AN: This is late because we had an emergency come up this weekend! Disasteriffic Kaz got appendicitis and had to get an appendectomy—and soon will need her gallbladder removed, which is what caused the problem in the first place! So anyway, yeah...it was a chaotic weekend. My apologies for the delay~ Also, apologies for any typos. No time for editing. Like...ever. LOL

*~.~*

"Bernard Ratliff," Abby said over the Skype call. "The guy you had me look up. The manager? He's Boris Ratliff's son. Boris is the owner of the hotel. They stay in the same suite..."

"Funny," Tony said. "I haven't seen him up here at all."

"And the guy on the video you sent, Markus Hendler. He's an excessive gambler and in like, a boatload of debt. He works for a Telnet company in Vegas. Divorced, with two kids, but doesn't have any sort of shared custody. So when you told me he had them there, I checked it out. His ex lives in Boulder City. Hendler doesn't have any usable credit cards, so at first I thought there was no way he'd have been able to get a flight, especially with him being in so much debt. But since he also has no registered vehicle or driver's license, I took another look. There was a flight purchased by Ratliff himself, for a private jet. Two round-trips for someone named Alex Markus. One to and from Boulder City, and two more, one for Christopher Markus, and one for Jacob Markus, to and from Vegas from Boulder City. Wanna know the kicker? Markus is using all of those aliases for his check-in information at the hotel, and there's no financial transaction for that room this weekend."

"He said he got called away on business," Gibbs mentioned. "Can you tell if he's actually working?"

"Once I found out where he worked, I looked into it. He did actually clock in about twenty minutes ago. But Telnet isn't a place that would keep him away all day. But I guess if it's hard to find a way there and back...I dunno, Gibbs, I just think it's horrible he'd leave his kids there alone. Anything could happen to them!"

"I think he knows exactly what's gonna happen to them," Gibbs said before ending the call. "We need to go find Hendler," he told Tony as he stood and headed toward the door.

"Wait. Boss..err Gibbs, look," Tony told him, motioning to the screen which showed the live video feed again now that the call was over. "Someone's leading the kids outta the room."

The screen was in Gibbs' view just in time to see them walk out of sight. "Let's go," Gibbs said, quickly turning toward the door again, grabbing his gun and tucking it into the back of his pants. Tony followed suit and headed out the door behind him.

Once in the hall, they saw the man turn the corner ahead. They hurried after them, but once they rounded the corner, the door at the very end of the hall was closing behind the man with the two boys. As they approached, Gibbs noticed the name plate beside the door frame. "This is Ratliff's room," Gibbs said. When Tony didn't answer, he turned to look at him. The younger agent was standing still, staring at the door with a confused look on his face. "Tony? What is it?" Gibbs asked, eyes narrowed.

Tony shook his head. "I...don't know," he replied. "I just...this seems...familiar somehow."

"Can I help you gentlemen?" They turned to see the younger Ratliff at the now open door.

"Yeah," Gibbs replied. "We saw you with Mr. Markus' boys. We were wondering why that would be."

"Well Mr. Markus asked me to keep an eye on them," Ratliff replied with a smile. "He's been called out on business."

"Yeah, we uh...we heard that," Gibbs said, scratching the back of his head. "It's just...my husband was concerned about them leaving their room," he told him, pulling Tony to his side, his arm around his waist. Tony was shocked silent for a moment, but quickly fell into character.

"Yeah. I think it'd make me feel a lot better if we could see that they were okay," Tony said.

"Who's at the door, Bernie?" an older man's voice sounded.

"Uh...just the nice couple that rented the honeymoon suite, Pa," he yelled back. "They just wanted to make sure the kids were okay."

"Well they only just got here," the old man called back.

"Right. Yes. Uh...you can come in for a moment, if it makes you feel better," Bernard told the agents. "We were just going to start a movie for them." He moved back, holding the door open for the two of them to enter.

