Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Chapter 3
by WCUGirl
“Oh. My. God. Abs, what IS that?” Tony felt his stomach turn as he looked at the terribly gory picture in front of him on Abby’s wall.
“That is a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Abby pronounced with a proud grin. “I call it ‘Blast From The Future’.”
Tony shivered and shook his head. “You got some weird tastes, Abs,” he commented, drawing her into a hug, “but I like it.”
Abby smiled. “Of course you guys like it"I mean you deal in dead bodies, come on! The stuff you see is way worse.”
“True, but the stuff we see is not normally named ‘art’ either,” Tony teased. Abby shrugged.
“Oh and by the way, mister. You owe me twenty buck, Tony.”
“What do I owe you twenty bucks for,” Tony sputtered.
The doors slid open and Gibbs walked in at that moment. “Nice picture Abs,” he commented. Abby shot a triumphant smile at Tony who blinked in surprise. “You get those tox screens back yet,” Gibbs asked.
Abby nodded. “It’s in line with what the guy at the hanger told you and with the autopsy Ducky did. Fuentes had Vicodin and Percocet in his system when he was killed.”
“Boss isn’t that strange, to have two different kinds of narcotic painkillers in your system at once,” Tony asked.
“Can be, but with this type of injury, and with it being so new, he was probably given a hefty dose of something at the hospital, and a prescription for the other…?”
Abby nodded again. “That’s what I’m thinking Boss. There was definitely more Percocet in his system than Vicodin. Ducky said he found a site on the guy’s arm where an injection could have been made. It lines up. What I don’t understand is why they’d let a guy on that much painkillers do a jump?”
Tony nodded. “That’s what I’ve been wondering too.”
“He was supposed to be with his stick when he jumped. They look out for each other. The fact that one member of the stick died, makes me think that there is something about that particular group of men that we need to learn more about. Why didn’t they take care of Fuentes when his chute didn’t open?”
“His chute did open,” Tony said. “It didn’t open properly, but it did open. It tootsie rolled,” Tony paused, “at least I think that’s what Ducky called it.”
Gibbs nodded. “That’s correct. The chute takes on the shape of a tootsie roll when it doesn’t open properly. So Abs tell me…what does DiNozzo owe you twenty bucks for?”
Abby laughed and clapped her hands. “He owes me twenty bucks because he bet me that Agent Todd would quit as soon as she saw her first dead body.”
Everyone laughed at that, and Tony reluctantly forked over the twenty bucks. Gibbs’ new cell phone rang. “Yeah, Gibbs…you mean no one has…” he sighed, “Yeah, we’ll get right on that. We’ll take care of it.”
He hung up the phone and looked at Tony. “DiNozzo, with me,” he said. “Abs, keep working on the chute"I want to find out what made it faulty.”
“You got it Bossman,” Abby called as the doors to the lab slid shut.
Tony got on the elevator with Gibbs and halfway to the next floor, Gibbs reached out and hit the button, stopping the elevator. In the four years he’d been working there, Tony had finally learned that this was a normal occurrence for Gibbs, and that most people in the office simply took the stairs rather than waiting for the elevator, as a result.
“What is it, Dad? Where we goin,” Tony asked.
“Sgt. Fuentes’ home. In all the confusion surrounding his death, no one remembered to tell his wife,” Gibbs said softly, eyes on his shoes. He remembered when Shannon and Kelly died, he’d been undercover and until it was safe to pull him out of play, no one had told him the news. Tony had been working with the Metro Police Department as a visiting officer from Peoria for a week when Gibbs finally made it home. He knew what this felt like. He knew what it was like to feel like something was wrong, but not know what and not know how to call and find out.
“But it’s been a day and a half,” Tony said, “They aren’t away on deployment, there’s no reason why no one told"” Tony stopped. “Does he have kids,” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” Gibbs said quietly. “A son, seven.”
Tony closed his eyes. “We’re going to go tell the family?”
Gibbs nodded. “Yes. They need to know.”
As the car pulled up to the house, Tony saw a tree house under construction in one of the large oak trees surrounding the house. He silently wondered what the boy’s relationship had been with his father, and whether he’d been helping his son build that tree house. He wondered if he had been, who would help him finish it now?
