Title: Boundaries
Rating: T for the majority, but some chapters will be HUGELY M RATED. I will warn you at the beginning of each.
Warnings: Heavy topics, sexual abuse, child abuse, violence, sexual situations.
Summary: An AU tale in which Tony DiNozzo is an agent sent to investigate a sex slavery ring of girls from the Middle East, and his journey to get the one he falls in love with home. Tiva.

Disclaimer: No I do not own NCIS. I do own the characters that I created within this story.

I know there's not really much Tiva in this chapter, but trust me… we're just getting started. :)

DC's weather had always been predictably unreliable, using for example the fact that it was currently late September and still boiling hot. Special Agent Tony DiNozzo reclined in his desk chair staring at the ceiling, his tie loosened, suit jacket discarded haphazardly on the floor next to him and the first few buttons of his shirt undone. Errant beads of sweat wove their way down his forehead in what almost seemed like a race. Work was not even a thought right now, and instead he closed his eyes and listened intently to the static and muffled words coming from the old-fashioned radio on his boss's desk.

'Good morning Washington, and it seems we're in for another scorcher. Right now it's 98 degrees and it looks like the temperature's only going to go up from here…"

Tony groaned and sat up abruptly, slamming his sweaty head down onto his work desk.

"Quit your whining, DiNozzo," his partner Kate's voice came from across the bullpen. He lifted his head slightly and narrowed his eyes at her. Smart, always-prepared Kate had come to work today with a desktop fan and in a thin shirt. Not that he minded the latter, but the former made him extremely jealous. Her dark hair was tied back in a messy knot and her lips were turned up in a grin.

"Like you can talk!" Tony whined. "You're perfectly content over there in your little corner of Antarctica while the rest of us are dying in the Sahara."

"Well maybe you should've thought of that this morning before you came to work."

"Maybe you should've thought of your fellow co-workers' suffering before you came to work."

"Maybe you should actually use your brain for once!"

"Would you two shut up?" McGee complained from the other direction. "As if the heat's not bad enough, I don't need the both of you giving me a headache." Tony and Kate glared at the Probie before backing down resignedly from their argument. But that didn't mean Tony was going to stop talking, of course, when did he ever?

"You have no idea how much I'd rather be at home watching Magnum right now. In my air conditioning. With an ice cold beer…" his voice trailed off longingly.

"With Sandy. Isn't she your girl of the week?" Kate teased.

"Her name is Cindy," Tony scolded. He paused. "I think."

Suddenly their boss, the infamous Leroy Jethro Gibbs, appeared on the landing halfway up the stairs.

"DiNozzo!" he barked. Tony flinched.

"Yeah Boss?"

"MTAC. Now."

Kate sent him a flirty yet childish glance through her eyelashes.

"Ooh, someone's in trouble," she teased in a singsong voice. Tony made a face at her before leaping up the stairs two at a time to follow Gibbs into MTAC, wondering what on earth the grey-haired mute had planned for him.

After having his retinas scanned and blinking a little at the colourful shapes in front of his eyes, Tony entered MTAC and was surprised to find both Gibbs and the Director waiting for him. Whatever this was about, it was definitely big, he surmised from the serious expressions on both of their faces. On the large screen behind them was a map of the Middle East, with a red light blinking in the middle of what looked to be Israel.

"Boss. Director," he acknowledged the two politely. Jenny's mouth quirked in a small smile.

"Since when have we been big on formalities, DiNozzo?" she smirked.

"Never," he replied without blinking. "If I may ask then, what's this about?"

Jenny paced towards him, meeting his eyes.

"We have a proposition for you," she said. "If you are interested in hearing it."

Tony smiled and gestured for her to continue; intrigued by whatever she had in mind and wondering if it had anything to do with the map of the Middle East still shining behind her. Jenny turned and nodded to one of the techs around the edge of the room and the map zoomed in to a remote area of Israel.

"This is Mitspe Ramon, a town situated in southern Israel. We have intel that an international sex slavery ring is being run from here, one that could possibly involve Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan as well." The map zoomed out again, showing the countries that the director had mentioned highlighted in red. "It's being run by a terrorist group called the Judea Freedom Movement, otherwise known as the JFM. They are also known for-"

"Being that group that are currently trying to steal US Military secrets," Tony finished. He'd been paying attention to what had been going on lately.

"Correct," said Jenny smoothly. "Unfortunately they were also stupid enough to make their group's information easily accessible. To us at least. And we have discovered that the entire operation has been moved from Mitspe Ramon…" the map zoomed out until the whole world was visible, before zooming into an area in between North and South America, "… to somewhere in the middle of the Sonoran Desert."

"Here?" Tony blanched. "How in the hell did they get into the country?"

