I'm honestly surprised that no one yelled at me for killing Harrington, though he really wasn't a main character. I'm glad, though, that you guys still seem to be enjoying the story!

Disclaimer: Maybe someday :-)

All of the agents in the room had heard gunshots before. It was an occupational hazard, really; when you took the position of field agent, you knew that you were going to be in fire fights. That shot, however, was the loudest of any that they had heard before.

Everyone was frozen, staring at Charlie. When the shot went off, they had jumped slightly – hearts almost stopping completely, but then found themselves unable to move. It was Charlie's heavy breathing that spurred Don into motion; he ran over, kicked the gun away from Bray, and knelt to check his pulse, which wasn't there. The bullet had been a perfect shot, straight through his heart, blood pooling around him, eyes wide and unseeing.

Colby was the next to come over. He gently reached across Charlie to take the gun from his shaking hands. "I've got this," he said softly, clicking the safety on and putting it into the evidence bag that Ziva held out for him.

"Eppes, what the hell happened, I can't see shit!" Ian shouted through the link. The steel beams in the warehouse had blocked his view of Charlie and Bray.

Don stood slowly, walking over to his brother. "Bray's down, get back here. Both of you," he said, then took out his ear wig. He nodded gratefully to David, who had grabbed a relatively clean chair, and pressed Charlie into it.

Charlie was still breathing heavily and shaking like a leaf. His injuries were screaming, and he was struggling not to pass out. When his older brother squatted down in front of him, eyes wide and concerned, he knew he had to say something, but his brain seemed disconnected from the rest of him.

"Talk to me, Charlie," Don begged, taking his brother's face in his hands. "You're safe now, we've got you."

"I killed him," Charlie whispered. "He's dead, and I killed him."

David was watching from his spot, and felt his heart break for their consultant. Killing someone was never easy, but the first was by far the worst. Having to come to terms with the fact that you ended someone's life was not something that you were able to get over in a day or two. It was something that you took into you, and remembered so that you would never take it lightly. He still remembered everything about the first person that he killed. The name, age, occupation, crimes, and names of the family were burned into his memory until the day he would die. It killed him that his friend had to go through that now.

Colby looked up when the doors banged open at the same time, letting in Gibbs and Ian. He hurried over to them.

"Granger, what happened?" Gibbs demanded, rifle slung over his shoulder. He looked over at his two agents. Tony and Ziva were both on their phones, finding out who needed to come to the scene. While Bray was down, there was still his network to be wary of, and they didn't want to go through all of this only to risk it later.

"He had a gun to Charlie's back. The kid was able to disarm him, and when Bray pulled out another gun, Charlie shot him."

"Son of a bitch," Ian muttered. Never would he admit it aloud, but he was worried for the youngest Eppes. While he had proven his mettle every day since they'd met, this wasn't just learning something new. This was dirty and gritty and something that professors were never taught how to deal with.

"Let's get these guys in one of the cars," Gibbs suggested, gesturing to the two suspects that had surrendered. "We'll get them back to the Yard."

Not long later, an ambulance screeched into the parking lot, two medics jumping out. They quickly got Charlie onto a stretcher and began firing off questions as to his condition. When they found out how recently the man had been in surgery, they glared at Don, as though it was his fault that his brother wasn't in a hospital bed and getting the good stuff.

What scared Don the most was the fact that his brother had yet to say a word. He was practically comatose; not even flinching when the paramedics sawed off one of the casts on his feet to look at the possibility of rebroken bones.

Ziva had found out from Megan that Alex was in critical condition, and that both she and Pickering had been transferred to Memorial, so that's where the ambulance went next. Don rode with them, trying to get Charlie to say something, but it was as though he was talking to a brick wall. How many times had he thought that, Don wondered, remembering all the times he had tried to speak to Charlie when he was working on a problem, but this took the cake.

When they got to the hospital and Charlie was wheeled away, he found Megan at the coffee machines. She had a grim look on her face that spoke volumes.

"Who told you?" he asked, accepting the cup of lukewarm drink from her.

"David called," she said softly. When her boss didn't say anything further, she gave him a weak smile. "Look, he's made it through so much already. With all of us, you, and your dad, he'll get through this, too."

Don just shrugged noncommittally. "What did Pickering tell you before…." He couldn't finish the sentence.

She understood, though. "He gave us a lot, to be honest. I think it was more Terry, really. She can be scary when she wants to be." Seeing that he wasn't in the mood to smile, she continued with a professional tone. "He gave us the meeting times for Bray, his second email address that has everything in it, and the dirty agents that he knows about. I've been on the phone with Robin getting warrants for them." She looked at him seriously. "This is going to take a while to work through. There's a lot of information here, and some of it could ruin the Bureau's reputation for a while. Also, Wright has been calling, trying to find out what on earth is going on."

Don groaned as he sat down. This was still complicated, never mind the fact that the biggest player was dead. He pulled out his phone, knowing that it was time to face the music. Secrecy was still important, but not nearly as bad as it was before.

"Wright," the man answered.

"It's Agent Eppes," Don said.

"Eppes, I was beginning to wonder if you and your team had fallen off the earth," Wright snapped. "What exactly is going on over there? I want details this time, not just the bare details you and your team have given me the past two weeks."

"What was the last that you'd heard?" Don asked, sitting down and leaning back. He had a headache to rival all headaches he'd had in the past, but this was important.

"Dr. Eppes was rescued and in the hospital, the two suspects we kept here were transferred to NCIS, which I'm still waiting on an explanation for that, then an agent in the DC branch drugged you, knocked out Sinclair and attempted to kill Dr. Eppes again. I repeat, what is going on over there?" he demanded.

Don started explaining everything; how Bray was involved, the information that they had gotten from Akim and Noam, the information they had gotten from Pickering, Harrington's death, Agent Alex Root being in critical condition, Charlie being kidnapped AGAIN, and Bray's death. "We're going through the list that Agent Pickering gave us so that we can find out any other dirty agents. We're keeping all live suspects at NCIS for now, just to be safe. I'm waiting on word from the doctors about Charlie, though I'm sure that, physically, he'll be fine. He just needs a chance to recover from all the surgeries, and I think he might have re-broken a few bones in his foot when he took out Bray."

Wright was silent for a minute, taking everything in. He certainly had not expected this when he'd received the call from AD Brown and sent his best team out to DC. It seemed as though they attracted trouble wherever they went. "Look, you guys have another week before I expect you back here." Not giving the agent a chance to object, he continued. "This is pretty complicated stuff, and I will ensure that nothing gets swept under the rug, but the DC Bureau needs a chance to handle this in-house. I'll make sure that whoever is put in charge of the investigation is plenty clean. You and your team are on paid leave for the rest of the week."

"Yes, sir," Don said, because really, there wasn't much else that he could say to that. "What about my father, sir? Is he still in the safe house?"

"He was up until this conversation. I'll be sending him out to Regan tomorrow afternoon, which I'm sure my agents will thank me for. I have to say, I understand where you and your brother get your stubbornness from."

Don chuckled at that, knowing it was the truth. They spoke about arranging for Agent Harrington's body to be sent back after the autopsy, and that they would be informed of when the service would be held. They spoke for a few more minutes about logistics, then hung up.

He called Robin to check in with her about the warrants, and just to have someone to talk to. He vaguely mentioned his father's upcoming flight, and knew without a doubt that there would be two more people on that flight that they should expect to see.

A/N: The reason I'm having the DC office head the rest of the investigation is more so that this story doesn't drag on for another 30 chapters, since I really don't know how the Bureau would handle a situation like this one.

Still, keep those reviews coming, they truly do make my day!