Disclaimer: no legal rights to NCIS, no money being made.

NOT BETA'D, EACH AND EVERY MISTAKE IS MINE, SORRY!

Warnings: same as Chapter One, also not for Ziva fans, nor Tiva fans. Therefore, read at your own risk you have been warned.

DETERMINED TO HOLD

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR clogged ears

Previously on NCIS

"Our exit route is due north," said Tony on the run. "Gibbs' exact words were, 'there's a body of water, a boat and some oars, and a map'. Let's hope they're still there."

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As directed the three special agents ran due north through the underbrush about a mile and finally came to the body of water, a lake. McGee figured this was still part of Gibbs' property and it was pretty isolated. There were no roads or any identifying landscape to pick this spot from any other spot. They could assume that some of the men were following them though tracking them was not going to be easy unless they had professional trackers with them. If they had dogs with them, they were well trained and silent.

Now a drone was another story. "Get down," signed DiNozzo who threw himself down into the vegetation with the two others quickly following suit. Some drones could pick up sound so they lay quietly until the drone whizzed by them and kept going and Tony was pretty sure it hadn't spotted them unless it had a thermal infrared camera attached that could track their heat trail. They couldn't assume that the drone didn't belong to the enemy chasing them and that it wouldn't come back.

He motioned to the others to start moving again and they stayed well in among the trees in case the drone came back. The boat was there waiting for them and they gladly clambered into it quickly. DiNozzo, the first one in the boat grabbed the oars but he didn't start rowing right away. A storm was brewing and rain had just started to fall.

"To my knowledge, drones aren't water resistant or waterproof so they can't fly while it's raining, anyone know anything different? asked DiNozzo.

"Yeah, there's some new technology," Tim related. "Some drone systems provide varying degrees of protection against water. The motor and the electrical components are essential so some pilots put their drones through their paces in wet conditions to see their capabilities."

McGee and his big brain knowledge. Some things Tony wished the man could keep to himself like drones that could now fly through storms, probably hurricanes and blizzards too.

"Heavy rain is fine but we're going to be exposed to heavy winds on the water if we don't go now, that's not good and that may include lightning strikes," Beatty informed them.

"Yeah, not good," said Tony. "Let's go"

The rain did get heavy and the choppy water made the boat hard to handle and about to overturn. Lightning strikes were often pretty close and Beatty's surprise announcement that he couldn't swim topped the cake.

McGee had grabbed one oar from Tony as they combined their strength to keep the boat a float but it was a useless endeavor. The boat tipped precariously at a particularly rough wave and they all spilled out. But the boat wasn't done. It overturned on its way back down and of course Beatty was caught underneath. When Tony surfaced, Tim yelled at him to get his attention as he frantically tried to right the capsized boat. "Tony, Beatty is under the boat."

Tony immediately dived down and came up under the boat where he found Beatty who had grabbed onto something and was keeping himself afloat to breathe the trapped air from the air pocket.

"Ok, Hansen, that's your first name, right, Hansen?" Hansen nodded. He was afraid of open water like some people were afraid of small holes. A useless, stupid phobia that would have kept him out of the military if they had known about it. That's why he had never applied only to be rejected.

"Hansen, Hansen, are you listening to me? Come on, this is going to be easy. We've got two choices to make, Hansen, because we can't stay under here forever, not enough oxygen for one much less two people, and McGee's trying to turn the boat but he can't do it on his own. So I can leave you here and help Tim turn the boat over and if that doesn't work, we'll swim and tow it to shore. You just hang onto whatever you're gripping and you'll be alright."

"What's the second choice," Beatty shivered in the cold water and his teeth chattered.

DiNozzo tread water smoothly but he was still also feeling the effects of the cold water. They had to get out of there and to land soon.

"We're both going to hold our breaths then I'm going to pull you out from underneath this friggin boat and to the surface where you can breathe all the air you want. How's that sound?"

"Terrible, but I don't want to be left alone in here either."

"Okay, so it's a go. No stalling around, let's do this. Bring it on." Tony gave him his best motivational expressions he'd memorized from a motivational training class he'd enrolled in with his girlfriend at the time.

