AN: If you read last night's new story, Unshared Secrets, I used a scene from this chapter as the jumping off point for that story. Some circumstances were changed in that one since it wasn't Breathe, and the POV of the scene was flipped, but you will recognize some lines of dialogue if you've already read that one. Also, this story is past 300,000 words on into the home stretch. Just two more chapters after this!
Chapter 51
Friday, May 14, 2010
Gibbs had just left the lab, putting Abby off again, when McGee came running up, telling him the missing notebooks were from Macy's Camp Pendleton days. That just confirmed the suspicion Abby had given him. He cut McGee off, closed the elevator doors, and dialed the cantina.
"Bueno?"
"Hello," Gibbs said. He fumbled for the Spanish. "Habla usted ingles?"
"Si. This is Camilla. Who is this?"
He breathed a sigh of relief. "Camilla. This is Jethro Gibbs, Mike Franks' friend." At least Camilla knew him, would be more likely to help.
"Senor Gibbs," she said. "Como estas?"
"Yeah, I need you to get a message to Mike for me." He tried to figure out the simplest way to say it.
"I have not seen him, but when he comes in I will make sure he-"
"You need to get the message to him now. Right now."
"Si, Senor, I will try."
"The message is Rule Number 44. Repeat it back to me." He hoped Mike was sober enough to remember the rule, to know what to do.
"Rule 44. He will know what this means?" Camilla sounded skeptical.
"Just give him the message," Gibbs said. He thought of another way to ensure Mike understood. "Make sure he has Layla and Amira with him. Just do that, OK?"
"Si, Senor Gibbs. Are you all right?"
Gibbs didn't have an answer, so he hung up. As the elevator moved upward, he realized he needed to find a way to protect his other women and children. Abby, and Sarah and the baby. He couldn't risk telling Sarah, so he would have to hope Ziva and the guys could keep her safe until they wrapped this up. Jimmy would take care of Abby, had been doing a better job lately than Gibbs had been.
Later, after he'd booked the Hammonds on rape charges and cleared them, at least in his own mind, of Macy's murder, he went down to Autopsy. Duck had to have something for him. The room was dim, just Ducky's desk lamp lighting it. Jimmy was gone, hopefully keeping Abby safe.
"Duck, the knife used to kill Laura Macy. Who made the knife?" He walked over to the doctor's desk.
"For the most part, linking a specific weapon to a knick in a human bone is virtually impossible, but in this case, I can go out on the proverbial limb." Ducky got up and walked over to the autopsy table where the file was spread out. "The pattern is indicative of a KBar 1277." He handed Gibbs a photo from the file.
"1277." Gibbs thought for a second. "That's an Army knife."
"Yes, our assailant knew that the first cut had to be sufficient." Ducky paused. "He ended her life deliberately, brutally, and without hesitation."
"She was executed." Gibbs stared down at photos of the knife and Macy on the table as Ducky walked around to other side.
"Yes, and then left to be discovered." Ducky's words carried force. "To taunt whoever would be hurt the most by her untimely death." He paused. "Not unlike leaving a single bullet to be found in the Mexican sun."
The words echoed in Gibbs' brain, and he looked up and stared straight at Ducky.
"You're familiar with the kind of killer to which I speak."
Gibbs glared at the man he considered his oldest friend. "I am." He straightened up to leave before he could say something he'd regret. He knew not everybody would accept what he had done, but he thought McGee would be the issue, not Ducky.
"No, Jethro, wait." Ducky followed him out of Autopsy. "This is as much about you as it is about Special Agent Macy. Listen to me."
Gibbs didn't want to listen, but Ducky kept going, detailing how he had figured it out.
"You may not have wanted this to come to the surface, but somebody else did, and now they are forcing your hand." Duck looked at him. "Who is it, Jethro?"
Gibbs removed the medical examiner's hand from the elevator and let the doors slide shut between them. Before he could do anything else, his phone rang.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tony sat at his desk, still unable to grapple with everything going on. Gibbs had left Friday, and they still hadn't heard anything. Hell, they hadn't even realized he was gone until Monday when Vance asked where he was.
He and Tim had spent the entire weekend trying to figure out what to tell Sarah. The more Tony thought about Josh and what the Pritchards were capable of, the less he wanted to give Josh access to the baby by having it connected to their family. But even as he grew less sure about the two of them adopting, Tim was starting to come around to it.
