"Major, that doesn't look good," Cate said, looking down at what was a clumsily bandaged wound on her leg. "We need to get you to a hospital."
"Just a flesh wound," she replied, never taking her eyes off of them. "How did you find me?"
"It wasn't easy," Gibbs began.
"It wasn't supposed to be," she retorted, glaring at Gibbs. "So, Tweedledee, wanna tell me why Tweedledum here was snooping in my apartment?"
"What am I, yesterday's leftovers?" Cate muttered.
The major obviously had pretty good hearing, because she heard it and snapped, "You can be their manager. You'd make a pretty buck showcasing these two idiots." She shoved her weapon deeper into Tony's back. "Answers! Now!"
"We're investigating your, quote unquote, 'death,'" Cate replied.
"Well, I'm not dead, so you don't need to investigate anymore."
"We'd like to know why you were pretending you were," Gibbs replied with just a hint of sarcasm, crossing his arms.
"What do you think?"
"Easier to move around," Tony supplied from where he was sitting.
"One point for Einstein here," Lin retorted.
"Webb doesn't seem to know where you are," Gibbs tried, watching her closely.
"So?" At his look, she laughed harshly. "I'm not rogue."
"How do we know?"
"Just 'cause I don't call him doesn't mean I went rogue."
A small smile crossed Gibbs' face. He knew he had her. He'd use Webb's weak spot to get some answers - using Sarah MacKenzie to find out what Lin's phone call to Webb really meant. The major's weak spot was not wanting to be branded as a turncoat.
"It's a little...hinky," he replied, still eyeing her. "Especially when he ditched you for Col. MacKenzie on the trip to Paraguay."
She rolled her eyes. "I don't speak Farsi or Spanish."
"So? She's a JAG lawyer."
"I was busy changing diapers in Booniesville," she retorted. "Happy?"
"Look," Tony interjected. "I'm kinda cold, here. Can we go?"
"Not unless you want to die," Lin retorted. "You just stepped right into quicksand, coming to my apartment."
Tony straightened. "Whaddya mean?"
"Well, not only do they now know you're still on the case, they know I'm alive." She shrugged. "And now they know you know it, too."
NCIS HQ
In the light of Ducky's autopsy room, it was definite she was the Major Lin they had been searching for. When Ducky was treating the wound on her calf, he had pulled up her pants leg, and they'd seen her knees - scratched and bruised. Her face looked like she had run into a door, repeatedly, and her chin was scratched badly. The fingers on her left hand were still blistered from having fought with the warehouse heater back in New York, and there were still some burn marks on her wrists, most likely where she accidentally bumped her arms into the heating coil while trying to melt the handcuffs off.
She looked like she'd just come out of a war zone.
"Well, Major, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Ducky smiled as he moved about the examining room, attending to the young Marine. "Although I expected you in a slightly...different...form."
The woman smiled in a rare gesture of softness that she seemed to reserve only for the elderly ME. "I'm on your tables anyhow," she said, making the ME chuckle as he pulled out the needle and thread.
"Yeah, except this body'll talk back," DiNozzo muttered.
"How bad's the wound?" Cate asked.
"Not bad," Ducky replied as he stitched up the Marine major. "But it was getting a little infected, and I found little bits of leaves and twigs caught in it." He shook a chastising finger at the young woman. "You shouldn't be running around the way you are."
"Don't have a choice."
"These aren't your clothes, are they?" Ducky asked as he cleaned up his tools.
"No."
The four watched as the major slowly sat up, looking weary and groggy, her hair still mussed and matted with dirt. The clothes in question were torn and muddy, and certainly too large for her. They waited for her to continue with her answer. When she didn't, Tony asked in a joking manner, "So how'd you get 'em? A la Michael Biehn in 'Terminator'?"
Cate couldn't help a small smile of amusement.
"No," the major replied curtly as she winced slightly, swinging her legs around the edge of the table. "I don't rob stores."
Tony's grin slowly faded. "You're wearing a dead man's clothes?" He shuddered.
"It's not like he needed them," she replied sarcastically. At four inquiring looks, she finally replied, "A la Arnold Schwarzenegger, OK?"
