AN: How do I even put this...I apologize? I know two won't cover it, but I don't feel the need to type 'I apologize' fifty times. On another note, thank you! Wow, I never thought this story would gain 100 reviews, well it has and it's still going up! I want to thank not only yashendra2797 (who was my 100th reviewer) but everyone who read and reviewed, you all bring smiles to my face! :)
Two reviewers caught that in the last chapter the number of missions were said, as well as defined as classified. The reason being is the first time, Jones asked Alex, and he told her 22. That was with McGee, Fornell, and Gibbs. Tony and Ziva weren't in the room yet, so when they showed up, and it got asked again, Alex just confirmed classified, as it would be a danger of having so many people know...does that make sense at all?
I also want to thank Dark Rook, for being my beta and pointing out my many mistakes. This chapter wouldn't be as good, if fact I'm sure it's be horrid, if he hadn't edited it. So, thanks Dark Rook, and all my reviewers. Couldn't have gotten this far without you! :)
Gibbs's team lounged in the bullpen, scarfing down the lunch that Abby had graciously gotten them. As Ziva threw her salad box in the trash underneath her desk, she turned towards Gibbs.
"What are we going to do now?" she asked him.
"Finish eating?" Tony broke in as he took a bite out of his pizza slice.
"Nope," Gibbs told him, before proceeding to answer Ziva. "You two are going to Vance's office to tell him that the file is a fake. Tell him to talk to Director Mueller, he should know since he keeps withholding information that can help us with this case."
He stood up and looked down at Alex, who was sitting in the space between he and Ziva's desks. "You're coming with me."
He was walking out of the bullpen when McGee spoke up.
"What do you want me to do, boss?"
"Find out more about the colonel's wife," he said.
Alex got up silently and followed Gibbs to the elevator with two coffees in hand. "You won't really give away the case, will you? If you do, those terrorists will get away scot-free."
Gibbs took one of the coffees and pressed the down button on the elevator. "Of course I won't - this was supposed to be NCIS's case from the beginning. Did Mueller say anything about the case, or why he thought the colonel was in danger?"
Alex shook his head. "No, Mueller never talked about the case; then again, I only met him once before now. It was back when I first started the case - he wasn't much help, I recall. He just yelled at me to get out of his office. That was when I decided to take the liberty of stealing the informant's file and get down to business on my own."
"So, after Mueller hired you . . . or, rather, talked . . . you just snatched the file?" Gibbs asked as the elevator slowed to a gentle stop.
"Yes," Alex confirmed. "He wasn't protecting Nick, and someone had to do it. He obviously felt concerned only when he thought that there was something larger going on. The problem is that he was correct, and failed to mention his findings to anyone who mattered."
Gibbs nodded, stepping off the elevator and into the autopsy. He turned to Alex while taking a swig of his coffee, pointing at one of the empty tables near the door. At Alex's weary look, he sighed. "Go sit down; we'll look at your injury in a second, and I promise Ducky won't cut you up."
As Alex did as asked, Gibbs turned on his heel and walked through the door to see Ducky examining a few x-rays rather intently.
"Ahh, Jethro, I was wondering when you were going to come down to join me," Ducky said, looking up from his x-rays.
"We had a few pressing matters to attend to first," Gibbs told him, then made a sweeping gesture towards to door so Ducky could see they had another visitor.
"Who might you be, young lad?" Ducky walked over and held out his hand for a more formal greeting.
"Alex. Uh, Ducky . . . you have a little something . . ." Alex trailed off, pointedly staring at Ducky's gloved hand, which was covered in blood.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, nevermind me." Ducky rapidly withdrew his proffered hand, turning his attention to Gibbs. "Would you mind covering these up for me, Jethro," he said, indicating the the bodies three tablets down.
"No, it's fine," Alex interrupted. "I've seen them before."
"Seen what? Dead bodies in general, or these ones in particular?" Ducky asked, now confused as to why the boy was here in the first place.
"Both," Alex replied.
"Just where did you find this young man?" Ducky asked Gibbs.
"At a gas station a few blocks away from the colonel's house. He was with the colonel and his daughter last night, when they were killed," Gibbs explained.
"Oh, well I'm sorry for that. Did you know them well?"
"About as well as one can get to know a person by spending most of the last two months with them," Alex said. "I considered myself pretty close to both of them."
"Are you going to show him your injury, Alex? It might get worse without medical attention."
Alex sighed as he looked over at Gibbs, who was standing behind Ducky. "Are you sure? The scratch isn't that bad; it'll heal . . . eventually."
