Chapter 5
The Playful Dolphin
After the communication with the ME is cut off, Sedna slowly wakes up from her nightmare, realizing that there is more than just an accident, something that goes a while back, something that affected her personally. She feels numb.
She opens her left hand, palm up. Nestled in the middle of her palm is what she thought Gibbs had to see; it is identical to the object recovered when the training pool was cleaned.She asks for them to speak in private and he points to the door silently. His agents just focus on their screens with no word, as usual.
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They are now outside her office, near the entrance to the restaurant. There is a bench made of bricks, which the morning sun does not warm because of the bougainvilleas that fall from the roof like a pour of colorstand leave he place fresh and relatively hidden from curious eyes or ears.
Evidently she has some type of fear about someone eavesdropping what she is going to tell the senioragent. They sat in silence and she showed him the probable evidence that she has been keeping a secret for more than a year.
"From where exactly did you obtain this one, Doc?" His voice was quietly calm and low.
Sedna knows he is deeply interested: the tips of his thumb and middle finger adjust the little thing as his left hand dives in his pocket for the plastic bag where the other evidence is. He compares them even though has no doubts she had been right, they are identical.
She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly and their eyes met. He waits for her to speak, not rushing her. Somehow he knows that the whole thing is too shocking for her.
Her eyes are getting wet and their golden color seems even stranger under the film of unreleased tears. "Kenny brought it to me, the morning after the day that John, my second husband, passed away in a diving accident. Here in the bay, one and a half year ago. He started to work in recovering objects from an old shipwreck… "
She stops talking, choosing the best way to put in reasonable words what was in her mind. "You know, I never believed that it was an accident. John was the best diver I had ever seen. He was a sub aquatic archeologist and a fairly good one. A hell of a diver, he had more hours underwater than a navy pilot in the air." She is still so proud of him.
"What makes you suspect that it was murder? Were you there by chance???" Gibbs tries to understand the previously unknown situation better.
Sedna shakes her head. "I wasn't. At the time Kenny was almost free in the sea pen, not in a pool like now," she blinks, holding back her tears - was, is a more proper word. Kenny is dead now suddenly, she feels the quietness and loneliness
Sedna continues: "…and he used to jump over the net and follow John to the open sea. I think Kenny was near the place when the explosion occurred, not close enough to be injured, but to know. He must have known."
At this point Gibbs arches up one eyebrow and half closing the opposite eye in disbelief and he asks skeptically: "Doc, are you telling me that you have a dolphin as a witness???"
She looks at him, nodding seriously. "I'm telling you exactly what happened, it is the facts, you are wrong in the verbal conjugation. I don't have anymore. I had a witness. You could give me credit or not, you could believe it or not, but I assure you dolphins are extremely intelligent and they have an 'ethical' concept some similar to the one we humans have."
"Doc, are you saying they are capable of judging us? I have never …"
"Well, you are going a bit too far. I am not saying 'judge', perhaps we could say they understand; they know us and they are capable of 'love and loyalty'." Sedna pauses in her sentence, trying to express her knowledge and belief.
"If you allow me to use this word - A dolphin that shares his or her life with humans, adopts them as part of the pod and behaves the same they would do with other dolphins. They caress us, take care of us, play with us. They even joke with their human caretaker…us…me…John," Sedna explains.
Gibbs looks at her still incredulously. One part of his brain is telling him the new information is NOT possible. They are "animals", on the other hand it was the fact that the Navy prefers them instead of some hi-tech machine. They must have a good reason for it. Above all he HATES everything hi-tech.
Well, Machine versus Nature, he knows the answers. Besides, his gut is telling him that it's true, despite the CO's statement that doctor Sedna Dunn is CRAZY about her dolphins and something more. Yeah, Gibbs suspects that this 'crazy' was related to whatever happened among them before.
"They said that it was an unexploded old mine, but I'm sure that it wasn't," Dunn swallows her tears roughly, embarrassed at herself.
Gibbs nods lightly as she stops again. Her eyes focused on the floor suddenly moves, following the flutter of a white butterfly against the deep purple of the flower cascade in front of them. He realized she has her fists in her lap and her shoulders are firmly uptight, all of her body language denotes rage.
