Truth 10 -
Vance placed a call as soon as he arrived back in his office. A call to someone he knew he could trust. Someone he hadn't spoken to in a while, but someone who owed him a thousand favours. This was a time he would happily cash in one of those favours in. He wanted a full background on Miss Abigail Sciuto. He wanted every last sordid detail and he wanted it, yesterday. He was steaming mad, simmering steaming mad. He wanted to follow his first instinct and throw the book at her. But now, as Director of the agency, cooler heads had to prevail. He needed to keep calm. He couldn't get angry on behalf of Gibbs, but he was. He was furious.
Leon was angry at Abby, angry at Tony and angry at himself. He was furious at whomever had done this and he was wondering who would target a kind, polite man, like Tim McGee. Leon, of course was blaming himself for some of the young man's problems. Ok, he was blaming himself for the bulk of them. He was sure that, as Tony had pointed out, that Tim's homeless status had contributed to his current situation, but not as much as what Miss Sciuto had done to the young man. One thing that Leon was clear about was, that it wasn't his fault the driver of the blue Suburban had ran him off the road.
The Abby situation was delicate, as he had been informed by DiNozzo, upon their return to the Navy Yard. "It's complicated between Abby and Probie." the senior field agent had told him. "The two of them used to date, before Tim started working in DC. She broke it off when he asked her where the relationship was going. Something would set one of them off and they would be back together, again. They both thought they were so stealthy, but Abby uses a uniquely scented shampoo of caffeine and gunpowder. On occasion, I'd smell the same shampoo on Tim, when he would come in, in the morning. When Gibbs sent McGeek out to fly by himself and he said roll. Abby wasn't bothered by it, until Kate slipped up and mentioned that the young female scientist, who had been the witness, had a thing for Tim."
That was one relationship he would have never guessed. He never would have guessed that the young, shy agent had been romantically involved with the goth lab tech. That one definitely had left him wondering how in the hell had that relationship started. but he didn't want to focus on that right now.
He wondered why Abby had pro-launched herself at the team leader like that. Why hadn't she assessed her surroundings first? She had already been aware of just how injured Tim had been, before she had tackled Gibbs. What the worst part about this was, that Leon would have to inform Abby of the latest development between Gibbs and Tim. that Tim was Gibbs' on, that she had gravely injured Gibbs' son.
He quickly remembered that he had wanted Gibbs to get seen to, by a doctor in the emergency department and rapidly fired the good doctor a text message. He was sure to word it as a demand, rather than a request knowing that the team leader could be stubborn. On a whim, he picked up the discarded cell phone and sent a second, more carefully worded text, asking if they had a status update on McGee.
As he waited, for either his friend doing the favour or Ducky's reply, he made himself some coffee. Once he had a mug of coffee, he did something he rarely did since climbing the corporate ladder and taking the Director's chair. He took a seat, on the floor, behind his desk, resting his back against the wall. He lowered his head into his hands and he prayed. He prayed for Tim, and he prayed for Gibbs. He prayed Tim would be OK, that he would recover from this terrible ordeal. He prayed that Gibbs wouldn't have to bury his son. He prayed that the two men could begin to have a father and son relationship. Then, he selfishly prayed for forgiveness. He prayed both Gibbs and Tim forgave him for his oversight.
Hearing the phone ring, he snatched it up, hastily. He was hoping that it was his contact with the information on Miss Sciuto. Unfortunately, it was just his PA, Miss Cooke. She was calling to inform him that Miss Sciuto was beginning to get restless in her holding cell, demanding that she is released, immediately.
Leon Vance sighed, frustrated. He didn't want to interrogate the lab rat without that report. He didn't know nearly enough about her, and he wanted to know what skeletons the lab Goth had in her closet. "Thank you, Miss Cooke. I'll take care of it." Vance told her, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Gibbs and Ducky sat side by side in the observation room. Gibbs was only allowed to visit Tim for fifteen minutes, every hour. "How are you doing, Jethro?" Ducky asked his friend. Gibbs had just returned to the observation room, while Ducky had been staying with Tim. The emergency room doctor had told Gibbs that he had been lucky. His ribs were bruised and separated on the left side, with one hairline fractured rib on the right side. He had been given pain relief and a couple of breathing exercises to ward off a bout of pneumonia. An increased risk for him, based on his age, alone.
"I could run a marathon compared to Tim, Duck." Gibbs told him, as he held an ice pack Ducky had procured for him, to the left side of his ribs. "Tell me honestly Ducky, how is he really doing?"
