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.

10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Tony had stopped at one of his favorite bakeries and had a full box of pastries with him as he walked through the parking garage. He stopped as he spotted Gibbs, Tim and their guard drive in. He knew it would take a few minutes to roll Tim over, so he went on upstairs to the bullpen. Ziva spotted the pastries immediately and tried not to drool at the smell. Tony put his gear down and opened the box for Ziva to pick out her favorite, an apple cinnamon twist. He started to pull out a bear claw for Tim, then decided to let the man choose, he might want something different today. He moved to Tim's desk, intending to leave it there and then take it over to Carter and O'Brien's teams once Tim and Boss took theirs. The elevator dinged and Tim, Gibbs and their guard emerged, making their way to the bullpen. Ziva had just been about to take her first bite but stopped when she saw her boyfriend. She put the pastry down on a napkin and then shook her hand in pain. "OH, I cut my hand."

Gibbs stopped; the agent with them stepping forward.

"On what, Officer David?"

"I do not know, there is nothing on my desk."

Gibbs and Tim said at the same time, "Where did you get the pastry?"

"I brought them in, Boss." Tony was right there, still holding the box.

Ziva's hand was bleeding quite a lot. Gibbs opened his mouth to tell DiNozzo to call Ducky or Palmer when Palmer emerged from the back elevator with his medical bag.

"Palmer, how did you know?"

"I called him Boss, as soon as I heard Ziva say she'd cut her hand."

"Good job, DiNozzo. Now, where did you get the pastries?"

"At the bakery I always go to, Boss, every week."

Tim whispered, "So someone knows your pattern, Tony." DiNozzo paled and looked at the box in his hand. "Did you give any to anyone else, DiNozzo?"

"No…I just got here, Boss, I gave one to Ziva, was going to let you guys pick yours out and then take the box to Carter and O'Brien's teams."

"Palmer, how's her hand?"

"It's a long cut, Agent Gibbs, I need to x-ray it, make sure there's no foreign substance in there, then stitch it, but I don't think it went deep enough to cut any muscle or tendon."

Ziva looked up, "It is not my shooting hand, Gibbs."

Gibbs smiled grimly. "Tony, take that pastry and the box down to Ab…the lab; have them look at Ziva's pastry and the rest of them and the box itself."

By that time, Vance had arrived. "Tell the lab I said top priority and Gibbs, DiNozzo, David, and you too, Agent McGee, you were right in your concerns. There's obviously still someone out there helping this dirtbag."

Carter had also arrived on the scene, followed by O'Brien. Carter spoke first. "DiNozzo, need the name and address of that bakery and your statement telling us how you went about ordering those. But first, get those to the lab."

Jimmy was putting a temporary bandage on Ziva's hand to stem the bleeding. Seeing the blood, Gibbs worried about how much she'd lost, who knew one little hand would have that much in it. Before he could state his concerns however, Ziva's boyfriend spoke up, "Jimmy, here, take her down in my chair, I'll be fine in my desk chair for awhile."

Jimmy nodded; Gibbs helped Tim out of the chair and held onto him while he walked over to his desk. He wasn't as slow as he'd been, but he admitted this had shaken him a bit and he was more determined than ever to stop this rat bastard. Palmer and Carter helped Ziva into the chair, while she was still protesting she didn't need a ride. Agent O'Brien accompanied them to Autopsy/First Aid while Carter went with DiNozzo down to the lab.

Gibbs and Vance stood in front of Tim's desk. He was furious now, his fingers flying as he set up his searches. He spoke without looking up, "Director Vance, once I get the results back on these, I'll need more computers, probably four, maybe more."

"You've got them McGee, Carter's already got them identified." Tim nodded.

Gibbs watched him, "Tim…"

"I'm all right Dad,…I'm not made of glass…oh, sorry." He looked up at Vance then, who just gave him a half smile and turned to go back to his office.

"Guess I know that by now, son." The agent who'd come in with them was still in the bullpen, not willing to leave until his boss gave him the go ahead.

The searches started, Tim carefully leaned back in his chair. "Da…Boss, aren't you going to see how Ziva is, what the lab's got? I'm done for a bit." Gibbs hesitated and their agent spoke up, "I'll be here, Agent Gibbs. Not leaving here until we find out what happened." Gibbs nodded, gave his son a soft pat on the shoulder rather than the hug he wanted to give him and took off for Autopsy and the lab.

Another agent from Carter's team appeared and put crime scene tape up. They would need to follow strict protocol with this so there would be no question arising in court about the pastry cutting Ziva. If indeed it was the pastry.

The lab, or rather Ginger in the lab, called Carter within minutes of the box of pastries being delivered to them.