“I’ll do most of the talking, you be there for moral support,” Gibbs said, bracing himself for the sadness that was about to bestow itself on this family. He raised a hand and knocked sharply on the door.
A lovely woman answered the door. She looked like she was not quite as old as Tony was.
“Mrs. Fuentes?” Gibbs’ voice had taken on an almost eerie calm. There was also gentleness in his voice that Tony didn’t normally hear. People wanted to give Gibbs grief for his people skills…they’d never seen him use those skills though. The man was damn good at what he did.
“Yes?” The woman answered, a bewildered look on her face, eyes leaking the truth that she realized something was wrong, but not sure what just yet.
“My name is Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I am a Special Agent for NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service,” he stated quietly. “This is my partner, Tony DiNozzo. May we come inside?”
She put a hand to her throat and backed away, granting them access to the doorway. “By all means,” she said softly. “Please come in and sit down.”
Gibbs shot a quick look at Tony and the two men made their way into the house. The place was bright and sunny and the furniture was used but comfortable looking. Gibbs settled himself on the couch at one end, while Tony sat in an armchair at the empty end of the couch. “Please sit down with us,” Gibbs asked softly.
“What’s going on? Does this have something to do with my husband? He was supposed to be back yesterday morning, but he never showed up. I figured he was working late, but then I never heard from him…He’s told me not to call in situations like that; phone calls can only prolong things even more.”
Gibbs took a deep breath. He nodded. “Mrs. Fuentes, we came to let you know…there’s been an accident.”
“What sort of accident? Is my husband alright? Is he okay?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Fuentes. Your husband’s parachute didn’t open properly last night during his training jump. I’m afraid he’s"”
“NO! No you don’t get to tell me that he’s dead! You don’t get to tell me that! He promised me that as soon as he finished this four year sign on that he wouldn’t go back in! He was leaving the Marines! He can’t be…no, no he can’t be…”
Tears filled her eyes and Tony was surprised to see tears filling Gibbs eyes as well. The woman buried her face against Gibbs’ chest pouring out her grief. Gibbs took it all"he ran a soothing hand over her back and didn’t flinch when she pounded on his chest, demanding God to know why her husband had been taken from her. He did not try to hide his own tears running down his face, and Tony found himself becoming choked up as well.
They stayed with her while she told her son the news.
“You mean Daddy’s gone to heaven now? He isn’t coming back?”
The innocence in this child’s eyes nearly broke Gibbs. This little boy was older than Kelly had been when she’d…Gibbs slid off the couch and got down on one knee in front of the little boy.
“No son, I’m sorry. You daddy isn’t…he isn’t going to be able to come home.”
“Did the bad guys kill him? He told me sometimes he had to fight the bad guys.”
“Well we,” he motioned at himself and Tony, “are like police officers and we are trying to figure out exactly what happened to your daddy. If a bad guy hurt him, we will find them and make sure they are punished,” Gibbs promised the little boy.
The little boy nodded. He looked at Tony who offered him a sad smile, and then moved to the window. He stared outside at the tree house. Gibbs moved over behind him and saw what he was looking at.
“That’s a pretty nice tree house you got there, soldier,” he commented.
“Me and my dad were building it. We were gonna make it so you had to have a password to get inside.”
Gibbs raised one eyebrow and looked at the little boy. “Sounds like it was going to be a secret club house.”
The little boy nodded eagerly, a smile finally breaking through. Then he stopped and stared forlornly back out the window.
“Don’t matter now,” he said softly, “my dad isn’t going to come home and I don’t know how to finish it on my own. Guess I won’t.”
Gibbs took a deep breath, feeling the emotion rising in his chest. Tony spoke up then. “Well hey you know what? As soon as we figure out what happened to your dad, I bet me and Agent Gibbs could come and help you finish your tree house. What do you say, Agent Gibbs?”
The little boy spun around on Gibbs, eyes wide and hopeful. “Really you mean it? You could come help me fix it?”
