“You’re awake.”
Tony opened his eyes to discover Jack sitting beside him, newspaper in one hand, a cup of coffee in another. The aroma of the steaming liquid turned his stomach but he managed to tamp down the nausea; the last thing he wanted to do was throw up in front of Gibbs’ father. He took the palms of his hands and buried them in his eyes, hoping to drive away the fatigue that was still consuming him. Tony felt like he could sleep for a year, but that was wishful thinking.
He sighed as his hands fell to his lap, wondering if the day would ever come when this bone deep exhaustion would simply go away. Tony wanted to feel better, but circumstances seemed to be working against him. He was so tired of fighting. Everyone seemed to want a piece of him and Tony knew that he didn’t have much more to give.
“How long have I been asleep?” he finally asked the older man.
“A few hours. Leroy asked me to sit with you until he got back,” Jack informed him.
“I guess he’s having a talk with my doctor.”
“He didn’t say, but that would be my guess as well. He just called and told me to get over here. I tell you, that boy of mine has got quite a temper.”
Tony tiredly smiled. “You just now figuring that out?”
“No. I knew that a long time ago, but I thought maybe he had mellowed with time.”
“You actually believed that?”
“Well, I figured since we were talking again, it might have helped him to soften up a little.”
“And now?”
“Now I know better.”
Tony nodded and cleared his throat, wincing at the pain that the simple action had caused. He gratefully accepted a glass of ice water from Jackson and carefully took a few sips, not wanting to aggravate the nausea that he was still experiencing.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
“No problem.”
He eyed the newspaper in Jack’s hand. “Anything interesting in the news today?”
“Well, there’s a fascinating article about adding another stoplight on Main Street.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t made it past the first page. Want me to read the headlines to you?” Jack asked.
The agent found himself interested in the everyday problems of a small town; it was nice to think about something else besides the chaos that had engulfed his life. “That’d be nice,” he replied. “But when you get to the horoscopes, if mine’s bad, don’t read it.”
“What’s your sign?”
“Cancer.”
“What if it says that a buxom blonde is going to come and take your troubles away?” Jack teased.
“I would say bring her on, unless she’s got a medical degree,” he quipped.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jack laughed.
Tony saw the elderly man’s smile fade as his expression became serious and thoughtful. “Something wrong, Jack?”
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.”
Confused, Tony asked, “For what?”
“I’m the one who insisted that you see Katherine. I didn’t know that she…”
“Jack, it’s not your fault. She had everybody fooled, including me. Don’t worry about it,” he insisted. “You were trying to help me, which is a hell of lot more than most people have done in my life.”
“You’re a good man, Tony and don’t you ever let anyone tell you otherwise,” he warned. “I know that Leroy thinks the world of you and so do I. Personally, I admire a man who stands for what’s right, no matter what the circumstances.”
Tony swallowed hard. As much as he craved attention at times, it was still difficult for him to accept a compliment. Words of praise were not handed out freely in the DiNozzo household and on the rare occasion they were given, it was usually followed by a reminder that there was always room for improvement.
“I appreciate that, Jack,” Tony said. “I really do.”
“Just don’t forget what I’ve said. I meant every word.”
“I know.”
He watched Jack sit back and unfold his paper. “Want to start with your horoscope?”
“I better work my way up to that. Just start reading about that stoplight.”
“All right.”
Tony listened as Jack began to read about the current happenings in Stillwater. There were no murders mentioned, no one had been raped or robbed, and the only bad thing that the news was that the supper at the local VFW had been postponed until a later date. Tony wondered what would happen to the peaceful town when it was discovered that their doctor had been arrested for trying to kill a federal agent. It seems that even Stillwater couldn’t escape the harsh realities of a cruel world after all.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs sat across from Dr. Katherine Marshall, waiting for her to answer his first question. Dr. Marshall had been taken into custody and was being held at the police station in Stillwater. The Sheriff had agreed to let him interrogate her since it had been a federal agent that she had tried to kill; of course, it wasn’t just any agent, it had been his agent, who had already suffered more in one lifetime than a man should.
