Disclaimer: Not mine.

Wednesday 9am…

"Stop it already! You'll kill him!" Tim had been mostly silent, but now he cried and screamed out at Mic. For the last two hours Mic had slowly tortured Daniel. Telling Tim exactly what each item would do, how much it would hurt, where it would cause the most damage. Explaining to him that he, Tim, would be next. Daniel for the most part, never screamed out, never showed how much it really must have hurt. But he hadn't been silent. Tim thought his mouth must have been tuned into 'The Tony Channel'. Though Daniel probably thought of it as 'The Jack Channel'. Insult after sarcastic insult was said, the triad never stopped. Not until Mic lost his temper and grabbed Daniel by the throat lifting him off the ground. That's when Tim couldn't keep silent anymore. Daniel's face was turning blue, by the time Mic let go.

One of the men ran into the room and whispered something to Mic. "What!" Mic screamed. Pacing around the table for a moment, "You two, take them back to the room. The rest of you, come with me." Mic said as he stormed out of the room.

The two men left in the room, untied Daniel from the chain. He fell limp onto the floor, with nothing there to hold him. "Daniel." Tim yelled as he was untied from the chair.

"Shut it, move it." One of them said as he retied Tim's hands behind his back, before Tim could move towards his friend. The other man grabbed Daniel and practically dragged him from the room.

On the way back to the room, Tim kept trying to see how Daniel was doing behind him, but the man escorting him wasn't having it. "Knock it off or I'll shoot you here and now." As they got the the room, and the man unlocked the door, there was a commotion behind them. Before Tim could even get himself turned around Daniel came flying by him, slamming into the man that had just started opening the door. Taking a quick peak, he saw the man that had dragged Daniel, was clearly unconscious, so he turned to help Daniel. Only there was no need. Adam stood over, a clearly unconscious second man. In his hand was what looked to be a pipe. Looking closer Tim realized it was the leg from one of the cots.

"Good thinking." Tim said as he came into the room.

"Couldn't just sit here twiddling my thumbs. Marco and I knew we had to come up with something… Crap Daniel, you okay man?" He asked as he saw Daniel sitting next to Marco, wondering how he had been able to stand on his own, let alone take out one of their captors.

"Fine… Will be fine." He said as he held up his hand to ward off the protests from all three of his companions. "How about we find a way out of here? Sound good?"

"Sounds great." Adam said as he went to help Marco up. "How did you end up with only the two escorts? They always have at least three if not more?"

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say they have some company outside, distracting them right now." Daniel said with a small smile.

"Really?" Adam asked surprised.

"Yeah, Mic didn't seem too happy when he left, taking everyone with him, but these two idiots." Tim replied.

"Mic?" Adam questioned.

"Later." Daniel said, "You sure you got him? Do you want help?" He asked as Adam stood supporting Marco.

"No, I got him."

"You alright Marco?"

"Yeah, Daniel, let's get out of here." Marco whispered in reply.

"Okay, let's blow this popsicle stand." Daniel joked and went to the door, as Tim hovered beside him.

"Enough with the 'Tony DiNozzo' quotes already." Tim exclaimed.

Daniel just smirked at him, "Guess there's always one in a bunch. Where I come from they're referred to as 'Jack O'Neill' quotes." Then he peaked out the door, and picked up the metal cot leg off the floor.

"Tim, can you drag that guy in here? We'll lock them up, so it's two less we have to worry about."

After the two men were securely locked in the room, Adam asked, "Which way?"

"Well, we know the left takes us further into the building. So, let's try going right." Daniel said, as he started in that direction.

Both Gibbs and Jack had called for back up, so by the time they arrived at the warehouse, they had thirty extra people to help. Both Agent's and Military personal were there willing to help. Jack had told Gibbs to lead. While yes, he wanted the people responsible for this mess, in truth, he just wanted Daniel back in one piece. Gibbs could have everything else. All he needed to focus on was finding his best friend.

