Chapter 13

It was Wednesday morning, if barely, and DiNozzo hadn't been seen for more than forty-eight hours. Gibbs was ready to strangle the next person who hinted that the man might be dead. Even Ducky had started his 'we should be prepared' speech. Ziva kept giving him surreptitious worried looks, like she thought he was fooling himself. Abby was demanding constant reassurance that DiNozzo was still out there to find. He gave it willingly, but it didn't bespeak confidence on her part. Only McGee was with him one hundred percent, and that was part habit, part lack of experience.

DiNozzo senior had finally been persuaded to go to a room in the guest barracks. Gibbs couldn't decide if his apparent anxiety was really about image or if he used all of that to conceal his real feelings about his son. According to Jenny, he'd spent a fair amount of time babbling about how DiNozzo had shamed his family's name by getting thrown in prison, and how he was lowering himself by working for law enforcement. Even so, he hadn't slept in forty hours, he was ordering people to find his son, demanding results, and generally acting as if he gave a damn about Tony. Gibbs shook his head. It didn't really matter. What mattered was finding Tony, and finding him alive.

Wednesday passed in a blur. DiNozzo was getting worse and Peter was refusing to see it. Lola knew that Butch was ready to put a bullet in their captive's brain, and keeping an eye on him was driving her nuts. She spent much of the day pouring tea into DiNozzo, then helping him to the john. If he started needing a bedpan, she would quit.

Finally, she returned to the kitchen for a breather and found it empty. It was a relief, because every other time she'd gone down there, she'd found Butch just waiting to bitch about DiNozzo's continuing to breathe.

At half past seven, she heard a gunshot upstairs and looked up in shock. She grabbed the gun she kept handy and considered her options. Going upstairs didn't seem like her best bet. The kitchen had an exit and plenty of cover. She would wait here.

Slow footsteps on the stairs made her stiffen and straighten her back. It didn't sound like Peter, but it didn't sound like Butch either. The kitchen door opened, and Peter blinked at the bead she had taken on the door. His eyes that that faint light in them that she recognized as a muted form of his post-kill buzz. He glanced up to see the small red dot that hovered at roughly Butch's head height. "That unsure of who got whom?" he asked.

"No, just careful," she replied, holstering the gun. "He might have shot you then come downstairs to be sure of me before killing DiNozzo."

"Or he might have smothered DiNozzo, hoping to make it look like an accident. I caught him and he shot me."

"I think he's been in the monitor room," she replied. "He wouldn't be quite that stupid. Next time, more brains and less ambition."

"That seems reasonable," Peter replied.

"How's DiNozzo?"

"The same, but I think there's some blood on the sheets. Butch waited till I went to the bathroom, so when I got there he was at the foot of the bed."

Lola grimaced. "I'll get fresh sheets, then."

They took care of DiNozzo's room, and she gave the agent a quick sponge bath. He had blood spatter on his face and chest. Using the already stained sheets, they got Butch down the stairs and into the trunk of the car in the garage. "Great, we're going through partners and cars like it's going out of style, Peter. That'll be two cars and three people since Sunday."

"He'll keep," Peter said and left the garage. She followed him back to DiNozzo's room, where they found that the fresh sheets now had blood on them, and DiNozzo was still coughing.

"Maybe Butch will keep, but DiNozzo's dying," she said bluntly.

Peter nodded. "Wrap him up. We're taking him to the hospital."

"Are you crazy?" she said, and Peter turned to her, that light in his eyes again, and she took a deep breath. "I just mean we don't have the money yet."

"They won't have identified him by noon tomorrow, Lola," Peter said. "We'll see to that. We'll get the money, and I can get DiNozzo later."

She blinked and nodded, then set to carrying out his plan.

DiNozzo senior had arrived back in the bullpen at 0900 on Thursday, and Gibbs took him and Fornell down to Abby's lab. There they waited while Abby and McGee prepared to follow the money through its journey. DiNozzo crossed to Abby, and Gibbs realized that they hadn't yet met. "I believe my son has mentioned you to me," he said, and Gibbs was startled to learn this. "Abby Sciuto?" Abby nodded, wide-eyed. "He said you were one of the best friends he's ever had."

