Genevieve

Chapter 6

Once we are safely inside my house I have Genevieve sit on the couch as I get something ready for dinner. "Do you like hot dogs?" She nods and I bring out a plate and pop for her. "Here you go, eat up, because afterwards you've got extreme explaining to do." She slowly begins to eat and I watch her closely. She uses her fork to push around her food and I sigh.

"Should we have our explaining session before we eat?" She nods and looks at her hands. "Okay, what did they do to you?"

"They were training me to go into enemy territory and use my abilities against them. They were training me to be a weapon, Gibbs. That was the only thing that they saw me as useful for. I tried to escape so many times, but they punished me for it."

"What abilities?" Genevieve holds her hand in front of her and the can of pop slowly rises off of the coffee table. It falls back down and I nod. "That all?"

"No, it's not. I can communicate telepathically too."

"Alright then. My promise still stands. I will keep you safe, powers or not." She looks at me with confused eyes.

"You're not afraid of me?" I wrap an arm around her shoulders and sigh.

"Genevieve, I have seen so many things in my life that most people would be afraid of. I've seen many brutal murders and an all manner of things. Honestly, seeing you have powers doesn't scare me. I suspected something was up when you magically healed from your injuries at the hospital. You were hit by a car, and no one should have recovered from those injuries like that."

"I guess that was a huge 'look at me' flag. Doctors all over the hospital are probably talking about it. Then they will bring in more doctors and then people will start looking for me. I can't ever get away Gibbs, and that makes me dangerous. I could put you and your team in danger."

"Ahh, we are in danger every day. We could potentially die at any time, and we know that. You being under our protection puts us in no more danger than any other day of our lives." She nods and then looks at her plate.

"We done with the explanation conversation because I am hungry all of a sudden." I pull my arm away and she starts to eat again. She takes a drink of pop and sighs. "Do you think I can use my abilities to help you find their killer?"

"Genevieve, all I want you to worry about is staying out of the conflict. Leave finding their killer to us, I don't want you anywhere near this case. Especially with the FBI convinced that you are the killer." I look down at my hands. "I'm going to ask you a question that I already know the answer to. Did you kill them? Even if it was an accident or self defense." 

"No. I know that Fornell thinks I killed them because of the project. But he doesn't understand that they were trying to get me out of it. They wanted me to live a normal life, so they were going to fake my death. That's the only way to get me out. But my guess is that someone found out and wasn't very happy." She laughs. "I was actually excited to be able to fake my death. But I was so nervous at the same time." Her bottom lip starts to shake and her voice breaks. "But now, it seems so silly. I wanted so much to start a new life, and now they don't even get to live theirs." 

"It's not your-" 

"Please don't tell me it's not my fault. Just let me live with the guilt for a minute."

"No, you don't get to live with the guilt. Because the guilt doesn't belong to you. And even if you say it's just for a minute, it will grow over time to where it consumes you. And I will not allow that to happen."

"You speaking from personal experience?" I shake my head. 

"Nope. Speaking from the knowledge I have of your file. You've tried suicide before, and guilt leads to depression which can lead to suicide." She looks at me and then back at her hands. "I'm not judging you. Only trying to protect you. We good?" 

"Yeah, we are good. Thanks for trying to protect me Gibbs." 

"Trying? No, I am protecting you." She laughs and I look at my watch. "Okay, it's late. You should probably go to bed. There's a guest room upstairs, I'll be up for a while." She nods and stands. She says good night and walks up the stairs. My phone vibrates. "Gibbs." 

"Boss, we have a problem. We received a note that we believe is from the killers. They want Genevieve. And they know she's with you at your house, they sent a picture of her walking in with the note." I curse and discreetly look out the window. The same black van that was outside the hospital is across the street. "What do we do boss, do you want us to come for back up?" 

"Nah, they won't try anything tonight. We just now have to make sure that Genevieve is never alone." 

"Boss, that won't stop them from killing her. She should be moved to a safe house." 

"Dinozzo, I do not think that they want to kill her. They have had plenty of opportunities." He sighs but before he can protest I am hanging up the phone. I head down to the basement with leaving the lights on. This is going to be a long night.