Thanks to everyone that reviewed the last two chapters. Here's the next one, hope you all like it. A little warning for Tony whump. (Grins evilly)

Chapter 3- Hope

About three days later…

Mark stepped off the small private plane, he was home free now, they would never find him here. He had changed his name and even his appearance a little; they wouldn't recognise him even if they saw him. He laughed a hearty laugh as he strolled through the airport of the destination he had reached.

Shaking off all his nervousness he got into a cab, off to start a new life. That is what the arrangement had been; he got to start a new life if he managed to get them a federal agent. He didn't even feel bad that it had been his ex-partner and current work colleague. Somewhere along the line in his line of work people stopped caring about what they saw and were only out for what they could get for themselves. When he had been younger he had sworn never to become like that, but here it was, he had. And he liked it, wouldn't give up his promised life just to go back to sitting behind some desk in the pretence of helping others.

He'd left without a look back, without remorse, had seen the betrayal clearly in Tony's eyes and still not felt anything. If anything, he just smiled at Tony as they started their next punishment. He wasn't his place to ask what they would eventually do with him, so he didn't; all he knew was that he had gotten what he wanted. What happened to Tony didn't matter.

He found that he wasn't even remotely bothered by the fact that if Tony did actually die because of him then Gibbs would hunt him down and kill him. He'd just stopped caring he supposed.

x-X-x

Hope was all they had, all Tony had too.

Their hope of finding him, his, of escape. So which was more fragile? Theirs or his. Were they the same?

They had nothing to go on, nothing to tell them where he could possible be or, what was being done to him. They needed something. Anything. Preferably, before Gibbs killed someone. Days had already passed with no sign of him; the days had turned into almost a full week now. Everyone was tense; they all knew the stats for theses types of things.

The mood in the bull pen had only deteriorated as the week wore on, more longing looks were thrown towards the empty desk of his senior field agent. He'd found Abby asleep on the keyboard of her computer, ponytails askew more than once, in the hope that something she may find would lead them towards where Tony was being held, they were questioning even the who now though. Some Ziva's contacts had heard some chatter about a federal agent being held but knew nothing of the location and had heard that the current people were getting bored and offering to sell their 'asset'.

Gibbs shuddered to think what condition Tony was going to be in when they got him back, and they were going to get him back. Weren't they? Gibbs' gut churned, the only reason that kidnappers gave up their victim was if they had already talked or didn't know of anything vital to them and wanted to see that their hard work hadn't gone to waste so offered them to the next person with an interest. Tony being a highly trained federal agent meant he knew a lot of things.

x-X-x

He didn't know how much longer he could stand the punishment delivered to his body, had no idea how long he could keep alive, keep sane, now that he had shown weakness. Didn't even have a clue where he was or how he was going to get out of the straps which stopped any and all movement. At least the water drops had stopped now.

'How long have they been gone Tony? Are they really gone at all? You don't know do you?'

'How long have you been hear now? Why haven't your friends come to get you?'

Tony ignored the voice that had appeared during the water torture, wasn't the voice a sign of the subconscious trying to help. Well his wasn't being very helpful; if anything it was taunting him with all its questions and sarcastic comments.

He shivered as far as the binds and numb muscles would allow, he'd been lying on the metal table for god knows how long and they had only let him up when he needed the head. He had tried to escape when they removed rope they had tied around him in order to get him to the table. But, it had only ended up with him getting nowhere except a few fractured and bruised bones, mainly his ribs. The next time he had managed to get free was because one of the goons hadn't been watching properly, so he had tried to escape but that had only ended with him being taught his first 'lesson'.

To his dismay he had seen Mark just watching and even smiling as they continued with the punishment. Then mark had disappeared, he hadn't seen him since, that must have been at least a day ago. Not that he had any way to tell how many days had gone by now though. He tried to quell the rising fear within him after remembering part of a conversation last night and the subsequent torture method to get him to talk.

*Flashback*

"He's not talking." A somewhat angry voice shouted, obviously trying not to be heard but failing miserably. Well tough he thought, he didn't have anything to say to them

"Well then, we will have to make him talk won't we." A gruff voice sneered.

"B-but even the water torture didn't work and it usually does, the only thing it made him do was flinch." A timid voice broke in.

Before Tony knew what was going on a tall man, about 6 foot towered over him, the dark eyes looking at him with malicious intent clear. Unsheathing a slim knife Tony tried hard not reacting to the sight of the blade. He did flinch ever so slightly that the man didn't notice but Tony knew that the man was going to do what he wanted, that much he could see in the cold eyes. The look almost froze him, struggling to get some leeway on the bonds around his wrists he only managed to strip more skin off his already raw wrists. A swift slap to his face stilled his actions.

"Now, Now, don't fidget, it will only hurt more." The voice was almost caring which worried Tony a little, who the hell was that kind of caring when torturing someone. Enough so that he did actually relax a little.

'Damn it DiNozzo, you dare let them mess with your head and you'll be answering to me, you got that.'

Tony almost laughed, almost. Now he really was going loco, with the voice of Gibbs resounding in his head he became alert again. At least this voice helped a little, if only to ground him to the here and now.

Before he had the time to question the sudden caring tone of the man above him, he felt a sharp pain to his right thigh muscle, gasping in pain, the look of joy across the other mans face made him nervous. What the hell was this guy going to do now? He wondered as the initial pain died down. His breathing was still a little ragged but as calm as he could make it.

"Are you going to talk to us now?" the question asked matter-of-factly. Tony merely shook his and smiled as a movie scene popped into his head. Deciding that he couldn't help but joke he spoke.

"You know, this reminds me of lethal weapon two where Riggs gets the knife in his leg." With that the guy above him started twisting the knife within the wound.

Tony refused to scream as pain coursed through his already battered body. Sweat fell from his forehead, stinging the little cuts to his face. Trying to keep his breathing steady was more tiring than he first thought, his energy was draining fast, he'd only been given water to drink so far and a little bread but that had been a day ago.

"We do have others that wish to talk to you Special Agent DiNozzo. And, they have worse methods than you have already experienced."

The thought that there was other people wanting to systematically torture him until he spoke just made him smile more, Gibbs would be proud, he wasn't really doing his job properly if people didn't want to kill him. So he stayed quiet, the man stormed off at the sight of his 100 watt grin.

*End Flashback*

The grin had faded somewhat now, now that he wasn't being watched. Of course it had all been an act, to keep him alive longer so Gibbs could come and rescue him. But, why hadn't he already come if Mark was involved he would already know everything. Wouldn't he?

Feeling a little weak and shivery he realised that they hadn't really taken care of the wound he had on his leg, just wrapped it up in a dirty rag. Great he thought it's probably going to get infected now. He grumbled as he was alone again. Being alone in a room full of rotting smells wasn't doing anything for the nausea building within him.

Looking around to what he could actually see gave him little hope. It seemed to be a warehouse of sorts, the sky behind the dusty windows showed it was a dull day. The rain drops falling like little bullets against the metal of the roof. Then he heard it, the dripping, dripping leaking from a hole in the roof into a pan. He groaned, he was really stating to hate the sound of dripping now…

TBC

Well I hope you all liked that, now that Mark has escaped what shall he do? What shall Gibbs do? Are they ever going to find Tony if he is being moved around? Thanks for reading and please review.