My goodness have you ever just wanted to throw a brick at someone's face? I mean for as not nice as some of the stuff I write is, I've been told that I couldn't be threatening if I tried and they're kind of right, I look like I'm more likely to bake you a cake than yell at you, but people are so...people! So instead of throwing construction supplies at people, I wrote another chapter. Okay all that is pretty much a lie. Despite what I write, I'm not violent at all and I really couldn't throw anything at anyone. I can't even insult someone properly. My boyfriend and my roommate think I'm too nice for my own good. I'm trying to prove them wrong. I tried to be scary the other day. They laughed for twenty minutes.
Anyway, point of this really rambling A/N (I'm so tired it isn't even funny) is that I'm frustrated with people and instead of doing the healthy thing and talking about it, I wrote a chapter. Yay for you guys!
Hope you enjoy.

~Renee

Tony leaned back in his chair, his foot tapping against the cool cement floor. The man sitting across from him stared at him intently, looking confused, his eyes going from Tony's twitching feet to his shaggy dusty brown hair, never settling.

"Find what you're looking for?"

Tony's voice was calm and flat, he knew he was reverting back to instinctual self-defense. Stay calm, don't antagonize or anger. Just be cool and respectful. He could do that. What he couldn't do is sit here in silence and wait for someone to talk to him. He needed answers, even if it was just to why he was staring at him.

The man blinked once, as if brought out of a trance. He smiled slowly, the edges of his grin curling up. The look made a shudder go down Tony's spine though he hid it well.

"You don't look like him."

Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Look like who?"

The man stood and began to circle around the young man, leaning in to study him closer.

Tony tensed, trying not to let the man see that he was being unnerved.

"Your...father. Gibbs. I don't understand. You don't look anything like him. You take after your mother? I wasn't even aware Gibbs had a son…."

Tony shrugged non-committally, people had been surprised by him before, but all the important people knew. Whoever this man was, he didn't need to know. Or Gibbs didn't want him to…

"I didn't even think he was seeing anyone else. I knew he had remarried a few times, but children never seemed like an option for him. He didn't appear to want them...Let me guess, your mother was one of those, those alcohol filled hazes he wasn't even aware of. Dropped you off at the door a few years later? And of course what good marine runs from responsibility? He couldn't leave you on your own, he had to take you in. That's what happened, isn't?"

He smiled brightly and nodded several times, obviously thinking himself clever while Tony glared forward, his fingers wrapping tightly around the edge of his hard metal chair.

"Good guess, but not even close."

The man paused in his circling and stared down at him surprise.

"Really? Care to educate me?"

"Why does this matter to you?"

There was a harsh clip to the side of his head. It didn't hurt, not comparatively, but it did catch him by surprise and he fell forward slightly, wincing.

Tony screwed his mouth to his side, he should have just let the man have his assumptions.

"Anthony?"

He sighed.

"I'm adopted."

The man leaned back and retook his seat.

"You are adopted? He chose you. Interesting..."

Tony crossed his arm in front of himself protectively and tried to change the subject.

"So, your buddies were a little less than open, you want to tell me what this is all about?"

"Do you know what this means Anthony? He chose you. That means you are more than just a responsibility or a burden. You are something he wanted. Something he loved and decided to take care of. You matter to him, even more than I thought. This is delightful."

The man's face brightened and Tony felt his heart beat quicken.

This really wasn't good.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but please… please explain this to me."

The man rubbed his chin and pursed his lips, his eyes still lit with twisted joy.

"I suppose there is not harm in sharing, after all your role is very important in all of this. Tell me Anthony, what do you know of your father? Is he the man you think he is? Do you know that he stole something very precious to me? Someone very precious to me? Do you know about his family?"

Tony straightened, his back popping into place, his own eyes flashing with defiance.

"I know what I need to. Nothing you say will change what I think of him."

The man's gaze darkened and he leaned closer to Tony.

"Anthony, do you love your father?"

"Yes." Immediate. Complete. Total.

"If someone were to take him from you, to steal him away from you in an act of horrible misguided revenge, would you do anything to bring him to justice?"

"Yes."

He smiled.

"Then you understand why I have to do this. Why he has to suffer."

Tony shook his head.

"No. I would bring that man to justice. This isn't justice. This is hatred. No matter what my dad has done to you, no matter what you think you have to do, this isn't right."

The man lashed out, grabbing the front of Tony's shirt and bringing him out of his chair.

"Listen to me!"

Listen to me you little shit! Listen! You worthless little-

He closed his eyes and pulled in a deep breath. Focus. Stay in the here and now. He had enough problems in this moment, he didn't need to go backwards.

"I don't care what you think is right or wrong. Your father took something away from me, so I am going to take something from him. It is as simple as that."

Tony stared up at the man, burying his shaking hands in his tightly pulled tee-shirt.

