Cinn: Sorry for the delay, but things kept coming up which prevented me from finishing this chapter. Hopefully it was worth it.


"I really hate priority flights." Tony grumbled, again. They had just arrived in England, and it was still dark, it was one in the morning. They were picking up their bags, when a man in a smart suit greeted them.

"Welcome." He stated, Ziva and Gibbs shared a look, they knew the politeness was somewhat faked. "James Lester, Home Office, I'm in charge. We've got you a couple of rooms in a hotel not far from here to stay in. I'll assume you'd like to go there now?" He finished, and whilst it was structured as a suggestion, it very definitely wasn't, and so they stored the bags in the cars and then climbed in themselves and were shown to their current accommodation

Lester, Gibbs and McGee were in one car, Ducky, Ziva and Tony the other, each with a driver. "So, what have we got?" Gibbs asked, finding his paper-pad and pen out of his pocket. He'd got the most sleep on the plane, the other's hadn't even tried, and so was the most awake and most prepared.

"Well, that's why you're here." Lester replied. "Your body, your rules. We'll provide you with facilities for autopsy and forensics, and my scientists have experience in those areas, however we do not have crime scenes or investigations. Our research does not involve having to chase down a murderer and so we don't need as many rules."

"We'll need to see what you already have, and the crime scene as soon as possible."

"My team start at eight o'clock." Lester explained. "I must admit we weren't expecting you this soon, so they are all in bed. And you are not to go near the crime scene without them."

"You said yourself that they don't have the experience, so why do we need to wait for them?" Gibbs asked.

"Our site." Lester replied calmly. "And I would have assumed you'd like a chance to get some sleep." He added.

Gibbs nodded once, deciding that he could get McGee to look up where the nearest coffee shop was in the morning. McGee could do that quickly, and it would mean not having to ask this man where it was. They arrived at the hotel not long after, and it was quite obviously neat but cheap. The typical kind of lodging for visits of their kind.

"The cars will pick you up at half seven." Lester stated, and pulled out a card with numbers on it. "If you need them. You'll meet the team when you arrive, until then, I'll say good night." He added, with a quick smile, and headed out of the door again.

Tony dropped his bag on the floor. McGee reappeared in the doorway. "Two rooms then, for once." He stated. "Same size, and same number of beds." He added.

"We clearly got the family room." Ziva commented, following him through the lockable door between the two rooms.

"I call whichever room Ziva's not in." Tony stated.

"That works for me." Ziva agreed. Gibbs and Ducky caught each others eye, a secret smile flashing between the two long-time friends. It was like going on holiday with awkward children. Their solution was to simply claim their preferred, and therefore best, beds. The other three could figure it out themselves, and they knew if they didn't do it quickly then they'd be in for one hell of a Gibbs' wake-up call.

In the morning Jenny was the first one in the ARC, by half seven she was already on the phone and chasing up emails about the activity in the dock. She was not happy that they had taken a whole night to even bother to check, which meant that she was only just finding out now that the navy officer had been with a ship which was out of dock by a whole night. Which meant that she had to spend half an hour on the phone trying to get hold of someone with enough authority to order the ship to turn around.

She was still on the phone and getting more and more frustrated by the time Lester arrived with the NCIS team in tow. She smiled a greeting as she was still on hold. The rest of the team had drifted in at various points, and were hanging around the OPs area, either getting on with work, such as Connor, or just chatting waiting for their tasks for the day, such as Becker and Abby.

"Now that everyone's here..." Lester stated, as everyone wandered over as they saw him and their visitors, then realised someone was missing. "Where's Dr Page?" He asked just as the doors opened and Sarah half tumbled through them.

"Sorry." She said breathlessly. "Traffic's a nightmare." She added by way of explanation.