He leans over, invading her personal space and tries to encourage her to tell more. "So?"
Sedna comes back from her past, somewhere she was and her eyes meet his. "I know it wasn't an accident, Gibbs, I tried to investigate the accident, BUT it was no use! I am blocked by a wall, Gibbs. An invincible wall, you surely know what I am talking about, another military department is involved. There were so much more and the case, the case is closed, as an accident, that wall was built by the Navy or someone…higher, that I am sure of! I knew people, and their hands were tied."
At the light of the sun playing with the shadows of the bougainvilleas he sees the line that a single tear leaves on her face while running down her cheek. Not daring to wipe it off with his hand, Gibbs searches in his pocket and offers her his immaculate handkerchief. "Take it, you women never carry one and you cry a little more than us men." He reaches his objective, to make her smile.
"Thanks Gibbs," she blows her nose and sighs. "I'm sorry, this is the first time I have talked about it with someone and you know what? I miss him."
"Yeah, Doc, I know." Gibbs contemplates her but his deep blue eyes are even sadder than her face is, and something deeply hidden arises for a second before being replaced by his unreadable normal expression.
"What happened? Why did you resign to know? I guess you are not the type that could be frightened." He asks the woman sitting next to him.
"Easy, Gibbs: they called me and said that had investigated to their best capabilities and it had been an unfortunate accident and stating that it was John's mistake, besides they threatened to kick me out of NMMP. In other words, fire me. And I had to take care of the dolphins, my dolphins. The Navy Big Boys do not know that I had this," and she touched his hand with the tip of one finger.
"And you decided to wait," Gibbs takes over her words.
Sedna smiles, sadly but unquestionably: "Think I was waiting for you."
Suddenly, everything makes sense. Out of her despair, she smiles - wide and brilliant, a spark of pride shines, replacing her sad teary eyes. She stands up. "Come! I'll show you."
----------------------------------------------------
Kate goes back to her sit with her second cup of coffee with milk and sweetener. She rolls her eyes at Tony, who is standing by the window looking - actually spying. Kate glares at the impudent man. Looking at the corner from where his Boss and the sexy Doc had disappeared out of his sight about twenty minutes ago.
"Toooony! Get back to work or Gibbs will give you the hardest slap of your life if he catches you spying on them, instead of working." Kate warns her Italian partner in crime.
"C'mon Kate, I 'm not spying!!! In fact, I AM working!" Tony answers conceitedly
"And what do you call this work of yours??? Or perhaps peering at the Doc's ass, Tony?" Kate asks him.
"Nooo!!!" Tony really looks offended, "I wonder what she is going to show him, she had something in her hand. Classified material, Kate? We are a team. How can he expect us go forward and search for information if they hide information from us, huh???"
Kate is very serious, her brown eyes darkened. "I barely believe what are you doing, Tony! You have worked under Gibbs for almost five years and you don't trust him?"
"No, no, Kate, I trust him completely! It's just that sometimes he thinks he can solve things without our help." Tony is frustrated with his head slapping boss!
"Look, Tony. I thought about it 'your way once and voiced them. You were there, remember!!! We were talking about Gibbs and his reluctance to share information with us and Ducky told that we must value the Boss's method, and that the fact he didn't share some specific information is not because he doesn't trust us! He is protecting us!"
Kate is about to go on, explaining to Tony when he interrupts her rudely - as usual! "Kate, that was different! That was a clear case of terrorism!!! And how do you know it's not now the same thing? " Dolphin's terrorism!!! " C'mon Kate, don't be…" suddenly his speech is interrupted.
Tony gives a huge laugh, watching from the window as the sound of two known voices approaches. DiNozzo goes back to his chair as quickly as possible. The man sits and disguises his hilarity with his best innocent face and opens one file at the instant that Kate is going to ask about what's going on outside. The door opens and Gibbs and Dunn are back in the office.
Dunn enters and peers at both special agents with an amused grin over her face while still talking to someone outside. She goes inside her room and comes back with a large towel in her hand.
Tony looks at her - not even trying to hide his admiration - at her figure. Damn! She is hot!
