NCIS

Chapter 7

Crash into me

Gibbs opened the door to observation while somewhat grumbling to himself. First Brooke was a person of interest and now her grandmother, Shannon's mother, and his ex mother in law was somehow involved. This was quickly going from bad to worse.

McGee stood in front of the large two-way mirror seemingly watching the witness but as Gibbs approached the team's youngest agent it became more obvious that he was staring blankly through the window.

"What's on your mind, McGee?" Gibbs wondered as he looked at the girl in the opposite room who seemed slightly uneasy to him. He avoided eye contact knowing how uncomfortable McGee could get during a stare down. The time did not seem appropriate for that.

For a moment McGee seemed unsure of what to say. "She seems to know more than what she told us earlier, a little nervous since we asked her back." The agent answered.

Gibbs chuckled and turned to face McGee. "I meant about Brooke being back."

McGee sighed and focused his eyes on the witness. "To be honest Boss I'm more upset than I am excited."

Gibbs went from looking at McGee to slightly glaring for what was said to him. The time to stare felt more than appropriate now. "Why, she's your best friend McGee. Since MIT am I wrong?"

McGee sighed heavily as he finally turned to meet Gibbs' gaze. "That's just it Boss. She's my best friend, your daughter, Tony's wife. Abby of all people knew instead of us. Abby, the one that we trusted, lied to us about someone so important in our lives." McGee paused to take a breath. "How can I trust them now?"

Gibbs patted McGee's shoulder in a fatherly manner. "You'll figure it out McGee." What he really wanted to say was that he had no idea.

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Brooke did not realize that she was holding her breath during the elevator ride down to autopsy until she in fact reached the doors to enter the morgue. The fact that she was about to possibly face the man that ruined her life, alive or not, had her heart racing unbelievably fast.

She froze and needed some kind of reassurance. She glanced down at her hands to find them trembling, the palms sweaty, and a piece of treasured jewelry missing on the fourth finger of the left hand. To this day, three years later she felt completely bare without it.

She'd give anything to have him at her side at this moment. However as much as she wanted him beside her she wanted Shannon to keep from seeing this even more than that.

Jenny was halfway through the doors to autopsy and on her way to taking a look at the body when she noticed that Brooke was no longer at her side. The redhead turned back and began to move back toward her.

"Brooke." Jenny said her name softly just to get her attention. She took a deep breath. It was hard to see the strongest woman she had ever known in such a state. The girl was so much like her father that it seemed unnatural for her to be frightened of a dead body.

Jenny took a step closer and gently took hold of Brooke's hands. "I know this is hard …"

"You have no idea." Brooke whispered. Her eyes left her hands to meet Jenny's.

"I can't promise that you that everything will go back to normal now. I can however tell you that this is the first step to getting your life back." Jenny told the agent truthfully.

Brooke sighed and took a hand back to run through her hair. "The thing is I can't help but wonder if I had stayed here maybe we would have caught this guy faster as a team. Assuming he is the one on that table in there."

Jenny nodded curtly at the statement wanting to comfort the daughter of the man she was still in love with. The problem was that she had no idea how to go about doing that. It would be easier if she knew that this body was who they wanted it to be. The only one who could know for sure was standing right in front of her. "I'm sure this will all be over soon."

Brooke nodded with a hopeful expression in her eyes. "I would give anything for that."

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"Do you know why I asked you to come back here today?" Gibbs asked as he entered interrogation and took a seat across from Brooke, the witness.

She shrugged and took a guess. "You want to know more about what I saw?"

Gibbs leaned against the back of his chair and crossed his arms. He stared at her for a long moment. After the pause he spoke up. "No, I want to know what you really saw."

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Kate entered the observation room just in time to see Gibbs tell the girl what he wanted from her. She stood beside McGee who kept his silence. The female agent took a deep breath and released it slowly. There was too much tension in the air and she need to speak in hopes of changing that.

"Ducky said the victim was slowly being poisoned but he died of a heart attack."

The last thing McGee felt like doing was talking to Kate but as it pertained to the case he would make an exception. "Did the heart attack have anything to do with the poisoning?" He kept his eyes straight ahead watching Gibbs work.

Kate sighed also watching Gibbs. This girl was taking awhile to speak up. "Ducky didn't say what triggered the heart attack but if it was the poison Abby will be able to tell us."

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"I already told you what happened out there Agent Gibbs, so why am I here again?"

