"McGee's not answering his cell phone, pager, or My-Space IM," Ziva informs us in the squad room when McGee's late today.

"McGee on My-Space. I've got to see that," Tony laughs at McGee and he's not even here to defend himself.

"Keep calling," Gibbs orders us.

"Still trying to get into his calendar, boss."

"You know, I'm not sure what the problem is. When I was framed by the Iranians for murder, I was late for many hours before anyone noticed," Ziva reminds us.

"You're not McGee, bitch. He's been early since before he worked here, but you've been late every day since you started. That's why were worried about him and not you," I explain to her as I work on finding McGee from my desk.

"Mc-Timex's brain is hard-wired for punctuality. And sadly, scaring away potential mates. There we go! No doctors' appointments. He does have a personal trainer four times a week! And tomorrow, an eight a.m. appointment at a Harley Davidson dealership? Either McGee's won the lottery or he's got a sugar daddy," Tony teases McGee again.

"Yeah, Gibbs… Where?" Gibbs answers his phone before hanging up after a moment.

"Dead?" Tony asks and my heart stops, this body better not be McGee or so help me god, I'll kill him myself.

"Sailor. Waverly campus. Gear up," Gibbs answers making me sigh in relief only to feel bad. I'm glad it's not McGee but I feel bad that I'm glad it's someone else's friend who is dead.

"What about McGee? We haven't found him yet."

"I did. Or rather he found me. Sent me an email. 'Woke up sick. Laryngitis. Won't be coming into work today.' You know, I bet he sent you one, too," Shepard informs us making Gibbs and I check my email to see we both got the same email from McGee.

"Are you still here?" Gibbs demands of us as I quickly respond to McGee's email, checking his okay and remind him he can text me if he needs anything. Soup, coffee, medicine, anything. After a moment Gibbs places a hand on my back to lead me past Shepard as he says to her, "Hmm."

"I can't believe I forgot to check your emails. Of course McGee emailed in," I complain feeling like an idiot.

"He emailed you too. And any of us could have checked our email, including Jen," Gibbs reminds me, making me feel better about myself.

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"Well, that was quick," Tony comments at the crime scene in Quad, while looking at his camera in surprise.

"You solve this case already, DiNozzo?" Gibbs demands of him tightly.

"No. it's my hundredth body. Hey, listen, you wouldn't mind taking," Tony exclaims as he holds the camera out to Gibbs to take the photo of Tony with the poor victim. Gibbs glares at Tony making him change it to, "Sorry. It's a bad idea. It seemed less disgusting in my head."

"Tony, every idea you have is a bad idea," I inform him.

"BY comparison with what else is in there, I'm sure it was," Ziva agrees with me.

"Anything useful from the jogger, Ziva?" Gibbs demands a report.

"If 'I saw the body and I called the police' is useful, then yes. Otherwise, no. he can't tell how long the body's been here."

"Luckily, of course, I can. I must apologize for our tardiness. We had trouble parking the van. Homecoming. I would have thought McGee would have beaten me up here," Ducky rambles.

"Dad, McGee's off sick today. Something about losing his voice," I explain to him.

"McGee's not here," Gibbs overlaps me.

"Really? I could have sworn I saw him in the parking lot," Ducky exclaims.

"Well, we're at a college. Pencil-neck geeks are dime a dozen," Tony attempts to explain it away.

"Now, let me see. Preliminary time of death between ten and twelve hours ago," Ducky chuckles as we look around for McGee but I'm, too short to see him but by the look on Gibbs' face he can't see him either.

"We have another body!" Ziva calls from where she is processing the crime scene behind some bushes.

"I thought you said you had another body," Tony exclaims as we walk over to see her only to see dead fish.

"I do. Actually, ten of them."

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"Dental records confirm the body is Seaman Jeff Petty, currently serving on the U.S.S Enterprise. Docked at Norfolk last night," Ziva informs us in autopsy about our unknown human body, not the fish.

"Navy notifying the family?" Gibbs asks her.

"As we speak."

"A duty I do not envy. Yes, when I was an officer with the Regiment, I was twice called upon to render such services. I prefer combat to telling a family that one of their loved ones shall never be returning. Luckily, in this case, we car spared such a duty," Ducky rambles.

"Do you have a time of death of those poor gold fish?" I ask Ducky.

"No time, but a cause."

"Asphyxiation? Suffocation? Over feeding?" Ziva guesses.

