(McGee, and Ziva working at their computers)
(Gibbs enters with a cup of coffee in his hands)
"Good morning boss" McGee said in his usual polite manner. "where's DiNozzo?" Gibbs said in response. "Late." Ziva replies sounding somewhat annoyed. "well i got that part Ziva." Gibbs said giving her that 'answer my question' look. "He says he is held up in traffic." Ziva says obviously unconvinced. "you don't believe him?" Gibbs asks simply for the sake of conversation."The roads were clear" Ziva replies matter of factly.(the phone rings Gibbs answers).
(DiNozzo enters clearly out of breath from rushing to get there, yet a huge smile on his face) "What took you so long Tony?" Ziva inquired. (Tony sits at his desk, then looks up at Ziva with a 'what do you mean' expression) "uhh, i told you, traffic." (Abby rushes in clearly having run to work as well) "Sorry im late! Major traffic!" She says to no one in particular. McGee and Ziva exchange a look of doubt and curiosity. "what was that about?" Ziva asked. Tony looks slightly to his left and searches for an answer.
Right when it seems he had one Gibbs hung up the phone and interrupted. "There's been a murder, let's go." Gibbs said. Gibbs heads for the elevator, while Tony, Ziva and McGee stay there looking at each other. Gibbs notices no one is following him. "you all coming?" he asked sarcastically. "Umm, yeah, sorry boss" Tony said as he and the other got their supplies and headed for the elevator."saved by the boss." Tony whispers as the elevator doors close.
(their car pulls up on the street next to a small house in a small neighborhood, with Ducky, and Palmer's car close behind. Neighbors are standing in the yard.) "What's the story here?" Gibbs asks a nearly bald man about in his mid thirties that came almost running up to him. they all walk up into the house and start looking around.
"uhh, well i woke up, and saw that my wife was not in bed,so i guessed she was in the bathroom or something. I went to go make us breakfast, and I was walking this hallway here," the man says pointing to the hallway he was referring to, "when i stepped in something wet, i looked down, and it was blood. the door was locked from the inside so i had to get a crowbar and force it open." he said when Gibbs looked suspiciously at the scraped wood at what looked like a forced entry. "And when i went in," the man continued sounding on the verge of tears, "i found her with a knife in her hand, dead!"
Gibbs took one look at the marine who's dead body lied in an awkward position with a cut throat, then walked over to his agents who were examining everything. "Thought you said this was a murder boss." McGee said. "every seemingly obvious suicide is investigated probie." Tony answered. "Thaaat's right DiNozzo," Gibbs said, "McGee photos, David, DiNozzo, bag and tag."
As the team followed out Gibbs orders, he turns his attention to Ducky. "Well Jethro, I can only tell you the obvious," Ducky begins, "Poor miss Laura Willington here died of a sever cut to the throat at about 6:30 this morning. Yes, curious though, it seems to be that the cut was very unprofessionally done, well, considering she has had training with knifes, and, also there appears to be some bruising on the right hand here." "yeah that is odd isn't it Duck?" Gibbs acknowledged.
"Well apart form that it seems the poor fellow's story checks out, I might know a little more when i get her on the table." Ducky says standing up from kneeling over the body. "yeah, well let's wrap her up and go Duck." Gibbs says getting tired of being there.
(A few hours later, back at NCIS in the autopsy room)"Have anything Ducky?" Gibbs asks upon entering. "A little" Ducky replies sounding a little troubled. "whats up?" Gibbs asks. "well the bruise on her hand here, were actually the result of a broken finger, which indicates a lot of pressure on her hand. Plus on both knuckles here there are slight signs of a struggle. And last there seems to be a small hardly noticeably piece of the left ear missing, probably done post-mortem, I didn't notice it earlier because of the position she was in at the house."
"yes, this reminds me of a time a while ago, when a woman, about 23 years old, was murdered and the murderer for some strange reason, removed her nose, and the really strange thing was that..." "Ducky..." Gibbs said firmly,not really caring for Ducky's stories."right, well,I haven't anything else for you Jethro." Ducky says "this case hints of a homicide but I wouldn't bet my job on it." "I dunno Duck.." Gibbs says "something doesn't feel right to me" "the old gut again Jethro?" Ducky asks "yup.." Gibbs replies heading out for Abby's lab.
(Meanwhile, In Abby's lab) "Hey" Tony says and greets Abby with a light kiss on the cheek. "Hey Tony!" Abby says excited as ever,her ponytails flipping from side to side as she works on something. "Watcha doin'?" Tony asks her, in a flirting tone. "examining this knife Gibbs gave to me" she replies "Oh? find anything cool?" He asks getting more and more interested.
