Chapter 4
Walking slowly out of the elevator, McGee took a deep breath before entering Abby's lab with the box of evidence from the two crime scenes. No one had called her yet. Now that the evidence had been gathered, and the two bodies safely away in the morgue, Gibbs and Ziva had taken off for the hospital to get an update on Tony and leaving him with the unenviable task of bringing the evidence to their goth forensics expert and informing her about what had occurred.
Gibbs had been clear in his instructions to McGee while they were still in the alley, finished with the crime scene.
“Tell Abby to find out if this is the gun that was used on the sailor and on Tony, The serial number's been scratched off and she needs to find it right away.”
“Yes, Boss.” He turned to go, but Gibbs grabbed his jacket.
“McGee....Don't tell Abby until she's done with the tests. She needs to get this done without the distraction.”
“Got it, Boss.” He watched as Gibbs took off from the alleyway with Ziva in the sedan. Leaving him with Jimmy and Ducky, who were loading up the medical examiner's truck with the vagrant's body. He understood that there was a job to do and someone would need to get the evidence back, but he wished he could go with them. Tony may be a thorn in his side on most days and today was no different, but he was like that big brother he never had. Sure, he didn't relish the constant hazing and teasing Tony dished out, but he knew that he did it because he was uncomfortable showing affection in any other way.
Ducky walked up to him and planted a hand on his shoulder, addressing him in his Scottish brogue.
“Not to worry, my boy. Tony is as tough as they come, he'll be fine. I know it's hard to be left behind. I too wish I could go right away, but sometimes the hardest part of our job is just carrying on when our friends cannot.” He nodded and gave the older man a grateful look before going to the truck. He followed the coroner's van back to base where Jimmy transported the bodies to the morgue. Tim unloaded the evidence they had gathered from the two scenes and placed it in a box before heading to see Ducky.
Once he passed through the doors to morgue, he found that Palmer had already laid the bodies out on the exam tables for the Pathologist and Ducky was hard at work with a pair of forceps, digging deep into the wound on the chest of the sailor.
“Ah..almost got it....Sorry son, I'm going to have to dig a little deeper.” He spoke to the corpse as though he were treating the man for a splinter. He wiggled the probe in further until he found what he was looking for. “Ah-ha. Here is the little bugger.” Ducky pulled up and slowly produced the small bullet. “Mr. Plamer, would you be so kind as to produce an evidence bag for me?”
“Right away, Doctor.” Jimmy swiftly opened a bag and held it open for the doctor who dropped it inside before Jimmy sealed it up.
“There you are Timothy. Gibbs wanted this tested right away” Ducky signed the bag and handed it off to McGee, then stripped off his gloves and blue protective surgical gown he had on over his shirt. "Please put our guests away for now Mr. Palmer for I'll be heading to the hospital and will perform the autopsies later."
"Sure, Doctor." Jimmy replied.
"Please tell Abby that I'll be waiting for her there when she is finished.” Ducky turned to McGee
“Of Course.” He assured the older man.
“Thank-you.” Ducky nodded with a sigh. “I shall see you both later.” He walked off, grabbing his coat and hat. Left behind again, Tim left the morgue and headed for Abby's lab.
McGee wanted to tell Abby the truth right away, but agreed with Gibbs, she might be too distraught about Tony to accurately complete the processing on the weapon, but how was he not going to tell her? She was as close to a mind reader as anyone he knew, she would read it on his face as soon as he walked in that something was wrong. He wasn't very good at hiding his feelings behind a harsh glare, like Gibbs or a cocky smile, like Tony. She would figure it out.
Abby had her back to him when he crossed the threshold into the lab. She bounced up and down on her knee-high, black leather, platform boot heels to the beat of the music coming from the headphones on her head, making her pigtails sway from side to side. She didn't hear him put the box on the table and approach. He tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped with a yelp.
“McGee! For God's sakes don't do that! You scared the crap out of me!” She hit him playfully on the arm.
“Sorry, Abs. I have evidence you need to look at.”
“Whatcha bring me?” She asked loudly, the music still blaring through the headphones as she turned towards the table and took out the items from the box one at a time. “Cool, a gun, a bullet and some casings too. You shouldn't have.”she joked.
McGee didn't feel much like playing with her. He had to admit that he was just as distracted as Gibbs feared Abby would be. He made a gesture for her to remove the headphones and she smiled sheepishly and turned off the Ipod, removing the headphones and placing it by her computer.
