A/N: Phew! This chapter has been so hard to write.

I see it as pivotal to progress the story and to give the readers a glimpse of where it's going - or at least where it was going when I wrote the original outline, and before it began mutating into something totally different - eek!

Lord knows, I've written and re-written this particular chapter numerous times and I'm still not completely happy.

If I don't post it right now I'll only re-write it…again!

Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 4

FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell was the first person Gibbs saw as he and Shepard entered the ground floor conference room, and he was quick to make his feelings known about that.

"I might've guessed you'd be involved," he snapped out, giving his FBI counterpart his version of the

"I wasn't Jethro," Fornell countered instantly, meeting the other man's burning glare head on. "Up until an hour ago I was as much in the dark about this as you were." He waved a hand to indicate the trio already settled at the polished rosewood conference table. "I think my colleagues here assumed that I'd be able to mediate and calm the situation."

"Fat chance," Gibbs retorted with a churlish sniff even as he took the seat to Fornell's right, acknowledging the others with nothing more than a curt nod.

"Jenny, good to see you again."

A big built fifty-something black man in an expensive suit rose to greet Shepard the European way - with a kiss to both cheeks. She smiled warmly at the man before making the cursory introductions.

"Deputy Director Mike Knowles, I'd like to introduce Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. Jethro, this is …"

"I know who he is," Gibbs cut in gruffly, ignoring the barely concealed snort of amusement from Fornell. "Under the circumstances, can we cut the social niceties and get right to the point!" His uncompromising gaze raked over the group to settle on Knowles. "So, you wanna tell me how a member of my team is drafted into bodyguard duty for the FBI and then ends up fighting for his life in ICU,

Momentarily taken aback by the NCIS agent's abrasive tone, it took Knowles a few seconds to gather his wits enough to gesture to the pair seated to his left; an unremarkable looking brunette wearing a pair of unflattering tortoise shell glasses and a red-headed, ruddy-faced man in his late thirties with a buzz cut and plenty of attitude.

"I'll, uh, pass to Special Agents Laura Devese and Matt Myers from our New York office."

The attractive young woman, who had been fiddling with a platinum pen up to that point, squared her shoulders, pushed a loose strand of shoulder length dark blond hair from her face and gazed around the table. Gibbs could almost feel the nervous energy emanating from her.

"Before we begin, Director Shepard, Special Agent Gibbs, I assume you have some knowledge of the Bonetti trial?"

"Yup," Gibbs responded immediately, but at Shepard's skeptical look he added pointedly for her benefit, "McGee brought me up to speed."

Which was the truth? His junior agent condensing the known facts about the case into a potted, palatable 20 minute briefing for his boss. Some of the details McGee had picked up himself from news reports, the rest he'd accessed online from various law enforcement databases via his laptop.

Gibbs now knew, for instance, that Lucas Bonetti Jnr. was the head of the notorious Bonaventura family, and on trial for everything from extortion, money laundering, stock market fraud, tax evasion, drug trafficking to murder. Junior had risen through the ranks of a family whose business was organized crime, taking over from his maternal grandfather, Stefano, when the old man was gunned to death outside his barbers in Brooklyn in 1991.

"Our star witness, Joe Porello, was one of the top capos in the Bonaventura organization. He was arrested at the same time as Bonetti, but we persuaded him to testify for the prosecution in return for a significantly reduced sentence and a new life and identity in the Witness Protection Program.

"With Porello's testimony we can ensure Bonetti goes down for life," Knowles contributed.

"So where's Porello now?" Director Shepard asked curiously.

"He's…uh…missing," Devese admitted uneasily. "And at this moment in time we have no idea whether he's dead or alive."

Deputy Director Knowles shifted his sizeable girth in the plush leather chair. "We're assuming dead, though there's no body to back up this assumption," he confirmed bluntly. "Porello recently survived an attempt on his life. After that, he steadfastly refused to testify unless we agreed to some…uh…new measures to guarantee his safety.One of which was to have a Federal Agent by the name of Anthony DiNozzo assigned to his close protection team. As far as Porello was concerned this was non-negotiable."