Gibbs shook his head and downed the rest of his coffee. "Come on. Mrs. Jones was obviously worried about you, so let Ducky check it out. He won't hurt you."
"Scout's honor," Ducky quipped as he took off his bloody gloves and threw them away. "Now, what happened?"
Alex put his arms through the sweat shirt. "I got shot."
"You what? Jethro, why didn't you take him to the hospital?"
"There was nothing I could do at the moment. I didn't even realize it until his . . . associate brought it up. Just check his shoulder out and give him some medicine. Then you can give me more details on the bodies."
"You, my boy, need to be more careful," Ducky said as he turned to inspect Alex. "What were you doing at the colonel's house anyway?"
Alex glanced at Gibbs and got a short nod in return. "I don't know how much I can tell you, but I was Heather's babysitter. Things happened so fast, I failed to do anything for them."
"Well, in my line of work you come to the realization that most things happen for a reason. You, probably couldn't have done anything to change what happened."
"Thanks, I guess," he said. "Promise you won't cut me open?"
"I promise, my boy. Now let's look at that wound," Ducky said. Alex slowly took off the NCIS issued sweatshirt, revealing the Kevlar shirt with multiple bullets in it.
Ducky looked at his chest, but before he could say anything, Gibbs interrupted. "I thought you said you got shot in the shoulder?" he said as his eyes traveled from the bullet stuck in the shirt near his shoulder to the rest of the bullets spread about his front side.
"I did . . . that was the first shot. I didn't want Mrs. Jones worrying. Though it," he said, lightly touching his shoulder. "Was probably the worst. The sleeves aren't as thick as the material in the front, where it matters."
"I would say you are quite lucky, my friend," Ducky said as his eyes roamed over the numerous bullets stuck in his shirt. "Though I don't understand how your sweatshirt that I received a while ago was free of bullet holes - it was only covered in blood, which further analysis proved was the colonel's."
"I had my jacket open and this exposed." He pulled at the fabric of the Kevlar. "It was lucky I decided to put it on today of all days."
"What made you put it on?" Gibbs asked.
"I don't know, it was just a feeling," he told them, shrugging his good shoulder.
"Well, how about you take that off so I can observe the damage?" Ducky asked as he brought over a tray of equipment.
"I . . . everything you see stays in this room. Understand that most of my life is classified, as well as my medical history. If it gets leaked to the wrong people then I can't say I didn't warn you."
"You have my word that neither one of us will reveal anything. You can trust us, Alex, as well as the rest of my team," Gibbs said. He was glad when Alex, though reluctant, took off the shirt that had saved his life.
Alex reddened and averted his gaze from the two people suddenly transfixed on his chest. After a few moments, Ducky broke the silence. "My boy, what have you gotten yourself into?" he said as he took in the accumulation of bruises and scars, some of which had to be years old. His gaze moved to the oldest visible wound, a faint white line above his heart.
"How could the government do this?" Gibbs asked as he stepped closer, the puddle of coffee at the bottom of his cup forgotten.
Before Alex could answer, Ducky spoke up. "Government? You mean . . . the government is responsible for sending this child into a gunfight, into the battlefield?"
"If you want to get specific, I was the one that took this case. I had met Nick before, overseas on another mission where he had gotten attacked. We became acquaintances of a sort, and before he left for the States he said we should meet again. I never thought I would end up babysitting his daughter and failing to save his life." Alex paused. "But no matter what I'm glad I got to spend some time with him outside of his work, even if it was my job to keep an eye on him."
"So you knew the colonel was going to get into witness protection and therefore went to the FBI to be the one to look after him?" Gibbs asked.
"No, I actually hadn't thought about it until I saw his file under the witness protection section of the FBI archives. I didn't pay the file much thought though and went on with my life when Joe - deputy director of the Covert Actions Division of the CIA - asked me if I wanted an assignment concerning the protection of one of the soldiers that participated in the last mission I was on. I agreed, not wanting to let him down, and became on loan to the FBI. In hindsight, I should have seen the attack coming. The assassins weren't too happy when Nick and I found out what they were doing overseas, so you can only imagine how pissed they were when they actually found him."
"Wait, so you know what Nick found overseas?" Gibbs asked.
"Well, yeah I worked with him, so I know the basics -" Alex stopped talking when the autopsy doors opened.
"Sorry that I'm late, Doctor Mallard. You know the oddest thing happened; my alarm clock didn't go off. But, you see, I had set it as soon as I got home last night so that was - Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were working on someone," Palmer said.
