Tony awoke with a surge of pain in the back of his head. He was tied to one of the chairs again but in a slightly different room. He looked around to see Jeanne looking at him with concern. He looked around the rest of the room again and realized that they were alone.
"Who the hell needs two dining rooms on the same floor?" He asked jokingly.
"Tony…" Jeanne started urgently.
"I mean, sure, it's a mansion, but seriously. Who needs two dining rooms?" He continued, ignoring her.
"Tony!" She said a bit more forcefully this time.
"Damn it! The bastard took my knife!" Tony continued again as if he hadn't heard her.
"Tony!!" She screamed.
"What!?" He shouted back at her, finally realizing he would have to hear what she had to say and get the inevitable over with.
For a moment she was taken aback at him shouting at her but she soon got over it and sighed before she started speaking again.
"These men, the ones who are keeping us here are after me and my family. There's…um…something you have to know about me. Well…about my family." Jeanne scanned Tony's features for any kind of reaction, but sensing none, she continued talking. "Its my father. He's- He's- Well he's- um…" Jeanne was struggling to put what she wanted to say into words.
"A bastard…?" Tony suggested, knowing exactly what she was trying to tell him.
"Well," she laughed nervously, "yes…um…he's an illegal arms dealer."
Jeanne waited for a reaction from Tony but again getting none she became confused. "Tony, you heard what I said right?"
Tony's head was bowed and he was doing his best to keep his gaze on the floor but eventually he looked up.
"Yes. I heard you." He said solemnly.
"Well…um…" she laughed nervously again. "I was kind of expecting more of a reaction, I mean, you're a movie professor. Its not every day that someone tells you their father is a wanted man…unless you hear it in a movie."
"I'm not a movie professor…"
"Fine then, a cinematography professor!"
"I'm not that either Jeanne."
"Well then, what are you?" Jeanne's voice expressed an emotion somewhere between anger and confusion.
"I'm a federal agent with NCIS"
"NCI- what?"
"NCIS, Naval Criminal Investigative Service."
"Oh, well…what does that have to do with anything? I'm not trying to share honesty here! I am trying to explain why we're in this mess, I am trying to tell you about my father!!"
"I know about your father! In fact, I probably know more than you do about your father! I have been working undercover for NCIS trying to nail that bastard!"
"You- You- You've been working undercover?" Jeanne repeated what he had just said. She couldn't believe it.
"Yes, but-" Tony began, knowing what she was thinking about their relationship.
"So…was our relationship part of this- this mission?" She demanded angrily, interrupting Tony. She was clearly close to tears.
"No of course not! I love you!" He longed to hold her in his arms. He knew that was what she needed right now. "The fact that your father is part of my mission does not make that love any less pure!"
Jeanne could see the honesty in his eyes. Those expressive eyes of his. He must be one hell of a liar if his eyes hadn't given him away before now.
"So why didn't you tell me what your job was, Agent DiNardo." She put emphasis on ‘agent'
"Actually…" Tony cringed awkwardly, Jeanne wasn't sure if it was just the pain or if he had not been honest about something else, "It's DiNozzo. And I couldn't tell you my real name or job…well…I didn't know how close a watch your father kept on you and no matter how much I loved you I couldn't let our relationship get in the way of my mission. I couldn't let your father know who I really was."
"Oh…" Jeanne was beginning to accept and understand why Tony had had to lie to her, but there was still one thing she wasn't clear on. "If these men are after my father, and you are also after my father…why have the kidnapped you? I mean, you're practically on their side."
"Well, its like you said, they are after you and your family. I just happen to be your boyfriend…well fiancé now." Jeanne smiled "They probably had no idea I was after your father too."
"Well we do now…DiNozzo" The man who had hit Tony with the gardeners shovel pushed open one of the heavy mahogany doors and came into the room.
He was very well dressed and spoke with a slightly Americanised French accent.
"Then surely you can let us go now…after all, we both want the same thing." Tony tried.
"You are mistaken Mr. DiNozzo, we want very similar things, but certainly not the same thing." The Frenchman smiled.
"We both want her bastard of a father dead." Tony said indicating Jeanne.
"That may be so," He smiled again, bringing a 9mm out of his suit-jacket pocket and pointing it at Tony, "But that's not all I want, I don't just want him dead, I want his whole family dead."
He turned the gun to Jeanne. She looked anxiously from the gun to Tony and from Tony to the gun.
"P-plea-please don't k-kill me…" She pleaded. She wasn't crying, there were no tears for how scared she was.
"You don't have to do this, you only need her father dead. You can let us go and we can both get what we want."
"You don't get it do you! I want her dead!!" The man shouted, then quietened to almost a whisper. "I will let you out alive but her," he cocked his gun, "will never see another sunset."
"Please…" Jeanne pleaded, this time she knew for certain that her pleas were in vain.
But the Frenchman surprised them all, he lowered the gun and made his way to the doorway.
Tony noticed the shovel from earlier lying next to the open door, then the Frenchman picked it up and turned back around.
"Not the shovel again…" Tony thought, still recovering from the first time.
The next thing Tony knew, the Frenchman was behind him and hit him over the head with the shovel using his full strength.
It took a few seconds for Tony to feel the pain. In those seconds he heard a woman's scream, followed by a gunshot and he knew what had happened. Then the world went black.
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