(AN) Hello there, TimeLordMaster108 here with the next chapter of Outbreak, I hope you all enjoy.
In this chapter, we'll learn more about Thomas Jackson and even a cameo from Ducky.
Credit to DS2010 for some of the dialogue in this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS; all characters and locations are owned by CBS and Belisarius Productions.
Chapter Three
The Mind of a Psychopath
The team were currently watching ZNN News on the plasma screen; a newsreader was discussing the current outbreak.
"There are now ten confirmed cases of the mumps in Washington," the newsreader was saying in a grave voice, "Mayor Bowser has urged parents to ensure that their children are all up to date on their vaccinations. Meanwhile, President-
McGee switched the screen off and turned to the others. "I'm just thankful that the twins are vaccinated. Sure, vaccines aren't totally effective, but it's never worth the risk," he said, "I asked Delilah to make sure that the twins are up to date on their vaccines; Jimmy's doing the same with Breena."
"I've never been vaccinated," said Nick bluntly, "In fact, none of my immediate family have."
"What!" cried Bishop in shock, "uhhh, Nick, you did go near Lewis Thompson."
"I'll be fine, Ellie." insisted Torres.
"Palmer, take Torres to get a test," ordered Gibbs, "I'm not letting you go anywhere until we get the results."
"Fine." groaned Nick as he began to reluctantly follow Jimmy down to Autopsy.
A few hours later, the pair returned.
"It's official, Torres has got the mumps," declared Palmer, "Torres, you're going to have to quarantine for the next nine days. It's going to be rough, but as long as you drink plenty, and take plenty of bedrest, you should be fine."
"I know the routine," sighed Nick, "Both my parents and my sister caught mumps; they were fine."
"They were very lucky," remarked Gibbs, "Although the effects are rare, mumps can cause deafness, meningitis, swelling, pancreatitis in women and even death."
"Oh." replied Nick.
"Come on, Torres," said Palmer, "I'm sending you home before you start to feel ill."
"Oh alright." sighed Torres.
The agent reluctantly allowed Palmer to frogmarch him to the elevator.
"There's already a BOLO out on Jackson." stated McGee.
Gibbs turned towards McGee and Bishop. "Right, I think we need to go and talk to Jackson's ex-wife," he suggested, "She might be able to give us a clue as to where he might be."
"Thankfully, I did some digging on the wife," informed McGee before clicking the plasma screen remote which brought up an image of a middle-aged woman with long, brown hair, "Sarah Webber; forty-six: currently resides at an address in West Virginia with her husband Paul Webber. They've got two kids: Terry and Jake."
"Right, let's go." said Gibbs dryly as he grabbed his badge and gun before walking towards the elevator.
McGee and Bishop slung their backpacks over their shoulders and followed Gibbs.
After a short while, the team arrived at the Webbers house. McGee and Bishop followed Gibbs as he walked up the driveway and to the front door. The silver haired agent knocked, and after a few moments the door opened. Standing there was Sarah Webber. "Can I help you?" she asked in confusion.
"Special Agent Gibbs; NCIS," declared Gibbs as he flashed his badge, "We're investigating the murder of a navy lieutenant that was ordered by your ex-husband: Thomas Jackson."
Sarah gasped in shock.
"I haven't heard anything from him in eleven years. I'm not sure how I can be of any help." said Sarah.
"We'd just like to ask a few questions if you don't mind?" informed Gibbs.
"No, of course not. Please, come in." replied Sarah before letting the three agents enter.
Soon, the team and Sarah were sitting on comfy chairs in the living room. They were soon joined by Paul Webber, who looked slightly younger and had blonde hair. After Sarah served them all coffee, she sat down again. "So, what do you want to know?"
"You don't seem shocked that your ex is connected to a murder." said Gibbs, giving the brunette a curious look.
"Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me," replied Sarah, "After our daughter died, Thomas became unstable."
"I hate to ask this ... but what exactly happened to your daughter?" asked Bishop gently.
"Measles," answered Sarah in a sombre voice, "We vaccinated her against everything, but she fell victim to the two-percent failure rate of the MMR vaccine. She caught it not long after Jackson went away on tour. I had to contact one of his friends because I couldn't reach him."
"I'm so sorry to hear that," said McGee sympathetically, "I can't even begin to imagine the pain you and Jackson must have went through."
