Nine Lives, Part One
by Sammie
Disclaimer: Own...? "That's funny, Gibbs. Funny. WRONG. But funny." Neither fandom is mine. There are some verbatim quotes.
In addition, because of the amount of fanfiction I've read, there are most likely scenes and statements that look familiar. I apologize beforehand. I had no intention whatsover of ripping anyone off - your story was so incredible that those little things stuck out clearly, even in my Swiss-cheese memory.
Kathryn, Peter, and Jaime Lin are mine, and that's it.
In this story our Kate is spelled "Cate" because at the time I wasn't sure how the nickname should have been spelled (plus there's another Kate in the story, based on a canon character).
Summary: A Marine major temporarily stationed in New York for a covert operation disappears just days before her assignment.
Author's Note: A two-part story; first part is a "NCIS"/"Without a Trace" crossover. Part two is exclusively "NCIS."
The flashback scenes so common in "Trace" are in italics. I borrow a character from a third fandom (but with full introduction, as if a new character), and there is a teeny weeny reference to another fic (another fandom), but neither are big enough to be confusing.
For those who are unfamiliar with one of the fandoms, I have used these two sites as references. My lack of character development is all my own; decent characterization must be credited to these two dossier sites for their help. Neither site is mine.
"Without a Trace": / dossier.htm.
"NCIS": / characters.htm
Please remove the spaces before and after the slashes in the web addresses. That's the only way I can make the link show up.
"...at 1700. I'll need you to check the money for authenticity when you get it," the bespectacled man continued.
She nodded once.
"I remind you that this assignment is of the utmost importance," the man commented, looking over his bifocals and across his desk to the young woman sitting in the chair in front of him."These Marines have been held for over three months."
The young woman, sitting ramrod straight in the chair, just gave him a nonchalant look. "I know. It was in the file," she replied coolly.
The man shrugged. "Do you have any questions?"
"Where will the pickup be?"
"They're still working that one out. Come by in two days?" The man looked at her expectantly, and she nodded. "Are there any further questions?"
"No sir." The woman stood up at attention.
"I'll be in contact, then. You are dismissed."
The woman turned on her heel and strode out the door.
NAVAL STATION, NEW YORK CITY
Jack Malone flashed his badge at the Marine at the gateway of the small naval station and headed inside, going to the office. His eyes took in the Navy markings and nodded to his agent as the younger man approached.
"Bring back memories?" Martin Fitzgerald grinned.
Jack shrugged, a trace smile on his face. "Eh, Army was better," he replied, getting a bigger grin out of the younger man. "What's going on?"
"Marine Major Kathryn Jalun Lin," Martin replied, reading from his little notepad. "She was supposed to report at 7:30 this morning for a meeting and didn't show."
Jack shrugged, obviously not understanding why they were even there. "We're looking for a UA Marine?" he asked, his tone a little annoyed and incredulous.
Martin shook his head, a tiny smile of fascinated curiousity crossing his face. "Major Lin...is with the Defense Intelligence Agency." That got an interested look out of Jack. "She's here on assignment, too."
"Who was she supposed to report to?"
"Uh," Martin checked his notapd. "James Stockwell."
Jack frowned. "Civilian?"
Martin nodded, then turned and pointed at a building some distance away. "He's keeping an office over there. He's still there, if you want to talk to him."
"What else?"
"Nothing else. Other than what I just told you, it is 'need to know,' and apparently, I don't." Martin's expression was a mix of both amusement and annoyance.
Jack chuckled. "I'll see what I can do, but military brass and 'need to know' translates into 'we're out of luck.' I'll talk to Stockwell. You see if you can't get anything from the people here on base. Get Danny to help you."
Jack was about to head off when he saw his junior agent hesitate. "What?"
The man shrugged, then looked up. "Look, I know that the Army CID came to find you, and that's why we looked for PFC Grant, but this - is this even in our jurisdiction?" the younger man asked. "I mean, she's an on-duty Marine major. Isn't that NIS? Or the MPs?"
"NCIS," Jack corrected, then continued, "You want to leave a missing intelligence agent to retread cops and ex-MPs?"
Martin fidgeted a little and then shrugged.
Jack turned back around and headed over to the youger man. "What?" he asked, looking at the concerned look on Martin's face.
