Chapter Seven
Gibbs held Harry on his lap as Ducky drew the 4 year old's blood. "You should have given the letter to me, McGee."
McGee sighed. "I know, Boss."
"It's not McGee's fault," Kate said, shooting her partner a glare. "Tony snatched it out of his hand." Tony plastered a hurt expression on his face.
"So now it's my bad?"
"You did grab it, Tony."
Tony waved Tim away. "Lame excuse, Probie. You should have stopped me." Gibbs tuned out his agents and looked down at his son. Harry was pale with his nose bright red and his forehead hot. He was definitely running a fever from his cold. Gibbs gently lifted Harry off of his lap and placed him on the autopsy slab before grabbing a mask and heading to the door. Ducky cut him off.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Gibbs tried to get out but the old M.E. blocked his way. "To find out who sent the letter that could possibly kill both my son and my agents!"
"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah," Ducky said, playing the part of a professional doctor, despite really wanting to go and find the sick bastard himself. You cannot leave autopsy. It's negative pressure so airborne pathogens can not contaminate the rest of the building."
"Ducky, I have been scrubbed, sanitized, for all I know, sterilized!" Gibbs pointed at the automatic door. "I have an investigation to open!"
"And I have a possible contagion to contain. Until your blood test clears you, I cannot permit you to leave this room." Before Gibbs can say another word, the other doors in autopsy slid open and three paramedics walk in.
"Who opened the envelope?"
"He did," Tony said, pointing at McGee, who was immediately surrounded by the doctors.
"No no no! It wasn't me!"
"Just kidding." Tony jumped down from where he had been sitting with Harry. "I'm your pincushion."
The lead medic rounded on the senior agent. "Did you inhale any powder?"
"I might have."
"We took blood," Ducky said, waving over at his assistant. "Jimmy?" The bespectacled man held up a small box.
"Yeah. Four blood vials on ice to go." A doctor move to take the blood when suddenly Kate sneezed loudly, causing the others to stare at her.
"It's a cold. I had it before I came in this morning."
"Which makes you even more susceptible to airborne pathogens," Ducky said. "You should go in the hospital, too."
Gibbs winced. "Duck, Harry's had a cold since since Friday." As if on cue, Harry sneezed. The medical examiner ran a hand over his face.
"I would suggest, Jethro, that our boy goes with Tony and Caitlin, just in case."
Gibbs whirled around to look at the doctor. "He's my son; I want to come with him." The dark haired man shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but I can not allow you to leave here," the doctor said, seemingly oblivious to the slightly hostile stares he was receiving from the team. "It would be best to play it safe by all three of them accompanying me to Bethesda."
"That's safe?" Kate said, snorting. "How long are we going to have to stay in isolation?"
"At least overnight."
Gibbs kissed Harry's forehead. "Hey, bud. I need you to be brave and go with Tony and Kate. Can you do that for me?" Harry nodded.
"Yeah Daddy. I can-" Harry sneezed violently before continuing. "I can do that. I'm a big boy!"
The ex-marine chuckled. "I know you can. I love you."
"I love you, too, Daddy," Harry said, giving Gibbs a big hug and a sloppy kiss on his cheek. Tony tapped him on the shoulder, and, reluctantly, Gibbs handed Harry over to DiNozzo, who effortlessly swung him on to his hip. The two agents nodded at each other, no other words needing to be said. Tony would take care of Harry, as much as a person could when they were faced with a potentially deadly disease, and Gibbs would find the perp who started this whole mess in the first place.
"Can we have double beds because I hate it when you get that crease when you push the two-" Gibbs whacks Tony on the back on his head, effectively cutting him off. "If I get anthrax, how will you feel?"
"Not as bad as you, DiNozzo."
"Let's go," one of the paramedics said, starting to walk out of the door.
Kate her finger at Tony. "I'm warning you, DiNozzo."
"Yeah?"
"I do not feel well. I do not need any of your annoying tendencies today."
Tony laughed. "You need to relax. I have been given the wonderful opportunity of imparting my knowledge of movies, girls, and all things manly on the wonderfully impressionable mind of the son of our very own boss and you don't want me jump at the chance?" Kate glared at him and swatted the shoulder of the arm that wasn't tightly secured around Harry. "Ouch." Tony snapped his fingers. "You need a foot massage. She needs a really good foot massage, doesn't she Har?" Harry giggled before burying his head in Tony's shoulder.
