RADE'S BAR AND RESTAURANT
Lissa hung up her apron in her small locker, glad to be done for the day but still with energy to burn. Maybe she'd ask Nina to go to the ice cream parlor downtown. They'd been testy recently towards the new waitress, worrying they'd wake up one day and find Nina dead, but perhaps it wasn't so fair to take it out on Nina herself.
She plopped on the worn old couch to wait for the brunette to finish her shift, and her eyes drifted shut even as she looked around the room. It registered that Nina's locker was oddly unkempt.
Lissa sat up, her eyes wide open. Nina's apron was on the floor - this from the woman who was always neat and tidy. She hurried over and picked it up, now wide awake. Nina's engagement ring and chain were in the bottom of the locker; she generally kept it in a pocket after the waitresses had warned her not to wear it on night shifts. Her jacket was still there, too.
Lissa panicked, slamming the locker door shut and running into the bathroom. "Nina!"
The door swung open as she was heading out. "Lissa?" Kim frowned at her expression.
"Where's Nina?" Lissa asked sharply.
"I don't know," Kim replied. "I thought you two were going to the ice cream place."
Lissa banged on Kennedy's door, then opened it without waiting for an answer. She nearly tripped going in and stopped short. Her eyes widened, and behind her, Kim gasped.
Kennedy lay on the ground, shot dead execution-style.
Both women swallowed hard, momentarily stunned. He had been cuffed and appeared to have been kneeling, and now was just lying on his side, blood everywhere. Lissa dry-gagged, and Kim looked like she was going to retch. "Call 911. I'm going to find Nina."
"You don't think she did this, do you?" Kim whispered.
"Just call!"
As the other woman rushed out, Lissa ran into the serving area, her eyes quickly brushing over the few patrons there. Theodora and Leilani Howe were eating in the dining area, and they jumped up when Lissa rushed out. "Lissa?" Lani asked.
"Nina - did you see Nina?"
Theodora paused. "I saw her head out the back with MacDow."
Lissa stopped short. "Capt. MacDow?" she asked in disbelief.
"What's wrong?" Lani asked.
Lissa shook her head. "Nina's gone. She left all her things, dropped all over the floor." She quickly dialed Nina's number.
Just then a cell phone on the bar counter began to ring. "She left her phone," Lani murmured with sinking dread.
Kim came running out. "The police are coming." She saw the phone. "Nina's phone."
Theodora tossed her own cell phone to her daughter. "Call your father," she ordered. She handed Nina's phone to Lissa. "You call Thomas."
"She's not answering her apartment phone, boss," Tony replied over his phone, currently on conferencing.
"Hey, Gus!" shouted one of the loggers. "We're just heading over to the bar, do you want - "
"McGee! Where is she?" Tony shouted into his mouthpiece.
"I...I can't find her. I don't know where she is."
"Who's McGee?" spoke up one.
"You going to the bar?" Tony asked sharply.
"Yeah. We were going to stop to pick up Dan's team along the way, but - "
"We're not stopping," Tony exclaimed, grabbing Scott. "The others of you will have to take another car. Scott!" He shoved him toward the car. "Drive!"
"Gus, what the h - "
"Tony DiNozzo," Tony snapped, flashing his badge and ID and showing his Sig Sauer. "NCIS. One of my coworkers is missing. You drive. Now."
The others quickly stepped out of the way as the car roared out of the lot.
"NCIS?" puzzled one. "GUS works for NCIS?"
Gibbs swore, snapping his phone shut and running towards his car.
"Thomas!" Howe sprinted towards him. "My daughter just called. She said that Nina's missing - she left with MacDow. Why would she go with MacDow?"
Gibbs shook his head. MacDow....
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"...was doing all different things," MacDow replied to Thomas' question as he stapled a packet and set it aside. "I was on a mobile training team in South America for awhile - Paraguay, Brazil, Colombia, Peru."
"You familiar with mobile training teams?" 'Col. Walsh'/Jack Canton asked.
"Sure," Tony replied. "They serve as military advisors in foreign countries."
"Among other things. Kidwell and Peary were working out of country," the fake colonel replied. "The op was classified, but it had nothing to do with their deaths."
"Why seal their records, then?" Gibbs asked.
"Because of how they died." Canton turned back when he realized the agents were no longer following him. "We found them at a local brothel. They had a dispute with one of the local prostitutes. She poisoned them."
"With what?"
"The local police said formaldehyde." *
"The killer's not trying to inflict pain on the Marines. ... He's...not trying to hurt them. He's...most likely trying to...he thinks...maybe put them out of their misery."
