Tony and and Ziva found Lieutenant Silas Dancy going for a walk near the White House, acting totally unconcerned and innocent. When they accused him of kidnapping Onyx, he continued to play innocent, only to ask for a lawyer the second he sat down in interrogation.
After he left with his lawyer, Jenny and Gibbs walked along the orange corridor in the interrogation area together; she'd been the only one available to watch him because everyone else had been busy.
"Well, that was a bust." Jenny sighed. "We're at a standstill right now, but dare I say that Tony, Ziva, and McGee are still digging into Silas Dancy's life?"
Gibbs nodded. "Yeah, and with all three of them looking, but not even a dead body for Ducky and Palmer to investigate, a fourth person looking for leads would be too many cooks in the kitchen."
"Good point."
Jenny motioned towards the elevator, which, by this point, they had reached.
"Do you want to go check on Abby to see if she's done analyzing the letter?"
Gibbs pressed the down button on the button panel. "Alright, but watch—twenty bucks tells us that Abby will tell us that she just finished analyzing it."
"I'll do you one better." Jenny challenged as they boarded the lift and the doors closed. "Twenty-five says that Abby and RJ both jump out of their skin."
Jenny pressed the button for the lab level of the building, and the lift beg and to descend.
"Those two are two peas in a pod."
Gibbs laughed and nodded in agreement. "That's for sure."
The couple arrived in Abby's lab to hear the Footloose theme playing and to see Abby and Rubyjane at Abby's desk in the main room.Using her step stool, Rubyjane stood next to Abby, even leaning against her with an arm slung around her shoulder for support. Both of them proudly wearing lab coats over their clothes, and their minds completely in 'science mode' as they examined a five dollar bill on a slide under Abby's microscope, neither of them realized they had visitors until Jenny let out a high-pitched whistle.
"Director! Gibbs!" Abby quickly turned down the music and put a hand over her fast beating heart. "You guys scared me!"
Rubyjane mimicked Abby's movements and chirped, "Me, too!"
Jenny promptly turned to Gibbs, a cheeky grin on her face and a hand outstretched. "Like I said—they're two peas in a pod. Easiest twenty-five bucks I've ever made."
After some griping on Gibbs' part, Jenny pocketed the bank notes and turned to Abby.
"We came to see if you had finished analyzing the letter."
Abby bobbed her head in confirmation. "Five minutes ago, and since Gibbs always shows up exactly when I need him, I decided to show Rubyjane how a microscope works in the mean time."
Rubyjane herself let out a pitiful whine and leaned against Abby, raising a hand and signing a single word.
"I know you're hungry," Abby cooed to Rubyjane. "But I promise we'll get food after I finish talking to Aunt Jenny and Uncle Gibbs."
Rubyjane heaved a theatrical sigh and clambered off her stool, pausing only to blow kisses to Jenny and Gibbs before going to play with her toys again.
Abby laughed as she led Jenny and Gibbs over to her evidence table. "I guess that's got kid number one sorted."
"Then let's keep this on track so she doesn't stage a coup." Jenny said in a tone of pointed suggestion.
"Okay, then observe." Abby moved her gloved hands in a flourish over the letter, which was written on simple, classic notebook paper. "First of all, Onyx was under duress when he wrote this; do you see how neat and tidy everything is?"
"Yes." Jenny and Gibbs told her in unison.
"Well, I know Onyx, and even at the best of times, his handwriting is untidy and never stays on the line when he uses lined paper."
"It's practically perfect here." Jenny observed.
Gibbs nodded in agreement as he surveyed the letter. "Are you saying that the more stressed he gets, the neater his handwriting becomes?"
"Uh-huh. You should see what happens I—"
Sharply, and again in unison, Jenny and Gibbs gave a cry of, "Abby!"
The scientist laughed nervously. "Okay, okay! Follow me back to the monitor!"
Jenny and Gibbs did and watched Abby call up a digital copy of the letter.
"I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about the paper itself when I examined it, but when I looked for fingerprints, it lit up."
