Title: Off the Grid

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or anything pertaining to NCIS. If I did, I probably wouldn't be selling things on eBay.

Author's Note: This was written for LFWS NCIS prompt. We were supposed to pick a title from another fandom, and write a story that went with the title, not necessarily the episode. I borrowed the title from Stargate Atlantis. This story won First place for that round.

"Come on…"Tony pleaded the crumpled metal that now trapped Kate's leg to release the almost-unconscious agent. The crash had given Tony a minor concussion and several fractured ribs, but it had pinned Kate's leg and banged her head hard enough to almost knock her out. The small flames caused by the impact were licking at the car.

"Tony?" She said groggily, her world foggy from the pain pounding in her head and leg.

"I'm here, Kate. I'm gonna get you out." He assured her, hoping he hadn't just lied to her. "Your leg is caught on something." He continued tugging on the injured leg, trying to free it. He finally got a good hold on her bruised and bloody leg. Since he figured the leg was caught on a sharp piece of metal, or something similar, he warned his fellow agent, "This might hurt." She gave him a nod that said "Just do it." As he yanked her leg, the broken metal ripping its way down it, she let out a yelp before immediately clamping down on her pain, in an attempt to silence it. As he pulled her from the car, the flames that had been grabbing at the other side, finally found the gas tank, and exploded, forcing the two agents away from the vehicle and to the ground.

Tony heaved himself up and looked at Kate, who was thrown a few feet away from him. He noticed her leg, blood gushing out of the new wound Tony had just made. He rushed to her side, and pulled her over to a nearby tree, so she could sit up; he knew she would hate to be lying on her back, completely helpless, for any length of time. She didn't protest as he ripped off part of his already torn T-shirt, using it as a make-shift tourniquet. As she drifted in and out of consciousness, he stayed with her, while trying to call Gibbs for help.

"Damnit!" Tony slammed his cell phone shut; he paced back and forth in front of Kate. It had been almost a half-hour since he had pulled his injured friend from the crash.

"Tony, please stay calm." Kate pleaded; she was a little more alert than she had been.

"Stay calm?! How am I supposed to stay calm? How are you staying calm?" He glanced at her swollen, bloody, possibly broken ankle.

"Freaking out isn't gonna help." Kate was using most of her concentration to not scream in pain.

"We were run off the road by our lead suspect, the car is completely dead; we're not gonna be able to use that anytime soon" Tony motioned toward the banged-up, now burning car that had impacted with a tree. "You're injured, we're in the middle of nowhere, with no cell service…" He motioned to the cell phone in his hand.

Kate looked at him with an expression that said "I was there, I don't need the play-by-play," but she allowed him to vent, since that was obviously what he needed to do.

"Nobody knows where we are; Gibbs knows we were in pursuit of a suspect, but he doesn't know exactly where. We're miles from the nearest town, house, person, any form of civilization. I think we passed a couple of goats on the way here, but I doubt they have cell service either." Kate chuckled. She was impressed with his attempts at humor even though he was obviously freaking out.

After almost five more minutes of silent pacing, he opened his phone to check for service again. The demon device that apparently had a grudge against its owner gave a "beep-beep" accompanied with the message "Out of Battery," and promptly went black, dashing any hope of letting the stranded agents call in for help, or even letting Abby trace the GPS. "Damn useless piece of SHIT!" He hurled the dead cell phone at the nearest tree, shattering it into many pieces.

Kate sighed, "Tony."

"Sorry, Kate." He plopped himself on the ground next to his injured colleague, and leaned against the tree. The sat in silence for a moment. Kate was struggling to stay conscious. Tony slowly looked up, finally admitting that he had let her down. "We're… I don't know how we're gonna get out of this one, Kate." They had both realized that, but neither wanted to admit it until then. "We're completely off the grid here."