See Disclaimer and Author Notes in Part One

Part Seven

It took more than a little arm-twisting, not to mention Colby stepping in and identifying himself as an FBI agent not NCIS, plus a call in to Don Eppes before the local division of the San Diego County Sheriff's Office was willing to let Agents Dunbar and Stringfield take the body of young Seaman Joshua Jarnagan fully into their custody. Which is also how Dunbar learned Doctor Meese was sitting on the ID of John Bones until he could talk to her face to face.

When Colby relayed that little bit of news to Yelena, he watched as her face went from animated – she'd just about chewed up and spit out a SDSO Lieutenant over proper procedures for turning evidence like a body over to her custody – to a blank and unemotional mask. He'd helped Stringfield load the body of the slain man, boy really – kid couldn't have been much past his 18th birthday, into the back of Yelena's Tahoe and listened intently as she gave Rick his 'marching orders,' which included getting back to Camp Pendleton and setting Sunny down at a terminal (with her foot propped up on a desk if needed) and running everything and anything she could on Jarnagan, Ramirez and – this one surprised Colby – Socarro. She also warned Rick that running Socarro's files was going to bring the wrath of Counter Intelligence down on them, but she'd make a few calls while transporting the body to LA for Meese to examine to try to cut the intel-snakes off at the knees.

He was thinking how he could leave his Dodge here on the side of a county road in the middle of nowhere and not get into too much trouble over it, when Dunbar handed him a radio. "Keep it on Channel 9, and talk to me if you see me drifting or something." She then walked back to her Chevy and, after waiting just long enough to see that Colby understood what was happening, she carefully pulled back onto the road and, just as slowly and carefully, executed a three-point turn in the middle of the dirt track.

Colby climbed back into his Dodge Charger, but before he could turn over the engine to follow Yelena, Agent Stringfield tapped on the driver's side window. "Yeah, Rick?"

"Counter-Intel already cornered me and Keynes yesterday evening. They raked Sunny over the coals and left her bawling her eyes out for doing her damn job…" He seethed and Colby totally understood Rick's anger at the two agents, after his own run in with them. "I don't know the particulars but I know Socarro was, is important to Yelena in some manner. Don't let her icy façade fool you, Granger, she's hurting. Deeply. She's as good at hiding her emotions as her Training Officer was, and I worked with that man long before he became a top-notch NCIS team leader."

"I appreciate the word of advice, Rick, but don't worry – I'm going to keep a close eye on 'Lena. Her reaction, or lack of, to hearing Meese wanted to speak with her… I've never seen her like that."

Rick laughed in a gentle manner. "Get used to it if you're serious about her, Granger. Yelena Dunbar is damn good at what she does and, to be honest, she can scare the piss out of a hardened ReCon Marine with a glance, and I know that's something she didn't pick up from Gibbs. It's innate. You either have it or you don't." The NCIS agent slapped the roof of the Dodge and straightened up. "Better get going before she gets too far ahead, Granger."

Colby rolled the window up as he cranked the engine over and, just as carefully as Yelena had been, managed to turn his smaller, more agile car around in the middle of the road and took off after her. He caught up with her just about 2 miles down the road and stayed on her tail, chatting with her occasionally on the handheld radio to help keep her awake, until they got on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Which is when he took the lead and, using more surface streets than highways, got them to the Medical Examiner's office near the FBI headquarters in record time.

He tried to follow her when Meese pulled her aside and into a small, unoccupied office, but the Naval Medical Examiner smiled at him as he shut the door in his face. "Give me just a few minutes with her, Agent Granger, then you can have her back."

Those few minutes stretched into ten and Don and Lenny Goldblum joined Colby in the hall. Don and Lenny both asked very pointed questions about the body he and Yelena had just brought in, they'd both taken a peek when the techs were removing Seaman Jarnagan from the body bag, and he'd just finished explaining everything he knew when the door opened up and Yelena took a single step out of the office.

"Dunbar—" Don started to snap but she interrupted him.

