Gibbs burst through the door of the conference room, making the young agent inside jump. Taking one look around, Gibbs spun on the frightened man. “Where is my witness?”
The young man was shaking, and looked to Tony like he was about to pass out. “I don’t know. There was no one in here when I got here.”
Turning back and heading back the direction he had come from, Gibbs barreled down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He was moving so fast that he ran smack-dab into the person coming around the corner to head back up the stairs, Lance Corporal Finnegan.
Grabbing the startled man’s arm in a vice grip, Gibbs headed down the hall without a word, his team trailing behind him, almost feeling sorry for Finnegan.
He slammed open the door of the interrogation room, pulled out the chair, and tossed Finnegan into it. From the observation room, the others heard Lance Corporal Finnegan talk, “What in the heck is this about. Am I not allowed to use the head?”
Gibbs walked out, closing the door behind him without a word to the Lance Corporal. He banged his way into the observation room a minute later.
His team turned to him, all of them anticipating and dreading what would come next.
“Find me everything you can on Finnegan. I want to know everything I can about this bastard before I say a word to him.”
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An hour later they were gathered in the bullpen with everything that could be found on Lance Corporal Brian Finnegan, which was not much. They had his phone records, his service record, his financial records, and his medical records, and so far nothing stood out.
His family’s medical records however were another story entirely. Both his wife and daughter had multiple trips to the emergency room for fractures. Colleen had spent a good deal of her young life in and out of casts. They had moved so often that the doctors had not put together the pattern, but when it was all laid out before them, there was no doubt as to the pattern.
Gibbs grabbed the copies of the x-rays and headed for the interrogation room once again. When he burst through the door, Brian Finnegan was pacing the floor, and spun to face Gibbs. He strode right to Gibbs and got right into his face, a brave move than none of the members of his team, who were watching from the observation room, expected. “What the hell is going on? One minute I’m heading back to the conference room from the head, the next I’m being thrown into an interrogation room. Then you go and leave me in here alone for an hour!”
Pulling the chairs out from the table, Gibbs sat with his back to the observation room. “Sit down.” It was only two words, but they were forceful, yet calm enough to get through to the Lance Corporal. He sat reluctantly, and crossed his arms, glaring at Gibbs.
McGee, in the observation room, flinched, “Yeesh, if looks could kill...”
He was interrupted by Ziva, who turned to him long enough to shut him up, “We all would have been dead years ago.”
They both turned back to watch Gibbs tear the man apart.
“You weren’t entirely truthful with us earlier Lance Corporal.”
Finnegan shook his head in disbelief, “What in the world? I told you everything that I know.”
Gibbs returned the man’s glare without flinching, “When I asked earlier if there was anyone you knew of who would want to hurt your wife, you said no.”
Even more confused than before, Finnegan sat forward in his chair, “That was the truth, everyone loved Aidan, I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt her!”
Standing, and slamming the x-rays down on the table, Gibbs kept his voice low, but it was somehow worse than if he had been yelling, “That is a bold faced lie, and we have proof. You say that no one wanted to hurt her, but you are conveniently leaving yourself out of the equation.”
Slumping back in his chair, Finnegan brought a hand to his forehead, “You think I would hurt my wife? No way!” He picked up the x-rays and quickly looked through them. “Is this what all of this is about? I can expl"”
Gibbs cut him off abruptly, “Don’t give me that crap. We’ve seen the x-rays, and we’ve seen the hospital records. Both your wife and daughter have been to the emergency room countless times with broken bones.”
Finnegan stood up again indignantly, but sat back down again very quickly at a look from Gibbs. The attention of those in the observation room was turned from those in the interrogation room when the door behind them opened.
Tony turned to address the new arrival, “Ducky, you here to psycho analyze this prick?’
Ducky, a look of stark disapproval on his face, replied, “No, Anthony, I’m here to talk to Jethro.”
Ziva, seeing where this conversation was heading, stepped in, “Not a good idea Ducky. Gibbs would be very unhappy if you interrupted him at this moment.”
