Chapter Eight:
Ducky sat blinking, watching Gibbs’ rapidly departing back, and found himself not knowing what to do. He had come to the hospital with the intention of sitting with Jethro, translating the information provided by the doctors into understandable terms, and being there to offer support. Instead, he found himself sitting in the waiting room by himself, left alone to worry.

For his part, Gibbs did not know why he had felt compelled to leave the hospital. As the doors of the emergency room closed behind him, he stopped and drew in a deep breath of fresh air. The frustration had just gotten to be too much, frustration born from the not knowing, the fear, and the guilt. And he was angry â€" so very angry. Whirling around, he punched his right hand into the brick wall next to the entrance doors. It wasn’t enough. He followed with a left jab, and then another with his right. The pain which shot up his arms felt right. Physical pain he knew how to deal with. He felt his breathing slow down and realized he had been well on his way to hyperventilating. Taking a moment to let the pain take up residence in his body, he pulled out a hanky, wrapped it around the bloody knuckles on his right hand and turned back towards the Starbucks across the street which he had seen earlier.

A bit later, armed with a large, black coffee, Gibbs re-entered the hospital. Seeing Ducky sitting in the waiting room, absent mindedly leafing through some magazine, he crossed over to him. “Any news?� he asked as he sat. Ducky, taking in the raw condition of his knuckles and the tension vibrating through Gibbs’ body, merely shook his head. “These things take time� he said, trying to decide whether he dare approach the subject of Gibbs’ hands. Remembering the old quote, “discretion is the better part of valor,� he decided that it could wait. “I spoke with Abby whist you were out getting coffee. She is very worried about Anthony and wanted to come down here. I forestalled her, telling her there was nothing to do here right now and assuring her that we would let her know the minute we had news. But she won’t keep forever, Jethro.“ Getting no reaction, other than Gibbs turning his head away, Ducky continued, “You will have to talk to her soon, and you must expect her to insist on coming to the hospital to see Tony for herself.�

“What I expect her to do is to run all trace evidence and find out who those bastards were! What I expect her to do is what she is paid to do.�

“I understand Jethro that you“ and before he could get more out he was interrupted.

“No, you can’t understand. Hell, I don’t understand� and Ducky watched a wall shut down over Gibbs’ eyes, as he moved his abused hand in a manner suggesting that the conversation was finished. Ducky sighed, but said nothing. For now, just being there was going to have to be enough.

While all of this was going on at the hospital, McGee and Ziva were experiencing their own difficulties at the warehouse. After watching the ambulance pull away McGee had, as instructed, called headquarters, updating Director Vance on what has occurred and requesting backup. What he had not anticipated was Vance telling him that, ‘Yes, he would send out Cassie’s team, but that he and Ziva were too close to the case, and they were to allow Cassie to take the lead, offer her support and follow her instructions while Gibbs was busy looking after DiNozzo.’

When McGee told Ziva this she said, “He is not playing with a full house if he thinks Gibbs will let another team take over this investigation.�

McGee looked at her blankly, blinked, and then said, “Full deck, Ziva. Not playing with a full deck. And you’re right. Gibbs will go ballistic. I don’t want to be the one to tell him.�

After thinking for a second she said, “He is busy at the hospital at the moment, Tim. We do not need to bother him with this information right now.� She paused and looked at him intently. “It will take some time for Cassie’s team to get here. We would be ‘supporting’ her if we started looking for evidence right now, no? And if we found fingerprints and took them to Abby, would that not be speeding up the investigation? We would not want to take away physical evidence; that would need to be photographed, bagged and processed, but getting any prints running would merely be helping. And if Abby found anything we could investigate that while the other team is busy working on the physical evidence. That would make us very supportive I think,� Ziva said with a grim, hard smile on her face.