Abby pressed a few buttons on her keyboard, inputting a command, and they watched as the computer scanned an image of the letter on to the screen. When it finished, they saw two sets of different-sized fingerprint fragments. One set was blue, and the other set was red.
"Which set belongs to who?" Jenny asked.
Abby isolated the blue set. "These belongs to Onyx. Not only is he in the Navy database, but he's in a few donor bases, too."
On Abby's other side,Gibbs asked, "If the blue set belongs to Clarkson, then who does the red set belong to?"
"I don't know yet." Abby confessed as she isolated them and blew them up so her friends could see. "They definitely don't belong to anyone in the Navy, or this government, because I've looked through all of the Navy and government-related databases I can think of. Right now, I'm running these prints through a few other databases."
"Do you know how long it's going to takedown get a hit?"
Abby shook her head. "No."
"The last time it took a long time for database results to come up, we identified Ari Haswari."
"I remember," Abby shivered. "And my fingers are crossed that it doesn't come to that. For good measure, though, I sent the searches up to yours, McGee's, Tony's, and Ziva's computers, too, so you guys can also keep track."
"That's good work, Abby. Is there anything else that the director and I should know about?"
Abby shook her head. "Nope—that's everything. Is it alright if RJ and I leave to go get lunch now? I'm sure the cafeteria has good food, but we'd have better luck at the Italian place downtown because RJ loves pasta."
Surprisingly, it was Jenny who gave the answer to this. "Yes, but take someone from the team with you—the last thing we need is anyone suspicious bothering you and Ruby."
The director spoke so authoritatively that Gibbs didn't try to to contest the order if one of his people being borrowed.
"Who do you pick, Abby?" asked Gibbs.
Without hesitation, Abby answered, "I want McGee to join us."
"Alright, then. You and RJ get ready, and then come upstairs. I'll make sure McGee doesn't go anywhere."
"Okay, Gibbs! Thanks!"
Abby saw Gibbs and Jenny out of the lab before heading over to Rubyjane, to find her very pleased about something.
"Rubyjane," Abby addressed her. "What's got you grinning like that?"
Rubyjane pointed to her handiwork: under the bulletin board, she had very neatly and very lovingly lined up all of the toys she'd been playing with, including Bert the farting hippo.
Boy, do I have a weird kid, Abby thought.
Aloud, she said, "You heard me talk about leaving, huh?"
Rubyjane gave an enthusiastic nod. "Yep!"
"Then give me your hand." Abby held out one of her own hands. "We're going to hang up our lab jackets and get ready to go!"
Rubyjane immediately took Abby's hand and looked lovingly up at her. "Okay, mommy! Let's go!"
Twenty minutes later, Abby and Rubyjane were bundled up for the cold weather and just disembarking the elevator on the squad room floor. Abby had told Rubyjane that McGee was coming along for their adventure, and the little one became so delerious with joy that the second they had hit solid carpet and the elevator door closed behind them, she hit the ground running.
"Timmy!" she squealed, running as fast as she could in spite of her bulky jacket. "Timmy, Timmy, Timmy, Timmy!"
When Rubyjane reached McGee's desk, he caught her and pulled her into his lap.
"Hey, kid!" he greeted her. "What are you doing up here?"
Giggling, Rubyjane chirped, "Mommy said you're coming with us!"
McGee became politely puzzled. "To where?"
His companion pantomimed eating.
"We're going to eat?"
"Uh-huh!" Rubyjane tugged on McGee's shirt sleeve. "Up!"
Suddenly, McGee heard the sounds of suppressed snorting laughter, and when he looked around, he saw Tony and Ziva watching him and Rubyjane, smiling like a pair of Cheshire Cats.
"What, chuckleheads?" McGee asked, rolling his eyes.
"We were just thinking," Tony began. "That give it another day or two..."
"And everyone's favorite miniature forensic scientist will have you completely wrapped around her little finger." Ziva finished coolly from her perch on the edge of her partner's desk.
McGee didn't know what to say to that, but when he looked back at Rubyjane and then laughed, for her mouth was hanging open in surprise—Ziva had blown her mind by finishing Tony's train of thought.