"Well, if you call a fingerprint cool, then yes!" Abby says. "hmm, a fingerprint on a knife that was held in a hand with fingers on it...got anything better?" Tony asks not realizing what Abby meant. "Wait! you didn't let me finish! It wasn't her fingerprint Tony!!"Abby finished jumping up a little out of excitement. "ooo, boss man's gonna like this" Tony says wrapping his arms around Abby from the back.
Gibbs suddenly appears out of nowhere, surprising them. "Oh! Boss!" Tony jumps, and releases Abby immediately having not yet told anyone about his relationship with Abby. "Umm, see, i can explain boss, i was just.." "Later DiNozzo" Gibbs says interrupting Tony's attempt at an explanation. "What have you got for me Abbs?" Gibbs asks.
"You are so spoiled Gibbs, every time you come in here you expect me to have something for you." Gibbs sighs, "call me when you have something then." he says as he starts to leave her lab. "I never said I didn't have anything!" Abby calls back, messing with Gibbs. Gibbs rolls his eyes at her games and heads back over to her. "what?" he says.
"A full fingerprint, not Laura's, I'm running it through the data base now." she says. Green lighted writing appeared on her computer screen indicating a positive match. "Ahh, yes, this lovely fingerprint belongs to... petty officer Zack Nickleson.Abby said conclusively "she was murdered..." Tony said in shock. "yes she was DiNozzo, Yes she was.." Gibbs let his voice trail off as he takes in what Abby told him, a worried look on his face.
(back in the main room, with Ziva and McGee in their desks) "what do you have on this Zack Nickleson?" Gibbs asks Ziva and McGee. "Petty officer Zack Nickleson," Ziva starts, as McGee brings his picture up on the plasma screen. " 29 years old, no past of any crimes, lives with his mom, just a few doors down from the victims house.." "he is the perfect marine" Ziva finished.
"Yeah, well not perfect enough,Ziva, McGee, bring him in" Gibbs says "yes sir" McGee replies as he and Ziva get their gear and head for the elevator "DiNozzo, you..." Gibbs turned around to face Tony then realizes he isn't there. "haven't seen him boss!" McGee yells at Gibbs while he and Ziva enter the elevator. "Yeah, i know where he is.." he assures McGee, as the elevator closes and he goes to get a Caf pow for Abby.
(meanwhile at Abby's lab) Tony has his arms around Abby and is kissing her. "This is bothering me Tony, when are we gonna tell him?" Abby inquires referring to telling Gibbs about their relationship. "Next time we see him, unless he isn't interested" Tony promised her. "I still think we should tell Gibbs even if he doesn't want to know" Abby complained. "Tell me what Abby?" Gibbs said suddenly as he entered her lab, again, unnoticed.
"Gibbs!" Abby says, as she runs to him to retrieve the Caf Pow in his hand. "Sorry i forgot it last time." Gibbs says automatically, as he walks up to Tony and gives him a good hard slap to the back of his head for sneaking away to be with Abby. Tony blinks a few times recovering from the blow, looking dazed.
"I don't have anything new for you Gibbs..you were just here..." Abby says wondering why he's here. "oh, I know Abbs, I'm just curious as to what's going on with you and Tony." Gibbs says lightly. "you don't get curious, just suspicious..." Tony whispers mainly to himself, Gibbs smiles to himself at this.
"so, what's the story here?" Gibbs asks, Abby sits in a chair at a corner in her lab,listening to her loud music, and holding her stuffed hippo, as Tony bites his lip starts to explain. "Well, it all started a few months ago.." Tony started. (flashback of Abby and Tony in a nice restaurant laughing and drinking. later on that night at Tony's house, them in his bed, making love. Small montage of Tony sneaking away at convenient times to be with Abby. End of flashback.)
Tony finishes, bites his teeth together and squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for a reaction from Gibbs expecting to be in trouble and receive another blow to the back of his head. Instead to both Abby and Tony's surprise, he just smiled, and walked off. Classic Gibbs style.
(Meanwhile following Ziva and McGee in their mission to bring in the suspect, In their car.) "What do you think is going on between Tony and Abby?" Ziva asked McGee, not being able to take her mind off the Tony. "how do you know something's going on between them?" he asked, "Tony has been unusually happy and acting odd lately, plus this morning they were both late." Ziva replied stating her evidence.
