Maudlin - Stargate Crossover Version

“Why is it so cold?” Tony complained.

“It's Alaska. What do you expect?” Tim pointed out.

“Why are we in Alaska?” Tony couldn't help wondering aloud. He'd been silently wondering the same thing for the whole flight.

“Because Gibbs ordered us to come with him to Alaska.” Abby suggested, cheerfully.

Gibbs grunted. Of course, he'd ordered them to come when his friend Jack O’Neill called him up to deal with an unexpected Marine Colonel's death. He wasn't sure why this wasn't going through official channels, but he wasn't taking his chances with any Marine Colonel's death.

He'd even dragged Ducky with them. Though, Ducky may not have much to do as they'd already completed an autopsy. Ducky was going through the autopsy results, right now, in fact.

They arrived at the air force base just in time for a blizzard to start up and make sure they wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. They'd been escorted to an empty room and told that General O'Neill would be with them shortly. Tony couldn't help wishing for some beer or maybe something stronger as his thoughts turned dark.

At least if he were drunk, he'd have a reason for his maudlin thoughts. The truth was his gut was already acting up and he had a feeling this case or whatever they were here for was going to be a doozy. He couldn't help wishing he were anywhere, but here.

He'd been supposed to be vacationing in Baja when Gibbs had called him in for this favor. Baja would be nice and warm. No chance of a blizzard there.

Before Tony's thoughts could turn any darker, the door opened and in walked four males, two clearly military and two that had a geekier look. Gibbs immediately rose from the table and shook Jack's hand.

“Good to see you, Jack.”

“You too, Gibbs. This your team?”

“Yep. DiNozzo and McGee are my field agents, Abby does our forensic science, and Dr. Mallard is our medical examiner.”

“You remember, Daniel. This is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Air Force, and his geek, Rodney McKay.”

Gibbs shook hands with everyone and gestured for his team to do the same. Once the introductions were complete, they immediately got down to business.

“As Dr. Mallard knows, you've been requested to investigate the unexpected death of Colonel Sumner. I know I don't have to tell you how serious this is or to do your best. You wouldn't work for Gibbs if you ever gave less than your best. What I do need to stress is how confidential this is. Colonel Sumner’s cause of death must remain classified as well as any information you learn in the interviews. Lt. Colonel Sheppard will brief you and make sure you have access to any witnesses you need. Gibbs vouched for you, but you will have to sign your own confidentially papers, so if you have any concerns about keeping this secret you best leave now.”

“We can't leave with the blizzard outside.” Tim pointed out.

“If you choose to leave, Daniel will make sure you have appropriate accommodations until the blizzard is over. Now, does anyone want to leave instead of signing the confidentiality papers?” General O'Neill looked around to see if anyone would take him up on it. “No? Good. We’ll leave you to get to work.”

“We'll catch up later.” Gibbs agreed as Daniel and General O'Neill left.

“I have better things to be doing.” Dr. McKay grumped.

Gibbs simply glared at Dr. McKay until he settled down, crossing his arms unhappily.

“Which one of you wants to give us the rundown about what happened to Colonel Sumner?” Tony probed.

“John can. I have better things to do.” Dr. McKay moved to leave.

“You know the sooner we take your statement the sooner you can leave.” Tony pointed out.

“In that case, I’ll go first.” Dr. McKay immediately backtracked of sorts.

Tony smiled his most disarming smile at Lt. Colonel Sheppard. “Would you please wait outside? We’ll get your statement after Dr. McKay’s since you seem in less of a hurry than he does.”

Tony was surprised to see that Lt. Colonel Sheppard didn’t respond to his charm. Lt. Colonel Sheppard simply stepped outside well versed in the military’s hurry up and wait policy. The team turned to Dr. McKay as a whole, once Lt. Colonel Sheppard left the room.

“That’s kind of disturbing, you know?” Dr. McKay babbled as he suddenly found himself the center of attention of everyone in the room.

“Just tell us what happened from your viewpoint.” Gibbs growled.

“I’m actually not sure why I’m here. I was busy trying to save our base while Sheppard was off doing his hero thing and I only know what he put in his report and/or whatever he told me. I can tell you that Colonel Sumner was captured by an enemy ship and that Sheppard insisted on rescuing him despite Dr. Weir’s orders to the contrary.”

Gibbs narrowed his eyes before turning his glare on Tony. “Get whatever useful information you can out of him and send him on his way.” Gibbs didn’t bother voicing his thought that they should have just started with Sheppard and not have bothered with McKay.

