What the Heck Happened?

by Gottahavemyncis

Fornell is in deep trouble, will Gibbs put aside his anger at what Tobias did to Tim and help or is his former friend on his own? It's another bumpy ride. Fourth in the At What Price series, follows 'Oh Brother'. For series order, see profile. Disclaimer is on my profile.

3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

As he was washing up, the lock clicked open, Tobias laughed to himself that he always seemed to be in the kitchen when someone was entering the house. This was Sarah home from work and he realized it was late afternoon working into early evening. He greeted her, "Hello Sarah, how was your day?"

She grinned at him, "You make a good Timpa, Tobias; you sound just like Tim asking us when he picked us up from school every day."

"Timpa?" She explained the nickname and he nodded his understanding.

"Listen, I know your brothers and father are coffee fiends, but I made some iced tea in case you or Ziva might want some."

Her eyes lit up, "Oh thank you, that sounds great."

"Ok, go get comfortable; Geordie and Rob are out on the back deck. You want sugar or anything in it?"

"Huh, oh you're getting it for me? Thanks, that's sweet of you. No just plain tea with lots of ice is good." She ran up the stairs, to change he supposed, and then back down in a few minutes and out to the back deck. He'd already taken her drink out there and was going through the groceries, deciding what to make for dinner.

He nearly jumped as a voice spoke just behind him, "You don't have to make us dinner every night, Tobias or wait on us. You'll spoil us! The kids say that before Tim was hurt they all took turns cooking when they were over. I'm guessing that means Rob and Dad, as Ziva cooks when she and Tim are over and Sarah's cooking means takeout or frozen food."

Tobias tilted his head, "Appreciate that, but I have to have something to do. And I like cooking; it's very energetic and productive."

"You and Ziva should cook a meal together then; I hear she's the real chef in the family."

"Yeah she is; she usually cooks for the whole tribe on Christmas."

"Wow, just realized I'll get to experience a Gibbs Christmas this year. "

"And maybe a Mallard Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, Ducky does Thanksgiving?"

"Yes, that started the same year that Abby starting organizing Christmas. What? What's wrong, what'd I say?"

Geordie tried not to growl, "Would that be Abby Sciuto?"

"Yeah, the NCIS forensic tech. Uh, not your favorite person?"

"No, but she's out of the picture for awhile, I'll let Dad or Ducky fill you in on that. I don't know what happened. "

Fornell nodded although he was dumbfounded. He'd always seen Jethro's group as one big happy team. He was sure they had their moments, who didn't, but overall Gibbs never mentioned any problems.

XXX

Tim reached for his phone. He thought he had Luca's phone number somewhere in his contacts and he wanted to send a text to him. He finally found it and took his time over the text, wanting it to be just right. He asked him how Abby was doing and if it was appropriate, would he tell her hello from him, that he was thinking about her. He fussed over it and finally just sent it. He had a reply in a few minutes. Luca said he was happy to hear from him, that Tony and Gibbs had told him of his fall, he hoped Tim was recovering well; he'd had a few updates from Ducky and Gibbs but nothing in the last couple of days. He also said that Abby was doing a little better but still very confused, she was still under observation which meant no visitors, but he would pass his message along when the doctors approved both the greeting and visitors.

Tim read it over several times, very happy to see that Tony, Ducky and his dad had been in touch with Luca. He reclined the bed a little and was just watching a little TV when his father came in. They grinned at each other; when his dad leaned in to give him a kiss on his cheek Tim grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. "Not that I'm complaining, but is there a special occasion?"

Tim signed, "Because you're such a good dad to all of us." He showed him Luca's text and Gibbs' smile disappeared. "If I were such a good dad, I would have gotten Abby help sooner." Tim's smile disappeared and he picked at the sheet until his dad lifted his chin, "Hey, you did good covering for her, for the agency. It was on me and Ducky that you couldn't come to us." He nudged him to scoot over on the bed and sat down beside him. "I know we have a lot of stuff to still work out between us, Timiny; we need to have faith in each other. And remember that Abby's illness is not anyone's fault."

