Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS
Author's Note: This is a big case chapter...well except for the end. If you read nothing else of this, read the end! Big changes here...big changes
And, yeah, it is kinda long...
"Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer."
- Shunryu Suzuki
"Tell me you've got something, Abs," Gibbs said, striding into Abby's lab where she and McGee were huddled over a computer.
"Nothing on Petty Officer Hopkins's computer," McGee answered.
"What about the cell phone?" Gibbs asked.
"That's where it gets interesting, Bosserino," Abby smiled, pulling something up on her plasma.
As Gibbs went to look at the screen, he left a Caff-Pow on her table, she smiled big and picked it up.
"What is it, Abby?" Gibbs asked impatiently.
"Well, the cell phone carrier isn't a real predominant carrier in this region. Alltel is more of a Southern thing, so that was the first clue to look out of the state. It was prepaid and bought by a 'Rusty Shackleford' another thing that led us to the South-" Gibbs cut her off with a look.
"Rusty Shackleford is the alias that Dale Gribble, on the TV show King of the Hill, uses. The show is more popular in the South than-"
"Abby."
"Right. Then there was the number. The area code, 501, is a central Arkansas prefix-"
"Arkansas?"
"It gets better...or worse...The prefix is one reserved for cell phones in the Searcy area," Abby smiled.
"They're targeting the kids," McGee said.
"Or it is one of them," Gibbs said, "Find out where the phone was bought."
Gibbs started to leave, but Abby called out.
"I've already done that Gibbs. Wal-Mart store #157, 3509 East Race Avenue; Searcy, Arkansas," Abby grinned bigger.
"Anything else, Abs?"
"Paid with cash. Gave his name and address as-"
"Shackleford, yeah," Gibbs said, he leaned over and kissed Abby's forehead then marched out of the room.
"I am so his favorite," Abby smiled at McGee.
"Spoiled brat," McGee teased.
"Timmy!" she shouted, throwing a latex glove at him. He ducked, but it still landed on the top of his head and Abby laughed.
"We've got something," Gibbs announced, striding into the bullpen, "DiNozzo, get the number for Wal-Mart store #157 in Searcy, Arkansas."
"This goes back to Arkansas, Boss?" Tony asked.
"The cell phone was bought at that store three weeks ago," Gibbs said, "Someone at the cell service desk had to activate that phone for them. Find out if they remember selling a phone to-"
"'Rusty Shackleford', got it, Boss," Tony said, looking up the phone number then calling.
"Gibbs, you have a problem," they looked up to see Director Shepard standing at the end of the bullpen.
"And what would that be, Director?" Gibbs asked.
"Petty Officer First Class Raymond Hopkins was wounded today...in Iraq...where he has been stationed for the past eight weeks," she said.
"Well then why did someone claiming to be him send a bomb threat to a hotel?" Ziva said.
"I don't know, but Hopkins was a part of a mission that was going in and helping rebuild Iraqi schools. It's been getting a lot of attention lately and he has been interviewed by several newspapers and news networks," Jenny said, pulling up ZNN on the plasma and the story about Hopkins being wounded in a ambush at a school in Northern Iraq.
Gibbs froze and looked at the screen, "Are they bringing him to the States?"
"Germany," Jenny answered.
"Can we get an MTAC feed?"
"As soon as he's out of surgery and awake."
"Good. We need to talk," Gibbs turned away from the plasma and looked at Tony who was hanging up the phone.
Jenny left the bullpen to go arrange the MTAC conference.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs ordered him to speak.
"It just so happened that the girl who was working the counter was in today. So I talked to Veronica," Ziva glared at him, he smirked and continued, "she said that she didn't remember much about 'Rusty' except that he was 'really cute' and had 'like good hair' and was wearing a windbreaker with a tiger on it," Tony said mocking the, obviously teenage, girl.
"What's Judson Hill's mascot?" Gibbs asked.
"The tigers," Ziva answered as she and Tony shared looks of epiphany.
"Where are the kids right now?" Gibbs asked.
"They were going to the National Zoo and then the National Holocaust Museum," Ziva recalled.
"When they get back, we're gonna talk," Gibbs stated as he left the bullpen, going up the stairs.
"Do you think its one of them?" Tony asked.
"I do not know. Do you think that Gibbs thinks that it is one of them?" Ziva asked, watching Gibbs storm into the Director's office.
"I don't know," Tony turned to watch as the heavy, metal door slammed shut.
Gibbs threw open the door to Jenny's office as Cynthia shouted at him. Just as he entered, Jenny hung up the phone and looked at him.
"Is nothing sacred to you, Jethro?" she asked, smirking.
He looked at her with his own version of confusion.
"You always invade my inner sanctum," she explained herself. He just gave her an impatient look.
"Have you set up the MTAC?"
"In one hour."
"Fast surgery."
"Slow news."
He smirked at her.
"Do you think one of these kids did this?" Jenny asked.
"Nope."
"One of the teachers?"
"I don't know much about them. I know one that didn't do it."
