My disclaimers have not changed from chapter one of this story.
Thank you for the continued feedback. It's always a pleasure to know that people are reading (and even enjoying) what I am writing. If you really like it, you might even recommend it to your friends. I certainly wouldn't mind.
There will be some rougher language toward the end of this chapter. Also, for those of you who are wondering when the Kibbs will begin, never fear. I'll get there. I just like to tell a complete story whenever I can. My apologies if anything is overtly non-canon. I'm still catching up on the Caitlin Todd seasons.
It may be a few days before I can update again. My Thanksgiving Break is almost over, and the end of the semester is nigh which means tons to papers to grade before Winter Break arrives in mid-December. I'll do what I can, though. I'm currently dreaming this story, so even when I can't be at the keyboard writing, my brain is still working out what comes next.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy.
Out of the Dark – Chapter Four
Abby was in the hallway outside the emergency room's surgical waiting area when they arrived. Her Energizer bunny-like pacing told Gibbs that she was both worried and running low on caffeine. The woman ran to them as the trio approached, and Gibbs wrapped her in a one-armed hug.
"What do we know, Abs?" he asked as they walked. He could feel the tension ease a bit from her body as he drew her close.
"A whole bunch of nothing," she said with a frustrated bounce. "One of the nurses came in about 20 minutes ago to say that it would be awhile before she'd know anything to tell us. How silly is that? Why not just say nothing at all – which I guess is kinda what she did, but it still doesn't make any sense whatsoever to tell us that she's not going to have anything to tell us. Oh, and speaking of telling, I wanted to tell you that I brought clean clothes for you all to change into." Abby took a dramatic sniff of the air around Gibbs' body. "I thought it might be a good idea considering you're still a little ripe from the ball game."
"Abby," Gibbs cautioned, and the rambling stopped.
"Sorry, Gibbs." Abby took a deep breath and turned to look through the waiting room windows at the four women huddled close together on a sofa near a television set no one was watching. "Agent Carlson's wife and daughters are here," she said sadly. "We don't know anything about his condition, either."
Gibbs' eyes narrowed as he processed the information, and with a quick nod he handed her to DiNozzo who took the forensic scientist under his arm. He was reaching for the handle of the waiting room door when McGee spoke.
"Has Kate's family been contacted?" Tim realized that he had completely forgotten about her parents in Indiana.
"No," said Gibbs.
"Shouldn't someone notify her next of kin?" McGee asked, surprised.
"They did, McGee," answered Gibbs over his shoulder before opening the door and entering the crowded room.
"But …" Tim was at a loss at the apparent contradiction in Gibbs' words.
"Kate doesn't want her family to be notified if she is hurt in the line of duty," Abby informed McGee as the glass door closed behind Gibbs. "I know. I know." She shook her hands rapidly in response to Tim's obvious confusion. "But it's a rule she started back when she was still with the Secret Service. Look, it's complicated, but it's written into her living will."
"But Gibbs said her next of kin …"
"Next of kin was informed the minute Gibbs got the call that Kate had been shot, Probie," Tony responded, tightening his arm around Abby's shoulders.
When Gibbs stepped into waiting room he was immediately greeted by three other NCIS agents – the law enforcement tradition of keeping vigil while awaiting news of fallen colleagues remained unbroken. He quickly shook each of their hands and listened to their words of support and solace. He noticed a few tears in Tori Kingston's eyes and remembered that Kate had once mentioned to him that they had known each other in college and had become close again with Kate's arrival at NCIS.
"Agent Gibbs?"
At the sound of his name, Jethro turned to face Agent Anna Simons – the fourth member of Carlson's team who Kate had replaced that morning.
"Simons," he acknowledged. Even after all of his years as an agent, he was still at a loss for words in these situations. What did one say to a person whose entire team had been gunned down? Simons looked terrible. Her eyes were red and tired, her dark hair was pulled into a haphazard ponytail, and it looked as though she had slept in her jeans and sweatshirt. Then Gibbs remembered that the woman's mother was in critical condition at Georgetown University Hospital – she probably had slept in her clothes.