The two talked for a while about things, until Tim's hands got tired from signing. Gibbs took them in his own hands and massaged them for a bit. "Got something I need to ask you and then more to tell you."

Tim nodded, and then pointed a finger around the room. "Good idea, hang on." Gibbs took a sniffer out of his pocket and passed it around the room, the cupboard and the bathroom. The room was free of electronic ears, so he climbed back up on the bed, speaking quietly.

"First, the question. I remember there being something in the regulations about deputizing people as temporary NCIS agents. Would you know if that's true and where I'd find it? "

Tim sat in thought, going back through the manual he'd memorized years ago. He perked up as he remembered and signed, "Yeah, it is in the regs, try Section 14.5. Have someone bring me my laptop; I'll look it up for you."

"Ok, let me send a text to Rob, he's coming by tonight." Gibbs stopped to send a text and Tim had to fight the urge to rip the phone out of his hands and type in the text himself, his dad was so slow! He mentally shook his head at himself; he was more like his father than they'd thought. When his dad was done, Tim looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah, I know, son, the rest of the story. Tobias has been staying at the house the last couple of days. He's in trouble, bad trouble with some hosebag at the Bureau; this guy will stop at nothing to bring him down. He kidnapped Emily, Tim, that's how he forced Tobias into that whole mess with you. She's fine, not harmed and she doesn't remember anything. She and Diane are safe."

He filled Tim in on the plans for the next morning, letting him know he wouldn't be back until Saturday. Tim swallowed, trying not to show his worry as his dad outlined his plan to evade not only the FBI but possibly Gehob's buddies in organized crime. This was scarier than his interrogation. When his dad told him Tony insisted on going with him and Fornell, Tim's tension reduced somewhat, he was less worried about his dad going off alone, but now worried that something would happen to the two of them, really the three of them. And who would be protecting the rest of the family while Dad was getting Tobias to safety? Gibbs nodded when Tim asked him that and told him that Damon Werth was back in town and had agreed to stay at the house and guard the family, along with Geordie of course. Tim smiled a little now understanding just who Dad wanted to swear in as temporary agents.

He knew Ziva would be here with him, but, Tim shook his head, she should not be expected to be on duty for more than 30 hours without any sleep. He signed to his father to bring him his weapons; he had plenty of strength in his hands and arms and could maneuver well enough in his bed. There was some lively discussion about this with Gibbs finally conceding, admitting he would feel better if he knew Tim was armed. Tim asked about bringing Vance in on it but agreed when his dad pointed out this was a personal problem, not related to NCIS.

Discussion over, Tim took his dad's burn phone and sent a text to Ziva's burn phone to bring his, Tim's, weapons with her to the hospital. Forgetting he was on his dad's phone, he put a little love note at the end and got a message back asking who had sent the text. Tim blushed as his father read it, and then tapped him lightly on the head.

Rob showed up with Tim's laptop and Tim's face lit with happiness as he logged on, he'd missed being online almost as much as he missed his voice. He quickly found the NCIS regulations manual and opened the section with the information about appointing temporary agents. Blowing it up so his dad could read it without his reading glasses, he made his dad pull the chair over to the little table and then had Rob put the laptop down on it. His dad smirked at him; he wouldn't hurt the damn thing, not when it was being useful. He made notes of what he needed to say and what forms he needed to fill out, of course there would be forms, that he would backdate. He was of sufficient rank within NCIS for the whole process and he sincerely hoped Vance never found out.

Having seen what he needed to see, he started to close the laptop when he heard Tim banging a spoon on the metal rail of his bed. Eyes wide, Rob snatched the laptop from him and gave it to his brother who cradled it and gave their dad the evil eye. Gibbs stood up and stretched, announcing he was going for coffee. As he left, he heard Rob exhale and let out the laughter he'd been holding in.

He loved the sound of his kids laughing so much that he didn't care that he was laughing at his old dinosaur of a father. That sent Gibbs into happy thoughts about being a father again; he got his coffee and walked back to find Rob and Tim immersed in some writing thing. Rob caught his attention and showed him, it was Sarah's book. Once they enlarged the font size for him, he read the promo and summary proudly. He hoped Svetlana, now burning in hell, knew how futile her efforts to kill the McGee children had been.

