Squall
6h50 am
"Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor, take warning." Anonymous
The vast room felt empty without its usual dwellers. Its bright orange walls had seen many tragedies and acts of bravery, being silent witnesses of the everyday battles that each agent faced in their careers. The space was divided by several workstations, each turned into a little shrine to the personality of its occupant. In the last six cubicles, the ones near to the back of the room and besides the stairs going to the upper level, a very eclectic collection of items that were dear to each of the agents could be seen
On top of one desk, one could see a movie almanac along with a Mighty Mouse stapler, and several files of pending cases hazardously piled in some type of order. Some newspaper clippings were hanging on the small wall behind the desk and a small TV completed the setting.
The desk right in front of it housed a container full of paperclips, some of them hazardously bent as if the person had a nervous tick of destroying them whenever she felt like it. A vase with some type of plant decorated the table, and the files in the in and out tray were meticulously organized, just waiting for the arrival of the desk's rightful owner.
Both desks didn't have any personal pictures on them, as they had no wish to be reminded of the blood related family members they had, and their honorary family members they truly cared for... well, they actually got to see them everyday.
The desk right beside the one with the paperclips had two computer screens, and it was strangely empty of papers or knickknacks. It was meticulously organized, almost in a military way. On the wall behind it, however, there was something that did not fit the image: a child's drawing, showing colored stick figures in a field with sunny skies above. A bittersweet memory from a happy time in the past.
Across that one, there was another desk, this one also with folders of previous cases carefully organized chronologically in the in and out trays. An extra USB hub could be seen on top of the desk, close to the state of the art keyboard, in the eventual need of more connections for its user. There was a picture frame on top of the desk, in which the desk owner could be seen hugging a very young brunette, with long curly hair and a beautiful smile.
On the other side of the cubicle divider, closer to the corridor leading to the forensics lab and the morgue, there was another desk. This one had three different snow globes on top of it, from different parts of the world. A small souvenir stress ball in form of a Guinness pint was by the computer speakers, and the cracks in the soft plastic showed that the stress ball had been frequently used. There was also a small miniature of the Eiffel Tower, right besides a small painted miniature of the Temple Bar from Dublin.
At exactly seven am, people started to slowly drift into the bullpen, and the soft sound of computers slowly booting filled the air.
Tony DiNozzo arrived at seven-o-two, with a huge grin on his face and a swing in his step. He had his own reasons to be this happy. He boots his computer and as soon as he can, he starts surfing the internet looking for something he found the night before.
His partner, Ziva David, arrives only two minutes after him. She greets him and goes directly to her computer, doing her routine as she had every day before today.
"Hey Ziva," says Tony DiNozzo, smirking at the screen of his computer, "check this out."
"What Tony?" the beautiful brunette looks up from her screen, annoyed at her partner who had interrupted her routine of checking her emails fist thing in the morning.
"I'm surfing Sarah's Facebook and she just added some new pictures to her brand new album."
"McGee's sister? So what's so special about that?"
Tony is smiling delightedly at the pictures, and leans to the side so he can look at his partner, and stage whispers, "her album's title is Me and My boyfriend on a romantic getaway."
"No way."
"Way, just check it out."
Ziva quickly types in her password in her website, and starts checking the updates. And she is shocked when she sees the pictures on Sarah's personal page.
"Isn't that…" says Ziva, flabbergasted.
"Yep," says Tony, grinning.
She squints at Tony, "did you know that?"
"Found out last night," his eyes return to the screen, "from the number of pictures and the different settings, I would say that it has been going on for a while."
Both agents start checking the pictures of the album, and at each picture they see more and more of the blossoming relationship of the youngest McGee.
"Do you think McGee knows?
"I'm sure he doesn't, otherwise we would have seen the fireworks by now," says Tony, already planning the torture he will inflict on his Probie.
The elevator dings, and McGee and Buchanan leave the car arguing loudly, with their backpacks in their hands.
"I can't believe you hid it from me, that's my sister we're talking about."
"It wasn't my secret to tell, she told me she would talk to you whenever she felt ready."
"Sure, and what better way than to proclaim for the whole world to see?"
He drops his backpack on the floor by his desk, and Buchanan looks at him, exasperated, standing before his desk. Tony and Ziva are watching them argue curiously, as it is very rare for them to fight like that. But if there is one thing that McGee is extremely protective of, that definitely would be his sister.
"I know that what they did was wrong, but they weren't sure of where this thing," she makes an exaggerated wave with her hand to make her point, "was going, and they decided to wait a little longer, before making any decision, and whenever they can they meet, there's nothing wrong with that, they are quite young, they are entitled to their own mistakes."
