Monsoon

When it rains, it pours. - Anonymous.

They agreed to go to NCIS in different cars, as McGee still had to wait for Sarah to get ready for the day. Joy left first and both were extremely late to arrive at the office. As McGee got closer to the Navy Yard's entrance, he was surprised to see the intense movement of TV vans in front of the main access gate from several blocks away.

"Are they having an event today?" asks Sarah, curious at the movement they can see further ahead.

McGee's phone starts ringing at that moment. He looks at the caller ID.

"Hi, Boss, I'm running a little late, Sarah and I overslept and…"

"Where are you McGee?"

"Getting to the main gate, why?"

"Go straight to the back entrance, and enter the building by the morgue. I will explain when you get here."

He disconnected. McGee looked, confused, at his mobile, then at his sister, and turned the steering wheel to obey him.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

As soon as they entered the building by the morgue entrance, they saw Ducky and Gibbs waiting for them.

"What's going on?" He said, leading Sarah by the hand down the corridor towards the elevator.

"We have a problem," growls Gibbs, through clenched teeth, and both McGees can see that he's barely restraining his anger. They look at each other, wondering what they could possibly have done wrong to incur Gibbs' wrath. Besides, of course, arriving at the Navy Yard late.

Ducky notices the worried looks exchanged by the siblings, and hurries to calm them down, "oh dear, it's nothing you two did, my dear," he holds Sarah's hand delicately in his, "it's more likely that Gibbs is mad at what has been done to you," he adds mysteriously.

McGee frowns at Gibbs, "Boss?"

There is a huge question mark in his voice, and the elevator doors opens, and Gibbs enters the car and hits the upper floor button furiously. Ducky and the McGees follow him inside.

McGee feels cold rushing up his spine when Gibbs just glances at him, with a worried look.

"They know, McGee," says Gibbs softly.

"Know what?"

The elevator doors closes.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

They get to the bullpen, to find Joy, DiNozzo and David watching a live feed of ZNN, showing the NCIS's main gate. There is a reporter speaking live, explaining that the brother of one of the survivors was an NCIS agent.

"Somehow someone leaked Sarah's identity and her connection to NCIS to the press," says Ziva, staring at the TV angrily.

"How did they find out?" McGee looks at Gibbs, who goes to his desk and starts dialing his phone.

"That's what we're trying to find out," says Gibbs, putting the phone back forcibly in its cradle.

"It can't be any of the survivors, as by the director of the FBI's orders, every single one has had an agent assigned as his shadow since the shooting, in order to control the flow of information and also to protect them, just in case this was not an isolated case but a terrorist attack," says Joy, frustrated.

"Who else knew of your connection to Sarah, McGee?" McGee shook his head, frustrated, ransacking his brain trying to figure out the puzzle.

"Sorry, Boss, besides you guys, I can't think of anyone. I'm usually very private about my personal life," says McGee.

"Sarah?" Gibbs looks at the young woman, who is twisting her hands as she looks at the plasma.

"My classmates knew I had a brother who was a federal agent, but I don't think I ever mentioned which agency," she bites her lip, "and all of them are dead anyway."

All agents look at Sarah, who lowers her head to her chest, and McGee hugs his little sister to his chest, "hey, it will be ok, you'll see."

The elevator doors ping, and the team turns to it and sees little Temperance dragging a sullen Matthew out of it. He lights up when he sees Joy standing by the plasma, and starts walking towards them.

"Hey," he says with a big smile, but his smile fades a little from his face when he sees Sarah deep in her brother's arms. He freezes, making Temp stumble into him.

"What…" She looks up, sees Sarah looking at Matthew, and looks up to Matthew, who turns around to avoid her stare, and starts walking back to the elevators. But she catches the hurt look on Sarah's face, and runs to block his escape.

"No, no no no," Temp opens her arms, "you're staying."

"Squirt, please, I don't want to hurt her anymore than I've already done, and her brother is pissed off at me," says Matthew, almost begging.

"Come on, suck it up, marine," says Temp and starts dragging him down the corridor by the hand. He valiantly tries to resist, and it becomes a tug of war, he trying to go to the elevator, and Temp pulling him to the desks from where Team Gibbs is watching the stooges show.

