This is a brithday-fic for my dear friend Lena (dcXxXcd)! I don't own her, I don't own NCIS, I don't own a mammoth... :D

Dear Lena,

I've been thinking about what to give you for your birthday for months. Then I decided to just sit down and plan a trip to Washington...at least in the way of your own personal fanfiction.
I just wanted to give you something special, because you are special. I hope you'll like it.

Now fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride!

Love,
MiRii :)


The NCIS Experience

Chapter I

"OMG, I can't believe this…can you believe this? Because I cannot believe this!" I was bobbing up and down on the uncomfortable airplane seat as I stared out the window where the U.S. coastline had just appeared. It wasn't my first time in the country but I got overly excited every time. Next to me my friend Lena tried to get a good look down too, but due to my jumping she wasn't able to. She pushed me back down onto my seat and poked me in the side. "Owww!" I complained loudly, rubbing the sore spot.

"Stop blocking the view! I want to see this too, it's my first time to the States if you remember," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and giving me an accusing glare.

"But I've been here before, you see. It's like the States and I have history together." I gave her a sweet smile but she just rolled her eyes and climbed into my lap, forcing me to switch seats with her in order to sit comfortably. The steward was already giving us weird looks, but I ignored him. He hadn't been nice throughout the flight. Instead I just stared at my friend in disbelief. She was looking out the window with wondering eyes and a smile on her lips. After a while she turned to look at me with a serene expression. "Well, looks like the states cheated on you."

We looked at each other for a moment before starting to laugh. This was going to be the best holiday any 15-year-old would ever have.

- ... -

Lena followed me after we got off the plane, believing that I actually knew where I was going. I just followed a German couple in the hope that they were heading into the right direction. Travelling with my mom was a lot less stressful.
We got through to the luggage claim without any problems, though. But of course our suitcases had to be the last ones to be unloaded, so we didn't actually save any time.

Finally we walked out of the airport, inhaling deeply and smiling like idiots. We were actually in Washington DC, capital of the Unites States of America. Simultaneously we turned to face each other and high-fived.

"I cannot believe this!" I repeated.

"Yeah, you mentioned that before…" Lena replied sarcastically and started looking for the promised pick-up of our company. She was always the one being rational and that was good because otherwise I would just be jumping around and staring at everything and anyone. I was obsessed with America.

Just then a white van stopped in front of us and a middle-aged woman got out. She looked around for a little while before approaching us.

"Excuse me…?" she started with a heavy German accent. "Are you the two Austrian girls?"
We nodded and smiled, even though it was weird that she even bothered speaking English. "Okay, welcome to Washington. Did you have a good flight?"

Again I nodded. "Yup. No problems."
The woman scribbled something down on the notepad in her hands and smiled at us. We had won a trip to the US when we attended a competition at our school and everything was paid for by a German language assistance company that encouraged students aged 11 to 18 to attend language seminars and so on. A piece of cake for two English geniuses like Lena and I, not that I wanted to brag or anything.
With the permission of our parents nothing stood between us and the trip and as another positive side-effect we missed the last two weeks of school.

"I need you two to put this on," the woman handed us a recording device attached to some sort of belt, "this way we can check up on you every once in a while."

I cocked my head to the side and narrowed my eyes. "So you're going to spy on us for two weeks? Seriously?" Lena mirrored my glare, clearly making the woman uncomfortable. She laughed and scratched the back of her head.

"No…no, we can't just listen to your conversation, it is a simple voice recorder," her features hardened and she glared viciously back at us," So you better put that on and shut up, is that clear?" I gulped and nodded once while Lena stared at me in horror. The woman smiled sweetly. "I knew we would understand each other. Enjoy your trip." With that she left, leaving us standing there at the airport, without any idea how we should get to our hotel. I stuffed the voice recorder in my backpack.

Hesitantly I turned to face my friend. "That went well." She slapped my shoulder.

"Are you nuts? We should call the police or call our parents or…or...I DON'T KNOW BUT WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING!" In her panic she'd started to switch back into German. I covered her moth with my hand.

