Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters.

Chapter Eleven

"What I don't get is the DNA evidence." Ziva stated into the quiet waiting room, no one left in here had spoken since the video call with Vance. Gibbs, Ducky and the Admiral disappearing moments later and not having returned.

"Let's call Eric" Callen suggest pulling out his phone, dialling before putting on speaker so everyone could hear.

"Callen, how's is he?" Eric greeted with a question of his own

"Still being assess right now Eric, but we've got a question for you" Callen informed

"Sure shot" Eric responded.

"Explain the DNA evidence to us." Called requested

"Oh, err right, I think I might have given you all the wrong impression about that and I've already made Vance and Hetty aware of all the facts." Eric hedged.

"Wrong impression, how?" Tony challenged

"I said that Abby had Gibbs DNA, but I didn't specify specifically which Gibbs" Eric justified

"There's only one Gibbs" Ziva pointed out helpfully

"Actually there's two and depending on how you looked at it there used to be more." Eric replied

"Eric I think we need to get to the point, before you confuse the hell out of us all." Sam said in frustration.

"Basically the DNA Abby had was that of Shannon Gibbs, as in Gibbs wife, along with their daughters and his wife's sister"

"So not the Gibbs" Tony stated

"No not the Gibbs though she did run his DNA against the daughters and it's anyone guess why she did that, but the blood analysis on her computer is that of Gibbs family and she's been running DNA comparison test against them every few months."

"Every few month?" Callen questioned in surprise.

"Yeah, only Tim's DNA wasn't on record any of the database's she had access too until the dog incident."

"Because she doesn't have access to civil/hospital databases, at least not without consent and then her only access was to the specifically requested files at those times." Callen theorised

"Sound about right" Sam agreed

Tony hadn't liked what he had just heard "Every database?"

"Sorry Tony." Eric replied

Upon seeing the others questioning faces Tony let them know what he had been thinking "My DNA is only in our database because of the plague incident, so I'm guessing…"

"Afraid so Tony" Eric acknowledge the unvoiced questioned of whether Abby had tested his DNA.

"And mine would have come from….." Ziva started

"No Ziva, Abby was only testing male DNA against those that I mentioned" Eric interjected

"Why?" Callen questioned

"Good question" Hetty entered the discussion.

"Hetty don't do that!" Eric surprise was clear to everyone and it supplied the combined team with a moment of light relief.

"Still need an answer Mr Beale" Hetty responded

"Well my guess is that it has something to do with the fact that Sean Harland Murray was never officially declared dead, only assumed to be so." Eric conjectured.

NCIS

The door to Tim's room closed softly after the doctors, Gibbs and Arthur McGee had exited the room, now that the Tim was again sleeping.

"Nice one Doc." Gibbs stated sarcastically, towards the two hospital doctors, anger all too evident in his voice, as he walked down the hallway towards the waiting room.

"Jethro, please" Ducky tried to placate his friend "let's just concentrate on what Timothy needs rather than playing the blame game at how he was informed."

"What he needs is to get way from Humpty and Dumpty" Gibbs retorted waving his handing in indication of Johnston and Morse.

"I couldn't agree more, in fact I'm going to make some calls see if I can shift things along." Arthur stated his tone may have been calmer than Gibbs but it had just as hard of an edge to it.

"Now wait a minute…" Morse started

Suddenly Arthur was no longer a concerned father, he was the Admiral "You really think you have the right to tell me what to do! Especially where it concerns my son! I know your rank and I can quite easily have you stripped of it!"

The door of the waiting room opened and Tony stepped out "Everything alright Boss? Only we heard raised voices."

Arthur McGee turned and stalked past the younger agent and into one of the rooms he had earlier requisition slamming the door behind him and causing all in the hallway to flinch.

"Well….." Johnston began hesitantly, only to suddenly be on the receiving end of Gibbs glare, swallowing hard he continued as he back away "…..I should get on with my rounds."

