Author's Note: Wow, it has been a long time since I have updated this. I will try to get more up soon. Especially since I had a lot more to get up now! Enjoy this chapter!
The drive to NCIS was short but fast. Brittany was gripping the armrests when he pulled into the parking lot.
Gibbs laughed. "What's wrong? Did you not like my driving?"
Brittany brushed out her hair with her fingers and refastened her hair into a low ponytail. "I thought I drove fast! You beat me on that, Agent Gibbs." They both stepped out of the car and into the building. Brittany got a visitor's pass from the front desk and followed Gibbs upstairs. They only found Millie upstairs in the bullpen going through a box.
She looked up. "Brittany! I thought I was in the wrong place." She set an evidence bag back in the box she was going through. "One of the agents downstairs pointed me in the right direction and carried the other box for me." She gave Brittany a hug. "I'm glad you're ok."
Brittany returned the hug. "Thank you Millie." She turned toward Gibbs. "Millie, meet Special Agent Gibbs. Agent Gibbs, my partner Millie."
Gibbs shook her hand. "Gibbs is fine."
"Nice to meet you sir."
They were interrupted by a commotion coming from the elevator. "Tony, I could have driven just fine without wrecking the car." Millie and Brittany looked up.
"Totaling, Ziva. The term is totaling the car. You still drive crazy! Tell her, Probie."
McGee put his hands up. "I am staying out of this."
"You know, sometimes I wish Sarah was still here to settle this." The team went silent after Tony's statement. Brittany looked up and stared at them. "I shouldn't have said that," he muttered.
Gibbs cleared his throat. "Stop arguing. We need to find out who Petty Officer George Branson is."
Tony looked in the girls' direction. "Boss, who are they?"
Gibbs looked back at them. Brittany stood up. "I'm Brittany Madison and this is my partner Millie Thompson. Our case has overlapped with yours."
McGee looked at them strangely. "Who do you work for?"
"CIA," Millie answered. She looked at Brittany.
"We'll be fine," she whispered.
Ziva stepped forward. "I'm Ziva David. This is Tony DiNozzo," she said, pointing to Tony. "Do not let him get on you."
"Do you mean get to me?" Brittany asked.
"Yes, English is not my first language."
Brittany nodded. "I can tell. Maybe sometime we can compare languages?"
"Maybe." She pointed to McGee next to her. "Over here is Timothy McGee." McGee waved.
"I want to know what happened," Gibbs said. Brittany and Millie knelt down and started going through the boxes. "Ziva..."
"Go through photos, got it."
"McGee..."
"Find the petty officer's electronic records, on it."
"DiNozzo…"
"Track down family and friends; got it Boss."
"Wow, how do they know to do that?" Millie whispered to Brittany.
"Probably from just working with him enough," she answered.
"Anyway, what about the evidence Eva hasn't gotten to processing yet? I brought that," Millie said to Brittany.
She looked up at Gibbs. "I take it you're one to be thorough. We brought our evidence if you want your lab tech to process them." Millie pulled out folders while she was talking.
Gibbs thought about it for a moment. The rest of the team was busy working. "Let's take it down to Abby." He stood up and grabbed one of the boxes.
Brittany stood up to grab the other box but was stopped by Millie. "Your eye is red. Is there something wrong with your contact?" She held up a mirror for Brittany to look in.
"You're right. You don't happen to have my glasses from my desk, do you?" Brittany sat down in a desk chair and used an off computer monitor as a mirror. She quickly removed both contacts and threw them away. "No use saving these."
Millie handed her a pair of silver wire-rim glasses. "I thought you would want them later."
Tony looked up and stared. "Your eyes looked different," he said. "They were green before you took out your contacts."
Ziva and McGee both looked up. "Yeah, now they're blue," McGee added.
She shrugged. "I'm not a fan of my blue eyes. I need prescription lenses anyway so I got contacts to change my eye color." Tony closed the gap between them.
"Well I think they look just fine."
She smiled and stepped back. "Thank you Agent DiNozzo."
"Just call me Tony."
Gibbs once again picked up the box. "We should take this down if we want Abby to process it soon." Brittany picked up the other box and followed him to the elevator.
Tony turned to Millie. "Your partner's hot."
She shook her head. "You haven't got a chance, Tony." Ziva and McGee couldn't help but laugh.