His infamous glare was unrelenting as he studied the woman in front of him. This was the same person who had been adamant that he was interfering with Tony’s recovery, prompting him to wonder if she had been planning the attempt on DiNozzo’s life during her tirade against the team leader.
“I’m waiting,” he growled.
“For what?” she snapped.
“For you to answer my damn question! Why did you try and kill Tony?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“It’s too late to play dumb,” he warned. “We caught you red handed; not to mention that I’ve got the lab results back and that wasn’t a sedative you gave him. You were getting ready to give him an overdose on morphine. If Tony hadn’t reacted so quickly, he’d be dead and you’d be facing murder charges. If you lived to make it to trial.”
“Is that a threat, Agent Gibbs?”
“Nope.”
“I didn’t know what was in the syringe.”
Gibbs took a sip of his coffee. “Of course you didn’t.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm as he shot down her attempt to deny her guilt. “I find that hard to believe when you had the bottle of morphine in your locker.”
“I was sent up!” she exclaimed.
“Why?”
She looked like a trapped animal, trying to decide if she should admit defeat or come out fighting. “You don’t understand!”
The team leader could not control his rage. He pounded the table as he stood up, the surprise and fear in her expression, fueling his anger. “Then explain it to me!” he barked. “Explain to me how you could save Tony’s life and then turn around and kill him! Before he came to Stillwater, he didn’t even know you and as far as I know, you didn’t know him! So tell me, why you tried to kill him!”
“I want a lawyer,” she demanded.
“There’s not a lawyer around here that will touch your case. You might as well come clean with me.”
“I want a lawyer,” Katherine repeated.
Gibbs sat back down in his seat, knowing that McGee, who had been in the observation room was now working on honoring her request. Crossing his arms, he continued to stare at her. She had asked for a lawyer, so legally, he could not ask her any more questions until her legal representative was present. He was an expert at interrogation and knew from experience that silence was an effective technique; most people were unnerved by complete stillness and judging by her apparent anxiety, she was no different.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
“Agent McGee is seeing about finding you a lawyer. Did you have anyone particular in mind?”
“I uh…”
“That’s what I thought. You probably didn’t expect to have to clean up your own mess, did you?” Gibbs taunted. “Don’t answer that; you’re lawyer isn’t here.”
The tension in the room was thick, but Gibbs did nothing to alleviate it. He knew that he was adding to it by the continued silence and the icy stare. Gibbs had already deduced that she was working for someone; now, she was willing to become the scapegoat for this individual, making him wonder exactly where she fit into this puzzle.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she whispered.
“What was that? Did you say something?”
“I said I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always a have choice.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“Why not? Who’s got the goods on you, Dr. Marshall? Vance? Davenport? DiNozzo? Who?” Gibbs held his hand up. “Maybe you shouldn’t answer that one either; at least until your attorney gets here.”
Katherine remained silent, but that didn’t discourage Gibbs from thinking out loud. “Whatever you’ve done, it must be really bad; it may even ruin your career. Of course, now that you’re facing attempted murder charges, that should put a damper on business.”
“You’re a cocky S.O.B.,” she snarled.
“Believe it or not, women better than you have told me that.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” the doctor repeated for the third time.
“You know, I’m kind of tired of you saying that, so either shut up until your lawyer gets here or start talking. Your choice and you better make this one a good one.”
“Will I get a deal?”
“Depends on what you tell me.”
“I want a deal.”
“Seems like we both want something.”
“What is it you want?”
“Answers.”
The team leader could sense that she was about to break. Dr. Katherine Marshall’s survival instinct was kicking in and she was obviously determined not to go down without a fight.
“I didn’t want to do it,” she softly began.
Gibbs knew she was trying to play the victim, but he was not that gullible. “Then why did you?”
“I was ordered to.”
“By whom?” he pressed.
She sighed in defeat. “The Secretary of the Navy.”
“And what’s your connection to Secretary Davenport?”
“It’s personal.”
“Not any more.”