Kate growled. "I don't want you anywhere near my feet. I don't want you touching my feet."
"You don't feel well and I can help cha-" The doors slid shut behind them and Gibbs stared at the glass, hoping that it would open up and the others would come back in, saying that it had all been a joke; that the powder had been something as harmless as flour. But no one came.
Ducky laid a comforting hand on Gibbs' shoulder. "They'll be alright, y'know. Tony and Harry are the only ones who have even a microscopic chance of catching the disease - if it was even a disease in the first place! But even if they do get sick, I'm not worried." Gibbs barely kept himself from scoffing at the thinly concealed lie.
"And why's that, Duck?"
"Because our boys are strong. They won't let some pesky sickness be the thing to finally get them."
Abby handed the sample of the white powder over to the lieutenant. "So how long to Atlanta?"
He shrugged. "Less than an hour," he said as he started walking out of her lab. "Your music's sweet."
Abby smiled. "So are you." She jumped when one of her machines beeped. "Hoo! Talk to Mama." She cartwheeled over to a monitor and looked at the video feed coming in from autopsy.
"I didn't take you for the cheerleader type, Abby," Gibbs said.
"Oh, I'm not," Abby said. "Grammy taught me that. She was an Olympic swimmer. Won the Silver in the two hundred meter butterfly."
Jimmy looked up at Abby confusedly. "What does swimming have to do with cartwheeling?"
"Nothing."
"I don't understand." Jimmy looked at McGee for help who in turn leaned over and started whispering.
"You can't think logically with Abby. Her mind operates like a pachinko machine."
Jimmy nods and opens his mouth to ask another question, when Gibbs, annoyed by how calm everyone seems to be, speaks up. "What was the powder, Abby?"
"White," she said shrugging. "With a hint of tan."
"Abs!"
"Well, it's all I know until my baby speaks to me. I'm auto-sampling for anthrax, botulism, plague, cholera, all those nasty little bio-buggers."
Gibbs sighed. "How long?"
"A couple hours."
The ex-marine sputtered a bit before regaining control over his words. "I thought you said these tests were fast."
"It's not a pregnancy test, Gibbs."
"You should drink more water," Tony said to Kate as she came out of the bathroom holding a cup of a dark yellow liquid.
Kate rolled her eyes and handed the sample to the doctor before bending down and picking Harry up. "Tony."
"Your urine's too dark."
Kate looked at him incredulously. "I have a cold. I can't believe you're commenting on my – eeugh!" Harry giggled and stuck his tongue out at Tony, which caused Kate to laugh. There conversation was cut short when a new doctor walked up and introduced himself.
"I'm Doctor Brad Pitt." The two adults looked at him shocked. "Yes, it's my real name and no we're not related. I wish we were. I'd love to meet Angelina Jolie." Kate laughed.
"If I said what he said you would… elbow me," Tony said grimacing.
Kate held out a hand. "I'm Special Agent Kate Todd. This little guy," she said, bouncing the four year old up a bit. "Is Harry Gibbs. And the clown who followed us in here is Tony Dinozzo."
"Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo," Tony interjected. He reached over and pulled Harry into his arms, causing Kate to glare at him.
"It's very nice to meet you all. I just wish it was under better circumstances," Dr. Pitt said before using his arm to motion down the hallway. "If you would follow me, please, I'll show you where you guys will be staying for the next days."
After walking a while, the four enter the isolation cube. Harry instinctively tightens his arms around Tony's neck who in returns leans down to whisper in his ear.
"It's alright, Harry. We'll be out of here before you know it."
Dr. Pitt sighed, noticing their expressions. "It's not The Four Seasons, but let's hope you're not here long." They walked over to the doors, which slid open and admitted them into a small room which soon opened into a larger room. The air rushed around and U.V. lights turn on.
"Negative pressure?" Kate guessed.
"Mm-hmm. Air can flow in, but not out. I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Emma Ingham, your duty nurse for tonight." The blonde nurse smiled at them.
"Hi, guys," she said, shaking Tony and Kate's hands, but lightly tickling Harry's stomach causing him to giggle and hide his head in Tony's shoulder. "How are you?" None of them replied.
Doctor Pitt coughed awkwardly before motioning to the tray that Emma had balanced in one hand. "As a precaution, I'm starting your prophylaxis with streptomycin."
