Chapter 7:
Tony tried hard not to fidget as he and Gibbs rode the elevator up to the bullpen. Gibbs’ lecture in the park had put him into the right frame of mind to rehash his last case in Baltimore, but now he was dealing with a nervous energy that he couldn’t seem to get rid of. Tony had admitted to himself that he was feeling a bit anxious about getting back to debriefing McGee and Ziva. Why, he wasn’t really sure. After all, he trusted McGee and Ziva with his life. Telling them about his last partner wasn’t that different, was it?
The sudden stop of the elevator jolted Tony from his thoughts. Turning to face Gibbs it was obvious to the younger man that he was probably thinking a little too loud.
“What’s wrong?” Gibbs asked as he gave Tony a look that said ‘Don’t give me any ‘I’m fine’ crap’.
Tony’s shoulders slumped down as he leaned back against the wall of the elevator. “I’m not sure,” he said in a tone that told Gibbs he was answering honestly. “I’m not exactly eager to do this, but I trust McGee and Ziva, so why should I be nervous about telling them?”
“Did you ever stop to think that it has nothing to do with them? That maybe it’s just a normal reaction to be nervous?” Gibbs pointed out. “Personally, I’d be worried if you weren’t a little on edge.”
Tony seemed relieved at Gibbs’ revelation. “Really?”
“You’re always in motion, Tony, no matter what. The only times I’ve ever seen you still is when you were unconscious or dead,” Gibbs said quietly, which made his point all the more clear to Tony.
“Gotcha, Boss,” replied Tony in way of understanding what Gibbs said and didn’t say out loud.
Gibbs gave him a nod and then reached over to flip the switch to get the elevator moving again. He paused, looked over at Tony, who nodded his consent, and then once again the two agents were on their way to regroup with the rest of the team.
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The moment that Gibbs and Tony stepped off the elevator the atmosphere of the office shifted. While Ducky and Abby searched for confirmation that Tony was ready to continue, McGee and Ziva were looking for a sign of what they should do next. Both agents were taking Abby’s advice seriously, wanting to support Gibbs and Tony in any way that they could.
“Let’s go back down to Abby’s lab,” Tony suggested, not wanting everything that was going to be said out in the open for the rest of NCIS to hear. “That way we won’t have to worry about being interrupted.”
As the rest of the team headed for the elevator, Tony pulled Abby aside. “What’s going on, and don’t blame it on bad Chinese food either,” Tony questioned.
“I swear, Tony, me and Ducky didn’t say a word,” Abby explained. “They asked questions, but you can’t be surprised at that. I mean, they’re investigators, they know something’s up and…” Abby was cut off from her rant when Tony covered her mouth with his hand.
“Relax, Abby. I know you guys wouldn’t say anything,” Tony assured her. “I was just wondering why McGee and Ziva were holding back, is all.”
Abby looked puzzled. “Uh, they don’t have anything to hold back.”
Tony sighed. “Earlier today they were throwing questions at me left and right about the pocket calendar and why I was acting the way that I have been. I disappear for lunch with Gibbs and come back to silence? What else am I supposed to think, Abs?”
“Oh Tony,” Abby said as she gave her friend a hug. “I told them to not attack you with questions until later. They suspected that something bad must have happened and they just want to help.”
Tony gave her a small smile. “Thanks, Abs.”
She nodded her head then took his hand and started for her lab. “Come on, everyone is going to think we got lost or something.”
“Nah,” Tony said with a laugh. “They will probably think you just snagged me so I could help you carry more Caf-Pow! back to your lab.”
Abby turned to him with a smirk on her face. “Don’t go putting evil thoughts into my head, Tony. That only leads to trouble.”
“Yeah,” Tony agreed. “The good kind of trouble.”
Snickering, the two friends got onto the elevator and rode it down to her lab continuing their banter.
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Once everyone was settled back into their seats, Tony decided to break the silence before it got too unnerving. “Revisiting this case hasn’t been easy, which I’m sure is pretty obvious.”
The looks he got from everyone confirmed what he had said and that they were a bit surprised that he was being so blunt about it. Well, everyone except Gibbs, that is.
Taking a deep breath, he continued. “I’m just going to go ahead and start, because I’m not sure how else to do this.”
“Don’t think of it as giving a report,” Ziva told him. “We are your friends as well as your teammates.” McGee gave a nod of his head in agreement to her statement.
“Ok,” Tony said. “Well, once we had access to all of the information and evidence from all of the cases, and we actually started investigating, things started to come together. We were able to compile enough information to actually identify the guys. Seemed that each member of the ‘team’ took turns scouting out their next location for each new target. They would actually work in the area, learn the security, when the place would be empty, everything.”
Tony looked to Abby, who immediately jumped in to the conversation. “Through a computer program that I wrote, I was able to narrow down lists of employees at each crime scene to those who only worked there for a few months at most and recently quit or disappeared. Lucky for us, it was a short list and Gibbs and Tony were able to eliminate people as suspects pretty fast.”
