The left side of Tim's face hurt more than anything he could imagine. He figured his jaw was broken and he couldn't imagine what else was wrong. Still the beating continued. His only prayer was that he would soon lose consciousness.
"That's enough I need to make a point too and I need him partially conscious." A voice said out of the darkness.
"Not till I'm done." A second voice said full of malice.
"You're done."
"Look he's mine I just brought you in. I didn't need your help."
"If it wasn't for me he would be gone. How did he escape?"
"He was loose when I came in. He cold cocked me!"
"I thought I told you anytime one of us left the room for a long period of time he needs to be unconscious. I don't care if you beat him unconscious or use drugs. Because of you we have to move. I wasn't ready to move."
"You want to lure the team here anyway, let them come."
"It's not time, beside I was doing this for you, I thought you wanted more time with him."
"Anyway," continued the first voice, "I need him for a bit then he's all yours. I don't care about your little revenge."
Tim heard something crash to the floor that sounded like a chair being knocked over. He flinched involuntarily which only made his body hurt worse
"It's not revenge! Revenge is stupid and pointless. This is justice, justice is giving someone what they deserve and he deserves this! He killed my sister!"
"He didn't kill her." The first voice said calmly. "As far as I can see he was just there when she died."
"You're just like everyone else! He doesn't deserve to be alive, if she had to die he should have too!"
The first man didn't say anything, but he calmly pulled out his colt revolver and aimed it. Tim screamed. Pain flared first in his knee then spread like lightning all up and down his leg. He was so focused on the burning he didn't even notice the voice in his ear at first. It was eerie in its calm and lack of anger or emotion.
"Just let me tell you next time the bullet will be higher, much higher. But in the knee you won't bleed too much and serves a double duty if you escape again you won't get far."
McGee felt him straighten up and address the other man.
"I'll be gone for a few hours. I have to take care of some things. Don't kill him while I'm gone."
Silence
"Hey! I mean it."
"He'll last"
"He better"
A door slammed shut and McGee shuttered as the voice whisper in his ear.
"You're mine."
Gibbs didn't even look up when the elevator dinged so he was a little surprised when a shadow fell across his desk at 6:30am. He was shocked to see that shadow belonged to DiNozzo.
"Why are you here so early?" Gibbs asked trying to get over the shock.
Tony looked confused.
"You said we could go see McGee first thing in the morning. I assumed that meant when I got here. " He spread his arms. "I'm here."
Gibbs hid a smile. "You know the rule about assuming."
Tony's face fell.
"Come on boss. I never get up this early. You know McMorning Glory will be up."
Tony lit up with an idea.
"I'll grab the car."
Gibbs sighed and shook his heard the slighted traces of a smile on his face.
In the elevator they almost ran into Ziva. She looked even more shocked to see Tony there than Gibbs did. She looked at her watch.
"What time is it?"
"A cold day in hell." Gibbs said moving past her into the elevator.
"What?" Ziva asked looking confused.
"It's an expression when something improbable happen, like me beating you to work." Tony said grinning he joined Gibbs in the elevator.
"Where are you going?"
"To talk to McGee." Tony answered
She was silent for a moment the stuck her hand in the elevator to stop it from closing.
"May I come?"
"You want to?" She nodded and stepped in the elevator.
"Shouldn't one of you be working?" Gibbs asked with mock exasperation.
She smiled slyly "I will be thinking very hard on the case on the way to McGee's apartment."
Her smile disappeared.
"I should have said something to him on Friday. Carelessness with evidence is not like McGee, Tony maybe, but not McGee."
"Hey!"
"Something has been wrong with him, I should have made an effort to find out."
"So your crashing our crashing of McGee?"
"Yes, I feel it needs a woman's touch."
"Yeah but where are we going to get one of those?"
He grunted as Ziva hit him.
"You two knock it off or you're both staying." And just like that it was finished.
They arrived at McGee apartment and Gibbs knocked on the door. There was no sound inside.
"McGee, open up." He yelled still banging.
"I suppose we will have to pick the lock," Ziva said with a glint in her eye.
She reached for the knob and was surprised when it opened without any persuasion for her lock set.
Gibbs peered inside and immediately drew his weapon.