Gibbs smiled and nodded and ruffled the little boy’s hair. “Well we will have to ask your mother first. But I do know a few things about building stuff, and Agent DiNozzo here is pretty good with a hammer. I bet we could help you finish it,” he said.
The little boy turned and ran to his mom who was still sitting on the couch sniffling into a tissue. “MOM! Did you hear that?! Once Agent Gibbs and Agent what-was-your-name-again,” the little boy asked spinning around to face Tony.
“Agent Tony,” Tony said with a smile.
The little boy spun back to his mother, “once Agent Gibbs and Agent Tony are finished finding the bad guys and beating them up they said they would come help me finish my tree house! Is that okay with you mom?”
Mrs. Fuentes smiled and nodded. “That’s fine with me if you’re sure they don’t mind?”
The little Fuentes turned back to the two agents by the window. “You don’t mind right?”
The two men chuckled. “Nope, we don’t mind.”
Mrs. Fuentes smiled at Gibbs and Tony"the first time she’d smiled since she’d answered the door. “Thank you,” she said softly, “for everything.”
xxx
Gibbs had pretty much narrowed their suspect list down to the jumpers on the same stick as Fuentes. He knew there was another training jump taking place that night, and he knew that they needed to be on that plane when it happened.
There was some odd activity going on surrounding this particular team of paratroopers"there was some drug activity that Gibbs wanted to get to the bottom of. He thought that one of the guys on the stick with Fuentes might be the ring leader, and he thought that Fuentes hadn’t been involved, but had somehow gotten too close. Gibbs thought that one of the guys on Fuentes’ stick had rigged his jump chute, and he figured that whoever had done it was the ring leader for whatever it was he needed to learn more about.
Gibbs and Kate entered the hanger and looked around. It was late, getting close to time to go up with the jump team and Jethro couldn’t find Tony. They still needed to execute the search warrant before the flight. “Have you seen DiNozzo,” he asked the jump team leader.
“Yeah, he’s out back with some of the guys,” the leader said, nodding with his head. Gibbs nodded his thanks and he and Kate ventured out the back. They saw a large sand pit with a platform raising out of it. Tony was standing on top of the platform"a good bit off the ground.
“What are ya doin’ DiNozzo,” Gibbs called out to him, just as Tony jumped off the platform. He was wearing a pack on his back and landed in a graceful crouch on the ground. He removed his pack and came over to join his teammates at the edge of the sandpit.
“I’m doing research for Abby,” Tony commented. “You ever jumped off a plane before, Boss? It’s kind of a rush, so they tell me. Jumping off of that thing,” he pointed at the platform, “is a rush, I can only imagine what jumping out of a plane would be like. I think tonight when we jump that"” he was cut off by the headslap. “Right Boss. Sorry Boss.”
“C’mon we have to get this search executed before the flight leaves. These guys need to practice jumping.”
“That much is obvious,” Kate snarked. “Otherwise this guy wouldn’t have died doing it.”
Gibbs was in her face in an instant. “This man died because his chute didn’t open properly. There was no mistake on his part. You have to have a heart for the victims, Agent Todd, or you will never make it working on my team. I will not tolerate such blatantly ignorant statements such as that.”
“Jesus sorry,” Kate said, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Don’t apologize Kate,” DiNozzo quipped. “Sign of weakness.”
As they were going through the riggers’ lockers, Kate noticed Gibbs was searching each pack very carefully. She motioned to Tony who noticed what Gibbs was doing. Kate sent him a questioning look and Tony shrugged.
“What are ya lookin for, Boss,” Tony asked.
Gibbs fixed him with an unreadable look. “A screwed pooch, DiNozzo,” he said.
Tony nodded, understanding, and turned back to his work. Kate though, didn’t understand. “Um Gibbs I don’t mean to sound stupid or anything, but why would you be looking for a dog whose recently"” she was cut off by a burst of laughter from Tony.
“Ohmygod that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard you say yet,” he gasped in between guffaws of laughter. Gibbs even cracked a smile. “Gibbs she’s looking for a dog whose had sex,” Tony nearly dropped onto the floor he was laughing so hard. He just couldn’t seem to stop.
