Friday

Chapter 4

The team is at their work station awaiting the arrival of Mark Hamill. At the moment, Gibbs is up in MTAC and Emily, who has off from school today, is sitting at Gibbs' desk minding her own business. As Tony is sitting at his desk, he's banging his head on it.

"I hate this case." Tony stated as he bangs his head on the desk.

"I don't see how you can hate it." McGee said. "This is the most exciting…"

"Of course it's exciting for you, McGeek."

Jamie enters into the area. She sits on the edge of Tony's desk. She looks at Tony and sees the red markings on his forehead from him banging his head on the desk. Jamie sighs and begins rubbing Tony's head.

"You shouldn't try to injure yourself just cuz you don't like a case." Jamie stated. "Nor for the fact that I'm gonna video tape your match and have McGee load it onto YouTube."

Tony's head falls out of Jamie's hands and plummets onto the desk.

"Ouch…" Tony sighed.

"Look on the bright side, Tony…" McGee begins to say.

"What bright side?!" Tony exclaimed as he lifts his head. "This case surrounds a Star Wars convention. Freaks in costume… That Last Vader Standing competition which Gibbs signed me up for when he knows I'm not enjoying this… And the gang of Ewoks wanna filet me."

"What did you do to piss off the Ewoks?" Ziva wondered.

"Nothing… Nevermind."

"You had to do something." McGee said.

"What happened was…" Jamie begins to say but Tony quickly places his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Let her finish!" McGee exclaimed. "I wanna know what you did."

"It ain't gonna happen, McGeek." Tony said.

With Tony's hand still over Jamie's mouth, she now sticks her tongue out. Jamie licks and sobers as much as she can. Tony pulls his hand away.

"That's nasty." Tony said as Jamie smiles innocently.

As Tony wipes his hand down with a paper-towel, Jamie moves to look toward Emily who is sitting quietly at Gibbs' desk.

"How are you doing today, Emily?" Jamie asked. "Is the report coming along ok?"

"I'm fine… The report is good." Emily said as she doesn't even look at Jamie.

"Back in high school, I had to do a report about a career. I did the report on the career of my foster…" Jamie begins to say.

"I'm gonna use the restroom."

Emily gets up and walks away. As she leaves the area, Jamie watches her.

"There's something wrong with that girl." Tony stated. "She doesn't seem to like talking to anybody, other then Gibbs."

"She's been thru a lot, Tony. You'd be cautious and have a hard time trusting anybody if your father abused you for your entire life." Jamie stated.

"I don't get it." Tony said. "Her father is in prison for the rest of his life, so he can't abuse her anymore. So why she acts like…"

"People like us, who haven't been abused, will never understand how she feels or what she's going thru. Just cuz the abuse has finally stopped doesn't mean she's not having a hard time dealing with what happened to her." Jamie stated as she looks Tony in the eyes. "Try to be a little more sensitive and understanding of her situation by cutting her some slack." She paused for a couple seconds. "I'll be right back." She gets off the desk and walks in the direction of the bathroom.

As Jamie approaches the bathroom, she hears a low whimpering. She opens the bathroom door slightly and sees Emily curled up in the corner. Jamie walks into the bathroom. She sits down next to Emily.

"I don't know what you've been thru exactly…" Jamie begins to say. "All I really know is that you and my dad have common childhood life experiences…"

"I miss my sister so much." Emily starts bawling.

As Emily cries, Jamie wraps her arm around her. Jamie pulls Emily closer to try to comfort her as much as possible.

After a while, Mark Hamill steps off the elevator and walks into the work area looking for Gibbs. From his desk, McGee's jaw drops as he's practically frozen in awe. Tony quickly glances over at McGee to see the reaction.

"I'm looking for Special Agent Gibbs." Mark Hamill stated. "Where can I find him?"

"He should be back shortly." McGee said as he gets up in order to get Mr. Hamill a chair.

Once Mark Hamill is seated, McGee goes back to his desk to get something.

"So, Mr. Hamill, do you usually attend these conventions?" Tony wondered as he gets up and walks over to where Mr. Hamill is seated.

"I kind of enjoy the attention of my glory days as Luke Skywalker, so I try to attend as many conventions as my schedule permits." Mark Hamill replied. "I mostly just do voice-overs for animated TV shows or movies."

McGee walks back over while holding his Star Wars, original trilogy DVDs. Tony notices this and immediately begins shaking his head. McGee extends his arms, with movies in hand, towards Mark Hamill.

"Will you sign my Star Wars movies?" McGee is eager to get his movies autographed.

"You're such a geek, McGee." Tony stated.

"I'd be happy to." Mark Hamill said. "Do you have a thin marker?"

"Yeah." McGee now has the biggest smile on his face.

McGee runs to his desk in order to get a thin marker. Once he has the marker in hand, he runs back over and hands the marker to Mark Hamill. As Mark Hamill is signing the movies, McGee is getting antsy with excitement. Tony sees this and smacks McGee on the back of the head.

