Rating: FRAO
Warnings: M/M, sex, language, kink, piercings, abusive parent, serial killer, talk about rape/non-con. Violence. Secondary character death (bad guys).
Genre: Slash, romance, first time, angst, h/c, case fic, pre-show AU
Pairing: DiNozzo/Gibbs

A/N: If you enjoy my story, please leave me a comment - I love to hear from you! Thanks to my betas.

Craving Coffee
Chapter 21 - Conference

When Gibbs returned to the conference room he let his boss know that he had instructed Tony to write down everything he knew. Gibbs then took a few minutes to review the case files the FBI had provided while he sipped his hot coffee. At a glance the files appeared to be relatively thorough, but knowing the FBI and the way they operated, it was likely they hadn't released the really valuable information to NCIS. That was okay by Gibbs because he knew that NCIS agents stationed in South America had intel that the FBI didn't have access to. It was the way they all worked; it was like holding one ingredient back when you gave Grandma's secret cookie recipe to your nosy neighbor. At least that's what his wife had done, he thought with a smirk.

Franks warmed his hands on his coffee mug and leaned back in his chair to study Gibbs. He waited for Gibbs to look up before asking, "What made Tony Jr. get so chatty with you about his father's business affairs, Probie?"

"He needed someone to talk to," Gibbs said with a shrug. "I was handy." It was a lot more than that, of course. Tony trusted Gibbs to do the right thing with the information he gave him – to get a little justice, or maybe even to exact some revenge. God knows the kid had been used enough by his father and other men over the years. It was amazing Tony trusted him at all, Gibbs thought, but was thankful that he could be there for the young man. He wondered what their relationship would be like if it hadn't started out with the sexual aspect taking precedence.

"You were handy, huh?" Franks chuckled at Gibbs' understated words. "What are you, a Big Brother all of a sudden? Seems like there's a sight more to it than that boy wanting to bend someone's ear. Oh, I know he's all bright smiles and friendly chatter, but it's a shitload of fancy stuff meant to distract. I'd have thought his yakking would drive you crazy, Gunny."

Gibbs smiled and admitted, "Yeah, well, I've learned to tune some of it out. But he's a good kid, has a lot of potential. Needs some guidance though."

"And you're aiming to take him under your wing, is that it?"

Gibbs didn't answer right away. He couldn't betray Tony's trust by revealing all of his troubles to Franks, even though his boss seemed to understand that the young man was coming from a bad place. He said cautiously, "Tony has a lot of hurdles ahead. I'd like to be the one to guide him if he'll accept my help."

Franks looked into the depths of his coffee mug as if it held some answers. "His old man's a piece of work, is he?"

"Oh yeah." There was no doubt in Gibbs' mind that DiNozzo Sr. was going to get nasty once he figured out that his son was breaking away from him. Gibbs was looking forward to confronting the man and hoped he'd be the one to take Senior down.

"So you up and talked to Junior about our investigation, is that it?" Franks did not look too happy.

"No, Boss. Tony asked me if we'd found Seaman Jacobs yet, and I told him we were still investigating. He was upset to hear there'd been more missing men." When his boss looked at him expectantly for the rest of the story, Gibbs explained, "Tony informed me he'd overheard a conversation between his father and two associates, which led me to believe that one of those men might be the Lookout serial killer. Tony says that DiNozzo Sr. quarreled with his friend about the delivery and disposal of a 'sailor boy' and his dad was sorta agitated because I kept coming back, asking difficult questions."

"Agitated? Yeah, you do that to some people, Probie."

Gibbs decided to leave out the reason Tony had phoned him a couple of nights ago – that Tony had been mugged, far from college, and had called on Gibbs to rescue him. "I gave Stan everything I had last night, Boss, and he's been working on it. I haven't had a chance yet to find out what he's uncovered."

"Oh yeah, I know all about what Agent Burley's looking into." Franks' raised his voice when he said sharply, "Unlike my senior field agent, who I come to find out has been leading a secret life, my other agents keep me in the loop. You were gonna tell me about the new information about this investigation at some point, weren't you, Lee-roy?"

Shit, Franks must be pretty pissed if he was calling him by his first name. Gibbs said stiffly, "I was waiting for something solid before laying any findings in front of you, Boss." He didn't like the insinuation that he would do anything behind Franks' back, at least not as far as a case was concerned. Franks knew his agents often pursued leads on their own and only brought them to his attention if they led anywhere. Franks liked the facts laid out before him, nice and neat. "Wouldn't want to waste your time, sir."