"So have you decided what to do?" Ziva looked over at him from her chair. "Sarah spent most of the weekend trying to decide what she would do if you two decide you do not want to help her."
"It's not a question of wanting," Tim said from his desk. "We want to help."
"We just don't know what actually counts as help," Tony said. "You saw the way the Hammonds were. Josh's family has that same mentality, just like my father. Rules don't apply. Interference isn't welcomed. If Josh decides to make trouble, this could become even more of a cluster than it already is."
"I'm not sure that's possible." Tim's tone was dry, but Tony knew what was behind it.
"Yeah, I know," he replied.
"You two cannot agree?" Ziva looked first to him, then to Tim.
"Oh, we can agree," Tony said. "Just not at the same time. First I said yes and Tim wanted to say no. Now he's decided it's a good idea, and I'm not so sure." He buried his head in his hands. "We need some good news."
"I have some good news," Ziva said.
Tony looked up.
"I will become one of you later this week." She smiled. "Tony, you will have to find all new jokes."
Tony decided to take the distraction Ziva was offering and rummaged in his desk drawer for a small American flag that had been there since Veterans' Day.
"This cannot be happening," he moaned theatrically. "How can this be happening?"
"I passed the exams." Ziva smirked. "I will officially become a citizen of the United States of America."
"I've never been more disappointed in my government." He held up the flag.
"Hey, it is my government now." She sounded indignant, but there was a twinkle in her eye.
"Not until Friday." Tony felt obligated to point it out, to keep the charade going.
"I expect to see you all there," she said.
"Ziva, of course I'm going to be there," Tim said, winking at her. "Everyone is going to be there." He hesitated. "Even Gibbs." Tony wondered how McGenius was going to talk his way out of that one. "I bet. Once he comes back from his-"
"Let's call it a vacation," Tony said.
"It is not the first time he has run off on his own." Ziva's tone was matter-of-fact.
"It's not the first time he's run off to Mexico," Tim replied, and Tony tried not to think about the last time Gibbs took a margarita safari. He never thought he'd prefer that Mexican trip, but at the rate things were going... "It's certainly not the first time he's gone without telling us anything."
"Nope," Tim said. "Nothing new to see here."
"Not a poker player among you." Vance walked up to the bullpen entrance. "Terrible, terrible bluffs." He paused, and Tony wondered what the director knew. "We're all used to how Gibbs operates for better or for worse. Let's just stay focused on what we're good at."
"And what would that be, Director?" He needed to figure out how much Vance knew.
"If you don't know, Agent DiNozzo, I'm not going to tell you." Vance turned to Tim. "Agent McGee, I need you."
As Tim walked away, Tony could only hope that meant there was some super-geeky escape plan in the works before something really bad happened to Gibbs.
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Abby was working on evidence for another team in the lab, but her heart wasn't in it. Gibbs was in Mexico, Alejandro was looking for her report, and if the day could get any worse, she wasn't sure how.
"Abby."
Abby looked over her shoulder. "Hi, Ziva." She tried to muster up her usual enthusiasm, but couldn't.
Ziva walked over and put a hand on Abby's shoulder. "Abby, I am sorry." She paused. "I did not realize. I mean about your baby. If I had known... I would not have called you about Sarah."
Abby shook her head. "I didn't tell you," she said. "When you called me, I didn't tell you about the baby because I hadn't even told Jimmy I thought there might be one, and I knew Sarah didn't want hers and it just... It wasn't the right time, not for any of us. And then after I lost him, I couldn't tell anybody, didn't want anybody but Jimmy to know. She pulled away. "I knew you guys would be all worried and look at me differently, and I didn't want that. Because yeah, it sucks, but it was probably for the best, and there's another time that will be better." She let out a shaky breath. "I want my baby to have all its grandparents, and right now... I don't think I could handle all of this and worry about a baby." She turned away from Ziva, fighting to keep the tears from spilling over.
"Abby, it is all right to grieve," Ziva said, her voice soft. "Just because you can say now that it would not have worked does not mean you did not want it." She paused. "I cannot know how you feel. My experience is too different. My situation, it is different. But I do not think you can expect that you will feel a certain way." She hesitated again. "You and Jimmy, I know you wanted a baby. You might not want it now, but you do want it."