"Temp, let me go!"

"No, come on!"

"TEMP," he growls, starting to get angry at her meddling ways. She lets go, and he almost falls to the floor. When he restores his balance, he glares at her for a second, and she attacks him, slapping him lightly on his chest, girly slaps not meant to hurt but to catch his attention.

"Silly silly boy!"

"Temp!"

"Ouch!"

"What!"

"Stop hitting me!"

"Stop," says Matthew, but Temperance keeps slapping him lightly, "Stop, TEMP!"

"Be a man!" hisses Temp, and Matthew glares down at his younger sister, and she hits him below the belt, "Are you a man or a potato sack?"

The siblings enter into a staring contest, which is almost funny, as Temperance is the shortest Buchanan, and she barely hits his shoulders, and Matthew hovers over her by over a foot, but what she lacks in height she has in tenacity, and she won't stand by while her siblings make stupid decisions based on hurt and anger. Oh, no she won't.

"Matthew," Joy calls him up, and he sighs deeply, defeated.

He relaxes his tense shoulders, and looks up to his older sister, "what?"

Joy turns to the plasma, "come here, I have to talk to you."

He sends another glare to Temperance, who sticks out her tongue at him. They start walking towards Joy, and he, in turn, hits her with a headslap, and she immediately kicks him in the shin.

"OUCH!" he moans, jumping on one leg, holding his throbbing leg with one arm and supporting his other hand on Ziva's desk. McGee was watching the interaction with his mouth open, but Sarah was trying not to laugh at the siblings.

DiNozzo was staring at the siblings, "Are they always like that?" he asks Joy.

Joy is staring at the ZNN coverage, and answers nonchalantly, "usually they are worse," she looks over her shoulders," at least this time she didn't break his nose," she smirks when Matthew's hand immediately goes to his own face, protecting his cartilage.

"Ah, but that was an accident," says Temp approaching Joy and standing by her side.

"Yeah," Joy agrees, then completes, "the first time." Both sisters look at each other and grin.

"You broke his nose?" asks Sarah to Temperance, who lifts her hand, showing two fingers, grinning, "twice."

"Ok," Matt says, supporting gingerly his aching foot on the floor, "you had your fun with little me, so what's up?" he approaches Joy, and flinches when he sees the unfriendly look McGee shoots at him, so he doesn't go even near him or Sarah.

But he can't resist the impulse of checking on her, looking her from head to toe and, despite the dark circles around her beautiful eyes, he can't see any wounds. Thank God for small mercies.

"Hi," he says softly to Sarah.

"Hi," she answers, but McGee doesn't let his arm go from her shoulders.

He hears his sister talking in the background, but he's not really listening to her until he receives a headslap from one sister and a jab in the ribs from another.

"WHAT?"

"Did you hear my question?" Joy asks annoyed.

"No, what do you want to know?"

"Did you report to your commanding officer? When you did it, did you go into details of what happened?"

"Yes, I did and no, I didn't," he rolls his shoulders, trying to get the kinks of them, and puts his hands in his jeans pockets, "I had to inform him that I was under FBI protection because I was a witness of a crime, but I didn't go into details, just enough so he could know why I couldn't report to duty by Friday. I was granted another week then."

"Did you by any chance mention Sarah's connection to you or to NCIS at any moment?"

"No," he glances to Sarah briefly, then looks back at his sister, "all he needed to know is that I had to report to the FBI, nothing else, I've never mentioned NCIS."

Joy nods, thinking about her brother said.

Gibbs looks at the siblings, "you think someone in his unit could have blown the whistle?"

"It's a possibility we have to consider, Boss."

"Hey, no, my buddies would never do that." Joy looks at him sternly, "I swear, they wouldn't."

"Have you contacted any of your buddies while you were on leave?"

"No, I was only with…" he shuts up, then glances at Sarah, and shoves his closed fists deeper in his pockets, "No, I haven't."

"But Maverick called the townhouse yesterday," says Temperance. Joy frowns, and glares at her little brother.

