Hey guys, I'm back for the last time. I'm sorry I took so long getting this written; I thought I would have plenty of time to write during the summer holidays but, ironically, I'm writing this merely a week before school starts! I've enjoyed writing this story and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. One thing to note: I realized too late that this story would finish with the actual case being officially unresolved and I have only a limited amount of knowledge on how unsolved cases are dealt with so please bear with me if you think the way I handled it was a tad unrealistic. Better yet, if any of you know what the proper procedure is, please tell me—I might learn something!

Anyways…

I don't own NCIS or Danny Phantom

Chapter 15: Final Threads

"…Wait. You're telling me…that a ghost killed our guy?" Abby asked with a slightly disbelieving look on her face, "You're serious?"

Despite the expression on her face, Gibbs could still see the gleam of excitement in her eyes as she looked between him and Danny. After Danny had shown the NCIS team his ghost form and explaining his capabilities, Abby entered the conference room asking about any progress made with the investigation and Gibbs used her curiosity to explain what they had learned in the Ghost Zone as well as properly introduce her to Danny, Tucker, and Sam, with the latter immediately taking a liking to the other's sense of style ("I'm seeing double!" Tucker quipped before cowering under Sam's death glare).

"According to the ghost warden, our victim got in the way of some…police-ghosts…who were chasing down a ghost dog."

Abby's eyes only grew wider, "So there's a place where ghosts actually live, with a police system and everything? That's so cool! What was it like?"

"It's really just an empty void," Danny said, shrugging, "There are random doors that lead here, to the human realm, and some floating islands that hold the domains of powerful ghosts. It's not that cool after a while."

"Well, speak for yourself," Tony said, "As someone who doesn't go there almost all the time, I thought it was pretty cool. A bit lonely, as bottomless voids are wont to be, but still quite a sight."

"You can't talk either," McGee spoke up, "You spent most of your time in a jail cell!"

"Oh," Abby whined, "I wish I could have been there. To think that there's an entire world of supernatural creatures hidden as a parallel dimension!"

"Don't worry Abby," Tony reassured her, "We've all got enough stories to sate your hunger for the supernatural for a while."

Abby put one hand on her hip and fixed him with a disapproving stare, "But you know that's not the same! I'm going to have to look at our evidence from a completely different angle now." With that, Abby hurried out of the conference room with an almost imperceptible bounce in her step.

Gibbs turned to the teenagers, "So are you kids heading home after this?" he turned to Danny, "I'm sure that, after the scare your parents got, they must want to leave D.C. to make sure you're all out of danger."

Danny looked at his two friends, "Well, we came to vacation here for a week or two before going home and we haven't really seen many sights. I don't want to leave just yet."

"Neither do I." Sam agreed, "And even if they try to make us leave, I'm sure we can convince them to let us stay. I mean, we brought along plenty of weapons to fight of any ghosts that many bother us and we've got the 'country's best ghost hunters' to keep us safe."

Danny rolled his eyes at the sarcasm that was practically dripping from the last part of that sentence.

A short silence followed before McGee frowned slightly and said, "So if the real culprit is a ghost, then how are we going to finish this case. We can't exactly hand in our official reports to Director Vance saying 'A ghost did it!'"

Well, that was the elephant in the room, wasn't it? How were they going to wrap their case up without a murderer that more than 50% of Americans believe is non-existent? McGee's question set all of the agents' minds working, trying to think of an answer.

"There's no way we can just pass it off as an accident." Ziva began, "The victim was found dead after our witnesses" she nodded to Danny, Sam, and Tucker at that, "say they heard two people arguing before a shot rang out."

"Even if we say he was shot, we're going to have to explain how, other than that, there is absolutely no evidence. There are no fingerprints, no GSR, no DNA, no…nothing." McGee added.

"Couldn't you just leave the case unsolved?" Tucker asked, "Officially, I mean. You guys know what happened and we could tell your director what happened. But why not let the case officially go cold?"

"Because it's not just about finding the killer just to incarcerate," Gibbs said, "The victim's family needs closure as well, in knowing that the killer isn't walking free."

"But we should probably let Director Vance know about the threat that ghosts would possess, like Tucker suggested." Ziva said, "Just in case something like this happens again."

"But something like that would go beyond just Vance," McGee pointed out, "The emergence of an entirely new threat like ghosts would probably reach the Secretary of Defence." He looked over at the three teens, "How would you like the existence of ghosts and hybrids like you being known by the entire government?"