“Gibbs wants you to find the serial number on the pistol and see if the bullet came from it as soon as possible”
“Sounds easy enough.” She was looking at the gun through the plastic evidence bag, turning it over in her hands before she signed the chain of evidence log and found a pair of gloves. She looked up at McGee who had taken to staring out the window, lost in his thoughts.
“What's wrong?” She asked
“Huh? oh...” He snapped his head towards her. He wanted to tell her about Tony, but he just couldn't. “Um...I'll tell you in a little bit, let's just get that serial number and test the gun, okay?” She eyed him suspiciously.
“C'mon, Timmy." She pressed him. "Just tell me or do I have to resort to tickle torture?” She reached for his sides, determined to tickle his underarms.
“I can't....just...not yet.” He told her seriously, grabbing her hands.
“What? Why not?” She asked concerned, sensing his mood. Again, she was looking into him with those eyes that seemed to penetrate to his very soul. What was he to say?
“Gibbs told me not to.” Oh Smart McGee, now she's definitely not going to let this go without you telling her right away.
“Gibbs told you not to?” She looked at him sternly for a moment, but he could almost see the cogs in her brain turning as she thought. “Did something bad happen?” She asked, suddenly slipping into a worried face.
Tim couldn't find his voice.
“Is he hurt?”
“He's fine Abby.”
“Is someone else hurt? Who?” She searched his face for the answer “Ziva?... Tony?” She saw his reaction to hearing Tony's name and her face dropped.
“What happened, is it serious?”
“Abby....”
“Tell me McGee!” There was no fighting her anymore, she wasn't going to let this go.
“He was shot.” She brought her hands to her mouth, covering it. “ He's in the hospital and in surgery.”
“What?! Why didn't you call me? We need to get there!” Her voice was near panic. Tim grabbed her shoulders and made her look at him.
“Abby, We'll see him in a little bit. There's nothing we can do for him right now anyway. The doctors will take good care of him, but we need to focus, okay?”
“How can you say that, Tim? He's our friend.”
“I know. I want to be there too, but we still have a job to do and this gun...” He held up the evidence bag that held the weapon “Is the one that was used to shoot Tony and this bullet...” He put down the gun and picked up the bag with the bullet. “Was taken from the body of a sailor who was shot, possibly by this same gun. We need to find out who this weapon belonged to.” Abby was on the verge of tears and she was pale and shaky. Tim put down the bullet.
“C'mere.” He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her hair. She held him tight.
“You think he'll be alright?” she asked into his chest.
“Of course he will.” He tried to sound as sincere as he could.“You know Tony. If the damn plague couldn't kill him, then neither can a little bullet.” He pushed her away a little and held her at arms length, smiling at her a little to give her some encouragement. “We need you to this for Tony, okay? Let's get this gun tested, then we can go visit him.”
She was still a little shaky, but she nodded and turned to the evidence, setting off to work. She grabbed the bullet and inspected it.
“Looks like a .22, full metal jacket.” She said mostly to herself.
McGee followed as she went to a cabinet and opened it up. Inside were boxes upon boxes of ammunition. She ran her fingers along the outside of the boxes until she came across one that could closely match the bullet taken from the sailor. She took the box down and brought it with her to the room at the very back of the lab that held the ballistics water tank. She took down a pair of ear muffs and safety goggles and handed some to McGee as well. She slipped the ear protection on and placed the goggles over her face before unsealing the pistol and loading it with the ammo.
Taking aim through the diagonal tunnel at the front of the tank, she fired a round and another for good measure, the bullets splashing upon impact, causing waves to form at the top of the water. She laid the weapon down and reached for a long pole with a large magnet attached to the end and went to the open part of the water-filled tank, dipping it into the liquid and extracting the bullets she had fired.
“Okay. Now that's done, let's go compare.”
They removed their headgear and goggles, moving back to the main part of the lab, Abby taking the gun and newly fired bullets with her. Swiftly, she turned on the comparison microscope and set the bullet from the sailor and one of the new bullets under it. For McGee's benefit, she turned on the plasma and brought up the image of the two bullets side by side so he could see it too. The his untrained eye, the bullets looked pretty similar. Abby however, studied the two projectiles intensely, counting lands and grooves, rotating the bullets, inspecting every last scratch and striation, before coming to a conclusion.
“They're a match” She confirmed, looking up from the microscope to him. “This is definitely the same gun that was used at both scenes.”
“Good job, Abs.” He smiled at her and she grinned back, he could see that she was still worried, but his fears that she might be too distracted to do her job had been alleviated. He should have known better. Abby was a pro at this and the only thing she loved as much as the people she worked with was science, she could never fail when it came to that.
