A/N: We apologise for the delay.

Tony made a quick, quiet unannounced trip to Tim's apartment to collect some clothes for his friend. It was one thing that he knew would at least make Tim feel more comfortable. He walked into the bedroom and pulled open the door to the wardrobe, pausing briefly at the door whilst he remembered conversations from days gone by when he'd visited the apartment.

"Aww, look, he eats dinosaur cereal." Tony grinned broadly at the memory of Kate standing in Tim's small kitchen. It was one of those moments where they had picked Tim up and barged into his apartment; only to find the Probie wearing an old T shirt and boxers.

"Damn McGee, feels empty without you here man." Tony whispered gently to himself as he made his way through. He started rummaging through the wardrobe and found a small suitcase sitting at the bottom. He picked it up and placed it on the bed before turning back to the wardrobe. Another set of memories assaulted him.

"You got any party clothes McGeek?"

"Tony."

"Baby, you aren't going to be scoring in any of this stuff."

Tony still didn't know how, but Tim's frustration and worry had somehow undone him. His own empathy at the situation had won out and he soon found himself pouring out his soul about the first time he'd shot someone. He cringed at the next part of his memory; the part where he actually admitted to wetting himself at the fact that he'd shot someone.

"Oh yeah, there's some memories in this apartment." Tony thought as he rifled through the clothes and found his friends t-shirts and sweat pants that would be comfortable for Tim to wear. The bag was packed in no time at all and after one last trip to the bathroom to collect Tim's favorite toiletries, he made his way out.

As Tony was locking the door, he remembered seeing the pile of mail that had been placed on Tim's computer desk and went back inside to get it. He knew that Sarah used the apartment for a bit of peace and quiet to study while Tim was at work and that she had mid terms coming up, so it was a fair bet that she was the one to pick up the mail and put it somewhere Tim could see it. He glanced through the stack and felt relieved that everything looked pretty innocuous, just a few bills; some statements but…

"What the hell?"

Sitting to the side of the mail was a shoe box size parcel wrapped with a black ribbon tied around it. The parcel was made out to Tim and had been bought up with the mail and settled to the side without a second thought. Tony pulled a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket and picked the box up gingerly so he could pull it to his ear. He was surprised by how light it was and there was no ominous sounds that could signal a bomb….or at least he hoped it wasn't.

He grabbed Tim's mail and the box and hightailed it in to work The trip had been on the sly because he was taking no chances of picking up a tail or being traced, bugged or taken by surprise by whoever this bastard was. He even turned his phone off as soon as soon as he sent Ziva a cryptic text message:

Running an errand. Be in by 9.

It took Tony the better part of an hour and 15 minutes to make in to work after he'd sent the text message but he made it without incident. Once he was close to work, he turned his phone back on and checked in with Ducky to see how his Probie was doing. Ducky managed to put his mind at ease that Tim was resting comfortably but there had been no change in his condition but there was still a nagging feeling right at the back of his mind and the fact that there had been a small package waiting for Tim at his apartment disturbed him. It was a combination of things that his trained investigator's eye caught and it wasn't just because there was no return address and the postmark was from D.C., but the fact that the familiar black ribbon had been tied around it; the whole thing made the hairs on the back of Tony's neck stand up and he was grateful for the fact that he still had a pair of crime scene gloves stashed safely in his pocket. As he drew closer to work, he started to feel antsy to get the box to Gibbs. Pulling out his phone, he dialed Ducky again.

"Hey Ducky. He really all right, I mean I know you said he was but you know,.."

"Anthony, you only called a few minutes ago! He's fine, as is Mr. Palmer is. I'm seeing to it that both of them sleep for most of the morning. We have been given the remainder of the day off and we don't have any guests in autopsy. But, do call us if you get a case, won't you?"

"Sure, Ducky. You tell Probie that I said to hang in there and not give you any grief about his meds or eating!"

"Certainly, Anthony, although the poor boy isn't up for much of giving anyone a hard time about anything for the near future."

"I know, Ducky. The pain'll go soon though, right?"

"Yes, Anthony. Fear not, he will be feeling better soon. As I told you before, he is resting at the moment."

"Good. Okay, Gotta go, Ducky."

Tony ended that call and sucked in a huge breath. This was one phone call he was not looking forward to but there was no way he could just walk up to his boss's desk and hand him the parcel. He fumbled with the phone and managed to hit the speed dial.

"Where the hell are you?" Gibbs barked into the phone.

"Parking my car in the lot. We need to talk." Tony answered cryptically and abruptly ended the call. There was something telling him that they were being watched; he couldn't explain it; it was just a feeling deep in the pit of his stomach which made him more wary about the fact that they were being observed a hell of a lot more than they realized.

