NEXT MORNING
GIBBS' HOME
"I don't think this is a good idea."
"I've been here before. Don't worry."
Kate and Tony stood at the top of the stairs, looking down into the basement, and Tony choked back a snort of laughter.
Gibbs was sleeping under his boat, the tot sound asleep and curled up on his chest, covered by a baby blanket. Gibbs' hand lay gently on her back. Kate smiled, half in amusement, half at how cute it looked.
"This would make great blackmail picture," Tony whispered, grinning widely.
"Gibbs would kill us and hide the bodies," Kate demurred. "I like being alive."
"Me too." After a pause, Tony said, "You know what's so sad about this?"
"What?" Kate whispered in amusement. "That women like Gibbs better than they like you?"
Tony gave her a look as she smiled, having got one up on him. "No. I was going to say, if that were Chris Larabee down there, and if we were Larabee's boys, that picture of him with a baby would be posters hung all over that ATF office by now with a glossy blow-up sent to Mary Travis by now...and here we are, debating."
Kate chuckled. "So true. Chris would kill them, and they'd still do it."
"I'm going to kill you two if you don't stop yapping," came a voice from under the boat.
The two came down the stairs, and Kate stepped between the ribs of the boat and gently lifted the child from Gibbs' chest to allow him to sit up. Paulie blinked sleepily, and seeing Kate, trustingly nestled into her arms.
Gibbs sat up, groaning slightly, and handed Kate the blanket. "What are you two doing here?"
"Thought you could use the help with the kid," Tony replied, slinging the baby's bag over his shoulder.
"Her seeing you and crying helps me how?" Gibbs ignored the face Tony made. "C'mon." He waved them out of his basement as he headed up the stairs first.
Kate shifted the child to her other arm, and as they headed up the stairs, Tony suddenly said, "Hey, what do you mean, women like Gibbs better than they like me? That's not true."
"Well, let's see. Paulie cries when she looks at you. Paulie smiles when Gibbs holds her. And you know what they say: the only people who tell the unvarnished truth are old women and small children." Kate smiled sweetly.
"You mean like Ducky's mother?" Tony leered, and got a look from Kate. He grinned, then paused and turned around. "So, does that mean you like Gibbs better too?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her to see her flustered reaction.
"What?" she exclaimed, the tables suddenly turned on her.
"Well, I don't know. I don't dream about Gibbs - "
"Forget I made that comment."
" - and wake up screaming his name at - "
"Forget it!"
DR. BRIAN MARTIN'S OFFICE, VA CLINIC
"He's in with a patient!" shouted his secretary as Tony blew into the office. "What are you doing?!" the secretary exclaimed in surpise as the two NCIS agents came in without so much a hello.
"NCIS. Front-line jump to St. Eligius." Tony barely flashed his badge before he went back to work dumping files in a box.
"Agent DiNozzo," the doctor replied, coming out, having heard his secretary's protest. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Doc," Balboa began as gently and apologetically as he could. "We're sorry. We have a search warrant for your place."
"If you have anything to hide, bring it out now - we'll cut you some slack," McGee snapped uncharacteristically.
Balboa winced at the tone, an apologetic look on his face as he turned to the doctor. He reached for a closet door, and just as he put his hand down, the doctor exclaimed, "I'd open that slow - "
SAME TIME
NCIS HQ, LAB
"Gibbs Gibbs Gibbs," Abby nearly jumped up and down in excitement as she ran into the bullpen. "I got the breakdown of the meds you wanted."
"And?"
"It's an experimental drug for sure. I contacted everybody I knew in the FDA and the CDC, they say there's no such thing, not approved, anyway. So, I broke down what's in the meds. It uses what a lot of antibiotics use, a really strong killer that often will kill good bacteria along with the bad," Abby explained. "With the diet regimen he has them on, their own immune systems are functioning well enough to recover.
"Here's the big whoop. He's also got a rather high amount of potassium in there, with a pinch of painkiller, a steroid, and a blood thinner. The muscle spasms some of the Marines are having can be from lack of potassium. Painkiller to help ease the pain of spasms and join pain."
"The steroid?" Kate asked.
"To help with breathing. It's like what you'd find in most asthma aerosol inhalers. A lot of them have excessively sensitive airways."
"Possibly induced by any gas they breathed in," Gibbs murmured.
"The steroid and the potassium..." Abby looked meaningfully at them. "That wouldn't be a potent killer, except they added one thing. You know all those drugs that they give to help in case of a biological attack?"
