Chapter 9
"Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key."
"What the hell?" G groaned, as music woke him up.
"I think that we should get together and try them out you see. I been looking around awhile, you got something for me. Oh! I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key."
The song repeated as G got up and stumbled to the closet, opened the door to find an overnight bag on the shelf. He set the overnight bag on the bed, unzipped it and found an iphone just like the one Sarah had on the nightstand at the bottom of the bag. "What the hell is this?" He asked out loud, now realizing that she was in the shower and didn't hear the message ringtone go off.
As he hit the home button the apps appeared on the screen. 'SongBird' had one text message from 'Valentine'
Meet at the park across from the Cafe three blocks over. Alone. NOW!
He sighed.
On the way.
He placed the phone back into the bag and put it away. He then got dressed, picked up his key card and his coat and walked out of the room.
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Sam Hanna sat on the park bench and checked his messages on his phone again.
On the way.
"Where the hell are you?" he mumbled, looking at his watch again seeing that it was going on almost thirty minutes. The information that he got from Gibbs was not going to be taken well by anyone, especially Sarah.
Sam sighed debated on if he should contact Gibbs, then he looked at the cafe across the street to where they were meeting to see G walking out, "crap," he put his phone back in his pocket. He watched as G took his time waiting to cross the street and walk down the sidewalk.
G tried to not smile when Sam glared at him as he got closer to the bench.
"Does she know the story behind the ringtone on that other phone?" G asked, sitting down next to Sam handing him the newspaper.
"You mean how you lost a bet fair and square and had to sing that song for karaoke night our first year as partners? No."
Sam knew that G would figure out that he was her handler when he put that ringtone in the phone.
"Good."
"Where's Sarah?" Sam asked.
"At the hotel, you can give her the lecture of always making sure she has her phone incase her handler needs to talk to her later. What's going on?" G asked, not really wanting to know.
"Seems your old friend Natasha has some information about a family friend from Romania. Dracul is working with a mob family in New Jersey and they are meeting in a couple of days. Director Vance and Hetty wants us to go to DC and take care of this."
"You're going to DC. I'm taking Sarah home."
"G, we can finally stop them."
"I'm not going to put her in any more danger."
"I'm sorry G, but it's not your choice." Sam got up and walked away.
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Tony and McGee sat on the other side of hotel restaurant and watched Sarah alone at the table with music sheets spread over the table. She had her headphones on and writing frantically in the notepad and occasionally talking to herself.
"Are you sure we shouldn't sit with her or near her?" McGee asked.
"Yes, believe me McGee, she is giving that vibe of wanting to be alone," Tony replied.
"How do you know?" McGee asked.
"She has her earbuds in her ears, it's her way of escaping without really going anywhere."
"Like you and movies." McGee saw Tony's facial expression change dramatically, "what now?"
"Natasha just walked in, she got brave and is walking to Sarah's table," he watched the women talk and Sarah moved the music off the table and gestured for Natasha to sit down across from her. "She's sitting at the table."
"There is something about Natasha," DiNozzo watched both the women cautiously waiting to see who would strike first.
"Like what?" McGee asked, not really wanting to know.
He leaned back in his chair, "well, we know that she and G have a past."
"And?"
"She's wearing another one of Gibbs' sweatshirts this morning."
"So?" McGee was wondering where he was going with this.
"Something about this reminds me of," Tony trailed off then slammed his hand on the table making McGee jump, "It's the last Crusade!"
"The what?"
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade! Indiana's Dad, Henry Jones Senior, is missing while looking for the Holy Grail, so Indy and Marcus Brody go to Venice to find him and he meets this hot German chick named Dr Elsa Schneider, played by Alison Dooley, who is actually Irish in real life. Indy and Elsa go to this castle to get his Dad we find out that she's working for the Germans and that not only was she with Indiana she was also with his father!"
"Are you saying that you think Natasha and Gibbs…"
Tony nodded and smiled.
"It's too early in the morning Tony, I do not need that image in my head right now." McGee closed his eyes.
"But you think it too!" he exclaimed and then felt a hand smack across the back of his head.
"OW!"
He looked up to see Gibbs there, "hey boss."
He then glared at Tim for not warning him, "McTraitor!" he hissed.
Gibbs sat down, keeping an eye on the situation across the restaurant, "Not that it's anyones business, but nothing has happened between Natasha and me."
"Sorry boss, won't happen again."
"Are they playing nice?" Gibbs asked.
"So far, Natasha has been at the table for a couple of minutes and they have been talking quietly." Tony said.
