Disclaimer: Still not mine, though I wish they were


Don and Tony pulled back into the NCIS lot, the DCPD van behind them which was escorting the body bag. "Autopsy is this way," Tony waved them forward, Don and the officers following. A short walk later, and they were entering the automated glass doors, and an elderly man greeted them.

"Anthony, I take it this is my newest guest?" he asked, gesturing at the body.

Tony nodded. "That's right, meet Ben Oded, one of the one's who attacked Ziva, helped take Charlie," he said with a frown. "Oh, Ducky, meet Agent Don Eppes from the FBI."

Ducky's frown turned into a smile as he looked at Don. "Good to meet you, son, though not under these circumstances, I'm afraid. Not to worry, Donald, we will find your brother soon, I'm sure of it." With that, Ducky turned to the officers and directed them where to leave the body.

Tony led Don out of the room, and laughed at the look on Don's face. "He always like that?" Don asked.

"Which part?" Tony asked with a grin.

"Well, calling us by our full names? He doesn't even know that my real name is Donald."

Tony laughed. "Yeah, get used to it from him. He rarely calls us by shortened names."

Don nodded, and the two went to the squad room, Don immediately going to Megan. "Got anything?" he asked.

Megan nodded. "David and Ziva are working on the name you gave them, trying to get a history of him. We've got Charlie's travel history, pretty extensive, there's at least one international trip a year over the last ten years," she told him, and sighed when his face darkened. "We did find out how Ziva knows him." She gestured to McGee, who started typing, and Tony and Don leaned forward. "Charlie was in Tel Aviv at the same time Ziva was in July of '05, right before she came here to liaise with NCIS. She says that they met in the hallway outside her father's office, and he asked for directions."

"That's it?" Don asked.

"That's it," Megan sighed again.

Don nodded, then turned as the elevators dinged, and Gibbs and Colby entered the room. "What do you got?" Don asked, and Tony and McGee couldn't help the grin that appeared. Don sounded exactly like Gibbs at that moment.

Gibbs looked at him strangely, then motioned Colby with his hand. "Don, the car lot had no evidence, it was a simple smash and grab. But they gave us the security tapes, maybe we can get something off of it? I remember a while back, LAPD called us in on those robberies, Charlie and Amita wrote a program to clarify images?"

Don nodded. "That's right, they gave the algorithm to Matt in Forensics. Why don't you send him the tape, see how fast he can get to work on it?"

Megan already had her cell out calling their forensics guy to see if he had time to help. She put the call on speaker. "Matt, its Megan. Listen do you have some time to help us out?

"Sure, Agent Reeves. What do you need?"

"Have you heard about Charlie?" Megan asked.

They could hear Matt's nod. "Yeah, all of us have, Merrick sent out a memo that we're to help you if you need anything. What can I do?"

Don smiled slightly. "We have a security tape here, but the quality isn't the best. Think you can use Charlie and Amita's program to get some images?"

Matt smiled. "Sure thing, Agent Eppes. Send it over, I'll get right on it, call you as soon as I have something." He hung up.

Gibbs glared at Don. "Wouldn't it have been faster just to get the algorithm from him, have Abby and McGee look it over?"

Colby grabbed Don's hand, knowing how close his boss was to hurting the nearest person. He spoke hurriedly before Don could. "Yeah, that would have been an option. But Abby and McGee haven't worked with this algorithm before and don't know how to use it. That may have taken too long, so it makes more sense to send it to someone familiar with Charlie's work."

Gibbs nodded. That made sense. "Alright, what else have we got?"

