Tony couldn't help but feel ridiculously guilty as he and his boss walked up the drive of Launa and Sean Todd's house. He had been made to break the news of another person's death to families before, but this family felt different. Gibbs had been the one to tell Kate's parents of her death, but Tony could remember the sound of her mother's devastated sobs down the line even though it hadn't been on speakerphone. The sound of a mother who'd lost her child was one of the worst.

The two agents stood in front of the door, expressions sombre, as Gibbs raised a hand and rang the doorbell. A couple of moments passed before a woman answered it. She clearly wasn't Launa Todd- she was too young. She had the same chestnut hair that Joshua Todd had had, with a pair of clear brown eyes. Tony remembered Kate mentioning that she had a sister who lived in Miami, and noticed pretty much straight away that this was her.

"NCIS, Special Agent Gibbs," Gibbs stated, showing her his badge, "Are Mr and Mrs Todd home?"

"Yeah," the woman replied, eyeing the two agents up and down somewhat anxiously, her eyes lingering on Tony for slightly longer.

"Can we come in? We have some news for them."

"Yeah, sure," Kate's sister gave a small smile before opening the door wider and allowing the agents inside the house.

As soon as they entered the porch, the woman shut the door behind them and led them down a short hallway, lined with pictures from the past and framed paintings, into a medium-sized lounge. In the lounge were two people, a man and a woman, drinking mugs of hot tea and watching some sort of game show on the TV.

"Mom, Dad, Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo are here to see us," the sister said, causing her parents heads to whip away from the TV and stare at the pair, and Tony's head to turn to hair in confusion: how did she know who he was without being introduced to him?

"Katie's teammates?" Launa Todd asked. The two agents nodded sheepishly. "Please, sit down."

Tony awkwardly took a seat on a single seated couch on the far side of the room, while Gibbs sat on a small stool opposite the couple. For the first time in his entire NCIS career, Tony was witnessing his boss look uncomfortable breaking the news to a victim's family.

"Mr and Mrs Todd," he murmured sullenly, "As much as I would like to sit down and reminisce about what a good agent your daughter was and how missed she is by all of us, I have something to tell you, something that you won't be happy to hear." The guilt in Gibbs' tone was overwhelming, and it kept Tony respectively silent.

Though Launa and Sean looked incredibly wary, they nodded cautiously. "Go on," Sean replied.

"Your eldest son, Captain Joshua Todd, was found dead earlier this morning." Gibbs declared.

Tony watched in silent horror as Launa's face crumpled and tears began to stream down her face. Sean just stared at Gibbs in horror. Kate's sister was the first one to speak upon hearing the news.

"Josh is dead?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

Gibbs took a deep breath, "he was possibly tortured, and then shot by a single bullet through the forehead."

"Oh my god." The sister turned and fled from the room, leaving Gibbs and Tony alone with the parents.

Launa's face was now red and puffy, with tears gleaming on her cheeks. Sean seemed to be growing madder and madder by the minute, but was still seething in silence. "Please tell me that it isn't true," the mother whispered, "Please."

Gibbs shook his head, "It's true."

Launa tearfully leaned into her husband, who wrapped his arms protectively around her, his dark brown eyes blazing as he glared furiously at Gibbs.

"I know this must be difficult news to hear, but…" Gibbs was cut short as he was interrupted by Sean.

"But what Agent Gibbs?" He spat, his eyes flashing furiously, "You come in here at a really inconvenient time and tell us that our eldest son is dead as if you're presenting the news. You upset my wife and Rachel as if it's nothing to you, and barge into my home with absolutely no consideration at all!"

Although Tony knew that Sean was being slightly over reactive, he felt extremely guilty, because the basics of what he was saying were true.

"I think, Agent Gibbs," Sean continued, still seething, "That you should leave. Now."

Without another word to Kate's dad, Gibbs stood up and made his way towards the door. Just as he reached the doorway, he turned around and addressed her mom. "You have my sympathies Ma'am, and my word that I'll stop at nothing to find who's responsible for Josh's death. If you won't believe me on anything else, trust me on that." Then he waltzed out of the door, leaving a whole load of tension behind him.

"Um… Well then," Tony stuttered, rising from his chair hesitantly, causing the couple to stare at him once again, "I probably ought to get going…" He began to make his way towards the door.

