Military Vachel Repair Bay, Tierney.
1700 Local Time.

Jess wiped her sweaty forehead with a red, greasy rag before she picked up her water bottle from the bench and took a good mouthful to quench her thirst. She had been working hard under the hood of a M1161 Growler and had just finished fixing it in time before her shift ended.

She tossed the rag onto the bench next to the spanners she had been using, not that it had done anything to remove the smudges from her face or hands. It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of a little grease with the amount she had under her fingernails and around her nail beds on one hand.
Her army green jumpsuit had it's share of stains too, but somehow Jess only ever looked adorably cute in it rather than scruffy or dirty. A fact she was grateful for on one hand, but on the other hand it hindered people taking her seriously as a mechanic sometimes...until she showed them how it's done that was.

In the beginning of her career most people didn't take her that seriously, especially when she first joined the army as a mechanic. But now after several years she had a reputation for her work and half the people in Tierney came to her when they wanted help with all kinds of mechanical things, and they recommended her to other people when they needed help with mechanical things. The other half of Tierney came to her when they needed some tailoring done it seemed, because her reputation with a sewing machine was apparently catching up to her reputation with a spanner.

She took another sip of water before putting the cap back on the bottle and looking at the clock.
Pursing her lips she thought about where she could go or what she could do with her evening. Did she fancy going out? Did she want to make another dress? Or did she want to go and tinker with something else mechanical?

Whatever she was going to do she needed to wipe down her tools and put them away before she could let herself leave, so that is what she set about doing as she thought over her potions for the evening.

Tag: Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson

Military Vachel Repair Bay, Tierney.
1700 Local Time.

Working all day Mark had been running around the base like a lunatic, everything from a missing person who turned up three hours later drunk and under tarpaulin. A fight between two warring petty officers over a girl who lived about a hundred miles away from Tierney followed by the theft of a US Marines Assault Amphibious Vehicle or AAV-P7/A1 as he learned quickly. His phone hadn’t stopped all day and finally at half past four he had managed to find the vehicle abandoned about a mile away from the base after all stock had been checked, paperwork accounted for and the mass of already moving vehicles had been checked for purpose.

Once Mark managed to get into the thing, print it, doing a small forensic sweep and solicit advice on how to drive it and work out the rest he understood now why the thing had been abandoned. It was screaming like he was killing it, it was likely given he’d never driven one before but the noise inside the drivers compartment was like stabbing his ears over and over again as he decided to find the motor pool and drop it off. Army, Navy or Air Force he didnt care at that point because he was sure it might blow itself up if he went much further with it and the other side of the base didnt seem so good an option.

Mark knew his car was pretty close to the motor pool anyway, it was the last place he had checked for the thing before he caught wind that it was abandoned just off base. As he pulled up Mark wasnt sure if the noise was outside or inside as it felt like he couldnt hear much as he decided he would abandon it and drop the keys off as he made his rather loud ‘found it’ call and reeled off where it could be collected. Mark jumped out of the thing his head ringing as he made his way inside, he had heard there was a Pfc. Knight that could fix about anything which right now Mark was hoping was true because he wasnt taking that vehicle an inch further.

Mark saw a woman wiping down her tools as he knocked on the nearest solid surface. “Hey, anyone seen a Pfc. Knight around here?” He asked not sure who he was looking for but base gossip was as good as any he found. All Mark wanted to do was get off shift which ended with dropping off the screaming vehicle and get back to the trunk full of gadgets he had left that morning. Bringing them to work to tinker with on his down time was a great idea, if he hadn’t been playing hide and seek with a vehicle that could be heard coming a mile away and was far too big to ‘lose’ despite the Marines best efforts. Stolen likely but he had evidence in his back pack that could lead to who later as he made sure to keep it in sight.

Tag: Pfc. Jessica Knight

Jess had cleaned most of her equipment and was just wiping off the last spanner when she heard one of the strangest sounds ever in the near distance. She stopped and turned her head to the mechanic across from her, looking at him with her eyebrows wrinkled curiously as if to say 'what the heck is that?'. He had no idea himself and just looked back at Jess as if to say 'beats the heck out of me'.

She turned her head back and listened as the noise seemed to get closer and louder, well she listed the best she could with one good ear and on bad ear anyway. The noise seemed like it was coming right towards them before it just stopped. She looked at the entrance curiously with a slightly skeptical squint in her eye as she waited to see if there was gonna follow the ruckus. And it was at that exact moment a man walked straight towards her and asked for her by name.

