"Good Morning," said Ziva as she approached her desk. Gibbs responded quietly.
"Gibbs?" Ziva questioned from the unemotional response from Gibbs. McGee and DiNozzo soon entered the squadroom. Ziva managed to relay the message without words to the two other men that something was bothering Gibbs.
McGee tried to log onto his computer, as he watched Gibbs in concern. As he went through his normal routine, he was surprised by the breaking news that he read on his computer.
"Whoa." McGee said, causing all three of them to turn.
"What is it McGee?" Gibbs asked irritably.
"Trent Kort was just shot when transferring a prisoner." McGee started to explain. "It just says that a woman was responsible and that they are both being treated for gunshot wounds at the same hospital."
As McGee announced this, Gibbs' phone rang. Gibbs swallowed hard, briefly glancing at DiNozzo, as he picked up his phone. "Yeah Gibbs."
"I need your help. I am calling in the favor, Gibbs." Gibbs listened to the voice on the other end of the line.
"I just heard what happened." Gibbs said flatly.
"Yeah, well you know where to find me then." Trent ordered. As Gibbs hung up, he looked over to see his whole team staring at him.
"DiNozzo. You are with me. The two of you – look further into the shooting. By the time I get back, I want to know who the shooter is and what the association is to our mob boss or Trent Kort."
"Whoa. Kort was transferring our mob boss?" McGee said in surprise.
As Gibbs started to leave his desk, he saw the look of discontent in Tony's face and how hesitant he was at following. "Come on." Gibbs whispered, trying to encourage him. As they now stepped in the elevator, Gibbs stared hard at Tony in concern.
"Whoever shot this man did the world a favor." Tony said in a whisper, with a far-away look in his eyes.
"That is probably true Tony." Gibbs said, still watching him. When the elevator doors opened, Gibbs noticed that Tony had not moved.
"Hey." Gibbs said softly as he nudged him from behind. Tony reluctantly followed.
When the two of them arrived at Trent Kort's hospital room, Tony would not follow Gibbs into the room. Gibbs turned to face him.
"Tony?" Gibbs asked.
"Can I please not go with you?" Tony said with a look of terror. Gibbs gave him a long, hard stare. Finally, Gibbs pointed his head in the direction of the room, indicating that Tony still needed to follow him. Tony's knees shook as the two of them entered the hospital room.
"Gibbs." Trent said groggily, as he angrily stared at DiNozzo. "I wanted you to come alone."
Gibbs looked back and forth from Tony to Trent, finally resigning to the fact that the two could not be in the same room together.
"All right. Why don't you go visit the shooter—find out why she did this?" Gibbs ordered, which seemed to cause Tony to relax slightly.
"It is someone you know, DiNozzo. Dr. Helen Berkley, remember her?" Trent shot back at DiNozzo as he left the room. DiNozzo briefly returned a haunted look, as he headed toward the other room. Gibbs looked at Trent questionably.
"Who?" Gibbs looked confused.
"Dr. Helen Berkley was, at one time, married to La Grenouille. She was Jeanne Benoit's mother."
"What do you want from me?" Gibbs asked directly, from hearing the last comment.
"I want all the evidence that Vance secretly ordered DiNozzo to get on me. All of it, starting from how I bombed his car, how I am linked to car bombings of arms dealers overseas, and the threats I made against DiNozzo's father." Trent ordered. "I know that I am being followed, Gibbs."
"You bastard." Gibbs said, listening to the outrageous demands.
"Do you remember how I saved your Dr. Mallard, Gibbs?"
Gibbs left the room to find the hospital room of the shooter, Dr. Helen Berkley, Jeanne's mother.
As he approached the room, he could hear their conversation.
"At the very least you people can do now is open up an investigation into my daughter's murder!" She yelled. Gibbs looked in to see Tony just standing there motionless taking in all her yelling and verbal attacks.
"Ma'am." Gibbs said as he walked in and stood next to Tony, who simply looked down ashamed.
