Gibbs rolled his eyes, thankful for coffee. Now that their last case had been wrapped up, Jenny had called a meeting. It wasn’t a full staff briefing, thank God, but included DiNozzo, McGee, Ziva, Abby and Ducky. He hated being left out of things that affected his team. He glanced at his watch; this better not take long.
“Thank you for your time,” Director Shepard began, welcoming. “As you know, Agent Diamond and Agent Sullivan have recently joined our team as liaisons for NPID. Now that we’ve had a chance to see how their particular skills can be of assistance here at NCIS, we have decided they will be remaining here, at least for the time being. Our new team members are now going to take a few moments to provide some more information that speaks to their specific experiences in their areas of specialty.” She paused, smiling as Maggie and Noah entered the room to sit in the front. “Please keep in mind that the information about to be imparted to you is of the highest confidentiality. Noah?” she invited him to take her place in the front of the room. She crossed to sit next to Maggie.
“Good morning,” Noah said, cocking one eyebrow. “First of all, let me state for the record that Maggie and I didn’t keep this information from you intentionally. We believed your entire team had been briefed prior to our arrival here at NCIS. Director Shepard informed me she didn’t wish to disclose this information until it was confirmed we would be staying at NCIS.” He paused, looking at each person in the room one by one. He smiled at Abby, winked at Ziva, and then said, “Abby provided some information upon our arrival here. What you may not realize is that of the four kinds of the preternatural she listed, one if each is represented here today.” He paused, listening to the uproar of everyone’s thoughts. “Naturally, each of the four of us is aware of the other.” He looked at each person one by one.
“Some of you knew about one or another of us, but no one knew everything. I can hear your thoughts right now, so I’m going to cut to the chase before some of the threats you’re thinking come to pass…” he trailed off, catching Gibbs’ look.
“I am a vampire. My mental abilities include mind reading, telepathy and the ability to impose certain feelings on others. I am over 600 years old.” The room fell silent as everyone began to take in what was being shared. “I do drink human blood to survive. I require more than most other vampires due to my age. My only kills have been with manmade weapons either during war or in the line of duty. I first came to America in the late fifteenth century. I was the first vampire to move to the new land. I fought in the Revolutionary War beside General Washington. Actually, I have fought in every major conflict this country has faced, with the exception of the Civil War during which I was living abroad. I am currently the oldest living vampire in the United States.” He paused, seeing that everyone was overwhelmed. “Let me answer your questions directly. Who’s first?”
“What do you do when a vampire does something he shouldn’t?” McGee asked.
“Vampires do not have a governing body or ruling council. We have developed standards of behavior and expect others to abide by those same standards. It typically falls to the eldest or most powerful to enforce the laws of the land among our kind. If a vampire “went rogue”, for lack of a better term, in the United States, it would be my responsibility to convince him to leave the country and never return. If he were to refuse, he would be executed,” he answered matter-of-factly.
“Is there a way to keep you out of mind?” Gibbs asked, annoyed.
“Yes, you can put up a mental block to keep out any sort of mind reading or telepathy. It is a matter of focus. Agent Sullivan figured out how to do it within months of meeting me, and I haven’t gotten anything from her since that she didn’t want me to hear. I’m sure you can ask her more about how that works later, if you would like.”
“Can we get a demonstration?” Abby asked, smiling.
“Of course,” he said, smiling. “Can I get a volunteer?” he asked.
“Oh, me, pick me!” Abby said, raising her hand like was in elementary school. It was just as well, as none of the others volunteered. He took her hand as she came to the front of room, and turned her to face everyone. He stood directly behind her. She removed any jewelry she had around her neck, flopped her left pigtail over to the right side, and then cocked her head slightly to the right to allow him full access to her neck. Noah ran his fingers over her neck, gently caressing her.
“There are several places from which a vampire can feed,” he explained. “The neck and wrist are the most obvious. The bite does leave visible marks, although they fade quickly. If a person wanted a mark not to be seen, the vampire can feed from one of several other places such as the ankle, breast or inner thigh.” He leaned down to Abby’s neck, inhaling her scent. “I can tell from her scent that Abby has no disease in her blood, is not under the influence and has eaten breakfast this morning.” He continued gently stroking her neck, pissing off every over-protective man in the room. This included McGee, Gibbs and Tony. “As the person is essentially donating blood, the same rules apply that would if you went to the blood bank or a blood drive.”
