Reminder: The title SSA means Supervisory Special Agent and is the title of the Field Agent in charge of a field Team in a satellite office as well as the Field Agent in charge of a team within a Field Office, including the team lead of the Cold Case teams. Example: Gibbs was the SSA of the MCRT The Southwest Field Office SSA is Jeff Andreson, an OC introduced in other stories of mine. He is the head of the Field Team in that
Any other OCs introduced here are more of less 'extras', like in a movie or TV show. Don't worry about who they are, it's what they do or don't do that's important.
The title SAC is Special Agent In Charge, the agents who run the Field Offices. Tim is the SAC of the NCIS: London-European Field Office. That means he's in charge of the London office as well as all of its satellite offices which in this story are in Rota, Spain, Athens, Greece, Naples, Italy, Marseilles, France, and Hamburg, Germany. In reality, NCIS does not have an office in Germany and I believe the office in Greece is on the island of Crete, near Souda Bay. That is, that's where they were (or were not) last time I looked at the real NCIS website!
Ch 23: Logistics and Beginning the Investigations
While Leon waited for Tim to process everything, he thought back to the calls that had already taken place in the time between learning about Tim's past and receiving the news of the death of SAC Dixon. Right now, with everything going on, the time difference between Greece and California helped considerably.
The first call he'd made was to SSA Jeff Andreson in the Southwest Field Office, apologizing for calling so early on a Sunday morning, dawn was just breaking in southern California, adding that he'd called the agent directly rather than go through his ailing SAC. With the call on Skype, Vance was relieved that Andreson took that in his stride. With Dixon's illness, he'd been frequently out of the office and Andreson had filled in where he was able or had enough security clearance, with Mac MacDonald, the SAC of the MCW Field Office handling the rest.
Leon briefly told Andreson about the cold case and the name of the missing toddler without disclosing Tim's current name, job or location, adding that there was new information and that it was time, past time, to solve the case. He also noted that Southwest's Cold Case Team Lead was fairly new to the position and hoped that the two of them and their teams would work together. Andreson agreed, telling him he'd get to work on it right away. When Vance looked like he might disagree, Andreson added that his plans for the day had changed the night before. He held up one hand, showing the director the keys he was holding. "I was already on my way to the office to catch up on paperwork. Now I'll search for the file. I'll let you know as soon as I find it." Before they disconnected, Leon sent the agent the recording he'd made of Tim's story. He'd re-recorded it to remove any references to Tim as Tim, Timothy McGee, Timothy Midei or Timothy Camilo-Gibbs.
Vance was surprised when his laptop chimed with a request for a Skype call with Andreson, contacting him from the Southwest office less than 2 hours after their call.
When he joined the call, Andreson started talking, "Sir, it took us less than 10 minutes to find the file and we took a quick look. Agent Bell, our Cold Case SSA, and one of my team are also here and we decided to do as much as we could today. We have a few issues."
Vance's chin up movement signaled him to continue and he did so, "The FBI was involved for years after Baby Langston's disappearance. However, other than a mention of their past involvement made in 1994 during a cold case review, nothing was added to our file. There's no mention of inter-agency cooperation, information sharing or even cross-checking. I don't know whether we'll need the Bureau's ongoing assistance but it would be helpful to see their file, notes, reports, etc.
"The second issue involves the individual mentioned in the recording, of the baby minder among the captors. Bell, my junior and I tried googling the baby's name and any hospital connections but didn't find any relevant information. So we split up, making a grid of the western states and deciding to contact several hospitals throughout the western half of the country, as far east as New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. Because we know our victim was in the hospital in 1981, we each started in the most eastern state in our grid. So one of us called hospitals in New Mexico, then another called hospitals in Colorado at the eastern edge of our grid. Our third agent started calling hospitals in Wyoming but we found the right hospital on our twenty-third call, in Boulder, Colorado. That happened as quickly as it did because the hospitals we contacted had digitized all the patients' paper files they still had and were able to search by year.
"And that was it, the hospital staff scanned their records for 1981 for a 3-6 year old child who didn't know his name and found him in old records of a patient, a comatose young child who'd appeared in their ER. From the photos of the baby shortly before his disappearance and the photos the hospital shared with us, this is our missing toddler. They have photos of him taken while he was still in the coma and then again after he awakened. They also have photos of all the scars on his body and of all the surgical incisions they'd made to repair internal damages.