"Are you Agent Gibbs?" She yelled but never waited for an answer. "I want to know why the person that murdered my daughter wasn't arrested months ago!"
Gibbs turned to look at Tony's reaction, but all Tony did was look further down at the floor, avoiding Gibbs' gaze.
"Ma'am?" Gibbs tried to calm her down. "I don't understand. . ."
"When will justice finally be served for our family?" She yelled. "First, my ex-husband is believed to have been murdered, which the FBI tried to keep quiet for months. My daughter comes back to the States, when she is asked to testify. Then your Director Vance tells us that Rene really did kill himself and that the investigation is over." She continued to scream, until finally one of the monitors started to sound.
"Then immediately after my daughter returned to Gabon, she is killed in a car bomb explosion." She continued to yell again, with the monitor sounding off. The nurses ran into the room, approaching her bed.
"You both need to leave, now." The head nurse yelled.
"I want an investigation. I know Trent Kort is responsible." She continued to yell, as they were pushed into the hallway.
From trying to process all this new information that started with Fornell last night, Gibbs angrily grabbed Tony by his back collar pulling him into a vacant hospital room.
"Hey!" Gibbs yelled as he angrily confronted Tony, backing him into the wall.
"Boss." Tony said almost taking a defensive position from Gibbs. This caused Gibbs to take a step away from him, trying to control his frustration.
"You are keeping secrets from me, again." Gibbs shouted and scowled at him. "You are back to doing secret, solo missions again."
"No! Boss, I knew she was killed after. . .after she accused me of murder." Tony said shakily. "But, I haven't been involved in any solo missions. That is the truth." Gibbs took in how rattled Tony seemed to be.
"Trent wants all the evidence that you gathered against him. The proof that he was behind the car bombings and the evidence that he was threatening your father."
"What?" Tony asked while panting from all the excitement. "What? I don't know what you are talking about?"
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs got into Tony's face and yelled.
"Boss, I don't know what you are talking about. I have been ordered by Vance to stay away from Trent. That is why he sent me afloat, and why he planned to keep me afloat." Tony yelled back defensively.
Gibbs looked at Tony suspiciously for a moment. He had never made that connection before, and it actually made sense. Then after another really long stare, Gibbs finally half-laughed at the concept.
"That is why he sent you afloat? He wouldn't let you quit, and he didn't want you here in D.C., near Kort." Gibbs finally repeated.
"After you guys brought me back from the Seahawk, I had to really convince Vance that I would never go near Trent Kort." Tony stated. "That is the only reason I was able to come back. Vance has been monitoring my cell phone activity, too. That Toothpick-computer geek has been tracking the GPS signal in my cell phone, ever since I returned."
Gibbs looked at Tony in astonishment to the confession, but now he was confused as to how to handle the situation.
"Well, someone has been following Trent Kort. Do you think Vance sent someone else?" Gibbs asked, but he could tell that Tony was trying to resist talking about Trent Kort any further.
"All right Tony." Gibbs said. "Did you know about the threats against your father?"
"Yeah. But that was while I was still undercover." Tony stated. "Since my assignment ended, he said that the threats stopped." Gibbs nodded, but looked at Tony suspiciously.
"We're going back to headquarters." Gibbs said. "Get your dad to come in. I want to talk to him." Gibbs ordered.
"Oh Boss, please no." Tony said, but the Gibbs' reaction made him stop. "Please Boss." Tony repeated in anguish.
"Hey, I just want to have a chat with him, just to make sure, that your dad hasn't been receiving any threats. I am not going to interrogate him." Gibbs said softly trying to reassure Tony. Tony swallowed hard and pulled out his cell phone.
"Whoa, use mine." Gibbs said. "You said Vance is monitoring you. Let's be a step ahead of him this time."
"Yes, Boss." Tony said uncomfortably. Gibbs patted him on the shoulder, trying to reassure him, as he headed out of the room.