"Good now get upstairs and make sure everyone is at the room so we can get the meeting started."
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"I'm sorry about last night. I didn't know about you and G." Natasha confessed.
"We haven't been married that long. I didn't expect the one he was meeting to know," Sarah told her as she took the folder filled with notes and put it in her bag.
"Jethro told me he considers you family."
Sarah nodded, "I've known him since I was fourteen years old."
"He considers me family too," she sighed. "I don't know about you but I haven't gotten a slap on the back of my head from him for a long time and I don't want to start that up again."
"Nether do I," Sarah admitted.
Gibbs walked up to the table, "I hope you two are playing nice."
"We are." Sarah told him, but he could see in her eyes that she still didn't trust her.
"I was just telling Sarah that since neither of us had gotten head slapped from you in a long time it was not a good time to start."
"That would be wise."
"Well, I'll leave you two to talk, and I'll see you both upstairs." Natasha got up and walked away.
Gibbs sat down, "How are you?"
"Fine." Sarah responded.
Gibbs leaned in closer to her, "Liar."
She sighed, "Better than last night."
"She is G's past Red, and it's been over for a long time."
"I know," she paused then looked at him, "is she your past too Gibbs?"
"My relationship with Nat is like yours with Tony. I was married to Stephanie when I worked with Nat last."
"Good."
"If you're planning on burning the sweatshirt Natasha is wearing, I'm pretty sure they sell that one at the mall or online." Gibbs told her.
"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked, innocently.
"You took my UCLA t-shirt and burned it."
"I had to after I found the Mistress of the Dark was wearing it when I came to visit." she declared, Sarah never kept it a secret on how she truly felt about about Gibbs' third ex-wife, Diane.
"That was my favorite shirt!" Gibbs hissed.
"Well, it could have been worse," Sarah stood up and put her bag over her shoulder.
"How?" Gibbs asked.
"I could have burned it while Diane was wearing it." Sarah smiled and walked away.
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"After looking at the information that Natasha has given me, talking to Director Vance and Hetty, we have decided that both teams will be going back to DC tonight along with Natasha," Gibbs stood next to Natasha.
"Why?" Sarah asked.
"We got a break in a case that the LA team has been working on." Gibbs said, knowing that the news was not going to be taken well.
"Which case?" Kensi asked.
"The Comescu's."
Natasha saw everyone on G's team try to hide their reaction to the name, "Do you know the Comescu family?" Natasha asked, and could feel a chill in the room as G and his team looked at each other in shock.
Sarah felt G's hand squeeze hers, before he spoke, "The Comescu's are a crime family whose business is to provide hundreds of criminal enterprises all around the world with start-up loans. In exchange for those loans the family gets part ownership."
"They're also involved in human trafficking, narcotics, terrorism and counterfeit goods. They also have corrupted officials in government and have killed anyone who betrays them." Sam replied.
"You know a lot about them," Natasha said surprised.
"Let's just say some of us in this room have dealt with them in the past and we don't get along." Deeks commented.
"What dealings?" Natasha asked.
"That's classified," Sarah answered, before anyone else could tell her.
Natasha looked at Sarah, knowing there was something more going on, "I see, the Comescu's have started doing personal loans about three years ago, I was hired by a friend of mine whose brother has been missing." She pulled up a picture on the tablet, "Do you know Dracul?" Natasha inquired.
"He's the nephew to former head of the family Alexa and to the new leader of the family Alexander. Dracul's father was killed along with his Grandfather back in 1973."
"How?"
"Car bomb, rumor is another rival family that they had been feuding with did it." Sarah told her.
"He was also one of the few family members who survived, when his Aunt Alexa was killed eight months ago," Sam stated.
"And Alexander?" Natasha asked.
"Alexander has only been in charge since May of last year, after Alexa was killed, we don't know much about him. Since Alexia was the oldest he kept himself off grid until she was killed."
"My sources have told me that Dracul is involved with human trafficking. After looking into it I found out that he's working with Ricky Napolitano who is the son of a crime family in New Jersey.But instead of going through Mexico they are going through Canada."
"I have contacted Tobias Fornell from the FBI, we both had dealings with Ricky Napolitano back in 2004, he will be meeting with us when we get to DC," Gibbs could tell that G and Sarah were not thrilled with the news.
"And you're sure about this?" Sarah asked.
"All the evidence points to it," Gibbs handed her the tablet.
Sarah read the information and sighed, "When do we leave?"
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