Tony just nodded and took over questioning Dr. McKay. Tim was currently playing the role of secretary and typing up the conversations. Or rather that’s what he’d been ordered to do, but he’d decided it would be better to just record the conversations and had set his computer up as a recording device.

When they were done with Dr. McKay, Tony opened the door and beckoned Sheppard in while allowing McKay to leave before they closed the door again. Gibbs started questioning Sheppard, grumpy and pissed and certain now that Sheppard had killed their marine in cold blood. An impression Sheppard didn’t help by admitting that he shot Colonel Sumner.

Gibbs growled and slammed things and used his normal interrogation techniques, but they had no effect on the soldier in front of him. Finally fed up, Gibbs growled. “Go! But don’t leave base.”

Sheppard shook his head and left as silently as he came. As if he could leave this base, right now with the blizzard going on. Well actually he could through the stargate, but these people weren’t supposed to know about that.

Tony tried to start a campfire to figure out what the heck was really going on here, but Gibbs wasn’t interested and stormed out of the room demanding someone take him to General O’Neill. Tony sighed looked around at Abby, Ducky, and Tim and decided to follow Gibbs before he broke something.

The remaining three looked around at each other before Abby shivered. She hadn’t dressed for the weather and even though the base was temperature controlled they kept it colder than she was used to since the soldiers regularly had to do maneuvers in the actual snow. “Is it cold in here or is it just me?”

“It’s a little on the chilly side.” Ducky agreed.

Tim hadn’t even thought about the cold and now he was worried about Tony. “Is Tony going to be ok with his lungs, do you think?”

“We’ll just have to keep an eye on him to make sure he is.” Ducky announced.

So the rest of the posse left the room and trailed out after Tony and Gibbs. Gibbs had found someone to take him to General O’Neill before Tony had caught up with him and so Tony had gotten lost in the base and discovered some interesting looking things. He didn’t have time to do more than look at one before a soldier showed up protesting, “Hey! You’re not allowed in here.”

The other three hadn’t found Tony or Gibbs, but they’d found Dr. McKay and a slew of other interesting electronics that they were poking around at. It didn’t even occur to McKay that they shouldn’t be there until another soldier protested, “You’re not allowed to be in here.”

McKay always happy to get rid of people agreed, “Hey, that’s right. Get out of here and go back to your room. This place is full of classified stuff.”

The soldier escorted them to see General O’Neill and they met Tony on the way as another soldier frogmarched him to see O’Neill. The soldiers exchanged confused glances as they approached General O’Neill’s office and heard a lot of yelling. No one dared to yell at General O’Neill. Tony just sighed, certain that they’d found Gibbs.

One of the soldiers trepidatiously opened the door, “General O’Neill, sir?”

“What is it, now?”

“We found these civilians wandering around in classified areas, sir.”

General O’Neill wanted to pinch his nose badly, instead he just ordered, “Bring them in.”

Once the door was closed behind the rest of the team, Gibbs continued his argument with O’Neill. “What are you expecting from us, Jack? He flat out admits to shooting the marine. He didn’t even attempt to deny it or explain it away due to circumstances.”

“The circumstances are classified.” Jack mumbled. “I should hope he didn’t try to explain them and you, why couldn’t you all have stayed in your room?”

“We couldn’t very well leave Tony and Gibbs alone in the base. Especially not Tony.” Abby protested.

O’Neill shook his head. He wasn’t touching that one. “This base is full of classified material. Most of which you aren’t cleared for even once you sign the confidentiality papers. If you can’t stay out of the classified areas, I’m going to have to send you back out in the snow.”

“You can’t!” Abby and Tim immediately protested.

Ducky explained, “Tony had the plague, his lungs are scarred now. There’s no way they could handle the blizzard outside. If you attempted to put him outside, I’m afraid I’d have to make quite the ruckus for medical reasons.”

“Oh geez, guys. I’m fine.”

Gibbs just glared at DiNozzo and the rest of the team. “Back to your man, Sheppard.”

“He can’t stand trial, Gibbs. There’s no way we could even attempt to declassify enough of this for a public hearing of any sort.”

“Then what exactly are you proposing?”

“Dr. Weir has a burr up her saddle about making him a full Colonel, so that he can run the base they’re at.”

“What? You want to reward him for shooting his superior officer?” Gibbs glared at O’Neill surprised by that.

“Trust me. For him, it wouldn’t be a reward. He’s a little odd, in case you couldn’t tell.”

