Fic: Soul Deep - 11/12

[xanthefic]

“There’s nothing here.” Tony turned to go back to his car. “I just get the feeling I’m missing something.”

“I feel it too.” Shanti gave a little shiver and ran to catch up with him. She was never far away from him these days. Ever since Gibbs’s disappearance she was always within touching distance, and he knew why.

“Nobody will get you,” he promised her.

“I couldn’t survive without you.” She rubbed her head against his leg. “I hope Tessa is stronger than me.”

“You’re strong. Tessa is too. We will find them,” Tony said, but he wasn’t sure he believed it anymore.

He cast one last glance around the docks, and then he and Shanti got into the car, and he drove away.

~*~

When Gibbs woke up, he was sitting in a car parked on a grocery store parking lot. There was a map on the seat beside him, showing him where he was supposed to go.

He picked it up and looked at it. He knew he was supposed to drive there, but…he didn’t want to. Beads of sweat started to slide down his face. He’d been told to do this. His daemon had told him…no, not his daemon…the other man’s daemon…the daemon they shared. How was that even possible?

He glanced over his shoulder. On the seat behind him, in a case, was a rifle. He opened up the case and gazed at the rifle.

“She’s beautiful,” he said.

“Yes,” he replied to himself. “Very beautiful.”

If he talked to himself he felt less alone, as if he had a daemon. “This is what you’ll use to shoot the president,” he told himself.

He put the car into gear and drove out of the parking lot at high speed, amid the sound of screeching tyres.

“Like hell I will,” he replied.

~*~

“Where now?” Shanti asked as they drove off into the night.

“I don’t know. Where else is left?” Tony asked her wearily. He was too tired to think straight. He’d done everything he could think of, left no stone unturned, and he still couldn’t find Gibbs. He’d failed.

“Home,” she said.

“Home then.” He took the next turning on autopilot.

~*~

Gibbs didn’t know where he was going. He just knew he wasn’t damn well going where he’d been told.

A beeping sound startled him, and he looked around for the source of the noise. It seemed to be a phone, and the car answered the call automatically.

“Gibbs – you’re not following the route I marked out for you,” a familiar voice said.

Gibbs slammed on the brakes. “No sir.”

“You need to turn around and go back.”

“Yes sir.” Gibbs gripped the steering wheel hard. “I’ll do that. I’ll turn around and go back.”

“Good. Do it. Now.” The call ended.

Gibbs gazed at the road ahead and brushed the sweat off his forehead with his arm. It was hard to know what to do. He’d been told to do something, so why didn’t he do it?

He caught a sudden glimpse of himself in the mirror and stared, horrified. The man in the mirror had wild, silver hair and a shaggy, grey beard. His face was haggard, his skin pale and paper thin. His eyes were red rimmed and staring, only a shade away from madness.

Was that him? It didn’t look like him. He didn’t remember looking like this. Who the hell was this man staring back at him?

“That’s not me. Need to find me.”

He didn’t turn the car around. He carried on driving the way he’d been headed.

~*~

Tony parked the car, and Shanti lifted her head blearily and looked out through the window. “This isn’t your apartment building,” she said.

“It isn’t?” Tony frowned, blinking away the tiredness.

“No. It is home though,” Shanti said.

Somehow he’d driven to Gibbs’s house without even realizing it.

“Yes. It is home,” he murmured.

He went inside and wearily climbed the stairs, heading for the bedroom. He was too tired right now to do anything but sleep.

He got into Gibbs’s bed, and Shanti curled up beside him. He could smell Gibbs’s scent still clinging to the sheets and it both hurt and comforted him at the same time. He buried his face in Shanti’s fur and fell asleep.

~*~

Gibbs pulled up somewhere – he didn’t know where, just that it was where he wanted to be. Now that he was away from that man's nightmarish daemon he had a clearer sense of himself. The phone in the car beeped again just before he turned the engine off.

“You’ve disobeyed me,” that same voice said.

“Yes.” He gazed at the stranger in the mirror, and the stranger gazed back at him from those haunted, red-rimmed eyes.

“Turn around – if you don’t obey me, I will go to where I’m holding your daemon, and I’ll hurt her. Now do as I say.”

“Yes,” Gibbs replied blankly. “I’ll do as you say.” The phone went dead again.

“You must obey him," he told himself.

"No," he replied. "That isn't what Tessa would say." She might not be here, but he knew what she would say.

