Brother Love-Part 2

Tony was pacing the floor of Neal's apartment. "I don't like this, Gibbs. Peter's given up on Neal. He thinks…he's lost faith in Neal, and he thinks he's run."

Gibbs studies his friend his SFA. "What do you think?"

Tony stopped and looked at Gibbs. "I think he's in trouble. I think somebody is trying to get him to do something illegal." Tony paused. "I think it's a matter of life or death. We need to find him quickly."

"I don't think White Collar is going to be of much help." Gibbs admitted.

"Me either." Tony agreed.

"Wouldn't be the first time, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, making his proposal.

"True, but to go off-grid in somebody else's sandbox…." Tony lamented.

Illegality outside his designated jurisdiction was not new to Gibbs. Tony, however, was a little new to the jurisdiction part of this particular predicament.

"Come on, what's New York?" Gibbs said, smiling. "It's just D.C with really, really tall buildings."

Tony smiled and chuckled a little. "You actually made a joke. I can't believe it. You made a joke."

"All we need to do is stick to the plan and not get caught." Gibbs replied. "We'll be fine."

"What's the plan?" Tony asked.

"Bring Neal home." Gibbs replied simply.

"…gonna need a little more." Tony requested.

"We find Neal. We make whoever took him pay. And we bring him home…simple as that. You still have your connections in the NYPD?" Gibbs asked.

Tony nodded. He had several friends from Pennsylvania and Maryland who had moved to different precincts, all over the United States. Three of whom had landed in the NYPD, in different departments.

"They would be willing to…help you out with this?" Gibbs asked.

"Tommy Wilkens in Homicide and Carlton Rakes in Cold Case both owe me. Gregory Ellis in Evidence just likes to get out of the office every once in a while." Tony replied. "I think I can get them to look into some things for me, discreetly, of course."

"Maybe we shouldn't be so discrete. They would know, whoever took him, he was being monitored by somebody because of the anklet. …may have been watching him for a while." Gibbs stated.

"We put it out there that there are multiple agencies looking for him…along with the police." Tony nodded. "Force their hand."

Gibbs nodded.

"It could backfire, Boss." Tony said, thinking out loud. "It might hurry them up. But it…it might cause them to do something rash."

"You mean kill him?" Gibbs asked.

"It's a possibility. We…we don't have anything to go on." Tony replied feeling a little defeated.

"We have a profiler." Gibbs replied. "Send everything to Kate."

"What everything? We don't have anything." Tony replied.

"We have the beginnings of a profile, Tony." Gibbs stated. "We feed her what we have and go from there."

"I just can't believe…Peter is probably just going to go join his wife in D.C. He's gonna give up on Neal, thinking Neal just up and ran." Tony paced, running his fingers through his hair. "Neal didn't run, Boss. He…he wouldn't. Even after that bad news. He just…he had it too good here to do that. But Peter…." He said, throwing up his hands.

Gibbs shook his head. "Peter is going to do what Peter is going to do. We can't worry about him. We focus on Neal, that's who we need to be worrying about."

"You're right." Tony said, taking a moment to collect himself. He looked around. "The report on the anklet, has it come back yet?"

Gibbs looked in the folder of evidence that Diana had photocopied for them, unbeknownst to Peter and the rest of White Collar.

"Found it." Gibbs read it over. "Only prints are Neal's, fibers found…" Gibbs looked through the rest of the pages. "…but apparently White Collar is still waiting on the report."

"They've been put into evidence storage?" Tony asked.

Gibbs nodded. The evidence clerk had filled in the precise location.

"What else?" Tony asked.

Gibbs flipped through the pages again. "Nothing much, mostly stuff on the driver that had the anklet in the bed of his truck. Not connection found between him and Neal, by the way."

"Do we need to investigate that?" Tony asked.

Gibbs looked at the information again. "Probably not, but we'll do a cursory check. I'll call Tim." He pulled out his phone and was finished talking to McGee a few moments later.

"I'll go downstairs with those." Tony said reaching out for the folder. "I think June has a fax somewhere."

Tim called a few moments later. He echoed the information Tony and Gibbs already knew. They dismissed it, just as the FBI had. He also informed them that Kate was working on building a profile.

"We need the report on those fibers." Tony said after returning from faxing the file to Kate.

"The FBI would have checked them." Gibbs said. "Fornell could…."

"…hack for you." Tony finished.

"It's not hacking. There is a national FBI database that all this…information is in." Gibbs stated.

Tony smiled.

"What?"

