Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, nor do I own the characters or script of the show.
Spoilers: Singled Out
A/N: Just to let everyone know, I will be mixing up the episodes' order to better fit my story. I am doing it very subtly in this chapter, but I will start using a different order more noticeably in the upcoming ones. This one's mostly cannon, except some parts. Again, forgive me if anything included in this chapter is inaccurate!
Sorry for the delay!
I hope you enjoy this chapter!
---

Twelve Days Later…

"Abby," Ziva says, walking into her lab. "What are you doing back here so soon?"
"Ziva!" Abby ran into her and wrapped her in a crushing embrace.
"I understand how you could have missed me after all of this time if you didn't see me at all, but, I visited," Ziva points out while returning the hug.
"I know," Abby pulls away and smiles. "And I'm glad you did. But I still missed you."
Ziva smiles back. "How were you able to come back so soon?"

"Jenny said that she wanted me to take at least ten days off - because she knew I would end up coming back early, anyway - so I took off twelve. But two extra were just in case she wouldn't let me come back yet. Oh! And I pinky promised Anna that I'd tell you that she loves that little bracelet you got her from Israel."
"I'm glad she likes it. Does anyone else know you're here?"
"I'm aiming for the 'surprise tactic'."
"Ah. Where is Anna?"
"My Aunt Gertrude just moved here from Louisiana and is helping out. She said she'd be able to watch Annie when I couldn't. You should meet her some time."

Abby finishes sorting out the evidence baggies by placing the last one on her table. "That's all of 'em."
"It appears one of them is missing."
Abby nods.

"Missing what?" Gibbs walks in.
"One of the profiles, Alfa Bravo one-zero-one-six."
"Targets?" Gibbs asks.

"The binder they were kept in listed them as potential targets," Ziva informs him.
"The Alpha Bravo Designation," Gibbs says. "That's how we labeled preplanned artillery targets in the Core."

"Maybe she was planning on dropping bombs on them," Abby says jokingly.

"What else what missing from the Lieutenant's place?"
"I'm more concerned with what was left, Gibbs," Ziva tells him. "Money, jewelry, it's not your typical robbery."
"Just means they knew what they were looking for…" Gibbs moves to the opposite side of the table to look at the evidence. "What can you tell me about these?"
"She was profiling men," Ziva breifs him. "All the information gathered was taken from public records."
"Yeah, I can see that. Why?"

Abby raises her hand to be called on.
"It's an excellent question," Ziva continues, unaware that Abby has raised her hand. "I was wondering that myself."

"Abby," Gibbs calls on her.
"All of these," she begins, "Were printed from the same printer. Wanna' know how I know?"
"Newer models embed micro-codes in the print. It helps ID hardware to counterfeit money and documents."
"Wow, good guess. Nice of you to study up while I was away, Gibbs," she laughs. "It also means that the information they represent is on her computer."
"Show me."
"I'd love to, but I can't, not yet."

They all move over to the Lieutenant's disembodied computer.
"Bad guy smash up real good," Abby says. "I'm still trying to recover the hard drive."
"How long?"
"Did I mention 'bad guy smash up real good'? Like really really good? Probably days."
"We don't have days, Abbs. Get McGee to help ya'." He turns to leave.
"Wait!"

Abby grabs his sleeve and pulls him back. "There's more. I ran the fingerprints from the SUV. I matched all of them except three to a partial handprint."
"And?" Gibbs asks.
"And I can say with certainty, that the woman in the SUV is-"
"Lieutenant Anne Sullivan." Abby frowns because he already knew. "McGee already figured it out."

Gibbs begins to leave again.
"Okay," Abby says, pulling him back towards her again by his sleeve. "Did McGee tell you this?" She types for a moment on her computer. "The partial handprint that I couldn't match, has a super-defined index finger. Which means it's not Sullivan's, it's the bad guy's." Abby grins. "I'm running it now."
"His name is Justin Farris."

Gibbs starts to leave for the third time.