"Wait a second," she turns to Matthew, "Dickhead Maverick? You are still friends with that jerk?" Matthew opens up his mouth like a fish, but no words come out of it.

"Dickhead Maverick?" asks Ziva, "what kind of name is that?"

"Come on, that was a long time ago," moans Matthew.

"Why is he called Dickhead Maverick?" asks Sarah, and Joy grins evilly while Temp rubs her hands together. Matthew looks at his sisters and looks up to the ceiling, asking for patience from the heavens.

"He's a buddy of mine from the Marines," admits Matthew, defeated.

"Who happened to have a very short relationship with Hope," says Temperance, grinning.

"And after a long steamy night of crawling up the walls sex, he bragged about my sister's hotness to his entire unit," completes Joy, grinning.

"Oh, that can't be good," frowns Tony, as he had already been in the receiving end of the Buchanans' fury.

"No, it wasn't," agrees Joy.

"Come on, I punched the living daylights out of the guy, couldn't that be enough?" says Matthew.

"You punched him?" asks McGee, with a hint of respect in his voice. Matthew glances at the oldest McGee, who despite the anger he had towards him, at least had directed the question to him.

Matthew shrugged, "it seemed the right thing to do at that time, and nobody hurts any of my sisters and goes unpunished." McGee looks at Matthew with newfound respect, but he shrugs as if it is no big deal.

"What happened then?" Gibbs asks, as he knows that the Buchanan women would not let the guy escape unpunished.

Joy and Temperance look at each other and snicker, "Hope sent a collection of erotic nude pictures she made of him to a gay magazine, and gave them his real phone number. He received calls to set up hot dates for a month, until he figured out the prank and changed his number," says Joy with a big smile on her face.

Gibbs shakes his head laughing at the resourcefulness of Hope Buchanan.

"And every time he changed his number," continues Temperance, "Hope would send more pictures to the magazine updating the telephone info," she laughs out loud, "the prank continued for six months."

"We've called him Dickhead Maverick since then," completes Joy.

"Did you by any chance mention Sarah or her connection to NCIS to Maverick?" questions Joy, but even before she finishes, Matthew is already shaking his head no.

"No, he had no wish to hear what was happening in my life, he just wanted to brag about… ohhh…" he looks at his sisters, then at Sarah, and blushes deeply. Ziva and Joy look at each other and smirk, and Matthew shrugs, "anyway, I couldn't get a word in edgewise, he was totally absorbed in his latest conquest."

Ziva looks at DiNozzo, and grins, "let me guess, a leggy blonde probably from a college fraternity somewhere."

Matthew turns to the NCIS agent, "yes, how did you figure it out?" Ziva smiles openly, looking at DiNozzo.

"Well, I know someone like him, who likes bragging," she says.

"Hey," shouts DiNozzo, offended.

"Anyway," continues Matthew, "it wasn't Maverick, I assure you."

"I agree," says Joy, looking at the McGee siblings, "to release that info and still keep his identity hidden, well, that requires cunningness and intelligence," she looks at Matthew, "two things that Maverick doesn't have in abundance."

"So, now that you know that my friends are not snitches, what do you want me to do?"

Temp grabs his arm, and smiles, "you are going with me to meet Abby," and starts dragging him towards the elevators that go to the labs.

Matt looks at Joy, then at Temp, "the happy goth?" he starts following Temp, who grins at Sarah and McGee as she walks with Matthew by them and starts dragging him down the corridor towards the elevators which will take her to the lower levels of the building.

"Yes, she is so cool, she wears pigtails and she can kill you without leaving forensic evidence."

Matt freezes, and looks back at the McGees then at Joy, "Squirt, if you are trying to make me feel better, you are failing miserably."

"Ah, relax," she walks around him, and starts pushing him with her hands on his back, "she's nice, as long as you don't piss her off." He reluctantly lets himself being pushed by his youngest sister, who starts slapping his back again.

"Hey."

"What?"

"Stop!"

"Stop hitting me," he turns around and grabs Temp by her waist and she squeals, laughing like crazy. He carries her like a potato sack to the elevator, salutes the agents before entering the elevator, and carries his sister inside.

