Note: Me procrastinating again. But between the wonderful reviews and the fact that I just received an enormous scholarship, I was in too good a mood to not post! Lol. I'm having a little too much fun with Ziva, but the story seems to demand it. And so the plot moves forward. Hope y'all enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: Me no own. :(
Kagome was standing on the elevator very uncomfortably. The ride over to NCIS headquarters had been uneventful except for the slight discomfort of sitting with blood coating her. In the Sengoku Jidai she had always rushed to the nearest hot spring after a battle where was she was splattered with gore and blood. It was ironic that in the modern age, where there were plenty of showers, she wasn't able to get this blood off her for a while yet.
Now standing in the elevator with Agent "Call me Tony" DiNozzo and David, she was very aware that under the coat of blood, she was only wearing a simple white sundress. She felt dreadfully underdressed and small compared to these two who were wearing suits and nice clothes! She had dressed for the stroll she had decided to take, not for trying to save someone's life. She would have worn jeans or something more sturdy if she had known. She sighed. Blood would never wash out of her sundress! And it was her favorite too! She tugged woefully on the hem as she pondered the fate of her once white dress.
It was her luck that they really didn't have REAL showers at the headquarters where they had taken her. They wouldn't let her go home because they were afraid that she would forget some minute detail and not be a good witness. Or so they said. She was of the mind that they didn't want to flee or anything. So she was being forced to use the chemical shower in some person's lab. Not the best option, but at least she would be clean. At least she was used to little privacy. Not much room for modesty when you have to take care of your lady business behind the bush. She quietly snorted in amusement. Ahhhh. Those were the days.
As the elevator finally dinged to indicate they had reached their destination, Kagome finally tuned in to realize that Agent DiNozzo had been speaking to her the entire time. With a sheepish look on her face, she turned to glance up at him.
"I am sorry. I was lost in my thoughts. What were you saying?" she said. She added an embarrassed smile in the hopes that he wouldn't be offended.
The woman, Agent David, burst out laughing while Agent DiNozzo just glared at the laughing woman. Kagome just looked between the two with a chagrined look on her face. She didn't mean to make him look foolish.
"Oh that tracks me up!!" Agent David howled. Quite loudly.
His glare melted into a look of confusion then shifted to one of amusement. He proceeded to roll his eyes as he crossed arms across his chest. His stance changed from one of anger and aggression to that of smug satisfaction.
"You mean 'cracks you up.' Track is something that people run around." he chortled. She made it all too easy.
"Yes, yes. That is what I mean. Your idioms are so confusing!" Agent David responded as she rolled her eyes. But her eyes never lost their amused glint and she continued to grin.
As they stepped out of the elevator, Kagome realized there was loud music blasting from a room a few steps from them. At first she thought it was merely instrumental with heavy bass. But she soon realized that there was someone singing. They had just blended into the bass since they were shrieking. She tilted her head in curiosity as she tried to determine what the woman was screaming about in the song. The words were too garbled by the woman's screeching and the music, so Kagome gave it up as a lost cause. She shrugged. Sometimes she couldn't understand people's taste in music. Especially one's that seemed as headache inducing as this kind. Maybe they had a hearing impairment?
The two agents continued bickering as they walked toward the open door as if the music was not playing. They just continued to raise their voices to be heard over it. Soon after they had passed through the open doorway, a black and red thing streaked over to them and started bouncing up and down. It took Kagome a minute for her eyes to adjust and to figure out that the blob was a young woman with pig tails who was dressed with many adorning chains and in lots of black. She also had many tattoos. The one that caught her eye was that of a spiderweb on the back of her neck. She shivered. Anything to do with spiders reminded her uncomfortably of Naraku and the not so pleasant memories that were associated with that name. She tried not to hold it against the woman. She probably wasn't the epitome of all evil. Besides, maybe she just really liked spiders. Kagome, not wanting a repeat of the elevator "incident" decided to pay attention to what was happening. The woman seemed to be talking a mile a minute, too fast for her to make out more than a few words. Even so, she paid very close attention. This woman was quite amusing. She looked like a goth, but seemed very innocent in another sense. Maybe it was her aura. If there was anything that Kagome could recognize, it was purity. She turned her attention to Agent DiNozzo as he started to talk.
While he was speaking, Agent DiNozzo gestured toward where she was standing.
"Our guest, Ms. Higurashi needs to use the shower. As you can see she is covered in blood and wishes to wash it off as soon as possible. Not that I blame her." He shuddered. Then he seemed to zone out, looking around the lab muttering something about blood.
Agent David was the one who made the introductions.
