He just about slammed the door behind him.
Tony was completely disgusted and wasn't sure who with. Gibbs, or himself.
He knew he had acted like an ass in the car, but, he still felt that he needed to have some say in everything happening around him.
And he definitely needed a way to defend his own life.
He was tired of people screwing with him.
He sighed.
He walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water, still angry.
The glass made a little clink as he held it up to the tap, and he turned it on.
As it began to fill. the soft hiss of the water through the pipes made a sound, similar to the sound of the whispering voices starting up.
And they did. They started up. He heard them, layered murmurs of "silver seabird" echoing through his mind.
Suddenly he was not holding a glass of water, but a gun in his hand.
He was running with it, across a beach, looking for cover , running from one of the rhino-sized sea birds.
It was flying behind him, cold, staring eyes locked onto its prey.
Up ahead was a cliff, with low-lying caves. He had to make it before the razor sharp beak and talons tore him to shreds.
He twisted to squeeze off a round at the bird. It's scream as the bullet tore into it was horrifying. It was so loud that he almost fell to the ground.
But he kept going, scrambling, almost to the cave.
Someone was waiting in it.
It was Stratton, holding the damned knife.
Tony fired at him…but, Stratton just laughed.
Suddenly he realized, he was going to die. And it was his choice. Stratton…or the giant bird.
He suddenly dropped the gun, standing stock still, as the talons took him down.
He gasped, looking up at the ceiling of Gibbs' kitchen, lying in a puddle of water and broken glass, and blood.
The sink was overflowing because he'd left the water running faster than it could drain.
He noticed pain in his right hand, where the glass had broken in it, probably when he fell.
He raised the shaking hand to look at the cut, as the pieces of broken glass fell away, in confusion.
How long he had been in the hallucination?
Suddenly, though his heart was still racing from the horror of the experience, he started to laugh.
He thought about how angry he was at Gibbs for telling him he shouldn't be carrying a weapon. How angry he was for not being left alone.
"Now look atchyou, DiNozzo!"
He let the hand fall to his chest, blood staining the front of his shirt, as his laughter became almost hysterical, at the absurdity of it all.
And when Ducky let himself in the front door, that's how he found him.
At Mercy Hospital, Gibbs and McGee arrived on the fifth floor, where their suspect had gotten out of orthopedic surgery for the bullet Ducky kindly put in his leg.
A guard had been posted outside the man's room, to make sure he didn't escape. They couldn't be sure the others wouldn't show at the hospital.
Gibbs wanted to question him right away, as soon as the bastard was awake.
The uniform nodded his head at them as they showed their badges to him before entering the room.
Immediately, Gibbs noticed the pillow over the man's face and rushed to the bed.
McGee ran out of the room, calling for help.
But it was too late.
The man was still, eyes open but expressionless.
"Damn!" Gibbs growled, furious.
The Metro Cop came into the room, and was alarmed at what he saw.
"But…no one was in here but hospital staff," he said nervously.
"Obviously, someone else got in," Gibbs said angrily to him.
Hospital staff rushed in, as Gibbs was putting on a glove to remove the pillow and take it back to NCIS as evidence.
"McGee-, " he said turning to leave the room.
"Hospital security footage. On it boss." McGee ran off ahead of him to get to the security office.
Gibbs sighed, and then asked a nurse, "Can I get a garbage bag ?"
She looked confused as he held up the pillow. She shrugged and went to get him one.
She brought the box and he pulled it out.
As he put the pillow into the bag, he muttered, disgustedly, "Great."
Later, he and Abby were looking at the pillowcase, enlarged microscopically, while McGee was calling up the security footage on another screen.
They had viewed it at the hospital, trying to ascertain who had been the person that killed Orrantia, but there was only one figure that didn't match up to the nursing staff and attending doctors listed on duty.
He could only be seen from behind. Medium build, tall, caucasian, wearing scrubs, cap, and a surgical mask.
