Not beta'd; Standard disclaimer applies.
Science Doesn't Lie, Chapter 16, Orders and Survival
After making sure the door to the Director's office had been securely closed, Ziva returned to her desk in the bullpen to work on cold cases. Her gaze flitted between the empty desks of her coworkers. She knew were McGee and Gibbs were, but she had expected Tony to be back at his desk by now. It only took her a few minutes to realize that he was probably still in the lab and most likely on Gibbs' orders. If the situation had been serious enough to warrant a physical search on Abby and an escort upstairs, then it would also mean protecting the data and samples that were running in the lab.
Ziva sighed as she looked up at the mezzanine before back down at the files in front of her. She really wanted to discuss this situation with Tony, to find out what was going on, but Gibbs had ordered her to her desk to continue to work on cold cases.
Slowly, Ziva smiled, no, she thought, he ordered me to work on cold cases, he never said where, she realized before picking up her files and heading down to the lab.
As soon as Ziva reappeared in the lab, Tony immediately warned her to stay away from all of Abby's equipment.
Ziva had snorted in reply, "Why? I do not believe that Abby will be in a position to do anything to me if I touch it."
Tony shook his head, "Not Abby, Gibbs. He warned me not to interfere, or look at the results if whatever is in there completes."
Ziva frowned, "What is it doing?" she asked, curiously staring at the analyzer.
"I do not know and am not about to find out," he retorted. "Sometimes your survival instinct is stronger than your curiosity," he explained.
"What happened?"
Tony shrugged, "I showed up the same time as you did," he reminded her.
"Yes, but you knew something was going on," she replied. "After all, you are the one who led me down here."
"Something," he admitted, "but not what. All I know is that Gibbs went tearing out of the conference room. A few minutes later, Probie did the same. I wasn't even sure where they were going, though I thought I heard McGee mutter something like 'Damn you, Abby'."
"Seriously?"
"Yep," Tony replied, popping the 'p' in yep. "That's why I headed down to the lab after collecting the papers McCareless left on the conference room table."
Ziva nodded, she had seen Tony place something in McGee's desk, but at the time she had been more concerned with the look on his face than his actions.
"What do you think is going on upstairs?"
Ziva shook her head, "I cannot even begin to guess."
"I know, right?" Tony replied. "I never thought I would see the day when Gibbs sent Abby to Vance."
Ziva snorted.
"What?"
"He did not just send her to Vance,"
"I know," Tony injected, "He also sent McGee."
Ziva shook her head, "No, I meant that he didn't send her. He escorted her, after a thorough body search."
Tony frowned, he vaguely recalled Ziva and Abby heading to the restroom. He also recalled Gibbs searching Abby's handbag and removing some items. Narrowing his eyes, he now looked at those items.
"What?" Ziva asked, noticing his expression.
"Did you find anything on her?"
"No weapons," Ziva replied, "Not even a knife. She did have a few vials in her pocket."
"Empty?"
"Most seemed so, a few others had some hairs. They were not labeled, so I do not believe they were for a case," she added.
"Hmmm," Tony hummed. "Still wonder what's going on upstairs."
Ziva shook her head once more, "Not me. I am glad not to be a part of it. I do not think things will go well for Abby."
"It's Abby," Tony cajoled, "she's like Teflon, nothing sticks to her, especially with Gibbs present."
Ziva looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "The same Gibbs who ordered her to be searched and escorted her upstairs?"
"Uh, yeah," Tony lamely answered. Gibbs just did that to make a point with Abby, right? I mean, he couldn't really be mad at her. It's Abby, Tony thought. If Gibbs was mad at her, that would mean that the dynamics of their NCIS family was changing, Tony only hoped that they could all survive that.
When Tony did not say anything else, Ziva gave a long sigh. "We might as well get to work then," she replied, settling in at the table and opening one of the files she lugged down with her.
Tony scrunched up his nose, "Cold cases, really?"
"Do you want to cross Gibbs after what has already happened today?"
Tony shuddered. "I mean Yay, cold cases," Tony replied with false cheer as he also opened a file and began to work. "Damn, survival instincts," he muttered.