"Eppes, good, you're here. I need to talk with you." She pointed the startled silent FBI Supervisory Agent into the office behind her before turning her still emotionless eyes back to Agent Goldblum. "Lenny, before you head over to assist Mouse, there's a couple of boxes full of evidence from the latest scene in the back of the Tahoe, get it will ya? Colby?" He stepped up to her, only to have her put a hand up in a stopping motion, "Would you show Lenny where your Trace Lab is? As soon as I'm done talking with your boss, I'll meet you in your office. I need to place a call back east anyway."

Before Colby could answer, she stepped back and the door, once again, was closed in his face. Leaving him and Lenny outside while Yelena closeted herself up again, this time with Don and Doc Meese.

"This can't be good news…" Lenny stated before shrugging and waving Colby aside. "I know where the trace lab is, Agent Granger, if you want to head on over to your office?"

Colby shook his head. "She was mistaken, Lenny. There's more than two boxes of evidence in her vehicle; there's four. It'll either take you two trips, or the two of us one, to get it all to Trace." He led the way back out to the garage and helped the NCIS agent secure and log in the hundreds of evidence bags, most of them contained what had to be simple trash, before he wandered back to his office.

- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3

Don sat on the edge of a convenient desk in the office and looked toward Doctor Meese for some sort of explanation, only to be on the receiving end of a 'wait for it' signal. He listened as Dunbar gave her agent a couple of orders and requested Colby help Goldblum before she stepped back into the office and secured the door behind her. "Dunbar – what is this about?"

"Mike, go ahead and tell Eppes what you told me."

He looked at Meese, who countenance was a study in compassion and sorrow. "Agent Eppes, I first need to apologize to you, if I had known – for certain – what Dunbar's reaction would've been when I gave her the confirmed identity on our John Doe … I would've told you earlier."

"So you did know?" Don questioned the odd Naval Medical Examiner.

"Oh yes, even though it took the Department of Defense and Department of Justice long enough to cough up the dental and medical records I requested." Meese was holding a rather thick file and handed it over to Don. "Our bones belong to none other than Senior Petty Officer, Combat Medical Corpsman, Roberto Efrain Navarre Socarro. Declared missing nearly three years ago, less than one week after he'd returned to the States from Deployment with the SEALs on several 'highly classified' missions in and/or around various hot spots."

Don flipped open the file and realized that it belonged to one of the names Dunbar had flagged … his eyes stopped scanning the personal information when he came across a very familiar name. "He's your cousin?" His gaze snapped back up to Dunbar's face, still waxen in its non-emotional state.

"Yes. I met with him once, just before his last deployment and subsequent disapperance, for maybe fifteen minutes and have been catching grief over that, and my subsequent actions ever since." Dunbar sat down in a straight back chair, her shoulders slumping in an attitude Don hadn't seen in the NCIS Agent since meeting her. It looked like … defeat. "Bobby, Roberto Socarro, came to see me at NCIS in Pendleton, he'd tracked me down through our Grandmother – who'd told him in a letter than his cousin was an NCIS agent at the base, he claimed to be in some sort of trouble and that he would trust me based solely on our familial connection and he needed to talk to me further, but not at HQ. I agreed to meet with him and we chose to meet at our grandmother's place later that afternoon. He never showed. On my way back to base, after waiting at my Abuela's for well over 3 hours, I came across a wreck and called it in to Orange County and California Highway Patrol and looked for survivors. There weren't any. Once the authorities showed up, they ran the plates and searched the car … it was registered to Roberto. Before I could leave the scene, I was 'detained' by a fellow NCIS Agent, Rex Mikkelssen, who interrogated me for nearly 18 hours without telling me crap." She smiled and Don suddenly felt very sorry for Mikkelssen. "Once I was released, I realized my cousin had gone missing and put together a missing person's file on him and flagged it. Which pissed Counter Intelligence off to no end."

Don leaned forward and tried to meet Dunbar's blue-gray eyes, but she wasn't cooperating. "Did you ever find out what Counter Intel wanted with your cousin?" He wasn't expecting the woman's expression, usually so sure of herself and so strong, to crumple, leaving behind despair.

"They think Roberto turned traitor and sold certain information on troop placements to either Taliban or a branch of their organization. Information that resulted in several servicemen losing their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq."

He reached out and, with a gentle yet firm hand, forced her to look him in the eyes. "What do you think?"

