Strong
It was a tense drive back to Lisa's place, as Joy refused to give any hint of what was happening and every time Tim would glance at her, she had a frown on her face, as if whatever she was thinking was giving her a very bad headache.
They enter the house and are greeted by the enthusiastic barks of Jethro and the happy squeals of Priscilla, and they have to laugh at the completely exhausted looks both Matt and Sarah had on their faces.
"Enjoyed your day, uhm?" says Joy with a smirk, as she sees her brother sitting heavily on the love seat and melting down on it, completely exhausted.
"Babysitting is a great contraceptive method, because if every man, or woman, had ever to deal with a child twenty-four seven BEFORE conceiving, they would think twice about it. Or thrice, I don't know." He says, exhausted.
"What?" Tim smirks down at Matt, "have you just decided you're not having any kids? Just because they might be too much trouble?"
Matt looks at Tim, cross, and feels Sarah's gaze on him, so he shrugs, "I don't know, but I would definitely be very careful before deciding to have any. It's a lot of responsibility."
Sarah just smiles, and hugs Priscilla, who climbed in her lap to show her one of her dolls. She lifts her eyes, and her eyes cross with Matt's which were studying her with the little girl in her lap.
"Of course," he adds, softly, "I would have to discuss it with the prospective mother, as well."
Matt and Sarah just look at each other, and Timothy opens his mouth, ready to say something, but Joy grabs his arm, and drags him down the corridor towards the stairs, "we'll be back later," she shouts to them, and rushes to their guest bedroom.
"What exactly has just happened down there?" Tim finally finds his ability to speak again, and Joy just smiles and closes the guest bedroom door after herself, and locks it.
"I don't know, and I don't wanna know, It's not my business," she looks at him, leaning against the locked door, "neither yours."
He folds his arms, deep in thought, studying her face, trying to find in it something, anything to help him figure out what is happening behind those brown eyes.
She sighs deeply, and walks around the bed, and sits on his side, and pats the mattress, "sit down, and I will explain everything."
Timothy still takes a minute, deep in thought, before he sits on the bed, "this is about my father, isn't it?"
Joy is staring ahead, breathing very slowly, and she refuses to meet his eyes, "yes," she says softly.
Tim closes his eyes, and sighs deeply, his mind working thousands of different scenarios of what might be possibly have happened and what possibly might still happen, and everything that pops before his eyes was bad, "please tell me everything," he opens his eyes, "don't hide anything."
Joy turns to look at him, and in her eyes she sees only concern, and determination to finish whatever they had started, "I won't."
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Since the night before, the NY underground scene had been in uproar. There were rumors that some criminal hackers had been hunted down and executed. All of them were on Mike's regular crew. Besides that, there had been several anonymous tips to the NYPD of secret hideouts, as well as drug labs, and both the PD and the FBI was having one of the biggest bust operations of the year, arresting pimps, drug pushers, mules and chemists who were working in their labs.
They also received search warrants for the offices of lawyers and accountants who were under suspicion of having links with the Mob and, even though the FBI knew that they might not find anything incriminatory in the official books, at least they were giving the tree a good shake.
After all, the message they wanted to deliver was loud and clear: they were watching, and they would act to impose the fullest extent of the law.
For those living in the underground, however, the message had been very specific: Mike Murdoch had messed with the wrong people, and now he was paying the price by a direct attack on his operations. In blood.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
"We have verified several attempts to read our confidential personal files, both in the NCIS servers or, in my case, DoD," she starts, studying his face for any reaction.
"What were they looking for?"
"Everything. Anything. The attacks were insistent, but were caught early on, so they weren't able to access much. But still, it was a very uncomfortable wake up call."
"Were you able to find out who was behind those attacks?"
Joy looks down to her hands, which were resting on her own thighs, and relaxes her fingers, "they originated from New York, and we have reason to believe that it was a coordinated attack ordered by a mob don."
"What does it have to do with my father?" says Tim softly, still not wanting to believe the ramifications of what she is saying.
Joy looks at him in the eye, and says, "the attacks started after your father placed a phone call to a person of interest in NY, and later on he received a phone call back. This one we had the opportunity of listening in on, as he was already under surveillance by Hope's team," Joy bites her lower lip, then says, "Tim, your father ordered the attacks, and he gave all our names to the mobster to look up."
Joy's heart constricts as she sees Tim's face crunch up in pain, as the scope of his father's evilness is revealed to him. He closes his eyes, and breathes deeply several times, trying to ease the pain.
"Why? Why would he do that? Why would he put us in jeopardy like that?"
"I … We don't know yet, but whatever he's done, he put all of us at risk." Joy shakes her head, trying to dispel the dark thoughts from her head, as several outcomes for the situation appeared before her eyes, and they were all bad. "From Palmer to the Director, every one of us had our files scrutinized, poked and if my mom hadn't ordered our family files sealed, and yours flagged," she sees the pain he is in, but the must continue, "it could have been much worse."
"Your mom flagged my file? Why?"