"I get the feeling Tony is often childish."
He shrugged. "He gets the job done."
"Abby would be your forensic scientist?" she asked, changing the subject.
Gibbs nodded. "You might like her. She is different."
"Different how?" The elevator doors opened before she got an answer. Gibbs walked out of the elevator. Brittany followed before the doors closed on her.
Abby had Android Lust playing in the background. She wore her usual attire: high pigtails with a white shirt, a short plaid skirt, tall boots and the usual lab coat. She twirled around the lab before stopping in front of her computer near the microscope.
"Abby!" She turned around.
"Gibbs! You brought me more evidence!" They put the boxes on the table.
"This is from the CIA's investigation. Retest this, would you?"
"Of course, Gibbs." She turned toward Brittany. "Hi, I'm Abby."
Brittany shook her outstretched hand. "Brittany. Nice to meet you."
He motioned toward Brittany. "Come on. We need to see Ducky and leave Abby to her work." Gibbs started to walk out. Brittany waved before following.
"Gibbs, aren't you forgetting something?" Abby called.
"In the fridge," he replied before the doors closed.
Brittany looked at him strangely. "What did you put in her fridge?"
"A Caf-Pow. Abby is addicted to those."
"Oh, like you and coffee?" Now it was his turn to look at her strangely. "An observation." She pointed to the cup in his hand. "You're on your third cup this morning."
Gibbs stopped the elevator. "How do you know all that?" he asked her accusingly.
"Like I said: observations. I learned from my last leader." She glared back through her glasses as strong as he was. She wasn't backing down.
"There is something familiar about you. I just can't tell what." He reached over and turned the elevator back on.
"Maybe there is, Agent Gibbs, but I am not sure what you are talking about." The doors opened on Autopsy level. She exited the elevator. "You coming, Agent Gibbs?"
He walked out of the elevator before the doors closed. Brittany let him walk ahead of her through the sliding doors.
Ducky looked up from the body in front of him. "Ah, Jethro. I was wondering when you would come down." He moved away from the body and threw away his gloves. "You must be Brittany Madison."
She shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, Doctor."
"What have you got for us, Duck?" Brittany looked at them strangely as Ducky walked back over to the body.
"I sent the blood with Mr. Palmer to Abby for a toxincology report. Our guest died of respiratory failure, likely from a poison. I also found evidence of damage to the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system."
"So what do you think we are looking at?" Brittany asked.
"Like I said before, I believe it was some sort of poison. What kind, I am not sure. We will know more once Abby gets the results back."
"Let me know when you have something, Duck." Gibbs turned to leave. Brittany started to follow.
"Ms. Madison, may I speak with you for a moment?" Gibbs looked at Ducky, then at Brittany.
She looked back at Gibbs. "I can find my way back up." He nodded and left Autopsy.
"Come have a seat." He led her to the chairs by his desk. "Something is bothering you," he said to her.
"Is that a question?"
"More of a statement." He poured them each a cup of tea. "Would you like to talk about it?"
"I don't know if I can, Doctor."
"Please, call me Ducky."
She nodded and took a sip of her tea. "It's not that I don't trust you, Ducky. I've tried to forget and move on from what happened, but I am not sure I can. I try to tell someone but when I do, the words don't come out right and I can't seem to say what is on my mind." She stared down at the cup in her hands and took another sip.
Ducky reached out and put a hand on hers. "When you feel that you are ready my dear, I am willing to listen."
She took a breath. "Can you promise me that you won't tell anyone? Especially Gibbs. But I need to tell someone this. I don't know how much longer I can go without telling anyone here."
"Of course. I will not tell anyone." She leaned over and whispered something in his ear. His eyes opened wide. "Why would you want to keep that a secret?"
"When I know more, I will tell you. I promise. It's just now I have to keep this a secret." She pulled her hair back nervously and let it fall again.
Ducky nodded. "Don't worry. You can trust me, Brittany."
"Thanks, Ducky. I really appreciate it."
"Now go, before Gibbs starts to wonder what is going on."
They both stood up. Brittany set down her cup and readjusted her glasses. "Thank you, for listening." She gave him a hug then followed the same path up that she took down.
AN 2: Here is this chapter. I will add more soon. Please review/critique so I can improve. Thanks for reading!
~This is BellaWriterChic signing off
