Chapter 6
"Mr. Palmer, here's another file that warrants further review," Ducky said, handing it to his assistant.
"That's four," the young man replied as he placed it on a pile.
"Five."
Ducky turned to see Gibbs handing him a folder. "A murder?"
"Unknown," Gibbs said. "We need your other skills for this one."
"A psychological autopsy?" Ducky opened the thin folder. "There's not much here."
Gibbs just looked at him.
"Yes, well, I will do what I can," the medical examiner said. "This is another cold case?"
"As far as we know," Gibbs said. "Depends on what you tell us." He turned and left.
Ducky flipped through what little was in the file. Intriguing. "Mr. Palmer, I believe we are about done here for today."
"Yes, doctor," Jimmy said. "I just have two more files to look through, but it will only take me a few minutes."
"Very well then," Ducky said. "And then you'll go to the lab and make sure Abby isn't planning to stay all night?"
"If she'd gotten a ding, she would have told us, or Gibbs," Jimmy said. "I mean, maybe she did and she did tell Gibbs, but then he would have told us and he didn't tell us." His assistant subsided.
"Jimmy, just finish up and then you two please go home. It is rare indeed that we have an early night, so make the most of it." And yet, despite his words of wisdom to his assistant, Ducky found himself delving into the file Gibbs had handed him, making notes on his pad.
This was an intriguing case indeed, and one with far too little information about the sailor in question to make a definitive diagnosis. Still, the medical examiner read carefully through the notes the agents had compiled, writing down questions as they occurred to him. If the team could find answers, that would help.
By the time he looked up again, more than an hour had gone by. Mr. Palmer, thankfully, was no longer in Autopsy. Oh, he was good company. But he and Abby surely had better things to do than stay at work without a case.
He looked back down at the file. Dwayne Wilson was a good agent, but there was something in him oddly bereft at a file with Wilson's notes and not those in Ziva's precise hand. He wondered how she was doing. It was perhaps too soon to inquire with her, but if he had not heard anything in a few days — Monday, at the latest — he should call and see if she would like to meet him for tea.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Once Damon had left, McGee drained the second half of his beer.
"What's bothering you, McMichelob?" Tony asked.
"Evil Josh is due back in town, Sarah's presence in their house is traumatizing Ziva, who cracked after she found out I dabbled in BDSM with Abby, and we're pretty sure Vance is plotting something." McGee sank back into the couch cushions. "What isn't bothering me?" He reached across and rubbed the shoulder that had been shot earlier in the year.
"Too much computer magic today?" his husband asked.
"Too little information." McGee sighed. "Too much … other stuff."
"Can't argue with that," Tony said. "Come on, let's go to bed. I'll even throw in a shoulder massage."
McGee raised one eyebrow. "Really?"
"You can't sleep if your shoulder's tied up in knots, and I can't sleep if my pillow is tossing and turning," Tony said. "Besides, you did volunteer today to remind Sarah her evil ex is coming back. That kind of taking one for the team should be rewarded." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
McGee snorted. "I can't argue with that." He sat up. "What are the odds Evil Josh has moved on?"
"I think the bigger question is what his reaction will be when he sees Sarah's moved on," Tony said, his voice serious again. "Especially since it sounds like our soon-to-be-ex-intern plans on hanging around."
"That should be interesting when my parents get wind of that, especially if he really does go into Naval Intelligence," McGee said. "I can pretty much guarantee that the only reason my parents would have put money down on Sarah being their kid more likely to end up dating a sailor is because any sailor I'd be interested in would be one who couldn't tell."
"Her ex that got killed that one time was a sailor," Tony reminded him.
"Yes, but not a law school, ONI-type sailor." McGee cracked his neck. "Don't get me wrong, I like Josh and he gets points for not being scared off by all the complications, plus surviving a summer working for Gibbs."
"If he can handle Gibbs, I suspect he'll handle his evil non-doppelganger just fine," Tony replied.
McGee stood and collected the beer bottles. "I'll rinse these and put them in recycling."
"And I'll go get the massage oil ready." Tony grinned again, the big goofy one that never failed to make McGee laugh.
When he walked into the bedroom, Tony had pulled down the comforter and was already undressed. McGee followed suit and lay down on his side of the bed, on the towel Tony had spread over the sheets. As he felt his husband's warm, oiled hands dig into the knots in his shoulder, he groaned.
"Too much?" Tony asked.
"Keep going," McGee said. As he lay there, his mind kept drifting back to what Damon had told them. "We could let Damon stay."
"Huh?"
"At the house," McGee said. "We could swap with Ziva, who has our old bedroom anyway. Sarah has the guest room, and the third bedroom makes the most sense for the baby's room. Damon's down in my writing room, but I can set up my typewriter someplace else for a while."