Martin looked at him, then made a face. "Apparently...her disappearance was already called in to the military police," he replied finally. "Some lady was already on the phone while I was still trying to get information. My guess is that NI - NCIS will be up here any minute."
"Are they sending a team up?"
Martin shrugged. "I don't know."
"So why do you look so worried?" Jack asked, shrugging nonchalantly.
Martin sighed and rubbed his forehead. "There are...rumors...legend...something floating around DC about one of the teams," he finally said softly.
Jack crossed his arms and looked up at his agent expectantly.
Martin continued, "Something about one of the agents - ex-Marine, ex-MP, scary as h-ll, with a team as nuts as he is. He's supposedly really good, so if they're going to send anyone, they're going to send him." He shrugged. "Gibbs, or something. Had a few run-ins with the FBI, got the upper-hand on them more times than not."
"I survived Chris Larabee," Jack muttered, a comment that brought an amused chuckle out of Martin. "Can he be worse?" Jack finally looked back up at his agent. "This info from your people down in Washington?"
"Do you want me to make calls?" Martin asked.
"We'll deal with...Agent Gibbs...if he comes. That's a big if." Jack nodded at Martin's notepad. "We check out Maj. Lin's apartment?"
"Samantha and Vivian are there, and they said it looks like no one's been there in three days. Plus, Lin's only been living there six months."
"Before that?"
"Washington."
Jack nodded. "Check everything you can about Washington, get one of the teams down there to check it out."
NCIS HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, DC
"We're booked on a flight out of Reagan in an hour and a half," Gibbs called as he rounded his desk and headed out. "You've got an hour to get down there."
Tony and Cate looked at each other and then grabbed their things and shut down their computers, hurrying after him. "What's going on?" Cate asked as they all squeezed into the elevator.
"Marine went UA in New York."
Tony made a face. "We're going after a UA Marine?"
"She was slated to do a 'need-to-know' assignment for State Department in five days," Gibbs replied.
"Oooh," Tony replied, his interested piqued. "That's different."
"Yeah, I thought so."
MAJ. LIN'S APARTMENT, NYC
"She doesn't seem like a very girly person," Samantha murmured as she poked around the bedroom and looked into the bureau.
"She's a Marine, Sam," Vivian replied as she poked through the refrigerator. Various kinds vegetables, including a few she guessed must've been Asian, and fruit dotted the refrigerator; a gallon of milk; some cheese, peanut butter. In the freezer was meat. "She cooks, though."
"Well, gotta eat to survive," Samantha replied, getting a look from Vivian. She took a step back to examine the open closet. "Everything in here is Marine uniforms and a couple jeans and sweatshirts and stuff."
"Well, it seems she didn't plan to stay through the summer," Vivian commented. "No summer clothes."
"Very utilitarian," Samantha commented as she examined the bed. It was a double bed, made up and neat. She popped up the mattress and started to peek underneath. "It would help if the woman would keep a diary or some photos or something around." Her hand hit a small, flat envelope, and she pulled it out.
"Certainly wasn't going to stay long," Vivian replied. "What've you got?"
Samantha pulled the photo out of the envelope and then held it up to Vivian. As she set the mattress back down, she furrowed her brow and leaned in a little closer and took a whiff. "There's a man's cologne on here."
Vivian looked up from the photo. "You recognize what kind?"
Samantha shook her head. "I'll get some people to come down here and look." She got and looked over the older woman's shoulder at the photo. "Think it's him? He's a cute one."
Vivian held up the photo in front of her. In it was a young version of the major, smiling, wrapped in the arms of a taller man who was smiling as widely as she was. She shook her head and pointed at the date on the bottom of the photo. "I'm not sure. The picture is seven years old; you'd think if they were together she would keep a more recent photo."
Samantha held out a bag, and Vivian popped the photo and the envelope inside.
REAGAN AIRPORT
"What are our tickets?"
"Row 43, A, B, and C," Cate read from the tickets.
"So who wants to sit with the random weirdo?" Tony grinned.
"You can, Tony," Cate replied cheerily. "I'm sure you'll find lots in common."
Tony made a face at her. "How much of a start do you think the FBI have on us?" He asked no one in particular.
"A big one," Gibbs replied shortly as they made their way to the terminal. "There's more of them than us."
"There's always more of them than us," Tony groaned.
