Flashbacks

Identify

I woke up in a different room, a room with a window. The sun was starting to come up, it was morning. How long was I out?  I looked around the room but it was just me in here. Where’s Clarke? Does he know where I am? Did he call Ricky? I started to panic. Ricky probably doesn’t know where I am, he’s probably worried sick. I needed to call him, I needed to see him. The machines were beeping rapidly. I needed to leave, and I wanted to go home. I tried getting out of the hospital bed but I was just too weak to get up fully. A nurse came in and made me lie back down, she left after she told me that I had visitors. The man with the silver hair and the lady that worked with him entered the room. I was sure they were going to talk to me about the hacking, but how did they know I was here.

“I’m Special Agent Gibbs, and this is Special Agent David.” He said. All I could manage to do was nod. His face looked angry but his eyes stared at me with confusion. I opened my mouth to say something but he talked before I could say anything. “How did you come across these?” he asked. He held up the tags I wore when I came in.

“They’re mine.” I said quietly.

“Are you not a little young to be in the Marines?” Agent David asked. “How old are you?”

“I’m 17,” I wheezed. “They aren’t exactly mine.”

“Well whose are they?” He asked harshly.

“They’re a replica of my Dad’s,” I replied. “He’s the one in the Marines.” The agents turned to face each other and whispered something. They looked at me then left the room, standing just outside the door. They carried on talking once they left the room, but they were unaware that I could still hear them.

“Should we tell McGee to find her father?” Agent David asked.

“We can’t, he’s tracking down the hacker with Tony.” Gibbs said. The words “hacker” and “Tony” made me wince slightly. They had no idea that the hacker they were looking for was lying in the room they had just left. “Yeah, I’ll call McGee. Maybe he can find him on that wonder-phone of his.” He was on the phone for a few minutes before telling his partner that McGee was on his way. That meant Tony would be with him, I would be able to meet him. I could feel the overwhelming rush of thoughts and emotion that preceded a flashback, but I couldn’t handle one now. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep. I put all of my focus and concentration on sleeping and closed my eyes.

I woke up from a sleep, an actual sleep. I stared at the chair at the foot of the bed, still no Clarke, or Ricky, or even Max. I thought I had slept for at least an hour but what I could see from the clock over the nurses’ station revealed I had only slept for 20 minutes. I saw Agent Gibbs and Agent David sitting on chairs outside of my room.  Then they stood up, I didn’t see why until Tony came around the corner closely followed by another man.

“McGee,” Agent Gibbs said. “What’ve you got?”

“Well,” McGee started. “The tags belong to a Gunnery Sergeant Neil Farino, aged 37. He has been stationed at 17 bases in 4 different countries. He has two sons; Ricky and Max Farino, and a daughter: Ollie Farino. His wife, Sarah Farino, died four months ago in a car accident.”

“You didn’t bring him here?” Agent David asked.

“Can’t Ziva.” McGee said.

“Why not?” Gibbs yelled. “I’m pretty sure he would want to be with his kid!”

“Boss,” Tony began. “He’s in Afghanistan.”

They all looked around at each other. Then Tony looked past Gibbs and Ziva and locked eyes with me. He leant in towards everyone and whispered something to them. They all looked around at me, so I turned my head to stare out of the window. They had caught me listening to their conversation and knew it wasn’t the best thing for me to hear. I didn’t mind listening to them, but they didn’t want me to. They kept talking, I could only presume it was about me or my family. Tony and McGee were doing the majority of the talking. Tony was talking about his family and he didn’t even know it. They were looking for a hacker and they were stood about 15 feet away from the culprit.