Disclaimer: no legal rights to NCIS, no money being made.
Beta: Mike91848.
Warning: Same as chapter one.
CHAPTER 10
IT MATTERS NOT HOW STRAIT THE GATE
McGee arrived at Gibbs' house early, armed with donuts and a decent cup of coffee just to be safe. Tony, Fornell and Gibbs were sitting at the table when he arrived but there was no Ziva. The mood of the other agents was pretty grim if their sour faces were any indication and that meant they must have gotten all the sordid details of what happened from Marc. Apparently, they were no closer to solving this case than last night.
McGee handed the sweets to Gibbs and watched him and Fornell pillage the box as though there wasn't a table full of dirty dishes indicative of a hearty breakfast already consumed. Without thinking about it McGee said in an aside to Tony, "If you treasure your fingers, stay away from the box."
Tony looked up at him frowning in surprise and Tim thought he had put his foot in it again by being so familiar with the man, but Tony watched the two older gents and grinned slyly. "I get your point, McGee."
Ducky came into the kitchen then with his doctor's bag and a purpose. "Good morning, Timothy. Ah good, Anthony, you have finished eating and taken your pills I hope. Let me check your shoulder wound and you're looking a little flushed. I hope you don't have a fever my boy, that's all we need is an infection to set in..."
"Naw, Ducky. McGee just poked fun at me and Tobias here and DiNozzo thought it was something he should laugh at."
"No, not true, Gibbs, not laughing." Tony defended himself but McGee remained respectfully silent.
"How's Marc, Ducky?" Gibbs had brought the boy a breakfast tray of cold cereal and milk, juice and toast.
"He ate a little, not much. His feet are healing nicely and I gave him something for the pain so he'll sleep a little."
Ducky shook his head and "tsk, tsked" his disapproval of the state of things where a boy had been violently orphaned and no one could figure out why. "Ned will sit with him for now. Come, come now, Anthony, I still want to check your temperature."
Groaning, Tony got up to go to the living room for his doctor's appointment and to ready his mind to get back to finding the murdering scumbag killers.
Tim, in the meantime, had started setting up his computers on a cleared space on the dining room table. If Gibbs had any complaints about his boldness in not asking permission first, he didn't comment, he just started putting the dirty dishes and utensils into a sink of hot soapy water. McGee's crick in the back from trying to work at an end table that was too high and too small and not enough light was not going to happen again today. He'd need pain medicine himself if he let that happen.
"McGee, did you get any sleep last night, you look like crap?" Tobias Fornell had been on the phone but had hung up looking dissatisfied and McGee didn't take his comment personally.
"What's going on, Fornell?" Gibbs dried his hands on a towel and poured a cup of coffee into a clean cup.
"You mean what else besides nothing is going on? That dirt bag at the hospital croaked without so much as regaining consciousness. No statement and no visitors. We are still at square one," Fornell complained in disgust, throwing his phone onto the table. McGee thought only Gibbs would sacrilege a piece of technology like that and was just grateful he didn't have to pick up the pieces.
"Do you have anything, McGee, anything at all?"
"I couldn't find anything incriminating on the five woman who were working on Claire Arroyo's floor before she was killed, Gibbs, but two days after she was killed, a Crystal Arrons who worked a floor above, but had the same boss, quit without giving a two- weeks notice. That put a hardship on getting the work out and the manager noted that in Arrons' file and that she never came back for her severance pay. She had moved and her mail was returned to sender status."
"That could just be a coincidence, McGee." Fornell was about to lose interest.
But Gibbs was a wiser guy who didn't believe in coincidences. And sometimes, the scientist in McGee didn't either. There was something here.
"Well, I managed to find her again. She is definitely hiding but not too skilled at it. She's going by Anne, her middle name, and Hunter, her mother's maiden name. But she used her correct social security number and date of birth. Her bank accounts were virtually empty before she left and she was purported to overspend buying the latest in clothes, shoes and bags and a new car every year. She's working part-time at an exclusive woman's shop in DC.
"She's got about twenty thousand in her bank account now under the name Anne Hunter but she also bought her studio apartment putting half down in cash, eighty thousand dollars."
