Gibbs knocked on the metal door of Abby's lab. Abby opened the door after confirming it was Gibbs on the other side. She was afraid Gibbs would be down already. She and the others had nothing for him. She and Ziva had just gotten back from the scene of the car fire. Ziva and McGee were emptying the box of evidence onto her lab table. Gibbs said the same thing he always said when he entered her lab. "What ya got for me Abs?"
Abby's eyes sank to the floor. She couldn't look him in the eyes. She couldn't see the hurt, fear, and anger all brewing there. "Nothing yet Gibbs. We just got back. I mean we have what we collected but no information for you yet. We have Tony's cell which of course you know because you found it. We are going to run any prints I can get off of it. We have bits of a detonator. I am going to look for any specialty parts on it that we may be able to trace to a buyer. We have the remains of the tags and the VIN plate off the SUV. Those are mangled pretty badly so we are going to try to reconstruct them the best we can to get a registered owner for the vehicle. We also have tire tracks from the scene from a second vehicle. As soon as I get a hit on the type of tire we are looking at I will have a better idea as to the type of vehicle we are looking at. Maybe trace to a buyer if they are a specialty type tire." She took a breath and watched as Gibbs walked over to McGee.
"What did you find out about this CAMS group?" He was looking over all the pieces now lying on the lab table.
"CAMS is a group that believes that the federal government does not have the right to hide any information from the media and the public. They have been emailing Molly now for two months. They want information released regarding specific intelligence being collected at Gitmo and they also believe that the President's office is always being recorded and they want the tapes of the daily business of the President to be released for the nightly news around the nation. Molly had repeatedly explained that Gitmo information is off limits due to national security and that no President since Nixon has taped any conversations in the Oval Office." McGee watched his boss as he stared intently at the website that McGee had put up on the plasma on the wall. "They have approximately 500 members nationwide. 200 or so live in the immediate area."
"Can't you do that thing where you trace the address thing that says what computer the emails came from?" Gibbs was really trying hard to understand how much of this technological stuff would be able to help him get to Molly and Tony. It was not his strong suit.
"I traced each email back to its IP address. They all come from different internet cafes in the city. They come from all over DC Boss. They are not grouped together in a way that it would give us an area to check. I have a call into Metro trying to get them to wrangle up surveillance tapes and sign in logs from the cafes for the dates and times the emails were sent to Molly. They are waking up owners as we speak. We will start looking for similar people."
"What about the email address McGee? Does it have a name on it?" Ziva asked as she began dusting Tony's cell for prints.
"It's a generic free account. I already hacked into it. The only emails coming in and out are those to and from Molly. The name is just the name of the group. There is no other back up email added to the account." McGee sighed. "I am running all the names of the members in the immediate area for records and checking if any members have flown into DC in the last week. That's all I have Boss. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize McGee. You're doing what you can. Keep looking and let me know if anything pops up." Gibbs walked towards the door. "Ziva as soon as you get those tags or VIN-"
"I will run it and get a name for you." She nodded.
"Abby if you get a hit off the prints I need-"
"Gibbs you will know before I do. Like always." She walked up and hugged him. "We will find them Gibbs. I promise. Until then, Tony is taking care of them." She stepped away.
"I know Abs." He turned and walked out the door. She locked down the lab behind him. "Now I know what Tony was talking about after Kate was killed."
"What about after Kate was…?" Ziva looked up from what she was doing. Ziva could not bring herself to say that Kate was shot. It brought up too many feelings about Ari.
"Gibbs was eerily calm." McGee answered. "If this was a normal case he would be yelling at us telling us to work harder. This is how he gets when it's personal. It's personal and effects all of us." McGee continued typing.
Gibbs walked out of the elevator and into the bullpen. He stopped in the middle of the four desks and then ran his hand over his face. Now, the moment he was alone for the first time since this began, was when all the doubts began to run through his mind. He tried to squash them. He was not going to lose his family. He had complete faith in Tony. But at the same time his track record with women and children was not good.
