Chapter 9

The next morning...

Fornell sighed as he looked around the small apartment. He hadn't known the two FBI agents who had been killed, but any time he had to investigate the death of one of his own, he wasn't happy about it.

He knelt down by one of the bodies.

"Sacks?"

"Michael Blair. Hired last year. Low-level agent, nothing extraordinary about him. He did some computer work, but he hadn't shown much potential in that area although he wanted to. Applied for it multiple times."

Fornell nodded and walked over to the other body by the door.

"Looks like this one almost got out."

"Chayce Wheeler," Sacks said. "About the same as Blair, really. They were both hired about the same time. They worked together some."

"And why are they both dead here? Were they working on anything dangerous?"

Sacks sighed. "Not according to their files. They were barely taken out into the field. Neither had shown much skill in that regard."

"How in the world did they get hired, then?"

"Hard workers, both of them. Their evaluations are full of comments about how hard they both worked."

Fornell nodded. There was a place in the FBI for agents who could work hard, even if they weren't going to excel.

"Okay. We need to get this whole scene processed. I don't want to miss anything. I don't think it was a coincidence that they were killed here. We're not going to let this go."

"Right."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

He stumbled across a road, still running although it was a slow pace at this point. There was a drizzle of rain that hadn't stopped. He was soaked to the skin, trembling and still terrified that he might be pursued.

Suddenly, he was at a river.

A river.

He could hear the water moving and he liked it. He stumbled down to the edge of the river and crouched down beside it.

Water.

He liked water.

He sat down in the mud. He could stay here. He couldn't hear anyone coming after him. He didn't know where he was, but there were no guns here.

It felt safe.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

It was after nine, and Tim wasn't there. They knew it because they'd all gone up to check. Gibbs had called and now, he was getting ready to go to Tim's apartment to find out what was going on.

He was just about to leave when the elevator dinged open and Fornell stormed off.

"Where's Agent McGee?" he demanded.

"I don't know, Fornell. What's going on?" Gibbs asked.

"Two agents were killed last night, Gibbs, and McGee was involved somehow."

"Involved?" Tony repeated. "What are you talking about?"

"His fingerprints were at the scene," Fornell said. "If his fingerprints were there, so was he."

"Who were they?" Ziva asked.

"Two new agents. My people, Gibbs," Fornell said. "Some of my people were killed. If your agent was involved, I want to know why!"

Gibbs looked at Tony.

"Go to McGee's apartment. If he's there, bring him here."

"On it, Boss," Tony said, nodding.

"You're not hiding him?" Fornell asked.

"You shouldn't have to ask that, Fornell!" Tony protested.

"You guys are as thick as thieves and more devious. You're also very protective of McGee ever since he got shot."

"We're not hiding him anywhere," Gibbs said sternly.

"We were getting worried about him," Ziva said. "He has not come in yet today. We have not seen him since yesterday."

"We were getting worried about him yesterday, too," Tony said. "He's been acting strange all week."

"Strange in what way?" Fornell asked.

"He said that things were weird for him," Ziva said. "We do not know exactly what that means when he says it, but he was getting rides to and from work."

"He was having a hard time deciding what was real and what was a dream," Gibbs added. "Tobias, if you're going to accuse an NCIS agent of abetting a murder..."

"I want to know why he was there and what he saw and, if he wasn't involved, what was going on."

"Fine. Then, ask that," Gibbs said. He looked at Tony again. "Are you still here, DiNozzo?"

"Nope. Gone, Boss," Tony said and hurried to the elevator.

"Good. You want to show us what's going on, Fornell?" Gibbs asked.

"Fine. Yeah. If your man is missing, it could be something else. We don't know why they were there."

"Where?" Ziva asked.

"An FBI safehouse, actually, one we haven't used in a while because we thought it might be compromised. These two agents were relatively new and they hadn't been assigned any dangerous tasks. They weren't trusted that much yet."

"Who are they?"

"Chayce Wheeler and Michael Blair. Pretty nondescript guys, if you ask me. ...until now. Now, we don't know why they were killed at an FBI safehouse, what they were doing there..."

"...or why an NCIS agent was there, too."

"Exactly."

"Where's Sacks?"

"Outside. I wasn't sure I could trust him to be civil with DiNozzo, and I wasn't in the mood for that kind of distraction."

Gibbs smiled a little. "Okay. Get him in here. Ziva, you work with Sacks. Get up to speed with their case...if you don't mind, Tobias."

"I don't mind. You don't think McGee is going to be at home?"

"No, I don't. I think that the only way Tim wouldn't make it here if he were deathly ill or..."

"...dead," Ziva whispered.

"We need to tell Vance about this, Gibbs," Fornell said.

"Yeah."

They went up the stairs to tell Vance about the potential problem.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

It was so cold, but he didn't dare go anywhere else. He was hiding in the bushes by the running water. He hadn't seen anyone and that was good. He still didn't know what to do about getting away from the guns. As long as he was by the water, he couldn't hear the guns. That was good.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony walked up the stairs to Tim's apartment, key in hand. Tim wasn't going to be home. He was sure of it. He hoped that Tim wasn't home because Tony couldn't imagine that Tim would be home and all right. Not so that he'd be more than an hour late for work. There were other possibilities for where Tim could be...like stuck on the Metro. That hadn't ever happened before, but Tim had confessed that there were times he had a hard time paying attention to where he was. With all the troubles he'd been having this week, Tony could believe that might happen. It was better than the alternative, anyway.