"Yeah, but those are preventive."
"He's got a slightly altered form of the chemical. Whoever did this, is really good. They took the peptide chain which generally connects to the blood - "
"Abby!"
"It absorbs faster, and the chain structure allows it to hook on to the target it's looking for and destroy it." Abby grinned at her discovery. "But he can't be sure which part of the medicine is actually working - "
" - so he's testing them on his patients!" Kate gasped.
SAME TIME
DR. BRIAN MARTIN'S OFFICE, VA CLINIC
"We do not get paid enough to endure this cr-p," Balboa complained as he held a hand to his head.
McGee just rolled his eyes in irritation as he applied medicine to the gash. Martin winced at the apparent uncare the agent took in applying the medication. "We take the same risks, Balboa."
"'Cept nobody else complains about it," Tony said somewhat harshly, handing McGee a large adhesive bandage, which the younger agent stuck to Balboa's forehead. Tony turned away to go through the stuff in the closet.
Balboa glared at DiNozzo, but, at least to Martin, the latter didn't seem to notice.
"I can sit with Agent Balboa," Dr. Martin offered.
"Fine," Tony replied. "Probie, let's go. We got work to do."
As the door shut behind them, Balboa scowled. Dr. Martin looked at him sympathetically. "Tough boss, your Agent DiNozzo."
Balboa snorted. "You should have met HIS boss, and you'd know why." He sighed. "Look, doc, I'm sorry about all this. I think DiNozzo's just acting like that because we haven't found anything."
"That's all right," Martin replied. "I understand. Gulf War Syndrome is controversial."
"Yeah." Balboa sighed. "I wish you had more support."
VA CLINIC
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
McGee watched with his mouth open. Tony shook his head and continued to walk towards them.
"STOP."
"Mr. Gardner told us to burn all stuff here."
"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about yelling 'fire in the hole' every time you drop a match in. And if you'd take better care of the flame, then you wouldn't be striking match after match or burning your fingers."
Tony watched as the girl made a face at her taller companion, whose reasonableness was obviously punching holes in her fun. Working with Gibbs and Kate, Tony was no stranger to that kind of feeling. "Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, NCIS," he announced, flashing his badge. "Stands for - "
"'Naval Criminal Investigative Service,'" came a third and much excited voice. Tony turned to see a tall, blond boy about the others' age. "Like on TV!"
"Court TV?" Tony asked half-warily, half sarcastically.
"Nope. 'NCIS' on CBS," the boy replied, a 'how could you not know?' tone in his voice. "You know, Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Sasha Alexander. And Illya Kuryakin from 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'," he added with a satisfied nod. "My mom used to watch that show."
"Whose uncle?" the girl asked.
Tony just shook his head and smiled. "Anyhow, we were just in with Dr. Martin. Do you know him?" The blond nodded, but the other wo were quiet. "He seems like a really nice guy,"
"Oh yeah, great guy. Feeds us," the chatty one continued with a big grin. "He helps out his patients much as he can."
Tony grinned as he wrote a few things on his PDA. "That's the quality of a good doctor, willing to go out on a limb for his patients. Most of the ones we've talked to said he tries his best to keep their costs down. Generally loads them up with free samples of the medication they need."
There were some nods.
"I have allergies, you know?" Tony held up a handful of Claritin samples. "I was dying one day over there. Dr. Martin gave 'em to me. Although I had to INVESTIGATE him."
McGee had to admit, that was smooth. Tony had gotten those samples from Dr. Brad Pitt the day before.
"He's done that for us, too," the girl finally ventured, figuring it was safe. "Over the counter stuff."
NCIS HQ
"Hey, Kate," Tony greeted, leaning over the half-wall.
Kate jumped in surprise, and looked at him in annoyance. "What."
"I think I know how to get her to like me," Tony replied, waving at the tot sitting on Kate's desk, carefully studying her Cheerios before picking one to eat. "Made a stop after we left Martin's."
"That would explain how long it look for you to get back."
Tony came around, holding up the bag. "Hey, Paulie," he greeted as he crouched to the level of the desk.
She looked up at him, and her bottom lip trembled. She turned and began to reach for Kate. "It's okay, sweetheart," she soothed, gently rubbing the child's back while barely suppressing her laughter. "I'm right here."
