Warnings: Mentions of torture.

A/N: Happy NCIS Tuesday! Can't believe that this season is almost over. I've been enjoying it so much that I'm really going to miss it over the summer hiatus! Enjoy this next chapter and as always I love to hear what you think!


Tony had come back when it was all over. He sat by Tim and didn't say a word.

Tim wanted him to say something not just sit there quietly. He hated it when Tony was quiet. Anything to make the hurt go away. Apparently his captor had some sick, twisted game going on and Tim was the major player. Actually, he wasn't sure what he was in this entire mess. The drugs kept him out of it for the most part. Perhaps it was the drugs that had him imagining all this. But then he looked at the burns on his hands and knew-no drugs had cooked up this. The drugs kept Tony silent too. Tim wanted a movie reference or a joke. He wanted to be away from this place. "Why did you go?"

"I didn't go, Tim," Tony replied. "I was there the whole time."

"So why didn't you stop him?"

"Do we have to go through this again, Tim? I'm not really here."

Tim felt tears pressing the backs of his eyes. He felt hurt and angry all at the same time. "It feels like you're here. You should be here! I don't know why he's doing this to me! I don't piss people off like you do!"

Tony looked at him sorrowfully. "Do you wish it was me, Tim? Do you wish it was me that he put that cigarette lighter to and burned the surface of my hands? That it was me he videotaped screaming for it to stop?"

"Yes," Tim ground out bitterly. "Yes I wish it was you!"

"Because I deserve it?"

Deserve it? No one deserved this. But why him? Why not Gibbs or Tony? Who had more enemies than Tim could shake a stick at. This... it wasn't fair. And he was angry. So very angry. "It just shouldn't be me," he grumbled angrily. "It should be you."

Tony didn't say anything in return. In fact, he went away again, leaving Tim alone.


"Fingerprint match came back on Petty Officer Collins' murder," Abby said. "They matched prints found in Tim's car."

"So, the guy who murdered Collins' took Tim," Bishop concluded. "Just like Tony and Gibbs' thought."

"Rope was the same brand as well," Abby reported. "It appears that Petty Officer Collins' murder was a smoke screen."

Bishop frowned at the screen on Abby's computer showing her the results of all the tests. She had come down here to get a break from looking over all the photographs that Daryl Crowley had taken of the team over the years. It was obvious now that Crowley was their guy they just didn't know where to find him.

Tony suddenly stuck his head into the lab. He looked a bit more ragged than before he went over to Crowley's house. And after seeing what the SFA and Fornell had found at the house, she could understanding why. But that had been at least five hours ago. The FBI was going over that evidence, not NCIS. "Bishop. Need you upstairs. NOW."

Abby furrowed her brow as Bishop shot Tony a confused look. "Is everything alright?" the probationary agent asked, concerned.

"Just need your opinion on something upstairs, that's all."

"Okay."

Bishop followed Tony into the elevator. Once they were inside and the doors were shut, he turned towards her. "Crowley sent us a little present. Gibbs wants you to watch it with us and analyze it." Tony shifted slightly and dropped his gaze to the floor. "Also...don't tell Abby."

"Why? What does Gibbs want me to look at?"

"Video. Of Tim being tortured. She's already very upset. This would only make it worse."

Bishop sighed and bit the inside of her cheek, nervously. She had watched torture videos before of course, but those had been of people that she really didn't have an emotional connection too, to get inside a terrorist's head to determine his next course of action. This was different. This was McGee. Her friend. "I'll see what I can do."

Tony looked up at her and his gaze softened. "If you think it's going to be too much, Ellie. I can send it to the FBI lab."

"No," she said with a shake of her head. "I want to help Tim."

"Alright," he replied, letting her step off the elevator first.

Gibbs was waiting for them in the bullpen with Ducky and Fornell. When Tony and Bishop joined them, Gibbs pressed play on the tape, and almost immediately Bishop wanted to turn away. Crowley was using a cigarette lighter on Tim, burning the tops of his hands, and Tim was screaming out in pain-screaming for Tony not to leave him.

Bishop gritted her teeth until the whole thing was over, shaking as the lead agent paused the video. "Crowley said...he said this is what they did to...him. It...it could mean his son. I don't know the specifics of why his son was at Walter Reid for treatment of PTSD."

Ducky sighed. "Lieutenant Crowley was a Navy Seal. He was taken prisoner by insurgents and tortured. One method of torture was burning his skin with a cigarette lighter. It's quite possible that Daryl is using this same method of torture because he wants the team to feel as he did. Helpless."

"Well," Tony whispered, his voice shaky, "he's doing a pretty decent job of it."

"Bishop, what can you tell about where Tim is being held?"

"Looks like a cabin of some sort. Maybe up in the mountains. Did the Crowley's own a second home?"

