Reclaiming a Lion
Disclaimer in Part 1.
01.20 "Missing"
Gibbs barked some more directions at them about Sacco and then headed up the stairs.
Kate knew where he was going and what he was going to do. A week and a half ago she'd overheard one of the technicians whispering about it to another: about Agent Gibbs, coming to watch that video of that terrorist shooting out the camera, and how he'd loop it constantly and stand there, sometimes for an hour at a time, watching.
She'd crossed her arms, waiting somewhat impatiently for them as they whispered, before one suddenly noticed her standing there. "Agent Todd," she'd said nervously, pinching the yapping technician into silence.
"Is there something you want me to relay on to Agent Gibbs?" she'd asked.
"No ma'am." They'd looked pretty embarrassed, having been caught in the act.
She paused, letting them squirm a little more, then said quietly, "If you do have concerns about Agent Gibbs' behavior, perhaps Director Morrow should know." Her own weariness and worry must have shown through, because the technicians looked at her for a moment, somewhat surprised, and quickly softened and nodded.
Kate and Tony watched as Gibbs crossed the balcony above and disappeared into MTAC.
"Remember the good old days, Kate?" Tony asked somberly.
"What good old days?" Kate muttered.
"When Gibbs would confide in us, treat us like peers," Tony replied.
Kate thought back to her conversation with Gerald, and she could feel the frustration rising. D-mm-t, did he think she was some kind of imbecile? He'd go to Gerald and to Ducky and talk to them, but not ask her about it? And why wouldn't he trust her enough to ask her? "No."
The office was quiet now. McGee had gone, and Abby had driven a smelly and dirty Tony home.
Kate rubbed her eyes; she was tired, the last two cases bearing down hard on her. First Pacci, gutted like a fish in the elevator - killed over money. Now Tony, who could have died for trying to save a Marine's life.
She looked over at Gibbs' desk, and she saw the familiar flashing on the side screen and sighed. He was running the photo of that terrorist - again. He'd scanned the entire database she didn't know how many times already.
"What," he barked at her, having caught her looking at him. The patience and the almost kid-like warmth he'd shown towards her when she was teaching him to use the PDA were gone - he was back to being the distant, cold Gibbs.
"What do you think Gerald and Ducky could tell you that I couldn't?" she asked, trying to keep her hurt down and hidden. She straightened, trying to pull herself to her full height.
He looked slightly shocked, then guilty, and Kate felt a small measure of satisfaction at that.
"I had assumed you'd hired me for my abilities and experience," she retorted. "I guess I was wrong. Was it to fill the female quota? High and mighty Leroy Jethro Gibbs...can't seem like he's a misogynist."
Gibbs recoiled inwardly at her sharp blow, staring at her with well-masked shock. Where had she gotten the idea - ? How did she find out that he'd been talking to Duck - ? Why would she thinking - ? "Kate - "
"Here's everything I have on him," she replied shortly, vehemently, slamming down a rather fat folder in front of him. "Whether or not you finally decide to talk to anybody else about the case, that's your issue."
She started to go when he mumbled, "I didn't want to dredge up bad memories."
What a lame excuse, and he knew it when it came out of his mouth. What he was reminded of every time she was around was his own guilt about being unable to protect her - irrational, he knew - and he had to admit to feeling almost unable to sit near her when he thought of Ari. He had to admit to his selfish motive in keeping his distance from her.
Unfortunately she was a profiler, and she knew it. Kate rolled her eyes. "For me or for you?" she asked sharply. "I'm a federal agent, Gibbs. I can take care of myself."
They stood in the dark office, staring at each other, and then Kate turned and started to leave again.
"Ducky thinks he might have been educated in Britain," Gibbs suddenly said, softly, to her retreating back. "Gerald thinks the same. He told them he has a fear of butterflies, but none of us think he's serious."
Kate turned slowly, looking at him almost in puzzlement.
"Ducky said that he used British syntax, and Gerald said he knew odd facts about England, things he'd only learned from Ducky." Gibbs took a deep breath and began to busy himself with the files, not looking at her. "Ducky thinks that he most likely went to school in the British Isles."
