I know its almost been a year to the day since I've updated! Please don't hate me! I am trying to update all my stories but my classes are a higher priority if I want to pass. I think this chapter is a little longer than the others just to compensate for my absence.

It was getting late in the day and Gibbs still had Ducky's words echoing in his mind, as well as Kort's warnings. He kept glancing at Alex as he worked on something minding his own business. How could someone so young be a professional killer that is working for the CIA to take out terrorists? And has history with Ziva's father? If he was british why was he working for the CIA? He can not seem to get any answers about that guy. Once they found out Ian Hunterson was only his cover McGee had to start from scratch to find any information on "Alex."

So only Gibbs and McGee were in the bullpen since Tony and Ziva went out to pick up dinner for everyone. The focus left an eerie silence with only computer keys being punched to be heard, along with the odd phone call from somewhere else on the floor. Gibbs's gaze ended on Alex after a while and thought about a few things that didn't add up.

Gibbs, McGee and Ducky just arrived at the hotel room to find Ziva waiting in there staring at the two bodies. Gibbs saw that one hole was in each and at close range. But Ziva just stared at them while lost in thought.

"Ziver? You okay?" Gibbs asked as Ducky took a closer look at the bodies and McGee took pictures.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened here?"

"Well, before Ian opened the door he pulled a gun out of an ankle holster and told us to check one part of the room while he took the other, like he knew someone was in here. When we did he fired two shots from his room and when we got in there he already forgot about them and was packing up his stuff. He ordered me to stay here and for Tony to take him back to HQ."

"How was he?" Ducky asked considering his interest in the young man.

"Fine, they never had the chance to shoot him, he just looked mad, like this was an annoying caller that keeps calling at all hours."

"Like telemarketers?" McGee asked and she nodded.

"He knew they were after him, I don't know how he actually knew they were here. The door was not tampered with, no signs of forced entry anywhere in the entire place. So I don't know why he even suspected that someone was in here."

"Did he do anything strange before coming in here?" Gibbs asked, there had to be a reason to the guy's gut feeling.

"He didn't mind my driving on the way here, and stared at the wall before opening the door. Unless he could have seen through walls I don't know how he did it."

"Call DiNozzo, tell him we're here," Gibbs said on a gut feeling. Ziva did not question him and made the call.

"Hey Tony, yes everyone's here-uh, why would do I need to do that?-Fine." She hung up the phone and looked to the team, "This is now under CIA jurisdiction,"

"Tony told you that?" Ducky asked.

"No, it was Ian, he took the phone and told me to bring these bodies back to NCIS for pick up."

"Makes sense, if he's with the CIA anything that is connected to him goes under their jurisdiction." McGee explained.

"Including those he kills," Gibbs added, considering this private has now been responsible for 3 bodies in one day. "Let's wrap it up and move out." Gibbs said before walking out of the room, it was something about this guy that didn't sit right. A possible CIA agent who infiltrated the Marines and is taking out men for some reason on orders. His room seemed too clean, like he knew he wasn't going to be staying there long. It wasn't truly lived in, like he stayed there to the minimum. Meaning he was active and was possibly keeping tabs on others, like the people he was ordered to kill for the CIA. This reminded him how much he disliked the CIA and their methods.

Tony and Ziva returned with the food, handing out chinese take out boxes and utensils to everyone including Alex and Abby. "Um, boss?" McGee spoke up to get his attention, McGee glanced at Alex who remained at his cubicle. "Where exactly is Alex staying tonight?" Everyone turned to Gibbs and then Alex to see his response.

"It won't be smart for me to leave, is there a place safe that I can stay in here for the night? No or few windows would be better." He asked them and they shared a look.

"My lab? You can crash there if you want," Abby offered.

"There's probably an open holding cell, no windows and privacy." Ziva said considering that she was still put off by the young man and wanted him somewhere she felt comfortable with. Abby didn't seem to like that plan, insisting that Alex would take her lab for the night, claiming it is much more comfy than one of the holding cells. To ease an offended Abby, Alex accepted her offer of him staying in her lab, which made her very happy. Alex didn't even get to open his food container before Abby dragged him and his food down to her lab so they can set up and "have some fun."

When Alex was gone, Gibbs turned to McGee, "Did you find anything new about him?"

"Nothing, I don't think he has any files that I could be hacking into in the CIA,"

"Did you try government agencies in England? Or school records? He had to have gone to school at some point." McGee put down his chinese food and began his search. Gibbs called out Tony and Ziva when he saw the look the two were sharing.

"Do you think we should really be looking into the kid?" Tony asked.

"We just have a theory that there are things in his past best left classified and unknown." Ziva finished, Gibbs gave them a look that said to continue as he would want to hear this "theory", and she did so. "It is possible that his alias could have been a twist on his real life; little family and what he had was distant, trained his life and then was swooped up by an agency after he was left alone, has been doing that since. Somehow he caught the attention of a terrorist group and he has to be careful to avoid them since then."

It did make sense, he remembered when he would go undercover and they kept his alias very close to the truth. But he wanted to know why the hell it would happen to Alex and how he got pulled into working for the CIA. He gave the two an agreeing sound as he inspected his dinner. "Kort did say that Alex told him something along the lines of ignorance is better than knowing." He had yet to tell his team the rest of what Kort shared or what Ducky deduced from the fatal shots.

