A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus. I got a little blocked. I think it was just too hard to think about Tony being hurt, cuz all I wanted to do was comfort him : D

Chapter 13

"Tony!" Kate screamed and bolted from her makeshift bed on the floor. Her eyes frantically searched the small room, already knowing what she'd find. Tony was gone.

She raced for the door just as it opened to reveal a worried Abby still clutching her cell phone in her hand. She'd called McGee after talking to Gibbs, not wanting to walk into the break room and risk waking Kate up. Abby had wanted to put off her questions as long as possible. Kate was her friend, she couldn't lie to her. At least, she couldn't lie convincingly.

"Where's Tony?" Kate questioned immediately.

Abby swallowed hard. She didn't have a choice. She had to lie for Kate's own good, so she didn't endanger herself by running off to find Tony. But that didn't make it any easier to lie to a friend, especially since Kate would probably hate her for it if anything happened to Tony.

"He's checking all the evidence and information again. You know Tony. He thinks he can see things that we can't. He wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything." The lie flowed off her tongue and she forced herself to look Kate in the eye since looking anywhere else might give her away.

Kate stared at her, sizing her up and deciding whether to believe her or not. "But where is he?" She asked skeptically, because she did know Tony. She had a terrible heaviness in the pit of her stomach. Something was definitely wrong, and it had to be Tony.

"He's around here somewhere. Umm…maybe in down in the lab?" Abby offered with a nervous shrug, stumbling a little over expanding the lie.

Kate shook her head. She didn't believe a word Abby said. He'd gone after Greg, just like she'd been afraid he would. She wouldn't let Greg take away another person she loved. Especially when that person was Tony. She pushed past Abby and raced out the door. Abby froze for a second before running after her, calling her name and praying that she'd stop. But Kate never even slowed. She had to get to Tony. Nothing else mattered, not even her own life.

Pain. The word leapt into Tony's brain the second he came to. He felt like his brain had swelled to 5 times the size of his head, which was about to explode from the pressure. What the hell had happened to him? He knew it was something important but he couldn't remember.

Kate. He remembered Kate, but what about Kate? Was she hurt to? His heart started hammering in his chest. Without even opening his eyes, which would have probably been a huge and painful mistake, he knew that Kate wasn't in the room with him. Wait, room. That seemed wrong. He tried to block out the pain and focus on why that was wrong but the memories stayed just out of reach.

"Okay, Tony." He thought, reminding himself not to panic. "Forget about remembering and concentrate on what you already know. You're face down in a room with an excruciating headache, for lack of a better word, and it has something to do with Kate. Damn, that's not much to go on, but I have to find Kate. That's all that matters."

That thought was enough to force him open his eyes, and he found himself in blissful darkness. Thank God, because light was definitely his head's enemy right now. He ignored the intensifying pain and forced himself to roll over. He couldn't stop his groan of agony. Damn, that hurt. He took a deep breath and decided to get it over with quickly. In one smooth motion, he hauled himself up into a sitting position and bit his lip to keep from screaming until his brain registered the metallic taste of his own blood.

The split lip barely registered on his pain meter. Pain was radiating from his left temple and pulsing through the rest of his head. He raised a hand to his temple to tenderly feel for a bump and was confused to find that it was soaking wet and a little sticky. He pulled his hand back down and saw red, staring until everything finally clicked in his mind.

He quickly looked around the room, ignoring the protesting pain in his head. Shit. He was definitely in trouble. There was no way in hell he'd made it out of that alley on his own but it didn't make sense for Greg to drag him here, wherever here was, when he could have killed him on the spot. And where was Greg now? Was he keeping watch outside the door or would he have left and risked Tony finding a way to escape or alert someone?

Then, it dawned on him. Greg didn't just want him dead, he wanted to make him suffer. And he wanted Kate to see, to make her suffer too. He jumped to his feet, ignoring the blinding pain that threatened to bring him to his knees. He had to find Kate before Greg did. He just prayed she had more sense than he did, that she was staying safe at headquarters and not charging off alone like the headstrong idiot he obviously was.

He reached the door and jiggled the doorknob. It was locked and blocked by something on the other side, just as he'd figured. But, hey, it was worth a try. He looked around the small, windowless room and found exactly nothing. It had been completely and meticulously cleaned out.

His first instinct was to crash headfirst through the locked and reinforced door, then repeat until the door and whatever was holding it gave way. But some calm, rational voice in the back of his mind, which sounded strangely like Gibbs, told him that knocking himself unconscious (again) wouldn't do Kate any good. He had to forget about the fact that Kate was in trouble because of his own stupidity and come up with an ingenious plan to get him out of here.

"Okay," he reassured himself, taking a deep breath. "I can do this. I can do this. I have to do this."

Somewhat calmer, he stared down at the doorknob. There was only one way out of here, unless he developed a sudden taste for concrete and managed to eat his way through one of the walls. It was simple. All he had to do was get the door unlocked and push whatever was blocking it far enough out of the way for him to squeeze out. He could do that. After all, when had a lock ever kept him out of Kate's desk?

a/n: i know it's shorter than usual, but what'd you think? i'm used to writing fluff more than action or drama, so how'd i do? any comments, ideas, suggestions, constructive criticism, etc. would be greatly appreciated : )