Chapter 2 – A Strange visitor is among us
Fifth night of Hannukah 2011
Ma tovu ohalekha Ya'akov, mishk'notekha Yisra'el.
Va'ani b'rov hasd'kha, avo veytekha,
Eshtahaveh el heikhal kodsh'kha b'yir'atekha.
Adonai ahavti m'on beitekha, um-kom mishkan k'vodekha.
Va'ani eshtahave v'ekhra'a.
Evr'kha lifnei Adonai osi.
Va'ani t'filati l'kha Adonai et ratzon.
Elohim b'rov hasdekha aneini b'emet yish'ekha.
How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
As for me, O God abounding in grace,
I enter your house to worship with awe in Your sacred place.
I love your house, Eternal One, the dwelling-place of Your glory;
humbly I worship You, humbly I seek blessing from God my Maker.
To You, Eternal One, goes my prayer: may this be a time of your favor.
In Your great love, O God, answer me with Your saving truth.
The ringing of the phone echoed in the empty bullpen, making the only agent in the room glare at the offending piece aggravated. The silver haired man tapped his pen pensively on the desktop, looking around seeking any sign of his wayward agents, but none were to be seen. Ziva and Tony were at the Evidence locker retrieving a few items that should be reviewed before their court meeting next week, while McGee was downstairs with Abby trying to pierce together the computer casing of a blown up desktop from Team B's case.
With a sigh, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs takes his phone and pushes a button, rerouting the call to McGee's desk to his own.
"Gibbs."
He listens distractedly for a moment, before immediately becoming alert.
"Are you sure that's what the boy's said?"
Another pause as whoever is there keeps talking, and Gibbs's eyebrows slowly climb up on his forehead, almost reaching his hair line as he stares blankly ahead, trying to make sense of what he's being told.
"I see. Send him up, I'll talk to him. McGee is not here right now but I'll try to figure out what this is all about."
Gibbs put the phone down at the exact moment Ziva and Tony come back chatting animatedly about some movie. He looks at them with a small smile, glad that the normal banter between his agents was back after a few tense weeks, specially after that idiotic prank Tony pulled at McGee and Ziva with lights and sirens on their desks.
The maintenance crew was still finding confetti out of the corners of the bullpen until today.
"Ziva, come on. Are you telling me that you haven's seen 'How the Grinch stole Christmas'? It's a classic Christmas movie, along with the 'Miracle in the 34th street'. Then you have those with the Culkin kid and its sequels. Home alone one, two and three. The third is crappy, but I really like the first one, specially the scene with the pizza boy."
Ziva rolls her eyes at Tony, sits on her desk and takes the chance to glare at Tony, who is just taking a new breath to keep on with his monologue valiantly trying to convince her to participate on a movie marathon.
"I'm Jewish. I do not celebrate Christmas. At least not with the same enthusiasm you do. And I refuse to be go to your home to watch a bunch of cheesy holiday movies one after the other."
Tony pouted, trying to make her feel guilty to force her to accept his invitation. "But… it's Christmas. It's what this season is about. Cheesy movies. Huge dinners. Gifts exchanges and being huddled under blankets watching the fire burning while snow is roaring outside. It will be cool and I can guarantee you, my popcorn is the best in town."
Ziva opened her first drawer and a beautiful wrapped parcel caught Tony's eyes, making him smirk.
"But of course, you prefer to dwell on the mystery of your secret admirer…"
Ziva's glare was almost enough to reduce Tony to cinders.
"He is not a secret admirer." Ziva growled, before gently taking the gift from the drawer and delicately touching the festive paper as she carefully unwrapped the parcel while a soft smile appeared on her face. "And I am not even sure if it's a he. I only know that I have someone who is aware of my people's traditions and he is honoring the Jewish rule of giving gifts on each day of Hanukkah."
Tony rolled his eyes, "Come on, that's so unfair. Why do you guys get gifts for eight days while we only get it on Christmas?"
"Well, because we have eight festive days instead of only one."
Tony leaned over her table, trying to peer into what was in her hand as she unwrapped the latest gift her 'admirer'.
Since the first day of Hanukkah this year, little parcels were appearing on Ziva's desk.
One for each day.
Each with a little blessing in Hebrew and a small Hanukkah candle.
She at first was irritated, as she hadn't celebrated that particular part of her legacy for years, but whoever was leaving her gifts had done an extensive research on the Festival of Lights.
The first gift had been a sterling silver Mezuzah pendant with a complete readable scroll set inside a sealed tube. A veritable work of art and a very Jewish gift even for herself, a child from one of the most traditional families in Israel.
After a lot of teasing both from Tony and McGee, she simply put the box in her drawer and tried to ignore it.
But the second day of Hanukkah brought another gift: a small box overflowing with tasteful Happy Hanukkah cookies, glazed in white and blue and cut in Star of David shapes. It was cute and sweet and … it was impossible to stay mad at.
From the third day on, she was already waiting anxiously for whatever was left on her table for the time she would arrive. Tony even tried to convince her to stalk the bullpen so they could figure out who was leaving her the gifts, but she decided to enjoy the mystery for a while.
