A/N: It is good to be back to writing in the Fan Fiction world of NCIS. So much has happened in my personal life that prevented me from writing. My husband had open heart surgery in October, followed by two huge blood clots which nearly cost him his life. Thank God for the caring experience of all the medical personnel who responded when I frantically dialed 911, and for the skills and knowledge exhibited at our small local hospital by those who quickly diagnosed him and put him on a life flight within an hour of being brought in. And thank God for the care and experience of all those at the large trauma center where he spent nearly 3 weeks in ICU. Finally, he began to recover and now, nearly 5 months later, you would never even know he had been so ill. Blessings on all of you and thank you for your concern, as well as all the prayers expressed last time I wrote.

Meanwhile, in the NCIS land inside my head, a story has been percolating for some time. Following is my attempt to share it with all of you.

This may or may not develop into a TIVA story, I don't know for sure yet. Mostly I think this will be a story of the brotherly-like relationship between McGee and DiNozzo. NO SLASH.

I like to write about the relationships between the agents, so I won't spend a lot of time on the actual crimes. They are simply necessary to set the stage for the story. And of course, it is hurt/comfort, so I will be abusing my favorite agent.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of NCIS, except the other characters who show up to torment our favorite crime fighting team.

Summary: Someone from McGee's past wants revenge. The question is – who will pay the price?

Twisted Brother

Chapter 1

"Terrible Tuesday"

Timothy McGee was in an incredibly good mood when he got up Tuesday morning. Yesterday, the NCIS team known informally as "Team Gibbs" had closed a difficult case and his research had been the piece that had broken the case wide open. Even Special Agent Tony DiNozzo had complimented him on his work and had bought beers all around for everyone after work. Gibbs had joined in for a rare evening of team camaraderie and for once, all was right with McGee's world.

As he got ready for work, he stopped and briefly considered that anomaly. If he was superstitious, which he wasn't, he would be just a bit concerned that such a perfect day on Monday would lead to a terrible Tuesday. Snorting in disgust at the line of reasoning his thoughts had taken, he finished combing his hair, applied just a touch of hair spray and decided he was ready for whatever "Terrible Tuesday," might have in store for him.

Special Agent Tony Dinozzo looked up from his desk when he heard the elevator ding. Seeing Special Agent Timothy McGee getting off with Agent Ziva David made him smile. He liked seeing his coworkers come in together, especially when he had beaten them to work by a good 20 minutes. "Running a bit behind the times, aren't you Timmy?" he flashed his lopsided grin in their direction. "And I see you have managed to corrupt our young probie as well." He shook his head, while making "tsk, tsk, tsk," sounds. "Gibbs won't like it you know. He expects his special agents to be ready for anything, at any time."

McGee and David had stopped at the top of the bullpen, listening in growing disgust as Tony raved on. So they were both hugely gratified to see Gibbs quietly sneak up behind DiNozzo, and smack him none too lightly on the back of his head. "That's right DiNozzo. He does." Gibbs paused just long enough to enjoy DiNozzo's astonished expression before fishing the keys out of his drawer and tossing them toward his Senior Agent.

"Gear Up. Dead Petty Officer out in Derwood." Tim and Ziva indulged in a brief high five, before turning around and getting back into the elevator. Gibbs joined them just as the doors began to shut, leaving Tony scrambling to retrieve the keys, which had managed to fall between his desk and the partition, as well as grab his backpack. They could all hear Tony's murmured "me and my big mouth," as the doors closed.

All thoughts of laugher ceased as they stood over the mutilated body of the young petty officer. Dr. "Ducky" Mallard looked up as he withdrew the liver probe. "Too much blood to tell exactly what he died of, Gibbs, but exsanguination appears to be a likely suspect. TOD is somewhere between midnight and 0400 this morning."

Gibbs reached out and gingerly eased the dog tags away from the man's mutilated neck. He quickly read the service number off and waited for McGee to identify him.

"Daniel Dominque. Petty Officer stationed out of Quantico." McGee was quick to give the horribly disfigured man a name. "His commanding officer is Captain Donna Rothwells."

Gibbs leaned back on his heels for a moment, surveying the scene. The dead man was in a wooded area, covered with just a few leaves and twigs. A couple of hikers had literally stumbled over him. They were now sitting in a patrol car, obviously quite shaken.

