Hello again! It's a snow day, I have no homework (for once) and my head has inflated every since you wonderful people have reviewed/alerted/favorited this story in it's first chapter! Thank you, all!
Hopefully you shall enjoy this chapter as you apparently did the last!
The next day, I found myself sitting in class, seemingly unaltered by the events which had just recently happened. We had already had a moment of silence; in which everybody respectfully stayed…quiet. I jotted down notes from the lecture, certain equations, and whatever else our professor was rambling about. Sighing, I came to realize maybe I was altered by what had happened. It was frightening, in fact, that a murder happened so close to what I considered my home.
What happened to her wasn't fair and it wasn't right and it made me angry. It made me sad, and I was certainly confused. Was it possible that she did have enemies? That somebody wanted her dead? And for what reason? I figured I may as well call the number the man…Gibbs, yes, that was his name, gave me. I'd ask if I could be kept updated, I'd ask to be told when something happened: because nobody else seemed to give a damn.
Maybe they did, and didn't want to show it. Maybe they did, and they were already over it. Maybe they did give a damn, and they just wanted to get on with their day.
"And so, that concludes our lesson," the professor ended with. "By the way, students: next week, you will pair up with your scientist. So study up, and impress them! Those who paid for their experience, come up and get your partner's name and work address. Class dismissed."
I walked up, among ten other students, and was told my partner's name: "Abby Sciuto."
The address looked familiar, but I thought nothing of it when I shoved the slip of paper into my pocket.
Today was the day. I was going to meet Abby Sciuto, whoever she was, and work as her assistant for a few weeks. Today, I was channeling my confident punk rock look. I used hair spray in my hair one more time, before I figured my tresses had enough. I frowned. I wasn't confident at all. My abilities probably weren't that great, and I'd probably get laughed at for being so incompetent. Don't think like that. You're an open slate.
I put a pair of spandex beneath my skirt, and began to leave the door yet again. "Hey, Tina?"
"Mmf," was the response from the pillow.
"I'm gonna be out for some time. Idunno when I'll be back."
"Okay."
I glanced over to the mini-fridge. "Don't drink all my Pepsi, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. See you, Julia."
"Bye," and with that, I left with the dorm's key around my neck.
I braced myself for the cold as I was nearing outdoors, but it didn't do me any good. It should have been snowing, I figured, with how cold it was. I zipped up my sweatshirt all the way to the top, and further. I had a hard time undoing the lock on my bicycle as I was dancing around, trying to keep warm. Finally, the lock was free! Hopping on the freezing bicycle seat, I was off on my way. The air stung like a thousand cold needles, but I wasn't one to complain.
That was a lie, by the way.
It was a painstaking fifteen minute travel to the building, and when I arrived, I groaned. The building I just arrived at? It was the building I had come to when my lab partner died. I tied my bicycle up to a rack, and grabbed my slip of paper. I figured with such a high confidential area, I'd need some sort of reason to get inside the building.
The receptionist, when I walked in, looked at me with a warm smile and asked, "Do you need anything, sweetie?"
Assuming that she either thought I had lost someone very close to me or I was a lost tourist in the D.C. area, I replied, "Um…yeah," I brought out my slip for her to see, "I'm from the University of Maryland, and I signed up to work with an experienced scientist. Abby…Sciuto."
"Oh, of course. If you go down that hallway, and make a left, an elevator will be there. You'll want to go to the second floor."
"Alright, thanks."
I followed her directions. Before I could make it halfway down the hallway, I was stopped by what looked to be guards, demanding the reason why I was here. I explained to them, showed them my official slip of paper, and they nodded. At first, I thought I could go through, which they promptly halted me again. I apologized, and was very confused for a moment, before they asked me to spread my limbs so they could frisk me.
I would have liked it if it was willing, maybe. ...Maybe. Not really.
Everything in this place was so snazzy and high tech, I noticed, now that I was here because I wanted to be. As I walked into the room, I was a little lost. I was trying to locate the team that I had seen yesterday, but they happened to find me first.
"Hey, Julia," the older man greeted me. "Gibbs. Remember me?"
"How can I not?" I tried to cover myself.
"This is the team you'll be assisting in general: Tony, senior field agent-" The man he directed to waved at me, "Tim-"
"Also known as Probie, McGeek, and Elf Lord," Tony interjected.
"Really, Tony?" Elf Lord asked, visibly disgruntled.
"Shut it, you two," Gibbs ordered.
And the two shut up. That man must really hold power over them.
"And," Gibbs finished, "Ziva."
"How do you do?" She asked with an accent.
"I'm…nervous, honestly. Thanks. You?"
"Decent," was her response.
Gibbs looked at me. "Follow me. I'll give you a not so grand tour."
I had to smile. I think. Was that a good sign or a bad one? "Alright."
He led me to a room, "This is the interrogation room. One side, we interrogate, the other, agents listen in and view what's going on through a one way mirror."
"That's pretty cool."
"It would be, if we weren't in there so often."
"Touche."
He looked at me again, with what I thought was going to be his signature look.
We stepped into an elevator after walking a few more steps. Back down to the first floor, I assumed. When we stepped out, it was a string of hallways that I hadn't seen.
Probably sensing my question, he explained, "This section of the first floor is confidential."
"Ah." As the temperature began to drop significantly, I tried to wrap myself in my sweatshirt even more.
"Over here," he motioned to the automatic doors, while walking in, "is the autopsy room. This is Ducky," he gestured to the older man, "and Palmer," the younger man waved. "This is Julia."
"Hello, Julia. What brings you to NCIS?"
"I'm in a forensic science class at NYU. I'm thinking of declaring it as my major, so I'm going to be helping Abby Sciuto out for a month or so."
"I'm sure you'll enjoy working with Abigail as well as working here. As rough as it may seem, it's a nice place."
"It seems like it. The people so far have been really kind." I tried not to look at the body on the table. It wasn't so much that the body was opened in a Y-incision, as procedure, but that I was afraid it was my lab partner.
"You should probably be on your way to helping Abigail. I'm sure I'll see you soon."
"I hope so," I smiled. "Bye Ducky, bye Palmer." As we left the room, I queried Gibbs about Ducky's name.
He laughed. "His real surname is Mallard."
"That would explain it," I chuckled. For a place filled with crimes, deaths and unsolved mysteries, it seemed to be pretty optimistic.
"Last but not least, the grand finale: Abby's lab."
"Gibbs! I ran some calculations and it turns out that the shooter shot her from quite a distance away—maybe one hundred yards. He was standing on something—or he is very tall, considering the angle of depression." A woman in a white lab coat and gothic attire came prancing toward him.
"Thanks, Abs. I have someone for you to meet. This is Julia. She'll be your intern for a while."
I stuck my hand out for her to shake, and she gave me a funny look. "Has Gibbs already gotten to you?"
"It's possible," I laughed as she shook my hand.
"So, I'm sure you've heard of what we're working on?"
"A little too much, but yeah," I tried to keep a straight face.
"Bye, Gibbs," she said. "You have your job to do, and we have ours. So, what're you most comfortable with?" Abby asked me.
"With forensics? I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at most of the things we've learned, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am," I laughed.
"Well, okay! I'll teach you the tricks of the trade without freaking you out too much." She stopped to grab me a white lab coat. "I like your choice in outfits, too."
"Thanks. I have no clue how you can even walk in those."
Devilishly, she smiled, "You get used to it. C'mon, we have a case to crack!"
There you have it. The second installment.
Unfortunately, when school starts up, updates will not happen every day, haha. Oh...but just you wait until the summer. Mm-hmm. That's what I thought.
Review, por favor?
-Amehhh
