Title: Divided Paths Entwined
Title: Divided Paths Entwined
Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: Kate Todd/Ziva David
Spoilers: Right through the first and second seasons to Silver Wars in season three, just to be safe.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Not mine, they belong to DPB, CBS, Paramount, and blah, blah, blah.
Author's Note: This is my first fic, so lotsa feedback will be most appreciated! And thanks on the feedback already received! Also, this story contains femme-slash (probably not 'til further chapters though), so if you don't like it, don't read it!
Nearly four years earlier…
It was only 1300 hours and Kate was already praying for the end of the day. She'd been working on this particular profile for nearly a month and still hadn't managed to tie all the pieces together.
A month previous, the Secret Service received a letter pre-empting an attack on the president and his family. The letter was deemed as being an Al Qaeda threat, however the Secret Service still wanted a profile drawn up on the author to gain any further insight into the author's intentions and background, or whether he or she was even Al Qaeda at all. That was where Caitlin Todd was called in. Although lacking in hands-on experience, Agent Todd showed great promise in the field of profiling, and had responded well to interrogation training. So, only a couple of years out of finishing her post-graduate degree in forensic and operational psychology, Kate Todd was heading her first Secret Service investigation, from the profiling perspective at least. She was to act like a blood hound with a hunting party; when she'd pick up on a scent, she'd point in its direction and the rest of the squad would go galloping off to catch the fox. Only so far all they'd managed to find had been pheasant nests and rabbit holes. Kate was very thorough with her profiling. She'd had the letter analysed by a forensic handwriting expert to see if that could give them any more insight into the writer's background and education. She also made sure that the squad followed up every possible lead she came up with. However, such a tactic had earned a lot of frustration and impatience amongst her colleagues whenever they came across yet another dead end.
Today had been a particularly sore blow to the squad's morale and Kate's perceived ability as the squad's leading profiler. The man who they had tracked down over the last week had just been ruled out as a suspect on the account that his handwriting did not match that from the letter. Some hopeful agents spoke of the possibility of an associate, but Kate didn't join in on their speculation. Something was gnawing at her gut, telling her the man they had just released from custody did not fit the profile. Not the complete profile anyway. Kate was sure there were some gaps in the profile she had drawn up that being filled would prove to be essential to the investigation.
The potential terrorist who wrote the letter was on all accounts an Islamic extremist. As the writer stated, a Jihad on the President of the United States would be attacking the snake-like world of the infidels at the head. This was typical extremist ideals of carrying out Allah's will. However, despite the political based attack targeting the President and his family, there were no other political influences or undertones in the letter. To Kate, the author seemed to hold more resentment for the American culture and lifestyle, rather than for American politics. There were no demands for a surrender of the Allied troops in the Middle-East, or demands for the release of fellow freedom fighters. No, his or her intentions were not politically based. What surprised Kate was the anti-Semantic comments that were weaved throughout the letter. America does not have a particularly large Jewish population, so this confused Kate, but until she'd be able to shed some more light on this, she'd write it down to a general hatred for all cultures and religions of 'infidels'.
Remembering the conversation she had with her boss that morning walking in from the car park, Kate knew her neck was stretched out on the chopping block, and being young, inexperienced and female, there would be plenty of macho, chauvinistic agents waiting eagerly for her public execution. She had only just got out of her car when Agent Baer cornered her. His dispersion light, he innocently offered to walk her inside the building. As they walking up the stairs to the agency, he delicately asked for the progress being made with her case. When she informed Agent Baer of their suspect in custody, he smiled and congratulated her on the development. However, when they reached the doorway where the security guards were posted for the inspections of IDs, Baer stopped Kate from entering; he clearly hadn't finished with their conversation, and whatever he had to say he didn't want to be heard.
"You've done a good job so far Agent Todd, being thorough is a good sign of a hard worker." At this, he paused a moment to wipe some nonexistent dust off his sunglasses before continuing.
"However, quick results are much desired. Now I'm not saying be slap-dash; we want to be sure we've got the right man. But the ol' boys get easily tired of taking a young woman's orders, especially when it takes a while before the much wanted results start rolling in. You have a week to get this case wrapped up, or I'll have no other choice but to hand this over to a more senior profiler than you. Don't let me down." At this, he turned and walked in, flashing his ID to the guards, leaving Kate momentarily frozen at the top of the stairs.
A woman with dark hair who had stopped to shuffle around in her purse for her ID in front of Kate during her conversation with Baer quickly turned, knocking into the stunned Kate who dropped her own ID to the ground. The dark haired woman, with large dark shades over her eyes, bend down and picked up Kate's ID, hastily apologizing as she handed it back saying something about leaving her own in her car, before rushing off back down the stairs. Kate pulled herself back together, and walked into the agency building praying to God that the day would bring her the luck she needed.
By the end of the day, Kate finally emerged from her tiny excuse of an office, making her escape from work before anyone else could track her down and give her a tongue lashing. Making it to the safety of her car, Kate decided that the only way she could finish off this crappy day was to grab a drink at her local pub. If any day required a comfort pint, this was the day.
In the smoky mist of the pub, Kate cradled her beer in one of the dark corner booths. Some popular song was playing on the radio that Kate might've known if she actually had enough time in her life to listen to the radio. She simply sat, slowing sipping at her drink, mulling over in her mind the ton of crap she's found herself in as she mindlessly scanned the crowd. Still in her work suit, she gave off her best "I'm pissed off, tired and really don't wanna talk to you" vibe which did its job at keeping all the young merry men drinking at the bar who'd fancy an attractive woman like Kate away. As Kate continued to sip her sorrows away, her eyes briefly fell on a young, dark haired woman, following Kate's suit by sitting tucked away in another corner booth, keeping her own company. If Kate had been paying more attention, she would have realized the woman in the opposite corner was the same woman that bumped into her outside the agency earlier that day. However, Kate's head was too preoccupied with her own predicaments that the only thoughts that registered in her mind was, "She's a pretty thing. A wonder how she's here alone."
Finishing her pint, which took a near half hour to drink and was sickly warm by the time she had the last sip, Kate decided to call it a day. All she wanted to do was go to bed and pretend this day had just been a bad dream. Walking through the parking lot back to her car, Kate was too preoccupied with searching for her keys in her bag that she didn't notice that she was followed out of the bar until an unfamiliar voice in an accent Kate couldn't quite pick called out to her.
"Agent Todd. Could I have a word with you?"