Sarah and Geordie showed up after dinner and Gibbs sat the three siblings down and told them what was going on. Geordie protested that he could protect his siblings by himself and would have kept arguing if his dad hadn't finally mentioned the fact that Werth was a decorated Marine. He left out the fact of his less than honorable discharge and that he had provided the medal Werth had. He'd already spoken to Damon; the man was expected here at the hospital within minutes to meet the family he would guard.

As their dad spoke, Sarah and Rob, trying not to look as scared as they felt, made the mistake of looking at Tim and he knew all with one look. He held out his arms and they went to him, feeling more like they were 5 and 6 again rather than 21and 22. Geordie looked at the Gunny, feeling the man's sense of loyalty to his friend and his absolute desire to protect his family. He pulled him over to the couch, this was a father and son conversation, one he was sure Tim would be having if he could speak.

"Who's going with you?"

"DiNozzo."

"Good. How long's the trip and when's your first communication?"

"4 hours and when we arrive."

"No. Not how it's going to work, Dad. I know you're used to being the boss, but this is a family thing and two of our family members are directly involved. Here and at home, we will all be holding our collective breaths; 4 hours is not acceptable. 30 minute check-ins the first three hours, then upon your arrival. Please, Dad. Sarah and Rob are already having a tough time with what we do for a living. Not the purpose - the danger. "

Gibbs reeled at that, another thing they would need to work through. He hoped their feelings would ease with Geordie leaving Special Forces and for the first time he wondered if the possibility of Tim not being able to return to the field might be a good thing. Not for Tim, not for him or the rest of the team, but for Rob and Sarah. And he guessed for any children Tim and Ziva would have.

He put it out of his head as he nodded at Geordie, agreeing to the new communications schedule. He told his Marine Lieutenant son where the burn phones were at home and recommended that neither Sarah nor Rob go into work until he was home again. They had just finished hashing out some additional details when there was a knock on the door and Werth poked his head in.

Motioning him in, Gibbs introduced him, "Sarah, Rob, Geordie, this is Damon Werth, a friend of the team's and a former Marine corporal. He'll be working with Geordie to keep you safe at home." Damon shook hands with the three newest Gibbses and Jethro, and then did a forearm to forearm shake with Tim. Sarah and Rob relaxed a bit at that, seeing Tim liked the guy and seemed to trust him.

Gibbs spoke again, "Sarah, I know you have work scheduled for Friday. You need to stay home, that goes for you too, Rob, if you have hours on Saturday. I'll reimburse both of you for the pay you'll lose."

"Dad, you don't have to do that."

Sarah hit her brother on his arm, "Speak for yourself, baby brother, I need the money!" The family chuckled at that, relaxing a little bit more. Both of the younger siblings agreed to skip work and Geordie felt his gut ease a bit. Giving his father a look, he pulled Werth out of the room and into the empty waiting area.

Damon waited for him to speak. "You know I'm just back from a 20 month tour?"

"Yes sir, Gibbs told me."

"Huh, I'm still a Marine officer and I do intend to take point on this, my family, but just call me Geordie, no 'sir'."

"Got it. You're wondering about me, you want to know how I know Gibbs and the others?"

"Yes, Dad said you worked some cases with them."

"One case and I helped on another one. I met them on my own case when I was having some problems. Gibbs helped me and I guess we all thought that was that."

"What was your case?" Werth stood straight and looked him in the eye.

"Basically self-induced steroid poisoning that led to some 'roid rage on my part. I went from being up for an award to being dishonorably discharged in the space of 48 hours."

"You clean now?"

"Yes, and DiNozzo had me do a piss test earlier today before he'd agree to letting me work with you."

"Good, that's good. Glad you're clean, I know that probably wasn't easy, good work, Corporal."

Damon smiled, "No, it wasn't easy but it's been worth it and same goes for me, either Damon or Werth. I'm long past the Corporal."