"Mom flagged all your files, Gibbs, Tony's Ziva's, even the Director's as soon as I started to work in NCIS."
Tim is confused, "Why?"
Joy smiles between her tears, and wipes her eyes, where tears are ready to fall, "please, mom is a control freak," she smiles at Tim, "from the moment I was assigned to Gibbs's team, she had background checks done on all of you." Tim opens his mouth, but no words come out, and Joy continues, "of course, she also had a veiled interest in knowing more about you, since you were…" she smiles saucily at him, and he blushes, "she didn't want to see me hurt again. She just did what she did to protect me."
"So she had me checked out."
"Yep"
"What if I was a rotten egg? A bad person, what would she have done?"
"She would have shown me the file, and let me take my own decisions. She had done that before." She sighs, "As there was nothing in the file that she considered worth of mentioning to me, she buried it, and then ordered all the files of those involved in my work in NCIS flagged, just in case someone ever tried to use me or NCIS as leverage against her."
Tim thinks a little about she had just revealed, "so she has been watching us all along."
"No, she has been watching over us all along, Tim."
"I don't see much difference," he adds, bitterly, as he stands up and goes to the window, "she was just trying to cover for herself."
"No, Tim," Joy stands up, "she has the responsibility of protecting us, that's what she has always done," he turns to her, staring down at her with hurt eyes, "yes, her work is very important, and yes, she was trying to cover all the bases, but her biggest concern has always been our protection: if she hadn't taken such steps, we wouldn't be aware of the threat, we wouldn't be ready to fight back when the time comes."
He's still smarting with hurt, and she continues, "you have to understand that all she has ever done was to protect the family."
"We're not her family, she shouldn't …"
"You really don't get it, do you?" Joy says irritated, "for her, you are family. Regardless of your status as my boyfriend, or significant other, as you work with me, and if my connections to mom are exposed, you become a target." He freezes, and she continues, "There are too many players in the power game she plays, and you have to be very careful with the pieces you have, as it is usually by those people who are not aware of what it is at stake that the game might be lost."
"Tim," she is really hoping that he is able to see things as she sees them, "we had secrets for breakfast while we were growing up, and it was ingrained in our behavior to be cautious in our dealing with others, never revealing too much, or anything that might expose what mom does, because there were too many people who could use us, any of us, to force mom to a make a deal."
"It has happened before." She adds softly.
"Who?" he asks.
"They tried to use Temp." she says softly.
McGee goes to the window, and stares through the window pane without really seeing the trees from the garden.
"Do you really think he would do that? Attack everyone I know, turn all of them into targets, just to… hit me?"
"I'm sorry, Tim," she says, fully aware of the betrayal and pain he must be feeling.
"Why does he hate me so much? I know I wasn't the son he wanted me to be, but…"
"Tim, it doesn't matter."
"No, it does matter. Why can't he love me?" his voice was quivering, the pain too much to bear.
"Because he doesn't know what love is. In order to love someone, you have to learn how. For him, love is synonymous with control, but control isn't love," she puts her arms around his back, her hands enfolding his waist and she leans her head against his back.
"Love is to give. Give yourself truly and completely, and be happy only when you see your beloved is happy, and complete only when you are with the one you love. It hurts, it heals, it completes you, it is something indescribable but as necessary as the air we breathe. That's love." He looks at their reflection on the window pane, he there, standing, and she, with her short arms trying to embrace him and take away the pain. Their eyes meet on the reflection.
"That was nice," he murmurs.
"Yes, it was," she smiles, and squeezes him on his waist.
"Did you read it somewhere? Were you quoting anyone?"
"No, it was totally spontaneous," she turns her head, so she can touch the side of her face on his back.
"Sometimes you are very eloquent," he says softly. Joy rubs her face against his back, and says softly as well.
"That's what you get when your father is known for long speeches."
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
"Target is moving, alpha three," says a voice in the radio.
"Target is acknowledged, alpha six," says another.
"Is shark-bait here yet, alpha four?" says another voice.
"Believe me, when shark-bait bait arrives, you'll know, alpha three," says a female voice, with mirth.
DiNozzo stabbed the piece of broccoli on his plate, wishing it was Faith's head he was stabbing. Ziva looked at him, smirking, as she had heard the exchange by the radio.
"Don't laugh, it's not funny," he says in a low voice, and Ziva's grin becomes bigger.
"Oh, hairy butt is mad," she teases him, and he keeps on attacking his vegetables.
They were having dinner on a restaurant that the Buchanans handpicked as the stage for Commander Kieran McGee's downfall. It was an elegant, tiny Asian restaurant in the theater district, where Tony and Ziva were sitting in one of the private dining areas, separated by a tall hand carved wooden wall divider as backup just in case things went south.
Ziva picks her glass of white wine, and brings it to her mouth and hisses on her radio, "Visual with target, alpha six."
Commander Kieran McGee had just arrived, and was speaking with the petite Asian Maitre, asking for his reserved table.