He knocked on the door.

No answer, but he heard Jethro barking, and there was a distinctly-anxious tinge to it. Quickly, Tony unlocked the door and then, was nearly knocked over by Jethro jumped on him...but the attack didn't last long. Jethro was quickly convinced that Tony wasn't who he wanted.

Instantly, Tony was even more worried. They knew that Jethro had almost taken on a nursemaid role with Tim. If Jethro was anxious like this, then, something must have happened. Tony looked at Jethro and made a decision. He walked into the apartment, looked around, saw no signs of struggle, and grabbed Jethro's leash.

"Jethro, let's go."

Jethro whined at him but allowed Tony to clip on the leash.

They left the apartment and Jethro, only reluctantly, got into Tony's car. Then, Tony drove them back to NCIS, hoping that they'd had some ideas.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"How much danger do you think that Agent McGee might be in?" Vance asked.

"Depending on the reasons for the murders," Fornell said, "I'd say that there could be a lot of risk to him. Honestly, he could be dead already...if he's an innocent in this and..."

"He's not the reason your men are dead, Tobias," Gibbs said. "Tim can't tolerate even handling a gun, let alone shooting one, anymore. ...and we're not assuming he's dead until we have evidence of it."

"Okay," Vance interrupted. "I want to know where Agent McGee is, too. NCIS will work with the FBI...with your permission, Agent Fornell."

"I'd better not see any signs of a cover-up if the evidence leads us in a direction Gibbs doesn't like. I don't want anything to happen to Agent McGee, either, but if he's involved..."

"While I would say that you should take his injuries into account, we won't cover up for him if he's guilty of anything, Agent Fornell. However, don't convict him without a trial. Whatever problems Agent McGee still has as a result of his injury, he is not a murderer."

"Understood," Fornell said.

Gibbs thought about what had been going on. He looked at Fornell.

"The Allen case?"

"Wheeler and Blair weren't assigned to the Allen case. That's Agent Russell's case, and he wouldn't risk something that important on two nobodies."

"But that's the only sensitive thing McGee was working on."

"You think there's no other reason?"

"I don't know, Tobias. I'd rather we find McGee being fine, but with what you're saying, it sounds bad."

"Let's get started then."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Ziva looked at the pictures.

"These are the two agents?" she asked.

"Yeah. I was there, Agent David," Sacks said. "I saw their bodies."

"I did not mean to offend you," Ziva said quickly. She wouldn't worry about it in other situations, but in this case, she wanted to find where Tim was more than she wanted to antagonize Sacks.

"Yeah, sure," Sacks grumbled.

"I have seen this man before," she said, pointing to Chayce. "Tim said that he was watching him."

"Watching him? Sounds a little paranoid to me," Sacks said.

"How much he was watching, I do not know," Ziva said, "but you do not understand how much more Tim notices when he wants to. He has difficulty in public situations because there is so much going on. He will focus on one person and it is hard for him to stop staring. He mentioned seeing this man all around him at different times. Why would an FBI agent be watching an NCIS agent?" she asked pointedly.

"Good question, Tobias," Gibbs said from behind them.

"How sure are you?" Fornell asked Ziva.

"Positive that this is the man Tim pointed out to us," Ziva said. "However, I cannot say how often. Only Tim could and he did not. It was one of those things he did not consider important enough to think about."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that Tim doesn't think the same way as he did. He can't make the same connections. Either everything is important or nothing is," Gibbs said.

The elevator dinged and Tony got off with Jethro reluctantly in tow.

"McGee wasn't home, and based on Jethro's whining, he hasn't been home for a while...or else he was taken by force somewhere. He's definitely not home and there wasn't a struggle inside."

"In the hallway?" Ziva asked.

"Not that I saw."

"One of the agents who was killed is one that Tim saw around him."

Tony furrowed his brow.

"Really?" He thought for a second and then, his eyes widened. "Hey...if I'm right about what I'm about to say, I feel like the biggest idiot ever."

"What?" Ziva asked.

"We're all idiots," Tony said.

"Get on with it, DiNozzo," Sacks said, rolling his eyes.

"No one asked you, Slacks."

Thwack!

"What is it, Tony?" Gibbs asked.

"Tim said he felt like he'd gone somewhere all night and that he didn't know where he was. What if he really was taken by these two guys and he just couldn't explain himself to us? And we just didn't give it the attention we should have."

"Why would Wheeler and Blair take Agent McGee to that safehouse?"

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at Fornell.

"You said that they weren't trusted with important stuff yet," Gibbs said. "They wanted to be in the computer stuff."

"You really think that they'd be willing to abduct a fellow agent just to advance their careers?" Fornell asked.

"You really think that federal agents are somehow immune from the kinds of things we see every day?" Gibbs asked in return.

"What do you want to do, Boss?"

Gibbs looked at Jethro.

"We know that McGee was at the safehouse."

"Yeah?"

"We have his dog here."

"Yeah. We do," Tony said.

"Fornell?"

"We want to find him, too," Fornell said. "If he knows anything, we want to know, too."

"All right. Let's go."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

He was cold, but he was happy with the sound of the water. He was beginning to forget why he'd been afraid before. As long as he stayed here, he'd be fine.