Title: Late for Kate's Funeral
Category: TV Shows » Crossover
Author: RipleysSister
Language: English,
Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Friendship/Drama
Published: 05-23-10, Updated: 08-19-12

NCIS / Stargate SG-1 Crossover Story. Written for fun, not profit. NCIS and Stargate SG-1 belong to somebody else.

Rated T due to mention of Kate being killed and minor profanity.

Takes place near the end of NCIS season 3 episode "Kill Ari (part 2)." More about the time line at the end along with a short synopsis for those not familiar with the NCIS episode this story is based on.

WARNING: This story and the story preface at the end contain major spoilers. Minor profanity.

This story assumes that Gibbs and O'Neill are friends from way back.

Title: Late for Kate's Funeral (Yeah I know, not very creative)

NCIS~SG~NCIS~SG

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs nodded to the guard at the desk in the NCIS lobby as he kept walking toward the door. Suddenly remembering the garment bag he'd stashed there, he turned back around just in time to see the man getting up to bring it to him. It had been a long few days and his next task would be just as arduous: the funeral for Caitlin Todd. The former secret service agent and member of his team had been killed by terrorist, Ari Haswari. Gibbs was still pissed with the FBI and everyone else who had doubted his gut, including new NCIS Director, Jenny Shepard. His anger extended to his team too: agents Tim McGee and Tony DiNozzo, medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard and his favorite forensic scientist, Abby Sciuto.

Abby, DiNozzo and McGee had thought he was reaching into left field for someone else to blame for Kate's death. Ducky thought his personal feelings had clouded his judgment because he hadn't lost a female team member before. Sure his feelings had been clouded, but that didn't mean his theory had been crazy. His ideas about Ari had been sound, at least in his mind and more importantly his gut. Former NCIS director Thomas Morrow hadn't completely dismissed his theory, but in leaving NCIS he hadn't been in a position to support any theories at all. Gibbs hadn't taken the time to think about why the man had left. He just knew with Jenny Shepard in command that things could be rocky for a while.

After playing Ari's games for far too long and talking with FBI agent Tobias Fornell, Gibbs had finally been able to put some doubt in some previously skeptical minds and had convinced Director Shepard that Ari just might have been planning to kill him. Trusting Ziva to back him up had been a calculated risk. Had he known Ari was her half-brother, and Director David their father, Gibbs probably would have arranged for his backup to be backed up too. In the end, at least Ari was dead. But so was Kate. Gibbs would normally either get himself to the airport or ask a friend for a ride, but he didn't want to bother anyone and everyone from NCIS he would normally get a ride with had already left for the funeral service. In the past he had asked Chris Pacci, but just thinking about Pacci made him hang his head and stare at the walkway. Damn, it hurt: another good agent, another friend killed in the line of duty.

A slight breeze felt good across the back of his neck where his hair was still damp from the recent shower and he was once again thankful to work at a place with facilities where he could clean up and change clothes. The Navy Yard was quiet and only the soft hum of engine noise and tires on fine sand could be heard as Gibbs lifted his head in time to see the expected car moving slowly toward NCIS headquarters. It wasn't the automobile model he thought should have been dispatched. Instead it appeared to be a dark blue or black Town car and he stared at it for a few seconds while he idly wondered what was going on.

Adjusting the garment bag draped on his shoulder, he waited for the car to stop just outside the security barrier, but before he reached for the door handle, the trunk lid popped open with a soft thunk and he heard a soft whoosh as the tinted glass of the power window slid down.

"Put it in the trunk, Jethro," ordered a familiar voice.

Gibbs hesitated for only a moment before stepping to the back of the sedan to carefully dispatch his garment bag, while his brain frantically sorted through thousands of voices for one he knew that he should recognize immediately. He laid the garment bag flat to keep his suit in good condition and after closing the trunk lid he moved to the curbside door and pulled it open. Curious about the person inside, someone who obviously knew him, he was still cautious and prepared to draw his weapon if needed. It had been a hellish day in a string of hellish days, but a relieved Gibbs smiled softly when he saw the uniformed Air Force officer sitting comfortably inside the car.

The short drive out of the Navy Yard was accomplished in silence for everyone in the car until right after they passed through the gate. As another car pulled in behind them and the headlights glared into the back window, the driver announced their shadow before closing the sliding partition separating the front and the back. The glare quickly diminished as the bright headlamps on the follow car were put to low beam and for the first time since getting into the car, Gibbs heard his friend's quiet voice.

"I'm sorry about Special Agent Todd, Jethro."

The words were spoken softly, reverently and Gibbs knew they were sincere. Jack was very familiar with loss. He swallowed hard, hoping to lessen the hurt, but the attempt was futile. The shock of what had happened was still sharp, the pain too fresh, and he knew he would feel it intensely for a long time to come.