A thought suddenly occurred to Tony, and he backed away a little, his joking tone turning wary. "You...shot him for his clothes?"
She rolled her eyes and replied with an even heavier sarcasm evident in her voice, "I liked his Rolex." She slid off the table and turned to Ducky. The sarcasm was gone, but it was still a detached, albeit polite, tone. "Doctor, thank you very much for your help."
"You can't be walking around with that wound, Major," Ducky protested.
She only looked at him and went to get her jacket, for a brief moment weaving unsteadily, something noticed by the others.
"When's the last time you slept?" Cate asked softly.
"I can catch up when I'm dead," she replied shortly, slipping her arms back into her coat.
Gibbs looked at Ducky. It seemed that the Major had a soft spot for the grandfatherly ME, and at the moment it appeared only Ducky, if anyone, could get the Major to do anything.
The ME nodded, understanding what Gibbs was signaling, and approached the woman. "Major, just for tonight. We'll wake you in a few hours, but sleep here in the room. We'll lock all the doors, and no one should be coming in at this hour, anyhow."
For the first time, the weariness in her face showed, and without argument, she limped back to the table.
Gibbs turned her back to the Major and said out loud, "Get a blanket from storage, Cate." To Tony, he mouthed, "Get Webb."
"Did you find him?" Gibbs asked when Tony reappeared, now in the bullpen, and grabbed his coat.
"Yup. He's coming right now. I'm going to the door to let him in before anyone starts asking questions."
Gibbs nodded and continued to work. Next to him at her desk, Cate typed away.
A soft voice coughed slightly, and both agents looked up to see a serious-looking Ducky, who looked a little weary.
"Did you get any food into her?" Gibbs asked, finally looking up.
Ducky shook his head. "I gave her some crackers, the least stimulating food I could find. She vomited it all. I'm afraid our Major's weak stomach was made all the worse by the fact that she hasn't eaten for a few days. I think I'll try something later, though. I will have to go to the supermarket."
Cate got up out of her chair and grabbed her coat. "If you give me a list, I'll go get whatever it is you need."
Ducky shook his head. "Perhaps later, Caitlin. The poor child has finally fallen asleep, and I think that's more necessary than anything right now. Although, I think there is something you should see."
Gibbs got up without another word and strode around his desk. As he passed by Cate's, he gave her a silent look - "Aren't you coming?" She got up and hurried after the two men.
Outside the door to his examining room, Ducky stopped. "Look."
Gibbs and Cate peeked in through the small window, and Cate gasped. "She's gone. How'd she get - "
"She's in the corner," Gibbs interrupted.
Lin was sitting in a corner, her back to the walls, right across from the doorway. The blanket they had swiped and given to her was wrapped tightly around her, but one arm hung out from underneath it, and Cate could see her sidearm in her hand. She was obviously asleep, her head leaning against one wall, her mouth slightly open.
Cate turned to her boss and saw Ducky looking expectantly at him as well. Gibbs just pressed his lips together into a thin line.
"Hey, what're we all lookin' at?" DiNozzo announced in his usual, blustery manner as he came in, followed by the smaller CIA agent. He poked his head into the spot where Cate's had been. "Hey, she's gone."
"She's in the corner," Gibbs repeated again. He turned to Webb. "Made it."
Webb only shrugged. "Is that door locked?"
"She asked it to be," Ducky replied. He handed the man a key.
"I need two large cups of hot water, and a third empty cup," Webb replied without explanation. They looked puzzled, but Tony finally slipped away to get it. Ever so gently and quietly, the agent opened the door - almost silently - and slipped inside.
"Why's he got Gatorade and Ensure?" Cate asked.
The CIA agent had barely stepped in when Lin, startled out of her sleep, pointed her sidearm at him instinctively. She then looked confused when she saw him. The agent went over, and the two slipped into a hushed conversation.
Webb looked down at her, frowning. "You eat within the last 48 hours?"
"Yes. Some Saltines."
Webb crossed his arms. "And when was the last time before that?"
Her eyes shot daggers at him, then muttered, "Three days before."
"Let me guess," Webb said sarcastically. "You vomited when you ate." Her silence confirmed his statement. He pulled her to her feet and pushed her into one of the chairs in the examining room. "Sit. You know you're supposed to eat," he retorted.