"We're LEOs." Gibbs flashed his ID at the airport authority.
"Do we have a bag permit this time?" Tony whispered.
Gibbs nodded with a small smile and pulled one out and handed it to the airport authority.
"OK," the man said, waving them through. "Go on ahead."
"We really need our own plane," Cate groaned as she grabbed her bag off the floor and went through the metal detector.
"That's RIGHT!" Tony crowed in agreement. "I've been tellin' Gibbs that for two years."
"Well, Cate, if your Secret Service pals are ready to hand over an old one," Gibbs commented as he followed them through.
Cate just gave him a look of exasperation, but one without force and belied by the amusement in her eyes. "What, you want an Alpha Foxtrot so you can play the POTUS?"
"I'd make a good commander-in-chief," Gibbs deadpanned as he shouldered his bag and walked past them and started to board the plane.
"Gibbs as president," Tony commented as he and Cate followed. "Now that's an interesting thought."
"More like a nightmare," Cate mumbled as they got on the plane.
NYC FBI OFFICE
"What've we got?" Jack asked, scooting into his chair at the head of the table.
"Marine Kathryn Jalun Lin, age 34, just achieved rank of Major," Martin began. "Officially with the Defense Intelligence Agency, but loaned out to the State Department 'indefinitely' six and a half years ago. She's been working exclusively with the State Department for the past year."
"State Department. What does that sound like to you?" Jack commented, looking over the file.
"One of the A's...CIA, NSA," Vivian replied, shaking her head.
"She was brought up to New York six months ago, apparently just as a temporary assignment," Samantha continued. "She continues to own her apartment in Washington. Washington FBI looked over the place, and they'll be sending a report. Oh." She pulled out a photo. "And our mystery man. No ID yet."
"What are people saying around the station?" Jack asked.
"Nothing much," Danny replied. "Quiet, kept to herself. A few of the Marines said she can be pretty sarcastic, but that the guy she turned on deserved it." He grinned. "That's about it."
"Does anyone even know why she was at the station?" Jack asked, furrowing his brow.
"Nope."
"Did you find out what assignment she was supposed to be doing?" Martin asked, looking up at his boss.
"Nope," Jack replied. "Same...sinking...boat as you were."
The other three looked at each other puzzledly. "What happened?" Vivian finally ventured.
"Lin's assignment was need to know, and apparently even Jack doesn't need to know," Martin replied.
"All right." Jack leaned forward. "We're working this from the inside out. No one talks to anyone outside of that naval station without my approval, and don't answer any questions, no matter how innocent, from any of the people on base unless I approve it. No news, no nothing. We keep this under wraps. I'm not going to have another Greg Pritchard on my hands."
The four nodded.
"Do we have a photo?"
Vivian shook her head. "No photo. Stockwell's not allowed to release anything without permission from his higher up."
Jack nodded. "Vivian, Danny, look into all her credit cards, bank account, everything, government, military, and private, and into her phone records. Martin, I want you to look over the reports coming in from Washington, and Samantha, see what you can find on her mystery man. I'm going to make a phone call to the director, see if he can't get us access to those records. If we're lucky."
Four pairs of eyes shot up to look at him. "Um, maybe Martin could make a call," Samantha suggested.
Jack only looked up at her over his glasses. "I'll make it," he replied shortly. "Dismissed."
Three of the agents got up and scattered as Jack continued to read the file. Sensing somebody standing next to him, he looked up. "Yeah?"
A pair of nervous blue eyes looked down at him. "Jack, I'll make the call if you want me to." Martin looked at him calmly.
Jack continued to look steadily at his newest agent. He knew that Martin was willing to take a wave for the team - he'd shown as much during his confession about what had happened in the drophouse. Jack had to admit he still wasn't sure who was really responsible for the drophouse incident - he suspected that the real story lay somewhere between Martin's "all my fault" version and Vivian's "all my fault" version.
As ambitious as the boy was, Jack was slowly learning that Martin had a sense of honor and independence that refused to allow himself special treatment. The senior FBI agent guessed, however, that if "taking a wave for the team" meant pulling on his contacts, Martin would do it.
"I will," Martin repeated.
Jack kept a serious expression on his face, deciding to test out his theory. "Whatever happened to 'I asked my father to stay out of it, I don't want any preferential treatment'?"