Gathering in his emotions, and containing the surprise of his old friend knowing anything at all about what had happened, Gibbs asked, "What are you doing out in the middle of the night?"

It was still the middle of the night, closer to dawn than midnight, but very dark and very late or very early, depending on your point of view. Gibbs had had to stay for the cleanup at his home before returning to NCIS to debrief and complete his written report. It took more time than he'd anticipated when he laid the trap as explaining a dead body was more complicated than explaining taking someone into custody. Finally, after all was said and done, the medical examiner had released the body and Ari's half-sister, Ziva David, had left for the airport with it. Someone from the Israeli consulate had made all the travel arrangements and would be meeting Ziva for the international flight back to Israel. Gibbs was booked on a early morning flight out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Come to think of it, he suddenly wondered, how had Jack known anything about his flight? Before he could ask another question, Jack jumped in and began to fill in the blanks.

"I had a briefing with some Homeland Security folks not long ago. You and your gut were a hot topic."

Suppressing a grin, Gibbs clenched his jaw and turned his head to look across the darkened interior at his friend, Major General Jack O'Neill, who was gazing back at him. The man's chocolate brown eyes appeared darker brown or even black in the dimness and Gibbs wondered if Jack could see his blue ones as well.

"And for your information, I have lots of middle of the night meetings and appointments." The admission was classic O'Neill and Gibbs knew that most of those meetings, if not all, were probably military business and not of the personal kind.

Gibbs knew O'Neill was posted at the Pentagon. He had been in the five sided building for "something" just a few weeks before and had seen his old friend enter a securely guarded, unmarked corridor with another security post about halfway down the wide hall. He had been stopped cold as he attempted to follow Jack down the mysterious hallway and watched as a door opened revealing more security personnel. Later, at NCIS headquarters, as he contemplated searching the Pentagon rosters or asking McGee to check up on his old friend, he had been summoned to the Director's office where he had received a stern lecture amounting to don't talk about Major General Jack O'Neill or that corridor that nobody knows about and don't speculate about any of it. Yep, Jack's Pentagon posting was definitely in the thin air category.

He had only been a little surprised that Jack had been promoted again. The man had been a one star for less than a year when he was promoted to major general and that by itself wasn't that unusual, but Jack had come from a division called deep space radar telemetry and Gibbs didn't believe a word of it. He knew it had to be a cover story and a one star general didn't usually become a two star general because of telescopes. Gibbs had known from his own experiences to forget all about Cheyenne Mountain and Jack's role in anything going on there, but then out of the blue he'd seen a promoted Jack at the Pentagon. And he was once again reminded to stay in the dark about his friend's assignment.

A few days after the Pentagon sighting, Gibbs had received a phone call from O'Neill telling him that yes, he was in Washington, D.C., no, he couldn't tell him anything about the posting and yes, they'd have to get together. And they both had intended to do just that, though it had yet to happen. Until the car with Jack inside had come for Gibbs. A car with a driver wasn't unusual for a general, but the follow car was a curious addition. He guessed it was probably a security detail which added to the mystery about what he wasn't supposed to know anything about. Most generals had aides, maybe a deputy or a chief of staff or both, but not many had a separate security detail that followed them around.

Gibbs startled slightly when a phone began ringing. It wasn't his and in only a second Jack had pulled a small cell phone from his pocket and answered the call. Listening to one side of the lengthy conversation amounted to knowing practically nothing, due to the man's usual one and two-word responses. Jack punched in a text message and then another and it wasn't any time at all when another phone call came through. After a short, rather cryptic exchange, followed by "yes sir," "thank you, sir" and "I'll tell him, sir," Jack terminated the call and pushed a button to open the partition.

"Change of plan, Sergeant. We're going to Andrews."

The driver immediately acknowledged the order with an enthusiastic "Yes, Sir" and the partition closed. Gibbs was pleased when Jack didn't waste any time relaying what he knew.

"Your scheduled flight has been delayed. You'll never make the connection."

How Jack knew about the flight, Gibbs really didn't care. He knew he should do his best to make it to the funeral, but in truth he was dreading it.

Jack revealed more. "Your plane is still on the West coast and everything else is booked solid. Dulles and BWI too." Gibbs didn't ask Jack how he knew all that before his friend continued with, "You'll be on a flight, a direct flight, and should, hopefully, make it for graveside."

Gibbs nodded absently. They wouldn't hold the service to wait for him and missing the church service wouldn't bother him at all. It was going to be at the Roman Catholic Church where Kate had gone as a child and her parents still attended. Because he didn't know if he would get there in time, it had been easy to decline delivering a eulogy. And like with Chris Pacci, Gibbs was feeling guilty about Kate's death. He rationalized by thinking that he didn't deserve to pay tribute to her and that getting there for the graveside service would be good enough. And apparently, if it wasn't for Jack, he wouldn't even have a chance to make it to the cemetery that day at all. The silent seconds ticked away as the car sped along the highway. Gibbs noticed that the follow car was still with them and decided to use an interrogation technique to get information. Not that it would work. Offer praise to open the dialogue. Hopefully the person responds, revealing something important.