Tim had remained silent almost the entire time, still not exactly sure why he had been present for that meeting with Abby. Except for mentioning the fact that the tests were probably started before Monday morning, he hadn't been involved and, in his opinion, hadn't needed to.
Vance looked between the two agents before focusing his attention on the younger one.
"Agent McGee,"
"Tim," Tim automatically corrected.
"Tim," Vance repeated with a smile, "Again I apologize for Miss Sciuto's actions. I will do everything I can to ensure it does not happen again. On that note, I would like your help in monitoring her lab activities."
"Er, how?" Tim hesitantly asked.
"You heard me talk about security cameras in the labs, I would like you to help us make sure that they cannot be bypassed, turned off, or hacked in any way," Vance began before mentioning the programs he would like installed on her system to prevent her from deleting searches, runs, and test results.
Tim nodded, his mind already thinking of possibilities. "Um, what about remote access to the system?"
Vance frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Well, the NCIS lab is set up to allow a user to access information from home or a secure laptop. They can run data, initiate searches, review results, con-well, you get the point," he said when Gibbs glared at him.
"She can do this now?" Gibbs injected.
Tim nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
"How long will it take you to prevent her from accessing the date remotely?" Vance questioned.
Tim frowned, "It would only take a moment to cancel her remote login ID," he began.
"Good. As soon as we're finished her, can you make sure that is done?" The director asked, continuing without waiting for a response, confident that McGee would do as asked. "Now,"
"Director, knowing Abby, she probably set up a back door," Tim interrupted. At Gibbs' look, he explained, "A way to easily hack into the system, bypassing the need to login."
"Damn it," Gibbs hissed angrily.
Vance looked at Tim, "You think Miss Sciuto will do this, even with the warning she just received?"
"I think she'll do it because of the warning she just received," Tim commented. He wanted to say more, but bit his tongue, realizing he would be bringing his personal feelings into this conversation, something he did not want to do while talking with the Director.
Gibbs nodded his agreement, "She wants answers and knows we won't share them, especially since she's not supposed to be in contact with us during her suspension."
Vance sighed as he picked up on both Tim's struggle not to say more and the phrase Gibbs had used. He made a note to ask legal if it was possible to require a psychiatric evaluation before allowing Miss Sciuto to resume her employment. Once that was done, he turned to Tim, "Can we tell if someone accesses the data remotely and can it be traced back to her?"
Tim thought for a moment before answering, "We can set something up to backtrack it, but that will just give us a location. If she attempts to do it from a public place, well," Tim trailed off with a shrug.
Vance nodded, understanding the situation, "Two choices, First: we let her access it and track her, prove it is her and she is immediately terminated; Second: block her from accessing the data."
Tim looked at the director, waiting for a decision.
Vance looked back at him, "It is up to you and Agent Gibbs, it is your DNA she is running, and those results she would be trying to access."
"I…boss?" Tim queried, not wanting to make that call.
Gibbs thought about the situation, "We are fairly confident that there is nothing to find, correct?" Tim slowly nodded in agreement. They knew the Admiral and his wife were both only children and with Kelsey being an orphan and not knowing or remembering much about her background, her mother's or her father's, that made her the one most likely to be related to Gibbs. "Then there wouldn't be a risk allowing her to hack in. We could have you set up a trace, if it leads back to her, we could catch her violating her suspension terms."
Tim gulped, he would hate to be responsible for Abby's termination
"Then again," Gibbs added, "You said there was a chance we couldn't prove it was her even if we traced it."
"Yeah," Tim commented, "I mean, I don't who else would want to hack in, especially regarding this test, since the only ones who know that it's running is us, but yeah," Tim repeated. "All she would need is a good alibi."
Gibbs nodded, staring at McGee for a final decision.
Tim turned to the director, "I think it's best if I go down to her lab and prevent her from hacking in," he stated. "I'll set up a trace on any hacks in case she gets in before I do so or if she gets by me, that way everything is covered."
"If you need any assistance from the Cyber unit, please contact them, I will let them know to provide you with whatever you need," Vance informed him, before dismissing him to allow him to get his assigned tasks completed.
"Probie?" Tony asked when he noticed his teammate was in the lab. "Are you okay?" He and Ziva had been quietly working on their respective cases when he noticed a shadow appear beside him. Looking up, he saw Tim just standing there, staring at Abby's computer like he didn't know what it was.
