Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen! I forgot to mention in the last chapter: Agent Blain is based on one of my friends. She's currently trying to persuade me to bring her back, but not lop off any of her limbs. Spoilsport.

Chapter 3: Babysitting

Lily bobbed her head along to the music. Someone singing about turning into a zombie was not normally her cup of tea, but she could cope.

LJ's team had finally realized they could glean nothing more from the lab for the moment, and had adjourned to the Navy Yard. Lily wasn't particularly fussed with where she was, as long as she had some coffee and someone to bug. LJ had kicked her out of the squad room after ten minutes. Apparently, he did not like it when she switched his keys around on his keyboard.

Spoilsport.

Instead, she watched as Abby scanned fingerprints into the system and tried to get a match. Lily normally stayed away from the tech wing of the CIA, unless she needed a favor. They were too geeky for her liking. Abby on the other hand…

Abby was Abby. She was currently bouncing up and down, swinging her pigtails along to the music. She was always extremely happy, which cheered Lily up.

Some things needed to stay constant.

Finally, the Goth sat down next to Lily and began tapping away at her keyboard. "I'm trying to see who was in the building when the theft occurred," she explained.

Lily was curious. "How are you doing that?"

The Goth looked delighted to have to opportunity to educate someone. "The whole building works on keycards. You scan your card into each section. In the event of a fire or other assorted emergency, the rescuers know exactly how many people are in which areas."

"So," Lily concluded. "You can work out who was in the section at the time, and thus give us a definite list of suspects."

Abby beamed. "You're smart."

"It was logical," Lily pointed out. "And you have to be smart to join the CIA."

"Ziva told me you're engaged," Abby pried. "Is he hot?"

"Gorgeous," she replied.

Thursday evening

"You can tell me the truth," Alex teased.

"I told her you were as ugly as sin and I was only with you for the money," Lily teased straight back.

He elbowed her. "What money?"

Their laughter filled the car for a few moments. "Back to what happened?" Lily suggested.

"Please."

Monday morning

"Have you set a date?" Abby almost squealed.

"Not yet. Alex keeps joking at this rate it's going to end up being a double wedding."

"With who?"

"Jenny and LJ, he reckons."

"Do you know why they aren't talking again?"

Lily sighed. "Can't tell you."

Abby pulled a face like a kicked puppy. "Please? It's so sad to see Mommy and Daddy fighting."

"You can't solve it."

"Everything is solvable. Is that even a word? Solvable? It is now!"

Lily chuckled. "It is a word. It's not possible to solve everything with a magic wand, Abby. I'm working on sorting it out, but sometimes it needs to take a backseat to others things."

"So it's something you can solve?"

Lily considered her words carefully. "Not necessarily. I can do something, but I can't rush it."

"Why not?"

"For the same reason you don't rush your samples; some things cannot be rushed. Change of topic: who is hotter? George Clooney or Brad Pitt?"

Lily strolled into the squad room after Abby's music had finally given her a headache. She went directly to LJ's desk and found the aspirin hidden inside. Dry swallowing two, she snagged a chair from a Probie and sat down in the middle of the work area.

LJ was still glaring at her over the aspirin, and probably had not quite recovered from her keyboard game earlier. It didn't worry her; if she let the little things bother her, she would never get anything done.

Tony had shot her a quick grin, before returning to his attempts to charm someone on the phone. Lily decided that his main fault was his knowledge of how handsome he was. If he were oblivious, she guessed he would be nicer.

She still liked him. He was handsome and funny, although she would definitely need to bring him down a peg or two. She had hoped the whole 'tying him to a bed' incident would do some good, but he just stayed away from her.

Pity.

Ziva clearly had not forgiven her for playing with Tony, and did not seem too happy over the Gilman affair. Lily felt the whole Gilman thing was not her fault, regardless of what her boss said. She had done everything possible to keep Jenny away from work, and she could not be blamed if Jenny had managed to wake up when dosed with sleeping pills.

