New story. Tell me what you guys think?
I don't own NCIS. Just doing this for fun.
"PFC Brian Curtis was killed trying to stop someone from selling military secrets." Ziva David, former Mossad Liaison Officer told their team leader. "Someone from his unit either has the files to protect them or to sell them off."
"Boss, I spoke to his CO," Tony took over. "Commander Reynolds said that yesterday PFC Curtis left for lunch at 1300 but he never came back."
"Where's McGee?" Gibbs spun from the plasma to glare at his agents.
"The director called him up Boss."
"Excuse me," all three turned to look at the person who spoke. "I'm looking for Special Agent McGee?" the woman had dark wavy hair that reached midback. She wore a white blouse paired with soft grey pants. Hazel-shaped chocolate brown eyes were framed with sophisticated-looking glasses. She stood at around 5ft2in but was still quite intimidating even with her slightly rounded stature.
"I'm very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo," Gibbs watched as his senior field agent swaggered towards the petite woman. "But everybody calls me Tony." he held out his hand towards her with a wink and Gibbs couldn't suppress the smirk that bloomed on his face when the woman looked at the outstretched hand impassively. "Probie is not here right now but I'm sure I can provide you with whatever you need from him."
"I rather doubt that." she stared at DiNozzo unimpressed by the moves he'd already put on her. Ziva chuckled as she watched her partner get shot down while Gibbs decided that he leave without a backwards glance at DiNozzo when Tim emerged from the director's office.
"Alexandria?" she spun at the sound of his voice, a brilliant smile breaking out on her face at the sight of one Special Agent Timothy McGee.
"Tim!" Gibbs could only watch as his Junior Field Agent bounded down the stairs to greet the now-named woman.
"I was just coming to get you!" Tim greeted happily as he engulfed her in a warm embrace.
"You were?" Alexandria asked. "Why?"
"Something's going on with~"
"McGee, care to introduce us?" Gibbs barked making the long time friends break apart from their embrace. He noticed the immediate changes in the younger man's demeanor. McGee stood taller, his gait screaming confidence as he wrapped a protective arm around the woman.
"Right Boss. Sorry about that." Gibbs only raised an eyebrow as McGee led her to stand in front of their whole team. "This is Alexandria Denise Smith. She's a friend of mine from MIT."
"What is she doing here?" he asked earning a raised eyebrow from the woman herself.
"What are you doing here?" Tim asked his friend.
"Well I was going to tell you when I was so rudely interrupted," she glared at Gibbs ignoring the shocked expression on Tony and Ziva's faces. She still didn't know them yet, but at the moment she didn't care, she was too annoyed at the apparent boss who had no respect for other people. "Someone's been trying to access the program." She turned her attention back to Tim."But whoever it is doesn't have all the codes yet because they kept tripping the alarms on level three."
"What program?"
"It's about our case boss," Tim answered this time, giving Alexandria a reassuring squeeze. "The director just told me that the files that were stolen from our dead petty officer were about the missile launching program Lexi and I wrote back when we were in MIT."
"What does it do?"
"Essentially it gives the person who has the proper codes sole control over all the missiles in our country." Tim said making Tony stare at him in horror.
"Why would you make a program that can potentially cause the deaths of millions of people?" Alexandria growled at the other man.
"If you want to blame anyone then point your finger at those who ordered the creation of the missiles themselves." she glared at Tony, the taller man flinching away from her at the stare.
"The purpose of the program was to control all missiles. It means that whoever has the codes could launch them all at the same time or even one at a time. They choose the target and the time as well as which missiles to detonate."
"Which is why all the information on the program is top secret Very Special Agent DiNozzo. Timothy and I were commissioned to write up the program when our mentor from MIT told someone from the Pentagon about our skills."
"You were commissioned to do it?" Tony asked. "I thought the government doesn't pay anyone for this kind of job?"
"I gave them no choice on the matter." Alexandria shrugged with a nonchalant smirk. "What they were asking us to do was essentially a job. Why shouldn't I get paid for it?"
"How did you convince them of that?"
"I just pointed out that even the president was getting paid for leading the country. How is my situation any different?" Gibbs decided then and there that he really liked this woman if she had the balls to stand up to someone from the Pentagon. No wonder she didn't even flinch from his glare. "Besides, this is a free country. There's nothing short of killing me that they could do to force me to do what they want."