“Did you just call her a blood donor, Diamond?” Gibbs asked, out-of-sorts.
“Oh, Gibbs, it’s not a problem,” Abby interjected. “I used to date a vampire. I know the drill. Actually, it is a very pleasant experience.”
“True,” Noah added. “Some say it is better than sex. My opinion is, they haven’t had really good sex,” he paused as everyone laughed nervously, not knowing what to expect. He leaned down, moistening Abby’s neck with a soft kiss. Abby closed her eyes in pleasure, feeling the gentle brush of his fangs across her soft skin. Noah’s fangs sank deeply into her neck, causing her to gasp. As he began to suck, she moaned in pleasure. Noah caught her as her knees grew too weak to support her. He withdrew, leaving a clean set of marks and no blood. His mouth showed no evidence of fangs or blood. Abby stood and smiled, a very sated look on her face. “Thank you, Ms. Abby,” he said softly, handing her jewelry back to her, and leading her to her seat.
“Oh, thank You,” she insisted.
“Are you okay, Abs,” McGee said, rushing to her side in worry.
“Definitely,” she said smiling.
“How do we know that we haven’t accepted you here only because you’ve imposed positive feelings on us?” Ziva asked, genuinely concerned. He met her eyes.
“Vampires aren’t evil, Ziva,” he replied. “Vampires typically only play mind games with one another, kind of as a show of power. I use the telepathy to communicate with others here. The mind reading is a part of who I am. I could no more stop hearing thoughts than you could stop hearing what someone was speaking. They are sort of like the score of a movie – always running in the background. While I have transferred emotion during an interrogation, I have never used it in personal or professional relationships and do not plan to. I have no proof. I can only ask that you trust me,” he said, looking deeply into her eyes. “On that note, if there are no other questions for me, I’ll give the floor to Kate.”
The room erupted in quiet whispers. Kate went to the front of the room, looking to see who was actually looking at her: Abby, Maggie, Noah and Tony. As she suspected, none of the others could see her.
“Maggie, could you please be my voice to those who can’t hear me?” she asked, politely.
“Of course,” Maggie answered, making her way to the front of the room. Everyone looked at Maggie, confused. Maggie took a moment to explain.
“Kate is a ghost. She spends a lot of time here at the NCIS offices, and has assisted in investigations. If you can’t see or hear her, it’s because your mind has been conditioned to be insensitive to those things. In time, with belief and effort, I have no doubt that you will be able to see her. I’m going to allow her to speak, and I will repeat her words for those who can’t hear her.”
“I don’t need to go into detail explaining who I am,” Kate said smiling. “You knew me. Some of you knew me even better than I knew myself,” she chuckled. “I have missed you so much. It was very difficult to see you mourn me.” She paused, shaking her head. “Even now, I don’t know for how long I will be here. But I do promise to be here for you for as long as I can be.” She moved away from the podium. “That’s all, thank you.”
“Special Agent Caitlyn Todd,” Gibbs said with a sideways smile, watching her walk toward him.
“Hey Boss,” she said, smiling. “May I touch you?” she asked.
“You better,” he said, chuckling, pulling her into a hug. He picked her up and swung her around. “I can’t even believe it.”
“You better,” she mimicked, sitting down beside him.
Abby made her way to the podium. “My turn,” she said in a perky voice. “God, this feels like AA or something,” she laughed. “I’m a seer, which is really just a fancy way to say I’m a telepath that can do cool things in dreams.” She nodded, as if what she said explained everything.
“Hardly,” Maggie said with a knowing look. Abby laughed.
“Okay, what I can do is actually really cool,” she said wagging her eyebrows. “I can literally control dreams. If you want to have a certain dream, I can send it to you. If you are having trouble with nightmares or bad memories, let me know; I can help. I can actually visit people in their dreams. I can only do this if I’m invited or under extreme life or death circumstances.”
“So, what happens if you kill someone in their sleep?” Tony asked. “Are you like a modern-day Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street?”
“Tony!” Abby exclaimed, pretending to be hurt. She winked at him. “Actually, those stories are most likely rooted in someone’s experience with a seer; much like there are stories about vampires and werewolves. Killing someone in their sleep can cause the person to go into cardiac arrest from fear, but wounds inflicted in the dream realm are not permanent.”