"Shhh! Calling that much attention to ourselves won't help us," I told her desperately, close to freaking out myself. Lena nodded and sighed before she lifted my hand off her mouth. I let my eyes wander around until I spotted a group of young men…pretty good-looking young men. I nudged Lena in the side and nodded in their direction. She turned her head and sighed.

"How can you think of boys in a situation like this?" she asked and dropped to her knees. I sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulder.

"You still got a lot to learn, young one. That over there? They're not boys. Those are men." I waggled my eyebrows and grinned. For a second she looked like she wanted to hit me real hard, but then she just laughed and bumped her shoulder against mine.

"You're so stupid sometimes, it hurts."

"That's why you love me," I said with a smile, but turned serious after a second. "We're going to have fun beside this weirdo company woman threatening us. I promise" She nodded, not that convinced.

"And let me guess, until then we're trying to get these 'men' over there to show us around. Because what guy wouldn't want to play pedophile just once in his life, right?" Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

"Ever heard of 'dirty shool girls'?" I asked with my best duh expression. Before she could say anything matching her disgusted expression there was a loud noise followed by another one. In a reflex I threw myself to the ground, pulling Lena with me. "Where those gun-shots?" I asked in a shaky whisper, slipping into German.

When we dared to look up again we saw the group of men rapidly talking to one of their friends, who lay on the ground with a hand clutched to his side while a red puddle began to form underneath him. I was shocked, but I looked around nonetheless, feeling that someone was watching me. And really, there was a suspicious-looking guy, wearing a hoodie and sunglasses. But then again, I was wearing a hoodie too and I definitely wasn't a threat. It might have been the shock of the situation, but I thought I saw him grin. Before I could take my thoughts any further chaos broke out and suddenly there were people everywhere. Screaming, crying, yelling and crowding around the shot guy. I had to pull myself together and try to find Lena, who had disappeared in the sea of unfamiliar faces.
The last thing I remembered was being pushed against a wall. Hard.

- ... -

When I woke up I was still at the airport exit and Lena was sitting next to me with a tired expression. All around us were people taking photos or taking care of injured people…or that's what I thought, until I realized that there wasn't even an ambulance. Instead I saw an elderly man sipping up a black plastic bag or something like that and a younger man that just stood there next to him and looked kind of out of place.

"Your friend finally woke up," a soft voice said from behind me and I quickly turned around. The movement made my head spin. The voice belonged to an exotic-looking woman. She was really pretty with her hair pulled back into a pony tail and dark eyes. Lena nodded.

"Yeah. Looks like it."

"My name is Ziva David. I work with NCIS," the woman introduced herself. "Your friend says your name is Miri…she would not tell us anything else." I shot a thankful expression in Lena's direction, but she seemed really shaken and so I took her hand to comfort her.

I gave Ziva my personal details like date of birth, full name and nationality while she wrote everything down on a note pad. When she asked me why we were there I thought about telling her about the weirdo-woman for a second, but then I decided not to and just told her that we didn't know where our hotel was. She wrote that down too and turned to leave, but I didn't want her to go and so I asked the first question that came to my mind in order to cause a distraction.

"What's NCIS?"

"It stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service," explained Ziva. "The man that was shot was with a group of Marines."

I nodded slowly. So the woman was a cop. Cool. My face must've lit up, because Lena gave me a questioning look. I just shrugged and started to whisper an explanation.

"Hey! Hey, Ziva!"
This was a new voice and it belonged to a man. I looked up from my hushed conversation with Lena to see a guy approaching us. He was pretty handsome. I started untangling my hair with my fingers in order to look…well not like I'd just been knocked unconscious. Good-looking guy smiled at us and I grinned right back, practically feeling Lena's eye-roll.

"He's like what? Forty?" she hissed under her breath and I turned to her. Of course I wasn't interested in him, but a little joke never hurt anyone, did it? I knew she knew that and was just playing along.

"Boss wants us to bring 'em in. They were closest to the scene…well apart from P.O. Sanders and his buddies," said good-looking-guy, nodding into our direction.