"Fornell is every bit as computer savvy as you are." Tony replied, meaning not much, at all.

"Fornell likes me. He likes you. And he even likes Neal." Gibbs replied.

"…likes Neal?" Tony asked, completely confused.

"Fornell worked with Art Crimes a while back. Years before Peter made Neal his C.I. He met Neal while looking for another thief. Tobias never told me the details." Gibbs said. "Neal was in the middle of pulling a job. He convinced Fornell he was a museum employee, he knew so much about the exhibits. Tobias even interviewed him as such."

Tony's grin got wider. "Who broke the news to him?"

"I did." Gibbs replied. "I was talking about Neal, first time after I met him. I told him about the friendship you two had. Then I described Neal. I told Tobias Abby called him Sinatra. That did it."

Tony laughed. "He was mad, I bet." He stated after he had quit laughing.

"No." Gibbs stated. "Actually he was impressed. Well…he was a little mad. But he was more impressed that he was so completely fooled by some kid in his 20s." Gibbs paused. "So I've been keeping him up to date on Neal."

Kate called and said she would need more to even start a profile. There was too much they didn't know yet. Diana called, discreetly, from the office. She said the fibers were from an expensive jacket, mostly likely from Neal's own clothing. That meant, though, for Tony and Gibbs, another brick wall.

Tony sighed. "As much as I want to do anything and everything to get Neal back, I can't do anything that could look bad on him. I don't want to get him back just so that he can spend the rest of his life in jail.

Tony and Gibbs paced the apartment floor for just a moment.

"I've got it. We need to think…lower." Tony stated.

"…lower…?"

"We need to not go in as agents, feds." Tony said. "I need to find Mozzie."

"What is a Mozzie?" Gibbs asked.

Tony grinned. "He's probably Neal's best friend in the criminal world. He's an odd, little bald conspiracy theorist. He introduced Neal to the New York underworld."

"Sounds like a great guy." Gibbs said sarcastically. "What's his real name?"

"I don't know. I'm not even sure if Neal knows." Tony admitted. He opened the door and started downstairs.

"Where are you going?" Gibbs asked.

"…to see June." Tony replied.

Tony was back in a few minutes. "Mozzie'll be here at 3 p.m."

Gibbs was shocked that Mozzie was that easy to find.

"He and June have a book club every Thursday." Tony replied.

Gibbs looked at Tony, unbelieving. He sighed. "Neal lives a very enchanted life."

Tony nodded. "That he does."

"Mozzie will show up?" Gibbs asked.

Tony shook his head. "June seems to think he will. And maybe he's heard something on the street."

NCIS/WC NCIS/WC NCIS/WC NCIS/WC NCIS/WC

Rosalie answered June's door at 2:55 p.m. letting Mozzie into the mansion. "Good evening, My Lady. I am very sorry to say…."

Mozzie stopped when he realized June had company. .

"Ah, CSI Suit…" Mozzie said addressing Tony. "…here on Suit business?"

"I get the CSI, but what is the Suit?" Gibbs asked amused by the little man in front of him. "And what is Suit business?"

"Fed's are 'Suits.'" Tony explained as they all took seats in June's living room

Gibbs nodded, still grinning.

"This is my boss, Mozzie, Agent Gibbs." Tony said introducing the two. Each man just nodded, taking inventory of the other.

"Boss Suit." Mozzie replied.

Gibbs couldn't help but smile. He liked the sound of that, Boss Suit.

"You've found Neal?" Mozzie asked. "Any leads, anything?"

Tony shook his head. "No news on the street, I take it."

Mozzie shook his head. "It's like Neal disappeared." He was quiet for a moment. "Peter's not looking, is he?"

"Something's just been…off between those two." June revealed. "I don't know what it is."

Mozzie agreed, nodding his head. He knew. He knew very well. But he also knew that none of that information would help find Neal. Rebecca and Hagen had each worked alone. They each had had their very different, twisted agendas. But, at least, no associations could be made with Neal and his current predicament.

"I don't know what Burke is up to, honestly, Mozzie." Tony admitted. "But I need to find my friend. And I just can't help but think that the White Collar Division just doesn't care anymore."

"They think he's run." Mozzie replied. "He wouldn't. He didn't…or I wouldn't be here. I'd be with him."

Tony nodded. He knew Mozzie was telling him the truth.

"What do you and Boss Suit, here, need me to do?" Mozzie asked.

"You're gonna help us out?" Tony asked a little surprised.

"Neal's my friend." Mozzie looked at Gibbs. "And I've always thought it would be cool to be a Marine."

TBC