Disclaimer: Don't own Dark Angel that's James Cameron; don't own NCIS that's Donald Bellasario. So don't sue me because not worth much because I'm a frustrated writer who writes fanfiction n the side. This chapter is dedicated to a reviewer called Lenya Greensleeves, who kicked my lazy butt into action. This is running slight AU season three NCIS, and this chapter contains major spoilers for the episode Voyeurs' Web. Minor for Bloodbath. Anyone who wants to send me flames please realize I spent hours re-watched this episode and wanting to kill something… (and from now on I'm just going to refer to the events from episodes, tiny scene pieces at most- not full pages)
Chapter One
Autopsy table… her lifeless form across it, a man scarier than anything above it cold eyes piercing into her… Abby bolted up and groaned rubbing her eyes; the comfy, secure coffin was a comforting sight after that nightmare.
Stupid nightmare… stupid Manticore. Abby carefully edged herself out of her coffin, her cute skeleton pjs the only thing protecting her skin from the cold air.
The goth forensics scientist walked over to the mirror. Hands behind her back she lectured her reflection. "Okay Abs, that was a nightmare, icky nightmare … has nothing to do with mean old Lydecker…"
She bolted out of the bathroom and grabbed a energy drink from the fridge rushing back to the mirror- not the same as a Caf Pow… but she had the mistake of leaving work late and the local convenience store which sold her beloved Caf Pows – their machine had broken,. That meant sad Abby.
Breathe in and out.
Smiling Abby opened the can and took a long chug feeling the happy buzzing feeling not as good as her beloved but would have to do as an instant fix…" As I was saying, "she continued her funny little lecture to herself. " It is all to do with Ari- Kate was like a sister, and she was murdered… with a gun called a KATE… Ari dead- needed to get over and get back to happy place where there are cases to crack and Gibbs… all will be back to normal"
Glancing at her reflection, Abby rolled her eyes. "Not buying it, huh?" Abby pouted and pulled her hair into pigtails. Next was the fun part. Abby loved black it was just such a neat color, it was so striking and it was actually a happy color. A person could make the mistake of thinking that black was a depressing color- yellow, pastels now those were depressing.
Her finger tapped her CD player as Abby walked into her closet still with the drink now somehow almost empty.
Immediately heavy, metal music filled the room and Abby opened suitcase as she smiled moving her head to the non existent beat of the song. She pulled out a bottle of pills- tryptophan…. Of course the forensic specialist could never keep these in her bathroom considering the others from work, especially McGee.
Not that it mattered; Abby didn't get very violent seizures often at all. Definitely a plus unlike the four… five times in the year she felt the unstoppable desire to jump someone's bones. Okay not so bad if it was someone like McGee -that creepy guy she picked up in that cemetery- not such a hot idea.
As she got dressed picking her outfit very carefully. It was still fun, even after all this time to pick what she wore… a thrill nobody understood. She settled finally, getting dressed.
Returning to the bathroom she plaited her pigtails, finally staring at her barcode. Regardless of what it stood for Abby's lips still perked up. It was a cute tattoo, too bad she could never show it. Frowning in disappointment, she started her foundation with her neck covering the barcode. As she waited for that to dry, she applied the rest of her make up, how could anyone stand to put it on lightly. It was meant to be seen and heard!
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"Doesn't look like a hoax to me, McGee" Poor McGee, Abby thought to herself as she worked on, staring at the computer clicking into a video analysis as it finished. Usual day, arrive at work, say good morning to all her equipment-make 'em feel all special. Then onto work, and all the many things to do. She was lucky for a former prisoner of a government agency (there so had to be aliens if there was Abby!), to have so much to occupy her mind... now if Abby could only get that small, baby raise then her life would be perfect. Well as much as it could be- but regardless she was going to keep looking at the bright side. In any case another day- another case. Like the task at hand find out the how, whats and whys of dead girls whose throat was slashed via the internet… interesting.
McGee looked over from where he was standing with Abby obviously still feeling the burning shame of making a mistake. Abby didn't think he should be hard on himself M.I.T. or not you couldn't be perfect. She certainly wasn't... Michael definitely evidence of that one... "Boss, I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me…"
He was cut off by Gibbs turning to look at Abby. "Abby, talk to me"
Right on queue, just when she had the answers. That's was just one of the things that Abby loved about Gibbs- always in control- like a nice Gibb-safety blanket net. "I was analyzing the file, Gibbs. It's compressed MPEG-Four, both fields are rendered using a Kodak" that scales down the number of colors in…. "
"In English, Abby". .. Whoops... needed to translate picture techno babble - to pre apple Gibbs speak.
