As Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva brought in bags of evidence to the lab they were hit with waves of words that could only be described as Abby.
"Gibbs I've tried to call him like a billion times, he won't answer. Ok I know he's probably mad at me but never be unreachable! What did he say when you talked to him?"
"He was not at his apartment" Ziva said.
"Oh no! Gibbs! Something happened to him!"
"Abby you need to process this blood and see if you can find a match." Gibbs said handing her the samples with deliberate calm. He needed Abby calm, yes she could do it in this state but she was much better if she was not frantic.
"Whose is it?" She asked wide eyed.
"Well Abby if we knew that you wouldn't need to run it."
Abby looked guiltily at her feet.
"Abby we need the blood soon." Tony interjected
"Gibbs I found something. Jimmy, he said McGee was having problems last week and asked me to see if this case had any connection that would cause that and... I found something.
"Start the blood and then tell us what you found."
She nodded and busied herself. When it was finished she turned around
"What cha got Abs?"
"Jimmy wanted me to see if I could find something so I started looking just to get him off my back. I looked in McGee's records nothing was in his adult past and his minor records are sealed."
"Abby" Ziva said "I have seen you and McGee get into seal records many times."
"I can but I didn't have a reason to yet. Then I remember hearing about you guys talking about something like this had happened before, well not this exactly, something like this-"
"Abby!"
"Ok, those kids that drowned, all those years ago something just felt wrong about it. I remembered McGee telling me that at one time his father was stationed at Bethesda."
"Abby what did you find?" Gibbs asked quietly even though he already knew.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"McGee was the Navy kid who survived. Three Marine kids died two at the scene and the third, a girl, died at the hospital after several day. McGee shouldn't have made it, I mean he was on life support, little brain activity and one day he just woke up. He was just 9 years old Gibbs." She said sadly
There was silence; no one knew what to say. Images flashed back of McGee at the lake, how disconnected he had been. The look on his face when he had seen the hole in the lake. Every day after that had gotten worse. Gibbs almost cringed when he remember how little McGee had said from that time on. He tried not the think about the empty look in his eyes he had seen too many times. Abby started to talk again her voice strangely soft and mellow.
"That's not the worst part. Not long after he got out of the hospital he was attacked."
This time Tony jumped in.
"Wilson said he made it up, that it didn't happen."
"Are you saying Tim's a liar?" Abby cried with anger.
"No, I'm just saying maybe he got confused or he was upset. I know I would be but Commander Wilson said it did not happen. Why would he lie to us?"
Ziva said nothing. Gibbs looked with sympathy as he realized Tony was trying desperately to hold onto the integrity of a childhood hero.
"I have pictures" Abby said quietly
Tony paled
Abby continued.
"Their was an invesigation. The case is old but some of the pictures were digitized."
She opened the first one and began clicking though. The pictures showed a young Timothy McGee, he was small for his age but his face held the haunted look of someone much older.
The first thing they noticed were large green, tired and frightened eyes. The left eye was slightly black and swollen. There was a deep gouge in his cheek and Tony winced as he thought about Tim's scar. A large gash on his head was shown in two pictures, once open and fresh, the second time stitched up. Bruises scattered up and down his arms and torso were also documented in pictures. An x-ray of his right wrist showed a fracture.
"I do not think he was confused Tony." Ziva said quietly
Tony said nothing. He couldn't find the words. Why had Wilson lied to them? Why had Tim? He was in MTAC that day; he heard what Wilson had said. Why didn't he jump in and correct the issue?
"Boss why didn't he say anything? He sat right at his desk while Ziva and I talked; he was in MTAC that day."
Then it hit him, the question McGee had asked him eariler about his relationship with Wilson.
You've know Wilson that long? McGee asked.
Yeah he kind of kept up with me after that. Even wrote me a letter of recommendation to Ohio State. He was supportive of me a lot of ways that my dad wasn't.
Gibbs was silent; he had known Wilson a long time too. He was a good Marine; Gibbs had thought he was a good man. He was beginning to doubt that judgment. It wasn't as though Wilson had voiced any doubts about an attack. He had said there definitely was not. But these injuries on a child, there was nothing else it could be, someone had beaten him viciously, enough to break his wrist and open a gash in his heard. Gibbs was determined to get to the bottom of it, but first he wanted some idea of where Tim was. He looked down at his phone and almost wanted to slap himself for not thinking of it sooner.
"Abby run the number that called my phone at 4am this morning."
She quickly had the number up, the same time her computer blink with a confirmation of the blood. As if the mood in the room wasn't low enough it dropped considerably as the screen showed a positive confirmation that the blood belonged to Timothy McGee.
Tony turned away, he felt so helpless. He had expected this, but that didn't make it any easier.
"Where was the blood?" Abby asked shakily
"In Tim's apartment" Gibbs answered.
Abby looked about to crumble.
"Abby" Gibbs said harshly to try and get her back on track. "I need those results."
"It's a payphone in the south part of town. Mostly abandoned warehouses. "
"Tony, Ziva take agents down there. Bring the payphone back. I want every place within a 2 miles radius searched. I don't want any area skipped over. If we don't find anything in the 2 miles expand to 5 miles. Find me something!"
"On it Boss"
Tony and Ziva left. Gibbs noticed with a pang Tony was unusually quiet. He and Tim were good friend despite the teasing, even so Tony now appeared to be forced to choose between his friend and someone who had been there for him during his difficult years, a man he respected probably more than he respected anyone besides Gibbs.
Abby stood with tears in her eyes. Gibbs turned to leave.
"Gibbs"
"Yeah, Abbs?"
"I was mean to him." The tears started to fall.
"I know"
"What if I never see him again? What if he dies? What if the last way he remembers me is angry."
To tell the truth Gibbs was kind of mad at Abby himself, she always got overemotional and because she felt safe with Tm and he was so easy going and patient many times he bore the brunt of her anger. He had observed more times than he cared to remember Abby treat Tim like a doormat. Tim always took it and Gibbs had a hard time discerning whether that was because of his love for the scientist or his general good nature. He wanted to be mad, he was mad, but Abby was the favorite and she was standing there with tears in her eyes. Gibbs knew she loved Tim, she just sometimes had a poor way of showing it. Further more if he looked too closely at himself he had hardly been compassionate and forgiving with Tim the last time he had seen him. He found himself repeating Abby's question to himself.
What if he dies? What if the last way he remembers me is angry?
"Come here" he said softly enveloping her in a hug.
Still she needed to know he did not excuse what she did.
"Abby you need to think about this, every time one of us walk out the door it could be the last. Anything any of us says could be the last." He broke away from the hug first when he heard a phone ring. He turned and frowned. It was coming from an evidence bag.
Abby's eyes were wide.
"Its Tim's phone!" She cried digging around.
Gibbs got to it first and pulled it out glancing at the caller id. The name he saw froze him. He didn't really want to have this conversation.
Dad
Gibbs sighed and flipped open the phone.
"Hello"
Hey boy, you doing anything for lunch today? A slightly gruff voice greeted Gibb.
"Commander McGee?"
There was silence for a moment.
Who is this?
"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS"
Yes sir this is Sean McGee. Is, uh, is Tim there?
"Are you in town Commander?"
Yes, what's going on?
"You need to come to NCIS"
What happened?
"We don't know but I'm afraid Tim is missing."
There was a sigh on the other end of the phone.
I'm not far.