Ignoring this advice, Ducky left, and headed straight for the interrogation room, and knocked. Gibbs ignored the first few taps, but as they got more insistent, he got up, shooting a glare over his shoulder at Finnegan.
Stepping out into the hall, he stood there, and waited for Ducky to explain his reason for interrupting.
Looking back at Gibbs with an unwavering eye, Ducky began, “Jethro, I need you to come back down to autopsy, I’m afraid I’ve made a grave mistake.”
Gibbs followed Ducky, opening the door to the observation room long enough to gesture for his team to follow. They did, confused yet again, there seemed to be a lot of that going around with this case.
As soon as they entered the autopsy room, Gibbs turned to Ducky once again, “Ok Duck, what’ve got for me? It’d better be really good, seeing as you found it worth interrupting my interrogation.”
Ducky, unperturbed by Gibbs angry glare, moved to the body. “It is worth it Jethro, trust me. As I said before, I made a grave mistake. I gave you my opinion before examining all of the evidence. I was wrong when I told you that Lance Corporal Finnegan beat his wife.”
This startled them, and McGee had to ask, “What do you mean Ducky? How else would they get all of those fractures?”
Not missing a beat, Ducky continued, “Let’s start with Aidan Finnegan’s eyes. Do you see anything unusual about them?” They all gathered around her head, and one by one shook their heads, until Ziva looked at Ducky, “The whites aren’t white.”
Smiling at her briefly, Ducky answered, “Right you are my dear. The whites of her eyes, or the sclera, have a slight bluish tint to them. That was shat first tipped me off that I was mistaken. It reminded me of a case I had back in medical school"”
Gibbs cut him off before he could get fully immersed in his memories, “Duck, what caused all of those fractures if he didn’t beat her?”
Coming back to the present, Ducky continued as if he had never been interrupted, “This poor girl has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, otherwise known as OI, or brittle bone disease.”
Tony looked up at Ducky when he mentioned brittle bones, “Oh, you mean like in Unbreakable?”
Ziva, the pop culture reference lost on her, turned back to Ducky, “What exactly does that mean Ducky?”
Ducky, answered Tony, and then Ziva, “I believe that is correct Tony, I saw that once, but it was a while ago. If I’m not mistaken, it was an M. Night Shyamalan film. Ziva, it means, that Finnegan most likely did not beat his wife or daughter. Depending on the severity of the OI, it could take as little as a fall to break a femur bone. Now, Mrs. Finnegan appears to have a fairly mild form, so she has not had as many fractures as others with the disease. Some people have close to one hundred before they reach the age of twenty. It is a genetic disease, so she passed it on to her daughter, which explains Colleen’s fractures. It also explains why she was not able to fight off her attacker as well, she would have had"”
Gibbs cut Ducky off again, this time by leaving the room. With apologetic looks, the others followed, leaving Ducky alone to search for his missing assistant.
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As Kate and Colleen finished the food, the door opened again. This time not only was the man who had brought the food, Troy, back, but he was followed by the man who seemed to be in charge, Paul. Troy carried a video camera and tripod and Paul carried a length of rope. They set the camera equipment up next to the bed, facing the opposite wall.
After directing Troy to place the food tray outside the door, Paul turned to Kate, “Go sit on the bed, and don’t make a sound. So far I have been good to you, but you don’t want to see what will happen if you mess this up.”
She stood to comply, and was getting ready to pick Colleen up to carry her back over to the bed when Paul stopped her with a hand on her arm. When he was satisfied that she was out of view of the camera, he turned and knelt down next to the frightened girl. “I don’t want to hurt you, so if you just do what I say, you will be fine. We’re going to send a little present to your dad.”
He moved the chair that Kate had been sitting in so it was in the center of the camera’s view field. He then picked Colleen up and sat her down in the chair, gesturing for Troy to bring the rope over. He pulled a set of hand-cuffs out of his pocket, and pulled her left arm behind the chair. He reached around for her right arm, but she fought to keep it out of his grasp, tears running down her face. Kate started to get up off of the bed to help her, mindless of her own safety, but Troy grabbed her arm and held her back.