"I just…I don't understand her," Tim said, coming out of his thoughts and moving to check the status of the computer and analyzer.
"Abby?" Tony questioned.
Tim scowled and nodded in reply before setting to work on Abby's computer to prevent her hacking into the system.
"What exactly did she do?" a curious Tony queried.
Tim whirled around and glared at the Senior Agent.
"Whoa, Probie," Tony held up his hands to hold off Tim's temper. "I'm not saying that she didn't do anything wrong, or that she doesn't deserve your anger. I just want to know what this is all about," he said looking at the computers and the analyzer. "We," he said, waving a hand between himself and Ziva, "Came in halfway thought the movie," he added with a grin.
Tim blew out his breath as if releasing his anger as well. "She illegally ran more tests," he informed them. "With stolen DNA, again," he muttered, nodding to the machine.
"Again?" Tony repeated in surprise. "What, she rerunning the test a third time since you wouldn't show her the results?"
"I wish," Tim muttered, causing his fellow agents to look at him in surprise. "No. That," he explained, nodding to the analyzer, "Is running my stolen DNA against the system, like she did with my kids." Tim couldn't help the scowl that once more graced his face after he spoke. "I don't even know how she got my DNA," Tim muttered to himself.
"Oh," Tony commented, not knowing what else to say.
"And that," Tim angrily continued, tapping the lab computer, "Is running my DNA against Gibbs'."
Tony frowned, "The computer is actually an analyzer in disguise?" he asked. "That's kinda cool. Totally crappy that Abby is doing that, though," he rushed to add, not wanting to get Tim upset at him.
Shaking his head, Tim informed him, "This isn't transformers," as if he suspected where Tony's thoughts had gone to. "Our DNA is in the NCIS database, she is usually the computer to compare it."
"Oh." Tony nodded, that made more sense. He watched as Tim logged onto the computer in Abby's office. After a few minutes, when nobody else walked in he asked, "Abby still with Gibbs and the Director?"
"No."
"Whe-"
"Not here," Tim answered, interrupting him before the older man could finish asking his question.
"Obviously," Tony replied, rolling his eyes, "but wh-"
"Tony," Ziva injected, shaking her head at him. She had her suspicions about what had happened upstairs. "I think we should return to our desks. Timothy is here and will wait for the results."
"Oh, right," Tony replied, watching Tim for a few minutes and thinking about Ziva's words. If Gibbs wasn't in a good mood, and how could he be after discovering one of his favorites illegally running his DNA, being absent from their desks would probably not be a good thing. A headslap would be the least of his problems. He shook his head as his survival instincts once more kicked in. "Probie, you okay if we head up to the bullpen to work?"
"Yeah, fine," Tim answered, focusing on the computer in front of him. "I got work to do here."
"You okay with this?" Vance asked the older agent once Tim left the office.
"McGee will get it done. It's a good plan."
"I meant the situation with Miss Sciuto," Vance drawled.
Gibbs gave a heartfelt sigh. "I'm wondering if it's time for me to retire," he reluctantly admitted.
"Again," Vance dryly commented. He had heard about the man's first retirement that only lasted a few months.
"Permanently," Gibbs wearily added, rubbing a hand over his face. "I never would've suspected Abby would do something like this, disregard the rules this way."
Vance snorted, causing Jethro to lift his head up and glare at him.
"If that's about me…"
"Not in the way you think," Vance stated. "Yes, you disregard the rules, but usually only do so on behalf of the innocent or in the name of justice, so to speak. Miss Sciuto refuses to state why she did what she had, and no one knows what she was thinking. You are also well aware and willing to accept the consequences and responsibility of your actions. Miss Sciuto hasn't had any serious consequences for most of her actions from what I've observed and read."
"And that's on me," Gibbs half asked, half stated.
"Partly," Vance acknowledged. "You are, were always so quick to protect and defend her, even if it meant leaving a member of your team out to dry."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
"No," he denied, we not going to go into that, at this time," Vance informed him. "However, Miss Sciuto never facing any consequences for her actions was on the Director of NCIS. You are not her boss. The Director is. I am," a guilty Leon admitted. "Previous directors didn't set boundaries for her, and make her follow them, and I never rectified that situation during the time I have been here. The few instances I learned of, I did so after the fact, months after," he admitted. "When I came across them, I did not think it wise to rehash them when there did not appear to be a reason to."