"I don't know." She admitted.

"What does your gut tell you?"

"I can't take my gut to court, Eppes!"

"No … but I know from experience that an investigator's gut can lead him, or her, to the truth. So, tell me, what does your gut tell you about your cousin?" How could he tell her he'd gone through the same sort of doubt, the endless questioning of his instincts when evidence against the person was totally contradictory? Don knew, now more than ever, that he never should've doubted Colby's loyalty - either to the United States, the FBI or Don personally.

"I don't want to believe someone who I'm related to, who served his country as a SEAL team member, could ever sell out his fellow service members." The sheer determination in Dunbar's voice was enough to convince him he was right in asking her what he had.

Don released her chin and sat back. "Then I guess I need to take your gut instinct and prove it correct." He looked over at Doctor Meese, who had been quite throughout this meeting, but clearly supportive of Dunbar as evidenced by his defensive stance behind her chair. "Doc, I'll need whatever assistance you can provide me as to time and cause of Socarro's death. Dunbar?" She looked at him expectantly this time, the despair and defeat he'd seen there earlier slowly dissipating. "I'd like to borrow Goldblum and Stringfield, maybe even Keynes, from you – on a as needed basis. You, however, need to steer way clear of the Socarro case … so I'm going to lend you not only Granger, but anyone else you need from my team to investigate your latest body and the Ramirez case. That all right with you?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He stood up and then held a hand out to help Dunbar get to her feet. "Now, unless I'm seriously mistaken, you've got a few phone calls to make and Doc probably wants to get to work on … Jarnagan?" Don glanced at Dunbar to make sure he had the name right and she nodded confirmation. "Meanwhile, I'll go notify both teams what's happening and talk to my boss … would you like me to talk to yours as well, Yelena?" It was, he realized, the first time he'd used her first name and it startled her, but felt 'right' for him to use it just then.

"No, Don," She returned the name favor without hesitation. "I will talk with both Assistant Director Langford and, more than likely, NCIS Director Shepherd personally and let them both know that the situation has changed and that you're taking the lead now."

"What?" That startled him but he wasn't about to let Dunbar wriggle off the leadership hook. "No, no… I'm only taking the lead in the Socarro case, NCIS and you are still responsible for the Ramirez and Jarnagan matters."

The smile that crossed her face as she opened the door and looked back over her shoulder was … apologetic. "Eppes … Don, you do realize that all three cases are probably going to end up connected, right?"

"Yes—" He let out a moan as it dawned on him just what the NCIS Agent was hinting at. "Oh great. Since I'm taking lead on the first known case, any subsequent cases – like the two you're going to continue working – are also placed, automatically, under my purview." She merely nodded and Don pleaded with her. "Yelena, I don't know crap about the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

She let out a short burst of amused laughter as she left the office. "I know, which is why I don't mind letting you 'poach' my agents. By the way, Rick knows more about the UCMJ's than Lenny – he worked as an investigator for JAG for years before NCIS wooed him over to our side of the block."

- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3

Colby looked up from the evidence he was sorting through, read – going through and tossing out trash collected by over-eager rookie cops because the Trace Evidence Lab wasn't going to run everything, when movement near the elevators registered in his peripheral vision. He hoped it was Yelena coming up from whatever meeting she'd holed up with Don and Doc Meese in, but it wasn't. David Sinclair had just stepped off the elevator and was – for lack of a better term – moving like a cat stalking its prey as he approached their working area. His usual partner's body language was of someone who was not happy with his lot in life at that particular moment.

"Don already got you working on whatever the hell couldn't wait until morning?" David groused as he sat down at his desk and pointed at the boxes of detritus scattered around Colby's chair.

"Don? No… wait a minute… did he call you in?" David nodded. "When?" Colby looked up at the clock on his computer and realized he'd been sorting through crap for nearly 40 minutes. 'Where the hell is Yelena?'

"Yeah, he called me about fifteen minutes ago. I was nearby hoping to take Claudia to lunch, but those plans went out the window when she rang me to tell me she had a 'fresh one' land on her table." David leaned forward and looked into the box nearest him, the one Colby was using for items that might be viable evidence in the Jarnagan case. "What is this shit, Colby? Is it somehow connected to the new cadaver on Claudia's table?"

