Chapter 6
Gibbs enters into the hospital and goes to the room where Brian Phillips is. He enters the room as Brian is eating a late-night snack. Gibbs walks over and places the newspaper article on the table.
"Does the name Robert T. Williams ring a bell?" Gibbs asked. "He's a doctor, a medical surgeon." He added. "On the road you were found on, my team found a piece of a newspaper and tracked it down. This is article is what came up. Look at it."
Brian takes the article off the table and looks at it. Gibbs analyzes Brian's facial expressions and his body language as he looks at the article. Brian finally hands the article to Gibbs.
"I don't recognize him at all. I have no idea who he is." Brian stated.
"I think you do know." Gibbs said.
"What makes you think that?"
"I analyzed your facial expressions and body language while you were looking at the article…"
"And your point is?"
"You may not remember, but the memories are definitely there."
"So what… You wanna play shrink?" Brian asked. "I already had a military shrink trying to probe my mind for two hours today. And she came up with nothing." He added. "Thanks for sending her, by the way. I thoroughly enjoyed it." He said with sarcasm.
"I'm falling really short on evidence here. I have nothing that points to any location of where you came from. The only thing I have is a small crumpled up piece of a newspaper that led to this article." Gibbs shows the article again. "I'm guessing this fell out of your pocket cuz it's dated a couple days after you went missing. And it had your fingerprints on it… Well, the fingerprints of Lieutenant Edward Collins." He said. "He gave you newspapers to read, didn't he?"
"Why does everybody have to remind me that these…" Brian holds his hands up. "…Aren't my fingers." He finished the sentence.
"I looked at your chart and the hospital record. I know how much you've eaten since you got here."
"What does my diet have to do with anything?"
"I talked to your sister…"
"My sister's here?! Where is she?!"
"She's in the waiting room. I asked her if I can speak with you in private before…"
"So what do you want Agent Gibbs?"
"Your sister told me you don't eat a lot, never did. She told me how your diet is. So when I showed her your hospital record, only the part about how much food you're asking for and eating, she was perplexed and didn't think that food list was yours." Gibbs stated. "You're obviously very hungry, which leads me to believe, wherever you've been… Your captor stopped feeding you. Your chart also says you're malnourished and dehydrated. If your captor stopped feeding you, then he also stopped feeding Lieutenant Edward Collins, your friend." He said. "If I don't find him soon, then he'll die of starvation. And your mind is the only link I have to possibly finding him." He paused for a couple seconds. "You asked me what I want of you… All I want of you is to try harder."
There's a moment of silence.
"You already left Edward's picture. Can you also leave the article and a way I can contact you?" Brian asked. "As soon as I remember something, you'll be the first to know."
Gibbs places the article back onto the table. He then takes his card out and places it on the table as well.
"Can I see my sister now Agent Gibbs?"
"I'll go get her."
"Thanks."
Gibbs walks out of the room and goes to the waiting room to let Brian's sister know that he's finished. After telling the sister that he's done, Gibbs leaves the hospital and goes home.
Gibbs finally arrives at home sometime passed mid-night. He walks inside and immediately goes upstairs to the bathroom. He opens the medicine cabinet and takes out a couple things he needs to clean his bullet and shrapnel wound he got in Nigeria. Gibbs looks in the mirror, takes a deep breath and begins to lift his shirt up. After getting the shirt off, he looks in the mirror and notices Jamie is behind him.
"Look at this!" Jamie exclaimed as she looks at the shrapnel wound.
Gibbs laughs.
"It's not funny. It looks like it's infected. Why didn't Abby clean this while I was away?" Jamie asked. She notices the expression on her father's face. "Never-mind… I really don't wanna know." She said. "Sit so I clean this."
Gibbs sits on the toilet with his legs hanging off to the right side. Jamie grabs the cloth, alcohol and everything else needed to clean and treat the wound. She kneels on the left side of the toilet, behind her father. She opens the alcohol bottle and grabs the cloth.
"If I knew your wound wouldn't get cleaned and dressed properly, then I wouldn't have gone…" Jamie begins to say.
"That trip to Puerto Rico was a wedding present." Gibbs stated.
"I know. And I love you for the thoughtful gift." Jamie said. "Your wound just looks really bad right now. I'm just hoping it's not infected or anything."
Jamie begins to gently clean her father's shrapnel wound. She then notices something.
"This looks different." Jamie said. "Did you have to get this re-stitched?"
