Title: A Deeper Connection

Summary: What did the kidnappers do to Tony and Gibbs? Will they be able to work through it and deal with the emotions that now plague them both.

Feedback: Always welcomed and appreciated

This one is a little different for me, hope everyone enjoys it, more soon.

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It was cold, so cold that he actually shivered. Why the hell was his bedroom so cold? And why didn't he have a blanket on? As he went to open his eyes excruciating pain shot through his head and he instantly slammed his eyes closed. What the fuck! His head was pounding, not just pounding thumping, drilling pain. He lifted his hand to his head and felt a different pain, a prickly pain shot down his arm and danced across his chest. Then his stomach cramped and he knew, knew he was going to vomit. Rolling on to his side, the pain in his head and arm washed over him again and the bile made its way up his throat and he retched, losing the contents of his stomach.

He never got sick, never even got a hangover. He'd thrown up twice in his entire life, now three. Again he wanted to open his eyes but this time they simply refused to listen. Why the hell couldn't he open his eyes? What the hell was going on? He took a deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth and he instantly regretted it. The smell of urine, blood and death again made his stomach clench and he fought the urge to vomit again. Concentrating on his eyelids, he gave his brain the order again. Open your goddamn eyes! It worked but as soon as his eyes opened another wave of pain ripped through his head. Stay open, stay open. He repeated the mantra over and over as he clutched at his throbbing head, but even with his eyes open he couldn't focus. The world around him was nothing but a blur of colors and shapes. The one thing he did realize, even through the pain and visual confusion was this was not the his bedroom or the basement.

Why didn't he remember? Trying to avoid the smell, he took a few more slow deep breathes through his mouth. Gradually, the pain lessened to a degree where he could pick his head up. Focus! He told himself as blobs of color started to become clear. Shit! Not good. There was a male body against the wall, gun shot in the head and chest, another laying on the floor about two feet away blood pooling around the body, also dead. Gingerly turning his head, two more bodies were laying off to his right, again with pools of blood already congealing around them. Finally, he looked behind him and his heart instantly stopped, the bile starting to rise again. God please no. Crawling on his hands and knees, he made his way to the prone body, each move causing the prickling shooting pain to return, but somehow the fear overrode it.

"Tony!" The word came out as little more than a whisper. He pressed two fingers against Tony's jugular, a small sigh of relief escaping his lips as he felt the strong pulse. Another dizzying wave of pain and nausea washed over him as he struggled to focus on Tony's face. Some bruises, lacerations, scrapes. His eyes skimmed down Tony's body looking for any obvious gunshot wounds and found none. Good. Again his eyes made another pass down Tony's body, this time seeing the gun in his hand and the deep wound on his right bicep. Slipping the gun in his waistband, he pulled at the bottom of his shirt tearing a large strip off and wrapping it tightly around the gaping wound in Tony's arm.

Then a groan.

"Tony." Gibbs whispered. "Can you hear me?"

Another groan.

"Tony. Come on wake up." Gibbs paused. "Talk to me."

"Gibbs." Tony spoke the name then coughed. "Sick."

Quickly rolling Tony onto his side, Gibbs held the younger man there as he threw up. Once the retching stopped, Gibbs spoke again. "Can you get up?"

Even as he shook his head, Tony was trying to sit up, he made it but started to collapse back.

"I got you." Gibbs sighed, instantly wrapping an arm around Tony's back. "We need to get out of here."

"Did I get em?" Tony asked his eyes still closed.

"Yeah. You got em." Gibbs snickered placing Tony's arm around his neck. "But I don't know if more are coming."

Gently, Gibbs pulled Tony to his feet, keeping an arm firmly around his waist. He heard Tony winch and the hand on his shoulder tighten.

"Give me a minute." Tony pleaded as he tried to open his eyes, the excruciating pain in his head forcing him to close them again.

"Tony." Gibbs cupped Tony's face. "Take a deep breath through your mouth, open your eyes and focus on my face. Okay?"

There was a slight nod.

"I won't let you fall." Gibbs waited a moment letting Tony take a few deep breaths. "Open your eyes."

A guttural growl rang through the air as Tony opened his eyes, the searing pain making him want to pass out.

"Look at me." Gibbs barked. "Focus on me."

Tony's knees buckled, but as promised Gibbs held him firmly.

"Slow breath." Gibbs kept his eyes locked on Tony's.

After a few more breathes, Tony finally nodded. "Better."

Gibbs quickly scanned the bodies, only one had a gun. Dragging Tony along, he picked up the gun and checked the clip, then stuck it in the other side of his waistband. Then he started searching the man's pockets. Please have one. Gibbs thought. He wanted to scream with relief when his fingers brushed against the hard plastic of the phone.

