Wow, never thought I would get this done this quickly. Next one probably won't be so fast since the weekend is over. :(
Don't own anything other than Luke and Evelyn who I have to admit I am rather fond of, I can just picture her and I hope now you can too. :)
You guys are awesome with the reviews and helpful comments. Thank you so much!
"Why did you tell them that they were here? You should have said you had never heard of them, get the cops as far away from here as possible."
"What if they had called their boss right before they came in or a few miles down the road? I don't need to be caught up in a lie. I told him the truth. Here was the last place I saw them. As much of the truth as possible is always best."
"You shouldn't have drugged them at all. Now the cops will be crawling over this place." He said pacing.
"You were outside when I specifically told you not to be. What if they saw you? I didn't know what they saw or what they knew. I preempted the problem. You did drop them down the hole like I told you too?"
"Yes, ma'am." He said meekly.
"Good, I'll handle this sugar muffin, don't worry."
Gibbs and Ziva pulled out of Mrs. Baird's driveway and continued down the road in silence. After about a mile Gibbs slammed on the brakes and pulled into the driveway of a two story farmhouse. A single light burned in a downstairs window.
"I'm sure many cars don't drive this way, you think they will have seen Tony and McGee?" Ziva asked getting out of the car and following Gibbs.
"We'll see." Gibbs said knocking on the door.
A middle aged woman in a long gown cracked open the door slightly.
"Yes?" She asked looking skeptically at the two strangers on her front porch.
Gibbs pulled his badge out.
"Could you tell-?"
"It's about time you people came out to investigate. I called you hours ago!" She huffed opening the door wider.
Gibbs raised his eyebrow and looked at Ziva who shrugged.
"Called about what, ma'am?" Ziva asked.
"The fire." She said becoming angrier as she spoke. "People around here are burning all the time without permits and they think if they do it at night no one will notice because its dark. Idiots don't realize on nights like this I can see the smoke in the sky because its bright as day!" She finished pointing accusingly at the full moon.
Ziva frowned not knowing what to say and one look at Gibbs confirmed he was just as lost.
"Who's at the door?" A male voice called from inside.
"It's the forest rangers." She yelled back to the inside of the house.
"We are not the forest rangers." Ziva said holding up her hand.
The woman looked from one to the other for a few minutes shaking her head.
"Not…not forest rangers?"
"Do we look like forest rangers?" Gibbs asked quietly.
"NCIS." Ziva informed.
"Come again?"
"Naval Criminal Investigative Service." Ziva said wondering if Tony were right and she would be forever cursed to explain this to people.
"There's not an ocean here." The woman said folding her arms.
"Are they here about the fire, Evelyn?" A man appeared at the door.
"Now they say they're not forest rangers." She said with a pointed look at Ziva.
"We never said we were rangers." Ziva said exasperated. "We want to know if you've seen a car go by tonight."
"It's a public road; cars go by all the time." The man said confused. Ziva shook her head and turned away.
Gibbs looked at the ground for a few moments.
"Ok, let's start over." He flipped his badge out again. "Special Agent Gibbs," he nodded in Ziva's direction, "David, NCIS. You are?"
"Luke and Evelyn Bridges." The man said.
"Mr. Bridges, two of our agents went to talk to one of your neighbors earlier this evening, about eight. Did you see a car go by about that time? Black, Crown Vic."
"We did." Luke nodded. "I was working in the yard and Ev was pruning the trees. I noticed because I usually recognize all the cars that go by but this one was different."
"When did the car come back."
"It didn't, not that I saw. Ev?" She shook her head. "Of course we were distracted." He conceded.
"Distracted?"
"The fire Agent Gibbs!" Evelyn spoke up again, annoyed. "Smoke started billowing in the sky. Probably burning old tire, fiberglass, who knows? Those kids!" She muttered.
"We've had problems with fires around here." Luke explained. "Several acres and one of our buildings burned last year after an illegal fire got out of control. It's the time of year you're supposed to have a permit but a lot of people don't." He shook his head. "Rangers don't enforce anything though."
"So they may have come out." Gibbs said.
"May have." He said apologetically. "I didn't notice it but like I say…"
"Distracted." Ziva finished.
"Distracted." Luke confirmed.
Gibbs turned and headed back to the car.
"Thank you." Ziva said nodding to the couple.
Ziva slid back into the car. Gibbs had his phone to his ear. He waited a few seconds then shut it and pressed another number on his speed dial with the same outcome.
"Still no answer?"
"No."
"Now what?" She finally asked.
Gibbs was quiet for several minutes. "Let's check out that fire."
Tim could truly say he was miserable. Parts of his body he thought had gone numb or had not been affected in the crash were aching with a new vengeance. His head was pounding, it was getting colder and his right arm was slowly going numb. Miserable was most definitely the word for the situation.
He shivered once more as he looked over and frowned.
"Tony." He nudged the sleeping man. "Tony wake up."
"Leave me…lone Mc..Gee." Tony muttered.
"No. Tony wake up. You probably have a concussion and you don't need to sleep."
"Go way."
"You're slurring your speech; you don't need to sleep with that kind of head injury." Tim said again.
