Gibbs stood in shock. Okay, more surprise than shock. It wasn't only what they had done, but who had gone to the house.

Chuck Ellison. On Saturday afternoon, after Gibbs had talked to him in the morning, the General was at the Wheeler home for almost an hour with the Chaplain of the Marine Corps. The General had said he and Wheeler had talked every once in a while. Seemed to Gibbs that they were better acquainted than that.

On Sunday morning Mrs. Wheeler, son Marcus and his very pregnant wife, had gone to church. In the afternoon, Jack O'Neill showed up. When he left, Tony and Ziva tailed him. Gibbs thought it was funny he'd given them the slip. If they only knew what he knew about O'Neill's background, they'd consider themselves lucky that they still had four round tires on the car and their lives.

He chastised them for getting caught and for doing it in the first place, though that part was an afterthought. Just when he was thinking about going for another coffee, one was delivered to him. With a look and slight head tilt, Tobias Fornell got him into the elevator.

As soon as the door slid closed, "You've really done it this time, Jethro."

Gibbs flipped the switch and tried to look like he didn't know what his friend was talking about, but it didn't work.

"John J. O'Neill. You had to ask me about him?"

"Well, yeah, Tobias. He is one of the ones I need to know about."

The two men stood silently looking at each other. Both were stubborn. Both were committed.

"Go get your coat," the FBI agent snapped. "People are going to need the elevator."

Gibbs relented and flipped the switch. Since they hadn't pressed a button for a different floor, the door opened immediately.

A minute later they took the elevator down and then went outside into the chilly winter air. Thick clouds had moved in, blocking the sun. Both men glanced up at the bleak sky before walking slowly along the sidewalk.

After a few seconds, Fornell asked, "Why are you looking at O'Neill? He's Air Force."

Gibbs spun the truth a little. "General Wheeler was a Marine and he's dead. O'Neill was not only a friend, but is close to the wife."

"Somebody murdered a General? I haven't heard about that. What happened?"

Gibbs hesitated then decided that if Fornell ever learned the truth, he'd understand.

"Wheeler collapsed and died. We don't have a cause of death yet, but."

Fornell interjected, "You don't have a murder." He knew his friend. This was bad.

Gibbs admitted, "It could be a murder. We don't know for sure yet."

Tobias stopped walking and turned on Gibbs.

"Jethro, you can't go digging into O'Neill."

The FBI guy wasn't intimidated by the glare. He gave one right back.

"You have to stop what you're doing. At least wait until you for sure have a murder." He didn't know it was already too late.

Gibbs wasn't buying it. He should have been, but he needed more.

"O'Neill is more than a person of interest. He's almost a suspect."

"Almost? Unless you have a murder, you don't have suspects." Fornell had to save his friend from himself. "You have to stop, Jethro."

"What do you know about him?"

Gibbs thought he saw something in Fornell's face.

"Give me something."

Fornell had been spanked by his Director already that morning. Was his friendship with Gibbs worth another round? Or worse?

"I don't know much." He looked around warily, checking to see if anyone was close enough to them to overhear anything and he lowered his voice. "There wasn't much to see." He hadn't seen anything, but not wanting to admit that, he repeated what his director had told him. "He's a hero, Gibbs. Not just once or twice, but multiple times. He's the real deal."

Gibbs looked at his friend, trying to decide what was truth and what was exaggeration. "I can't get his service record. Can you get his jacket?"

"No."

"Why not? You obviously already saw something."

Fornell looked around again. "Gibbs, the man's service is so far up in thin air that few people know anything about him at all."

"I know that, Tobias," Gibbs hissed. "Tell me something else."

A small admission. "I know a few tricks."

The NCIS special agent nodded and waited.

Fornell learned a long time ago that sometimes you needed to look at a situation from a different vantage. "He's on the list."

Gibbs looked confused. "What list?"

Fornell spun around, checking 360 degrees to make sure.

He whispered, "The list of people who have to be saved and protected if we're attacked or invaded."

"Invaded?"

"Yeah, I just said that." He gave Gibbs a small smile. Still wondering if he should reveal it, Fornell told him, "He's ahead of the VP on the list, Gibbs."

The list? Gibbs thought about what his friend had just said. The list. What list? List, list. The President was first, obviously. Okay, VP would be second. That list. Speaker of the House next. Then President pro tem of the Senate. All were government officials. At least one, preferably the President, would be needed to keep the country running and reassure the people. One less thing for the public to have to worry about. So why O'Neill?

"He's not in the political line of succession."

"No, he's not," Tobias hissed. "But he's considered more important than everyone except the President."