The woman's eyes flashed. "Well, between being almost blown up and shot at, I was a little pressed for time."
"Then you MAKE it. You know you have a weak stomach and bad blood sugar." He saw her shift in her seat. "Your stomach's killing you, isn't it." He smirked knowingly when she didn't reply. "Did you go see the GI doctor I recommended?"
"You asked me that last time I was in Washington."
"You didn't go, did you."
"No time."
"You'll make time, or I'll call your brother."
"Is that a threat?" She paused, then smirked, "Peter doesn't push me to do anything. He'll worry, but he won't push."
"Yeah," Webb retorted smugly, "but your sister-in-law will. She'll tie you up and throw you into the trunk of her car if that's what it takes." When her silence acknowledged the truth of it, he smirked. "I knew I liked her."
"I'm not going," the major said stubbornly. "Waste of time."
"How is that a waste of time?!"
"Oh come on. All they're going to ask is, 'Does your job give you stress? Have you considered changing occupations?'" She rolled her eyes and leaned back in the chair, wrapping the blanket more tightly around her.
Webb just watched her steadily for a moment, then said quietly, "You should consider it."
She sat up with a frown, her brow furrowed suspiciously.
"Jeff would kill me if he found out what you're doing now," Webb commented softly.
"Well," she retorted, although without the requisite force, "he's not alive anymore to do that, now is he." She leaned back again, not looking at him, essentially ending the conversation.
Just then the door opened and in came DiNozzo. His eyes flickered from one to the other, and he twitched a little, getting the sense that he had just walked into a private conversation. He slowly set down two steaming cups of hot water and gave the extra empty cup to the agent. Webb took it without so much as a thanks and changed the subject. "They know you're alive, I guess."
Lin glared at DiNozzo. "Yeah."
"How?"
"I went back to my apartment," she replied shortly. "I thought maybe they might have been watching it, so I wanted to check to see."
Webb furrowed his brow as he twisted open one of the Gatorade containers. "Why would they watch your apartment?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I would. Wouldn't you?"
Webb just shrugged. "How did you end up here?"
Her venomous look came back. "NCIS apparently decided to continue their investigation."
"You can't blame Gibbs," Tony argued, his eyes beginning to flash with annoyance. "If you faked your death, you didn't do it all that well. Gibbs' gut was still churning."
"That's why they make Maalox," Lin retorted.
Webb gave DiNozzo a look, and the NCIS agent retreated, still staring somewhat angrily at the Major. "Why didn't you call?" Webb asked sharply as he poured some of the hot water into one of the other cups.
"Somebody's been tracing my cell calls."
Webb handed the hot water to the major. "Drink. Slowly." He took a container of the Gatorade, then poured some into the third, still empty, cup and poured some hot water into it and swished it around. "Start drinking this, not too much tonight. Make sure you mix some hot water with it so it settles more easily on your stomach; it's a little cold. The Ensure is for later. Should give you enough energy and keep you from throwing up. Everything it taken with hot water to make it warm."
She nodded.
"She OK?" Cate asked when DiNozzo came out of the examining room.
"Oh yeah, she is FINE," DiNozzo retorted. The other three looked a little surprised at the angry tone.
"Learn anything?" Gibbs asked.
"Only that she thinks you should take Maalox when your gut churns," DiNozzo snorted, obviously not happy with the major. "And that she is PARA-NOID. She's convinced people are watching her apartment and tracing her cell calls, even though she's supposed to be dead."
The four of them watched as the well dressed CIA agent stood and conversed with the Marine, as she forced herself to gulp down whatever was in the cup.
"Wilderness of mirrors," Cate murmured. "I...I'm going to go get some coffee."
The three men continued to watch the scene in the examining room for a couple minutes before Gibbs too turned and headed out.
"What's that, Ducky?" DiNozzo asked. "Wilderness of mirrors?"
"Wilderness of mirrors," Ducky replied. "It was coined by the great British poet T. S. Eliot in his poem 'Gerontion' and used often by James Angleton. It is used to describe the general world of intelligence - of the spy, if you will - but also the specific problem of paranoia displayed by some intelligence officers when they believe they have no one left to trust."
