Squad Room
The next day in the squad room the team continued to locate any possible connections to the Reynosa cartel that still existed at NCIS. When Fornell arrived with Dr. Bracco, he had her in handcuffs.
"What happened Fornell?" Gibbs asked.
"Your head shrink here, Gibbs and Team Gibbs, just tried to kill me, when she learned that Carlos Hernandez was dead."
Fornell handed Bracco over to NCIS security to bring to the interrogation room. As Bracco was taking away, Gibbs could not have missed how pale DiNozzo became.
"Well, my work here is done, Gibbs." Fornell said. Gibbs nodded an appreciative smile.
"Tomorrow. My treat." Gibbs said without an explanation. Fornell agreed to the dinner invitation that was just extended to him from Gibbs, as he left to return the FBI mess that Hernandez had left for him. Gibbs gave a few quick glances at DiNozzo, who was sitting at his desk rubbing his forehead.
"Tony, we got her. That is all that matters." Gibbs said.
"I just told her so much." DiNozzo stated, disappointed with his misplaced trust.
"Imagine how Cranston will feel when she finds out about her associate?" Gibbs added.
"Hey." Gibbs said softly, fingering him over. DiNozzo obediently walked over to Gibbs, who stood up again at his desk. He reached over and gave DiNozzo a firm head slap that earned a low-sounding moan.
"There is nothing here for you to feel guilty about, Tony." Gibbs ordered. "I mean that."
"But Boss. . ." DiNozzo stopped after he was warned again by Gibbs.
"McGee caught that Bracco was married to Hernandez. That was carefully hidden information, since he is an FBI agent."
Gibbs noticed how pale DiNozzo had become from standing up, and he started to sway a bit again. DiNozzo looked down, trying to hide his condition from Gibbs. Anticipating his need to leave the room, DiNozzo looked back up at Gibbs with an extremely apologetic look.
"Please excuse me a moment, Boss." DiNozzo said before bolting for the bathroom. As Gibbs continued to stand there with an annoyed glare, looking in the direction of where DiNozzo ran, McGee entered the room.
"Boss?" McGee asked, noticing the upset look that Gibbs had. "Are you alright?" From the question, Gibbs redirected his attention to the agent standing in front of him.
"Great work today, Tim." Gibbs said, sitting back down. McGee continued to stand there looking over Gibbs.
"Boss?" McGee said again. Gibbs looked back up at him in surprise that he was still standing there. "Are you really alright?"
"Fine, McGee." Gibbs said quickly, still looking up at McGee.
"We just had to deal with the Reynosa cartel again, and I was just wondering if. . ." McGee started to say.
"McGee, thank you for the concern. . ." Gibbs intervened with an appreciative but also slight annoyed grin, thinking back to his conversation with Dr. Cranston about his team being concerned about him after the death of Mike Franks.
". . . but I am more concerned about you three right now." Gibbs effectively redirected McGee's attention.
"What?" McGee quickly responded. "Boss, I am fine."
"We. . .are all fine." McGee did not finish that sentence convincingly even to himself. "Well, we aren't any different than we were before this case started anyway." McGee said with a partial smile thinking of Ziva and DiNozzo.
"So, are you talking to your own father again, McGee?" Gibbs asked curiously, showing that he was aware of even McGee's little bothers.
"Yes, I think we are good again." McGee said with a smile. "I am having dinner with Penny and my father next weekend, actually." McGee shook his head with a smile. Gibbs nodded with a grin.
Once the room got quiet again, McGee considered Gibbs' comment again about being more concerned about the three of them rather than himself.
"Boss?" McGee asked, noticing how Gibbs was staring in his direction, though it was also in the direction of where DiNozzo ran to.
"Oh, I was just wondering if DiNozzo fell in." Gibbs said casually waving his hand in the air, as he looked back at his newly returned computer, as he typed his report.
"Did you want me to check on him?" McGee asked standing up, looking back and forth from Gibbs to the direction of the bathroom.
"No. We have been down this path before." Gibbs said enigmatically referring to DiNozzo's alcohol abuse.