“It’s a long and complicated story, Agent Gibbs and…”
“And I’ve got time, Dr. Marshall.” The team leader knew that the more evidence that he could gather against the SecNav, the more it would help Tony’s case.
“My father was his personal physician and a few years ago, he was diagnosed with dementia. I was just out of medical school and while my father was well paid, he was not very good at planning for the future. I couldn’t care for him so Secretary Davenport placed him in an excellent facility where he could receive around the clock care; the only catch was that I was now on his personal payroll. He told me that it always paid to have a doctor around. I was allowed to settle where I wanted and open my own practice as long as I was reachable and available at his beckon call.”
“Why didn’t you tell him no? There are a lot of places that…”
“I wanted what was best for my father! Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t do the same for Jackson!”
“I would want what’s best for my dad, but my dad wouldn’t want me to sell my soul to the devil to get it. You’ve made a deal with the devil, Kate.”
“I didn’t want to hurt Agent DiNozzo, but if I didn’t…”
“You know,” Gibbs interrupted. “The whole father story makes for a good cover, but I don’t think you’re being honest with me.”
“I am being honest!” she cried out in frustration.
Gibbs opened the file in front of him. Flipping a couple of pages, he came across what he was searching for. “It says here that your dad passed away four years ago. You want to try the truth this time.”
He could feel the daggers of her eyes trying to tear into his flesh. Nonplussed, he closed the file and took another drink of coffee.
“It seems like you’ve done your homework, Agent Gibbs.”
“You didn’t think I would come in here without some ammunition, did you? I know everything about you, including the large deposit that was made into your bank account last week. That was about the time that Tony arrived, wasn’t it? Did you call SecNav and tell him DiNozzo was here in Stillwater?”
“Do you have a warrant for those records?” Katherine wanted to know.
The former Marine smiled. “Yeah, actually I do. It was actually pretty easy to get when your father and the judge play checkers every Wednesday. Now, are you going to tell me the truth?’’
“You have my records,” she snarled. “You figure it out.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have the why or the how, so you better fill me in.”
“I wasn’t lying about my father working for Davenport, but he was the gardener. My father…didn’t have money to send me to school, so he and Secretary Davenport worked out a deal and I got to attend the medical school of my choice. My father had to work for free for the rest of his life, but I managed to graduate with honors. I was working in a hospital when I got sued for malpractice. My license was revoked and my father begged Davenport to do something. He created a whole new set of credentials for me and set me a small practice in Stillwater, but I had to agree to be available when he needed anything.”
“So, have you had to kill anyone else for him?” Gibbs purposefully taunted.
“No!”
“So, when a federal agent comes to town, you automatically call the Secretary of the Navy? Is that SOP?”
“I owe that man everything!”
“Did you even consider telling him no when he asked you to kill Tony? Did you even think to ask why he wanted my agent dead?” Gibbs didn’t care who heard him; he had surpassed anger and rage and morphed straight into a fit of nearly unbridled fury. “Now, you’re going to lose everything! Do you think that the SecNav is going to take the fall for your stupidity! If you weren’t in here, you’d probably be dead! Davenport doesn’t leave loose ends1”
With his last words, he had managed to terrify the physician. “How does it feel to fear for your life? My agent’s had to live like this for months! It’s not a good feeling, is it?”
“What do you want from me?” she screamed.
He shoved a paper and a pen in front of her. “Write down everything you just told me, word for word. I want a detailed explanation on how you tried to kill Agent DiNozzo and you better not leave anything out.”
The door to the interrogation room swung open and McGee entered followed by another man who was dressed in a suit that was two sizes too big, looking like he had just graduated law school. “Boss,” McGee said. “This is Terry Jacobs, he’s a court appointed attorney who will be serving as Dr. Marshall’s legal counsel.”
Gibbs looked the young man up and down; the man barely looked old enough to drive, much less serve in the capacity of an attorney. “Your client is writing down her statement and…”
“Did you interrogate her with…without me…without me being here, Agent Gibbs?” Jacobs nervously stammered.
“Nope. She just started talking and couldn’t shut up.”