"Okay, Tony. This means that you will be driving with Ducky, yes?" Ziva said with a mischievous smile. Whatever joke it was that they had going on, I didn't get it.

Good-looking guy chuckled sarcastically and shook his head. "Oh no, Probette. I am Senior Field Agent, I'll drive those young ladies," he winked at us, "to the Navy Yard personally. We wouldn't want them to end up in the Potomac because of your mad ninja driving style, would we?"

Ziva pretended to give an annoyed eye-roll, but it was clear that she wasn't actually upset. "Whatever you say. But at least take McGee with you, last time he had to take the bus back," she said with a small smile before she left in the direction of the truck where the old man and his assistant had put what I assumed was the body of the guy who'd been shot. I shuddered as I realized that someone had died practically right in front of me.

"Miri? You coming?" asked Lena tiredly and I realized that she was leaving with good-looking guy.

- ... -

We sat in a dark Sedan, Lena and I in the back seat while Very Special Agent DiNozzo, as he had introduced himself, sat in the driver's seat. We were waiting for his colleague, Agent McGoo.

"So," Agent DiNozzo started awkwardly, "You guys are from Austria?"

"Yeah," said Lena absentmindedly.

"Say a word about The Sound of Music and I will kill you," I said in a threatening tone. Agent DiNozzo chuckled.

"I promise I won't. It's probably the only movie that had me wanting to cut off my ears and put duct tape over my eyes."

Lena nudged me in the side. "I'm beginning to really like this DiNozzo guy," she whispered in German, probably in the hope that he wouldn't understand. I smiled at her. It looked like she was becoming more relaxed again. We both chuckled.

"Hey! No German followed by giggles, I feel like I'm missing all the fun," Agent DiNozzo complained jokingly. He was obviously trying to lift the mood. Which wasn't really necessary, as we both already felt better. "Oh, Agent David loves The Sound of Music, by the way. Just so you know," he warned us with a stern look through the rear mirror.

Lena's eyebrows shot up and she grinned knowingly. "What is it with you and Ziva?" she asked nonchalantly, putting on an innocent expression when he half-turned in his seat to look at her.

"Excuse me?" he asked, his voice raised an octave. "I don't know how things are in Austria, but here you don't go around asking Federal agents about their co-workers."

We both knew that he wasn't seriously mad or felt disrespected. He was just being…entertaining. I decided to push the matter further.

"So you're telling me that there is nothing going on between the two of you?" I asked, pretending to be surprised.

Agent DiNozzo laughed uncomfortably and looked out the window. "C'mon McLate, where are you?" he whispered to himself and I thought he was referring to the Agent we were waiting for.

"Are we getting an answer or not?" Lena asked.

"We are good friends. I have her back, she has mine…but sometimes it's complicated...And I don't know why I'm even telling you this!" This conversation was making him uncomfortable. I smiled. There so was something between them.

Lena was going to say something more, but just at that moment the passenger door opened and a young man got in. He looked pretty geeky, even though I didn't know why.

"Ladies, may I introduce you to Special Agent McGoo aka Probie aka Elf Lord-"

"Aka this is not funny, Tony," the younger agent interrupted and turned to face us. He inhaled as if he was going to say something, but then hesitated and took a look at his iPhone. "Mein N-Name ist Tim McGee. Wie geht es...Ihnen?" he stuttered.

„Shut it, McLederhosen, they speak English better than you do," teased Agent DiNozzo. Lena was the first to start laughing then and I joined in when I saw Agent McGee's facial expression.

"Oh," he whispered, embarrassed.

"Hi, my name's Lena," said Lena and smiled kindly. Agent McGee smiled back.

"And I'm Miri," I said, waving enthusiastically.

Agent McGee turned back to look at his colleague when the car started moving. "Abby's gonna love them," he said with a chuckle.

I didn't know who that Abby-person was, but I was definitely looking forward to meeting more people. Maybe these were going to be awesome holidays after all.


Next chapter: Introductions

The Austrians meet the world's happiest Goth, an old guy with a coffee addiction and an even older guy who talks to dead people...

And what the hell does Tiva stand for?