JF36

Gibbs was getting agitated, it was extremely unlike Tim not to return from an allotted break, on time. It was even more unlike Tim to not call and let someone know if he encountered a problem and was going to be late, returning to the yard. He was angry at himself. He hadn't thought it through when they had told him to take a break, they had honestly thought he wasn't too much of a target. They had assumed Tony because of Tali and Gibbs because he was the team leader.

Leon ordered Abby to ping his phone and it showed that he was in an alley, a block from the diner. Gibbs had a gut feeling and he didn't like it. "Let's go, Leon." Gibbs hurried, trying to avoid running into Tobias, as they left to investigate and hopefully find Tim before he had to confess to Tobias about Tim being missing.

In the agency sedan, on their way to the back alley where Tim's phone had last pinged, Gibbs was kicking himself. "Damn it, Leon! We screwed up!" Gibbs punched the steering wheel as they sat in the slow-moving traffic, in the peak of the day. "We should have never let him out of our sight!"

"We weren't to know." Leon tried, but a look from Gibbs had him dropping that train of thought, quick smart. "Our intel suggested Tony because of Tali and you, Gibbs. Sarah and Tobias are going to kill us."

"Sarah and Tobias? Try Kelly!" Gibbs screamed out loud, in anger at himself. "Leon, Kelly loves Tim, so much. She once told me she would hold me personally responsible, if anything happened to him."

"Gibbs, you need to calm down." Leon advised his friend. "You're going to work yourself up to an attack and make yourself sick with worry." When they arrived at the alleyway where Tim's phone had last pinged, Gibbs pulled up haphazardly and left the car running as both men practically flew from the car. They spread out and began searching desperately, looking for any clue that would lead them to Tim. "Gibbs!" Leon's bellowing voice echoed through the alleyway. "Better get the crime scene kit from the trunk of the sedan."

Gibbs snagged the kit from the trunk of the car, on his way past. "What have you got?" Gibbs asked, as he passed the kit to Vance and continued his sweep of the alleyway.

"Blood, a lot of it. But no body, that's good, right? Means that he is still alive." Leon sounded optimistic and it was good, in theory. But Gibbs knew Ziva better than that. Ziva had murdered her own brother. She had put a bullet straight between his eyes, on her father's orders. Orders that she had been given, so she could gain their trust.

"We need more hands on deck, Leon. Tim is in danger." Gibbs finally admitted. "You're not going to like my suggestion."

"Call in the FBI for assistance and tell the Secretary of the Navy that one of our biggest assets is now missing?" Leon asked him, sarcastically. "Are you nuts? You want to tell the Secretary of the Navy that we all screwed up. That Agent McGee is missing. Do I need to remind you that Agent McGee is also her biological son? She is going to tear shreds off us, Gibbs. Not to mention what Tobias Fornell is going to do to us. He is Tim's biological father. What about Ms Langston? For all intents and purposes, she is his adoptive grandmother. She almost reminds me of Hetty, from the LA office. I just hope that she isn't as lethal as Henrietta Lang." Gibbs chuckled, Hetty was the most lethal person he had ever met in his life.

"Tobias and I go back a long way, Leon. It's probably for the best that he hears it from me." Gibbs reminded him, as he pulled out his cell phone and hit speed dial seven for Tobias Fornell. "Tim is my responsibility, Leon. He is my senior field agent. I am answerable for his actions and he was following my orders. Sure, you suggested it. But I'm the one who gave the order."

Keeping his voice low, Gibbs quickly gave Tobias the bad news down the phone line, but before he could ask the FBI agent for his assistance, Fornell wasn't offering, he was demanding to be involved in the search.

Within four minutes, Tobias was on the scene. "What the hell, Gibbs?!" Tobias fumed. "I have never worried about Tim when he's with you, because I know you'd do everything you could to protect him. I know you always have his back, but what the hell! I trusted you to look out for him and he was taken on your watch. You want to pray that's not his blood because Sarah will kill you."

"Sarah?" Gibbs smirked at his long-time friend. "How much longer are the two of you going to keep pretending you're not sleeping together?"

"Now is not the time." Tobias snapped at his dear friend. "In case you haven't noticed, my son is missing and he went missing on your watch."

"In case you haven't noticed, your son is a more than capable field agent." Gibbs snapped in retaliation. "I am sure that he will be fine, as long as we find him before Ziva and any of her cronies."

