"Wow. What'd you do? Spend the night saki-bombing?" Tony ask Kate when he walks into the lab and sees that she looks like death warmed over.

"It's a cold, Tony. Saki-bombing?" Kate ask him in confusion.

"Oh, come on, Kate. Don't tell me you've never heard of saki-bombing?"

"Would I ask if… forget it. I don't want to know."

"You take a cup of hot saki. You drop it in a beer. You toss it back and… and KA-BOOM!" Tony explains while demonstrating with invisible gear.

"Saki-bombing," I comments from behind Gibbs desk, working on his computer.

"Great for a cold," Tony informs her.

"I'll stick to honey and hot tea, thanks," Kate says to him.

"McGee, Kate's never been saki-bombing."

"You know, I don't think I have either."

"I work with a pair of wankers," Tony complains as Gibbs walks into the squad room.

"And you make three, DiNozzo."

"Good morning, Boss."

"Good morning," Kate say to him right before sneezing into the tissue.

"Cold or flu?" Gibbs ask her while coming to a complete stop in front of Kate's desk.

"Just plain cold. Don't worry. I will sneeze into my tissues, unlike some people," Kate promise before giving Tony a pointed look.

"I have allergies, Kate," Tony defends himself.

"Never had allergies. Never had a cold," Gibbs comments while moving over to his desk while I get out of the chair for him to sit down.

"You never had a cold?" Kate ask Gibbs in surprise.

"Nope. Never had the flu either," Gibbs informs us while I sit on the edge of Tony's desk.

"Why do I believe that?" Kate asks Tony and me in a whisper.

"If you were a bug, would you attack Gibbs?" Tony ask Kate while moving over to his desk.

"I get colds all the time," McGee chimes him with something that no one is surprised by.

"Of course you do, probie."

"Why does that not surprise me?" I overlap Tony.

"Alice wait about you?" McGee ask me.

"I get sick a lot. My lungs have been weakened since my birth," I explain making Kate snort.

"I'm just glad you haven't been hospitalized him the last three years," Kate comments.

"Me too. I don't like hospitals."

"This one is just addressed to 'NCIS Special Agent,'" McGee informs us while holding up a letter.

"I think that's mine, McGee. Huh?" Tony says while snatching the letter.

"How do you know?"

"I recognize the lips. And the scent," Tony informs us while showing us the envelope with a kiss in lipstick on the back to seal it.

"Gummy bears?" Kate laughs at Tony as he opens the letter and blows across the opening, only to blow white powered out of it and into my face making my sneeze. We all freeze for a moment before Gibbs jumps into action by jumping up onto his desk and whistling to get everyone near attention.

"We've opened a letter with white powder. Use the southeast corridor to the holding room. You all know the drill," Gibbs calls out.

"Tony! Alice!" Kate exclaims while throwing us both a bottle of water each. We both grab a separate bin, Tony uses his own while I grab McGee, and place them on the desk to wash our head off before moving out to be decontaminated. Kate picks up her phone and says, "Letter opened in Special Agent Gibbs' office dispersed a fine white powder. Initiating bio-attack procedures. Third floor evacuating."

"McGee, are you up on procedures?"

"Yeah, we shower, burn our clothes, get blood tested. Nobody leaves the building until the substance is identified except," McGee recites before turns to us.

"Luck us! We win a free trip to Bethesda to be pricked like a pin cushion," Tony finishes for him.

"Kate you jinxed it. Now I have to return to the hospitals," I whine in fear, I am afraid of hospitals because of the number of times I have been admitted. I then add, "Should have stayed behind Gibbs desk, away from the germs."

"They've shut down the air. Let's hit the showers, Tony!" Kate comments when the air cuts off.

"Thought you'd never ask. Sorry, boss," Tony says while walking past Gibbs dripping water over the dirt.

"Not a good day and it's only starting," I complain while walking past Gibbs who just stand at her desk for a moment.

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"Who would send me a letter with anthrax?" Tony ask us as we are in the shower meaning he has to ask over the running water.

"Pick a girl, Tony. Any girl," Kate informs him while I scrub my hair with the soap to get the white substances off my body.

"It's not funny, Kate."

"We know. Trust me we know," I hiss at Tony in fear, I am going to the hospital and I'm scared out of my mine.

"This is serious."

"I know, Tony. I'm sorry," Kate says sobering up as it sinks in that I am contaminated too.

"This very instant somebody is incinerating my Ermenegildo Zegna suit, my Armani tie, my Dolce Gabbana shirt, and my Gucci shoes!"

"You know, it might not be anthrax," McGee informs us making me relax for a moment.

"I like the sound of that," I exclaim happily.

"I like the sound of that, Probie," Tony agrees with me.

"It could be small pox, bubonic plague, cholera," McGee names the different things to kill us.

"Probie!"

"Foot powder, face powder, talcum powder."

"Honey dust!"

"Honey Dust?"

"Honey Dust. I give it to girls – women, sorry, Kate. I give it to women at Christmastime. Very sensuous. You apply it with a feather."

"You don't use the whole chicken?" Kate and I ask him sarcastically as I soap my face and then my back trying to get myself to feel clean.

"I never heard of Honey dust," McGee informs us.

"Yeah, that's because your mother raised you to respect women, McGee," Kate informs him.

"IT makes a women's skin silky smooth. When kissed, t tastes like honey. Got a box of Honey Dust last Christmas. No card," Gibbs informs us.

"Ah, I think the post office screwed up, boss. Someone else got your bottle of Jack and you got the," Tony exclaims.

"Hey! Doesn't the post office irradiate our mail?" Kate ask us while cutting Tony off.

"Yeah, that's right. All federal mail is funnelled through the Ion Beam facility in Bridgeport, New Jersey. If it has DNA, it dies," McGee rambles about our poor mail, someone kills its friends.

"The diseases that you names, they have DNA?" Tony ask McGee happily.

"They do."

"Ah, you should have let him squirm," Kate complains.

"Ha ha! Then it's no worries," Tony exclaims happily but I'm not so sure, when are we ever that lucky?

"Unless the post office screwed up again," Gibbs and I exclaim together, cutting Tony's celebration off.

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Gibbs pov

"You should have given the letter to me, McGee" I snap in anger as we wait in autopsy for the bus and bloods.

