Chapter 2
"What on Earth are you talking about, Mr. Palmer?" Ducky turned around and saw his assistant staring at the still form on the table. Jimmy looked up and met Ducky's angry gaze, his eyes wide with horror, before glancing back at McGee and shakily pointing at the man's face.
"Look!"
Ducky approached the table and gasped when he saw the clear liquid slowly trickling from McGee's eyes.
"What in the world?" As he watched, another drop spilled from the corner of McGee's eye and slowly started to make its way down the side of his face. "Mr. Palmer, get me my bag, quickly." Jimmy dashed off and Ducky carefully opened one of McGee's eyelids. Ducky had looked into the eyes of the dead more times than he cared to remember, that empty stare as familiar to him as breathing, but what he saw in McGee's eye was not what he was expecting. There was something still there, he would swear to it.
Jimmy returned with the bag and Ducky grabbed his penlight, sweeping the beam over McGee's pupil. He saw just the barest hint of a contraction, but it was there. He opened the other eye and repeated the action with similar results.
"Oh my Lord…"
"Doctor, what's going on?"
Ducky ignored Jimmy's question and dug around in his bag for his stethoscope. He quickly put the earpieces in place and placed the chest piece over McGee's heart, holding his breath as he listened. It was faint, but he heard the slow double-thump of a heartbeat, followed a couple of seconds later by another. He yanked the stethoscope from his ears and turned to Jimmy.
"Blankets, Jimmy, quickly, and the gurney. We need to get him to a hospital immediately."
"He...he's alive? How? I mean...I would have sworn-"
"Mr. Palmer!"
Jimmy ran to grab the requested items and Ducky leaned over McGee so he was looking directly into his eyes. "Timothy, if you can hear me, I am so sorry. We're going to take care of you, I promise." He winced as he remembered how much worse this could have been. "This is not a mistake we should have made, Timothy. It's unconscionable." He saw another tear spill from McGee's eye. "You'll be alright. We will figure this out." He gently closed McGee's eyes, hoping to prevent at least some discomfort, while praying he would be able to keep the promise he had just made.
Jimmy stumbled back into the room, pushing the gurney as fast as he could. "Shouldn't we call an ambulance?"
"No, we can get him there faster at this point."
They quickly wrapped McGee in the blanket and carefully transferred him back to the gurney. Both men hastily pulled off their protective gear before they pushed the gurney out to the loading dock and into the M.E.'s van.
"Drive, Jimmy, I'll let them know we're coming."
"Doctor, how did this happen?" Jimmy asked as he guided the van towards the main gate. "I mean, he really looked…"
"I have a suspicion, but I'll wait for further testing to confirm it."
"You've seen something like this before?"
"Not personally, no, and I never expected to, especially not here." He sighed. "I should have noticed before, and made the connection. I will never forgive myself if…if Timothy can't recover from this."
"But he will. Won't he?"
"We can only hope, Mr. Palmer. Hope and pray."
XXX
*three days earlier*
Tony returned to the bullpen after his mid afternoon coffee break to find McGee still at his desk, talking on the phone. It took Tony a moment to realize that McGee was not speaking English and he listened to the man's very precise and flat French, spoken in the same tone he used when explaining geek stuff to the idiots they dealt with on a daily basis. Tony grinned as he saw McGee roll his eyes.
"Oui, je vais attendre." McGee looked up at Tony. "Hey."
"Any luck?"
"No, they still haven't tracked down the family. Apparently it's not a 'priorité'."
"A word of advice, McGee. If you want them to take you seriously, ya gotta sound more like a native and not like a textbook. It gives you more authority. Trust me on this one."
"Right…" His attention suddenly returned to the phone. "Yes. Oui, je suis encore ici…" He glanced up at Tony and then started to speak in a completely different tone, more like Gibbs on a bad day, and in a language Tony didn't immediately recognize. It sounded a little like French and Tim was speaking it much more rapidly, much to Tony's surprise. After a few exchanges, and what sounded like a lecture from McGee to the person on the other end, he ended the call, muttering a few things that Tony also couldn't translate, but didn't really need to understand the language to tell they they were probably pretty rude.
"They'll get back to us by tomorrow," McGee informed him and paused when he noticed Tony's expression. "What?"
"What language was that, McGee? Klingon?"
McGee snorted softly. "No. Haitian Creole."
"Where did you learn Haitian?"
"Summer abroad."
"You spent a summer abroad in Haiti? When? And why?"