Gibbs finally comes out of MTAC and makes his way down the stairs. Eventually, he enters into the area. Mark Hamill stands up and extends his hand as Gibbs approaches.

"You must be Mr. Hamill." Gibbs extends his hand. "I'm Special Agent Gibbs."

"Mark is fine." Mark Hamill stated because he doesn't want the formality.

"I'll make this simple, Mark. We need your help."

"Someone wants to kill me. I know."

"You act like that doesn't faze you at all." Tony makes an observation.

"This isn't the first time." Ziva stated.

"In all honesty Gibbs, this is the third time my life has been threatened over the course of attending Star Wars conventions. A fan losing touch with reality to the point of being so consumed by his love for Star Wars, thinking he's on the dark side of the force and the only way to ultimately rule the galaxy is to kill me, Luke Skywalker… It's nothing new to me at this point. So how can I help?"

"The assassin plans on winning the Last Vader Standing competition…" Gibbs begins to say.

"I prefer the term, freak who lost touch with reality." Tony stated. He notices Gibbs glaring at him. "Assassin works too." He now looks away.

"So in other words… It's someone who is skilled with swords." Mark Hamill said. "I'm pretty skilled myself actually. It's a reason I designed the competition in the first place."

"He plans on killing you in the most gloried way…" McGee begins to say. "…By beating you in the final match on Sunday."

"Ha!" Mark Hamill laughed. "I'm sorry. That wasn't me being overconfident in my skills. It's just… I don't see how."

"The victim we have downstairs, Jeremy Keen, was killed with a sword. Our witness saw a Darth Vader holding a lightsaber while coming out from the area. The sword is disguised as a lightsaber." McGee said.

"That wouldn't work." Mark Hamill stated. "The lightsabers that will be used for each match are special made lightsabers. The competitors don't and can't use their own lightsabers for the matches. It's against the rules. The special lightsabers are plastic with foam covering over it. Before each match, the competitors put on a thin armor underneath their costume. So between the thin armor, the foam over the lightsabers and of course the armored helmet that will be provided… The competitors will hardly feel anything." He paused for a second. "After the armor and costume are back on, the competition workers attach a button unto you. The button goes across the chest and once it's hit, it makes a noise and lights-up. It takes two people to prepare it. For the match, Darth Vader's will not have a cape. It would be very hard to have a concealed weapon and keep it hidden until the button is attached." He paused for a couple seconds. "In order for you to do your job… What do you need of me?"

"Just do whatever it is you do at these conventions. Act normal. Let us figure out the who and the how." Gibbs stated.

"You got it."

Suddenly, Jamie and Emily are walking together alongside the windows. Emily walks into the work area while Jamie continues walking toward the back stairs that lead up to MTAC and the director's office. As Jamie is walking alongside the windows, Mark Hamill's eyes are drawn to her as she smiles, waves and winks in his direction. Jamie turns and continues walking.

"Wow… I wouldn't mind taking her out for a night on the town." Mark Hamill said.

"She's my wife." Tony stated.

"She's my daughter." Gibbs stated.

"Talk about awkward." Mark Hamill said. "She was waving to you." He points to Gibbs. "And winking at you." He now points to Tony.

"It's understandable. She's a fox. I know my wife is sexy as…" Tony begins to say as he notices Gibbs glaring at him. "What I meant to say is pretty." He then looks away.

"If we're done here, I really must be going." Mark Hamill stated. He takes out a business card and hands it to Gibbs. "If you need me for anything else, my contact info is on the card."

"And if you see anything suspicious, here's my card." Gibbs hands Mark Hamill a business card.

Mark Hamill stands up and walks to the elevator. Eventually, Mark Hamill is on the elevator and out of sight.

"I can't believe Mark Hamill signed my movies!" McGee exclaimed in excitement. "Check this out Tony."

"I saw, McGeek." Tony now walks away.

"Shouldn't we warn Mr. Hamill that we're not just dealing with one assassin?" Ziva wondered.

"If we told him it was an assassination conspiracy, then we might not have gotten his full cooperation." Tony stated.

"We know the Darth Vader had a disposable phone. Our Petty Officer overheard a phone conversation cuz the witness only saw one person come out from that corridor. Darth Vader has an accomplice, but Mark Hamill doesn't need to know at this point. We need to find some type of connection and all we have to work with the competitor list." Gibbs said. "Have you found out everything about the first 64 competitors on that list yet?"

"It's a fairly large list, Boss." Tony said.

"There are a lot of names to check." McGee said.

"We have ten finished." Ziva stated.

"You all have one hour. One of those competitors is part of the assassination plan." Gibbs stated. "I wanna know the names of family, friends, pets, where they work, if they paid their cable bill this month… When I say everything, I mean everything. I want 64 file folders on my desk by the time I get back."

Tony, Ziva and McGee continue working on the list of 64 competitors that were first come, first serve; the people definitely in the competition and didn't have to be in the raffle because they were already in. Gibbs and Emily leave in order to go down to the Forensic Lab to see if Abby found the disposable phone as all trash bags from the convention were immediately delivered late the Thursday night.