AT NCIS:
"Well?" Kasie asked.
"He didn't pick up.." McGee said.
"I can try, but I can't promise anything." Abby shrugged.
"Go for it Abbs." McGee said, trying to sound like Gibbs.
Abby smiled at McGee. "Okay McGibbs." Then she called Gibbs.
It went straight to voicemail again, so Abby left a message. "Gibbs you never ignore my calls, I know you're not dying in a hole somewhere so I'm not gonna call in a SWAT team this time... bye I guess.."
Nick turned to Ellie and whispered. "Did Abby actually call in a SWAT team because Gibbs didn't answer her?"
"It was before my time but from what I've heard luckily she did because Gibbs and Tony were being held by terrorists."
"Wow.." Nick said under his breath.
"Yeah, the moral of the story is, if someone knows you always pick up, don't miss their calls." Ellie whispered."
"Especially if it's Abby." Nick added.
"Well clearly he's not going to answer anyone so we'll just go ahead." Kasie said. "Take it away Jimmy."
"Well you know how skin tissue breaks down after death first around open wounds and then...
"Get to the point Jimmy." McGee said.
"Right, getting to the point, so originally I thought it was just the temperature of the ship but petty officer Jonhston was killed three to five hours before we thought!"
"And he was stabbed with two different knives!" Kaise said. "Abby and I ran this computer program that can make a 3D model of the knife based on the stab wound and surrounding tissue."
"And the knife with found petty officer Rightly's fingerprints on the handle was in the post moredom wound!" Jimmy said excitedly.
"So reasonable doubt?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah I'd say so!" Abby said.
McGee, Nick and Ellie all stood up from their desks.
"Guys we need to reinterview everyone!" Ellie said, excited.
"We can't." McGee looked at his phone. "9:30, everybody from the ship is either at home or back on the ship."
"What do you mean? It's our job to find out who really killed Johnston!"
"No, agent McGee is correct, it would take too long to find everyone involved tonight." Vance said, standing at the top of the stairs. "You can go home and start fresh in the morning."
McGee nodded and Nick, Ellie, Jimmy, Kasie, Abby and himself all walked to the elevator together.
Then Vance turned around and walked to Jack's office door and knocked. He waited a second and knocked again.
"Go away." Jack shouts through the door.
"It's me Jack." He said. "How are you going in there?"
"I'm fine, please go away." She repeated in a softer tone.
"Your office is next to mine."
The door cracked open. "How much did ya hear?" Jack asked.
"Not everything.."
"Oh." Jack sighed.
"But enough."
She sighed louder.
"Can I come in?"
"I was about to leave." Jack says, opening the door with purse in one hand and her car keys in the other.
"Oh I was hoping we could talk?" Leon asked.
"I need to get home and pack so.."
"Just a quick chat? Your flight's not till next Tuesday." He smiled, trying to brighten the mood.
"Actually I changed it.. I leave the day after tomorrow."
"Oh that soon?"
"The reason I was going to wait till next week.. uh well let's just say it doesn't matter now so why not leave early? Ya know why the h*ll not!" Jack threw her hands in the air.
AT GIBBS HOUSE:
Gibbs came down the stairs of his basement, walked over to his work bench and found his bourbon bottle and poured the brown liquid into an old mason jar.
He scoffed to himself and tossed it back in one swallow.
Then he heard the top step of the basement creak. "You wouldn't happen to have any of that you'd care to share would ya?"
"Yeah.." Gibbs answered, turning around. "But on two conditions." Then he handed Tobias a second mason jar.
"Thanks, what conditions?" Tobias said, taking a sip of the bourbon.
"First, why are ya here?"
"Well funny story, apparently my house now has termites, Emily went back to her dorm so she's all good to go but I can't stay home because "safety hazards" and whatever and I need somewhere-
Gibbs glared at Tobias. "That's it?"
"Yeah Jetho I just need a bed, some bourbon and maybe some food."
"You're not here because of the team?"
"No, why? Did something with you and your team?"
"Did any of 'em talk to you?" Gibbs asked skeptically.
"Whaaaat? No of course not... well maybe but I was coming over anyway." Fornell shrugged.
Gibbs rolled his eyes, then he refilled his cup. "Second condition, we are not gonna talk about why McGee called you. Got it?"
"Got it, no talking about trouble in paradise."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow and shook his head before walking to his boat and giving it a once over.
"I'm not gonna talk about it, but if ya ever need to talk about your love life you know who you can talk too."
"Yeah, I can talk to Phil." Gibbs said with a straight face.
"What! Please don't tell me you've been confiding in Phil! I've known you longer, not to mention we've shared a wife for Pete's sake!"
Gibbs smiled.