"McGee!" Abby says, as if she is scolding a puppy who just soiled the carpet.
"Yep," Gibbs calls over his shoulder. "Good to have you back, Abbs." Ziva and Abby can hear his smile.

Abby grins again in response. "You, too!"
She turns to Ziva. "Well, so much for my 'surprise tactic'."
---

"Oh, I get it," Tony says to McGee in the otherwise empty squad-room. "You don't like being called 'Probie' anymore?"
"Things change," Tim responds simply.
"Yeah, I know; I used to be team leader, Puh-ro-o-o-bie," Tony stretches the younger agent's nickname.
"Temporary team leader. And that was only because Gibbs quit."
"You don't think I could lead my own team?"
"Wouldn't be here now if you could, would you, DiNozzo?"

Little did Tim know, Tony received an offer earlier that day from the Director to lead his own team.
"Yeah," Tony's smile fades, "maybe you're right…If Gibbs asks, I went out for coffee."
"Tony, I didn't," McGee tries to call after him, but it is of no use, DiNozzo doesn't want to hear it right now.

"Muh-Gee," Gibbs says, moving out of the place he had been standing for the duration the Agents' conversation. "How long have I been an NCIS special agent?"
Tim calculates quickly in his mind. "Almost sixteen years."
"Wanna' take a wild guess at what my first partner still calls me?"

---
...

"Well let's hope Abby and McGee had better luck, come on," Gibbs tells his team in the bullpen later that day.

Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva approach two sleeping forensic specialists when they get to the lab. McGee's head is resting on his folded arms while Abby's head is placed on her hands, the only thing that proves she's asleep being her closed eyes.

Gibbs knew the perfect way to wake her up. He bent down and whispered in her ear. "Your computers on fire."

She immediately jumped awake from her slumber and began typing rapidly. "McGee! My baby's french-frying!"
At this, Tim was startled awake as well. "Checking internal core temperature!"

Everyone stands behind them, amused.
As Tim and Abby realize there is nothing wrong with her computer, they slowly turn around to face Gibbs.
"That is so not funny, Gibbs." Abby gives him her own version of the 'Gibbs glare'.
"I must have nodded off," McGee mutters to himself.

Gibbs places a Caf-Pow! on her desk to make up for it. "Tell me you two have something."
"We have something," Abby says, "we just don't know what it is."

Abby types something in, causing a chart to pop up on the plasma screen television. Gibbs and Ziva stand in front of it.
"Looks like a timetable for an operation," Gibbs theorizes.
"The problem is the events on the axis, are encrypted."
"We've been trying to crack it all night," McGee tells him.

"Try harder, McGee," Tony says from behind him. "The chances of finding her alive have dropped to almost zero after forty-eight hours." He moves to stand next to Gibbs at the plasma "Sorry," he whispers to Gibbs. "I'm sure you knew that, Boss."
"Don't apologize, DiNozzo," he responds.
"Right, sign of weakness."
"Not to mention annoying," Ziva adds. Tony glares at her, but she doesn't flinch. 'I really have to work on my glare…'

"We were able to pull some programs off her directory, this is the only one that stands out," Abby opens a program on her computer and three photographs of their lieutenant appear. "'Morph Pro'. It's super, high end imaging software. It's unusual because it retails for over five-thousand dollars."

"Big bucks on the lieutenant's salary," Tony comments.
"What's it for?" Ziva asks Abby.

"Morphing human features," Abby informs her. "We pulled some test-runs out of her save data." She presses a button on her keyboard and the picture of the Navy Lieutenant slowly changes to an older version of her.

"Oh, yeah. This kind of like the end of Saving Private Ryan, ya' know, when Matt Damon morphs into his older self. Anybody else get head-faked by that? 'Cause Tom Hanks was who I thought…" He trails off, noticing Gibbs glare.

"I've seen software like this before, Abby. Mossad used earlier versions to age Nazi War criminals. It was a great asset to hunting them down."

