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Typing with one hand and operating the mouse in the other, Maj. Gwen Cassidy was hard at work formulating her conclusions on the GySgt. Furmansky case when Special Agent Tony DiNozzo came walking into the lab looking for Abby. "Hey, where's Abby?"
The Major barely acknowledged Tony's entrance, and instead of looking away from her computer screen, she just continued typing away, never once letting her focus shift from her work. "Wasn't here when I got back, probably having lunch." Her words were short and to the point.
Tony quickly became curious as to what the Major was working on and moved in closer to get a better view. "Huh, she was supposed to be working on some trace for me… I guess she must have gotten distracted."
Tony tried to look non-chalantly over the Major's shoulder, but soon learned that he had been caught, "Profile of the UnSub… Trying to get it done before tomorrow afternoon." What Tony actually saw was the Major switching back and forth across multiple windows, copying one bit of data here, and pasting it into the report, while typing the additional info along side it. He watched her scan through tables of data to find the one piece she needed and placing it into the report with such deft skill he wasn't sure he was watching a person work, so much as a machine. His eyes were spinning in his head by the time he broke off from watching the Major.
He shook his head to clear away the fog that was quickly building, "Good grief, woman! How can you work like that!"
"Years of practice," was all she said, and she continued to plug away on her report.
Tony was smiling widely to try and hide his amazement, and he was about to make a sly comment when Ziva walked in and interrupted him, "DiNozzo, you better head back upstairs… Gibbs is mad as a tailor looking for you."
"Hatter! Mad as a Hatter!" Tony shook his head, "If you can't get 'em right, Ziva, don't even try, please?"
"Whatever, Gibbs is looking for you and he does not look happy." Ziva shrugged it off without a care and started looking through one of the folders on Abby's workstation.
"Yeah," Tony said while taking a seat, "Gibbs is just gonna have to-OOOOWWW!" Tony is stopped short by the smack to the back of the head from Gibbs' open hand.
"Is gonna have your hide tanning in the sun if you don't get me some intell on those blasted markers." Gibbs' face was anything but amicable, and Tony jumped from his seat as he was heading back out of the lab. "David, what are you doing down here again?"
Ziva continued looking through a stack of files on Abby's desk, "Well, I was hoping Abby had finished the analysis on the ballistics, but I don't see the report here." She closed up the folder and looked up, "So, I guess I will be going back upstairs to keep working on the markers until the ballistics are done."
After watching Agent David exit the lab, Gibbs turned his attention on the Major, who appeared to not even have noticed the little display taking place right in front of her. What he did see was the fact that she had slipped some headphones on and her eyes darting back and forth across her computer screen furiously, and he could hear the sound of the computer keys tapping away at lightning speed. "And I suppose you expect me to believe you are actually operating that comput-." Gibbs is stopped in his comment when he walked around the workstation to find the Major seamlessly working between countless windows and operating a computer strategy game at the same time. "What the devil is that?" His brow was creased and his eyes were squinted, and that was when Abby re-entered the lab cautiously.
She quickly noticed Gibbs in the room and went to his side when he motioned for her to come over. When she got there, she too was mesmerized by the tremendous volume of activity going on with Maj. Cassidy's computer. When the smile started creeping over Abby's face, it was Gibbs' turn to stand with his mouth slightly agape. "What is she doing?" was all he was able to say.
Abby just nodded her head and then started to explain, "See the headphones block out extraneous noise (us), and also allow for a certain rhythm and cadence to be created, but they also keep a certain part of the brain occupied so that the part of the brain responsible for analyzing data can focus more strongly… The strategy game, well, that takes away all the extra processes the brain uses and breaks it down to the basest elements so that a person can concentrate on the more abstract and intricate models of analyzation. It's really out there kind of stuff, and I've only read about studies using it, I've never seen anyone who had a high enough functioning brain who could pull it off. I mean, this is like Einstein level kind of stuff, because you have your brain going in like twenty million directions to be able to even attempt this kind of thing, because its whole purpose is to structure a brain that has such a wide focus into pinpointing on a very specific analytical task. Wow." Abby stood there completely without speech after she explained what she knew about the process to Gibbs. And Gibbs just stood there, his mouth still agape, his eyes squinted and his brow furrowed as he switched his gaze back and forth from Abby to the Major.
