Chapter 11
Tim sat down in his chair in his workstation, trying to remember the last time he was there. He looked off to the side, suddenly remembering Tony's pastry gift the other day, actually that was just yesterday. There was no sign that any pastry had ever graced the top of his desk and he looked over at Tony, one eyebrow raised in what Tony referred to as the McBrow, lower lip out in a fake pout and mischief in his eyes. "DiNozzo, did you REALLY eat my bear claw?"
Tony looked over at him, a guilty look on his face, "Um, yeah Probie, but not until after you left last night, honest!"
Tim continued the McBrow, "Tony, I…" he gave his friend a goofy grin, "I'm just glad it didn't go to waste, that is to my waist!"
Tony responded with an air strike of paper "bombs", stopping only when his boss returned with fresh coffee. Gibbs shook his head, he'd rather die than admit this to his team, but returning to find his two boys up to their usual antics felt better than he ever thought possible. To prove to himself that he had not gone soft, he barked, "Is this my ace team, playing kiddies' games? You all done, DiNozzo? Got the case all neatly tied up with a red bow? Perp in custody?"
"Uh, no, Boss, I was just…" DiNozzo's mouth hung open as he could swear he'd seen something very similar to a smile flash on and off the boss's face. Nah, couldn't be.
Gibbs gave himself a mental pat on the back, attaboy, not soft at all, still got it, can scare DiNozzo anytime, anywhere!
As the elevator doors opened and spat out two men, two unwanted and by now thoroughly detested men, all four of the bullpen residents sat up straight, tension returning to their shoulders.
While Sacks hung back, Fornell managed to take a step into the bullpen before he faced the wall of DiNozzo, David and Gibbs. McGee stayed at his desk, working on a totally separate, absolutely nothing to do with his own, cold case.
Fornell's first remark only earned him more disdain as he pointed to Tim, "Why is he working?"
"Because it's his job as one of my field agents, Fornell." The reply came from behind Sacks as Director Vance approached. He continued, "And you are here only by my invitation, to observe the opening of the McGee family caskets. We'll just wait for Ms. Newell, she's on her way."
"I'm here, Director Vance," called the attorney as she exited the elevator. "Good afternoon Director, Special Agents McGee, Gibbs, DiNozzo, Officer David," She turned to the FBI agents, "Pond scum."
Sacks blustered while Fornell rolled his eyes. "Enough with the theatrics!" He griped.
"Fine with us since you started it, Fornell" Gibbs snarled.
Vance just shook his head. Without a doubt, the decades-long friendship, circling the drain since this started, had now disappeared altogether. He noticed DiNozzo texting something, at his questioning glance, the agent nodded back at him. "Let's just go get this done. Dr. Mallard is expecting us. The sooner we do this, the sooner these two…" and the Director gestured to the FBI agents, "will be out of our lives."
The seven of them trooped to the back elevator, leaving Tim sitting morosely in his chair. Before his thoughts could complete the dive they were threatening, his phone rang. It was his uncle, checking in to make sure he hadn't dreamt the happy miracle. "I know you're working, Timmy…sorry, I'll work on that, but I just needed to hear your voice again, make sure it was real, that you're real."
"I'm real, uh, what did we call you before, Sir?"
"Uncle Jim would be wonderful, my boy, just…wonderful."
"Ok, Uncle Jim, huh, I'll have to get used to that. I'm real, sitting at my desk while the rest of the crew is um…well, they're…" Tim stopped, having to take a deep breath and blink rapidly to get rid of the moisture in his eyes. Field Agents do not cry, especially in the bullpen, he sternly reminded himself.
"They're opening the caskets, aren't they, son?"
"Yessir." Tim managed to choke out.
"If I were just outside with coffee, do you think you could come join me for a few minutes?"
"I suppose, I'll need to…I'll be there in a few minutes, Uncle. Where are you?"
"On a bench overlooking the river, Tim."
"Ok, it'll take me a few minutes."
"No rush. I'm sure you're busy."
Tim hung up and then called Agent Carter. "Rick, sorry to bother you, but would you be needing any coffee or anything? My new uncle just called, he's out on the river bench, asked me to join him. The Feebs are here, I don't want to rock the boat."
"Let me text Jethro, Tim, then we can go, ok? You can come with me to get coffee and then I'll just hang out while you visit with your uncle."
"Ah, that's too much time away from your work, I'm not even on your team, never mind, I'll…" Tim was interrupted by Carter's snort, "Bud, right now you are on everyone's team, you're one of ours! Besides, if there was ever anyone in the history of breaks who deserved one, it's you." Hanging up, Tim walked across the room, met up with Carter and headed for the closest coffee barista and his new relative.
