A Dare, Or Something More Sinister?
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS... I'm just taking the characters for a spin!
Author's Notes: Thank-you all for the reviews I'm happy you all like it... as always a few more wouldn't go unnoticed! Please!
Again a huge thank you to Kate for her great work and inspiration:-)
Tony looked at the clock again and sighed, it was almost as if time was going backwards. He had been pulling the files of every officer they had talked to whilst they had been on the ship. He looked back down at the file he had in front of him, and read the same line for the sixth time, and still he didn't see it. One of his friends had organized a boy's night out, he was celebrating something, but Tony had forgotten what, as far as he was concerned, you didn't need an excuse to go out. It was starting to rain outside, the weather had been threatening to rain all day, occasionally spitting, but not doing much more. He knew his friends didn't like it when there was foul weather, he hoped it wouldn't put them off. There was nothing like forgetting about everything by downing a few beers. He looked back at the clock, almost dinner time. Tony thought about dinner and what he'd have, he had that gut feeling they'd be eating at the office again tonight and as usual they would get Chinese…
"Kate?" Tony asked, turning to her desk
"Tony" She replied, not looking up
"Weren't you supposed to be going out with Shane tonight?" He asked, raising his eyebrows, then looking at the clock, continued "It's just passed 1800 now; you're meeting him in an hour"
"Who says?" She asked, looking up at him
"Uh, you" He responded
"Yeah, well I won't be going" she answered
"Why won't you be going where, Agent Todd?" Gibbs asked, walking in
"To dinner with Shane. He gave me some excuse about his mum having cancer which is apparently why he couldn't make it the other night" Kate replied, focusing on her computer, "I didn't buy it"
"Sounds like a good excuse to me" McGee said
"Well it would be, if his mum wasn't dead already. She died seven years ago, apparently OD'd on a cock-tail of drugs" Kate said
"You did a work-up on him" Gibbs said, with a small smile "Thatta girl, Katie. DiNozzo, you gonna read that page again? I was hoping for those files today." Gibbs turned to Tony
"Ah, yes boss. Nothing so far" Tony replied
"Nothing?" Gibbs sighed and rubbed his eyes "What else did we find on our two officers who found Lt Mitchell, McGee?"
"Srg Dowling's file is completely clean, nothing on her civilian record either." McGee replied
"Not even a parking ticket?" Kate asked
"Nah. She doesn't own a car, never has, she caught buses" McGee replied. Tony snickered, Gibbs glared at him. "But, Lt Patterson's another story" McGee continued "He's been put on report twice for disobeying direct orders,"
"Sounds like he has a problem with authority" Tony remarked
"Yeah, it was also noted that he's been involved in a few fights with fellow officers, but it didn't give me any details. I'm still looking into that. When he was in college, they found drugs in his room, he claimed they weren't his, they couldn't prove anything and the charges went away" McGee said
"Why?" Gibbs asked
"Don't know. They took him to court, but when they went to give evidence, it had disappeared, it seems somebody had broken into the evidence store the night before and stolen that as well as some other stuff, never found out who was behind it. There wasn't enough evidence to go ahead with any trial, so they had to drop the charges and let him go" McGee replied, "Also there was one or two complaints of sexual harassment, but they went away as well, apparently the victims changed their story"
"And he's still in the navy. That's a few black marks against his name" Tony said
"Yeah, but I had to do some digging to find it. On his official record, there's nothing about the drugs or sexual harassment stuff. His civilian records tell a similar story, only things like parking tickets and speeding fines, but I also found charges for assault. I'm still trying to get more info on that though, from what I found out, he put some guy in hospital." McGee said
"It's a bit like somebody's covering for him" Kate speculated
"I think you might be right. His parents are fairly powerful people, they're very wealthy. I've been trying to gain access to their financial records to see if they made any large withdrawals around the times that Lt Patterson was in trouble" McGee continued
"You think his parents were tipping somebody off to keep the marks off his records" Kate said
"So, why don't you have the records yet?" Gibbs asked
"My computer had a virus, it's still running slowly. I've only got this much because I was using one of Abby's computers yesterday before the system crashed" he answered
"Can't you make it go faster?" Gibbs asked
McGee was about to reply when all of the power in the office went out, leaving the team in darkness. Gibbs swore.
"Ahh, can't be all bad boss, at least we can go home early" Tony stated, "Ow, how'd you know where I was?" Tony said as Gibbs clipped him over his head
"It's not hard to locate your position when you keep talking Tony" Kate replied
"Don't we have a back-up generator boss?" McGee asked
"Let's hope it still works" Gibbs replied, sitting down
A flash of lightening lit up the room, followed closely by a big crash of thunder
"Cool" Tony said, going to watch the lightening show out the window
"You still fascinated by storms Tony?" Kate asked
"You still scared of them Kate?" Tony replied
"I used to be scared of thunderstorms. At our camp in junior high, there was a thunderstorm. My friends and I got out of our tent and sat in the rain watching the storm, we had a great view, the lightening was right above us. Then the lightening struck a tree and a branch fell off and crushed the tent we had just been in." McGee said
"You went camping?" Kate asked
"You had friends?" Tony asked
"You almost died" Gibbs said
"Yeah, then we got hyperthermia from being in the rain. Didn't go camping again" McGee said
There was another flash of lightening and crash of thunder, it sounded closer now
"Hey guys! You sharing creepy camping stories?" Abby came in and sat down, then added as way off explanation that she had walked in on the tail end of McGee's story, "By the way, that was a pretty cool story"
"Thanks Abby" McGee replied
"Welcome. When I was 12 or 13 or something, we went camping. We followed some convey and it had started raining, the guys in the car in front of us were doing snakes on the dirt track, it was so cool. Anyway we camped for the night, and about 2 am, I woke up cos I heard people moving around. We were flooded out, turns out we camped in the middle of a dried out river bed" Abby said, "My parents weren't happy, but I thought it was cool, I would so do that again"
They all laughed. Tony came back from the window and sat with everyone else, they could almost see now as their eyes had adjusted to the darkness and there was light coming in from the window.
