Squad Room
Gibbs entered the quiet, squad room where his team sat at their desks. DiNozzo and McGee still did not have their computers back, so they just sat there staring into space. Gibbs turned to DiNozzo, when he heard him release a long sigh.
"Tony." Gibbs said, as he turned to face him.
"Yes Boss." DiNozzo said sitting up straight and looking at Gibbs.
"Conference room." Gibbs said in a soft and slow tone, reminding DiNozzo of his meeting with the doctor.
"Oh, yeah. Thanks Boss." DiNozzo said with a nervous, little laugh from Gibbs' reminder. Gibbs watched him head up the stairs and then hesitate at the door. He watched as DiNozzo seemed to struggle with opening the door. When DiNozzo looked back down at the squad room to see Gibbs staring back at him, he quickly turned and entered the room as he was ordered.
"Ziva?" Gibbs said slowly, as he pointed toward the elevator. Ziva quickly joined him in the elevator. Based on Gibbs' demeanor, she was not surprised by how Gibbs pulled the emergency stop button in the elevator. She waited for Gibbs to initiate the conversation but was treated with a long, examining stare. When she started to blush and shift uncomfortably under his glare, Gibbs tried to confirm the information that he just learned from Director Vance.
"After Jenny Sheppard's death, three years ago, did you and Tony try to resign?" Gibbs asked. Surprised by the question, Ziva answered more quickly and openly than she intended to.
"We both did resign, Gibbs, because we both felt responsible. When I went to Vance's office, Tony was already there. Vance told us that if we wanted to resign, we would have to resign to you. He suggested a temporary reassignment for both of us." Ziva answered.
"But then neither of you wanted to come back?" Gibbs asked sarcastically, in disbelief of Vance's comment. "If I had stayed with Mossad in Israel, there is a chance that Michael and I would still be together and that he would still be alive, but I came back because I missed you Gibbs." Gibbs turned towards her with a sorrowful grin.
"Tony wasn't supposed to even be assigned to the Seahawk." Gibbs repeated Vance's words. "He was supposed to come back after leaving the USS Ronald Reagan."
"I think that he did need that time away." Ziva offered. "He has a unique way of dealing with grief. He was also overwhelmed with guilt, then."
"Drinking?" Gibbs said quickly waiting for a response from Ziva.
"He did do that a lot at first." Ziva nodded in agreement. Her confirmation of Vance's accusations of DiNozzo's abuse of alcohol caused Gibbs to wince from missing the signs. Ziva did not miss Gibbs' reaction. She looked at him suspiciously.
"Gibbs?" Ziva asked. "Is there something wrong?" Gibbs just shook his head and gave a small smile.
"Is he drinking now?" Gibbs asked her, looking to her for her insight. Ziva looked Gibbs over in concern, surprised that he would ask her such a question.
"I do not know if he has been abusing alcohol again. I have not asked him. But, I am surprised, Gibbs, that you are asking me this. Have you not known Tony a lot longer than me? You know how he handles his alcohol."
"To my knowledge, I have never seen him abuse it." Gibbs said, looking over at Ziva for her reaction to his comment. "But, you have?"
Ziva did not argue, which answered Gibbs' question. Gibbs smiled at her, giving her an unspoken thank you, as he released the emergency stop. They reentered the squad room to find McGee typing away on his recently re-hooked up computer."
"Boss, this is interesting." McGee started to say picking up the remote for the plasma screen. "Carlos Hernandez's wife was an employee here at NCIS. That could also explain how so much of our personal information was given to the Reynosa cartel. She has been here all along."
"Who?" Gibbs asked.
"Dr. Janice Bracco." McGee said looking shocked.
"Dr. Bracco. I – I told her so much." Ziva said, thinking back to when she first returned to NCIS after her imprisonment.
"We all told her so much." McGee offered. "She even came on to me. And, I think Tony, too. Here, she is married."
Gibbs sighed and looked up at the conference room door, where Tony was with the new NCIS psychologist, Dr. Cranston.
"That is interesting." Gibbs said. "And, it explains a lot. Where is she?"
"I can't find her." McGee admitted.
"I was hoping that Dr. Cranston. . ." McGee pointed up in the direction of the conference room. ". . .might know."
"I'll check with her." Gibbs offered, wondering how Tony was doing anyway after the discussion with Vance and Ziva. He approached the door, making sure Vance was not around. He knocked on the door and waited for Dr. Cranston to open the door.
". . .that's not how it works, Tony." Dr. Cranston said, as she opened the door. Gibbs waited to be lectured on how he should not interfere or interrupt a psych evaluation. He got a glimpse of Tony sitting at the table with a haunted look on his face as he stared down at the table. Dr. Cranston stepped in front of his view, effectively blocking Tony from his site as she stepped outside, closing the conference door.
