Chapter 6

A ding made Leon Vance look up; he wondered why his computer was beeping this time. He clicked the red cross on the screen. It was a notification that someone was looking in his file. He scrolled down the notification. His filed was accessed from autopsy. He sighed, because, he knew that his game was over. Grabbing his SIG he walked out of his office, slamming the door behind him.

---

Over the next couple of days no one could figure out where Leon Vance was. It was treated as a security risk; no one knew what he was doing or where he was going. Every single NCIS agent was working to find him. McGee, however, was somewhere with Tony, far away in a safe house, even Gibbs didn't know the details.

---

McGee was sitting at the dining room table in the crappy little apartment. As soon as they had discovered Vance had left, Tony had dragged him here, buying some clothes and a toothbrush on their way over.

--Flashback--

"This is not a freaking debate Tim!" Tony yelled when his boyfriend refused to step into the car. "If anything happens to you, because I couldn't keep you safe, I'll never forgive myself!"

With a long face and a sigh McGee sat down in the car. "I'm fine Tony; I'm a trained Federal Agent for peats sake. Nothing is going to happen to me." Tony simply neglected Tim's whiny complaints and drove his car to the nearest car rental. He picked a credit card and a false ID out of his wallet, and walked over to desk to rent a car. Much to Tim's surprise he took an ordinary car and not the flashy one Tim had expected him to take.

Still not listening to Tim he picked up his cell phone and dialed a number when they were back on the road again.

"Hello Marie, its Tony."

"I'm fine, thanks. Listen, I need the place, can you all have it ready by tomorrow afternoon?"

...
"We talked about this, if it came too far I couldn't discuss the details, you know that."

He listened for a few more seconds while Tim was wondering what all of this was. Tony having a fake ID and a credit card in that name, it was almost like he had a complete back up plan.

After he hung up, Tim turned his big green eyes to Tony and asked him the question he had wanted to ask for the last hour.

"Tony? What's going on?"

Tony knew that this wasn't something he could put off with a laugh or a joke.

"I made some enemies, here at NCIS, in Baltimore; even in Philly, some things went pretty bad sometimes. Since I know how bad things can go, I created a fake identity and rented an apartment in a small town in Tennessee. From now on you refer to me as Charlie and I pay for everything, we can't risk Vance or one of his sick buddies picking up on you."

McGee was about to make a really bad joke, but when he saw the look Tony was giving him he knew that this was serious.

"You can't give up this quickly because I might be in danger!" He tried one last time, but he knew that it was a lost cause. Tony was going to do this and he had to go along for the ride.

"Get some sleep," Tony said. "I'll wake you in a few hours so you can continue to drive while I sleep." Kissing Tony on the cheek McGee lay back down in his seat and closed his eyes. He was along for the ride; he had better make the best of it.

---

Back in DC things were going a lot worse. With Vance having gone AWAL, SecNav thought that it was a good idea to name Gibbs as temporary director. After only two days, he had fired at least half the agency and some agents twice. If it hadn't been for Abby, everyone would have run away but she was able to convince everyone that he wasn't really firing them.

After the third day the, the agents gathered and convinced Ducky to help them and Gibbs with his 'acting as director thing.' Knowing that he was these agents last hope Ducky agreed and grabbed his bag to go join Gibbs in his new office.

Knowing why Ducky was there Gibbs offered him a chair and a glass of bourbon.

"I can't find the damn Bastard," Gibbs sighed. "He is somewhere out there targeting my people and doing who knows what else!" With frustration beaming off his face, he walked back and forth in the office like he was some kind of caged animal. "His wife hasn't seen him in days, in fact, no one has, his car is here in the garage, and we don't even have footage of him leaving this building."

Kicking the chair he barged out of his office, leaving Ducky behind. If there was ever a time for coffee it was now. When he came back half an hour later, the bullpen was quiet and filled with working agents; it hadn't been this organized since Vance had left. He figured that it had been the ME's work and was thankful that he had brought tea for his friend.

Before stepping into his office he stood still before Cynthia's desk and felt guilty when he noticed that the woman flinched involuntarily. He had been yelling way too much at her the last few days. He handed her a bouquet of flowers he had been holding and walked without anymore words into his office.

It wasn't really his office anymore. Ducky had completely taken over. There were Post-its everywhere. Taking a closer look Gibbs saw that they were places Leon could be, things he could have done. So far Cyber Crimes hadn't found a security breach and everyone was thankful for that.

Gibbs grabbed a red marker and started crossing off the possibilities he knew one of the agents had already checked out. It left them still with a lot of places Vance could be.

Ducky walked over to the balcony to hand all the agents an assignment while Gibbs tried to get hold of Tony and McGee.

The only thing Tony had told him was that they were going someplace safe and they would contact him in a few days to see if the coast was clear yet. When neither of them picked up their phones he got worried. With a nagging feeling in his chest he sat down in his chair, thinking that this might be a good time to pray.