"Does somebody want to tell me how the hell this happened?" Gibbs demanded to know as the ambulance carried Ziva out of the building on a stretcher.
"Well…um…Boss," McGee spoke up when Tony turned his back to Gibbs and continued snapping pictures of the scene, pretending he hadn't heard anything. "We were waiting for our food, and Ziva got the wrong soda. She went inside to get it changed and then…there was a scream. That's when Tony and I went running into the building and we found everything." Tim explained in that rushed and stuttering voice that he often used when placed under the pressure of one of Gibbs's hard stares.
Gibbs seemed to accept Tim's explanation and looked away from him, allowing McGee to get back to work. Ducky was examining the dead body inside of the stall it was found in.
"What do we know, Ducky?" asked Gibbs.
"Well," Ducky responded, "The killer was either extremely rushed, or extremely unprofessional. It's obvious by the poor job they did stitching her neck back together."
"I'm more interested in how and when she died." Gibbs responded with, stepping into the stall to get a closer look at the body.
"I'd say that she died no more than two hours ago. As for the cause of death, I'd find it logical to conclude that the slit across her throat was her demise." Ducky then went on with, "I can tell you this, Jethro: it is unlikely that our victim was killed here. We've yet to find a trace of blood, aside from that on the edge of the sink and the blood from Ziva."
"Why are ruling out the blood on the sink as being the victims?" Gibbs questioned and followed Ducky from the stall the doctor walked out of it.
Ducky approached the sink, side-stepping Tony as he did so. He pointed to the blood found on the smooth and rounded edge of the white sink. "If you'll notice the placement of the sink in relation to the blood showing us where Special Agent David's head landed, it's a safe assumption to say that Agent David fell and hit her head on the sink, explaining how she was rendered unconscious."
"I don't want assumptions Ducky, I want answers." Gibbs was obviously annoyed.
He always snapped at people more often when he was angry. The heat didn't do anything to help the situation. The sun seemed to have pushed its way through the walls and felt as if it were about to make the blood on the floor begin to boil.
"As do I, Jethro." Ducky wasn't at all phased by Gibbs's slightly harsh tone. "As do I."
Tim had gotten to work on sifting through the garbage bin in search of evidence. His hands protected and covered by gloves, the agent pulled out every piece of trash one-by-one and examined it. The witty banter on the crime scene was at a minimum. The team seemed to be having bad luck with its female members. Kate was killed, Abby's life had been threatened numerous times, and now Ziva had been found unconscious and bleeding on a bathroom floor.
Something caught Tim's eye suddenly. Something that was a shade of dark red that closely resembled the pool of Ziva's blood on the floor. He reached into the garbage can, ready to pick it up before it dawned on him what he was about to touch. His arm jerked back like he'd just been bitten and he crinkled his nose. Unbeknownst to Tim, Gibbs had taken a moment to look up and see how the garbage search was going. Gibbs took a step towards Tim and looked down into the trashcan, immediately spotting the used tampon that had made McGee pull back.
"Never lived with a woman, have you McGee?" he asked.
"I- um- no, Boss." McGee answered.
A laugh rose from the other side of the room where Tony was now photographing the dead woman. "That's a given, don't you think , Boss?"
"Back to work DiNozzo." Gibbs ordered, not amused.
Tony did so, the smile slowly slipping off of his lips and disappearing. The special agent got back to the task at hand: photographing a dead woman seated on a toilet. Yes, she was fully dressed, in a blood-red business suit to be specific, but none the less, she was on a toilet.
"With cases of slit throats, I can't help but think of an actor I once heard about who went to act out a suicide scene with what he believed to be a fake knife, and ended up actually killing himself on stage." Ducky stated to nobody in particular. "It seems that somehow the prop knife was switched with a real knife, causing the poor lad to fatally slit his throat."
"How'd the audience react when they saw all the blood?" Tim asked without looking up from the garbage can, not wanting to pause in his work and push one of Gibbs's buttons.
Ducky sighed, "That's part of the tragedy in it. They applauded. They thought that it was all special effects. Imagine that, people applauding at the fact that you've slit your throat and you can't even shout out for help."
"Maybe you all don't get it." Gibbs spoke up suddenly. "We've got an agent down. Now, I want you done with the scene and getting to work on figure out who the hell did this within an hour. Got it?"
"But boss-" Tony's words were cut short.
"One hour!" With that Gibbs was walking out the door, a now-cold coffee in hand.
It took the team almost exactly forty minutes to finish with the crime scene. Ziva was safe and at the hospital, but she out like a light and not showing the slightest sign of waking up. She was vulnerable in that state, which was something none of the team had ever even bothered to imagine happening before. The words "Ziva" and "vulnerable" didn't belong in the same sentence, unless it was being stated how they didn't belong in the same sentence. It didn't take a genius to figure out that something abnormal had happened in that bathroom while McGee and Tony were outside. Ziva was- well…Ziva. There could only be a handful of people on the planet that could take her down without having a weapon, and the only injury on her body that couldn't have been caused by a human hand was the fracture on her skull that Ducky had no other choice than to assume had come from hitting her head on the sink. She had a black eye and Ducky had found bruising on her abdomen before the ambulance arrived. The strange part was that Ducky seemed to think that the bruises had been given to her after she'd been taken down. That still left the question of how she'd hit her head.
"Timothy McGee," Abby said loudly as Tim entered her lab, "You are the third person to come down here since you guys got back from lunch, and I have yet to be told what the heck is going on."
