Chapter 1:

It was late in the evening and the only sound was the repetitive tap-tap-tap of someone using a hammer. Pausing to take a drink, the man tilted his head a little at the sound of the floor creaking upstairs. He lived alone and he knew very few people that were brave enough to enter his house unannounced. Setting aside the hammer, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a gun, just in case it was an unwelcome guest.

Pretending to be occupied with the piece of wood in front of him, he continued to listen for any indication of who the person was and what they were doing. The floor creaked again, this time the noise coming from the direction of the kitchen. Smiling to himself, the man put the gun away. There was only one person who went to the kitchen before coming downstairs.

Keeping up the appearance of work, Gibbs turned so his back was turned towards the stairs. When his guest made his way down the stairs, Gibbs had to smile. 'He really needs to learn that he can't sneak up on me,' he thought to himself.

His guest halted halfway down the stairs, as if he were unsure of his welcome. Silence filled the basement.

"I know you're there, Tony. The sandpaper is right where you left it last time," Gibbs said, breaking the silence.

"How do you do that?" Tony asked exasperated as he made his way down the rest of the stairs.

"Trade secret," Gibbs replied with a smirk as he turned around.

"Uh huh," he said as he stepped off of the last step. "You sure…"

"Get to work, Tony," Gibbs instructed, knowing exactly where the younger man's thoughts were going. He received a timid look before his instructions were followed.

For the past few months Tony had started stopping by every now and again to help work on the boat. And even though Gibbs had welcomed him every time, Tony still seemed to hesitate a bit.

He knew Tony had his own demons to work out and he knew better than to push Tony into talking about them. Gibbs understood first-hand what it was like, going up against things from the past. However, he had hoped that after the undercover op that required them to pose as father and son that Tony would feel more confident in regards to how much Gibbs respected and cared for him.

'We'll get there,' Gibbs thought to himself.

The undercover op had revealed a lot about Tony's past, and not all of it was pleasant. It certainly answered some questions as to why Tony was the way he was, but it also brought up more questions.

"Hey, boss," Tony interrupted his thoughts. "You ever think about how you're going to get the boat to the water when she's done?"

Gibbs recognized this tactic. Whenever he seemed to be having more trouble than normal into getting relaxed, Tony resorted to conversation about the boat they were working on.

"Well, I was thinking about hiring a contractor," Gibbs answered with a grin. "Unless you've got a better idea?"

Gibbs knew he was right to appeal to Tony's knowledge of construction when he replied with a smirk, "Well, now that you mention it…"

The ring of a cell phone interrupted Tony's reply. Gibbs picked up his cell off of the workbench and answered. After acknowledging the information he received over the phone he hung up and looked over at Tony.

"Looks like you will have to enlighten me with your ideas later. We got a body at an abandoned warehouse," Gibbs said.

Tony nodded, already slipping into work mode, said, "I'll go get the truck."
"I'll meet you there," Gibbs informed him as he started to call the rest of the team.

"It's just as well we caught a case," Tony said as he headed upstairs. "Got more than one idea on how to move that boat outta here."

Before Gibbs could reply Tony was out of the basement and heading towards the front door. Smiling, he headed up the stairs himself as Ducky answered the phone.

"Dr. Mallard speaking."

"Time to go to work, Duck."

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As far as crime scenes go, this was one of the cleanest ones the team had ever scene. Which was saying a lot, considering the state the body was in.

"Doesn't look like he's been here very long," Ziva said as she took some photos of the area surrounding the body.

McGee gave her an odd look. "What makes you say that? Looks to me like he's been dead a while."

He did have a point. The body was unrecognizable; the tattered uniform of a marine being the only thing on the body that was identifiable. The man's face was covered with bruises and there were several deep cuts all over his body.

"He's obviously been tortured," Ziva explained. "The wounds on the body from such trauma can often make it hard to determine the time of death simply by looking at it alone."

"Ziva is correct," Ducky jumped in, having just finished checking the temperature of the liver. "This poor fellow only recently expired, perhaps no more than 12 hours ago."

"According to the security video, the only sign of movement was about 10 hours ago," Tony said as he joined the group. "The guard thought it was a delivery or someone doing inventory."

"I thought this was supposed to be an abandoned warehouse," questioned Ziva.

"A lot of bases use them as storage," McGee informed her.

"And they make deliveries at 10 o'clock at night? That makes no sense," said a baffled Ziva.

"What doesn't make sense is why there's a dead marine in the middle of a Navy base," said Gibbs from behind the group.

"Working on it, boss," McGee said.

"So what did he have to say?" asked Tony in reference to the young man who had found the body.

"Not much," Gibbs replied. "He was doing standard checks of the buildings and came across our vic. He reported it to his supervisor and secured the area."

Moving closer to the body, Gibbs asked, " Got a cause of death, Duck?"

"It's difficult to say, considering the amount of injuries he sustained," replied Ducky. "It could be anything at this point. I'll know more once we get him home."

"There wasn't any kind of identification in his pockets," McGee informed Gibbs. "Even his dog-tags are missing."

"Perhaps they are a trophy for our killer," speculated Ziva.

"That's assuming he is actually a marine," Gibbs stated.

"Security tapes are already on their way to Abby," Tony said.

"What else?" Gibbs inquired.

"There wasn't much to find," McGee said.

"This has definitely been one of our more cleaner scenes to investigate," Ziva said. "It is as if the body just fell out of the sky."

"Maybe it did," Tony said as he pointed to the forklift by the wall. "Lift the body out of the back of the truck with that and place it here on the floor. That's one way to decrease the amount of evidence being left behind."

Gibbs gave him a questioning look. "A truck, Dinozzo?"

Tony nodded. "Security cameras caught a truck with no tags pull up to one of the loading docks for this warehouse. Even shows someone using the forklift."
"Enough to identify who it is?" Gibbs asked.

"Hard to tell, boss," Tony replied with a smirk. "Just have to hope Abby can work her magic."

Gibbs gave him a look and instructed him to go check for fingerprints on the forklift.

"Already did," Tony said. " Got a few. Going to have to run a check with the employees here who use it and go from there."

"When did you have time to do that?" Ziva asked, looking a bit surprised and impressed.

Tony just laughed and shook his head. "A magician never reveals his secrets."

Gibbs grinned as he turned his attention towards Ducky, who had managed to get the body on the gurney while the rest of the team had discussed their findings. Even he didn't always know how Tony was able to get things done so quickly.

"All set?" he asked the M.E.

"Of course. I'll see you all later on," Ducky said as he headed out.

The team nodded their good-byes to Ducky and turned to gather up their own equipment.

"All right, lets head back," instructed Gibbs. "We've got a body to identify."

Chapter 2:

No matter what time it was, Abby was always ready to go. Caff-Pow! by her side, she bobbed her head along to the beat of her newest CD as she worked to enhance some of the footage from the security video she had received. Just as she completed her examination of one part of the video she heard the whoosh of her doors sliding open to let someone in.

Swiveling around on her chair, she smiled as she greeted McGee. "Hey! You guys weren't out very long. I only just got the security tapes about an hour ago."

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much evidence to gather, apart from the body," McGee informed her as he placed the box of evidence on the table. "Get anything useful from the tapes?"

Abby shook her head as she turned around to face her computer. "Not yet. All I can tell you so far is that the suspect drove a pick-up truck with no plates to the warehouse."

"That's what Tony got from it when he watched it," McGee said as he looked at her computer. "Its too bad the streetlights weren't closer, might have helped get a better view of the vehicle."

"Probably won't be able to give you guys much on the suspect, there just isn't enough to work with," Abby agreed.

"I wonder if our suspect scouted the area beforehand," McGee wondered.

"Makes sense," Abby said. "I doubt it could have been luck that kept that guy from being caught on camera."

"Tony pulled some prints off of a forklift in the warehouse," McGee told her as he started to shift through the evidence. "That should give us a starting point at least."

"Give them to me now," Abby said as she held out her hand. "They can be running along side the prints of our vic that I got from Ducky. You can get started on finishing with the security footage."

McGee handed them over to her and moved to take a seat beside her. Just as he started to run a computer program against the footage, Abby's computer beeped.

"That was fast," McGee remarked as he looked up to see what she had found.

"I've identified our guy in the morgue," Abby said as she reached for the phone to call Gibbs.

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Meanwhile, down in autopsy, Ducky and Palmer had just finished bagging the young marine's clothes along with another piece of evidence that they had found.

"If you would be so kind as to take these up to Abby, Mr. Palmer. Be sure to tell her to take a look at this first," Ducky instructed his assistant as he pointed to a certain evidence bag.

"Of course, Doctor," Palmer said, picking up the items and started to head for the elevator. "Is there any reason why?"

Ducky just waved him off. "Abby will understand when she sees it."

Palmer just nodded and continued on his way.

Ducky sighed and said out loud to himself, "I just hope it's not what I think it is."

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"Private First Class Lucas Vaughn, 23 years old. Joined the marines about a year after graduating high school. Never had any disciplinary problems and his current commanding officer states that he was on his way to becoming an excellent officer worthy of the Marine Core," Ziva announced as she stood up to stretch.

"Just got back from his second tour in Iraq. Looks like he grew up in a rough neighborhood," Tony added as he looked up from his computer. "Grew up around a lot of violence and drugs. Looks like he was one of the lucky ones."

"How is he lucky if he grew up in that kind of environment?" Ziva questioned him.

"He got out," Tony explained as he too stood up to stretch. "He didn't get caught up in anything that was going on around him. Vaughn made a better life for himself."

Ziva nodded her understanding, then glanced up towards the director's office. "How long do you think Gibbs is going to be?"

"Vaughn doesn't have any listed next of kin. Gibbs is going to want to make sure that he receives a proper Marine funeral," Tony said. "Come on, let's go see what Abby and McGee are up to."

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Ding!

The elevator doors slide open and Palmer nearly collided with Tony and Ziva.

"Whoa Palmer!" Tony exclaimed as he moved to the side.

"Sorry guys," Palmer apologized. "Doctor Mallard is waiting for me to get back so we can start Vaughn's autopsy."

"Do not worry about it," Ziva reassured him as she exited the elevator.

Palmer smiled his thanks, then asked, "Could you make sure Abby takes a look at the evidence that's on top of the clothes? She's pretty zoomed in on the computer with McGee. Doctor Mallard specifically requested that she examine it first."

"Really?" Tony said curiously. "Did he say why?"

"No, but I think he was worried about what it means," Palmer told the pair.

"What is it exactly?" Ziva asked. "We didn't find anything inside his pockets at the crime scene."

"A pocket calendar," Palmer said. "It was in the waistband of his pants."

"What's so bad about a pocket calendar?" Ziva wondered as she turned to look at Tony, who had a look of shock on his face. "Tony, are you alright?"

"You said it was on top of the evidence pile, right Palmer?" Tony asked, ignoring Ziva's concern.

"Yeah," Palmer confirmed and then Tony was turning around, heading into the lab. "Uh, ok. I guess I'll see you later." Then he stepped into the elevator and headed back to autopsy.

Ziva nodded her head to Palmer before moving to follow Tony, anxious as to why he had reacted in such a way to a pocket calendar.

Tony had gone right to the evidence bag and picked it up and carried it over to a table. Grabbing a pair of gloves, he quickly put them on before opening the bag and carefully pulling out the calendar.

"Tony! What are you doing?" Ziva asked him, completely baffled by his actions.

Up until then Abby and McGee had had their backs to them, studying the picture on the computer. Both simultaneously turning around at Ziva's questioning, they saw Tony leaf through the calendar, obviously looking for something.

"Hey, that's my evidence!" Abby said as she stood up and moved towards Tony.

Before she had even taken two steps, Tony had replaced the calendar back into its bag and practically sprinted out of the lab and back to the elevator. As luck would have it, he didn't have to wait for it and was gone before anyone had the thought to try and stop him.

"Uh, what was that all about?" McGee asked, breaking the stunned silence.

"I have no idea," Abby said. "What was he looking at anyway?"

"Ducky found a pocket calendar while he was removing the clothes," Ziva answered. "He told Palmer to make sure it was the first thing you looked at."

Abby's eyes widened at the mention of a calendar. "A calendar? Are you sure?"

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Yes! Why is everyone suddenly looking like death walked through the door?"

McGee shrugged in answer and they both turned to Abby, who was uncharacteristically quiet.

"If that calendar means what I think it might, then death just might as well have," Abby said as she stared at the doors that Tony had exited so quickly.

Ziva and McGee glanced at each other for some sort of clue as to what was going on, but neither of them knew. They looked back to Abby for further explanation, but she just shook her head and started to go through the marine's clothes.

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Tony's mind was a whirlwind of chaos. The moment that Palmer had said 'pocket calendar' his heart had skipped a beat. It wasn't possible, was it? Tony wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.

After a quick but careful examination of the calendar, his gut instinct told him that it was possible. Tony wanted to be wrong, but even without Abby running her tests he knew that it was highly unlikely. There was really only one sort of confirmation that he needed, and the source was upstairs.

He practically flew to the elevator, evidence in hand and gloves still on. One part of his mind told him he would need the gloves to keep his prints off of it while he showed Gibbs. Tony hoped that he was done with the director; this couldn't wait.

As luck would have it, when the elevator came to a stop the doors opened to reveal Gibbs standing there waiting.

Gibbs took one look at him and immediately knew that something was wrong. The look on Tony's face told him that whatever was going on, it was seriously bothering him. Tony had been an investigator for a while, gruesome crime scenes was not something that would shake him to the core and having him look like he had just lost a few shades of color in his face.

Then of course there was the fact that he was currently clutching an evidence bag while still wearing gloves.

Gibbs stepped into the elevator without hesitation. He waited for the elevator to start moving and was not surprised when Tony reached over to stop the elevator.

He said nothing. Instead, Tony turned to face Gibbs as he revealed what was in the evidence bag, a pocket calendar. Gibbs took one look at it and felt like he had been sucker-punched. Looking back to Tony, their expressions identical.

"Yeah," Tony spoke with dread in his voice. "That's what I thought."

Tony had gotten his confirmation.

Chapter 3:

"Is it marked the same?" Gibbs asked, already sure he knew the answer.

Tony nodded, removed the calendar from the bag and opened it up to reveal what was inside. The writing was eerily familiar, a clear indicator of who had left it.

"Ducky found it," Tony informed Gibbs. "He sent it up to Abby with specific instructions to look at it first."

So Ducky was aware of the situation. Judging from the fact that Tony still had his gloves on, Gibbs was willing to bet that Abby had not even gotten to look at the bag, let alone run any tests on it.

"I take it Abby hasn't seen this yet?" Gibbs questioned.

"No, I got to it before she even knew what it was that Ducky had wanted her to look at," Tony answered.

"We should get her to match it with the others before we do anything else," Gibbs decided as he reached to put the elevator back into motion. Tony grabbed him by the arm before he could do so.

Surprised by the action, Gibbs gave Tony a curious look and waited for an explanation.

"We already know what this means," Tony said with conviction. We have to get McGee and Ziva up to speed and get this guy."

Gibbs sighed. He agreed with Tony whole-heartedly, but they had to be certain before they went off chasing after something in the past. They would need the evidence to support their desire to re-open a nearly six-year-old cold case.

After telling him as much, Tony just shook his head in exasperation.

"If it isn't our guy, then it could be the beginning of a copycat! So either way we will need to let McGee and Ziva know what is going on."

Gibbs was always impressed when Tony stood his ground when he was sure about something. Most people never had the guts to confront him on something, case related or not. Gibbs knew that Tony had a point, however, Gibbs was concerned about how Tony would handle certain things being brought to light. It hadn't been an easy time working on the case the first time around, he doubted it would be any easier the second time.

"This isn't going to be easy…" Gibbs started to say.

"That's stating the obvious," Tony said with a slight grin before continuing. "I'll be fine, Boss. Besides, I trust McGee and Ziva. They aren't Starks."

Once again Gibbs was surprised. He hadn't expected Tony to say his old partner's name with such ease.

'Maybe it won't be so bad this time around, after all,' Gibbs thought to himself.

Nodding his agreement to Tony, Gibbs reached to start the elevator up again. This time, Tony didn't stop him.

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Ducky had completed his autopsy on PFC Vaughn and was not surprised by his findings. Instead of waiting for Gibbs to come down in his timely fashion to hear his report, Ducky had decided to head upstairs himself. He had a few things to discuss with Gibbs in private as well.

When the elevator doors opened to reveal Gibbs and Tony inside, Ducky knew without even seeing the evidence bag in Tony's hand that they were already aware of his discovery.

"Well, good timing as always, Jethro," Ducky said half-heartedly as he joined the two agents inside the elevator. He was slightly surprised that it was Tony who moved to stop the elevator.

The three men stood in a triangle, facing each other with grim looks on their faces.

"Cause of death, Ducky?" Gibbs asked, breaking the momentary silence that had filled the elevator.

"It's difficult to place the cause of the young man's demise on any one thing in particular," Ducky began. "There was significant blunt force trauma to the head, as well as water in his lungs suggesting that he was held underwater."

"Any other marks?" Tony asked as he digested the information that he had just received.

Ducky gave a heavy nod. "I found the same marks on Vaughn that were on previous targets."

"Can you be sure that the marks are the same? No differences whatsoever?" Tony pressed, eager for assurances of what it was that they had.

Once again Ducky nodded his head. "Of course I'm sure. I pulled up the records to compare them. They are identical."

"Sorry, Ducky," Tony apologized. "I just want to make sure that we aren't dealing with a copycat."

"Don't worry about it, Anthony. I understand," Ducky guaranteed the younger man as he gave him a pat on the back.

"Not sure which would be worse, a copycat or the original," Gibbs said darkly.

The three men stood in silent agreement to that statement, for there was a fine line between the two.

After a moment, Gibbs indicated to Tony with a nod of his head to restart the elevator. "Looks like we've got a lot of work to do."

"And McGee and Ziva?" Ducky wondered.

"That too," Gibbs said as the elevator took them all to Abby's lab.

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Beep beep beep. The mass spectrometer alerted Abby to the completion of another series of tests. Ever since Tony had run out of her lab with a certain piece of evidence, she had gone quiet, retreating into her world of evidence. She barely acknowledged that McGee and Ziva were still there with her.

Once she had learned of what Palmer had brought up, Abby had immediately understood Tony's reaction. She also had a pretty good idea of where he was going. Tony bolting to the elevator had left her to deal with a bewildered McGee and Ziva, but she knew better than to say anything. It hardly her place to do so.

"You sure you don't have any clue as to why everyone is suddenly acting so…" Ziva started to ask McGee again in a lowered voice.

"No," he interrupted her before she could complete her question. "For the last time, I have no idea why a pocket calendar is freaking everyone out."

"You have been here longer than I have," Ziva argued.

"And you are the spy," McGee retorted. "Why not try asking a secret source to tell you?"

Ziva huffed in annoyance. "There's no need to get snappy."

Glaring at her, McGee replied, "Yeah, I'll try to work on that."

Realizing McGee's point, Ziva decided to change the tone of their conversation. "So where do you think Tony went?"

"Upstairs to find Gibbs," McGee whispered as he watched Abby work with her back turned to them. "If Ducky and Abby know something, then Gibbs definitely does. I'm thinking it might be from a previous case before I joined the team."

Ziva nodded in agreement. "Seems to be the most likely possibility."

McGee let out a dry chuckle. "Right now, it's the only possibility. We don't exactly have much to go on."

"True," Ziva said as she began to wonder something else. "So, possibly a cold case then. Wonder how long ago it has been since they have worked on it?"

McGee turned to look at her. "Please don't tell me you are going to start repeating that question now."

"We are investigators, McGee," Ziva pointed out. "It's our job to question and find out what is going on."

"Oh, enough already!" Abby suddenly cried out, making both agents jump at her outburst. "You will find out what's going on when everyone is good and ready to tell you, and not before! Did you ever stop to think about what reasons I might have for not telling you yet? Huh?"

Both McGee and Ziva just shrugged their shoulders, not wanting to say anything to provoke Abby any further. Plus, they knew her well enough that she wasn't finished, not by a long shot.

"Well I do. It isn't my place to tell you about all of it," Abby continued to rant. "You're right about Tony going to Gibbs because Gibbs does know what is going on! They will be the ones to tell you anything if there is anything worth telling! Got it?"

They both nodded and before either one of them could formulate a response, the doors opened to allow Gibbs, Tony and Ducky to enter the lab.

Tony passed over the evidence bag containing the calendar to Abby, whose eyes went wide as she looked at it and then looked at each of their faces in turn.

"So…" she questioned the three of them.

They nodded their heads simultaneously. She took a few minutes to set up some tests to run on the calendar while she told them that neither she nor McGee could get very much from the security tapes.

"I would have been surprised if there was anything," Tony said quietly. Abby understood his meaning, but McGee gave him a questioning look. "This guy knows his stuff, McGee. Nothing against you, but he doesn't dump a body if he's not sure he can get away with it."

