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Ziva was at her desk, phoning Tony for the fifth time. Ziva got Tony's answering machine once more and decided to leave a message for him. "Where the hell are you Tony? You better get your ass here soon if you want to keep your job. Gibbs is pretty pissed. He's on his third cup of coffee already"

"Couldn't get a hold of him," McGee asked, pointing out the obvious.

"Nope, just his answering machine," Ziva replied.

"Do you think he's alright? He's usually not late," McGee said. He got a cold stare from Ziva and quickly followed up with, "I mean, a lot of times he sneaks in a few minutes late, but he's never this late."

"I'm sure he's fine. Just probably out chasing skirts," Ziva replied, trying to sound indifferent, but deep down, Ziva was beginning to worry about Tony too. This just wasn't like Tony. He was supposed to be in over an hour ago. What if something really did happen to him? He may be annoying as hell and juvenile at times, but over time, Ziva began to actually care for this man and began to even consider him as a friend.

Gibbs loud voice interrupted Ziva's thoughts. "Dinozzo still not here."

"N-No," McGee stuttered. "We've tried calling both his house phone and his cell phone. We couldn't get a hold of him. Ziva even left a message for him."

Gibbs usually emotionless face showed concern for a second. Dammit Tony, what kind of trouble did you get yourself into this time? I swear, Tony can find more trouble than anyone I know, Gibbs thought.

"Ziva, McGee, I want you to head to Tony's apartment to see if you can find anything out. If he's at home sitting on his ass, tell him to not even bother coming back to work," Gibbs replied. This was another slow day and Gibbs would be busy with meetings for a good portion of the day, so he could spare the two agents for a little while. Gibbs gut was telling him something was very wrong with this whole situation.

McGee and Ziva quickly left the bullpen and headed for the elevator. They rode down in silence, neither one wanting to bring up the possibility that something had actually happened to Tony. Despite all the teasing McGee received from Tony, McGee had grown to respect him as a person and as an agent and was even striving to become more like him. If they ever lost Tony, things definitely wouldn't be the same around NCIS. Despite Tony being juvenile and frat boyish once in a while, he brought life to NCIS and to the team. 'No. I'm sure Tony's fine. I'm going to feel like a dumb ass when I find out I've been worrying for nothing, and Tony will definitely not let me live it down,' McGee thought.

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Tony slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was the sharp pain in the back of his head. He tried to touch his head with his hands to find out that they were tied behind his back. 'Oh great,' Tony thought. 'Why does this stuff always happen to me?'

Tony lifted his head slightly to get a look at his surroundings. What a bad idea. Tony began feeling nauseous and had to close his eyes, taking deep breaths to stop himself from throwing up. 'Let's try this again' Tony thought, slowly opening his eyes.Slowly his eyes began to adjust to the darkness. There wasn't much to look at. There were various pipes around the small room. All of the walls and the floor seemed to be cement. There was a little ray of sunlight coming from a small window near the ceiling. Tony tried to think of how he had ended up in this predicament. Oh yeah. It was because my stupid car wouldn't start and I had to walk to the bus station after work,' Tony thought, groaning loudly. Then Tony recalled that his captor had known his name. Who the hell was this guy and what did he want.

Tony was getting impatient with the waiting game and just wanted the guy to show his face. He just wanted someone he could be pissed off at. Tony got his wish. Moments later, Tony heard a door open and a tall figure walking towards him.

"I see you've finally woken up Dinozzo," the guy calmly said. It was almost to calm for Tony's comfort.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" Tony asked.

"I don't think you're in any position to be talking to me like that Tony. I'm the one in control this time. How does it feel to be helpless Dinozzo? It doesn't feel so good, now does it?" The man brought his face closer to Tony's, and for the first time, Tony was able to get a clear view of him. Tony involuntarily let out a gasp. He recognized the face of his old friend and partner, Mike Landers.

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When Ziva and McGee arrived at Tony's apartment, McGee knocked on the door three times without receive an answer. "Maybe he's sleeping," McGee said, trying to convince himself more than Ziva. Ziva shoved McGee over to the side as she methodically picked the lock.

"Ziva, that's breaking and entering," McGee said, with a shocked look on his face. With a quick glare from Ziva, McGee shut up.

They entered the quiet apartment and took a quick look around. It was quickly evident that Tony wasn't in the house. "OK, now I'm really starting to get worried," Ziva said, with a look of concern on her face. This didn't make McGee feel any better. Like Gibbs, Ziva was good at masking emotion, and McGee knew it was definitely worth worrying about if Ziva showed concern.

Ziva and McGee exited the apartment, with McGee running into an elderly lady.

"'Scuse me," McGee replied.

"Where you just in Anthony's apartment," the elderly lady asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Yeah we were," Ziva said. When the lady frowned, Ziva went on with her explanation. "You see, we work with Tony and he didn't show up for work today so we were just looking for him." Ziva held up her badge.

"NCIS," the lady read. "You're saying Tony's in trouble." The woman's face became serious, worry etched on her face.

"And you are…" Ziva began.

"Oh, I'm Ms. Cabot, his next door neighbor," she replied, "Is Tony missing? I've been warning Tony about maybe changing professions, telling him how dangerous his job is and how it's going to get him killed," the elderly lady said, growing frantic.

"We're not sure. For all we know, he could be taking the bus to work as we speak," McGee replied.

"When was the last time you saw Tony," Ziva asked.

"Let's me think," Ms. Cabot said, lines creasing across her forward as she tried to think. "Come to think of it, I didn't hear him come home last night. These walls are paper thin and you can hear everything in this building," Ms. Cabot explained. "I usually hear him when he comes home from work. He's not the quietest neighbor. I think the last time I saw him was the day before yesterday." Ms. Cabot was in deep concentration now. "Yeah. I didn't see him or hear him at all yesterday."

"Thank you for your help Ms. Cabot," McGee said as him and Ziva were heading out.

As they left, McGee gave Ziva a worried expression. "This isn't good," the young agent said.

Understatement of the year Ziva wanted to say, but bit her tongue. Where the hell are you Tony?

As McGee and Ziva were pulling away from Tony's house, Ziva called Gibbs to give him the bad news. "We couldn't find him Gibbs and when we talked to one of his neighbors she said that she didn't think Tony had come home at all last night."

"Shit," Gibbs replied. "Get back to the office and we'll figure out what to do from here."

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"You ruined my life Dinozzo and I'll make sure that you pay greatly for that," Mike said with a menacing laugh.

"Mike, you don't have to do this. If you hurt me, I have friends that will hunt you down and won't rest until they find me. If you let me go now, no one has to know about this."

"Why the hell would I do that," Mike spat. "I lost my family, my job and seven years of my life because of you Dinozzo. Because you couldn't keep your goddamn mouth shut and ratted me out." With that, Mike gave him a swift kick to the side, eliciting a loud groan from Tony.

"You deserved to lose everything. You were a dirty cop and didn't deserve the badge," Tony replied, growing angry and unable to stop the words before they came out of his mouth.

That earned him another kick to the side. "You know, I could put a bullet through your head right now," Mike replied, bringing a gun up to Tony's face. "But that would be too easy. I don't want you to die a quick, easy death. I'll make sure it's a painful and slow one."

Tony glared at his ex-partner, trying not to show fear, but deep down, he was terrified. "My boss will find me," Tony said confidently. Right now would be a good time to break down the door yelling NCIS Boss Tony thought.

"Oh, they'll find you, but by the time they do it'll be to late," Mike replied, giving another one of his menacing laughs. Mike began delivering more kicks to his stomach and face. Tony tried to hold on as long as he could but finally blacked out.