"My roommate invited me to spend the summer with his family after my junior year at MIT."
"What did you do? Play with voodoo dolls?"
Tim shot him a dirty look. "We helped rebuild a school and a church damaged by a hurricane."
"You did construction?"
"Is that relevant to our case?" Gibbs snapped as he passed the two men and sat down at his desk.
"No, Boss. Well, it might be. McGee spent some time in Haiti, and our Dead Man Walking is from-"
"I know that, DiNozzo."
"Which part?"
Gibbs sent him a glare before turning his attention to McGee.
"Someone will go speak from the family and get back to us tomorrow. From what I could tell, there's not many of them left, and they're pretty suspicious of the police in general, so getting them to tell us anything is going to be a challenge."
"It usually is," muttered Tony. "It that where you met Saintilaire's cousin? In Haiti?"
"No, I met him at MIT. He was my roommate."
"Could have mentioned that earlier, McGee."
"Didn't think it was relevant."
"So why can't you just call you old college buddy and ask him?"
McGee sighed. "Because he's dead, Tony. He was killed in the earthquake a few years ago." He looked up at Gibbs. "I did try to contact his sister, but I haven't heard back from her yet. She's out in the field for research and it's been hard to get a hold of her. I doubt she would know much, anyway. She hasn't lived in Haiti for years."
"Guess we'll find out."
"Did Abby figure out how Saintilaire died?"
"Not yet."
"Great…"
"Have you figured out how Saintilaire wound up in Quantico, DiNozzo?"
"No, Boss. Still checking ports of entry, but there's no official travel record under that name. We're checking possible aliases but it's taking awhile. Something tells me he didn't just hop on a plane to get here. More likely he was cargo."
"Keep looking."
"How far back, Boss? This guy supposedly died eighteen years ago. We have no idea when he came back to this country."
"Abby said he's been here less than a week. She analyzed the pollen on his clothes or something. That gives you a time frame."
"A week? That's...a lot better than we had before. On it, Boss."
"Get Bishop to help. Where is she?"
"Here, Gibbs. I was just...not important. I managed to track down an old crewmate of Saintilaire's. John Velling. He's coming in to talk to us at 1400."
"Good. I'll be in MTAC." Gibbs headed up the stairs and Tony turned to McGee, who was typing away on his keyboard, a worried look on his face.
"Anything you need to tell me, McGee? Sounds like you know more about this guy, or at least his family than you mentioned."
Tim groaned. "I already told you, I never met Saintilaire. Yes, I knew his cousins, but they didn't even really know him that well, since they grew up in different countries. I have no idea how or why he wound up in Quantico eighteen years after he was supposed to have died. I have no idea how he died this time. But I am working to try and find out, OK?"
"Yeah, we all are, McGee. Which means we need to work as a team, sharing information."
"Tony...if I could tell you anything that was relevant to the case, I would."
"Promise?"
Tim just waved a hand in Tony's direction and returned his attention to his computer. Tony glanced at Ellie, who was staring at McGee in confusion, but she caught his gaze and hurriedly turned her attention to her computer screen. Twenty minutes later, McGee excused himself and headed for the restroom. As soon as he was out of sight, Ellie got up and hurried over to Tony's desk.
"What?"
"What's going on with Tim?"
"What do you mean?"
"Don't give me that, Tony, I can tell that something's bothering him. What is it?"
Tony sighed. "I don't know. Hopefully we'll get some down time so I can talk to him about it."
"Guess we better find something to make Gibbs happy then."
"Yeah. There's that."
XXX
*present*
Tony followed Gibbs to Abby's lab, Tim's laptop and phone balanced on the top of the box of evidence he was carrying. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Abby's reaction to the news, but it beat returning to the empty bullpen.
"Hey Gibbs, Tony, what's going on?" Abby bounced over to greet them and paused, her smile fading when she saw Tony's expression. "You said it was a new case…"
"Abbs..."
Abby blanched at Gibbs' tone. "What happened?" She looked past him, clearly hoping to see someone else. "Where's McGee?" Her gaze traveled to the box Tony was carrying and stopped when she saw the phone. Tony plucked it from the top of the pile and handed it to her. She pressed the screen through the bag and froze when the image appeared. "This is Tim's." She looked up at Gibbs, her face now very pale.
"I'm sorry, Abby."
"No…"
Tony cleared his throat. "I went to Tim's place this morning and...found him. I'm so sorry, Abby."
She shook her head vehemently. "No, that's not possible, he was fine, I just saw him last night and he was fine!"
