Chapter Five
He stood silently on the balcony, watching Gibbs and his team taking care of their problem. Sighing Leon Vance walked back into his office.
NCIS had a zero tolerance policy towards racism. He had to make sure that this wasn't going to be the norm; he just had no clue how to do it. Another seminar? An email to every employee? Vance sighed and dug a map out of his desk. It was time to do some research.
---
McGee knew that he was being followed by Ziva. She had followed him in a subtle way. The subtle part stopped when she walked into the men's room.
"I heard rumors about a Mossad officer following male agents into the men's room," he joked while washing his hands. "I didn't have to go; I just wanted to see if you really would follow me in."
She smiled and walked back out of the toilet.
"Wanna go out for coffee?" McGee asked when he walked out of the door a minute later. "You're going to follow me anyway, why not invite you?"
With smile she accepted his invitation and they walked together chatting to their regular coffee place.
---
Neither of them noticed the red Ford focus on them from the other side of the street. It wasn't a noticeable car. There were bumps and scratches all it. There was no one in the driver's seat, but in the backseat was a man with a camera, snapping pictures.
If Ziva or McGee had looked outside them might had noticed him, but they didn't. And a few minutes later the car drove away, its driver smiling.
---
Just before Tony was going to take McGee home an envelope arrived for him. He wanted to drop it on his desk and forget about it until tomorrow morning, but McGee pushed him to open his mail.
Tony ripped the envelope open and a photo fell out. 'Seems like your friend is going the right way,' was scribbled on the backside. With a pair of tweezers McGee picked up the picture and turned it around. It was a picture of him and Ziva at the coffee place. For some reason McGee was holding her hand. He was about to explain it all to Tony when one look at the man told him that he knew that they were just friends.
Gibbs walked in and saw that another picture had arrived.
"Abby's lab now!" He barked while calling Abby to tell her that they would be coming in.
Abby was ready for them, waiting in her lab with a variety of things the thought she would need. She started with checking the photograph for prints, but found none.
After that she loaded the data from McGee's camera onto her computer. Unfortunately for them it only showed Ziva's cleavage, a sign that McGee had been looking at her. Wanting to be thorough, she examined all the footage that was taken shortly before, during, or shortly after their visit to the coffeehouse, but she found nothing.
"No one knew that we were going there Boss," McGee said. "It was a spur of the moment thing. If I had known that this would happen, I never would have gone."
Gibbs knew that McGee knew that is wasn't his fault, and he wasn't going to tell him that again. He just sighed and left the lab after making sure that Tony would take McGee to his place that evening.
---
Gibbs was working in his basement when he heard the door open. He assumed that it was Tony and McGee so he paid no intention to it. But when he didn't hear them in the next couple of minutes he became curious. Checking his SIG, on his side, he crept up the stairs. Just when he walked into the kitchen he heard someone run out the front door.
He ran after the person but the only thing he saw was a red Ford driving off of his street. He sighed and walked back inside. He had to find out what the intruder had done before McGee and DiNozzo did.
It didn't take him long to find the crime scene. His guest bedroom had been methodically searched and personal items destroyed. Shaving cream was on the bed together with liquid soap and something that looked like wet toilet paper.
On the wall in bright red letters was written,
'Consider yourself warned'
He phoned Abby again, telling her shortly what had happened and that they would be bringing in more evidence. After that he called Ziva and Tony, shortly explaining to them what had happened. Tony became furious and refused to take Tim with him, if the intruder knew where to look Tim wasn't safe. But Gibbs just told him to get over it and to get his ass over here.
When the others arrived they silently started to shoot and sketch. After having processed everything in the guestroom they went through the house, making sure that they had every single piece of evidence.
It was Ziva who found a ripped fingertip from a rubber glove on the front lawn. She photographed it and picked it up with tweezers, examining it.
"Looks like red paint," she said, looking at a little red spot on the tip.
She bagged the last item and dropped into an evidence box. It was time to drive back to the Navy Yard.
As a black sedan drove by, the man behind the wheel laughed, his plan had worked, McGee looked really shaken up. Stepping on the gas peddle he drove into the night.
---
Abby dove into the evidence box as a dog would attack a bone. Smiling she pulled out a shredded pair of boxers. "I wonder what I'll find if I examine this," she teased, smirking. Closing her eyes she pulled more evidence back out of the box. It was the ripped finger of the glove.
Her first test showed that it wasn't paint on the glove, it was blood. Excited Abby went to work.
"You can go home," Abby said. "It will take at least twelve hours to get the results, and you won't speed things up with being here," but they all just ignored her. Gibbs walked to the squad room to sit at his desk, thinking.
McGee and Tony pulled the futon from under the bench and lay down in the ballistics lab. Ziva kept staring at Abby until she snapped and kicked Ziva out of her lab.
---
Abby sat at her workbench, head resting on her arms, dozing. Well, she was more thinking than dozing. She had no clue who would want to hurt her Tim. Abby smiled, even though McGee and Tony had been dating for a few months, she still thought of him as her Tim, or Timmy.
She had been surprised when she heard about their first date, but soon enough she saw in their relationship what Tim's and hers had never had. They kept it out the office, well usually, one time she had walked into her lab and discovered them doing some pretty hinky stuff.
But not only was someone wanting to hurt Tim horrible, the thought alone made her blood boil. She was going to find the person responsible and she would kick his ass backward and forward.
She walked over to her main computer station, just to check once more on the results. Still nothing. She yawned and looked over to her comfortable futon to see Tim smiling at her. Moving himself and Tony a little he made a place for her. Smiling, she fell asleep in the arms of her best friend and his lover.
---
Tony woke up hearing a beeping sound, originating from somewhere in the same room he was. Without opening his eyes he tried to figure out where he was.
His nose was nuzzled in Tim's hair, it smelled like lavender, as always. One of his legs was between Tim's and his arms were stroking his stomach.
That was when Tony hesitated, when had Tim gotten a flat stomach? He liked Tim's old belly better. His hands continued their exploring adventure, only to feel a pair of very feminine breasts. Startled, he rolled back and dropped off the futon. He lifted his torso and discovered that he had been holding Tim who had been holding Abby.
Slowly waking up he discovered that the beeping sound was coming from Abby's main computer. He crawled over to wake Abby. She jumped up and ran over to the computer.
"We have a match!" She shouted happily, bouncing up and down. She was tempted to press 'show results' now, but she wanted Gibbs to be there when they would discover the intruder's identity.
Checking her clock she discovered that it was already past seven a.m. She was about to dial his number when Gibbs walked in, together with Ziva.
"You never disappoint me Gibbs," she said bouncing while accepting the Caff-Pow! Ziva handed Tony and McGee a coffee and together they gathered around the computer.
With a theatrical gesture she pushed the 'show results' button, only to stare in the face of NCIS Director Leon Vance.