Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen. Siestas really are a good idea in Kos...
Chapter 4: Siesta Time
Jennifer Shepard wondered why the humidity had affected her agents so badly. It was mid-afternoon, and they were all having siestas. She had not been affected as much, and had taken the time to amble along the beach and back, treating herself to a few sips of bourbon on the way.
Without anything better to do, and knowing that the others would not send out a search party for another couple of hours, she had decided to locate her sister. As usual, it had taken her half a second to work out where she would be.
Dodging screaming children who were jumping into the outdoor swimming pool, she stepped into a slightly shadier area against the wall. She mimicked Lily's position, leaning back against the wall and looking towards the pool.
They were, predictably, wearing exactly the same clothes, with exactly the same floppy hat on their heads, and had exactly the same pair of aviator-style sunglasses on.
"Drinking before noon again?" Lily asked, without taking her eyes off her son.
Jenny winced. When her sister had worked out just how much bourbon she had been drinking throughout her pursuit of Le Grenouille, Lily had tipped a small fortune down the kitchen sink before engaging in an argument that had caused the neighbors to ring the police. "I had a few sips," she defended herself.
"Want to tell me about it?"
"Not yet."
They watched as Jasper tried to dive into the pool and ended up doing a belly flop.
"We need to stay away from each other," Jenny decided.
"So your agents don't figure out how often we swap?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of 'so they don't realize you exist'."
Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Fine by me. How do you propose we do this then?"
Jenny considered. "Jasper picks where you go?"
"Why don't you get LJ to pick where you go, then I can go where I want."
"I might need to make decisions, and if you really are on vacation…"
Lily broke her observation on her son and shifted slightly. "We are on vacation."
"At the same time as I am? In the same place? At the same resort?"
They shared a grin. "Okay…" Lily conceded. "The vacation's a cover."
"For what?"
"Can't tell you."
"Can't or won't?"
"It's classified."
"Operation Lazarus classified?"
Lily turned back towards her son. "Need to know."
"Whatever happened to 'no secrets'?"
"It never changed. 'No secrets except classified ones'."
"Your security clearance is higher than mine."
Lily grinned. "Is that a statement or a complaint?"
"I'm not sure," Jenny admitted.
"Join the CIA," her sister advised, as Jasper charged towards them.
"Aunt Jenny," he squealed, throwing his arms around her and soaking her.
"It's good to see you too," she answered, glaring at her sister.
"Are you on vacation?" he asked.
"No, sweetheart, I'm working on something."
"Will you come to dinner with us tonight?"
The sisters shared a look. "I can't," Jenny told him. "But if you want, I can take you somewhere now."
Tony smiled wickedly as a thought occurred to him. In an attempt to survive the hottest part of the day, everyone had taken the Probie's advice and were taking siestas. Tony had caught up on some of the sleep that he had missed the previous night, which had lessened his headache.
Gibbs had taken him to one side when they had arrived back at the hotel, and told him that drinking large quantities of alcohol when already suffering from dehydration was an extremely bad idea. He had suggested drinking a lot of chilled water throughout the day, and then doing whatever he liked in the evenings. Of course, 'whatever he liked' really meant 'whatever he liked as long as he was sober and not hungover when on duty the next day', but Gibbs hadn't needed to add that part.
Now, feeling refreshed and energized again, he decided to put his plan into action.
"McGee, the room's on fire," he called, loud enough to wake the other man.
The Probie woke up with a start, fought his way out of his covers and ran for the door, before noticing that Tony hadn't moved an inch.
"I've had an idea."
McGee groaned. "Did you have to wake me up to discuss it?"
"I need your help."
McGee gave him a very suspicious look. "With what?"
"Didn't Ziva teach you how to pick locks?"
"Yes…"
"And everyone's resting?"
"Supposed to be resting," the younger man complained.
"So, if Jenny and Gibbs are sleeping together, shouldn't she be in his room?"
"You want me to break into Gibbs' room? I won't leave in one piece!"
Tony shook his head. "We don't have to do that. She's supposed to be in Ziva's room. All we have to do is see if she is or not."
