CINDERELLA Revisited
A/N: Sorry dog lovers.
Ziva is still out of line.
Beta: Mike91484. Still the best. Any mistakes are all mine.
Disclaimer: The same as before.
Chapter Twenty One
Series of Vignettes
Wild goose chase. They searched the mansion's every nook and corner. Fornell and Gibbs' did the bitch's search because Tony would have gagged and probably vomited if forced to touch anything that belonged to her. He stayed out of senior's office and the library as well for the same reasons.
Tony reminisced in his old room, still solitary and isolated. It was a place where he used to rest his head and a finish to his disillusioned trip to manhood with a bagful of filthy clothes soiled by a polluted, hateful mind. His fingers tinkled the piano keys in passing and he was able to admit that he had been a prodigy unheard like a tree in a forest falling to unheard ears. An exceptional linguist at three, with a language learned for each year of his young life that meant nothing to uninterested, uninvolved parents.
He roamed the places he hated first but didn't linger there long, the long separated stairway to one side of the house or the other, the spot under the chandelier that especially sparkled when looking up after being knocked to the floor, the basement's cold and rankness, even the closet with the harsh chemicals and poisons.
Then, he leisurely strolled the back ways and passages he and his grandmother had journeyed together, the best times of his life, their secret rooms with the stale imported cookies in tins and chalky cocoa powder after so many years. Even a pair of clanky skates with a key, and a pogo stick.
Ziva caught up with him at one point and he couldn't make her understand this trip was a solitary one so he made a left instead of a right and disappeared from her cloyingness.
Finally, his journey was finished. Tony remembered the character George Webber from a novel by Thomas Wolfe that was required reading in college. He always pictured himself as that man who could never go home again. He was glad to never go back home as George Webber could not, to the sterile escapes of time and youthful memory where there he would not rediscover the love, sorrow and hope that was never there. And he was glad to leave it behind.
When he next caught up to his teammates, they were in the vast kitchen eating a buffet breakfast the FBI had brought in. Gibbs looked up from his bacon and eggs. "You find some of what you needed to find, DiNozzo?" How did the man know some things? Tony realized then that he had not escaped the other agents but that they had in fact left him alone on his journey of personal insights and eventual endings.
"Yeah, some things. But I'm done with the inner me searches. You guys find anything?" Tony grabbed a muffin and a cup of coffee from the industrial size coffee brewer that had been refilled all night.
"It's a bust, DiNozzo. We're wrapping it up and calling it quits." After searching all night and finding nothing, Fornell had really taken an extreme dislike to the woman whom he never seemed to be able to best.
"My grandmother had some hidden places I haven't searched yet so hold off a minute. Maybe the bitch found one and is using it."
"You need help Tony?"
"You read my mind, McMentalist. Let's go."
"Tony, I will help." Ziva started to rise from the table.
"No need, Ziva. Thanks for the offer though." Ziva's annoyed pursed lips and narrowed eyes quickly disappeared so anyone looking saw only her agreeable, pretty face.
As Tony and McGee left the room, they could hear Tim complaining. "Don't you think it's about time you quit with the lame McNicknames, Tony?"
As it was they found nothing of Angela's in their search but his grandmother had squirreled away hordes of valuable treasures and money. Stuff that would have seen him through the best universities money could buy and then some.
If he cashed it all in now, he probably wouldn't have to work another day of his life. His grandmother had counted on him getting back in the mansion stealthily to get these things but his abhorrence to being here when they were here had prevented him from doing so. And he felt that she would have been proud of him for managing on his own. So he packed her things in a cardboard box to store in his safe deposit box and to sort out later, maybe when Steve was back.
Ncisncisncis
Two weeks later Angela DiNozzo still pointed her middle finger at them whether she knew it or not. Other cases had taken precedence and they had had to move on.
They were at the site of a meth lab explosion of a marine's house. The marine had been deployed and his pregnant wife and two children had lived in the house. She had innocently rented the finished basement to a college student with a small baby not knowing of the drug addicted boyfriend she had sneaked in. The couple had left a pot of meth cooking and gone for hamburgers and shakes. It exploded and killed the marine's wife who was taking a nap on their bed. The kids had come home to find the house demolished and their mother dead.
