A/N1: Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen! Ack, the first half of this story was horrible to write. But I was cackling the whole way through.

A/N2: Please note that the characters have been referring to the sisters as who they think they are. For example, Cynthia started off calling both sisters 'Jenny' because she was unaware of Lily. Gibbs, who can tell them apart, has been calling them by the right names. The team have been calling them whichever way round they claim to be.

Chapter 9: Lilith and Jennifer

"Lilith Shepard, you'd better have a damn good excuse for this!"

Ziva David stared at the redhead in shock. This was not true. This had to be some horrible dream. She would wake up in a minute…

She watched Tony slap himself on the back of the head, as if he was trying to wake up too, and realized something was very wrong here. Fornell looked as though he was about to faint, while Charlie only winced.

Charlie's previous actions started to make sense. He had worked it out a while ago. Somehow or other he had worked out which way round the sisters were…

This was seriously not good.

The redhead rolled her eyes, held up a hand to silence the newcomer and bent down to her son's height.

"Jasper, what's Rule One?"

The boy let go of her and thought about it. "Always check which way round you are before I call you anything."

"And did you?"

Jasper shrugged. "He said you were in trouble and we could have a nice trip. You don't look like you're in trouble."

Lily grinned. "I am now." She straightened up, looking at the newcomer.

"Explain yourself," he ordered.

"Good afternoon to you too Loius," she replied, a cheeky grin on her face. "How are things? Don't tell me, Darlene did something stupid again."

Charlie burst into laughter, not bothering to hide it. Lily's grin widened. Even Jasper giggled.

Loius Arbourne, as Ziva suspected this was, looked as though he was about to explode in Lily's face. His own face was bright red with anger and the veins at the side of his neck were popping out.

"I want an explanation as to why you are here and the Director of NCIS willingly walked into a hostage situation," he roared.

Charlie stopped laughing, Jasper stepped behind Lily, and the entire squad room went silent.

"Calm down Louis… I mean Loius. Get any louder and our friendly neighborhood gunman will figure it out." Lily was not even slightly fazed by his reaction. "In my defense, I gave her sleeping pills this morning. She shouldn't be awake, let alone causing me problems. Next time I'll give her laxatives."

"When this is over," Arbourne answered, lowering his voice to a much better level but sounding as though he would like to kill everyone in the room. "Agent Ellis is suspended for a week, while you are going to stay in Archives."

Lily blanched. "Can I be suspended too?"

The older man smiled, a dangerous smile. "I know exactly how much trouble you'll cause if I suspend you. A week sitting in Archives will bore you senseless. Got a problem with that?"

She brightened up. "I can harass Darlene in the canteen then. Oh, that rhymes!"

Arbourne shook his head in frustration. "If you go anywhere near Darlene –"

"We're not that bad."

He exploded again. "I am still picking squirrel intestines off my office wall from last time!"

"I had nothing to do with that squirrel," Lily smirked. "The dead pig on the other hand –"

"Do you really want two weeks in Archives?"

Lily pulled herself together. "Job one, get this situation sorted out. Job two, ride another motorbike through the halls. Got it."

"Good," he told her. "Bring me up to speed. And make sure it isn't my motorbike"


Jenny willed herself to stay calm inside MTAC. Gilman was still under the impression she was Lily, and she was going to keep it that way as long as she could.

Lily had tried to alert everyone outside before the trade-off by being herself. No one else had caught the 'haunting' comment, which was certainly Lily-esque. They had been too worried about rescuing Gibbs, something she had been worried about too.

For the moment, she was perfectly happy to sit inside MTAC with her employees and refuse to help Gilman. Lily would come up with a plan to get her out, simply because she was Lily. Jenny half-expected a missile to come through the door, or a group of Marines to come through the roof.

Or, more likely, SEALs.

Lily had not bothered to negotiate for the time being, allowing Jenny free reign to refuse to help Gilman. She knew why this was the case; Lily's plans often worked better if you were not thinking rationally. Although Gilman was now more guarded, he was beginning to panic, which meant mind games were easier, and more fun.

Gilman was furious that he'd been tricked. In reality, Jenny could guess the codes – anything Lily used as a code was easy for her to work out and vice versa – but he did not need to know that. Jenny's best hope was for Lily to have used someone else to come up with the new codes. Alternatively, she could give him what he wanted as a last resort.

Jenny hoped Jethro was recovering. It was the worst part of being stuck in MTAC; all she really wanted was to sit by his side and beg his forgiveness. Lily couldn't even be with him because she had to convince everyone else that she was Jenny, something Jethro could see through in an instant. He always had been able to tell them apart. She hoped he had not seen to tell anyone that morning about the CIA agent's presence or the whole thing would unravel.

In fact, it probably had unraveled if the faint noises outside were any suggestion. It took a lot of any noise to penetrate MTAC, but Jenny was prepared to swear that she had heard someone shouting. At a guess, it was Arbourne. Lily's boss correctly did not trust her as far as he could throw her, even though she was his best agent. If Arbourne had heard about the situation, he would have turned up himself and double-checked which sister was which.

Suddenly, Jenny was very glad to be safe inside MTAC. Arbourne could make Gibbs seem like a kitten when Lily wound him up. There were bets within the CIA as to when he'd have a heart attack. Lily's money was on 3 years and 2 months, although she was happy to attempt to shorten that time.

Gilman's body language indicated he had reached a conclusion. He put his hand into his pocket and withdrew the cell phone. Jenny watched as he dialed the last number and let it ring.

"Either give me the code," he ordered when he was answered. "Or I'll start shooting hostages."


Timothy McGee winced. Lily, and they were quite sure it was Lily now, had answered the ringing phone on Gibbs' desk and put it on speaker. Gilman sounded at the end of his tether.

He and Abby had spent the last hour trying to call MTAC without alerting anyone inside. It had not been easy, but they had managed it. Leaving the video on in the lab, they had rushed back to the squad room to provide the link.

He had not expected Jenny to be Lily, and fervently hoped Gilman had not worked it out as well. Still, it was nice to see Jasper again. The young boy had taken to running around the squad room. No one had bothered to stop him, although Lily had rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee.

Abby was working frantically to get the picture up on the screen for everyone to see. There was a slight difference between the computers downstairs and the ones in the squad room which was causing a delay. McGee hoped if any good came out of this, the discrepancy would be dealt with.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Gilman," Lily greeted him calmly. "Is everyone okay in there?"

"Shut up!" he answered. "Shut up and listen to me."

"I am listening." Lily sat in Gibbs' chair again, her back to the plasma screen where Abby was trying to get the picture. McGee leant over and carefully made sure the sound would be off when the link worked.

"I am fed up with your games. Give me the code now."

The picture finally emerged, in full view of everyone but Lily. McGee breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't see why I should give you any code," Lily told him. "You've given my sister a black eye, and believe me, I'm not happy about that."

Hang on… how could she know? She couldn't see the screen from where she was sitting…


Cynthia held her breath as Gilman panicked. "How can you see what's going on in here?" he roared. "You're spying on me! Where are the cameras?"

She guessed someone was trying to sooth him on the other end of the phone, but to no avail. He stalked over to the redhead, pulled her from the chair, and placed the gun to her head. "Tell me now or I'll kill your sister."