Note: I had a horrible day yesterday (my quarantine got extended with a month(until May 10th), and other bad stuff happened too, but when my "real world" are messy my head focuses on fanfiction – so today I needed to take my mind off the bad stuff, so I came up with a fluffy idea about a getaway in Gibbs cabin – by the end of the day I had 2 full pages of ideas for a full crime plot/fluff story. This story is going to my quarantine-project to keep my mind sane. I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think of this story ?. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the requests for stories I have received – my muse just needs some inspiration for those; otherwise, they won't be perfect.
Bullpen
McGee, Bishop, Torres, Kasie, and Jimmy are gathered in the bullpen when Jack comes walking towards the stairs from the elevator.
"morning Jack." Ellie greets.
"Morning, Guys." Jack greets and walks into the bullpen.
"excited for your extended weekend off?" Ellie asks with a knowing smile.
"I sure am."
"Heard you gut a friend coming to visit," McGee says.
"uuhhh, a friend?" Ellie says clearly fishing for some gossip on Jack's visitor.
"It is an old army body of mine. Not much to tell."
"come on, Jack. You got to have some juice details." Kasie says.
"is he cute?" Ellie asks.
"yes, he is cute. We have known each other since I joined the army. He is a captain. We joined the army at the same time. he just made captain, so he is coming into DC for the weekend so we can celebrate." Jack explains, but she can't hide the smile o excitement.
"celebrate, ha? What does Gibbs say about that?" Nick asks with a knowing look, and Jack's facial expression suddenly changes from girl excitement to annoyance towards Nick.
"why would Gibbs care about that?" Jimmy asks, completely confused. Torres shoots Jimmy a knowing smile, but that just results in an even more confused expression on Jimmy's face.
"so when is this captain arriving?" McGee asks, trying to avoid a confrontation between Sloane and Torres since it seems like Jack is about to kill Torres any second. Jack's facial expressions change back to friendly towards McGee.
"he is landing in 4 hours. He is currently stationed in Colorado, but he has 5 days off before he is going to deploy. Just time for he and I to catch up. We haven't seen each other since I moved to DC."
he lived in San Diego too back when you lived there?" Ellie asks.
"Yeah. We used to surf together. We had a competition going for a long time."
"who won?" Jimmy says, interested.
"you surf, Jack?" Kasie asks, surprised.
"she is from San Diego, what do you expect?" Torres asks a bit arrogantly.
"I didn't know she surfed," Kasie says back to Nick.
"I did surf. I learned to surf when I was a kid."
"cool."
"so, are you and your friend going surfing for the weekend?" Ellie asks with a knowing smile.
"no. Maybe. We talked about it, but… we haven't really decided yet. The beaches over here aren't as good as in California for surfing."
"no, but apparently they are for dead petty officers." That is Gibbs, who has just entered the bullpen and is grabbing his gear from his desk.
"Grab your gear." He orders when no one moves, and immediately his three field agents get up and grab their field bags and heads towards the elevator after Gibbs. As soon as the four field agents have left, Kasie heads down to her lab. While Jimmy heads down to get the ME-van to go to the crime scene to meet the agents. Jack is left in the bullpens, so heads up to her office. She has a few rapports she needs to finish before she officially can call it an extended weekend.
The four agents arrived at the crime scene where a young female petty officer first class Samantha Higgins was found dead behind a dumpster behind a seafood restaurant right across the street from the beach. It was a waiter that found her when the restaurant was about to open. There wasn't much evidence on the crime scene since it had rained a lot the night before. Jimmy determined the time of death to be about 9 hours ago, which would be around midnight. The preliminary cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the chest but other than that. There wasn't much to be done. So, the agents headed back pretty quickly from the scene while Jimmy transported the body back to autopsy for a closer examination.
Autopsy
Gibbs comes walking into autopsy with his usual fast speed and his usual greeting, "what do ya got Palmer?". Then he notices Jack is standing across from Jimmy next to the autopsy table where the dead young petty officer is lying with the white sheet covering her body.
"Jack, what are you doing here?" Gibbs asks and walks over next to her.
"do you recognize her?" Jack asks, and Gibbs nods. He can see the emotions in Jack's eyes.
"yeah, her father was killed 2 years ago. She testified against her father's murder."
"her father's murderer was her boyfriend." Jack clarifies.
"Could it be her boyfriend, taken revenge?" Jimmy speculates.
"no, I should still be in prison," Jack says, but she sounds uncertain.
"I'll check up on him," Jack says and walks towards the door.
"Jack," Gibbs calls out, and she stops and turns around before she reaches the automatic doors leading out of autopsy.
"go home. Enjoy your weekend."
"Gibbs, I spoke with this girl for nearly 2 months. I was with here every day making the trial."
"This is exactly why you shouldn't be involved in this case. Go home, Jack. Enjoy your weekend." Jack is just looking at Gibbs with n intense stare. She is not going to give up the fight that easy. Jimmy is starting to feel uncomfortable with the two agents starring contest.
"Agent Gibs, I heard you were taking an extended weekend off too," Jimmy says awkwardly, trying to stop the starring contest. Gibbs turns to Jimmy, and Jimmy is now the target of Gibbs stare while Jack sneaks out of autopsy.