"They could've taken your family hostage."
"I'm an orphan there's no one to take."
"Torture."
"Oh, they tried," McGee was the one who shuddered at the memory. "They tried to take her from the dorm."
"What happened?" Ziva asked sensing a kindred spirit in the fiery woman.
"The men they sent went back looking like porcupines."
"She was just learning acupuncture back then but she was very good at it."
"If you want, I can show you how adept at it I've become Agent DiNozzo." McGee didn't bother to hide his smirk when Tony paled at the thought.
"Uh, no thanks."
"What are we supposed to do now?" Ziva asked earning a grateful look from Tony.
"You need to find whoever killed that guy." she pointed towards the plasma where a photo of their victim was still flashed. "Otherwise we will have to terminate the already written program and create another one. Then Tim and I will have to reprogram all the command centers and that's just too much trouble."
"Probie! You never told us any of this!"
"What part of top secret and classified don't you understand?"
"But, but, we're a team!"
"I don't care who you are to Tim, if you don't have the clearance you're not supposed to know about it."
"And yet you just told us what the program entails." Ziva pointed out.
"That's the beauty of it being a contractual work, isn't it?" she smirked. "Besides, I thought it'd be better if you knew that it was a matter of national security. Maybe that way you might actually focus on your job rather than chat up women." Tony flushed at the blunt observation. On the other hand, he felt indignant - how dare this woman assume that he couldn't do his job? What did she know about him? "I never said you couldn't do your job Agent DiNozzo. All I said was that you need to focus on finding your killer." Tony gaped at her - How did she know what he was thinking?
"Alright, stop using your psychic powers on Tony." McGee barely held on to his laughter as his senior partner looked at his friend as if she'd grown ears and a tail right in front of him. It did not help at all that instead of the usual smirk of indifference on his boss's face, Gibbs's lips were upturned in a barely-there smile. His eyes though, were the most telling; the icy blue orbs were lit up with amusement. "We've got work to do." he steered her off in the direction of Vance's office. "Let me take you to the director so he can clear you to work with me. Boss?"
"Go McGee."
"Thanks Boss." the pair left a still gaping DiNozzo and two other agents standing in amusement in their part of the bullpen.
"What the hell?"
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs barked breaking his Senior Field Agent from his stupor. "Get back to work!"
"Yes Boss! Right away boss!" Ziva looked at her partner and almost laughed at how quickly one woman had gotten into his head.
"Ziva, credit card history."
"Okay Gibbs," the team leader of the best Major Case Response Team hid his smirk with his coffee cup. Alexandria seemed to be an interesting woman, and McGee - what was it about her that brought out his confidence? Maybe by the end of this case he'd have an answer. Until then, he would enjoy trying to figure her out.
XoxoxoX
"Tim,"
"Yeah."
"Wait I need~"
"Hold on I can't~"
"Tim!"
"Sorry Lexi."
"It's fine, I can hold them there for a while." she smiled at him as she pushed off from the desk and stretched.
"I can't believe they tried to do that!"
"Amateurs!" she snorted happily then turned back to Tim.
"Lexi!" she scrambled to go back to her workstation as both their computers began to sound out alarms.
"Damn it! They're like roaches!"
XoxoxoX
"I wish I had popcorn," Tony whispered to Ziva as they watched Alexandria and McGee work. It had been a week since Lexi - as Tim called her - arrived. She and Tim had since been working together to catch the people utilizing the stolen codes.
"Woah!" he tore his eyes away from the pair to look at Abby who had emerged from the lab. She was staring wide-eyed at the enclosure that had McGee and Alexandria trapped in one corner of the bullpen. McGee's desk had been extended with a longer table, it was now connected to Gibbs's, closing off that part of the squadroom. Tony had first protested as it made it more difficult for him to run to the head but a glare from his boss quickly quelled the rest of his loudly-voiced opinions. "They work so well together." Abby commented.
"Do you understand what they're doing Abbs?" Tony asked. To him everything was a blur of numbers, letters and special characters.
"I don't really know everything." the goth girl almost balked at denying that she knew something about what the two were doing but pushed on bravely. "But from what I can see they're intercepting whoever is trying to access the servers of the programs." she relayed, "Those people are good, I mean they're really good but Tim and Lexi are much, much better."
