Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders; only much of the convoluted plot, and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter – 10
Harry stared watching Kate and Tony…work, that was about as far as he could fathom what they were doing, he probably work out in further detail what they were doing but…
Kate was borderline about to crack, that wasn't the technical term, but she was getting close to full blown breakdown. Harry hadn't seen it first hand, but had read about it in the UNIT training and prep manuals, as something to watch out for, both in yourself and others that you worked alongside with.
It could start as a range of numerous things, but much of it had to do with the extremes of what UNIT and especially Night Wolf dealt with on a daily basis, some people just weren't built to deal with the extremes that crossed paths with them.
Kate, Harry was beginning to see was.
In some circles he guessed they would call it a 'crisis of faith', or perhaps a failure to resolve the conflicts that had thus far been presented to her, with her beliefs and understanding of the world.
One occurrence you can rationalise it yourself, even twice…but as it continues to build up, it becomes like a pendulum beating against the irrational ideas until something cracks…
Harry watched as Kate grabbed at the chain around her neck, it was of Christ on the cross, from what Harry could tell from this distance.
He walked across the office space to behind Tony's desk, Tony didn't seem to even notice him, he was engrossed both by some government search on his computer and discussing something on the phone, Harry leant forward close to his ear and waited till he put the phone down.
"Tony." Harry said in a low voice, he still jumped.
"Har…Harry." He stuttered out. Harry briefly wondered if Tony was as affected as Kate by their experiences thus far.
"Tony…tell Gibbs I'm taking Kate out."
"What for?" Tony sounded quite defensive.
"Tell him…" Harry looked over at Kate who was knowing on a pencil with some veracity.
"Tell him that she's about to have a crisis of faith…which could domino into a breakdown, something which I think I need to handle." Harry said calmly into Tony's ear in a stage whisper, more than a touch or regret and concern betraying in his voice.
Tony just nodded.
"Kate." Harry said. Kate jumped, quite high, which considering she was half slumped staring into nothingness was quite a feat.
"Lt Potter? What can I help you with?" She asked sitting up straight, and stared at him a mask falling over her face so quickly she could have passed for a mime…or an Auton, which ever was less real.
"I think you should come with me…for a walk…"
"Wh…Why?" She asked as she grabbed at her chain again.
"I won't do anything, please…let me…talk with you away from the fluorescent lights and the computers." Harry said calmly looking her in the eyes.
Harry walked with Kate quietly and calmly as they walked along the Anacostia River.
"So what did you want to speak to me about Lt Potter?" Kate asked, addressing him in a stoic manner.
Harry stifled a sigh, he'd read the books and talked to people, but he didn't actually know how to do this. He wasn't religious, he didn't know how to do this…and yet he felt responsible for…Kate's state.
"What you've been through…today…has shaken you…" Harry started Kate remained silent.
"I wanted to…talk to you about how you're feeling about it…" She continued to be silent.
"I think I should…help…before…"
"Before?" She said after a few minutes.
Harry wanted to say 'Before you crack up, before you decide to go and live in the mountains on moss and night crawlers, before you go mad, or just decide to go and grow organic vegetables for the local co-op.' But he didn't, that might be a little insensitive...
"Before you…go through any further crisis's." Harry despite himself sighed, silently to himself at what he'd said; that wasn't any better than what he'd thought in his head.
Kate laughed.
"Crises, you're being a bit melodramatic aren't you Lt Potter?"
"Perhaps. But I know the signs."
"How?" She bit out.
"Because UNIT deals with a lot of stuff that challenges everything people are brought up not to believe, and believe it or not there's a manual."
"And what does it say about God?" She asked, challenging.
"Nothing." Harry said simply, it was the truth, UNIT, the UN and all its subsidiaries didn't tell anyone what to think in relation to their personal attitudes to god.
Harry himself didn't really believe in it/him/or whatever, the Dursleys weren't religious, except Dudley when it came to Easter or Christmas.
At Hogwarts there wasn't any religion, he vaguely recalled Hermione and an another girl from Ravenclaw having some big discussion into it.
Then there were the near death experiences he'd been through, that probably assisted in his non-belief…
"You turned into a raven…" Kate said after a moment of staring out at the river where they'd paused in their stroll.
"I cannot deny what you saw." Harry said leaning against the supporting wall next to the path. Kate turned around from the bank and stared at him once more.
"How?"
Harry was dreading that one word and wondered if he could go for the alternative path…but whacking someone over the head and hitting that careful balance between knocking out with slight memory loss, concussion and brain damage was hard…they…him and the NCIS agents also needed to resolve this situation soon…lest it be taken from them…plus if he knocked her out he'd have to explain it to Agent Gibbs…whom he hadn't seen since returning.
So Harry sighed, and conjured a fireball in his hand while he was shrouded from view in the shadows of the embankment.
Kate stared open mouthed at him.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Harry said and hoped he was channelling Hermione enough to sound knowledgeable with his own brand of 'oddness' as some called it to be mysterious.
"Don't quote at me Lt Potter."