"Potential evidence, David. Gathered from a grid search centered on the location of a homicide victim." Colby explained as calmly as he could.

"Since when does the FBI handle homicides on a weekend?" David snarled as he turned to boot up his computer.

Before Colby could answer, Don's voice rang across the department. "Sinclair! Granger! Conference Room in five!" He looked up to see Yelena coming across the floor toward the area that had been set up for her unit's use and noticed that Lenny Goldblum was fast on her heels.

He hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but Lenny was making no effort to keep his voice lowered. "Dunbar, you should let me or Rick handle Langford and then let him handle Shepherd. You need to step away from this as far as you can. Mike told me there's a connection and the closer you are to this, the greater the likelihood some judge will toss—"

Lenny was stopped by a clearly audible snarl of rage from Yelena; one that made the hairs on Colby's neck stand straight up and caused David to jump up and start reaching for his sidearm before identifying the source as friendly.

Colby watched as Lenny backed away from Yelena and she entered the work area and sat down at the terminal the techs had set up with a secure audio and video feed for communication with Pendleton and other NCIS offices. He thought about trying to approach her but her blue-gray eyes met his across the room and Colby realized the last thing she needed right then was physical support. Sighing, he went back to what he'd been doing and, after sorting through another handful of stuff from the Temecula scene; he tapped David on the shoulder, gathered up a notepad and pen and headed toward the conference room.

Lenny Goldblum had, obviously, retreated to the room after Yelena had snarled at him and he and Colby were soon joined by David, then Megan Reeves rolled in – looking about as thrilled as David had been when he had come in – and then Don came in and closed the door. Colby glanced out the glass walls toward the NCIS use area, pointedly drawing Don's attention to the fact that Agent Yelena Dunbar had yet to join them. Don merely shook his head before he opened the door for a bustling Doctor Michael Meese.

Meese only stopped long enough to tell Don, "Confirmed, same as Ramirez. Only this time I will have a better chance to identify the actual blade used." Then the medical examiner was steaming toward Yelena, who looked up, removed the headset she was wearing and listened for a few seconds before nodding and replacing the headset and microphone on her head and resuming her conversations.

"I want to apologize for ruining everyone's Sunday, but as Colby can tell you, our day was ruined a lot later than Dunbar's, Stringfield's and his." Don opened a file and consulted the contents before continuing. "At approximately 7:40 this morning, a citizen in Rural Orange County, just outside of Temecula, found a DB on the side of a county road, the citizen assumed the body was a victim of a hit and run and called 9-1-1. When Orange County SO showed up, the responding officer realized the victim was wearing Military issued fatigues and wasn't a hit and run casualty after all and called in NCIS. Once Dunbar and her team, including Granger, arrived they discovered the body of 19-year-old Joshua Jarnagan." He closed the file and looked at the agents assembled around the table. "Now, according to Doc Meese, Jarnagan was murdered in the same manner as Ignacio Ramirez, that is, stabbed to death."

Megan looked up from the notes she'd been taking and asked the question that had surfaced in Colby's mind. "Okay, so we know have a potential third victim of the same killer, maybe a serial on our hands, why did you start this little confab without Agent Dunbar being present?"

Don shook his head and placed the file he'd been holding down on the table, just as Doctor Meese came back into the room. "Doc? You want to fill the team in on what you discovered late last night, early this morning?'

"You brief your people at the same speed as Dunbar…" Meese muttered before turning to face everyone. "As of zero-one-forty-four hours this day, John Bones Doe from Joshua Tree National Park has been positively identified as Senior Petty Officer, Combat Medic, Roberto Efrain Navarre Socarro. He had been listed as missing for 96 days before being identified by myself through dental records and removed from missing status."

David was nodding. "So we have an ID and a possible timeline … why isn't Dunbar in here?"

Don looked at David, then over at Colby before turning his attention back to David and answering. "Because there's a conflict of interest. Dunbar had personally flagged Socarro's missing person file – after she'd reported him missing."

