Thanks to my beta Kristen! Special thanks to SJ for reminding me to post...
Chapter 10: Bethesda Return
Ziva David was getting fed up of entering Bethesda. This was her third time today! She hoped she would not be back in here for a long while after this. With a serious amount of luck, no one would be injured in the next few months. Although they were perhaps not that lucky with Lily around.
She remembered something Gibbs had once said in relation to her: Lily was a hurricane of chaos and destruction, leaving pain and death in her wake. It sounded very true. And Lily never looked behind her to see the trail of devastation that she left.
Someone would have to show her the error of her ways soon. Except Lily would have to be coming up to her retirement at some point. Jenny had mentioned that Lily had joined the CIA straight out of college, and while Ziva was not sure how many years were required for a CIA pension, Lily had to have put in over twenty years of hard work. Maybe the higher-ups would push her behind a desk soon, allowing her to exercise her mind but not go on active duty. It would break Lily's heart, but considering the messes she created, it would be a good idea.
Or maybe Lily would just get bored one day and decide, like Hollis Mann, that a warm beach somewhere sounded nice. She could even go to Hawaii and harass the ex-Colonel. It would keep Lily happy, and keep her occupied as well.
On the other hand, Lily probably expected to die in the field, at the conclusion of some grand mind game she had constructed. She certainly did not seem to accept that her body was getting older and she could not keep up her job for the rest of her life. At some point, she would have to start taking things easy.
Actually, Lily reminded her of Gibbs. The boss refused to accept that he was getting older too. He squinted rather than wear reading glasses, he showed no signs of spending the rest of his days behind a desk, and he could still take down suspects as though he was a much younger man.
There were other scary similarities between them than Ziva knew she could never voice. They both had a weakness for coffee, they were both incredibly stubborn, and they both would do anything to keep Jenny safe. They were both natural leaders, although Lily did not usually exercise her ability to control a crowd, and they could both interrogate someone extremely well. They even worked well together, when they were not bickering and squabbling over every little thing that they possibly could.
If she ever mentioned their similarities, she knew they would both give her dark glares. Neither of them would accept the truth, although there was always the possibility that they would think about it for a few days. But they were both stuck in their ways and would refuse to change a thing.
She entered the clinic again and caught the sympathetic look on the receptionist's face. Evidently, she felt that being forced to enter the same waiting room on numerous occasions was a horrible experience. And she was right: the noise level seemed to have increased since her last visit and children were running around the place. A young boy crashed into her legs, extracted himself, and disappeared in the blink of an eyelid. Even Gibbs looked dismayed at the sheer number of people present.
And somehow they had to talk to the staff about Commander Kaye. It was highly unlikely they would even open up about him, considering that the agents had arrested him in full view of everyone. At least they had McGee with them this time and he could hopefully charm answers out of some people.
If it wasn't Kaye, who was it?
Ziva decided to start with the receptionist. The poor woman would probably know more about what happened in this place than anyone else. And she seemed to have some sympathy towards them, compared to the outright hostile glares that the doctors were shooting at the agents. They were only doing their jobs!
"Ziva David," she introduced herself.
"Mary Abbot," came the reply. "I think you guys have managed to get really confused."
"And what do you mean by that?" Ziva inquired, keeping her lid on her temper.
Mary sat down in her chair and gestured to Ziva that she should perch on the desk. "James Kaye would not blow up our waiting room! Besides, I thought you had ruled it was a gas leak."
"That has yet to be determined," Ziva lied. She knew Lily had been responsible for it, but she couldn't exactly admit it to this lady. "And we have not arrested him for the explosion."
"Then what?" Mary looked concerned.
"Murder," she replied. "We believe he has murdered twelve babies in the last two years."
"But… but that's impossible!" Mary spluttered. "Commander Kaye cares for these children! We've joked that he's cursed, but we never meant anything by it."
"We have heard those rumors as well," Ziva confirmed. "But we are taking this much more seriously. We found that some drugs had been switched over earlier today. If the babies had been injected with them, they would be very ill right now."
"That can't be true," Mary denied. "He cares for children and he's good at his job."
"Is there anyone who might want to hurt his career?"
"No." Mary did not even need a second to think about it. "Everyone loves James. He's witty and refuses to step on anyone's toes."
"Can you think of anything that may help us?" Ziva was still being as polite as possible.
This time, the receptionist took her time. "One of the nurses has a bit of a crush on him. We discuss it every now and again."
"Happen to have a name?"
Timothy McGee was watching a master at work. Gibbs was the best at interrogating people, especially when they did not realize they were being interrogated.
Ziva had passed along the information about Ryan Tucker, before leaving to continue talking to the receptionist. If she could provide any additional information, they would gladly take it. For the moment, their case seemed to be coming together.
Tucker was happily chatting away to Gibbs about how he felt Kaye was not responsible for the explosion earlier. McGee was starting to be thankful that everyone had attributed their arrival to the bomb. If Tucker was their man, he would believe they were here for one reason, when in reality they had cottoned on to his killing spree. And they did not want him to panic. There were a great number of children around.
Another child crashed into his legs and McGee stifled a groan. None of these personnel seemed to have any control over their children. It was getting beyond annoying. It definitely hadn't been as bad as this when he had been with Lily, and Lily had controlled her son, although Jasper did not need to be controlled. The boy was well-behaved and polite, unlike these little feral monsters.
He was a little worried that Gibbs might decide to force everyone to sit down and behave. He firmly believed that his boss could do that: control a room without even raising his voice. He had seen him do it before and it would make their jobs at lot easier.
Although, there might actually be reason to his madness. With the waiting room in chaos, other staff members could not overhear any discussions. There was no need to talk to everyone in separate rooms and keep them apart before they were questioned; it was simply impossible to talk about the arrival of federal agents for the third time in a few hours with this noise level. The only way to do it would involve shouting as loud as was physically possible and it would immediately raise a red flag to the investigators.
Nevertheless, he was going to need a nice amount of aspirin after this. If they were lucky, he would settle down in his tranquil apartment at the end of today, take a few pills to make his headache disappear and curl up with a good book. There was no way he could write tonight: he wasn't calm enough. And he would need to focus, something that was difficult to do with a headache.
"Is Commander Kaye in any kind of trouble?" Gibbs asked. "Money worries, an ex hanging around, something like that?"
It was an odd question, but McGee understood what Gibbs was fishing for. While Tucker would see it as just another routine question, Gibbs was looking to see how much information the nurse had about Kaye. If he could provide a detailed answer, it would confirm all their suspicions.
"He inherited some money last year," Tucker replied. "So I don't think he was any money issues. He doesn't talk about his personal life so I don't know about that."
That definitely sounded suspicious. People didn't generally discuss inheritances in McGee's experience.
"What do you think of Kaye as a doctor?" Gibbs continued.
"He's a great guy." Tucker's face lit up. "He's great at his job, saves lots of children."
Gibbs nodded infinitesimally. "We need you to come down to the Navy Yard," he told the nurse. "You can either come quietly or we'll arrest you in front of your co-workers."
It didn't look as though Gibbs was jumping to conclusions now. McGee could only hope they had the right man this time.