Disclaimer: See one of the earlier chapters.

Thanx for reviewing people, I'm sorry this took a little bit longer to update but it's been a crazy few days. In the chapter after this Gibbs will exact his revenge.

Family Ties - Part 6

Gibbs strode into the office, bright and early as usual. As he took a swig of his coffee, he was pleasantly surprised to note that he was the last of the team to arrive. The fact, that the three members of his team who were working on the current case were huddled in a corner whispering, had Gibbs' curiosity piqued. As he got closer Abby, who was facing him, made an obvious change in subject.

"So I managed to clear up the driver's head and I now have a clear picture of the side his face. It's definitely the owner of the car, unless he's got a twin brother, which he hasn't because McGee checked out his family tree." Kate made a seamless transition from whatever they had been talking about to the case.

"Great works Abs. McGee how did you get on with the car owner's background?" Gibbs had expected Kate to take the hint from Abby but he was impressed by how well McGee cottoned on, the young agent didn't bat an eyelid.

"Sammy Martello, 32. He is the youngest son of Vincent Martello, who is the leader of the mafia family, which is currently at war with the Zito family. We may have another problem though." McGee paused and Gibbs took that as his cue to announce his presence.

"What problem McGee?" Gibbs almost smirked when his team jumped slightly, despite the fact that they had already known he was there.

"Uh… Martello's mother is some kind of foreign diplomat and it turns out that her and her sons have diplomatic immunity. Even if we can prove, without a doubt that Martello killed her and that it wasn't an accident, we can't touch him. We couldn't touch him if he confessed." Gibbs growled in anger. He looked at his team's faces and saw fear on McGee's, slight apprehension on Kate's and amusement on Abby's. They thought that he was going to take his anger out on them. - Not this time Gibbs. This time you're gonna save it all for the bastard who deserves it. -

"Just get me a solid case. I'll worry about making sure justice is served, one way or another." The sinister sound to the end of Gibbs' sentence gave Kate, McGee and Abby the creeps. Kate steeled herself before turning to face Gibbs.

"Gibbs we've finished sorting out the evidence from the scene, the backgrounds are complete and we are left with one suspect. The next step left is to bring Sammy Martello in for questioning." Kate and McGee waited for Gibbs' response nervously. Abby didn't.

"What you gonna do boss man? You gonna bring him in? Watch out mister Martello, Gibbs is on the war path…" Gibbs turned and gave Abby his patented death glare.

"Yes Abby we're going to bring him in and I'm going to lock him in interrogation until he cracks." Abby grinned; she was feeling a little hyper from all he Caff-Pow she had been drinking.

"What's with this guy Gibbs? He's got you all wound up and you've never met him. And don't you tell me it's because he killed some Navy Officer you'd never met before. I've seen you work other cases before and this is different. Why is this different Gibbs?" Abby returned Gibbs stare, completely unfazed by his death stare. She stood up and stuck her hands on her hips, refusing to back down. McGee and Kate just stared at her in wide eyed disbelief. Gibbs growled again, this time in frustration.

"You're right Abby this is different; this is personal. Lt. Cmdr. Diablo was family to one of our team." Gibbs paused allowing them to think about who he could be talking about. - Tony. - They thought in unison.

"What do you mean our silver haired leader? The Lt. Cmdr. Who was orphaned at 10 years of age had family at NCIS? But who could it be?" Abby mentally slapped herself. -Abby you've really got to stop drinking so much Caff-Pow in the mornings. I know winding Gibbs up when he is pissed off is fun but something is different today and you're going far too far. -

"You're a smart girl Abby so I'm going to give you one guess before I make your head a replacement for Tony's in his absence." Abby waggled her pointing finger at Gibbs and tutted, in response to his threat.

"Low blow Gibbs, low blow." Kate snapped herself out of her surprised stupor and decided to take Abby's shovel from her before she buried herself.

"Gibbs, how can Tony be related to the Lt. Cmdr.? The Lt. Cmdr. was an orphan and she had one adopted brother, who I think was part of witness protection because his past is still classified. Tony can't be witness protection; he's spoken about his rich parents on way too many occasions for someone who is supposed to be hiding from his past." Gibbs smiled and shook his head.

"That's an assumption Kate. NCIS agents don't assume, they check and double check. Tony is a very good actor. He's had twenty years experience at hiding where he came from and has gotten to be really convincing." This time it was McGee's turn to pipe up.

"Boss, if Tony's not who we thought he was, then who is he?" The ex-marine shook his head, his eyes strangely apologetic.

"Sorry McGee but it's not my place to tell anyone, not even his closest friends. Tony is still the person you think he is, he only hides his past from you, and I suspect that he may exaggerate the number of girlfriends he has had, then again I think you already knew that." Tony may tell you about his past when he is ready, but right now he needs us to nail the bastard that killed the Lt. Cmdr. because at the moment he thinks it is his fault that she died and that he failed in duty to protect her." Three pairs of eyes looked at Gibbs intently; he could feel that they could feel Tony's pain. Kate blinked and looked at McGee before turning back to face Gibbs.

"You want me and McGee to go and bring him in for questioning?" Gibbs nodded and the two agents left.

"Abby. I need you to use that video footage and create a presentation that leaves no doubt as to the identity of the driver and that it wasn't an accident; highlight things like the lack of braking before he hit her, speeding up after or before he hit her and facial expression, if you can."

"On it boss man." Abby and Gibbs went their separate ways; Abby to her lab and Gibbs to prepare the interrogation room.

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Gibbs stood watching Sammy Martello through the one way mirror. The Italian was pacing up and down; waving his arms around as he spoke rapidly in a language Gibbs didn't understand but was willing to bet was Italian. He noticed a long scar down the right hand side of Martello's face and picked up the phone.

"Abby I need a picture of the right hand side of the driver's head. You're looking to see if he has a scar stretching from the corner of his eye to just under his ear… Half an hour? You've got 20 minutes." Gibbs hung up as Abby was giving him an earful about his deadline.

Twenty minutes later Gibbs stood out side interrogation, ready to open the door and set to work on the unprepared man inside. He had just received a call from Abby, in which she went the long way about telling him that she had managed to pull the driver's reflection off the instrument panel in the dashboard and that he had a scar just like the one Gibbs had described to her. - We've got the little bastard. Now it's time to scare the shit out of him before finding a way to make sure he pays for killing Tony's sister. No-one gets away with hurting one of my team. -

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