Abby blinked at him. "Wow," she said, and Gibbs could see the glint in her eyes from the emotions called up by Tony's father's words. She threw her arms around Mr. DiNozzo who looked stunned by this turn of events. "He's going to be fine," she assured him earnestly. "Gibbs will find him. He's the best there is."

"What are we doing here, Gibbs? What's the plan?" DiNozzo asked.

Gibbs took a deep breath. "McGee and Abby are going to do the best they can to follow the money when we do the transfer."

"Right," DiNozzo said. "How's that going to work?"

McGee pointed at the screen. "We've got half a dozen programs set to watching the bank account you're supposed to put the ransom money in. There are undoubtedly already instructions in place to forward all or parts of the money to other accounts."

"Of course," DiNozzo said, nodding. He pulled up a chair to sit between them.

"Well, we're going to follow it," Abby said eagerly. "That way we can tag and hopefully freeze the other accounts once we've got Tony back."

"I see."

He got into an in-depth discussion of techniques, and Gibbs stopped being able to follow it very quickly. "Coffee?"

He turned and found Joyce at his elbow. "Thank you," he said. Fornell raised his eyebrows. He hadn't been offered coffee.

"This must be driving you crazy," she said.

"Why do you say that?"

"From everything Tony's ever said about you, you're a man of action, and this isn't action."

Gibbs snorted, but before he could say anything, DiNozzo's phone rang. He grabbed it off his belt and looked at Gibbs. "Speaker," Gibbs said, walking up to him.

DiNozzo senior pressed the relevant button and said, "DiNozzo."

"Are you ready?" asked the reedy voice.

"You said we had till noon."

"It's noon somewhere," the voice said in strangely whimsical tone. "What difference does two hours make? Are you ready?"

Gibbs looked at McGee and Abby. They nodded. Gibbs gave DiNozzo a nod. "Yeah, I'm ready," DiNozzo said. "When will I get my son back?"

"You'll get a call today or tomorrow, only if I don't see that money in my account within the next ten minutes, that call will be from the coroner." There was a click.

"Initiate the transfer, Abby," DiNozzo said, and Gibbs blinked. She looked at him, and he okayed it. She bent to her computer and both she and McGee commenced clicking.

"It's there," McGee said after several seconds. "And the transfers are starting. Got it Abby?"

"Six into Asia," she said. "Taiwan . . . Thailand . . ." She trailed off, still focused hard on the screen.

"Four into South America," McGee said. "I've got . . . and . . ."

Five minutes passed, then Fornell said, "How long are we going to watch them talk to themselves?"

Gibbs just gave him a dour look. Five more minutes went by, then ten, and Gibbs wished he had something physical to do. Jenny and Ziva came down, and Ducky wandered in. Abby, McGee and DiNozzo never looked up. DiNozzo was watching the activities with a great deal more understanding than his son would have had.

Gibbs' phone rang and he stepped away, pulling it out and flipping it open. "Gibbs."

"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS?" asked an unfamiliar voice with a faint southern accent.

"That's me," he said.

"This is Sheriff Greer in Wayne County, West Virginia. Your name's coming up on a BOLO for one Anthony L. DiNozzo."

"Yes," Gibbs said. His heart beat picked up and his mouth went dry.

"Your Agent DiNozzo is in the county hospital here, in ICU." Gibbs closed his eyes. ICU wasn't good, but it was a damned sight better than the morgue. "I put a guard on him last night when he came in because of the circumstances, and now I'm glad I did. I –"

"He came in last night?" Gibbs demanded.

"What is it, Jethro?" Jenny asked.

"What hospital?"

"Wayne County Hospital," Greer said.

"You're sure it's him?"

"Fingerprints seem to think so. I've sent a photo to the e-mail address on your BOLO."

"McGee!" Gibbs snapped.

"Yes Boss?"

"Whose e-mail did you put on the BOLO?"

"Mine, Boss."

"Call it up. There's a photo I need to see."

"I got yours, too, McGee," Abby said, and DiNozzo senior shifted forward as McGee got up and went to another computer.

Gibbs followed and waited impatiently. Jenny and Joyce came up beside him. "Tony!" McGee exclaimed as the image came up on the screen, head only. DiNozzo looked terrible, his eyes sunken, his skin pale, his brow beaded with sweat, but it was definitely DiNozzo.

DiNozzo. Alive.

Lots more coming. We're only a little over halfway through. :)