"What is going on Gibbs?" She asked, irritated at him for interrupting.
"I need to ask you a question about your colleague, Dr. Bracco." He stated.
"Okay, what is the question?" Dr. Cranston asked, crossing her arms and still looking irritated from the interruption.
"Where is she? How would we get in touch with her?" Gibbs asked.
"She relocated to the New York office about three weeks ago from D.C., as she pulled out a business card for him with all the office locations." Dr. Cranston looked at him curiously. "What is this about, Gibbs?"
"Oh, we are just following a hunch." Gibbs said in a very encrypted manner. As Dr. Cranston was about to reenter the conference room, Gibbs stopped her for a moment.
"Hey Doc, how is he doing in there?" Gibbs asked. As annoyed as she was with Gibbs right now, she felt obligated to answer.
"He is. . . talking." Dr. Cranston offered without giving details.
"Will he pass?" Gibbs asked. She smiled and refused to answer. "Off the record, Doc, I would like to find out if he has a drinking problem, if he is abusing alcohol to help himself cope."
"Gibbs, this is all on the record." Dr. Cranston finally said. "And, it is all already being addressed."
"You know I am worried about him." Gibbs said. "And, we did this to him." She winced at Gibbs' comment, thinking back to the last case Gibbs worked on that involved having Tony to relive painful memories and repressed memories. With those thoughts, she continued to struggle with how to handle the information.
"I will find out for you, Gibbs." She said. "Now go."
Squad Room
"This is interesting." Gibbs said approaching McGee's desk. "She is now based in the New York office."
"Tony was just in New York." McGee reiterated.
"DiNozzo just keeps saying that he flew to New York and decided that he couldn't see his father, so he drove home." Gibbs said.
"Do you think he is lying?" Ziva asked curiously.
"Maybe." Gibbs said. "He could just be leaving out details."
"He is good at that. As he has said before, the best lies contain mostly the truth." Ziva added.
"Or distractions from the truth. . ." McGee also added.
"What are you thinking, Boss?" McGee asked.
"I need to talk with Bracco." Gibbs said, which surprised Ziva and McGee because they were just talking about DiNozzo.
"Boss?" McGee said confused.
"It was Cranston's idea for DiNozzo to go to New York to visit his father. He never made it to see his father, but did he see Bracco?" McGee visibly flinched from the comment.
"We need to talk with Bracco." Ziva stated.
"Yeah, but we aren't leaving this office."
"Let us go pick her up, Boss." McGee offered.
"No, too dangerous." Gibbs said picking up his desk phone. "I'll have Fornell do it." He said with a slight smile, as he started talking with Fornell.
"Just continue to look for any other leads. We need to find Carlos Hernandez and figure out what his next move is."
Gibbs noticed movement upstairs and his Agent DiNozzo started to walk down the staircase. He tilted his head and stood up straight when he saw Tony heading down the stairs. As Tony continued to walk slowly, looking down at the floor deep in thought, he did not notice that Gibbs was standing right in front of his path to his desk.
"With me, Tony." Gibbs gave a soft smile, as he directed Tony to the elevator. Tony obediently followed, but he continued to look lost in his thoughts. When the elevator doors opened, Gibbs guided him inside. After a moment, Gibbs hit the emergency stop and looked over Tony a moment, which Tony missed from being so lost in his thoughts.
"Hey." Gibbs said trying to redirect his attention. He looked Tony over a minute, hesitating just for a moment waiting for Tony to refocus.
"New York." Gibbs finally said, which caused Tony to look at him.
"Did you see Dr. Bracco in New York?" Gibbs asked a very direct question.
"Wha—what?" DiNozzo said in response. Gibbs watched and waited for a response from Tony.
"It is a simple yes or no question, Tony." Gibbs said. Tony looked at him, noticing that Gibbs was in full interrogator mode. Not wanting to get caught in a lie, DiNozzo finally answered the question.
"Yes. Dr. Cranston wanted me to check in with her at the New York office after I landed." DiNozzo stated.
"You left that out before. Why—what happened?" Gibbs asked. Tony turned away from him, but Gibbs moved in closer and was within inches of his right ear. Gibbs could see how uncomfortable DiNozzo was getting from being in the elevator so close to Gibbs and unable to avoid this conversation.
"It really wasn't important." Tony tried to laugh off.
"It is important. Whatever happened. . .caused you to drive back to D.C. rather than see your father." Gibbs stated as he watched Tony tense up even more. After a long uncomfortable silence, Gibbs stepped in front of Tony establishing eye contact.
"Boss, why does this matter with this case?" Tony argued defensively. After another long uncomfortable silence with Gibbs glaring at him in the confined elevator with no escape, Tony could not hide any longer.
