Murder in Disguise

By Keri Teach

This is a retelling of the season 4 episode “Man Of Many Faces” with some added plot twists of my own and is a crossover story with some of the characters from the very popular CBS crime series NCIS about the Naval Crime Investigative Services.

Today is about to turn upside down for Admiral Harriman Nelson of the famed Nelson Institute of Marine Research and the developer/owner of the famous submarine SSRN Seaview.

Many miles away in Los Angeles at network affiliate TV Station KABC, nationally well-known news caster Brent Smith is preparing to do a live interview with Dr. Randolph Mason, a scientist known for his studies of the ocean tides. The purpose of the interview is the announcement of a major scientific breakthrough. The interview is about to begin.

The cameras are ready to roll, lighting and sound is tested. The broadcast in process alarm is set, the shows director is signaling that the show is about to start.

“Alright Brent, look into camera one…OK that’s good and we are live in 3--- 2--- 1---” … and the shows director points at Brent…signaling him to begin.

“Good morning Los Angeles and good morning America. My name is Brent Smith and welcome to “The Morning Show” where we talk about everything of interest from current news events to what’s going on in the world of entertainment. My guest this morning is Dr. Randolph Mason. He is here to discuss his latest scientific advances in the development of new alternate power resources.

As the camera pans over to get a shot of Dr. Mason...Brent continues his introduction. He has an important announcement to make about a major breakthrough he has achieved in the field of renewable energy that will revolutionize the energy industry and benefit the environment which as many people know has been a hot issue these days with all the talk of global warming and hot house gases.”

“Good morning Dr. Mason and welcome to the show.”

“Thank you, Brent. I’m glad to be here.”

“Dr. Mason, I understand you have an important announcement to make.”

“Yes Brent, that’s correct. “

“Dr. Mason, before we get to that if you would please tell our viewers about the project you are currently working on?”

“I have been studying the ocean tides, attempting to find a way to control the tides in order to benefit all of mankind. I recently developed a method that I found will control the tides and hopefully one of the major benefits will be to diminish the damaging effects of tsunami’s which as we have all seen in recent years have caused widespread property damage and tremendous loss of human life.”

“I have put together a study to see what power can be harnessed from the tides to help provide an alternative power supply to Hydro Electric Dams and Coal Fired Plants. Recent studies done by scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency show these energy sources are harmful to the fish runs, air quality, and the environment in general.”

“This certainly sounds like a very worth-while project that could benefit the world. I understand however that you have been running into some pretty strong opposition to your project.”

“Yes Brent, that is correct but you know as with any issue you will always have two sides … pro and con.”

“Yes that does always seem to be the case however it’s been rumored that you have one person in particular who is also very well known in the scientific community that has offered some very strong opposition to your study.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Tell me Dr. Mason, do you mind naming that person.”

“I don’t mind at all. That person who so… dynamically opposed and who apparently will stop at nothing to keep me from completing my project… is Admiral Harriman Nelson.”

Meanwhile just outside the studio entrance an attendant is met by a man attempting to get inside. That man appears to be Admiral Nelson.

“I need to get inside. I’m Admiral Nelson. It’s very important.”

“I’m sorry sir. We’re in the middle of a broadcast. No one is allowed in.”

Nelson pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket and begins to hand it to the attendant.

“Look here, I have special permission,” he states.

As he attempts to hand the note to the young man he appears to accidently drop it to the floor. As the attendant leans over to pick it up Nelson quickly knocks him out with a swift Karate chop to the back of the neck. Nelson opens the door and proceeds into the studio where the live broadcast is going on.

Pulling a pistol from under his dress uniform jacket, Nelson conceals it beneath his cover which he is holding in his left hand.

As soon as Nelson hears Mason mention his name, he yells, “Liar!”

“Rushing towards Mason, Nelson exclaims, “You are a liar and a fraud!”

Mason stands up to rebut the admirals’ comments but before he can utter any words, Nelson aims the pistol and shoots Mason at point blank range, then turns and runs out of the studio.

As Dr. Mason slumps over onto the table Brent gets up and tries to feel if Mason has any pulse. He yells at some of the studio workers nearby, “Get him! Don’t let him get away!”

This all happened so fast that the cameras are still on and the entire incident has been seen and recorded live on national TV and witnessed by millions of viewers.

Nonetheless any attempt to catch Nelson before he can get away is futile. It appears for the time being at least he has made a clean getaway.

~~~~~

Meanwhile at the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, Lee Crane has been watching the same TV broadcast from the admiral’s office. Seeing his best friend and mentor shoot Dr. Mason in cold blood he is completely shocked. With an expression of disgust flashing across his face he reaches over and shuts off the TV monitor. Shaking his head in disbelief at what he just witnessed he is almost at a total loss for words.

Lee turns and takes a few steps towards the admiral’s desk. A shadow of someone seeming to be perched on the corner of the desk is seen on the wall behind him. The shadow appears still and unmoving.

“Well?” Lee asks outloud.

“Obviously someone’s impersonating me,” Harry replies. He gets up from being seated on the front corner of his desk after watching the TV broadcast and begins to pace, hand on his chin as he is deep in thought as he reflects on what he has also just witnessed.

Lee immediately steps over behind the desk and attempts to dial an outside line- - - not having any luck.

Harry turns at the sound of Lee’s repeated attempts to dial an outside line on the phone.

“What’s wrong? Harry asks.

“The lines dead,” Lee replies as he places the receiver in its cradle.

Harry then goes over to use the radio phone. Holding up the receiver for Lee to hear it is apparent to both men the radio is being jammed and that someone is purposely blocking them from making any outside calls.

“Apparently we aren’t supposed to have any contact with the outside,” Harry tells Lee.

“But why admiral? What do they hope to gain?”

“It’s obviously a delaying tactic to cost us time, something we can’t really spare right now,” said Harry.

“But why? None of this is making any sense”, Lee said as he rubbed his hand across his forehead something he did whenever he was feeling confused or frustrated and right now he was feeling both.

Harry walked over and sat in the high back chair behind his desk. He opened the top right hand drawer. He then removed a map, unfolded it, and laid it out on the desk blotter.

“Look here Lee. I have something to show you. I haven’t told anyone about this because I wanted more information and to have all my facts together…before I went public with anything.”

“Obviously someone has gone to some very elaborate lengths to impersonate me because they wanted to create a delay.”

“A delay….why?” Lee asked.

“Why would they do something like this?…The only reason I can think of is that Dr. Mason has developed and built the world’s largest and most powerful electro magnet and he’s using it to control the ocean tides.”

“I’m sorry admiral, I had no idea. I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“That’s not surprising. I think I’m probably the only one outside Mason’s organization that knows anything about what he’s been working on.

“I believe he has built his machine and hidden it beneath the ocean in an undersea installation somewhere about here would be my estimation,” as Harry points on the map where he believes it is located.

“On the ocean bottom?” Lee asked.

“On the ocean bottom where it would be almost impossible to detect but from my figures it would have to be somewhere in this area.”

“Mason says he wants to diminish the effects of devastating tsunamis and create an alternative power source from controlling the tides to help the environment but like everyone these days he has an ulterior motive. By controlling the tides he hopes to monopolize the buying of power for the entire world. He’s so blinded by his get rich quick scheme and building his empire it’s blinded him to the risks.”

“What Risks?” Lee asked.

“Follow me”, Harry said as he got up from the chair and walked over to the large TV monitor on the wall. “I want to show you something”. As both men neared the screen, Harry turned on the monitor.

“It’s a picture of the moon” Lee said. ”What’s the significance?”

“Mason’s electro magnet is not only controlling the tides it’s also created a force field that is pulling the moon closer to earth. Right now the moon is barely larger than normal so it’s not enough of a difference to really be noticeable. The longer Mason continues to operate his electro magnate he will not only control the tides but the moon as it orbits the earth will be pulled closer and closer---unless we can get to his machine in time and the moon passes the point of no return it will continue to get closer until it crashes into us and quite literally… ends the world,” Harry states as he is turning a control knob below the big screen that is acting like a magnifier, making the image of the moon seem to grow bigger and bigger before their very eyes and to emphasize what he has just described will happen.

“Why not go to Washington and report to the joint chiefs what Mason’s done?”

That would take a lot of time and besides I doubt anyone would listen to me after seeing me assassinate Mason. I’m certain everyone thinks I’ve completely gone mad. You heard that report. They’re saying I’m insane. Besides time is of the essence. We have to locate Mason’s underwater facility and destroy it before it destroys the earth.

Suddenly both men hear the alarm that indicates there is someone attempting to enter the admiral’s office after hours.

Nelson says to Crane, “go ahead and see who it is. Meanwhile I’ll keep out of sight.” Nelson then disappears into a hidden room concealed behind a sliding panel in the wall behind his desk. When closed it’s totally undetectable to anyone who doesn’t know of its existence.

Lee triggers the release of the lock for the door to Nelsons office.

Chief Sharkey comes rushing in, removing his cover…”Skipper, did you see it?”

“Were you watching TV?”

“I can’t believe he shot that guy!”

“Why…why would he do it?”

As Sharkey continued to rattle off questions Harry reappeared from his hiding place concealed by the sliding panel in the wall.

“That would be rather stupid to kill someone in front of everyone don’t you think so chief?”

Sharkey stands there with his mouth hanging open. He is suddenly at a loss for words from the sudden appearance of the admiral. He is both surprised and bewildered that the admiral could be at the institute when just minutes before he was sure he saw him on live TV. Sharkey stands there gawking at the admiral and then the skipper.

“Chief, the admiral was here with me the whole time. He never left the institute. “

“I don’t understand. Sir I saw…”

Nelson replies, “What you saw was someone doing a very convincing impersonation of me.”

Sharkey with a big grin on his face responds, “Oh, of course. That explains it. I always knew you couldn’t have done it.”

“Lee, how long would it take you to get the men together and get Seaview ready to sail?” Harry asks.

“In about three hour’s sir,” Lee said.

About then the three men hear police sirens. The sound grows louder as they near the admin building where the admirals’ office is located. Then they are suddenly quiet which means they must be right out front of the building.

“Admiral,” Lee says, “ in the meantime I think I can take off some of the heat.”

“How?”

“Let me go to the TV station. I can tell them that you were here with me the whole time so that they’ll know it wasn’t you that shot Mason.”

Harry replies, “That might work.” He turns to Sharkey.

“Chief, can you get the men together and get Seaview ready to sail?”

“Yes sir, replied Sharkey. “But what about you sir? How will you get aboard Seaview before we sail?”

“You let me worry about that chief.”

“Lee, you better go out the back way so that nobody sees you.”

“OK admiral, I’ll leave right now,” Lee says as he grabs his uniform jacket and cover then sprints to the back exit out of the building.

Seconds later the admiral and chief hear the police pounding on the door to the office.

“Go ahead chief, let them in but just remember…you haven’t seen me.”

Harry quickly disappears into his hiding place behind the sliding panel again. As soon as the compartment is concealed and the sliding panel is closed, Sharkey goes and opens the door, letting the police in.

“Go ahead, Sharkey tells the police. Take a look.”

~~~~~

Lee makes a mad dash for the officer parking area and jumps into his red Cobra convertible sports car. He quickly backs out of his parking spot and shifting into drive with tires spinning, he guns it and takes off only briefly stopping at the gate so the guard on duty can acknowledge he has left the institute grounds.

He makes a quick left just past the gate and makes a quick rolling stop at the stop sign before turning out onto the coast highway as he heads south towards Los Angeles and the TV station. A tan car pulls out of the space where it was parked in the visitor parking lot and continues to follow Lee onto the main highway. As Lee continues to race to LA and the TV station he soon notices he is being followed spotting the tan car in his rear view mirror. As he increases his speed so does the tan car. He removes his hat and tosses it onto the passenger seat. Racing along the coast highway managing to keep the car under control on some of the tight curves of the road Lee keeps tabs on the car following him. Suddenly he sees a large delivery truck up ahead blocking the two lane highway. He quickly decreases his speed and comes to a complete stop about 20 feet away from the truck. Suddenly a couple men jump out of the truck, both armed with automatic rifles, they quickly move into position, one on each side of the car, weapons aimed at Lee. Lee puts the car in park and shuts it off seeing he has no other option.

~~~~~

Meanwhile aboard Seaview Chief Sharkey is busy checking off cartons brought aboard by some of the crewmembers. Just then he notices that the XO Mr. Morton is coming down the conning tower ladder. He skips the last rung jumping down to the deck, he takes off his cover.

“Oh Hi-a Mr. Morton. I see you got my message.”

“Chief,” the XO replies as he takes a look around the control room. “What’s going on?”

Sharkey approaches Mr. Morton with clip board in hand.

“We’re getting ready to shove off…at least maybe we are.”

“Here’s the manifest, Sir,” Sharkey replies as he hands the clip board to Mr. Morton for his review.

“It’s all up to date Sir.”

Morton replies, “How much do you know about this business with the admiral?”

With a serious tone in his voice the chief replies, “He didn’t shoot anybody. I got that straight from him and the skipper but … I better let them tell you the rest.”

Just then Sparks approaches the chief and Mr. Morton from the radio shack. “You’re just in time. There’s a special news cast coming on right now.”

Sharkey excitedly tells his XO, “Hey watch this Mr. Morton. We might not have to sail after all. Come on and watch this.”

Sharkey walks over and turns on the big monitor in the control room. “Oh Sparks, did you alert the admiral?”

“I called him in his office. He’s watching.”

“Good.”

As the monitor comes to life, the news cast has begun and is caught in progress.

News caster Brent Smith begins the interview…

“I have someone here with me that may be able to shed some light on the wild rumors that have begun to circulate that Admiral Nelson was far away at the exact moment the shooting took place.”

“If the camera can move back so that everyone can see Captain Lee Crane of the submarine Seaview is here with me and he might have some information on the admirals’ whereabouts at the exact moment of the shooting.”

“Captain, I understand that you came here voluntarily. Is that true?”

“Yes Brent, it is.”

“And as I understand it this report is in effect that someone was with Admiral Nelson, far away…during the assassination that shocked the world.”

“That is correct.”

“Are you aware sir that your name has come up as the person who presumably can swear to the admirals’ location at the exact moment of the shooting and provide him with an air tight alibi?”

“Yes I am.”

“Captain Crane, would you please tell me where you were at the time of the shooting?”

“Yes Brent, I was in Admiral Nelsons’ office at the Nelson Institute in Santa Barbara.”

“And will you tell me who was with you at the time?”

After a pause Lee responds, “no one. I was alone.”

Nelson sitting watching on the small TV monitor behind his desk sits up in surprised reaction. At the same time aboard Seaview Chief Sharkey is both shocked and pissed upon hearing the captains’ statement.

The news interviewer asking Crane for confirmation in his own mind and for the viewers, “Then captain, the admiral was not with you?”

Crane responds, “How could he be. I was watching TV when I saw him shoot and kill Dr. Mason right here in this very TV station.”

~~~

Meanwhile back in Nelson's office at NIMR Patterson who has been on temporary duty at the institute has had a good sized crate brought in as ordered by the admiral.

“Patterson, once I’m inside seal up the crate. Make sure when it goes to Seaview that it is handled with care.”

“Yes sir,” Patterson replies. ‘I’ll personally make sure that you make it aboard Seaview safe and secure. No one will know about the transfer except you and me.”

“Good Pat, “Harry replies with a smile.

“I’m depending on you to be able to pull this off.”

“No worries, Admiral,” Patterson assures him.

Harry silently thinking to himself how grateful he is to have so many employees and friends that are so loyal to him. He thinks of Lee and most of the crew like family. He’s so glad he can count on them in his present situation…being presumed guilty of committing murder on live TV. Today just started out like any other normal day or so it seemed for a little while anyway. Could it possibly get any worse? He was pretty sure in the end he would be able to clear his name but his first priority was to stop Mason’s invention from destroying the earth and for that he had to get aboard Seaview undetected by the police.

The crate with Nelson inside is hand carted out on a pallet jack to the admin loading dock area and loaded onto a small cargo truck with the use of a fork lift then quickly taken to Seaviews underground dock where it is carefully taken off the truck by crane and loaded thru the missile room cargo loading hatch.

~~~~~~

Lee was forced at gunpoint to get in the back of the truck. Lee carefully watched his captors making mental notes so he could give legal authorities a description of the men. Both are dressed in dark blue suits. The man to his left has a dark complexion with nearly black hair, he is the shorter of the two probably about 5’7” or 5’9”. The other man to his right is much taller, well over six feet and has a lighter complexion. He appears to have dark brown eyes, dark eyebrows with blond hair. He suspects blond Clairol shade number something or other from a bottle or perhaps even a wig. Definitely not a natural blond. While the taller of the two men keeps his rifle trained on Lee the other shorter man has him sit down. The man then binds Lees feet together, then binds his hands together in front, then puts a gag in Lee’s mouth.

His two captors disappear out the back of the truck. The truck vibrates as the engine is started Lee can feel the truck beginning to move as it makes a wide turn to get back into one traffic lane and begins to head down the road. Lee instinctively knows he needs to find a way to escape these thugs. He can only assume since they didn’t seem to care whether he was able to see them or not that they must be planning on getting rid of him. He began looking around to find something that he could hopefully cut the ropes binding him so he could make good an escape as quickly as possible. He spied a long thin piece of metal. He managed to scoot over close enough so he could be over and pick it up. It was a little difficult with his hands tied together but at least it was easier than it would have been had they tied his hands behind him. A lucky break that he thought but kind of stupid on their part, maybe.

Lee was able to work the metal piece around so that he could use it to cut and loosen the rope around his wrists. With all his ONI operative experience it wasn’t long before he was able to rid himself of the ropes on his wrists. He then quickly untied the rope binding his feet together, then yanked the gag from his mouth and tossed it down on the bed of the truck.

Lee notices there is window at the front of the cargo section of the truck but it appears to be blocked by something so hopefully that meant his captors wouldn’t be able to see him when he made his escape out the back of the truck. He poked his head out the canvas curtain that covering the back opening of the truck to see what the terrain is like. As soon as Lee was sure he wouldn’t wind up going over a cliff and there was enough solid ground for him to make a reasonably safe landing, he jumped out the back of the truck. Soon as he hit the ground he rolled to prevent serious injury.

Ignoring the pain from his landing on the hard paved road Lee quickly got to his feet as the truck screeched to a halt. The captors jump out of the cab of the truck, their automatic rifles in hand, they quickly take aim and begin firing at Lee but he runs off into the brush along the side the road and manages to escape without getting shot in the process.

~~~~~

Sharkey is in the missile room with Kowalski and some of the other crew members. He is checking off the last of the supplies and cargo being loaded onto Seaview. The last item, a rather large crate is being lowered to the deck.

“OK! Let it down easy!”…”easy!”…as it touches down…”OK, give it some slack!”

Kowalski removes the large hook so it can be retracted back onto the dock.

Kowalski tells Sharkey, “I’ll get someone to help me stowe this, chief.”

“OK Kowalski.”

Just then Sharkey hears loud pounding emanating from inside the crate as everyone stops what they are doing.

“Come on you guys, get this crate open!”

Kowalski and another crew member pry the crate open with a pry bar. As soon as the side panel is off Sharkey see’s right away that instead of freight the crate contains the admiral.

Harry orders the men “Help me out of here.”

“Come on you guys, give me a hand” …as Sharkey and a couple of the men assist the admiral with getting out of the crate.

Once out Harry proceeds to brush the dust from the crate off himself.

Harry grinning and chuckling under his breath looks at the crew gathered around him.

“Not a very dignified way to come aboard – don’t you think?” Harry says with a big grin and he’s now laughing.

Everyone smiles and laughs with the admiral, everyone is visibly relieved that he is finally on board. Suddenly the intercom comes to life with the sound of the Mr. Morton’s voice.

“Chief, I’m ready to give the order to cast off but I still haven’t heard from the admiral.”

Harry walks over to the escape hatch where he picks up a mic. Sharkey, Kowalski, and a couple other crewmen follow.

“There is now Chip,” Harry replies over the intercom.

“Admiral… is that you?” Chip responds with the sound of surprise in his voice and a look of disbelief on his face.

“Yes. You can get ready to get underway.”

“Aye sir…there’s just one thing. The OOD reports that the captain is topside requesting permission to come aboard. Admiral, what do you want me to tell him?”

At the news of Lee’s arrival Harry appears irritated and he responds to Chip with an angry tone in his voice…”Why don’t you try something like-a-Welcome aboard! I’ll be right there.”

~~~~

Lee comes down the ladder from the conning tower, skipping the last rung he jumps down to the deck of the control room.

“Hi Chip,” Lee greets Chip in a subdued manner.

“Hello Lee,” Chip responds coldly.

“Is the admiral on board yet? Lee asks.

“He’s in his cabin,” Chip replies.

“Very well, make all preparations to get under way,” Lee gives the order then turns and heads toward the spiral stairs leading to officer’s country. Just as he approaches the bottom of the stairs he suddenly stops as he hears the quick clicks on the metal steps as Harry comes down and stops midway…staring at Lee, seeing that his uniform is wrinkled and dirty …his overall appearance is disheveled as though he’s been in a fight... maybe.

Harry with a very stern look asks Lee, “What happened?”

Lee hesitates to answer and instead stands there staring. The tension in the control room is so thick at that precise moment... Harry quickly eyes the men at their duty stations, noting that all eyes are on him and the captain. When Lee doesn’t answer him Harry decides they need to talk in private.

“Alright, you better come up to my cabin and we can discuss this.”

“Yes sir,” Lee responds in a somewhat sullen tone. He follows as Harry turns about and both men head back up the stairs and to the admirals’ cabin.

~~~~

Harry proceeded to sit at his desk as Lee used the sink in the admiral’s private head to wash off some of the dirt and to dab cold water on some of his bruises he received during his escape from his captors.

Lee came out and sat in his favorite spot…the corner of Harry’s desk.

“Well Lee.”…

“Admiral, as soon as I pulled out onto the highway I saw I was being tailed by a tan sedan. I didn’t even get 10 miles down the road. They were waiting for me…had the highway blocked by a truck. I was outnumbered and outgunned.”

“Uh hum.” Harry continued to listen as Lee gave him a detailed description of what took place.

“I was able to undo my bindings and escape out the back of the truck. I no sooner got out… the truck stopped and I had two thugs with semi-automatic rifles firing down on me as I ran like hell off thru some thick brush. I almost thought I wasn’t going to make it.

“At least you got away and you’re safely back on board Seaview. Now we have the problem of your interview.”

“I’m amazed…whoever impersonated me did a beautiful job,” Lee said.

“Now you know what it feels like to be impersonated on national TV,” Harry said.

“Yes. It’s not a very comfortable feeling, I must admit…so admiral, how do we go about fixing this mess now?”

“I’m more worried about finding Mason’s installation and destroying it”.

Nelson quickly jots a new course and hands it to Lee.

“Here’s a new course that should take us to the area. Go give this to Chip and have him assign the course and bring us up to flank speed. Instruct him that we will need to stay at flank until further notice. We can’t waste any more time if at all possible if we are going to get there in time”

“Yes sir, I’ll get right on it.”

Lee hurries down to the control room. He spots Chip at the chart table. He approaches him and hands Chip the slip of paper he received from the admiral.

“Mr. Morton…here’s a new course… I need it set right away…the admirals orders…bring her up to flank speed and maintain until further notice.

Chip responds, “Aye captain.”

Sparks jumps up from his seat in the radio shack and starts to head towards the chart table.

“Skipper!”

Having gotten Lee’s attention he responds ---

“Yes Sparks, what is it?”

“Sir, the Coast Guard just sent a radioed message that our port clearance has been denied and we’re being ordered to return to port.”

Lee responds back, “They’re too late. We’re already past the break waters.”

“Sir, there’s a cutter over-hauling us now with a warrant to board us. Do you want to talk to their skipper?” Sparks asks.

Lee tells Sparks, “No! Give them my regards and tell them to go to hell!”

~~~~

Meanwhile Harry decides he has spent enough time working on paper work in his cabin so he grabs a small diamond case with mini DVD disk inside it out of his top right hand desk drawer, puts it in his pocket then gets up and heads out the door and down the corridor on his way to the control room. Coming down the spiral staircase, reaching the bottom of the steps he stops briefly to take a quick look around the control room.

He spots Lee at the chart table then heads to the observation nose area and over to the large TV monitor there. He recently had a special machine installed below it that is capable of recording and playback of different types of media including the mini DVD’s. Taking the small case from his pocket he opens the case and installs the mini DVD in a pop out tray then sets up the machine to play the DVD.

Harry then steps around the corner where he has a clear view of the control room, spotting Lee he says,” “Lee, would you come here a minute please?”

“Yes sir, “Lee answers as he sets down his pencil and walks over to where Harry is in the observation nose.

“I have something I want to show you. I made a recording of Mason’s interview. I remember thinking at the time that it might be important. I had no idea just how right I was.”

Harry turned on the machine to begin the play back. They both watched the replay of the interview and the moment when Nelson’s look-a-like came in and shot Mason. Right then Nelson paused the playback.

“I feel there is something in this video that will give us a clue as to who may have actually killed Mason. I just haven’t spotted anything yet. I figure if I keep studying it I’m bound to find the weak link that will give him away. He’s bound to have made a mistake.”

“Yes sir…I hope you are able to find something. Well, it’s been a long day. If you don’t mind admiral, I think I’ll go check on our progress and then go and get some sack time.”

“Yes Lee…that’s a good idea…I think I’ll do the same. Tomorrow will be a long day and we both need to get some rest. Let Mr. Morton know that I’ll be in my cabin if he should need anything.”

“Yes sir. I believe O’Brien will be standing the night duty. I’ll make sure he knows also. Good-night admiral.”

“Thank you, Lee. Good-night.”

Harry removed the disk and put it back in its case. As he put it back into his pocket he turned to take one more look around the control room.

--- Seeing that everything looked as it should he couldn’t help but wonder what thoughts were going through the minds of some of the crew following the day’s events and the accusation that he committed cold blooded murder. The men have seen many wild inexplicable things occur with their boss and commander while serving aboard Seaview.

It’s always turned out OK in the end and the men have remained loyal to him to the end. Harry was determined to have this latest episode in his life turn out the same way. He knew he was innocent and Lee was his witness to that fact. Shaking his head he attempted to dismiss the doubts that were running through his mind as he turned and climbed the spiral staircase heading up to his cabin.

He hoped he could turn off the thoughts running through his mind and be able to get some decent sleep. He was feeling the effect of the day and was beginning to run on raw nervous energy. It would only get worse if he couldn’t get some sleep.