"Huh," Franks said, his tone easing up a bit. "So, you've been dragging this college kid around with you all weekend by way of keeping him in protective custody? He's a witness?" He squinted at Gibbs as if daring him to deny what was a valid excuse for his agent's actions.

Gibbs considered Mike Franks to be a friend as well as his boss and mentor, and it was obvious that Franks was offering him a way out. "Yeah, he's a witness," Gibbs said. "But only to conversations between his father, that man Briggs and his boss. I'm pretty sure the boss is Senator Harding. Tony never saw anything go down, and never met any of the missing men except for Seaman Jacobs – and that was briefly at his father's party in Manhattan. Briggs enticed Jacobs away from the party and handed him over to his employer." Again, Gibbs held back, not telling Franks about how the man in question had raped Tony years ago at his father's summer house.

Franks looked hard at Gibbs. "You got anything except some hearsay and gut feelings, Probie?"

"I'll get the evidence, Boss," Gibbs promised. "I've got a feeling and I aim to prove it." So far the case had garnered little in the way of evidence that would hold up in court, other than too many missing men, and Soto and Brownlee's bodies that were currently resting down in the morgue. But Gibbs knew that Franks believed in instinct as much as he did in basic investigative techniques. So far there were no grounds for warrants to search the senator's residences or to plant any listening devices, but that wouldn't stop the NCIS agents from investigating as far as they could without alerting him. Gibbs grinned and suggested, "Maybe we can invite the senator to come in and help us with an investigation."

"Not yet. Better tread carefully with this one, Probie. Don't want to spook him or we'll have the FBI riding our assess." Franks squinted at Gibbs and fiddled with an unlit cigarette he pulled from his breast pocket. "So DiNozzo's son phoned you, right out of the blue?"

"I gave Tony my business card when I interviewed him last summer, and he called me when he was in the area on Friday night." Gibbs wasn't about to tell his boss that he'd driven 150 miles to pick Tony up – not exactly what you'd call in the area, but it was all semantics.

Franks studied his agent for a long moment before he asked, "You take all your witnesses home with you, Gunny, or just the pretty ones?"

Gibbs met his boss's astute gaze straight on, matching his glare with one of his own. He didn't like the way Franks called Tony pretty, even though he certainly found the young man attractive. Tony was handsome and sexy as all get-out. He was sweet and loving, and generous and funny, too, and there was a heady mix of toughness and vulnerability about the boy that made Gibbs want to make love with him and protect him at the same time. Hell, Gibbs just felt damned good when Tony was around; he wanted him here by his side, on his six, and in his bed. Just the fleeting thought of Tony in bed made Gibbs' heart start pounding away, and his dick was certainly exhibiting an interest. Shit, he sure had it bad. Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Gibbs said firmly, "Tony asked me for help, Mike, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna leave him high and dry."

One thing for sure – Gibbs never regretted helping Tony out by picking him up at the police station and taking him home. If he hadn't taken that first step he might have never reconnected with the young man. He certainly wouldn't have sought Tony out in pursuit of a homosexual relationship. In fact, before encountering Tony last summer out by the pool of his father's estate, Gibbs had never seriously looked at another man of any age. His experience had been limited to mutual hand-jobs, and he'd been on the receiving end of blowjobs a couple of times, just anonymous encounters. All the same, nothing he'd ever done had prepared him for this. What he had with Tony, after such a short time, was incredible and fulfilling on both a physical and an emotional level. If that made him gay or bisexual, then so be it; he didn't care much for labels anyway. Why Tony had pushed that particular button, Gibbs would never know and he didn't care to think too much about it. All he knew was that with Tony in his life, things were looking brighter for the first time since his wife and child had been killed, and for that he'd be eternally grateful.

Franks made a non-committal grunt and instructed, "Make sure you get the kid to ID Senator Harding from one of those photos. I have a one o'clock meeting with Director Morrow and Agent Fornell in MTAC and I want all of our ducks lined up before I head in there. Don't like to walk into a firefight unless I'm locked and loaded." Franks sent Gibbs a look that made it clear he believed it was going to be an interesting meeting. "You ever meet Tobias Fornell?"

"Nope." Gibbs had heard of Agent Fornell though. The up-and-coming agent's territory was New York but scuttlebutt was that the man was bucking for a coveted spot in the Bureau's DC office. Apparently Agent Fornell had publicly announced he was personally going to clean New York's streets of the pervasive mob influence. If there was one thing Gibbs hated, it was ambitious agency men. They tended to trample everyone on their way to the top, and often corrupted justice in pursuit of their own objective. He almost laughed at that thought because Mike Franks took shortcuts and did his own version of the Lone Ranger when he felt it was warranted, which was more often than not. Luckily, Director Morrow liked the lead agent of MCRT, as well as the top results Franks' team achieved on a regular basis.