"You want to pray like hell, Gibbs, because you and Vance certainly didn't do him any favours. God damn it!" Tobias kicked the FBI sedan, in frustration. "Hell, I'm just as angry with Tim, too. He should have stood up to the two of you and told you no."

"You can blame John McGee for that one." Gibbs grumbled, seeing Vance return from talking to a witness. "John McGee didn't do your son any favours, raising him the way he did."

Tim drifted into consciousness, his head hurt and felt heavy. He had the taste of copper in his mouth. Blood. Great. He wriggled his jaw, moving his tongue around his mouth a little to check his teeth were intact. He found some small cuts, but nothing too much of an inconvenience. He tried to put his hand on his forehead and found out that his hands were restrained behind his back. His head was fuzzy, too. He determined that he must have a head injury because he couldn't remember anything after finishing up with the coding. "I see you are awake now, Timothy." Ziva's hard voice spoke over the intercom. "Make yourself at home. We will be right, there."

Tim thought he was hallucinating. He knew that voice, there was no mistaking it. It belonged to Ziva David. Her voice was cold, calculating and hard, just like it had been when they first met, while she was still with Mossad. The room began spinning again, and he slipped unconscious, again.

"Timothy!" A slap on his cheek reverberated through his head. "Timothy!" Again, nothing.

There was another muffled voice and it sounded like a woman; they were arguing. Ziva's voice rose higher, it sounded brittle and jaded. It reminded Tim of when they first met her. When her brother had murdered their team mate. "Timothy!" Ziva's disembodied voice spoke again, an octave higher than her usual pitch. He tried with all of his might, but he didn't have the strength to rouse himself into consciousness and slipped back under.

"Tony is going through your desk." Ziva's voice now whispered in his ear and he forced his body to consciousness and his eyes to open. She smiled at him, it was an unnerving and disarming smile. "I knew that would get your attention."

Tim looked around the room. It had walls of concrete. There was a large vent to the left. It was dark and damp, they were definitely underground. It had a sewer-like smell to it. Somewhere he could hear water constantly dripping, the sound was grating on his nerves.

He tried to move his jaw and found it more painful than earlier. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Tim could make out two women. One was clearly Ziva, her hair wild and out of control, much as it had been when they first met. The other was blonde, but it was a bad dye job and her olive complexion with her dark eyebrows gave it away.

"This is my new friend, Hadassar. She has questions for you. I suggest you answer them." Ziva threatened up close with a dagger to his throat. He recognised the dagger as the one she wore on her left ankle. She withdrew the dagger from his throat and circled to his back as Hadassar came closer to him." I will know if you are lying to me, Timothy."

"Where is Agent DiNozzo and Tali?" Hadassar demanded, her face turning red in anger. She was sitting three feet from him and using a rather large, sharp looking dagger, to carve into a plank of timber. "We demand to know where he is and what he has done with Ziva's daughter?!"

Hadassar focused on her carving, letting Tim see how sharp the dagger she was carving with really was. It was slicing through the wood like butter. Tim was focused on what Hadassar was doing, when suddenly he felt something small, metallic and cold fall into his hand. He gave it a small squeeze, but didn't react in surprise or shock. He suddenly realised that Ziva had slipped him the key to the cuffs that held him captive, so he deftly tucked it up in the inside sleeve of his jacket pocket. Not wanting it to be seen by Hadassar.

"Who is Tali? Ziva, is she talking about your sister? I thought Tali was dead. You always said Tali was killed in a bomb blast in the market place, in downtown Tel Aviv." Tim answered her, looking carefully into Ziva's eyes. But he couldn't see anything. Nothing but cold and hard eyes, much like they were when she first came to DC. "Tony is visiting his father in New York, still. He resigned from NCIS, after an altercation with a knife and Gibbs' arm getting sliced. There was an IA investigation, too."

Hadassar wasn't impressed with Tim's answer and went to punch Tim, but Ziva slapped his face hard, instead, saving Tim from taking Hadassar's beating. Hadassar was ruthless, worse than Ziva. She had been the best of the best at Mossad. She didn't have a shred of humanity left in her, Mossad had stripped her of it, every last millimetre.

"I told you taking McGee would be the better option and it was easier. You see as much as he is an agent, unlike Gibbs, Timothy cannot lie. Gibbs would have had us chasing our heads and lying to our faces."

"Chasing your tail, Ziva." Tim gently corrected her automatically, for old times' sake. But that just earned him a punch in the jaw from Hadassar.