"We have no idea. But we're in the process of figuring it out. Meanwhile, we need a man on the inside, someone we can gain further intel from, so we can both shut down the sex slavery ring and keep our country's secrets just that."

"And that's where I come in?" Tony figured.

"Yes, if you're up for it," Jenny smiled, knowing DiNozzo's answer already.

"Bring it on."

And that was how Anthony DiNozzo found himself driving a jeep through the Sonoran Desert, the hot, dirty wind blowing in his face. Attempting to dodge the rocks and holes in the ground proved futile, so instead Tony had to content himself with bouncing up and down roughly in the car like he was riding an untamed horse. And God knows he hated horses.

The sun was almost at the exact centre of the sky, and the heat that he felt right then was the worst he had ever felt in his life. The air heavy and the skin on his shoulders and back blistering and peeling even through the fabric that covered them, Tony chuckled pathetically in his head about how naïve he had been to complain about how hot it was back in his office in DC. The office was a winter wonderland compared to this.

Tony swore as he hit a particularly big rock and rebounded almost a metre into the air, his stomach falling to his feet. When he landed back on the ground, the tires of the car skidded slightly and he continued driving, thankful that whatever he had hit, it hadn't been a cactus yet.

And finally, looming through the thick heat waves in the distance, Tony spotted the terrorist camp. All he could see was a few rundown buildings surrounded by a wire fence, but of course he could tell that the camp ran underground as well. Tony shivered at the thought of the men possibly being directly beneath him right now, separated only by a few metres of dirt. When he felt he was close enough without being seen, he pulled the jeep to a stop with a skid and climbed out.

Now where to go from here, Tony thought, staring at the buildings. The air was eerily quiet and still, to the point where he almost imagined a tumbleweed rolling gently across the ground in front of him.

"You'll figure it out, DiNozzo," said Gibbs in his ear, answering his unspoken question.

"You know I still don't understand how these earwigs are working from so far away, and without any signal."

"That's because they aren't earwigs, Tony. It's more like a miniature walkie-talkie in your ear."

Finally, Tony managed to get his feet moving and started heading towards the camp. The air was like soup, so every step he took felt like he was wading through water. When he got close enough to be in sight by any guards, he ducked behind a tall but pathetic looking tree and surveyed his surroundings.

There were four guards, one on each side of the perimeter and all facing a different direction. Each carried a rather large rifle in their hand, and various other smaller weapons clipped to their belt. Tony bit his lip as he contemplated what to do next.

Looking upwards, he found his answer.

The tree's largest and sturdiest branch extended far to the right, over the guard's head. And so, he began to climb. Finding a sturdy foothold, he reached and swung himself upwards, higher and higher. Soon, when Tony looked down, he found himself hit by a wave of nausea. Heights had never been his thing. Finally he began to edge his way along the branch in question. From up here, he could survey the entire camp.

And that was when Tony felt a pair of eyes on him.

He froze.

The eyes in question belonged to a woman sitting by herself in the blistering heat. She couldn't have been older than twenty five, her hair tumbling loosely in dark curls around her shoulders and her skin a caramel tan. She sat on a chair beside the largest building with a tub of water filled with men's clothing in front of her. For a second, Tony wondered why she had not attempted escape. Clearly there was no one watching her. But that was when he noticed the shackles cuffed what looked uncomfortably tight around her feet, attached to a large lead anvil that sat by her. The woman's eyes were wide and inquisitive as she looked up at him, her lips parted slightly like she were about to say something.

Tony instantly moved a finger to his lips, signalling her not to speak. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she closed her mouth, thankfully obeying him. Tony returned his gaze to the guard who was now directly below him and inched a few centimetres further along the branch, his heart quickening as it bowed slightly under his weight. And finally, he dropped the few metres it was to the ground, landing noisily behind the man.

Before he could speak, Tony had his hand clapped over the guard's mouth and his finger found a pressure point on his neck that caused him to go down without a sound. When he was on the ground, he removed a knife from his belt and plunged it into the bastard's side before cleaning it off and placing it back in its place. In DC, Jenny had given him permission to kill any of the men he came across, so he felt no remorse whatsoever. He dragged the lifeless figure into what looked like an old storage shed and quickly shed himself of his clothes, swapping them with the guard's. Though he didn't particularly enjoy having to undress and redress the man, he was glad to see that he was now adequately disguised and the guard himself looked like an intruder. He retreated from the shed, closing it quietly and latching it behind him.

"Nice job, DiNozzo," Gibbs breathed in his ear.

When Tony looked around to find the woman again, she was gone, the chair empty and the tub of clothes still there.

Thanks for reading guys. I know it's a little boring at the moment, but I have a whole story plan worked out and it will pick up. :) Please leave a review?