Chapter 5 - File Switch

Kate looked up from her desk as she heard the elevator ding and expectantly waited for Gibbs to walk out. She had noticed it more recently that whenever he was in close proximity, she got this feeling in her stomach and would more often than not get little goose bumps on her arms. Kate had told Abby about it over lunch the other day:

"I don't know Abby, I get this weird feeling before Gibbs walks into the room sometimes. Like I can tell when he's coming," Kate said before she took a swig of her water.

"Really?" Abby asked. "Oooh, cool! Maybe you're psychic! I have a lot of psychic friends who are really awesome. Well, except for Cleetus, he turned out to be a real douche bag."

Kate rolled her eyes, "Abby, please!"

"Ok, ok," she paused for a moment. "Any other side effects? And are you gonna eat your side salad?" Abby reached and snagged Kate's bowl of greens before she could answer.

Kate looked around for a little, deep in thought, before speaking. "Yea, I get goose bumps, too. What do you think it means?"

Abby started to laugh. "Kate, that feeling you're describing there," she said as she leaned in closer to her friend, "that feeling is love!"

Kate smiled as she saw the top of Gibbs head above her cubicle wall. She could spot his silver hair a mile away. When Gibbs got closer and locked eyes with Kate, he gave her a wink. Both of them had decided to try their best to leave their relationship out of the office. For the time being, anyway.

Tony was busy playing a space game on his computer. He didn't even notice his boss walk into the bullpen, and he especially didn't notice when Gibbs crept up in front him. Whack! "Ow, what the he--" Tony cried out sharply as he looked up. "Oh, hey boss." It took Tony a minute to realize that someone had hit him from behind, and Gibbs was standing in front of him. He looked back at Gibbs to see that he was smiling past him.

"Was that good, Gibbs?" came a voice from behind Tony.

Tony spun his chair around to meet Trisha's beaming face. "Oh," he scoffed. "You did not just do that!"

"You bet I did!" Trisha exclaimed.

Tony started to get up out of his chair. "If I catch you, I swear!" He seemed excessively angry. His face turned red as he made a low growling noise.

Trisha's eyes got wide as she bolted from behind DiNozzo's desk and straight to Gibbs. He scooped her up and held her on his hip with one arm. Tony stopped abruptly in front of Gibbs' body. He slowly straightened up and was met with a cold, hard stare from his boss.

"Yea, DiNozzo? What are you gonna do?" Gibbs asked, his voice quiet; coaxing Tony to make a move. "Go ahead and try it."

Tony may have been mad, but he didn't have a death wish. "I, uh… I'm gonna get back to work, Boss." He glared at Trisha momentarily but stopped when Gibbs cleared his throat. Tony went back to his desk and slunk down in his chair before he feverishly began to type and search for something on his computer.

Gibbs put Trisha down on his desk. She sat on the edge and started to swing her legs as Gibbs sat next to her and put an arm behind her. Trisha leaned back against him and yawned.

"Ok, so why am I here?" Gibbs barked as he turned his attention to his team.

Abby, who was standing next to McGee, piped up. "Well, we needed your security clearance to look up some files on this new case we just got."

Gibbs sighed, "Why didn't you just ask the Director for hers?"

"Well, we would have, but it's the weekend Boss. She's not here," McGee stuttered.

He nodded in acknowledgement. "Ok, so what have we got?" Gibbs asked. "Put it up on the plasma, Abs."

"Um, Trish, you might not want to look at this. It's some pictures from Ducky's autopsy," Abby warned the little girl.

Trisha shrugged. "I think I'll be alright. Not like I haven't seen a dead guy before. Especially since the last time I visited autopsy with Ducky…"

Abby nodded, causing her black pig tails to bounce. She turned to the plasma screen and clicked a button on the remote she held in her hand. The screen jumped to life, but Abby seemed confused. Instead of autopsy photos, snapshots of blood spatter on a wall appeared. "This isn't supposed to be in here," she said as she flipped through the pictures. The next picture was of more blood spatter, and the following was of a blood pool with small footprints in it.

Trisha had been looking out the window. She wasn't really paying attention to the confusion, but when Abby clicked the remote and Kate gasped at the photo, she whipped her head around to the screen. She froze as she stared at the screen and her breath caught in her throat. Tony had started laughing evilly from his desk, but stopped when Trisha let out one of the worst blood curdling screams that any member of the team had ever heard. She jumped down off of Gibbs desk, half screaming and half sobbing, and took off out of the bullpen.

"Jesus Christ, Gibbs!" Kate exclaimed. "Look at that photo! Is that…?" her voice trailed off to a whisper.

Gibbs jumped off his desk and walked closer to the plasma. "Oh my God," he said loudly. He turned abruptly and ran in the direction that Trisha had gone.

"Somebody want to tell me what's going on?" Abby asked angrily. "Where did these pictures come from?" She glared in Tony's direction.

Tony hung his head. "I switched around the files to murder case photos… I just wanted to scare Trisha. You know, get back at her for hitting me on the head. I didn't think she'd react the way she did. I mean, it's just some blood and dead bodies. She even said that she's seen dead guys before…"

"That's really sick, Tony. She's only twelve!" McGee spat out.

Kate had been staring at the photos still plastered on the plasma screen. She turned to Tony, "Do you have any idea what you've just done? DiNozzo, you stupid ass! Those two dead bodies are her parents!" Kate grabbed the stapler on her desk and hurled it at Tony before running after Trisha and Gibbs.

Abby grabbed McGee's arm and tugged him. They both followed Kate down the hallway towards the interrogation rooms, leaving behind Tony, who had turned a sickly shade of green.