Chapter 5

Rock Creek Park

altGibbs traced the footprints altKate had found, as altTony followed behind him.

"The footprints are consistent with what you would expect from someone dragging bodies from the shrubbery to where they were left," altKate said. "I'd say he made two trips."

"Drag one over there, come back and drag the other," altTony followed. "You're sure this is a guy?"

"Well, Tony, unless she had feet as large as a man's, then yes, I'd say it was a guy," Kate said, snarkily, while altGibbs looked over the footprints.

"Gibbs!" yelled Ziva from the road. Castle and Beckett were standing next to one of the Metro officers, while Tony looked over the sidewalk.

"Abby. Process the shubbery, look for any sign of the killer," altGibbs said to altAbby, before jogging over to Ziva. altTony stayed behind, as both figured out the spot where the couple likely were killed.

altKate followed altGibbs to the sidewalk.

"The footprints decrease, from where the victims lay, to a spot on the road," Ziva said. "And there is dirt on the road and on the sidewalk."

"He ran," altKate said. "That accounts for the space between the footprints from the victims to the road. Question is where did he go?"

"I have an idea," Prime Tony said, motioning to the three to come over; when they did, he pointed to the ground. "Skid marks. Short, but the footprints stop in the middle-"

"Killer dumped the bodies, ran, jumped in the vehicle," altGibbs finished. "Kate. Mark the trail of the footprints, get Abs to help you, tell that DiNozzo to shoot. I want to know what kind of boot he was wearing. Ziva. Photos of the footprints on the road. You DiNozzo, photos of the skid marks. I want to know the tread, the tires it comes from, and what kind of vehicles those tires can be found on."

"Yes boss!" "Yes Gibbs!"

Kate gave them a curious look for a moment before scurrying back towards the trail of the footprints. Tony and Ziva Prime both glanced at each other.

"I thought for sure I was immune," mused Tony Prime. "He's a Gibbs, but not my, our Gibbs. I thought I could resist when he barked out an order. But I jumped like Pavlov's dog. You did, too."

Ziva looked back at altGibbs talking to the alternate Ducky and Palmer, who were finishing their examination, then to the alternate Kate, Tony and Abby, then to Castle and Beckett.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Tony asked her. "Before Gibbs the younger comes back to glare us both into submission?"

"I am wondering where my doppelganger is," Ziva mused, as altPalmer came their way, heading towards the medical examiners' truck to get the gurney. "Jimmy. A moment."

"Yes Agent David, Agent DiNozzo."

"Where is my counterpart?"

"Ziva?...the younger Ziva?"

"No, Palmer, she meant the older Abby," Tony cracked. "Do you see-"

"Tony," Ziva said with a glare, intended to make him shut up, at least for a moment. "Jimmy. Is she with the other team?"

"You know, they asked me the same thing. The McGees before they left," Palmer said. "They said she wasn't on their team going to the stadium...and Dr. Mallard says when you're done taking photos of the tire tread, to help me with the bodies."

Tony looked at Ziva, whose mood abruptly turned sullen. "Vance won't just let him-"

"It may not matter what Director Vance wants, what we want, what she wants," Ziva said. "If he wants something - or someone - her - he will not stop until he gets what, or who, he wants."

Washington

Navy Yard

NCIS Director Leon Vance's office

"My journey to this new world, as it were, I am certain is not nearly as fascinating as your own. And I would love to hear it, Ziva."

The alternate Ziva David wanted to be anywhere else than with one of the two men sitting in Vance's office.

Vance himself wasn't her problem - she liked the man personally, and working for him, and looked forward to working for this version of NCIS. If the other man in the room would allow it.

Ziva thought Eli David, her father, whom she last knew to be the interim director of Mossad on their world, died in the nuclear holocaust that consumed their planet. Obviously, that wasn't the case.

"I am happy, that you are alive, and found your way here," altZiva said, carefully. "I...am grateful for that."

"Then come back with me, Ziva," Eli David said. "To Israel. Our land of refuge. A chance to begin again."

Ziva paused, looking at Vance; he blinked. She pondered her response, carefully.

"I have found that 'land of refuge' here, with the people I consider to be as much of my family as Tali, as my mother, as I once considered you and Ari," altZiva said to her father. "This is my home, now. I will become a citizen of the United States. I have moved on. I am moving on-"

"Ziva! You are Israeli!" Eli shot back. "You are my daughter!"

"I am your daughter," she retorted. "I am also my own woman. Capable of finding my own way. I cannot turn my back on my friends and family-"

"I AM YOUR FAMILY!"

"Family," Ziva said, calmly, "does not order you to stand by while your brother makes plans to murder innocent people. Family does not condone murder of allies to protect its own interest-"

"Speak carefully, Director," interjected Vance. "You have immunity. But you are sitting in the office of the director of an American federal agency."