Gibbs chuckled and shook his head. "I know better than to believe that, I have evidence that tells me your story was not the truth. It would really help me out if you told me what happened."

Kate watched nervously as the girl considered what her reaction should be. There was no denying that Gibbs was good at what he did. After sighing, the blonde started to tell him about what it was she honestly saw.

"There was an older woman there. She was walking through the path with the guy and they were talking. I wasn't really listening to what they were saying."

"You said you were running you didn't pass them?"

The girl shrugged. "I usually warm up by walking for a few minutes to get my blood going." She replied honestly.

Gibbs nodded accepting what she told him as the truth and urged her to continue by giving a poor attempt at a smile.

"He collapsed out of nowhere." She informed Gibbs with a shake of her head. "The woman started to drag him into the clearing you found him in."

Gibbs' eyebrows pulled together in confusion. All he could think of was the fact that this girl was talking about an older woman. That only proved his suspicions of Joann being involved to be correct.

"I walked up to her and asked if I should call an ambulance. She seemed calm, like she was expecting him to drop dead. It freaked me out. I don't know if she had realized that I had been behind her the whole time or not. Anyway she told me to call NCIS and say that my name was Brooke. It's really Angela."

She bit her lip expecting to be in some kind of trouble for lying. She continued when Gibbs didn't interrupt her. "She told me to tell you that story about the girl. I didn't know what she was going to do if I told the truth so I lied to you like she asked."

Gibbs sighed and realized that he was going to have to get his former mother in law in here.

"She waited until I made the call then she left. I'm sorry Agent Gibbs I didn't know what else to do."

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Abby walked into her lab expecting it to be empty by now. She still had the tears in her eyes from the upstairs battle with McGee though they were no longer falling.

The Goth stopped in the doorway when she found that Tony was still there only this time with Shannon in his arms. Her heart felt even heavier than it had only moments ago at the sight of Tony fighting back his own tears.

It was a bittersweet moment to say the least. Tony looked up when he saw Abby's platforms out of the corner of his eye. He looked at her like she had the plague.

Tony pulled back from Shannon slightly and held her at arm's length. "Sweetheart, why don't you go and play with Burt. I need to have a talk with your aunt Abby for a minute."

The little redhead smiled at her father and nodded. "Okay." She skipped over to Abby's desk just past the second set of doors. Tony watched her sit in the chair and hug Burt to her chest which resulted in a fit of giggles as the stuffed hippo farted.

Tony couldn't help but smile although when he turned face Abby the smile vanished completely and he surprised her by letting a tear fall. The last time she witnessed Tony showing any form of sadness was at the funeral, both of them.

"Tony, I should have said something I know that but I just couldn't. You have to understand that." She begged. "Please." She added with tears welling up in her pale green eyes again.

Tony shook his head and sighed as he crossed his arms tightly over his chest. He didn't know what to say. It wasn't enough that he thought his wife and child had been dead, that his heart had recently been broken for the second time by a certain doctor. Now he had to find out like this that his family was still alive and well. After careful consideration he began to speak.

"The thing is Abby I don't know who I can trust anymore. You know how hard it was for me to lose them. Just imagine how I must feel to find out it's all been a lie."

"Tony listen-"

"I can't help thinking that this would be less painful if I still had Jeanne. That's my own damn fault though I should have told her the truth." Tony shook his head and looked at the floor to keep from showing how disappointed he was.

Abby shook her head, appalled by Tony's words. "You can't mean that, you should be happy that Brooke is here, that your daughter is here. You love her, you love both of them."

"I love Shannon, that's all I know." Without another word Tony walked past her out of the lab.

Shannon noticed her father leaving from where she sat at Abby's desk. The little girl got up and began to go after him but Abby was quick to pick her up. "Come on, you can be my assistant."

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Gibbs stormed into the observation room so fast that Kate jumped to the ceiling and McGee nearly wet himself. The two agents looked to their superior with their hearts racing. The look on the older man's face alone suggested that he was on a short fuse and not to ask too many questions.

"Boss?" McGee dared to speak first. Kate looked from one to the other unsure of what to expect.

"You two," Gibbs gestured to each of them. "Take her home and get my mother in law in here, now." Gibbs barked the order to them, his words spoken in a rush. Before either Kate or McGee had time to react he was gone as quickly as he had entered the room making his way to the lab now. He was completely unaware of the surprises to come, as were the rest of them.