"Yes, I talked with her. I had talked with her about how I dealt with some issues in the past." DiNozzo offered but stopped.
"Do these past discussions involve dealing with grief?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe some feelings of guilt also?"
"Yes." DiNozzo said. "Agent Cassidy. . . Kate. " DiNozzo said, as he swallowed hard, trying to address the issues casually.
"Jenny Sheppard?" Gibbs added, watching Tony closely, but Tony did not answer the question. He looked away from Gibbs. Gibbs saw how ashamed he looked suddenly. As Tony pulled away from him, Gibbs cornered him again and reestablished eye contact.
"Tony." Gibbs warned softly. "What did you two discuss?"
"You." DiNozzo looked up at Gibbs.
"Me?" Gibbs asked.
"She had a lot of questions about you and Mike Franks." DiNozzo said shaking his head, now thinking back suspiciously at the conversation, which was not unnoticed by Gibbs.
"Bracco is Carlos Hernandez's wife, Tony." Gibbs stated.
"What!" DiNozzo said almost in panic.
"Hey, slow down, Tony. Is there anything else I should know?" Gibbs asked. He could see DiNozzo was still processing that information.
"She has always been there, Boss." DiNozzo started to rant. "She was there during the whole ordeal with Paloma and Alejandro."
"I know. I told her all about Shannon and Kelly, too." Gibbs admitted, when he saw how upset DiNozzo was getting.
"I talked about you with her." DiNozzo added. "And, here she is married to Carlos Hernandez."
"Yeah, so did McGee and Ziva." Gibbs added, nodding his head in agreement that this was a serious threat.
"Whoa, oh my Boss, Leyla and Amira are now right here in D.C., do you think they are in danger again?" DiNozzo asked, which did return a scared response from Gibbs.
"They could be." Gibbs said, quickly releasing the emergency stop button. When they returned to the squad room, DiNozzo was quickly on the phone requesting protection for Leyla and Amira, as Gibbs called their home. When she did not answer, Gibbs started to head for the elevator and the rest of the team quickly followed.
"What is going on, Boss?" McGee asked. "Are Leyla and Amira the real targets? Were we just a distraction?"
"I don't know McGee. They might have become the targets, when we took refuge here." Gibbs said.
"They might be the bait." Ziva added, looking at Gibbs in concern.
"You put on vests, all of you." Gibbs ordered as they ran through the garage before heading to the cottage where Leyla and Amira lived.
As they approached the house, they found three suspicious, armed men outside, which they quickly knocked unconscious. They stormed the cottage. When they entered they found five men ransacking the rooms. They drew their guns as Gibbs and Ziva entered from the front and Tony with McGee entered from the back. After handcuffing them and sitting them down in the middle of the room, they continued to look for Hernandez and any other hostiles. They also looked for Leyla and Amira, who Gibbs suspected were in the basement hiding. When they felt the cottage was secure and there was no sign of Hernandez, Gibbs finally opened the basement door. They found Leyla and Amira downstairs. By the time that they came upstairs, the agents assigned to protect them had arrived.
"Why don't you guys just take these intruders?" Gibbs asked the agents, wanting to make sure that Mike Franks' family remained safe in his care. "We took out three hostiles outside as well." Gibbs added.
"Is one of these guys Hernandez?" Ziva asked, looking around at all the individuals that they knocked out or handcuffed.
"I killed a man outside in the backyard, as well." Leyla admitted to them. They stepped out in back to find a man shot lying in the grass. Gibbs took out the photograph he had of Hernandez to try and compare.
"McGee when we get back to work tomorrow. I want you to start running through other people at NCIS or the FBI that might be connected to the Reynosa cartel." Gibbs ordered.
"On it Boss." McGee added as he headed outside.
"Why don't you stay at my place, until we can get you into a safer location?" Gibbs said to Leyla. She nodded in agreement.
"I will take them." Ziva said with a smile guiding them over to the car.
"You too, DiNozzo." Gibbs added.
"Boss?" DiNozzo said confused.
"Your apartment was destroyed, remember?" Gibbs said. DiNozzo nodded in agreement with a light laugh. "And, there is something else that we need to address."
"Yeah, what is that Boss?" DiNozzo asked. Gibbs pulled DiNozzo over to the side.
"Are you abusing alcohol again, Tony?" Gibbs asked, examining Tony. He did not get the reaction that he had hoped for.
"I don't have any kind of problem, Boss." DiNozzo said casually, only to earn an angry glare from Gibbs.
"I am handling it. I have a handle on it." DiNozzo quickly responded.
"You are right about that. It will be handled." Gibbs added, looking at DiNozzo critically.
The whole team spent the night at Gibbs' home to protect Mike Franks' family. There were no incidents throughout the night. However, Gibbs still wanted to look into a more well protected community for them.