A/N: World's. Slowest. Update. Yes, I know; my sister was occupied with her other collab. What can you do?
Well, you could always review or PM Mysteryfan17 or myself and ask for more of this. ^.~
Gibbs blinked, his face showing none of the incredulity he felt at the woman's insane declaration.
"I told you you wouldn't–" she muttered, but the remainder of what she was saying was drowned out by a nervous male voice coming through over the intercom.
"Um, Boss, we uh… we need to speak with you."
"Sounds like McGee and Abby found something–" the woman began, but Gibbs cut her off.
"How are you getting this information?!" he shouted, slamming his palm on the table.
"I already told you. Besides, I recognized McGee's voice, and the fact that he said 'we' indicates–" she fell silent again when Gibbs sprang to his feet, his chair toppling over as he stormed out. Now alone, Danielle sighed and slumped forward, pressing her forehead to the cool surface of the table as she mumbled to herself, "This is going to be harder than I thought."
"What?" Gibbs demanded angrily as he burst into the observation room.
Abby stepped forward immediately, brandishing the evidence bag containing the broken boot cup. "This doesn't fit."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation.
McGee came closer. "Uh, Boss, Abby said–"
"I can't work like this, Gibbs!" Abby exclaimed. "You can't give me a blank sheet of paper and tell me to read what's on it!"
"There was no forensic evidence–" McGee began.
"Nothing on it at all!" Abby continued over him. "No fingerprints, no hair samples, no fibers of any kind, and I can't even play 'Name That Sticky Stuff' with residue from the inside because it's completely clean!"
Tony was stunned. "So, wait, you're saying whoever did it washed the cup?"
Ziva shook her head. "Who would go to all that trouble and then just leave it behind? If they wanted to remove the evidence they should have taken it with them."
"And it's not even like they dropped it as they were walking out the door; it was under a table…" Tony reminded them.
"What's with her?" Abby asked, indicating to the woman on the other side of the glass, who now seemed more bored than ever and was drumming her fingers on the table.
Immediately recognizing the beat she was tapping out, Tony exclaimed, "HI-HO SILVER, AWAY!" as he waved an invisible hat over his head.
Gibbs gave him a look that plainly said, Don't ever do that again.
"What?" Tony defended himself. "I love a girl who knows the classics!"
"Thanks, Tony." The woman in the adjacent room turned toward them with a smile and a short wave. "You guys know you left the intercom on, right?"
"But why does she want to talk to me?" McGee wondered, still rubbing the back of his head.
"Good question, Probie. I have to ask myself the same thing all the time; whenever someone wants to talk to you, I wonder why."
McGee sighed at Tony's jab before turning to Gibbs. "What was it she said again, Boss? That we're TV stars?"
"I know I've got the face for it," Tony put in boastfully, "but you, Probie?"
Gibbs remained staring at the woman as he answered, having kept his eyes on her the entire time that McGee and Abby were being filled in. "She said she knows who we are because our lives are a TV show."
"It does seem to be right up your street, McGee," Ziva suggested.
McGee smiled thinly at her comment. "When I was a kid I used to think TV shows were real," he admitted, "but at this point? That's a bit of a stretch even for me."
"You might as well give it a shot." Tony patted McGee on the back. "After all, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Good evening, Agent McGee," the woman offered pleasantly as he entered interrogation.
"Evening," he replied automatically, momentarily thrown off by her calm demeanor.
"Polite as ever," she observed with a nod. "What do you want to know?"
"Um…" McGee glanced at the two-way mirror before righting the chair and sitting down across from the woman. "Who are you?"
The woman smiled. "Call me Danielle."
"Danielle. Okay. And, where are you from, Danielle?"
"That is the million dollar question." Danielle leaned back in her chair. "Unfortunately, there's no easy answer."
Unfortunately? McGee thought to himself. Unfortunate for whom? He considered her exact words for a moment before he deduced, "If there's no easy answer, there must be a difficult one. Why don't you tell me about it?"
Danielle let out a genuine laugh at that. "Yeah, there's a difficult one alright. Gibbs told you what I said while you were in Abby's lab?"
McGee licked his lips, unsteady but determined to keep his cool. "That we're in a TV show?"
"Chinese whispers." Danielle chuckled as she shook her head. "The message gets distorted the more it's passed on until the meaning is nothing like what you started with. You know the game 'Telephone'?"
"Sure. Who doesn't?"
"Did you ever wonder the reason it's always played in one room and never over a telephone like the name would suggest?" Despite asking a question, she didn't wait for a response. "It's so everyone can compare what they heard with the original message." She paused for a second, resting her forearms on the table and leaning over them. "Would you like to hear the original message?"
