Hi :)

I want to thank for all of the reviews and alerts, you can't imagine what they mean to me.

Please, tell me what do you think about this chapter. It shows the most important momments of the undercover operation but the next chapters will cover the time after it.

I don't own any of the characters.

Chapter 2

***Three days ago ***

"Congratulations, agent Gibbs. Your agent finally did something useful." Vance laughed, looking at the team in his office. "Agent Dinozzo has met with the 'big boss'. His name is Andrey Petrov, Russian."

"So you can pull him out now?" Ziva couldn't help but asked.

"No. He has to collect some evidence."

"Dinozzo's not doing well. I don't know what he had to do but it's destroying him." Gibbs barked, remembering the night in the bar.

"Agent Gibbs, don't teach me how to do my job!"

"Listen to me, director, if something happens to my agent you'll regret the day you became director."

Xxx

"What's that meeting, Roy?" Tony was loosing his patience while walking towards a run down garage with Roy Andrews. His gut was telling him that something wasn't right but the agent was desperately trying to find enough evidence against the boss, and finally finish the damn operation that had changed his life. But before Roy could answer, both men reached the place and entered, being met by about six other people and…

"Miss Park." Tony mumbled, staring at the tied-up and beaten woman in front of him. He wanted to fight, to yell, to save the love of his life but he wasn't a fool. He was alone, they were six people. The only thing Tony could do was to play the game... and hope.

"Do you know her, Anthony?" A man in his early fifties asked. He was very well dressed, with an expensive suit and shoes which would cost Tony half of his annual salary. His name was Andrey Petrov.

"Of course. She's the first client I've ever had."

"Really? And do you know she's an FBI agent?"

"I…I had no idea. I've never had problems with her." Tony swallowed before answering.

"Well Anthony, now we have a problem and we expect you to take care of it." Petrov handed the agent a gun, waiting for him to pull the trigger. Tony stood there for a couple of seconds with the only thought that he had to save the woman he loved.

"What, are you an agent, too?" Roy's voice sounded angry. That moment Tony pointed the gun at Petrov and pulled the trigger but the bullet barely hit his arm. Another gun sounded and in the next moment Tony was down, bleeding from the left arm. Two big men grabbed him.

"I thought so. You're just like her!" Petrov laughed bitterly then looked at the others. "You know what to do." With those words, he left, leaving the four armed men and two wounded, beaten agents.

Xxx

***60 hours earlier***

"I'll ask you one more time, is your name Anthony Dinozzo?" One of the two men standing next to Tony asked. The agent was tied to a chair next to the left side of the garage and had spent the last twelve hours watching the pain Julie was going through. She was on the ground, next to the right wall, covered in blood and wounds, suffering. The monsters who now were trying to make Tony tell them everything, had beaten the crap out of her, leaving her there with broken nose and several broken ribs.

"GO TO HELL." The agent yelled, spitting bloody saliva on the other man. The next thing he felt was the cold metal handle of the man's gun on his cheek.

"When I'm done with you you'll be asking me to kill you!" The men hissed. Without wasting any more time the other one opened a little briefcase and took out a needle full of white liquid. "You know what this is, Agent Dinozzo, don't you?"

"Looks like … your sperm to me." Tony mumbled in response. Besides his attempts to joke he knew pretty well what was about to happen. Even though he had never used it, he was familiar with pain that liquid could cause.

Xxx

***48 hours earlier***

"Vance, you son of a bitch! For how long have you known something was wrong?" Gibbs rushed into the director's office, anger written on his face. After not more than thirty seconds Ziva, McGee, Abby and Ducky appeared behind their boss, waiting for an explanation.

"Last time I spoke with agent Park and Dinozzo was two days ago. Since then nobody has heard anything from them. We're trying to understand the situation without blowing up their cover."

"THEIR COVER IS ALREADY BLOWN!" The ex-marine couldn't hold his anger any more.

"Jethro, please calm down." Ducky put his hand on Gibbs' shoulders.

"We have to find Dinozzo, Duck."

"Agent Gibbs, you'll jeopardize the whole operation! I'm sure Dinozzo can take care of himself!"

"Listen to me, director, I don't give a damn about it! You already did enough harm, let me help my agent or I'll do it in the hard way." A few seconds of silence passed before Vance nodded. "McGee, Ziva, go to Julie's apartment and see what you can find. Ducky, me and you are going to Dinozzo's."

"What am I supposed to do, Gibbs?" Abby's voice carried around the bullpen where the four others were waiting for the elevator.

"Wait! I'll call as soon as we know something."

