AN: This one's a little longer than some of the others. If you haven't seen last season's Need To Know with Dorneget, there's a small character spoiler, but given how much attention the information got at the time, I'm thinking most of you know it.
Chapter 24
The next morning, Ziva woke up, her muscles stiff as she slowly stretched out. Abby was still asleep on the futon, but Tony and McGee were gone. The first rays of sun were just started to light the lab. Ziva slowly worked tension from her fingers, then her shoulders. This being stalked, like a rat on a trip, no, trap, it did not suit her. There must be something she could do, something to stop feeling like this was just a waiting game.
Ziva took her small bag and went into the ballistics lab to change. Abby slept on as she returned to the office and quickly braided her hair. It would have to do until she could take a shower at some point when Abby was awake. No doubt the locker room was another location she should not go alone, and she was not about to ask one of the others to partner here there. Not even Dorneget, who she could be reasonably sure was not interested in seeing her shower.
At the noise in the outer lab, she looked up to see Gibbs and Dorneget walking in. So as not to wake Abby, she stepped into the main lab.
"Abs?" Gibbs lifted an eyebrow.
"Is still asleep," Ziva reported. "Perhaps you could stay here and we can run to the coffee shop for enough caffeine to keep everybody functioning?"
Gibbs nodded. "Vance, too. Breakfast in his office, all of us."
Ziva gave a nod, then headed from the lab, Dorneget following. She stopped in the bullpen to set down her bag, but Tony and McGee were not there either. Still, she did not worry. Gibbs would have said if they were missing. As they headed out, she asked Dorneget how he had slept.
"Um, not bad. I mean, it was the floor. And there's some nutcase out there, or in here, or something." Dorneget hesitated. "Ziva, are we sure this is safe? I mean, we don't know who is behind this."
"I would be more worried about Gibbs if he does not get his coffee." She let a small smile on her face. "As I know he has told you, the coffee in the break room is not coffee."
Dorneget blushed. "Ah, yeah, he did." He was quiet for a second. "Are you scared?"
Ziva thought, and chose her words with care. "I believe that this killer, whomever he is, he cannot be as smart as all of us put together. We have been pushing hard, trying to stop him. Perhaps now that Director Vance has two other teams working on the crime scenes, and now that we have slept, we can figure out who and why."
"I hope so."
When they approached the coffee shop, Ziva's senses kicked into high gear. "There are many people here this morning." She checked her watch. "We must watch what we say, and be alert."
Dorneget nodded, but she was fully prepared for him to put his foot on his mouth anyway. She led the way into the coffee shop, taking advantage of the line to see who was there. An admiral and two other officers were sitting at a table by the window, and she could see several of the intelligence analysts in the area near the back with comfortable chairs. She saw Nikki Jardine, but was not surprised to see the analyst had only a bottled drink in her hand. No doubt she did not trust food prepared by anybody but herself.
There were other NCIS personnel in the shop, but nobody she would consider suspicious. A few low-ranking Navy and Marine officers were in line in front of her, joking quietly, and casting an occasional glance at the high-ranking officers by the front window. Two women in tan uniforms were at the front of the line, caps tucked under their arms. Ziva looked behind the counter to see Chris making breakfast sandwiches, while Aaron fixed drinks. The new girl who had messed up the drinks the other day was at the register, and Ziva reminded herself to place the order loudly enough for Aaron to hear. He would get it right.
But when they made it to the front of the line, Chris was the one to take their order.
"You were here last night, were you not?" Ziva asked. "Do they not let you go home?"
Chris snorted. "I've seen you and your team sleep here for a week," he retorted. "You're hardly one to talk."
"You have a point." Ziva was conscious that she wore the shirt and workout pants she had slept in. She placed the order, remembering to add a coffee for Vance. Dorneget insisted on paying, and Ziva made a note to talk with Tony and McGee about reimbursing him part of the cost. She remembered from last year what probationary agents made, and it was not enough to ask him to pay for everybody.
They moved down to the end of the bar, and Ziva watched as Aaron started making their drinks. He did not move quite right, and she watched more closely, careful to keep it unobtrusive. Aaron finished attaching the espresso spouts to the machine and pushed his sleeves up as he reached for the milk. A dark bruise on his forearm caught Ziva's eye and she had to ask.
"Aaron, are you all right?" She kept her voice pitched low and stepped closer so he could hear her over the hiss of the steamer. "That looks painful."
Aaron looked down. "Yeah, my sister can be pretty brutal when she's mad." He continued making the drinks as he talked. "She and Mom don't get along, so when I went down to visit them on my days off, I had to break up a fight." He shook his head. "I told McGee it was going to be nasty."
"Did you report your sister?" Ziva asked.