Harry lifted his head up, his green eyes shining bright with curiosity. "What's that?"
Kate smiled. "Prophylaxis is a measure taken for the prevention of disease," she said.
Tony snorted. "That's why I use them," he said, causing Emma to laugh and Kate to glare at him.
"Oh, you don't want to encourage him, Lieutenant."
"Sorry. Um… take any beds you want, you guys," Emma said pointing over to the row of five beds.
"Thank you, Nurse Emma," Tony said, going to sit next to Kate.
"But it's prudent to keep some separation in case one of you has been infected," Dr. Pitt interjected, causing Kate to smile.
"Thank you, Doctor!
"It's Brad. We're informal here."
She smiled at him. "Kate." Harry looked up at Tony, his eyes larger than normal.
"Do I have to sit all alone, Tony?" Tony glanced over at Brad who nodded his head.
Tony sighed. "Yeah, bud, I'm sorry but you do. Doctor's orders." Tony leaned over and sat Harry on the bed in the middle of the room before going to sit on the cot closest to the door. He pointed up at the lights that were over each bed. "Are these things sunlamps, Brad?"
The doctor shook his head. "U.V. Kills the bacteria in the air, although I can arrange for a sunlamp if you wish."
"Oh, not for me. It's for Kate."
"What?" Kate said looking at her partner incredulously.
"Yeah, a little nude sunbathing might get rid of those tan lines."
"Doctor, could you put him to sleep, please?" Harry giggled and Kate made a funny face at him.
"Bye Nurse Emma," Tony said flirtatiously as the nurse left the room.
"Bye."
"Swak?"
"It's sealed with a kiss, Gibbs," Abby said, motioning to the large lipstick stain the lined the envelope, forgetting for a moment that Gibbs couldn't see the letter, only her. "Didn't you ever get a love letter?"
Gibbs through his hands up in the air; they were wasting time! "Does a Dear John count?"
"Ah. I feel sorry for you, Gibbs." Gibbs had to resist the urge to throttle somebody.
"Is there a return address?" He asked.
"Twenty-Seven Old Mill Bottom Road, Annapolis, Maryland."
Gibbs nodded over to the only agent that wasn't currently being examined. "McGee, you got that?"
"Got it. I just wish I had my PDA," the probationary agent said longingly.
"Use Ducky's," Gibbs replied motioning back in the general location of the medical examiner's desk. Palmer walked over and tapped the former marine on the shoulder.
"Uh…uh…Agent Gibbs, Sir, Doctor Mallard doesn't have-"
Gibbs cut him off, bracing his hands on the younger man's shoulders. "Requisition replacement cell phones and weapons for my team," When the bespeckled man didn't move Gibbs pushed him back a bit. "Go!"
"Pistols?" Jimmy asked weakly, making a gun motion with his hand. Gibbs resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"Well no, Palmer. Crossbows if you think they might work better." Gibbs waited until the junior M.E. had left autopsy before turning back to the screen that had Abby's face on it. "Cancelled stamp?"
"Noon yesterday, Annapolis," Abby replied.
"Open it!" Gibbs growled out.
"You know, Normally I'd request a please, but Considering the situation, I know that we are all freaked out and the fact that I want to know who the guy who tried to hurt our family is even more than you do!" Abby continued to rant until she noticed someone was leaning over her shoulder and scanning the now opened letter.
"Oh, beautiful calligraphy," Ducky said, motioning to the inked words.
"Beautiful paper," Abby commented, feeling its thick texture. "It must be...thirty two pound cotton rag."
"Abby," Gibbs cut it, "does that mean you can trace it?" Abby frowned slightly, tilting the letter to get a better look at it.
"The watermark will tell me where it was made, when it was made, and who sold it. The person that sent this…" She looked up and smiled. "Well, they may as well have signed it." Gibbs held back at smile at that and turned his attention to , who was now spouting facts about calligraphy.
"You know, there was a time when every young woman of breeding was taught calligraphy. My mother still tries, but her hand shakes so that even I can't read all her missives."
Gibbs actually did growl this time. "Can you read this missive, Ducky?"
"Oh, yes. It's perfectly legible." The old man began to mumble under his breath, and only looked up when Abby nudged his shoulder.
"Um… I think he means read it out loud."