She took a breath and started again..." Well, from what I can tell, it looks like the image is real. There's no signs of layered special effects or tampering" Abby turned to McGee giving him a look of sympathy. "Sorry, McGee" she flashed him a small smile.
"I want to know where it came from. You've got an hour." The usual ultimatum, do it in less.
Gibbs only stopped walking away when McGee spoke up," Fine boss, I don't need an hour. I scanned through Jamie's hard drive. I found it. That is Jamie Carr, or 'Rain,' on the right. Her webcam ran a direct feed into this website. "
As she listened to McGee, on one hand she stared at the screen. Somehow displaying yourself-like that was really not all that bright-. no wonder some not so random person, it was never random- had come along and did a quick if not ignoring all operation security- murder. She certainly never be clueless enough be in either position. For she was Abby, the only girl who could both kill you with a finger and leave no forensic evidence.
Abby turned to Gibbs. "She was running a sex site from her bedroom, Gibbs" she said translating.
Then McGee continued her explanation. Sometime Abby felt as though Tim if not for the whole slightly potty and not so much uber super McGee as Super Dungeons and Dragons geek McGee could totally be like one of her brothers- and anticipate her moves." And her murder was recorded during a live session, and distributed throughout the net"
"By who?" asked Gibbs.
"Anyone that could have been logged on to the site at the time" said McGee, as Gibbs walked closer to the main screen. Sometime Abby felt like Gibbs got some sort of help, like from the Blue Lady she so had to be walking besides the Gibbs everyday for how he always cracked cases and knew the truth just be looking at you. Too bad she could never tell him about her biggest secret- although sometimes it felt like he knew something was up. "It could be hundreds of people"
Focusing back on what was being said, Abby moved slightly until her hands were pressed together. Fun. "Or thousands, Gibbs. There's a big market for desperate housewives performing behind closed doors. Some of these ladies got rich doing it"
Walking back to them, Gibbs came up next them "Or dead, Abby. Who's the other girl?"
Abby gave a bare glance at the computer, she could read everything back with a few seconds of glancing at it but hey she could always let her eyes stare into space, her standard trick. "Net name's 'Skyler.' She runs the site" Not much of a site, complete lack of imagination. Now that was sad. "I traced her webcam feed back to the same neighborhood as Jamie Carr."
After printing out the address, McGee passed it to Gibbs" It's the residence of Sergeant Jake Roberts, also deployed in Iraq. His wife, Leanne, lives there alone"
"Get the car" Gibbs said giving McGee a look.
'You got it, Boss" he answered as he left, way keeping his head down
"You know, it's not his fault, Gibbs" Abby said looking at Gibbs after watching McGee leave, "If we investigated every weird video on the internet, I mean, you know?" Abby sighed and nodded her head as Gibbs returned to stand directly in front of the main screen shot of the website. She joined him "Okay, you don't, but trust me. Cyberspace is crammed full of all kinds of bizarre things. It's a whole new world in there, Gibbs, and a lot of it ain't pretty"
"You can say the same thing about this one, Abs." Abby turned and watched him leave. Gibbs was right.
This world sure was not pretty, considering all the bad things in it, Lydecker, Manticore, TACs, stalker ex boyfriends, dressing for court in that monkey suit, dress codes… evil dress codes. So not pretty! Abby's eyes widened when she was surprised from her reveries by her cellphone, and she walked into the small other room and picked her phone up. "Hello?"
Silence. Breathing.
"Michael…" Abby was feeling more annoyed by the second and disconnected the call. Heavy breathing for a whole minute, he was really starting to creep her out now. Abby didn't think anything but Barbie dolls could creep her out like that.
