Chapter Three
Gibbs stood in front of the hospital bed, gazing down at his son. He couldn’t believe how much his life had changed over the course of one day. Earlier that morning he had been sanding a boat in his basement, with the only concern that he had was that of Tony. Then he finds out he has a son, Tony is kidnapped, and then his son is in a coma.
Whenever Gibbs went through a change in his life, it was never just one thing that changed over a gradual period of time. It was always several events that spanned over a short period of time.
“Gibbs,” Ziva said walking into the hospital room. Gibbs merely disregarded Ziva’s presence, still staring down upon his sleeping son. “Gibbs, I just wanted to say…” Ziva began but lost her momentum mid-sentence. “I just wanted to say, I’m sorry.” And without expecting any kind of response, Ziva left the room for Gibbs to be alone with his son.
**********
Ziva exited the elevator on the second floor and headed directly towards her desk. She took her seat and glanced over at Gibbs’ empty desk. She couldn’t imagine what he was going through at that moment. She imagined it was similar to that of what she felt standing over Ari’s body. But Ari had deserved his death. Clark did not deserve to be in a coma.
Ziva then spread her gaze over Tony’s empty desk. For the first time in a very long time, Ziva closed her eyes and prayed. She prayed mainly for Gibbs and Tony, but left a slight bit of it for herself. She prayed that she would have the strength to carry on this mission without Gibbs or Tony. McGee was obviously left in charge with Tony and Gibbs gone, but she knew that a certain amount of responsibility would be left to her.
“McGee,” she said, opening her eyes and standing up to face the NCIS agent across the room. “Look over Gibbs’ interview tapes and notes for Sierra Clark. Find out all you can about what happened that night. I want to know where they were, what kind of car he was thrown into. Everything.” Ziva said affirmingly.
“O….k…” McGee said looking taken aback by Ziva’s sudden assume of command. “But, um, where are you going?” he asked as Ziva made her way to the back elevator in a pace he had never seen her make.
“Abby’s.” Ziva said audibly as she rounded the corner and entered the elevator.
“Abby, what are the results of the blood analysis at Tony’s apartment?” Ziva asked before acknowledging anything that had gone on earlier that day.
Abby looked at Ziva gravely before replying. “The blood on the floor surrounding Clark’s body was in fact Carl Clark’s blood.” Abby said with an ascending voice. “Unfortunately, however” Abby began, handing Ziva the document stating Abby’s results, “the blood on the sofa and doorknob was…Tony’s.”
Ziva closed her eyes for a second time, this time looking upward. A few moments later, she looked back at Abby before saying the words, “I’m sure he’s fine, Abby.”
“Ziva,” Abby said, her eyes beginning to tear up. Abby fell forward into Ziva’s arms, crying freely. Ziva wrapped her arms around Abby, doing her best to comfort her. “Abby?” Ziva said after a thought had struck her. “Did you find any record on Heather Harp?”
Abby lifted herself out of Ziva’s grasp and wiped her black tears from her cheeks. “No, actually,” Abby replied, a hint of questioning in her tone, “there was hardly any record of her at all.”
“Hmm.” Ziva thought aloud. “Abby, could you run her photo through the FBI, CIA, everything.”
“Everything?” Abby said, sounding more astounded than she ever had in her life.
“Everything,” Ziva replied before turning to leave the room and head back up to the squad room. She gazed out of the window across the Anacostia. Night had fallen several hours ago. Ziva looked down at her watch which read nearly 0200 hours. She gave a stifled yawn before going back to her desk.
She glanced over at McGee watching his computer screen intently with headphones dangling from the side of his head. Ziva felt helpless. Never before had she just sat around waiting for everyone else to do all the work. She didn’t know if she could handle Gibbs’ job full-time like this. But she had no other choice but to wait. Wait for the decisions that would ultimately decide whether or not Tony lived.
**********
Gibbs’ blanket slipped off his knee with a soft “thump” against the linoleum tile that covered the hospital floor. A beam of light shining through a crack in the blinds shimmered through Gibbs’ ruffled hair, highlighting his gray hairs into a golden glimmer of light. A nurse trudged by Carl’s room lazily pushing a medicine cart vociferously by. The sound equivalent to a rhinoceros stampede awoke Gibbs from his restless sleep in the chair by his son’s hospital bed.
Gibbs brushed his left hand through his hair as he glanced down to his right wrist to his watch which read 0614 hours. He immediately looked at Carl, who was still deep within his coma. Gibbs let out a sigh of disappointment, before heading into the head. Gibbs washed cupped a handful of water and splashed it over his face.
He looked up into the mirror to get a better look at the damage sleeping in a hospital always caused him. Dark circles resided under his lethargic eyes. Gray stubble poked out of nearly every pore on his face. His normally gleaming blue eyes drooped with despair. But that was not the cause of a night spent in the hospital. Recent events were beginning to take their toll on Gibbs.
After staring into his reflection for a few moments, his phone began to ring from the other room. He stole away from his reflection and walked groggily into the other room.
“Gibbs,” he said flipping open is phone.
“Boss?” came DiNozzo’s voice from the other end.