"I eventually moved on, but Thomas refused to," explained Sarah, "He kept blaming the vaccine, and became an anti-vaxxer. I tried to help, but he kept pushing me away ... he then cheated on me with some girl at my work."
"That's terrible." cried Bishop in horror.
"I'll take it you left after he attempted to rape the wife of a navy lieutenant?" questioned Gibbs.
"Yes," replied the brunette, "She was my friend, but she thankfully wanted nothing to do with Jackson, but he kept harassing her every chance he got. Then during her husband's homecoming party, Jackson cornered her in the kitchen and tried to rape her, but I and the husband walked in before he could actually do it. Thomas tried denying it, but I could tell what he'd been trying to do. Soon after, we got a divorce."
"Do you have any clue where he might be living now?" questioned McGee.
"Not really," answered Sarah, "But you could always try our old home. I wanted to move after Sophie died, but Thomas refused."
"Thank you, Mrs Webber, you've been a great help." stated Gibbs.
After getting the address from Sarah, the team left. They then drove over to the old family home and marched up the driveway. The house appeared to be in disrepair. There were tiles missing from the roof, and the grass was overgrown.
"NCIS! Open up, Jackson!" barked Gibbs while banging on the front door. After a minute, there was no answer. Gibbs kicked the door open. He, McGee and Bishop stormed into the house and began searching.
"Clear!" yelled McGee as he entered the kitchen and saw that nobody was there.
"Clear!" called out Gibbs from upstairs.
Meanwhile, Bishop was approaching the basement door. She slowly opened the door and crept down the stairs. The blonde agent reached the bottom, activated her flashlight and began searching. After a minute, Bishop stopped and her eyes widened in shock at something. "Uhhh, guys, you might want to come down and see this."
The sound of two pairs of running feet reached Ellie's ears. Gibbs and McGee soon came to stand on either side of her and saw what she was looking at.
It was some sort of shrine; decorated with photos of a woman of average height with short brown hair. It was clear that she didn't know that her photo was being taken. Any other people in the photos seemed to have had their faces burnt off with a cigarette lighter.
"Is that who I think it is?" said Bishop in horror.
"Yeah," replied McGee with revulsion, "Audrey Daly."
The team soon returned to NCIS HQ. McGee and Bishop were talking in the bullpen. Torres was talking to them via Skype. Nick was horrified to learn that a friend of McGee, Delilah, his and the rest of the team was being stalked by the man they were looking for.
"I knew I recognised the name from somewhere," McGee was saying, "Delilah once mentioned him. When we were just dating, I told her about a lot of the old cases I'd been involved with. One of them was this ex-boyfriend of Abby's, who was stalking her, and had this shrine for her. Anyway, Delilah said that he reminded her of this creepy guy named Thomas Jackson, who was obsessed with Audrey."
"Wow," cried Bishop in shock, "I think he's still stalking her."
"What makes you think that?" asked McGee in concern.
"Well, you remember how me, Kasie, Sloane, Delilah, Audrey, Breena and your ex-girlfriend Chloe went out for a girl's night out?" began Bishop, Tim nodded, and she continued, "When we were coming out, there was this dark figure just staring at Audrey, it was super creepy. Anyway, Delilah yelled at him to go away and he left."
"Must've been Jackson." replied McGee, a look of horror on his face.
At that moment, Gibbs, Ducky and Sloane entered the bullpen.
"Any updates?" asked Gibbs impatiently.
"Bishop confirmed that Jackson is still stalking Audrey," informed McGee gravely, "We've no idea how long he's been doing it for, or how it ties into this mumps outbreak."
"You know, from everything Gibbs has said, Thomas Jackson is clearly very disturbed," stated Sloane, "His daughter's death clearly led to this crusade against vaccines. You know, he sort of reminds me of an opposite version of Roald Dahl."
"I'm sorry, Roald who?" asked a confused Torres.
Everyone simply looked at Nick with shocked expressions.
"Oh my god, seriously, Nick?" said McGee in surprise, "you know: renowned British children's author; some of his books were made into films."
"I never read kids books." remarked Torres.