"At my request, they sent the photos and also forwarded a photo of a sketch done of the man who dropped him off as he was seen by a roomful of people at the entrance to the Emergency Room. We also have emails from two retired nurses from that same hospital who cared for the little boy and never forgot him. They remembered how frightened he was of everyone and everything and his many nightmares. Bell and I spoke with them and our Washington team will interview them in person tomorrow, our Monday morning. From our brief conversations with them, we believe they'll make credible witnesses as to the physical and psychological injuries the little boy suffered. They also gave us the names of the pediatric and specialty surgeons who performed the corrective surgeries on him and we've left messages for each of them.
"Also, because there had been a major vehicle pileup the night our victim arrived at the hospital, there was a newspaper reporter or photojournalist present in the Emergency Room. He took several photos as the man, the one we believe was the baby minder, ran in carrying the boy. Those photos were still in the newspaper's archives and we now have copies. We also interviewed the reporter, who remembered the man running in, he heard the man say he'd found the boy lying unconscious by the side of the road. He says an orderly or nurse took the boy and put him on a gurney before starting to triage him. Then the man who brought him ran back out of the ER. The reporter is now retired but still very interested, says he always wondered what happened to the little boy. Anyway, once we had the photos, we started running facial recognition and found our baby minder in a prison photo more than a decade after he dropped off the child.
"We have his name and know where he was before his arrest. However, after serving his two year prison sentence, he fulfilled his parole and then disappeared. We've been unable to find any current record, including any mention of his death, in the US. We're now working with our friends in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America as well as our overseas agents to locate him. Do we have permission to engage the CIA, Europol or Interpol if necessary?"
"Yes for the CIA, I'll speak with their director. Hold off on Europol and Interpol unless you've found information that our guy is not a US citizen?"
"We found his name listed as registered and verified to vote, so yes, he is a US citizen and his stint in prison was after the voter's registration. And yes sir, we'll hold off on Europol and Interpol."
"Great and yes, ask our overseas team leads to contact their favorite CIA agents, the Athens office probably has the best relationship with the CIA, the SSA is Pete Russell. Jeff, is the State Department helping with any passport he may have or visa application he might have made?"
"They're researching that now. I didn't want to wait and contacted our agents, although I hadn't yet made my way east to Greece." He continued, "Next, as confirmation, the name of our kidnap victim is Jeffrey Andrew Langston, his birthdate is November 15, 1978. He was born at a civilian hospital in Bremerton, Washington, 8 weeks premature, he was due mid-January of 1979. The file quotes one of his grandmothers as saying he was in too much of a hurry to wait for the ambulance to reach the nearby Naval Hospital.
"His birth certificate lists his mother as Lily Hubbard Langston, his father as US Navy Lieutenant Daniel Farragut Langston. The grandparents are listed in the file as: maternal, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew (Maisie) Hubbard and paternal, Admiral and Mrs. Nelson (Penelope) Langston.
"In 1994, the last paper file update added additional children, fraternal twins born in 1983, names Matthew and Colleen Langston, changed Daniel's status to deceased from cancer in 1983, included the death of the paternal grandfather, Admiral Nelson Langston, also in 1983 and the mother's second marriage, in 1985, to a Rafael Mello, a Canadian and Portuguese citizen. Lily also earned a bachelor's degree after Langston's death and her marriage to Mello. There's also a comment that Rafael adopted Matthew and Colleen although their paternal grandmother insisted they keep Langston in some fashion. The file lists them as Matthew Langston Mello and Colleen Langston Mello.
"The Mellos moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where they had 2 children, also fraternal twins, both girls. The girls' names aren't included in the file. And that's it as far as the 1994 update.
"We're working on the current location of Lily Hubbard Langston Mello. We know Rafael Mello died in France a few years ago but haven't yet found the current location of Lily. We also did Google look-ups on the remaining family, first the grandparents and found both grandmothers alive. Mrs. Langston owns a home in Virginia although she is out of the country for months at a time and Mrs. Hubbard lives with her son, USN Captain James Hubbard, who is Lily's twin. He's currently posted to the Navy Base here and is married with 2 children, his son's name is Andrew Jeffrey, which made us feel better, at least his uncle remembered baby Jeffrey. James' father, Andrew Hubbard, died in 2011.
