a/n - Second half of today's double dip. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews this story is gathering, You make my day.
Still nervous about the events of the weekend, Fornell drove McGee to NCIS rather than follow him in a separate car. "You can't tell Gibbs about the case; how are you going to get him to back off?"
"I'll ask him." McGee climbed out of the car and slammed the door behind him, leaving a stunned FBI agent in his wake. Fornell watched until he was safely inside the building before pulling away. From the upstairs, Gibbs watched the car leave before moving to greet the elevator.
McGee didn't even have to step forward to find himself toe to toe with Gibbs. The other occupants scattered before the doors were completely open. "Good morning, Boss." McGee stepped back to give the other man room.
Gibbs barely let the elevator start moving before he threw the emergency switch. "You sound better." He studied his young agent carefully, there was an air of exhaustion that surrounded him and made the senior agent ache. "I was hoping you'd get some rest over the weekend. You've still got plenty of sick leave; why don't you take a few days and go visit your family?"
For a second Tim couldn't take a breath and Gibbs grabbed his arm. "I'm okay." He straightened up and looked the other man in the eye. "Honest, I'm okay."
Gibbs didn't let go. "McGee, whatever Fornell has gotten you into, I can get you out of it. You just have to say the word." He shifted so both his hands were resting on McGee's shoulders. "Just tell me."
"Boss," McGee shook his head. "No, Fornell didn't get me into this, I got him into it and now… now I need you to back off." He took advantage of the stunned silence to press on, remembering what was in the file he read in Fornell's car. "You and Ziva broke into my place, you were there at the same time because your fingerprints were mixed together. Tony broke in later. One of you tracked in residue from the bombing at the recruiter's office."
In spite of the stress he was under, McGee couldn't help but smile a little bit as Gibbs looked guilty. "They evacuated my building and brought in the bomb squad, Boss. Fornell was so worried about my identity being discovered that he had a sniper up on the roof of the building I was in. You can't imagine the man hours that were wasted protecting me from a nonexistent threat." Tim knew he had to make his mentor understand how serious the FBI was taking the situation. "I can't afford them to be sidetracked by you guys, so I am asking you to back off." Gibbs hands were still on his shoulders so he reached up to grasp Gibbs' arms. "Please, Boss, I need you to trust me on this one."
Gibbs briefly wondered what happened to the baby faced kid who wouldn't even have a cup of coffee without permission. "You, I trust. That's not the problem, Tim." He released his hold on McGee, ruffling his hair once before turning the elevator back on. "Go down and have Ducky clear you for duty while I talk to Ziva and Tony."
McGee waited until Gibbs was stepping off the elevator. "If there is even a second that I think they don't have my back…" Gibbs turned to listen as he continued. "The first number on speed dial is yours, Boss, not Fornell's. Always."
---NCIS---
"Hey, Ducky."
"Timothy, what a pleasant surprise. How are you feeling, my boy?" Ducky pulled off his gloves and met McGee as he walked through the doors to autopsy. A quick glance sent Palmer heading out of the room.
"I'm much better, thanks, but Gibbs wants a check before he lets me back on duty." Knowing that Gibbs needed time to pass the message along to the rest of the team, he endured the assessment from the Medical Examiner.
Eventually Ducky was satisfied. "You're certainly turned the corner on that nasty virus you've been fighting, but you still look rather run down. Are you eating regularly? Getting enough sleep?
McGee thought about the food Ron's mother had sent, brought and had delivered over the last few days and had to laugh. "Ducky, if I ate any more, you'd have to roll me to my desk." Ducky picked up on what he didn't say.
"You're not sleeping well, are you?"
Tim shrugged. How could he sleep when there was so much to be done. Even Fornell's threat to handcuff him to the bed couldn't shut down his brain. His thoughts were interrupted as Ducky began to speak again.
"You do know that as your doctor, I am bound by an oath to keep anything you tell me in the strictest of confidences." Tim seemed to waver and Ducky pressed on. "I am concerned because part of your medical records have been sealed without my input. How can I gauge your fitness for duty if I don't have the entire picture?"
"Ducky, no, the sealed records have nothing to do with what is going on. You're just going to have to take my word on it." McGee didn't say anything else as he turned and left the room. Ducky sighed and leaned against one of the tables.
"Well, that could have gone better, old chap."
---NCIS---
By the time most government agencies start their day, NCIS had already put in several hours on the bombing at the recruiter's office. Tony leaned back and looked over at Ziva. "You're a woman, how much do you spend on clothes in a month's time?"