"Well, anyway," interrupted Ducky, causing everyone to turn towards him, "By 1962, Roald Dahl had three children: Olivia; Tessa and Theo. In that time, there was no vaccine for protection against measles, mumps or rubella. In November of that year, there was a measles outbreak at the school Olivia attended, and soon after bringing a note home to her parents, she contracted the virus. Slowly but surely, she began to recover, but then one day while her father was showing her how to make little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, Olivia began to feel sleepy, and within an hour of going to sleep had fallen unconscious. The virus had mutated into encephalitis, causing the inflammation of her brain… and within six hours… she was dead."
The rest of the team looked shocked.
"That's horrible." said McGee.
"Yes, but it did lead to Roald becoming an advocate for child-immunisation," stated the former medical examiner, "He did nearly go crazy from grief, but he pushed through."
"Whereas Jackson went mad with grief and now has an obsession with Audrey." concluded Jack.
"We need to pay Kevin and Audrey a visit," stated Gibbs, grabbing his gun and badge before striding to the elevator, "they need to be warned about Jackson."
McGee and Bishop quickly followed their boss.
"I'll just stay here then." said Nick before rolling his eyes and switching his screen off.
The team soon arrived at the Dalys house. Gibbs went up to the front door and knocked. After a few moments, the door opened, and Kevin looked at them in surprise.
"Hey, guys," greeted Kevin in surprise, "Have you heard about this mumps outbreak? They had to shut both Tommy and Emma's schools because several people there caught it."
"Actually, we kind of wanted to talk to you and Audrey about this whole mumps thing," stated Gibbs, "You mind if we come in?"
"No, of course not." answered the navy analyst before standing aside to let them through.
The team were soon sat in the living room; sipping coffee. Kevin and Audrey were sitting on the sofa.
"So, is this mumps outbreak related to a case you're working on?" asked Audrey.
"Yes it is," replied Gibbs, "Two members of an anti-vax group known as Fight back Against the Vax deliberately caught mumps and have spread it around the city. They murdered one of the other members, a navy lieutenant, who was attempting to tell us about this plan. The leader of the group is called Thomas Jackson."
Kevin and Audrey's eyes widened in shock. The couple then looked at each other before turning to face the agents.
"I haven't heard that name in almost eleven years," said Audrey in a panicky voice, "I assume you've all found out about his past?"
"Yes," replied Bishop, "We visited Thomas's ex-wife Sarah; she's happily married and has two kids."
"Oh, that's good to hear," said a delighted sounding Audrey, "That man went crazy after his daughter Sophie died."
"It's not just this mumps thing we're concerned about," said Gibbs in a grim voice, "We went over to his house and found a shrine with photos of you Audrey … Thomas has been stalking you for a long time."
"Oh God." cried Audrey in fear before clinging to Kevin, who wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder.
"Jackson used to be fine around Audrey," explained Kevin, "But soon after Sophie died, he started to become obsessed with her. Audrey was pregnant with Emma when this behaviour started."
"So … you were the woman he tried to rape at the homecoming party … and this was when you were pregnant?" asked a horrified Bishop to Audrey, who nodded.
"Jackson insisted on helping me in the kitchen," explained Audrey in a terrified whisper, "He then ran at me and kissed me, I pushed him away and he told me how much he wanted me, and thought that I would want to run away with him, then he pushed me against the counter and tried pulling my pants down."
Audrey then turned to face Gibbs. "I think Thomas may have been stalking me for a few years now." she said in sudden realisation.
"What makes you think that?" questioned Gibbs.
"There was a scary incident that happened in 2008," began Audrey in a fearful manner, "Emma was six months old by this point, and Kevin was on tour in Iraq."
"A different NCIS team investigated, but found nothing." informed Kevin
Flashback
It was November 2008. Audrey and a six year old Tommy were looking down at the then six month old Emma as she lay in her crib; fast asleep and clutching a stuffed, toy lion. The young woman smiled at how peaceful she looked. Not wanting to wake her, Audrey took the baby monitor down to the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea. Tommy went to play in the back yard. Half an hour later, she heard Emma stirring and went to the nursery to pick her up. The young woman picked the baby up, took her down to the living room and placed the six month old on her playmat.
Audrey watched as her daughter rolled about and played with the toy that made animal noises. Tommy was also playing with her before heading into the kitchen. Just as Emma pressed one of the buttons which caused the toy to make a moo sound, there was a knock at the door.
