Ok, I am going out of town tomorrow, so you won't have an update until, at least, Monday. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this chapter. And I really don't know what else to say. Wow, I am officially at a loss for words.

Ten

Dennis was sure that he heard wrong. There was no way that he heard John correctly. "Who was murdered?"

John shook his head and shrugged in unison. "He didn't know."

"Well what did he say?" Dennis asked as he rolled his eyes.

"He said dat he saw a coupla Marines on his dad's base kill some bitch."

Dennis shared a shocked look with his sister before turning back to their witness. "Who else knew about this?"

John did his shrug, shake combo again. "Some social worker."

"Name?"

It was clear that John was getting pissed the longer this conversation went on. "Somethin' Smith! She was a fat nigger chick."

Dennis smacked him in the face, which effectively wiped that annoyed look off John's face. "Don't you ever talk like that in front of me again," he seethed. It wasn't a hard slap so he didn't feel bad for doing it.

Especially not after the kid turned to Lea. "That's police brutality. You gonna do somethin' about it?"

Lea shrugged. "I didn't see anything."

Dennis smiled before he turned back to the punk. "The Social Worker, her name Gloria Smith?"

John sneered. Dennis glared, fully prepared to slap him again if he didn't answer. But it was unnecessary. "Yeah, dat's her. And look what happened to her? She got dead."

"Gloria Smith was killed in a car crash."

"Only a coupla days after she talked to Jamie. You think dat's a coincidence? 'Cause if you do, you're a helluva lot dumber than you look."

Dennis glared again. This kid was really getting on his nerves. "Who did he see commit the murder?"

"He didn't know."

"Sure he did."

"Well if he did, he didn't tell me, I didn't want to know. Now can you uncuff me?" His fear had completely dissipated. Now all that was left was the annoying snarkiness that Dennis came to associate with teenagers.

With a huff, he turned John around and removed the cuffs. He had enough to bring the kid in, but honestly, he didn't want to deal with him anymore. And he told Dennis everything that he knew.

But still…

He flipped the kid yet again and slammed him into the car's hood. He inched ever closer to the boy till they were practically nose to nose. "If I need to talk to you again, you better make yourself available."

John glared. "You can usually find me around here. These people don't really give a damn if they see a coupla kids hanging around."

Dennis smiled. It wasn't pleasant. "Good." He finally get John go. The kid glared again before he finally took off. Dennis and Lea watched his retreating back until he was completely out of sight.

"How'd you know the name of the social worker?" Lea asked.

Dennis shrugged as he climbed into the car. "That was the name of the woman who came to pick him up."

He shut the door. Lea stood outside his window staring at him in shock again. He couldn't blame her. He hadn't exactly given her a lot of information when he dragged her out of her precinct.

"You gonna get in or do you want me to just leave you here?"

She finally picked up her jaw and climbed into the passenger's side. Dennis started the car and headed back to where they came from. While John had been incredibly helpful, they still weren't done with the canvas. And the kid made some pretty good distance between here and there.

"You wanna tell me what exactly it is that I'm doing here?" Lea asked, incredibly annoyed after a minute of silent driving.

"We're canvassing a neighborhood. It's police work, I figured you would know that by now."

"Why am I here and not Tony? What's going on, what is this case?"

"You got the BOLO."

Lea rolled her eyes. "I got a BOLO with a missing kid wanted for murder, but I don't even know who he murdered, or why he's freaking missing!"

"His mother."

Lea jerked her gaze to stare at him bewildered again. Dennis took his eyes off the road to meet her eye. "He murdered his mother." He didn't tell her anything else. She didn't need to know the case. She was just here for situations like with John. Chasing after a suspect was better with two people instead of just one.

After another moment she got her bearings again. "That still doesn't explain why you called me and not Tony."

"Tony's not here." He said it quickly, hoping that she wouldn't question it.

No such luck. "Where is he?"

Dennis sighed heavily. "Last I heard he was at Quantico."

"The Marine base?"

"You know any other Quantico?" He snapped.

Lea glared at him. "You wanna tell me what I did to piss you off so bad?"

They finally made it back to their starting point. Dennis pulled off and parked in his original spot. He took that as a good omen. "You should already know that."

The two of them climbed out of the car. Together, they started walking down the street. He could see a couple of kids hanging around at the corner. "You're pissed because of a phone call?"