Once Tony got a full view of the inside, something started flowing through his mind, like a flip had been switched. While Gibbs walked ahead to see the boys sitting on the floor in front of the TV, Tony was stuck where he stood, the room around him seeming to ripple; the scene around him changing into something else. It was the same room, but it was so much bigger, and the color was suddenly absent. There was a boy holding his hand, leading him into the room. And there was a man there waiting for them.

"Hi there," the man said with a grin. "Thirsty? I've got some lemonade here. You like lemonade?"

"Sure," Tony replied, his voice small. The man handed him the glass.

"Come sit with me," he said, patting the couch cushion beside him. Tony complied, climbing onto the couch to sit beside the man. "You're a very handsome young man," he said as Tony took a few gulps of the drink. He stopped when the man's hand laid down on Tony's leg. "Such a pretty boy, Erik." His eyes darkened, and Tony was confused.

"My name's not Erik," he said, shaking his head.

"What?" the man asked flatly, pulling his hand away.

"My name is Tony," he told him. "I don't feel so good..." His stomach was starting to hurt.

"Bernard!" the man shouted. "Where did you find this one?"

"In the hall, pa," the boy replied. "He was right out in the hall."

"I told you to go fetch the boy from the room next door!"

The room came back into focus. Gibbs stood just a few feet in front of him. He was saying something to Bernard, but to Tony it sounded far away. All he could think about in that moment was what he'd just remembered; that this man...was the one they were looking for.

"Is your husband okay?" Bernard asked Gibbs, and the older man turned to look at his agent right as Tony began raising his gun. "Oh my god! What are you doing?"

"Tony?" Gibbs questioned him.

"It's him, Gibbs," he replied. "It's him and his father." His gun was aimed and Bernard.

"Talk to me, Tony," Gibbs implored, his own hand moving to the weapon tucked in his waistband.

"I remember," Tony said. "I remember you, Bernard. You were just a kid then. Your dad used you to bring him little playthings."

Bernard looked shocked for a moment, nervous, and then let out a laugh. "What? What are you talking about?"

"When did it become you, Bernard?" Tony asked.

"Excuse me?"

"When did you start using the boys yourself? Did you start out by sharing with him? Or did his equipment stop working right, and the only thing that got him off anymore was if he watched you touch them?"

"You're out of your mind!" Bernard said with a hysterical laugh. Gibbs began looking around them while Tony talked. Once he spotted a baggie with little round, white pills on the kitchenette counter, he realized that this wasn't just his agent having some kind of mental break.

"What are there?" Gibbs asked, holding the baggie up.

"I...I have never seen those before!" the man replied. "Who are you people?"

"NCIS," Gibbs replied, pulling out his badge. "We're here investigating the sexual assault of the Parker children."

"You should remember them pretty well," Tony told Bernard. "But I wonder how many kids you've brutalized since then."

"Get the hell out of my hotel!" Boris Ratliff appeared behind his son. When Bernard moved out of the way, they saw the elderly man in his wheelchair, holding a shotgun and aiming at Tony.

Gibbs quickly drew his weapon, both agents now aiming at the old man. "Drop the weapon, Ratliff!" Gibbs shouted.

"You drop yours!" he replied. "We paid good money for these boys. We pay good money for all our boys! You can't take them away!"

"I won't ask you again," Gibbs said. "Don't make me shoot you."

"Put it down, Pa," Bernard put a hand on the barrel, defeated. "It's over now."

"Tony, call Metro," Gibbs told him. "And tell them to send an ambulance, too." He looked over to where the boys had been sitting on the floor in front of the TV. They now looked to be asleep. He turned back to Bernard. "Did you already drug them?" he asked angrily.

"That's the first thing they do," Tony replied for them. "Offer the kids a drink as soon as they walk in the door, then you can get right to business."

Gibbs looked at his agent for a moment, still standing there in the same position, not having moved a muscle since he'd raised his gun. He took Ratliff's gun, then decided to make the calls himself...