"Coincidence?" McGee suggested,mainly focusing on the road, "I do not believe in coincidences, learned that from Gibbs" she stated confidently,"I think they are together." she concluded. McGee took this in and thought about it, bringing a pensive look upon his face. "hm. Maybe" McGee said, obviously not too happy, his attention now clearly divided between this and the road.
Ziva sensed his sensitivity toward the thought that his friend was sleeping with his ex girlfriend, so she simply ended the conversation with "well, whatever it is, his moose is cooked." McGee looked at her funny, and then corrected her "goose, not moose." "Oh..sorry..." she replied.
(they arrive at the suspect's House.) Ziva knocks at the door, they stand by, and wait for an answer. Ziva notices McGee is still being bothered by what she suggested was going on between Tony and Abby, she starts to feel a little guilty.
McGee notices her sudden expression of guilt, and gets a little angry. "I'm fine, I don't want your pity." he says unusually out of character, Ziva has no time to respond because at that moment the door opens. An old lady at about 58 years old answers. "Uhh, can i help you?" The lady asks as she looks at the two agents with confusion.
Ziva shows the lady her NCIS badge and ID "NCIS Ma'am, is your son home?". The lady opens the door more, letting them in, "why, yes, he's right over there, what's this about?". Ziva and McGee ignore her question and find Petty officer Nickleson sleeping (and snoring quite loudly)on his couch. Ziva wakes him up with a rough shake,"w-what's going on?" Mickleson asks confused. "NCIS," Ziva says for the second time,showing her badge "you need to come with us, we need to ask you some questions." "uhh, ok, sure.." he said, still clearly unaware of what's happening. (they leave with the suspect)
(back at NCIS in the interrogation room.) Tony, and Ziva are in the room, behind the interrogation room, watching the suspect, waiting for Gibbs to walk in and interrogate him. The suspect seems to be a lot more clear headed that before. "I know your secret." Ziva says to Tony, Tony laughs a little, "No you don't...........do you?" Tony starts to get suspicious.
"Of course, you are very bad at hiding your emotions when they are so close to your workplace." Ziva says taking a chance, not truly knowing if something really is going on with him and Abby. She figured since McGee wasn't there, she should find out while she can. Tony gets mad, "Ok, how did you find out about Abby and me? Did Gibbs tell you?" Ziva smiles diabolically "Nope, you told me, just now." Tony looks confused "wait..do you mean?.."
"yes! not only did you confirm my suspicions that there was something going on, but you also told me that it was with Abby, and that Gibbs knows too." Ziva says feeling accomplished. Tony adopts an expression of disgust, at that moment Gibbs enters the interrogation room with the suspect, and they refocus their attention on the suspect.
McGee was standing in the upper left corner of the interrogation room watching. "where were you this morning at about 6am?" Gibbs asked roughly trying to get his alibi. "Umm, at home, sleeping.." the suspect said. Gibbs knew this had to be a lie since his mother had said he wasn't home until about 7. Gibbs slammed his fist on the table and yelled "that's a lie! you killed petty officer Laura Willington!"
"w-what?..." Zack Nickleson said, he seemed to be foggy headed again. Gibbs continued "you killed her, you threw her in the closet and cut her throat!" "what..no..i could never..you..you've got the wrong guy, i didn't.." the suspect stuttered on his words "We have your fingerprint on the knife that killed her!" Gibbs interrupted. "ther..there must be some mistake..I..." Gibbs got tired of trying and rested his head in his hands.
McGee took a few steppes forward, he had an idea, another approach to the situation, and he wanted to test it out. "How did you know Laura?" McGee asked, at first he didn't answer,only looked to his left, about to say something, stopped himself, looked to the right, sighed and said "We've been seeing each other for a few months now." he confesses "You do know she had a husband, right?" McGee asks, a little confused. "Yes, i knew, we were not going to tell him about it, she told me she was getting bored with him, it was harmless."
"right, and were you with her earlier this morning?" he asks him, "no, i told you, i was at home." Mickleson stuck with his story. "how about before 6am, where were you before?"McGee pressed "at a bar.." he said drowsily. At that Gibbs lifted his head, interested in this new knowledge. "which bar?" Gibbs inquired."uhh...it's the one down on 27th street, next to some hotel..." he answered."were you with anyone?" Gibbs asks "umm..uhh...no..uhh,i don't know, maybe, i don't remember" Mickleson struggled with the answer.