~~~~

Lee headed over to the inertial navigator and punched the button to get a printout of the present course and speed. Reading the printout, he was immediately pissed off. Spotting Chip he quickly headed over to discuss the course setting with him. Handing the printout to Chip... Lee addressed him, with anger in his voice and fire in his eyes…

“Mr. Morton. Do you see anything wrong with this course setting?”

Reading the printout Chip responded, “No, it looks alright to me.”

“Looks alright to you? This is the complete opposite of the course I gave you 20 minutes ago.”

“The course… you… gave me?” Chip responds, astonished by his captain’s anger and accusation.

“That’s right Mister.”

Chip momentarily taken aback looks around to spot Chief Sharkey and calls him to come join the discussion.

“Chief Sharkey… would you come here for a minute.”

Sharkey walks over at a fast pace, noticing that there is obvious tension building between the skipper and XO.

“Sharkey, would you please tell the skipper where you have been with me for the last 45 minutes?”

“Sir… Mr. Morton was with me in the missile room checking stores.”

Hearing this Lee turns to Chip.

“You can swear to this Mr. Morton?” Lee asked, his anger with Chip rapidly beginning to subside.

“Yes, I swear.”

Lee looks at both men then at Chip, crumpling up the course printout he quickly jots down the course on a note pad and rips off the top sheet then hands it to Chip.

“OK, never mind. This is the course I want you to set…right away…bring us up to flank speed…stay at flank until you’re told different by myself or the admiral.”

Chip replies, “Yes sir, I’ll get right on it.”

Once Lee is satisfied that his orders are carried out he tells Chip if he needs anything he’ll be in the admirals cabin. As Lee turns to leave, Chip watches his best friend leave a feeling bit bewildered at what just happened. Because of their close friendship he quickly dismisses the entire incident and returns to his duties.

Now that Lee is sure his orders have been carried out and they are finally on the correct course he hurries up to the admiral’s cabin to inform him of what has transpired. Arriving at the door to Harry’s cabin---he knocks on the admirals’ door with several fast raps denoting the urgency at hand.

Harry realizing someone was frantically beating on his door gives the order to come in.

Lee rushes in, somewhat short of breath…

“Admiral, we have a serious problem.”

“We do?”

Lee quickly enters and closes the door behind him before speaking.

“Admiral I just found out that we have an imposter aboard the Seaview.”

“An imposter? Are you sure?”

“Yes sir. I gave the orders for the course change to someone impersonating Chip Morton.”

“Chip. Are you sure?”

“Yes sir. I found out that Chip was actually with Chief Sharkey in the missile room checking stores when I gave the imposter the new course.”

“Has the course been corrected?”

“Yes sir but now we have the added problem of having an imposter on Seaview.”

“Lee, it’s even worse. We have an imposter that can appear as anyone aboard. That means the next time we see each other we won’t be able to trust each other.”

“But admiral, you trust me now or I wouldn’t have come and told you about it.”

“Yes Lee, that works for now but what about the next time and what about when we sleep? The imposter can appear as either one of us and god only knows what sort of orders he might give.”

“Well we can’t sleep then until we find the installation and destroy it.”

“Yes, I would agree but look at you… Lee, you’re on the ragged edge of exhaustion.”

Lee paces back and forth as he’s thinking then stops and turns to face Harry.

“Admiral look. I can go to sickbay and have Jamie give me a pill to keep me going. Once the mission is over I can get lots of sleep.

“Yes, that’s a good idea.”

“OK. I’ll go right now.”

Lee leaves and heads down to sick bay.

~~~~

Lee enters sick bay and finds Jamie sitting at his desk.

“Jamie, can you give me a pill that will keep me going for the next 24-36 hours. It’s vitally important for the mission we are on.

“Sure Skipper,” Jamie responds. “I can give you something but there’s no real substitute for sleep. You are liable to wind up at a dangerous level of exhaustion.”

“Please Jamie! It’s absolutely vital!”

“Well if it’s that important I’d like to give you something that will work a lot faster.”

“That sounds like a good idea Jamie.”

“I guarantee skipper, it will work so fast you will never even know you were ever tired.”

Jamie goes and gets a vial out of his black bag and as he is preparing a hypodermic needle to give Lee an injection Harry enters sickbay.

“Jamie, can you take care of me when you are finished with the captain?” Harry asks as he is rolling up his sleeve.

“Sure thing admiral,” Jamie replied.

Jamie injects the medicine in Lee’s arm and rubs his arm to hurry the absorption of the medicine.

Just then Harry asks - - -

“Oh by the way Jamie, did you finish that medical report I asked you to do for me?”

“Uh no… not yet admiral”

From that response Harry immediately realizes that he isn’t Jamie. He nails the imposter with a quick right hook to the left side of his face causing him to tumble to the floor.

Not enough to knock him out; the imposter quickly gets up and runs out of sickbay and down the corridor. Before Harry can chase after him Lee doubles over suddenly on a gurney in extreme pain; making loud moaning sounds and holding his gut with both hands. Harry immediately is at Lee’s side trying to find out what’s wrong.

Harry then notices that something or someone is knocking on one of the folding curtains that separates one of the exam rooms.

Harry quickly goes over and pushes the curtain aside and finds the real Jamie tied and gagged on the deck behind the curtain. He quickly helps Jamie out of his bindings. Almost immediately Jamie is on his feet and at Lee’s side.

“Quick Jamie…What is it and is there an antidote?” --- As Harry hands him what is left of the hypo.

Jamie sniffs and then tastes a small dab of the medicine he put on his finger-without even thinking he quickly grabs a vial from his medicine cabinet and fills another syringe and immediately injects the skipper. He rubs the injection site to speed absorption of the antidote.

Almost right away Lee begins to feel some relief as the pain quickly subsides.

He is able to stand upright after a minute or so.

Lee a little weak after the ordeal asks Harry, “Why did you hit Jamie like that?”

Harry answers, “Because he wasn’t Jamie…He was the imposter. I never asked Jamie for any medical report.”

Jamie asks Lee, “Feeling better skipper?”

Lee nodding his head…”Yes Jamie…much better.”

Jamie slightly winded from the excitement tells Harry, “He’ll be alright now but another couple seconds…he would have been dead.”

Harry a bit shaken yet visibly relieved…asks Lee, “Are you okay son?”

“Yes sir, I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” How about you Jamie? You OK too?”

“Yes admiral, I’m fine.”

“Good. It wouldn’t do for Seaview to be without her favorite doctor,” Harry said grinning.

Jamie just nods in agreement with a slight grin.

“Well, if you’re OK Jamie then we’ll get back to work.”

Harry and Lee leave sickbay and head to the control room to check on the subs progress.

~~~~

Once in the control room Lee goes and gets a printout from the inertial navigator to check on the present position. Lee walks back to the chart table and marks the present position on the map. Checking the present position and the suspected spot of Mason’s undersea installation he confirms they are right on course and making good time. Meanwhile Harry has been in the observation nose watching the video of the shooting and some of the weather reports from different places around the world. Harry shut off the monitor and walks over to the chart table where Lee has been working.

“Admiral, here is our present position and I estimate we are about 8 hours from target.

“Take us up to periscope depth Lee. I want to have a look around and also take a sighting of the moon.”

“Yes sir,”

Lee gives the order to take the sub up to 90 feet.

“Aye sir, we are at 90 feet,” Chip confirmed.

Harry stepped up on the periscope island, giving the order “Up periscope,” as he waited for the scope to come up so that he could take a look topside. Sighting the moon, he turns to the captain.

“Lee, you better come take a look at this,” Harry said.

“Yes sir.”

Lee quickly steps up on the periscope island, as Harry steps aside, Lee takes a look thru the periscope. With a look of astonishment he steps back from the scope to look Harry in the face.

“The moon is huge, it must be at least five times larger than normal,” Lee states emphatically.

“I know,” Harry replied in a soft voice. “Lee, come to the observation nose with me. I have something I need to show you.”

“Yes sir,” Lee says as he gives the order, “down scope” and follows Harry. Ensign O’Brien who has been standing near the island punches the button to lower the periscope back down.

As they enter the observation nose Harry walks over to the large TV monitor and turns it on. Lee watches, stunned as he sees the reports of damaging floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis happening all over the world.

“This is all a result of Mason’s machine and changing the position of the moon,” Harry said.

Harry switched off the reports and then replayed Mason’s interview right up to the moment he was shot where Harry pauses the playback.

“I keep looking at this but haven’t found anything yet to give away the imposter. I’ll keep at it. There has to be something I’m missing. He’s bound to have made some minor mistake that I just haven’t picked up on yet. There has to be some clue. I will find it. Hopefully before we get to Mason’s installation. I’ll let you know when I do,” Harry told Lee with a determined gleam in his eyes.

“Lee, I’ve been thinking that our imposter will resort to something desperate soon. He’s attempted twice to prevent us from finding Mason’s installation in time and both times he’s failed.”

“You don’t think he’ll impersonate someone else?”

“Possibly… but the closer we get and as time is running out I think our imposter is going to turn up the heat and do something desperate.”

“Do you really think he will resort to something this soon? I mean we are still about 8 hours away from the target.”

“Yes Lee, I know. I think we need to try to get ahead of this guy and anticipate what his next step might be. If at all possible I think we need to turn the tables on the imposter and the sooner the better.”

“Yes sir, I agree. Do you have something in mind?” Lee asked.

Lee, if you are finished down here lets go to my cabin and put together a plan. I think it’s about time we had some help with this. Ask Chief Sharkey to come along to my cabin as well.”

“Yes sir,” Lee replied. “I’ll get on it right away.”

Harry turned and sped up the spiral staircase and headed to his cabin.

Meanwhile, Lee spotted Chief Sharkey and ordered him to accompany him to the admirals’ cabin. Both men disappeared up the spiral staircase as Chip stood and watched them both head out of the control room.

Once inside the admirals’ cabin, Harry told the chief, “Francis, I need your help with something but first we need to ask you some questions.”

“Some questions… sir?” Sharkey responded with a puzzled look on his face.

“Yes Francis…we need to ask you some questions. Please… if you’d take a seat so we can get started.”

Harry motioned to the side chair next to his desk. Sharkey being somewhat uncomfortable at the idea of being questioned and not knowing what exactly was going on he turned towards the chair with some hesitation.

“Go ahead Francis…sit down,” Harry said with a small grin.

“We are going to ask you some questions…some personal questions.”

“Yes sir,” Sharkey replied looking even more confused.

“Tell me chief,” Lee said. “Ah where were you born?”

Chief Sharkey replied, “New York.”

“I need you to be more specific chief,” Lee responded. “Where in New York?”

The chief replied, “In a part of New York City.”

Sharkey was a bit reluctant. He didn’t feel comfortable discussing personal information about himself.

“Can you be a little more specific?” Lee asked.

“Coney Island,” Sharkey answered as he swallowed hard.

Harry began to pace, arms folded over his chest.

“Francis,” Harry began…”When you went to school you got an A in one class…what was it?”

“Home Ec.,” Sharkey answered. By the tone of his voice and the expression on his face it was fast becoming obvious that he was not liking the direction these questions were taking.

“I’m looking for something more specific chief…what subject did you get the A for?” Harry asked.

Sharkey was really feeling uncomfortable. Looking at the admiral and then the skipper…

“Admiral, that’s something that I’ve never told anyone but you!” Sharkey said with a bit of a rise in his voice.

“Yes and you can tell me again,” Harry said.

Sharkey turned and looked at the skipper.

“Don’t worry chief,” Lee said. “Anything you tell us won’t leave this room.”

Harry repeated the question. “What subject?”

“Cooking,” Sharkey revealed. “It was kind of a joke…I was the only guy in the class.”

Harry grinning walked over and sat down at his desk again. “Well, he’s our chief alright,” he said to Lee.

“Francis, you know the crew better than anybody. We need your help to check them out.”

“Check out the crew sir? How?” Sharkey asked.

“Just talk to them. See if you notice anything out of place. You see the problem we have is there is an imposter aboard who can appear as anyone, even you chief,” Harry explained.

“Oh brother! Sharkey responded.

“Chief if you notice anything funny, just report back to myself or the admiral,” Lee ordered the chief.

“Aye, sir.” Sharkey responded.

“That’s all chief, you can return to duty,” Harry said.

Sharkey still feeling uncertain and somewhat embarrassed from the questioning didn’t get up right away.

“That’s all chief,” Harry repeated.

Sharkey got up and headed for the door; momentarily stopped like he wanted to say something then waved his hands as if to mentally say “oh never mind”, opened the door and left shutting the door behind him.

Harry just grinned and lightly chuckled under his breath. It was always kind of fun dealing with Chief Sharkey and personal matters because he always reacted in the same manner though Sharkey was more outspoken and more comfortable when alone with the admiral. During the time they have worked together they have formed a pretty good relationship, both working and personal. Sharkey was someone Harry could always poke light fun at and Sharkey would always return the favor or ad healthy criticism if he felt the situation called for it. All in all they got along well together. Harry knew he could always count on Chief Sharkey. Sharkey was very loyal to both the admiral and Captain Crane.

“Well admiral, if there’s nothing else right now I’m going to head down to the control room. I want to check on our progress.”

“Very well, I’ll be along shortly,” Harry replied.

Lee hurried out the door, closing it behind him and headed back down the passageway towards the lower level and the control room. Harry sat at his desk deep in thought. He had to think of how he wanted to proceed to expose the imposter on board. He hoped he could bring this to an end without anyone getting hurt or killed in the process.

Lee was busy checking their present position and marking the map at the chart table when he heard Sparks calling him over the intercom.

He picked up the mic. “Yes, what is it Sparks?”

“Sir, can you please come to the radio shack?”

“I’ll be right there,” Lee said as he replaced the mic back in the side bracket at the chart table and headed to the radio shack.

*The Arrival of NCIS and Team Gibbs

“What’s the problem Sparks?” Lee asked upon his arrival.

“Sir, we are being hailed. There’s a helo approaching with NCIS agents aboard,” Sparks confirmed.

“Damn it!” Lee exclaimed. “Sparks, put me through to the admirals’ cabin.”

Sparks flipped a switch. “Go ahead skipper.”

“Admiral, this is Lee…are you there?”

“Yes Lee, what is it?”

“Admiral, we have another problem. We have a helo approaching with NCIS agents aboard.”

Harry sat in silence contemplating what course of action to take. When there was no response over the intercom for several seconds…

“Admiral, are you still there?”

“Yes Lee…Order the boat to surface and take the NCIS agents aboard.”

“Admiral?” Lee asked…

“Lee, we have no choice. You’ll have to surface and prepare for them to board but under no circumstances… allow them to order us back to port. We have to get to Mason’s underwater installation and destroy it in time… regardless of anything else that is going on,” Harry ordered.

“Yes sir,” …Lee hesitated then asked Sparks to put him through to the helo. Sparks switched the connection back to the helo. “Go ahead skipper.”

Lee depressed the button on the mic…

“This is the Captain Lee Crane of the SSRN Seaview. To whom am I speaking?” Lee released the button on the mic; waiting for a response he turned to see that all eyes in the control room were on him.

“This is NCIS Special Agent Gibbs. Captain, I request you surface the boat and prepare to be boarded.”

While this was transpiring Harry had left his intercom line open and tuned in so he could listen to the conversation between Lee and the helo. Hearing that NCIS Special Agent Gibbs was on that helo he didn’t have to wonder what was most likely going to happen once they boarded the sub.

“Understood Agent Gibbs,” Lee responded, knowing he had no choice.

“Stand by while we surface the boat,” Lee said into the mic. Handing the mic back to Sparks Lee turned and headed to the chart table where Chip was standing by watching as the radio conversation took place.

Mr. Morton, take us up and prepare for boarders,” Lee ordered.

“Lee…”

“We have no choice Chip,” Lee said. “Order the boat to surface. I’ll be in the admiral’s cabin if you need me for anything.”

Lee hurried up the spiral staircase and disappeared through the hatch on the next level.

Chip momentarily hesitated, looking around he noticed that everyone in the control room was watching.

“Alright you guys, snap to and look sharp!” We’ve got work to do!”

Everyone immediately turned back to their stations.

Then grabbing the mic, he started to broadcast his orders over the intercom. “Mr. O’Brien, prepare to surface.”

“Prepare to surface, aye sir,” O’Brien responded.

“Plainsman, up bubble 10 degrees.”

“Aye sir.”

“Surface, surface.”

“Aye sir. Just breaking surface sir.”

“Very well, crack the hatch. Duty lookouts to the bridge.”

“Aye, aye sir.”

Chief Sharkey picked up a nearby mic, giving the order, “Duty lookout to the bridge.”

Within minutes two ratings entered the control room from the aft hatch and hurriedly climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch to the bridge as soon as the Seaview had broached the surface.

Chip then gave the orders “Engine room, all stop. Officer of the Deck, report to the bridge.”

As the OOD came through the aft hatch in the control room with his jacket on and cover in hand, he placed his cover on his head then hurried up the ladder to the bridge. Once out of sight Chip ordered Sparks to contact the helo and tell them they were ready to receive boarders.

Sparks then radioed the pilot, “Seaview to helo, we’re standing by ready to receive boarders. Please confirm.”

“SSRN Seaview, we are in position. Prepared to transfer boarders on your signal.”

Gibbs and each one of his team put on a special harness made to securely latch onto a cable the pilot and crew of the helo would then slowly lower each person to the waiting deck below.

As the helo hovered above the Seaview the NCIS team was lowered down to the deck of the Seaview one by one via the cable. The whole operation took about fifteen minutes.

Once everyone was on deck as they prepared to enter through the side hatch of the conning tower the OOD stood on duty outside the hatch ready to check in the visitors.

“Permission to come on board?” Gibbs said presenting his badge for verification. DiNozzo, McGee, and David also presented their badges.

Seeing the badges the OOD responded, “Yes sirs… and ma’am. Permission granted.”

One by one the NCIS team led by Gibbs entered the hatch then descended down the ladder to the control room.

“I’m Mr. Morton,” Chip introduced himself to Gibbs.

The agents all showed their badges as they were introduced by Gibbs.

“I’m NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. This is my team,” as he gestured towards each person.

Mr. Morton, NCIS special agents Anthony DiNozzo, Timothy McGee, and NCIS Special Liaison Officer Ziva David.”

Gibbs took a brief look around the control room noticing the captain was absent which explained being greeted by the XO.

“Mr. Morton, Where is your captain?

“Sir,” Chip responded. “I’ll have to call him to report to the control room.”

“Yes, please do that right away,” Gibbs said.

Chip picked up the closest mic and hailed the captain, “Captain Crane, please report to the control room right away.”

Lee and Harry had been following the conversations between the helo and Seaview from Harry’s cabin so they both pretty much knew what Chips call was about. They momentarily looked into each one’s eyes.

“Lee... you better answer Chip and get down there before those NCIS agents come looking for you.”

Without saying anything Lee punched the button on the intercom box on Harry’s desk and called the control room.

“This is the captain, I’ll be right there.”

Meanwhile back in the control room…

“Oh, and by chance, is Admiral Nelson aboard?” Gibbs asked.

Chip momentarily hesitated at Gibbs question about the admiral. Then he responded.

“Agent Gibbs, I think it best you talk to the captain. He can give you any information you require,” Chip said.

In a move to intimidate which Gibbs was so good at he took a couple steps toward Chip.

“Look Mr. Morton, I expect full cooperation from everyone aboard this sub. Is that clear?”

“Crystal… “Chip responded with a surly tone of voice and cold icy glare in his eyes.

Gibbs taking another step and getting literally in Chips face, “Ya… well it better be. Anyone that interferes can expect to face charges of impeding an official investigation.”

As Gibbs turned and headed towards the observation nose the rest of his team followed. McGee couldn’t help noticing all the electronic devices and the huge computer with all its multicolored flashing lights and assorted multi-colored light displays.

“This is really cool…I’ve heard and read a lot of things about this fantastic sub but to actually be here and seeing all of this…” McGee commented as he looked around the control room in awe.

“Hey McGeek,” DiNozzo whispered to McGee. “Are you coming probie? You need to stop drooling over all these computers and gadgets…it’s not manly.”

“I’m not drooling Tony and I wish you’d stop calling me probie,” McGee responded. “I’m not the newest team member anymore...Ziva is.”

“Ya I know,” DiNozzo responded. “But she said she would kill me if I called her probie and she’s a Mossad Assassin.”

“So...” McGee responds.

McGee, graduated from MIT and is a computer specialist…or as Tony likes to refer to Tim…a computer geek…any and all new computer gadgetry and technology always excites McGee. He also specializes in hacking other computer systems when necessary to gain information from other government agencies when needed for an investigation being worked. He has been known to hack into the FBI and CIA computer systems without being detected and has never been caught by anyone.

“Tony, I have read everything in print about Nelson and his fantastic inventions ever since I was a kid, the most impressive being his creation of the Seaview. The man is both a scientific genius and a hero many times over. Now to actually be aboard the Seaview and to be able to meet him in person…well…it’s like fulfilling all my childhood dreams. It’s hard to believe I’m actually here. I feel like pinching myself to make sure this isn’t just a dream or something. It’s all just so fantastic!” Tim said as he continued to look around at all the displays and gadgets.

“Ya…well if the boss catches you carrying on like this you’re gonna wish you were dreaming you were someplace else,” DiNozzo replied in his usual smart ass banter that he liked to throw at his partner. “Don’t lose sight of the fact the guy is probably a murderer.”

“Ya…well it’s hard for me to believe someone like Admiral Nelson could commit cold blooded murder,” McGee replied his voice increasing both in pitch and volume. “It just feels wrong!”

“Tony!” Ziva said in a very loud whisper. “McGee has a right to have his own opinion. Stop harassing him.”

It was suddenly so quiet in the control room. All eyes were staring at Ziva, Tony, and McGee.

Ziva and the others suddenly noticed that Gibbs was standing right behind Tony. “Is there a problem Tim?” he asked with a menacing tone to his voice.

“No boss,” McGee answered.

“You three with me…now.” As they all headed to the observation nose.

As the agents stood around on the front porch as the observation nose was referred to, waiting for the captain, Gibbs couldn’t help but admire the view from the large windows.

He then turned his attentions to his agents. “You all need to stay focused on why we’re here. If you can’t do that you can find pink slips in with your next paycheck, is that clear?” Gibbs said with an angry tone and an expression on his face that left no doubt in any of their minds as to whether or not he would make good on his threat.

“Ah…Yes… boss, perfectly clear, ah no sir, that won’t be necessary...” they all answered together at the same time.

“You need to remember why we are here Tim,” Gibbs said. “However you feel about Nelson, you need to set aside your hero worship.”

“Yes boss,” Tim replied and then noticed the gorgeous view out the large windows of the observation nose. “Wow! These windows are really fantastic! I’ve read about them and seen pictures but to actually be here looking out the real thing is so…”

McGee stopped as he noticed the “famous” Gibbs stare aimed at him which told him get back on track fast or else…

“Sorry boss,” McGee said.

“Never say you’re sorry Tim,” Gibbs told McGee.

“Yea, I know boss… It’s a sign of weakness,” Tim replied.

Just then they all turned their attention to the clicking sound of footsteps coming down the metal steps of the spiral staircase that connected the control room with the upper level.

“Captain Crane, I presume?” Gibbs asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Lee responded; “and you are?”

“I’m NCIS Special Agent Gibbs, and my team…agents DiNozzo, McGee, and David. We are here by order of the SEC NAV to conduct an official investigation into the murder of Dr. Raymond Mason committed by Admiral Harriman Nelson.

“Captain… Is Admiral Nelson aboard?”

“I beg your pardon,” Lee replied.

“It’s a simple question Captain…all it requires is a simple answer…Is Admiral Nelson on board this submarine?”

“And what if I don’t answer?” Lee answered in a semi hostile tone.

