Chpt 4

05:00 reads the clock beside her bed. Laurie frowns in momentary confusion not really sure what woke her up. Checking her watch she grimaces as she realizes that she'd slept the clock round. She hasn't had a solid night of sleep since the war ended ten odd years ago.

The sound comes again and this time she can identify it as a soft cry of pain. Easing down the stairs she crosses to the den and sees Tony in the throes of a nightmare. She enters the room and cautiously sits on the floor beside the couch. As she does so, she softly talks to Tony, letting him know of her presence. She hesitantly touches his shoulder and he immediately reacts by throwing her against the couch and rolling on top of her. She stays quiet as he grabs her hands.

Gibbs runs into the room, but a look from Laurie makes him pause. She's asking him to trust her with his agent's life. She can tell that Tony's nightmare is gradually diminishing. As it dissipates, his brutal grip loosens and becomes a caress. Knowing she has to do something, she gently extracts a hand and lightly touching his face knocks him out completely.

Gibbs steps closer and carefully eases Tony off of Laurie and onto a recliner. Laurie rubs her wrists briefly before turning her attention to the man in the chair.

"Are you okay? I've seen him take down drug dealers with a similar move."

Laurie nods and smiles at the whispered question. She's had worse bruises from nightmares not to mention the war, and knows that these won't be the last she receives in her lifetime.

"You didn't interfere with the nightmare?" His question tells her that he knows she has the ability to enter another person's mind and help heal the trauma by watching what the mind sees.

"I needed to observe tonight. I managed to stay just outside of his mental and still get a good picture of what torments him. By the way, he has strong mental blocks. I wouldn't have been able to just waltz my way in there."

"Can I help in any way?" The concern in his eyes encourages her.

"I think you already are. I noticed when you came in he started to calm down. He trusts you, but you need to maintain your honesty towards him. Let him see that you care even if it's uncomfortable. He needs that, all of your team do, including you."

Gibbs doesn't say anything as he helps her to her feet. She glances at him to make sure she hasn't upset him by what she'd just said. He's nodding in quiet agreement. The past few months have been Hell on all of his team, but Tony is the one they all go to for help. Gibbs himself relies on this ex-cop due to the fact that Tony's instincts are almost as sharp as his own. Laurie knows there's one way to get Gibbs attention and uses it.

"Hey boss, why don't you go shower and I'll rustle us up some breakfast."

"As long as there's coffee, I'll be there."

"Go on with you. Don't worry I'll keep an eye on your kid while I'm at it."

"He's not –"

"Isn't he? Aren't they all?"

The fact that she's managed to figure out in under 24 hours that he regards his team as family is enough to send even Gibbs to the showers. Laurie ransacks Gibbs cupboards and refrigerator. Five minutes later finds her at the stove with the fixings for French bread, bacon and eggs. The coffee is percolating merrily in its pot when Gibbs enters the kitchen. Pouring his first cup of the day but not his last, he sighs with satisfaction. Then he realizes what she's making.

"I'd have settled for toast and jam. You didn't have to go all out like this."

"It's been a while. I wanted to make sure I still knew how."

"Knew what? Morning …boss." Tony yawns then his eyes widen as he takes in the feast on the table. "Whoa, who made all this? I'll be down in five. Hey boss don't eat it all." Tony's footsteps fade away as he runs up the stairs. Five minutes later he's rubbing a towel over his hair and has slipped a pair of khaki's on along with some slippers. He watches as Laurie expertly flips the last piece of French toast onto a platter.

"Eat up you two; don't want all this good food to go to waste." Laurie takes time to grab out some syrup and peanut butter as well as the ketchup and Tabasco sauce.

"You know if this is on your menu, you'll have a good start for your restaurant. Where'd you learn to cook? This is like high quality stuff." Laurie smiles faintly at Tony's questions. She remembers another young man asking the same questions.

"It's just something I've picked up over the years. I had a lot of time to hone it during the war. You could say it's one of my gifts."

Gibbs looks at her with new appreciation in his eyes. "I hadn't realized you were actually over there. Then again as a SEAL, you would have been all over as covert or black ops?"

"No, well we started out that way. I was transferred to MB-1 the second year. I didn't return to my SEAL team for almost six years."

"What the hell were you doing there?" Gibbs is shocked at that fact.

"What's MB-1?" Tony's never heard of it referred to that way.

"Multi-Branch Unit -1, Tony." Gibbs tone makes it a statement of fact.

"It was also called Dawes Guys." Laurie's voice is low as she says it. "We were there to keep the heat off the front line units. Or so they said."

"How did you end up there? From what I read, you weren't in command, you were their medic and head cook."

"That's a deadly combination." Tony's quip earns him a quick whack upside the head.

"It's true though. I was primarily in the camp as the cook and medic. They certainly saw to it that I rarely stepped foot outside of it."

"Just how the hell did a Navy SEAL end up in that unit?" Gibbs is curious and getting furious as he realizes just how degrading that transfer was for her.

"Actually I was the second SEAL assigned to it. Commander Morrison was only supposed to be part of the advisory board as a consultant and ended up getting captured the second year and tortured for the next three years. This happened a week after I arrived. I had gone there trying to prevent the formation of another multi-branch unit. I was too late. The entire thing was a set up from the get go. We managed to rescue them however. In the end we saved them both."

Both men can tell that this is a tale that will take some time in the telling. Gibbs asks one more question.

"What was the cost?"

"Time, man power, resources, almost the entire unit." The last is said so softly they almost don't hear it.

"That's why you went in. You were there to save them if at all possible." She nods as she finishes her milk. The two men finish their coffees and start washing up the dishes. Laurie tries to help and is told to sketch out the details for her restaurants so that they can have McGee input them into a search program and narrow down her search. She nods and leaves the room while the two men quickly get the dishes out of the way. As they work, Tony asks Gibbs the one question that's been burning in his mind.

"Boss, when did we get a female Navy SEAL and how come no one knows about her?"

Gibbs smiles as he sees Tony, his Tony starting to emerge from whatever cocoon he'd been hiding in.

"She's not a well advertised fact Tony. That movie a few years ago GI Jane? Yeah that scared quite a few people into covering it up even more. She's the first and quite possibly the last for years to come. I don't know her complete background story though. You'll have to get that from her."

"Hmm…maybe." Gibbs can see Tony going into hiding again.

"You don't know until you ask DiNozzo."

"She could ignore me or tell me nothing."

"She could also end up telling you the truth, Tony."

"That's what I'm afraid of."