Tony's hands slowed. "I still say we shouldn't be talking about this without Ziva," he replied.
"I'm not saying decide," McGee said. "But we should figure out what works for us before we have that discussion when everybody's around."
Tony didn't say anything, but McGee didn't rush to fill the silence.
"I think we wait and see," Tony finally said. "If there's a solution that works for Sarah, Ziva and Damon so they all have a place to live, I don't think we get to argue with that. Not right now."
McGee sighed. "You're right." He rolled his bad shoulder, glad to find it felt just about normal. "Ziva said we should decide who to tell what about what she went through."
"Duckman should know," Tony said immediately. "He's more likely than any of us to be able to spot a problem after she's back." He moved off McGee, the mattress shifting under them.
"And he won't say anything to anybody," McGee said. He rolled over onto his side, facing Tony. "Abby, on the other hand."
"She needs to know," Tony said. "Palmer, too. Before he puts his foot in his mouth."
"Jimmy will do that without even trying," McGee said. "In fact, he's usually worse when he's trying not to talk about something."
"Can't argue with that," Tony said. "Think there's any way we can just ask them to cool it with the bat-gremlin comments?"
"Without Abby asking why?"
Tony closed his eyes and rolled onto his back. "What about the others?"
"Damon knows," McGee replied, thinking through the names of the rest of the Gibblets. "Josh probably just needs the rough sketch — she was tortured. He's smart enough to understand what that means, and if he's not, you can clue him in."
"Why me?"
"Hey, you're the one who made the big impression on him four years ago so that he applied to NCIS for an internship in the first place," McGee reminded him.
Tony just grunted in reply, and McGee hid a smile, just in case Tony did open his eyes.
"Dwayne and Brad probably just need to know it's aftereffects from Somalia," McGee said.
"You sure about that?" Tony rolled back over to face him. "Dwayne back on the team means Maggie and the kids at game nights."
"I still don't think Ziva wants that many people knowing," McGee said. He thought back to her conversation with him. "I'm pretty sure she wants us to deal with Abby and Jimmy, and maybe Sarah, if she or Damon haven't talked to her already."
"The last time they came over for a game night, all the kids stayed with a sitter anyway," Tony said. "So maybe you're right."
"Gibbs?" McGee asked.
"She talked to him last night," Tony reminded him. "He probably already knows. Even if she didn't tell him."
"So you really just need to talk to Jimmy and Abby," McGee said.
"Me? Why me?"
"Because I'm telling Sarah that Evil Josh is coming back. That means you get Jimmy and Abby." He waited a beat. "And no, being senior field agent doesn't mean you can delegate." McGee kept a straight face as Tony opened his mouth to protest, then realized McGee was right and stopped. Only then did McGee let out his laughter.
"I hate you," Tony said without heat.
"You love me," McGee replied. "Come on, let's go to bed."
They turned out the lights and settled on the bed. McGee heard a muffled voice from where Tony's head was tucked against his neck.
"I do, you know."
"I know. Me too."
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Abby didn't hear Jimmy approaching because of her music, but she recognized his arms as they wrapped around her from behind. "Jimmy!" She turned so they were nose to nose. "Are you done already?"
"Abbs, it's after six," he said. He kissed the tip of her nose and stepped back. "Dr. Mallard told me we should take advantage of no big cases to leave on time for once." He looked at his watch. "Well, mostly on time."
Abby nodded. "Just let me put all my babies to bed." She left a few running their tests overnight, and started shutting down the others. When she finished, she found Jimmy waiting with her lunchbox and handbag. "Eager?" She lifted one eyebrow.
"It's Friday night, we don't have a hot case, and we're leaving on time," he replied.
"Good point, Jimmy." Abby gave a nod. "Come on, let's go. Before somebody else comes looking for us."
Once they were in her hot rod, she could practically feel him looking at her. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"
"Else?"
"What?"
"You said before somebody else comes looking for us. Which means somebody did come looking for us before."
"Agent Krone." Abby rolled her eyes. "He said he wanted me to re-test evidence in a cold case, but when I asked him why Balboa hadn't mentioned it when I saw him on my Caf-Pow run, he backed off."
"He wanted to break open a cold case, but couldn't do it solo," Jimmy said.
Abby nodded. "And you remember the memo Leon sent around to us and Ducky with the cold case announcement: We're only supposed to get involved if the team leader brings it to us once the team has reopened the case."
"Gibbs brought one down to Dr. Mallard about an hour ago," Jimmy said. "Not for evidence, though. He needed a psychological autopsy."