"Nicotine poising. I just got the test results from Abby. There was enough nicotine in their blood to kill, well, kill a goldfish. That much is certain," Ducky corrects him.

"How did that get there?" Gibbs asks Ducky in confusion.

'Your guess is as good as mine. Yeah, the cause of death of Seaman Petty is more explicable. Sharp force trauma to the thoracic area. Punctured the aorta, so death was almost instantaneous. The shape and depth of the wound suggests a combat…"

"Combat knife," Gibbs overlaps Ducky.

"We didn't find a knife. All we bagged was trash," Ziva reminds us.

"Tell DiNozzo to keep looking," Gibbs orders us.

"Well, Tony went home."

"He went home?" I ask her in confusion, that's not like Tony.

"He wasn't feeling well. Thought McGee might have gotten him sick."

"So he went… home?"

"Well, actually, the director told him he could go," Ziva informs us making me roll my eyes at the director as Gibbs turn to storm out of autopsy.

"I'm not done, Gibbs," Ducky calls out.

"Make it fast, Doctor Mallard," Gibbs orders him.

"Post mortem lividity suggests that Seaman Petty was killed on scene. Toc screen came back negative, no drugs in his system."

"His C.O. said he was a model sailor," Ziva informs Ducky.

"There was very little trauma beyond the entry wound. No scratches, no DNA under fingernails."

"He was surprised."

"Or he knew his killer and didn't precede them as a threat," I offer to her.

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"Hey, I've been looking all over the building for you," Gibbs exclaims as eh storms into the lab where Shepard is 'helping' Abby.

"Ah, since we were low on agents, I thought I'd give Abby a hand," Shepard defends herself.

"The only reason we're low on agents, is because you sent Tony home when we were already short staffed," I snap at her.

"Well, there's no sense in getting us all sick."

"Next time you send one of my team home, you clear it with me first, Director! Oh, I didn't know I needed your permission to manage my own personnel, agent Gibbs. Your personnel? Last time I checked, it said director on my door, not yours! The kids don't like it when Mummy and Daddy fight," Abby exclaims after impersonating Gibbs and Shepard who are glaring at each other.

"Have you got the call log off the cell phone we found on Seaman Petty?" I ask Abby as I walk over to her, ignoring Shepard, she doesn't deserve my time.

"There was damage on the DC run to the SIM chip. Probably from the fall," Abby exclaims as s0he looks at the phone that continues to chime making her add, "Okay. Wow, fifteen missed next messages. Someone's really trying to get a hold off." Abby stops talking when the phone begins ringing in her hand making her asks in fear, "Oh no. what do I do? Do I answer it?"

"Put it on speaker," Gibbs orders making her answer the phone and put it on the speaker.

"Hello!"

"Finally! Where the hell are you?" McGee demands of Abby, or the owner of the phone.

"Where the hell are we? Where the hell are you? You're supposed to be sick," I snap at him over the phone.

"McGee?" Gibbs asks in surprise, overlapping with me.

"Boss? Why do you have my sister's cell phone?" McGee demands of us.

"I've got a better question. What is your sister's cell phone doing on our dead body? And why the hell are you suddenly able to speak but you couldn't call in sick?" I demand of him angrily. Don't lie to me, ever. I don't care what's your reasoning is but don't lie to me, not if you're my friend.

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"Oh, and I thought being sent to the principal's office was bad," Tony begins in the squad room as McGee waits in the elevator for Gibbs.

"He's still in the elevator?" Ziva asks in surprise.

"Per Jethro's orders. He shouldn't have lied because he's a fucking moron," I state as I glare at the elevator doors.

"Awaiting El Jefe's arrival," Tony adds making Ziva whistles.

"How mad is he?" Ziva demands of us.

"Well, considering he's been covering for his sister who is implicated in the death of a Navy sailor," Tony begins as Gibbs storms over to the elevator where people leave, leaving just McGee in there.

"He's handling it better than me. If I enter that elevator, the FBI agent Sacks will finally arrest the guilty person," I inform them tightly.

.

Gibbs pov

.

"What were you thinking, McGee?" I demand of McGee as we're standing in the elevator, alone.

"I would apologize, but I know how you feel about that,' McGee says smartly making me stop the elevator by hitting the emergency stop like normal.

"You got your voice back," I snap at him angrily as I glare at him.

