Nurse Johnson was more than helpful. She felt badly for Agent McGee. Gibbs questioned her about the IV. She administered to Tim.
"The nurse you accepted the IV. from. Who is she?" was Gibbs' first question.
"You know, I've been wondering that same thing. I'd never seen her before. But, we get new nurses all the time, Agent Gibbs. I feel just terrible. If I had stopped running long enough, I would have talked to her before I simply took what she was handing me!"
"Would you recognize her if you saw her again?"
"Yes. I would. I've checked the logs and I even checked with personnel, she's not with the hospital."
"Okay, I've got something I wanna show you. C'mon." Gibbs led her out of the conference room and down the hall, through the different hallways of the building until they reached the room he wanted her at. Opening the door, he was happy to see Tim was peacefully sleeping.
"Jethro? Everything all right?" Ducky asked as he joined him at the door and spoke quietly.
"Yeah, Duck. Got a visitor for you. Got a minute?" Gibbs asked as he beckoned Ducky out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.
"Nurse Johnson! What a pleasant surprise." Ducky kissed the woman's cheek and offered her a genuine smile.
""Doctor Mallard. How nice to see you again. Agent Gibbs I don't mean to be rude but, why are we here at this room?"
Gibbs looked pointedly at Ducky and allowed the M.E. to explain.
"My dear, this is where Timothy is recovering." Ducky explained.
"You have him here? I thought he'd been transferred to another hospital." Nurse Johnson said in surprise.
"He's safer here." Gibbs said quietly.
"Yes, what he needs most is sleep and he's getting plenty of it here. Would you like to see how he's doing for yourself?" Ducky supplied.
"I'd like that. Thank you." Nurse Johnson replied with a smile.
"You understand that until we've caught whoever did this, you can't tell anyone that you saw him here." Gibbs said.
"Certainly, Agent Gibbs." she answered with promise.
"Okay. Let's go see him. Duck, how's he doin?" Gibbs answered
"Fine, Jethro. He's sleeping much more peacefully since you and Anthony spoke with him." the M.E. answered calmly.
"Good. Nurse Johnson, would you stay with Ducky till I get back?" Gibbs asked.
"Certainly, if the good Doctor doesn't object." she answered without hesitation.
"Thank you. Duck, I'm gonna check in on Tony and Ziva. I'll be back." Gibbs promised.
"No hurries Jethro, Timothy will sleep most of the afternoon, now." Ducky volunteered.
Gibbs nodded wordlessly and headed out after stepping up to the bed and gently sweeping the hair out of Tim' eyes and looking him over.
Once he'd left, Nurse Johnson turned to Ducky.
"He cares a great deal about this young man." She observed.
"Jethro cares a great deal about everyone on his team." Ducky acknowledged solemnly. "They are like his children."
"And you?" she asked.
"I seem to be the guardian of the flock, the elder uncle if you will." Duck said with a smile.
"Oh, I see. Well, Agent McGee certainly seems to be doing well." she said with a smile.
"He is still in a great deal of pain when he is awake but has developed no infections so he is doing well." Ducky supplied.
Gibbs made his way to the observation room, silently watching Tony and Ziva question Simon.
"Simon. Can you show me a picture of her?" Tony asked.
The man dug out his wallet and produced a photograph
"What's her full name, Simon? What does she do for a living?"
"She don't do nothin' Got booted from the Navy. Said she got blamed for another squid's death 'cause she didn't check the squid's id's closely enough when they came off shore-leave. Name's…
"Christine Solomon." Tony supplied in synch with Simon.
Gibbs felt his heart stop. That's where he'd heard those phrases before! He'd said them to her The Lt. Evans Case on the USS Seahawk when Tony was Agent Afloat there!
Gibbs' anguished thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone ringing. Without taking his eyes off his agents still in with Simon, he answered it.
"Yeah. Gibbs."
"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs! Timmy's cell phone was bugged! Not with a bug, bug, but with a tracking bug! That's why he couldn't find it! "
"That's good work, Abbs." Gibbs offered as he hung up and headed into the interrogation room.
As he entered the room, Tony handed him the photo of Former Officer of the Deck aboard the USS Seahawk, Christine Solomon. Gibbs handed it back to Tony, who placed in the file and headed out to update the case. Ziva remained nearby, unwilling to leave this man alone with Gibbs. She did not trust that this man was as he seemed.
"Where is she?" Gibbs asked quietly but with steel.
