I can't thank everyone enough for the amazing compliments on the last chapter. I am stunned and so glad that I was able to adequately convey in some prose the vision I had in my head.

That being said, I've got to move this along so I don't have the luxury of waxing quite so poetic in this chapter! I hope that I have continued to let you feel a deep sense of intimacy between these two as thats what I am going for.

The case stuff is still a real struggle for me and I admit to not being extraordinarily happy with that part of this chapter. I guess practice makes perfect and it is a learning experience.

I want to thank DiNozzo's Probie for acting as Beta for this chapter! I asked her not to correct grammar so any mistakes there are still my own!

As a last note, I sincerely apologize if a little bit of Brian Kinney has snuck into my Gibbs. I think there is an intensity in the sex scene that reflects the fact I have been watching far too much Queer as Folk ;)


"Have a seat, Lieutenant." McGee gestured to the chair facing the glass.

"I'll wait for the agent in charge if it's all the same." Langstaff's tone was neutral and calm but his demeanor bespoke an underlying disdain.

"I'm the agent in charge. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, sir, but I'm sure you can appreciate the seriousness of the case we're investigating. The Director was certain you'd want to be as cooperative as possible in helping us track down the person or persons responsible for the deaths of your men." Tim could see that his tone had the desired effect. The corner of Langstaff's mouth twitched as he suppressed a grin and McGee didn't miss the fact that his shoulders dropped a few inches. There was no doubt in his mind that he was looking at a man who'd been sure he was next in line for the gallows and had suddenly seen the rope fraying.

"Can I offer you anything Lieutenant? Water? Coffee?" McGee shuffled the files on the table, pretending to be look for something.

"I'm fine, Agent..?"

"Oh, McGee. Sorry. Just need a second here." When he had effectively created chaos with his files on the desktop he continued in the same unassuming tone. "Right, so you told me earlier that Sergeant Fuller filed a complaint with you alleging evidence of wrongdoing against Sergeant Estes, is that correct?"

"It is."

"You know, it's funny, we've been looking all over trying to get a copy of your report on the complaint and the findings of your investigation and we haven't been able to find anything. I'm sure there's just a filing error somewhere." He looked up at Langstaff and appeared to have a thought. "Unless there was no record of the complaint or an investigation?"

Langstaff's jaw twitched.

"Nahh…I'm sure you kept a record, because, I mean, someone who didn't keep a record of something like that, well, it might look like they were trying to hide something, Lieutenant."

"I'm not sure I like what you're implying, Agent McGee."

"My apologies, Lieutenant. I certainly didn't mean to imply." He shuffled his papers again."Really this whole thing is just a formality. I mean, we've already got the evidence that you were involved with Estes in the rape and torture of countless female detainees while on tour in Afghanistan. Linking you to the murders is just a matter of processing a few more pieces of evidence."

His bomb had the desired effect. Langstaff's jaw had dropped to the table and his eyes were as big as saucers. Tim wasn't sure he had ever seen a suspect turn that particular shade of crimson but he kept his mask of naiveté in place. "I'm sorry. Did they…did they not tell you that when they asked you to come in? Ah well, what's done is done. Let's see…you have the right to remain silent, that is, to say nothing at all. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a trial by Court-Martial yadda yadda yadda…I'm sure you're familiar with the rest of article 31, Lieutant. Do you understand your rights as I've advised you?"

Langstaff continued to sputter.


Ziva opened the door to the observation room and slipped inside to where Vance stood with his hands behind his back calmly watching McGee and gnawing on, what was surely, his tenth toothpick of the day.

"How is he doing?"

"Just getting started. Got to hand it to the kid, he certainly knows how to get them off their game with the unassuming geek act," Vance chuckled.

"He practices on Tony." She smiled fondly and listened to the audio for a moment. "I have spoken with the park rangers' office. A road has been cleared and they have found our victims' car as well as another vehicle which was reported stolen in a small town outside the park. The thief fits Estes' description. I have asked that both vehicles be brought here for Abby to process as soon as possible. They should arrive in the next few hours."

"Good. Any other word on our prime suspect?"

"Nothing of value. A young couple reported picking up a hitchhiker matching his description outside of the park. It is quite common to give rides to hikers in the area, especially during inclimate weather, so they did not think anything of it until they saw his picture on the news. They drove him to the nearest town and dropped him at a general store. I have sent a team to make inquiries in the area. I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds, but with Agent Gibbs still gone…" She looked at Vance for approval.

"No. You did the right thing. If Estes wants to disappear, I'm not sure it will turn up anything but we can't afford to waste any leads."