As the silence reigns again in the bullpen, Joy smiles softly at the McGees, and returns to her desk. Sarah comes to her desks, "where should I stay today?"

Joy looks at her, "you are always welcome to stay with us here in the bullpen, but I'd suggest you go to Abby's lab and enjoy the show."

McGee frowns, "I don't think I want her with…"

Joy rolls her eyes, "Please, McGee, you've seen the two of them together," she looks at Sarah, "Temperance will act as a buffer, and if he by any chance acts like anything but a gentleman, ask Temp for blackmail material."

"What type of blackmail material?" says Sarah, with a little smile on her face.

Joy leans back in her chair, and looks up to the ceiling, trying to remember the innumerous incidents from her teenage years.

"Let me see," she grins at Sarah, "you know the episode with the rocket to the moon," Sarah grins and nods, "well, there is the skinny dipping in the lake and the 4th of July incidents, just to mention two of the most embarrassing ones I can recall right away, but Temp remembers much more than me, she was just two grades behind him in school."

"Why would she want to know that?" asks McGee, looking from Joy to Sarah, but he notices the twinkle in his sister's eyes that had been missing since this whole nightmare started.

"McGee," whines Joy, "he's the baaaabbyyyy," she stands up and puts an arm around Sarah's shoulder, and looks at her teammates, "and he grew up with five sisters, four of us older than him: it basically means humiliation and blackmail were our everyday tool to deal with him," she smiles down at Sarah, "believe me, he will be a perfect gentleman."

"Won't he get mad at you guys for that?" Sarah is still insecure, "I don't want to be a problem between you," Joy shakes her head, and laughs.

"Believe me, he's used to one of us using him for target practice, and," she turns Sarah, and starts leading her down the corridor, "if he gives you a hard time, ask Temp to describe the day a seagull pooped on his head during his valedictorian speech."

Sarah's face becomes a comic mask, her eyes big as a flying saucer, her mouth a perfect O. Joy smiles, and pushes her inside the elevator, hits the button to Abby's lab, and waves goodbye.

"I don't know if that's the right thing to do," says McGee.

"Of course it is," she rolls her eyes at McGee, "whether you like it or not, they have to talk about it, and protecting her won't teach her how to deal with her problems, McGee." She grabs his arm, and guides him to stand before Gibbs' desk.

"We have bigger problems to worry about than their lover's spat," she points to the screen, "this worries me."

Gibbs looks at the screen, "any chance someone in the FBI contacted the press?" Joy glares at Gibbs, "What? It's happened before; they don't have the most perfect track record of keeping their yaps shut."

"No, boss, they don't, but there's too much at stake here for such an error of judgment to be remotely acceptable."

"I don't understand," says Ziva, "it puts the McGees' safety in jeopardy, besides that I don't see what else."

"Ziva, you are not looking at the big picture." Joy shakes her head, "this is the second major shooting inside an American University made by a foreign descendant student. It has the potential to increase xenophobic reactions tenthousandfold, foment racism in unseen levels which would be a potential political disaster with the President trying to discuss the new immigration bill in the Senate."

"Besides that, we have the victims, of which at least ten were exchange students, enrolled at Waverly doing their further studies," she approaches the Israeli, who now is frowning at the ramifications, "at least forty percent of the yearly enrollments at Waverly are from international students. If you consider the number of international students per year who enroll in all American Universities, that's an astronomical share of the liquid profits for this sector of the economy. If word gets out that they are sending their children here, just to be killed by the first crazy shooter…" Joy shakes her head,

"The Educational sector will collapse," says DiNozzo, "as they won't reach their yearly quotas to keep their doors open."

"Resulting in Universities closing down, faculty members being discharged from their posts, an all out disaster, etc…" McGee says, and looks at Joy, who nods.

"In the long run, it has the potential of having ripple effects that we will only be able to see years after what happened, but it is a very real possibility, and then," she sighs, "they haven't totally ruled out the possibility of it being a planned attack."

"What? But I thought that they had identified the shooter, and that he has no links with any terrorist group," says Gibbs, frowning, as he had not being briefed about this theory.

