Chapter Three- All is Resolved?
"Well, answer it!" Gibbs snapped, when the girl just stared at the phone in her hand with a look of horror on her face.
"I can't!" She half-wailed. "Tim told me not to come back here- I'm not allowed to talk to you guys. He said he'd kill me if I did."
Ziva grinned. "I highly doubt that he will kill you."
The phone's musical ring stopped. There was barely a second of silence before it started again.
"Answer that damn phone!" Gibbs ordered. "Put it on speaker and don't tell him where you are!"
Her brother had never managed to disobey that tone and she proved no stronger. She tapped the required buttons and lay the phone on the table. "Hey, Tim," she said tentatively.
"Sarah!" The whole team sighed in relief as Tim's voice came through the phone. At the very least, he was alive. He didn't sound like he was harmed in any way, though he did sound frustrated. "Did you send me an email last night?" He demanded.
Sarah grinned guiltily. "Well, duh." She scolded him. "Exactly how many people call you 'big brother', big brother?" She asked.
"I didn't exactly read the whole email." Tim's voice sounded sheepish through the phone. "What the hell is with the Klingon- I thought you were DiNozzo! You're lucky I didn't call him and yell at him. That's all I would have needed- to give him more ammunition. Do you want me to be called McKlingon? Or McCrazy or something stupid like that?"
Sarah bit back a smile, watching as Tommy's- Tony's!- eyes lit up with glee. "Um, no?" She said.
"You're damn right no!" Tim snapped back to her. "Where did you learn Klingon- and why the hell did you send that? Did someone tell you to? Are you in danger?"
"No!" She exclaimed, even though surrounded by so many agents she couldn't be sure of that. "We were all joking around and someone told that myth about Doyle. I thought you'd get a kick out of it. And some guy was there- he knew Klingon. He told me that and I thought it'd be funny to send it to you in a language you spoke. Are you in danger, Tim?"
"No." Tim's voice rang back almost too quickly, though he sounded extremely confident in his words. "I'm fine. Sarah, who was this guy?"
His voice sounded suspicious to Gibbs, but apparently Sarah couldn't hear the worry through the 'big-brother' tone that Tim often took when talking with her about guys. "None of your business, Tim." She said, rolling her eyes.
Gibbs turned to Tony, however, and received a nod. Tony had heard it too. Gibbs gestured to Abby and Tony sent her his way. "Abs," Gibbs whispered over Sarah arguing with her brother. "Go trace McGee's cell."
Abby nodded, rising from her position beside him and quickly heading for her lab, with a quick wave at Pamela as she left.
"Sarah, I don't care if you slept with the guy!" Gibbs turned back to the McGee siblings' conversation only to wince and wish he hadn't. "I don't care. I just need his name. Or better yet- let me guess. Was it Jonny Easton?"
Sarah's eyes grew wide and Gibbs knew that Tim had hit the name dead on. "How did you know that- are you following me?" She demanded.
"Do you have that bastard's number?" Tim ignored her question and asked his own.
At least Sarah knew him well enough not to hound him with a question he didn't want to answer. "No. I gave him mine. He said he'd call me."
"Yeah, don't count on that." The collective around the table winced at that as Sarah's eyes filled with tears. Even McGee seemed to realize what he said, as his voice came back guiltily, "Oh, god, Sar- I didn't mean it like that. You're a-a, um, great girl. I'm sure. But Easton is a piece of… He used to do this all the time back at MIT. Use girls and then toss them aside. I'm sure he came up with the clever idea of sending that quote to me too- he would know what that means. Don't worry, I'll find him and take care of this."
"What is 'this'?" Sarah asked, receiving an approving nod from Gibbs.
"Don't you worry about it, it's nothing that concerns you. This is my fault- everyone at MIT knew I had a little sister. It wouldn't be hard to work out how old you were." Tim said tired. "He always was a sore loser about things. He must be cackling with glee right now, thinking he's pulled one over on us."
"'Us'?" Sarah grinned. "Who are you with, Tim? Shouldn't you be at work?"
There was a moment of silence and her grin fell. Apparently this was not a joke. "I've told you before, Sar." Tim's voice was quite solemn as he finally spoke. "Some things are even more important than NCIS. You're one of them. This is another one of those things. I took some time off. I'll take care of this and be back before you know it."
"I thought you said you'd go to Gibbs if you were in trouble again?" Sarah said scoldingly.
Tim laughed. "This isn't exactly something Gibbs can help with. Sarah, look, don't talk to Easton again. He's not a good guy- and he's way too old for you. He's got to be at least two years older than me."
"I won't." She said, sighing. "He wasn't that good a kisser anyway."
"Thanks." Gibbs could practically see McGee rolling his eyes. "I've always wondered. I'm so glad I know now." Gibbs had to glare at Tony, promising a slap with his stare, to keep him quiet.