Tony opened his eyes and glared but thankfully kept them open. He shivered. "It's cold."
McGee nodded and then remembered that Victoria Reed had a jacket on when he found her. It had even looked like she had a pullover, so that would hopefully make two article of clothing they could use. He momentarily felt bad for taking her clothes but chided himself for being ridiculous, they certainly needed the warmth more than she did right now.
He ignored his trepidation of wearing a coat that had been on a corpse and pushed himself to his feet.
"Where are you going?" Tony asked.
"Reed had a coat and maybe an extra shirt, I'm gonna see about getting it." Tim said finally straightening up.
He swayed, took a step and stumbled. McGee attempted to reach the wall to stop his collapse, but his decent appeared inevitable. He was able to get his left arm down in enough time to brace himself to keep him from falling face first in the dirt, but the impact of the fall jarred his bad arm and already aching head causing him to cry out.
"You ok?" Tony leaned forward forgetting his ribs again and felt his head swim at the nausea the sharp pain caused. He didn't actually know what he would do if McGee wasn't ok. Even if his ribs weren't limiting his mobility his rapidly swelling ankle would.
McGee stayed on his knees a few more seconds trying to catch his breath.
"McGee!" Tony said sharply. "Are you ok?"
"I-I think so." Tim answered said shakily taking a few more moments before standing up again. He stayed still for a moment leaning against the wall before slowly starting to walk to where Reed's body lay.
Tony watched him with narrow eyes. Tim may have told him his injuries but it seemed he left out the severity of them. He saw the light sweep Reed's body as Tim turned her over the wrestle the jacket off. He wished he could go help but he could barely move without igniting a fire in his ribs. Tony leaned back and closed his eyes.
The next thing he knew Tim was back nudging his knee.
"Don't sleep, Tony." He said offering him the coat.
"Thanks. What did you get?" Tony asked pulling the coat up over his shoulders so that it covered his whole front. It helped a little but not much. Reed was a small woman and the coat just barely covered Tony's chest.
"She had a pullover on over her t-shirt so I got that too." Tim said settling back against the wall. He closed his eyes for a few minutes and tried to imagine himself warm and free of pain. He didn't know how long he had drifted in that mental picture before he realized Tony's breathing next to him had become very deep and even. He looked over to find Tony asleep with his mouth hanging open. McGee sighed again and nudged him gently.
"Wake up, Tony."
Tony opened his eyes. "What?"
"You can't keep going to sleep. I know you're tired, but if you have a concussion you could fall into a coma and die. I for one do not want to explain that to Gibbs." McGee said again.
"Don't worry you're pretty little head about me McProbie. You're the one who nearly face planted earlier McTrippin." Tony said dismissively.
Tim was silent for a few minutes, then…
"What are you doing?" He asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Tony asked slowly.
"Do you think you're helping the situation by being macho? Are you trying to protect me because I'm the junior agent?"
Tony didn't say anything.
"I thought you respected me at one time." Tim accused. He knew they shouldn't be fighting. Heck he knew the fight he was picking was frivolous but he was exhausted and emotions he usually kept in check were bubbling to the surface.
Tony looked at him. "I do respect you."
"No, you did at one time, but you don't know or you don't show it anyway. When Gibbs was gone and I was your senior field agent you did. Then Gibbs came back and I became your junior agent who couldn't handle the real world. When Ziva was gone I thought you and I had gone past the petty name calling, but then she came back and it went right back to how it was." He said bitterly.
"Look, Tim-."
"No, you look Tony." McGee snapped. "I know the pecking order; I know you usually go to Gibbs with your problems. But right now Gibbs isn't here. You're hurt, I'm hurt, we could be stuck here for days and we are all the other one has. Now I'm sorry. I realize in a survival situation you would rather have Gibbs or Ziva, but you have me. I'm doing the best I can, but you have to help me help you and I can't do that if you won't even tell me what's wrong with you." Tim finished angrily.
Now Tony was angry.
"Respect." He spat out leaning toward Tim a little. "You want to talk about respect, you want to talk about when Gibbs came back? You said I didn't rate my own team, you want respect maybe you should take your own advice. I'm Senior Field Agent and I think I deserve some respect from my junior agents! You-."
Anything else Tony said was swallowed up in a coughing fit. Tim moved to help him but Tony shook him off.
"Don't." He rasped.
Tim slowly pulled back and watched as Tony struggle to catch his breath.
"How stubborn are you?" Tim asked quietly when he thought Tony would be able to answer. "Would you sit here and die before you asked for my help?"
Tony stared straight ahead breathing slowly through his anger. Tim leaned back shaking his head.
For a long time they just sat in the darkness, each stewing in their own thoughts.
Wow I think I'm channeling some of the angry stories I've read, not good, but it is nice to have things out in the open.
Ok, I'm not into conflicts personally so I try to resolve them as soon as possible, but…
Poll: Should the Tim/Tony fight be resolved quickly or drag it out a few chapters?
I also don't like writing them fighting because I don't like to see either of them mean to the other (the show does a fine job of that as it is). I already have it thought out how I think I want it to be resoloved but I just wanted to see if there were overwhelming opinions either way.
Thanks guys and gals so much for reading. :)