"A little like what Gibbs' old CO had? Colonel Ryan?" At Ducky's nod, Tony looked at him with an unreadable expression. "Do you think she's got the same thing? Schizophrenia?"
Ducky looked at the young woman inside. "Well, she may be paranoid, but the truth of the matter is that people were watching her apartment and tapping her cell phone. And she's not shown any signs of schizophrenia."
Tony acknowledged that. "Yeah."
"I don't know what's sorrier," Ducky murmured, watching the two in his examining room. "If the major would be schizophrenic or if there really would be that many people out to get her."
Tony watched as the ME's shoulders drooped ever so slightly as he walked away.
Cate held the cup of coffee in her two hands, trying to warm them. Beside her, Gibbs silently poured himself a cup. "I thought you didn't like this coffee," she said, her attempt at some humor coming out flat.
Gibbs shrugged, and looked at her steadily. "You all right?"
Cate fell silent, sipping her coffee for a moment. "Do you...do you think she might be...maybe she's suffering from some psychological disorder?" she asked quietly, still looking down into her cup. "These guys chasing her are all in her head?" Her unspoken question hung between them.
Gibbs' eyes searched her face, and he replied bluntly, "Like Colonel Ryan."
Cate sighed. She hadn't meant to open up THAT can of worms, but since Gibbs opened it, it was fair game now. "Yeah. Kind of."
Gibbs looked at her steadily for a moment before answering her initial question. "No. Not yet, anyhow."
Webb ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "So they know you're alive."
"Not all of them. And the explosion was pretty believable."
"I'm going to have to send somebody else in."
"No."
"They'll shoot you on sight. Whoever is working for Stockwell knows that you know about them."
"You told them you had a female who could speak Serbian," Lin retorted. "You change on them, and they'll know that you know I'm alive. Blows the whole works. Everything rides on the fact that they think you don't know what they're doing."
"So we find another female who speaks Serbian," Webb replied. At Lin's incredulous look, he shrugged. "We'll have to look hard." He paused a moment, then narrowed his eyes. His voice held a tone of discovery as he said, "Agent Todd."
"What?"
"Cate Todd. I looked up all the agents looking for you while you were missing. Todd speaks Serbian."
"Gibbs'll NEVER let you use her," Lin replied, almost amused by what she considered a ludicrous idea.
"You're going to have to sell it right," Webb replied, a trace smile crossing his face.
"It was your idea," Lin protested. When Webb only grinned, she rolled her eyes. "You really are cutting me loose right in the lion's den."
"Daniel survived." A small grin appeared on Webb's face.
"He had help," Lin retorted, but even she couldn't help at the small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "A lot of it. And very good help - way better than yours."
Webb crossed his arms, and then chuckled. "You're afraid to ask him."
"Yeah!" At his smirk, she shrugged, defensively and slightly embarrassedly. "Gibbs'll never let you get away with this."
"You're going to have to sell it just right," Webb repeated.
NEXT MORNING, NCIS HQ
"Hey Tony," Cate commented as she walked into the bullpen.
"Uh huh?"
"Who was that person that Lin was calling for - when she told Gibbs to call for his backup?"
Tony furrowed his brow at her. "What?"
"Black...Blackadder, or something." Cate shrugged. "Who's that?"
"Ah. Viv." Tony grinned. "Viv Blackadder. She was a beaut," he said, causing Cate to roll her eyes. "She was with us just a couple months, though. Went back to the FBI."
"FBI." Cate grinned. "That why Gibbs hates the Fibbies so much?"
"Nah. He never liked 'em."
"That why Blackadder left?" Cate asked.
"You're asking if Gibbs chased her away?" At Cate's look, Tony shook his head. "Nope."
"So, what?" Cate smirked. "You tried to hit on her too many times?"
"Ha! Funny, Cate." DiNozzo made a face. "No...I think she was most likely feeling kind of bad. She almost got Gibbs killed once," he said in a low voice. "Well, all of us, but Gibbs was in front."
"On purpose?" Cate asked, a little more brightly than usual.