"exactly how much did you have to drink that night petty officer?" Gibbs asks in a clearly irritated voice "a few drinks....i don't remember exactly.. " The pretty officer said a little embarrassed. "great" Gibbs said getting up out of his chair, and heading out of the door, McGee following close behind. Ziva and Tony come out of the other room and follow Gibbs and McGee to the main room. "so, we know he was drunk when he killed her" Tony said breaking the odd silence.
"We assume he was drunk" Gibbs corrected him, "Go make sure, take Ziva with you" he ordered. Ziva sighed loudly "Have you got some sort of problem with that...officer David?" Gibbs said getting up in her face with the classic 'Gibbs stare', trying (and succeeding) to intimidate her, she looked him right in the eyes trying not to show that she was indeed intimidated by him "no...not at all..." she stated firmly. "Then what are you still doing here?" he asked sarcastically determined to win this little exchange. Ziva said nothing, just gave him one last stare, then swiftly turned to the elevator.
(following Ziva and Tony to the drive to the bar) "If you could be a superhero, who would you be?" Ziva asked for the sake of conversation, Tony was immediately interested "Johnny Storm." Tony answered without a doubt. "Johnny who?" Ziva asked confused, probably expecting something more well known like superman. "Johnny storm...fantastic four?...The Human Torch? Played incredibly well by Quinton Flynn?" Tony asked wondering hopelessly if any of this movie trivia would ring a bell to Ziva.
"hmm..." Ziva contemplated indicating that she had no idea what a 'human torch' was. They then reach their destination at a dirty looking bar. They get out of their car and quickly walk over to it, not wasting anytime. It's open, and there are about three people there drinking, and one person serving the drinks. The bartender, fat, looked very unclean, and like he forgot to shave that morning (or for the past few mornings).
Both Ziva and Tony instinctively noticed many small details like these about the bartender, as much as you'd expect from any trained investigator. Tony showed the man his badge "NCIS, special agents Tony and Ziva," Tony said motioning to the both of them, "We'd like to ask you a few questions..". "Ok.." the man said in a disturbingly scratchy voice. Ziva pulled out a picture of their suspected petty officer Zack Nickleson. "Have you seen this man?" Ziva questioned him, looking hard at his face, so to not miss any indication that, for whatever reason, he might be lying. "Yer, I saws him here last night, so what?" The grammatically challenged answered infuriatingly.
"How much did he have to drink?" Ziva asked, ignoring any of his questions "quite a lot, hehe, but at least he paysed for em all." The more this man talked the more agitated Ziva was getting. "Was he with anyone?" Tony asked, taking over, sensing Ziva's growing enmity towards this man, and (needing him alive long enough to give them information) Tony figured it best to relieve Ziva of some of this man's natural uncongenial behavior. "he camed here alls by himself, but there'us this spicious lookin' feller that camed in when he'us fixin' to leave, he kept em here and boughted him a fews more drinks. after that, they's gone on and lefts tuhgetha." "Did you remember what he looked like?" Tony asked
"Yeah, yeah, he'uz pertty much bald, and looked to be in is tirties."
Ziva calls Gibbs, they have a short conversation, and then they bring hte bartender in to talk to a sketch artist. (meanwhile, in Abby's lab) "Hi..." McGee said shyly "Oh, Hi McGee!" Abby says a cheerful as ever "umm, can we talk?" McGee says insecurely as he turns down her music. Abby notices it's something important, so she listens, although she suspects what he wants to talk about, she preferred to be optimistic and pretended not to know. "umm, yeah, sure McGee, what's up?" she asks hiding her nervousness. McGee sighs quietly "It's about you and Tony" He says in almost a whisper, "Oh....." is all Abby can say even though she expected it.
After a long awkward conversation, much time has passed. They discussed their feelings, and pretty much worked things out.McGee was left still feeling a little uncomfortable but accepted it,and Abby was left feeling a little bad about hurting McGee. The bartender had gone through what the new suspect looked like, and Gibbs was going everywhere trying to find McGee. McGee had turned his phone off so he and Abby were not interrupted.
Gibbs walks in Abby's lab mad as hell, as soon as he sees McGee, he gives him a good hard, amnesia causing whack to the head. "Where the hell have you been McGee?!" Gibbs yells at him. "uhh, I..Uh.." there's no answer he can think of that would get him out of trouble.
-------------------------------To be continued----------------------------
Author's Chapter Notes:
The team investigates a murder made to look like a suicide. meanwhile Tony and Abby reveal the truth about their relationship status.