"As I was saying." Lester continued, pretending to have been in the middle of something, though it was clear from the looks Sarah exchanged with Becker and Abby that she knew she'd missed nothing. "These are our guests from NCIS." He explained. "Team leader Special Agent Gibbs, Medical Examiner Dr Mallard-" As Gibbs nodded at his name

"Ducky." Ducky interrupted

"Special Agents McGee and DiNozzo." DiNozzo looked all set to correct Lester about the order of names, but decided against it. McGee just smiled in a friendly way. "And Officer David." He added. Ziva smiled as well. "They have the skills and it's their body, so you do what they tell you with regards to that."

"Don't you trust us?" Connor muttered. Sarah and Abby both hid laughs behind coughs of their hands. Cutter and Becker exchanged an amused look. Jenny shook her head hopelessly as she carried on waiting for them to take her off hold.

Lester simply scowled at Connor. "That is Connor Temple, our geek." Lester simply stated. "This is team leader Professor Nick Cutter, head of Security is Captain Becker. Our researchers Dr Sarah Page and Abby Maitland, PR woman Jenny Lewis." They all smiled and vaguely waved in turn. Jenny smiled as her name was called just as the people finally took her off hold, so she took a step away to get them organised.

"So, what do we need?" Cutter asked, as Lester stepped away to head up to his office. Which launched the NCIS team into a quick discussion about what they needed to take which they hadn't brought with them.

Suddenly Jenny snapped her phone shut and ran up the ramp after Lester. "James." She called, and he stopped. "We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"A navy ship left the dock yesterday before we arrived but after the anomaly opened." Jenny explained. "I don't have the authority to recall it or for anyone to recognise that I might have reasons for wanting it sent back."

"I'll see what I can do." Lester decided. "Now go. I don't want them finding out anything more than they need to know."

Jenny nodded, and hurried back down the ramp. "Everything alright?" Connor asked as she joined them.

"Yeah." She agreed. "Trying to recall a ship isn't as easy as it sounds." She explained.

"Why do you want to recall a ship?" Gibbs asked.

Everyone turned to Jenny, and she internally cursed, this was the one drawback to being the PR person, she was the one expected to lie and cover their tracks, and quickly. "We need to correctly ascertain what was going on in the docks at the time your navy officer died. That includes recalling any ships that were docked at that time." She explained calmly. Though she was a good liar, even if she thought so herself.

Gibbs carried on looking at her suspiciously, so she just held the gaze and raised a curious eyebrow when he didn't look away. "Alright then, do we get to see our crime scene?"

"Our crime scene, your body." Jenny corrected with a smile, and led the way out and towards the cars.

"I think we might just have found the British agency that pisses Gibbs off as much as the FBI..." Tony muttered to McGee and Ziva.

"Nah, we don't have Fornell here." McGee replied with a grin.

The ARC team chose not to ask who or what Fornell was. They simply decided that they'd be polite and friendly and hope that this wasn't going to involve creatures. Though they had a strong feeling from the state of the body they'd found that it almost definitely would. Unless they could pass it off as a mad dog... Which Connor had only suggested as a joke.

They arrived at the docks to be greeted by a couple of Becker's soldiers, who insisted on checking their IDs, and if Connor didn't know any better he'd have sworn he saw an approvingly proud look on Becker's face as they did. But he figured it was best not to wind Becker up, especially whilst they had visitors. The thought then struck him that that was a very sibling or household like attitude to have.

"Why the soldiers?" Ziva asked.

"To keep people out of the crime scene." Becker explained casually.

"Police too much hassle?" Tony asked with a grin, which was wiped off his face from the look Jenny gave him. He had never met a woman who could intimidate him, unless they were a lawyer, but then he recalled that this woman was in PR, which was worse than being a lawyer. However the other two girls, he could have fun here, he decided. Bit of friendly flirting just to shake things up.

When they arrived at the body the entire ARC team thought that it didn't get any prettier, and the NCIS team were all a bit taken aback and somewhat disgusted. "Oh now, what have we here?" Ducky asked.

"What did you touch?" Gibbs asked, as Ducky put down his bag next to the body and set to work, as Tony set to sketching, Ziva photographing Ducky's exploration of the body, and McGee photographing the crime scene, as the ARC team waited for some instructions or tasks for them to be getting on with.