"I'd rather break into Gibbs' room," McGee told him. "At least I'd die quickly."
Ziva woke up instantly. It took her a moment to realize why. There was a soft scratching at her door. Someone was trying to pick the lock!
Reaching under her pillow, she tightened her grip on her omnipresent gun and padded silently across the room. Deciding that surprise would give her a good advantage, she flung the door open and aimed her gun –
At a very scared-looking McGee.
"Err… good afternoon," he spluttered. "Did you have a nice rest?"
She glared at Tony, who was a few steps behind McGee and attempting to make a quick getaway. "You could have knocked."
"It was Tony's idea," McGee rapidly confessed.
Tony stopped trying to escape and came over to the door. "We were just wondering –"
She realized what he was going to do, and pulled the door almost closed behind her. "Wondering what?" She was vaguely aware that she sounded murderous.
"Where the Director is? We had an idea and wanted to talk to her," he lied smoothly.
"She is asleep," Ziva fibbed straight back. "I do not wish to wake her."
"It'll only take a minute," Tony tried.
"I can take a message," she offered.
Tony considered his options. "We've got a bet going," he admitted.
"I do not care for your stupid bets."
"Only because you tend to lose! I think that Jenny isn't in your room because she's in Gibbs' room."
'Damn,' she thought. "She is asleep," she replied aloud.
"If I'm right, McGee owes me fifty bucks. Want to join in?"
Although he suspected that his agents would be taking advantage of the time to sleep, Gibbs had found himself unable to settle down. He supposed it was because he was getting used to having someone else with him, but Jenny had chosen to go for a walk instead, claiming that she would not get any sleep later if she slept now.
Admittedly he had no intention of letting her sleep later, and he desperately wanted to catch up on some of last night's sleep, but the heat had got to him. Sleep was not coming any time soon.
Instead, he had tried to come up with some other things to do. He had gone over the very brief report that they had photocopied at the police station, and looked over all the notes he had taken. He couldn't find anything to substantiate the father's claim that his son had been murdered. On the other hand, he didn't have anything that definitively pointed to suicide, like a note.
Hearing a small disturbance coming from the direction of Ziva's room, he headed towards the door. He placed his ear against the wood and listened for a few moments. Everything appeared to be under control, and he doubted that McGee would let Tony persuade him to pick the lock to Ziva's room any time soon. He chuckled to himself as his cell phone rang, and he located it on the balcony table.
"Gibbs," he answered, not bothering to check the caller ID.
"Bossman!" came a very excited cry, accompanied by some of the loudest music, if it could be termed that, he had ever heard.
The music was suddenly switched off, and Gibbs sighed in relief. "Jethro?" came Ducky's voice.
"I'm still here," he told them, guessing he was on speaker.
"How's Kos?" Abby asked.
"Hot," he answered. "How many Caf-Pows have you had today?"
"Only a few more than usual."
"A lot more than usual," Ducky corrected.
"I miss you guys," she complained.
"Lay off the caffeine for a while," Gibbs ordered, rubbing his head. Even five thousand miles away, her caffeine-induced antics were starting to give him a headache.
"But Gibbs, I can't work without my Caf-Pow."
"Abs," he warned.
"Okay, so I looked over the pictures and I found nothing out of place."
Ducky joined in. "The report you sent is woefully inadequate and an autopsy should really have been performed."
"It's very hot out here; the body needed to be buried quickly. The entire police service in Kos probably gets less money each year than one of us gets paid," Gibbs pointed out.
"Nevertheless, I cannot see anything that makes me suspicious of a murder," Ducky replied. "However, as we did not investigate it at the time, I can't conclude with absolute certainty whether he committed suicide or not."
"Thanks Duck. And you too Abs," Gibbs praised.
"Gibbs! Before you hang up and go after the bad guys, coz there must be bad guys if you're asking us to look at grainy images and read rubbish reports, and your gut is obviously telling you something, and I don't want to tear you away from the investigation –"
"What, Abs?"
"Why was Daniel Sutcliff's body buried in Kos?"