Chapter 7

Mac was at a desk in the bullpen, working on the foreword for Operation: Dead Wrong, when her phone rang. It was Bunny, and she sounded amused. Mac put her phone on speaker.

"Hey Bunny, what's up?"

"April Kent called. Did you know that woman has a mouth worthy of Satan himself?" Bunny asked.

"Been on the wrong end of it before, so yeah, I'm familiar with her colorful language," Mac said. "What did she want?"

"To have you fired for keeping her away from Admiral Kent," Bunny said.

"Of course. NCIS checked; the restraining order against her is still valid in regards to me, and they've sealed the house to prevent her from being able to access it. Think Gibbs said he would have the locks changed or something."

"Good. Anyhow, I reminded her about the restraining order, and she proceeded to rip fart like crazy. Thought she was gonna burst my eardrums."

"Oh how nice. All recorded?"

"Naturally. Oh, and both our lawyer and the police will be getting a copy. Think NCIS would like one? She did threaten to rip you a new one."

"Hey Gibbs?"

"Yeah?"

"Bunny wants to know if you guys want a copy of the recording of the phone call between April and Bunny. Seems April threatened physical harm to me."

"Send it."

"Will do, but someone might want to figure out how to decontaminate your computer afterwards. Seems April has a bit of a dirty mouth."

"McGee?"

"See what I can do, boss."

"Send it to Gibbs, Bun. Thanks."

"No problems, hun. Just watch your step. That woman's mad and I have a nasty suspicion she's gonna get madder."

"Consider that confirmed; Admiral Kent's lawyer says she gets diddly squat, both in his will and his life insurance. Everything goes to Tom, even planning his funeral."

Bunny laughed. "Load up on those earplugs, and let me know which funeral home so we can send some nice flowers."

"Will do. Any problems with Brenda?"

"Old Ironbritches wasn't too happy, but I wouldn't worry about her, or the Big Bosses."

"Do you think April might try and dig up that business with Dr. Agarwal?"

"She can try, hun, but it won't do much good. Even Kev knows things like that happen, and you did what you had to do. I wouldn't worry. You just take care of yourself, and keep me posted."

"Understood. Oh, want to play dirty? There's a risk, though."

"Always is when you play dirty. What's up?"

"NCIS is getting Admiral Kent's book supposedly published. They're hoping to draw out the killer. Would you mind if they put a copy in Reception? Just to see who bites?"

"Give."

"Gibbs?"

"As soon as it's ready."

"In that case, let me know, and I already have just the spot for it. That reminds me, we really should have our security company check our alarm system over, just to make sure it's up to date and all that. Go through our access system, make sure there's no one there who should be there, like that little imp we had to fire last month."

"Lydia? Yeah, I remember her. Wonder if she's still banging Captain Edward."

Bunny groaned. "Don't do that to me; you're putting mental images in my head, and I was seriously thinking of having a date night with hubby."

Mac laughed. "Sorry, Bun. Would it help if I offered to send you a chocolate-dipped strawberry box from Edible Arrangements?"

Bunny laughed. "Now that puts much better images in my head. I should say no, but I won't. Anyhow, my phone is going crazy, but please, please, hun, be careful."

"Always. And watch your back."

"As closely as a diabetic having dessert."

Mac ended the call, and looked up to see Gibbs, Torres, Bishop, and McGee all staring at her. "What?"

"Rip fart?" Torres asked, eyes wide.

"That's Bunny's colorful way of saying someone was cussing. Stinks, usually very loud, and usually from someone who should know better. Had one guy show up at the office, dropping the F bomb every third word. Bunny threatened to shove a can of Glade up his ass if he didn't clean up his language," Mac explained, giggling.

"Dr. Agarwal?" Gibbs asked.

"A surgeon who screwed up; damn near cost a patient his life. I called him on it, the hospital backed him when he tried to have me fired, and I threatened to sue for wrongful termination, as well as giving the patient enough information to have Dr. Agarwal and the hospital sued for medical malpractice," Mac explained. "The settlement was my keeping my mouth shut, getting a good reference, and them not letting Dr. Agarwal do that kind of procedure on patients again, not without supervision anyway." She sighed heavily. "I didn't enjoy what I had to do, but I was protecting my patients."

"That's understandable," Bishop said.

"If it helps any, Dr. Agarwal was sent back home about a month ago. Any agreement you have should now be considered null and void," McGee said, having done some fast typing.

"What about Lydia?" Torres asked.

"How much porn do you watch?" Mac asked. She saw the blush on Torres face. "Ever heard of the one called Beauty and the Senior?" Gibbs stared at her, Bishop's face went red, and both McGee and Torres suddenly buried themselves on their computer. "Yeah. That. Except the last guy she did that with, his Viagra didn't agree with his nitroglycerin medication. Wound up in hospital, and his wife, understandably, complained. I'd say that was a way to go, except St. Michaels damn near got sued. Lydia was fired, and last I heard, she had managed to find a job working at some youth center, where the only seniors she gets to bounce are the ones she meets on a dating app." She looked at the team. "Anything else?"

