Earth I
Thanks, Leon.
Jenny Shepard, the Director of NCIS on Earth I, muttered that phrase to herself for what seemed to her like the hundredth time in the past half-hour.
Leon, the Director of NCIS on Earth-Prime, had developed a good working relationship with Shepard. Whatever her counterpart had done on his world, Jenny understood to have been irrelevant to Vance as far as she herself was concerned.
Their rapport had never been tested - until today.
On a day in which their agencies were helping in an investigation of the largest breach in their countries' histories, Vance decided to send two of his best agents on a visit.
And, owning to Murphy's Law or whatever multiversal rule governed such things, Vance sent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Ziva David.
Two people, dead in Jenny's world, and alive in their own.
Ziva, in both worlds, was the half-sister of Ari Haswari and an officer of the Israeli Mossad agency.
Gibbs, in both worlds, was a former Marine, and an NCIS agent who led the Washington Major Case Response Team - and one-time team partner of Jenny's.
In Jenny's world, Ziva tried to stop Ari before he could continue his reign of terror and ended up dead by his hand. And Gibbs died a hero's death, disarming a nuclear bomb Haswari intended to destroy Washington, suffering fatal ricin poisoning in the process.
All of that's going to sound like something out of a comic book, Jenny thought. God only knows how I'm going to explain all that to them.
That forced another question on Jenny: what to do with Special Agent Caitlin Todd, who was here at NCIS.
The Kate Todd that this Jenny knew was a respected agent and bonafide American hero, owing to her actions in 2005 while trying to stop Ari and afterwards as a member of the Justice League, and later as an active NCIS agent.
Kate's Earth-Prime counterpart, on the other hand, was long dead.
Both Kates shared the same history until May 24, 2005.
Kate-Prime didn't have the metagene and an aura to protect her from Haswari's rifle, and lost her life on that rooftop in Norfolk, Virginia.
From what Vance had told Jenny, Gibbs was extremely despondent and shaken up, his team shaken to the core. But their Haswari had only murdered a handful of people (and tried to murder two more members of Gibbs' team), and was shot to death by Ziva in Gibbs' basement.
Ziva took Kate's place, and as hurt as the team was about Kate's death, they all eventually moved on.
Or so they thought.
Vance told Jenny that Kate's sister, Dr. Rachel Cranston, did a psychological evaluation a year and a half before that brought back memories and - though none of them would admit to it - may have reopened some old wounds.
That's on top of whatever wounds were left over from their former Director, Jenny Shepard, who had been dead for just over four years.
By Leon's account, Gibbs' team grew fairly close to their own Jenny, who served nearly three years as director before she was killed.
And now, Jenny would have to deal with whatever consequences Gibbs and Ziva would encounter, not just with seeing Kate, but seeing herself.
Dammit, Leon, Jenny thought. What in hell were you thinking?
Jenny's thoughts were interrupted by her secretary's phone call.
"Ms. Shepard, security on the main floor says your guests have come through the checkpoint," said Tanya, a young woman who had just started in her new position that week.
"Thank you, Tanya," Jenny replied. "Tell security to escort them up to my office."
"Yes, ma'am," Tanya said.
Jenny ended that call, and placed another call, down to the third-floor bullpen of the current Washington field office's Major Case Response Team.
The person who picked up was its team leader, Abigail Borin.
"Borin?"
"Director. We're busy."
"I know. You need to stay here for a few minutes, and tell Agent Todd I want her up here now."
"...Jenny, what's going on now? We've got leads that we need to follow-"
"I understand, Abigail, but something has come up, literally last-second. I have two guests coming to my office whom you and everyone else who sees them will instantly recognize."
"What?" Borin asked, annoyed. I don't have time for your games, Jenny, thought Borin.
"I need your team to stay where it is, at least until these guests show up and are introduced," Jenny told her. "Afterwards, I promise you'll be free to go."
Jenny heard Borin take a breath of exasperation, then tell Kate to "get to Jenny's office now" and her agents to wait.
