Chapter 37: Los Angeles

"WE GOT THE JOB!" Elise shouted as she walked just behind Marie at LAX airport in Los Angeles. Their plane had landed just a few minutes ago and they were slowly but steadily making their way to the luggage pickup area.

"What?" Marie asked incredulously, halting suddenly and causing Elise to bump into her as well as a couple of business people to grumble at them to get out of the way.

"We got the job! I'm officially a professional travel writer and you're my photojournalist!" Elise's grin was wide as she jumped up and down a couple of times in excitement. "This means we're gonna be paid to travel, Marie! We can go pretty much where ever we want!"

Marie grinned widely too, excited to be paid to do something she loved. "That's so awesome! What's our first assignment?"

"Well, first we have to get to Portland to fill out all the official paperwork. Then we get to negotiate our contracts about what we get to write about and how much freedom we have in traveling."

"Sounds like a lot of work," Marie commented as they finally found the luggage pickup area.

Elise spotted the sign that indicated their flight number and they went to wait for their bags to show up. "Yeah, but it'll be worth it. The magazine seemed to really like our stuff, so I'm betting we can negotiate more in our favor."

"Great! So lets grab our bags and hit the road!" Marie smiled as she spotted their brightly colored bags coming down the chute and landing on the conveyor belt. The girls had planned to rent a car and road trip up to see Elise's cousin, Donna, in northern California before making their way home. Now it appeared they'd be headed up to Portland, Oregon.

"Right, just sent an email back that we'll be in Portland in a few days. That should give us time to visit with Donna and check out the Redwood Forest and what not," Elise said tapping the send button on her phone to send the email out to their new employers.

They made their way to the car rental services and after thirty minutes or so were given the keys to a new 2015 BMW M4 convertible in Tanzanite Blue Metallic with white leather interior. Elise had just agreed to let Marie drive first (the manic glee in the younger girl's face at being able to drive the "pretty" car was a little scary), when a loud klaxon alarm sounded throughout the airport and a booming female voice overhead announced that due to a security breach, the airport would be locked down and that all people inside should gather in the appropriate places. For Elise and Marie, that was a waiting area just outside of the TSA security checkpoint. "What's happened?" Elise asked looking around.

"You're guess is as good as mine," the lady behind the counter at the rental service replied. "Seems to be the real deal though, not a drill."

"Great," Marie grumbled, her shoulders slumping.

They made their way to the waiting area, but all of the seats were already taken, so they ended up propping themselves up against a support pillar and trying to overhear what the TSA officials behind them were saying. It took nearly a whole hour, but eventually two people dressed in civilian clothing and sporting official badges claiming they were part of the NCIS showed up.

"Hello everyone," the man said, and Marie and Elise snapped up, watching him, "Unfortunately this is not a drill, but the situation is under control and we will get you all out of here as soon as possible."

The woman spoke up next, "We, and a few of the officers, will be coming around with a picture of a couple of people, please let us know if you have seen any of them or have any information about them."

Elise and Marie watched as the two agents slowly made their way around the room. Elise leaned over to Marie, "Do you know either of them, the two NCIS officers? Do you think they know my cousin?"

"I so know of them, Kensi Bly and Marty Deeks, and I bet they know Tony. I thought that you said that he was quite the NCIS agent in D.C., like his squad is high ranks?"

Elise shrugged, she wasn't up to date with Tony recently. His busy schedule and cases didn't leave much time to spend with distant cousins. "I could text him, see if he can find anything out about what is going on."

"Let him know where we are in case we die," Marie said, trying to joke, waving her hands about a little only to receive a 'don't joke like that' look from Elise as she was texting, and a glare from a mother of three a little ways from them. Marie held her hands up in a silent surrender and apology to the woman and her kids. "Right, no dying jokes, we just got new jobs, which means you should text your aunt and cousins that we are going to be later than we thought because we are stuck here."

Elise nodded, and was about to text her cousin that lived up in northern California when one of the NCIS agents stopped in front of them. "I would prefer if you waited to do that." The woman said. "I'm special agent Kensi Bly, my partner over there is Detective Marty Deeks LAPD, have either of you two seen these men?"

She held up the a small stack of photos, and slowly flipped through them, stopping when both Elise and Marie quickly looked up at each other. "Isn't that the rude guy that cut you off when going to the bathroom on the plane," Elise asked Marie.

"Ugh don't remind me. He was really rude. I had been waiting in line for like ten minutes to use a bathroom, and he just pushed his way in before me. He wasn't in that long though, under a minute, but very rude." Marie told Kensi, looking back at her from Elise. "He seemed like a normal plane jerk. He wasn't carrying anything dangerous… was he?" Marie lowered her voice, her eyes drifting to the family of four near them.