"Who is it?" called out Audrey.
"Delivery." replied a male voice on the other side of the door.
"Just leave it on the front step." answered Audrey as she scooped up a now fussy Emma into her arms.
"It needs a signature, Ms." came the voice.
"Just a moment." replied Audrey before heading towards the front door, switching Emma to her other arm so that she could open it.
Just as the brunette opened the door, a man wearing a brown goblin mask stormed in. Audrey screamed in fear as she was thrown against the wall. Emma began crying in fear. The figure pulled out a large knife and backed the brunette into the living room and up against a nearby wall. Audrey wrapped her arms around her daughter in a protective manner. Two more men: one in a grey goblin mask; the other in a green goblin mask stormed in, they began yelling and ransacking the house.
Tommy came running in from the kitchen; his eyes widening in fear at the scene before him. Tommy ran towards his mother, who took one arm away from Emma, grabbed the boy's hand and put herself in front of him, but always keeping her eyes on the man with the knife. The brunette quickly wrapped her free arm back around her precious daughter; resuming her protective hold.
"Shut that kid up, or I will!" yelled the figure with the green goblin mask.
Green Goblin Mask then aimed his gun at Audrey before firing it into the wall.
"Damn, dick, don't do that!" yelled the figure in the grey goblin mask, "you'd better hope the neighbours don't hear."
Brown Goblin Mask drew closer to Audrey, waving his knife about.
"Shut that baby up, or I'll cut all three of you!" hissed the man before waving his knife in Audrey's face.
Audrey cried out in fear as the man got closer. She could almost feel the knife on her skin, and was praying that he wouldn't hurt her, Emma and Tommy. "Stop, please, leave us alone," she begged in a terrified manner, "Take whatever you want, don't hurt us, please, please."
"Who says I want to take anything," replied the man as he brushed the knife across the trembling brunette's cheek, "Maybe I just want to kill your little blonde brat and have some fun."
The man lifted his mask slightly and began to lightly kiss Audrey's cheek repeatedly.
"No, no, no, stop it!" cried Audrey before headbutting the man, causing him to stagger backwards.
"You bitch!" snapped the man before waving the knife in front of Emma, who was still crying and whimpering.
"No, no, don't kill my children," cried a terrified Audrey, "Shhh, please don't cry, Emma. It's okay, baby, Mommy's here."
The man just chuckled before aiming the knife at Audrey's throat.
The other two men continued to move through the house. Audrey heard crashes and bangs.
Brown Goblin mask continued laughing as he put the knife closer to Audrey, causing her to beg him to stop each time.
"No, please don't." begged Audrey as the man did this for the sixth time.
After what seemed like an eternity, Green Goblin Mask and Grey Goblin Mask dashed out the front door.
Brown Goblin Mask began walking towards the front door.
"No cops, lady, or else I'll come back for the brat!" barked the figure before running out the door and slamming it shut.
Audrey stood against the wall for several moments, she then began sobbing loudly.
End Flashback
Audrey shuddered as she finished the story. "And I'm sure it was Jackson," she said, "It was just too random; nothing was taken. Plus, he hates Emma."
"How can he hate Emma?" asked an astonished McGee.
"He was furious when he found out that Audrey was pregnant," informed Kevin, "We found out not long after Sophie died. He got really angry and punched me in the face."
"We can't be certain that one of the main masked man was Jackson," said Gibbs calmly, "But we can pin him for the stalking."
Just then, Gibbs's phone rang. The silver haired man took his phone out and answered. "Yeah, it's Gibbs." he said.
The others watched as Gibbs talked into the phone, his voice becoming more concerned with every passing minute. "Right, we're on our way." he said
Gibbs then ended the call before getting to his feet.
"Jennifer Richardson's been spotted with Jackson and several other people heading towards a naval pharmaceutical building in the Metro area," stated Gibbs before turning to Kevin and Audrey, "Don't worry, we'll get this guy. McGee, Bishop, head over to that building. I'm going to look into this old NCIS case"
"Good luck." said Kevin.
Gibbs and the team then quickly left.
(AN) And that was the latest chapter of Outbreak, I hope you all enjoyed.
In the next chapter: Team Gibbs finally confront Jackson, and we learn what his plan is.
Until then, this is TimeLordMaster108 signing out.
