Chapter 9

"Ah Jethro just the person I wanted to see" Ducky called out from his desk as Gibbs walked into the morgue, Ducky crossed over to the wall of drawers next to his desk and opened the one that housed the body of Ari's accomplice. He paused in the act of opening it as Liz walked in and stood next to Gibbs.

"And you have bought a visitor with you, a very charming one at that" Ducky said with a smile and slight inclination of his head. Gibbs smiled at Ducky, knowing that his friend was an inveterate flirt.

"Ducky, this is Sergeant Liz Carroll of the RMP's, she'll be joining us" Gibbs said to Ducky, "Liz, Ducky is our M.E." Gibbs said briefly "so what have you got for me Ducky" he continued having done away with the niceties in his opinion.

"You are so impatient Jethro, I am sure this gentleman wont mind waiting a few moments before I tell you his news" Ducky said inclining his head at the dead body "I would like a mo…"

"He might not, but I do" Gibbs told ducky with a frown, having to hide his grin at the look Ducky threw him before Ducky shook his head in exasperation.

"I was correct, the bullet wounds are what caused his death however he was dying anyway as he had a rather advanced brain tumour." Ducky said pleased with himself

"How advanced?" Gibbs asked his mind racing ahead

"Far enough along to have been receiving treatment?" Liz asked speaking for the first time, noticing Ducky's eyes light up

"Ah so not the royal mounted police RMP's but the Royal military police"" Ducky said grinning at Liz, "A beautiful, intelligent English rose" Ducky complimented Liz, causing Gibbs to smile slightly in amusement.

"I believe from the look of the tumour that he had indeed been receiving some kind of treatment for it, I have sent samples up to Abigail, and I am sure she will soon have the results for you" Ducky said to Gibbs before turning to smile at Liz again

"Perhaps I could have the pleasure of your company this evening, and we can discuss what brings you to these distant shores" he asked her, pushing the drawer closed.

Liz smiled at Ducky, her eyes sparkling and full of mischief.

"Later Ducky" Gibbs cut in before Liz could reply, taking her arm and steering Liz out of the morgue, leaving Ducky shaking his head as they left the room

"Jethro my friend, you need to slow down" he muttered before closing the drawer fully and crossing back to his desk, his mind already on his report.

…………………………………..

"Is he always like that?" Liz asked as they waited for the elevator, a smile on her face

"Yep" Gibbs said stepping into the car as it arrived.

"He seems a character" She added a smile on her face and in her voice, "He reminds me of my uncle David, they both look like an older Illya Kuryakin" She said fondly, causing Gibbs to stare at her in shock, she was far to young to remember the Man from uncle he thought to himself. Catching Gibbs's look before he masked it Liz laughed softly

"I loved the Man from Uncle, it was such a great show" she said "Don't you think he looks like an older version of Illya Kuryakin?" she asked, Gibbs smiled at her before nodding

"Yep he does" he said as he stepped out of the elevator and into the corridor by Abby's lab. Wondering who she would think Abby looked like.

…………………………………

Gibbs walked to the doors that housed Abby's lab, he knew that they were soundproofed and wondered how loudly her music would be playing and just what it would be, he debated warning Liz but decided against it. Instead he just hit the button that opened the door, stealing himself for the sound blast he knew would come and he wasn't disappointed. He looked over at Liz and was impressed to see that other than a flinch at first, she soon composed herself and acted as if the noise emanating from the room was normal.

Gibbs smiled as he stepped into the room, knowing that Liz was only a step behind him, his eyes scanned the room quickly but could find no evidence of his lab rat as he crossed over to the stereo in the corner and hit the off button, causing his ears to ring with the sudden and deafening silence. He looked over at Liz, who had stopped inside the door and was looking at some of the art on Abby's wall, her eyebrow raised slightly.

"Turn it back on boss man" a voice disembodied called from the back of the room, Gibbs turned to where Abby had called from but could see no sign of her. He walked over to where her voice had emanated from and as he neared the general area he saw a pair of black Doc Martin boots followed by black and red stripped tights sticking out from under the large side unit that housed some very expensive looking, high tech equipment.