"Damn it, if you don't do as he asks, he’ll torture her!”

Gibbs paused, his hand on the door. He thought of Tessa, lying in some prison cell somewhere far away, her coat matted and her eyes dull with pain. Tessa meant everything to him. He'd do anything to spare her pain…anything except kill an innocent person. Tessa would hate him forever if he did that for her. She didn't need to be here for him to know that.

Gibbs opened the car door and got out. He walked unsteadily up a driveway and then opened a front door. He knew this place. He could walk through this place in his sleep.

He walked along to the end of the hallway and opened a door and then walked slowly down the stairs and into the basement. He placed his hands on the solid wood of a half-built boat.

He remembered this place.

It was his home.

~*~

Tony awoke with a start, hearing a noise somewhere downstairs. Shanti raised her head, her ears flicking back and forth.

“Ssh.” Tony put a finger over his mouth and silently rolled out of the bed. He picked up the gun he’d left on the night stand when he’d crawled into bed an hour or so ago.

He padded silently to the door and out into the hallway and then tiptoed just as silently down the stairs. He paused when he reached the bottom. The door at the end of the hallway, the one leading to the basement, was wide open – and it hadn’t been when he’d got here.

He was about to move towards it when Shanti nudged his hand with her head. He looked down.

“There is something terrible in there,” she told him, her ears whirring nervously.

“Then we will face it together,” he said calmly. She was his strength and his courage; he would not falter with her by his side.

They walked stealthily towards the door, and then Tony hurled himself inside, gun raised.

“Come out, whoever the hell you are,” he said, walking slowly down the stairs. “I know you’re here.”

There was a noise from under the boat, and then someone crawled out from under it. Tony stared, horrified.

It was a man. It was a man who looked like Gibbs, but also not like Gibbs. His face was bruised, and he had a straggly beard and wild, red-rimmed eyes, but that wasn’t what was so horrifying about him.

“He has no daemon,” Shanti said, shuddering violently. "Tessa is not with him."

It was wrong. It was an abomination. It was so horrific that it made Tony want to throw up. He forced those visceral emotions aside; this was still *Gibbs*, no matter what had been done to him. None of this was his fault.

“Hey…ssh…it’s okay…” Tony put his gun away and approached the wildly staring man in front of him, talking to him softly, trying not to startle him. “It’s okay, Jethro. It’s me…it’s Tony. You’re safe now.”

He reached out a hand, knowing that was a long way from being true.

“Tony?” He thought he saw a glimmer of recognition in Gibbs’s eyes, but it was like looking at a stranger. It was as if Gibbs wasn’t *in* there – or if he was, he was hanging on by a thread.

“Tony,” he repeated.

Gibbs gazed at him blankly. “I…don’t remember,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t know who I am. He took Tessa, Tony.” He sounded so broken that Tony ached for him.

“I know, Jethro. I know. Here.”

He moved closer, his hand still outstretched, and Gibbs flinched away from him as if expecting a blow. Judging by those bruises on his face, that was a reasonable assumption on his part.

Tony approached him slowly, as if he was a wild animal, letting Gibbs see that he wasn’t going to harm him. Finally he got close enough to touch, and he felt Gibbs tremble as he gently placed a hand on his arm.

“She’s gone,” Gibbs whispered. “Tessa’s gone.” He suddenly threw back his head and gave a desolate howl, and Tony’s heart almost broke at the sound. Gibbs was obviously completely inconsolable, and Tony wasn’t sure how to help.

He had an idea, and he gently touched Gibbs’s shoulder. Gibbs stopped howling and gazed at him blearily.

“Come here.” Tony took hold of Gibbs’s hand and led him over to Shanti. “Will this be okay?” he whispered to her.

She looked at him helplessly. “I don’t know…but we have to try.”

He nodded at her, and she nudged her head deliberately against Gibbs’s bare hand. As they touched, Tony felt an immediate wrenching sensation, and he was overwhelmed by a feeling of such devastating loss that he didn’t think he could bear it.

Gibbs sank to the floor on his knees, placed his hands on Shanti’s head, and traced his fingers over her face.

“Shanti…?” he whispered. “Shanti? Is it you?”

“It is me.” She rubbed her face gently against his.

Gibbs collapsed against her, his body wracked by silent sobs. “Shanti…Tessa…Shanti…” he said, in a hoarse, strained, utterly un-Gibbs like voice. He buried his face in her fur. “Please…help me.”