"But what did your father take from him?"

The hit was completely expected.

XXX

Mike ducked under the crime scene tape and stormed past the startled agents, sheaths of tightly rolled papers under his arm.

"Mike?"

"Move Ma...Mc...Move."

McGee stuttered and took a step backwards, stepping into Kate who rolled her eyes and sighed.

"They're in the basement."

Mike glared at her and stalked towards the firmly closed door.

"Of course they are."

The two watched him disappear down the steps before turning back to their work. The silence hung over them, oppressive and heavy. They could both hear the lack of rightness in the house. In the past six years Tony had taken the house and turned it into a home as cliche as that might sound. From the parade of pets following him around to the trail of Italian floating over everyone's heads to the sporadic cursing in Spanish, Tony left his mark everywhere, whether he knew it or not. Kate looked over at the steps and chewed on her bottom lip when she saw the line of cats sitting at the top landing and staring down at her. Waiting for someone who wasn't them.

She couldn't take the quiet.

"What is it about him that turns you into such a mess?"

McGee started and then shrugged, not looking at Kate and not looking at the broken door and not thinking about the boy who called him McGoo and hacked his cell to play White and Nerdy every time it powered up.

"Mike? I don't know. I think it's the fact that he's Gibbs' boss. Was Gibbs' boss. If he could control Gibbs I don't even want to know what he could do to us."

Kate closed her eyes briefly before handing the younger agent an evidence bag.

"You think too much McGee."

He nodded and labeled the bag.

"Yeah, that's what Abby says… Oh gosh Abby. She's not taking this well." he winced and thought back to when he had to deliver the news. The goth had swung at him and then collapsed crying in his arms. His fingers moved unconsciously to his bottom lip, he had dodged the blow, but not completely and his lip had swollen to twice the normal size. He heaved out a breath and shook his head. Abby had kicked him out of the lab after that. He didn't blame her. He kind of wanted to hit someone and throw them out too.

"You alright McGee?"

He nodded.

"Just want him home."

Kate turned back to the splintered front door.

"Yeah. Me too."

His eyes drifted over to the closed off stairs. "What do you think they're doing down there?"

Kate straightened and crossed her arms.

"If I know anything about the three of them, I think we're best not knowing."

Xxx

Fornell spread the files over the work bench while Mike slung back a shot of bourbon.

"We have nothing. Hernandez isn't hiding, he isn't even trying to be subtle, but we have absolutely nothing connecting him to this. Rock solid alibi for the time of the….kidnapping… he has at least a dozen witnesses, three of them off duty police officers."

Gibbs growled as he paced back and forth in the corner of the room, his tracks followed closely by Doc who hadn't left his side since he had stepped in the front door.

"Could he have hired someone?"

Fornell shuffled some papers from one folder to another.

"We have no contact between him and anyone unusual. Just his staff that came with him and they are all completely clean. We don't have anything."

Mike leaned the glass against the side of his weathered face and frowned heavily at the agent.

"He's connected in this someway. You can't tell me the man with the biggest axe to grind came all the way to the US, to D.C. at the exact time we lose the kid and it's coincidence."

Gibbs came to the table and leaned against the wood, pushing his hand to the paper with so much force that the edges started to curl up.

"There's no such thing as coincidence."

Fornell chewed on the inside of his cheek and nodded.

"I'll have Hernandez brought in for questioning. We'll talk to him, maybe he'll give something away, something we can work with."

Gibbs nodded thoughtfully and looked to Mike who had forsaken the glass and was now drinking straight from the bottle. He swallowed deeply and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he spoke, low and serious and somehow still completely sober.

"That's one option. Or we could go with my plan."

Tobias raised an eyebrow and looked at the two men. Mike, one hand gripped around the neck of the bottle and the other drifting towards his gun, that instinct never giving way. Gibbs, his hands clenched tightly, but not tightly enough to hide the fine tremor running through them, desperation and fear buried underneath the steel blue in his eyes.

Fornell crossed his arms in front of his chest, bracing himself for something he knew he wasn't going to like.

"And your plan is?"

Mike and Gibbs exchanged a glance and the older man stepped forward, finally revealing the papers he had been clutching so tightly.

He unrolled them on top of the files and Fornell looked at them in surprise.

Blueprints.

"We know who took him. We know where the bastard is staying. We know he thinks he got away with it and he is just cocky enough..."

Tobias leaned forward and studied the measurements closely.

"You want to break in? And what? See if Tony is there and steal him back? What if he isn't there?"

Gibbs stepped forward, his jaw tight.

"Then we take Hernandez and we see what he's...willing… to tell us. I want my son back. And he's going to give him up one way or another."

Fornell looked from Mike to Gibbs, from bloodshot eyes to fear paled skin.

"Okay."