Now the team was back to question the neighbors further trying to find some clue as to the identity of who this drug making scum bag was. Tony was standing in the debris watching a man scrabble through the rubble.
"Is everything alright here, Tony?"
Ziva had come back after finishing her interviews on one side of the street.
"Everything is fine, Ziva. I've got this. Why don't you go help McGee on the other side of the street?" Tony hoped she would take the hint and just back off. But Ziva wasn't in the mood to back off at his say so even though there was no sign of a threat.
"Why is this man digging, Tony? Perhaps he is looking for a stash of drugs or contraband."
"Ziva, I've got this!" Tony hissed before turning back to the distraught man pawing through the debris from the explosion. His teenage son had gotten out of the car and was now at the passenger door unbuckling his four year old brother from his booster seat.
Ziva stepped closer to the man. She was completely unaware of the boys now standing on the sidewalk behind her. She spoke loudly to the man while she pulled out her handcuffs. "Sir, did you not see the yellow tape? Please stop what you are doing and leave the premises. This is an ongoing NCIS investigation and you are trespassing..."
"I'm trespassing? We're...Look here, you stupid bitch..." Angry and grieving over the tragic death of his pregnant wife who was in the right place at the wrong time, the man started stumbling over brick, stone and ashes towards the woman who was standing in his way. All he wanted was his four year old son's brown koala teddy bear so his kid could get some rest instead of crying all night for his mother.
That's all he could do for his kid. This woman...this woman was keeping him from doing even that. If he had been home, protecting his own family instead of thousands of miles away...even as the marine was thinking this, he knew it was wrong. It wasn't his fault or this woman's fault that a meth lab had exploded in his finished basement three days after his wife had rented it out to a seemingly nice college student with a year old baby.
His poor wife didn't know about the boyfriend sneaking in with his junk on the days when she was dropping their boy off at his preschool. If not for a careless trip for fast food, his wife and baby could still be alive.
The marine stopped slightly bent over at the waist in actual physical pain ready to collapse face down in the debris his grief was so great. Ziva started toward the man still with her cuffs visible. Tony, who was behind her and on her left caught up to her and stepped in front of her. Ziva had to either back down or make a fool of herself by climbing over him.
Suddenly, a high pitched scream, "Daddy," followedby, "Get away from him," in a young male's voice broke the uneasy tableau. The teenager, who pitched for his high school baseball team picked up a rock and threw it as hard as he could aiming for the woman's head.
In slowed down motion, Tony watched the rock arch gracefully through the air headed directly for Ziva's oblivious thick skull. He jerked her aside and took a running step and leaped to the side so the missile struck a glancing blow to his mid-chest before he came down landing awkwardly on his left foot. Tony thought the bruise on his chest was going to be spectacular but the ankle was going to hurt like hell.
The pile of rubble he had landed in made it difficult to get purchase to pull himself up. Both his hands were being scraped raw but he had just managed to sit up when he felt something soft and furry, and yanked until a scraggly brown stuffed ear came loose from the rubble followed by the rest of the coveted animal and he waved it over his head.
"I found it." He chortled, glad to find something about this tragedy to rejoice in but by that time, the situation had deteriorated badly. Ziva had the marine handcuffed on the ground. McGee was holding onto the teenager's elbow and the teenager had the screaming little boy in his arms.
"I found it, Bobby." Tony repeated loudly and waved the stuffed treasure high above his head again. He saw McGee release the teenager and the young man started to make his way towards him with the boy riding on his back.
With a hiss of annoyance, he told Ziva. "Would you get those cuffs off him before his boy's get here! They've been traumatized enough!"
Ziva quickly un-cuffed the marine and her handcuffs disappeared. The marine got up and started to make his way over to Tony who was glad to hear the boy had stopped that awful shrieking now that he could see his daddy and his best friend bear were okay.
Tony's teeth were clenched and it took every ounce of self-control not to start yelling at Ziva and make a scene. Now was not the time but what had she thought she was doing? He was the senior field agent, had requested that Ziva back off from a harmless situation. He had met the marine before and knew who he was. Ziva did not.
He had had to physically intervene, getting wounded for his pains in the process, because Ziva felt she was competing with him about who was in charge when Gibbs was not there.