“Captain,” Gibbs continued, “Admiral Nelson is the prime suspect in the murder of Dr. Randolph Mason. We are here because SEC NAV suspects the admiral has made his escape aboard the Seaview. We are here find him and hold him for questioning. We will begin our murder investigation on board the Seaview. That investigation begins with our being able to question Admiral Nelson about his part in the murder. I have no doubt that you and the crew are very loyal to the admiral but make no mistake sir. Any attempt by you or your crew to interfere will result in being charged with impeding an official investigation. Charges of aiding and abetting a criminal while evading arrest can also be added if you really want to push it.”

“Very well,” Lee responded. “Before you decide to charge any of the crew or myself of impeding your investigation I think you have to hear his side of the story. The admiral does have an alibi.”

“Really...captain? So you’re admitting that he is aboard,” Gibbs said with an accusatory tone in his voice.

“I am not admitting to anything,” Lee responded. “That is for you to discover in your investigation sir.”

“Don’t play semantics with me captain,” Gibbs said.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of playing anything with you, Agent Gibbs,” Lee replied. “But perhaps it would be better to carry on this discussion privately and after you and your team are set up in guest quarters.”

“Very well Captain Crane,” Gibbs said. “Before that happens I am also supposed to inform you that you are ordered to immediately turn this submarine about and head back to Santa Barbara per orders from SEC NAV,” Gibbs related.

“Sorry Gibbs…we can’t do that,” Lee stated emphatically. “We are in the middle of a vitally important mission and we cannot return to port before we complete that mission.”

“Oh really captain?!” Gibbs exclaimed in anger as he took a couple steps forward and literally was getting in Lee’s face. “You are going to totally disregard an order from SECNAV? ---You want to risk your entire career?”

“Are you all so blind that you don’t see what is happening?” Lee answered in like manner.

“You mean what’s happening to the moon and all the weather anomalies happening around the world?” Gibbs asked. “There are scientists attempting to work on the cause of that back at home…our immediate priority is the admiral and this murder case.”

“We are currently on course to find and destroy the cause of the severe weather around the world. We can discuss this further Gibbs but right now I’d prefer not to discuss it in front of the crew,” Lee said. Obviously you are lacking some facts which the admiral and I will be glad to make clear for you after you get settled.”

“So you admit the admiral is aboard then?” Gibbs asked again.

Again Lee purposely didn’t answer his question. He just stood staring at Gibbs and the other agents.

“Very well captain, if you will direct us to a place where we can set up,” Gibbs said.

“Very well, if you will follow me,” Crane motioned and led the team up the spiral staircase to officer’s country.

Once on the next level, as the NCIS team led by Captain Crane walked down the passageway towards the designated guest cabins. On their way they passed the corridor leading to the officers’ quarters. Gibbs noticed the sign on the first door to the right as he read the name plate which said Admiral Nelson. He stopped and stood there for a few seconds staring at the sign, contemplating his meeting with the admiral.

Lee and the rest of the agents were further down the corridor where he was assigning each agent their temporary quarters.

“Agent David, this will be your cabin while on board,” Lee said as he opened the door.

“I’m impressed captain, “Ziva said. “This is much nicer than any of the other ships we have visited.”

“Other boats,” Lee quickly retorted.

“I beg your pardon,” Ziva replied.

“Submarines are boats,” Lee said.

“Oh...” Ziva answered with hesitation as she took a few minutes to think about it.

“The admiral made sure when Seaview was built that the guest quarters’ were designed with higher specifications. The only cabin that is nicer than these is the admiral’s cabin since it needed to serve as both his private quarters and office while at sea.”

“Will this cabin suit you then Agent David?” Lee asked.

“Yes,” Ziva said. “I think I will be quite comfortable here. Thank you, captain.”

As Lee and the remaining agents approached the next cabin, Lee opened the door.

Looking at DiNozzo, then McGee…Lee asked, “You two can share this cabin if that’s alright. If not, I can give you separate cabins.”

It would be nice to have a cabin to myself,” DiNozzo said. “McGee here snores like a freight train.”

DiNozzo looked at McGee with a smirk on his face.

“Tony, I do not. If anybody snores it’s you.”

Gibbs walked up behind DiNozzo and McGee and gave them both a head slap.

“Thank you, boss,” said McGee.

“Yes, thank you, boss,” DiNozzo said. “We’re good with sharing a cabin sir,” DiNozzo told Lee.

Lee just smirked a little and began wondering what kind of an investigation these agents would be doing. They seemed more kind of like the three stooges in a way. He was surprised that Gibbs being their boss would head slap his people. Was NCIS resorting to physical abuse of its agents? It seemed like an odd way to command. Then again thinking about it there was a crew member or two that maybe could have used a head slap to get their attention. He then dismissed the thought.

Gibbs noticing the captain grinning just stared at him, waiting for him to move on to the next cabin. He was anxious to get settled and get to work.

“This cabin is yours Agent Gibbs,” Lee said as both men entered the cabin and looked around. “Will you want a separate space to conduct your investigation?”

“That won’t be necessary captain,” Gibbs said. “This cabin will be just fine for that purpose.”

“Very well,” Lee replied. “If there is nothing else right now I’m going down to the control room.”

“Captain, I asked you earlier in the control room. I’m asking you again and this time I want an answer. Is Admiral Nelson on board? It won’t do any good to avoid answering the question. I would prefer that you cooperate. If not, I am perfectly willing to bust doors down until I find him,” Gibbs said emphatically.

Before Lee could answer the question Harry suddenly appeared in the doorway to Gibbs cabin.

“Well…hello Harry,” Gibbs said.

Hello Jethro,” Harry said.

Looking at the admiral and then at Gibbs it was very apparent that neither man was a stranger to the other. Then fixing his gaze on Harry, Lee commented “I guess you two know each other.

“Yes Lee…I know NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.”

“That’s right Harry,” Gibbs said with a sarcastic tone in his voice. “We have a history that goes back several years…I guess he never mentioned it to you captain”…Gibbs spoke like Harry wasn’t there.

“Admiral?” Lee asked with questioning look.

“Yes Lee…Agent Gibbs and I go back a ways,” Harry said as he and Gibbs glared at each other.

“I would ask if you were friends but I gather from the way you two are reacting I guess I don’t need to ask,” Lee said to Harry.

“I don’t think that Gibbs is here to reminisce about the old days,” Harry said.

“Admiral… we have been ordered by SEC NAV to come aboard the Seaview to continue conducting our investigation into the charges against you in the murder of Dr. Raymond Mason. I’m supposed to take you into custody,” Gibbs told Nelson.

“So you have some questions you want to ask me, Jethro?” Harry asked Gibbs with a surly tone in his voice.

“Yes, Harry, I do,” Gibbs replied. “Are you going to cooperate or do I have to ask the captain here to have you put under arrest and placed in the brig?”

“You think you need to lock me up Jethro?”

Gibbs took a couple steps toward Harry…I’m not gonna have you locked in the brig,” Gibbs said in a slightly softer but stern voice. “Not unless you force me to. I mean we’re on a sub. Where are you gonna go?”

“You might just be surprised where I can go if I feel a need to,” Harry answered Gibbs.

“Well how ‘bout we go someplace where I can get some questions answered?” Gibbs asked.

“Your cabin… or mine, Jethro,” Harry said. “It’s your choice.”

“It’s your sub… Lets’ go to your cabin. I’m not settled in yet,” Gibbs said.

“Alright but to save time I would like Captain Crane to be present,” Harry insisted.

“Is his presence pertinent to the charges against you Harry?”

“It ‘tis,” Harry said emphatically.

Alright, to save time, I’ll have one of my agents come along too,” Gibbs said.

“Alright, shall we go then?” Harry asked.

“DiNozzo, you’re with me,” Gibbs called out to Tony.

“Coming boss,” DiNozzo responded as he raced to step in behind Gibbs as all four men headed to Harry’s cabin.

Tim and Ziva both stood out in the passageway watching as they all entered Harry’s cabin and shut the door.

“This is going to be interesting,” Ziva said with a smile on her face.

“Boss doesn’t seem to like the admiral very much,” Tim said with a look of concern.

“Judging by their conversation I would say the feeling is mutual with the admiral,” Ziva commented. “They have a past. That will make this a very interesting investigation.”

“Well I just hope Gibbs is fair and doesn’t just jump to conclusions about the admiral,” Tim said.

“Tim, you need to face the fact that the admiral was seen on national live TV shooting Mason. I don’t see how he can possibly be innocent,” Ziva said.

“I know what the recorded live broadcast shows. I know it doesn’t look good. Still… I’m having a real hard time believing someone like Admiral Nelson who has always done so many great things in his lifetime for the good of mankind could suddenly turn into a cold blooded killer. I just think there is something wrong with the whole thing,” Tim said.

“Look Tim, I am sure… if there is something wrong with the evidence…Gibbs will get to the bottom of it,” Ziva said.

“Gee…Gibbs didn’t even say what he wanted us to be doing while he questions the admiral,” Tim said.

“Well, I don’t know about you but I for one am starving. I’m thinking about finding the ships mess and getting something to eat. Maybe if there are any of the off duty crew there we can question them while we are there,” Ziva suggested.

“OK, that sounds like a good idea. I’m rather hungry too. We didn’t have a chance to grab anything and it was a long trip by plane and helicopter getting here,” McGee said. “Who knows, if there are any off duty crew members we can question we might learn something that will help the admiral.”

Ziva just looked at Tim with a look of disbelief. She didn’t see how the admiral could have an alibi when he was taped on live TV committing the murder. She was sure this was going to turn out to be an interesting investigation and possibly a difficult one as she wasn’t sure how cooperative the crew members would be. It was obvious that the crew was very loyal to the admiral, especially because of how the admiral was able to escape the police in Santa Barbara. Undoubtedly he had help getting aboard Seaview without being detected by authorities.

*Harry’s Alibi*

Once everyone was inside Harry’s cabin and the door was closed before Gibbs could start questioning him, the admiral decided to start things off.

“Look Jethro, before you start your interrogation we need to set you straight on some things,” Harry said.

“OK, before we do anything though you need to have your exec give the order to turn this sub about and head back to Santa Barbara,” Gibbs said.

“Sorry Gibbs. That is out of the question. Have you paid any attention to what is going on with the moon and recent weather events?

“Yes Harry, we are aware and there are scientists back in the states that are working on finding a solution. You are a murder suspect and I’m supposed to take you back to D.C.,” Gibbs said.

“Well they may be working to find a solution but I already know the cause. Mason has an installation on the bottom of the sea where he has installed his electro magnate, the biggest one ever developed. It’s so strong…it has changed the position of the moon and continues to do so as long as it exists. The moon is being pulled closer to the earth and so far it’s causing all kinds of freakish weather around the world, as well as earthquakes and major tsunamis. It’s creating world-wide devastation. We are on our way to destroy the facility. We have approximately 7 hours to get there and destroy it before the moon gets to a point that it will wind up destroying the earth,” Harry stated.

“Is that the reason you killed him?” Gibbs asked in a sarcastic tone.

“Do you really expect us to believe this fantastic story of yours?” DiNozzo chimed in. “What science fiction movie did you get this plot out of?”

“You think I’m making this up?” Harry asked in a sarcastic tone.

Harry pressed the button on his intercom box on his desk. “Sparks, this is the admiral. Please see if you can pick up any news broadcasts- - - CNN, FOX, any of the international stations and pipe it through to my monitor in my cabin.”

“Yes sir,” Sparks replied. I’ve got a live feed from CNN coming in now sir.”

“Very well,” Harry replied. He then walked over and turned on the TV monitor.

As soon as the screen came alive they were watching live reports of major natural disasters being reported from all different parts of the world. As the news was being reported as a side story they put up a picture of the moon. The CNN reporter was saying that the moon appeared to be growing closer and closer to earth and that it looked six or seven times larger than normal.

“Holy Irwin Allen, the master of disaster flicks; he never came up with anything like this!” exclaimed DiNozzo. Boss maybe the admiral is telling the truth.

“OK Harry, I’ll bite. You’re on another one of your save the world missions,” Gibbs said. “It doesn’t make you innocent of committing the murder of Dr. Mason though.”

“No, but the fact is that I wasn’t there at the time of the shooting does,” Harry claimed as he walked back over to his desk and sat down.

“Yea right, like that was your evil twin that went in there and shot the guy in cold blood on national TV,” DiNozzo quipped.

“Harriman, you were seen on live TV by millions of viewers shooting Mason in cold blood and you are telling me you weren’t there?” Gibbs said.

“I tell you it wasn’t me. I was in Santa Barbara in my office at the institute at the exact time Mason was shot,” Harry stated.

“Do you have someone that can verify that?” Gibbs asked.

“Yes he does,” Lee spoke up. “The fact is that I was with the admiral in his office at the institute at the time the shooting occurred. We both watched the broadcast on TV,” Lee claimed.

“Well now that’s real funny commander. I seem to remember you went on live TV yourself Captain Crane and you stated that you were in the admiral’s office at the institute “alone” when the shooting occurred. How do you explain that?” Gibbs said.

“The same thing occurred with my interview that happened with the broadcast of the shooting. Someone was disguised to look exactly like the admiral and then again was disguised to look like me,” Lee stated.

“Why would anyone want to disguise themselves to look like the two of you? Why would anyone go to such fantastic lengths?” Gibbs asked.

“My guess is that it has to do with Mason and trying to delay us, preventing us from destroying his electro magnet,” Harry told Gibbs.

“You think this was some kind of conspiracy against the two of you?” DiNozzo asked.

“Not us,” Lee said. “Against the admiral.”

“I am about the only one outside of Mason’s organization that knew what he was really doing,” Harry said.

“What would that be?” Gibbs asked.

“He hoped to control the tides, to create an alternative power source which in the end he planned to monopolize the power buying of all countries worldwide and gain power and wealth in return,” Harry stated.

“You know Harry, I’ve got to admit… you are really good. I almost believe you,” Gibbs said. Can anyone else verify that you were not in LA when the shooting occurred?”

“Yes, Chief Sharkey can verify I wasn’t there. He came charging into my office minutes after the shooting occurred and found us both together. You know as well as I do that it’s physically impossible to get from LA to Santa Barbara in a matter of minutes,” Harry emphasized.

“What about that flying sub of yours?” DiNozzo asked in a skeptical tone, still having trouble believing the admirals alibi.

“You know, that’s an idea…DiNozzo is it? However there still was not enough time before we were seen together in my office,” Harry stated in a sarcastic manner.

Harry felt that enough time had been wasted with Gibbs interrogation. They were running out of time and with an imposter on board that was trying to prevent them from successfully completing the mission at hand and destroying Mason’s installation before the moon destroyed the world, Harry was starting to get annoyed.

“Alright, Tony you go find Chief Sharkey and get his statement,” Gibbs told DiNozzo.

“On it boss! By your leave gentlemen,” DiNozzo said as he hurried to head out the door he suddenly stopped and turned around to face the men again. “By the way, to save time, where might I find Chief Sharkey?” he asked looking a bit embarrassed.

Lee responded as he took a quick look at his wrist watch, “he’s on duty in the control room right now. You can find him there.”

He quickly turned and exited out the door and raced out the door and down the passageway heading to the control room.

“I guess our investigation is officially done Harry,” Gibbs said. “Because of your time constraints and this mission you need to complete we’ll stay on board until you complete it.”

“Jethro, we have another problem at hand,” Harry said. “Maybe you and your agents can be of assistance.”

“What kind of problem? How do you think we can be of help?” Gibbs asked.

“We have an imposter on board that has been able to stay a step ahead of us all along the way. They have tried several times to make us fail to meet the deadline to destroy the installation. I suspect it’s someone in Mason’s organization,” Harry said.

“Why haven’t you been able to catch him so far?” Gibbs was curious.

“Because the imposter is able to disguise himself to look like anyone on board. They have already impersonated Mr. Morton and our ship’s doctor. I’ve been afraid they would impersonate myself or the captain and give god knows what orders so neither Captain Crane or myself have had any sleep since we left Santa Barbara. We could really use some help to track down this bastard and stop him before he can find a way to prevent us from getting to the undersea installation before it’s too late,” Harry said.

“I guess as long as we are here for the duration of the mission I don’t see why not,” Gibbs said with a smirk.

“Good, I’ll have my chief coordinate with you and your agents. I think at this point it might be best to station guards at strategic points in the ship like the circuitry room, reactor room, missile room, air revitalization, ballast control, flying sub, and so on. I really would like to catch whoever it is alive but I can also give the order shoot to kill on site if need be…whatever it takes to stop them before they can do anything else,” Harry said. Are we in agreement, Jethro?”

“Yes, Harry, we’ll help you out with catching this guy,” Gibbs replied. As he started to head for the door he noticed that the admiral was staring at him with a pensive expression on his face.

“The son-of-a-bitch almost killed Captain Crane when he posed as the doctor,” Harry said in a soft voice. “I would have caught him then…except…I thought Lee was dying. That’s when I found our doc tied up, I had to free the him to help Lee.”

“Harry, we’ll help you get the bastard. Time is running out…like you say. I suspect this guy is going to get desperate. He’s going to screw up. When he does…I’ll be there with my team…and so will you. That’s when we’ll be able to catch him…if not before,” Jethro reassured Harry.

“You know, I was dreading NCIS showing up,” Harry said. “Now I have to admit that I’m rather glad. I know we have had our disagreements in the past…the fact that we both loved the same woman…”

“Harry, you’re not going to bring up Jenny Sheppard again I hope. That is after all a closed case. Jen is dead and its better the issue stay a dead subject,” Jethro said.

“Yes…you’re right of course…at least we should table that subject for now. We have much more important issues to concentrate on at the moment,” Harry said.

“Do you want to continue to meet here in your cabin to discuss a plan of attack or do you have a better idea?” Jethro asked Harry.

“Actually I do have a better idea. We can meet together in the observation nose. That way we have more room to get everyone together and I need to bring in Lee, Chip Morton, Chief Sharkey, and some of the other officers, and some of the ratings. Chief Sharkey can assist with checking out crew members to assure none of them are the imposter since no one knows the crew better than he does,” Harry said. I also need to get with Lee to check on our progress to make sure we aren’t falling behind schedule.”

“Alright then let’s go. If you will page my agents to the observation nose we’ll get the ball rolling,” Jethro suggested.

“Actually, if you would like to do the honors,” Harry said. “Just press this button twice and it will broadcast through the entire ship.”

With a half-smile Gibbs stepped over to Harry’s desk and proceeded to transmit over the PA system…

“This is NCIS Agent Gibbs…Agents DiNozzo… David… and McGee … report to the observation nose immediately…all NCIS agents report to the observation nose immediately…this is not a request.”

“Ziva…” McGee said.

“I have a couple more questions I need to finish Timothy,” Ziva answered.

“Come on Ziva, we better get down there. You know how Gibbs is, McGee commented.

“I’m sorry, I have to go but if it’s OK, I’d like to get together and finish with my questions...Riley,” Ziva said.

“I’m cool with that,” Riley replied. “I’d like to get together later so we can talk some more. It’s not very often that we get any really cool looking chic’s on board. You can ask me all the questions you like,” Riley said with a really big grin.

Ziva just smiled at Riley then turned to hurry out the door, as she followed McGee down the corridor to the control room.

~~~~

Yes…Chief …you said you went to the admiral’s office right after you watched the shooting on TV…”

“That’s right,” Sharkey said.

“Sorry Chief, we’ll have to continue this a little later,” Tony said upon hearing Gibbs page.

“No problem,” Sharkey replied.

*The Search begins…

Suddenly Sharkey heard his name paged over the PA to report to the nose and so he dropped what he was doing and headed there immediately.

As all three agents rushed to the observation nose they arrived to see both Gibbs and the admiral as well as the captain and XO gathered around the chart table.

Just then a call came over the PA from Sparks. “Captain, I have a video call for Special Agent Gibbs.”

Lee walked over and took the mic from the chart table bracket. “Very well Sparks, you can pipe it through to the monitor in the control room.”

Lee, Harry, and Gibbs headed over to the TV monitor in the control room. Lee ordered Phil to turn it on.

When the picture came up Gibbs could see it was his boss Director Leon Vance of NCIS.

“Hello Leon, I’ve been expecting your call,” Gibbs said.

“Gibbs, funny you should say that since I’ve been waiting to get a progress report from you. What progress are you’re making in your investigation of Admiral Nelson’s involvement in Mason’s murder.”

“Yes sir, the fact is we’re finished with our investigation and interview of the admiral,” Gibbs said.

“So you have Nelson in custody and are heading back then?” Vance said.

“No director…when I say we have finished I mean we have determined that Nelson is innocent. He has an alibi sir. We’ve checked it out. He wasn’t in LA when Mason was shot,” Gibbs added.

“So if you are done there you should be on your way back,” Vance said. “What is the status on your return trip to DC?”

“For right now that’s on hold Director Vance. The Seaview’s crew is in the middle of a mission that has a very strict time frame and we have agreed to stay on for the duration. They know the source of all the natural disasters occurring worldwide and the cause of the enlarging moon. They are heading there now to destroy the source of all the problems. There is also someone running around on the sub that has been impersonating different crew members and trying to stop them from reaching their goal in time. We believe it’s tied in to the shooting of Mason in LA and we’ve agreed to help in any way we can,” Gibbs said.

“Very well, it sounds like you are still needed there. Do all that you. I’ll expect a progress report from you soon as you’re able Gibbs,” Vance ordered.

“Will do sir,” Gibbs responded. That said the video call was ended and the men were able to go back to the business at hand…catching the imposter.

“The investigation over boss? When does the helo arrive to take us off?” Tony asked.

“It’s not coming.”

“Boss?” Tony asked with a perplexed look.

“It would seem that we are not leaving,” Ziva chimed in as Tony turned towards her.

“Boss?” Tim asked turning to Gibbs with a puzzled look on his face.

“That’s right. We’re not leaving,” Gibbs said.

“Tim, you’ll be happy to know that the admiral is no longer a suspect in our investigation.”

“That’s great boss,” Tim said as a huge grin. Turning to Tony, “See, I told you he couldn’t have done it.”

“Ya; well the evidence said different probie,” Tony hissed.

“Ya; well the evidence was wrong,” Tim snapped back at Tony.

‘Do you children need a break?” Gibbs interrupted in a stern tone.

“No Boss, no break is necessary,” Tony quickly responded.

“No Boss,” Tim said.

Gibbs had fixed his gaze on Tim, hearing his earlier comment about the admiral’s innocence to Tony only this time he had a small grin on his face.

“Gibbs, if we are not leaving and you’ve determined the admiral is no longer a suspect then what are we doing?” Ziva asked.

“We are going to help the crew complete their mission. Admiral Nelson has asked for our assistance. There is an imposter aboard this submarine that is able to disguise them self to appear as anyone. They have already pulled off disguising them self as Mr. Morton and the ship’s doctor. The second time almost wound up costing the captain his life. The mission they have to complete is under a time deadline and if they are unable to complete it by then it could mean the destruction of the entire world. Tony has already been read in on what their mission is. The rest of the crew knows. They have to catch the imposter or it could cost the mission,” Gibbs explained to Ziva and McGee as Tony also listened in.

“Wow!”- - - was all Tim could think to say as he absorbed all the information that Gibbs had given them.

“What do you want us to do Gibbs?” Ziva asked.

“Let’s wait for the Admiral to brief everyone. Then we will decide a plan to stop this person from creating any more problems,” Gibbs said.

Spotting a table with chairs near the windows in the nose Gibbs and Ziva decided to go sit down and to use the time while they were waiting to clean their guns.

~~~~~~

Harry had begun to brief his officer’s and control room crew about the mission. They were now about four hours from Mason’s installation. Harry stressed the importance of getting to the target on time and destroying it. In the meantime they needed to track down and capture the person or person’s that had been running loose on the ship impersonating members of the crew. He clarified the problem by telling everyone that this person could disguise them self to look and sound like any member of the crew.

Sharkey, Kowalski, and Patterson had been assigned the task of questioning all crew members and check out their identities.

Once everyone was checked out they were each given a portable video phone to carry with them so they can receive as well as send messages without having to broadcast over the PA system. The video phones also have the capability of taking pictures or filming video when the situation calls for it.

Lee assigned everyone to go to vital areas around the sub, the Reactor Room, Circuitry Room, Engineering, Air Revitalization…basically all areas necessary to maintain operation of the submarine, especially any area if sabotaged could be detrimental to the survival of all aboard or keep them from successfully completing their mission. Everyone took off for their assigned guard posts.

Before the NCIS agents headed off to do patrols around the sub Harry thought it might be prudent to have them watch the recording of Mason’s murder again.

“I have watched this recording several times and so far I have not been able to spot anything that might give him away. Whoever the imposter is he did an almost flawless job. I thought maybe if the four of you watched this recording with me that perhaps having four extra sets of eyes we might be able to catch something that I have missed to help catch this person.”

As the four NCIS agents watched the recording, a thought crossed McGee’s mind. “Admiral…is there any possibility that the person that shot Mason in LA could also be the person you’re looking for aboard Seaview?”

“I don’t know agent McGee,” Harry said. “The thought hadn’t crossed my mind but now that you mention it I suppose he could have had enough time to get from LA to Santa Barbara. As to whether he could avoid the police and Shore Patrol and actually get on board…”

“Well excuse me sir but you were able to get aboard unseen. Maybe it’s possible this guy is clever enough…he figured out a way to sneak on board too,” Tim said.