Grabbing the folder and his coffee, he and McGee left the doctor alone with her lawyer. “Keep an eye on them; I going to check in at the hospital.”
“Got it, Boss,” Tim replied. “You know, I’d hate to think that kid was defending me.”
“I know what you mean, McGee.”
Gibbs went into the men’s room and splashed some cold water on his face. Studying his reflection, he noted how the strain of the past week had caught up to him “I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered as he dried his face with a towel.
Pulling out his cell phone, he called the nurse’s station in order to see how Tony was doing. Evidently DiNozzo was feeling well enough to visit with Jack and listen to his father read the newspaper. Satisfied that Tony seemed to be physically recuperating from his earlier ordeal, he still found himself worrying about his senior agent’s mental well being. DiNozzo had a long way to go before he was back to his usual, hyperactive self and personally Gibbs was looking forward to that day.
He thanked the nurse and as he was getting ready to hang up, the nurse called out to him.
“Agent Gibbs!”
“Yes?”
“Um…there are a couple of men who just walked into Agent DiNozzo’s room and I’ve never seen them before,” the nurse stated.
“I’ll be right there.”
Gibbs hung up and sprinted out the door and into the parking lot. He had known that Internal Affairs would be arriving soon, but he had fully intended to be there with Tony when they began taking his statement. He muttered a curse under his breath, hoping that either DiNozzo or Jack would stall them.
Once he was in his car, headed for the hospital, he called McGee to tell him where he would be. Not waiting for a response, he slung his phone in the passenger seat and mashed the pedal to the floor. He could not let DiNozzo face them alone. It was bad enough that Tony had to live through this nightmare once, now the young man would be forced to recount every word and detail of the past few months. His entire life, the very essence of his being, would be out in the open for a microscopic examination. Sometimes life just sucked.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tony braced his stomach with his arm, regretting the laughter that had wracked his body when Jack had read to him the article on how an eighty five year old lady named Maude Bennett, had mistakenly poured her moonshine into her cat’s dish, thinking it was water. She and the cat were supposed to appear in court in a month for a drunk and disorderly charge.
“I didn’t think you could give a cat a DUI. I think I’ll move to Stillwater,” Tony gasped between bouts of laughter. “If for nothing else, than to see what happens to Maude and her cat.”
“You’d miss D.C.,” Jack said. “That’s the most excitement this town’s seen since the last time Jethro came back and stirred things up. I’ll have to show those clippings sometime.”
Tony’s smile quickly faded. “I’m not sure I’m going back to D.C.”
“What?”
“I said I’m not sure I’m going back to D.C.”
“But why? After everything you’ve been through? You’ve patched things up with Leroy and…”
Tony shrugged. “I just think I might like some peace and quiet for a while.”
“Well, peace and quiet we got, but…”
Their conversation was interrupted when two men purposefully entered his room, badges in hand, flashing their IA identification. The first man was older and radiated a no nonsense type of persona, while the second agent was a few years younger and a few pounds heavier. However, the younger man seemed more laid back, but together, the two men seemed like a formidable team.
He was greeted by the younger of the two agents. “I’m Agent Greg Kincaid and this is Agent Walter Mason. We were sent from Internal Affairs to interview you about the allegations that you have made against the Secretary of the Navy and the Director of NCIS.”
Tony winced as he sat up straighter. “I’m Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, but you can call me Tony.”
Greg nodded and then motioned for Jack to leave. “I’m sorry sir, but you’ll have to leave.”
“I can’t leave until my son arrives,” Jack stated.
“This is a federal matter and we can’t have a civilian interfering with the interview.”
“That’s fine, but you can wait and start your interview when my son, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, arrives.”
Tony wondered how long these two agents would try and argue with Jackson Gibbs. He already knew from experience that it was a useless, but he figured that they would find out soon enough. The senior agent laid his head back against the pillow, taking the time that Jack was buying him to gather his thoughts. There was a lot of ground to cover and he didn’t want to leave anything out. He simply wanted to do what was right, not only for him, but for everyone involved.
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.