"So, which one of you is Elise ?" Deeks said as he walked over to the three woman.

Marie and Elise turned and looked at each other before they turned back to the two agents. "I'm Elise, why?"

Deeks held out a phone and handed it to Elise, "For you."

Elise grabbed the phone and held it to her ear, "Hello… Hey Tony… No, it's just Marie and I, heading to visit family on my mom's side up in Northern California. We just got back from our world tour after graduation. I sent you a few post cards… oh, well you will get them when you get back from Me… yeah, no problem. I will tell her… We'll try to stay safe. No guarantees. Yeah, I'll call you later. Bye." She handed the phone back and turned to Marie, "So Tony got my text message."

"Yay…" Marie said, looking up at Elise.

"You two should come with us," Kensi said to the two girls, "You would be able to help us recognize the man we are looking for."

Kensi and Deeks had them follow out of the room they had been waiting. "So, you know Tony DiNozzo?" Deeks asked.

"He's my cousin. We actually went out and saw him about a year or two ago… Marie got a accused of murder for an hour or two." Marie sent Elise a glare at that comment.

"It was horrible, my Doctor Who scarf wasn't the same when I finally got it back, and despite how morbid I can be, I am not wearing a scarf that was used to murder someone and then frame me."

Kensi and Deeks looked at each other and told them to stay put for a moment, before walking off to the side and calling someone. Marie and Elise looked around the smaller area that they had been brought to, and of course the walls were still grey speckled paint, uncomfortable looking chairs, and windows out to the tarmac, where no planes were sitting. Marie smacked Elise's arm, and when she turned to yell at her, Marie just pointed to outside. She whispered to Elise, "they've emptied the tarmac of all planes, at least the ones near the building on this side."

Elise nodded and looked out over the tarmac.

"Ladies, please come away from the windows," said a different male voice. Both girls turned and saw two new people had joined them. The girls walked over to the four agents at the table they had set up. "I'm Agent G. Callen, and this is Agent Sam Hanna. We understand that both of you recognized a man in one of our photos."

Marie nodded, and pointed down at the photo of the man they recognized, "Him, he cut me in line for the bathroom. He was only in there though for like a minute, and the tiny bathroom didn't look any different than when I used it earlier."

"I think he was a few rows in front of us, and we were near the middle of the plane, but it was easier to get to the toilet in the back of the plane," Elise said, her fingers on the edge of the photo. "I don't recognize anyone else, but it was a big plane."

Marie nodded in agreement, before digging into her purse and pulling out her boarding pass, "This is where we were, he was maybe three rows ahead."

"Thank you," Kensi said taking a picture of the boarding pass, and walking away while calling someone on her phone. "Eric, I sent you a photo, a couple of witnesses…" but she went out of hearing distance and the two girls couldn't hear what she was saying anymore.

The two girl sat down at the table when the other three went over to Kensi, who was flagging them over. After a few moments, she hung up the phone and went rushing out of the room, leaving Elise and Marie alone with a security guard. Marie had jumped up, trying to protest as they left, but stilled when Elise grabbed her lower arm. She sat back down and they turned to stare out the window to the empty tarmac.

Marie went to open her mouth to start talking, but Elise stopped her, "I can not handle any theories right now." Marie closed her mouth and nodded, and they sat in silence for quite a while.

They didn't hear the gunshots; they didn't see the triggered canisters that had been duds; and they didn't see the bodies that had been dropped on the ground.

Eventually Kensi and Deeks came back and collected them, having them sign witness statements, and escorted them down to their rental car.

Once at the rental car, Marie turned to the two agents. "Why all the extra attention? Did Tony threaten you?"

Deeks laughed, "He tried, but he is across the county…"

"It was Gibbs. Apparently Tony was with his team when he got your message and Gibbs called to talk to Hetty, who passed a message down to us." Kensi smiled at the two of them. "You should get a message to Tony that you are on your way north."

"Will do," Elise agreed with a nod, already pulling her phone out and turning away to make a semi private phone call.

"Well, this was fun… potential terrorist attacks…" Marie stated, opening the convertible top and dropping her bags into the back seats. "Don't even bother denying it. I may act like I don't see things, but I do, and I know the signs. The only difficult part is that none of us were allowed to leave, but in the end there were no hazmat suits and no testing. So I figure that it was either a false positive or something changed. And yeah, I know, you can't tell me, but I am not an idiot. Elise won't let me tell her, so I won't. But I know."

Marie got into the driver's seat and smiled at the two dumbstruck agents. Elise joined her a moment later and got into the passenger seat. Both girls said their goodbyes, and Marie cackled before starting the car and pulling out of the parking spot fast enough that she startled everyone, but slow enough that she didn't get into trouble. She cackled the entire way out of the parking garage, much to Elise's dismay.