Thank you as always for your reviews and alerts. I do appreciate any feedback you would like to give. It does help me to decide what direction I want to take the story.

I got done with this chapter earlier then I thought. Once I started writing it I couldn't stop. So, I decided to go ahead and post it instead of waiting. WARNING - There will be a few unwanted surprises in this chapter but it will all work out at the end of the story. Chapter 10 will probably not be posted until next weekend.

Please remember

Purple creature – Tac

Human form – Thomas

If I mess up please forgive me.

I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 9

Gibbs house…

It had been several days since they received the last disc. Gibbs had several things going on in his mind at one time. He was worried about Tony because he seemed to be reverting back to the way he was when Gibbs first found him on his lawn. His gut was also telling him something was about to happen and it was going to happen soon. He was having trouble sleeping at nights so he spent his time working in his basement. During the day, Abby, Ziva and McGee were finding it hard to work with the senior agent without him getting angry. Most of the time when he blow up it was because they were not fast enough with their answers.

Ducky decided it was time to call his old friend down to autopsy and have a long talk with him. He asked Palmer to make himself scarce for a little while. It didn't take much to convince the younger man because he didn't want to be around when Gibbs got here. He had already suffered the wrath of Gibbs and he didn't want to have that happen again. The M.E. wanted to help his friend get back on track. He had heard the concerns from Abby, Ziva and McGee. He knew everyone was worried about both Tony and Gibbs. They knew whoever was doing this was out to get Gibbs by destroying Tony.

When Gibbs walked into autopsy he looked like he was already in a very bad mood. "What do you got Duck?"

"Jethro, right now I have nothing."

"Then why in the hell did you call me down here?"

Ducky took a deep breath. He knew this was not going to be easy and he was going to have to try and keep himself calm. "Jethro, I called you down here because we are all worried about you?"

Gibbs looked at his friend and just shook his head. "I am not the one you need to worry about."

Ducky knew the answer already but he was going to ask anyway because he wanted to get his friend to talk. "Just who should we be worrying about if not you?"

"Tony…He is the one in danger."

Ducky got up and walked over and stood in front of his friend, "Jethro…we are all worried about Anthony but we are also worried about you."

Gibbs shook his head, "Why would you be worried about me? Tony is the one who is in danger."

"It's obvious to everyone who cares about you that whoever did this to Anthony is out to get you also. You are both in danger."

Gibbs closed his eyes for a second and rubbed his temple. He looked at his friend, "Duck…I know but there is something else that is going on…I had planned to talk with you about it. I haven't said anything to anybody because I was worried about Tony. It like he is reverting back to that day I found him. He has almost stopped talking all together. Both Thomas and I have been trying to get him to talk but he just won't do it. Sometimes he just stares at what is in front of him."

"Have you talked to his doctor?"

"Yes, he thinks it more psychological than physical. The doctor just took blood from Tony a few days ago and everything looks normal. He thinks it just Tony reaction from Senior's visit. I am at a lost of what to do. I am having trouble sleeping…"

Gibb's house…

Thomas stood at the entrance to the living room and stared at Tony. He was just sitting there watching the TV and hadn't said anything within the last hour. Thomas knew something was not right with him. Normally he could sense his child but it was almost like it was a little muffled to him.

Thomas sat down next to Tony, "What are you watching?"

Tony turned and looked at him for a few seconds and then turned back to watch whatever was on the TV.

Thomas reached over and touched Tony's chin and turned his face toward him. Thomas let Tony watch as he transformed into Tac. His child didn't even notice…

NCIS One Week After The Disc Arrived…

Gibbs was sitting in the bullpen going over a few reports when Abby came running in all excited.

"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs! You are not going to believe it. You are really truly not going to believe it…I swear you are not going to believe it."

Everyone in the bullpen looked up and that included the neighboring cubes. Gibbs stood up and grabbed her by the shoulders and made her sit down in his chair to try and calm her down.

"Abby, what do you got?"

"I swear Gibbs you are not going to believe this. Really truly not going to believe it…I swear you are not going to believe it."

"Abby will you just tell me what it is?"

"Gibbs, the other day, I was looking over the package for the zillionth time. I found something and you are not going to believe…well maybe you will believe once I…"

"ABBY! Will…you…please…get…to…the…point?"

"Sorry Gibbs, I was just so excited. The package had a small bug in it. It was a very…teeny tiny bug. I think it was a baby bug. It was right between the flap and gum area. I didn't see it at first because it was so small and also squished just a little. I took it to an entomologist friend of mine. He said it was an Asian citrus psyllid and he was able to give me a time frame when he thought it died. He said that this bug was from the San Diego area."

"The return address on the package said it was from Reno, Nevada."