"I never lost it."

"No kidding!"

"I know withholding evidence is a violation of NCIS policy."

"And a crime! One that I don't really care about. Why didn't you come to me? Or Alice?"

"I was going to. When I saw the body, I knew I had to bring Sarah in."

"No before that."

"I couldn't take the chance. I don't know what my sister did or didn't do. But I know what it looked like. And we say 'better ten guilty men go free than one innocent gets punished,' but I know from experience it doesn't always work out like that. I couldn't take that chance with Sarah, not with the police, not with NCIS, not even with you… she's my sister."

"Apology accepted… by me at least," I state as I start the elevator again and sigh in annoyance, this is not going to end well. Alice is going to kill McGee and I don't know if I can stop her this time.

.

Alice pov

.

"Cute girl. Hey, this is the one I found on McGee's IPod. I knew there was no way she could be his girlfriend. Poor McGee got the shallow end of the gene pool," Tony exclaims as we look at the photo of McGee's sister on the plasma screen between Tony and McGee's desk.

"There here," Ziva warns us a second before the door of the elevator opens and McGee and Gibbs walk out and over to us.

"I thought for sure Probie would be limping," Tony comments.

"He would be if I was in that elevator," I inform Tony as Gibbs and McGee enter the squad room.

"Getting soft in your old age there, boss?" Tony teases Gibbs making him stop walking and glare at Tony making Tony add, "Prime of your youth, sir?"

"We needed it for the BOLO," Ziva informs McGee as I pointedly ignore McGee.

"Please tell me that's not for," McGee begins to beg.

"Citing a bench warrant for grand theft auto," Tony cuts him off.

"Guess that's better than a BOLO for murder."

"How about a BOLO for being a laying asshole?" I snap at him because he lied to us all making Gibbs pull me away from McGee before I kill him.

"We need to find her, McGee. Right now, she's our main suspect," Ziva informs McGee.

"Witness," McGee corrects her.

"Spoke to the take driver who picked your sister up. He places her at the crime scene," I snap at McGee.

"And Abby confirmed the blood type on your sister's clothes matches Seaman Petty. That's more than witness, probie," Tony adds as Gibbs rubs my arm in an attempt to calm me down.

"And there are the emails," Ziva adds next.

"Like the one that starts 'dear man-whore,' and ends with 'if I ever see you again, I will kill you. Love, Sarah?' I got them off Seaman Petty's email. Throw them on the pile and they add up too…"

"Motive and opportunity."

"Why is she running?" Gibbs demands of McGee.

"She's mad. She's scared. Says she has nothing to do with the murder, thinks I don't believe her," McGee reports to us.

"Do you?" Ziva demands of him.

"Sarah is not a killer."

"But?" I demand of him, he's not telling us everything.

"But an accident's another story. If she was drugged…"

"She wasn't. Abby ran the urine sample you took, and it was clean," Ziva reports to McGee.

"Any other suspects?" Gibbs demands of us.

"Ari?" I offer to Gibbs without hesitation, after all this time and he's still the first one I think of when looking for any suspect.

"Navy Seaman Petty's cheerleader girlfriend," Tony answers Gibbs as he smirks at me.

"At least your sister's not the only one writing threatening emails," Ziva says to McGee.

"Cheerleader was worried Popeye was getting his spinach somewhere else."

"Address?" I beg of them making Tony hand it to me.

"Ziva, I want that taxi impounded. DiNozzo, you're on McGee's sister," Gibbs orders his team making Tony grin happily.

"Ah, a great pleasure, boss," Tony exclaims.

"She's a maybe suspected, maybe witness, you can't touch her with your sip stick or you'll lose your job," I remind Tony making him loose his smile slightly.

"Boss, maybe Tony would be better on the," McGee overlaps in an attempt to protect his sister from the pervert we work with.

"McGee?"

"Yeah?"

"Go home. You're not allowed to work this case. You're too close to the witness."

"If I go home, how do you know I won't keep working on it? You didn't stop when it was Kate," McGee reminds me but I glare at him.

