MYSTERIES OF LIFE
BY PHOENIX FURY.
DISCLAIMER: I SAY THIS ONLY ONCE SO LISTEN UP! I do not own any of the characters, they belong TPTB. I'm merely borrowing them.
SUMMERY: Gibbs and his team have been split up and Gibbs has a new team. Vance decided to add fifth member to his new team – one with a mysterious past and many secrets.
Set beginning of Season 6. … it's sort of my own twist. I thought they found out who mole was too quickly. Plus I liked Brent (the cutie) and didn't want to kill him straight away.
PROLOGUE:
Previously…
Gibbs was watching the news report on Jenny's death when his desk phone rang. He picked it up and said tiredly, "Gibbs."
"Director Vance wants to see you, DiNozzo, McGee and David." Cynthia said.
"Right." He put the phone down.
"DiNozzo, Ziva, McGee," Gibbs said looking at his team. "Vance wants to see us."
He patted Ducky's shoulder and squeezed Abby's as he headed to the stairs.
Gibbs looked at Cynthia questioningly who shrugged slightly telling him she didn't know what he wanted. He opened the door and walked in, his team coming to stand with him in front of the desk of the new Director of NCIS Leon Vance.
"Bad few days." Leon said.
"Officer David, the liaison position with NCIS is being terminated. You're going home."
Ziva blinked and looked at Gibbs. She was leaving?
"McGee, I'm moving you across to the Cyber Crimes Unit. You'll be working with Officer Hollsworth starting tomorrow."
McGee closed his eyes briefly. He was no longer a field agent.
"DiNozzo."
"Sir?" Tony said quietly.
"You've been reassigned. Agent afloat, USS Ronald Regan. Pack your bags, you fly out tomorrow."
Vance turned to Gibbs. "Agent Gibbs."
He gathered three files from his desk and walked around his desk to hand them to Gibbs. "Meet your new team."
Gibbs took the folders, looking down at them before he looked at Vance.
Leon Vance had been director of N.C.I.S for nearly four weeks.
He had respected and liked his predecessor, Jenny Shepard. Only a very few of the higher ups knew the truth of how she died along with Gibbs, Mike Franks and his team. Personally he believed going down fighting was what she would have wanted. But her burning house with a body inside tied everything up nicely in SECNAV's opinion.
He'd been promoted to full Director of NCIS, with the specific mandate by the Secretary of the Navy to in his words 'clean up the mess left by Director Shepard.'
He'd split up the top NCIS Major Case Response Team with the highest rate of solved cases.
Anthony DiNozzo was now on the USS Ronald Regan. Mossad had wanted Ziva David back so he sent her back to Tel Aviv. Timothy McGee was in Cyber Crimes Unit to replace the agent he'd put on Gibbs's new team.
Gibbs's new team consisted of Agent Brent Langer; an FBI Agent initially trained under Gibbs at NCIS and was transferred back to NCIS. Michelle Lee had been put on the team when Gibbs had retired and then went to the Legal department when he came back. Daniel Keating was from Cyber Crimes Unit, the least experienced with investigating anything that wasn't in megabytes.
Agent Langer was the only competent member on Gibbs new team, the other two didn't really know how to physically investigate crime. One didn't even know how to drive.
He knew Gibbs was not happy about losing his old team but Leon did have a reason.
There was a suspected mole in NCIS.
There'd been a 'random' bug sweep around NCIS just before his predecessor had died but it turned up nothing.
So Leon had decided to shake things up by changing office and team arrangements, even job descriptions, hence Gibbs's reassignment of his old team and the new team.
And now he was going to go further by bringing in another member to join Gibbs's team. He just had to convince her.
Madison White shivered in the cold Washington air as she exited the plane at Andrew's Air Force Base. It had been a while since she'd been home. Dressed in cream cargos with a dark green shirt left open over a black vest she didn't stick out too much surrounded by marines.
She wished she had a jacket as she walked down the steps, a rucksack hanging off one shoulder and carrying a black carry-all, to finally touch the ground with her own two feet. She used her free hand to pull her passport and papers out of her travel pouch around her waist.
Military Security had been tightened up in the last few years. She had to pass through various checkpoints, have her passport and papers checked, walk past the bomb and drug dogs before she was finally allowed to leave.
