Chapter 10

Dabi raised an eyebrow at the message on her phone. It was from her father and showed an address, followed by what looked like a desperate message.

"Get over here now! Bring one of your delivery trucks and a large raw steak!"

"GPS says ten, and I think we have a steak Leo was planning to barbecue in the near future," Dabi sent back, having checked Google Maps.

"You have half!" Gibbs sent back a minute later.

Dabi was already moving.

"Owen, Dad seems to have gotten himself in a jam. He's asking for a large steak and one of our delivery truck," she said, catching up to her second-in-command. "I'm going to need help with this one."

"Fine," said Owen, grabbing a set of keys from the vehicle cabinet. "But you owe me one."

The bakery was winding down for the day, so both Owen and Dabi were sure the remaining staff could handle any issues that arose.

"What do you want?" Dabi asked, heading for her apartment to grab the steak.

"Out of taking Ruah to the vet on Monday," said Owen. "You may be taking his balls, but I value mine!"

"Done. I'll sic Dad on him," Dabi replied easily, stuffing the steak in a plastic bag and following Owen out of her apartment.

"You're a brat; you know that, right?"

"Yeah. So?" And she grinned at him.

"Oh, and we have a long weekend coming up. That's mine."

"I'll be nice and make it four, seeing as how you covered for me while I was in New Orleans."

"Deal."

The address Gibbs had given Dabi turned out to be an auto parts junk yard. Owen parked the delivery truck near a fence lined with razor wire, and spotted two snarling dogs, large Dobermans by the looks of it, barking and growling at something near the back fence.

The plan was for Dabi to go in and make like a lost driver trying to find an address that was on the other side of town, while Owen distracted the dogs long enough to get Gibbs and Tim out of there via the top of the delivery truck, which just happened to be slightly higher than the fence itself.

By the time Dabi got back to the truck ten minutes later, Gibbs and Tim were in the truck, looking a little worse for the wear.

"And you were there why?" Dabi asked.

"Case," said Gibbs, tugging down his hat. "Guy is suspected of gun-running and using the auto-parts yard to hide and transport said weapons."

"Why are you involved?" Owen asked.

"Because a Navy officer was found stuffed in a car body that came from here," said Tim. "Except we're having trouble getting a warrant to have a look around."

"So you decided to have a look around without the warrant," Owen guessed.

"We spotted something we wanted to take a closer look at but couldn't risk the owners seeing us. Good thing their cameras suck," said Gibbs.

"Maybe because they had dogs instead?" Dabi asked sweetly. "By the way, Tim, your pants are torn."

"Razor wire. Fun stuff," Tim groused.

"What do I owe you two to keep your mouth shut about this?" Gibbs asked.

"Owen, nothing. I've already made a deal with him. You, on the other hand..." And Dabi smiled at him.

Monday morning:
"Boss is late," Tony commented.

"It's Monday; he had to take Ruah to the vet today," Tim said.

Tony cringed.

"What's so bad about taking a sweet little kitty to the vet?" Ellie wanted to know.

"You ever seen the movie Sharknado?" Tony asked.

"No," Ellie replied.

"Hurricane out at sea picks up man-eating sharks and moves inland to a major city with the sharks, resulting in a gore-fest of Titanic proportions," Tim explained.

"Okay," said Ellie, confused about the reference.

"Last time Dabi used the word 'vet' and 'Ruah' in the same sentence, she wound up getting a tetanus shot and six stitches in her arm, plus she walked funny for about three days," said Tony. "When Ruah hears the word 'vet' or even sees a cat carrier, that 'sweet little kitty' makes a sharknado look tame."

Ellie winced.

"And that was just for immunization shots," said Tim.

Gibbs appeared an hour later, a dark scowl on his face, and gauze wrapped haphazardly around one hand. His long-sleeved sweatshirt bore several nasty tears in it and what looked like blood was drying in the fabric. Even his jeans had not been spared and one knee had the makings of a hole. As Gibbs approached his desk, Vance appeared and when he saw his senior agent, his eyebrows went up.

"And what happened to you?" he asked.

"Ruah had a vet appointment today, for neutering," Gibbs snarled, sitting down at his desk to check his e-mails.

"Ruah?" Vance repeated, not recognizing he name.

"You remember Jed? The little guy Dabi found in L.A.?" Tony asked.

"The one with no bones in his forearms that my daughter absolutely adores?" Vance asked, remembering.

"That's him. Boss found him a buddy just before spring thaw and Dabi calls him Ruah because he's as white as a ghost, and Ruah means 'spirit' in Hebrew," Tim explained. "Last time Dabi took him to the vet, she was on the wrong end of twenty-two claws and a nasty set of teeth."

Vance winced. Then; "Wait a minute, twenty-two claws? I thought cats only had twenty, five on each foot."

"Ruah is a polydactyl; six toes on both front feet, and fully formed with claws," Ellie offered cheerfully. "He's a sweet kitty."

Gibbs glared at her and she suddenly made herself busy. Both Tim and Tony wisely shut up and got busy as well.

"How did you get stuck with that?" Vance asked Gibbs.

"Payment for getting me and Tim out of a jam last week," Gibbs growled.

"How many cats does Dabi have, anyway?" Vance asked.

"Too many!" snarled Gibbs.

Vance just chuckled and shook his head.

"The things we do for our children," he said, walking away.

Ducky appeared a moment later, having come upstairs as a result of a quiet phone call from Tim. He looked at Gibbs, who glared at him, and sighed softly.

"Come, Jethro. Let's get that hand of yours looked at, shall we? Let us hope you won't need another tetanus shot," the elderly coroner said gently.

As he followed Gibbs towards the elevator, he smiled at Tony's fervently mouthed "Thank you!"