McGee nodded, unaware that he was literally on the edge of his seat.
The woman gave him a smile and repeated her previous statement: "I know your team because, where I come from, your lives are portrayed in one of my favorite TV shows: NCIS."
McGee memorized the sentence verbatim and then shifted back in his chair to study the woman. She looked sad, but somehow he thought it wasn't for being held in interrogation the way an innocent suspect might have been… Her last smile had been forced, he mused, so her positive attitude was a front underneath which she wasn't happy. If she wasn't happy then she wasn't making fun, and if it wasn't a joke then she was serious… and therefore she was sad because they didn't believe her!
The corner of her lip twitched when she saw the realization cross his face. "You see it now, don't you? Why it had to be you?"
McGee's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Why me?"
"You've got the story outlined; now it's up to Thom E. Gemcity to fill in the blanks and sell it to the masses."
"I had to say it. I had to say 'What's the worst that could happen?'" Tony lamented, shaking his head. "Something always goes wrong when someone does that, and now it's my fault Probie lost his marbles."
"I haven't lost my marbles, Tony," McGee protested, "she's telling the truth. I can't explain it, but I know it's not a hoax."
"It makes sense," Abby offered. The others turned to look at her. "What? McGee is the expert on how fiction can also be real."
"She called you 'Thom E. Gemcity'," Ziva pointed out.
"But she couldn't just be a fan of my books; she's already addressed all of us by our real names."
"Good point," Tony conceded. "The last time something like this happened, the guy thought we were the characters McScribbles had based on us."
"Why is she here, though?" Abby wondered aloud.
"She showed up at a crime scene acting sketchy and suspicious," Tony informed her. "Why wouldn't we bring her in?"
"No, I don't mean here here, Tony; I mean, if we're a TV show to her, why is she here at all?" Abby's question was met with silence. "…Hasn't anyone thought to ask why she came here in the first place?"
Danielle smiled as the door to the interrogation room opened once more and a lone person walked in. "What do you got, Abs?"
Abby stopped in her tracks, the evidence bag in her hand swinging slightly.
"I would get you a Caf-Pow, but…" Danielle gestured at the door. "…I'm not allowed to leave this room at the moment."
"You must watch it a lot… or is that something that's in every episode?"
"Both."
The two women shared a grin. "So, what are you in for?" Abby asked cheerfully as she took a seat at the table.
"Poor timing, mostly, but I came for that." Danielle inclined her head at the boot cup.
"Didn't plan to get caught up in the investigation, then?"
"Nope. Just trying to put things right."
"Because, obviously, this…" Abby lifted the bag in indication. "…isn't 'right' here."
Danielle nodded to confirm, but then amended, "It may have a counterpart in this world, but that particular cup belongs in mine."
A/N: The answers to last year's quiz have been pushed back due to no one giving any answers. This time the questions will pick up from where the last ones left off in terms of numbering, and if you don't want to have to wait another year for the next chapter, all you have to do is review. ^.^ Hey, how about some multiple choice to make it easy? Choose all that apply to you, and please be honest. Extra credit available if you write your own answer(s) – in detail – along with any applicable choice(s) given below!
Question 4: Why didn't you answer any of the questions at the end of the previous chapter last year?
A: I didn't know any of the answers.
B: I hadn't read the previous chapter last year.
C: I tried but I couldn't leave a review.
D: I meant to but I forgot.
E: I did/do not care.
Question 5: Do you have any suggestions for me to improve the quality of this fic?
A: Update faster!
B: WTF is going on? Explain things better!
C: Everyone is so OOC I can't stand it!
D: OMG get a beta for crying out loud!
E: Your OC is a Mary Sue. Kill her.
Question 6: Where should I post the answers to these quizzes?
A: Put the first six at the top of the next chapter.
B: Put the first six at the bottom of the next chapter.
C: The first three should be at the top of this chapter.
D: The first three should be at the bottom of this chapter.
E: Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me.
Anyway, please do leave a review whether or not you take the quiz… and if you're a registered ffnet user you could PM your answers to me instead of putting them in your review; either way you will get a response as soon as I get a chance, and remember I promised a prize to whoever gets the highest score! Since nobody has answered at all there is no high score yet, so that means you have a pretty good chance of having the highest score without being certain of any of the answers; you can always guess, right? Bear in mind also that I am willing to give partial credit for a wrong answer provided you were close or you displayed sound reasoning or just for being especially detailed (even if your answers are nothing but pure snow-white bull$#!7).