"Who or what am I waiting for?" Borin said. "Barack and Michelle Obama?"
"Security escorting two VIPs to my office," Jenny said. "As I said, you'll know why when you see them, in a few minutes."
"Now?" Borin said, clearly exasperated.
"At least I'm not making you wait all day," Jenny replied, then ended the call.
********************************
Kate's team was making its way up the eastern seaboard, to Washington from its most recent case in Miami.
The META Team, as customary, wasn't traveling by private nor civilian jet, nor by military aircraft.
Its transportation was one of the most advanced aircraft used anywhere on this world: a U.S. Army Spencer hovercraft, powered by a hybrid hydrogen/petrol engine.
In service for three years, the craft allowed the team to travel up to 200 miles an hour, equipped to allow the META team to work cases on the road and provide them living quarters wherever they happened to be. The craft had work spaces, functional forensics and medical facilities, a mini-kitchen, showers and sleeping quarters.
The Spencer craft wasn't the Ritz-Carlton, but it would more than do for the team's purposes. It was comparable to the NCIS Red Team's "Laverne and Shirley" double-trailer trucks, the difference being that the Spencer could fly, while the Red Team was limited to whatever highways and roads could handle the trucks.
Four of the six current team members were on board.
The pilot, Special Agent Marcus Stewart; his co-pilot, Special Agent Sarah Dunn; acting team leader in Miami (and anytime in Kate's absence), Senior Agent Tim Kerry; and Forensics Specialist Katie Yates, about to be promoted to Probationary Field Agent.
Kate and the team's medical examiner and physician, Noah Rooney, were still at NCIS headquarters, waiting for the Spencer to arrive.
*********************************
Earth I's Washington MCRT had made some progress on the Christopher Yu case: mainly, the origin of the speedboat the alleged shooter - Tommy Monaghan - used during the murder, and identification of a witness who saw the shooter.
Borin was itching to get herself and her team back out in the field.
If only Jenny hadn't ordered us to stay here, she thought, and wondered what Leroy Jethro Gibbs may have said, or done, if he were still alive and in her shoes.
He'd probably have hung up and put his team on the elevator, she thought. Like I should have.
*******************************************
A Honda Accord pulled into the visitor's lot of NCIS headquarters in the Navy Yard.
Two men and one woman stepped out.
One of the men - Frank, a CIA agent - hadn't stopped talking since they left the security office at the Pentagon Centre.
Jethro Gibbs and Ziva David got out of the car, looking around and trying to figure out what was similar and what was different.
"Keep looking Ziva," Gibbs whispered. "Everything that's different, no matter how small, how subtle."
"The building itself looks the same as..." Ziva trailed off, unsure of how to phrase what she wanted to say.
"Back home?"
"If you wish to call it that."
"Here we are, folks," Frank said, as the three stepped inside the main doors. "NCIS. It should look familiar, like home. It does to me. You know, I've never been to your world, but I've seen pictures and it looks a lot like here. White House, Capitol Building, Pentagon-oh look, here's security."
Two guards made their way to the trio; Gibbs and Ziva stood, patiently, and shook Frank's hand.
" I guess that means I'll be leaving now, they'll take you the rest of the way. It was great to meet you both, Mr. Gibbs, Ms. Day-vid, and, well, I'm gonna get outta here now and remember if you want Nationals tickets, call me at the Pentagon Centre, we'll get you in..."
Frank backed out the front doors, still going on and on, to two strangers he eyeballed after he got outside.
Inside, Gibbs and Ziva looked around at the lobby, then presented their IDs and badges to the both guards. In turn, they were given electronic guest badges to wear, though there was no clip to attach to their shirts.
One of the guards, Dwayne - a large, African-American man - smiled and put the badge on their chests below the shoulder. "Just like one of those old Post-It notes," he said. "Now, Mister Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and Miss Zeye-vah-"
"Zee-vah Dah-veed," Ziva David said. "So you know how to properly pronounce my name."