She looked around for her ride, her father had told her he couldn't pick her up but he would arrange for someone to be waiting for her.
She paused as she saw someone she knew. He was also looking directly at her. Was he her ride?
She walked over. "It's been a while, Leon."
"Hello Madi," Leon Vance smiled.
"I heard of your promotion, congratulations."
"Thank you."
Leon's driver held out his hand for her bags. "Let me, Miss White."
So she had been right, he was her ride. She hid her curiosity and let him take her bags and slid into the car at Leon's gesture of invitation.
Next to Leon's immaculate suit and the smart car she was out of place but she didn't let it bother her. Her thoughts focused on why Leon, the Director of NCIS, would be her ride home. He wouldn't, unless he wanted something from her.
"It was a long flight so get to the point, Leon."
"I want you to come work at NCIS on a Major Case Response Team."
She raised an eyebrow. "You do remember what I do for a living, right?"
He smiled. "Yes, I remember."
She looked at him curiously. "I'm intrigued. Why?"
"Think of it as a challenge." He said not really answering her. "You'd be working with a Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He's a good agent, but he's got a new team and he needs another member, one that knows how to drive and shoot a gun."
She remembered her father mentioning him. He was a good man, though impatient and didn't really play by the rules but he got the job done.
The limo pulled to stop. "You'll need to do some quick training at FLETC, I want you working for NCIS by the end of the month."
"I haven't said yes." She opened the door.
"But you are intrigued."
She smiled, "I'll let you know." She got out of the car and walked to the house without a backward glance.
Leon told the driver to drive on while his thoughts were on the job offer he'd given Madison. He didn't know if she'd accept the position or not but he had managed to intrigue her.
She entered the house and dropped her bags by the stairs.
"Is that my Madi girl?" A voice called.
Madison smiled as she headed into the sitting room, "Hey Dottie."
Dottie ran her father's house but she wasn't just the housekeeper but family, a grandmother figure to Madison. She had blondish grey hair, sparkling green eyes and soft voice that had lost nothing of the English land she had been born to.
"Welcome home." Dottie got up from her armchair and hugged her before standing back to get a look at her.
"Dinner will be in an hour and half, you are much too skinny. Your father's in the den, he arrived home a few minutes ago himself. Now you go see him while I start cooking."
Madison rolled her eyes. Dottie always thought she was too thin and tried to fatten her up.
"Thanks Dot." She smiled and went down the hallway to what should have been a separate dining room but was actually her father's study or what she called 'The Lion's Den'.
She lent around the doorway, "Honey, I'm home."
Tom Morrow looked up from his desk of paperwork and smiled as he saw his daughter. "Hey stranger."
The dog sitting in front of the fire leapt up and ran to her side. She crouched down to make a fuss of the sable German Shepherd. "Hey Cula, you taking care of the old man for me?"
"Hey, less of the old," Tom said as he stood up and came around the desk.
She grinned as she stood up and her father wrapped her in a tight hug.
"It's good to have you home." He squeezed her.
"It's good to be home." She said quietly into his shoulder. The familiar scent of her father, old spice and peppermint, reassuring her that she was home, that she was safe.
Her father led her to the sofa by the fire and sat beside her, not letting her go. "How was your flight?"
"Not bad."
"Did you get any sleep?" He asked, looking at the shadows beneath her eyes he suspected the answer was a negative.
She shook her head, "I can never sleep on a plane." Cula laid her head on her lap looking at her with puppy dog eyes till she started scratching her ears. "How's work?" She asked.
"The same as usual."
She nodded knowing what he meant, playing politics while trying to stop the bad guy. Not her idea of fun. She hated politics, so did her father but he at least had the patience to work with it.
She relaxed into her father, leaning her head against his shoulder as the warmth of the fire washed over her.
Her father was equally as silent as she was; glad to just have her home safe and sound in one piece.
Madison sighed as she heard the faint sounds of Dottie cooking in the kitchen. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up for dinner." She kissed his cheek and left, grabbing her bags on the way up the stairs to her room.
