I'm having trouble uploading my story for some reason - it keeps saying the documents are empty. I will try to keep posting.
Chapter 4 - A final night in the lab
"OK," Ziva announced, "I have a list of over 100 possible safe house locations associated with this man."
"Do you think we could thin it out a bit by correlating with the mud sample?" asked Tony.
"Clay, Tony," Abby corrected, "but I am impressed: all these years and you've finally grasped the concept of correlation. I'm so proud of you." She enveloped him in a hug.
"Well, can we?" he gasped as Abby crushed the air from his lungs.
"Well," she replied cheerfully, releasing him, "I'm analysing the chemical composition now and McGee's been setting up the geological database for the search. Once it's running I can add in Ziva's locations and see what it comes up with."
The group froze as Abby's door swished open again.
"I'm getting you a surveillance camera for that corridor as a parting gift," Gibbs grumbled.
"Only me," called Michelle Lee, "I was looking for Jimmy." She stopped dead as she saw them sitting with boxes of evidence strewn over the table and now the floor. "Ah…you are authorised to remove that from the evidence locker at night, right?"
"Ahhhh, sure," it was not Abby's most convincing effort.
Before anyone could react, Agent Lee dived on the clipboard poking out of one of the boxes. "There's no chain of evidence. You haven't even checked it out – and you've added an item after the cut off!"
Tony procured a blunt object and proceeded to creep up behind her.
Agent Lee shook her head in horror. "You'll need a delegate's signature from someone in Legal here," she signed the page and flipped to the next one, "and here". She started writing on the back of her hand. "I'll fill out a DC 51 in the morning and backdate it," she mumbled absently to herself, "that should cover you."
She stopped and looked up at the stunned group. "If you want to catch these bastards and NOT let them get away on a legal technicality, you're going to have to follow proper procedure," she pointed out with a sweet smile.
Jimmy was beaming. "Isn't she fantastic?"
Michelle spun to Tony and frowned quizzically as he tucked something behind his back.
"Welcome to the team, Agent Lee," he said.
"Oh I can't stay," she informed him abruptly. "I just came to remind Jimmy that it's his mother's birthday and he promised to visit."
Jimmy expression fell somewhere between thankfulness to be saved from his mother's wrath, and embarrassment that their relationship was clearly more than anyone had suspected. He smiled tepidly at the others. "She's sort of my social secretary."
"I'll be your wailing widow if you don't get moving," she pointed out.
"Go," Ducky shooed him, "this is an event you really can't afford to miss, believe you me. The consequences may be too terrible to contemplate."
"But," Jimmy protested weakly.
"Besides," Ducky added. "This may be a long night and SOMEONE is going to have to front up to autopsy tomorrow."
Jimmy nodded gratefully. "OK, then. Ahh, ring me if you need something."
He offered Michelle his arm and they strode off through the dimly lit lab.
"Miss, Lee," Ducky called after them.
"Yes doctor?"
"Excuse my impertinence but you wouldn't happen to own a pair of leopard skin panties, would you?"
"No doctor," she smiled brightly. "Not anymore," she confided to Jimmy as they made for the door.
Tony put down his folder, leaned back in his chair and refocused his eyes on his surrounds. Beside him, Ducky and Gibbs still leafed through the documents lying about the table. It had turned cold and dark in the lab many hours ago and the steady patter of rain on the pavement outside Abby's ground-level windows was just discernable over Ziva's snoring as she sat slumped on the floor in the corner of the lab, a folder still spread out in front of her. McGee and Abby were lying face down on a bench fast asleep like two ballet dancers: their faces turned towards each other, their arms in a haphazardly interlaced version of prostrate bras en couronne.
"You going to miss all this, Boss?" Tony asked lazily.
Gibbs' head popped up from the report he was reading and he scanned the room, taking in the old familiar sight: an exhausted team supporting each other. "Nope"
"Me neither."
"You taking that European job?" asked Gibbs casually, returning to his reading.
Tony frowned at him. "Jenny told you about that?"
"Who do you think recommended you?"
"What have you got against Yeardon's team?"
"Nothing," Gibbs replied, nonchalantly turning a page, "but you've really got to let this vengeance thing go."
"I learnt from the best."
"DiNozzo," Gibbs looked up, "you ever read Moby Dick?"
Tony's mouth opened but he was denied a right of response by the urgent beeping of Abby's computer which, against all odds, had managed to attract his attention over the cavalcade of Ziva's snores. Despite the fact the alarm was within inches of Abby and McGee, neither stirred, both too entombed in slumber to notice. Tony threw Gibbs an uncertain look.
"Well," Gibbs urged, "go on."
Without further encouragement, Tony leapt from his chair and approached the screen. Abby's search was complete. There were fifteen possible sites: fifteen locations standing between him and peace. Leaning between Abby and McGee, Tony killed the alarm and hit the print key.
He returned to his seat with the list in his hands. "How am I going to convince the Director I need to do this, tomorrow?"
Gibbs smiled mischievously. "Leave her to me. I was thinking of ditching the farewell party and I might need someone to talk me out of it. I'm a stubborn bastard. Could take all morning"
"Then," Ducky chimed in, "I might have a change of heart about uprooting mother at this late stage of her life."
"You'll need a lot of counselling," Gibbs commiserated.
"Oh my, yes," Ducky concurred, "could take all afternoon."
