CHAPTER SEVEN
Tony, Abby and Ducky felt like the odd wheels out standing in that conference room. For a long moment Abby fidgeted and then she walked behind the Doctor and slipped the file down in front of him. He looked up and she grinned. "Doctor, the entire problem remains that we still don't know where they came from," said one high ranking official.
In truth, Abby wasn't sure of his rank or his relative job description. Might it have been US, she may have had a better idea, but as it was, she wasn't one hundred percent sure with the British system to guess. The Doctor flipped open the file, read the results, his eyebrows lifting and then he looked at Abby with a look that clearly asked if she was sure. She nodded and he turned to them. "Actually, we do. Ms. Scuito... allow me to introduce the Forensics expert from NCIS. They were flown in from the US to help with the US Navy personnel. Their jurisdiction, after all."
Abby and Tony froze at the use of pronouns. It wasn't 'our' or 'us'. Them and their. He was no longer taking ownership of his own team. Tony felt the familiar crushing weight of team lead hit him full on with that knowledge. "As I was saying." The Doctor didn't seem to notice what his, perhaps inadvertent, slip of the tongue had done to his team from NCIS. "Ms. Scuito has actually identified the substance found at the latest crime scene. She may have not known what to make of it but she did identify what I needed to know to identify it. They're the Sycorax. Although, I admit they're the most subtle I've ever seen them act."
"You've encountered them before?" asked Ducky.
The Doctor looked over and nodded. "Oh yes. Remember around five years ago? The invasion on Christmas Day when one third of the world was made to stand anywhere high enough where if they jumped they would have killed themselves? The big ship in the sky that looked more like a chunk of rock?"
There were collective groans around the room. "Again?" asked Mickey. "As I remember it, it was when you were fresh into... what regeneration was that?"
"My tenth incarnation." The Doctor smiled wistfully, and he caught the look of askance from Alistair. "This is my twelfth. Anyway. It looks like I have to remind them of something I said before, doesn't it?"
Tony walked back to McGee and Ziva, a bit heavy hearted. They caught the look and McGee asked, "What happened?"
Tony shook his head. He didn't want to talk about it and quite frankly, although he would have engaged in the rumour fest before when it concerned Gibbs, he knew now that Gibbs was lost. For all intents and purposes, he may was well be dead. Another man that looked like Gibbs, sounded like Gibbs, but was definitely not Gibbs had replaced him. He looked at them and said, "All right, let's focus on wrapping up the case. It looks like we could be done here very soon and on our way back home."
Ziva opened her mouth to say something, recognizing the change in Tony. It was the same when Gibbs had retired to Mexico after being blown up and spending nearly a week in coma. "He's not coming back with us, is he?" asked McGee quietly.
With a pause, Tony looked up and then shook his head.
Abby also spent the rest of the day in her lab. She didn't come out but threw herself into her work, although she didn't play her music. It seemed somehow wrong to do so. She heard quiet steps and turned to see Gibbs. No. He wasn't Gibbs anymore. That much was painfully obvious. Abby turned back to her computer. "Yeah?" she asked quietly.
The Doctor sat beside her, quietly, on a stool . He didn't say anything but then again he knew nothing needed to be said. He had sensed the change in his people from NCIS. Somehow, they knew he had changed so much that he wasn't the same as he had been before and it was slowly breaking them. She finally turned to look at the man that looked just like Gibbs, and except for the strange, faint accent, sounded like him too. But it took looking into his eyes to see that he wasn't and never would be their Gibbs again. "You're not coming back with us to NCIS, are you?" she asked.
"I never said that," he answered.
"Really? Because what you said in the conference room clearly said otherwise."
For a long moment he looked confused and then it dawned on him. "Oh."
"Yeah, oh. That about sums it up. You don't even see us as your team anymore."
"Abby, that's not what it sounded like at all. Those men up there... they don't know about Gibbs and where I've been for thirty years. To them, I've been gone maybe eleven months. If I had referred to NCIS as my team it would have raised too many questions that we don't have time to explain."
Abby narrowed her eyes. "So, are we still your team?"
"Always. Even if I'm not there, I'm there for you all. I never forget friends... family..." he corrected himself. "You're more family than friends. Another friend, a companion, told me that for a lonely man I've got the biggest family on Earth. And she was right. Granted, you're not Gallifreyan like me, but you've got bigger hearts than my two put together."
At this he smiled, the slight smile she was so familiar with. She pouted and looked at him. "You mean that?"
"Cross both my hearts."
McGee wasn't wasting any time. Even if their part in the case was wrapped up he wanted to know who and what their former team lead had turned into. So did Tony and Ziva. Which was why he had found a quiet spot away from prying eyes and was running normal, public, searches on the internet on the blue police box and the Doctor. He was good enough to know how to cover his tracks. He had gathered quite a bit. He would show Tony and Ziva that public stuff, which was supposition, rumour and mostly contradictory later. Some of it he knew to be true from his own personal observations.
