SORRY FOR THE WAIT.

HERE IS THE NEXT CHAPTER.

Keeping an eye on him, Gibbs noticed Tim's ring was missing. 'was it a mugging? No they wouldn't have gone to all of this just for a ring' Gibbs pondered around trying to come up with an explanation. Giving his son's hand a squeeze he made his way the plastic bag holding McGee's stuff. Ignoring the bloody clothes, he pulled out, Gibbs reached for the black phone in the bottom of the bag.

"let's see who was your last call." he mumbled, Gibbs messed with the phone grumbling at the fact that he had no idea of how to navigate the damn thing. "I really should pay more attention to you huh?" Gibbs said giving his sleeping boy a smile. Spotting a young man walking by Gibbs grabbed him by the arm pulling him into the room. "I'm agent Gibbs, I need you to show me what was the last phone call in this phone was." Gibbs ordered. The young man gave Gibbs a 'serious' kind of look. "I needed it yesterday." Flinching from the glare Gibbs gave him, the man worked quickly handing him the phone and bolting from the room. Gibbs rolled his eyes at the skittish man. "let see…Michael? Who the hell is this?" grabbing his phone he dialed Abby.

"Gibbs! Is it Tim? How is he?" Abby squealed making Gibbs pull the phone away from his ear.

"Abby!" that got her to shut up. "Tim's stable for now. Listen I need you to trace a cell number and find out everything you can about this person."

"on it." Abby said. "Gibbs how is Tim really?" her voice was barely a whisper.

Gibbs sighed taking his agents hand in his in. "not sure Abby, he's okay right now, but doc is still worry he might take a turn for the worst."

"oh Gibbs."

"I know Abs, just find me what I ask for." Not waiting for a respond he ended the call, his attention fully back on Tim. "who did you meet with last Tim?" taking his seat once more Gibbs couldn't help, but wonder where he's heard that name before.

Back at the bullpen tony and Ziva sat waiting on Abby for the results.

"you think she has anything yet?" ziva asked for the twentieth time.

Tony shrugged. "she would have called us if she did, but it wouldn't hurt to go check." Agreeing with her partner she stood, just as the elevator doors opened. Two males walked out, one looked to be Italian early 30's. he was tall, blond, and handsome, his shoulders were broad, he held confidence as he walked up to them. The second male was younger late 20's, he was slim and seemed depressed. He had shaggy black hair, green eyes and seemed skittish. "can we help you?" ziva asked blocking them.

The Italian ran his eyes over her body, making tony narrow his eyes at him. "we are looking for Timothy McGee."

Both agents stiffed at the mention of their fallen team mate. Tony took a step forward. "why? What do you want with him and who are you?"

Italian man held out his hand. "my apologies my name Is Jacob Hanson and this is Sam Braddock." Ziva and tony shook hands with them. "McGee is a friend of our and we were in the neighborhood, so we wanted to come by and say hello."

Ziva narrowed her eyes, she knew when someone was lying. "really, well Tim's not here right now."

"oh, do you know where I could find him?" Jacob asked.

Tony took a step forward. "no we don't, but you can wait here for our boss he should know where McGee is." Sam discreetly shook his head, but they saw it.

"very well, where should we wait?"

Tony grinned. "follow us."

They took the pair thru the hallways of NCIS, stopping in front of one door way. Tony ushered Sam into one room closing the door before he could protest. As for ziva she had to push Jacob into the room after he figured out what they were doing.

"we need to call Gibbs; these guys will be hard to break." Tony said.

"how do you know that?" ziva knew they were going to be tough, but why bring in Gibbs?

Tony sighed. "when you were pushing Jacob in, his shirt was lifted up and I noticed he had the marine logo tatted on his left side."

Ziva groaned. "he's a marine?" tony just nodded. "think the kid is one too?"

"most likely, what I want to know is how did McGee know them?" tony ran a hand thru his hair. "come one let's call Gibbs."

Gibbs remained where he was the only time he left Tim was when the nurse had to change his bandages. The nurse had told him to wait outside, telling him that he did not want to see the damage done. Gibbs being the stubborn man he was stayed, for once he wished he did what he was told. the wounds were bright red and opened, blood still sweeping out of them, they were huge about 18 inches long each and 3 inches wide. Gibbs had to look away, his eyes protesting the view and his stomach threating to eject what little food he had in him. Gibbs felt pain and anger, pain of having to see his son like this, Tim was always the happy one. The anger was directed to the fuckers that did this, he swore that the moment he got his hands on them, they will pay for every moment of torture and pain they made him go thru. Gibbs was pulled out of his darken mind by the sound of his phone.

"yeah?"

"hey." Ziva answered.

Gibbs smiled softly. "hey ziva."

"how is he?"

Gibbs knew how much she cared for him. "he's still out cold, nurses came in to change his bandages. Other than that nothing new. What about your end?"

"Gibbs tell me you weren't in the room?"

Gibbs stayed quite, his mind going back to Tim's wounds.

"Jethro?"

"I couldn't leave him." He heard her sigh.

"I know, but I think we might have something and I need you to come in. ducky will stay with Tim while you are here."

Gibbs wanted to fight the order, but he knew better. "what do you have?"

"two men waked in today looking for Tim, we told him we haven't heard from him and that they should wait for you. Gibbs we noticed they were marines."

Gibbs held back any reaction. "I'll be there as soon as ducky gets here."

"alright."

Gibbs shut the phone, staring at his youngest. "we're getting closer Tim, soon we'll have them."

