Shariff Returns: [part 1]

...

3rd Person POV:

The alarm on the nightside table went off, blaring loudly into the otherwise silent bedroom. Tony grunted in displeasure at the noise, the body next to him shifting around. Jeanne reaches out to turn the alarm off, sighing tiredly at the earliness of the hour. Tony shuffles around to face her, barely conscious.

"Just a few more minutes." He grunts in protest, reaching out to yank her body back down beside him. Jeanne giggles at his antics. Tony however, was already falling back asleep.

"Tony, I have to get ready for work." She protested, not moving to get up from her position.

"Just spray some dry shampoo in your hair and throw it up, cuts the time in half." he retorts with a lazy grin, his eyes still closed. Jeanne leaned back and stared down at him curiously.

"How are you so familiar with womanly hair maintenance?" she asked him. Tony hummed, suddenly more awake. He knew that tone, so he had to tread lightly. His eyes opened fully, and he blinked. The shade of the blue eyes looking down at him weren't right. Tony's brain finally caught up. Right….Jeanne….Running a tired hand down his face he took a second to compose himself, falling back into his role.

"My uh….my best friend is a girl. You learn things." He explained, leaning up on his elbows with an easy grin. Jeanne eyed him warily. At her silence Tony chuckled, raising his hands in surrender.

"I swear it's the truth. Before you I wasn't one to really stick around in the morning." He lied easily. Jeanne hummed, grinning at his explanation.

"So is she just your friend or have you two ever…." She asked, staring down at their joined hands. Tony bit his lip anxiously; not that she could see it.

"No, we never went past friendship. It would be super weird at this point. Just a good friend." Jeanne settled down even more, accepting of his explanation.

"So how did you end up being such close friends with a woman? I wouldn't have thought that was your style." Tony hummed, reaching over to pull her closer to his chest. Easier to keep her eyes of his face as he thought his way out of this. Why did he even mention it in the first place?

"We met early on in college and when I tried to hit on her she wasn't interested in the least. I don't know why but I liked that. So, we just left it as friends and have been ever since." He told Jeanne, keeping as honest as possible so it would be easier to keep up with in the future. Always mix a little truth in with the lie. Jeanne lifted her head up to look at him with a curious grin.

"Why have I never met her? You've met my friends." She inquired. Tony blanked. This was not good.

"Uh….her jobs keeps her super busy. She's rarely free so it makes it hard to catch up." He finally answered. Jeanne hummed thoughtfully again, this time sitting up and stretching.

"Well, let me know if she comes around. It would be nice to meet someone so important to you." she suggested, giving him a pointed look. Tony nodded silently, knowing this would now be something he would have to find a way out of. Jeanne wouldn't drop something like this so easily. He remained on the bed as she walked to the bathroom to get ready for her day. Tony groaned mentally, pressing his face into his hands. Why did he open his big mouth and mention Claire in the first place? Things had just gotten so much more complicated.

...

...

The NCIS team arrived at the scene of the light malfunction. While Ziva was up top talking with witnesses and letting the engineers fix the lights, the rest of the team was down the nearby manhole that was taped off. Gibbs was the last to climb down the ladder to meet the rest of the team underground.

"City engineers traced the disturbance to an underground power node. Back-traced the source, they found this." McGee explained, leading Gibbs to the room just across from them. Inside, a dead marine was on the ground, a big bloody hole where his eye should have been. Tony was inside taking photos while Claire ran a brief background check on the man.

"Hey, boss. Meet Marine Officer Major John Maguire. At least that's what his ID says. It's hard to tell with, you know, the one eye." Tony introduced the body on the floor, reading the name from the man's wallet.

"Yeah, where's the missing one?" Gibbs asked, kneeling next to the body.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Tony mused.

"Major worked under Marine Corps' Systems Command. Was liaison to the civilian sector for NBC preparedness." Claire read off her phone. McGee scrunched up his face in thought.

"Nuclear, biological, and chemical." He rattled off hesitantly.

"Very good." Tony whispered teasingly, beaming at the man.

"I'm proud of you. Like a weird uncle." He added before turning back to face Gibbs who was looking over the room with his flashlight.

"You may not have noticed but the…"

"Door locks from the outside?" Gibbs answered, glancing up at Tony.

"Oh, so you noticed that."