"You're damn right I didn't stop McGee. He was trying to KILL me next, I couldn't stop but this time there's only a threat of your sister being arrested, not murdered by someone who held you hostage overnight, at gun point with a threat to your very fucking life," I snap at McGee, I worked Kate's case because I had to. Ari was threatening me, Gerald, Dad, Abby, and every female on Gibbs' team but McGee can't see the difference. But I add, "Besides, when Kate died, I didn't fucking protect the murder, that's Shepard your thinking about. I told everyone everything I know from the start, I didn't lie. That's the difference between this case and Kate, she was murdered. Your sister might be going to prison but I'll never get mine back. SHE'S GONE, NEVER COMING BACK. So don't compare Kate to this, you don't get to speak about Kate. She's not a part of this anymore and she never can be… I can't go and see her; you will be able to see your sister. I didn't… I couldn't protect my sister from Air or death so I had to work that case. Ari killed her because I couldn't kill him first. You… you think… that…"

"Oh, Alice," Gibbs exclaims when I trail off in tears, I want Kate back and McGee can't see the problem anymore. Gibbs turns me around and pulls me into a hug, holding me so I don't have to see anyone as I cry because I can't have Kate back or just go and visit her in prison or at home or protect her. Gibbs holds me tightly as he stares at McGee before saying to the idiot, "Come on! I'll keep an eye on you," Gibbs orders him before walking away with me and McGee. He leads me into the elevator without removing his arm from around me.

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"This is Jeff in Bahrain," Carolyn, the victim's latest girlfriend, informs us as she shows us a photo of the victim in the dorm room.

"Handsome guy," I state as I look at him in his uniform.

"He loved wearing that uniform. Almost as much as I loved seeing him in it. He was supposed to meet me at the food court. We were having freshman cheerleader initiations later that night, but I wanted to make time to surprise Jeff with… a surprise."

"He never showed," Gibbs states.

"I just figured his ship was late."

.

McGee pov

.

"If we can't get this thing working, I'm going to have to find some geek who can," Madison, a girl in the dorm room common area, says as I state at the gun in her hand because Alice wouldn't let me in the room with Sarah's ex-boyfriends' girlfriend.

"Don't worry. We can do it," another student promises her.

"Huh! Seen enough?" Madison demands of me when she sees me.

"No, no, no. no, actually, um… I was checking the water gun here. The check valve is on backwards. If you flip this," I inform them as I fix it.

.

Alice pov

.

"IT sounds like you and Jeff had a perfect relationship," I state.

"We did. We were going to get married. You better make her pay for this," Carolyn exclaims angrily.

"Who?" Gibbs demands of her.

"That jealous bitch, Sarah McGee. She couldn't deal with the fact that Jeff wanted me instead of her. She sent him threatening emails. She trashed me in her blog."

"What's a blog?"

"It's a… blog, you know."

"No, I don't know."

"It's something loser put online so that everyone can read. Are you going to arrest her or not? I saw her at the food court with her geek friends. When she found out that Jeff was coming to meet me, she left to find him," Carolyn explains to us as McGee enters the room.

"How do you know she didn't just leave?" McGee demands of her.

"Because she killed him!"

"What did you see that happen? Or are you just assuming that?" I demand of her, I might not like being lied to by McGee but I'm not convicting Sarah without concrete evidence.

"Boss," McGee begins as Gibbs force him back into the hallway as I follow them when Carolyn doesn't answer me, just glare because she releases I am not going to arrest Sarah without evidence.

"Hey! I told you to wait outside," Gibbs snaps at McGee.

"Why didn't you ask her about the emails?"

"Maybe I don't want her to know that I know about the emails, McGee. There's a reason I told you to stay outside."

"And there's a reason I came in. look," McGee explains as he shows us an empty fish tank.

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"Where have you been?" McGee demands of Sarah when we return to the squad room to see Sarah who Tony and Ziva picked up from the library on her college.

"The library. I told you I had to study. You know, tony is much cuter than Tommy," Sarah informs McGee making em laugh.

"Tommy?" McGee asks innocently.

"Hmm. You know, if you rearrange these letters, you get," Tony begins as he hold up McGee's book.

"Timothy McGee!" Ziva finishes for him.

You should have to me this was a secret!" Sarah exclaims.

"I can't wait to read about your swashbuckling, socially repugnant Special Agent Tommy," Tony exclaims as he reads from the book description.

"And Lisa, the sultry and emotionally distant Mossad Officer," Ziva giggles.

"Or their boss, L.J. Tibbs, who 'drinks to alleviate the burden of his messianic complex.' And the beautiful Alicia, 'L.J. Tibbs partner who no-one lies to, or else. Rude and protective of her friends and family, always ready to protect them.' Where is L.J., dead agent walking, Alicia?" Tony teases McGee.

