As Sam undid his bonds, Callen pulled at the last of the tape holding his arms to the chair with a sickening rip. Sam winced as he saw the blood start to drip down Callen's arm.
Not caring, Callen pulled away from his partner and slammed Marco up against the wall.
"Where is she?" He snarled.
Marco smiled, "Like I said, possibly with the 'real' Tony DiNozzo."
Callen moved so his mouth was right next to Marco's ear, "I've had exactly the same training as you Marco. More than FLETC teaches us, you want me to use it? After all The Calling taught me as well, if even a hair his hurt on her head you'll beg my team to shoot you." He snarled quietly.
"GET HIM OFF ME!" Marco yelled.
Gibbs moved back to stand between Sam and his Ex-Senior Field Agent.
Marco looked at Callen his eyes worried. "You wouldn't do this to me, would you? I helped you, I gave you a home, a family…. A reason to live."
Callen shook his head, "Not good enough. She is my reason to live, my team is my reason to live, making sure NO child ever has to go through what The Calling put us through… THAT is my reason to live."
Marco struggled against the hand that was slowly pressing on a pressure point on his shoulder. The pain shooting down his side was excruciating and eventually he screamed.
"She's in the back! GOD, Please, let me go!" He begged as Callen stepped back and without him to hold Marco up, Marco slid down to the floor.
"Arrest me Boss, please; keep him away from me."
Callen smiled back at him as he got to the door, "I'm exactly what you made me." He smirked and ran out with Sam hot on his heels.
Jethro looked at the wiped out body of his former SFA. "Tony why?" He asked as he put the cuffs on the man he had thought of as a son.
"Why what?" Tony shrugged, "I haven't done anything wrong."
"You gave away classified information to a terrorist group." Gibbs snapped.
Tony laughed, "I did not, I shared valuable information with my family. You honestly think we are the terrorists?" He asked. "We are going to make America great again. We will get rid of those who have lied and cheated their ways into positions of power, stepping over those smaller, not able to fight back. NCIS has been just as bad as all the other federal agencies. You were just as bad. You said you wanted to make things better, but you lied. You said you cared, you lied. You're like everyone else. In it for the paycheck. The Calling isn't like that. I tried to tell you, Boss, you wouldn't listen. Tried to get Dorneget to leave Egypt, I told him Boss, I told him there was a bomb… He went back in, he was supposed to leave! So we had to go, I made sure I was there, in Iraq to help. You still wouldn't listen… You made me shoot my brother!" For a moment Tony looked broken. "Daniel had a good heart, he called me right before… He called me. Tried to get me to leave. Daniel died fighting for the cause, he'd have been so disappointed in Callen. He looked up to him you know…" Marco laughed derisively all traces of Tony gone. "You wouldn't know, you… Like all people in power rule by fear. Follow your rules, call you Boss…"
"We were friends Tony." Gibbs sighed.
Marco shook his head, "No… Tony was a patsy. A partner until something better came along, then you had Kate. She was an equal for you. She started putting me down. I was her senior but you didn't put her in her place, no… Even worse, you brought in a Probie for her, then she died. You let Sheppard rule over you…. YOU! You who would never be told by anyone to do anything. You let her bring a Mossad operative, not any Mossad operative, but the one whose brother KILLED KATE! You allowed her to think she was higher than me. WE… any semblance of friendship that we had had… You killed it. Father had always been right, trusting anyone outside of The Calling was dangerous."
"You could have trusted me…" Gibbs stated.
"I tried…" Marco whispered, then he moved from Gibbs' touch, his face becoming blank. "The Calling is family, The Calling is trust… Everything else is a LIE!"
Gibbs stepped back, this was NOT his Tony, his friend, his agent… The detective in Baltimore who had shown so much promise. It was as if Tony DiNozzo had never really existed.
The transportation team turned up and looked at the pair of them.
"Sir?" The leader of the four man team asked.
Gibbs looked up, "Take him to the Boatshed; Hetty Lange and her team are waiting for him. You two come with me we still have one at large, and a possible hostage." He informed them as they went to look for Callen, Sam and Anna.
"G… Wait!" Sam called as he struggled to keep up with his friend.
"Can't." Callen gasped as he ran. He ignored the pain in his arms and his face, he needed to get to Anna before Senior killed her.
"G! STOP!" Sam yelled as Callen slid to a halt before rounding a corner.
The face that looked back at Sam nearly broke his heart. Callen looked devastated and Sam hadn't seen that look since Dom had been shot in front of them.
"Sam, I can't, I can't lose anyone else… Not here…" He shook his head to clear it, "Either come with me or stay out of my way."
Sam smiled in understanding, "I'm right behind you brother, but you're not clearing your route, we don't want to miss her. You need to think clearly." He advised.
Callen took a deep breath and nodded, Sam was right and he knew it.
Sam put his hand on his shoulder, then handed him a gun, "Also, this might help." He told his partner with a smirk.
"Smart Aleck!" Callen grinned back as he checked the clip.
"Someone has to watch out to save that ass of yours." Sam retorted, "I mean, if you found them what were you gonna do, sass him into submission?"
For a second a dark look crossed Callen' face, but by the time it registered with Sam it was gone and the smirk was back. "Possibly, come on." He said as he put the clip back into the gun.
Anna sighed as she looked down at the body of Roberto, Aka Anthony DiNozzo Senior.
"Damn you." She cursed as she walked around the body. "How am I going to get information we need now! You were supposed to talk, not have heart attack!"
She stopped for a second, adjusting her dress back from where Roberto had attempted to strip it from her body. All she had done was push him and well, maybe, she had punched him once to get him off of her, but she hadn't been that hard and he'd fallen to the floor clutching his heart.
She didn't feel an ounce of regret, knowing that, had he not had the heart attack, he would have, at least attempted to rape her. Then the outcome would have been the same as she would have slit his throat for sure.
She heard a noise coming down the hall and looked around for something to defend herself with.
Finding nothing but a metal trash can, she moved to stand behind the door as the multiple footsteps got closer.
The door opened slowly and she froze for a second as the muzzle of a gun poked through the door.
She started to bring the trash can down and at the last second, pulled it, although it did glance off the recipient's shoulder.
"Callen?" She asked as the man dropped his gun, in shock holding his shoulder in pain.
"Anna?" He looked relieved and pulled her into his arms, kissing her and not caring that Sam was grinning at him.
A second later they parted and he looked over at the body on the floor. "You?" he asked.
Anna smiled, in that cheeky, half smile that made his heart go crazy. "Not this time. Had nature, not intervened, it would have been me." she admitted. "He tried to attack me and then he had a heart attack."
"I'll take over this." Sam said, stepping closer to the body, "I'll have the coroner prove that it's a heart attack and make sure that no charges are filed."
Anna looked concerned for a moment, but then stepped back with Callen.
"I still have to take you both in though." Said Gibbs as he caught up with them. "Just need a final debrief before we wrap this up."
Callen turned to his friend, "I'm sorry Jethro." He said sincerely.
Gibbs nodded and looked at the body on the floor, "You kill him?" He asked Anna.
She shook her head, "Heart attack, he was…" She stopped, surprised that she found she couldn't tell him but Callen knew and wrapped his arm around her.
"Come on… Lyubov'," Callen smiled as Jethro grinned as much as Anna did.
"Marco has been taken to the boatshed, I have to take you both there as well." Gibbs told him, "But you both ride with me."
Callen smiled, until that point he hadn't been entirely sure that Gibbs had trusted him.
"Come on Callen, there's some people at the boatshed that will want to see you." Gibbs said as he gently placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and herded him towards the door.