“So you’re the DreamMaster!” Tony said, excited. Abby laughed.
“Whatever you say, Tony,” she said, turning the podium over to Maggie.
Maggie smiled nervously at each person in the room. “By process of elimination, I’m sure most of you now know I am a werewolf. Abby already provided a lot of information, so in the interest of saving time I’ll just open the floor for questions.” She paused, shrugged her shoulders and went to sit down.
“Wait a minute!” Gibbs stopped her. “Don’t think you’re getting out of this that easily.”
“I’m sorry, Agent Gibbs, did you have a question?” she asked sweetly, pretending she hadn’t been trying to avoid this.
“How old are you,” he asked seriously.
“A lady never tells,” she said flirtatiously. When she realized everyone was still awaiting her response, she continued. “I was born in Ireland in the late 1800s. I will be 114 years old in May,” she stated, as if reciting. “Next question?”
“Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you change into wolf form to track a suspect,” Noah began. “What do you do with your clothing?” She gave him a loathsome look.
“You specifically leave it somewhere not likely to be found, but easily be accessed on all fours. Often I leave my clothing in the vehicle to which I rode to the scene. But this can backfire when your partner moves the car to the NCIS parking garage and then locks it behind him with the alarm set, and you’re forced to borrow clothes from a 9-year-old girl’s overnight bag,” she said acidly, making everyone laugh. “Next question?” she asked, moving the interrogation along.
“Do we get a demonstration?” Tony asked. Maggie rolled her eyes.
“I thought you might want to see my wolf. The problem is, to see my wolf you have to see a lot more than that. I’m not modest. Growing up in a family of werewolves sort of rids you of any instinctual modesty. But you are my coworkers and this is a professional meeting, so I would ask you to turn around while I disrobe and change,” she said.
“It’s not really a demonstration if we don’t see the change,” Gibbs commented. “I’m watching,” he said, leaving no room for argument.
“Fine, suit yourself,” she said as the others began turning around to face the back of the room.
Maggie met Gibbs’ eyes and blushed. He was the only person still facing forward. She was not normally modest, but under these circumstances she could hardly believe she was about to take her clothes off. He raised an eyebrow in challenge. She wanted to turn around so he couldn’t see her, but was too stubborn to back down. She yanked the hair tie from her hair and shook it out, letting it fall loosely around her shoulders. She could hear the change in his breathing. She smiled. If he was going to make this a challenge, she was determined to make it as difficult for him as possible; or at least memorable. She slowly removed her blouse, pants, shoes and socks. Throughout the process, she never broke eye contact with him. When she reached behind her to release her bra, she smiled and turned around. She removed her underclothes with her back to the room. She placed her clothes in a neat pile on the chair next to the podium, and then crouched naked on the floor, her back still to Gibbs and the others.
Gibbs watched in fascination. He watched as her lithe legs began to shift into those of a wolf, her slender fingers pulling into a large paw. He was captivated by her transformation. Within mere moments what had been one of the most amazing specimens of the female human body he had ever seen had become a gorgeous wolf with copper fur. Maggie leapt and moved quickly to the back of the room, capturing the attention of the others. She howled, and then pulled her lips back into a snarl as if preparing for attack. She ran at DiNozzo, teeth bared. He started backing away, tripping over a chair in the process. He landed flat on his back, with Maggie above him. At the last moment, she changed her snarl to a whine and began licking him in the face. He laughed, as if he hadn’t been frightened.
“Did you piss your pants, DiNozzo?” Gibbs asked in good humor. DiNozzo held up two fingers as if to indicate “just a little bit”. Everyone laughed. Maggie crossed the room and laid her paw on Director Shepard’s lap. Jenny looked at her, and then started petting her between the ears.
Maggie crossed back to the front of the room, grabbed her clothes in her mouth, and exited through the side door.
“Where’s she going?” Abby asked. “It’s too soon for her to change back, isn’t it?” she asked Noah.
“She’s pretty strong, even for a werewolf, but I don’t think she could handle changing back this quickly,” he said, concentrating. “Darn it, she’s still blocking me. I can’t track her thoughts.”
“I’ll find her,” Gibbs said, leaving through the same side door.
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.