"I know who did it."
Gibbs perched himself on the corner of Tim's desk. Picking up the bottled water from where it had been placed on Tim's desk just a bit ago, the boss held it out to him. "Drink this and calm down. Then tell me."
Swallowing hard around the lump in his throat, Tim took the water and opened it, drinking down over half of it in one go, before recapping it and setting it down. "God, I can't believe it. I never would have suspected him." Tim grumbled as he turned back to his keyboard and began tapping away at it as he pulled up the case he needed to provide the boss with the background they were looking at.
"Put it up on the plasma, Tim." Gibbs instructed as he stood up and walked back over to stand in front of the big screen.
Tim froze. He'd tried so hard to keep this just between them always hoping it could stay this way. Hearing those instructions shattered that notion. Now the whole team would be privy to everything anyway.
Gibbs waited for his instructions to be carried out, as they normally were. When no such results panned out, he looked back over at the young man, to see him looking almost as if he'd just been betrayed. "McGee, we have to have the nuts and bolts of the case. You know that. Go on put it up there. Let's see what we're dealing with. And tell me how you figured it out."
Tim mentally shook his head and did as he was told, putting the case info up on the plasma TV, then walked over to stand beside his boss. "I remembered what he and his accomplice said while they thought I was out of it." Tim swallowed hard and stopped for a second before deliberately pushing himself to get through this painful admission of what had been done to him. "While they were putting me in the trunk. Guess they hadn't hit me hard enough to knock me out completely, just hard enough that I was out long enough for them to have time to tie my hands behind my back and my knees together; my feet too."
The hesitation of his speech was gone by this time and in its' place was anger in the longest string of word's he'd spoken since this whole ordeal had taken place. Gibbs doubted he'd ever heard this young man this angry before, but who the hell could blame him after everything they'd done to him?
As Tim finished talking, he walked back over to his desk and sat back down at his computer, his hands once again flying across his keyboard making sure to document this into the case report.
"McGee, we've dealt with more than one Tyler over the years. What told you it was this one that did this?" the boss asked with the need for clarification.
Tim clicked on the mouse and suddenly a sentence in the old case report currently on display on the big screen was highlighted. "Because of this, Boss."
Please take off your trousers
Gibbs looked at it in surprise as he recalled those words in Tim's report on that case. Walking back over to his agent's desk,where he'd sat just a moment ago, he perched himself on it once more and again, looked his agent square on. he remarked, " I'm surprised you included that in the official report, McGee. Still wondering why I didn't think to have you take it out. Guess it's a damn good thing I didn't. What about it, though?"
Now, some of Tim's anger became replaced with the residual humiliation and shame that he'd had heaped on him. His head dropped down and he suddenly lost the ability to answer the question.
Looking at him for a long minute, Gibbs' brain began putting the pieces together. Tim's injuries that he'd had to have been undressed to have inflicted on him, along with the words highlighted on the screen now, painted the picture fairly clearly. His reluctance to spell anything out for the team or even for Gibbs or Ducky solidified that picture further.
"It was payback for when I told him to do it that day in their office." Tim said somberly as he finally looked up only to suddenly find his desk fascinating.
Our country is at war! Alert Level Orange in case you happened to not notice. We are told to keep an eye on people who are behaving suspiciously. I was doing my job …". Tyler Barrett fired off defensively.
"Is that why you planted the explosives?" Gibbs asked him calmly.
"I didn't plant any explosives." Deputy Barrett denied.
'"McGee." Gibbs replied almost offhandedly.
"Deputy, please take off your trousers." Tim requested politely..
"You know what? Screw you, McGee!" Tyler exclaimed hotly.
"Tyler…" Sheriff Tom Barrett tried to talk some sense into his little brother
"If you prefer, I can get Officer David to take them off for you." Gibbs interrupted while keeping his tone calm and even.
Breathing out a deep sigh of frustration and resignation, Gibbs looked at his agent now who'd only been doing his job then; and had remained polite about it to a fault as he'd gone about it. To think that three years later, that one request from this gentle giant of a man would come back to haunt him like this burned in Gibbs' gut something fierce. Drawing in yet another breath and slowly letting it out, he finally responded to his agent, his tone regretful of the pain this has now caused the young man. "Yeah, I remember, Tim., If you recall, I told you to do it and I threatened to sic Ziva on him if he didn't cooperate."
