Chapter 2
“It’s Liz or Lizzie,” Elizabeth said as she and McGee stepped into the elevator. She couldn’t have him calling her “Miss DiNozzo”; it was too weird, and it made her feel like she was in trouble.
“I’m sorry?” McGee said, looking at Elizabeth curiously.
“Please don’t call me Miss DiNozzo, Special Agent McGee” Elizabeth said, looking up at McGee. She threw in the “Special Agent McGee” bit in the hopes that he would see how ridiculous it sounded. “It makes me feel like I’m in trouble. I suppose you could call me Elizabeth if you really want to, but I prefer Liz or Lizzie.”
“If that’s the case, you can call me Tim or Timothy,” McGee said. She beamed at him and he smiled shyly back at her. Yes, progress, Elizabeth thought gleefully as McGee pressed the “B” button that would take them presumably to Abby’s lab. “So, what’s a girl like you doing working for the FBI?”
“Huh, what?” Elizabeth asked, blinking a couple of times to bring herself back to the present. She worked around guys all of the time, being the only girl in the department, so why was this one having such an effect on her? Then again, she thought of those guys as family; this one she was having far from familial thoughts. Smooth, real smooth, Elizabeth thought. He probably thinks you’re a huge dork now, Elizabeth thought, mentally cringing, not that I blame him. I mean, I work with computers, how nerdy can you get?
“You don’t seem the type to be hired by the FBI,” McGee explained with a shrug. “I was just wondering what you were doing with the FBI.”
“Well,” Elizabeth began, hitching the messenger bag up on her shoulder a bit, not sure if she was allowed to reveal what she actually did with the FBI. “When you have skills like mine, you’re either hired by the government or you’re watched by the government. My official title is Computer Systems Analyst.”
“And your unofficial title?” McGee asked as they exited the elevator and headed for what Elizabeth presumed was Abby’s lab. She heard pounding bass filtering into the corridor, and if it hadn’t been for the stringent soundproofing she was sure that the walls would be shaking.
Elizabeth was going to answer McGee’s question, she really was, but as soon as they entered the lab McGee was practically tackled by a tall, pretty, gothic girl. I stand no chance, Elizabeth thought, slightly dejectedly, as McGee hugged the other woman back.
“Hi McGee!” she exclaimed with a grin. It took a moment before she peered around McGee to Elizabeth, who was trying very hard to appear inconspicuous. “Who’s your friend?”
“Abby, this is Lizzie DiNozzo,” McGee said as Elizabeth walked forward a little so it didn’t seem like she was skulking in the shadows. “Fornell brought her with him to give us a hand.”
“Any relation to Tony DiNozzo?” Abby asked, scrutinizing Elizabeth. She shifted uncomfortably under the taller woman’s gaze, not used to being visually dissected more than once a day.
“Yeah, he’s my older brother,” Elizabeth replied, tilting her chin up a little and trying to appear confident. “What about it?”
“Funny, he’s never mentioned you,” Abby said. Elizabeth was beginning to regret leaving the FBI compound, and now she didn’t even have an escape route because Fornell had the car keys. He either knew she’d try to escape if he left the keys with her, or he didn’t trust her behind the wheel of a car and that was why he had driven in the first place.
“As I told everyone upstairs, I’m not entirely surprised,” Elizabeth replied with another shrug. With the rather large age difference between herself and Tony, the two were not particularly close to begin with. Coupled with the fact that Tony had been disowned when Elizabeth was quite young didn’t help; when asked, her father changed the subject, but Elizabeth suspected Tony was disowned because he had decided to become a cop. They still kept in sporadic contact, although it was more of an uncle-niece relationship, and not a brother-sister relationship. If Elizabeth had anything to say about it, from then on things were going to change.
“Um, Liz here is a Computer Systems Analyst with the FBI,” McGee said, breaking up the tangible tension between the two women. The way Abby was looking at Elizabeth was making him uncomfortable, and the gaze wasn’t even directed at him. Abby glanced at him before glancing back at Elizabeth. Her expression had changed; it was softer, a smile spreading across her face.
“Computer Systems Analyst my ass,” Abby said. Elizabeth covered her face with her hands and groaned, knowing what was coming next. She’d been found out.
“What do you mean?” asked McGee, glancing from one woman to the other again, confused. “You’re saying she’s not a Computer Systems Analyst?”
“Oh, she is. Officially, anyway,” Abby explained. “She’s also known as a Hacker Tracker.”
“Dear Lord, I hate that nickname,” Elizabeth said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I swear, if I ever find out who started calling us that, I’m going to do something I’m probably going to regret. I don’t know what, but I’ll do something!”
“Can I ask exactly what a ‘Hacker Tracker’ actually does?” McGee asked, putting air quotes around the aforementioned hated nickname.
“We’re a small, dedicated group of computer hackers that monitor and catch other hackers when they do something illegal,” Elizabeth replied. “The government recruits from the hackers they monitor, deciding who could be useful.”