During all of that, Gibbs was staring at him as though trying to solve a puzzle. Probably disappointed that he didn't have more to report, was Tim's first thought. But he didn't look disappointed, more puzzled than anything.
"You okay, McGee? You feelin' okay?" But Gibbs' expression of rare concern was kinda creeping Tim out. Before he could come up with an answer, though, Fornell's interest had peaked again.
"So, what," Fornell pondered, "She suddenly came into a hundred thousand dollars, disappears and shows up again under a different name. Why?" " We need to question her. I'll get my men..."
"Hold on, Fornell, use your brain, we don't have enough to pick her up and if we scare her, she might run again. We need something to tie her in with Claire Arroyo, and we don't have it."
"Well, their initials are the same. They sort of looked alike, medium height, brown hair, blue eyes, similar build. They had the same boss but worked on different floors. That's what they had in common." Tony summarized. He had walked in on the tail end of McGee's sit-rep and sat down backwards in a dining room chair.
"DiNozzo, you pass muster?"
"I'm fine, Gibbs, I..."
"Permit me, Anthony, and I do not believe I am divulging any doctor patient confidentiality when I say that Anthony has a low grade fever but his wound appears clean. I am changing his antibiotic script which might work better and suggest rest, plenty of liquids and desk duty for a week then we shall see how he is doing."
"A week, Ducky, come..."
"Shall I make it two weeks, Anthony, my boy?" DiNozzo shrugged. His laconic reply suggested he'd backed off from Ducky's threat.
"Good. Now Jethro, I am due back at the office. Mr Palmer, I am sure, has gotten into some sort of mischief. I will return this evening. Oh, and Jethro, please have someone pick up Anthony's prescription. It has already been called in."
Ducky said his goodbyes and left and the rest of them trooped to the living room to what Tony referred to, to everyone's annoyance, as a campfire.
NCIS NCIS NCIS
Ziva David had arrived at work a little earlier than her regular time. Her first instinct was to storm up the stairs and put a knife into Jenny Shepard's lying mouth to cut out her twisted snakes tongue but she pushed away the most satisfying thought she'd had in days to be considered at another time.
So she walked sedately up the stairs to the Director's office and politely requested an official meeting to the smiling secretary. Knowing very well that Jenny was in her office behind closed doors and available to see her but putting her off by having Cynthia schedule an appointment for two hours away just added slop to the pile of fertilizer as her Aunt Netty use to say.
Jenny Shepard thought she held all the cards, but, as the 'great' Anthony DiNozzo was fond of pointing out, she was playing with half a deck. Ziva was sure she was getting the idiom's right this time around quoting DiNozzo and Aunt Netty and not trying them on her own after it being so forcefully brought to her attention that her attempts had been a laughing matter to the whole office.
Bitterly trying to come to grips with everything that had gone wrong in the last two days and facing the fact that she was powerless to do anything about anything because her usual threats of violence and retribution were not working and it was too late to use seduction or play on a man's sympathy as her reputation here was already set...as the aggressor not the shrinking purple viola, whatever that meant.
Even mousy Tim had shocked her into speechlessness last night. Granted, she had been angry at what she had learned about herself, about what Gibbs really thought about her, her status at NCIS, her father and Jenny Shepard's betrayal, Anthony playboy and jock DiNozzo, who had the coveted favored position and her life in general.
And really, she had been off duty and standing under that tree for hours before McGee came out to relieve her. But she had honestly felt that she would have been offered a place to rest in Gibbs' house because even though she obviously lacked what was needed to make a 'good investigator', she wasanexcellentcovert operative and expert at surveillance; a ruthless fighter and her sniper abilities added to that should have given her the special position of guarding the boy.
But yet again, she was apparently fooling herself. She was nothing more than a piece on a board game, a piece moved based on the whims of others and chance like a roll of dice thrown by the players; go home, do not return, jump one step forward, take two steps back, and now, go to the office, sit and play with paper, finish reports.
McGee's appearance and his demeaning instructions from Gibbs had only confirmed what she had already surmised and made her want to strike back. McGee's simpering and shuffling just irritated her enough to make him an easy target and she attacked, speaking her mind about everything that was wrong with him so she could have a moment to not fixate on herself.