"he knows Jethro." Gibbs jumped at the sudden voice, turning around he relaxed at seeing ducky. "he also knows we are all here for him."

Gibbs nodded leaning over he places a kiss on Tim's forehead. "I'll be back soon." Stopping besides ducky he pats him on the shoulder. "let me know if any- "

"I will, no go. Timothy and I have a lot of catching up to do." Ducky smiled taking up the chair besides the bed and pulling out a book. Gibbs stood there for a bit listening to ducky read to Tim.

Walking to his car he was having trouble controlling his anger and the closer he got to NCIS the harder it got. Is they had anything to do with this they were going to wish they were on that bed. Walking into the bullpen he made a bee line for his team, ignoring the looks he was getting from everyone.

"what did you find out?" he demanded.

Tony handed him a file. "Jacob Hanson age 45 ex-marine and special forces."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at his senior agent. "that's all you found out?"

"boss, it's all classified. You as well as all of us know that the only one capable of opening that file is McGee." Tony explained.

Gibbs groaned, that was true. Time was the only one able to do this kind of work. "ziva?"

"same thing Gibbs, Sam Braddock age 29 ex-marine. That's all he has no family or close relatives that we could find." Ziva handed him the fie with sorry smile.

"aright, I'll start with Jacob and move on to Sam after. I need you two to observe for any tell or sign he might give away." Not waiting for their response Gibbs rushed to the interrogation room. Seeing his two agents walk into the viewing room he walked in after a moment.

Jacob was Hispanic with midnight hair and green eyes, like Gibbs his eyes showed a man that has seen horror and evil. He was well build and although Jacob was sitting down he was no smaller than 5'9. Gibbs dropped the file on the table, it was no use to him and took a stand in front of the glass window. Jacob stared at him with boredom and annoyance, he just wanted out.

"I'm special agents Gibbs." Gibbs started.

"I know who you are, McGee dose nothing but talk about you." Jacob said. "he very fond of you."

Gibbs clenched his jaw. "my agents tell me your looking for him." Jacob nodded. "why?"

Jacob shook his head. "look agent Gibbs, I came here to ask for your help. I don't know where McGee is and I am starting to freak out." Gibbs nodded for him to continue. "ca we talk someplace else, I hate being in small places."

Gibbs studied him for a bit, before nodding. "follow me." Walking out tony and ziva followed him. "bring Sam as well." Ziva pulled the kid out, seeing Jacob he ran to him wrapping his arms around him a hug. Gibbs felt a ping of hurt in him, remembering the last time Tim gave him a hug. "come on." They all piled into the meeting room. Gibbs sat at the head of the table with tony and ziva on either side of him. Jacob took the other end with Sam to his right. "start from the begging."

Jacob took a deep breath. "last night we were at a bar off ash St. for a little get together. Tim had called it night after three hours saying he had work in the morning and if he was late you would have his ass." Everyone gave a small smile. "we all laughed, but no one was stupid to say anything against you or your team for that matter. Michael now he's a different story, he said something that pissed Tim off which then earned a right hook to the jaw."

"whoa, wait McGee punched someone?" tony smirked.

Sam nodded. "yeah, although it's not the first time that happened."

"what do you mean?" ziva already disliked this man named Michael.

Jacob looked straight at Gibbs. "he's jealous. During his time with the marines Michael took Tim under his wing. He took care of him, taught him many things and becoming a father figure to him. We all knew Tim was made out to be in that world. When he ca-"

"how did we not know Tim was ex-marine?" tony asked. "why did he sign up if he wasn't cut out for it?"

Gibbs took over. "Tim had everything erased from his records. The reason he joined was because of his father, admiral McGee had forced him to sign up."

"anyways when he came back we still got together, Tim was in MIT. Instead of encouraging Tim he brought him down telling him that, what he was doing was a job for geeks not ex marines. Tim became distant from him breaking whatever bond they had. It was all good until he came to us talking about his new boss agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Michael became jealous that another man had replaced him, when I told Tim, Tim confronted his telling Michael that no one was replacing him because there was nothing to replace. That was the day we found out that the only reason Michael took him was to get on the good side of admiral McGee."

"is that why McGee was caution of who he let in?" tony asked.

Jacob nodded. "this team was the one to pull him out of his shell and back into the world."

"what happened that night?" Gibbs asked.

"when Tim left the three of us stayed, Michael was cursing you and your team for changing Tim It was about ten minutes when a young girl ran into the bar beaten, ripped clothes and bloody. She yelled to call 911. I reached for her telling me to go help him, I asked her who and she said he was some kinds of cop. I asked her where he was, before she passed out she told me he was in the alley behind the building. I handed her over to another man and rushed outside Michael and Sam following. When we reached the alley I saw McGee's car still in the parking lot and two bodies lying on the ground. Michael checked them one was out cold and the other was dead. He had McGee's knife stuck in his side, we searched the entire night for him, what was wired was that every time I suggested we call you thee Michael would shut down the option."

Gibbs couldn't believe it; his son was gutted for saving a young girls life. "Tim is in the hospital."

Jacobs head snapped towards him. "what?! Why?"

"he was found dumped in the middle of the road, someone had tried gutting him and leaving him to die like some animal." Tony growled.

Jacob shook his head. "I need to call Michael."

"no!" everyone jumped at the sudden booming voice. "not yet. I want Tim to wake up first. Instead I want you two to keep an eye on Michael." Jacob and Sam narrowed their eyes, but nodded as they left.

"you think this Michael character has something to do with this?" tony asked.

"I don't know, but that is what we are going to find out."