Gibbs flicked the switch and all the apparent anger was gone, replaced with fatherly concern.
"So… what's goin' on there?"
Abby was shocked by the apparent sympathy, and baffled as to why she was in the elevator and Tim was in the lab.
"Um... I don't know..."
"Are you serious or not?"
"I'm not sure, I..."
"Right" he said tersely and hit the switch, Abby got around him and hit it again before the lights even came back on.
"What are you doing?"
"Going down there to slap the hell outta him and shout 'rule twelve' in his ear."
"No! No Gibbs, please! This is amazing! Please don't wreck this for me!"
"Okay, there's your answer"
She gave him a questioning look.
"You're serious."
"Well, yeah, but I don't know what's gonna happen and I'm scared and... What if it doesn't work?"
"You damn well make it work! Waiting and hanging back and seeing how it's gonna go doesn't work. You either go down there right now and make it work, or I go down and make sure it doesn't."
"And what if you go down there an he says "screw your rules"?"
"Then it's gonna work"
"Our suspect is leaving the building"
Tony unwrapped the arms he'd "casually" draped around Ziva's shoulders and jumped into his seat.
"He is on foot, he cannot be going far"
"Ziva, no one has cars on base, he could be going anywhere"
"I'm going to follow"
She got the closest thing to a look of love from Tony, he said
"...You used a contraction"
Tony sat fidgeting waiting for Ziva. There was a terrifying killer out there, and he wanted her back. He was bored.
He saw the target return, but not Ziva. The truck's back door opened behind him.
"I shadowed him, he went for a walk then came home, that is all"
"Maybe he realized he was being followed"
He got the "I could kill you" look again.
"Or maybe he just went for a walk" death was averted temporarily.
McGee anxiously awaited either Abby's return, or a slap on the back of the head, either would be better than waiting. Finally the elevator dinged and big boots hit the floor.
"What did he say?"
"Don't screw it up"
Then Abby kissed him in a way that implied a definite lack of concern.
"We should talk to people"
"What people? We have talked to the witnesses and all our suspects, who do you want to talk to?" Ziva was feeling impatient, it'd been a long time in a small box with a lot of nice cologne. Staying bitchy was getting hard.
"Just people. You've never lived on a base like this have you?"
"I have lived on many bases"
"Not like this, this is a small base, full of families. Here you move in, and every one of your neighbours comes over with home baked cookies, it's like the Stepford Wives" he got nothing but raised eyebrows "Edward Scissorhands?" Still nothing "The Cat in the Hat?"
"Ooo, I liked that movie"
"Really?"
"No"
"Okay... Well, anyway, people gossip, everyone knows everything about everyone. We need an excuse to just casually talk to people."
"We can't do that, we've been walking around asking big official questions for a week, we are known"
"Yeah, so's Gibbs... But McGee's not, he's been hiding in the lab"
"Are the Stepford Wives going to talk to McGee?"
"Maybe we'll find a way. Put undercover running the canteen or something"
"Oh wow, then he'll have to make me sandwiches. Let's do that."
"It's not gonna work, chicks talk to chicks, we need a girl in there"
"Abby and McGee?"
"No way, boss'll never buy it. Would you put Probie alone in a house with Abby?"
"DiNozzo! You got another body there! Memorial park behind the main parade ground, I'll meet you there." The line went dead.
"He did not even let me tell him who he was talking to. We have a new victim on base, he is meeting us at the crime scene."
"He's gonna kill us"
"Indeed"
The boy was lying under a bushy tree, wearing pale pink lip gloss and a worn plaid school dress. The local MPs had already identified him as sixteen year old Jason Parker, the son of an officer living on base.
"Did I say prank?"
"I believe you did"
"The boss is gonna kill us"
"You said that too"
"Oh my god, coolest stomach contents ever!" She held up a specimen container filled with bright blue liquid.
"Abs?" Gibbs maintained his look of mildly grumpy bafflement.
"I know what this is" she said smugly
"Haven't taken it out of the jar yet"
"So? He was killed by Rohypnol... Official roofies, from a doctor, but not the same ones from before, and not a local doctor. They're legal just about everywhere but here. They dye them blue so you can't spike people's drinks with them."
"That's good... Work?"
"Why are we doing this? Gibbs is here, and we haven't slept in... I don't know, ages"
"Twenty two hours"
"Right, so why isn't this McGee? Why are we going to talk to a dead teenager's family instead of sleeping?"
"I do not know, let's just do this, then if we are lucky, we can sleep"
The father reminded Tony of McGee's father, and he certainly wasn't happy to have a geeky son. The couple was devoutly religious and mentioned hints of irreligious behaviour from their son, but by the looks of them, that could be anything from kissing girls to wanting a tattoo. Mrs. Parker was absolutely distraught, and her husband seemed quite embarrassed by her, eventually asking her to go upstairs. After she left he spoke calmly and quietly, he told them his son had been drifting away for some time, he had been losing touch and that suicide may have been inevitable. Although he didn't say it, he gave the impression that perhaps it was for the best.
The strangest thing for Tony was that Ziva seemed to take that as being quite normal, that a parent could lose his son and just not really mind. He wondered if her family had treated her that way. He felt a strong urge to treat her far better than anyone else ever had.
"Abby! Job for you!"
The intercom screen went blank
"Looks like Gibbs is back"
The intercom screen flashed back on again.
"You too, McGee!"
And he was gone again
As they walked out of the elevator he handed them each a file.
"Undercover, go get organised!" he was back to his desk by the time it'd sunk in.
Abby immediately opened her file. Gibbs had hoped she'd wait to get back to the lab, no such luck.
"Gibbs! WHY AM I PREGNANT?"
"You need a good reason to get a house on base fast, an excuse to gossip and if I had a kid on the way, I'd be askin' about local kids dying! No one's gonna blame you."
"But!" Abby started to object then realised that not only was it pointless, she didn't actually have a sensible objection "...okay."
The new undercover 'agents' headed back to the elevator.
"Guys!" The pair turned back and looked at their boss. "You don't have to keep your hands to yourself, but keep your eyes on the job!"
"Tony, we are meant to be watching suspects!"
He took a quick glance around the screens, said "I don't see any suspects." and went back to focusing a camera into the lounge room window of Tim and Abby's new house.
"What if they knew you were watching them?"
"I'm not watching them! They haven't arrived yet and when they do, I'll bet you ten bucks you'll be watching them too!"
"You're on!"
"That was a contraction!"
"This is a fist."
It was a threat and an overreaction, she knew it was, but long stakeouts in tiny dark boxes call for disparate measures. In the end, even breaking and punching him would be better than breaking and kissing him, because after you punch someone once, you tend to be able to stop and go back to what you're doing. With kissing, not so much.
"This is kinda nice, in a boring way. At least now I know if I ever marry a navy guy and get pregnant, the houses are nice."
"You've never been in one of these?" Tim carefully avoided the various little pokes intended to get a rise out of him.
"Not like this. When there's blood splatter everywhere an bits of family on the floor, I don't really check out the decor... Or the bed! This is nice!" She sit down and bounced a bit on the neat, simple bed.
"Yeah, beds are good, did you forget what it's like to sleep on something soft?"
"No!" She said, poking Tim's slightly wobbly and very soft belly then retreating to a safe distance.