DISCLAIMER: I don't own NCIS.
***
"Calling Ava boss!"
"I will call Director Vance," Ziva quickly interjected. They needed to keep this all recorded as best as possible.
"Vance," the director said immediately.
"We have found Tony," Ziva said.
She listened as he rustled some papers and called to Cynthia, "Have you visually confirmed?"
"No. But the three men that took him are here. They spoke about him being here."
A sigh, "Alright. Go get him, but watch your backs. If he isn't there and you get caught NCIS will be in hot water."
"Understood."
Ziva didn't know who hung up first but she was pretty certain they were close. She nodded to Gibbs who nodded back to her.
"Alright," McGee finished, hanging up. "They're on their way."
"Fornell will be here soon," Gibbs looked back towards the place impatiently. McGee noticed and steeled himself, and then he spoke confidently and forcefully,
"Boss, Ava says to sit down and wait for back-up. If you don't she'll personally kick your ass."
Gibbs looked at him eyebrows quirked the very slightest making McGee quickly turn away. Ziva would have found the exchange highly amusing except that Tony would be subjected to one more bout of big and burly. Settling herself against a tree, Ziva crossed her arms and tapped her foot anxiously.
McGee noticed that Ziva was unnaturally readable. He watched her from the corner of his eye, noticing many things that gave him a twinge of trouble. Obviously Ziva was impatient and worried, the foot tapping gave that away, but she didn't know that McGee could read the longing and bereavement on her face. After so long, McGee was unused to the openness of her features, normally having to gang up with Tony to figure out anything with Ziva.
Shaking a bit, McGee felt despair. This was his family, he cared about these people, and he wanted to have their sixes. If Tony could hear him now, McGee snorted receiving quizzical looks from Gibbs and Ziva.
"What set him off," he asked, it was something he hadn't thought about. Thinking back, he wondered if the others even knew.
Gibbs and Ziva looked at him startled. Reading that as they didn't know, McGee spoke again,
"I mean, Tony wasn't exactly having an easy time at it, but there usually is a stressor."
Gibbs sighed, "Hell if I know McGee. I didn't even know how angry he was at me."
"He is an excellent liar," Ziva reminded them. "But it is true; something would have to have set him up-off! Yes?"
Nodding, McGee frowned.
It turns out that they didn't have to wait too long. They stood and stoically watched as Fornell and his team drew their guns and strode their way. Moments later they noticed Ava waving from the branches of a tree. Watching as she tapped the shoulder of a man near her, they both twisted and spun until they were in another tree and dropped right behind Fornell and Sacks.
"Alright, my team is set up. Where is he," Ava smirked at Sacks. He glared at her as she turned to Gibbs.
"In the basement."
Ava winced and sighed. Turning to the man next to her, she spoke quietly,
"What do you think Scar? Basement?"
Ziva watched the man as he twisted his head back. He made a clicking sound with his tongue before responding to Ava.
"Let Gamble check the parameters. But really, if we just execute Lindstrom it'll be a cinch," Scar's Manhatten accent was punctuated by another click of his tongue to a man who had walked up to them.
"They cluck to each other McGee," Ziva whispered clearly regretting their presence.
McGee cracked a half-hearted smile before whispering back, "I think he was telling them to get moving."
Ziva's face twitched fractionally but still the expression remained that she lamented their assistance.
***
He didn't watch movies because they made him feel good. He watched them because they made him detached. TV shows as well, but movies were the best because they ate up a lot of his minimal spare time. Tony knew that reading would detach him far longer than a two hour movie, but he had a hard time establishing a relationship with the people in the books. Authors were loads better at humanizing than movie scripts. Movies, those it was easier to block out the sentimental parts, but books were a risk. Once the book ended, so did the relationship. And Tony DiNozzo avoided those like the plague.
Even funny one liner's, ironic really, didn't seem to pull him from his train of thought. His father never created the type of relationship with Tony that Tony created with Magnum. They were similar- him and Magnum. At least that's what Ziva told him a few episodes into an all day marathon. Abby had hinted at it a couple times and, surprisingly, so did Gibbs. Tony sort of saw it, but it was the differences in their home lives that made him say 'You mean handsome and charming?' Only Gibbs hesitated before deflating Tony's ego.
