Brief summarization of characters:
Ziva's team: Sarah Winchester (SFA) and Maxine Forrester became Ziva's team eight years ago when she took assignment in Paris. At the beginning of this story they got Johnathan Fitzpatrick as their new probie.
McGee's team: McGee became team leader three years ago when Tony and Abby left. His team includes Angel DeLuca (SFA,) Matt Jericho, and Shauna St. Clair (Probie) who has only been on the team for a year.
Chapter Four: Aciid!
Aciid!—Jem (Just put it on repeat and pretend that this song is playing in the background at the club)
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. –The Buddha
The night started off pretty smoothly. Eventually, Sarah and Maxine showed up to put in a little more variety. Considering the victims from this morning looked so aesthetically different, they were unsure as to the killer's exact type. As the night went on, Shauna seemed to find a rhythm of trying to appear like she was having fun while still looking out for possible suspects. Though, she still had a hard time trying not to laugh when Angel started twitching every time a man tried to lay a line on her. But Angel was a professional; she chatted with them long enough to get some necessary information out of them. As per McGee's instructions, tonight was just to try and build a workable list of names and phone numbers.
"Hey!" Angel said, slapping at Shauna's hand. "You're tearing up my clothes."
She looked down. The thread connecting to one of the annoying sequins was frayed almost to the point of breakage. "Oh, shit. Sorry." Her hands went up to her mouth and she started chewing on her unpainted nails. Angel batted her hands back down. "Nervous habit."
"Well, stop being nervous," Angel growled. "I swear to God. If one more idiot tries to feed me some cheesy line about my 'beautiful blonde curls,' I am going to snap him like a twig."
"Just relax."
"You relax!" She sat back in her chair. "At least every guy who hits on you is the right gender." She had just come back to the table after talking to what Shauna had considered to be a rather handsome man. If he had said to her what he'd said to Angel, she might just have been swept off her feet.
"Playing wingman, huh?" came a quiet, low pitched voice from behind them. He wasn't particularly attractive, but he had a certain confidence about him that intrigued Shauna. Angel narrowed her eyes at the new arrival.
"You had better watch it unless you want to get punched in the junk," Angel said, finally losing her cool.
A smile lit his features, and he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "No worries. I was actually hoping to talk to your friend here." He turned to Shauna. "The names Dave."
"'The names Dave'" Angel mocked walking away. Shauna could hear McGee chastise her over the earwigs.
"Cari," Shauna said, and held out her hand to grip his.
He raised his eyebrows. "Wow. First real handshake I've gotten from a woman all night."
"Most men are deterred by that sort of nonsense."
He smiled again. It was rather contagious. "I disagree. You know, there's a lot that you can tell about a person by the way they shake your hand."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
He's a charmer. Angel had to give him that as she watched Shauna sweet talk Dave out of his number, or rather, she was sweet-talked into asking for it. "Blea," she stuck her tongue out in disgust.
Suddenly, a very short dress came into her line of vision and Angel was intrigued. Maybe tonight wouldn't be so bad after all. But then she looked up the see the overly bright face of none other than Sarah Winchester, red hair in a high ponytail and her bubble of happiness popped.
The accent nearly sent her off twitching again. "Find anythin' yet?"
Angel smiled, annoyed. "They're all creeps to me."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Maxine wasn't fairing nearly as well as her partner, voluptuous redhead as she was. Apparently, men didn't really go for all black outfits, regardless of how little it left to the imagination. Then again, the dog collar wasn't her type of thing, but Bobby had found one of Abby Sciuto's old ones in his lab the other day and insisted that she wear it tonight. For some 'variety,' as he had called it.
She took another sip of the virgin roman coke, a.k.a. regular coke; the bartender had just laughed when she ordered it. If her boss wasn't watching every move she was making, she might have had him dump a little something extra in it. It was going to be a long night. She sat back in her chair and closed her eyes.
"Maxine!" She jumped up at the voice which sounded suddenly in her ear. She had to clench her jaw to keep from crying out. Damn earpieces.
"Agent McGee," she said quietly, barely moving her lips. "Where's Ziva?"
"Bathroom." His voice was gruff. "You haven't gotten many numbers."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you noticed that, did you?"
He chuckled softly. "Can I give you some advice?"
"Suppose I can't say no."
"Well, you can start with getting the hell out of that booth," McGee said. "Go up to the bar. Act confident…. Be confident."
Maxine sighed and stood up, adjusting her shirt to make sure the button cam was clear. "You try getting picked up when all you want to do is go home and sleep."
As usual, Agent McGee was right. The second she sat down in front of the bar, a large, sweaty man came up to her, which was followed by quiet laughter in her ear.
She sighed. At least it was something.
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
McGee and Ziva were still in the office, listening into their agents work when they got bored, but mostly, they sat together in a conference room and looked over all the papers spread out over the table. Ziva's nephew Natanael was downstairs asleep on the couch in Bobby's vacated lab, having worn himself out from playing video games with the scientist all evening. For someone who claimed to love all of nature, Bobby sure loved slaughtering in the digital world. But eventually, he had declared Natanael the king and left to get some sleep.