"Meaning someone else locked him down here." McGee pointed out.

"Yeah, you really wanna impress me McGee, tell me why." Gibbs told him, still scanning the breaker boxes in the room.

"He know where the SOS was going?" he asked, gesturing to the power box with broken wires from where the man had messed with it to get a signal out.

"Not a chance." McGee shook his head.

"Shorting the power box was clever but a shot in the dark. There's no way he knew what all this connected to." Claire pointed out, looking over the box thoughtfully.

"Someone was able to figure it out." Ziva chimed in, finally joining them in the room with Ducky coming in behind her.

"That's precisely why 'SOS' was chosen, because it was so very recognizable. Dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot. Unlike the old signal, which was CQD. 'Come quick, distress'." Ducky prattled off, as he knelt down to take a liver temperature of the victim.

"Just the SOS?" Gibbs inquired, leaning in to talk with Ziva.

"That's all he sent." She affirmed.

"Morse code's a dying art."

"Was for him." Ziva quipped.

"Well, he could've sent a longer message, but nobody would've recognized it." Tony pointed out, however he shied away at Gibb's questioning stare.

"Present company excepted." The man quickly amended.

"Cause of death?" Gibbs asked, getting down next to Ducky.

"Well, he didn't suffocate. There are no signs of cyanosis to indicate oxygen deprivation. No petechial hemorrhages that would indicate strangulation. There's no blunt or sharp force trauma. In fact, there is no sign of any trauma at all." Ducky answered, frowning as he scanned over the body.

"Other than the missing eye." Claire added with a small grin.

"That wouldn't explain his death, dear." Duck countered. Claire shrugged. Fair point.

"Blood came from somewhere." Gibbs commented, looking at the man's bloody hands.

"Yes, well, the blood on the hands is superficial from severe torn cuticles and pads."

"It looks like he literally tried to climb the walls." Tony mused, shining his light on the bloody smears all over the room. Everyone else turned their own lights on to see the full extent of the damage. As they all drew their attention to the walls Claire felt a set of eyes on her. Slowly turning her head she spotted Tony staring at her with a frown. Well more like staring through her. He never noticed that she turned.

"What?" she asked in confusion. Tony's blinked in surprise, snapping back into the present. He quickly shook his head.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Claire rose her brow and walked over closer so they wouldn't be overheard.

"Why are you being weird this morning?" Tony shot her an offended look.

"I am not being weird. I was just lost in random thought. No big deal it happens to everyone." He insisted easily. Claire let the matter drop, shaking her head and turning back to the task at hand.

"Oh, that's odd. 99.1, it appears our corpse is running a slight fever." Ducky hummed curiously, pulling out his probe. Tony glanced down at them curiously before turning to take photos of the walls, using the flashlights to get better images.

"What happened down here?" McGee murmured, cringing as he looked around.

"Whatever happened, someone wanted to watch." Ziva called, stepping up and taking a small camera off one of the large pipes.

...

Claire's POV:

Back at NCIS I joined Gibbs and Tony down to autopsy to get the update from Ducky. We all walked in while the man was in the middle of another one of his factual stories.

"…a group of Germans toured the United States, custom fitting glass eyes to those who needed them. Yes, which would have included you major, had you still been alive." Ducky told the man on the table, ignoring our entrance. The three of us fanned out around the table.

"Sadly, the outbreak of war led to shortages, resulting in ill-fitting eyeballs which had the tendency to pop out during rigorous interpersonal activity." Ducky finished, walking over to wash his hands. Tony's eyebrow rose curiously as he leaned over the man to look at the hole in his face.

"Such as?" he inquired. I smirked, glancing him across the table. Tony looked up at my expression and frowned in confusion.

"I leave that to your imagination, Tony. But I do have a cause of death." Ducky quickly redirected the conversation. Gibbs quickly made his way over to join the ME. Meanwhile Tony scrunched his face in thought on what Ducky had said. He looked at me hopefully.

"If you don't know then I'm not telling you." I told him in amusement. Tony pouted childishly, still mulling the possibilities over in his head no doubt. With a grin still on my face I turned my attention back to Ducky.

"The major's death occurred as a result of acute organ failure, brought about by hyperthermia."

"It wasn't cold down there." Tony countered.

"Hyper, Tony. Not hypo." I clarified. Tony 'ahhed' in realization.