"Ok, Tony, your turn. Creepy camping story" Abby said
"Don't have one, never really went camping as a kid. But I do remember when me and this girl – ah, woman, sorry Kate – me and this woman went skinny dipping and…" Tony started
"Do we really want to hear this DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked
"Ah, it's nothing naughty boss, um. Anyway we were gonna go for a swim under the waterfall but we saw a salt water croc. We left pretty fast" Tony said
"I'll bet you did" Kate said
"Ok, Kate, you next" Abby said
"Why me?" Kate asked
"Why not? You're next in our circle" Abby responded
"Ahhh, there you all are. Do you think the power will come back on Jethro? I don't want to think about what might happen to the bodies in my morgue if it doesn't…" Ducky said, as he walked in
"Hey Duck-man! I thought you left already." Abby responded
"No. I'm not leaving early today Abigail, I believe you are thinking of tomorrow" Ducky said
"The back-up generators should kick in soon Ducky" McGee said
"Why are you leaving early tomorrow?" Tony asked
"I have to attend a conference. Apparently I won't learn anything new, but I've been told I need to go, Anthony" Ducky responded
"How boring. Anyway, Kate was about to tell us about a creepy camping story" Abby said
"Right, yeah. Um, ok…" Kate spluttered
"Today, Kate" Tony said
"Ok, not much of a camping story. But, we went on a trip with the rest of a convoy through the outback. When our car went to go through a river crossing, we got bogged and water started filling the car. The water got up pretty high, we almost lost the car, it was fairly close to touching that chip thing which makes the car work. Anyway, we eventually got towed out, car was a wreck though" Kate said
"Chip thing?" Ducky asked
"Yeah, in a lot of cars nowadays, especially in four-wheel drives, there's a computer chip of sorts, controls all of the electrics. If it gets wet, the car is useless." Abby replied
"I see" Ducky replied. "That sort of reminds me of one of my experiences camping. Some friends of ours came camping with us, we were going to rent a room in a motel, but they decided to bring along their caravan which they had only just bought. We were going down a hill when we saw their caravan overtake us; it seems they hadn't hooked it up properly. The caravan was in one piece at the bottom though"
They all chuckled a bit, then Abby turned to Gibbs, "Gibbs, it's your turn"
"Mmmm?" Gibbs asked in response
There was another flash of lightening which showed Gibbs lying down with his arm across his eyes.
"Jethro?" Ducky asked
"I think he's sleeping Ducky. It's probably a good thing. He's been a grump all day, it might have something to do with the lack of coffee" Tony said
"Undoubtedly, Anthony. Throughout the time I have known Jethro, he has never been without his coffee, except for when he was in hospital" Ducky replied
"Isn't that a bit unhealthy Duck-man?" Abby asked
"A bit. But he doesn't see it as a problem and it doesn't interfere with his work. Everyone needs a healthy addiction, Abigail, Jethro's is coffee" Ducky said
"So I don't need to give up caff-Pow? Cos I really like them" Abby asked
"Speaking of healthy addictions, what's the time?" Tony asked
"1830" McGee replied
"Righto, kiddies. I'm outta here" Tony said, heading off
"Where are you going Tony?" Kate asked
"Clubbing. Wanna join me?" Tony asked, "The power's out, we're not going to get any work done. May as well leave"
"He has a point Caitlin. Go home and get some rest." Ducky said. He turned back to Gibbs' sleeping form, "Jethro?" he lightly shook Gibbs' arm. Gibbs sat bolt upright
"What happened?" he asked
"You fell asleep. Anthony's gone home and I have advised Caitlin and Timothy to do the same, you should join them. There is nothing you can do whilst the power is out" Ducky responded
"Right" Gibbs said, rubbing his face and getting up slowly. He stumbled backwards slightly, but Ducky caught him
"How are you feeling Jethro? You seem a bit off balance. Dizzy?" Ducky asked concerned, as he righted Gibbs' balance and helped him to sit on the side of a desk
"No" Gibbs replied
"Jethro!" Ducky said, knowing he was lying
Gibbs sighed, "A bit"
"You really shouldn't drive home like this. Do you want me to call a cab or can somebody pick you up?" Ducky asked
"I'll be fine. I can drive" Gibbs said, getting up
"Don't be stupid Gibbs, I'll drive you home" Kate said, after she had got her things
"Kate, Ducky, I am fine. I am driving home" Gibbs stated, walking to his desk. He grabbed his coat and absently looked for his keys in the pockets to find them empty. "Where are my keys?"
"Right here" Kate replied, holding them up. Another flash of lightening lit up the office, to show her clearly.
"Kate, give me my keys" Gibbs said
"No"
"I'm not an invalid Kate"
"Never said you were. I'm just worried about your safety. I'm driving you home whether you like it or not, now deal with it" Kate said, walking off
Ducky, McGee and Abby exchanged glances. They watched as Gibbs walked off after her, grumbling under his breath.
That's it for chapter 7... I hope you like it! Please review, please!