Nick: This is actually a test run of this idea I just got in my head and had to write down. I need someone to read it an tell me if I'm not completely out of my mind with it, so reviews are treasured more precious than gold. It revolves around Tony DiNozzo and Daniel Jackson and could possibly develop as a slash relationship if I continue. Based kind of loosely on every single prison/escape movie I've seen, most on the Defiant Ones, which is actually mentioned. This is very much just a prologue and hasn't really gotten to anything juicy, but I needed to establish the characters. Try not to assume, just give me basic, honest feedback.

Disclaimer: I'm not that crazy. I'm only this crazy. That? That's all them.

Rating: ...I have no idea, but we'll say T for language and some very mild references to violence.

If any man sits in a prison bus in the middle of the night and says he isn't interested in trying to escape, he's either stupid, or he hasn't figured out a way to do it yet. I mean it, not one of you guys could honestly say you aren't thinking about it—not that I'd expect any of you guys to be honest. Wouldn't be here if you made a habit out of that, right? But I'll be honest with you here and now, I get the chance I'm cutting out of this mess. Guess I'd have to take Partner along with me, won't I?" With a laugh, he jiggled the chain around his wrist that shackled him to the man he sat next to. "Seriously, kid, you ain't gonna slow me down."

Across from him, Lu Jackson kicked a shoe across the floor into Tony's and gave him a sharp look. "Shut up already, Di'Noisey.' Leave Daniel alone."

"Well, excuse me for getting myself married to your boy-toy," Tony remarked, wry smirk tugging at his lips. "Not my fault that prison guards got no respect for the special bond you share with the kid." He lifted his arm and managed to gracefully put it over his chain-partner's shoulder even though it tugged the man's arm into an uncomfortable bend. Smiling sarcastically, Tony leaned into Daniel's personal space. "He wants me to leave him alone, he can tell me himself, can't he? What do ya say, Danny-boy? Am I bothering you?"

Like always, Daniel didn't say anything. All he did was turn his head and look Tony in the eye and make a face like Tony's breath smelled bad—which it usually did.

Awkwardly, Tony smacked the back of his head and quickly swatted away the protesting grab that Lu made for him. "Back off," he snapped, "the kid's a smartass, I think I got every right to bash his fucking head in, making that look at me."

"Cool that hot head or yours, DiNozzo, before you make a scene that gets us all in trouble."

Daniel used his free hand to pull his glasses from his face and was about to tug himself some of the chain slack so that he could clean them, but he took one more look at Tony and thought better of it. He held the spectacles by the arm between his fingers and twirled them around. Half the men in the transport might see this display as a show of submission, even weakness, but that would be because they didn't know Daniel. He didn't talk a lot—at all, really—so his ways of communicating were a bit different than other men. Even Tony noticed this, and he could tell that the man's lowered gaze and seeming obedience were actually his own means of being defiant.

Annoyed, Tony sat back on the bench and glared at Lu. "Didn't mean to get your panties in a twist there." He turned to Daniel and considered him for a moment. Then, with a bored sigh, he shifted his arm and released the chain so that the other man could move his arm more freely. "So Danny," he said, conversationally, "have you ever seen The Defiant Ones?"

While he wiped his lenses on the fabric of his jumper, Daniel looked over and shook his head.

"1958. Stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier; it's about two guys—one black, one white—chained together in a prison transport vehicle on a rainy night, much like this one." Tony put his head back on cage window and closed his eyes. "The driver loses control of the transport while attempting to avoid a frontal collision with an on-coming bus and veers off the road, virtually destroying the truck. Curtis and Poitier take their chance and make a break for it. Became really close friends, which was unexpected given the time it was made."

Daniel just nodded, that curious little half-smile on his face.

"The things they went through together, just to get free. Gotta respect a pair of guys like them. Almost got lynched, both of them."

"Sounds like a great experience," chimed in Big Mike. He was the only black guy in the convoy and he didn't seem to like the story much. "I'mma speak for Daniel because I know he wants to say this. Shut your cracker-ass up."

Raising an eyebrow, Tony perched his ankle up on his knee. "I'm sure those are exactly the words he would use, too." Daniel laughed quietly and put his glasses back on. "Seriously though, what has the world come to? That movie is a classic and no one has seen it? Where is your culture, people?"

"We're convicts, idiot," Lu stated, "we aren't exactly cultured types." That earned a few chuckles from the men that were close enough to hear the hushed conversation. "Right, Daniel?"

For some reason, Daniel didn't laugh this time. In fact, he frowned and gave Lu the mother of all scowls. Lu seemed to expect it and met it with the same fiery "almost-anger" in his eyes. The other guys slowly started to register the awkwardness and even Tony found it hard to break the silence this time. No one quite understood what it was between Lu and Daniel that had them both so close and so at each other's throats. There were whispers, of course, but nothing substantial enough even for a bunch of convicts. Some said they were together under fire in Iraq, but no one really knew. Just like no one really knew why Daniel didn't talk.

Tony knew, though, that Daniel could talk—he still had a tongue and he could make noise from his throat, he just didn't make words. Daniel was his cellmate, and Tony was an insomniac…and Daniel had nightmares. It was just sounds and movements, never any distinct things, but Tony could appreciate them for what they were. Scary. Like his eyes right now.

"So…" because one thing DiNozzo couldn't do was sit in silence—especially the awkward kind—for more than five seconds. "What about The Great Escape? You guys have to have seen that one. '63, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. McQueen plays a character called Hilts, a Captain during World War 2…"

As he started his due rambling up again, the tension in the air started to loosen and Lu smiled and Danny glance up at Tony. The road felt rocky beneath them, but it was a thing that every man aboard was used to.