"I know, boss," McGee exclaims.

"It's not McGee's fault. Tony snatched it out of his hand," Kate defends McGee.

"So it's my bad?" Tony asks.

"You blow white substance in my face," Alice exclaims in anger and fear.

"You did grab it, Tony," McGee exclaims at the same time.

"Lame excuse, Probie. You should have stopped me," Tony exclaims as I try to leave autopsy.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ducky demands of my in full protective clothing.

"To find out who sent the letter," I inform her while trying to leave still.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah. You cannot leave autopsy. It's negative pressure so airborne pathogens can't contaminate the rest of the building."

"Ducky, I have been scrubbed, sanitized, for all I know, sterilized! I have an investigation to open!"

"I have a possible contagion to contain. Until your blood test clears you, I cannot permit you to leave this room," Ducky informs us while the door slides open to let the paramedics in.

"Who opened the envelope?" the Paramedic demands of us while looking at all of us.

"He did," Tony exclaims while pointing to McGee making the paramedic's walk towards McGee who climbs onto a autopsy bed in fear.

"No, no, no! It wasn't me!" McGee exclaims.

"Just kidding. I'm your pin cushion," Tony exclaims.

"Did you inhale any powder?" the paramedic ask.

"I might have. But she did," Tony exclaims while pointing to Alice who looks ready to pass out in fear and making my anger spike, who in the hell put her life in danger, I am going to kill them. Slowly.

"We took blood. Jimmy?" Ducky informs them while getting Jimmy to hand the blood over, as I move over to where Alice is sitting on one of the autopsy bed and pulling her into a backwards hug to help her calm down.

Yeah. Four blood vials on ice to go," Jimmy exclaims while handing the blood over as Kate sneezes.

"It's a cold. I had it before I came in this morning," Kate promise as everyone stares at her.

"I told you we should have taken the day off," Alice jokes, badly.

"Which makes you even more susceptible to airborne pathogens. You should go in the hospital, too," Ducky informs her slowly.

"Oh, no!" Kate exclaims in denial.

"Welcome to the party van. Dad won't let us have alcohol," Alice jokes again, but it is just showing me how scared she is just from her tone.

"Kate, play it safe. Go with Tony and Alice," I order her while giving Alice one more squeeze before letting her get up and join the other two for the trip to the hospital.

"That's safe? How long are we going to have to stay in isolation?" Kate ask in disbelieve and worry.

"At least overnight," the paramedic informs us.

"Can we have double bed because I hate it when you get that crease when you push the two," Tony rambles making me hit him on the back of the head. Tony turns to me and says, "if I get anthrax, how will you fell?"

"Not as bad as you, DiNozzo," I inform him start up as Alice whimpers in fear making me feel bad for reminding her what she might have to deal with in the coming hours.

"I'm scared Gibbs," Alice whines in fear.

"It's be alright. You'll survive this. You have to kill Ari still," I remind her softly while rubbing her arm. But when that doesn't calm her down I pull her into a hug making her cling to me like a little child in fear of what is going to happen.

"Let's go," Paramedic orders them while getting ready to ship out to the hospital.

"I'm warning you, DiNozzo," Kate points at Tony threaten.

"Yeah?" Tony ask without fear for the moment.

"I do not feel well."

"You need to relax. You need a foot massage."

"I don't want you anywhere near my feet. I don't want you touching my feet."

"I don't want him touching my sister, at all," Alice cuts him while I move away from her to let her join her sister.

"You don't feel well and," Tony rambles as I watch my team leave the room to go to the hospital in the hopes of not being sick.

"So are you. Hoo! Talk to mama," Abby says on the monitor with a direct feed to the lab as she does a cartwheel.

"I didn't take you for the cheerleader type, Abby," I call to her getting her attention while trying to not worry over my girl. No, not my girl, Alice. Alice.

"Oh, I'm not. Grammy taught me that. She was an Olympic swimmer. Won the silver in the two hundred meter butterfly," Abby informs us while bouncing around behind her computer.

"What does swimming have to do with cartwheeling?" Jimmy asked in confusion.

"Nothing."

"I don't understand."

"You can't think logically with Abby. Her mind operates like a pachinko machine," McGee informs Jimmy making me have to grind my teeth together so I got kill them.

"What was the powder, Abby?" I demand of her.

"White. With a hint of tan," Abby informs me without answering my question.

"Abs!"

"Well, it's all I know until my baby speaks to me. I'm auto-sampling for anthrax, botulism, plague, cholera, all those nasty little bio-buggers."

"How long?"

"A couple hours."

"I thought you said these tests were fast."

"It's not a pregnancy test, Gibbs."

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Alice pov

"You should drink more water," Tony comments when Kate puts her yellow pee on the table with Tony and mine that is almost clear.

"Tony," Kate hisses at him in surprise that he would even say something about her piss.

"Your urine's too dark."

"I have a cold. I can't believe you're commenting on my – eeugh!"

"Neither can I. doctor Brad Pitt. Yes, it's my real name and no we're not related. I wish we were. I'd love to meet Angelina Jolie," Doctor Pitt informs us while walking up to us after hearing Tony's comments on Kate urine making Kate laugh at is joke while Tony and I roll our eyes, that was so cheesy and it worked on Kate.

"If I said what he said you would," Tony begins when Doctor Pitt walks away but Kate elbows him making him finishes airlessly, "Elbow me." After Tony finishes speaking we follow the doctor to the isolation cube.

"Well, it's not the four seasons, but let's hope you're not here long," Doctor Pitt says while we walk into a room with a view into a room with glass walls and five beds in it with lights hanging above each one, with blue lights alighting the room.

"Negative pressure," Kate ask the doctor when we are all blow with air before being allowed into the glass room.

"Mm-hmm. Air can flow in, but not out. I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Emma Ingham, your duty nurse for tonight," Doctor Pitt says while introducing us to the nurse in the room prepping it for our arrival.

"Hi, guys. How are you?" Emma ask us.

"As a precaution, I'm starting your prophylaxis with streptomycin."

"Prophylaxis is measure taken for the prevention of disease, Tony," Kate explains to him.

"That's why I use them," Tony comments flirtatiously making Emma laugh at him.

