I saw the season's finale only the other day, and I was pretty shocked the third season's gonna be without Sasha- but I'm sure it's still gone be a great show- even though the chemistry between Kate and Tony will be greatly missed. Can't wait for Season 3!
Chapter 7
Tony and Max sat silently in the semi darkness, unable to do anything but wait. Max had tried countless times to break the chain, to no avail.
"I could've imagined a nicer place to do this, but as far as I'm concerned this is the time to do some talking," Tony tried, his voice hoarse.
Max looked up for a moment, but she couldn't hold his gaze. "I'm sorry. It just seemed to be the right thing to do. I…"
"Do you have an idea how much you hurt me?" Tony pressed.
"Yes, I know how much I hurt." Max let her hands fall limply to her lap.
"You know, at first I didn't think I could move on…"
"But you did, and you seem to be happy. You got a great jobs, you seem to get along great with your team…"
"Yeah," Tony snorted. Max was right about that part. He did enjoy his work, he knew Gibbs, Kate, McGee, Abby, Ducks and all the other agents at NCIS were nice people, and some of them even were close friends, people he trusted. But there was this other part of his life, the part where he went out with countless women and never took any of those flings to a more serious level. The part where he could enjoy the company of a beautiful woman for an evening and the night that followed but where he woke up in the morning, panicking. Afraid that if he let that girl any closer she would hurt him. "Look, Max…"
"Shhh," her harsh voice immediately stopped him, and a few moments later he could hear a key unlocking the door. His heart rate increased and he sat up straighter.
"How are you guys doing? Having fun? Exchanging gossip?" The guy stepped closer, an evil laugh preceding his words. Tony gasped when he saw the blade shining in what little light made its way into their prison through the slightly open door.
"Leave him alone," Max warned.
"Oh yeah? You think you are in a position to tell me that?" The guy stepped closer to Tony, his eyes focussed on the helpless man in front of him. "I don't think so."
"You son of a bitch," Tony spat out.
"You know, I don't really care what you call me, you are gonna pay extra for every single insult anyway. My pleasure." With that he bent closer and let the blade wander along Tony's jaw line while he watch the other man tense, sweat appearing on his forehead. Narrowing his eyes he moved quickly, taking the blade away from Tony's neck, but ramming it deeply into Tony's thigh. The wounded man cried out, clutching his leg in an attempt to stop the breath taking pain. In a distance he could hear chains rattling as Max tried again to break free.
The moment he opened his eyes he could see the man making a move to push the knife into his stomach. In the very last second he move to the side. But not far enough. The sharp blade found entry into his side, another shot of pain cursing through his body, almost sending him into oblivion. But he fought the darkness and instead shot out his uninjured leg, kicking his opponent hard into his groin.
The guy yelped in pain, stumbling backward. He let go off the knife and Tony managed to grab it. Without really thinking he threw it over, hoping Max could reach it.
The other man had recovered and angrily attacked Tony, his fist connecting with Tony's jaw and bleeding stomach before he could even react. He didn't have the strength to fight him, his vision was fading, his head was spinning and he felt the urge to vomit. He took another few punches to different parts of his battered body before it stopped.
Darkness mercifully swallowed him.
xx
Max had been forced to watch her enemy attacking Tony. There had been nothing she could do but watch. She had yelled Tony's name but doubted that he could even hear her. Eventually she had witnessed in disbelief as Tony found the strength to fight back. When the blade fell from the other man's hand her hope increased. Then Tony reached for it and threw it towards her. Hastily she grabbed it, it was just in reach. Struggling a little while the two men continued their unequal fight she managed to open the lock and was free.
At lightening speed she took care of the guy, taking him out of the picture for quite a while. But she didn't care in the least, if he was dead she couldn't care less. She never even looked back at the now unconscious form.
"Tony, come on. Say something. You gotta wake up," she urged the still form of her former boyfriend, her hand lightly tapping his cheek. "We have to get outta here and get you to hospital. Come on."
Eventually she saw Tony's eyelids flutter; it took him quite some time to open them long enough to actually look at who he thought to be Max. His vision was unfocussed and he wasn't quite sure how many faces he actually saw in front of him. When he tried to move the slightest bit a white hot pain shot through his entire body. He took a sharp breath and clenched his jaw, his eyes wide open, pupils dilated. "Damn it."
"Do you think you can get up?" Max asked, her voice full of sympathy. "I could carry you, you know."
"No, no. I can do it. Just gimme a sec." He brought his hand in front of his face, shocked at the amount of blood he could now see.
"I'll bandage your leg wound, but the stomach will probably keep bleeding. Do you think you can press a hand on the wound?"
Tony nodded. He knew that the situation was serious, that he could bleed to death; he somehow had to ignore the pain, just act on autopilot and trust Max to keep him safe. Trust Max, trust the one woman who had betrayed him so badly. But it wasn't hard, he realized, it wasn't difficult to put his life in her hands.
Max acted quickly, ripping her sweater and wrapping it tightly around Tony's leg, hoping it would help still the bleeding and buy him enough time. "Okay, we need to go. You think you can handle it?"
"I'm cold," Tony stuttered, his movements were uncoordinated and his eyes still refused to focus appropriately.
"You can't go into shock on me, alright? This is not the time for it. You need to hold it together. Come on," Max repeated herself over and over, hoping some of it would get through to her friend.
She pulled him to his feet and he swayed alarmingly. He only kept standing due to Max's quick reflexes and extraordinary strength. "Let's go."
TBC