He never said it aloud, to himself or otherwise, but he felt he was more like Peter Bishop in Fringe. Not that he would ever tell anyone he watched that show, they would find that amusing to the point of disbelief. Regardless, Peter Bishop's father was crazy, a mad man, who created Peter into a creature of bad habits. Who left his son barely any good memories to fend off the endless bad ones. That's what kept him watching the show. Not hot Anna Torv, but the possibility of reconciliation between father and son. And, alright, Anna Torv.
These thoughts were so clear in his mind that Tony wondered if he was drugged. Ever since he got here his thoughts had been muddled by his father, his fear, his memories…. But now they were clearer than they had been for months. Perhaps it was because it was his ending. In the TV shows and movies and books everything became clear to the man about to die.
The door opened and Vince and Rocco entered along with Carlo. Carlo smiled at him.
"Anthony, how pleasant to see you."
"Huh," Tony grunted.
Carlo seemed to deflate a little bit at the less than motivated response. Tony would have smirked, but that would only serve to Carlo's needs. Carlo, however, would not be deterred.
"Alright Anthony. Mister DiNozzo is finished with you. But one last tango for old times' sake, huh? Vince, Rocco," Carlo looked at the taller men expectantly.
Tony closed his eyes lightly and ignored Carlo as he backed himself into a corner and Vince and Rocco did their jobs. It wasn't anything he hadn't had before and it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. It didn't feel long when the door suddenly burst open and flashlights and guns were pointed in every direction.
"Federal Agents! Put your hands in the air and turn around slowly!"
"Stop! Slow! Put your hands-I said stop!"
Tony kept his eyes closed, but he knew it was Carlo that ran. He supposed the familiar voice would run after him. It would've troubled him that he knew the voice, but right now he just wanted to detach himself.
"How dare you enter my house! I'll have you for this," his father's voice was raspy and rather weak. "Make no mist-"
"Shut up!"
Ziva's voice startled him. It sounded so angry and hurt at the same time. He wondered how bad he looked if she was so sad. Gibbs he could feel was pulling at his arms and trying to get him to stand up.
"Boss," Tony heard McGee's voice question.
"Go ahead," Gibbs' voice came from right behind his ear. The closeness startled him even more and he opened his eyes.
As he looked around the room he saw Agent Fornell cuffing his father harshly and reading him his rights. McGee was next to him roughly cuffing Vince, also reading him his rights, but he was glancing to Tony every once in awhile. Shock filtered into his brain when he saw Sacks cuffing Rocco. He felt rather than saw Ziva grab his other arm and help Gibbs drag him out of the basement.
As they walked, he passed the rest of Fornell's team and five more men. At the end of the tunnel, Carlo was being bodily picked off the floor already cuffed.
"Ave," Tony gasped.
Looking over her shoulder to him, Ava smiled, "Hey Noz. Good to see you."
Tony attempted to close his mouth, but his jaw hurt so he compensated by lowering his head. Ziva and Gibbs kept going, forcing Tony to turn his head and stare back at an old friend. She had already turned her attention back to Carlo though.
"You alright Tony," Gibbs asked as they set him down on the steps of the service entrance. Ziva moved back into the house, leaving Anthony with a bad feeling.
He sat numbly on the steps hearing Gibbs demand an answer in a way he had never heard his boss talk. But Anthony ignored his boss' barely concealed pleadings to respond. Something happened and now he didn't feel like he had to please this man anymore. It wasn't necessary for him to have a bond with this man anymore. Ziva returned with a glass of water and a towel to sop up his blood.
Tony DiNozzo looked up at his boss and Ziva as she started to wipe at his injuries. Surprise overwhelmed him once more when the tears on Ziva's face and the fear on Gibbs' shined down on him. Like a fire destroying one's home, he couldn't look away from the most miserable things he had ever seen in his life.
A/N: Let me know how I did! :) I know updates have been erratic but it should be getting better now my internet is up and running again.