Chapter Two: Hold Your Ponies
They arrived in the bullpen twenty minutes later. Ziva and McGee were both seated at their desks, looking through files. When McGee saw Gibbs, he leapt from his seat and began chattering away: "Boss, got the data from the rest of the Museum employees, we've got one of them here because his alibi didn't check out…"
Ziva interrupted. "Hold your ponies, Timothy."
McGee stopped talking and looked at her. Tony, coming up behind McGee, helped out: "She means hold your horses, Probie."
"Oh," McGee said, and said nothing else.
"Ziva, will you take Mrs. Rusby to see Ducky? What's the name of the guy we have here?" Gibbs wanted to know.
"His name is Sergeant Walter Paulson, boss," McGee said.
"Okay. I'll go take care of him. You heard me, Agent David," Gibbs said, and disappeared down the hall.
Susan turned to the girl sitting behind her in the wheelchair. "Ariel, please be good."
The girl nodded. "Okay."
Once her mother had disappeared with Gibbs, she said, "So, what do you guys do for fun around here?"
McGee raised his eyes from his file to take in the girl. He saw all of her bandages and her quizzical face. He couldn't say anything for a moment, so she filled the gap, "Epidermolysis bullosa."
"Oh," he said.
"You're allowed to stare," she said. "I don't mind being different… not as long as you tell me what you do for fun."
"Well…" McGee said, thinking. "Do you like Caf-Pows?"
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