Sam and Tim stood in the boat shed the next day in front of the interrogation room monitors. They watched as a man with short, light brown hair sat waiting in the interrogation room.

"I guess we should do this," Tim said with a bit of apprehension in his voice. He'd questioned people before, but this would be different. This time, they would be questioning a man who had a personal connection n to the man that tortured them. It would be a lot harder.

"I can do it alone if you want," Sam said. He didn't want Tim to have go through this if he felt he couldn't. It could be really hard to deal with the family members of someone who hurt you.

Tim shook his head. "It's no harder for me than it is for you. You were Taylor's victim too. We went through that together and we do this together.

Sam nodded. "Deal."

With that, the two of them walked down to the interrogation room and walked inside. "Alex Robins," Sam greeted.

Alex nodded. "Have we met before?"

"No, but I'm sure you've seen me. I'm Sam Hanna. This is Tim McGee," Sam introduced. He was sure he'd get a reaction from the man.

He was right. Alex shuddered and looked away as soon as he heard the names. "Th...This is about Jason then."

Sam and Tim both sat across from him. "There wouldn't be another reason for us to talk to you, would there?" Sam asked.

"What happened?" Alex asked, his eyes still downcast.

"He escaped. He talked to you?" Sam asked.

Alex shook his head.

"Would you tell us if he had?" Tim asked.

Alex finally raised his eyes and looked at Tim. "Do you think you're the first one he went after? He was a psychopath. He tortured me from the moment my father brought him and his mother home. I was nine. He had years to perfect his skills before he shipped out to the Navy. That had to be the best day of my life."

Tim felt some sympathy for the man. He knew very well the kind of torture Taylor inflicted on his stepbrother, assuming Alex was telling the truth. "Did you tell anyone?"

Alex nodded. "I told my father, who just told me Jason was trying to toughen me up. When Jason realized I'd ratted him out, he beat the hell out of me. Then he told my old man I fell. I didn't contradict him. I learned the hard way that it would only be worse for me. So, yes, if I knew where he was or had any contact with him at all, I would tell you. Thankfully neither of those things have happened."

"You're still afraid of him," Sam noted. Taylor must have done a real number on his stepbrother if he still feared him like this. Then again though, Taylor had proven himself to be a real monster.

"The guy was cruel and brutal before he left home. After that, he had a bunch of sailors giving him tools to be even worse, whether he knew it or not. Yeah, I have a healthy dose of fear when it comes to him," Alex explained

"What about his mother? Maybe she's seen him," Tim said.

Alex shook his head. "She died about five years ago, and still preaching with her last breath about the raw deal her crazy ass son got."

Sam remembered Taylor's mother well. She'd testified on his behalf at the trial. She had been as blind as they came. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, she screamed about her son being innocent. She went so far as to claim that the Navy was scapegoating him.

"Can you think of anyone that might help him?" Tim asked.

Alex started to shake his head no, but then an idea seemed to pop into his head. "There was a guy he would hang around with when he was a kid. Martin Quinn. He was a real SOB too."

"Thank you," Tim said before and Sam stood up.

"We'll have someone take you home soon," Sam said.

"Wait. Look, I'm sorry for what he did to the two of you. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if I had kept trying to tell people what Jason was really like," Alex said.

Tim shook his head. "It's not your fault. You tried to tell your father what did and he ignored you. I'm not sure there's much you could've done after that. And even if you'd managed to convince someone, it's most likely that it would've been chalked up to teenage bullying, instead of a growing sociopath. So chances are, he still would've been free to join the Navy and everything would've happened the way it did."

"Plus, playing what if never helped anyone," Sam added.

"Still, he was a part of my family, and all I can say is I'm sorry," Alex said.

"We won't say it's okay because it isn't, but you're not the one responsible, therefore there's no reason to apologize," Tim said. With that, he and Sam walked towards the door.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A couple of hours later, Sam walked into Callen's hospital room. He knew if he didn't go see his partner, the man would start to think something was wrong. The fact that there was was irrelevant.

"Well, look who finally came back," Callen said when he noticed Sam.

"Hey, it hasn't been long since I was here last," Sam said.

"It has for you, for all of you actually. I figured at least one of you would be hounding me around the clock. What's going on?" Callen asked. He knew something was wrong. Something had taken his entire team's attention. He'd considered for a minute that maybe it was finding out who shot him, but even then, someone would've stayed back. They wouldn't all just leave. Even if he said he wanted that, and he probably would've, he wouldn't be listened to.

"Everything's fine, G," Sam lied. He knew if he told his partner what was going on, he'd insist on getting out of that bed and helping. There was no way in hell that was going to happen. He just recently woke up from being shot.

Callen gave him a knowing look. "Partners shouldn't lie to each other, Sam. Something's going on. Now, you can either tell me what it is or I can drag my ass out of here and back to the office."

"G, you just got shot. You can't go anywhere," Sam argued.

"I'll do it," Callen swore. He knew it was the best way of getting the information. Sam wasn't telling him because he was hurt and didn't want him over exerting himself. The only way for Callen to get past that was to threaten to over exert himself if he didn't get what he wanted.

Sam sighed and sat down at his friend's side. "Someone I put in prison a long time ago just escaped and is after me. It's being handled though."

"Who is he? He said he was after you, not us, so it's something that happened before we were partners," Callen deduced.

"Yeah, it was a long time ago. I was a petty officer at the time," Sam said. Then he told him everything that happened to him and Tim. Well, he told him everything the rest of the team knew. No one, not even G would be told the details.

"Damn. I knew something had happened with you and that agent from Gibbs' team. I knew it would be bad just from the fact that you wouldn't tell me about it," Callen said. He of course had never guessed it was something like this. Sam didn't go into details, but from what he had said, he knew that his friend had been tortured, worse he could do nothing as an innocent child faced the same treatment. Callen was sure that was the worst part for Sam. It explained why Sam was so close to Agent McGee. You couldn't go through something like that together and not form a bond.

"I wouldn't tell you now if I didn't have to. I never had any intention of telling anyone. Tim's the same way," Sam said.

"So Michelle doesn't even know?" Callen asked.

Sam shook his head. "I had to tell her that someone I put away was after me so she and the kids would stay away for a while, but that's all I said. This is the kind of thing you just don't tell people."

Callen nodded that he understood. He was in no way offended that Sam didn't confide in him. If it was him, he wouldn't say anything either. "Are you guys close to finding this guy."

"We have some leads we're following up on. Nothing yet though," Sam said.

Callen wanted nothing more than to get out of that bed and help his partner, but he wasn't an idiot. He knew he'd be more of hindrance than a help right now. He was just going to have to trust his team to handle it until he was in better shape. "I guess you should head back then. Be careful, and when you find this SOB, don't give him the chance to hurt anyone ever again."

Sam of course knew what his partner was trying to say. Like him, G knew that putting Taylor back in prison wasn't good enough. "You can damn well count on that.