Earth I
As Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Jenny Shepard was used to working some long and intense days.
Today had already brought with it a murder investigation of a Naval Intelligence officer who was in reality a spy, and the related news that his activities brought about possibly the biggest intelligence breach in American history.
Now came the news that two agents from an NCIS from a parallel world - Earth Prime - were on their way to her NCIS. To her office.
Today.
And these weren't just any agents.
They were Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Ziva David.
Gibbs ran the Washington, D.C. field office's Major Case Response Team on his world, and Ziva was one of his agents and valued team members, alive and well on their own world.
And, long dead on Jenny's own world.
Jenny, finishing up her bourbon, decided against another drink. While she thought a stiff drink would help her handle what Earth Prime's Leon Vance had thrown at her, she wasn't an alcoholic.
Part of being the director of a federal agency meant being able to handle difficult matters on the fly and make hard decisions - including how to introduce them to agent Caitlin Todd, if at all.
Jenny knew the basic back story of Kate's counterpart, including how she died. Kate Prime was as depowered as anyone else on her world - and because of it, the bullet from Ari Haswari's rifle powered through her skull on that rooftop in Norfolk, killing her instantly.
Right in front of Jethro and Tony DiNozzo.
It led Jethro to a frantic search to find Ari, and eventually, to Ziva David killing Ari in Gibbs' basement.
The only memorial was in the hearts of the men and women Kate Todd left behind - and whatever memorial Ziva left to her half-brother.
There was no boat, no statues, no parades honoring the dead, no television specials commemorating her life.
In that respect, she figured Gibbs and his team might feel cheated; even the Ziva she knew, the one who died, was considered a martyr, of sorts, in Israel, and raised to near legendary status within Mossad, for her role in attempting to stop the monster Ari Haswari before he could start his brief reign of terror.
Jenny was going to have to deal not only with Gibbs and Ziva, but Kate, who here was alive and well.
Not only had she survived being shot - twice! - on that rooftop, she was still with NCIS, having risen to be Special Agent in Charge of her own Major Case Response Team.
Which, as it were, happened to be on its way to the Navy Yard, from Miami, to pick her up for a case in Gotham City.
Jenny wondered what Gibbs and Ziva would think of the Kate she had come to know: not just the agent, but the celebrity, a role model, one of the public faces of NCIS and an American hero. The woman who survived only because she had the metagene, which gave her an aura, acting as an invisible shield, that kicked in just in time to block Ari's bullets.
What would Kate, in turn, think of Gibbs? She knew her own Gibbs as a good man, deep down, who merely acted like a hardass bastard. He had told Kate the most important parts of his backstory after their teammates died - most notably telling her about his first wife, Shannon, and their daughter, Kelly, and their murder at the hands of Pablo Hernandez, and confessing to having killed Hernandez himself in revenge.
Kate had to get the rest of Gibbs' backstory second hand, after his death. Some of it she heard from Jenny herself, much of it from men like Mike Franks, Jackson Gibbs and Tobias Fornell.
Of course, there was the incident with Pablo Hernandez's children - the daughter who ran the Reynosa cartel, and her collaborator brother who imbedded himself in the Mexican government - who tried to extract a measure of revenge from Kate's own team.
Jenny had to admit some curiosity about what kind of man this Gibbs had become, and if he had mellowed any since his own Kate Todd, and Ari Haswari, had died.
Jenny then remembered that Ziva David was coming over from the other world as well.
What would Kate think of her? What would anyone else think of her?
How would she react to a world, in which her own half-brother was not merely a rogue Mossad officer who killed a federal agent, but a supervillain in his own right, responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans?
And what in the world was Jenny to do with Gibbs and Ziva once they arrived?
Give them the tour of the building? Stick them in MTAC and make them watch a movie, as if they were visiting some museum?
Or...have them observe Agent Borin's team?
Or...dare she think it...have them travel with Kate's team?
Jenny looked at the bar; had that one shot of bourbon been a little too much this morning?
Or did she need another shot?
Not once had Jenny considered the potential reactions of Gibbs and Ziva to meeting Jenny herself.
Nor, had she thought about the billboard in front of the Pentagon Centre.
Pentagon Centre, Virginia
"Mr. Gibbs, I'll be happy to drive you to the Navy Yard."
Frank, a short, stocky middle-aged man dressed as mall security, was in reality an agent with the FBI, and would be Gibbs' and Ziva's driver while they were on Earth I.
