analyzing every piece of information given.

"I started getting these visions in my head," Tim continued, "And it's why we're going where we're going. At first it was just...like an emotional thing, but now...he's hurt and in danger, and Fornell isn't responding."

"Not even to us," Agent Prentice chimed in.

Ellie glanced over at the BAU agents and back to Gibbs. "So they know about all of this?"

"They're part of the team that helped us bring in Gideon."

"And everyone...believes all of this," she said, more a statement than a question.

"Does that mean you don't?" Tim asked, a brow raised.

Ellie glanced back and forth between him and Gibbs. "If it was anyone else telling me this, I wouldn't. But I trust you. If what you're saying is true, have you at least taken advantage of having Gideon in your custody? His DNA should be studied at least. Who knows what kind of information can be pulled from it..."

"It's been done," Tim told her. "It's being done still."

"Your lab?" she surmised.

"Every variable it can come up with, it's testing for, in addition to attempts to find a cure...or well...a treatment at least. Originally I started that for Tony's sake. We kept it running though."

"It's been running for years and hasn't made any progress?"

"The compound is unknown. We don't think it's of...earthly origin. If Dr. Reid's theory is correct, this substance, whatever it is, came here with an asteroid."

"Uh...so this is like...alien stuff," Bishop said in disbelief. "Science fiction. Or I guess...science nonfiction. This is so many levels of strange." She sat there for a moment looking down at the table surface. "But...it's also kinda...exciting," she said with raised brows when she looked back up at her teammates. "Right? I mean...how cool is this?"

Tim and Gibbs shared an amused glance before Gibbs turned back to her with a more serious expression. "It's not cool until we get Tony out of this," he told her. "I just hope we're not too late..."

*~.~*

Earlier...

"...you know as well as I do, he needs to stay in his cover. He can't be a man with nothing to lose if he's got you checkin' in on 'im." Fornell ran a hand down his face as he attempted to reason with the bear on the other line.

"I want this done. You get this done with, you hear me? Finish the damn case!" And that was where Jethro had ended the call. Tobias rolled his eyes as he set his phone down on the small counter in front of the surveillance equipment where he sat in the back of the small, disguised van. He wanted to be done with this case as much as Gibbs wanted him to be, but these nuts were hard to crack. Getting into the operation was one thing, but getting in deep enough to take everything down? Well that was proving to take a lot more time. Not because Tony wasn't capable, mind you, but the higher-ups in the group were very cautious. As they should be, he supposed, but that wasn't doing him any favors.

He sighed and sat forward in his chair, tapping a few buttons on the keyboard in front of him, switching camera feed to the inside of Tony's alias's apartment. The view of the couch showed the lights from the television, not to mention the fact that no one was on the couch at the moment. "What're you in the bathroom or somethin'?" he asked out loud, though he'd need to text the kid to actually get that message across. He picked up his phone, but before he could open a text, someone grabbed him from behind, a cold, damp cloth pressed over his nose and mouth. He struggled. Hell, he'd been trained for this kind of situation. But he'd been caught so off guard, he didn't have a chance to implement that training before his world became dark...

tbc...