Chapter 15

McGee walked hastily through the hospital hallways. He and Jimmy had driven out together in Ducky's truck, and he was now in a position to state that Jimmy knew how to take directions if they were given to him by a competent navigator. He'd suspected as much before, but Ducky was always so eloquent on the subject of Palmer's tendency to get them lost that he hadn't been absolutely sure. He had decided that if he were ever driving Ducky anywhere, he would acquire turn by turn directions ahead of time.

In the meantime, he wanted to see for himself that Tony didn't actually look as corpse-like as he had in the sheriff's photograph. Joyce DiNozzo's presence outside a window gave him the final clue he needed, and he walked up beside her, just slightly nervous. She intimidated him in the way that all attractive women did, and she had the added factor of being wealthy and well dressed.

"Agent McGee," she said with a smile of greeting. "Tony's in there."

He nodded and peered in the window. Tony lay on his back on the bed, his upper body slightly elevated, and McGee could see that he was still on the ventilator. He shivered slightly at the sight, but Tony was alive and would recover fully. He hoped. Gibbs said so, though, so it must be true. Gibbs and Tony's father were both in the room with him. "Why aren't you in there?"

"Two is more than enough, I'd say," she replied. "And of the three of us, they have the best right. Agent David is working with Agent Fornell."

"Officer David," McGee corrected without thinking, and he flushed when she turned to look at him. "Sorry, ma'am, but she's actually a Mossad officer, not an NCIS agent."

"I see. I remember Tony telling me that." She sighed. "Tony has spoken of you as well," she said.

"He has?" McGee said, a little distressed. The kinds of things he could see Tony telling his stepmother about him were not good.

"Don't look so embarrassed. It was nothing too terrible. Everyone has to be new at one point or another." Her smile was friendly, but McGee could feel himself blushing. "If it's any consolation, I think he admires your integrity. He said you were innately honest."

"Really?" McGee wasn't sure he believed that.

"Well, being Tony, he said it a mocking tone, but I've been married to his father for a number of years, and I speak DiNozzo." McGee wasn't sure what to make of this confidence, but she put a hand on his shoulder with a gentle smile. "He doesn't tell mean stories about you, Agent McGee, and he talks about you enough that I'd say he likes you."

McGee's eyes were caught by a gesture from Gibbs. He was pointing towards the doorway, and McGee remembered with a flash of panic that he had forgotten something in the truck. Gibbs came out into the hall. "Where are my files, McGee?"

"In Ducky's truck," McGee said. Gibbs glowered, and McGee grimaced, glancing at Tony again. "I'll give him a call and have him swing by here before they go."

"They will anyway," Gibbs replied, his glower seeming to diminish when he took in the direction of McGee's eyes. "Have you eaten?"

"Not since we left Washington."

"Go to the cafeteria. Ziva should still be there."

McGee nodded. As he walked away, he castigated himself mentally for forgetting the files.

"I thought you said Ziva was sending me evidence, Gibbs," Abby said without preamble when Gibbs called her at four in the morning.

"What are you talking about, Abby?" Gibbs asked. "She sent you evidence."

"No, she sent me a complete lack of evidence. Apart from what little the body left behind, there are no fingerprints, no DNA, no hair samples, no trace evidence at all. It's like they wore clean suits or followed after themselves with as much care as a good forensic technician would take. It's crazy, Gibbs."

Gibbs nodded grimly. "We knew they were good, Abby," he said.

"This isn't good, Gibbs, it's perfect, and I don't believe in perfect."

"Then find something we can use to nail these guys," he replied, and he hung up the phone. DiNozzo senior was in the bathroom, McGee was outside the room, Ziva had gone with Joyce to a hotel, with security augmented by a couple of the sheriff's men. Kidnappers had been known to go after a second target when thwarted, and they'd gotten back all but three million dollars of the ransom.

He returned to work on the files he'd had McGee bring him. It was a mixed collection of kidnapping cases, adults and children, mostly FBI files, though there were a few NCIS. He was looking for similarities, and while he knew there were computer searches that made these kinds of comparisons, he was old fashioned enough to think that some things couldn't be fully automated. Impressions did not pop out of a database the way they could from reading an investigator's notes.