After what felt like an eternity, Gibbs shook his head to clear his thoughts and threw up his arms in defeat. "Whatever it is, it better get me my profile in a hurry." And with that he walked out of the lab shaking his head and gesturing his defeat once more.
Abby, however, was completely entranced by what the Major was doing and could not seem to pull herself away from looking over the Major's shoulder. She probably stood there for a good thirty minutes, just trying to follow one part of what was going on when the Major stopped abruptly and found Abby there at her shoulder, "Sorry, did you need something, Ms. Scuito?" The Major reached into her case and pulled out her CD's, retrieving her next selection.
Abby was suddenly taken aback the effortless way the Major was able to come out of such an intense activity. "Um, no… Well, yeah, I guess… Umm…How did you learn to do that!"
"What? Oh, you mean the mis-directional focusing technique?" Abby just nodded her head as the Major found the CD she was looking for, "Oh well, one of my professors at Johns Hopkins was very intrigued by my study techniques and wanted to try and apply the theory to a specific person, but most of his case studies had yielded 'unsatisfactory results.' So, when he saw me in the analysis lab, listening to some Strauss, scanning through videotaped sessions, taking notes, and adding data to the tables he figured I would be his ideal case study subject." The Major switched out the CD's and then reached behind her for another folder of photographs to load into the scanner.
"So, you were like the first person to pull this theory off?" Abby was still in complete awe of what she had just witnessed.
"Not really, it's actually something that occurs in probably three to five percent of the population. They figure it's actually some form of ADD, but it's a form that only occurs in people with better control mechanisms in their brains. The true ADD person is without those controls and they are unable to focus their minds in order to retain information in meaningful ways. I think of it as the hummingbird effect; you can't make a humming bird slow down without killing it, so you just have to find ways of speeding up the flow and style of information in order to meet the needs of the humming bird brain."
"Wait, so you think that by increasing the rate of data flow, someone with ADD can achieve the higher functioning?" Abby was desperately trying to keep up with the Major's thought process.
"Right, like with you… You just speed up the rate with which you obtain data to process and your brain doesn't become as easily distracted and you are able to focus on the data flow, simply because of the speed at which it is arriving in your brain, right?" The Major had finally given Abby her full attention.
"Right! I've been trying to explain that for years! And no one ever got it." Abby practically jumped for joy at her vindication.
"Now, granted, it doesn't mean that everyone can understand you all the time, but it does mean that you are able to function in a world that might otherwise have never been available to you, without that focusing ability. I experimented with my baby brother a little on that theory, and he's now a combat communications expert. He is able to handle all available communications systems at one time and direct a crew of ten people simultaneously. They even had me design a test program for him to run drills with his crews. Now that he has a family, he trains comm techs for the Navy at Norfolk, but when he was working in fleet, he was simply awesome!" The Major actually showed some pride in her statement and Abby could feel it, even though she was still dumbfounded by seeing the Major accomplish such a feat.
"That's really cool… So, is the Navy like a family thing with you?" Abby decided she needed to stall a little while before broaching the topic of her earlier insanity.
"Sort of… My Dad didn't serve, but he was a computer tech for DOD and then for NASA, until he retired a year and a half ago after fourty years in the field. One grandfather was Navy under Halsey and the other with the 1st Marines during World War II, all my uncles served in various branches, and all four of my brothers have done some time in either the Marines or the Navy, though me and the baby are the only career military. My sister declined to serve herself, but her husband is a DI at Camp Lejune. Family history of service dates back to the 1700's. We Baldwin's have never been known to back down from a fight, or a bottle." The Major winked with her last comment, letting Abby know that she was not angry with her.
"Wow, that's like a lot of olive drab and navy blue, Major." Abby started walking back to her workstation and then decided it was about time she owned up to her bad behavior from earlier. "Major?"
The Major was stretching her neck from side to side, "Yes, ma'am."
Abby took in a deep breath, hoping it would give her just a bit more courage, "I umm… I wanted to apologize for earlier… Ya know, when I kinda lost my mind for a little while."
"It's called grief, Ms. Scuito. And it-."
"Look, I know I screwed up earlier, but do you have to keep calling me that? It makes me feel like a total jackass." Abby's outburst startled the Major a bit.
