The Helpers

I was having a wonderful dream. I was with Breena again and finally at peace in a field blooming with wildflowers and songbirds. It looked like Hogwarts in Spring but without any of the pain that comes with going home. I wasn’t alone and I just laid down in the field like I would with Ginny at the Burrow and watched the dream clouds and let the sun warm my old body. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what heaven would be like, a beautiful place with all the beings we loved before. For a second I questioned if it was real or all in my head, like that time with Dumbledore after getting hit by yet another killing curse. But it couldn’t be real. It wasn’t time for me to greet Death like an old friend. 

Still, I soaked up all the seconds in this dream world finally feeling like I could breathe after seeing my Breena healthy, whole, and happy once more. Finally knowing in my soul that she’s okay. I probably could have confirmed all this with the resurrection stone but I promised Hermione all those years ago not to use it for personal uses, not to summon Ginny or the kids or anyone else I happen to love and lose in fear of becoming like the second brother. I only ever have used it for work on rare occasions. Although it is tempting to break that promise, the stone lays in the drawer unused, pretending to be just a special pebble. 

“This is all so beautiful isn’t it”, says Breena breaking the silence

“It is. But this isn’t right.”

“What do you mean”

“It’s not real. It’s not time for this, it can’t be. I know I pushed boundaries but I am still a young mage. It’s not time yet, it can’t be. I love You Breena, but this isn’t real!” I reply, panicking. Maybe I did die in my sleep, but I am not even half a century old so it’s unlikely I’m dying. But then again my dad died at 21 and there are very few of his generation left. But then again, that was murder and I am a lot more risk averse these days.

“Your right,” Breena says gently stroking my face, but continues “so you have to open your eyes.”

But even after all of that, I don’t want to. This is the rare nice dream where I reunite with ones across the veil and am granted a moment of peace. I don’t want to lose her again, I can’t. “I don’t understand”, I tell her. 

“Open them, Harry James. You need to move,” Breena replies urgently.

She always called me Jimmy, so I know that dream or message from beyond she means business and Breena isn’t someone I ever want to get angry with. But I still couldn’t let go. I want to listen, but this year without her has been so hard. “I miss you,” is all I can manage to get out.

“I miss you, but it’s not about that. I need you to move so I know you're alive. Tori needs you!” Yells Breena 

I respond and wake up, but not in my bed. I wake up on the floor coughing up blood. I’m disoriented and dizzy and my friend Kasie is on the floor. “How did I get here?” I wonder and start to put the pieces together. I almost died but once again I was saved by someone beyond the grave.

Earlier that Day

“I’m doing great, the fight was a month ago” I heard Torres say as I walked in with Tori. 

“And I believe you know these guys,” I say to Tori and McGee immediately greets her. 

“Hey, Uncle Tim!” “ Uncle Nick!!”

“So, wait, what is this? Is this, uh, bring your daughter to work day already?” questions Nick

“Not exactly.” I begin not sure how to explain. Nick just might have given me the perfect excuse as she is my daughter and this is where I work. 

“Could this be the famous Victoria I’ve been hearing so much about?,” asks Agent Jessica Knight.

“Nice to meet you, Agent Knight,” Tori replies politely and Knight immediately responds “Call me Jess please” and then compliments her outfit. Jess treats her like a much younger child than she is, but I guess everyone handles kids differently.

“When did Gibbs grow a beard?” Tori asks

“Actually this is special agent Parker, I told you about this…” I began explaining before realizing I was being pranked. I guess she’s been spending too much time with Uncle George these days. 

The phone rings about a dead body at Quantico, and hesitates to talk around Tori but with coroners for parents, she is quite used to people talking about dead bodies around her. “Don’t worry, she was raised on dead body talk” I tell Tim so he can finish giving us the debrief.

“We have a dead body and apparently the victim was in some kind of truck accident,” briefs Tim.