Matt and Johnathan had gone home already, as they were expected bright and early to start going over all the video from the button and necklace cams the girls were wearing. But, of course, someone had to stay to run the command center and supervise to make sure nothing went wrong, and neither McGee, nor Ziva had conceded to go home first.
Ziva's head went suddenly to the table, making a muffled thump as her hair flopped over the papers. "How much longer?" she asked the table.
McGee checked his watch. "'Bout half an hour until midnight. That's when they should be packing up."
She made a pained noise.
"Doesn't Natanael have school tomorrow?" McGee asked, attempting to guilt her into going home.
"No. It's a faculty meeting day." It almost sounded like she was crying. "But I have to go to represent the PTA."
McGee laughed and patted her on the shoulder. Who'd have thought Ziva would ever turn into a soccer mom? Not that he didn't like the change in cast; it was nice having a kid that he got to help mentor. Palmer's girls were still too young for that. "Ziva, go home. The nights almost over."
She sighed in what appeared to be defiance, but then stood up suddenly and shuffled her pile of papers into a single stack. "Fine. But, anything happens, I am the first to know. Are we clear?"
"Yes, ma'am." That comment earned him the first headslap he's had in years. He rubbed the back of his head and smiled as he watched her leave, but as soon as the door shut it faded. Pain memory response. When she hit him, a vision of silver hair and blue eyes flashed across his mind. After Gibbs passed, even Tony had stopped doing it; to him, at least.
'Just doesn't feel right, doing it to you. That was his thing,' he had said, facing the plasma. He ignored the angry Angel, who had just been given a headslap, in the background. He half-shrugged and looked discretely over his shoulder. "She deserved it."
McGee smiled.
He leaned back in his chair. Has it really been six years? he thought, not for the first time that week. McGee still couldn't believe how much had changed. When Ziva left, Tony was depressed for a long time, but eventually, he realized that it just wasn't meant to be. And even after she came back, they remained just friends. Apparently, Abby had begun to fill that void. Leave it to Tony to have a secret relationship.
But life moved on. Tony left McGee as team leader, with Angel and Matt. It stayed a three man team for almost two years before McGee finally found Shauna to fill the empty desk-his old desk. She was nervous as hell when they'd first met, but she managed to push past that, stand up to Angel's taunts, and almost single-handedly catch a killer, all at the same time. Gibbs would have been proud.
He checked his watch after a while; two 'til midnight. He pushed the button for the comms, and said, "Alright, ladies. Wrap it up and head home."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Sarah stepped away from the man she had been chatting up and started toward her partner. Max was sitting in the booth again, head down on the table. "You ready, girl?"
Max's head shot up. "Like you have no idea." She stood and took off for the exit.
"Hey, wait up," Sarah called after her, nearly stumbling in her heels. She caught up to her near the door. "Hey, relax." She put her arm around Max's shoulders and held her still while she took off her stilettos. "Nights over, we're done. No need to run." They stepped outside and headed for the car on the other side of the street.
"So did you have good-" Max stopped. "Did you hear that?"
Sarah looked around. "Hear what?" She stopped walking, turning her head to the side. Max pointed towards that parking lot, which had already been full by the time they'd arrived.
Then she heard it; muffled crying. Sarah dropped her shoes on the ground and went for the gun in her thigh holster as they crept their way through the cars toward the sound.
A flash of dirty blonde hair and a dark blue dress appeared as it was shoved into the back of a dark SUV fifty feet away. "Ziva? Agent McGee?" She said into the comms. The door slammed and the car started. "Ziva!" Sarah said, louder, breaking into a run. Something sharp cut into her left foot, but she didn't stop.
Agent McGee's voice sounded in her ear, "Sarah, what's wrong?"
The car pulled out into the street ahead of them and sped off into the night. "I can't see it. Max!" she called to the left side of the lot. "Anything?"
"What happened?" McGee demanded.
"Last two digits are 39." Max ran over. "Couldn't get anything else."
"It looked like a Tahoe."
"No, it was too small for that."
"Hey!" McGee shouted, causing interference in their ears. "What happened? I can't see anything."
Sarah slapped the wall behind her in frustration. "Some girl just got abducted."
"Did you see the guy?"
"No. But she had blonde hair. It was an SUV, last two digits 39."
"Make, model? Color?"
Sarah looked to Max, who shrugged. "Black? Blue? It's too dark."
"Damn it."
"Guys, what's wrong?" Angel's voice came from behind them.
"What happened?" She took in Sarah's bare, bleeding feet. "Are you okay?"
"We're fine," Sarah said through clenched teeth. "That girl that just got kidnapped might not be though. Fuck!" she slammed her fist down on the nearest car hood.
Max put her hand on her arm. "Calm down. We'll find her, don't worry."
McGee spoke up, breathing deeper, as if he were moving. "Guys, hang tight, I'll be right there. Call the cops, and have them set up down there with a forensics team. We need to work this fast."
AN: I understand that because I created these characters, I understand them a bit more than everyone else would. I also understand that I might not explain them very well because of that. So, if you have any questions, please ask. I'd be glad to help. Thanks for reading.