NCIS

Vance watched as Abby squirmed slightly in her seat, the waiting game was coming to an end – it was time for some answers.

"I only have one question" Leon Vance informed coolly

"Only one?" Abby queried shocked, she was certain that they'd have a lot more than that seeing as they couldn't now anything not really.

"I think this one covers just about everything" replied Leon before continuing "However before I ask it I want to set out the overall picture, make sure I haven't missed anything."

"Okay" Abby hedged "But shouldn't you be offering me a lawyer first?"

"Terrorist don't get lawyers" Abby jump a little at the dry comment Trent made from where he was standing, she had forgotten he was in the room, having had her focus on the Director.

"I'm not a terrorist!" Abby shouted

"No just a traitor." Vance retorted as he glared Trent into silence

"You have no proof of that!" Abby spat out furiously

"Really…..I wouldn't be so sure of that." Vance informed as he slowly open the folder that had been sitting on the table in front of him.

"Let's start with your connection to Pedro Hermandez shall we…."

NCIS

"Boss is McGee okay?" Tony questioned, everyone but the Admiral was now back in the waiting room.

Gibbs sighed as he sat back in his chair, resting his head against the wall behind him, he and Arthur had inform the rest of the group that they were going to keep calling Tim by his adoptive name for the time being, in order to keep things simple for everyone. "No DiNozzo, he's not."

"But he's going to be….yes?" Ziva enquired

"That depends" Gibbs reply was caged, he really wasn't sure how to answer his agents or how much he could/should tell them at this point.

"On what?" Callen probed, he'd never seen his friend like this and it was obvious something was bothering the other man a great deal.

The answer they wanted didn't come from Gibbs, but from the Admiral who had quietly re-entered the room "On whether he can except that he will never walk again."

"He didn't take the news well then?" Deeks commented without really thinking

Gibbs glared at the man "What do you think?"

"Sorry" Deeks replied holding his hands up in defence as he took a step back

Callen decided to step in quickly "Look we are all tired, it's been a long couple of days and none of us have had much sleep, so why don't we all take a step back, metaphorically speaking, and work out how to proceed from here."

"Quite right" Ducky agreed "Perhaps now would be a good time to use the other room the admiral requisition earlier to get some sleep, we will have to take it in turns of course"

Gibbs nodded "You guys go ahead. Arthur and I will stay with Tim."

"You need to sleep to boss" Tony pointed out as Arthur stepped back into the room, everyone turned their attention to him

"It's all arranged, a helio will be here tomorrow to take Tim to Bethesda" Arthur answered the unasked question directly looking at Gibbs "We're both on it, Ducky as well."

Gibbs nodded, right now all he really want was to get Tim out of here, his nephew had understandably fallen apart once he realised he couldn't move his legs, yet alone feel them, and it had taken both the Admiral and himself a long time to calm him down whilst they waited for the next round of meds to kick in. With both rooms now free it meant more of the group could get some much needed rest so Gibbs doled out orders as he looked around the room.

"Minimum four hours sleep for each of you, starting now. Callen can you get Eric to arrange transport for the rest of you? Including Fornell and Sacks"

Suddenly Gibbs realised he hadn't seen the pair for a while "Where are they?"

"They got called back to DC boss, told us not to bother you with it." Tony informed.

"Huh okay, so just your team, Dinozzo and Ziva, then Callen" Gibbs clarified.

"No problem" Callen replied.

NCIS

How they had managed to put together the details left Abby extremely angry "How dare you! You have no right to go pocking your noses into my personal business! What you've done is illegal"

Vance raised an eyebrow and smirked in return glad he had hit a nerve with the woman "Really, the SecNav and a judge agreed that we had just cause and signed off on it."

"What! No way!" Abbey exclaimed

Vance decided to rub the woman face in it a little keeping her attention on him as they were joined by a very tired looking Tobias Fornell and Ron Sacks. "Your godfather is on death row, you've been extremely lucky no has managed to make the family connection before now, however tenuous it is, it does however nicely explain a few pieces of the missing puzzle."