This could not go on. Questioning him about what he was doing, and acting on assumed information from her faulty observation could have caused even more damage to this poor family. And even more telling she would not have done that to Gibbs, or done it to him if Gibbs had been present.
Reaching Tony first, the marine bent down and gripped Tony's shoulder briefly.
"I am so sorry, so sorry, Tony. Willie, come here and apologize to the agent! He didn't mean anything by it, Tony he's just still so terribly upset. Are you alright, man?"
"I'm fine, just fine." He remained sitting in the pile and made a show of dusting off the stuffed animal so as not to attract attention to his hurt ankle. All he had to do was add extra burden to them. Once the family was gone, then he would get up.
William arrived with Bobby who reached for his father and his stuffed toy at the same time. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know why I did that. I'm sorry ma'am." The teenager was blinking hard trying not to shed the tears making his eyes watery.
"It's okay, Will, come on, it's okay. Go ahead and take your family home, Sergeant."
The marine looked around lost in total abject misery. "Home? This is our home, Agent DiNozzo." The poor man then gathered his family and left.
Ncisncisncis
"What in the God damn hell do you think you were doing, Ziva?" Tony started.
Before she could answer, McGee arrived and was eyeing Tony critically. "You hurt something, Tony, why are you still sitting there?"
"Cause I like the way gritty gravel, chunks of rock and sharp-edged stones feel in my derrière, McAggrevate...I sprained my ankle coming down, McGee, just give me a hand up, will ya?" No sense in taking his annoyance at Ziva out on poor innocent McGee.
Oblivious of the tension for the moment, it wouldn't take him long to feel the bad vibes, McGee reached down to help him up.
"Sure. Nice interception there, Tony. You almost got your head cracked open, Ziva. What was wrong with the kid...well besides just losing his mother and his unborn sibling, and his home being destroyed...Never mind, stupid question."
He backtracked at Tony's incredulous look. Once on his feet and McGee's arm around his waist, Tony started limping to the car. Ziva walked on his other side ready to give a helping hand which Tony studiously ignored.
"To answer your question, Tony, the man was acting suspicious and you were doing nothing but standing there watching him. We are still looking for the meth cooking boyfriend, are we not? That is why I felt I should intervene. I did not know that that was the marine whose wife had died..."
"That's the whole point isn't it? You didn't know and you refused to believe that I did know."
"Please let me finish..."
"I'm not interested in hearing anymore from you, Ziva. Don't make me make this a threat but don't let it happen again."
"Are you threatening me, Tony?" Tim had never heard Ziva's voice that cold and angry before but Tony had when he was flat on his back on the ground and she pressed a gun to his abdomen when they were in Israel.
Tony squinted at her, pulled his cap down and adjusted his sunglasses, even though the day was somewhat cloudy and turned away. They reached the car with nothing else being said.
"I will drive, McGee." Ziva said reaching for the key's Tony had just palmed him. Tony paused getting into the back seat and gave Tim a slight shove towards the front of the car.
"Drive the damn car, McGee." And McGee looked at Ziva, shrugged and did what he was told.
"Oh, come on, Tony, you are behaving very much like a child right now, is he not McGee?" Ziva turned in her seat before buckling up to look at Tony who was ignoring her. He had said what he had to say.
And McGee was thinking, whatever this is, don't drag me into it, please.
Getting no response from either man, Ziva turned back facing front and buckled her seatbelt. An uncomfortable twenty minutes later, Tim parked in the designated spot and exited the vehicle. He walked to the trunk while Tony opened his car door and climbed out.
"I suppose you will be telling Gibbs some sober story about what happened to your foot to get sympathy and to get me into trouble, Tony."
"It's sob story, Ziva and I don't need to tell Gibbs anything. I've already warned you about letting something like that happen again. I'll see you upstairs McGee. Bring my stuff, will ya?" And he limped away.
"Here's your bag, Ziva."
"Thank you, Tim. Tim...?"
"Yeah?"
"Never mind, Tim. I will stop and get coffee at the kiosk for everyone."
Tim watched her walk away. Trouble ahead.
Ncisncisncis
"I am going to kick his ass. I am going to get the dullest knife and castrate him before he gets one year older."
