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Chapter 9

Gibbs drove even faster than usual to his house. His usual commute decreased by 6 minutes, instead of taking the usual 15, he barely managed to avoid getting pulled over by some nearby cops. Once arriving at his house, he packed over a week's worth of clothes, purposefully avoiding anything black, hoping that he wouldn't need most of them. Scowling heavily, he headed to the bathroom to grab his things from there. As he was walking, his phone went off, and he sprinted back into the bedroom to answer it.

"Gibbs," he growled, hoping-praying-that he would hear Tony or G's voice on the other end, or even Hetty. The speaker was not expected, or received gladly.

"Gibbs," Leon Vance said, sounding highly irritated.

"Leon, don't really have time-"

"What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On," the director on NCIS ground out. "Why is your entire team, plus my best forensic scientist, suddenly flying out to Los Angeles? I'm fairly certain I only sent DiNozzo out there, not the entire damn MCRT! And who the hell is in our interrogation room? Is he even connected to your case? Speaking of which, who's supposed to solve it?"

"Tony is in trouble," the lead agent snapped back, illogically pissed off by Vance calling him DiNozzo. "We're going out to get him out of it. The guy in interrogation is the dead lance corporal's brother. Honestly, I don't give a damn who solves the case. Call Henrietta Lange if you have anymore questions, or ask McGee for the voicemail."

Gibbs hung up abruptly, tossing the cell back on his bed and walking back into the bathroom. There would most likely be consequences for talking to Vance like that, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. He needed Tony back, safe, and he would do anything to get him there.

Exactly 17 minutes later, Gibbs stopped at Abby's place to pick her up. The forensic scientist looked miserable, her eyes not puffy enough for her to have been crying long, but the evidence was still there. She stowed her bags in the backseat, then silently opened the passenger door and slid in.

"How you doing Abs?" Gibbs asked gently. Despite the nature of her job, she was fairly removed from most of the violent and dangerous aspects of being a federal agent. She had never taken it well when any of the team was in trouble, especially when it was Tony. The SFA cared deeply for the scientist, and did his best to protect and shield her from some of the worst things out there. In turn, Abby showed more affection for Tony then she did most other people, although their relationship seemed to have deteriorated slightly after his Mexican hiatus.

"D-do you think he's o-okay?" Abby asked shakily, sniffing again.

"It's Tony. He always comes out okay, and you know he'll be fighting to get back, like he always does," Gibbs said, trying to reassure the distraught woman without lying. Truthfully, he felt uneasy at his own words, wondering if Tony actually was trying to get back to the team, his family. After all, Gibbs had all but told him that he was fired, unable to see past his own anger- and fear. Fear of losing the man who was like a son to him. And now his own foolish actions might've caused him to be lost forever. Not for the first time, and certain that it would not be the last time until this whole mess was over, Gibbs cursed himself for not being able to tell Tony what he truly wanted to.

"R-right," Abby murmured, wiping at her eyes. "And you didn't give him permission to d-die."

Gibbs grimaced, remaining silent and wishing Abby hadn't decided to bring that up. His memories of Tony with the plague were ones he was not fond of at all, and a reminder of the agent's near death was not what he needed right now. Besides, it didn't really matter if Tony had permission to die or not if whoever had attacked them decided to put a bullet in his head.

After another ten minutes of fast driving and cursing the other cars on the road, Gibbs pulled up at Dulles International Airport.

Gibbs dropped Abby at one of the doors to the airport, telling her to meet up with the rest of the team, go through security, and to wait for him by the gate while he parked. The scientist nodded, wiping at her eyes one last time, before squaring her shoulders and heading inside. The lead agent sped over to the parking garage, cursing emphatically at the lack of parking spots. When he finally managed to find a free spot, it was already 10:25, which wouldn't leave him much time for security and getting to the gate.

Gibbs bit back at curse when, a few minutes later, he found a long line waiting at security. He glanced at his watch, which read 10:33, then pulled out his badge and walked over to the nearest TSA officer.

"Excuse me," he snapped.

"Just a moment, sir," the man replied, looking at a boarding pass. He pointed the young women and her child towards another officer, then turned to Gibbs. "What can I help you with today?"

Gibbs lifted his badge. "Agent Gibbs, NCIS. I need to catch a flight that boards in about ten minutes for an active federal investigation."

"Right, of course," the man said. "I'll get you to the front of the line."

He led the irate agent to the front of the line, looking over the boarding pass and ID Gibbs handed him as they went, so they could bypass the other TSA officers checking them.

"Here, you can go through the pre-check line, which means that you don't have to remove your jacket, shoes, or laptop computer if you have one. Good luck with your investigation."

Gibbs grunted his thanks, tossing his briefcase on the conveyor belt and his weapons in a smaller bin, flashing his badge and a glare at an officer who looked like he wanted to protest. He vaguely registered the TSA man who had helped him bypass the line murmur something to the other officer, as he strode to the metal detector.

He was quickly waved through, and reclaimed his bag. As he headed for the gate, he pulled out his phone to call Hetty.

"What did you find?" he asked the moment the line was picked up.

"I assume you are already at the airport?" Hetty asked. She sounded calm, but he could hear the underlying worry.

