Author's note: It's been ages since I watched JAG and I don't have every single Jennifer Coates episode with me—personally not all of them were great. Nor have I watched each NCIS: New Orleans episode carefully to pick out Brody's family lifestory. But since Brody/Coates is the same actresses, here's my short story to bring them together.
I do recommend JAG to NCIS: New Orleans viewers who haven't watched the show, but not all the episodes. And on that note, do review my JAG FF as well.
Disclaimer: I do not own JAG or NCIS: New Orleans. These are the creations of Donald Paul Bellisario and Mark Harmon.
NCIS New Orleans HQ
0830 Hours Local
"Damnit, Damnit, DAMNIT!" Special Agent Meredith Brody yelled, her voice loud enough to be heard by her partner who was just at the café across the street. "Hey, Miss Brody, good morning, you don't have to utter that word so early."
Brody uttered another D word and smacked her cell phone against her desk. "Morning, Chris, sorry for the anger. It's just that someone has being calling me a dozen times since I woke up this morning. I've tried to tell the phone company to block this number, but the customer service is crap." Just then, her phone buzzed again. "STOP CALLING!" she yelled, slamming it.
Before LaSalle could utter a word his phone rang. "If that person is calling you, tell him to get lost will you?" Instead, the Alabama-born agent shook his head, then nodded. "You can't say shut up to this person. That was Pride. Big accident at the SPAWAR) Systems Command. And you better bring your phone and tell him why you cut off his call."
U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Command
0900 Local
"Please prankster stop this!" Brody cried as she received another two more called from the number.
"It can be settled by NOPD or even the FBI," LaSalle suggested, bringing out the camera and other necessary gear. "Don't waste your voice over this."
"Now that you mentioned voice, I forgot to tell you the person on the line sounded almost exactly like me," Brody said, snapping on her gloves.
"Problems, Brody?" Senior Special Agent Dwayne Pride asked and she related her story to him. "It happens sometimes. Laurel once received a set on calls from someone pretending to be my brother, her uncle. Turned out to be a guy who worked for him who had a grudge. Still serving his sentence."
Brody nodded and smacked her phone again. Normally she would have been able to turn it off but that was against NCIS regulations. The team snapped photos and investigated the wreckage of the vehicle that damaged a good portion of SPAWAR's main entrance. "Hey, Brody, do you have any more evidence bags? There's…hey Brody?" LaSalle called her then noticed her starring off in the distance.
"What's up, partner?"
"There's…there was someone…" Brody pointed in a Southeasterly direction. "Someone was over there."
"Well the crowd's the other way. Someone we or you know?"
"Maybe, she replied. "Someone."
"First a series or calls, then a voice sounding like yours, now you're seeing someone," Chris LaSalle said. "You must have either drank a spell or this is like the X Files episode." She raised eyebrows and he explained. [*].
NCIS New Orleans HQ
Hours Later
"So it's highly likely that the incident was a one off incident," Investigative Computer Specialist Patton Plame concluded. "I searched every know database, checked every intel channel, dotted every I, crossed every T, nada. It's just a case of a drunk driver gon.."
The buzzing sound of Brody's phone interrupted Patton's explanation. It was like the thirtieth call that Brody had received that day. Snapping the "Reject" button, she threw the phone across the office, but not before Patton caught it with his hands.
"Good catch, Hacker," LaSalle noted.
"Investigative Computer Specialist!" Patton insisted. "And I wished I could be a baseball catcher again."
"Well, Specialist and catcher, can you please put Brody out of her misery and find out who is this constant caller," Pride remarked.
"No problem for Double P," he replied, slotting out the SIM card and typing furiously on his tablet. "This belongs to..."
"Hey, hey!" a voice interrupted him, "I just want to visit! Besides the door is wide open!" All the Agents and Plame turned around to see a Navy Masters-at-Arms restraining a long-haired brunette. "Hey! Meredith!" she cried.
Brody immediately frowned and said, "Do I know you?"