"DiNozzo, sketch and canvass the area. David, pictures. McGee, interview the witnesses." Gibbs sighed as he watched his team spring into action. Dr. Mallard and Jimmy Palmer, the ME's assistant, carefully examined the body. "He has been slashed with something very sharp a number of times. By the amount of blood, it appears he was likely alive when most of the injuries took place. And it looks as if he was killed here Gibbs; this doesn't appear to be a dump site."

Ducky shook his head, momentarily pausing in his examination. "Poor fellow, not a very pleasant way to leave this world, is it now? Well, then Mr. Palmer, let's get him loaded up and back to NCIS. I'll have your report Gibbs, within a few hours."

At that moment DiNozzo called out from about 50 yards away, where he had been going over the ground very carefully. "Found something boss; you're going to want to see this." Gibbs and Ziva made their way over to where DiNozzo was squatting at the base of a small tree. He looked up, then, pointed at a note that was nailed to the tree. Ziva took pictures from several angles before Tony carefully took the note into his hands. "It's covered in blood, but I think I can make it out." Squinting and holding the gory note up to the light, Tony read the ominous words aloud: "U 'R Next." The words were in block letters, and appeared to have been cut from a magazine. "Bag, it DiNozzo," Gibbs sighed. "And get it to Abby as soon as possible."

From there on the action became somewhat predictable. McGee finished his interviews with the two hikers who had had their morning ruined in such an appalling way. They didn't have much to share, except that they routinely came to the area, two or three times a week. Nothing like this had ever happened before and they hadn't noticed anyone unusual in the area. In fact, because they liked to hike early in the mornings, no one else had been out and about.

Ziva and Tony finished canvassing the area, and other than the note, turned up nothing significant. It was fairly subdued group that left the crime scene and headed back to NCIS headquarters

The investigation continued in its usual manner. The only thing being different about it was that they turned up nothing that shed any light on the murder. The petty office had an outstanding record, and had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. His financial records revealed nothing significant and a thorough background check of his unit exposed nothing unusual. After about three weeks, the case went cold. But in the back of Gibb's mind, he could not shake the "U 'R next" message loose. If only he knew who was supposed to be next.

So it was with more than the usual trepidation that Gibbs gave his "gear up" command to his team when a second petty officer was found dead, again on a Tuesday. And again, murdered in the same awful fashion. The only thing significantly different regarding this one was that it was a female officer, named Lynete Clarkson and she was stationed out of Annapolis. This time it was Ziva who found the note, half buried under some debris at the scene.

Holding it up, after Tony took the necessary pictures, she read it out loud: "Just kidding. SHE was next. But b-WEAR."

After returning to the bullpen, Gibbs spent two hours going over every minute piece of evidence. He was growing more and more concerned that somehow the notes were directed at him or a member of his team.

"DiNozzo! Front and center," his gruff voice could be heard all over the immediate area. Tony had been leaning over McGee's computer, looking at the financial statements they had just pulled up.

"Boss?" Tony looked up and made his way over to Gibb's desk. Perching on the edge, he folded his arms and made eye contact. "You got something?" All of the normal joking around had vanished when they had seen the second victim. If Petty Officer Dominque's wounds had been terrible, the injuries inflicted on the young woman had been horrific.

"I want you to pull every case in the last 8 years that involved anyone who made threats to a member of our team. We're going to go over them with a fine tooth comb and see if anything stands out. Take Ziva with you and go get the evidence."

As Tony and Ziva made their way to the archive section of the building, Gibbs looked at McGee. "McGee." His voice was even more terse and curt than usual. "When they get back with them, you start cross referencing with anyone we turn up who has been recently released from prison." McGee nodded, and answered with a terse comment of his own, the standard, "On it boss." He pulled up the computer program he would need to access the information Gibbs wanted.

An hour and forty-five minutes later, Tony and Ziva made their way back into the bullpen, boxes and boxes of old cases loaded onto a cart. "How do you want to divide these up, boss?" Tony's inquiry cut into the quietness of the room. Going over to the cart, Gibbs randomly picked up a case file and started flipping through it. "My guess is if someone is after one of us, it's most likely you or me DiNozzo. I've been here longest and you just happen to have the ability to tick people off more than anyone I know." Tossing the file at Ziva, he instructed, "So, I'll go through all of your case files, you go through mine and David, you take the rest. McGee, you start a list of everyone even remotely connected to anything we turn up in these files, and start checking out prison terms and release dates."

