Part Fourteen: Damsel in Distress
"I know things are supposed to get easier, I know they are but sometimes it doesn't make any sense until the books almost closed. It happens in the last chapter of a great novel, you find out that key piece of information that shows it to be what really mattered the whole time. That everything you've needed is right in front of you from page one, you just didn't want to see it.
McGee had been going through Tony's case files for days; they'd taken Gibbs into custody now for sure as a potential murder suspect and for assaulting a federal agent. As a result McGee had been all but cast out by his co-workers. He was either one of the conspiracy, in their eyes, or the only one living that didn't have anything to do with it. He sighed; quiet was really starting to unnerve him.
After the tape that Tony had mentioned Asher and Kaylen he'd been looking for anything from the first days of Tony's career at NCIS that could put him in a situation with local leos, but nothing came up. And even then after he cross checked the locations law enforcement officer records he didn't come up with any "Kaylen" in the system. He was thoroughly confused and that was starting to wear on him much like the silence was.
"Timothy?" McGee jumped, fingers tightening across the grip of his gun before his mind registered whose voice it was. He let out an audible sigh again, and retreated his hand. "Timothy…were you going to shoot me just now?"
"Sorry Ducky, I'm a little jumpy."
"I can see that, I came to keep you company. I figured that you might need some, but I didn't think it was getting to you quite like this."
"I didn't either Duck." He wondered for a minute about the situation then turned in his chair to face Ducky, "I have a question for you, you knew Tony a lot better and a lot longer than I did. If he was having a long standing relationship with someone and…"
"…he had a child."
"He'd let us know right?"
"I believe Anthony would have eventually yes, he always had family problems but everyone knew that. But if he was serious about someone, and had a child with them then I believe that he would introduce them to us."
"So, do you think that this is really true? I mean, giving Tony and his personality, could this really be the truth?"
"To be honest, no, if anyone would know; Anthony would have told Jethro and the reaction that you described would not have happened if he had an idea about it."
"So what could it be?"
"I don't know Timothy, I honestly don't know but I do know that Anthony has given you clues along the way. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out, you're a wonderful agent young man; don't doubt that." Ducky smiled warmly, kneading Tim's shoulder before he started to pull away. "I have two autopsies to finish but I'll be back up in a little while Timothy."
"Thanks Duck." McGee smiled and then returned to running through the files. He'd now gone through all of his probationary cases and was moving on to the cases that he was more familiar with, starting with the death of Kate.
Tired eyes were scanning the pages before him, examining case files, autopsy reports, everything. He sighed; the pictures of Kate's death were bringing back memories. He leaned back folding his hands behind his head as he stared at her name, her picture, and her files. Something clicked in his head; he launched himself towards the files, fingers brushing through them to the names of the involved officers. He remembered something, grabbing the files he ran upstairs, running past the secretary right into the director's office. "I've got something!"
"I guess that is what keeps us coming back for more, keeps us revisiting the past and looking to make sure it is better in the future. That's why I know when the book is closed on this case, on me, you won't forget about it and you'll be able to piece it together easy enough. I hope anyway, sometimes we humans are a little slow."