"Understood, Damon. Been to a firing range lately?"

"Last week, Geordie, brought my scores," and he handed over a piece of paper, signed by the range manager.

Geordie looked at them, "That's good. How are you with other weapons? I'd rather not have a fire fight in the house."

"I'm Marine trained, Geordie, same as you, also have a black belt; teach kickboxing and Ziva helped me hone my knife skills."

"Ziva?"

"Yeah, she worked with Tim and me for a few weeks until she was satisfied with our skills."

"Now I feel better about Tim having his weapons here. He used to be the top of the bunch with his knife skills, but it's been years, glad to know he's brought them back up to scratch."

"Top of the bunch?"

"Yeah, we lived on the streets when we were kids, we weren't a gang in the current definition; we were a group of kids who protected each other and the younger kids."

"McGee lived on the streets?"

"Yep, all four of us did and he's Gibbs now, except at the agency."

"Yeah, sorry old habit, DiNozzo just brought me up to date the other day. Do you and Sarah and Rob use Gibbs too?"

"Sarah and Rob do; while I'm happy that Gibbs has adopted me, we've agreed that I'm keeping my dad's name, Perry. So in a crunch, Perry - or Geordie -will catch my attention."

"Understood. You know we'll probably both revert to our Marine ranks?"

"Yeah, that'll work too. Just not in conversation. "

They nodded at each other, they'd do fine.

They went back to Tim's room and found themselves alone with the patient and Gibbs. Tim signed that Sarah and Rob had gone for snacks in the cafeteria. Damon looked around and noticed Gibbs seemed to be enjoying his coffee. He remembered the man only drank Marine quality and wondered where he'd found it.

He raised an eyebrow toward Gibbs and Geordie laughed. "Dad, do you teach everyone that?"

Gibbs smirked at him, "Only the best and the brightest, son. Damon, it's in the staff lounge, anyone challenges you, tell them you're part of the Gibbs clan."

Tim tapped lightly on the bed rail with a spoon and all three men turned to him. He signed, "Not all the best and brightest, Dad, DiNozzo hasn't mastered it." They laughed at that and Gibbs quipped, "Yeah, Timson, but he also uses hazelnut creamer in his coffee, so we know he's got some different personality traits."

Damon signed, "He's not a Marine." Tim signed, "I'm not either and do all Marines use the eyebrow?" Gibbs signed, "It's in your genes, son and yes, all the best Marines." Another laugh with a big grin from Tim.

Damon and Geordie left to get coffee and Gibbs relaxed, feeling he'd had far too little time alone with his son. He pulled the chair up to the bed and smiled at his boy. Now that everyone else was out of the room, Tim let his guard down a little and let his dad see how worried he was. He signed "I know its Fornell and I understand that and I'm glad Tony is going with you, but Dad, if anything happens to any of you…"

Gibbs nodded and leaned forward, ruffling Tim's hair. "I know son, I know I have responsibilities toward all of you to keep myself safe. It was one of the first things Geordie said to me. I never got it before; I thought as long as I protected all of you, I was doing my job. It never occurred to me, even when Tony tried to tell me, that me taking care of me was part of protecting my family. I've got it now and I promise, Timothy, I promise to take the best care I can. "

He put his hand on Tim's face and Tim leaned into it, then signed, "But you're doing this to protect Tobias, and yeah, I get that you have to protect him, just make sure he gets to safety and you and Tony come home in one piece and breathing."

"I'll do my best, Timson."

"Wish I could go with you, wish you could take Ziva."

"No, you need to heal and Ziva needs to be here to protect you." Gibbs sighed, "It's a mess, I know, but he's my friend."

"I know, Dad, he's my friend too, sort of, I guess, now that I know all this. And he needs us, I got that too. I just want it all, his safety and ours. I…just…I'm scared, ok? Haven't had you as my dad long enough to even think about giving you up, not as boss either."

"You won't be giving me up, Tim."

Tim shook his head, "I know there aren't any guarantees in life. I guess everyone in our family understands that more than most people. But I wish to hell I could have one, just this one."