"You think he has disappeared then?" she said thoughtfully.

"If Gibbs is right about this journal being a trophy, I think we have something he wants, possibly something he needs. I'd be surprised if he stayed down for good." He paused for a moment as McGee's voice rose. "I'm not going to rest easy until both the journal and our Agents are safely back at NCIS."

"And I will not rest easy until he is safely in shackles for what he did to those men," she growled.


"Tell me about the last time you spoke to Sergeant Estes, Lieutenant," McGee leaned forward and fingered the file next to him. Langstaff had recovered slightly from the bomb he'd dropped a moment before and he didn't want to give him time to get his feet fully underneath him again.

"I suppose I spoke to him as he was leaving base. I don't remember anything in particular about our conversation," Langstaff looked down to where McGee's finger toyed with the edge of the folder.

"So you didn't speak to Estes after he left the base

"Not that I recall, no."

"Does it help refresh your memory at all if I tell you that we have your cell phone records and that those records show multiple conversations between you and Estes after base logs record him leaving? Does it help your memory at all if I tell you we have a witness who observed you and Estes in a heated conversation before he left the base regarding a missing item from his footlocker?" Tim opened the folder and laid out several pieces of paper.

"You know what else we found interesting, Lieutenant? It's this call right here." He pointed to a highlighted line. "Because this is the call you made to Sergeant Fuller's brother. I'm curious. What could possibly have prompted you to make that call?"

"As I told the other agent and the Sergeant's brother, there was a possibility that we might have to recall the men early and it was important that I know how and where to contact them if necessary." Langstaff's tone seemed calm but McGee could see he was barely holding on to the edge of his temper.

"Of course. Then, can you explain to me why you made no other calls to the men or the families of the men in your unit? What made Fuller so special?" McGee leaned back in his chair. Langstaff was caught in his own lie and he had to admit he wanted to see how he would dance around the truth this time.

"Agent McGee, I had no desire to speak ill of the dead but it appears I have no choice. Fuller and Gilmore were a problem. As their commanding officer, I was concerned that their activities while on liberty might discredit the reputation of their unit and the Corps. I needed to know that their plans did not include certain actions that might prove…inconvenient, if they were made public. Especially considering the publicity surrounding Corporal Gilmore's upcoming commendation."

"So you were just looking out for their best interests?" McGee kept the statement intentionally neutral.

"I have a duty to protect my men and the Corps, Agent McGee," he said with an air of benevolence.

"Of course. And by your statement I see that you were aware of the relationship between Fuller and Gilmore? The sexual relationship, I mean?" Tim watched as Langstaff's lip curled in distaste.

"I was." He managed to keep his voice under control.

"And were you also aware that Estes was threatening these men due to the nature of their relationship? That he was using that information in order to get them to keep silent about their knowledge of your and Estes' own "activities" while in Afghanistan?"

"'Don't ask, don't tell' may be a thing of the past but the military still has a code, Agent McGee, and Fuller and Gilmore were in violation of it. If one of my men chose to take matters into his own hands to try and put a stop to it quietly, I have no knowledge of it, nor of the other accusations you have made against me." Langstaff picked nonchalantly at a fingernail.

"Then perhaps you can explain why the next call you made after speaking to Fuller's brother was to Sergeant Estes' cell phone." He shot up from his chair and threw photos of their crime scene down on the table.

"These are your men, Lieutenant. This is what that monster did to them." Tim didn't miss the light of amusement that bloomed in Langstaff's eyes as he stared down at the photos and he was sickened by the fact that the Lieutenant was obviously pleased by what he saw.

"My God. That really is a shame. I do hope you catch him but I still don't see what this has to do with me beyond the fact that I need to replace three of my men."

"I think you're missing the reality of the situation, Lieutenant. You see, I'm indulging my Director with this little farce of an interrogation, but the truth is I already have more than enough evidence to bring you before a Court-martial. I personally intend to make sure that when we finish processing the evidence that tells me you called Estes and sent him up to that mountain, that you purposely and with malice aforethought, released the equivalent of an attack dog with a sniper rifle to brutally murder your own men and cover your own ass, that your ass will spend the rest of its life in a Federal prison making some new and very interesting friends." Tim's voice cut the air between them like the cold, hard edge of a sword. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He slammed his fist on the table." Tell me where to find Estes."


Gibbs stared into the fire and gently stirred the coals with a long stick from the comfort of the old rocker while Tony snored gently at his feet on the piece of floor that had been their bed for nearly 3 days now.

Three days.

