Chapter 21

"How's Ziva?" Tony asked the doctor who was treating him.

"Who?"

"Ziva David. One of the other... torture victims brought in this morning," he said, striving for patience. No one had answered his questions at all, focused instead on making sure there were no other injuries on him that they had missed...and that made him afraid that Gibbs and Ziva had died.

"Oh, yes. I'm sorry, Agent DiNozzo, but I'm not the doctor in charge of her case...but I will go and find out for you."

"And Agent Gibbs...how is he?"

"Your other compatriot? He is currently in the ICU, being treated for septicemia. It appears that it was caught relatively quickly and we're hopeful that it won't turn septic."

"Can I see him?"

The doctor hesitated, but must have seen something in his eyes because he nodded. "Yes, I will get a nurse to take you. No, you may not walk there. Wait here and I will send a nurse with the information on Officer David...and a wheelchair."

Tony nodded and tried to relax, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to until he saw that Gibbs and Ziva were all right. A small part of his mind asked how he felt knowing that Tim wasn't there...that he had left, that his trouble wasn't over yet, but he pushed that thought away. He couldn't think about Tim without still feeling that anger...that pain. So he didn't think about it.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Jenny leaned back in her car in shock. She had just settled herself for the drive to NCIS when Cynthia had called. Now, she wanted nothing more than to tell her driver to head to Bethesda, but she knew that couldn't happen, not yet. She contented herself with calling Ducky and Abby, knowing that the two of them would briefly disappear from NCIS and that they could at least have a visual confirmation of Cynthia's message. Still, there was Tim...she closed her eyes in regret. That he was not yet coming in made her wonder just what Carew was making him do.

She was still in trouble for "letting him get away" although she hadn't admitted to it. Everyone knew she'd looked the other way, but seeing as there was no evidence of that fact, she wasn't being called to the carpet...yet. It wasn't a long time coming, however. Not even SecNav was supporting her in her latest escapade, although off the record he'd said he agreed with her. She didn't know how far it was going to go, but if she could do it, she was willing to go all the way. No one who had seen Tim's life in the last year could do anything else...and unfortunately, she was the only one who had.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Dr. Jackson Tobert desperately hoped that there was better news on Ziva David than there had been at the last update. He had seen the look in Tony's eyes before. He knew it could lead to much worse if she had taken a turn for the worst. The nerve damage was mercifully minor and they anticipated full recovery in her hands and feet, a small miracle based on the lacerations on her wrists and ankles. The internal bleeding would have been fatal had it not been treated as quickly as it had. The burn was bad, but small. He had seen enough of torture to know that much of the injury had caused pain without noticeable effects. However, she had needed surgery, particularly once the extent of her bleeding was known.

Thinking about those three, made him wonder just how it had happened, but his tenure at the Naval Hospital had taught him that sometimes one couldn't ask questions. He hoped they all made it but it was still possible that any one of them, including Tony, could take a sudden downturn. Tony's problems were probably mostly confined to psychological, but psychological problems could impact a patient's physical well-being.

He sighed. Nothing was ever simple when it came to cases like these.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim didn't sleep. He had known he wouldn't. No matter what Carew said about blunted reactions, he wasn't feeling it yet. He was as on edge now as he had been just before knocking on the door a few hours ago. His knuckle was still bleeding, but that was because he kept worrying at it. He would lay down and try to stop thinking and the next thing he knew, his left hand was bloody from rubbing at the place where he'd essentially gnawed at his own fist.

What would happen today? Having accomplished the one thing he felt needed to be done by him and him alone, he felt aimless. Even the prospect of mass casualties was not enough. If anything was blunted, it was his emotions. Part of him recognized that it was a reaction to the hurt, an attempt to keep it from increasing. Even so...he was still sitting on the bed, watching as the sky began to lighten. What would this new day bring? Would they manage to find the terrorists? Would they prevent them from setting off those bombs? Would what he had done adversely affect that mission? Could he forgive himself if it did?

He looked at his hand. It was bloody...again. He couldn't let Carew and Alexis see this. How long had it been? Long enough to come out pretending that he had slept? Even if it wasn't, the last thing he wanted was to showcase his mental anguish...least of all to them. With a sigh, he stood up and walked out of the room into the bathroom. He turned on the water and watched as the blood was diluted as it mixed with the water and then swirled down the drain. Would any of this be enough? Could it be enough?

Enough for what? Tim asked himself...and the answer came. Enough to make it worth living through it...and whatever comes after.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Who will we go and see first, Ducky?" Abby asked fretfully. "What if we go and see one and then the other two die? Maybe we should divide and conquer...but there's only two of us. Maybe..."

"Abigail, if the situation were that dire, I'm sure we would have been told. We will see who we are allowed to see and we will have the chance to see them all," Ducky said, his voice as calm as ever, a perfect foil to Abby's frenetic worry.

"How were they found?" she asked. "They disappeared in Montana. Director Shephard said we weren't even allowed to search for them. How did they get here?"

Ducky paused in his pace for a moment...and he knew, somehow, just how they had turned up in Bethesda. "That is an excellent question, Abigail. I think we should be sure to ask them." He hadn't yet told anyone what Tim had done in order to find them, and he was sure they wouldn't take it well. It still bothered him. He knew that Abby would have a meltdown.

"We are here to see three NCIS special agents who were brought in early this morning," Ducky said to the nurse on duty.

"Names?"

Abby took a deep breath and managed to sound only worried rather than frantic. "Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo and Ziva David. Actually, Ziva is a Mossad liaison officer. Gibbs is the team leader and Tony is the senior field agent." She laughed. "He tells us that all the time. It's like he has to justify his presence or something...or he thinks we'll forget or..."

"What's their status?" Ducky asked, gently interrupting Abby with a hand around her waist.

The nurse smiled in sympathy. "Let me check for you. All right? Just wait here." She stood up and walked back through the doors.

"Wouldn't they have told us right away if it was all okay?" Abby asked.

"Just be patient, Abigail. They haven't been here long. Perhaps they are only now being settled in rooms."

He said the words, but his heart wasn't in them. Abby wasn't stupid and neither was he. It must have been serious. ...and Tim wasn't there with them.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"No sign of them being spooked," Thompson said.

"No sign of them at all," Xandra corrected. "You think he messed up?"

No question of who the he was.

Amin answered before Lawrence could. "No. I don't. He wouldn't have messed up. If he had, he'd be dead...and they'd be calling."

There was a long pause.

"We just have to try and figure out where they are. They were still in Arlington at the last contact. McGee will get ahold of us if they don't show any activity in the next hour or two," Lawrence said. "We just have to find what we can...when we can."

"Will it be enough to stop them?"

"We can only hope."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Arlington, Virginia. Home to Arlington National Cemetery. Nearly 300,000 men and women of the armed forces from the Revolutionary War to Iraq and Afghanistan are interred there. Home to the USMC War Memorial, well-known for its depiction of the taking of Iwo Jima. Home to the Pentagon with over 25,000 employees. Home to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, serving nearly 20 million customers per year.

Home to over 200,000 residents. People who woke up that morning knowing nothing more than that it was another day. Many worked within the bounds of Arlington. Others headed to Alexandria, to the District itself, to Bethesda. Mothers and fathers woke up their children trying desperately to get them to school on time...to the twenty elementary schools, five middle schools, four high schools located within the bounds of Arlington.

To the people in Arlington, it is another day. A day like any other. This is life proceeding at a normal pace, perhaps a little frenetic, but that is normal.

...but today is not a normal day.