Chapter 2

Trish waved off the driver, when he opened her door. She normally didn't travel by limo, preferring her little sportscar and the freedom it brought her. But there wouldn't have been room to transport even a duffle bag, let alone any other luggage her brother might have decided to bring.

Gibbs tried to control his emotions as he handed the driver his suitcase and small carryon. He was finally breathing evenly when he took his seat beside her.

"Rich will toe the family line to a point. When going out to see clients, he generally only takes his assistant. Randy is a former frat brother but he was also an Army Ranger. I can set up a meeting with him, and yes I can make the head of security jump and probably squirm. I may be the lesser daughter, but I still demand respect when I enter the office. If I ask to see him, you can bet he'll jump to attention. But Randy, I just have to call him and tell him to meet us. He's as worried as I am."

"Why didn't you bring me in before now, Trish?" He knew he'd been in the press for the arrests of Pat and Lynn Kiley, but the way the timing went, Rich was already gone. "Trish? Could he have seen some of the footage and decided to look me up or something?" It made no sense but he was grasping at straws anyhow.

"It's possible, Lee. He had asked me for your cell number back around the holidays. I'm guessing that he never followed up with you; I never wanted to ask, since it was between you and him. But he would have told me if he were just going away for a few days. And I didn't bring you in, just in case he did go away for a couple of days. While I like to think he calls me every time he goes out of town, I know he'll sneak out for a long weekend or for a night away. But never when he's expected to make an appearance at a family function. He's never missed a board member dinner. Not even when he was in college. That's when I knew it was more than him being out for a couple of days."

He shook his head. "Never heard from him. Wouldn't have turned him away ... hope he knew that. Hope I can tell him that..." He pulled in one deep breath, focusing. "Is he dating anyone, have any friends as close as Randy? Any high profile or particularly bitter enemies?"

"Not dating any one person. A few women he has mutual agreements with. They rotate going to functions with him so mother doesn't get her hopes up." Trish knew that her brother had no intention of settling down anytime soon, for fear of ending up like their parents. She wasn't even sure if they even liked each other anymore, let alone loved one another. They may never have for all she knew.

"Randy is probably his best friend. Some of the brothers still do get together. It's like they never left college for the most part. They're all successful doctors and lawyers but still feel the need to go on spring break when it can be arranged. Most of them are married, a couple of kids and a lot of money to burn. No one that would do anything to Rich, at least none of them that ping my criminal radar. I've got a pretty good one doing what I do. And Lee, you're going to be able to tell Rich that. I think he knows you wouldn't turn him away. But our little brother can be very stubborn. I have no idea where he gets that from." She said looking pointedly at Lee. "He'll call you when he's ready. He has to work it out in his head before he does something."

"He sounds so much like my..." Like Tony. He swallowed hard. "My second in command acts the overgrown frat boy but he's a hell of a lot more than that. You'd like him, Trish. He's ... his name is Tony as well. Anthony DiNozzo. Most talented agent and one of my most loyal friends."

"Work hard, play harder. It's Rich's motto." Trish wondered just what her brother was holding back from her. He'd never mentioned friends before. She always assumed he had them. Hard-nosed marines who were just like Lee. He had frat boy friends too? This was a side that she never would have thought she'd see.

"This is one of the agents you don't want to bring out here? Sounds like if he's that damn good, you need him. Especially since it might be the only loyalty you get that isn't from me."

"Yeah. One who has been with me the longest—seven years now. Nobody I'd rather have on my six." She gave him a look and he shrugged. "Watching my back." Maybe he did need Tony but he wouldn't expose his lover to his family.

He swallowed hard, his voice a bit raspy now. "I think you'd like Tony."

"I'm sure I would, he comes with such a stellar recommendation from you." If her brother didn't bring his team out to meet her, she may just have to make the trip to DC to meet them. Anyone who takes such good care of Lee deserved to be thanked, and she was quite sure he didn't do it enough. "If they are important to you, they're important to me. I know we don't see one another nearly enough, but we need to stop that. Someday, we're going to be it. I don't want to have my brother be a stranger."

"Tony, Ducky, Abbs. They're good people. They're as much my family as you are." He didn't want to think that someday sooner rather than later their parents would be gone. Even though he couldn't stand them, there were some good times buried in the memories, little glimpses of what they could have had if his folks hadn't been drinking the day everything went to hell.

He sighed, squaring his shoulders, knowing everything was changing but powerless to stop it.

Gibbs had been gone about four hours and Tony was already getting restless. Nobody knew about their relationship, which made it all the much harder. After pacing like a caged lion, he decided to go see Abby, knowing she'd calm him down.

"Hey Abbs." He'd come bearing Caf-Pow.

"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine on this gloomy Gibbs-less day?" Abby held out her hand, waiting for her caffeine manna to be delivered. Ever since his trip to Mexico, whenever her boss left, she was afraid that he wouldn't come back. She'd tried to get him to promise to take her the next time he had to leave, but she never could quite nail him down on it.