"Agent Carter, the pastry that was out of the box has little shards of a sharp edged substance, probably plastic or glass, I'm still running it. We'll be testing all of the pastries."

"Can you give me an image of them, Ginger? So that when I arrest the bakers, they can see their work?"

"Yes sir, I'm printing them now."

One of Carter's team had heard him on the phone with Ginger and was already on her way down to the lab to pick them up.

She brought back images of the pastries with the shards gleaming like diamonds inside them. Ginger had also photographed the box, all surfaces to include any identifying marks. In one shot the box was full and Carter's team and the others agreed that pastries in general had lost their appeal. When Carter's agent brought the prints up to their bullpen, they viewed them on the plasma. The women commented that their mouths would have been cut up as they chewed, gums, tongue, palette, but some of the men shuddered knowing their own habits of devouring a pastry with just a token chew or two.

XXX

Gibbs had been ready to rake DiNozzo over the coals but then realized it could also have happened yesterday with their pre-ordered and prepared deli lunch. Grunting in anger at their errors in judgment, he walked into his 'office', waited until the doors closed and the lift started moving, then cut the power and gave himself a headslap. Flipping the switch back on, he returned to the bullpen to the anguished face of his SFA.

"Boss, I thought I wasn't part of this…I thought I was safe, I actually thought we were safe now."

"So you threw Rules 3 and 8 under the bus, DiNozzo?"

"Never assume, always double check… yeah boss."

"Even though they found that device under your car as well as everyone else's just a few days ago."

"Yeah, but Diopiti and his goons are in custody."

"And tell me, Special Agent DiNozzo, were they acting independently? Just pulled Fornell's name out of a hat?"

"No Boss, I just didn't think…"

"You're right…and I didn't either."

"Huh?"

"Ordered lunch by phone from our favorite deli for the kids and me yesterday. They stopped and picked it up; it was all ready for them in bags, all neatly marked. DAMN IT, they could have been hurt, even killed. And DiNozzo…their protection detail was right there with them, wouldn't have done any of us a damn bit of good if the food had the same thing these pastries did or was poisoned."

"Boss." The two men looked at each other in anger, frustration and sorrow at their lapses and near misses.

"I need to update Carter and Vance; you sit tight…or go see how Ziva is doing."

"I'll go see her, Boss."

Gibbs gave Tony a pat on the shoulder as he left, so angry with himself he didn't dare let it out. Was it his feelings for his family, had they gotten in the way of his good sense? He'd been a Lead Agent for more than a decade and in his mind, this was his worst lapse, ever. And it was inexcusable; a damn good thing Vance had given their case to Carter. He paused at the edge of Carter's bullpen as his team was having a quiet conference. He'd turned to leave when Rick caught sight of him. "Jethro, c'mon on in. I was just getting an update and looking at the images of those pastries."

He looked closer at Gibbs, "Is something else wrong, Jethro?"

"No, Rick, just the same stupidity, both mine and DiNozzo's. I need to update you and the Director."

"Ok, I'll meet you up there in a minute." Gibbs nodded and headed up the stairs to his boss's office. He was not looking forward to this conversation but Vance needed to know. His next thought was that DiNozzo's pattern had been known and followed, but his family's pattern, ordering from that deli, had not. He followed through with that theory. Rob and Sarah had been the original fans of the deli, not Tim and not him. That was probably why their food had not been tampered with. The deli wasn't part of either his or Tim's pattern…routine.

As he finished that thought, he found he was standing in Vance's office, in front of his desk. Vance looked at him, "You got something?"

"An update, not happy about it, need to wait for Rick."

"We all make mistakes, Gibbs."

"Not like DiNozzo and I just have, not that big, could have cost a lot of pain to a lot of people, maybe even worse. And me…I could have lost the family I've been given."

His knees suddenly weak, Gibbs felt hands pushing him into a chair. A glass of water appeared and he was ordered to take small sips. That done, he gave himself a few minutes and then, knowing it was Rick who had gotten him into the chair, he started talking, "DiNozzo thought he was out of the circle drawn by Gehob…and that we were all safe once Rick's team busted Diopiti. He never considered the puppet master and neither did I." Gibbs continued, telling Vance and Carter about his family's takeout order at their favorite deli yesterday for the lunch at the hospital and finishing with his theory that they'd escaped harm because it was mostly Sarah and Rob's favorite not his or Tim's.

"So you believe that your two youngest have not been targeted?"

"Yes, they were targeted by Diopiti. But apparently Gehob isn't up to speed yet, he is still focused on my team. I'm not taking any more chances with that."