"Given his initial injuries, along with the subsequent injuries inflicted from Abigail, he is doing well. But please do not mistake this as out of the woods." Ducky said, gravely. "I do not wish to write Timothy off just yet, but please keep in the back of your mind, that he may not make it all the way back, Jethro. It is quite possible that Timothy may have sustained life-long injuries. Either an acquired brain injury from the intercranial pressure on his brain, the ruptured tendons may not heal correctly, any one of the fractures may heal incorrectly or he may have breathing difficulties which may impact his ability to do his job to his full potential. Timothy's rehabilitation is going to be a marathon, no a sprint. But as I said, I do not wish to write Timothy off just yet. He is much like you, in the regard, that he does things in his own time and in his own way. You cannot rush the man."
"Not rushing, Duck." Gibbs sighed. He knew he could be an impatient man, but this time it was curiosity. He hadn't had a chance to ask the doctor that many questions. He had been in agony with his ribs and angry at Abby. But his pride had stopped him from showing it." I was thinking more long-term. He's homeless Duck. He's going to need somewhere to go to when he's discharged from the rehab."
"I'm afraid it's going to be a long road to recovery and you are correct. He will need a home to discharged to." Ducky agreed with his friend. He had begun to see Jethro open up to Timothy in a way he had never seen him do before. When the two of them were together, Jethro would always do something to tell the younger man he was here. Hold his hand. Card his hair. Touch his arm. It was like Jethro needed to feel the life of his son, underneath his fingertips. Ducky studied his friend intently; something was brewing in his mind. "What are you thinking, my friend?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm thinking." Gibbs laughed with a dry chuckle. "It's not out of obligation I say this because I would have done it if I had of known he was homeless. What do you think about having Tony and Ziva move his belongings into the guest room on the ground floor at my house? He'd have his own bathroom and wouldn't need to navigate the stairs."
"Let's not put the horse before the cart. First let's see what kind of recovery he has, first." Ducky gently advised his friend and Jethro took a harsh breath of air at what Ducky wasn't saying. Tim may never walk again. "Now go and enjoy your next ten-minute visit with your son."
Gibbs was eager to see Tim again, to him, this was awful, not being able to sit with his son. But he does understand how important that it is to Tim's recovery, so he won't argue with them. He just prays every moment of the day that Tim improves enough for the stipulations to be removed. Every time that he walked back into Tim's room, he hoped and prayed over his son. He prayed to Shannon and Kelly, he prayed to Jenny, he even did something he hadn't done since he was a small boy and his mother was still alive, he prayed to God, too.
Taking Tim by the hand, he bent over and kissed his son's forehead, whispering into his son's ear to remind him that he was here and he wasn't alone. That despite their rocky start as father and son, he still loved him and wanted to be in his life.
Gibbs felt helpless, but Ducky assured him, it was all that any of them could do.
Vance was finally relieved, at getting the report into Miss Sciuto from his contact. As Pamela bought in the email, all printed off for him to read the hard copy, as he thanked her and requested that he wasn't disturbed by anyone else, with the exception of Gibbs, Ducky, Tony, Ziva or Palmer.
As he read through the carefully constructed bio from his contact, he was surprised to learn that Abby was in a significant amount of debt. He used his contacts again to get a warrant for her financials, too. When they came through, he saw that she was significantly behind in her rent, that she had credit card debt. He could see that she was spending and living well beyond her means and not paying for all of it. Just paying enough to keep the repossession man away.
Leon decided that her financials were a good place to start and the deeper he dug, the worse it got for the lab rat. Having bad credit wasn't a terminal excuse though, but given her position, as the department head, it was something that she was supposed to declare to the agency.
Leon pulled up one of the programs that Tim had written and sold to NCIS under his LLC. He input Abby's financials in it and was delighted with what he discovered. While the program was running, Leon collated the rest of his evidence and headed downstairs. It was time to interrogate their lab rat.
Coming down the stairs into the bull pen, from the mezzanine level above, Leon saw that Ziva had noise cancelling head phones on and was teleconferencing with someone. Jimmy Palmer was at McGee's desk; he too was pitching in and it looked like he was sorting files. Tony was standing in front of the plasma and he was watching CCTV footage, it was grainy and pixelated, but they could clearly make out Timothy McGee get out of the old Range Rover, that was clearly full of his belongings and lock the door manually and leave before seeing a figure on the screen breaking into the old Range Rover, excited to see the clunker of a SUV belonged to McGee.
"What have you got?" Leon asked Tony, sneaking into the bullpen. He saw Tony jump at the sound of his voice. He was pleased that he had managed to startle Tony. That skill would be very useful, should his focus skip a beat right now.
