Chapter 4. Splintered

As Tony and Ziva stepped out of the elevator and into the garage, the only thing they heard was a woman softly sobbing. McGee was bent over, looking into the passenger door, while a pair of feet stuck out from underneath the car, wearing platform shoes, again reminding him of The Wizard of Oz.

"Abby," DiNozzo called. "Abby, are you okay." He was rewarded by hearing a rolling sound as Abby appeared from beneath the car. Her makeup was streaked across her face from wiping her eyes, tears still falling. Her hair fell around her face, hiding most of it in shadow from the work lights in the bay. She looked at him and nodded, clearly lying.

McGee stood and moved to intercept DiNozzo and Ziva. Ziva didn't pay him any attention and went to hug the forensic scientist. McGee said, "Tony, can you come take a look at what we got so far," pointing to the evidence table in front of the car.

DiNozzo let himself be led by McGee, unable to take his eyes off Abby, who was still being held by Ziva. By the looks of McGee's shirt, this wasn't the first time she'd been crying on someone.

On the table was a wide variety of items found in most cars. Trash from the front seat; a tire iron, jack and spare tire from the trunk; a uniform in plastic with a dry cleaner tag; an air freshener well past its throw away date, and numerous CDs.

Tim's voice lowered so only he and DiNozzo could hear. "Just listen and look where I point. Nod every now and then, okay, Tony?" DiNozzo nodded, his eyes unable to concentrate on the table in front of him, worry about Abby destroying his attention span. "You got to get her out of here. She hasn't stopped crying for Gibbs. I doubt if she can even see what she's looking at through the tears. Let her go to the hospital, she's pretty useless here right now. I can finish this up," he begged.

DiNozzo's heart went out to her. He just looked at her and back to Tim. He ran through all the possible choices he had, but it all came down to one simple answer. He nodded his approval.

They both walked to the two women. Ziva gave a look to DiNozzo that was well masked, but he would know that look even without them dating. Even Tim could read it. Tony rubbed a hand up and down Abby's back gently and spoke to her softly. "Abs, do you want to go to the hospital and see about Gibbs?" A nod from the head buried between Ziva's shoulder and neck was all the answer he needed. "Okay, go get changed and we'll drive you."

Abby stood straight and gave a long hug to DiNozzo while he walked her to the elevator. DiNozzo put his eye to the retinal scanner and the elevator opened. He pressed the button and put was surprised to see Palmer standing there, still clad in scrubs. DiNozzo spoke to him quietly, "Palmer, take Abby up to her lab so she can change, then bring her back down here, okay?" Palmer nodded and DiNozzo put Abby inside the elevator next to Palmer, who wrapped his arms around her. The elevator doors closed and it began its ascent.

He moved back to his team and spoke. "Ziva, take her to the hospital, I'll stay here and be along with McGee when the car's processed."

Ziva shook her head. "No, Tony. Abby needs her big brother. She would respond to you far better than me, and I can help McGee with the car. We will finish quicker if you are not here to 'supervise' Tim working." McGee nodded his agreement.

"Besides, Tony, we're almost done here. We'll be along within an hour," McGee said as Ziva moved off.

"Okay, McGee. Do it right, though. No shortcuts. Looks like Reynolds didn't kill him, but he did hit him with a shovel," DiNozzo said as McGee nodded.

"That would explain some wood splinters we found in the driver's seat and embedded in the steering wheel. Probably cracked the handle when it hit and put some splinters in his hands, if it was an old shovel."

The elevator dinged behind them and out walked Palmer. He walked up to DiNozzo. "Abby wanted some privacy while she changed, so I came down here to wait."

McGee smirked, "She wanted privacy, or you did?"

Palmer didn't answer directly, just flushed a little bit before turning to DiNozzo. "How's Agent Gibbs," he asked.

"Still don't know yet, Palmer. Ducky doesn't have an update yet, just that he's still in surgery," DiNozzo said. "Hey, how did you know about Carmichael being gay?"

Palmer got a little flushed. "Well, we found on his, um, frontal private area, that there was some microscopic traces of something in his pubic hair. I brought it up to Abby and she ran it. I guess she came down here before it was finished, because when I went to see how she was doing, she wasn't there, but the results were on the computer. It was male feces. I also recalled that Carmichael's, uh, um, behind…area was distended. And he had some fluids in his…you know. Abby ran those too and it came back to Reynolds' DNA." By now, Palmer was bright red. "I just put two and two together and called you, but Ziva answered."

The two field agents chuckled. "'Frontal private area'? You work around dead bodies, naked ones at that, and you refer to his groin as his 'frontal private area'," DiNozzo asked, a snicker in his voice.

"That's...different. I can talk like that down in Autopsy, since it's where I normally work. I'm used to Dr. Mallard, not so much you guys," Palmer said, growing redder, which none of the three thought possible.

DiNozzo grinned at the flustered Medical Assistant. "Good work, Palmer. Good initiative," DiNozzo said to a now beaming Palmer. As Ziva came back, now dressed in a red coverall, he asked, "What did you find about the back of his head?"

Palmer looked between the three. "Well, I want to have Dr. Mallard check to make sure, but it looks like some of the damage could have been done by something hard and metal. It's really hard to tell, with the damage the exit wound did, but there was a small amount of cracked skull that can't be totally accounted for by the bullet."

"Okay. Anything else?" Palmer shook his head as Abby entered from the elevator, clad now in a pair of black jeans and a T-Shirt for Plastic Death.

She went straight to DiNozzo and he wrapped her in his arms. "Abby, Palmer and I are going to take you to the hospital, okay?" She only nodded. "Palmer's going to take you upstairs and I'll be along in a minute," DiNozzo said. Another nod. He turned to Palmer, "Get changed, you can ride with us if you'd like."

Palmer nodded and took Abby from DiNozzo and maneuvered them back to the elevator. Three sets of eyes were on them as they walked away, and all were thinking good thoughts toward Abby.

When the elevator doors closed, DiNozzo turned back to Ziva and McGee. "Okay, finish the car and meet us at the hospital. Ziva, stop off at the warehouse and see if you can find that shovel on your way, all right?" Ziva just nodded. He turned to the Junior Agent. "McGee, good job with Abby. Let's see if we can wrap this part up quickly." McGee looked a little surprised at the compliment, but nodded his thanks.

"Tony, something to think about," Ziva started. "If Reynolds did not kill Carmichael, and did not know about the money, who did, and is there one or two, or more, people involved?"

"Good point, Ziva. You two see if the car has any answers," DiNozzo said as he turned to make his way to the elevator. McGee and Ziva both shared a, 'he's turning into Gibbs, again' look, before turning to process the car.

DiNozzo looked down at his watch. It was three minutes past midnight. Happy six months, Ziva.