"Ms. Higurashi, this is Abby Sciuto, our forensic scientist, the one who analyzes the blood and chemicals. The shower is in the next room. We'll try to find you a change of clothes as soon as possible." she said with a smile. Kagome smiled back in relief. She didn't know what she was going to do if she didn't have a change of clothes. Getting back into the bloody clothes was not an appealing option.
"That would be lovely. Thank you." Kagome responded with a bow.
When she stood up, she saw their incredulous looks. She smiled wryly. Old habits die hard.
"Pardon me. Bowing is commonplace and expected in my country."
Agent DiNozzo's mouth dropped open. If it fell any further, she would probably be able to see his tonsils. She brought her hand up to hide her smile. She figured he had been embarrassed enough today.
"You aren't from America?" he sputtered. The look in his eye was one of bewilderment. He sure was one to wear his heart on his sleeve. She finally registered what he asked.
She gave him a faintly puzzled look.
"Of course not. Do I not have an accent?" she inquired. She hadn't been in America that long! Most people commented on her accent and asked her where she was from. They always seemed curious, but never judgemental. Maybe her accent was fading?
"Not really. Well. Not enough to make me think you weren't from this country!" he exclaimed as he scratched the back of his head.
She answered with a smile and tilt of her head. He is so funny. He kinda reminds me of Miroku. She looked at him closely. Well, without the groping anyway.
"Yes. I am originally from Japan. I came here around 5 months ago." she said, still smiling.
"Why did you come over here?" Agent David asked with a curious note in her voice.
" Like Japan Japan? Like from The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise? Man that movie was good! Tom Cruise being the emotionally traumatized soldier who goes over to Japan to..." Agent DiNozzo said in the background. Both women ignored him in favor of paying attention to Kagome. She gave him a mild look of puzzlement since she had no idea what he was talking about. But since the women didn't say anything, she shrugged it off and responded.
"I came to explore. I have grown up on tales of America and wanted to see it for myself." Kagome said. She wasn't technically lying. She had wanted to see America for a long time. Escaping her past just acted as a kind of catalyst. That's all. Really.
"Well!!! Instead of interrogating Kagome here, why don't we allow her to take a shower so she can get all that blood off her? I'm going to take your dress after you finish undressing so I can run some tests. Want to have the documents proving its that guy's blood!" the woman with the tattoos said. Abby. That was her name.
She smiled at the woman that was offering her salvation. At last! A shower! Her eyes went a little starry at the idea of taking a shower. However, as Abby led her toward the back room, where the shower supposedly was, Kagome could see from the corner of her eye that Agent David was herding Agent DiNozzo out of the lab. Be aware of your surroundings. Apparently there were other habits that also died hard.
As the woman named Abby rattled on about something called a "mass spectrometer" Kagome nodded every now and then to make it seem as if she was paying attention. She really had no idea what half this woman was saying meant. So she started to partake in her favorite pass-time. She went off into her little world. Her mind was far beyond the tiny room she was in. She didn't know what to tell these people. How could she say that a demon had killed their marine? Not only would they not believe her, they would probably lock her up. She sighed. Only one option left.
Seems like I'm going to have to call Sesshomaru sooner than I thought.
"She did not have an accent! How was I supposed to know?!?" came a yell that seemed loud enough to disturb the whole building.
Tony continued arguing with Ziva and gesticulating wildly even as he sat down at his desk. Ziva did not take her seat, but merely leaned against her desk with both her arms and legs crossed. She sighed in exasperation and interrupted his ranting.
"How did you not know? Even I could tell! It was as plain as the mouth on your face! Her accent is not heavy, but it is still noticeable!" she pointed out and rolled her eyes. Really! The man is impossible!
All Tony did in response was drop his head so it hit the desk. Then picked it up and did it again. Repeatedly. With his voice muffled from being shoved against the desk, he replied, "Ziva, it's 'nose on your face' not mouth. You seem to be in rare form today. Like Jessica Alba in Dark Angel! Man was she hot. And I'm just talking about general hotness either! The whole genetically pumped up kick-ass female is so HOT!"
Tony seemed to go into his own little world during this fantasy of his and continued rambling. Ziva merely rolled her eyes again.
"Nose, mouth, what's the difference? Besides, I look the same today as I did yesterday. My form has not changed." she interrupted as she finally stood up and moved behind her desk. Sitting down and rolling forward so she could access her computer. If he was going to be idiot then she was going to check her email.
Tony didn't seem to hear her and was muttering nonsense under his breath as he lay his head back on his desk. As Gibbs walked by with another cup of coffee, Tony raised his head a bit, looking ridiculous with a bright red spot on his forward indicating his earlier abuse of said spot and asked, "Boss, did you know that that hot babe was from Japan and not from America?"