"Nooo," DiNozzo replied, looking slightly horrified at the prospect of Viv trying to kill anyone intentionally, especially Gibbs.
"Too bad," Cate commented, just so she could see DiNozzo's face when he heard it. Sure enough, Tony looked even more horrified. She chuckled to herself. Too easy. Way too easy.
"What?" Gibbs asked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
"Uh, nothing, boss," Tony replied. "Just discussing the case." He and Cate exchanged small smiles. Whew.
"So, what are we going to do with Lin now?" Cate asked. "We can't just keep her here."
"Well, we still don't know who was on that fishing boat, do we?" Gibbs replied, still working on his computer.
Cate nodded. "Nope."
"Cate." She looked up. "Blackadder accidentally blew our cover. That's how we were almost killed."
Cate and Tony exchanged looks.
Gibbs finally stopped pacing the tiny interrogation room where they had sequestered the major. "So who was blown up?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"If we figured right, hopefully three of the schmucks who sold me out."
"So you still didn't get the pickup," Cate said for confirmation.
Lin shook her head. "It became a double job - preparing for this new pickup and trying to figure out who's been undermining the whole thing in the meantime."
"'Became'?" Gibbs asked, referring to her use of the past tense.
"Well, Webb was playing dumb with Stockwell, pretending that I was dead and promising somebody else to do this rescheduled pickup. That's why I couldn't call him, because somebody was tracing my cell phone calls. The deal was that I was going to do the pickup again, under disguise. That was why I was 'killed off' the first time, just so Stockwell would think I was really dead." Lin ran a frustrated hand through her hair.
"So who's going to do the pickup, then?" Tony asked.
"Oh. I was thinking...one of you."
Tony laughed out loud, and Cate chuckled. Gibbs only stared at the Marine stoically; he had the sinking feeling that she was serious.
When the woman only raised a smug eyebrow, the other two fell silent. "You're serious," Cate replied.
"Well, yeah," she replied.
"Why can't you do it?" Gibbs asked shortly.
Lin gave him an incredulous look. "I just explained that."
"They know you're alive and that you know something. They'd most likely shoot you on sight," Tony mused, understanding dawning.
"Einstein's got two points now."
"Yeah, but this doesn't concern NCIS," Gibbs replied coldly. He ignored the indignant look of protest on Cate's face and Tony's surprised look at his tone. He knew that Lin was going to pull a stunt with his agents, and he wasn't about to let it happen.
The Major shrugged. "Well, besides our 'bad guys' and Webb, you're the only ones who know I'm alive."
"So why doesn't Webb just arrange somebody else to do the pickup?"
"After the boat was blown up, he told them he had arranged for another person to do the rescheduled pickup. They still think that he doesn't know what's going on - they still think that he thinks I'm dead. If he attempts to contact anyone else about doing the pickup, they'll think he knows something." She paused. "Did you catch all that?"
"Who did he say was going to do the pickup?" Gibbs asked in exasperation.
"I was chosen because I speak Serbian. He told them they would have another female who speaks Serbian for the new pickup."
Cate sat up a little straighter. "I speak Serb - "
"Don't you think Stockwell would've been suspicious in the first place if there was another Serbian-speaking female to do the pickup?" Gibbs interrupted Cate and eyed Lin suspiciously.
"Well, not after that explosion," she retorted. "But now, yes."
"There aren't any other officers who can fill this place," Gibbs said in a tone of utter disbelief.
"Not unless you want seven more Marines blown to hell by a delay," she replied caustically.
Tony and Cate were watching the exchange as it grew more heated. Tony was obviously nervous enough, seeing how infuriated Gibbs was. Cate was nervous as well. She plucked Tony's sleeve. "I think...I want some coffee. Don't you?" Tony looked at her puzzledly, then followed.
"You can't have her," Gibbs hissed the minute Cate and Tony were gone. He stepped closer to tower over the woman.
She was wholly unbothered; in fact, she looked almost amused as she smirked. "What makes you think I was talking about Agent Todd?"
"We're not in your military chain of command," Gibbs replied. "You can't make it an order for Cate to go."
"Oh," she said airily, a slow, ferally dangerous grin spreading on her face. "I wasn't going to resort to that."
