"sign language"


Jay settled back in her cell, she was bored out of her skull. Hours had passed since she'd been put her in here around eight o'clock that night. It had to be nearing one or two in the morning and it looked like she wasn't going to get to see Dante. Then again, it was a Friday. She brought her knee up to her chest and felt under the sole of her boot, reassuring herself that the concealed compartments in the heel and toe were still full. It made her relax slightly. She could defend herself if she needed to – given half a chance she could escape, and she honestly wanted to, but she knew that she shouldn't. Besides, she hadn't seen Ant in an age. Regrettably, her option of phoning and talking with any of her colleagues was out, seeing as they'd taken her phone again. She just hoped she wasn't' going to have to explain to anyone why she'd lost it.

She really didn't have anything to do except rehash the situation on the roof. Could she have escaped? Yeah, if she hadn't made the shot. And that would've meant failing to complete. Something she rarely did. She exhaled sharply. Could she have overwhelmed Ant? Possibly. Could she have evaded all the cops? Possibly not. She didn't know the answer to either of those questions. The only thing she knew was that she was in trouble. They would arraign her in the morning – and she could only hope that certain people had arrived by then to break her out.

Still, she knew she'd screwed up. She shouldn't have hesitated to take him down. But she had. She briefly wondered what other people were doing, if they were as bored as she was.


A shadowed figure sat silently, tapping his fingers together. The door opened briefly to admit another figure.

"Carson got herself arrested," the first figure snarled angrily, resisting the urge to punch something..

"What?" another exclaimed. "How?"

"I don't know. She just called and said she'd been arrested, needed us in the NCIS Navy Yard in Washington DC before her arraignment."

"To break her out?"

"After a manner. And you're not coming."

"Why not? It's Carson! C'mon! You can't stop me! You need me!"

"I can stop you, and I'll take Elis. He's less likely to cause an international incident. You'll just put a gun to the head of the NCIS Director and deliver an ultimatum."

"No I wouldn't! And besides, it wouldn't be international, I'm an American citizen! How would that make it an international incident?"

"Because you're officially dead, and your current ID is British. I'm also taking Nem."

"Why? Where's the logic in that, Nem instead of me? Nem's more antagonistic than I am!"

"I think I should have a legal slant to this. So Elis, Nem and me will be a sufficient team. You will be on American soil though, in case we do need you."

"Yays!"

"I thought we'd got rid of the sarcasm when I sent Carson on assignment. She completed by the way. They arraigning her for murder."

"We really need to get her out then…"


To be honest, Jay could practically imagine the conversation her possible rescuers. Her partner would be demanding he be allowed to come, the top-man refusing point blank and naming the team he would be taking. (If she had to guess, Elis and Nem, Elis for his easy, calm nature, and Nem because of the law degree, Jay's own partner was completely unsuitable, far too volatile). Her head fell back, she cursed the concrete cell depriving her of the chance to count bricks and she started counting seconds.

Three thousand, six hundred and seventy three seconds later, (one hour, one minute and thirteen seconds, if she wasn't much mistaken), the door to the holding cells opened. She looked over and saw Ant entering, closely followed by a young boy of about twelve. She smiled, it had to be Dante, he had Ant's rich tan, and his mother's sharp grey eyes and uncontrollable hair. Jay rose to her feet and waved.

"Hey boys," she signed. "My D, you've grown."

"I would've," Dante pointed out. "It's been ten years."

"That is a rather long time, although the only way your father's grown is round. You grew up."

Dante giggled silently as Jay made comical gestures of up and round. Tony mock-glared at Jay, struggling not to laugh himself.

"I'll have you know I'm in peak health," he retorted sharply.

Jay smirked. "Well, you're still wider than I remember."

"More muscle."

"Around your stomach?"

Dante watched as his father and this woman he didn't quite remember (except for her amber eyes) traded jibes in sign. She moved over to the bars and held out her arms. Tony moved over and hugged her, Dante followed his father's example. She held him out to arms length, then moved back so that she could sign.

"You look so much like your mother…"

Dante and Tony stared at her as she reached out and gently caressed Dante's face. Abruptly, she span away and Tony could see her eyes closing and her biting her lower lip, obviously fighting not to cry.

"Sorry D, need to talk to her quickly," Tony quickly signed to his son.

"That's fine. She seems upset."

Dante was strangely perceptive for his age, but for that, Tony was thankful.

"Hey," he called quietly. "Shan, did you ever mourn her?"

