Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS. I don't own NCIS Los Angeles.
A/N – The ending might seem a bit abrupt, but it was a good place to end it all. If I ever have the craving to do the reactions of other characters in the 'verse to the revelations or expand on what really happened to DiNozzo Corp. in the end – I'll write an epilogue. No promises, though.
Chapter 5 – Gabriel
Tony was running down the parking lot when his phone rang. He used what little breath he had to curse at the situation, but didn't dare to ignore the call. He picked it up and tried to run faster. The guy he was after was ahead of him big time.
"DiNozzo…," Gibbs paused when he noticed Tony's harsh breathing on the other end of the line. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Oh, it's not what you think, Boss," Tony chuckled, out of breath. It wasn't the exercise that got to him; it was his poor, plague-surviving lungs. "Hey, wait!" he yelled. The guy he was chasing was already getting into a car.
"What's going on?" Gibbs wasn't patient on his best days.
For a second Tony heard the engine purring as it started and then the explosion threw him on his back. The phone flew from his hand and smashed on the asphalt.
He tried to lift his head, but it he felt like he could feel the Earth spinning beneath him. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurry. When he tried to turn his head left, he found himself looking right. He raised himself on his elbows and tried to get a grip on his senses, but before he could even start to think properly, he was seized, dragged to his feet and thrown in a limousine.
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"Something's wrong," Gibbs tucked away his mobile. "The call just ended."
G forced himself to keep breathing calmly. "Do you know where he is?"
"Yeah, I dropped him off at some lawyer's office, let's go," Gibbs motioned already hurrying to the car. G didn't say a thing; he just followed Gibbs to the car.
It was some minutes later when they were stuck at a red traffic light that G finally felt like speaking. "Do you think…," he cut himself off unsure what to say. What did he mean to ask? Whether it was coincidence that he'd been given up for adoption by someone named DiNozzo? Ridiculous. Whether Gibbs also thought that G might be Tony's long lost brother and vice versa? Maybe, he wanted to ask whether shit had hit the fan again.
"Yes," Gibbs answered.
G nodded. 'Yes' to everything. He hated how this situation made him feel – like he was on the verge of either having it all or losing everything. A week, hell, two days ago he would have given just about anything to learn his name, now all he wanted to know was that his brother was safe, which he probably wasn't. He glanced at Gibbs, he hadn't asked, but G was pretty sure that Gibbs knew his name – well, G was sure that Gibbs knew Tony DiNozzo's brother's name and G was reasonably sure that he was that brother. He didn't ask, at least not that. Instead he said, "Drive faster."
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"Yes, Hetty!" Eric picked up the call trying to sound as cheerful and energetic as possible. Maybe too much.
"Mr. Beal take your feet off the table," was the first thing that she said.
Eric moved suddenly, sitting up straight, nearly falling off his chair. "How did...," he started to ask before shaking his head and stopping himself. After all, Hetty always knew. "What can I do for you, Hetty?"
"I want you to check whether there have been any vehicles rented in Los Angeles by DiNozzo Corporation or any of its employees or sub-companies."
"On it," Eric replied instantly already typing away at the keyboard. Short time later his program pinged with an answer. "Argh…," he groaned into the microphone.
"Is something the matter?" there was a note of impatience in Hetty's tone.
"Well, one of the companies that the DN Corporation owns is a car rental," he replied wincing, even though there was silence on the other end of the line. He bit his lip, silence stretched. "Hetty?" he finally asked a few moments later.
"All the cars from a car rental will be tagged with GPS locator," Hetty didn't phrase it like a question.
"Yes," to Eric it had sounded like a question.
"Get the route maps from navigational memory of the cars and find the car that was near the explosion downtown fifteen minutes ago."
"There was explosion downtown?" Eric asked sitting up straighter.
"Find the car that was there and where it is now then notify Mr. Callen and the rest of the team."
"Hetty…," Eric didn't get to finish, because Hetty had already dropped the call. He pouted. Sometimes he felt like a call-centre operator.
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As soon as G had disconnected from the call, so had Sam. Kensi looked at him questioningly, but he didn't explain as he scrolled down his contact list and found one – Abby Sciuto. He hadn't particularly minded when she had put her phone number in his and G's phones, but he had honestly never thought that he would one day find it useful.
