AN: Soooo... MKH bought me a new sewing machine for Christmas because I had been unable to find the model I had that broke irreparably for a reasonable price. The day my machine is due to be delivered because we got the Brother Star Wars edition... Estatesales dot net posts a local sale... I go looking through photos... there sits my machine in all it's glory so I call the woman about losing my mind about the thing and she says they want $200 for it which is $300 less than everyone else, what it's actually worth AND it's literally... get this... on my block. The machine I have been trying to replace... is on my street. And I found it the day it's replacement was being delivered...

So I can give my son back his starter machine which he now has 100 bobbins for and dance into the night with my workhorse, a light embroidery machine and ENJOY sewing again like I used to. Nothing against the starter machines but they weigh nothing and aren't very sturdy.

Then my kids woke me up at 5am and I have to close so I'm going to go camp out at the sale this morning, be the first one in THEN go take a really long nap before I have to work all afternoon.

Chapter 11

"The cleaning crew works out of a storefront in North Bethesda. It's a place called Gaithersburg on Washingtonian." Sam was telling her team. "They send their uniforms to a laundry service. We'll hit there and swipe three of them then break into the cleaning service and take out the crew that's supposed to clean Kinsey's office."

Sam looked around the table to make sure everyone was with her so far.

"What are we going to do with the regular crew?"

"Zat 'em and have Daniel babysit them while we toss his office."

Gibbs nodded thoughtfully. It was a fairly solid plan so far.

"Why am I always the babysitter?" Daniel whined.

"Because you don't have the first clue how to find buried military data that never saw microfiche and Gibbs does."

Gibbs gave Daniel a smug smile.

"Sam… I'm an archaeologist…"

Sam nodded. "Daniel, you get nervous undercover." She finally admitted her reason to him.

"I don't."

"You do."

"Don't."

"Do." Sam said firmly.

Gibbs coughed. "Uh…. can we move on from this?" They didn't have time for childish team dynamics right now.

Sam blew her bangs out of her eyes while Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged.

"Good. Now then, do we need key cards?" Gibbs asked, knowing his people could get them some pretty quickly.

Sam shook her head. "Just employee IDs."

"I'm on it." He told her and started dialing his phone.

It took Jethro's team twelve hours to dummy the three of them company IDs from their targeted company. Sam hacked into their computer system and tried to just get them scheduled but it was too small of a company for three new people to not be noticed nor take on a high security job like that so Sam fell back on her original plan and checked what time the cleaning crew for Kinsey's main offices left the building. They would have to get into the service dock and hide in the van or run them off the road and bag the team then. Sam was still trying to figure out which way would work. "Gibbs?" she finally asked him.

"Carter," He responded in kind which made her smile in amusement.

"How are we going to get control of the cleaning van?"

Gibbs thought for a bit. She had a point. If the place would notice an extraneous team, it was going to notice a team getting a beat down or hijacked at the Gate. He pulled on his lip a bit. "Do you know any cops?"

Sam shook her head. That was Jack's purview. She currently avoided cops of any kind. Cowardly but necessary.

"Huh. Well, let me see if I have any contacts around here I can lean on." He said to her and started dialing his office who had just dropped off their IDs.

DiNozzo sat at Gibbs' desk and surveyed his domain. His currently devoid of people domain, since the rest of the team hadn't returned yet from dropping off the ID's Gibbs had requested earlier. He sat back in the chair, placed his hands on the desk, and wiggled his butt a little to be sure the seat fit him just perfect. He took a sip of coffee before placing it carefully on one side of the desk. He looked around one more time, nodded his head in satisfaction. He leaned back in the chair and plopped his feet on Gibbs' desk, stretching his arms before linking his fingers and placing them behind his head. Yep, he had it made in the shade alright. When the phone rang a few seconds later he punched a button then answered, "NCIS, Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. How may I help you?"

"Get your feet off my desk," Gibbs said.

"Uh, Gibbs," Tony spluttered as he jumped out of the chair and looked frantically around, then scrambled as he knocked his coffee on the floor. "Boss, I was just, uh… you know..,.., and…" He winced and rubbed the back of his head where he could feel the imaginary Gibbs' slap.

"DiNozzo, clean up the coffee later. Right now I need you to …." Tony grabbed a pen and piece of paper and started writing. "Okay, Boss. I think I know just the man. Worked with him on a few cases before I left the Baltimore PD. I'll run it down and call you with the name and contact. Thirty minutes tops." Tony let out a breath when the line went dead.

Walking back to his own desk, he flipped through his contacts before picking up the phone and making a call. He spared a minute to look over at the coffee puddle by Gibbs' desk. He hoped he had time to clean it up before anyone else came in.

Gibbs flipped his cell shut. "Thirty minutes," He said to the room. He stretched out on his back on one of the lumpy beds and closed his eyes, his hands resting on his chest. Daniel shook his head and looked at Sam, who shrugged. It was such a Jack thing to do. Sam turned her attention back to her laptop and Daniel buried his head in one of the few books he'd been able to stick in his carryon.

Exactly thirty minutes later, Gibbs sat up. He looked at his watch as he swung his legs to the floor. One minute later his cell rang. He flipped it open and held it to his ear without checking the number.

"You're late," he complained. Standing, he walked to the table and motioned Sam to pass him a pen and paper.

"Got it," he said, scribbling on the paper. "Don't throw your wet paper towels in my trash." He listened for a second to the flustered man on the other end of the line, then closed the cell with a snap. The lopsided grin only lasted a second. DiNozzo was just too easy.