The agents quickly moved to their desks and started the tedious process of reviewing old files. McGee took a random handful and started his list. After about an hour, he looked up. "Boss, this would go a lot faster if I could get Abby's help." Gibbs barely looked in his direction. "Go, go. Get down to her lab and the two of you do that thing you do. Get me names, people, I want names!"

Time seemed to drag on as the team went through each case. Ziva looked up when Tony winced as he reviewed one of Gibb's more colorful cases. "Boss, I think this one is a possibility…." But his voice trailed off. "Oh, never mind." Glancing up he couldn't help but smile a little. "The dude threatened you all right, but looks like he got very dead, very fast, before his trial was even complete. Nice work, Boss."

Finally, at 2030 hours, when they had all been relentlessly pouring over evidence, Gibbs tossed a file in Tony's direction. "Remember this one, DiNozzo?" Ziva got up and came over to lean over Tony's shoulder as he quickly paged through the file. "Oh yeah. He hated my guts." Without waiting for direction, Tony quickly dialed Abby's lab, putting his phone on speaker.

"Abby and Timmy's hot shot prison break service. Abigail speaking!" Abby's perky voice came over the phone. Even Gibbs managed a tiny ghost of a grin on hearing that. "Abs," Tony shook his head. "Need you and Timmy to run a name for me, ASAP, okay?" They all heard some scuffling coming over the phone, then McGee's voice came on next. "Wouldn't be John Patters, would it Tony?"

Tony rubbed his hand over his very tired eyes. "Wow, I don't even want to know how you did that, McInformation. But yeah, whatcha' you got on Patters?" A little more shuffling and then Abby's voice broke through. "We'll bring it up; you're all going to want to see this."

While they were waiting, Tony bent tiredly over the next file. So he was a little unprepared when he felt Ziva's hands on his tight neck. "Why don't you take a break, Tony?" she murmured. Tony found he didn't have it in him to resist, as she gently massaged his tense and corded up muscles. All was quiet for a few moments, until the ding of the elevator brought them to attention.

"Whata' you got McGee?" Gibbs voice brooked no patience whatsoever. "Boss, he could be our guy." Tim went to his computer and sat down, quickly pulling up the program he and Abby had been working on. Abby grabbed the remote control and turned on the big screen. "Observe," she said, her voice all business now. "Mr. John Patters convicted of murder of a female petty office 7 years ago. Tony, you were the lead investigator and it was your testimony that put him away. We pulled the transcripts of the trial and he threatened to kill you in so many creative ways even I was impressed."

Agent DiNozzo took the file Gibbs held out to him and slowly perused it. "Oh yeah, I do remember this one." His face drained of all color. "Boss, he killed her in mostly the same way Lynete Clarkson was killed. Not quite as grisly, but close."

McGee then took the remote from Abby's fingers where it had been dangling loosely. "He's still in prison, boss, but there is something a little strange going on. His brother just got back from being overseas, where he's been since the trial ended. He's been visiting Patters for about 3 weeks now. His name is Ian Patters, and he was a former Navy Seal."

Tony scrunched up his face and peered closely at the image of Ian Patters that was now on the screen. "Oh yeah, I remember him too. But it doesn't make any sense, Boss. He hated his brother for ruining his good name and his career. He told him he hoped he rotted in prison and said he never wanted to see him again. Why would he suddenly be visiting?"

"That's what we have to find out. But not tonight. Go home, people, get some sleep and be back by 0700. l need everyone sharp on this one." A huge yawn, started by Abby, then picked up by McGee, Ziva and DiNozzo in that order, was his only answer, as his team tiredly started pulling their personal gear out of their desks. A quiet, "Night, boss," were the only words spoken as they all huddled into the elevator together.

Tim's words were barely heard, as he muttered, "It's been another terrible Tuesday."

A/N: This will be a multi-chapter fic. I have most of it outlined, and will try to post as often as I can, but I am super busy right now, so I may not be able to post quite as fast as I want to. Reviews welcome.