"Who's asking?" She said as she finished wiping the last spanner before placing it down on the side. She had never seen the man before so she thought it wiser to fine out who he was and what he wanted before she jumped up and down waving her hand going 'that's me, that's me!'

Thought when she was shown his credentials she was more than happy to make herself known, "I'm Pfc. Knight." She said in a half friendly, half professional tone. "You need help with something?" She was due to clock off now, but that didn't mean she couldn't see to the man first and find out what he wanted.

Tag: Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson.

Mark grinned when he heard the woman ask who was asking. He should have pre-empted that one he thought as he reached for his ID and badge. “NCIS Special Agent Wilson, is asking.” He stated as he watched her closely, Mark had no idea if PFC. Knight was female or male as he had just heard that Knight was the go to person for fixing things on base. He usually didnt pay much attention to it as he enjoyed tinkering with things himself but figuring out what was making the vehicle he was unfamiliar with scream like it was doing, nope that was best left to the experts of the world.

“Nice to meet you Pfc. Knight. Call me Mark.” Mark said as he nodded to her question. “Yes I do, well you probably heard it a mile off but any chance you can take a look at the AAV-P7/A1 real quick?” Mark asked her wondering if she was clocking off for the day as it wasnt a war zone so he knew he couldnt exactly demand that she looked that the vehicle. It wasnt life or death either just ear splitting if he had to go and drop it off anywhere though having told his boss were to find it, he figured that would be good enough. After all as much fun as it was to find the dinosaur on the base, he had to get the evidence back.

“No idea what’s wrong with it but it’s noisy and not in a good way. I would take a look myself but I think my boss would kill me if I broke it any further, plus I might get carried away and decide to build one in the back yard so my wife might kill me for that too.” He joked though he could see Vanessa maybe wouldnt be so keen on a vehicle like that parked up outside. Not that he would have much used to an assault vehicle but you never could tell what you needed to have these days. It was why he had a shed or workshop or a bit of both. Engineering was his thing and despite the fact it wasnt his day job anymore, he still kept his nose in it even if it was on a much smaller less high tech scale than the Navy.

Tag: Pfc. Jessica Knight

"Jess." She said in friendly reply as she shook his hand after he told her to call him mark.

Jessica smirked a little when Mark said she probably heard it a mile off and asked her to look at the amtrack he had parked outside, "Yes, I did hear it a mile off." She replied with a light nod, "I'm half deaf in one ear and I still heard it a mile off." She jested with a smile.

She nodded in acknowledgment when he said he didn't know what was wrong with it, and she smiled at the jokes about breaking it more or building one in his own yard. "Hmm, I'd hate you to get in trouble with your boss or your wife so I guess I could take a quick peek." She said, gently taping him on the front of his shoulder with her rag.

"It sounds like it's in pain, what happened?" She asked Mark as they made their way outside. She was off duty now sure, but she had time to take a look now, even if she left the fixing until tomorrow.

She looked at the vehicle as they walked up to it and it didn't appear to have any drastic damage to the exterior, "Well it doesn't look like it's been subjected to a barrage of missiles." She mused, "So hopefully there shouldn't be too much wrong." Jess walked a lap around the vehicle quickly inspecting the exterior before she stopped where she had started from next to Mark.

"Start 'er up, let me listen to her for a minute." Now Jess knew where the racket had come from and what the heck was making it she could listen to it properly to help her diagnose exactly what the problem was.

Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson .

Mark smiled and nodded to her, well he was glad to have found the best person on the base to fix the problem. Lucky she was still working he guessed as he laughed. “See I knew you would, no sneaking up in this bucket of bolts.” Mark said as he grinned at her hearing that she was deaf in one ear. “Then you know how loud it is, surprised this thing doesn’t get sent out to the front lines, scare the enemy half to death with the noise before they see it.”

It might have been a great idea if it wasn’t for the fact whoever driving it would likely end up with the mother of all headaches. “Thanks, you really are a live saver and my boss and wife thank you too. I think my wife more than my boss mostly because I’m pretty sure the size of the thing might take over the house too.” He stated though honestly he wasnt beyond trying to build a scale version or toy that the kids could drive once they were old enough.