He was not sure what he would do if he lost them. He could not take losing another family. DiNozzo was included in that family. Losing him would impact him far worse than the loss of any other agent. Tony had had his six for ten years now. There was no way he could handle losing him because he wasn't able to have Tony's this time. Losing Molly and his son was more than his mind could bear. He was finally, after all these years, in a good place. Molly was the reason for that.
For the first time since Shannon he was in love with a woman who did not feel she was in a competition. Really that's what the end of all three of his marriages came down to. None of them felt like they could compete with the other aspects of his life. They could not compete with his job. They could not compete with his past. They could not compete with Shannon. Molly was the first to understand he was not asking anyone to compete with anything.
She did not complain about competing with his job. Sure she had asked that he remember they have a child on the way before he went off and to take a risk he had easily taken many times before. But she never complained about his work schedule. Her own schedule was hectic. She never minded when weekend plans had to be cancelled for a case. It was just the opposite. She took pride in what he did. He knew no matter how rough a case got or how long it was drawn out, she would be there when he got home. He would never come home and find her in bed with the likes of Fornell.
His team loved her. That was another difference between her and the others. The others always saw his team as an inconvenience. They never took the time to know any of the people he had worked with through the years. Molly instantly fit into the group as if she were an agent herself. She went out with Ziva and Abby. He smiled thinking about her telling him the next day the questions she had answered for them. He was not smiling then but he could now. She had had them over to dinner at her townhouse multiple times. She even knew how to make herself scarce when any one of them came to his home to discuss a problem.
More importantly, she seemed to understand where Kelly and Shannon fit in his life. She never pried. Not once did she tell him he needed to move on. She understood that Shannon and Kelly was not a threat to their life together. She allowed him his time when he needed it. More often than not, she could just tell he needed his time and didn't have to ask. Yet, when there were times he just really needed someone to sit in silence with him, she somehow knew that too. She understood him like his team understood him and that was what he needed to come home to.
Rather than coming into his life and pushing against all that made him him, she filled in the gaps and made him more complete. She was in every aspect of his life without forcing herself in. She just fit. Looking around the bullpen he saw pieces of her at each desk.
Pinned to McGee's wall was an article printed off the internet about what was on the President's reading list for the summer. Highlighted was the line that states that he was waiting patiently for Thom E. Gemcity's next novel because he had enjoyed Deep Six over the summer. Molly had been the one who suggested the book to him. Lord knows how many more books that article had sold for McGee.
Behind Ziva's desk on a shelf sat a beautiful wood case. When opened it displayed a pair of black Sais. They are weapons specific to Ninjas. Molly had brought them back from her trip to Asia with the President. She thought it was appropriate since Tony referred to Ziva as a Ninja on a regular basis. Ziva appreciated them more when Molly explained what she had to do in order to get them onto Air Force One for the flight back to the states.
A hand written note on White House Stationary was hanging from DiNozzo's filing cabinet. It was in a plastic protective sleeve and held there by a magnet. This was Tony's pride and joy in the office right now. He made a point of referring to it until one of the other teams threatened to dispose of it if he didn't stop rubbing it in. It was written by the President and dated October 5th. His team received it the night they found out Molly was pregnant.
Gibbs team had been working a home invasion that resulted in a double murder since Sunday afternoon. It was now Tuesday evening. His team had gotten little sleep over the past two nights because just when it seemed like it was a good breaking point another lead would hit them. Each had caught a few hours sleep on the conference room table while the rest of the team worked. Gibbs put in a request to Molly when she called to see how he was doing. That request was being fulfilled when he heard the ding of the elevator. He looked up to see Molly enter the squad room.
Tony was the first out of his seat when he saw the large bags in Molly's hands. "Please tell me that's food in those bags." He gave his best DiNozzo smile. It did nothing to hide his exhaustion.
"There is most definitely food in here and not just crappy take out either." Molly put the bags on Tony's desk.
Tony wrapped his arms around Molly. "If you were not Gibbs woman I would-"
"Do what DiNozzo?" Gibbs interrupted suddenly behind his Senior Agent.
"I would hug her just like I am doing now and nothing else Boss." Tony stepped away from Molly.
Gibbs walked up to Molly and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Where's your dinner?"
