NCIS Headquarters - present time
"Can someone please tell me why we are here this late, on a Friday night?" Tony said glaring at McGee who was sitting at Gibbs' desk. Ziva was sitting at her desk, going through a bunch of papers just like Tony was. They all knew the answer to the question Tony had just asked and simply chose to ignore it. Tony looked down at the stack of papers in front of him, which seemed to never get smaller. "Great…" he mumbled as he returned his attention to the papers continued reading, just like he had done the last couple of hours.
Tim watched as both his co-workers were going through the witness statements, which was actually the reason why they were at the office at this hour. They were investigating a bank robbery that had taken place a couple of days ago. A marine had been shot and from what they could tell it hadn't been an accident, instead he might have been an intended target. A whole bunch of witness statement had been collected and now needed to be read as soon as possible so the trail wouldn't get cold.
So far they had read half of the statements and it didn't help that Gibbs' computer had given up. Now McGee had to fix that before he could get back to the case, the problem was that he didn't find anything wrong. Gibbs had complained that it wasn't working and after hitting the screen a few times, he had told McGee to fix it and then told them he was going out for coffee. Preferably he could "fix" it before Gibbs got back from his coffee run. It was just after midnight but the man still had to have coffee. It worked fine when he restarted it and everything seemed fine and he wasn't in the mood to look any deeper. Maybe Gibbs accidentally pressed a button or forgot that he shut it off... At least that was the best explanation McGee could think of.
It was raining outside and Gibbs hadn't bothered bringing an umbrella. A little rain couldn't hurt him. He waved to the guard at the gate to the parking lot. Phil, as his name was, waved back and let Gibbs through. Gibbs parked the car and turned off the engine. He sat for a moment and stared out to the darkness outside. Something didn't feel right; it hadn't felt right for a while now. Something was wrong and he couldn't put his finger on what. It was as if he felt he was being followed but there were reasonable explanation of why he would be. He decided that it was best not to think of this anymore, if something were to come up he would simply deal with it then.
It was late and he was tired. It would probably be best for everybody to go home and get some sleep. The witness statements could wait until the morning, or at least he told himself that. But what use would he have with a team where everybody was running on empty tanks. This was the wisest decision. There was no reason for him to sit in his car and ponder any longer, not while his team was working their hardest on catching a killer. He grabbed his coffee and got out of the car
The doors to the elevator opened and he stepped in. It was dead quiet in the building. Everyone had gone home for the day, everyone except for themselves and a few security guards. He knew Ducky and Palmer had been working late these last days since they had been very busy. There had been an unusual amount of bodies down at autopsy, which was unfortunate. There was nothing to do about it now though. There was just too much death.
The elevator reached the destined floor and he got out and made his way to the bullpen. He stopped just behind Ziva's desk to see if anyone would notice his presence. None of his teammates did but and after a minute or so McGee looked up from the screen and saw Gibbs standing there drinking his coffee.
"Uhm boss… When did you get back?" Now Tony and Ziva lifted their heads.
"Just a few minutes ago. Have you found anything? He looked at Tony and Ziva.
"Nothing of importance, but we got a few matching descriptions of the perps so we'll see if there's enough to put out a BOLO." Tony said and handed Gibbs a paper of the gathered information.
"Okay, this is good for now. Go home and get some sleep, we'll continue with this the first thing in the morning"
They were all reluctant to the idea of leaving but if Gibbs told them to do something, they should probably do it. McGee hadn't found the problem on Gibbs' computer since it had been working fine ever since he sat down in front of it. He would look into it tomorrow if it caused any more problems but for now it wasn't worth the time or effort.
"We'll see you tomorrow, Boss… Uhm I mean later today…" McGee walked over to his own desk and grabbed his jacket and his bag. He checked his left pocket to make sure his car keys were still there, just like he always did before heading home. There had been too many occasions where the keys had still been in his desk drawer when he got to his car and he had learned his lesson. The problem now was that the keys weren't in his left pocket, not in any of his pockets.
"Damn it..! Where could I have put them this time?"
"You lost something, McGee?" Ziva walked over to his desk.
"Yeah my car keys, I could swear I put them in my pocket earlier"
"Hey probie, maybe you should try and in-vest-igate. Use that big probie-brain of yours and do some real detective work for once" although his intention wasn't to be rude, Tony himself felt like what he said had been a tad too harsh. He gave Tim a light smile to show that he was just kidding. McGee got the hint and although he couldn't hide the confused look on his face, he quickly turned to Ziva and changed the subject.
Tony had already gone to the elevator while McGee and Ziva were discussing possible locations of where his keys could be. He was eager to get home and didn't have time to say good night, they would see each other in a few hours anyway. He looked at his watch to see if there was any chance he would get to sleep for as many hours as he needed. It was a quarter to one now. He was glad that Gibbs had sent them home because even though he was used to working late and really pushing himself; this was not the night. He was exhausted, felt like crap and was definitely not in the mood for anything. All he wanted was to get home as fast as he could and get some sleep.
The worst of the rain had worn off and it was only drizzling when he walked over the parking lot toward his car. "Damn it, where's the keys" he mumbled to himself as he went through every pocket he had. He found his car keys in his backpack, which was not the usual place where he put his keys. He also found something that did not belong there, McGee's keys. "Oh… right" he thought and remembered why they were even there. When they had been at the crime scene, it was required by them to wear hazard suits. An unknown substance had been released inside the vault and Gibbs sent in Tony and McGee to get a look of the situation. Both Tony and McGee had emptied their pockets, since a phone, a wallet, keys and chewing gum didn't exactly come to use when wearing one of those suits. They had put everything in Tony's backpack because it had been nearby and McGee must have forgotten to take his keys.
Tony didn't feel like walking back into the building and neither waiting for him to come out. He sent a quick text to McGee telling him about the keys and that he would leave them to the guard at the gate. It would only take McGee two extra minutes or something like that to go over there and get them. Tony told Phil about the keys as he handed them over. Friendly Phil, as Tony had come to call him, was keen to keep the conversation going. Poor guy probably felt lonely. Phil began to talk and after a short moment Tony interrupted him in the middle of a sentence. "Hey, you know I just remembered I really need to get home and feed Kate. Another time Phil, although I bet McGee would love to have a chat when he gets here". "Oh right, Kate. Who is that again, your cat or something?" Phil asked a bit confused. Tony smiled, "Yeah, or something" and then he drove off. He was dead tired as he entered his apartment. He didn't bother taking his clothes off before he lied down on his bed, on top of covers and everything and he shut his eyes and exited consciousness.
Tony was awoken by the vibration of his phone. Someone was calling him. Oh, hell… I didn't oversleep, did I? He thought. Gibbs had told them to be back at the office at 09:30, so it seemed unlikely to him that he would have slept for that long. He still felt like he had been hit by a car. It was Gibbs who was calling him, and the time was 05:30. He had only been asleep for a few hours.
"Yeah, boss?"
"I need you to be at the office at 07:00 instead"
"Sure, eh…. No problem. Is there any particular reason? I mean, like you said, the case can wait a couple of hours" Tony would of course do as he was told but too little sleep made him a bit cranky.
"I'll tell you when you get here" Gibbs answered calmly.
"Uhu, copy that. See ya soon" Tony said and hung up.
Please tell me what you think! The next chapter will pick up where chapter one left off!
