"Nothing from the picture or the envelope?" Gibbs asked Abby as they talked on the phone.
"Nope. No prints. No anything. Can I be told what this is about now?"
Ziva walked into the bullpen and Gibbs hung up.
"I have the file," Ziva said.
"Pull up a chair."
Ziva set the file down in front of Gibbs, then brought over her desk chair and sat across from him.
Gibbs opened the file. The first thing he picked up were pictures that had been taken of Tim at the hospital. He shook his head, cursing silently as he looked at the bruises on the young boy. Not so much on his face, but his arms, torso, back and legs were covered.
After Gibbs finished with the photos, he handed them to Ziva.
She gasped, "Oh my God," She said as she looked through them. The look on Tim's face in the pictures were just pitiful. You could see the pain in his pale green eyes. "I can not believe this is McGee. And I can not believe anyone would do this to him."
"The world is full of evil, David."
"Yes, I know… It is just more difficult when it is one of our own."
"Yeah…" Gibbs sighed, "I know."
He picked up the report where everything that had happened to Tim was written down. "They chained his ankle and kept him in a room with no windows and six deadbolts on the door… They didn't let him eat and barely gave him any water… They would fill a bathtub with water and hold him underneath for long periods of time… They beat him…" Gibbs shook his head and angrily dropped the papers onto his desk, "They molested him."
Ziva took a deep breath, "Elijah was right."
"What?"
"He said that Tim and Devon had gone through hell… He was right."
Almost an hour later, Tony was finishing up at Tim's place. He was looking around to make sure he didn't miss anything when he saw something on the top of Tim's computer. He walked over to the small black thing that sat there beside the webcam.
His eyebrows furrowed as he picked it up. It didn't take long for him to figure out what it was. He quickly got out his phone and dialed Gibbs' number, then left out of the apartment.
"Yeah, it's Gibbs."
"Boss, we've got a problem," Tony said as he hurried to his car.
"What is it, Tony?"
"I found a listening device in Tim's apartment. It's like the one's we use, Boss. He didn't even have to be close by to hear."
Gibbs stood up and quickly got his keys, "Grab your gear," He said to Ziva, then continued talking to Tony, "DiNozzo, McGee is at my place. I took him there to get some sleep. If this guy heard us, then…"
"On my way, Boss," Tony said, not even wanting to think that Tim might be in imminent danger.
Tony got to Gibbs' house first. There was no way he was going to wait for backup.
He slowly opened the front door. The fact that it was unlocked surprised him. Sure, Gibbs always kept it unlocked... unless something like this was going on.
Tony walked through the first floor. Not a sound could be heard. Nothing was out of place. No one was there.
He made his way down to the basement. Again, nothing.
Going back up to the main floor, Tony thought he heard something, but it turned out to be the house settling.
He quietly walked up the steps to the second floor. He went to the first room. Nothing. Then the second room. "Oh my God."
Suddenly there was a noise behind him that was definitely not the house settling. He quickly turned around, gun ready to fire.
He sighed in relief when he saw Gibbs and Ziva standing there.
Gibbs and Ziva looked at the room, then Gibbs slowly walked inside.
"I am going to check the last room," Ziva said, already knowing it would be empty.
"Boss, I-"
"He was supposed to be safe here," Gibbs said angrily as he looked at the destroyed bedroom.
"You couldn't have known, Boss."
"It doesn't matter, DiNozzo. Expect the unexpected. I always say that! I should've checked the house before I left."
"He probably came after you left."
Gibbs shook his head, "Someone should've been here with him."
Tony sighed, "Boss, no one had any idea that this guy knew where you were taking Tim. Now, you can stand here and name all the things you should've done, but I know you and that doesn't sound like the Gibbs I know."
Gibbs turned to face Tony, and for a moment Tony thought he was either gonna be fired, or his head was going to be hit so hard it would fall off.
"You're right," Gibbs replied.
"I am?" Tony asked in shock.
Gibbs nodded, "Yeah. I'm gonna find that freak, and when I do," He walked past Tony and out of the room, "I'm gonna kill him."
Tim groaned as he began to wake up. His eyes slowly opened. He found it hard to keep them open at first. They felt like one hundred pound weights.
He was finally able to keep his eyes open and look around.
He, unknowingly, stopped breathing as he looked around the room. It was exactly like the one he was kept in before, when he was only ten.
He looked down to see that his ankle was chained, just like it had been before.
"No, no, no, no," He repeated to himself.
He couldn't help the memories that flooded into his mind. The memories that the room brought back. That being chained brought back. Things he had forgotten, things he never wanted to remember.
"No, no, no, no."
The door to the room began to unlock, causing Tim to quickly stand up. No way was he going to shy back into the corner as he had done when he was younger.
The door opened and a man stepped inside.
Tim stared at the man. "Who are you?" He asked, knowing that this was not the same guy who was at Gibbs' place.
There was no reply. Instead, the man just stood there, staring back at Tim.
Tim could feel his heart racing the longer the staring match lasted. He wanted to look away, but for some reason he couldn't.
Then, it clicked. "Oh my God… Devon?"
To answer a question that will undoubtably want to be asked by someone, yes, I will be writing the moment where Tim is taken. It will just be in flashback form.
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter :) Thank you for all the reviews!