A Lost Afternoon
It had been one of the hottest summers that Ducky could remember in Washington DC. It had been down to the Southern winds blowing hot from the Gulf of Mexico. Dust storms throughout the Mid-west. The rain almost non-existent, except for quick downpours that dried up almost as quickly as the rains had come down. A thundery rumble was heard, in the distance, or was it Tony's stomach. Ziva glowed, Tim perspired and Tony sweated.
"Carrying excess baggage DiNozzo," as one Special Agent Gibbs coolly strode into the bullpen, coffee in hand, granted he had discarded his jacket and was wearing a Fred Perry style shirt, "You need to be more lean, like McGee."
"Gibbs, how do you stay so cool, and refreshed?" Ziva asked.
"All in the mind," as he sat at his desk and turned his computer on, "We got any cases yet? You know deaths in the desert, due to dehydration and heatstroke?"
"Mirages….the thought of the cool oasisisis….or is it oasii…..a cool Coors would be nice." Tony now added.
"In your dreams Tony" Ziva replied
"…and it is oases." Tim answered.
"Whatever…I could do with a shower…..either rain or in the changing rooms. Boss can I?"
"Nope." Gibbs replied.
"Think I'll go at autopsy then and see how Duckman and Autopsy Gremlin are. Bet they're cool." As he got up and headed for the elevator.
-oOo-
Dr Mallard and Jimmy were, for once, glad they worked in the bowels, of the building. Jimmy always loved that expression, the bowels. "Quite, Mr Palmer." Ducky would answer. But no this time they could open a drawer. Jimmy had started, with the permission of Dr Mallard, to wear just his boxers under his gown. Ducky he had opted for shorts. Not short shorts, but an old pair of Army shorts, Bermuda shorts.
"Did I tell you it reminds me of days of the Raj. The Indian Raj, not that I was there, but I have pictures of my father. I on the other hand wore them in Aden. In those days I had the legs and the knees." Ducky continued. "But I must say…."
"What must you say Ducky?" as Tony walked through the door and into the cool, well it was cooler than the bullpen. "Wow, does the Director know?" he asked looking at the butt of Jimmy.
"Since he does not come down here very often, and I heard he was going to Los Angeles, for a case that Callen was working on, I don't envisage Director Vance to make a grand entrance. Now, what do we owe this visitation?"
"Just wondered how you two were that was all. Think I'll ask Gibbs if we can wear shorts, 'specially if the Director is away." Tony answered, now turning and walking away.
"You could always wear a kilt Anthony, they are cool in summer and warm in winter." Ducky shouted.
"Yeah, Agent DiNozzo, you could go commando and be a true Scotchman." Jimmy added.
"Mr Palmer it is a Scot, not a Scotchman, or if you would like a Scots Man." as he returned to the body that was on the slab.
Tony walked away, wondering.
-oOo-
"Gibbs," Tony ventured, now looking at his superior, who was staring at a dead case-file and prodding it, to see if it would jump into life.
"What DiNozzo?" as the file lay limp in the heat.
"Duckman is wearing Bermuda shorts, and Jimmy is in his boxers, and I was wondering….."he started to say.
"Jimmy in boxers, I must go and see." Ziva started to say as she rose from her seat.
"Sit…..no-one is going anywhere and no-one is going to wear boxers, and no-one is going to wear shorts." Gibbs shouted.
They didn't see Dr Mallard and Jimmy enter the bullpen.
"I don't see why not…..especially Bermudas. They were of course started there, by the British Army for tropical and desert climates. And have become part of the Uniform, in fact the Royal Navy, still do have them as part of the uniform."
"Always knew there was a want about the British." Gibbs smiled looking at Ducky.
"A want?" Ziva enquired, a puzzled look on her face.
"A want, as in a mental deficiency, a weakness of intellect, adjective wantin', as in lacking brains." Tim answered, "Do you not know any of Ducky's language."
"McGee, I have just learnt Tony, and now I have to learn Ducky? English is a very strange language." She now answered.
"No my dear, on Royal Navy ships, visiting warm waters, officers and men always wear white shorts, white knee length socks and white laced shoes. We look quite….."
"Camp?" Tony added.
"But Bermuda, Dr Mallard, it is British and I always liked the idea of the Bermuda Triangle. The mystery, of the area. Bermuda….Florida ….and Puerto Rico." Jimmy began to say pulling up a chair and sitting down.
"Make yourself at home," Gibbs said, now looking at Jim.
"Thank you Agent Gibbs I will, but the Bermuda Triangle…it is full of mystery, intrigue, murder, and….."
"The unknown, and vivid imaginations." Tim answered.
"But have you never wondered why things disappear….or found abandoned?" Jimmy began to say.
