Chapter 3

"Hey, McGee." They'd only been going for about half an hour.

"What?" Tim asked blearily.

Genuinely asleep, then.

"You wanna make a visit to Walnut Grove?"

"What?"

"Walnut Grove. You know. Little House on the Prairie?"

Tim sat up.

"Are you crazy?"

"I wonder sometimes."

"No, I don't want to go to Walnut Grove."

Tim lay back down. Tony considered going anyway, but it was well out of their way, was not something he himself was interested in seeing, and might be more trouble than it was worth in terms of needling Tim. He decided to press on to get to Pipestone. Being both driver and navigator, he ended up driving too far north which put them off track, but in a rural way, it was rather pretty. As he drove, he was surprised to see a wind farm right beside the road. It wasn't that he didn't know what they were or how they worked, but he'd never been so close to one before.

"Hey, Tim! Wake up!"

"What?" Tim asked, irritated.

"Look out the window," Tony said with a smile.

"At what?"

"Just look!"

Tim looked with his eyes half open and then did a double-take.

"It's a wind farm," he said in surprise.

"Yeah! Cool, huh?"

"I've never seen one before," Tim said softly.

"Me, neither. Isn't it neat?"

Tim suddenly took a deep breath and swallowed hard.

"Yeah." He lay back down and closed his eyes.

"What's wrong, Tim?"

"Nothing. I'm just tired."

"Yeah, right. That wasn't being tired."

"I'm tired, Tony. Be quiet and let me sleep."

Tony had to keep his eyes on the road, but he had to say that even if he couldn't cure Tim of whatever ailed him, spending all this time with him was revealing a deeper problem that he had realized. He didn't like Tim shifting from mildly interested to disturbed. What had caused it?

"Tim?"

"What part of be quiet don't you understand, DiNozzo?" Tim said angrily.

"Fine, fine."

The wind farm receded into the distance, passed by without further comment. It was something Tony knew that the old Tim would have been interested in; he would have been able to bring up information on them and bored Tony to tears with all the details. In fact, the old Tim would have driven Tony crazy.

He really wished that Tim was back.

It didn't take long to get to Pipestone. Tony got a bit lost in the town, not knowing where exactly he was going, and seeing that Tim was really asleep, he didn't want wake him. Finally, he got to Reservation Avenue which led to the Pipestone National Monument. The drive was slow. He didn't mind it. Tim really was asleep.

...but he reached the small parking lot in front of the visitor's center.

"Tim, we're here."

"Where?" Tim asked, as he had before.

"Pipestone National Monument."

Tim woke up, but it was clear that it was with reluctance. Tony almost felt bad about that. If Tim really wasn't sleeping at night, it was no wonder he'd become so run down.

"How long as McGee been like this?" Gibbs asked.

"Boss! I didn't know you'd be back!"

"How long has McGee been like this?"

"Like what?" Ziva asked. "He has been very focused on tracking down Dearing."

"Is he sleeping?"

"Not a lot," Tony said, "but I told him he needed to stop staying here overnight."

"He's been staying here overnight?"

"He was," Ziva said. "But Tony and I made sure he left after we noticed. He did not like leaving. He has been here first every day."

"I don't like it."

"He doesn't like the fact that Dearing might still be after you, Boss."

"What are we doing here?"

"Look around the visitor's center. Take in some culture. Maybe buy a souvenir. Take a couple of pictures. You ready for that?"

"How long do we have to do this?"

"As long as it takes," Tony said firmly. "Let's go."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim got out of the car, wanting only to sleep some more. He felt that fuzzy edge that always accompanied too little sleep. He didn't understand what Tony was trying to do by taking him all these places...but so far as he could tell, after this, they had a long drive ahead of them. He could sleep a lot more after this.

He followed Tony inside the visitor's center...and in spite of himself, he was intrigued by what he was seeing. The pipestone. It was red and they really did carve the stone into some amazing things. He saw a small, carved turtle. Tony was taking pictures...of Tim and the displays in the visitor's center. Tim tried to ignore him. He walked over to a display with some pieces of pipestone...and hacksaws. The signs invited him to try cutting the pipestone. He bypassed that.

"Hey, McGee! Look! We can cut the rocks!" Tony said with all the giddiness of a kid. He set his camera down and picked up one of the hacksaws. "Take my picture, Tim!" he ordered.

Tim sighed, feeling like it was taking more energy than he had to act like a normal human being, but he picked up the camera and took Tony's picture as he wielded the saw, trying to cut the stone.

"Now, you try it, Tim," Tony said.

"I don't want to."

"Come on! Do it!"

Tim couldn't figure out why Tony was being so insistent. He'd been like this all around, and nothing Tim had tried had made Tony back off. ...and he had tried. He just wanted everyone to leave him alone until he could regain his equilibrium. Until he could forget that Dearing had been more omniscient and omnipotent than Gibbs and that he had used all his resources and all his abilities to destroy as much as he could.

Again, his felt his body tense up and he set the camera down to walk somewhere that would allow him to hide that from Tony.

"What's wrong, Tim?"

That same question, over and over. Tim hated that question because it told him that what he felt was not normal, was not acceptable and shouldn't be felt at all. He had been told that there was no reason to worry. Well, he was worrying, and he was going to keep worrying unless someone could give him a good reason why he shouldn't. ...and since there wasn't a good reason to stop...

"I don't want to cut the rock, Tony," Tim said.

