The next few days were a blur for Kevin. There was a funeral with full military honors for his parents at Arlington National Cemetery; almost the entire NCIS office showed up to support him. But it was Gibbs who helped him get through it. As promised Gibbs had cleaned out the spare room and Kevin had put what little he had left in the room. He still had trouble sleeping, even so, after the funeral Kevin refused to take any more sleeping pills, and Gibbs agreed, even though it meant neither one got much sleep, Kevin from the nightmares, and Gibbs being there to help him as he dealt with the grief.
They had agreed that Kevin was to go back to the Academy and with school starting just two weeks away, Kevin became preoccupied with that. He needed to replace his entire wardrobe and get the necessary school supplies.
Gibbs and the others were busy trying to find any lead to the missing terrorist. Gibbs had "persuaded" the injured terrorist to talk, but all the information lead to one dead end after another. They were beginning to think that the missing man had fled the county.
Kevin had become a fixture at the NCIS office. While too young to actually work there, Director Sheppard allowed him to act as an "intern" and he spent his days running errands for the agents, making copies, and getting coffee and lunch for Gibbs and the others. Exactly a week before Kevin was scheduled to go back to the Academy he left the NCIS office for his routine morning coffee run.
xxxxx
"Hey Kevin, how's it hanging? The usual?" the guy at the coffee stand asked as Kevin walked in the nearly empty store. There were two other employees behind the counter.
"Hey Richard, yep. You got any of those chocolate muffins left?" Kevin asked. His pay for getting coffee for the others was that he was able to indulge in his favorite treat when ever he wanted.
"You bet, I always save one just for you." The coffee geek walked over to the side of the counter and picked up the chocolate muffin he had set off to the side to save for Kevin and handed it to him.
As Kevin waited for the drink orders to be made, he began to eat the muffin.
"You guys spill something on this, it tastes awful!" He took the rest of the muffin and threw it in the trash next to the counter.
"Don't think so, sorry, I won't charge you for it," the coffee geek said as he handed Kevin a container holding two coffees, one for Gibbs, the other for McGee, and the two fruit smoothies, for Tony and Ziva.
"I hope not," He paid for the drinks and headed out the door.
He turned up the alley that he used as a short-cut back to the office when the dizziness hit him. He stopped and tried to get his bearings. Just then a car pulled into the alley. He saw the tan Honda stop and the trunk open. Then a man got out of the car wearing the same shirt and hat as the employee's of the coffee shop. He started walking towards him. In a haze, Kevin dropped the drinks and tried to turn around to run, but instead fell to his knees. As he looked up, he saw the missing terrorist lift his hand and bring what looked like a blackjack down towards him. He felt a sharp pain on the back of the head as he lost consciousness.