“I suppose at this point just about anything is possible,” Harry said.

“Hey McGee, that’s good thinking,” Gibbs said.

“Thanks boss,” Tim said.

“Harry, mind if I send a copy of this video to my forensics specialist back at the Navy Yard?” Gibbs asked.

“I can have her analyze the video for anomalies and maybe she can pick out something about the imposter in it.”

“That might be worth a try. How good is she?” Harry asked.

“She’s the best Forensics Specialist in all of NCIS. If there’s something to be found, she’ll find it,” Gibbs replied.

“Alright, go ahead,” Harry replied. Harry and Gibbs walked back to the radio shack. “Sparks, I need you to contact the NCIS Forensics Lab at the Navy Yard,” said Harry. “Your contact person is Abby Sciuto,” Gibbs added. “I need you to send her a copy of this video for analysis.”

“Yes sirs,” replied Sparks and he typed the message in the decoder. Then he put the disc in the reader drive which would send an encrypted copy to Miss Sciuto back in D.C.

“Will there be anything else?” Sparks asked.

“No, that’s all,” Harry replied…”unless you have anything to add Gibbs?”

“Yes, if you’ll put me through to her on a video phone call then I can explain to her what I need her to look for? Miss Sciuto knows to expedite what I send her. Hopefully she will be able to find something on that tape fairly fast.”

“Very well, put the call through on the control room monitor Sparks,” Harry ordered.

In just a couple minutes Sparks had connected the call. Gibbs and Harry headed over to the big monitor screen in the control room. Harry tapped Phil on the shoulder who was stationed at the fathometer and closest to the monitor, ordering him to turn it on.

The screen came to life and Gibbs could see Abby on the screen.

“Oh hi Gibbs, what can I do for you?” Abby asked in her usual bubbly personality with a big smile for her boss. “Abby, I just sent you a video of the shooting of Dr. Mason. I need you to do what you do and analyze the video to see if you notice any anomalies,” Gibbs explained.

As Gibbs talked to Abby all eyes in the control room were suddenly on Miss Sciuto. The crew was not used to seeing anyone dressed in Goth plus many of the men were always interested whenever there was a call involving a pretty gal.

“I have the copy of the video right here Gibbs. I’ll get right on it and get back to you soon as I have some information for you.” Abby said.

“Thanks Abs, I know you always do your best.”

“Wow, this is like the first time ever I’ve gotten a video call from the fantastic submarine Seaview. McGee and I are big fans of the admiral and his wonderful inventions. Just what I’m able to see looks totally awesome.” Abby excitedly babbled on.

“Abby, I need you to get back to me with what you find in that video ASAP!” Gibbs interrupted.

“Will do, special agent Gibbs,” Abby replied. “Your wish is my command. Major Mas-speck and I will work diligently and I’ll have something for you in a jiff sir. Over and out,” Abby said as she gave a salute then hung up the call.

“Wow, I really dig a girl in Goth,” Riley offered a little mesmerized after seeing Abby on the monitor. Nelson, Crane, Morton, and Sharkey all looked at Riley with their mouths agape, surprised at the sight of Abby and Riley’s comment.

“Ya, well you keep your full attention on that sonar screen Riley or you’re on report,” Sharkey ordered once he regained his speech,

Harry just looked at Sharkey and Riley then shook his head and walked towards the nose with Gibbs. Gibbs being used to Abby just grinned. Lee and Chip just looked at each other and shrugged.

Back in the nose, Harry resumed playing the video for Gibbs and his team to watch. As usual Harry paused the recording at the same spot; right when Mason was shot.

“Admiral, do you see what I see? The shooter is wearing a ring on his trigger finger,” Ziva said. “Do you own such a ring?”

“No,” Harry replied. “In fact, I don’t have any rings. I never wear anything like that.”

“Ziva, I can testify to that,” Lee said. “In all the years I’ve known the admiral I’ve never known him to ever wear any rings.”

“Agent David, many people know I’m independently wealthy,” Harry said. “I do not however flaunt my wealth. I’ve never liked wearing fancy rings or gold chains. It’s not my thing.”

“Evidently then the imposter didn’t do all his homework… I would have to say that perhaps this ring would be a means of identification.

“What do you know,” Tony commented. “Looks like we found something we can spot to catch this guy.”

“That’s good team work guys,” Gibbs said. “I want this bastard caught. Whatever it takes.”

Harry was mentally kicking himself for not spotting the ring before now.

“Don’t beat yourself up Harry because you didn’t see the ring in the video. With everything else you have on your mind and the stress you’ve been under it’s understandable you missed it,” Gibbs said.

“Maybe,” Harry responded. “I won’t feel better until we catch the imposter hiding on my submarine and that installation of Mason’s is destroyed.”

“Well, I know I can’t wait to catch him,” Lee said. Looking over at Harry he said, “Admiral, I have a score to settle with this guy after almost killing me in sickbay.”

Harry nodded in agreement. Harry immediately took out his video phone and zoomed in on the ring in the video and snapped a picture then sent it as a high priority message to the other video phones so that everyone would know what to look out for now that they finally had something to identify the imposter with. The message read as follows. “This is a high priority message. Please look at the attached photo. Be on the lookout for anyone wearing the ring in the picture on the index finger of the right hand. If spotted, this is the imposter. Immediately alert all hands by pressing the silent alarm button on your radio phone. This will send out your location and all search parties in the immediate area will convene on your location to capture this person. It is imperative that you do not tip the imposter that he has been discovered. Use the silent alarm only. Under no circumstances attempt a voice message. This is a direct order of Admiral Nelson.

Before heading out to join the search Harry ordered Lee give the order for silent running.

“This is the captain. Prepare for silent running, repeat, prepare for silent running,” Lee barked the order over the PA system. “Sparks, maintain radio silence until further notice,” Lee ordered as he was preparing to leave the control room along with Harry and Chip. On his way out Lee gave the order… “Sparks, you have the con.”

This way there wouldn’t be any radio calls to or from the Seaview to disrupt the search. He wanted everything to go through the mobile radio phones and all concentration to center on finding this guy.

Harry was starting to feel there might actually be an end in sight to catching their elusive master of disguise. Gibbs on the other hand was beginning to get an uneasy feeling. In his gut he was getting the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. His gut was telling him that something was about to happen. Gibbs hoped that it was just because they were finally putting things in motion to catch the imposter who up until now had remained elusive.

~~~~~~

Everyone headed to their assigned areas to set up security guards and begin a systematic search of the boat. Sparks had been left to command a skeleton crew in the control room and there were other areas left with a minimal crew to keep operations of the Seaview running smoothly, to ensure they reached the undersea installation on time.

Chip and Patterson were assigned the missile room and adjoining passageways. After they made a search inside the missile room making sure no one was hiding one of the other ratings was left on guard duty inside the missile room while Chip and Patterson patrolled the outside corridor and checked compartments as they went along.

Kowalski and Ray were assigned the engine room, Sharkey patrolled the adjoining corridor while Riley stood guard duty inside the Reactor Room to assure no one would tamper with the reactor.

Gibbs and McGee patrolled the corridors on - A - deck in officer’s country, searching the cabins of both the admiral and captain along with the crew’s quarters and their patrol area also included the Flooding Control Chamber. They also had several crewmen assigned to them to assist with their search area.

Agents DiNozzo and David were assigned to patrol aft corridors on deck levels A and B. They were to search every cabin. They split up so that Agent David had several crewmen with her to help search compartments on - A- deck while Agent DiNozzo took several more crewmen with him to search compartments on - B- deck.

Mr. O’Brien and Clark had been assigned guard duty of the flying sub since this might prove to be the most likely avenue of escape the imposter would attempt. O’Brien stood guard inside the flying sub while Clark stood duty in the nose to guard the hatch leading down to the flying sub.

That left the bulk of - C- deck corridors and Air Revitalization, the Gyro Room, Storage compartments, Ballast Pump Locker, and a few other miscellaneous compartments to be patrolled by Harry and Lee. To further prevent the escape of the imposter an armed guard was placed at all air ducts and access panels large enough for a man to crawl through. Lee started at the forward end of the boat while Harry began to patrol from the aft end. Slowly they searched each compartment along the entire length of the sub. It was much the same for all the other search parties. The search parties had been searching for nearly two hours with no sign of the imposter…by now the target was only about two hours away. Harry figured if they had still not located the imposter in the next hour that he, Crane, and Sharkey would have to break away from the search in order to get everything set up so they would be ready to fire the torpedo’s and destroy Mason’s installation and the electro magnet.

As Harry continued his patrol he managed to get separated from the other crewmembers that were assisting in the search of C deck. Harry lost in concentration of the search hadn’t noticed he was alone as he approached the watertight hatch leading to the Ballast Pump Locker. As he began to turn the ratchet wheel to open the hatch to check the compartment beyond he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his head as he was hit with something hard from behind knocking him out. When he began to regain consciousness, as his eyes began to flutter open his vision at first somewhat a blur. He began to focus and quickly recognized that he was on the deck inside the Ballast Pump Locker room. Suddenly he realized he was missing his side arm and video phone. Harry attempted to stand up, stumbling from the knock in the head, he put one hand at the back of his head to try to hold the throbbing pain down to a minimum.

Once standing he made his way over to the hatch to attempt to turn the ratchet wheel to open the hatch but found he was unable to apply enough leverage with one hand to turn the wheel. Attempting with both hands his head was pounding so fiercely that he wasn’t having much luck. Harry suddenly stopped and turned around; realizing he was not alone. He was face to face with Lee Crane. Then just as suddenly he noticed the ring on his hand; the same one seen in the video. It was suddenly obvious that this was not his captain but instead was the imposter. Feeling a surge of anger coming over him Harry started towards the fake Lee Crane.

“I wouldn’t advise trying anything in your condition Nelson,” the imposter said with a threatening glare in his eyes.

“Just who the hell are you?” Harry asked in a hostile tone.

“What’s wrong admiral? Don’t you recognize your best friend?” he said with a sarcastic tone.

“You’re not Lee Crane!” Harry spat the words. “Who are you?” Harry’s voice was rising along with his anger.

The imposter just laughed. “Really Nelson, you are so pathetic,” the imposter sneered as he spoke. “You always act like you are so superior and smarter than anyone yet look how easy it was for me to sneak up on you, to over-power you and now I have you trapped in here with me and none of your men including your “precious” Lee Crane even knows where you are.”

“Really, do you think you can keep me in here? How do you plan to get out of here? I’m going to ask you again. Who are you?” Harry said.

“Why admiral, don’t you recognize my voice?”

“Sorry, I can’t say as I do,” Harry said.

Harry turned and attempted to turn the ratchet wheel on the watertight hatch again without much luck. Before he could turn around again to face the imposter he felt a sharp excruciating stabbing pain in his back just below the ribcage in the lower right side. Before he had time to react or do anything he felt another sudden sharp stabbing pain in the upper left side of his back. As he began to turn he slowly he hung on to the ratchet wheel to try to steady himself. Harry began to have the sensation of a cool damp cloth clinging to his back and that the dampness seemed to be rapidly growing bigger as he began to grow weaker. The realization hit him that he had been stabbed more than once by the imposter in the back and that he was losing a lot of blood. He doubted he would remain conscious for much longer as he began to feel light headed.

“I’m sorry admiral. I couldn’t allow you to destroy my underwater installation. I’ll be leaving you in here. By the time any of your crew finds you I have no doubt it will be too late. You certainly will have bled out before then.”

“M-Mason” Harry said in an astonished whisper.

“Yes admiral. I would have thought you were so smart you would have been able to figure out before now that it was me.

“Why…and who…was really shot…in LA?” Harry asked as he having trouble standing. No longer having the strength to hold on to the ratchet wheel he slumped down onto his knees.

“That was one of my assistants that was disguised as me. He never realized that he was going to wind up being shot, the poor fool. But then how else could I commit the perfect frame up? I never figured that anyone would ever believe you didn’t commit the murder. Everyone saw you on live TV after all. What better way to frame you. I had to stop you from interfering with my project Nelson.”

“You…you’re…insane Mason,” Harry said as he was growing ever weaker and he fell onto his stomach on the deck.

“Well, you will never know if I am or not,” Mason told Harry as he pushed Harry onto his side on the deck.

“Mason, you…have to-to…s-stop…the project…b-before it’s t-too late. T-time is r -running out,” Harry pleaded as he continued to grow ever weaker. “The m-moon…it’s g-going to hit earth…d-destroy e-earth and a-all life...” Harry managed to get out as he turned and tried to crawl towards his attacker. As he did he was getting short of breath.

“I don’t believe you Nelson!” Mason began to yell with rage in his voice. “Not you, not Crane or your precious Seaview are going to stop me! I’ve beat you Nelson! There’s nothing you can do about it” Mason hissed.

“M-Mason… y-you’re t-totally m-mad…” Harry panted. His ears were ringing so badly from the loss of blood and being short of breath he felt like he was in a dark tunnel with the sides closing in on him. Mason suddenly became even more agitated and he viciously kicked Harry in the side. The impact of the kick was hard enough that Harry rolled over and lay on the deck on his back not moving as he finally lost his fight to stay conscious.

“Yes, time is running out…it’s running out for you Nelson.”

Mason roughly shoved Harry’s body out of the way as he made his way to the hatch and turned the ratchet wheel, slowly opening the hatch, peering out to see if the coast was clear, taking a quick look back at Nelson’s crumpled form laying still on the deck, he smiled to himself.

“Good-bye… Admiral Nelson,” Mason said in a hushed voice. “Looks like the better man won…this time.”

He then quickly exited the Ballast Pump Locker; closing the watertight hatch behind him… spinning the ratchet wheel sealing the hatch. Looking up and down the corridor, seeing no one he quickly headed down the corridor when he suddenly came upon one of the ratings.

“We haven’t spotted anyone yet skipper, the rating said not realizing he was speaking to the imposter.

The imposter just nodded and continued to head down the corridor. Suddenly the rating spotted the ring on the man’s right hand which told him this was not the skipper. It matched the one in the photo. Keeping a poker face so as not to tip this guy off he casually pressed the silent alarm on his video phone all the while making sure the imposter didn’t catch on to what he had done. The Crane look-a-like continued on down the corridor.

It was only a matter of minutes before the calvary arrived on the scene. NCIS Agents Gibbs, David, DiNozzo, and McGee showed up about the same time as Lee, Chip, and the chief, as well as Kowalski, Patterson, and some of the other ratings. All responded to the alarm and immediately headed for C deck as the location indicator showed on their phones. With all the sudden flurry of activity it drew Mason’s attention and he ducked into a nearby storage compartment.

“Skipper I just spotted the imposter. Sir he’s disguised as you,” the rating told Crane.

“Are you sure sailor?” Lee asked.

“Yes sir, he headed down that way toward the store rooms.”

Looking around, Gibbs noticed Harry’s absence.

“Commander, where’s the admiral?” Gibbs asked.

As several of the other ratings showed up from the aft end, Lee asked them if they had seen the admiral.

“Sir, we haven’t seen him for maybe the last 20 minutes or so. Last time we saw him he was back that way as one of the men pointed aft.

“Captain, I suggest you and your men look for the admiral. We’ll look down this way for the imposter,” Gibbs said.

Lee nodded in agreement as he was becoming concerned about the admiral’s absence. Hurrying down the corridor the first compartment he came to was the Ballast Pump Locker which was down a short passage way just off the main corridor. The chief and Chip Morton followed the captain.

“Chief, quick; let’s check in there,” Lee said.

Chief Sharkey quickly turned the ratchet wheel and opened the watertight hatch.

“Skipper, in here…quick!” Sharkey hollered as he rushed in and crouched at the admiral’s side. Lee and Chip followed right behind.

“Admiral,” Lee whispered as he kneeled down next to him.

Placing a couple fingers on his neck he could feel Harry still had a weak pulse then Lee and Chip both noticed a pool of blood next to him. The chief pulled out his video phone and dialed the channel for sickbay. Jamie picked up his video phone.

“Doc, we need a stretcher down on C deck right away at the Ballast Pump Locker. The admiral’s been attacked and has lost a lot of blood,” Sharkey said.

“We’ll be there right away. Put pressure on the wound to slow the bleeding if you can,” Jamie said as he clipped his video phone to his belt. He didn’t wait for a response from Sharkey. He grabbed his medical bag and a couple of the corpsmen that had heard the call already had a stretcher and blanket and all three were out the door at a full run heading to C deck and the admiral’s location.

Sharkey, relaying the doctor’s instructions told the skipper and Mr. Morton to apply pressure to the admiral’s wounds to slow the bleeding. They had to turn him on his stomach. When they did Lee gasped when he saw the admiral’s back covered in blood and the two knife wounds. He was almost certain by the location of the wounds that the assailant had intentionally tried to nick one of his lungs and a kidney. Lee applied pressure to one of the wounds while Chip applied pressure to the other wound as they both were knelt down on both sides of Harry’s motionless body. As they had both started to bear down on the wounds to slow the bleeding Lee thought it was fortunate that Harry was totally out of it for pressing down on the wounds as they had to the pain would be excruciating. Lee however wasn’t liking the sound of Harry’s breathing or the fact that he seemed to be growing weaker as the minutes passed. There was a sort of gurgling sound as he took each breath and each breath seemed to be getting more shallow and labored.

“Where the hell is doc and those corpsmen?” Lee hollered.

Just then Jamie and the two corpsmen entered the compartment. Jamie placed his fingers on Harry’s neck to feel his pulse which was weak and thready. He would have to wait to check his pupils to see if there was any head injury. First priority was to get the blood loss slowed down. It would be a miracle at this point if they were able to stop the blood flow leaving his limp body. Jamie knew right away from the location of the stab wounds that most likely a lung and kidney had both been nicked or worse. He immediately took out some compression bandages from his bag. Jamie took out a pair of scissors and cut Harry’s bloody uniform shirt away so that he would have better access to the wounds. With Lee’s help they unwrapped the compression bandages and applied them. Jamie had to use some of the bandaging to wipe the blood from the skin on Harry’s back so that he could apply gauze and tape to hold the bandages in place. Once that was done Jamie had Lee move back and the corpsmen stepped in and helped to gently turn Harry over onto his back. They then carefully picked him up and placed him on the open stretcher which had been positioned next to his body on the deck. Jamie then put his stethoscope to his ears and took a better listen to Harry’s breathing. He also took out his pen light and checked his pupils. They were unequal and reaction to light was sluggish. Jamie determined that Harry also was suffering from a possible concussion.

“Sounds like his left lung is filling with blood and possibly collapsing,” Jamie stated.

He took out a scalpel and a short piece of plastic tubing from his black bag which he handed to Frank, one of his corpsmen.

He felt with his fingers along Harry’s ribcage and once he was certain he had the right spot Jamie made a small, deep incision with the scalpel then directed Frank to insert the tubing into the incision. When this was achieved and the positioning of the tube was correct blood began to drain out of the tubing. Jamie handed Frank the roll of bandaging tape so that he could tape the tube in place for transport. Then Jamie put his stethoscope back on and listened again. The gurgling was almost minimal and he could tell Harry was breathing a little better and less labored.

Jamie removed the stethoscope and hung it around his neck.

“Alright Frank…Sam,” Jamie said. “Cover him up with the blanket and lets’ get him up to sickbay as quickly as possible.

Frank put the blanket over Harry to keep him warm as he was already in shock from the blood loss. Both he and the other corpsman Sam gently picked up the stretcher with Harry and headed out the hatch and down the corridor on their way to sickbay with Jamie.

Lee visibly shaken, his shirt sleeves covered in blood he was too concerned about his best friend and mentor to think of anything else at the moment so he went along with Jamie and the corpsmen to sickbay with the admiral.

Chip, his shirt sleeves also covered in blood went along with Chief Sharkey. The pair caught up with Gibbs and the other NCIS agents as they were making their search down the corridor and the storage compartments. Noticing the approach of the two officers they momentarily stopped so they could catch up.

“What happened Mr. Morton? Has anyone located the admiral?” Gibbs asked. Spotting Morton’s blood soaked shirt sleeves right away Gibbs became more concerned as his gut was starting to gnaw at him.

“Yes sir, Chip answered. “The admiral was attacked and left in the Ballast Pump Locker compartment. He’s in real bad shape.”

The chief added, “The son-of-bitch knifed him in the back a couple times and left him for dead.”

“Alright…I think it’s about time we nailed this bastard,” Gibbs exclaimed. “I want him…alive or dead…doesn’t matter.”

That said the agents all drew their side arms and began a systematic search for the imposter. The goal now was to take him down. All anyone heard over the next several minutes was the sound of voices yelling “federal agents” and doors being kicked open and voices yelling “clear” when the compartments were found to be empty. Then suddenly as they kicked open one of the doors shots rang out.

“Agent David yelled, “Federal Agent, put down your weapon!” as she held her gun aimed at the door way of the storage compartment where the imposter was hiding and more gun fire erupted. Ziva quickly stepped back next to the wall beside the doorway to avoid being hit by flying bullets and when the gunfire stopped Ziva rushed in and as soon as the imposter started to stand up behind some crates he was using for cover, before he could fire off another shot she took quick aim; fired one shot; fatally wounding the imposter with a shot to the head.

Ziva stepped over to the motionless body with her pistol still trained on the man; quickly kicked the gun he used away from his body. Gibbs followed by DiNozzo rushed into the compartment where Ziva had just killed the man. Gibbs stepped over next to the body. Taking a close look at his face it quickly became apparent that he was wearing some kind of rubbery mask as it appeared to be coming loose below his ear. Before anything was done with the body Gibbs ordered his agents to go get together their crime scene gear which had been stowed in their cabins after coming aboard. All three agents raced out of the compartment and shortly returned with their bags. They placed their gear on surrounding crates. Ziva had begun to take crime scene photos of the body and artillery shells that lay scattered about on the deck. McGee placed crime scene markers around the area and DiNozzo began bagging and tagging all the evidence.

When you finish with this area I need you three to go to the Ballast Locker Room as that is also a crime scene.

“Got it boss,” Tony replied.

Gibbs turned towards the door and noticed Chief Sharkey and Chip Morton standing just outside the door in the corridor looking in. Just then Kowalski and Patterson came and stood behind Sharkey and Morton. Kowalski craned his neck as he peered into the storage room in an attempt to get a look at the object of their search. He really couldn’t see anything as his view was blocked by the stack of crates that stood between him and the man that now lay dead on the deck.

“Mr. Morton, until further notice this area is off limits as it’s now a crime scene,” Gibbs said.

“Very well, I’ll give the order to all hands,” Chip said.

“Also the Ballast Pump Locker and adjacent corridor as well, it’s also a crime scene. I’ll have my agents start processing that as well.”

“Very well Agent Gibbs. Both areas will be posted out of bounds until you give the all clear,” Chip told Gibbs. Gibbs noticed Chip appeared somewhat shaken and looking at his watch. They had about a half hour before they had to destroy Mason’s underwater installation.

“Hey, you guys get out of here and go destroy that damn magnet thing before it’s too late,” Gibbs said to both Chip and Sharkey. “We’ll take care of this.”

“Right, Chip replied. “Sharkey go to the missile room and set up torpedo tubes one thru four to fire when I give you the order.”

“Aye sir,” Sharkey replied as he turned and ran out the door heading to the missile room.

Chip took one last look at Gibbs, Ziva, and the motionless body lying on the deck then headed out the door and up to the control room.

~~~~~~

In the meantime Jamie and his corpsmen delivered Harry to sickbay and placed him on a gurney. Right away Sam brought over the oxygen cart and placed an oxygen mask over Harry’s nose and mouth, adjusting the oxygen flow rate up to 4 liters when Jamie indicated that should be fine. They could adjust the flow rate as needed later. Jamie on one side and Frank on the other proceeded to rapidly cut and remove the clothing from Harry’s still body and replace it with a surgical gown. Then Frank immediately started an IV on Jamie’s orders of lactated ringers in one arm while Jamie started another IV in the other arm and started giving Harry blood which he had taken from the ships on board blood bank. Before anything else Jamie had to work at getting Harry’s vitals stabilized.

Lee stood back watching; deep concern etched on his face. The admiral had never regained consciousness since being found and brought to sick bay.

Jamie put on his stethoscope again and listened to Harry’s heart and breathing. Frank had put a blood pressure cuff on the upper arm with the Lactated Ringers IV and left it in place so they could periodically check his blood pressure.

“Frank, bring in the monitor cart…we need to get the admiral hooked up so we can do round the clock monitoring of all his vitals,” Jamie ordered.

“Yes sir,” Frank responded as he momentarily went and brought the cart back and started hooking Harry up, attaching the leads and wires. He had everything hooked up in a matter of minutes.

“Oh my god,” Jamie said in a hushed voice upon finding a large area with deep purple bruising on Harry’s right side beneath his arm. “This looks like he was hit with something hard in the rib cage or possibly he was kicked. What kind of a mad man does this to another human being?” Jamie said as tears began to well up in his eyes. As quickly as he said that, Jamie shook it off and snapped back to the task at hand. Jamie wasn’t happy with his preliminary findings after checking Harry’s vitals. He put his stethoscope around his neck again and walked over to where Lee was standing by watching.

