Title: Choices

Author: PunkyRabbit

A/N, Warnings, Disclaimer: See Part 1.

Part 3

"Please, please work." Palmer begged the van. The mechanic had arrived about ten minutes after the NCIS agents left. He had been working on the van for almost an hour, by now, and had gotten Palmer to try to start it several times, each time without success. Jimmy turned the key, yet again, and the engine roared to life. "Yes!" Palmer exclaimed. "Thank you!" He quietly addressed the van as he slipped out of the driver's seat, then, repeated his, "Thank you," to the mechanic as the other man put the hood down. Palmer, after a long wait, was finally on his way back to NCIS headquarters.

He arrived at NCIS, and unloaded the body. As he exited the elevator with the corpse, he noticed that the lights in autopsy were off. He thought that this was very odd, knowing that Ducky should, most likely, still be there finishing up work on other cases, even if he didn't have this body to work on yet. After depositing his charge in the autopsy room, he went to talk to Gibbs to see if the man knew where his old friend might be. As he stepped off the elevator on the correct floor, he noticed that none of the members of Gibbs' team were at their desks. He started to feel like something was going on, but decided that before he started to worry, he should go see if Abby had seen them, or if she knew of a meeting they might have been called to, or if, perhaps they were out on another case already.

He was greeted by the Goth girl's up-beat music, as usual. "Hey, Abby?"

"Oh, hi, Jimmy. Do you have some evidence for me?" She said, as she turned around, to face the ME's assistant.

"Um, no, uh, I-I, uh…no, not yet." He stuttered, and then continued, "Have you seen Dr. Mallard?"

She turned back to her work, as she answered, "Ducky? Nope, haven't seen him."

"Have you seen Gibbs, or any of his team?"

She squinted like she was thinking, while still leaned over her computer, then, she straightened up, turned around, and answered, "No, actually." She thought it a little odd that Palmer beat Gibbs down there.

Starting to worry, he inquired, "They normally come down here, when they first get back from a crime scene, right?"

"Yes, to bring down the evidence, why?"

"They should be here by now." He said more or less to himself.

"What are you talking about, Jimmy?"

"The van broke down, so Dr. Mallard left with Gibbs and his team, while I stayed to wait for the mechanic."

"Okay." She said as if to say, 'so, what's the problem?'

"That was about an hour and a half ago."

"So, they should have been here about an hour ago."

"Yeah."

"Well, hold on." She picked up the phone, and dialed Gibbs' cell phone number. "It's not ringing." She hung up, and tried Tony's phone, only to get the same outcome. She then tried Kate's and McGee's phone, but theirs weren't ringing either. She hung up the phone and started typing something into her computer. "I can't find them on GPS, which would mean that their phones are either off or damaged. But, since I'm not even getting their voice-mail, I'm gonna say that they're broken, somehow."

"So, it's safe to assume they're in trouble?"

"Probably. Here…" she shoved the phone at Palmer, and then went back to her computer, as she continued, "Keep trying their cell phones. I'll go check with the director, and make sure that he didn't just send them on another case already." As she turned to leave, she continued to herself, '

Of course, that wouldn't explain the hinky thing with the phones, but I've got to try.'

"OK", he said, as he started dialing.