26Alright guys, thanks for the warm response to this story! Here's chapter two, and remember I don't own NCIS, just Cat, her classmates, and teachers. Review please!
Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo was not having a good day. He'd overslept, had no time to shave or grab breakfast on the way into work, he had spilled coffee on his last clean pair of pants, slightly burned himself with said coffee and was now wedged in the middle of the bench seat of the NCIS truck. To his left, and driving, was Ziva, and to the right, hanging on for dear life like himself, was McGee. Ziva David, the Mossad liaison officer, had yet to learn that I-95 was the absolutely last place you would find an IED in Washington.
"Ziva!" Tony snapped as he was flung into McGee, yet again. "Slow down! I get that we're on our way to a crime scene in a heavy tourist traffic area, but there's no need to take a left turn at seventy miles an hour!"
"My evasive driving," Ziva started, but Tony cut her off.
"Is the best possible way to avoid an IED, we know," Tony said. "It's just that some of us are very fond of the contents of our stomachs, Da-veed. You don't wanna be cleaning up Probie's up-chuck when we get to the scene, do you?"
Ziva rolled her eyes, and the speedometer dropped to a more reasonable speed. "How is that?" Better, yes?"
"Much," Tony said as he relaxed in his seat.
"What is with your snippy attitude this morning? You are not your regular self," Ziva said as she turned the truck onto the correct street.
"I'm just not having a good day," Tony said without elaborating. "I'm sure it'll get better as the day goes on."
"We're on our way to a crime scene," McGee said with a sigh. "How exactly is your day going to get better?"
Tony shrugged, "I don't know, I just have this feeling in my gut something good is going to happen today.
"Hey, Cat! Wait up!" Cat turned around to see Michelle squeezing her way through the crowd to catch up to her friend. "Did you find anything on your dad last night online?"
"A little bit," Cat said with a smile. "I found out that he went to Ohio State and played football. He could have gone pro, but he had a bad knee injury and that was the end of his football days. His first name is Tony, and he lives in the DC area. I Googled his name and found he got some kind of rare disease from work and that he's okay now."
"Well, that's a lot," Michelle said as they climbed onto the bus that would drop them off near the Roosevelt Memorial. "Do you know a general area of where he lives?"
Cat shook her head 'no', "Not yet. I'm planning on asking if I can go to the public library to look that up, cause he got that disease he's bound to be in the paper so we might be able to see where he works and we could possibly find out his address from there."
"Well since he was in the paper for getting sick, it shouldn't be too hard to find him," Michelle said, slouching down in the window seat as the bus took off for the Roosevelt Memorial area. "But you're gonna find him, he's gonna love the idea of being your dad, and then you'll go back and forth between Washington, D.C. and Conway."
"I don't know," Cat said with a shrug. "I'm not too keen on living in a city this big."
"Maybe you can convince your dad to put in for a transfer to the Conway area," Michelle suggested helpfully.
"Maybe," Cat said half heartedly. "Michelle, what if he turns out to not be my dad? What if there's another Tony DiNozzo out there and he's the wrong one?"
Michelle sat up to face her best friend. "Gabriella Catherine Stevens-DiNozzo! Don't let me hear you being such a Negative Nancy again on this trip! You're going to find your dad and that's that."
"Thanks, Michelle," Cat said, "I needed that."
"Alright people, listen up!" Mr. Black said, standing up in the aisle of the moving bus. "I just got off the phone with Mrs. McKenna on the first bus. We won't be going to the Vietnam Memorial today. The National Parks Service and the FBI have the area roped off to non-government personnel until further notice. So instead we're going to the Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln, and the Korean War Memorials before we head over to the Museum of Natural History. Any questions?"
"Why are the two busses split up?" Jenny Geary asked curiously from the back of the bus. "I would rather wander around DC in this awful drizzle with Melissa and Amanda, but they're on the other bus."