While still not fully understanding what was going on, McGee accepted the explanation.

"Who is he, exactly?" Ziva asked, unable to contain her curiosity much longer.

"Mitch Morris," Gibbs answered. "Part of a three-man team of hired killers. Worked for anyone for the right price."

"Course, you had to know the right people to get in touch with them in the first place," Tony picked up where Gibbs left off. "They are what you could call the high roller assassins. They don't deal with anyone just off the street, either. They ran a complicated system."

McGee noticed the use of past tense in Tony's explanation. "As in, they don't anymore?"

"Tony and I managed to get two of them, Morris was the only one left from the team," Gibbs told them.

"It was not easy to get the two that you did," Ducky stated.

"For real," Abby agreed. "It's just a good thing you guys teamed up when you did."

"Wait, what? This wasn't a NCIS case?" Ziva asked as both she and McGee looked expectantly from the rest of the group.

"Well, not at first," Tony began.

"It was Baltimore PD's case until a Naval Officer was killed," Gibbs finished.

Now it was McGee and Ziva's turn for their eyes to widen in shock.

"So what you're saying is…" McGee started to say.

"Yup," Abby jumped in. "This is the case where Gibbs, Ducky and I first met Tony."

Chapter 4:

Baltimore, MD September 2001

The crowd that had gathered at the scene was impressive. Normally journalists didn't bother coming around when a body was found at the local dump. But then again, some people will use whatever they can get to try to improve their career.

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs did not deal with reporters. As he pushed his way through the crowd, he could hear Ducky following behind him muttering apologies.He knew that Ducky wouldn't take offense at his behavior. Being sent out with no team to investigate a murder was not something he liked doing, especially knowing that he would most likely have to share jurisdiction with the Baltimore detectives already working the case.

That in itself was going to be demanding. Gibbs never had the patience to deal with incompetence or the politics of who was in charge and got credit. In his opinion, anyone who was more concerned about being in the spotlight than getting those responsible for a crime did not deserve to be in law enforcement.

Finally both he and Ducky had managed to get passed the cameras and microphones and onto the other side of perimeter of officers guarding the entrance. It was ridiculous that they were not allowed to drive their truck to the crime scene. Gibbs took that as a sign that whoever was in charge was already going for a power play.

Since they were expected it didn't take long for them to be directed to the location of the body. No one seemed to take notice as they approached the body; everyone seemed to be in groups off to the sides talking to themselves. The only one who did seem to be doing something in relation to the crime scene was a young man in jeans and a grey t-shirt.

His back was to them and as Gibbs got closer, he could see that he was doing a sketch of the crime scene. From what he could see, it seemed that the young man knew what he was doing.

"Well, isn't this a charming place," Ducky said sarcastically as he moved towards the body.

"There's always someplace worse," the young man replied as he looked up from his work. "Detective Anthony Dinozzo, call me Tony."

"Special Agent Gibbs, Dr. Mallard, NCIS," Gibbs said. "Are you in charge here?"

Dinozzo snorted and rolled his eyes as he went back to work. "No, that would be the two guys over there standing around trying to look important."

"Ah, well I suppose we should go over and clear it with them before I start my examination," Ducky said dryly.

Dinozzo waved his hand dismissively. "You're fine. I already processed the area around the body, so you won't be trampling on any evidence."

"What else?" Gibbs asked, wanting to know how much work Dinozzo had done on his own.

Dinozzo paused again to look up at Gibbs, who began to notice the dark circles around his eyes telling of lack of sleep. "Everything is done except for this sketch," he paused to wave it in the air, "and whatever it is that your M.E. wants to do."

Gibbs had to say that he was both impressed and annoyed. Dinozzo obviously wasn't your average LEO, but he still shouldn't have been the only one doing the work.

Giving a nod to Ducky, who began to get to work on examining the body, Gibbs made his way towards the men that Dinozzo had pointed out. They noticed his approach and started to make their way towards him as well.

"So you're NCIS then?" said a partially balding man with a stomach that spoke of one too many visits to the local doughnut shop. The other man was a few pounds lighter, but well on his way to looking like the other one.

"Special Agent Gibbs. Detective Dinozzo tells me you're in charge?" Gibbs said.

The balding man held out his hand and replied, "Captain Taddins. This is Dinozzo's partner, Detective Starks."

Gibbs eyed them both carefully. "If you're his partner, why are you over hear instead of helping him process the crime scene?"

Starks shrugged. "I'm senior detective, Agent Gibbs. Besides, this is how Tony and I always work crime scenes."

Captain Taddins started walking them back towards the body, where Ducky and Dinozzo were quietly talking. "Why don't we go and see what he's got for us?"

The group approached them just in time to see Ducky remove a piece of evidence from the body.

"Impressive, Tony. I do believe you may be on to something here," Ducky said in approval as he placed the evidence into the bag that the detective held out.

"Is that so, Ducky?" Gibbs asked.

Ducky nodded his head and passed over the bag. "I do believe that there is more to this case than meets the eye."

"So what is it you found?" Taddins questioned.

Gibbs held up the bag for everyone to see. Inside it lay a pocket calendar.

"Oh come on, Tony. Not again with this," Starks groaned.

Dinozzo glared at his partner. "Come on. Even you can't be that stupid. This isn't just a coincidence."

"My wife carries a pocket calendar in her purse! Does that mean that she's the next victim?" Starks shouted. "This isn't some movie you know, this is real life. There is no serial killer on the loose!"

Gibbs spared a glance with Ducky. Serial killer?

"That's enough you two!" Taddins interrupted the argument. "Dinozzo, I told you to drop this. You have no proof."

"I would if you would…" Tony began.

"No!" Taddins interrupted again before Tony could continue. "No more on the subject. Stay here and help NCIS with the crime scene and transport the body to the morgue. Starks and I will head back over and make sure a place is set up for all of us to work."

With that Captain Taddins and Detective Starks turned and left, but not before both men gave Dinozzo a glare.

"Idiots," Dinozzo muttered under his breath before turning to look at Gibbs. "You shouldn't have had to hear that."

"Don't apologize for them," Gibbs said.

"Just saying that you shouldn't have had to witness that kind of crap," Dinozzo replied.

"You think we got the workings of a serial killer here?" Gibbs wanted to know.

"I believe he may have something that's worth looking into,"Ducky stated.

"I'd have more to go on but the lab won't run any evidence through," Dinozzo explained.

Gibbs gave him a thoughtful look. His gut was telling him to trust the detective. "Alright," he said as he came to a decision. "Why don't you fill us in on the way over to your precinct?"

The detective looked surprised. "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Gibbs asked as he glared at Dinozzo.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just making sure." Dinozzo then moved to help Ducky get the body into the body bag. Gibbs went to arrange for their truck to be allowed in.

As the three waited, Gibbs and Ducky listened to Tony as he began to fill them in on his theories and how several other murder cases could be related to their current case.

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"I didn't know you worked together before you came here," McGee said, obviously surprised.

Tony shrugged. "It was just good timing. I was looking to leave the Baltimore PD at the time. If Gibbs hadn't hired me I would have been looking for a job somewhere else."

"Right, like we could have just left you in that hell hole," Ducky said with annoyance. He didn't like how Tony seemed to be downplaying how he was hired.

Neither did Gibbs. "There was no point in an interview, McGee," Gibbs told him. "The work Tony did while on the case was proof enough that he was more than capable of being an agent."

Tony smiled at what Ducky and Gibbs had said. It gave him more confidence to reveal what had happened all those years ago to Ziva and McGee.

"I thought everyone had to go through an interview. Isn't it SOP?" Ziva said curiously.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows as he looked at her. "I don't recall giving you an interview when you were placed on my team."

Ziva stared at him before giving a slight nod of her head, indicating that she had gotten his point. There were exceptions to every rule.

"Personally, I wonder how the Baltimore PD is still functioning without you there," Abby said as she hugged Tony's arm.

Tony snickered. "Who said they were functioning so great when I was there?"

Abby pretended to think about it before laughing herself. "Good point."

Gibbs was glad to see that some of the tension had left Tony. He hated knowing that he was going to be putting it back, but they had to get back on track.

"Everyone grab a chair," Gibbs ordered. "There is a lot of information to go over, it will take a while."

As everyone got situated, McGee asked, "Can you start by telling us what is up with the pocket calendar?"

Ziva immediately agreed to this. "Yes! Why on earth would such a thing make all of you act so strangely?"

Gibbs, Tony, Ducky and Abby all looked at each other, trying to decide who would start. Tony didn't wait long before starting to explain the significance of the dreaded pocket calendar.

Chapter 5:

It wasn't an easy thing to talk about and Tony couldn't blame anyone for not wanting to be the one to explain things to McGee and Ziva. Besides, it only made sense for him to start things off. After all, he was technically the first one on the trail of the killers. Who better than him to inform the rest of the team of what was going on?

"Well," Tony hesitantly began. "The three men that made up this team of hired killers liked to leave a calling card on their targets."

"So they picked a pocket calendar?" Ziva said curiously.

Tony nodded. "I know, not exactly the ideal thing to pick, but it is pretty smart. Considering how many people actually use a planner of some sort, you wouldn't think it odd when you find something like that at a crime scene."

McGee caught on to his line of thinking. "So unless someone knew what they were specifically looking for, the calendar would just be passed over as part of the victim's belongings."

"Exactly," Tony said, glad that his explanation wasn't confusing anyone yet.

"Is there some sort of special feature on these calendars that make them stand out from an ordinary one?" Ziva asked as she began to understand the significance of this piece of evidence.

Tony looked at Gibbs, Ducky and Abby to see if they wanted to intervene on the conversation yet. They all shook their heads and encouraged him to continue.

He nodded and then turned to McGee and Ziva to continue. And as Tony went into further detail, Gibbs realized that he was giving them the same explanation that he had given Gibbs and Ducky years ago.

"Most people who carry something like this usually have a lot written in it.."

Flashback

"…but the ones that the killers left behind are empty of any personal notes. The only thing written are the words' job interview', and it's marked three days before the victims death," Detective Dinozzo saidwhile he held the door open to the conference room for Agent Gibbs and Ducky

"You had better have more than that," Gibbs demanded as he moved to stand by the window

Tony rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. That's just what tipped me off that there might be something more going on."

"Ah, yes. I can see how your curiosity would be peeked," Ducky said approvingly as he took a seat at the table

Gibbs also secretly approved. Not many investigators would have remembered such a seemingly insignificant detail from previous cases and have the sense to investigate it further. Dinozzo took initiative on his own to figure out what was going, despite the fact that he did not have support from his partner or his captain.

"Anyway, as I started looking a little closer at the cases, apart from the calendars and the injuries which led to their death, the victims didn't appear to have anything in common," Tony continued. "Initial background checks were pretty standard. I would have dug deeper, but that's when Captain Taddins sort of pulled the plug."

Gibbs didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean, he pulled the plug?"

Dinozzo sighed. "He thought I was looking for something that wasn't there. He's been monitoring everything I do around here to make sure I don't waste any more time on some crazy hunch."

"And what is your so-called crazy hunch?" Gibbs asked.

"Not really sure. I know I don't have a lot to go on, but I also know that there is more going on here than what everyone else seems to think," Tony answered honestly. "It could be the work of a serial killer, but I don't have any kind of profile worked up yet."

Gibbs and Ducky took in the young detectives words carefully. They had both been in similar circumstances like this before, where the higher power ignored what they were being told. In order to prove whether or not Dinozzo's instincts were correct, they were going to have to request the case files and evidence that Dinozzo had been locked out of. It was going to be complicated; sharing jurisdiction was never as straightforward as it should be

Gibbs respected how upfront Dinozzo was being. He wasn't trying to be a big-shot, trying to impress the federal agents. He was just doing his job.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing?" Captain Taddins shouted at Tony as he entered the conference room, with Starks hot on his heels. "I clearly remember telling you to drop this nonsense about a serial killer being on the loose!"

"You also told me to assist Agent Gibbs and Doctor Mallard," Dinozzo replied calmly, clearly not bothered by his captain's outburst.

Captain Taddins' face flushed red as he got even angrier."You listen, and you listen real good, Dinozzo. I've had enough of your theories. Consider this your last warning."

"And consider this your only warning. If you don't hand over the case files and evidence that Detective Dinozzo wants to examine, I'll have my boss call your boss, and you can explain to him why you refused to cooperate with a federal agency," Gibbs interrupted Taddins threats, his voice carrying a threat all its own.

Taddins, Starks and Dinozzo turned to look at Gibbs in shock. Ducky was the only one in the room who wasn't surprised by his demands.

"You have got to be kidding me," Taddins said. "Detective Dinozzo knows how to spin words, Agent Gibbs. You would just be wasting your time."

"If you really believe that, then you won't mind proving him wrong," Gibbs challenged, knowing that Taddins would take his words as an insult.

"Just what are you insinuating, Agent Gibbs?" Taddins asked as his hands moved to his hips in an effort to make himself seem more of a threat.

Gibbs smirked. "Not a thing. But if you are so sure that you are right, then there should be no reason for you to refuse my request. Unless of course you know he's right, and your trying to cover up…"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Taddins interrupted Gibbs. "And don't think I don't see what you're doing here, either."

Gibbs said nothing, choosing instead to stare at Taddins, daring him to refuse.

Taddins gave a huge sigh, as he was obviously annoyed at being manipulated in his own station. "Fine. You can have whatever you want. Starks and Dinozzo will work with you, as this is still shared jurisdiction."

"But Captain," Starks spoke up suddenly. "You can't be serious."

Taddins turned to Starks and said, "This is no longer up for debate. I'm tired of having my orders ignored. Once this whole mess is settled, we can get back to some real police work around here." Taddins said the last part while glaring at Dinozzo, who returned the glare.

"If you will just wait here, Agent Gibbs, and I'll see to it that everything starts getting sent up here for you," Taddins continued.

"No," Gibbs said. There was no way he was going to trust the Captain to not interfere in some way while they worked this case.

"Excuse me?" Taddins asked exasperated.

"Have everything packed up. We are working this case from NCIS headquarters," Gibbs ordered. At this point, the only one he was going to trust to go over the evidence thoroughly was Abby.

Taddins huffed and rolled his eyes as he walked out of the room, indicating for Dinozzo and Starks to start getting things together.

Starks walked up to Dinozzo and said, "I hope you're happy. Now we both get to be the laughing stock of the entire precinct!"

Dinozzo didn't appear too concerned. "You exaggerate too much. Besides, you've already protested enough that people will know you are working under duress."

Starks seemed momentarily stunned by Dinozzo's remark, before turning and stalking off.

"Well, that was fun," Dinozzo remarked casually as he turned to face Gibbs and Ducky

"Believe it or not, that is the norm for us," Ducky said.

Dinozzo snickered. "I don't doubt it."

"How much cooperation am I going to get from your partner?" Gibbs asked. If he was going to be a problem, then he could stay in Baltimore as far as Gibbs was concerned.

The detective shrugged and gave a simple answer. "He'll do what you ask, but he won't be happy about it."

Gibbs had the same impression. He would rather not have to deal with the man, but he also knew that it would only complicate matters further if he refused to have him included in the investigation.

"Well, if you will excuse me, I think I'll go see if I can't hurry things along," Dinozzo said as he gave each man a nod and left them alone to wait.

"Seems we are getting more than what we expected with this case," Ducky observed.

Gibbs nodded. "And people wonder why I have issues with other people. When they act like that…"

Ducky understood his friend's frustration. "I totally agree with you, Jethro. But I was actually referring to Detective Dinozzo."

Gibbs gave Ducky a questioning look. "Something on your mind, Duck?"

Ducky gave him a knowing smile. "I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that you are in need of new agents."

"Are you suggesting that I start recruiting while on an active case?" Gibbs asked.

"Oh come now, Jethro. Surely you can see that that boy has potential," Ducky replied. "Look, you don't get anywhere when you interview someone. And even if someone does manage to mull through and get placed on your team, they don't stick around for very long. Why not replace an interview with an actual case?"

Gibbs had to grin at that. "So what you're saying is that if Dinozzo can survive working with me on this case, he can survive working with me on a regular basis?"

"Exactly!" Ducky said, obviously pleased with the way the conversation was going. "You're known for being a bastard, and so far he doesn't seem to be intimidated by you."

"I think he's too busy dealing with the stupidity around here to be intimidated by me," Gibbs said as he pulled out his cell phone.

"So what are you going to do?" Ducky questioned.

"Call Abby to let her know she's got a lot of work ahead of her," Gibbs said with a knowing grin as he began dialing. "And while she's waiting for us to get back, she can pull Dinozzo's file."

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"What was so similar about the COD's?" Ziva asked, bringing Gibbs back to the present.

Tony looked to Ducky in hopes that he would take over. He needed a breather. While it was easier to recollect the key factors of the case, Tony was just not ready to deal with certain aspects just yet. With someone else explaining things, Tony planned to mentally prepare for McGee and Ziva to find out about what happened at the end.

Ducky understood what Tony was silently asking him to do and gave him a nod before taking over the debriefing. "Examinations of all of the victims revealed that they suffered an assortment of injuries, which suggests torture. From the bruises and multiple broken bones, it is safe to say that the victim was severely beaten, probably from a combination of fists and other hard objects. Throughout the body several burn marks of various degrees would also be found. Then you have traces of polluted water in the victim's lungs, which indicated that the victim was held underwater long enough to swallow some of the water, but not actually drown."

McGee and Ziva took a few minutes to digest the information. Gibbs took the momentary pause to study Tony a little closer.

From the moment that Ducky had started speaking the young agent had gone off into another corner of his mind, away from the present conversation. Gibbs had learned long ago how to read his agent's expressions, and the one he was currently observing spoke volumes to him.

As much as Tony would deny it, Gibbs could tell that he wasn't ready to reveal what went down in Baltimore. Gibbs had already decided that he was going to put a stop to the conversation when it started to head in that direction. They could pick up where they left off after he and Tony had had a talk.

"It would seem that this team of killers liked the number three," Ziva spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Yup. They would all take turns on each type of method," Abby said, drawing attention away from Tony. Gibbs wasn't the only one who had picked up on his quiet withdraw.

"So how did you find a way to catch up to them?" McGee asked curiously.

"That was the result of working several days and my lab equipment," Abby said. "I found what those so-called forensic scientists in Baltimore couldn't."

Both McGee and Ziva accepted this without hesitation. They had seen Abby in action when up against other labs running evidence. She was a force to be reckoned with.

Before anymore questions could be asked, Gibbs stood up and suggested that they take a break and grab some lunch. Fortunately, everyone was hungry enough to readily accept the break without question. While Abby and Ducky distracted McGee and Ziva with options of where they should order food from, Gibbs took hold of Tony's arm and led him out of the lab and to the elevator.

Tony didn't look up at Gibbs nor resist when he was led away from the team. They both rode the elevator up in silence, and Tony followed Gibbs to the bullpen.

Once seeing that Gibbs was grabbing his coat and gun, Tony went to his desk of his own accord and did the same. He was moving on automatic pilot now, not even bothering to put any thought into where they might be going. Instead he put his trust in Gibbs, knowing that wherever they were going, his boss had a purpose.

The pair remained silent the entire trip down to the parking garage and as they drove off. While Gibbs sped around those he thought were driving too slowly, Tony merely stared out the window. He was too deep in thought to offer up any of his usual comments on Gibbs' driving.

He was barely when the car stopped moving not fifteen minutes later until Gibbs put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him out of his dark thoughts.

"Come on, Tony. Time for lunch," Gibbs said before getting out of the car.

Tony opened the door and got out, blinking in surprise once he noticed where Gibbs had taken them. He looked towards Gibbs, who shrugged and told Tony to close the car door already and get moving.

As they walked up to the entrance, Tony couldn't help the smile forming on his face. ‘Trust Gibbs to know exactly what to do,' Tony thought to himself as he followed Gibbs inside the building.

Gibbs had noticed how the stress of the past few hours had suddenly started to evaporate, and knew he had done the right thing in getting Tony out of the office.

They both walked up to a young woman standing by a counter, who smiled and said, "Hello. Welcome to Bob Evans."

Chapter 6:

“Hey, where did Gibbs and Tony go?” Ziva asked once they had all agreed on Chinese for lunch.

“Guess they weren’t in the mood for Chinese,” Abby said casually. Both she and Ducky shared a knowing look. It was hardly a surprised to them when the two agents disappeared from the lab.

McGee snickered. “Looks like Tony is turning into Gibbs more and more. Next thing you know Tony will be appearing out of nowhere with coffee in his hands.”

“Oh great, just what we need. Another coffee addict on our hands,” Ziva said with a grin.

Ducky chuckled. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that so much. Tony is too much of an athlete to drink coffee like Jethro does.”