"Evidence garage," McGee asks Tony making Tony chuckle at him. "Tony! Tony!" McGee yells before turning to Sarah and grabbing her elbow as he says, "I'm going to kill you!"

"Oh yeah, that's what you do threaten your sister. My sister isn't coming back because of this job but I'm a bad sibling. Well, I'm not going to stand by and watch you threaten your sister, McGee. Treasurer her. You do not threaten your sister because you didn't tell her the how story, McGee," I say to him angrily as I remove his hands off of Sarah, it's his own fault.

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"Hey boss," Tony greets Gibbs as we all walk into the evidence garage room.

"You didn't find that in the taxi, did you?" McGee begs us Abby as we look at the knife Abby found, the murder weapon.

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"McGee! Hey!" Gibbs calls to McGee who is sulking out of the director's office but he doesn't stop making Gibbs and I to run to catch up with him.

"Boss, don't try and talk me out of this," McGee exclaims.

"Never let someone manipulate you like that again. Not even the director!" Gibbs states as he hands back the badge that McGee handed into the director and head slaps him.

"She wanted me to quit?"

"It's her job to protect NCIS. She might never do it unless it's to get rid of someone, but still her job," I remind him.

"Come here. Sit down," Gibbs orders McGee as he makes him sit at McGee's desk.

"Boss, you don't think that," McGee begins.

"You sit here until we get back," I order McGee as I point at him.

"Boss, Alice, you don't think Sarah did it, do you?"

"I don't know, McGee. I'll know after I interrogate her," Gibbs answers him.

"Can I watch from…?"

"No!" I cut him off.

"Please, from observation?!"

"No!" Gibbs snaps overlapping McGee.

"Boss, I can't just sit here."

"Here. Read a book," Gibbs orders McGee as he hands him a copy of McGee's book off Gibbs' bookshelf from behind his desk, before leading me away from him to the integration room.

"What's your major?" I ask Sarah as I walk into the interrogation room to see Sarah studying.

"English Lit," Sarah answers me, and she sounds proud but scared for her future.

"You intend to be a writer like your bother?" Gibbs demands of her as we sit across from her at the table.

"I intend to on being a writer."

"Why the smartass answer?"

"What?!"

"You put your bother down. The very bother that just put his job on the line to protect you and you put him down like that's nothing," I state, she better not think she's better than McGee or I'll arrest her for murderer right know.

"No, I didn't," Sarah snaps at me.

"Yeah, you did."

"He just reigned because of you," Gibbs adds.

"No! But Tim loves NCIS," Sarah exclaims.

"Evidently he loves you more," I state making Sarah suddenly begin crying.

"I'm sorry."

"Fake tears don't bother me," Gibbs states.

"I don't fake tears!"

"Just lapses in memory."

"I don't remember… I just get… quick film cuts."

"Hold onto them," Gibbs orders her making me place my hand on Gibbs leg, he's been there and this must be as hard for him as her.

"I can't."

"Because you don't want to."

"I do."

"If you did, you'd remember."

"I've been there."

"I stabbed him… I stabbed Jeff!" Sarah begins crying making em break, I can't do this. I quickly get out of my chair, pulling this young girl into a hug, letting her cry into my shoulder as I look at Gibbs over her shoulder, something doesn't feel right. That was too easy.

"Sarah doesn't know what she's saying," McGee exclaims as he rushes into the integration room making me give him a look, he's supposed to be reading his own book.

"McGee," Gibbs snaps at him.

"Boss, she was drugged. Abby has proof."

"Stay with her," I order McGee as I hand him his crying sister before leaving with Gibbs. We all walk down to Abby's lab without McGee who is helping his sister.

"I was pouring over all the forensic evidence. The trash from the crime scene, and every inch of the taxi, and I realized that the floor mat smells like Nilosorb," Abby informs us as we walk into the lab.

"Nilosorb?" Tony asks in confusion before couching at the smell Abby shoves under his noise.

"Industrial vomit cleaner," Gibbs and I inform him.

"So I took what was left down there. I ran it through the mass spec, and found what McGee has confirmed to be Sarah's favourite late night snack. Cheese-less pizza with Tabasco, pickles, and peanut butter," Abby informs us.

"Yuck!" Ziva comments.