"I'd like to see you try," Gibbs challenged. "I don't put my agents in the life of fire unnecessarily, particularly for another agency."
She shrugged and replied coolly, "There are worse things than being in the line of fire."
Gibbs only raised an eyebrow.
"Being fired from NCIS for fraternization," she clarified cheerily, as if talking about the weather. "Agent Todd unfortunately already has a mark on her record about why she had to quit the Secret Service." She shook her head in mocking sorrow. "Bad way to go."
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Dissing my agents is not the way to curry my favor."
Lin ignored him and continued on. "I mean, she'll be alive, but leaving TWO agencies for getting involved with her colleagues?" She pursed her lips thoughtfully and shook her head. "Not good. Certainly not good."
She went on as if weaving a story on the spot. "Really, that whole case leading up to her Secret Service resignation...the naval commander, the Marine major who died.... I'm sure it's still puzzling to everyone as to why Agent Todd even allowed you to take Alpha Foxtrot 29000. You know, her Secret Service supervising agent indicated in his report that she defended you VEEEERY nicely on the phone." She bounced her eyebrows at him.
Gibbs' jaw worked slowly, his ire rising. He had a sinking feeling he knew where this was going.
"And then she lets you return with her to pick up the President from Los Angeles?" Lin laughed in mock amusement. "Everyone else was vetted by the Secret Service for years...except for you. With what just happened, why would she even let you on board?"
Lin pretended to think some more, as if thoroughly enjoying this storytelling. As a matter of fact, Gibbs couldn't be sure she wasn't. "Then, of course, there was the report from a Major Pritchard, who was carrying the football that day. Quite an interesting read, actually." She pretended to be think. "Something about you two in a bathroom" she raised her eyebrows in mock interest "and you two right after you shot the terrorist." She paused with an amused grin. "That's one interesting report. You should read it," she added brightly.
"Any tabloid would have a field day with that one." She leaned back in her chair and held up a hand in the air, as if motioning to an imaginary paper. "Can't you see the headlines? Of course, it would be something about NCIS keeping apart two people based on some...'silly'...regulations. Isn't it always? Stupid rules," she said in a sarcastic tone that obviously showed she thought the rules were right. "Heaven forbid that an agency try to keep supervisors from making rash decisions about junior agents they're dating. Of course, that's not how it's going to look to the public."
Suddenly she sat up, as if she just thought of something. "And what if your director sees this story?" she asked in mock horror. "Right on the front page of the Enquirer as he's waiting in the supermarket lane to buy a candy bar?"
Gibbs watched her steadily, his eyes icy. "There are facts, and then there are stories."
At that, she laughed mirthlessly. "And facts can be spun into stories."
Tony looked over at Cate as they sat in the cafeteria. "You all right?"
"Was I...like...that...?" Cate asked, somewhat fearfully and nervously. "I mean, y'know, all...."
"Mean, ungrateful sack of excr - "
"Yeah."
Tony shook his head. "Nah." He paused at her disbelieving look. "Well, not like THAT anyhow." At her doubtful look, he nodded, his voice getting a little more earnest. "You were protecting your turf, and pretty well, too. I've never seen Gibbs work that well with another agency yet." Tony wanted to reassure her. Cate had taken out the time to talk to him when they had gone out to the carrier and met Stan Burley, and he wanted to repay her kindness.
Plus, it wasn't like what he was saying wasn't true. Most women were either scared of Gibbs, when he didn't feel like being nice, which was most of the time, or overly infatuated with him - the redheads, when he decided he wanted to charming. Cate was one of the few who was neither - even after joining NCIS, she said stuff to Gibbs that neither Tony nor, he was sure, even Abby would say.
Tony nodded. Yeah, he was sure now. "I bet that's why he hired you, because you mark your territory and protect it."
Cate nodded, her heart warmed a little by Tony's words. She was almost afraid that she had been as cold and as much of a pain in the rear as Lin was now. As she mused over what Tony had said, she shook her head as she smiled. "You make me sound like a bulldog."
Tony grinned and then decided to yank her chain. "Is that your tattoo? A bulldog?" He thought it over a moment. "You're certainly not a bulldog girl."
Cate groaned audibly.