“Tony? Tony, where are you?” Gibbs said nearly shouting with excitement. ‘He’s alive. Tony’s alive. Everything is going to be o.k.” Gibbs was about to erupt with joy.
“Boss, I don’t have much time. I need you to go to Warehouse 57 down by the pier. Don’t ask questions. Just go.” DiNozzo said sounding very rushed.
“Alright, Tony, but…” Gibbs began but was interrupted by a soft clicking noise on the other end. “DiNozzo? DiNozzo? Tony? Are you there Tony?” Gibbs said shouting into the phone, but Tony had already hung up. “God Damnit!” Gibbs said finally giving up and hanging up.
Gibbs grabbed his coat and put it on as fast as he could. He was about to run out of the room at full speed, but stopped at the threshold. He walked over to his son and placed his hand on Carl’s forehead. “I’m going to find the people that did this to you.” Gibbs said to his unconscious son. With one last glance, Gibbs ran out of the room and down to his car as fast as his body would allow him.
**********
“Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…” rang the alert from Abby’s computer. Abby lay face down on her desk, sound asleep. The computer had been beeping for only thirty seconds, when Ziva, on her regular round, entered from the elevator just outside Abby’s Lab.
“Abby?” Ziva said seeing Abby sound asleep and snoring.
“Shut up, Elf Lord!” Abby shouted, as she lifted her head with only her left eye open, mascara smeared all over her face. “Wha-?” She said looking around trying to figure out where she was. “Oh!” she said looking up at the computer. “Ziva! Ziva!” Abby shouted turning around and nearly running into Ziva herself. “Oh, you’re…already…” Abby said jumping back, slightly startled.
“What did you find, Abby?” Ziva asked, feeling slightly irate.
“Oh my….Heather. Her real name is Rivka Koncheva.” Abby said after reading her computer screen. She turned back to face Ziva, an extremely grave look upon her face. “And she’s an Al’Qaida terrorist.” Abby said, with an extreme look of worry upon her face.
Ziva left, at a running pace, up to McGee’s desk and slammed her wrists down as hard as she could upon the stainless steel. “Tell me you have something McGee!” She shouted into his face, making McGee nearly fall out of his chair.
“Oh, um, well, I have been using a geometric matrix to map out...” McGee began stammering over his words.
“For once in your life, McGee, get to the point!” Ziva shouted, inching her face closer and closer to his nose.
“Not at the moment…” McGee said, and was relieved to see Ziva back off. He was, however, slightly worried when he saw her run to the front elevators. He decided it was best just get back to his work.
Ziva dialed Gibbs’ phone number several times, none of which did he answer. Ziva then decided to call McGee " the most simplistic solution. “McGee! I need you track down Gibbs’ cell. Now.” She said quickly, having run out of patience hours ago.
Ziva exited the elevator into the evidence garage, and walked around the corner to the parking lot waiting for McGee’s answer. “Today, McGee.” Ziva said impatiently as she got into the sedan.
“Got it. He’s at the pier. Looks like…Warehouse 57.” McGee said, and without another word, Ziva hung up the phone and stepped on the gas pedal.
**********
Gibbs was familiar with this area. He had been there before on several occasions. Not just for work, but he also spent some evenings here. Just watching the sun set, reading a book. Whatever he felt like doing, really. He drove past the warehouses, not sure what to expect when he reached warehouse 57.
He rounded the last corner before he would reach warehouse 57. He squinted his eyes to enable him to see down the path better. Tony stood, alone, just in front of warehouse 57. Suspicious of everything, Gibbs proceeded, glancing up at the walls of the buildings, instinctively checking for snipers or any other assailants of that sort. Seeing no obvious opposition, Gibbs got out of his car just in front of Tony.
“Hey, Boss. Don’t worry. Just come inside for a minute. It’s safe.” Tony said to Gibbs, trying his best to reassure him.
Gibbs was really beginning to feel nervous. Not only was Tony acting completely awkward, considering he was just kidnapped, but Tony also looked like he had some sort of physically ailments. “You o.k. Tony?” Gibbs asked making sure that Tony wasn’t in any sort of pain.
“Yeah, boss. I’m fine. Don’t worry bout me.” Tony replied, brushing off any sort insinuation that Gibbs had been giving.
Trusting Tony, Gibbs followed him into the warehouse. It took him a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark before he was able to see everything inside. The entire garage was empty except for a group of people in the middle, with white boards and bulletin boards all around them.
Tony shouted out to the rest, “Hey, guys! He’s here!” and they all turned to face Tony and Gibbs. Three men, with ailments resembling that of Tony’s, walked up to Gibbs and greeted him, each of them introducing themselves. “Bob Wilson, Jack Smith, and Larry Winston.”
“And then, of course,” Tony said gesturing to one more figure that still stood by the bulletin board. “The brains of the operation…” and with those words the figure revealed itself with a gasp of frustration.
“Oh! Now I’m the brains of the operation? Ten minutes ago I was the evil, inconsiderate bitch that made everyone believe that she was dead for three and a half years!” Kate said emerging from behind a heap of notes.