"Better wish to heaven then, son, don't go making any pacts with the devil."

Tim twisted his lips and gave his father a look. Gibbs smiled, "You know Jenny once said you had that look down perfectly."

"What look?"

"Your mad look, she asked me once if I taught it to you. I said no, you picked it up on your own."

"Ask Sarah, it's a look I developed while raising her."

"Not Rob?"

"Still waiting for Rob's rebellious stage, so no."

"Ah, so Sarah was a spitfire growing up."

"You have no idea."

"So tell me." Tim spent the next few minutes telling his father about Sarah's childhood with her sassy mouth. When Damon and Geordie wandered back in with their coffees, bringing an extra one for Gibbs, they found Gibbs laughing so hard he was near tears. Sarah and Rob came in right after them and Tim stopped signing. Gibbs had been watching Tim and not the door so when the signing stopped, he started to say something, turned around, saw their audience and started laughing again.

Damon's eyes were opened so wide they looked like they were going to pop out of his head. He'd never seen Gibbs laugh before, hadn't realized it was possible. Not like this. Geordie wondered what the heck Tim had been talking about to make their dad give it up like that. It was great to see. Sarah and Rob just looked at each other, puzzled, then shrugged. They knew their brother had a great sense of humor but maybe their dad was just finding out.

The four eventually left for home and Tim settled in with his dad for the evening. Dinner arrived, with an extra one for Gibbs, and they traded what they did and didn't like. After they finished and the trays were collected, Gibbs went for more coffee and Tim looked for something on TV that they'd both like. There was an old Western that he stumbled onto, so he kept the channel displayed until his dad returned. The movie was called "Shane" and Gibbs was pleased it was airing. Tim had never seen it and enjoyed it; Gibbs had seen it many times and got a kick out of watching his kid watch it for the first time.

Their time together went too quickly and sooner than he wanted, Tim felt his eyes sliding shut. He popped them back open long enough to hold his arms out to his dad, knowing he wouldn't see him for a couple of worrisome days. Gibbs crawled up on the bed and held him while his boy fell asleep. Ziva found them both asleep when she arrived at 0300; smiling, she went out to the staff lounge and got a cup of coffee for the man she regarded as her father-in-law. He stirred and woke when she brought the coffee into the room and he smiled his thanks at her. Putting the coffee aside, he grabbed a wet washcloth from the bathroom and wiped his face.

He came back out, grabbed his stuff, kissed Tim goodbye one more time, kissed Ziva, who murmured not to worry, and gave her a hug for that. Picking up his coffee, he forced himself to walk out the door, praying with everything that he had in him and to anyone or anything that might be listening that he'd be back on Saturday, with Fornell, his family – and Damon – safe.

He headed for his truck, having put the Challenger on loan to Geordie until he got settled or transferred. Not many cars around yet at 0315 on a Friday morning; he kept an eye out but saw no signs of a tail. He drove to a preset rendezvous with one of his Marine buddies, Joe, and they exchanged his truck for his buddy's large black SUV with dark tinted windows. Joe would also be helping out later once they started implementing the plan to boot Gehob out and reinstate Tobias.

Joe had already muddied the license plates so Jethro didn't have to stop to do that. He headed for home, driving up the alley in back of the house and pulling up to the back gate. He turned the lights off on the SUV and hopped out, patting the sniffer in his pocket. Tim had reminded him to check the car anytime he had been away from it. Fornell met him on the back deck with his bag and headed for the car. He would lie down on the back seat for the first hour, perhaps longer. He slid in, carefully tucking his black bag on the floor.

Gibbs entered the house to find his three kids, Damon and Tony in the kitchen with dim lighting, waiting for him. Geordie handed him his bag and gave him a long hug and a kiss on the cheek. Rob and Sarah followed with the same warmth. Damon shook his hand. Tony turned with him to leave and the three siblings pounced on him, laughing. They hugged him and Sarah kissed him on the cheek and finally let both Dad and brother Tony slip out the back again. Gibbs put a ball cap on; he didn't want to be identified by his silver hair. Tony grinned at that and then leaned out of the way of a threatened headslap. They used the sniffer on the car and did a visual check on the undercarriage even though Tobias said he hadn't heard anything.