The diving suit she is wearing is short, like the ones that used by surfers with the front zipper half open, letting him see, or he says enjoys the white wet top she is wearing underneath the wet - very wet suit! Tony is lost in his sweet, wet dream.
What a sight!!! Tony contemplates Sedna and all that had caused his previous laughter is forgotten. Maybe when the case is closed, before he goes back to DC, he could ask her out for dinner, because despite her weirdness she is sexy as hell and his experience says she is not going to judge his previous flings or one night stands at all. Would she say yes? DiNozzo wonders.
But Kate does not stay seated, her curiosity wins and with a subtle wild grin she shows her teeth to Tony who is looking at the toned butt wrapped in neoprene as Dunn goes outside again with the towel, but she is so distracted with what she witnesses in the front hall of their room. It leaves her in shocked silence.
Gibbs is standing on the hallway, soaked from head to toe. His normally silver hair seems dark grey over his forehead and is still dropping over his face. He takes his shirt off with no hesitation in front of Sedna, still disturbed by the vision.
Kate notices: the fact that a man as intensely private as him is, feels comfortable in front of her. After all, he never changes his shirt in the office like Tony or other agents do.
"Oh, I got to learn from the woman", Kate reminds herself. Even though she is used to working with men, they never forgot the fact she is a woman; but Sedna is different! She has a way of making men treat her as their peer.
Even being sexy as hell, how did she manage to do that? She has to ask her. And Kate looks at Sedna wrapping the towel around Gibbs's waist with the expert movement that only a mother (or a lover) would have done.
Kate keeps looking at them as Gibbs takes his shirt over his head and goes to unzip his pants from under the towel, she sees his bare feet and his shoes are aside - dry! What in hell happened??? She wonders.
"It was really funny, Gibbs!" Sedna says. "You have lightened my crappy mood." She stands in front of him, her hands on her hips shaking her head and smiling.
"Put your wet clothes over there, I'll send someone to take it to the cleaners. Don't worry, the Project will pay the laundry bill, you'll have it back in a couple of hours, dry and clean."
Kate watches how they laugh together. How on earth she manages to do that with Gibbs, her hard ass boss, she wonders. Have they reached this kind of friendship in a few hours? Maybe Tony is right, and they are "twins"!!!
Gibbs nods, giving her his classic smirk "Don't worry about it, doc. I really enjoyed the whole thing." He takes his shoes and socks in hand and turns to enter in the office, and only then, he sees his Kate, who is still standing by the doorframe.
She can't help her eyes roaming over his entire physique. For a second, he thinks she is actually admiring him, if it's possible. Her mouth is slightly opened and her eyes are big and dark chocolate, traveling up and down over his bare upper body.
He can't help but to be shaken at her attentive watch, but Gibbs manages to disguise his surprise by the time she manages to hide her reaction. Gibbs crosses the doorframe as she practically jumps aside to make room for him to walk in but fails, her shoulder grazes his bare chest.
"What, Agent Todd? Never saw a man in a towel before?" He asks his female agent.
That is NOT Gibbs! Not at all - his voice is smooth and has a subtle caressing tone and Kate feels how her face blushes violently. She can't find a suitable answer and he is already on his way to the shower, passing in front of the quietly amused look from DiNozzo who follows him with his sparkling eyes saying: "nice water Boss?"
And he got both shoes hitting him - on his chest! Outside, Kate is still catching her breath, shocked by her boldness as well as his reaction.
Sedna approaches with a very little meaningful smile and smirks at her, whispering almost in her ear (to avoid being heard by DiNozzo):"Yeah boss, sureeeee. I saw something before but nothing like that, though!!! Isn't it what you had wanted to answer, Agent Todd? "
Kate just sighs as a valid answer and Sedna smiles again. Kate curses herself, "Oh my, if she noticed, surely he did too!"
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Gibbs strides into the bathroom leaving his two agents behind him. He is not concerned about the curious DiNozzo but he is astounded by Kate's reaction. He kicks the door shut and turns the hot water tap on full blast. The steam starts to invade the small cubicle as he peels the towel off and hangs it next to the shower cubicle.