She had a large bedroom that overlooked the back garden; it was painted in warm creams with cream linen curtains and linen lantern lampshades making it seem light and airy. Alongside one wall was a large double chest of drawers which her TV sat upon, a corner of floor to ceiling shelves of books with a wide comfy armchair. At the far end of the room was her large bed and at the other was her vanity table and two doors; one leading to a walk-in-wardrobe and the other her en-suit bathroom.
Dottie had put fresh sheets on her bed and placed a vase of flowers on the coffee table by her armchair to make the room smell nice for her. It was a welcome sight to Madison who was very glad to be home.
She closed the curtains since it was getting dark and turned on the light before emptying her bag on the floor, putting all the clothes in a pile to take to the laundry room. She then stripped off her clothes, adding them to the pile before heading to the bathroom.
She opened the cupboards below the sink and pulled out a basket. She had a routine on her first night home.
She smoothed hair removed cream over her skin where needed and set the timer for ten minutes, smoothed a face mask over her face to clean her pores. She went to her wardrobe to find some clean and comfortable clothes; she decided on some grey sweatpants, an overlarge grey sweatshirt and added a pair of thick slipper socks to walk around in. She put her books on her shelves in the corner of the room and her weapons in a locket gun cabinet. She left her footwear in the bag to clean later. She plugged in her mobile and small laptop to recharge and read the mail Dottie had left on her vanity table for her.
Hearing a beep she headed to the bathroom flicking on the shower to warm up while she scrapped off the hair removal cream and cleaned off the face mask. She pulled her hair out of the ponyloop and ran a brush through and inspected the ends, they needed cutting.
She finally stepped in the shower and sighed under the hot spray letting herself just stand still for a moment before she ran a flannel over her skin to make sure she'd removed all of the creams. She shampooed her hair twice to remove the grime, sweat and sand till her hair smelled of cinnamon and ginger then put in a deep conditioner. Using an exfoliating coconut body scrub and an exfoliating glove and brush to get rid of dead flaky skin, especially her feet. Rising off the body scrub and washing with a vanilla body wash till her skin smelled of vanilla and cherry blossoms and was pruning then she decided she was clean enough.
She got out the shower wrapping her hair up in a towel and towelled dry; she then grabbed a bottle of rich moisture body lotion and rubbed it into her skin. She clipped and filed her nails, took care of her cuticles, then rinsed her feet, patted them dry and massaged a small bit of foot cream into her feet, especially the heel, then a little cuticle and nail oil applied to the nails followed by a clear nutrient nail-varnish for protection. She combed her hair through and clipped it up out of the way. She brushed her teeth and rinsed out her mouth with mouthwash, then applied some face moisturizer to her skin and lip balm on her lips, washed her hands and rubbed in some hand cream, before getting dressed.
The routine always made her feel better, as if by getting clean and doing a little pampering she was telling her mind and body it was ok to relax and switch gears as it were. She certainly smelled much better!
She checked the time, stepped into the centre of the bedroom and did a mixture of Yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi movements to loosen up and stretch out her stiff muscles.
A bark broke her focus, she opened the door and Cula stood waiting for her. "Time for dinner huh?" She patted her head, "Good girl."
Cula was more than just a very much loved pet; she was also a personal protection dog, her job was to protect the family. Madison's father was very protective and he loved dogs so they had always had at least one personnel protection dog to look after the family.
She grabbed her washing and left her room with Cula at her side. She entered the kitchen to see Dottie carrying the dishes to the dinner table just off the kitchen.
"Be there in a sec." She called heading to the utility room where the washing machine was located and dumping her washing into the basket, quickly separating them into white and colours.
She smiled as she sat down at the table; eyeing a large dish of nachos with optional dips and bottles of beer. She knew Dottie had made everything mostly from scratch which not only tasted better but was healthier then store bought. "Mexican, my favourite. You spoil me Dottie."
"I know," Dottie smiled impishly at her as she took her seat on the other side of her father.
They chatted back and forth as they ate the nachos and the fajitas that followed; Dottie telling Madison about her vacation in Spain where she'd picked up some fabulous Spanish recipes, and Tom told her about the latest party he'd been forced to go to for work, Madison vaguely mentioned some of the places she'd been too and both Dottie and her father thanked her for the presents she'd sent.
