By 7pm that night, the team had hit a multitude of dead ends. Abby had just received some DNA evidence from the original attack and was running it against some trace evidence from the note, trying to find any possible link between the current evidence and Trey's fraternity buddies. The rest of the team decided to grab some dinner and regroup at Tony's place.
The scene around the table was quite different from the night before. There was no table full of laughing, happy friends eating pasta and drinking wine. This time, it was greasy burgers and caffeine-laced sodas, and the group was limited to five: Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Ziva and Jess. Abby was there too, if you counted the video feed currently on McGee's computer.
"And all that means what, Abby?" Gibbs said, in a tired voice.
"It means I got nothing, Bossman," Abby said in a defeated tone. "Sorry Tony. Sorry Jess."
"OK, Abs," Gibbs said. "We're going to check on a couple more things over here. Hang tight for another hour or so, okay?"
"Roger that," Abby said, with a salute. The connection was severed.
As the five people around the table were looking at each other, trying to figure out where to go next, a spinning icon appeared on the screen. It said, "Open me" and was accompanied by a smiley face with a halo over it. Gibbs looked at the assembled group then moved the cursor and double-clicked. A new image replaced the icon – it was the station logo for WOSU-TV at the University of Ohio. An announcer's voice said, "We interrupt the program you are not watching to bring you this special presentation." The logo faded out, and a video screen appeared. Gibbs clicked on the "Play" button.
"Oh my God," Tony said, as they all watched what was unfolding on the computer screen. It was news footage of the original rape trial over 18 years ago. A much younger Jess was being hounded by press as a much younger Tony tried to shield her. As Trey was being led away by a bailiff and two guards, he was screaming at her. "You'll pay for this, you little bitch!" he yelled as he was being dragged off. "He can't protect you forever!"
Tony instinctively reached out and took Jess' hand.
The footage abruptly ended, and was replaced with an extreme close-up of Trey's face. This was a much more current – possibly live – feed, judging by Trey's scruffy appearance and his close-cropped prison haircut.
"Hi Jessie," he taunted. "Guess who?"
"It's fun looking at old home movies, isn't it?" Trey continued. "I've got some snapshots to share too." He held up a mug shot of himself taken the day he went to prison, the tracks from Jess' nails still visible on his face. The next photo was of Jess – it had been taken at the hospital the night of the attack. The photo showed a badly beaten woman, her face covered with bruises. One eye was nearly swollen shut, with red replacing the normal white of the eye. Behind the photo, they heard Trey's voice. "I can make you look like this again," he said, in a breathy voice laced with excitement and anticipation.
It took Jess two tries to pull away from Tony. She ran to the sink and threw up the meal that she'd just had. Gibbs pulled out his gun and did a quick survey of the apartment; Ziva followed his lead and checked the front and back yards and the perimeter. McGee tried to backtrack the connection and trace the source of the signal. Tony's focus stayed on Jess.
She stood at the sink, taking deep breaths. She turned, and wiped her mouth with a towel. "Well …" she said, shakily. "That was fun."
Both Tony and Gibbs moved towards her, but she waved them off.
"I'm going to go … um … rinse out my mouth," Jess said, as she headed up the hall. And then, talking to herself, her voice took on a sarcastic tone. "Why, hello Trey," she said under her breath, "Lovely to see you. No, I haven't seen your face in my nightmares at all for the past 18 years, why do you ask?" She slammed the bathroom door behind her.
"What does she do for a living?" Ziva asked, suddenly.
Tony was still looking up the hall. "She's an operations specialist," he said, turning back to Ziva. "She gets stationed wherever they need her, for all types of military and government ops. She monitors troop movements, does resource allocation, battle and disaster scenarios – anything strategic. Her current gig is working up in Alaska with NOAA."
"The man with the ark?" Ziva asked, with a confused expression.
"Different Noah," said Tony.
"NOAA stands for 'National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association'," said McGee. "They predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources."
"You reading that off a website, Probie?" Tony said, with a small smile.
"Um … no," McGee said. "I did a position paper on them once."
"Why do you ask?" Gibbs said, trying to get the conversation back to its original point.
"Well," said Ziva, indicating the computer screen. "It's quite clear that this is all going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe she should stay with friends until …"
Tony cut her off. "She IS staying with friends, Ziva." He glared at her. "She's safe here, and she's stronger than you think."
"If you say so," Ziva said, dismissively.
"I say so," Tony challenged.
"Kids…" Gibbs said, with frustration and fatigue lacing his voice. "That's enough."
"Look, Ziva," Tony said with a sigh. "She's had a rough couple of weeks, OK? Just … I don't know … cut her a little slack."
"I'm just saying," Ziva continued, stubbornly, "that maybe the whole investigation would be easier if she …"
Gibbs was the one to cut her off this time. "Enough," he said again. He looked at Ziva. "Eighteen years ago, Jess was victimized by someone she trusted, and now the dirtbag has come back to finish what he started. Just because she's handling that differently than you would, Ziva, doesn't mean she's not capable of handling it at all."
Ziva mumbled something under her breath in Hebrew.
"Care to translate, Officer David?" Gibbs said, pointedly.