Line Break
When the group of seven arrived in Autopsy, they found Dr. Mallard and Jimmy Palmer standing respectfully to the side of the line of the five caskets. Gibbs, remembering Tim's losses as well as his own, joined them, along with the others, including the two FBI agents. Whatever else was going on here, this was a family they believed had been wiped out. For a quiet moment, each kept to his or her own thoughts.
Lifting his head, Dr. Mallard ended the moment, gestured to his assistant and together they approached the smallest casket.
"We will do this in order, smallest to largest." Ducky decided, "As you can see, each casket has been tagged, if you will, with the name of the person whose remains are in that particular casket."
He gestured for the attorney, the Director and the two FBI agents to come forward and examine the paperwork on the first casket. As they looked closely and then stood back, Director Vance looked at Gibbs, who shook his head. He was not willing to participate any farther than he had to in this travesty. He gave DiNozzo and David a nod to indicate they should feel free to look, but found both his agents fighting their emotions. Tony was examining the ceiling, blinking rapidly; Ziva had reverted to her Mossad training and displayed no emotion at all.
Sighing, Ducky broke the seal of the casket that was labeled as Sarah's and with Jimmy's help, lifted the heavy lid. Inside they found a collection of bones and a teddy bear. The ME looked at the bones and then looked at Jimmy and found the same expression on his face as he was sure was on his own. Before he did anything else, he gestured for Fornell and Sacks to join him at the casket. They came forward again, this time reluctantly and peered in.
Sacks broke the silence, "Those don't look like any human bones I've ever seen!" He turned in question to Ducky.
"You're quite right, Agent Sacks, as they are not human bones at all." replied the doctor. At that, both Vance and Gibbs joined the group at the open casket. Gibbs took one look and signaled to his Senior Field Agent.
"DiNozzo, get the camera, I want photos of each bone in here – shoot the whole interior first. We're treating this casket as a crime scene. Hands off, everyone, until we get those photos."
While he was talking, Ziva had her cell phone out and began snapping photos of the exterior of each of the remaining caskets. Sacks watched her for a second and then joined her, using his phone to snap his own photos.
Director Vance turned to Fornell, "Fornell, while DiNozzo is photographing the interior of this casket, I suggest we proceed to the next one."
"Fine, as long as you share the photos with us, not just the ones from the phone."
"You want something more from us, Fornell?" The growl came from Gibbs. Fornell opened his mouth to reply when he was interrupted by the attorney and by Tony's return.
"Agent Fornell, my client, his employer and I have been more than patient with this circus, but this is the end, we're done. In a minute, the rest of these caskets supposedly carrying these poor children and their parents will have also been desecrated for the sake of your witch hunt. You have no legal standing and frankly, you've handled this very clumsily, expecting NCIS to prove your case for you. If you were in my profession, you would likely have been fired by your employer and certainly up for disbarment."
Catching Leon's eye, Gibbs turned away from the crowd, biting back a grin at the attorney's angry truth. Without any prompting, she had nailed the FBI's Modus Operandi to the wall. Throw it at NCIS and let them figure it out. Drag everyone through the mud and see who comes out clean.
As he started to turn, he caught Tony moving towards him with a triumphant look in his eyes. He wondered if it was the door panel from the station wagon or the DNA results that were causing his SFA such glee. He tipped his head towards Ducky's office, turned and signaled Ziva to continue with the photos, glanced at Leon to let him know there was good news and gave a silent apology to Ducky for leaving the animal bones party.
Joining DiNozzo in the small office, he made sure the younger man was facing away from the door. "Ok, DiNozzo, now you can tell me."
"Boss, it's like the trifecta of evidence, all pointing in the same direction! Only there's only two pieces, Oh, I know, three if there are animal bones in all the kids' caskets."
"Thwack"
"Uh, thanks Boss, won't happen again…ok, here's what we got: 1) the paint transfer on the door of the station wagon matches the paint for the model of the sedan registered to Natalie McGee. 2) the DNA results are in and Commander Hubbard and Timothy McGee are definitely closely related, Boss, enough to be uncle and nephew."
"DiNozzo, do you have the paperwork for the DNA matches on you now and is there more than one copy?"
"Yes and yes, Boss. The lab sent us several printouts of the same results."
"Ok, let's have it, I want this in those bastards greedy hands so they can get the hell out of here and let Tim put his life back in order."
"You going to give this to Vance first, Boss?" Tony cringed, expecting another head slap. "I'm just saying he's been really involved with this."
Gibbs sighed; he really could not wait until he regained control of his own team. Leon's help and support had been invaluable and he knew Tim had also appreciated it, but Gibbs wanted his life back too. He had hated it when Jenny had stuck her nose into his cases, this was a bit different but interference was still interference.