Tony drove the first leg. Once on the freeway, they headed west. Using an elongated mirror he attached to the rear view mirror, Gibbs scanned constantly for tails. There were few vehicles on the road, it was still very early, not quite 0400 and they were heading away from the heavily trafficked areas. Tony drove for an hour and then pulled off on a dark and lonely country road to allow Fornell to stretch his legs. They would stay off the freeway from here on, the real reason for the length of the trip.

Pat had given Gibbs an elaborate maze of roads to take to avoid any cameras or tails on the freeway. This also kept them away from any rest areas or commercial businesses along the way, or any place else with security cameras that would be all too accessible to the FBI Acting Deputy Director responsible for Fornell's problems. Since Gibbs had the map that he'd written with Pat's directions, Tony opted to continue driving and let Gibbs navigate. Fornell was happy to resume an upright position; while the backseat was comfortable, he'd much travel sitting up than lying down.

Gibbs checked in with the house at the 30 minute mark and again when they stopped and was happy to hear there were no problems. Damon was on duty and reported he'd had an update from Ziva that the hospital was quiet as well. Fornell postulated that Gehob thought he'd found a safe haven away from DC that first day when he'd lost his tail.

Gibbs wasn't sure if that was good news or bad news. Good for the kids at home and in the hospital, not so good if Gehob's goons were trolling country roads looking for Fornell. He wondered how far they would go and remembered this was the mob; they did cities and large towns, not country. Suburbia would most likely mean country to them. Still, he didn't allow them to stand down from their high alert until they finally pulled onto the graveled road that led to Pat's remote retreat.

The gravel crunched noisily under the SUV as they drove the twenty miles into the woods and Gibbs laughed. "You can have all the electronic gizmos you want and they're fine for what they are, but give me some dark and lonely country roads and nice noisy gravel and we're covered."

The other two laughed, relieved to be off the roads and almost to safety. They came to a slow halt before taking a curve when they spotted an off road vehicle tucked behind some trees, only barely visible in the waning moonlight. All three men pulled their weapons and Tony turned the headlights off.

"Shit! We spoke too soon."

"Or it might be Pat."

"Or he could be dead and the goons are waiting."

"If it's Pat, he'll flash a light at us in a series of two, one, five flashes. "

Tony looked at Gibbs, "He was in the Marines with you?"

Gibbs nodded, "Special Forces, different companies. We worked together on a few combined ops."

Fornell spoke, "I'd forgotten that, he was already at ATF when I met him."

They sat in darkness for long minutes, then finally the signal came, two flashes, then one, then five and the three men breathed a sigh of relief.

Gibbs sent the correct return signal and the vehicle moved out from behind the trees and took the lead in front of them. "Boss, is that right, he's not showing us his face!"

Gibbs frowned, "Yeah, I don't like it either. Hang on." He flashed another series of lights at the vehicle in front of them and it came to a halt.

Again the three men held their weapons at the ready, out of sight, but ready to fire if Pat Cooke was not the person who exited the vehicle. Tony spared a thought to the irony of their duck and cover journey down here if only to engage the enemy when they believed they were so close to safety. Gibbs' phone buzzed and he cursed, ducking down to answer it.

XXX

After their Dad, Tony and Fornell left, Geordie told his two siblings to get back to bed, to get some sleep. Sarah refused although Rob dragged himself up the stairs. Geordie remembered what Tim used to say to Sarah when she was a little girl and would refuse to crawl into the sleeping bag and said those words to adult Sarah in front of Damon.

Furious and embarrassed, she marched upstairs, slamming the door to her room. Damon's eyes were popping out again, "Where did you learn that?"

"From Tim. He raised them you know, from toddlers."

Damon took that information in but decided not to think about it, he needed to focus on security right now. "I'll take first watch, wake you at 0900."

"Make it 0700 and you've got a deal."

"Gonna be a long day."