“Jamie?” Lee said in a hushed voice.

“I can’t tell you much right now skipper. He’s in critical condition. He’s lost a lot of blood. Right now we’re working on getting him stabilized. We have to do that before I can start fixing any of his wounds. I’ve started transfusing him and we’re pumping him with fluids thru IV’s. We’re lucky we got to him when we did or I doubt he would have made it this far. It’ll be awhile. I’ll need you to get out of here so we can continue working on him. I’ll keep you posted if there is any change.

“O-OK Jamie…I-ah-I’ll be in the control room…keep me posted,” Lee said as he took one last long look at the admiral laying there motionless on the gurney with IV tubing and wires running everywhere and an oxygen mask covering his face, then turned and went out the door and headed to the control room.

Jamie turned to Frank, “good now that the skipper’s gone we need to get him catheterized so we can monitor his fluid levels in and out. I need to figure out just how much damage he sustained to his kidney,” Jamie said. “I didn’t want to have to stop working on the admiral but I also didn’t think it would be good for the skipper to see everything that we need to do. The admiral’s being in here and his present condition is hard enough on him. I’m afraid this is going to be a rough one and I don’t really need the skipper underfoot right now either.”

“Yes sir,” Frank said.

“When we’re done with this I need you to check the blood bank. I think we’re going to need to give him more blood before we’re able to get him stabilized,” Jamie said. “Sam I need you to bring in the portable x-ray machine. I want to do a full body set. We need to make sure there isn’t anything else we’re having to deal with here.”

“Right doc,” Sam said as he momentarily left and brought the x-ray machine in. After all the x-rays were shot and the pictures put up for Jamie to review, as Jamie checked each picture. As he suspected Harry had a couple cracked ribs where he had been hit with something or kicked. At least they were only cracked so he didn’t have to worry about the possibility of a broken rib puncturing one of his lungs since he already had damage to one. Upon checking the x ray of his skull he had his suspicions confirmed that Harry also had a concussion. Damn, that means once he starts regaining consciousness, if he does, we’ll have to hold back on any sedation until we know exactly what we’re dealing with,” Jamie said.

~~~~~~

Upon entering the control room from the aft hatch Chip announced,” Sparks I’ve got the con. He then gave the order, “activate bow camera.” Chip then stepped over by the big TV monitor and ordered Phil to turn it on. As the monitor came to life the ocean terrain became visible. Just then Lee emerged from the aft hatch into the control room.

“Chip, give me a status update,” Lee said.

“We are about 15 minutes from our scheduled target. Chief Sharkey has gone to the missile room to set up torpedo tubes one through four ready for firing on your order,” Chip said.

“Good” Lee replied.

“How’s the admiral?” Chip asked.

“I don’t know anything yet. Jamie was trying to get him stabilized when I left. It doesn’t sound very good. He lost a lot of blood. Jamie said if they’d been any longer getting to him he didn’t think he’d still be alive,” Lee said with great sadness in his voice. “Jamie will call and let me know when there’s any change.”

“I’m sorry Lee,” Chip said. “I know how hard this is on you, you being so close to the admiral.”

“Thanks Chip,” Lee responded. “Right now we have to concentrate on blowing up that undersea installation. That’s what the admiral would want. Hopefully we are in time. If not it won’t matter if the admiral gets better…nothing will matter then.”

“Yes sir” Chip responded as they both watched the monitor screen for any sign of Mason’s underwater installation.

Lee turned and took the mic from its bracket on the periscope island.

“Missile room, report,” Lee called over the PA.

“Missile room, Chief Sharkey reporting, aye sir,” Sharkey responded over the intercom.

“Sharkey, torpedoes ready for firing?” Lee requested.

“Aye sir, torpedo tubes one, two, three, and four, all ready for firing sir on your order, Sharkey said.

“Sharkey, ready tubes five and six also. I don’t want to leave anything to chance, “Lee ordered.

“Aye sir, preparing torpedo tubes five and six, ready to fire on your order sir.”

“Very well,” Lee said then replaced the mic in its bracket.

“Kowalski, picking up anything on sonar?” Lee asked.

“Sonar is clear sir,” Kowalski responded.

Lee looked at his watch, they were still about 8 minutes from target. He and Chip continued to watch the monitor screen.

“Riley, go forward to the nose and stand look-out duty. Sing out if you spot anything,” Lee ordered.

“Aye, aye skipper,” Riley responded as he quickly got up, motioning for Ron to take over as left his station. Ron quickly took his place as Riley quickly moved to his duty station in the nose.

Lee began nervously pacing as another four minutes ticked away.

“Come-on…where is it? The admiral said it had to be around here but where...dammit…we’re running out of time,” Lee said as he was growing tenser by the minute. Lee and Chip both made eye contact for a few seconds. Just then Agent Gibbs entered the control room with Agent David following closely behind.

“Anything spotted yet Captain Crane?” Gibbs asked.

‘No not yet,” Lee answered as he shook his head.

“There is still time is there not captain?” Agent David asked.

Lee just nodded in response to the question. All his concentration was on the TV monitor and sonar.

“Sir, the body and both crime scenes are bagged and tagged,” Tony told Gibbs as he and McGee joined the group.

“Boss, the body and all crime scene evidence is being stored in the subs freezer,” McGee added.

“Good work boys,” Gibbs said.

Just then; “Skipper! Sonar shows contact on the ocean floor dead ahead three thousand yards and closing,” Kowalski announced.

All eyes suddenly turned to the large monitor screen.

“Great,” Lee said as he grabbed the mic from the periscope island bracket.

“Missile Room,” Lee called over the PA.

“Missile Room, aye sir,” the response came over the speaker.

“That you chief?” the captain responded back.

“Aye sir,” was Sharkey’s response.

“Great, make final preparations to fire torpedoes on my orders chief.”

“Very well sir, torpedoes one thru six primed and ready, standing by to fire on your orders sir,” Sharkey answered over the PA.

Turning to Kowalski and sonar, “Ski, what’s the range now?” Lee asked.

“Twenty Five hundred feet and closing sir,” Kowalski said.

“Engine room, all ahead three quarter speed,” Lee ordered.

“Good, as soon as we are within one thousand yards start calling out the range at two hundred fifty yard intervals until we reach five hundred yards then call out at one hundred yard intervals…got that Ski” Lee asked.

“You bet skipper, present distance two thousand yards and closing sir,” Kowalski responded.

All eyes were on the monitor screen as Kowalski continued to call out the range.

“Seventeen hundred fifty yards and still closing sir,” Kowalski said.

“Chip, when we reach five hundred yards I want you to give the order to secure silent running,” Lee ordered.

“Aye skipper,” Chip answered.

“Present range fifteen hundred yards and closing sir,” Kowalski called out.

“Chief, just in case load aft torpedo tubes one thru four,” Lee ordered over the PA.

“Aye, aye sir,” Sharkey responded.

Come on you guys let’s get those tubes loaded ASAP!” Sharkey ordered the missile room crew.

It only took the experienced missile room crew no time at all to get the tubes loaded and ready to fire.

“Captain, are you anticipating trouble?” Gibbs asked.

Lee responded,” I’m not leaving anything to chance. It wouldn’t surprise me to find we have a hostile sub on our tail as we are heading to destroy Mason’s facility now that we’re so close. Besides I would expect them to have a sub on station to patrol the perimeter around the installation.”

“Captain, it’s well known that Admiral Nelson picked you to command the Seaview. I’m beginning to see why,” Gibbs commented.

“Actually most of the crew on Seaview are hand-picked by the admiral. He didn’t want to leave his dream boat to chance,” Lee appeared pensive as he commented. “I just hope after all this mess is over that he’s going to be alright. I had hoped that Jamie would have had an update on his condition before now.”

“I don’t pretend to know Harry as well as you do skipper but I’m sure he’s fighting to come back. Harry has always struck me as a fighter,” Gibbs said.

“Yes, he is definitely a fighter. He’s fought his way out of many bad situations just like this one or worse. I would just feel better had he regained consciousness before I left sickbay,” Lee said as he maintained his concentration on their intended target.

“What’s our range now Kowalski?” Lee asked as he was starting to get antsy.

“Range one thousand yards sir and closing,” Ski responded.

“Are you picking up anything else in the area Ski?” Lee asked.

“Its all clear so far skipper,” Kowalski reported.

“Very well, let me know the instant you pick up anything,” Lee ordered.

“Aye sir,” Ski answered.

“Engine room, all ahead dead slow,” Lee ordered.

Sweat was starting to bead on Lee’s forehead from the tension he was under. Kowalski and Chip were also beginning to sweat. Gibbs remained pretty cool under the pressure as well as Agent David. Agents DiNozzo and McGee were also beginning to sweat under the stress of waiting for the attack to begin.

“Range, seven hundred fifty yards,” Kowalski announced.

Sharkey was beginning to sweat as he felt they were getting close to the target and soon would need to fire the torpedoes.

“Range five hundred yards.”

Taking the mic momentarily from Lee, Chip gave the order “secure silent running, repeat, secure silent running” Then handed the mic back to the skipper.

“Four hundred yards - - - three hundred yards---“, Kowalski called out.

“That’s close enough…Missile room…chief fire torpedoes two and four,” Lee ordered.

“Torpedo two and four fired as ordered sir,” Chief Sharkey responded as the unmistakable sound of the torpedoes leaving the tubes heading for the intended target was heard.

“Fire torpedoes one and three,” Lee ordered.

“Torpedoes one and three fired as ordered sir,” Chief Sharkey again responded.

About that time Kowalski yelled, direct hits on target sir torpedoes two and four…another hit torpedo one…hit again sir …torpedo three sir. Strong turbulence headed our way sir,” Kowalski told the skipper.

“All hands, brace for impact, percussion waves about to hit...”

Before he could finish the Seaview was being tossed in a side to side rolling motion from the percussions of the torpedo explosive impacts upon the target. With the percussive waves and rolling motion of the Seaview it was hard for anyone trying to stand to keep their footing. Many of the crew including the skipper and all the NCIS agents where being flung from one side of the control room to the other. While trying to stay on their feet they were trying like everything to avoid being bashed into control panels or the periscope island. The force from the explosions was enough that most finally lost their battle to stay afoot and wound up sprawled on the deck. One the waves and the rolling motion of the sub subsided after several minutes everyone began to get back on their feet.

“Mr. Morton, get a damage control report”, Lee ordered.

Picking up the mic from the chart table bracket Chip gave the order over the PA system “Damage control, make report.”

“Damage control, all green sir,” they responded.

“Very well,” Chip answered back.

“Damage control reports all green sir,” Chip reported to Lee.

Just about then Kowalski yelled out,” Skipper, unidentified fast propellers bearing 090 sir.”

A quick check of the sonar screen by the captain revealed they in fact had a sub fast approaching.

The mic still in his hand Lee ordered “Battle Stations!”

“Chip gave the orders “Battle Stations, Battle Stations” and pushed the button to sound the klaxon to alert the crew they were now on full battle alert.

Lee gave the order “rig for attack.”

“Skipper, two torpedoes coming towards us on collision course,” Kowalski yelled.

“Full speed ahead, hard right rudder!” Lee ordered over the PA.

“Hard right rudder, aye sir” came the immediate response.

Lee didn’t hesitate. “Missile room, prepare to fire aft torpedoes one and two on my order chief!”

“Aye sir,” Sharkey answered back.

As Seaview continued her maneuvers the two torpedoes fired at them by the hostile sub barely missed.

“Mr. Morton, how much room between us and the bottom?” Lee asked.

“We’re in a deep ravine skipper sixty thousand feet keel to bottom sir,” Chip answered.

“Good, take us down to five thousand feet Chip!” Lee ordered.

Chip gave the order, “Dive all dive…take us down to five thousand feet!”

“Aye sir…”

As the Seaview continued to go deeper the enemy sub fired another torpedo.

“Skipper, torpedo fired on this heading on collision course!” Kowalski hollered.

“Hard left rudder!” Lee ordered.

Again the enemies torpedo was a close miss as it continued to sail on past Seaview and impact into a large rock formation.

Still the Seaview continued her way down.

“How far can Seaview go down captain?” Gibbs asked.

“Don’t worry Gibbs. The sub following us will have to give up long before we come anywhere close to crush depth. It can’t go anywhere near as deep as we can. They’ll have to back off soon or they’ll implode from the pressure.”

“This is definitely more exciting than the other subs we have visited,” Agent David offered.

“You may find this exciting Ziva, but I for one will be glad when this is over and we are on our way back to D.C.,” DiNozzo countered.

“Don’t worry Tony, this sub is far more advanced than anything we’ve been on before or anything the Navy has for that matter. Admiral Nelson built this baby with all the bells and whistles and then some. She’ll stand up to a lot more than this,” McGee stated.

Both Lee and Chip were amazed that McGee knew so much about Seaview.

“How do you know so much about the admiral and Seaview?” Lee asked McGee.

“I’ve been a life-long fan of Admiral Nelson and his many inventions, his theories, and dreams. I’ve read everything I could get my hands on ever since I was able to read. Science has always fascinated me and I’ve always been fascinated by everything he’s accomplished,” McGee answered.

“Well McGee, hopefully the admiral will recover enough before you leave so you can tell him in person. I think he would appreciate that. I know he has effected many of us much the same way. He always seems to be able to come up with answers to get us out of the worst predicaments. He came up with the answer to save the world from Mason’s electro magnate before anyone else even knew what was going on,” Lee said as it was apparent he was thinking of his best friend and mentor, wondering why there had not yet been any update from Jamie in sickbay. Lee began to think to himself…God he has to get better, he has to recover…the Seaview…the institute….nothing would be the same without him.

“What’s our depth Chip?” Lee asked.

“Depth is three thousand feet skipper,” Chip replied.

“Sparks, try raising that sub. Tell them to back off or they will implode,” Lee ordered Sparks.

“I’ve tried Skipper, I get no response from the sub.” Sparks answered.

As Seaview approached four thousand feet, all eyes were on the skipper and the depth gauge.

The enemy sub was relentlessly following her down.

“She can’t follow us much deeper before…

Just then the enemy sub imploded with great force.

Realizing that the force of the implosion would generate shock waves Lee immediately barked the order over the intercom,” all hands, brace yourself!”...

Before Lee could finish, the sub was suddenly hit by several massive shock waves causing the Seaview to violently lurch from side to side. As the men desperately tried to hang on to stabilize themselves, the force of the blast caused some to lose their grip and were tossed about like rag dolls. Though this lasted for mere minutes it seemed to go on endlessly. Once the shock waves subsided and the sub gained even keel again those that managed to hang on for the duration quickly rushed to aid those that had been tossed to the deck. While most were merely shaken and bruised by the event, some sustained injuries and were helped down to sickbay where the available corpsmen tended to their injuries.

Luckily the captain, XO, and most of those on duty in the control room had come through the episode in good shape.

“Mr. Morton, contact damage control, get a damage report,” Lee said. “Also, check with sick bay and see if there any casualties.”

“Damage control, this is the exec. Give me a damage report,” Chip ordered.

Just then the PA system crackled to life. “This is damage control, sir. No damages to report.

“Sick bay, this is the exact. Do you have any casualties to report?” Chip said.

“This is sick bay. No serious injuries to report sir. Most are either return to duty or sent to their quarters to rest. No fatalities reported sir.”

Chip quickly made his reports. “Lee, looks like we’re okay. Sick bay reports no fatalities or serious injuries. Nobody required Jamie’s services. All were able to either return to duty or sent to rest in their quarters with the orders to report back to sickbay if they had need.”

“That’s good, Jamie has his hands full taking care of the admiral right now. What about the damage report?” Lee asked.

“We’re okay. Damage Control has no reports of any damage,” Chip replied.

“That’s great news,” Lee said. “I’m surprised as strong as those shock waves that hit us were.”

“Very well then, secure from battle stations Mr. Morton,” Lee ordered.

“Aye sir …secure battle stations,” Chip ordered over the PA.

“Chip, take us up to 200 feet, then set a course for Santa Barbara, at flank speed,” Lee ordered.

Just then Jamie was hailing the captain over the PA.

“Captain, this is sickbay,” Jamie said.

“This is the captain,” Lee answered.

“Captain… can you come to sickbay… right away sir?”

“I’ll be right there doc,” Lee responded. He didn’t like the sound of Jamie’s voice. He sounded down. Lee hoped with all his might that it was because Jamie was tired and that it didn’t mean the admiral had taken a turn for the worse.

“Mr. Morton you have the con,” Lee ordered as he began to head out of the control room.

“Captain… could you use some company?” Gibbs asked noting the heavy concerned look etched in Lee’s face.

“Yes…thank you,” Lee said. Then the two men hurried off towards sickbay.

As Jamie saw both men enter sickbay, beings as the second man was from NCIS, “What is this? Are you here to collect more evidence?” Jamie asked…it was obvious that he was irritated by Agent Gibbs sudden appearance in sick bay. “The admirals not dead…at least not yet.”

“Jamie, he offered to come along with me in case the news wasn’t favorable,” Lee said.

“I see” Jamie responded. ”Skipper it’s been touch and go over the last several hours but the admirals finally beginning to stabilize. I wanted to wait to have you come to sick bay for an update but someone insisted he wanted to see you.”

“The admiral?”

“Yes, in here,” as Jamie motioned to one of the side rooms. “Don’t be too shocked by what you see skipper, he’s not out of the woods by a long shot yet and he’s still hooked up to a lot of equipment so we can keep monitoring his condition but he is stabilized, as I said,” Jamie explained.

As Lee entered the room followed by Gibbs, seeing the admiral on the gurney hooked up to even more equipment than the last time he saw him, he swallowed hard then slowly approached and stood at his side.

“Admiral?” Lee whispered.

When there was no response Lee reached down and touched his hand.

After a moment or so Harry’s eyes began to flutter as he slowly opened his eyes. He was so tired and groggy from the ordeal…plus he was having difficulty focusing his eyes. He was so worn out and in a lot of pain. All his body wanted to do at this point was sleep. But Harry wanted to know if they had destroyed Mason’s installation on time, if the imposter had been caught and deep down he felt he had to fight to stay awake if only for a moment to reassure Lee that he was fighting to come back with everything he had left to fight with “L…Lee,” was all Harry could get out.

“Admiral,” Lee leaned in close and whispered, don’t try to talk...the mission was successful. Mason’s installation was destroyed in time.”

“Your imposter is dead,” Gibbs offered. “Agent David shot and killed him...turns out it was Mason.”

Harry couldn’t believe what he heard. “M-Ma-son? H-How”..., Harry said, barely in a whisper.

“Admiral please don’t try to talk now,” Jamie said. “You need to save your strength otherwise I’ll have to ask everyone to leave.”

“I’m sure you have lots of unanswered questions sir. It will have to wait for now. I’ve had a new course set and we’re headed home to Santa Barbara at full speed,” Lee said as he placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“That was all Harry needed to hear. He quickly lost his battle to stay conscious.

Jamie, is he OK?” Lee asked.

Jamie quickly took a listen with his stethoscope. After removing the plugs from his ears and hanging the scope over his neck he let out a short sigh. “He’s OK, he’s just gone back to sleep. Sleep is what he needs most right now. He has to rest and get a lot stronger before I can perform surgery on him to repair the wounds from being stabbed by that madman. He’ll do a lot better if you can keep from rocking this boat around though,” Jamie said with a small tight grin.

“Yes doc, I expect smooth sailing from here to Santa Barbara so he should be able to get plenty of rest,” Lee said a grin forming on his lips.

“Skipper, I recommend that you go get some sleep yourself. You’ll need to have your strength up for when we do the surgery and then there’s the time involved it will take him to recover. At this point I can’t even begin to guess how long that will take but the admiral will need to be on restrictive duty which I will need your assistance to make sure he obeys my orders,” Jamie added.

“Jamie when do you think you’ll be able to do the surgery?” Lee wanted some idea so he could have some estimate on just how long he would have to rest before they reached port.

“Right now the plan is to hold off until we are back in Santa Barbara. I’d rather perform the surgery at Med bay. We may wind up having to transport him to the hospital. At any rate I expect that Harry will continue to sleep the entire trip back,” Jamie reassured the skipper.

“Do you prefer to rest in your cabin or would you like one of the bunks here in sick bay so you can stay close to the admiral? ---though I doubt it will make much difference to him. I’d be surprised if he wakes up again before we reach port,” Jamie added.

“I have some things to do then I can go get some rest in my cabin,” Lee said.

“We have to finish up some stuff for our reports and I think my team can use some rest too before we get back,” Gibbs offered.

“Thanks for being here with me…just in case,” Lee told Gibbs.

Both men left sick bay and headed back up to the control room. Gibbs gathered with his team and they headed to their quarters to put some things together about the case. Gibbs wanted to be ready should Director Vance call again wanting a progress report. The plan for now was to gather all the evidence and body together to be packed aboard a C130 when they got back to Santa Barbara and the team head back to NCIS Headquarters in Washington D.C. where Doctor Donald Mallard or “Ducky” as he was affectionately called by his co-workers would perform the autopsy on the body and all forensic evidence would be handed over to Abbie Sciuto to run tests on in her lab.

Day one, back in home port.

Once the Seaview was back in port, the NCIS agents gathered up all their gear and headed over to the nearby airfield where they boarded a C130 with the body and collected evidence and took off back to the D.C. Navy Yard and the NCIS headquarters.

Now it was time to get the admiral moved from Seaview’s sick bay and relocate him. Jamie had decided to transfer Harry to Cottage Hospital, a 483 bed acute care teaching hospital in Santa Barbara. Jamie had originally planned on transferring Harry to the institute Med bay but felt the damage to his lung was extensive enough he would be better off having the surgery done at the local hospital. Jamie had contacted a couple specialists and made arrangements so they would be ready to receive the admiral when they arrived.

“Be very careful with all those leads Frank,” Jamie ordered. We’ll want to get him hooked back up as soon as we have him situated at the hospital.”

“Yes sir,” Frank answered.

Harry was covered with a sheet and a light weight blanket on top of that. “Hook that air hose to one of the smaller portable oxygen tanks,” Jamie said. They laid the tank on top the gurney between Harry’s legs to keep it from rolling off. “Let’s put another blanket over him Frank,” Jamie said. I don’t want him getting chilled during the transfer to the hospital.

Once everything was disconnected and set up to remove the admiral from sickbay…”Ok men, let’s move him as carefully and quickly as possible,” Jamie ordered. Harry was so worn out that he never woke up during the entire procedure to move him from Seaview’s sickbay and take him to the hospital by ambulance. Lee Crane and most of the senior officers followed in their own vehicles. On his way Lee swung by the institute and stopped by the admin building to check and see if there were any important messages that needed immediate attention. There he found Angie at her desk outside the admirals’ office.

“Oh Lee, I’m so glad you are all back home. How’s the admiral?” Angie asked, tears welling in her eyes. “We’ve all been so worried ever since we got your message about him being hurt.”

“He’s holding his own so far, Angie. He’s a fighter you know”, Lee tried to reassure her.

“I know but it sounded so bad this time,” Angie said. “

The unshed tears began falling uncontrollably. Lee wrapped his arms around Angie as she leaned her head against his chest as she continued to cry, the hot tears soaking Lee’s khaki uniform shirt.

“Yes, I know,” Lee said in a low voice. “He woke up once but he’s been pretty much out of it ever since. Jamie says he’s just worn out and he’s just needing rest. He’s had a hell of a fight and he lost a lot of blood right after the attack,” Lee explained. “He’s still with us…he’s still fighting. It’ll help once Jamie and the specialists can get in there and repair what that maniac did to him.”

Angie pulled back away from Lee’s embrace and looked into his eyes.

“Any idea... when that will be?” she asked, as she sniffled and the tears began to stop.

“We should know more once the admiral gets settled in at the hospital and the surgery is set up. Other than that I don’t really know much else. Soon as I finish here I’m heading over there. He was gaining some strength while in sickbay,” Lee offered. I just pray he can pull thru this. He’s dodged the bullet so many times. I just pray this isn’t the end…I don’t know what I’d do…” Lee’s voice trailed off as he attempted to vocalize the unthinkable.

“Lee, you know that whatever happens we are all here for you just as we are for the admiral. Everyone will stand by you no matter what…you know that,” Angie reassured Lee.

“I know,” Lee said. “It doesn’t look like there’s much going on here. Angie, why don’t you close down the office…set up a message on the phone in case anyone should call. I’m sure you want to come along over to the hospital and wait with the rest of us,” Lee stated the obvious as they had both gone through this scenario more times than either liked to remember. “If you want you can ride over with me,” Lee said.

“Thank you, Lee…that’s a very tempting offer,” Angie said. “However, if it’s OK I think I’ll take my own car since right now we have no idea how long it will be before Jamie’s able to do the surgery and I may need to leave earlier than you,” Angie replied.

“Of course, “Lee answered. “You are probably right. None of us right now knows how long we might be standing by. If there is anything you need, please let Chip or me know.”

“Actually I was thinking more in terms if you needed something Lee. I know how hard this is on you. You and the admiral seem to always be standing vigil for the other when one of you is hurt,” Angie added, her voice starting to break up a bit as tears began to stream down her face again.

Lee knew of course, that Angie was right on target with that last comment. All he could do is nod in response. Angie pulled herself together, grabbed a tissue to dry her eyes and blow her nose. Then she recorded a quick phone greeting, as Lee made sure that the admirals’ office was locked up tight. Then as they were leaving Angie locked the outer door to her office and they both headed for the private institute parking lot and their vehicles.