"Our victim's brother, Matthew, son of Lily and Daniel and adopted son of Rafael Mello, also lives in California, in Santa Barbara. He's a mathematics professor at University of California at Santa Barbara, although he's currently a visiting professor either at Bedford College outside of London, in the UK or at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Both are listed in his files but we're not sure where he is currently."
Leon interrupted long enough to say, "I can answer that, he's here in Greece with his family, arrived a week ago Saturday. I believe they'll be here until the end of the academic year in May or June, then they'll move to the UK for his stint at Bedford University. And that may be a permanent position." He gave Jeff the address of the rental house Tim said the Mellos were occupying.
"Great, thanks! He's married with two sets of fraternal twins. His twin, our victim's sister, Colleen, lives in northern California, near San Francisco. She's a child psychologist and is married with one child. We haven't yet looked for the younger half-sisters.
"Our victim's deceased father, Daniel Langston, had an older brother, Mark Barry Langston. He's also listed as deceased and doesn't seem to have been involved with baby Jeffrey at all."
"Good work, thanks to all of you. Two things: one, and as far as I know this won't have anything to do with the case; however, when you have time please look into Mark Langston's death. I know from a reliable source that he resigned his commission from the Navy and then disappeared, it was big news at the time as his father was a well-known admiral who was apparently a publicity hound. I question whether there is actual proof of his death. And again, I seriously doubt whether if he's alive or not has anything to do with Baby Langston's case but with the publicity on which the Langston family seemed to thrive, I wonder that his death was never mentioned in the news. My second item does have to do with the case, how is it that the hospital still has the child's records?"
"I asked and they said there is a note in the file folder, which was eventually scanned onto their computer system, that the child had few memories, didn't know his own name or those of his parents', how old he was or anything personal. He spoke well and knew general information, could accurately count, knew how to add, subtract and multiply and also read at the level of a 10 year old. He also had some science knowledge, which makes us wonder if the baby minder was a science student or professional. Considering our victim's age when he was discharged from the hospital, he must have been taught by someone!
"From the amount of damage to his body and the scars they found on and inside his body, the medical staff at the time decided they'd better keep everything, putting a title of 'Medical Evidence of Child Abuse' on the documents, with a destroy date of 2082, 100 years after his release into foster care. At the age they created for him, the note says they felt that would cover the child's lifespan as well as any possibility of discovery. I don't think I've ever heard of any medical records being kept that long, except maybe for Presidents and royalty. Anyway, both retired nurses remembered the discussions about the file and how determined everyone was to help the little boy as much and for as long as they could."
Leon had to swallow before he could say anything. "When this is over and if we find him, please ask him if he'll allow you to introduce his former nurses to him."
"Yes sir, I look forward to that. There is one last item, Director. We put our heads together, deciding to contact our agency colleagues who are scientists about the rumors of the rogue graduate students. Our forensic specialist remembers hearing the same rumor and poked around the internet, as she put it, to see where it originated, finding it was connected to a specific professor at Carmichael University in New York. Our cyber-crimes manager and one of his agents said they'd also heard or seen the rumor. The professor is recently deceased, we checked him out and from what we've read and confirmed with his family and the University, he denied ever issuing any sort of challenge, right up to the day he died."
Vance sat still for a minute, absorbing that information. "We could be looking at more victims than our toddler."
"Yes, sir."
"All right, all this is excellent, great investigative work! I want to send a personal thank you to that hospital. Someday. Continue with our case and if you find anything else that needs to be done immediately, let me know. I will speak with the FBI and CIA Directors as soon as possible."
Reviewing all the information he had, Leon decided to call Henry Sailes. He pinged him on Skype.
Sailes answered almost immediately, "Leon, is everything all right?"
"Yes, Henry, thanks for asking and sorry to interrupt your weekend. Do you have a few minutes? We have an old cold case we're working and have come across notes that the Bureau was involved but there's nothing else regarding either NIS or NCIS and the FBI working together. And I've just heard something that leads me to think there may be more victims out there."
"Yes, for that I'll make time. Now's fine if that works for you?"
"Yes, thanks. By the way, I'm still in Greece."
"Lucky! I'm sure your flight over wasn't a lot of fun but it still would have been easier than experiencing that storm along with the tsunamis."
"You're right about that! Our basement flooded but that was the extent of the damage, no trees down, no damage to the roof or windows broken and we were able to get a handyman we trust out there within a few days. How about your place?"