Gibbs’ heart skipped a beat at the sight. “Kate?” he said blinking as if his eyes were playing a trick on him.
“It’s actually quite an interesting story,” Bob said with a smirk across his face.
“O.k. Somebody please tell me what’s going on!” Gibbs shouted to everyone.
“Look, Gibbs. Sit down.” Kate said offering up a chair.
**********
Ziva sped down the streets of Washington, D.C. as fast she could. A light ahead of her turned red and something within her told her to stop where she was. She felt like she was needed somewhere other than the pier. She immediately picked up her phone and called McGee. “Change of plans. I’m going back to DiNozzo’s apartment. Meet me there, McGee.”
“But-?” McGee started sounded utterly bewildered.
“Don’t ask questions, McGee. Just do it…please.” She added getting the feeling she was beginning to sound a lot like Gibbs.
She immediately turned the car around, cutting off a minivan causing it to crash into a tree, before accelerating up to seventy-five miles per hour again.
**********
“So what you’re telling me is,” Tony said, resting his chin upon his right arm, trying to wrap his mind around the entire concept, “the CIA faked your death because they hired you to take out an Al’Qaida cell in Afghanistan. But they needed them to think you were dead, and so they hired Ari Hasswari to pretend to be your killer, even though he really was a terrorist, so there was no harm in allowing Ziva to kill him, just as they had planned all along?” Tony said more as a question.
“Basically,” Kate said, feeling slight proud of Tony for finally understanding it. “But that was just the beginning,” Kate continued, “We followed the Al’Qaida cell around in Afghanistan for a year before they just disappeared.” Kate said, complete with hand gestures.
“Disappeared?” Tony asked, a look of confusion on his face again.
Giving up on Tony, Kate turned to Gibbs and continued her story while looking at Gibbs. “Anyways, we searched all over the world for the cell for three months before anything popped up. We intercepted a message…to Bin Laden from the cell.” Kate said sounding enthralled by the memory. “It said that their cell was in place in Washington, D.C. and they were awaiting his orders.”
Gibbs gave a smirk and decided against saying aloud ‘I’m so proud of you, Kate.’ Now was not the time, nor place to praise Kate for her achievements. A time for that would come.
“So, we packed up and headed back towards the states, and we began searching for the cell. Here’s where things went hinky.” Kate continued her anecdote, “We were searching for the terrorists when we found one of them interact with Carl Clark the day he got back from the Med. We thought he might be involved with the terrorists by passing on information to them. So we took affirmative action and decided we needed to interrogate Clark.”
“YOU KIDNAPPED CARL?” Gibbs shouted at Kate, anger ridden all over his face.
“It’s not what you think, Gibbs!” Kate tried to reassure Gibbs, but she could tell she was far from accomplishing such a task.
“Oh yeah?! Then what the hell is it?” Gibbs shouted, still angrier than she had ever seen him.
“We interrogated him, and after a day we realized he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and we were going to release him at Tony’s apartment, because we knew that he would fall into the right hands there. But,” Kate said lowering her eyes from Gibbs’. “There was a leak about our mission, and the cell intercepted us at Tony’s apartment, just as Tony showed up. Tony had no idea what was going on, so Bob here put a bag over his head and threw him in our car before he got beat up too bad. We had also heard a murmur a couple years ago that made us suspect Ziva was a terrorist, but Tony debunked that rumor. Anyways, I lost two of my agents and Clark was in pretty bad shape.”
“So you decided to just leave him there? If we hadn’t found him there, who knows what would’ve happened to him!” Gibbs shouted.
“Don’t you see, Gibbs? We made sure that you went there for him. We left Tony’s cell at his apartment because we knew you’d be looking for him. So we mainly cleaned up the crime scene as best we could and left.” Kate explained.
“If my son dies…” Gibbs began to threaten Kate.
“Your son?” Kate whispered under her breath.
“My son!” Gibbs shouted, feeling for the first time in years as if he was on the verge of tears.
“Gibbs, I…I didn’t know.” Kate tried to say, but ended up just closing her eyes and shaking her head.
“I just…” Gibbs began after he had had a moment to calm down. “I just think it would be best if we went back to the office,” Gibbs finished, looking down at the ground.
**********
Ziva looked around the apartment as if there was something she was missing. She was looking at DiNozzo’s DVD collection when she finally realized what was different: everything was too clean. Somebody had cleaned Tony’s apartment. ‘But why? And where the hell is McGee?’ Ziva thought looking out the window to see if the sedan was pulling up.
“Um, excuse me? Who are you?” came a woman’s voice with a slight Russian accent from the doorway.
Ziva’s heart skipped a beat, and she turned to face the woman. Ziva immediately recognized her. It was the same girl that had appeared on Abby’s computer screen. It was the same girl that Tony had a picture of that Ziva had drawn a mustache on. “Rivka Koncheva?” Ziva said aloud, unable to contain herself.
Before Ziva could say another word, before Ziva could have reacted in any way, before Ziva could have another worldly thought, Rivka pulled a gun out of her bag, aimed the gun directly at Ziva’s heart, and pulled the trigger.
-To Be Continued-
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.