She really had expected him to follow her orders about the change in plans and maybe she was a bit malicious in what she said and her words cutting and cruel, but after all McGee was used to it, even expected it, and he worked better when he had direction and guidance. She hadn't even been angry with him. She insulted him, that's what she did; he stoically bore it, that's what he did.
But he didn't behave as she expected by turning tail and running away, instead he stood his ground, standing still as though having grown roots into the ground to China and a few moments later when he looked up, his pale face was furious and his voice an angry bellow.
And the man had bit back, hard, and effective. And he had given her his ultimatum to leave him alone or else. So she had let him go and now here she was at work forcing herself to wait calmly for her appointment with Director Shepard to seal her fate.
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Director Shepard got off the phone with the SECNAV. How dare he question and probe into her actions! Damn Leroy Jethro Gibbs! She had successfully slipped away from him yesterday and thought she had turned on the 'reject this number' for his number only. Unfortunately, she found out she had mistakenly rejected all calls from the same area code.
Great, she hadn't gotten any calls from Jethro but she hadn't gotten any calls from anyone else in the DC area, either. And while an attempted kidnapping and hostage situation was going down, including shootout, injured agents and dead perps, she was in a hot tub with lavender bath salts, wine and a favored book.
She had gotten in this morning and the word was that Gibbs' team had pulled off a coup last night and had that boy DiNozzo was so riled up about yesterday hiding out somewhere along with Jethro and the rest of his team. Worse, the FBI had become involved and she was playing catch up with the SECNAV breathing down her neck for not informing him.
Good thing her lying ability was one of her better virtues and she was so adept at misdirection that the SECNAV was fooled by every twisted truth that left her mouth. 'Her phone was out of commission and her migraine had laid her low. Lead agent Gibbs had been left in charge and she didn't know why he hadn't contacted him. It was totally irresponsible of Gibbs that the SECNAV had to be notified by the Director of the FBI about what was going on. Head's would fly over this, sir, take my word.'
Idiot!
Suddenly her intercom rang. "Director, Ziva David would like to see you as soon as possible."
I bet she would. Shepard didn't even try to soften it. "Just tell her I'm busy, Cynthia, tell her to go away...no, wait. Never mind that. Tell her I'll see her at ten a.m." Jenny slammed the phone thinking this was all she needed today of all days, dealing with that spoiled naive brat. How could someone with her background be so gullible? But she didn't have a whole lot of time to worry about that now or smooth the Israeli's ruffled feathers. She'd figure out some more lies to tell her at their ten o'clock meeting and then soon, if things went as scheduled, she wouldn't have to deal with Ziva David or NCIS again.
The problem was everything was set to go but the team she needed to take the fall was not here instead they were closeted somewhere unknown to her. Not only that but the blind date set up for DiNozzo with Benoit had come and gone.
Think, think, think! Where would Jethro most likely be hiding out? She couldn't call anyone asking for info she was the head of the agency, something she should already have known, after all. Balboa. Yes, Balboa would know. She dialed his number praying he would be in the office.
"Balboa."
"Agent Balboa, Director Shepard here."
"How can I help you, Director?"
"Are you Gibbs' backup, I need to get a message to him right away."
"Gibbs? He's still at his house as far as I know, have you tried his..." The dial tone indicated she had hung up. Balboa stared at the phone baffled. She was a strange nut and getting stranger.
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Jenny was fuming as she arrived at Gibbs' house. She noted the agents on guard, not NCIS people, she hadn't authorized that; FBI then. She got out of her car, slammed the car door and stormed up the driveway in her high heels and black pencil skirt, red lipstick and attitude. She aimed for Gibbs' front door pushing the idiots out of the way who wanted to see some identification, the bastards, before finally being stopped by an extra pushy moron who had her arm twisted behind her back before she could kick him in the groin.
The front door was flung open and the owner of the house, Jethro Gibbs, stood there glaring. At her! Not at the FBI hoodlum trying to break her arm.
"Jethro! Would you tell this barbarian to release me! Now!"
"Let her go, Sanders. She's the Director, NCIS."