He expected to feel different about himself after how he'd been behaving with DiNozzo over the last three days, after the things they had done, the thing he had done. As if the act of making love with a man, with Tony, would somehow change the core of who he was.

Strangely, the opposite was true. He felt calm but intensely aware of his own thoughts, his own body and was suffused with a feeling of completion and of fullness that started in the center of his chest and sent tendrils of warmth running in every direction. Not that this was something he had been missing out on all his life, but that being with Tony, specifically, filled in a deep crack within him, mended a chink in his armor that had been so well concealed he wasn't even aware of it.

The silence on this mountain, the clarity in this world of complete isolation had allowed him to think, to hear, to feel all the things that had been there for so long but whose presence had gone nearly undetected amidst the cacophony of his everyday life.

Looking up at the now shuttered windows, he could see daylight shining around their edges. It had been a long and largely sleepless night and there was certainly no reason for either of them to be awake, no reason to set an alarm of any kind. He'd been unable to sleep for more than an hour after Tony had drifted off earlier but he'd found something more peaceful than sleep as he listened to Tony's breathing and rocked quietly, letting his mind float to the gentle crimson crackle of the flames.

After a time, he'd dressed again and wandered back outside where the moon was slowly setting behind the mountain. Beneath the porch he'd found that the layer of snow was quite thin, especially near the house and he was easily able to find what he was looking for, a special surprise for Tony that now sat warming near the edge of the fire as he continued to rock.

Sometime in the last day it had occurred to him that, while he was more driven than ever to personally put his hands around the neck of whoever had so brutally slaughtered those young marines, there was a part of him that was loathe to return to the rest of the world, to let anyone else intrude into what he had found here with Tony. Here there was simplicity and silence, nothing to balance, nothing to juggle, and no one to lie to.

He was certainly no stranger to lies of omission, he had lived one for more than a decade, but he didn't want this to be a lie, didn't want to hide the part of him that was finally awake again after so long.

In that moment he understood something about their victims, identified with their final pain in a way that was much too intimate for his own comfort.

There were going to have to be some significant changes in both of their worlds in the very near future. He'd been thinking about them for some time anyway but there was certainly no way to avoid them now. Sometimes choices had to be made and he'd made his 3 days ago as he'd lain on the floor cradling Tony's deathly cold body in his arms. He was fairly certain that Tony had made his long before that. He only hoped he was as prepared as he wanted to be for the reality of those choices.

Tony stirred slightly and Jethro noticed, not for the first time, that he winced as he rolled from his side onto his stomach. He'd known about Tony's back problems for years, remnants of his jock years and far too many bone jarring impacts from 280lb defensive linemen. Gibbs had ignored the younger man's generally quiet suffering the way he had ignored so many other things for far too long. He felt horrible about the sleeping arrangements but was also powerless to do anything to change them until help arrived.

Jethro used the fireplace tongs to pull the two large flat stones he'd gathered earlier to the edge of the hearth and then quickly wrapped them in one of the wool blankets they had set aside when it proved unnecessary. He placed them on the floor next to Tony who stirred as he slipped beneath the blankets.

His palm settled in the curve of the younger man's back and began rubbing gentle circles. He could easily feel the knots and tension along Tony's spine and he slowly worked them with the tips of his fingers. DiNozzo moaned softly in his sleep and Jethro moved closer, his mouth seeking out the sensitive places at the nape of Tony's neck. The warm taste of the younger man's skin was fast becoming his favorite addiction.

Gibbs could tell Tony was waking as his soft moans and grunts became more focused and he pressed up into the palm of the hand that kneaded his sore muscles.

"Feels so good," he sighed contentedly.

"Got something for you." Jethro brushed his lips lightly across Tony's.

"Whatever it is, if it involves you stopping what you're doing with your hand right now, I don't want it."

His delighted moan made Jethro's cock swell.

"Trust me," he whispered, "This is worth it." Gibbs pushed himself up on his knees, lifted the make-shift heating pad, and laid it gently across Tony's lower back. "This is going to be a little heavy at first but you'll thank me in about 2 minutes."


Tony was in heaven. After waking to the pleasure-pain of strong fingers untying the knots in his spine, he couldn't imagine what could possibly be better, but as weight settled on either side of his backbone and delicious heat began to sink deep into his aching muscles, his eyes rolled back in his head and he became a puddle beneath the blankets as Gibbs pulled them up around his shoulders and then settled in beside him.

"I don't know what in the world I did to deserve this but whatever it is, I promise to do it again." Jethro's lips moved against his neck in a delicate caress he'd never imagined the older man capable of and he shifted slightly to give his rapidly swelling cock a little room.

