Thank you to all who reviewed the story! I hope you continue to enjoy it!
"I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who."
"Ten bucks."
"Nope."
"Twenty? Thirty?"
"DiNozzo what kind of woman do you think I am? And you two, for helping him! I'm ashamed of you Ziva, McGee!"
"Abby, all we're asking you to do is go one day without your Caf-Pow. Just a little science experiment."
"Nothing doing."
"Fine, guess we're going to have to go to the next best thing. Ziva, hold her! McGee, grab the cup and run!" Just as the words left his mouth, a hand slammed into the back of his head with unnecessary force. "Ouch, just a joke, boss."
"Gibbs!" Abby grinned and skipped to his side. "Thanks for coming to my rescue. They were trying rob my of my daily caffeine intake. And you know what I'm like when I lose my caffeine." Her full lips moved into a teasing pout.
"Don't you three have work to do?" Gibbs glared at them, causing them to shrink back slightly. Mumbling apologies, they left the lab.
"What do you have for my today, my silver haired fox?" Abby said, snagging another Caf-Pow cup out of Gibbs' hand.
"A few more things of the Marine that Tony forget to bring down to you today. I guessed he wasn't coming back for them after he disappeared for 20 minutes."
"He was trying to get McGee and Ziva to contribute some money into the "Making Abby Give Up Her Caf-Pow" bank. I'm just about to start the tests now, so if you want to come back in a few more hours with another Caf-Pow…"
"I'll see you later, Abby."
"I told you we should have gone in there when Gibbs went home."
"Well I didn't actually think she would have been that possessive of her Caf-Pow!"
"And you realize this is Abby you are talking about? The one you have worked with for how many years?"
All three of the agents fell silent when they saw Gibbs come back, immediately resuming their work. Just as he sat down at his desk, the phone rang. Sighing, he picked it up.
"Gibbs." He listened silently for a few minutes on the other end, and put the phone back down. "Gear up and pack your insect repellant."
"Insect repellant?" Ziva muttered.
"Must be going out to the woods somewhere." McGee said.
Tony laughed. "Yep, I'm sure those mosquitoes are going to get a good meal out of you, McGee."
"Stupid bugs." Tony swatted at the little black insects that appeared to be following him everywhere.
"And yet, it seems they only like you. Nobody else has been bit." Ziva was unsuccessfully trying to hide a laugh.
"His big head alone is enough for those bloodsuckers." McGee chuckled until Tony's hand smacked into the back of his head.
"Whoops. Sorry Probie, thought there was one on the back of your head." Suddenly his head turned. "Wow." Tony's attentions were distracting by a tiny woman walking towards them.
"Agents of NCIS. Welcome to our community. We are overjoyed by your visit, but mourn the reasons for why you have come here." The woman stared up at them, her green eyes wide as she stared at them all.
"Community?" Tony had somehow sidled up to the woman. "You mean people actually live out here, miles away from civilization?"
The woman nodded, her white hair cascading down her back as she did so. "Yes, we believe it gives our lives new meaning and simplicity."
Tony grinned at her, laying on the charm. "You know, I really admire that…"
Ziva rolled her eyes and began to make her way through the trees, where she could see other people gathered. They seemed to be looking from a distance at something, and as Ziva began to walk closer she saw Gibbs kneeling over a body.
"You're giving the people quite a shake-up." She said softly as she knelt down next to him.
"They're not interested in me – they're interested in Lisa Kurgon. Look." Ziva turned her head to look down at the body, and almost gasped. What must have been a beautiful woman was now completely disfigured, her body a dark, charcoal black. She had been burned to death.
"Well, this is rather fascinating." Ziva looked up to see Ducky standing behind her, an eager expression on his face. "It's been quite some time since we've had a burning, isn't it Jethro?" Ziva noticed that the villagers were backing away from Ducky.
"Yes, wonderful." Tony had come over too, along with the woman he had been talking to. She smiled slightly at him, and Tony grinned back at her. Ziva couldn't help but notice the way her bright green eyes sparkled at him. With a disgusted grimace, she turned back to her work.
"Abby."
"Oh! Gibbs, okay, now I've got the lab results and – That doesn't look like a Caf-Pow."
"That's because it's not."
"Darn it." She muttered.
"I've got another case for you."
"Two cases at once for you guys, don't you think that's kind of rough? And don't you think I deserve a Caf-Pow for all this roughness?"
"We found the murderer just before we caught the call for this case. The only thing that evidence will do is be useful to us in court. This one on the other hand – it's more tricky." Gibbs handed her a bag with just one darkened, twisted object in it. "See what you can make of this."
"Fine. But next time - "
"I know, Abbs."
"Jethro, right on time."
"How's our victim, Duck?"
"She's a puzzle, my friend. I was examining her and look what I found." He pulled back a bit of the sheet to show blackened skin.
"I know she was burned, Duck, I was at the crime scene too, remember?"
"I know, I know. But look." Ducky pointed a seemingly plain patch of black skin. It wasn't until Gibbs leaned in that he saw what Ducky was talking about.
"This is going to complicate things a bit."
There, on the skin, was a symbol. Gibbs didn't recognize it, but just looking at the odd shape gave him a chill. It was slightly sinister in the blackened skin of Lisa Kurgon.
Just as he thought these words, Ducky pulled back the sheet all the way to reveal a completely charred body with symbols, all different, all completely unknown to him.
So much for an easy case.
"Leave the body like that Duck, I'm going to call the others."
"You think it was a sacrificial ritual?" Tony hid his disgust well, but he couldn't hide the slight grimace when he looked down at the body. "Burned alive?"
"Possibly. Or maybe it was a message for us." Ziva too looked down at the body, but unlike Tony, no emotion was present on her face.
"I've got all the symbols I can make out on this body. I'm running them through the computer now, Boss." McGee glanced over at Gibbs, who was still staring down at the body, examining the strange marks.
"It is odd. If the body was burned with the symbols on it, then wouldn't the symbols not be as easy to see as they are now?" Ziva remarked, looking to Ducky.
"Yes, I thought of that. The body was probably burned before, then marked with the symbols."
"Well, that certainly makes things easier. Little community, all alone and out in the middle of nowhere, no one would see the fire."
"Hey!" Tony barked. "Maybe someone in the community didn't do it. Maybe the murderer decided to drop the victim out in the woods."
"And this comes not from the fact that you spent all our time at the crime scene with that girl?"
"Woman, Zee-va. She's only a few years younger. It's just her height that makes her look like that."
"Do you even know her name or was she just a victim of your awful flirting?"
"Astrid Slen. Lived with the community for her whole life, knows every inch of the grounds, didn't hear anything about the dead Marine until she saw people clustered around the body. See, I can do my work and flirt, too? Bet you wish you could say the same, huh McGee?"
"You better not be flirting with her the whole time you are working, DiNozzo."
"Why, are we going back?" Ziva resisted the urge to roll her eyes when she heard the eagerness in Tony's voice.
"You and Ziva are. I'm leaving you with the community until you figure out what is wrong with that place."