Following Jess outside Mark nodded to her, it was a pain given that half the base was probably alerted to the fact there was a noisy vehicle roaming around. “Well the thing got stolen earlier today, I think given the noise it makes it wasnt exactly the get away the thieves were hoping for so I found it after a goose chase and now. Well now it just makes that awful noise.” Mark explained walking up to the vehicle.

Mark chuckled when she mentioned the missiles, well that was a bonus he figured. “You get a lot of missile hit vehicle to fix up?” He asked her out of curiosity. Okay so Mark was a big kid at heart and the machines, missiles and all that went with it was like candy to him. “You sure you want me to do that?” Mark teased as he pulled himself up into the vehicle and started it up hearing the screaming noise. If he didnt know better he was sure it sounded like he was killing someone slowly but yes he hadn’t a degree in driving the vehicle but he figured he had managed to get it to the garage so really, it couldn’t have been his driving. “Heard enough yet?” He yelled trying to be heard over the noise.

Pfc. Jessica Knight

"Well, you, your wife and your boss are welcome. I'm happy to serve my country." She joked.
Though at the end of the day she was genuinely proud to serve her country. Though she knew this didn't really count, she was just sticking around a little longer as a favor.

Jess pursed her lips when Mark told her that the thing had been stolen, "Hmm, if it was stolen then it's possible the thief damaged it while they was out joy riding."

She gave him a casual nod when he asked if she got many missile hit vehicles to fix up, "I get a few." She replied. "This machinery gets sent to the middle of hot zones and it's my job to fix em. I get it all; Missile damage, machine gun fire, land-mine and IED damage, you name it." She said, talking about it oh so casually because it was a normal part of her job.

Jess squinted and grimaced as the racket started again, oh it was in pain alright and it sounded like a few things had come loose inside. "Yeah, I've heard enough." She shouted over the noise.

"Sounds like a few things have been knocked loose inside. I'll need to open her up and take a closer look." She said, looking the vehicle up and down with a hand on her hip.

Then she turned her head to Mark, "..Did you wanna help?" She offered, picking up on the big kid vibe inside of him that seemed itching to take this thing apart to see how it worked.

Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson.

“Glad to hear it, it’s always an honour to do that. Sort of wish I was still doing it then I wouldn’t need a huge back yard to play with all the Navy toys.” Mark said with a grin though where he was now, he wouldnt swap it for anything. His military days were gone and now he was a cop or a Navy cop who had Navy experience which for him counted for a lot. Even if it meant that he didnt get to mess around with tech as much as he wanted to.

“Well if they did, they did a fantastic job at wrecking it for everyone else.” Mark said with a sigh as he listened to Jess talk about what she fixed on the vehicles. “Well at least you get to fix it up, I don’t get to do much of the fixing anymore. Miss the designing part too but now it’s more chasing vehicles around a base or sorting out fights. Fingers crossed I don’t see too much of the darker side to NCIS.” Mark said as well the darker side meant death and that wasnt good at all. Sure it kept him in work but it wasnt like he could be happy about it.

Mark turned off the engine glad for the peace when Jess said she heard enough of it. “Yeah, not sure what’s loose but it sounds like it’s killing the machine slowly.” Mark said with a grin when she said helping out. “Yes.” He practically squealed before he realised looking like a three year old with lego wasnt particularly great for a grown man.

“I mean sure that would be okay I guess.” Mark said trying to be a little more casual toward the matter. Learning how the thing worked, it was like a cat an cream. He enjoyed figuring it out and something like this, well he was glad for the opportunity to do so as he tried not to bounce from foot to foot. “What do you need me to do?” He asked her politely as he left his stuff in the vehicle and got out to join her looking at it.

Tag: Pfc. Jessica Knight

Jess tried to stifle her grin when Mark jumped at her offer so eagerly then try to act all calm and indifferent about it.
Truth was she found it nice seeing someone so passionate about something, especially when that something was tinkering with a vehicle.

“What do you need me to do?”

"I don't know, what can you do?" She teased. Playfully questioning what skills he had with mechanics.
Though he had said about building one of these beasts at home, even if it was a joke, so she guessed he had to know what he was doing

she grabbed a tool box and opened the covers on the AAV-P7/A1 so they could set to work finding out what was wrong, "Ok, let's see what we're working with here."

Jess began looking over the parts, wiggling pipes and testing brackets that held things in place. Everything on the surface seemed fine, then through the pipes and wires she saw a damaged component deeper behind the other parts. "There." She pointed, trying to help him see the component behind the bigger parts and twisty, windy pipes.