"None of them were sick," McGee pointed out.
"Look, I'm not saying he's thinking wholly rationally," Kate replied. "In our terms, I mean. But in his mind, he's doing what's best for his victims."
"So, the women and the formaldehyde?" Cassie asked, leaning forward.
"His anger is at the women," Kate replied. "So they are poisoned, and they can die more slowly. Painfully."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"MacDow," Gibbs murmured. He turned to Howe. "Where is he." When Howe shrugged, Gibbs grabbed his arm. "Where. Is. MacDow!"
"He said he had business to take care of for a friend," Howe replied, now suspicious. "Why?"
Gibbs swore again. "It wasn't Bentley. It's MacDow. He's got her. That bastard's got her!" He threw open the car door and jumped in, slamming his door shut.
"Thomas!" Howe banged on the window. "What the h-ll is wrong with you!"
"MacDow," Gibbs replied, as the window started coming down. "MacDow's the killer, and Lissa from the restaurant just called me. Somebody shot and killed Kennedy - had to have been MacDow. And now he's got Kate."
In seconds, Howe was on the other side of the car, pounding on the passenger side door. "Unlock it. Unlock it, Thomas!" Gibbs leaned over and unlocked the door, and the Marine jumped in. "You need backup, and I have my service weapon. Who is Kate?"
The car wheeled out of the parking lot. "Tony, where are you?" Gibbs radioed.
"Who's Tony?" Howe exclaimed.
"We're on the highway towards the bar now. McGee, have Abby call the bar," Gibbs snapped. "Ask them where they think Kate would go - where did they find the dead women."
"WHO IS KATE," Howe insisted as the car weaved in and out of the cars driving on that street.
"Nina Sutton is...actually an undercover agent. NCIS."
"Kate?" Howe exclaimed.
"Yeah."
"Oh boy," Howe muttered. "So who are you?"
"G - Agent DiNozzo, what the h-ll is going on?" Scott exclaimed.
"Hold on," Tony muttered. "Abby! What did they say?"
"Kate's gone," Abby said urgently. "They said Kate was being walked out with MacDow."
"Put a trace on Kate's cell phone," Gibbs' voice crackled over the line.
"We...we, uh, did boss," McGee murmured. "It's sitting on the bar at Rade's."
The swear was so loud Scott could hear it over Tony's headset. "Agent DiNozzo, what is going on?"
"Probie!" Tony said sharply. "Can you trace MacDow's number?"
"MacDow," Gibbs turned to Howe. "Does he have cell phone?"
"Yeah, I've got - " he caught the earpiece Gibbs had ripped out of his ear and put it in his own. "This is Gunny Howe. I've got MacDow's cell phone number. Hold on a sec. All right, I'm going to read it to you."
"We got a trace!" Abby and McGee shouted simultaneously. "He's heading on the main state road, south...hold on, he just turned off - "
"Between exits 419 and 421," Abby added.
"That's a wasteland," Howe murmured. "Swampy."
"Where is it?" Gibbs asked sharply.
"Swing around at this - " Howe slammed his feet on the dashboard and grabbed the handle above his passenger side window as the car spun around and drove straight through the tall grass of the median.
"H-LL!" Scott shouted, swerving to miss the car which appeared right off the median.
Tony grinned as he looked over into the left lane. "Hey boss!" he radioed wth a grin. "Glad you caught up."
"Your boss drives like a manaic!" Scott exclaimed, his heart still pounding over the whole thing.
"Oh, this is on a good day," Tony grinned. "Gunny Howe," he radioed, "this is Special Agent DiNozzo." He waved, smirking at the Marine's shocked look at having seen the familiar face. "Agent Gibbs is my boss."
"You Gibbs?" Howe asked.
"Yeah."
"Go ahead, Agent DiNozzo," Howe continued.
"Where Kate's being taken - what's the layout, how should we go in? Between you and Scott, we should be able to find her fast."
"There's only one car-accessible turn off into that field," Howe said. "When we train there, we have to go in one truck at a time."
"Would MacDow know of somewhere else?" Tony asked sharply.
"Not unless your logger friend knows of another entrance somebody might have told MacDow."
"There's a back route in," Scott could be heard saying. "It just opened two weeks ago when we cleared the area. It comes out on the same plain, but we can go from the back."
With that, Tony's car sped up and disappeared over the hill. Howe pointed out the clearing, and Gibbs whirled in. "That's MacDow's car."
