Exacerbate - Bishop Entanglement Version

Gibbs grunted and gestured to the screen. Bishop put the witness statement she was looking at up on the screen with one of the other common ones next to it. Bishop could see when Tony realized what was missing, but McGee remained clueless.

“Kevin makes no mention of the fog. He must know more than he’s telling us.” Bishop pointed out for McGee and Gibbs’ benefit.

Gibbs snapped his fingers. “Tony take McGee and figure out what he’s hiding.”

“I really think it would be better if you and Tony go, Gibbs. McGee can help me with the electronic trail and the rest of the data. We have to be missing more than this.”

Gibbs just glared at Bishop. He didn’t know what had gotten into her today. She didn’t normally question his judgement like this. “I said McGee and Tony.”

Tony and McGee exchanged glances before quickly hurrying off. They didn’t want to be caught in the middle of the showdown between Gibbs and Bishop. Neither of them knew what had gotten into Bishop today.

Normally, she just went with what Gibbs said and didn’t argue it. Or at least, she didn’t argue it unless she had found evidence to the contrary. Tony couldn’t help wondering if Bishop had lost her mind. Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. Maybe Bishop couldn’t handle pretending to be his wife without losing it.

Bishop returned to the piles of papers she had in front of her and tried to ignore Gibbs as it was obvious he wasn’t going to go with Tony. Gibbs wasn’t willing to just let her get away with something dangerously close to insubordination, however.

“My office. Now.” Gibbs ordered.

Bishop sighed, but followed.

Once the elevator doors closed and Gibbs had hit the emergency stop button, he turned to Bishop, “What is going on with you?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. You’re questioning all my decisions. Do I look like I’m going senile to you?”

Bishop shook her head. “The tension between you and Tony is obvious, Gibbs.” Bishop hoped that would be enough for Gibbs to catch a clue.

“Trying to push us together at work will only exacerbate the issue, Bishop. We need to keep it professional, remember? I suggest you remember that as well.” With that final warning, Gibbs started the elevator back up and quickly stormed off with a yelled, “Coffee.”

Bishop sighed. This was such a mess. Would any of them ever survive this threesome?

Grabbing the papers, she spread them out around her on the floor. She’d have to focus on work, for now, and hope that she hadn’t exacerbated things to the point where they weren’t even fixable outside of work. She really hoped that the witness yielded another clue from Tony and McGee’s questioning.

The sooner they finished this case, the better off all of them would be. She knew that was nice Gibbs that she’d gotten and that she better find something quick or the boys better do so before they were treated to even grumpier Gibbs. By the time Gibbs returned, Bishop was completely in her zone and didn’t register his return.

She couldn’t miss the return of McGee and Tony, though, as Tony walked in crowing about how it was definitely the ex-girlfriend that did it. McGee was shaking his head at Tony’s statements and protesting that it couldn’t be the ex-girlfriend.

“Sit rep” Gibbs ordered.

Bishop gathered her information for presentation while Tony and McGee put their findings on the TV. McGee led off with what they’d found out from the re-interview of Kevin. Tony then launched into how he’d had a brainstorm and realized they’d needed to return to the scene of the crime.

He’d been proven right as they found a scrap of what Tony was guessing was a skirt in the bushes. Abby had it, now. Bishop picked up with what she’d found in the paper trail linking a couple of different people that they hadn’t interviewed, yet, to the victim.

Gibbs nodded to Tony and Bishop to go interview the new suspects that Bishop had identified. However, before they left, Bishop pointed out a few other inconsistencies in statements that she’d found. There was more going on with this crime scene than they’d originally understood.

Gibbs indicated for McGee to come with him. They’d follow up on the inconsistencies. The 4 headed for the garage together, but separated to take 2 vehicles.

In Bishop and Tony’s vehicle, silence reigned. Neither of them wanted to bring up anything personal and there wasn’t much to talk about regarding the case, right now. Bishop just hoped that they were making good enough progress to improve Gibbs’ mood.

McGee and Gibbs pulled up to the first house on their list of inconsistencies. They exchanged a look as they stepped out of the car and heard yelling from inside. Cautiously approaching the front door, Gibbs put his ear to it and listened to the argument from inside.

“This is all your fault!” An older woman could be heard yelling.

“Be quiet! If you don’t say anything, we’ll be fine.” A male returned.

Gibbs shook his head and knocked on the door.

The woman shot the door a suspicious look and hissed, “I told you they’re onto us.”

The male rolled his eyes and suggested, “Keep quiet and everything will be fine,” before opening the door.

“Your alibi didn’t check out. Would you like to tell us where you really were?” Gibbs didn’t bother with niceties, after that conversation.

“I told you!” The woman screeched.

“NCIS is not the IRS, Ira.”

Gibbs nodded to McGee to take the woman to another room to get her statement. She hadn’t been here last time they took Ray’s statement and would clearly tell them more without Ray around.

“Where were you this morning, Ray?”

“I already told you this.” Ray glared.

“You did, but see when we talked to the people at the bar you said you were at, none of them could actually remember you being there. So you want to tell me where you really were?”