Joint Investigation

(NCIS has a missing Naval Officer. CGIS has an abandoned boat. They join forces to investigate. But the case might not be all that gets explored as two extremely dedicated, duty bound and tough coffee drinkers reach a new point in their relationship. Gibbs/Abigail Borin)/

(Disclaimer. NCIS is the property of CBS and the brainchild of Donald P. Belisario. No infringement is intended.)

(I was all set to continue my happy retirement from Literotica but when Randi smiles, asks for a story and says please who could resist? Not me. And thank you Randi for taking the time to proof this for me. It's been a while.)

*****

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs rolled over on his bed, his arm stretching out as though reaching for something. Not finding anything, he abruptly sat up and looked around. Nothing was there. He shook his head.

"Damn dreams."

Too bad, it had been a good one.

(One week previously)

"Gear up. We have a missing Navy Lieutenant," Gibbs commanded his team as he opened his desk drawer to retrieve his sidearm. Snatching up the keys he tossed them across the room. "You drive, DiNozzo."

"Sure boss," the Senior Field Agent replied, rather surprised. Gibbs almost always drove. "Where are we headed?"

"Start for Norfolk. By the time we get there, I'll know for sure."

The three members of the team exchanged glances. Okay, that was really strange. Not know right now? Seeing their confusion Gibbs relented slightly once they had reached the parking lot, where he directed them to take two cars.

"The missing man is a weekend sail-boater. His boat was found empty some five miles off the Maryland coast this morning. It's being towed into port. They'll let us know where. Eventually."

"Do we have a name boss?" asked Tim McGee, his smart phone at the ready.

"Lieutenant Robert Travers." McGee nodded and commenced tapping.

The rest of the trip was made in silence, except for a few mumbles from Tim, who good as he was, couldn't do nearly as much with his phone as he could with the array of computers at the office.

"What have you got, McGee?"

"Lieutenant Robert Travers. Annapolis Graduate. Surface warfare. Destroyers. Six year's service, two deployments. All good fitness reports. He's single, currently stationed at Norfolk, where his assignment is with the Navy Warfare Development Command. He's currently on a week-long leave, which is why he hasn't been reported missing."

Gibb's phone sounded.

"Yeah, Gibbs." He listened for a moment. His expression barely changed, but the others sensed he was not happy with the news he received as he closed his phone.

"Tony."

"Yes boss?"

"Go to the Main Gate. They'll have directions for us there."

The group exchanged glances. That simple statement didn't explain the setting of Gibb's granite jaw. It was only when they parked the car, walked down to the dock and spotted a familiar red-headed figure waiting for them that they understood.

"Well as I live and breathe," Tony said as they reached the tall female. "If it isn't Special Agent Abigail Borin of the Coast Guard Investigative Service."

"Shut up, DiNozzo," both Team Leaders said in a near perfect chorus.

"Shutting up boss. Bosses."

SMACK!

"Thank you boss."

Gibbs turned his attention back to the woman from their sister agency. He raised an eyebrow.

Borin sighed. "American vessel. Crimes on board are investigated by the FBI or the Coast Guard, and the FBI could not care less about it right now. Besides, it's here because a Coast Guard party boarded a reported abandoned vessel, and a Coast Guard vessel towed it in. When it was determined that the owner was Navy, we called you. So please, no contests. Joint Investigation."

Gibbs just nodded while he suppressed a grin. He really hadn't had any intention of arguing with Borin about jurisdiction. It was just fun to rattle her chain a little.

"So, what do you have so far?"

"Not much. Signs of a struggle in the cabin. We just got here, ourselves, and other than taking a quick look nothing has been disturbed."

Gibbs turned to his team. "Pair off with the CGIS team. Bishop takes pictures. Tony and Tim, sweep the boat; one of you start at the bow and the other at the stern." He turned to Borin and jerked his head towards the hatch leading from the cockpit to the cabin. "Shall we?"

After a careful search, the two teams gathered again dockside except for Tony and his temporary CGIS partner, Special Agent Kyle Omagi, who were still below decks.

"Okay, someone came aboard; there are fresh marks on the port side at the stern."

"There definitely was a struggle in the cabin. No blood though."

"No signs of a fight where the boat was boarded though, suggesting our Lieutenant was in the cabin. Asleep or not paying attention?"