The two men jumped out, and Howe ran over to the car, peering in. He picked open the trunk lock. "She's not in here." He watched as the NCIS agent turned and started heading into the field when Howe stopped him. "Thom - Agent Gibbs. I think it's better if I go."
The narrowed eyes would have made a less man back down, but Howe brushed it off. "MacDow isn't stupid," Howe said quietly as he handed the earpiece back to the silver-haired agent. "Anybody with brains would know that you would come looking for her. Let me talk to him." At the pause, he sighed. "If necessary - IF - you may...protect your agent. But let me talk to him. It'll go better this way. For her."
Kate groaned, then coughed, her eyes watering. "Uh." She coughed, her eyes barely opening. She was freezing. Her head pounded as she raised it up just the slightest.
"Hi," said a soft voice, and Kate looked up to see Capt. MacDow. Her eyes widened slightly but didn't dilate quickly enough because of the drugs. "Don't try to talk, OK?"
"Captain," she said, her voice scratchy and hoarse.
"Shh," MacDow said impatiently, sitting on the ground, his knees up to his chest, his service weapon in hand. "I have to do this."
"No," she said softly. "Please don't."
"You'll destroy him," MacDow said sharply. "Gunny Thomas is a fine Marine. You'll kill him."
"No, I won't."
"He cares about you," MacDow hissed, his voice rising. "He likes you. And you're going to poison him, just like those women poisoned Craig and Jim."
"No, I promise you I won't," Kate whispered.
"You're only saying that now," MacDow growled. He sighed. "And you know, I thought you liked him."
"I do," she said automatically, and then MacDow watched as she paused for a moment. "I do," she said softly.
MacDow just snorted. Her hesitation was enough. "I thought you were different from the others. I thought you weren't using him."
"I'm not, Captain."
"Everybody knows you're trying to get out of that hellhole. Get enough money to get out, or marry out."
"Captain," she said softly. "The Marines help a lot of people get out of their bad neighborhoods. A lot of those waitresses - did you know that Kennedy sells them? He prostitutes them out to men who pay enough. They can't say anything because they need those jobs."
For a minute, MacDow stopped. He had heard of the pimping Kennedy was doing, but to see it from a different angle.... "I know. I know he makes it miserable for you," he replied quietly.
"Can you blame them, then?" she asked gently.
"I solved that problem," MacDow said. "He won't be doing it anymore." He fingered his weapon.
For a moment, she looked shocked. "What?"
"He was slime, but those women are still partly responsible for their own decisions," MacDow replied almost half-heartedly, trying to steel his resolve. "I heard Gunny Thomas and Gunny Howe talking about you. About the gunny getting you out of there. You're just using him. You'll marry him...then you'll clean out his bank account. Maybe kill him."
For a minute, he puzzled at the slightly amused smile on her face. For a woman about to die for lying to a good man, she was smiling? "Why are you smiling?"
"Nothing, nothing. His...his second wife cleaned out his bank account," she chuckled softly. "And cleaned out the poor man she married after him."
"He told you that?" MacDow asked, surprised. When the brunette nodded, he murmured, "What else do you know about the gunny?"
"He...takes his coffee black, won't drink the office coffee," the brunette said softly. "He thinks scotch is a better way to feel warm," she chuckled. "He drinks a 125 proof bourbon when he does wood work. Drinks it out of a mug."
She paused a moment, then chuckled a little, and winced at the pain from that movement. "He hates peas, and he hates healthy food...like tofu. Cooking healthy for him is going to take creativity."
MacDow blinked. It was too late to use the formaldehyde, as it would take a little bit more time to work anyhow, and he was sure Thomas would be on his trail by now. And for the first time since this started, he hesitated.
She knew he didn't like peas.
MacDow almost wanted to laugh aloud at that. She had already thought about how she was going to keep him healthy. As much torture as that would be for the gunny, who he knew liked sausage and pizza and all the usual food, he would be in good hands with her.
Would have been, he corrected himself. Would have been. Nina Sutton couldn't be perfect. What was the catch that would make her kill him?
MacDow flinched, and his gun hand dropped a little. The brunette groaned from pain and curled onto her side. "Captain," she said softly. "Why are you doing this?"
"Those women were going to kill them," he whispered. "They put formaldehyde in their drinks, and I couldn't bear to see them in pain while they died."
"Who started it?" she asked hoarsely. "I'll turn her in. I will."
