A/N: This is my first NCIS fanfiction, please be gentle. It's not betaed, so all mistakes are mine and whatever the spellchecker misses. Please read and review.

One by One, by Tweeter

Gibbs pulled out his cell phone and angrily punched in the speed dial code for DiNozzo. He knew that once Tony saw Gibbs' name on his cell he'd answer the call and when he did, he was in deep shit.

Gibbs didn't even wait for Tony to say anything when the connection was made, "DINOZZO! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" he yelled, "You better have a damn good reason for not being here and not answering your phone."

"I'm afraid Agent DiNozzo can't come to the phone right now," a cold, male voice replied.

Gibbs froze.

"Where's Tony?"

A chuckle from the other end sent chills down his spine, "Oh come now Gibbs, aren't you going to say hello?"

"I said, where is Tony?" hearing the tone of Gibbs' voice, McGee and Abby looked over at him, noting the tense set of his jaw and the pallor in his face. He looked up and signaled for them to trace the GPS signal on Tony's phone.

"He's unable to speak with you right now. Well, he's really not able to do much of anything, if you must know."

Gibbs closed his eyes momentarily, gathering his wits, "If you hurt him in any way, there is no government agency in this world that will be able to protect you, Ari." McGee was on the phone calling for backup while Abby typed furiously, getting the location of the GPS signal.

Ari Haswari laughed, "I'm very sorry that I didn't give you a chance to say good-bye to Caitlin, Gibbs, but I did like her and thought I'd be merciful and give her a quick death."

"You bastard," hissed Gibbs, "Why her? What do you want with Tony?"

"To hurt you," Ari's voice was calm, "Not just because you shot me, that was quid pro quo, Gibbs, you owed me that." Gibbs looked over at Abby who made "just one more minute" signals frantically.

"No, I wanted to bring you down a peg or two. You're so self-righteous, everything is black or white, your way is the only way. How does it feel, believing you know everything, Gibbs? Does it make you feel powerful? God-like?"

Gibbs took a steadying breath, "I have strong convictions."

Haswari laughed, "You could put it that way. I admire the loyalty you instill in your people. DiNozzo admires and respects you deeply, he has no doubt that you'll succeed in hunting me down and killing me. He's very brave and didn't make a sound through everything we've done to him. It was probably macho pride," this said with an ironic chuckle, "He did manage to assure me that I'm a dead man." Gibbs' eyes closed in pain, the knuckles of his hand holding the phone were white.

"I've decided to let him say goodbye to you, before he dies. I know you're tracing this call Gibbs, I want you to, but you'd better hurry, he doesn't look very good."

Abby motioned McGee over to the desk. Grabbing a piece of paper and pen she started scribbling something and shoved the paper at McGee. He read the note and hurried back to the phone to give the back-up the destination; he then gave the note to Gibbs who read it and nodded.

Signaling McGee to get the car, Gibbs tried to keep Ari on the phone, hoping to catch him at the scene.

"How do I know Tony isn't dead already?" he asked, as he entered the elevator, hoping his connection held.

"You don't," replied Haswari, "that's part of the game. Can you make it here in time to save your man, or will you get here to find a body, still warm. Even if you get to DiNozzo while he's still alive, how serious are his injuries? Are they fatal? Will you have to watch him die, holding him as he gasps his final breath?"

"This isn't a game," growled Gibbs as he pulled McGee out of the car and pointed him to the passenger seat.

Ari laughed, "Oh, but it is, Gibbs, and I'm winning, three to zero."

Desperately trying to stall, Gibbs sped down the highway toward Tony's location. "How do you figure that?" he asked casually.

"You know," replied Ari, "but that's enough of this, I know you've traced the location of this phone by now and are headed this way, so I'll just take my leave. Until the next round, Gibbs."

The connection cut off and Gibbs threw his phone out the window in frustration.

"Damn it! Where's the back-up? Are they close?" he yelled at McGee.

"They're five minutes away."

"Tell them to block all exit routes around the building. Nothing within three square blocks gets out of there."

"Yes Boss."

"And tell them to wait until we get there. Is an ambulance on the way too?"

McGee spoke briefly into the phone, listening to the reply. "The ambulance is fifteen minutes away, they were delayed by a traffic accident."

Gibbs pounded the steering wheel, veering wildly at top sped, "Tell them to get their asses moving!"

"Yes, boss." McGee relayed the message, verbatim.