"Like how Paloma knew where and when to find you." Tobias interjected from behind Abby as he threw a stack of papers and a mobile phone onto the table.

Abby recognise the phone as the one she kept hidden where she thought no one would find it and was about to let rip but was stop by Vance "They also signed off on a warrant to search your apartment."

"Nicely hidden by the way, but the search team was through, I'm afraid they've left the place in a bit of a tip" Fornell informed just to wind the woman up some more.

"And that along with the computer evidence, we now have, is enough for us to charge you with a long list of crimes" Vance stated with a smile as, waving his hand towards the small television screen on the adjacent wall. "Including conspiring with a known felon."

A picture of Abby at the prison talking with her godfather appeared on the screen and Sacks spoke up for the first time "We have an expert currently translating the ASL for us and what they've come up with so far has been quite enlightening. In fact the prison has been very help, we have a complete log of all your visits and several years' worth of video."

"Well things just keep getting better and better for you don't they?" Trent teased with a smirk.

"Still doesn't explain why you're here" Abby retorted angry, everything was fulling apart.

"I think now would be a good time for a break." Vance stated standing up, preparing to leave the room, he wanted to let Abby stew on what they had told her so far before

Trent step up to the table and lean across it getting right into Abby's face and snarled. "I'm here because the agent that was with Shannon Gibbs when she died was my uncle and I've made it my life's mission to ensure that every low life link to Pedro Hermandez gets exactly what they deserve."

NCIS

Gibbs and Arthur where back in Tim's room, they had been taking it in turns to watch over the younger man, whilst the other one of them slept, however Tim's sleep had turned restless and they were now both awake and discussing their concerns with one another after they had shared the task of trying to sooth him back to sleep.

The admiral had particular concerns and once Tim finally settle he decided it was time to address them "I have some reservation regarding the current director of NCIS"

Gibbs nodded in acknowledgement but remained silent as he waited for the other man to continue. "Sarah informed me about his breaking up the team and that it was his decision to assign Tim as Abby's protection detail, what the hell is the man playing at?"

Gibbs grunted "Hell if I know. His main beef seems to be with me but for some reason Tim always appears to get the worse of it. You should have heard the snide comments that went round the yard when he was placed down in the basement."

"Tim's told me little about that time but I do know he was extremely unhappy and he hated the fact that he had to keep you in the dark."

"He was following orders and don't worry I told Vance exactly what I thought about him regarding that stunt." Gibbs tone gave away only a fraction of the anger he had felt at the time, when he finally found out.

Arthur smirked, he liked Gibbs "You've been good for Tim, helped him in ways that I haven't been able too, the Navy demands so much of my time."

"It's been a pleasure watching him grow into the confident man he is now and I know that will continue once he gets over this set back." Gibbs responded.

"That confidence is going to take a battering, I'll pull in every favour I'm owed if I have to but I won't see him relegated back down to that damned basement just because he can no longer walk." Arthur vowed

Gibbs nodded in agreement about Tim's confidence but he wanted to reassure the other man "Don't worry there's no way I'm going to let that happen."

"Trouble is you're his uncle, he can't stay on your team and he can no longer be a field agent" Arthur reminded

"He may not be able to be a field agent, but with his experience as one and his qualifications, he will have other options and if nothing is available when he's ready, I'm sure we can find him something to do" Gibbs reassured, he wasn't about to let Vance ruin his nephew career.

Arthur had a playful tone in his voice when he next spoke. "We do have another advantage."

Gibbs tilted his head in interest

"Jarvis will do anything to please his wife Anna" Arthur informed cryptically.

"I'm not sure I follow" Gibbs replied

"Anna is Timothy's godmother like Clayton is Sarah's godfather."

Gibbs huff out a laugh at that and it felt good after the long hours of stress and worry as he picture the strong wife of Clayton Jarvis, whom he'd met just once, facing off with Leon Vance. "You're right we have the advantage, Vance won't stand a chance."