"So, uh, you still haven't' told me who you're with, big brother." Sarah said, giggling at his words. "Is there someone I get to bash and tell you never to see again."
"No, I would never subject her to the likes of you," Tim's voice turned teasing again. "Maybe Danny, though. Just for fun."
"Hey!" They all leaned closer, hearing a faint voice on Tim's side of the phone. Another male.
Gibbs turned to Fornell, receiving a nod. "Daniel Byers." He confirmed in a whisper.
Abby returned, a Post-it in hand, which she handed to Gibbs. He read the address, noting with satisfaction it was only forty minutes or so away. He could make it there in twenty minutes. Ziva could make it there in fifteen minutes. Whatever he was up to, their geek hadn't abandoned them completely.
He tapped the table, getting Sarah's attention and made a 'wrap it up' motion. "Hey, Tim," Sarah couldn't have been more happy to get away from this awkward conversation. "I've gotta get going. You stay safe," she added, her usual sign off now that she actually knew how dangerous his job could be.
"Sure, Sarah," he was as unappreciative as ever regarding her new appreciation for him. "And no more emails in languages you don't speak! Be a good girl!" He gave her his usual 'good bye', quickly ending the call before she could yell at him.
She put her phone back in her pocket, blushing at his words. He'd spoken those same words to her almost every time he'd ever left her since the day she started kindergarten. Obviously, she'd never moved past the age of five to him. The jerk- he deserved all the teasing Tony was going to give him over this one.
"Gibbs." As they all fell silent, Abby spoke up. "While I was tracking him, Tim came onto the NCIS main frame. He ran a search for-"
"Jon Easton." Gibbs finished for her.
She pouted, hating as always that she hadn't gotten the news to him first. "And, I looked up the location that Tim's at- it's Daniel Byer's house."
"Yeah, okay." Gibbs nodded. "Tony-"
"No, Gibbs!" Abby interrupted him, putting her hand on
his shoulder. "I don't know who this Easton is, but he lives right down the street from where Byers lives. Tim could be in danger!"
"Tony, Ziva, take the car." Gibbs snapped. "Abby, you take Sarah down your lab and lock it down- you aren't allowed out until I come get you. I don't know if Easton would go after Sarah, but he targeted Tim through her once already- we can't risk that a second time. Tobias, you're with me."
Without so much as a by-your-leave, they all took off, leaving Vance alone in his office.
***
Thanks to traffic, it actually took both Ziva and Gibbs
almost twenty-five minutes to arrive at their destination. They came to a sleepy little street that was a dead end on end. The houses on the street were all framed by the woods behind them. It looked nice enough.
"I could have gotten us there faster." Tobias grumbled as they climbed out.
"Shh!" Gibbs drew his gun almost immediately. "Do you
smell that?"
There was a fire somewhere, burning.
"There are people around back." Ziva reported as she and
Tony walked over. "I can hear them. More than a few."
"Alright, let's go." Gibbs ignored the front door, heading around to the gate he could see between their house and the next. "Stay sharp."
They fanned out as they got to the closed gate. Closer to the house, they could hear several voice, raised in happy celebration. The smell of gasoline was prominent too.
"Tony," Gibbs gestured to the gate.
Tony nodded, bracing himself and kicking it in with one leg. The four agents entered, guns raised, flanking their partners. "NCIS, freeze!" Gibbs called out, while Fornell did the same.
There were actually ten people in the backyard, all of whom did, in fact, freeze, something criminals rarely did. Had there not been so many potential targets, Gibbs might have focused more on the large bonfire in the middle of the yard.
"Hey, take it easy, guys!" Gibbs only calmed when his agent appeared, walking out from behind the fire. He was holding a gasoline can, which he set down before approaching Gibbs. He held his hands up slightly, but
gave them a genial grin. "Damn. You caught me." He said. "I did good- I had my phone off all day. Sarah was at NCIS, wasn't she?"
Gibbs, having called Abby to get a new fix on Tim's phone- fearful McGee might have gone after Easton, already knew that the agent's phone was off and had suspected the phone had been off most of the day.
He wouldn't have given Sarah up, but Tony had to break
in, "Uh, yeah, we did, McKlingon." He looked ecstatic he'd gotten to use a McNickname that Tim himself had come up with, so Tim just rolled his eyes.
"Well, look, Boss, I'm sorry I didn't call in, but I'm not in any danger. Really." Tim assured Gibbs.
Gibbs gestured for the others to put away their guns. "What about Easton, Tim?" He asked.
Tim laughed. "Wow, I'm really not good at hiding things, hm?" He looked sour momentarily at the thought. "Jonny's no problem, we took care of him. Right, guys?" He asked, turning back to the others.
Now that the guns were gone, the people around the fire had started moving again, several coming closer. Gibbs could see, to his amusement, that they all had a laptop somewhere nearby.
"This is your team, Tim?" A woman with wildly curly brown hair came up next to Tim, looking the others over curiously.
