"If I were to be made a knight," said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, "I should…pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left, and, if I were defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it."
"That would be extremely presumptuous of you," said Merlin, "and you would be conquered, and you would suffer for it." T. H White
.***.
"Well, McGoogle, it seems like you've gotten us into yet another mess." Tony smiled, mostly masking the wince of pain he couldn't help but show when he lowered himself into the chair next to McGee's hospital bed. It was late, after midnight, after McGee's wild ambulance ride and surgery, after Tony's partner had gone into shock from blood loss, after he'd seized on the operating table.
Stable, according to the MDs, though Tony wasn't sure if he'd ever seen anything less stable in his life. They even said something about releasing him in the late afternoon, after they had the night to observe him.
"You know," Tony said, propping his legs up on the bed, trying not to think that this was his Probie's bed, that his Probie was lying there, whiter than the bed sheets, "You know," he started again, "If that flash drive hadn't had any files on it, I would have brought you up on report. For sticking your hand into a place inhabited by a snake. And for not clearing the house properly….you're not FBI, Probie, we're better than that."
McGee didn't say anything, which the doctor said was normal, which Ducky had confirmed as normal, but Tony wasn't sure he believed. "But Abby did that geeky thing you do, and she got some stuff off it…wanna hear? It's pretty juicy…"
The truth was, Tony had been shaking with rage at the sight of the files, sent via cell phone to the hospital, to Gibbs and Tony, waiting anxiously while McGee suffered through hours of surgery.
"The data was hidden, Gibbs, on a shadow file. Everything on the drive was pretty ordinary: spread sheets for tax returns, old e-mails…but I thought we should dig deeper." Both Gibbs and Tony had watched as Abby swallowed hard, both knowing that she'd been keeping herself busy, doing everything possible not to run over to the hospital to check on McGee.
"What'd you find, Abs?"
Abby made a face of disgust, of pure sorrow, "Just…well, look at it."
And they had. And the images had made Gibbs growl deep in his throat, a primal sort of rage that words couldn't describe. It made Tony look away, feeling his stomach clench and his heart break at the sight of the young boys, maybe eleven, maybe twelve, the young boys and the older men who were using them.
And then, the clincher, like the last few words before the television show clicks off for the week, the cliffhanger that always made Tony ache for more, "Gibbs, I think the Petty Officer was the one running this…place."
Abby's face came back on over the video, thank god, drawn and harried and looking somehow older than before. "Now can I visit McGee?"
It was an investigation that warranted, needed all hands on deck. An investigation that would attract media attention nationwide. An investigation that was going slow, too slow, because Tony still had triple vision from his second-grade concussion and McGee was…Tony's Probie was…
"At least you got us on the right track, McNatureBoy, or else we'd've been running in circles for a while." Tony yawned hugely, the adrenaline, the sheer emotion of the day catching up to him. But he couldn't go to sleep, not yet. He slipped his hand into Tim's, curled his fingers around the lifeless appendage, leaned close,
"Promise you'll respect me in the morning, Probie?" Tony said, managing a small smile before falling into a well-deserved slumber.
.***.
The first time Abby needed to drive to Bethesda hospital, she had to ask for directions. The second time, she plugged the address into her cell phone and let it tell her the way. By now…and this visit number was somewhere in the teens, if not the twenties…well, the nurses knew her by name, asked after her bowling team, and were used to be being driven from their night-shift half-slumber by her roaring in bearing gossip and bagels and comfort at six o'clock in the morning.
"Room 218, honey. And the dark haired scoundrel hasn't left his room all night." This from an older, motherly-looking nurse in pink scrubs, nodding in the direction of the right hallway, "He's had all of your lot come around, though, more visitors to an unconscious man I'll never see…."
Abby blew kisses in thanks, bounding away in the correct direction, careful not to let her bag and her present fall under the scrutinizing eyes of the hospital staff. She lingered for just a moment at the window of McGee's bedroom, wishing she had some sort of camera, because the picture was just oh so cute and could be used as excellent black mail.
Tony had apparently used all of his considerable charm on the female nurses to stay in McGee's room, and was now asleep in a chair beside his partner's bed, one hand slipped into McGee's limp good arm, the upper part of his body folded over so that his head was resting on McGee's chest.
"Aww…" Abby said as she walked in, startling Tony out of his slumber. "You guys are soo cute."
Tony blinked at her, then jerked himself upright, pulling his hand away from McGee and pushing it self-consciously into his hair, "Oh, hey Abs…isn't it early?"