"Come on, kid." he gently closed her mouth. "You're gonna catch flies. Where's Abby?"
Rubyjane pointed to the other end of the bullpen, and McGee turned to see Abby approaching.
"Hey, Timmy." Abby put emphasis on his nickname to bait Tony and Ziva, who immediately made more sounds of suppressed snorting laughter. "Looks like Ruby found you."
"Hi." McGee greeted her cautiously. "What's happening?"
"RJ and I are hungry, and we want to go out to eat, but the director said that she will only let us leave if someone from the team comes with us."
"And you picked me?"
Abby ruffled his hair, knowing it would stress him out. "Duh, silly! Now get up and get your coat on!"
Gibbs chose this moment to speak up, having been watching the scene from his desk. "You heard the lady—get up and get ready to go, Timmy!"
Unable to contain their amusement any longer, Tony and Ziva howled with laughter, and following their lead, Rubyjane joined in.
McGee hung his head and mumbled, "My family is so weird."
In the end, McGee decided to treat Abby and Rubyjane to lunch. The three of them had such a fun time together that McGee found himself wondering what it would be like to be a family with Abby, Rubyjane, and the baby in Abby's womb. He was absolutely crazy about Abby and had thought about asking her if she wanted to take a second run at a relationship together, but he'd missed his chance. However, now that things had changed lanes and Abby wasn't single anymore, McGee was beginning to entertain the idea of a relationship with her again (only if she felt the same way) at some point down the road.
That being said, when the waitress had complimented him on having a beautiful family, he hadn't tried to correct her, instead taking the compliment in stride and thanking her.
After awhile, McGee noticed Rubyjane squirming in her seat.
"RJ, what's wrong?" McGee asked.
Immediately, Rubyjane turned to Abby and signed a single word to her. Abby promptly stood and helped Rubyjane to her feet before turning to McGee.
"We have to go to the Little Girls' Room."
"Gotcha. Don't let me keep you."
With that, Abby focused on getting Rubyjane to the facilities in a timely fashion.
Almost as soon as they left, McGee was overcome with a feeling that they were being watched, but when he looked around, he didn't see anyone suspicious. In spite of that, he stayed on his guard, electing to check on Abby and Rubyjane in awhile.
After Abby successfully helped Rubyjane to the toilet and wash her hands, when they were out in the hallway between the rest rooms and the dining room, something unexpected happened.
"Abigail Scuito?" called a voice.
Abby turned in response to the sound of her name being said, cautious because she didn't recognize the voice.
She found that she was face-to-face with a man whom she'd never seen before. He was dark-skinned with handsome features, and if Abby had to place an ethnicity, she would have said Middle Eastern, but nothing more specific than that. This man was even dressed for the cold November weather, but he also had an air about him that was making Abby's Hinky Radar go haywire, so Abby instinctively picked Rubyjane up and sat her on her hip as she asked the stranger a question.
"Can I help you?"
The stranger nodded. "Yes—you can turn around and start walking to the exit behind you."
Abby felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Excuse me?"
"Do as I say," the stranger threatened as he discreetly showed her a gun in a holster on his belt. "Or I use this on everyone in the dining room, and I am sure that you do not want that."
Abby began panicking inwardly. Nothing much had happened to her since getting shot at in her lab while Ari Haswari had been on the loose after assassinating Kate, but that had already been a year ago. She'd known full well about the risks that came with being part of NCIS when she'd joined, but she'd never once imagined getting kidnapped... much less when pregnant and having a toddler to do. She'd taken the yearly mandatory classes about what to do in case of scenarios like this, but everything except for one thing had immediately left her brain.
That one thing was very important, though: self-preservation.
For the sake of the baby in her belly, and for Rubyjane, she had to do the stranger's bidding. She'd gotten so used to Gibbs protecting her when any kind of danger arose that she felt extra vulnerable now. Abby was afraid.
But she still found herself soothing a quaking Rubyjane as she followed the stranger's instructions and turned around, walking towards the exit, the stranger just behind her.
She just hoped that it wouldn't take the rest of the team too long to realize that they were gone.