Chapter 8

Tony and Ziva arrived outside Tim's apartment and saw Metro there. Gibbs had already called them and let them know this was part of an NCIS case, but it was nice to have the blocks already up...and maybe some of the legwork.

"Hey, you the NCIS people?"

"That's us," Tony said and held out his badge.

"Have you found anything useful?" Ziva asked.

"Not much. No one saw anything that we know of. The people who were awake and not yet leaving for work heard the shots and hid themselves. We're lucky that we got a couple of people calling for help." The officer gestured with his head toward a squad car. "We got a little girl's suitcase. Checked it...just clothes."

Tony smiled. "Can we take that? The girl is in NCIS custody right now. She's a witness to a murder."

"Sure. Doesn't seem to have been touched. If that's what the guy wanted, he didn't get it."

"Okay."

"So this is your show?"

Ziva nodded. "It looks that way."

"Well, we marked where the bullets hit. Based on witness statements, we didn't find them all."

"That's probably because some of them are in our agent's car."

"Ah. I see. Well, it's your scene. Near as we can tell, the shooter was hiding across the street in that direction," the officer said, pointing not far from where Tim's car had been parked.

"Thanks. You'll get us what you found already?"

The officer nodded. "Sure. I'll make sure it gets sent over. We didn't pick up anything, just documented it, but you'll get our witness statements."

"Great."

The officer withdrew and started talking to the other Metro police on scene. Tony looked around.

"Man, it's a miracle that McGee didn't get hit worse. There's no cover, and he was protecting the girl, too."

Ziva nodded. "Yes. There is not much else he could have done but get in his car and drive away."

"All right. I'll go and coordinate with Metro. Go check out where they put the shooter. See if you can find anything."

Ziva nodded with only a slight eye-raise at Tony's overly-professional demeanor. As Tony walked over to the officers, she walked across the street, heading toward the area where the officer had said the shooter was camped out...and smiled when she discovered shoe impressions in the damp ground...and cigarette butts. So this man had been waiting for quite some time, and he had likely been nervous or at least impatient. Not a professional. Skilled enough to track his prey, dangerous enough, but this wasn't a hit man hired to clean up. This was the man who wanted whatever Aimee's parents had kept from him. It was personal. In a way, it was better because it meant that there were probably not as many people to track down. Larger organizations would hire someone to make sure things were taken care of and getting the killer would mean the instigators were still at large.

She bagged the cigarette butts, took photos of the impressions and headed toward the truck to get materials in order to make a casting of the shoes.

"What do you got?" Tony asked, coming over to join her.

"Cigarette butts and shoeprints."

"Great. Hopefully, they're not from the person who owns that property."

Ziva chuckled. "If it is, we will be able to rule him out, but it looks like an ideal place to wait, and it does match the trajectory."

"All righty. Oh...we should check on McGee's dog."

"We should probably get some clothing for him as well, since both of them will be in the safe house."

Tony nodded and grimaced. "This is going to go bad, I just know it."

"Why do you say that?" Ziva asked.

"Gut feeling. Besides...you saw the Probie's face. She's got him wrapped around her finger and he'll do anything for her. Little girls...they know what power they have over adults and they exploit it."

Ziva laughed. "I do not think most little girls are so...conniving as you make them out to be."

"Oh, yeah? You try watching Aimee. I'll bet you that if she looked at McGee in just the right way, he'd totally melt. You'd see it in his eyes."

"Perhaps, but he is still an agent, and he knows what is reality."

"Yeah, I don't think he cares about reality right now."

They walked into Tim's apartment, fended off Jethro's excited welcome and went back into Tim's bedroom.

"How long?"

"If Gibbs has anything to say about it, two days tops."

Ziva nodded and they grabbed some of Tim's clothes and tossed them into a bag.

They were at the scene for a few hours but they worked quickly, built on what Metro had already done and got back to NCIS as soon as they could.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Abby leaned back in the chair and looked sympathetically at Aimee who had once again retreated to the comfort of wrapping her arms around Tim and hiding her face. They had made a lot of progress on making a face, but as they got closer to the final product, Aimee started to huddle closer and closer to Tim.

"Okay, Aimee. That's good. We have a face. You ready to look at the finished picture?"

"Okay," Aimee said quietly.

"Remember, you're safe here, Aimee," Tim said. "No one is going to hurt you. It's just a picture."

Aimee nodded.

Abby looked at Tim who nodded and put an arm around Aimee. Abby took a breath and put the picture up.

"Is this him, Aimee?" she asked.

Aimee looked, nodded and started to cry. Abby leaned over and hugged her.

"It's okay, Aimee. You were really brave and you've helped us a lot," she said.

"Why did he kill my mom and dad?" she whimpered. "Why?"

"I don't know," Abby said.

"We're going to find out," Tim said. "I promise."

"McGee."

Tim looked toward the voice and saw Tony and Ziva staring at him with far-too-understanding expressions.

"Yeah?"