Then he notices two small pieces of algae entangled in his forearm. Absentmindedly he removes the sticky things and let them drop in the trash can. Touching his still wet skin, he remembers how surprised he was by the touch of a dolphin's smooth, wet, clammy skin.
Sedna had called her "Sheryl". The Doc asked her to come closer to them, at the edge of the wood deck and the dolphin approached them as she whistled a long and sharp tone. Gibbs could have sworn that the dolphin named Sheryl was looking him in the eyes as she reached the edge and settled her head over the wood deck.
He recalls all that had happened very clearly and detailed: Sheryl lets her breath escape from the blowhole at the top of her head, quick and rough. The"ffffffffffu" sounds spreads around them, along with wet warm spray that bathed his face. Surprised, he retreated one step back and the dolphin made a strange noise and she kept looking at him.
"What the hell!" he whispers.
"One could say that she is apologizing," Dunn explains.
Sherryl changes the angle of her nose and it is now pointing to Sedna's feet. Smiling, the doctor says: "Gibbs, this is 'Sheryl'. Sheryl, he is Gibbs!"
He notes she said his name "Gibbs" in a quite distinct tone. Could the dolphin recognize him by name? " Dear God," he murmurs in awe.
The dolphin makes a strange noise again, a rolling like sound, like "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" and swims back a bit, emerging with half of her body out of the water and sinks back, looking at them expectantly.
Sedna laughs." She likes you!!! In fact, she is inviting you."
He opens his eyes wide. "What?"
"Inviting you to enter the water, Gibbs," Sedna explains him as if the thing should be blatantly clear.
"Well…I… look, I really don't…," Gibbs stutters, not knowing how to be blatant with a mammal named Sheryl.
Sedna looks at the dolphin shaking her head. "Not today, sweetie. He does not have a diving suit and the water is cold." and Dunn is cut short by Sheryl.
The dolphin emits again the rolling noise, this time with a little touch of "shame".
No doubts, he is going nuts, he has got the Dunn's disease.
Sedna puts her flippers on and closes the zipper of her suit: "OK, OK, sweetie, just for a couple of minutes"
Then she said to him: "You know, she misses Kenny" and with a quick movement Sedna joins the dolphin, who gives a fast swim around and returns to her.
Gibbs watches as Sedna rests her back against the strong and long gray body and curves her arm around the base of the dorsal fin: "Look, Gibbs. She knows I'm not going to dive. I don't have my mask and snorkel with me! She notices things," she sounds so proud of her baby.
The dolphin goes to the edge of the deck bringing her in tow and moves her head pointing to him - again. Sedna chuckles, amused. "She wants you touch her. She wants touch you, Gibbs", she 'translates' Sheryl's body language.
Nodding briefly he asks her what to do. And Dunn smiles: "Just sit on the edge. She'll do her part!"
"Ok" he resigns and with no hesitation he takes off his shoes and socks, rolls his pants up to his knees and dips his two feet into the water, hissing at the cold temperature.
He doesn't have to wait for long. Sheryl is ecstatic!
The dolphin reaches his ankles with her nose and places her head against him. He is surprised by the smoothness of her wet skin. With a quick glance to Sedna he reaches out one of his hands and touches the big head and neck carefully but thoroughly and the dolphin rubs against him in ecstasy.
Sedna laughs briefly and gets out of water: "Gibbs! She really likes you! Would you dive with her? Not now… I mean, maybe tomorrow. Now, I want to show you what I promised."
He nods but keeps one eye on the dolphin and now he is sitting more comfortably, he spreads his legs and Sheryl has gotten higher in the way he could embrace her neck if he would want to. The position must be hard for her, but she adapts to the humans and their limitations.
He smiles and continues to caress the dolphin affectionately. He doesn't know how or why, but he is already subjugated by the powerful and smooth body and starts to perceive the sharp intelligence in the unreadable face. He loves horses, dogs and understands them but a dolphin was something completely different.
Sedna whistles and Sheryl looks at her. "Sheryl! Gibbs, your new friend, wants to see how skilled you are, show him!" Sedna asks the dolphin.
Reluctantly, the dolphin parts from his touch and Sedna asks him for the found object, and a coin. He gives them in silence and she keeps it in her closed hand as put her arm into the water grazing the dolphin nose.