"When did you see him last, Abbs?" Gibbs' voice was surprisingly gentle.
"Before...before I left to go home. He came down to the lab, and...asked if I found anything more on the case. I told him I hadn't, and...he said he'd see me on Monday." He voice cracked on the final syllable as she turned and put her hands on the work table to keep herself upright.. "Gibbs, what happened? He was fine, I swear..."
"We don't know, Abbs, but we're going to find out. Can you help us?"
She took a deep breath and turned to face them, her eyes wet and red, and nodded. Gibbs pointed to the phone she still held in her hand.
"Last numbers dialed. Got it." She put on a pair of gloves and pulled the phone out of the evidence bag before tapping the screen and typing in a series of characters.
"You knew his password?" Abby nodded absently as she scrolled through the information.
"Last number received was a text from...N. Bourdain. International number." She turned to her computer and started typing rapidly. "From France." She checked the message. "Air France Flight 5431, DC, Saturday, 1205."
Tony checked his watch. "Landing in less than 20 minutes." Abby was already checking the flight schedule.
"Left from De Gaulle Airport. N. Bourdain is listed as a passenger."
"Any other calls to or from that number?"
She checked. "Five. First was to the number on Monday night, near midnight. Two more to the number, and then two from. Longest was three minutes."
"You ever hear McGee mention that name?"
"No. Who is he, Gibbs? And what does he have to do with…"
"Guess we better find out." Gibbs pulled her into a gentle hug before kissing her cheek. "Good work, Abbs. You gonna be OK?"
"No. Not until we find out what happened to Timmy."
"We will." After a nod from Gibbs Tony put the box on her work table. "See if you can find anything else that will help. Come on, DiNozzo."
"Coming, Boss." Tony gave Abby a hug and followed Gibbs to the elevator. He caught a glimpse of her standing in the lab, looking completely lost, just before the doors closed. He understood that feeling all too well.
Gibbs' driving and their badges got them to the gate just as the plane landed. Tony had printed a sign with the name and they waited for the passengers to disembark, hoping that the mysterious N. Bourdain would appear sooner rather than later. Several people glanced at the sign but none showed signs of recognition. Finally, just as Tony started to wonder if Bourdain had missed his flight, a lightly accented voice drew his attention.
"You are looking for me?"
His eyes widened slightly as he took in the appearance of the woman standing in front of them. A mass of coppery curls framed a heart shaped face with bright green eyes that stood out in contrast to her caramel-colored skin dusted with darker freckles. She was tiny, smaller than Bishop, dressed in worn and faded jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, a battered and stuffed knapsack swung over one shoulder. Tony thought at first she was a teenager but the small wrinkles around her eyes indicated she was older, although he wasn't sure by how much.
"Ms. Bourdain?" She hesitated slightly and then nodded, so Gibbs pulled out his ID to show it to her and Tony did the same. "Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo, NCIS."
Her eyes widened. "You work with Tim, correct? Why did he not...oh. Oh, no…"
"I'm sorry, Ms. Bourdain, but he's-"
"No!" Her eyes blazed with anger. "Where is he? You have to take me to him at once!"
"He's...in our morgue."
She uttered something in another language but the intent was clear. "Call your M.E… Ducky, right? Call him and tell him he cannot do anything until I get there."
"How do you know about Ducky?"
"Just call him, please!"
Gibbs nodded to Tony and he reached for his phone, punching the number for Autopsy.
"Uh, Boss, he's not picking up."
"Try his cell."
Tony dialed another number and waited, finally getting an answer. "Ducky, it's Tony, I...what? The hospital, why?" Tony listened his eyes widening as he took in what the older man was saying. "OK. I...we'll be there soon." He slowly slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned to Gibbs, his face ashen.
"Why's Duck at the hospital?"
"He, uh, took McGee there...about an hour ago." Tony let out a strangled chuckle. "Apparently he's...not dead after all."
"What?" Gibbs turned to the woman, who looked distinctly relieved. "Did you know-?"
"Yes. Now we must get to him. Let us go." She started to march towards the exit and soon Gibbs and Tony were on her heels.
"How did you-?"
"I will explain later."
"But who are you?" Tony asked, walking faster than he had expected to keep up.
She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a tight smile. "I am the one who is going to save your partner's life."
TBC…
A/N: As a reviewer pointed out, it's not all that likely that trained medical personnel would mistake someone for being dead, but, as Abby would say, there's definitely something hinky going on here ;) It will be addressed, I promise.