My Spanish isn't that great (kind of like my German), so I apologize to everyone who speaks better Spanish than I do for whatever mistakes I made. I also apologize to anyone who speaks Welsh, Gaelic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and/or Portuguese. My language skills are lacking when it comes to non-English.


It's Not What You Think-Chapter 6-Security Clearance

NCIS HQ-bullpen-0400 Zulu.

It had been almost one full day since the discovery of the disappearance of Kate's body, and Lili was still working hard. For the last few hours, she'd been getting the feeling that there was something wrong with Tony, although she couldn't put her finger on what.

She found out what it was as she was coming back to her desk with a hot cup of coffee in one hand and a file in the other.

"Tony? Are you alright?" she asked when she saw the disheveled head of the other agent. His face was red; it looked like he had been crying. She put down the coffee and the file and went over to see if he was okay, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine," he brushed off the hand that was on his shoulder and began typing.

"No, you're not," she said, walking around to where he was sitting. She saw that he still had tears in his eyes, but he didn't bother to cover those up.

"You miss her, don't you?" Lili asked him sympathetically. He looked at her in shock. "Jethro told me when you went to get coffee this morning," she quickly explained, hoping he didn't realize that she was covering something up.

"Yeah, I do."

"You want to talk about it?"

"No," he said before gathering his things. "I'm going to go home. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess. Sleep well!" she called after him.

"Doubt it," he whispered to himself.

She watched him get on the elevator then went back to the task at hand: writing more notes on the disappearance of Kate Todd's body. She was interrupted in her quest for the right page by her cell phone ringing.

"Snyder."

"Agent Snyder, I suggest looking under file #9103762 in the FBI's database. They know more than they're letting on," a low male voice, accented by what sounded like a mix of proper English and possibly Hebrew, told her before hanging up.

"Who are you?" she asked into the silence before realizing what had happened.

Quickly, she logged on to the FBI's database and looked up file #9103762. She was shocked by what she read.

Haswari, Ari. Wanted in connection for the kidnapping of Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Mallard, NCIS Special Agent Caitlin Todd, & Assistant Medical Examiner Gerald Jackson

Shooting injury of Assistant Medical Examiner Gerald Jackson

Shooting death of NCIS Special Agent Caitlin Todd

This information both shocked and intrigued Lili, and she continued to read the file.

When she was finished, she added this new information to her notes and began to type up a new report, detailing what she had just learned. She excluded the mysterious phone call.

The mysterious phone call…It scared her a little with the sudden information that someone was able to find out who she was and why she was able to access restricted files. It also made her think…


Eight years ago--Quantico, Virginia-FBI Training Academy &Marine Corps. Base.

"What do you suggest doing with her, Sir?" the Marine lieutenant asked FBI Special Agent Richard Tompkins.

"Find out how much she knows," he said, directing the order to the two agents standing next to the Marine. "We'll figure out what happens to her later."

"Certainly, Sir." The Marine nodded to two guards stationed on either side of the blonde girl. She looked at them, but said nothing, standing up when they each grabbed one of her arms and directed her to an interrogation room.

As they entered the room, she looked around and saw a table with four chairs. One of the Marines let go of her arm while the other escorted her to one of the chairs. She glared at the men who had brought her to this small room. This certainly wasn't going to be good for her claustrophobia.

One of the agents, a tall man with dark hair and dark eyes, sat across from her and began shuffling papers and files, as if to be rid of an invisible disorder on the tables. He cleared his throat and addressed her, his thick Southern accent disrupting the quiet of the room.

"So, Miss…Snyder? Is it? What were you doing in that room?" The girl just stared at him as if he were speaking another language.

He is speaking another language, she thought to herself.

"Well?" he asked her, growing impatient with her silence. She just continued to stare at, her blue eyes turning an eerie shad of grey flecked with yellow so vivid that the other men, Are they men?, standing on the other side of the window could faintly see the color.

Yes, she thought to herself, there are only three men on the other side of that glass.

She kept her gaze steady, boring an invisible hole into each of their foreheads.

"Did you hear me?" he asked. "¿Tú hablas ingles?" Do you speak English? He asked her in bad Spanish.