"Usually if an agent of any intelligence agency is like that then there are people they are protecting, if they knew too many secrets they could be targeted by enemies or the agency itself." Ziva added, from personal experience with how Mossad would work, if a leak got out there would be someone to eliminate the source before too much damage can be done.

"I still don't like the kid, creeps me out too much." Tony stated before he stuffed noodles into his mouth.

Gibbs would like to agree with Tony but there was something he couldn't get a hold on with Alex. The reason he wouldn't let the guy leave at the crime scene was the way his eyes looked. They reminded Gibbs of his own, full of loss and coldness from when one kills, and a guarded expression so no one could hurt him again. He felt a bit compelled to help Alex with whatever his problem is, the first step was to learn what the problem was. Alex was good at lying but Gibbs could tell the kid wasn't whole, just like him.

"McGee pull up the security feed for Abby's Lab." Gibbs ordered and McGee was quick to do so.

"How many times does this make to be spying on this kid just today?" Tony asked Ziva, who was also curious why Gibbs was so stuck on figuring Alex out. The feed was moved to the plasma besides Gibbs's desk. Alex and Abby were in the middle room eating their dinners while also playing a cards game.

"Why is that he acts so normal with Abby and Ducky but not us?" Gibbs asked aloud, wanting ideas from his team.

"Because we are investigating him, making him not trust us?" Ziva replied truthfully, if she didn't know them and they were investigating her she would be resisting probably more than he was. Then again does Alex have more to hide than she does and only acts as normal as he does to not raise suspicions?

"Abby might be able to learn something from him that can be useful in my search," McGee suggested, Gibbs made a mental note to talk to Abby about Alex in the morning. Gibbs told McGee to cut the feed and for all of them to get back to work to figure out anything they can about the relation between Alex and the dead bodies the CIA now have.

"If the CIA has him taking out specific people he might have something against them too," he thought knowing the feeling of vengeance.

About an hour later Gibbs got up to get some coffee and decided to check on Abby and Alex. When he got there, he did not hear any of Abby regular music, it was dead silent. Nervous he went in to see Abby playing solitaire on the middle room's table with headphones on. He tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention, a bit startled she turned with a smile.

"Hey Gibbs, what's up?" She said putting the headphones around her neck. He was internally surprised it wasn't her usual music coming out of the headphones either. He looked around and saw no Alex, but did see an inflated bed in the back room. "Alex has an interesting taste in music, loaned me his iPod to try them out. Usually I turn my nose at anything but my bands but he got a nice pallet."

"Speaking of, where is Alex?" Gibbs asked before he heard the seal on the door hiss open. When he turned he saw Alex standing there with his bag slung over his shoulder.

"I ran upstairs to grab my stuff, Abby hadn't given me a chance to grab it when she dragged me down here for dinner." Alex explained as he opened the door to the back room and placed the bag under the table in there. "I just got the chance since she was stubborn about a third rematch at gin rummy."

"You have some serious luck at cards," Abby commented, which made Gibbs remember what Kort had told him, "'You can't, it's luck keeps it alive and kills those who try.'"

"You should try me at poker if you want to see some real luck," Alex replied, "unless you don't want to be cleaned out."

"Maybe you should go up against Tony then, it would be a funny sight to see him get cleaned out." Abby thought up and Gibbs could see the gears grinding in her head making another devious plan.

"Is there something we can do for you, Agent Gibbs?" Alex asked him, noticing Gibbs's thoughtful expression.

Kort's words were on replay in his head as well as reminding himself that this boy had killed and was referred to as a devil by Kort in the code he was given and when they reunited in the bullpen. "He is a professional killer," were Ducky's words and despite being the same, it was hard to fully believe a kid probably no more than 20 had an unknown number of kills, and three just in the past twenty-four hours.

"No, I just came down to see if you two were alright." Gibbs replied coolly.

"We're fine Gibbs." Abby answered Gibbs and resumed shuffling her cards, "Care to join us for a round?"

"I should get back to work, goodnight to both of you," Gibbs said, giving Abby a kiss on her head and a nod to Alex before Gibbs made his exit from the lab.

"I think he likes you," Abby voiced to Alex referring to Gibbs, Alex chuckled at the thought of Gibbs actually liking him.

"I don't think it's 'like' per say," Alex replied as he sat across from Abby preparing himself for another round of cards, "I think he thinks of me like a puzzle, but he doesn't have all the pieces and has no clue what the picture should make out."

"Intriguing perspective," Abby commented, taking the first turn of the game.

"I dabbled in psychology during school, body language can tell a lot about a person. Which is how I know you just pulled up a good set." Alex explained with a smirk at her shocked face.

"Oh come on!" Abby explained in exasperation, to which Alex chuckled at. He liked being around Abby, her bubbly personality, despite wearing a lot of black, was infectious and a good thing for him to be around, hopefully he doesn't get her caught in any crossfire. Abby was now determined to not give any tells about her cards, but Alex saw that she was still giving a bit away, he had to give her credit for trying a poker face against a spy.

I hope you enjoyed it, please tell me if you did! Review sugestions on type of music he should like, cause I was drawing a bit of a blank, I picked gin rummy cause that was all that wanted to come into my head when I wrote it.

-Greekgeekspywannabe

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of my lovely readers

3/17/16