The blue police box was not as it appeared. Fact. The blue police box was his ship. Also fact. Bigger on the inside? Well, it stood to reason. He had personally observed Jack, Martha, Ducky and Gibbs disappear inside and not come out for nearly one hour when they had half carried Gibbs within to sleep. How he could have slept within something that couldn't be bigger than four feet by four feet on the inside was beyond him.
It was the different faces that threw him, although, he had also seen the video of the previous Doctor when he had gone missing. And one stood out as being very Gibbs like. This one had close militaristic cropped hair and a plain leather jacket. He was the least showy of them all, besides Gibbs now, that was. The others were more outright alien to absent minded professor to young business, modern business man. The body type usually was generally the same, although it varied somewhat as well.
All public stuff and the stuff of conspiracy theorists. All crap.
With a sigh, he looked around and then started to look into records not so public. He was certain UNIT and Torchwood would have files on the man and it was these he started on. UNIT was easier as it was a publicly known organization, which made finding it easier. He slid underneath the defenses as easily as he did the CIA, but was more careful about it. He took his time to make sure he didn't slip up, but also didn't waste it. He had to be in and out, with what he needed, before anyone noticed the intrusion.
What he found in UNIT on the Doctor threw alot of the crap out the window, but made alot of it make sense. Medical records from Dr. Harry Sullivan. Pictures. Honorary, but official, ranking within their organization. List of companions. List of his incarnations as they had personally observed while he worked for them, as well as others from tangential contact.
McGee pulled what he needed and then got out as cleanly, perhaps more so, that he had gotten in.
With an unfocused gaze he thought for a moment. Granted, given that the Doctor was alien and the US government would love to get their hands on him, there was no reason he couldn't continue to keep at least some contact with NCIS. After all, like in UNIT, he had a real identity and a ranking within their organization.
It was the man's true age, as far as UNIT knew, that threw McGee. According to them, and what they had been told, in the man's fifth incarnation while he was still closely linked to UNIT, he had turned one thousand years old by Earth reckoning, which was also quite close to his own home planet's reckoning. A planet named Gallifrey, a race called the Gallifreyan, although he was called colloquially as a Time Lord. According to the Doctor, as well as other Gallifreyans, what few they had met, the Time Lords were a race that had existed with a real civilization far advanced long before humanity was born. They were a race that could sense Time itself, control it, and travel it as easily as a human drove a car. The sheer weight of that hit McGee and he found himself breathless.
He took a short break, making sure that what he found was printed out but also hidden and locked away. And then he made sure the printer servers were wiped clean. He had the man's real medical records and it wouldn't do to let anyone get a hold of that. McGee, although the Doctor wasn't Gibbs so much anymore, still felt protective of the man. Doctor or not, the man had taught them all their very careers and saved them all. Taken personal injury for McGee once even. It wasn't something someone forgot easily.
And from what he seen, that selflessness was in his very nature. McGee was not going to let the man fall into harm's way if he could help it.
Refreshed he then sat back down and hacked into Torchwood. He read up on the Canary Wharf incident, as well as the official byline of Torchwood, both the old and the new and the reasoning behind it. He got a good chuckle on that. But, of all ironies, it was UNIT that held the major wealth of real knowledge. All Torchwood had was less than the public had of the Doctor. But at least he knew what Torchwood really thought of him. He backed out of that as well, seeing what he needed to see, and wiped any traces of him being there.
With the knowledge in hand, he went to find the others from NCIS to show them what he'd found.
Tony, Ziva and Abby sat in their hotel room with McGee. Both Tim and Abby had thoroughly swept the room while Tony and Ziva searched for other bugs. Once satisfied they sat down and Tim brought out the thick file. "Okay, Tony, you're right. He's likely not coming back to NCIS. But, once I show you this, we're in agreement that he really, really should not."
There was a few glances of confusion, but Tony nodded. "Okay. He's an alien. I can see one reason why he shouldn't go near the military."
"That would be the biggest reason," said Abby.
"However, he probably won't listen to that kind of reason," pointed out McGee. "The Doctor is a man that does his own thing most of the time. Even his own people considered him semi-renegade. He was exiled to Earth once, and there he served UNIT because, really, without the ability to travel he was stuck here with no resources, no way to live. Normally, from what I understand he more or less lives on his ship, which is called the TARDIS. I won't get into real long details, as it's all in these, but he's simply freaking amazing. But, as much as he isn't Gibbs he strangely is at the same time, and always kind of was."
They looked at each other. "So Gibbs is not lost?" asked Ziva.
"Hardly - he's still the Doctor, the Doctor is still Gibbs. The human Gibbs is dead, yes, but Gibbs isn't. It's just not his real name but another human name he can now use to hide on Earth among us," explained McGee. "If that made sense.
"Are his people still looking for him?" asked Ziva, suddenly almost gauging what it would take to fight an alien threat to another alien friend.