"You don't think there is now?"
"There might be," he agreed. "But that is something that will be discussed between myself and Miss Sciuto when she returns from her suspension."
"Understood," Gibbs agreed, understanding and relieved that he would play no part in that conversation.
"Good," Vance nodded, pleased to hear that. He hadn't wanted to fight with the other man on this issue, especially not with everything else that was happening.
"It's not just the disregarding of the rules," Gibbs continued his explanation as he shook his head in confusion, "But how she invaded his privacy, never talked to him about her suspicions. Didn't contact either of us when she got those results. Then there's the fact that she purposely got those rumors start-"
"Purposely?" Vance cut in, leaning forward in his chair.
Gibbs shrugged, "As Ducky pointed out to me, Abby had to have known that science wouldn't have been able to combine the DNA of two men and create a healthy, living fetus."
Vance nodded, realizing the truth of those words.
"She has shown no remorse of her actions or concern for what they did or might lead to," Gibbs scowled. "At least no concern for anyone but herself," he added, as he remembered how horrified she was that she would be sharing the lab when she returns. "To top it all off, she then turned around and basically did the it again."
Vance nodded, "Yes, Miss Sciuto has revealed a lot about her character with her recent actions."
"As has Tim," Gibbs commented. When the director looked at him, he explained, "If anyone had done that to me," Gibbs shook his head. "I would've wanted to punch first and ask questions never," he smirked, before turning serious. "The only thing Tim did was occasionally lose his temper, yelling or insulting his coworkers."
Vance paused, suspecting that his companion had more to say.
"He also never backed down," Gibbs continued, his voice filled with pride. "Regardless of what I said or how I acted, he didn't change his behavior to conform to my idea of what was the right way to handle things. He remained steadfast in his principles." He snorted, "And he probably feels bad about the yelling and insulting."
Leon inclined his head, agreeing with the latter sentiment. "That brings us to your actions during this situation," Vance stated, meeting Gibbs' eyes. "Not once did you stop the rumors or the harassment, not even coming from his teammates."
Gibbs sighed, "I know, I really messed up regarding Tim," he admitted. "I heard yesterday a few people talking about how they didn't think I liked him. Even Ducky acknowledged that my relationship with him was vastly different from my relationship with others on my team. I didn't agree with them."
Vance stared at him, wondering where this was going.
"Until last evening," he admitted. "The last few months while all this was going on, I got to know Tim better, still don't think we have a lot in common, but being around those kids, seeing him as a father," he shrugged, "Things changed. Now that we were back at work, I tried to keep our relationship here strictly professional."
Vance inclined his head, "There is nothing wrong with that while you are at work. It is actually commendable."
"It is when none of my other relationships are that way," Gibbs dryly commented. "That is what made me aware of how non-existent our relationship has been. That is something that goes back to his first year on the team," he added.
"As for more recent events, I still think denying or arguing about rumors only generates more interest, and I didn't think anyone, especially his teammates would take it seriously."
"And now?"
Another scowl graced his face before Gibbs gave him a look that said much more than words ever could. "Now I think I need to remind everyone, including myself about Rule 1. There are many ways to screw over a teammate, not trusting them, standing by them, or supporting them, especially during trying times is included in that. You might not like or agree with what they had done, but they are still your teammate and deserve to have you watch their six."
Vance nodded, "Hopefully that reminder will work to prevent something similar from happening again," he pointedly added.
Gibbs nodded, after recent events, he too suspected that it was only a matter of time before Tony took things too far and did something Tim couldn't forgive him for.
Believing that the conversation was over, Gibbs stood up and approached the door. Right as he reached it, Vance spoke again, "You don't believe you are related to McGee."
Gibbs blinked at the non-sequitor, "Can't see it," he admitted.
"Really?" Vance asked skeptically.
Gibbs shrugged, "As I said, we don't have much in common. He's way to smart, doesn't hide his emotions well, is more comfortable with computers than people," the older man listed a few reasons.