"I remember, Boss. I'm guessing that's why he's still carrying a grudge against Ziva, too." Tim supplied worriedly.
"No, he was already prejudiced against her. If he is out to get her now it's because he's still pissed because she didn't let him get to her and she literally brought him to his knees when he really got out of hand at one point." The boss informed him.
"Wow, she never mentioned it."
"No, she wouldn't. Probably doesn't even know that I know about it. Okay, McGee. Take the highlight off ." The boss requested.
The younger agent was quick to do as he'd been told.
"What exactly did he say to you when he had you, Tim?"
"He said those exact words, Boss. In a mocking smart-ass tone." Tim answered quietly. " 'Please take off your trousers.' Over and over while he was…" the young man's voice got smaller and smaller before he stopped, his head dropping down with abject humiliation and shame as silence moved in between them once more.
The Team Leader looked his agent over for a silent minute. Finally, he stood up and headed back to his own desk, "Alright, that cinches it for me. Sit tight. The kidnapping of a Federal Agent is Fornell's jurisdiction. Now that we've figured out who did it, we'll let him handle it from here."
"Boss?" Tim asked hesitantly in surprise.
"We don't want this bastard getting away with it and we sure as hell don't want him walking on any technicality. Can't have his lawyer making any motions to suppress evidence because we've handled it ourselves instead of letting the FBI handle it, McGee." Gibbs reminded him as he dug out his phone and made the call.
"Hey, got one for you. …Priority…..Right….Yup…Come on in and we'll tell ya." Snickering, Gibbs closed his phone and turned back to his agent. Good job, McGee. Now go back up to that conference room and get some sleep."
Tim shook his head. "Boss, I can't." he argued without any heat or volume.
"Why not?"
"Don't want to keep seeing ..hearing….all over again…" Tim's inability to finish the words had returned with the thought of being dragged back down into the memories while he slept.
As he closed the distance between them once more, determined to keep these kinds of questions as private as he could for his agent's sake, the boss asked him the burning question. "You ready to tell me exactly what happened? Might help to talk about it, get it out."
"I still can't remember everything." Tim reminded him.
"Doesn't matter. Just tell me what you do remember; maybe it'll help the rest come back to you."
Tim shook his head a little more firmly this time. "No. Please, I don't even want to think about it anymore." The ragged exhaustion rang clear in Tim's pleading.
"Alright. Soon as they're in custody, you're going home with Tony."
"Boss?" Tim asked in shock mixed with a little alarm.
"Oh, Don't worry, Tony's gonna have his instructions on what he needs to do. Your job is gonna be to do what he tells ya. And no, McGee, he's not gonna be pullin' any pranks on you, so stop lookin' at me like that." Gibbs smirked.
The return of Tony and Ziva to the squad room with Abby heralded the end of that conversation while the arrival of Tobias Fornell almost at the same time, brought on some seriously question looks.
"Jethro? You've been working this case when you know it's FBI jurisdiction? He may be your agent but…."
"Relax, Fornell, all we did is figure out who did it. Well, the ring leader, anyway. You'll have to figure out who the other person was and if it was just the two of them. I suggest you start with this guy's family tree. His brother Tom is the local Sheriff out there. Until you figure it out and round them up, none of my people are safe. These dirt bags might just take it upon themselves to use one of them to get back at McGee since they're not getting another chance to get to him." Gibbs told him as he walked to meet him in the center of the squad room.
"Boss? Are you serious? You figured out who it is?" Tony asked in shock
"McGee did. Look at the plasma, DiNozzo." Gibbs ordered almost in an offhand manner as he kept his eyes on his FBI friend.. "That's who we're dealing with."
"I knew I hated the boondocks for a reason!" Tony sniped bringing forth a tiny grin from Tim. "But seriously? The rednecks from Edenvale? Tyler Barrett of all people?"
"THIS is who did this?" Ziva asked angrily. Her dealings with this racist deputy had left her angry and resentful that people with those attitudes could be in positions of power like that. While he hadn't been her first experience with that situation, he'd certainly ripened her hatred of such abuse of power.