"But I also found traces of sodium oxybate – a.k.a. GHB. It didn't show up in her urine sample because it metabolizes so quickly. Which is probably what makes it such a popular date-rape drug."

"You think Seaman Petty tried to rape her?" Tony asks her.

"Her ex-boyfriend?" Ziva asks him in surprise.

"There's nothing like a death threat from an ex-girlfriend to get your dander up," Tony comments.

"Are you talking from experience, Tony?"

"So the levels of GHB allowed me to triangulate a window of exposure. She was dosed at the food court," Abby informs us.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs calls on his agent.

"Pull the security tapes from the food court. On it, boss!" Tony exclaims before walking off to do it.

"Ziva!"

"Names of food workers, janitors, and anyone working that night," Ziva jumps in before walking off to do it as well.

"What was I going to tell you?" Gibbs teases Abby because everyone else seems to know what he wants them to do.

"I don't know. What were you going to tell me, II Magnifico?" Abby asks him.

"Good job," Gibbs says to her as he kisses her on the top of her head.

"But I have more! I solved the mystery of the smoking goldfish. At first I couldn't figure out how they were lighting the cigarettes underwater. And then I found this. They were trying to kick the habit. Our little Nemo's were swimming in a bag that sprung a leak. Sprang a leak. Sprung, sprang, sprung – so their little lives flashed before their eyes in a nicotine buzz. Hey, do you think since s\goldfish only have three seconds of memory…"

"Abby, get dad on that please," I beg of her, cutting off her rambling while pointing to her new video phone that sits in the middle of her desk.

"I don't know, Alice. That is a very complicated piece of equipment. Probably have to go get the manual out and…"

"Abs!" Gibbs cuts her off making Abby grin before hitting one button, calling Ducky.

"Ducky?"

"Yes, my little lotus blossom," Ducky says over the video call.

"Gibbs wants you!"

"You know when the goldfish died?" Gibbs demands of him.

"Well, I was just determining the time they expired," Ducky informs us.

"Are you using a little teeny tiny liver probe?" Abby asks him.

"Being cold-blooded, temperature is useless in determining the time of dead."

"So you don't know yet?" I ask him.

"Au contraire. They died about the same time as our victim."

"Now how did you calculate that?" Abby demands of him.

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"Track Sarah McGee from the time she enters until she leaves," Gibbs orders Tony in the squad room, looking at the plasma, between McGee and Tony's desk, with the security video on it. Tony is sitting at his desk as Ziva, and Gibbs stand side-by-side, Ziva on Gibbs right, in front of the plasma screen as I stand in front of Gibbs with his hand on my left hip.

"Uh… okay. Uh… oops. Uh… that was the wrong way. I'm sorry. Sorry, boss. Once second," Tony exclaims as he tries to work the video but ends up playing it backwards.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs snaps making Tony hit another button and freeze the video making Ziva laugh at him.

"It froze. This is sort of a McGeek thing," Tony exclaims as he tries to fix it but making it worse.

"Get him!" Gibbs orders him making Tony get up and run off. Gibbs asks Ziva, "Do you know what a clog is?"

"A shoe or a block to drain?" Ziva answers him.

"On the internet."

"I thought that was a blog, but my English is often wrong."

"IT's a personalized newspaper online, that everyone can write their own views on the news and world without checking their writing is correct… actually, that's not different than the newspaper," I explain to him before releasing I just described all the reports in the world.

"Sarah McGee wrote a blog trashing her and the cheerleaders. You think you can find it?" Gibbs asks Ziva.

"Probably on Myspace. Who is she?" Ziva informs him as she makes her way over to her computer to find it.

"Seaman Petty's girlfriend. Sarah's ex-roommate," I inform her.

"Ha!" Ziva exclaims happily when she finds it before beginning to read it back, "'These preppy little girls, all skanked up to the nines in their adorable cheerleading uniforms, which had been mistakenly ordered in children's sizes, were engaged in strangely homoerotic, Adderol-fueled spastic movements that they called dance routines.'"

"Where's that from?" Tony asks as he, Sarah and McGee enter squad room.

"IT's my blog," Sarah says sadly.

"Ha-ha. You should let your sister ghost-write for you, probie."

"Find your sister entering the food court," Gibbs orders him making McGee move over to Tony's computer to do it.

"How do you get a ready-made cheese-less pizza with Tabasco sauce, pickles, and peanut butter?" I ask Sarah.