"His body literally became too hot to handle." Ducky added with a nod.

"Wasn't that warm down there." Gibbs pointed out with a frown. That was true, there definitely wasn't any extreme temperature going on in the room.

"No indeed it wasn't. But the hyperthermia would explain the elevated body temperature I found at the crime scene. One mystery solved." Ducky explained. Maybe so but it wasn't much help at all.

"Unfortunately, the major does not appear to suffer from any of the risk factors involved in heat stroke." Ducky pointed out, reading over his assessment once more.

"Well, he still managed to die from it." I deadpanned. So nothing to indicate heat stroke….but he still died from it…..that makes no sense.

"Yes, indeed he did. You know, certain medications can interfere with the body's cooling processes, but we'll have to wait for Abby's toxicology report to see if that is a factor." The ME suggested.

"Oh, I get it. Rigorous interpersonal activities." Tony chuckled, jerking his head up in delight as his discovery. We all just stared at him silently. As if realizing he said it out loud he chuckled sheepishly.

"Hitting…" he weakly continued, punching the air. From beside Ducky, I grinned in bemusement and watched the good try and salvage the situation. Tony frowned, clearing his throat.

"Ahem, maybe it was a trophy for the crypt keeper." He commented instead, his eyes darting around unwilling to land on any one person.

"The wound was self-inflicted." Ducky countered. I grimaced and looked down at the body incredulously.

"Are you saying that he…"

"He tore out his own eyeball." The man nodded, not needing me to finish the sentence.

"I found traces of vitreous fluid under his fingernails." I winced at the thought.

"Well, where'd it go? We didn't find an eyeball at the crime scene." Tony asked, his eyebrow raising in surprise. Ducky grinned, reaching back to pick up one of his specimen jars.

"It was at the crime scene, all right. Hiding in his stomach." He declared, holding up the missing organ in the jar. The three of us stared at it with mild horror.

"You didn't find a toe in there too, did you Duck?" Gibbs asked teasingly, thinking back to the other odd findings we'd found in stomachs recently.

"How did it get in his stomach?" Tony asked, glancing down at the body on the table with a frown.

"Oh, I don't know Tony. But there are only two pathways into the stomach. Neither possibility is particularly appetizing." Ducky explained. Tony leaned his head back, his face becoming a bit pale at the thought.

"Lovely." I muttered, pursing my lips distastefully.

...

3rd Person POV:

Claire strolled down to Abby's lab a few hours later, checking up on the Wi-Fi address that the camera was linked to. She had already informed Gibbs that there were traces of BZ gas in the Major's system which explained the hyperthermia as it was a common symptom of the chemical weapon. Claire frowned as she walked in to find the main lab empty. Continuing on, she spotted Abby in front of her office computer. The glass sliding doors opened with a hiss and Abby's head jerked up in surprise.

"Claire! I'm so glad you're here!" she cheered, standing up and bringing the woman into a crushing hug. Claire stood there in confusion, awkwardly patting her back.

"And may I ask why you're so happy to see me?" Claire asked tentatively. Abby let her go and dragged her to stand behind the desk as she plopped down into her chair.

"I need help picking out a new tattoo. It's such a permanent thing and I need the opinion of those who know me best." She declared, pulling up the 100s of images already on her screen. Claire's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Already? Where are you even going to put it?" She asked leaning forward to scan all the varieties. Abby grinned impishly and looked up at her friend. Claire got the point.

"Oh….alright then." She chuckled, leaning in to get a closer look at the screen.

"Yea, I asked Gibbs but decided that the position of the tattoo would be a problem. A girl's opinion would be much better." Abby rambled, smooshing her cheeks between her hands as she fretted over what to get.

"Well as much as I would love to spend time narrowing down this decision for you, I was actually sent by Gibbs to get that address from the camera." Claire pointed out with an apologetic frown. Abby perked up.

"Oh of course! I have it written down right here." The goth quickly grabbed the sticky note with the address and handed it to Claire.

"Thank you! And I will get back to you about this tattoo dilemma soon." She promised, swiftly making her way back to the elevators with the information.

...

...

The address led the team to a bowling alley. Tony frowned as he read the large banner on the outside of the building, advertising free Wi-Fi for online gaming.

