Ok, so I guess my warnings at the first chapter were more vague than I intended, but this story is ANGSTY. We just found out that Tony was raised in a sex slavery ring and things WILL get WORSE from here on out. And I'm putting it in caps in case anyone doesn't read my AN's will hopefully notice the bigger print. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear before, but I want you to know, this story is intended to get worse before it gets better.

Also, this chapter has a lot to do with Tony and his past, and it's meant to be ANGSTY and yes, I'm still going to caps lock all those words. Keep in mind, this is NOT a PLEASANT chapter.

10

Bile rose up Jethro's throat when Whitmore told him what DiNozzo might be facing. He couldn't believe he was thinking it, but Whitmore was right; lucky would be if they killed DiNozzo on the spot.

"How long do I have?" He needed to know how long he had until he lost DiNozzo forever.

Whitmore wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Until the end of the month."

That was another blow that Jethro didn't think he could handle. "That's in ten days." How was he supposed to find these people in ten days when they could be in any part of the country? He had no clue. Whitmore couldn't tell him anything about where DiNozzo was. He didn't even remember the state.

Once again, he found himself missing DiNozzo's little talents. He certainly would have been able to pull a few details out of Whitmore. He would have gotten an exact trail and an exact location out of the sailor. Jethro didn't have that talent. Neither did any of his other employees.

But sitting around here with a deadline quickly approaching wasn't helping him. He stood up and pulled out his cell phone. He needed to call Kate, explain what they were looking at. Maybe she could figure out the best way to locate DiNozzo.

But Whitmore grabbed his wrist before he could finish dialing. Jethro hadn't even realized that he moved. "What are you doing?" he asked, panic-stricken yet again.

"Calling my team." He said it like it was obvious. Which it pretty much was.

But Whitmore frantically shook his head. "You can't. Nobody else can know about this!"

"They need to know!"

"I risked my life telling you all of this; the more people that know, the better the chance that I die!"

Jethro pulled his wrist out of Whitmore's grasp and pulled his gun. He lost all self-control. Now he was moving solely on anger and desperation. Not that he cared. DiNozzo was his Senior Field Agent, and he meant more to the older man than this sailor who he barely knew.

Whitmore moved away from the gun as far as the basement would allow. But every step he took, Jethro followed. "I got a missing agent that I have ten days to find. I don't give a fuck about you or your life right now. What matters is finding DiNozzo alive. Am I clear?"

Whitmore's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Yes sir."

Jethro finally lowered his gun. "Don't 'sir' me." He grabbed his cell phone again and dialed Kate. This time, Whitmore didn't stop him.

"Todd," she said when she picked up.

"Get McGee, meet me at my house."

Kate was silent for a moment as she processed what he said. "Um, Gibbs—"

He cut her off. "I need someplace secure; I got a lead on how to find DiNozzo."

"Really?" He could literally hear the hope rising in her voice.

"Yes! Now you and McGee get your butts over here now!" He hung up before she could argue with him more. He turned around to see Whitmore looking like he was about to be sick.

"Are they coming?" he asked.

Jethro nodded. "They'll be here soon."

Whitmore nodded. "Do you trust them?"

Jethro glared at the sailor. "More than you."

The two of them were silent as they waited for the two agents to arrive. The silence was deafening, suffocating. For once, Jethro found himself missing DiNozzo's endless talking. The younger man was always different than him that way; he preferred quiet, DiNozzo would rather talk a person's ear off than sit in silence for more than five seconds. It always annoyed the crap out of the older man. But right now, he longed for his never-ending drivel.

They must have sat that way for twenty minutes at least before he heard Kate call out for him from upstairs. He called back, telling her to come to the basement, and stood up. He took a deep breath, preparing himself for exposing every detail he knew about DiNozzo to his Junior Agents. In any other situation, this would be considered an invasion of privacy, but now it was necessary. It still didn't sit right with him.

He cursed DiNozzo under his breath for what felt like the millionth time as Kate and McGee came down the stairs.

The two agents stopped as they saw Whitmore sitting on Jethro's saw horse, looking like a car just ran over his elderly grandmother. "What's he doing here?" Kate asked.

Jethro was about to answer when Whitmore spoke first. "I knew Agent DiNozzo when we were kids. He was my roommate."