Ducky smiled, managing to look both sheepish and nervous at the same time. "Oh, sorry. Of course. Uh…" He began to read aloud. "If you are reading this and have not initiated biological attack procedures, I suggest you do so immediately, since the powder dispersed by opening this envelope contains genetically altered…Y. pestis." Ducky and Abby shared a scared look.
"Which is Latin for what?" Gibbs asked.
"Plague!" Gibbs felt as if he had just been doused in a bucket of freezing water. Plauge? No way. The person had to be bluffing. There's no way that Harry would get plague, he just couldn't let it happen. Harry would be fine.
"The powder in that envelope carries bubonic plague?" Gibbs asked, hoping that he had heard the old doctor wrong.
"Pneumonic is more likely," Ducky remarked.
"There's more than one?" Gibbs asked incredulously.
"Oh, there are three, actually. But pneumonic is by far the most dangerous since it can be spread simply by breathing the Y. pestis particles."
Gibbs was sure that the fear coursing through him had rooted him to the spot. "Harry and Tony must have breathed in some of them."
"It may not be alive," Abby said, trying to remain positive, but both men could hear the slight tremor in her voice. "Y. pestis needs a host or moisture for it to survive more than a few hours."
McGee looked up from his pad and pencil. "Plus it was irradiated when it went through the mail, Boss."
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "I got a Honey Dust for Christmas, McGee," He said angrily.
"I'll narrow my test to pneumonic Y. pestis." Abby said as she pushed several buttons on one of her machines. "If I can isolate the strain, then Bethesda can hit it with a specific antibiotic."
"Yeah, well that may not help," Ducky said causing Abby to send him a weak glare.
"You are making it very hard to stay positive." Ducky ignored her.
"It says here, "I have genetically altered the Y. pestis to render it impervious to antimicrobials."
Abby gasped. "That bitch! She created a strain that antibiotics can't whack."
Gibbs sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Ducky, give Bethesda a heads up that their meds won't work." While the M.E walked away to inform the hospital, Gibbs continued talking. "A swak does not mean that this bitch couldn't be a bastard!"
"You're so right, Gibbs. I have this friend who's a transvestite. Her lips could outswak Angelina Jolie's. Remember, McGee? You met her at my birthday party." McGee nodded at the forensic specialists words.
"Yeah, the low-cut red dress with a built-in plastic-" Gibbs whacked the back of McGee's head, effectively shutting him up.
"I saw that, Gibbs," Abby said.
"Read, or you'll feel it."
Abby smiled a bit. "Not while you're down there."
"What?!"
Sensing her boss's slightly hostile feelings (*scoffs* slightly hostile *scoffs again*) Abby decided to move the direction back to the case. "However, there is an antidote." She looked up excitedly. "She made a magic bullet." She hunched over slightly as to get a better angle to read at. "Which if administered within thirty two hours of infection, will eradicate the disease. To procure the antidote, NCIS must make public the true results reported in…Dossier R-Zero Three Seven Seven."
Gibbs snapped his fingers and motioned to McGee. "McGee, pull up the file."
"Yep, Romeo Zero Three Seven Seven. On it, Boss," Tim said as he ran back to Ducky's computer.
"Is that it?" Gibbs asked Abby, who nodded.
"That's all she wrote." She opened up the mouth of envelope in order to see the inside clearer. "It's guilded inside.I can see the swak through – uh-oh." Abby flinched as she used tweezers to pull out a small rectangle. "We have a moisture strip in here." Gibbs sighed in frustration.
"Yeah, keeping the bug alive until the letter is opened."
"I'm afraid so, Gibbs."
"Check the cancelled stamp, Abs! One way to get around postal irradiation – to not use the post office." As Abby scans the stamp, Ducky returns to the lab.
"I spoke with a Doctor Brad Pitt."
Abby looked up shocked. "You're kidding."
"No, that's his name. He made a point to stress that he is not related in any way to the actor."
Abby wrung her hands and began to ramble. "Hey, did you hear when Brad and Jen split up?"
"Abby!" Gibbs yelled through the screen.
"Gibbs, I can't until I can put this under a microscope," Abby said back, eyes watering in frustration. "And I can't do that until NCID gives me approval to irradiate."
"Okau, which will be when?" Gibbs asked impatiently, but made sure to soften his tone.
