A/N: This story happens during season 11; it doesn't contain any spoilers, though and it has nothing to do with the storyline of season 11 or that of season 12.

WARNING: Graphic depictions of violence

I'd say this one is slightly different from my other stories, but it's for you to decide; anyway, that's why I've had some doubts about posting this story. Just keep the warning I just gave in mind! ;)

Again, it's Tony-centric but I guess I could call it a team-fic; and a case-fic!

Hope you enjoy this one, too and help me with your opinions and advice.

.

. Black Coffee .

.

4. 18. 23.

Those numbers were important.

.

It was never supposed to be an easy operation, that's why they'd put extra effort into getting prepared; but it wasn't supposed to get so out of hand, either.

They were supposed to find the whereabouts of an Admiral's granddaughter. It was supposed to be a by the book rescue mission. Tony was supposed to get in; get friendly with the gang members; find Melissa; inform his team and get her out before busting the organ smuggling ring for good.

All they had been worried about was the fact that they had no idea whether Melissa was still alive or not; they were worried that the cartel had abducted Melissa for her organs and it was a scary thought that she might've suffered in the hands of those sick bastards while they cut her open and took out her organs to ship around.

She was supposed to be on vacation, so, by the time her family noticed that she was missing, she'd already been gone for one week. And they took two more days searching around and informing the local cops before informing her grandfather, Admiral Josiah Chester, hoping that he could use his power and contacts to find his 27 year old granddaughter and that was when NCIS had been informed.

The MCRT had worked, days and nights, nonstop for a whole week until they finally found the links between Melissa's disappearance and the organ dealing ring.

The images on the database that FBI had on that cartel was terrifying; the variety of their victims, the shape of their ditched bodies, everything screamed of extreme brutality.

The sadist bastards weren't just any organ dealers; the autopsy results showed different types of drugs in the victims' system and that plus other signs indicated that apparently the victims had been conscious while they'd been ripped open for their organs.

Male, female, young, old; there was no age limit for the victims; they'd be taken and kept for days, weeks, even, before they were used and finally died and ditched near where they lived; with all of their useful organs taken away; all that mattered was that he or she had been healthy before being abducted.

The FBI, after months, still hadn't been able to take the cartel down. Nobody knew who the Big Boss was and taking down a few lowlifes would do them no good. They had lost two agents just trying to get inside the circle and while the third had successfully found his way in, they'd lost connection with him after three weeks and a month later, they found his body on the side of a road, tortured and without his internal organs.

So, with all those information, the future of Melissa Chester didn't look so bright. She'd been gone for 18 days before Gibbs' team finally got to a point where they had found enough connections to start making their moves and although they all still tried their best to find something, everyone knew what 18 days in a case like that meant.

For the moment, what they needed to do was to find a way inside and since their first priority was to rescue Melissa Chester, they didn't need to get in too deep; they didn't need to get to the top of the ring just yet; the first person who knew something about her would suffice.

That was when Tony was sent in. He went in as the 41 year old Ben Mayer with a background of jail for drug and arm dealing. According to the file they'd made for him, it'd been two weeks that he'd escaped from jail and that was why he was looking for a way to stay under the radar and get his hands on some easy money.

They'd already identified a few links to the main cartel, so getting in hadn't been hard for Tony, especially since he never asked anything about the Big Boss or about what exactly they were doing. He'd just asked for a job and with his background, he'd been able to convince the man who'd been in charge of one of the lowest subgroups to let him in.

For the first few days, he'd found nothing and had only worked his way up subtly; after a week, much to the FBI's secret chagrin, he'd stepped two levels higher than where he'd started and with the amount of expertise and confident he'd shown, he'd gained the trust and respect of many members of the group.

They still had no idea who the Big Boss was, but by then, Tony knew many of the bosses of the subgroups and had befriended with some of them.

That was 25 days after Melissa had disappeared and since her body hadn't been found yet, they had to just hope that she was still alive.

Finding information about her wasn't easy, because he couldn't exactly ask around about her; everybody would get suspicious and he'd be dead before he could even open his mouth to come up with an excuse. He had no choice but to wait and listen to all the conversations being held around him; he barely slept and whenever he found the chance, he'd snoop around the warehouses he'd found out about.