"I only buy clothes that I need when I need them, Tony. Why are you asking?
He gathered some printouts, stood up and walked over to where Ziva and McGee were putting together a time table of the activities of both Staff Sergeant O'Dell and his girlfriend, Yasmeen Haddad. "She's spending exactly two thousand a month, every month." Tony handed the papers to McGee. "This is part of what your search came up with."
McGee studied the pages. "Same four stores, same credit card, always on the first four days of the month, five hundred at each of the stores." He looked up at Tony and Gibbs who had joined the group. "She's not buying clothes, she's using the stores to get cash without her family knowing about it. Sarah… Sarah tried it once."
The rest of the team noticed Tim's verbal stumble when he mentioned his sister, but Gibbs had made them swear not to push. Instead, Tony tried a lighter approach. "Just once? What happened?"
"We had a… discussion on the subject." Most people would have pegged McGee as a pushover when it came to his baby sister, but his team knew how seriously it took being her older brother. He smiled, lost in thought for a moment, before turning to Gibbs. "I wonder if her father knows about her extra money."
Gibbs knew exactly where McGee was going. Ambassador Haddad, most likely, had his daughter on a strict allowance. The information that she had devised a way to sneak that amount of money past her father every month just might be the foot in the door they needed for their investigation. "Let's go see the Ambassador."
As the team gathered their gear Gibbs cornered McGee behind his desk. "Is it safe for you to leave the Yard?"
The fact that McGee did not immediately object to the question drove home how serious the situation was. "It would be more suspicious if I wasn't with the team. I probably shouldn't be out doing interviews alone, but other than that it should be fine."
When Ambassador Haddad was informed that the agents at the gate wished to speak to him about his daughter's shopping habits he was sufficiently curious to allow them into the embassy. Once introductions had been made and the group seated across from the ambassador's desk, Gibbs turned the discussion over to McGee who stood up to lay out the last six months of statements for Yasmeen's father to see. The transactions in question were highlighted and the older man immediately yelled for his daughter.
Yasmeen entered the room with another man holding her close. Using her as a shield, he opened fire, getting off three rounds before Ziva was able to get a clear shot at him. Gibbs and two of the guards rushed to check on Ambassador Haddad who was struggling to get off the floor, clutching a bloody shoulder. Yasmeen started screaming as she stared at the figure crumpled figure at her feet. Ziva sidestepped her to check on the shooter and secure the weapon.
Once the guards took over with the ambassador, Gibbs turned to check on his own people as McGee dropped to his knees. Tony lunged for him, but McGee fell to the floor before he could reach him. The room filled with more guards and staff, but the team was focused on their fallen member.
"Where's he hit?" Tony eased him onto his back and moaned when he saw the two holes in Tim's jacket. Gibbs didn't say anything, just started ripping Tim's shirt open to better assess the wounds. Once the shirt was open, he froze, gasping. Tony wasn't sure what he was seeing and turned to Gibbs. "Boss?"
"A vest, he's wearing a vest." Gibbs let out a breath as he sagged in relief. On the floor, McGee started coughing weakly as he tried to sit up. As DiNozzo kept him still, Gibbs pulled the vest off McGee. Two bullets were impacted into the material, one almost dead center on the chest, and the other only four inches away.
Ziva dropped to her knees beside the three men. "Did we know he was wearing a vest?"
"No, we didn't." Gibbs tried to be angry at Fornell for putting his man in a position where he needed to wear a bulletproof vest on a daily basis but at the moment all he felt was grateful. Instead, he concentrated on the case. "Status on the shooter?"
"Dead." Ziva tore her eyes away from the bullet marked vest to complete her report. "Apparently he was Yasmeen's secret boyfriend and the recipient of the money she has been sneaking from her father."
Gibbs nodded as he listened, but his attention was on McGee. He had stopped struggling to sit up and was now laying still, obviously trying to keep his breathing shallow and slow. Haddad moved closer, much to the displeasure of the guard keeping pressure on his wound.
"He saved my life." Anything else he wanted to tell them was lost in the chaos as the ambulance and paramedics arrived, followed by several men in FBI jackets who rushed straight for McGee.
DiNozzo refused to move back to give room to at his partner's side for Ron Sacks. Sacks also refused to move back and they made a strange sight as the walked shoulder to shoulder behind the stretcher as McGee argued that he did not need to go to the hospital. The only agreement between DiNozzo and Sacks was that McGee was going to the hospital no matter what.