Chapter 10

"Well... Mr. Knight, you're in quite a bit of trouble," Gibbs said as he sat down across from the man who had attacked Tim.

There was a glimmer of dismay in Knight's eyes as he realized that they had identified him. The glimmer was gone quickly, but Gibbs caught it. He had convinced Det. Dorn that he could handle the interrogation, and he was determined to get the whole story out of him, even though it was incredibly tempting to let Ziva at him for what he'd done to Tim.

"I didn't hurt anyone. For all you know, I just found that guy in the shed," Knight said.

"Except that you were pointing a gun at him."

"It's not a safe neighborhood."

"Yeah, full of drug dealers," Gibbs said. "Like you."

Knight scoffed at him. "Prove it. I've never been convicted."

"Well, there is the whole part where you invaded my agent's home, assaulted him, abducted him, and then attempted to kill him multiple times."

Knight said nothing.

"You see, Mr. Knight, you might have a clean record right now, but you won't after we bring you up on all those charges. Plus, the man you assaulted was a federal agent. That means extra penalties. You are in big trouble and that's just because of the stuff we know right now. Agent McGee is prepared to testify against you. Since you were planning on killing him, you..."

"You don't know that!"

"There's one thing you have going for you, Knight."

Knight rolled his eyes, as if he'd heard that before. Gibbs smiled slightly and slid the enlarged photo across the desk.

"This is what you were wanting from Agent McGee and guess what, he wasn't looking for you. He didn't realize who was in the picture, but because of what you did, we know it now."

There was another glimmer of frustration that was quickly hidden.

"And?" Knight asked, belligerently.

"Horvath."

Instantly, Gibbs could see Knight clam up.

"I don't know who you're talking about," he said.

"You're with him in this photo."

"I don't know who you're talking about," he said again.

"You're willing to go down for this guy? Because you will."

"I don't know who you're talking about," Knight said, for a third time.

Gibbs saw how dangerous Horvath must be. Knight wasn't doing this out of loyalty, but out of fear of retribution if he talked. Now, he was getting at why the BPD wanted him so bad. Someone powerful enough that prison was preferable to someone like Knight was a dangerous criminal to allow to roam freely. They had Knight, but he was the small fish. Letting him go was a bad idea, but they needed to track down Horvath more than they needed to get Knight.

Gibbs kept telling himself that when it was clear that Knight was responsible for Tim's injuries. He wanted Knight to go down. Hard. Then, he thought of something.

"You know, there's more than one person involved in this. How much do you trust your partner?"

Another quick glimmer. This time it was worry which was good to see. They hadn't had a chance to talk to the other man, but Knight wasn't sure what would come of their talking to him and he had just verified that they had indeed been working together.

"Keep in mind that the one who talks first gets a deal. The other one goes down."

Then, Gibbs got up and walked out. Dorn met him in the hall.

"You see why we want Horvath?" he asked. "Someone like Knight only cares about himself, and it's safer for him to say nothing and go to prison... because of Horvath."

"I see. What about the other guy?"

"Last I checked, he was still groggy and not talking much. Your agent hit him hard."

"Who is he?"

"Jerry Donaldson. He's a weasel who's for sale to the highest bidder."

"You think he'd talk?"

"I don't know. He's never been associated with Horvath before. He's around but not really in on the big stuff. Until now."

"If Knight isn't talking, then, we need to get someone else to talk."

"How much do you think he'll know?"

"Enough that we can scare Knight more than Horvath does."

"Ah. I see." Dorn nodded. "It's worth a shot. He might not be as afraid of Horvath as Knight is. And these two guys aren't exactly geniuses."

Gibbs smiled a little.

"You can deal with Donaldson?"

"Yeah, he's no heavy."

"We'll keep working on getting what we can on Horvath and Knight."

"All right. Sounds good."

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

As Tim felt more aware and more like his brain was actually functioning normally, he became more aware that it was a little awkward with Tony being there all day long. Part of it was that Tony just wasn't acting like Tony. He was far too concerned. It had happened every so often but not for years and Tim just wasn't sure how to take it. In addition, as he was thinking more, he was thinking about how he could avoid explaining just why he happened to have been where he was taking pictures. Tony had been one of the most vocal about him not writing again, and this had happened because Tim had wanted to start writing again.

Even when it's not about a real person, it seems to affect real people. I haven't even started writing anything yet. I don't even know the plot and still it affected people around me. Maybe Tony was right about it. Maybe I should just give up. Maybe this is the universe telling me to stop doing this.

But Tim didn't feel like he could legitimately mention this without Tony jumping all over him again or worse, saying nothing and just storing it up for later.

And while he was feeling better, he still didn't feel able to focus on more than one thing at a time and the cause of his current predicament was foremost on his mind so he didn't really feel like talking.

But Tony wasn't talking either, and Tim wasn't sure why because Tony always talked. He was almost never silent unless he was working.

And he wasn't.

Tony did turn on the TV, but Tim was just wondering why Tony wasn't talking at all and he was wondering if he should say something about it.

By the late afternoon, Tim was feeling alert enough to think through the idea of saying something and decide that it needed to be done.

But what should he say?

"Tony?" he said, annoyed at the fact that he couldn't enunciate like he normally would.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't said much today."

Tony looked at him in surprise.

"Did you want me to?" he asked.

Tim furrowed his brow and then stopped doing that because it made his face hurt.