"Don't like seeing you in pain. Never could stand it," Gibbs whispered close to his ear.

"Funny, I thought it was the exact opposite. Sometime in 2006 I actually noticed my hats fitting differently because of the flat spot on the back of my head," his laugh turned into a moan as something released in his back with a tiny 'pop'.

"Real pain, DiNozzo. Those head slaps are no worse than mosquito bites. Though, if you wanted, I could smack your ass instead." His teeth bit sharply into Tony's earlobe.

"Think that might be dangerous for both of us. Someone might get the wrong idea if I walked around with a hardon all day screwing up on purpose." They'd inadvertently opened the door to the discussion about what life would be like for them provided they ever made it off the mountain and Tony felt the air thicken with tension. He lay in silence for a few minutes, listening to the sound of Jethro's breathing while he wondered if either of them would have the nerve to jump in.

"How's the back?" Gibbs finally changed the subject like a man skilled in the art of avoidance.

"Letting go. Think it's relaxed enough that you could crack it if you're willing."

"Think you're mistaking me for your chiropractor."

"Trust me, even an amateur could do this. Just put the heels of your hands on either side of my spine and press down hard. Nothing to it." He crossed his arms and rested his forehead against them in preparation, anticipating that Gibbs would eventually acquiesce to his request.

"And here I thought going out into the snow for these would be enough to make you happy." Jethro rolled his eyes and threw back the covers with a groan. "You sure this isn't just a ploy to get me to make love to you again."

"If it was, would it work?" DiNozzo asked hopefully.

Tony felt the warm weight against his back ease when Gibbs removed it and set the stones beside the fire to reheat. The momentary loss of warmth was disappointing until it was replaced with Jethro's own comforting weight as skin slid against skin and the older man's thighs embraced him.

"Guess you'll have to wait and see," Jethro chuckled.

His breath left his body when firm pressure from Gibb's hands pushed his hips into the floor and caused his spine to pop and crackle. Muscles and tendons all the way up to his shoulder blades quivered and twitched as the deep tension that had been building with each night on the cold hard floor finally began to let go.

"Higher," he croaked, gritting his teeth.

"You are so going to owe me for this," He reset his hands against Tony's back and put his shoulders into it.

"Best. Boss. Ever." Tony's words were punctuated with a deep groan.

"What did I say about calling me 'boss' when we're naked?" The next dig of his palms into Tony's ribs was slightly harder than necessary.

"UGH! Won't happen again, Jethro," he panted as he collapsed against his folded arms.

"Better now?"

Gibbs' hands began to roam over his shoulders, digging deep into tight flesh. As sore muscle relaxed and uncoiled he became mesmerized by the slow and methodical caresses of Jethro's palms. He was the wood beneath those calloused fingertips, he was the grain and the curve and he fell deeper and deeper under their spell until he could almost be convinced he was slowly melting into the floorboards.

"Perfect," he sighed.


Jethro loved the feeling of Tony's smooth skin and hard muscle sliding beneath his fingers. The younger man's sighs and groans had his cock swollen and aching, his balls tight and heavy against the curve of Tony's backside.

When the knots beneath his palms had all but disappeared, he shifted slightly and stretched out along Tony's length, using his elbows to support some of the weight of his upper body.

"'M'I hurting you?" Jethro asked as his lips dipped to Tony's shoulder.

"No. Weight feels good actually. You feel good," he added in a baritone purr.

Gibbs relaxed and let more of his weight settle on Tony, staying alert for any sign that he was causing discomfort as he traced a lazy line across the younger man's back from shoulder to shoulder with his mouth.

To say that he was still stunned by his body's needy and exuberant reaction to Tony was a drastic understatement but he accepted the fact that it was something he really didn't need to try to wrap his mind around at the moment. Regardless of the why's and when's and how's there was certainly no denying it, and as Tony pulled a knee up toward his chest and his cock slipped into the tight curve between his cheeks, Jethro felt a wave of desire so violent he trembled from head to toe with the heat of it.

He couldn't remember the feeling of needing someone so much, of wanting to possess them so utterly and completely. Everything seemed amplified with Tony, as if someone had turned up the volume on his libido, turned up the color on his entire world. He'd come three times with Tony in a fairly short span of time for someone his age and he'd be lying to himself if he didn't admit that each orgasm had been better and more intense than the one before it. Better and more intense than he could ever remember experiencing and still he wanted more.

Jethro rolled his hips as he nipped at the flesh covering the base of Tony's neck and sank deeper into the tight embrace of his body. "Need you," he whispered hotly into his ear. There was an unspoken question there, still so many things he didn't know.