"Good question, Jenny!" Mr. Black said clapping his hands together. "We split the buses up so that we have a smaller number of students to keep track of at each attraction, and so that each group can cover the same amount of ground while we're here. Both bus loads will be meeting up on Thursday when we go to the Washington Navy Yard. And possibly when we tour the J. Edgar Hoover building on Thursday afternoon. Any other questions?"
Nobody else spoke up.
"Alright, then!" Mr. Black said, turning around and sitting down in his seat next to Mrs. Freiberg, the assistant principal, as the rest of the students began to excitedly chatter and gossip over why they thought the Vietnam Wall was closed.
"Do you think your dad is an FBI Agent?" Michelle asked Cat.
"I don't know," Cat said with a shrug. "It would be pretty cool if he was. He'd be like Mulder, but without the alien thing. I hope."
Both girls giggled and listened to the ridiculous gossip that was being shouted around the bus.
At the crime scene in the middle of the Roosevelt Memorial, Tony and Ziva were, once again, at each other's throats.
"Enough!" Gibbs finally barked out. He'd had it with his Senior Field Agent and their Mossad Liaison Officer constantly bickering. "David, you go handle crowd control to the south."
Ziva opened her mouth to protest, but was silenced by Gibbs's glare.
"Do not argue. Move it," Gibbs said in a steely voice that left no room for an argument. As Ziva stalked off, muttering in Hebrew, most likely cursing Tony and his family into oblivion. Gibbs turned on DiNozzo. "And you," Gibbs said, disappointment dripping from his tone. "You should know better, DiNozzo. Witness statements. Now."
"On it, Boss," Tony said, retreating to the northern end of the memorial where the Local LEOs had put the witnesses.
"And, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, softening his tone. "Stop letting her get to you like that."
Tony nodded tersely and continued off to collect witness statements.
Cat and Michelle huddled under an umbrella as the light drizzle changed over into a steadier rain. "Mr. Black!" Cat cried out over the rain. "Can't we just go to the museums now? And then come back out here when it stops raining?"
Cat's classmates murmured in agreement as Mr. Black contemplated the request.
"How about we compromise?" Mr. Black said to the kids. "We go through this one memorial, it's a long one, but very informative, and then head back to the bus and then we go to the American History Museum. They have the exhibit with all of the TV and movie props throughout the whole building."
"YES!" The class cried out triumphantly, they'd been trying for a week and a half to get that particular section of the museum included into the trip's itinerary.
"All righty then! Onwards we go!" Mr. Black said to the assembled group. "Everybody break up into your museum groups, we'll forgo the question sheet for now, and explore the life and influences of Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
Michelle, Cat, Jake Jones, Jenny Geary, Taylor O'Shea, Joey Gilroy, Nick Brennan, Erin Bell, and Kenzie Tyler circled around Mr. Black as the other six groups met up with their adult leader. "Are we all here?" Mr. B asked, shaking some of the rain off of his umbrella. "Good," he said, after he counted out the nine young teenagers he was responsible for. "Now, who can tell me anything about FDR before we move into the memorial area?"
Cat, Jake, Jenny, Michelle, Taylor and Nick all raised their hands.
"One at a time," Mr. B informed them, "starting with Cat, then, Jenny, Michelle, Taylor, Nick and Jake."
"President Roosevelt was the only president in the United States to be elected for four consecutive terms. After his final term, a limit was put in place so that a President could only serve two terms in his, or maybe in the future, her, lifetime," Cat said.
"Nicely put," Mr. Black said, "and you are correct on that one, Cat."
"President Roosevelt was related to Teddy Roosevelt, who told him not to run for President," Jenny said with a shrug. She was the lone student with one of the large green and white golf umbrellas to herself. Mr. Black nodded and Michelle took this as her cue to speak up.
"President Roosevelt had fire-side radio broadcasts throughout the Great Depression to reassure Americans that everything would work out. He also created the New Deal which created thousands of jobs for young men, and that also created roadways and boundaries in many of America's National Parks."
