Chapter 2

Jane Doe

On the main office floor, Caitlin Todd was fighting a loosing battle. This particular battle was biscuit crumbs. The faster she brushed them off her polished timber desk the quicker and thicker they fell. Arriving direct from the President's Secret Service detail, you would think she could cope with anything. Anything bar crumbs. 'Do you have to? I mean, do you really have to? Go and mess up your own desk not mine!'

The source of her irritation as per usual was Anthony DiNozzo, resident "cool cat", or so he likes to think. At this instant, Tony was perched on the corner of her desk like a prehistoric bird of prey, finishing off one of America's largest ready made commercial biscuits and was in the process of brushing the remaining crumbs off his Armani jacket and onto her desk.

'Well yeah Kate, I could, but then I'd have to clean it up myself which kinda defeats the purpose.' Tony slid off her desk and strutted over to his own.

'How can you even eat junk like that? It's barely lunch time and already you've stuffed a weeks worth of crap down your throat.'

Tony shrugged, spinning around in his chair and purely by luck, narrowly avoiding the sudden barrage of scrunched up notepaper coming from the opposite desk space. Timothy McGee, computer expert, hid himself in his latest novel. He had learnt the hard way not to get involved in their frequent "disagreements" as one time involved poison ivy and super glue.

Gibbs arrived shortly after in his traditional fashion; stalking noiselessly out of the lift with his morning cup of coffee from Starbucks. This retired Gunnery Sergeant was the personification of the word "boss". Most of the military population of Washington D.C. knew that if you wanted to keep all of your faculties intact to give him a wide berth. He wound his way through the maze of desks and office stations without even breaking stride. 'Let's go.'

Tony leapt out of his chair as if it was spring loaded. 'Where to, Boss?'

'Conference Room three. One of Ducky's autopsies jumped out of the freezer demanding he help her and according to Palmer neither of them put her there. McGee, get Abby.' Gibbs didn't even pause to register the mixed reactions of his team, just strode out of the office floor into the side lift.

'Uh, on it, Boss.' A rather confused McGee scurried off to the forensic labs to enlist the help of their gothic expert.

Tony's face was a picture of glee. 'I knew it was gonna happen one day!' And grabbing his brand new Motorola camera phone pranced out towards the conference rooms.

Kate sighed, tossing her gun back into its draw and following suit. "Dead man walking" was not one of her favourite sayings.

The first thing Kate noticed when she entered the conference room was the water. The floor was swamped. Gibbs was sitting opposite the assumed to-be-autopsy who, still creating a small pond from her clothes, was wrapped in a large blanket. She was clinging on to Ducky like a terrified long legged spider. Kate moved to the other side of the table and sat between Gibbs and Tony. Tony was discretely trying to take pictures with his phone while ringing out the hem of his trousers. He could see the headlines now: "Deceased Demands Assistance". With the rights alone he could buy himself another $100 Armani tie and a Ferrari. He would go for red with gold racing stripes and that was just the tie.

Gibbs was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. 'Why don't you start by telling us who you are and how you got into our freezer?' She avoided his gaze just as quickly as he established it. It wasn't often the team noticed compassion creeping into their boss's voice. What was it he could see in her that the others couldn't?

Her voice shook with the effort of overcoming the cold and the shock. 'I don't know who I am or how I –' She pulled the blanket tighter and clung even more desperately to the Doctor. Her grip must have been stronger than it looked as every so often, Ducky winced as though needles were being plunged into his side. 'I don't even know where here is!' She almost yelled at the floor in frustration.

'Duck?' Gibbs glanced at his friend and colleague, hoping for some answers.

'Shock or trauma induced amnesia. The cold and water certainly didn't help. No ID I'm afraid, Jethro. At a rough guess, between twenty and thirty, possibly British descent judging by her slight accent and syntax although she could have been raised here in the States.'

Gibbs threw his coffee cup at the bin. 'Tony. Fingerprints.' But as Tony rounded the table to take them, the Jane Doe shrank away form him, drawing even closer to the Doctor.

'Okay then, maybe I won't.' Tony backed off.

Gibbs addressed the cowering figure, gesturing towards Ducky. 'How do you know you can trust him?'

She finally looked him in the eyes. It was hard to tell whose were bluer and her pointed face, like that of a rabbit, reminded him of someone but he couldn't quite remember who. He wondered if the others were thinking the same thing. 'She always told me – if anything happened –.'

'What did she tell you?' They might actually be getting somewhere.

'Gold hair, blue eyes, be with you till the day you die.' She frowned in an attempt to remember more and thus failing this, sadly shook her head.

'Did she tell you anything else?'

Her eyes suddenly lit up. 'You're a Marine.'

'Yes, yes I am.'

'You're Gunny? Mum used to say that; if anything happens, find a Marine. They'll always help you if you just tell them –' her voice trailed off into ambiguity.

'Tell them what?' Gibbs leaned across the table.

'I – I don't know.'

Ducky decided this was becoming too much of an interrogation. 'Jethro, her memory will come back in time and it won't be helped by constant questioning.'

It was at this moment that McGee appeared followed by Abigail Sciuto resplendent as usual in black. Today, she was going for a high school cheerleader meets Sweeney Todd look. They both stopped short as the Jane Doe yelled again in frustration. 'I – I want to help! Something has happened, something awful but I can't remember what!'

McGee and Abby were turned around almost immediately by Gibbs. 'Go back down there and run a search on missing persons, pull security tapes from last night and while you're at it make sure none of this gets out.'

'On it, Boss.'

'Sure Gibbs.'

'And the rest of you, go get lunch.'