"I know you guys are busy so mine's in the car. Figured I would head home." Molly looked around at the agents. They all looked exhausted. The dark circles under their eyes, wrinkled clothes, and gray pallor reminded her of a zombie movie. She thought Tony would have been proud of her connection but would not appreciate the comparison at the moment.
"We are going to take a few and enjoy this food. Stay a bit." He rolled a spare chair over to the other side of his desk .Gibbs turned to Molly and took her car keys out of her hand and tossed them to Tony. "Since you love her so much, run down to her car and grab the KFC bag off the front seat."
"On it Boss." Tony grabbed his jacket off his chair and stopped. "How do you know its KFC in her car? Why would she buy herself junk when she said she didn't bring us takeout?"
Molly began to strip her long coat off and revealed her belly for the first time to the group. "Because that's all I've wanted to eat for the past three weeks thanks to our little guy." She ran her hands over her baby bump and laughed at the jaws dropping around the bullpen. She had done so much traveling over the summer with the President that she had not seen the team since she had started to show. She had assumed Leroy had told them but she could tell by their faces that this was the first they were hearing the news.
"You're, uh, having a baby boss?" McGee croaked out finally.
"Well, I don't plan on doing the actual pushing McGee but yeah I'm having a baby." Gibbs smiled and chuckled as DiNozzo still stood staring at Molly's belly. "You don't get that food DiNozzo I'm feeding her yours."
"On it Boss!" Tony snapped out of it and headed for the elevator. He needed time to process before he let his mouth get him in trouble. The idea of Gibbs becoming a father was, well, a bit shocking. Not that he didn't think he would make an excellent father. It was just that Gibbs was over retirement age and now- Tony slapped himself in the back of the head when he got into the elevator. That's why he just kept his mouth shut.
"So how long have you had a biscuit in the oven Molly?" Ziva got up and walked over to Molly who was now sitting in the chair offered to her by Leroy.
"Bun Ziva." McGee corrected her. "The expression is bun in the oven."
"Almost six months." Molly turned to Leroy. "You really said nothing to them? Leroy it's been two months since I told you."
"It's wouldn't be any fun if I just told them. You know me. I'm all about the shock and awe." He smirked. He really did enjoy seeing the look on their faces when Molly had removed her coat. Thank goodness for the unseasonably cold air. Her removing her coat had been like pulling the cover off a new car.
When Tony returned he handed the plastic bag in his hand to Molly with a sour look on his face. "I know you're pregnant and all Molly, but that junk is not-"
"Tony, you are hardly the one who should be lecturing anyone about eating Junk." McGee stopped Tony midsentence as he headed for the bags on Tony's desk.
"Yes. That is the pot calling the kettle black is it not?" Ziva added taking a foil container from McGee.
"You would get that one right." Tony answered and grabbed a container from McGee and passing it to Gibbs. They all sat at their desks took the paper lids off the containers. "This smells delicious." Tony smiled as he took in the smell of Chicken Marcela. "Did you make this? You said it isn't take out."
"It's not take out but it didn't come from my kitchen." She said opening her plastic domed container.
"This is the best Chicken Marcela I've had and I know a thing or two about Italian food." Tony moaned as he took another bite. "Whose kitchen did it come from? I want to marry them."
"The White House kitchen. The President invites staff to the residence for dinner on Tuesday nights. I told him I was going to skip and explained how you all have been working and needed me to get you some nourishment other than pizza. He immediately called up to the residential kitchen and had the plates made for you."
Molly started laughing as McGee's fork stopped halfway to his mouth. "The President sent us dinner?"
"He did. In fact, there is a note in one of the bags."
Tony grabbed the bag he had placed near his desk on the floor and pulled out an envelope. He opened it carefully and pulled out a piece of White House stationary. He read the hand written note out loud. "To Special Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo, McGee and David. Thank you for working so hard to protect those who protect us and our freedom. Our country owes you so much for your service. Please enjoy dinner. Stay Safe. He actually signed it."
The three agents sat a little taller after Tony finished reading the note. Molly knew that neither Leroy nor Leon was good at passing out compliments. She hoped that the note would give them the boost they needed to at least get them through this case.