A/N: rosinquist… BOLO = Be On the Look Out. It's a term that's only been used a few times in the NCIS series.
Gibbs saw his Director motioning for him to come over. There was definitely something up since he was carrying a manila folder with him. Maybe he had somehow heard something before Gibbs did. "Sir?" Gibbs asked.
"There's a case that needs your attention," Vance replied.
Their gazes met as neither of them backed down, "Pass it on," Gibbs said eventually.
Vance had seen Gibbs defiant before but there was something about his tone. Something that told him there was no way he'd be taking a case. "What Gibbs?" He looked around the bullpen. Mcgee was frantically manning the phones and occasionally hung the phone up before redialing. Ziva was using another phone and taking notes. That wasn't concerning thing. "Where's Agent DiNozzo?" Vance asked.
"Missing," Gibbs turned to go back to the bullpen.
It wasn't a well hidden secret that Vance and Tony never saw eye to eye. But he knew Gibbs well and if Tony was missing there'd be a hurricane passing through. Vance wasn't the first person who grimaced at the thought.
Vance left the area to 'pass' on the case he had in the hand. There wouldn't be too much harm if a case slipped through his star team's fingers.
There was something severely wrong in the bullpen when Gibbs turned around. Two young agents stood at the edge of the bullpen and waited extremely nervous. They seemed to be just waiting there for no reason.
"Can I help you two?" Gibbs asked. He knew that they were the ones that worked in the next cubicle but never heard their names.
"Agent Conners, Agent Wilson," The two eager agents approached Gibbs and both tried to shake his hand at the same time.
"One at a time," Gibbs was already clearly annoyed.
"We've been sent to help you with your search for Special Agent DiNozzo," Agent Conners said.
"And you are?" Gibbs asked.
"Agent Melanie Conners," Conners answered. "This is Thomas Wilson," she introduced her partner before he could speak.
Gibbs walked over to Mcgee and tore paper off his notebook and handed it to Conners who seemed to be the leader of the two. She just stood there for nearly a minute. "What?" Gibbs asked. "Are you waiting for a clearance or something? Go out and check those hospitals and see if DiNozzo's there. Also, check out this list to," Gibbs handed them the list that Ziva had been compiling. "Why are you two still standing there?"
The glare from Gibbs made the two agents almost run to the elevator. They were eager to please any superior but this was the first time they actually took orders from someone else. They knew Gibbs was different, they heard it a lot but now they were on the receiving end.
Gibbs rubbed his face. "One of you take a break," there was no response from either of the agents. "Ziva… You first," she looked like she needed one more.
"Yes Boss," Ziva said reluctantly.
Gibbs could see Abby walk towards them. The usual bubbly attitude and brisk walk was replaced by a frown and a cautious pace. He watched her all the way until she reached the bullpen entrance. Oh hell, it had escaped his mind to go down and tell her.
"Hey Boss," Mcgee was oblivious to her presence. "They have someone down at the county morgue that fits Tony's description. Said the body arrived there early this morning," he continued.
Gibbs stood up, some unknown force stopped him from strangling Mcgee there and then. Instead, he slapped him at the back of the head harder than he usually did. As he turned around he saw that Gibbs had pulled Abby aside. "Go and check it out Mcgee," Gibbs ordered him. "Now Mcgee!" Gibbs shouted.
It took awhile to calm Abby down who was on the verge of crying. It always broke his heart People will have a damn field day if they knew a teary-eyed Goth was all it took to breakthrough the tough exterior of the ex-Marine.
"Is it true?" Abby asked. "Could Tony be…," She couldn't even bring herself to vocalize her fear.
"No," Gibbs said earnestly. "Mcgee was just being an idiot. I should've told you that Tony was missing right away."
Abby buried her head into Gibbs' shoulder. How many times has this happened before? For a tough ex marine he sure seemed comfortable with comforting his team members. He knew when to be tough and knew when to be softer.
"The only reason I'm not yelling at you is because you're doing everything you can to find Tony," Abby said. "Do you think he's alright?"
"I don't," He forced himself to stop there. The 'I don't know' response wasn't what was needed. "You know Tony Abbs. He always turns up. I bet we'll get him through that door and he'll wonder what all the fuss was about."
"How many times had Tony gotten into trouble, Gibbs?" Abby asked.
"I stopped counting along time ago," Gibbs answered. Of all the people that had ever worked for Gibbs, Tony was the one who had gotten into the most trouble.
"How many times have you gotten him out of it?" Abby asked.
"I've stopped counting that as well," Gibbs made her smile. "So one more time isn't going to mean much," He added.