"Yeah." Gibbs answered.
"Let me guess, rough sex?"
Gibbs just nods.
"You and Abby are ridiculous sometimes." Jamie said. She can tell there's something bugging him. "What's on your mind?"
"It's just this case. We have no evidence that shows us where Brian Phillips came from and where he's been for the last seven years. He can't remember anything. Lieutenant Edward Collins is out there somewhere." Gibbs paused for a couple seconds. "And his fate depends on the memory of a man who just can't remember."
"After the accident, it took me 11 years to finally remember you."
"But we don't have that much time."
"I know. The mind is complex. He may never remember."
There's a moment of silence.
"When I first saw you in the horse stable, I wanted so badly to just wrap my arms around you and never let go." Gibbs said. "Seeing you for the first time in 15 years… More then anything… I wanted you to remember me."
"Well, after the accident, it may have taken me 11 years to finally remember you. But I'm glad I did. Cuz in those 11 years of not remembering you…" Jamie gently places her left hand onto her father's left shoulder. "It always felt like something was missing."
Gibbs raises his left hand upward and places his hand onto Jamie's hand.
"How did you finally remember me?" Gibbs asked.
"It all came back to me within a three day period. It was like an overwhelming flood of memories." Jamie stated as she takes her hand away in order to continue cleaning the shrapnel wound. "It all started after the funeral of a family friend."
"How did a funeral help your memory?"
"It wasn't necessarily the funeral itself. As I walked to where a friend of my family… I mean… A friend of my adopted family." Jamie leans forward and gently wraps her arms around her father. "You're my real family." She then leans back and begins putting a clean dressing on the wound. "He was being buried and we had to walk through the cemetery. I walked passed an area where I really took a good look at the graves. To get to and from the car, I had to walk passed the same graves, two times. Anyway, the first time I passed a certain grave, I felt a lil weird. I couldn't explain it at the time. But the second time I passed the grave, something just happened. I just remembered certain things."
"It was a grave that made you remember?"
"The grave was Mom's. Her grave triggered the memories."
"If you walked passed your mother's grave, then why did you think I abandoned you? Cuz your grave was right next to hers."
"It was?! I never saw it."
"Why not?"
"Cuz some guy wearing black pants and a grey jacket was blocking my view of the grave next to Mom's. His head was down, so all I could see was his back."
Gibbs starts laughing.
"What?! What's so funny?!" Jamie exclaimed as she's clueless.
"Now that's ironic." Gibbs said.
"Are you gonna tell me what you find to be so funny?"
"Every time I went to visit your grave, I would wear black pants and a grey jacket."
"Oh my God! That was you!"
As Gibbs keeps laughing, Jamie begins to get teary eyed.
"Dad, it's not funny." Jamie whimpered.
Gibbs stops and turns to face his daughter.
"I spent four years thinking you abandoned me and I hated you for it. I hated you so much." Jamie whimpered. "And when I saw you the horse stable, I pretended to not know you cuz I didn't want you to hurt me again. But I found myself not hating you and I hated myself for it."
"Sweetie, I'm sorry." Gibbs places his hands onto Jamie's face in order to gently tilt her head upward so he can look her in the eyes.
"Apologizing is a sign of weakness." Jamie joked.
Gibbs gently wipes a tear from Jamie's eye.
"When you love someone, or when an apology is absolutely necessary, then apologizing isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of being human." Gibbs paused as he looks into his daughter's eyes. "The important thing is… You're here now."
"When I saw you at the cemetery that time, I noticed you were holding a bullet." Jamie said.
"If you're asking… Then yes. I missed you so much that every time I went to visit your grave, I planned on putting a bullet through my head. But I always found some reason not to do it." Gibbs stands up. "Come with me."
Gibbs and Jamie walk out of the bathroom and into Gibbs' bedroom. Jamie sits on the bed as Gibbs goes to the closet. He opens the closet and kneels down. He moves a box to the side and lifts a loose board from the closet floor. He takes out a small wooden box from beneath the floor board. Gibbs now walks over to Jamie and sits on the bed next to her. He hands her the small wooden box.
"What's this?" Jamie asked.
"Open it." Gibbs replied.
Jamie opens the wooden box to the reveal the bullet inside.
"I don't need it anymore." Gibbs stated.
Jamie smiles at her father. Gibbs and Jamie sit on the bed talking a little while longer before going downstairs to work on their boat.