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DS2010: Well, you'll see. Thank you for reviewing!
Chapter Three:
"And he would what?" Tim asked.
He had been unsure it would be a good idea to try and get the girl to continue. What bothered him was Erica talking about her brother in the past tense and her suddenly cutting her sentence so short.
The girl hesitated as she looked at the window, before getting out of the car.
Apparently the question was not going to be answered. Unbuckling his seatbelt, the agent took a second to take a deep breath, sighed, and got out of the car. He walked over to the teen and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's alright. I can understand talking about a family member can be painful. I'm sorry."
The girl sent him a weak smile and muttered a 'thank you' under her breath before looking away from him. He noted her smile actually seemed genuine too. Though, it was like he had just taken one step forward and two steps back at the same time.
At least he could note his attempt getting the girl to talk was touching her in some way.
Surprisingly, the teen had her attention on Ducky's Morgan. The reflection of the girl's face showed she was troubled and bothered by the mention of her brother. It was a face that was all too familiar when he had seen it on Gibbs and Ziva in particular.
"Oh my, Timothy, is my car that fascinating you cannot keep your lovely young friend's eyes off of it?"
Startled, Tim turned around to see an amused Ducky standing outside, the keys to his in his hand. It appeared he was either leaving the restaurant or had seen the two people pulling into the parking lot. A smile appeared on the agent's face he looked over at Erica, who eyed the new arrival.
Apparently, Ducky's remark caused the girl to get embarrassed as her face flushed a bit.
"Well, you see, I was surprised to see a Vintage Morgan car and I got a bit overexcited…" Erica replied.
"She knows a bit about cars, Ducky."
"I can see that. It has been a long time since I've seen any teenager look at my car. Oh, where are my manners? I'm Donald Mallard but you can call me Ducky."
Erica raised an eyebrow, "Hello, I'm Erica. Where did the name Ducky come from?"
"It was a name I had acquired in my youth. You see-"
"So Ducky, are getting lunch or something?" Tim interrupted before Ducky could even get started on one of his long stories.
Erica gave a small glare towards Tim. He shifted a bit uncomfortably and turned his attention towards Ducky. Apparently the teen had been interested in the story.
The elder man seemed to nod as he remember, "Oh yes. I came out here to get my debt card from my pants pocket. I accidently left in there earlier and forgot to put it back in my wallet. So tell me, are you two here to eat lunch?"
Tim nodded, "Yes, we decided to get a bite to eat after having no idea where we wanted to go."
"Well, do you mind if I join you? Everyone almost ran off so quickly earlier from the Navy Yard I assumed there was a fire I had been left unaware of."
"Navy Yard?" Erica whispered, more so to herself.
"Well, it is fine with me. How about you, Erica? After all, it is your choice," Tim turned to look at Erica, who looked back at him. She simply nodded.
After her reaction just mere minutes before it did not surprise him by the girl's lack of response.
x-x
"Lopez, I'm getting tired of waiting here. I'm going to grab me a bite to eat…this is getting ridiculous!"
A sigh was heard on the other phone line…
"Mark, have you ever considered the possibility the girl will show up there?"
"Yes, but if she comes back even while I'm gone, we can always get her then…"
"Fine, go get your lunch. I don't want to hear you complain. Call me when you actually have some developments on the girl. Just don't take too long. If we do, there is a slim chance Evans' body could be recover-"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Great, now the moron hung up on me. If he screws this up, I'll go look for the girl myself. She cannot be that far. We need that external hard drive. Now, my dear, do you have any idea where your niece may had hidden something like that? All we want is that…"
A scream was all that could be heard in response.
"Hm, I guess you don't know. However, you know too much already, Ms Evans. It's a shame really but I guess I was wrong to have killed your nephew too soon…"
A few minutes later the sounds of gunshots were all that could be heard from the motel room before a man quickly exited the room and walked out.
x-x
The restaurant was nicer than what Tim thought when he stepped inside with Ducky and Erica. The smell of fresh seafood made his stomach growl. Fortunately, the loud music in the background provided the nice cover to hide that…
Still, he could not help the small blush that appeared on his face.