Tony couldn’t bear it. He knelt down beside them, took Gibbs into his arms, and held him tight. Gibbs was skin and bone, and his body was shaking violently.

“I will find her,” Tony hissed fiercely into Gibbs’s ear. “I will find Tessa. And I’ll find whoever did this to you, and I will make him pay. I promise, Jethro. I promise.”

~*~

Everything was a blur. He was aware of people arriving – a doctor who blinked at him owlishly from behind his spectacles, and a pretty girl with pigtails and worried green eyes who held his hand like he was a child while her monkey daemon crooned at him anxiously.

Through it all he would not relinquish his hold on Shanti. She was his lifeline. She wasn't his own dear Tessa, but she was the next best thing. When he was touching her he felt the intense aching in his body abate a little, giving him some respite after weeks of agony.

Now that he was away from Darsha he could see how hideously warped that daemon had been, and he felt nothing but revulsion whenever he thought about her.

Shanti buried her face in the crook of his neck, her body warm and solid, pressed close to his. She was like coming home. She was love, and home, and family; she was pack.

"Pride," she said, and he thought he should be surprised that she could hear his thoughts as if she was his real daemon, but he was too sick to be surprised by anything right now.

"Pride?" he croaked.

"Wolves have packs. Lions have prides." She nuzzled his neck, and he hugged her tight.

The pretty girl gasped. "Tony – he's touching Shanti with his bare hands! Doesn't that make you feel ill?"

"No," Tony replied quietly. "He's done it before, Abby, and it's fine. Shanti doesn't mind. I don't mind."

"But it's…" she began, only to be hushed by the man with the owl daemon.

"Ssh, my dear. There are forces at work here that we don't fully understand. Looking back, I think that might always have been the case."

Shanti's presence was helping to clear his head and…maybe, if he’d had one, soothe his soul. But he didn’t have a soul anymore. He didn’t know what he was anymore. What was a man without a soul?

"What's the prognosis, Ducky?" Tony asked as the doctor bustled around him, checking him over.

"He really is in a very poor way. I'm surprised he's even alive to be honest. I've called for an ambulance; we must get him to the hospital, but really the only thing that will save him is if we can find Tessa and return her to him."

"Oh, I intend to do just that, Ducky."

Someone loomed over him, and Gibbs blinked blearily. It was Shanti…no, it was Tony…Gibbs shook his head, trying to clear his blurred vision. In front of him stood a man with the faint, see-through outline of a giant lioness visible inside his body.

He’d never really thought about daemons before. They just were – a fact of everyday life, like breathing and eating. Now he thought he saw a deeper truth in the blurred merging of Tony and Shanti in the man standing in front of him.

Shanti was the essence of Tony. She was his soul, his gut, his inner self – just as Tessa was of him. You couldn't divide a person from their daemon – they were an integral part of each other.

So what did that make him? Looking into the eyes of the people gazing down at him he saw the answer; he was an abomination, something ugly, twisted, and deformed. When they looked at him they recoiled, just as he had once recoiled from the obscenity that was Darsha.

"Jethro – do you have any idea where he's holding Tessa?" Tony asked.

Gibbs shook his head.

"Why are you calling him Jethro?" Abby asked.

"Because that's who he is – if I called him Leroy, or even Gibbs, I doubt he'd even know who that is right now," Tony told her. "He's lost almost every sense of himself, but he's still got some inner core that is *him*."

"He most certainly has." Ducky turned from where he was talking to an earnest young man with a squirrel daemon hiding under his shirt. The little squirrel looked petrified and kept peeking out to look at Gibbs and then hiding away again. Gibbs didn't blame her. Even he wanted to turn away from himself right now.

Ducky went over to Tony."Timothy and Ziva have just finished searching the car Gibbs drove to get here. Ziva has remained outside to guard the vehicle, but Timothy thought you should see this." He handed Tony a piece of paper. "I believe this was the task Gibbs was sent to perform. There was also a rifle in the car."

Tony read the piece of paper and then turned to look at Gibbs, an expression of shock on his face.

"He wanted you to kill the president? Shit, Jethro. How the hell did he expect you to do that?"

"Oh, I think that's the wrong question." Ducky shook his head, his owl daemon staring at Gibbs keenly. "I think we should be asking, after all that's been done to him, how on earth he managed to find the strength to defy his captor."