Gibbs shot up out of his chair at Tony's cryptic answer to his demanded question and quickly took himself over to the elevator. The wait was agonizing and the fact that Tony hadn't disclosed any information before hanging up made the situation more urgent than he would have liked to admit. He was soon walking over to Tony's car and when he got there, he was met with a worried silence that spoke volumes. Gibbs glanced down at the package that Tony was still holding in his gloved hands and felt his eyebrows rise slightly in question. Tony shook his head and with a silent understanding, they both made their way back to the elevator. As soon as they were moving, Gibbs flipped the emergency stop and turned to his senior agent.

"Talk to me."

"Boss, I ran up to Probie's apartment to get him some clothes and his mail was sittin' on his computer desk. I didn't tell anyone because the evidence is telling me that this guy; whoever he is; has eyes and ears on us, the problem is, we're blind to it and we're just not seeing everything that we need."

"Okay. So, your gut's screamin at ya?"

"Screaming? Hell yeah, and this little gift has sent it into a full blown shriek that only dogs can hear!" Tony answered back as he pointedly raised the package enough to catch Gibbs' attention.

Gibbs gazed down at the package and frowned at the adornments before pulling out his phone and hitting one of his speedial numbers.

"Hey. I need a favor and I need it to stay quiet." He listened patiently to the voice on the other end f the phone.

"Yeah. Yesterday."

"Thanks."

Gibbs flipped his phone shut and turned the elevator back on. The silence in the cab hung in the air heavily and was borne completely out of their anger and worry. When they got to the squad room, Gibbs led the way up to Vance's office and without missing a beat he glanced briefly at Ziva.

"Ziva." Was all the notice he gave his other agent as they kept going, knowing she'd catch up.

As they were ushered into the Director's Office without any waiting Tony was lightening quick to ask

"You had any exterminators in here lately, Director?"

Vance dropped his toothpick before he managed to close his mouth and let his brain catch up to DiNozzo's blatant worry and rising anger. It was such a rare combination to be seen on the man. that it took a minute for the shock to wear off. Gibbs' momentary smirk at Tony's forthright demeanor didn't help.

As he opened his mouth to give Tony a piece of his mind, he caught the glare that was now emanating from Gibbs; it was one that spoke of anger and the need to actually know the answer to DiNozzo's question.

What the hell was going on here?

Tony put his finger to his lips and shook his head slightly; the simple motion shocked Vance further and he couldn't help but raise his shoulders in a silent question that would hopefully get him his answers. It was strange knowing that his question had been fully understood and he watched as Tony pointed towards the legal pad that sat on the Directors desk.

Vance nodded and wrote something down on paper and showed it to the agents standing before him.

"3 days ago."

Tony read the answer and frowned before taking the pen and scribbling down his own answer to the Vance's silent, questioning shrug.

"Need to do it again ASAP. No time to explain; just get someone in here."

Vance looked at Gibbs with both daring and a challenge and Gibbs simply nodded his head in affirmation before sitting down to wait for the sweep to be carried out. He narrowed his eyes slightly at the team leader and moved towards his computer, only to be halted by Tony's firm hand on his wrist, looking up at the younger agent, he saw the nod and knew then that whatever this was about, was serious.

He watched Tony and Ziva join their supervisor at the table and stepped out of his office to request that his assistant make the necessary arrangements right away. There was something very wrong here and things just kept getting more and more strange. As the bug sweep was soon carried out and completed. Vance kept wondering if he'd entered the "Twilight Zone" and whether or not he should order the mandatory psych evaluations early, but since there was something obviously serious going on with his men, he bit his tongue and waited the situation out.

Everyone sat in companionable silence as the technicians packed up their equipment. It was only after the sweep was done and the two techs had finally left did any of them dare to speak. Gibbs sat back and let Tony take the lead; he listened intently as Tony explained what was going on and what he suspected. In the midst of Tony's explanation, they were interrupted by a loud knock on the door and before anyone could respond, Tobias Fornell barged his way into the room.

"Gibbs. What's going on? You sounded the alarm for help."

Gibbs pointed to the package on the table. "Need you to run this through your lab, Tobias. Need it done yesterday. Chain of evidence is crucial."

"There a reason why Ms. Scuito isn't doing it?" Fornell asked. It was an unusual request and given that NCIS had a fully functioning lab that could do the work; to say he was confused didn't even come close.

"She's too close to this." Gibbs answered bluntly as he looked square at Vance as if offering him the explanation rather than Fornell.

"Ah. Okay. This is about your boy getting shot? How is he anyway?"