"I came as soon as I heard," Anna said, her dark eyes downcast. "Kate shouldn't have been there. I should have gone with my team."
"It wouldn't have changed anything, Simons. You were where you needed to be," Gibbs replied. "And right now you're the best source of information we have about the case your team was working before they were ambushed. I'll want you to brief my people on everything you have."
"Yes, sir." Simons then pulled a flash drive from the pocket of her jeans and handed it to him. "I thought you might want this. It contains my notes on the case. I'll go to the Yard now and pull together everything that Carlson, Pike, and Caroline had as well."
"You do that," Gibbs agreed knowing that having a job to focus on was just what a person needed during a time of crisis. With a brisk nod at the casual order, Simons left the waiting room.
"Jethro?" Gibbs turned now to the weary voice that came from the couch – Jenna Carlson. He had known Jim and his wife for twelve years, had attended the Christening of their youngest daughter, and had enjoyed more summertime barbeques in their backyard than he could count.
He sat down on the coffee table in front of her and took her cold hands in his. Her normally youthful face was both drained and angry – a combination he could identify with. "Jenna," he began.
"You'll get them, Jethro," the tiny brunette insisted, her words more fact that opinion. "You'll find the bastards who shot Jamie, Leon, Caro, and your Kate."
"We'll get them." The promise in his voice seemed to soothe her, and she leaned back into the comforting embrace of her eldest daughter as Gibbs explained to them where the investigation would go from here.
**
"I hate this," Tony said as he watched the distressing the scene on the other side of the glass.
"Hate what?" asked McGee, turning to his partner.
"This!" DiNozzo gestured at the waiting room, the three of them, the grouping of people from other agencies that had started to gather in the hallway to await the news whatever it might be. "This is ridiculous. We shouldn't even be here. We should be eatin' pizza and drinking beer with Kate after kicking the FBI's ass all over the damn court. We should be doing something, not just hanging around Sterile-ville waiting – " DiNozzo stopped his rant and sighed. "Sorry. I just hate feeling …"
"Impotent," finished McGee with a nod of understanding.
"Useless, McGee. I was going to say useless," insisted Tony, slapping McGee on the head. "Impotent isn't even in a DiNozzo's vocabulary. Well, except for maybe Uncle Vinnie. I heard he never fully recovered from that incident with my Aunt Loraine's golf club."
Rubbing the back of his head, Tim rolled his eyes at Tony's assertion and was about to clarify the multiple instances in which the word "impotent" could be appropriately used when the pair of heavy automatic doors marked "Surgery" opened at the far end of the waiting room and a man and woman, each wearing surgical scrubs, walked through. After a quick conversation with the hospital volunteer at her desk, the pair approached Gibbs and Jenna Carlson who rose to meet the doctors.
"Uh, guys," remarked Abby, drawing her friends' attention back to the tableau in front of them.
DiNozzo, McGee, and Abby watched from behind the glass as the doctors began speaking. The woman pulled off the surgical cap she wore on her head as she spoke. Abby noticed that her short, blonde hair was damp around the edges. Without the sound, it seemed as if the doctors spoke in pantomime – their gestures conveyed the meaning of the words the three could not hear, but in this case, their gestures spoke more loudly than any words could. Jenna Carlson's strangled cry of denial penetrated the glass, confirming their interpretation, and they watched as her knees buckled. Gibbs caught her before she fell to the ground and guided her back onto the sofa, into the waiting arms of her stunned and crying daughters.
Abby stifled a cry, and Tony pulled her closer to him. Beyond the glass he watched as Gibbs spoke rapidly with both doctors. They shook their heads in apology, and Gibbs then gave each of them his business card, pointing emphatically at the piece of cardstock. Kissing Jenna Carlson briefly on the head, then hugging each of Jim's daughters, he pulled Agent Kingston aside and gave her some explicit instructions before leaving the room of death and grief behind him.
"No more sitting around," Gibbs growled once he was in the hallway. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and handed the flash drive to McGee. "Get back to the Yard. Double check every piece of information on that thing against the official documentation. DiNozzo – "
"Yeah, boss."
