Everything seems to be slipping away from me and I am too tired to try and stop it.
LVIII. I have Not Failed. I've Just Found 10,000 Ways That Won't Work.
"GibbsGibbsGibbsGibbsGibbsGibbsGibbs!" Abby flung herself into Gibbs' arms as he ambled into her lab.
"Whoa, Abs. Calm down."
"I've got it, Gibbs. I know what car he's driving!" She beamed, pulling him over to her computer. "So, I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to park whatever car he's driving in the hospital car park, and he wasn't. I checked all of the car parks in the local area with CCTV, and found this." She pointed to the screen, a figure walking over to a car and getting in.
"Abs…?"
"Okay, so we can't see his face, but…" She clicked a few buttons. "Like we did with the security footage a few years back, we take the reflection and invert it, this time from the window on the drivers side door. Et voila! We have a face. Now, he knew what he was doing when he left the hospital, avoided all cameras but the main one at the front door, which would have been impossible to miss. I mean, the only way he could have missed it would be if he had climbed through the window, which would raise some eyebrows. The camera in this parking lot was hidden, there were no signs, no way of telling that the camera was even there without extensive research which would have flagged him up. But it's the only place without visible cameras within a reasonable distance of the hospital, so he used it. Matched the face with the one in the photo and the one leaving the hospital. I gave McGee the description and number plate so he could put out a BOLO."
"Where'd he get the car?"
"Rental place. Using a fake ID, under the name Yitzhak Haddad, he entered America and rented a black Mercedes S-Class Coupé. I don't know where he's staying, I tried to follow traffic cameras, but lost him. Sorry, Gibbs…I tried…"
"It's fine, Abby. You've done good. McGee will get something on the BOLO." He kissed her cheek and handed a Caf-Pow! over.
"Do you…do you know how they're doing?"
"They're getting through. Ziva signed Ichabod's discharge forms yesterday. Still living in the hospital room, though."
"They're not going to leave until Ada's allowed to leave." Abby nodded. "Have you been to see them?" He nodded and grunted in the affirmative. "Gibbs?"
"Yeah. They were sleeping." He shrugged and walked out, leaving Abby to shake her head.
"Shh, shh. No crying now. Let's leave Ima to sleep." Tony grimaced as he picked his son up, his shoulder still causing him grief. He quickly ducked out of the room – giving a nod to the agent guarding them – so as not to wake the woman sleeping in it. Ziva had been up half of the night with Adabelle, who had simply not wanted to be left alone away from her mother. Now that both Ada and Ziva were finally sleeping, he did not want to risk anything waking either of them up, even if he knew that Ichabod's crying would not disturb the younger of his two sleeping girls. It was about 0700hrs, and the corridors of the hospital were already buzzing with a lively hum of activity as doctors, nurses and orderlies went around on their daily jobs, and patients and family members wandered around, some lost, some tired, some scared, some sad, some relived. "Now, you can't be hungry again, 'cause you just had some of that yummy milk that your Ima gives you, and you can't need changing, because I literally just changed you, so what's all the fuss about, Mister?" Ichabod stared up at the source of the voice, his wide blue eyes doing their utmost to focus on his father, as his wails started to calm down. "Did you just want someone to talk to? Did you get bored of the four walls of our room? I did too." He wrinkled his nose and pulled a face. "But look, this place is more exciting." He adjusted the child slightly so he could see the boats painted on the walls of the corridor, despite the fact that his eyesight was still not strong enough to see the images. "Look at all those pretty colours. Y'know, I go on boats a lot, and so does your Ima. Grandpa Gibbs builds boats. Promise me one thing, Bod. Promise me that if you do ever start building boats, you'll always finish them. Never burn any of them. I think your Ima might make you promise that you'll never build a boat in the first place, but I don't think Grandpa Gibbs will give you a choice." Tony smirked at his son's wide eyes and serious expression, starting to move on down the corridor. He grinned at the nurse sat at the ward desk. "Morning Cathy."
"Agent DiNozzo, you should be in bed." She admonished, not without a small smile as she stood up and looked at the tiny boy in his arms. "He's doing well. Just be careful. We don't want him catching any nasty bugs – he's still very susceptible."
"I know. He was bored of our room. Too much like his mother. Get's fidgety when he's in the same place for too long, you know." He grinned again. "She thinks it makes her a bigger target. She's right, you know. And, I mean, the guy trying to kill me already knows which room I'm in, so it might be a good idea to move us to a different room. One with a bigger bed, maybe, and a sea view. Ooh, and a bathtub would be nice, a clawed tub, not one of those hideous things in the pokey little en suite in our room."
"This isn't a hotel, Agent DiNozzo." She laughed, shaking her head. "It is a good job I know you are joking."
"Wait, you thought I was joking? Hear that, Bod? Cathy thought I was joking. We weren't, were we Mister? No, we weren't."
"Bod? I do believe Agent David is going to flip out as soon as she hears you call him that." She sniggered as his face fell.
"Can you keep it a secret? How 'bout you, Bod? Think you can keep your nickname a secret?" He cooed slightly and Tony chuckled. "Sure you can. Don't know if I'll be able to though."
"We'll see what we can do about moving you into another room, but I simply don't think it is possible, Agent DiNozzo."
"Tony, please." He flashed a grin and the short, plump nurse rolled her eyes.
"Well, Tony, we shall see what we can do, but don't get your hopes up. We're very busy at the moment."
"Cathy, when d'you think we can all go home?" He whined.
She chuckled and shook her head, a sympathetic look passing her face. "That's up to when the doctors think Adabelle is ready to go home. You'll have to talk to them." She watched as he sighed and his shoulders slumped.
"I want to take my wife and children home, Cathy."
"I know you do." She smiled kindly watching as he nodded solemnly before walking back to the hospital room he and his family had been living in, talking to his son on the way back.
So, you know what I am really excited about? My 50th NCIS fiction! I now have 1 paragraph to write in the last chapter, two chapters to finish and three chapters to start. That is exciting. There is very little left to do now, really. That does of course not really mean anything, because it could take me anywhere from two weeks to eight months and up to write that. But it is getting there.
