Chapter Thirteen
The Agony

"Are you crazy, lady?" one of the Rising Star Witches rises and confronts the Priest, who's immediately backed up by her husband under the crying screams of nine newborn babies in the line of Maternity Ward bassinets, continuing such a din the loudly arguing adults can barely hear themselves think, let alone hear what the other is saying, however loudly.

"You can't interrupt a Binding spell," doesn't quite come through. "Have you any idea how dangerous that was?"

Gibbs' piercing whistle makes everybody wince. It's so shrill it even startles the babies into momentary silence.

"I don't care who takes blame or credit! What's happened to Palmer?"

Attention shifts from repudiation to the object of their concern. Michelle lies supine on the floor, too limp and still.

Little reaches down, cautiously places her hand on Michelle's bare shoulder. "I think it's okay," she pronounces a moment later. "But stand ready," she orders generally and very cautiously removes from under a scarlet strap an oval disk of gray stone heavily incised with arcane symbols and obscure words.

Michelle doesn't move, doesn't react at all, but her expression is more placid than it'd been in days.

"Can you tell?" Ziva demands.

"I think we got lucky," Kendra says. "Very lucky."

"Unbound, the demon could have gone anywhere," Siobhan's nemesis confronts her again. "Your interruption could have caused a disaster!"

"No, we were under God's protection," comes heavily over Tim's command to "Back off!", against Siobhan's conclusion "He listens to prayers!" and Little's "Enough! It's over!"

"Now..." Gibbs' words die under the realization of how quiet the large room is. He looks to the line of relaxed babies. "Finally some quiet."

"Yeah, and it's not easy," one of the women says, her stare locked on the infants. "So whatever you guys are going to do, get it done quickly."

"What are we going to do, Gibbs?" Ziva asks, hoping it will be something to calm the trio.

Michelle turns her head side to side, evidently waking up, and for a moment everyone in the room looks on apprehensively.

x

Michelle opens her eyes, confused as she blinks up at a collection of friends and colleagues. "Special Agent Gibbs?" She's not sure why she focuses on him, probably because he looks as uncertain as she feels and it's a new look for him. "What happened?"

She glances down and gasps, discovering herself laying on her back on the floor 90% naked. The Vampirella costume is utterly revealing and, except for one regretted occasion, had never been intended to be seen in public.

It's impossible for her to hide her body with too-small hands, but she does try, one hand to her crotch and the other to her breasts. She implores everyone in the room not to look. Gibbs waves every man's attention away. She sees, utterly relieved, Ziva come to her rescue. The Mossad Officer carries over and drapes her brown overcoat over her body, then helps her up so she may dress.

Who took it off? She never would.

When she turns, Michelle's surprised to see that there are additional men she hadn't noticed before, several uniformed Metro Police Officers gathered beyond a long window.

She doesn't have a moment to ask about them, because Gibbs pulls her to him, turns her about and ratchets silver handcuffs about her wrists.

She's too astounded to say anything. She's cuffed before the situation is real. She looks back over her shoulder, too many unbelievable things hitting her at once.

She was with Jimmy - with her coat on - and now she's - where? A line of bassinets, babies? A Maternity ward? "Sir, what are you -?"

"You're under arrest on nine counts of attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent -"

She never hears the rest of the words that follow that command. The universe has gone mad and the Earth is trying to tip her off.

xxx

Michelle sits in NCIS' Holding Cell, hands still cuffed behind her back, unable to fight the fear that rips at her, that makes her tremble in her overcoat. She wants to hold herself because no one else will but even that's denied. She can't understand - can't believe - anything that's happened.

In the car on the way in Ziva and Tim told her that Special Agent DiNozzo is dead - and so is Abby.

It's her fault, for getting lost in the maze, that Special Agent DiNozzo is dead.

It's her fault, therefore, that Abby, coming to help when she should still be in Louisiana, is dead.

She did assault Special Agent Larsen just like Special Agent Higgins had said.

She'd tried to assault Ziva. She doesn't remember it.

She remembers being accused of Tina's assault, does not remember doing anything to Ziva. Maybe that's why she has this bruise in her side. She won't ask.

x

But over all these things she can't stop thinking about Jimmy. She still can't believe the horrific thing she'd done to him, though she'd woken up to it, to his blood in her mouth, on her face and chest and she would never do that to him though she'd woken up to it. He'll hate her forever, and she's sure he'll divorce her the moment he can get to a phone.

Ziva also told her that she'd tried to kill nine babies!

x

Every time this fills her mind it brings with it worse cold dread and she can't stop shaking. She can't believe this. She won't believe it, even though the cuffs are still clamped to her wrists, trapping her hands behind her back. She wants to cry, but she can't; no way to wipe the tears.

But how can they say she held nine babies hostage, threatened them with a scalpel? It's insane!

Okay, she remembers the scalpel, she'd found it in her pocket yesterday, still has no idea how it got there, but she would never have threatened babies!

Now she sits on the wrong side of the Holding Cell door and it's wrong! This can't be happening. The madness presses down upon her and she fights not to give in to tears. Not only is she on camera - everyone here is filmed - but it's all so insane she can't even cry.

x

The soft sounds of a key in the lock before her snares her attention and her heart races with new fear. She can't rub her wet eyes but she holds her breath, scared to see who'll come through the door.

