Hurricane

Chapter 1

There was an uncomfortable silence hanging over the bullpen at NCIS headquarters today, and it was affecting every agent in a negative way. The reason for this eerie silence? Anthony DiNozzo, full-time joker, was missing in action. He hadn't shown up for work on Monday, and now it was Friday and there still wasn't any sign of him. Upon investigating his apartment, they'd found it trashed and his gun and badge lying on the floor as if they were a discarded piece of trash. They'd found blood, matched it to DiNozzo, but that was all. Every lead began and ended there.

Gibbs had been a nightmare for the past week; no one had ever seen him in such state. He was like a father searching for his missing child, and biting everyone's heads off when he couldn't find him. Off course, Gibbs' team was affected the most, but even the other agents were affected by the missing presence of Gibbs' senior field agent. It was simply too quiet without him there.

"Gibbs!" Gibbs barked into his cell phone when a call came; Ziva, McGee (and every other agent sneakily watching him) saw his eyes grow wide and his gaze turning towards the elevator as the phone slipped from his hands.

"Boss?" "Gibbs?" Ziva and McGee questioned simultaneously at the strange behavior of their ever fierce leader who never lost his composure like this. Gibbs didn't respond nor did he take his eyes off the elevator, Ziva and McGee simply turned their attention to it as well.

The elevator pinged as it came to a halt and as the doors opened, Ziva and McGee's eyes nearly bulged out of their heads while several other bystanders gasped as they saw who was coming out of it. Gibbs walked forward swiftly, catching the agent before he could fall down flat on his face.

"Thanks Boss," Anthony 'Tony' DiNozzo said in a gruff, hoarse tone of voice, clinging to his boss, barely able to stand upright. Tony was wearing nothing but a pair of old jogging pants – he wasn't even wearing shoes. His chest, back, arms, feet and face were covered in bruises, burns, cuts and what appeared to be whip-marks. It was also clear he'd lost a lot of weight in the days he'd been missing.

Just a couple of minutes before, Gibbs had received a call that Tony had shown up at the entrance in a cab and refused any help, refusing to let them touch him or even come near him. Figuring Gibbs would know what to do, they'd let Tony enter and called it through to Gibbs, who'd been shocked to say the least.

Gibbs gently sat Tony down in a chair, careful not to aggravate his injuries too much, ignoring all the shocked onlookers as he barked at McGee, "Call an ambulance!"

"No, no hospital, no," Tony began to protest, his speech slurred as he struggled to stand back up, though Gibbs wouldn't let him.

"Take it easy, Tony. It's gonna be okay, I won't leave you," He soothed. "And get Ducky up here," He directed toward Ziva as McGee was on the phone with the emergency services.

"I can't… where am I?" Tony asked; he seemed awfully confused, drugged even. Gibbs shuddered to think what his agent had gone through.

"You're at NCIS, Tony, remember?" Gibbs continued his gentle approach, wanting to figure out what happened and who hurt Tony so Gibbs could hunt them down and hurt them instead.

"Oh, right," Tony murmured, understanding dawning on his bruised face. That's right, he'd survived, he came to NCIS. But he was still confused, his mind was a drug induced haze.

"What happened?" Gibbs asked gently as well as wondering what was taking Ducky so damned long to get here.

"Pissed him off," Tony whispered, struggling to keep his eyes open. It helped that Gibbs was holding both his hands to either side of his face, keeping Tony's focus on his boss instead of the pain and sleepiness he was feeling.

"Who did you piss off?" Gibbs asked, aware that Ducky had just joined them with a whispered "Oh dear," as well as Abby, who'd simply begun crying against McGee's shoulder. Ducky began examining a rather deep wound on his lower abdomen when Gibbs asked the question.

"Hmm, what?" Tony asked, already having forgotten Gibbs' question – a part of him was aware he'd been drugged, he just couldn't remember it long enough to inform them. It was all very confusing and painful for Tony.

"Who hurt you, Tony?" Gibbs asked again with more urgency as McGee informed him that the paramedics were on their way.

"M' dad, pissed him off," Tony whispered before finally succumbing to unconsciousness just as the paramedics entered the scene and pushed a shocked Gibbs away in order to get to Tony.

"His father did this?" Ziva asked in a stunned and enraged hiss, voicing the shock and rage everyone else was feeling as they watched the paramedics and Ducky work on stabilizing Tony's condition.

One thing was clear, whoever did this – even if it was Tony's father – was in for a world of hurt once they caught up to him.

TO BE CONTINUED