Chapter 28: The Cavalry arrives... in a C-5

Glasgow, Montana
Tuesday Morning

They again settled the breakfast table outside on the old wooden table, enjoying the light breeze and laughing wholeheartedly, getting ready for a crazy list of tasks to be done.

The girls would fly to Billings, spending the day going after wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, while McGee along with Tony, Gibbs and Joseph would go to the church to plan the ceremony, talk with the church secretary and the local judge to sort out the bureaucratic paperwork.

Ducky and Jimmy decided they would stay with Maggie for the day, checking her progress and talking with their nurse about the prescribed treatment for her.

It was a joyful affair, as everyone sat around the old table. Tony was teasing McGee mercilessly, making him blush about his mush romantic proposal while Sarah and Abby were charmed by it.

Their conversation was interrupted by the distinct roaring of a large cargo airplane in approach descent, its engines loudly proclaiming its arrival over the blue Montana skies.

All agents looked up and followed it with their eyes, as the huge gray body flew over them as a bird of prey, casting its big shadow over the house, before flying over the town towards Glasgow International Airport.

"Wow" Tony said, impressed with the size of the aircraft, while McGee struggled to follow it with his eyes as it went towards its destination at the north part of the city.

"Now that's a fine machine to fly." Joseph commented before taking another sip of his coffee.

Gibbs glanced at him before looking towards the direction the airplane went.

"That's a huge bird."

"Massive. It's one of the biggest of the fleet. By the sound of the engines, that's a C-5 Galaxy. Very nice control, huge capability to transport oversized equipment."

McGee smiled at that info, as airplanes were fascinating things for him. He glanced at Joy, who had a struck expression on her face as she stared into the direction the airplane had disappeared.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Peanut."

"Why has a massive C-5 just landed in Glasgow airport?"

"Uhm?" Joseph pretended not to know what she was talking about.

"Daaaad?"

"Yes."

"Why has a huge USAF cargo ship just landed in Middle of Nowhere, Montana?"

"I have nothing to do with it."

"Dad, if you have nothing to do with it... who does?" Joy whispered, noticing her Dad's dark eyebrows going up before glancing up towards the window of Maggie's bedroom.

"No." Joy whispered, horror creeping all over her body at the mere idea that...

"At least she meant well."

"Noooo."

McGee finally caught up that something was really, really wrong, as Joy became extremely pale as she stared petrified to her father.

"What's wrong?" He stood up and went to her side, noticing her horrified eyes turned to him. Her expression could only be described as panic.

Pure unadulterated panic.

"M...m...MMMMMOOOOOMMMMMM!"

Her scream floated out through the garden, scaring birds and humans alike, rolling out through the fields at the same time it reached the room in the upper floor of the house, where a pale fragile woman rested against many pillows.

Maggie had heard the sound of the C-5 flying over the house and was satisfied that her carefully made plans were starting to unfold. Her daughter's scream of panic only fueled her desire to make everything perfect according to what she had dreamt, so many years ago.

She grinned, as finally she would have the opportunity of playing the part of the mother of the bride, in the most outrageous Buchanan style.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NICS

Gibbs approached Ducky, who had left the petrified bride-to-be being consoled by Ziva and Sarah, each sitting at one of her sides on the sofa in the living room. McGee was sitting on the love seat by the unlit fireplace with a deer caught in the headlights expression on his face, with Tony on his side who was trying to force him to drink some water with sugar in it and Jimmy looking from one to the other, unsure of what he was supposed to be doing.

"How are they?"

Ducky tried to control his mirth, but a tiny smile curved the corner of his lips.

"I would say they are in a state of mildly controlled panic."

Gibbs' lips turned upwards, as Ducky related the symptoms of the two shell shocked agents in the living room.

"Joy's heartbeat is quite high and I've already administered a mild sedative. Timothy's pressure skyrocketed for a minute there and it hasn't come down yet, so I'm more concerned about controlling that as he was out of breath and faint due to it."

Gibbs folded his arms before looking at his shell shocked agents, slowly shaking his head.