"There are bunks forward. Neither had been slept in."

"The scratches indicate that the other boat bumped this one. Not jarringly, but someone awake and alert should have noticed."

"That's because," Tony emerged from the cabin hatch triumphantly waving something, "our Lieutenant might have had his mind on other things."

"What's that, DiNozzo?" asked Borin.

"A Navy ID Card. NOT our Lieutenant's," put in Kyle.

Gibbs and Borin waited for a moment, then exchanged weary looks."

"So are you going to tell us or just keep us all in suspense?" prompted the female Team Leader.

"Oh, right," an abashed Tony replied. "This is issued to Petty Officer Third Class Heather Lindsay. It was in a bag stowed under one of the bunks. From the look of it there was enough clothing there for several days."

"McGee?" both Team leaders said almost in unison. Borin looked at Gibbs and shrugged. "My guy doesn't have nearly the speed on his just about obsolete device that McGee does on his."

"Understand."

They waited. Fortunately, McGee spoke up before the pair's limited patience wore thin.

"Petty Officer Lindsay was also assigned to Naval Warfare Development, although not in the same office as the Lieutenant. And coincidentally..."

"She is also on leave, said leave covering the same period as Lieutenant Travers?"

"Exactly."

"Does she have a leave address listed?"

"Just her cell phone number. Running that now."

The two technical guys tapped furiously and compared notes. Tim looked up. "Boss it would be easier if we did this back at NCIS, but there's no doubt that Lieutenant Travers and Petty Officer Lindsay have been in contact for several months."

"So we have a case of fraternization here," said Gibbs.

"And rather than take any chances around work, they took things off base. Well off base," added Borin. Another look was exchanged.

"Not quite a hundred miles from the flagpole, but close," Gibbs said. "What do you think?"

Borin thought for a moment. "It could just be a simple case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Robbery is always a motive, so is boat-jacking, and it's pretty easy to dispose of witnesses when all you have to do is drop them overboard. But..."

"Your gut is telling you that this has to do with our Lieutenant and his enlisted girlfriend." Gibbs made his comment a statement, rather than a question.

"Yes."

"Me, too."

Tony, Kyle, Tim and the junior CGIS agent, Patricia Felton, whom Gibbs remembered as a Coast Guard Petty Officer from their investigation into the San Dominick, were tasked to head to the workplace of the now two missing Navy personnel and start questioning about them, both individually, and as a couple. Bishop took samples of the paint left by the second vessel where it had rubbed up against the empty boat. She was to get them and the photographs to Abby at the lab as soon as possible.

"I suggest she contact Molly Choi, the lab tech we have a contract with. Together, they may be able to identify the type of boat the boarder or boarders used."

Gibbs nodded, a motion he found himself using more and more often as the day went on. "They stayed in touch."

"Where will you be, Boss?" asked Bishop.

"Getting coffee," Borin answered for him.

Whether or not that statement was true was moot, for just then her phone buzzed. After a short and mostly one-sided conversation from the other end of the connection, she snapped the phone closed.

"Coast Guard Search and Rescue just found Lieutenant Travers. Alive. He's being transported by helo to the base hospital."

Since Bishop needed a car, Gibbs jumped in with Borin and the pair took off. They reached the hospital only minutes after the Coast Guard helo landed. Finding that the Lieutenant had lapsed into unconsciousness, they questioned the flight crew.

"Found him just offshore, clinging to an old aluminum cooler someone must have tossed overboard. The swimmer went in after him and we lowered the basket. He was only semi-conscious, kept fading in and out on us. No wonder, he had taken a nasty whack on the head from the look of the bruises. No external bleeding, but that doesn't rule out internal."

"Did he say anything?"

"Just kept mumbling a name. Heather."

The agents exchanged looks. A phone sounded an alert.

"That's yours," Borin said. He looked at the display.

"Abby." Opening it he held it so they could both listen.

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs," the excited lab rat said.

"What is it, Abby?"

"Oh good, other Abby's there, too. We, Molly and I and Bishop, have identified the type and color of boat used to board Lieutenant Travers' vessel. And guess what? Records show that there are only a couple in the whole area and they are both registered to a rental outfit right there in Norfolk." She gave the address and complete information on the suspected craft.

"Thanks, Abs." The pair headed for their car.

A chime sounded again.

"That's yours this time," noted Gibbs. She answered it, holding it up.