"We're at a high enough elevation to avoid flooding. However, one of our trees fell in the hurricane and the branches cracked the glass of two windows. We've already had them replaced and there was minimal water damage to the rooms, the glass stayed in place although there was some leakage. Our entire hill and all of our driveways were full of people taking refuge from the flooding. Luckily none of them or any of the residents were injured when the hurricane went through, by that time all of them were sheltering inside with us and our neighbors. We also had refugees in the Hoover building and I heard you did aboard the Navy Yard."
"Yes, although we closed off the basement and the first two floors so everyone was on the third or fourth floors. It's not the first time people have evacuated there and my agents know the drill so there weren't any problems."
Leon took a breath before telling his counterpart at the FBI of the cold case, the name of the missing toddler and the new information they had. Listening, Henry heard the anger and grief in his fellow director and friend's voice and when the other man finished, quietly asked if the victim was alive.
Leon nodded, saying, "Yes, he is alive."
Henry Sailes sighed in relief. "Thank God! While we've been talking, I ran a search for whatever we have. I found the file in our Cold Cases, sending it to you now."
Vance smiled when a file popped into his email. When he told the other man he had the file, Henry nodded, "Sorry I didn't have time to look at it, thought it would be easier to do together. This is the Bureau's case file for the mysterious disappearance/kidnapping."
The two directors reviewed the FBI file together. Sailes attached his electronic signature to a note that he'd authorized sharing it with NCIS before Vance sent a copy to Andreson in San Diego and one to Henry for his own files. After that, Sailes sat back in his chair, "Leon, I have more information for you. Information that was given to us and applies directly to this case."
He continued, "You're doing the work, we'll certainly share and the credit is all yours as your victim may be the only survivor. You'll want to record what I'm about to tell you." Leon set that up and Sailes waited until Vance nodded, the recording feature was on.
"We're very much aware of the rumor about the supposed challenge to change the DNA of a living person. The professor rumored to have issued the challenge wrote us a letter before he died. He denied ever issuing a challenge to his grad students or anyone else to change DNA in a living person. What he quoted himself as saying was that in years to come, he could envision scientists being able to change problem-causing genes in living people. He only learned of the rumor about the rogue students a few years ago and tried to dismiss it as rumor but when it persisted he started doing some checking.
"It started during the spring semester of 1978 at Carmichael University in New York. When we started to trace the kidnappings and other related crimes, we found they didn't start until January of 1979. We've speculated that the would-be scientists needed time to plan and to acquire the funds they'd need.
"Now, that's the work we've done since we received his letter 7 months ago. We started with cold case kidnappings and mysterious disappearances in late 1978 but found the ones that are likely tied into this began in 1979. So far, we have 37 cold case kidnappings or mysterious disappearances, 38 with your victim. The victims we knew of before today ranged from age 4 to age 62 at the time they were kidnapped or disappeared. Most of the adults had either a physical or mental disability, the rest had drug or alcohol problems. At least three of them were convicted pedophiles and they've never resurfaced but none of the others had criminal records.
"The bright note is that the professor also included a list of his students from 1978 through 1981 adding what he knew of their current status. A few have died, and we plan to look into their deaths. We were starting to track the others when, well, you know what happened and I had to reassign everyone."
Leon nodded. Months before, what began as a peaceful protest had degenerated into violence, with clashes between the original protesters and those who'd come to protest the protesters, spilling into the crowds of onlookers. There was a death toll of 67 human beings, injuring even more. It took the Bureau and the domestic section of Homeland Security months to handle the mess. As several of the injured were Marine and Navy dependents, NCIS was also involved.
"We can take that from you, or share the searches, if you like."
"Thanks, I'll accept the 'take' part. What I'd like to do is hand over the professor's information and lists to you and then as our resources are freed up, we'll step back in to help out."
Vance thought about it before nodding, "That works."
"Good, thanks, that's a load off our backs! Now, I do have a few newer agents I can loan you. I've lost track, are Gibbs and DiNozzo still with the agency? I know McGee returned. Is he still in the UK?"
"Tim returned to the agency last year, in 2014, and Gibbs is mostly retired. Neither are field agents. Gibbs is married, consults with us occasionally and is grandpa to, I think I have the number right, 14 grandkids with 2 more babies expected this spring.