"What?" Colby couldn't restrain the question that burst forth, nor could he stop his eyes from looking for Yelena through the glass, only to see her approaching the conference room. She tapped on the door, which Don opened for her and nodded in response to an unasked question.

"I see my timing is right on. I'm guessing Eppes just told you I was the person to file the missing person file on Senior Petty Officer Socarro?" Everyone in the room nodded, including Colby who was also trying to make eye contact with Yelena, but she was actively avoiding meeting his gaze. "I turned Socarro's case over to Eppes as of 50 minutes ago … and I am – per NCIS Director Shepherd – to be considered a suspect in his murder." There was a general noise of outraged denial but Yelena raised her hand for silence and got it. "It is, I assume, standard FBI procedure to look at family members of a homicide victim before casting the net further out?" Colby sat, stunned, as both Megan and David nodded startled confirmation of her question. "Roberto 'Bobby' Socarro is my cousin, I cannot be involved any further in his case." The grin that crossed her face was sad and impish at the same time. "I've already caused enough trouble for NCIS in this matter. I've turned over Bobby's case to Don and the FBI, trusting him and you to discover why he was killed. The rest of the stink I raised will have to be settled by NCIS Counter-Intelligence."

She came down the table and sat down beside Colby, but still refused to meet his gaze, just as Don cleared his throat and resumed control of the meeting. "Yelena and I talked it over. Basically, we're mixing team members up. Lenny and Doc Meese, along with Agents Stringfield and Keynes will be working closely with me while Granger, Sinclair and Reeves will work with Dunbar. Dunbar is to concentrate solely on the Ramirez and Jarnagan cases, no cross-contamination of information if we can avoid it, while nearly everyone else will work all three cases with the idea that we are looking for a potential serial killer. Megan, to that end, see what you might be able to work up in the way of a basic profile sketch. Doc?" Don glanced at the medical examiner who looked up at him. "You said earlier you might be able to identify the weapon used on Jarnagan? Once you have that, make sure Megan and Charlie get that – it'll help both of them refine their data. Colby?"

He nearly jumped when Don called his name. "Yeah?"

"You're going to continue working closely with Dunbar. I mentioned Charlie and I realize he was working the puzzle from a different angle, but I would like you and Dunbar to bring him up to speed – up to and including her involvement with Socarro before his disappearance." Colby nodded his acceptance of the assignment. "Good, David – get with Lenny and Meese … and I'm assuming Doctor Gomez … go over every single stitch of clothing, every grain of sand on Jarnagan's body and see if there's even the smallest clue that will give us more information about his killer." Don waited until the three men acquiesced to his request. "Good. Dunbar, did you ask Keynes to do a records search yet?"

"Yes, she started on it before I came in here and Rick said he'd personally hand-carry the results of her data-mining to LA once her computer spat them out."

Don nodded and looked at each person individually before continuing. "All right, we got our assignments and know what we're looking at, let's get going." He stepped back as agents from two agencies started to pile out of the room, but at Don's silent signal, both Colby and Yelena remained seated as Don closed the door behind David who was the last person out. "Yelena, the job of notifying your family … do you want me to come with you and handle it?"

Yelena shook her head. "No, I'll tell my grandmother, then Roberto's mother, my aunt … I just spoke with them yesterday—"

Colby leaned forward and grasped one of her hands, not caring what Don might read into the action. "'Lena… let me handle Marie, you can tell Abuela Yeva. All right?" She just nodded and Colby helped her get to her feet. "Don, we'll be down in San Onofre if you need us."

His boss just nodded and stepped aside as Colby led the NCIS team leader from the conference room, but they didn't get very far. Dunbar stopped at the area set aside for her agency's use and dropped into a chair behind a desk and Colby, guessing at what was up, sat down beside her for a little while and listened as she made a series of phone calls before he decided he had to get a different shirt out of his locker in the gymnasium and left for a few minutes.

- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3

"I'll be there later this evening, probably around 7:30 or so, Abuela."

Megan listened in as Yelena Dunbar spoke to her grandmother and, after doing some mental computations, realized the only way for the NCIS Agent to make to San Onofre as late as her projected time, was for her to drive a paltry rate of no more than 20 miles per hour. She turned to ask a question, only to step back a pace when she nearly twisted directly into Dunbar. "Sorry!"