Abby nodded her head in agreement. “I’m thinking he will start carrying around a sports drink instead of coffee. You know, get his own theme or signature drink thing going.”

“Like you with your Caff-Pow! drink huh?” McGee stated.

“Exactly!” Abby said excitedly.

The group laughed and compared Gibbs and Tony a bit more while they waited for their food to arrive. Eventually they moved up to the bullpen to eat, with Ducky sharing Ziva’s desk and Abby sharing McGee’s.

“So how come no one has ever talked about this case before?” Ziva asked after they had finished eating and were waiting for Gibbs and Tony to return.

Ducky and Abby gave each other silent looks, trying to decide how to answer her question without revealing too much.

McGee and Ziva of course picked up on this and shared a look of their own. They were both wondering why everyone seemed to be so hesitant about discussing the case.

It was Ducky who decided to try to clear things up. “Well, my dear, this is hardly a pleasant topic for conversation. I understand how curious you and Timothy are, but I must ask that you be patient. It is bringing back unpleasant memories for all of us, but most especially for Gibbs and Tony.”

“And before you even ask, we can’t tell you why,” Abby informed McGee and Ziva before they could think of another question. “It’s not our place to tell you about certain aspects of this case. Gibbs won’t let Tony try to talk about it until he’s good and ready to.”

“Hence the sneaking away for lunch,” McGee said as he considered what Ducky and Abby had said.

“Young Anthony needed a break,” Ducky told them. “He’s been remarkably composed so far, but sooner or later that facade would break if he didn’t get a breather.”

“Just don’t rush him or overwhelm him with questions when he gets back,” Abby recommended. “The best bet would be to let him get it all off his chest all at once. It’s going to be hard enough as it is.”

McGee and Ziva were taken aback at what Ducky and Abby were telling them. They had both picked up the tension that was in the air as they were being informed about the case, but neither had realized the extent of stress that their teammates might be under.

“How bad is it?” Ziva asked quietly.

“Bad doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Abby responded softly.

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The entire time that they were in Bob Evans, Gibbs purposefully kept the conversation away from their current investigation. Fortunately, between Tony and himself there were numerous topics from which to choose from to keep the conversation at a safe place. Interestingly enough, Tony seemed to favor discussing the progress of the boat in Gibbs’ basement.

Gibbs noticed how different Tony was whenever they were in his basement working, or, like now, discussing its design and what would come next. There was no mask, no frat-boy persona, just the real Tony Dinozzo. Knowing that Tony let his guard down lightly, Gibbs felt honored to be one of a handful of people that were trusted enough to know the young man in his true form.

As they walked back to the car after lunch Gibbs could see some tension starting to return. Having already decided that he and Tony needed to have another talk before returning to the office, Gibbs pulled out of the parking lot without a word to his passenger as to what their destination was. The ride was made in silence, each too occupied in their own thoughts to make it uncomfortable.

Eventually Gibbs found himself yet again pulling Tony from his thoughts with a touch to his shoulder and watch as the younger agent took stock in his surroundings before turning back to him with a questioning look on his face.

“We need to talk,” Gibbs said as he removed his seatbelt.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that. But the park, Boss?” Tony inquired.

“You’re going to need the space,” Gibbs replied as he got out of the car and headed for a nearby bench.

Tony had no idea what Gibbs meant, but he got out of the car and followed him into the park. He knew that Gibbs was trying to make things as easy as possible for him, and Tony appreciated it. He was especially grateful for not having to focus on anything important while they had lunch. Tony wasn’t sure that he would have been able to even eat lunch if he hadn’t been able to relax any, his appetite just wasn’t there.

‘Leave it to Gibbs to know what’s going on in my head,’ Tony thought wryly to himself as he took a seat next to Gibbs on the bench. It was a nice day, the weather just cool enough for a jacket. At the thought of the weather Tony couldn’t help but laugh.

“Something funny you want to share, Dinozzo?” Gibbs asked as he turned to look at his senior field agent.

Smirking, Tony said, “Just wondering where we would have ended up if it was raining today.”

Gibbs allowed a small grin to show before he got down to the heart of the matter. “There’s still some information that McGee and Ziva need to know about.”

Tony sighed and looked down at his hands. “I know,” he said quietly. “Guess it’s a bit harder than I thought it would be.”

“You’re not alone in this, Tony,” Gibbs told him. “I’m not enjoying having to relive any of this any more than you.”

“A lot of bad memories,” Tony agreed.

“True, but one good thing did come out of it,” Gibbs said.

Tony looked up at Gibbs, surprised by how calm Gibbs was being. “What are you talking about? Did someone slip something into your coffee?”

Not allowing Gibbs to respond, Tony stood up and started pacing in front of the bench. Gibbs merely sat back and listened as Tony finally released everything that he had been keeping inside.

“What was good about any of it? There were three killers, Boss, three. We only got two of them! A lot of people died that didn’t have to!” Tony was starting to shout now, drawing attention from a few others who were in the park.

“If those stupid idiots at the precinct had listened to me in the first place…but no…Rookie Dinozzo doesn’t know what he’s talking about, not enough experience. I wasn’t a rookie damn it!”

Gibbs continued to sit in silence as he observed Tony’s movements throughout his tirade. He couldn’t stand still; constantly walking back and forth while moving his arms and hands in abrupt gestures. This case was eating him up from the inside out, and Gibbs knew that after they closed this case he was going to have to do a salvage operation to ensure that Tony could sort everything out.

“Starks was my partner, he should have backed me. That’s what partners do! And I was the idiot who trusted him! If it wasn’t for him this case would have been closed years ago, but since when do things go right? Because if they ever did, my file wouldn’t be filled with so many reprimands for just doing my damn job!”

Finally Tony seemed to have run out of energy. He stood facing Gibbs, unsure of what to do. Gibbs waved him back over to the bench, and Tony plopped down with a heavy sigh. They sat in silence for a few minutes, which Tony used to catch his breath and calm down.

“Feeling better?” Gibbs asked lightly.

Surprisingly, Tony was. He turned to look at Gibbs. “You knew,” he accused the other man.

Gibbs smirked. “I told you that you were going to need the space.”

Tony just shook his head and slouched down on the bench. The fact that Gibbs could know him so well was bewildering. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and let the sounds of the park wash over him. He wasn’t sure where he was going to find the energy to tell McGee and Ziva what had happened at the warehouse that day, all of his energy had been sucked out of him during his rant. He couldn’t believe that he had done that in front of Gibbs. ‘Some federal agent I am,’ Tony thought to himself. ‘Can’t even keep control of my own emotions.’

The sudden smack to the back of his head came out of nowhere, causing Tony to jump upright in surprise. He saw Gibbs glaring at him, and Tony wondered what he had done now.

“One good thing came out of all of that hell,” Gibbs said as he held Tony’s gaze. “You did.”

Tony opened his mouth to say something but Gibbs beat him to it. “Don’t interrupt.” After making sure that Tony was going to listen, Gibbs continued. “I’m not talking about just surviving, although I could see how you could think that. You did manage to keep all of your brain cells intact while working with those idiots.”

Tony couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his lips at that remark. “I’ve got the best senior field agent that I’ve ever had, and I’ve had my share of them. Your instincts are second to none, and you’ve got the makings of being a better team leader than I am one day. Don’t let this case wear you down. You found a lead before, you will again. Understand? And I swear Dinozzo, the only words out of your mouth had better be, ‘Yes, Boss.’”

Tony sat stunned for a moment before a smile started to form as he said, “Yes, Boss.”

Gibbs nodded. “Good.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes, each enjoying the other’s quiet company.

“You ready to head back?” Gibbs asked.

“I am now,” Tony replied as he stood up and stretched. Gibbs’ speech had given him the strength that he was going to need to pull through this investigation. And come hell or high water, Tony knew that he would have Gibbs’ support, no matter what.

Chapter 7:

Tony tried hard not to fidget as he and Gibbs rode the elevator up to the bullpen. Gibbs’ lecture in the park had put him into the right frame of mind to rehash his last case in Baltimore, but now he was dealing with a nervous energy that he couldn’t seem to get rid of. Tony had admitted to himself that he was feeling a bit anxious about getting back to debriefing McGee and Ziva. Why, he wasn’t really sure. After all, he trusted McGee and Ziva with his life. Telling them about his last partner wasn’t that different, was it?

The sudden stop of the elevator jolted Tony from his thoughts. Turning to face Gibbs it was obvious to the younger man that he was probably thinking a little too loud.

“What’s wrong?” Gibbs asked as he gave Tony a look that said ‘Don’t give me any ‘I’m fine’ crap’.

Tony’s shoulders slumped down as he leaned back against the wall of the elevator. “I’m not sure,” he said in a tone that told Gibbs he was answering honestly. “I’m not exactly eager to do this, but I trust McGee and Ziva, so why should I be nervous about telling them?”

“Did you ever stop to think that it has nothing to do with them? That maybe it’s just a normal reaction to be nervous?” Gibbs pointed out. “Personally, I’d be worried if you weren’t a little on edge.”

Tony seemed relieved at Gibbs’ revelation. “Really?”

“You’re always in motion, Tony, no matter what. The only times I’ve ever seen you still is when you were unconscious or dead,” Gibbs said quietly, which made his point all the more clear to Tony.

“Gotcha, Boss,” replied Tony in way of understanding what Gibbs said and didn’t say out loud.

Gibbs gave him a nod and then reached over to flip the switch to get the elevator moving again. He paused, looked over at Tony, who nodded his consent, and then once again the two agents were on their way to regroup with the rest of the team.

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The moment that Gibbs and Tony stepped off the elevator the atmosphere of the office shifted. While Ducky and Abby searched for confirmation that Tony was ready to continue, McGee and Ziva were looking for a sign of what they should do next. Both agents were taking Abby’s advice seriously, wanting to support Gibbs and Tony in any way that they could.

“Let’s go back down to Abby’s lab,” Tony suggested, not wanting everything that was going to be said out in the open for the rest of NCIS to hear. “That way we won’t have to worry about being interrupted.”

As the rest of the team headed for the elevator, Tony pulled Abby aside. “What’s going on, and don’t blame it on bad Chinese food either,” Tony questioned.

“I swear, Tony, me and Ducky didn’t say a word,” Abby explained. “They asked questions, but you can’t be surprised at that. I mean, they’re investigators, they know something’s up and…” Abby was cut off from her rant when Tony covered her mouth with his hand.

“Relax, Abby. I know you guys wouldn’t say anything,” Tony assured her. “I was just wondering why McGee and Ziva were holding back, is all.”

Abby looked puzzled. “Uh, they don’t have anything to hold back.”

Tony sighed. “Earlier today they were throwing questions at me left and right about the pocket calendar and why I was acting the way that I have been. I disappear for lunch with Gibbs and come back to silence? What else am I supposed to think, Abs?”

“Oh Tony,” Abby said as she gave her friend a hug. “I told them to not attack you with questions until later. They suspected that something bad must have happened and they just want to help.”

Tony gave her a small smile. “Thanks, Abs.”

She nodded her head then took his hand and started for her lab. “Come on, everyone is going to think we got lost or something.”

“Nah,” Tony said with a laugh. “They will probably think you just snagged me so I could help you carry more Caf-Pow! back to your lab.”

Abby turned to him with a smirk on her face. “Don’t go putting evil thoughts into my head, Tony. That only leads to trouble.”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed. “The good kind of trouble.”

Snickering, the two friends got onto the elevator and rode it down to her lab continuing their banter.

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Once everyone was settled back into their seats, Tony decided to break the silence before it got too unnerving. “Revisiting this case hasn’t been easy, which I’m sure is pretty obvious.”

The looks he got from everyone confirmed what he had said and that they were a bit surprised that he was being so blunt about it. Well, everyone except Gibbs, that is.

Taking a deep breath, he continued. “I’m just going to go ahead and start, because I’m not sure how else to do this.”

“Don’t think of it as giving a report,” Ziva told him. “We are your friends as well as your teammates.” McGee gave a nod of his head in agreement to her statement.

“Ok,” Tony said. “Well, once we had access to all of the information and evidence from all of the cases, and we actually started investigating, things started to come together. We were able to compile enough information to actually identify the guys. Seemed that each member of the ‘team’ took turns scouting out their next location for each new target. They would actually work in the area, learn the security, when the place would be empty, everything.”

Tony looked to Abby, who immediately jumped in to the conversation. “Through a computer program that I wrote, I was able to narrow down lists of employees at each crime scene to those who only worked there for a few months at most and recently quit or disappeared. Lucky for us, it was a short list and Gibbs and Tony were able to eliminate people as suspects pretty fast.”

“Once we had their names, it was easy to find out where they were currently working and figure out which location was going to be used next,” Tony continued. “We had to move fast. As far as they were concerned at the moment no one had a clue as to what they were doing. These guys were smart, so we had to move fast before they had the chance to make a break for it.”

Flashback

When Gibbs and Tony arrived at the warehouse, Starks was nowhere to be seen. He had said that he was only a few minutes behind them, but they couldn’t afford to wait. This quite possibly being the only chance that they would get to catch all three suspects, Gibbs wasn’t too keen on waiting. As he looked over at Detective Dinozzo, he could see his own thoughts and feelings being reflected back at him.

Gibbs opened the door and got out of the car, Dinozzo following his lead. The streetlights at the corner of the street cast long shadows over the area, making visibility difficult. Closing the car doors carefully, they both pulled out their weapons and held them at the ready. Dinozzo moved ahead to open the door at a side entrance, Gibbs moving up to cover him. The detective looked at the federal agent, and after receiving a nod, he opened the door.

The entrance was clear, and luckily there was enough lighting within the warehouse for them to see that they wouldn’t need to use flashlights. Silently they moved through the hallway that revealed the floor of the warehouse. Just as Gibbs moved to indicate his intentions to Dinozzo, they heard the door they had just walked through open again.

Tony turned around to cover Gibbs’ back and found himself pointing his gun at Starks. Shaking his head in disgust at the man’s stupidity, Gibbs got Dinozzo’s attention with a tap to his shoulder. With a nod of his head he told the younger man to go left with Starks while he went right.

Dinozzo easily understood and gave a quick nod of his own. As he started forward he had to grab Starks by the arm to get his focus back, as he had stood there dumbfounded at how Dinozzo and Gibbs were silently communicating.

Taking the lead, Dinozzo started making his way across the warehouse, moving in between the boxes that were being stored there. He listened for any sign of movement from their suspects, keeping a careful eye on Starks’ movements as well.

Movement around one corner caught his eye. After alerting Starks, Tony cautiously moved ahead. As he edged closer, he was able to get a clear view of a man working with something that was on the table in front of him. The man turned halfway around, reaching for something when he noticed the detective approaching him.

“Baltimore PD, hands up in the air, don’t move,” Tony stated quietly as he got a good enough look at the man to identify him as Parker, one of the suspects they were after.

The man made no move to cooperate, instead staring down the young detective in front of him.

“I said hands in the air,” Tony instructed again a little louder this time, but not so much as to give their position away to the other two suspects that were still unaccounted for.

Parker had no intention of going to jail, it was written all over his face. In the blink of an eye, he made his move. Grabbing the gun that was on the table, he turned and fired.

Tony had been watching Parker closely, and returned fire. He jerked back as he felt a bullet hit him in the shoulder. Fortunately, Tony’s aim was better; Parker lay on the ground, dead by way of three shots to the chest.

Sighing in relief that the bullet had hit his vest, Tony started to stand up, unaware of someone coming up behind him. Having had his attention on Parker, Tony had counted on Starks to watch his back. Starks saw the man approach Tony from behind, but made no move to call out a warning, instead raising his gun towards Tony and the suspect.

“Starks, what are you…” Tony never got to finish his question as he felt something hard connect with his head.

He never even remembered hitting the ground. The next thing he was aware of was Starks running back the way they had come, disappearing around the corner as the sounds of several police cars could be heard outside of the warehouse.

Tony tried to move and retrieve his gun, but he saw a hand come down and remove it from his reach. Then he felt the guy’s foot in his side as he was rolled over so that he was lying on his back. Jordan, suspect number two, stood looming over him with a gun pointed down at him.

“Looks like your luck just ran out with your partner,” Jordan sneered just before he pulled the trigger.

A shot rang out, but this time Tony didn’t feel the bullet hit. He blinked in confusion as he watched Jordan fall backwards. It was becoming a real challenge to try to stay awake. Seemingly out of nowhere a hand was on his shoulder, bringing him back from darkness.

“Hang in there, Tony. Ambulance is on its way,” said a voice. Blinking his eyes a few times to focus he saw Gibbs looking down at him with concern.

The young detective tried to turn his head to look around, but was prevented from doing so by Gibbs’ hand covering the deep gash that was on the side of his head. Briefly Tony wondered why Gibbs’ hands were so sweaty until he caught the scent of blood nearby.

The smell was beginning to make him feel nauseous, which then caused Tony’s eyes to roll to the back of his head. Gibbs immediately began to worry; losing consciousness while having a head injury of this nature was not a good thing.

“Hey, come on Tony. Stay with me here,” Gibbs prompted the younger man. He couldn’t believe this was happening; he finally meets someone who he can actually work with and then just like that the man was down. Where the hell was Starks going anyway?

Gibbs had been searching his own side of the warehouse when he had heard the first round of shots go off. Moving to intercept anyone trying to make a run for it, Gibbs had arrived just in time to see Starks running back towards the entrance of the warehouse and Jordan preparing to shoot Dinozzo.

A moan from the detective caused Gibbs to sigh in relief as he watched Tony try to open his eyes again. “Come on, open your eyes. You have to stay awake,” encouraged Gibbs.

“’orris?” Tony slurred the question, but Gibbs understood what he was asking.

“Couldn’t find him, probably ran off when he heard the shots,” Gibbs told him, hoping that the conversation would help keep him awake.

The look of defeat on the kid’s face was something Gibbs couldn’t bear to see. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him. It’s only a matter of time,” Gibbs promised him.

A few minutes later the paramedics arrived and Gibbs had to relinquish his post as they prepared to move him to the hospital. Knowing that he couldn’t leave the scene to Baltimore PD, Gibbs pulled out his cell phone.

“Director Morrow.”

“Director, Agent Gibbs, sir.”

“Agent Gibbs, how did things go?”

“Two of the suspects, Jordan and Parker, are dead. Morris’ whereabouts are still unknown,” Gibbs reported.

“I see. I could have read this in your report, you didn’t have to call me directly from the scene,” Director Morrow stated.

“Yes, sir. I’m requesting that you send down another team to gather the evidence here,” Gibbs continued. “Detective Dinozzo was seriously injured and is being taken to the hospital. I don’t trust the Baltimore PD to do a decent job of gathering forensics…”

“And after having read Dinozzo’s file and knowing that there is no one listed as an emergency contact you feel the need to make sure he gets proper treatment,” Director Morrow finished. “Since when do you go chasing ambulances carrying away someone from another department, Agent Gibbs?”

“Since I have an interest in offering him a spot on my team, sir,” Gibbs replied honestly.

“Really?” The Director said with interest. “There is someone that you actually want to hire?”

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs said.

“Alright, I’ll send out Jackson’s team. You usually seem to cooperate with him pretty well,” Director Morrow said. “Keep me posted on Dinozzo’s status.”

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs said as he hung up and turned to follow the paramedics out.

Starks was outside, shouting out orders to secure the scene when Gibbs finally spotted him. Marching up to the man, Gibbs allowed his anger to show on his face.

“You left him there to die!” Gibbs yelled at Starks.

“What? No! I was going for backup…” Starks started to explain, but was interrupted by Gibbs.

“You left him there with a suspect pointing a gun at him! You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you thought things would end well,” Gibbs growled. “Secure the scene and wait for Agent Jackson to arrive and pray to whatever you believe in that after I’m finished with you all I’ve taken is your badge!”

Turning around he walked back to his car and got in, prepared to follow the ambulance to the hospital. There was no way in hell he was letting Tony go back to working in Baltimore now.

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“By the time I was awake and coherent enough to understand what was going on, it was three days later and Morris had disappeared,” Tony concluded.

“There wasn’t much left that we could have used to try to track him,” Gibbs said. “He knew that his secret was out, and with his buddies dead there was no reason for him to stick around.”

Abby’s lab became uncharacteristically quiet as McGee and Ziva absorbed what they had just been told. They could relate to Gibbs’ anger at Starks; you are supposed to watch your partner’s back. Starks failed to do so and left him behind in some of the worst possible conditions.

“Starks actually had the nerve to visit Tony in the hospital, but Gibbs chased him out,” Abby informed them.

“You’re kidding?! What could he possibly have thought that was going to accomplish?” Ziva exclaimed.

Tony shrugged. “I have no idea. Course that might have been due to the fact that I was still pretty much out of it. I never even knew he had stopped by until later.”

“Just how out of it were you?” McGee inquired, wanting to know how badly he had been hurt due to Starks.

