CBS and Paramount Pictures own NCIS.

You're to Blame

You are to blame for anything that is good in my heart. You are to blame for this change that has taken me by storm. - Mercy Me

Chapter Thirty-eight – August 2004

Tuesday August 3, 2004

Kate was worried. It wasn't as though that was unusual but this was a different kind of worried. The worst part was that she couldn't even hide just how worried she was. She knew that she was usually really good at hiding her more negative emotions. This time was different.

For the past few weeks Tony hadn't been acting... well, like Tony. It wasn't normal to see him do focused on one thing. Kate had always compared him to a kid in a candy store. Eyes and hands trying to take in everything at once.

This new Tony was too quiet, too sad. It was as though the life had been sucked out of him and he was replaced by a pod-person. He was constantly either going over some mysterious transcripts or up in MTAC. More often than not, Gibbs was with him.

It seemed as though everyone knew what was going on but her. Everyone included Tim McGee. She didn't know what his role was but she was determined to figure it out. Out of everyone, McGee was the only one that she knew that she could intimidate enough to get any information out of... that is after she politely asked Abby for the same questions that she was planning to ask McGee.

For once, Abby was surprisingly tight-lipped about what she knew. The younger woman hated lying more than anything. It was one of the essential rules that had to be followed if anyone wanted to survive long at NCIS, never lie to Abby. But thinking back to the conversation she had with her she had to admit that Abby didn't lie once. It was true that she couldn't tell her what she knew because she wasn't entirely sure what she did know.

That was the reason she totally bypassed going to Ducky for information. He may have known something but wasn't sure what he knew and wasn't likely to tell anyone what he knew until he knew what he knew.

Now Kate had a headache.

She knew that she had to wait until the weekend to confront McGee. It would cause suspicion if she went all the way to Norfolk during the week.

Saturday August 7, 2004

It didn't take Kate very long to realize that she had no idea where McGee lived. After an hour of driving around the seaside town, Kate gave up trying to find him. Though that was mostly because she didn't even know what kind of car he drove.

Fortunately, or rather due to dumb luck, she saw the man she had been hunting down for the past few hours coming out of a grocery store.

"Hey, McGee!" Kate called. She shook her head incredulously as he wildly looked around for whoever called his name.

"Kate? What are you doing here?"

"I have a few questions for you." She tried to make herself sound innocent but failed miserably. Now, McGee knew that he could be naïve but the way she was acting had him alert.

"OK. What do want to know?"

"You remember that mission that you went on last month?" McGee nodded. "Can you tell me about it?"

"I'm sorry Kate, I can't. Agents DiNozzo and Gibbs gave me orders not to say anything to anyone about that mission. I could lose my job if I did. Besides, I don't really know that much. The guy they were waiting for didn't even show up."

Sunday August 8, 2004

Tony wasn't too happy with the prospect of doing nothing. Samantha had given him, Jethro, and Jeremy an order to take the day off (in Jeremy's case also away from his daughter). Where she got the authority to give such an order to two highly trained special agents and a psychologist was anyone's guess. But the gleam in her eyes made so that no one disobeyed her.

Alex complained to the three other men that his wife was obsessing more than a little that he brought home a bottle of ketchup. She had reminded him no less than six times that they were out and once again Tony picked him.

It was completely against her character to be so repetitive.

What was even more odd was the fact that Samantha had called Tony's cell to remind Alex once again about the ketchup. Sure probably would have called Alex's phone if he had remembered to grab it before heading out the door, or rather shoved as he put it.

The incessant reminding also had Alex more than a little annoyed, especially after she called Tony. Not once had he ever forgotten to bring something home when she asked.

No one else thought that it was a brilliant idea to buy the biggest bottle of ketchup that he could find. It shouldn't've mattered how big of a family they had, sixty-four ounces was a bit excessive since not everyone (Peyton and Antoine) liked ketchup. Riley was still too young, in Alex's mind, to decide whether she liked it since it seemed as though she changed her mind every other week that she liked the condiment or not.

It shocked the four men that Samantha didn't even react to the overly large bottle. In fact, she was thrilled with what they bought. That lead to one question to everyone's minds but only one man was brave enough to voice it.

"Are you pregnant again?" That earned Tony a head slap for being tactless.

Monday August 9, 2004

Kate had to admit that Tony seemed to be a little more relaxed since she had saw him on Friday. There was still an underlining of sadness in his eyes but there was more of the mischievousness that she had come to associate with Tony.

That didn't mean that she was giving up on finding out what was going on.

The three men on the team were actually expecting a confrontation much sooner. They were very thankful that they had as much time as they did in order to come to terms what they could and couldn't tell her. It didn't take Tony, who really was in charge of the operation now that Kader was dead, long to decide to give her the bare minimum.

Tony brought them down to Abby's lab were they had at least a little privacy. He didn't want any of the other teams to know about who badly he messed up the mission.

