Chapter 4

Washington, D.C., Nationals Park

The McGees walked onto the field, and saw a plethora of Metro DC officers and detectives surrounding Gibbs, Bishop, the older Jimmy and Jeanne.

The younger McGee kept pace with his counterpart, and was all business, a fact not lost on the older man.

"When I was...your age, I was still intimidated by Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, even Kate," said the older McGee. "And a little timid, too. You're not. You push back at Tony and Kate, you roll with the younger Gibbs - who's really intense, by the way - you even stand up to both Abbys."

"Thanks, I think," said the younger McGee. "Sometimes Gibbs, my Gibbs, can be a little too intense, though I get along with Tony, Kate, Ziva. I've always gotten along with Abby. Wasn't that the case for you?"

"Abby was the first person I got along with," younger McGee said. "Then Kate. Tony pushed hard, pulled jokes on me-"

"Including the super glue?"

"He did that to you too?...yeah. Twice. Then I got back at him. Switched keyboards while he was down in the morgue, hid the remover. And went down to accounting, told the girls there he had come out of the closet. One of their best friends came up and started hitting on him...at least until Gibbs got back upstairs."

Older McGee's mouth flew open. "Seriously?"

"Scout's honor," younger McGee replied. "Caught some hell from Gibbs over it, and got his respect. Next time Tony tried something was when he and Kate broke into my apartment. They met my lady friend-"

"Lady friend?" older McGee asked, as he began taking photos.

"Well, she was there to play an online game...my sister was supposed to be there but my dad had called her back, so I brought over this girl, 22 I think? I met her at a group of MRPG-"

"Excuse me? MRPG what?" said the older McGee, while Bishop finished sketching the bodies.

"Multiplayer Role Playing Games...what we called them where I'm from," said the younger McGee. "MRPG gamer groups. That's where we met."

"Oh ok…we call them MRPGs, too," older McGee continued. "And?"

"We...slept together. Between rounds."

"Really?"

"Yeah...she came into the living room after Tony and Kate told me we caught a case, I introduced her, and them, and she said this was our first date," said the younger McGee. "Normally Tony's full of questions, but after that I don't think Tony said a word from there to the crime scene. Kate asked questions for him."

"So how did it work out?"

The younger McGee turned sad. "I called her, told her we caught a case, she let herself out...and I never saw her again-"

"You two done playing catch-up?" said the older Gibbs, standing behind both McGees and catching them completely off guard.

"Sorry boss!" said both, in unison.

"Palmer," Gibbs said to his acting M.E., turning from the McGees to the bodies. "What do we got?"

"The cause of death for both of these men was disembowlment, also known as evisceration," Palmer said. "As you see with both bodies, there's an incision, going left to right horizontally over the abdomen, and the bowels were removed-and you can see them lying in front of the dugout. Actual death would have been caused through the bleed out. I'm guessing based on rigor, this happened between six and eight hours ago-"

"So someone would have had to have access to the stadium, then lead these guys here, then kill them," said the older McGee.

"I also examined the head, chest, and as much of the remainder of the body I could with them fully clothed," said Jeanne Benoit. "I looked for some kind of bullet wound, or a needle mark-"

"Because no one is going to just lay there and let someone cut them open," the younger McGee followed. "The killer had to immobilize both men. And these are Marines, who are going to put up a greater fight than a civilian."

"Find anything, Jeanne?" Gibbs said.

"Here, and here," she said, pulling both bodies on the side, pulling back their shirt collars, and showing Gibbs, Palmer and the McGees needle marks on the necks. "I would conjecture someone injected both men with a needle, possibly jammed it in."

Older Gibbs smiled and nodded his approval. "Good work." Bishop excused herself, and rushed off.

"Once we get them stripped and on the table, and get samples up to one of the Abbys, we should have a better idea of what immobilized them, and get confirmation on the time and cause of death," Palmer replied, as Gibbs nodded, and looked down the first base line.

Bishop was by herself, holding a large cup, puking into it.

"Boss...you want me-" said the older McGee.

"I'll go down and check on her," Jeanne offered.

"Tim, Jeanne, you both check on Bishop," Gibbs said, "and bring her back here. You McGee - talk to the stadium security manager. Find out if he knows these guys, if any of his people missed a shift or left early, and get the security footage."

"Right boss." As the younger McGee made his way towards the Nationals Park offices, Gibbs briefly looked on, impressed by how more confident the younger agent was than he expected him to be.

Then he looked at his probationary agent, saw her puking again, onto the ground, and wondered if he made a mistake by allowing her to come back this soon.