Shock spread across the young agents' faces. "You mean at Military School?"

Whitmore chuckled. "Is that what he told you? Nice cover."

Kate and McGee turned to their boss. Kate's shock gave way to anger and confusion. "What does he mean, Gibbs?"

Jethro swallowed the lump in his throat. "Sit."

It looked as though Kate was about to argue again, but a minor glare from him had her changing her tune. She and McGee sat down on the edge of the stairs. Their body language showed just how tense they were about this whole situation. He couldn't blame them. He was briefing them on a case in his basement, not something that he had done before. What was worse was that he was briefing them about DiNozzo, as if he was a perp. Or worse, a victim. He was, but it didn't mean that they had to treat him like one. You sympathize with victims, pity them. DiNozzo deserved better than pity.

"Gibbs what's going on?" Kate asked, finally fed up with the silence.

He took another deep breath before he began. "Petty Officer Whitmore knew DiNozzo when," he faltered for a moment, "when they were being bred as high class sex slaves."

He watched as the color drained out of their faces. Any moment now, one of them would assume it was some sick joke, he knew they would. So before they could, he turned to Whitmore. He knew the story better than he did, and he couldn't say anymore. It was wrong for Jethro to ask Whitmore to repeat it all again, but he needed to.

Whitmore stared at him with sad eyes, silently asking if he could trust them. Jethro wondered if DiNozzo struggled with trust as much as Whitmore did.

He started the story the same way he did for Jethro, about how he was sold to 'Daddy' when he was six years old. "Tony was already there. Had been for two years." He kept his eyes away from all of them as he retold his story, probably only for the second time in his entire life. "Some of the other kids in our class told me that if I kept my head down and did what they told me to, then I wouldn't get hurt." He shook his head. "Not Tony. He used to piss them off whenever he could. Even back then. Six years old, and he had no problem spitting in an instructor's face."

He paused for a second to wipe his brow. "From the second day that I was there until we ran away, they taught us every way to pleasure a sexual partner, regardless of sex. To this day, I know how to give the perfect blowjob." He chuckled bitterly as a single tear leaked out of his eye. "I'm completely straight, and I know the best way to suck a dude's cock.

"They were breeding us. By the time we 'graduated,'" he specifically used finger quotes when he said that, "we would know how to get anybody off in any situation. The best places to touch somebody to excite them. Tony specialized in that. He once made one of our instructor's come just by hitting her pressure points." For a second, his laughter wasn't bitter. It was like that one single moment actually brought him real happiness. Jethro felt the bile rise again.

The smile faded as Whitmore continued. "When we were eight years old, we got the tattoos. The X means that we were in training, but never bought." Jethro heard Kate gasp when Whitmore said 'bought.'

"When we were eighteen, we'd be sold to whoever would be willing to pay. When that happened, we'd be given another tattoo under the X to signify that we were somebody's property, a weird, horizontal S thing. They made it seem like being sold was the greatest honor any of us would ever achieve."

"How did you escape?" Kate asked, her throat hoarse trying to hold in tears.

Tears were now freely flowing down Whitmore's cheeks. But he gave a small sad smile. "Tony. When we were teenagers, he woke me up and told me we were leaving."

"So you know how to get back there?"

He shook his head. "To be honest, the only thing I remember about that night is Tony. How he looked when he woke me up."

This time it was McGee who spoke. "How did he look?"

Whitmore finally turned to them, his eyes were gleaming with the tears not yet ready to fall. "Like they finally succeeded in ripping out his soul."

Jethro jumped up, unable to hear any more of this. He didn't want to think how broken Tony must have been growing up like that. "We need to get back to work. If Whitmore's right, then we have ten days to find DiNozzo before it's too late."

Kate tried to inconspicuously wipe a tear out of her eye. "What happens in ten days?"

Jethro avoided her eyes as he moved past his two agents up the stairs. "DiNozzo's gonna be put up for auction." If that came to pass, Jethro doubted he'd ever be able to find him.

Sorry it's so short, it wasn't intended that way, it kind of just happened. Anyways I hope you liked it. Well, maybe not liked, because it's not supposed to be something you 'like' necessarily, but maybe think it's a good read or something.

Bob