Howdy! Sorry this one took me so long to update. I have plenty of excuses, but they probably wouldn't interest you to hear. So I will just apologize, and hope my loyal readers will forgive me. *hangs head in shame and begs forgiveness* Thank you to my reviewers: PeppyGothChick, BlackAngleGirl, Lila, CharmedGirl14, GardevoirLove4ever, Separate Entity, and Vincent. You all make me happy.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
Dramatic Mark Harmon voiceover: Previously on Navy Cops and Bird Kids
"Yeah, Gibbs." I recognized the director's voice, but couldn't make out any words. "Jen-" Gibbs started to say, before I heard the phone click off.
He told us the news. We all stared in disbelief.
"Can I be the first to say crap?" Max asked.
Nudge's POV
"Jenny's been kidnapped?" Gazzy asked incredulously.
"The School says that they'll only release her if we turn the Flock over," Gibbs said, not making eye contact with any member of the Flock.
"I don't think they'd really kill her…" Abby said. "I mean, aren't they pretending to be the good guys? Killing the Director of a federal agency doesn't sound like a good way to keep a low profile."
"They would." Max's tone was all business. "If she didn't serve their purposes, they'd kill her in a heartbeat. Or worse."
"So, Max, what do you suppose we do?" Gibbs asked. "Kill Jen, or send you back to the School?"
Max was silent for a moment. "How much time do we have?"
"They said they'd call back in six hours with further instructions."
"All right. I'll start trying to run a trace on the call," Abby said, grabbing Gibbs' cell, plugging it into her computer, and getting started.
"I'll pull security footage from around the Navy Yard, see if I can find any leads there," Tony announced, already halfway out the door.
That left us awkwardly staring at each other; only Max had the guts to even look at Gibbs.
"Abs, can you keep an eye on the kids?" Gibbs finally asked.
"Sure, Gibbs. I'm a good baby-sitter," Abby replied, not taking her eyes off her computer. "Can you hit my stereo on your way out?"
As Gibbs hit the Play button, her stereo started blasting music. Gibbs said something—I couldn't quite hear him over the music—and turned the volume way down.
"C'mon, Gibbs," Abby pleaded. "It was just getting to the god part!"
We all exclaimed something to the effect of "No, it's fine like this!" Super hearing plus loud music equals a headache.
Abby looked grumpy; Gibbs said something to her in sign language. She signed back with an indignant expression.
"What's happening?" Iggy asked.
"Sign language," Angel said. "And I'm with you, Gibbs. Abby's ears are broken."
"You know sign?" Abby asked eagerly. Angel raised an eyebrow, and Abby realized how stupid her question was. "Right. Mind-reading."
Gibbs grinned, then headed upstairs. As soon as he was gone, Abby set some ground rules. "You are not to touch any of my equipment without my permission. No mind-reading or mimicry of anyone outside the flock. No fighting, period. Gazzy, I don't think I need to tell you, but I will: No. No. Triple no. If you need to leave this lab, you tell me first and you use the buddy system."
An hour later, we were bored as hell. We all had our wings stretched out, which greatly limited our room. Between Angel and I, we knew about three hand-clapping games, which got old really fast. Gazzy and Fang were asleep, Iggy was eating a bag of pretzels (that he probably stole from a vending machine), and Max was pretending to read. I knew she was pretending because she hadn't turned a page in the past forty minutes. Also, she was reading one of Abby's technical books, and I had a feeling that Max understood maybe every third word.
Abby was still working at her computer, but she was moving a lot more slowly than before, and her expression looked pained. Angel had started drawing on a piece of printer paper and didn't seem interested in playing any more hand games, so I slid to the side of the room, where I could just barely see what she was doing with the trace on Gibbs' phone.
"May I?" I asked, pointing to her other computer. When she looked at me dubiously, I added, "I'm good with computers."
"Sure," she said, clearly thinking that there was no harm I could do. "The number's registered to a burn phone, so that's no good. I'm trying to backtrace the signal, but these guys bounced it all over the world."