"You ready?" Gibbs looked at Tony.

"Give me a gun."

"Tony you can hardly stand."

"I know." Tony sighed. "At least I can scare the shit out of them. Even if I can't hit them."

"Yeah." Gibbs pulled one of the guns out of his waistband and again checked the clip. "You have four."

Tony nodded.

Placing the gun in Tony's left hand, Gibbs made sure to look in Tony's eyes as he spoke. "Only if I tell you to use it okay?"

"Yeah."

The door to the small room they were in was open and silence filled the space around them. He dialed a number on the phone, the male voice instantly picking up.

"Agent McGee"

"We're alive McGee."

"Boss-where-we."

Gibbs groaned as the phone cut in and out. "Listen don't speak." Gibbs took a deep breath. "No idea where we are, trying to get out now. Leaving the line open, trace it."

"What-can't-try-"

"Think we're underground." Gibbs continued to speak, knowing McGee was only getting half of his words. "Get an ambulance here once you get the trace."

"We-there-open."

The phone suddenly went dead and the phone beeped. He glanced at the display. Call lost. "Son of a bitch." Gibbs growled tucking the phone into his shirt pocket and grabbing the gun from his waistband.

Tony whined as the pain throughout his body intensified again.

"Here we go." Gibbs nodded to Tony.

"At your three boss." Tony managed to mutter.

Scurrying cautiously down the hallway dragging Tony with him, Gibbs stopped at each turn saying a silent prayer that no one would be waiting around the corner for them. The first corner, clear, then the second and third, clear. It was the fourth that caused the problem. When Gibbs glanced around the corner, a man was sitting against the wall, a gunshot wound in each leg but still conscious and holding his weapon. He caught a glimpse of Gibbs and started firing. Slamming both himself and Tony against the wall, he waited counting the shots as they echoed around them. When he peeked around the corner again, his gun was already aimed at the man's chest. The shot rang out and the man sputtered dropping the gun.

With a quick glance at Tony, Gibbs started to move again as a thought rushed through his head. Someone is cleaning house. Another corner and two men on the ground both with several gunshot wounds to the chest...and a door. Getting rid of the help, leaving no witnesses.

"Almost there." Gibbs sighed praying the door lead to the outside and not some room full of armed men. A soft shuffling sound suddenly made him spin around to the sight of a man with a bandage leg rounding the corner gun pointing at his head. As a shot rang out, the man's arm jerked back and he dropped the gun, Tony's shot hit him in the right bicep. Two rounds from Gibbs own gun followed, hitting the man in the chest and he collapsed back.

Tony half chuckled. "Not bad for seeing three of him."

Gibbs nodded. "Not bad." Leaning Tony against the wall, he quickly pulled at the heavy metal door surprised to find it open. There were steps leading up to another door. A door cracked part way open, day light streaming down over the top five steps. This was too easy, something wasn't right.

"Trap?" Tony sighed heavily as his knee's wobbled.

"Maybe." Seeing Tony's body start to slid down the wall, Gibbs hoisted him back up against him feeling Tony's arm instantly wrap around his neck. "But we got nowhere else to go."

Tony nodded slightly.

"Just hang on." Gibbs felt the hand on his shoulder tighten as he lugged Tony up the steps. They stopped half way, when he felt the body against him tense. "Hey you with me?"

"Yeah." Tony forced a nod.

"Almost there." Gibbs said in a reassuring voice. Starting up the last few steps they reached the top and again he had that sickening feeling of dread. This isn't right. They should be dead, no one kills their own people and lets their captives live. He gently sat Tony down on the landing, back against the wall. "Can you watch the steps for a minute?"

Tony nodded, pointing the gun down the steps. "Do it."

Keeping his head covered as much as possible, Gibbs glanced out the door. It lead out to a huge parking lot surrounded by a sea of abandoned buildings, any one of them possible filled with snipers or gun men just waiting for them to step out. There was one vehicle outside, a black van. He picked the phone out of his pocket and dialed the number again. It picked up on the first ring.

"Boss-trying-signal-cutting-out-where.

Even with only hearing every few words, Gibbs could hear the worry in McGee's voice

"McGee we're inside an abandoned building. I'm gonna toss the phone outside, should give you a better signal."

McGee sat at his desk screaming into the phone."Boss can't get a lock on the signal and I-" McGee hadn't finished the sentence when he heard a scraping sound from the phone, but then the signal long and strong jumped up on his screen. "GOT IT!" He shouted to the countless people around him causing a frenzy of guns to being holstered and phones to start dialing.

"Get the chopper in the air!" Director Vance shouted into his cell phone. "NOW!"

"McGee send the-"

"Already sent." McGee cut Ziva off as he shoved his gun into his holster and ran after her.