Neither Madison or father ever really discussed work with Dottie, though she was trusted most of it was still classified and they didn't want to worry or frighten her. There was also the fact they didn't really want to bring work home and being with Dottie was about family not work. Dottie never minded; she had no love of politics and unless they got hurt didn't want to know any details.
Dottie stood up, "I'm gonna get this cleaned up." Madison rose to help but Dottie held up a hand. "Oh no dear, you relax, you've just got home. I can handle dishes on my own."
Madison smiled at her warmly. Dottie was a widow and had never had children so Tom and Madison were her family, she fussed over them, fed and cleaned up after them.
"Come on, let's go sit in front of the fire." Tom said standing up.
"I'll bring through dessert," Dottie said as she rinsed the dishes before opening the dishwasher.
"What is it?" Madison asked.
Dottie chuckled, Madison had a sweet tooth a mile wide. "You wait and see."
Madison curled up on the sofa with her father next to her.
"Did your op go well?" Her father asked almost not wanting to know the answer. Though he was incredibly proud of his daughter he did not like her job even though his own did not come without danger.
She nodded not sharing any details. "Leon Vance has a job offer for me."
"Oh."
"To work for NCIS." She looked at her father. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" She asked suspiciously.
"Why would I?"
She wasn't buying his innocent act. "Because apart from my superiors you were the only one who knew I was coming home. You said you would arrange for me to be picked up at the airport and surprise, Leon is my ride."
He held out his hands, "So sue me. I want to see my daughter more than a couple times a year if I'm lucky. Is it wrong that I don't want you in a war zone getting shot at every minute? I'm your father, I want you safe."
She sighed. "Dad."
He continued, "You've been running around the world, living out of a bag for years. You don't even own a car. You don't stay still for a moment. You've been burning the candle at both ends."
"Dad, I'm good at what I do," She interrupted.
"But do you enjoy it? Are you happy?" He asked.
She didn't know how to answer that. She was good at what she did, but enjoy it? It was necessary, if she didn't do it someone would. And happy?
"I think you would enjoy working at NCIS. Just think about it honey, please."
She knew he would go on about it if she said no. "I'll think about it."
He nodded, he'd said enough. He knew his daughter liked to think things out first before talking about it, if he pushed her too much she would dig her heels in.
"Dessert." Dottie said proudly as she arrived carrying a tray.
Madison looked down at the tray and grinned. "How did you know I've been dreaming of chocolate cheesecake?"
"I know you." Dottie smiled and passed her a large piece. "And there's plenty left for a midnight snack."
Madison smiled remembering how many times she'd snuck down to get a piece of cake in the night but she hadn't been the only one. "Hey it's not just me." She pointed her fork at her father.
"I would never, I only eat healthy foods." Tom denied his eyes twinkled with laughter.
"Ha." Dottie said, "You pout when I don't make desserts."
Madison chuckled as she ate her cake. It was good to be home.
Madison had to admit she was curious about the NCIS job offer. As exciting as it sounded flying around the world was… tiring. She never stayed in one place long, lived out of her bag. Hardly ever relaxed because she never felt she was somewhere safe enough to let down her guard so she hardly ever slept.
She had been doing this for years… maybe it was time for a change.
The fact that she would see her family more often certainly was an advantage. She had missed them.
But investigating?
Sure she had been undercover trying to get information but she didn't think that was the same thing as investigating crimes like a murder or a robbery.
First rule of making a decision was to have every available information.
So when her dad and Dottie went to bed she booted up her laptop and started searching, because of her clearance she could read any file she wanted. She knew a lot about NCIS because of her father but she'd never met the people he'd worked with. She decided to look at the team Leon wanted her to join, in particular Gibbs.
Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant, a sniper, a really good one, before joining NIS which was what NCIS was previously called. He'd been with NCIS for 16 years, got his own team in 2001. He'd been awarded several medals and commendations. He'd retired for a while after ending up in a coma during a case but had later come back to lead his old team.
He'd been married four times. His first wife and 8 year old daughter were killed by a drug dealer who had mysteriously 'disappeared'. After losing his wife and daughter he had joined NIS to partner with Mike Franks who had investigated their deaths. As she continued to learn about Gibbs she suspected Gibbs had made sure the man responsible for his family's death disappeared.