"Oh, you don't want to encourage him, lieutenant," Kate informs her while I grip her hand in fear, because the more I look around the hospital room in fear of every time I've been in one ends badly.

"Sorry. Um… take any bed you want, you guys," Emma informs us. Making me quickly walk to the middle bed to claim as my own for the duration of our stay.

"Thank you, Nurse Emma," Tony says while taking the bed right next to Kate's making it go, empty bed, empty bed, me, Tony, Kate.

"But it's prudent to keep some separation in case in case one of you has been infected," Pitt informs us making Tony have to take the end bed making the order go, Tony, empty, me, empty, Kate.

"Thank you, Doctor!" Kate say innocently with a big grin.

"Brad. We're informal here."

"Kate."

"Are these things sunlamps, Brad?" Tony ask while sticking his face next to the light.

"UV kills the bacteria in the air, although I can arrange for a sunlamp if you wish."

"Oh, not for me. It's for Kate."

"What?" Kate hiss at Tony in anger as he sits on his bed.

"Yeah, a little nude sunbathing might get rid of those tan lines."

"Yeah, we don't get tan lines. That's the point of the spa weekend," I explain to Tony making him freeze in surprise at what I just informed him.

"Doctor, could you put him to sleep, please?" Kate begs the good looking doctor.

"Bye nurse Emma," Tony says as the two medical people leave the room.

"Bye," Emma says while leaving us alone with Tony, that's scarier then what might be in my lungs.

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Gibbs pov

"Swak?" I ask about something Abby said while looking over the letter while staring at the plasma screen in autopsy.

"It sealed with a kiss, Gibbs. Didn't you ever get a love letter?" Abby ask me over the screen.

"Does a dear john count?"

"Ah. I feel sorry for you, Gibbs."

"Is there a return address?"

"Twenty seven old mill bottom road Annapolis, Maryland."

"McGee, you got that?"

"Got it. I just wish I had my PDA," McGee exclaims while trying to remember it.

"Use Ducky's," I order him while pointing to his desk.

"Uh… uh… agent Gibbs, sir, Doctor Mallard doesn't have," Jimmy stutters out.

"Requisition replacement cell phones and weapons for my team. Go!" I order him while cutting him off.

"Pistols?" Jimmy ask while using a pretend gun.

"Well no, Palmer. Crossbows if you think they might work better," I snap because at this moment I am locked in autopsy while Alice is at the hospital, scared, I turn back to the screen and saying, "Cancelled stamp?"

"Noon yesterday, Annapolis," Abby informs me happily.

"Open it!"

"Normally I'd request a please, but considering the situation."

"Boss, I can't find Ducky's PDA," McGee complains.

"McGee, it's a pad and pencil," I snap at the nerd and reason for my headache at the moment.

"Oh, beautiful calligraphy," Ducky complements while looking at the letter that Abby has finally opened.

"Beautiful paper. It must be thirty two pound cotton rag," Abby informs him while looking at the letter in the isolation box so she isn't in danger.

"Abby, does that mean you can trace it?" I ask her tightly.

"The water mark will tell where it was made when it was made, and who sold it. The person that sent this… may as well have signed it."

"You know, there was a time when every young woman of breeding was taught calligraphy. My mother still tries, but her hand shake so that even I can read all her missives," Ducky rambles.

"Can you read this missive, Ducky?" I snap at my friend.

"Oh, yes. It's perfectly legible," Ducky says before reading it with his lips moving without reading it out loud.

"Um… I think he means read it out load," Abby informs Ducky.

"Oh, sorry. Of course. Uh," Ducky says before reading the letter, "'If you are reading this and have not initiated biological attack procedures, I suggest you do so immediately. Since the powder dispersed by opening this envelope contains genetically altered Y pestis.'"

"Which is Latin for what?" I snap at him.

"Plague!"

"The powder in that envelope carries bubonic plague?" I ask them tightly releasing that my people, my Alice, is infected with the plague.

"Pneumonic is more likely."

"There's more than one?"

"Oh, there are three, actually. But pneumonic is by far the most dangerous since it can be spread simply by breathing the Y pestis particles."

"Tony must have breathed in some of them. Alice defiantly did."

"It may not be alive Y pestis needs a host or moisture for it to survive more than a few hours," Abby informs me.

"Plus it was irradiated when it went through the mail, boss," McGee reminds us.

"I got a Honey Dust for Christmas, McGee," I remind him.

"I'll narrow my test to pneumonic Y pestis. If I can isolate the strain, then Bethesda can hit it with a specific antibiotic," Abby informs us while doing it.

"Yeah, well that may not help. It says here, 'I have genetically altered the Y pestis to render it impervious to antimicrobials,'" Ducky reads to us making me anger grow at this person.

"That bitch! She created a strain that antibiotics can't whack."

"Ducky, give Bethesda a heads up. A Swak does not mean that this bitch couldn't be a bastard!" I remind Abby after ordering Ducky.

"You're so right, Gibbs. I have this friend who's a transvestite. Her lips could outswak Angelina Jolie's. Remember, McGee? You met her at my birthday party."

"Yeah, the low-cut dress with a built-in plastic," McGee begins while holding his hands where he breasts where before I hit him in the back of the head to get him to stop.

"I saw that, Gibbs."

"Read, or you'll feel it," I inform her angry.

"Not while you're down there."

"What?"

"However, there is an antidote. She made a magic bullet. 'Which if administered within thirty two hours of infection, will eradicate the disease. To procure the antidote, MCIS must make public the true results of reported in Dossier R-Zero Three Seven-seven.'"

"McGee, pull up the file," I order McGee making him move to Ducky's computer.

"Yep, Romeo zero three seven-seven. On it, boss," McGee says.

"Is that it?"

"That's all she wrote. It's guided inside. I can see the Swak through – uh-oh. We have a moisture strip in here," Abby informs us while pulling out the strip.

"Yeah, keeping the bug alive until the letter is opened."

"I'm afraid so, Gibbs."

"Check the cancelled stamp, Abs! one way to get around postal irradiation – to not use the post office."

"I spoke with a Doctor Brad Pitt," Ducky informs us while walking into the lab.

"You're kidding," Abby exclaims in surprise.