~~~~~~

As Lee, Chip, and Angie were waiting in the private waiting area outside of ICU at the hospital, the admiral was being examined. Chief Sharkey showed up with Kowalski, Riley, Patterson, and Sparks in tow.

“Any word on the admirals’ condition yet skipper,” Sharkey asked.

“He’s about the same as he was before they moved him from Seaview,” Lee reported. “We’re waiting to see if they will be taking him in to surgery right away or if they plan on waiting for him to stabilize more.”

After the chief took a brief look around and noted that Chip, and Angie all had an empty or mostly empty foam coffee cup in front of them and noticing there was a coffee maker over on a counter in the room…excuse me, would anyone like some more coffee?” Chief Sharkey asked.

“Oh thank you, none for me right now chief,” Angie answered.

“I’m good for now chief, thanks,” Chip replied.

“How about you skipper?” Sharkey asked Lee.

“Oh, I think that coffee maker is about empty chief,” Lee commented.

“No worries skipper, I’ll clean it out and make another pot. I’m sure some of the guys would like a cup while we’re waiting for the doc to come out,” Sharkey said.

“That’s fine chief,” Lee said as he was continuing his pacing back and forth, an empty foam cup in his hand, when the chief and the men first came in.

“Have you all been here very long?” Chief Sharkey asked. “I could have a couple of the guys make a run and get some food if it looks like it will be awhile.”

“That’s OK chief…I’m not sure any of us feels much like eating right now,” Lee answered.

Chief Sharkey took the pot from the coffee maker and rinsed it out in a nearby sink then re-filled the coffee maker with water to make a full pot then added the filter and coffee and set the controls to brew another pot. Then noted that the guys should find a place to sit and wait. The chief was so worried about the admiral he found it impossible to sit so he began some pacing of his own. After about five minutes he suddenly stopped when he noticed the skipper had stopped because Jamie had come into the waiting area.

“What’s the word Jamie?” Lee asked.

“He hasn’t lost any ground during the move from sickbay. He’s so worn down he never woke up during the whole time which in a way is good. The other doctors and I agree it would be better if he were a little stronger before proceeding with the surgery but we’re very concerned of the possibility of infection setting up in that lung. I really need to get back in there. The consensus is to go ahead and do the surgery now, fix the puncture wound to his lung as well as his kidney. It was agreed that at this point it’s more likely he will recover more quickly if we go ahead with the surgery now rather than wait,” Jamie said as he laid everything out so everyone would understand. “Right now if we were to wait a day, or even two at the outside, it’s doubtful he will be all that much stronger. If an infection gets hold in his weakened state, he’s more likely to get worse again. The consensus is... in that event, we’d most likely lose him.”

“I understand Jamie,” Lee said. “Should I be contacting Edith and have her come?”

“Yes, that’s a very good idea. However, we certainly can’t hold off doing surgery until she can get here,” Jamie said.

“I see…well we’ll just have to get her back here as soon as we can fly FS1 back and pick her up. It might help him with his recovery having her here. I do feel she should know her brother is in a bad way. We can get her back here...hopefully in time if he gets worse,” Lee said.

“At any rate, rather than wait any longer …we’ll be taking him into surgery in about fifteen minutes. I have no idea how long the surgery will take. I expect it will be long and difficult. I can have a nurse come out periodically to give you updates on his condition but that’s all. I won’t really know how he’s going to do until we finish up.”

“I understand Jamie…” Lee responded in almost a whisper.

As Jamie gave Lee’s shoulder a squeeze, he made eye contact…with a pat on the shoulder he said,” hang in there skipper…take care of yourself…he’s going to need you when we’re done.” Then Jamie turned and headed to go back into ICU.

Just then Jamie noticed Kowalski and Patterson who were now out in the hallway waiting. Jamie stopped briefly to tell them, “You guys take care of the skipper…make sure he eats something and gets some rest. Just be there for him in case he needs you.”

“Sure thing doc,” Kowalski replied as Jamie continued thru the double doors of ICU and disappeared.

A few minutes later the doors to ICU opened as the nurses wheeled Harry down to the other end of the hall and thru the double doors of surgery.

~~~~~~

It seemed like hours had passed but actually had been about two hours when one of the surgical nurses came into the waiting area.

“My goodness, I guess you all are here waiting to hear on the admiral” as everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing.

“How’s the surgery going?” Lee asked.

“You are Captain Crane?” the nurse asked.

“Yes”, Lee replied and everyone here is with me.

“Yes, well so far everything is going OK. The doctors are working on the damage to the lung right now. So far his condition is the same as when he went in, he’s holding his own. That’s about all I have for right now. We have no idea how long the surgery will take. I will be back out as soon as I can… maybe a couple hours. I’ll be back with an update.” The nurse gave a small smile then turned and headed back into the surgery wing.

“Another update in a couple hours…this surgery is going to take a long time. I hope he has the strength…” Lee let his voice trail off.

“Lee, you better go make that call to his sister,” Chip said. “She’s likely to be awfully upset and pissed if you don’t call her and it’s too late or she hears something from the media.”

“Ya Chip, I know. That’s what worries me. What if I call her and he takes a turn for the worse and something happens before she can get here?” Lee questioned out loud. “But I know, you’re right.”

Lee looked at his watch, then looked at the clock on the wall. It was getting late. It was 9PM which meant it was 12AM back in Boston. Never the less, Lee took out his cell phone and headed down the hall to go outside so he could use his phone to call Edith.

Lee was so wrapped-up in worry that he didn’t take a jacket with him and he didn’t notice once outside that the evening weather had turned a bit chilly or that it was lightly raining. He dialed the number for Edith in his cell phone and waited while it rang and rang until finally there was an answer on the fifth or sixth ring.

“Hello...” Edith said in a sleepy voice after being awakened by the ringing of the phone, her eyes not seeing yet. She didn’t notice the caller ID on her phone said Lee Crane Cell.

“Hello Edith, this is Lee.”

“Yes Lee, it’s rather late…is something wrong?” Edith asked as she tried to suppress a yawn.

“Edith, your brother was injured aboard Seaview. We just got him back to Santa Barbara and he’s in surgery,” Lee explained.

“Oh my god, what’s happened?” her voice growing louder,” Is Harry alright? You said he’s in surgery?” How bad is it?” With the sudden rush of adrenaline she was feeling Edith rapidly fired one question after another not pausing long enough to give Lee a chance to answer. Finally, after a couple minutes or so, she was slowing down so that Lee could answer.

“Edith, I can’t really go into a lot of detail over the phone. He was seriously injured on Seaview. We rushed him back to Santa Barbara as quickly as humanly possible, they took him into surgery a short time ago. We don’t know a lot so far. I’m sorry I don’t have more information for you right now,” Lee said.

“Lee, can you please send someone to pick me up so I can be there when he wakes up?” Edith asked. There were a few moments of silence. “Lee, are you still there?”…”Why didn’t anyone call me before now?”

“Sorry Edith, the doctor wanted me to wait to call you…”

“Well, never mind that now. We can discuss that later. Can you send that flying sub of yours to pick me up? I doubt I can get a commercial flight out there as quickly.”

“Yes, Yes of ‘course. I’ll get it set up right away. They’ll land there at the estate. It won’t be long. I’ll have Chip Morton pick you up. He’ll contact you once he is air born to let you know when he should be there and he’ll contact you as soon as he lands.”

“Thank you…Lee…and Lee he is OK isn’t he?”

“Right now…far as I know…he’s holding his own.”

“OK…Lee…See you soon.”

Lee couldn’t help but notice the change in the sound of Edith’s voice. He could tell she was beginning to break down.

“See you soon Edith…try to hang in there. It won’t be long until Chip is there to pick you up.” Lee said as he heard the click of the phone on the other end. All Lee could think at the minute was that his best friend and mentor had to make it through the surgery. He didn’t know how he could cope if he didn’t pull through or how he would ever be able to adequately explain to Edith if he was gone before she got there. After a minute or so Lee shook his head and dismissed the thought from his mind.

Lee put his cell phone back in his pocket and disappeared back inside the hospital. As he walked into the waiting area everyone noticed that Lee managed to get pretty soaked while outside making his phone call.

“Chip, I need you to take the flying sub and go pick up the admiral’s sister. She’s at the estate in Boston,” Lee ordered. “Get someone to go with you to co-pilot…take Chief Sharkey with you.”

“OK Lee, I’ll grab Sharkey and we’ll go back and to get the flying sub ready.”

“Good…thanks Chip. I’ll give you any updates on his condition while you’re gone,” Lee said.

“With any luck, we should be back here before the admiral is out of recovery and hopefully he’ll be awake by then,” Chip said as he hurriedly headed out with Chief Sharkey right behind him.

Driving the distance from the hospital to the institute grounds in record time without being pulled over by the police on the way for speeding, Chip drove to Seaview’s secret berthing area below ground where the sub was presently tied up. Once aboard Seaview, he and Chief Sharkey readied FS1 for immediate take-off and they began the flight back to Boston to pick up the admirals sister.

Meanwhile back at the hospital, Angie had just come into the waiting room…noticing the skipper’s wet clothing, without uttering a word she quickly disappeared for a few minutes and came back, with a set of green surgical scrubs, some towels, and a plastic bag for his wet things. “Lee,” Angie said, “I found you something dry to put on so you can change out of your wet uniform. It wouldn’t do for you to get chilled and wind up sick.”

“Oh thanks Angie” Lee said as he took the dry scrubs from her. I guess I didn’t notice it was raining when I was talking to Edith on my cell. I’ll go change now. As Lee started to head for the nearest men’s room to change Angie handed him the plastic bag that was neatly folded. “Lee,” Angie said, “here’s a bag you can put your wet stuff in. Also here’s some towels to dry off with.”

“Thanks Angie,” Lee said.

Lee headed for the nearest men’s room to change out of the wet clothing. He was only gone about five minutes and he returned in the dry clothing and his wet stuff in the bag.

Angie reached for the bag…”Lee, hand me that wet uniform...I’ll see it gets laundered for you.”

Lee handed the bag with his wet khaki’s and towels to Angie then began to slowly pace again. She noticed the captain had a slight shiver so she poured a cup of hot coffee then turned to face Lee… “Here Lee,” as she handed Lee the cup of hot brew. “You better drink this, it’ll help take some of that chill off.”

Lee took the cup and quickly gulped the hot liquid down. When he finished he sat the cup down on one of the tables in the waiting area and continued to slowly pace. Angie grabbed a magazine from one of the tables and opened it. She noticed it contained an article on one of her favorite subjects…container gardening. She turned to the article and began reading to help pass the time. Though she seemed to be reading she kept absent mindedly going over the same first couple of sentences over and over, not really reading what she was looking at. She was too distracted with worry about the admiral to concentrate on much of anything else. The time seemed to pass more slowly as they all continued to wait for word on the admiral’s condition.

Finally after a couple more hours passed the nurse appeared again.

“How’s the admiral doing?” Lee asked.

“The doctors have finally finished repairing the damage to his lung and have started on the wound and damage to his kidney though it doesn’t appear to be quite as bad as his lung was. I don’t think the person that attacked him planned on him surviving. Your admiral is one hell of a fighter is all I can say. His condition is about the same. The doctor thinks the rest of the surgery will go faster now. I’ll be back out when I know more.

Again the nurse disappeared before Lee could ask anything else.

~~~~~~

Chip flew the flying sub back to Boston in record time. He contacted Harry’s sister soon as they landed. Kowalski rushed up to the front door of the mansion and helped Edith with her luggage and they were aboard the flying sub and on the way back to Seaview and Santa Barbara in no time.

~~~~~~

As Lee was pacing up and down the hallway now, he’d grown tired of pacing the waiting area and the hallway gave him more space if not a little change of scene. His pacing was taking him back into the waiting area to get another cup of coffee when the nurse appeared again.

“Lee looked at his watch then at the nurse. Before he could say anything the nurse began to give him an update. “The doctors are almost finished with the repair of his kidney. Once that is done they will close up and finish. The admiral should be going to recovery within the next hour or so. His condition hasn’t really changed. He’s still seems to be doing OK. Doctor Jamison will come out when they’re done and give you a full update and let you know when you might be able to see him.”

“Thank you nurse…”

“Smith…My name is Brenda Smith and you are quite welcome captain. The admiral must be quite a man to have this many loyal people waiting for him all this time.”

“He is that Brenda…he’s very special to all of us. We’re all like family.”

“Well, you’ll be seeing him soon I suspect. I wish him and all of you the best.”

Nurse Smith disappeared once more.

Lee was so overcome with relief that he finally collapsed into one of the chairs in the waiting room. Angie had tears of joy streaking down her face.

Almost exactly when the nurse said, Jamie finally appeared. He was worn out from being in surgery for the past several hours. He collapsed into the chair next to the one Lee occupied and took a few minutes to catch his breath.

How is he Jamie?” Lee finally asked.

“He’s OK. He came through the surgery OK. I won’t lie. This was a bad one. That maniac that stabbed him didn’t intend for him to survive. He did a lot of damage to his lung. That’s what took most of the time to repair. There was some damage to the kidney but most of it was the lung. He’s going to be on oxygen and IV antibiotics for a while and he’ll have to go through some extensive respiratory therapy to strengthen that lung. It won’t be easy. I imagine he’ll be pretty miserable. The therapy will be downright painful and hopefully he doesn’t start fighting having it done. It’ll be necessary if he expects to fully recover. Beyond that mostly getting a lot of rest and time will take care of the rest. When he gets stronger and is fully conscious I expect to have a fight on my hands not only keeping him in bed but he’s not going to like not being able to have any cigarettes,” Jamie commented.

“No cigarettes,” I see this recovery is going to be pretty rough in more ways than one… and for everyone involved,” Lee said as he thought about how hostile he’s likely to get because of the pain involved and having to go without his nicotine habit.

“We’ll have to see on that one…as bad as this was he might surprise us. It’ll be impossible for him to tolerate inhaling any cigarettes for quite a while… maybe he’ll give them up,” Jamie offered.

“How long before I can see him?”

“We’ll have to play it by ear…he may sleep for a long time after such a long and difficult surgery. I’ll be giving him medication for pain but nothing to help him sleep…not with the lung involvement plus he also has the concussion. Last thing he needs now is to build up any congestion. That’s why he won’t get any sedation…only respiratory therapy.”

“I see…oh and his sister is on her way here. I had Chip take the flying sub to go pick her up. She should be here I imagine before he wakes up. Maybe you can enlist her help with his recovery,” Lee suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jamie commented. He’s relied on Edith’s help with Harry’s in past situations.

“We’ll be keeping a close watch on the admiral while he’s in recovery. We’ll be moving him back to ICU as a precautionary measure for the first day or so. Then we’ll move him to a private room once we feel it’s safe to move him out of ICU unless of course something happens to change those plans. I wouldn’t worry too much on that though skipper. We’re keeping him on oxygen and IV antibiotics to prevent any post- op infection so really, I think he’s going to be fine. It’s just going to take time for him to recover. I’m going to go get some rest while I can before he wakes up which should be a while. I’ll be staying close by in another room so I’ll be here when he does wake up. I recommend that you and everyone else here go home and get some rest. You need to keep up your strength so you can be there for him when he does wake up,” Jamie said. “While he is in ICU he can only have one visitor at a time and only for 10 minutes just so you are aware. Initially I would limit visitors to yourself, Edith when she gets here, Chip, and Angie.”

“Agreed,” Lee said as he compiled all the information. It was a lot to take in.

Then Jamie disappeared and left Lee, Angie, and the others who were all looking pretty run down. “Well, I say we all take Jamie’s advice… get out of here, go home and get some rest now that we know the admiral came through the surgery OK. It’s about three in the morning so I would guess that we should meet back here say about two or three in the afternoon.”

“I agree,” Angie said as she let out a long breath in relief. She started to clean up the used coffee cups and other assorted items that were left scattered around the waiting area. One of the nurses just happened to come in as she was picking up. “Oh miss, you don’t need to do that…housekeeping will clean that all up.”

“Oh alright but really I don’t mind,” Angie said. “Really you should go and get some rest. It’s very thoughtful of you to do that but really that’s what we have a housekeeping section for.”

“Very well,” Angie said. Then went over and grabbed her purse and headed out of the hospital in a hurry. When she got to her car, she unlocked the door and quickly got in. She put the key in the ignition and before starting the car to leave Angie broke down and cried. Her crying soon turned into sobbing. She had been so worried about the admiral and waiting all those hours while he was in surgery it was like a dam bursting and letting loose a flood. She started crying and couldn’t stop. After several minutes she finally was able to stop. She took a handkerchief from her purse and dried her eyes and blew her nose. When she was finally able to compose herself she started up the car and headed home. Angie expected she would need to go into the office at least for a short while to check phone messages and a few other things before heading over to the hospital later.

Everyone had left except Lee. He was about to head out when Chip showed up with Edith.

“How’s Harry?” Is he OK?” she asked.

“He came through the surgery OK. The doctor says he thinks he will be fine. He’s going to have a pretty long recovery which Jamie will go over with you. If you can stick around he’s going to need a lot of support,” Lee said.

“Of course, but why?” Edith asked.

“One of his lungs was pretty badly damaged. The doctor has repaired it but says he’ll need some extensive respiratory therapy and cigarettes will be out of the question,” Lee continued to explain.

“Oh, my... My brother...without cigarettes…Jamie’s going to need a lot of help alright. I don’t imagine Harry will be very pleasant to be around for a while,” Edith said.

“Yes, that’s a possibility but who knows? Jamie said because of the damage to his lung he won’t be able to tolerate any tobacco for quite some time so maybe he’ll resign himself to it. We’ll have to wait and see on that one,” Lee said.

I was just heading home to get some rest and head back in to see him this afternoon, hopefully he’ll be awake by then. Do you want to stay... or if you like I can take you to the admiral’s bungalow and get you set up in one of the guest rooms there. I imagine when the admiral is further along in his recuperating that Jamie will set things up so he can stay there while he’s recovering,” Lee offered.

“I think I would like to stay here and talk to the doctor if that’s OK,” Edith said.

“It’ll be a while. Jamie is catching some much needed rest before he comes to. It was a pretty long surgery. He was in there for more than 7 hours, “Lee explained.

“Maybe it would be better if I go to his place then,” Edith said. “Although, Lee I really don’t think I want to be alone right now…in case…well…you know…if something happens. Would it be alright if I come stay at your place and then you can worry about getting me settled in Harry’s bungalow later?”

“Sure, I can put you in my guest room,” Lee said. Lee stopped at the nursing station to let them know where he and Edith could be reached then both headed for his bungalow. Soon as they arrived, Lee brought in Edith’s luggage which consisted of a small suitcase and a small carry-on, Lee took the luggage and put it in the guest room. Lee then went into the kitchen and set up the coffee maker so that there would be fresh coffee when they both awakened later.

“Do you want to grab anything to eat?” Lee asked Edith.

“Right now I’m more tired than anything, I think I’ll just go lay down and try to get some rest,” Edith said.

Lee showed Edith were the bathroom was. Then both disappeared to their rooms to try to sleep. Edith had managed to hold it together during the flight to Santa Barbara and while she was at the hospital. Once she had gone into the guest room and shut the door she couldn’t fight back the tears any longer and broke down. She lay there on the bed and in a short while cried herself to sleep. Lee could hear her sobbing from his room. Though he felt like he wanted to go and comfort her part of him restrained from doing so…figuring she maybe needed a good cry. She put up a good front for people but like himself he wondered how Edith would ever handle it if something happened and Harry didn’t pull through this time. He tried to block that thought from his mind. He told himself that Harry would be alright. Jamie was pretty sure he would be alright so he needed to quit second guessing the good doctor’s diagnosis.

After a while Lee fell into a fitful sleep, having nightmares about the recent happenings aboard the Seaview and the attack upon the admiral. One dream in particular he dreamed that NCIS Agent Gibbs had taken Harry into custody and was transporting him back to NCIS Headquarters in Washington D.C. and that he had been found guilty in the murder of Dr. Mason and was to be executed for commission of that crime. Lee woke sitting up in a heavy sweat panicking until he realized it was just a dream and recognized his surroundings. As suddenly as he had awakened he laid back down and fell once again into a fitful sleep.

In the other room Edith was having her own nightmares. One she suddenly woke, screaming as she had dreamed she witnessed Harry being killed by an unknown assailant. Her scream woke Lee in the next room. He jumped out of bed rushing out his bedroom door, running across the hall to the room Edith was in, he threw open the door and rushed in. Wrapping Edith in a tight hug he began immediately consoling her. She calmed down once Lee was able to convince her that it was only a bad dream.

Looking at the time on the alarm clock that sat on the nightstand next to her bed, seeing that it was a few minutes past noon both decided they should get up, have something to eat with some coffee. Lee had some bagels and crème cheese on hand as well as some strawberry jam. They both agreed that would be adequate so they would have something on their stomachs. After consuming a bagel a piece with the cheese and jam they then took turns taking a quick shower before getting dressed. Soon as they were both dressed and somewhat ready to face whatever the day would bring it was around two o’clock. They decided it was time to head to the hospital.

“Lee, I do hope it’s a good sign that we haven’t had any phone calls during the night from the hospital. Don’t you think that really means that Harry will be OK like Jamie said?” Edith asked.

“I hope so,” Lee said. “No phone calls probably means that there wasn’t any major change in his condition.”

“Yes, you are probably right. I’ll feel much better when we get over there and I can see Harry,” Edith said.

“Me too,” Lee commented.

It was a short drive to Cottage Hospital from the institute grounds. After going through the main entrance they got on the elevator that Lee knew would take them where they needed to go. After riding just a few floors, the elevator doors opened and upon exiting, the double doors to the Intensive Care Unit lie straight ahead of them and a short distance down the hall to their right was the ICU waiting area that most of the crew and institute staff had taken up residency when the admiral was first brought to the hospital.

Before entering Lee picked up the phone next to the double doors. As he did, Edith looked at the sign on the wall above the phone directing all visitors to ICU to use before entering. This was a direct line to the ICU nursing station. Someone answered the phone right away. Lee let the person on the other end of the line know that he was there with the admiral’s sister. It was just a matter of minutes before a nurse came out to let them know that Dr. Jamison had been alerted to their arrival and he would be out shortly. Then Lee and Edith went to sit down and wait in the waiting area. Upon entering Lee noticed that Angie was waiting as was Katie, another one of the Nelson Institute family and an operative he and Harry had used on different ONI missions.

“Well ladies,” Lee greeted Angie and Katie with a smile. “Who’s running the institute while you’re both out of the office?”

“Lee, it’s still really quiet over there so we both closed up shop and came over here to help in the morale support department. How is the admiral?” Katie asked in a more subdued tone. “Has there been any update to his condition?” Angie asked.

“We haven’t heard anything since last night. We’re waiting for Jamie to come out and give us an update,” Lee said. “I’m hoping we will be able to see him sometime today once he’s awake but that depends on what the doc says.”

“How are you doing Edith?” Angie asked. “If there is anything you need, please let me know. I know the admiral would want me to make sure you are taken care of.”

“Yes, we are also good if you need to have some real girl talk or anything…just let us know,” Katie said.

Just then Jamie entered the waiting room. Seeing Edith he went over and took her hand in both of his. “How are you bearing up under all this Edith?” he asked. “Are you doing OK?”

“I think I’ll feel better once I hear from you how Harry is doing,” Edith replied. “This has all been such a sudden shock. How is he, really, Jamie?”

“He came through a very long and difficult surgery just fine. He had some pretty extensive damage to one of his lungs. He will need some long and pretty extensive respiratory therapy to get back his full strength.”

“Wait…what do you mean ‘full strength” Jamie?” Edith asked.

“Why don’t we sit down,” Jamie said as he motioned to a couple of empty chairs, so we can talk. “

As they both sat down Jamie begin to lay it all out for Edith and the others.

“What I mean is it would have been a lot simpler if he were recovering from a case of pneumonia. In this instance there is much more damage to the lung and we need to help him get the lung cleared up of any residual fluids plus the lung needs to strengthen so that his breathing will return to a normal level. It’s going to be a long and quite frankly for about the first week or so it will be a very painful process. As I told Lee he won’t be able to have any cigarettes, maybe not for a long time. That may not be entirely bad though,” Jamie said with a small smirk.

“He is going to be weak enough at first that it probably won’t matter so much. As he gets better he may get pretty cantankerous not being able to have any smokes. He sure won’t be able to even tolerate inhaling a cigarette for some time. It will just be entirely too irritating,” Jamie continued to explain.

“My, so what you are saying is you are concerned that later down the road he is going to be an even bigger challenge to take care of because you think he will be even grumpier than he usually is when he is being restricted during his recovery,” Edith commented.

“Yes, I suppose that’s part of it. He also has to be watched very closely to make sure he doesn’t develop any infection during his recovery. It wouldn’t do for him to come down with a severe case of pneumonia so he will be being monitored a lot more closely than I no doubt he’ll certainly resent. I was hoping you might stay out here for a while and help with his care once we’re able to get him out of a hospital setting.”

“Of course,” said Edith. “So how is he right now? Can I see him?”

“We moved him back to ICU for the time being. We’re still waiting for him to wake up. I should think he’ll be starting to wake up this afternoon. Once he is awake only one person at a time is allowed and for only 10 minutes while he’s in ICU. We’ll keep him here for a day or two to make sure there’s no danger of infection then he’ll be moved to a private room. Then you and Lee can spend more time with him. He’ll be in and out of sleep pretty much for the next few days. It’ll take a bit before he has the strength to stay awake for any longer periods. That’s about all I can tell you for right now,” Jamie said.

“I know he’s asleep and probably won’t even know I’m there. Can’t I just slip in for a moment of two to just see him? Even to see him just sleeping I would feel ever so much better,” Edith pleaded with Jamie.

“Sure,” Jamie said. “Come with me…you’ll have to wash your hands then put on a surgical gown and mask before you go in.”

“Thank you, Jamie,” Edith said as she followed Jamie into the ICU.

It was a little disturbing to see Harry lying there hooked up to all sorts of equipment with IV’s running in both arms, an oxygen mask half covering his face, not stirring when she walked in. She couldn’t help but notice that there were four different small IV bags that contained some medicine. Looking at some of the names on the bags she guessed they were different types of antibiotics. The other IV had the usual ringers lactate. Edith moved over closer next to the bed and took Harry’s hand in both of hers. She bent down and whispered in his ear, I’m here Harry…I’ll be here waiting when you wake up. Jamie says you are going to be OK. She lightly kissed Harry on his forehead and gently ran her fingers through his hair with one of her hands as she let go of his hand with the other…then turned and walked back out. She momentarily looked at Jamie making eye contact. Jamie in turn nodded his approval then she went out, discarded the surgical gown and mask then went back out to the hall outside of ICU. Lee noticing she had come out immediately got up and walked over to her, placing his hand on her shoulder and giving a light squeeze he asked…”Are you OK Edith?” She responded, “I’ll be OK as tears were welling up in her eyes. It’s just hard seeing him lying there like that. I’ll feel better once he’s awake and I can talk to him.

As the time passed, the nurses kept bustling in and out constantly checking to see if Harry was awake and checking his IV’s and vitals. Jamie as well was keeping check on his patient. Whenever Jamie checked he also talked to Harry and touched his hand to see if there was any indication that he was waking up. Finally after a couple hours Jamie pulled up a chair next to Harry’s bed and sat down. As Jamie was checking on him he touched Harry’s hand he noticed a very slight twitch of one of fingers. Jamie stopped and continued to touch his hand and talk to him. “Come on Harry, I know you can hear me…don’t you think it’s about time you started waking up? You’ve been asleep for a really long time”…suddenly there was another twitch in his fingers and he could hear a very slight moan from his patient. Watching Harry he could see eye movement which told him that his patient was dreaming. He felt that was a good sign, it meant he was in a lighter stage of sleep than he had been for the last several hours and hopefully he would be waking soon. Jamie continued his observation of his patient and continued his regimen of making physical contact and talking in soft tones so as to help stimulate Harry to wake up.

Just as Jamie was about to take a break, as he got up to leave he touched Harry’s hand and in a hushed voice he told Harry he would be back in a little bit; he froze when he felt Harry lightly squeeze his hand as he let out a soft moan. Jamie sat back down in the chair. Harry’s eyes began to slowly flutter open and it was obvious he was having difficulty focusing upon first waking. Harry tried to speak but he was still so weak and groggy, his throat and mouth were so dry when he tried to it came out as a barely audible croak. Jamie called one of the ICU nurses over. “Nurse, Admiral Nelson is awake, please bring a cup of ice chips. I’m sure our patient is very thirsty after his long sleep,” Jamie said. She left and returned with the ice chips.

“Harry, I’ve got some ice chips for you.” Jamie placed an ice chip between his lips and the coolness of the small bit of water from the melting ice felt really good going down his dry throat. Jamie offered another ice chip and another. Harry was so worn out. As he tried to give Harry some more of the ice Harry tried to speak again with a little more success this time.

“Jamie…h-how long h-have I been s-sleeping?” Harry asked. Jamie answered,” You’ve been out since we found you after you were attacked aboard Seaview…it’s close to 3 days now.” Harry looked puzzled. “A-attacked?” Immediately Jamie told Harry not to worry about that. They would discuss all that later. “Harry, I know you are still pretty weak and really worn out but there’s someone here that’s been waiting for to see you soon as you were awake. Can you hang on long enough for them to come in?” Jamie asked. Harry replied, “I’ll t-try.”

Jamie motioned to the nurse. He whispered to her “Have Captain Crane and his sister come in.”

“Both sir, the visitor rules are one at a time,” the nurse replied.

“Yes I know however I don’t think he can stay awake that long and it’s important they both see him if only for a couple minutes. It’s important for him too,” as he turned his gaze to Harry.

“Very well doctor, I’ll see they come right in.

The nurse rushed out to the waiting area. “Captain Crane, Miss Nelson, please come with me. The admiral is awake but we don’t know for how long. You’ll need to put your gowns and masks on quickly then you can go right in. Dr. Jamison is in with the Admiral right now. The three quickly rushed back into ICU. Moments later Lee and Edith were entering Harry’s unit. They both moved close to Harry’s bedside. “L-lee,” Harry spoke his closest friends name then noticed that Edith was next to him.

“Edie…I…I t-thought I was d-dreaming…you are here. I think I h-heard your v-voice earlier.” Yes Harry dear,” Edith replied. You did hear my voice earlier. I told you I was here, waiting for you to wake up. I see you are very tired so you can go back to sleep now and get more rest. You need to rest and get better Harry.”

“M-Mason?” Harry asked. Lee replied, “We were in time admiral. We were able to stop him. We destroyed his machine. You can rest now sir, it’s all over.” Harry losing his battle to stay awake replied,” G-good.” His eyes began to flutter and he fell back asleep. Jamie gently lifted one of his eyelids, quickly checking the pupil reaction in his eye. He let the eyelid close again. Standing up Jamie said, “He’s OK. He’s gone back to sleep. Right now that’s the best thing for him. The sleep will help him to heal and get stronger. It’ll be awhile before he’s awake again. I would suggest you two go take a break and get something to eat. “Thanks Jamie,” Lee responded. He knew Jamie broke the rules by letting them both come in to see Harry together. Now that he had been awake and talking, they could both relax a bit though they both knew it would be a while before Harry was out of the woods.

Lee and Edith left the ICU, discarding their masks and gowns on the way out. Lee filled in Angie and Katie on their all be it brief visit with the admiral then suggested that they all get out of there for a while, that the admiral would most likely be asleep for several more hours. “He’s still very weak. He wasn’t able to talk much. Jamie says his body is basically worn out after being attacked and the loss of blood then having to go through such a long surgery. He wasn’t awake for very long. He stayed awake just long enough for me to tell him the mission to shut down Mason’s undersea installation was a success and acknowledging that Edit was there, he drifted back to sleep before we left the room. Jamie’s pretty sure though he will be OK. It’s just going to take time for him to recover and get his strength back,” Lee explained.

“Thank god,” Angie said. “It sounds like he should be on the mend now.”

“Yes, barring any complications Jamie thinks he’ll be fine,” Lee said. “Angie, I will need you to help get Edith set up in the admiral’s house at the institute. She’s going to be staying here while the admiral is recovering and I think she’ll be more comfortable there.”

“Oh Lee, there’s no hurry on that. I feel more comfortable staying in your guest room for now. At least can we wait until Harry has gained some of his strength back and we know for sure he’s out of the woods…that is if that’s OK with you?” Edith asked.

“Sure, if you’d rather stay in my place for now,” Lee replied.

“Well if you don’t need me for anything then I think I’ll head out,” Angie said. “Shall we go Katie?”

“Sure, doesn’t look like we can do much around here for right now. It’s good the admiral finally woke up if even for just a little while. Lee, you will let him know we are all thinking about him and give him my regards when you see him again,” Katie asked.

“Of course, Katie,” Lee replied with a warm smile.

On that note both Angie and Katie headed out.

Lee turned to Edith. “What say we get out of here for a while?” Lee asked. Edith looked pensive for a moment or two then responded. “Yes Lee, why don’t we get out of here for a while? I think we both could use some fresh air.”

“Good, do you want to get something to eat?” Lee asked. Edith replied, “I don’t really feel very hungry unless of course you do.”

“I’m not really feeling hungry either,” Lee said.

“You know…why don’t we go down to one of the nearby beaches and maybe just go for a walk,” Edith suggested.

“That sounds like a great idea. It’ll give us a chance to talk and maybe clear our heads a bit,” Lee said. Are you sure you don’t want something to eat or maybe we could pack a light lunch. If we’re needed back here at the hospital I have my cell phone with me. What do you say?”

After a few minutes of hesitation, Edith shook her head. “Yes, that sounds good.”

“Great, I know a little deli that’s almost right on the beach. It’s not far from here. Maybe by the time we get there and order something we’ll feel more like eating,” Lee said. Edith just smiled in response. With their minds made up, Lee excused himself while he went to the nurse’s station to let them know where they would be for the next couple hours or so then they both headed for the elevator.