Ducky intervened before Tony had a chance to answer. “He had twenty stitches on the left side of his head along with a severe concussion and minor swelling of the brain. He’s damn lucky, and don’t even think about trying to downplay those injuries.” The last part was directed at Tony, who merely gave his best ‘Who me?’ innocent expression.

“So Morris got away because of Starks, and Tony started working for NCIS not long after that,” summarized McGee. He got three nods of confirmation.

“Please tell that he was severely punished,” Ziva questioned darkly, silently preparing her own doom for the man who failed to do his job.

“I reported him to Internal Affairs, they took over and after a long, unpleasant investigation they took away his badge,” Gibbs confirmed, giving her a look that told her that there was more, but that it was also unofficial. She gave a slight nod in his direction; message received.

“So what’s next? How do we catch Morris?” McGee asked while looking at Tony in an attempt to show his teammate support.

“Well, we don’t have a lot to go on right now. We should probably start pulling up some of the old case files from the past few months in different precincts and try to determine if Vaughn was his first victim or not,” Tony suggested, grateful for the change in conversation that McGee offered.

McGee and Ziva both looked to Gibbs, who said, “Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Get to it already.”

They both jumped and started to head out of Abby’s lab. “Don’t worry, Tony. We’ve got your back,” McGee told him.

“Indeed. Morris will not get away because of stupidity this time,” Ziva vowed.

Before Tony could muster a response they were out the door. He sighed and turned to face Abby, Ducky and Gibbs. “Well, at least that’s over with.”

“You going to be ok?” Abby asked.

Tony gave her an honest smile as he replied confidently, “Yeah, I think I will be.”

Chapter 8:

Reviewing cases from neighboring cases was a daunting task. There were numerous cases where the victims had similar COD’s in relation to what they were looking for. The trick was going through the list of evidence trying to find a pocket calendar that held the signature markings that the previous three-man team of killers had used.

Then there was the fact that the men and women in charge of the other precincts were getting curious as to why NCIS was going through their files. A few had gotten the bright idea of closing off access to their files in hopes of being read in on the situation. Fortunately, after a quick call from Director Sheppard they decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.

“Let me know if you need me to make any more calls,” Director Sheppard told Gibbs after hanging up with the latest disgruntled Chief of Police.

“Hopefully by now word has spread around to just stay the hell out of the way,” Gibbs replied from his seat across from the Director.

“Word does seem to get around awfully fast whenever your name is mentioned,” the Director teased.

Gibbs smirked. “It does save everyone a lot of time that way.”

Returning his grin, Sheppard asked, “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

“Not at the moment,” Gibbs answered.

“Is Tony doing ok?” she pondered.

Gibbs paused before answering. “He’s holding up for the moment. I’m more worried about how he will be once this is over.”

“And depending on the outcome of the case…” Sheppard stated.

“Exactly,” Gibbs replied, glad that she saw his train of thought.

“What about you?” she asked. At Gibbs’ stare, she explained. “This can’t be any easier for you than Tony.”

Gibbs sighed. He wasn’t one for talking about his feelings, and knowing that the Director knew that, Gibbs gave her the best answer he could. “I’m right alongside Tony on this one.”

The Director nodded, accepting the answer for what it was. Leaning back in her chair, she decided to help Gibbs in the only way she knew how. “Once you have completed your investigation, I’ll see to it that you and your team gets some time off.”

Seeing Gibbs about to speak, she held up her hand, indicating that she was not done talking. “You said so yourself, you are worried for Tony and pending the outcome you are not sure how well he will be holding up. You also stated that you are in the same boat as him. The rest of your team is no doubt feeling the tension as well. I think everyone will be ready for a small break and it will give you all a chance to recover from this.”

Gibbs raised his eyebrows at her but didn’t say anything. After a few moments of silence the Director asked him if he had anything to say.

“Just waiting for permission to speak,” Gibbs told her. Sheppard rolled her eyes as Gibbs continued. “I was going to request leave for my team anyway, but you are not sending us for psychological evaluations. We will take care of things our own way, by ourselves.”

“I figured as much,” she responded with a smirk.

Gibbs gave her a nod as he stood up. “Thanks, Jen.”

“Anytime,” she said as he left her office.

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Spending hours behind a desk on the phone and in front of a computer were not Ziva’s idea of fun. While she knew it was important to examine every possible angle in hopes of finding a lead, it still frustrated her to no end.

Glancing up across to McGee’s desk, she couldn’t help but be a little envious of her fellow teammate. McGee was more at home with a computer than Ziva would ever be, typing away with an impressive speed. While Tony was usually more capable of going through information looking for that needle in the haystack, today he seemed to be almost as anxious as her to get out of the office.

Shifting her gaze to Tony, it was hard not to notice how agitated he was. Given the circumstances it was not surprising, but Ziva had to wonder how long he was going to last before he had to let off some steam. A fleeting look back to McGee told her that she was not the only one who noticed. This long without anything solid to go on was difficult for them, but for Tony it was even worse.

Gibbs had gone up to the Director’s office a little while ago to deal with the issue of uncooperative police departments. With Gibbs around Tony had been calmer, appearing to be so engrossed in what was on his computer that he was probably not even aware of what was going on around him. Once Gibbs was gone, however, Tony had problems focusing. He’d tap his pen on his desk, shift positions in his chair every few minutes, muttering to himself, the list went on.

When Tony’s phone rang it came with relief, breaking the silence of the bullpen. After a brief conversation Tony was standing up and heading for the elevator. “I’ll be in Abby’s lab,” he told them as he walked past their desks.

Once he was out of earshot, McGee turned to Ziva and said, “That couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Ziva couldn’t agree more. “Abby does seem to have a keen awareness of Tony’s state of mind.”

“I just wish there was something more we could do. Until we catch a break…” McGee trailed off.

Ziva nodded her head in understanding. “Then let us hope that we catch a break soon.”

With that said they both returned to their computers, determined to find something in the masses of old cases.

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Tony drummed his fingers on the side of the elevator as he rode down to Abby’s lab. Her call couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. He had a vast amount of nervous energy that usually made him feel like he could go for a ten mile run, and sitting behind his desk was not improving matters at all. He felt useless, going over information from surrounding districts in search of something that may not even be there. Tony had considered the possibility that Vaughn could be the first new victim, but the fact that it was a Marine was too much of a coincidence for him to ignore.

Neither he nor Gibbs had ever come face-to-face with Morris, but the chance of him coming back for revenge wasn’t entirely out of the picture. After all, they had each killed a member of his ‘team’, effectively ending the trio symbolism. Killing a Marine would effectively draw them back into the search.

Tony sighed. He wasn’t even sure anymore if he was thinking in a straight line anymore, or if he was just looking for an excuse, no matter how outrageous it seemed, just to re-open the case.

When the elevator stopped and the doors opened to let in the loud music that Abby had selected to listen to, Tony for once welcomed it. The music pushed his thoughts out of his mind, leaving him in a strange sense of peace and quiet. Abby was at her computer when she waved him over to sit in the chair beside her. He sat and for a few minutes basked in the presence of his friend and the tension in his shoulders started to lessen.

After programming the computer to run some evidence, Abby turned down the music so that it was merely background noise. Looking at Tony, she could easily see what the case was doing to him. Knowing that words were not something he needed just yet, Abby stood up and gave Tony a hug. His arms returned the hug with such intensity that in any other circumstances would have made Abby cry.

“Thanks, Abs. I really needed that,” Tony told her in earnest as the separated.

She nodded as she replied, “Yeah, I could tell.” She then punched him in the shoulder before telling him, “Next time don’t wait so long to come down here to get one!”

“Yes, Abby. Whatever you say, Abby,” Tony stated as he rubbed his shoulder. Abby packed a mean punch when she wanted to.

“Good. So, how are things going upstairs?” Abby asked.

“Oh, you know the usual. McGee is working his inner computer nerd and Ziva is imagining how Gibbs took things a step farther than Internal Affairs did with Starks,” Tony replied casually.

Abby looked at him in surprise. “How did you find out?”

Tony smiled. “Believe it or not, there were a few decent guys in Baltimore. They told me what they knew, and I filled in the gaps on my own. Besides, did you honestly think I missed the look that Gibbs and Ziva gave each other down here earlier?”

Abby gave him an innocent smile. “I guess I was just kinda hoping you were too relieved to have everything off your chest to pay much attention.”

“Well, you weren’t the only one. What made you think that something like what Gibbs did would have stayed a secret? That kind of stuff is the stuff that legends are made of,” Tony said in awe.

“Gibbs thought you had been through enough, he didn’t want to add to it. Besides, he was only doing what he thought was necessary,” Abby explained.

“We had just met, how could he think it was necessary?” Tony questioned. “I mean, if he did something like that now, I would get it. Gibbs protects what’s his and all that. But back then?”

“You make it sound as if it was a lifetime ago,” Abby said.

“Practically six years is a lifetime to some people,” Tony pointed out.

“Only when they move every two years or so,” Abby retorted. “So when are you going to tell Gibbs that you know?”

“Well, I was thinking never, but it might be a bit longer than that,” Tony replied.

Abby punched him in the shoulder again. “Don’t give me sarcasm, Dinozzo. I’m serious. He thinks you don’t know and he should know that you do know, it isn’t right.”

“But it was right for him to not tell me?” Tony questioned.

“Gibbs thought he was protecting you, what’s your excuse?” Abby demanded an answer.

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. Can we not talk about this now? Did you get the list of employees that have worked in the vicinity of the warehouse within the last few months?”

Abby glared at him. “Fine, I’ll drop it for now, but don’t think that this conversation is over. And yes, I did get the list. You can use my computer at my desk to run through the names.”

“Thanks Abs,” Tony said as he gave her a peck on the check before moving towards her desk to get back to work.

She smiled as she shook her head. “Only for you, Tony. Only for you.”

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When Gibbs had returned to the bullpen and noticed the empty desk of his senior field agent Ziva had informed him that Abby had called Tony down to her lab a little while ago. Knowing where he was had put Gibbs’ mind at ease. Abby would know how to handle him best after the day that they had had. He decided to give the pair some time alone before he headed down to check on them.

Both McGee and Ziva had reported that while there were countless cases in which the victims had similar injuries that resulted in their death much like Vaughn’s and several others from years before, none had a pocket calendar left with them or in the surrounding area of the crime scene. McGee had tossed out the idea that Morris might change his patterns if he was unable to find new partners to re-create the trio signature.

It was a reasonable theory, but there was no way to know for sure. It was discouraging not having anything tangible to work with. While Vaughn had grown up in a rough neighborhood, he had done a good job of keeping himself out of trouble. Even after further scrutiny the team had come to the conclusion that there was no reason for anyone to hire someone of Morris’ trade to take Vaughn out.

Deciding that McGee and Ziva could use some time outside of the office, Gibbs sent them to question a wide range of people who had come in contact with Vaughn over the years, just to be sure that they hadn’t missed anything. The relief on Ziva’s face was obvious as she hurried to get her things and get to the elevator. Even McGee seemed grateful for the chance to stretch his legs some as he stood up to stretch.

Not waiting for them to leave, Gibbs left to head down to Abby’s lab, thinking that it was time to give the two of them a break as well. He had no doubt that some fresh air would be good for Tony as well.

Gibbs found Abby finishing up on some fingerprint scans and saw Tony at her desk working on something on the computer.

“He’s running the names of the employees that work in different areas around the warehouse to see if Morris is repeating his old patterns,” Abby informed him before he had the chance to ask.

Nodding, Gibbs asked her, “Have you come up with anything?”

“Not really. So far all of these fingerprints match names of employees on the list that Tony has. So unless he turns up something funny these prints are pretty much useless,” Abby said. “There were the usual traces of dirt which can be found anywhere on Vaughn’s uniform, all of the blood was his, and his blood work came back clean.”

“McGee and Ziva haven’t come up with anything either. I sent them out to question a few people that knew Vaughn just to be sure, but I doubt the motive to kill Vaughn was personal,” Gibbs said.

“None of this makes any sense,” Abby sighed. “I hate to see Tony go through all of this for nothing.”

“You and me both, Abs,” Gibbs agreed.

“You should go talk to him,” Abby encouraged him with a shove towards her desk.

Gibbs gave her a questioning look. “About something specific or just this case in general?”

“Both, neither. It doesn’t matter, just go talk to him,” Abby shooed him away.

Knowing Abby well enough that she had a purpose whenever she shooed him away like that, Gibbs examined Tony closely as he approached the younger man. There were the expected signs of stress and agitation, and when Tony looked up at Gibbs he could see that his eyes were guarding something. Obviously whatever he and Abby had recently talked about was still heavily on his mind.

“Most of the names on the list check out, Boss,” Tony informed him, guessing that Abby had told Gibbs what he was working on. “There are a few that couldn’t hurt checking out. There are no pictures on file, and any records only go back a few years at most.”

Gibbs nodded his head in agreement. “McGee and Ziva are out working on how Vaughn might fit into this. Let’s go see if we can turn up anything on these guys.”

Saying goodbye to Abby, Gibbs and Tony got into the elevator. As soon as it started to move, Gibbs reached out to halt the motion. Facing Tony he gave him a questioning look that demanded an honest answer to the silent question.

“It’s nothing to worry about, Boss,” Tony tried to assure Gibbs.

“If it’s nothing then you can tell me about it,” Gibbs told him, knowing better than to read into the false appearance of serenity that Tony was trying to present.

Tony groaned and leaded back against the wall of the elevator, crossing his arms. “What did Abby tell you?”

“What do you think she felt the need to tell me?” Gibbs questioned, knowing that he was beginning to frustrate the agent.

Glaring at Gibbs, Tony decided to give his own cryptic response. “Abby thinks I need to tell you something even though she doesn’t think that you need to tell me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Gibbs demanded.

“Is this an interrogation?” Tony shot back as he pushed himself off the wall to fully face Gibbs, who took the opportunity to smack him on the head.

“In here we are not boss and subordinate. I am trying to help you, Tony. I can’t do that if I don’t know what’s going on in that complicated head of yours,” Gibbs told him in a stern voice.

The slap to the head seemed to break Tony out of his spell and now he seemed unsure of how to proceed.

“Whatever it is, I promise you I won’t get mad at you if that is what you’re worried about,” Gibbs said, trying to put Tony at ease.

Tony sighed. “You say that now, Boss. This isn’t something that you can fix with one of your stares, you know.”

Gibbs gave Tony a soft smile. “I kind of figured that. If it were that easy then it would already be fixed, whatever it is.”

Tony was silent for a minute before deciding. “If I tell you, I know there’s going to be a long conversation coming. I’ll tell you now, so you have some time to deal with it however you want, but I do not want to have any part of this conversation in this elevator or anywhere else here at the office. Deal?”

“Deal.” Gibbs didn’t even hesitate to agree. Whatever it took to get Tony comfortable enough to talk to him, he was willing to do it.

“Okay,” Tony said, knowing Gibbs would keep his promise.

When it was obvious that Tony was still having trouble working up the nerve to tell him, Gibbs said, “Just say it, Dinozzo.”

Hearing his last name snapped him out of whatever zone he was in and did as he was accustomed to being ordered to do.

“I know what you did to Starks after he came to visit me in the hospital.”

Chapter 9:

The reasons for Tony’s behavior and his insistence on a deal were revealed the moment the younger man had spoken. Gibbs had to admit, if only to himself, that he was shocked. He had never given thought to what he would do if Tony had ever found out. Now that it was out in the open, Gibbs wasn’t sure exactly how to handle the situation.

Luckily for him Tony had expected that, and after giving him a small smile, said, “Told you so.”

He reached over and got the elevator moving again. “We’ve got a list of names to check out, Boss.”

Gibbs loved and hated the fact that they still had a job to do. On one hand, it provided the much need distraction and time he would need to sort things out before talking to Tony. On the other hand, Gibbs hated to put something like this on hold.

‘Tony’s right, we will be having a long conversation,’ Gibbs thought to himself.

Both agents left the elevator when it stopped and went to their respective desks to gather up their gear. They left the office in silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts, contemplating on what was to come.

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After Gibbs and Tony had left, Abby headed down to autopsy to talk to Ducky to share what she had learned. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry or not at Tony for keeping it a secret that he had known all along about the confrontation that had occurred between Gibbs and Starks years ago.

Entering autopsy she found Ducky sitting at his computer reading over a file of some sort. He turned around hearing someone enter and smiled a greeting at his visitor. “What brings you down here? I don’t have any more samples to send to you for analysis,” Ducky said as Abby walked up to the nearby table and hopped up.

“Gibbs and Tony just left, but before Gibbs came down to my lab Tony was there and he told me that he knows what Gibbs did to Starks and that he’s known for years,” Abby said in a rush, nervous about how Gibbs was going to react when he found out.

Ducky stared at her as he digested what he had just been told. Immediately he was able to relate to Abby’s worry, for it was not a simple topic to discuss. It had only been chance that had allowed the two of them to be privileged to the knowledge that they had about that night.

“So I take it Jethro doesn’t know, yet?” Ducky asked, wanting to be sure.

“Tony asked me not to tell him that he knows, but he didn’t say I couldn’t tell you. I’m not sure if Tony knows that you know or not, but given the fact that he knew that I knew, it’s a good bet that he suspects you know too,” Abby said as she swung her legs back and forth in a fast motion. “I told him he has to tell Gibbs, but then he said he didn’t want to talk about it right now, so I had to let it go. I hinted to Gibbs to talk to him before they left, and the elevator wasn’t working for a while, either…”

“Gibbs most likely took your hint and pulled it out of Tony, then,” Ducky concluded. “There isn’t much that we can do. This is for the two of them to work out on their own.”

“I know, Duck-man, but I hate not being able to do anything,” Abby sighed as her legs started to slow down a bit.

“All we can do is be there to listen and offer advice if they need it, but we cannot tell them how to handle things. It would only make things more difficult,” Ducky advised. “They’ll get through this, Abby.”

“But things have been going so well between them. I mean, not to say that things weren’t good before, but after they came back from that rafting mission, things have changed, for the better,” Abby reflected. “I just don’t want to see all that get ruined, ya know?”

Ducky nodded his head in understanding. “I do, but Gibbs isn’t blind to how things have changed since then. If anything, it might help improve things even more so now that it will be out in the open.”

Abby wasn’t so sure. “Tony said he didn’t understand why Gibbs did what he did back then. Gibbs has his work cut out for him if he wants to improve things even more.”

Ducky gave her a reassuring smile and pointed out, “This is Tony Dinozzo we are talking about here. Since when has he ever understood?”

Abby sighed. “I just can’t wait for this whole thing to be over and done with.”

“You’re not alone, there, my dear,” Ducky said.

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“I know what you did to Starks after he came to visit me in the hospital.”

Gibbs had a hard time pushing Tony’s words to the back of his mind once they had left the office. He had a few questions to ask Tony in regards to how he had found out and why had never mentioned anything about it before now. The fact that Tony had been able to keep this information to himself all this time did not sit well with Gibbs, either. It made him wonder what else the younger man kept under wraps.

The two agents worked quickly through the names on the list that Tony had compiled. A few of the men turned out to be clean for the most part, with the exception that they were on parole and had lied in order to get the job. In spite of that fact, none of the men fit the profile of a multi-talented assassin.

The other five names on the list were going to require further investigation. Either they were no longer living at their last known address or they never had one to begin with. Ziva had called to update Gibbs on their progress. Vaughn still seemed to be an unlucky victim of chance. Since Vaughn only fit the profile of a target for the assassin on the surface, Tony suggested that they were being lured into some sort of twisted game or trap.

That’s all any of them felt like they were doing, tossing out ideas and possibilities that couldn’t be proved or refuted. Deciding that everyone needed a break, Gibbs sent everyone home for the night with the hope that something would come up the next day after a decent night’s sleep. In the morning they would start with the five names and go from there.

Abby had snatched Tony before he had the chance to leave, saying that she wanted company for dinner. Gibbs knew better and the look Abby gave him as they left only confirmed it. It seemed as though Tony was due to have a long conversation with Abby as well.

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Abby took Tony to a near-by local restaurant and requested a booth so that they could have a little bit of privacy to talk. It was obvious to her that Gibbs had gotten Tony to tell him what was currently on his mind. Knowing that Gibbs would need time to figure out how to approach Tony on the subject, she had decided to intervene, and what better way to do that than dinner. It was common knowledge that Tony didn’t always eat a decent meal, especially when working on a case. Abby always tried to see to it that Tony ate something, even if it was just pizza. This case was no exception.

After ordering their food, Abby wasted no time in starting up conversation. “So how did Gibbs take it?”

Tony gave her a cautious look. “What, you install cameras or something in the elevator? How do you know I told him anything?”

Abby grinned. “I know both of you too well, and its written all over your faces. Now answer my question.”

Tony sighed. He knew it was pointless to try to argue with Abby when she got this way. “Well I’m sure it took him by surprise. We haven’t really discussed anything yet.”