Tony glared at Kate and then thought better of it - making grotesque faces in front of a tot who already didn't like him was not a good idea. "I thought she'd like this." He pulled out a teddy polar bear with a small sailor shirt, a toy nearly the size of the child herself. "This is for you," he said as brightly and as charmingly as he could, setting the bear about a foot from her.
"That's really sweet, Tony," Kate replied, smiling. "I'm impressed." Tony just grinned.
They watched as Paulie looked at Kate, who nodded. The small child leaned forward, looking at the bear warily, and then touched its nose. "Yeah, it's for you," Tony encouraged, nudging the bear forward, then placing it within arm's reach.
The small child patted it and smiled at Kate.
"Tony gave it to you," she replied, pointing at her coworker. Paulie looked at Tony carefully, and then held up a Cheerio.
"Hey, the Tony magnetism does it again," Tony bragged, relieved, as the child dropped the cereal into his hand.
Kate rolled her eyes, all goodwill gone.
Gibbs came around the corner then, pausing to look at the scene. He didn't say anything, just observed the child, who now had a secure arm around the bear - as far as she could reach, anyhow. Paulie held up a Cheerio, and Gibbs crouched to her level and she dropped it in his mouth. He leaned over and kissed her head as he straightened and headed to his desk.
Tony watched the exchange with his mouth half-open. "I - not fair! Gibbs didn't even give her anything!" he half-whispered in indignant protest.
Kate smirked at him. "I told you, women just like Gibbs better."
"No way. No way."
"No way what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, looking up at him expectantly.
"Uh...no way those kids are going to give Martin up," Tony reported as he came around to his boss' desk. "Especially not to a guy they just met."
"He's good to them," Balboa retorted. "He knows what's going on in their school, he follows their sports teams. Carrie mentioned once Ray's father didn't even know she had changed middle schools."
"So we're back to square one," Gibbs replied impatiently.
"Why are they even working at the VA?" Balboa asked.
"Well," McGee replied, "They and a couple others were helping some old lady as community service for a club at school. She got mad at the blond kid, Sandy, over something small, so he decided to switch out and went to the VA. After she got mad at them again, Evan and Ray - Eirene, the girl - followed him to the VA."
"Yeah, but why choose the VA?" Balboa repeated, changing the stress of his question.
"Looking for heroes," Gibbs replied suddenly.
"What?" Tony's brow furrowed.
Kate nodded slowly as she thought. "When we were talking to them.... One of their mothers is a widow. All three had grandfathers who served. They might be goofballs, but they're not entirely devoid of any feeling toward the vets."
"Okay," Tony conceded. "That explains how they relate to the veterans there, but it doesn't explain how we're going to break their attachment to that doctor. They see him as a favorite uncle. They're just as attached to him, if not more - they see him all the time."
"No." Kate sat forward. "They're not bad kids. They're not going to protect Martin at all costs, they're just duped by him. All we have to do is get them to see a case of someone they respect and see him in sufficient trouble - trouble caused by Martin - and they'll give him up."
"How do we know which ones they have actually met?" Tony groaned.
"Ask," Kate replied. "Use one of the vets they have contact with now to appeal to their loyalties."
VA CLINIC
"Hard at work, huh." The former sergeant Morgan smiled at the students, who beamed back. "You always do this?" He waved at the landscaping they were doing.
"Nope," Sandy replied cheerfully. "It's just that you always come on a Thursday, and that's our dirt day."
The man chuckled, and then handed a napkin to Ray, who had dirt streaks on her cheeks and forehead.
"Thank you," she murmured and proceeded to try to scrub some of the grime off.
"Sir, it's kind of cold out here," Evan cut in hesitantly.
"I'm fine," he replied quickly. "A little cold doesn't hurt anyone." His eyes twinkled. "And I'll tell my wife you did your part in trying to get me to back inside."
Just then Nina Morgan came out of the building, adjusting her purse on her shoulder and giving her husband with a loving but chastising look. "Dr. Martin said cold air isn't good for your breathing problems," she reminded him as she approached.
"Scarf," he replied, pointing at the knitting that was supposed to be covering his nose and mouth but was hanging loosely around his neck.
Nina Morgan made a small face at her husband, but without the requisite anger. At that point, she turned to the students with an indulgent smile. "I missed you guys when we came in. Do me a favor?"
"Anything, ma'am," Evan offered.