"Abby," he didn't bother with preliminaries. "Tell me what you know about Agent DiNozzo." As soon as he had heard Eric say the name he had remembered how Abby had told him all about her team in Washington – particularly about the Senior Field Agent who was a great friend of hers.
Kensi who had quietly watched Sam, nearly jumped in surprise. There was an NCIS agent named DiNozzo? A coincidence?
"He's got a great smile and he's actually all muscle. At least his thighs are," was the joyous answer over the phone.
Sam grimaced. "Abby, I'm serious. G's life may depend on this," he entreated.
"What do you want to know?" she asked seriously.
"Who is he? Who is his father? His family? Anything that might be important and, please, give me the short version. I'm short on time."
"Oh, my God," Abby cried out, her mind already connecting the loose dots and reaching the correct conclusions. "I was so right!" she squeeled.
"Abby, I don't understand," Sam said sharply.
"I did tell everyone that Tony's brother has got to be hot and Gabriel is," she spoke quickly in her excitement.
"Who is Gabriel?" Sam frowned, utterly confused.
"Tony's brother, of course," she replied promptly. "Oh, of course, you don't know, see, from our end we are investigating Tony, or rather Tony's father, because he blackmailed Tony with his will and it turns out that Tony has a missing half-brother, well, not really missing, more like long-lost half-brother and we've been tearing through servers, err," the flood stopped. "Pretend you didn't hear that."
"Which part?" Sam asked trying to process the onslaught of information that didn't really help.
"Good boy!" Abby sounded pleased. "Now our trail lead to a lawyer, a spy-ish dude named Keelsen and a dead guy named Browning in LA and LA is where you have G who has only ever know that he's G… Do you get it?" she asked giddily nearly bouncing on her feet. "The name Gabriel starts with…"
"G," Sam finished for her.
"You're fantastic!"
"Are you completely sure about this, Abby?" he asked seriously. He didn't doubt her skills or intellect, but this was for G – this was so important for G that Sam would double-check even his own mother before trusting the information.
"One hundred percent positive since you called," she replied without hesitation.
Sam took a deep, calming breath. G had a brother. G had family. G's name was Gabriel. Sam wasn't sure why, but his own heart was hammering in his chest. He took another breath before speaking, "You said the trail of your investigation ended in LA. Any chance that anyone from your team is going to come here?"
"Oh," Abby bit her lip. "They're already there. I mean Gibbs and Tony arrived at LAX about an hour ago. You guys haven't met yet?"
"No," Sam replied shortly, already realizing that G must have met at least Gibbs by now – the two Agents were close, close enough that Sam as G's current partner felt a little jealous, not that he'd admit it out loud.
"That's weird, because Tony was completely all over the case, he wouldn't have stopped for anything… Something must be wrong."
Sam found himself nodding before he realized that Abby was waiting for a verbal answer. "Yeah," he offered. Things always went wrong when G went off the grid.
Abby sighed. "Okay, I'll check with McGee and Ziva, see if they know anything. If you find something – call me."
"We'll let you know," Sam assured her. Just as she was about to drop the call, he spoke suddenly, "Agent DiNozzo…"
Abby understood what Sam wanted to ask, but didn't. "Tony will be ecstatic to find out that G is his brother."
"Thanks, Abby," Sam said. "For everything," he added before ending the call.
"We're family," Abby replied, even though the call was already over. She shrugged and put the receiver down before racing out of her lab.
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G stood still staring at the wreck of the car. He was silent and his expression was blank. He hoped to God he never prayed to that the body in the car wasn't the brother he'd never met – that his entire life-long search hadn't ended at another dead end. He wished that his team was here. There was nothing he couldn't do without them, but there also was nothing that he couldn't do smarter and better with them.
He was startled when Gibbs clasped his shoulder in an attempt to comfort. G nearly rolled his eyes – Gibbs was pathetic at comforting people.
"It's not DiNozzo," Jethro said motioning impatiently at the car. "It's the lawyer he was supposed to visit."
G nodded. Good. But then, "Where is your Agent?" he asked sharply glancing at Gibbs.
Jethro frowned. He wasn't happy with this either. He wasn't happy period. He cared about his team and he really, really hated kidnappings. "I have no idea where your brother is," he answered before wincing.
G glared. An unspoken 'Second 'B' for bastard, right?' passed between them. Gibbs nodded feeling somewhat guilty, but no less frustrated or angry.
