Chapter 14

Matt and Judith stayed home to wait for NCIS to arrive rather than go straight to the hospital. They had called Ducky and Abby to tell them what had happened and see if they could go and see Tim. Ducky had agreed instantly, but Abby had to remain at NCIS because of a number of tests she was running in addition to the work with the Soft-Tech case. Matt had suggested that Judith go to the hospital, but she had insisted on remaining behind. ...for moral support.

Matt rather thought that she wanted to make sure he behaved himself. He hadn't ever met any of Tim's former coworkers, but he was fairly certain he wouldn't like them...just on general principles. That might go against his church's teachings, but he would be the first to admit that he was a flawed human being, possessed of a tendency to want to protect those he saw as being in his care. He'd always felt somewhat responsible for Tim, at least since they had become friends. Maybe it was because Tim had always seemed so much younger.

Tim had said someone was there. Matt didn't know if that meant Tim had been forced into the pool, if he had been attacked or if he had been frightened, but he decided to pull out his old tracking skills from his time in the Army. They were a bit rusty, but he figured he could remember what to do. Besides, times like this...he just couldn't stand to sit around and wait. The same personality that had goaded him into joining the Army had not been lost with the mutilation of his hand. It just went dormant...until needed. Like now.

"I'm going to look around outside," Matt said. "When the NCIS people get here, show them where to go."

"Matt..." Judith said, Chris in her arms. He was still clinging, still frightened by what had happened.

"I'll be careful."

Judith looked like she wanted to protest, but then she smiled slightly. "At least take Jethro with you. We both know that dog can attack when needed."

Matt laughed. "Sure, okay. Come on, Jethro!" he called. The German shepherd which had been laying morosely on the ground, hopped up. "Let's go see what happened, okay?"

Jethro barked once and trotted beside him as he walked out.

Together, they headed out to the pool. Matt crouched down beside the blood stain he'd noticed before.

"Now, Jethro, how did Tim hit his head here, even if he was having another nightmare? ...which is likely." Matt sighed but didn't touch anything. He'd seen enough cop shows to know the idiocy of touching anything...and Tim had told him horror stories.

Matt considered. The deck chair was not placed right on the edge of the pool. In order for Tim to have fallen and hit his head on the pool in this particular place, he would have had to stand up and then collapse forward...and then almost dive into the pool. It would have to be a complete disconnect from reality...or a suicide attempt.

"No. Tim wouldn't do that. He's stressed out, yes, but he's not suicidal. That means there's another explanation, Jethro. Tim has to be right. Someone was here. Someone was trying to hurt or kill him. ...but why?"

Jethro barked once.

"Okay...so someone was here. Where did he go...and how did he get here? ...because I didn't see anyone. Not even a flash of anyone. Granted, I was paying a lot more attention to Tim...but I think I would have noticed. So..."

In his mind's eye, Matt could see dense foliage instead of the open lawn. He looked around. Cover. Whoever had been there would need some sort of cover. The only available cover were the few trees right beside the house. They wouldn't be much, but they'd be enough with Matt in a panic about getting to Tim in time. He headed off to the trees.

"What do you think, Jethro?" he asked the dog as they examined the trees. There was a single bent twig. That would have been enough for him twenty years ago.

"I think you'd better stand up and tell me what you think you're doing."

The dry voice startled him, and Matt could hear the voice of his drill sergeant yelling at him for not paying more attention to his surroundings. He stood up and turned around.

"I could ask you the same question," he returned. "This is my home. Not yours."

Matt sized up the man in front of him. He was older, graying hair, styled in a slightly-longer military cut. Former military. That meant that this was the infamous Gibbs. Matt felt his own expression harden a little. This was one of the people who had driven Tim to his breakdown.

"NCIS," Gibbs said.

"Yes, I figured. You're Agent Gibbs."

"Have we met?" Gibbs asked, raising one eyebrow.

"No. I only know you through Tim. I'm Matt Tamson. This is my house. Tim is my friend."

"What are you doing?" Gibbs asked, not responding to the unspoken accusation.

"I'm looking around. Tim said that there was someone here. I'm trying to figure out how I didn't see him. There's not a lot of cover around here."

"And you didn't see anyone?"

"Not a soul. Not before or after."

"Before or after what?"

"Tim screamed and went into the pool."

"Hasn't he been in there before? What makes you think that there was someone here to help him in?"

Matt bristled instantly. "Because, unlike you, Agent Gibbs, I happen to trust my friend. Just because he had some problems in the past, that doesn't mean he's forever tarnished by the experience. If Tim said there was someone here, there was someone here, and the last thing I need to hear is you thinking like everyone else does and assuming that he's crazy. Tim's not crazy! He's a man who's had a lot of problems, who's still fighting to get back to normal, but he's no more crazy than I am."

To Matt's surprise, Gibbs didn't react at all. He could see how this kind of stoicism would be off-putting...to most people.

"You pulled McGee from the pool?"

"Yes."

"Must have been hard seeing him like that."