He watched the younger man's face drop a little, then steel back up. He straightened and looked at the older man. "I didn't want to get preferential treatment from my colleagues. I can earn my keep. But this is for the victim, not me."
Jack continued to look at him steadily, and then decided to let a small smile through. He'd been right about the kid.
He had thought about letting Martin make the phone call, but decided against it. It wasn't fair when the boy tried that hard to keep his father out of everything, just to be forced to bring his father in when they needed a favor. "No. I'll make the call. It should be coming from the supervising agent anyhow."
Martin furrowed his brow for an instant, as if he didn't understand, then suddenly his face softened. He straightened and nodded a silent thanks before leaving.
Cate paused a moment, then looked a little surprised. Gibbs, sitting next to her, looked at her curiously. "What?"
"Got an email from Abby," Cate replied, quickly opening it up and scanning it quickly. "She got the information we wanted."
"That was fast."
"Let's see...here's Major Lin's file, and Abby also got the names of the FBI team who is currently running the investigation."
"Ugh, FBI again?" Tony muttered from across the aisle.
"There's more of them than us," Gibbs reminded.
FBI OFFICE
Jack picked up the ringing phone. "Malone."
"Fornell," came a voice over the line as way of introduction.
Jack rolled his eyes. He knew Fornell. Fornell was one of the FBI's top agents down in Washington, much as Jack hated to admit it. He just didn't like Washington in general, and he suspected Fornell had the same dislike of New York. "Well hello, Tobias," he commented with a tone of sarcasm, accenting the man's name. "So nice of you to check by, but I did get the reports from the MisPer unit."
"I'm actually calling under orders from Deputy Director Victor Fitzgerald," Fornell replied, ignoring the obvious baiting. "He told me to call as soon as he found out NCIS was headed up to New York."
"I can handle NCIS, Agent Fornell," Malone replied, clamping the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he reached for a folder on the other side of his desk.
"That's not what I said," Fornell replied coolly. "I'm merely being the messenger boy today, or so it seems. If you hang up on me now you'll just get a call from Agent Freeman when he gets back."
"NCIS is going to need our help. They don't have enough people."
There was a derisive snort on the other end. "Trust me, they won't need it."
"Who are you defending here, Fornell?" Jack asked irritably.
"Agent Malone, NCIS going to do whatever they want to. Those cowboys have got chutzpuh."
"What are you saying?"
"NCIS Special Agent Jethro Gibbs is a hard case."
"You don't think I can't be?"
Fornell ignored him. "Now, if you'd like some advice - "
" - which I don't," Jack replied.
" - I'd suggest you cooperate with NCIS. That will be the only way you stay on the case," Fornell replied.
Malone narrowed his eyes at the comment, then snorted a little derisively. "Agent Fornell, are you speaking from personal experience?"
There was a long silence, and Malone figured, with a strange sense of satisfaction, he had angered the other FBI agent. Instead, there was an amused chuckle. "Agent Malone, did you hear about the case over half a year ago, involving a terrorist who attempted to assassinate the President on Air Force One?"
Malone thought for a moment. "Yes. It involved killing two football carriers first."
"Secret Service, FBI, and the local Wichita coroner were all on board Air Force One before NCIS even got out of Washington," he replied. "NCIS not only managed to delay the departure of Air Force One until they arrived on a commercial airline, they hijacked Air Force One from right under us, then got away with the body even after the senior Secret Service agent ordered his junior agent in charge at Wichita to turn the body over to us."
"So? There's no body here to take. Do they have a profiler?"
"They have one with profiling training. She also happens to have been the junior SS agent in charge at Wichita. She's got balls, Malone - she stood up to NCIS and to us during that case." He paused, and it was almost a smug one. "Unfortunately for you, Agent Gibbs decided to try the 'if you can't beat us, join us' route and managed to con her into joining NCIS."
Malone sighed. He could feel a headache coming on.
"Have a nice day," Fornell replied with mock cheeriness as he clicked off the phone.
"Can I help you, sir?" The security guard asked as the three agents blew into the building.
"NCIS," Gibbs replied, flashing his badge. "I need to talk to Missing Persons."
"They, uh, they're on a case right now, I don't think - "
"What floor?" Gibbs interrupted.