"Then he graduated about ten years ago from England," Kate replied calmly, returning. "Depending on whether he did his undergraduate or doctoral work there."
Gibbs looked up at her with a frown. "What?"
"He's 33, Gibbs," Kate replied.
"How do you know that?" Gibbs replied, a little sharply, but more puzzedly.
She just gave him an enigmatic grin.
"Heya Kate," Tony grinned.
Kate rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, you have a date tonight."
"Yup. Whatcha doin' tonight?" Tony grinned.
"Working," Kate replied absently. Her computer dinged to indicate she had mail.
"You worked late last night, too," Tony pointed out. "And nights before that." He paused, and then a smug, conspiratorial look appeared on his face. "You've worked every night this past week."
"I'm working on a case, Tony," Kate replied sharply. "Let it go."
"Come to think of it," Tony paused, leaning on the partition by her desk, thinking. "You've been in really early lately, too," he grinned. His eyes lit up. "So, who is it. Not the translator guy we worked with before, right?"
"Tony!" Kate exclaimed. "Why do you always assume it has to mean a guy?!"
"Hmm," Tony replied, looking around the bullpen. "It wouldn't be that blond from the terrorism squad, would it? So not your type."
"Why, because he acts like you?" Kate retorted, now irritated.
"So you HAVE been seeing somebody at the office!" Tony grinned triumphantly. "Is he somebody we know? You know, Gibbs finds out - "
"Find out what?" Gibbs replied sharply, coming around the corner, a fresh cup of coffee in hand.
Kate just rolled her eyes and shook her head. Let Tony run his mouth - he was just going to run right into a pit.
"Kate's seeing somebody at the office," Tony singsonged. "She's been staying late to meet with him."
There was a long pause, and Gibbs could see Kate's amusement as she held a folder higher than usual to cover her face. "She's been working here, DiNozzo," Gibbs retorted. "With me."
"Oh," Tony sighed. "D-mn Kate, that's boring. You need a life," he replied, picking up his stuff to go.
"I just said I've been working here those same nights," Gibbs said pointedly, daring Tony to comment.
The younger man paused a moment, his eyes widening as he realized his mistake, then quickly corrected, "You have a very nice life, boss," he said, then scooted before anybody could comment.
Gibbs poured half of the soup into a styrofoam cup and handed it to Kate, taking from her the paper plate with half the carton of lo mein on it. "Here."
"Thanks." She took a sip of the soup. "That feels good," she murmured as the soup went down, and she sighed.
"What about this guy," he replied, trying to get back on track with the case. He pushed an interview transcript over to him. "Look at the information he's giving."
"Oh, I watched that interview tape," Kate replied, frowning. "I don't think he's telling in the truth when he talked about Little Creek."
Gibbs sighed. "Why?"
"Because, when he said he was describing the clearner, that was not the terrorist in autopsy," Kate replied firmly. "This guy was a trained killer. Gibbs, he knew where to shoot Gerald to put him out. He knew enough about the arteries and all that - you'll have to ask Ducky - to know that Gerald would lose his arm if he wasn't taken to an ER. All that stuff was just going over my head."
"He had medical training?" Gibbs frowned.
"Maybe," Kate shrugged. "You ought to check with Ducky. But he was certainly a trained killer. Gibbs, it doesn't take a doctor to figure out if somebody's dead. Either way, he's well-trained. He wasn't this...emotionally-driven...loony," Kate replied, waving at the tape sitting on Gibbs' desk. "Besides that, the detainee showed signs of lying."
"Body language," Gibbs asked in what sounded more like a statement.
Kate nodded.
Gibbs leaned back in chair, blowing out a breath of frustration.
"All that means is that one detainee wasn't telling the truth," Kate countered. "It doesn't mean all of them were lying."
Gibbs groaned softly, running a tired hand over his face. He took a sip of his coffee.
"OK, just to ask you something about the terrorism thing," Kate replied. She smiled a little.
"What?" Gibbs asked, frowning.
"Well, Director Morrow wanted to send you to that anti-terrorism conference," Kate replied with a small chuckle. "Before Atlas disappeared. And here you are, doing lots...of anti-terrorism. Most likely more than he anticipated."