"Oh, ah Boss, I did intend to mention this to you before." McGee shouted, almost causing Gibbs to jump.
"When I was working with the FBI trying to identify the source of the leak and what information was accessed, I did a quick search through all of our phone records-just to check for unusual activity and phone numbers." McGee explained. "Honestly, I didn't think I would find anything." Gibbs listened but then glared at McGee, when he still hadn't provided the information that he said that he had.
"So, when I did this, I found that Tony. . ." McGee emphasized, before looking around the corner to see if DiNozzo was there. Gibbs became increasingly irritated and stood up, walking over to McGee.
"Sorry Boss, so Tony has gotten a call from the same phone number roughly three to five times an evening since January 1st. The calls generally last a max of two minutes, so my thought is that Tony lets it go to voicemail each time."
"That is a personal phone call, McGee." Gibbs stated, downplaying his concern. After sitting back down at his desk and looking at his computer again, he continued to process the information longer as well as the obvious concern coming from McGee as well.
"So who is the phone registered to?" Gibbs asked.
"A private caller, so the name is blocked." McGee informed him. "Now I realize that we had to turn over our cell phones during this investigation concerning Carlos Hernandez. However, we are supposed to be given our new cellphones within the next hour or so. These new phones will have automatic call forwarding from our old numbers. In other words, whoever this is - will continue to call especially if this person was not associated with the Reynosa cartel."
"Next time the person calls, do you think you could trace it and try to get a GPS location?" Gibbs asked.
"Yes Boss, I will do that." McGee nodded in agreement. Gibbs looked over past McGee's desk, realizing that DiNozzo still was in the bathroom. McGee watched as Gibbs left to check on DiNozzo.
"Hey." Gibbs said as he entered before he even saw where DiNozzo was. When he entered, he saw a stall door closed in the bathroom. "You all right, Tony?"
"Oh hey, Boss, my lunch just didn't agree with me." DiNozzo said from behind the door.
"Come on out of there, Tony." Gibbs ordered, noticing how Tony had to be kneeling in front of the toilet based upon the fact that the soles of his shoes were hanging outside the stall door. Tony slowly managed to leave the stall finally and head over to the sink. Gibbs walked over to his side, leaning against the counter as Tony splashed water on his face.
"I am sorry, Boss." DiNozzo said heaving, as he turned to face Gibbs near the sink. DiNozzo was surprised by the rather angry and disapproving glare he was being treated with by Gibbs.
"You lay off the sauce for a while." Gibbs said.
"Wha-huh-I am sorry, Boss?" DiNozzo was taken so aback by Gibbs' comment. Making sure that his point was clear to DiNozzo, Gibbs continued to treat him with his glare as he continued to get closer and closer to DiNozzo. As usual, the close proximity caused DiNozzo to tense up, especially from the anger he could feel coming from him.
"This is why you did not want to stay here at the Navy Yard, now you are going through withdrawal, right?"
"Lay-off-of-the-sauce." Gibbs repeated slowly emphasizing each word.
"I gotcha, Boss." DiNozzo said. After Gibbs made sure that DiNozzo had heard his request, he looked him over. In addition to the paleness, vomiting, and sweat rolling down his neck, DiNozzo was squinting partially from the bathroom lights.
"Let's go." Gibbs said holding open the door, expecting DiNozzo to go back to his desk. DiNozzo slowly approached the door that Gibbs held open. Realizing that Gibbs was examining his every move and every symptom, DiNozzo carefully moved through the doorway but wishing he was invisible right now. When taking the corner by McGee's desk, Gibbs saw DiNozzo start to sway before completing the turn. He grabbed DiNozzo's arm and guided him over to his desk.
"Sit." Gibbs whispered.
"Uh, thanks Boss." DiNozzo said in an embarrassed tone as he was treated with a concerned Gibbs' glare. After a few minutes of silence, Gibbs looked over at his agents again. McGee was way too quiet and buried himself into his computer again. While Tony was attempting to type his report on his newly returned computer, he was trying to wipe sweat pouring down his forehead with a tissue.
