Thank you to beautybells for being my beta for this story. I really do appreciate your help.
"Go to sleep, Tony. I am going to see what I can find out about how the arsenic got into the Scotch. I will try to be here when you wake up if I am not able to get back; I'll send Ducky. I promise someone will be here for you when you wake up." Gibbs said as he sat on the edge of bed.
Tony nodded once.
"I won't leave until you are asleep. Your body needs all the rest it can get to heal."
"I don't think even rest can heal these wounds." Tony answered skeptically.
"Sleep, Tony. Now."
Gibbs watched as Tony drifted off to sleep, vowing to clear Tony's name before he was released. Gibbs walked out of the room and saw Allison waiting to talk with him.
"I'll do all I can." Allison promised.
"I am going to get my team to investigate the arsenic." Gibbs said as he headed out.
"Let me know what you find out. Just about anything can go a long way to form reasonable doubt for a jury; if we even get that far." Allison called after him.
Gibbs arrived at the Navy Yard, where Ducky, Palmer and Abby were waiting in the bullpen. Abby came racing to him.
"Ducky filled us in. How is Tony?" She demanded in a fast-paced rush.
"He's finally asleep. Ducky could you go over and sit with him? I don't want him to wake up alone."
"Of course Jethro," the ME assured.
"Abby, I want you to get access to Anthony DiNozzo Senior's medical results. Tony thinks that his father may have been sick. We need to find out if he was."
"Why would Tony think his father was sick?" Tim asked.
"He has had no contact with his father since he was 12. Out of the blue Senior contacts him. Why?" Gibbs responded.
Ducky and Palmer leave to sit with Tony while the rest of the team gets to work. Abby is looking for the medical records while Tim and Ziva check to see who close to Senior could have gotten the arsenic.
Several hours pass.
The team was busy working. Ducky had called to inform Gibbs that Tony and Palmer were watching a movie.
Abby came running into the bullpen, "I've got something!"
"What is it Abbs?" Gibbs asked.
"Senior's medical records showed that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He was supposed to have started chemo; instead he came up here and now he is dead."
"Why didn't the city ME find out that he had cancer?" McGee asks.
"They found the arsenic and probably quit looking."
"Okay, so we know that Senior really was sick. He probably wanted one last shot at destroying his son's life. Can we trace the arsenic back to him?" Gibbs asked.
"Cancer is treatable right. So why not get treatment?" Ziva asked.
"Because while cancer is treatable; the treatment is said to be worse than the disease. When I was a teenager, I had a friend who had leukemia. She was always so sick, all her hair fell out. Most days after starting chemo, she couldn't even get out of bed. She couldn't eat and if she did manage something like soup, she couldn't keep it down." Abby explained.
"So Senior didn't want to go through that instead he puts the sticky gun in Tony's hand, so to speak," Ziva said.
"It's smoking gun, and yeah that could be what happened." McGee corrected.
"But we need to prove it. Did Senior get his hands on arsenic?" Gibbs pointed out.
"There is no evidence of that; but there is also no evidence that Tony purchased the arsenic either. And what is really hinky, is that the only prints on the Scotch bottle are Tony's. The bottle had been wiped clean before Tony went there and picked up the bottle." Abby explained.
"That doesn't mean anything the FBI would argue he brought the bottle with him." McGee pointed out.
"Don't say that!" Abby yelled, "The bottle was wiped clean. Why would Tony wipe the bottle and then turn around and put fingerprints on it?"
"Abbs, calm down. What makes you think the bottle was wiped clean?" Gibbs asked. He had a feeling as to why, but he didn't want to get his hopes up. Facts would clear Tony; hope would not.
"If I was to examine a bottle of your bourbon, there would be so many prints on the bottle that it would be hard to determine one person's fingerprints. You buy your bourbon at the store where everyone else does. Not only would your prints be on the bottle, there would be the one who stocks the shelf and the cashier's at the very minimum. With no other fingerprints on the Scotch bottle, where did the bottle come from?"Abby said logically.
"I'll inform Allison,"Gibbs said.
"Allison?" Ziva asked.
"Yes, Ms Allison Hart. I hired her to protect Tony's best interest," Gibbs explained.
Ziva was silent.
Gibbs was in the waiting room at Bethesda, waiting for Allison and Tobias.
"You called this meeting, so tell us: did you find something interesting?" Allison asked.
"I did. Senior had cancer and was supposed to start chemo when he came here. Also that bottle of Scotch was wiped clean before Tony picked it up to make the drink that he had been making all week long. He had no reason to suspect that there was arsenic in it. Here is what my team has come up with: Senior had cancer and didn't want to go through the treatment; he figured a way to kill himself and make Tony take the blame. He put the arsenic in the Scotch bottle and then wiped the bottle clean. Tony comes in and immediately pours the drink." Gibbs explains.
"Maybe DiNozzo wiped the bottle clean?" Tobias pointed out.
"Right, he wipes the bottle and then picks it up. That's a bit backwards." Allison added.
"You have no case, so you might as well drop the charges." Gibbs finished.
"Fine. We will drop the charges." Tobias agreed and left.
"Thank you for everything Allison," Gibbs said.
"No problem. I'm just glad everything worked out," she said with a smile.
Gibbs watched Allison leave with a resigned look. Now he had to pick up the pieces of his broken agent and friend. Gibbs knew that, in time, the physical damage will heal. The emotional damage is a whole different story.