"What did you want to ask?" Gibbs replied firmly.
"Agent Snyder was sure that the terrorist was Hamas. Paula - " Gibbs looked up, a little surprised at Kate's use of the agent's first name " - said she got the information from an Al-Qaeda detainee. So which op was it? Hamas? Or Al-Qaeda?"
"Al-Qaeda's much better funded. They fund the Hamas op, and it'll leave a word-of-mouth trail."
"That's how Paula heard about the news from Al-Qaeda."
"Most likely. Question is why." Gibbs pulled out another large folder. "I still haven't been able to figure out why."
01.21 "Split Decision"
"Bringing it online now, boss," McGee was saying. Then he answered Tony's question, "Yearbook photos from every British university taken between '87 and '97."
"Who said our terrorist was British?" Tony asked, puzzled.
"Ducky," Gibbs replied. "Said his syntax suggested higher education in the British Isles."
"Well, maybe he just grew up watching tons of Cary Grant movies," Tony joked, then winced at the head slap. "OK. Why the decade between '87 and '97?"
"Because I estimated his age to be 33," Kate replied, looking up from her desk, "and added five years to either side for safety." She gave a small grin.
"Oh. Did you spend college summers working a carnie as Madame Natasha?" Tony grinned, walking over to Kate's desk.
"Hmmm," Kate chuckled. "I've always been good at guessing ages."
"Yeah? How old am I?" Tony dared, leaning on the partition, right hand on his hip.
"Based on chronology or maturity?" Kate replied, looking up from her papers.
Tony made a face at her witty retort. "Yeah, that's very funny. Come on, how old."
"Thirty-two," Kate replied glibly, looking back down at the papers coming out of the fax machine.
Tony's face was incredulous. "You saw my file."
"Nope," Kate replied, turning a paper around right-side up.
"Well, how old is Gibbs?" Tony asked, stepping closer conspriatorially.
Kate looked up at him, then turned to look at her boss, an amused expression on her face.
Kate rolled her eyes in amusement as Tony gave a small cheer and ran out of the bullpen towards Abby's lab to work up a fake ID. There were some times he was just like a three-year-old in a candy store - only this time with bigger and cooler toys.
Gibbs' question brought her out of her side thought, and she replied, "Well, part of Staff Sergeant Grimm's job was to evaluate weapons. If they were beyond repair, then he would transport them to a facility to be destroyed. But once they were out of Quantico, they were out of the system."
"Out of Quantico's system - they still had to be signed in to wherever they were going."
"Well, these are Staff Sergeant Grimm's SRB and Duty records. I'll go through everything," she replied, turning back to her papers.
"Yeah," Gibbs replied, still looking at something on his computer. He punched a key. "You will."
It was nowhere near the kind of grouchiness he had exhibited over the past couple weeks, but Kate was unimpressed. She had had enough of his behavior, and his earlier, impatient tone with Tony - Tony was just excited, and he had a valid point, motivations aside - had her somewhat irritated.
D-mn, if he were mad at the terrorist, or if he were mad at her - either was no good reason to take it out on Tony.
She looked over at him, slowly counting to ten, and her words came out as graciously as she had intended. "You know, Gibbs," she started, standing up and moving a little towards his desk. "I know that you're bothered that the terrorist got away, I am too, but...but you might wanna think about, you know, trying to be a little bit less of a Gloomy Gus." She gave a small, nervous laugh.
She'd never confronted him on an emotional issue before - it had always been over something involving a case. Even taking Gibbs to task over Col. Ryan wasn't directly a request for him to talk about his feelings. She was treading into his personal behavior, and it was dangerous waters, but h-ll, the man wouldn't listen to reason.
Gibbs turned to her, an expression of irritation, surprise, impatience - and the slightest tinge of she didn't know what - on his face. "'Gloomy...Gus'?" He drew out the words sharply, as if asking her for confirmation.
She just gave him a small, awkward smile and a slight shrug, but she wouldn't back down.
"The CO from Little Creek called," Kate replied, falling into step with Gibbs. "He wants to know when you were planning to go down to talk to him about the case."