Gibbs rolled his eyes to the ceiling and prayed for patience. Working with these two he would need it. “Kate a screwed pooch is the military term for a mistake. I’m looking for a mistake in one of these chutes.”
Tony, who had recovered by this point, held up a reserve. “Like this one, Boss? I mean I’m no expert on this kinda thing, but the other reserves have all been clean and this one is dirty.”
Gibbs came over and inspected it, noticing that the cone was soldered in place"the reserve chute would not work. “That’s good work Tony. I’m going to call up Captain Faul and tell him that the jump is on, but I’m not going to identify the killer.”
“Wait,” Todd said, “You know who the killer is?”
“Of course I do, Agent Todd,” Gibbs replied. “Don’t you? DiNozzo,” he said, switching gears.
“Yes Boss,” Tony said.
“Tonight we’re jumping. I want the killer to confess. We’re going to make sure he gets parachute number 13 here.”
“Wait, we’re jumping?”
“Only if we have to Tony, but our chutes will work, don’t worry.”
“Bet that’s what they told Fuentes too,” Tony grumbled.
xxx
They waited until dark to take off. One by one each stick was being called to jump. It came closer to time for Fuentes’ stick to jump. Tony swallowed thickly"he was wearing the faulty chute, and he knew it.
“Man…it’d suck to be the unlucky shmuck to screw up while checking these chutes,” Tony commented, adjusting his pack.
Dafelmair shrugged. “I checked your pack. You’re good to go.”
Tony narrowed his eyes a bit. Then he took off his pack. Theirs was the next stick to jump. “Then you won’t mind swapping me,” he said. “I mean after all, you checked all the packs, so you know they’re all safe"you won’t mind humoring a rookie jumper such as myself and swapping.”
Dafelmair swapped packs with DiNozzo. Their stick was called just then. Gibbs stepped in front of the boys before they could jump off the plane. “I know about your drug deals, Dafelmair,” he said calmly. He shot a hand out and cut the shroud lines on Dafelmair’s chute, leaving only the reserve chute"the one that was faulty.
“You don’t know nothing, cop,” Dafelmair snapped. He sounded more sure of himself than he felt though"he knew he couldn’t jump because he had a faulty chute"he’d die if he jumped, and he knew it.
“I know that if you give me the name of your supplier and confess to dealing that we can cut you a deal,” Gibbs said reasonably.
Dafelmair hesitated for a moment. Before he could speak one of the other men jumped on Dafelmair.
“He doesn’t deserve a deal,” Brinkman yelled, tackling Dafelmair to the ground. “He killed Fuentes!” Dafelmair struggled against Brinkman who slammed into Gibbs. Gibbs, knocked off balance both by the turbulence from the plane’s door being open, as well as the hit itself, stumbled backwards"right into Tony.
Tony had only managed to get his pack halfway secured before the scuffle started. Seeing that he was the closest body to the door, he worked feverishly to get his pack fastened securely, ignoring the fighting going on around him. He never saw the hit that knocked Gibbs backwards"and he didn’t see Gibbs’ arm coming up trying to find something to brace his fall on until it was much too late.
Tony stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the plane. Then he overcompensated by leaning too far forward and ended up face down on the floor of the plane. The plane bumped one time and a foot slammed into his shoulder and he went sliding out of the plane.
“BOSS!!!” Tony yelled at the top of his lungs.
Gibbs turned around, feeling his gut in his chest. Last he’d seen, Tony was still struggling to get his pack on.
“TONY!”
He heard the panicked scream from the falling man, thought he heard his name being shouted again (but Tony wouldn’t shout ‘Dad’ in the middle of a mission, no matter how bad it was, would he?), and then he breathed a quick sigh of relief when he saw the chute open and inflate as it was supposed to.
“So long, DiNozzo,” Gibbs called, feeling his gut settle.
He turned back to the men still standing on the plane, looking shocked at what had just taken place. If they weren’t in trouble before, then surely helping to accidentally toss a federal agent off a plane would get them there in a hurry.
“You gentlemen,” Gibbs said, pulling out his handcuffs, “are under arrest.”
TBC…
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.