"You know more about my travel plans than I do, Jack."

"I do."

Gibbs should have known that it wouldn't work. He smiled and leaned back into the comfy seat. The car slowed before navigating an off ramp and headlights streamed into the back window. Gibbs stared for a second at the way the brightness reflected off the stars on Jack's shoulders before the lights disappeared and the car eased to a stop. In only a second they were moving again and Gibbs recognized the frontage road. Next they'd be turning onto a patrolled road giving them access to the gate by the flight line at Andrews. Knowing he would soon be out of time, he tried again.

"There aren't any commercial flights at Andrews," he volunteered, trying to gently pry a little information from Jack.

"Nope," was all the man said. Gibbs smiled. His skills were fine, but so were Jack's.

"I haven't jumped in a while."

He heard Jack softly chuckle and knew he was getting to him, though the man wasn't providing any information. Jethro's brain was spinning - not flying commercial, won't have to parachute (whew), what? Gibbs needed more information, but Jack spoke up again before he could ask a question or try another technique.

"General Moseley is flying to Lackland this morning." Jack hesitated for a couple of seconds, possibly to let Jethro's brain get into gear. "He's going to drop you at Grissom where a car and driver will be waiting for you."

Gibbs had to stop and think for more than a few seconds before remembering that General T. Michael Moseley had only recently replaced General John P. Jumper. It meant Jack had him on a Pentagon jet with the new Air Force Chief of Staff and going from Maryland to Texas by way of Indiana had taken some seriously creative flight planning. Naturally they'd use a military airfield and Grissom Air Reserve Base was near Kokomo. It was good he'd have the car because the cab fare could be a small fortune. He'd return with Director Shepard and the others so a driver made sense. Jack had arranged it all, and he piped in with what Gibbs recognized as typical O'Neill hit and run style before the agent could think anything more about any of it.

"Yes, he's got a nice plane. Yes, there's a seat for you. Yes, they'll have good coffee. Yes, you can carry your weapon onboard. No, it's no trouble." And finally, after a lengthy pause, "He owed me."

In the dark interior of the car, Gibbs stared at his friend. Jack had cashed in a marker: a big one. The car and driver wasn't a slouch either. Gibbs maybe should have been surprised, but he wasn't. And he could turn it down, but he wouldn't.

Smiling softly, he just said, "Thanks, Jack." It was enough.

The rest of the short drive was smooth and quiet as neither man felt like talking and both were comfortable in the silence. The answers to unasked questions would wait and small talk had never been necessary. Instead Gibbs started thinking about the unfinished boat in his basement and wondered if Jack might like to come over.

~End~

Merging NCIS, Stargate SG-1 and real life time lines.

Jack O'Neill promoted and to DC by July 2005.

Jumper out & Moseley in Sept 2, 2005. I think.

Kate killed by Ari in Sept 2005.

*****Thanks very much for reading. Please let me know what you think of it.

*****Don't want other readers to 'hear' what you have to say? That's okay, I understand completely. Please send me a message.

Story preface - Jack O'Neill, head of a top secret government department known as Homeworld Security, is a Major General working out of the Pentagon. A member of NCIS Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs team, Special Agent Caitlin Todd has been murdered by Ari Haswari, Jethro's nemesis. Ari had been a Mossad agent working undercover in both Hamas and Al-Qaeda and while the FBI and other government agencies trusted him, Gibbs never did. Following Kate's death, Gibbs embarks on a mission to get the bastard (who actually is a bastard - his father never married his mother) while the rest of his team have their doubts about Ari being guilty of killing Kate. Former and current NCIS directors, FBI and others, doubt as well, but Jethro's gut is telling him Ari did it. The women in his life are targeted with attempts on both forensic scientist Abby Sciuto and new NCIS Director Jenny Shepard and there's mental torture for everyone else, until finally, Gibbs gets the face to face he'd wanted. Arriving home, Gibbs goes to his basement to retrieve his sniper rifle and prepare to face Ari, but the man is already there and has Jethro's weapon. His plan is to kill Jethro making it look like suicide. Ari and Gibbs have a conversation during which Ari explains his reasons for wanting to hurt Gibbs by hurting the women in his life. As Ari is ready to shoot Jethro, he is killed by Ziva David, his half sister, just before he can pull the trigger. The new NCIS director and Jethro's team have already left for Indiana to attend Kate's funeral so Jethro is planning on a commercial flight to get him there.