"Yes, Sanders, is it? I want your badge number. Your Director will be hearing from me," snarled the irate woman, totally ignoring protocol and proper procedure when approaching a safe house.
Sanders flashed his badge as he listened stoically to her abuse and put his handcuffs away. He whispered into his headpiece as he turned and walked away and his back got a dirty, revengeful look from the pissed-off woman as she was ushered into the house by Gibbs.
"Jethro! What in the hell is going on, where are my agents, and why am I the last to know?"
Gibbs went ahead of her into the living room in a show of bad manners and she assumed she was to follow behind to the living room where her missing agents lounged around and not one of them looked happy to see her. DiNozzo was seated on the sofa and she guessed he was the wounded agent with a sling around his left arm. The pipsqueak McGee was sitting in a chair with his laptop, where else, sitting open in his lap. FBI agent Fornell sat comfortably on the sofa, idly fiddling with a pen. Was that a smirk on his face?
Gibbs had walked to the fireplace mantle to place his empty coffee cup. "You didn't answer your phone, Director. I tried most of the night and when you didn't answer I could only assume that you were avoiding me. Very bad, Jen, you should never be unreachable, rule number..."
Infuriated, Shepard stepped into Gibbs' personal space and growled. "Don't quote you're stupid rules to me, Gibbs." Looking around mindful of the listening too attentive ears, she demanded. "I prefer discussing this somewhere a little more private?"
"Private, got ya," and Gibbs escorted her down to the basement and as he closed the door, he heard talking resume in the living room.
When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Jenny turned around searching, then exclaimed, "Where's the boat?"
"Gone. You wanted to talk?"
"Fine. What in the hell is going on, Jethro?"
"What's going on?" Gibbs asked as though he couldn't believe the question. Gibbs walked to the middle of the cavernous room and then turned to face her. "Geez, Jenny, you should know better than to be out of reach by this time. Have ya lost your mind?"
"Don't you dare preach to me, Agent Gibbs. You tell me what's going on now and save your bullying for your team."
Gibbs came to the conclusion that there was no reasoning with the out of control Director and he had better things to do.
"Yeah, I'll tell ya, Sam Arroyo! Remember him? DiNozzo and McGee found him dead yesterday and his kid gone. I tried to reach you yesterday to report what was going on and half the night and couldn't. Makes me think you were avoiding me, Jenny."
"I was busy. But I'm not busy now. What do you mean he was found dead?"
"Just what I said, Director, he was found dead, murdered and his kid was missing. The boy was finally found by my agents and there was a shootout a short distance from the navy yard trying to defend him and get him to safety. Jen, I waited as long as I could to reach you but I just called the SECNAV to give him a preliminary report about what was going on here and he had a few words to say regarding why he had to learn about this from the FBI."
"I'm sure you covered your ass, Jethro. What did you tell him?"
"My ass didn't need covering, Director. I was busy with a wounded agent and a traumatized kid and finding a safe place to hold up. I told him I didn't know why he hadn't been informed."
"By me I assume! Isn't that what you implied, Gibbs? If you're screwing with..."
"Save it, Jenny! I'm doing my job. You're the one screwing around here!"
Shepard pulled herself up short at Gibbs barking response. He was getting angry and if he was angry, she wasn't going to get anywhere with him this way.
"I need everybody back at the office. Pass the kid off to the FBI, it's their jurisdiction anyway. Your team needs to be at the office no later than tomorrow morning, 8 sharp, Gibbs. That's an order!"
She was getting desperate. Lee and Keating were waiting in the sidelines and Domino was scheduled to happen in four days. Gibbs' team had to take the fall for this. Once Keating and Lee stole the information, it would be blamed on Gibbs and his team, but they needed to be at the office, not hiding out on this asinine case.
They already had a buyer and they'd get the information sold and divvy up the spoils and she wouldn't have to deal with those two again, especially Keating, the greedy SOB, who wanted to get ten percent more because he was taking all the risks hacking the computer. She wasn't giving up her fifty percent so Lee's share was now reduced to fifteen percent. She'd take it and keep her mouth shut or she wouldn't see her daughter again.
Gibbs' blue eyes gazed at her as though she was an insane patient recently escaped from the loony bin.