"That's the easy part," Tony said firmly. "He's Gibbs. Even without Tessa, he's got a strong sense of himself. He once told me he's 'kinda definite'. I think probably *only* Gibbs could have survived what he went through and still come out with some sense of himself still intact."

"None of the other victims resisted their orders," the man with the squirrel daemon offered nervously. "It was all in the files Fornell gave us. They all carried out the tasks he gave them. Not a single one refused – except Gibbs."

"But if Gibbs came here instead of following his orders, then that means….” Abby looked at Tony, a worried expression in her eyes.

Gibbs tried to sit up while still keeping his arms around Shanti. "He put a tracker in me. He knows I'm not following his orders,” he rasped. “He said he was going to go and torture Tessa until I complete the task he gave me."

Ducky looked appalled, and his owl daemon flapped her wings in an agitated fashion. "My dear boy, your body is already in shock. You simply cannot withstand…"

He was shoved out of the way, and Tony was there again, part man part lion, hazy and fuzzy around the edges.

"Jethro – Shanti hasn't been able to feel Tessa since you were captured, and I don't believe you have, either – I think that's all part of what he’s done to you. Yes?"

Gibbs managed to nod.

"Is that even possible?" Abby asked, her monkey daemon curling his arms around her neck and holding on tight.

"It most certainly *is* possible, yes, my dear," Ducky replied. "There were experiments during the Cold War with a certain substance which, when painted on the wall, could stop a person from being able to feel their daemon. The really fascinating thing about this experiment…"

"That's not important now," Tony interrupted, turning back to Gibbs. "There's no point this bastard torturing Tessa to secure your obedience unless you can feel her pain. That means he has to bring her out of where he's been keeping her, so that you can feel her."

Gibbs nodded, trying to remember just what Hunter had said.

"Good." Tony stood up.

"Good? How can that possibly be good?" Ducky asked.

"Because when Tessa is out of that specially painted room, then Shanti will feel her – and that will guide us to her," Tony replied.

Ducky looked astonished. "But how on earth can Shanti 'feel' her?"

"It's a long story," Tony said sharply. "Look, Jethro – I need to narrow this down, get us a head start, because if Tessa is a long way from here then by the time we get there, you could be dead from the torture. Did that bastard give you any clue – anything at all – as to where he was holding her?"

Gibbs tried to think, but his mind was a mess and his thoughts kept slipping away from him.

"Courage," Shanti said, pressing her head against his cheek. He rallied for a moment, trying to remember what had bugged him about this case so much from the beginning.

"Paul Watson," he rasped out at last. "Why…leave him there…out in the open?"

Tony nodded slowly. “You’re right. It makes no sense – and it doesn’t fit the MO of the other crimes.” Tony clicked his fingers in the air. "Okay – how about this? Watson completed his task, but he didn't believe he'd be allowed to see his daemon again. He knew his usefulness was over, and he thought he'd be killed. So he gave the perp the slip and managed to follow him back to where he was holding his daemon.” Tony clicked his fingers again excitedly. “Watson was trying to reach his daemon when he was killed!"

"Hunter realized he was being followed…so he overpowered Watson…managed to tie his hands…" Gibbs said, struggling to focus. He could do this. Solving crimes was what he did; it was what he’d been doing for years. He could damn well solve this one. "Hunter was going to take him somewhere quiet, kill him, and maybe dump his body in the water…"

"But Watson made a run for it.” Tony took over, bouncing off him, just like he always did. “There were too many people close by, and Hunter knew he could be discovered at any moment, so he stabbed Watson and got the hell out of there. It was sloppy – not his style at all – but he didn't have a choice. Damn it – if Fornell hadn't forced us to give up this case all those years ago, we would have figured all this out back then."

Tony crouched down beside him and began talking to him in a low, urgent tone. "Baltimore docks – that’s where we found Watson, and I’m betting that's where this bastard is holding Tessa. I always knew the docks were the key to this whole puzzle. I'm going there now, but I have to take Shanti with me, Jethro, so you gotta let her go."

"No!" Gibbs wrapped his arms even more tightly around Shanti's neck. He'd only just been reunited with her – he couldn't let her go so soon.

"You have to."

Gibbs remembered an excitable puppy running through the woods, and a lioness that scampered around the squad room like a playful, annoying kitten. But all traces of those past daemons were gone now. Instead, a strong, dignified, ruthless daemon had taken their place.

Shanti touched her nose against his and then pulled herself away from his embrace. He was distracted from the shock of losing her by the way she sat back on her haunches, turned her face upwards, and roared so loudly that the entire house shook.