"Timothy is also married and he and his wife have 4 children. Two of his share of the Gibbs' grandkids are adopted, as are 3, I think, of his nieces and nephews. It's a long story, Gibbs married the woman who adopted Tim and his siblings when each turned 18. When Jethro married Luella Camilo, he adopted her children, that is Tim and the 7 others who grew up on the streets of Baltimore with him. There are others, two adopted by Lu but not Jethro as the two already have fathers and there are two more, one who is waiting to be adopted until she becomes a US citizen and the other is part of the family but doesn't want to be adopted although she's regarded as one of their 'kids'. That brings Jethro and Lu's family to 12 adult children.
"Four of them categorize themselves as foundlings, they have no idea who their parents were, what their birth names or even their real birth dates were. Others are orphans, although 3 of those knew at least one parent and 1 still has a parent although they're not in touch. None of the 12 share DNA. As I said, 8 of them grew up on the streets of Baltimore together and the other two are Tony DiNozzo and our Dr. Palmer, who has been adopted by our retired Medical Examiner, Donald 'Ducky' Mallard. Ziva David and Abby Sciuto are also part of the family although neither went for the adoption.
"Tim is now Timothy Camilo-Gibbs, although he also uses his wife's patronymic, Midei, and Tony is Anthony Barnes-Gibbs, Barnes being his wife's surname. Tony inherited a pile of money from his British mother's estate, married a Marine Captain who joined NCIS. DiNozzo left us a week or so after Tim left the Bureau. He and his wife have 2 daughters."
Sailes' eyes were wide open, "I'm even more out of touch than I thought! I knew Tim was married and had twins, that happened while he was still with us. But 4? You did say some are fosters or adopted."
Leon smiled, "Yes, the siblings and their partners are determined to help as many homeless or foster children as possible. Tim runs our London Field Office. I'm about to promote him to Assistant Director and am transferring him back to the US."
"Wonderful, kudos to you and Tim both! However, that's bad for us, we could really use their help on this. And I thought it would be great if the fairly green agents I'm loaning you had some training from them. Just the discipline of abiding by Gibbs' rules and learning his non-verbal language would be worth whatever he put them through."
Vance nodded and shrugged his shoulders as if to say there was nothing he could do about that. There really wasn't and although he trusted Sailes, there was no way he would reveal Tim as the youngest victim. Not yet and not without Tim's permission.
Forcing his mind back to the meeting, he chuckled, "Our team in the Southwest office is leading the investigation and they're doing a great job. Before you gifted me with the scientists' names, we had one name we'd discovered from a photo and they're searching for the man's current location."
"Anything we can help with?"
Leon shook his head with a small smile, "Thanks, your folks in San Diego have already helped and came up empty, same as us. The State Department is now looking for any passport activity or visa applications so we can get a fix on him. Our office in Washington is working with their Canadian contacts. We'll find the guy, I just hope he's alive."
"Prison?"
"Not in the US, not currently anyway. He did a short stint years ago but he's been clean or lucky since. So now we'll add in all the rogue scientists. I can hardly wait to hear what they have to say. And I also wonder about their funding."
Sailes nodded, "Just as we did. 37, now 38, victims, had to cost something to acquire and house. If they really were experimenting with them, they'd need scientific and medical equipment, tools, secured space."
"Yes. And for our toddler, your 4 year old and the other children in the 38, they'd need someone to keep an eye on them. Thinking about the equipment, we'll also start looking for theft of scientific and medical equipment that year and going forward. Did you say 1984?"
The FBI director shook his head, "No, the list of students is from classes the professor taught from 1978 through 1981. We searched for open kidnappings or mysterious disappearances from 1978 through 1981. But you're right, we should search through '85 or '86."
While Leon wondered why little Jeffrey's case hadn't been discovered during the 1981 search by the FBI and presumably NIS, he kept that to himself, for now. Instead, he nodded, "I wonder if any of them ever published or shared their results." He shrugged, "I might pull our forensic specialists in on that. Need people who'll understand the technical terms."
"Good thought." Henry shook his head, "The older I get, the stranger the world becomes."
Leon huffed in agreement. The two worked on their plans for several minutes more before deciding they should let their agents handle the rest. Still, both directors felt better for working a case.
After they disconnected, Vance spent another half hour working on the case before he resolutely sent Jeff Andreson a write-up of the meeting, including the professor's letter and the list of scientists.