"Abandoned, yes, the Mary Celeste, bit like the Chimera, a baa baa black ship…..found floating lifeless in the Triangle, the crew mysteriously evaporated into thin air…the food still on the table." Tony replied his eyes glazing over. "Yes the Bermuda Triangle. Puerto Ricobeen to one corner of it, way back when Kate was alive, I was sent to get a sword and brought her back the most fetching two piece." He continued smiling.
"Yes Anthony, I remember her having a hissy fit when she showed me, honestly I don't think a bikini bottom and matching hat, constitutes as a two piece." Dr Mallard answered, "But the Mary Celeste wasn't quite found within the Triangle, on the other hand there is at the heart, the Sargasso Sea."
"But Duks, it's only seaweed, and Tony the Mary Celeste was 1872." Gibbs replied.
"True Agent Gibbs, but it is the breeding ground for the North American and European eel." Jimmy added beginning to get in on the act.
"You are all missing something very simple and scientific here." Tim began to say, "The Nares Abyssal Plain is there. They say underwater volcanoes, and of course how can you forget, methane."
"Methane?" Ziva questioned shaking her head.
"Methane, as in clouds of gas, bubbling up through the sea. It has been known that some bursts can literally blow a ship out the sea." Tim replied.
"Atlantis….the Atlantic is called after the Lost City." Jimmy added, "Edgar Cayce, said that Atlantis had been situated near the Bermuda island of Bimini. He believed that the Atlanteans possessed remarkable technologies, including supremely powerful fire-crystals which they harnessed for energy."
"Jim, you been on the surgical spirit?" Gibbs asked smiling.
"Gibbs, how can we not forget, the connection between the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Pyramids of Mexico and of Mesopotamia. Do you not think that these people originated from the same place?" Ziva added.
"Hey, I don't believe in coincidences." Jethro laughed.
"But Jethro, if you take what Mr Palmer said as fact….a disaster of fire-crystals, which happened to go out of control, a meltdown. I mean have you thought of nuclear power. If they are still intermittently active beneath the ocean waves, these damaged fire-crystals could send out energy fields that interfere with passing ships and aircraft...accounting for the Bermuda Triangle." Ducky continued.
"Yes, and Cayce prophesied that "elements of Atlantis would rise in 1968 and 1969". The Bimini Wall or Road was discovered off the coast of Bimini in 1968." Jim concluded.
"Okay, okay, you'll be telling me next that the supposed lights and fog are natural too." Gibbs asked.
"Jethro do you have to be so sceptical, what if I told you of the case of the 1st Queen Elizabeth, 1967, mother was on it, and she and others saw a plane about 100yards away disappear into thin air."
"Mirage Duks, an image of a distant object, inverted or distorted, caused by atmospheric refraction by hot air. Problem solved." Gibbs replied.
"But the QE2, it also had a problem there, in fact two, April 1974 the Liner was sailing through the Triangle when all the boilers suddenly stopped working properly. There was a huge electrical and mechanical failure and a local coast guard boat following the boat said that it completely disappeared from the radar during the time." Dr Mallard continued.
"And the second Ducks?" Gibbs questioned.
"New Year's Eve 2005…electrical failure again…." Ducky answered.
"I think, I would have put it back into dry dock for a complete over-hall." Gibbs now replied.
"But…. going back to the lightning, the thunder and general pandemonium of the area." Jimmy began again, "What about the clouds, the ones that suck planes in."
"Electrified Cumulonimbus clouds, charged particles, magnetic fog, the cold and warm water of the gulf stream and the north Atlantic drift, solar flares magnifying the atmosphere, spiraling clouds into a vortex, a worm hole going in one side and not coming out the other." Tim added smiling, "I'm just saying from a purely physics perspective."
"And talking about spouts," Tony began to say, "Water spouts and giant squids, the tentacles closing round the warm female waist pulling her to the mouth of the being, devouring the body as…"
"You would, a piece of pastrami," Ziva laughed.
"Oi!" Gibbs shouted," Is this not getting a little out of hand? I was trying to resuscitate this old case file, Ziva was writing e-mails, Elf-lord was playing some cyber game and Tony was just melting…" he didn't finish as the air outside began to rumble, the clouds forming dark over the city.
"Black clouds of Mordor, spring to mind." Tim whispered.
"I was thinking more Independence Day…or even…." Tony started to say now looking out the window.
A crack of thunder resounded, as the flash of lightening hit a lightening staff on one of the ships in the Navy Yard. They listened as rain began to fall, the hard rain. It jumped off the streets and was soon running down the gutters in tiny streams, increasing to rivers.
"Well that cleans my car then." Tony concluded, "And I suppose it's home time, since we are doing nothing.," now gathering his belongings and heading for the elevator. The team followed, but a cool breeze escaped from the elevator, and as it moved through the bullpen, it ruffled the leaves of the case-file. It opened on the page where the case was of two sailors who had been out sailing one summer day off Puerto Rico, and how the boat had sailed back to the harbour empty….