Vance nodded, "The latter is probably partly due to his generation, as well as his talents and situation," he commented. "You're more comfortable with wood than people, no one who knows you, especially those at NCIS would describe you as a social butterfly," he added dryly. "I'm sure that when you were younger you allowed yourself to feel, shared your emotions before you learned otherwise or had cause to hide them. Not to mention, that when something matters to him, he can be just as stubborn as you are," Vance grinned. "As for the insinuation that someone related to you wouldn't be smart, are you saying that Kelly wasn't smart?"
Gibbs blinked, "Kelly was amazing," he replied softly.
"I have no doubt about that," Vance smiled indulgently. "I just want to make sure you don't rule out anything."
Gibbs shrugged, "We aren't. We planned on testing our DNA," he admitted, "But with so little known about Kelsey and her familial history, she seems the obvious connection."
"Kelsey?" Vance repeated. He had a good idea who she might be, still a little bit more information never hurt anyone.
"Kelsey Gibson, the twins' mother," Gibbs confirmed, as he left to check up on his team, not noticing the speculative look on the director's face.
"McGee," Gibbs began as he entered the lab to check in on his agent, "How's it going?"
"Good," Tim nodded, still typing away on the keyboard in front of him.
Gibbs raised an eyebrow, "And that means?"
Tim smiled, "She hasn't attempted to log in since she left."
Gibbs looked at him, his words replaying in his mind, "You can tell if she even attempts to log in?'
Tim nodded, "Yep. Once somebody is in, the system keeps track of who, when, how long, and what they accessed or tried to; it also makes note of the attempts to login, how many times they were deny entry, and the reason. This could be incorrect or mistyped login name, password, or-"
"I get it," Gibbs cut him off before giving a soft grunt. He had no idea the system could track them like that and couldn't help but briefly wonder what other systems did that. Definitely gave him more reason to be leery of technology. With a shake of his head, he got back to the topic at hand, "What else you got?"
"I had Abby's remote access login disabled so she can't use that to log in, though the system will flag it if she attempts to log in. I've searched her computer, blocked any back doors I could find, the obvious ones," he clarified, "Though I'm sure there are more, it will just take some time to find them. I've started installing software and firewalls to trace the hack in case someone does get through. I've d-"
"Okay," Gibbs finally interrupted, not even sure what most of that meant. "I trust you know what you're doing," he smiled, now understanding why Tim gave his earlier answer.
"And the tests?"
"Neither of them are done yet," Tim admitted, both of them eyeing the machines. "How much do you trust Abby?" he suddenly asked.
Gibbs turned his gaze to his agent, "What do you mean?"
Tim shrugged, "I've never had much reason to doubt her professional integrity," he admitted. "But I've never had her this upset with me before, not even when I shot Jethro," he paused.
"She began these tests without my, our," he corrected, "consent or knowledge. Just because she wrote that it is my DNA in there, doesn't mean it's true," Tim concluded.
"Who else's DNA could it be?"
Tim shrugged, "Depends on what she wanted the results to show. Was she trying to prove we were related or that we weren't?"
"I…" Gibbs frowned, not sure of the answer. "Should we just cancel the test and start over?"
"We could," Tim admitted, "but they are already running. Might be best to let them finish, we can compare the results from both tests and rerun them if we feel it is necessary."
Gibbs frowned, "If she rigged one test, wouldn't she have done the same to the other?"
"The one on the computer would've been harder to manipulate since it's using data that's stored in the system, not something she is manually or physically entering. There are also programs in place to prevent most manipulations," he added. "It's still possible, yes, but much harder to do and would she have had the time to do so? Plus, while I admit that I have no idea what is going through her mind, why would she care one way or another? She even said she would've run Kelsey's DNA first, but didn't have it. I think she was doing it for the same reason we were going to, something to do until I met with Kelsey tonight to get a sample from her."
"Okay," Gibbs nodded, trusting Tim to know better how to proceed. "Call me when you have something," he concluded as he left the lab, not waiting for a response.
2-23-2020
This chapter should've been posted last Wednesday, but every time I read it to edit, the characters got out of control and started new conversations...which almost doubled this chapter...
I liked Ziva realizing that she could obey Gibbs' order and still talk to Tony...
What is going through Abby's mind? Is there any explanation for her actions?