Gibbs hadn't heard anything too negative about Fornell, other than he was a hardass, which might not be a bad thing. On the other hand, he'd heard plenty of bad things about Alonzo Torres, and it was going to take a strong, determined man to take him down. Maybe, Gibbs thought with a wry smile, Fornell and Torres were made for each other.

As far as Fornell planning a powwow with the director of NCIS this afternoon, well, the Fibbers didn't share anything unless they had a damned good reason. Fornell was likely to be on an intel-gathering mission with the goal of taking away a hell of a lot more than he planned on giving in return. "Watch your back in there, Boss," Gibbs said.

There was a knock on the door and Stan stuck his head in and held some paperwork aloft. "Got some info, Boss. For you, too, Gibbs. You want to do a sit-rep in the bullpen?"

"No, in here." Franks invited Burley with a wave of his hand, meantime saying to Gibbs, "Fornell has some good arrests under his belt, but he's all wrapped up in catching Torres with his hand in the cookie jar. Might narrow his vision some. Can't say I blame him; Torres has been top of their list ever since two FBI undercover agents were found murdered a few months back, with their bodies in one car and their decapitated heads in another," Franks said darkly.

Stan sat beside Gibbs and joined in, commenting, "It's no surprise that the FBI can't get anyone to testify against Torres. The man's dangerous but he's not stupid, and so far they haven't been able to gather enough evidence to bring him down."

Gibbs looked through the files the FBI had provided on the mob boss. "What've we got on Torres? Anything that'll help put him away?"

Stan opened the folder with an NCIS seal on it that he'd brought to the meeting. "Torres came out of Colombia only a few years ago, with some powerful backing. Since he set up shop in New York he's left a trail of bodies up and down the east coast. He's into everything: murder, theft, fraud, drugs. But he also has bigger ambitions, and has been working hard to get some of the top men on Capitol Hill in his pocket. Story is he hasn't had much success. According to our own intel, Torres has been financing arms shipments of weapons stolen from our overseas bases, to South America. His last big shipment was hijacked and the weapons intended for the guerilla fighters down there ended up in the enemy's hands."

Gibbs met Franks' eyes but neither of them spoke up.

Stan continued, "Our agents in Lima report that someone sold the freighter's schedule to the Peruvians. The ship was registered in Panama but the owners are out of Cyprus." Stan glanced up from the intelligence file and looked from Gibbs to their boss. "If we know about the hijacking, do we assume the FBI does, too?"

"Never assume," Franks corrected, almost absently. "Rule number eight."

Gibbs suppressed a smile, finding it amusing that Franks kept adding rules on the fly, and that Stan seemed to believe that there was an official rulebook lying around somewhere. Most of the rules were Gibbs' own, and a fair amount of them were Shannon's, but he'd never tell that to a soul. Number three – never be unreachable – that one was hers. His wife had told him it didn't matter where he was, he always needed to be reachable. That way, even if she didn't hear from him she'd still know she could get in touch, and then she wouldn't worry so much. Putting the bittersweet memories aside, Gibbs informed Stan, "DiNozzo Sr.'s the one who arranged the freighter for his cohort Alonzo Torres. He arranges things, connects the right people, gets the job done."

Stan turned to look at Gibbs. "That a fact?"

With a slight shrug, Gibbs replied, "He knew the ship's itinerary and the payoff was good."

Franks asked bluntly, "What else ya got, Burley?"

"According to bank records I, uh, accessed," Stan said, "DiNozzo Sr. has moved significant amounts of money out of the country over the past few months. His transactions were red-flagged due to the amounts as well as the frequency of transfers. They could have been valid business transactions," he suggested, even though all of the men in the room, himself included, seemed skeptical. Stan hesitated but then asked Gibbs, "Does Alonzo Torres know who screwed him over?"

Gibbs said, "I'd imagine there's a pretty short list of who knew the details about such an important shipment. How'd you get a warrant for the bank records so fast, Stan?"

"Oh…I…Okay, so I might have jumped the gun a little, and took some shortcuts," Stan admitted, somewhat bashfully. "But I covered my tracks and Boss said I needed to show more initiative."

Franks grinned. "Atta boy. We'll make a great agent out of you yet, Burley. Just have to get rid of all those bad habits you picked up when you were a congressman's aide."