"No harder than seeing him about 30 pounds too light, confined to a psychiatric hospital. ...but then, you never had to see that, did you. You never had to see him at his worst, never got the chance to see the final results of everything Tim went through. You know...my church teaches us to forgive everyone, no matter what they've done...but I'm not perfect. Not by a long stretch, and I don't see any reason to change my first assessment of you."

"Which is?"

"A man who is more impressed with himself and his own life, his own pain, than he could ever be with the poor pitiful peons who have the misfortune to work for him."

"Matt!" Judith said, sharply as she walked across the lawn. "We want the same thing here. We want to find out what happened so that Tim can be safe. Let him do his job. We don't have to like him to do that."

Matt took a breath. "You want me to take Chris?"

"Depends. Are you going to behave?" Judith asked. Her voice was serious but she smiled slightly.

"I'll behave."

"Good. Then, take Chris. He's still fretting. I'll show Agent David where we were when we heard Tim."

Judith handed off Chris to Matt and then headed back to the house where Ziva was standing by the door. Chris held tightly to Matt.

"I can't apologize at the moment, Agent Gibbs, because it would be completely insincere, but I'm ready to answer any questions you might have."

Gibbs inclined his head slightly. "Did you find anything in your investigation?" The tone was slightly sarcastic.

"Yes, actually. There's a place where someone could have hidden. I haven't timed it, but anyone in halfway-decent shape could have run to these trees here and been mostly out of sight."

"Mostly?"

"I wasn't looking for anyone. I was a little distracted at the time," Matt said and lifted Chris up over his head briefly, smiling and laughing. Then, he pulled his son back down into his arms and rocked him back and forth as he continued to speak. "It would have been enough. Tim had warned us about his nightmares coming back and he didn't sleep much last night. He was napping by the pool, and I knew that he might have more nightmares, even during the day. We finally got rid of most of the frogs that kept coming to our pool. Turns out that there was something in the water that attracted them, like pheromones...or something. We changed the stuff being used and now we only get one or two occasionally. Thank goodness."

"Frogs?"

"Oh, right. You wouldn't know about those. Tim used to have a bit of an obsession with watching the frogs drown in the pool overnight."

"So he wasn't showing the same obsession now?"

"No. Not at all. Tim is a lot better than...well, than he thinks he is. He's afraid that he really is going crazy, but he woke up briefly before they took him away and he told me that someone had been here. He wouldn't have said that if he didn't think it was true...and there's no reason to think he's wrong...and a lot of reasons why he's probably right."

"Like?"

"Like the bent twig on the trees over there. Like that bloodstain there. It's not in the right place if Tim just woke up and fell over because of a nightmare. Someone was here, Agent Gibbs. I'd stake my life on it...someone who is coming after Tim for reasons I don't know, but you'd better figure out. Tim's in danger...as much from his own fears as from outside dangers."

"Meaning?"

Matt looked back at the pool. "Tim thinks that he's to blame for everything that's been happening. He told us about the murder at Soft-Tech. He wants you guys to arrest him but you won't. He's afraid that everything is pointing to something that is his fault, whether he's actually guilty or not. Now, he's going to be afraid that he's put us in danger."

"You don't think you are?"

"No. I think he is...but no matter whether he is or not, this is pushing him too far. Tim can't take all this coming down on him right now. He needs to be safe."

Gibbs nodded. "Do you know how many times McGee has been mugged in the last year?"

"Three times, not counting the home invasion," Matt said...and then paused. "...oh, and there was something else he mentioned once."

"What?"

"He said that he thought he'd seen someone watching him at Soft-Tech. He laughed it off, calling it his latent paranoia, but he seemed bothered by it."

"When was this?"

"About four months ago."

Gibbs nodded silently, filing away the information for future perusal. He looked around the yard.

"Why didn't you go to the hospital?"

"Tim needs to have people who believe him. I wasn't sure NCIS would; so I made sure I was here to let you know the real story, not just what you might see."

"We've got it covered. You can go."

Matt looked at him intently, trying to find even a scrap of concern. He saw nothing. Either Gibbs was needlessly good at hiding how he felt or he was even colder than Tim thought he was.

"How is he doing?"

"He started breathing on his own before they took him away. I haven't heard anything more."

They walked back toward the pool and Matt saw another agent crouched down beside it, drawing sketches of the area. He looked up as they approached.

"Hey, you Matt Tamson?" he asked.

"Yes. You must be Tony." Matt tried to keep his voice neutral, but he could tell by Tony's expression that he'd failed.

Tony rallied quickly. "I take it that McGee has mentioned me before."

"You might say that. Not by name recently, but in the past."

"Right. Uh...is there any chance that whoever it was might have got into your house and come through there to the pool?"

"Possible, but not likely. It would have been faster and easier to run around the house, and I didn't see any sign of a car parked in the driveway."

"So he'd planned this well in advance. Have you noticed anyone hanging around your house?"

"No. I can ask Judith, but I'm pretty sure she'd have mentioned it to me if she had seen anyone."

"And you never saw the guy?"

"No, but that doesn't mean he wasn't there."

Tony nodded, but like Gibbs, didn't respond to the antagonism.

"So...where was McGee...in the pool?"