Tony had been sitting at his desk on the computer for twenty minutes and Gibbs had really thought he was typing up his report. He should have known better.
"DiNozzo!"
"Oh, hey, sorry, Boss. Report's printing out now. I'll attach the dirt bag's phone records to the report. We've got him on those alone."
Tony got up and stapled the reports together before placing them in Gibbs' basket then he hurried back to his chair. The other three puzzled agents looked at each other before Gibbs turned back to his own report. It was late and Gibbs had what he wanted. DiNozzo could pursue whatever he was doing or go home.
Tim and Ziva were not of the same persuasion. Tim sat back and watched Tony tut-tuting and cursing at his computer again. Tim's report was complete and he was just waiting for Tony to finish so they could get some dinner and drinks with Margret and Margret's friend Dinah.
"Okay, Tony, enough. What're you doing?"
"None of your business, McPrying, but I'll tell you anyway because I might need your help in a little hack...uh, further investigation."
"Further investigation about what?" Tim knew he would regret this but he got up and walked over to Tony's desk to peer at his computer.
"Who is that?"
"That is little Tommy Poleto, age fourteen. Margret's niece Margo thinks she's in love with the slime-ball. Mind you she's only thirteen and of course the whole family is upset."
"They're just kids Tony."
"Oh, really, would you say that if it was Sarah and some pervert was stalking her?"
"Good point. So what are you going to do to the pint-sized stalking perverted one?" Tim's voice was as dry as the Sahara completely going over Tony's head.
"Well..."
Gibbs left to get coffee. Maybe they would be gone when he got back.
Laughter, loud and raucous and really unladylike erupted from Ziva.
"I am sorry, Tony, but do you hear yourself? You are so beaten by Margret. Ah, I know. She will not put out, is that the right word, if you do not do exactly as she says? Correct?"
Okay, that was stepping out of bounds again. Ziva had taken to making these off the wall not funny comments to Tony, especially when they were alone or Tim was there but never in front of Gibbs. After her comment she would pat his face in good humor until he had curtailed that motion by moving away before she could get close.
Was this her way of...what...? He couldn't think of any way to describe it. He knew Ziva was seeing someone, had had a few dates with this guy and he had even teased her about it.
"It's whipped, Ziva. And that's for me to know and you not to find out." He stood abruptly and excused himself to the men's room.
McGee looked at Ziva with that particularly intense stare she wasn't fond of on him but she chose to ignore what she perceived as his silent disapproval as she gathered her belongings. They were a team. They should have invited her to dinner even if it meant leaving the saint Margret behind.
"Good night Tim. Enjoy your dinner.
Ncisncisncis
"Grab your gear we're going to Virginia. We'll take two cars. I'll meet you down stairs after I brief Vance." Gibbs orders were short and sweet.
McGee took some evidence to Abby while Ziva used the lady's room. Tony had gotten two sets of keys and made sure the cars were gassed then stood talking to the attendant while waiting for the rest of his team.
When the attendant left to take care of more business Tony waited by the car tossing a set of keys in the air. Ziva caught his last toss and said, "I'll drive."
"Not with me, you won't."
"Are you afraid, Tony?"
"Hey, McGee, ride with me." He left Ziva standing by the car and when Gibbs arrived and climbed into the driver's seat she had no choice but to hand him the keys.
They had been on the trail of Eddie Perkins, midshipman on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier who was suspected in the death of a petty officer. Perkins was the numbers running ensign who had been taking dog fighting bets on the ship.
He had even managed to have the fights heard live over radio transmission to the ship for those making bets. The petty officer had made the mistake of trying to blackmail Perkins, threatening to out him to the agent afloat for illegal gambling if he wasn't given a cut. Now, Perkins had jumped ship and was on the run.
McGee was able to track Perkins' one phone call and credit card use and it appeared that he was headed to West Virginia's Dolly Sods area where the family owned some land.
Now here they were in the middle of the boondocks having had to hike a mile because there was no road leading to the remodeled lumber logging cabin where an assortment of the Perkins still lived. They had surprised a very angry and ancient Uncle Graham Perkins with the long grey beard in the back of the house where a still was set up and he was in the process of distilling alcohol from the mash.
Tony had whistled at the machinery and derisively barked, "who in the hell makes moonshine today, damn hillbillies?"