"Sí Señor, y yo hablo lenguaje por señas de americano, alemán, chino, japonés, gaélico, galés, portugués, y ruso." Yes, Sir, and I speak American Sign Language, German, Chinese, Japanese, Gaelic, Welsh, Portuguese, & Russian, she said to the man in perfect Spanish.

This surprised everyone, and the girl allowed herself a smile at seeing their faces.

"So you speak," the man began counting on his fingers, "eight languages?"

This question raised quite a few eyebrows. "No, I speak ten languages. Ten, zehn, diez, deg, shi, juu, dez, desyty, deug, ten," she said, signing the last in ASL.

"Alright, fine. Now, could you please tell us what you were doing in that room?"

"I wanted to know what was in the building," she said innocently, giving the man across from her the puppy-dog-eyed face that never works.

"Really. What did you do in there?"

"I fixed your computers. They said there was a virus and I got rid of the virus. You know, you should really do more virus scans," she told the man, going into a whole babbly fit about why the computers weren't working properly.

It didn't look like the man, or any of the men in the room and behind the glass, believed her.

"So, you're telling me that you wanted to know what was in the building and fixed the computers." He looked at the agent standing behind the girl.

"We checked, Agent Humphrey. All of the computers were in working order."

The man looked at her again, still skeptical of her story. He nodded to the other three men in the room, and all four of them left, closing the door behind them.

"Did you find anything out about her?" Agent Humphrey asked another agent that had been looking through the two-way mirror.

"She's an extremely gifted child. Only 14 years old. Graduated top of her high school class last year. Goes to GW." Humphrey nodded.

"Should we keep her here, Sir?" one of the Marines who had been in the room with him asked.

"Take her to see Dr. Murphy. Maybe she'll have better luck." The Marines and agents nodded, and the two guards who had been in the interrogation room went back in and escorted the girl out, taking her back to the academy to see Dr. Murphy.

The office of Dr. Debra Murphy, FBI Training Academy, Quantico, VA.

"Is this the girl?" Dr. Murphy asked the agent that had accompanied the two Marines and their ward.

"Yes. Dr. Debra Murphy, this is Elisabeth Snyder. I'm leaving her with you."

"Take the guards with you. She won't be a problem." The agent nodded and the two guards followed him out.

"Now, Elisabeth is it?"

"It's Lili."

"Alright, Lili? I was wondering if I could give you an IQ test. Would that be okay?"

"Sure, why not. At least you had the decency to ask. Most don't."

"Well, I'm not like most," Dr. Murphy said before handing a book and some scantrons to the girl.

Two hours later, Lili was done with the IQ test. It hadn't taken her that long, but she always liked to look over her answers carefully. She handed the test and book back to the older woman, and was rewarded with a smile and a promise of a tour of the unrestricted areas later on.

"I hear you go to George Washington University. What are you majoring in, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Criminal sciences and justice."

"That's a difficult subject."

"Not really. I've already been there for a year. Everything's really easy."

"I see. Do you like it there?"

"It's okay, but it gets really boring at times."

"I'm sure it does." They continued their conversation for another thirty minutes before they were interrupted by the sound of the scantron machine spitting out the corrected IQ test.

"Let's see…" Dr. Murphy started. She gasped when she saw the score.

"What? Did I do badly?" Lili asked her.

"No, actually, quite the opposite. You got an almost perfect score."

"Cool."

"Very."

Just as Lili was about to leave ninety minutes later, Dr. Murphy stopped her.

"Hey, I've got an idea. Would you maybe think about joining the FBI after you graduate?"

"Sure, that'd be cool."

"Alright. Good."

Four years later, Lili entered Quantico and, under the close supervision of Dr. Debra Murphy, graduated two years later. Upon her graduation, Lili was given top security clearance.

However, it was never explained to her why she'd been given the clearance. Dr. Murphy had explained that the Director had felt her scores had been enough proof for the government to award her the clearance.


NCIS HQ bullpen.

Lili was taken out of her memories by the last page of her recent report printing out. She sighed and, picking up the pages and paper clipping them into the file folder, saved her report and turned the computer off. She looked at her watch realizing that she should really get some sleep, decided that she would turn in the report in the morning.

She gathered her things and left, placing the file in her book bag as she headed for the elevator. She looked around one last time, and stepped into the open elevator, going down to the parking garage. This was going to be a long assignment.


Do you like it? Hate it? I hope it answered some more questions. Please review!