It was about two hours that Tony had been back at his desk and despite his words to Gibbs, the first thing he'd done was finding the addresses of their victims' parents before going back to the case to find a way to crack it. He really wanted to have something useful in case those grieving parents asked him about their children's killer.

Less than ten minutes after Gibbs and the other two agents came back to the Navy Yard, Abby rushed into the bullpen, screaming, "I've got another name."

Tony felt his heart sank at hearing those words and he looked up at Abby; waiting impatiently for her to continue.

"I didn't think there would be another name now that the killer has printed his message, but finally I decided it wouldn't hurt if I just made sure and-"

"Abby." Gibbs cut her off, indicating that she should get to the point.

"Right." She nodded at Gibbs and turned around to look the Senior Field Agent in the eyes. "It's Bill. Do you know any Bill?" She looked as worried as Tony did and that was more for Tony than the case itself. She knew that the case was taking its toll on her friend and even though she'd realized that Tony was upset with them all, she was adamant about fixing her mistake; but first they needed to close that case.

Every head turned to Tony as he started to go through a mental list of the people around him who were called Bill.

"Bill... Bill..." he murmured to himself and suddenly his breath hitched in his throat. "I have a neighbor called Bill; he's an old man living on the first floor." He explained and looked at Gibbs.

"Let's go." The older man said as he grabbed his gun and walked out with his SFA.

...

It was hard to explain to Bill why they needed him to come with them or why he needed a protection detail, but luckily the old man liked Tony and had a lot of respect for him, so when he realized that he wasn't going to get any clear answer, he just grabbed some of his stuff and left the building with them.

Gibbs told Tony to take Bill to the Navy Yard and Tony knew that his boss intended to go to talk to Martin and Lorie's families; so he stopped his boss, telling him that he needed to do it himself and his tone left no room for argument.

Gibbs, knowing where Tony's was coming from, finally nodded his head and took Bill to the Yard while Tony went the other way.

...

When Tony got back to the office, he looked even more withdrawn, if that was possible.

Lorie didn't have a caring family; her parents had passed away when she was a child and at the address Tony had found, lived an estranged brother who looked just slightly upset at the news of his only sister's death. That had enraged Tony, but there wasn't anything he could do about it; he just promised himself to find all Lorie's friends and make sure that her funeral would be a great one.

Martin's family was another story. His mother looked like a strong woman, but she almost fainted when Tony told them the news; they were such a nice people that smiled at him and thanked him for informing them personally. Again, Tony made a promise; this time to bring the killer to justice and he swore he wouldn't rest until he did that.

So when he got back to the bullpen, he drowned himself in work, but by 21.30, when Gibbs decided to call it a night, Tony still had nothing and knew that there wasn't anything to do at that time of night.

The thing that scared him was the fact that now that they didn't have another name, their killer could be targeting anyone and he didn't really need to share that thought with Gibbs to know that the older man was thinking of the same thing. Gibbs told Ziva to get Ducky and go to Abby's place and stay there with them and ordered McGee to spend the night with Palmer and his wife. It wasn't much, but it beat being alone.

When everyone was gone, he gathered his stuff and looked up to tell Tony to go with him, only to find the other man's desk empty. It seemed like Tony had already left.

A familiar feeling of dread filled his chest and he took his phone to call Tony.

"Boss?" Tony answered after the first ring.

"Where did you go?"

"I'm beat. I need a few hours of sleep. Will be back in couple of hours." The younger agent explained.

"No, you won't." Gibbs said firmly. "You're not allowed to show your face in the Navy Yard earlier than 0600. But that's not my question."

"You asked where I was."

"And?"

"And I'm going home."

"And you didn't notice that I was ordering everyone to stay together?"

The silence stretched more than Gibbs liked. "DiNozzo!"

"That psychopath isn't exactly after me and I don't mind being alone." Somehow it sounded exactly the opposite, like he hated being alone more than anything else in the world and yet he was so used to it that he didn't think anyone would care if he lied about it.

"Get your stuff and meet me at my house." Gibbs ordered, not wanting Tony to stay alone; before he could cut the line, though, he heard Tony talking back.

"No, Boss. Thanks, but I'm fine in my own apartment."

"That wasn't a request, DiNozzo."

"Gibbs. I said I'll be fine. I'm not gonna put you out of your way anymore." His voice was tense and cold. "See you in the morning." And with that the line went dead.

"Dammit, DiNozzo." Gibbs almost yelled as he slammed the phone down on his desk.

Grabbing his own stuff, he headed for Tony's place. If the younger man was stubborn enough to stay away, he would go to him. Tony was probably right about being safe in his own place, but Gibbs wasn't about to take that risk and he sure didn't like the idea of Tony staying alone in that state of mind.

...

There was a knock on the door and as Tony looked through the peephole, he sighed with exasperation and pulled the door open.

Gibbs eyed the weapon in Tony's hand. "You're gonna shoot me, now?"

"What are you doing here?"

Gibbs only tilted his head in response.

Tony stayed silent as well; staring at his boss, he matched the glare Gibbs was sending his way.

Strangely enough, it was Gibbs who broke the silence first. "You gonna let me in?"