"Already? You haven't even interviewed anyone," Jenny said in disbelief, "I knew your gut was good, but this is ridiculous."
"Clerk said he had nice hair, one of the teachers is bald," Gibbs smirked again. Jenny smiled at him.
"Damn it, Jethro, always the little things," she said in a half-laugh.
He shrugged and left the office.
"Going into the MTAC room and sitting there won't make the hour pass any faster, Jethro," Jenny called after him.
"Should we go to MTAC?" Ziva asked, watching Gibbs walk from Jenny's office and into MTAC.
"Oooh, I'm thinking, no. Never crash an MTAC party. They get pretty nasty," Tony said, watching the same thing.
"How long do you think he'll be in there?" Ziva asked.
"An hour, hour and a half at the least. Probably two hours," Tony estimated, turning away to look a Ziva.
"What do we do until then? Anything that could give us a lead is either in Germany, Arkansas, or Abby's lab," Ziva asked.
"Well, I can think of something we could do," Tony said, raising his eyebrows conspiratorially.
"Tony, we were instructed to keep it out of the office," Ziva warned.
"Then we could go out to one of our cars," Tony said, making his way across the aisle to Ziva's desk.
"Mmm, Tony," she smiled up at him, "Do you really think that would be a wise decision?"
He leaned across the desk and dangerously close to her face, "No, but it sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than just sitting here on our asses for the next two hours."
"You're terrible, Tony," she growled up at him as she leaned up to kiss him.
"What happened to 'not in the office', Officer David?" Tony teased.
She didn't answer, instead she grabbed his tie and pulled him down to give her a much deeper kiss.
He came around her desk so that he could be closer to her and before long, a heated make out session had broke out behind her desk.
They didn't even hear when Abby and McGee came into the bullpen, looking for something to do.
"Oh my god, Timmy, look!" Abby whisper-shouted, pointing behind Ziva's desk.
McGee craned his neck to look and then jerked back, "I could have gone my entire life without seeing that."
Abby smacked McGee across the stomach, "You're just jealous that you're not getting that kind of action."
"No, but I am a little weirded out that you enjoy watching out coworkers make out," McGee said.
"Lots of people like watching other people make out, Timmy," Abby stated, "If they didn't, then why would they make pornos?"
"I don't like watching my coworkers make out," McGee corrected.
"But it's so sweet," Abby cooed.
"There is nothing 'sweet' about watching Tony and Ziva play tonsil-hockey," McGee replied.
"You are so negative!"
"There is nothing negative about not wanting to watch my coworkers do everything except actually having sex behind Ziva's desk."
"But they're in love!"
"I don't care! It's gross!"
"Love isn't gross!"
"No, but watching this is. They're going at it like rabbits in clothing over there! It's not normal!"
"What about sex isn't normal?"
"Abby! They're in the middle of the bullpen!"
"They aren't technically-"
"I don't care. I don't want to see it."
"Then stop it."
"They'd kill me."
"Tony wouldn't kill you...Ziva might kill you."
"I'm coming between Tony and a female, he would kill me."
"I know how to stop it."
"I thought you liked it."
"Everything has it's limits, Timmy. They're starting to take their clothes off."
McGee looked over and quickly looked back, "Yeah, Tony really needs to do something about that body-hair...it's not normal."
Abby smirked then shouted, "Hi, Gibbs!"
Ziva and Tony both jumped up, trying to look as normal as possible.
Tony was frantically rebuttoning his shirt and trying to get his tie back under his collar. His hair was sticking straight up all over; his face was red and he was breathing heavy.
Ziva refastened her belt and tried to straighten her shirt. Her hair had been pulled out of its ponytail and hung down as a crazy tangle of curls surrounding her face. Like Tony, her face was red and she was breathing raggedly.
"Boss, we were just-...Where's the boss?" Tony said, looking around.
Abby waved at the couple then skipped back to the elevator.
"That was your idea, wasn't it, Probie?" Tony asked, glaring at the younger man.
"I...uh...actually...no, no, it was Abby's idea," McGee stuttered as Ziva glared at him as well.
Above them, they heard the door to MTAC slam shut and watched Gibbs march down the stairs.
"Anything, Boss?" Tony asked.
"He's never even heard of Searcy, Arkansas. Born and raised in Boston," Gibbs stated.
"So it's all fake?" McGee asked.
"Ya think, McGee?" Gibbs snapped.
"So, the only question now is 'who is it?'," Ziva said, looking at Gibbs.
"I'm going for coffee," Gibbs stated.
As he passed Tony and Ziva, he slapped both of them on the back of their heads, "I told you to keep it out of the office."
Ziva glared at Tony who just looked at Gibbs with a dumbfounded expression.
A.N.: See! Lot's of changes, right?
Yeah, I explained the Rusty Shackleford thing again.
The Wal-Mart is the real Searcy Wal-Mart. And I am taking some creative license with the way that the prepaid cell phone works.
Now I actually have a plan for where this is going (Thank you, Cable_Addict!)...and even I didn't see it coming!
How about that ending, huh? Is the story getting better? Please tell me.
Please review!