Jeff replied several minutes later, saying it was too bad he couldn't hear the cheers of the two teams, adding that he and the Cold Case SSA had called both teams in.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Now, when Tim rolled his shoulders, Leon caught the movement on his laptop screen and returned to the present, seeing that Artemis, Lu and Jethro had joined Tim. Nodding at his SAC and the others, he asked, "Artemis, Lu, Jethro, have you heard the news about the protection details and where I'll be transferring Tim and Artemis for the duration?"
They nodded and Artemis smiled, "Thank you for all the information, Leon, it helps considerably to know the possibilities, especially about the schools and the residential hotel."
Leon nodded, "You're welcome, I was relieved and happy to have some positive news for you. Now, before we go on, Tim, this is your formal notice of transfer, occurring before September 1st, 2015, to the Marine Corps West Field Office as the SAC."
He smiled at Jethro who returned the smile, nodding proudly. Leon continued, "Is your Dorneget information shareable?"
Tim nodded, saying, "Yes, it's fine to share, Ned and Barry included our parents, Artemis and me in their call. Ned's grandparents were in the process of selling their home near Phoenix, Arizona, and moving to Marseille. Ned and Barry had a guest bedroom on the first floor that they enlarged into a suite and Walter and Margaret have been very excited about cruising to London and taking the train to Marseille to live with their family. Sadly, Ned and Barry called us a few hours ago saying Ned's grandfather has had a debilitating stroke and Ned requested emergency family leave, which I approved.
"Tony booked him on a Paddington flight leaving Marseille early tomorrow morning. It'll stop in London before crossing the Atlantic and Barry and the girls will disembark, staying in Jaxton while Ned is away. Ava and Naomi will attend the new International School that Geo and Bec's new fosters have just started attending. That will make things easier for them if Barry needs to join Ned. The girls will be with their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Ned's hoping he'll be able to TAD at either the Southwest or Marine Corps West Field Offices, or both."
"I can answer that, yes, to one, the other or both, when he has time. Is his grandfather in a hospital in Arizona?"
"Thank you, I'll send him a text, that will be one worry off his mind. And no, Walter was airlifted from the Phoenix facility where he was first taken, to a Veterans' hospital in San Diego. There's a doctor there who specializes in the type of stroke, Ischemic or Hemorrhagic, or deficits, not sure which, maybe it's both the stroke and the deficits, that he's suffered."
"I'm glad they were able to get him to the specialist he needs. I'll assign Ned as a TAD to the Southwest office, although he won't be able to work on…well we'll figure that out. The two SACs can figure out the paperwork. Will Barry and the girls join him?"
"They're not sure yet. If they do, it won't be until the half-term break in February. If Barry needs to go, he'll leave as soon as the girls are settled in."
"All right. Have Barry let me know if or when they decide to join Ned and his grandparents, that will move them out from under Paddington protection and to NCIS-FBI protection."
Tim nodded and then tilted his head at the director, "Sir?"
"Yes, Timothy, that's next. One of the things we discovered shortly before I returned your call is where you were living when you were taken, although the file says 'mysteriously disappeared', and that was in San Diego. I've assigned your case to Jeff Andreson, the SSA at Southwest. The Cold Case SSA and her team is also working with Andreson's team. Within hours of me assigning the cases to them, the teams uncovered a great deal of information."
Tim nodded, "I know Andreson, he was in one of my New Mexico cross-training sessions. So I lived in San Diego with my mother and so-called father."
"Yes. I'm sure you have questions but there aren't any I can answer yet."
Tim nodded, moving the laptop to give Leon a better view of Artie and his folks.
Leon gave them a half smile, "Now, as you've already heard where Tim will be posted and the information I've already come up with, do you have any questions?
Lu smiled, "We have a few but think most of them should go to the relocation agents."
He nodded and then taking a deep breath, turned back toward Tim, saying, "All right, then Special Agent Timothy Camilo-Gibbs, have you reached a decision about the offer of promotion to Assistant Director?"
Tim and Artie both nodded while Jethro and Lu beamed. Tim answered, "Yes, sir, we have and the answer is yes, we accept the promotion to Assistant Director."
"Wonderful! Now, as I said earlier the position will return to Europe with you once your involvement in the criminal trials is complete. Whoever the current Secretary of the Navy is at the time will swear you in while we're in Scotland next July and August. Between now and your arrival in California, I know you will be kept up to date as far as the MCW Field Office and whatever the legal teams feel is acceptable for you to know about your case. Also, Attorney Horner would like to speak with you this week. I'll let you two set up the best times. She has a few questions and probably some advice.