"Ever the gentleman," the Marine wife chuckled. "I have a coworker who ought to meet you. And yes, you all can help. C'mon over." She took the bag she was carrying to the nearby lawn chairs set outside and pulled out a large tin and popped open the lid.
Ray's eyes went wide as saucers.
"These are for you." Nina Morgan chuckled at their expressions. "Homemade oatmeal chocolate chip." Seeing their hesitation, she smiled, "I think you can leave your work for a couple minutes."
"Thanks," Sandy and Evan chorused, happily digging in. Evan elbowed Ray, who was still looking wide-eyed at the tin, and she managed, "Thank you, Mrs. Morgan."
"Wow, these are good," Sandy mumbled with his mouth full. "If you don't have kids, can I be one of you - ow," he rubbed his side and turned to his friend. Ray shot him a dark look as her elbow retracted, and over her head Evan glared.
"They're really good, ma'am, thank you," Evan quickly stepped in.
The former staff sergeant grinned, and, winking at them, tried sneakily reaching around for one of his wife's cookies.
"Hey!" She slapped his hand, which got a genuinely shocked look out of him. "Those aren't for you. They're for them." At the kids' slightly nervous expression, Nina replied definitively, "Dr. Martin said Paul shouldn't be eating sugar or caffeinated drinks. That includes cookies," she said firmly, giving her husband a look.
The three looked on in amusement as the ex-Marine tried the sucking up approach, wrapping an arm around his petite wife's waist from behind, catching her tight against him. He pinned her arms to her body and kissed her ear to distract her as his free hand reached for the tin with the other. She didn't fall for it and managed to wriggle a hand free and catch his wrist. "I don't think so."
He groaned but didn't let go of her. "You bake in the morning and instead of letting me have a bite of it, you put all that health food crap in front of me."
"It's good, Paul," she insisted. "I eat it all the time."
Sandy snorted over his cookie. When the ex-staff sergeant looked at him, he quickly amended, "Sorry, sir."
"Your collar, hon." He looked at her impatiently as she turned to face him, trying to fix the twisted up shirt collar. "What did the doctor say?" she asked.
"We better go," Evan suddenly spoke as Sandy replaced the lid on the tin. "Thank you, Mrs. Morgan, for the - "
"That's fine," Paul Morgan shook his head. "It's not big news, you can know. My concentration's better, attention span's better. Dropped some weight, but no big deal."
Evan only smiled weakly and nodded, but as his eyes drifted to Ray, who looked back at him worriedly, and then at Sandy, whose tight-lipped response was to avoid looking at anybody as he brushed crumbs off the seat.
He had dropped a lot of weight for just two weeks, since they had met him after his first appointment. His face was sallow. Evan didn't notice what else there might be, but then he wasn't a doctor. But this was a faster reaction to the medicine than some of the other Marines had had, maybe with the exception of Lt. Kim. He really liked the Morgans - they were a lot of fun - and Mr. Morgan's rapid change was unsettling.
He knew the two others felt the same way, but they weren't doctors and they certainly weren't the veterans themselves, so they didn't say anything. "We're glad you're feeling better, sir," Evan ventured.
"Thank you." The man nodded at them with a trace smile of amusement on his lips. "Considering if I get entirely better, you might not get any more of my wife's cookies." He winked at them while she gave him a half-exasperated look, her smile taking away some of its punch.
They just grinned back at him. They'd rather it that way.
"We better be going," Morgan replied, beginning to guide his wife toward their car with a hand at her back. "See you soon."
"Keep the tin." Nina smiled at them as her husband opened the car door for her.
"I like them," Ray sighed happily as they waved good-bye. "Mrs. Morgan is awesome."
NCIS HQ
Tony came out of the director's office and started heading down the stairs when he stopped at the happy burble coming up from the bullpen. He looked down, and saw that Kate and Gibbs had returned from their afternoon interviews.
Gibbs was reading a file, and Kate was standing next to him, reading over his shoulder. She was slightly stooped, her arms reaching downwards. Paulie was standing unsteadily on her two feet, her arms up over her head, her small hands each tucked neatly into each of Kate's; the agent was holding her steady. She wobbled a moment, and Kate hurriedly looked down.
The small child then launched herself straight onto Gibbs, pulling her hands from Kate's and grabbing onto his pantsleg for balance. Tony smiled a little as he watched the older man look down at her and smile, then flip shut the folder and toss it onto his desk. His boss picked up the tot and swung her high up over his head, and the giggling could be heard even from where he stood, right outside the MTAC conference room.