"No, that's his name. He made a point to stress that he is not related in any way to the actor."

"Hey, did you hear when Brad and Jen split up?"

"Abby!" I snap at her in annoyance.

"Gibbs, I can't until I can put this under a microscope. And I can't do that until NCID gives me approval to irradiate."

"Okay, which will be when?"

"The navy is sending a sample to Atlanta. It should be there… well now. And then it'll be twelve hours for DNA confirmation."

"Ducky, what's the incubation period?"

"A day at most," Ducky answers me.

"How long until it kills?"

"Well, not very long, I'm afraid. In the fourteenth century, the novelist Boccaccio wrote that plague victims had lunch with their friend and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."

"McGee, where's the file?"

"Boss, I cannot access it from," McGee begins complaining but I don't care.

"Ducky! We're coming up!" I inform Ducky while cutting McGee off and leaving autopsy.

"We've already been through this, Gibbs! You can't!" Ducky calls after us.

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Alice pov

"You know what this feels like?" Tony asked while snapping his fingers.

"I'm afraid to ask," Kate comments.

"I'm afraid. So whatever Tony says can't be worse," I state while staring up at the light above me.

"Like I'm the king of cool," Tony informs us.

"Elvis?" Kate ask him.

"Elvis was the king of rock and roll. Travolta is the king of cool," I correct my sister.

"Well, thanks for the clarification."

"And do you know why I feel like Travolta?" Tony ask Kate.

"I feel a movie coming on."

"The boy in the plastic bubble. Travolta plays this boy born with an immune deficiency. This is before AIDS. He lives in this giant plastic bubble."

"Tony. Tony, please. We're stuck here together. Can we just make a pack? Until we're out I won't make fun of all the stupid things you say and you won't tell me any more film scenarios. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Thank you."

"Emma."

"Yes?" Emma asks him throw the intercom because she isn't in the glass room.

"You may find this of interest. You look pretty without the mask, by the way. Ralph Bellamy plays this doctor. Ralph Bellamy was this great old time actor. He was in 'his girl Friday' with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell," Tony rambles to Emma making Kate roll over and put her pillow over her head to mute him.

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Gibbs pov

"He didn't," Abby informs Ducky as we walk into the lab in a biohazard suit, making us safe to walk around without endangering other people.

"He left autopsy," Ducky reminds her because he can't see us.

"But not isolation."

"McGee," I call McGee making Ducky spin around to see us.

"Yeah," McGee ask in confusion.

"You use Abby's computer to access that case file!"

On it."

"Okay. Abby, pull the surveillance videos from the squad room. Everything from twenty three hundred last night when I left until McGee came in this morning," I order Abby while pointing to her computer as McGee leaves into her back office to use the computer.

"You've got to get a live, Gibbs," Abby says to me while opening the video.

"The last thing I need is another wife."

"Life. You've got to get a life," Abby signs and says to me with a grin.

"Boss! Boss, I found the file it's a rape case," McGee exclaims while running back into the front of the lab.

"Get the investigating agent down here," I order him.

"I can't. It was Pacci," McGee informs me, making me remember him beginning found dead in an elevator while working a cold case.

"Pull it up on the plasma, McGee!" I order him.

"Okay!"

"Sarah Lowell. Age twenty one. Senior, Vassar. Raped February tenth, oh-one at the Admiral's Bay Hotel in Annapolis," I read off the case file that McGee finally puts it on the plasma.

"Surely you remember the case, Jethro. The maid found the poor girl naked, tied to the bed two days after she was raped," Ducky reminds us.

"Duck, contact Cassie Yates in Norfolk. Tell her what happened. I need her help."

"Yeah, good idea."

Gibbs! I thought Cassie was working narcotics suppression," Abby informs me with words and signing after tapping my shoulder to get my attention.

"Four years ago Cassie was Pacci's probie," I inform her.

"Oh."

"The victim was visiting Annapolis to register for an advanced study program at Saint John's. Police had the case for three days before they called us in."

"They found a Navy suspect?"

"A dozen of them. Firsties were partying at the hotel the night of assault."

"Firsties?"

"Academy seniors. They'd just got their fleet assignments and… are you scanning?"

"Gibbs, I can multitask! I can listen to you. I can scan the video. I can rub my tummy and…"

"DNA testing vleared them, closed our investigation."

"But someone wants it reopened."

"McGee! Call Annapolis PD I want their file on this case."

"I spoke to Cassie. She remembers the case. She'll be here in fifteen minutes," Ducky reports to us while returning to the lab after leaving for a moment of privacy.

"From Norfolk?"

"No, Anacostia. She's working a drug sting."

"Boss. Boss, I can't call. They're not going to be able to hear me," McGee exclaims but I just glare at him making him finish, "I'm going to use the computer."

"Gibbs! Look who else doesn't have a life. Tony came back around midnight," Abby laughs while showing us the video.

"He does his best work at night," I state.

"She he tells us. Here's tony leaving. That's Ben the mail-boy. He didn't do it."

"Why not?"

"He's a Vegan."

"Hitler was a Vegan."

"Hitler was a vegetarian. Bug difference. Vegan are so against cruelty they won't even use cosmetics tested on animals."

"Abigail, could Y pestis be altered to withstand irradiation?" Ducky ask Abby while looking at the envelope.

"No way. Altered or not, it's still a living organism."

"Could the gilding in the envelope protect it?" I ask her.

"It would have to be at least ten mils thick. This is barely one. Uh-oh."

"Abby, I do not want to hear any more uh-ohs."

"Sorry. But this swak didn't bleed through. There's another one inside."

"Get that letter out here where you can examine it!"

"Gibbs, I've told you! I have to wait for Atlanta to…"

"Any doubt it's pneumonic plague?"

"No, but…"

"Then no 'buts!' okay? We're losing time. Kill those bugs! Now!"

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Alice pov

"Think they really zap bugs?" Tony ask while looking at the light hanging above our heads that night after waiting all day in the hospital.

"What?" Kate ask in confusion because she was laying away from him.

"These blue lights."

"Are you serious?"

"Ever heard of a placebo, Kate?"

"Tony, placebos are administered for a psychological effect."

"Precisely. How do you know these lamps aren't there to make us think they're helping? Hmm?"