He started to shrug, but winced and let his right shoulder drop. "It's nothing, Ziva." He turned away and focused on the drinks, and Ziva stepped back. At Dorneget's look, she shook her head, and hoped he understood to wait. She watched Aaron and saw more places the skin was darkened — his hands, and one side of his jaw. That seemed to be covered by makeup, though, and she wondered how often this happened if he was prepared to conceal it like that.
Once they were away from the coffeeshop, drink trays in hand, he did ask. "What was that all about?"
"He said his sister had done that, and it sounds like it might happen quite often." Ziva frowned. "Yet he would not report it, which I do not understand."
"A lot of guys won't." Dorneget hesitated, then continued. "Everything that's set up to deal with domestic abuse is geared to women. A friend of mine-" He stopped again.
"Yes?" Ziva looked over at him.
"His boyfriend was abusive, used to beat on him pretty regularly. This was in college, and when Mike went to try and get help, after we all convinced him this wasn't his fault, he ran into that. He didn't have the money to leave their apartment, and he wouldn't stay with us because he didn't want his boyfriend to come after us. But the shelters are all only for women, and the resources are all designed for women. And the cops didn't want to listen, didn't believe a guy could get beat up. It took him a lot longer to get free, and only because we made him stay with us."
Ziva thought about it for a minute. "I would imagine it would be harder in a case like this, because he is having to convince people that a woman attacked him, and many people believe women cannot be stronger than men." She thought some more. "I believe Tony might know something that might help — I believe he dealt with some of these cases when he was with the police."
"Abby does a lot with a couple of the women's shelters in the area, too," Dorneget said. "She's also been working with some of the LGBT groups in the city to find ways to help us deal with this since a lot of the traditional resources aren't as good."
"I will talk to her, then, too," Ziva said. "And now, let us get these back before Gibbs bites somebody's head off."
Even though she was worried about Aaron, it felt good to worry about something other than the team, something she could help with.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Vance watched from his desk as the team members came in, two at a time, to see the steaming feast on his conference table. Jackie finished setting out paper plates.
"Wow. Mrs. Vance, did you do this?" McGee's eyebrows almost hit the top of his forehead. "Thank you."
As the others echoed their thanks, Vance motioned for them to dig in. "You people need a meal that's not takeout, and Jackie volunteered." He didn't mention that he hadn't wanted to risk ordering out. Coffee was one thing — they could watch that being made. But anything else was too risky.
Three egg casseroles sat down the middle of the table, each with the ingredients labeled, while waffles and fruit salad filled things out. There was relative silence as the team dug into the food, and Vance was glad to seem they all seemed more together than they had the night before. Dr. Cranston was waiting in one of the conference rooms, but he was beginning to think he might be better off sending her into the bullpen — he could see the team was looking better, and they would prefer to be working the case. Once everybody was looking more or less normal, he broached the topic he knew they all were wondering about.
"Balboa and Krone's team have been working in another part of the building, to leave your team relatively undisturbed," he said. "They haven't found anything to date to narrow the field by much, but you should have full access to their files, and they will be back in the squadroom by the time we finish here.
"Director, I think the list I started to run last night, the one of everybody with access to all three bases, is going to help. The killer has to be on that list someplace, probably in the group of regulars," McGee said.
"Agreed." Gibbs set his fork down. "Abbs, can you two-"
"Check McGee's list against what Leon and I pulled from the social networks for people who would have known Boone's victims? Sure can, Bossman." Her pigtails bounced. "I'll bet we find somebody on that list."
"DiNozzo-"
"Ziva, Dorney and I will go through the entire list of bodies, see what we can find now that we think we have most of them." DiNozzo didn't even hesitate before volunteering the other two.
"Jethro, I think Mr. Palmer and I will be most helpful by reviewing the records of all the bodies, as well as these newest bodies," Ducky said.
Gibbs gave a short nod.
As the team scattered, Vance looked at the mess on his table and waved Jackie off. "I'll take care of it, honey. You've done enough."
Now if the team could only demolish this killer as well as they had demolished breakfast, before Vance had to call another family and inform them their son or daughter had given his or her life in the line of duty.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Gibbs and the team were just filing down the stairs when Balboa called across the room.
"Gibbs, we've got another one. Marine MP, out clubbing last night. This one had a heart drawn on his face." The agent's face was grim. "My team's taking this one. Reports on the last one are on your desk.
"That does not make sense," Ziva said. "He killed Gerald. Why go back to killing people who are not us?"
"He couldn't get us?" Tony turned his hands up, shrugged. "Maybe if we hadn't been here last night, one of us would be dead."
As Gibbs looked around the room at the agents watching the exchange intently, the prickling feeling returned to the back of his neck.
~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~NCIS~
Eighteen down, six more to go. But the all-knowing Leroy Jethro Gibbs is unaware of the full extent of my influence. His team is looking ragged around the edges, which improved my morning. Seeing them flail and flounder, easily distracted from what it right in front of them, proves that they are no match for me. By week's end, many of them will be dead, and he will be destroyed.