The curtain pulled back with the beefy hand of the bigoted Deputy as he entered the small triage room where their witness was recovering from being shot by the trigger happy uniformed man himself. "Mmm. Cozy." He sneered as he looked at the Iraqi born man, he'd labeled a killer.
"Can I help you?" Ziva asked warningly.
"You know, a couple more inches to your right and our martyr here could have been living it up with all those vestal virgins. You know, it truly is a screwed up religion where you have to blow yourself up just to get lucky." Tyler Barrett sniped spitefully.
Before he'd even spoke another word, Ziva had the man's fingers in a vice-grip and she dropped him almost to his knees by applying pressure at the right point. Wringing forth a gasp of pain from Barrett.
"When you insult his religion, you insult mine and your own. Tell him you're sorry." Ziva quietly told him with steel in her voice.
" I'm sorry." Tyler uttered before gasping in more discomfort as Ziva squeezed harder. " Ah!"
" I don't think he heard you." Ziva informed him firmly
" I'm sorry." The deputy offered with more volume
"Apology accepted" Masoud replied charitibly
"He really was a first class bastard." Tony agreed. He'd been disappointed Ziva hadn't wiped the floor with the jerk the first day they'd met him. He would have paid good money to see that happen. The Senior Field Agent had been impressed with Ziva' ability to keep a cool head.
"The victim made one phone call from the motel. Local guy by the name of Masoud Tariq. Only been in town a few months. He's an I-raqi." Tom Barrett explained.
"Same as the victim." – Tyler Barrett snidely remarked.
"She's from Kuwait, actually." Ziva corrected firmly with just a touch of chastisement in her tone.
"And where are you from?" Tyler asked in a tone full of sarcasm.
"The city." Ziva answered calmly without batting an eye.
Finding out later that he'd missed most of the worst of the man's attitude when he got sent back to D.C. with Ducky to do the digging into the victim's military career and c.o., had seriously left Tony even more disappointed. It was always fun watching Ziva put bigoted people in their place.
Realizing that that case was now behind the kidnapping of his teammate, some three years later was really ticking Tony off. "Wait, a minute! Isn't he serving time for setting the prime suspect up with that bomb making stuff in his garage?" The Senior Field Agent demanded.
Several clicks of Tim's computer keyboard later and the answer was up on the plasma for all of them to see. Apparently, because of his fine upstanding brother and his own history of no violent criminal behavior, added to his model behavior behind bars, Tyler Barrett only served two and a half years in jail. He even returned to his job at the Sherrif's Office in Edenvale, even he was restricted to the office side of the job. He'd been out only six months. Apparently he'd been very busy.
"Unbelievable." Abby muttered as she stood at Tim's shoulders, actually silently massaging them since she'd come to stand by him and noticed how upset and tense he was when she'd first come back with his coffee.
Tim relaxed into Abby's ministrations, grateful beyond measure that she was still trying to be here for him, despite how he'd acted towards her earlier. Gibbs glanced over to see why Tim had gone so quiet and had to smile at the sight of his agent actually relaxing for the first time since this whole nightmare had started for him.
The trouble with that was, they still had to sit down and go over the case with Fornell. Gibbs knew they needed to read the team into the full brunt of the case, but was struggling with how to do that without crossing into forfeiting Tim's dignity and right to privacy. Maybe this time, the team would just have to settle with not being completely read into it.
"Okay, Tony, Ziva and Abby, wrap it up. Stay together and stay sharp, but go home, go to Tony's or something. Get some sleep. Don't let me see you back in here before 10 in the morning."
"Boss?"
"Did I stutter, DiNozzo?"
"No, Boss, but what about McGoo?"
"He's staying with me. We're not leaving until this jackass is in custody and whoever helped him do it is too."
"Then we should stay with you." Ziva argued.
"No, Da'vid. What you should do, is go home and get some sleep. Since your protection detail's already gone, that leaves the two of you responsible for Abby's safety and your own."
"But, what about Ducky?" Abby asked.
"I am just fine, my dear." The Scotsman answered as he entered the squad room from the back. "However, I do appreciate your asking."
"Well, that's great Duckman, but I'm talking about if we go home, who's gonna watch out for you?"