"Maybe because they're there to kill whatever bugs we breathe into the air," I explain to him while laying further back into my bed and reading the book the nurse gave me to pass the time.

"You may have a point."

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Kate ask him because she knows I am terrified.

"Kate, come on. Me? Afraid? Have you ever seen me afraid?"

"Well, not when the danger is something that we can confront. But all we can do here is lie around and hope that we're not infected."

"Now who's afraid?" Tony mocks Kate while giving her a grin.

"Anyone with half a brain," I state.

"I take that back. You're not afraid," Kate comments to Tony.

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Gibbs pov

"Damn it, Abby! How much longer?" I exclaims in anger, it is taking too long and Tony, Kate and Alice might be dying.

"Gibbs! Patience is not your virtue, is it? Look at the plasma," Abby orders me.

"Mouldy bread."

"It's a Y pestis microbe from the powder in the letter. This is the Y pestis as the human race had known it for a half a millennium. The strain of plague we fight with antibiotics."

"The one in the letter has blue tips."

"It's been genetically altered to resist antibiotics. You catch that, you're stuck in the Dark Age, which personally I wouldn't mind until it killed me."

"This wasn't whipped up in your local meth house."

"No, this took a hot molecular biologist and a big-buck lab to make this bio-weapon. Oh, my baby's calling. I ran a mass spec on the swak."

"You're analysing lipstick instead of the letter?"

"Well, I figured anyone who's into calligraphy has got to wear esoteric lipstick. And since all lipsticks are tested by the FDA…"

"You'll identify the brand."

"Yeah. If it's as rare as I think it is, I can find out who sold it."

"Yeah, that's good thinking, Abs."

"What?"

"Good thinking, Bas," I yell so she can hear from me.

"I don't know, Gibbs! I can't hear you! It must be the helmet head!" Abby exclaims making me insult her in sign language making exclaim, "Not nice, Gibbs. Not nice. This is weird. All the basics are there – wax, oil, eosin dye, titanium dioxide, but they're in such low levels," Abby shouts at me as her computer beeps making her exclaim, "Whoa!"

"What is that?!" I ask while looking at the huge spike on the graph of chemicals.

"The reason the Y pestis survived postal irradiation. Seventy two percent of the lipstick is pure lead. A lead swak on the outside of the envelope. Lead swak in the inside. In between Y pestis on a moisture pad. This is one smart bitch."

"Wash your mouth out with purple soap," Cassie says while walking into the lab still in her undercover clothing.

"Cassie! Wow, are you suppressing drugs or selling them?"

"I'm working undercover. Everything I'm wearing is confiscated even the La Perla underwear."

"Nice."

"Gibbs! Is that you playing Tella Tubby? Is this the anthrax letter?" Cassie ask when she sees the big blue thing I am wearing.

"No, it's not anthrax. It's plague."

"Thank god. Anthrax scares the hell out of me. May I?"

"Yeah."

I know this return address."

"Back-tracked it to the admiral's boy hotel, Annapolis, where the girl was raped."

"Gibbs! Gibbs, all the blood tests came back negative except," Ducky exclaims while running into the lab.

"Tony and Alice," I state sadly, my girl is sick and scared and haven't found who did this yet. I continue while pulling out the suit, "Get it off." Once the suit is off my top half, hanging around my waste I ask him, "Are they sick yet?"

"Well, not outwardly. But the doctor says their temperature is elevating. The Y pestis is attacking their pulmonary system. Hi Cassie."

"Hey Ducky. How far are we into this thirty-two hour window?" Cassie asked the good ME.

"Too far. Tony and Alice while begin coughing soon. When their sputum becomes bloody, they'll only have a few hours to live."

"Abby, get that damn letter out of there!" I order her angry because this bitch is killing my girl and I never told her I liked her.

"I'm getting it," Abby promises while finally getting the letter out.

"This is too easy, Gibbs. Custom paper and calligraphy that's traceable. A gene-altering bio-attach," Cassie says while saying what we are all thinking.

"Do you know who sent it?" I asked her without commenting.

"No, but I know who they want us to think sent it."

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Alice pov

"Bedtime snack, Brad?" Tony ask the doctor while they put a drip into each of our arms.

"Oh, IV drip increases the efficacy of streptomycin," Pitt informs him while putting the IV in his arm.

"They teach you efficacy at Harvard Medical?"

"Michigan."

"Can't be. It's woo weird."

"What, are you a Wolverine, too?"

"Buckeye!"

"Wait, you're that DiNozzo?"

"Yeah."

"Ninety-two. Columbus!"

"We kissed our sisters."

"Thirteen-thirteen tie. You broke your leg in the fourth quarter."

"You broke my leg in the fourth quarter," Tony corrects him while Kate and I roll our eyes.

"Oh, god. They're going to start bonging beers next," Kate complains to Emma.

"I don't think so," Emma attempts to say so.

"Oh, you don't know Tony. He epitomizes sophomoric," I explain to the nurse while jumping over to the bed next to Kate to talk to them while pulling my shirt up over my face so we don't cross contaminate each other.

"His blood came back positive."

"Positive?" Kate ask in confusion.

"You're okay," Emma informs Kate before turning to me and saying, "I'm sorry. But you're infected too."

"I'm positive?" I ask her in surprise, I was hoping that it was not infected.

"Alice. Oh my god," Kate mumbles while looking at me as I become pale, I don't want to be sick.

"How long until I die?"

"It all depends on your body," Emma explain without giving me a time line.

"So I'm going to die," I mumble while thinking about all the things I while never get to do, like tell Gibbs I like him, have a family, kill Ari, or see Gibbs again. Does Gibbs even know that I'm sick yet or is he still waiting for the results?

"So you didn't feel like an old man on spring break?" Pitt ask Tony making me look at him.

"Are you kidding? Co-ed love a mature man who can bong a beer in under six seconds," Tony exclaims.

"Well that leaves me out."

"So tell me, doc. What have I got?"

"Pneumonic plague."

"Plague?" Tony ask but when no one laughs or say it is a joke he says, "Plague."

"Yeah, Tony. Plague! Because only you would go off and get a disease from the dark ages!" Kate hisses at Tony while walking over to him.

"I didn't put the plague in the letter."

"You opened it!" I remind him in fear.