"You did not tell me your friend here was such a smart-arse. Is he the one that had Delilah all twisted up inside?" Hadassar asked with curiosity. "He does not seem like the romancing type, he is a homosexual, no?"

"No, he is not a homosexual." Ziva answered Hadassar. "I know that he is not, I have seen him sneak looks at me. He did more than just look at Delilah, too. She would brag to me about his prowess in the bedroom and the laboratory technician at NCIS is Abby. Abby is gothic and told me that he is well experienced in the bedroom. Do not underestimate McGee, Hadassar. He may look meek and mild, but he will always get his way. He is tougher than he looks."

"He is a geek, Ziva. A dweeb." Hadassar argued with her. "He is the kind of man we would eat for breakfast. Are you sure he is not gay? He has not looked at me like a man looks at a woman."

"He is a gentleman and a scholar, Hadassar. He is not like Tony that would date a pot plant if it had female parts." Ziva replied, seeing Tim smother a chuckle.

Hadassar suddenly threw another fist at Tim, this time hitting in square on the nasal bone and breaking it. The sound of the snap, echoed through the room and it immediately began leaking blood, rather profusely. "Shut up, Agent McGee." she screamed, spitting in his face. "You are being rude and insulting to me and I will not tolerate it." Before she punched him again, this time across the left eye socket.

"Do not damage him too badly, Hadassar. We need him to carry out the next part of our plan." Ziva reminded her friend.

"As long as we do not break his fingers, he can still use a computer." she argued with Ziva, before slapping Tim's face again. "He is fun to hit, when he is all tied up." Before she picked up a brick off the ground and hit him on the back of his head and he lost consciousness, again.

"I want him found and I want him found, yesterday, gentlemen. Have you got it?" Sarah seethed at Leon Vance and Jethro Gibbs, as she paced back and forth across the length of Leon's office. "You both knew how dangerous Ms David could be, yet you sent him out, without protection and alone. It is reckless and selfish, Jethro." Tobias Fornell had not been wrong, Sarah Porter was beyond ropeable, and that was at her professional level, she hadn't started to unleash her personal anger at them yet. "If Agent McGee is not found within the next seventy-two hours, I will expect both of your resignations on my desk, by close of business. Is that understood?"

"Breathe." Tobias instructed her in a whisper. A whisper that was low enough, only Sarah could hear him. "Just breathe. Tim will be ok."

"He's our son, Tobias. I am his mother; I have a right to worry." She replied to her lover in all serious. "Until he is standing in front of me, I will worry. I have worried about him. Every moment of every day since we found out that he was our son, that our Timothy was alive."

Tobias kissed her lips, chastely. "I know, me too. But Tim is a capable agent." Tobias kissed her brief, lingering a split second longer than before. "You do know that it's not entirely their fault? Tim should have stood up to them." Tobias reminded her.

"He couldn't do that." Sarah argued with her rediscovered lover. "John McGee destroyed him. Gibbs and Leon have been guiding him, building him back up, but he's not there yet, Tobias."

Gibbs and Leon exchanged amused smirks, seeing the FBI agent kiss his ex-wife, the Secretary of the Navy. Jethro Gibbs briefly entertained the thought of wondering if Tobias had had the balls to tell Diane yet. If he hadn't, he wondered if Tobias would let him do it. It would be like all of his Christmases had come at once. He admitted to himself, that he would take enjoy it, immensely.

"Jethro Gibbs, whatever you are thinking, the answer is no." Tobias seethed, before chuckling at his long-term friend. In that moment, he believed he could read Jethro Gibbs' mind. "Now, let's find my son."

When Tim came to consciousness again, his head sounded like two dozen jackhammers had taken up residence in his head and were chipping away at the solid concrete. His eyesight was hazy and his head was heavy. It felt like it weighed a tonne and he was struggling to hold it up.

Hadassar had left, Ziva was keeping guard. "Timothy, you are awake." Ziva gushed and her voice sounded like it was full of relief. "We need to get moving, now. I cannot move, she will see me on the monitor. There is no audio and she cannot lip read. Unlock the handcuffs and tap your foot three times when you are ready. I will activate a flash bomb and you can escape. I will help you to the up into the street, but not any further. I have to see this through to the end."

Hadassar was watching the monitors carefully, as she watched Ziva spit her tirade at Agent McGee, she smiled a large smile. Everything was going according to plan, Ziva was playing her part perfectly and all she had yet to do was leave the evidence trail, accusing Ziva of masterminding the whole thing and skip the country. Ziva would be held by the US government and sent to Gitmo, as a terrorist.

