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To no surprise to anyone, the rest of the grasses were also rejected via the portal. Bishop had moved completely out of the room as they continued to have an unerring direction for her head. Even standing outside of the room, so that there was no direct way for the grass to be lobbed at her head, they still came extremely close to hitting her.
Bishop began to wonder if she'd pissed off someone by going partially through the portal or something. Maybe the portal had imprinted on her somehow when that happened. Bishop had no idea either way, only that dodging the grass was getting extremely annoying.
“That’s the last one.”
“Let’s put the protections back in place and get out of here, then.” Bishop encouraged, heading back into the room with the portal to help.
McGee nodded and together they got the cobbled together interference back in place. “This still feels so unnecessary,” McGee complained.
“Well maybe some catnip or cat grass will make the difference.”
“I hope so.”
Together they left the apartment, locking it behind them as they climbed into the NCIS car and headed for the nearest garden center. Tim hoped that it would have catnip and cat grass. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.
Without speaking, they separated as they entered the garden center. McGee went one way and Bishop the other. Both of them had only one goal in mind to find the catnip and cat grass.
McGee took the right side of the store. He found a bunch of flowers, lilies and the likes, but no grasses in the first section he investigated. The next section had a bunch of small bushes that would undoubtedly make good cover if allowed to grow decently.
He doubted that Tony would approve of bushes growing in that room in his apartment, however. Even if it might disguise the portal better. Though with Tim’s luck, it would end up making the portal more powerful.
He moved onto the next section full of fruit trees. Quickly walking past it to the regular grass section, he found a lot of plants that were designed to be ground cover. None of them were ones for cats, however, and he moved on again.
Bishop on the other hand started in the garden tools section which didn’t even have any plants. Before she could continue to another section that actually had plants, she was interrupted.
“Señora?”
Bishop turned around to face the man who had spoken. His dress indicated that he was most likely a grandee. “Yes?”
“Please, Señora. I have much knowledge to impart. You must come with me.”
Bishop frowned. “Excuse me, who are you?”
“I am sorry, my dear. I am Duque Roberts and I must speak to you on an issue of great urgency.”
“I don’t know you. How could you have anything to impart to me?”
“Please, my dear. It is not safe to talk about it out in the open.”
Still wary, Bishop allowed him to lead her out of the store. He tried to lead her to his car and she shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me more about what this is about.”
“I’m sorry, Señora.”
Bishop’s forehead wrinkled in confusion at that unexpected apology and she knew nothing more as someone bashed her over the head. The grandee caught her carefully and with the help of his manservant lifted her into the back seat of the car. They laid her out gently in the back and strapped her in, so that she would not be jostled too much.
As the car pulled out of the parking lot with Bishop inside, McGee continued his search of the garden store. He’d finally managed to find the catnip and cat grass and was now looking for Bishop. She wasn’t answering her phone and he didn’t hear it in the store either.
He walked the entire store twice before admitting to himself that she wasn’t there anymore. He paid for his purchases and walked out to the NCIS vehicle. She wasn’t there either, though he didn’t expect her to be as she would have answered her phone.
He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t tell the director as they still didn’t know what side she was on and Gibbs and Tony were still in another dimension. He messaged Abby the situation and begged her to find Bishop’s location.
Abby texted back that he better get back to the office, the director was on a warpath because she couldn’t find either Bishop or McGee. McGee frowned at that. He texted Abby that he had a couple stops he needed to make first, but would be there soon.
His first stop was Tony’s apartment and the portal. He started with the catnip. It didn’t immediately come flying out. He wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or just that he couldn’t see it fly out because Bishop wasn’t here.
The portal seemed to get a bit smaller, so McGee tried the cat grass too. That one came right back out at McGee. He didn’t know what that was supposed to mean either.
This entire prophecy was a bit like trying to make sense of a single puzzle piece when you have fifty puzzles and no idea which one it goes to. Maybe he was taking don’t forget the grass too literally, but he really thought that the portal would go away with the right grass.
It didn’t help that Abby’s text about the director weighed heavily on his mind. He had no idea what to say to the director. Maybe he should just go back there and deal with the portal more later.
It’s not like he knew where Bishop was and Bishop was an NCIS agent, so telling the director she was missing wasn’t unreasonable. He just wished he knew who the enemies were in this scenario. If the director was associated with them would telling her about Bishop give them more information that would be bad for Tony and Gibbs or would they already know and it didn’t matter? McGee had no idea and trying to figure it out was going to drive him insane.