McGee was running more close-ups to try to get any detail they could from the figure who kept his head down and turned away from the cameras, both going in and coming out of Orrantia's room.
"So, the pillowcase obviously won't hold prints," Abby said, turned to Gibbs. "But, this person knew that, and didn't bother wearing gloves."
She sipped her straw, looking at him expectantly.
"Gibbs, don't you wanna ask me how I know? How I know they didn't wear gloves?" She was wide eyed, gesturing with her free hand, the other still clutching the Caf-Pow.
Gibbs tilted his head, smiling just a little. "Abby, how do you know the killer didn't wear gloves?"
"Well," she smiled, putting the cup down and turning to her screen, "the grouping of these particles-" she highlighted small grey granules, "that formed the pattern of where fingertips would be, they were under the nails of our killer. You can see the both thumb locations and where the hands and fingers concentrated on holding the pillow…Pushing it down caused this debris from under the nails to sort of smudge out onto the fabric."
"And?" Gibbs asked impatiently.
"And Major Mass Spec told me what they were. Cement and paint dust."
"From a garage ? Or a shop of some kind?"
"No…I'm thinking storage facility. Because, there's an absence of anything else, like motor oil, or metal, or sawdust. AND, we had one little fiber." She pointed back to the screen and zoomed. A small cardboard fiber."
"Is there a way to know what color that paint dust is ?"
"Yes, but I need a little more time on it. I am also going to call around the area to see if I can get information on which paint colors different facilities use."
"That's good work, Abs. Let me know as soon as you get more info."
"Boss," McGee said, "I've been enhancing the video from the hospital, but, I'm still not getting anything else."
They both watched the man go in and exit Orrantia's room again, passing the security guard seated next to the door.
"Whoever he is, he came to make sure Orrantia didn't talk."
Before McGee could answer, Gibbs' cell rang.
"Gibbs," he said while still staring at the image of the fake medical worker.
"Jethro."
He knew from the tone. "What's wrong? Is Tony alright?"
Both Abby and McGee stopped what they were doing, alarmed.
"He's alright Jethro, it just seems he had a bit of an…episode and broke a glass…in your kitchen…"
"What happened?"
"Ah…well, your kitchen needs a little…clean up but , I'll do my best. Tony is alright, but I gave him seven stitches in his right hand and an Ativan. He was just in an odd state when I got here…"
"Was he doing that, not talking thing…?"
"No no, not like that. Oh well, I'll tell you when you get here. He's alright for now. How is it going? Did the bastard talk?"
Gibbs sighed. "No. He didn't get the chance. They got to him first."
"Oh dear," Ducky said with disappointment.
"Abby's onto something though. We'll see what we can get. I'm staying a little while longer. But I can be back in an hour and a half."
"Alright, I can wait for you since I'd like to clean this up anyway."
"You can leave it Duck. I'll see you soon."
"Alright Jethro, and…be careful."
After they hung up, Ducky looked again at the wet floor, with blood and glass in the middle of it. He sighed. And wished he could get the bad feeling he had to go away.
He took another look at Tony, asleep on the couch, with his bandaged hand.
"What a state I found you in, my dear Anthony," he said softly, worried.
Tony had stopped laughing when he saw Ducky, but as he explained the minor argument he had with Gibbs, at least it made some sens why he started up again.
At first, Ducky had thought they needed to take him back to the hospital.
But Tony calmed quickly, and could talk about the experience, and why he was so hysterical over it. It seemed sad, but a very sane reaction to the flashback and after arguing with Gibbs.
So Ducky decided to stitch him up, and make sure Tony got an appointment with Rachel Cranston set up for the next day. He left a message for her on her office number, knowing she was back the next day.
Ducky turned back to the mess in the kitchen.
"Better get to work," Ducky snorted to himself, "before he comes home and sees this. I get enough of the second "B" in Gibbs on a regular basis."
