Chapter 14

Ducky finally leaves, leaving Gibbs alone with the interrogation tapes again. He continues to watch, trying to learn something new about the mysterious man named Bashir Malik that surprisingly doesn't sound like the typical terrorist: totally fanatic enemy of the West, no regrets when it came to killing innocent people. Like he had already said to Ducky: Bashir seemed to be very human, certainly not something that you would expect off an experienced bomber or was he just a good actor maybe?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted, as Bishop opened the door to the observation room next to the interrogation room and said: "Metro PD has found Bashir's SUV; the car has been completely destroyed before Parsa ditched it." Gibbs let all this information sink for a while before he finally answered: "Okay thanks for the Information Bishop, tell Dinozzo to get the car ready and I'll be in the garage shortly." Ellie Bishop just nodded closed the door behind her again; Jethro then quickly turned off the TV and put the current tape back into the case before he headed back to the bullpen to get his gear.

Back at the hospital Mc Gee surprisingly meets Doctor Rachel Cranston in the hallway in front of Delilah's room and of course he wonders, what exactly her reason is to be here right now as she says: "Agent Mc Gee, I'm Doctor Rachel Cranston and I was appointed to be the Crisis Counselor for the survivors of the explosion at the gala." Alone the two words crisis counselor gives him a very uncomfortable feeling, stirring all this memory up into the open again because they were just too painful to deal with right now. Maybe he should consider opening up to Doctor Cranston, telling her all the fears that are haunting since the drone attack or are those memories going to make him collapse totally when he allows them to fully surface? He searches for the words to say, because deep down he could barely keep his negative emotions in check what sends him in a big dilemma: Because on the other hand he knows, that he needs to cover up all his hatred for Parsa or else his clouded judgment would get him into big trouble. *They wouldn't let me work on the case anymore and I wouldn't get the chance to help personally putting this bastard to justice.*

Trying to sound as neutral as possible he finally replied: "Delilah is doing fine so far, of course she's going to have to do a long rehab before she's back at a hundred percent." Of course Doctor Cranston somehow senses the discomfort of Mc Gee, as she mentions the drone attack again and that could only mean one thing: He was definitely hiding something from her but in the end it was never a good idea to push people, because people that were traumatized in that way like all those being hurt in the drone attack needed the time to sort things out with themselves before opening up to a stranger.

"Okay that sounds good so far but don't forget, if you feel the need to talk somebody about what has happened today I'll be in the hospital for a while being ready at any time to listen." Doctor Cranston said, hoping deep down that Mc Gee would take her up on the offer because the alternative wasn't healthy for anyone: Trying to block all the feelings of rage until you couldn't take it anymore and it all came out in a very violent explosion of anger.

Tim tried his best to force a little smile on his face as he replied: "Thanks for the offer but I'm doing fine myself so far Doctor Cranston." Then Rachel Cranston finally turned around heading to another room down the aisle, where probably some other people were pretty much more open about their feelings unlike Agent Mc Gee.

The rest of the team had finally arrived at the alley, where Metro PD had found the totally destroyed SUV that had been driven by Malik Bashir and with the car being totally burned down by an explosive they surely wouldn't find any useable evidence inside it. Gibbs had an angry look on his face, as looked at the little message that was left behind by Parsa on the windshield of the car: Try again.

Jethro ordered the car to be towed back to NCIS Headquarters; maybe they would find a tiny piece of evidence that had been forgotten by Parsa before he destroyed the SUV. Tony shortly notifies Gibbs, that Homeland Security is also in on the case now before they finally headed back to the office and hopefully Abby would be able to find some things that they had maybe missed on first sight.

During the drive back to the NCIS HQ, Gibbs couldn't get those two words out of his head: Try again because he deep down had the feeling like this had been some kind of sick game for Parsa since the very beginning.

Delilah was finally being driven back into the room again, Mc Gee also stepping inside after he had quickly answered a concerned message from Abby on his cellphone. Of course he wanted to help with finding Parsa, but on the other hand he didn't want to leave his girlfriend's side not right now because he somehow was blaming himself for what had happened to her. He tried his very best to ban these negative thoughts out of his mind because he didn't want her to worry about his mental well-being too much, all she needed to focus on right now was recovering from the effects of the explosion and he would help her the whole long road of recovery in the best way possible.

Abby shortly looks on the screen of her cellphone, as a new message from Mc Gee arrives: Delilah is going to be okay, but it will take a while to get back to a hundred percent. She was happy to read that Tim's girlfriend wasn't injured that bad in the end but the whole chase for Parsa had been very stressful for all of them so far.

Finally she found something very odd directly under the car: There some very unusual looking bolts that definitely didn't belong there and so she figured that she had to show Gibbs those things.

Thanks to- STANathanXOox for dding this story to her story alert list, Thanks to- Gracfully and Toronto Girl 12 for reviewing this story. Please read and review