Disclaimer: NCIS and it's characters are the sole property of people other than myself and I derive no profit from this story.

A/N: This is just a prologue, future chapters will be substantially longer. Let me know what you think. :D

The T.A.D.

By Mamapranayama

****************

Prologue

Falling sure wasn't the hard part.

But the sudden stop at the bottom was a different story.

Looking up at the sky, his lungs still reeling from having all of the air forcibly stolen from them, he realized it was a really beautiful day, something he hadn't been paying much attention to before. The spring sun was shining warm rays down upon him and there wasn't a cloud to be seen in any direction. All he could see was blue. Even the light, sweet scent of blooming cherry blossoms floated on the breeze and grazed his cheeks tantalizingly.

But Tony didn't give a damn about that right at the moment.

He couldn't breathe.

"Tony!" Ziva's far-off voice called out from above, but he couldn't see her. To do so would have meant moving his body and lifting his head, which wasn't going to happen any time soon or ever again, he thought grimly.

Just as he thought he was going to suffocate before his lungs remembered how to function again, he took a deep breath in. For his effort, he was immediately rewarded with a sharp pain lancing across his chest and even though he could breath again, he wasn't sure he wanted to anymore.

Maybe suffocating would have been a more pleasant way to go, he mused.

It wasn't just his chest now that screamed in agony, but now that the initial shock of falling was wearing off, his whole body registered flames of torment with the majority of pain radiating from his right thigh. Drawn to the source of the injury, a shaky hand felt for his leg and encountered a sticky moistness that somewhere in his dazed mind registered as blood.

Lifting his hand to his face, he confirmed that it was indeed blood and regretted the decision to look at his fingers.

Flopping his hand back down, he noted with a detached sense of reality that the bright sky was morphing from a brilliant shade of blue to a splotchy gray with darkness rolling in quickly from the corners of his eyes, but he wasn't entirely certain that it was actually clouds causing the world to grown dimmer.

Maybe it was him that was fading.

As sky above paled, it became blocked out completely when a familiar face came into what was left of his field of vision.

"Hold on, Tony. Stay with us." Gibbs spoke and touched his shoulder, but he could barely hear him. He seemed so far away, but he was right in front of him. And was that concern, maybe even a hint of fear on the former Marine's normally stoic face?

He was so screwed.

He had to be dying for that to happen.

"Sure would like to boss." Tony was certain he said or at least that was what he was thinking he should say as the scene faded to black.

TBC.....