"They could be in a - "
Gibbs reached one long arm over the partition, picked up a directory, and looked at Cate expectantly.
"Jack Malone," Cate supplied, looking at her Palm Pilot. "NYC Missing Persons."
Gibbs quickly flipped through to the name. "He's on the next floor, office on the left." He picked up his bag, dropping the directory on the counter, and started down the hall.
"Sir, I don't think you heard me!" the guard called.
"Oh, he heard you," Tony replied as the three of them brushed past the guard, heading for the stairwell.
The guard followed them up the stairs, which the agents were going up two at a time, and was still shouting after them when the three of them blew into the bullpen.
Gibbs looked at the three agents sitting at the table - a young man, a blonde woman, and a dark-haired man wearing a pair of reading glasses. "Where's Agent Malone?"
The man with the glasses took them off and looked up. "Right here."
Martin came in, reading a file. "Sam, Danny, take a look at this. It - " he noticed the three agents in Jack's office, none of whom were dressed formally. Only the older man looked remotely passable, although it was just a suit jacket thrown on over a polo shirt. "We loosening up our dress code?"
"I wish," Danny replied jokingly, getting a grin out of his colleague.
"They're not with us," Samantha replied.
Martin took a longer look at the office and could see Jack's unhappy expression. He swore under his breath. "NCIS?"
Both Samantha and Danny looked up in surprise. "How'd you know?" Danny asked.
"I've...heard...stories," Martin replied vaguely. "We know which agents they are yet?"
"An Agent...Gibbs," Samantha replied. "We didn't get any names, except that the woman addressed the older man as 'Gibbs.'"
Martin muttered a curse under his breath.
"You OK?" Samantha replied concernedly, looking up from where she sat at her coworker. "Martin?"
"I'm...going...somewhere...anywhere...else..." Martin trailed off as he watched the confrontation in Jack's office escalate. He dropped the file and took off.
Danny and Samantha exchanged looks. "He doesn't look happy about NCIS being here, either," Danny commented.
"Well, Kate Lin IS a Marine officer," Samantha replied. "NCIS has every right to be here. Doesn't hurt that they apparently also had a good word put in from a FBI agent in Washington in a phone call to Jack."
"Really?" Danny looked surprised.
"Direct order from Deputy Director Fitzgerald." Samantha raised her eyebrows in a knowing expression.
"Oooh. Ouch." Danny shook his head as he looked into Jack's office again, eyeing the smirk on the silver-haired man's face. "No wonder that guy's smiling."
"Not a bad smile, either," Samantha commented, flashing one of her own.
Jack gave his team a pained look when he entered again, the three NCIS agents following. They plunked down around the table, and Jack pointed to the timeline. "Here's what we have so far."
"What do you have bagged and tagged?" Gibbs asked.
Jack turned back to him. "Agent Gibbs, there wasn't a crime scene. We searched her apartment, but we can't pack it all up." He paused and pulled out a file. "I will, though, let you take a look at these." Jack slid some photos over to him. "I checked out the uniforms myself just a few hours ago."
Gibbs picked up the photos and flipped through them; they were all of the ribbons and pins on the uniform. He handed one to Cate, gesturing at the ribbons. "What does that look like to you?"
Cate shrugged. "Gibbs, last time I tried to put the ribbons on, I messed - these two are out of order."
A trace smile crossed his face. "Yup."
"So are the ones on picture 5," Jack replied as he sat back down. "That was the second uniform hanging from the left, only this time it's two different ones."
Gibbs looked up, mild surprise on his face. "You know your ribbons."
"I was in the Army for a stint," Malone replied. "I have some knowledge of it, but apparently whoever tampered with her uniforms didn't."
Tony suddenly straightened. "Gibbs. What if it's - "
"Lacing the uniform with poison? I don't think so," Gibbs replied, continuing to examine the photos.
"Why not?" Cate asked.
Gibbs held up a photo to his two agents, in which a human hand could be seen holding the uniform flat. It was ungloved. "I believe this is Agent Malone's thumb, ungloved, and he's is alive and kicking."
"I had the uniforms bagged and they're being looked at," Malone replied. "Beyond prints, I don't think there would be anything else." He rubbed a hand on his face. "Unfortunately, so far no prints have shown up, not any beyond hers."