Rick stood and paced, "Leon, we need to bring this guy down fast. If we can trace this to him, we can hold him until you meet with Calloway over the weekend."

Vance thought for a moment, "Yes and no. It will get Gehob into temporary custody, but other than the threat of danger and the cut to Ziva's hand which I've been told will have no lasting effects, no actual harm has been done. Yes, the intent is there, but that's not going to hold a member of the FBI management food chain for more than a few hours, at most. And it will have a negative effect on our case, make us seem that we're targeting him rather than proving he's the dirtbag he is. It's just a few more days, gentlemen, SecNav has ordered the takedown happen no later than Monday. Gibbs, can your team and your family hold out until then?"

"Team can, Leon, not sure about Sarah and Rob. Tim will be discharged and home with all of us on Friday, that will help, to have him home. Hell, it'll help all of us. I'll see if I can get that pushed up to Thursday afternoon after all his evaluations; that should help the kids and change the plan, change the pattern. Having him home and everyone but DiNozzo under a protection detail should help."

Carter shook his head, "Nope, he's going under one whether he likes it or not, Jethro and I'll also have a word with the agent with your family yesterday. He or she should have raised that issue. You and Tony aren't the only ones who missed that." Gibbs opened his mouth to defend the agent, but realized Rick was right.

"You going to put an agent in with DiNozzo at his place?"

"No, there's room at Ducky's. Unless Werth has left or is leaving your place, you're full up."

"Already told Damon he could stay till he gets back on his feet; he's probably in Gehob's crosshairs by now. He's starting a new job on Friday, Rick, did you …"

"Yeah, Geordie let O'Brien's team know. It's 'your' diner so we had it covered anyway, Jethro." Gibbs huffed. "Thanks man."

"Gibbs, I don't think it's necessary to have Agent McGee's discharge moved up. Along with his protection detail, one of the armed members of your family is always there with him and I know Tim has his own weapons with him. We'll speak with the head of Security at Bethesda about the kitchen staff and the food delivery staff, but I don't want to imperil his recovery in any way. So we're covered; we will all and I am including my own family, take extra precautions, think through our routines and change them as necessary for the duration. DiNozzo will join the Hubbards and Palmer at Dr. Mallard's immediately, Werth will continue staying with you and somehow you'll shoehorn Tim into the house on Friday."

The other two men chuckled at Vance's last bit, knowing how true it was.

"I gave that to Sarah to figure out, last I saw she had it all mapped out."

Vance quipped, "I have a mental image of a line of twin beds lined up in that basement of yours. "

Gibbs laughed harder at that, knowing how close they were to having to use some version of that solution. One more person needing one more bed would tip them right over the edge into the basement.

Carter clapped him on the back, "C'mon, Gibbs. Let's go get this jerk." Vance sat back as the two of them left his office, thinking about the changes he'd seen in his top agent these past few months. In his job, nothing had changed;, he was still the hard-ass former Marine urging his team to find the dirtbags. And their closure rate remained at its usual high percentage rate. But this was the second time the man had had a near panic attack in his office. Shrugging, he guessed he hadn't yet learned to balance family and work. Maybe he could help with that…once this business was over and done with.

XXX

At his desk, Tim, using Ron Sacks' information, was continuing to dig through the FBI's and specifically Gehob's files, searching for any incriminating documents, orders, payments, anything that would lead to a solid take down of this hosebag. What he found was an electronic treasure trove, so much so that for a while he worried that it was a plant. But there was too much of it and it dated back years, before his transfer to DC and Calloway's department. There was so much Tim had to organize the searches by computer, by year and then change printer assignments for each computer so he wouldn't tie up one printer for the rest of the day. That's how much there was. He was sorting through it all electronically, and was momentarily glad that Dr. Bwookie had given him six hours today. He would need every second of that. Having Tony, who'd returned from Autopsy with Ziva and Tim's wheelchair, pull documents off the various printers, Tim booked a conference room and, sighing, remembered that he was not supposed to be moving around, even in his wheelchair. Ziva caught the sigh and pulling Tony over with her good hand; they stood in front of Tim's desk. "What do you need?"

"Strong back muscles that don't wobble. Other than that, we need to keep pulling this stuff off the printers, I have them going to all the printers in the squad room, and take them to Conference Room B to sort out. Uh, and tell Carter's team about all of it!" Tim grimaced as he realized he was not doing this work for his own team, but for Carter's team so they could bring down the creep who was raining so much crap down on his family.