"You didn't, DiNozzo?" Gibbs said in such a way promised a head slap for idiocy if he answered in the negative even as he turned on his computer to check his email. Which was all he really knew how to do. Even then he sometimes had problems.
Tony seemed to be at a loss for a few seconds before he recovered.
"Of course I did boss! Ziva here was just having some doubt so I wanted to prove that as highly trained investigators we caught every little detail!" he stated as he puffed out his chest a little bit. While doing so, his eyes slid shut so that he looked more manly.
After he had opened his eyes, Ziva shot him a glare that promised a very painful retribution causing Tony to gulp and Gibbs to smirk. Without taking his eyes off the computer monitor, Gibbs asked, "Where's McGee?"
Ziva stopped glaring at Tony to glance at the desk of the famous novelist and computer technician, only to realize that he indeed was not there. She glanced over to Tony only to see with the same puzzled expression.
"I do not know Gibbs. He was not here when we arrived from dropping off Ms. Higurashi down at Abby's lab." she answered in response to his earlier question.
"Probably another emergency with his sister. Or something like that. I bet he just slept in this morning." Tony postulated with a smirk.
"Actually, there really was an emergency this morning seeing as my sister's friend to get to the hospital and I was closest. I'll have you know I was dropping off some clothes down at Abby's lab. Taking a shower would not accomplish much if she had nothing to change into." McGee announced as he walked from the elevator. "I assumed that she was not carrying another change of clothes in her bag, so got her some sweats and a T-shirt from the storage area."
Tony's smirk fell from his face. "Whatever you say McGeek."
"As soon as she's out of the shower, I want her in the interrogation room." Gibbs said, causing the two men of the team to jump. They had forgotten he was there. So damn quiet all the time.
"Ziva, take her to interrogation. McGee, I want this dead marine, this Zack Lokens', information. All of it. See why someone would want to kill him. And I don't want to go into this interrogation blind. So get me all the information on one Kagome Higurashi as well. Now."
Kagome sighed. It seemed that that's all she was doing lately. Sighing. Especially today. She had tried to help someone and again had gotten herself into trouble. Which is what always seemed to happen. Well at least she hadn't been kidnapped. And she didn't have blood all over her anymore. Which was definitely a plus. The shower had been very refreshing and although the clothes she was wearing were a little big, they would do until she could get home to change. She glanced at the one named Abby. Abby. It was so hard to remember that they didn't add "-san" or any kind of suffix to their names. It was one of the hardest things to relearn when she came to America. She had just gotten to the point where she didn't revert to using suffixes. As she glanced at her again, Abby, not Abby-san, seemed to be almost salivating over her dress which was a little perturbing. It was covered with blood after all.
"Ano, Abby? Thank you for the change of clothes. I would not have liked to put on the dress again." she bowed.
Abby turned to her as if just noticing her presence in the lab. Apparently she wasn't the only one to get lost in their own little world!
"Oh! It wasn't me that had them! McGee brought them! Agent McGee. You'll meet him in a bit. Feel better? I hope so. Hope you don't mind but I'm going to take your dress. I don't think the blood will wash out anyway, so it shouldn't be too big a deal!" Abby chattered. Kagome noticed that she was reaching for a giant cup that had 'Caf-Pow' on the side. Maybe that was what had made her so hyper. She seemed like a person who had to be taken in small doses. A woman after her own heart.
Kagome had some problem following all of what she was saying since she was speaking relatively quickly and said so much, but she got the gist. So she smiled.
"It is no problem. You are right that I will not be using that dress again." she said as she stared mournfully at the dress. "Do you know what I am supposed to do now?"
"Gibbs wants to ask you some questions." Agent David said as she walked in the door. She strolled straight over to Abby to look at the dress the woman was holding in her arms. "That is quite a bit of blood." She glanced over to Kagome as if she had the answer to the question she was thinking. And she did.
"He fell on me after he died. His wound was bleeding pretty heavily." Kagome responded to her unspoken question. Agent David stared at her intensely. Kagome merely tilted her head in inquiry. I don't think I said anything strange.
Agent David seemed to come to her senses as she shook her head. Then she gestured toward the doorway.
"I will take you to Gibbs. He is waiting for you." she said in a normal tone of voice.
As she walked by her, Kagome turned her head to look at the Israeli woman.
"Am I allowed to phone someone? I need to notify him that I am in some trouble." she stated as she continued walking toward the door.
From behind her, Kagome could hear Agent David walking after her. She turned her head to follow her with her eyes. Instinct. Too long in the feudal era had made it so that she wasn't comfortable turning her back to strangers. It was what had kept her alive in some deadly situations. Which were mostly situations she had managed to get herself in.
"Who would you need to call?" Agent David asked stoically.
Kagome smiled a secret smile. "Just an old friend of the family."
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