It was the roar of a lioness about to go hunting, and a declaration of intent from a daemon inhabiting every aspect of her true self.

"Get him to the hospital, Ducky," Tony ordered. "Abby – stay with him. Do NOT leave him alone. McGee – he mentioned someone called 'Hunter' – get me all the information you can on whoever the hell that is. Jethro…” Tony crouched down in front of him and took his face between his hands, making Gibbs look into his determined green eyes. “Hang on in there. I'm going to find Tessa, and I WILL bring her home."

~*~

Tony ran out to his car, called Ziva to get in, and drove off at high speed.

"Where are we going?" Ziva asked, hanging onto the door. Tony felt a certain grim satisfaction about the fact that he was terrorizing her with his driving for once, instead of the other way around.

"Baltimore docks. We don't have much time."

"I…" Ziva hesitated. "I want to apologise, Tony.”

"What the hell for?"

"I sent McGee inside to give you the information we found in the car because I could not face doing it myself. I…did not want to see him." She shivered, and he noticed her hand going into her pocket and resting there lightly.

"You should be apologizing to him, not me," he told her bluntly. "Damn it, Ziva – this was *done* to him. If he'd lost his arms, or his legs, or been disfigured in a fire or something, would you have turned your back on him then?"

"I am apologizing to you because I misjudged you," she said. "All this time I thought you were a fool – one time I even asked Gibbs why he kept you on the team. Yet you have kept this team together these past few weeks. You showed more leadership skills than I thought you possessed."

"Yeah…well…" Tony glanced at Shanti who was lying on the back seat. "You're not the only one who should be apologizing. I once told someone that I'd never ask her to hide again, yet I've kind of been doing just that for a very long time; I just didn't realize it."

"It doesn't matter now," Shanti said. "The only thing that matters is finding Tessa."

Tony drove even faster, slamming his foot down on the gas and taking them around bends at high speed. He noticed, as he drove, that Ziva still had her hand in her pocket.

"Is that where your daemon is?"

"Yes. I only allow the people I trust implicitly to see him.”

“I’m betting there aren’t many of them,” Tony commented wryly.

Ziva gave a tight little smile. “You are right. Very few people have ever laid eyes on him. I keep him always out of sight. But even so, you always knew that he existed, that he was here. Seeing Gibbs without a daemon…without Tessa…without his own soul…that is different."

"Yes." He knew what she meant. Nobody could mistake Ziva's secretive daemon for Gibbs's complete absence of one. If you didn't know Gibbs and didn't realise he should have a big wolf loping at his side, then you might not immediately realise what was wrong with him. You might assume he had a rat or a lizard tucked away out of sight, just as Ziva kept her daemon hidden away. But once you knew then the knowledge itself made it horrifying. Tony had seen countless stupid horror flicks about people being separated from their daemons, but the reality was more terrifying than any movie.

"I do not know that I could look on a man knowing he had no daemon." Ziva shuddered. "And to know that person…that makes it even worse. How did you…?"

"He's still Gibbs, Ziva – at least, some part of him is still in there. I know he wouldn't turn away from me if I'd been separated from Shanti, so…oh shit!" He suddenly doubled up in pain, and Shanti threw back her head and screamed.

"What is it?" Ziva put her hand on the steering wheel and took over the steering for him.

"Shit…shit…" Tony slammed the car over to the side of the road. "You have to drive," he told Ziva, between gasps of pain. He crawled into the back seat beside Shanti and took her in his arms.

"I do not understand," Ziva said as she drove the car back onto the road.

"Hunter has started torturing Tessa," Tony ground out. "Now keep driving. We don't have much time. *Gibbs* doesn't have much time."

~*~

He was aware of being in an ambulance, and then in a hospital room. Abby held his hand throughout, refusing to relinquish it for even a second.

Medical staff hovered, and he could see the look of horror on their faces no matter how hard they tried to disguise it. The knowledge he had no daemon made each of them reach for their own daemon in fear of what had been done to him.

Ducky was speaking to them, but Gibbs knew there wasn’t anything that could be done for him. They could make him comfortable but that was about it. There wasn’t a cure.

