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When Past Meets Present an NCIS story (REVISED)

(Revised items in bold and underlined)

Chapter 3 (REVISED)

“Hey, does anyone know where Gibbs is?” asked McGee.  “He went to lunch,” responded Bishop.  “Lunch?  Gibbs never goes to lunch!”  McGee responded questioningly.  “You are right,” Reeves chimed in.  “Have you noticed that he takes lunch sometimes now  and disappears from the office?” they all three chimed in at once.  “What’s going on?” Gibbs asked as he approached his desk.  “Nothing boss,” they all said and returned to their work.  

Jethro sat at his desk and smirked.  He had heard the end of their conversation as he exited the elevator.  Things had begun to change for him.  He couldn’t explain just how and why but he knew when.  When he saw Margie again.  He thought about her a lot these days.  That’s now common for him.  Jethro has had many relationships, some casual and others intimate.  He loved Shannon and grieved many years for her loss.  He married and divorced several times trying to find that “comfortable” place like what he had with Shannon but it never happened.  As his mind travels back and reviews his life a glaring realization manifests itself.  That week with Margie years ago was the one time that he felt “comfortable” after losing Shannon. They had not defined their current relationship as anything other than “friendship” but Jethro knew that he wanted more.  What that more was he wasn’t quite certain because he remembered one conversation that he and Margie had during that week years ago that really made an impression on him:

“Ace, do you have to love someone to have sex with them?” Margie asked.

Ace sat startled for a moment and replied, “No.”

Margie responded, “I do.  I can’t have casual sex.  I think that it would cheapen me and I value myself.  I am priceless.  I want to be in love with the person to whom I give my body.  I want to experience the sensation of an orgasm with someone who reciprocates that love.  You know they say that an orgasm is a “mini death’ so I want my lover and I to share that moment together knowing that we only feel that sensation with each other.   I also don’t want sex outside of marriage. I know that it may sound old fashioned but that’s what I want.  So until I marry I will keep myself to myself.”

Jethro didn’t have any more time to think about it as new information came in on a case that they were working.  He, McGee, Bishop and Reeves rushed out of the office to follow up on that lead.  Two days later they had wrapped up the case, completed all of the necessary paperwork and called it a day.  Tired and ready for a nice cool drink they all headed out.  Jethro checked his phone and saw that he had a missed call from Margie.  “Ace, guess that you’re busy. I haven’t heard from you and didn’t know if you still planned to attend the Quantico Triathlon tomorrow. I’ll look for you at the finish line.  If not, I’ll see you when I see you.  Take care.”  Oh no! he thought.  The race happened yesterday.  I totally forgot about it.  I’m sure Margie will understand.  Jethro tried to call her but only reached her voice mail.  He decided not to leave a message and instead drove to her condo.  He buzzed for entry but received no response.  He tried again to call her but still no answer.  Just as he prepared to leave he saw Lydia, one of Margie’s neighbors.  Margie had introduced them.  He asked Lydia if she had seen Margie.  Lydia told him that Margie had left a few hours ago.  Margie trusted Lydia to keep an eye out on her apartment.  Lydia works for the FBI and has worked several assignments with Margie.  He asked Lydia if she knew where Margie went and she looked at him and simply said, “Gone fishing”.  Jethro knew then that Margie was called away on a dangerous assignment.  Jethro thanked Lydia and left.

Jethro arrived at home still worried about Margie.  He knew that they both had dangerous jobs and could have to leave at a moment’s notice.  Margie never went on ‘run of the mill’ assignments.  All of her assignments were dangerous.  Her expertise was called upon only as needed. ‘Gone fishing’ meant an assignment that would take more than a few days.  ‘Gone shopping’ meant an assignment that would require less time.  ‘Kroykah’ meant extreme danger to all parties. She emphasized that if she ever used Kroykah* to me that I too was in danger.  That was another reason why she kept “herself to herself’.  She didn’t want to endanger any innocent parties.

She can take care of herself, he said to himself.  He mused that Abby calls Margie a cross between MacGyver, Jason Bourne, James Bond, Alias, La Femme Nikita, to name a few, all rolled into one.  He wasn’t sure who all those people were but Abby said it with such respect it had to have meant something good. Margie was a wiz on computers and was even better than McGee.  She could stand her own with Abby in the lab and even spent time with Ducky in autopsy.  Bishop said that Margie’s analytical skills are off the charts.  

He remembered one day when Margie had stopped by the office and McGee was trying to explain something about his computer search and none of us understand what he was saying. Margie translated for us. McGee looked dumbfounded. Then she did something that totally flummoxed McGee. She said something that McGee recognized as something from a textbook he used in his class at MIT.  McGee asked Marcie how did she know that exact verbiage.  She pulled out her phone, pulled up the screen that showed the name of the textbook and the authors.  There on the screen was Margie’s name.  Margie then smiled and said, “I told you that I got into computers early on.”

But Jethro thought that she wasn’t just about the job.  She enjoyed other things like reading, music, art, movies, fine dining, and running.  Tony would have loved her because she would quote movie lines as well as he did.  I remember she told me about her love for mystery novels.  But she didn’t like the “blood and guts” stories that many of the modern writers produce.  She said that she saw enough blood and guts in her line of work that she didn’t want to read about it.  She preferred Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. She said that everyone knows the Sherlock Holmes’ stories like the Hound of the Baskervilles but she suggested that I read a lesser-known Holmes story, The Yellow Face.  It shows us that some times we can exaggerate our own importance.