"After this one."
"I need to give him a date, Gibbs."
"Week from today," Gibbs replied shortly, hitting the button for the elevator.
Kate waited until after the elevator doors had shut, and they were well out of earshot of Agent Stone, who was with Tony in the bullpen. "You think you can pull this off by next week?" she asked quietly. "Agent Stone is not dumb."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he replied. "Do you have a fix on the supplier?"
"I think it has to be somebody who was working with Grimm," Kate replied. "McClain fits the profile - tough, refuses to play by the rules or take instruction from anyone, incredibly cocky about her own abilities. She thinks she's invincible."
"That could be DiNozzo," Gibbs replied, shaking his head as they came off at Abby's lab.
Kate shook her head. "Tony...nope," she replied, shaking her head again with a chuckle. "Tony plays by the rules. He just has to find a boss whose rules he's willing to play by."
"Who else?"
"Staff Sergeant Rafael was supposed to sign those weapons in," Kate replied. "I'm going to talk to him now."
Gibbs nodded, then started to head for the lab.
"Hey!" Kate suddenly frowned. "What do I tell the commander at Little Creek?"
"Week from today!"
They were taking the elevator up to the bullpen in silence when McGee suddenly blurted. "Kate, now that you have time to think about my a**"
Kate whirled around, giving him a pointed look.
"I mean - not - not like that, I mean," McGee turned a bright, flaming red. "Gibbs...Gibbs doesn't have to know about this, does he?"
Kate sighed. "McGee!" After a moment she sighed and turned to him. "Look. I'm not going to tell him directly, but I'm going to put it in my report when McClain's alibi was checked for the first time, it checked out, but then it was discovered to be wrong. I have to do that, I have to put it in the report."
McGee nodded nervously.
"If Gibbs asks, then I'll tell him what happened. If he doesn't, all the better. All right?"
"Thank you," McGee breathed in relief. "Thank you, thank you."
"If I were you, I'd go to church and pray desperately that he doesn't notice your mistake."
"Yes ma'am," McGee breathed. "Thank you so - "
"I'm not a 'ma'am,' McGee," Kate barked as she got off the elevator.
"Yes ma'am. Kate."
"Where the boss?" Kate asked as she came into the bullpen, seeing only Tony.
"Out for coffee," Tony replied. "McClain confess?"
"Nope. She went down blaming Agent Stone," Kate replied as she took off her coat. "Stone confess?"
Tony shook his head. "She said she didn't shoot him," he said quietly. He sighed, coming around to Kate's desk. "I really liked her."
"ATF agent involved in illegal weapons and murder. What's not to like?" Kate said with a hint of sarcasm, an amused expression on her face.
"So quick to judge, Kate. Sure, she has flaws, sure she's going to prison," he added dejectedly, "but my instincts tell me she has good qualities as well."
Kate was entirely unimpressed. "Two of them wouldn't happen to live under her shirt, would they?"
Tony looked irritated and a little hurt. "You're not gonna believe this, but, ah, when it comes to women? I actually look for more complex things under the surface."
"Really?" Kate asked in amused disbelief.
"Yeah."
Kate just grinned at the opportunity to tease him again. "Like when you were tonguing that he-she a few weeks ago? Lots of complex things under that surface."
Tony looked at her with slight irritation. "I gotta go," he said shortly, grabbing his things and heading out, nearly crashing into Gibbs.
"What's wrong with DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, watching the man head out.
"He's conflicted," Kate replied amusedly, leaning back in her chair.
Gibbs sat down at his desk, immediately zoning in on the terrorist search program.
Kate took a look at his intent stare and felt her amusement at Tony dissipate. She gave a small sigh.
*ring* "Cassidy," Paula answered.
"Paula, it's Kate," came the voice.
"Hey," Paula greeted, leaning forward to prop her elbows on her desk. "How's it going?"
"Good. Listen, I was wondering if I could videoconference with you?"
"Sure, about what?"
"The Little Creek lead," Kate replied. "I'm sending over my latest notes. If you could just take a look at them? Maybe something'll click."