"I got a bad feeling about this. We let Elf Lord go in, we may never get him out." Tony commented from the backseat where he was crammed in with McGee and Claire. Ziva sat shotgun with Gibbs at the wheel.

"It's getting old, Tony." McGee groused.

"Tony, you and Ziva take the back. Elf Lord, Claire, you're with me." Gibbs ordered. Tony reached over and playfully flicked McGee's cheek before getting out of the car.

"Why can't he just let it go already. It's not funny anymore." McGee complained as he walked with Claire and Gibbs to the entrance of the building. Claire reached over to pat him on the shoulder.

"McGee it will always be funny. Just roll with it cause I doubt it's going away anytime soon. You know how Tony is." She told him with a shrug. McGee rolled his eyes skyward, knowing she was right.

...

The three agents make their way through the front entrance of the bowling alley. Immediately to the right of them is a whole room full of computers where people are playing their online RPGs. Gibbs rolled his eyes and walked on. McGee however became distracted as he paused to watch them play with a grin.

"Not the time, Elf Lord." Claire teased, yanking him by the collar to get him to follow. McGee blushed sheepishly and scurried after her. Walking further into the bowling ally they all looked around. The facility was still running but there weren't any staff running around that they could see. Claire leaned over the counter to look but still saw no one.

"I wonder where everyone is." She mused aloud, following after the others. Continuing on they came across a small hallway leading to the back. Muffled shouting could be heard.

"Talk to me, Ziva." Gibbs relayed over their radios.

"Rear service entrance clear. Standing by." With a nod of his head, McGee and Claire pulled out their guns and followed Gibbs down the hall towards the noise.

"For some reason I don't believe you. Look, we can do this nice and easy, or not so nice and easy."

"Come on, man. Start talking." Gibbs leaned in to look through the crack in the door and spotted some staff members roughly interrogating the manager.

"Not so rough. I said I didn't know." The manager griped, obviously tired from all the questions and the abuse.

"I don't believe you." the man snarled, yanking him up by the collar. Gibbs made eye contact with the other two. With a nod he kicked down the door, setting off a chain reaction.

"Federal agents! Drop it!" McGee shouted as the three of them fanned out in front of the door.

"Drop your weapons!" The two employees reacted, pulling up their own firearms as well.

"Easy."

"Federal agents! Put them down!" Another man barreled through the side door, shouting at them. Claire frowned amongst all the shouting from the men in the room. Federal agents?

"Drop your weapons!" Tony and Ziva came through the last door, gun raised.

"Drop your weapons!"

"How about we all drop our weapons since we're clearly on the same team." A familiar face ran in, holding up a hand to everyone in the room. Colonel Mann shot her people and the NCIS team warning glances. Realizing the situation everyone relaxed, putting their guns away.

...

...

Once everything had been sorted out, Colonel Mann went back to NCIS with the agents. Using the bigscreen in the bullpen she was updating Gibbs on what her team had been investigating.

"Maamoun Shariff. CID was able to trace an old lead from when Shariff was working as a paid informant for the CIA. The trail led to an alias, which led to a credit card." She explained.

"Which led to a bowling alley." Gibbs mumbled.

"Yup. Funny, us running into each other like that." Mann grinned, setting down the remote she was using. All the other agents in the room glanced at one another, watching the interaction intently. Last time they had worked with the Colonel things between her and Gibbs got interesting.

"Funny?"

"Do you have a better word?"

"A few come to mind." Gibbs chuckled, grinning at her. McGee, Ziva, and Claire shared surprised glances with one another at the sound of the unfamiliar noise. Gibbs laughing?

"So the real question, are our cases connected?" Mann hummed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"As connected as McGee and his cute little writing pipe." Tony mused teasingly making his way into the room holding files. McGee frowned in offense.

"Prints on the computer monitoring the sewer matched the prints on file from Shariff's CIA report." Tony continued his explanation as he showed the file to McGee before closing it back up.

"The Mad Bomber's back." Claire summarized with dread.

"Except he's not using bombs this time." Ziva pointed out.

"So where did he get the BZ gas?" Mann inquired, looking around the room.

"One of the major's duties was to deliver small quantities of weapons-grade gasses to civilian research labs." Claire explained. Mann looked over at Gibbs who was staring at his computer. Without looking up he began dealing out duties.

"Claire you and Tony…."

"Run down the major's deliveries, staring with the most recent." Claire finished for him with a grin, already grabbing her things.