"But why Tony?" Gibbs asked.

"There's a family connection, of sorts," Laura Devese answered after a momentary pause, during which Gibbs noted the look that passed between her and Special Agent Myers. "Porello is a childhood friend and former business acquaintance of Tony's father, Vincent DiNozzo - as is Lucas Bonetti. We assumed Porello just wanted someone he could trust to watch his back."

Gibbs mulled over this little revelation before asking, "So what went wrong?"

"That's exactly what we want to ask Special Agent DiNozzo," Matt Myers broke his brooding silence and spoke up for the first time, his tone terse.

Gibbs took a moment to try to get the measure of the FBI agent. It was obvious that Myers had issues of some kind, but with who or what was yet to be determined, though he suspected they'd find out soon enough.

"That will have to wait," Shepard got in quickly, giving Gibbs a wary side glance. "Tony's only just out of surgery and his condition is critical."

Myers shook his head in cynical disbelief. His next words were addressed directly to his Deputy Director, as if the rest of the group were of no significance. "Then we'll need to put a team on DiNozzo 24/7, so we can question him as soon as…."

"Just hold on one goddamned minute," Gibbs cut in sharply, coming out of his seat and leaning over the table to glower at the other man. "The only team Tony is going to see when he wakes up is mine. Get that!"

He held Myers in his glare for a few moments longer, before glancing around at the rest of the group and then settling on Fornell as the only one he really trusted not to feed him a load of bullshit.

"What the hell's going on here Tobias?"

Fornell gave a bewildered shrug and was about to respond to tell Gibbs he hadn't a clue, but Knowles got there first.

"Let's all just take some time out to calm down," he said deliberately to Myers, and then turned to Gibbs and Shepard with a wan smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Tempers and emotions are a little…frayed," he continued by way of an apology. "We lost two good men today."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Shepard responded sincerely. "Tony's back up team?" She guessed, and Knowles nodded somberly.

"Their bodies were found in the basement of our safe house," Devese added. "Both with a single bullet wound to the back of the head."

"They were executed," Myers almost snarled out. "And the only weapon found at the scene was a Sig Saur, which we believe belongs to Agent DiNozzo."

Fornell placed a firm restraining hand on Gibbs'arm before the other man could leap out of his chair again. "You can't honestly think DiNutso had anything to do with this? Apart from anything else, we asked for him. It's not like he volunteered."

"Yeah, well color me cynical," Myers sneered, "but I've been too long in law enforcement to be surprised by much."

Fornell gave a gruff laugh. "Me either, except maybe dickheads like you. So you wanna tell us exactly what part you think Special Agent DiNozzo" - he hoped Gibbs appreciated his extra effort with the pronunciation this time -" played in all of this, huh? Maybe he masterminded the whole thing despite being drafted onto our team for less than a week, up to and including the kidnapping and possible murder of a key prosecution witness and the cold blooded slaying of two fellow federal agents! And maybe he even arranged to be battered within an inch of his life to cover his tracks."

"Anything's possible," Myers offered churlishly, his face reddening dramatically. "Maybe he was double-crossed or something."

Fornell shared a Do you believe this guy? look with Gibbs.

Though grateful for Fornell's intervention, Gibbs decided that now was the time to take back the reins.

"So now tell me something," he leaned forward and rested his arms on the table, his calm inquisitive tone belying his spiraling anger as he and Myers faced each other again. "Why?" He asked simply. "What was his motivation?"

Myers shrugged, though he didn't look as sure of himself as he had earlier. "The greatest motivator of all, I guess - money."

"Not Tony," Gibbs shook his head emphatically. "Oh, he talks about it all the time, but it's never really been that important to him."