Abby nodded and turned back, wrapping Ziva into a giant Abby-hug. She felt Ziva's arms wrap around her loosely. "We did, I mean we do. And we did. And I was an idiot and didn't tell him what I thought, because I didn't want him to worry while Timmy and I were in Mexico to do that forensics training, and then everything happened, and now I don't know what to do. And that Reynosa woman could have taken me, hurt me and the baby. And I knew I needed to tell him, and then it was too late and there was no baby to tell him about but I still had to and it hurt, a lot. And it hurt me and it hurt him and we still want a baby, but I'm afraid of what will happen next time." Abby squeezed even tighter.
"You cannot know," Ziva said. "You might be fine next time. This was special circumstances, no?"
"No. I mean, yes." She nodded and wiped her eyes, careful not to smear her eyeliner.
Ziva pulled back and put her hands on Abby's shoulders. "I have learned many things in my life. Growing up, I dealt with many things other children did not. It was the same in Mossad. I watch McGee and Sarah sometimes, and I wonder if Ari and I might have had a relationship like that if we had grown up in a different family, in a different country." She hesitated. "I do not know what it is like to lose a baby you want. I do not know if I will ever know that." She paused again. "You can know something would not have worked, know the timing would be better in a month or a year, and still regret that it did not take place." She rubbed her hands along Abby's arms before removing them. "You can not want to talk about it and still lean on your friends for their support. We are here. It is what family does."
Abby nodded and pulled Ziva into another hug. "Thanks, Ziva!" She released Ziva and turned back to her computer, typing away. "I know you don't like talking about your Mossad days and everything, so I really appreciate that you're OK talking to me about it." Her fingers faltered. "I just... Gibbs is in danger, and Sarah's in trouble, and I don't want to put any more burden on anybody else."
Ziva shook her head. "We each have our challenges, Abby, and we face them together. That is how we work. We are here for you, and we know you are here for us."
Abby nodded and felt a little better. Not a lot, but for the first time, she thought things might work out OK, if they could all just stop the secrets and work together.
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Gibbs walked into the elaborate villa, past Jason Paul Dean standing guard in the doorway, and sat down on the couch, not caring that his dirty clothes were probably marking up the pale couch.
"You going to make me suffer, use a murder charge against me?" He was skeptical, knew he had to convince Paloma Reynosa whatever scheme she had in mind wouldn't work. "Thing about being a cop, there's this thing called burden of proof."
Reynosa looked at him. "You want evidence? An investigation performed by your own people that conclusively puts your signature on the crime." Her smile was the smile of a viper, and Gibbs felt the trap beginning to close. She was going for sneaky; he needed to play it straight, count on his reputation and the facts of the case to get him through this.
"Show me," he said. "Bring it out in the open. Prove to me that I'm guilty of a crime." He knew even with Abby's forensics there was a hole someplace, enough to keep him out of jail. "I know something about convictions. I get 'em, and I got 'em."
"I don't care to put you on trial, Gibbs."
He knew this wasn't altruism on her part. She had another reason behind her plot to snare him. He waited to see what she had in mind.
"It may not suit my needs to kill you, but it might be useful to kill everyone you ever met." She looked over her glass at him, and he forced his expression to stay impassive. He was suddenly glad Abby had lost the baby, knew none of them would be able to handle the grief if Reynosa went after her, killed them both. As he pushed away those thoughts, Dean dropped a package wrapped in duct tape on the table and handed a piece of cloth to Reynosa. As he bent over, Gibbs could see his own SIG in Dean's belt.
"Starting with your friend Mike." Reynosa unrolled the handkerchief to reveal a finger, the end ragged and bloody. "Your former mother-in-law comes next."
He made himself stay flippant. "You doing me favors now?"
"And then your coworkers."
He breathed a sigh of relief that she considered them coworkers. She didn't realized just how close they all were. If she knew the team was family to him, knew the McGees were family, none of them would be safe.
"If I must, I promise to personally visit Pennsylvania and shoot your father in the head. That would complete the circle."
Gibbs forced himself not to react. If he'd wanted the circle complete, he would have killed Paloma all those years ago, not her father. He wasn't sure she understood that.
"It will start small." Paloma looked at him. "Just make sure this package is delivered." She paused. "How many more lives are your convictions worth?"
