From the observation room, the woman McGee had lusted over as a teenager was looking very impatient. She glanced down at her hands and huffed in frustration. Tugging her handbag bag open with some ferocity, she dug out a small red bottle. McGee watched in fascination as she unscrewed the cap and then smiled at the familiar gesture. She was doing her nails. Nothing frustrated her more than those nails. If she scraped a bit of polish on the keyboard, all programming would screech to a halt while she did a touch up.

Sometimes, like now, she would redo all the nails, like a cat preening in times of stress. He leaned his forehead against the glass gently and watched her earnest work. Strange to think that after all this time, some habits never died.

She looked up as Gibbs walked in, threading the brush into the bottle and screwing it shut tightly. As Gibbs sat, she tucked the bottle back into her bag, being careful not to touch her nails against the side as she did so. McGee smiled fondly but straightened abruptly as the door to the observation room opened and Tony and Ziva walked in.

Tony gave him an almost apologetic look but before McGee had time to work out why, Gibbs started talking.

"Would you say Petty Officer Dorgon was in good shape?"

"I don't go out with losers," she replied with a venom that took McGee aback.

Gibbs, however, seemed unfazed.

"So he worked out – good abs?"

"Oh yeah," she agreed with a wistful smile.

In McGee's fantasies, she was always naïve and unspoilt. Now she seemed downright predatory.

Gibbs shot a hesitant look at the one-way mirror to the observation room then turned back to his subject with a resigned sigh.

"So was Petty Officer Dorgon your client for the just the day or was night included?"

McGee's was furious. How dare Gibbs insinuate Jen was only going out with a sailor on R & R because…

"How did you know?"

McGee's jaw dropped as the full force of what she was saying hit him. He felt sick to his stomach. He rested his head on the cool glass for a moment and closed his eyes. His little teenage fantasies now seemed dirty and perverse. He wondered how he was going to tell his sister.

"One of my agents recognised the…signs," said Gibbs tactfully glancing at the observation room window.

McGee's head jerked around to stare at Tony who gave him another apologetic smile. This time he understood what it meant.

Ziva, too was looking at Tony, her highbrows arched high in surprise. "And you knew this because…"

"I was a cop, Officer David," he said steadily.

"Of course," she turned back to the window not knowing what to believe.

"It was mainly a day job," Jen replied in a business-like tone that sent a chill down McGee's spine, "but I had hopes of a continuation of services after the fair."

McGee sighed and looked back through the window. Now he looked at her, really looked at her, her face looked harder than before. Maybe times had not been good to her. He turned and left, he really didn't need to hear any more of this.

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McGee found Abby in the lab pushing buttons on her mass spectrometer.

"Gibbs wants to know what you got off the roller coast body?" he tried to sound normal but there was a distinct note of dejection in his voice that he was having trouble masking.

"Well, hello to you too."

He blushed, squeezed his eyes for a moment and licked his lips to start again.

"Ahh, sorry," he apologised, "Hi Abbs, anything from the blood sample yet?"

"Better. Childish, but better. Tell Gibbs our sailor was high in more than just the vertical sense."

"On what?"

"Some barbiturate cocktail. Hardly uncommon for a sailor on the first day of R and R: A little drugs, a little roller coaster ride. It's all good."

"Yeah," McGee agreed ruefully, "until you fall out the carriage."

Abby cringed in agreement.

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Gibbs was just escorting Jen out when McGee found him but it was not Gibbs he approached.

"Do you do drugs?" McGee's demanded.

"What? No!" she seemed indignant. McGee wondered how she could claim dignity in prostitution but not in drugs.

"Look," she held out her arms for inspection, "I'm clean, always have been, always will. There are too many out there in the business who lose it all thanks to drugs."

Gibbs moved to stand between them.

"Abby found drugs in P.O. Dorgon's system, Boss. Barbiturate cocktail…."

"Not here, McGee," Gibbs warned quietly.

McGee halted, panting slightly and reassessed the situation. Jen was a suspect, not an old friend, and he was feeding her information.

He looked down, ashamed at his oversight. "Ahhh, sorry boss, I'll fill you in later."

Gibbs nodded solemnly and motioned for Jen to precede him.

"Maybe we can catch up sometime," she offered with a sweet smile, as she walked past.

Somehow that smile had a whole new connotation. He felt like she was soliciting him.

"Yeah," he replied wanely. "Maybe when this is all over."