Walking up to a host stand, the three people were greeted by a host, a teenage boy who appeared to be not much older than Erica.
"Hello, how many?" The host asked.
"Three."
"Alright, this way please."
As the host went led the three to their table, Ducky appeared to be taken in the décor of the restaurant as much as Tim had been when they first walked in.
The place was decorated with Italian furniture…fake but ones that could fool the average person if someone wasn't used to looking at furniture.
Tim knew a bit about furniture because Penny, his grandmother, had an odd habit of wanting to get a new set of furniture every few years and find ones that looked like those of 1960s. He could remember easily the number of times when he was a child he would beg Penny not to go furniture shopping.
He also remembered when he was about five it was the around the same time he had looked into those red heels…
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Tim said a thank you towards the host as they were seated at a table, near a window. The only annoyance was the loud music playing in the background. It was singing something in Italian that seemed to match the décor. Was this place an Italian restaurant or a seafood restaurant?
"I think I will get this great tasting shrimp platter here," Ducky stated, his menu already in hand and it appeared he had already decided what he wanted.
"How about you Erica, is there a certain type of fish food you would like-" Tim was interrupted by the approaching server.
"Hi, my name is Amy. What can I get you all to drink today?" The woman asked.
"I'll take unsweet tea," Ducky replied as Tim nodded in agreement.
"I'll take the same."
"For you ma'am?" The server asked, looking at Erica.
She had been watching the waitress but seemed a bit confused.
"Uh…what? I'm sorry, I didn't understand you." Erica replied. A sigh escaped the server's mouth. It didn't go unnoticed to Erica, who resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"What would you like to drink?" The server repeated, this time speaking up louder and faster.
"Oh, I guess I'll take a Sprite," Erica, as the girl stared at the woman's face, still appearing a bit confused. The server then took her pen and began writing the drink orders down as she looked back at the guests.
"Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks and to take your order…" The server replied as she walked off her tray and server's book in hand.
"Have you two decided what you want to eat?"
"I already mentioned the shrimp, Timothy. It looks fantastic. What would you like, Erica?" Ducky smiled, his pleasant smile appearing on his face.
"Tapia, I guess," Erica replied, a pained look on her face. With a movement of her hand, she reached up to one of her ears and seemingly played with it for a few seconds before a more relieved look appeared on her face.
That was odd…had the background music been bothering her hearing aids?
"So tell me dear, how is our Timothy here treating you?" Ducky asked the teen. He had noticed the exchange near the vehicles prior and it had gotten his interest.
"He talks a lot," Eric replied instantly without much thought involved with an answer. A small grin appeared on Ducky's face as he looked at the agent and could not contain a small laugh.
Tim had flushed a bit at the comment, resisting the urge to glare at the teenager. The only reason he had been talking was to make conversation. However, if the girl thought he talked a lot, he wondered what would ever happen if she had met Tony…
"I don't know if we're talking about the same person here Erica."
Expecting a reaction similar to the car ride, Tim was actually surprised with a small smile appeared on the teen's face, "They look alike. Mr. Mallard."
Another small laugh came from Ducky as he was fixing to comment again but Tim was fortunate enough to be saved by the server returning to take their order and going away just as quickly as she came. Erica had eyed the server, when Erica had to ask the server to repeat her questions a few times.
It did not go unnoticed by Ducky or Tim. Fortunately, the girl had particularly been interested in hearing Ducky talk about his Vintage Morgan.
"Mr. Mallard, I really like your car. Did you really have to pay to have certain parts rebuilt?" Erica asked.
"Yes, my dear. Termites like to eat the wood base of those cars so easily. I'm surprised to see such a young girl such as yourself interested in cars."