"CCTV footage of the far back parking lot on the Navy Yard. Gibbs... He subtly suggested an avenue for enquiry to Ziva and she found this. That wasn't who Gibbs or Ziva was expecting to see." Tony showed the Director the full snippet of footage and he harshly sucked in a breath of air.
"No." Leon said, keeping his voice low. He saw Ziva finishing up her call. Whomever had been on the other end of the call, had Ziva speaking Hebrew so that didn't narrow down the possibility to anyone in particular. But if Leon were to hazard a guess, he'd say it was a contact at Mossad. "But it confirms what I found out."
"That was my father, by the way. He sends his best wishes for a speedy recovery to McGee and says Shalom to you, Director." Ziva said quietly, as she slipped into the conversation. "It seems that Agent Keating had ties to Abby. They grew up in the same orphanage. A source from the now disbanded facility claims that the two of them were two pods in a pea... Wait, that's not right."
"Peas in a pod, Zee-vah." Tony corrected her, drawing out her name in a way that he knew irritated her.
"Right, just about to get started on a warrant for her financials." The Israeli spy announced.
"Don't bother, here's your copy of file." Leon muttered, handing Ziva a copy of the whole file, including the report his contact had given him on Abby Sciuto. "I'm heading to interrogation. Are you two coming?"
The two agents had to scurry to catch up, with Jimmy Palmer unsure if he should follow. He decided to follow, since he was curious and curiosity won out.
Abby was sitting in the interrogation room. She was hot and sweaty and had long ago, become restless and was beginning to add irritation to her traits. "Take a seat, Miss Sciuto!" Vance ordered, as he entered interrogation, slamming the door behind him, causing her to jump at the sudden loud sound. Vance had warned both Tony and Ziva not to enter the interrogation room, even if they were tempted to. It was his show and his alone. "Now, is it correct, that you have waved your right to have a lawyer or union representative present?"
"Yes, I am not in trouble." Abby swore, vehemently, glaring daggers at Leon Vance. "Besides, on the off chance I am in trouble, Gibbs will save me. He always does."
"Ok, let's discuss what transpired at the hospital, earlier on this morning." Vance was mentally pleased she arrogantly thought that she didn't need a lawyer. He looked into the glass of the observation room. He could feel Ziva and Tony grin at that, too. "In your own words, tell me what happened."
"You were there. We were having a meeting and silly Gibbs hadn't been by to see me. To bring me my usual cafpow. He had been wasting his time with poor McGee." Abby said in overly sweet and sickening tone of voice, that was evident she hoped to convey her complete innocence with. But Vance wasn't buying it and neither were the agents on the other side of the glass. "I guess I got over-excited and Gibbs wasn't ready for my hug. It's not my fault that Gibbs wasn't ready and McGee got hurt."
"Was launching yourself at Gibbs part of your plan to hurt Tim? Or did you see a golden opportunity? After all, it had been your idea to hold the meeting in Agent McGee's hospital room."
"No." She denied, strongly. "I guess I was excited and got carried away. I will apologise to Gibbs; he'll forgive me and everything will be ok." Abby told him, still using that faux sweet tone that was beginning to make Leon's ears itch.
"What about Agent McGee?" Vance asked, keeping his voice even. He couldn't believe Abby's flippant attitude towards this whole incident.
"What about McGee?" She parroted, her voice a couple of octaves higher and it was hurting his ears now. "I guess I can apologise to him to me. I meant no harm."
"Agent McGee was rushed back into surgery. The impact reopened his wound and fractured three of his ribs. One of his ribs was snapped completely, puncturing his left lung." Vance said angrily. He could not believe the audacity of the woman before him. "As a result of your actions, Agent Timothy McGee coded from the said punctured lung. They managed to resuscitate him and stabilise him enough to operate on his lung, but two ribs on his right side were fractured from the CPR. Agent Gibbs was knocked to the floor but he was lucky. His ribs were bruised and separated on the left side, with one hairline fractured rib on the right side."
He watched as Abby put on some crocodile tears. "I never meant to hurt either of them." She sobbed, her crocodile tears. "But if McGee hadn't of being hogging Gibbs, I'd have never missed him and wouldn't have done what I did." She commented lowly. Her voice suddenly void of all the tears, as she smirked.
"So, McGee is at fault?" Vance seethed in a low voice. Just when he thought that Abigail Sciuto couldn't sink any lower. She did. At seeing her nod, he took some deep calming breaths. He had learnt early on his career that losing his cool was not a good look and the way he was feeling, he knew he was close to it.