Tim managed to retrieve the key with a fair bit of difficulty, he found his arms were aching and were struggling to make his fingers work. After almost four minutes of small, movements as not to alert Hadassar, Tim was free. He held onto the cuff, as not to show their cards too easily.

He tapped his foot once... Twice, on the third tap, Ziva activated a flash bomb remotely and soon a yellow harmless gas was filling the air and creating a thick, arid smoke.

Soon Ziva's voice was in his ear. "Move Tim, now. There is not a lot of time." she hissed, as she helped him to his feet and began dragging him. She tucked a flash drive inside his jeans pocket. "Give the drive to Leon, Tim. Very important."

Tim was unsteady on his feet and struggling g to keep up with Ziva's fast pace. Soon, they were at a storm grate and Ziva was pushing him through the tiny grate, before following him. "Stay Zee!" Tim begged her. "We can help you, let us help."

"I cannot." She whispered to him and Tim saw that constructed facade slip into her usual facade. "I need to protect Tali, above all else. Get the drive to Gibbs and Leon. It explains everything. Just know that Tali is the target, now run. Twenty yards, up and to the left is where we snatched you. Here! You can call for help from this."

Ziva thrust a burner cell phone into his hands and slammed the grate closed with Tim in the other side. "Zee! Come with me!" he begged her again.

"I have to see this through, Tim. I am relying on you. Rule 15." Ziva said softly, kissing his hands through the bar. "You have been like a brother to me and I will always cherish that. You deserve nothing, but the best. Help Tony to take care of Tali and love her like the amazing gentleman, I know you are. Be her uncle and be happy. Tell them, I will always love them. Now go, Hadassar will be heading up top, hide in the dumpster, once you call. She will not go dumpster diving. She is too much a of a princess. Go!"

Tim took a brief look at her, his heart breaking that Ziva refused to come with him, but he understood her. She had to see it through. She had to see it through for Tony's sake, to protect Tali. To protect Tim and Gibbs, too.

Hadassar may not dumpster dive, but she gave off the vibe that she would kill you without a second thought. That she was dangerous and not to be messed with.

Tim ran, the best he could. It was dark and he couldn't see where he was going. He staggered up the steps and around the corner. Twenty yards, Ziva had said. To Tim, it looked and felt more like a mile. But he counted his steps as he tried to run. His ribs were burning with every breath, his head felt heavy, his vision was blurred. He had begun to hear a ringing noise in his ear, too.

He made it to the dumpster, panting, but he couldn't hoist himself inside, to safety. He didn't have the strength. The diner was the next block over, another sixty yards. He could see the neon sign in this distance. The light made his eyes feel worse. He knew he'd be caught by her if he tried to climb inside the dumpster. He looked back and could not see Hadassar following him but he knew she would be ruthless in her search for him.

Making an executive decision, Tim pushed himself further, feeling the pain in his body intensify. He tried to open the burner phone to call for help, as he moved. But he couldn't get his fingers to work, his arms in excruciating pain from being cuffed. He didn't know how long he had been held captive. He knew he just had to make it to the diner. Elaine would call Gibbs and he knew Steve, Elaine's son, had a gun behind the counter and he smiled to himself at that. Steve was a former Navy SEAL, he could take Hadassar out, if he had to.

Gibbs was increasingly getting frustrated. Tobias was angry at him; Vance was royally pissed off at himself and Sarah was downright hostile. Abby had confirmed that it was Tim's blood that they found in the alleyway and Gibbs' heart dropped through the floor below his feet.

After everything that Tim had been through so far this year, this was the last thing that young man needed. What was worse? Gibbs hadn't had the guts to call Kelly yet and tell her that Tim was missing. Sure, Ellie knew, but she was under orders not to tell Kelly or Jack.

No one had dared clock out. Abby was standing by the security desk, threatening the staff who did dare try to leave while Tim was still missing. Tim was well liked by most of the staff at NCIS HQ, he was respected by even more. The FBI had bought in a mess of agents, for manpower and additional back up.

The NSA had given them the unredacted files that they had on Ziva David, Delilah Fielding, Jenny Shepard and some woman they had never heard of named Hadassar Amir, at Ellie's request. Jake was to personally deliver them. The directors of the NSA and NCIS had hashed out a deal to loan the legal eagle, paper pushing-puzzle shark for the duration of the case. As a thanks for NCIS taking out Benham Parsa, earlier this year.