Gibbs initially wanted to drive the rental, but relented after some discussion, namely that the keys to the Honda Accord were more advanced - and complex - than he or Ziva were used to. To save time, Frank would drive them to the Navy Yard.
As the Accord pulled out of the parking lot, Frank asked his guests if they wanted to stop somewhere for coffee, or lunch. They came to the first red light, and while they waited Ziva and Gibbs looked at their surroundings, trying to determine similarities and differences between here and back home on Earth Prime.
Before the light turned green, Gibbs and Ziva spotted the billboard.
Like most other billboards across the United States, the large billboard promoting an upcoming blockbuster film was virtual - it could change on demand, advertising everything from movies to soda pop to public service announcements.
This one had the total attention of Gibbs and Ziva.
It showed a young woman, dressed like a superhero, in a red, white and blue spandex outfit, standing against a backdrop of a city skyline and an American flag.
The logo, below, read TEAM KATE, and the writing below it was consistent with what one might see promoting actors, directors, and an upcoming date for a movie.
The actress, according to the billboard, was Alyson Hannigan.
But the attractive, dark-haired woman on the billboard looked like someone else Gibbs once knew.
Ziva had the sense to snap a picture of the billboard before the light changed.
"How good are the Nationals over there? Strasburg threw a no-hitter Wednesday against the Meteors. That put them 9 1/2 games up in the East. They start a home stand tomorrow night against the Expos. I can get you tickets if you're going to be around awhile..."
While Frank talked on and on, Gibbs and Ziva were thinking only about the billboard.
"Ziva? You did snap a picture, right?"
"I did...I am looking at it now. I can make out two names: Alyson Hannigan and Gillian Anderson."
That got Frank's attention. "Oh yeah! You saw the billboard. Team Kate. That's a movie that's coming out next summer-"
"A movie?" Gibbs asked, as Ziva handed him the phone. "About whom?"
"Kate Todd."
At that instant, a thousand images flashed through Gibbs' mind.
The first was meeting a Secret Service agent named Kate Todd aboard Air Force One, during a case.
The last was seeing her murdered on a rooftop, the blood from her skull splattering on Tony DiNozzo's face.
"...used to be a superhero," Frank continued, "now with NCIS..."
Ziva only knew her through the recollections of Gibbs and her teammates, particularly Abby Sciuto. She had met Kate's sister, Dr. Rachel Cranston.
She glanced over at Gibbs, who handed her back the smartphone.
"Gibbs," she whispered. "Is that her?"
"I think so," was all Gibbs could say.
"You guys talking about Kate Todd?" Frank asked, as he made a turn into D.C. proper.
"Do you know Agent Todd?" Ziva asked him.
"Not personally, but I know about her, everyone does," Frank answered. "She's an agent. Superhero. Used to be with the JLA, the funny one not the Big Seven. That billboard you snapped a picture of? Upcoming movie. You ever hear of her?"
Ziva looked at Gibbs.
"Yeah. You could say that," Gibbs said to Frank.
Gibbs recollected meeting a young woman, with the Secret Service, on Air Force One while investigating a dead Naval Commander. Of hiring her after she resigned from the Secret Service, and seeing her progress towards becoming a top-flight NCIS agent.
Before Ari shot her to death.
Meanwhile, Ziva David sat in the back, staring at the picture.
"...kids love her. My daughter met her once, got her autograph. Has a Kate doll in her bedroom-"
"Ziva, let me see that phone again."
Ziva handed the phone to Gibbs, who looked at the picture for two minutes without saying a word.
Finally, he spoke. "It's her," Gibbs said softly. "She survived...Ziva, she survived."
"Yes, she did," Ziva said back, softly.
"Frank, how close are we to NCIS?" Gibbs.
"Five minutes," Frank said.
"Frank, can you call ahead and ask where Agent Todd is?" Gibbs.
"Sure," Frank said, as he punched a button on his dashboard.
"Before you call, answer me one other question: is Leon Vance the director of NCIS here?"
Frank thought for a moment. "No, it's not a he, it's a she...hold on...name's coming to me...Shepard. Jenny Shepard."
Gibbs looked back at Ziva, who went wide-eyed at that revelation.
"Jenny Shepard is the director of NCIS," Gibbs stated. "That's what you're saying."
"Yes sir," Frank said. "Now you want me to make that phone call?"
Gibbs nodded. "Whomever you talk to, make it clear that I want to speak with Director Shepard and Agent Todd if they're both around."