Don stared at the man. "We have a body down on your ME's table, probably getting worked on as we speak. It seems to be one of the men who attacked Officer David last night. We found an ID on him, so David and David are running down the name, trying to find out if it's a fake and if the man had any other aliases." Don looked at Megan. "You said you're done with his history?" At her nod, he held out his hand. "Let me see?" he asked, and she handed over the pad of paper. His eyes skimmed the paper, and he felt his heart sink. For years Charlie had been working with a lot of agencies, going to various countries. NSA, CIA, Interpol, DARPA, CTO, and NATO had sent him to a total of… Don counted ten different countries, 6 of which were in the Middle East. He knew that his brother did a great deal of consulting work; heck, half the time Charlie would run into people he knew while consulting for Don. But this was a lot more than he'd expected, certainly more than Charlie had ever let on about. It was a slight relief, though, to see that over the past few years, since Charlie had started consulting heavily for the FBI, his international trips had drastically slowed.

Gibbs could tell that the man was unsettled, and held out a hand for the pad. Don wordlessly handed it over, and Colby looked over Gibbs's shoulder, paling at what he saw. Charlie had been in Afghanistan only a short while before he was, himself. He pulled back and glanced at Don, who was looking as though someone had pulled the rug out from under him.

Gibbs grunted as he looked over the paper again. "You sure this was a kidnapping?" he asked, and Don's team turned slowly to stare at him. "He seems to have a lot of contact in the Middle East. This could be him trying to disappear long enough to sell something to a contact."

What happened next was too fast for Colby to follow. Don clenched his hand into a fist and drove it into Gibb's face, just as David and Ziva walked in the room. David ran and grabbed Don, pulling him off of Gibbs, and Colby hurried to keep Gibbs back. Megan and the NCIS agents were frozen in shock.

Don was breathing hard in fury, but let David pull him back by his arms. He stared in disbelief at the other agent, who was trying to convince Colby to let him go.

"Let him go, Colby," Don said, and his agent obeyed.

Gibbs wiped a spot of blood off his lip, and glared at the man. The squad room was dead silent as they waited for a reaction from either team. When it was clear that Gibbs wasn't going to say something, David stepped in.

"Someone want to tell me what the hell that was all about?" he demanded, and Ziva looked just as confused, and had a hand on her belt where everyone knew her knife was.

Don was still breathing hard, fighting against the adrenaline, and the urge to pound this agent into the ground. Thankfully, Megan finally regained her bearings. "Colby, take Don outside," she ordered, her voice hard as she stared at the NCIS team leader.

To his credit, Don didn't fight it when Colby grabbed his arm and dragged him from the room, heading for the stairs. Megan stood and walked slowly towards Gibbs, trying to control her own emotions. When she was a few feet away, Tony and Ziva moved slightly to intercept her, and she stopped herself and then them with a glare, showing them that her hands were empty. She stared at Gibbs. "That was a very stupid thing to say, especially around Don," she whispered. "Of course, it was a stupid thing to say period, but especially around Charlie's team, unless you want one of us to say the same thing about your team, that Ziva here is a spy for the Israelis." Gibbs's face darkened at the implications, but he didn't interrupt. "You should realize everything Charlie has done for this country before you claim that he would betray it," she spat, then whirled around, grabbing her bag, and following her team out.

David was still standing where he had been. He was still confused as all hell, wondering what just happened. Tony jerked his head towards the stairs, and David and Ziva followed him.

"What the hell just happened?" David demanded in a whisper as soon as they were out of earshot.

Tony took a breath. "Gibbs was looking at the list of places that your consultant has been over the last ten years, and made some comment about how maybe he wasn't kidnapped, but is trying to disappear long enough to sell information to some contacts."

David turned quickly so that he didn't have the same temptation as Don. He immediately understood Don's reaction, and actually applauded his boss for not doing more damage. He turned back to the NCIS agents. "Thank you for letting me know. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to find my team," he said tightly, and turned, following his team down the stairs.

Ziva sighed as she looked at Tony. "That was why Agent Reeves said that about me, trying to put it in perspective for Gibbs?" she asked, and Tony nodded. Neither knew quite what to feel about this. On the one hand, they were completely against anyone who would want to hurt Gibbs, but on the other hand, he had just crossed a serious line with the FBI agents.


A/N: Okay, please don't kill me! All will be explained in due time, I promise! But feel free to let me know what you think :-)