A/N: Firstly, I want to thank RuthLeilani for beta-ing my story. Thank you sooooo much for correcting my terrible english .

and I want to apologize for the not updating this for such a long time... sry~

Tony's scream was ringing through the air. He writhed under the body of Marks, struggling to escape the raging man who was pummeling him.

Ziva grabbed him from behind and threw him off Tony in one swift movement. She surprised the attacker and disarmed him in the process. Her assassin training kicking in, Ziva twisted his shoulders back, forcing him face down in the ground. She bent his arm awkwardly behind his back with strong force. With a loud and clear SNAP!! a bone broke. Marks squirmed pathetically for one last time before stopping still to focus on his breathing through the pain in his arm.

Handcuffing Marks with no further trouble, Ziva handed Marks over to the local officers roughly and headed over to Tony.

Kate was already with him, pushing onto the wound, creating pressure to stop the blood flow. Gibbs was holding firmly onto Tony's upper body while McGee was straddling his legs to keep the wounded, but still struggling man down.

"DiNozzo! Calm down!" Gibbs ordered in a firm but gentle tone.

"Tony, I know it hurts like hell, but you need to stop moving. You're agitating your wound," Kate tried to tell Tony using her calmest tone.

McGee paled on the sight of blood pooling on Tony's shirt and the floor.

Ziva crouched down near Tony's head, ruffling his hair and tried to cradle his head onto her lap.

"Tony, will you stop moving? It's just a scratch, stop being a baby." Ziva whispered softly to his ear, trying to make Tony focus on her teasing voice instead of the pain.

But, Tony could not hear any of their voices. He was trapped in his own world of pain and darkness.

Flashback starts:

"It hurts…

It hurts so bad….

Damn it, it really fucking hurts…"

Tony's eyes flutter open. He blinks a few times to get rid of his blurred vision as he stares up to the DiNozzo Mansion's well-crafted ceiling patterns.

"Seriously, who's going to even notice what's UP there? Taking your time looking up at the patterns is tiring. Anyone's neck is going to break before one's even finished noticing what kind of fucking patterns are UP there. Well, a DiNozzo does not do anything by half measure. Even at places where no one notices everything has to be perfect. At least the façade has to be impeccable. Is that a slight crack on the dragon's head of the pattern? Gahh… I must be crazy… Who cares anyway?" Tony thinks silently to himself.

Tony is lying flat on his back, he is pushing himself up slowly, examining the damage, that's been done this time. Not even halfway up, he loses control of his limbs and goes back down, finding himself in the same position he woke up in. He gasps and pants heavily after his exertion.

Everything hurts.

"Focus Tony! Calm down you idiot!"

Tony shuts his eyes tightly and forces himself to breath properly. After gaining his back breath, he tries again. He pushes himself up using his elbow. When he finally sits upright, he cheers internally for his great accomplishment.

Tony glances at the glass shards that are scattered on all over the floor.

It would be a beautiful view, tiny glass shards like beads scattered on the dark expensive carpet, shining like stars on a peaceful night. Any other time, it could have been an innocently beautiful picture. Well, without the blood spilled on the floor, it would look perfect.

Sarah and him always spend the nights watching lots and lots of movies, from cartoons over comedies to the classics. He makes sure for Sarah not to see the horror ones, or too bloody action movies though. He doesn't want to scare her off any further.

Sarah always says that he is her 'Bond'. Tony chuckles on that thought: Sarah comparing him to the great James Bond!

"I'm no hero" Tony thinks to himself "But I can pretend that I'm on a mission!"

Tony gets a grip onto the nearest object, which happens to be the coffee table and pulls himself onto his knees. He pants through the pain and forces himself to stand.

He sways dangerously before finally standing still on his two feet. After making sure that his balance is not off, he tentatively starts shifting his feet to move, he carefully places one at a time. With every step the glass shards slice into his feet, he is only wearing socks and those do little to protect his sensible skin.

He shuffles slowly through the room. His sole mission now is to get back to his room before passing out once again. His main target, the one he desperately focuses on, is to reach the door, so he hardly notices when his feet scrunch through the shards as he makes his way to the exit. Everything hurts more than his feet; it's really the least of his concerns right now.

This time Father had been tripped over by seeing that his report card this term was not perfect, at least not up to the standards he holds. He had beaten him up badly and then, in a fit of rage, had thrown him into the big glass cabinet that dominated the drawing room.

He had been lying in all these glass and blood but Father still had not laid off, instead straddled him so he was smashed down by the full body weight of his father, putting his hands around his throat and strangling him.

He had been on the verge of dying from lack of air, when eventually Father let go and went away on the search for more alcohol. Tony had passed out on pain and hypoxia.

When Tony finally reaches his room, he locks the door and heads to the bathroom. He tries plucking out all the shards from his back, side, bottom and his thigh. He turns on the water to fill up the tub.

After his attempt to pluck out as much of the glass as he can, he lows himself into the water and sighs, grateful for the soothing water's effect on his bruised body. The water gradually turns red, but Tony could not care less. He closes his eyes, relaxing in the tub.

"Finally! Mission Accomplished!!"

He thanks God that Sarah is currently having a few nights of sleepover party at his aunt's place. His mother's sister is quite fond of both of them, she tries her best to care for Tony and Sarah. However, with DiNozzo Sr. as their father, it is hard to do so.

Aunt Jackie had invited Tony over as well. Tony would have loved to go, but in order to get Sarah to stay away from the mansion as long as possible, Tony had to stay near DiNozzo Sr. If Father had Tony to focus on, he would probably forget about Sarah's absence. Then it would be easy to keep her there for more than two weeks without their father noticing.

Tony relaxes further into the water, welcoming the darkness and oblivion as he slips into unconsciousness.

Flashback ends

Abby was fiddling with the edge of Tony's blanket with her right hand, while clinging tightly onto Tony's hand with her left. She had placed Bert next to Tony on his hospital bed.

Abby had nearly freaked out, big time, when she heard what had happened. She had threatened to kill anybody who tried to stop her from getting to the man she regarded to be her big brother. She could be scary that way.

Gibbs was sitting next to Abby, staring at Tony's fragile body, which was hooked up to all kinds of machines. He silently thanked whatever God there was, when the doctor had declared that there was no need to put Tony on the ventilator. The ventilator was creeping Gibbs out.

Gibbs immediately noticed the slight flickering of Tony's eyelids. He rose abruptly and leaned down to Tony.

Abby sensing his movement also, began to look at Tony for more signs of awakening.

They watched eagerly as Tony's eyes fluttered open slowly. Abby instantly pressed furiously on the emergency button to alert the nurses.

"About time DiNozzo." Gibbs whispered to Tony, smoothing his hair gently, the way a parent would to his frightened child.