*~.~*

A few hours later, they were packing their bags, readying to head to the airport.

"Kids are gonna be okay," Gibbs told Tony. "Their mother is there with them now." Tony nodded silently, continuing to pack. "Metro picked up Hendler. He's being charged with kidnapping and attempted sex trafficking on two counts."

"Good," Tony replied flatly. "I hope they kill him in prison."

Gibbs couldn't argue with that wish. "They found ledgers in Ratliff's safe," he told him. "Names and dates for every child they every brought there, and the names of the parents that they paid off in trade." Tony paused at that. "I had them look over the entire year of 1980, Tony. Your name wasn't on it, and neither was your father's."

Tony resumed packing. "It wouldn't be," he told him. "Because I wasn't supposed to be there."

Gibbs stepped forward until he was right at his agent's side. "Tell me what happened, Tony," he requested softly.

"Nothing happened," Tony said, shaking his head. "Because he figured out I wasn't the boy he paid for."

"You said...Bernard led you there; that he was just a kid."

Tony let out a breath, holding onto a shirt he had yet to put into his bag. "When I got off the elevator, there was another kid in the hall," Tony told him. "He asked if I wanted to come play at his room. Said he had a big TV and we could watch it. So I went with him...like an idiot."

"You were just a kid."

"I knew better. And I knew better not to accept a drink from a stranger. But that's not the point," he said, looking over at his boss. "I remembered all of that. I mean, I didn't remember it before today. But I didn't think I'd ever remember what happened. I should've tried, at least. All these years...all of these kids... Had I just remembered and told someone something, he could've been stopped a long time ago."

Gibbs narrowed his eyes, looking at him for a long moment. "You were a child, DiNozzo. Just like every one of his victims." Tony looked down at the shirt in his hands, shaking his head again. "Do you blame any of them for not remembering?" Gibbs asked. And Tony looked back up at him, jaw clenching. He swallowed. "The important thing is that we got them. We stopped them. And we saved those kids from them today, and who knows how many more."

Tony nodded, looking back to his bag as he shoved the shirt into it.

"You can't let yourself dwell in the things you couldn't stop," Gibbs continued. "Take it from me, it'll do you nothin' but bad, and everyone else even less. We're gonna track down every victim, and get those families the help they need. That's how you make that feeling go away, Tony."

"I know," Tony replied. "I know, Gibbs. Just...it's all just weird in my head right now. I need some time to understand it all."

"Fate ended us up here," Gibbs told him, putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder so he'd stop messing with his bag for a minute and look at him. "You ending up on this case with me, that was some kinda divine intervention, or whatever they call that." Tony almost smiled at that. "If you hadn't been here with me on this, it might've been too late for those boys. I might not have put it together in time. And it couldn't have happened like that without you." Tony seemed to consider that. "Whatever happened when you walked into that room, whatever your head decided to remind you of," he said as he poked a finger at Tony's temple, "That's what saved them from ending up in one of those ledgers. Four hundred thirty two."

"What?" Tony questioned, brows furrowing.

"That's how many names were found. One or two names for every weekend over the past forty-five years." Tony felt like he was going to throw up. "And it's the number of kids you might've saved from being added in the future." Tony's reddening eyes met Gibbs' again. "You've got absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Those parents, though? The ones who thought there was a price deserving enough to trade their children for? Those are the only ones who should be ashamed. Every last one of 'em that's still alive is going to prison. You can count on that. And you can be part of the team that tracks them down, if you think it'll help."

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "Yeah, I'd like to do that."" His voice cracked involuntarily, and he ducked his head in embarrassment.

Gibbs' hand moved to the man's neck. "You did good, DiNozzo," he told him softly. "And you're gonna keep doin' good on this."

Tony swallowed and met his boss's eyes again. He took a deep breath in through his nose, and let it out slowly, a giant weight lifting from his shoulders. "Let's get the hell outta here, boss."

~Fin