"What, Kyle?"

"It turns out Petty Officer Lindsay wasn't just on leave, she was on terminal leave. Her enlistment was up this coming weekend and she had already out-processed. All she had to do was call in on her last day. Her quarters were cleared out."

"Want to bet where her stuff is now?" asked Borin dryly

"No bet. Tony and Felton have already checked. Lieutenant Travers lives right off base and her stuff is in his house. Including her clothes, which are not in the spare bedroom," Tim put in. "They're on their way now to check out another lead."

"Which is?"

"Seems that most everyone, including both immediate supervisors, was unofficially aware of the relationship between Travers and Lindsay. Since the two worked in separate areas, kept their relationship well below the radar and she was not planning on reenlisting, everyone pretended not to see anything. It was accepted. Lindsay had even confided the plans they had to a couple of her closest friends. The plan was to simply spend a little time together anchored off the little island near where the boat was found. By the way, one person who was NOT happy with the arrangement was Lindsay's former boyfriend, Petty Officer Third Ronald Spinks."

"Jealous type?" Borin and Gibbs both knew now what their guts had been telling them.

"Very. Possessive, too. She broke up with him over a year ago, long before any rumors surfaced about her and Travers, but it seems he wasn't willing to take her decision as final."

Quickly, the direction of the investigation shifted. Tony and Felton searched for Spinks, finding he had not appeared for duty this morning, nor was he in his quarters, and none of his acquaintances or co-workers had seen him. Tim and Kyle headed to the marina where the suspected boats were rented to show the picture of their suspect to the manager there. As it turned out, that trip was ended before it had barely begun.

"Gibbs," the silver-haired man growled into his phone.

"Boss, I called the marina. No need to go there. Spinks rented a boat matching the description Abby and her crew came up with. The manager's madder than heck because the boat was returned all scraped up, not only on the bow, but also underneath. The man said it looked like it had been beached somewhere."

"So," Boron said thoughtfully, "he snuck on board, hit Travers and dumped him overboard. Then he took Lindsay somewhere after setting the other boat adrift. He should have just left it at anchor. No one might have investigated for days. But where?"

"McGee."

"Yes boss?"

"Spinks have a cell phone?"

"Just sent that information to Abby."

Moments later, Gibbs' phone rang again.

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs," the excited lab tech burst out, "we've got him. I turned his cell phone on and Molly pinged the GPS. Bishop pulled up a map of the area. There's a cabin not half a mile from the water. Sending you the coordinates now."

The full teams assembled at the foot of a dirt road that made its way through a dense stand of pines up to the as yet unseen cabin.

"We'll take the back," Borin said quietly to Gibbs. He nodded. Slowly the mixed team crept up the road. Reaching the cabin, they encircled it. Gibbs posted Bishop to cover the left side and Borin sent Kyle to do the same on the right. The CGIS team leader and Felton slipped around the cabin and disappeared. Gibbs counted silently to twenty-five. Carefully he led Tony and Tim to the closed rickety wood door, testing each step on the porch to avoid squeaks.

Judging from the ranting and raving coming from inside, silence wasn't that big a deal. Someone was carrying on in a loud and angry voice. The voice allowed the team to pinpoint the subject as being just to the right of the door and from the way his voice echoed he was facing away from them.

Sidearms were readied, having been drawn on the way up. Tim gingerly tested the doorknob and nodded. Gibbs held up three fingers and then folded them down one by one. When the last one disappeared Tim turned the knob and Tony delivered a flat-footed kick that literally tore the door from its hinges. Gibbs plunged through the door with his two agents right behind him.

"Federal agents," the chorus rose as an even more dilapidated rear door opened, and Borin and her agent jumped in. Confronted by five armed agents, the wild-eyed man in Navy utilities dropped the knife he was clutching. Even so, it wasn't until he was face-down on the floor with Tony sitting on him and Tim handcuffing him, that the attention was turned to the woman tied against the wall of the cabin.

Borin produced a knife and cut the ropes as Felton supported her and helped her out of the cabin, circling away from the kidnapper on the floor.

"I see Delilah isn't the only one who follows Rule Nine," commented Tim, which got a puzzled look from the Coast Guard agents and nods from the NCIS ones. "Always carry a knife," Time added for the benefit of the CGIS agents.