"I had to do it! She shouldn't have betrayed me like that I loved her!" Simon answered angrily.
"You had to do what?" Ziva asked before Gibbs could.
"Take care of her!" the suspect answered as if the answer was pure common sense.
"What does that mean?" Ziva asked angrily.
"Means, he killed her. If you couldn't have her, no one else was going to either, right, Simon?" Gibbs asked the man calmly.
"Exactly! I loved her! She should have respected that! She had no right to betray me like that with that Fed!"
"Where is she?" Gibbs asked again.
"In her car." the guilty man said calmly.
"What kind of car did she drive, Simon? What color is it?" Gibbs asked calmly.
"Bug. It's a funny blue color. Why? You want her car? But, she said I could have it!" the man replied, getting angry.
"You can have it, when we are done with it. Where is it?" Ziva asked calmly.
"At the marina." Simon admitted meekly.
Gibbs nodded at Ziva who headed out to investigate.
"Tell me what you know about what she did to the Fed." Gibbs directed even as his stomach clenched at where this interrogation now needed to go.
"She lured him in and sweet-talked him. Had him believin' she really loved him. Said she was gonna get real close to him and then when he least expected it, she was gonna kill him. Said the guy's boss deserved to have his death on his conscience after he got her dishonorably discharged on account of that squid gettin killed and her accidentally lettin' his killer pose as him on the ship. She had no right!"
"You helped her? When she shot him, you went with her and shot at him too?" Gibbs asked.
"She said one shot wouldn't be enough! I only went along with so she'd come back to me after he was dead! She swore she would!" the man defended his actions.
"Tell me how it happened." the agent directed.
"She put a tracking thing in his phone. She told me it would make her plan go off without a problem."
"Okay. Then what happened?" the questions from the agent kept coming.
"We followed him. When he stopped at that store, we went ahead and took up spots where we could get a clean shot at him. She didn't wanna take any chances of him walkin' away. Said he had to die for her revenge to be final." Simon admitted.
"Okay. Tell me about how she got into the hospital drug supply." Gibbs ordered.
"Don't know nuthin' bout that!" the man declared.
"Are you sure?" the agent asked.
"Don't know nuthin' bout that, I tell ya!" Simon yelled.
"Okay. Well, you're in custody until we find Christine Solomon." Gibbs warned him as he got up and walked out.
Standing outside the room, Gibbs made a call and set two guards on the man's door. With this done, he headed back to the room where Tim was recuperating. Ducky and Nurse Johnson were quietly talking as they watched Tim sleep. As Gibbs stepped up to the door, both Ducky and the nurse stepped out.
"You can go, C'mon, I'll walk you out." Gibbs offered.
"Jethro, I'll do the honors if you will stay with Timothy." Ducky intervened.
"Sure, Duck." Gibbs said with a smile. "Thank you for your help." he said to the nurse.
"You are very welcome. Thank you for allowing me to see that Agent McGee is recovering and being kept safe." the kindly woman responded.
If you think of anything or can recall the woman's name, please let me know." Gibbs asked of her.
"Certainly, Agent Gibbs." came her answer before Ducky walked with her out of the room.
Left alone with his injured and sleeping agent, Gibbs blew out a sigh of frustration and anger. This young man's life had been ripped apart because of a pissed off woman. And now, his agent would most likely never be the same again. And even with the physical pain and recovery ahead of him, it was the emotional recovery Gibbs was most worried about.
As he sat lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the young man's eyes flutter open and close again. When he phone rang, he glanced at his apparently still sleeping agent and turned from the bed to answer it.
"Yeah. Gibbs."
"Boss, we found her. Just like he told us. Dead. laid out in the backseat, covered with a blanket. Wouldn't have been noticed for a while if at all." Tony told him.
"Okay, I'll get Ducky out there. Stay there till he's on his way back here." Gibbs directed.
"On it, Boss. How's Probie?" Tony answered as he made sure he got an update on his team mate.
"Sleeping." Gibbs answered without turning around.
"Okay." Tony hung up, knowing Gibbs was going to anyway.
Gibbs pulled out his phone and called the M.E., "Duck, got a body for ya. The Marina, Tony and Ziva are there. Take Palmer. I'll stay with McGee."
"Certainly, Jethro."
Gibbs snapped his phone shut and let out a huge sigh. Even though the case had pretty much been solved, the Recovery was just beginning and was long from over.
"You found "Lizbeth? She's dead?" came the broken voice from the bed behind him.