Abby nodded and waved her hand in the air, gesturing for him to continue.

“I made him promise that after I told him we wouldn’t talk about it until after we were out of the office, because I didn’t feel like talking about it there, especially not in the elevator,” Tony said with a small laugh. “Plus I figured he would want some time to figure stuff out. He agreed, I told him I knew, and then we went back to work.”

“And then after dinner you’re going over his house to talk,” Abby stated as she glared at him, daring for him to argue.

The food arrived just then, giving Tony a minute to think about what he was going to say next.

“You think Gibbs will be ready?” Tony asked her quietly as he started in on his dinner.

“Please, this is Gibbs we’re talking about. He’s a marine, he’s always ready,” Abby said in between bites.

Tony gave her a look that said, ‘well duh’.

Abby groaned to herself. “You two are the most stubborn men I have ever met. Look, if you let things sit too long you will both start over-thinking things and that will just lead to trouble. By the time you get over to Gibbs’ house he will have done just the right amount of reflecting and so will you.”

Tony smiled at her. “If it were anyone else but you saying that I wouldn’t believe it, Abs.”

“Which is why you are sitting here talking to me and not someone else,” Abby said with a grin. “Plus the fact that I know you didn’t get lunch today so someone has to make sure you don’t pass out from manly hunger and all that.”

Tony could only laugh as he responded, “Does that mean I get more dessert?”

“Only if you clean your plate,” Abby teased.

“Yes, oh great Princess of the Dark,” Tony jested as he gave a slight tip of his head, mimicking a bow. The two friends laughed as they enjoyed each other’s company over the rest of the meal.

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Gibbs was glad that Abby was looking after Tony for the moment. It gave him time to sort things out on his own. He went home and changed into more comfortable clothes before heading down to the basement to work on his boat.

As he let himself fall into the rhythm of working on the frame of his boat, Gibbs let his mind wander back to that fateful day in the hospital.

Flashback

Gibbs took a drink from his cup of fresh coffee that Abby had just brought him as he settled into the seat beside the hospital bed. She had also brought him a copy of one Detective Tony Dinozzo’s file, who was currently occupying said hospital bed.

She hadn’t been able to stay long, having a lot of evidence to process from the warehouse. After fussing over Tony for a little bit, she left with the promise to return as soon as she was free. Ducky had also stopped by earlier to explain the detective’s condition and his own prognosis. It seemed that the Baltimore cop had made quite the impression on several key members of NCIS.

Even Director Morrow had called to check in Dinozzo.

“You’ve gone through a hell of a lot of agents, Gibbs, and you didn’t even want them on your team. When you tell me that you actually wantto work with someone, I have an invested interest,” he had said.

Gibbs knew that the Director had a point and there was no use denying it. As far as he was concerned, if people couldn’t put up with him being a bastard in the office, how could he expect them to deal with criminals out on the street?

Setting down the coffee, Gibbs looked over at the still form on the bed. Even after only working with the younger man a short time, he had noticed that Dinozzo always seemed to be in motion in some form or another. Seeing him unconscious surrounded by hospital monitors and the like was unsettling, and Gibbs wasn’t exactly sure why.

He had worked with plenty of people from various agencies and departments, had seen injuries occur in the field, and none of those times had he felt the need to personally visit them in the hospital instead of going back to work while waiting for a phone call to hear the results of surgery and the like.

Dinozzo had received a bullet in the shoulder, he had found out later, that had been stopped by his vest. It left a bruise, but nothing to write home about. It was the other injury that was causing the most worry. The twenty stitches on the left side of his head were covered up with a white bandage. He practically blended in with the hospital sheets and the bandage, being so pale. Add minor swelling of the brain as a result of a severe concussion into the mix and you had an under-appreciated young detective with no one around to care if he ever woke up again

Both the hospital doctor and Ducky had said that he would be fine, but it was highly unlikely Dinozzo would wake up anytime soon. Despite that fact, Gibbs still felt the need to sit there all the same.

Opening the file that Abby had prepared for him, Gibbs started to read. While he had read over some of it beforehand, this was the first chance that he had to examine the file more in depth. The first page was a brief summary, listing the schools Dinozzo had attended and his law enforcement experience prior to working in Baltimore. Gibbs had immediately noticed the repetitive timestamp of two years in each city. He also didn’t fail to notice that Dinozzo had just about reached his so-called personal limit in Baltimore.

Gibbs took that as a good sign in favor of getting Dinozzo to accept the offer of joining NCIS when he made it. He had more than enough experience to be signed on as an agent without the need of a probationary period. Based on how his captain and so-called partner treated him, Gibbs doubted that Dinozzo had any sort of loyalty to them. It was another thing that impressed him, the fact that Dinozzo was not afraid to stand up to his superiors when he felt the need to and didn’t back down when he was dismissed for thinking outside the box.

Examining the file further revealed a few commendations from the various police departments Dinozzo had previously worked at. He had graduated from the academy at the top of his class and an instructor from the academy had inserted a letter of praise and stating that “Dinozzo has the right kind of attitude for this kind of work. He has his own way of doing things, and while at the time you may want to question his sanity, once you have your results you will be nothing but impressed. Anyone who feels otherwise can call me, I’ll set you straight.”

The contact information of the instructor was listed at the end of the letter. Clearly someone else saw what Gibbs was seeing now, the potential to become a damn fine investigator. He filed the number away for later, planning to call the man to let him know that he was right about Dinozzo.

Unfortunately, there were far more complaints and reprimands in the file that seemed to be trying to downplay the commendations. As he read through them Gibbs found the majority of them to be personal in nature, as though someone were hoping to put a black mark on Dinozzo’s record to ensure that he would never get very far in the police force.

Only a small handful actually had merit and was worth more than a cursory glance. While they had showed an error of some sort on Dinozzo’s part, Gibbs did not ignore the fact that they were not repeated. It seemed that Dinozzo was capable of listening to warnings when it counted and let everything else float into the background.

Following that was a list of injuries that Dinozzo had received. The variety of wounds that he had obtained in only a few years was remarkable. They ranged from stab wounds to getting shot. He had even had concussions more than once. Apparently while he had a great desire to protect the public and his partners, he had little regard for his own safety. One psychologist had made the notation that if he wasn’t careful he was going to burn out from exhaustion or get himself killed.

Looking up to examine the younger man, and indeed he was much younger than Gibbs had originally thought. He’d met agents older than Dinozzo with less experience or training. The more Gibbs learned about him, the more confident he felt in his intention to hire the detective. What Dinozzo needed was someone who could give him focus, respect of his capabilities on the job and the knowledge that someone was watching his back. Working at NCIS would give him the opportunity to do all of that without having to deal with someone’s political agenda or personal dislike.

Gibbs finished reading the file, stillfrustrated by the fact that the emergency contact and next of kin information was left blank. He had hoped that further scrutiny of Dinozzo’s profile would reveal some kind of information on his family, but apparently not. There was a brief mention that his mother was dead and his father owned a bank in Rhode Island, but beyond that there was nothing.

Gibbs knew he would have to ask Abby to put his own information down as Dinozzo’s emergency contact and next of kin later. Dinozzo gave off the impression that he was used to being alone and probably wouldn’t know how to handle someone wanting to know if something had happened to him. Gibbs wouldn’t want to send the other man running by asking himself, so Abby it was.

The knock on the door pulled Gibbs from his thoughts. Setting the file aside, he turned around to find Starks standing at the door. Immediately Gibbs was up and shoving Starks out of the room.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” Gibbs yelled at the other man as he followed him out into the hallway, blocking the path back to Tony’s room.

Starks’ eyes were wide with shock as he shouted back, “He’s my partner! I have more right to be here than you do!”

Gibbs glared at him. “You’re the reason he’s here in the first place! If you had done your job Morris would have been caught and Tony wouldn’t be here!”

“You think because you’re a fed that gives you the right to tell me how to do my job?!” Starks shouted back. By now they were drawing the attention of everyone in the hospital.

Ducky and Abby had also just walked in, and Gibbs saw them standing off to the side. Making a decision, Gibbs grabbed Starks’ arm and started dragging him towards the exit.

“Hey, let go! Just who do you think you are?” Starks continued to shout as he struggled to get free of Gibbs’ grip.

“We are going to finish this conversation in private,” Gibbs told him in a quiet voice laced with steal. As he passed by Ducky and Abby, he told them, “Keep an eye on Tony ‘til I get back.”

Not waiting for them to respond, Gibbs continued to drag Starks alongside him.

The sound of his door opening and shutting pulled Gibbs from his memories. Listening, he heard someone move to the kitchen, open and close the refrigerator, and then head towards the top of the basement stairs.

Gibbs couldn’t help but grin as he turned to find Tony making his way down.

“Abby made me bring you dinner,” Tony said by way of greeting as he paused once he reached the last of the steps.

Gibbs nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Sandpaper’s right where you left it,” Gibbs said by way of invitation.

Tony laughed as he approached the boat. “Didn’t we start a conversation just like this the other day?”

“We always start a conversation the same way down here, Tony,” Gibbs said with a chuckle. “And until you get it through your thick skull that you are welcome down here anytime, we are going to continue to repeat things.”

“Yeah, well…” Tony said with a shrug as he got to work.

Gibbs was willing to let that go for the time being, knowing that one conversation wasn’t going to fix anything. There was another conversation that they had to have, one that couldn’t be put on hold much longer.

Looking over at Tony, he saw that he had gotten lost in the pace of moving the sandpaper over the boat. Gibbs followed in Tony’s example, deciding that they both needed the peace that came with working silently together before they brought the past up front and center again.

Chapter 10

After about a half an hour, Gibbs decided it was time to start talking. Knowing how their luck ran, they could be interrupted at any time with a call.

“You mind telling me how you found out? As I recall, you were unconscious at the time, and I know Ducky and Abby didn’t tell you,” Gibbs asked, thinking that this would be the easiest way to get things going.

Tony was silent for a few minutes before answering. “A couple of guys in another department in Baltimore, they heard about what went down at the warehouse. They didn’t like it anymore than you did. I think they were planning on having a ‘chat’ with Starks of their own, but you apparently beat them to it.”

“Starks got what he deserved,” Gibbs stated. “Why he was able to walk around with a badge and a gun I don’t get.”

“He played the ‘who you know’ game,” Tony said with a shrug. Facing Gibbs, he then asked, “So what exactly did Starks get that night?”

Avoiding Tony’s gaze, Gibbs replied, “Thought you already knew.”

Tony shook his head. “People saw Starks after the two of you had your little meeting and speculated on what happened. They told me their theories. I want to hear the truth from you.”

Gibbs sighed to himself as he finally looked up and saw the determination in Tony’s eyes. Tony, like himself, was too stubborn to leave things alone. Nodding his head in agreement, Gibbs began to recount the details of that particular night.

Flashback

Starks had thought that when Gibbs said he wanted to continue their conversation in private, they would simply be stepping outside. Gibbs, however, had other ideas. He hauled Starks across the parking lot and threw him into the car.

As Starks started to protest, Gibbs gave him a glare that changed his mind. Once he was satisfied that Starks wasn’t going anywhere, Gibbs left the hospital at his normal break-neck speed. It took all of Stark’s self restraint not to cry out as they flew past the intersection, narrowly avoiding a collision with another car.

Gibbs had a specific destination in mind for how he was planning on finishing dealing with Starks. He had begun to wonder if this had been the first time that Starks had abandon Tony while in the pursuit of a suspect. The fact that if Gibbs hadn’t made it to the other side of the warehouse in time, Tony would have been killed did not sit well with him at all. Seeing Starks in the hospital brought out the sudden need to protect Tony, a job no one had cared to take in a very long time.

Making a sudden left turn caused Starks to bang his head against the window. Gibbs was pleased to hear the grunt of pain from the man who had been nothing but a nuisance since this case began. He quickly put the car in park and shut off the engine before getting out and walking around to the passenger side. Starks still hadn’t gotten out yet, so Gibbs decided to give him a little help.

Opening the door, Gibbs grabbed Starks by the collar and yanked him from his seat. Fortunately for Starks he had already removed his seatbelt. Breaking free of Gibbs’ grasp, Starks backed away, trying to regain some ground of his own.

“What the hell Gibbs! You bring me out here to teach me a lesson? Because I gotta tell you, I know a lot of people. You’ll be fired before the week is out!” Starks threatened.

Gibbs smirked. “I’ve faced worse than you, and I know plenty of people myself. Somehow I doubt I have anything to worry about.”

Starks looked afraid. He looked around quickly at his surroundings, trying to figure out where they were. “There’s no one around, Starks. No one to back you up if you try to file a complaint against me,” Gibbs told him as he watched Starks begin to panic.

“This is ridiculous; we are supposed to be professionals! What’s bringing me out here going to prove, anyway?” Starks rambled on in an attempt to get Gibbs to see reason.

“I’m not trying to prove anything,” Gibbs said with a shrug. “I just don’t like you and what you did to Tony was unforgivable.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me! What is so special about him anyway that’s got you going crazy? And if we aren’t out here to prove anything, what’s the point?” Starks demanded to know.

Taking a step towards Starks, Gibbs answered in a voice made of steal. “Tony is a better cop than you could ever hope to be. That’s all you need to know. As for the point to this little trip?” Gibbs smirked and took another step closer to Starks. “It’s to satisfy my own personal view of justice.”

Moving too quickly for Starks to react, Gibbs reached out and grabbed Starks’ arm, using the momentum to flip him to the ground. The last thing Starks saw was Gibbs leaning over him as he felt pressure on his skull, then darkness.

Gibbs merely smirked and said, “This is too easy.”

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When Starks woke up again only a few minutes had gone by, but he didn’t know that and Gibbs had no intention of telling him either. He stood back and watched as Starks regained consciousness and became aware of his surroundings. That quickly led to outright panic.

“What the hell? Gibbs? Gibbs! You can’t be serious! Hello? Gibbs?!” Starks started to shout.

Although to be fair, any normal person would panic at the realization that they were currently bound to a tree in the middle of who knows where with only your boxer shorts on and your back facing the darkness.

Starks had no way of knowing that Gibbs was still there, watching his oncoming panic attack. After several minutes Gibbs decided that it was time to reveal himself to Starks.

“No fun being left alone, is it?” Gibbs asked in a quiet voice as he approached the tree Starks was currently bound to from behind.

“No shit! Untie me now! I swear I’ll have your badge for this!” Starks screamed at him.

Gibbs pretended to think about it before saying “Nope.”

“Just wait until I get to a phone! Everyone in the Baltimore PD will be out to arrest you for assault!” Starks threatened in an attempt to convince Gibbs to release him.

“Somehow I doubt that, especially after what happened to Tony. If they do come after me it will be to thank me,” Gibbs replied in a casual way that only angered Starks even more.

“So what now? You’re going to have to untie me eventually,” Starks stated.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows and started walking back to the car. “Is that so?”

“Hey! Where are you going? You can’t leave me out here like this!” Starks hollered.

“I’m going for backup,” Gibbs said, quoting on what Starks had told him at the warehouse as to why he had left Tony alone.

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“While you were being loaded onto the ambulance I told him to pray that he didn’t lose more than his badge,” Gibbs said as he took a drink from his mug. “Guess he didn’t pray hard enough, since I got hold of his clothes, shoes, cell phone and keys.”

“Guess not,” Tony agreed. “What did you do with them?”

“I gave the cell phone to Abby and she worked her magic on it and I took his clothes back to his house,” Gibbs replied with a grin. “Left him a fresh bar of soap too.”

Tony laughed at that. “I can’t believe you left him in the middle of a war zone. People are dangerous when their turf is messed with like that.”

Gibbs laughed as well. “It seemed like a suitable punishment to me.”

“Getting hit by paintballs while only wearing boxers?” Tony said. “Sounds more like a prank I would have played in college.”

Gibbs shrugged. “Whatever works.”

Tony just shook his head. “How did he get back to civilization anyway?”

Gibbs grinned. “He called the precinct and asked for them to send someone with a car. Not sure who picked him up, but they brought him to the station instead of his house.”

“So that’s how the guys found out then,” Tony nodded in understanding. “So what made you do all of that?”

Gibbs looked at Tony as though he had lost his mind. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Since I’ve worked for you there have been plenty of people who have pissed you off in various degrees and to my knowledge you never served your own form of punishment to them. So why Starks?”

Tony’s curiosity was reasonable when he put it in that perspective, but Gibbs still hated the fact that Tony never saw himself as worthy enough for the distance that he was willing to go for the younger man.

“At that point the decision to hire you was already made. I considered you my agent, therefore, mine to protect,” Gibbs tried to explain. “Leaving a man behind goes against everything I believe in so if you want you can also look at it as a personal offence against me as well.”

Tony nodded, accepting Gibbs’ explanation. “You don’t think the director will have us call him in since we are re-opening the case do you?”

“No,” Gibbs answered without hesitation. “He’s not a cop anymore, not that he ever really was. He’s got no business in this now. Same goes for Taddins. He wasn’t much help the first time around; I doubt this time will be any different.”

Tony let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure how he would handle things if he had to face those two again, especially over this case.

Seeing the look of relief on Tony’s face, Gibbs thought it was time to call it a night. They had been in his basement for the past several hours now, and knowing how this case was eating at Tony, it would be best to get some rest.

“The spare room is all set, Tony. Go on up and get some rest,” Gibbs told Tony as he waved his hand towards the stairs.

Tony rolled his eyes as he said, “You’re sending me to bed? I’m a little old for a bedtime, Boss.”

“You look like you could use the rest, so yes, you have a bedtime,” Gibbs replied.

Tony looked like he was ready to protest, but seeing the look Gibbs was giving him decided against it. “Right, never know when things will get too busy for another chance to sleep. I’m just gonna go upstairs now.”

“That’s what I thought,” Gibbs said as Tony headed upstairs.

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Driving around in a black car, a man was eagerly carrying out another portion of his plan. He had waited a long time for this. He remembers the men who had ruined his reputation, took away his career, his friends. Gibbs and Dinozzo. He would show them that he was still here. They could not take away his desire to continue to deliver punishment to those who deserved it. Yes, very soon they will begin to realize that no matter what they did, he would always be out there.

Parking the car, the man got out and opened the trunk. Inside, wrapped in plastic, lay the body of a young man in a uniform.

Gleefully, the man set to work. The time to bring about punishment for Gibbs and Dinozzo was now.

Chapter 11:

The phone call came early in the morning. Both Gibbs and Tony were already awake, getting some much needed coffee before heading into the office.

Dispatch had called Gibbs’s cell, having been instructed the night before by the man himself that Tony was not going to be the agent on call that night. Gibbs had thought it best that Tony have a break from being the one to fill everyone in on the case; he had done enough of that as it was.

“Gibbs,” he answered his phone with his usual abruptness. After listening to what was being said on the other end he said, “We’re on our way,” and hung up the phone.

“What’s happened?” Tony asked immediately after Gibbs had hung up.

“There’s another body,” Gibbs told him as he moved to grab his gear before heading towards the door, with Tony not far behind him.

“Where we headed?” Tony questioned from the passenger seat once they had pulled out of Gibbs’ driveway.

When Gibbs hesitated to answer, alarm bells went off in Tony’s head. Something wasn’t right. Taking a closer look at his boss, Tony could see the small signs of worry on his face.

“Gibbs? What is it?” Tony questioned uncertainly.

“The body was found by your neighbor, Mrs. Perkins, in the parking lot of your apartment building,” Gibbs finally answered him.

Tony stared at him. “You’re kidding me, please tell me you’re kidding,” Tony said with dread.

Gibbs shook his head. “I wish I was, Tony.” The regret in Gibbs’ voice was evident.

Tony sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. “He’s taunting me, daring me to catch him.”

“He’s taunting us,” Gibbs corrected him. “Morris has to be monitoring us somehow. How the hell else would he have known you weren’t at your apartment last night?”

Tony shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t. Like I said, he’s daring us to catch him. Dumping a body at my apartment is his way of mocking us. It might not have mattered if I was home or not.”

Gibbs didn’t like the sound of that. If Morris didn’t care if Tony had been home or not, then that meant that the chances of Morris going after Tony personally just went up. Revenge was a dangerous game; one Gibbs had no intention of letting Tony be part of.

“You should think about getting a surveillance team set up around your house,” Tony suggested, breaking Gibbs from his thoughts.

“I doubt Morris will try anything,” Gibbs stated.

“Probably not,” Tony agreed. “But then again, we don’t know how far he’s capable of going to make sure we know he’s here.”

Tony had a point. They had no way of knowing what Morris’ psyche was like, what kind of games he planned to lure them into playing. One thing Gibbs did know, he wasn’t planning on letting Tony go anywhere alone until Morris was caught.