Gibbs knew he needed to take the package back, needed to get back on his home soil and to figure a way out of this that wouldn't endanger anybody else. He did not want any member of the team on his conscience. Abby's baby already weighed heavily enough, knowing that this stress probably triggered her miscarriage. It stopped here. Now. Before anyone else he loved got hurt.
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Tim spent the day shuttling between Vance's office and MTAC, trying to track what was going on in Mexico. He knew Tony and Ziva wouldn't come back without Gibbs — that was a given. He just didn't know if all three would make it back alive. Alejandro had said he had a tip about Gibbs' whereabouts and had gone out to raid the headquarters of the Reynosa cartel, but then he had disappeared. Something about the way he had organized it made Tim think Alejandro knew more than he was telling.
His insistence about Abby's report was another red flag. The apparent capture of a U.S. federal agent and the shooting or abduction of a retired agent should have been his top priority, not a report on a 20-year-old cold case.
Tim decided he could take a short break and headed down to the lab.
Abby was there, working at her desk.
"Hey, Abs," Tim said. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Can you forgive me for the other day?"
"Forgive you for what?" Abby turned to look at him, her pigtail brushing his nose.
"For yelling at you about Sarah?" He sighed. "I was mad at Josh and scared for Sarah, and you were the only person handy to yell at. If I'd known-"
She shook her head. "You didn't, Tim. Don't worry about it." She gave him a small smile. "We've all been keeping lots of secrets, and it's coming back to bite all of us in the butt. How about we just promise no more secrets?"
Tim tightened his arms around her shoulders. "No more secrets," he said. "As soon as Tony and I figure out what to do about Sarah's request, we'll tell you guys. Well, as soon as we tell her."
"Deal," Abby said. "And the next time I think I'm pregnant, I'm telling you guys. I'd rather tell you and be wrong or tell you and then tell you we lost it than have something like this happen."
"Just don't tell us all the gory details," Tim said. "I am perfectly happy knowing I will never wake up to my partner having morning sickness."
Abby giggled. "Tony's probably happy, too. As weak as your stomach gets, you'd be pushing him out of the way to puke with him."
Tim rested his chin on her shoulder. "Abby, I'm worried about them." He knew she was going for light, but he couldn't help it. "What if they don't all come back?"
"Positive thoughts, McGee." She sounded stern. "They will come back, and we will get through this."
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That night, Tony watched Gibbs sleep in the back of the C130. His face was dirty, his shirt smeared with grit. Gibbs leaned against the steel wall, apparently asleep. Tony wasn't so sure, but he decided to let Gibbs keep up the illusion, at least until he was ready to talk.
The back of the cargo plane was cold, and he spread a blanket across him and Ziva. They both were silent, though they exchanged glances. He knew she was wondering many of the same things he was.
When Gibbs opened his eyes and looked at them, Tony decided he'd been patient enough.
"You didn't find Franks?" When Gibbs said nothing, he asked louder. "I said, you didn't find Mike Franks?"
"I heard you." Gibbs wasn't giving anything away.
"So you just don't want to talk about it?" There were days Tony wants to kick Gibbs' ass for playing lone wolf, and this was definitely one of them. Sure, he'd said he didn't want any of them to risk their careers over this, but Vance was pretty clear that if it was something he didn't have to notice, he wasn't going to. That left them some wiggle room, if Gibbs would just stop being a stubborn bastard and cooperate.
"Bartender said Franks' family left town the day before."
Tony was glad Layla and Amira were safe. "So he knew something was coming." Tony was pretty sure he knew where the warning had come from. Rule 44 didn't just apply to Abby. "What else did you find out?"
"Federales got tired of me asking questions."
"Why didn't you just tell them you were with the task force?" Tony thought he knew, but he wanted to find out for sure.
"Because," Gibbs said. "I wasn't."
"Huh." One theory confirmed. Wonder what else he could coax out of Gibbs. "Still, I would have thought it would take the whole Mexican government to kick you out."
Before Gibbs could reply, the pilot came on the intercom to warn them of turbulence. Tony and Ziva threaded their arms through the webbing to secure themselves, but Gibbs just settled back and propped up a foot on the closest crate.
"You get held up at customs, use my name." He looked at Tony, then Ziva.
"Where are you going to be?" He knew he wouldn't get an answer, and Gibbs didn't surprise him.
"Left a mess I gotta clean up."
Tony turned to Ziva. "That's 45, basically." They looked back at Gibbs, but he didn't say another word.