Gibbs had promised to keep her informed and watched the brave soul walk off and accept something from one of the other teams to test down the lab. She showed her bubbly attitude only wanting to be comforted by one or two people and one wasn't here.
Hospital
Agent Conners led her partner followed the nurse deep inside the hospital. There was no Tony DiNozzo there but there had been a couple of John Does brought in that morning. The first one was Chinese and the second one looked nothing like the picture that Gibbs had given them. The young man looked older, unshaven and was nothing like Tony.
"That's not him either." Conners said.
Thomas looked at the picture then at the man lying on the bed. "You're right, must have been a full moon last night… John Does, missing agents this can't be a regular occurrence."
County Morgue
Mcgee felt like he was going to vomit as he was led to identify the body that could possibly be that of Tony DiNozzo. All the constant teasing had stopped getting on his nerves and he began to feel like a real part of the team and therefore didn't fight back a lot of the time.
"Are you alright?" The man asked him.
"I'm fine," Mcgee felt like he was going to puke when the man pulled out the cold slab.
"Yeah this body came in this morning. Looks like he had a fall," the man said.
"How can you tell?" Mcgee began asking as the sheet was removed. "Jesus," he turned to face the other way and covered his mouth. The corpse had a broken neck and extensive bruising on the front of him. Mcgee righted himself and took a close look at the body. "Thank God!" He said loudly, not bothering to hide his happiness. "It's definitely not Tony… Close though," Actually, the resemblance was uncanny but the corpse was way too short to be that of Tony. So now it was time to head back to tell the Gibbs that the body at the morgue was some other poor soul.
Bullpen, NCIS
It was evening by the time Conners and Thomas got back. "What have you got?" Gibbs asked them the moment they left the elevator.
"It was all a fizzle," Conners called out from near the elevator. "No John Does looked like him. No Anthony, Tony or plain DiNozzo's were admitted today. It seems that that actually there'd been six John Does admitted to the hospitals today?"
Thomas stifled a laugh while still thinking about the full moon comment. The bullpen was very crowded with Gibbs, Mcgee, Ziva Abby and Ducky in there. Even more full with Thomas and Conners now entering.
"Here's a package for Special Agent Thomas Wilson," the delivery guy said. Thomas sheepishly put his hand up. "Your fiancée knew you were working late so brought over some dinner for your team."
Thomas blushed as all eyes were on him. "I didn't tell her it was MY team," he looked in the bag. There was only three dinners made up, one would have been for Conners, himself and his superior. There wasn't enough for everybody here. "Sir?" Thomas said but was given a slight elbow as a quick correction, it was a well known fact that the marine hated being called Sir. "Man… Gibbs… Jethro? Crap."
"Excuse me!" Gibbs stood up.
"I mean… Here," Thomas handed him a container of food. "This one's usually for Agent Simons… So here," his voice sounded very apologetically.
Any sign of a reprimand was put away when the phone rung which interrupted them all. Ziva was the first to the phone.
"NCIS… Gibbs' section," Ziva asked. "Who? Look we are very busy we have no time for these calls. If you do not tell me who this is I will have this call traced and you will be arrested. Who are you?" Ziva slammed the phone down.
"Who the hell was that?" Gibbs asked.
"Some moron claiming to be Brad Pitt," Ziva answered.
Gibbs, Ducky, Abby and Mcgee exchanged glances. "Doctor Brad Pitt?" Gibbs asked.
Since Tony's recovery from the plague, Gibbs had Doctor Pitt's number on speed dial just in case of an emergency. Gibbs pressed the button and put the phone on speaker.
"Is that you Doctor Pitt?" Gibbs asked.
Conners and Thomas exchanged looks. They did work so close to them but there was still so much they missed out on.
"Another thing to add to your book there Melanie?" Thomas asked very quietly so nobody else could hear. It was no secret that Conners was working on a book about Gibbs' team from an observer called, From The Cubicle Next Door, though he always wondered if she'd ever show it publicly. But would anyone want to read about an NCIS team.
Agent Gibbs? This is Doctor Pitt. I don't know who I spoke to before.
"Is there a reason you called?" Gibbs stomach turned. He watched the reaction from his team and knew that they were feeling the same way.
Umm, I was visiting a colleague at the main civilian hospital and I came across a patient there… He looks suspiciously like Anthony DiNozzo. And I was wondering if it was just me or if you had any idea about it… I'm still here at the hospital… I will meet you when you get here… Hello? Hello?
The bullpen stood empty. It was full of people a minute ago and the next second it was devoid of people… The only sign of life was Doctor Pitt's voice trying to get hold of anybody. Then there was a click followed by unearthly silence.