Tony reached in front of him and handed back the lube and condom he had left sitting by the pillow from last night. "You never have to ask, Jethro."

Shifting his weight carefully, he rose up on his knees and tore at the condom with eager fingers. The desire to bury himself in Tony's heat again was a stronger pull than he was prepared for but he still sheathed himself carefully and secured the condom tightly at the base of his shaft.

The bottle of lube was warm from lying next to the fire and he made quick use of it before tossing it to the side and lining up the head of his cock with Tony's puckered hole. It was far too soon for him to spend much time thinking about exactly what it was he was doing and he closed his eyes and grasped himself tightly, pressing unrelentingly forward until velvet warmth embraced him and he slid in as deeply as he could with a few short strokes.

Opening his eyes again, he found that Tony had pushed himself up on his elbows and arched his back, pulling his knee up higher to allow him to sink just a little deeper. Balancing on his palms, he leaned forward and slowly lowered his weight back onto the younger man, slipping one arm around his shoulder and dropping his mouth down to trace the outline of Tony's ear with his tongue.

He rocked backward and then slid in again with agonizing slowness, letting the tight embrace of Tony's body welcome him inch by inch. There were no words to convey the tender ache that had been with him all day and all night as he sat watching Tony and even as his lips moved gently and repeatedly over the curve of his shoulder, the lobe of his ear, the arch of his neck he knew it would never be enough. Nothing would ever be enough where Tony was concerned.

Jethro moved unhurriedly, taking what he needed, giving Tony everything he had and memorizing the rough and the smooth and the ache of it all again and again as their bodies rolled together. The restraint cost him dearly and he was soon covered in a fine sheen of sweat, his muscles burning with every measured and deliberate stroke, yet he never wanted it to end. But each gasp of need, each whimper of delight from the man beneath him made the blood sing louder in his veins, pushed him closer to the edge while his mouth moved constantly next to Tony's ear, whispering things he had never in his life dared to utter aloud.

"Wanna stay inside you all day," he murmured. "Feel you tight and hot and wrapped around me…make you come until you can't think of anything else…anything but me inside you…all day…every day." Jethro panted, beginning to move faster. Measured strokes followed by a few quick thrusts that brought him right up to the precipice but left him just enough room to back off again while Tony's throaty cries rang off the walls around them.

His voice became a rasping growl of velvet grazing steel as his jaw tightened and he picked up the pace. "Want you to say my name when you come." His sweat slicked chest slid smoothly against the equally damp skin of Tony's back. "Want you to remember that every time I say your name…I'll be thinking about this…about being inside you…just for a second." His fingernails sank deeper into the flesh beneath his palm and his words grew strained. "Just this." He clung to the last ounce of control. "Every. Single. Time. Tony." He punctuated each word with a brutal thrust of his hips before he stiffened and came with a choked cry, his every delicious convulsion coming hot and hard and long and accompanied by the sweet music of Tony moaning his name over and over. The heat around him twitched and contracted, milking every last drop from his cock until there was nothing left and he collapsed in a sated heap on top of his lover.

It took some time for either of them to find breath to form words again but it was Tony who recovered first.

"Did you…did you mean those things, Jethro?" he sounded slightly awed.

Gibbs reached down and pulled out of Tony's body gently, taking just a moment to dispose of the condom and allow Tony to roll over beneath him before he stretched out by beside him, half of his body still covering the younger man's as he stroked the tendrils of sweat dampened hair from his forehead. "When have you known me to say anything I didn't mean, Dinozzo?"

"Never, I suppose, but I mean that was…"he looked up at Jethro as if he was suddenly a complete mystery, "that was hot, Gibbs. I mean HOT. I know hot and that was really, really…"

"Hot?" He whispered, dipping down to capture Tony's lips.

"Mmm," he sighed contentedly. "Very hot. Tell me how it is that you have three ex wives again?"

Jethro was quiet for a moment. "This was never the part I was bad at," he said somewhat regretfully.

"Hey," Tony reached up and traced the outline of his jaw, "maybe two people who suck at intimacy cancel each other out, like two negatives making a positive?"

He smiled down at the younger man. Gibbs wasn't sure if it was a trick of the firelight or just the intimate afterglow but Tony looked positively radiant and also positively delicious. "I'd say we're doing okay so far." Jesus, how was he already getting hard again?

Tony glanced down to where Gibbs had begun to swell between his thighs. "I'd say we are too."

Both men jumped when the radio on the table suddenly crackled to life.


Thank you all again for reading!

TBC

Kat