"What's going on with you, Tony-Tone? It's eerily quiet down here today. You know that doesn't ever bode well. Something big is going to happen."

"Word's gotten around? Yeah, he lit out around lunchtime. Someone called looking for Lee. Not Agent Lee, but Gibbs. Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Can't figure out who..." He trailed off, not wanting to say much more yet.

"Sounds like we have a mystery on our hands." Abby could see how down Tony was, and wanted to try and do something that might distract him.

"Obviously, it's from someone from our esteemed leader's past. Was this someone a male or female? That could have a lot to do with where in his life this someone fit. Could it be another ex in trouble? Did he look pained when he took the call or was he calm and collected?"

"Woman." Tony had grilled McGee on every detail and even had him write up a report. "He looked shocked, kicked in the balls, Abby." Nobody knew about him and Jeth, most especially not Abbs, who they were close with. A decision had been made not to share it with anyone, not his best friend, Abbs, or Ducky, who Jeth was closest to.

And right now the decision made it so hard.

"Diane would call Fornell first, he got an invitation to Stephanie's wedding, Mann is engaged and in Hawaii now." He hadn't heard anything about Melissa, the first wife, recently. She was the one who lived at the Jackson.

He sighed. "He looked really worried, Abby. So I'm worried now."

"Tony, you worry about the team. You're Gibbs' Number Two, although I think you are a little more dashing than Robert Wagner. Gibbs, he's a big boy and can take care of himself. You know how he is; he adopts people along the way. It could be the wife of one of his old Marines, it could be someone like Maddie too. Shannon could have had a sister for all we know." Abby knew she could probably find out who it was that called, but she tried to use her powers only for good. Gibbs wouldn't think that her snooping in his personal life was a real good idea.

"He'll let us know what's going on when he can, Tony, until then we need to trust him."

It wasn't the first time he desperately wanted to tell her but it was the time he'd come closest. "I know he's a big boy, Abbs, but the last time he did this, he died. I brought him back but he was dead, wide eyed, not breathing dead." Tony shuddered, remembering that horrible day.

"That won't happen again, Tony. This is Gibbs we're talking about. He's too smart to almost die twice in a year." It wasn't like Tony to get this uptight about something, but she could only chalk it up to the fact that they had all been separated for several months. The whole team had a bit of separation anxiety, but Tony was the worst.

"Hope not," Tony said, knowing his voice was raspy, knowing he was revealing way too much. "Guy needs a keeper."

"And since he doesn't have one of those, he has you to do that for him. Ziva and Timmy too, and you know I'm always there to hide the bodies if needed." Abby didn't want to tell Tony that it wasn't time to worry yet, because he wouldn't appreciate it. "He knows he has us if he needs us, Tony. I'll drop everything if he calls and go help. When you talk to him, make sure he knows that. It's all we can do right now until he starts using his phone again."

"If. He's on his own here and I don't want to push. Well, I want to push but I don't want to push, either. Does that make sense?" He was so worried about Gibbs that he wasn't able to focus. Or hide his feelings. He was so damn close to telling her ... He bit his lip, the words on the tip of his tongue.

"What's really going on here, Tony? Usually it would be me in the panic, not you. Is this a you just being back thing and you're afraid the boss is going to get himself into some sort of trouble? Or is there something you're not telling me?" Abby stared Tony down, trying to read her friend. "You're way too antsy, this isn't a case of Gibbs making a run for the border, is it? You'd tell me if he was going to do a runner, wouldn't you?"

"If I knew about it. Didn't know he was leaving all of us the last time. Even when he left like that, I didn't think he was leaving town and us..." None of them had, even Ducky who had driven Gibbs home. Tony sighed, long and loud and deep.

"Could you track his cell, just so we know where he is? I don't think he's local. Can't trace the call, it came in through the NCIS switchboard, I think. McGee took it." Tony raked a hand through his hair.

"It isn't that I don't trust him. It's that ... It's Gibbs, Abbs. All bets are off when Gibbs and trouble meet and he's usually the loser."

He gave Abby a long look. "I jumped in the elevator, asked him if he was okay and he said no, Abbs. No. He never says that."

"I'll start a trace, see if I can't at least figure out what part of the world he's in. It's not like he's going to make a run for the Middle East without letting someone know." She quickly started a trace, and when that turned up nothing she set an alert to email her as soon as his phone was in use.

She squeezed his hand. "Tony, something threw him. Still doesn't mean he's in trouble. And if he were, he'd call us. So what ever this is, it's personal and he's not ready to talk to us yet."

God, what if he was going into a war zone. Tony knew he really shouldn't worry but something about this nagged at him and he wasn't sure why.

"Sorry, Abbs. I just ... it doesn't feel right. Not after he went out on his own with the senator." Abby was just staring at him and Tony wondered if she saw beyond his worry into his love.

"He wouldn't do that again. He wouldn't give up his career to do that again, Tony. Vance, he isn't the kind of director who is going to suck it up and let Gibbs run on his own. Jenny did, more often than maybe she should have, but the new director isn't going down that road. He's a bit too anal to let Gibbs run amuck that way."