“And when did you get recruited?” Abby asked. She seemed to be getting excited about this conversation; her eyes were shining with a contagious energy.
“Just before I graduated,” Elizabeth replied with a shrug.
“So, you were recruited a year ago?” McGee asked, remembering that she had mentioned graduating a year ago.
“I should have been more specific,” Elizabeth said, shifting uncomfortably again. Most people didn’t believe her when she told them what she was going to say next. “I was approached just before I graduated high school; I’ve been writing code since I was fourteen years old, hacking not long after that. They didn’t want someone straight out of high school, so I had to get a degree while taking training courses a couple days a week in my last two years.”
McGee stood there, speechless, and Abby had an amused little smile on his face. Elizabeth decided that today was going to be interesting, even if it meant that she couldn’t escape of her own volition.
“Well, you got me down here safe and sound,” Elizabeth said, trying hard not to giggle when McGee had to blink a couple of times and shake his head to come back down to earth. “Thanks, Tim. I’m sure Gibbs and Fornell won’t be happy if you stay down here all day.”
“I’ll, ah, I’ll just be going,” he said, jerking his thumb towards the elevator before turning around and hurrying out.
“I think I broke him,” Elizabeth said as she watched him leave.
“Nah, he’s just not used to the possibility of another girl who can out-hack him,” Abby replied. Elizabeth arched an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. McGee was looking better and better by the minute; too bad he was with Abby. That hug she’d greeted him with seemed more than just friendly hug.
“So, what’s the situation?” Elizabeth asked. She really wanted to ask about McGee, but she also didn’t want to seem obvious. Maybe she could pump Tony for information later if she got him alone. “Fornell gave me the gist, but I was told you’d give me the full lowdown before I got down to work.”
“A serial killer is targeting army, navy and marines and hacking into databases to alter reports and evidence logs,” Abby replied. “We don’t know how they’re doing it because they’re not leaving any tracks, no signature at all. Even the best hackers leave some kind of trail behind.”
“Yup, that’s pretty much what Fornell told me,” Elizabeth said with a sigh, trying not to let her fear and worry show. There were hackers that could leave no trail, and they were all people she worked with. She was sure that they wouldn’t do something that stupid, would they?
“Hey, are you okay?” Abby asked, shooting a concerned look at the shorter girl.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking,” Elizabeth replied, shaking her head. “Where can I set up my stuff? If you have secure wireless down here all I need is an outlet and a comfortable place to sit. You won’t even know I’m here!”
“Will the couch work?” Abby asked, gesturing to the couch in the corner. “I mean, if you want a desk I can clear some space…”
“Nope, couch in the corner as perfect,” Elizabeth replied with a grin. She trotted over to the couch, fully intending on sitting down and setting up shop. However, when she sat down, something underneath her made a very loud, very rude and very realistic fart noise. Abby’s head shot up and Elizabeth could feel her face redden in mortification as she jumped up from the couch. “It wasn’t me, I swear!”
Elizabeth rummaged around on the couch, knowing that it hadn’t been her that had made the noise. The only thing she could find was a stuffed hippo. She squeezed it experimentally, a shocked giggle escaping her as the stuffed animal made another farting sound.
“You found Bert!” Abby exclaimed as she rushed across the room, grabbing the stuffed hippo from Elizabeth and squeezing it. “I’ve been looking everywhere for him, thanks for finding him!”
“Glad my ass could be of service,” Elizabeth replied with a grin and a roll of her eyes as she sat back down on the couch, digging out her laptop and power cord from her messenger bag. She plugged everything in and booted up her computer, plugging in a pair of headphones so that her music wouldn’t meld with Abby’s and settling in for a long day.
The morning passed pretty uneventfully; Elizabeth was lost in her own world, going through the code of the systems that had been hacked, looking for something, anything that could give her some kind of hint as to what had been done and who had done it. Nothing, absolutely nothing.
She was so lost in her work that she didn’t realize what time it was until someone tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and glanced up, smiling and blushing when she saw McGee standing over her holding a take out box and a set of chopsticks.
“For me?” Elizabeth asked, slinging her headphones around her neck before grabbing the box and chopsticks. The smell of the teriyaki and rice made her stomach rumble, making her realize that the last thing she had eaten was a bowl of Raisin Bran at about seven in the morning.
“Wasn’t sure what you’d want, so we got something safe,” McGee replied with a shrug as he glanced at her computer screen. “How’s it going?”
“I got nothing,” Elizabeth replied with a sigh and a groan, digging into the box. Teriyaki sauce, chicken, rice, Asian vegetables and a little bit of spice. Perfect. “Ever had a crime scene with no evidence, no trace of anyone ever having been there?”
“Never happened,” McGee replied, sitting down next to Elizabeth on the couch and looking over her shoulder at her work. “People are always shedding something or leaving something behind.”