"We don't know exactly what building they're in, so we'll have to search each one. We'll split into groups, and search each one at the same time. Less likely they'll be able to get away." Gibbs said to the group.

Vala hadn't been listening, she was scrutinizing the buildings, when she saw movement in one of the windows. Not wanting to alert the bad guys that she saw him, she slowly turned to Gibbs. "Agent Gibbs, that will not be necessary."

"And why not." Gibbs glared.

"Because I saw someone moving in that building." Very nonchalantly pointing out which one, without turning towards the building.

Nobody looked in that direction, as Gibbs said, "Very good Miss Vala. Alright everyone, you know what to do. Let's get our people back." And then they split up, and surrounded the warehouse. On Gibbs' "Go, go, go" they entered the building.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Tim asked as they came to another dead end.

"Nope." Daniel said as he started to turn around, then leaned against the wall. Tim studied him for a moment. Daniel was so pale, he was practically white, except for his cheeks, that showed the fever he had. Tim also wasn't counting the blood all over him. His breathing was so uneven, Tim didn't know how he could keep walking, let alone stand. But know, he did. Daniel wasn't going to stop until he got all of them out of here.

"Daniel, lean on me." Tim tried for the tenth time. Each offer of help was refused, Tim needed to be ready incase someone came along. If he had to untangle himself from Daniel, they'd lose time. "I'm not offering this time. I'm telling you." Leaning in so only Daniel could hear him, "You can't keep going like this, I need you, please BB. Let me help you for once."

Hearing the plea in Tim's voice, Daniel gave a sharp nod, "Okay LB." Placing one arm over Tim's shoulder, they started down another empty hallway.

Halfway down they saw an open door, Tim placed Daniel against the wall and slowly crept down and peaked inside. It was empty. Turning around he had a smile on his face. Walking back to help, he told the three others, "Come on, let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Really Tim? And you yelled at me." Daniel complained, until they stepped into the room and a smile came onto all their faces. For this room was different. It was a room with a window. Not only that, it was on the ground floor.

"All clear. There's no one here." A voice came through the radio.

"I saw someone." Vala exclaimed. "I know I did."

"It's alright Vala, we believe you." Carter tried to calm her down, before Gibbs started yelling.

"It is not alright. If it were alright, My Daniel would be here."

Again, before Gibbs could say anything, Jacks voice came from down the hall. "Over here." Vala took off at a run, the rest right behind her. "Oh no you don't, slow down. Why don't you and Mitchell stay out here for a minute alright? Let Gibbs' team do their jobs."

Vala was not happy with this as everyone else went into the room. "Daniel?" She whispered.

"No." Jack replied.

Now upset, Vala demanded, "Then why can't I go in?" as she tried to get around him.

"Keep her out here Colonel." Jack ordered.

""Yes Sir." Mitchell responded, grabbing Vala's arm as she tried once again to go into the room.

"Cameron." Vala whined.

"No Vala. Until the General says we can go in, we stay here." Mitchell wasn't sure himself if he wanted to go in. The General looked a tad shaken, and it took a lot to do that.

Inside the room, everyone was frozen. They stared at a table, a chair, and a chain hanging from the ceiling. But what caught everyones attention, was the amount of blood under the chain. "Oh goodness." Carter breathed. Tony was frozen in place, mouth dropped open. Ziva had her necklace in her hand and was whispering in Hebrew.

Gibbs and Jack had walked over to the table. Almost every item had blood on them, only a few didn't. Looking at each other, neither knew what to say. Just as Jack was going to let out a string of curses, two things happened at once.

1.) Vala came bursting into the room with Cameron unsuccessfully trying to catch her. They both stopped still as they took in the room.

2.) Over the radio Colonel Reynolds voice demanded that the General, Gibbs, and everyone else, get their butts outside. Now!

There was a furry of movement, as everyone tried to get to the door at the same time. Eventually they made it to the exit. What was outside shocked them more than the inside of that room.

"Daniel…"

A/N: Still working on chapter 20, but hope to have it complete and up no later than this Friday. Thanks for reading!