"Sure, send them over," Paula replied, setting her machine to receive the pages Kate was going to send. "You sound pretty good, Kate," Paula said with a small smile.
There was a short silence, and then a little bit of laughter. "I guess so."
"You all right?" Paula asked, clamping the phone between her shoulder and her ear as the printed kicked in and started to print the first page.
"Yeah," Kate murmured. "Yeah," she replied, her voice a little stronger now.
Paula pulled out the pages, then frowned. Only part of it was Kate's neat print. "Who wrote this other part?" she asked, looking at the confusing scrawl.
"Oh, that's Gibbs' handwriting," Kate replied offhandedly, sounding as if she were working on something else. "I just photocopied his notes rather than copying them over."
Paula paused a moment. "He finally talked to you?"
There was a small chuckle. "Yeah. It was like a two-day long 'bastard' session, followed by weeks of just working late on the case. My brain's fried. I almost wish I were Tony."
"Why?"
"Because Tony gets to leave every day at five beacuse he didn't know anything about the intruder," Kate replied. "Ducky and I were there pretty much around the clock. When we weren't with Gerald in the hospital so Gibbs could talk to HIM."
"How did you get him to talk," Paula laughed as she turned around some pages to make them all right-side up, "Yell at him?"
"Actually," Kate chuckled. "Kind of."
"Why didn't he talk to you earlier?"
"He didn't talk to Ducky and Gerald right away, either," Kate grumbled. "Like the d-mn Lone Ranger running around. Makes you wonder a little if Ducky yelled at him or something about being a loner."
"Actually, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto," Paula pointed out. "I got ten pages. Sound right?"
"Yep." Paula paused. "Hey, I'll give you a call once I've gone over all this, checked with the guy who gave me the Little Creek lead. Then I'll call. Sound good?"
"Sounds great. See ya soon."
Post 01.22 "A Weak Link"
He closed up her report. They were much better now - well, not that they weren't before. She just hadn't bothered to spell-check after turning in the Fuentes report.
He'd tossed the report back to her that time, and she looked at him, surprised. After he'd given her a short, curt reason why he was returning it, she muttered about English freaks.
Gibbs smiled a little to himself. Her reports were fine now.
He sneaked a look over at her. She was writing something - he didn't know what, since her report was already in. It was Thursday night, and he wanted to get going the next morning, bright and early.
He'd cleared both his and Kate's case-related leave with Director Morrow, who just told him to be in touch if necessary. He figured he'd call Tony to tell him the next morning and have McGee come in to help.
Gibbs refused to feel bad about having assumed that Kate would agree to go with him - he'd asked Morrow for a leave of absence for her, too. That bastard was as much her problem as he was his, Gibbs assured himself. Kate had to go along. That's the way it was.
So he tried to convince himself.
"Kate," he replied finally, looking up from his desk across to her. "We're going to Little Creek."
She stared at him for a moment, slight disbelief on her face, her purse hanging limply from her fingers as she stared. "Now?"
"No, tomorrow morning."
"OK," she replied guardedly, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Pack a bag," he replied shortly.
"Little Creek's not that far away," she puzzled.
"We're staying until we've interviewed every person on that base," he replied clippedly. He picked up his coat, and without so much a good-bye, headed out.
Kate rubbed her eyes. "These interviews are not helping, Gibbs," she mumbled.
"Look harder," Gibbs replied sharply.
"Gibbs! These interviews are only telling us about Qassam - not about the bastard in autopsy," she retorted.
"He's tied to Qassam," Gibbs retorted.
Kate bit back a sharp comment and kept going.
"We'll have to re-interview the fast food manager," Gibbs muttered.
Kate moaned. They'd done it three times already. "Now?"
"Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow's Sunday, Gibbs."
"And?"
"On base, he's not going to open until later. Didn't you see the hours posted on that door?" Kate replied. "Gibbs, couldn't this wait until at least the afternoon?"
Gibbs sat quietly in the living room to the small place where he and Kate were staying during the investigation. He sighed a little.
H-ll, he hadn't had to wait for a woman before church in...in awhile. It wasn't the church part. He went to church. He just went alone.
He adjusted his tie, straightened his suit, then fingered the scarf on his long coat, then looked at his watch.
