Author's Note: Suspend disbelief with me a little in this chapter…

Chapter Seven: Partner

A mild annoyance had turned to frustration around 1:00 that morning, when Tony still hadn't shown back up. Jethro had checked with the motor pool attendant only to learn what he already knew: Tony hadn't checked the sedan in. He'd called the gate guard and received similar information. No one had seen him since earlier the previous evening.

Around 1:30 that morning the annoyance and frustration had faded and Jethro was simply pissed off. If Tony had taken a detour for some food or gone off to run who-knew-what errand in an effort to solve the case and impress him, Jethro was going to give him a very hard lesson in what it looked like to work with a partner.

By 2:00 he'd figured out that all his previous emotions had been borne out of fear. This was no way three hour meal break and there was no way the man was driving around lost somewhere. Tony would've called him. At the very least he would've answered his phone one of the over one hundred times Jethro had called him. By 2:01 there was a BOLO out on Tony and the sedan he'd been driving, Abby was attempting to turn his phone on remotely so she could track him and Jethro was in his truck, racing down the route Tony would've taken to get from the crime scene to the Navy Yard.

Jethro kept his eyes open for anything that seemed out of place as he retraced the route but the nearly empty roads were quiet and offered no clues to Tony's location. Once he'd made it all the way back to the crime scene without a trace of Tony, he turned back around and sped off towards the Holiday Inn Tony had checked into earlier that evening.

He didn't see the sedan in the parking lot but he still went inside, managed to talk the front desk attendant into giving him a key card and entered Tony's room. The room looked exactly as it had when the two had left earlier that evening and there was no sign of Tony. The only thing there were the black shorts he'd traded for the jeans Jethro had brought him. Jethro grabbed the shorts that still smelled like Tony, that still smelled like sex, and images of the man leaving his house abruptly once again filled his head.

Had Tony run again? He had panicked at the crime scene right after they'd arrived but Jethro was sure he'd been in a better headspace when he'd sent him back to NCIS or he would've gone with him. And would Tony really steal NCIS's sedan when he had his own car? He'd stolen a car from Baltimore impound to chase a serial killer up the side of a mountain the previous winter but that still didn't feel right to Jethro and the fact that the car had a trunk full of evidence in a murder investigation really, really didn't feel right to Jethro but where was Tony?

Danny Price, Matty Calhoun and Major Frank Raimey stood over Tony's body, watching as he convulsed on the floor. None of them made any effort to help him or even gave off the impression that they cared about Tony's wellbeing or the possible repercussions of their actions. They watched until the convulsions stopped and Tony laid unconscious in a puddle of his own piss and blood.

"I think that's enough, gentlemen," Raimey announced coldly.

"Should we take his belt away from him, Boss?" Danny asked.

Tony opened his eyes and stared at the wall in front of him but didn't move or do anything to show his captors that he was awake again. He'd been beat to hell and wasn't sure how much more he could take but if they left him alone long enough, he was confident he could find a way out of there.

"Nah," the major snarled, answering Danny's question, "let him keep it. He might wanna hang himself when he wakes up."

'How generous,' Tony thought to himself. He flinched slightly when he heard the cell door clang and the lock turn with an almost scary finality.

"He's all yours, Knight," Raimey said. "I don't think he'll give you too much trouble."

The evil cackle that followed the statement made Tony's skin crawl but he showed no signs of being awake. He listened as Roderick Knight, an officer he'd never been fond of, made himself comfortable in the squeaky chair behind the desk. He was, no doubt, reclined back in the chair with his feet propped on the desk and his eyes closed. Knight was quite possibly the laziest officer in Baltimore, which was good for Tony. All he had to do was wait.

Thirty minutes later, after Knight had been snoring for a solid ten minutes, Tony tucked himself into the fetal position and slipped his arms around legs, moving his cuffed hands in front of him. He cringed at his achy muscles but didn't let them slow him down. Who knew how long he had before the others returned.

Tony stood carefully and turned around to confirm that Knight was indeed sleeping soundly behind the desk. He unfastened his belt and retrieved the knife he kept hidden in his buckle. Thank God for rule nine. Or was it rule eight? No, eight was the one about not taking anything for granted. Was it rule twelve? No, it wasn't twelve either. Jethro hadn't told him what rule twelve was yet. Maybe it was rule nine after all.

There would be time to ask about that later but first he had to get himself out of the predicament he was in, preferably before his tormentors returned to carry out whatever they ultimately had planned for him. Tony had no intention of sticking around and finding out.

He stood on the edge of the bunk in the cell and inspected the bars blocking the window. Just as it had been before he'd left, the bars were set in their own frame that were screwed into the concrete window cutout in four places. All anyone had to do was unscrew the four screws and ease the frame containing the bars out from in front of the window. Tony had always thought it was a stupid setup for a prison cell, no matter how temporary, but now he could use it to his favor. He worked quickly and quietly, using his knife to unscrew the screws, making sure not to wake the sleeping guard and soon his efforts paid off.

His adrenaline spiked at the minor victory. He replaced the knife, fastened his belt then took a moment to ready himself before smashing the heavy frame with the metal bars through the glass of the window.

"What the hell?" Knight grunted, waking instantly and standing to his feet when he realized what Tony had done.

Tony smiled and waved tauntingly at the man as he stepped down off the bunk. He watched as the guard entered the cell to stop his escape and as soon as the man opened the door and stepped inside, Tony's knee connected with his groin. Before Knight could drop to the floor in pain, Tony wrapped short length of chain between the cuffs around his neck and held firmly until the guard's struggling stopped and he went limp in Tony's arms. Tony let the man drop ungracefully to the floor, quickly found the key to the cuffs on Knight's belt and freed himself.

He paused long enough to punch the guard in the face but the immense pain and tearing sensation in his shoulder stopped him from hitting the man again and again like he wanted to.

"Bastard," he muttered under his breath before using the bed as a ledge to hoist himself up and wiggle out the window. He cringed as he dropped the short distance and rolled when he hit the pavement below, hoping to prevent further injury. Once he was safely outside and free from his captors, he sat up and waited for the dizziness to pass as he took in his surroundings.

Now all he had to do was get back to DC.