Trent Kort showed his ugly mug inside the NCIS Navy Yard, offering up all of the intel that the CIA's claimed they had on the four women. Most of their Intel was on the mystery woman that had been identified as the fourth member of their splinter group. When his motives were questioned by Tobias, Gibbs and Leon, he gave them an unrepentant grin. "Contrary to popular belief, I know McGee's worth, as an agent. I respect his talents and I'm not talking about his computer talents because the whole alphabet soup respects those skills. I am talking about his other talents. I would think that he is an actual saint, if I didn't know any better. He must be close to sainthood after putting up with all your crap, every day." With that, the CIA's insipid spook, turned and high tailed it out of HQ.

It was after 0400 hours and Steve and his mom, Elaine, had just come in to start the early morning shift. They had just taken over from the night shift; Terry, Elaine's oldest son and Cleo, Steve's girlfriend had just left.

It was an odd time of the morning at the diner. The local night shift customers hadn't come in for their latest pick me ups, but the truck drivers and milkmen had already been in for their usual breakfast orders. Elaine usually used this downtime to pour herself a cup of coffee and catch up on the administration side of her business. The side she often neglected because she got too busy chatting to her customers.

A bang at the side door, down the end of diner had startled both of them. They shared a startled look. They normally kept that door locked for security reasons between 2100 and 0600 hours. Another banging noise and a scratchy voice had Steve grabbing the twelve-gauge shot gun from under the counter.

"Stay back, Mom." Steve warned, a retired Navy SEAL. Steve handed his mom his cell phone, as Steve clocked the gun and made his way towards the door. "Get ready to call 911."

Elaine nodded; she was scared. She hadn't been robbed in the past, three weeks after she bought the place, back in 1979. However, she hadn't been on duty when it happened, her husband was and he was killed in the robbery. Terry, Steve and Nick, Elaine's sons, had taken to keeping the gun on the shelf, under the counter when Nick left for college to go to NYU, leaving Elaine all alone to run the diner, before Steve and Terry returned from their respective careers. Terry was an ex-marine and Steve an ex-SEAL. Only a handful of people knew about it and that was the staff, all of whom were family, as it was family-run business and her MCRT customers from NCIS.

Steve wedged open the bamboo timber slats on the blind that hung on the closed door when it was locked. He couldn't see much in the dark. He let go of the blind and turned to speak to his mom when he heard it again. He looked out and saw nothing.

The glint of the cell phone screen caught his eye from the streetlight and he looked down at it. He twisted the deadbolt back and flung open the door, gun clocked, ready to fire.

Looking down he recognised the bloody figure. "McGee!" he exclaimed, casting a second glance his way, as he scanned the street for any threats. As soon as he had completed a second sweep, he disengaged the gun, leant down and hauled Tim into the diner.

"Call Gibbs." Tim told him, his voice raspy from his overexertion. "Need help, call Gibbs." he repeated himself.

"McGee, I've got to call 911, you're injured." Steve tried to reason with the stubborn agent, as Elaine handed his phone back to him.

"Lock the doors and call Gibbs." Tim reiterated, in his raspy voice, his throat burning with every word he spoke. "Not safe."

Elaine rushed to the door main door, flipped the sign and locked the deadbolt. While Steve rushed and took care of the door, he had just hauled Tim through.

"You're OK, Tim." Elaine reassured him, as she started trying to clean him up.

"Don't. It's evidence." Tim whispered, working out it didn't hurt as much if he whispered. "Need Gibbs."

Elaine moved to the landline on the wall and dialled the number that was taped to the wall above it. Gibbs had given her his cell number after Gibbs had broken up a fight outside the diner between two rival gangs in 1998.

Gibbs was at his desk, not sleeping, just resting his eyes. Tobias and Sarah were huddled at their son's desk, while Balboa and Sacks were sleeping back-to-back behind Tony's desk, while Dorney was on Ellie's computer, trying to track Tim and Vance slept on the spare desk in the bull pen. Abby was sprawled out on a makeshift bed behind the international desk in the next bullpen over. Ducky was on the top stair of the mezzanine level, building a forensic psychological profile of Hadassar Amir. While Jimmy was curled up on the international desk, curled up tight, in a ball.

