"Good morning Theresa."
"'Morning Ducky, Andrew's gone for some breakfast, then I'm hoping he can sleep; he didn't get much rest last night."
"Nor did you I'm sure; why don't you join Andrew? I can sit with Timothy."
Theresa scraped her fingers through her hair.
"I guess I could use some freshen-up time."
Ducky held out his hand to help her up from the chair, and on the table beside the bed he noticed a photograph of a smiling Tim, Theresa gave a sad little smile.
"That was taken last year, when Tim came home for a vacation; we went to the zoo...for old times' sake, took a picnic...I put that there so that the medical staff could see what my son really looks like; they've only seen him like this."
She swept her hand across her face, impatiently wiping away her tears.
"I promised I wouldn't cry, Tim needs me to be strong."
"My dear, you are strong; you are also exhausted, you go, get something to eat, freshen up, lie down in the waiting room and see if you can sleep, I'll call you if there's any change."
Ziva put down her phone and made a quick note on her pad.
"The manager at Elite Motors is not a happy man, one of his mechanics did not come in to work today, and they have heard nothing from him...Mitch Freeman, he worked on Tim's car last week, I have his address."
"You go with Tony, talk to Freeman, bring him in."
They grabbed their gear and headed for the elevator.
Gibbs was about to head upstairs and give Vance a sitrep when his phone rang.
"Gibbs! Gibbs...we've got something, someone..."
He raced down to the lab. Abby and Jimmy were staring at the monitors. One displayed a police arrest photograph, and one a military ID.
"Two of them Gibbs, there are more...Tim never stood a chance...but we've got matches on these two, PFC Alec Shaw, he's a Marine Gibbs!"
"Not for much longer Abs."
"The other one is Mitch Freeman, he's a..."
"Mechanic at Elite Motors, he worked on Tim's car."
"How? Stupid question, see I told you Jimmy, he always knows. His prints were on that sign; get him Gibbs, if he hurt Tim...you get him!"
"Tony and Ziva are already on their way Abs, I'll call them, let them know about the prints. Then I'm going to Quantico, pay a visit on PFC Shaw. That's good work; both of you!"
Gibbs picked up Durden on his way through the squad room; he'd agreed to let Durden join the investigation. After further questioning yesterday and almost forty minutes of reading his face, Gibbs was convinced that Durden was telling the truth. He had told no one outside the agency about the charges against Tim, not even his wife.
"I couldn't tell Louisa, she's pregnant, seven months. I didn't want to tell her, she's pretty emotional right now..."
"You're sure you didn't tell anyone else, brother, father?"
"No! I told you, this was between him and me."
Gibbs had Tony check with the wife, discreetly. She knew nothing, and what better way to keep a check on Durden than to have him close to the investigation?
There had been little conversation on the drive to Quantico. Gibbs' knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel tight. He loved the Corps, and the idea that a fellow Marine could have been involved with what happened to Tim made him sick to the stomach.
As he waited in the CO's office with Gibbs, Durden poured coffee for them both, he offered Gibbs a cup, but he wasn't looking, he was staring at the door, preparing his next move. They heard the sound of marching feet in the corridor, the door opened and Shaw was escorted in. He wasn't much above average height, but he was broad, muscular, he'd be able to pack a punch.
"What does NCIS want with me?"
Gibbs turned to Durden.
"Did I give him permission to speak?"
"No Agent Gibbs, I don't believe you did."
"Thought not; from now on you speak only in response to a direct question, understand?"
There was no reply.
"I said do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
Gibbs took a step closer.
"Show me your hands. Do it!"
Shaw slowly raised his arms and held out his hands palms down; he knew what they were looking for, and they saw it. His knuckles were bruised and grazed.
"How did you get those?"
"I...there was a fight in a bar…got out of hand."
"Then could you explain to me how your blood was found at a crime scene out in Shenandoah?"
Shaw stood silently; now would not be a good time to open his mouth, they had all promised to say nothing about what they did Friday night.