"Yeah," Tony said, "Unless you guys want your life to go full X-Men, maybe we should just keep that news to ourselves."

Thinking of the Guys in White, Danny shook his head, "Don't worry about that. I'm pretty sure the government already knows about ghosts and the Ghost Zone as a whole. And there's only one other hybrid like me who I can take care of just fine, thanks."

Gibbs frowned slightly. "Even so, we're still going to have to explain why it will be nearly impossible to arrest our killer."

xxxPhantomNCISxxx

At first, Gibbs was hesitant to take Danny's word when he said that the government already knew about the existence of ghosts. He had no idea how a kid would get a hold of information like that, even with the amazing hacking skills that his friend Tucker claimed to possess. There was always the possibility that Danny, as Phantom, had had a run in with the government before, but Gibbs didn't remember there being any organization that seriously dealt with the supernatural.

It was a surprise then, when, behind the locked doors of Leon Vance's office, Danny explained the entire situation and fully transformed into Phantom without Vance even batting an eye. His eyes did widen a little with interest as Danny transformed into his alter-ego and back again, but he hardly looked surprised. After Danny's demonstration, Vance turned to Gibbs.

"This case of yours seems to have gone out of your jurisdiction, Gibbs. The truth behind the existence of this 'Ghost Zone', as Danny said he mentioned to you, is, in fact, known to the United States government and there is already a secret government organization in place to combat the potential supernatural threat."

"The Guys in White," Danny said, "I can't say I've had any good experiences with their operatives. It's quite annoying, being hunted down as the bad guy when I'm actually the hero."

"The G.I.W are given, more or less, free rein with completing their objectives and they can be a bit obsessive," Vance said apologetically before turning back to Gibbs, "I trust you not to repeat a word of this conversation outside of this room. Your case is now in G.I.W's hands, is that clear?"

"Crystal." Gibbs said, although Danny could tell he was a little unsatisfied. He himself felt a little dissatisfied as well, knowing that there was little chance of the G.I.W actually capturing the ghost that did it.

xxxPhantomNCISxxx

"So what are your plans for the rest of the week?"

Jack and Maddie had returned to pick up the three teens and take them back to the hotel where they were staying. As Gibbs had predicted, neither Fenton parent was keen on letting the teens wander around Washington D.C after the whole day's fiasco. Maddie was even insistent that they leave right away.

But, as Sam predicted, the argument that they would be no safer in Amity Park and the mention of all the ghost-fighting weapons they had brought along convinced the Fenton adults to let them stay in D.C for one more week. She did not, however, account for the condition that one of the adults, or Jazz, would have to accompany the friends every day, just in case.

"We're not exactly sure." Danny said," We've already seen most of the memorials. Tucker wants to go to the National Spy Museum so he can see all the cool gadgets so we're thinking of doing that tomorrow. Sam also challenged herself to go to all of the Smithsonian museums and, of course, she's dragging us along."

"Hey!" Sam interjected, "I'm not dragging you along. You at least wanted to go to the Air and Space Museum!"

"Why there?" Ziva asked.

Danny blushed a bit. "I want to be an astronaut when I grow up."

"What? Is the Ghost Zone not 'otherworldly' enough for you?" Tony teased, leaning in so that Danny's parents couldn't hear.

Danny only smiled in response.

Once all of the goodbyes were said and the bullpen was quiet once more, all four agents returned to their desks, internally heaving a sigh of relief.

"They're good kids," Tony commented, "But what a case! I never want to have to deal with ghosts again!"

McGee glanced over at his colleague and friend before fixing his eyes on his computer screen, "I still think it's funny that you found yourself in prison mere minutes after arriving in the Ghost Zone."

"That was entirely on the crazy warden guy and you know it!"

"Maybe." Ziva said, "Although, I would not be surprised if he arrested you because you annoyed him one too many times."

Tony looked between them with an exaggerated expression of astonishment, "Really? You're going to gang up on me about that?! Can you believe this, boss?"

Gibbs looked up at Tony and quickly decided that he needed to buy himself some coffee if he was going to make it through the rest of the day.

Well, that's the end. Sorry if it seemed a little anticlimactic; I sort of burned out towards the end. So what did you guys think of this final chapter? Whatever you thought, PLEASE review.

Warriorette12