“Now for that serial number.” She wasted no time taking the gun up and setting it on her work table. She reached for a drawer and pulled out a Dremel tool, snapping on a round grinding bit. Turning it on, she worked the grinder over the place where the number had been scratched off, smoothing it down and blowing off the dust when she was finished.
“Here comes the cool part.” She said as she grabbed a large magnet and placed it on the other side of the gun, directly behind the newly smoothed over metal. A mixture of oil and iron filings was coated on next over the area and they watched as the tiny bits of metal coalesced together, gathering in the shadows of the places where the numbers had been pressure stamped into the metal the day the gun was made. Criminals usually think they can get away with obliterating evidence, McGee thought, but there was no escaping Abby and today was no exception as a series of numbers and letters appeared, giving them the information they needed.
“Voila, Here it is.” She told him.
“Sweet. Good job again, Abby.”
“Thanks, McGee.”
He grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote the numbers down and went directly to Abby's computer to bring up a search for the serial number. The computer went to work, digging through millions of entries as fast as their server would allow. Tim and Abby watched in anticipation as the minutes ticked by, finally a name popped up. Taking down the information, Tim did another search, seeing if he could find more information on the name that just came up. He was surprised to find several newspaper articles and police reports. Skimming through them, they came to the conclusion that they needed to get to the hospital right away and talk to Gibbs. Their case had just become a lot more complicated.
OOOOO
“So that's when Tony went up to the very pregnant lady and asked her why she was so fat and she explained that she had a baby in her tummy. 'You ate your baby?' He asked. He was so absolutely disgusted that she might have actually have eaten her baby.... I was mortified of course, but couldn't stop laughing....That poor woman! How do you tell a five year old how a baby gets in a woman's tummy anyway?” There was a peel of laughter all around from the three women as Tony tossed under the warmth of the afghan, getting it tangled up in his legs and groaning. They were talking about him, weren't they? Of course they were, what else would they be discussing?
From the sound of things, he was back in his Nonna's apartment. He ventured a peek through his eyes and was rewarded with a smile from Nonna.
“Anthony, you're awake.” She greeted him.
“Welcome back sleepy-head. We were just having a good time discussing your childhood” Kate added with a sly grin and a cock of her head. “Who knew you were such a cute little boy?” She pointed to the photos that they had spread amongst them on the floor. He groaned again.
“Yeah, Tony, how cute.” Paula added with a chuckle, holding up a photo of him as a toddler without a diaper, mooning the camera.
“Real funny, Paula. Ha ha.” He sat up and snatched the picture from her. “Hope you've been having lots of fun at my expense.” He didn't even bother to hide his sarcasm.
“Oh, we sure have.” She looked over at Kate and they exchanged a secret grin.
“How are you feeling?” Nonna asked with concern.
“Uh, Okay.... I guess.” He stretched and yawned, chasing away the remnants of his nap. That's when he was hit by memories. He looked down at his chest and felt around over his shirt. No pain, no holes, no tubes. He felt fine. Which was kinda weird given the last thing he recalled was being wheeled into surgery for a bullet that was doing it's darndest to burrow into his heart.
“What's wrong, Tony?” Kate asked. “You look like you've seen a ghost.” They all laughed again, but he was serious.
“I think I'm dead.” He gulped.
“You're not dead, Tony.” Kate informed him, laughing. “We're the dead ones. You're just hurt, maybe even on that edge between life and death, but you're mind just isn't sure how to deal with it, so you're imagining this and us.”
“But this is so....”
“Real?” Nonna answered.
“Yeah, it is. If this is all a dream, it sure is a doozie.” He told them.
“What is the difference between dreams and reality anyway, Anthony?” The older woman asked him.
How was he to know?
“Perception.” is what she answered for him.
“I don't get it.” He told her. She got up off the floor and sat down on the couch next to him, grabbing his hand.
“Maybe you brought us all here because there's something you need from us. Something that you never got from us when we were alive or something left unsaid....” He gave her a thoughtful look as she patted his leg and got up. “Just think about it. I'm going to go make us all some coffee and we can talk about this some more.” She puttered over to the the kitchen, leaving him alone with Paula and Kate.
They looked up expectantly at him.
“What?” He asked.
“Well, I for one am looking forward to hearing what you have to say to us.” Paula said with a mischievous grin.
“Me too.” agreed Kate with a twinkle in her eyes, looking to bait him. “I know you can't wait to profess your undying love for me.”
He snorted. “Not even in your dreams, Kate.”
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.