*Chapter 8*

At the Walker residence, Travis tosses and turns from a bad dream he's having. The dream, which is more a nightmare than anything, causes him to awake in a cold sweat. He's breathing heavily, heartbeat is erratic and he's in a considerable amount of pain from all the tossing and turning in his fragile state.

"Another nightmare, Sergeant?" Eckman asked from the chair he's sitting on in the corner of the room. "Reliving the hell of Iraq every single time you close your eyes must be tough. Maybe your mom is right to be concerned about PTSD."

Corporal Eckman stands up. Blood immediately starts seeping through his clothes in several spots. He looks down at the blood.

"I've been shot." He said. Eckman walks closer to the bed where Travis pulls away as if he's scared. "Help me, Sergeant."

"I… I can't help you."

"Of course you can't. Cause you'd rather look out for yourself than to honor the memory of the fallen."

"That's not true."

"Than why do you continue to lie? We were ambushed and you know it. And you know who's responsible, yet, you don't have the decency to honor our memories with the truth."

"I brought you all home."

"We're dead, Sergeant!" Eckman exclaimed. "You haven't even given my sister the letter yet. Too ashamed to see her? Too much guilt wearing down on your soul? It must be burden carrying the lies you carry." There's a brief pause. "I may be home, but how can I rest when the people who did this to me are not punished for their crime? Why do you protect them? Does the squad not matter?"

"The squad matters. It's just…"

"Let me rest in peace, Sergeant." Eckman said. "Let us all rest in peace."

Travis wakes up in a cold sweat with heavy breathing, an erratic heartbeat and a considerable amount of pain due to the tossing and turning. The overwhelming guilt he feels causes his emotions to run rampant. Tears quickly engulf his eyes as he breaks down and cries.

In a fit of anger, he sits up and shoves the nightstand as hard as he can. An immense pain immediately hits as he and the nightstand fall to the floor. The pain from his wounds quickly becomes unbearable to the point where he cannot even crawl to the medication on the other side of the floor.

"Ma!" Travis cried in pain.

Mrs. Walker swiftly enters into the room to see her son lying on the floor in what looks to be excruciating pain.

"Travis!" She cried in concern for her son. Within a second, she runs to the pill bottle on the floor, opens it and takes one of the pills out. Then she gives it to him.

Mrs. Walker holds her son as the pain medication takes effect. Once the pain subsides, Travis just cries in his mother's loving arms.

Tony exits onto the third floor of NCIS Headquarters. The sight of Ziva and McGee working gives him a little comfort that they haven't given up.

"Please tell me you found something, anything while I was gone?" Tony demanded to know upon entering into the bullpen. Neither of them gives an answer. "Ugh…" He sighed as he sits down.

While sitting at his desk, Tony looks at his watch. He then picks up the phone and dials a number.

"You've reached the National Geographic Society, my name is April." The secretary stated. "How may I help you?"

"This is Anthony DiNozzo. I'm calling in regard to the article titled; Nigeria: Among the tragedy, not all hope is lost." Tony stated. "The child whom the article speaks of and is in the pictures is my son. I adopted him. His name is Chioke." He continued. "I'd like to speak to the author of the article."

"Hold please." She said. A couple minutes pass as Tony is on hold. "Are you there, Sir?"

"Yes."

"I'm transferring you now."

"This is Alan Conway, Chairman of the National Geographic Society." The man introduced himself.

"Hi Mr. Conway. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I'm Anthony DiNozzo." Tony introduced himself. "I'm the father of the boy in the Nigeria article."

"I understand you would like to meet the author of the article."

"I just want to talk to him about what he saw. I love my son. His name is Chioke." Tony said. "I need to know everything about that day. Please, it's important for me to know where Chioke came from and what happened in his life."

"I'd like to arrange a meeting so we can properly discuss the contents of the article." Mr. Conway said.

The two of them continue to talk with arranging a meeting; a meeting that Chioke will be the center of. After the conversation, Tony hangs up the phone and thinks for a moment about the possibility of knowing even more about where Chioke came from. But for Tony, he loves the boy so much that he needs to know.

Jamie enters into the bullpen minutes later and walks directly to her husband's desk.

"How's your dad?" Tony asked in concern.

"Stubborn." Jamie replied. "But he's going to remain at home."

"Oh great, so I am in charge."

"I'm guessing the investigation isn't going well."

"The only place it's going is to putting Travis behind bars. There's no supporting evidence that does not place Travis in the warehouse that night, other than his mother's sworn testimony that her son was home that night."

"Not everyone is innocent."

"I know my little sweetie's are innocent." Tony said happily as he looks at Jamie's belly. He places his hands on Jamie's hips and gently pulls her closer. "Aren't you? Yes you are. This is daddy speaking." He lifts her shirt slightly to get a better look. "Let me tell you, when you two are born…"

"You're embarrassing me."

"Did you hear that? We're embarrassing mommy." Tony said to Jamie's belly. "Alright, daddy needs to go back to work. I need you two to distract mommy for me so mommy doesn't distract me. I don't know, start kicking her or something."

Jamie smacks Tony on the back of the head.

"Don't encourage bad behavior." Jamie stated. "Besides, they're too young to start kicking. I hardly even have a belly yet."

"Isn't smacking the back of my head encouraging bad behavior?"

"They didn't see it."

"Alright, I really do need to go back to work. Love you two." He leans forward and kisses Jamie's belly.

"And what about me?"

"You're alright." Tony said as he looks toward his computer.

"You brat." Jamie smacks him on the back of the head again. Tony chuckles as she walks away to her father's desk.

Suddenly, Tony's cell-phone rings. He answers it. Mrs. Walker is on the other line. They briefly converse before Tony closing the phone.

"Ziva, gear up." Tony commanded as he grabs his own gear. "We have a situation."

McGee stands up and grabs his gear.

"You're staying here, Probie." Tony stated. "I cannot allow you in the field. What I need for you to do is contact Fornell and tell him to meet us at the Walker residence."

Tony and Ziva run to the elevator. McGee remains standing at his desk with a slight disappoint that Jamie recognizes. She approaches the desk.

"It's nothing personal, Tim." Jamie defended her husband's decision to not allow McGee into the field. "He's happy you're back. But you know he cannot allow you to be in the field in your current physical state."

"What if they need backup?"

"Raise your arm."

McGee raises his left arm as high as he can, which isn't really high at all so there's no way he can steady a weapon with two hands.

"Ah…" McGee sighed from the pain in his shoulder.

"Give it time, Tim." Jamie said. "Your shoulder will heal." There's a brief pause. "This is a team. Every member of the team plays an equally important role. Each member's role keeps the team moving in the direction it needs to move. No job is too little."

"Thanks, Jamie." McGee thanked her for the pep talk regarding desk duty and his need to feel useful.

McGee picks up the phone and dials Fornell's number. After the phone-call, he and Jamie continue to converse for a little while about him being back at NCIS and how he's doing physically, emotionally, etc.