[Fanfic] All the Right Moves - Chapter Four
Title: All the Right Moves
Show: NCIS
Characters: Tim, Gibbs, Ziva, and Tony
Genre: AU, Drama, Slash
Rating: FR15
Pairings: Gibbs/McGee
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Challenge: The Boys Wrapped in Plot
Spoilers: Spoilers for characters up to season nine.
Summary: The word ‘Gifted’ is defined as ‘having great special talent of ability.’ But during the mid 21st Century the word gained new meaning as children were discovered to be developing psychic abilities. Tim McGee is a 1st degree technopath, he has managed to keep his gift a secret all of his life...Until Ziva David-Hadar found him.
Chapter Four
It was just about an hour till noon by the time Tony shuffled into their shared office space. Gibbs had gotten a good deal on the building after his early retirement from NCIS in 2001. It seemed that the orange walls had put everyone else off but Gibbs kind of liked them. So instead of painting over them like the realtor had suggested, the walls retained their interesting color palette.
He watched with an amused eye as his partner headed straight for the still hot coffeepot on the small counter beside the door to the bathroom. Yawning he grabbed the only clean mug left, that showed a cartoon policeman, and poured until it was practically full. His desk was his final destination and he flopped lazily into his cushioned swivel chair. Resting his chin on his left hand Tony inhaled the aroma of the coffee while his right hand fished around in the top drawer.
Gibbs sipped at his own coffee, watching as Tony found what he was searching for and set it all onto his desk. He spooned liberally from the large container of sugar as he decided between several flavored creamers that had most likely been appropriated from the diner down the street. Finally deciding on the hazelnut flavor he stirred that in as well before taking a gentle sip. Groaning happily with pleasure he looked at Gibbs for the first time, a contented smile on his face.
Gibbs had watched with disgust as the younger man destroyed the beverage, but none of that showed on his face. Over the rim of his to-go coffee cup he watched as Tony settled in to begin work for the day.
“You done?”
Tony blinked, confused for a moment, then realized that Gibbs was not holding a mug. With a sigh he looked mournfully to his own beverage before nodding.
“Yeah, I’m done.”
Gibbs smirked as he stood, already well prepared to leave. Tony scrambled to grab his badge and gun.
“Good. Fornell called, he want’s to meet us at Ducky’s. Apparently he has more to share with us than what his overnight interrogation turned up.”
Tony groaned.
“It’s too early for corpses Boss. Officer Slacks doesn’t become human again until at least after one!”
“Morning’s already gone DiNozzo, it’s afternoon already. You slept half the day away.”
Gibbs’ yellow and black 1971 Dodge Challenger was parked outside of their small office building next to the curb. Despite the value of the classic car neither door was locked. There was no punk in DC brave enough to steal from Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Not after what had happened to the last guy.
“Because I didn’t get to bed until well after four AM! I don’t know why the metro cops always keep me for questioning while they let you waltz off the scene.” Tony flinched slightly, squeezing his eyes shut, in anticipation as Gibbs checked the road behind them for oncoming traffic. “It must be your intimidating exterior sir.”
When he felt no slap to the back of his head Tony peeked an eye open. Gibbs smirked, pointedly not looking at his partner as he pulled out onto the street. Eventually the other man relaxed enough to turn on the radio, bobbing his head to the music. They were halfway to the city’s morgue before Gibbs’ hand shot out and slapped the younger man’s head.
“It’s no fun if you know it’s coming.”
-NCIS-
“Officer Slacks! It’s always nice to see you alive and awake. Did you enjoy your brain breakfast?”
Police Detective Ron Sacks’ glare was cold as the body lain out on the examination table. He turned to his partner, Tobias Fornell, as Gibbs and Tony entered the autopsy suite.
“What the hell are they doing here Tobias? This is the first time we’ve gotten a real lead in months and you bring in them?” His voice was venomous. “This is our case Tobias. We do not need their help!” He turned, leveling a glare as the two private detectives drew closer. “We do not need you getting in the way of our investigation!”
Tony grinned, ignoring Sacks completely as he addressed Fornell.
“You should really put a muzzle on your dog Fornell. It’s the yappy ones that are really annoying.”
Sacks fist clenched, shaking the barely controlled fury. Gibbs and Fornell watched them with carefully hidden amusement.