"We need to talk about some things."

"Okay." Tim turned back. "Aimee, I need you to stay here with Abby for a while."

"No!"

"Yes," Tim said firmly. He hated to leave her when she was so frightened, but he knew he had to, and he knew it would be better in the long run if she didn't cling to him like this. "I have to get to work, Aimee, and you need to stay here. Understand?"

Reluctantly, Aimee nodded and let Abby hug her. Tim got up and followed Tony and Ziva out of the lab.

"Wow, Probie. I didn't think you had it in you."

"What do you mean, Tony?" Tim asked, furrowing his brow.

"He means that he did not think you could say no to Aimee," Ziva explained with a smile.

"Guys, I'm not that bad."

"Tony says that you are wrapped around Aimee's fingers."

"Just one, Ziva," Tony said. "And you are, Probie. Don't deny it."

"I am not, Tony. I want to keep Aimee safe...and I want her to be happy. I'm not wrapped around her finger."

"Yeah, right," Tony said.

"Regardless, Gibbs would like to talk with you about the safe house."

"Okay."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"What's going to happen to me, Abby?" Aimee asked.

"We're going to keep you safe until we can find that guy and then, he'll go to prison," Abby said firmly. She didn't want any kind of doubt to creep in. The reality was that things wouldn't necessarily go so smoothly, but Aimee wouldn't be helped by laying out all the realities of this situation.

Aimee nodded.

"But what about after? What will happen to me? Where will I go? I can't go back home, can I?"

"No, probably not. Is there anyone you could stay with?"

Aimee shrugged. "I have friends...but they're not parents. ...and mine..." She sniffled. "What do I do?"

Abby hugged Aimee gently. "We'll figure something out, Aimee. Don't you worry about that."

"But what will you do?"

"I don't know yet, but we'll help you."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"The safe house will work for at least a couple of weeks, provided we're careful," Gibbs said.

"You think it'll take that long?" Tim asked.

"Don't know, McGee. You know how these things can go."

Tim nodded.

"And once you're there, you're there. No coming back to NCIS, at least not for a few days. Too dangerous while we don't have any sense of who this guy is or where he might be."

"We do have evidence to process," Tony said. "Ziva found cigarette butts near McGee's apartment."

"And Aimee got an image of the shooter for us to work from," Tim said.

"She managed it all?"

"Barely," Tim said with a sigh. "I don't want to ask her any more questions today...especially if we're moving her to the safe house. She needs a bit of time to calm down and feel safe again."

Gibbs nodded.

"Okay. We'll see what Abby turns up and see if we can get anything to identify him. Either Tony or Ziva are going to be at the safe house with you and Aimee at all times, McGee. And you're not to leave it."

"Got it, Boss. I don't plan on it."

"Good. Ziva, Tony...both of you go with McGee and Aimee and get them set up. Work on the schedule you're going to follow. McGee, you're going to be armed as well."

Tim nodded, relieved by that as well. He hadn't really thought Gibbs would make him give up his weapon, but he was happy to have Gibbs explicitly tell him to have his gun. He would feel a lot safer and more able to protect Aimee.

"By the way, McGee, we got some clothes for you," Ziva said.

"Oh! Thanks!" Tim hadn't even thought about the fact that he'd be needing stuff for himself.

"You didn't remember that you'd need it, did you," Tony said.

"No, I didn't."

"Ha!"

Tim rolled his eyes. "It's not indicative of anything but absent-mindedness, Tony. Don't read anything into it."

"Yeah. Sure, McGee."

"Are you just going to sit here?" Gibbs asked.

"No. We're gone, Boss," Tony said and get to his feet.

"Good."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim, Tony, Ziva and Aimee walked into the safe house and looked around.

"This is where we're going to stay?" Aimee asked softly.

"Yep," Tim said bracingly. "This is our home for the next few days, Aimee."

"It's...nicer than my house."

Which wasn't saying much. The apartment that the Hansons had lived in was far from luxurious.

"Well, this is where we'll be...and we can't go outside, okay?" Tim said.

Aimee looked around again and nodded.

"Okay. So we'll be safe here?"

"As safe as we can be," Tim said.

"Okay. I believe you."

Tim smiled at Tony and Ziva. "So...who's here first?"

"Ziva's hanging out with you for today."

"Great! We'll have some fun then. Aimee, take your suitcase into that room there. We'll look around the place, see what we've got here."

"Okay. What about school?"

"You'll have to miss school for a few days. We might be able to get you some homework."

"Oh, don't make her feel worse," Tony said. "Who likes homework?"

"Me," Tim said.

Tony rolled his eyes. "You're an aberration."

"Well, among the frat boys, yes."

"Ha ha. If you need anything, give a call."

"We will," Ziva said. "Get going, Tony. We cannot miss you if you do not leave."

Tony chuckled and left. Ziva smiled at Tim.

"Well. We have a lot of time."

"Hopefully not too much," Tim said.

"Yes."