Mind Games

04-In The Dark (Pt.1)

|Washington D.C.|

After almost a year living out of that cheap hotel and months doing it from one to another, Allison finally could settle on an apartment. It's a nice unit, just a spacey enough room for her. She had her stuff sent from New York. Bringing in a piece of the city with her.

She unpacked the last box from her old apartment, there's a record player inside. After put it on the table, she got one record from the shelf on the wall. "Ah, some music before bedtime. Gotta love this one." She put one of those Oasis's record on the player and then take a sip of her hot milk from the mug.

She had a throw back to the time she got into coma years ago. It was like the rock bottom of her life. Terrible time. At that time Richard would visit her daily and play the music while having some plain milk. The sound of the record and the smell of this specific brand woke her up from the coma. And since then she use both the sound and smell to get into sleep.

Today is exactly a year after Richard died, she still can't grasp the reality of it. The thought of those times shake her hands a bit, almost spill some to her brand new carpet. "Ooh. I should get a rest." After finished the milk, she goes to turn off the lights but before she could do that, her vision turns to dark and all she knows is a blackout.

|D.C. Office|

"Come here. You owe me 10 bucks for the bet."
"No Tony. Actually I don't, she might get an apartment like you said, but not buying it. She rented it, I checked."
"But still, McGee! She doesn't last more than a month in those hotel. I won!"
"No you don't. You have to be specific about your bet. Or you'll lose."

And while they're arguing, Gibbs comes in with not so happy face. "Gear up."
"Where boss?"
"Norfolk. And where is Grant?"
"Uhh, let me call her boss." Tony tries both her cellphone and her apartment phone, no answer. "Not picking up boss."
"Ah...what the hell..." Gibbs is already on a bad mood and it's getting worse.

"Screw it. DiNozzo, McGee!"
"On your six boss."

|Norfolk|

"Thank you for coming Gibbs."
"I'm glad to help Detective. Although I might prefer to find my Petty officer alive."
"Of course."
"This is special agent DiNozzo and McGee. Can you let them process the scene for this one?"
"Sure." Detective Holland open the gate and let both Tony and McGee into the parking space.

While they process the scene, there's something that bothering McGee. "Gibbs knows the detective?"
"It was before your time McGoo. Way back when the first Sleeper Killer appeared. Real life Freddy Krueger. The first victim was in the Navy. Now we got this one."
"Wait, what? This is the Sleeper Killer case? I thought it was about the missing Petty officer case last month." Tony chuckles, "Well, Gibbs suspected he was one of the Sleeper's victim. But now it was confirmed."
"So far, there are 4 victims found. Could be more Tony."
"Yeah. And we have to try to find out who behind this, before another victim popping out again."

|D.C. Office|

After they got the body to Ducky, Tony get into the elevator and back to the squad room, wondering why Allison still not answering her phone. "Boss, she's still not answering. I had a bad feelings about this."
"Yeah, I got that too. I'll send someone to check her place. In the meantime, we have a case. McGee!"

"Petty officer Xavier Lucas, 34. Live in the Norfolk, missing since earlier last month."
"DiNozzo?"
"Metro case from another Sleeper's victims. There are 3 and no obvious connection between them. But, victim profile was built after the third case. All of them were at one point had a coma. Prior to their death, there are substance that suggest all of them were having medically induced coma for 3 days before death."
"Hospital? Doctor?"
"No connection boss. Different hospital, different staff."
"Anything else?"
"All of them had a job that's required a psych eval after traumatic incident. But still, different psychiatrist, different shrink. Nothing."
"Still no connection."