"He must have been taken," Gibbs mused turning his head to stare at the wreck.
"But nobody knows you're here," Callen countered before also turning to stare straight ahead. "Besides you flew in what – two hours ago?"
"So it must be someone who knows a whole lot more about you and DiNozzo than you do yourselves and someone who wants to keep things quiet, keep you both quiet."
"You mean –dead," G specified shifting on his feet.
"Possibly, but probably not for now or you'd already be dead," Gibbs theorized looking at the policemen working the scene.
G nodded in agreement. "So what's the deal with the lawyer?" he asked a moment later.
"Supposedly handled the adoption case of DiNozzo's brother and generally got all official records pertaining that to be either sealed or dismissed."
"So he was the legal clean up guy," G summarized.
"Basically."
"You have any ideas?"
Gibbs shook his head even though he knew that Callen wasn't even looking at him. "Nope."
Eleven minutes later G got a call from Eric.
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"Walter," Tony drawled as he came to consciousness. "Your ugly mug is not the first thing I have ever wanted to see upon opening my baby blues." He rubbed at the back of his head with his bound hands. "Did one of your gorillas whack me with a stick? It's terribly Stone Age thing to do, you know? Whack me over the head, drag me into your…," he looked around. "Limo."
"Shut up."
"So eloquent Walter, I wonder…," Tony shifted inching closer to the door.
"Shut the fuck up or I'll have you whacked again. I really do prefer you unconscious," Walter sneered.
"Kinky," Tony commented casually scanning his surroundings. It was hard to judge the speed of the car with all the windows tinted, but he was pretty sure that even if the doors weren't locked – jumping out wouldn't be a good idea.
"I can't wait to kill you," Walter hissed.
"Really? Then why are you waiting?" Tony asked leaning back into his seat. No need to be more uncomfortable than necessary. "No, seriously. What are you waiting for?" Tony's lips opened wide in a taunting grin. "I don't think one can actually grow a spine, if you know what I …" he stopped when he was punched in the mouth. "Ouch."
Walter smiled. "I don't want to kill just you. I want to kill your brother too," he shared happily.
"What do you mean?" Tony frowned. "Why? Wait. You know who my brother is?"
Walter nearly rolled his eyes. It was so good to know something that someone else desperately wanted to know. "I'm not stupid," he said. "I'm not going to let your brother live and risk the chance that he might find out about you and then come after me in rage. I'm going to kill two birds with one stone." Walter licked his lips. "Or rather – I'm going to kill two NCIS agents in one go."
Tony reeled back. His brother was a NCIS agent? It was hard to hide his shock. Had he already met his brother? Passed him in a corridor? The opportunities were endless, but Tony's musings stopped suddenly at the next thought – he was going to be the bait for his brother to walk into a trap.
"What makes you think an NCIS agent would fall for anything you could ever plan?" Tony asked disdainfully.
"Well," Walter drawled. "If I told you then it wouldn't be a surprise and you keep telling everyone that you love surprises."
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G nearly bit his own tongue off when he saw the limousine that Eric had managed to track down go off the bridge over Ballona Creek on the Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey. He put both of his hands in front of himself, bracing against the dashboard as Gibbs hit on the brakes and their car came to a sudden stop a few feet from where the limousine had gone over the edge.
Callen frantically undid his seatbelt and practically flew from the car. He was at the edge of the bridge in few short moments. He looked down and saw the limousine slowly, but completely go under the water. Nobody swam up. He swallowed hard.
"Maybe it wasn't the right car," Gibbs spoke up from beside Callen.
"It was," G said tiredly. "Eric was sure of it and he doesn't make mistakes like that."
Gibbs cursed.
Callen didn't have it in him to nod in agreement. He just stared at the spot where the limousine had gone down before a movement of shadows drew his attention to the side. He frowned and stepped closer to the edge, stopping when he felt Gibbs grasp at his shirt.
"What the hell are you doing, Callen?" Jethro growled.
G shook his head and motioned at beneath the bridge. "There's something there."
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Sam and Kensi had been on their way in to the Ops centre when Eric had called them telling them about the car they were to follow. They had been quite a way behind G and Gibbs so that when the limousine went over the bridge, they were far enough to successfully turn around and drive down to the Creek itself.