"Moonshining hicks with access to the internet and advanced degrees in chemistry, that's who." McGee had refuted.
"There's a growing market for the real hooch these days and these guys learn the science in distilling stuff so there's no methanol-tainted batches or other poisons that sicken people."
"What are you, McGee, a proponent for repealing Prohibition?" Their banter halted when the old man yelled something from Eliot Ness' timeframe that shut Tony up.
"What do you G-Men want here? This is private property and I have every right to shoot holes in your federal asses."
They had expected the old coot to whip out a shotgun but when he pulled out a semi-automatic, they knew they were in trouble especially since they could hear dogs howling in the distance and getting closer.
"You hear them dogs?" The old man cackled. "My nephews'll be here in a little bit and if you're still here, them dogs are gonna chew you up. Better start running now."
He cackled some more and turned to look behind him and sure enough a dirt road mostly hidden from view by the trees was just visible. Now, besides the baying of the dogs, they could hear the rattle of a truck and the wild yelling of several men, "We're coming Uncle Gray, we're coming."
The agents could take their stand with the Perkins boy's and probably win but there was no cover from the dogs who out-numbered them four to one. Gibbs' yelled, "Head for that old mining cave!" That cave was about half mile back the way they had come and without hesitation they took off running as one. But somewhere along the way, Tim and Tony lost Gibbs and Ziva.
Now he and McGee were running through the densest woods, McGee ahead of him and no wonder. The low growling, barking, bred to fight American Staffordshire bull terriers of the Perkins family were on their tails and were catching up. They couldn't go much further and were either going to be treed or chomped on because no matter how many bullets they fired, all it would take would be two of the fifteen mouth foaming, spittle spewing bull dogs, one for each of them, to get through their defenses.
The problem was McGee. He wasn't thinking right. He was remembering another dog's vicious attack so he wasn't stopping to be mauled again in spite of Abby's edict that he was in the wrong to shoot a vicious attacking dog, and the fact that he was running the wrong way. Tony said the first thing he could think of to get the man to follow him.
"McGee? Come on, I can't keep up with you. I just got out of the hospital. Let's head for that cave over there."
"What?" McGee looked confused then shook his head and seemed to come out of his flight or fight panic. He changed direction behind Tony and ran toward the cave. The Perkins cousins and Uncle Graham had to give up their four wheel drive vehicle and were now also on foot but they weren't calling the dogs off. Off all things of value to them, the lives of four government agents obviously meant nothing compared to their lucrative moonshine operation and killer dog breeding.
Finally, they climbed the small hill and made it to the old gold mining cave and got behind an abandoned sluice box. Tim didn't fool around. The minute he saw the first dog, he took aim and started shooting and Tony followed suit. Five dogs were down and ten still coming before Tony heard a loud whistling noise and a panicked voice, "They're killing my dogs. The bastards are killing my dogs."
The whistling continued but two more dogs were down before they obeyed the command to cease attack. McGee didn't cease either as he shot a retreating dog before Tony reached out and pushed Tim's gun hand down.
"Take it easy, man. Hold on, McGee, listen!"
In the distance they could hear, "They killed my dogs, bastards." And. "Come on, I can't walk you broke my leg dammit."
"Shut up! I did not break your leg. Now keep moving!" Ziva snarled and came into view with her gun pointed at a handcuffed Herman and limping Eddie Perkins.
Gibbs walked over and knocked Eddie Perkins feet out from under him. "Can't walk? Sit down then and shut up. You should have listened when she said drop the knife."
"What happened to you guys back there, Boss? One minute we're running together and the next, we're on our own? And where's the other guys and the Hounds of the Baskervilles. Tony had gotten up from behind the sluice box to meet up with the other two agents. Tim stood but remained behind the box with his gun in his hand pointing down still scanning the area.
"Take it easy, DiNozzo. When you two took off, we managed to round the house and climbed into one of the trucks parked there. The dogs may have gotten our scent but they took off after you because you were running. Cousin Donnie called off the dogs and herded them back to their kennel."
It seemed cousin Donnie Perkins had the college degree and helped to make moonshine and even train the dogs but he wasn't interested in going to jail for killing a Federal Agent or killing anyone for that matter and had cooperated in calling off the dogs. Old Uncle Graham had hobbled along for a few steps then run out of steam and stopped only to hurl epithets at them in his gravely, moonshine soaked voice.
