The farther I get into a story, the less sense it starts making to me – I guess I lose my perspective or something. Anyways, here's the next chapter, hope it holds together, and thanks again to all who reviewed, I'm sure I missed responding to some of you and I apologize for that. I have started a Paralegal course that is rather time-consuming, but I'm going to keep writing, it will just be more sporadic. Than usual.
Gibbs took a moment to snap the elevator to a screeching standstill and lean against it's wall in an attempt to corral his racing thoughts. None of this made any sense to him. He knew Tony was missing, knew in his gut, in his heart, that Jenny Shepard was behind it, and even knew why she had done it; the problem was, how did she think she was ever going to succeed at it? So she had DiNozzo, and DiNozzo meant something to him – meant a lot to him, he knew that now by the way his guts were knotted every time he thought of Tony in her clutches – and knew that she wanted to exchange the young man for her bete noir Benoit. But she had to know there wasn't a damned thing he could do to bring the Frog to her; even if he could somehow convince Benoit to come to her, Morrow and the guards would never let him out of MTAC for any reason other than taking him to a safe location.
No matter what sort of pull Gibbs still had with SecNav and Morrow, he would be shot full of holes if he even attempted to get their prize away from them. Maybe she had something else in mind. She had to have been planning this for a while, she must have had back-up plans and strategies. But then again, maybe she didn't. Maybe this had not been what she had anticipated. How could it have been? Even Benoit hadn't known he was going to turn himself in until a few days ago when he'd found out Tony was on track to seduce his beloved daughter for information. The ex-Director may have had friends, or more likely, unwilling cohorts on the inside of the agency, but that didn't mean she had intended on using them in this capacity. She had probably enlisted them and blackmailed them into being mostly informants and moles to gather intel and report back to her with it in the event she was no longer in the loop.
There just weren't places to hide in the building, not with a hundred eighty five pound, six foot two inch agent in tow. The blood pattern had stopped at the elevator, and there was no way to know which floor they had gotten off on, or back on again. Most of security, hell, the entire agency, had been concentrating on Rene Benoit, and no one was really paying attention to an elevator that was normally used for utility, and for bringing in and taking out dead bodies.
Shit. That was it! She'd put him on a gurney and brought him into autopsy. Like Ari, only right in front of everyone's eyes. Ducky would have been gone for the day, Jenny would have access to Autopsy, or have someone on the inside who could get it for her. Palmer? He'd wring the kid's neck if he found out the assistant let them in. But he wouldn't have known the ex-director was behind it, she wouldn't have shown up until it was safe to come in, and he would have been given legitimate paperwork rigged up ahead of time. Palmer was daft sometimes like his boss, but not stupid. What the hell was the kid's number? He'd have to get it from the agency directory.
"Cynthia. It's Gibbs. I need Jimmy Palmer's cell number."
"Jimmy Palmer's, sir?"
"Yes. James Palmer. Ducky's assistant."
"Yes, Agent Gibbs. Hold on."
Gibbs snapped off the emergency switch and hit the button for Autopsy while he waited for the frazzled secretary to get back to him with the number. He jotted it down on the back of one of his agency business cards, punched it into his phone, and checked his ammo stash. He knew he needed back up, but there wasn't really time to wait for them. Jimmy stammered away with the explanation that Gibbs had suspected – he was given the appropriate documents for the incoming body, signed them, filed them, and was told Ducky would be coming in first thing in the morning to deal with it. It wasn't a suspicious case, just probable death by natural causes of an older, retired Marine colonel, and no rush to get started, according to the paperwork. He'd stashed the body in the drawer and left, anxious to meet with a friend for dinner after work. Did Gibbs want him to come back in and help Ducky, he inquired?
"Nope, you just stay wherever you are, Palmer. I'll sort it out."
The phone snapped shut, and he was out of the elevator. Down the hallway, something caught his eye, but it had been so quick, he couldn't be sure it was a person moving or a reflection of the light in the oddly lit basement hallways. He froze momentarily and waited. No noise, no more movement. There was a skeletal crew of essential personnel - MP 's, security guards, and a few agents working on cases, but everyone else had been sent home and told to not come back until otherwise notified. Who would be down here roaming the hallways? Debating between investigating the spooky hallway or going into Autopsy where he was pretty damned sure his agent and friend was, he headed towards Ducky's 'home away from home' and prayed for the best.