The worst part of his mission, though, was that he'd been forced to cooperate in abducting two men and that alone was weighing heavily on his conscience. He'd let Gibbs know where those men had been taken to and then only hoped his people would find them before it was too late; because if anything happened to them, he knew he couldn't look at himself in the mirror ever again.

Exactly one month after her disappearance, Tony finally found something slightly useful about where Melissa was possibly being held.

It was pure luck that he'd stumbled upon a picture of Melissa on the floor of Ed's room. - Ed was an ex-military and typically a hard-ass, bulky guy who was in charge of 5 men and he saw Tony as his trustworthy friend. The thing about Ed was that although he was working for the Big Boss, he was somehow running his own business in the background and that was where Tony came in handy. He dealt drugs in the streets and with Tony's expertise and connections, they'd made a few great deals.

Again, Tony had been forced to just help Ed and trust his team to get rid of those drugs that had found their ways to the streets of D.C. -

At first, when Tony's eyes caught the picture, he'd frozen in his place for a millisecond, but he quickly schooled his feature, bent down and picked it up. "Heeey, who's this hottie? That your girl?" He put a smirk on his face as he said those words. "You sly dog."

Ed looked up from his computer, snatched the picture from Tony's hand and checked it out. "Not my girl, You ass." He barked a laugh. "Wouldn't mind a piece of her, though."

"No kidding. Who would?" Tony grinned back. "So if she's not your girl, why do you have her pic here? You stalking her or something?"

Ed snorted. "Yeah, 'cause I'd need to stalk anyone. Man, I'd get any girl I want with no problem. Just not this one." He sighed melodramatically.

"Why not?" Tony raised his eyebrow, silently swallowing hard, dreading the answer. Did that mean that Melissa was dead? Was that why Ed said he couldn't have this one?

"She's in the big house." Ed said with a tone of voice that showed he wasn't happy about it. "The Big Boss has to get all the good things. We... We just have to deal with the oldies or men. If we could get our hands on any beautiful girl, we wouldn't just take care of her internal organs. You know what I mean?" Ed whispered with a sly smirk.

Tony laughed easily, even though he was having a hard time keeping his anger and disgust under control and out of his voice. Inwardly, he cursed himself for not having thought about it sooner. Of course they wouldn't take a beautiful woman and use just her organs; of course they'd do more things to her before getting tired of her and ripping her body apart.

All he wanted to do was puke. The poor girl was probably being raped repeatedly by the Big Boss and he had to sit there and laugh with this scumbag at her expense. Sometimes he really hated his job.

...

Melissa Chester had been missing for 55 days before Tony found his way to the main house. He still had no idea who the Big Boss was; for all he'd found out, only 4 people in the whole country were aware of the man's identity; 5 if you counted Melissa Chester who was apparently forced to sleep with him; but at least he'd gotten some great information about the smaller groups and maybe after they rescued Melissa, they could at least stop the cartel if not bringing it down completely and arresting the main players.

And now, Tony was just about to meet one of those 4 people who knew the Boss and that was why he'd gone to the main house; Ed had asked him to make a special delivery for him to someone called 'Albina'.

"Mr. Mayer," A servant called his name after twenty minutes of keeping him waiting in the main hall, under the watchful eye of an armed guard, "Mrs. Vikhrov will see you now. If you please follow me."

'Virkhov?' Tony thought. Russian mobs were involved. Damn. Things had just gotten ten times worse. He should've guessed the name 'Albina' could be Russian.

They walked along a long corridor and Tony tried his best to memorize every detail of the place without openly looking around. There were two doors to his right and one to the left and the last door which opened to a huge library was the one in which Albina Vikhrov was waiting for him.

The woman behind a big mahogany desk studied him with attentive eyes before nodding her head towards the servant, dismissing him. "Mister Mayer." She said with a clear Russian accent.

Tony put a small grin at the corner of his mouth and let his eyes descend to her large breasts for a second. "Mrs. Vikhrov." He said without even trying to pronounce the name correctly. "Excuse my pronunciation." He smiled sweetly as he looked the woman in the eye.

"Maybe you should just call me Albina?" She smiled seductively, unable to control her eyes from traveling down to Tony's broad chest and then going lower and stopping on his private parts. "It is much easier." She added after a few seconds of assessing Tony's body. He was clad in a tight T-shirt and a pair of jeans and with his stubble and his hair combed back, he looked way wilder than he did while clean-shaven and in one of his suits.