A ringing cell phone shattered the silence and immediately the sleeping bodies began to stir. Gibbs took an extra second to realise that it was his phone. "Yeah, Gibbs." he snapped gruffly into the phone.

"It's Elaine, at the diner, Gibbs." she identified herself.

"Is everything OK?" he rushed out, worried. In all the years his cell phone number had been taped to the wall, Elaine had never dialled it before.

"He's here, he's a bloodied mess and he won't let us call 911, but he's here." Elaine whispered into the phone.

"Who? Elaine? A customer?" Gibbs asked grabbing his sig, as he noticed that everyone was gearing up to go too.

"Tim!" she exclaimed, louder. "Tim's here. He's begging us to call you."

Gibbs' smile, just about broke his face in two. "Lock the doors, don't let anyone in but me and tell him, I'm coming." Gibbs ordered, disconnecting the call.

"Trouble at the diner?" Tobias asked, one of the first awake. He had gotten the gist of the call, even if he couldn't hear what Elaine had told him.

"It's Tim. He's alive." Gibbs announced and a small cheer went up, around the room from Abby, Sarah, Jimmy and Dorney. "Let's go!"

Gibbs, Leon, Tobias, Dorney, Sacks and Balboa each holstered their weapons and prepared to head out. "Doctor Mallard, Mr Palmer. Please ready your suite for Tim, if he is injured, it'll be too dangerous to have him admitted to hospital, unless it's for life threatening reasons." Tobias warned them. "We will be back soon and we're bringing him back with us." Tobias said, reassuringly, but this was more for Sarah's benefit, than anyone else's.

"I am coming, too." Sarah stood tall, telling them all, vehemently.

"No." Gibbs told her softly, coming to stand in front of her. "You're going to stay with Ducky and Jimmy and help them get autopsy ready." Gibbs whispered to her. "Elaine said he is hurt and bloodied up. He's going to need your gentle touch. He's going to want his mom. This is your chance to just be his mom, Sarah, not the Secretary of the Navy."

"Come along, my dear." Ducky urged her, putting his arm around her to encourage her to stay with him. "There are no guests downstairs, so I assure you that it will quite comfortable. Mr Palmer will give you a change of scrubs and Abby will show you where you can change in the lab."

Abby put her other arm around, Sarah and helped her into the lab, as soon as they reached the sub-basement. Jimmy rushed into the lab with a set of royal blue scrubs, identical style to what Jimmy and Ducky wore. He handed them off to Abby and hightailed it out of there. "Come on, you can change in my office." Abby said, gently.

Gibbs, Tobias and Leon approached the diner with caution. Dorney, Sacks and Balboa had made a solid point on the way over to the diner. What if it was a trap? Gibbs tentatively knocked on the main entrance and Steve looked relieved to see him, as did Elaine. He could not see Tim. But that didn't mean that he wasn't here.

Gibbs signalled to Tobias and Leon that he was going in and Vance told him that Dorney, Balboa and Sacks had given him the all clear. Cautiously, he entered the diner. "Are you ok?" he asked, as soon as Steve unlocked the door.

"We're OK." Steve told him. "It's just me and mom, here. Tim's over here."

Gibbs just locked the door behind him, temporarily. He needed to see Tim, first. He wouldn't let his friend see his son, unless it was safe. Unless Tim was OK. He needed to protect his best friend from the image of his newly discovered son's bloodied body. He had seen Tim all bloodied up before, Tobias, as his father, didn't need that image in his head.

"Tim!" Gibbs exclaimed, seeing his bloodied, crumpled form. He rushed over to where Steve had propped Tim against the counter seating. Half-laying, half sitting on the floor. Elaine was there, too. She was holding his hand, murmuring into his ear. Reassuring him that he would be OK. "What did they do to you?!" he asked. His heart was in agony, seeing Tim beaten like that. It took him back to the drone attack on the gala, before he shook his head no. It went further back than that. It took him back to when they rescued Ziva from Somalia.

"Gibbs!" Tim managed to get out. His voice was raspy and hoarse. "In my pocket." Tim urged Gibbs, tapping his jeans pocket. "Go into my pocket."

Gibbs looked strangely at him. He had been missing for almost forty-eight hours and all he was saying was he wanted something in his pocket. Gibbs went into the denim pocket in the front of his jeans. He removed a flash drive. "How?" Gibbs asked, astounded. Not only was Tim OK, but he had bought evidence back with him. He quickly pocketed the flash drive and shot Elaine and Steve a look, that clearly told them that they saw nothing.