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How many calls of heavy breathing could that creep use… and another tap of her phone (albeit more professional looking) but still, Abby was getting in a steady worse and worse mood even after a good night's sleep. And that was before today's assignment. She knew what she would have nightmares about tonight…
If she watched one more video, Abby was going to lose it. Why were guys into this- this was fantasy for them, they would never touch these girls... must be all the guys who never could get a date... her brother Ben could get all kind of dates- but then he killed people. And then took their teeth as souvenirs....he'd never look at this but then she supposed the Lady might have a problem with the whole porn thing.
"What do you have, Abs?"
Gibbs... with the saviors of all saviors a Caf Pow. Only at this moment, if she could stop doing this she's gladly give up this hours Caf Pow... okay maybe this half hour's.
" Um, a Ph D in porn" she turned back to the screen, shudder." I spent the last six hours searching through webcam files trying to find some kind of lead. And I have consumed more porn than Tony has in his lifetime" She paused slightly as her medicine was passed over, the painkiller, the calming balm that would lessen the pain of this torture "Okay, maybe not" That was an impossible task... more of this than Tony... "-but I have watched a lot of smut"
"You learn anything?" asked Gibbs, as she took a sip both hands firmly on the cup. Now this was why Abby Sciuto would never survive back in Manticore, without these, and her other 'addictions' like music- they would have to lock her in the basement. She'd be crazy.
Abby frowned quizzically" I'm not nearly as flexible as I should be" Indeed, she had been unaware any living creature could pull off the move that those two girls had.
"Anything about the case?" How had he gotten to staring at her through the gaps of computer and lab equipment?
Back to the computer, keep as much from being seen as possible" Right" Abby said, smiling , stay on topic even if mind was a million miles a minute, eight different directions." I was getting to that. I filtered through all of Jamie's files, and I found the original feed of her murder"
"This helps?" Gibbs asked from his place in front of the main screen of the lab.
"That it does. By coordinating the original stream with the hard drive, I obtained the date and time that the file was written"
Abby walked over to the printer, as she kept speaking "I know when Jamie Carr was murdered!" She passed over the print out of the time...as Gibbs was, predictably right next to her." Eight days ago at nine p.m." She pulled up her best 'Abby soldier face'- which meant making a complete mockery of her training. Perk "To you that would be twenty-one hundred hours, Sir!
A quick kiss on the cheek. "That's good work, Abby" Glowy, happy words of praise that made her feel better than any energy drink or anything. Her deaf adopted father was great but if she had to pick a father in the world out side doom-and-gloom Manticore, it'd be Gibbs.
"I do what I can" The smile started to drop as she walked back towards the veil fate that awaited her, the enthusiasm dropping from her voice by the second."And as a reward, I will treat myself to more exciting girl-on-girl action" Save her please, weird nomilies type monsters, Manticore's psy ops anything... nothing could feel worse right this instant!
"Miss Sciuto".
"Whoa!" She jumped... she though with her super 'spidey' senses no one could make her jump, except for the man who had just left. Abby stared at the man in question. "Okay, that was quieter than Gibbs".
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How could Abby feel worse in the space of a few minutes? An assistant named Chip.
No, no, no!!! Gibbs was meant to fix these things. Chip was meant to be gone- in the wind, sayonara see you next lifetime buddy. Abby frowned as she pulled out her keys. Now she was stuck with her annoying new assistant. He seemed completely un-freakable… Abby shook her head. She wanted to like Jenny but this was going to make it really hard… and the 'children' didn't like to get in between 'Mommy' and 'Daddy'
Abby frowned as the door opened with the touch of her key and she felt her mood grow darker. "Michael" The goth scientist muttered, pulling out her phone as she flipped the light on. Judge's number…. She spared a glance up and her eyes widened.
"No way!" Abby cried out in rapture and dropped everything and clamped onto Syl. "Hi little sister!"
Her sister frowned looking at her as she pushed her back. "You don't collect teeth do you?" Syl asked, warily.
Abby smiled widely. "Only on weekends" she quipped and the expression on her little sister's face didn't lighten. Oh why, oh why was her real family so damn serious- you didn't see her adoptive family getting their tighty whiteys all twisted up all the time, now did you?
Syl moved away, as if terrified Abby would hug her again using the vice grip arms. "So who is Michael?"
"My stalker ex who I picked up in a cemetery"
"Oh"
---To be Continued.
Ha, bet you all thought I abandoned this story- no way no how. Anyway… I dedicate this chapter to all the reviewers who never gave up. You had more faith in me than me.