Kate and Gibbs had been gone all afternoon, and the child had been anxious all the while. She never fussed, but Tony sometimes thought she looked almost abandoned. She'd sit on McGee's desk and look up at the elevator door every time it dinged. She was always disappointed, and then would go back to study her blanket, or her Cheerios, or her new stuffed bear until the next time the bell rang. This had been going on for hours, and even Tony was beginning to feel for the child; McGee, who was watching her, was nearly driven to distraction with nervousness about what to do.
Just then the MTAC conference door opened, and McGee came out. "I just talked to Gitmo, and - "
Tony shook his head to quiet him, and nodded towards their desk area, and McGee looked down to see his boss and his coworker at his desk. Paulie was happily babbling away, Gibbs holding her high above his head and smiling at the small tot's obvious delight. Kate stood next to him, one of Paulie's cloth napkins in hand, smiling her usual wide smile up at the child, who just kept giggling happily and wiggling as she looked down at the pair.
The tall agent brought her down to settle her in the crook of his arm, and she patted his face with her hands. Their brunette coworker leaned over, and gently wiped the child's mouth with the cloth. The tot reached for her, and the man set her into his subordinate's arms.
Tony and McGee looked at each other briefly, exchanging the same small smile.
DR. BRIAN MARTIN'S OFFICE, VA CLINIC
"Doc, what's the current research in that area?"
"There isn't much," Martin acknowledged. "We're just trying to combat symptoms with exercise and diet."
Balboa nodded and made another note, then rubbed the back of his head slightly.
"Head still hurt?" Martin asked sympathetically. "I'm surprised you drove all the way back out here after what happened this morning."
"No, it's not that." Balboa sighed. "DiNozzo. Slaps us in the back of the head when we screw up." He held up his hands meaningfully, indicating that that was what had happened to him.
"You're joking," Martin muttered.
"Learned it from his boss," Balboa muttered. "Never could understand why he was so popular or accoladed."
"DiNozzo's boss must have been a character," Martin murmured neutrally.
Balboa snorted. "Former Marine, and so everything you hear about them? He's got. This guy steals bodies from other agencies, sneaks bullets out doors, does whatever he wants, and he still gets awarded that 'Agent of the Year' award. Six times!"
"You don't like him?" Martin chuckled.
"My boss, Chris Pacci?" Balboa sighed. "He dies, brutally shot and disemboweled following a cold case suspect. Leaves a family behind. He was by the book, thorough, the whole thing. But this guy...he's NCIS 'bright shining star'," he said sarcastically. "Pacci was...he was a wonderful mentor, as an agent and for life."
"DiNozzo's boss wasn't?"
Balboa rolled his eyes. "He's been married three times. He raises up DiNozzo, who hits on anything with a skirt, and DiNozzo gets to head his own team before most of us others. He gets to inherit his boss' team. He got to keep McGee, you know."
"Inherit? His boss is gone?"
Martin watched as Balboa sighed, as if he wanted to avoid the subject, and then murmured, "He resigned when he married his subordinate agent. Made her wife #4. Oh, and her? She's at NCIS barely two years, and she gets a commendation from the director." He made a face. "Some guys get all the breaks."
Martin clucked sympathetically.
Balboa held out a hand. "Hey, doc, I better get to headquarters. Please keep me updated. If there's a good research institute or something who's looking into Gulf War Syndrome, please let me know. I'd love to donate, or help in some way."
"I've got some literature right here," Martin replied, pointing towards his office. "You got a minute?"
NCIS HQ
When they came down to the bullpen, McGee plunked down his things and got to work, and Tony settled in, but soon he was entirely distracted by Paulie.
The NCIS agent watched in fascinated amusement, clicking his pen, as the small tot again screwed her face up an tried again to shove Gibbs' metal bracelet in her mouth, leaning forward as much as she could, mouth wide open and trying to reach for the bracelet. He didn't know how long he'd been watching when Gibbs hung up his phone and barked at him, "What are you looking at, DiNozzo?"
Tony started a little, "Oh, uh, just...she...the kid keeps trying to...put your bracelet in her mouth." Gibbs raised an eyebrow, a 'so?' expression all over his face. "It...just...you knew."
"Why do you think she hasn't succeeded in fifteen minutes?" Gibbs retorted. He shifted the tot a little in his lap, making sure to keep the bracelet far enough from her mouth. "What have you found?"