He forced himself not to laugh as Sam craned her neck to try to decipher his scribbled note. She almost whimpered when he picked it up, tore it in pieces and threw the confetti in the trash. He told himself for the hundredth time he really shouldn't mess with Jack's team like that. It was more about the nanny though. She wasn't cleared technically on a lot of this and yet… he felt there was more to her than she was letting on. He knew Jack would have thoroughly vetted anyone watching his kid though so it wasn't a priority concern.

"We're in business," he said.

"Got a contact on the police force?" Sam inquired, kicking Daniel's ankle under the table to get his attention.

Gibbs nodded. "One with everything we need and willing to help." Gibbs didn't mention the last thing DiNozzo said. "Get the bad guy, Boss." His team might not be part of a project like the SGC, or save the world twice a week like SG-1, but they'd done their share of saving the country and putting more than a few murderers and a few international terrorists away for good. He trusted them, depended on them the same way Jack trusted depended on his team, and, though he didn't say the words, he was proud of the job they did.

An hour later, Gibbs' phone rang again. He'd called the guy but he'd been out on patrol apparently. "Gibbs." He listened for a moment. "Yah, uh huh. I'm going to hand you over to the lady in charge of this op." He told the man on the other end. He handed the phone to Sam who took it and cradled it on her shoulder.

"Carter." She said. The man on the other end of the line listened to her requirements and nodded as she listened. "Yah, it needs to look like a regular traffic stop." She agreed. "Thanks." Sam hung up. All right. We are go."

By a quarter to twenty one hundred hours, they were all dressed in their temporarily borrowed uniforms. Sam nursed Gracie and kissed her head then handed her back to Lonnie. They were going in weaponless which made Sam uncomfortable but they didn't have much choice. The uniforms had no place to hide a weapon effectively and the cleaning supplies other than the floor washer were kept on site so there was nothing but a rag bucket.

"We could try wrapping a zat in the rags." Daniel suggested.

"It's probably going to clunk around." Sam said with a frown.

"Rubber bands." Daniel said.

Sam grinned. They had taken a couple off their bags of fruit from earlier. She grabbed a couple rags and wrapped the Zat in them then slid a rubber band over each end to secure them in place, leaving a flap she could easily swipe aside if she needed it. She examined her work, made a couple adjustments, and checked that she could get the zat into firing position with the rag on it.

Gibs eyed her work. Not bad. "Is there going to be an issue with the beam touching the fabric?"

Sam shrugged and raised her hands with a frown. She could field test it or take her chances. It might knock her out too but probably just give her a feedback zap that numbs her arm for a bit. If it was going to do that it was probably best if she didn't field test it.

Gibbs just shook his head. She was clearly crazy and he deeply suspected this was what had attracted Jack to her in the first place. Well that and drop dead stunning, smart as hell, and able to beat his ass. Definitely Jack's type.

Daniel looked at his watch. "We should get into position…"

Sam and Jethro nodded and they left the hotel room.

After they were gone, Lonnie sat down at the small table in the room and started playing solitaire while Gracie slept peacefully. She didn't like being out in the open like this and sent a text to her employer saying so.

Fifteen minutes later, they were in position outside a local donut shop where a police car seemingly on random patrol had also set up a position to clock the drivers. With no body cams or in unit dash cams yet, it was easy to accuse the driver of a random infraction. It was often the way smaller towns made up budget shortfalls. Officer Stokes wasn't that kind of cop but he'd had the misfortune to have a TO who was and had learned many a dirty trick he didn't as a rule use on drivers. But when a buddy called about a favor to the military investigation of a dirty politician, one tended to look the other way and engage in all kinds of less than savory behavior.

He knew one questionable traffic stop wasn't going to make or break him morally.

When the cleaning company van barreled past him going a solid ten over however, he felt very vindicated about this traffic stop. He'd even had his radar gun up for appearances so he'd clocked them too. Officer Anthony Stokes of the BMDPD rolled out and hit his lights as he maneuvered in behind the offending work van emblazoned with Gaithersburg - Office Pride. "Gotcha." He muttered as he pulled the van over.

Unnoticed by the cleaning crew at least, a late model beige sedan pulled into the parking lot the work van pulled into to get their ticket and parked.

While officer Tony took a stroll to the side of the van, Daniel grabbed the bucket and Sam one of the unwrapped Zats. Gibbs had petitioned for taking the workers out but Daniel had shook his head and told him he'd bet his hazard pay Sam was a better shot than him at any distance. This had given Jethro pause. Were there things Samantha Carter wasn't good at? He just shrugged. It was their party after all.

While Tony Stokes asked the driver if he knew how fast he was going, team two of SG-1 worked its way discreetly around to the back of the van and popped the lock Sam had vandalized last night while the company was closed.

"How did you know which one to pick?" Gibbs asked under his breath.

"I didn't," Sam admitted.

Gibbs gave her a perplexed look.

"I compromised all of the back door locks."

Gibbs frowned and nodded his head in appreciation. That was as good of a solution as any other.

They all returned their attention to Daniel swinging the door open to three very startled cleaning crew who Sam systematically shot in order of closeness to the breach, ending with the driver who Gibbs was already yanking out of the seat and shoving at Sam to restrain.

Tony finished writing up the citation and handed it to Daniel. "Ya'll have a pleasant evening, folks, and you drive safe now." He told Daniel, utterly ignoring the situation inside the van where Sam and Gibbs were zip tying the prisoners.

"We will, officer. So sorry to inconvenience you." Daniel said sincerely.

"S'aright." Tony said, tipping his hat and walking away.

After he drove off, Daniel turned in his seat. "Everyone secure?"

Sam gave him an amused smile. Gibbs just rolled his eyes. "All tied up." Sam agreed.

"Well, let's go pirate some documents then." Daniel said with amusement and drove off into the night.