Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 56

Gibbs stood as Bishop, perplexed, glanced over at him. "What is it?" she asked.

"I need to go back to the Navy Yard," Gibbs said shortly. As Bishop began to rise, he gestured for her to sit back down. "You're staying here."

"But Gibbs –" she started.

"Stay," he ordered emphatically.

The agent slid back into her seat, her muscles still tense. The worry she felt for Loki was still written plainly on her face, but she seemed to be forcing a sense of reluctance into her expression.

"That's an order, Bishop," Gibbs continued. "You stay here, and you be with him when he wakes up." When she didn't respond, he added, "Okay?"

"Okay," she repeated, settling back into her seat. Gibbs gave her another look and saw her forced reluctance drain from her face, replaced with resoluteness and renewed fear. "I'll be there, Gibbs."

"Good," Gibbs said, turning. "Call me when he wakes up and call me if anything happens."

Bishop nodded as he glanced over his shoulder. And with that, he left the hospital.

****

Gibbs stepped off the elevator and was immediately met by DiNozzo and Rogers. "Stark and McGhee are downstairs, with Abby and Banner," Rogers told him. "They still don't know why it crashed."

"Loki?" DiNozzo asked.

"Still in surgery," Gibbs said curtly. "Bishop's with him."

DiNozzo's smirk didn't go with the worry in his eyes. But before he could say something snarky, the elevator doors opened behind Gibbs and Fornell stepped out, not looking very happy.

"Who's this?" Rogers asked.

"Oh, this will be fun," DiNozzo said. When Rogers gave DiNozzo a questioning look, the agent elaborated. "It always is when Fornell and Gibbs go at it."

"Fornell?"

"FBI," DiNozzo filled in, stepping back as the angry FBI agent approached Gibbs.

"Really, Gibbs?" Fornell snapped. "Crashing AFIS? We traced it back to your Abby Sciuto's lab, we know it was you guys. How did you do that? How did you crash AFIS?"

"I don't know, Fornell," Gibbs retorted. "I just got here."

"Well –" Fornell began, then furrowed his brow when he noticed the four Avengers in the squad room, who had paused in their work to listen to the argument. He looked back to Gibbs. "I recognize Blondie, but what's with the rest of the crew?"

"They're the Avengers," Gibbs said.

Fornell shook his head, making a face. "I don't envy you."

The phone on DiNozzo's desk rang suddenly and Romanoff scooped it up. "Agent Romanoff," she said smoothly. After a moment of listening, her eyebrows rose and she looked up at Gibbs. "You're wanted down in the lab."

Gibbs headed for the elevator, gesturing for Fornell to follow him. The FBI agent, DiNozzo, and Rogers headed after Gibbs into the elevator cab.

"We haven't met," Rogers said to Fornell. "I'm Steve Rogers."

Fornell looked him up and down. "You're Captain America?"

When Rogers nodded, Fornell shook his head again. "Man."

****

Stark and McGhee were hard at work trying to reboot AFIS. Abby was pacing in the background and Banner was in the adjoining room, his head in his hands. When Fornell asked why he was over there, Abby took a minute from her pacing to explain.

"The stress of all this isn't good for him." She took up her pacing again.

Fornell snorted. "Yeah, but that doesn't give him the right to take a break."

Stark looked up from his seat at the computer screen. "That's Dr. Banner."

Fornell did a double take. "That's Dr. Banner? The Hulk?"

Stark nodded.

"Ah," Fornell said. "Stress. Right." He looked at Stark. "Aren't you Tony Stark?"

"Guilty as charged," Stark said, his eyes once again focused on his work.

"Talk me through what happened, Abs," Gibbs said, holding out his hand to stop Abby. The forensic scientist halted and took a deep breath before launching into her story.

"We had managed to pull fingerprints from the file on Agent Sniper –"

"Agent Sniper?" Fornell interrupted. "The assassin with the sniper rifle?"

Gibbs nodded as he gestured for Abby to continue.

"– and I ran them through AFIS. This morning when I went to check on them, the entire system just shut down. I was unable to access the website again."

"That information can't be lost," Fornell said. "AFIS must be brought back online."

"And it is!" Stark announced. "Don't worry, Agent...Agent, your little fingerprint analysis database is back online."

"What could make it fritz out like that?" DiNozzo asked as Fornell peered over Stark's shoulder as if to verify that it was indeed AFIS which the billionaire had salvaged.

"I don't know," McGhee said. "I'm trying to trace the bug...." He trailed off as he frowned in confusion at his screen.

"What?" Abby asked, echoed by Fornell, Gibbs, Stark, Rogers, and DiNozzo.

"The bug is the fingerprint," McGhee said bewilderedly. "The fingerprints are what initiated the crash."

"Why?" Fornell asked. "Who do the fingerprints belong to?"

"I don't know," McGhee shrugged. "If I run the prints, we run the risk of crashing AFIS again."

"What were you running the prints against?" Gibbs asked, turning to Abby.

"Both the living and dead records," Abby said. "After getting a DNA match to Lucas Sharpe, I thought perhaps the prints were his, so I widened the parameters of the search."

"Do a manual comparison to Sharpe's fingerprints," Gibbs ordered, turning to go.

"Gibbs," Stark called. "We determined what that strange piece of tech McGhee found at Leopard's trailer is."

"What?"

"It's a damaged part of the Photon Guard," Stark answered. "Just cements the fact that Leopard and the Space Walker are rebuilding it."

Gibbs nodded and left, Fornell, Rogers, and DiNozzo following him. Once back in the squad room, Fornell turned to Gibbs. "I've been doing some research on our Agent Sniper."

"And?" Gibbs asked.

Fornell tilted his head. "Turns out she's got a bit of a record."