Fornell pulled his cellphone out. "I'll have my agents look into that. We have to assume that at this point we're going to get more videos. Ducky, what other kinds of torture was Lieutenant Crowley put through?"

Ducky gazed between Gibbs and Tony before answering. "He was given a pretty powerful drug that induced hallucinations of people that were close to him. It...it could explain why Tim was calling out for Tony. Perhaps he has been drugged and believes that Tony is there. I also know that the terrorists broke Lieutenant Crowley's legs so he could not walk. He was also deprived of food and water. I would have to pull his medical records from Walter Reid to determine the rest."

Bishop dropped her voice so low that it was hard for the men to hear her when she said, "He's recreating what happened to his son-if we don't find Tim soon it's going to end the same way-with a bullet through his skull. He wants Gibbs to suffer exactly like he did."

Tony was really shaky now. His stomach groaned violently and before he knew it he'd sprinted out of the bullpen. He slammed his way into the men's room, and just made it to the toilet before he hurled up whatever he'd eaten for lunch. Even when he'd emptied the contents of hist stomach he still retched violently in a fit of dry heaves. It was far worse than getting sick on the side of the road after seeing those photographs of Tim and Leah.

After the awful spasms had passed, Tony fell backwards in the stall and pressed his back against the concrete. Tim thought he was there with him. He believed that Tony had just abandoned him when Crowley had started to hurt him. I should be there with him. I should be there instead of him, Tony thought dropping his head into his knees.

He could only see Tim being burned. Screaming in pain. And it made him want to punch something or vomit all over again. He just...he needed to do something. And there was nothing that he could do. What am I going to tell Mrs. McGee? he thought, sadly. Gibbs had shoved that duty on him since their meeting hadn't gone too well that morning.

"Tony?" Leah's voice called out. "Are you in here?"

"Yeah," Tony replied, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He stood, flushed the toilet and then stepped out of the stall. "Hi," he whispered to her, seeing her for the first time since she'd been brought to NCIS. "What are you doing down here?"

"Well, Ellie just came upstairs and said that you were really upset," Leah responded.

Tony went to the sink and washed his hands, watching as Leah stood with her back pressed to the door. "It's been a rough day. And it's only going to get worse."

Leah tried to smile at him, sadly. "You're going to find Tim. Just think of how much information you've gathered in one day."

"Yeah? Are we going to find him before or after the bastard kills Tim?"

"Before."

"Wow, you sound so confident."

Slowly, she moved away from the wall and wrapped her arms around his waist, letting him wrap his arms around her and pull her close. She rested her cheek against his chest while he rubbed her back affectionately. "I just know you will."

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, wanting to believe her, and he wanted to just stay with her and forget everything. But he couldn't, because he had to find Tim. He let go of Leah and tried to straighten his shoulders. "Listen, I have to get back to work...and...um...I have to update Mrs. McGee...so...I'll bring you back up to the conference room." Before they left, he pulled her in for a sweet kiss, "Love you."

Leah smiled and whispered, "Love you more."


Ducky was not surprised to find Gibbs hiding away in the elevator. After a string of expletives hurled at Tobias Fornell that the FBI wasn't doing enough to find Timothy, Gibbs had stormed off. He needed a place to think and gather himself. The video of Tim being tortured had been troubling for all of them. It was probably best that he'd kept Abby out of that meeting.

"Jethro," he said, softly as he stepped inside the elevator. "Are you all right?"

"No," Gibbs admitted. "I'm not."

Ducky sighed and shut the doors, hitting the emergency switch to prevent anyone from interrupting them. "Yes. I will admit that the video was disturbing."

Gibbs didn't look at him. "Ellie get DiNozzo out of the men's room?"

"She went and got Leah."

"And?"

"Tony is now updating Mrs. McGee on her son's case. Keeping the video out of it of course."

Gibbs nodded his head. "Of course. I know he'll be better at keeping her informed than I will. She probably isn't as mad at him. After all he was the one that felt something wasn't right, why Howard Applegate was found in the first place."

Ducky watched the emotions play out in Gibbs' eyes. While he was a man that pretty much kept to himself and held his emotions inside, right now it was obvious that the team leader was hurting. "Jethro, this isn't your fault. You have done everything you can to find Timothy and I'm sure that you and Tony will bring him home. You are doing your job. Just like you were doing it five years ago when you told the FBI to take the sniper shot. If you hadn't that nurse would be dead and maybe others."

"Feels like I went wrong somewhere along the way though," Gibbs lamented. "Just wish I knew where."

"You'll figure it out, Jethro."

"Yeah? Before or after that bastard murders McGee?"

Ducky shoved his hands into his pockets and heaved a tired sigh. "We just have to pray that you solve it before."

Gibbs ran a hand over his face. Prayers were not the only thing they needed. They needed a break in the case, a lead, something to help them find Tim. They needed a miracle.