“You should watch yourself DiNozzo. He bites.”
For a moment Tony mocked a startled expression, quickly drawing away from Sacks as if he feared being bitten. Then, with a grave tone, he turned back to Fornell.
“You should definitely muzzle him then! I hear the humane society puts the biters down.”
Sacks growled, preparing a retort but was interrupted as Ducky and his young assistant- Jimmy Palmer entered.
“Now, now gentlemen. This is not the time for arguments.” Ducky’s voice was sharp with a twinge of anger that made his accent was more obvious than usual. “In case you cannot tell we have a guest and I would appreciate it if you kept your family squabbles to yourselves in her presence.”
All four reigned in their personal feelings at the harsh reminder that there was a job to do. Tony and Gibbs stepped up closer to the examination table, looking over the condition of the body of a young woman.
She had probably been beautiful at one point, but starvation had hallowed her face. Her skin was stretched tightly over her bones. Dry brown hair hung limply from her head. Gibbs was abruptly reminded of rescued prisoners of war. It wasn’t difficult to guess why she had died.
The city’s Chief Medical Examiner eyed the young woman sorrowfully. Mr. Palmer had covered her body with a sheet after they completed the autopsy to preserve her modesty. Surely he was doing something right with his assistant.
“As you can see this poor woman was horribly starved. I’ll have to wait on Abby for precise dates, but it appears that she hasn’t had a complete nutritious meal in months. Though what killed her in the end was dehydration.” Lifting the sheet slightly he pulled her left arm out to display his findings. “Up until a short time ago it appears that she was receiving fluids, probably some nutrients as well, there are track mark on her arms where an I.V. had been inserted. There are signs that the I.V. was forcibly removed.”
Tony grimaced, trying to ignore the growling of his stomach. What fate had taken the woman was tragic, but he couldn’t see how she was connected to Ari. Neither could Gibbs.
“How did you connect her to Ari? Even if she was working for him against her will he could have forced her to eat, there was no need for an I.V.”
Fornell handed Gibbs a thick manila folder. Sacks sighed dramatically but explained out loud while Gibbs read.
“Her name is Erin Kendall, she was twenty-five years old last May. She was declared missing two and a half years ago.” Tony raised an eyebrow, urging the other man to get to the point. Sacks smiled, clearly pleased to have the upper hand for once.
“Erin Kendall was a registered 2nd degree Technopath.”
Tony turned to Gibbs. The older man was holding the file close to his face, squinting at the letters. It took a moment for him to come back to his senses and keep the comments on his tongue from slipping out. Then he realized the ramifications of what Gibbs had said.
“She was a 2nd degree Technopath? Does that mean what Batchick was saying last night is true? Ari really does have trouble controlling certain Gifts?”
Jaws dropped throughout the room. Fornell was the first to recover. He strode quickly across the room, grabbing the file from Gibbs’ hands when the man didn’t pay him any attention.
“What is DiNutzo talking about? Did your vigilante say something to you last night? If that is true this could be the leverage we need to take that bastard down!”
Gibbs glared and snatched the folder back but held it to his side to read over later.
“We got a tip that the vigilantes were going to ambush Sal and Little Ricky at DWB. We sent you two too pick up the would be thieves and set up a reverse ambush.” Gibbs stopped. Turning slightly he stared hard at Jimmy, who stood on the far side of the examination table watching them with wide eyes.
Ducky cleared his throat loudly, waving his assistant away.
“If you don’t mind Mr. Palmer, I believe that the van needs a little reorganizing. Would you mind going to take care of that?”
Jimmy nodded quickly, glasses bouncing slightly on his nose as be backed quickly out of the room. Gibbs waited until the doors were firmly shut to continue.
“I’ve had my suspicions about Ari and that woman for awhile. There was no way that Ari wasn’t on Mossad’s radar, I would bet my boat that woman is Israeli. That means Mossad lied to us. Ari is one of their messes and they’ve sent her here to clean it up.” Fornell and Sacks didn’t appear to be shocked. Obviously the idea that the foreign nation hadn’t been honest had occurred to them as well.