“Once we had their names, it was easy to find out where they were currently working and figure out which location was going to be used next,” Tony continued. “We had to move fast. As far as they were concerned at the moment no one had a clue as to what they were doing. These guys were smart, so we had to move fast before they had the chance to make a break for it.”
Flashback
When Gibbs and Tony arrived at the warehouse, Starks was nowhere to be seen. He had said that he was only a few minutes behind them, but they couldn’t afford to wait. This quite possibly being the only chance that they would get to catch all three suspects, Gibbs wasn’t too keen on waiting. As he looked over at Detective Dinozzo, he could see his own thoughts and feelings being reflected back at him.
Gibbs opened the door and got out of the car, Dinozzo following his lead. The streetlights at the corner of the street cast long shadows over the area, making visibility difficult. Closing the car doors carefully, they both pulled out their weapons and held them at the ready. Dinozzo moved ahead to open the door at a side entrance, Gibbs moving up to cover him. The detective looked at the federal agent, and after receiving a nod, he opened the door.
The entrance was clear, and luckily there was enough lighting within the warehouse for them to see that they wouldn’t need to use flashlights. Silently they moved through the hallway that revealed the floor of the warehouse. Just as Gibbs moved to indicate his intentions to Dinozzo, they heard the door they had just walked through open again.
Tony turned around to cover Gibbs’ back and found himself pointing his gun at Starks. Shaking his head in disgust at the man’s stupidity, Gibbs got Dinozzo’s attention with a tap to his shoulder. With a nod of his head he told the younger man to go left with Starks while he went right.
Dinozzo easily understood and gave a quick nod of his own. As he started forward he had to grab Starks by the arm to get his focus back, as he had stood there dumbfounded at how Dinozzo and Gibbs were silently communicating.
Taking the lead, Dinozzo started making his way across the warehouse, moving in between the boxes that were being stored there. He listened for any sign of movement from their suspects, keeping a careful eye on Starks’ movements as well.
Movement around one corner caught his eye. After alerting Starks, Tony cautiously moved ahead. As he edged closer, he was able to get a clear view of a man working with something that was on the table in front of him. The man turned halfway around, reaching for something when he noticed the detective approaching him.
“Baltimore PD, hands up in the air, don’t move,” Tony stated quietly as he got a good enough look at the man to identify him as Parker, one of the suspects they were after.
The man made no move to cooperate, instead staring down the young detective in front of him.
“I said hands in the air,” Tony instructed again a little louder this time, but not so much as to give their position away to the other two suspects that were still unaccounted for.
Parker had no intention of going to jail, it was written all over his face. In the blink of an eye, he made his move. Grabbing the gun that was on the table, he turned and fired.
Tony had been watching Parker closely, and returned fire. He jerked back as he felt a bullet hit him in the shoulder. Fortunately, Tony’s aim was better; Parker lay on the ground, dead by way of three shots to the chest.
Sighing in relief that the bullet had hit his vest, Tony started to stand up, unaware of someone coming up behind him. Having had his attention on Parker, Tony had counted on Starks to watch his back. Starks saw the man approach Tony from behind, but made no move to call out a warning, instead raising his gun towards Tony and the suspect.
“Starks, what are you…” Tony never got to finish his question as he felt something hard connect with his head.
He never even remembered hitting the ground. The next thing he was aware of was Starks running back the way they had come, disappearing around the corner as the sounds of several police cars could be heard outside of the warehouse.
Tony tried to move and retrieve his gun, but he saw a hand come down and remove it from his reach. Then he felt the guy’s foot in his side as he was rolled over so that he was lying on his back. Jordan, suspect number two, stood looming over him with a gun pointed down at him.
“Looks like your luck just ran out with your partner,” Jordan sneered just before he pulled the trigger.
A shot rang out, but this time Tony didn’t feel the bullet hit. He blinked in confusion as he watched Jordan fall backwards. It was becoming a real challenge to try to stay awake. Seemingly out of nowhere a hand was on his shoulder, bringing him back from darkness.
“Hang in there, Tony. Ambulance is on its way,” said a voice. Blinking his eyes a few times to focus he saw Gibbs looking down at him with concern.
The young detective tried to turn his head to look around, but was prevented from doing so by Gibbs’ hand covering the deep gash that was on the side of his head. Briefly Tony wondered why Gibbs’ hands were so sweaty until he caught the scent of blood nearby.
The smell was beginning to make him feel nauseous, which then caused Tony’s eyes to roll to the back of his head. Gibbs immediately began to worry; losing consciousness while having a head injury of this nature was not a good thing.
“Hey, come on Tony. Stay with me here,” Gibbs prompted the younger man. He couldn’t believe this was happening; he finally meets someone who he can actually work with and then just like that the man was down. Where the hell was Starks going anyway?
Gibbs had been searching his own side of the warehouse when he had heard the first round of shots go off. Moving to intercept anyone trying to make a run for it, Gibbs had arrived just in time to see Starks running back towards the entrance of the warehouse and Jordan preparing to shoot Dinozzo.
A moan from the detective caused Gibbs to sigh in relief as he watched Tony try to open his eyes again. “Come on, open your eyes. You have to stay awake,” encouraged Gibbs.
