Tony decided to go out to the local coffee shop for his caffeine fix; the stuff at work just wasn’t going to cut it this morning. As he made his way back to work he pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial number for his boss while balancing the tray with three coffees on it. It only took two rings for him to answer; Tony knew that although it was early Gibbs would be up.
“Gibbs” came the gruff response.
“Hey Boss” Tony began. Not wanting to start the day off on Gibbs bad side, he came straight to the point.
“I found something. How soon can you get here?” he continued.
“You at work?” Gibbs asked.
“Yeah” Tony replied.
“Be there in 15 minutes”. Gibbs hung up, cutting off any response from Tony.
As he made his way through security and to the elevators, Tony tried to come up with a reason to give his boss as to why he didn’t call him first. When nothing came to mind, Tony leaned back against the wall of the elevator and slowly banged his head; I am so screwed he thought.
As Gibbs made his way into work he had a couple of questions running through his mind. The first being what was Tony doing at work so early, although he already had a pretty good idea, and just how long had he been there. The next question, just what had he found, he couldn’t answer.
Gibbs parked his car and made his way over to the elevator but was surprised by who he saw standing there.
“Tobias” he said “What brings you out this early?”
“Your boy DiNozzo called me” Fornell grumbled as they got on the elevator “Woke me up out of a sound sleep about a half an hour ago.”
Gibbs was surprised not to mention a little pissed off that DiNozzo hadn’t called him first but didn’t let it show; he would deal with him later.
“So why bother coming in?” Gibbs asked as he sipped at his coffee.
“I figured that if he called ME of all people it has to important.” Fornell said with a raised eyebrow.
As they made their way off the elevator and into the bullpen Tony stood up. With a tentative smile on his face, he came out from behind his desk.
“Morning Boss” he said as he handed him a cup of coffee. Gibbs just grunted his response as he tossed his now empty cup into the trashcan and took the fresh one.
Tony turned to Fornell and handed him the remaining coffee cup.
“Fornell” he said with a more serious tone to his voice.
“DiNutso” Fornell replied as he took the coffee from him.
The two older agents just stood there silently, drinking their coffee while they stared at him. Tony began to shift uneasily under their gaze, his eyes flickering back and forth between the two.
“What?” he said trying to look innocent.
Gibbs glared at him, his hand twitching as he held back on the impulse to smack the back of Tony’s head.
“You’re the one who called this little pow wow DiNutso.” Fornell began. As he took a step closer he lowered his voice “Or am I going to have to take you up on your offer from our phone call earlier?”
To his credit he stood his ground, Tony didn’t get intimidated that easily; he had worked too long with Gibbs. As he took in the pissed off look on his bosses face Tony smiled at Fornell and nodded his head in Gibbs direction.
“I think you may have to get in line.” He said trying to ease the tension a bit.
Gibbs gave in to his impulse this time and smacked Tony’s head.
“Just tell us what you have.” Gibbs practically growled.
Tony reached behind him to grab a file off his desk and then handed it to Gibbs, who set down his coffee so he could hold it open for both Fornell and him to look at.
“Out of all the files I’ve gone through I kept coming back to this one.” Tony began. “Something about it was bugging me but I couldn’t figure out what it was.”
“Until now.” Gibbs said.
“Until now.” Tony nodded but before he could continue he was interrupted.
“Where did you get this?” Fornell asked as he looked at Tony, his tone sharp.
“From my Fathers place.” Tony answered
At Fornells raised eyebrow Tony just shrugged “He had files on all his business contacts.”
“Why wasn’t I told about these?” Fornell directed at Gibbs.
“I’m telling you now.” He replied calmly.
“And you wonder why other agencies don’t like to work with you” Fornell grumbled.
Ignoring the comment Gibbs handed the file back to Tony then picked up his coffee and took a long drink before asking him. “So what are we supposed to be looking at?”
Tony took a deep breath before he began.
“This file is on one Albert Pearson. Back in the early eighties he owned a small import/export business that my Father wanted. According to this, Mr. Pearson had been having an affair and my Father threatened to tell his wife if he didn’t sell his business to him.”
“Nice” Fornell muttered sarcastically while Gibbs remained silent. Tony ignored the comment as he continued.
“From what I’ve been able to find out through public records Mr. Pearson must not have taken him seriously. Big mistake because shortly there after his wife filed for divorce. She asked for and was awarded sole custody of their son. Desperate for money during the custody fight, he had ended up selling his business to my Father anyway; but at a much lower price.”
As he had been talking, Tony had grabbed the remote and brought the records up on the plasma screen. Gibbs was standing next to him as he read over the documents that were displayed.
“From what you’ve said, this sounds like business as usual for your Father.” Gibbs said.
“Oh, it gets worse.” Tony clicked the remote bringing up a newspaper article.
“After the divorce his ex-wife disappeared with their kid. Apparently distraught and now broke, Mr. Pearson committed suicide.”
While the two of them had stood there talking, neither one of them noticed Fornell studying Tony out of the corner of his eye. Having had limited contact with the senior DiNozzo he didn’t realize what a bastard he could be, at least where business was concerned. Fornell grudgingly admitted to himself that his opinion of DiNozzo was raised slightly now that he knew what kind of man his Father had been. He mentally shook himself, the last thing he needed was for DiNozzo to find out that he actually kind of liked the kid.
“While this is all very interesting DiNutso, just why in the hell am I here?” he asked.
Tony took a couple of steps away from them and then turned around and faced Fornell.
“Because I need your help getting into a certain file that I think you can access.”
“What are you talking about Tony?” Gibbs eyes narrowed.
Tony turned back to the plasma and brought up what looked like some legal documents.
Gibbs squinted at the screen “What are those?”
“Copies of the Pearson’s divorce decree.” Tony said.
“I’m surprised you didn’t realize what they were, you’ve seen enough of them.” Fornell smirked.
“Shut up Fornell” Gibbs growled.
Clearing his throat Tony continued. “After their divorce Pearson’s ex-wife went back to her maiden name, Cremisi.”
“And?” Fornell asked.
“And I was hoping to get access to a certain FBI personnel file.”
“What in the hell for?” Fornell sounded pissed.
Tony took a deep breath and looked at Gibbs, “I know how you feel about coincidences Boss.”
Turning to Fornell he continued “Because Cremisi is Italian for Crimson.”
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NOTE: It was made known to me that people might not remember who Crimson is...he is one of the FBI Agents that was with DiNozzo Sr.(fromone of the early chapters)
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.