NCIS- McGee x Tony

Chapter 7

McGee and a few of the techies from the FBI and Interpol studied the equipment room without dismantling or stopping anything. If the mastermind hadn't yet been found, they didn't want to tip their hand by destroying the equipment and stopping the transactions. Yet. In the meantime, Gibbs and Ziva worked to interrogate the perps they'd arrested.

It didn't take long for Gibbs to break one of them and learn that their big boss would be returning to the warehouse that evening to see if Tony was dead. Prior to being asked to kidnap Tony, they had never seen him in person before. Everything had been done in online transactions. But he'd been the one pulling the strings and ensuring that they all got paid as long as they kept the warehouse going. Their boss had apparently been asking questions, and he had been the one to inflict the additional stab wounds to Tony. Tony had taken down and severely injured two men when he'd been captured – the two bodies lying by him behind the crates. Their boss had then asked his second in command to finish the two men Tony had injured off, so technically he'd had his own men killed.

Ducky reported that both of them had been stabbed in the heart with the poisoned knife, same as the original victim, the petty officer dumped in Rock Creek Park. The second in command had to be the former marine tied to the meth dealing ring. They were also able to get a sketch composite made for both the mastermind and his second.

Gibbs, Fornell, and members of Interpol were stationed in and around the warehouse, awaiting the arrival of the two men after that. The takedown was surprisingly quick and silent. They captured the mastermind, and were forced to kill his second during the struggle – the man refused to be arrested again. But it was worth it for McGee when he was able to personally be there to laugh in the man's face and gloat about how Tony was still alive. McGee even rubbed it in his face that he'd lost his little financial empire, and that McGee had taken him down and schooled him, just the way he'd been schooling him on World of Warcraft, and that he would've taken him down during the Cyber Crimes case if not for the fact that he'd been promoted back to the MCRT.

"How'd you like my move now, huh?" he snarled.

In his head, he imagined Tony rolling his eyes at his posturing, examining his fingernails, looking as bored as he could, muttering "Just come right out and ask him how he likes them apples, McGeek!" and he couldn't stop grinning in triumph.

"Your next move is jail," McGee gloated. "The penalty for kidnapping and assaulting a Federal Agent is not one you're going to enjoy."

He could tell how angry the man was as McGee listed all the character names that he'd identified to be the hacker's, naming him Hadrian last of all. Hadrian's eyes were glittering angrily as he was taken away.

But afterwards, instead of diving into the computers the way that he normally would, he ended up ceding all of the responsibility of it to Cyber Crimes, the Feebies and Interpol's geek squad, in favor of rushing to the hospital and sitting by Tony's side. Ducky had called to say that Tony had made it through surgery, and was resting comfortably. His condition had been upgraded to stable.

McGee sat, holding Tony's hand all night, ignoring Gibbs' grim looks when the team lead visited Tony, and finally falling asleep with his head on his arms, still clutching Tony's hand tightly, not ever wanting to let him go.

He slowly awoke to the feeling of fingers carding through his hair. He sighed and stretched, pushing into the fingers, humming softly and happily. Slowly, the sounds in the room permeated his consciousness – steady beeps off to the side, the sound of soft words being murmured. But he would know those fingers in his hair anywhere. They were definitely Tony's. Blunt fingernails scritched his scalp and he moaned.

And then the memory of the last few days made him bolt upright, dislodging the hand in his hair.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Tony rasped at him, smiling. That special smile, that soft, tender smile that was only for McGee. Well, McGee had also seen that smile on Tony's face when he watched cute kitten videos on youtube, but that didn't really count. He was the only person that Tony ever gave that particular smile to. "Want to go out for beignets?"