He walked away from the stone toward the displays of etched stone. He was tired. He didn't feel safe, and all he wanted was to get away.

The problem was that he didn't know what it was that he was trying to escape exactly...because, logically, he knew that Dearing was in prison and not likely to get out. ...but that didn't mean he'd stay there.

As he wandered around the visitor's center, he stopped paying any attention to the displays...until finally one pinged off his brain.

Someone had carved a replica of the Enterprise out of the red pipestone. Captain Kirk's space ship was right there in front of him, rendered in pipestone. Who had done it? How had they managed all the details? It was absolutely amazing.

"How did they do that?" he murmured.

"I carved it."

Tim looked at the older man sitting on a chair beside the display. He was calmly carving a piece of pipestone.

"You did this?" Tim asked.

"Yes."

"How?"

The man smiled. "Patiently. It takes days to make a pipe well. A spaceship doesn't mean as much but it is something that takes patience."

"It's amazing."

"Thank you."

The man went back to carving his pipe. Tim couldn't believe that he was just sitting there, carving a piece of rock. It wasn't wood. It was rock. Tim's thoughts wandered a bit. This man, at least, should be safe. Nothing to do with the Navy here. No reason for Dearing to come after him. He just carved pipestone. ...but then, who would have imagined that there could have been someone so bent on revenge that he would be willing to kill as many innocents as it took to do it?

Tim took a deep breath and walked into the gift shop. He wandered around, looking at the pieces for sale. Before he knew it, he'd purchased a small carved turtle.

"Tim. You bought something without me making you? Good job!"

Tim rolled his eyes.

"I was just talking to one of the employees. The rain last night flooded the trails; so we can't go to the waterfall that's nearby. ...but the quarries are right around here. They're starting to pump the water out so that they can get digging today. Want to go see?"

"Sure. Whatever," Tim said. That was his response whenever he wished there was something else he could say.

Tony led the way out of the visitor's center and they looked around at the quarries. They were just holes in the ground, but the interesting thing was that, unlike so many other sites, these were active quarries. In fact, a group of Lakota had just arrived and were preparing to remove some of the pipestone.

"You have to be a member of one of the local tribes in order to get a permit to quarry this stuff," Tony said.

"Oh."

It wasn't that he wasn't interested. He was, but Tim watched them, and it was like staring at a different world. A world without someone like Dearing in it. He envied them. He followed Tony around the trails near the visitor's center. They wound around the active quarries and a few unused ones. They had large piles of rock around them and enough room inside for maybe four or five people to work comfortably.

A different world.

"You ready to go?"

"Yes," Tim said instantly.

Tony seemed disappointed. Tim couldn't figure out why but he didn't see the point in asking. Tony didn't say anything, either. They just walked back to the car. Tim got in and looked forward to sleeping, but as they drove out, Tony suddenly pushed on the brakes.

"Look at that, Tim," he said in genuine surprise.

"What?" Tim asked.

"Those rocks. There's a sign. Three Maidens. They just look like rocks to me, not like girls at all. Let's look at them."

"We just did," Tim said, knowing he sounded petulant. He really wanted to get what sleep he could before he had to be on guard at night.

"Closer, Probie. Closer." Tony turned off the car and got out. Tim followed. Tony started reading a sign explaining what they were. "Glacial boulders. Huh. Never thought of glaciers this far south. Did you?"

Tim shrugged. It was too difficult to get his mind to dredge up whatever facts he might still know about glaciers in the U.S. The rocks were interesting. They were larger than he was, but Tony was right. They didn't look like women. They were out of place for the geology of the area, and if the sign Tony had read was correct, they were out of place. Glacial deposits left behind as the last glacial age had receded, leaving behind a lot of debris. It looked like someone had set out an offering of some kind on them. He wondered why. The Three Maidens were set fairly far off the road, but they clearly meant something to these people. He wondered if the man who was carving had left the offering...or maybe the people going to work in the quarry had.

"Go stand in front of them, Probie."

"Why do you want these pictures, Tony?"

"Because we need to document the trip, McGee."

"Why?"

"Because I said so, McCrabby. Go on."

Tim decided it wasn't worth fighting about. He trudged over and stood in front of the large rocks. Tony took a picture and then let him get back in the car. Relieved, Tim reclined the seat and fell asleep almost instantly. Sleep. Blessed sleep he could get at no other time...only when it was safe.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony sighed as Tim closed his eyes once again. That Tim was tired, he didn't doubt, but he couldn't figure out his behavior. He had seemed interested in things. He had even bought a carving...but he was still so moody. Tony wasn't sure when to implement the next step of his plan...but Tim needed sleep right now. A lot more than he was getting.

"Tim, you look so tired! Maybe you should take a nap," Abby said. After letting everyone fawn over her, she was happy to fawn over Tim with his silences and the dark circles under his eyes.

"I don't need a nap, Abby," Tim said. "We just need to find Dearing."

"Well, if that's what it will take, then I'm right on it! I want to get him, too. Major Mass Spec will never be the same after what he did."

Tim smiled a little...the first smile he'd expressed in days.

"I'm glad you're back, Abbs."

"Me, too, Tim! I missed everyone! Even if we're not back in the building yet, we will be. That's good enough."

Tony saw Tim nod but not very happily as Abby got to work, looking through the material Tim had tried to gather. The scars on her arms and face were still prominent and she had a brace on her leg, but it was Abby. She didn't let that kind of thing hold her back. Still, Tim looked at her, almost as if he was making sure she didn't disappear.