“That’s terrible… Can I come?” begs Victoria

She inherited an unhealthy amount of morbid curiosity from her mother, and well maybe I wasn’t so innocent in that. Still, while she grew up on talk of dead bodies I didn’t want to scare her by showing her a dead one. Especially one that has been in a potentially gruesome accident with body parts in places they shouldn’t be. Little did I know that this wasn’t going to be your typical accident and that she would see some other scarring things that day. 

“No, you are staying with Aunt Kasie in the lab,” I tell her firmly. Less chance of nightmares that way, or so I hoped. 

When we got to the scene, the victim's bloody body was crushed in the wheel well of a military vehicle.

“Wow, what a way to go,” says Jess, and then talks with Torres to pass the time while I examine the body in its current position. 

“Driver says he came out of nowhere”, Parker tells me 

“Ahh, he’s wedged up there pretty good,” I tell the team. I considered ways to dislodge the body but wasn’t overly confident in how it was going to happen. I didn’t want to disturb the crime scene but I needed to look at the body to determine if this was really some sort of accident. 

“To remove the body we could remove the wheel Completely or back the truck up a few feet,” I finally tell the team and Torres immediately hops into action and gets in the truck. He’s a car guy and I’m not surprised he was willing to try and back the large vehicle up.

“Torres just back it up a foot or so…. And the rest of you guys might want to look away,” I say anticipating the mess. 

“Like we haven’t seen everything,” challenges Parker. I don’t know what he has seen but I know that I saw some shit in the war that would make most men scream. I melted a guy's face off at eleven for Merlin’s sake and I doubt Parker faced anything of the sort in Philly, but I can’t argue with him. He doesn’t know anything about my previous life and I don’t want to bring up anything to cause questions, so I say nothing. And then McGee doubles down with  “Yeah, nothing we can’t handle Jimmy.” 

Well, I warned them and I guess McGee has grown a lot since he puked at his first crime scene. And I guess I don’t know enough about the others to know what they can handle. I take some minor pleasure when they cringe away from the body and lower their hats over their faces. 

“Well, can’t unsee that,” says Parker. He didn’t have to see it but I guess tough old guys still don’t want to listen to Skinny Jimmy.

 “Yep, should have just used a Jack,” replies Torres.  I know he will not learn from this experience, he probably will always jump at the chance to drive something fancy. 

“I got an ID!” Informs McGee

“Yes! Please change the subject. Who is he?” Asks Parker as he jumps into Boss mode. 

“Victim is Phillip Hanch, 32, Former Army Private First Class,” informs McGee

“So not a marine. What was he doing on base?” Asks Parker

“Maybe he was visiting the base,” offers Torres but we quickly are informed by Jess that he wasn’t invited. 

“So we got a dead intruder who was up to what exactly?” Asks Parker

“Nothing good I’m guessing,” Jess says what we were all thinking.

The team finds out more about our truck victim. He’s divorced and was kicked out of the army. He didn’t have a job and had not paid taxes in years. But I never asked for those details as I didn’t need them. While I wanted to help the team solve the case, I wasn’t an Auror anymore. All the details I need I can get from the body, or the spirit via the Resurrection stone if the team ever gets truly stuck. So while the team worked hard trying to piece together our victims' lives, I was down in autopsy trying to piece together the circumstances of his death. Well that and spending precious time with my daughter as I could only categorize personal items to protect her from the sight that made grown men cringe earlier. 

“Crown Vic! What happened, no more Kasie time?” Torres says when he spots my daughter and this announces the team's presence. 

“She got busy, so yep back to Dad!” Replies Tori turning back to the work on the desk. 

“And what are you up to Nick?” I ask while looking pointedly at Tori. Thankfully he picks up the hint and realizes I called him to be a babysitter so I could work on the body. 

“Well, I was just about to go to this new ice cream shop down the road… I don’t know if you are interested,” he says to Tori.