Gibbs grinned as he bent down, checked she wasn't attached to anything and grabbed her booted ankles, yanking her out from under the unit

"ARGH" came a loud and angry scream followed by the cross face of Abby

"Gibbs, that was so uncalled for, I lost my ring and I nearly had it then!" Abby grumbled as she rolled over, holding her hands out to Gibbs to be pulled to her feet. Gibbs obliged grabbing both hands and yanking Abby hard, Abby grinned and bounced as she came flying to her feet.

"That was fun can we do it again?" she asked grinning, her ring and anger forgotten in the fun of the moment.

"Nope" Gibbs said grinning at her, as his hand reached out and pulled a jet black pig tail, then using it to point her head in the direction of Liz.

"Sweet, a visitor" Abby said grinning at the idea of meeting someone new, Abby was very much a people person and loved it when she got to show of her babies to new people. Gibbs watched as Abby bounce-walked over to Liz, who had turned away from the painting at the earlier scream and was watching Abby approach with a wariness in her eyes, not that Gibbs could blame her, it wasn't often you met someone who looked and acted like Abby working for a federal agency.

"Hey" Abby said as she neared Liz "I'm Abby Sciuto, you must be Liz" Abby said thrusting her hand out to the English woman, grinning at the confusion her greeting had caused "McGee called me" Abby said smiling as she turned to Gibbs, her finger shaking at him

"You are a bad boy, Marine Boss man, you upset Tony" she said seriously, her face sad at the thought of Tony upset "But I still love you" she added on with a grin before turning back to Liz

"So you're staying around for awhile?" she asked happily, before crossing over to her computer "This is a sweet gig, and a really cool team to work with" she said over her shoulder "But the boss is a real slave driver" she added on grinning cheekily at Gibbs, who smiled back, his hands quickly signing something that had Abby grinning again.

"yep so what have you got for the slave driver?" he asked seriously, watching Liz carefully to measure her reaction to Abby, pleased to see that she was taking her in stride, even if she did seem a bit bemused by Abby's appearance and manner.

"Well, you don't pay me big bucks for nothing, but you can pay me more if you want" she started "Because I have to tell you the price of tats is getting really…"

"Abby" Gibbs warned, knowing that once Abby started talking it could be hard to shut her up

"What?" she asked turning to look at him in confusion for a moment, "Oh yeah" she grinned, hitting some keys on her keyboard, waiting for a split second as a graph appeared, then moved aside for Gibbs to see, pleased that Liz crossed to look as well.

"Our man downstairs was getting some pretty radical treatment" she said happily warming to the subject "He was on an Angiogenesis inhibitor called Vitaxin " she said pointing to a spike on the graph "a totally cool new drug that is used for some types of cancer, brain included and it glues itself to vascular integrin, a substance that is found on the blood vessels of tumours but not on normal blood vessels that supply normal healthy tissue." she grabbed a pen from the table and started tapping out a tune on the table "They stop the blood to the tumour causing it to starve to death but without all those really nasty side effects you get with chemo" she spun round to Gibbs like a puppy looking for a reward, but was doomed to disappointment. She sighed as Gibbs just stared calmly at her, shaking her head at his obvious lack of knowledge.

"The drug is only available on clinical trial, and only one hospital is part of the trial in the DC area" she told him, handing him a sheet of paper with the list of all the hospitals in the USA offering the drug. Gibbs skimmed the list before handing it to Liz, not having made out the small print on it due to his unacknowledged but commonly known about bad eyesight; but trusting that what Abby had said was true.

Liz looked up at Abby and smiled at her

"If I didn't think your cool red lipstick would smudge, I'd kiss you" she told Abby grinning, knowing that this information was the start of the road that would hopefully lead them to Ari Haswari.

"Sweet" Abby said grinning "But your not my type" she grinned back deciding that she just might like the English woman.