Close Encounters of the Fictional Kind
Chapter 20: Accused Part III
It was well past three o' clock in the morning when Elise and Marie were woken from the light sleep they'd fallen into while sitting in the uncomfortable plastic chairs. "What?" Elise muttered while Marie tried to blink the sleep from her eyes.
"I said, that if you guys wanted, there's some couches in the faculty break room. Might be more comfortable," Tony Dinozzo shrugged.
"Oh… um… yeah, sure." Elise stretched and yawned.
At that moment, McGee called out, "Hey Boss, I think you're gonna wanna see this."
Gibbs, along with everyone else in the room, crowded around McGee's desk. His computer monitor showed some security footage that was focused in the room where the murder took place. Once everyone was watching, McGee resumed the video and they all watched as the murder victim, now identified as Jennifer Goodhew from Human Resources, entered the room with someone. The unidentified person was distinctly masculine, but his face remained in shadow. The pair appeared to be talking, that was until Jennifer struck out at the man and slapped him square in the face. There was a brief moment where the momentum from the slap pushed his face into the light, but the image was blurry. McGee paused again. "See if you can clear that up, McGee," Gibbs said hunching closer to the screen.
McGee nodded and his fingers began to fly across the keyboard. A moment later, the pixilated image sharpened and the man's face became clearer. "Is that… Matt Genearo?" Abby asked.
"Dinozzo," Gibbs snapped his fingers and pointed to the right.
"Right, be right back," Tony replied.
The group shifted away from McGee's desk and Gibbs started to move toward the interrogation rooms. A couple of minutes later, Dinozzo returned with a tall sandy haired man who looked utterly confused until he saw the look on Gibbs' face. It was then that things seemed to click that he was in trouble and he twisted in Dinozzo's grasp, pulling the stunned officer's gun from his holster as he did so. Two shots were fired toward the ceiling and in that instant, everyone had instinctively crouched down behind a desk or cubical wall… everyone except Marie and Elise who were still standing in shock. Matt leveled the gun towards them, a mad gleam in his eye. However the loud bang of the gun going off was secondary to the fact that both girls were suddenly flying to the right and landed safely on the floor. A low grunt announced Dinozzo's tackle of Matt Genearo to the ground. Still stunned, Elise glanced around to see Jareth the Goblin King lying on the ground next to them, cradling his shoulder. Blood was soaking through the white poet's shirt and vest already, but his voice was steady when he looked directly at Marie and said, "This makes us even."
Marie nodded, a short jerk of her head up and down, while people rushed toward them. Nearly three hours later, Marie and Elise found themselves at the bedside of the Goblin King. His shoulder had been bandaged up and he looked quite fed up. "So, how's it going, Goblin King?" Elise asked. Maries stood behind her, not quite sure how to address the fae now that he'd saved her life.
"I've been shot; how do you think I am?"
Elise merely smiled. "So how did you explain who you were to everyone?"
"I placed a glamour on myself so that all but you two would see me as one of their co-workers who just happened to be walking by."
"Oh… thanks for that by the way." The Goblin King sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Are you sure you should be getting up?"
"I'm fine. I heal much faster than you mortals."
"Okay then… we'll have to talk about that later. I suppose you'll be going back to your kingdom then?"
"Yes, I need to get back. The annual chicken races are tomorrow."
"Ah… yes, be terrible if you missed that."
Jareth sent the older of the two girls an amused smirk. He stood and slowly stretched the shoulder that had been shot. "Thanks again," Elise said and nudged Marie behind her.
"Uh… yeah. What she said."
Once again the Goblin King smirked before he disappeared in a shower of glitter. "Well that was exciting," Marie said as they exited the room.
"Yeah… lets try not to do it again," Elise replied.
o O o O o O o
A/N: Another few chapters brought to you from the collective intelligence of QueenoftheSlayers and myself. We seriously had WAY too much fun writing this one! It was excellent!
NCIS (c) Donald P. Bellisario & Don McGill