"Well, you know Agent Fornell." Tim blushed as the woman's arm wrapped around him. "Boss, this is Lexy, an old friend of mine. Lexy, this is Gibbs."
Gibbs nodded, but was cut off by Tony before he could speak up, "Hello, beautiful!"
Gibbs smirked, DiNozzo would never change, and looked around. Most of the people around the backyard were staring at them. Only one man, with spiked red hair, wasn't looking at them. Instead, he was staring at the bonfire, looking devastated.
"McGee?" Gibbs nodded towards the man, pulling DiNozzo away from the uncomfortable looking woman.
"That's Easton, Agent Gibbs." A black man who even taller than Tim and had curly black hair and chocolate brown eyes came up to stand next to Tim as well, though he didn't slip an arm around his waist and instead kept a manly distance. "As you can see, he's no danger to anyone."
"We put an end to that!" Lexy smirked. "Imagine- using Tim's little sister like that."
"It was a nice reunion though." Another woman, this one a petite blond with a ponytail and bright blue eyes bounced up next to Lexy. "I haven't been able to get away lately."
"Yeah." Tim agreed. "Uh, Boss, this is Danny- we all crashed his house as it was the biggest. And this is Jane." He pointed to the blonde.
Danny waved weakly at Fornell. "Hello, sir." He smiled. "Sorry about everything- we got all the evidence you needed and more. That Jennings isn't just embezzling- he's laundering that money through a number of casinos he has a stake in. This collective can do anything when they put their minds to it," he added, gesturing around the group.
As happy as Fornell was to get the information, he couldn't help but be a little horrified. "You let all these people in on a case!" He exclaimed. "Jennings' lawyers will tear this evidence up!"
"Relax, Agent Fornell." Tim reassured him when Danny and Lexy both quailed under Fornell's glare. "They didn't tell us about the case. We all just threw around some ideas. Lexy and Danny did all the work themselves."
"In that case, get over here." Fornell grabbed his geeks and took them aside. He needed this information quickly to get his warrant.
"McGee, what is going on?" Ziva asked. "What danger were you in?"
Jane grinned, though she sidled a little closer to Tim when Ziva's eyes turned towards her. "We weren't in any danger, ma'am." She said, looking to Tim before continuing. "We all took a class together at MIT- a database class. We all got really close and well…" She trailed off grinning. "Jonny just takes things too seriously sometimes. We took care of it. Really."
"McGee." Gibbs didn't like half-answers.
"Boss, no offense, but it's nothing you'd understand." Tim wasn't about to spill his friends' secrets. "We were all geeks, none of us really had many friends. So, we shared some…computing techniques with each other. You know, secrets shared make a friendship stronger or something. We all agreed that that password- All is discovered, flee at once- written in Klingon would be our keyword if those secrets got out. Easton thought he could blackmail us with it."
"So, we found him and burned the evidence." Jane concluded, grinning. "All he could do was watch and weep. Loser." She sniffed haughtily and left to go rejoin the others.
They were all sitting around in a lazy circle, some on the grass and some in chairs, laughing and teasing one another, but all had a laptop in their laps or nearby. Whatever they had done to Easton, he looked both terrified and completely beaten, though there wasn't a mark on him.
Ziva approved. "Well done, Tim." She said,
smiling. "Always protect your six."
"We should have done it years ago." Tim looked a little embarrassed. "But he got kicked out of MIT- for using some of our hacking tricks and left with the secrets we'd written."
"Wow." Tony couldn't believe he was in the presence of so many geeks. "But what did you do?"
Tim just grinned. "Hey, think of it this way, Tony. 'I'm a nerd and I'm here tonight to stand up for the rights of other nerds'."
Tony gasped, his face lighting up with glee. "Revenge of the Nerds, 1984. Great movie."
Gibbs rolled his eyes, reaching out and slapping them both. He could see by the stubborn look on Tim's face they weren't really going to get any more answers and the situation looked to be contained. Trying to pry answers from Tim was a useless endeavor when he got stubborn, even for him, and he definitely wanted to get out of there if Tim was pulling out movie quotes. Tim encouraging Tony always led to disaster. "I guess you're on a vacation day, McGee." He said, slapping the youngest man again. "Some heads up would be nice next time. You better not be late tomorrow."
He gestured to the others, turning to leave. Ziva willingly left, as did Fornell, who was busy talking on his phone, but Tony stayed back, wanting a few more seconds to tease his Probie.
Before he could say a word, Lexy returned, with several of the others right behind her. "'We have news for the beautiful people. There's a lot more of us than there are of you'." She said, grinning menacingly at Tony.
Tony gulped, realizing the truth of her words. "Uh, see you tomorrow then, Probie." He said, quickly turning and heading for the gate. Only when he closed it safely behind him did he slow down, but then he could hear them all burst into laughter behind him. Damn nerds.
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