"Find out.."

"If any of them were BZ gas. On it." Tony nodded. In one quick motion the duo swept out of the office, having anticipated Gibb's orders.

"They always finish your sentences for you?" Colonel Mann asked in a whisper, watching the two agents walk out.

"I teach them to anticipate." Gibbs shrugged.

"Well, they do it well. You must be a good teacher."

"Well, thank you very much." Gibbs thanked with an Elvis impersonation which sent the both of them into giggles. McGee stared at them uncomfortably. It was all very odd.

...

...

"Major Maguire was here last week. Secured delivery then left after." The manager of NBC explained to the agents as he led them through the building.

"You seem real broken up." Tony commented. The man huffed tiredly.

"Hey, I got my own problems. We upsized our operation after 9/11. Things haven't quite panned out. Lines out the door for Game Box 3, and I got a warehouse of this stuff no one wants." He explained to them holding up a gas mask that was on one of the racks.

"And creditors up the wazoo." Before they could continue the conversation, Tony's cellphone rang prompting the group to pause. Tony quickly patted himself down, looking for the cell in his many pockets. Finally pulling the correct one out he scanned the number.

"Give me a second." He requested, turning his back to take the call. The manager looked at her curiously.

"He's got two cell phones. One for each ear." She quipped in tense explanation, leaning against the wall as they waited silently. Claire narrowed her eyes as she listened to his one sided conversation.

"Yeah….I can take a rain check….Everything all right?...All right, I'll talk to you later." Tony lowly replied, before hanging up and turning back around.

"Sounds like you have something up your wazoo. A doctor's probe perhaps?" she teased, with a subtle hint of serious curiosity. Tony stared at her, unamused. He didn't answer. She shrugged off his silence, her mood souring considerably. They turned back to the manager who led them down a side corridor.

"Look I got a business to run. If you have any more questions you can ask our chief engineer. He's in here." He led them through a security door into the lab. As the door opened, an attractive dark-haired man turned around to face them. Claire paused in the door and stared at him a moment.

"Dane, tell them what they need to know." With that the manager was gone. Claire cleared her throat lightly before making her way towards Dane. Tony lingered in the door for a moment, glaring in disgust at what he was witnessing. Reluctantly he followed her inside, standing next to the desk alongside her.

"What do you need to know?" Dane asked politely.

"My partner probably wants to know your home phone number." Tony grumbled bitterly. Claire swiftly thumped him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Tony groaned, rubbing his chest.

"If you let it go, he would have thought I was kidding." He pointed out tensely. Claire shot him a glare.

"I don't want your number." She corrected, turning back to the engineer.

"What do you what?" He inquired curiously. Tony pulled out his notebook to distract himself with jotting down things while Claire asked the questions.

"You got a delivery of BZ gas last week? We need to confirm shipment details." She explained.

"Invoice number?" the man requested. Claire pulled a slip of paper from the chest pocket on her jacket. Tony rolled his eyes to the ceiling as Dane watched the action with interest. She tossed the number onto the desktop. With no further ado the engineer began typing in the number to look it up in the system.

"If chemical weapons are banned, how come your doing research with them?" Tony inquired, looking around at the equipment in the room.

"Not everyone plays by the same rules as us. We need to certify that our safety devices will be functional against a rouge attack." Dane explained, turning away from his computer.

"Military provides us with the samples, certify our devices. And we do the testing." A series of beeps alerted him to the end of the search. He turned back to read over the screen.

"Here we go, 4 kilograms of BZ concentrate." Tony frowned in confusion while Claire double checked the invoice on the screen.

"Four? According to System's records it was 14." Tony pointed out.

"We asked for four. That's what the major signed over to us." Dane explained.

"Ten kilograms missing." Claire hummed, biting her lip worriedly. Tony frowned and leaned in closer to her.

"Is that a lot?" he asked. As a response Dane reached up to grab a gas mask and tossed it to him.

"Yea….it's a lot." Claire nodded. Tony winced and pulled out his cell, dreading the phone call he was about to make. When Tony had finished delivering the news, they quickly wrapped the meeting up.

"Thank you for your help. If you can think of anything else regarding this, let us know." Claire dismissed, handing Dane her business card. The man nodded with a grin. Tony huffed and quickly dragged the woman out of the building. Walking back to the car Claire watched Tony's tense form in confusion.

