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Rosemary yawned and stretched as she headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She liked being able to sleep a little late on Saturdays. Running her fingers through her curls to tame them into some semblance of order, she smiled as she as a random memory flashed before her…
She was sitting on the deck stairs in her sweats with a cup of coffee when Joey came outside wrapped in the quilt from their bed.
"Rosie it's cold out here." He complained as he sat behind her on the top step.
"Wimpy Marine." She teased, "It's nice out."
He wrapped the blanket around the both of them and pulled her back against his chest.
She chuckled, "Okay, this is nicer. Now I know why you're cold though, ever think of putting on some clothes?"
"That would just be a waste of time."
"Waste of time?"
Suddenly he moved and she had forgotten how quick he really was and she found herself scooped up in his arms. He stood up and headed for the back door, "Yeah, a waste of time since I'd just have to take them off again."
Her laughter rang through the house all the way to the bedroom.
She smiled at the memory then put it away, thinking about making love to Joey just made her think about how alone she was and how empty her life had become. She shook her head and padded off to the kitchen to make coffee.
She measured out the coffee grounds and took the pot over to the sink to fill it, and almost had a heart attack as she looked out the window above the sink. There was someone in her backyard. When she realized who it was, the panic subsided and she finished setting up the coffee pot.
She walked out the back door onto the deck and glared at the person standing there, "You remember that I have a gun and know how to use it right?"
Gibbs was standing in the grass measuring one of the rotted deck planks. He let the tape measure slide closed and finished writing down the measurement before looking up to meet her eyes, "You're not going to shoot me."
"Oh really. And you know that how?"
He bent down and lifted an evidence box up onto the deck, "Because you're going to help me find your husband's killer instead."
Her eyes were ice, "Very funny Agent Gibbs. But I happen to know that NCIS has no interest in finding my husband's killer. They've made that very clear to me."
"I'm re-activating the investigation."
"Your Director might have something to say about that."
"Actually her exact words were "Jethro, you get this son of a bitch". So my Director isn't a problem."
Her expression changed to one of skeptical disbelief, "You're serious?"
He nodded gently, "Yeah."
Still in a state of shock over this turn of events, she gestured back towards the door, "Um, coffee?"
"Thought you'd never ask." He teased picking up the box and following her into the kitchen.
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After the disaster at the shooting range Gibbs had spent the night back at the office pulling all the data on the O'Reilly case. Tony had come back to the office around midnight to catch up on some reports, and was surprised to see Gibbs still there. They didn't have any open cases.
The two men spent a couple of hours pouring over the case and formulated a plan of attack. They went to an all night diner and got some food and Tony asked, "Boss, can I ask why we're suddenly so interested in this case? I mean, I know it's a dead Marine but why now?"
Gibbs took a big sip of his coffee, "I met his widow by accident at the range earlier."
"So she latch onto you when she found out you were NCIS?"
"The opposite actually. She left when she found out. Called us NCIUseless."
Tony snorted, he couldn't help it, "That's a new one, Boss."
"I've never seen anyone that angry before, she hates the whole agency."
"Well looking at some of the notes on the case, it doesn't look like she was taken very seriously, Boss. They treated her like Susie Homemaker instead of a trained investigator."
"Yeah. And I really want to know why some of the leads she gave them were never followed up on. It doesn't make any sense."
"Did you know the original lead agent?"
"Canning? Yeah. He and I…well let's just say we don't see eye to eye."
"Is he any good?"
"He's shortsighted. Gets a theory in his head and refuses to see anything else."
"Think that's what happened? "
"You can bet on it. Let's go home and catch a couple hours sleep. I'll talk to the Director first thing and get this transferred over to us. Plan on pulling all the evidence. "
"Got it. And, Boss?
"Yeah, DiNozzo?"
"We'll get him, Boss." Tony knew how Gibbs felt about giving families closure. Especially the families of dead Marines.
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