Gibbs walks over to Abby. "So, basically what you're saying to me is that you've got nothing?"
"Gibbs!" Abby whispers. "Ziva's talking about Nazis, I wouldn't exactly call that nothing."
"Abby."
"We have nothing, until we crack the encryptions."

"You mean if," McGee says. "It's high-level, it's extremely sophisticated…"

"Would her password help?" Ducky says, walking into the lab, holding a sheet of paper.
"Well, yeah, Ducky, but we don't have it," Abby tells him.
"I just spent a long night in our lieutenant's head, I maybe able to offer some suggestions. Try 'coral gabels'."

Abby types it in.

'Access Denied'.

"Uhh, 'fiddlers green.'"

Abby types in as he says.

'Access Denied'.

"'Hampton Inn'?"

'Access Denied'.

"Nice try," Gibbs states. "Tony, Ziva, with me."

"'Spanish Rose'?"

'Access Granted'.

"Woah!" Abby exclaims, surprised.
"We're in!" Tim announces. "Ducky, that was-"
"Mind-blowing-ly amazing!" Abby finishes for him.
"It's more of an art than a science." The Doctor sounds a bit cocky.

The encryptions transform into comprehensible phrases. The events on the timeline consist of 'Find Soulmate, 5-8 months', 'Courtship Period, 12 months', and 'Engagement, 8 months'.

"Lieutenant Sullivan was indeed into targeting people. She was using all her military knowledge and skills to find a husband," Ducky reveals.

Gibbs returns to the screen. "Well, it looks like she found herself a psycho, instead, Doctor Mallard."
---

"Now that we have access to her files," McGee says, back in the bullpen, "we can see she was using Morph Pro to predict the appearance of her adult offspring." Ziva stands next to Tim's desk, intrigued by the program.

"Creepy," Tony comments, approaching the plasma. "No wonder she couldn't find a husband."
"You know, choosing someone to spend the rest of your life with is not easy," McGee points out. "Who wouldn't want to know all the facts before deciding?"
"Isn't that what dating's all about?" Ziva asks.
"Yeah, you should try that some time, McGee," Tony bothers him.

"Gee, I wonder what would happen if you two hooked up," Tim types on his keyboard and a picture of Tony and Ziva become visible on the screen.

The Mossad Officer stands next to Tony at the plasma, interested in what McGee will do.
The picture of Tony in the middle of the screen morphs into a baby girl with dark eyes like Ziva's, and an adorable pout like Tony's.

Ziva chuckles. She and DiNozzo's eyes meet and they simultaneously say, "Do Gibbs and the Director."

After all, it was clear that Gibbs and the redhead had a past that included something that was not entirely professional. Most would be interested to see what would happen if that wasn't all 'past'…

Gibbs' picture changes into a very beautiful young woman, red hair like Jenny's and a nose similar to Gibbs'.

"Now that's not a bad combination…" Ziva comments.

Tony gazes at the photo, thinking about something other than the image on the screen. "Do Gibbs and Abby."

"What?!" Tim exclaims, he'd thought that they were past speculating about that.

Ziva and Tony turn to him. "Do it, McGee!" They both demand.
"You guys…"

Ziva goes over to his desk, picks up his stapler, and examines it while she flips it around nonchalantly in her hands, acting as if she didn't see the frightened look on the probationary agent's face. "I suggest you do it, McGee." She then flips the stapler backwards with one hand, causing it to make a noise like a gun when loaded with ammunition. "It would be best for you."

Tim swallows audibly. "Okay."

She replaces the stapler in its rightful spot then turns to meet Tony's amused gaze with her own.

Gibbs' photo remains the same while the picture of Jenny is replaced with the image of a smiling forensic scientist with bouncy, vibrant, black pigtails that match her personality.

Gibbs' photograph morphs into a strangely familiar face of a baby with soft black hair and blue eyes.

"Awww…" Tony and Tim say. Hell, even McGee had to admit that baby was ridiculously adorable!

Ziva folds her arms and taps her chin in thought. "I know I have a photographic memory, but is it only me, or does that baby remind you of-"

"Hey, Boss!" Tony warns Tim and Ziva as he notices their Boss coming for the first time he's worked at NCIS. The man had always snuck up on him. Abby is right behind him.