"what do you got?" Gibbs repeats when he thinks Jimmy has squirmed uncomfortably long enough.
"right," Jimmy says and turns to his field of expertise that always makes him feel comfortable around Gibbs. "The preliminary cause of death was current. Gunshot wound to the chest. She bled out within minutes. She had some bruises on her wrist. She might have been in a struggle with her attacker."
"okay. Get the rapport up to McGee." Gibbs says and is about to walk towards the door when Jimmy stops him.
"I got one more thing. I'm not sure what it is or what it means." Jimmy says and takes the victims out from under the white sheet.
"There is some sort of ink on her arm. It was protected by her uniform, which might explain why it wasn't completely washed away. It looks like numbers. It is 7 digits."
Gibbs takes the magnifier glass from the tool table next to the autopsy table and takes a closer look at the numbers. "did you show this to Jack?" he asks, looking up at Jimmy over the magnifier glass with a sharp look that almost terrifies Jimmy.
"no, I didn't. Agent Sloane just came down to see the victim and checked the victim's Id. Nothing about my findings."
Then without a word, he places the magnifier glass on the table and heads towards the door at high speed.
"get the rapport to McGee…" Gibbs calls out before the doors to autopsy closes behind him. Jimmy is just looking confused after Gibbs.
Gibbs house
Gibbs is packing up his truck with stuff when Jack's little blue car pulls in behind his truck. He drops the rope he was carrying out in the back of the truck. Jack steps out of her car and walks over to him.
"Jack, what are you doing here? Should you pick up your friend from the airport?" Gibbs asks as he walks back into the garage and gets some things that he drops in the back of his truck.
"he canceled," Jack says disappointed and takes off her sunglasses.
"Sorry to hear that." Gibbs says and stops packing for a moment. "why?"
"I don't know. He didn't say." Jack sounds disappointed. She looks over at the back of Gibbs's truck and smiles.
"Are you moving out or something?" she jokes, trying to change the subject from her canceled weekend plans.
"no, I'm going to my cabin for the weekend." He explains and drops an ax in the back of the truck. "you want to come?" he asks when she doesn't say or do anything. The moment he has asked, her eyes shoot up to meet his.
"Really?" she asks.
"yeah." He says casually and continues packing his stuff.
"Gibbs, you don't have to invite me to join your plans just because mine screwed up."
"I'm not petting you, Jack. I wouldn't invite me if I didn't want you to come."
"wow, Gibbs… I always appreciate your honesty." She jokes, and it makes him smile too.
"you got you go-bag in your car?" he asks. She looks confused at him for a moment before she answers.
"yes."
"Grab your gear. Park your car in the garage and jump in." He orders, and then he jumps into his truck.
Jack gets into her own car and backs down the driveway so Gibbs can get his truck out. Then she parks her car in his garage. She grabs her go-bag and jumps into the passenger seat of his truck. He closes the garage, and they leave for the weekend.
Bullpen
Jimmy comes into the bullpen where McGee, Torres, and Bishop are sitting at their separate desk and works.
"Have any of you spoken with agent Gibbs?" Jimmy asks.
"no, he left about an hour ago. He has the weekend off. He is going to his cabin." McGee explains.
"did he tell you about the numbers on the victim's arm?"
McGee looks utterly confused at Jimmy. Jimmy hands him an enhanced photo of the 7-digit number on the victim's forearm.
"what does it mean?" Ellie and Torres have now gathered around McGee's desk.
"I don't know. I think Gibbs might because when he saw it, he practically ran out of autopsy."
"he ran out?" Torres asks in disbelieve.
"yes, you know, like he did when he got a really important lead that can take down the suspect," Jimmy explains.
"7 digits? It could be anything." Torres says. "a code, part of a phone number, an ID-number or part of it. because of the rain, we don't know if any of it is missing." Torres guess.
"yes, but Jimmy, are you sure Gibbs knew what these meant?" McGee asks. Jimmy suddenly seems uncertain about his previous statement.
"well, it is Gibbs. I am never sure of anything when it comes to Gibbs, but… I have seen that concerned look on his face before. You know the one he gets when there is like a personal threat to someone."
"Yeah. The rules in the 40's never good." McGee says, concerned.
"why wouldn't Gibbs tell us if there was a threat to someone at NCIS?" Torres asks, confused. He hates being sidelined by Gibbs.
"I saw him run up the stairs earlier. I think he was heading towards the director's office." Ellie explains.
All four of them look up towards the top of the stairs where they see director Vance is standing.
"not good," Jimmy says worriedly.
They all see Vance walk back through the door towards his office.
"Okay, let's not panic." McGee rationalizes. "Gibbs wouldn't take time off if there was a threat."
"Unless he goes all Rambo again as he and Ziva did," Torres argues.
"you got to admit McGee… he has gone out on his own to neutralize a threat to the team before." Ellie states.
"yes, I know that." McGee says. "the best thing we can do is to work this case and then let Gibbs do whatever Gibbs is doing. We got to trust Gibbs.
Note: I hope it isn't too confusing, but this story is basically going to have 2 separate storylines (They will connect, hopefully, like in perfect NCIS-way). I hope you enjoy it. Stay tuned, and please leave a comment on your thoughts.