"Yeah, so I opened it. What are you so upset about? It's not like you're lying…"

"Yeah, that's right, Travolta. We're infected, too," Kate informs him while lying about being infected herself but not about me.

"Oh, Kate, Alice. I'm sorry."

"Well, you going to be sorrier."

"No, don't tell me Gibbs got it."

"Oh, no, no. just us. But I am going to make your life hell."

"And then you die, painfully," I inform him.

"How, it can't be worse than the plague," Tony attempts to say but Kate glares at him making him add, "Maybe it can. He then turns to Pitt and says, "Maybe she can."

"I'm warning you, DiNozzo," Kate informs him.

"You know, I recall a couple of plague flicks."

"I'm going to tell Emma all of your dating tricks."

"Mmm, Flash and Blood comes to mind. Paul Verhoeven directed. Rutger Hauer starred."

"Tony thinks that speaking Italian turns women on."

"Obviously you never saw Jamie Lee Kurtis in a Fish Called Wanda."

"Kate," Pitt begins.

"I know. You want to start my IV," Kate cuts him off before sneezing, while we all return to our bed and get our IV's in finally.

"If I catch your cold I'm going to be very pissed," Tony calls after Kate before turning to Pitt, "they'll be okay, right?"

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Gibbs pov

"Hey McGee," I say while walking into the inner lab where McGee is working on the computer.

"Yeah," McGee ask without looking up from the computer.

"Special Agent Yates needs your computer."

"Cassie!" McGee exclaims while turning to his 'friend.'

"Hey, McGee. Can I sit in?" Cassie ask him while pointing to the computer.

"Yeah, sure. Boss, Cassie and I had parking spaces next to each other at Norfolk."

"Why are you yelling at me, McGee?" I demand of him in annoyance.

"So you can hear me through your hel," McGee begins before turning to me and see I'm not wearing the suit anymore, making him finish, "Helmet."

"The blood tests were negative," I explain making McGee take his suit off.

"Ah, sweet."

"Not for DiNozzo. Or Alice."

"Positive? Are they going to be okay?"

"If they're not, they'll be answering to me," I explain while Cassie works on the computer making it beep rapidly.

"Almost there," Cassie exclaims without looking at us.

"Ah, no. Cassie, I already downloaded the NCIS report from the rape investigation," McGee explains to the other agent.

"My notes are in my training file. I was only a probie, but Pacci had me interview Sarah."

"Oh, yeah. You're a female, about the same age. Easier to talk to you than it is to a male agent," I explain to her.

"It didn't help. She didn't remember a thing. Traumatic amnesia. Not unusual for rape case."

"She had amnesia, who accused the Midshipman?"

"Her mother. Recognize her?" Cassie ask while pulling the photo of the mother up on the plasma in the outer lab after we walked out there.

"Vaguely familiar," Ducky answers her.

"How about in this photo?" Cassie ask while pulling up another photo.

"Good god yes. That photo was on every front page in the world. She was more famous than Hanoi Jane."

"Blow that up. Get closer on the headband," I order them.

"My god, that's a swak!" Cassie exclaims while looking at the swak on the head band after zooming in.

"She a microbiologist?"

"No, but the best in the world work for her. Hanna's CEO of Lowell Pharmaceuticals."

"McGee, I want a search warrant!"

"On it, boss."

"I'll grab a change of clothes and will meet you downstairs in five. Go to Bethesda and keep me updated on Tony and Alice's condition."

"Of course," Ducky promises.

"Find out why Kate hasn't checked in!"

"You got it," Ducky exclaims while leaving to find out what happened to Kate and check on my sick team members.

"I go the phones, but they wouldn't trust me with the weapon," Jimmy exclaims while walking in with our phones.

"I wouldn't either, Jimmy," I state while taking a random phone to use.

"Un, that's agent DiNozzo's cell phone, sir. Gibbs?" Jimmy calls after me while I get into the elevator, worrying about Alice, is she showing symptoms yet. Is she okay, while we cure her because it's too late?"

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Alice pov

"Kate, I'm scared," I almost cry to my sister while trying to stop myself from climbing into her bed like a sick child.

"You've got nothing to be afraid of, you'll be fine," Kate promises me while walking over to my bed with her IV and climbed into my bed to hold me tightly.

"What if I die here? I never got to do somethings," I ask her while I bury my head in-between her Kate shoulder and neck in fear.

"You'll bet this, and live your life. I promise," Kate promise me something she can never keep as Pitt walks over to us.

"Why are you doing this, Kate?" Pitt ask her while trying to ignore me for the moment.

"Because my sister is sick and I never leave her when she is hospitalized. So I'm doing it. You're not going to tell Tony."

"Well, I've already informed Doctor Mallard you're not infected."

"Ducky will understand. Gibbs will be the problem."

"No. the problem is that Alice or Tony can infect you," Pitt explains while I begin coughing into a tissue off the table next to me bed that Emma has given to all of us earlier.

"What with all the UV lights and air scrubbers, or are they just here for patient morale?"

"I cannot permit you to stay. This strain has been genetically altered to resist antibiotics. Do you realize what that means?"

"That the IV in our arm is useless. Just giving us hope that we're not going to die," I state making Pitt give me a sad look.

"So why do it?" Kate ask the doctor.

"Well, it can't hurt. And it gives them," Pitt begins.

"Hope," Kate cuts him off.

"Kate, tell Doctor Brad about that wet t-shirt contest you won," Tony calls over to us while I cough again.

"Tell Emma about the transsexual you tongue."

"That never happened," Tony denies quickly while flicking his head to look at Emma so she understands him making Emma laugh making tony say, "That never happen." But that just sent him into a coughing fit, "Thanks for passing along the cold, Kate."

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Gibbs pov

"How do you want to handle this?" Cassie ask me while we walk into the building lobby for the bitch who poisoned my girl.

"Subtle approach. You serve the warrant. I'll shove my sig in her face," I inform her.

"Gibbs, Hanna Lowell has been arrested at more protests than Jesse Jackson. She won't be intimidated."

"Okay, then I'll shoot her and I'll go after whoever made the damn bug for her."

"You're not going to kill her."

"I said shoot, not kill."