He kept out of the sight line of the glass doors, and made another quick call to Tom Morrow, telling him where he was and what he was about to do. Morrow protested and insisted he wait for back-up, and Gibbs gave in, but only agreed to wait a couple more minutes. If back up wasn't there by then, they could come in and mop up what was left of the loser. Peering quickly into the doors, he couldn't make out anyone in the light or shadows of the main autopsy area. He saw light coming from under the door of the small private office and had to assume that was where Jen was holed up. Was Tony in there with her? Or anyone else? Quickly sliding inside the room, weapon ready, he made himself as small as possible against the wall by Ducky's office. He knew the tiny room as well as his own living room after having spent dozens of hours there either regrouping or recuperating under the M.E's stern ministrations. There just wasn't enough room to hide an injured person and herself. But still, she would be waiting for him. Wouldn't she?
For once in their long and bumpy relationship, he just didn't know how to read her, figure out what she was trying to accomplish in her actions. Maybe it wasn't Jenny. Maybe it was someone else after the Frog. That had occurred to him before now, but he'd not given it much thought. Someone would have had to know that Rene Benoit was on his way to the Navy Yard, and Morrow had made sure that as few people as possible knew what was happening. Basically, the new Director, SecNav, and himself were the only ones that were aware that the arms dealer was turning himself in to them – well, besides Tony. They had made sure to keep it that way to avoid just such a situation as this. So Jenny had been following her Frog, and when she found out where he was headed, had instigated some sort of contingency plan. Maybe it wasn't as simple as exchanging Tony for Benoit, maybe...hell, he just didn't know. Whatever her goal was now, it wasn't driven by logic or logistics. It was more like a knee-jerk response to a last-ditch opportunity. She would have no way of knowing where Benoit was going to be stashed away once he left the building; if she wanted him, this was her last chance.
…...
Tony had wondered why he felt so cold, but he hadn't noticed so much when he'd first woken up and fought to get his bearings. He couldn't really make out the severity of his wound, even flesh wounds were majorly painful, but he had been injured enough times to know he was going into shock, and the refrigerated drawer was doing nothing but propel him deeper into it.
Not to mention it was freaking him out.
Small, dark, confining, dark, cold, dark...he didn't do dark, and he especially didn't do dark and confining, and who the hell had been in here before him? He was never more glad of the Gremlin's tendencies towards OCD than this moment, and an uncontrollable shudder ran through him. Okay, enough was enough, two angry women or two hundred, he needed to get out of there, now.
He reached up and felt around for a latch or button or anything to release the lock from the inside, but the surface was bare. 'Well, really, DiNozzo', he chided himself 'how many occupants of these things need to have an escape hatch?' He huffed, and scrunched down as far as he could into the compartment. He knew the drawers were not much longer than him, and maybe if he put his arms to either side of the drawer as hard as he could, and pushed with his feet up over the end of the thing...
It shot out with a slam, not very far after catching and bending, but far enough for him to reach outside of it and turn the latch to let the lock go. He ignored the scream outside of the drawer, recognizing it as Lee's startled shriek, and rolled his aching, frigid body off the morbid contraption, balancing himself up against the panels of drawers.
"You can't be out of there!" Lee hissed, "She'll shoot you dead for sure, she's past the point of reasoning with!"
"She's been past that point for months, Michelle. Give me your phone."
"I can't help you, Tony, she'll kill my sister, she's -"
"Why the hell didn't you tell me what she was doing, couldn't you at least have trusted me to help you?"
"Tony, I -"
"Give me the damned phone, Agent Lee!" he barked with what little energy he had left in him. He could feel himself starting to thaw, and along with it, the pain and blood-soaked clothes.
She jumped inches off the floor at his tone, already on the edge of losing it from dealing with Jenny Shepard, and fumbled for her cell, her fingers wrapping around it just as she heard the Autopsy doors swish open. She froze in horror at the angry face that greeted them and the phone, half out of her pocket, clattered to the hard floor and broke apart, pieces skittering across the tiles.
"Hands over your head, now!"
He was as angry as she had ever seen him, and she had witnessed a couple of his worst meltdowns since she had started at the agency. He disliked lawyers intensely, and the fact that she was a fellow employee seemed to make no difference to him. Now the fact that she was aiding and abetting someone who had hurt Tony made him beyond intense.
Lee's hands shot into the air with alarming speed, and she burst into tears on top of it.
"Agent Gibbs, you can't be here, she's coming back and she's crazy out of her mind, she's got my sister and -"
"Shut it, Lee. Go call 911."
"But she'll -"
"Now!" he bellowed, helplessly watching as Tony slid down the bank of drawers onto his butt. He wanted to grab the younger man, but didn't dare trust Lee not to do something stupid like try to shoot him.