"It's an old Israeli proverb," said Jess, walking back in from the hallway. "'Never dis the boss' girlfriend.'"
"Dis?" McGee said, with a confused look.
Jess shrugged. "I paraphrased."
She looked at Ziva, who suddenly found it necessary to look down at her hands. Gibbs' face showed a very slight smile.
"How're ya doing?" Tony asked, looking up at Jess.
"I'm good," she said, unconvincingly.
"Liar," Tony said gently, before turning his attention to Gibbs. "So …," he said. "What's the plan?"
"It's clear that Trey is nearby," Gibbs said. "We know he's been here, both personally and virtually. The personal evidence didn't turn anything up; McGee, do what you can to see if he left any virtual footprints behind."
"On it," McGee said, as he pulled the laptop to him and continued typing.
"Tony and I'll head over to GW," Gibbs said. "They have a chapter of the same frat there. Maybe Trey stopped by to say hello … use a computer … borrow some equipment. It would be a safe place for him to go, and he really wouldn't have to worry about being recognized. Most of the guys in the frat would have been in kindergarten when this first happened."
"Oh … thanks for THAT," Jess said, with a tired laugh and a mock-hurt expression. Gibbs blushed slightly, much to the amusement of everyone else.
"Ziva," Gibbs continued, "do a more thorough check of the perimeter and see if anything looks hinky. If you find anything, get it to Abby. And …"
"Yes," Ziva said. "I know. Stay with Jess."
"Look at the bright side," Gibbs said, as he and Tony headed out the door. "If Trey shows up, you have my permission to shoot him."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Two hours later, Tony and Gibbs called from the University. No one had seen Trey – at least, no one at the frat house or in the computer labs. Ziva reported that McGee had not been able to run a trace – the signal kept bouncing back to an unused ISP in Ocean City. She and McGee had done a full sweep of the apartment and had found a few things out of place – but it was just as likely to be Tony's neighbor's cat as it was Trey. McGee had taken what they'd found back to Abby's lab, where he also planned to try the trace again, given the additional resources at the NCIS offices.
Jess and Ziva had spent a few moments staring silently at each other in the living room before Jess simply decided to go to bed. She'd been in Tony's room since McGee left.
"OK," Gibbs said, after taking that all in. "There's nothing else we can do tonight. You can go home once Tony gets there. Back in the office at 0700." Gibbs snapped his phone shut.
Ten minutes later, the door to Tony's apartment opened. Ziva was eager to leave. It had been a long day for everyone, and she was tired. She came around the corner of the entryway, actually happy to see her partner for a change. "That was quick," she said. She never saw the man at the door or the gun he was holding. She did, however, feel it when the butt of the gun connected with the side of her head. She was just coming to twenty minutes later when Tony ran in the open apartment door. He checked on Ziva and then ran to his room. It was empty.
At that moment, Tony's cellphone rang. He snapped it open. "DiNozzo!" he practically yelled into the phone.
There was a short chuckle and then, a taunting voice. "I told her you couldn't protect her forever," Trey's unmistakable voice said from the other end of the line. "Do you know where your Jessie is?"
"Trey," Tony began, not sure whether to threaten or plead.
"Save it, Special Agent DiNozzo," Trey said, over-enunciating every syllable of his name. "This is my game now. Check your e-mail at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. And don't worry," Trey said, with an overly-solicitous tone. "I'll tuck Jess in tonight." Then, he hung up.
Tony turned and threw his phone against the wall, barely missing Ziva as she came into the room, gun drawn, blood still on the side of her face.
"Are you alright?" Tony asked, looking over at her with concern.
"I'm sorry, Tony," Ziva said quietly. "I really am."
"Don't apologize, Ziva," Tony said absently, as he sat on the bed and picked up Jess' phone to call Gibbs. "It's a sign of weakness."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
A half-hour later, Gibbs was back at Tony's apartment. Ducky had been summoned to check on Ziva, and then had driven her home. McGee and Abby hadn't gotten anything from the items McGee had brought, and he was no closer to backtracing Trey's signal. Gibbs sent them home as well, telling them to be back at NCIS in the morning. They would be waiting for Trey's call.
It was nearly 3am by the time everything was cleaned up and everyone sent home. Tony and Gibbs were standing on the back deck, staring out into the darkness.
"You should get some sleep, Tony," Gibbs said, quietly. "We have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring."
"Nah – I'm okay," Tony said. "You go ahead, though. There are extra pillows and blankets in the hall closet, and the couch is actually pretty comfortable. I've fallen asleep there a hundred times."
There was a beat of silence.
"I guess it's really too late to get a good night's sleep now," Gibbs said, not moving from his spot next to Tony. "You want some coffee?"
Tony laughed a little. "Sure."
There were just two cups left in the coffeemaker from earlier. Gibbs brought them out to the deck, and he and Tony each sat in one of the Adirondack chairs.
They sat there silently, drinking coffee.
"You said before that Jess saved your life once," Gibbs said. "Tell me."
"It's a long story," Tony warned, still staring straight ahead.
Gibbs propped his feet up on the deck rail. "I got nowhere else to go."