No doubt they would fine one or two more loose or damaged parts as they poked around inside, but first they had to start poking "Ok, let's get digging." She said handing him a spanner, a look of genuine contentment and satisfaction on her face.

Oh there was something about undoing nuts and bolts and using wrenches and spanners that Jess loved so much, knowing that after something that was broken would be working again.
In her mind it was like being a doctor and performing a surgery, only on vehicles instead of people, and she loved it.

"So do you build things for a living for NCIS?" She asked making friendly conversation.
She didn't understand exactly what it was that NCIS did, she just knew Mark said he was a special agent for them and that he could build stuff in his garden if his wife would let him.

Tag: Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson.

Mark laughed and rolled his eyes lightly at her teasing. “Well there’s lots that I can do but you let me know what you need and we’ll see if I can do it.” Mark joked, “If it sounds worse than before then the answers no and I’ve broken it further.” Tinkering with things was what he loved to do, take the toaster apart, build a make shift radio. Try and fix the plumbing in the house though that wasnt exactly a great thing to do when he had managed to turn the water cold while his wife was in the shower.

Yeah he regretted that for a good few weeks. Mark stood back and watched Jess work, yip this was turning out to be a pretty good end to a day. Taking look when Jess pointed he could see the component behind a few others and the pipes that didnt exactly make it easy to get to. Whoever designed that thing needed their head checked. Machines needed to be easy to take apart and fix especially military one because he wasnt too keen on having a breakdown in a war zone.

To see the look on her face Mark figured he had found the right person for this job, mostly because he was sure a lot of people after hours would have told him to go fly somewhere. Taking the spanner handed to him Mark grinned. “This is the best work day ever.” He stated grinning as he started to take things to pieces, nuts and bolts came off relatively easily though when he actually thought about things. Nuts and bolts were all that held things together at relatively high speeds. It maybe wasnt as comforting as not knowing, if one failed then it could throw the entire engine off or ruin it and that wasnt going to be good for anyone.

While working on the engine Mark shook his head as Jess’s question. “No I wish I could but I’m an NCIS agent who works the criminal side of things. So whoever took it will find me on their doorstep soon enough.” He explained, “But I used to be a mechanical engineer for the Navy pervious to NCIS and that was the best. Getting to work on plans, tinker with the big toys but now it’s more a shed and toaster for me.” He added chuckling.

“What about yourself? Always been interested in mechanics?” Mark asked interested in why she chose to do what she did. Everyone had their reasons but they were all interesting to him. He leaned into the engine a little further as he undid another bolt and he felt one of the pipes become a little looser.

Tag: Pfc. Jessica Knight

Jess grinned when he said it was the best work day ever. It was nice seeing someone happy and passionate about something, especially when that something was mechanics.

Jess grew up turning nuts and bolts and fixing parts with her dad, then she did it for a living in an auto repair shop before she eventually started doing it for the army. And today she had been fixing vehicles all day as usual so she didn't know if she would call this the best work day ever herself. But admittedly she mostly fixed trucks and 4x4s more than anything and she didn't usual get to work on an AAV-P7/A1 and she didn't usually get to work with fun and enthusiastic NCIS agents either, so today was up there with the best.

“No I wish I could but I’m an NCIS agent who works the criminal side of things. So whoever took it will find me on their doorstep soon enough.”

And if the man was as good at solving crimes as he was with a spanner Jess knew they would be finding him at their door sooner rather than later, "Wow, that must be really interesting work." She replied.

She found that kind of thing genuinely interesting, how they followed clues and evidence and found the bad guys."I bet you have some stories to tell." She added with a smile.
Oh bet he could get everyone in a bar gathered around him listening and eating out of his hand. That line of work always seemed fascinating on tv shows and documentaries anyway.

"Do you investigate murders and stuff like that?" She asked, maybe a little too directly and a little too intrigued by the idea. "Or just stolen vehicles and things like that?"

She didn't always think before she blurted stuff out. His job was real life and a tv show and if she had actually thought she might have asked him in a more tactful way, or not asked at all. After all not everyone liked to talk about that kind of thing, especially if they had to deal with it.

"Sorry!" She offered.

"I didn't mean to blurt like that, I'm just interested. Not in murder! In your job."
Yes Jess was sunny and optimistic and somehow the way she could rambling on and speaking million words a minute was cute and endearing.

Tag: Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson.

