Disclaimer has been disclaimed.
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Chapter VI - Forensics
Five days.
Five days had passed since Tali had been kidnapped and there was still no clue as to her whereabouts and no other contact from the kidnapper named Lucifer. Tony, Ziva, and Anthony had now been staying in Tony's office at NCIS for that long and trying not to think the worst. It was hard though given the fact that the joy of their family, the bubbly teen named Tali who instantly brightened up their lives, was being held captive. As her absence grew longer, the family grew weary. Even Anthony missed his older sister's 'ultra annoyance'. I hope she's okay. It just wasn't right without her.
Shortly after they'd first arrived at the Navy Yard, McGee had briefed Tony and Ziva on all he'd found at their house. It was jarring, to say the least, as he ran off a long list of things they had over looked sitting right in their home to aide in the kidnappers' almost flawless execution of taking Tali. The most daunting piece of information being the fact that they'd left by carrying Tali right out the front door. Meaning they were bold enough to walk right past Tony and Ziva's bedroom. This fact made both parents feel a wide range of emotions, but the most prominent of them all being the desire to find this Lucifer and make him suffer severely for ever messing with their family.
The days seemed to blend together at this point. And they had nothing to verify if Tali was even still alive. Nothing, except hope. But hope wasn't going to be enough forever and Tony was getting restless.
"Alright, I need an update, now", Tony spoke sternly as he entered the bullpen. After the third day of Tali being gone, he'd taken the team off of all other cases so they could focus completely on the search for Tali.
McGee looked up from his computer while clicking a few keys to pull up the newest, but still old, information they had on the plasma. "We know three masked men entered your house around 2AM on Sunday and went straight to Tali's room", he spoke as he walked over to Tony. "They injected her with some type of serum to keep her asleep", he continued, "then some form of disagreement happened between two of the men causing one to stab the other, but it appears not instantly fatal as they all walked out of the house alive."
"We matched the blood found in Tali's closet to a man by the name of Joey Cortez", Bishop spoke next. "Joey Cortez has been linked to a number of different cases involving kidnappings in the past but ..."
"His body was found at the docks two days ago and is now laying in autopsy and giving us no more information than what we already had five days ago", Torres finished.
No more information. The words killed Tony. They were at a dead end. One of which he detested. "Find me some new information then."
"Director", Torres spoke without thinking, "maybe we need to shift our search from rescue to body recovery. I mean, it's been five days and this Lucifer dude still hasn't made contact again. He's probably disposed of the girl by now."
Tony turned his attention to Torres, his eyes blazing with fire. Without pause, he grabbed Torres by the collar and slammed him against a file cabinet. "My daughter has a name Torres", his tone was low and laced with venom, "It's not 'the girl', it's 'Tali'! And Tali isn't dead, so get to work on finding Tali alive or take your ass home until the rest of us find her!" With that, he let the agent go and went straight to the elevator.
McGee shook his head and gave them a look to get back to work before running to catchup with Tony in the elevator. As it started to go down, McGee pressed the emergency stop button and turned towards Tony, "you okay?"
"No Tim, I'm not okay", his voice barely audible as he fought back tears. What if Torres is right? He shuttered at the visual thought of his princess being a corpse somewhere out there.
As if he knew what was on his best friend's mind, McGee placed a reassuring hand on Tony's shoulder and made eye contact. "We will find her alive Tony. Tali is strong and brave. This guy is messing with you, hell with all of us. He wants us to get desperate so when he makes contact he will get everything he wants. Don't fall into the trap. We can't afford to lose it, so get it together. If not for your sake, then for Tali's." And as if to bring it all together, McGee lifted his hand and slapped Tony on the back of his head.
The shock of the gesture brought Tony back into focus and he smiled for the first time in days. "Thanks Tim", he spoke sincerely, "but if you ever 'Gibbs slap' me again I'll suspend you ... without pay."
Knowing that he was partly joking but still partly serious, McGee chuckled and shook his head to acknowledge that he mentally noted the threat. Then he hit the switch for the elevator to resume its ride down to the Lobby.
In a few short moments, Tony stepped off and turned around to McGee still inside, "I'm going to get some coffee and air. I'll be back in 20, keep an eye on Zi and III."
The younger agent nodded and headed back up. He hoped his words were as true as he made them seem. Please God, let us find her alive. He took a deep breath as he heard the elevator ding and exited as the doors opened. "Okay", he spoke as he re-entered the bullpen, "what do we got?"
Both his agents looked up at him confused.
"What we've got is a Director hellbent on finding someone who's practically a ghost and a team lead who seems to be up for ghost hunting too", Torres snapped.
Bishop's eyes widened at her partner's boldness, though she didn't fully disagree. Still she remained quiet as to not put herself on the chopping block like Torres had so carelessly done.
Before McGee could respond, however, Anthony came down the stairs from Tony's office and walked up to McGee, "Uncle Tim?"
McGee's eyes shifted from Torres to Anthony and he felt the tension in the room start to dissipate. "Yeah III", he responded calmly, "What's up buddy?"
"Well I'm bored and I thought maybe I could help you guys find Tal", he shrugged then handed McGee a dollar as he took a seat at his mother's old desk which was now temporarily vacant.
McGee was thrown off by the gesture and stepped in front of the boy curiously. "What's this for", he asked as he held up the crumbled bill.
Anthony looked down as his eyes started to show hints of guilt. He was quiet for a moment then finally spoke, "on Sunday, when Ima told me to wake up Tal, I went in her room but didn't see her. When I was leaving, I noticed the dollar on the floor so I grabbed it. I mean, I didn't think she'd noticed if I picked it up since she's never noticed before when she drops money and I find it. I was hoping maybe it could help with the case, you know? Like maybe there's a new clue on it or something since you guys ran out of leads."
His tone was desperate and McGee could tell he was trying to be his father's name sake in his fight to hold back tears. It half broke McGee's heart, but he didn't let is show. Instead, he flashed a smile at the young boy and nodded his head. "Thanks III, this could be the major break we've been needing", he tried to reassure him though he felt it would probably be just what it was, a random dollar Tali had dropped. Still, he wanted to have hope and so he pulled an evidence bag out of his desk and placed the dollar inside. Then he motioned for Anthony to come with him and they walked, with hopeful hearts, to Forensics.