The heads snapped up. "Well, somebody had to have rearranged the ribbons," Gibbs replied. "They don't just get up and walk around."
The two men stared at each other for a moment, Tony and Cate looking between them. "Unless the person having them cleaned isn't Major Lin," Gibbs muttered, and got confirming nod from Malone.
FBI FORENSICS EVIDENCE ROOM
Martin and Samantha watched patiently as Tony and Cate examined what evidence there was. Gibbs had been a real hardnose, insisting his agents look over the things. Jack had been unusually cooperative, saying some vague about NCIS possibly just taking the evidence if they couldn't look at it.
When Tony got to the bagged sheets, he pulled them out with his gloved hands and took just one cursory whiff of the bedsheets and comforter. "It's Bellagio," he declared. At the few puzzled looks, he clarified, "The cologne."
"He's like a bloodhound," Martin muttered as Cate and Samantha both looked at him in surprise.
Tony looked up to see them all staring at him. He shrugged defensively. "What?"
"OK, so now we got to find a guy wearing Bellagio," Cate commented. "Who can we rule out?"
"Well, any guy at the naval station," Samantha replied. "Danny said that apparently she didn't talk to any of them, except to light into one who tried to hit on her, thinking she was a civilian, and to smile at a second lieutenant who accidentally bowled her over and then nearly had a panic attack because of it."
"Well then, that's where we start," Tony replied, shoving the sheets back into the bag. He looked up to see the two FBI agents looking at him with suspicious doubt. "What, you think that's cold?"
"Very."
"Good. It means I'm focused," Tony replied with a grin as he headed over to the sink to wash off.
Samantha made a face as she and Martin headed out of the room. "I hope I'm never that focused."
Cate just chuckled out loud as she began to reshelve the bags of evidence. Tony turned to look at her and shrugged. "What?"
"That was very...Gibbs of you, Tony." Cate grinned. "And, I must say I was impressed by your...keen sense of smell."
He frowned and made a face. "DON'T say it."
She looked up innocently. "I wasn't about to say anything."
"You were thinking it," he replied.
"Thinking what?"
"That I'm like some dog," he replied.
"I was?" Cate replied. "Well, if I wasn't, I certainly am now."
Tony rolled his eyes.
NEW YORK NAVAL STATION
Stockwell sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "We do not need the FBI and NCIS playing internal affairs for our agency," he replied shortly.
"We don't aim to, Mr. Stockwell," Jack replied just as curtly. "We have a job to do, and when we find the Major, your agency can deal with her."
"What makes you think that she planned to run with the money?" Gibbs asked.
"It was about...a week ago." Stockwell sighed. "She...was talking with somebody else."
The man, his arms akimbo, looked down at the smaller woman. "You do understand."
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Yes, I understand the deal."
"$10 mil is a lot," he said slowly, eyeing her carefully.
"I know."
The man rocked on his feet a little and then said, "Remember who's paying you."
Jack shrugged. "That's it? That's nothing. You can't do anything with that."
"Well, problem number one is that she wasn't supposed to know yet how much money was involved," Stockwell replied. "Problem number two, that guy she talked to was not working for me."
"Who was the man?" Gibbs asked.
"I couldn't see. It was very dark, and they were talking very softly. And she was supposed to be reporting to me. If she's taking orders from somebody else, I want to know who. We're trying to keep this one as hush as possible."
"What did you do after this?"
"It was enough to get me to track her cell phone," Stockwell replied. "We had a few calls here and there that sounded somewhat suspicious."
"So why would she run now, when she doesn't even have the money?" Jack asked.
"I don't know. Maybe she knew we were on to her." Stockwell groaned and rubbed his temples.
Gibbs crossed his arms. "So what are YOU going to do?"
Danny shook his head as he finally came out of the lieutenant's room. "No Bellagio. He's wearing Polo Sport when we does wear it."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Well, he must be saving that for his big dates, because he's got bottles of the even cheaper Walmart kind." He rolled his eyes as he got to his feet and looked around. "Maybe the guy threw the bottle out."
"If he did, then it could be long gone in the trash," Danny pointed out.
Tony thought for a minute, then added somberly, "Plus, Bellagio's a little expensive to be just throwing out."
"Find anything?" Samantha asked.
Cate chucked the clothes she's been going through back onto the bed. "Nope," she muttered in frustration. "You?"