"I apologize, but given the circumstances, I thought using the familiar was not something I should take for granted."
"Oh." Abby was again sorry for having spoken so quickly, "Yeah, well I can see where you might think that, but honestly, I don't even know who Ms. Scuito is, 'cause she sure ain't me." Abby tried to make the Major understand her outburst and when the Major nodded at her, she figured it was time to get on with it. "Look, Major… I'm an emotional person, but they usually aren't my emotions. So, when someone says or does something that makes those things come out, I get a little freaked, okay? I mean, I was so not ready for someone to ask me about Kate. She was like my best friend and all, and her leaving was not a good time. I guess I just need to deal with that a little more than I have, but it's hard, ya know?"
Abby started wringing her hands and looking up as she spoke and was unaware that the Major had risen from behind her workstation. "See, me and Kate could talk about stuff, and it was cool. She would get a little shocked sometimes, but she totally didn't hold it against me or anything and that was what made her awesome. Plus, she was like the only person I could talk to about like God stuff, ya know, because she still held on to that and Gibbs is like so closed off on that subject, but Kate totally got me on that level. She was the person I could, ya know, that I could-." Abby was struggling for the words when she was completely taken aback by the Major standing right beside her when she spoke.
"Be yourself with, no matter what?" The Major gingerly laid a hand upon Abby's shoulder and she was instantly broken down into tears. That was when Abby did something she never thought possible, she reached for the Major and found comfort in her arms as she sobbed tears that had been sitting below the surface for far too long.
Abby was completely overtaken with the grief she had been suppressing ever since Kate's death. She had no control over the emotions that now came flooding out of her very soul and she was racked with sobbing as the Major simply held her close and stroked her back.
Once the waves of grief began to relax their assault on her heart, Abby realized that she had completely fallen apart, not only in front of the Major, but in the Major's arms. And this was someone she barely knew. How could she be so unraveled by this Marine officer that she lost her tightly held grip on her emotions? That was when she found a tissue being handed to her from what seemed like out of nowhere. She took the tissue and wiped her eyes, only to find another tissue following the first, which she also took and wiped her face. Holding the used tissues in her hand, she sheepishly looked up into the Major's face and found a kind and compassionate smile waiting for her there. "Better now?"
Abby nodded a little, and looked very much like a lonely child at that moment, "Sorry about that… I don't know where that came from." She sat up and grabbed another tissue from the tabletop and blew her nose. The Major moved away slightly from Abby, but stayed close enough to return to her post, should the breakdown happen again. "Thanks… I guess I just needed to get that out… And maybe I needed it with somebody who knew her too."
"I understand… Sometimes it still hits me pretty hard. She was a remarkable woman, and an amazing friend." The Major, satisfied that Abby had regained her composure, started walking back to her workstation.
Abby sniffled a little, "What do you do when it gets to you?"
The Major sat down in her chair and contemplated her answer a moment, "In the cold months, I fix enchiladas and my husband and I talk about the trips we took to Mexico… In the warmer months, we take the boat out and leave some flowers on the water for her. I'd known her for a very long time and it's still hard to think she's gone."
Abby nodded in agreement, "I still have to catch myself talking about her like she's still here."
"Well, knowing Kate, I'd say she probably is still here, in one form or another." The Major gave Abby a knowing look and she was finally able to smile a little.
That was when she remembered what had happened shortly after Kate's death, when she was seeing Kate around the lab dressed up like a rocker Goth and she chuckled a bit. "Yeah, one form or another."
Abby was about to get back to work when the Major spoke up again, "Uh, Abby?"
She turned around to hear her, "Yeah?"
"You might want to freshen up a little before you get back to work." The Major was already getting back to work when Abby found a pocket mirror and nearly fell out of her own seat at the site she beheld. Her makeup was all over the place from her crying fit, and as she got up to go into her office to fix her makeup, she noticed the Major was about to pull a sweater on over her shirt, which was totally smeared with Abby's dark makeup.
"Oh god! I'm so sorry about that!"
The Major finished pulling the sweater down and getting her collar out from underneath it when she simply shrugged it off with a comment, "Hazards of the job… Think nothing of it." Maj. Cassidy put her headphones back on a got down to work once again as Abby went into her office to clean up her face and get back to work herself.