"Yeah, c'mon, let's get these to Vance and Ms. Newell, then see what Humpty and Dumpty do with actual evidence."
The two men left Ducky's office and joined the others. Ducky turned to them, "Jethro, was it your intention to open the Commander and Lily's caskets too?"
"Depends, Duck, what have you found so far?"
"Animal bones in the casket that was identified as Sarah's and in the casket identified as Timothy's as well. The third child-size casket held the bones of a human child; the identification is for Patrick McGee."
Gibbs looked at Ziva who nodded; yes, everything had been photographed. He walked to Vance's side, beckoning the attorney as well. The FBI agents looked suspicious and started to move towards them, to be frozen by glares from Vance, Gibbs and Ms. Newell. Vance directed the other two back into Ducky's office where Gibbs handed each a copy of the DNA results.
The attorney glanced at the bottom of the printout, "Agent Gibbs, is this saying what I think it's saying? Our Tim McGee is the blood relative of Commander Hubbard?"
Gibbs gave her one of his trademark smirks, "Yes, Ms. Newell, the DNA results prove Tim is really Timothy McGee, long lost nephew of James Hubbard. And yes, he's off the hook, the FBI once again roped us into clearing their case."
"Not really, Gibbs," Vance this time, "we don't know what the original case was."
"We also received confirmation of the paint transfer; the color matches to the car registered to Natalie McGee aka Svetlana Stacevyko."
"That's good news, Agent Gibbs, but not proof the woman murdered half that family," the attorney laughed lightly as both men looked at her, incredulous, "I'm not defending her, Gentlemen, I'm just saying that would not hold up in a court of law without reasonable doubt."
Vance gave her a grim smile, "We're very aware of that, Ms. Newell, thank you. We are still working on gathering evidence for the cold case. Just very happy to let our poor Agent out of the penalty box when he's done nothing wrong. It would be interesting," the Director looked at Gibbs, "to discover what the Bureau had going in the first place when they stumbled into this."
"It would be, Director, do you think there's a chance we can find out?"
"I think, Ms. Newell, that those desecrated caskets, the evidence from Bayopolis and these DNA results just might give us the leverage to find out. Gibbs, I suggest we invite the pair up to my office, let's do a little grilling of our own, now that we can afford to. Ms. Newell, as Tim's attorney, I would think you'd need to be there for the presentation of the evidence to clear your client."
"I'd be delighted, Director Vance, and Timothy should also be included."
"Of course, Counselor. Gibbs, will you ask Special Agent McGee to join us?"
"I'll bring him up, Director. I'd like to give him a briefing so he understands its good news and he'll want to know about the remains."
"Good job, Gibbs, and I've been thinking about that. Since the exhumation was necessary to clear the FBI's baseless accusations, the FBI will be paying for that and they will also pay Ms. Newell's fees. Now I wonder, do you think Tim and his family would like free transportation, roundtrip of course, from the FBI to attend the re-burial?"
"I'd think Director, that those flights could be handled by the FBI's private jet and Tim's entire family should be included, everyone affected by this circlejer…" Gibbs stopped himself, "circus."
Ms. Newell contributed her own thoughts, "The grave sites will have been torn to shreds, the headstones likely damaged or destroyed; they will need replacing. Also let's not forget that there will be two fewer caskets going back, they will have to be disposed of."
"Knowing Tim and his work with the homeless, he'll push for the caskets to be donated."
With that, the three conspirators left Ducky's office and joined the others waiting impatiently in the morgue.
When Ducky pointedly cleared his throat and pointed to the Commander's casket, Gibbs shook his head. "No Duck, Tim's family has already been through enough. There's no need. Did you remove the animal bones?"
"Yes, Jethro, and I thought we could have Abigail take a look at them when she returns. She is so adept at finding forensic evidence in the strangest places."
"You'll share the results, Doctor?" This was the first Fornell had spoken in several minutes.
Vance cleared his throat, "Have your director make a formal request, Fornell, and I will give the request all the consideration it deserves. Now, everyone, since we have once again proved the FBI wrong, I suggest we continue with our own work. Dr. Mallard, Dr. Palmer, thank you for your good work and care in this matter. I know Special Agent McGee will especially appreciate the respect given his lost family."
Fornell could barely enunciate the words, "What do you mean, we're wrong, there's no…" he was cut off by Vance.
"Join me in my office and that was not a request." Turning, he saw a glimpse of his MCRT as the elevator doors closed on them. Gesturing to Ms. Newell, the two of them left, the FBI agents still sputtering in their wake.