"So next week's going to be another busy one," Abby said as she pulled out of the Navy Yard and navigated the DC traffic. "Looks like we'd better relax while we can."
"Did you hear any more about Ziva?" Jimmy asked.
"No, but Timmy said Damon was going to fill them in, so they're probably just finding out," Abby said. "He said he'd tell us what we needed to know."
"I know," Jimmy said. "It's just…"
"Just what?"
"I feel guilty," he said. "Not about what we do, or that we told the team, because we needed to for the case, but it sounds like that was what set things off, and—" He gulped. "What if Ziva won't want to be friends anymore because of that?"
Abby blinked back tears. "Ziva's not like that," she said. "Sure, she turned her back on Eli, but that's because he left her there to die. She refused to turn her back on Ari until it was him or Gibbs, she stopped being mad at Tony after she realized he wasn't the bad guy and she never blamed me for being mean to her when she started because she wasn't Kate and I didn't trust her." Abby chewed her lower lip. "She might not be comfortable with us, and I really, really, really want to hug her but I'll wait until she's ready for it, but she's not going to turn her back on us." She parked the car outside their apartment and turned to face Jimmy. "She's not, right?"
She loved her boyfriend — no, fiance — so much in that moment when he pulled her in for a hug.
"She's not," Jimmy said. "You're right."
He didn't say it, but Abby could practically hear his "I hope" at the end of that, and she didn't want to admit it, but she hoped too. Because she wanted to say she knew, but Ziva probably didn't even know yet and Abby couldn't claim to know Ziva better than Ziva knew Ziva, but she really, really hoped she was right about this because she wanted her friend back and not scared of her.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
When Gibbs pulled the truck into his driveway, he could see Eileen shooting hoops in her driveway. He checked his watch. He had time for a game before he settled in to make dinner. Maybe a distraction would give him some perspective.
Inside 15 minutes, he was sitting on his front steps tying his old Chucks. He heard the thumping of the basketball stop and looked up to see McGee's mom standing there, ball in one hand.
"First one to 21?" Eileen asked.
Gibbs nodded and followed her back to the McGees' driveway. They started playing, starting out slowly while Gibbs got warmed up. He'd just drained a three over Eileen's raised arms when she grinned, and he knew that grin. Warm-up was over.
The next 20 minutes were borderline dirty, every point hard-fought. Gibbs had the height advantage, but Eileen was fast and this was her game. She faked left, dribbled right and sank the final shot to the sound of Sean cheering her on from the porch.
"You need to get DiNozzo over here for a game," Gibbs said as he used his shoulder to get the worst of the sweat off his face.
"He beats her about half the time," Sean said, passing over glasses of ice water to both of them.
Eileen nodded, the bits of hair that had escaped her ponytail sticking to her face. "He told me about a women's league at the Y where he plays on the weekends, so I'm going to check it out when things start up again in a few weeks."
"It's hard to believe summer's almost over," Sean said. "It's weird not to be getting ready for the semester to start again."
"Miss it?" Gibbs asked.
"Yes and no," Sean replied. "I miss working with the midshipmen, and helping shape the next generation of Navy officers. But we see the kids more now, even when you and the boys are busy with cases, and I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with our new granddaughter in a few months."
"Sarah would be happy for you to spend time with her now," Eileen said. She looked over at Gibbs. "She's already at the 'enough already' stage, not that I blame her with everything that's gone on."
"You know, we didn't miss that the kids were concerned about Josh back before the semester ended, and now the new one's about to start up," Sean said.
Gibbs had to remind himself that Sean and Eileen were talking about the ex, not Cooper. "You think he could cause trouble?" he asked.
"I think you know more about what went on than the kids told us," Sean said. "You almost always do."
"Yeah, well, you're probably right there," Gibbs said. "I don't tell Jack half of what goes on, either." He thought about it for a second. "My gut says he's either forgotten all about Sarah, or he's going to be as big a problem as he was in the spring. I just don't know which."
"No middle ground," Eileen replied.
"Not likely," Gibbs said. "Whatever happens, Sarah will be safe. You have my word."
He spent a few more minutes with McGee's parents before heading back to his house. Gibbs wiped the remaining sweat from his face with the bottom of his old NIS shirt and detoured by the mailbox. Bills, junk, more junk. He missed the letter in the stack the first time through. As he sorted them while walking toward the house, he saw it the second time. He hadn't seen that handwriting in a couple of years, but he'd seen it so many times over the years, he recognized it immediately.
Gibbs stopped on the porch and sat on the rail as he opened the letter.
Probie, you got to promise to keep what I'm about to tell you between us. No telling my girls.
"Aw, hell, Mike," Gibbs said as he read the rest of the letter.