Dunbar's smile was brittle as she accepted the apology. "S'all right, Agent Reeves." Her head cocked to one side as if listening to something only she could hear, as she calmly asked, "Was there something you wanted to ask or say?"

"Yes, there is." Megan motioned for the NCIS agent to follow her, and walked into a small interview room that wasn't being utilized before turning to face the visiting agent. "First off, why is it going to take you nearly five and a half hours to drive to San Onofre, where Granger tells me your grandmother's farm is?"

"Because Roberto had a father and I need to tell him his only son is dead." She watched as Yelena pulled a chair out from under the table and sat down, hard. "I don't want to face Gerry … but I can't permit anyone else to do this horrid duty." Blue-gray eyes set in a too pale face looked up at Megan. "Though I nearly took Eppes up on his offer to tell my aunt about Bobby."

Megan pulled a nearby chair out and sat down herself. "Why? You've already told her his name came up in an investigation, and she didn't bite your head off. Did she?"

"Not quite, but I could tell she did not like talking with me." Dunbar snorted. "Having Marie nearly apologize … I think she nearly choked on the words."

"I'm guessing your aunt doesn't like you for some reason?"

"Major Understatements R' Us, Reeves?"

"Snark as a defense mechanism, like I haven't seen that before." Megan slung right back without missing a beat and observed as Dunbar shook her head and started to make a noise that sounded like a cross between laughter and sobbing. Abashed, she leaned forward and placed a conciliatory hand on Dunbar's left shoulder. "Dunbar … Yelena, I'm sorry. I sometimes speak before I think—" She stopped talking as she realized Dunbar had regain control of herself more rapidly than Megan thought humanly possible.

"It's all right… I had that coming and, frankly, I'm not sure why I am having a hard time controlling my emotions around this case."

Megan smiled and, after digging around in one of her jacket's pockets, came up with and handed Dunbar a clean tissue. "Well, you did just find out your cousin is dead and you were one of the people who extracted him from his shallow grave."

Yelena's smile was, if possible, more fragile than before. "Reeves, I've known Bobby was dead for a long time. Or, rather, I hoped that was the case and that Counter-Intel was full of … well, I'm sure you can figure that out."

Megan's hand had dropped from Yelena's shoulder to the woman's knee and still rested there, so Megan gave it a light squeeze to get the agent's attention. "Are you sure that's the only reason your emotions are outta whack?" She almost laughed at the expressions that rapidly crossed Dunbar's face; one part horrified, one part total embarrassment and one part glowing admiration. Almost laughed. But Megan couldn't bring herself to actually chuckle, since she was pretty sure the same sort expression crossed her face when one of her fellow, female, agents from down the hall had asked her about Larry. "Oh dear, you do have it bad, don't you?"

Dunbar straightened up and schooled her appearance to show absolute neutrality. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Agent Reeves."

"Oh, right. Like I have no idea what it's like to find yourself in a man's world, trying to be 'one of the boys' while at the same time trying to tell your emotions to behave around certain men."

"Oh dear lord … you're the 'sometime partner' Colby warned me about." Dunbar buried her face in her hands.

"Excuse me?" Megan wasn't quite sure she'd heard what Dunbar had said correctly. "Colby warned you about me?"

"Yes." Dunbar dropped her hands and looked directly at Megan. "He said he had this one partner, a female, who was just as sharp as a tungsten steel knife and a … I'm quoting him here … 'a pretty damn accurate judge of people'."

Megan smiled and felt a mild heat creeping up on her cheeks. "Colby said that? Damn, no wonder I like him." She noticed the fierce, and rather competitive look on Dunbar's face. "As a brother and a fellow agent." She aimed her best reassuring grin at the NCIS Agent. "Personally, I prefer Astro-Theoretical Physicist-Cosmologists who are a touch nerdy and totally surprising from time to time."