"I'm not really interested in them that much, to be honest. They just remind me of my brother is all." There was that familiar mask once again on the girl's face.
x-x
Leory Jethro Gibbs could have found plenty to do for the weekend. Even though he about lived his life for NCIS, even Gibbs could deny that he was looking forward to a few days off.
There had not been any cases and doing paperwork meant using a computer…and he just got angry at being around those things. However he was not surprised when he got a phone call on his cellphone.
"Gibbs, here."
"Gibbs, I know your team just left for the weekend, but it seems that we got a missing petty officer that was reported missing a few days ago…"
"Leon, that is a probie's job."
Gibbs was right in some aspects. NCIS would normally send lower level agents to investigate the cases of soldiers going AWOL for a few days. In many cases, it was simply the soldier had decided to get drunk and did not want to come back on base for a few days.
"It's not when the said petty officer may have downloaded classified files from the Pentagon. SecNav wants you and your team to investigate as to why…"
A beep on line alerted Gibbs someone else as calling him. A glance at the phone number surprised him.
"I got it Leon. Let me call the others."
"Make sure you do. Time is of the essence."
"Yeah, Gibbs…" the man stated as he pushed another button his phone, this time putting Vance's call on hold to answer the other call.
"Gibbs, we've got a report of Metro PD finding a body of an enlisted sergeant…"
It did not take a genius to figure out the possibility of a body showing up right when Vance called him seconds prior that he feared the worse.
That the petty officer was probably their missing sergeant they had just found…
x-x
It had not taken very long for the food to arrive. For most of the time, Erica had been entertained by Ducky's wild stories he managed to pull out from nowhere. Tim had enjoyed it because he was actually glad to see Erica interacting with someone.
"Then when I got off the bus in Dublin, my mother had answered the phone, 'Donald how you enjoy that pub music.' My ears would not stop ringing for days after that."
To say the medical examiner was enjoying having the young girl listen to his stories seemed to be doing the older man some good as well would be an understatement.
Though he had recovered, Ducky at times still seemed bothered when people would ask how he was doing from his heart attack, only about a year prior. It had taken him several long months to get to recover and even longer for him to recover emotionally.
It appeared that Ducky had needed someone to join him lunch. Tim made a mental note to try and eat lunch with him more often.
"I can relate," Erica smiled jokingly, as she pointed to one of her, "Too many louds sounds and it feels like my ears will never stop ringing."
"Tell me, my dear, how did you start to lose some of your hearing, if don't mind me asking?" Erica gave a pained look back at the medical examiner.
"You don't have to answer, my dear. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way."
There was that familiar mask on the girl's face again, Tim noted. She had changed her expression way too quickly for it to be normal.
"It's fine, Mr. Mallard. I was in a car accident when I was younger with my parents. I can only recall hitting my head and waking up a few months after the incident. I guess whatever trauma I experienced from the accident made me lose a lot of my residual hearing…"
Tim opened his mouth to apologize when he felt his iPhone start to vibrate as he reached into his pocket. Looking at the screen, it showed he had an incoming call from Gibbs.
As Erica and Ducky kept talking in the background, he got up from the table and answered his phone.
"Hello."
"McGee, your weeekend's over. We just got a case. I'll have Tony give you the address and you meet us there. Have you heard from Ducky, he hasn't answered his phone?"
"Yeah, we'll be on our way. Ducky and I were eating lunch…"
"Good for you two. Nice to know you've been doing that with him, Tim. Anyways, I guess you two can just meet us at there. Palmer is following behind Ziva and I, so neither one of you should need to worry about going back to NCIS."
"Boss, I got a small problem though. I've been mentoring with one of the teens from the Big Brother, Big Sister program. I have no way of taking her back to her aunt's just yet…"
"Alright McGee, just make sure you hurry up. We're gonna need your help on this one. A petty officer that was reported missing a few days ago has just been found washed up on the beach…"
x-x
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