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The rest of the team had arrived only a few minutes behind Gibbs and Tony, which they were both grateful for, but for different reasons. Tony had wanted the chance to take everything in; it was where he lived after all. Gibbs had merely wanted to observe Tony, wanting to make sure his senior field agent was ok. He didn’t doubt that his senior field agent would be able to work the scene; he was worried that Tony would become too absorbed in the work to deal with anything else. It was no secret to Gibbs that Tony often allowed work to distract him from his own personal feelings. After all, Gibbs tended to do the same thing.

Tony’s posture told everyone that he wasn’t ready to discuss anything not related to processing the scene, so McGee, Ziva and Ducky tried their best to act as if it were any other crime scene.

“Not much of a mystery for the COD, is it Ducky?” Tony stated once they had reached the body.

Ducky gave a sigh as he answered, “Probably not. Give me a moment and I’ll see about locating the pocket calendar.”

“Where’s Palmer?” Tony inquired.

“He got a flat tire on the way in this morning. He should be at the office by the time we finish up here,” Ducky responded.

As Ducky set to work, McGee and Ziva started to analyze the area while Gibbs and Tony headed over to get a statement from Mrs. Perkins. The body was partially hidden by a dumpster and Mrs. Perkins’ car. It was conveniently positioned so that someone simply walking by would not take notice, but easily spotted when someone approached the driver’s side of the car.

“You think the cameras might have caught something?” McGee asked as he pointed towards the security cameras overlooking the parking lot.

“Only if he wanted to be seen,” Ziva replied as she snapped a picture of the pocket calendar that Ducky was holding up for her to see before placing it into an evidence bag.

Ducky turned back to the body, looking deep in thought. He checked the body again, but still nothing. “This young man has no identification.”

“Really? I didn’t think Morris took souvenirs from his victims,” McGee wondered out loud. “Vaughn didn’t have any identification, either. Is it possible we are dealing with a copycat?”

Ziva looked thoughtful. “I do no believe so. The body being placed at Tony’s apartment is too much of a coincidence. Why would a copycat go after the investigators of the original crimes?”

“A copycat could always be trying to be recognized as the real killer. Knowing he can perfectly imitate another’s style and is able to fool us can be part of the thrill for him,” Ducky explained. “The presence of a pocket calendar and the condition of the body contradict the possibility of a copycat, though. None of these details were ever released to the public.”

“He’s changing his M.O.,” McGee stated. “Morris is killing to get Gibbs’ and Tony’s attention, not just because he was hired to.”

“But why take anything away from the victim? What is the purpose of that?” Ziva wondered, clearly frustrated.

“It is quite the mystery,” Ducky agreed. “But now one has to wonder if this young man is even in the Marines at all.”

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Mrs. Perkins was a 52 year old woman who taught high school history. She had been on her way to work when she had found the body. There hadn’t been much information that she could give them and she seemed more interested in fussing over Tony than worrying about the fact that she had just found a body. Gibbs, of course, was greatly amused by the amount of attention that the older woman was giving Tony.

“The killer isn’t after you, is he Tony?” Apparently Mrs. Perkins thought her time was better spent asking the questions.

“You don’t need to worry about me, Mrs. Perkins,” Tony tried to assured her.

“You’re not answering my question, young man,” Mrs. Perkins interrupted. “I’m no fool. If you don’t want to say anything about your investigation to me, fine. But do not give me your ‘I’m fine’ speech.” It was oddly entertaining to see her raise her finger and shake it in Tony’s face.

It was obvious to Gibbs that Tony wasn’t sure if he should be embarrassed or not by his neighbor’s display of concern towards him.

“I will personally see to it that Tony will stay out of trouble, ma’am,” Gibbs stepped in before Tony got himself into more trouble.

Mrs. Perkins looked at him, and Gibbs had to wonder if she looked at her students that way when they misbehaved in the classroom. She must have seen what she was looking for, because she gave him a nod. “Good. I could use the help.”

Then she turned back to Tony, who seemed to actually shrink under her evaluating gaze.

“When was the last time you had a decent meal? Don’t think I don’t keep track of how often you order out,” she scolded him.

“Last night,” Tony grinned in triumph. “Had dinner with Abby, you can call her and she will tell you I cleaned my plate.”

Mrs. Perkins merely rolled her eyes. “Cheeky bugger, aren’t you?”

As much as Gibbs was enjoying the show, he knew that it was time to get back to work. “Thank you for your time, Mrs. Perkins. Give us a call if you can think of anything else.”

“Oh, of course,” she said. “And you give me a call if he starts being a nuisance.”

“Hey!” Tony started to protest, but a look from both Gibbs and Mrs. Perkins quieted him.

Laughing, Gibbs replied, “You bet.”

As they headed back towards the crime scene, Gibbs couldn’t resist teasing Tony a little. “Well, that was interesting. Didn’t know you had a mother hen.”

“As if you have room to talk,” Tony retorted. “You’re just as bad as she is.”

“Yeah, well, you need it,” Gibbs said with a smile.

“No, I don’t,” Tony said quickly.

“No one asked you,” Gibbs said lightly before speeding up to get within earshot of the rest of his team, leaving Tony to look at him with a puzzled expression.

“Ah, Jethro. Perfect timing, as usual,” Ducky said by way of greeting.

“What have you got?” Gibbs requested as Tony caught up to him.

“Well, there are the expected signs of the usual methods of torture,” Ducky began. “Several blows to the face and stomach area. I found a pocket calendar inside his front right pocket. Haven’t found any forms of identification, though.”

“He took Vaughn’s too. Since when does he start taking souvenirs?” Tony asked.

“As far as we know he’s a one-man team now. Circumstances change, so maybe he’s adapting to the change by taking trophies. Doesn’t have to share them,” Gibbs said.

“Or he’s using it as a way to keep track of those he kills while going after the two of you,” Ducky pointed out.

Before Gibbs or Tony could reply McGee and Ziva approached them.

“I’ve got the security footage from the entire apartment,” McGee said. “Everything is bagged and tagged too, Boss.”

“And I have finished as well,” Ziva said, indicating with her camera that she had been photographing the scene.

Gibbs nodded. “Alright, Duck, you’re clear to move the body. Let’s pack up and get everything to Abby.”

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Tony rode with Gibbs back to the office. He wanted to find out what the older man thought about Morris’ new incentive to killing again.

For the first few minutes the drive was made in silence. While Tony was trying to figure out a way to get Gibbs to tell him what he was thinking, Gibbs was busy trying to figure out how he could keep his promise to Mrs. Perkins and keep Tony safe.

Eventually Tony threw in the towel and spoke. “Alright, Gibbs. Out with it.”

Surprised by the upfront way Tony was speaking, Gibbs asked, “What?”

“You know damn well what. You think Morris is targeting me. So what if he is?” Tony said. “What I want to know is why now?”

Gibbs spared him a brief glare before he turned his focus back on the road. “So what if he’s targeting you? What the hell do you mean by that?”

Tony sighed. “I’m not trying to ignore the threat, Gibbs. Honest. I’m just trying to see the bigger picture, not get distracted by thinking Morris is gonna make me his next target.”

“There’s more going on here than just getting revenge,” Gibbs stated after thinking about what Tony had said.

“Exactly,” Tony replied. “Morris isn’t stupid. He’s gotten away with everything so far, so why risk getting caught now? It’s been years. Something’s changed.”

“The question is what?” Gibbs wondered.

“Have you considered the possibility that Morris actually was hired to do all of this?” Tony questioned.

Gibbs considered what Tony was saying. It was a possibility they were going to have to look into. Not to mention that Morris’ new behavior patterns would be easier to explain if there was an outside force influencing his actions.

“So someone else hires Morris to get our attention? And then what, kill us?” Gibbs asked.

Tony shrugged. “We have pissed a lot of people off over the years, Boss. What better way to make sure we get what’s coming to us than to hire someone who also has a grudge against us?”

“It would make covering their tracks easier to do by pinning the blame on someone else,” Gibbs agreed.

“Now the only question is who has the resources to find and hire Morris?” Tony pointed out.

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Gibbs stated as he made a hasty move to cross two lanes to get to their exit in time.

Chapter 12:

“Ah, Mr. Palmer. Glad to see your all set here,” Ducky greeted his assistant with approval as he maneuvered the gurney into autopsy.

“Sorry, Doctor Mallard, it won’t happen again,” Palmer apologized.

“Hmm, I can assure you it will,” Ducky said with a smile. “You are not the only one to get a flat tire. Let’s get this young man on the table, shall we?”

The pair worked together quickly and in no time was ready to start the autopsy.

“So he was really found outside Tony’s apartment?” Palmer asked as he brought the rest of the equipment over.

“Yes. It would seem Morris hasn’t forgotten who was after him all those years ago,” Ducky answered. “Fortunately Tony wasn’t home last night.”

Palmer shook his head. “I bet Gibbs isn’t gonna let him out of his sight now.”

Ducky chuckled. “Indeed, and we should all do our best to help keep an eye on Tony. We don’t need him trying to sneak out and going off alone to confront Morris.”

“Tony’s not going to like feeling like he’s being baby-sat,” Palmer pointed out.

“He will like being grounded even less, so to speak,” Ducky pointed out.

Palmer looked confused. “Grounded?”

“Gibbs will restrict Tony to desk work and forbid him to leave the building at all unless escorted by Gibbs himself,” Ducky explained. “It may be for Tony’s own good, but that young man has a hard time accepting it as such.”

“Things are going to get interesting around here, isn’t it?” Palmer said.

“You have no idea. Be sure not to get caught in the middle, there will be, shall we say, a few disagreements, coming around,” Ducky warned.

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The entire team was feeling frustrated. All of the evidence that they had gathered revealed nothing new. Picking up from where they had left off on the list of names, McGee soon found a lead to locate one of them. Not long after he and Ziva had left, Gibbs had been called upstairs to update the director. Deciding he needed a break from staring at his computer, Tony headed downstairs with the intention of getting lunch for everyone and a refill of coffee for Gibbs.

Well, it was, until he found out his boss’ most recent course of action.

“I’m sorry, Tony. I can’t let you leave,” the security guard informed the agent as he blocked his path.

“What do you mean, George? I can’t leave? I work here; I am not the subject of an investigation. I have every right to leave,” Tony stated in a neutral tone. In the back of his mind he already had an idea of what was going on, but he wasn’t going to take it out on a guard who was simply doing his job.

“I know that, Tony,” George said. “But you are being targeted by an assassin. Gibbs’ orders are that you cannot leave the building without him accompanying you or unless he specifies otherwise.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Tony said in shock. “He can’t do that.”

“Actually, he can. By being a potential target of a known killer he can place you in protective custody should you leave the building. While you are here you are essentially under house arrest, so to speak,” George explained.

Tony was pissed. “Unbelievable,” he muttered under his breath as he turned around to go back upstairs. Luckily the elevator was empty when he got in, and Tony halted the elevator before it reached its destination.

‘I can’t believe him,’ Tony thought to himself as he paced around in the small space. ‘Didn’t even have the nerve to tell me himself.’

He stopped pacing and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. He could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on.

Not wanting to face Gibbs just yet, Tony headed down to the lab, hoping that Abby’s company would calm him down.

As the doors opened, Tony felt a sense of deja-vu as he nearly collided with Palmer once again.

“Oh! Sorry, Tony!” Palmer exclaimed as he quickly tried to move out of the way.

Tony waved off the apology. “Not a problem. Hey, are you doing anything important right now?”

Palmer shook his head. “Just finished the autopsy and gave Abby her samples to run. Nothing else that can’t wait. Why?”

“Would you mind going out to get lunch for everyone? I would but apparently I am under house arrest at the moment,” Tony said with a hint of anger in his voice.

Palmer’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know they could do that here!”

“Gibbs can do that here,” Tony corrected him as he handed him some money.

Palmer accepted the money before moving into the elevator. “I’m sure Gibbs has his reasons.”
“Oh, he does at that,” Tony agreed as he waved good-bye to Palmer and headed in to see Abby.

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“Don’t you think you’re extending your authority a bit too far?” Director Sheppard asked.

Gibbs sat across from the Director, having just informed her of Tony’s new restrictions.

“Morris has made it clear that he’s here for Tony. Not having him under protection is just asking for him to go missing,” Gibbs replied calmly, confident in his decision.

Sheppard smirked. “Dinozzo is also a very capable federal agent, your Senior Field Agent. He’s not going to like not being able to do his job.”

“I’m not keeping him from doing his job, merely keeping him from doing it alone,” Gibbs stated. “And as you said, he’s my Senior Field Agent; I can order him to do his job any way I see fit.”

Sheppard sighed. “I agree that there is a serious threat and precautions should be taken, but there are other ways.”

Gibbs shook his head. “None that would work for Tony. I know him well enough to know what goes on through his head, what he would do to catch Morris. Trust me, this is the only way.”

The ringing of the phone on the Director’s desk interrupted what she was going to say next.

“Director Sheppard,” she answered. A brief pause as she listened to whoever was on the other end, then, “Oh really? Well thank you for letting me know.”

Hanging up the phone, she grinned at Gibbs. “I’ll let you deal with your disgruntled agent. He just tried to leave the building about five minutes ago. Good luck, Gibbs. You’re going to need it.”

With that Gibbs got up and left, intent on finding Tony before he had too long to mull over his boss’ most recent orders.

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Abby had had a feeling that Gibbs would resort to something like this sooner or later. What surprised her was how reserved Tony was being. He had come into her lab, told her about what had happened when he had tried to leave for lunch, and then…nothing. No complaining or yelling, just silence. He was using one of her computers running a search, sitting very still and looked defeated somehow.

That wasn’t a good thing at any time for Tony, but most especially now. He needed to feel confident that he was going to get Morris this time around.

“Gibbs just wants to make sure he’s nearby when you get hit with inspiration and find a lead,” Abby had tried to assure her friend.

“Yeah, maybe,” Tony had said with a shrug of his shoulders before turning back to the computer.

She had left him alone after that, getting the impression that he wasn’t in the mood for conversation. They worked side by side together in companionable silence for a little while, before Tony eventually started talking again.

“Gibbs is afraid I’m going to do something stupid. I know better than to go off and try to find Morris on my own. I know what he’s capable of; I’m the one who caught on to what he was doing!”

Pausing to take a breath, he sighed. “I don’t get it, Abby. Does Gibbs not trust me enough to handle this case? Next thing I know, he will remove me off of it completely. I couldn’t take that, Abs. I can’t just sit by and do nothing while he’s out there.”

“He’s not afraid of what you’re going to do, Tony,” Abby told him. “He’s afraid for you. Gibbs just wants to protect you. The first time around you could have gotten killed. Boss-man isn’t going through that again. He knows better than take you off the case; he knows what a big mistake that would be. When are you going to realize he knows you better than you think? Honestly, I would have thought the past few months would have made that clearer.”

“But I was just going out to get lunch…” Tony started to say before Abby interrupted him.

“And that would have been a perfect opportunity for Morris to make a grab for you! Try not being so selfish and see things from someone else’s perspective on all of this. We are your team, your friends. Everyone can see what this case is doing to you. We want to help, so let us! Ugh, it’s like trying to punch through a brick wall sometimes!” Abby had said the last part to herself, but good hearing allowed him to hear it anyway.

Tony blinked before reaching out to pull Abby into a hug. “I’m sorry, Abby. I know you guys are worried, but trust me when I say that things are a hell of a lot better this time around, and that is because of all of you.”

“Good,” Abby said into his shoulder before pulling back. “You are my best friend, Tony. I hate it when you get hurt.”

Tony gave her a real smile at that. “You’re my best friend too, Abs. I hate it when I get hurt too.”

For that remark Abby punched him in the arm.

“Ow! Geez, what was that for?!” Tony exclaimed.

“For trying to make a joke out of it. I’m serious. Don’t go trying to play the hero, either. I’ll get Gibbs to give me permission to lock you up in my apartment away from all things hazardous,” Abby warned him.

“Your apartment is hazardous by definition,” Tony pointed out with a grin that Abby had to share. “Besides, Gibbs wouldn’t give you permission to do that.”

“Don’t be too sure,” a voice from behind them said.

“Gibbs!” Abby yelled. “I hate it when you do that.”

“Don’t play your music so loud, then you might actually hear me come in,” Gibbs said as he walked further into her lab, casting a glance at Tony before turning his attention back to Abby. He could see hints of anger in his gaze, but bits of understanding mixed in as well.

‘This should be an interesting conversation,’ Gibbs thought to himself.

“Got anything for me yet, Abs?” Gibbs asked.

“No evidence, but you can take him,” Abby said pointing to Tony. “You two, out! I’ve got samples to run!” She pulled Tony out of the chair and shoved him in the direction of the door where Gibbs was standing.

They both knew better than to test Abby’s limits when she started to actually throw them out of her lab, so the two agents headed out and waited for the elevator.

“I sent Palmer out for lunch,” Tony said, the tone of his voice clearly stating how much he didn’t like his new boundaries.

“McGee and Ziva should be back soon,” Gibbs said as the both stepped into the elevator.

Gibbs looked at Tony in surprise when he hit the button for Autopsy.

“Ducky is finished, and I don’t want an audience,” Tony said in reference to the conversation they were most definitely going to be having.

Gibbs nodded his head in silent agreement, ready to let Tony take the lead on things for the time being.

Chapter 13:

The door to autopsy opened to reveal Ducky sitting at his desk filling out some paperwork. Looking up he saw the looks that both Gibbs and Tony were giving him.

“Ah, I think I’ll go see if Mr. Palmer is back with lunch yet,” Ducky said casually as he made his way out, taking the not so subtle hints he had been given. A small smile from Tony and a nod from Gibbs thanked him for understanding their need for privacy.

After a quick exit from Ducky and the doors had closed, Gibbs waited for Tony to turn around and start the conversation. He knew he had pushed the limits with Tony already, he wasn’t about to make things worse by starting the conversation without knowing where his head was at.

Tony sighed, and turned around to face Gibbs after walking halfway into autopsy. “I know you feel the need to keep a tight rein on me right now, but was it really necessary for you to go off issuing orders without talking to me about it first?”

The quiet way in which Tony had asked his question had surprised Gibbs. He had expected a bit more of the younger agent’s emotion to come through. Instead, Tony was attempting to control them. ‘Talking to Abby must have helped,’ Gibbs thought to himself.

“You’re right, I should have told you about it first,” Gibbs began but was cut off by Tony.

“Not what I asked,” he said. “I asked why you didn’t talk to me about it first.”

“Would there have been much of a discussion had I gone to you first?” Gibbs asked lightly as he regarded Tony’s expression, now beginning to wonder what kind of conversation Tony and Abby did have.

Tony shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Guess it would have depended on how you went about it.”

“I’m not trying to keep you from doing your job,” Gibbs told him. “I’m trying to keep you around so you can keep doing your job.”

“Morris wouldn’t try anything, especially now. He’s having too much fun rubbing it in my face that he is still out there,” Tony said, his voice starting to rise.

“What makes you sound so sure of that?” Gibbs questioned.

“My gut,” Tony quickly replied. “And don’t go telling me that it’s not enough, unless you’re going to admit to being a hypocrite.”

Gibbs paused as he considered what to say next. Tony did have a point. Far too often the team would look for evidence in a direction where only Gibbs’ gut was leading them. To not allow Tony that same consideration would tell his Senior Field Agent that he didn’t trust his abilities as an investigator.

“I’m not saying I don’t trust your instincts, Tony,” Gibbs reassured him first. “But I’m not willing to take the risk that Morris won’t be tempted to do something spur of the moment because he sees you alone.”

He could have lost Tony on that undercover op with Fornell all those months ago; he wasn’t about to risk loosing him again just because there weren’t enough precautions in place, especially not to Morris.

Tony considered what Gibbs had said. “Then maybe we should play on that.”
Gibbs’ eyes widened in shock. “What did you just say?”

“Think about it, Gibbs,” Tony said confidently. “It would be the perfect way to draw him out. Right now we have nothing, no leads to go on.”

“No,” Gibbs stated in a steal tone voice. “Not just no, hell no. I’m not going to let you play bait for this guy.”

“Come on, Boss. If me being out there as a target will keep someone else from getting killed and we can catch him, I don’t see what the problem is. Besides, the team would be there to back me up.”

“The problem is that you could get hurt or killed in the process, Dinozzo.”

“What is wrong with you? If this were any other case you would be willing to let me go undercover and act as bait to get a suspect. What’s so different this time?” By now both men were yelling at each other and very near to invading each others personal space.

“The difference this time, Tony,” Gibbs said in a quiet yet threatening voice, “is that this is personal. I know how you get when you start taking things personally on any other case. With Morris, I know how far you would go to bring him down.”

“And what’s wrong with that? You telling me you wouldn’t do the same thing?” Tony challenged him, not willing to back down.

Gibbs’ eyes bore into Tony’s as he said, “What’s wrong is you don’t care if you get hurt or killed in the process. You may not care, but I do, so does Abby, Ducky, McGee, Ziva and the Director. Why do you think she approved my new orders?”