"Okay, so maybe he did it as a special favor to Bonetti….or even Papa DiNozzo," Myers shot back, not prepared to give up just yet or cave under the pressure. "You know what they say Agent Gibbs. Once family, always

"That's completely ridiculous," Jenny Shepard was out of her seat, looking and sounding really, really pissed as she rounded on Knowles. "Deputy Director, unless Agent Myers has any hard evidence to back up these outrageous accusations leveled at one of my best and most trusted agents, I'll have no choice but to end this meeting right now and to lodge a formal complaint with Director Henderson."

"Agent Myers, that's more than enough," Knowles snapped angrily. He'd been curious to see how Shepard and Gibbs would react when confronted by Myers'half-assed theory, but realized he may have let it go a little too far. He needed these people on side. "Maybe you should step outside and calm down."

"But sir…"

"NOW!" The Deputy Director's bellow definitely brooked no argument, and with a parting scowl at Gibbs and Fornell the man shoved back his chair and stormed out of the room. Devese went to follow, until Knowles held up a firm hand that had her sitting back down and looking even more unsettled than before, if that were possible.

oOo

From his own unique vantage point over against the far wall of the conference room with Kate standing close by his side, Tony had seen and heard everything and now looked positively shell-shocked.

"They think I had something to do with it."

"Not they, just that Myers creep," Kate assured, placing a protective hand on Tony's arm and giving the departing FBI agent in question a venomous look as he walked right past them on his way out of the meeting room.

"Do you remember anything yet?" she coaxed gently.

Tony scrubbed his hands over his face, as if that act might somehow jog his blurry memory. "Nothing much -" he started to answer, just as something of huge relevance actually did come racing back with a sudden intensity. Turning to Kate, his expression a mix of both relief and stunned incomprehension, he said, " - except that Joe Porello's still alive."

oOo

The heavy tension hung in the air for a long time after Myers' angry departure, leaving Deputy Director Knowles to contend with Jenny Shepard's blatant seething outrage, as well as Special Agent Gibbs' unreadable but definitely dark expression - which was actually worse.

He knew he probably had one chance only to redeem this situation, so he needed to handle it carefully. He couldn't rely on support from Devese, who was staring down at her hands, or Fornell whose entire body-language made it clear that he was siding with the NCIS's on this one.

Knowles cleared his throat. "Let me just apologize for Special Agents Myers' behavior, "he began hesitantly. "He was the Agent- in-Charge of the Porello protection team, so feels personally responsible for the situation and the…uh…deaths."

While Gibbs was achingly familiar with the burden of guilt that came with the death of an agent, that still didn't excuse the damning accusations thrown at Tony DiNozzo, and he was just about to say as much when Shepard did it for him.

"To hell with excuses,"she snapped. "Tell me right now what evidence there is to substantiate that…man's…ludicrous claims regarding my agent?" She had both hands splayed on the table top, her eyes narrowed intently.

"Damn straight," Gibbs growled out.

At least Knowles had the good sense to look contrite, shifting a tad uncomfortably. His hand almost went to the collar of his suddenly too tight crisp cotton shirt, before he stopped himself. "At this moment in time there's a lack of any evidence, Jen…Director Shepard. "But there's no doubt in my mind that Special Agent DiNozzo is involved in some way…albeit unwittingly," he added quickly, before the anticipated protests could begin.

"Look, "he reasoned, "the New York field office now have irrefutable proof that they have a leak," he continued. "It's the only way to explain how Porello's location was compromised on two occasions, the recent attempt on his life and now this frickin' monumental…disaster." Knowles shuddered at the thought of the fall out when the story finally broke in the press. "Which is why we owe it to everyone concerned to ensure there's a thorough investigation."

"I assume then that Special Agent Gibbs and his team will be involved in that investigation," Shepard stated crisply.

"Of course," the FBI man assured immediately. "Under the circumstances, I think that's the most logical and sensible solution."

oOo

TBC