He wheeled around and glared at her. "'Then get a new one.' You remember saying that to me?" He was still pissed that she would say something like that to him.

But Lea just blinked. "Yes. I told you to get a new partner. How does that deserve the cold shoulder that I'm getting?"

He didn't want to talk anymore. She wasn't getting it. He turned around and started walking again.

Naturally, his sister followed. "I said get a new partner, not a new best friend."

"What's the difference?"

Lea groaned. "Den your partner is your best friend that you grew up with."

"What's your point?"

"You're also in love with him!" She said that far too loudly for his liking.

He spun around and grabbed her shoulders. He pulled her away from the street. Slamming her into the side of the brick building in the alley, he stepped into her personal space. "Keep your damn voice down," he hissed.

Lea rolled her eyes. "I'm not trying to out you. I'm just trying to point out how dumb you are. You're in love with your partner."

"Shut up."

"You need to understand! Usually the police has a few issues with partners who are that close."

"Tony and I work well together."

"You are destroying a perfectly good relationship because the two of you work well together?"

"I already know that Stan and I are over."

"But why?" Even though she was keeping her voice low, to Dennis it felt like she was screaming at the top of her lungs. "Why are you so willing to throw everything away? What? You think that if you're always at Tony's beck and call he's gonna realize he's suddenly gay and be with you?"

"I thought you wanted me to tell Tony!"

"I do, because I know that, as your friend, he'll accept you and love you unconditionally still." Dennis felt his heart clench a little. Lea rolled her eyes. "Like a brother. He's gonna love you the way he always has. But Den, you and I both know that he's never gonna love you the way you want him to."

"You don't know that." He knew that he was grasping at straws, but he didn't care.

The logical side of his brain told him that everything that Lea just said was completely true. Tony saw him as a brother. For years now, he's been forced to listen to every graphic detail of Tony's sex life. Every story of every woman that he ever bedded. Dennis knew that Tony was never going to switch teams. And he certainly wouldn't do it for his 'brother.'

But there was always hope in there as well. He kept saying to himself that if he never told Tony how he felt, then there was always the possibility that he wouldn't reject him. That somehow, Tony would reciprocate his feelings. It was foolish, but he had to cling to that hope. Even if it destroyed his relationship with Stan in the process.

Lea stared at him, clearly frustrated. After another moment of just watching him, she groaned. "Forget it. If you wanna act like a teenage girl, then I'm not gonna indulge you." She pushed him away, still annoyed. "You're gonna end up alone."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I'll still have my partner."

She shook her head. "You're hopeless." She moved around him and out of the alley.

Dennis huffed, rubbing his tired eyes. She didn't understand. How could she? She didn't know what they had gone through. What Tony almost did.

How could she understand that Tony needed him?

.

When Jethro found Stan, he was walking out of the interrogation room. He still looked miserable and worn out. If Jethro was an overly sympathetic man, he might have taken it easy on the young man.

But Jethro was not an overly sympathetic man. "You talk to Corporal Darklin, Stan?"

The blonde looked up at him with a surprised look on his face. Apparently he hadn't noticed his boss approach.

It took him a few seconds before he was finally able to answer. Jethro almost smacked him to get him to talk when he started. "For the second time, boss. Her story didn't change."

"You think Chike was lying?"

Stan shrugged. "Well, like I said, her story didn't change. At all. It was an exact word for word account of what she told me four months ago."

Jethro grinned. In four months, her story should have changed. Even if it was only a little bit, something should have changed. "Did you ask her about the hooker?"

Stan nodded. "I did, then she got defensive and scared, but she denied everything. And then kept to her original story."

"Head back to Quantico. Pick up Chike and Darklin. I wanna talk to both of them." He stepped back, planning on heading into the observation room until Stan stopped him.

"By myself?"

Jethro shrugged. "Call Detective Morgan." Did Stan just tense?

"He's all the way in Baltimore, boss."

"It'll take you both around the same amount of time to get to Quantico. Have him meet you there, you get Darklin, have him pick up Chike."

"Well, why can't I just take DiNozzo?"

Jethro moved back till he stood in Stan's personal space. "Is there a problem, Stan?"