Joy folds her arms, and rolls on the balls of her feet, thinking hard about how much she can reveal or not.

Gibbs notices her reticence, and stands up from his desk, "What are you not telling me?"

Joy looks at Gibbs, and simply studies her boss, without revealing anything on her face. However Gibbs sees in her eyes her turmoil: she wants to tell him, but she can't.

"Buchanan!" he barks, "my office, now."

Joy glances at McGee, who is looking from her to Gibbs, then back to her, "What exactly does that mean?"

"That's what I'm planning to find out," says Gibbs, grabbing Joy by her arm and dragging her to the elevator. As soon as the doors close behind them, he hits the emergency button.

He glares down at the short agent, who looks at him with a very serious expression on her face.

"Ok, spill."

"Boss," she licks her dry lips, "the Joint Chiefs ordered all FBI agents involved in the investigation, from top to bottom, to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding this investigation. If they disobey, they will face civil and criminal charges, with immediate dismissal from the Bureau."

"Why? Was it a planned attack?" Joy looks up to the ceiling, avoiding his face, and he gets pissed, "do they know something that they are not telling us?"

Joy looks at Gibbs' face, and simply say, "It's because of Matthew, boss."

"What? I don't understand, what does Matthew have to do with the shooting? He wasn't harmed in any way, he'd never met the shooter before, why?"

"Not exactly Matthew, but his family connections," says Joy softly, and Gibbs takes a step back, as he thinks on the Buchanan family.

"It is about…"

"Boss, just think about it, a student with no previous background of violence tendencies just decides to shoot out his whole class, on the exact same day that the Marine son of a highly classified Air Force weapons engineer is in the same building. Besides that, his girlfriend attends the same class where he killed every single student."

"Too much of a coincidence," says Gibbs.

"And you don't believe in coincidences, neither does the Joint Chiefs," completes Joy.

"What exactly does your mother do for the Air Force?" Gibbs is glaring at his young agent, who sighs frustrated.

"I don't know," says Joy, sincerely, "but whatever it is, it is big. Her security clearance is higher than the Director's, she has half of the Pentagon on her speed dial and right now she is stuck in a lockdown in NORAD."

"NORAD? What is she doing at Cheyenne Mountain?"

"I don't know, Boss," says Joy, "but, whatever it is, I'm sure that it is not deep space radar telemetry, as it is their official cover story."

"Deep Space radar telemetry? What kind of crappy cover story is that?"

"I don't know, but if you consider the type of technology and weaponry my mom has been developing, that's mind-boggling," says Joy.

"You've seen it?" asks Gibbs, "I thought it was classified."

"Yes it is, but McGee is not the only one with hacker skills," says Joy with a smile, "I peeked at her laptop once. If the prototypes she's been developing for the last years are even remotely feasible," she shakes her head, and Gibbs feels his gut twitching, "boss, they are not doing telemetry, they are preparing themselves for an all out war."

Both agents stay in silence for a moment, digesting the information revealed.

"Did she ever mention who they were fighting against?" says Gibbs softly, and Joy shakes her head frustrated.

"No, but since she was assigned to the R&D facility in Nevada in 1997, and she started to work directly under the supervision of Cheyenne Mountain, all she ever mentioned about her work is that she was working with the very fabric of universe, and that her work was based in the meaning of life stuff."

"Meaning of life?" says Gibbs with a smile. Just Maggie Buchanan would describe highly destructive weaponry R&D as the meaning of life, he thinks.

"Yes," says Joy, "meaning of life." She pauses and sighs, and continues her ranting, "you see Boss, if this has even a remote possibility of being connected to my mom's work, it will be squashed down so fast that no one will even take a peek in the files, and the whole thing will be buried as deep as possible. That's why we have to find who the mole is, if Sarah's relationship to Matthew becomes public, Matthew's identity will become public; if his identity becomes public, then…"

"Then the press will keep on digging until they find out the rest of you, and when they see their efforts blocked, as they find only classified files on you, they will become even more curious."

"And then everything will go straight to hell."

Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Cheyenne Mountain? Air Force? Norad? I see another crossover in Joy's future...