Alex shivered, the "working on someone" comment reminding him that he was in an autopsy room, where most visitors got cut open.
"Thank you, Palmer, for that little observation. Now do come in, and make sure to wash your hands," Ducky said.
"You do realize, that nothing - not a thing - about what you saw can be talked about? At all, ever," Alex said seriously.
"Um, yeah, sure," Palmer said, glancing at Ducky. "Just what is this all about?"
"Nothing," Alex said, then turned to Ducky. "Continue."
"Well, my lad, we need to get that bullet out of you so I can inspect the damage. I do believe I have some sheers around here somewhere . . . " Ducky said, pulling on a pair of gloves and grabbing a pair of intramural scissors. He told Palmer to go grab him a spoon before closing in on his patient.
"Tell me if it hurts, I'm not used to working with breathing victims."
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better," Alex remarked as they got to work on his shoulder.
Tony practically leapt down the stairs in an effort to keep up with Vance, who was determined to find Gibbs. Vance had completely ignored Tony's protests and claims that he had no idea where Gibbs had walked off to. He was pissed and needed someone to blame for this blatant set-up. Ziva followed at her own pace.
Vance scowled while he stood in front of the desolate bullpen, solely occupied by McGee. "Agent McGee, where is Gibbs?"
"I - I'm not sure, sir. He left in the elevator with Alex, so he either went to autopsy, or back down to see Abby. Is this about Mrs. Lawson? If so, then I still need more time. She was quite difficult to track, you think she would be easy and all, but being the colonel's wife she also got put into witness protection. It's odd that she was separated from them, yet the colonel had a - "
"McGee," Vance said, halting him mid-rant. "I don't care about this 'Mrs. Lawson.' I need to know where Gibbs is, so I can chew him out for not informing me - or better yet, taking on a whole case without my permission!" He glared at Tony and Ziva. "And I would like you two to explain how you knew that there was something up with the files and why Gibbs demanded them in the first place."
"Well, the whole thing actually leads to Alex if you really think about it . . ." Ziva supplied.
"Who is this 'Alex' person? Please don't tell me he is a witness that Gibbs is just leading around the whole office?" Vance asked.
Tony opened his mouth to tell him that he was only half-right. Alex walked a fine line between witness and suspect, with savior someone thrown into the mix as well. However, he never got the chance. Just then, the elevator dinged open and Gibbs and Alex walked out.
"Yeah, it's pretty complicated," Alex was saying as they made their way over. "I was there when everything went down, and I still don't understand it. I need to analyze the data - "
"Gibbs!" Vance yelled, and McGee, sitting right next to him, jumped.
"Yes?" he asked, throwing his now empty coffee cup in the trash as he came and sat at his desk, nonchalantly swiveling his chair to face Vance.
"Why did you suddenly jump into this case? You didn't even ask me if - "
"I wasn't aware that I needed your permission to follow a gut feeling, which proved to be well-founded once we found out that the file we received from the FBI was a fake. What was I supposed to do, ignore it?"
"Yes! The colonel is dead, and I don't need you showing a witness around when you could be finding out why the file is fake and who the murderer is. Unless this kid knows who that is?"
Tony smirked, stifling a laugh but ended up coughing when Ziva elbowed him. Vance sent a confused look his way, then glanced back at Gibbs. "Well?"
"Well what? Alex is really none of your concern. He is here helping us with the case; right now he's working on remembering what the killers looked like and we'll take it from there. As of this moment, all I can say is that the file is fake, and neither one of us knows why," Gibbs said.
"You'd better get to work on that. You took on this case; now you have to finish it. Just make sure this kid's parents consent before you question him. Minor or not, we don't want to a harassment suit on our hands. Speaking of which, please tell me you didn't piss off the new director of the FBI?"
Gibbs shrugged. "It's not my fault the director went about everything the wrong way. The FBI shouldn't have touched the colonel after he got back."
Vance huffed. "If I get a call from him, it's on you. Now get to work, and keep me informed from now on!" He stalked away with a scowl on his face.
The team silently watched him go before turning to Gibbs expectantly. Gibbs merely raised an eyebrow at them.
Alex soon broke the silence. "So that was your director?"
"Yep," Tony said.
Alex nodded. "Cool." He mentally started comparing the directors of different government agencies. He knew a total of four, and they were all quite different but in a strange way, somehow the same.
AN: There you have it folks, the eighth chapter! I am working on the ninth chapter now, so I hope it gets out faster. Thank you for all the reviews, they really are motivation! :)