"SWAT is on the way." Vance shouted as Ziva and McGee ran towards the door to the stairs.

"How you doing?" Gibbs asked as he checked the wound on Tony's bicep.

"Still feel sick to my stomach." Tony said as he swallowed, his mouth feeling like the rough sandpaper that Gibbs used on the boat.

"Yeah, me too." Gibbs had been trying to ignore the sickening feeling in his stomach since this all began. Pulling Tony's eyelid open further, he looked closely at the younger man's eyes searching for any sign of head trauma. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Um." Tony thought back. "Getting in my car to leave NCIS."

"Same here. Did you see anyone around?" Gun still in hand at the ready, Gibbs glanced down the stairway.

"No."

Gibbs shook his head. There had to be something, not someone, in the car. He hadn't seen anyone around and he always checked under the car and the backseat. "Did you smell anything?"

"Not that I remember." Tony sighed shutting his eyes.

"Hey." Gibbs patted Tony's cheek. "Come on. Keep talking you remember anything else?"

Trying to think, Tony remember back. "I got in the car, turned it on, turned on the air conditioner, then-" Nothing.

"Air conditioner." Gibbs groaned. "They put something in the air conditioning." That was the first thing he'd done when he turned on the car as well.

"But who?" Tony asked.

"No idea." Gibbs sighed. "What about those guys you shot, what happened?"

"Not sure." Licking his dry lips, Tony tried to remember what happened. "Woke up, a guy was leaning over me, took the gun from his holster, we fought, shot him, that's all I remember."

The sound of a helicopter cut through the air outside.

"Please tell me it's ours." Tony couldn't imagine trying to stand let alone run right now.

"Looks like it." Gibbs said as he glanced cautiously out the door. Still, he wasn't taking any changes. As the cars started to pull up, Gibbs stayed where he was, weapon at the ready. Then the dull sound of an ambulance siren getting closer. A black sedan pulled up and he breathed a sigh of relief as McGee and Ziva jumped out running towards the half open door, countless SWAT members on their heels.

The door swung open, McGee and Ziva's guns drawn and pointing at the two men.

"I don't think anyone else is here." Gibbs let some of the worry drain from his body.

"Medics!" McGee shouted out the door.

Then the small landing at the top of the steps filled with people. Two medics, McGee and Ziva , SWAT standing point outside the door. Gibbs refused to leave Tony, at his side as they took him out on a stretcher to the ambulance.

"Gibbs you need to go with him. You need to get checked out." Ziva tried to say it without making it sound like an order.

"I'm fine." He shook his head watching as Tony was loaded into the ambulance. Blue eyes locked on green. "We'll meet you there."

Tony nodded, the ambulance doors shut and he finally closed his eyes.

Ziva glanced over at the passenger side every few minutes just to check on the man next to her. Gibbs looked exhausted and pale, as if he were in excruciating pain but trying to hide it. His eyes were closed and he was rubbing his right bicep. She had never seen him look so completely drain, not even during and after the coma. Plus it was completely unlike him not to be asking questions wanting to know what they knew.

McGee was sitting in the back behind Ziva, his gaze fixed on his boss. His own concern matching the woman's as they drove in silence to the hospital. When the car came to a stop outside the hospital doors, Gibbs didn't move.

Ziva and McGee exchanged a worried stare, surprised by the lack of movement on their boss' part.

"Gibbs?" Ziva whispered the name.

Slowly, Gibbs' eyes opened and he stared straight ahead.

"You okay?" McGee asked.

"Yeah." Gibbs said barely moving his lips. He had the strangest feeling, not a feeling so much as a sensation. It was a mix of anxiety and sheer exhaustion, yet they seemed to be from outside himself. Sure he was tired, but in no way exhausted. Situations like this amped him up and anxiety was an emotion he rarely experienced. Taking a deep breath, he pushed it all aside and finally climbed out of the car.

Exchanging another concerned glance, Ziva and McGee followed Gibbs into the emergency room, surprised by the slow methodical pace Gibbs traveled to the desk.

"Anthony DiNozzo." Gibbs voice was calmer than normal, especially given the situation.

The nurse behind the desk looked up.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs repeated.

"They're getting him settled he just came back from CT."

"I need to see him."

"It shouldn't be long."

Without another word Gibbs walked through the double doors into emergency.

"SIR!" The nurse jumped up. "You can't-" She looked over at the two other people, McGee and Ziva. quickly flashed their badges.

"It's probably best not to stop him." McGee warned.

The nurse stared at them for a moment then sat back down

"Something is wrong with Gibbs." Ziva whispered to McGee.

"Why because he's to calm."

"Yes." She nodded.

McGee sighed. "Calm before the storm?"

"I believe so."