"Do you ever care about what I want?"

Thankfully, Tony smiled a little at that.

"Not often, no, but you are in a hospital bed at the moment and you didn't seem to want to talk."

"I'm surprised you let that stop you," Tim said, smiling a little himself. ...and then stopping smiling because it hurt his face.

"Chalk it up to momentary weakness."

Something just didn't seem quite right at the moment. Tim wasn't sure precisely what it was, but Tony wasn't reacting right. His brow furrowed again... for only a second because it hurt to move his face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You seem... wrong... or something."

Tony's brow furrowed in confusion and he didn't have to worry about it hurting his face so it stayed that way.

"Why?"

"I don't know... but it's..." Tim tried to think through what was wrong. "You're... too worried."

"Am I?" Tony asked.

"Yes!" Now that he'd said it, Tim knew that was what was weird. "You're worried and I'm... well, my face still hurts... and my brain isn't quite right, but I'm okay. So... why are you so worried?"

Tony looked uncomfortable at the question and that made Tim worry.

"Tony... is there something else wrong with me?"

"What?"

"The doctor said I'd be fine. Was he lying?"

Tony laughed a little. "No, McGee. As far as I know, you're going to be fine."

"Then..."

Tim was interrupted by Gibbs and Ziva coming into the room.

"How are you feeling, McGee?" Ziva asked.

Tim tried to smile, but it hurt and so it only lasted for a second.

"Terrible, but I can think now. I probably wasn't last night."

"No. Not much. Or at least, it was not normal thinking," Ziva said.

"My face still hurts."

"I am not surprised."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Gibbs interrupted.

"Yeah, sort of," Tim said. "My mouth isn't moving right all the time."

"You willing to try?"

"Yeah. You got him, though? I'm remembering that right?"

"We got him. We know who he is."

"We just need to get him to talk about his employer," Ziva added.

"Oh."

"Why were you taking pictures in Baltimore?" Gibbs asked.

Tim thought about his excitement about writing again and since it didn't matter what his motivating factor so long as it wasn't actually about finding criminals, he decided that, with Tony, Ziva and Gibbs in the room, he had no desire to explain the real reason. So he lied.

"I just like to take pictures sometimes. Since I had a day off, it seemed like it would be fun to do some urban shots and just spend some time taking pictures."

"Why did you take pictures of the guys who were after you?"

Tim let out a breathless laugh and shook his head. "I didn't even realize they were in the shot until I had already taken it. The only reason I didn't just delete it was because they were far enough away that I figured I couldn't ever identify them anyway. It seemed pointless and the picture was good besides that. I decided to keep it. I didn't know that they were going to come after me!"

"What about later?"

"I came home and my apartment was trashed. I was worried and I started to turn around to make sure the door was closed... and he must have been right behind me because I didn't even hear him and he hit me. It wasn't his fist. It was a lot harder."

"Brass knuckles?" Gibbs suggested.

"Yes. Or at least, I saw that he had some later on."

"What happened?"

"He said he wanted to know why I was taking pictures of him and that he wanted me to give him the pictures I'd taken. Did you find them?"

"Yeah."

Tim took a breath. "I said that I had left them at NCIS and he said that I would be taking them there. I decided to play along and the other guy had a gun. He wasn't very careful so I grabbed it when he opened the door and I just started running."

"They didn't come after you?"

"They did. I hid in a dumpster. They didn't look there."

"Empty?"

"No. Full."

"Gross, Probie," Tony said. "No wonder you smelled bad."

"Yeah, but it kept me alive."

"It's been a full day and you called 911. Where have you been?"

"Honestly, I don't know for sure," Tim said. "All that time is kind of blurry in my mind. It's... I was just trying to hide and get away and... figure out some way to get help. I didn't dare ask anyone because I didn't know who was safe and who wasn't."

"Did you hit the guy in the shed?"

"Yeah. He found me and it was either shoot him or hit him."

"You did hit him very hard," Ziva said. "He is still not completely coherent."

"I wasn't trying to be nice."

"Clearly."

"No offense, but can I stop talking now? My face hurts still," Tim said.

Gibbs smiled a little. "Yeah. That's fine."

"Thanks," Tim said and sighed a little. "This really sucks."

"You did good, McGee," Gibbs said.

Tim tried to smile, but it hurt. "If only I'd ducked."

"I'll bet he could have swung at you twice," Tony said.

"Probably."

"Just one other question," Gibbs said.

"What?"

"Could you identify them if you saw them again?"

Tim nodded. "Definitely."

"Okay. Then, you can relax and we'll keep working on it."

"Thanks." Tim leaned back and let his eyes close again.

There was a pat on his shoulder and then he heard Ziva and Gibbs leave the room. He thought about trying again to get at whatever was bothering Tony, but he decided that he'd wait and give his face a rest.

And he was still tired, so he let himself fall asleep again.

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

Tony sighed a little as Tim slept. He was definitely alert enough to notice things again but Gibbs' entrance had been distracting enough for the moment, and Tony hoped that it would let Tim forget he what he had been asking about. Since he was obviously recovering, there was no reason to talk about Tony's worry. The worry was pretty much over so...

There was a mumbling from the bed and Tim tensed for a moment before relaxing back into sleep once more.

Maybe it would just be best if they all just forgot about it.

And since Tim was currently sleeping, he could go back to watching some sports on TV. That was enough and once Abby got there, he'd go home.