“We managed to trap them inside the building and catch them by surprise.” That shocked the police detectives. The force had only managed to corner the woman once, back when she first appeared and didn’t know the city. She had escaped when her tech support cut off the power to the building. They hadn’t even gotten close to the two since. That Gibbs and DiNozzo had spoke volumes.
“I wanted to bring the boy in, had him cornered. But the woman had gotten away from Tony. She put me down, knocked the air right out of me for a few moments. Long enough for the two of them to get away.”
“That’s something we need to discuss. The beat cops must have misheard DiNozzo. Their reports said that the two of them jumped off the building to evade arrest. Since neither of them are street pizza I’m going to have to assume they somehow survived.”
Tony smiled sheepishly at Fornell’s hard stare. Laughing he rubbed the back of his head in a nervous gesture.
“Yeah…I was pretty short with those Officers. It was just so late and I was pretty tired. Just wanted to get it over with ya know?” Three pairs of eyes stared at him, none of them the least bit sympathetic. “I left out a couple of details. They did jump…but onto the building to the North.”
Fornell whistled with appreciation. You would never catch him trying that jump! Not even if he was in the prime of his youth. Sacks merely nodded. The woman had shown some skill with parkour on some of her other escapes.
“Batchick made the jump okay. I made it to the wall just in time to see her land. The Boy Wonder wasn’t so lucky. He went to tuck and roll and landed on his face. He was limping pretty heavily too. If his ankle isn’t broken he’ll be extremely lucky. Either way he won’t be playing a part in any nighttime shenanigans anytime soon.”
Gibbs and Fornell exchanged exasperated looks.
“DiNutzo if that boy is really a 1st degree Technopath it won’t matter if he’s laid up in bed. All that woman has to do is connect a computer in someones network to the internet and he can have access to it from anywhere in the world.”
Tony looked mildly shocked.
“Then what the hell is she doing bringing him into the field?”
-NCIS-
As usual, Abby Sciuto’s lab was blaring with music. The forensic scientist herself was bouncing in front of one of her computer terminals, long black pigtails swaying back and forth in time to the music. Too busy watching as she ran a fingerprint through the registry and unable to hear she didn’t notice Gibbs and Tony until they were both breathing down her neck to peer at the fingerprint on the screen.
Feeling the breath on her skin Abby jumped-startled, grabbing for one of her colorful figurines as she whipped around. Tony laughed, pointing an accusing finger at Gibbs whose attention was still captivated by the fingerprint.
“Gibbs! Tony! It’s been way too long since I’ve seen you last!” Throwing herself forward the Goth woman gave each man a huge hug, squeezing them tightly. Tony snaked his arms around her waist, holding her still when she went to pull away. Laughing she smacked him playfully on the chest till he let her go. Not taking his eyes off the screen Gibbs’ hand shot out, cuffing Tony about the head as Abby laughed.
“Are you guys here because of my fingerprint? Or do you have something else for me?”
Gibbs tapped the screen, quickly pulling his finger away when she swatted at it.
“Whose fingerprint are you running?”
Abby smiled deviously.
“The CSI guys think this print might be from your boy! If he’s as good as they’re saying he is I won’t get a match. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.” She turned suddenly, pigtails whipping violently. “Is it true? Everyone in the station has been saying that this guy is probably a 1st degree Technopath! Is it true Gibbs?”
He couldn’t decide which emotion was more evident in her voice; excitement, interest, or jealousy. Tony poked at one of the machines whirring in the background.
“We were going to ask you that question. Don’t you Technopath’s all keep track of each other?”
She sighed with exasperation as she slapped his hand away from her baby.
“That’s only the registered Technopath’s. There are no registered 1st degree Technopath’s in the United States.” A thoughtful look crossed her face. “Of course he could have gotten registered as a 2nd degree. If he really is a 1st degree he might have some way to beat the test.”
Filled with new inspiration Abby ran to an empty terminal, pulling up the records for all registered 2nd degree Technopath’s in the states of Virginia and Maryland.
“You guys need to get me a picture of this guy! If he did register as a 2nd degree I can find a picture and compare the two. Even if he’s wearing a mask I can compare height, jaw lines and a bunch of other stuff!”
“Well then Miss. Sciuto today is your lucky day!” Tony’s hand appeared over her shoulder, waving an SD memory card. “We will give it to you on one condition! You have to run facial recognition on the woman first. Gibbs thinks she’s a clean up agent from Mossad.”
Abby nodded eyes wide and full of glee as she took the memory card. She held it gently for a moment exerting her own Gift to view the pictures. Her smile widened.
“These pictures are great Tony! It’s a shame you went into law enforcement, you’d have made a killing as a photographer.”
Quickly she put the card into the computer and pulled up a good shot of the woman. Every immigrant entering the United States was recorded these days on some form of media. With a few clicks Abby had the photo running against a database of recent immigrants from the Middle East.
“Well, GSM is taking amateur submissions. I think you’d look great in this little black negligee I saw in-”
He was silenced as Gibbs slapped him again.
“Then again they probably get so many submissions that they just throw the best of them away. Best stick to crime scene and steak-out shots.”
Dark colored lips quirked up into a smirk Abby turned to retort when all of the computers in the room began beeping loudly. Warning signs flashing across the screens. Green eyes wide with horror Abby grabbed her keyboard. Expanding her Gift she threw herself into the network, tracking the hacker that had already managed to bypass all of her firewalls.
“No, no, no! This can’t be happening!”
One by one each monitor flickered then settled on the blue screen of death. Each reading ‘No Data.’
“Gibbs!” Abby threw herself into the older mans arms sobbing. “He killed them! My babies, that jerk erased them completely!”
It took both men to peel Abby off Gibbs’ chest. Once she finally calmed down she explained.
“There’s no doubt about it. Your boy’s a 1st degree. He breezed through my firewalls like they were nothing and he managed to wipe everything in just a couple of seconds. Without leaving a single trace!” She sniffled, wiping her nose on Tony’s sleeve. “Not to brag or anything but my firewalls are hot stuff. I’m a 2nd degree and I’ve had other 2nd degrees try to break through them. It took three people all trying at the same time.”
She stepped back, wiping her eyes and smearing her heavy eyeliner. With determination she turned to fix her computers. Not looking at either of them she tried to contain the warring emotions she felt.
“You catch him Gibbs! And when you do I wanna see him. Though whether I’m gonna kill him or kiss him I have yet to decide.
Show: NCIS
Characters: Tim, Gibbs, Ziva, and Tony
Genre: AU, Drama, Slash
Rating: FR15
Pairings: Gibbs/McGee
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Challenge: The Boys Wrapped in Plot
Spoilers: Spoilers for characters up to season nine.
Summary: The word ‘Gifted’ is defined as ‘having great special talent of ability.’ But during the mid 21st Century the word gained new meaning as children were discovered to be developing psychic abilities. Tim McGee is a 1st degree technopath, he has managed to keep his gift a secret all of his life...Until Ziva David-Hadar found him.
Chapter Four
It was just about an hour till noon by the time Tony shuffled into their shared office space. Gibbs had gotten a good deal on the building after his early retirement from NCIS in 2001. It seemed that the orange walls had put everyone else off but Gibbs kind of liked them. So instead of painting over them like the realtor had suggested, the walls retained their interesting color palette.
He watched with an amused eye as his partner headed straight for the still hot coffeepot on the small counter beside the door to the bathroom. Yawning he grabbed the only clean mug left, that showed a cartoon policeman, and poured until it was practically full. His desk was his final destination and he flopped lazily into his cushioned swivel chair. Resting his chin on his left hand Tony inhaled the aroma of the coffee while his right hand fished around in the top drawer.
Gibbs sipped at his own coffee, watching as Tony found what he was searching for and set it all onto his desk. He spooned liberally from the large container of sugar as he decided between several flavored creamers that had most likely been appropriated from the diner down the street. Finally deciding on the hazelnut flavor he stirred that in as well before taking a gentle sip. Groaning happily with pleasure he looked at Gibbs for the first time, a contented smile on his face.
Gibbs had watched with disgust as the younger man destroyed the beverage, but none of that showed on his face. Over the rim of his to-go coffee cup he watched as Tony settled in to begin work for the day.
“You done?”
Tony blinked, confused for a moment, then realized that Gibbs was not holding a mug. With a sigh he looked mournfully to his own beverage before nodding.
“Yeah, I’m done.”
Gibbs smirked as he stood, already well prepared to leave. Tony scrambled to grab his badge and gun.
“Good. Fornell called, he want’s to meet us at Ducky’s. Apparently he has more to share with us than what his overnight interrogation turned up.”
Tony groaned.
“It’s too early for corpses Boss. Officer Slacks doesn’t become human again until at least after one!”
“Morning’s already gone DiNozzo, it’s afternoon already. You slept half the day away.”
Gibbs’ yellow and black 1971 Dodge Challenger was parked outside of their small office building next to the curb. Despite the value of the classic car neither door was locked. There was no punk in DC brave enough to steal from Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Not after what had happened to the last guy.
“Because I didn’t get to bed until well after four AM! I don’t know why the metro cops always keep me for questioning while they let you waltz off the scene.” Tony flinched slightly, squeezing his eyes shut, in anticipation as Gibbs checked the road behind them for oncoming traffic. “It must be your intimidating exterior sir.”
When he felt no slap to the back of his head Tony peeked an eye open. Gibbs smirked, pointedly not looking at his partner as he pulled out onto the street. Eventually the other man relaxed enough to turn on the radio, bobbing his head to the music. They were halfway to the city’s morgue before Gibbs’ hand shot out and slapped the younger man’s head.
“It’s no fun if you know it’s coming.”
-NCIS-
“Officer Slacks! It’s always nice to see you alive and awake. Did you enjoy your brain breakfast?”
Police Detective Ron Sacks’ glare was cold as the body lain out on the examination table. He turned to his partner, Tobias Fornell, as Gibbs and Tony entered the autopsy suite.
“What the hell are they doing here Tobias? This is the first time we’ve gotten a real lead in months and you bring in them?” His voice was venomous. “This is our case Tobias. We do not need their help!” He turned, leveling a glare as the two private detectives drew closer. “We do not need you getting in the way of our investigation!”
Tony grinned, ignoring Sacks completely as he addressed Fornell.
“You should really put a muzzle on your dog Fornell. It’s the yappy ones that are really annoying.”
Sacks fist clenched, shaking the barely controlled fury. Gibbs and Fornell watched them with carefully hidden amusement.
“You should watch yourself DiNozzo. He bites.”
For a moment Tony mocked a startled expression, quickly drawing away from Sacks as if he feared being bitten. Then, with a grave tone, he turned back to Fornell.
“You should definitely muzzle him then! I hear the humane society puts the biters down.”
Sacks growled, preparing a retort but was interrupted as Ducky and his young assistant- Jimmy Palmer entered.
“Now, now gentlemen. This is not the time for arguments.” Ducky’s voice was sharp with a twinge of anger that made his accent was more obvious than usual. “In case you cannot tell we have a guest and I would appreciate it if you kept your family squabbles to yourselves in her presence.”
All four reigned in their personal feelings at the harsh reminder that there was a job to do. Tony and Gibbs stepped up closer to the examination table, looking over the condition of the body of a young woman.
She had probably been beautiful at one point, but starvation had hallowed her face. Her skin was stretched tightly over her bones. Dry brown hair hung limply from her head. Gibbs was abruptly reminded of rescued prisoners of war. It wasn’t difficult to guess why she had died.
The city’s Chief Medical Examiner eyed the young woman sorrowfully. Mr. Palmer had covered her body with a sheet after they completed the autopsy to preserve her modesty. Surely he was doing something right with his assistant.
“As you can see this poor woman was horribly starved. I’ll have to wait on Abby for precise dates, but it appears that she hasn’t had a complete nutritious meal in months. Though what killed her in the end was dehydration.” Lifting the sheet slightly he pulled her left arm out to display his findings. “Up until a short time ago it appears that she was receiving fluids, probably some nutrients as well, there are track mark on her arms where an I.V. had been inserted. There are signs that the I.V. was forcibly removed.”
Tony grimaced, trying to ignore the growling of his stomach. What fate had taken the woman was tragic, but he couldn’t see how she was connected to Ari. Neither could Gibbs.
“How did you connect her to Ari? Even if she was working for him against her will he could have forced her to eat, there was no need for an I.V.”
Fornell handed Gibbs a thick manila folder. Sacks sighed dramatically but explained out loud while Gibbs read.
“Her name is Erin Kendall, she was twenty-five years old last May. She was declared missing two and a half years ago.” Tony raised an eyebrow, urging the other man to get to the point. Sacks smiled, clearly pleased to have the upper hand for once.
“Erin Kendall was a registered 2nd degree Technopath.”
Tony turned to Gibbs. The older man was holding the file close to his face, squinting at the letters. It took a moment for him to come back to his senses and keep the comments on his tongue from slipping out. Then he realized the ramifications of what Gibbs had said.
“She was a 2nd degree Technopath? Does that mean what Batchick was saying last night is true? Ari really does have trouble controlling certain Gifts?”
Jaws dropped throughout the room. Fornell was the first to recover. He strode quickly across the room, grabbing the file from Gibbs’ hands when the man didn’t pay him any attention.
“What is DiNutzo talking about? Did your vigilante say something to you last night? If that is true this could be the leverage we need to take that bastard down!”
Gibbs glared and snatched the folder back but held it to his side to read over later.
“We got a tip that the vigilantes were going to ambush Sal and Little Ricky at DWB. We sent you two too pick up the would be thieves and set up a reverse ambush.” Gibbs stopped. Turning slightly he stared hard at Jimmy, who stood on the far side of the examination table watching them with wide eyes.
Ducky cleared his throat loudly, waving his assistant away.
“If you don’t mind Mr. Palmer, I believe that the van needs a little reorganizing. Would you mind going to take care of that?”
Jimmy nodded quickly, glasses bouncing slightly on his nose as be backed quickly out of the room. Gibbs waited until the doors were firmly shut to continue.
“I’ve had my suspicions about Ari and that woman for awhile. There was no way that Ari wasn’t on Mossad’s radar, I would bet my boat that woman is Israeli. That means Mossad lied to us. Ari is one of their messes and they’ve sent her here to clean it up.” Fornell and Sacks didn’t appear to be shocked. Obviously the idea that the foreign nation hadn’t been honest had occurred to them as well.
“We managed to trap them inside the building and catch them by surprise.” That shocked the police detectives. The force had only managed to corner the woman once, back when she first appeared and didn’t know the city. She had escaped when her tech support cut off the power to the building. They hadn’t even gotten close to the two since. That Gibbs and DiNozzo had spoke volumes.
“I wanted to bring the boy in, had him cornered. But the woman had gotten away from Tony. She put me down, knocked the air right out of me for a few moments. Long enough for the two of them to get away.”
“That’s something we need to discuss. The beat cops must have misheard DiNozzo. Their reports said that the two of them jumped off the building to evade arrest. Since neither of them are street pizza I’m going to have to assume they somehow survived.”
Tony smiled sheepishly at Fornell’s hard stare. Laughing he rubbed the back of his head in a nervous gesture.
“Yeah…I was pretty short with those Officers. It was just so late and I was pretty tired. Just wanted to get it over with ya know?” Three pairs of eyes stared at him, none of them the least bit sympathetic. “I left out a couple of details. They did jump…but onto the building to the North.”
Fornell whistled with appreciation. You would never catch him trying that jump! Not even if he was in the prime of his youth. Sacks merely nodded. The woman had shown some skill with parkour on some of her other escapes.
“Batchick made the jump okay. I made it to the wall just in time to see her land. The Boy Wonder wasn’t so lucky. He went to tuck and roll and landed on his face. He was limping pretty heavily too. If his ankle isn’t broken he’ll be extremely lucky. Either way he won’t be playing a part in any nighttime shenanigans anytime soon.”
Gibbs and Fornell exchanged exasperated looks.
“DiNutzo if that boy is really a 1st degree Technopath it won’t matter if he’s laid up in bed. All that woman has to do is connect a computer in someones network to the internet and he can have access to it from anywhere in the world.”
Tony looked mildly shocked.
“Then what the hell is she doing bringing him into the field?”
-NCIS-
As usual, Abby Sciuto’s lab was blaring with music. The forensic scientist herself was bouncing in front of one of her computer terminals, long black pigtails swaying back and forth in time to the music. Too busy watching as she ran a fingerprint through the registry and unable to hear she didn’t notice Gibbs and Tony until they were both breathing down her neck to peer at the fingerprint on the screen.
Feeling the breath on her skin Abby jumped-startled, grabbing for one of her colorful figurines as she whipped around. Tony laughed, pointing an accusing finger at Gibbs whose attention was still captivated by the fingerprint.
“Gibbs! Tony! It’s been way too long since I’ve seen you last!” Throwing herself forward the Goth woman gave each man a huge hug, squeezing them tightly. Tony snaked his arms around her waist, holding her still when she went to pull away. Laughing she smacked him playfully on the chest till he let her go. Not taking his eyes off the screen Gibbs’ hand shot out, cuffing Tony about the head as Abby laughed.
“Are you guys here because of my fingerprint? Or do you have something else for me?”
Gibbs tapped the screen, quickly pulling his finger away when she swatted at it.
“Whose fingerprint are you running?”
Abby smiled deviously.
“The CSI guys think this print might be from your boy! If he’s as good as they’re saying he is I won’t get a match. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.” She turned suddenly, pigtails whipping violently. “Is it true? Everyone in the station has been saying that this guy is probably a 1st degree Technopath! Is it true Gibbs?”
He couldn’t decide which emotion was more evident in her voice; excitement, interest, or jealousy. Tony poked at one of the machines whirring in the background.
“We were going to ask you that question. Don’t you Technopath’s all keep track of each other?”
She sighed with exasperation as she slapped his hand away from her baby.
“That’s only the registered Technopath’s. There are no registered 1st degree Technopath’s in the United States.” A thoughtful look crossed her face. “Of course he could have gotten registered as a 2nd degree. If he really is a 1st degree he might have some way to beat the test.”
Filled with new inspiration Abby ran to an empty terminal, pulling up the records for all registered 2nd degree Technopath’s in the states of Virginia and Maryland.
“You guys need to get me a picture of this guy! If he did register as a 2nd degree I can find a picture and compare the two. Even if he’s wearing a mask I can compare height, jaw lines and a bunch of other stuff!”
“Well then Miss. Sciuto today is your lucky day!” Tony’s hand appeared over her shoulder, waving an SD memory card. “We will give it to you on one condition! You have to run facial recognition on the woman first. Gibbs thinks she’s a clean up agent from Mossad.”
Abby nodded eyes wide and full of glee as she took the memory card. She held it gently for a moment exerting her own Gift to view the pictures. Her smile widened.
“These pictures are great Tony! It’s a shame you went into law enforcement, you’d have made a killing as a photographer.”
Quickly she put the card into the computer and pulled up a good shot of the woman. Every immigrant entering the United States was recorded these days on some form of media. With a few clicks Abby had the photo running against a database of recent immigrants from the Middle East.
“Well, GSM is taking amateur submissions. I think you’d look great in this little black negligee I saw in-”
He was silenced as Gibbs slapped him again.
“Then again they probably get so many submissions that they just throw the best of them away. Best stick to crime scene and steak-out shots.”
Dark colored lips quirked up into a smirk Abby turned to retort when all of the computers in the room began beeping loudly. Warning signs flashing across the screens. Green eyes wide with horror Abby grabbed her keyboard. Expanding her Gift she threw herself into the network, tracking the hacker that had already managed to bypass all of her firewalls.
“No, no, no! This can’t be happening!”
One by one each monitor flickered then settled on the blue screen of death. Each reading ‘No Data.’
“Gibbs!” Abby threw herself into the older mans arms sobbing. “He killed them! My babies, that jerk erased them completely!”
It took both men to peel Abby off Gibbs’ chest. Once she finally calmed down she explained.
“There’s no doubt about it. Your boy’s a 1st degree. He breezed through my firewalls like they were nothing and he managed to wipe everything in just a couple of seconds. Without leaving a single trace!” She sniffled, wiping her nose on Tony’s sleeve. “Not to brag or anything but my firewalls are hot stuff. I’m a 2nd degree and I’ve had other 2nd degrees try to break through them. It took three people all trying at the same time.”
She stepped back, wiping her eyes and smearing her heavy eyeliner. With determination she turned to fix her computers. Not looking at either of them she tried to contain the warring emotions she felt.
“You catch him Gibbs! And when you do I wanna see him. Though whether I’m gonna kill him or kiss him I have yet to decide.