"He is lying, Gibbs" Ziva said as she stepped into observation after an hourlong interrogation.
"I know" he replied, his eyes still on the man in the other room. "And he knows you know."
"Has there been any more communication with Fallujah?"
"On my way up to MTAC to do that now" Gibbs said, turning to go.
"Director, Agent Gibbs" a sombre voice greeted them via the plasma a few minutes later. "What've you got for me?"
"Nothing good" Gibbs replied.
The Commanding Officer listened in silence, his face hardening as the story unfolded.
"Are you tellin' me that Corporal Whitman wasn't taken by insurgents?"
"We're telling you that the video of Corporal Whitman was most probably a hoax, Sir."
"He involved?"
"Up to his eyeballs."
"Sonafabitch. Did he desert?"
"We're still looking into that. But there is evidence that he has communicated with his brother-in-law since he disappeared."
"His brother-in-law?"
"Aswar Fahrid. Moved to the United States ten years ago after getting a green card through the Diversity Visa lottery" Gibbs said. "He married Whitman's sister four years a-."
"Sir" a tech interrupted, "the Bahrain field office is standing by."
The Director nodded, and watched the screen split into two.
"Tell me you have good news for me" he said to the man at the other end of the transmission.
"We just got word from one of our agents in Lebanon. We have Whitman in custody, Sir."
"Did you hear that, Major?"
"That's five hundred miles and two countries away" the commanding officer said with a shake of his head.
"We'll get back to to you when we know more" the Director said.
"Appreciate it" the other man replied before the transmission went dead.
"I will go back and talk to Fahrid" Ziva said when both men in the room turned to face her. "He knows a lot more than he is willing to say."
"Keep me posted" Gibbs said to her as soon as they were standing outside the assessment centre.
"Will you be at the hospital?"
"Yeah. Call me when you've got something."
____________________________________________
"You know that looks a little ... droopy" Abby said, angling her head. "Does it look droopy to you, McGee?"
"Um ... I don't know" he said as crouched down next to her and looked at the baby's diaper.
"Wrong answer. What do you think?" she asked Jasper.
"That you want to hold the baby" he replied with a small smile as he handed her over.
"Hold her head, Abigail" Ducky huffed, looking worriedly at the door as though he expected Gibbs to walk through it at any moment.
"There's nothing here, Abs" McGee said as he looked all round the room for diapers.
"Anyone as far along as Jenny was would have a hospital bag. In her car perhaps" Ducky suggested.
"I need to stretch my legs a bit" Jasper said. "I'll walk around the parking garage and see if I can find her car."
"She had a bag with her in the elevator" McGee said. "I gave it to the people who pulled us out. I'll see if the nursery has it. She said she'd been having contractions so maybe that's it."
"I need to stretch my legs anyway" Jasper said. "Ducky .. can I offer you a coffee?"
The medical examiner rose to his feet. Not wanting to be impolite but reluctant to disregard Gibbs' wishes. However, common courtesy prevailed.
"Be careful you two" he whispered before leaving the room.
"Are you sure she needs a change?" Tony asked as as they had left the room. He peered over her shoulder, his face already wrinkling.
"Diapers are changed regularly, Tony" she replied with a laugh. Now I don't know if you're ready for this, because it might upset your delicate sensibilities ..
"I'll stop you."
"If we can't determine whether she needs a change from the appearance of the diaper, we may need to do the finger test" she said dramatically.
"Okay, you can stop" Tony said, covering his face with his hand. "Please tell me you don't mean what I think you mean" he added after a moment.
"I don't mean it" she said, "but my uncle Freddy used to do it with cousin Heff. In fact, there was this one time ..."
"Enough already."
"Well we still have to check" Abby said as she raised the baby's thigh and slowly edged the diaper away from it.
"And?"
"This baby definitely needs a change" she said.
"Uh ... guys ..." McGee said as he slipped back into the room.
"Did they have the bag?"
"Yes, but .."
"But what?" Abby asked as she held her hands out. "Why are you handing me towels?"
"They aren't towels."
"Then what are they?"
"Apparently they're called prefolds."