"Well, maybe," Patton Plame said, "She's at least knows your number. She's the one who has been calling you all day."
"Who the hell are you?"
NCIS New Orleans HQ
Conference Room
A few minutes later
"You're lucky I'm not taking this in the interrogation room," Brody started. "But you're also unlucky that I'm a seasoned interrogator and a Federal Agent," she said, staring at the girl who looked almost like her except the length of her hair.
"Hey, look I'm really sorry I buzzed you for so many times, Sis," the woman replied. "But it's been years and..."
"Ok, lady," Brody interrupted. "It says here your name is Coates-Shields, Jennifer, and you've been a delinquent before, even busted were in the Navy," Brody read from the printed out records, courtesy of Patton Plame. "So you've served with a two-star admiral, and onboard a carrier, yada-yada, but what I don't see here is how you know me and how you got my number, which is not listed publicly. I will remain you that I'm a Federal Agent and a interrogator, so you can't lie without me knowing."
"Listen, I know it's an incredible story," the girl replied, her voice really sounding like Brody's . "But we are twins that go separated from birth. You mother, my mom, just never liked your father and never told him she carried twins. And..."
Main Office
The same time
"Brody, Meredith," LaSalle read. "Born in Detroit, Michigan, graduated 3.4 GPA from Michigan State University. Joined NCIS immediately after college. Graduated top ten in FLETC. Served on the USS Marianas, USS Bastogne, USS Moultrie, NCIS Central Field Office."
"Coates, Jennifer, Now Coates-Shields," read Plame. "Born in Los Angeles, California. Dropped out of high school, roamed the streets, father was a Pastor. Many crimes leading to her imprisoned for six months in Frederick County Jail. Then joined the Navy as an Electronics Technician. Still cases of insubordination and Captain's Mast, impersonated Santa Claus to steal money."
"That's a good one," Pride commented. "Never heard of it during my time as an officer or an agent."
"Says here she was found guilty then, served her sentence and got out to be a Navy Legalman. Service onboard the USS Seahawk, with high appraisal from the ship's captain then. Was supposed to stay on the carrier but go involved with rescuing a JAG injured by a landmine. Transferred to JAG HQ afterwards where she stayed a legalman and a PA to then JAG head Rear Admiral Chegwidden. Stayed on for next JAG Major-General Cresswell, then retired as a E-6. Took night classes and now a pro-bono lawyer."
"Bad girl turned good," LaSalle said. "But no connection to our Brody?"
"Parent's names are different, birth places are different. Unless there's a glitch in the system or either girl is part of a jigsaw puzzle that needs to be completed."
NCIS New Orleans HQ
Conference Room
20 minutes later
Brody stared at the girl across from her. She had interrogated a diverse range of people before and could tell a liar within seconds. But this girl didn't display any of these traits to her at all. She sold her a story that she refused to believe.
"Look, I know it's very wrong," the girl commented. "But I used to work for this great Navy lawyer and I picked up investigative skills from him. So that's how I traced my background and found your number. I at first thought you were still in Michigan until I heard about the NCIS team down here. Look, just call your mother, my mother. I tried to myself but she won't believe."
Brody looked again at this look-alike. Brody hardly about her siblings since everyone was dumped in different boarding schools through their schooling life. And even during get-togethers like Thanksgiving and Christmas it would be just "Hi, how's things" to each other. And Brody hardly asked her mother and father about their love life and even knew how they met.
"Meredith," the girl began.
"Stop, my name's Agent Brody," she said, turning around. What should I do? Strap this lady to a polygraph? Get a DNA sample and send it to Sebastian? Or simply chuck her off with a warning never to dial her cell at all again?
Ninety Minutes Later...
The two girls walked out of the room, with the others still browsing through both their records. "Click!" Brody shut off the screen and they turned around in surprise. "Everyone, I know it was a shock. But I like you to meet my long-lost twin sister, Jennifer".
The End.
*Anyone can guess which X Files episode I'm talking about? Hint, it's a season five episode regarding Dana Scully.