"There are dozens of microbiologists here. It would take days to interrogate them. Tony and Alice doesn't have days."

"Do you know where her office is or should I ask the receptionist?"

"Boss always has the top floor office."

"Excuse me. Excuse me. You have to check-in with the receptionist. Do you have an appointment?" a Guard calls to us.

"No. we have a federal warrant," I informs him.

"Security alert."

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"I left enough cookie crumbs," Hannah exclaims while we walk into her office.

"You left more than cookie crumbs, lady," I state angry.

"I regret I resorted to such a dramatic act, but you people at NCIS left me no choice when you lied to protect the Academy. Now, you admit that a Midshipman raped my daughter and this will all be over."

"The DNA cleared," Cassie explains to the mother but Hannah cuts her off.

"Oh, stop it. I know how easy it is to dope a DNA test."

"You love dramatic acts," I state.

"They can be very effective."

"The effect of this one is going to imprison you for life."

"That long, hmm?"

"You're dying."

"Rather rapidly. Which makes incarceration highly unlikely."

"From the looks of it you want to protect just about every living thing on the planet except for Federal agent."

"My daughter never recovered from the horror of that weekend. The truth will help her heal. Please! Please, give it to her. you won't get that antidote until that midshipman comes..."

"We don't need it. The post office went postal on your plaque. Capped it right through the lead swak. No one was infected," I lie throw my teeth while trying not to think of who is really dying in the hospital.

Oh, I don't believe you."

"I don't give a damn whether you believe me or not. You are under arrest for a biological attack on a Federal agency. Take her to interrogation. I'll wait here for the task force to arrest the others.

"You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right," Cassie begins reading her, her rights while cuffing her and leading her away.

"There are no others. I acted alone," Hannah yells out me.

"You are not a microbiologist," I reminds her.

"I stole the U pestis! Doctor Pandy doesn't even know it's missing," Hannah shouts at me making me run into the outer off and calling to her receptionist.

"Doctor Pandy!" I demand of her.

What?" The receptionist ask in confusion.

"Where's Doctor Pandy's lab."

"North wing, ground floor, B-L-Alpha. But you need authorization to enter the North wing!"

"Someone was infected. I hope it was Westmoreland," Hannah exclaims as I take off to the north wing.

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Alice pov

"Lay back, Tony. All right everybody behind the shield. Tony, I'm going to need you to take a deep breath and hold it," Doctor Pitt says to Tony while Tony and I can barely stop coughing.

"I don't think I can, Brad. Maybe Emma can do it for me. You have very healthy lungs, Emma," Tony ask while trying to breathe in.

"Is he always like this?" Emma ask Kate.

"Unfortunately. Tony's humour has always been sexist, juvenile, raunchy," Kate answers her while I cough up some blood.

"Funny?"

"Oh, sometimes he can be funny."

"Guys," I call to them making everyone look over at me to see the tissue I hold up with blood on it before falling into another coughing fit, as Tony does the same thing across the room.

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Gibbs pov

"There is no antidote. I developed a vaccine, not an antidote. It's of no use once the victim is infected. Hannah misunderstood," Pandy explains while I have my gun to the glass while holding the security guard as hostage.

"She understood," I exclaim angry.

"No, it's the brain tumour."

"That's what's killing her?"

"It inoperable, obviously affecting her mind. Why else would a women who fought to ban biological weapon use them?"

"I don't know. Why is Lowell Pharmaceutical making them?"

"We're not."

"You didn't create this beast?"

"Yes! But only to develop a defence against it. Antibiotic resistant diseases are potential terrorist weapon."

"A terrorist isn't killing my agents, you are!"

"I understand your anger."

"No, you font! But if you don't save them, you will."

"It has a suicide gene that stops it from replicating after thirty two hours… as a security precaution."

"It dies?" I ask while lowing the gun and releasing the guard finally.

"Yes."

"It's dead now?"

"If it's over thirty two hours since the specimen has been infected, all of the Y pestis is dead. However, the damage will have been done."

"The specimen is going to die?" I demand of him while raising the gun again.

"No. no, not necessarily. They has the same chance of survival as those infected in plagues in the past, probably better since they will be healthy and young."

"What was the survival rate of the past?"

"People were weakened by depleted crops, bad nutrition…"

"Damn it! What was the survival rate?!"

"Fifteen percent."

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Alice pov

"I'm sorry I teased you with all those movies, Kate," Tony apologies to Kate breathlessly between coughing fits where we are coughing up blood that needs wiping from our blue lips.

"Teased? You've tortured me. For two years all I've heard is John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, James Bond," Kate informs him from behind her surgical mask.

"James bod… is a character… played by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Piece Brosnan. Why are you wearing a mask?" Tony ask before sending himself into a coughing fit.

"Because I have a cold."

"Why aren't you sick?"

"Because I'm stronger than you two, Tony."

"Are not."

"Am too," Kate argues with Tony right before I begin chocking and gaging, unable to get air in. Making Tony and Kate look at me and Kate yell, "Alice! Alice! Sit up!" As she yells at me Tony begins chocking.

"Kate, you should leave. Now!" Pitt orders Kate while I panic, I can't breath and now my sister is leaving me. Why can't she stay?

Kate pov

"You were brave to stay with them, Kate," Ducky say to me as I remove my mask while I begin crying.

"Their dying, Ducky," I cry while Ducky pulls me into a hug while looking at his daughter who is dying and he doesn't even know her very well.

"Ah, the hell they are!" Gibbs exclaim while walking into the room behind us.

Gibbs pov

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who the hell are you?" Pitt demands of me while I walk throw the decontamination without turning it on or grabbing a mask to keep me safe.

"Their boss. The bug has a suicide gene. It's dead. It's been dead for over an hour. He's no longer infectious," I explain while walking over to Tony first and lean over his sleeping body. He is pale with blue lips and nails, basically he looks like death warmed over. I whisper to him, "Tony, listen to me. Are you listening?"

"I'm listening. I'm listening, boss," Tony gasps weakly to me.

"You will not die, you got that?" I ask him but when he falls to answer I ask again, "I said, you will not die." But when he falls asleep I gently hit the back of his head.

"Okay, I got you, boss."

"Good. It's your new cell. I'd get the number changed. Women keep calling for spankie."