"The name of the medicine is from the Greek," McGee replied. "Apparently Martin's wife came up with the name, and it was shared with those kids."
"He told them?" Gibbs asked incredulously.
"He must think they're dumber than they look," Tony replied, shrugging. "Either that, or he thinks he's got them in his pockets because he helps them."
Kate entered then, dropping a file onto Gibbs' desk and taking the tot from his arms when he held her up.
"The pronunciation of the medicine is PLAY-ROE-MAH-DAYS, not PLAIRO-MAYDS," McGee added. "According to the girl, it's Greek for 'fullness of life.' She added that according to the dictionary, it was a term used only of God in later hermetic writings."
"Who knew dork school was relevant to criminal investigations," Tony muttered.
"Well, Tony, the girl's name is Greek, too. 'Eirene.' I think she would know."
Tony ignored him, then shook his head at Gibbs. "This guy - he's a megalomaniac, Gibbs. He's playing God."
"Anything else?"
"Nothing new, boss. I've been looking for a long time."
"Maybe you should be as persistent as her," Gibbs replied, pointing at the child, now sitting with Kate.
"Right." Tony nodded, then waved to McGee. "We should check with Ducky and Abby about the stuff from the doctor's office."
The office area emptied again, and for the next half hour the worked in silence. It was quiet enough that Gibbs could hear the small sniff from the desk next to him.
Kate was looking down at the child worriedly. She wasn't wiggling or smiling, just curled up in small hollow of Kate's body formed by her arm. She must've been tired, but she looked so sadly quiet.
It was obviously affecting his agent as she continued to look over the medical records, gently patting the child rhythmically as she continued to study the files.
"Careful, she'll want to eat your watch," he said lightly.
Kate smiled down at the tot, who looked up at her. "Not today." Her smile disappeared. "We need to find her mother."
"Tell that to McGee." Gibbs frowned as a frustrated sigh came out of Kate. "You're doing fine, Kate."
"I'm not her mother, Gibbs," Kate retorted sharply. "I barely know her. She needs her mother."
"Well, until we can get her mother in here, you're doing fine, Kate," Gibbs said in the same tone.
Kate started to get up, and noticed the tot had nodded off, burrowed in the crook of her arm. "She's asleep."
The agent looked down he small child sleeping sadly snuggled in her side, and felt the small burn of anger in the pit of her stomach. She was barely old enough to understand, and her father's doctor had decided to use him like a guinea pig, and her mother's CO had decided that HER finishing an interrogation - it wasn't even Janice Walker interrogating, but translating - was more important than picking up a several-month old child who was living with strangers in an office.
From the corner of his eye, Gibbs saw Kate gently pull up the blanket around the tot's shoulders.
LATE NIGHT
NCIS HQ
Tony bolted awake at the small sound, and he blinked a moment, trying to get reoriented. It was dark in the office; it seemed that most of them had fallen asleep at their desks. McGee still had a half-open file on his desk, and for some reason his phone was off the hook.
Oh, right. They all had decided to stay, since both Janice Walker - who had finally been told what had happened - and her sister-in-law were taking the first flights in to Washington and could arrive at NCIS any time.
Then he heard it again: "Giiiiiiiiibbbb...."
Next to him, McGee bolted awake, too, and Tony smirked at him. He was about to be twenty bucks richer. When he saw McGee look at him confusedly, he mouthed, "Watch and learn, probie."
Across from McGee, Gibbs groaned softly and then looked up and toward the desk next to him. "Kate. Paulie's awake."
"Isn't me she's calling," came the voice floating up from the floor.
McGee, who had unwisely decided to take a sip of his now-cold coffee, spewed it across the way at Tony. They both sat up now, the latter wiping his face in annoyance, and looked to Gibbs to see his reaction.
The silver-haired agent narrowed his eyes downward as he came around, and McGee and Tony instinctively stood up to watch what he'd do to Kate, who was snuggled asleep under a blanket by her desk.
He glared at her on the way to the carrier, and but only picked up the child, who continued to cry. Gibbs groaned softly, but took her back to his desk and tried to lull her back to sleep. The crying took awhile to abate.
When it finally did, Tony could swear he saw Kate smirk from underneath her blanket. He turned to McGee and held up two fingers in triumph. Twenty bucks.
McGee scowled.
Chapter End Notes:
Casefile. Posted to ff.net 7-31-05 to 8-5-05.