Tony snorted. "Are you kidding? He grinned. "You know the day you and Fornell came in to the office to talk about Trapp?" At Cate's nod, he chuckled. "After you allowed Gibbs to come along, and the two of you left, you should've seen Abby's face." He imitated the lab tech. "'Wow. Gibbs said PLEASE.'"
At that, the woman couldn't help but smile, and Tony grinned, happy to have put her back into a good mood. "Nah, don't worry about it. I think the only thing we'd have to worry about is where to hide the body if Gibbs kills Major Lin...and then, well, it wouldn't be that hard to sneak her into her coffin."
Cate just laughed.
"Of course, I suppose this wouldn't reflect AS badly on Agent Todd," Lin suddenly commented with mock disappointment. "She is, of course, the junior, not the supervising agent," she continued, looking pointedly at Gibbs. "For somebody who messed up pretty badly on the Secret Service detail," she slowed a little, smirking as her words sank in, "you sure picked her up REAL fast." The dry rasp in her voice gave double meaning to her words.
Gibbs only stared back, not even allowing himself to twitch. Few things angered him, but her insinuations were infuriating. The way she was putting it, it sounded like - well, he wasn't going to say. He knew that the woman wanted Cate to do the pickup and was attempting to blackmail him into not objecting. Yeah, he would allow Cate to do the assignment - over his dead body.
He wondered briefly whose idea this was - hers or Webb's. Or both.
"Such a shame," Lin sighed in mock disappointment. "Two brilliant careers...at the mercy of Internal Affairs...no, maybe Office of Public Relations. Is it OPR here or IA?" she asked in pretend puzzlement. "I don't remember."
She smirked. "But that's all it would take, isn't it? One anonymous comment sent into the those guys, and bam!" She paused to smile ferally. "You know what they say, Agent Gibbs...romance between agents never works." She paused again, then added saucily, "Especially with your boss."
The woman paused contemplatively. "Poor Agent DiNozzo...wonder who he'll be left to. Once you and Agent Todd are gone, he'll be reassigned, of course. I'm sure Director Morrow would do everything in his power to settle him with an appropriate boss, even if just out of respect for you," she said with mock solemness. "But Agent DiNozzo...he just doesn't seem to get along well with other supervising agents." She sighed theatrically. "It's such a shame what a...a simple rumor can do. Rumors are powerful, powerful things, Agent Gibbs."
Gibbs resisted the urge to reach out and shake her. He'd never laid a hand on a woman before, even in anger, and he certainly had no intention of doing it now. This was, though, the closest he'd ever come to it. "I'm surprised you'd stoop that low, Major."
She stopped spinning around in her chair to look at him in surprise, although Gibbs was pretty sure this was a show for his benefit, too. "You don't think...," she said in disbelief, then suddenly laughed mirthlessly. "Please, Agent Gibbs," she said with sarcastic amusement. "Just because Clay wears a three piece suit and I wear Marine greens doesn't mean we're that different."
Gibbs shook his head. He had to admit to being somewhat disappointed. He'd spent that much time and energy searching for...this? He'd gone to New York, wrangled with the FBI, seen FBI Special Agent Vivian Johnson nearly get a bullet in the head, nearly gotten himself and Cate blown up, nearly gotten Tony shot, for...this?
As if reading his mind, she smirked. "Webb told you to stop looking." She shrugged. "You wouldn't, and now you're going to have to deal with consequences."
"Speaking of consequences," Gibbs replied icily, "you don't seem more worried I'll turn you in for blackmail."
She looked at him a moment and just snorted amusedly. "In case you forgot" she paused to chuckle "a dead woman can't be sued for blackmail."
Gibbs just stared back at her, almost speechless with anger.
Her face turned into a smug sneer. "So, Agent Gibbs." She sat back in the chair, interlocking her fingers behind her head in a relaxed stance, her voice giving her next statement the definite leering tone she'd wanted. "I'm sure all the men want to know if Agent Todd is really...THAT...good." She raised a smug eyebrow in question.
Chapter End Notes:
Part One is a crossover between "NCIS" and "Without a Trace." ("Nine Lives, Part I") Originally posted to FF.net 3/21-4/2/04