"Abs-"
"Eh!" she cut McGee off with an incoherent noise. "That's the same tone Gibbs and Ducky started their sentences with. I want answers, Timmy."
"Abs-"
Abby cut his words short again, "Let me finish!" She raised the Caf-Pow that was currently in her hands to her lips and placed the straw between her lips, sucking it. The noise that filled the room let McGee know that the Caf-Pow was empty now. "I want answers…and a new Caf-Pow, or else I'm going to plaster that picture of you that I took on my cell phone all over this place. Oh, and I'll personally hand one to Tony."
"Gibbs would kill us both." Tim pointed out, shifting the weight of the box of evidence in his hands that had been one of his main reason for going down to Abby's lab.
"Very true." She stepped closer to Tim now as she moved to throw away the Caf-Pow container. "But, I could always hack into your computer and email a copy to your mother."
"You wouldn't dare." His eyes narrowed and Abby's did the same in return.
"Try me."
They held each other's gaze in an intense staring contest for what felt like a long while, until finally McGee blinked and looked away. He sighed, finally setting down the evidence box on the table beside him. He crossed his arms and reluctantly explained the day's events to Abby. She worried a lot, and he hated to make her worry. However, he more especially would hate for his mother to see the picture he recalled Abby having taken the previous night. The reason being that it hadn't been taken at a very flattering angle, among other things.
"Oh. My. God." was Abby's shocked reaction when he'd finished the story. With her jaw slightly dropped she looked at McGee, then at the box of evidence, then back at McGee again. "Oh my God. Not again. Damn it, not again!" The tears in her eyes were obvious and her lips and formed a pout. She was blinking hard and shaking her head.
"What do you mean not again?" Tim had to admit that he was a little confused.
"First Kate, then Jen… now Ziva?" Her face dropped suddenly and, if possible, grew three shades paler. "I'm next."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Tim placed his hands on Abby's shoulders and leaned his face close to hers. "First of all, Ziva isn't dead. She's in a coma. And second, even if she had died, you would not be next, okay? Gibbs wouldn't let that happen. I-…I wouldn't let that happen." He wished that he hadn't said that. It sounded corny. As a cover up, he quickly added on, "And neither would Tony. You're safe, Abs."
Abby had on that knowing smile of hers as McGee started to blush and she placed her arms around his necking, giving one of her usual hugs.
"Thanks Timmy." she said.
"No problem." Quickly, to lighten the mood, he added, "Isn't this a yellow light, Abby?"
"Very funny Timmy." Abby pulled away, sticking out her tongue at McGee. "But, you're forgetting something."
"What's that?"
"I run red lights for fun."
It was meant to be funny, and Tim knew that. The problem was, a part of his brain couldn't help but to flash back to the previous night. The blush that was yet to leave his face grew more intense and he looked away. As if she could read his mind, Abby reached over and slapped his arm.
"Quit reading so far into things." she laughed.
"Can't help it." Tim gave a shrug and his eyes darted towards the doorway.
With his luck, Gibbs would be walking into the lab any second in the middle of this conversation. Then, he'd find himself in a situation similar to Ziva's, except he would most defiantly end up dead. A smile stayed on Abby's lips as she turned away and started to remove the evidence from the box on the table. It was blood samples, and suspicious garbage mostly. One thing was for sure, they didn't have much to work off of on this case. They wouldn't until Tony got back to the office with the witness reports.
"I had fun last night." her words were soft, like she was embarrassed to even say them. But she had and they made McGee's throat go dry.
"I- erm…me too." It was right then that he realized just how too-often he stuttered.
Abby let out a laugh, "Relax Timmy." She said and pointed to the small screen next to her computer monitor that she used to communicate with Ducky., "Gibbs is down with Ducky in autopsy, and the sound is off."
It was true. With the way that the camera was angled, Tim could clearly see Ducky and Gibbs speaking with one another and couldn't hear a word they were saying. He released a bit of the air that he'd been holding in his lungs and could relax a bit.
"I really wasn't expecting anything to happen. I mean, I meant it when I agreed that we should stop a while back…" he trailed off, waiting for reaction.
The young forensics scientist nodded her head of black hair, "Me too. But, honestly, I think I needed that."
"Same here." McGee agreed and that seemed to be the end of their chat. No discussion of whether or not the previous night was going to happen again. There was just an awkward pause that turned into a stretch of awkward silence. "I should probably get back to work." He started towards the door.
"Don't forget the second half of our deal!" Abby called after him. "Bring me a Caf-Pow or your mom sees the picture!"
Down in autopsy, Gibbs was growing impatient that Ducky wouldn't just get straight to the point.
"Did you find anything?" he asked for the third time as another story about a throat slit victim ended.
"Not with the external examination, but I was just about to begin the autopsy." Ducky said then added, "In fact, Jimmy, begin the autopsy! I'll join you in a minute."
"Right away Dr. Mallard." the ever-eager Jimmy Palmer said.
"Now, Jethro," Ducky placed a hand on his colleague's shoulder, "Might I suggest taking a moment to take a deep breath."
"Why would I need that?" Gibbs knew exactly where Ducky was going with this, and he didn't' like it.
"You're a bit wound up, don't you think?"
"I'm fine Ducky."
"It's just-"
"I'm fine."
The autopsy room fell to silence and Ducky dropped his hand from Gibbs's shoulder. Gibbs, figuring that he had all the information he could get from Ducky at the moment, turned to leave. He stopped, however, when Jimmy's voice met his ears.
He said, "Um…Mr. Mallard, Special Agent Gibbs, you might want to have a look at this."
