Gibbs had been awake for just a few minutes when the door opened, and Abby walked in. It had been a few days since he first woke up.
"Hey, Gibbs. How are you doing?" Abby asked.
"I'm good, Abs," he said. He was doing better. In fact, the doctors wanted him to start walking around soon, and he couldn't be happier. The sooner he could get around again, the sooner he could get out of the hospital and start looking for Jenny. "Shouldn't you be at NCIS by now."
Abby shrugged. "Who cares if I'm a little late. McGee might whine a little, but he'll get over it."
Gibbs pointed to the chair next to his bed. "Sit down, Abby."
Abby immediately went over and sat down.
"Where do you get off treating McGee with such little respect? I've heard it more than once since I woke up, and the others have told me some things. You know, you're lucky he hasn't fired you, or at least suspended you," Gibbs said. Tony had told him about one incident right after he'd been admitted to the hospital. Abby refused to leave, even after Tim ordered it. He had to threaten to suspend her if she didn't return to NCIS. That incident alone was grounds for disciplinary action.
Abby scoffed unconcerned. "He can't fire me."
"Abby, he can fire me," Gibbs told her. Tim was the director. That made him Gibbs' boss too, and if he gave him cause, Tim could fire him, which meant he could definitely do the same with Abby.
"That's not true," Abby argued.
"Yeah, it is. Do you think that because Jenny and Morrow gave me more leeway than other agents that means they didn't have the power to fire me? Because it doesn't. It just means they knew me well enough to know I'd get things done. If I'd crossed the line, they would've fired me because they were the directors, just like Tim is now," Gibbs explained.
"But he's not really the director. He's only doing it until someone else can," Abby said.
"How long he's doing it is irrelevant. He is the director until Jenny comes back, and he has the same powers she does. This is his agency until she comes back. You need to get that," Gibbs said firmly.
"No, that's not true. If Jenny still hasn't been found by the time you're better, you'll take over," Abby said.
"Why would I do that, Abby? Trying to fix something that aint broke is counterproductive. Not to mention that I have no interest in running NCIS even for a short time. That job is half bureaucracy and red tape, which I want nothing to do with, but I understand why those things exist," Gibbs said. He'd never had any intention of being director. Even doing it for the few days he had when Jenny was away drove him crazy. He certainly wasn't going to do it for who knew how long while she was in danger. His place was in the field trying to find her.
"Well, you can't leave McGee in the position," Abby said in disbelief.
"Sure I can. He's been doing it almost a month already and NCIS is thriving. He's doing fine. He's built for it, I'm not," Gibbs said.
"But you'd be answering to him. That has to bother you," Abby said.
"Why would it? Because I trained him? Because he worked under me? So did Jenny. You think I have a problem with taking orders from her?" Gibbs asked. Well, he did sometimes, but he would've have the same problem no matter who it was. "We're getting off track here. Tim doesn't need your crap. He's going through hell right now.
"But it's his fault this happened," she said.
Gibbs glared fiercely. "Abby, I better never hear you same that damned crap again!"
"It's true! If he'd told someone…"
"You don't know what would've happened! Jenny might have already been dead by now. He might be dead by now. The choice he made was to keep himself and his loved ones alive. You have no business judging him!" Gibbs said sharply.
"Gibbs, you can't be okay with all of this. He lied to us all for years. He had a whole different life."
"So did I, Abby. Before I joined NCIS I had a wife and child, and I kept that information a secret because it was private. Yet, you didn't get upset with me for it," Gibbs reminded her.
"That's different. It's…"
"If you're gonna it's different because it's me, don't. That doesn't make it different. It's exactly the same. I didn't tell you because it wasn't your business. Tim kept his secrets for the same reason, with the added reason that it put anyone who knew about it in danger," Gibbs said.
"But it was cruel. He lied to Jenny for years. He let her think he was dead," Abby said.
"Who the hell are you to call him cruel? You have no idea what he went through. Abby, he lost everything. His whole world literally was ripped away from him. He had to watch as every single member of his immediate family was murdered one by one right in front of him! Can you even imagine having to witness something like that as a young child? That alone should've broken him, but that's not where his hell stopped. He was tortured for God only knows how long, surviving probably because of nothing more than pure dumb luck. He had to rebuild his life from scratch! You think you could've done that? Because I don't know that I could've," Gibbs said honestly. Most would say that he was a pretty strong person, but he wasn't sure he could live through what McGee had. He barely survived losing his wife and child.
Abby really didn't have an answer for Gibbs' question. She knew what McGee went through was awful, but she still felt he was wrong for lying. "But he still should have told people."
"You don't get to decide that until you find yourself in his position. Maybe things would've turned out better if he'd told someone, maybe not. No one will ever know, but I know that Tim the best that he could. He was a child that was stripped of almost everything but his life, and to keep that, he decided that he had to give up the little that he had left, including his own name. There was no one there to decide that there was a better alternative. He was alone! You do not get to decide that how he dealt with that is wrong. I love you, Abs, but I'm not on your side here. This is one time where I will take his side over yours," Gibbs said.
Abby frowned for a minute before getting up and storming out of the room.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Jenny kept staring at the picture of Tim McGee. She'd barely taken her eyes off of it since it had been given to her. It was ironic. For years she'd been barely able to look at the young man, but now she couldn't stop looking at him. She was looking for some kind of proof that this was all a trick.
It wasn't as if Jenny had a problem with Tim McGee being her nephew. It was the opposite actually. If she allowed herself to believe it, would make her incredibly happy, and that would be shattered when she found out that he wasn't Jasper. It would be like her nephew died all over again. She didn't think she could handle that, and she was sure that was Acosta's intention. He liked torturing people.