That it's Reverend Siobhan McGee is a surprise. She'd expected the inquisition to begin.

"For God's sake!" The Priest turns to address someone beyond the door. "Will you please take those things off her?"

Special Agent Dowd enters and Michelle stands, gives her back to the man. With a clatter the cuffs are removed and pocketed.

"Now remember," she commands, her brogue sharp, "the video stays off."

"Yes, ma'am - Mother - Reverend."

x

But when the door is locked again the Priest waits across the room for her to be the first to speak.

She can't.

"Michelle?"

"Is it true?" She'd tried to sound normal, truly wanted to, but the best she can manage is a timid whisper. Her throat is sore, her voice raw, but though Ziva told her why she can't remember straining it in blood curdling screams. She can't mask her fear or fight the icy grip that clutches her pounding heart.

She turns away, can't look at the woman, can't stand to hear the answer.

"The things they say you did?" She nods, too miserable to look back or up. "Yes."

"How?" She wanted to speak clearly, it came out as a hollow whisper.

"Michelle, I don't understand much of it myself."

She turns, looks up at the Priest. "How did you get them to turn off the recorders?"

Siobhan shakes her head, evidently disappointed. Is it because there are so many more important thing to discuss? She can't get her mind properly around any of them. Too much is unbelievable. So much shouldn't happen, certainly not to someone at her level of Wiccan training.

Is that why it did happen?

"Michelle, I'm one of only four people in this building who can. The rules of the Confessional apply here, and the recorder won't tape your conversation with your Lawyer either, but I wanted to see you first."

The answer was to her question, but the universe still feels disjointed. She looks up, no less lost. "I… I don't remember any of it - and I don't believe them when they tell me I did it. It's not real! I can't Confess anything."

"You don't have to. That's what I told them and they had to believe me, but I'm not here to make you do anything."

"Then what?"

"I'll be happy to do what I can, but I'm not sure what that could be. I'd gladly act as a Character Witness but they have two hours of you on a Security film and there are nine families who want your head."

"Does Jimmy hate me?"

x

Siobhan wants to ask if the woman's been listening to her. She hadn't wanted to be blunt, the nine families had expressed desires for more than her head, but she can also appreciate Michelle's concerns. She may be facing prison unless Kendra Little is a really exceptional lawyer, while incarceration in a Mental Institution is a likely - and perhaps preferable - alternative, but what she'd done to James (and the thought of such a thing happening to Timmy nauseates her) may destroy their already too fragile marriage.

Perhaps she should start there, or Michelle will never go far beyond it.

"Michelle, I honestly don't know. He said he refused to press charges but that only kept you out of Metro Police hands." A hand gesture takes in the NCIS Holding Cell. "Leroy arrested you for the same reason."

"I suppose I should be grateful - but I can't be."

x

Michelle hides her face in her hands, wishing she could hide her whole body; but insane as it is, this is real.

"Mother, I didn't do what they say I did." She looks up at the priest, implores her to believe "It wasn't me."

"I know what it was. I was there. It scared me half to death but I was there. I saw it."

"Ziva told me about the Exorcism, but what happened? She said the Coven failed to save me, that you did it."

"Michelle, your friends' hearts were true, but they sought to use 'names of power'. There is only one Name by which we are saved, that of Jesus the Christ."

"I was possessed?"

"I don't pretend to understand it, but yes, I do believe it."

"But no one will ever believe it," she admits, feeling hope fade, vanish. "Witnesses, video... I'm dead."

xx

In the bullpen from which Gibbs has sent McGee and David, he holds as private a conversation with Kendra Little. Too much of this day has been unbelievable, too much has devastated his team. Tony and Abby dead; the horrible perversions of John Scalici and Mary Waghoff that brought about the deaths of so many women, the total still unknown; the schemes that tricked men into becoming murderers; the sadism and vengeance inflicted upon innocent husbands by Andrea Harper and Janette Vancer; the madness of Palmer's intimate assault and the fact that none of these matters are over have strained endurance beyond the breaking point.

He's grateful when the black woman elects to focus on the law.

x

"Michelle's career with NCIS is over, and I believe she knows enough about the law that she knows this is true. You can't keep what she did secret, no matter what rule you invoke."

"We found out about her on ZNN."

"So did I." She pauses, perhaps considering the battle to come. "When we exorcised Sharadakar, Michelle came back to herself. She has no memory of anything she did while under its control but the best strategy I have on that is to attempt an Insanity defense. However, the Prosecution will ask the Judge for independent evaluation of her competence, and outside of Sharadakar's influence I believe she'll be found competent to stand trial.

"The best I could attain with an Insanity defense against video and witness testimony is Indefinite Incarceration in a Psychiatric Institution. If she goes to prison it will very likely be to where she and your teams have already incarcerated numerous felons."

He's tried to avoid thinking about that. McGee had been trapped as a hostage in a Women's Prison and the stories he related were chilling. Women can sometimes be more vicious than men. He doesn't need Little to finish the thought.

"And if sentenced there she will go as a felon who tried to murder a room full of babies."

There's no need to say it. Michelle Palmer won't live long and her death will be brutal.