"On three we're going under. Come on Hansen Beatty, take a deep breath. You know, I've been meaning to ask you, what kind of name is Hansen Beatty, anyway? One, two, three."

Tony went under at three, righted himself and grabbed onto Beatty's legs and tugged but Beatty didn't budge. He wasn't letting go of whatever he was holding on to. Tony ran out of air and resurfaced. After taking a deep breath he told McGee to go under and grab one leg and he'd grab the other and pull hard because Beatty wasn't coming out peacefully.

They went under at three, grabbed a leg each and pulled hard so Beatty was cut loose kicking and struggling. It just took a second once they got him by the arms to surface and Beatty took large gasping breaths still in panic mode. McGee wondered if taking a course in recontextualizing his fear and listening to his internal dialogue to self would help him calm himself down, geez!

The waves slapped into Tim as he tried to talk to the panicked man grabbing onto them.

"Calm down, Beatty or you'll drown all three of us. Just hang onto the boat and Tony and I will swim it to shore, okay?"

"But I can't swim, I can't swim, you know that right?"

"Yes, we know that," said DiNozzo. "That's why we're telling you to hang onto the damn boat and help us kick! Now let's go! That's an order!"

"Yes sir!" And Beatty gave a quick lopsided salute the best he could and glommed onto the side of the boat with steel claws.

"What're you yelling at him for?" Said McGee in an aside to Tony over the sharp crack, rumble and boom of the storm.

"It got him moving, didn't it?"

He had a point so McGee started kicking as they got the boat moving.

The stormy weather continued with thunder accompanying the lightning. The wind and tide were pushing them away from shore. "This isn't working McGee. Before we get too tired we're going to have to attempt the swim."

Resigned, McGee agreed. "How do you want to do this?"

"We'll take turns, you go first. Go as far as you can then I'll try to get us the rest of the way in."

Beatty overheard them and accepting his fate agreed it was the best option. "Thanks for staying with me as long as you have. And don't blame yourselves, I think it's the best choice you could make in the circumstances. No sense in all of us drowning in this…"

"What the hell are you talking about, Beatty?" Asked a distracted Tony as he tried to judge the distance to shore while struggling to remove his jacket and tie it around his waist.

Tim had removed his shoes, tied them together with the shoestrings and slung them around his neck. He too eyed the distance to the shore. What was it, a mile, two, five?

"Okay, I'm ready. Godspeed, DiNozzo."

"Godspeed, McGee." And they clasped and shook hands as they held onto the boat.

"Bye, and good luck. You are two of the best agents I have ever met and two of the best people. Tell my ma and gramma and my pop, the family…" Beatty's voice shook as it trailed off in saying his goodbyes. He wasn't going to shame his family by showing fear but this was hard.

"Shut up, Agent Hansen Beatty. Nobodies becoming a martyr on my shift," yelled Tony angrily, competing with the noisy storm in volume, and spitting out a mouthful of water as a result. That Beatty would think they would leave him there to drown really pissed him off.

"Mine either," chimed in McGee. "Now wrap your arms around my neck but not too tight and don't struggle, that just makes it harder for me."

"But you don't have to do this, I understand. I'll hang onto the boat until you figure someway to rescue me." Beatty was genuinely surprised, they'd risk their lives for him. This was crazy!

"No, you idiot, stop wasting time. We don't leave anyone behind!" hollered DiNozzo over the noise, getting even angrier than before. Why didn't he know that? Why didn't everyone know that? Why hadn't Ziva known that?

And Beatty, who was a smart guy, finally, in the middle of what seemed like a growling, disruptive angry body of water and spitting firebomb lightning strikes figured out what all the to-do had been about with what Ziva had done and the unforgivable mistake she had made. And the cause of that poor agents suicide attempt.

Beatty didn't know this but DiNozzo had been deeply affected by the idea of no one being there to hear his call for help. Not out of fear but of abandonment. The reality as a child being left in a hotel room by himself for days. But Beatty did realize that it was about not leaving someone alone in danger when their communication was purposely turned off or your brother-in-arms not showing up when you're taking cover behind a dumpster while under fire because you're gay. Or someone drowning because you just turned your back, swam away and left them.