An ambulance was summoned. Petty Officer Lindsay proved to be in reasonable shape, although suffering the effects of more than one beating by her ex-boyfriend. In fact she requested that he be freed so she could have a round or two with him that wouldn't give him the advantage of having her tied up. Borin persuaded her to forego the pleasure ("Although I think it's a great idea") by telling her that her boyfriend was alive and in the hospital.

In less than an hour, the two lovers were reunited. Lindsay's injuries were treated and Lieutenant Travers woke up almost immediately when she sat beside his hospital bed and held his hand. They confirmed what the investigators had already deduced. They had been asleep when Spinks had slipped on board. He had struck Travers, and then held Lindsay at knifepoint. Once he had tied and gagged her he had dumped Travers overboard. A number of the woman's bruises came from him dragging her up the trail from the beach to the abandoned cabin he had found months earlier. Spinks was booked on attempted murder, kidnapping, assault and several other charges. Borin said she was tempted to add piracy to the list, but admitted it would be hard to prove since he left the boat behind.

Before leaving to write the usual reports and confer with both agency directors, the mingled squads stopped to wish the reunited pair good luck. It surprised no one when they found themselves invited to a wedding the following week.

Borin stifled a groan as she shood her people out of NCIS. They had gone there, since it was closer than the Coast Guard office. Gibbs was kicking his own team out at the same time.

"We're not on call this weekend, so rest up and I'll see you Monday morning."

Everyone bustled out, leaving the two leaders. Gibbs looked at Borin.

"Coffee?"

"And something to eat?"

"I know just the place."

(Gibbs House, Present Time)

Movement caught the corner of his left eye. His head snapped in that direction and stopped, taking in the view.

"Then it WASN'T a dream."

"Guess not," was the reply.

The retired Marine eyed the figure, approaching on bare feet, and apparently wearing only one item of apparel. He took that in even as his gaze zeroed in on the coffee mugs in each hand that were giving off waves of enticing aroma.

"I see you found my tee-shirts," he commented. He looked again. "I must say it hangs a little lower on you than it does on me." He nodded approval, looking not only at the red tee-shirt with the gold lettering on it, but the long legs below the hem.

"Probably a good thing, since I don't have on anything under it, and I would hate to embarrass you." With that, CGIS Special Agent Abigail Borin handed him the mug of coffee in her left hand. He propped himself up against the headboard and smiled. She climbed on to the bed beside him, carefully balancing her own coffee so as not to spill it, especially on Gibbs, who appeared to be wearing even less than she was.

Gibbs inhaled the aroma steaming off his mug and nodded his approval. He tasted it and grunted.

"Not bad."

The woman beside him snorted. "Not bad? It's excellent. After all, I learned how to make coffee the same way you did."

"Too bad you strayed from that path," Gibbs teased.

Another snort was his only answer as she settled into a matching position and took a swallow of her own.

"Excellent."

"What is? The coffee? The situation here?"

"All of it. The coffee, the bed and us."

He nodded. "Pretty glad now you didn't accept my suggestion to join NCIS."

"Which you never actually turned into an offer, Jethro," Abigail pointed out as she wiggled into a more comfortable position on top of the covers, stretching her legs out and crossing them at the ankles, all of which Gibbs found very nice. "Of course, that's a good thing for more than one reason." She grinned. "Besides Rule Twelve."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "What else?"

"Because it wouldn't have worked," she stated flatly. "What position could I have taken? Equivalent to Ellie Bishop? You know I'm too used to being in charge for that. And you could NOT have arranged for me to be your second. What would that have done to DiNozzo? He sometimes irritates me, but overall he's a good guy and doesn't deserve to be demoted to number three. That would also would have pushed Tim McGee back, as well."

She held up her free hand. "I know what you're going to say. Both Tony and Tim stepped back before; when you came back from Mexico and retirement, but that was a completely different situation than trying to slip me somewhere on your team. It would cause resentment and that resentment, aimed at me or you or both of us, would be perfectly justified.

"The other option would be to get me appointed as the Team Leader of another team, but that STILL would have caused problems, an outsider pushing into a position that a lot of people have worked hard to get and deserve. Besides, I'm already a Team Leader, I like what I do for the Coast Guard and we aren't tripping over each other at work all day as we would be if I transferred to NCIS."

Gibbs nodded yet again. "You're right."