Tony blinked and took a step back to study Gibbs more closely. He wasn’t sure what he had expected Gibbs to say, but it certainly wasn’t that.

“You came down here thinking I would get into a shouting match with you,” Gibbs continued. “Would that make things easier for you, Tony?”

“No,” Tony replied softly, not knowing what else to say at the moment.

“Stop trying to do things alone. You have the entire team here to back you up,” Gibbs said in an attempt to put Tony’s mind at ease. He could see the turmoil going on in Tony’s eyes, and he would do anything to get rid of it.

Tony sighed and leaned back against one of the tables. “I just want this to be over with.”

Gibbs walked over next to Tony and leaned against the table as well. “We all do. In the meantime I’m just trying to watch your back.”

“I know,” Tony said in acceptance. “I just wish you didn’t go sneaking around to do it.”

This time it was Gibbs who sighed. “I wasn’t trying to be sneaky about it. I had every intention of telling you. I still expected you to be at your desk when I came back down from the Director’s office. Was in there longer than I planned on.”
Tony let out a little laugh at that. “You can’t set a time limit when you talk to her, Boss.”

“Depends on what we’re talking about,” Gibbs said. “After she got a call from George telling her you tried to leave, she was all too eager to let me loose to deal with my ‘disgruntled agent’.”

“Better you than her, huh?”

“Something like that,” Gibbs said as he moved to stand directly in front of Tony. “Are we clear on things now?”

“Yes, Boss,” Tony answered automatically.

Gibbs nodded. “Good. Now, let’s go. I’m sure everyone is upstairs wondering if they should send someone down to check on us or not.”

Tony snickered. “I don’t think any of them are that brave, Boss.”

Gibbs just returned the grin as they both headed out towards the elevator.

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“How do you think they are doing?” Abby asked as she paused to glance up from her computer.

Ducky gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m sure they are both doing fine. The fact that they went off on their own to have a chat without us having to interfere is a good sign.”

“Maybe,” Abby said. “How did they look when you left autopsy?”

Ducky paused to consider his next words carefully. “They both seemed…determined to straighten things out. How was Tony when he came to see you?”

“Oblivious to the fact that Gibbs is only trying to do what’s best for him,” Abby sighed in frustration. “You would think by now that he would at least start to realize that people around here actually care about him. I mean, all the head-slaps that Gibbs has given him alone should have knocked some sense into him.”

“Unfortunately things such as this are never simple,” Ducky stated. “Don’t worry, one day he will come to see what is right in front of him.”

“Well, he will definitely be better off once we put Morris behind bars or on your table,” Abby said as she started typing away at her computer again.

Ducky nodded his head in agreement. “Indeed. Hopefully Ziva and McGee will get a lucky break and have something more to go on. It’s almost as though we are right back where we started all those years ago, going through what little evidence we have.”

“I hear ya, Duck-man. Even now I still can’t believe that no one believed Tony back then. There may be a lack of evidence to find Morris, but there is plenty to go around proving that he’s killed on a regular basis. I hate to think where Tony would be right now if we hadn’t met him,” Abby confessed.

“There’s no need for that,” Ducky pointed out. “We did meet him and he is here now.”

Abby grinned. “Think it was meant to be?”

“As in, was it fate for Jethro and Tony to meet? Absolutely,” Ducky said with a grin of his own.

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Gibbs and Tony had returned to find the bullpen empty; Ziva and McGee were still out running a lead. No sooner did they sit down at their respective desks did Palmer return with sandwiches from the deli down the street. He handed Gibbs and Tony theirs while sitting Ziva’s and McGee’s on their desks before heading downstairs with Ducky’s, Abby’s and his own.

“I didn’t think they would be gone this long,” remarked Tony between bites. “They were only going out to interview one guy, right?”

“As far as I know. Must not have located him yet,” Gibbs replied. “They’ll call in if something comes up.”

A few minutes later McGee and Ziva returned, escorting between them the reason for their absence. The glares sent his way before Tony could make a remark kept him silent as they escorted their questionable companion to interrogation. Even Gibbs didn’t say anything as he was able to detect their foul mood as well.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Tony looked at Gibbs and said, “Well, this should be interesting.”

“You think, Dinozzo?” Gibbs retorted.

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When McGee and Ziva got back they both tour into their sandwiches and took several bites before saying anything to Gibbs or Tony, who waited patiently for them to start.

Unfortunately, Gibbs only had so much patience. “Now would be a good time for one of you to start explaining.”

“Morgan Lewis. Supposed employer at the warehouse,” McGee started, as Ziva was still chewing.

“Only he has never actually worked there,” Ziva continued while McGee took another bite of his sandwich.

“A bartender at one of the local places pointed him out to us.”

“He saw us coming and started to run, thinking he could get away.”

Back and forth, Ziva and McGee took turns so that they could finish their lunch without having to disobey Gibbs.

“When we finally caught up to him, he admitted to never even putting in an application for any kind of job recently, because he didn’t need the money.”

“Another man paid him 2,000 to use his identity, for what, he didn’t know, nor did he seem to care. He thought he was rich.”

“We have him set up with a sketch artist right now; hopefully we will get an updated picture of what Morris looks like now.”

When it seemed like they were done with the back and forth ‘reporting in’, Tony asked, “Had he ever seen Morris before?”

Ziva shook her head no. “According to Lewis, he was just some random guy off the street.”

“Lewis isn’t much of a criminal mastermind, the worst thing he’s ever been charged with was purse-snatching,” McGee informed them. “I doubt he even took the time to think why Morris would want his identity.”

“Morris and his team never bothered with trying to hide their identity,” Gibbs stated.

“Seems like a lack of a team has brought on new methods,” Tony said.

“Ziva, McGee, good work,” Gibbs said as he headed for interrogation. “Let’s go see what else Lewis has to say.”

As McGee and Ziva moved to follow Gibbs, Tony lagged behind a bit. Finally, they had something to go on. It may not seem like much at the moment, but Tony knew from experience that in circumstances such as this, the most unlikely things could turn into the biggest piece of the puzzle.

Hurrying to catch up before Gibbs gave him a head-slap, Tony smiled to himself.

At last, things were starting to turn around in their favor.

Chapter 14:

Morgan Lewis sat in the interrogation room, fidgeting in his chair. Things hadn’t gone very well with the sketch artist. He didn’t have a very good memory of people when he tried and he certainly wasn’t going to try to remember this guy. He gave off a creepy vibe, Lewis just wanted to get paid and get away from the guy.

He was extremely grateful when the two agents that had arrested him had left the room and had yet to return. Lewis hoped that their absence was a good sign that he wouldn’t have to deal with either one of them anymore. To say that they were scary was not an exaggeration at all.

The pair had been relentless in their chase, not giving him the slightest chance to make a clean break for it. It was clear, even to a man like Lewis, that the federal agents were on the trail of someone much bigger than him.

When the door opened to reveal another man, Lewis breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps this agent would be more reasonable to talk to.

As the man sat down across from him, Lewis suddenly got a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. His sigh of relief had been short-lived, for as he looked up at the agent who now sat across from him, he could tell that things had gotten worse, much, much worse.

The agent just sat there, staring him down. Beginning to feel uneasy, Lewis started to fidget in his chair. He was never good at sitting still on a good day, and this was hardly a good day.

“So you gonna charge me with something or what?” Lewis asked, unable to take the silent starring thing anymore. “Cuz if not, I’m outta here.”

As Lewis made a move to stand up, the other man slammed his hand onto the table, making Lewis jump from the sudden loud noise.

“Sit down,” a hard, steel-like voice said to him as he was watched from behind a hard gaze.

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“This is most unwise, letting him interrogate Lewis,” Ziva said from the observation room. “He is going to scare him to the point that he won’t be able to form complete sentences.”

“Like Lewis can speak so well without intimidation,” McGee smirked. “Besides, I have never seen him go that far before; he knows what he is doing.”

Ziva glanced at McGee as he spoke with confidence. “Yes, I know that. But I have never seen him look so…dark before.” At McGee’s curious yet thoughtful expression, Ziva asked, “What? Did I not say it right?”

“No, you did,” McGee said. “And you’re right. But this isn’t just any case, either.”

“Which is why I am not so sure that this is a good idea, letting him in there alone with Lewis,’ Ziva said exasperated.

“It is exactly why he needs to do this,” a voice said from behind them.

Both agents turned around to see Gibbs enter observation, closing the door behind him.

“He started this investigation, Tony needs to finish it. Having him in there with Lewis will help focus his mind more,” Gibbs explained as he stepped up to the two-way mirror to watch his senior field agent work, with McGee and Ziva doing the same.

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“So you claim you don’t know Mitch Morris or what he was planning to do with your identity?” Tony questioned.

“It’s the truth, I’ve never seen that guy before,” Lewis exclaimed.

Tony continued to watch Lewis as he shifted nervously in his chair. “For your sake you had better hope you can tell me more than that.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to tell you!” Lewis shouted. “I just needed the cash and the guy came out of nowhere. It was just good timing, ya know?”

Tony processed what Lewis said before continuing. “How did Morris know that you were strapped for cash?”

“What?” Lewis asked with a confused look on his face.

“How did Morris know that you were strapped for cash?” Tony repeated, his eyes narrowing. “Morris doesn’t go for just any random person off the street for what he needs. You say you don’t know anything about him?”

Lewis nodded his head eagerly, “Yes!”

“Then how could he have found out that you were a perfect target?” Tony pressed.

“How the hell am I supposed to know? He’s the criminal mastermind, not me!” insisted Lewis.

Tony perked up slightly at that. “And what makes you think he is a criminal mastermind?”

“Uhh, cuz only people with brains can steal another person’s identity,” Lewis suggested lamely.

Tony let out a stiff laugh as he began tossing pictures of the most recent victims in front of Lewis. “Or you’ve been in on everything from the beginning; a pawn in his game. These people are dead because of him. It was possible for him to do this because of you.”

“No! No way!” exclaimed Lewis, who had already past the point of panicking. “I’ve never seen these people before, I don’t know anything about the guy, don’t want to. He could have found out from any number of people how to find me!”

“Oh really? Do tell, it might just be what saves you from being charged with accessory to murder,” Tony encouraged him.

“There’s this bar I go to all the time, not the one those other agents found me by, another one,” Lewis began, eager to get a lesser sentence. “It’s called Austin’s. There’s a lot of betting going on there. Any of the regulars there could tell you who and what I owe. All this Morris guy would have to do is walk in there and start talking to someone.”

“In your statement you said were paid 2,000. Was that enough to cover your debts?” Tony inquired.

Lewis nodded excitedly. “And then some. A few people let me pay off what I owed them by doing, umm, errands for them. So I was able to use what was left over for, umm, another kind of investment.”

Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I’m not interested in your other activities unless they somehow relate to Morris. I want to know the names of the people who you owed money to and how much, and any other information you have on them.”

Pushing a pad of paper and a pen towards Lewis, he continued, “You are going to write it all down. Then I am going to check out your story. If it checks out, then you may be lucky enough to get the normal slap on the wrist. If not, I’ll be back to discuss that accessory to murder charges.”

With that Tony got up and the interrogation room and Lewis, who had hastily begun to scribble down every bit of information he could think of.

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“That was...impressive,” Ziva said as she turned towards the other two agents in the observation room with her.

McGee nodded his head in agreement. “I’ve never seen Tony interrogate someone like that before. Usually he acts like a complete goof or something. That, that was something else.”

“Tony hasn’t been in much of a mood to goof around these past few days,” Gibbs pointed out. “And until this is solved, I doubt you will see or hear any kind of jokes coming from him.”

“Let’s just hope that what Lewis gives us is worth something,” Ziva said as she turned back to watch the man frantically writing things down.

“It will be,” Gibbs said with confidence. ‘It has to be,’ he thought to himself. He wasn’t sure how long Tony could go on before he snapped, chasing after someone who should have been caught the first time around.

Mentally shaking himself of those thoughts, Gibbs turned towards McGee and Ziva. “McGee, go find out what you can about Austin’s bar. Ziva, wait here for Lewis to finish. Take it down to Abby and have her help you sort through it all, see what useful information we can get out of him.”

He turned around and headed out the door, not bothering to see them both nod, as he knew both agents were eager to help Tony close this case.

He wasn’t surprised to not find Tony waiting outside of interrogation. McGee had been right when he had said that Tony’s usual method of interrogation was of a lighter mood, so when on the rare occasion that Tony shifted towards a more serious angle Gibbs became concerned. No matter what the case, Tony always tries to lighten things up, to keep the darkness of what people are capable of from eating him from the inside out. It was clear as glass to anyone at this point that this case had already begun to work its way into Tony, effecting him to the point that it was changing him.

Gibbs knew what it was like to have a case gnaw at you until you eat, lived and breathed it. He also knew what that could do to a person and he was damned if he was going to let it happen to Tony.

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The air inside had started to close in around Tony, so taking refuge outside on a bench was the logical thing to do. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting the surrounding noise of everyday life outside wash over him, letting it ground him. Tony was very aware of what had happened in interrogation, of how he had acted. While he had not crossed any lines or broken any laws, he knew he had acted out of character and that by now it had traveled down to Abby and Ducky.

It was also no surprise to him when he sensed someone approach him from behind. “Thought you would have been here sooner, Boss. Didn’t think I was that good at hiding from you,” Tony said with his eyes still closed.

“I had to make sure Ziva would restrain herself from going in to see Lewis before he was done,” Gibbs replied as he sat down beside the younger agent.

Tony allowed a little smirk at that. “She does seem to enjoy scaring people in interrogation to no end, doesn’t she?”

“Both her and McGee were also concerned about you,” Gibbs told him, not wanting to beat around the bush. “I had to make sure they didn’t come looking for you before I had a chance to talk with you.”

Tony opened his eyes and sat up a little straighter at that. Before he could even open his mouth to reply Gibbs interrupted him, “I swear, Dinozzo, if you utter the words ’I’m fine,’ or anything remotely similar to it I will head-slap you all the way down to Abby and let her lock you in her lab until you come to your senses.”

Tony’s eyes widened, but he wisely remained silent. Gibbs stared at him, almost daring him to protest that there was nothing wrong with him. Eventually Tony just sighed and looked away.

“She’s probably already planning to do that anyway, with or without your permission,” Tony said gloomily.

“Yeah, well she would be well within her rights to do so,” Gibbs said as he mirrored Tony’s position and turned to face the street.

Tony snorted at that. “And what about my rights? I have the right to work this case, whether I am fine or not, which I am.”

Tony startled at the head-smack that quickly followed. “I told you I would head-slap you. You only get one freebee before its Abby’s turn,” Gibbs warned him.

“So what is it you want me to say, exactly?” Tony said exasperated.

“The truth,” Gibbs stated simply.

Tony groaned. “That’s not as easy as it sounds.”

“You’re the one that’s making it difficult,” Gibbs pointed out.

“When is this going to be over with?” Tony asked suddenly, changing the pace of their conversation. Gibbs let it go, as he was secretly hitting Tony’s nerves to get him to this pace. “You know how people always say, ‘It’s been years, I can stand to wait a few more days’? Well, that is a bunch of bull. It’s killing me to wait even just another hour. And I know that logically we won’t get lucky like that, but I still hope that it will.”

“There’s nothing wrong with hoping for the best possible outcome,” Gibbs pointed out.

“But when its a useless kind of hope? Then what?” Tony questioned.

Gibbs resisted the urge to head-slap him again, knowing that they had moved beyond that form of communication in this conversation. “Then you keep hoping and you keep working until you catch the guy. And you let others share the weight of the case. You carry it by yourself you are going to sink faster than a bowling ball.”

Tony was quiet for a moment as he processed what Gibbs had just said. “Bowling ball, Boss?”

“I know what I said, Dinozzo.”

“Well, yeah, but, since when do use it in a sentence without Abby around?”

“I know how to bowl, I’m not that socially inept.”

Gibbs watched in amusement as Tony blinked back his surprise at his last statement. Their light banter was easy to fall into, despite the shadow of their current case.

“Never would have pictured you as a bowler, is all,” Tony said with a shrug.

“Stop acting like its your fault Morris is still out there and once this case is closed I’ll prove it to you,” Gibbs promised.

Tony stared at Gibbs as though he had lost his head. “You want to go bowling, with me?”

“Afraid you won’t be able to keep up?” Gibbs teased lightly, knowing the challenge would get Tony right where he wanted him to be.

“You do realize who you are talking to, right Gibbs? Sports Major here, there isn’t a sport that I can’t play well,” Tony responded easily to the challenge.

Gibbs nodded his head before standing up. “Good. Let’s get back to work. We will discuss terms later.”

He turned and started walking back to the office, leaving behind his bewildered Senior Field Agent.

“Terms? What terms? Boss! Hey, wait up!” Tony called out as he jogged to catch up to the man. The case was hardly forgotten, but the shadow of guilt had been pushed back to wherever it had come from, leaving behind only a determined investigator dead set on seeing justice finally served.

Chapter 15:

There were three men that Morgan Lewis had owed money to, Luke Banks, Earl Levin and Brent Flacker. The bartender of Austin’s, Dean Wilcox, was also on the list that Lewis had written out, along with dozens of other names that Ziva and Abby reasoned to be the bar regulars. While it was good to have their names, they were more focused on the ‘hotspots’ of the list, as Abby liked to call them.

“Please, please let one of these guys give us what we need,” Abby said with her fingers crossed as she waited for her computer to pull up any information on the men.

“Does it help?” Ziva asked. At Abby’s questioning look, she pointed at her hands. “Crossing your fingers, does it help?”

“It certainly couldn’t hurt,” Abby said as she watched Ziva cross her own.

Ziva sighed. “We need to have something soon, Abby. I am not sure how much farther Tony can be pushed.”

Abby smiled encouragingly.”Gibbs won’t let things go too far.”
Ziva wasn’t sure. “Gibbs let Tony interrogate Lewis, you should watch the tape. I have never seen him appear so threatening to a suspect during questioning.”

“What happened when he was done?” Abby inquired.

Ziva shrugged. “I am not sure. He didn’t stick around to chat.”
“And where is Gibbs?” Abby questioned.

“He vanished as well, perhaps to go talk to the director?” Ziva replied, uncertain.

Abby shook her head and gave a knowing smile. “Gibbs went to talk to Tony somewhere without an audience and make sure his head is on straight. I checked with security. Right before Tony started on Lewis, Gibbs temporarily lifted the house arrest. He knew Tony would need some space.”

Ziva gave her an inquisitive look. “I know Gibbs would help any one of us through something like this, but it’s different with the two of them. Why? Is there more that they aren’t telling us?”

“We told you everything you need to know in order to solve the case,” Abby stated cryptically as she looked at her computer, avoiding eye contact with Ziva.

“That is not what I asked,” Ziva said as she turned to face Abby fully. “What else happened?”

Abby heaved a sigh before answering. “Well, Tony went through a lot, I mean he was in the hospital, then getting out of the hospital, packing up and moving here, starting a new job, all while dealing with the fact that his partner, someone he was supposed to be able to trust, had left him to die. It was a lot to deal with all at once. Gibbs really helped him pull through. There were moments where Ducky and I wondered what would happen, but Gibbs and his gut seemed to know.”

Ziva nodded her head in understanding. “Having support like that, Gibbs earned Tony’s trust and respect in full.”

“Exactly,” Abby said. “I don’t know the full story of what went down part of the time during those first couple of months, not sure Ducky knows either, but I think that is something that should stay between the two of them.”

“Of course,” Ziva agreed. “But it is nice to know that someone has a handle on what is going on inside Tony’s head.”

“No kidding,” Abby said as the profiles came up. “Now let’s see what we’ve got here.”

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On the surface Austin’s bar appeared to be just that, a bar. But not all is at it appears to be, especially on the surface. McGee let his instincts take over; letting his fingers work to find out the information that made Austin’s of such an interest to Morgan Lewis.

For the local Leo’s it was considered to be a regular hotspot for all sorts of criminal activity, ranging from gambling to drug trafficking. A lot of people had been arrested over the years for minor charges but that never stopped them from returning to the bar. Unfortunately no one had ever obtained enough evidence to effectively close the place down permanently, either. For Morris this was the perfect place to find someone gullible enough to sell him their id.

According to the files McGee was reading, the majority of the ‘leaders’ were very generous in methods of payment to those that were in debt to them. From a business stand-point it was actually kind of smart. Having people work for you to pay off their debts so you didn’t have to worry about a salary for someone else. Plus, if that person continued to use their ‘services’, their bill would continue to go up, forcing them to work the odd job here and there to pay it off.

Anyone could easily find out about how people at Austin’s bar operated, and for someone like Morris there would be no problems in finding out about the bar and its location.

McGee sighed to himself. His research hadn’t given them a lead of any sort and he wasn’t ready to report to Gibbs that he had nothing to offer that would bring them closer to Morris.