"I don't know, I don't know!" MacDow groaned, grabbing at his temples. "She poisoned them. They had children. They had wives - Lisa and Sarah were wonderful women. They were good Marines, they made a mistake. And she poisoned them. I know what it does...the stomach pains, the breathing."
"Did that happen here?" she asked softly. "Capt. MacDow, I promise, you tell me who did it, and I'll turn her in."
There was a minute of debating, and then MacDow said, almost confusedly, "It was in Colombia."
"Captain?" came the shout. "It's Gunny Howe!"
The corporal instantly tensed and his gun hand came back up. "What's he doing here?" he asked, scooting nearer to the waitress, tense.
"Captain, the bar called Gunny Thomas to say that Nina Sutton is missing, and so we've been looking for her. We saw your car here. Did Gunny Thomas call you? Ask you to help look for her?"
"It'll be better if you answer him," Sutton whispered. "Go ahead."
They could hear the Marine's call from where they were - Gibbs and Howe were straight ahead...somewhere in the grass. Scott pointed. "There's a small clearing about ten feet from here," he whispered. "That's most likely where your boss is headed, and where your coworker is."
Tony blinked. "How can you tell?" he asked. The grass was so high.
"Trust me on this one."
"We're here, Gunny," MacDow's voice, sounding tired and sad, carried. The two Marines appeared first, weapons drawn. "You didn't tell me Gunny Thomas was here!" MacDow' s voice went up, and his weapon came dangerously near the brunette.
"Mac, I'm going to put my gun down," Howe said gently. "Put yours aside."
"I wasn't going to kill her," MacDow said. "Not...not then."
"You brought her here with that intent." At that statement, MacDow looked sadly at the silver-haired gunny, whose cold expression barely covered fury. "You were going to kill her."
"No, not after awhile," MacDow said quietly. He shook his head, and then he put his gun to the side and blinked, as if not sure what to do. There was a long silence, and then he said, almost as if he didn't know what else to say, "I think Nina's cold."
He watched as the recruiter holstered his gun. He looked different in civilian clothes but still wore his service weapon. Thomas approached, and MacDow sat across from them as the man crouched beside her and then pulled her limp body up, sitting her up against his chest. "You OK?"
"I think you owe Abby and me that spa visit you cancelled," she groaned, then sneezed.
MacDow smiled at them, sadly. He watched as the Marine shook off his long brown duster and wrapped her securely in it, tucking her legs in for her when she couldn't move them. He rubbed her arms to try to warm her up. MacDow thought she looked so small inside his coat, swimming in it.
"Why did you do it?" came a quiet voice from next to him.
MacDow shook his head at the voice, and the Marine began breaking down. He couldn't answer. The gun slowly came up toward his temple when a strong hand gripped his wrist. A tiny pinch, and the weapon fell from his hand into the hand of his captor.
They looked up to see two dirt-covered men, one looking shocked and the other carefully unloading the Marine's service weapon. "Captain," said 'Gus Logan' - NCIS Agent Tony DiNozzo, Howe corrected himself mentally. "You're under arrest."
The Marine and the logger stood side by side and watched silently as Agent DiNozzo cuffed the Marine and led him a couple feet away to call for MP backup.
It appeared that the waitress/NCIS agent, Nina/Kate, had been drugged up something good; MacDow had injected her with a heavy dose of tranquilizer. Her boss had to help her into a sitting position; some of her limbs still hung limply. As the senior agent pressed his fingers along her arms and legs every half-foot, she shook her head.
"You can't feel anything?" Scott suddenly blurted, quickly moving over and kneeling down beside her, his concern taking over first.
"It's likely with whatever tranquilizer he knocked me out with," she said hoarsely. "Temporary, I hope."
"C'mon." Scott watched as the older NCIS agent picked her up, tucking a secure arm around her shoulders and under her knees. The man then turned to the logger. "Where's your car? Your and Tony's car?"
"We're really close," Scott said carefully. "We had to drive more than you did, but we should be closer to here than you and Howe got. Come on."
Scott stepped carefully in front of them both, making sure to separate the grass and tromp it down. He didn't look back at them, and when he got to the car, he quickly unlocked as many doors as he could. "Do you want to put her in the front, or lay her in the backseat?"
"I can decide myself," Nin - Kate, Scott corrected himself - said, and the logger almost chuckled at the spirited response he'd learn to expect from the brunette. "Put me by the door," she instructed. "It'll be easier when I throw up." She looked queasy then, holding on to the other NCIS agent. "Set me down," she gasped, and leaning hard against the truck, she retched violently.