Then, suddenly, he felt Tessa again. Hunter must have taken her out of the shielded room where she had been imprisoned for the past two weeks. Gibbs sat up, howling as he felt her sudden distress snap into his consciousness. The bond between them was stretched so thin it was in danger of snapping, so he knew that she must be miles away. The knowledge of her pain and the sensation of her great distance from him brought a new kind of agony. He might be able to feel her, but he couldn’t reach her. She was as far away from him as ever.

He pushed Abby away and tumbled out of the bed.

Ducky was at his side in seconds. “My dear boy, you can’t expect to go anywhere. Not in your condition. It’s simply…”

“It's Tessa. I have to go to her, Duck! I have to…”

He screamed as he felt Hunter’s bare hand grabbing Tessa’s neck, and then he threw up on the hospital floor. This wasn’t how it was when Tony touched Tessa; this was agonising. His insides clenched, and he was about to throw up again when a new kind of pain hit him. He could feel Hunter slamming his fist into Tessa’s belly, and he doubled up as his own belly took the blows.

“Hunter must be torturing Tessa,” he heard Ducky say to Abby. “Help me get him back on the bed!”

People bustled around, and he was placed onto the bed again. They shoved a line into his arm but that only took the edge off the pain. His head slammed back onto the pillow as Hunter directed a brutal kick at Tessa’s jaw.

“Help him! He’s dying!” he heard Abby scream.

There was no reply, and he knew what they were all thinking. They couldn’t help him. There was absolutely nothing they could do.

It was all down to Tony now.

~*~

Tony could feel Tessa being kicked repeatedly, and he tried hard to block out the pain. He hoped Gibbs could endure it. He was already in a physically weakened condition; if Hunter tortured Tessa hard enough for long enough then it was unlikely that Gibbs would survive.

The sensation of Tessa being tortured was so painful that he had to concentrate hard to keep his mind clear. He clung onto Shanti and found himself going back decades, to a motel room in Stillwater where his father was kicking the shit out of his own beloved daemon. He remembered being small, and weak, and helpless, and how Jethro had stormed into that room and saved him.

Ziva swung them into the docks, and Tony half climbed, half fell out of the car.

"This way," Shanti said, leading them towards a block of offices. He staggered after her, Ziva by his side, holding him up.

The office building was empty at this time of night. Ziva broke in, and Tony followed Shanti inside. It was dark, but they didn’t dare turn on the lights for fear of alerting Hunter to their approach. They ran down a flight of stairs and when they reached the bottom Tony peered through the gloom at a hallway of closed doors.

"Which one?" he asked, running to the first one and trying the handle.

"I don't know. It's so overwhelming," Shanti gasped. He understood. Now they were close the pain was so acute it was hard for her to pinpoint the direction it was coming from.

"I will find them," Ziva said, and Tony watched, bent double, as she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out…a spider.

Tony almost laughed out loud. "Of all the times to meet your daemon…"

"He does not like to be known."

"Like you," Tony said, watching as the spider disappeared under the nearest door.

"And like you." She glanced back. "We just choose to hide in different ways."

"Hey, when you've got a fucking big lioness for a daemon, it's not easy to disguise her," Tony protested, grinning at Shanti's little growl of protest.

"And yet you have done a very good job of it," Ziva replied.

The spider emerged from under the door and shook his head. His eyes were dark and glittering. "They are not in that one," he said.

"He sounds kinda like you," Tony said, staggering along to the next door. The spider wasn't any common house or garden spider. He was bigger and covered in a layer of soft, black fur with orange markings. He was actually quite beautiful. He was clearly some kind of exotic spider – just like Ziva was an exotic kind of woman – and just as deadly. "What's his name?" Tony asked, leaning against the wall.

"Levi. Now hush…maybe we can hear them."

They both went quiet, but there was no sound from along the hallway. Tony had a suspicion that the walls and doors were pretty thick, more or less soundproofing the rooms.

Levi emerged again, shaking his head, and then he scuttled under the next doorway. Ziva reacted almost immediately.

“He has gone! I cannot feel him! Levi!”

Her daemon emerged almost immediately, and she scooped him up and held him close.

“Was there anyone in there?” Tony asked urgently.

“Levi says not, but I have never felt anything like that,” Ziva said, looking shocked. “He was lost to me when he was in that room.”

Tony guessed that was the room with the special wall paint which had to mean they were getting close.

“Try the next one,” he said, jerking his head impatiently at the door.

Ziva placed Levi reluctantly on the floor, and he ran under the door into the next room. This time he came out looking even more distressed. He lurched from side to side and then ran up Ziva's body and perched on her shoulder. He spoke softly into her ear, so softly that Tony couldn't hear what he was saying.