"I was so worried! I couldn't get here last night because of that awful video and then Gibbs said that the hospital said that I couldn't visit McGee at two o'clock in the morning, so I waited as long as I could!"
Tony glanced at his watch, then back up at the lab techie, "Six am was the longest you could wait?" He asked incredulously.
"Tony, this is our McGee we're talking about! He was shot!"
"I was there, Abs." Tony assured, "But he'll be okay. Some physical therapy and desk work for a few weeks…and as many fake snakes as I can smuggle into NCIS."
Abby smiled brightly, extracting the present she brought from her bag. "Do you think they'll let him stay? He's harmless…" Abby plopped the small terrarium with its twelve inch garner snake on the small table next to McGee's bed. "How big was the one that bit McGee?"
"Bigger than that." Tony said, leaning back slightly in his chair. "Abby, I don't know how much he'll like…"
"I love it," came the soft, sleepy voice from the bed, and McGee smiled at Abby, careful not to let the pain he felt show on his features, "Thanks, Abby."
The cool bubbly façade Abby had worn since the phone call about two of her favorite boys had come in crumbled and she leaned forward, careful not to touch McGee's hurt shoulder when she hugged him, "I was so worried…"
"I'm fine." McGee broke the contact first, his eyes darting over to meet his partner's, "You okay, Tony?"
"No thanks to you, McProbester. You seriously paid no attention to the man behind the curtain?" But Tony couldn't let too much reprimand drip into his voice. Because McGee was stuck in a bed, hurting, with a hole in his shoulder, and he was looking absolutely mortified at the thought that his mistake had gotten Tony the stark white butterfly bandage on his temple.
"I know, Tony, I…didn't expect there to be anyone. Why would there be anyone? It was the dead guy's house. Cursory check." He shook his head, willing himself to focus, to steady. "What about the flash drive? There had to be something useful on it." McGee hoped so, flashing a look down at the double puncture wounds on his wrist, which weren't venomous (he'd known that) but had stuck a particularly sensitive area. Only time would tell if they'd hit nerves (he hadn't known that).
Abby sucked in a breath and darted a glance over at Tony, one that clearly said oh, don't make me say this again. Since getting the call that McGee and Tony (was it always those two knuckleheads?) had landed themselves in the hospital, again, Abby hadn't had time to pull herself away from the lab and that video to see her boys, because this was officially a time-sensitive case.
"It had…videos on it, McGee." There were few times that found Tony unsmiling, fewer still that found him not using a McNickname. "Kids. All boys as far as we can tell…with men."
"Gibbs is thinking some kind of captivity." Abby contributed sadly. "Ziva's looking through Murphey's contacts, because he was definitely one of the ring-leaders, but these kids are being kept somewhere and…sold every night to the highest bidder."
McGee's face twisted with uncharacteristic disgust and righteous anger. "Can you get a match on any of the faces?"
"I started running the program before I left, but the kids all came up negative. They weren't in any missing persons databases. There's only partials of all the men's faces – the camera work was pretty shoddy – but I managed to reconstruct some…" she paused for a yawn, rather than effect, "faces from different clips."
"And I bet it took you all night." McGee observed, smiling just a little at the yawn. "Get some sleep, Abs. Tony and I are fine."
"I'm always fine." Tony said, almost reflexively, but at least teasing the semblance of a grin out of the lab tech.
"Maybe I'll crash on my lab floor until Gibbs wakes me up with his questions." Abby stood up, tapping the snake's cage as she went and wagging a finger in the boy's directions. "You have to name him before I see you again, okay?" They both nodded mutely, used to Abby's strange demands after so many years of working with her. "And I'm glad you're okay." She pecked McGee once on the cheek before heading towards the door.
"What about me? I was in danger, too!"
"You bumped your head! I'll kiss you when you get a real injury."
Tony rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair like an insolent child. "They're releasing you this afternoon."
"How'd you know I was going to ask that?" The surprise in McGee's voice was genuine.
"I know everything, Probie-Wan. One of us has to be in touch with the Force." He appraised his partner carefully. "Gibbs will never clear you for field duty, though."
"I don't have to be out in the field." McGee said, his voice low. "Tony…we have to find those kids."
Tony could be serious when he wanted to be. He knew that this case hit home for all of the people involved because of the level of…perversion that it had, and the emotion always brought about by the abuse of kids that they found too often in their line of work. "I know, McGee. We will."
And they will. They just have to go through hell first, because that's how we roll.
Anyways, please review.