Tony leaned forward and put his hand on his arm, "We'll get him, Probie, a combined effort, we'll bring him down and he'll stay down." Tim nodded. Ziva looked at him, he was starting to look a bit tired, "Timothy, you have been working for three hours straight. I believe it is time for a break, while all the documents are printing and being sorted." Tim nodded; he was actually a little tired after the scare with Ziva and the pastries, then the thrill of the hunt through the FBI network.

XXX

Rick Carter and his junior agent pulled up in front of the bakery from which DiNozzo had purchased the pastries that morning. Strolling in, they took note of the layout of the place, noticing the open kitchen. The woman behind the counter smiled at them, these two reminded her of Tony DiNozzo, a regular customer. She wondered if they'd come to see if they could score such a sweet deal.

"Help you with anything? The lemon meringue tart is on special today."

"Need to talk with you about a purchase earlier this morning, we're with NCIS." Carter and his junior showed their badges. "NCIS, so do you work with Tony?"

The junior agent blinked; a bit surprised their suspect would open up like that. Carter took it in stride, "About his purchase this morning."

"Well, it wasn't something we normally do, but he's been a regular here for so long."

"What was different about today? "

"Well about 3 minutes after he called in his order, a friend of his called, saying it was Tony's birthday and he'd ordered the pastries for his own party. The friend, his name was Joe, said he had made pastries for the party the night before, so could he bring them in, have them put into one of our boxes and let Tony buy them, and then we'd settle up later. Since it was for Tony, I said sure, I'm the owner, no problem. The friend, Joe, came in about ten minutes later with the pastries. I put a few of ours in too, I felt funny about not including some of our own product when it was our box. "

"I see, can you describe this friend of DiNozzo's?"

"Yes and I can do better than that, I'm alone here in the early morning, so I have security cameras inside and outside. Is Tony all right, has something happened?"

"Something almost happened and Tony's fine, Ms. …?"

"Oh, sorry! I'm Darlene, Darlene D'Amato."

"Ms. D'Amato. If we could review your security footage for this morning, that would be very helpful. And please don't speak to anyone else about this."

"Anyone else?"

Carter gave a brief explanation along with a 'little white lie' to prevent the woman from talking with any other agency who might be interested, "We're investigating a case, Tony's working on it too, and the FBI believes it's their jurisdiction. It's possible someone else might drop in to speak with you, we'd prefer you didn't."

"Am I in danger?"

"You might be, ma'am; I see you normally close at 1:00 PM?"

"Yes."

"What I'd like to do is leave Agent Bertelli in here with you as protection until you close, and we'll also have an agent on the street watching."

"Oh, I suppose that will be fine. Will that just be today then?"

"Probably the next few days, Ms. D'Amato; are you open on Saturday?"

"Yes, but only until 10 AM."

"And do you live close by?"

"I live in the same building as Tony, that's how I know him."

"I see. Do you have any place you can go and stay?"

"Not close to my business, Agent Carter and I can't afford to shut down."

"Nor would we ask that of you, ma'am. All right, what we'll likely do is escort you to your home after you close here; have you pack a bag and then we'll put you up someplace safe until the case is concluded. We'll escort you to and from your business and provide security while you're here."

"Wow, that seems like a lot of trouble."

"We need to keep you safe, Ms D'Amato; you've just become a witness to crime."

As he spoke, he'd led the bakery owner away from the cash register toward the other end of the counter, figuring that if there was a bug it would have been placed close to the register. Bertelli was running a sniffer and shook her head, there was nothing.

"All right, although this is starting to frighten me a little."

"I'm sorry we've frightened you, we really just want to make sure you and your business are safe."

"I understand."

Bertelli suddenly spoke, "Would you feel better if you spoke with DiNozzo?"

"Yes, I would, please."

Carter nodded, "All right, let me see if I can track him down, he was helping his teammates when we left."

"Oh, would that be Tim and Ziva?"

"You know them?"

"I know of them and their boss, Gibbs. I've met him, although he just knows me as Tony's neighbor. I thought Tim was in the hospital?"

Carter laughed; a genuine laugh that eased the woman's fears more than anything else he could have done. Bertelli was chuckling too. She spoke for them both, "Ms. D'Amato, please forgive us, we don't mean to be rude, but we don't often run into people who know so much about our co-workers…ones who aren't family, anyway."

"Oh I see, yes I suppose that would be unusual in your lines of work."

While Bertelli and Ms. D'Amato were talking, Rick called Tony and explained the situation. "And now she's a little frightened, thought it would help to speak with you. What's interesting, DiNozzo is how much she knows about your team and current events."