"Oh, that's a simple remedy, my dear. The three of you can bunk at my house. In fact, Jethro, all of you can. And do not tell me there is no need. Young Timothy is certainly in dire need of a good night's sleep and possibly even some antibiotics if his wounds have become aggravated at all." Ducky asserted.
Gibbs nodded. Ducky's place was the only one big enough to house all of them and it would give them all adequate protection against anything like this happening again.
"Wait, I'm still trying to figure out why this guy is so pissed at Timmy." Abby suddenly threw out there. "I mean, all of you went up there and worked the case, right? And Timmy's the quietest one of all of us. What could he possibly have done that ticked this guy off bad enough to come after him now?"
Tim looked at the boss who steadily looked back at him. Cobalt blue ones promised complete backup on keeping things quiet and trust while green ones begged for it.
"Guys? There's obviously something going on that you're not telling us. Spill it! What happened that got this guy so mad he'd come for payback now?" Abby insisted in a much more quieter tone as if she realized she was treading on seriously troubling ground.
"McGee was doing his job. Barrett didn't like getting caught being a dirty cop. He has no respect for any Law Enforcement that comes from anywhere bigger than his own piece of the pond." Gibbs told her firmly enough that she knew to leave it alone.
"You big-time Washington D.C. guys, you blow in here so smart. Think you got all the answers. You don't know squat about this town"
"Wow! He actually said that to your face, Boss? Where was I when he was playing with stupid like that?" Tony quipped.
"Back here, talking to Lt. Sheehan's CO:, you know, the bastard who killed her to protect his own ass because he was dirty?" Gibbs bit out angrily. "Or don't you remember?"
"Dinozzo, ride back with Ducky. Talk to Lieutenant Shaheen's Commanding Officer. Find out what she was working on in Iraq" Gibbs ordered firmly.
"Okay, back to the big city suits me, boss. I got the Boondock Blues already." Tony said cheerfully as he left the room in Ducky's wake.
"I remember. Sorry Boss. I also remember that she was a Kuwaiti born interpreter who'd emigrated to the U.S. as a kid and then served the country she grew up in, only to be killed by that bastard CO of hers. But why would that piss Jr. Barrett off bad enough to come after Probie now?"
Gibbs glared Tony into silence, angry that this discussion had come so perilously close to crossing that line he was trying so hard not to let be crossed for Tim's sake. "Pack it in!" he ordered once more, not bothering to hide the fact that he was deliberately and abruptly ending the discussion.
Tony looked over at Ducky. The M.E.'s words of warning came back to the younger man now.
Timothy will most likely not discuss any details of what he did suffer through, with anyone. It is a decision we all must respect and respect him for.
Seeing the silent communication that had gone on between the boss and the probie, Tony knew without a shadow of a doubt that Gibbs was one of the chosen few who had been privy to that discussion Ducky had alluded to. It was pretty much guaranteed that the M.E. had been too; or at least, knew exactly what Barrett had done to his probie, but Tony understood that. In fact, he felt relieved that Tim had let someone in and not kept it completely bottled up.
Nodding now, at the M.E.'s confirming pointed look, Tony did what he could to help ease the moment, "Okay, let's get going."
Tim had tensed under Abby's assertive questioning, even as her hands had kept up their massaging of his shoulders throughout the stress filled moments. Now he stood, kissed Abby on the cheek and whispered words of gratitude and apology before turning to face the rest of his team.
"Ziva. Please be careful. You remember what this guy was like towards you. If he's pissed enough to come after me and the boss, he might very well think to come after you, too." He implored her with genuine worry in a voice that shook. Being reminded just a minute ago of some of what Barrett had said that day and repeatedly goaded Tim with while he had him bound and blindfolded; had rattled Tim but he refused to give into it. What he had to say to his team he needed to warn was more important..
"Wait! After Gibbs? When did this happen?" Tony demanded.
"It hasn't. Doesn't mean it won't, DiNozzo. Which makes Ducky's suggestion a good one, so let's go, pack it in. We'll head out as soon as I'm done reading the FBI in and handing…"
"I hope the hell someone's going to read me in as to what the hell's going on in my agency without my knowledge." Vance stated angrily from the edge of the squad room.