"Spankie," Tony mumbles as I get up from my spot and move over to Alice who looks just as sickly as Tony.

"Alice, baby," I whisper to her before taping her face until she wakes up.

"Gibbs," Alice gasp out before coughing a bit.

"You'll be fine. It had a suicide gene."

"I'm scared."

"I know, I know. We got her," I inform her in a whisper before taking her sickly hand.

"I'm not dead?"

"No, you're not dead. And you won't die."

"My chest hurts."

"It's okay, it'll get better. Sleep."

"I don't want to be alone."

"Kate and Ducky's just outside. I'll be back," I promise her before giving her a gentle kiss on her forehead. I leave the room and walk to the waiting room to go back to the squad room but find Cassie here.

"How's Tony? Alice?" Cassie ask me while walking up to me.

"Ah, they'll make it. What happened?" I demand.

"Oh, Hanna lost it in the car. Started rambling, flashing peace signs. When she bared her breasts and shouted 'make love not war!' I drove straight here."

"Sure it wasn't an act?"

"Her neurologist says it's the tumour. He just left. He wants her released into his care."

"Not likely. He can see her here as much as he wants. Is that Sarah?"

"Just as blank as four years ago," Cassie informs me before leading me to the young lady and sitting across from her, "Sarah, this is Special agent Gibbs."

"I am so sorry. I can't believe this. I knew someday Mother would do something terrible. I told her, but she wouldn't believe me," Sarah informs us but that just confuses me.

"Told her?" I ask her softly, but I wish Alice was here she would be able to get her to talk and feel safe about it.

"That it wasn't a midshipman."

"So you remember who assaulted you?"

"No!"

"How do you know it wasn't a midshipman?"

"I… heard they were cleared."

"Are you sure you don't remember?"

"Yes," Sarah says after a long moment of silence.

"You know who raped up, don't you, Sarah? Cassie asks her softly but when she doesn't say anything, "Sarah?"

"I wasn't raped. Will thought it was funny… tying me to the bed. I'd said that the midshipman looked cute in their uniform. And so when he went out to get us some burgers and shakes, he tied me up so that why I wouldn't run off with one of them. It was a joke! And then when he didn't come back… I started going crazy – first worrying about why and then… and then being found," Sarah cries.

"What happened to him?"

"He was killed by a hit-and-run driver crossing the road."

"Why did you say you were raped?"

"I was tied named to a bed. What else could I tell my mother?"

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Kate pov

"Can I sleep here?" I ask the doctor while looking into the room where Alice and Tony is.

"As long as you don't give Tony that cold," Pitt informs me making me grin before walking into the glass room where I almost watched my sister and co-worker die moments earlier.

"He's asleep," Emma informs me while I walk over to my sister to see she is asleep too.

"Thank you," I say to her.

"This reminds me of the end of alien," Tony comments after Emma turns the lights off making me laugh.

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Alice pov

"Kate," I whisper breathlessly when I feel someone moving some of my hair out of my face.

"Guess again," Gibbs whispers to me making my eyes snap open to see him sitting next to my bed.

"Gibbs."

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired…. Sore… Breathless. Like death… warmed over. Where's… Kate?"

"I sent her home for a shower. She'll be back."

"Promise?" I ask while weakly holding my pinkie out for him to pinkie promise.

"Promise," Gibbs says while wrapping his finger around mine.

"And then I can go home?"

"Not yet. You have to get better first."

"I don't like hospitals."

"Me neither."

"My chest really hurts," I mumble while rubbing it in the hopes of relieving the pain.

"That's 'cause your lungs are very damaged. It'll get better in time."

"Oh."

"Go back to sleep. It's help."

"I'm thirsty," I whine making Gibbs give me a small smile before grabbing the cup from beside my tissues and holding the straw to my mouth so I can drink it.

"There you go."

"Thank you. When while I go to a normal room?"

"Later today. No sleep," Gibbs softly orders me while rubbing my hair which puts me straight to sleep even knowing I want to continue talking to him.

The next time I wake up, it was dark outside the window in the room I am in, a normal hospital room.

"I never," Ducky rambles about a story but I never heard the beginning of.

"Ducky?" I cut him off softly but he heard none the less.

"Alice, you're awake. How are you?"

"Death warmed over. Where is Kate?"

"She went to check on Tony."

"How is he?"

"Same as you. I just came from him."

"I'm scared. While we get better?"

"It'll take time, but yeah, your lungs with recover eventually."

"I hope so. I'm too young to sound like an old person," I joke breathlessly. Before asking him, "Can we talk about something else? Pretend I didn't just almost die."

"I told mother that I have a grown up daughter."

"How did… she take… that?"

"Better than I thought she would. We should set up a meet, but remember she has Alzheimer so she forgets things."

"That's alright," I mumble while falling back to sleep again.

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The next time I wake up again it is daylight outside, and Kate is finally back at my bedside.

"Kate," I gasp throw the breathing mask I am wearing.

"Alice, how are you feel?" Kate ask me while standing up out of her chair to stand over me.

"If one more… person asked me that… I'll bite them."

"I'll make sure Gibbs the next person," Kate jokes while sitting next to me on the bed.

"Kate... I'm sick, you have to be nice to me."

"That's why I'm giving you a way to bite Gibbs."

"Kate," I whine at her softly making her laugh. I continue, "I'm hungry, and my chest hurts."

"I'll see if you're allowed to eat," Kate whispers to me while leaving the room to find me food.

After getting me food, Kate has to return to the office for work today.

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"Hey," Gibbs whispers to me while walking into the hospital room where I am staying, it is mid-afternoon.

"Hey," I mumble tiredly.

"Hungry?" Gibbs ask while holding up a takeaway bag of food.

"Yes, hospital food is designed to kill the patient," I explain to Gibbs while he hands me a bag of hot chips.

"I'd believe that," Gibbs laughs while grabbing out his burger to eat himself. We eat in silence while he sits down on the edge of my bed.

"Gibbs, can I tell you a secret, but you have to promise not to hate me or not being my friend anymore."

"I promise," Gibbs promises while giving me, his full attention.

"I like someone but he doesn't now and I don't think he likes me back," I mumble but he heard me.

"Well, just tell him."

"How do you word a bomb shell like that?"