She had already bought a supply of laxatives for next time. She didn't know when the 'next time' would be, but it helped to be prepared.

McGee accepted her more than the others, probably because of his innocence. He reminded her of a puppy: cute and loyal. If she said 'jump', he would ask how high. If she asked for help, he would grant it to her. She was still resisting the desire to break into his apartment and read the next Gemcity book, especially as she now knew about a character named Lil Tipford.

She wondered if it was worth prank calling Arbourne to give her something to do. Or Darlene. Perhaps she could send Darlene on another wild goose chase. She knew she would end up in serious trouble, but it didn't worry her. Arbourne was not particularly imaginative, and she could cope with anything he threw at her.

Although this babysitting malarkey was getting on her nerves.

NCIS was not about to stumble across any national secrets. The software was heavily encrypted and she doubted they would be able to break through it.

Even though she did know the codes. Sometimes the geeks needed to remember not to pick something too obvious.

"You just going to sit there?" LJ growled.

"I was thinking of starting a conga line," she offered. "Or asking if anyone wanted to try some naked mud-wrestling."

LJ stared at her. "I need coffee," he mumbled.

"Pick some up for me while you're there," she demanded. "I need a caffeine fix and your coffee here is dire."

The stare turned into a glare.

"Got something!" McGee called.

Lily leapt out of her chair. "At last!"

Lily returned her sister's curious look. Jenny had called for an update just as they were leaving, and LJ had decided to stay and brief her. Lily had immediately decided that she might be better suited to staying behind as well.

LJ had muttered dark comments all the way up the stairs and into Cynthia's office. Cynthia had not realized it was Lily in front of her and become confused. Only Jenny's intervention had stopped Lily from creating more chaos.

LJ had chosen to stand in front of Jenny's desk, so Lily had decided to copy him. It was a nice little game for now, nothing too strenuous. It had the other advantage of winding LJ up. The only downside was what Jenny would do when she realized the latest game.

"Missing technology and national security," Jenny started. "Why did neither of you inform me of this?"

"Because it's not my job?" Lily suggested instantly. "I don't answer to you."

Jenny shot her a look which said 'keep quiet or else'.

"I was more focused on locating the technology before it fell into the wrong hands," LJ answered.

"What exactly is this technology?" Jenny questioned.

LJ shrugged his shoulders. "Ask the spook. She won't tell us."

"Sorry," Lily replied. "It's need to know and your clearance isn't high enough even if you did need to know."

"How high is your security clearance?" Jenny tried.

Lily grinned. "A lot higher than yours. Honestly, it's not relevant to your job. Your job is to find the tech, my job is to make sure you don't accidently view anything classified. The classified part does not say where the tech is now."

"She's got a point," Jenny conceded.

LJ looked as though he would like nothing better than to throw her out the window. "She's got a point?! Whatever is on that tech is important enough to steal, so my people need to know it too."

"Rubbish," Lily smirked. "You want to know only because you do not currently know. If you don't know but I do, that gives me the upper hand and you'd like nothing better than for me to be rolling in the dirt."

Jenny cleared her throat. "I think Lil is trying to say that curiosity killed the cat."

"It could kill my team," LJ warned.

"That's bull and you know it," Lily answered. "No part of the software is going to leap up and bite your behind. All you need to know is that you don't need to know."

"Enough," Jenny ordered. "Do you have anything yet?"

"The keycard system shows only three people were present at the time of the theft. We've been able to narrow the window down to between 2300 last night and 0100 this morning," LJ informed her.

"And he's just sent the rest of his team to pick up our three suspects," Lily added.

"Do they have names?" Jenny inquired.

LJ looked puzzled. "Yeah?"

Lily understood. "I haven't heard of them before, but I wasn't following the people working on the project. I'll start calling around later, if you'd like."

"Great," Jenny groaned. "How long until they get here?"