McEureka - Part 6

Fargo had hovered over her for the first hour or so of her tests. Quizzing her uses of every piece of machinery and the contents of every pipette she squeezed. Honestly, she felt like she was back at school by the time he had finally satisfied himself that she knew what she was doing and she hadn't quite lost her touch.

To say her nerves had been a little frayed by the time he had stepped back would be an understatement. But working with Tony DiNozzo had heightened her tolerance to human irritants and she knew he was just wanting to make sure she didn't blow the building up.

She blocked his presence entirely once had had stopped leaning over her and had returned to pouring over his tablet in search of his allusive phone privileges.

With the various reports from the researchers spread out in front of her she compared her results with the countless graphs and tables provided.

She tested the glue.

The device.

The crystal substance.

All the tests matched with the results.

"Far-" she turned around to find Fargo hitting his tablet violently with his index fingers, "-go?"

He looked up. Eyes wide. Caught.

"What on earth are you doing?" she removed the goggles she had donned while running the more…fizzy tests. There was nothing wrong with the device. Nothing…at…all...

Wait a minute.

Her thoughts froze, and she was only slightly aware of Fargo's reply about traitor technology and his whole life being a lie. Drama queen.

There was nothing wrong with the device.

Nothing at all.

And that wasn't right at all.

"Fargo, where are the used devices?"

The stood looking into the incinerator.

Really?

"Um…looks like the rota moved forward a day," Fargo mumbled to her.

Really!

Tim sighed and went to rub a hand over her tired eyes before she stopped herself. She was still carrying around the device. Damn chain of evidence.

"Ok, we can fix this," she muttered turning away from the evidence destroying incinerator.

First things first. She needed to have a word with Gibbs.

She found her boss and the others in the staff canteen and as a small show of rebellion and annoyance for not being told it was lunch time she joined the cue and made her way to the till with a sandwich and the strongest, sweetest, vanilla filled coffee she could find - thank goodness Eureka recognized the important of caffeine and the yummies that could be mixed with it.

"Hey there," she greeted the man at the till as she placed her items on the small ledge and fished about in her pockets for money.

"Don't worry about it Agent McGee, its been taken care of,"

She was surprised at his knowing her name until she remember the visitors identification badge she was wearing.

"Oh, um, thanks," she smiled, "Have a nice day," she retrieved her sandwich and coffee - taking a sip, hmm nectar of the gods - and made her way to the table where Tony was stuffing the last of a burger into his mouth much to Ziva's disgust.

"Um, thanks for lunch Boss," she chimed, slipping into the empty chair and beginning to unwrap her food.

"Don't know what you're talking about, McGee,"

She looked up from what felt like a military operation to get into her sandwich. She could get into Fort Knox quicker.

Gibbs was frowning at her as he raised his coffee to his lips.

"But…But didn't you-"

"What you got, McGee?" he interrupted her.

Alright then.

She took a quick bite of her liberated chicken and mayonnaise sandwich and sighed happily. Yip. Scientists 'scienced' on their stomach alright. Maybe she could have a chat with the kitchen staff and get a few pointers because nothing she tried at home ever tasted this good.

A throat cleared.

Oh yeah.

"There was nothing wrong with the device,"

"Well, I am sure our dead marine would be very glad to hear that," Gibbs replied dryly.

"No boss, you don't get it. That is the problem. There was nothing wrong with it," she smiled in victory, taking a sip of her coffee. She just couldn't stop smiling.

"So the problem is that there is no problem," Tony spoke around the food he was still chewing.

Yuck.

Ziva rolled her eyes and nodded at her in silent support to continue.

"Yes. That device was perfect,"

"Perfect?" Gibbs quirked a brow.

Tim would be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying knowing something he didn't for once, but she knew to not draw it out to long.

"Boss, that things had never been used,"

She took another bite of her food and chewed slowly while her comment sunk in.

"McGee, are you saying it was a substitution?" Ziva asked her,

"What I am saying is that there is no sign of that device ever being worn. The glue on the back showed no sign of skin cells as would be expected,"

"Maybe it fell off. Maybe thats why it didn't work," Tony had finally stopped chewing.

"No, there would have been some sort of evidence of wear, there was no DNA from our dead marine on that device," she sat back and smiled, "Fargo is going to get me the security feeds for the furnace and the testing area,"

"Furnace?" Ziva asked.

"Yeah, the burning rota moved forward a day. Quite a coincidence don't you think,"

"Good work, McGee," Gibbs had that rare small smile on his face.

It freaked her out a little.

"Umm…thanks boss," she leaned back into the table and picked up her coffee, "How did the questioning go?"

"Intelligent people give Tony a headache," Ziva told her, smiling at Tony's expense.

"Seriously, even the dinner lady could tell me the chemical compounds that made up the salad cream," Tony grumbled, "Who does that?"

Tim shrugged.

"You're in Eureka, Tony," she told him with a shrug, "Everyone has a specialty, the 'dinner lady' probably had several PHDs…Chemistry I would think…" she nodded in silent agreement with herself.

"This place is just weird," Tony muttered, looking around him like he expected a mad scientist to jump out and drag him away to conduct experiments.

Hi everyone.

So it looks like this winter is going to turn into another very wet one where I live. Too near the sea for a good snowfall. Although it does happen occasionally. Don't see it happening soon though :(

Anyway, I hope you are all having a good week and taking care of yourselves.

Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback and for you patience with these pretty sporadic updates :)

Take care

:)