"Agent McGee is recovering. Since this came from his apartment and has no identifying information from the sender, we have to go with the belief that Agent DiNozzo is correct and that the person responsible is still gunning for Agent McGee." Vance jumped in before anyone else; earning him a couple of scowls.

Fornell nodded and signed the chain of custody documents without further comment before taking the sealed evidence and heading with a team of agents that seemed to appear from nowhere to escort him to his car.

"Ziva, Tony, get back on Alex's paper trail. Let's get this guy before anyone else gets hurt." Gibbs' orders were laced with worry and frustration making his instructions seem more meaningful; not that Tony and Ziva were going to argue, their friend was injured and sick because of this guy and they wanted nothing more than to catch him and put him back where he belonged. They knew there was no time to waste and soon got back to running the searches and gathering as much information as they could because for some reason, that little package sent a whole new shiver of unease down their spines.

Barely thirty minutes later Gibbs' phone rang.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"Gibbs, whoever this bastard is has been all over your people's apartments."

"Talk to me Tobias." Gibbs said and pressed the speaker button so that his agents could get the information first hand.

"There's a video in here of your man leaving the hospital and getting into your car." There was a collective intake of breath and the only sound at that comment was Tony and Ziva's curses; one In English and one in Hebrew making it sound much worse than it was.

"Son of a bitch!"

"Mamzer!"

Gibbs was just as angry but needed to concentrate so he snapped his fingers for their silence so he could hear the rest of what Fornell had to say.

"We also have a pair of leather handcuffs, a necklace and a photo showing your Ms. Suito wearing the very same necklace. And your man's with her in the photo. Oh and a bullet tied with a black ribbon"

"You find any prints?" Gibbs forced himself to push past the anger at what he was hearing; needing to get every single detail he could.

"Oh yeah, Got one of those, too. Just one though. Lucky for us it's good enough for a match. Your perp is…."

"Alex Greene" Ziva, Tony and even Gibbs announced in tandem with Fornell.

"Wait a damn minute! If you already knew who it was, what the hell did you drag the FBI into it?"

"Because, Fornell, we needed your unbiased lab results to prove it." Gibbs reassured his friend that the FBI's efforts hadn't been in vain.

"Oh. Okay. Anything else?"

"Not at the moment, unless you can tell me where he's at."

"No. Afraid, I don't have that answer for you." Tobias sounded almost regretful at not being to tell them more.

"It's all right. You gave us the name. We'll do the rest. "Thanks, Fornell."

"No problem, Gibbs. You do owe me one, though."

"Yeah. Got it." Gibbs answered ended the call before hitting the speaker button for his desk phone.

"Abby Suito" the lab rat answered her phone in a subdued tone that left no doubt she was not herself today.

"Abby. Need you to come up here a minute. Now!" Gibbs didn't beat around the bush and ended the call before Abby could complain or argue with his order.

It didn't take long for Abby to arrive in the squad room and the fact that Gibbs hadn't greeted her with his usual fatherly welcome made it obvious that the man was in no mood for dealing with anything but the reason why she had been summoned. If Abby was going to honest with herself, she was pleased because at that moment in time, she wasn't really interested in doing anything but making right with Tim and since she knew she wouldn't be allowed to do that anytime soon after the way she had acted, that made her down right miserable.

"Tony." Gibbs said cryptically as he headed over to Ziva's desk to confer with her about where

the paper trail had led them so far.

Tony took his cue and headed over to Abby. He laid supportive hands on her shoulders as he bought her up to speed with the facts about the case and once he was done, he pulled the photo's of the evidence that Fornell had sent via email and stayed close as Abby viewed every last image; it wasn't long before her knees buckled and Tony had to help his trembling friend over to his chair.

"No! This can't be right!"

"There!" Ziva exclaimed from her desk, still hot on the trail of their culprit. "He's at The Comfort in Silver Spring. Wait! That address; 7990 Georgia Avenue; that is not far from McGee's apartment!"

"Let's Roll! Abby, you go up to the Director's Office until he assigns you an agent or tells you otherwise."

As Abby turned to face him, her shock at the evidence was still written all over her face and made it difficult to fully understand what was being asked as she struggled to catch up to the newest development.

"Gibbs! What's….?."

"Go, Now! We're wasting time!" Gibbs barked as he and his field agents headed to the elevator. He held it open until she disappeared up the stairs and into the director's Office; Luckily Tony had already called Vance and filled him in on the latest development and had made sure that Abby was protected and being figuratively sat on. That made it easier for the team to leave and they filed out to the parking lot and piled in Gibbs' car.

