NCIS: The New Recruit

Chapter 16

McGee grabbed the remote from Dinozzo and pointed it at the plasma, "In January 2003, Westfall was arrested for shooting at US Senator Lawrence Marsden." A picture of Marsden appeared on the screen. "He was cleared of all charges. Marsden resigned after the assassination attempt."

"Wheeler?" I asked.

"There doesn't seem to be any connection between Wheeler and Marsden," McGee told me then flinched as Gibbs glared at him, "Wheeler was in Colorado at the same time as Westfall."

"Where?" Gibbs asked, growing bored.

"Er... Colorado Springs," McGee informed him.

"So, Westfall saved Wheelers life, then they end up in Colorado together and then the Pentagon," asked Gibbs.

"Looks like it," McGee told him.

"Did they both live there?" Gibbs pressed.

"Er... I don't know. Wheeler owned a house in Colorado Springs, still does, but I don't know where Westfall lives." McGee told him.

I collapsed back in my chair. There was no case and we shouldn't be wasting resources investigating. If they did want it investigated, they shouldn't have given it to us. We are the MAJOR Case Response Team. Not Crappy Non-Existent Case Response Team.

Gibbs sent DiNozzo and Ziva to the Pentagon and left McGee and I to find Wheeler and Westfall's service records. He also told us to find out anything and everything about special Air Force programs.

"Wait... Do you want us to ha-?" Gibbs silenced me with a look.

"Yes, unless you have another way of getting the information we need," he told me.

"Sorry boss," I muttered then went to stand behind McGee.

"I'm so getting fired for all the hacking I'm doing," McGee closed his eyes slightly while still typing.

"You may have a better chance of not getting caught if you actually looked while hacking," I grinned.

We sat for hours, searching through hundreds of files, not finding even the tiniest bit of evidence that something wasn't right.

Gibbs came past with our lunches and we ate while slowly getting more and more frustrated.

Gibbs came past around an hour later. We still hadn't actually hacked but we had found a few things.

"We know more about Wheeler than Westfall, so we focused on him," I told Gibbs as McGee and I went to stand next to the plasma.

McGee brought up an article about a wedding (the wedding of Westfall and his new bride, Sara) then he brought up an announcement for a baby boy born to Major and Mrs John Westfall.

He then brought up a picture of a young boy called Charlie Westfall.

"Charlie Westfall, son of John and Sara, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound when he was eight years old," my voice was barely a whisper.

McGee brought up the death certificate for Tyler Charles Westfall.

I glanced at Gibbs and I could see the shock in his eyes.

"It was investigated by the Colorado State Police and ruled accidental. No charges were brought against the parents, even though the gun the boy used, Westfall's personal weapon, had been left unsecured," McGee didn't seem sympathetic at all.

"Westfall got a divorce and retired from the Air Force after the death of his son. The next year, Westfall retired again," I told Gibbs, "Of course, he then got recalled again and hasn't retired... yet."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows but said nothing. It wasn't unusual for someone to be recalled then retire again.

McGee continued with the briefing, telling Gibbs about how Westfall graduated with honours from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base.

Gibbs complimented us, a rare occurence, and McGee showed him some photos that we had collected.

Gibbs' phone rang soon after. He answered it and held his hand up to tell McGee to stop the photo presentation.

"I'll be right back," I told McGee.

I started feeling a bit lightheaded and needed some fresh air. We weren't getting anywhere anyway, so I wasn't going to miss anything.

We got no more information that day. Ducky still ruled Wheelers death as natural causes and Ziva and DiNozzo had got no information from the Pentagon. Some people didn't even know Wheeler was dead.

The next day, a couple of fatal traffic accidents that really were accidents and a petty officer who assaulted his girlfriend kept us busy and our mind away from Wheeler for most of the day.

Ducky was ready to rule Wheeler's death as accidental as soon as Abby gave him a report on anything she found in his body.

Tony also told me we would be heading for Scotland on Wednesday for the funeral on the Friday. Just five days away.

We were allowed to go home early on Friday. We were on call all weekend and Gibbs wanted us in the office on Saturday by at least eleven, unless he called us in earlier. He at least let us get paid overtime.

On top of this case, Dougie and Kirsty had been sending me all the schoolwork I had missed by request of the teachers. Every spare minute away from the case I had, I was pouring over schoolwork. I had only had a couple of hours sleep over the last few days and I looked as though I would collapse any minute. Everyone was too caught up in the case to even notice they were essentially working me to death.

I scribbled down a few equations and finished off the last couple of lines in my English essay before grabbing a bottle of water and a slice of cold pizza from the fridge and collasping on my bed, devouring it.

Tony had gone straight to his room when we got in and I could hear him snoring. At around twelve o'clock, I began to really wish the rooms were soundproof.

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SHOCK HORROR! I UPDATED!

OH MY GOD! IT'S A MIRACLE! I ACTUALLY UPDATED! FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS, I'VE DISAPPEARED FROM THIS STORY, BUT I'M BACK!

Here you are, guys! I am REALLY sorry about not updating. At first it was because, after I got rid of my computer with viruses, I got the new Sony Vaoi. Now, they seem to not think internet is important on a computer as the internet never connected.

So, we looked up reviews (in hindsight, my parents probably should have done that before buying it, but they have the older one and it works fine, so...) and everyone was having the same problem.

Long story short, we contacted Amazon, got our money back, and now I have a Mac!

For the first few months, that was the problem. Then, I just started procrastination so I don't really have a proper excuse there...

BUT IT'S UPDATED NOW! AND IT SHOULD HOPEFULLY BE UPDATED MORE!

I really hope this was worth the wait... This case should probably be finished in one or two chapters. Then we'll have the funeral! :-O

Anyway, enjoy!

Doodle