"Oh, I make it myself. The food court has everything but peanut butter, so I carry a jar in my backpack," Sarah explains to me.

"McGee, isolate her table," Gibbs orders him, making McGee do it and we watch a familiar face messing with Sarah's peanut butter.

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"Ready? One, two, down, up! Steady! Hold it, Heather! Oh, take five," Madison orders the other cheerleaders in the quad area, they were doing the human pyramid but they fell over.

"What happened to quitting?" Carolyn asks Madison who is taking off a nicotine patch.

"After football season. Why don't you go home?"

"I'd rather be here."

"Seen enough of my ass?" Madison demands of us when Tony and McGee stare at her ass as she bends over.

"What do you think, Tony?" McGee asks Tony.

"I don't know. There's a lot to see," Tony comments making me hid a smirk.

"Stay the hell away from me, jerk!" Madison gasps at Tony.

"It's amazing what a college education does for a girl's vocabulary, don't you think?" I tease her as I show her a page of Sarah's blog.

"Astonishing. I believe you know my sister," McGee comments before turning Madison around to face Sarah who slaps her.

"That was for spiking my peanut butter!" Sarah yells at her before slapping her again and saying, "And that was for setting me up to be raped."

"This is for being an accessory to murder," Tony adds as McGee cuffs Madison.

"What?" Madison demands of him.

"Madison!" Carolyn exclaims in pain.

"They're framing me! I didn't do anything!"

"We've hot you starring in the food court show," McGee comments as we show her a still of her messing with Sarah's peanut butter.

"Spiking Sarah's peanut butter with GHB," Tony adds again.

"Oh, yeah. Try and prove that from a security camera!" Madison exclaim angrily.

"Your greasy par prints are all over my peanut butter jar," Sarah informs her.

"And we have you leaving the food court with Officer Tate," McGee adds to his sister.

"You murdered Jeff?" Carolyn asks in surprise and pain.

"No! I was just using Tate to get even for this bitch's blog, and Jeff saw Tate grappling with her and tried to play hero. Tate stabbed him. I dropped everything and run!" Madison admits angrily.

"You stabbed him! Put the knife in her hand, put the cell phone in his pocket," Tate corrects her as Ziva and Gibbs leads an arrested Tate over to us.

"You lying bastard!"

"Lying bitch."

"Get them out of here," Gibbs orders them.

"I didn't do anything."

"You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to do the splits," Tony overlaps him as he reads her, their rights as they force him away leaving McGee, Gibbs, Sarah, Carolyn and my alone.

"Let go of me! I didn't do anything!" Madison yells.

"Yes, you did! Madison did it!" Tate yells.

"Oh, shut up."

"I'm sorry. Jeff was a great guy, and he really loved you," Sarah says to Madison.

"How would you know?" Carolyn demands of Sarah.

"He emailed me. He said he was sorry, but he'd met his soul mate. It was you," Says explains before pulling a crying Carolyn into a hug.

"Sometimes, McGee… a little lie – it's good for the soul," Gibbs explains to the confused McGee, Jeff never sent that email.

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"Hey," I say to Gibbs as I walk down the stairs to see him watching an old black and white movie on his old TV. He is half laying on the couch with his feet on the table in front of him, and a beer hanging from his hand. He is wearing an old NIS sweet shirt, and a pair of sweet pants, that's all.

"Hey, I thought you went to be," Gibbs mumbles as I sit down next to him, and cuddle up into his side.

"The bed was cold. What're you watching?"

"John Wayne."

"Should have guessed that," I mumble as I happily hide my face in his NIS sweet shirt he is wearing.

"Shh," Gibbs shushes me as he wraps his hand around my waist, holding me against his body.

"Jethro… you're not going to leave me for my roommate, are you?"

"What? Um… how? I am your roommate," Gibbs exclaims as he stops pretending to watch the movie.

"Don't pick apart my problem, just answer me. Please?"

"I wouldn't cheat on you… with myself."

"Or Ugly Tony the Second?"

"I'm not touching your dog. I don't even feed the thing," Gibbs reminds me as he runs his hand over my back.

"Promise? Even if I dye your hair red?"

"Well… maybe then," Gibbs teases me.

"Jethro…"

"I'm not going to cheat on you. I promise," Gibbs whispers to me before kissing my head. He adds, "Now be quiet and watch John Wayne."