"Alex? Wake up. We gotta go to NCIS. Got some cold cases we need to sort out." Gibbs rapped on Alex's door smartly.
"Coming..." Alex groaned, disentangling himself from the sheets. Gibbs felt a bit confused; Alex was usually up and about by six thirty. It was now seven fifteen and he had not yet risen, which was odd. Gibbs dismissed the odd, or hinky feeling in his gut as just having a late night out. Gibbs padded down the stairs and started up his coffee machine and padded back up to get dressed. As he was pulling on his jacket he ran into Alex in the hallway. Gibbs jumped when he saw the boy's appearance. He had a pale sweaty face with dark rings around his eyes. His cheeks were flushed and beads of sweat were gathering on his forehead.
"You want some breakfast?" Gibbs inquired, not knowing what to do. Alex always seemed so... formidable. He had looked through Alex's medical records and he was never ever sick. Well unless you count the 'illnesses' that MI6 had cooked up.
"I'm all right, thanks. I'm still full from last night." Alex pulled on a jacket and stumbled down the stairs. Now Gibbs was really worried. He had plenty of experience with teenage boys and they were always hungry. He again dismissed the feeling and poured himself a large cup of coffee. Downing it in one go, Gibbs shrugged and slid his gun into his holster. Gibbs then snatched up his car keys and stalked out of the door, his blank mask of a face not betraying his inner emotions.
The drive to NCIS was quiet; each member in the car lost in their own thoughts. Gibbs drove a bit slower than usual, seeing as the boy next to him appeared to be sleeping. After a good twenty minutes they pulled up into the Navy Yard. Alex, realising that the car had drew to a stop, immediately woke up.
"You OK?" Gibbs asked questioningly.
"Fine." Alex replied with a shiver. Gibbs had had enough of this 'fine' act. He looked... bad. Correction, he looked even worse than DiNozzo when he had had the plague. Gibbs peeled off his sweater that he wore underneath his coat and handed it to the boy. Surprisingly, he offered no protest. Gibbs and Alex got out of the car and marched/stumbled to the Bullpen.
In the Bullpen
"Hmmm..." Tony sat with his feet on the table.
"What now, Tony?" Ziva snapped irritably, typing on her keyboard.
"I'm wondering if I can get reimbursed-" Tony was cut off by Gibbs marching in and giving him a large headslap.
"No, DiNozzo." Gibbs plopped down into his desk chair.
"But you didn't know what I wanted to be reimbursed for!" whined Tony.
"I don't care what, just no. Ziver, go and arrange for Colman to be arrested, and keep checking SCORPIA. McGee, analyse the footage from the interrogation. DiNozzo keep working. I need to go meet Alex. I sent him to Duck." Gibbs replied.
"Why?" Tony questioned. "Something wrong?"
"Yep." Gibbs and he set off to Autopsy.
"Gimme something, Duck." Gibbs entered Autopsy only to find Ducky shouting into the phone, Alex lying on one of the autopsy tables with a set of scrubs for a pillow and a flustered Jimmy flicking through files. A large warning klaxon sounded obnoxiously in the background.
"... well excuse me, miss receptionist, but I believe we need to have an airlocked room at Bethesda. Yes, NCIS related. Madam, we have had the first in what could be a series of unidentified biological attacks. Our forensic analyst, Miss Scuito, has already begun to run blood tests no thanks to your slow service. It has been identified as an aerosol pathogen. Was this necessary?" Ducky slammed the phone down.
"Oh, Jethro." Ducky turned to Gibbs with a sad look in his kind eyes.
"What happened, Duck?" Gibbs queried.
"Young Mister Rider has unfortunately been infected by an airborne biological pathogen sometime within the past twelve hours. Abigail is processing blood and other samples now." Ducky replied gravely.
"Why is he asleep? Could you wake him so that I can ask him if anything was out of the ordinary." Gibbs pressed the matter.
"Apologies, my dear friend, but Mr. Rider passed out about five minutes ago." Ducky replied gravely. Gibbs was shell shocked.
"What're you waiting for? Call Bethesda." Gibbs yelled.
"I did. Jethro, good man, did Mr Rider eat anything after the meal last night?" Ducky asked. "Are you showing any symptoms of this mysterious disease?"
"No, I'm fine. And no he didn't." Gibbs replied.
"Unfortunately, you are the person who has been living in close quarters with the boy, so I need to keep you under observation for a while." Ducky pushed Gibbs down onto an autopsy table much to the man's protesting.
"I'm fine-" Gibbs was cut off as Ducky snatched an alcohol swab and yanked Gibbs' sleeve up. Before he knew it, Ducky had jabbed a needle into him and sent off some blood samples off to Abby.
"Wait till Abigail gives us the results then I will release you if you are indeed 'fine'." Ducky tutted, as Gibbs' phone bleeped.
"Gibbs." Gibbs picked up with his standard greeting.
"Yo Boss, I was wondering where you got to. Is Alex okay?" DiNozzo's voice could be heard at the end of the line.
"No, DiNozzo, he is not okay! Duck thinks there has been some bio attack. We're waiting for the results." Gibbs informed DiNozzo.
"Tony, what's going on?" Ziva's voice could be heard in the background. Gibbs could hear Tony repeating what he said.
"All right, we'll be down there." Tony hung up. Moments later, Tony, Ziva and McGee were gathered outside the doors.
"If you want to come in, wear a mask!" Ducky shouted over the klaxon. "We don't need this pathogen to spread even further." The trio hastily complied before jogging in.
"Holy crap, he looks like he has the plague." Tony sympathised as he glanced at the still figure huddled up underneath the coats.
"Indeed, Tony. According to McGee, you looked even worse when you had it." Ziva curled an arm around her boyfriend's waist, resting her head on his shoulder.
"No kidding." Tony murmured behind his mask, stroking his girlfriend's hair. Just then, Ducky's phone beeped.
"Alright, very well. I shall open the door. Wear a mask, Abigail dear." Ducky flipped a switch and the doors opened to reveal Abby.
"Abby! Are you alright?" McGee asked, giving her a hug.
"Sure Tim, I gotta get this to Ducky." Abby hugged him back and handed the clipboard to Ducky.
"My, my, tularemia? Dear lord." Ducky gasped, collapsing into a chair. "I haven't seen that in a long time."
"Tularemia? Dr Mallard, we learned about it in Med School, and standard protocol indicates that we isolate everyone and everything that could have been infected with the disease." Jimmy piped up informatively.
"Yes, we learned about tularemia in our Mossad training." Ziva cut in.
"Well, Mr Palmer, you can be the leading ME for this case." Ducky declared. Everyone nodded in agreement, whist Jimmy blushed with pride.
"Thank you, Doctor." Jimmy gave him a large hug, which Ducky happily returned.
"That's all well and good, but the question is, where the heck did he pick up such a thing?" Abby questioned.
Hey sorry, Jeanne here. Finals are next week, and FFN has been a pain and not let me get on (Error 102) but thats resolved. I'm sooooo sorry for the late update, and I hope this chapter was good. Tnxxxxxxxx Apologies again
xx
Jeanne