Ransacked would have been an overexaggeration, but there had clearly been a struggle in McGee's apartment. His computer was lying on the ground with several books scattered around. The writing desk in the back of the room had been pushed several feet and was skewed at an angle.
Gibbs slowly advanced followed closely by Tony and Ziva each with drawn weapons.
"Clear"
Making his way to the bedroom Gibbs noticed drops of blood on the carpet and some smears on the wall and his heart quickened. He hoped they belonged to the other participant in the struggle and not McGee.
The bedroom was pretty much untouched except for a knocked over lamp. The sheets had been thrown back as if the occupant had left in a hurry. With every room cleared they all stood for a moment in silence observing the mess around them.
"There is a spare scene processing kit in the trunk of the car." Ziva said breaking the silence. She headed downstairs to get it.
Tony shook his head as the moved around the room.
"Boss, nobody's talked to McGee since Friday morning. This could have happened-"
"Yeah I know DiNozzo."
"I mean if he's been hurt since Friday, then-"
"DiNozzo! I said I know!" Gibbs yelled turning to face him.
Ziva walked back in the room warily eyeing the apparent conflict. She handed Tony a camera and began to take samples of the blood. Gibbs continued to look around and noticed an answering machine's blinking light. He pressed the button.
You have 29 unheard message. Gibbs raised his eyebrows at Tony and Ziva when they looked over in surprise.
"Wow, I don't have that many calls in a month." Tony said
First unheard message: Hey you freak, I can't believe nodoby's killed you yet. I can't believe people work with you. You are such a weak coward. You don't deserve to breathe the same air as us.
Next message:
I hate you and I can't wait to finish you, I can't wait to watch you die slowly and alone. You are nothing and nobody and you will be alone when you die.
Each message was worst than the last and Tony could hardly control the anger welling up inside of him. Gibbs was feeling the same way, this man had obviously called McGee many time and from the dates on the messages they had occurred over the past week. Maybe that was one of the many burdens McGee had seemed to be carrying over the past week. He skipped to the last message.
I'm coming for you tonight; you can't hide from this anymore.
"It appears he was serious." Ziva observed
"Ya think?"
Ziva shook her head and moved on. She walked to McGee's desk and picked up some papers that had fallen to the floor.
"Gibbs, you should see this." Ziva called him over and handed him the letter. Gibbs started reading and frowned.
"What is it?" Tony asked.
"Resignation letter" Gibbs said still reading his frown getting deeper.
"Why?"
"He said in the letter he wanted to be an agent to help people and when he ceased to be able to do that there was no point in his staying with NCIS. He could not stand for a murderer to be free on his account." Ziva said softly. She began waved her hands around. "He, of course, said it more eloquently"
"Of course," Tony said rolling his eyes before becoming serious. "Boss, you can't let McGee quit, not over some lost evidence."
Gibbs sighed.
"Tony, let's get to the bottom of this and see where we are. I can't make McGee do anything."
Tony stared.
"You would let him just walk out?"
Gibbs didn't answer and turned away to hid the weariness and guilt on his face. He was starting to realize he should have said something to McGee earlier in the week when he saw how the case was affecting him. He wanted to kick himself for sending him away Friday and he was almost as angry at McGee for not coming to him for whatever the problem was. Quitting seemed so sudden, but he knew what a perfectionist McGee was and he could imagine that misplacing evidence this was effecting him deeply.
Gibbs glanced at the floor and squatted to retrieve another stray paper. This one was a prescription scrawled in the nearly illegible handwriting and obviously never filled.
"What is it?" Ziva asked
"Perscription" Gibbs said absently
"What is it for?" Ziva asked again
"Don't know, can't read it"
Tony came over to look.
"It looks pretty recent." he said reading it, "Tuesday, that's the day McGee left early and then came back to work that night."
"We'll take it to Ducky and find out." Gibbs decided. His phone began to ring. He looked and the caller ID.
"Here we go" He said almost to himself.
"Gibbs, Gibbs I need you here now." Abby's frantic voice came over the phone loud and clear.
"Is something wrong Abby?" He asked. What he wanted to ask was, is something else wrong.
"It's about McGee, I think he's in trouble." She said her voice trembling.
"Yeah Abbs I know. We're on our way. We'll be there soon."
He turned to Tony and Ziva
"Let's get this stuff back to the lab."