~~~~~~

It didn’t take long to drive to the beach with the deli Lee had told Edith about at the hospital. Lee turned his little red Cobra convertible into the parking lot and quickly found an open parking spot close proximity to the entrance. Edith preferred to stay in the car and soak up some sun while Lee went in and ordered their food. He got sandwiches for the both of them. A half Ham and Swiss sandwich for Edith and a full Roast Beef with American for himself, both came with a big quarter slice dill pickle and chips. Lee snagged a couple cold wine coolers from the cooler as well as some bottled water. He also purchased a nice whicker picnic basket complete with plates, cutlery, and napkins they had on display and had the food and drinks put in the basket. He also bought some grapes and a small brick of Gouda Cheese in case a little fruit and cheese was more to their liking. He paid the cashier and left a nice healthy tip in the tip jar on the counter before heading out the door.

Edith sat with her head leaned back on the headrest of her seat with her eyes closed relaxing in the midday sun. She hadn’t noticed Lee approaching with the basket of food. Suddenly her eyes popped open as she was startled at the realization that she was no longer in the sun but being shadowed by something instead. That something was Lee standing next to her side of the car holding the immense basket of food.

“Excuse me miss,” Lee exclaimed. “Could I possibly bother you to hold this basket of food on your lap while we drive down to the beach for a lunch date?” Edith replied,” Why yes kind sir. I would be happy to unburden you of your load.”

Lee handed the basket to Edith and at the same time assisted her in placing it upon her lap. “I pray dear lady that it is not too heavy a burden for such a sweet young maiden.” Edith replied,” It will be fine kind sir. Edith and Lee began to giggle as Lee quickly stepped around to the driver’s side and jumped in behind the wheel. Then he quickly turned on the ignition, backed out and headed down the short narrow road to the beach.

When he got to the end of the road there was a small parking lot which he pulled into. Soon as he shut off the engine, Lee jumped out and quickly moved to the passenger side. “I’ll take the basket, “Lee said to Edith then he opened the door, offered his free hand to assist her in getting out of the car. Closing the door behind her they headed off down a short path that led to an area of the beach where there was loose sand and several logs scattered about that were suitable for sitting on and also created a bit of a windbreak. Lee also had a blanket that he had grabbed from the trunk of his car which he spread out on the sand then they both settled down to have a bite and talk as they watched the waves rolling in and crashing upon the beach.

After taking a couple bites of his sandwich and a swig from a wine cooler Lee sat in quiet reflection of what had transpired the last few days with the admiral and the involvement of NCIS on board Seaview. “Lee,” Edith disturbed his silent musings. “Lee, can you tell me what happened?” Lee stopped and absently stared at Edith for a moment then slowly chewed and swallowed his food. He took another swig of the wine cooler to wash it down. After a moment or so he began.

“You know Edith, you said you would prefer to stay at my place for now. I would kind of like to have company right now too. I don’t exactly feel like being alone either. Harry was really bad when we found him. He was already unconscious from blood loss. Jamie said we had to try to stop the bleeding while we were waiting for him and the corpsmen to get to our location. We had to apply pressure to his open wounds. That was bad. I could feel him slipping away as he grew weaker by the minute…I didn’t think Jamie would ever get to us in time…his condition went downhill so fast…it was really hard seeing him like that. It was pretty dicey there for a while. That maniac… Mason… intended us not to find him in time. Thank god we did. At least Mason won’t be causing anyone any trouble ever again.”

“What do you mean?” Edith said.

Edith still not too hungry was lightly picking at her sandwich and she took a sip of her wine cooler. As she and Lee talked Edith felt very relaxed. At the same time she felt guilty. With Harry lying in a hospital room she wasn’t sure it was right or fair that they should be out sharing a picnic and enjoying the afternoon sun watching the surf roll in.

“He’s dead. NCIS took him out once they learned what had happened to the admiral. They were on board assisting with the search. We were looking for the person that was going around impersonating different members of the crew. Turned out it was Mason. When he was located one of the NCIS agents shot and killed him. The leader of the team is a former Marine and an acquaintance of Harry’s, NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.”

“Oh…yes…That name sounds familiar. I think Harry has mentioned him a time or two,” Edith commented.

“Really..., well anyway, he tends to be very loyal to service people and his team has the same principles. When they learned the admiral was badly wounded and left for dead it was decided then and there that he was to be taken out. He very nearly caused the total destruction of the entire earth with his crazy scheme. In my opinion the world is a safer place without him.”

“Lee, I’m glad you told me all this,” Edith said. It sounds like this was quite an ordeal for you and the crew as well as for my brother. Harry feels very close to you. You know he has told me so many times, he feels about you as if you were his own brother and to him the crew of the Seaview are his family…in addition to me of course. He has told me on several occasions that he just didn’t know how he would ever be able to cope if anything ever happened to you.”

“I feel exactly the same way about him too,” Lee said. “I’m not sure how I’d cope if something happened to Harry. Seaview, the institute…nothing would be the same…” Lee’s voice trailed off as he reflected the impact of that statement. He couldn’t believe he had just vocalized his worst fear to Edith. He felt the pain reverberate down deep to his very soul and to see the reaction in Edith’s face seemed to cause him even more pain. “I’m sorry Edith,” Lee said. “With everything that has happened the last few days…I shouldn’t have burdened you with my thoughts or fears.”

“Lee wait,” Edith responded. “You have had to endure the brunt of what has happened to Harry. Even though it is hard for me to think about the possibility of ever losing my brother I know the risk is always there and that one day the inevitable will happen and we will have to face that loss. I know he won’t be with us forever. But for right now at least we can offer each other solace and because we are both so close to Harry we can support each other and get through this. We have to. We will both have to be strong for Harry. Jamie has told me he is going to have a rather long and difficult recovery. He asked me if I would be staying to help with Harry’s recovery.”

Just then Lee felt the vibration of his cell phone in his pants pocket. He pulled it out, the caller ID said Cottage Hospital. He quickly flipped it open and answered, “This is Captain Crane.”

“Yes Captain, this is Nurse Smith in the ICU unit here at the hospital. Dr. Jamison requested I call you. He knew you would want to know if it looked like the admiral was awake. He wasn’t sure how long he would be awake this time.”

“Yes, thank you, Nurse Smith. We are about ten minutes from the hospital. We’ll head back over there now.”

Lee and Edith quickly gathered everything up and tossed stuff into the basket as Lee shook the sand out of the blanket. He grabbed the basket as Edith grabbed the blanket. They tossed everything into the trunk and jumped into the car and Lee quickly drove back to the hospital.

~~~~~~~

As they got off the elevator Lee walked over and picked up the phone to the ICU nurses station.

“Oh yes Captain Crane, you and Miss Nelson may come right in. As Lee and Edith reached the nurses station they were greeted by Jamie.

Skipper, he’s awake. Go ahead and gown up. You can both go in,” Jamie said with a small grin.

“Thanks, Jamie.”

Lee and Edith wasted no time in getting their gowns and masks on. Quickly washing and sanitizing their hands at the wash station they quickly stepped into Harry’s room which was more like a large cubicle with a sliding glass door to help isolate the patient from air borne germs from medical staff and visitors. As they stepped close to Harry’s bedside, Lee was on one side while Edith took up position on the opposite side. Both noticed that Harry had his eyes closed. “Looks like he’s a sleep again,” Edith whispered with a tone of disappointment in her voice. She reached down and touched his hand. As she did Harry’s eyes slowly fluttered open. “N-not as-sleep…E-Edie,” Harry said in groggy voice. “J-Just r-rest-ting my eyes.”

“Admiral,” Lee whispered.

“Lee,” Harry responded.

“How are you feeling,” Lee asked.

“T-Tired…v-very tired…h-hurts t-to b-breath…b-bad headache...b-back hurts l-like hell,” Harry grimaced as he spoke in a very soft whisper, reacting to the pounding pain in his head, and the sharp pain in his back and chest that hit him each time he took a breath. The ICU nurse, hearing Harry’s voice and seeing he was awake walked over and stood at the foot of Harry’s bed, checking her watch. Seeing that he seemed uncomfortable she asked, “Admiral, are you in a lot of pain?” Just then Jamie came in. Hearing the nurse’s question and seeing that Harry seemed to be in quite a lot of pain Jamie told the nurse to go ahead and give him some more pain medication.

Two days later…

As Lee and Edith stepped off the elevator to head to the ICU unit they were met by Jamie who was just coming out.

“I’m glad you’re both here,” Jamie said. “I’ve actually got some good news for you. The admiral has progressed enough that he’s being moved from ICU to a private room where he can still be monitored but he doesn’t need the constant monitoring of ICU anymore.”

“That’s wonderful,” Edith said with tears of joy starting to streak down her face.

“Jamie, with him being moved from ICU I think we need to think about having some guards posted outside his room, “Lee said with concern.

Edith’s smile turned to a look of concern at Lee’s words. “Why Lee? Has there been another threat against my brother’s life?” Edith asked as she dried her tears with a tissue she had pulled from her purse.

“Uh no Edith, there hasn’t been another threat,” Lee began to explain. “I’m sorry Edith, I didn’t mean to upset you.” He continued to explain as his attention turned to her and Jamie both. “It’s just that I expect that the local news agencies know by now about the admirals being in the hospital. They most likely will be trying any tactic to get in to try to get pictures or any information they can for their news stories and we don’t want anyone outside of the institute or Seaview bothering him while he is recovering.”

“Yes skipper,” Jamie said. “I expect we need to get that in place right away…the sooner the better. I don’t want Harry disturbed by any unauthorized visitors or news reporters sneaking in taking pictures. Harry has a difficult recovery in front of him and I don’t want anything going on that might cause any setbacks.”

“I’ll have Chip get a guard detail over here right away... I’ll go call Chip right now.”

Lee turned and hurried toward the elevator pushing the button…in a matter of minutes the elevator dinged and the doors opened…then Lee disappeared as the doors shut and the elevator headed down to the main floor…Lee quickly headed outside once the elevator doors opened. He had Chips number on speed dial and punched the number on his cell the second he was outside. Chips number began to ring.

“This is Morton,” Chip answered…the air of urgency in his voice upon recognizing Lee’s number on his caller ID.

“Chip…It’s Lee. I need you to get some security guards over to the hospital ASAP!” Lee said. “Jamie wants us to secure the wing where the admiral is being moved to keep uninvited guests out. I’m sure by now most of the press is aware of the situation with the admiral and that he’s over at Cottage Hospital. I don’t want anyone getting in.”

“Understood Skipper, “Chip answered. “I’ll get Chief Sharkey to put our best men on that duty. He’ll have the men in place and have the area locked down tight. We’ll make sure that security is so tight that it’ll be hard for even a fly to get in let alone any reporters.”

“Good Chip, have Sharkey get right on it. Their starting to get the admiral ready to move now so everything needs to be in place within the next hour. Let me know when they are on the way so I can meet them and give them their orders, “Lee said as he ended the call on his cell and headed back into the hospital.

“Jamie, how soon do you expect to move Harry to his new room?” Edith asked.

“The ICU nurses are getting him ready now, “Jamie answered. “I’m going to go back in and make sure everything goes smoothly. When we come out you can follow. We’ll be going up one floor. Arrangements have already been put in place so there won’t be other patients in the immediate area so that will make it easier to secure the area and we’re waiting on the security detail from Seaview to lock down the area so that no reporters can get in to snap any pictures as we are moving him. At any rate it won’t be much longer until he’s ready to be moved.”

“Does this mean then that he’s awake Jamie? “Edith asked.

“He’s still sleeping a lot but he is becoming more aware and I expect he will be waking up more over the next few days, “Jamie replied. “After we get him moved I’ll need to sit down with you and the skipper. We’ll need to talk some more about his recovery and what he’ll need.”

“OK Jamie, “Edith said in response. Edith sat in the waiting area checking her watch as she was starting to get antsy waiting for Lee to return and anticipating Harry’s being moved out of ICU. Just then she heard the elevator ding and as the doors opened…then Lee appeared…seeing Edith in the waiting area he headed over to where Edith was sitting.

“Lee, I’m glad you’re back. Jamie came out a bit ago. They’ll be moving Harry out of ICU anytime now from the sounds of things, “Edith said.

“Good, I got hold of Chip. He’s getting with Chief Sharkey to get a guard detail together to be in place once he’s ready to be moved, “Lee commented. He paused for a few minutes as he sat watching the ICU doors. “Did Jamie say if he’s awake?”

“I asked him, he said Harry’s still sleeping a lot but that he’s becoming more aware and that he should be waking up more in the next couple days,” Edith answered as she too kept staring at the ICU doors…waiting…anticipating…just then the elevator dinged. The doors opened and divulged Chief Sharkey and half a dozen crew members from Seaview all wearing side arms and radios could be seen strapped beneath their jackets. Lee jumped up and met Sharkey before he had a chance to enter the waiting room. He told Sharkey what was needed. The COB looked at the captain with a warm smile on his face. “No worries skipper…the men and me…we’ll make sure we’ve got it covered. Nobody is going to bother the admiral…not on my watch sir,” Sharkey said and with a few quick words with his men they were in place and ready to go. All they were waiting on now was for the admiral to be discharged from the ICU. Then suddenly one of the doors opened as one of the nurses came out and fixed the door in the open position then quickly opened the other door and fastening it likewise on the other side. Edith stood and both she and Lee watched as Harry was wheeled out, his IV’s hanging from attached poles, Jamie staying close by in case Harry wakened as they moved him to his new accommodation. They waited as the elevator approached, once the door opened they wheeled him into the waiting elevator as everyone squeezed in around the gurney then the doors closed and they proceeded to the floor below.

When the doors to the elevator opened as they began to wheel the gurney to another set of doors leading to the wing where Harry would be set up they were greeted by Chip Morton. Seeing his boss for the first time in several days his face was etched with deep concern over the admiral’s appearance. Though he appeared to be just sleeping he couldn’t help but notice how drawn and pale Harry’s face looked.

While the nurses got Harry situated in his room Jamie had Lee and Edith wait with him at the nurse’s station so that they could discuss some things. Chip stood behind Lee and listened as Jamie explained about Harry’s condition and what to expect in the days and probably weeks ahead as the admiral continued to mend. Jamie expected recovery to be slow which obviously was going to be hard on everyone as past experience told them just how difficult a patient Harry could be in the long haul.

“Lee, as I was telling Edith earlier, I expect Harry will still be sleeping quite a bit but that he is getting more aware and I expect he will be waking more and more over the next few days as well, “Jamie explained. “He has been awake a few times since the evening shift and he’s still pretty weak but will get stronger with time. Right now he’s fairly easy to deal with. I expect you both know that as he gets stronger and is awake more he may become more difficult. I don’t have to tell either of you what a difficult patient he can be. For now though he’s still weak enough that he won’t be able to put up much of a fight. He’ll need a lot of moral support and I’ll need your support to make sure he follows my orders and behaves himself.”

“Jamie, how long do think it will take him to fully recover, “Lee asked.

“It’s hard to give you a definite answer. A lot will depend on how well the antibiotics are working and some of the other medications he’s getting. A lot will depend on his frame of mind. It’s not going to be a quick or easy recovery. He suffered a lot of damage to his lung. It would be easier to estimate recovery time if he had suffered a bad case of pneumonia. It will take time for the lung to strengthen back which will also mean a lot of respiratory therapy. I can pretty much guarantee he won’t be too receptive at first. It will involve a lot of pain and I’m sure he’ll try to fight us giving him medication to keep his pain level down. For right now we’ll just have to play it by ear and take it one day at a time and hope that we all get through it without the urge to walk out.

“Yes, I know Jamie, “Lee said. “The admiral, Chip, and myself…we have all taken turns making life miserable for you and several of the corpsmen in sick bay over the years since I accepted command of the Seaview.”

“Yes, “Jamie said, lightly chuckling under his breath. “I’m not expecting an easy time but I’ll admit I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he doesn’t manage to alienate everyone by the time he’s able to be moved to Med bay at the institute. But, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Just then one of the nurses came out of Harry’s room. As she approached the nurses station she announced, “The admiral is awake Miss Nelson…he’s asking for you and the captain here.”

“Lee and Edith both looked at each other… then at Jamie, as a smile began to form on their faces they headed into Harry’s room. As they approached his bed Harry appeared to have dropped off to sleep again. Lee pulled up a chair close to the bed so Edith could sit down. She took Harry’s hand in both of hers, as she did Harry’s eyes slowly fluttered open. His vision was blurred from sleeping so long. Harry blinked his eyes in an attempt to clear some of the haze. He finally was able to focus enough to recognize that his sister was holding his hand in hers. Now that he was waking up more often Jamie had Harry switched from a facial mask to a nasal cannula so he was able to talk but still keeping him on oxygen to support his weakened lung.

“Edie, “Harry whispered. “I’m glad you’re here. You holding up okay sis?”

“Harry, “Edith responded with a smile, “I’m okay now that you’re awake. You had us all pretty scared there for a time.”

Lee pulled up another chair close to the other side of the bed so he could sit close by his friend and mentor. “Admiral, “Lee said touching his other hand.

“Lee,” Harry whispered. “Glad you’re here too. I recall you said the mission was a success and you shut Mason’s machine down in time.”

“Yes sir,” Lee replied. “We were there in time. We destroyed the installation, NCIS killed Mason, now you just need to get better.”

“NCIS killed Mason?” Harry questioned with a look of confusion and he looked as though he was trying to figure something out.

“It’s alright admiral. Turned out that Mason was our imposter,” Lee said.

Harry stared blankly at Lee’s statement.

“Harry...call me Harry, Lee,” Harry commented.

Lee let a smile appear on his face beneath the surgical mask he was wearing.

“Alright...Harry,” Lee addressed his friend.

“That’s better,” Harry said with as he let out a small sigh.

“If Mason was the imposter, then who was shot at the TV station?” Harry asked.

“Apparently another one of his colleagues. I for one don’t understand that kind of blind loyalty,” Lee stated.

“So, did Gibbs finish up his investigation?” Harry asked. “Am I totally cleared?”

“It would seem so. Once it was figured out it was Mason’s doing I think the rest was pretty obvious,” Lee said.

“Glad it’s over,” Harry said in a very soft whisper. Lee and Edith almost didn’t understand him.

“Harry dear,” Edith looked into her brothers eyes. “Did Jamie tell you about your recovery...that you will have to undergo respiratory therapy treatments?”

“Yes.”

“I’m afraid it’s going to be rather painful for you. Did he tell you that?” Edith asked.

“Already know...they’ve been in here a couple times since last night,” Harry answered with his eyes half closed.

“Do you think you’ll be okay with that? Jamie says it’s necessary for your recovery. He’s concerned...”

Harry cut her off, “Yes sis, I know about Jamie’s concerns. Really. It’s okay.”