“’orris?” Tony slurred the question, but Gibbs understood what he was asking.
“Couldn’t find him, probably ran off when he heard the shots,” Gibbs told him, hoping that the conversation would help keep him awake.
The look of defeat on the kid’s face was something Gibbs couldn’t bear to see. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him. It’s only a matter of time,” Gibbs promised him.
A few minutes later the paramedics arrived and Gibbs had to relinquish his post as they prepared to move him to the hospital. Knowing that he couldn’t leave the scene to Baltimore PD, Gibbs pulled out his cell phone.
“Director Morrow.”
“Director, Agent Gibbs, sir.”
“Agent Gibbs, how did things go?”
“Two of the suspects, Jordan and Parker, are dead. Morris’ whereabouts are still unknown,” Gibbs reported.
“I see. I could have read this in your report, you didn’t have to call me directly from the scene,” Director Morrow stated.
“Yes, sir. I’m requesting that you send down another team to gather the evidence here,” Gibbs continued. “Detective Dinozzo was seriously injured and is being taken to the hospital. I don’t trust the Baltimore PD to do a decent job of gathering forensics…”
“And after having read Dinozzo’s file and knowing that there is no one listed as an emergency contact you feel the need to make sure he gets proper treatment,” Director Morrow finished. “Since when do you go chasing ambulances carrying away someone from another department, Agent Gibbs?”
“Since I have an interest in offering him a spot on my team, sir,” Gibbs replied honestly.
“Really?” The Director said with interest. “There is someone that you actually want to hire?”
“Yes, sir,” Gibbs said.
“Alright, I’ll send out Jackson’s team. You usually seem to cooperate with him pretty well,” Director Morrow said. “Keep me posted on Dinozzo’s status.”
“Yes, sir,” Gibbs said as he hung up and turned to follow the paramedics out.
Starks was outside, shouting out orders to secure the scene when Gibbs finally spotted him. Marching up to the man, Gibbs allowed his anger to show on his face.
“You left him there to die!” Gibbs yelled at Starks.
“What? No! I was going for backup…” Starks started to explain, but was interrupted by Gibbs.
“You left him there with a suspect pointing a gun at him! You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you thought things would end well,” Gibbs growled. “Secure the scene and wait for Agent Jackson to arrive and pray to whatever you believe in that after I’m finished with you all I’ve taken is your badge!”
Turning around he walked back to his car and got in, prepared to follow the ambulance to the hospital. There was no way in hell he was letting Tony go back to working in Baltimore now.
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“By the time I was awake and coherent enough to understand what was going on, it was three days later and Morris had disappeared,” Tony concluded.
“There wasn’t much left that we could have used to try to track him,” Gibbs said. “He knew that his secret was out, and with his buddies dead there was no reason for him to stick around.”
Abby’s lab became uncharacteristically quiet as McGee and Ziva absorbed what they had just been told. They could relate to Gibbs’ anger at Starks; you are supposed to watch your partner’s back. Starks failed to do so and left him behind in some of the worst possible conditions.
“Starks actually had the nerve to visit Tony in the hospital, but Gibbs chased him out,” Abby informed them.
“You’re kidding?! What could he possibly have thought that was going to accomplish?” Ziva exclaimed.
Tony shrugged. “I have no idea. Course that might have been due to the fact that I was still pretty much out of it. I never even knew he had stopped by until later.”
“Just how out of it were you?” McGee inquired, wanting to know how badly he had been hurt due to Starks.
Ducky intervened before Tony had a chance to answer. “He had twenty stitches on the left side of his head along with a severe concussion and minor swelling of the brain. He’s damn lucky, and don’t even think about trying to downplay those injuries.” The last part was directed at Tony, who merely gave his best ‘Who me?’ innocent expression.
“So Morris got away because of Starks, and Tony started working for NCIS not long after that,” summarized McGee. He got three nods of confirmation.
“Please tell that he was severely punished,” Ziva questioned darkly, silently preparing her own doom for the man who failed to do his job.
“I reported him to Internal Affairs, they took over and after a long, unpleasant investigation they took away his badge,” Gibbs confirmed, giving her a look that told her that there was more, but that it was also unofficial. She gave a slight nod in his direction; message received.
“So what’s next? How do we catch Morris?” McGee asked while looking at Tony in an attempt to show his teammate support.
“Well, we don’t have a lot to go on right now. We should probably start pulling up some of the old case files from the past few months in different precincts and try to determine if Vaughn was his first victim or not,” Tony suggested, grateful for the change in conversation that McGee offered.
McGee and Ziva both looked to Gibbs, who said, “Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation? Get to it already.”
They both jumped and started to head out of Abby’s lab. “Don’t worry, Tony. We’ve got your back,” McGee told him.
“Indeed. Morris will not get away because of stupidity this time,” Ziva vowed.
Before Tony could muster a response they were out the door. He sighed and turned to face Abby, Ducky and Gibbs. “Well, at least that’s over with.”
“You going to be ok?” Abby asked.
Tony gave her an honest smile as he replied confidently, “Yeah, I think I will be.”
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.