We don't leave anyone behind. We don't joke about leaving anyone behind. We'd rather die than leave anyone behind. That was the message that had gone right over Ziva's head, a trust she could never get back. And it took him longer to figure it out but he learned it well. Trust in your partner was sacrosanct to these agents and Semper Fi, always loyal, you can count on me, Hooyah, was sacred.

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Tim's months of visiting the gym four times a week had paid off. The extra weight had come off, his stamina had increased and he was in good physical condition…to make it to shore by himself. Carrying 170 extra pounds, not so much. He figured he'd gotten about a third of the way in when he desperately needed to take a break and stopped swimming.

"You okay, McGee?" Tony huffed, treading water beside him. Tim couldn't answer trying to catch his breath.

"Okay, my turn. You know the drill, Beatty, and no struggling."

The switch went easily and Tony began to swim. "Come on Tim," he encouraged. "You did all the work, we're almost home." Tim felt that wasn't true but he'd done his best.

They swam the rest of the way till Tony felt earth beneath his feet. He unhooked Beatty's arms and pushed him to start walking in the water toward the beach. Tim had managed to keep up and he struggled to walk through liquid that felt like molasses. He ended up sprawled face first in the shallow water. Beatty waded as fast as he could to McGee and dragged him to shore. He's okay his mind repeated worriedly just winded.

Tony had made it to shore too but collapsed, also too close to the waters edge. If he had passed out, he would be swept away. Beatty grabbed him under the arms and pulled and dragged him forcibly over sandy rock hauling him further away so at least the water wouldn't pull him back out.

Beatty stuck around for a few minutes to make sure the other agents were recovering from their ordeal and breathing okay before he checked out the house lights above and took off.

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DiNozzo and McGee had recovered enough to move further into the sand dunes fringing the beach when Beatty returned.

"Welcome back, Agent Hansen Beatty. Where ya been?" There was still a tinge of anger in DiNozzo's voice. He was too close to abandonment issues right then.

"What's the idea, just taking off like that?" Asked McGee, more inclined toward curiosity than anger. "We were worried. You didn't call anyone, did you?"

"No, I'm not stupid. Just hear me out," Beatty replied snippily but what would they be angrier about, that he went AWOL or what he had actually done?

"I checked the houses nearby. The ones that appeared closed for the winter, I checked their garages. One had a car with the doors unlocked and the gas tank full. I put it in neutral and was able to push it outside the garage and a little bit further. I closed the garage door back up, got back in and hot wired it, put it in drive and it's parked up the street. Oh, and left no fingerprints and there wasn't a home security camera around to disable."

Tony perked up. "Looks like you got all the bases covered, then. So, what did you get us? Is it at least a Mustang, you know the car driven by Steve McQueen himself in the classic 1986 movie Bullitt?"

"I wish. I heard that beauty sold for a whopping $3.4 million, but no, sorry."

"A classic 54 Ford Thunderbird, then? Marilyn Monroe's favorite car, but she had a 56 TBird, I think."

Beatty shook his head once more. "No, sorry again, a 2009 Saturn Outlook."

DiNozzo was vastly disappointed and insulted, "you got us a mommy car? An SUV?"

Flabbergasted, McGee looked back and forth between the two of them. Were they out of their waterlogged minds?

"You stole a car?!"

The issue was settled quickly about the stolen car and there was no further debating about what Beatty had done. They needed to get out of there. They needed a ride. They had no other options. Whoever still had a cellphone, it was water soaked and useless. McGee still had his wallet and the money in it was wet but still good so they could use a pay phone to contact Vance and hope he wasn't compromised or they could try to reverse the charges but now that was getting too complicated. There was money to buy food with and gas but that was it. So they walked up the street casually, just three men coming from a local bar. They got in their waiting vehicle and watched while Beatty hot-wired the car again, turned on the heat, and took off with Beatty in the drivers seat.

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Some many miles and hours later after they hadn't been stopped by the police or gunned down by mercenaries, they stopped at a drive through for food and took turns using the bathroom. McGee wanted to call Vance but was vetoed by DiNozzo who said they should wait until they got closer to DC. Sorry to have to override you McGee, DiNozzo had told him, but I do outrank you and in my opinion…and he got no further because McGee wasn't having any of it.