"Don't call me that," Jay bit out. "For all our sakes, call me Jay, or Ms Carson if you must. But not Shan. I'm not her anymore. And no, I never got a chance. Still, he looks like her. Can I hug him properly?"

"Sorry, I don't have the key for the cells."

"Drat."

Still, she hadn't turned around. She didn't want him to see how badly this was all affecting her. She'd been cooped up since she'd shot the Admiral, and it was starting to take its toll, she'd never been cooped up this long before, not without a chance to fight at the least. Tony though, seemed to actually know.

"You alright?" he asked quietly.

"Fine," she snarled angrily.

"You're not. You've been cooped up in here too long."

"No shit Sherlock!"

"That's clichéd."

"We're being rude," Jay signed abruptly, spinning around, her eyes livid, but with a sheen that showed she was still close to tears. Jay sat down cross-legged near the front of her cell, and gestured for Dante to join her. "Come on D, tell me about yourself."

Tony watched as Jay and his son were drew into an animated conversation, made more animated by the fact that they were literally talking with their hands. He smiled fondly at them. He remembered when Jay used to do this with his wife, Indy. The two of them would sit up for hours talking with their hands, the only ones who knew what they were saying (it was in the years before Tony had learnt BSL, he'd only learnt after Dante's birth).

Jay glanced briefly up at him and smiled gently, before returning her attention to the conversation and asking Dante to repeat his last sentence. Tony watched their conversation (they seemed to be discussing motor sports, something both seemed to love, although Tony couldn't remember her ever mentioning motor sports in the past).

He found himself nervously glancing up at the security camera in one corner, hoping that Abby wasn't doing her 'watch the security feeds while running tests' thing. That could make things go very bad. Very, very bad. It would be rather difficult to explain... Why he was here, at three/four in the morning, with his son, talking to a murderer? He knew the answer, but it wasn't one he could actually answer, not to the standard Gibbs would want him to.


Abby was bored. She was waiting for her equipment to give her results. The strange phone-headset was stubbornly refusing her and she was annoyed at it, so had left it behind. Now she was staring at her computer, trying to resist the urge to hack into the- Damn it all to hell, she was bored and she wanted to take another look at the assassin, before going back to the phone. She quickly brought the security feeds for the holding cells up and was startled to find Tony in the holding cells, the assassin and a young boy were sat on the floor, clearly conversing with each other in some form of sign-language, it wasn't ASL, she recognized some of it, but not much. Australian sign perhaps?

Still, what was Tony doing with a young boy, in the holding cells, with a murderer?

Abby quickly pulled up Tony's file, trying to remember what it was he'd told her when he'd had to cancel a night-out they'd planned. And there it was, plain as day. Tony had a twelve-year-old-son, who had to be the boy down in the cells. There was one thing in her mind that kept repeating: call Gibbs, he needs to know. Her hand hovered over her phone. But surely Tony had a good reason? No, there was no reason good enough to take a child to visit a murderer.

She dialled Gibbs' number.

"Gibbs?" he answered curtly.

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs!" she exclaimed. "There'ssomethinguphere! Tony'!"!"

"Abs, slow down! Say that again, I didn't catch a word except 'something' and 'Tony'."

"There's something wrong. Tony's in the cells with his son and the assassin! You need to get here right now! You said your gut's been going all day! This is gotta be what it's been going on about! Please come! Hurry!"

"I'm on my way."

Gibbs hung up and Abby continued to stare at the screen, slightly scared. This wasn't right, Tony wouldn't put his son in harm's way, and he couldn't know the assassin…could he? Abby scrolled through his record. No, he couldn't know her. His record was complete, there was nothing faked, everything was verifiable. She'd run the background check for Gibbs after all, and she hadn't been able to find anything fake about it. Had she missed something? No she couldn't have!

Gibbs walked into her lab and swept her into a tight hug. "What is it Abs?"

Abby pointed at the screen mutely, words for once failing her. Gibbs had been somewhat delayed, despite hearing how distressed Abby had been. He looked at the screen and found Tony sat on the floor, against the wall, a young boy asleep with his head on Tony's stretched out legs, and Ms Jay Carson sat cross-legged facing them, Tony and Carson communicating with their hands.

"Tony doesn't know sign."

"Apparently he does!" Abby found her voice. "At least some form of sign, it's not ASL, I can't understand a word they're saying…signing. I'm scared! They seem to know each other!"