"Please stay," Launa begged, "You are the one of Katie's teammates that I've been most anxious to meet. You're Tony, aren't you; her partner?"

Dumbfounded, Tony nodded- how did everyone in this house seem to know his name without being introduced to him? However, he sat back down anyway on a chair a bit closer to Kate's parents.

As if hearing his unspoken question, Launa continued. "She spoke highly of you, whenever we spoke on the phone and work was brought up, she'd mention you. She showed us pictures of all of her teammates."

This made Tony even more shocked- Kate had appeared to despise him at times, especially when he'd gone through her stuff or cracked a sexist joke.

"After her death, that's when Josh joined the Navy. He joined it as a sort of tribute to her, so that he could feel closer to her despite not being able to see her very often, putting his trust in her friends that she'd thought the world of, because she'd trusted them with her life, and that was good enough for him." Launa sighed, "My other son, Sam joined the US marine core, while my youngest son, David became a doctor at Bethesda Naval Hospital after hearing her tales about the plague being set loose in the office.

"She called me that night. She called me as soon as she was made to leave isolation because you were getting so bad. She was in tears- I'd never seen her in such a state; she was crying, saying over and over again how she couldn't continue working at NCIS if the disease killed you, how you had to be ok, how you were dying. Though she'd called you childish and annoying in the past, I understood in that moment that she was fond of you really, that she really cared about you."

Tony felt a lump forming in the back of his throat, remembering how she'd stayed in isolation with him until the point when she was forced to leave, remembering how his heart had shattered when she'd told him that she was infected too, how confused he'd felt after finding out that she'd lied just to stay with him. In an attempt to steer the conversation away from Kate, he turned back to Josh.

"Do you have any idea who could be behind your son's murder?" He asked, "Did he have any enemies?"

Launa shook her head. "None that I'd know of in the Navy, but…" She trailed off.

"But what?"

Kate's mother looked at her husband, who gave a subtle nod. "For the past month or so, we've been getting these…messages. Sometimes in the form of emails, sometimes text messages, sometimes actual notes posted through the door, but we've been getting them every day, and they've all been addressed to my daughter."

"Rachel?"

"No, Kate." Launa got up and walked over to a small cabinet in the corner of the room, opening the top draw and pulling out a pad of paper bound up with an elastic band. "I made a point of keeping all of them just in case something came up." She handed the wad to Tony, who began to go through them.

One of them read, "I know you're out there Caitlin."

Another said, "I'm watching Caitlin, I always have been."

Then, they turned taunting: "You can't escape me Caitlin."

Next, downright creepy: "Play nice, Caitlin."

Finally, they became threatening: "Have it your way then, Caitlin."

"When did you get this one?" Tony enquired, holding the last one out for her to see.

"Yesterday morning," she replied, "Do you think that they could be involved with Josh?"

Tony deliberately avoided answering that question by moving onto another. "Do you know why someone could be sending these?"

The Todd parents shook their heads. "No," Launa confirmed. "I mean, my daughter is dead." Tony's heart lurched as she said this. "It was all over the news at the time-people that she didn't even know in person knew and would come up to me and give me their condolences."

"It's almost as if," Sean chimed in, "someone is trying to tell us something but they are trying to threaten us at the same time. Someone is trying to drag up old wounds while creating new ones in the process. They want to confuse us."

Tony nodded, surprised at Sean's sudden outburst, before turning back to Launa. "Do you mind if I take these?" He held up the letters.

"Not at all," Launa smiled, "You can have the emails and texts as well if you want."

10 minutes later, Tony found himself with pictures of dozens of messages and a wad of paper in his pocket. Just as he was about to leave, he was approached by Launa once again.

"If these are tied to Josh in some way, and Kate is still involved, please give us answers."

"I will," Tony replied.

Rachel escorted him back to the front door. He stepped outside, noticing that Gibbs had parked the car right in front of the driveway and was sat in it, staring up at the house impatiently while tapping his fingers on the dashboard.

"I'll keep in touch," he stated, handing her his card which had his work details on it.

"I have no doubt about that Agent DiNozzo," she smiled, her eyes lighting up the way that Kate's had.

Tony gave one last grin before turning around and walking back down the driveway to meet his frustrated, coffee-deprived boss.

A/N: Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Oh, Brother! Sorry I didn't upload every day last week- I was ill, and still am a little!

See you on Wednesday for I See Darkness!

Louise :)