"She called them amateurs." Ziva supplied politely.
"I bet. You know what? I can match bullets, fingerprints and DNA. I have mad tracking skills and I can decode and program but all those I learned from my doctorates. What those two have are natural talent." she told him.
"But they studied in MIT!"
"Lexi was on a government funded scholarship the whole time. She didn't need to study but in order to be fully recruited in the Pentagon she needed a degree and Timmy was being recruited by a lot of agencies straight out of high school. His computer skills are that coveted."
"Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that Alexandria works for the Pentagon?"
"No, they wanted her but she didn't want them."
"Huh?"
"Lexi paid off the scholarship they gave her using the money she received writing up the program with Timmy."
"And you know this how?"
"I'm pretty sure I know how Abby knows." Lexi said as she rose from her seat. Abby blushed at her knowing smile and turned away. "I'm a free woman agent DiNozzo. I don't owe anyone anything and the rest of the money went to a bank account which I've not touched since."
"Lexi..." McGee sounded apprehensive.
"What's wrong Tim?" she leaned over his shoulder to peer at his screen.
"Someone's gaining access using proper codes."
"What?" she turned back to the four computers in place, searching. "Stall them."
"What do I do?" she took her seat back and began typing.
"Pull them into a black hole. Two minutes tops."
"Alright."
"Anything interesting here Abbs?"
"Gibbs! Don't do that!" she jumped at the soft whisper against her ear.
"What are you doing up here?"
"I came to watch." she nodded decisively.
"Watch what?"
"Them," she gestured wildly towards the pair of computer geniuses still at work.
"Lexi, they're closing in."
"Let them out Tim. I got you."
"They're all yours," they watched as the pair quieted down observing their flashing screens.
"Hook, line and sinker." she grinned at Tim.
"Just what have you been teaching yourself?" Tim stared back at her with an accusing gaze.
"Let's see them get out of this one."
"You're brilliant, you know that right?" Tim told her and she blushed beneath the praise. "I mean it Lexi." she tried to hide her face with her chocolate locks but he caught her chin. "I missed you." He kissed her forehead and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Woah!" Abby whispered in shock, not quite prepared for that turn of events. Beside her, Gibbs's hand tightened on his cup of black. He was confused at his own reaction to the small sign of affection. Why did he suddenly have the urge to break up the obviously tender moment.
"Tim, you have roughly two hours to track them." Ziva suddenly hated how soft Alexandria's voice sounded. They had found PFC Curtis' killer two days after they got the case but the files had already been sold and money had exchanged hands. They had had no choice but to wait for someone to access the program and try to trap them. McGee had insisted that he needed Alexandria's help and he turned out to be right. But now, after seeing that little display Ziva couldn't help but think that maybe they should've found some other way to find these people.
"Don't worry, we'll get them Lexi." Tim finally pulled away from her to begin tracking the lead. Tony was quite surprised to see this part of his younger partner. Timothy McGee was a nerd to him. He was geeky - he still played video games! - and had no confidence on himself - Tony still had some of his motivational CDs - but the man he was seeing here was brimming with self-esteem. This McGee was obviously very protective of Alexandria, much different from the way he'd tried to protect his sister Sarah. This was something else entirely.
"McGee SITREP."
"Someone definitely has the stolen codes Boss." McGee reported. "Whoever it is tried to use the codes to get access to the missiles but we stopped that. Lexi has trapped them with an error box while I track their location."
"How long do we have?"
"Not long now Boss. Give me half an hour tops."
"Alright. David, DiNozzo get ready to move out in 45."
"What about me Boss?"
"You, stay here and protect Alexandria. Good job you two." he received a happy nod from McGee and a tired one from Lexi.
"I told you we should never have taken this job." Lexi muttered.
"It's a bit late to back out now." Tim laughed pulling her into another hug. "Come on, let's get something to eat. You deserve it." Gibbs could only watch as Tim supported most of Lexi's weight when he stood. He couldn't help the twinge in his chest that reminded him just how human he was. He couldn't afford to be distracted, they were supposed to be finding damn bastards trying to jeopardize national security. He could ponder on it further once the case was fully closed.
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aLy0:)