Tony sighed as he stared at his coffee.
It felt wrong sitting here having time to himself while his son was ill in a hospital bed.
"How you doing?" Tim asked looking over at his friend. "I mean, finding out you are a father and falling into all this is pretty big."
"It is." Tony agreed, "But it's also great, you know... It's like, I got a second chance. I wish I had known that Maria was alive, things would have been different. I would have been different." He looked down at his cup as he dampened down another wave of anger at what had been done to him and his son.
"So you were married?" Tim asked.
"Kinda glad that no one ever measured up to Maria." Tony replied sidestepping the question, " Otherwise I would have unknowingly been a bigamist. But she was the one, ya know. No one could ever hold a candle to her." He smiled as he remembered the way her hair would shine in the sunlight and her smile as she looked up at him.
"I can see you loved her very much." Tim said looking at the face of his friend.
"I was broken when I came back to America believing she was dead. I had had my heart ripped from my body and would never love anyone again the way I loved her."
Tim looked over with a wistful look on his face, "I hope that one day I can find a love like that." He sighed.
Tony drained the last of his cup, "If you do Tim, you keep her and never let her go." He advised seriously, then stood up and Tim joined him.
"So what's next with Tonio?" Tim asked as they left the canteen to head back to the room.
"He has a checkup with Dr. Matthews and then some more tests, I think an X-ray. Hopefully he'll be awake and ready by the time we get back." Tony smiled.
Both Agents nodded to the Agent on duty as they showed their badges to enter, "He's not in there sirs, a Dr La Morte came and took him. Dr. Matthews was indisposed."
Tony cocked his head to one side, "Are you trying to be funny Agent Deacon?" He growled menacingly, "Dr. Death took my son to X-ray?"
"No a Dr. Nino La Morte, I checked his ID." Agent Deacon argued.
Tony threw his hands up in frustration and turned to Tim, "You keep him away from me before I do something that I will regret... And get me security! I need to find my son."
He quickly dialed Gibbs' number and filled him in on the situation. "We will have to tell Ziva now, I need all hands to help my find my son." Then turning to Agent Deacon, He glared at him and summoned every part of his father that he could and verbally berated the newly fledged agent until the man was shaking.
At his desk in the bullpen, Gibbs sat down heavily on his chair. "Very well son, I'll tell her and I'll try and get as many bodies as possible there to help with the search." He closed his phone and turned to Ziva. "I'll be back in a moment, gear up but don't leave the bullpen." he ordered and took the stairs two at a time up to the Director's office.
He didn't wait to knock, knowing that Leon was alone, he walked straight in.
"Gibbs?" Leon asked surprised his agent was here.
"I left Tim with Tony." He explained, "Tonio has been kidnapped from the hospital."
"The boy?" Leon asked.
"Tony's son." He confirmed. "I was going to tell you later, but Tim and Tony went to eat and then when they got back the Agent you sent to guard Tonio let a Mafia hood walk off with him."
Leon looked affronted, "Agent Deacon is highly recommended, he had excellent scores at FLETC."
"I don't care, he let this guy in and he has taken my grandson. I need bodies at the hospital to help with the search." Gibbs demanded.
Leon nodded, "Very well, all agents not on active cases will be sent to help with the search." He promised, Gibbs gave a curt nod and turned to the door. "Where are you going?"
"To help them, and to carry on keeping an eye on my son. If they can take Tonio how long before they try to target Tony?" Gibbs asked the worry evident in his voice.
As Gibbs passed the bullpen he nodded to Ziva who picked up her backpack and followed him to the elevator.
The door closed and he turned to her, "You are going to find out some things about Tony, I need you to keep an open mind and be there for your partner, can you do that?" He asked.
Ziva looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Of course Gibbs, he is my partner. Is he in trouble?" she asked as a knot of worry started to form.
The doors of the elevator opened and the crossed the NCIS building lobby in relative silence as they headed to Gibbs' car.
"He's not dead is he?" Ziva asked as she shut the car door.
Gibbs shook his head, "Not dead, no." He replied and focused on driving.
