Chapter 7
Tim was starting to become aware of his surroundings. His head is pounding and it hurts to even try to open his eyes. Whatever he is laying on is hard and cold, he struggled to think but realized he is on a concrete. Am I on the sidewalk by the park? The last thing that comes to mind is Jethro and walking near the park. Where is Jethro? A moan escaped as he tried to lift his head, the pain is excruciating. Slowly, he raised his hand to his head and found it was wet and sticky behind his ear and the side of his face. Opening his eyes to look at his hand he sees the blood that covers his fingertips. He also noticed he is not outside on the sidewalk by the park but inside a building. Where am I —why am I here? Tim hears movement coming towards him and looks in that direction to see a tall figure moving quickly in his direction. As the figure gets closer, Tim tries to call out for help but is brutally kicked in the abdomen knocking the wind out of him.
Rolling in pain and coughing, he hears a male voice screaming at him. "Always move to a defensive position when you realize the enemy is near! You didn't even try to protect yourself. Are you just going to give your opponent the upper hand?"
Trying to get his bearings, Tim looks at the man yelling at him, willing himself to understand what is happening. "What do you want…"
"NEVER try to engage your opponent in conversation, do you understand me? When you are under attack your only response is strike back in defense."
The man was walking around Tim's prone figure coming back around to his chest. Just as his assailant was about to kick again, Tim desperately grabbed at one leg and knocked his attacker to the ground rolling him onto his stomach. Tim was about to move to lie on the mans back to try hold him down when Tim felt a boot smash into his cheekbone. Screaming in pain, Tim fell backwards rolling onto his side, one hand holding the side of his face. Breathing heavily through all the pain, he tried to ignore the fact that his attacker was bending over him once again.
"Not bad, but as you just learned, you must always secure both legs. You left one leg free to strike. You get points for the take down; I'll give you that. Your training in self-defense and survival is lacking soldier. We're here to correct that." The man stood up straight and started to pace in front of Tim.
Short of breath, it was difficult to speak but Tim had to try and talk to this man. "You.. have me ...confused….I'm not...a soldier. Please...my name is...Tim Mc…"
Stopping in front of McGee he yelled, "Did I give you permission to speak Marine? Your instruction has been lacking and has left you in a vulnerable position."
"Please...I'm not who you think I am."
"Oh, you are exactly who I think you are Timothy McGee."
NCIS~~
It was mid-afternoon and annoyed that McGee's phone kept ringing, Gibbs yelled to Tony "DiNozzo! Answer his phone!" Tony muttered under his breath, "What am I, McGee's answering service?"
"You say something DiNozzo?"
"NO BOSS! Answering the phone Boss!" Tony jumped up from his desk to reach the phone before it rang again.
"Agent McGee's desk, can I help you?"
"Yes, hello. I'm trying to reach Tim McGee. Is he available?" Tony was drawn in by the voice that sounded mature but incredibly sultry. Wondering how McGee could get a woman that sounded so melodic to call him at work on his desk phone, Tony turned on the charm. With a smile in his voice he replied smoothly, "I'm very sorry Miss, Agent McGee is not available. This is Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, I'm sure that I can help you in any way that you need."
"Oh, I don't think so, but thank you. Tim always takes care of our needs and we are anxious to hear from him. Could you please ask Tim to call Olivia and Julia as soon as possible? He has our number."
"Can I tell Agent McGee to what this is in reference?
"Oh…well… I know how Tim likes to keep his personal affairs quiet, but if you could tell him that we've returned from the doctor's office. Nothing too serious to worry about, some deep muscle bruising and cuts around the dog collar. But we can take care of all that at home. We'd like him to stop by so that we can make sure that he wasn't hurt in any way. We're quite worried about him actually."
"Have you tried reaching him on his cell phone...Miss…?"
"Oh, excuse me, Julia. We've tried reaching Tim but he hasn't answered his phone. We did leave a message. We would go to Tim's apartment but Olivia was advised to rest—too much physical activity and it wouldn't be right for me to go to Tim's apartment alone."
"I'm sorry?…why wouldn't it be alright for you to go alone?" Tony was confused, surely he wasn't hearing what he thought he was hearing.
"Well, Tim would expect to see both of us. He's told us before that he doesn't want to see us alone, that we were too precious to be at risk traveling unaccompanied. Isn't that sweet of him? So we do everything together. Tim doesn't like it when we don't heed his instructions."
"I see. Well, yes, Julia, I will certainly tell Agent McGee to call you as soon as possible. Take care of those cuts and bruises."
"Thank you Agent DiNozzo. Good bye."
Tony hung up McGee's phone and sat on the edge of his desk with the most incredulous look of disbelief on his face.
"Tony, you look like something is wrong. Was that a disturbing phone call?" Ziva looked at her partner with concern.
"Disturbing, that's one way to put it. It appears that McGoo is into sisters and dog collars. Hmm, I wonder if Abby knows…."
That comment got Gibbs' attention and he looked up with a smirk on his face when he saw DiNozzo's look of envy. "What's the matter DiNozzo, jealous?"
"Tony, I am sure you completely misinterpreted that phone call." Ziva gave Tony a look that conveyed her doubt at what he'd said.
Coming to stand in front of Ziva's desk Tony replied excitedly with wild hand gestures and a scowl on this face, "Oh, I don't think so Ziva. I think I can figure out exactly what she was saying. Sexy voice saying Tim takes care of 'their needs'. They'd been to the doctor and came home with muscle bruising and cuts around the dog collar. Rest was advised for her sister Olivia because of 'too much physical activity'. The sisters do everything together and Tim doesn't like it 'when they don't follow his instructions'…..do you want to hear more? I'm pretty sure I've got this one figured out, Ziva. Who knew Probie could go all domineering?…. I still want to know if Abby knows. Maybe she started it…"
"DiNozzo, enough daydreaming. Turn in your reports."