"Yeah; did you finish that foreword?" McGee asked. "Michelle is ready to send the book to the printers once she has that."

"Come and get it," Mac said. McGee came over, and glanced over the Word document. "Nice. And that's a nice picture. Boss?" Gibbs came over and quickly read through the foreword.

"Send it," he said.

"Sending," McGee said, reaching around Mac and typing fast. "And sent," he said, a moment later.

"What happened at that event?" Gibbs asked Mac.

"Event?"

"The white suit event you went to with Admiral Kent."

Mac smiled. "Oh, that. The blue dress and corsage one?" Gibbs nodded as he pulled up a chair to the desk. "Yeah, I remember that one. There was this reunion Admiral Kent really wanted to go to, some fancy thing with a bunch of his SEAL buddies, but because of his mobility concerns, he couldn't go without an escort. So I agreed to go, even though Brenda warned me I wouldn't get paid for it. I basically told her to go stuff herself, that this was voluntary, and that if I went, I could keep an eye on him as a nurse, which means St. Michaels wouldn't be facing liability suits if something went wrong."

"That makes sense," Gibbs said.

"The old bugger was so happy, he even went and ordered a limo to pick us up at the house, and gave me a really nice corsage, which I still have."

"Wow."

"Yeah. He made it very plain I wasn't his nurse that night; I was his maiden, direct quote. No one at the reunion dared to contradict him, or even do anything stupid around me, even though I had a few Navy officers trying to flirt with me. That was fun."

"Would be. Do you remember if anything unusual happened during that? Maybe he had an argument with someone, or said something or?"

Mac sat back for a moment, and Gibbs could see it in her eyes as she searched through her memories of that night. "Yeah, yeah, come to think of it, something strange did happen. Near the end of the night, I got roped into a dance with a sailor, some guy who introduced himself as a Chief Petty Officer. Nice enough fellow. Anyway, I glanced over, and I saw Admiral Kent having what looked like a very heated argument with this guy in a suit, a dark grey one, I think. Didn't recognize him. Neither did the chief, when I asked him. So I walked up to them, asking Admiral Kent if everything was okay, and the guy smiled at me, but it was the kind of real creepy smile that made me shiver, like someone had poured cold slime down my back."

"Eww," Bishop said, shivering.

"Okay. Did either of them say anything to you?" Gibbs asked.

"That's the thing; Admiral Kent assured me everything was okay, and the guy said everything would be okay as long as certain things were left alone. Admiral Kent got this stubborn look in his eyes, and the guy wandered off. Don't think I saw him again for the rest of the night, and Admiral Kent basically acted as if nothing had happened."

"Okay."

"The thing is, about two days later, when I came to take care of Admiral Kent, he asked me a funny question. He asked me what I thought of missions that were covered up."

"That is a funny question. How did you reply?"

"Well, I got the feeling there was more to his question than just that, so I answered honestly. I said it would boil down to why the mission was covered up, was anyone hurt during the mission, and what exactly was the mission. If something bad had happened during the mission, and someone was hurt or killed, and someone knew something, then that someone owed the dead the truth."

"That's fair."

Mac nodded. "He asked me even if it meant that the truth could do a lot of damage. I asked him to define damage. He didn't say anything about it again, but shortly afterwards, he asked me what I would think if he wrote a book. I said let me know when you want to start, and I'll get you a laptop, and when the book is published, I'll expect a signed copy. That was when he started writing the book."

"If we show you pictures from that event, do you think you could identify the guy he was arguing with?"

"Very, very easily."

"Stars and Stripes was there," Gibbs said to Torres.

"I'll hollah and see what they got," Torres said, fingers flying across his keyboard.

"May I use the computer to send Bunny and her hubby some chocolate-covered strawberries?" Mac asked.

Gibbs nodded and showed her how to access the internet on the computer. "Edible Arrangements?" he asked, seeing the website.

"Good stuff," Mac said. "Better than flowers, and tastier too."

"Hear hear!" Bishop said, raising a hand. "Especially the chocolate-dipped pineapple." She grinned as she remembered. "I sent myself some after my divorce from Jake, when I was in a self-pity mood. That was a hundred and sixty bucks well spent, especially when I added caramel sauce."

"A hundred and sixty bucks?" Gibbs demanded, then his eyes went wide when he saw some of the arrangements.

"Don't knock it 'till you try it," Mac said. "As a nurse, I preferred it when patients families sent these over flowers, because there were certain flowers that weren't allowed in the units, whereas these were always allowed, and sometimes the patients would share with the nurses. Good stuff, good times."

Torres grinned as he typed, with the phone to his ear. Bishop was going to be getting an anonymous arrangement in the near future….