Chapter 3
While Tony and Ziva are searching up and down Old Ox Road, behind Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia where Brian Phillips was found, Gibbs is at the hospital to hopefully speak with Brian. As Gibbs approaches the room, Doctor Welsh is just outside writing a few things down into his file.
"Are you Doctor Welsh?" Gibbs asked.
"You must be Agent Gibbs." Doctor Welsh shakes his hand.
"Actually… It's Special Agent Gibbs."
"Maybe I should pull out my, actually, as well."
"That's not necessary Doctor. Agent Gibbs is fine."
"Well, Agent Gibbs, I just got finished performing finger tests with Brian Phillips…" Doctor Welsh paused, looks down and takes a deep breath.
"What is it Doc?"
"I've never seen anything quite like this before. I mean… If a person's finger gets severed due to some type of accident, the finger can be surgically re-attached. But that's definitely not the case here." Doctor Welsh said. "With Brian Phillips, his fingers were surgically removed and replaced with his friend's fingers. It doesn't appear to be voluntary either. At the time being, there's no logical explanation of why Brian has your Lieutenant's fingers as being his own."
"So he doesn't remember anything?"
"He doesn't even remember the man who found him earlier this morning. Whatever happened to Brian Phillips in the last seven years, it was definitely a traumatic experience cuz the last thing he can remember is being in the car with his friend, Lieutenant Edward Collins, when they went out seven years ago. Everything after that… It's like it never existed in his mind."
"You mean to tell me… The only link I have to finding my missing Lieutenant, is a person who might not ever remember anything about what happened?"
"It's a possibility. In time, there's a chance things may start coming back to him, but in extreme cases, the person may never remember."
"Please tell me this doesn't fit into the extreme case category."
"That's difficult to say without knowing anything about what happened to him in the last seven years." Doctor Welsh stated.
"Is there anything you can tell me that might help me in finding Lieutenant Edward Collins?"
"In regards to who could have possibly swapped these people's fingers, I can definitely narrow down your search a bit."
"Narrow it away."
"First off, with the finger tests I performed… The fingers work with 90 efficiency. There were a few tests he had a bit of trouble with. But at being able to efficiently work the fingers at a 90 functionality with being surgically replaced, is very good." Doctor Welsh said. "To perform this type of surgical procedure, I'd say the people would need to be highly skilled in four types of surgery."
"You said people… Is it possible one person could've done this alone, by him or herself?"
"It would be quite difficult to do this procedure alone. I mean, most doctors specialize in one or two fields of surgical procedure. That's why I said, people. But I guess I shouldn't completely rule out being able to perform this type of surgery, alone."
"For the time being, let's just say one person did this." Gibbs stated. "Humor me."
"Well, if one person did this, that person would have to be highly skilled in four types of surgery to have the workable efficiency/functionality that I see here." Doctor Welsh stated. "The person would be highly skilled in: Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, Orthopedic surgery, Vascular surgery, and Neurosurgery."
"Do you know anybody who is?"
"No… But I can give you a list of quite a few surgeons who have combinations of those four fields. And I'll also ask around if anyone knows a doctor who is skilled in those four fields as well."
Doctor Welsh begins to walk away as Gibbs looks in the room. The doctor turns in order to say something.
"Agent Gibbs…" Doctor Welsh tries to get his attention.
"Yes?"
"I forgot to tell you… I know you wanna find your Lieutenant as soon as possible, so I had Brian's personal affects, including the dog tags, sent to your Forensics lab, immediately."
"Thanks Doc."
"I'll go make-up the list for you now."
Doctor Welsh finally walks away as Gibbs steps into the room where Brian Phillips is lying on the hospital bed. Brian Phillips looks at Gibbs as he walks into the room.
"You were talking about me, weren't you?" Brian asked. "It seems the whole hospital wants to see the freak with his friend's fingers."
"I'm not here to see the fingers that aren't yours. But I am here because of those fingers." Gibbs stated.
"What do you mean? Who are you?"
"I'm Special Agent Gibbs. I'm with NCIS." Gibbs flashes his badge. "And I'm here cuz those fingers belong to…"
"Lieutenant Edward Collins… I know who the fingers belong to."
"Since you know who the fingers belong to, then why don't you tell me how they got on your hands?"
"I don't know! All I know is that me and my friend Edward went for a drive one night, then the next thing, I'm here in the hospital with his fingers on my hands! They say I was missing for seven years. Between the drive and now, it seems like a couple hours or so. I lost seven years! And I have no idea what happened in that time! I just don't know."
"You were missing for seven years. This is a photo of your friend…" Gibbs shows Brian a photograph of his friend. "After seven years, you're still alive. So that leads me to believe that Lieutenant Edward Collins may also still be alive. But my problem is this… You may be the only one who knows where I can find him. So you sure as hell need to do better then, I don't know." Gibbs said. "If your friend is still alive, don't you wanna help him?"
"Of course I do, but…" Brian takes the photograph of his friend and just looks at it. "I wish I could help." A tear falls from his eye. "But I just can't remember anything about what happened."
"What about the man who found you?"
"I can't remember him."
"You know I already spoke with your doctor. But before I came up here, I spoke with the man who found you. He said you were unresponsive. You dropped your friend's dog tags and quickly went to pick it up off the ground. While kneeling, you were looking at your hands. You obviously felt something. You felt something was wrong. You knew something is wrong. A tear rolled down your cheek, you looked at the man and asked for help…"
"Like I said… I don't remember that."
"You knew you needed help! How can you know you need help and just forget about it?"
"I don't need help!"
"Then why ask for it?!"
"I…"
"You asked for help, not for you, but for your friend… Am I correct?"
"I guess so…" Brian slightly struggles to say because he's unsure.
"Can you honestly lie there and tell me you want to help your friend, when you're not trying hard enough to remember? Cuz you KNOW you're friend needs help, but you can't… Or is it… You just don't want to remember cuz you don't wanna help your friend?"
"He's my best friend! Of course I wanna help him!"
"You must know something if you asked for help… So stop fucking around and help me find your friend!"
Doctor Welsh enters the room.
"Agent Gibbs!" Doctor Welsh exclaimed to get his attention. "If I knew you gonna harass my patient like this, then I wouldn't have allowed you to be in here unsupervised."
"I was just leaving." Gibbs said.
"Here's your photo back." Brian extends his hand to give Gibbs the photo.
"Keep it." Gibbs said. "You need something to remind you of the person depending on your memory."
Gibbs walks to the door where Doctor Welsh is standing. Doctor Welsh extends his hand to give Gibbs the list of surgeons and what their specialty is. Gibbs then walks out in order to leave the hospital.