The he fidgeted.
"Kate!" he barked.
Kate came out, dressed in a light, spring print dress with a green button-down sweater over top. Her hair was clipped in the back. It was nothing he hadn't expected from Kate - quiet and conservative dress, appropriate for church - but it didn't make her look any less beautifully untouchable.
He obviously hadn't yet wiped off his impatient expression, because he could tell she was counting to ten. Slowly. Patiently. It wouldn't do to sin in anger early Sunday morning, Gibbs chuckled to himself.
They drove in comfortable silence and slid into a back pew before the Mass started.
He had to admit, he hadn't been to church with somebody since...well, since he had shown up with Kate at Father Clanon's church, and that had been entirely for work. He felt a sort of peace and comfort, sitting next to Kate, maintaining a chaste distance but close enough to feel her warmth.
Two pews up, a little girl stood on the seat of the pew, dressed in a little pink dress with lace on the edges, a little matching bow in her soft, downy hair. She couldn't be more than a year old, two bright brown eyes beaming innocently at all the adults she was distracting.
Her eyes settled on the pair two seats behind her, and Gibbs could feel the corners of his mouth turn up slightly at her big smile. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kate give the child a little wave, and the small tot beamed at her, bouncing a little on the pew, the bow bobbing up and down.
He sat quietly, the priest's homily washing over him, and felt a slight pang at the quiet, gentle but incising words. He tried to assure himself that he hadn't turned the search for Ari into an obsession, into a compulsion. He wasn't sure it was sticking.
She sat beside him, quiet and attentive.
Kate had insisted, pointing out easily last night that going to church that morning wasn't to cause them to miss the bastard. He was listed as a cold case, Kate had argued, and it was only hot because Gibbs refused to give it up and kept applying the blow torch to it, despite the lack of information.
There were days he felt particularly bitter, angry about his life, and felt he had little to reason to give thanks for anything (which often stemmed from his decision to dwell on the failures). As he sat next to her, though, listening, he felt a quiet calm settle, and he had to admit grudging but heartfelt thanks to God for Kate.
Abby had (in her quite bold, fearless and feckless manner) chirped that he'd been a lot easier to get along with the past two cases. He was being rather nice, she'd said, as Agent Stone had stood behind them, suddenly looking surprised. Gibbs had glared at Abby, but the forensics specialist had just shrugged and went on explaining what she had found.
Abby always spoke her mind, and it was always the unvarnished truth.
He had to admit, grudgingly, that he'd felt...less...angry...since talking to Kate about the case, and he hated to admit that talking to her about the case had made him felt better. It would just lend credence to her comments to him about learning to talk things out.
He'd shocked HIMSELF when he'd made that tongue-in-cheek crack to Agent Stone about Tony not being a good weapons supplier, repeating Tony's "scumbag-type" comment. He hadn't meant it spitefully or sharply; he'd merely wanted to make a joke. How unnerving.
He'd turned over in his mind, again and again, what he was thinking when he'd told Kate that "Guts are good" and gave her the interrogation. It wasn't that any of that was wrong or incorrect, or that he didn't trust her. It just.... It had rolled off his tongue like he was barking "Grab your gear" or something. Like it was something he often said, rather than something he rarely did.
And he had to admit to his gentle amusement, strapping Kate into the harness, twirling her around by her slim waist, wrapping his arms around her, and teasing her for her nervousness about the whole rappelling business.
She settled him. She most likely didn't even know it, but she settled him. Seeing her quiet, seeing her diligent in pursing that bastard but healthily unobsessed, seeing her ability to be serious and to be light at the same time. She was an emotional stabilizer for him.
He was supposed to be the older. He was supposed to be the one who taught her, and he knew he was teaching her other things: how to interrogate, how to conduct a crime scene investigate, how to run a case....
But she was teaching him how to live.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The hunt for the "Bete Noire" intruder continues. Missing scenes from after "Bete Noire" through "Reveille".
Chapter End Notes:
Actual dialogue from the episodes are in italics. Mainly, the other "missing scenes" from these other episodes are set up for my FF on "Reveille" (at the end).