In the conference room with Tim and Ziva, Tony had turned from his colleagues when he'd answered the phone and he blanched at Carter's last remark; deciding to ignore it for now, make a full confession to Gibbs before Carter returned and hope for the best. In the meantime, he agreed to speak with the bakery owner,

"Hi Dar. No, I'm fine, we're all ok, I will explain later when I can."

The conversation was short; the bakery owner seemed fine once she'd spoken with her friend. Once Tony disconnected the call, he raced from the room looking for Gibbs. He found him in the bullpen, reading the note Tim had left him.

"Boss, need to talk to you. Might have made another mistake, hard to know since nobody here is in the same situation."

Gibbs looked at his SFA. "This have anything to do with whoever it is you've been sleeping with?"

"How did you…Boss?"

"DiNozzo, I know when you broke up with Wendy you were hurtin' bad. That was a big chance you took with her and it didn't work out. I understand you trying, was damn brave. But you've been ok, even better than ok. Not as…I don't know, worried, torn, whatever you were with Wendy. Calmer, like someone was taking care of you. Figured it was someone who knew you pretty well, knew how you think. Am I wrong?"

"No Boss, you're not. The thing is, that woman is Darlene D'Amato, you've met her, my neighbor."

"Ok, yeah nice woman, pretty."

"Yeah, she's been wonderful, the thing is, she's also the owner of the bakery where I bought those pastries."

"Ah geez, DiNozzo."

"No, it's ok, well it's not ok but it's not her. Rick called, they'll check the security footage but she told them what happened, sounds like Gehob has my landline tapped, I know, I screwed up with that whole thing, and he called her with a cover story about wanting to surprise me. The thing is, I don't ever tell anyone my real birthday, because I don't celebrate it, I don't ever want to be reminded of it. So Dar didn't know when this guy called and said he wanted to surprise me for my birthday. "

"Ok, so got all that, her alibi will either check out or not, so why did you race in here looking for me?"

Tony made a face, "Because Carter mentioned she knew a lot about our team and I know that's going to come into question. So I'll just tell you, Boss, it's…pillow talk."

"DiNozzo, you telling me you talk about us after you have sex with this woman?"

"Um yeah, sometimes."

"Don't let her go, DiNozzo. Anyone who will listen to our crazy problems, isn't in the same business and still likes you, she's a keeper."

"Boss."

"Just saying, Tony. And if her alibi checks out, you and I will have a little chat with Rick and Leon if we need to. If she's clear, don't worry about it."

Tony's shoulders relaxed, "Thanks Boss."

"I swear I don't know which one of you gets in more trouble."

"Well, you got a lot of us to watch out for now."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Anthony."

"Um Boss?"

"I talked with Luca last night."

"How'd you know?"

"Thinking about the one of the "lot of us" that's missing right now and has more trouble than the rest of you combined."

"Oh. So what'd he say?"

"They found some meds that are working better; Luca says if the improvement continues, he'll be able to see her in person."

"Wow, this has taken a long time."

"Yeah, Ducky says they had to get the diagnosis right and then find the right combination of medications that works."

"Will she still be able to come back?"

"Don't know that, Tony. Think she'll have to be monitored to make sure her meds are being taken properly and that they continue to work. And for the agency's sake, her work would have to be under close supervision. Not sure how she's going to feel about that when our Abby finally surfaces."

"What do you think she'll be like?"

"No idea, DiNozzo. If I had my wish, she would be like she was when Kate was alive, smart, quirky, fun but not so..."

"Over the top emotional, loud, mean, childish, clingy, erratic, demanding?"

"Yeah, that. Miss my girl, the one I thought I knew. Ducky and I have been talking with Dr. Cranston about her; when Abby's stable we'll visit, make sure she knows she's part of our family, always will be."

"That's good, Boss and maybe I can visit her too."

"That'd be good, Tony."

"I don't think the others will though."

"Don't be so sure. Tim keeps in touch with Luca and Jimmy apparently does too."

"They never said."

"Yeah, kind of a touchy subject with all of us. Now, where's our team? Need to get caught up with what they're doing with the case." DiNozzo updated the man he considered his surrogate father while they walked to the conference room.

Tim had seen a funny look in Tony's eyes and figured he'd gone to find his da…boss. He'd have to get used to calling Gibbs the right name all over again when he came back to work. While Tony was gone, Ziva helped him sort the documents into years and subjects – and likely usefulness. Tim had just texted Carter's SFA that he was ready for them when the door opened and his dad and Tony walked in. Tony's shoulders, the usual tell for his stress level, were more relaxed than they had been since Ziva's hand had been cut. Carter's team came in on Gibbs' heels and Tim updated everyone, handing over the documents, with the links highlighted so whoever ending up examining these in the Legal Dept. would have a clue where to look for the source document.