'Like I have a choice.' Tony thought and stepped back to let the older man in. Somehow it was good to know that Gibbs wouldn't be alone that night. He'd been slightly worried; he knew Gibbs was capable of taking care of himself, but since he didn't know his opponent, he couldn't bet on anything just yet.

"We need to talk." Gibbs sat on the couch and looked up at Tony.

"I was hoping you'd just lie there and go to sleep. I told you, I'm dead on my feet." Tony went to his room and was back with a blanket and a pillow for Gibbs.

"The other night." Gibbs ignored Tony's hidden request. "I was joking; you know that, right?"

"We're in the middle of something pretty big. I don't feel like talking about jokes." Tony sounded annoyed and Gibbs knew that the younger man knew what exactly he was talking about. He didn't have a habit of addressing his mistakes or apologizing for them, but the current situation demanded a different approach and Gibbs was man enough to take it.

"You make it easy for us to make you the butt of all jokes and to ignore you." Gibbs admitted.

"Yeah, I'm pretty good at that, aren't I?" Tony chuckled bitterly. "You can thank my father for that. I'm sure you have his number somewhere; what with having become BFFs and everything." He said sarcastically.

"What?" Gibbs frowned.

"Oh, come on! You call him AD!" Tony threw his hands in the air.

Gibbs blinked. Just how deep did Tony's anger go?

"And I'm pretty sure it wasn't all a joke." Tony continued, his voice cold and emotionless. "Don't pretend it was."

Shock and remorse made Gibbs stay quiet, but Tony, taking the silence as a sign for another admission, just shook his head tiredly and walked to his room, closing the door behind him.

The soft click of the key turning in the hole aroused Gibbs from his stupor. "Damn, damn, damn." He cursed quietly under his breath when he realized what had just happened and threw the pillow towards the window.

'Damn McGee for excluding Tony from his stupid party. Damn Tony for making it easy for them to unload their frustrations on him. Damn... Damn his big mouth and him for saying those hurtful words.'

He'd pretty much called Tony a burden and a third wheel and he knew all along how much Tony hated to be one. Damn him for being a bastard towards Tony all the damn time.

...

Gibbs left Tony's place a little before five in the morning, so he could get home and take a shower and change his clothes for the new day and he was at the office at 05.45 only to find Tony already there. Tony looked up at him with weary eyes and for a moment Gibbs thought that the younger man had heard some more bad news and was just too spent too act on it.

"How long have you been here?" he queried.

"Just arrived." Tony shrugged.

Gibbs put the cup of coffee in front of him and turned his back on him in order not to see the surprised look on Tony's face. Two days in a row he'd brought his SFA coffee; he knew it wasn't good for his reputation.

Half an hour later, McGee and Ziva walked into the bullpen, both looking well-rested and fresh.

'At least some of us have had a good night.' Gibbs thought as he assessed his team.

They worked in silence for three hours; going through the evidence from their other cases to see if they could find a match to the handwriting on the cards or at least a clue in the way the murders had happened.

Around 09.30, one of the security guards walked into the bullpen and stood in front of Tony's desk. "Agent DiNozzo, this just came for you." He put an envelope on Tony's desk and before anyone could say anything, he added, "It's been scanned and everything looked safe. Do you need anything else?"

Gibbs' voice came from behind him, making him jump a little. "Who asked you to bring this to Agent DiNozzo? How long ago was that?"

"Umm, some... Some boy, agent Gibbs and it couldn't be more than 20 minutes, Sir." the young man stammered. "We didn't have any reasons to stop him, Sir and we followed the procedure and scanned the envelope."

Gibbs growled something under his breath and dismissed the guard before looking at Tim. "McGee, check the footage."

As McGee started to go through the footage, Tony cautiously opened the envelope and looked inside, finding just another one of his business cards with a note behind it which read, "Congrats; you saved your dear neighbor. But what about Alison?"

Tony's blood ran cold. Alison? Who was Alison? He was sure he didn't know any Alison, which meant he couldn't save this one.

"DiNozzo?"

"I... I don't know any Alison, Boss." he looked up.

"You sure?"

Tony shook his head. "Do you have any idea how many people I'm in contact with each and every day? I don't know the name of every single person I meet and for all we knew she could be just working in one of the shops I buy my groceries from."

"You mean you buy groceries?" Ziva snorted and quickly regretted it when Tony's furious glare landed on her.

"For crying out loud, can't you just shut your mouth for one minute?" Tony growled at her angrily.

"DiNozzo, go get some air." Gibbs ordered immediately, trying to placate his SFA and made a mental note to give Ziva a tongue-lashing.

Tony set his jaw as he stood up and walked quickly out of the bullpen; but he wasn't fast enough not to hear Gibbs starting to rebuke Ziva in a harsh tone, which surprisingly calmed him down to some extent.

He was walking towards the cafe near the Navy Yard when something caught his eyes. It was a name, written in red and bold font on the glass door of a small shop.

Alison.

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... TBC ...

A/N: Thanks a lot for your support and encouraging words. Your comments always make my day. A special thanks to XX-Samantha-XX.

All mistakes are mine.

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