Ziva sat in relative silence as Gibbs concentrated on his driving, she shot him a sidelong glance trying to figure out what it was that was being kept from her.
She had done extensive dossiers on the team for Ari before she had been assigned to NCIS by Mossad. She figured that there couldn't be anything that she had missed... unless... That had to be it.
She smirked slightly as she figured it out. Tony was gay, that had to be it. It would have been the only thing he could have kept from her records. She wondered what Gibbs had said when he had found out. Then a bad thought bothered her, what if because he was gay he had been hurt.
Gibbs looked grim, maybe he was angry that Tony had been outed. Had he known?
She sighed and settled more comfortably in her seat.
"I do not mind. It will not change how I work with Tony." She said.
"It shouldn't." Gibbs barked back. "But he's going to need all our support."
Ziva nodded, "I will give it to him. Was Tony hurt bad?" she asked.
Gibbs shook his head, "Tony wasn't hurt at all, but Tonio was and he is currently missing. Vance is sending more teams to help in the search. We are pretty sure he hasn't left the grounds, but with the mafia being involved he could be anywhere."
Ziva nodded, Tonio must be the boyfriend, she surmised. In which case it would get a bit confusing, but if Tony loved this man then she would, as his partner stand by him.
Tony was pacing the security office as Tim looked through all the footage.
Noticing Gibbs' car peeling into a parking space Tony turned to the door; "Keep at it, Gibbs and Ziva are here." He walked out and headed to the main entrance.
Gibbs ignored Ziva as he spotted Tony and walking up to him pulled him into a hug. "What have you got?" He asked.
"Deacon is licking his wounds, and Tim is checking security footage to see where Tonio was taken."
"You hit him?" Gibbs asked.
Tony grinned, "Nope, went all Gibbs on his ass."
Gibbs grinned, "Good." They walked past the main entrance where other agents were arriving and being sent to Tim in security.
"McGee?" Gibbs said as he pushed through the rapidly forming crowd.
"OK!" Tim stood up and held up his hands for silence.
"We have a missing 18 year old. Answers to Tonio, he's got mousy brown hair with blond highlights. Green eyes, he's heavily bruised and was last seen in the company of a man pretending to be a doctor. He passed out flyers with Tonio's face on one side and the grainy face of Nino La Morte on the other. "The man who took him is to be considered armed and dangerous. We need to get the boy back and make sure that no one in the hospital is harmed. Look everywhere, stairwells, offices, closets... Go!" He ordered and the pack of agents dispersed.
Ziva looked at the photo of the boy, he looked familiar. He seemed a bit young for Tony, but she had already decided that she wouldn't judge but she would support her friend.
"He looks nice." she said with a slight smile.
"Looks like his mother." Tony agreed.
"I am sure we will find him soon," she turned to Gibbs, "What do you need me to do?" She asked.
"Team up with Agent Deacon, search the back of the hospital, you know, dumpsters..." Tony told her with a grin, "But this time, He's the probie." He gave her a small wink and she nodded in understanding.
As Ziva left, Tony turned his attention back to Tim, "What have you got?" he asked.
Tim smiled grimly, "We've got the fake doctor wheeling Tonio into the elevator, but he must have pressed every button because it stopped on a number of floors, four of which do not have direct camera sights, I have sent teams to all but one floor, the basement. You wanna take it?" he asked.
Tony turned to Gibbs remembering that he was technically still under arrest. However Gibbs shook his head, "Sorry Tony, you can't you are too close to this and are still technically in custody, Vance is sending more teams so we'll have one of them go. You can stay here and coordinate." He offered.
Tony slammed his hand down on the desk, hard. "Dammit Dad!" He cussed, "That's my boy out there!"
Gibbs nodded, he understood more than Tony knew. "Trust the team's Tony, they will find him."
Gibbs phone went and he snapped it open. "Gibbs." He barked. "Ok. Call Ducky have him do the autopsy on the body."
"Body?" Tony asked going white and slumping back to sit on the desk.
Gibbs nodded, "One of the teams found the body of Dr. Matthews he's been murdered." He explained.