Chapter 3
"How is he?" Ziva asked. Despite what she and Tim had planned, she cared about Tony's welfare.
Gibbs nodded. "He is in surgery still, but the doctors say he will be fine." He gave them one of his rare smiles. But it quickly faded, remembering the task at hand.
"What happened?" Gibbs asked.
And with that the lying and the cover-up began.
Tim began. "We were listening to the wiretap. The next thing we know Tony is jerking open the back door, yelling at me to floor it."
"You didn't hear him beforehand?" Gibbs asked, his gut twisting in knots.
Ziva shook her head. "We had decided to roll the windows up to be able to hear the wiretap better. There was a lot of static."
"You didn't hear the gunshot then." Gibbs asked.
"We heard something, Gibbs. But with the windows rolled up, it was muffled." Tim replied. "It sounded, to me, like a car backfire." Tim paused, sensing Gibbs growing anger and frustration at the situation. "At first we didn't feel like we could abandon our post to check it out. I decided to get out and look. I didn't go far from the car, and I didn't see anything. Ziva stayed and listened to the tap."
"It didn't come through on the tap?" Gibbs asked, very confused.
"Probably, but we were hearing both at the same time. I, we, were not sure where it was coming from. There was still a lot of static on the tap." Tim explained.
Gibbs nodded. His gut was screaming, but he could not figure out why. Maybe the answer would lie with the evidence.
"I am going to be here until Tony gets out of surgery. Get this back to Abby." Gibbs handed the evidence bag to Tim. "Ziva, go with him. Then go back to that neighborhood. I need to know what happened and where it happened!"
Tim and Ziva hurried out the door and to the car.
"We didn't anticipate that question about hearing the gunshot over the tap." Tim stated as soon as he closed the door.
"No, we did not. But I think you answered it well enough." Ziva stated closing her door and starting the car.
"I hope so." Tim replied. "We're too deep in this to turn back now."
Tim was almost giddy to have the tap. The opportunity to 'fix' their problem was actually in his hands. He tinkered with the tap and 'created' a mechanical malfunction. He nodded to Ziva, then carefully returned the tap to the bag just as she pulled into the NCIS parking lot. Tim then removed the gloves he had worn to 'do the deed,' and slid them into his pocket to dispose of later. Problem solved, or so they thought, then he saw it. He motioned for Ziva to stay in the car. He had forgot completely about the audio tape of the wire tap. He quickly took care of that though. He recorded over that section of tape with made up static he created by crumpling paper against the mike. He then replaced the tape and resealed the evidence bag.
Tim hurriedly took the evidence to Abby. He chatted for a moment, then told Abby that he and Ziva were due back at the crime scene. Abby had heard about Tony being shot and she was, of course, very upset. Tim took a few extra moments to calm her down before leaving. Tim hated himself for it, but he always felt a little twinge of jealously whenever Abby got that way over Tony. The jealousy was, now though, mixed with a lot of guilt. He shook his head to clear it, reminding himself that he was only protecting his reputation, his career, and his future. He was only doing what anyone else would do in his situation. Though, he doubted, there were many people who would find themselves in this situation.
Tim got back into the car and they head back to the neighborhood.
Ziva glanced at Tim. "Gibbs did not ask why Tony was so angry with us, no?"
Tim thought for a moment. "No, he didn't. I guess he was too worried about Tony to follow up, which is good for us. What are we going to tell Gibbs?"
Ziva and Tim parked at the curb where they had done their surveillance. They both climbed out of the car. "We...I don't know. Tony just misunderstood something one of us said. He had lost so much blood..."
Tim nodded. "But just to make sure, we need to get into the ICU and talk to Tony. I...we need to make him think he didn't hear what he heard."
"How do we convince him of that?" Ziva said as they both handed back to the car. They had not really checked the neighborhood. They suddenly had more urgent business to take care of. They would now have to lie about this too to Gibbs.
Ziva slipped into Tony's hospital room. He had just gotten out of recovery room and was still really groggy. Ziva hoped that that he now was in the perfect state of mind to be convinced of a lie.
"Tony?" Ziva said as she slipped her hand into his.
"Ziva?" Tony asked, he was not sure exactly where he was or what was going on.
"There was too much static on the tap, Tony." Ziva said, she ran her fingers through his hair hoping it would relax him, almost hypnotize him in a way.
"Yeah, I said that." Tony agreed, still groggy. He had said that.
Ziva nodded. "There was too much static for us to hear you."
Tony shook his head. "That's not..."
Ziva repeated. "There was too much static for us to hear you. We told you that, remember."
"You didn't..." Tony said, slurring his words.
"That is what we told you, Tony." Ziva said again. "That is what Tim and I told you." Ziva repeated, somewhat insistent.
Tony then nodded, sleepily, after a moment, before closing his eyes.
Satisfied, Ziva then slipped, unnoticed, or so she thought, out of the room.
TBC
Static by jackilee71