"Nothing."
"All I got over here is gum stuck on the floor and a bag of old moldy chips." Cate made a face. "Some days this job is really disgusting."
Samantha chuckled as they exited the room. "You, uh, been at NCIS long?"
"Not that long," Cate replied. "Just a year."
Samantha looked at her. "What made you go to NCIS?"
"Oh, work was more fun at NCIS," Cate replied vaguely. "No suits." She smiled, and Samantha laughed. "What other men are in this major's life?"
"Well, we're still looking for that mystery man in the photo, but besides that, she has a brother living in Ohio, and that's it."
"This brother of hers - she still talk to him? Would she contact him?"
"I don't know," Samantha replied. "We were planning on going down there tonight."
Cate's eyes darted up to her face. "Mind if I tag along?"
Martin and Vivian looked up as Samantha, Danny, and the three NCIS agents piled into the bullpen. Martin opened his mouth to say something, but Samantha shook her head slightly at him. Outside, Jack strode right past the bullpen, heading for his office.
They watched as Gibbs plunked his things into his chair.
"Wow," Vivian murmured. "He looks really mad."
Martin look a sidelong glance at his colleague, then back at the rest of the group. As Danny passed by, he said quietly, "I take it the trip didn't go so well?"
Danny shook his head. "Jack and Gibbs wouldn't say anything on the way back," he said in a low voice.
Just then Jack came back in, heading straight for the whiteboard and writing in another mark. Vivian had had enough. "Jack!" Her no-nonsense tone shone through; she would not be stalled. "What happened."
"Stockwell's decided that the Major is no longer his business," Malone replied shortly as he turned around. "He's going to cut her loose."
There were a few confused looks.
"We kind of found out why the Major is in New York," Jack explained. "She's supposed to be overseeing a pickup of money for a hostage situation. Stockwell doesn't know where she is or what she's doing, so he's going to replace her."
"Stockwell," Gibbs finally spoke, "is convinced that Lin is rogue and is going to run with the money."
Danny frowned. "She doesn't even have it. The pickup isn't for three days. Where's the logic in that?"
"There isn't any," Jack replied. He nodded to the others. "What did you find?"
"Uh, nothing in either one of the rooms," Danny replied, speaking for all four. "We tracked down the list of their friends, too. None of them wear Bellagio."
"There were a couple colognes we weren't sure of," Samantha supplied, "but Agent DiNozzo doesn't seem to think they'd match the scent on the sheets although we're still having forensics check."
Jack nodded to his agents. "Danny, Martin, I want you guys to go down to Washington. Get your stuff together. Get in contact with the agents down there and sweep everything." The two nodded and hurried off to their desks. "Samantha, you and Viv go check out this brother of Lin's." When she hesitated, Jack nodded at her.
Samantha quickly gathered up her things, about to go, when Cate touched her arm. "Oh, Jack." Samantha looked up at her boss. "Cate...Cate wants to know if she can come."
Tony looked at his colleague with an obvious question in his expression: 'You're on first-name terms already?'
Jack and Gibbs both turned to Cate with an inquiring look in their eyes. She just shrugged.
Jack looked between Samantha and Cate, and then said, "Fine. You take Agent Todd. I'm going to keep Viv here, then."
"Tony," Gibbs replied without further comment as he continued to read his file. "Escort Agents Fitzgerald and Taylor down to Washington."
Everything stopped. Martin and Danny looked at each other, and then at Jack, and then to Gibbs. Just a few feet away, Tony's eyes darted from his boss to Jack and then back.
Malone turned to Gibbs, a defiant expression on his face. "They do not need help," he said quietly, out of earshot of the two junior agents. "My agents are highly capable."
Gibbs turned to look at him intently. "Tony, go grab your gear," he replied, not looking at his agent but staring daringly at the FBI supervisor. Tony skittered off. "Well, Agent Malone," he said in a low voice, "so's mine."
Story Notes:
"Nine Lives, Part II" is "NCIS" only. posted to FF.net 3/21-4/2/04
Author's Chapter Notes:
A Marine major temporarily stationed in New York for a covert operation disappears just days before her assignment. ("NCIS"/"Without a Trace" crossover)
Chapter End Notes:
"Nine Lives, Part II" is "NCIS" only. posted to FF.net 3/21-4/2/04