"Yes," he leans towards Joy, towering over her, "but he is a Marine, God knows who he has dated before, and where he has been, and I don't want my sister to live like…" he looks up, "like Lisa, Johnny's wife, who spends most of the year by herself while he is serving on the other side of the world."
"Are you implying that Matthew was something like a male whore and slept around before meeting Sarah?"
McGee shuts up, biting his lower lip, trying not to insult Joy's family again, but the damage is already done. She is mad at him, and valiantly defends her brother.
"Well, newsflash, he's twenty five and contrary to what you wish for, he wasn't born on the day he met Sarah," she is fuming, and Tony and Ziva are watching the argument like tennis match spectators, their eyes going from McGee to Buchanan and back to McGee, "yes he has a past, but for your information, McGee, we all were properly educated to respect whoever we enter into a relationship with. It means that we are always in exclusive relationships, and Matthew would never ever hurt whoever he's dating, much less someone as important as Sarah."
Tony looks at Ziva, and whispers, "Can we order popcorn?"
"That's better than shark week," says Ziva.
"So she's important now, what guarantees can I have he will treat her right? I don't know him, I barely spoke to him when I met him, and that was months ago," whines McGee.
"For crying out loud, McGee, the boy grew up with five sisters, four of them older than him, all of them are FBI agents and licensed to carry weapons," she looks exasperated at him, "none of the boys ever dared to disrespect any woman in their lives because they knew that there would be consequences, that we would hunt them down and ask for retribution."
She smiles at him, "and you are forgetting a very important secret weapon."
"What?"
"Sarah has mom's phone on her speed dial, she told me that any false step on his part and she would rat him out to mom." McGee is looking at Joy with an astonished expression on his face, deeply impressed by the cunning attitude of his sister.
"She has him by the balls, and the funniest part," she approaches McGee and shakes him lightly by his shoulders, "he doesn't give a damn, he's loving it."
McGee still pouts, still unsure of the fledging romance between their respective siblings.
"I still don't have to like it or agree."
"Ok, pout as much as you want, but don't give them a hard time, they already have so little time together that it's not fair to spoil their time with your excessive protection and well-meaning bossiness."
"I'm not exceedingly protective," she looks at him and snorts, walking towards her own desk and depositing her backpack on the floor, "I'm not," he protests.
"Sure, fine, whatever."
"I just don't want Sarah to live like…" she looks up at him, with understanding on her eyes, "I just want someone who will be there for her, not someone who will spend most of the year gallivanting around the world, always with the very real danger of not coming back. That's not the life I wanted for her."
Joy stands by her own desk, studying the surface of it for a moment. She looks up, and studies McGee for a moment.
"Is that your biggest concern? That Matt might not be there for her, due to his commitment to the Corps?"
McGee shrugs half-heartedly, but all his body language screams that the answer is yes. Buchanan rolls her shoulders, trying to dispel the tension in them, while she thinks for a moment.
"He's quitting the Corps, Tim."
McGee is shocked into silence. Buchanan looks down to her own hands, waiting for the shock to pass.
"Matthew is quitting the Marines?" McGee is astonished, "but he loves the Corps."
"No," Joy approaches his desk, and stares into his eyes, and says, "he loves working with the Engineering Corps, doing what he does best in relief areas, but his real passion is building, construction works and engineering, building something," Joy studies Tim's face, and tries to convince him with all her sincerity, "he's been playing with Lego blocks since he was three and never really stopped."
"Why?"
"He told Dad that he still has two, maybe three years of mandatory service. Once he's done, he is planning of asking for being discharged so he can start his own construction company."
She smiles at his astonished face, "Sarah still has two years until she graduates: until then, they can date, experiment, see if this is really what they want for themselves, by the time she graduates they will have a clearer picture of what their plans are and then they can move forward from there."
She turns around and walks towards her own desk, and talks over her shoulder, "And besides, he loves the marines but apparently, he loves your sister more."
She smiles smugly at McGee, who has an astonished expression on his face. Gibbs enters the bullpen, with his coffee cup in his hand, and finds McGee staring at Joy's back, and hits him with a slap.
"No lovestruck gazing at each other in office hours. We have a dead petty officer."
"Ah, Boss, but I wasn't…" he mumbles, and Joy smirks and gets her backpack, ready to roll. The agents get ready and leave the bullpen, following Gibbs towards the elevators.
It was 7:33 am.
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