"Astro-what?" Dunbar shook her head. "No, don't try to explain that one." She leaned forward and with her elbows on her knees and her chin braced in an upturned palm, she quietly confided in Reeves. "Megan, right? Megan, I'll admit that I've not exactly been thinking right since Thursday morning. For five, wonderful, days I was able to forget my duties and just be me for a while and took the time to get to know a very sexy fella. I haven't felt like this about someone in a long, long time … and the fact that he's a fellow Federal Agent—"

"Makes it kinda hard to find time to just be 'Lena and CeeJay', right?" Dunbar nodded in anguished agreement and Megan reached out to grasp Yelena Dunbar by the shoulder again. "Look, I normally wouldn't suggest this, especially when it involves someone I care for like a little brother but … do yourself and Colby a favor and jump his bones. Soon. It'll do wonders for clearing your head and a clear head might just enable you to see what you're missing in this case."

"Megan!"

"What?" She countered innocently. "Are you telling me you don't want to jump him?"

"It's not that – oh god – I can't believe this…"

Megan smiled as she shook her head. "Ah, I get it. If you had jumped him the day you met him, you would be okay. But now your heart has gotten tangled up in your feelings about Colby and you're no longer sure what to do. Sound about right?"

"Reeves, don't profile me."

"I'm not … not really. But this doesn't tell me why you don't want to face your aunt or why she seems to dislike you."

Dunbar sighed. "I've never liked breaking the news of a loved one's death to family members, and it's worse since this is part of my family. As for Marie … Let's just say I remind her of someone she probably wishes she never met and she has made no attempt to hide the 'fact' that she feels I'm after whatever inheritance I can get from Abuela Yeva."

"Are you?" Megan was pretty sure Dunbar could care less about such things, but confirmation from the NCIS agent would be a good way to know if she had properly assessed Yelena's personality.

"No. I didn't even seek out my biological father's family, his mother sought me out. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a Dunbar, not a Navarre."

"That's what I thought you'd say. Colby could do a lot worse than get 'involved' with you, Agent Dunbar. Just do me one favor?" She waited until the other woman looked at her and nodded. "Don't hurt him. If you just want a physical relationship with him, and I am not blind to his attractors in that area, then tell him that from the start. But if you're falling for him… don't hide it. Colby's been through enough bullshit in his life the last few years that he doesn't need it from a lover, okay?"

Dunbar stared at her, then started to chuckle, which turned into full-blown laughter that puzzled Megan until she heard what the NCIS Agent was muttering. "Priceless … like brother … advice … older sister … go screw him, but don't screw him over."

Hearing it put that way, Megan had to admit, it was funny and she started to chuckle along with Dunbar. Before either woman could regain control of their mirth, the subject of their talk knocked on the door and stepped into the room, which caused them both to start laughing hard again.

"You two cackling hens want to let me in on the joke?" Granger asked, his expression puzzled.

Megan just shook her head as she stood up and brushed by him but stopped before she actually left the room to address Dunbar one last time. "Yelena? Don't forget what I told you, okay?"

"Not a chance, Megan. Thanks for the insight."

- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3

Don made a trip down to the communications hub of the FBI and, once there, had to convince the supervisor on duty to tell him where ADA Wright was spending his Sunday. "Come on, Krista, you know me, you know I wouldn't ask unless it was really necessary. I mean, hello, bug the boss on the weekend when I'm not even really supposed to be here myself? I am not the type to commit career suicide over something trivial."

"Eppes, just asking for Wright's location is a potential path to occupational destruction." The 40-something year old woman responded, even as she dragged him out of her office space, into the transmission center of the FBI. "I really don't have time to argue this with you … I've got a task force out with DEA in South LA about to take down a illicit importer." She slid past a couple of her techs and dispatchers to read a status board, scribbled something down on a handy notepad, then wove her way back to Don and slapped the bright pink post-it-note on his chest as she brushed by him. "There. Do what you will, but unless you've got something huge—"

Don smiled, caught her hand, and dropped a kiss on the back before releasing her. "Krista, trust me, it's huge and unless Wright puts the white-hot irons to tender points of my body, he'll never learn it was you who told me where he was." He didn't even look at what she had written down before leaving dispatch – just as the Task Force Leader's voice broke over the main tac-channel.

"3810, Control, we're go-go-go—" The door shut behind Don before his mind could be distracted by the excitement in the man's voice.