Divorced three times, no more children. She suspected the wives couldn't measure up to his first wife and they properly hadn't wanted to. He still lived in the house he had lived in with his first wife and daughter. He was living with ghosts; Madison thought.
She looked at his new team, the ones Leon wanted her to work with.
Michelle Lee had been assigned to Gibbs's team when he retired for a short time and when he came back was put in Legal department. Daniel Keating was from Cyber Crimes Unit, it seemed like Leon had simply swapped McGee and Keating round. And then Brent Langer initially trained under Gibbs at NCIS before becoming an FBI agent and who was now back at NCIS and on Gibbs' team.
She looked curiously at his old team wondering why Leon had reassigned them. Something didn't fit right, apart from Langer the new team seemed an odd bunch.
Anthony DiNozzo had been his senior field agent. He was from a wealthy family, a former cop, that had worked in three different police departments - Peoria, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. He graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education. He'd been in charge of the team when Gibbs retired, and he was now an agent afloat on the USS Ronald Reagan.
Caitlin Todd, who Gibbs had recruited from Secret Service, was on the team for two years before she was killed by Ari Haswari, who had been a Mossad operative who turned rogue.
After Caitlin's death Ziva David, the daughter of the Mossad Director, joined the team as liaison between NCIS and Mossad, she was also the half-sister to Ari Haswari, which made Madison curious. From what Madison could find out Ziva had been in the Israeli army for two years as is compulsory for all Israeli women, then she joined Mossad, in her file it said she had been a control officer but Madison suspected she had been a part of a special operations unit known as the Kidon. Leon terminated the liaison position when he became director and she was now back with Mossad in Israel.
Timothy McGee was the third member of his team. He finished high school at 14, had a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science degree in computer forensics from MIT, so a computer geek. He graduated the top of his class at FLETC and was stationed at the NCIS field office in Norfolk, Virginia before being transferred to the headquarters in Washington Navy Yard a year later. McGee had also written a book called 'Deep Six' which was on the bestseller's list under the name Thom E. Gemcity which Madison realized was an anagram of 'Timothy McGee'. Leon had put him in Cyber Crimes Unit.
Madison shut down her laptop after looking through some of their cases.
Finding out about Gibbs old team and their success record only increased her curiosity about the situation. There had to be more then met the eye. Why on earth did Leon want her to work at NCIS?
The next morning Madison woke late after a full night's sleep, her dad was already at work. Dottie prepared a large breakfast for her; egg and soldiers, grilled bacon, sausage, pancakes and a bowl of fruit and Honey Greek yogurt.
She then relaxed in the sitting room with a book for an hour and finished off the last of the fruit smoothie Dotty had made that morning.
Madison changed into her running clothes; a blue sport vest, black tracksuit bottoms with her running trainers and a grey hooded sweatshirt. She borrowed her dad's SUV since he was chauffeured most of the time and Dottie had her own little run around. She drove through town, traffic reasonably light since everyone was at work and pulled up at the National Mall.
It was a beautiful clear day, DC just beginning to warm up for the summer as she stretched out her legs and arms and then set off at a steady jog.
Exercise always cleared her head, so as she ran past the sights of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Korea Memorial and the WWII Monument, her mind was working on what she should do next.
The NCIS offer interested her and it had been a long time since something had caught her interest. It was different from what she did but there were elements that were the same.
She believed in the work she did but she had to admit she was tired, both mentally and physically. Her dad was right; she was burning the candle at both ends, properly in the middle too. He was worried she was burning out, that she'd make a mistake and get herself killed. She knew that she wasn't going to burn out, the work was too essential to her, it gave her what she needed, it drove her.
But she didn't think it was enough anymore.
Maybe this offer was what she needed.
Her bosses wouldn't just let her walk away, the jobs she did were too important. And she was too good at doing the work.
But maybe they'd let her cut the work down and only call her in when they really needed too.
They wouldn't like it but as long as they weren't fully losing her then they wouldn't kick up too much of a fuss. And she had friends in high places as well as many favours owed to her.
But did she really want to do this?
After many hours of thinking and talking with her bosses Madison rang Leon's phone.
"Vance."
"I'll take the job but there are conditions."
What do ya think?
Please review!
PHOENIX FURY