"YOU'RE MEAN!" Fornell slapped Gibbs' shoulder. "You know that?"
Gibbs smiled and shook his head. "So I've been told."
"But look I am sorry about you and Jack, you two were pretty cute together."
"Pretty cute? What are we back in middle school?"
"All I'm saying is it's too bad that's all Gibbs." Fornell put his hand on Gibbs' shoulder.
"Yeah whatever, she's the one who's moving, not me!" He said, shaking off Fornell's hand.
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't know that either.."
"Yeah well I didn't know till about an hour ago.."
Oh, is she staying close, maybe it's not that far."
"Heh. California, so no not close.."
Some time passed in the quiet basement, Gibbs working on his boat and with Fornell sitting on the workbench in silence drinking his bourbon
"Worst part is..I still love her..." Gibbs sighed.
"Oh what are you gonna do?"
"Nothing." Gibbs says, taking a sip of bourbon.
"Oh.."
MEANWHILE AT JACK'S HOUSE:
"So Cowboy looks like the plans have changed, I'm leaving early!" She said, slamming the front door.
The cat looked up at her as he jumped off the coffee table and followed her into the kitchen.
Jack went to her small kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She took out a bottle of wine and poured a glass and drank it down so she poured another.
"Ugh I can't believe him!" Jack scoffed. "How could he say that to me?! Gibbs doesn't think I know life's unfair! I can't believe it!" Jack threw her hands in the air in anger.
And the cat cocked his head, staring at her.
"What? don't look at me like that." Jack shook her head before walking upstairs with her glass.
She got to her bedroom and put her wine glass on the dresser then she stopped in front of the closet for a second before taking out all the clothes and throwing them on her bed as a tear ran down her face. Jack stood still and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her dark blue sweater. Then she grabbed a suitcase from the foot of the closet and put it on the bed.
Cowboy pushed the cracked door open with his little gray head and walked to Jack and started rubbing his body on her legs.
"Not now!" Jack said, walking to the dresser on the other side of the room and opening the first drawer.
BACK IN GIBBS BASEMENT:
"Well it's uh.. 11:30 I'm calling it a night, see ya in the morning." Fornell says, patting Gibbs shoulder as he walks to the stairs.
"Okay." He says without looking up from his boat.
"You are gonna go to bed at some point tonight right?"
Gibbs looks at his friend and house guest. "Yep." He goes back to work on the boat. "Night."
"Good night Gibbs." Fornell says, closing the basement door behind him.
AT JACK'S HOUSE:
Most of Jack's clothes were either on bed, on the floor, or in her suitcase. She stood in the middle of the mess she made drinking her wine, she put the glass back on the dresser.
Jack turned to the bed and pushed the clothes and bags to the other side of the bed and sat down. "Get this Cowboy, the worst part of all this is I still love him.."
Cowboy jumped up on the bed and rubbed on Jack's back as he walked to the night stand and jumped onto it knocking something to the hardwood floor with a small clank.
Jack whipped around to see her wooden elephant Gibbs carved when she was in the hospital, laying there on the floor.
She picks it up and turns it in her hands checking the little thing for damage. "Oh." she noticed a bit of the left ear had chipped off in the fall. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve again.
Jack stood up and squeezed the elephant. "What the hell am I doing?!" She ran down stairs, grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter and out the door she went.
A FEW MINUTES LATER, GIBBS HOUSE:
Jack pulls up into Gibbs' driveway, turns off her car and freezes in place. "What the hell am I doing...?" She ran her hands through her hair. "No Jacqueline Sloane, you've made it this far, no turning back now!" She takes a deep breath and opens the car door and steps out.
IN GIBBS' BASEMENT:
Gibbs sat on the stool at his work table resting his head in his hand as he stared at the bourbon in his glass.
The basement door creaked open and the top step squeaked.
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "I thought you were calling it a night?"
"There was something I had to do first."
"Jack?" Gibbs turned quickly and stood up.
She walked to Gibbs and put the elephant on the work table between them.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Gibbs asked.
She answered. "Well it is the elephant in the room."
"I overreacted... I'm... Sorry Jack, I am." He looked down at the floor in between them.
She touched his hand. "And I should have told you first and I'm sorry too... but you overreacted." She smiled slightly.
"Yeah..." Gibbs lifted his gaze to her face, then he ran his hand through his hair. "Am I forgiven?"
Jack grabbed Gibbs shirt and pulled him in close, her face now only inches to his. "Only if I am." She kissed him on the lips.
"You are." Gibbs said as he leaned his forehead against hers. "I could fix the elephant's ear for ya."
"Yeah, that would be nice." Jack smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder.
Jack and Gibbs walked up the basement stairs with their arms around each other, smiling.