He was just outside the main elevator bank, planning on heading either down to the morgue (via a lower subterranean tunnel) or back up to the floor that housed his unit when he looked at what Krista had scrawled down. She had included not only the name of Wright's church, but his tee time at his favorite golf course and ADA's not-to-be-called-unless-Armageddon-was-imminent cell phone number.

Glancing at his watch, Don decided that there was no chance Doc Meese would even come close to finishing the autopsy on Jarnagan before he could drive out to … "Oh, great, National. And with my luck, he'll be approaching the 14th tee when I catch up to him." He punched the button for the elevator, then decided he could walk down the stairwell to the garage level faster and, shoving the information on Wright's whereabouts in his jeans' pocket, decided to call Megan to advise her of his plans after he was on the road.

- - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3

David Sinclair made his way through the tunnel that ran under Wilshire and connected the Federal Building to the county morgue, intent on checking in with Claudia before seeing what – if anything – Lenny Goldblum and Doc Meese had some up with on the latest victim. He had just left Granger outside the CST Labs, having dropped of the two boxes of potential evidence, and was still a little disappointed that Granger had opted to head back up to their unit's floor instead of coming with him. That uncharacteristic lack of curiosity in his usual partner David blamed on NCIS Agent Dunbar.

Colby was usually the one agent who couldn't wait to talk to a coroner or the lab geeks so as to discover the how's and the why's and start splicing clues together in a case. 'Not now…' David mused to himself, trying to quash the bitter tone his mind-voice insisted on using.

He wasn't sure what Don had been thinking when he had assigned Colby to liaise with NCIS, read Dunbar, after they'd extracted John Bones Doe from his earthly tomb – especially when it had become blindingly obvious that the two agents were, or had been "involved" with each other. But that was exactly what Eppes had done and now David was on his way to the morgue, alone, while Colby went back to act as a go-between with Dunbar. However, not having Colby tagging along had its advantages too.

Stopping outside the autopsy bay he knew the NCIS medical examiner had been using, David tried to figure out what his friend saw in the acerbic NCIS Agent – and failed. He was still standing there, lost in thought, when Doctor Claudia Gomez found him.

"David?" Her soft voice cut through the fog in his head and he turned to face her, knowing the grin on his face probably looked as goofy as it felt. "David, I'm sorry about this, but lunch is out. I'm helping the Navy Doc with their latest body—"

He placed a gentle forefinger on Claudia's lips to stop her words and then, after checking to make sure no one was around and they were alone in the hallway, David replaced the finger with his lips for a quick moment. "I know … I got called in on the same case not too long after I'd dropped you off this morning."

She leaned against his chest and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, her face tucked in just below his clavicle. "I'm not sure how long … the body's pretty messed up." He felt her slender body shudder against his. "David, he was just a kid… not really old enough to shave. He should be at the beach or a club, trying his moves on a girl, not laying on a slab." David felt her shudder again. "Damn it, I will never get used to working on kids under twenty-one."

"Hey, Honeybee, I hope you never get used to that, you just wouldn't be you if you got all jaded and complacent." David knew better than to wish – aloud anyway – that Claudia would never have to work on a juvenile autopsy, after all, this was LA and LA had gangs and young kids dying violently seemed to be almost an accepted norm. Almost. "So … you about to go in there?" He indicated the bay behind her, where he could see Doc Meese roaming about the table.

"Yeah, I thought I'd help Mike with the prelim exam and then just assist on the actual autopsy, just to see what we might come up with for trace. How about you?"

"I'll help Lenny out. You know, going through the clothes and other items the victim had on him – the usual." Her answering nod was all he needed. "So, after you my dear." He pushed open the door and held it for Claudia, as he took in a deep, if somewhat overly dramatic, breath before crossing the threshold himself. It was cornball tactics, but they made her smile and that's what David had been after. A little laugh or a smile on her lovely face before diving into the horrors that could be, and often were, part and parcel of an autopsy.

Thing is, the deep breathing wasn't just for humor … no matter how long he'd been dealing with being around bodies at various stages of decomposition, David couldn't get used to the "death stench." The profound intake of air was his way of coping with bad odors – by firmly placing the memory of fresh, untainted, atmosphere in his nose.