While enroute to the hotel, Ziva filled Gibbs and Tony in on what she'd found out. "Apparently, he has not tried to hide his activities. His bank records are a road map even a novice could read."

"Good thing for us and for McGee." Tony answered shortly, still wanting a piece of this scumbag so badly he could taste it.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs reined him in, knowing full well what was running through his head at the moment.

"Yeah, Boss. I know. By the book." Tony answered with a dejected tone that betrayed his emotions. He knew where his boss's head was at, so there was really no point in arguing with the man; instead, he took the warning to heart and pulled in his emotions.

"Ziva." Gibbs likewise warned his more dangerous agent and glanced at her in his rearview mirror. Her face was stony and resolute and it was an obvious struggle to actually follow his orders. A dangerous smirk glanced across her face, but was soon gone and he steel façade was put firmly back in place.

"Yes, Gibbs. I too understand. I am not allowed to dismember him or dispose of him in any way."

"Good. Don't want this bastard getting' off on a technicality or a screw-up on our part." Gibbs threw that piece of information out there with an edge of steel in his voice that made it an order. He didn't like it any better than his agents did, but in order to keep Tim and Abby safe, everything had to be done the right way.

"Where does Abby dig these gems up, any damn way?" Tony asked bitterly as the cogs in his mind whirred dangerously.

"DiNozzo! Don't even let me hear of you repeating that to her!"

"I won't, Boss. But you gotta admit…I mean 1st Mahwer and now this dirtbag?"

"Tony. This dirtbag was in Abby's life before she started working at NCIS." Ziva reminded him. Her voice had taken on that cold edge that told the two men exactly how pissed off she was at the situation.

"All the more reason why McGee was the perfect guy for her. What the hell's wrong with Abby anyway?"

**THA-WACK**

"Ow! Got it, Boss. Focusing on the case." Tony replied as he rubbed the back of his head. The rest of the journey was spent in silence as everyone mentally prepared themselves for the take down. It was weird, but no matter what, they had to summon up that last little bit of reserve to actually do this by the book.

It only took them a further 10 minutes to reach the hotel and as Gibbs pulled up to the curb, he gave his agents one last warning before heading inside to the front desk.

"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS. Can you tell me what room Alex Greene is In?" He watched as the receptionist blanched and pulled the reservation up on screen.

"He's in Room 306. Is there a problem?" Gibbs ignored her question and responded curtly.

"We'll need access to that room. Have you got a master key that will get us in?"

"Agent Gibbs, I can't give the keys out to you or…"

"Ma'am, this is a federal case you are interfering with. We need to get in that room and if you won't help then we'll find other means." Gibbs' anger started to rise at the young girl in front of him. He understood she had a job to do but this was a serious situation and there was no way he was walking out of this hotel without trying first.

"I'll get the manager." She reached over and dialed the manager's office. Before they knew it, A tall, slim woman walked over to them with an extended hand.

"Agent Gibbs, I'm the manager of this hotel; I understand you want to gain entrance to one of our guest's rooms."

"Yeah, Room 304. The man that is staying there is a part of an ongoing investigation." Gibbs didn't want to give her all the facts so laid it out as simply as he could. The manager turned towards the receptionist and held her hand out.

"Lisa, I'll need the master key card please." Once the card was handed over she smiled at the three agents before her "This way please."

The manager of the hotel showed Gibbs, Tony and Ziva up to the room and handed over the keycard.

"Please, don't make too much noise or draw attention to this. It's not good for business."

"No problem. I need you to go back downstairs and we'll return the key once we've done." They waited for her to leave before turning back to the door. Tony knocked once and announced their presence in hope that the guy would have the good sense to open the door and come quietly. He was met with complete silence so Gibbs reached over and swiped the key card down the lock; once the light turned green, Tony and Ziva stood to one side of the door frame with their weapons at the ready whilst Gibbs stormed inside wielding his gun.

"Clear!"

"Clear here too, Boss"

Gibbs was walking through the hotel room and relaxed slightly at his agents cries that let him know there was no immediate danger. It was shortlived though when he came across something that sent chills down his spine and shook him to the core. Sitting on the dresser was a makeshift shrine that was surrounded by various pictures of Abby. The shrine was adorned by two large, black pillar candles which lay in the midst of what looked like a collection of Abby's personal belongings; Perfume, jewelery and clothing were amongst the most prominent. He turned his head slightly and called out to his agents.

"Tony!, Ziva! This is definitely our guy. Get in here!."

Gibbs heard the sharp intake of breath at the sight before them and he was shaken out of his sickened silence by Tony's quiet, frightened voice.

"Boss, I think we've got a problem."