"I've tried to hack the School before, but they have really, really good firewalls. Like, really good. But I've never had a government access computer, 'cause the government is really freaking paranoid about hackers and you can't hack them from a public library computer, which I guess is a good thing, 'cause then a terrorist or something could, like, I don't know, do something bad and kill people. And that wouldn't be good. So…." I trailed off and focused on giving the School's computer system a run for its money. Bit by bit, I needled my way in, bypassing security protocols in seconds that had taken me minutes in the past. Finally, I reached a list of burn phones the School had bought for their employees. "Searching, searching, and…got it!" I exclaimed, finding the number that had called Gibbs on the list.
Abby stared at my computer screen in disbelief. "Damn!" she exclaimed. "Pardon my French."
"Isn't it amazing how many burn phones they have? I mean, I knew they were paranoid, but really? Is it like, he who dies with the most burners wins?"
"I was talking about your mad computer skills," Abby informed me, whistling and giving me a high five. "You're a hacking ninja!"
"Thanks!" I replied proudly. Noticing the rest of the flock was asleep (apparently they trusted me to be on watch), I decided it was time to have a heart-to-heart with Abby. After she called Gibbs, I asked her, "So, are you and McGee…you know…."
"What? No. What?" Abby answered, feigning confusion.
"You two aren't going out? But you'd be so cute together!"
"Well, we're coworkers. That's it," Abby said, in a tone of voice that told me she was trying to convince herself that.
"C'mon, you totally like him! Admit it!"
She blinked several times, then denied it again with a sheepish expression.
"I saw you when Gibbs and Fang were sparring. You have a crush on McGee."
She paused. "You can't tell anyone."
"I won't, but believe me, they already know."
"They do?"
"I think you and McGee were the last ones to figure this out," I told her truthfully.
"Really? Is it that obvious?"
"Seriously, you two have never, like, dated or kissed or anything?"
"Well, there was that one incident involving a search for a psycho and a coffin a couple of years ago, but other than that, no." At my incredulous expression, she added, "Gibbs has a set of rules. Number twelve is never date a coworker."
"Any rules about bird kids?" I asked jokingly.
"Not unless any of you are lawyers," she answered. "So, I've spilt about McGee. What about you?"
"No!" I answered quickly.
"Are you sure? You and Iggy…"
"No! I mean, I love him, and all of the flock, but dating him? It'd be like dating my brother."
"I guess Max and Fang don't have those reservations," Abby suggested slyly.
"No comment. Ask her yourself."
"I'm not asking her, I'm asking you."
We continued chatting about anything and everything until Gibbs came down. We explained how we found the burner, and how we traced its location to a small warehouse district in Alexandria. "Gibbs, I am telling you, I love this girl," Abby said proudly, one arm around my shoulders.
"Then it's a good thing I brought two of these," Gibbs said, holding out a large drink in a red cup in each of his hands.
"Gibbs, you are a god among men," Abby told him, grabbing the drink and taking a long slurp.
I took the other cup and hesitantly took a sip. The drink was sweet, with that fake fruit taste that I love. I drank some more. Through my peripheral vision, I noticed the rest of the flock waking up. I was more interested, however, in the flashing lights on one of Abby's machines. "ZOMG! Those lights are so pretty! They're like little Christmas lights! I totally love flying over places at Christmas time 'cause there's all sorts of lights up EVERYWHERE! It's so cool! It kinda looks like those little arrow things on dance video games, that tell you where to step? You know?" I started dancing, trying to match my footsteps to the flashing lights.
"What was in that drink?" Iggy asked Abby.
"Caffeine…" she answered nervously.
"Good God!" the flock screamed in unison.
Ha ha, Nudge with Caf-Pow. And I hope you all are very concerned about Jenny's welfare. *sarcasm* I honestly haven't decided if I should kill her or not. Input would be appreciated on this fairly important decision. Review please! Thanks!