"Tony." Ziva said as she entered the squad room again. She turned to face him. "Dr. Cranston would like to see you again." She said pointing back up to the conference room. Tony winced and slowly got up before heading back to the conference room.
"Ziva?" Gibbs said looking at her in concern.
"I am fine, Gibbs." She said very seriously and teary eyed. Gibbs looked her over and nodded. Then, Gibbs squinted his eyes, looking up the stairs to check that Tony got up there without passing out.
"Boss." McGee whispered. Gibbs quickly got up and went to stand over McGee at his desk. Gibbs watched as McGee worked his magic on the computer in order to track where and who the phone call was coming from. As McGee processed the phone call, Gibbs briefly heard a cell phone ringing in the distance upstairs.
"Baltimore." McGee said. "Here Boss, I will write down the exact location the call originated from. "But Baltimore. . . It could be. . ."
"Anyone." McGee and Gibbs said in unison. Gibbs grabbed the post it from McGee with the phone number and location.
"It could be W-e-n-d-y." Gibbs said emphasizing each letter in DiNozzo's ex-fiancée's name. McGee's head popped up from Gibbs' mentioning of her name.
"Did you meet Tony's ex-fiancée, Boss?" McGee asked.
"Oh yeah." Gibbs said in a light tone. "She really hit it off with Abby."
"I talked with her a lot during DiNozzo's first year here at NCIS, when they were still engaged." Gibbs explained. The information even distracted Ziva from self-torment, as she replayed the details of her personal discussion with Dr. Cranston.
"Do you know why they broke up?" McGee asked. Gibbs gave McGee an entertained look from the out-of-character, rather nosey question.
"No not exactly, McGee." Gibbs said seriously and with a tone that warned him that he was asking too many questions now. "She did interfere with some investigations because she was constantly calling throughout the day and had issues with our long work hours."
"What was she like? Was there something unique about her?" Ziva asked Gibbs. Gibbs shook his head and looked down at his desk. He could not believe the corner that he backed himself into here. Followed by a small grin, Gibbs felt the need to answer a currently over-sensitive Ziva.
"You should be asking DiNozzo these questions." Gibbs said, looking at McGee and Ziva, who seemed to be anxiously awaiting any information that he had on the subject. "Honestly, I thought of her as a female-Tony. She is also. . .older than him."
"Older!" Ziva repeated in surprise. "Now, that is unique for Tony DiNozzo to date someone older than he is. Usually, his dates are so much younger." Gibbs smiled again at how excited she seemed to be by this information on Tony.
"Gibbs, did. . ." Ziva started to ask. Gibbs looked up from his desk with a smile but waved her off.
"Ziva. . .Ziva, really you need to ask Tony." Gibbs said with a small smile.
"But, I do think that this call. . ." Gibbs started to say, holding up the post it that McGee gave him with the phone number that he just tried to trace. ". . .was from her."
"Are you planning to ask him?" McGee asked.
"I don't think I will pursue this any further than I already have." Gibbs said. "It most likely is her."
The team looked up when Dr. Cranston and Director Vance headed toward to squad room. DiNozzo dragged himself slowly behind them.
"Well, believe it or not, the doctor is pleased. You all passed."
"Really!" Ziva said loudly and gratefully, looking around the room in obvious surprise of the news. She looked specifically at Tony who now barely made it back into his chair, as he stumbled around his desk.
"You all did a better job this time actually talking to the doctor. I am therefore un-benching you officially, but I am ordering you all to go home immediately."
"DiNozzo." Vance said, turning around to face him.
"After that gun fight in your apartment hallway, NCIS will offer you a motel room until you are allowed back into your apartment." Vance offered.
"Oh, he can stay with me, Director." Gibbs said giving DiNozzo a watchful glare, causing Tony to look very pale again. Vance noticed how Gibbs was regarding Tony.
"All right then. You may go. Good work today everyone." Vance said, looking over the field agents of Team Gibbs. As soon as Vance said that, Ziva and McGee had grabbed their bags and headed for the door.
"Good night." They yelled.