"However we do it, it's gonna be long. I usually sleep in 3-4 hours increments anyway. I'm going to sleep in my dad's room so I won't disturb Rob, that's the master bedroom, center court at the top of the stairs."

"All right, I'll wake you at 0700." Geordie handed over the burn phone and headed upstairs. He thought he wouldn't be able to sleep however he was out as soon as he crawled on top of the sheet, pulling blanket and comforter over him.

At the first check in, Damon was relieved to hear everything was going well. His thought had been any attack would have happened close to home. Before the second check in, Ziva called to report all was well at the hospital; Tim was asleep and would take the next watch at 0500 when he normally woke up anyway. They thought any danger headed their way would be more likely during the day when there were people around and it would be easier for dirt bags to slip in and out.

Damon had just completed the second check in when the phone buzzed again, with an unknown number. He answered it with just a noise to let the caller know someone was there. The voice said it was Pat Cooke and that he'd had some trouble. When Damon asked for the information he'd been given to verify Pat's identity, the caller swore and hung up. Damon put the phone down; it was useless now and headed upstairs to wake his partner. Something was wrong.

Geordie was awake as soon as he heard the first footfall on the stairs. He hadn't been on leave that long; his senses were on alert even as he slept. He was up and waiting at the door when Damon gave a quiet pre-arranged series of knocks. The Lieutenant opened the door and followed Damon back downstairs. Werth filled him in on the strange phone call and Geordie swore.

Leaving Damon on guard upstairs, he padded down to the basement to the wooden chest where his dad had showed him the rest of the burn phones. He took two more out and headed back upstairs. Freeing one from its hard plastic shell, he laid it on the kitchen table and looked at Damon. "I'm going to call them, warn them." Damon nodded, "I agree."

"Tell me again what the guy said."

"He said he was Pat Cooke and that there'd been some trouble. When I asked him for the identity code Gibbs gave us – that Gibbs told us he set up with Pat Cooke – he swore and hung up."

"What did he say, the swear?"

"He said 'oh shit' and hung up."

"So a nervous dirtbag, whoever he really is."

"Yeah and another thing, Lieute, uh, Geordie, he sounded young. I thought this Pat Cooke would be older, he's retired, isn't he?"

"Yeah, that's what Dad said, sounds bad. Ok, I'm gonna call them, hang on."

He called his father's burn phone and got a whispered response, "Werth? In a tight spot right now, can't talk."

"Dad, it's Geordie. We just got a call from a young guy claiming to be Pat Cooke, saying there'd been some trouble, but when Damon asked him for the identity code, he said 'oh shit' and hung up."

"Crap, ok son, thanks for the heads up, we're on Cooke's property; have an off road vehicle in front of us, we exchanged the proper light signals but Pat didn't get out of the vehicle. When was your call?"

Geordie looked at Damon, who had written down the time. "7 minutes ago."

"Did you hear that Dad?"

"Yeah, that's about the time I flashed my last signals to stop and nothing's happened since then. Fornell, Tobias, what the hell are you doing?"

Tobias had tired of the cat and mouse game and decided to take the first step. He stepped out of the car, his weapon held down by his side. Gibbs put the phone down and moved to follow him; Tony grabbed him, shaking his head. "Let him do this Boss, they've been hounding him and he's had no chance to stand up to them."

"Let go of me, I'm going; you can stay in the fucking car." Gibbs got out of the car and Tony, once again refusing to let Gibbs play lone wolf, climbed out of the driver's side. Fornell hissed at them, "Get back in the car, this idiot's mine."

"We'll cover you, Fornell." Gibbs glared at Tony for that but didn't say anything.

Fornell in his dark clothes and watch cap was nearly invisible as he crept along the right side of the vehicle. Tony dropped to a crouch and got up behind it, behind the driver's side. Gibbs, ready to kill both his friends and the dirt bag, moved in a crouch behind Tobias.

Coordinating between DiNozzo and Fornell, he did a count of three and the three men moved on the driver of the off road vehicle. "Freeze, Federal Agents, put your hands on the top of the steering wheel where we can see them."