"Something I haven't yet mentioned is that along with the title and new responsibilities, an agency jet will also be yours. It'll arrive in the next couple of months for your use, you can use it until you leave for California and then your replacement will have access to it while you're away. In California, you and Mac, the temporary SAC of the Southwest office, will have to share the jet already there. When you return to Europe and resume the SAC position in London, the jet will be all yours.
The director tilted his head with a small smile, "Unofficially, for family flights stick with Paddington, it's less expensive, except during transfers. However, if you're flying from San Diego to one of your satellite offices, by all means take the agency jet and make a long weekend out of it. In Europe, for a visit to the Naples office as an example, Artemis can join you for a long weekend with her uncles, then by all means take the agency jet. Another agency visit might be to Marseilles, with a stop in Paris on the way back to London."
Tim smiled, surprised at the inclusion of the jet while Artie was already planning trips to various European NCIS satellite offices where the two of them could stay for a day or two and explore.
Relieved to see a smile on Tim's face, Leon continued, "As I've said, you can't go to Southwest with your case being handled there. However, I believe you'll enjoy MCW just as much.
"Your temporary replacement in Europe will be Joel Morris, he's agreed to return to work for the duration of what will be called your special assignment. Everyone has agreed to help: Pete Russell in Athens, Roger Martinez has volunteered to return to Marseille as temporary SSA there until Ned returns or whatever happens with his situation while Bob Chalmers will manage Hamburg, Jessica Knight in Naples and Stan Burley in Rota will help Joel as needed. In California, you'll have plenty of help from MacDonald as well as the SAC of the Northwest office in Washington, Jane Melankovic."
Jethro thought the name sounded familiar and looked at his son, who saw the look and shrugged. Then he also frowned, "Tony ate something he shouldn't have and got hurt. In Florida and Kate was with us."
Leon, Lu and Artie sat back, waiting, fairly used to these bits of information that often took Jethro and his former teammates through memories of old cases.
His former boss nodded, "Brides, something about brides."
Squinting in thought, Tim suddenly pointed at him, "Yes! The bad guy was a chaplain and he kept each 'bride' captive until they died or he killed them. It was the last one, the survivor, who hit Tony over the head with a lamp after he told her the guy was dead. She believed they'd get married, even though he was starving her to death." He looked at his dad, "That was the case agent from hmm, possibly Mayport, who worked with us, Jane Melankovic. Tony got hungry and ate something off her desk."
Jethro narrowly avoided rolling his eyes while Tim bit back a smile. Happy to hear and see anything that wasn't a grim reminder of his agent's past, Leon relaxed a little while Lu and Artie gave each other looks, of course there was an agent who would be involved in Tim's case who had also been involved on one of the MCRT's cases.
Lu sometimes wondered if there were any NCIS field agents who hadn't worked with her husband's team back in the day. From what she'd learned over the years, the team frequently traveled far from the Navy Yard in their pursuit of justice and busting criminals. Cuba, California, Alaska, Mexico, Canada, Paraguay, Columbia, the Bahamas, Hawai'i, the UK, France, Spain and anywhere the US Navy and Marine Corps went.
Moving on, Tim had a few more questions that Vance wrote down as he didn't yet have the answers. Eventually he signed off and the four Gibbses looked at each other with wide eyes. Tim made a stink face, "I really hope they find out who my real father is or was. I don't want to be the son of Daniel Langston."
His mother looked at him, "I don't blame you. It doesn't sound like he ever bonded with you."
Tim gave her a hug, "Maybe he was raised that way. I don't care, I don't want to be his son." Then he rolled his eyes, "There's nothing I can do about genetics or what he did or didn't do. As cold-hearted as he was, I'll bet he was the one who sold me. But it doesn't matter if he was my biological father, Dad, you're my dad now and for the rest of our lives." He grinned, "You, mom, Artie and I will be ancestors someday and our descendants won't notice or care about the 'a' for adopted."
"Thank you, Timothy, I'm glad we went through with the adoptions 6 years ago. I didn't think making our relationship legal would make much of a difference, we already had strong connections. But it has made a difference, being legally connected, with all of you using our names, everything you do to identify as Camilos and Gibbses makes our emotional connection even stronger and I know you all felt that connection even before your mother adopted you."
Forgetting about Daniel Langston, his wife and their seemingly heartless actions, Tim smiled happily as his wife and parents pulled him into their arms.