Stan wasn't like DiNozzo. If Jethro did this with the Baltimore cop, he would have given him crap and made a joke. Stan knew better. He worked with Jethro for over four years, he learned to anticipate his boss' every move, and understood that you didn't question him when he gave you an order.

"No boss."

Jethro grinned. "Good." He turned around and headed into the observation room.

What he saw shocked him even more. Corporal McCane was a young, good looking Marine with brown hair. His eyes were on the table, so Jethro couldn't be sure what color they were. But that wasn't what surprised him. It was the man's bulk. He must have been three hundred pounds in pure muscle. Jethro was a damn good fighter, but even he would have had a hard time fighting this guy.

How the hell did DiNozzo best him?

The cop chose that moment to walk in the room. He was empty handed, but he looked happy about something.

"Thank God," he said as he shut the door. "For a second I was afraid I would never find this place. I felt like I was going through a maze. Back in Baltimore, all I really have to do is walk through one door and I find where I gotta be. It's a nice system." He sat down.

Jethro hated himself. He should have handled the interrogation. Damn it, DiNozzo was good at the grunt work, but he had never seen him question a suspect—he didn't count the butcher shop as an interrogation. Just how bad would the young man be?

McCane wasn't looking at him. His eyes still glued to the table. DiNozzo made a noise in the back of his throat. "Wanna hear a story?"

Jethro was ready to smack his head against the glass.

McCane finally looked up, his face a mask of confusion. "What?"

"Come on, it's a good one. See, about," DiNozzo paused, "three weeks ago, my partner and I were working this case. Seemed simple enough at the time. Single homicide. Twenty-four year old male killed in his apartment. Not even kidding, it was the easiest confession I ever got. I went to talk to the guy's buddy. And he's jittery, angry. I asked him one question. Literally, one question! "Where were you?" And what happens?" He barked with laughter. "He decked me! Just completely out of random."

McCane shook his head, completely annoyed. "What the hell does that have to do with me?"

DiNozzo leaned forward. Jethro could hear the smirk in his voice. "He did it. He hit me out of fear." He sat back, kicking his legs on the table. "Now there is a point to that, Corporal. I promise."

McCane shrugged, silently saying, "what?"

"You hit me, and you can't figure that out?"

McCane tried to jump up, but he was handcuffed to the chair. DiNozzo pulled his legs off the table and jumped up himself. Jethro was rather surprised that he could move that quickly.

"Screw you!"

"You were the one who said he was guilty. But you never denied killing him. When I asked you about that, you attacked me. What would that say to you?"

"I didn't touch him!"

"You really expect me to believe that?" DiNozzo laughed. "Come on! You see the bruises?" He pointed to his face.

McCane huffed. "Alright." He sat back down. Seconds later, DiNozzo followed. "You want the truth?"

"No, Corporal, I want you to lie to me some more," he said with only a small hint of sarcasm.

"I wanted to find Jamie Taylor. And I did want him dead," he shook his head, "but I never got close. I had no idea where to look."

"You think about hiring someone?"

"I did. He said that he couldn't find him. As far as I was concerned, Jamie Taylor just disappeared off the face of the earth."

DiNozzo sat for a while, completely silent. He leaned back again and crossed his arms over his chest. Jethro hoped that he was thinking the same thing.

"This P.I. have a name?" He finally asked.

"Tatum. Markus Tatum."

DiNozzo rose to his feet and left the room. Jethro exited observation to meet him in the hallway. He forced back the grin. "Not bad, DiNozzo."

DiNozzo smiled wide. "Appreciate that, Gibbs."

"You can use Burley's computer. I wanna know everything about Tatum in an hour."

"Where's Burley?"

"Went up to Quantico to pick up Julia Chike and Corporal Darklin."

DiNozzo nodded. "You think that Tatum lied to McCane? Think he found Jamie?"

"Possibly. What would his motive be?" He already had an answer, but he wanted to make sure that DiNozzo figured something out.

He shook his head. "Somebody else could have paid him more to lie to McCane and deliver Jamie to them instead."

Jethro nodded. "Find out." He turned and started walking back towards the bull pen.

Seconds later, he felt DiNozzo run to catch up to him. "Please don't leave me here, Gibbs. I meant what I said about getting lost."

Jethro smiled. "DiNozzo, never go on a carrier."

Still can't think of anything fun to say, so... well, talk to me!

Bob