Thanks to my beta Kristen! I've been promising this for a little while...
Chapter 11: The Truth About Darlene
Leroy Jethro Gibbs was surprised it had taken him so long to corner Lily. He had planned to drag her to one side once they reached the cottage they were all staying in, but Jenny had stuck to her sister's side like a limpet. He supposed it was natural after an unknown sniper had been wandering around, and decided not to pull them apart.
His next idea had been to sneak out of bed once Jenny was asleep, retrieve Lily from her own room and question her then. Unfortunately, he had been more tired than he had assumed and had fallen asleep too quickly.
Which was why he was standing outside the cottage at 0500, watching the sun rise with a redhead standing next to him.
He had found her out here in her own, wrapped in a jacket and looking lost. Quashing his original impulse, he had decided to let her look out over the sea for a while longer. It was obvious that Lily hadn't slept a wink and he wondered how much sleep she had managed since her wedding. He recalled her dozing on the journey to Hastings, but couldn't remember her sleeping at any other stage.
She was rocking back and forth slightly, without realizing. Even now and then, her head would fall to her chest before jerking upwards again. It made him suspect that she was consciously trying to stay awake. He knew the feeling; sometimes the dreams were too much.
After a little while, he realized that she was shaking softly. He didn't think it was the temperature; it was a little chilly, but nothing she couldn't handle. He took a moment to glance at her face, unsurprised that she was not crying. She had never cried in front of him before. She would never let her guard down enough.
Taking pity on her, he took a step towards her and wrapped an arm around her. She resisted for a moment, before leaning in closer. Her eyes fluttered shut and he gave her the opportunity to pull herself together.
Especially because he planned to destroy her defenses shortly.
He was slowly starting to understand how she ticked. While Lily had managed to figure him out in a matter of days, he was only just beginning to work out the best way to get her to do anything. If he wanted her to start telling him the truth, he was going to have to work hard.
Sometimes, he was sorely tempted to tie her up and leave her in the capable hands of Ziva. The Israeli knew how to get information out of unwilling people and she would do it quickly. It wasn't particularly humane, but he was running out of options with Lily.
She really did try his patience. The woman could sit on a secret out of spite for as long as she wanted. She was more stubborn than him, which was difficult. He had never met anyone, with the possible exception of Jenny, who could stick their heels in the ground so well.
"So," he began. "Who's decided to destroy your life?"
Lily tensed as LJ started to speak. His arm might still have been around her, but she knew the gloves were off.
She was surprised he had not tried this game earlier. She was aware that she had been spectacularly uncooperative, and the only reason she had given them anything was because her sister was around. She was not in the mood to play this game. All she wanted to do was curl up under a rock somewhere and cry.
After her… wedding, she had lost herself in the back streets of DC. It had taken a while for her to realize that she was wandering around, on her own, after dark, with no weapon and dressed in her wedding dress. The blood that was staining the front had caused her to cry, and she had decided to go to the one place she felt she would be safe.
The CIA.
She had locked herself in Arbourne's office after changing into a spare set of clothes she kept there. Her boss had been forced to work with her in the room. He had brought her food every now and then, but she had refused point blank to leave the office. Even when the fire alarm had been set off, she had located a fire extinguisher and remained within the four walls.
Although she had not admitted it to Arbourne, she was scared. She did not have the time to mourn Alex; she knew she was next on the list. She needed revenge first, and then she could fight her way back to sanity.
It had been a chance mention of Mayborne on the phone that had brought her out of her funk. She knew Mayborne's handler, and several things clicked inside her head at once. Much as she would have loved to leave the job to NCIS, she had barged in. This way she could kill two birds with one stone.
She was fighting to remain in control of her own emotions though. She knew she was not ready to be out in the field, not ready to play this game that she was already entangled in. She was trapped in a wilderness of mirrors, a state of extreme paranoia. Everywhere she turned, she knew someone was coming for her. She wanted nothing more than to run away from everything, but at the same time she did not dare.
And she had no idea how to explain everything to the man next to her.
"It's none of your business," she told LJ.
"It is my business," he shot back. "At this rate, Jenny's going to be burying you within a week. I will not stand by her side while she is forced to deal with losing you, all because you can't pull your head out of your butt."
"I'm fine," she insisted.
He snorted. "You're barely eating, getting incredibly sloppy, and you aren't on this planet half the time. You're going to lose whatever game you're playing."
She wriggled out of his grip and slapped him across the face.
He was not surprised at her reaction. His cheek burned, and he was forced to remind himself that she could have hit him instead. At least a slap was less likely to bruise.
Still, he was going to have fun explaining this to Jenny.
But he felt he had got through to her. She was glaring at him, trying to persuade him that his best option was to back down and apologize. He had absolutely no intention of doing anything she wanted.
She glared at him for a few moments longer, her hair appearing as though it was in flames from the rising sun. After a short while, her face began to soften and she turned away from him.
"Tell me," he ordered.
She sighed, expressing her displeasure, although thankfully not storming off. "Mayborne's CIA handler was one Darlene Webb."
He waited for her to continue. He was confident that he had never heard the name before and made a mental note to get McGee to research Agent Webb as much as possible.
"I've had my suspicions over Darlene for a while. Little things. Money disappearing, weapons being rerouted, informants vanishing and turning up dead a few weeks later…"
"Does this Darlene know of your suspicions?" he asked, when it seemed clear she did not plan to continue.
"We've been feuding for years," she replied, not answering the question directly. "I do something, Darlene does something… it was never serious though."
"And now it is," he guessed. He wasn't entirely sure why she had told him the connection with Mayborne.
"I think Darlene has snapped," she answered. "I can't exactly go to Arbourne and say this, but I'd be prepared to wager on Jenny's life. Darlene has decided to make me pay."
"And killed Alex," he guessed. From the way she tensed up, he knew he was right.
"And did that little faking of Jenny's death, and blew up Jenny's office, and came after me in the Louvre."
He had been wondering who that was. It explained why she had refused to tell him what was going on at the time. "So how do we find her?" he asked.
She snorted. "That might be part of the problem."
He stared at her back. He did not expect her to turn to him, but she did. An interesting smile crossed her face.
"Darlene Webb was born to a slightly crazy mother here in England. And he goes by the name 'Trent Kort'. I think you two have met," she grinned.
He bit his lip. This was definitely not good. "How does this tie in with Mayborne then?" he demanded. "You came out simply because he was his handler?"
She shook her head. "The material has been missing for the last six months. The CIA have been frantically trying to locate it in that time, but we've never got anywhere. I suspected Darlene… Kort, but I couldn't prove it. If Mayborne found the nuclear material and told his handler, Kort would have been forced to silence him before he could tell anyone else. It would explain Mayborne's interesting death. It needed to look like an accident."
Gibbs nodded, beginning to understand the web Lily was caught in. She needed to find Kort to get her revenge and she knew Kort was behind this. And at the same time, he was trying to kill her. This was going to be an interesting ride…
He did not stop her as she walked away from him, heading down the hill so that she could be on her own for a while. She had told him what he needed to know.
He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or worried.