Demons of the past

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: Just why is Gibbs never called Leroy? On a boring day, some people start to wonder about it and start to dig. What they find is more than they were ready to get...

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5- Surprising invitation

"Wow...never thought it would end like this." Tony said and the rest nodded a bit. "I just hope Gibbs will buy that bar story. I don´t need him finding out what really happened." He said and then watched the liquid dripping through the IV line into his arm. It felt a bit cold when it entered the bloodstream, but it wasn´t too bad. The cool metal of the table beneath his body felt worse.

"That was so weird, you know? I was doing that analysis on the computer and all of the sudden I´m on the floor and Ducky is talking to me. I have a complete blank there, never happened before -and I really had some things happening before." Abby told them and Kate smiled. She knew that Abby hadn´t always been the nice girl she was now. There had been some tough times in her life, but most people didn´t know. They were friends, that was how Kate knew about those dark sides as well.

About 10 minutes after his call, Gibbs walked into the hallway in front of the morgue. He looked through the window, seeing four figures lying on the tables, IV bags hanging above each one of them. He couldn´t see if they were awake or not, because he was too far away and just charged into Mallard´s office. "Jethro, you made the way rather quickly, I must say." He was greeted by the older man.

"Duck, spill it. How are they?" He asked as they walked back into the hallway. There was worry in his voice. He usually stayed rather calm when one of them got into trouble or was unfit for duty, but having his three agents and Abby out at once sure was new to him.

"Now, you don´t need to worry about them, Jethro. I expect that they are resting a bit at the moment. I just had them lie down as the medication that counteracts the drug in their systems may lead to a severe headache if they sit up while it is administered." Mallard explained as they walked in. Four heads turned into their direction with slightly scared looking eyes.

Gibbs stopped and looked at them. Abby looked a bit paler than normally, McGee seemed uncomfortable with the needle in his arm. Tony and Kate had been talking a moment ago. All of them looked like they had gotten a pretty good scare from this. He was relieved to see that they were okay. "Any idea how you got drugged?" He asked, but all four couldn´t give him an answer. "You´re lucky that Ducky recognized what was going on. When you´re done down here, I want all of you up in the bullpen." He said and walked out again.

"Wow...if that´s his way of being worried, I rather have grumpy Gibbs yelling at me." Tony said and continued to watch the IV emptying slowly. Abby was done first and sat up slowly.

"Didn´t you say you don´t get a headache from this stuff when you´re lying down?" She asked and blinked her eyes a couple of times. The pain between her temples seemed to explode.

"It may still happen. Have a drink and take it slow, Abigail. It should subside rather quickly." He handed her a glass of water and they waited until the last IV was through.

Kate sighed and rubbed her arm after the needle was taken out. "That´ll be one hell of a bruise tomorrow." She complained and rolled her sleeve back down. "Well, let´s face the dragon then."

All four walked into the bullpen and found their boss sitting at his desk. He looked up when they came in, but they couldn´t read his eyes. "Abbs, you can go back to the lab. Just take it slow, but get me those DNA scans done." He said and Abby looked surprised. She walked back into the elevator immediately. "Now, do you have any idea where or how this happened?"

Tony looked at him. "We were in like four or five clubs last night. It could have been anywhere there. We shared pitchers in each of them." He said and hoped that it would sound plausible. After a moment, Gibbs just nodded.

"All right then. I believe there is still some work to finish up. Balboa and his people got the scene covered us, so we´re back to paperwork for the rest of today." He sat down at the desk again and started to read through some reports.

All three agents were rather quiet all day long. Kate still had a headache, which got worse as the day went on. Shortly before they got off for the day, it seemed to split her head in half and she went to see Ducky. He looked at her when she explained it to him. After interrogating her about medication, he found the cause and smiled. "It´s just a side effect from the mix of that antitoxin and the cold medicine you´ve been taking over the last week. Nothing to worry about, but you should ask someone to drive you home. It´s not save for you to drive."

When she returned into the bullpen, all except for Gibbs were gone. "Did Tony go home already?" She asked and reached for her coat. He just nodded and she sighed. She tried to call Abbs, but she had left as well, as had Ducky. That left only one person and she didn´t exactly want to ask.

"Anything wrong?" He asked just that moment and looked at her.

"Uhm...it´s just...I got a headache from that stuff Ducky gave us today and he told me I shouldn´t be driving. I was going to ask Tony, but..." She said, but stopped then. She couldn´t possibly think that he would take her home, or could she?

"Oh...well, why don´t you ask me?" He offered and grinned widely. She wasn´t sure if he was just joking or if that offer was serious.

"I...uhm...so...could you give me a ride?" She finally asked and was surprised when he nodded.

"No problem. Let´s go." They went down to the garage and she threw a look at her car. She remembered in what area he lived and cringed. It was the exact opposite direction. Before he started the car, he took his phone out. "Hi, it´s me. Yes. Yes, how did you...oh, okay. Really? That´s too bad. All right, bye, Duck." He said and she threw a puzzled look at him. "Oh, nothing really, Ducky just cancelled our dinner tonight."

"Oh, that´s a pity." Kate said and felt a bit uncomfortable now. She hardly recognized Gibbs anymore. It seemed like a different person had taken his place the moment they had walked out of the office.

"Yep, sure is. I had a wonderful casserole for that. It´s a shame to throw it away." He said and then hesitated. "Uhm...hey, do you like chicken casserole?" He asked and she looked at him for a moment. "I mean, if you´re feeling okay enough to come over for dinner. I can take you home afterwards." Kate was shocked. Was he actually inviting her over for dinner? To his house? She wasn´t sure how to react until she looked at him a little longer. "Sorry, forget about that. I´ll take you home." He drove out of the garage and took a right onto the main street.

"No, it´s okay. Actually, I wouldn´t have to cook myself then." She said and noted the smile on his face. They didn´t talk much on the drive. Kate had never been near his house and only knew about it from what Ducky had told them once in a while. It surprised her how big the house actually was. "You´re living here on your own?" She asked and he nodded. "It´s huge."

"I had to move a lot of stuff from the basement -the boat takes up most space down there." He told her and opened the front door to let her in.