"Nothing to say? Doesn't matter, Agent Durden, cuff him."
Durden grabbed Shaw's wrists and clipped on the handcuffs, good and tight.
"Private First Class Alec Shaw, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee."
Tony and Ziva hadn't been able to find Freeman; they'd checked his home, workplace, family and friends, but they'd come up empty, so a BOLO had been issued and they were in the squad room making more calls. They both looked up when Gibbs exited the elevator.
"Durden's with Shaw in interrogation. You two have anything?"
"Not yet Boss, but Freeman's looking good for this. His co-workers said he'd been mouthing off about McGee since that trouble over Tim's car last time. You remember Boss; that day he'd been held hostage in the prison, they told Tim his car wouldn't be ready…"
Gibbs nodded and gave a little smile.
"I remember, Abby told me Tim was pretty forceful about getting his car back that day."
"Yeah, well it turns out Freeman was the one working on his car, and he had a reaming from his boss over it; the work should have been done by morning but Freeman was nursing a hangover, took him longer to do the job."
Ziva clicked the remote and Freeman's picture appeared on the plasma.
"This tells us that Freeman had a grudge against Tim, but how did he find out about…about those charges? There is no way that he could have known."
"Maybe we'll get some answers from Shaw."
Gibbs put his gun in his desk drawer and was on his way to the elevator when he was once again interrupted by the ringing of his phone.
"Jethro, good news…the best, Timothy is awake! He's still groggy of course, and he will be in and out of things for a little while, but he's aware and all the signs are very good."
"I'm on my way!"
He turned to the others and they were amazed to see a huge smile on his face.
"Tim's awake, Ducky says he's doing okay…I have to go, see if he can tell us anything about Friday. You tell Abby and Jimmy, I'll call from the hospital. Oh, and Tony, you two take over Shaw's interrogation, and remember…"
"By the book!"
It was almost dark by the time Gibbs got to the hospital, but he was hopeful that Tim would be awake and able to tell him something that could identify the other people involved in the attack. Abby had said there were more that two, who were the other cowards who'd ganged up on an unarmed man?
He opened the door quietly, the man sitting beside the bed looked up as Gibbs entered the room, and was on his feet immediately.
Gibbs proffered his hand.
"Commander McGee? I'm…."
"I know who you are, and I know what you did to my son. I will not shake your hand, I don't want you here…do you see him? You see what your lies have done to him?"
Gibbs took another step into the room. Tim was sleeping, and it seemed to Gibbs that even without the ventilator Tim actually looked worse than he had the last time he saw him. The bruises on his face had darkened, and the swelling didn't seem to be going down.
Andrew stood beside his son's bed, as if he was on guard duty.
"Tim came home two weeks ago, to tell us face to face what had been happening…You know what he did Agent Gibbs, he apologised, to us! For what? He'd done nothing wrong, but he was worried that we would somehow think less of him, because you thought he could do it…that near broke him Agent Gibbs…We've seen him fight back from so much, Tess and I, she had to deal with it more, I was away a lot, but he fought back against everything life threw at him…being different at school made him a target, after his car accident…he was so determined to get back on his own two feet…going into law enforcement, he could have had any job he wanted in IT, he had plenty of offers, but this is what he wanted to do…he worked so hard to gain your respect, the respect of his team mates…When you accused him…if you had seen his face when he told us…we wanted him to leave NCIS, but Tim won't back down if he thinks he's in the right, that's why the bullies wouldn't let up, he wouldn't give in to them…"
Andrew took a deep breath as the tears filled his eyes once more, seeing Tim like this, it was overwhelming.
"I want you out of here Agent Gibbs, away from him, away from me before I do something Tim would regret, because I wouldn't."
Gibbs walked slowly to the door. He wanted to try to explain, to defend his actions…but how do you defend the indefensible? Then as the door closed behind him Andrew spoke again to his son, Gibbs heard the words, and they cut like a knife.
"You have nothing to say sorry for Tim; you did nothing wrong, except for putting your trust in a man who didn't deserve it."