"Why do you think that Agent Gibbs was, in your words, 'hogging Gibbs'?" Vance asked her, trying to rein in his personal anger. "Is Agent Gibbs not capable of being compassionate? Does Gibbs not care about his subordinates? Would he not stick by any of his other team members if it was them in that situation?"
"Of course, he would. But I am his favourite and he is not close with McGee like he is with me or Tony. Gibbs is even closer to Ziva, than McGee." Abby explained, as if that excused her behaviour. "Gibbs doesn't even like McGee that much, he only tolerated him for the computer stuff. He is overrated, I am much better than him at it. Even if he does have a fancy double degree from MIT."
"Miss Sciuto. At this point in time, I am going to share some confidential information with you, before I have some more questions." Vance said in his even tone. "I expect you to co-operate fully with my line of questioning and give me honest answers. I will know if you're lying. I never ask a question; I don't already know the answer to. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Leon." She answered, knowing that it irked the Director when she called him by his first name. She had repeatedly been asked not to call him Leon. "Agent Timothy McGee is Jethro Gibbs' son. That is why he -"
"YOU'RE LYING!" Her voice boomed, as she exploded in anger. She picked up the chair she had been sitting on and threw it at the window to the observation room. "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! I KNOW MCGEE BETTER THAN HE KNOWS HIMSELF, HE IS LYING!" She screamed at the Director, spitting as she spoke, in her anger.
"It was Agent Gibbs who informed me, not Agent McGee." He gently corrected her assumption. He relayed the whole story, as Gibbs had told him to her.
"THAT'S A CROCK OF SHIT!" She seethed, as she retrieved her chair that she had thrown. Before she took her seat before him once more, perfectly calm, as if she had never had the outburst, in the first place.
"Now, it is safe to say that you were not aware of the most recent developments." At her nod, he continued. "Please tell me why you broke into Agent McGee's Range Rover? Before you deny it was you, we have security footage of you doing it."
"We're friends, we are close." She gave him a smarmy smile. "We used to date. We were lovers and he has always told me everything. We are best friends. That lets me have access to his car. I was looking for clues. I saw him leave his car and he wouldn't tell me what was going on."
"You did not have permission to access McGee's care, Miss Sciuto." He told her off. He was getting fed up with this attitude of hers. "Now, tell me why you paid Agent Daniel Keating twenty-five thousand dollars to run Agent McGee off the road?"
"I didn't, that's a lie. You can't prove a thing." She hissed at Leon. "It was untraceable and it wasn't for that."
"These email exchanges and bank records say otherwise, Miss Sciuto." Vance said, slamming the paperwork on the table. " Now tell me the truth!"
"I want my lawyer, now." Abby grinned at him. "This interview is over."
"Fine by me." Vance crowed at her. "Tell him to meet you at the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Agent Tobias Fornell will be taking over this investigation. Your actions were assault and is being treated as such, in addition, we are charging you for attacking a federal agent and that charge carries a mandatory jail sentence, Miss Sciuto."
Vance snatched up his papers and headed for the exit. He needed to get out of here, and curb his own anger. Tony and Ziva met him in the hallway, Ziva and Jimmy held Tony back, before bombarding the Director. It had been clear that Leon had needed a minute.
Tobias Fornell had received the call from the Director and after running the case by his own Director, Tobias found himself in the Intensive care unit at Georgetown Med, looking through the observation room window into the room of Agent Timothy McGee. He always like McGee and he had been shocked to learn that he was biologically the love child of his best friend and the late Director, Jenny Shepard.
He watched for a moment, his best friend still sitting by his son's bedside, holding his son's hand. Tobias could see the emotional pain etched on his friend's face. "Bet you've never seen Jethro like that before?" Ducky asked him, joining the FBI Agent, startling him. "He won't leave his son's side."
"It's not exactly a comforting sight, is it?" Tobias murmured. No matter the situation, very few things had ever ruffled his friend's feathers like this. The good doctor was right, he didn't think he had ever seen Jethro Gibbs like he was now. "How's McGee doing? The investigation has officially been turned over to us, now. It has been determined that this was a deliberate and malicious attack on a federal agent."
"Oh my!" Ducky exclaimed, shocked to hear how the events had turned out.
"Unfortunately, since this now officially an FBI investigation, I need some information from you, Dr Mallard and a statement from Jethro. If McGee ever wakes up, I will need one from him, too."
"Timothy will wake up. As soon as his body is ready." Ducky gently admonished the FBI Agent, they all needed positivity right now, especially the man's father, Jethro.