When they got back to the sduad room, Gibbs was on the phone, geting Liz Young’s medical records. Tony didn’t know what to do now. So, he pulled an extra chair up next to his desk for Nikki, but she was on the other side of the squad room, standing in front of Gibbs desk. When he got off the phone, she asked, “What do you think happened to my mom?”
“I think that... her death wasn’t natural.” Gibbs said.
“Please don’t sugar coat what you think happened. My Mom was the only person I had, until I found Dad, I think I deserve to know what you think happened exactly.” Nikki said, a little annoyed that she wasn’t being told the truth.
“I think your Mom might have been given a poisin that causes the one who injested the poisin to die by mimicing a natural death.” Gibbs said, waiting for Nikki’s reaction. She just started to ask a lot of questions.
“How could she have been poisioned?”
“I don’t know.” Gibbs replied.
“How do you know she even did get poisioned?”
“I don’t.” Gibbs answered.
“Then why do you think..” GIbbs cut her off.
“My gut.” Gibbs answered the question. Nikki looked confused. Gibbs tried to change the subject. “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I;m Leroy Jethro Gibbs and if Tony is calling us his family, that would probably make me your grandfather.” Gibbs said.
“Okay, so in Tony’s eyes, you his father, Mcgee, Ziva, Kate, and Abby are his brother and sisters, Ducky would be his... Grandfather,” she looked at Gibbs, who nodded, “and autopsy gremlin would be...” she trailed off not know what he would be.
“Lets just say Plamer is the weird cousin.” Tony said, making Nikki laugh a little.
“Boss, I have Liz Young’s medical record.” Mcgee called out.
“And Mcgee?” Gibbs asked walking over to his desk.
“There were no bad ateries, no desies, nothing.” Mcgee answered.
“What does that mean?” Nikki asked, looking a little worried.
“It means that Gibbs was right and someone murdered your mother.” Kate said as kindly as she could.
“Now, what we need to do is exhume her body and have Ducky look at it, and have Abby run a few tests.” Gibbs looked over at Nikki, “That is if that’s okay with you.” He said to her.
“Yeah, I just want to know what happened to my mother.” Nikki answered.
“Okay, then. Would you mind answering a few questions then?” GIbbs asked walking over to her. She shook her head, and Gibbs lead her over to his desk. He lifted her up and sat her down on top of the desk. He sat in his chair an started to talk. “Nikki, how old are you?”
“I’m eight, I be nine in October.” she answered.
“I know this is hard, but could you think of someone who’d want to kill your Mom?” Gibbs asked, he could see tears building up in Nikki’s eyes.
“Yes. We were at the park one day. A man walked up to me, and started talking to me. He said that I looked a lot like his mother when she was young. He said the he liked my hair, that I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Do you think me might have killed my mom to get to me?” Nikki asked, her voice cracking.
“I don’t know, but he might have. And if that’s the case, then I’m going to put you under protective custody. Okay.” Nikki nodded. “Tony,” Gibbs called out, and Tony walked over to his desk. “don’t let Nikki out of your sight.” Gibbs comanded.
“Wasn’t planning on it Dad.” he joked. Gibbs smiled and lifted Nikki off the desk. He gave her a reassuring smile. But she was still sad and had tears in her eyes. Tony walked with her back to his desk. “Hey, you okay Nik?” He asked. She sook her head and began to cry. Tony held her close and said, “Don’t worry, we will find out what happened to your mom. We will catch the guy who did this.” He promised, Nikki nodded and tried to control herself. She finally did, five minutes lator. Her stomach growled quietly, and she gave it a look, begging it to shut up. “You hungary?” Tony asked her. she nodded. “Here.” He walked her over to the vending machine. “What would you like.” HE said, she looked at her options.
“Can I have a bag of chips?” she asked quietly. Tony nodded and hit the machind in just the right spot to make a bag of chips fall out.
“Here you go.” Tony said handing her the bag.
“How’d you do that?” Nikki asked in amazement.
“When you’ve been in one place of so long, you figure out how to work the vending machine.” Tony answered as they walked back to his desk.
THey sat there for a little while, Nikki ate her chips thn started to doddle on a sheet of paper. Tony contiued to do his “paperwork” mich to Kate and Ziva’s annoyence. Nikki found her Dad’s “paperwork” quite funny, and watched as he threw the paper at both of them. He decided to throw one at Mcgee, who looked to concintrated on somthing for paperwork.
“What you lookin’ at Mcgeek?” Tony asked in a childlike voice.
“I can’t seem to find where Nikki’s mom was buried.” Mcgee said continuing to focus on the computer screen.
“That’s because my Mom wasn’t buried. She was cremated.” Nikki said. She walked over to her backpack and pullet out a ziplock bag full of ashes. “This is her.” she walked back over to Tony’s desk and sat them down. Just then Gibbs returned from his coffee run.
“Hey boss, Liz wasn;t buried, she was cremated.” Tony said pointing to the ashed on his desk.
“Is it okay if Abby runs some tests on these?” Gibbs asked Nikki, who nodded. Nikki pick up the bag and walked twards the elevator to give Abby the ashes. Tony chased after her and met her at the elevator. They walked into Abby’s lad together.
“Hey Abby.” Nikki called out. Abby walked over to tham and smilied.
“And what can I do for you today?” Abby asked.
“We need you to run a tox screen or something on these ashes.” Tony said.
“Okay, whose ashes are they?” Abby asked taking the ashes.
“My Mom’s.” Nikki said.
“Oh, so that’s what you ment by binging in a family again.” Abby said, coming over to hug Nikki. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Nikki said.
“So what am I looking for?” Abby asked.
“Poision.” Tony answered, “We’re pretty sure that Nik’s Mom’s death wasn’t all antural.”
“Can I stay with Abby for a little while, Dad? I like it down here.” Nikki asked.
“Sure, but I have to go back upstairs, okay.” Tony said.
“Okay.” Nikki replied. She and Abby started to talk about something or another when the elevator doors closed taking Tony back to the squad room.
“Where’s Nikki?” Kate asked as he walked in.
“She stayed in the lab with Abby.” Tony said sitting down.
“I knew she’d like Abby.” Kate said, returning to work.
“Everyone likes Abby.” Mcgee added.
“Some of us more than others, right Probie?” Tony asked taunting him.
“Drop it Tony.” Mcgee replied, digging his nose back into his work.
“Why do you have to be so mean, Tony?” Ziva asked.
“Because that’s how I am Zee-vah.” Tony answered, throwing another wad of paper at her. He smiled and went to work. He was working on findign everything he could about Liz, where she grew up, her family, whatever he could find. After a hour or two, Abby came up to the squad room with Nikki.
“I have the results of the tox screen. I found traces of oxalic acid which causes heart and kidney faliure, that’s what killed her.” Abby said sadly.
“So, the man poisions her to get to me, not knowing that I had a dad at NCIS that I could live with.” Nikki said, “I should be okay, right?” Nikki asked, looking over at Tony.
He looked at her and said, “I don’t know Nikki. But i do know that I will protect you to the best of my abilities and even if this guy does take you, he will not kill you, I won’t let him.” Tony siad quietly. Nikki ran over to him and hugged him, and he hugged back.
“Go home everyone.” It was Gibbs coming down from MTAC, “There’s nothing more you can do tonight.” Everyone grabbed there gear and headed out.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The team finds out what happened to Nikki's mom