“Ice Cream or Autopsy? Tough call… Rocky Road here I come,” says Tori speed walking towards Torres. She always had fun with her Uncle Nick and I’m glad to have the team to help me care for her. 

“I’m guessing there are some things you would rather she not see,” says Parker.

“Yep, and this is one of them,” I reply while revealing our victim.

“Any clues in that mess that might help us?” asks Parker. 

So, I informed the new boss of what I found so far, which wasn’t much. The body was a mess and material items such as cell phone data were better handled by our lovely forensic scientist. “The phone seems to be crushed the same as everything else besides this little flask,” I tell him while holding up the item. 

“I hope the guy managed a last sip before he got steamrolled,” says Parker before walking away. We all hope our victims get some measure of comfort in their last moments. And with that thought, I went back to work. Eventually, I went down to meet Kasie in her lab. 

“Woo, I don't know what you are feeding that girl. Wow, she is growing so fast!” Kasie says

“Yep. Too fast and maybe not in a good way,” I grumble 

I can't help but think about Emily Fornell. She was a sweet little girl like Tori, but now is rotting in a grave after losing herself to drug addiction. After losing herself after losing her mother. Just like my Tori, and single father workaholic Tobias Fornell couldn't save her. Gibbs couldn't save Emily either. I know Tori is not Emily and I'm not Toby, but I pray I'll be able to save my baby girl. I barely survived losing Ginny and our babies. I almost didn't survive losing Breena. I won't survive losing Tori. But before I get too lost in a spiral of fatherly worries, I'm confronted by Kasie about my attitude. One thing I love about Kasie is that like Hermione she is never afraid to call me on my shit. I guess that's what happens when you go through a near-death experience with a strong woman. Little did I know that I was about to have another near-death experience with this friend. 

“Excuse me, that is my play niece,” Kasie says with her claws coming out. 

“ She didn't tell you why she's here today instead of at school did she.” I realize.

“She called it a mental health day,” replied Kasie.

“Not for my mental health,” I grumble and go on to explain the trouble my girl got herself into. “ She got suspended for fighting.” 

“Our Victoria?!?!” Kasie asks in surprise. 

“Yeah…Her teacher says it's just a scuffle. Tori doesn't deny it, but she won't tell me why or how it happened,” I continue to explain. 

Sometimes that girl is a little too Gryffindor and a little too much who I used to be. I know kids fight but I want Tori to explain as if she was fighting to defend someone then the fight would be justice and not bullying. But she won't talk to me. It's really hard to parent a mirror. She looks like Breena but with my green eyes and my attitude. I want to protect her and I want what's best for her but I don't know how Breena parented her so effortlessly. Things were so much easier when I could fit her in my arms. 

“ All kids go through phases. I'm sure it is just that,” Kasie offers. I just hope Tori’s phases aren't anything like mine.

“Hey, what's this? Isn't that your contract renewal?” I ask when I spot a folder on a table. I am grateful for the ability to change the subject off of my failures at parenting.

“What. Oh, That Ya….” Kasie replies evasively. I know Vance wanted this last week, I hope my friend isn't leaving but then again this year kind of sucked and maybe I will be losing Kasie too. “I just haven't um gotten around to it. Been busy you know”. Finishes Kasie.

“But you will, won't you?” I ask her anxiously but she changes the subject. 

“Any guesses what's in this thing?” asks Kasie opening the victim's flask. “Scotch, Bourbon?” 

She reaches the flash out for me to sniff. I've hated flasks ever since fake Moody used it to hide polyjuice. They might be convenient containers to carry around to make sure you don't get poisoned, but they also make it harder for the good guys to know who the enemy is. I just hope this guy was just an alcoholic. 

“Vodka, maybe?” I offer while getting my nose close to the rim. I'm not really sure but at least it's not polyjuice potion.

In the end, what was in that flask was worse than polyjuice. We should have just used the mass spec and followed all lab safety protocols. But at least this time I don't think I will be alone in my hatred of flasks.