"So, Tony?" Ziva smirked when Gibbs moved away. "I did not know you could run so fast with your tail between your legs." Ziva's continued snarky remarks were really starting to irk him and they weren't just rolling off his back like they use to.
"You calling me a coward, Ziva?" Ziva just laughed to Tony's retreating back.
On their way back to the navy yard, McGee admitted to Tony. "Thanks for not saying anything. Guess the dogs freaked me out. All I could see, feel and hear was Jethro attacking me again like it just happened."
"Yeah, I figured that. You ever talk to anyone...Dr Cranston for instance, about PTS? If you tell anyone about this I'll kill you McGee, but I talk to her and it helps me."
Ncisncisncis
Back in the bullpen, Tony pulled uncooperative Herman Perkins by his arm as he and Tim dragged the man from the elevator which was not easy as Herman weighed a good three hundred pounds. He was still whining about his dogs, and had been the whole drive back to the bullpen. And both agents were sick of his voice.
"Didn't I tell you to shut the hell up four hundred times ago? Think twice next time before you sic one of your mangy dog beasts on a Federal Agent, scumbag. Now come on, your ass is going to jail."
"For what, I didn't do anything? I ain't going." Herman bellowed, dragging his feet and struggling trying to twist out of their grasp. He managed to get to the floor dragging poor McGee down with him. This Cujo whisperer was not getting locked up without a fight and fight he did even in handcuffs.
Tony got a better grip on the idiot and bodily hauled him to his feet and off of McGee. He wrapped one arm around the big guy's neck and gripped his wrist with the other hand and applied just a little pressure. After a few gasping attempts to breathe, Tony loosened his hold and Herman drew in great gulps of air.
Before Herman could get his breath back, Tony and McGee forced him into motion again from both sides. The crowd standing around, some waiting to help if needed moved out of their way with words of encouragement. "Come on, Tony my man...Hey, McGee..."
"You need help, DiNozzo." Gibbs and Ziva had already placed their prisoner in an interrogation room.
"Naw, we got this big lummox to cooperate, Boss." Tony said as they walked up to Gibbs. "He's not going to give us any more trouble, are you Herman? But for all that trouble you already gave us, we are going to put you in one of the most uncomfortable, coldest rooms we keep available...just for...our...special..."
Tony's voice had slowed down and suddenly it petered out. He stumbled clumsily while still walking and bumped into the partition wall. His eyes got wide and shocky and his grip loosened on the prisoner's arm so that he didn't even realize he had let go.
Herman felt his arm being released and envisioning imminent escape, tried jerking out of McGee's grasp but McGee held onto him like one of Herman's pit bull dogs. With a wild angry inarticulate yell, Herman flung McGee against the wall, slamming him into it with his massive shoulder, and when McGee still held on, bashed his head into McGee's nose.
McGee fell to his knees finally releasing the crazy man's arm but he managed to grab Herman around the waist and hang on in spite of the bloody hurtful nose and dizzy spots before his eyes. Tim felt like he was fighting this behemoth alone but in fact other agents including Gibbs were on the guy in a matter of seconds.
It's just that Herman liked to imbibe more than just illicit alcohol as illicit drugs were also on his menu. His brain was fried. He had spent the morning smoking home grown pot and he had consumed the crystal PCP powder he had taped under a fold of skin in his protruding belly on their one and only pit stop half an hour before they arrived at the Navy yard, and now he felt invincible. His heart raced frantically in his chest about to burst as he fought and managed to get partially to his feet.
He saw flying feet come at him and thought he was being kicked by a white horse with a long black mane. The horse's hooves kicked again and again until Herman had no choice but to lose consciousness and fall flat on his face.
Ncisncisncis
"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN THE BULLPEN, AGAIN?
"HOW DID A FULLY TRAINED VETERAN NCIS AGENT MANAGE TO LET GO OF AN OBVIOUSLY DANGEROUS SUSPECT AND WHY IS THAT SUSPECT NOW IN THE HOSPITAL IN A COMA, KICKED THERE, BY THE WAY, BY ONE OF YOUR AGENTS, GIBBS, WHO FELT THE NEED TO PRACTICE HER KARATE SKILLS ON A MAN WITH HIS HANDS SHACKLED BEHIND HIS BACK!"