Looking dejected like a young boy that had to stop playing to do homework, Tony returned to his desk to complete the last of his paperwork.
NCIS~~
Tim realized he must have passed out again. He was no longer lying in the middle of the room but sitting propped up in a corner. The space was relatively empty. Across from him was a long table and two bar stools. His vision was too blurry to identify the objects on the table. He touched his cheek where he was kicked by the boot, fingers probing gently. Pain radiated outwards from the cheekbone. The entire right side of his face hurt. Closing his eyes to the pain, Tim tried to make sense of what was happening to him. He remembered taking Jethro to the park in the rain. He even remembered Jethro had been chasing squirrels and frolicking around like a puppy. And the last thing he recalled was wanting to stop to check on Julia and Olivia. After that….nothing. He had no idea how he got here or who this man was that held him captive. Leaning his head back to rest against the wall, all he could think of was how much he wished he were at home.
"Nice to see you are finally awake. Normally, I would not give you that much time to rest but since you surprised me earlier with your leg-hold, I felt you deserved a little reward." Tim was startled to find the man right in front of him, he'd heard no noise or movement at all.
"Then maybe you can just let me go now."
NCIS~~
Vance was satisfied with all the reports and case files turned in on the kidnapping case. Ziva and Tony were working on miscellaneous paperwork trying to fill out the afternoon. Gibbs had been stuck on a conference call with Vance and Commander Henry from the Maryland FLETC center. They were reviewing Gibbs' schedule for the next week and Vance made it known to Commander Henry what his expectations were as well. When Gibbs was finally freed from Vance's office, it was 1730. "Go home," he barked at his two agents as he jogged down the stairs. Tony and Ziva watched Gibbs as he returned to his desk. Tony just couldn't keep silent any longer.
"Boss, what are we supposed to do next week if you are at FLETC? Are we being punished here?" Tony came to stand in front of Gibbs' desk, hoping for answers from his boss.
"My punishment, not yours, DiNozzo. You'll have to find out from Vance what he has planned for you. He wouldn't tell me a thing." Clearing his desk off and beginning to check through his dreaded email, he was preparing to be away from his desk for a week. "Go home. Take advantage of the down time this weekend. Just make sure you're ready to get back to real work when I get back here from FLETC in a week." Gibbs tried to determine if any of the email messages looked important while not looking at his Senior Agent standing in front of him.
"Still feels like we're being punished here. I mean, no one blames McGee for anything wrong in this case. Unless you still do. I won't speak for Ziva, but I'll say it—if you do still blame McGee, you're wrong, Gibbs. Sometimes he did seem a little weird during that whole case but he worked his ass off getting anything he could out of the computers. What you said to him Boss just seemed out of line. We know you were upset about this case, but..."
Standing up and moving to only inches from Tony's face, Gibbs fired back, "You telling me I was out of line, DiNozzo?" The tension was thick as Gibbs and Tony just stared at each other until Gibbs broke it off and walked away. "Go home," he barked again as the elevator doors closed.
Neither Tony nor Ziva noticed Vance observing from above the bullpen.
NCIS~~
Tim was grabbed roughly by the front of his jacket and hauled to a standing position. Being shoved more towards the center of the room, Tim started to lose his balance until his attacker seized his right arm and wrenched it around his back holding it high and tight against Tim's body. Tim arched his back and twisted trying to ease the pain afflicted on his arm and shoulder but to no avail. "What do you want from me?" Tim yelled, desperately trying to find out what was going on.
"I thought I made that clear, McGee. You need additional training."
"Why me? Who are you? I don't understand!." Tim's arm continued to be twisted up and pressed against him to the point he thought it might break.
"Why you? You are the youngest of your unit, McGee. It's my duty to train the youngest so that you'll survive. All you have to do is survive until he comes for you. But your training will make you a better soldier for when he's no longer around. If you need a name to put on me, you can call me Wells." Wells had leaned in close to speak directly into Tim's ear all the while putting more pressure on Tim's arm and shoulder. He needed the young man to understand that the pain was for real, he wasn't going to talk his way out of anything.
Groaning from the new pressure put on his arm, Tim voice was raspy as he said, "Who's supposed to come for me? What unit are you talking about? I'm not a soldier!"
"Don't worry, he'll come for you. He never leaves a man behind. Gibbs won't leave you behind." Without warning, Wells spun Tim around and took advantage of his disorientation; landing two rapid punches near Tim's liver and a blow to the jaw.
Tim's head snapped back and caused him to lose his balance. Landing hard on the shoulder that had been twisted he let out a moan of pain. Not even looking at Wells, Tim spat out, "If you're wanting to use me to get Gibbs, you're out of luck. He kicked me off his team! He won't come for me, I don't matter to him!"
NCIS~~
After missing lunch with Tim, Sarah spent most of the day at the library researching a paper and then later having dinner with friends. Upon returning to her dorm room later that night, Sarah was concerned that she hadn't heard from Tim all day. Checking her email she was sure there would be a message from her brother. Finding her inbox empty of mail from her sibling, she quickly typed an apology for missing lunch and asking for forgiveness. Trying to pull at his heartstrings, she signed off with "love and hugs Big Brother—your Baby Sister." Looking out the window of her dorm room, Sarah watched in fascination the the way the clouds lit up when lightning appeared out of nowhere without any warning.