Stan smiled at the rare compliment. "Thanks, Boss. One thing's for sure; I'm glad I'm not DiNozzo Sr." He looked at Gibbs as if he wanted to say something, but instead he dropped his gaze and concentrated on the file he'd brought into the conference room.

Gibbs thought exactly the same thing and growled, "How stupid could a man be, risking everything – his own life, and his son's life, too – by double-crossing a Colombian mobster, all for a few bucks? The guy's dead meat." He realized that Stan and Jenny must know Tony DiFonzzo's real name by now, if Franks had them investigating Senior's activities. As with most people, they'd liked Tony right off and, like Gibbs, they'd be wondering what impact his father's criminal activities would have on Tony's future. Gibbs turned to Franks and asked, "Is the FBI going to strong-arm DiNozzo Sr. into testifying against Torres?"

Franks replied, "If they are, they haven't told me. I'll find out more when I meet Fornell later. Has your boy Tony got anything else up his sleeve we need to know about, Probie?"

Uncomfortable that Franks called Tony 'his boy' in front of Stan, Gibbs replied briefly, "Not that I know of."

"Yeah, you need to have a talk with Junior. Make sure we have everything he knows, and double-check it all." Franks leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms with a smirk on his face. "Unless you'd prefer me to have a chat with him."

"No, I'll go over Tony's statement with him as soon as he's finished writing it," Gibbs quickly assured his boss. Franks' idea of a chat was an out-and-out interrogation and Gibbs couldn't imagine subjecting Tony to one of those. "I don't want the FBI getting their hands on Tony, Boss. He doesn't know enough about his father's business to implicate Torres in any crime but they might be hard on him." The conversation Tony had overheard between his father and the Peruvian about waylaying a shipload of weapons wouldn't help the FBI's case against Torres.

Most likely the FBI would try to coerce DiNozzo Sr. to turn against Torres by threatening Tony in some way, not knowing that DiNozzo would sacrifice his son if his own freedom were at stake. Gibbs had no doubt at all that no matter how useful Tony may be to his father's business affairs, Senior would cut all ties with his son if it meant saving his own neck.

Mike Franks promised, "I'll do what I can to protect the kid, Probie. You know the unspoken rule: family comes first."

Gibbs could feel Stan looking at him curiously, and he was sure his ears were turning pink, but he managed a curt nod at his boss, grateful for his support.

Stan elbowed Gibbs lightly. "Hey, you know those things you asked me to check into? Well, I crosschecked Anthony DiNozzo Sr.'s fraternity brothers with politicians who travel between New York and DC, figured in a military background, and came up with only one possibility. He's a U.S. senator named–"

Gibbs cut in, "Senator Kingston Harding." He pulled out the photo that showed Harding with his arm slung around DiNozzo Sr.. Stan managed to appear both surprised and disappointed that Gibbs had beaten him to the punch, so Gibbs made a point of thanking the younger agent then asked, "You find out who Briggs is?"

"Steven James Briggs, the senator's personal assistant. Formerly a political aide, who started out as an investment counselor. I read the notes from when we were in New York and you interviewed Anthony DiNozzo, Jr…." Stan glanced at Gibbs out of the corner of his eye. "He said Briggs was five-six, two-hundred pounds, in his mid-fifties, and an executive but not a corner-office man. That describes the senator's assistant to a T." Gibbs kept his smile to himself as Stan continued, "Briggs has been with Harding for about ten years. He lives on the senator's estate, in one of the guest cottages. No criminal record, nothing out of the ordinary on the surface."

"And below the surface?" Franks asked.

"Sorry, Boss, nothing yet."

Gibbs asked, "We know that Torres is trying to buy Senator Harding, but what's he need him for?"

Stan explained, "Because of the huge business in drugs. The Colombian government is bucking for a huge infusion of money from the U.S. and they need friends in the Senate. Our government has already provided them with military aid, and is talking about sending more, including attack helicopters and large arms, all to combat the drug traffickers. The guerillas down there are winning the war against their government, and they're moving large amounts of drugs over their borders to finance their operations."

Franks said, with a snort, "Yeah, well we can guess which side Torres is on."

Stan pointed out, "Senator Harding is in a position to influence whether or not the U.S. continues to give support to the Colombian government."

"And Torres' goal is to stop the aid," Gibbs said, shaking his head in disgust. Torres was using DiNozzo Sr.'s contacts, and his renowned skills with influencing people and sealing big deals, to purchase the political clout he needed in order to keep an open pipeline for his drug business. "Guess the senator will be voting 'no'."

***end chapter 21***