Gibbs, DiNozzo, McGee and David had sat and listened to Vance yell at them for ten minutes now. Gibbs knew there was a history of diabetes and coronary artery disease in Vance's family and could foresee a stroke in Leon's future if he didn't calm down.
The interim SECNAV was also present and questioned Ziva in a cold voice.
"You do realize Agent David that IA is already involved in this mishap, and that you will be investigated by them for undue force to subdue a prisoner? I'm curious why you felt the need to continue to kick the man several times after he was down on his knees?"
Ziva showed all her confidence as she answered the SECNAV.
"Of course, Mr SECNAV. When it was obvious that Agent DiNozzo had lost custody of his prisoner and that Agent McGee was being injured by the prisoner in his further attempt to gain his freedom, I felt I needed to use the skills I had learned to help subdue the prisoner. Another factor was that there were several groups of visitor's standing about who might have been harmed.
"The technique I employed involved a series of three kicks, two straight forward and one as you come out of a turn. I felt it was more important to render the man unconscious than to use deadly force by firing a weapon."
Ziva was composed and confident that she had done the right thing. Slyly mentioning that Tony had lost custody of his prisoner was done deliberately with the intention to hurt the man for so far successfully avoiding her snares. He would be devastated by what had happened. She would offer comfort, possibly have him over for a meal tonight, just as friends. Maybe offer just a little too much to drink.
"I see." Said the SECNAV who wasn't that impressed with her and despised her father. "Let's hope IA sees it that way."
When no one else had anything to say, Tony stood and addressed the Director. He looked awful, pale and shaky, haunted and guilty.
"I am sorry, Director Vance. I take full responsibility for shirking my duties as an Agent of NCIS and allowing a prisoner to escape thus possibly causing innocent people harm and resulting in the injury of the prisoner. I will accept any punishment you deem necessary and will render my resignation if you so require."
"Like hell you will!" Gibbs had risen and stalked over to Tony. "Just what do you think you're doing, DiNozzo?" He yelled that in his face and his eyes were shooting shafts of blue ice.
"Calm down, Gibbs. It won't come to that, Agent DiNozzo. I'm not throwing you under the bus just yet.
"There's another side to this Perkins family that you need to know about. It seems the rest of the clan of law abiding prominent wealthy people let the so called dregs of the family live on the land in Virginia just so they wouldn't have to have any dealings with them. So far, they're not pursuing any litigation against this office for what happened to Herman and they've got a prominent attorney for Eddie."
McGee sat quietly and listened to the other's talk. He watched DiNozzo sitting straight-backed in his chair. Tim had an ice pack on his face and a black smudge decorating his eye and his nose was stuffed full of blood. He just wanted to go home and down some Tylenol and go to sleep because he didn't have a concussion and so why was Gibbs making him stay at his house for the night, anyway?
Tim was told he could leave after his visit to the emergency department but he insisted on coming back to this meeting. Everyone had praised his tenacious grip on the gargantuan in spite of his injuries and everyone was impressed that he could do what it appeared that macho DiNozzo could not.
But macho DiNozzo had run with him in his panic the wrong way with a pack of man eating dogs after their hides and he would have kept running with him until they ran out of earth. No way was he going to jump ship on him now even if it was just to sit here and hurt. Or do a Ziva and take a circuitous, seemingly innocent route to blame Tony for what happened.
Because Tim knew why Tony had lost focus and his concentration had flown out the window. He had seen what Tony had seen and no one else seemed to have noticed. Certainly not Gibbs. Maybe that was what Vance and the SECNAV had counted on.
"Any questions on how we're going to handle this? Right now mums the word. Let's not make it any bigger than it already is. If there are no questions than you're all dismissed."
McGee stood up before anyone could move. "I have a question, Director Vance."
The Director looked at him inquiringly.
"When were you going to tell us about the meeting you had today with the SECNAV and FBI agents Fornell and Sacks?
"And that Angela DiNozzo and Anthony DiNozzo, Sr were also present at that meeting?"
A/N. Thank you reader's one and all