"Yes. Boarding soon."

"I will make this quick then. I sent a team to Mr. Callen's house, which also had Agent DiNozzo's belongings. They discovered blood in multiple places, and are running it now. It's all fairly small amounts, not enough for someone to bleed out. No sign of Mr. Callen or Agent DiNozzo, although Agent DiNozzo's phone was found there. We haven't found Mr. Callen's phone, but cannot trace it as of now. Found multiple bullets embedded in the room, and are also running those. We're looking into our current case, which also had ties to an undercover operation Agent DiNozzo and Mr. Callen worked together about seventeen years ago."

"Wait- Callen and DiNozzo worked together in the past?" Gibbs asked as he reached the gate. The rest of the team was standing together near the entrance, and it seemed that boarding hadn't started yet. Abby and Ellie looked up as he reached them, and Ellie lifted an eyebrow at his comment.

"Yes, before either of them worked for NCIS. Agent DiNozzo was working for Peoria PD, and Mr. Callen was CIA."

"What did this operation entail, exactly?"

"I do not know all of the details yet, but it was a six month operation in Columbia to take down a drug cartel. They went in as two brothers, infiltrated the cartel, and, until recently, it was believed that they took down the entire operation."

"Just the two of them? And what do you mean 'until recently'?"

"Yes. Quite the impressive feat. They were a bit of a legend among undercover operatives, although nobody ever knew their names, of course."

"How'd Tony get in on the operation, if he was a cop back then?" Gibbs questioned, earning another raised brow from Ellie and a questioning look from Abby and McGee.

"He had taken down a major arms dealer just before. I am still trying to get more details on everything, but it is all redacted and classified, and most people are still asleep. I will most likely have all the necessary information by the time you arrive. Mr. Callen's team is working as we speak, so we may have leads on their location when you land. There will be a rental car in your name from Hertz waiting for you, and I will have directions sent to your Agent McGee."

"Thanks, Hetty." Gibbs said, as boarding group one was called.

"I believe I heard boarding start, so we shall have to finish our conversation later, Agent Gibbs. Fly safely."

Gibbs hung up, and looked at his team, watching him anxiously.

"I'll fill you in on the plane. Let's go."

Once the team had sat down on the Boeing 767, near the back of the plane, Abby and Ellie fixed the lead agent with intense stares.

"What did you find out?" Ellie asked at the same time as Abby, who demanded to know if they had found Tony yet.

Gibbs let out a sigh and began to talk. "No, they didn't find Tony and G. G's house, where I think Tony was staying, was shot up. The team Hetty sent found blood there, but not overly large amounts. They're running the bullets and blood, so the results should be ready when we get there. There was nobody still at the house. G's phone wasn't there, so his team's going to keep trying to trace it. Also, they think that this might have a connection to the case they were working on, which has a connection to an undercover op Tony and G worked on about two decades ago. That's about all Hetty told me, but they should have more intel for us when we land."

Abby sniffed, looking like she was going to start crying again. "But th-they found b-blood. So one of them is hurt or-or…"

McGee rubbed her arm comfortingly from her left. "You heard the voicemail, right?"

Abby nodded, looking at the agent with hopeful eyes.

"Well, Tony said that it was one of the 'cartel thugs' when someone yelled, so they must have injured at least one, so that could be the blood. Just because there's blood doesn't necessarily mean that it's one of our guys who got hurt."

"I hope you're right, Timmy," Abby said, looking slightly less miserable.

"Can I listen to that voicemail?" Ellie asked, leaning over from across the aisle.

McGee nodded, passing over his cell phone. "It's in a message from Gibbs' phone. I sent it to myself in case we needed more than one copy of it."

The former NSA analyst thanked him, then plugged in earbuds and pulled out a sheet of paper to listen.

McGee frowned suddenly, turning back to Gibbs. "Hold on- did you say that Tony and Callen worked an op together a while back?"

"Yeah, about seventeen years ago. Why?"

"I didn't know that," Tim muttered. "Huh. He never mentioned it before. And he never said anything about knowing Callen, when the two of us went out there a while back. Not even when Callen got shot."

"Tony probably utilized his own sources to get the information about G back then. He knows people all over, from when he was a cop. He most likely has contacts in LAPD," Abby put in.

"Yeah, probably. I just thought he would've mentioned something…." McGee trailed off. He reached over the forensic scientist and across the aisle to tap Ellie's arm. "Can I have my phone back?" he asked when she pulled out her earbuds.

"Could you wait like, I don't know, maybe fifteen minutes, maximum? I want to go through and see what else I can get out of this," Ellie asked, scribbling something on the paper she'd gotten out. Gibbs could see that it was already half filled with writing.

"Yeah, no problem," McGee said, pulling out an e-reader instead. Abby grabbed her phone and own earbuds, and settled down, head nodding slightly to the beat. Gibbs sighed internally, and leaned back in the seat, drifting off to a worried sleep after a few minutes.

A/N (Benny)- Terribly, terribly sorry about the late update! We were on spring break, and I found out that I didn't get wifi! And since I post from my laptop, no wifi=no internet=no update. I'm very sorry, and I tried to make this chapter a little longer as a bit of a peace offering. Just don't kill me please! I have a concert next week!