The more Jenny sat with things though, the less sure she was. The bag of doubt grew more and more. It wasn't just the physical similarities between Jasper and Tim McGee, though that was more than enough to create doubt. It also wasn't just that McGee was a lot like Jasper personality wise. Again, though, that raised questions. Jasper was smart as hell. He skipped a grade because he was advanced, just as McGee was advanced. Both were very kind, to the point where some might consider it a flaw. There was also the fact that Jenny had witnessed behavior from McGee that could be considered consistent with someone who'd gone through trauma.
Jenny could remember a couple of instances. The one that stood out the most was something she'd actually spoken with McGee about. He was always in the building early, many times before her, and she knew that Gibbs didn't send his team home until quite late when they had active cases, which meant there were at least some days that McGee couldn't have gotten much sleep if he was in that early the next day. She'd spoken to him about it, he admitted he didn't sleep much.
Another incident that Jenny could remember was in the parking garage. She had startled him once when he thought he was alone in the garage. He had immediately gone for his weapon. Of course, that could be easily explained away. He was an agent. It could've just been instinct from his training, which was what she chalked it up to when it happened. However, all of it together was concerning. It led to more doubt.
"Could you have been right in front of me for years?" Jenny asked as she stared at the picture. But if it was true, why didn't he tell her? The answer came to her almost instantly. This was why. The situation she found herself. He was protecting himself and her. Jenny was far from naïve. She knew that if Jasper had lived, it wasn't because Acosta let him. It was because he got away from him or someone saved him. Acosta didn't let witnesses live. Jenny's twelve-year-old nephew wouldn't have been the first if he could've helped it.
Of course, this was all if Tim McGee was Jasper, and Jenny was still not ready to accept that. However, it was getting harder and harder to refute it.
Jenny soon heard the door unlock. She turned just in time to see someone come in. It wasn't the same men she was used to seeing though. She was now looking into a face she hated above anyone else, and there were quite a few people she hated, but not like him. For the first time, she was meeting Sebastian Acosta."
Acosta smirked as he moved closer to his prisoner. "Hello, Director Shepard. I see you're enjoying my gift."
Jenny unconsciously balled her empty hand into a fist. If she was free and had a weapon, she'd kill this man. She meant that. She wouldn't even be able to stop herself, not that she'd want to if she could. She felt such rage for this evil man that there was nothing that could stop her from killing him if she physically could.
Acosta laughed. "I see you know who I am."
"The piece of garbage that murdered my brother and his family!" Jenny snarled.
"Well, your brother brought that on himself, didn't he? He knew what would happen if he took me on. Perhaps he should've thought about his family first," Acosta said with absolutely no remorse.
It took absolutely everything Jenny had inside of her not to react, because she knew that that was what he wanted. He wanted to see her rage. He would get off on it, and she refused to give him what he wanted.
"Besides, I didn't kill them all, did I? You have proof of that right in your hand," Acosta said as he pointed to the picture in Jenny's hand.
"This is proof of nothing. All this is, is a picture of a man who looks an awful lot like my nephew. I already knew that," Jenny said
"Yes, you did. You looked in his face every day for years. Did you truly never consider it? Didn't you ever once look at him ask yourself if it was possible?" Acosta asked.
Truthfully, Jenny had exactly once, right after she saw McGee for the first time. For just a second, she forgot that it was almost impossible and thought that it could be Jasper she was looking at. However, that didn't last long before logic kicked in, and she realized she just had the bad luck of having a look-alike of her nephew under her command. "I won't play your games. My nephew is dead."
"But he isn't. Look at him. He was right under your nose the whole time. He looks just like he used to, only older. He cleans up nice, doesn't he? Can you imagine what he went through? Do you know the things I did to him? It was fun breaking him, even more so than breaking his parents," Acosta taunted.
Again, Jenny knew he wanted a reaction from her. This time, she gave him one, but not the one he wanted from her. She smiled, because there was one thing she knew for absolute certain. Whoever he was, the man they were discussing was not broken.
Jenny turned the photo towards Acosta. "You think you broke this man? You and I have different definitions of broken then. This man is as far from broken as it gets. He's a federal agent that has dedicated his life to stopping people like you, and if he is who you say he is, his father would be proud. If your goal was to break him, you failed."
Jenny felt a sliver of satisfaction when she saw Acosta's smirk disappear and his face turn cold with fury. He apparently didn't like being accused of being a failure, or he just didn't like that he failed to get the reaction he was hoping for. It was probably a combination of both.
It didn't take Acosta long to control his fury and smirk again. "Well, then I'll just have to try again. I'm sure it won't be hard. He's probably already torturing himself with your disappearance. Well, maybe not. No one seems to mind that you're gone. There's no indication that anyone is looking for you. Perhaps Little Jasper doesn't care," Acosta said.
Jenny's only reaction was to scoff. Acosta's words didn't surprise her in the slightest. Of course, there was no public knowledge of her kidnapping. As the director of a federal agency, she knew how things worked. They would hush everything up to avoid creating a panic or tipping off her abductor. They were looking. It was just being kept quiet. "Your games will not work on me, you son of a bitch."
Acosta chuckled before turning and heading out of the room.
Jenny watched him leave. She wanted to ask about Gibbs, but she didn't trust a word that monster said. He would probably just use her concern to torture her. She would just have to keep hoping her was okay. She would also have to hope for McGee's safety, because no matter who he was, Acosta clearly intended to use him, which meant he was in danger.