"Captain Becker here recognised the uniform, so we searched for the dog tags." Cutter explained. "I had gloves on and Abby photographed it." He paused. "His name was Kurt J Miller, blood type AB positive, and a christian." Cutter explained, reciting the dog tags.

Gibbs nodded. "What have we got Duck?" He asked, only taking his eyes off the team to write the name down in his notebook.

"A mauled navy lieutenant" Ducky replied, with a liver probe. "Died around the same time as he was discovered." He added, sounding a little surprised.

"Mauled by what?" Gibbs asked.

"No idea." Ducky replied. "We're on a London Dock, not at a zoo... Unless any thing's escaped?" He asked, looking up at the ARC staff. What did that stand for?

"Nothing's been reported." Jenny stated, "But that doesn't mean it hasn't." she added, as her phone rang. "Excuse me." She added, turning her back to answer Lester's call. He did not sound happy, from the sounds of it he'd been having a lengthy argument with the director of NCIS. It also sounded like there had been a bit of a compromise and that they were going with an escaped tiger story. Mainly as Lester had needed to explain that the creature they thought was responsible was on that ship. And Lester had not wanted to say the words prehistoric creature, so zoo creature had worked better. Tiger must have been the first one that popped into his mind. "Well that was good timing." Jenny stated, turning back to the group again. "There has been an escaped tiger from a local zoo." She explained. "You said there was nothing when you searched the area yesterday?" She added, looking at Becker.

Becker feigned some vague surprise. "Nothing." He confirmed.

Jenny nodded. "Then it either left the docks and is running around London, or it got onto that ship." She decided, tapping her phone against her chin as she thought. "Lester's already notified the police to be on the look out."

"BOLO on a tiger, that's a new one." Tony joked with a smile, when everyone just raised an eyebrow at him as if they weren't amused, he just turned back to the sketching.

"Does he always say things like that?" Cutter asked Gibbs quietly.

"Not all the time." Gibbs replied calmly.

"Yeah, those oh so rare moments where I get amnesia from a strike to the back of the head..." Tony muttered under his breath.

The ARC team shared a confused look whilst McGee and Ziva shared a knowing smile and carried on with their work. They didn't find anything else, except one pair of scratch marks that further corroborated the tiger theory. At which point Ducky decided that he'd learnt all he could from the environment the body was discovered in. "Let's get him home, there's nothing else here." He decided, getting the body bag. "This is easier with Mr Palmer around." He muttered.

"Abby, you can help." Jenny murmured, Abby had done numerous creature autopsies, so would be least bothered by the gore, and would know best about what to do. Abby nodded in agreement, and wandered over to Ducky.

"Would you like a hand?" She asked.

Ducky looked up, at the strange girl who'd just offered a hand. He smiled. "Why yes, but do you know what to do?"

Abby smiled. "I'm a fast learner." She added.

"She's got veterinary experience." Jenny stated. "She'll be able to provide some help." Her tone suggested that no one should ask why Abby had veterinary experience. Though Gibbs made a note of it, he would quite like to know what was really going on. His gut was telling him something was being swept away from their sight, shame they were being cooperative enough to prevent him from being able to overrule them.

Jenny looked around, trying to calm down. She could tell that Gibbs did not trust them, and if he had his way he'd dig into their work. She had a feeling he wouldn't care too much about what they were up to, he just wanted to get to the truth about his sailor. Her thoughts were interrupted when Cutter wandered over to her, she smiled a greeting, trying to suppress the school girl grin from her face. "I want you keeping an eye on them." Cutter quietly stated.

"I was going to suggest the same." Jenny agreed, and turned to look at Becker to wave him over, mainly as an excuse to turn her back on their guests. "Abby can keep an eye on Ducky. You can take Gibbs." She added, just as Becker joined them. "Connor can keep an eye on their geek." It didn't take Becker long to suss out what they were discussing.