Xxx

***24 hours earlier***

"We'll find him, Jethro." Ducky said, but these were words he wasn't sure he believed in. But seeing the strong ex-marine so vulnerable, he had to give him some comfort. Despite the dim light in the autopsy room, the ME could see Gibbs' pain, could feel what the agent was feeling. Those feelings weren't typical for Leroy Gibbs and if he was scared and worried that meant that something very bad was happening to a close family member. Yes, Ducky had noticed the father-son relationship between Tony and Gibbs long ago and didn't even want to imagine what would happen if they lost the young agent.

"I'll never forgive myself, Duck. I didn't listen to my gut only once and look what happened!"

"Jethro, Anthony could be still alive. If you give up all hope the entire team will. You should believe he's alive or we'll never see him again."

"I fear he's dead long ago, Duck. You didn't see him last time I did!"

"Hope." Ducky smiled encouraging. "You should get some rest. Abigail will call you if she finds something useful."

Xxx

***8 hours earlier***

Darkness. That was what Tony could see. He had no idea if it was night or day, if he had been there for hours or for months, all he could feel was pain, all he could see was the dark world around him, all he could hear were Julie's moans.

"I love you, Tony." A quiet voice came from somewhere in the room. "Keep fighting, fight for me."

The agent could feel his hot tears falling down his face. He wanted to answer, to go and kiss her, but he wasn't able to speak, his mouth wasn't allowing him to and his broken leg was killing him. "I love you too, July." But these words were left unspoken and he never heard Julie's voice again.

Now he was completely alone. Hadn't eaten for days, tired, wounded, beaten, and drug with only God knows what, all he wanted was to close his eyes and sleep for ever.

Xxx

"Come on, come on!" Abby was yelling to her computer. Listening to Tony's favorite song, she'd been watching video tapes from a local supermarket for the last half a day. She has seen him on different tapes so many times, with so many different people. It looked like the area around that supermarket had been the place Tony had been meeting with his clients.

"Take some rest, Abby!" McGee advised, supplying the Goth with her sixth Caf-Pow for the day.

"No! Maybe the next tape will tell us something useful."

"I want to help him as much as you do, but you can't live on Caf-Pows. Go and eat something or I'll call Gibbs." McGee threatened. Frankly said, he knew what Abby was feeling, he had remembered to eat when he felt he had no energy left in him.

"You win! But promise me you'll keep watching until I come back!"

"I will."

Xxx

***Present***

"DUCK, OVER HERE. CALL 911." Gibbs yelled, kneeling next to the man who was like a son to him. He gently touched Tony's wrist to find slight pulse. "Tony…Tony, can you hear me?" In response the ex-marine felt Tony's hand squeezed his, but the younger agent never opened his eyes, he was too tired for that. "Dinozzo…Tony, hold on son. Stay with me." Gibbs voice sounded scared. Together with Ducky, he spent the next ten minutes in the dark garage watching his wounded agent helplessly, anxiously waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

"Anthony, don't close your eyes, keep fighting." Ducky spoke softly, realizing pretty well that these could be the last moments of Special agent Anthony Dinozzo.

"WHERE'S THE DAMN AMBULANCE?" Gibbs yelled angrily. Desperate, tired, and frightened that he might lose his son.

"They…killed her…boss. I…screwed up…She's…dead." With huge efforts Tony forced himself to speak. Having said it, he closed his eyes and let the darkness wrap him.

"Boss, the ambulance is here." McGee announced, running into the garage. But he froze when his eyes spotted the lifeless body of the man who was more like a brother to him than a colleague.

Xxx

Three long hours had passed since they had arrived at the hospital and there still weren't any news or even a slight clue if their friend was alive. The entire team was sitting in the waiting room in silence, each person there was deeply lost in their own thoughts, remembering all the happy moments with Tony and realizing just how much everything had changed during the last four months. Both Gibbs and Ducky were staring at the floor, both covered with the blood of the young agent. As a ME, Ducky was realizing how bad his young fellow was, he had watched how the paramedics almost lost Tony in the ambulance.

Suddenly, these quiet moments were interrupted by footsteps and a middle-aged doctor appeared.

"Are you with Anthony Dinozzo?" The doctor asked, his face stony, not revealing anything.

"Yes. How's he?" Ziva was the first to answer.

"My name is Doctor Josh Briton." He introduced himself. "Agent Dinozzo's condition is critical but stable at the moment. He had been beaten really badly for a few days, has broken bones which had caused internal bleeding, his entire face is blue and swollen, has a bullet wound in his leg…"

"You're not telling us something." Gibbs stated sensing that the doctor was hiding something.

"I have reasons to believe Agent Dinozzo has been tortured. He has restrains marks on his wrists and ankles, burns all over his body. We tested him for drugs and the test came back positive. It looks like he had been drugged at least two or three times. But we also have results from an unknown substance."

"I want to see him." The ex-marine barked, blaming himself for allowing this to happen.

"He's been sedated and intubated. I'll keep him that way for two-three days and monitor him closely…but you should know that the first forty-eight hours are crucial."