"They are in there. Tessa is in a bad way, and Levi is afraid. A daemon, lost and alone in the world, without the one she belongs to." Ziva shivered. "It is like something from a horror movie."

"Fuck that." Tony tried the door handle, but it was locked from the inside. "We need to find a way in. Levi…" he addressed the spider on Ziva's shoulder. "Can you get in there and turn the key in the lock for us?"

The spider immediately disappeared under Ziva's coat.

"He is afraid. He says there is another daemon in there – one that is maimed and twisted. He is afraid of her and what she might do."

Tony straightened up and looked her straight in the eye. "Suck it up, Ziva David," he ordered. "Just behind that door, Tessa is being tortured – and Gibbs is dying every time that bastard touches her. Send Levi in there. Now!"

Ziva looked at him, her eyes large and scared, and he knew that if this was any other kind of danger she'd be the first one in there, all guns blazing. But this…she was right. This *was* like something out of a horror movie. Yet she was brave, and she sucked it up, as he had known she would.

She leaned down, and Levi scuttled out from her coat and disappeared under the door.

At that moment, Tony was almost laid low when another savage kick to Tessa's belly made him double up and sink to his knees.

A second later Tony heard the key turning in the lock. He struggled to his feet, put one hand on Shanti's head for support, and nodded at Ziva.

She drew her gun, silently turned the door handle, and then threw open the door and ran inside.

"Federal agents!" she yelled. Tony staggered into the room after her and saw her drop kick a man in the gut, before slamming her fist down on the back of his neck.

Tony paused, taking in the sight in front of him. It was so barbaric that bile rose in the back of his throat. Tessa was chained to the wall – she had a collar around her neck, biting into her thick fur, and her paws were hobbled together so tightly that she couldn't stand upright. How long had she been kept in this condition, he wondered? It was obscene – no person’s daemon should ever be kept in chains.

She was lying on her side, whimpering in pain, and she was so far gone she wasn’t even howling. She was breathing in hard gasps, her chest rising and falling in harsh, jerky movements. Her tongue was lolling out of the side of her mouth, and she was barely conscious.

"Tessa…" He knelt down beside her, but she gave no sign of even being aware of him.

Shanti was by her side in seconds. She began washing Tessa's face gently with her tongue while Tony removed the collar and chains from around her neck and paws, so that she could breathe more easily. He could hear the soft rasp of tongue on fur, but still there was no sign of life from Tessa. Shanti glanced at Tony, a worried expression on her face.

"I think we may be too late. I think she might be too far gone."

If Tessa was like this, then Gibbs had to be too…maybe enduring the torture of his daemon on top of their weeks of separation had sent him insane.

"No," Tony said firmly. "I'm not going to lose them." He reached out and placed his bare hand gently on Tessa's muzzle.

"Tony!" Ziva said, in a shocked voice. "You cannot touch another's daemon!"

"It's okay. Trust me." He glanced at her. "I've done it before. Tessa doesn't mind – neither does Gibbs."

He rested his fingertips gently on Tessa's furry coat. Her fur was coarse and shabby – completely unlike her usual rich, soft coat. Tony closed his eyes and his head spun as he was taken down deep into a pit of loss and despair. She was so lonely, so desperately lonely, and she had been hurt so much…

Tony threw back his head and roared his sadness at what had happened to her, and Shanti joined in. Then they were joined by a weaker sound…a faint, reedy howl.

"Tessa." He opened his eyes to find her looking at him.

"Tony…I knew you would come," she rasped.

He gave a little choking laugh. "How?" he asked, leaning forward to kiss her soft ears.

"Because we came for you once. And because you are pack."

He laughed again and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

At that moment, something scuttled towards him from the far side of the room. He glimpsed a crow's wing, and a claw, and saw a sharp, vicious sting protruding from the creature's underbelly, making straight for his arm.

Shanti let out a roar of rage and leapt towards it. She caught the creature in her jaws and bit down hard. The daemon let out of a scream of agony, and Shanti threw her into the air and caught her again, chomping down with all her might.

Over in the far corner, the man Ziva was holding prisoner let out a scream of agony, clutching his belly as Shanti bit into his daemon repeatedly.

"Tony…call Shanti off. You will kill him," Ziva warned.

Tony stood up, a grim little smile on his face. "Shanti's a cat, Ziva, and cats like playing with their prey. Can't stop her doing what comes naturally."

