Chapter 6

"Lucas Bonetti, Joseph Porello and Vincent DiNozzo are actually blood related," Laura Devese told those assembled in the NCIS bullpen, which included Gibbs, his two agents and Tobias Fornell, pausing only as long as it took Tim McGee to display the contents of the FBI dossier on the large plasma screen. "They share maternal grandparents."

"Which makes them cousins, yes?" Ziva arched an eyebrow.

"Looks like the DiNozzo's really are connected," McGee commented. "No wonder Tony kept his distance."

"That's not the only reason," Gibbs snapped out cryptically, and though they waited expectantly it was soon obvious to everyone that he wasn't going to elaborate further.

He was loitering behind the group, who obviously had no clue he was there, while Kate was across the pen checking out her former work station for old time's sake, running fingers over what she considered Ziva's tacky desk top décor. When she was done she shifted her attention to the former female Mossad agent.

 "I could really do with some moral support here. Gibbs is about to hear all my deep dark family secrets."

All present were intently studying the shots of the three men in question, none of whom bore much of a family resemblance.

Two of the photo's were obviously standard mug shots taken at the time of their arrests; Bonetti's showing a sharp faced individual with a visibly receding hairline and eyes that looked too much like a predators for Gibbs' liking. Porello, in contrast, looked fairly amiable; a completely bald, stocky man of around the same age as Bonetti, but looking a good ten years younger. The one of Vincent DiNozzo had presumably been captured by a paparazzi and showed him at some glitzy black tie function; eyes alight with amusement as he shared a joke with someone out of frame.

Ziva was doing some intense studying of her own. "He's very attractive. More distinguished, obviously, but he has the same shape eyes as Tony and that impish little smile --"

"Gross! Zee-vah's lusting after my old man."

"Of the three, it's actually Joe Porello who has the rep as a ladies man," McGee read from the notes he'd printed off, "even though Vincent DiNozzo's been married three times. And according to this he's just about to tie the knot with wife number four, his former PA Angela Kyle. Hey, the same as you, boss. What about tha…"

The pointed glare alone was enough to send icy tendrils of fear down McGee's spine, and the young agent gulped audibly at his faux pas.

"

"Bonetti and Porello have both held prominent positions within the Bonaventura family for a number of years," Devese picked it up again, "but since Vincent DiNozzo allegedly severed all ties more than a decade ago, there's no hard evidence to tie him to any of their, uh, business activities."

"Or maybe none that we could dig up," a cynical Fornell offered.

"DiNozzo Enterprises and its subsidiaries have been investigated thoroughly Agent Fornell, and on the surface they're all legal and above-board."

Fornell snorted humorlessly. "Maybe he's just a helluva lot smarter than the likes of Lucas Bonetti…and the FBI."

"Do you think she works out?" Kate asked, eying Ziva from top to toe, "because she looks a little on the hefty side to me."

With an audible long-suffering sigh, Kate dragged her reluctant focus back to Tony. "No they don't," she assured tartly. "Just Fornell."

"Oh, that's okay then!" Tony sniped back. "So much for moral support."

"I'm here with you, aren't I?"

Several simmering moments past, while the corporeal group around them continued their discussion.

"Can't you see I'm suffering here," Tony lamented eventually, summoning forth a wounded pout and his best puppy dog expression for effect. "You could at least give me a hug --" and to his utter amazement Kate looked like she was actually going to do it, until he smirked wolfishly "-- or maybe we could…"

"Don't push it, DiNozzo."

Without warning, Gibbs extricated himself abruptly from the center of the group and moved back to his desk, snapping out orders even as he pulled open his top drawer and grabbed his firearm.

"McGee. I want you and Special Agent Devese to go over the Bonetti case files. There's a reason why Tony was dragged into this and we need to find it. Then I want you back at the hospital to spell Ducky and Abby. And make sure the guard on Tony's room stays sharp. I'll expect regular updates…"

If McGee was daunted by the volley of orders coming his way, he didn't show it. Neither did he bother to argue that it could potentially take him the rest of his working life to sift through the mountain of 'Bonetti case files', or that he hadn't slept himself for nearly twenty-four hours. Instead the young agent just nodded as he crossed to his work station, settled himself at his computer and got to work.

"What about me, Gibbs?" Ziva David called out as Gibbs and Fornell headed for the elevator.

"You're with me," he responded impatiently, as if she should have known that all along. The young Israeli rushed to grab her gear and literally just had time to squeeze herself sideways between the elevator doors as they glided shut. Ziva pulled on her coat and stared at Gibbs expectantly.

"Can I at least ask where we are going? "

"We're gonna make a couple of house calls," was all she got by way of an answer.

oOo

FBI Special Agent Matt Myers entered the hospital unnoticed through a side entrance, and made his way up to the 5th floor via a staircase most commonly used by auxiliary staff. He went completely unchallenged by anyone until he reached the ICU, located in the east wing. There he ran into his first obstacle, in the form of a dark suited agent, positioned halfway along the corridor beyond the busy nurses station and presumably right outside Agent DiNozzo's room.

In an attempt to make himself inconspicuous, Myers kept deliberately out of the guards direct eye line and mulled over his predicament. He needed to get into the room, but to do so he needed the guard to be somewhere else and arranging that wasn't going to be easy. But even as Myers devised and then dismissed several plans, fate stepped in to lend a hand in the form of a strikingly pretty nurse with strawberry blond hair, who flashed a bright smile at the guard as she passed him in the corridor.

The agent said something to her in return that earned him a coy look and another smile, followed by a few minutes of mutual chat and flirtation. Finally, he nodded and with a furtive glance back and forth to make sure the coast was clear, stepped away from his post and followed the nurse to the end of the corridor and through a set of double doors.

Hardly believing his luck, Myers scrambled to make his move literally as soon as the pair disappeared from sight, unclipping his belt holster as he gently opened the door to the room and slipped inside.

oOo

TBC