For a long moment McGee was silent. "No. They're not. He was recalled for a war in his eighth incarnation. It was a big war. Our scale would be almost, if it happened and I hope it never does, World War Three. They called it the Last Great Time War between his people, who the rest of the universe refers to as Time Lords, their allies that could sense time, and the Daleks and their allies." He took a breath, showing the two pictures of the eighth, which was a fuzzy one taken by traffic cameras and another of the ninth taken by actual cameras, which showed him entering by military (mostly UNIT) escort into a government building in the UK. "Both sides were destroyed. By destroyed I mean he's the last of his kind. There are no other Time Lords left alive. Their home world was razed, and destroyed utterly, but so was the other side. He was found, in the ninth, staggering from a smoking TARDIS, staggering in Totter's Lane, only able to say, 'They're gone. All of them,' before he collapsed and slept for nearly thirty-six hours, at which point he disappeared again until he showed up for that." McGee pointed out the picture of him entering the government building again. "And then again, looking like this." He took out another picture of a skinny man in a pinstripe suit. "He wasn't seen again, in modern times anyway, until now and this, according to what he's told Ducky is his twelfth incarnation. Want another heart attack? He celebrated his one thousandth birthday, according to UNIT records, in his fifth incarnation, but he's been telling people he's only 900 or so since the ninth. Given how much he's done, I'd say he's far older than either of those numbers."
McGee took a breath, and he let the others read the files. Abby was fidgeting and then she said, "That's what he meant by he's had others travel with him."
"What was that?" asked McGee.
"He asked me, if he left, if I wanted to come with him for awhile. See what was out there. Well, not in those words. But you know Gibbs. Have to read between the lines. I think he'd be lonely out there and I said I'd miss him and so he said I could always come with him, if I wanted to," she said, then she took a breath. "I was hoping he'd stay because I really, really don't want to have to make that decision. I want to stay at NCIS. I have a life there. But what he asks is once in a lifetime. Like ever. Not to mention the coolest. Don't worry though, I still haven't made up my mind."
"Some don't come back," mentioned McGee quietly.
"I know, he warned me."
There was silence as they all thought about what she'd just said. "He's already falling into old patterns. For him," mused Ziva. "Different Doctor, but still the same. Gibbs, but not."
Tony was still quiet, as he was reading everything and committing it to memory. What he saw both alarmed and relieved him. He was a good man, alien or not. He lived so long that Tony could only wonder at what it would be like. "He stays he takes a huge risk that the next time he's injured, he'll be caught out and no one will ever see him again," he said aloud. "But, he could always go to Ducky. He usually did anyway. Maybe it was subconscious. Gibbs hated hospitals. He leaves and we may never see him again in this lifetime but he lives his life as he's always lived it. Even if he stays he lives and watches us all wither and die through age, and then he leaves. Not much of a choice. I can see why he chose to forget."
There was silence around the table as they thought for a long moment, and then Tony sighed and stood up. "All right, if he's not coming back we have to come up with a real reason of why. What are we going to tell Director Vance?"
"Will we have to?" asked Ziva. "After all, he could simply say he was offered a position with Torchwood or UNIT, and it would not be a lie. And then he could simply go on his way with no explanation required. As usual... for the Doctor. We would simply have to support what he says to Director Vance."
Tony thought for a minute. That was a valid point. "All right, I agree. We'll go with what he decides to do. Abby, if you go with him I suppose we'll have to explain it the same way."
"If I do. I don't know yet," she answered.
"Well, come on, we get to stop an alien invasion. Doctor or Gibbs, we're still his team. We've got his six like we've always had," said Tony as he led them out the door.
McGee hid the files again, running them through the shredder. He also wiped his computer of all traces, using a military grade sweep. Now that they had all seen them and had a chance to go over them, they didn't need to be seen. When he had a chance, he soaked the bag containing the shreds in the canal by the dock entrance of Torchwood to turn the paper into pulp before squishing it into a ball to throw out. He ignored the puzzled look on Ianto's face as he entered.
There isn't near as many UNIT around, and it's with a sudden cold shock that he realizes he's not there either. Neither is Jack, Martha, Mickey or that Alonso fellow. Just Gwen and Ianto and now the team from NCIS, plus a few (very few) UNIT, and they appear to be packing up and leaving.
Tony and Abby stood where the TARDIS had formally been. McGee runs down to them. "Where is he?"
"He had to take care of this," answered Ducky as he walked down from the boardroom. "He would have called you all in - by the way he wasn't very happy by your disappearance. He said he could have used you to watch his six, but Jack said he'd make sure they could while you did your jobs of wrapping up the US Navy part of this. I am sincerely hoping that is what you were all doing."
Tony nodded, "Yeah, in a manner of speaking."
Abby asked, "He's coming back, though, right?"
For the longest time Ducky didn't answer. "I honestly don't know. He should be. He'd have to bring back the team from Torchwood and Sir Alistair, I'd imagine."