"I have committed no crime here," Eli David said. "Except, apparently, in the eyes of my daughter. Only to ask her to return home with me."

"My home is with my friends," Ziva shot back. "The friends he tried to kill. The friends you were willing to allow him to kill, willing to deceive the American agencies on the other side into condoning their deaths under the pretense he was a double spy."

"Ziva," Eli said. "Ari is your brother. My son. You love him-"

"You confuse me with my doppelganger," altZiva said. "Not just for affection for Ari; I have none for him nor for his counterpart. You confuse me with her in regards to affection for our fathers. She could make peace with her past and forgive him; you, on the other hand. You are dead to me."

Colonial Way Hospice Care

Fairfax, Virginia

There were two Donald Mallards in the world. The younger was filling his elder counterpart's shoes quite nicely. The elder was fighting his way back to health, despite his doctor's pessimism that he would do more than walk by himself and live out his days being watched over by friends, family or hospice.

His primary care physician, in fact, thought Mike Franks was his next of kin.

"Ducky has a British accent," Franks said. "Do I sound British to you?"

The remark didn't help Franks' case as far as being allowed to stay with the elder Mallard, but phone calls from both Leroy Jethro Gibbses did.

Ducky fell asleep in the middle of a story he was telling Franks about the inventor of the crossword puzzle, and Mike wondered if the older man would, even briefly, be himself once again.

"What in hell did those bastards do to you," Mike whispered, right before the nurse came in to check on Ducky.

Huntington Beach, California

Surfer's Cafe

"I'm looking for Kyle Flannery," said the bald man in the business suit, flashing a card to the waitress. "Charles Kane. Empire Media."

The waitress nodded for him to follow her, to a back table. The cafe was half-crowded, and no one else was seated close by. "Can I get you something to eat? Or drink?" asked the waitress.

"Coffee is fine. Black," he said, sitting down opposite the younger man in the Dodgers hoodie. When satisfied the waitress was out of earshot, he leaned forward.

"You picked a hell of a place to meet, Agent Callen," said 'Kane', a.k.a. NCIS Assistant Director Owen Granger. "Strand has Beale and Jones combing through surveillance cameras in town. We shouldn't be meeting here."

"The place you're thinking of is the places she's having them look," said 'Flannery', a.k.a. NCIS Special Agent G Callen, until recently the special agent in charge of NCIS's Special Operations team. "Kyle Flannery comes here every so often when he needs to conduct business. Hetty knows about this place. You know about this place. Lillian doesn't and neither do her favorites."

"You're under her authority, Callen," Granger warned. "You're walking a very thin line right now."

"Then arrest me," Callen said.

The waitress came back with Granger's coffee. "Kyle, whatever you're up to, honey, I don't wanna know," she said. "But if you want, I can have Reuben make your sandwich to go."

"That sounds great, sweetie," 'Kyle' said with a wink. After she left, Callen leaned in. "Sofia looks out for me, well, 'Kyle'. Their cameras aren't linked to the internet, so Eric and Nell can't get a live shot of us. But Strand could get a hold of the computers the video is recorded on."

"When she offers to make your sandwich to go, that means it's time to leave," Granger said. "Callen...officially. You're under orders to come in and report to your superior, operations manager Lillian Strand. Your teammates see you - including your S.A.C. Gabriel Vaughn - you are to come with them to the boathouse. If I see you, you're to come with me to the boathouse."

"Like I said. If you're serious about that, arrest me now," Callen said.

"But I won't, because I'm Charles Kane, a manager for a newspaper chain looking to hire for something called a 'web designer'," Granger said, sipping his coffee. "And you're Kyle Flannery, a former newspaper designer looking for a job. And God knows what else Kyle Flannery is into."

"Allegedly, Mr. Kane," Callen said, smiling, before looking around. "Unofficially. Sam and I are working on the down low with some of Deeks' contacts in LAPD."

"Again, if I don't have to know, I don't want to know who these people are," Granger said. "Strand's got Beale and Jones on a tight leash so you can't count on their help."

"Don't worry. Guy's a computer whiz, and the other guy can do the surveillance thing almost as good as Eric," Callen replied. "Sam, Deeks and I are doing background now. We just have to tie this to the outside Agency-"

"Be careful, Callen," Granger said. "Right now, Strand's doing an excellent job, officially. Vance has his hands full in Washington, so I can't go to him unless she goes off the rails."

"Which she won't," Callen followed. "She's way too smart. Vaughn, Neal, Reese, Lynch are too."

"She picked her people well," Granger said. "Question isn't what she's going to do with them. It's what her ultimate play is."

"We'll find out," Callen said, "tie it to the agency, and give director Vance the evidence he needs to make his move."

"Better work fast, then," Granger warned. "She's already making plans to send her people to Washington. I don't know if two Gibbses can withstand her and the Agency."