"You're very well informed, Miss Carter," Mr. Black said with a smile. "I wish you would put that much effort into some of your lab reports."
Michelle blushed and nudged Cat, causing both girls to break out into giggles.
"FDR had polio as a child and was frequently photographed sitting down, so the American public really didn't know he was in a wheel chair," Taylor said from next to Joey.
Jake opened his mouth to state his fact when Mrs. Curley, one of the other chaperones, called over to Mr. Black.
"Joel! There's some kind of commotion going on in the middle of the Memorial and there are federal agents turning people away," Mrs. Curley said, coming closer to the group closest to the entrance.
"Where did you hear this, Pat?" Mr. Black asked worriedly.
"One of the teenagers that was leaving with another school group," Mrs. Curley said to him.
Rubbing his face with his hand, Mr. Black sighed before he spoke. "I'll take my group in as far as we can go, and if it's true, we'll head straight for the Smithsonian. Understood?"
Nodding in agreement, Mrs. Curley turned on her heel and headed back over to the group she was in charge of.
"So it appears there has been a slight change of plans, again," Mr. Black said with a sigh. "But the good news is that it's stopped raining. On the other hand," Mr. Black said as he noticed a lack of people milling about behind them. "We might not be able to get to everything on today's itinerary."
The class groaned, fearing that their museum trip would be canceled.
"I meant my plans on the itinerary would be cut out, not what we agreed on earlier," Mr. Black said with a chuckle.
Visibly relaxing, the kids followed their teacher like ducklings into the Memorial. "Mr. Black," Jenny said hesitantly. "What do we do if there really are federal agents turning people away?"
"We do as they say, Jenny, and we go back to the buses and head for the Museum of American History. Any other questions?"
Nobody answered, they had spotted the tell tale yellow tape that was just around the corner.
"Okay, folks, I need you to turn around and head back to your tour buses, cars, taxis, planes, trains and automobiles. This area is a crime scene and is now off limits," a tall man with a dark jacket said to a gathering crowd. "This is a restricted area."
"How restricted?" Mr. Black asked the man as he came closer to the tape line.
The man turned to Mr. Black and took in the group of students trailing behind the science teacher. "Restricted to the point that if you don't have a Federal issued badge, you don't get passed this line," he retorted.
"And if I was to take my class around the Memorial to see the other side, what would happen?" Mr. Black asked curiously. "We're on a bit of a tight schedule and the Vietnam Wall is also closed off."
The Federal Agent paused and considered what Mr. Black was saying. "If you took those kids around to the other side, you'd be blocked by the NCIS Major Crime Unit truck and our ME's van. I wish I could tell you when this will be open again, but it's a hit or miss with crime scenes."
"I understand," Mr. Black said to the man. Cat was able to see that the agent was from NCIS when Mr. Black moved away from the tape.
"DINOZZO!" an older man further into the Memorial barked out. "Are you still on crowd control?"
"Yes, Boss!" DiNozzo said turning around. "Just needed to turn a few school tour groups away from the area."
"I'm sorry," Cat said wandering closer to the tape and Agent DiNozzo. "But did the other agent just call you 'DiNozzo'?"
"He did," The NCIS Agent said turning to face Cat. "Why?"
"Is your first name Anthony?" Cat asked cautiously.
"Yes," taking a very good look at Cat while he answered her. "Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked taking off his hat and running his hand through his hair.
"I think I'm your daughter," Cat said excitedly. "I've been looking for you for months."
Tony's jaw dropped and he couldn't believe the bombshell that the eighth grader had just dropped on her. "Boss!" he called out turning around. "I need five minutes."
"DiNozzo, I told you to hit the head before we left NCIS," an older man said, walking up to Tony.
"Well, this is a more personal matter than needing to hit the head," Tony said to his boss. "My daughter just found me."
Reviews please! I really could use some this week. It's been a long and slightly suckish week for me in college. Reviews always make my day and make me smile :)