"Sheryl !!! I want you see this," and she splashes on the water with one of her flippers.
The dolphin put her head half in the water with her nose pointing at Sedna's hand and Gibbs feels a strange tickling sensation on his feet.
"It's all right, Gibbs. You can leave your feet there, what you are feeling is just her biosonar. It won't harm you, well, it is not really the ultrasound, is the part we could hear. She is just studying the thing, she doesn't need her vision," Sedna says.
"Wow, it feels strange." He keeps looking at the chain of little bubbles that the dolphin is letting escape from her blowhole.
"Is her sonar system as accurate as the "real" sonar, Doc?" After he said that, he realized, how could he doubt nature and its power!
She laughs: "Gibbs, the "real" sonar is this of hers!!! We, humans just have a poor copy, you know? It's called Gray's paradox, when engineers try to imitate nature, get much less perfect results, it's a matter of not perfect materials, I guess".
" Probably it is" , he thinks in silence. Then, she shows her the other hand with the hidden coin, and lets Sheryl inspects it. Sedna stands up and at her signal Sheryl comes forward and puts her head between his knees. "Please, Gibbs, cover her eyes with your hands she can't do it by herself"
He arranges himself in order to reach her eyes and not fall into the water at the intent. As he does it, the dolphin pushes her head over him trying to increase the contact. Sedna throws away the metallic objects as far as she can and makes a special whistle. The dolphin retreats from his hands and waits, she knows what her trainer is going to order.
Then she changes her respiratory rhythm, breaths twice, exhaling deeply and Dunn waits as well, when she thinks the object has reached the bottom, makes a sharp signal and says: "Sheryl, bring it to me, the first!"
Dunn shows her index finger up, the dolphin exhales one more time, dives and goes away.
"Doc, can she recognize - numbers? I mean one, two etc?"
"In fact, they learn our system easily, she can count till ten, made additions and subtractions, their brains are used to process much more complicated data living in the wild, Gibbs." By then, Sheryl has already swam back to them. She opens her mouth and offers her tongue with the object on its pink and wet surface. Sedna takes it and gives her an emphatic nod.
But Sheryl considers the nod not good enough. She rests her head on the rim, between Gibb's legs and offers her tongue, again.
Sedna laughs: "She wants you caress her tongue!!! She really likes you Gibbs. See, only her friends are allowed to do that!"
His inquisitive mind can't help but ask what in him the dolphin perceived as different, why does she like him? How can she judge on what's to like or not: "Why does she like her tongue to be touched? And why you think she likes me?"
"It's her most sensitive spot, like our fingertips or palms. Touching is social for dolphins and she knows you are a good guy, Gibbs."
He smirks briefly and looks up at her: "Doc, most people, including my ex wives, think I'm a bloody bastard!!!"
"Well! It seems that we think different." Sedna says, remarking "we".
Sheryl stays between his legs, with her mouth open; with this particular permanent grin that makes dolphins appear happy and content even if they aren't. Gibbs looks at the conic creamy color teeth along both mandibles but he feels no fear of it and he strokes the pink, wet, surprisingly warm surface.
At the signal from Dunn, she goes for the second goal, the coin; finds it and brings it as fast and accurately as she did the first. Then, she goes for her deserved second round of caresses and words of affection and praise.
Gibbs is astonished. He starts to see why the Navy prefers dolphins. The interaction with Sheryl is really good but has to go back to go back to work - to his agents. Gibbs makes the ultimate stroke to the dolphin and says: "Glad to meet you, princess, but I've really got to go."
He can't help it but to give a last "full" hug and holds Sheryl the way he could do with a lovely child. But he calculates wrong. First, Sheryl is a "strong child" and second, she doesn't want to break the contact…yet! She is NOT DONE with him! Dunn thought she must have like the grumpy NCIS agent!
So, when he is firmly attaching himself to her in a hug, the naughty dolphin pulls him off with a gently but sharp movement; giving no time for Gibbs to release himself. As a result of the trick, he loses his already unsafe balance on the border, so man and dolphin hit the water.