Shanti batted the repulsive, misshapen daemon around the small room, sinking her teeth into it and raking it with her claws.

Tony spoke urgently to Ziva. “I need you to call Fornell then stay here and wait for him. I have to get Tessa back to Gibbs. I just hope I’m not too late. Shanti – come here, I need your help.”

"But I'm not done," she said sulkily. "I want to kill her."

"Yeah, me too. But Fornell’s gonna come take that bastard and his fuck ugly daemon into custody, and I don't think he'll go any too softly on him. Let’s at least leave a piece of ‘em for Fornell to question. We need to find out who was paying Hunter to abduct Gibbs.”

Shanti gave the daemon from hell another sharp bite and then tossed her into the corner, like the piece of garbage she was. Then she returned to his side.

Tony crouched down beside Tessa again. "I'm going to lift you up and carry you to the car. We're going straight to Bethesda where Jethro is. Can you hang on that long, Tessa?"

She nuzzled his fingers, her dry tongue rasping over his hand by way of reply. He put his arms around her and heaved her up, then carried her out of the door. Then he half staggered, half ran back to his car.

Tessa was a big wolf and a heavy weight to carry but somehow he managed to get her safely to the car. Like Gibbs, she was skin and bone right now, and he was keenly aware of the sharp contours of her ribs as he carried her. Her hoarse breathing was just as worrying. She was hanging on by a whisper, and if he didn’t get her back to Gibbs soon then Gibbs wouldn’t make it. Maybe it was already too late.

Tony placed Tessa on the back seat of the car, and Shanti got in beside her and nestled in close, keeping her warm and soothing her.

Tony put in a call to his old captain and demanded an immediate police escort to help get them to Bethesda as fast as possible. The man had never been any friend of his, but Tony wasn't in any mood to be denied – and when Shanti roared down the phone at him the captain agreed to provide the escort pretty damn quick.

Tessa was fading fast. Glancing over his shoulder repeatedly as he drove, Tony could see her breathing becoming more forced and her eyes glazing over.

"Hang on, Jethro. Hang on," he whispered urgently.

They pulled up in the ambulance bay, and he heaved Tessa out of the car and ran into the hospital with her. Ducky was waiting in the hallway; he took one horrified look at Tessa’s prone form in Tony’s arms, and then he guided him through the hospital to Gibbs's room, with Morag fluttering anxiously overhead.

Tony paused in the doorway. Gibbs was lying on the bed, his eyes closed and his face as white as the hospital sheets. If it wasn’t for the hoarse rattling sound of his breathing, and the fact that Tessa hadn’t yet disappeared in a flash of fire, leaving only dust behind, Tony would have thought he was already dead. Abby was standing beside him, holding his hand; Tony knew she hadn’t left his side throughout, just as he’d ordered.

Tony placed Tessa on the bed beside Gibbs. Then he gently removed Gibbs's hand from Abby’s clasp, and placed it on Tessa's fur. If Gibbs was going to die, he wouldn't die alone; he’d have Tessa by his side, where she belonged.

"Hey…Jethro…" he said softly. "It's me. I've got Tessa. I brought her back to you."

He ignored Ducky, and Abby, and all the medical personnel, and climbed onto the bed. Shanti jumped up too, and Tony wrapped his arms around Gibbs and Tessa, while Shanti guarded them all, enveloping them in her big, protective paws.

Gibbs and Tessa were his. They were almost as integral a part of him as Shanti, and if there was any way he could heal them then he would.

"Your pack is here," he whispered into Gibbs's ear. "You have a pack again, Jethro. You're not alone anymore."

~*~

Gibbs moved his hand and felt soft fur beneath his fingertips. He had been cold, but now he was warm. There was love, and comfort, and peace around him. He had been trapped in a nightmare, but now it was receding, leaving only the memory behind.

He opened his eyes and lay there, looking into a set of blessedly familiar brown ones.

"Tessa?"

"It is me."

She rested her head on his shoulder, and he buried his face in her neck and felt the tears falling into her soft fur.

"You were gone. I was alone."

"I know." Her voice was a howl. She licked his tears away with her warm tongue. "But now I am here."

It was always hard to argue with Tessa's sense of pragmatism. Gibbs just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

She was here, and they were together again. He had his daemon by his side once more, where she belonged.

He was whole again.

~*~

End of Part Eleven
Part Twelve
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