Chapter 10
“Pack a toothbrush; we are headed for Mexico!” Mac smiled as she entered the bullpen, slipping behind her desk and pulling the sig sauer from her desk drawer. Mac had a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she didn’t like it at all. Usually her natural intuition alerted her to such things, but this was bad. Really bad.
“Mexico?” Tony queried, furrowing his brow as Mac slid her holster under the waistband of her jeans and picked up the phone receiver.
“Hello, this is Special Agent Sarah Sciuto, NCIS. Can I speak to Commander Degas please?” she asked, slowly lifting her jacket from the back of her chair as she listened to the woman on the other end of the lines. “Sure, I’ll hold.” She looked around at the rest of the team and raised her eyebrows angrily, which caused them all to jump to their feet, even Tony. “John.” She greeted shortly as the droning music on the other end cut off mid phrase and was replaced by a deep growl.
“Agent Sciuto. What can I do for you?”
“You know how this morning I told you about the case?” she methodically massaged her aching shoulder.
“Yeah,” he answered, trying to jump on her train of thought, a task he found extraordinarily difficult.
“Well, turns out we do need your help.” She built up to her major question sweetly; she needed this favour to catch Ramirez, and she really needed to catch Ramirez.
“What can I do for you?” he spoke slowly, furrowing his brow and focusing solely on her request.
“Can I, maybe, borrow 4 F-14s?” she spoke softly, speaking the in sweetest voice she could muster. She couldn’t believe she had just asked to borrow 152 million dollars worth of equipment in the blink of an eye. She was truly losing her mind.
“Can you what?!” his voice hardened, shocked at the pure outrage of her request. An image that was mirrored on the faces in the bullpen; especially Pullman’s.
“You heard me, John. Can you do it?” she also grew more firm, flicking her hair out from underneath her newly applied jacket.
“I’ll see what I can do.” he sighed, slowly and reluctantly. How the hell was he supposed to acquire 4 jets and 3 other pilots? His day had just gone from bad to worse.
“Thank you.” She sighed reluctantly, placing the receiver back onto the base.
“Mexico?” Tony repeated his question, walking to her desk in confusion. Sometimes she made no sense to him. Well, sometimes was the understatement of the year.
“That’s where Ramirez is.” She explained curtly, tapping frantically yet gently at her keyboard.
“Didn’t he leave last week? How could he have killed Sarah?”
“He didn’t leave until after the murder; I caught him on the security tape from last night.” She looked up from the computer at his confused face. That face sometimes made her laugh, he got so lost sometimes. Tony was a smart man, but they both knew she was smarter.
“Mexico.” Tony confirmed with a nod. He didn’t have a good feeling about this, but he knew it was necessary. “Gear up.” Tony said, but only Kate rose form her chair. “Not you.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Why not?” she threw up her hands in defense. Sometimes she didn’t feel like part of the team anymore, and that annoyed her.
“You’re pregnant.” Mac explained with a smile. She didn’t like to belittle people, but sometimes comments just slipped out. “No flying for you.”
“Being pregnant sucks.” She slouched back into the chair while Mac shook her head.
“Pullman. Move it.” Tony ordered, grabbing up his own bag in which he kept everything he needed for rushed situations like this.
“Um, Boss…” he trailed off, his breathing becoming jagged.
“What?”
“I can’t fly.”
“No shit, you’re human.” Mac responded as a reflex.
“What I mean is, I have a phobia of flying.” He stuttered, his cheeks blushing red. Pullman had always had a fear of flying, which caused problems for his parents in his childhood. It was awkward to go anywhere abroad for a vacation, so they usually just stayed within the country.
“He’s Aviophobic.”
“Avio-what-what?” Tony’s face contorted.
“Phobia of flying. I could say, for example, ‘I know for a fact Tony isn’t Porphyrophobic’” She patted his shirt, shaking her head playfully.
“I’m going to take that as an insult and move on.” He tried to joke, but the words were accidentally spoken with spite. “Why 4?”
“Huh?”
“Why 4 planes? If you knew Kate couldn’t go.” He explained.
“Do you think I am crazy enough to try and stop McGee from coming with us?” she raised her eyebrows as as if on cue, the Director started to walk briskly down the staircase and into the bullpen.
“Yes.” He replied curtly.
“So where are we going?” Tim addressed Mac directly, throwing the bag from his back to the floor. The redness around his eyes had disappeared and his suit was straight again. His chest still ached, but at least his physical appearance was smarter.
“Mexico. That’s where Ramirez is.”
“Can I go?” a small voice squeaked from behind them all. They spun to see the mousy ME assistant shuffling his feet nervously.
“Why?”
“Well, I, uh, think I may be of some help. And I’ve always wanted to go to Mexico.” He blushed deep scarlet. Tony crossed to Mac and whispered in her ear, proposing his point to which she nodded in agreement.
“You can go, as long as you are quiet and follow our orders to the letter.” She commanded and saw his face light up. “Clear?”
“Crystal.” He beamed.
“Ok, pack an overnight bag and meet us back here in an hour, ok?”
“Yes ma’am!” he twitched with excitement.
“Don’t call me ma’am.” She grimaced. “1 hour.”
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