She jumped again and spun on her heels to run to the desk phone when Gibbs heard a horrified gasp of breath come from Tony, and the agent's eyes widened with matching dread. The autopsy doors slid open and Gibbs spun around to see a wild-eyed ex-Director lining him up in her sights. He knew she was still an incredibly accurate shooter, she kept her weapons proficiency levels up along with all her other duties. Crazy out of her mind or not, she could still double-tap any one of them through the heart or head if she was so inclined. He didn't move a muscle, and dearly hoped that Tony and Lee wouldn't,either.
"Jen. What the hell is going on here?" he asked in as calm of a voice as he could manage. "What are you hoping to prove?"
"I'm not trying to prove anything, Jethro, I'm trying to kill Benoit and you know it! Where are they taking him?"
"No one told me, Jen, and I didn't ask. Didn't wanna know."
"Why couldn't you have just stayed gone?" she asked quietly, an almost sob. "I was so damned close to having him. Jethro Junior here was ready to bait his daughter into leading them to me."
"His daughter has no idea what he does for a living, Jen. And Benoit knew what you were going to do and stopped it from happening. It's why he turned himself in."
"It didn't matter, if she could lead me to him, it didn't matter what she knew, the stupid child! How could she not know?"
"People are good at keeping secrets when they want to, Jen. You know that. He was protecting her. Just like he is now. Jen, it's over, you can't get to him, I can't get to him, even if I wanted to kill him myself, which I'm getting real close to right about now. They won't negotiate with you, you know that, better than any of us. You can shoot me, shoot Tony again, you can try burning the place down, but it's over. You got too close and he bolted, and there's nothing you can do to change that."
His soft voice, strange coming from him, and the sympathy she was sure that she heard along with it was grating, maddening even. How dare he patronize her, placate her, after all these years! She had climbed the mountain to the top, braved storms and blizzards and rocky precipices to get there and raise her flag for all to see. Who was he, just a grunt, and one of hers at that. He worked for her now, not the other way around!
"It doesn't matter anyways, Jethro. The damage is done. You've got what you wanted – your throne back, along with your go-to boy's club Director. Your clown prince isn't looking so hot, though. Good thing you've got McGeek as back-up."
"Damn you, Jen, of all the idiotic things to do!"
"What, lose my job or shoot DiNozzo? I hadn't intended on doing either, but it was worth it even if I didn't get to kill the Frog myself! All of his cronies are going to know what he did, the ones he rolled on are for sure going to know he's in the government's back pocket, some day you'll read where they found him looking like a real frog, green and floating under some pier...shot full of holes."
"Then why come back here, Jen? Why risk it all by sneaking back in here when you knew damned well you couldn't get to him?"
"Had to try. I was running out of time. Still am."
"So's Tony. Let me get him some help."
"He doesn't deserve it!" she growled, pointing the silencer at the young agent slouched against the wall of drawers. "He betrayed me, just like you betrayed me!"
A wave of new apprehension shot through Gibbs when she changed the focus of her rage, and he knew by the look in her eye she would just as easily shoot Tony a second time as she had the first. He weighed his options, of which there seemed to be none – reaching for his own weapon could spell certain death for his friend and he wasn't willing to take that chance. He was gauging distances and probabilities when he glimpsed the movement of that shadow he'd felt more than seen a few minutes earlier out in the hallway, and instinct drove him to make a dive towards the floor, for Tony in particular.
He landed hard into the younger man, toppling him onto his side on the cold floor, all the time tensing against the pops and bangs and explosions going on behind him. Something seared his shoulder and he grunted but ignored it, shielding Tony's body as best he could against what seemed to be a barrage of fire but was really only four shots, one right after the other. He could hear crying, loud and high pitched, and knew it was Lee, but couldn't bring himself to leave his post of protecting Tony to see what had happened to her.
Less than a minute later, all was quiet save for the familiar swish of the Autopsy doors opening. The crying stopped abruptly, and he heard the hurried clacking of heels against the tile floor and the doors opening again, then loud voices of security and MP s calling out orders for sit reps and a crime scene team. Tony moaned beneath him, and Gibbs realized he was probably smothering or crushing the younger man, or both, and hurried to crawl off from him. The former Marine's shoulder burned, but it wasn't as painful as other injuries he'd had, so it was easily ignored in the face of things. He looked up to yell for an ambulance to find an imposing MP standing over him.
"Medics are on their way, Gunny. We're procuring some blankets for him now."
Gibbs let himself collapse onto the floor beside Tony, and cringed at the deathly pallor of his former agent's face, but he thought he could see the rise and fall of DiNozzo's chest, and put a shaky hand over it to make sure of what he was seeing.
"Atta boy, Tony. Just keep breathing. Help's on the way."