~~~~~~

A few weeks later after being transferred to Med bay at NIMR.

“How’s my patient this morning,” Jamie said as he entered Harry’s room.

“I’m okay,” Harry responded.

Jamie sat in one of the chairs next to Harry’s bed, reading through the latest notations in Harry’s medical chart. After several minutes he finally sat the chart down and began to check Harry’s vitals. Once that was finished he made his own notes in Harry’s chart.

“So, Harry...are you sleeping okay?”

“Okay, I guess,” Harry responded with dis-interest.

“It seems that respiratory therapy has done their job. You’re breathing is much better.”

“So, when can I get out of here?” Harry asked in an ill-tempered tone. “Jamie, I’m bored to death in here.”

“Yes, I expect you are Harry.”

Just then Lee and Edith entered Harry’s room.

Turning his view towards Lee and his sister, Harry commented, “Oh good, you’re both here just in time to help the good doctor gang up on me and tell me why I have to be stuck in here.”

Edith went over and gave Harry a small sisterly kiss on the cheek. “Harry, I thought you agreed you would do what Jamie said.”

Harry just let out a dissatisfied grunt.

Edith just sighed and sat down in one of the chairs by Harry’s bed.

“And what about you Lee?” You think I need to do follow Jamie’s orders even though I’m feeling way better and am bored stiff out of my mind here in Med bay?”

“Ad...I mean Harry, that’s not for me to say. Besides, I have managed to give Jamie enough grief when I’ve had to be in here,” Lee answered. “I think it’s a foregone conclusion that neither of us could be considered what’s called a model patient. Right Jamie?”

“You’ll get no arguments from me on that skipper but, I think maybe a change of scene is in order for my patient.”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here, Jamie. You know how that irritates me,” Harry said in a very sarcastic tone.

“Sorry Harry.”

After a few minutes pause, “I think you’re ready Harry to get out of here and go home. You can finish your therapy as an outpatient. Is that a little more to your liking?” Jamie asked with a small smile.

“When can I start working again?”

“Now hold on Harry...one step at a time,” Jamie stated emphatically.

“What, more of your baby steps?” Harry asked, his tone getting testy.

“I might condescend to allow Angie to bring by some easy stuff that you can spend an hour a day on to start. However, if I find out you have been pushing yourself too hard I can just as easily have her stop bringing any work at all.”

“Fine...when can I get out of here,” Harry asked again.

“Edith and I have some things to talk over. Meanwhile if you can be just a little patient for a while longer, Harry...Oh, I almost forgot. You have another visitor.”

“Who?” Harry asked.

“Edith if you will come with me? Lee I would appreciate it if you stay here with Harry while his visitor is here,” Jamie requested.

“Of course…Harry I’ll be back in a little bit, “Edith said.

Harry looked at his sister and Jamie with a questioning look as he tried to follow her with his eyes as she got up and left. Then his eyes met with Lee’s. Lee remained at his bedside. Harry thought it odd that only Edith left with Jamie. He wondered who would be visiting that made it necessary for Edith to leave the room? Then his expression changed from questioning to almost disgust as his visitor walked into the room.

“Agent Gibbs, “Lee acknowledged his presence. “I didn’t expect to see you again. Why are you here?”

“Hello Harry, “Gibbs said with a small grin on his face. “It’s good to see you awake. You look a lot better than the last time I saw you.”

Harry suddenly had a strange look on his face and slightly shook his head. He made eye contact with Lee again and as he turned to look at Gibbs he had a frown on his face.

“What are you doing back here Gibbs,” Harry asked. “I thought you had finished your investigation from what Commander Crane has told me.”

“Well, we did finish most of the investigation. Director Vance asked me to come back because there are some loose ends that need to be addressed.”

Harry continued to frown at Gibbs. He really didn’t feel like being asked a bunch of questions again and was beginning to get more irritated.

I just have some questions regarding the attack on you Harry. Can you tell me what happened?” Gibbs asked.

“The last thing I remember I was walking the corridor on C deck during the search. I was headed to the ballast locker room to check if for our imposter might be hiding there. After that everything is a complete blank. I’m sorry Gibbs. I’ve tried to remember but so far I haven’t had any luck. Everything ends just before entering that room,” Harry said.

“Are you positive you don’t remember anything about what happened?” Gibbs asked.

“Dammit Gibbs, don’t you think I would tell you if I could remember?” Harry asked, his voice rising with an angry tone.

Suddenly Jamie came rushing into Harry’s room. “What’s all this ruckus going on? I don’t want my patient getting upset,” Jamie said in a raised voice.

Looking at his patient Jamie asked, “Harry, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Jamie… Just fine,” Harry said with an expression of great anger.

‘I think it would be a good idea if we all cleared out so Harry can get some rest?” Jamie said in a loud, stern voice. “

“Sure Jamie, “Lee offered. “That sounds like a good idea.” Lee and Harry made momentary eye contact. Harry gave a slight nod of approval letting Lee know that he wanted to be alone for a while as they all proceeded to exit the room.

Once they were all out in the hallway and far enough away that they could talk and be out of ear shot so that Harry couldn’t hear any of them Gibbs was the first to speak.

“I apologize doc if I upset Harry…unfortunately though I will have to ask him some questions so I can close up my investigation.”

“Just ---a---what are you investigating Agent Gibbs?” Lee asked. “I thought you had everything wrapped up when you left. It was determined that the admiral was innocent of the murder of Dr. Mason. What are you after now?” Lee demanded to know.

“Look commander,” Gibbs replied. “This isn’t to do with the murder so much anymore. I need to close up the investigation we started into whoever attacked Harry on board the Seaview.”

“It would seem that he can’t remember much about the attack right now Gibbs. I guess you’ll have to wait until the admiral feels up to answering your questions,” Lee commented.

“It may be some time before his memory about the attack comes back…if in fact it ever does,” Jamie added. “He lost a significant amount of blood and he was unconscious for a “long” time. He also suffered a concussion in the attack.”

“Well, I’m going to leave for now,” Gibbs said. “I’ll be checking back when Harry’s more up to having visitor’s.”

Gibbs turned and headed to the elevators…moments later he was gone.

“Jamie, what do you think was going on in there…with Harry I mean? Just then Edith appeared. “What’s going on?” Is Harry OK?”

“Harry’s fine,” Jamie reassured her. “NCIS Agent Gibbs showed up asking questions and I felt Harry was getting too agitated so I ordered everyone out of his room.

“Agitated at what?” Edith asked.

“He still doesn’t remember anything about his being attacked or his attacker. At least that’s what he says. I think he’s frustrated about that,” Jamie explained.

“Well, is it OK if I go back in and stay with him?” I promise not to upset him,” Edith said.

“OK, but if he starts to get agitated again you’ll need to leave,” Jamie ordered. “I don’t want him getting worked up and over exerting himself.”

Edith nodded in agreement and headed back into Harry’s room. As she approached the side of his bed she temporarily placed her purse and a small bag she had with her on the night stand next to the bed. Harry made brief eye contact with her and turned away. In that moment when they looked into each other’s eyes Edith noticed moisture in Harry’s eyes from tears that had formed there. She thought he appeared to be a bit flushed. Putting her hand against Harry’s forehead and cheek she thought he felt a little warm. Edith stepped over to a nearby sink, grabbed a clean wash cloth folded up by the basin. She turned on the tap, adjusting the water temp so that it wasn’t too cold then held the cloth under the stream of water until it was thoroughly saturated. Shutting off the tap she wrung the excess water from the cloth then folded the cloth to form a small thick pad. She returned to Harry’s bedside and proceeded to dab the cool wet cloth on his forehead and cheeks. The cool dampness of the cloth felt good and Harry was starting to cool down. Normally it irritated Harry to have anyone fussing over him when he would rather take care of himself. He was still not 100% yet and didn’t feel like offering much of a protest. He gave his sister a small grin and closed his eyes. Edith continued to dab the cool wet cloth against the warm skin on his face and neck.

Harry was becoming more relaxed he began to drift off to sleep. As each breath seemed to get deeper, once she was sure he was asleep Edith saturated the cloth again, wringing out the excess water, folded the cloth and gently placed it on his forehead so as not to waken him. She grabbed her Kindle from the small bag on the night stand, then sat down in a nearby chair close to his bedside. Edith placed her Kindle on the bed so that she could sit and read while she lightly held onto Harry’s hand being careful not to awaken him. After a bit Jamie entered the room to check on his patient. Seeing the damp cloth placed on his forehead he lightly touched the side of Harry’s face while he touched his other hand then looked at Edith with questioning eyes.

Edith whispered so as not to wake Harry,” he felt a little warm when I came in so I wrung out the wash cloth in some cool water to cool him down…as I did that he fell asleep so I left it to keep him from getting too warm again.” Jamie nodded in approval, noting that Harry didn’t appear to have a fever and his breathing was deep, relaxed and that he indeed was asleep and resting comfortably.

“It does seem a little warm in here,” Jamie whispered back.” He went over and checked the temperature setting on the built in air conditioner and heating vents below the window. That seemed fine so he adjusted the blinds to keep out too much of the afternoon sun that was beginning to beat into the room.

“There, that should help,” Jamie said in a low whisper as he motioned for Edith to follow him out of the room. They walked over to a couple chairs outside of Harry’s room. He’s doing OK,” Jamie continued in a low hushed voice as he made eye contact with Edith.” It’s good he fell asleep. At least he seems relaxed and he’s getting more rest which is the best thing for him. He was pretty agitated when Agent Gibbs was here earlier and I’m really glad I got him to leave before Harry got too upset. It’s not good for him. He’s doing so much better and I do think it will be good for him to go home to his bungalow. I didn’t want this morning’s episode with Agent Gibbs to upset him enough to significantly raise his blood pressure. He really is doing too well now to have any set back caused by stress created by NCIS or Agent Gibbs.

“I think it’s like you said Jamie, he’s getting awfully frustrated. When I first entered his room, Harry briefly made eye contact with me and I noticed there were tears in his eyes,” Edith said in a low voice. Jamie raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. Edith continued, “Oh I don’t think he was in pain. He did feel a bit warm so I rinsed out a wash cloth and dabbed it on his face and neck to try to cool him down. He seemed to relax and he fell asleep before I had a chance to really ask him what was going on.”

“I’m be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned by how you found him when you entered the room,” Jamie said. It may be frustration or it may be something deeper. We’ll definitely have to keep an eye on him…to see if he’s trying to cover up something physical or if it’s something else. I know he wants to get out of Med bay in the worst way. If you notice anything I’ll need you to let me know right away. If his mental state isn’t good it could have a negative effect and interfere with the rest of his recovery.”

Edith nodded in agreement though deep down she knew her big brother wouldn’t like being spied on.

“Well, I have some things I have to take care of. I’ll let you get back to Harry,” Jamie whispered. “I’ll be back to check on him a little later.”

“Thank you, Jamie,” Edith whispered as he turned to leave.

Edith went back in the room and sat down next to the bed. She settled back to reading her Kindle as Harry continued to sleep. She continued to maintain contact with her free hand touching Harry’s hand as he continued to sleep.

After some time had passed Lee quietly entered the room.

“How’s he doing?” Lee asked.

Edith held a finger up to her mouth and shushed Lee. As he neared the other side of Harry’s bed Edith began in a low whisper…”he’s OK. He was a little warm when I first came in. I rinsed the wash cloth in some cool water and dabbed his face to cool him off. He doesn’t have a fever. He drifted off to sleep shortly after I got here and has been sleeping the whole time.”

Lee proceeded to sit down in a chair on the other side of the bed. “It’s probably for the best,” Lee whispered.

“Yes, he’s still a little week even though he doesn’t realize it. I don’t understand why he doesn’t recall anything about the attack. You told him it was most likely Mason that attacked him. I would have thought that by now he would have remembered something.

“Yes, I know,” Lee said. “That has me puzzled too. I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t something he’s keeping inside about the ordeal. I wonder if he really remembers more than he’s letting on. If that’s the case why he isn’t telling us...there are too many unanswered questions about this whole thing. It just doesn’t seem right somehow. I hope he gets to a point where he will feel comfortable talking to one of us about what happened down in that Ballast Locker Room.”

“Yes, maybe that’s why he had tears in his eyes when I first entered the room and we both made eye contact. I don’t like seeing Harry like that, Lee. He’s always been the strong one of the family. I hope this recent episode with the attack and all isn’t going to change that,” Edith commented. “Maybe, the more rest he gets right now will be better Jamie says. I think right now that the most important thing is that we give Harry all the moral support we can and also I think we need to keep agent Gibbs away from Harry, don’t you agree Lee?”

“I totally agree with that Edith,” Lee said with a look of determination. “It bothers me that Gibbs showed up this morning without letting anyone know he was coming.

“I’m actually rather surprised that he laid there passively and let me tend to him earlier. That isn’t exactly like the Harry I know and love,” Edith commented. “Normally Harry doesn’t like anyone fussing over him and is usually pretty vocal about it.”

“Yes, I know,” Lee responded. “That isn’t like the Harry I know either. Maybe it’s like Jamie said. He’s just going to take a while to recover from all of this and he’s still probably a bit weak as you say. At least, I hope that’s all it is.”

“Hopefully it will help once he can get out of here and back home.” Edith said.

“I hope so, though I’m sure what he really longs for is to be back to work and aboard Seaview...I do know Edith, that your brother doesn’t like it at all when he’s not able to do what he wants or having to rely on other people to help him. He prefers to do everything himself without anyone hovering over him. He doesn’t like being told that he can’t push himself.”

“Yes, I’m sure you’ve seen this reaction in him before I take it,” Edith said.

“Yes but in some ways it’s worse this time,” Lee said. “He was left for dead by that madman. I don’t think he realizes how close he came to succeeding.”

Edith looked at Lee with a shocked expression.

“You know as bad as that all sounds, I would react pretty much the same way. Jamie will tell you that none of the senior officers on Seaview ever make very good patients. If it were me in there instead of Harry, I would be reacting pretty much the same way,” Lee said.

“You know Lee,” Edith began. “Harry, as long as I can remember has never been good at being the patient under any doctor’s care. Harry has never taken well to being hovered over or cared for by anyone else. He has always hated not being able to do what he wants or having to be restricted even when he was a lot younger. I was pretty young when Harry had to be in the hospital for about a week when he was in high school. He had appendicitis and the appendix ruptured. I remember he was really sick there for a while. They had him in isolation in the hospital to prevent any possibility of infection after the surgery. Even so it was hard to be around him because he was just so miserable. He made everyone around him miserable. He was working on some special project for school when he became ill. He was upset when he wasn’t able to go home right away to finish work on the project which was very important to him.

It really upset him when he was told he couldn’t return to school for at least a month. It was some science project...it was very important to him. Even then Harry liked stuff related to science and finding solutions. I remember he had an aquarium set up in his room with different kinds of fish. It was really nice. One of his fish died and I found him in his room doing some kind of fish autopsy…he had some small make shift scalpel he’d made that he cut the fish open with and he was looking at in under his electric microscope. I think mom and dad got him the most deluxe one they could find to give him on his 15^th birthday. Even then you could see the scientific mind at work…He also had a huge chemistry set that the folks got him one Christmas. Nothing was ever too good for their Harry…Anyway, he was restricted to bed. He had to be bathed by the nurses and well… I think you get the idea.”

Lee just nodded in silent response as he formed a mental picture in his mind of a younger Harry mixing chemicals, looking into a microscope, doing the autopsy on a small tropical fish…seeing this in his mind brought a small half grin to Lee’s face. In his mind the younger Harry was not much different than the Harry he knew in the present. Lee’s grin grew bigger as he chuckled under his breath at the thought.

Several days later.

Harry was sitting out back on his deck looking at the view of the beach and the ocean below. His bungalow sat alone upon a hill by the sea. It not only offered amazing views of the ocean and awesome evening sunsets, there was also a nearby trail that gradually sloped, making the nearby beach easily accessible. It was going to be a nice warm sunny day. The forecast was for temps to reach the low to mid-eighties in the afternoon, a typical spring day in Southern California.

As Harry sat gazing at the view lost in thought. Just then his Siamese cat Aristotle had come out of the house through the open French doors leading to the deck. Making his presence known to his person he let out a rather loud yowl. Then as he loudly purred he strutted over and began to rub against Harry’s ankles. Harry watched Aristotle with a small grin. Soon, tiring of that and not getting the attention he demanded, Aristotle then jumped up into Harry’s lap, started to step around in a tight little circle and at the same time knead with his paws until he finally decided he had the perfect spot. The cat then laid down as he curled his body into a closed circle with his paws and tail all wrapped up tightly and snuggled down on Harry’s lap. He continued purring as Harry absently placed a hand behind his head and began petting the cat.

“Well,” Harry mused, “I’m glad you finally are all snug and comfortable my friend,” as he continued petting the cat with a smile on his face. Ari, (Harry called him for short) appeared to gaze up at Harry narrowing his beautiful big blue eyes as he purred. Harry almost swore the darn cat was smiling at him as he did on those occasions when he was home and had the time to give his friend Ari adequate attention.

As Harry sat out enjoying the sun suddenly the doorbell rang. Harry’s housekeeper Emelia went to answer the door. Upon opening the door, she greeted Angie who had come to visit Harry and bring him some light work that he could do from the office which had been Ok’d by Jamie.

“Hi Emelia,” Angie said. “How are you today?”

“Very well, thank you, Angie.”

“I’m here to see the admiral and brought some things from the office. Dr. Jamison said it was okay. I’m sure the admiral is feeling pretty bored.”

“That is very nice, Admiral Nelson should like that,” Emelia replied. “He is out back sitting on the deck. I can announce you if you like.”

“Oh that’s okay Emelia, I’ll just go ahead on back to see him and you can get back to what you were doing.”

“Very good, Angie, it’s good to see you,” Emelia said.

“Good to see you too,” Angie said with a smile as she proceeded to head back to see Harry.

“Good morning sir,” Angie greeted her boss. “Nice to see you out and enjoying the weather and the view. Looks like Aristotle is enjoying it too.”

“Good morning, Angie,” Harry responded with a smile. “What brings you out of the office?”

“I wanted to see how you’re doing and I have some stuff I thought you might like to look over,” she said as she placed some files on the table next to an open magazine that Harry left there when the article he was reading failed to hold his attention.

Harry looked at Angie with a raised brow. “Oh, what sort of stuff did you bring me?” Harry asked with interest and a small grin.

“Jamie thought you might be getting pretty bored and said you could start doing a little light work. He wants us to limit it to start,” Angie said.

Harry gave Angie a bit of a side glance.

“Actually sir, I have a couple proposals that I was working on and well...I got stuck...and ah...I really could use your help in figuring them out,” Angie explained.

“You...stuck...oh come now Angie,” Harry said laughing. I rather doubt you weren’t able to figure these out on your own,” Harry said as he stared at her. Looking into her eyes with those steely blue piercing eyes of his, right away the jig was up. She knew by his gaze that she wasn’t fooling him a bit.

“Well...Angie began with a slight chuckle under her breath and smiling at Harry, I thought you would enjoy working on these particular ones sir,” she said with a little hesitation. “I didn’t want to bring you anything that was too easy that wouldn’t hold your interest.”

“I always knew I was right hiring you for my personal secretary,” Harry said with big grin. “You’ve been a very valuable asset to me and the institute. I hope you know how much I really appreciate everything you do. I apologize if I’ve neglected to tell you before.”

Angie began to blush, slightly embarrassed. “That’s okay sir, I know,” Angie replied.

The two of them worked together in harmonious companionship, enjoying each other’s company.

Later after they finished their work and Angie began to gather her things to return to the office, both she and Harry were surprised as Lee came out of the house through the open French doors.

“Lee,” Harry said with a big smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Just decided to stop by Harry,” Lee answered smiling. He was still attired in his khaki uniform coming straight from his office at the institute. “You certainly are looking well sir. I think all this fresh sea air and sun agrees with you.”

“Thank you, Lee,” Harry responded.

The two sat and visited for the better part of the afternoon. Work was caught up and Lee took advantage, having the time available to go and see his best friend, to bring him up to date with the goings on at the institute, the Seaview and different crew members and their families. The afternoon seemed to fly by as other friends and associates stopped in to check on Harry’s progress and bring him up to date on all the latest gossip.

~~~~~~

As the days and next few weeks passed Angie continued to bring items from the office for Harry to work on and eventually Harry’s recovery progressed so well he was back participating in morning meetings and gradually increased the length of time he was able to spend working at his office at the institute. Finally the day came. Jamie gave Harry his freedom and he was cleared to return to full duty and his beloved Seaview.

A few days later...

Harry stood on the bridge as he watched with great pleasure as last preparations were being done to get Seaview out to sea and on to her next mission. He contentedly watched for several minutes as his crew expertly loaded supplies through the missile room cargo hatch. Then he turned and descended down the ladder to the control room. As he headed for the front porch as he liked to call it and the large herculite windows in the observation nose, he spotted his hand-picked commander and best friend sitting on the one of the front corners of the conference table that sat in front of the windows sipping on some of Cookies famous coffee.

“Oh, good morning sir,” Lee said as Harry approached. “Would you like some coffee?”

The smell of the black brew was heaven to Harry’s nostrils. He was irresistibly drawn by the heavenly aroma.

“Why, thank you, Lee. I’d love a cup,” Harry responded with a big grin.

Harry stood before the windows watching the activity on the dock, as Lee quietly walked over and stood next to him. As they both faced out the huge windows, together they drank their morning coffee in companioned silence. All was right with the world again and it was the beginning of a wonderful day. Harry was finally well. He was back on Seaview and he was with the crew he considered his family.

“At long last,” he thought, “I’m finally home.”

The end.

Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and her main characters belong to Irwin Allen

NCIS and main characters belong to Donald P. Bellisario

Authors notes:

All the characters in this story were created by Irwin Allen and the writer’s that created Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. For this story I used the episode from season 4 “Man of Many Faces”, originally written by William Welch. I added my own plot twists and added some character names for characters from the original episode that were nameless as well as changed some of the staging of the first scene of the episode when we see the imposter Nelson shoot Dr. Raymond Mason in cold blood as it’s recorded on a live TV broadcast.

The cross-over with NCIS are characters taken from the number 1 hit CBS-TV show NCIS as created by Donald P. Bellisario who is famous for many other shows in the CBS lineup as well as past hit shows like JAG and Magnum PI to name just a couple. As many will recall NCIS was a spin-off of another hit CBS TV series JAG that ran for 10 seasons.

The character of Aristotle, the Siamese cat was originally created in previous Voyage fan fiction written by Linda Elliott.

I began writing this story several months ago. Please forgive any digressions or error’s I may have made in the process. Hope you enjoy it.

Keri T.