“Not good enough.”

“It was a no-win situation, Gibbs. I can’t tell you that I wouldn’t have done the same myself if I were in his shoes. He’s a good guy and the one who demanded a rescue mission even be attempted. Does he really need to be punished?”

“There’s not punishing him and there’s rewarding him.” DiNozzo offered his own glare to General O’Neill. “Where’s the justice for Colonel Sumner?”

“Colonel Sumner knew what he was getting into when he agreed to the mission.”

“Did he?” Tony probed back.

“Look. I asked you here because you’re the best and also because Gibbs has some security clearance and would be allowed to know some of the circumstances around this. I could discharge him, but that doesn’t seem fair to him either. The situation wasn’t of his making. I’m hoping that you all will be able to come up with an out of the box solution like you usually do that pleases everyone involved.”

“You want us to lie.” Gibbs snarled.

“Not lie. Just be careful with your reports, so as not to ruin a good guy’s career. Do you really think he had malicious intent to kill his commanding officer?”

“No.” Everyone grudgingly agreed. They’d all noticed the remorse he felt over Colonel Sumner’s death and his desire to make up for it.

Gibbs stared at O’Neill for a long time before growling, “Fine. Give him his promotion. If he’s anything like you, he deserves it. We’ll figure out the reports.”

General O’Neill shot Gibbs a genuine smile. “Thanks Gibbs.”

“Now when can we get out of here?” Gibbs growled.

“Not until the blizzard is over, I’m afraid.”

“Trust me, you don’t want us around here that long. Today was tame compared to what will happen if they’re allowed to get bored. I suggest you figure out something quick.” Gibbs stormed out of General O’Neill’s office.

The rest of the team quickly followed him. “Are we really?” Tony started.

“Not here.” Gibbs snarled.

“Gibbs.”

“Dr. Jackson. Can you show us to our quarters? Apparently we’re going to be here for a while.”

“Of course.”

Once they were alone, Gibbs quickly checked for bugs before finally dragging them to a corner as far away from the bugs as possible. “Keep quiet. Keep your heads down. O’Neill has a lot of sway, but if you get into too much trouble even he won’t be able to help.”

“That was him helping?”

“DiNozzo.”

“Shutting up, boss.”

“Write your reports and give them to me. Don’t worry about saying the wrong thing. I’ll take care of everything.” Gibbs hated this aspect of the job and would normally have pushed it off on Tony, but this time he was the only one with enough information to do it.

He’d covered things up before, but never something like this. It left a bad taste in his mouth. He just hoped his trust in Jack wasn’t misplaced.

The teams quickly finished their reports and Gibbs collected them. He’d figure out what to do with them once they were back home. Before he could tell them to stay out of trouble everyone had dispersed to go explore the base.

Gibbs hoped they wouldn’t get into too much trouble and that O’Neill had posted guards on the really sensitive stuff because otherwise they’d be opening a huge can of worms. It only took another three days of them attempting to explore the base before O’Neill followed through on his threats.

“Since you can’t seem to keep yourselves occupied in your rooms, we’ll just have to send you back.”

“What about the blizzard?”

“Right now, you’re a bigger threat than the blizzard. Besides, it seems a fitting punishment for Colonel Sheppard to fly you back through the blizzard, wouldn’t you say?”

Tony smiled evilly. He could have so much fun with this. Gibbs just grunted and ordered Sheppard to lead the way.

Sheppard had a bad feeling about this. He wasn’t concerned about his piloting skills. Mother nature was generally kinder and easier to deal with than anything in the Pegasus galaxy.

No, his concerns were his passengers. Still despite the pranks and many other hardships they bestowed on him, he still landed them safely at a hotel near the only airport that would fly them out as soon as the blizzard blew over. General O’Neill met him as he returned to base.

“How did it go?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Sheppard grumbled. “They’re worse than McKay.”

“That good, huh?” General O’Neill smirked.

The NCIS team had to wait another week before the blizzard calmed down enough that they could get a flight out, but they couldn’t get into much trouble at the hotel. That didn’t stop Gibbs from hiding his half smiles at their antics, however. He felt a little better about the Sheppard situation, now.

It was clear Sheppard actually was a good guy. He never complained or protested anything that the team had done and Tony had pulled some pretty awesome pranks on the guy during their flight. Impressively, Sheppard hadn’t even tried to prank Tony back. He’d just taken it. Still Gibbs was happy to consider this chapter closed and put it behind him and go back to normal NCIS cases.