Work Text:
“Look. I know you don’t like me, but if we’re going to get out of here we have to put our differences aside and make up.”
“As if.” Vivian snarled.
Tony sighed. Vivian and him had never gotten along. He wasn’t sure if it was that Gibbs promoted Tony to SFA over Vivian or if it was something else, but if she wasn’t willing to work with him to save her own life they would never get out of here.
It had been foolish of them to start working the crime scene without making sure it was secured first and now they were both chained in a cellar. Tony had no idea who had taken them and he was pretty sure Vivian didn’t either. Gibbs was going to have both their heads once he found them.
Though, if Vivian didn’t get her act together and start working with him instead of against him, this could very well spell the end of her time on the MCRT. Gibbs had been itching for an excuse to get rid of her that would make it so that her parentage didn’t matter. Tony and Vivian had started out on the wrong foot and everything Tony did seem to make it worse instead of better.
He had to admit he didn’t quite know what to make of it. He’d never met someone so determined to hate him before. He wished he could say that she would have a change of heart, but honestly he doubted it.
Tony was beginning to think that Gibbs was right and she should go back to where she belonged. Tony wasn’t sure where that was, but he knew NCIS wasn’t it. Finally, someone else appeared, but Tony could tell immediately that this wasn’t a good thing.
The torture implements that they brought with them were serious business. They worked both Tony and Vivian over with the thumbscrew and the heretic’s fork. Tony couldn’t help wondering what was going on.
Neither of these devices were used in modern times. There were plenty of other ways to torture people. It did have the benefit of providing a bouleversement from Vivian, who suddenly seemed interested in working with him.
Of course, even working together he wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of this. The heretic fork forced them to remain upright and they basically couldn’t move without severe pain from it’s prongs on both ends. Tony didn’t even know what their captors wanted.
They hadn’t asked any questions. Pure torture seemed to be all they wanted. Of course, they did have to feed them and give them water if they didn’t want them to die quickly.
Maybe they could take advantage of something during that time. Or better, yet, Tony still had his boot knife. The ropes holding the heretic’s fork on could be cut and they could escape.
The only problem with this plan was that neither of them could easily reach his boot in the position they were in. Tony tried to raise his leg out like a gymnast trying to do the splits or a jump split, but with only one leg. He hoped to get it close enough to Vivian that she could grab his knife and free herself and then him.
He succeeded. She grabbed the knife and freed herself, but instead of freeing him, she tried to escape on her own. Tony sighed.
Apparently, they were still on the wrong foot and hadn’t made up at all despite her being willing to work with him. Now, what was he going to do? Fortunately, Gibbs had figured out what had happened to them and was getting ready to barge in when Vivian came running outside without DiNozzo.
“Where’s DiNozzo?”
“I don’t know I just escaped and I’m so turned around.”
“With DiNozzo’s boot knife?” Gibbs snarled. He knew for a fact that Vivian didn’t follow any of his rules, so the knife in her hand had to be DiNozzo’s.
Vivian’s eyes got huge and she looked around for an escape. Gibbs growled at one of the agents to take her in for questioning and headed in after Tony. His gun was out, though, when he found Tony he regretted the quick deaths that he had given their captors.
He hadn’t realized what exactly they’d done as Vivian hadn’t looked that bad, but apparently they’d come back and realized she was gone and taken it out on Tony or something. Shaking his head, Gibbs muttered, “Is this going to be a pattern, DiNozzo?”
“I hope not. It’s really not comfortable.”
Needless to say when Gibbs found out what really happened, he went ballistic and stormed into Tom Morrow’s office demanding Vivian off his team and preferably removed from the agency in its entirety. You needed to be able to trust the people you worked with in situations like this and she was happy to leave Tony to rot while she saved her own skin. That wasn’t how Gibbs’ team worked and he knew that wasn’t how the agency worked either.
Tony breathed a sigh of relief when Vivian was reassigned. He didn’t know where her new assignment was and he didn’t care. He was just glad to not have to worry about always being on the wrong foot with her.
Fortunately, while he may have gotten off on the wrong foot with Gibbs when he tackled him thinking him a criminal, they’d quickly made up before that case was even finished. With Vivian gone, they gelled even more in the field and their teamwork became legendary, though it didn’t seem to stop Tony from getting himself into dangerous situations.