Since then, she had received a dreidel gift box in four assorted colors, a star shaped Jewelry box with a menorah appliquéd on top and today she had arrived to find a beautiful ceramic Hanukkah celebration keepsake box carefully wrapped waiting for her.
She was just happy that someone took the time to research what Hanukkah was and had the care to have ordered things on advance for this surprise, as those particular boxes were from a famous Israeli gift designer who sold her wares through a website, having her goods shipped directly from Israel.
Tony kept pestering her, but she carefully tuned him out as she smiled at the latest gift in her hands.
The ding of the elevator announced the entrance of the visitor that Gibbs was expecting, distracting him from the bickering of his agents and his initial intention of sorting out headslaps freely for them. Gibbs stood up to look at the visitor being escorted into the bullpen by a security guard, who was trying his best to hide his small smirk as he approached Gibbs' desk.
Gibbs used the best of his abilities to keep his face unreadable as he observed the short kid walking towards him. Finally he understood the amusement on the security guard's voice on the phone when he contacted him.
The kid was short, stocky, with a round plump face framed with straight black hair in the same silly hair cut that blond kid singer was in the TV last week, which always made Gibbs feel the urge of finding the nearest comb and fix it.
Immediately.
Or maybe shave it away.
He was wearing a T-shirt of a band that probably Abby had heard of or bought one of their CDs, and his plaid trousers could possible be worn in a size or two smaller. Probably then they would be a good fit on the kid's waist, not dragging down and showing a hint of his underwear. But at least the kid jacket's was thick enough to keep him warm against the bitter wind blowing outside.
The kid was guided by the guard's hand on his shoulder, until both are before Gibbs's desk in a few moments.
"Agent Gibbs, as I've told you on the phone, this is Jordan McGee. He identified himself as Agent McGee's son."
"Uhm…" Gibbs hummed as he looked down to the boy who had to look up to face the taller man, blinking repeated behind his white rimmed glasses showing intelligence and cunningness in his green eyes.
"McGee's son, right?"
"Yes, sir. Is my dad around? He told me that I should drop by today so I could bring him something he's forgotten at my mom's place." Jordan said in a polite voice, trying to keep it steady but not able to hide his nervousness in it.
Gibbs narrowed his eyes to the boy, who was obviously lying through his teeth but refused to back down, staring him in the eye without flinching. Weaker men had folded under Gibbs' stare, so he was willing to give the kid a break.
The kid had balls. Especially if he was brave enough to lie to a Federal Agent without even breaking into a sweat.
Gibbs chanced a quick look to Tony and Ziva, who were just frozen on the spots they were standing, gaping at the kid as if he had sprung horns. Gibbs could almost guess that Tony was looking at the kid before him, flipping through a mental catalogue of women he had seen McGee dating and trying to find one who could possibly be that boy's mother.
But unless Agent Timothy McGee has been leading a secret life away from NCIS, there was no way that kid was his.
But as a good investigator, Gibbs was willing to verify the kid's story. So he was going to give him enough rope and hopefully the kid would hang himself… or at least reveal his intentions.
Gibbs signaled to the guard that he could go and once alone with the kid he pointed to McGee's empty desk.
"That's your dad's desk. Take a seat and I'll call him up for you."
Jordan smiled thinly and, with his hands firmly grasping his Transformer's backpack, went to the younger agent's desk and silently sat down at it, looking curiously at the objects on its polished surface.
Tony finally was able to tone down his surprise enough to move towards his own desk, his eyes never leaving the boy who initially ignored the blatant stares of the older man, before throwing shy glances at him.
"Gibbs, were you aware of that…" Ziva started asking, just to be interrupted by Gibbs.
"Nope."
"And what are you…?"
"I'm about to find out, Ziva." Gibbs muttered as he grabbed the phone and dialed Abby's Lab. His Goth answered on the second ring.
"Abby's Labby."
"Is McGee in there?"
NICS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Abby looked towards the other room of her lab, where McGee was hunched over a destroyed casing using a lantern to study its interior.
"Yes. Do you need him upstairs?"
Abby's tone of voice made McGee look up from his task, silently questioning her what was up.
"Please tell him that his son is at the bullpen waiting for him at his desk. He'd better come up immediately."
Abby's gasp was exactly what Gibbs expected to hear. That meant that she wasn't aware of McGee's little secret. And if she wasn't aware, she would certainly torture the young man until he folded and told her everything. The complete unabridged version.
Downstairs, Abby narrowed her eyes and glared at McGee, who immediately recoiled from the intensity in her green eyes, unaware of what he could possibly have done to warrant that glare towards him.
"Give us one minute, and he will be there." Abby disconnected, walking towards the younger agent with hard steps, her boots clacking against the floor loudly.
"Timothy McGee! You have a lot to explain, young man." She growled as soon as she entered the room he was, angry at him for hiding such MOAS.
He kept staring at her blankly, totally confused.
"What did I do?"
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Upstairs, Gibbs simply grinned and sat down, putting down the phone and just waiting for the fireworks to reach the bullpen in a few seconds. He chanced a glance at the boy, who was sitting forlornly at McGee's desk, his gaze troubled as he blinked at the family photos near the organizer.
There was a mystery in there and he was waiting anxiously to unveil it.