Sedna covers her face with both hands and laughs, half scared half amused. "Oh my God, Gibbs! You Ok?"
"Sure doc, water is nice. Just a bit cold and unexpected! "He answers, wiping the salt water out of his eyes and looking up at Sedna who shakes her head, still half embarrassed half amused.
"Forgive me, it's my fault. I should have told you. She used to do that with me when she wants me to stay, I'm so sorry," she looks at the mischievous dolphin. Gibbs glances at Sheryl, who had put her head under his arm giving him support in case he needed her help.
Gibbs thinks: she smart, thoughtful. She must have thought that there is a possibility that he couldn't swim, even he is NOT that thoughtful. He feels ashamed.
His smirk is playing over his face while he reaches the wood border and extents his hand to Sedna: "Please, doc, give me a hand to get out of here."
"Oh sure!!!" And she quickly offers her hand unworriedly.
As soon as he grips on her hand securely, he gives a sharp tug and the doctor hits the water with her best face of surprise as a half smile spreads over Gibb's face when he says : "I should had done it once you got dressed, Doc !!!"
The both of them got out of the water still laughing. The fresh morning wind made him want the hot shower he is in now, feeling the warm water sliding down his body, dragging the salt and spreading comfort to his muscles.
Out of the blue, his mind comes back to the moment when he felt Kate's eyes over his body. The steam starts to blur the mirror and he finds himself studying the misty copy of his reflected body. He wonders what exactly Kate had been watching on him when she ran those enraptured dark and velvety eyes of hers over his wet body. He wonders what was she thinking about, while those eyes, never seen before on her constantly composed face, were sliding up and down him.
He keeps studying his mirror image, trying to figure out what she had seen on him. He slides a hand over the mirror's surface clearing it from the steam blur and his reflected image is exposed again to his merciless scrutiny.
Yes, his stomach is flat, still, and his muscles are toned and in as good shape as it had ever been. He is able to fight almost as efficiently as twenty years ago. But, his hair is silver and his skin is not fresh anymore, and shows the marks and scars he got along his life traveling. Surely, she could find dozens of shapely bodies among the "flies" that DiNozzo had been alluding to during breakfast.
"Jethro! You're going nuts, man." He should slap himself. Much harder than he usually does with DiNozzo.
"What gives you any idea that this amazing, courageous, young and fresh woman could see you, old, grumpy, old fashioned and unsociable, her boss. Indeed, with those eyes…? Those eyes. The kind of eyes that, if he has any experience, after four marriages and three divorces, leaving aside the uncountable flings and girlfriends, the eyes that only an attracted aroused woman has."
"Damn it, Jethro Gibbs. You are becoming nuts, must be the abstinence that is playing bad with you. Besides, who kicks your former fling (Mary Ann) off, with no evident reasons at all, each time she comes to your door??? May be you don't like her anymore, but you don't like anybody else - by the way," he sighs.
No way to solve the problem, he is not going to knock at the door of any psychologist. They all are already crazier than you are and your problem has a name and last name: "Caitlin Todd". His problem has those big, warm and silky eyes, sliding down his body.
He knows, the medicine for his " Kate's sick " is just the work, hard work and to get himself as far from her slender , captivating body as he could. But don't try to fool yourself, Jethro…." It is not just about her body. It is her soul, her entire being that has him caught in her spell and there is not a damn thing he could do it at that.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Gibbs meets Sheryl... and Kate can't help and let him see how much he is attracted.... for the first time.
Chapter End Notes:
Finally!!! Ch 5 is posted !!!
Forgive us for the delay... but we the authors had a travel and a new job respectively in the middle ...
Hope you enjoy !!!!
We promise that Ch6 will be posted ASAP !!!
If you have any comments or suggestions please let us know !!!''coz we are addicted to your reviews !!!!
Thaks to our Beta... she is the BEST !!!!
Forgive us for the delay... but we the authors had a travel and a new job respectively in the middle ...
Hope you enjoy !!!!
We promise that Ch6 will be posted ASAP !!!
If you have any comments or suggestions please let us know !!!''coz we are addicted to your reviews !!!!
Thaks to our Beta... she is the BEST !!!!