McGee swallowed; it was hard for him to stretch the rules. But then he remembered what Tony had looked like when they had found him which hardened his resolve. Nodding once, he said, “Let’s get going. I‘ll get the bags out of the car and meet you back by where we found Tony.�

Ziva went back into the warehouse and took a good look around. In their hurry to get Tony medical help, none of them had really examined the area he had been in. She studied the tipped chair, seeing the rope that Gibbs had cut when he had freed Tony lying next to it. Scanning the area, she saw a baseball bat, its thick end covered in blood. She did not need to see the results of a blood analysis to know that it was Tony’s blood which had stained the light wood red. When McGee got back, she took the camera from him, taking pictures of the crime scene, making sure to get lots of shots of the rope, chair and bat. She wanted to make sure that they had photographic evidence of where the items had been found and exactly how they had looked at the scene. After she had completed this, McGee got busy looking for prints. Working quickly, he was able to pull several prints off the chair and bat but he did not take the time to study the quality of them. When they heard vehicles pulling up outside the building he stuffed the adhesive film strips containing the prints into a bag and they went out to greet the new arrivals.

Seeing them emerge from the warehouse, and noting their strained expressions, Cassie Yates said, “I am so sorry about this. We are all pulling for Tony. You guys look done in. Why don’t you show us where you found him and let us process the scene. You can go back to headquarters and calm Abby down. Take some time; I’ll let you know when we get done here.� She was ready to push further, anticipating an argument from the agents, and was slightly taken aback when Ziva said, “I think that is a good idea. We will be waiting to hear from you.� Swallowing back the protests she had not needed to make, Cassie watched them walk tiredly back to their car and get in.

The ride back to NCIS was a quiet and solemn affair. Neither Ziva nor McGee felt like talking, both lost in their private thoughts. After parking the car, they headed to the elevator, in a hurry to get the finger prints to Abby before Cassie’s team returned with the physical evidence.

When they got to the lab, they were surprised to find it quiet. Walking through the doors neither of them saw Abby. She was usually to be found either at the computer on her desk or standing in the center of the room, dancing between ‘Major Mass Spec’ or some other piece of equipment that aided her in performing her forensic miracles. Looking around the room, McGee was the first to spot her in the far corner, on the floor, curled into a tight ball, hugging Bert to her chest.

“Abs� he said softly.

“Oh Timmy!� she cried, leaping up and throwing herself at him.

McGee wrapped his arms around both she and Bert, raising a hand to snuggle her head into his shoulder. “He’s going to make it Abs. Tony is the strongest person I know.�

“How many times can he keep being strong?� Abby asked, brokenly.

“As many times as he needs to,� said Ziva firmly, coming over to stand next to them. “Tony would never do anything to let Gibbs down, and dying would certainly make Gibbs mad,� she added, hoping a little levity would ease Abby’s pain.

Abby pulled her head away from McGee and gave Ziva a small smile. She stepped back from McGee and squared her shoulders. “Right� she said, wiping a hand across her eyes, which were dangerously close to flowing over. “What have you got for me?�

“Vance has assigned Cassie’s team to take lead on this. He says we are too close to it and that we should take a back chair and merely help.�

“Seat- a back seat,� Abby corrected automatically.

“We have some prints to run Abby. It just might be that Cassie does not know we have these prints. We have brought them to you, hoping it will provide an avenue of pursuit. If you were to find something McGee and I could follow up on it, thereby providing that help. None of us would even need to mention this to Cassie. We would not want to distract her from the primary investigation.� Ziva said, giving Abby a conspiratorial look.

Abby looked up at McGee, knowing that this dangerous game must be hard for him. He looked her straight in the eye and nodded. Abby held his gaze for a minute, looking for any sign of hesitation. Finding none, she nodded and said, “Then I guess we should get busy helping. Give me those prints and let’s see what we can find out.�

And with that, McGee pulled the film with the prints preserved on them out of his bag, and the three co-conspirators set to work.

And while all of this was taking place, both in the lab and the waiting room at the hospital, the object of everyone’s concern was floating in a hazy sea of white, neither awake nor truly asleep, but rather, in an altered state rendering him oblivious to his surroundings and the trauma his body was fighting to overcome.