"Cloth diapers" Abby said, her face lighting up. "You're gonna be a green baby" she cooed at Imogen.
"Question is how do we put them on?"
"Why can't the nurses do this?" Tony piped up.
"The hospital uses disposable diapers" Tim replied. "If you want your child in cloth you have to do it yourself."
"She's already wearing a disposable. Why can't she wear another one?"
"Tony .." Abby said in a horrified tone. "This is what her mother wanted ... wants for her. We'll figure it out. How hard can it be to figure out the mechanics of a cloth diaper? What else is in the bag, McGee?"
"A bunch of these" he said pulling out some y-shaped pieces of plastic, lots more of those prefold things, a bunch of these ..."
"They're embroidered" Tony said.
"Which by definition means they are meant to be seen and must go on the outside" Abby said as she took two from McGee and turned them over in her hand. "Do you like this one or this one?" she asked as she held first one and then the other close to the baby's face. "Monkey or elephant? Neither? Okay .. pirate ship? Pirate ship. My sentiments exactly."
She turned back to the other two.
"Are you waiting for an invitation? Take your jackets off."
"What?"
"What what? We're doing this together. Are there wipes in the bag McGee?"
"No. But there are plenty of these .." he said as he held out wash cloths.
"Okay, so take a few and make them wet" she said indicating a sink in the corner.
McGee nodded and did so as Abby turned to the infant and pulled the fasteners on her disposable diaper apart.
"Whoa .. that can't be normal" Tony said as he took in the green-black tarry looking substance stuck to the baby's bottom.
"Actually it is" McGee said taking a quick peek. "The nurse said it's called meconium. She'll have it for a day or two she said."
"Roll up your sleeves" Abby said to Tony.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"You need to hold her legs up."
He did as he was told and took the baby's crossed ankles gingerly into his hands.
"Watch her neck" Abby snapped as the baby's body rose abruptly off the changer.
"You hold them."
"I can't hold them and clean her up. It's stuck to her. Here McGee ... wash this off."
McGee felt his stomach heave as she passed him a soiled piece of cloth.
"Steady probie" Tony said with a chuckle "It's just baby poo."
"Tell that to my stomach."
"Steady probie's stomach."
"It isn't helping."
"And this isn't working" Abby said in frustration. "We need to try this another way."
"What other way?" Tony asked, not sure he wanted to know the alternative.
"Like this" Abby said as she lifted the baby from the changer and handed her over to Tony.
"Hey .." he said.
"Don't drop her" she warned as took another moistened washcloth and rubbed the baby's bottom with it. "There's just one spot here that I .."
The sound of water making contact with a surface made Tony's head snap up.
"Tell me she didn't" he said.
"Afraid she did Di Nozzo" Gibbs said as he walked through the door and relieved him of the infant.
"These Ferragamos cost five hundred dollars, Boss" Tony whined.
"Be happy it wasn't the other stuff" Gibbs retorted. "Pee washes out. The other stuff doesn't."
He held out his hand to Abby. When she handed over a prefold he raised his eyebrows. He placed it down and studied it for a moment - turning it first one way and then the other before handing the baby back to Abby, and making the material edges meet in the middle. Pulling small flaps out of the top after a bit more thought.
"It's like origami" Abby breathed happily
"I was thinking more .. paper plane" he said as he placed the baby atop the material and wrapped her firmly in it. "There pins or something?"
"These" she replied, passing along one of the pieces of plastic.
Gibbs made quick work of securing it to the fabric and putting the cover over everything, snapping everything into place with finality.
"There anything for her to wear?" he asked.
"There are some snappy things and a few pairs of wool pants" McGee said as he poked about in the bag.
When he'd finished dressing her Gibbs held her to his chest.
"You ready to go?" he asked.
"Where's she going?" Abby asked as he headed for the door.
"To meet her mother."
_________________________________
Author's note:
I am sorry this story doesn't get updated often, especially since I know that there were quite a few people following it. But please be patient with me. This is a really hard story for me to write. It's just not my thing and I am totally out of my element and struggling here. Oh, and I should also mention that I am not poking fun at cloth diapers by any means. I fully intend to cloth diaper my next baby.