"Yes, but the disc was placed in the package in San Diego, CA. The person who did it unknowingly trapped the tiny bug inside it when he sealed it. I check with the post office in San Diego, CA and you are not going to believe this. They remember him because he mailed a lot packages to Mexico that week. He also bought some packaging he told them he was going to use later. Within that same week he mailed that package to NCIS from Reno.

McGee spoke up, "How do you know it is the right man? There was probably a lot of people who purchase that same packaging."

Abby smiled, "Oh ye of little Mcfaith." Abby looked at McGee and winked, "That one is for my boy Tony."

She then turned back to Gibbs. "This man made one mistake. He paid for it all with a credit card. How dumb can you be? Well not you, Gibbs…I am talking about the guy with the credit card. I was able to check his card usage. He was in Chicago, Holyoke, Seattle and Reno at the same time all the packages were mailed to NCIS."

"ABBY, what's his name?"

"Oh, right. His name is John Paul Mathis. He goes by Jack. He had been in and out of trouble with the law for smuggling things into the country. He got in some serous trouble about a year ago or so. He went to trial but someone with a lot of money must of helped him out because he got to go Scott free on a technicality. He's been doing this for years."

Gibbs helped Abby out of his chair. "Good work, Abby. You can put a months worth of Caf-Pow on my bill. Now go get back to work."

"McGee and Ziva I want you both to find out where this John Paul Mathis is and bring him in and I want him in my interrogation room before the week is out."

Two Days Later…

Jack was sitting nervously in the interrogation room. He had been sitting there for almost an hour sweating. He was wondering how they found him out. He had been careful not to leave any name or fingerprints.

Finally the door opened and Gibbs walked into the room with a beautiful dark haired woman. He put the folder on the table and sat down in the chair. "Mister Mathis do you know why you are here?"

"Your agents told me that I was here because you guys made some connection with me and a missing agent of yours. I told them I don't know anything about it or the missing agent. I had nothing to do with it."

Gibbs just sat there for a while and stared at him. He wanted to rattle the guy just a little. After awhile the senior agent finally spoke, "We have a very good forensic specialist and she was able to trace you to every package that you mailed to me. So, do you want to start explaining it or do we sit here and talk for a while. I will leave that up to you but I must warn you my patients have been running a little to thin these days."

"I still don't know what you are talking about Agent Gibbs?"

Gibbs looked over at Ziva and nodded his head. She turned and signaled someone in the other room to stop the camera and mike. The senior agent watched as the light went out on the camera. Gibbs then sat up straight and smiled, "Now Mister Mathis, we are off camera so there will not be any witnesses. I am going to let you choose, which way you want to do this. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I will leave that up to you. We have the evidence and know you were involved with the disappearance of one of my agents. We can put you in prison for the rest of your life and then some."

Gibbs stood up and slowly walked around the table and whispered into the other man's ear, "You also must remember we are federal agents and we can make you disappear at any time we want to."

Gibbs walked back to the other side of the table and sat down. "Are you going to cooperate or not?"

Jack knew he was screwed and there was no way out of it. "Yes…yes I will tell you everything you need to know."

Gibbs signaled Ziva to tell them to turn back on the mike and the camera.

"The man involved name is Frank Williams. He was in the marine corps the same time you served."

"I don't know anyone by that name."

"You wouldn't because he had changed his name years ago."

"What is his real name?"

"Drake Sullivan...Sergeant Drake Sullivan."

"Sullivan is dead. He died in a car accident years ago."

"No, he wasn't killed, but he did want everyone to think it happened. It freed him up to start a new life. He made a fortune on what he was good at. He worked with other countries that paid him some very big bucks to help train their people in brainwashing and interrogation techniques. He is really good at it."

"Why did he do it to DiNozzo?"

"He wanted to get back at you for destroying his career in the military."

"I didn't do it. He did it to himself. If it was revenge, why didn't he just come after me?"

"He hates you for getting him thrown out of the service but he also hates you for killing his son."

"Who is his son?"

"James Sullivan…"

Gibbs remembered James Sullivan. He was a young marine who had shot and killed a buddy over some money in a card game on a ship. When NCIS tried to arrest him there was a standoff. Gibbs ended up having to shoot him before he hurt anyone. There was nothing else he could have done to stop it.

"Why has he been sending me those discs?"

"He wanted you to know what he did to your agent?"

"Why DiNozzo?"

"He has had people watching you for years. He believes DiNozzo is the closet thing you have to a son. It sort of an eye for an eye if you know what I mean."

"So, what are his plans now?"

"He plans to take DiNozzo from you again and finish what he started."

"And what is that?"

"He wants to finish destroying DiNozzo and have you watch it. After that he plans to kill you."

Gibbs smiled, "How does he plan to do that?"

"He has got an inside person helping him?"

"Inside person? Inside in what?"

"Some guy who is in the medical field. He has been helping with DiNozzo's recovery?"

A chill went up Gibbs' back. "Who is this guy?"