Scott watched as the gunny - the other NCIS agent, Gibbs - held her in a bent position, pulling her hair back in his large hand and holding it back as she threw up again.
When she was finally finished, he gently wiped her mouth for her. She was trembling now, looking too white. "You going to be all right for a ride, ma'am?" Scott asked.
"I'll be fine," she replied. "I'm good," she insisted when both men looked at her concernedly. "Just...I can't move my legs. Put me in the truck."
MARINE BASE
"Where's Kate?" McGee called as he jumped out of the sedan first, Ducky close behind.
"She's fine, probie," Tony replied. "Gibbs and Scott took her to the hospital." He nodded to the medical examiner. "Hey Ducky. They're at the municipal hospital. Sgt. Stultz here has offered to take you."
As the two men disappeared, Tony turned to the other agents. "Sgt. Maj. Mathis is inside with MacDow. MacDow waived his rights to a lawyer three times. He wants to give a statement."
"You're kidding," Balboa replied, stunned.
"Mathis just came from the hospital, where he and Gibbs were taking Kate's statement. MacDow pretty much confessed to her about the killings on the way to the swamp, then the 'why' came out in bits and pieces later. I was here with the other MPs, and he waived his rights and told us everything, then he said he wanted to talk to the NCIS agents who were taking care of the other cases."
"Is he insane? Literally?" Cassie asked.
"Kate thinks that he snapped after his friends' supposed deaths. From what MacDow told us, it seemed that Kate pressed the issue and managed to show him that the women who supposedly killed them were unrelated to the ones here. When he figured that out, he almost went beserk with guilt."
"Have we identified those friends yet?" Axelrod asked.
Tony sighed. "He's actually tied to one of our old cases. We had two Marines who supposedly died in the line of duty. In reality, they had been taken hostage, and the CIA agent in charge of paying their ransom decided to keep the two million dollars instead."
McGee shook his head. "I don't remember this case."
"Before you joined up with us, probie. The CIA turncoat told his agency the insurgents killed the Marines anyhow and sent home two empty coffins. He told us - and apparently he told those Marines - that a prostitute poisoned their drinks with formaldehyde. In case MacDow mentions it, one Marine was James Kidwell, wife Sara. Second was Craig Peary, wife Lisa."
"What happened to them?" Balboa frowned.
"Neither were actually dead at the time of their 'funerals'. Canton took the money and hoped Kidwell and Peary would get killed by the insurgents. They escaped, and Kidwell called his wife the day of his funeral. We got suspicious, went to dig Kidwell up, but Canton killed him and slipped him into his coffin beforehand."
"Sick bastard," Axelrod muttered.
"We managed to save Peary before Jack Canton killed him, too."
"So neither of those men were really killed by formaldehyde poisoning?" McGee asked, and got a nod. "So MacDow went on a killing spree over something that never actually happened?"
"Kate and Gibbs think MacDow is reliving Kidwell and Peary's deaths - at least, what he knows of their deaths from Canton," Yates said thoughtfully. "He poisons the girls with formaldehyde - a dose of their own medicine - and then he shoots the Marine in the heart once to prevent him from getting hooked by her, a quick death if MacDow thinks he's already been poisoned, or any other number of things."
"If I could shoot Canton one more time for causing this," Tony muttered, "I would."
LOCAL HOSPITAL
Howe rubbed his hands over his face tiredly as he sat next to the logger friend of 'Gus''s - Scott. Both men remained quiet - but comfortably so. The trying chase and the shocking revelations - Gus Logan, Nina Sutton, and Gunnery Sergeant Alvin Thomas all NCIS agents?! - had done a number on them both.
Just then the Rade's waitresses entered, dressed in normal clothes and not their usual uniforms, and Scott had to admit that they actually looked...almost scary. The determination mixed with concern - he wasn't stupid enough to get in their way. They came down the hall in a large group, stopping a nurse along the way to ask something. He got up out of his chair. "Hey."
"Scott, Gunny." Em immediately went to the two men. "What happened? Is she OK?" She looked at Scott, dusty and dirty. "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine," he said. "And so's your friend. She's inside - Agen...her...he's with her."
They were about to head in when Erin suddenly said, her eyes looking at the men intently. "What aren't you telling us?"
Howe stated bluntly, "They're NCIS." He waited for a moment as they stared at him in shock.
"Your Nina, our Gus, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas," Scott explained. "They're all NCIS. They came down here to set up an elaborate trap for the killer."
"A dangerous one," Kim snorted.
