As the team approached Abby’s lab, they could hear the pounding beat of her music thru the walls. As they entered, they could see Abby nodding her head to the beat, pigtails bouncing. Gibbs went over and turned the music off.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, “That was my favorite song.”
Gibbs replied with a slight smile’ “Need to be able to hear myself think, Abs.”
“You said you had something?” he continued.
Abby stood with her hands on her hips “Aren’t you forgetting something? My Cafpow?”
“I’ll owe you one, o.k?” said Gibbs. “What did you find?”
They all gathered around her desk, except for Tony; who hug back slightly. As they looked at her computer screen, she began.
“So I was going thru the results and noticed something kind of hinky. The potassium level was really low, almost non-existent.”
Ziva asked, “Why is that dangerous?”
“Well, it depends on what causes it. If it were that low naturally, it’s something that his Doctor would have noticed.”
“So your saying something caused it? Some kind of drug maybe?” Gibbs asked.
“Exactly!” Abby said as she turned back to her computer and began typing furiously.
“It’s called Digitalis Toxicity, he ingested one lethal dose of a drug called Digoxin.” Abby said as she pointed at the test results on her screen.
“So it was deliberate, he was murdered?” McGee said quietly as he looked at Abby.
“Yea.” Abby sighed. She then turned towards Gibbs, looked behind him and said “Hey, where’s Tony?”
Gibbs whipped around, saw that Tony was gone and muttered “Damn it DiNozzo” as he strode out of the lab.
As they hurried after Gibbs, Ziva was kicking herself for not noticing that he had left; McGee was thinking about what he would do if he had just found out that his Father had been murdered.
After hearing Abby reveal the test results, Tony knew he had to get out of there. He slipped out and took the stairs, deciding to go for a walk to get himself together. He stopped and got some coffee and then went to a nearby park. As Tony sat on one of the benches, just sipping his coffee, he was thinking to himself “O.k. DiNozzo, you need to pull yourself together.”
Tony’s emotions were all over the place. He was having a hard enough time dealing with the fact that his Father had just died, the sadness he felt was unexpected and a little overwhelming. But what was REALLY throwing him for a loop was the intense anger he had felt when he found out that his Father had been murdered.
Back at NCIS, Gibbs marched off the elevator with Ziva and McGee right behind him. When they saw that Tony wasn’t there, they all three headed for their desk.
“David, get DiNozzo on his phone.” Gibbs said “McGee, see if you can get a GPS trace on it.”
“On it Boss” they replied in unison.
Gibbs was thinking, “Where in the hell are you, Dinozzo.” Hoping he wasn’t about to do anything stupid.
Ziva then said, “He’s not answering his cell phone.”
“McGee!” Gibbs barked.
“Tracking now Boss” McGee said as he typed on his keyboard, intent on his computer screen. “Got it,” he said after moment.
“Where is he?” Gibbs said, rising from his desk.
“Um, he’s at the park down the street.” McGee said looking up from his monitor.
Just then the elevator sounded and out came Agent Fornell with another man behind him. They were both carrying some file folders.
“Gibbs” Fornell said as he walked over to his desk. Then gesturing to the man with him. “This is Agent Crimson, he was on duty at the hotel last night.”
Gibbs said “Those the rest of the files?”
At Fornells nod, he continued, “McGee and David can look thru those. Stay here incase they have any questions.”
“Where are you going?” Fornell said.
“Out” Gibbs answered with his usual curtness as he left.
As Agent Crimson leaned against Tony’s desk, Fornell sat behind Gibbs desk. Looking at Ziva, he asked, “Where’s DiNozzo?”
Not looking up, she replied, “Out”, sounding just as curt as Gibbs.
Fornell just snorted then said, “Do you guys have a contest going to see who can be more like your boss?”
As both the agents just looked at him blankly, he muttered, “Never mind.”
Meanwhile at the park, having finished his coffee already, Tony just sat there. Not looking at anything in particular, he just stared straight ahead when he felt Gibbs standing behind him.
“Would have bought you a coffee too Boss, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take you to get here and I didn’t want it to get cold.” he said without turning around.
Gibbs just sat down next to Tony, not saying anything. They both sat there silently for a few minutes. Finally Tony spoke.
“I had to get out of there, Boss.” He said quietly. “It just felt like, I don’t know, the walls were closing in or something.”
“You o.k?” he replied.
“Not really, but I will be.” Tony said as he looked at Gibbs.
Then Tony looked away and said, “I just need a few more minutes.”
“DiNozzo” Gibbs began “ If you ever leave like that again without telling me where you’re going”
Tony cut him off, “I know, I know, you’ll head slap me into next week.”
Gibbs just smirked. As he raised his hand, Tony tensed, expecting a head slap. Gibbs instead put his hand on his shoulder.
“C’mon Tony, let’s go.” He said gently.
As they got up from the bench, Tony faced Gibbs looking him straight in the eye.
“Thanks Gibbs, for you know, everything.”
Letting his feelings of concern show in his eyes, Gibbs just nodded once.
Then he replied, “Time to get back to work” as he started to walk away.
“On your six Boss” Tony said as he let the warmth of Gibbs concern wash over him, adding a little more spring to his step.
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