"Look Tony, I'm the acting SFA and as far as I'm concerned you're still the SFA. When the word 'acting' is removed from the SFA title, then we might have an issue. For now, 'I bow to your superior intellect'."

DiNozzo and Beatty had a brief high five moment for McGee's conversion to movie trivia madness but it was a short moment as they were getting closer to DC.

"We've got a mole at NCIS so we can't go there or call Vance there." Said Tony gloomily and McGee noted he had started to wheeze.

"And Gibbs' house may be under surveillance so we can't hang out there," said McGee, equally out of sorts. McGee had scarfed down the sole hamburger and fries meal and a chocolate milkshake figuring he needed the extra calories. Beatty had inhaled his meal as well but Tony ate half his hamburger and passed the rest of his food on to them.

McGee's money was disappearing fast. He needed to save some for the pay phone and since the gas tank needed a meal too there went the little cash McGee still had. Beatty was of the generation where the bank card and pin were their cash. And bank cards were too easy to be traced by those in the know like government agencies, foreign entities, and genius hackers like Tim McGee.

"Alright, Balboa or Fornell?" They were down to their last two choices. DiNozzo figured one was as good as the other and was about ready to use ring around the rosie to choose when Beatty popped up.

"My younger brother Iness can get a message to Agent Balboa letting him know where to meet us. He knows the drill, he's taking courses in Forensics and police procedures."

"You have a younger brother working at NCIS?" How could anybody be younger than Hansen Beatty and still be able to get a work permit? wondered McGee.

But DiNozzo wanted to know, "What team is he on, who's his lead agent?"

"He's on the car maintenance team and his supervisor is Mr Herrera," Beatty told them.

Car maintenance team? His teammates continued to stare at him stupidly so it seemed they wanted more information. "That's where he learned how to start a car without a key and he taught me that little trick." More stares. "Uh, this is his last semester year at junior college and he works part-time at NCIS…"

McGee held up his hand, "Hold on Beatty." That didn't seem right. "They're teaching your younger brother how to steal cars in the maintenance department at NCIS…"

"Yeah, just hold on," agreed Tony and he coughed a little before he continued. "Your younger brothers name is Iness Beatty?"

"Yes, see my parents had nine kids, five boys and four girls and we're named in alphabetical order and Iness is the last kid my parents are going to have becomes my mom had to have female surgery and my dad was snipped so they could be in accord with each other and…"

"Stop, please stop." McGee and DiNozzo readily agreed. And they laughed just a little that ended up in a cough for DiNozzo at the silliness of it but their spirits were lifted at the expense of Beatty and his family as they realized was Beatty's intention all along. And Tony realized and remembered one of his mother's favorite Bible passages, and what Tim already knew about the prized gem in their midst who was their youngest partner, that, Never by the cloth should ye judge a pair of sandals or something like that even paraphrased still had meaning.. 1 Samuel 16:7.

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They decided not to get Iness Beatty or any other civilian involved. McGee had changed his mind and pushed for Fornell and Tony had half heartedly agreed. Beatty parked the car in a legal spot near the post office and McGee and Beatty exited and left a half sleeping Tony behind. "We'll be at the post office up the street, Tony, to make the call. Just stay put we'll be back in 15 minutes. Don't leave the car, ok Tony, and lock it when we get out."

"Right, don't leave the car, got it." Wheezed DiNozzo. Beatty closed the door on a now coughing Tony and watched him lock it.

The post office had a bank of pay phones and Tim used the one furthest from the entrance. Before he made the call, Beatty's worried eyes found Tim's. "Okay, I've held off asking but is Tony alright?"

Tim sighed. "No, he's not alright that's why we need Fornell, the FBI has offices everywhere. DiNozzo has compromised lungs after he was attacked by a demented freak of a woman who poisoned him with a swak envelope full of chemicals in powder form and he almost died. Now he has to be careful because he's prone to getting sudden asthma attacks among other things and usually he's okay but he doesn't have his inhaler and…"

"Swimming in cold, lake water for an hour carrying me on his back hasn't helped him. I'll blame myself later," said a really mature sounding young man. "Now let's just get him some help. My oldest brother Apney had asthma, not good. Make the call, McGee, sir."

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