I'm sure many of you thought this would never come. To be honest, for a while so did I. I want to thank everyone who hasn't give up on this story just yet :). Now: read!

Chapter 20 Findings

Jenny woke up when one of the nurses entered the room to check the IV and Gibbs' vitals. When she tried to lift her head, she felt a sharp pain in her neck. Obviously it hadn't been a good idea to fall asleep at his bedside and with her head on his bed.

"Would you like us to bring an extra bed in for you, Ma'am?"

Jenny rubbed her neck and smiled at the other woman. "No thank you, I'll try to make it to my own bed tonight."

"Suit yourself"

The nurse left again, and Jenny finally looked at her cell phone, noticing a few missed calls from Cynthia. She stepped outside the room for a moment to return the call to her assistant. She told her that she'd cancelled the next few meetings, so she had until lunch to stay in the hospital. Jenny disconnected the call, reminding herself to give Cynthia a huge bonus at the end of the year.

After grabbing a quick cup of horrible hospital coffee she returned to Jethro's room, where she heard his cell phone ring. Quickly she searched through the table at his bedside where they'd put all his personal affects. Finally she found the phone, but it was unable to identify the number of the incoming call.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Zack Tanner, can I speak to Gibbs please?"

"Zack, Commander Tanner's son?"

"Yes, can I talk to Gibbs now?"

Jenny looked at the peaceful face of her husband, and tried to find the right words to tell the boy the news.

"Zack, I'm Jenny, remember me?"

"The Director with the red hair?"

Jenny smiled. "Yes, that's me. I'm really sorry but Jethro won't be able to take your call right now. He is sleeping."

"Can't you wake him up?"

She hesitated, "it's a different kind of sleep, he is in a coma."

It was silent on the other end of the line for a moment, then the boy's soft voice returned. "Okay, can you help me instead? I had a dream last night, bad men were hurting my dad again."

"Zack.."

"I know something is wrong, it was not just a dream, I had a feeling in my stomach that it was all real."

"Listen to me Zack," Jenny tried to speak in a soothing voice "I'm going to make sure my agents find out about your father. And I will call you as soon as I hear something. Okay?"

"Okay." Jenny heard voices on the other end of the line, arguing with the boy."

"I have to go now Jenny, I'm not allowed to use this phone. Bye!"

After the conversation ended, Jenny stood there, looking outside the window, overthinking the talk she just had with Zack. Her fingers blindly dialing another number.

"I need you to double the agents on the search for Commander Tanner, I don't care who, just do it. His son is worried."

--

A car came to a screeching stop in front of Bethesda, one of the back doors opened and a body wrapped up in plastic garbage bags was thrown out. There was no one to be seen and the car quickly drove away. Mud splattered across the plates to make them unrecognizable.

One of the doctors who'd been outside smoking ran over to the plastic package. She tried to pull some of the plastic away, uncovering his face. With some difficulty she wrung her hand underneath the plastic trying to feel his heartbeat in his neck.

It was barely there.

"Quick, someone get a team and a gurney. And a knife!"

One of the nurses ran inside to fulfill the request and another doctor dropped his cigarette and joined the woman who was still trying to pull the plastic off.

--

Tony, Ziva and McGee had been drafted into the search for Commander Tanner, they'd put out the usual BOLO, had tried to locate his cell phone, and every single thing they could think of besides heading out there themselves. Their Director had ordered another team to go to Pakistan themselves. And they hadn't found any information either. Not that the locals were very keen on releasing information.

The few leads they had, had turned out to be dead ends and Gibbs' team, back in the headquarters hadn't found anything either. Until one of their phones rang.

"Officer David."

"Where?"

"We'll be on our way." Ziva looked at the expectant faces of DiNozzo and McGee, "Fifteen minutes ago a John Doe was dropped off at Bethesda, and for so far they can see, it looks like it's Commander Tanner."

"What do you mean for so far they can see?" Tim looked a bit confused, but then Tony threw him a meaningful look. Then the pieces of the puzzle clicked.

"Oh."

Quickly they geared up, and on their way down to the car, Ziva called Jenny to let her know about their finding. Knowing her friend would want the information as quickly as possible.

--

"Thank you Ziva, I'll head down right now to see if it's really him."

Jenny disconnected the call and grabbed Gibbs' hand in hers, "I'm going downstairs, they brought someone in who could possibly be Commander Tanner, Zack's father. I'll try to see if I get a positive ID. I'll be back as soon as possible."

And with one last look she exited the room, and headed for the ER.

This time, she didn't have to call Condi, or show her gun, her badge and title were enough to enter the room of John Doe, escorted by his doctor. She tried her best to keep her face in a neutral look as she neared the bed. The obvious signs of torture were even painful to see. When she was able to get a good look at his face she recognized him immediately. Underneath all those bruises, it was Commander Andrew Tanner.

When she was able to trust her voice again, she gave the doctor the positive identification and told him that her agency would take care of everything else. Including contacting the next of kin. Jenny quickly headed out again, making the required calls and also calling in a few agents to stand guard by the door. She didn't want to risk someone entering Tanner's room and finishing the job.

Then there was her last problem. Should she call his son? She'd promised him she'd call as soon as she'd found something. And finding his father obviously counted.

Or should she leave it to Tanner's next of kin?

Jenny rubbed her temples, she felt a migraine coming up. Usually she would've talked about this with Jethro, but that was obviously out of the question. Still she returned to his room, hoping that the proximity would spark some kind of epiphany.

--

God, this day had passed so very quickly, before she'd known it Abby had shown up and almost pushed her out of Jethro's room. Telling her that she'd take the nightshift and that Gibbs would want her to take a rest.

She'd given in, and now, back at home she didn't know what to do with herself. She'd tried to watch tv, read a book, and finally catching up on some paperwork she still had in her study.

Not that it was working, she'd been reading the same passage for the last fifteen minutes and she still didn't have a clue what it was about. When she'd started to read it for the twentieth time, she felt her eyes get heavy and before finishing the passage once again, she'd fallen asleep with her head on her desk

Her dreams were interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.

Blindly she grabbed for it, not even looking at the number. "Shepard."