The only thing he could say with certainty was that there were several security and traffic cameras that had good angles on the bar. While Tony had said that you didn’t see the guy unless he wanted to be seen, McGee had to wonder.

By now, it was obvious who it was that was playing with them. So would there be a reason to hide? Perhaps Morris would taunt them more by allowing himself to be caught on camera, and by doing so inadvertently give something else away, something that could enable the team to end this nightmare once and for all.

McGee got up and headed for the elevator, hoping to find the rest of the team in Abby’s lab, eager to see if anything else had turned up.

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“Well, it’s not much, but it is a start,” Abby said.

“What’s not much?” McGee asked as he entered the lab.

“No one has ever had enough to charge these men with anything, they are slinky clean,” Ziva told him.

“Squeaky clean,” Abby and McGee corrected her.

Ziva let out a huff of air. “Whatever. The point is that they will have no reason to talk to us.”

“There are security and traffic cameras that have a decent view of the bar,” McGee said. “If I can catch him entering the bar, maybe we can use that to threaten to charge them with accessory to murder.”

“Might as well give it a shot,” Abby agreed.

“He has managed to avoid cameras so far; don’t you think he would continue to do so?” Ziva pointed out.

“Maybe, maybe not,” McGee shrugged. “There aren’t a lot of suspects to consider, so what would be the point in avoiding cameras now?”

“It’s all a game to him, Probie,” Tony said as he and Gibbs joined the team. “He may avoid cameras merely out of habit.”

“Or he’s taunting you,” McGee pointed out.

“At this point anything is possible,” Tony agreed.

“That’s not a comforting thought,” Abby stated.

“Are these guys at the bar now?” Gibbs questioned, not liking the idea of Tony being targeted by a killer for any reason, game or otherwise.

“Most likely,” Ziva said. “I cannot imagine them not wanting to oversee their source of income.”

Nodding his head in agreement, Gibbs gave out his instructions. “Ziva, you’re with me. DiNozzo, McGee, get any footage you can from all of the cameras in that area.”

“On it, Boss,” Tony acknowledged as he and the rest of the team followed Gibbs towards the elevator.

“Somebody bring me back a Caff-Pow!” Abby called out after them. “I’m gonna need fuel!”

Chapter 16:

The team rode together to Austin’s bar, splitting into teams of two after getting out of the car. As much as Gibbs disliked the idea of having Tony out of his sight, he also knew that he couldn’t hover on top of the younger man 24-7. It would suffocate Tony, and that tended to make Tony close up even more so than he was on a regular basis. By pairing Tony off with McGee, Gibbs hoped to keep the line of communication open between the two of them.

Watching as two of his agents crossed the street, Gibbs scanned the area for anything unusual. Gibbs wouldn’t put it past Morris to try something, especially at this point in his so called game.

Ziva observed Gibbs keeping a close eye on Tony and McGee before he turned towards the direction of the bar. She knew that her boss was worried about Tony, hell they all were, but with Gibbs it seemed to go much further than worry over a teammate and friend. She wisely kept her thoughts to herself, however, knowing that Gibbs was not the kind of man who liked to talk about things of this nature.

“We’ll talk to the bartender first,” Gibbs announced, breaking the silence as they neared the entrance. “We make it clear to him that we aren’t investigating him or the activities that go on here. Understood?”

Ziva nodded. “Making terms clear with him will put everyone else at ease, yes?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Gibbs said with a nod.

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Tony felt Gibbs monitoring him as he crossed the street and entered a local sandwich shop that had security cameras positioned over their entrance, with enough of an angle to catch what went on across the street. Tony let McGee take the lead, questioning the owner and asking for the tapes, allowing his mind to think while keeping a sharp eye on his surroundings. He knew all too well that Gibbs was apprehensive about letting him out of the building, let alone out of his sight while Morris was still out there. That made Tony appreciate it all the more that Gibbs had made it possible for him to go outside after interrogating Lewis and allowed him to accompany the team out to search for clues to find Morris.

Gibbs understood Tony’s need to be actively involved in the case, more so than anyone. Although Gibbs had never mentioned it to Tony, the younger man knew that his boss had cases in the past that never seemed to let you go. His investigation of the man had told him as much before he had fully agreed to come to work at NCIS.

“I’m all set here, Tony,” McGee said as he approached him, carrying the tapes from the security cameras.

“On to the next stop then,” Tony said as he led the way back outside and towards the gas station.

“So how are you holding up?” McGee asked, having been worried after witnessing Tony in interrogation.

Tony held back a smart remark, wanting to fall back on his normal coping mechanism of humor and movie references. McGee deserved a better answer than that, especially in light of the support he had been giving throughout the case.

“As well as can be expected, I suppose,” Tony replied, not quite admitting that Morris was getting to him.

“We’ll catch him, Tony,” McGee said with confidence. “I mean, the way he’s aiming at you with everything, it’s only a matter of time before we do.”

Tony let out a dry laugh. “Thanks for that cheery thought, Probie.”

McGee looked confused for a second, before realizing what exactly he had said. “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that, I meant…”

“I know what you meant, McGee,” Tony interrupted him. “And thanks.”

McGee nodded, ending the conversation as they entered the gas station.

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Dean Wilcox was a middle-aged man with an obvious beer belly and thinning hair. His years as a bartender and owner of said bar gave him the insight to know what someone’s business was when they walked in, whether they were regulars or not. He especially had a talent for knowing who was a cop and who was not. It made for good business when he could figure out if there was an undercover cop wandering around, poking his nose where it didn’t belong.

So when the door opened to reveal a silver-haired man followed by a young foreign looking woman, his instincts screamed cop. What was slightly surprising was that they came right to him, not bothering to look around at who was currently in the bar. Usually cops came in looking for one of his customers.

“Gibbs, NCIS,” the silver-haired man said by way of introduction, flashing his badge. “You Dean Wilcox?”

He nodded in reply. “Don’t know what navy cops are doing around here, the customers I get in here aren’t the type to serve in the military.”

“Good thing we are not looking for servicemen then,” the woman said, not identifying herself by name, but Wilcox figured she was with NCIS as well. Cops or feds, didn’t matter, they always traveled in pairs at the very least.

“Well then what do you want?” Wilcox wanted to know, not in the mood to play any kind of mind games today.

“Information. This man,” Gibbs pulled out a photo and slides it towards him, “is not a regular here at this bar, yet we know he was in here recently. He is wanted for several murders. I don’t really care what the hell else is going on around here; I just want to know what you can tell me about him.”

Wilcox briefly glanced at the photo before looking at the pair of agents in front of him. Sensing that they were serious, which was highly unusual for someone in their positions to be ignoring anything illegal, he looked back down at the photo again.

“You’re right, he’s not one of my regulars around here,” Wilcox confirmed. “He came in here with one of my regulars, though.” Although he wasn’t too keen on giving information to cops, Wilcox also knew that sometimes cooperating even just a little went a long way towards getting rid of them quicker. That was always important, getting rid of them as fast as possible with the least amount of fuss.

“Who was the regular that he came in with?” Gibbs demanded to know.

“Guy by the name of Matt Robinson. He is always bringing in a friend or two,” the bartender replied. “I guess you could say that he knows how to get people in touch with certain types, if you get my meaning.”

“What about Morgan Lewis?” the woman asked.

Wilcox snorted. “Morgan talks to everyone, gets him into a lot of trouble.”

“But he was seen talking to this man?” the woman pressed, pointing at the photo.

“Yeah. Sometime last week, I believe, Morgan and your guy left together. Not unusual, Morgan is always trying to scam someone, but it’s usually him that gets the drop.”

“No different this time around. Where can we find Matt Robinson?” Gibbs said.

Wilcox paused, considering his options for the moment. Matt was a regular, and a friend as well.

Sensing his hesitation, Gibbs pressed him. “We need to talk to him about his new friend. Tell me where to find him, and I won’t be back here. If not, I can have this place crawling with agents before happy hour starts.”

“Bad for business, yes?” the woman said with a smirk.

“This time of day there’s no telling where he is, but I can give you his cell number,” Wilcox said. Matt wasn’t that good of a friend, nor was he a threat like some of his other regulars could be.

He quickly scribbled out a number and handed it over, and just as quickly, the two agents were gone. Wilcox sighed in relief, another catastrophe averted.

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Tony and McGee had just arrived back at the car when Gibbs and Ziva exited the bar, with Gibbs talking on his cell. Evidently, they had gotten something useful.

“We have a cell phone number of Matt Robinson, the man who brought Morris to the bar,” Ziva informed them.

“Really? Who did you get to give up that information?” McGee asked.

“The bartender was most helpful,” Ziva replied.

Tony grinned. “Naturally. Bartenders know everything that goes on in their own bar. No trouble from anyone else?”

She shook her head. “We did not even have to question any of the men Abby identified as regulars.”

“Abby’s got a fix on the cell,” Gibbs interrupted them. “Let’s go.”

As they each piled into the car they felt the surge of hope at narrowing the distance between them and Morris.

Chapter 17:

While en route to their location, which Gibbs informed the team was another bar, Abby sent to everyone’s phone a picture of Matt Robinson. Pulling up near the bar, everyone started to get out until Gibbs stopped
them.

“DiNozzo, McGee, take the back. Ziva, you’re with me at the front,” he instructed them.

Tony, getting an idea of what Gibbs had in mind, grinned and asked, “So how are ya gonna get him to run, Boss?”

Gibbs just gave him a look that told him he had better get moving as he held up his cell phone.

Nodding, Tony said, “Let’s go, McGee.”

As they went their separate ways, Gibbs dialed the number that Wilcox had given them.

“So what do you think Gibbs is going to say to him?” McGee asked as they positioned themselves by the backdoor of the bar.

Tony shrugged. “Does it really matter what he says? If you were a bad guy and Gibbs was on the other line, wouldn’t your first reaction be to run?”

“I guess so,” McGee agreed, wondering if he asked if Ziva would tell him what the Boss said. “Which way do you think he will come out?”

No sooner did he finish asking the question did the door fly open to reveal a panicking Matt Robinson stumbling to the ground in an attempt to move as fast as possible.

Reacting quickly, McGee kept his gun on Robinson as Tony came around to cuff him.

“Guess that answers your question, McGee,” Tony said with a grin as he hauled Robinson to his feet, who had started protesting.

“I didn’t do anything wrong! I was just having a drink! This violates my rights!”

“You can be arrested for being a public nuisance! Knock it off,” Tony ordered the man, who seemed to hesitate for a moment.

“If you cooperate you’ll get a deal,” McGee intervened, before Robinson started screaming again.

That seemed to do the trick, and the trio made their way back around to the front of the bar, where Gibbs and Ziva stood waiting.

“He give you any trouble?” Gibbs asked, smirking as Robinson’s face went pale at recognizing the voice from the phone.

Tony let out a laugh, “Geez Boss, what did you say to him? The speech you used on Greer or Warren?”

“Neither, I used Hammond’s,” Gibbs said with a smirk, knowing that both Ziva and McGee wouldn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about.

Tony merely shook his head with a grin. “No wonder he came running like a bat out of hell.”

Ziva and McGee looked at each other for a clue as to what they were talking about, but neither one had anything to offer.

Seeing the confused looks on Ziva and McGee’s faces went a long way to lightening Tony’s mood in spite of who they were currently going after.

Nothing more was said as they loaded up in the car and headed back to headquarters.

Matt Robinson was more than willing to cooperate in light of the conversation he had had with Gibbs on the phone earlier. Even better, he actually had something the team had been looking for, a lead. Apparently

Robinson was playing the new friend and helped Morris find a place to live. Robinson admitted to trying to recruit people for one of the locals at Austin’s for a job, although he wasn’t sure what the job was exactly.

At that point though no one was really concerned about that, it could be passed on to the local authority. What was important was they had an address of where Morris had been living.

“It’s your basic run-down crappy apartment complex,” Abby informed them as she displayed her glee in getting another Caff-Pow! from Tony by engulfing him in a hug.

“What else?” Gibbs asked, in an effort to get her to release Tony and get back on track. They were getting close.

“It’s surrounded by more crappy buildings,” Abby said. “However, I have accessed the traffic cameras in the area. Morris has shown up on some of them, so he has definitely been in the area.”

“So he is using the place,” McGee said.

“For what, though? Morris is too smart to just have one place set up,” Tony pointed out.

“When was he last spotted in the area?” Ziva asked Abby.

“Yesterday afternoon is the most recent,” Abby replied.

“That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been there since,” Gibbs stated.

“True, he could easily have used the alleyways to go back and forth,” Abby agreed.

“But why show up on cameras when they can easily be avoided?” McGee wondered. “Do you think he wants us to find him?”

“Or the apartment at the very least,” Ziva answered.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!,” Tony said as he headed for the door.

Gibbs stepped in front of him before he could leave the lab. “Hold up a minute, we need to discuss this first,” he said.

“Discuss what? We are wasting time!” Tony said exasperated.

Gibbs could see it; Tony was almost at his breaking point. The case was starting to consume his senior field agent, and Gibbs had sworn to himself that he wasn’t going to let that happen. It was time to step in

and interfere a bit, because he knew that if he didn’t now then the chance to do so later would be very unlikely.

“Conference room, now,” Gibbs instructed Tony before turning and heading for the elevator, knowing that Tony would follow without hesitation, if for nothing other than to hurry things along.

The elevator dinged and the two agents went in, saying nothing to one another as the doors closed.

“What do you think Gibbs has in mind?” Ziva asked, concerned for her partner and friend’s state of mind.

“He’s reeling Tony back in,” Abby said matter-of-factly.

“Tony is not a fish!” Ziva exclaimed, confused as to what Abby had said.

McGee stepped in before Abby could give another answer to confuse her even more. “Gibbs is pulling Tony back, making sure he has his head on straight before we go check out the apartment.”

Abby sighed. “Yeah, emphasis on you guys. No way is Gibbs going to let Tony go anywhere near that place, not on the off-chance that Morris might be there.”

Both McGee and Ziva turned to look at Abby in shock. That thought had not occurred to either of them.

“Tony is back to being ‘grounded’ then?” Ziva questioned.

“But Tony was just out with us checking out places that Morris had been to,” McGee pointed out.

“Exactly, McGee. ‘Had been to.’ As in, no more. It’s pretty unlikely that Morris was going to show up at either one of those bars you went to,” Abby explained. “Morris had gotten what he needed, there’s no reason

for him to go back there.”

“And Gibbs had already considered that,” McGee replied, realizing what Abby was getting at.

Ziva looked thoughtful. “So Gibbs let Tony out of the office to appease him?”

“And to protect him,” Abby concluded. “It was a win-win for Gibbs. Let Tony out of the office for a bit so he can let off some of that bottled up energy with the knowledge that he would be out of Morris’ reach.”

“Tony doesn’t like to feel coddled,” McGee said. “I can’t see how Gibbs is going to get Tony to agree to stay behind.”

“But Gibbs issued a house arrest order, Tony does not seem to have much of a choice,” Ziva reminded the other two.

Abby shook her head. “Order or no order, when Tony is determined about something, he will find a way around whatever road block is thrown in front of him. Not even an order from Gibbs would be able to stop

him.”

McGee and Ziva were skeptical. “You’re saying Tony could get out of the building without security realizing it?” McGee asked.

Abby grinned. “Wouldn’t be the first time, he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.”

Tony just couldn’t understand how Gibbs was able to stay so calm, they had a real, solid lead, one that took them a lot closer to Morris than throughout the entire case, and the man wanted to have a chat in the

elevator?!

Gibbs said nothing more as they stepped into the ‘council chambers’ as Abby had christened it, nor as the doors slid shut. Tony did not plan to wait forever for the man to speak; he wasn’t going to let another

person die to be used to taunt him in the game that Morris had decided to play.

The moment Gibbs flicked the switch Tony let loose. “What could possibly be so important that we couldn’t have this conversation in the car on the way to Morris’ apartment?”

Fortunately, Gibbs had been expecting the outburst and had mentally prepared himself to be the calm one in this particular conversation.

“First off, can you honestly tell me that you are in the best state of mind to be going anywhere right now?” Gibbs asked him reasonably, hoping to get Tony to realize on his own that his emotions were spiraling

out of control.

Tony glared at him. “That’s what the car ride is for, to get me in the state of mind that I need to be. You’ve gone into the field with a less than stellar state of mind before, so do not even go there with me.”

Gibbs accepted that. “You are not me, you are better than this. For as long as I’ve known you, I have never seen you let your emotions get the better of you while on an active case. You are getting close to doing

that now. Don’t play into Morris’ game; this is exactly what he wants.”

“This isn’t like one of our other cases, Gibbs!” Tony shouted. “I have every right to act differently, but it’s not going to affect my performance in the field. That’s it, isn’t it? You afraid I’ll be so focused on getting

Morris that I won’t pay attention to what’s going on around me? Believe me, I am the last person that would abandon their partner!”

Gibbs shook his head. “I trust you in the field, Tony, to watch my back, McGee’s, Ziva’s, anyone’s. But I have to wonder how well you will watch your own back. Even during other cases, I’ve seen you pull some

crazy stunts to ensure someone else didn’t get hurt. It’s one thing to want to protect your team; it’s another thing entirely to want to do that regardless of your own safety.”

Tony stared at him. “I don’t believe this, don’t tell me you are stalling because you are worried about me?!”

“Damn straight I’m worried about you, Tony!” Gibbs allowed some strength to show in his voice. “I wouldn’t put it past Morris to have something planned on the off-chance that he would see you around his

apartment. You heard McGee and Ziva, even they are considering the possibility that Morris is trying to lead you there. He’s been gunning for you since this whole thing started and I’m not going to let him get

anywhere near you!”

“Then how do you expect me to help you catch him?!” Tony retorted. “That makes no sense. I wasn’t the only one there the night his little operation was busted.”

Gibbs sighed. “But everything he’s done has been directed at you. You were the first person to get on his trail. It’s too big of a risk, and while I know you would be willing to take it, I’m not.”

Tony stared at him in shock. “Are you kicking me off the case?”

“No, of course not,” Gibbs quickly reassured him. “I just want you to contribute to the case through other means.”

“You’re putting me under lock-down again, aren’t you?,” Tony asked in a defeated tone.

“Despite what you think, it isn’t a punishment, more like a precaution,” Gibbs reassured Tony.

“What gives you the right to keep me from doing my job? I’m senior field agent, since when does a senior field agent not go out in the field during a case?” Tony pressed on.

Gibbs stifled a sigh. “When the senior field agent’s life is a primary target of the suspect; Tony your life is more in danger than the rest of ours. Think about it, you being out there with us might unintentionally put

the team in more danger.”

That hit a nerve. “You’re seriously going to play that card?”

“Honestly, I’m going to say whatever I have to,” Gibbs acknowledged. “Please, Tony. Trust me on this one. I don’t think we are going to find Morris there, but whatever we do find, I don’t want you around it.”

Tony studied his boss, taking a moment to consider his options. He could accept the fact that Gibbs was doing this in some strange way to protect him, but to not be taking an active part of the investigation, that

was what was really killing him.

“So what is it that you expect me to do while the three of you go off doing investigative field work?” Tony asked smartly, not wanting Gibbs to think he was just giving in.

Gibbs gave him a small smile. “You’re smart, I’m sure you will come up with something to do that keeps you inside this building.” Gibbs knew Tony well enough to know that the younger man would try to find a loop

hole in his restrictions.

Tony’s glare spoke volumes. “Fine, I’ll be a good boy and stay home, under two conditions.”

The look he was getting told Gibbs that there would be serious consequences if he didn’t agree to the terms that were about to be named.

Once he was sure he had Gibbs full attention, Tony continued. “I want your word that if we have even the slightest hint of where Morris is going to be, and that we have a chance to catch him, I will be going. No

hesitation, no considering our options or other delays. I go. I deserve the right be there when we arrest the bastard.”

Gibbs took a long, hard look into Tony’s eyes before he responded. “Provided you stay with one of the team at all times, then yes, I give you my word.”

Tony nodded his head in satisfaction of Gibbs’ reply. “Second condition, should circumstances allow us the chance to interrogate him, I get to be the first one to speak to him, and more if I feel the need.”

“I’ll decide when the interrogations will happen,” Gibbs stated, making no room for argument. He had anticipated this request, which he was willing to grant. However he wanted to be able to make sure Tony’s

head was on straight before he entered the interrogation room with Morris.

Tony could see that Gibbs wouldn’t allow any room for argument on this one. “Fair enough.”

Tony still wasn’t happy with Gibbs’ meddling, no matter how good his intentions were. “You know, after this is all over, we need to have a talk about all of this ‘protective detail’ crap you are pulling on me.”

Gibbs nodded as he put the elevator back into motion. “I look forward to it.”

Tony’s bewildered expression was visible to Gibbs on the reflection of the elevator doors just before they opened up, returning them to Abby’s lab.