"You and I will canvas every business, restaurant, and cardboard box within half a mile of that warehouse. I don't care if it's Saturday, someone has to have seen something," Gibbs ordered.
"Gotcha, boss," DiNozzo said and headed to the exit to get the car, but Gibbs stopped him.
"And get cleaned up before we go, would you, DiNozzo," he insisted. "Abby's right. You might find people are more willing to talk if they're not running from the smell."
"Appreciate it, boss."
"Gibbs?" Two of the other agents stepped out of the waiting room. "Kingston's staying behind to update you on Todd, but how can we help?" one of them asked.
"Balboa, you drive McGee back to the yard and help him check through the stuff on that drive. Brons, get Abby back to her lab." Gibbs turned to her. "Evidence from this morning will be coming in soon; process it as quickly as you can, but I'll also need you to go over the evidence from the original raid on that warehouse last week. If Jim thought they were missing something, they were." Abby nodded her understanding, but Gibbs grabbed her arm before she and Brons could leave. "Abs, I know how you feel about assistants, but …"
"If it will help me process the evidence more quickly so we can get these guys, I can suffer through it. Don't worry about me, Gibbs," she said with a smile, trying to diffuse some of the tension he was obviously under.
"I'll always worry about you, Abs," Gibbs said, a flicker of affection crossing his stern face. Then he addressed the group as a whole. "No one, I mean no one associated with this case leaves the Yard alone. Pull in what resources you need, but these bastards have already killed three of our people. They won't hesitate to kill again if they think we're getting close."
Abby reached into the waiting room and grabbed a large bag that had been sitting on the chair nearest the door. "The volunteer at the front desk said that she'd show you where you can shower and change," said Abby, handing the bag to Gibbs before following Brons to the emergency room exit.
Gibbs slung the bag over his shoulder and headed to the main desk. "C'mon," he told his two colleagues, "We've got a promise to keep."
**
The abandoned apartment a few miles from Bethesda had taken on the chill of the November air. Pulling on a pair of black leather gloves, Cephas looked down at the trembling body curled up on the bed in the hazy room. Pathetic was the only way to describe the form that lay upon it.
"You've gotta get me to the hospital," Huitt pleaded, his hands gripping his belly. Blood seeped from between his fingers and stained the sheets below. "I'm dyin' here!"
"Yes. I believe you are." The wooden chair creaked as Cephas sat down, eyes hard. "Just as I believe that it was you who left two NCIS agents alive at that warehouse. That's what the news reports are saying. You were sloppy, got shot, and we had to leave before checking to make sure that they were all dead."
"I'm sorr – "
Cephas scoffed and got up from the chair to lean across the bed. "Sorry is of little consolation to me now." Reaching out a hand, Cephas pressed hard against Huitt's stomach, digging a leather-covered finger inside the wound.
Huitt screamed aloud as much from the pain as from the knowledge that there was no one around to hear him. A fact that was confirmed by Cephas' emotionless stare. "Come on! You owe me!" Huitt pleaded. "I saved your life in Kabul. We were in the Corps together!"
"Never leave a man behind?" Cephas asked, mimicking the motto before straightening and wiping the leather clean with a white cloth pulled from a pocket of the long leather coat draped across the table in the corner. Cephas replaced the cloth and turned to face Huitt.
"Exactly!" Huitt's voice was no less panicked, but he sensed a spot of hope. Cephas had always been a twisted fuck, but the Corps ran deep.
"There's something you should know, then," Cephas intoned.
"What's that?" demanded Huitt with a groan.
"I never really fit in with the Corps," Cephas answered with a grin, raising a gun and pointing it at Huitt. Before the man could scream again, Cephas pulled the trigger and two bullets silently exploded inside Huitt's skull.
Pulling a cell phone from the coat, Cephas dialed a number and waited. "The problem child has been taken care of," Cephas said when the call was answered. "Make sure you put the body someplace where the Feds are sure to find it."
Pulling on the long coat and stowing the cell phone inside, Cephas opened the door to the apartment before turning to address Huitt's body.
"Semper Fi, Marine."
The door shut with a quiet click and only the mice were left behind to keep vigil on the cooling corpse inside.