“Well whoever did this is good… very good,” Elizabeth said with another sigh. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was one of the other hacker trackers, because they’re some of the only people I know who could do this and not leave anything behind. There’s nothing, no broken code, no added code, no signature, nothing! It’s going to drive me nuts!”
“I thought you were already nuts, midget,” Tony said as he walked up to them. He ruffled Elizabeth’s hair, causing her to glare at him.
“Stop teasing me about my height,” Elizabeth grumbled, batting his hand away. “What are you doing down here? Not complaining or anything, but this is weird even for you.”
“Do I need a reason to see my kid sister?” Tony asked, gesturing for McGee to move over and make room before settling between the junior field agent and Elizabeth. She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering what he was doing. She’d just met McGee, hardly enough time to display anything but a passing attraction, so why was he doing what he could to split them up even though they’d just met?
“With you, usually,” Elizabeth replied with a snort, spearing a piece of chicken with a chopstick.
“I want to know what’s going on with you,” Tony said, turning to Elizabeth and completely shutting McGee out. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in DC?”
“Do you think we should be having this conversation here?” Elizabeth asked, arching an eyebrow. She didn’t really feel comfortable having this discussion with her brother, what with Abby and McGee watching. She knew they were watching, although they were trying hard to hide it.
“Where should we be having this conversation?” Tony asked.
“You take me out for dinner and we’ll have a nice, long, catch-up chat,” Elizabeth suggested. “You can take me to that new sushi place that just opened up.”
“It’s a date,” Tony said. He glanced over at McGee before resting his gaze back on Elizabeth. “You and I are going to have a very long talk, missy.”
“Looking forward to it,” Elizabeth with a grin, although it didn’t quite meet her eyes. Tony got up and pointed at McGee. “Keep a safe distance away from my sister, Probie. I’ll see you later, Liz. Not sure when I get off, but when I do you’ll be the first to know.”
“I’m going to need a lift back to my office,” Elizabeth said as Tony turned and left, waving a hand over his shoulder to indicate that he’d heard her.
“Why is Tony telling me to keep a safe distance from you?” McGee asked, slightly confused.
“He does that with any guy under thirty who is at least halfway good looking and glances my way,” Elizabeth replied with a shrug. “It’s the whole “you touch my sister, I break anything on you that touched her” kind of thing. I let him do it because it makes him feel like he’s being a good big brother.”
“Well, I guess I’m safe,” McGee said with a smile. Elizabeth glanced at him, arching an eyebrow.
“Please don’t tell me you think you’re ugly,” Elizabeth said.
“Nope,” McGee said, shifting so that he was sitting where Tony had been so that he could look over her shoulder at what was on the computer screen. “Would this be considered a safe distance?”
“I feel safe,” Elizabeth replied with a shy smile. She grabbed her bag and rummaged around in it for a few moments before pulling out a jewel CD case with a burned CD in it. “I think it’s about time I pull out this bad boy to see if it actually works.”
“What’s that?” Abby asked, coming over to see what Elizabeth and McGee were doing. Elizabeth’s cheeks reddened as she shifted, putting some distance between herself and McGee. It wouldn’t do to have the other woman think she was horning in on her territory.
“Program I wrote,” Elizabeth replied with a shrug. “It’s supposed to alert me when certain systems are being hacked or altered. I haven’t tried using it before because coding is constantly being changed on all of the systems, and this thing would be going off constantly. However, if it means we’ll catch whoever’s hacking the system, I can live the annoyance for a short while. It even sends me a text message if I’m away from my computer and something goes wrong.”
“That’s kinda cool,” Abby remarked with a grin. “When this thing is over, I wanna take a look at that if that’s okay.”
“Sure, be my guest,” Elizabeth replied with a grin of her own. Abby turned and left the two of them again, having forensic work to do. McGee had shifted so that he was sitting close to her again, staring at the screen.
“I’m really interested in how this program works,” he said. “Care to explain it to me?”
“Uh, sure,” Elizabeth replied, feeling decidedly uncomfortable as she began explaining everything that she had put into the program. McGee was sitting far too close for someone whose girlfriend or significant other was standing on the other side of the room. However, he listened and understood when she spoke, something that didn’t happen very often. She smiled to herself, deciding that today had definitely been the best day she’d had in a while.
If only McGee were single…
***
Chapter two DONE! Let me know what you think. Next up… dinner with the DiNozzos!
Author's Chapter Notes:
Our favourite NCIS team has a new case, serial murder mixed with advanced computer hacking. Unfortunately, the team cannot handle the case on their own, and Gibbs reluctantly calls in Fornell from the FBI for reinforcements. Senior FBI Agent T.C. Fornell brings a rather unexpected version of the cavalry.
Chapter End Notes:
Anything you recognize isn't mine, please don't sue. Lizzie is mine, and although I don't know why you'd want to use someone else's original character, I'd appreciate it if you'd ask me first.
Chapter two is here, enjoy!
Chapter two is here, enjoy!