After a few minutes of fighting the little girl, Paul gave up. He whispered something in her ear and then moved to Troy’s side, “I’ll keep her here, and you go get that girl into those cuffs. Do what you have to, but try not to hurt her to badly, our pay gets docked every time she gets hurt.
Troy complied, releasing Kate’s arm and moving to Colleen’s side. As he did this, Paul turned to Kate. “I told you to stay on the bed, you didn’t listen. I think after we get Lance Corporal’s video ready for him we’ll have to show you and the girl what happens when you don’t do as I "”
He was cut off by a shrill scream from Colleen. Troy had both of her arms behind her back, and she had stopped fighting, and her face had gone pale. Kate turned to Paul, “What the hell did he do to her?”
Paul replied with a sad smile, “Like I said, bad things happen when you don’t listen to me. My guess is she had to learn that the hard way. Now, as I said before, stay on the bed, and keep your mouth shut. You don’t seem to be worried about your own safety, so how about this, every time you disobey, I hurt the bratl again.”
Kate sat slowly back down, looking at Colleen, trying to catch her eye. When the small girl finally looked at her, Kate tried to convey as much comfort as she could without talking.
Troy pulled a long strip of cloth out of his pocket and gagged Colleen with it. She was not fighting anymore, the tears were pouring down her face even harder than before. Paul turned on the video camera, and walked over to the girl. He knelt down next to her and spoke directly to the camera, “Lance Corporal Finnegan, I’m sure by now you have figured out that your wife is dead and your little brat is missing. We have her, and as long as she complies with our rules, and you follow our every directive, she will not be harmed. I am sorry to say that she has already had to learn the hard way what it means to disobey. As long as everything goes as we say, there is no need for her to be hurt any further.”
He stood up and walked to the camera, looking directly in, “Expect our first call within two hours.” He shut off the camera, and turned to Kate. “I’ll send Troy back with everything that you will need to make her comfortable, but let her pain be a lesson to both of you.”
He left without another word, Troy close on his heels. Kate moved swiftly to Colleen, and gently untied her hands. The small girl continued to cry, and when her arms were free, she brought them around to her front, cradling the left on with her right. Kate lifted her gently and laid her on the bed, making her as comfortable as possible. “Can I look at your arm sweetie, I need to see what’s wrong with it.”
Colleen looked at her, pulling her arm a little closer to her body, and answered, her tears subsiding to sniffles, “I know what’s wrong, it got broken. It’s not the first time. I have brittle bones. That guy was mean. He called me bad names, but mommy always said, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
Kate was amazed that even in the midst of all of the pain, the girl could think so rationally. Troy came back then, carrying a plastic bag, which he set on the floor next to Kate, and left again without a word, locking the door behind him.
Kate looked through the bag and pulled out the splinting material, and turned back to Colleen, “They gave me things to make it feel better, but to do that, I have to look at it. I promise I’ll be careful.”
As the little girl gently laid her arm in Kate’s hands, Kate was grateful that her Secret Service training had included more than just basic first aid. She gently felt along the girl’s arm to make sure the fracture was not displaced. She could tell exactly where it was broken because Colleen flinched when her fingers went over the spot, even though she was not applying any pressure. Being as gentle as she could, she used a couple ace bandages to secure Colleen’s arm to the air splint, and then to make a makeshift sling to hold the arm securely against the girl’s torso.
When she was finished, she pulled out the last item in the plastic bag, a bottle of liquid Tylenol. It would not alleviate much of the pain, but it would help a little. After retrieving a glass of water, she gave Colleen the pain killers and helped her settle into a more comfortable position on the bed. She put a cool cloth on Colleen’s forehead, and sat beside her until she drifted off to sleep again. Kate went back to her book, getting up every once-in-a-while to comfort the girl when she woke up. It was going to be a long night.
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Back at NCIS headquarters, a package arrived, addressed to Brian Finnegan, C/O Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Eyes by Willow_Eris