McGee backspaces so fiercely that the sound of a button being smashed on a keyboard echoes in the squadroom. The backspacing results in the return of Gibbs' and Jenny's photos, as well the image of what their child would look like.

"Aww," Abby says as she nears the television screen. "You and the Director make nice Gibblets, Gibbs." She accidentally let her original word sneak into the statement. Though, she had to admit, that child did look nice. 'That Gibblet is cute, but not as cute as ours, Gibbs.'

"McGee, throw up that website," Gibbs orders. "While you three were playing, Abby found out where our lieutenant was the day she was abducted."

The website opens, concealing the photos on screen. 'Virginia's Singled Out'

"Speed dating?" Ziva asks, scanning the website.
"There was an e-mail invitation on her computer," Abby explains. "It's a three day event, and she went missing after the first day."

"Gas station where Farris stole her SUV was two blocks from the hotel hosting it," Gibbs says.

"So she wasn't screaming about being singled out by a guy..." Tony thought aloud.
"She was talking about this," Ziva completes.

"I've heard of VSO, apparently they have an eighty-five percent success rate."
"For what?" Ziva asks.
"For marriages."

"How about kidnappings, McGee?" Gibbs interrupts.
"I will work on getting a list of clients attending the event."
"I've tried it," Abby tells Tim. "Their lawyers say Virginia Singled Out is a confidential service, so they keep their client list under lock and key."

"Warrant, on it, Boss," Tony says.
"Not enough time, it ends tonight," Gibbs denied the warrant.

"I can't tell you who's there, but I can tell you it's the same guys as Sunday night," Abby speaks. "You wanna' know how I know?"
"VSO is designed to introduce accessible men to a wide assortment of eligible women. Each night brings the promise of romance and a chance at finding your soulmate." Everyone stares at McGee oddly as he says this. "...Or so I've heard...Okay, you know, I thought about going to one, one time."

"After this is over you and I are going to have a little talk," Tony tells the ever socially awkward agent.

Abby distracts them from McGee's past speed dating experiences, trying very hard not to laugh. "So the women change every night, but the men remain the same."
"Hey, we're doing this the old-fashioned way," Gibbs jokes. He gets up from his desk and approaches Ziva. "So Ziva, you still think being a geek is a good cover?"

---

End of the day, Gibbs' Basement

Gibbs is working in his jeans and a sweatshirt, he would wear his Marine Core t-shirt, but it had gone missing.
Gibbs never lost anything.

Maybe his mind, occasionally, but that was a rarity.

He remembers the woman who stood there, in his basement, almost a week ago. Lieutenant Colonel Hollis Mann.
He recalls her straightforwardness that nearly surpassed his own, and her blonde hair.

Gibbs decided that he shouldn't really think about that woman right now, that was what his boat was for. Thinking and escaping.

But this, this other project he was working on, was reserved for Anna and Abby. And that's all he would think about when he was working on it. Should he think about something other than them when he was working on it, Gibbs would feel as if it lost some of its importance.

He was almost finished.

Gibbs knew that this project would be finished, unlike his boats that often never lived long enough to explore the open sea.

It was nothing extraordinary, just a rocking chair made from white oak, with the names Abby and Annabelle painted carefully on the headrest. He'd even managed to find a cushion that matched the color of the walls in Anna's nursery, Gibbs had seen them when he and the team had visited.

"Now that Gibbs is back, we can have everyone put their handprints on the wall!"

That wall was covered with everyone's hands now. Ducky's, Tony's, Ziva's, McGee's, Jen's, Fornell's, Emily's, and even Palmer's.

And now Gibbs'.

And they were all around Anna's footprints and handprints that the baby herself had been happy to stamp on the wall.

She even rubbed some of the leftover paint on Tobias' face, which everyone had a great laugh about.

Gibbs put the paint brush into the varnish and began to seal in the almost completed masterpiece.