"I can't remember his name. He calls Williams ever so often and gives him an update on DiNozzo's progress."

Gibbs stood up and grabbed the folder and ordered Ziva to step out in the hall with him. As soon as he got out there he ordered her to have McGee check into the background of everyone who is involved with DiNozzo's care. He told her he would finish up the interrogation and be up there in a while.

An hour later, Gibbs entered the bullpen, "McGee what do you have?"

"Boss…you are not going to like this one bit. I have checked the background on both Dr. Nathan Smith and his assistant they seem to be in the clear for now."

"So, what am I not going to like?"

"I also decided to look into checking the background of someone else. There are some anomalies in his background that I can't explain."

Gibbs was started to get impatient, "McGee, who is it and what are these anomalies?"

McGee looked nervously at Ziva and then back to Gibbs. "Boss, it's Thomas. The first time I did a background check everything looked fine. When I did it this time, I can't find anything on him. It's like he never existed. I…I can't understand how that can happen."

Gibbs looked at both McGee and Ziva. "I want you both to bring that bastard in. Take Ducky with you. Have him to stay with Tony until I get home. Tell him to check Tony out and make sure he is okay."

McGee and Ziva left to get Ducky. Gibbs headed up to the director's office. He needed to let him know what was going on.

Within an hour Thomas was sitting in the interrogation room and wondering why he was there…

Gibbs House…

Ducky had checked Tony over thoroughly and couldn't find anything wrong with him. It surprised him when McGee and Ziva told the M.E. about Thomas lying about his past. Like Gibbs, he had really like and trusted the young man. He was now worried that Thomas might have hurt Tony somehow. Maybe he is the reason Anthony is acting this way he is. The old M.E. really missed the fun loving Tony. He hoped for everyone's sake that they would see him again and soon.

Ducky looked out the window and could see it was getting late so he decided to help the younger man get ready for bed.

As he was starting to help Tony up the stairs he heard a noise. He turned around just as a man grabbed him and put a chloroform cloth over his mouth and nose. Within seconds, the older man's world went black.

Two men walked over and grabbed Tony by the arms. Tony didn't struggle. A third man shoved a needle into Tony's arm. Within seconds he was out like a light. One of the men picked him up in a fireman's carry and took him out of the back door. He had to step over one of the dead agents. He placed the unconscious man in a black van. No one notices as the van left Gibbs house and headed down the street…

NCIS The Interrogation Room…

Thomas looked at Gibbs. "Gibbs, why am I here? One of us should be with Tony at all times."

"Shut up and listen to me whoever you are. When I first hired you, I had McGee run a background check on you. Everything seemed to turn up fine."

Thomas smiled, "Then what is the problem?"

"We decided to do another background check on you. Guess what? We can't find anything on you now. Can you explain how that can happen?"

"I can't help it if someone lost my records."

"Who are you really? Why are you here?"

Just as Thomas was getting ready to say something he stopped. He could feel something just happen to his child. Something was very wrong. If was almost like he couldn't sense him anymore. He stood up and looked down at Gibbs. "I have to go. I have to go now."

"Sit down, you are not going anywhere until you answer my questions."

Thomas looked at him, "I don't care about your questions. I care only for my child and you are not going to stop me from going to him. I have to leave and I have to do it now."

Gibbs stepped in front of Thomas to try and stop him from getting to the door. "Please step back Gibbs. I like you a lot and do not wish to harm you. I only want to leave. I must protect my child at all cost."

Gibbs pulled out his gun and aimed it at Thomas, "I am not going to let you go anywhere. Do you really think you can leave this room?"

Just as Gibbs said that, the door flew open and McGee and Ziva came charging into the room with their guns drawn and pointed directly at Thomas. A very strong invisible force pushed both McGee and Ziva back into the hallway. They were held against the wall until the door slammed in front of them.

Now Gibbs and Thomas were alone in the room again. Thomas eyes started changing to a dark purple. Gibbs took a step back. He watched in amazement as Thomas finished transforming into his true self. The purple creature with the long white hair moved toward the senior agent. He stood at least two inches taller than Gibbs. "My friend…I do not wish to hurt you but I will if you do not let me go to my child. He is all I care about."

"I am not your friend and what is this about your child? Is someone holding your child as hostage and forcing you to do this?"

"My child needs me. I have to go. Something has happen to him. I can barely sense him anymore. It is like when he was gone all those months ago. I must go now. Please move out of the way."

"I don't know who or what the hell you are but I am not letting you leave here until you tell me what the hell is going on."

As seconds passed, Gibbs stood his ground and continued to point his gun at creature. He was ready to shoot if it took one more step. Gibbs could hear McGee and Ziva yelling from behind the door. They were calling for reinforcements. If he could only keep that thing here until help arrives.

Tac didn't care anymore. He moved toward the door as the sound of a gun went off…