"That leaves David and DiNozzo." Becker stated quietly, subtly glancing at the new team to do a head count. "And You, Sarah and me." He added.

"You keep an eye on David." Jenny decided. "She looks like she'll be a tough one to read and to keep tabs on." Then thought. "Also, DiNozzo looks like he'll be more susceptible to a girl." She'd marked him as a player, based on how he'd done his fair share of looking at Sarah and Abby, and herself. Jenny quickly thought, Becker was more protective of Sarah, but DiNozzo had been looking at Sarah more than her. "Sarah and I will keep an eye on DiNozzo, depending on which one of us is around him." She decided quietly. "Though we can only do this during work hours."

They turned back when they heard Abby and Ducky move the body into the back of the truck. "Make sure they know." Jenny added quietly, and both guys agreed. They didn't want NCIS digging into their business too deeply. They went to help them load their equipment back into the cars and headed back to the ARC. At which point Gibbs told his team to start working on Miller's background, which meant that they had to steal one of the offices for them to set up shop.

Abby was helping Ducky down in the autopsy, and Sarah was waiting for any samples that they wanted forensics doing on. Whilst she didn't know a lot about forensics, she knew a lot about analysis, and had enough common sense to fill in the gaps. Connor was helping McGee set up the NCIS computers. Whilst everyone else was waiting around the room, apart from Jenny who was briefing Lester and being further briefed about what she was and wasn't allowed to say.

It didn't take long for the laptops to be set up, and them to get a link back through to NCIS and to Abby in their labs. Who was not happy that they were in England without her. The rest of the day was spent waiting for autopsy results and filling in background information on Miller. Abby had also instructed her substitute to run Miller's fingerprints to ensure that it was him, that result had already comeback to confirm that it was.

The days work seemed relatively normal and at the end of it Jenny insisted that the NCIS team leave on the basis that they didn't have clearance to be in on their own. "Well, at least Ducky will have the results of the autopsy by then." McGee stated, as they all started shutting off the computer, and Tony jumped up as he saw Sarah about to leave. "Typical." McGee added, Ziva smiled her agreement.

"Hey, I was wondering if you'd like me to show you how the forensic aspects work." Tony stated, half jogging to catch up and get a step ahead of Sarah. Who stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. She'd been told to keep an eye on them, but she had a feeling that DiNozzo wanted to have a bit more than her eye on him.

She smiled. "You're not a forensic scientist." She replied calmly. "So why would you be teaching me the way it works?"

"Because I've been a very Special Agent for a long time now, so I've picked up some skills." Tony replied with a grin.

Sarah narrowed her eyes slightly. "I doubt the skills you talk about are the ones you're thinking about." She retorted, starting walking again.

"Well, I have skills." Tony assured her, taking a few quick steps to catch up to her again. Sarah smiled at him sweetly but carried on walking, effectively ignoring him from then.

"Give it up, Tony." Ziva stated, making Tony jump from the shock of her being right behind him. "I've seen the way the Captain looks at her, you've got competition."

"I always like a challenge." Tony replied, looking after the young scientist again.

"I thought you preferred them to be as easy as possible." Ziva retaliated, Tony glared at her, but thought of nothing to say that she wouldn't be able to respond to, so he just followed her and the rest of the team out to the cars to head back to the hotel. "I'm driving." Ziva called, slipping into the drivers seat before anyone had a chance to object. Tony and McGee shared a look.

"We're doomed." Tony stated, claiming shotgun as McGee got in the back.

Gibbs had gone down to autopsy to get Ducky when Jenny had shooed him out of the office. He found Ducky telling Abby one of his many stories, who seemed quite amused and interested and was sat on a table at the side of the room. "Anything, Duck?" He asked.

Ducky looked up from stitching the lieutenant up, and Abby stopped giggling as they saw him. "Apart from signs of an animal struggle, none at all." Ducky stated. "I'm almost finished, Jethro." He added.