Ducky and Palmer had gone back to NCIS, but Ducky promised to return as soon as he'd finished with the autopsy. Dr. Pitt was in and out. At the moment he was out, but they'd removed the tube late in the night, and the sedation was gradually wearing off. He'd been visiting frequently to make certain that Tony's breathing stayed reasonably easy.

Tony let out a sort of grunt, and Gibbs turned to look at him. His eyes weren't open, but Gibbs could see them moving under the eyelids. Suddenly they fluttered open, but Gibbs wasn't sure he was really awake. "Where . . ." he muttered, his voice harsh and slightly panicked. "What . . . I . . ."

"Hush, DiNozzo," Gibbs murmured, leaning over.

"Gibbs?" Tony said, his eyes flicking around as if he was looking for him.

Gibbs stood up and leaned close, chucking under the younger man's chin. "Yes, Tony, I'm here," he said. Eyes turned towards him, and a faint, relieved smile curved Tony's lips briefly, then all the tension went out of him and he fell back asleep.

Gibbs was still leaning over him when the bathroom door opened. "Did he wake up?" DiNozzo senior asked.

"For about a second," Gibbs said, sitting back down.

"What did he say?"

Gibbs shrugged. "Nothing, really. It wasn't coherent."

DiNozzo looked at him suspiciously, then sat down, picking up his laptop and getting back to work himself. They sat in silence with Tony between them, moving occasionally for the nurses who came in to check on their patient. Gibbs wondered how Tony would react to this image if he woke up in time to witness it.

Fornell was still working the case, he'd gotten some help from the Lexington office of the Bureau and was combing the area for any sign at all of where DiNozzo had been kept. No luck so far, and given the kidnappers' track record, Gibbs suspected they wouldn't have any at all. Abby still hadn't found anything useful, and that wasn't a good sign.

McGee brought them both fresh cups of coffee at regular intervals. Around eight-thirty, Tony stirred again, and this time his father was in the room. "Gibbs?" Tony murmured. Gibbs had been swallowing at that moment, so he couldn't immediately respond.

"Anthony," DiNozzo senior said. "Can you hear me?"

"Gibbs?!" Tony said, his voice growing more alarmed.

"I'm here, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, rising and leaning over the bed. "Go back to sleep." Tony nodded and drifted away again.

"Why did you tell him to sleep? Don't we need to talk to him?"

"I think it can wait till he's properly awake," Gibbs said, though internally he, too, was champing at the bit. He wanted to know what Tony had to tell them, but not at the risk of delaying Tony's recovery.

"Couldn't we wake him?" DiNozzo senior said just as the nurse came in.

"Wake him?" she repeated. "Heavens no, let him sleep."

"He just woke up," Tony's father said.

Her brows went up. "He'll be drifting in and out for a while as the sedatives wear off, but we want to let him wake naturally."

Gibbs nodded serenely, but DiNozzo senior looked frustrated. "I don't think you understand, young woman, he's been missing for several days, and we need to know what happened."

She shrugged. "His answers wouldn't make much sense anyhow," she replied. "And if you start trying to wake him up, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

DiNozzo senior began to go red in the face. It was Gibbs' inclination to let the man torpedo himself, but he was Tony's father. Tony might not appreciate it. "Mr. DiNozzo?" he said.

"What?" DiNozzo asked, his voice quiet but sharp.

"We can wait awhile longer. He's safe for the time being, what he has to tell us may not be of much help in actually finding the bastards, and he needs his rest."

The nurse nodded affirmation and she began to check Tony's vitals. Gibbs sat back and continued reading. He'd found a number of cases that interested him, but he couldn't be sure any of them actually had any connection to Tony's. Mr. DiNozzo was somewhat right. They still didn't even really know how Tony had been captured, which made judging MOs a little dicey. Anything that featured a target taken invisibly out of his or her life might fit, but there could be details that would narrow it down.

Nevertheless, Tony's health came first.