Unfortunately the area was completely open so as soon as they drove out from the bushes, they were noticed and sensing and untimely showdown – Walter's men began to fire at the cars with semi-automatic weapons. Sam and Kensi stopped immediately. Kensi leaned down for cover from the bullets – she tried to kick her driver's door open for more cover while Sam managed to push his door open and slipped from his seat to offer some counter fire.
Behind the five men firing their guns was another man who was pulling a semi-conscious guy with him. Sam correctly assumed that the one barely standing was Agent DiNozzo.
He ducked behind the door of his car under the lead storm coming his way. His trigger finger itched. He knew there was little time. He had to take out the guards so that he could take out the kidnapper before the guy panicked and shot G's brother.
He heard them pause for reload. Both he and Kensi moved simultaneously rising, sliding from their covers and firing. They killed three men before they had to duck for cover once again.
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Tony's guts hurt. Mostly from being kicked several times in the ribs and then pushed from a moving car on a slow turn before the bridge, but some of the pain was due to the fact that he was laughing. "This is your grand plan?" he asked looking up at Walter from where he was lying on the ground. "I can't believe I was worried for a bit."
Walter gritted his teeth. This wasn't how everything was supposed to happen at all. He pushed Tony, hiding behind his bodyguards, unsure what to do. His men were dying. He suspected that he might not get out of this alive and the realization terrified him. When only two of his men were standing – Walter panicked.
He grabbed the gun from the closest corpse and pointed it at Tony.
"Hey, hey, hey…" Tony raised his bound hands. Walter was close to him and Tony wasn't sure he could avoid being shot. He was also in no position to charge at Walter, consequences be damned. "Think about this," he asked.
"I am thinking," Walter swallowed hard. "I'm thinking the old classic. If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"
Next everything happened very quickly. Sam and Kensi moved from their covered positions and killed the remaining two henchmen. G dropped from the top of the bridge hanging on a tow rope, shooting Walter in the head before falling into the water and Tony flipped backwards (or, at least, tried to) doing his best to move out of the trajectory of Walter's gun.
"You okay, Callen?" asked Gibbs from the top of the bridge when G surfaced a few moments later.
"You dropped me!" G yelled at him.
Gibbs just shrugged. Sam allowed himself to laugh once he made sure that all the guys on the ground except DiNozzo were really dead. He laughed with relief – because G was fine and none of the good guys had died this time. He laughed, because he knew how heavy G's ass was – he had lowered his partner two stories down on a fire hose, after all.
"Sam's never dropped me!" G complained loudly as he waded out of the water.
"I told you to lay off those donuts," Sam teased.
Kensi pocketed her gun and shook her head when all the guys looked at her for her five cents in the squabble. "I'm just glad you're okay," she said moving towards Tony to cut his ropes.
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"Thanks, man," Tony said and clapped G on the shoulder before bending over to catch some breath. He did manage to grin at his boss who had also joined them below the bridge.
G grit his teeth. He wasn't sure how to start this conversation, but from the stares he could feel his team and Gibbs were boring in his back – everyone knew what this was about. Everyone except Tony that is. "This is going to be … Awkward."
Tony frowned and straightened. "What do you mean?"
G extended his hand. "Hi," he said. "I'm Callen."
Tony took the offered hand and shook it, smiling. "Cheers, I'm Tony DiNozzo, but if you're with Gibbs you probably already knew that." Tony shifted on his feet, a bit unsettled by Callen staring at him. He replayed the conversation in his head trying to think of something he'd missed. "So…," he drawled. "Just Callen? No nickname? Name?"
"Well, I was kind of hoping you could help me out on that one," G replied smiling softly.
Tony frowned again, "How should I…," he fell silent as he connected the dots in his head. He glanced over Callen's shoulder at Gibbs, at all the other agents – they all knew. Tony looked back at G. "You're my brother!" he exclaimed before pulling Callen into a hug.
G laughed returning the hug. "Your big brother," he quipped.
"My long-lost brother," Tony countered pulling away, but he didn't stop grinning. He shook his head a little, he could read a question in the other man's eyes, but he didn't quite understand until, he remembered what Abby had said so long ago when she came home from LA. Callen… Tony's brother didn't know his own name, only a letter, only the first letter. He gripped Callen's shoulders.
"You're my brother," he repeated. "You're Gabriel."
The End