"Damnit!" Gibbs cursed, he knew he should've listened to his gut. "I knew something was up! I knew it!"

"What're we going to do?"

"I'm going down to confront Tony!"

"What about the boy?"

"You come with me. I think we need to get Dante away from Tony."


The Lear jet came to a halt and the door opened, allowing four people to exit. Three men and a woman. The woman and two of the men were dressed in smart, well-tailored designer suits, the woman in a skirt. The other man was in jeans, Converse and a leather jacket. The casually dressed man mock-saluted and slunk off, away from the other three.

"So where to?" the woman inquired easily, turning to the seeming leader.

"We all know where," the leader replied, holding the door of the Beamer that was waiting for them. The woman slipped in.

"I'll make the call on the drive."

The other man slipped into the back seat as the leader walked round to the driver's side.


Tony had started ignoring the camera. "It's going to take a while to get used to not calling you by your real name."

'Jay' smiled at him. "It's not my real name anymore. The name I asked you to call me is my real name."

"What happened to you? What changed you?"

"It's a long story, you sure you've got time?"

Tony looked down at the sleeping form of Dante, he'd suddenly flaked a few minutes ago and Tony had had him lay down, and covered him with his jacket, stretching out his legs for use as a pillow. "I think I have plenty of time, I don't think he's going to wake up anytime soon."

"Thanks for coming back. I was going stir-crazy in here!"

"You going to tell me what changed you?"

"I failed to complete."

"What? You? What happened?"

"I was given the assignment, all was going well, you remember the Villa Cupola in the Western Excelsior?"

"Yeah, nice place."

"The mark was in that. I was fine, got in fine, got to the mark, fine, had the gun point at the mark's chest. Then things went to hell…"

"How did things go to hell?"

"An old colleague was working for the mark. Came after me. Strange how it's always old colleagues who mean I either fail to complete, get arrested, or both."

"But clearly you weren't arrested, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"I was sort of arrested. Here's what…"

The door burst open and Tony almost jerked to his feet, waking Dante up, while Jay span to her feet, going as if to draw a gun.


"What the hell is going on here?" Gibbs roared. Dante blinked sleepily at the irate agent, noticed the furious look and hid behind Tony's back.

Abby signed at Dante in ASL. He looked blankly at her. Tony curled a protective arm around his son. Jay left off her defensive stature to quickly sign to Dante.

"It's alright, she doesn't realize you don't know ASL."

"DiNozzo," Gibbs snarled. "Send your son over here, now."

"Now that's just asking too much," Tony growled back, tightening his grip ever so slightly, but not so that it was painful. "Would you send Kelly to someone who was furious? Especially if she couldn't understand what the hell they were on about!"

Gibbs seemed to swell and Tony flinched back slightly. That had been a stupid thing to say.

"How dare you bring Kelly into this!" he roared and Dante had his eyes fixed on Jay who continued to sign reassuringly at him, seeing as the three of them could sign, Dante had forgone his hearing-aids, so Jay also translated (although by this point, she was sure Dante could hear and understand Gibbs).

"Because you're scaring my son!"

"You're the one who brought him to see an assassin!"

"That's my choice! Not yours!"

The yelling match was getting worse, and Tony had made it to his feet. Gibbs started stalking towards him, fists clenched. Abby screamed as Jay reached out and wrapped her arm around Gibbs' neck, anchoring her arm with the other hand on her wrist, leaping slightly to wrap her legs around Gibbs' waist (very thankful for her slim build).

Tony turned to tell Jay to put him down when a new voice cut into the fray.

"Why am I not surprised to find you trying to kill someone Carson?" the voice announced the arrival of a slim, vulture like man, who was stood just inside the door.

"Boss…" Jay forced out.


A/N: Please note, I'm fudging the details for how Jay's boss got there. A Lear jet wouldn't make the distance, but the time is about right, possibly too long. And yes. Tony did take his son in to see Jay/Shan at three in the morning, due to wanting to try and avoid Gibbs. Abby called Gibbs and hour and a half-ish later, and Jay's Boss turned up at five-ish. The time-line is a tad messed up, and I know, you probably wouldn't take your son to see a murderer you're pretending not to know at three am, but… Either way, this is a work of fiction :-D. Please read and review. ...That's idiotic, asking you to read and review...if you're reading this you've already read...so please review? (Look, another fast update! I'm saving up so that come a week Thursday when I drop off the face of the earth for a week you won't kill me too much...)