"What is your problem?" she finally asked as they reached the vehicle. Tony stared at her incredulously over the top.

"My problem? What's yours?" he shot back, sliding into the driver's seat. Claire followed into the passenger.

"What?" she asked. Tony growled irritably as he threw the car into gear, heading back to NCIS.

"You were drooling all over that guy. What happened to professionalism?" Claire's jaw dropped.

"I was not! You're being so dramatic." She countered. Tony chuckled humorlessly.

"Right. I'm not blind Claire, the looks you were shooting him were sickening." She scoffed, turning to look out the window as she gathered her thoughts.

"So I found the man attractive, what's the big deal? There's nothing wrong with acknowledging a good thing." Claire pointed out, watching his face intently.

"The big deal is…you can't just…." Tony sputtered, trying to come up with some excuse. Under the current circumstances there was none. Claire became silent as she watched him struggle internally.

"Tony?" she probed, her eyes hopeful as she waited for him to get collected. Tony glanced over at her before returning his gaze to the road. His jaw clenched tightly.

"Just forget it." He muttered quietly, his anger quickly dissipating. Claire sighed. Definitely not what she was hoping for.

"Dane is a stupid name anyway." Tony grunted; his eye twitching as he circled back to the encounter. Claire rolled her eyes, a sad grin crossing her face.

"No, it's not. I think it's interesting." She quietly countered.

"It's a type of dog, Claire." He countered. Her grin widened.

"And Tony is a cartoon tiger." She quipped. Tony pursed his lips.

"Now that was uncalled for." He grinned, not offended by the jibe. Claire chuckled, looking back out the car window. Soon the vehicle dropped back into silence, both parties replaying all that just happened. This whole situation kept getting more complicated.

...

Claire's POV:

Gibbs and Colonel Mann entered the office together, returning from Abby's lab. Now that we knew how much BZ gas was out there in the hands of a terrorist, we were firing on all cylinders to get things done.

"Good news, boss. Gordon Gear ran a full inventory." Tony began, hopping up as he spotted their entrance. I quickly joined, following Gibbs to his desk.

"The only thing unaccounted for was the BZ gas." I added. McGee and Ziva joined and the four of us stood in front of Gibb's, desk waiting for his response. Gibbs looked up and stared at us blankly.

"Does that mean you found Shariff?" he asked pointedly. Right…that.

"I guess he's still unaccounted for." McGee answered sheepishly.

"He's someplace doing something." Ziva chimed in weakly. Gibbs looked at us pointedly.

"Figure out where and find him." he ordered sternly.

"I got an idea. Campfire." Tony declared with a grin. His idea was instantly protested by Ziva and McGee. I stood silently, startled by how quick they were to object. Ignoring the noise, Tony turned to explain the idea to Colonel Mann who was watching with wide eyes.

"Campfire's where we get together in a free environment, without hugging and everything we…." He began but dropped off when Gibbs darted past the us, heading towards the elevator.

"Uh, he's not a big fan of the campfire." I told her with a strained grin. Colonel Mann stood there in surprise, evidently lost as to what happened.

"And where's he going?" she asked.

"Same place he always goes to think." McGee chirped. With that we all scattered back to our designated desks, Colonel Mann left standing in the middle of the room. She turned, looking around at all of us as if waiting for further explanation.

"Anyone want to tell me where that is…." She trailed off.

"You've been there before…." I started but stopped when I realized what I had just said. Crap…I only told Tony about what happened last time when I caught them at Gibb's house. This was not good. Colonel Mann turned and shot me a curious look, just a bit flustered at the information. I shrunk down into my chair, ignoring the mixed expressions I was getting from the room as a whole.

"I have?" Mann inquired; her eyes boring into mine intently. I uncomfortably cleared my throat.

"Uh...yes ma'am…..it's his basement…" I quietly explained. Mann nodded in understanding and left the room, ignoring the looks they were giving her. I winced. If Gibbs found out he was going to kill me. Once the Colonel left Ziva and McGee whipped towards me, practically begging for more information.

"You know what? Now is not the time. So, let's just forget about it and work please." I blurted, quick to stop any questions that may come up. Ignoring their pleading expressions, I turned back to my work, hoping this wouldn't get back to my boss. I definitely don't need that conversation.