Post by SA Dr. John Clark on Jul 24, 2011 22:50:34 GMT -5
As Clark reached his new desk for the first time, he had to stop and remember all of the things that had happened since he last worked out of this bullpen: the reassignment to NCIS since his superiors feared he was getting too close to the BAU, the adventures with Gibbs and his team, the chain of events where he found out that Spencer was marked for the same processing that had made him become what he was and set him on the path to a Burn Notice as he took measures to eliminate the threat to his friends at the BAU and wound up hunted as an UNSUB himself, his thoughts finally wandering to the funeral Dr. Mallard and SSA Gibbs had so thoughtfully put together to officially mark his end as "Tom Woods" and the beginning of his new life as "John Clark"...
>ABOARD USS ARLEIGH BURKE, 75 MILES OFF NORFOLK, ONE MONTH PRIOR
[Author's note: this takes place around the timeframe of "The Return", before Case One. The odd sort in the chief's uniform is Clark, covertly reading the responses of his former colleagues from NSA.]
It was a dark, cold, rainy, generally miserable day out on the Atlantic, perfect weather for today's events; an unlikely mix of personnel had gathered on the destroyer's quarterdeck for the memorial service. Jethro Gibbs and his team from NCIS were in attendance, along with Dr. Mallard and even Director Vance. A few senior personnel from National Security Agency were there, as was the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, paying last respects to a friend they had had to put down. And some of the ship's company, including a rather ugly little fellow in disguise, wearing a borrowed Chief Petty Officer's uniform and standing amongst his hosts from the ship's "Goat Locker," quietly doing his best to see and not be seen; unnoticed by any of the others, Dr. Mallard shot this "chief" an inquiring look and got an affirmative nod in response.
The chaplain droned on for several minutes, finally closing with "To the deep we commit his body, to the Lord we commit his soul, to ourselves we commit his memory. And when the day comes that the sea shall give up its dead..." A little more prattle, and then he invited others to add their comments.
One of the suits from NSA spoke first. "Tom was a good agent, perhaps the best in the history of the formal Intelligence Community. He never failed a mission, was generous to a fault with his time and effort in mentoring new agents, and while he frequently expressed his contempt for our business and his high standards of ethics cost us quite a few operatives, he always gave us a better example to aspire to as people. All of this makes the experiment gone horribly wrong that forced him to be dispatched even more tragic. Rest in peace, Tom, and wherever you are now may you forgive us for how we wasted your too-brief time among us. To make sure his sacrifice was not in vain, we are preparing to shut down the program that did this to him."
A representative from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spoke next. "In addition to his covert operations, Tom was also a skilled engineer, building many prototypes for next-generation systems on a shoestring budget and frequently reusing cast-off hardware to do it. DARPA will be stepping up to take care of the Artificial Intelligences that are his children, seeing to it that they reach maturity to decide for themselves what to do with their, ah, lives. With us too, he was a valued asset, always available to work problems out or consult on others' projects."
The NCIS agents spoke for a minute or so each, relating tales of bygone cases, how he had been so valued at NCIS that their own recently-deceased Director had him transferred to them full-time despite other agencies' objections and how they had known him as a person after hours.
Even the Marine officer commanding the honor-guard chimed in, relating a story of an operation gone horribly wrong in Afghanistan, how Woods had commandeered a helicopter and single-handedly flown out to their rescue, once down leaving the controls to man the door guns, running between them and blazing away until some of the squad were aboard to take over on the weapons, and how each man firing the 21-gun salute was a survivor of that mission; everyone had volunteered, and they had had to draw lots to decide who was coming, and citing a letter from the Commandant of the Corps declaring the late Tom Woods a United States Marine in spirit if not in formalities.
And then all eyes turned to the BAU contingent, anxiously waiting to see why FBI agents were there and how the Bureau fit into the complicated tapestry that had been their friend and colleague...
[tentatively open--LMK if more backstory posting is required]
>ABOARD USS ARLEIGH BURKE, 75 MILES OFF NORFOLK, ONE MONTH PRIOR
[Author's note: this takes place around the timeframe of "The Return", before Case One. The odd sort in the chief's uniform is Clark, covertly reading the responses of his former colleagues from NSA.]
It was a dark, cold, rainy, generally miserable day out on the Atlantic, perfect weather for today's events; an unlikely mix of personnel had gathered on the destroyer's quarterdeck for the memorial service. Jethro Gibbs and his team from NCIS were in attendance, along with Dr. Mallard and even Director Vance. A few senior personnel from National Security Agency were there, as was the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, paying last respects to a friend they had had to put down. And some of the ship's company, including a rather ugly little fellow in disguise, wearing a borrowed Chief Petty Officer's uniform and standing amongst his hosts from the ship's "Goat Locker," quietly doing his best to see and not be seen; unnoticed by any of the others, Dr. Mallard shot this "chief" an inquiring look and got an affirmative nod in response.
The chaplain droned on for several minutes, finally closing with "To the deep we commit his body, to the Lord we commit his soul, to ourselves we commit his memory. And when the day comes that the sea shall give up its dead..." A little more prattle, and then he invited others to add their comments.
One of the suits from NSA spoke first. "Tom was a good agent, perhaps the best in the history of the formal Intelligence Community. He never failed a mission, was generous to a fault with his time and effort in mentoring new agents, and while he frequently expressed his contempt for our business and his high standards of ethics cost us quite a few operatives, he always gave us a better example to aspire to as people. All of this makes the experiment gone horribly wrong that forced him to be dispatched even more tragic. Rest in peace, Tom, and wherever you are now may you forgive us for how we wasted your too-brief time among us. To make sure his sacrifice was not in vain, we are preparing to shut down the program that did this to him."
A representative from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spoke next. "In addition to his covert operations, Tom was also a skilled engineer, building many prototypes for next-generation systems on a shoestring budget and frequently reusing cast-off hardware to do it. DARPA will be stepping up to take care of the Artificial Intelligences that are his children, seeing to it that they reach maturity to decide for themselves what to do with their, ah, lives. With us too, he was a valued asset, always available to work problems out or consult on others' projects."
The NCIS agents spoke for a minute or so each, relating tales of bygone cases, how he had been so valued at NCIS that their own recently-deceased Director had him transferred to them full-time despite other agencies' objections and how they had known him as a person after hours.
Even the Marine officer commanding the honor-guard chimed in, relating a story of an operation gone horribly wrong in Afghanistan, how Woods had commandeered a helicopter and single-handedly flown out to their rescue, once down leaving the controls to man the door guns, running between them and blazing away until some of the squad were aboard to take over on the weapons, and how each man firing the 21-gun salute was a survivor of that mission; everyone had volunteered, and they had had to draw lots to decide who was coming, and citing a letter from the Commandant of the Corps declaring the late Tom Woods a United States Marine in spirit if not in formalities.
And then all eyes turned to the BAU contingent, anxiously waiting to see why FBI agents were there and how the Bureau fit into the complicated tapestry that had been their friend and colleague...
[tentatively open--LMK if more backstory posting is required]