Though neither said anything, Gibbs and Ziva did recognize Dwayne, as an NCIS security guard back on their own world.
"My apologies, Ms. Dah-veed," said the other security guard, Catherine, a blonde, muscular woman whom neither she nor Gibbs seemed to recognize. "The Director wants us to escort you to her office, so if you'll come with us."
"A moment," Gibbs said, holding an envelope and a package. "I asked the driver, Frank, to send a message here, that I wanted to speak specifically with Director Shepard and with Agent Todd-"
"And she - Director Shepard - got that message," Catherine said. "We're taking you there now."
With that, Gibbs and Ziva joined Dwayne and Catherine on the elevator, not knowing what to expect when it reached the third floor.
************************************
Kate was in shock.
Jenny had tried to explain everything about Vance; his decision to send over his own Gibbs and Ziva; and Jenny's own decision to have Kate meet them, all in a two-minute span, then played the 'I'm the boss' card to make sure Kate didn't try to sneak out.
"So the picture on that tablet is real...and they're on it?" Kate said, as she and Jenny looked at the group picture found on the tablet with Yu's body earlier that morning.
"Yes," Jenny said. "All of those people, except for the spy from Earth III, are alive. And Gibbs, and Ziva, are on their way up."
"You didn't make that call?"
"I did not. Their director. Leon Vance. He made the call."
"Why...what on earth was he thinking?"
"I'm still asking myself that," Jenny said. "Maybe it was how to manage his Gibbs, who apparently was planning to snoop around. Leon thought we could manage him..."
"You don't manage Gibbs."
"I know that far better than you do, Kate."
"So how are you going to manage this?"
"Let's get them up here first."
***************************************
Dwayne and Catherine stepped off the elevator on to the third floor, Gibbs and Ziva following right behind, and the foursome stopped momentarily.
To Gibbs and Ziva, it looked just like their own workplace, down to the repairs and painting going on across the floor.
"Did you have a bombing here a few months ago?" Gibbs asked Catherine.
"Yes," she said. "Harper Dearing. Took out a lot of the building and nearly killed Director Shepard doing it. We lost...too many, including my fiancee. She worked in Legal."
"We are sorry for your loss," Ziva said softly. "He bombed our building, too, where Gibbs and I are from. It was hard on us, as well."
"Thank you," she said. "They brought in grief counselors, and that helped. Chris would have wanted me to go on and not feel sorry for myself, but I miss her, every day."
Ziva noted the look in Gibbs' eyes. Was he thinking of Shannon and Kelly? And, perhaps, of Kate and Jenny and Mike Franks and everyone else he's lost over the years?
"We have lost loved ones too, Catherine," Ziva said, putting a hand on the guard's arm to comfort her. "You look like a strong person. You will survive. That is what she should have wanted."
"Guys," Dwayne said. "I'm sorry. But the Director is expecting you. We should take you to her."
The foursome walked from the elevator, past the bullpen. Catherine stopped, but Dwayne motioned for her - and Gibbs and Ziva - to move along.
"Director Shepard says all your questions will be answered upstairs," he told them, as they climbed up the stairs.
Gibbs and Ziva couldn't help but glance at the bullpen, which was once familiar and different.
"Gibbs," Ziva said, "is that Borin-"
"Agent Gibbs, Agent David," Dwayne said, politely but firmly. "Please. The Director is waiting for you."
While Borin was on the phone with a Metro detective, all four of Borin's agents looked on in astonishment.
"Son of a bitch," Brent Langer said.
******************************************
Tayna, Jenny's current office secretary, met the four in Jenny's waiting room. The two guards left, and Gibbs and Ziva sat down.
"The Director will see you now," she said after a minute, and went to open the door to Jenny's office.
Gibbs and Ziva walked in, thinking they were ready for anything.
But when they saw Jenny Shepard and Kate Todd, all they could do is stare.
Shock. Joy. Confusion.
"Kate? Jenny?" Gibbs finally said.
"Jethro, Ziva," Jenny replied. "Welcome."