"Yeah, well we've been chucked out upstairs." Gibbs added, looking at the blonde girl in the corner, who seemed quite happily innocent, she was hiding nothing more than the rest of them. Just the nature of the research that went on in here. "Seems we're not safe on our own." He added, and saw Abby grin some more.

"Becker threatening to shoot you?" She asked.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. Becker hadn't seemed like the type to just threaten to shoot them so easily, Gibbs had decided he liked the man, somewhat. Yes, the man was military and would probably shoot them without question if the situation called for it, but threatening to shoot them to get them out of the building seemed a little excessive. "No, Jenny was insisting we leave." Gibbs added.

"I was joking." Abby added. "But Jenny is a persuasive woman." She added, Gibbs didn't doubt it was true, well, he'd seen just how determined and how persuasive Jenny was. Reminded him of another Jenny he knew.

Ducky cut through the conversation. "Is there anywhere to store our young friend for the duration?" He asked.

Abby hopped off the desk. "Over here." She added, opening a door to reveal three cold shelves. Luckily none of them contained specimens. It didn't take long for the three of them to move the lieutenant "Well, if Jenny says you need to leave, you better not put it off much longer." Abby added, resealing the door

The two NCIS agents didn't disagree, and Abby was slightly suspicious that Gibbs didn't put up any objections and just led Ducky out towards the car. Gibbs had struck her as the kind of man who knew what he wanted to know and do and would do anything to get it done, and done his way. She shrugged it off and headed to get her own things and find Connor and head home.

"So, Duck, what'd you find?" Gibbs asked once they'd reached the car.

Ducky looked at his old friend, he knew that it wasn't about the lieutenant "They're hiding something." He stated, as they both took seats in the car.

"I knew that." Gibbs replied. "I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on what it was."

"Not a clue." Ducky replied. "What does your gut say?" Gibbs faintly smiled but said nothing, which Ducky knew meant that Gibbs didn't know. Yes, his gut knew something was up, but even it didn't know what. Which was saying something, Ducky thought with amusement.

"I want an eye keeping on them." Gibbs stated.

"I don't think you need to tell them to do it." Ducky replied. "They'll probably have already taken mental notes."

"Ziva will have done, but her judgements are often based on the first few seconds." Gibbs replied. "DiNozzo's mind will have been on the wrong aspects of them, and McGee will probably have just trusted them to have given us the relevant information."

"Timothy isn't that naïve any more" Ducky replied. "But he is likely to have left the people up to the others." He added, in a 'point-taken' kind of way.

"Well, he can make friends with Connor." Gibbs started, Ducky didn't need to ask why he'd made that choice. The young dark haired man had been introduced to them as a geek, something they all appreciated McGee for. "You seem to have made a friend out of Abby." Ducky nodded, he'd noticed the girl was tough, and despite the fact he knew she was hiding something, the way she did it made it seem irrelevant, like she was only holding back information they didn't need.

"Well that leaves their team leader, PR woman, scientist and head of security." Ducky added. "Might I assume that you will be watching their team leader?" Gibbs made an agreeing noise. "And then might I suggest that Ziva watch their head of security?"

"I was going to have her watch Jenny." Gibbs replied.

Ducky thought for a moment. "You don't trust her." Then before Gibbs could reply he added, "Especially so."

"No, I don't." Gibbs replied, then an idea occurred to him as they arrived back at the hotel. "Ziva can watch Becker, and DiNozzo can keep an eye on their scientist. The whole of her." He added, as Ducky got out of the car. Who shut the door and then noticed Gibbs was still in the car, and so opened it a crack and leaned in again.

"And I take it you're about to go and do something?" He asked. Gibbs grinned, Ducky knew him far too well, the look on his face suggested he knew damn well where Gibbs was about to go.

"Yeah, Duck, yeah that was the plan." He added, and Ducky smiled and shut the door. And after instinctively trying to release the handbrake with his right hand, he was under way.


Cinn: Hopefully people still want to read this. Please review. :) Apologises for any OOCness, and thanks to those who have reviewed.