Mark hadn’t really grown up with fixing things, no he was supposed to be a lawyer of all things. Then again the family business hadn’t really sat well with him, mostly because when it came to reading about the law. He wasnt interest in getting guilty parties off the charges. So the Navy had been his making and thanks to trial and error he had found his calling in mechanics. Working out how things came together, that to him was gold dust. It might be nuts to want to know how an engine got a plane into the air or how a toaster managed to pop up toast every day.

But that was what he did, he figured stuff out and even how to make a toaster make toast and boil coffee at the same time. That was the fun part of everything, taking something and giving it an upgrade only for someone else to come along and upgrade the upgrade. So the cycle went on, you figured it out the next thing to do though a truck this size. Mark was a little out of his depth without taking it to pieces before putting it back together with those three nuts and bolts missing. It wasnt flat pack furniture.

“Yeah it is most days, I get to figure out the who done it though hopefully a stolen vehicle is about as busy as it gets here.” Mark said knowing that he hated the other side of it, the murder, the death the general things of being an agent. If the worst was a stolen vehicle then this was going to be good if he could hang around the motor pool for all of his cases. “Then again I do like the challenge, plus we get to go stalk the lab for fancy gadgets to catch criminals so I guess it is interesting.” Mark added grinning.

“Though I bet yours is too, I’d love to be able to work on these vehicles every day and figure out how they work.” Mark added though Vanessa might have something to say about it. “Stories... there are a few I can tell you. I mean there’s the one about the guy that got stuck down the chimney, he tried to steal Christmas presents of a deployed family but got stuck and wasnt found until a three days later. When the seven year old kid thought that Santa was actually stuck in the chimney.” He said chuckling, there were strange days and many a story to tell.

“Hey don’t be sorry at all, I ask a lot of questions too so I’m used to it though good to know you’re not interested in murder or we’d have to have a whole new conversation.” Mark added with a grin at Jess. “Yeah I investigate murders too, stolen vehicles are the easier cases but murders can be interesting. I mean the obvious heartbreak for the family but if you can get them closure then it’s worth it but in Tierney I’ve not investigated a murder yet. Do you have information about one that might occur?” Mark asked jokingly though it was always good to find his feet with who was doing what and who the ones to watch on base were.

Tag: Pfc. Jessica Knight

"Yeah it is pretty quiet around here." She replied, agreeing that was a good thing. "This will be the talk of the town." She motioning to the stolen vehicle. "Probably make front page news." She joked.

"Well fancy gadgets certainly sounds like a perk of the job. Though whatever gadgets and gizmos they make sometimes you just can't beat the old school tricks." She smiled.
Technology could help to no end but sometimes nothing worked better than the simplest way of doing things.

Jess smiled when Mark said her job must be interesting too. "Yeah it can be very interesting some days." She nodded, "Though I don't see it as figuring out how these things work. I see it more like finding out what hurts, letting them tell you what is wrong and fixing it. Kind of like a doctor, but with vehicles." She added, before realizing that probably sounded insane.

Machines didn't hurt and they certainly couldn't talk to tell you what was wrong. Now he probably thought she was a quirky looney tune. Well Jess was a little quirky but she wasn't crazy but she didn't think machines actually talked, she didn't hear voices in her head or anything like that.

Jess giggled when he told her the chimney story. She imagined he must have a hundred stories like that, but she wasn't going to ask him to tell them all right now.

With Mark's help Jess got to the damaged component as they talked and she was able quickly remove it. "Yeah it's busted just like I thought." She confirmed casually. "Just need to swap it for a new one."
She grabbed a new part out of the supplies so the pair could start putting things back together.

She listened as Mark told her murder cases was challenging but worth it. And she giggled again when he smirked saying that he was glad she wasn't interested in murder and jokingly asked her if she knew any murders that might occur. "I like you, you're funny." She said with a smile.

Jess wasn't the best for pretenses and diplomatics. She had a somewhat childlike openness and innocence and she told people how she felt. Likewise if Mark was being horrible she would have called him mean and kicked him before walking away, simple as that.

But she liked Mark. He was nice, funny and hopefully she had made a new friend, "You know if you like mechanics so much we could do this kind of thing when we're off the clock. It would be nice to be friend and work on stuff like this together for fun." She offered with a friendly smile.

Sp. Agt. Mark Wilson .

(Ooc: Because of the site move did you want to wrap this thread up, keep it going here of continue it on the new site? )