Howe's wife and his daughter came running in at that moment, and he stood to greet them. Scott gave him a small smile and took that opportunity to go, leaving him to talk to his family privately. Lani threw her arms around her father, and he hugged her fiercely. Theodora looked at him expectantly. "They're fine," he said tiredly. "Ni - MacDow shot her up with some drugs and she got got pretty sick, but she's alive and fine."
Lani sighed and nodded. "Trust me, I don't think Kerrie and Jamie need to know about Miss Sutton," she muttered.
"It's not just that." Howe sighed and he straightened. "They're not Miss Sutton and Gunny Thomas."
Theodora blinked. "What?"
"They're NCIS agents," he said quietly. "Sutton, Thomas, and the logger Gus Logan. They're all NCIS agents. They set up this in order to catch MacDow." When his wife and his daughter stood there staring at him, stunned.
Lissa opened the door as silently as possible; they could hear the soft rustling of the bed, and then a murmur. The others behind her, she peeked in, watching as the Marine - the NCIS agent, she corrected herself - stood near the bed, his back to them, his eyes ever watchful.
He looked up at them, and Lissa smiled and finally stepped inside, the others behind her. He moved out of their way silently.
"Hey," she said quietly as they entered, and the brunette turned to look at them. "You don't look so good."
"I've felt better," Nina - or whoever she was - replied. "Hey, I, uh, ought to explain about - "
"That's OK," Em cut in. "Scott and Gunny told us...about the NCIS stuff."
She smiled, and then said, "Kate. Kate Todd," she said, and for some reason it seemed very important to her that she tell them who she was. "And this is my boss, Agent Gibbs. I'm guessing...you know Gus Logan is a NCIS agent, too. He's my colleague. Tony DiNozzo."
"I'll leave you to catch up," the silver-haired agent murmured, looking at Kate to make sure she was all right, and then carefully making his way past them, smiling slightly in acknowledgment as he passed.
Jaime looked like she was about to drool, and Em poked her sharply in the side. She came around to Kate, and with deadpan seriousness, said, "Please tell me I can sign up to join NCIS."
The tension broke, laughter ringing throughout the crowded little hospital room.
"Well," Kate replied, her eyes twinkling. "Gibbs has rules...number twelve is never date a coworker."
"Puts a crimp in his plans," Kim muttered in the back, looking at Kate. Em snickered.
Erin smiled. "How're you feeling?"
"Tired. MacDow shot me up with enough tranquilizer to knock out an elephant," Kate sighed. "Among other things. I've been carried back and forth like some helpless doll. Doctor says the tranquilizer ought to wear off within the next few hours, but to get everything out of my system...."
There was a moment, and then Kate then said quietly, "So...you know about MacDow, I guess," and silence fell on them for awhile.
"Yeah," Lissa replied finally, taking a deep breath. "I think most of us want to be really angry with him, but." She shrugged. "I think we are, in a sense, but at the same time - " she sighed. "We don't know quite how we're feeling yet. He killed Kennedy, and as brutal as it was.... It's a relief to have that guy gone. MacDow killed our friends, our coworkers, but at the same time - " Lissa shrugged helplessly.
"Well, I don't think the Marines are sure what to feel, either," Kate replied quietly. "Just glad it's over." After a companionable silence, she asked, "So, what's happening now?"
"Quincy's taking over temporarily," Em replied. "And we're staying on. Quincy won't put up with the crap Kennedy pulled, and he's a good boss. If we had had our way, he would have been in charge the whole time." Her eyes twinkled. "Kennedy just fired our bartender two days ago, so guess who's taking over there."
Erin's wide grin caused Kate to laugh. "You could. You certainly could."
There was a knock, and Lissa frowned. "Hey, uh, we can't stay. The nurse was pretty irritated at us coming in this late."
"Hey, I just." Kate paused. "I really wanted to thank you for taking care of me these past couple months," she said softly. "I was really happy to be working with you."
The women grinned. "You and the NCIS will always be welcome. Drop by," Em replied.
"First round, house'll buy." Erin winked.
"Yeah, and, uh." Kim's eyes twinkling deviously. "Bring your man." The other waitresses laughed.
Kate blinked. "I'm...I'm not dating," she said slowly, puzzled by the amused looks she was getting.
Erin just chuckled, her eyes dancing. "Em means it," she replied, her voice full of laughter. "When you come on down to visit, bring your guy. I'm sure the Marines'll be happy to see Agent Gibbs again, too."
With that, they left, the door closing behind them.
* Season 1, episode 9: "Marine Down"
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. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.