"The Navy is sending a sample to Atlanta," Abby looked down at her watch. "It should be there… well, now. And then it'll be twelve hours for DNA confirmation."
"Ducky, what's the incubation period?"
"A day at most."
"How long until it kills?" GIbbs asked.
"Well, not very long, I'm afraid," Ducky said frantically. "In the fourteenth century, the novelist Boccaccio wrote that plague victims had lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise."
Gibbs swore quietly under his breath before whirling around to look at his agent. "McGee, where's the file?"
"Boss, I cannot access it from-"
Gibbs through his hands into the air. "Ducky! We're coming up!"
"We've already been through this, Gibbs! You can't!" But Gibbs wasn't listening and was already halfway out of the lab before Ducky even finished talking. Gibbs was sick of losing people and he would be damned if he just sat back and did nothing while his son could be dying.
Tony lay on his bed with one arm behind his head and the other slowly snapping. "You know what this feels like?"
"I'm afraid to ask," Kate said, groaning into her pillow.
"Like I'm the king of cool."
"Elvis?" Kate could practically hear Tony roll his eyes at her words.
"Elvis was the king of rock and roll. Travolta is the king of cool."
"Well thanks for the clarification," Kate said sarcastically.
"And do you know why I feel like Travolta?"
"I feel a movie coming on."
"The Boy in the Plastic Bubble," Tony said, sitting up. "Travolta plays this boy born with an immune deficiency. This is before AIDS. He lives in this giant plastic bubble." Before Kate can reply, Harry, who had been giggling as he listened to the two agents bicker, suddenly started coughing rather violently.
Both Kate and Tony sprung up from their beds but they were pushed aside by Brad and Emma. Emma helped Harry sit up while Brad used a cloth to first wipe his forehead and then his mouth. Minutes later, Harry stopped coughing, and Tony and Kate allowed themselves to sit back down in their beds. Brad stayed with Harry while Emma went to go and check on the other two. When she got to Tony, he grabbed her arm and pulled her down to him.
"Is he going to be alright?" He asked, both his eyes and his tone serious for once.
Emma sighed. "We aren't sure. The results of the blood tests haven't come back yet so he could either be getting something from the powder of it could simply be his cold from earlier. Until the results come back, we won't know anymore. That's all I can tell you, I'm sorry."
Ducky paced around Abby's lab. "I cannot believe that Gibbs broke protocol!"
"He didn't," Abby said, smiling.
"He left autopsy," Ducky replied distressingly.
"But not isolation," Abby remarked, motioning to the door where Gibbs and McGee had just come through - wearing bright yellow hazmat suits.
Gibbs grabbed onto Tim. "McGee, you use Abby's computer to access that case file!"
"On it," the MIT graduate replied, going off into another room.
"Okay," Gibbs turned to the forensic scientist. "Abby, pull surveillance videos from the squad room. Everything from twenty three hundred last night when I left until McGee came in this morning."
"You've got to get a life, Gibbs."
"Boss! Boss, I found the file. It's a rape case," McGee yelled, drawing the attention of the other three occupants in the room.
"Get the investigating agent down here," Gibbs said.
"I can't. It was Pacci." Gibbs closed his eyes as memories of all of the bombs in that case. How much damage, the amount of fear that had been caused. He and his team could have died that day if he hadn't asked for the day off to take Harry out. If he had died, Harry would have been put back into the system, at least for a little while. That would not happen this time. Opening his eyes, Gibbs nodded to himself. This time, they were going to end this case before anymore lives are lost. He was going to get the antidote and end what had the potential to start a biological warfare. They would do what they did best and catch the 'bad guys' as Harry called them, before they hurt another person, before they inflicted anymore damage or caused any more fear.
They were going to catch this bastard and show him why you never mess with NCIS and why you never mess with a Gibbs.
Neither Kate nor Tony were trying to argue with each other, both simply stared at the little body in the middle cot, watching his chest rise and fall steadily. Harry opened his eyes.
"I'm tired," he whimpered and the sound tore into the agents hearts.
"I know bud," Tony said, wishing now more that ever that he would be allowed to go and sit with the four year old. "Just close your eyes and you will be asleep before you know it." Harry nodded and closed his eyes. Several minutes passed before he spoke again.
"Will you tell me a story?" Tony and Kate shared a look before Kate nodded.
"Sure, sweetheart."
"Once upon a time..."