"A little less than a year ago I was approached to go under at a militia camp to try to shut it down and possibly find out who their leader was. First part was accomplished successfully with mostly only minor injuries on our side..."

Jethro scowled at Tony as he slapped him. "You nearly got killed on that mission."

"I did say 'mostly'." Jethro's scowl only deepened. "Hey, you did manage to save me before anyone could permanently damage me. Besides, it really wasn't my fault..... Anyways, I failed to learn who the leader was."

"Apparently, though, he knows Tony," said Jeremy.

Tony ignored him and continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "Last month I was approached again because there was a lead to who the leader was. The lead was a trap and my associate was killed. I managed to get the bastard but he wasn't out guy."

"Is that what McGee was involved with?"

They didn't even question who Kate knew that and only nodded.

"May I ask a question?"

"Ask away, Ducky. There's no guarantee that I can answer."

"Is there a possibility that Ari is behind all your woes?"

"No. The group I went after last year was an anti-Bush militia. While Ari gave the appearance of going after President Bush, there was no actual evidence that he was."

For the first time since the team appeared in her domain, Abby spoke up. "So, what do we have on this guy?"

Wednesday August 11, 2004

This was the only day that Samantha's OB/GYN, Dr. Loraine Savage, could fit Samantha into her busy schedule. Truthfully, it didn't surprise the doctor that Sam thought that she was pregnant again. The length of time between pregnancies also wasn't a surprise. Riley would be four by the time Sam had this one.

The tests didn't take long and, as per usual, Dr. Savage said that one of the nurses would call her as soon as they had the results.

Friday August 13, 2004

No one knew just how McGee, who Abby insisted would be a huge help and deserved to know what was happening since he was sorta involved anyways, found out who the leader (who wasn't much of a leader) of the militia was. Sure McGee tried to explain what he did but the technobabble only served to confuse all those who didn't go to MIT. And frankly, no one really cared.

Jethro was furious that their suspect was just an ordinary man named Marion Black. He had no record, not even a parking ticket. What was even more infuriating was the fact that Black had absolutely no connection to any of the armed forces much less to the Marine Corps.

It was early when Jethro and Tony went to pick him up. Jethro usually would have sent Kate but he didn't want Black to even know that she even existed just in case she became a target as well if they couldn't convince a judge this was the guy that ordered the death of a federal agent and ended up killing another one instead. Not knowing if Ari was going to come after her again was bad enough. She didn't need the added threat.

Anti-Bush paraphernalia was all over the walls at Black's house. There was even a dartboard that had Bush's face on it with several holes in the picture. Not exactly legal since it could be considered to be a death threat against the President but it wasn't conspiracy to commit murder either.

But if Jethro had any say, Marion Black would have to spend a really long time in prison for what he did and tried to do to Tony. Unfortunately, unknown to Kate and the others, the NSA claimed that Black was their jurisdiction and they would be trying him.

Samantha sat in the kitchen shocked by what the doctor had told her. She was indeed pregnant... very pregnant. She knew that multiples ran in her husband's family, Andy and Randy were proof enough of that. Plus Alex's grandfather was a twin.

But she wasn't have twins.

The word triplets scared Samantha more than anything. She knew that there's was a possibility of multiples when she got older but three was too many to have at once. Only telling the family scared her more.

The nurse had told her that Dr. Savage had an opening that morning thanks to a last minute cancellation and could fit in a sonogram. That was before telling Sam that she was pregnant. Not wanting to wait, she agreed.

Now she regretted that decision. She would have much happier just knowing that she pregnant. Seeing three babies on the screen caused her to to paler than even the worst of her morning sickness.

Saturday August 14, 2004

No one knew what Tony was thinking when he showed up at their movie night with a bunch of baby related movies, including the 1994 movie Baby's Day Out, when it was clear that Sam was still getting used to the idea of being pregnant again.

On the plus side it clued the older children in on the fact that their mom was once again expecting. On the downside it caused those same children to groan at the fact that they were having yet another sibling. Addison in particular was unhappy about it. She was even more unhappy when they were told it was triplets. It meant that they were moving again.

Darby protested a move once she learned that they couldn't take her precious tree with them.

Monday August 23, 2004

There was a definite downside to having things going back to normal, or rather the NCIS definition of normal, and that was the paper wad fight that Jeremy and Tony were currently having. Especially since Kate was the one caught in the middle of said fight.

She had gotten used to the quiet and the fact that she could get her work down in peace. As much as she hated thinking it, she hoped for a case to keep the two men occupied.

A/N The story about the ketchup is partly from real life. No I'm not pregnant nor am I married. Last weekend my dad kept nagging me to bring home ketchup when I went out with a friend. I don't have a cell phone so he called hers instead to remind me (for the tenth time) to bring home the condiment. I really did buy a 64 oz. bottle though.

I also didn't plan on making Samantha pregnant again. To tell the truth, this whole chapter was written today.