A/N: OK, so I know it's traditional to have the prologue before the main story, right? Lol. Well, in this case I decided otherwise. I thought the story worked and flowed better when it was entirely from Jeanne's POV, so I decided this intro part wasn't needed. But then I also decided I liked this part, and that some of you might be interested to know what led to Tony's injuries, and the story of the little boy's rescue. So here it is: it's short and sweet, but if you want to read it, you're welcome to.

Gibbs sat across the table from the suspect in the stark interrogation room. His face was a stern glare but inside he was privately amused. He'd managed to goad the man into incriminating himself. The proud ones were always easy to get that way. Gibbs had picked him as the sort that would boast about his achievements, and he was right. A prod here, a slight insult there, and the guy had to defend his intelligence by giving away what he'd done. It'd almost been too easy, and the ball of anger in Gibb's gut settled in satisfaction as the man realised what he'd said.

"You might as well tell me the rest of it, then, don't you think?" suggested Gibbs calmly. "It's over now, anyway."

A sneer formed on the other man's face. "Oh, it's not over."

Gibbs' expression revealed nothing. "No?"

"Always gotta have a back up plan. In this case, a timer. Should I be prevented from manually detonating the bomb.." he casually glanced at his watch, and chuckled.

That ball in Gibb's gut suddenly froze solid. Within seconds he was out the door, ignoring the increasing laughter behind him. Ziva and Tim emerged from the observation room at the same time.

"Notifying the bomb squad, boss," said Tim quickly, phone already to his ear.

"Stay here to coordinate, McGee. David, with me." Gibbs brought his own phone up as they hurried to the elevators.

"DiNozzo," came the familiar voice on the other end of the line.

"The bomb is live and on a timer, get everyone out of there now."

Tony swore under his breath and hung up. The scene was a block of older flats, evacuated earlier but now various families were drifting back. No one had been allowed to go inside yet, despite the number of frustrated parents that had been asking. They wouldn't be until the bomb squad had arrived and dismantled the device in the basement, but once the man with the detonater had been arrested the need to keep people away from the building had lessened.

Tony acted immediately. He jumped onto the hood of the nearest police squad car and whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. "We have a live bomb. Evacuate the area NOW! I repeat! Evacuate the area, we have a live bomb! Evacuate!"

The three local LEO's who had been guarding the scene with him ran up as he jumped off their car. "You hear something we didn't?" asked one.

"Yeah, the bomb is on a timer, no idea how long it's got. I want the blockades back where they were earlier, and no one within 500 yards of this building." Tony knew how to take charge of a scene. The LEO's immediately headed for the nearest bystanders and started herding people away in a hurry. One of them intercepted a woman running towards the building, crying. She broke past him only to be grabbed by Tony.

"I can't let you go back there ma'am, it's not safe."

"But my Jonas, my son!"

Tony's blood ran cold as he held her shoulders and pushed her back to look at her properly. "Where is he?"

"I don't know, I think he tried to go home, he wanted to earlier, I thought he was at the playground but just now when I checked his friends said he'd gone home.."

"Where do you live? Which number?" Tony asked in desperation.

"Unit 21.."

Tony passed the woman back to the LEO who'd tried to stop her. "I'll look for him -get her out of here." Without hesitation he turned and ran into the building, ducking under the police tape blocking the doorway. He ran up the stairs two at a time, adrenaline providing the extra boost to allow him to keep going after the first few floors. Units 13, 14, 15 and 16. His cell rang and he ignored it. Units 17, 18, 19 and 20. He flew up the last flight of stairs and wasn't sure whether to be relieved or dismayed that the door to Unit 21 was ajar. It meant the kid was probably here, but at least he wouldn't have to waste time standing at the door knocking.

He searched the apartment at breakneck speed. "Jonas? Jonas! Are you here?" He looked under and around furniture, ignoring his ringing cell phone again.

He entered the last room, a boy's bedroom. A boy of five or six was sitting on the bed with a dinosaur in hand. He looked at Tony fearfully. "Jonas! Come on, we gotta get out of here." He hurried across the room and tried to pick the boy up, but Jonas was having none of it. He screamed and kicked and flailed before bursting into tears, screaming for his mommy. "Jonas, it's alright, I'm going to take you to your Mom," Tony huffed, finally getting a grip on the boy and heading out the door. "Your Mommy's waiting for you outside Jonas, she's really worried, but we'll go straight to her, ok?" Tony thought he should keep talking -isn't that what you have to do to keep kids calm? -but he was out of breath and trying to run back down the stairs now. He was hurrying and still had plenty of adrenaline pumping but he didn't want to risk falling with the boy in his arms. Even still, heading downstairs was quicker than going up had been.

They made it to the ground floor, Tony intimately aware that every step had been taking him closer to the bomb in the basement. He had a split second to think that he might just pull this off when he heard it. A rumbling sound he knew too well. He threw himself towards the wall and the last thing he remembered was trying to cover Jonas' body with his own.

Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought!