NCIS. Abby/Kate. 019. White. *
Title: White Hats
Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Abigail Sciuto, Caitlin Todd, Jethro Gibbs, Tony DiNozzo, Timothy McGee, Donald "Ducky" Mallard
Pairings: slightly Kate/Abby, Kate/OFC
Prompt: 019 White.
Word Count: 6,186
Rating: R
Summary: Kate's offer to betray the NCIS team may lead to an even bigger betrayal.
Author's Notes: Set during Season 1, despite McGee's presence.
Little Damn Table
"Does it hurt?"
Kate looked up at the man who'd slid into the booth across from her. He was looking down at a folded newspaper, tapping his index finger against his elbow as if waiting for a reply. She smiled and said, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"Not yet. I know you, though." He put the newspaper down on the booth next to him and said, "NCIS Special Agent Caitlin Todd. I actually had to look up what NCIS stood for."
"Well, at least you can work a dictionary."
He smirked and nodded at her plate. "I know you like ketchup on your scrambled eggs. Thought that was a southern thing."
"Look," Kate started, wiping her hands on a napkin.
He interrupted, "I also know that, until about eight months ago, you worked for the Secret Service. Protecting the President himself. And now..." He gestured at her. "Relegated to a nothing organization."
"Leaving the Secret Service was my idea."
He shrugged. "Still. You can't be happy with where you are."
She looked out the window.
He picked up the newspaper and slid it across the table to her. "There."
"I've already read Garfield today."
"Take it," he stood and looked out the window. "I'll be in contact soon. Don't wait too long or the offer will be off the table." He tapped the paper with two fingers and said, "Think about it, Rosefern."
She was momentarily stunned by the use of her former Secret Service call name. By the time she recovered, he was out of the restaurant. She considered going after him, but decided it would be futile. Instead, she opened the newspaper and saw several loose clippings filled its interior.
"HOMETOWN HERO KILLED BY LAND MINE"
"TWO MARINES VICTIMS OF FRIENDLY FIRE INCIDENT"
"NAVY LIEUTENANT AMONG THE MISSING"
---
"The 'hometown hero' was Petty Officer Clayton Reyes," Tony DiNozzo said. "The two Marines were Colonel Franklin Davenport and Gunnery Sergeant Kevin Thomas. And the Navy Lieutenant was Lowell Snyder."
"Any connection between the four of them?" Gibbs asked.
"Other than the fact they're dead? Nothing. Petty Officer Reyes and Lieutenant Snyder never served in the same state, let alone the same ship. The Marines never had contact with the other two, but they were in the same unit, naturally."
"How did Lieutenant Snyder go missing?"
Kate said, "He's not exactly missing... more like they haven't found him yet. A suicide bomber destroyed the building where Snyder was last seen. At the time of the article, they hadn't found his remains yet." She laid a print-out on Gibbs' desk and said, "This is from yesterday. DNA tests confirmed that a severed index finger found at the site belonged to Lieutenant Lowell Snyder."
"The two Marines?" Gibbs asked.
"Died from a friendly-fire incident. They inadvertently opened fire on a British convoy, the British convoy defended themselves, and..." He made a 'you can figure out the rest' gesture.
"So we have four dead soldiers, all victims of violence in Iraq."
Gibbs turned to Kate. "The guy in the restaurant... did he strike you as dangerous?"
"He seemed very sure of himself. I got the feeling it didn't matter much if I said yes or no to him, but that if I said no, I should watch my back."
"A bully," Gibbs said.
"Basically."
"Did he give you any idea when he'd contact you again? Or how?"
"No. He just implied it would be soon."
"When he contacts you... go along with it. See where it leads."
Tony stepped forward. "Are you sure Gibbs? I mean, I have experience undercover. If..."
"Kate is the one this guy contacted. We can't just slip someone into a skirt and hope he doesn't notice." He stood up and said, "Call Norfolk and get McGee. We'll need the extra hands while Kate's occupied."
Tony headed to his desk and Gibbs looked at Kate. "You all right?"
"Yeah. I've done undercover work before."
"You're sure you can handle this guy?"
"I'm positive, Gibbs."
---
Kate lifted her shirt and looked down, watching as Abby fiddled with the inside of the button on her trousers. "You're sure this isn't going to be detected?"
"Definitely not," Abby said. She pulled the front of Kate's pants forward and affixed a small black bug behind the catch of her trousers. "Any metal detector will just see the button of your pants. And if someone's checking close enough to be looking here, well... they're probably not looking for bugs."
Kate let her shirt drop and turned around. Gibbs and Tony had just arrived in the lab. Gibbs tossed her a cell phone and said, "Same number as your old one, automatically records all incoming calls."
She nodded and tucked the phone in her pocket.
"Let us know the second he contacts you. You won't see us, but you won't be alone."
"I know," Kate said, smiling. She looked at Abby and said, "So... business as usual until he contacts me?"
"Pretty much," Gibbs said.
Kate checked her watch and said, "Okay, then. Lunch!"
---
Kate headed out with the list of what everyone wanted, heading to where she'd parked in the outside lot. She usually parked in the underground garage, but the day had been so nice and she couldn't resist the close-to-the-door space she'd managed to snag. She climbed behind the wheel and put the lunch list on the dashboard as the gun was pressed against her side.
"Hello again, Agent Todd."
"How'd you get in my car?"
"Fetching their lunch," he said, leaning forward to look at the list. "That's gotta feel really good."
"Almost as good as a gun jabbed against my ribs," she said.
He smirked before retreating into the back seat. "Speaking of guns... hand yours over. Slowly." She unholstered the weapon and handed it over her shoulder to him. "Thank you."
"So where are we going? I could program it into my GPS, save some..."
"Just drive, Agent Todd," he interrupted. "The gun will be removed as soon as I'm sure we're not being followed and you're not going to do anything stupid."
She started the car and reversed from the space.
---
They drove to the outskirts of D.C. and the man finally told her to pull over. She parked next to a row of mailboxes, at the head of a dirt road leading down to a seemingly abandoned farmhouse. "Get out of the car," he said. "Walk down the dirt road and go into the farmhouse."
"Where will you be?"
"Stealing the spare change from your ashtray. Just go."
She got out of the car and started walking, getting halfway to the house before she looked back. The man was sitting in the backseat of the car, staring forward. She frowned and glanced up at the sky; a couple of clouds eased overhead and she wondered if they interfered with the signal...
---
Abby grinned as the signal paused on the screen. "Don't worry, sweetheart, Abby's got ya." The dot began moving forward again.
---
...and started walking forward again. By the time she reached the front door, she was more than a little nervous and wished for her gun. She was tempted to knock, but instead just turned the knob and stepped inside. The front room was bright, all of the windows uncovered and letting the sun in. There was no furniture, but it looked like some wild animals had taken advantage of the empty house in the absence of residents.
She sensed motion just before she was slammed into from behind, her body shoved forward and her face smashed against the wall. "Rosefern?" a woman said. Her voice had an Australian tint to it.
"Yeah," Kate said. "Agent Cai..."
"I don't care about your real name. Rosefern works." She began patting Kate down, feeling for weapons. She tossed Kate's cell phone away, along with her wallet and badge. When she was done, she stepped back and said, "Okay, turn around."
Kate did as she was told. The other woman was wearing an old white t-shirt and jeans, her dark blonde hair pushed forward into her face. She was also wearing aviator sunglasses, probably in the hopes it would obscure her identity. "Strip," she said.
"What?"
"Off with the clothes."
---
Gibbs squinted at the screen and said, "What's there?"
"Old farmhouses. Most of them are abandoned, though, belly-up for at least ten years."
"Should we head out there?" McGee said.
Gibbs shook his head. "If this guy knows enough about Kate to call her by her Secret Service call sign, he'd recognize us. We're just going to wait this out."
"Does this mean we're not getting lunch?" Tony asked.
---
"I'm not going to strip," Kate said.
"You'd rather I take them off?" she said. "Or maybe I go get Burner. Have him get you naked. Although I trust you won't like what he does once he gets you that way." She lifted her gun and again said, "Strip. Just down to your knickers'll be fine."
Kate glared at the woman and shrugged out of her coat. "What's the purpose of this? Humiliation?"
"Little bit of puttin' you in your place, yeah. But you think we don't know what you government types can do with tracking devices?"
Kate got out of her blouse and undid her trousers. She stepped out of her shoes, letting the pants fall around her ankles. As she stepped out of them, she thought a silent prayer to Abby, hoping she had a back-up plan.
"Watch, rings, anything that's not attached to your body comes off."
Kate did as the woman asked, finally standing there in her underwear.
The Aussie stepped forward and examined Kate from head-to-toe. "Turn around." Kate did as instructed and the woman ran a hand over her shoulders.
Kate resisted the urge to tell the woman to back off and instead asked, "Now what are you doing?"
"Looking for implants. Maybe under the skin."
"No one would do that."
"Can't be too careful. Okay, you're good." Kate turned back around and the woman tossed a jumpsuit at her. "Put that on."
Kate stepped into the jumpsuit and pulled it up. "Now what?"
"Now, we go back to your car. Drive a little more. At least far enough that it won't matter if you were being tracked." She tucked the gun into her belt and said, "I'm Dorothy. You're Rosefern, guy out in the car is Burner. You'll meet the rest when you need to."
Kate tried not to look too longingly at the pile of clothes she was leaving behind before she left the building. "What about my badge?" she asked.
"Oh, right," Dorothy said. She went back and picked up Kate's badge and wallet. "We can't have those getting into the wrong hands, right?" She nudged Kate forward and said, "I ain't turning my back on ya. Go. Walk."
When they got back to the car, Kate saw why the man was called Burner. He ashed his cigarette out the window and said, "About damned time. What took so long?"
"She didn't want to take her clothes off in a crappy farmhouse," Dorothy said.
"Figured you wouldn't have a problem coaxing a woman out of her clothes, no matter where they were."
Dorothy flipped him off and Kate gripped the wheel. "All right. Now where?"
---
"The tracker in Kate's pants is stationary. Too stationary." Abby clicked over and said, "Aha. The tracker in her car's wheel well is on the move."
Tony looked up slowly. "So... Kate isn't in her pants?"
Abby turned around and smacked him on the back of the head. Tony recoiled and grumbled, "Oh, good, I'm so glad to see that's catching on..."
---
They drove for another twenty minutes, finally pulling up to another farmhouse. This time, Burner instructed her to turn up the drive, all the way to the house. As they parked, an older man exited the garage and made his way over. "She the Fed?" he asked, pointing at Kate.
"Yep," Burner said. Dorothy turned and headed into the house without a word.
The old man said, "Rosefern?"
"That's what they're calling me."
"You're going to help us out. In a couple of hours, you're gonna call Gibbs and apologize for disappearing. Apparently, you have a bad stomach virus."
Burner said, "You didn't mention our meeting this morning, did you?"
"Nothing to mention."
"Good," the older man said. "Tomorrow, you'll go into work like nothing's wrong. You'll get a case. And you're going to do whatever you can to draw the evidence away from us."
"I may be angry about being stuck at NCIS, but I'm not about to do anything..."
The old man came forward. "We're patriots here, Rosefern. You, me, Burner, Dorothy... making things right."
Burner said, "You read the clippings?"
"Yeah."
"All you need to know about who we are is in those clippings. All four of us lost someone in Iraq. We're just going to get us a little revenge."
"An eye for an eye," Kate muttered.
"It wasn't combat," the old man said. "The people we lost? They were just on patrol. Or trying to help people. Lieutenant Snyder was in an apartment building trying to deliver medicine. He was a medic. And all they found was his finger."
Kate glanced at Burner. "So, what, you think by killing someone over here that the US will pull out of Iraq? Are you insane?"
"We're not the insane ones," Burner said. "Maybe it'll make people think a little harder about the whole Iraq situation. Right now, no one is concerned. No one thinks it's important. Maybe, if people start randomly dying over here, they'll start taking it a little more seriously."
"You're psychopaths."
"Maybe. But we're the psychopaths who'll be holding you hostage until tomorrow. Just so you don't get any bright ideas about running to Gibbs and letting him in on our plan."
"And if I decide not to help you?"
Burner tossed his cigarette. "Then I'm afraid your virus with take a turn for the worse during the night." He turned and walked into the barn.
The old man stepped forward and said, "He likes to make threats."
"So I should just ignore him."
"No," the old man said. "Don't do that. Because if we get even a hint that you're going to turn against us, we have a contingency plan. A dead federal agent sends as good a message as anything else." He turned and followed Burner into the barn.
---
Abby zoomed in on the farm. "This is where Kate's car stopped. We can't be sure they didn't just change cars, but there hasn't been much activity on the surrounding roads. We think she's still there."
"All right. Odds are they're still in that house. Do you think you can get surveillance on it, Abby?"
Abby hesitated. "Not likely. It's too open. They'd see us coming, literally from a mile away."
"All right. But get a truck ready. I want to be able to get in there at a moment's notice if Kate needs us, Abs."
---
The house was marginally better than the first one; it had furniture, but apparently no electricity. Kate wandered from the front room into the kitchen, where she found Dorothy mixing something in a coffee cup. She'd taken off her jacket and glasses, her hair pushed back out of her face. "Is there any more of that?"
Dorothy looked over her shoulder and said, "Yeah."
Kate walked over and pulled a mug from the cupboard, testing the sink faucet. It offered nothing and Dorothy smirked, pushing a bottle of water across the counter. Kate poured it into the mug and then picked up the can of instant coffee. "I'm sorry about all this," Dorothy said suddenly.
"About what?" Kate asked. "The kidnapping, the fear that I might not get out of this alive, the cloak and dagger... or making me lose my favorite blouse."
"Mostly the blouse," Dorothy said. "You looked really good in it."
Kate smiled and stirred her coffee. "So. Dorothy..."
"Yeah. I'm from Australia... Oz. Dorothy."
"Kind of a stretch," Kate said.
"Not as much as Rosefern."
Kate blushed. "Yeah. Um... t-that was kind of..."
"What? You can tell me."
"Some days, depending on how the sun hits it, I can have... really red hair. So, there were some comments about... upstairs/downstairs." She made a motion below her belt.
Dorothy half-gasped, half-laughed. "And that's how you got your Secret Service code name?"
Kate shrugged. "It was my choice. The guys were using it as a sort of derogatory name, so I just took it and ran with it. Took away their ammunition."
"Right on. My brother was..." Dorothy hesitated and looked down at her coffee.
"Was it your brother?" Kate asked. "The loved one who died in Iraq?"
She looked towards the back door. "They told you about that?"
"No specifics."
"Well, probably best that way." She picked up her coffee mug and carried it out of the room. Kate stopped stirring hers and put down the spoon, watching the liquid as it swirled in circles.
---
About an hour after arriving, Burner brought Kate a cell phone. She had joined Dorothy in the living room. She was sitting on the ripped and sagging couch, Dorothy was in the easy chair next to it with her legs draped casually over the arm. He attached an earwig to the phone and placed the bud in his ear, handing the phone to her.
"Call Gibbs," he ordered. "Tell him about your stomach virus, tell him you won't be coming in today. Make it convincing. And don't let me get suspicious." He looked at Dorothy and said, "Scram. I'm going to use Rosefern's real name and... well, we don't want that getting out, do we?"
Dorothy glanced at Kate and carried her coffee out of the room. Kate dialed Gibbs' cell phone and sat back. "This is Gibbs."
"Hey, Gibbs. Kate."
"Kate." A long pause. "Got a couple hungry agents here. What's the hold-up?"
"Sorry, boss. I... I got a bad stomach ache. I thought it would go away, but I was... waiting in line and just doubled over."
Another pause. "Oh. Well, you need the rest of the day?"
"That'd be great. I'm sorry about lunch..."
"Don't worry about it, Katie. I'll call you tomorrow, see how you're feeling."
"That's nice, boss. Thanks. I'll talk to you then."
"All right."
Burner hung up and pulled the plug from his ear. He casually wrapped it around the phone and set it on the table. As Dorothy walked back in, he turned and slapped Kate across the face hard enough to knock her to the side. "DiNozzo and McGee call Gibbs 'boss.' Gibbs never calls you 'Katie.'" He slapped her again and grabbed the front of her jumpsuit, pulling her to the ground.
"Jesus, Burner!" Dorothy screamed.
Burner pressed the cold barrel of the gun against Kate's temple and said, "How much did you tell him?"
"Nothing!" Kate said. "I didn't tell him anything. I swear."
The hammer cocked. "If you lie to me, if you ever lie to me..."
"Burner! Get off! Let her up!"
Burner heaved for another few minutes, then stood and fired into the far wall. Dorothy screamed and Kate jerked as if punched. Burner bent over her again and said, "I will kill you. Before I go to jail. Do you understand me?"
He grabbed a handful of her hair and she said, "Yes, I understand!"
He released her and stalked out of the room, tossing his gun down on the dining room table as he passed. Dorothy went to Kate and helped her back onto the couch, probing her cheek gently to see if the bruise was visible yet. The old man walked in, looked at them and then saw the bullet hole in the wall. "Burner?"
"Burner," Dorothy said.
"Bastard," the old man muttered, heading the direction Burner had disappeared in.
---
"At least we know she's safe," Gibbs said, disconnecting the call. He turned to Abby.
"We didn't get an exact trace, but the area the call originated from contains the farmhouse where she was last located. It's pretty much dead center. Which means..."
"They didn't find the second tracker."
"Two devices," Abby said, shaking her head.
"Always give them one to find," Gibbs said. "And one for you to keep. It's the same with guns."
Abby nodded. "I'll remember that."
To Tony, he said, "Call Metro. Tell them to get a helicopter ready to go at a moment's notice. Give them the farmhouse address."
"Got it, boss."
"What should we do?" McGee said.
Gibbs stopped and shrugged. "I don't know, McGee. We never did get any lunch."
---
After the debacle of the call, Kate and Dorothy remained next to each other on the couch. Kate hadn't touched her coffee, simply staring out the window and watching for when Burner returned. He eventually did, trailed by the old man. Dorothy dozed off and on, curling tighter and tighter against the arm of the chair. As dusk came, the old man entered and lit several oil lamps to keep them from being entirely in the dark.
Kate was about ready to go mad from the silence when a pair of headlights turned up the driveway.
'Gibbs,' she thought. The car rolled slowly up the drive, coming to a stop just behind Kate's car. Burner and the old man approached it and welcomed the driver. He handed them both two bags and pushed past them towards the house. Kate sat up and touched Dorothy's arm, waking her. "Are you expecting anyone?"
Dorothy was up and out of her chair, heading for the door as the new arrival stepped inside. He glanced at Kate and then looked at Dorothy. "This is Rosefern," she said. "She works for NCIS. She's going to help us out with covering our tracks."
He looked at her and then continued on, going upstairs. Dorothy smiled apologetically at Kate and said, "His nickname is Mime. Guess why?"
Kate smiled. "Listen... about me helping you out."
Dorothy sat down on the couch next to her and said, "You can't back out now, Rosefern."
"No, I'm not going to back out. I just... want to know what I'm dealing with. What I'm going to have to cover up."
"You'll know when it's time."
Kate sighed and leaned back. She looked out the window, wondering if Gibbs and the others still had a bead on her... if they were out there, watching and waiting...
---
"We'll start in the morning," Burner said without preamble. He walked into the living room and dropped a stack of papers on the coffee table. "We'll send a copy of this manifesto to Metro, who will, of course, transfer it to NCIS."
Kate picked it up, reading the cover. "This says it's from the Coalition for A Peaceful Earth."
"That's right."
"That's a real organization," Kate said. "They're small, but we investigated a member about two months ago. Despite claims that they want peace even through violent means, there are only about a half dozen people in it. They're hardly a threat."
"The manifesto reveals that NCIS only found one cell. There's a larger host body that they completely overlooked. This host body has the resources to hit and hit big. Like we will tomorrow."
"What are you planning to do?"
Burner glanced at the old man, who had just walked in. He nodded and Burner produced a photograph. It showed a man in a Navy uniform, looking out at a crowd and waving. Kate had seen him several times in the past few months, on the news and in photographs, but never in person. "This is the Secretary of the Navy," Kate said. "How on Earth are you going to get anywhere near him?"
"That's our job," Dorothy said. "You don't need to know anything about that."
"You come in after. Pointing the rest of your team towards the CAPE."
"And if I refuse?"
Burner smiled. "By that time, we'll have killed the Secretary of the Navy. How big of a challenge do you think Edna and Eugene Todd out in Bumfuck, Illinois, would be?"
Kate paled.
"Burner," Dorothy said softly.
"What, Dorothy, you want to make her pinky swear? It doesn't work like that." He turned back to Kate. "Nothing will happen to Mama and Papa if you do your job."
Kate glared at him and then turned to Dorothy. "You're doing this to avenge the death of family members. How could you possibly threaten someone else's?"
"Ends justify the means," the old man said. "There's not a soul who likes to admit it, but that's how the world works. We kill SecNav, the CAPE gets a little press... maybe enough people get talking that some kind of difference is made in the world."
"You're killing a man with a wife and kids. You're framing a tiny group of people whose world will be turned upside down."
"That 'tiny group of people' is a terrorist organization, Rosefern," Burner said. "They may not have the money to make a real big boom, but you know what? We do. And if we offered them the money, they would take it and do ten times worse."
Kate shook her head and looked down at the photo again.
"Maybe not your parents. How'd you like to watch Gibbs die?" Kate jerked. "McGee? Or DiNozzo?"
"Stop," Kate said. "I already said I'd do it. Just... shut up."
Burner gathered the papers and photo and said, "Just wanted to make sure we'd made our point." He gathered everything and stood up. "Get some rest. You're going back to your life at five sharp."
"Am I sleeping here on the couch?"
"Show her upstairs," Burner said to Dorothy.
Dorothy stood and motioned for Kate to follow her. Kate stood and knocked her knee against the coffee table. Her mug from earlier toppled and poured over the front of Burner's jeans. He jumped up, eyes wide and furious. Kate pushed him back down and said, "You put a loaded gun to my head. Deal with your wet pants." She turned and went upstairs, Dorothy following her.
The upstairs was a glorified cardboard box. Four doors branched off a narrow corridor, all the doors standing open. As they passed, Kate peered in and saw Mime sitting on the edge of a cot, assembling a rifle. He didn't look up at her, didn't even acknowledge her presence. She followed Dorothy the rest of the way, finding herself in a tiny bedroom.
Two cots were pressed side-by-side in the center of the room, surrounded on all sides by crates and cardboard boxes. Newspapers bridged the gap between boxes and the ceiling tile was drooping dangerously low in the far corner. There was a small window, about the size of a piece of paper, which let in light from the moon. "Ah. The Hilton. I've heard good things."
"You can have the cot on the left or the one on the right, whichever appeals."
"Who has the other one?"
"Burner."
"I'll slit my fu--"
Dorothy laughed. "Relax. It's mine." She touched Kate's arm, lingering just a bit longer than necessary. Kate, for her part, didn't pull back.
She walked to the cot and plucked at the thin sheet that would serve as her blanket. She sat on the bed and looked up at Dorothy. "You know, when I woke up this morning..."
Dorothy smiled and walked to her own bed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Same way I felt the morning I woke up without a brother."
Kate hesitated, then said, "You know my last name." Dorothy looked up. "Burner said... Edna and Eugene Todd."
"Right."
"So..."
"Reyes. Dorothy Reyes."
Kate frowned. "I... thought you said..."
"You think any of the guys downstairs could put together a Wizard of Oz reference on their own?" She shrugged. "I figure it's the perfect code name. People will look for anyone except someone actually named Dorothy." Kate raised her eyebrow and Dorothy said, "In theory, at least."
Kate laughed. "My name is Kate. Kate Todd."
"I hate that."
"Thank you."
"No," Dorothy said. "The bumping together, same letters. You get that stressed syllable in the middle or the pause when you say them together; Kay-tah T-odd. Or Kate... Todd."
"I generally go with the pause."
"Kate short for Catherine?"
"Caitlin."
"I like Caitlin better."
Kate leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "Your brother... Clayton Reyes? Killed by a land mine?"
"Yeah," Dorothy said quietly. She lay down next to Kate and said, "He was on patrol. Some kids, playing kickball. They kicked it off the road and he went after it. The damn thing hit a land mine and he tried to run back to the road, but... he was already in the field."
"God," Kate breathed. "I'm so sorry."
"Can you see now? Maybe why we're so determined?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't. Killing the Secretary of the Navy just seems... pointless to me. Like a little kid lashing out. Thousands of soldiers have died in Iraq."
"That's supposed to make it okay?"
"No, not at all," Kate said. She closed her eyes. "Do I believe we should be there? I don't know. Were there other options? I don't know. Is it better that we're there? Is it worse? That's why I don't want to run for President; I don't have a clue. But killing SecNav won't solve anything. Just like knocking down two towers didn't solve any problems in the Middle East."
"Oh, don't even--"
"Okay, okay," Kate said. "I'm just saying that... there's evil out there. On both sides. Selfish evil, greedy evil, ignorant evil... and its all coming together and we can't paint either side as truly good or truly bad."
"Gray areas."
"Exactly."
"This whole damn mission, Kate? Is a gray area. There are no more white hats and black hats. Only gray ones. And everyone wears the same color, so it's fucking hard to tell who your allies are. You think I agree with this bullshit? I'm a schoolteacher. I teach first graders not to hit, not to steal each other's lunches, to play nice, for God's sake. And I'm here, in a farmhouse, talking to a woman I helped kidnap because I want to kill the Secretary of the fucking Navy and you think this is where I want to be?!"
Kate sat up and moved to Dorothy's side, holding her tightly. Dorothy turned her head and found Kate's lips, kissing her every-so-briefly and flicking her tongue against Kate's mouth. "Hey," Kate whispered, pulling back.
"Do you want me to stop?" Dorothy breathed.
Kate looked down at her, seeing her eyes clearly in the moonlight. "No," she eventually said. She tugged down the zipper on her jumpsuit and leaned down, kissing Dorothy again.
---
Burner looked up as Mime walked into the garage. He was toting two sniper rifles in their cases and carried them directly to the trunk of the car. He set them on the floor and motioned for Burner to pop the trunk. As he bent down, Burner said, "Dorothy doing her part?" He looked back and saw Mime nodding. "Good. That's a good girl." He stood, the rag in his pocket snagging on the door frame.
When he bent to pick it up, a flash of red light caught his eye. He froze and tilted his head, looking into the wheel well. "Son of a whore."
---
Abby nearly spit her Kaff-Pow! all over the monitor. "Uh, Gibbs?"
Gibbs' eyes opened. He didn't jump, for that would betray that he'd been asleep, but he did take a moment to acclimate himself before he stood and walked over to Abby's station. "What do you have?"
"The tracking device on Kate's car just went black."
"Battery?"
"Was fully-charged."
"So this is..."
"Bad."
---
Kate stroked Dorothy's face, hovering over her in the darkness. Dorothy bit into the heel of Kate's hand as she writhed on the cot, lifting her leg and hooking it against Kate's hip.
---
Burner stormed from the barn, cocking one of Mime's sniper rifles as he moved.
---
The old man was listening to his stereo with earphones that completely covered his ears. The walls were thin and he'd heard enough of Dorothy's escapades in the past.
---
The truck had been gassed and prepared to go hours ago. Tony led the charge from the elevators, tossing the keys to Gibbs. McGee climbed into the back, immediately plugging his laptop into the battery and pushing open the top so he could call out directions to the farmhouse as they drove. The tires howled as the truck peeled from the garage.
---
Kate came, balling her fist in the pillow next to Dorothy's head.
---
Burner hesitated on the stairs, hearing the unmistakable sounds of Dorothy having sex. He looked back at Mime, who pointed at the top of the stairs. Burner grit his teeth and stormed the rest of the way up.
---
The old man stepped out of his room in time to see Burner top the stairs, Mime on his tail.
---
Gibbs nearly rolled the truck as he took a tight corner, McGee skidding across the floor like a pinball as he tried to keep the directions straight.
---
Dorothy lifted herself over Kate, pushing the brunette down and towering over her. She pressed a gun into Kate's hand and said, "It wasn't about the job."
Kate frowned as the door opened and Dorothy lifted herself off the cot.
---
Burner saw a naked woman flying at him and brought the rifle up.
---
The old man recoiled at the rifle shot.
---
Gibbs crashed into the back of the car in the driveway, knocking both himself and Tony into their restraints. While Tony was still recovering, Gibbs jumped out of the car and scrambled over the point where their truck meant the car's crumbled trunk. He ran to the house, praying that wasn't a shotgun blast he'd just heard.
As he kicked in the door, three revolver shots filled the air, unmistakable at this proximity, and he put a little extra speed on.
---
Dorothy was thrown back by the blast, hitting a stack of boxes and crumbling to the floor. Her chest was a bloody ruin, but Kate didn't take the time to grieve. She rose and opened fire, hitting Burner three times in the chest. He was knocked back into Mime, who in turn crashed into the wall with a resounding CRACK!
---
The old man fell on his ass, eyes wide at the blood pouring from his son's chest.
---
Gibbs topped the stairs and leveled the gun at Burner. Seeing the man's wounds, he said, "Give it up, son."
Tony came up behind him and moved forward, pulling the gun from Burner's twitching fingers. He carried it to the open door at the end of the hall and looked inside. Kate had her back to the door, wearing a rumpled blue jumpsuit. He could see that she was kneeling in front of a naked woman, her legs sticking out into the middle of the floor. The blood pooling around the two cots left little doubt about what had happened.
"Kate?" Tony said. "You all right?"
Kate held up her hands and said, "I'm not shot."
"That's not what I asked," Tony said gently.
"It's the best I can do," Kate breathed.
---
Ducky walked out of the house and rubbed his forehead. "The elderly Mr. Davenport broke his hip in his fall and the rather taciturn Mr. Snyder has some bruising from his impact with the wall."
"What about the younger Davenport?" Tony asked.
"Oh, dead-on-arrival. I doubt he survived very long following Caitlin's shots."
"All right," Gibbs said. "Thank you, Duck."
Ducky sighed. "I would say it was my pleasure, but..."
He stepped off the porch, walking back to the truck to get his gurney. As he passed the ambulance, he peered into the back and saw Kate huddled under a blanket, sitting next to Abby. "Are you all right, Caitlin?"
"For now," Kate whispered.
"Thanks for giving me a ride out here, Duck man," Abby said.
"It was my pleasure, Abigail. Such a lovely traveling companion, I rarely get to see." He brushed a finger across the brim of his hat before turning and walking away.
Abby squeezed her arm around Kate and bent forward, looking at her eyes. "You're not blinking."
"I keep seeing her," Kate said. "He was trying to hit me, and... a-and..."
Abby squeezed Kate's shoulder. "I wonder why that woman jumped in front of the blast like that."
"It wasn't for the job," Kate said, finally closing her eyes.
Abby relaxed against Kate, resting her head against Kate's, knowing she would explain what she'd just said if the time was ever right. For now, they could just sit and not blink for a while.