"So Maggie took over the wedding plans, uhm?" He asked Joseph, who silently came with another coffee cup and offered it to Gibbs, holding his own cup on his hand as he looked at his daughter.

"Well, lets say that Maggie has been feeling... bored due to the forced bed rest and this has been the most excited I've seen her since her accident."

Ducky turned to Joseph, leaning a little to keep his question between the three of them.

"Now pray, tell me, exactly how many people has she invited for this wedding?"

"As far as I know..." Joseph glanced to Joy before whispering only to Gibbs and Ducky's ears. "one hundred, maybe two hundred people. And that's counting only the people in the base and her old labs. The boys are flying in too and they are bringing some people with them, but they haven't been able to precisely tell us how many are coming with them."

Gibbs' smirk became wider, "So we're easily waiting for two hundred or more guests."

Ziva looked worriedly at Sarah, who was watching her future sister-in-law shivering in shock. She squeezed Joy's cold hand, feeling her faintly squeezing back.

"It's not that bad. I'm sure that she invited only a few people."

Joy slowly turned her head to look at Sarah, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"A few people? Sarah, I've promised your brother a small wedding with only family and the team. A small gathering. However my mom decided that it would be okay to invite the whole Nellis base, the people in the Mountain and the Joint Chiefs!" Joy's voice went on a crescendo, until she was already screaming at the last words.

"Hey," Ziva squeezed Joy's shoulder, trying to calm her down. "We'll figure this out."

"There's no place to put all these people to sleep. Where will they eat? Where will they stay? There are no decent sized hotels for miles around Glasgow and there's no way I'm going to put my wedding guests up in a bug infested roadside motel!"

"What about the old base?" Joseph suggested, seeing that it was the main concern in Joy's mind. She looked up at her father, hopeful.

"The structure is all there, empty. We would have just to clean up the houses and throw some paint on the walls, use the old kitchen and we would have a good sized place to put the guests."

"But Joseph," McGee ran shaking fingers over his face, speaking for the first time since being struck with the magnitude of Maggie's actions. "Even if we chose to use the old base, it would take a huge amount of renovation work to put it back into shape. The wedding is on Saturday, the guests probably will be arriving on Friday and it's already Tuesday. There's no time."

"Oh, God, I have to move the wedding to Vegas..." Joy hid her face on her hands and hiccupped, being consoled by Sarah and Ziva.

Joseph had finished his coffee and had gone to the kitchen, returning to the living room to catch the tail end of McGee's complaint and Joy's terrified moan. He glanced at McGee with a little smile, his fists deeply in his pockets as he rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Joseph, what did you do?" McGee whispered, just to receive a grin from him.

"I've sent an e-mail to Matt and I'm betting that big monster in the air was his platoon as they were scheduled to arrive today."

Joy's chin fell to the floor, while Sarah perked up at that news.

Joseph continued, "As we speak, they are unloading heavy machinery and renovation materials and they will work day and night until they have the old base settled up as a mighty fine hotel."

"Matt is going to help with the renovation works?" Sarah was enchanted with her boyfriend's romantic attitude. Only a very good man would make so much of a sacrifice for his beloved older sister. Her charmed sigh wasn't lost to McGee, who growled at his sister, who just ignored him as all good little sisters do when their older brothers go all macho on them.

"But we would have an empty hotel. Who will serve and prepare food and cater the guests' needs and..." Joy was almost in tears, feeling the situation slipping through her fingers like fine sand.

"That's up to Hope and Grace." Joseph said, looking into his mug as if fascinated with the rippling on the surface of the coffee in it.

"What's that supposed to mean? What do Hope and Grace have to do with it?" Joy is feeling more and more confused, looking terrified at McGee, seeing the same terror in his eyes.

"Oh my God, we're going to be publicly humiliated in front of not only our friends, but the Joint Chiefs, a whole Marine platoon and half the brass of the FBI and NCIS." McGee whispered and, if he could, he would have become even paler than he already was. As there was no way he could do it, he simply sagged against the love seat and closed his eyes defeated.

"Come on, Probie. Look at the bright side, you still have your Bachelor's party planned by yours truly here." Tony said, grinning at McGee when he opened his eyes and glared back at him.