"Well, then you should call me just Ben." Tony pushed his left hand into his jeans' pocket and stood in a way that suggested he was interested in whatever she had in mind.

"I like just Ben." She laughed and stood up from behind her desk and sashayed towards Tony, putting two fingers with long nails on Tony's cheek. "Tell me, is there a Mrs. Mayer?"

Tony was a bit surprised she was so quick in making a move, but he didn't want to look the gift horse in the mouth; this could be his chance to find his way into that house. "Straight to the point, huh? I love that in a woman."

Albina laughed. "So?"

"Why? You wouldn't want to hurt her feelings?"

"I just want to know if I need to send someone to get rid of her." She answered bluntly and Tony felt cold inside. She was openly telling him that she'd always get what she wanted and that she wasn't afraid of killing people for it. And she was clearly showing him that she was the one calling the shots in that situation.

"Hey, that's my hypothetical wife you're talking about." Tony protested nonetheless and then smirked. "I should be the one to do the getting rid of. Not a total stranger."

At that, Albina's eyes widened slightly and she suddenly burst into laughter and walked towards the couch, sitting on its arm, making her short and tight skirt slip up; she watched delightfully as the man before her eyed her thighs hungrily.

"I like you Ben."

"I like you, too, Albina."

"Oh, you cannot even say my first name correctly." She shook her head. "It's not Albina. It's Alebina." She pronounced it with the correct Russian accent.

"Alebina?" Tony frowned. "But you still write it like Albina?"

"In English yes." She nodded her head.

"Hmm, I like Alebina better. It's... Sexier."

"Don't stand just there. Come on, sit here with me."

"I don't know. I was told you're a busy woman and I shouldn't take too much of your time. Just to deliver this," he held up a package, "and then leave."

"I do have time for a man with this look and a body in this shape." She slowly moved her right hand up and down pointing at Tony's body.

Tony smirked wolfishly. "Did I mention I like your oh-so-direct approach?"

Ablina laughed again. "Did I mention I like how you flirt?" She slid down from the arm of the couch and sank into it. "Why do you not sit here with me and hand me my package?"

Tony complied and as he went to put the package in her hand he deliberately let the back of his fingers touch her thighs.

.

.

Two hours later, Tony was back to his room in Ed's place and the first thing he did was to take a long hot shower. He'd slept with many women, but to sleep with such a dirty criminal disgusted him to no end.

On his way to his current residence, he'd stopped at a cafe, used the bathroom, bought a black coffee and left.

While he'd been there, the woman behind the counter studied him worriedly and sent a quick text to someone, as another customer went to the bathroom with his newspaper under his arm and left two minutes later.

Back at the Navy Yard, Gibbs received a call. "Talk, McGee." He barked.

"Boss, I'm sending you Tony's report. Check your email." McGee said and from what Gibbs could hear, he could say that the younger man was typing something. "Oh, and, Boss, Bishop informed me that Tony ordered a black coffee. A small one, though."

"Damn." Gibbs cursed tersely.

Black coffee wasn't a code per se, but it showed that Tony was again struggling with some emotional issues and was letting them know that although the operation wasn't going south, something was bothering him deeply.

Once Gibbs read Tony's report, he knew and could totally understand why he'd been in a bad mood again.

The last four times that Tony had ordered black coffee, he'd asked for large ones and things had been really messy all those times. Once, it was after he'd been forced to cooperate in abducting two men and the other three times the black coffee had been related to drug dealing.

Gibbs really wished there was some way to comfort his agent and knew that after this frustrating operation was over, his whole team would need an extended leave of absence and even he would take some time off to take care of Tony; because they all knew the toll on the Senior Field Agent was too heavy and he was, once again, making sacrifices to see this operation through.

And again, the younger man had gone and ordered a black coffee and for a good reason, clearly, if the brief and to the point report was anything to go by.

Apparently Tony had finally found his way to the main house and had found a way to get deeper, but at a personal cost.

The Lead Agent just hoped that the whole thing turned out alright and Tony's sacrifices didn't go to waste.

.

.

... TBC ...

A/N: So, what do you think?

Things will make much more sense in coming chapters. Promise. ;)

.

.

All mistakes are mine.

.

.