Chapter 3
Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
To say that a lot of people were annoyed, aggravated, perturbed, frustrated, or angry that a baseball game got postponed wouldn't be much of an understatement.
The Nationals were a half-game behind the Braves in the race to win the National League's East Division, and the two clubs were supposed to face off in the first of a three-game series here in Washington. The series was sold out; fans unable to get tickets through the official venues paid up to three times face value for all three games.
With two Marines eviscerated, their bodies left near first base, there wouldn't be any baseball played at what had now become a gigantic crime scene.
Once the grisly photos went public, most people understood there wouldn't be a game.
It was the older Leroy Jethro Gibbs' job to find out what exactly had happened, and why. Aiding him would be two Tim McGees - the one he'd known for nearly a decade, the other his younger counterpart from the devastated alternate Earth - and his own team's probationary agent, Ellie Bishop.
Two medical examiners were on the scene - the recently promoted-to-senior-M.E. Jimmy Palmer, and his assistant, Jeanne Benoit (yet another refugee from the alternate world, and engaged to the alternate Tony DiNozzo).
While everyone else were examining the scene, Bishop stood in the NCIS van, trying to remember which drawer the sketch pads were kept, and she was THIS close to losing her mind.
She argued with her husband for going back to NCIS, telling him that she was determined not to let her ordeal prevent her from living her life and doing her job. She told him the "maniacs" who abducted her - and her teammates - would not get the best of her. She vowed living would be the best revenge.
She talked a far better game than anyone gave her credit for and it was enough to get her back on Gibbs' team.
And it was only a matter of time before he, or Tony, Vance, McGee, Ziva, one of the doppelgangers found her out, Bishop was sure of it.
Everything work-related was a trigger for Bishop. The nightmares had finally gone away and now the daymares - as Bishop put them - were gradually taking their place, all brought on by the triggers.
The Navy Yard. The squadroom. Autopsy. Abby's lab. Tony's incessant banter. Gibbs coming around the corner without warning. The smell of coffee.
Even smells, now, were triggers for Bishop. Kerosene bought on the god-awful memory of the basement she and others were captured in; rainwater the memory of the torture Janvier did on the LA team; even in a supermarket, Bishop was having to pick which aisles to avoid.
Bishop could no longer eat - nor smell - cheese puffs. She was eating a bag when Haswari kidnapped her from Rock Creek Park. She told the other Ducky there was no way she'd eat a single one anytime soon, and joked that the ordeal would result in something good after all:
She'd finally get around to snacking on healthy foods.
The other Ducky chuckled, and suggested Bishop get with the other Kate on healthy snacking options.
Kate hadn't yet had the time to catch up with Bishop about anything, but Bishop was certain she wasn't the person who left that Cheez Puff bag on the floor.
"Bishop? Bishop?"
It was a cool, partly cloudy day. The sun was obscured behind clouds, but part of the sky was a lovely blue. The winds were light, enough for a soft breeze, which Bishop had found that day to be invigorating. Push the temperature into the 70s, get rid of the clouds, and turn the calendar to a time where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the Washington weather would be perfect for the probationary agent.
She remembered grabbing a bag of Cheez Puffs from her desk, thinking Gibbs surely would call her in for a case if she went to lunch; at least she could take the bag with her. She'd go for a walk, get some exercise, and think through the lead she had just gotten on Parsa.
"Bishop! You OK?"
The white van pulled up, abruptly, and the driver was someone Tony had only told her about in passing...and who was supposed to be very, very dead.
Oh, the man Tony was talking about was indeed dead. This man was very much alive, and about to put her through an ordeal she still had not completely moved on from.
"BISHOP!"
She had a mouthful of Cheez Puffs when the man grabbed her and threw her into the van.
The Cheez Puffs bag fell onto the ground, and laid there, as the van drove away...
"BISHOP! You with me? Come on! Bishop!"
She felt herself shaken, not harshly but firmly and rapidly, and quickly recognized the man yelling at her as Tim McGee...
No.
His doppelganger.
"Bishop!" he said, finally getting her full attention. "Bishop! You with me?"
"McGee?"
"Bishop, I saw you up here, looking like you were going into a trance," the younger McGee explained. "Then I saw that bag."
He lowered his voice. "Thought that might be a trigger."
She glanced at it, then back at him. "I'm...I'm fine," she said, breaking his light grip on her shoulders. "Let me get my sketch pads and find my pencils-"
The older "Prime" McGee, having come back to the van after not seeing either person at the crime scene, noticed Bishop and the younger McGee. He saw her posture, then saw the snack bag on the floor, and quickly put things together.
After verifying that she was okay, the older McGee stepped into the van.
"You guys better get in the stadium; Gibbs is getting impatient and Jimmy's starting to tell long-winded stories like Ducky, which is making Gibbs even more annoyed," older McGee joked, breaking the tension just a bit.
Bishop grabbed her sketch pad and pencils and headed into the stadium. Younger McGee began to follow, camera around his neck, when the Prime McGee grabbed him by the arm to stop him.
"What went on in there?" he asked, and younger McGee explained what he saw.
"Her episodes aren't getting any better," older McGee observed. "Night before last, when we brought that guy from the bar into interrogation?"
"The one who smelled?" younger McGee said. "Kate was in rare form. Both Tonys double teamed on him, then talked about the scent-"
"That guy's 'stink' sparked a trigger for Bishop," older McGee replied. "Kate said Bishop told her and both Abbys Janvier smelled as bad."
"I missed that episode," said his younger doppelganger. "What I didn't miss was being in here and the other van with Kate and Bishop, organizing things. So both teams would be consistent. I don't remember that bag being on the floor, or anywhere in the garage."
"None of us would've even brought it in," older McGee said, as both men stepped out of the van and he locked it up. "Everyone's out in the field, so we'll have to see who was in the garage with the vans between last night and today."
"Goth Abby's not in the field," younger McGee told him. "She could check."
"Call her," older McGee said, as both crossed the street and headed towards the side entrance nearest the crime scene.