Purgatory

Chapter 4 - Cake

EJ walked from the director's office down the stairs to the MCRT 1 bullpen, past Tony and Ziva, stepping over to McGee sitting behind his desk.

"I'm your new temporary partner," she said, unsure of how he would respond.

Tim smiled reassuringly. "I know, I got the word from Craig. Should be a piece of cake."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tony said in surprise as he jumped up and walked over to EJ and McGee, "what's this about a temporary partner? And what should be a piece of cake?" He looked back and forth between EJ and McGee.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ziva had also turned her attention toward them.

"Didn't you get the memo, Tony?" McGee smirked at him.

"Hey, 'McFunnyMan', sorry to burst your bubble but you aren't that funny," Tony quipped back. "I am the 'Agent in Charge' and I'm ordering you to tell me what's a piece of cake."

Just then they heard Craig's voice from the balcony overlooking the bullpen. "DiNozzo, my office. I'll brief you on the cake."

Tony looked up, a sheepish grin on his face. "Right boss, on my way." He ran out of the bullpen, bounded up the stairs and followed Craig into his office.

EJ heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't have it in her to deal with Tony and his banter right now. She was thankful that Craig had stepped-in to get Tony up to speed. Now she just wanted McGee to brief her so she could get her mind off of her conversation with the director.

"OK. So, what'cha got for me McGee?" she said.

She did a double-take at the astonished look on McGee's face. His jaw had dropped and his eyes were huge.

"What ...?" she said, drawing the word out, trying to figure out the reason for his look of surprise.

He swallowed hard and shook his head. "Nothing," he croaked as he looked down at his computer.

EJ paused for a moment thinking about their exchange and wondered what could have shaken McGee up. As she rewound her question to him and ran it through her mind she realized what had startled him - she sounded like Gibbs. And it wasn't just the words, what'cha got for me McGee', but it was also the way she said it. Her tone of voice, the contraction of 'what do you' into 'what'cha', the emphasis on the word 'got', it was as if she had channeled some spirit of Gibbs into the room.

She looked over at McGee. "Sorry," she said. "Habit. Comes from hanging around Gibbs all the time."

As Gibbs' name rolled off her tongue a tinge of sadness and longing reached up from her stomach, wanting her attention as it did so often over the past several weeks. She fought it down and turned her attention back to the task at hand.

"OK, McGee. Brief me." She pulled up Tony's chair next to Tim's desk so she could see his computer monitor.

"We really don't know a lot yet," Tim said. "Basically we think some low-level, classified, logistics and operations information was hacked into and copied from a server at the Trident nuclear missile submarine base in Bangor, Washington."

As EJ watched he scrolled through several documents on his computer screen. "We know the information has been compromised, but we don't know why. There are thousands of pages of documents and tons of database information that could have been copied, but we don't have a clue as to what information they were looking for, or even if they found what they were after."

He turned to look at EJ. "The director asked me to go to Naval Base Kitsap and work with the Bremerton MCRT to do an analysis of the Bangor base. I'm supposed to evaluate their computer security structure to try to figure out how the system got hacked and what data was targeted."

"Geeze," she said, "that's like looking for a needle in a haystack!"

"Yep," he exhaled a heavy sigh.

"OK, remind me again how those bases are set-up," she said.

"It's pretty simple, actually," he responded. " Back in 2004 the Bremerton naval base and the Bangor nuclear submarine base were consolidated into one operational entity - Naval Base Kitsap. Guess it was a way to cut costs. Anyway both bases are on the Kitsap peninsula in Washington State, about 30 miles apart – thus, the name, 'Naval Base Kitsap.' The NCIS field office for the base is at the Bremerton Naval Yard. That's where Chris Bishop's MCRT team is stationed. Craig said we'll be working with him on this."

EJ's thoughts went to Bishop. He had been a member of MCRT 2 and served under her supervision when she transferred to Washington D.C. as the MCRT 2 Agent in Charge. But he was an up and coming, career oriented agent and had been promoted to the team lead position for the Bremerton MCRT, resulting in EJ only working with him for about two months.

Remembered their brief time working together Bishop's face played across her mind. He was about her age, with thick, blond hair that framed steely green eyes and bright white teeth that flashed a smile to die for. But he wasn't a 'pretty-boy'; his features were ruggedly handsome. At 6 feet 2 inches tall he was definitely nice to look at, his muscular body attesting to his prior military service as an Army Ranger. There had been the normal office flirtatious banter between the two of them; an innuendo here, a playful shove there. She was sure if she had not been in a relationship with Gibbs - a relationship that was public given that Gibbs had retired from the agency - Bishop would have pursued her, which certainly wasn't a bad thought and did wonders for her ego. It would be good to see him again.

Her thoughts returned to McGee.

"Like I said, 'a piece of cake'," he finished. "Sorry EJ, but this is probably going to be a 'snoozer' as far as you're concerned," then he quickly added, "but I'm really glad to have you along." He flashed a sheepish grin and stared at her.

Both frustration and resignation filled EJ's thoughts as she brought her attention back to the present. Frustration in that the director felt she was only capable enough of going on a 'milk-run' case like this. Resignation in that she was still working and the director had given her an assignment. She decided to make the best of it and move forward.

"Thanks Tim," she said. "Do you know when we leave?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow morning. A C-130 is leaving for Whidby Island Naval Air Station at 0400 and we're supposed to be on it."

"Right. I'm heading home to pack and get some sleep. I'll see you at Andrews at 0330."

"Copy that," McGee said. He paused and then continued, "EJ, I meant what I said. I am really glad to work with you on this case."

"Thanks, McGee," she could hear the sincerity in his voice. Of all of the people to spend a week with on a case, McGee was the one she would have picked if given the choice. He was professional, kind, sensitive and funny. He was also a damned good agent.

"I'm looking forward to working with you too," she said. "See you in the morning."

He nodded and EJ turned, walked over to her desk, grabbed her backpack, gun and badge and entered the elevator.

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