Gibbs and Kort left the conference room both lost in thought about the conversation they had just had.
'Have I really treated him so poorly, I mean his father was sick and dying and from what I found out about him during our investigation I knew he would never make the first move. I did what needed to be done to try to mend the relationship in the time they had left. But was that best for McGee? Now I'm not so sure. I never even followed up with McGee or the Admiral, I wonder what they talked about? They seemed to have come to some kind of truce by the end. But was I right?'
The thoughts in Gibbs' head went round and round as he tried to justify his actions in regards to the Admiral and McGee against the information he had just found out from Kort.
' Would I have acted the same with Senior or Director David if the situations had been the same?'
That was the question that bothered the former Marine the most because in the dark recesses of his mind he knew the answer to that particular question and he didn't like it because if he admitted the truth, even to himself, he would have to acknowledge that yes he had treated McGee unfairly.
Kort was also deep in thought but his mind was acting like it would if he was deep undercover and had unintentionally disclosed the identity of another agent.
Gibbs had proven time and again that he DID NOT have Tim's best interest at heart.
With the information now in Gibbs' possession he could cause harm to Tim and Kort.
Kort was honor bound by both his job and his relationship with Tim to protect the younger man.
Kort began looking for an isolated place in the building that would allow him to make a few phone calls that would begin the process of making Tim vanish from the NCIS radar until the time came that he could be sure that no harm would come to the younger man because of what he had just admitted to Gibbs.
Both men were brought out of their thought by Vance.
"Gibbs...Kort in my office now!"
They acknowledged the order and began to hastily walked to the Director's office wondering what else could go wrong.
As soon as they entered the office Vance locked the door behind them and turned to the cell phone sitting in the middle of his desk.
"Ducky you are on speaker with Gibbs, Kort and myself."
"Hello, gentlemen. I have just received some unsettling news from a colleague of mine that works at Bethesda. It seems that someone is calling local medical facilities looking for information about our mutual friend. We may need to consider moving him to a more secure location before they decide to do site by site inspections for him."
"Is it safe to move him in his current condition?" Kort asked
"I wouldn't normally recommend it but I shutter to think what might happen to him if the people who did this find him again."
"Find out if your colleague has any more information on the identity of the caller and try to get the number they were calling from." Gibbs was hoping that the call would lead to the identity of McGee's attackers.
"I will also set up a trace a your current location encase they call." Vance had a similar mindset with Gibbs and was hoping they could put this case to rest quickly and concentrate on his agent's recovery instead of worrying about his safety.
"I am heading to the hospital to protect him until we can make a decision on his continued care." Kort said, thinking only of Tim's safety and not the case.
" Kort according to the message Tim left us you are also a target. We can't risk the two of you in one location." Vance was trying to be diplomatic about the other agent's protection.
"My safety?" Kort asked disbelief heavy in his voice. " I don't matter. All that matters is keeping Tim safe. Penelope Langston made choices years before Tim was even born that led us here. I made choices on the day he was born that led to this situation. I will not allow him to suffer any more than he has because of the choices we made that shaped his life. I WILL NOT allow anyone else to harm him simply for being the grandson of Admiral Robert McGee." Kort's normal devil may care attitude had vanish amid his rant at the two men in the room and the doctor on the phone.
Each man hearing him realized how deep his need to protect the younger man ran and only one knew the reason why.
Vance looked to Gibbs and immediately knew that he was aware of what the CIA agent was alluding to the entire time he was venting at the men in the room.
"Gibbs?", Vance wanted an explanation and he wasn't willing to wait.
"It's complicated Director and it's not my story to tell."
Vance turned to the other man in the room and put on his best Director's glare, "Kort, if you want to get anywhere near my agent I expect you to tell me exactly what is going on and I want to know right now."
Kort took a deep breathe, ' In for a penny, in for a pound.' he thought to himself. Then he looked at the Director of NCIS and began to tell the man his story.
AN:Next chapter will focus on Kort's life growing up and how he found out that Robert McGee was his father. Did anyone pick up on the identity of the MI6 Agent in chapter8? Hope you enjoyed the story and as always review with your thoughts and comments. Stray:)