"Everyone?" Surely the highest military leaders would come before him. "What about the Joint Chiefs and nine unified combatant commanders?"

Fornell was dead serious. "More important."

Wow. Gibbs almost said it out loud. How was it possible? Lose a general and there's another one to take his place.

Finally he asked, "Why?"

Fornell shook his head. "I do not know."

"Find out."

With a hard look the FBI guy bit out, "No way, Gibbs. I already heard it from my Director."

Gibbs knew what it had to be. "It's that special project, isn't it? The secret one in Colorado."

"I don't know anything about a secret project. I do know that I've been officially reprimanded."

Gibbs stared at Tobias. His friend had gotten in trouble helping him. He knew he should stop. He knew it. Why couldn't he? Too many questions still unanswered, but not all questions got answers. He knew that too.

"I got a refresher on national security. I'll probably get another one."

Yeah, they both knew a lot of things resided under that umbrella.

Fornell played the parent card, like thrusting a knife in Gibbs' heart. "Emily is young, Jethro. I'm not paying alimony anymore, but I have child support. I need my job."

Gibbs wiped his face with his palm, pausing for the longest on his chin.

The knife twisted. "I don't want my daughter visiting me in prison."

NCIS~SG~NCIS

Jacobs called. SecAF called. The President called.

SecDef Hingle visited. Jack was surprised because he usually walked over to the man's office. He wanted to talk about Jack's security detail. Jack knew he had a few people who rotated, depending on the day and time. He hadn't known they never went away. On Saturday they were right with him. Two cars, four fully armed people, ready to take out the NCIS car and people at any time. They knew he was being watched and then followed. Their job was to protect him and report about it later. Which they did.

Jack wanted to know how close to his residence they would have been allowed to get and SecDef assured him not close. He hated being treated as special. For some reason, unknown to him, the current President considered him vital to national security. He really was looking forward to retirement. If they ever let him retire. Oh, who was he kidding? He liked his job. Not the political part of it, but the Stargate part. He liked the people, he even liked many of the aliens.

Hingle also wanted to talk about the Wheeler investigation. They discussed it for a while and then the man went back to his office. Jack looked at his watch just as the phone rang.

"O'Neill."

"Sir, I need to tell you about a call we got that came through channels."

The Military Advisor to the Department of Homeland Security explained what the phone call was about as Jack rubbed and then ground the heel of his hand above first one eyebrow and then the other. A huge headache was looming and he needed to take something for it soon.

"I appreciate you telling me. How many know about it?"

The Rear Admiral didn't hold back. "Not many, but the ones who do have been shut down."

Jack thought about what that meant since even the Secretary of Homeland Security didn't know everything about the Stargate Program.

"They did their jobs and the information moved along. They are all working on other things now."

"That's good. I need you to send the encrypted call record report to SecAF and SecDef."

Hesitation. "Sure, General, I can do that. Can you tell me why?"

"Not today. Sorry."

Something was going on. "Okay, sir, I understand. I'll make sure it gets sent over right away."

NCIS~SG~NCIS

Director Leon Vance listened to Gibbs tell him about the weekend. He didn't know that Gibbs held back what he'd learned from Tobias. As he sat thinking, he couldn't help wondering when SecNav would call. He half expected the phone to ring right that second.

"DiNozzo and David should not have followed O'Neill."

"I know."

"Does he know it was NCIS?"

Gibbs didn't even try to hide his amusement at that question. Vance kind of grimaced because he knew O'Neill had to have at least suspected.

"McGee and Sciuto actually called the cemetery and the Seattle PD?"

"Yep."

Vance looked at Gibbs, wondering not for the first time why they were keeping the investigation going. "Why don't we have a cause of death yet?"

"Abby says her machine acted up. She got more samples from Ducky."

Vance looked at the senior MCRT team leader with narrowed eyes. "You don't believe her."

Gibbs looked everywhere else until finally looking back at Vance. A little reluctantly he admitted, "No, I don't."

"Why would she conceal test results?"

With a shake of his head, Gibbs said, "She wouldn't." Then he looked thoughtful. "Unless, someone ordered her to."

"Jarvis," Vance guessed, but knew in his gut he was right.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too."

Vance made a decision. "Get her up here."

Gibbs clenched his jaw. "If he ordered her to keep quiet, she can't tell us."

The Director stood up and started pacing the room. After a few seconds he asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Get her to talk to me without violating whatever instructions he gave her."

tbc

Thanks for reading.

I can't remember if I've given SecDef a name before now. I've tried to go back and look and will again. Sorry if I messed up.