Then, Matt saw it. Tony wasn't as good at hiding things as Gibbs was. As he looked toward the water, the diffuse red tint made him swallow.

"He was still near the side but unconscious and face down." Matt didn't like remembering that himself. "I had to get in the water to pull him out."

"His injury?"

"About at the base of his skull, slightly to one side. I don't remember which."

"All right," Gibbs said, stepping in. "We'll finish up here. We'll need to talk to McGee when he's awake, see what he has to say."

"I figured. Do you mind if I tell him that? Let him adjust to it first?"

For the first time, Tony seemed frustrated. "Look, we're not monsters! We're not going to hurt him! We just need to ask him routine questions!"

"Tony," Gibbs said.

"No, Boss! I am sick and tired of people treating us like we're some sort of demons in disguise when it comes to McGee! We messed up. I know that and you know that. Everyone knows that, but so did McGee! We have done everything he asked of us, even leaving him alone and not trying to talk to him at all when he told us not to. So why are we still getting treated like dirt?"

Matt felt his lips stretch into a wan smile. "Maybe because when I look at Tim, I see someone who is still struggling. When I look at you, I see someone who has moved on...as I wish Tim would do. Whatever problems you may have had from this, they're nothing to what Tim is still dealing with every day...so, maybe it's wrong of me, but my sympathy is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to you, Agent DiNozzo. Is that everything you have to ask me?"

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Tamson."

"You're welcome. I'll go and get my wife. If we have to talk again, she's a lot nicer than I am." Matt looked at Chris who had started to cling again during Tony's rant. "Chris, can you say bye?"

Chris still clung fearfully and then peeked his face out at Tony and Gibbs for a moment.

"Come on, wave bye-bye." Matt picked up Chris' hand and waved it. As soon as he let go, Chris redoubled his grip. Matt sighed sympathetically. "This all really scared him, today," he said. "I think I was the only one more scared than Chris. It was just like being back in the Army and watching friends die." Then, he turned and walked toward the stables.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"So were you in the stables when you heard the shout?"

Judith shook her head. "No. We were outside, but we could not see the pool from where we were. ...and it was not a shout. It was most definitely a scream. I have never heard anything like it before...and I hope I never do again."

"I am sorry that your family went through this," Ziva said.

"I'm a lot more sorry for Tim. This is just the worst that has happened. Tim really thought he was going to be moving on, going to be getting his life back together...but life seems intent on pushing him down. I told him once that he wouldn't be going through all this if God didn't think he could handle it. Do you know what he said?"

"What?" Ziva asked, curious.

"He said that he appreciated the confidence but could I ask God to stop trusting him so much." She laughed. "I told him that he could do more than he thought, but he said, at the risk of being blasphemous, maybe God thought too much of him." Judith sighed and then looked around. "This is about where we were standing. Matt was holding Chris, but he can run a lot faster than I can; so I took Chris and Matt ran. Chris was so frightened by all of this that he still hasn't recovered from it."

Ziva looked back toward the house. The pool was not visible, but it was possible that they could have seen someone running...if there was someone to be seen. She was about to ask when Judith spoke again, not really looking at Ziva, just staring out at the yard.

"We told Tim he'd be safe here. We've always been safe here. Matt said that it was about the only good thing about being a wealthy businessman. He had to leave the Army and go to college. He's never really regretted it, but there's a part of him that will always wish he could be back in the Army. ...and he hates that Tim was attacked here."

"You are sure he was attacked?"

"Yes," Judith said firmly. "If Tim said he saw someone, then he did."

"Why are you so sure?" Ziva asked. She was surprised by the instant trust...and even more she was surprised that she believed Judith.

"Because I know Tim. Later, he might wonder if he really saw the man...but when he woke up, if he hadn't seen anyone, he wouldn't have said he did."

"What if he was not thinking clearly? Head injuries can do that."

"I know. I know that it's your job to think of these things, but, Agent David, I have no doubt that Tim saw someone. Who that person was and why he attacked Tim, I don't know, but I know that Tim was attacked by someone, that he is in danger for some reason...and I just hope that you can figure it out before something else happens."

"Judith!"

Ziva turned and saw Matt coming across the lawn, still holding Chris.

"What is it?"

"Agent Gibbs said he didn't need us anymore. You want to go over now?"

"Yes. Did you have any other questions, Agent David?" Judith asked.

"No. If there is anything else you remember, please call us."

"I will."

"Thank you."

Judith walked over to Matt and took Chris from his arms.

"Are you ready to see Tim, Chris?" Judith asked.

Ziva heard Chris make a strange sound, but he smiled.

"Good. Let's go. Good-bye, Agent David."

"Good-bye."

Ziva watched the trio walk away. Three people who cherished their relationship with Tim, who believed in him with a fervor she had never seen before...except perhaps in herself when she had so desperately believed that Ari had been innocent.

Quickly, she shook away that thought. She knew that she had harbored a need to believe that Ari was innocent because she couldn't tolerate the idea that he might be guilty. This belief from the Tamsons was different. It was sure and there didn't seem to be any doubts.

She wished that she could feel the same.