"Jenny, I told you I already spoke to the SECNAV. His orders were for me and my team to stick with this case until it was resolved and to coordinate with the FBI. So, nobody's going anywhere. Take it up with SECNAV if you don't like it"
Jenny's angry, pinched face promised retribution. "I'll get you for this, Jethro. You have those agents in the office tomorrow or else!"
Her yelling was heard at the top of the stairs through the closed basement door and her stomping clicking heels on the concrete floor sounded like a runaway horse to DiNozzo, who had come to the kitchen for some juice for Marc. When he heard the yelling then sharp angry sounds of her heels coming up the stairs he thought about making a dash outta there, but then he thought, why should he run away, he hadn't been missing in action for hours?
So he was pouring the juice into a glass when Shepard flung the door open and stalked out. She glared at him coldly, "I want to talk to you about that undercover assignment, DiNozzo. Be in the office at eight tomorrow and we'll go over it. Be there, DiNozzo, this will be your last warning!"
After that dire threat, Shepard kept going until she reached the front door that she flung open so hard it banged against the wall. Gibbs came silently up the basement stairs and Tony checked to see if Gibbs had any extra holes or evidence of dripping blood.
"DiNozzo, what was she talking about, what undercover assignment?"
"Oh, you heard that. Yeah, when I was first hired she wanted me to hook up with this doctor daughter of Rene Benoit, using a false name and identity, some professor, or something..."
"Rene Benoit, the illegal arms dealer? What was she going to have you do?"
"Seduce his daughter and pry information out of her about her father..."
"And you agreed to do this, DiNozzo? You're..."
DiNozzo's hackles went up, again, at this man's assumption that he didn't have a brain in his head. "Hey! I'm not stupid. I could smell a rotten egg salad when one was shoved in my face and I checked, she was going off grid and this wasn't sanctioned by the Navy or NCIS.
Gibbs raised the white flag. "Hold on. I'm not calling anyone stupid. So after you turned her down, what happened?"
Somewhat mollified, DiNozzo decided he had to work on his knee-jerk reactions to this man. "At first she invited me out for a drink and I don't think she expected my continued 'no' answer after plying me with booze. Then after she tried cajoling and flattering and promising me your job and I continued to refuse she threatened my job and any future jobs with other law enforcement agencies. I know she set me up with a blind date with the good doctor for this weekend. I had no intention of showing up even if this case hadn't happened."
"My job, huh, ya don't say? What'd she want you to do tomorrow?" Gibbs had a bad feeling something was going on with Jenny.
"She ordered me back to NCIS at eight to discuss the undercover assignment, or else."
Gibbs poured steaming coffee in a cup from the never ending urn. "You're staying right here, DiNozzo. SECNAV has grounded us and he trumps the Director's orders hands down."
"That's good to hear and, don't get me wrong about this, Gibbs, because I'm not kidding, if that broad didn't leave me alone about this scheme of hers, she was about to get my boot up her..."
"Don't finish that, DiNozzo, if you know what's good for you."
"Not finishing, Gibbs."
"Good, back to work." Gibbs said mildly still concerned for his one-time partner and lover.
DiNozzo followed along behind Gibbs breathing a sigh of relief that Jenny Shepard had been dealt with as far as he was concerned without him having to resort to beating her over the head with his pistol before she understood that he wasn't playing gigolo for her private vendetta. The agent sitting with Marc met Tony halfway down the stairs and he passed the juice to him to take to the kid. The two were up there watching a movie; one of the Star Wars Trilogy and Marc seemed resigned and depressed enough to watch it in silence. Dr Cranston had been contacted and she had recommended a qualified child psychologist for Marc. Tony just hoped that would help him.
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Driving back to NCIS, the Director of NCIS was certainly not worried about a depressed boy or shot up agent. A nefarious plan was forming in her devious mind. Ziva David was not with her team, she was at the office. Why? Shepard thought she knew. Gibbs' had finally gotten tired of her self-aggrandizing and kicked her out of his sight; wouldn't be the first time Gibbs booted an irritating agent back to home base. Maybe she could use that to her advantage; maybe it was about time she had that long talk with Ziva David.
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