'Just as long as you don't quote at me Agent…' Harry thought to himself, Exodus 22:18 was something he didn't want to, didn't particularly care about at the moment…
"Do you trust me Kate?" Harry asked looking at her for a while.
"Maybe…no…I don't know. 'Let the unclean things crawl', that's what you called us." Harry blinked at her comment, Kate was back to playing with her chain and her hand was slipping to her where her weapon most likely was.
'Screw it…'
"What makes you fear me Kate?"
"What?!" She asked in a raised voice.
"Is it that I transmogrified you into a rat and back, saving your life in the process I might add."
"If you'd been honest with us…"
"I was, Gibbs told me to come along. If I hadn't been there you would have still walked out into the minefield and I would have ended up looking at your bodies, what would have been left of your bodies with Ducky, and trust me there wouldn't have been enough left to fill a baked bean tin."
"You're…odd Lt Potter." Kate said looking out at the river again.
"More people have said that too me than you'd care to know."
"I also think you're dangerous."
"I have lived a dangerous life." Harry countered.
"People have died around you."
"Yes." Harry said. "People have also lived because of me…but that still doesn't explain why you fear me."
"You keep saying that." Harry nodded, not that she saw. "I want to keep my country safe."
"I'm here to help you with that."
"Prove that you're not something I should be protecting it from." Kate said and removed her weapon and pointed it at Harry.
'Huh.' Harry thought to himself as he looked at the weapon…this was probably one of those situations that UNIT personnel talk about, on the bright side there wasn't an alien invasion going on around them.
"Ok." Harry said and disappeared in a swirl of black accented mist, and reappeared beside her, disarming her and then together they disappeared.
Reappearing moments later outside a church in a small English town called Tellus.
"What the…what…where…."
"I don't think that's important…come on…" Harry took her firmly by the hand and walked her toward the church.
"What is this?"
"You wanted proof…that I haven't come to you to 'sing a raven's note'."
"Shakespeare again Lt Potter."
"Hey I could have gone with Poe…"
They stood at the door to the church. Kate Todd stared at Harry waiting.
Harry smiled and pushed the door of the old church open and walked inside.
"There, Agent Todd…" Harry said as he walked in and then walked back to her.
She just stared at him and then looked back toward the town.
Harry looked at his watch.
"Come on I think we should be returning…close your eyes."
"Why?"
"Because a magician never reveals his secrets…" Harry said with a chuckled wrapped his hands over her eyes and they disappeared once more, they came back into being in a corner of the NCIS garage.
"Hey Abby." Harry said with a wave as Kate stumbled and looked around.
"…Harry." Abby said after a moment or two and raised an eyebrow.
"Here." Harry handed Kate her weapon back, she took it roughly and shoved it back in her holster.
"Umm Kate…" Harry said as she turned.
"What?" She said neutrally.
Harry held up the magazine.
"You'll need this, nothing worse than firing blanks."
"Tony's dates don't seem to mind." Abby said from where she was working.
Harry waited until Kate had disappeared into the lift before wandering over to where Abby was working.
"So where did you and Kate go and do?" She asked suggestively.
"Went out had a conversation by the river."
"What sort…why?"
"Why all the questions?"
"Gibbs came down here."
"Ahh…Kate just needed some…she needed…" Harry tried. "I answered some…she tried to shoot me, I explained my position."
Abby blinked.
"Right…"
"So what are you up to?"
"I was thinking about what happened to you at that mine field…whatever this is, you said it was a power converter for some sort of weapon."
"I said that?" Harry asked out loud.
"You implied it."
"Really?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"So there's got to be another one from what Tony and Gibbs said something shot at you…given the relative distance and length of the valley it had to have exponential power…"
"Ok…" Harry said slowly, he could handle it when he talked 'technobabble' and he could even cope with technobabble from the Night Wolf people, but this was something more, Abby was waving her hands around and seemingly trying to animate through hand gestures the complexities to a power converter used to adapt a crude energy weapon.
"So if I can work out how much power was flowing into this…"
"You might be able to pinpoint exactly where the people we're looking for are."
"Yeah." Abby said as Gibbs walked over and grabbed Harry and dragged him toward the lift.
--//
This is a chapter that I intended to happen, though I wasn't quite sure if it was going to take a whole chapter (but it obviously did).
But it was something I wanted to address nonetheless, the subject of Kate's faith is mentioned a few times in NCIS, so I make no excuses about it here.
Harry is for all intents and purposes an atheist.
In my previous stories I have made a vague distinctions between faith and religion…actually by not getting into religion as a whole, Faith is touched on in a few circumstances in a very vague way.
I almost wrote a 'demonstration of faith' scene here as seen in Sorcery, but within this context there wasn't a way (while talking about Kate's faith) about addressing it without addressing religion (and that's not something I want to get into).
I've also resorted to a few TV show conventions, the quotes etc to illustrate people's POVs. (Exodus 22:18 which is something I've also avoided when dealing with faith and religion and all is 'Thou shall not suffer a witch to live' just in case anyone was wondering)
This chapter ends leading right up into the final exposition and revelation scenes.