So this is my first NCIS story, and I really hope that you like it. (:

I don't own anything but the plot and the characters that you don't recognize, for better or for worse.

RECLUSION, CHAPTER ONE.

Gibbs didn't offer any pretenses as he walked through the bullpen towards his desk, saying, "An unidentified petty officer was found dead in a Baltimore park," he glanced over to DiNozzo, who was smirking and getting ready to say something, "DiNozzo, say nothing."

"But Boss," the senior field agent started, "Baltimore. You can't expect me to just -"

The look Gibbs sent him made it perfectly clear that he did expect Tony 'to just…'.

Tony pouted – though, in the following moments, Ziva would point it out, McGee would back her up, and DiNozzo would refuse to acknowledge it – and silence fell again as they all went about collecting what they needed to go out into the field, while Gibbs ran through some more details about the case.

When the elevator doors opened, the bullpen was in a relative state of peace. But the ding obviously signified the end of that, and the room was instead filled with quite the commotion. A young, but intense looking, woman with long, black hair walked out, flanked on one side by another unfamiliar visitor, this time a tall, brown haired man who seemed to be doing his best to placate her, and on the other side was Director Vance, who was receiving the brunt of the girl's displeasure. The two newcomers were slightly ahead of Vance, even though they seemed to be headed up to his office.

Though they were all speaking loudly, it was hard to exactly understand what was going on. "You irresponsible, irrational, uncultured nuttesohn…" The team managed to hear as the group hurried up the stairwell, and DiNozzo raised an eyebrow at Ziva from across the way.

DiNozzo was picking up the phone before they'd even rounded the last corner. Gibbs stared at him, and DiNozzo set the phone back down. "Last I checked, we had a case to work on, didn't we?" he reminded them, before grabbing a stack of files and heading down to the morgue to get Ducky and inform Abby that they had a case. Yes, phones worked too, but then he'd have to stay in the bullpen. And since he had never really expected his team to obey him as far as the eavesdropping was concerned, he figured he'd just let them do it.

Vance was not as easy for him to crack as Jenny had been, and he was just as curious about that morning's disruption as everyone else had been. He was human, after all.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Luckily for everyone involved, mid-morning traffic on the way to Baltimore was not bad and Ziva's driving had them there in a little under forty minutes. Each of the agents took their cameras and spread out to different spots around the crime scene, while Ducky made a beeline to the body with Palmer in his wake.

Gibbs cast a glance back at the rest of his team before walking over to where DiNozzo was crouched on the ground, moving a number carefully behind a Styrofoam cup and snapped several pictures of it. "Chances that that actually has something to do with our case and isn't just trash?"

DiNozzo didn't even bother looking up. "I don't see the problem in beatifying the metropolitan Baltimore area," He said with some sort of fake philanthropist tone. He produced a pair of tweezers and moved the cup gingerly into a clear evidence bag. "And what if it was the most important link in this entire case? You'd feel pretty – you know, I wish I still had my tape recorder. Then I could record you saying that, and then play it back when Abby comes running up, announcing that this cup was the final puzzle piece." Tony trailed off, and Gibbs let him go for another minute before smacking him on the back of his head. "But you were just being sarcastic, right, Boss," Tony backpedaled. He went to straighten back up, but Gibbs put a hand on his shoulder to keep him crouching on the ground.

"What was going on in the Director's office?" Gibbs knew that he was going to get hell for even asking, DiNozzo would have a field day with his boss being as interested in what would have been the product of blatant eavesdropping, but he sucked it up. A good leader knew when to hold them and when to fold them, Gibbs remembered one of his old Marine buddies saying.

DiNozzo didn't answer for a long time. "I'll have you know that I did not listen in on whatever was going on today. I don't like the new secretary Vance brought in – very professional." He didn't look at Gibbs, he'd returned to taking pictures, but he automatically assumed that there was an expectant look on the older man's face. "And because you told me not to, of course,"

"That's never stopped you in the past," Gibbs said. He wasn't mad at DiNozzo, not at all. A bit surprised, maybe, but not mad. Still, it wouldn't hurt to let the Senior Agent think that he was mad. "And you can't tell me that you couldn't have charmed the secretary into doing it for you?"

"I can't believe you're angry at me for this after you told me not to do it," DiNozzo questioned, laughing incredulously. "Or are you just trying to mess with my definition of discipline?"

It was Gibbs' turn to backpedal, though he would never admit it. "No. I expect you to listen to me at all times. I just thought that you'd be interested in the meeting. It sounded like it would have been a good one, and the female agent…"

DiNozzo looked at him critically. "You're just not playing fair, now," Gibbs shrugged, and half smiled. "Maybe she was hot, and had a nice accent, and the guts to yell at the Director but -"

Gibbs noticed Ducky looking around for him, and leaned in close to DiNozzo, saying, "That's because she's CIA," before he pushed up off the ground and walked away before Tony had time to say anything back.

He'd almost reached the body and the doctor before DiNozzo registered it all and could yell at his back, "See if I ever listen to you again!"

Gibbs reached Ducky and knelt down again, ignoring Tony the entire time. "What've you got, Duck?" When he didn't get a sudden answer – or, at least, a lengthy story – Jethro looked up at the doctor. Ducky was looking at him curiously, and Gibbs asked, "What?"

Ducky stared for a moment later before shaking his head and going about pointing out a series of puncture wounds along the victim's chest and stomach. "But you'll find, if you look at his hands, that there was no sign of a struggle, so, either he did not struggle, or his attacker simply removed the evidence."

"That would take a pretty thorough killer," Gibbs pointed out. "Is it possible that he was already dead when he was stabbed and brought here?"

Ducky thought for a moment. "A heinous thought, my boy, but possible. To know for sure, though, I will have to get the body back to my lab," Gibbs was satisfied with the answer and moved off, though Ducky continued talking, launching into it with the phrase, "You know, this reminds me of a -" before realizing that he was no longer speaking to Gibbs, but instead to a series of men that were transferring the body from the ground to a body bag. The elderly doctor shook his head, before continuing on with the story.

Someone would get the point out of it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hours later, DiNozzo, Ziva, Ducky and McGee had already headed out for the night. Sure there was case work to be done, but none that couldn't wait until the next day. Abby was the only one that had insisted in staying until a bit of blood found on their victim's clothes found a match, and Gibbs was sitting on a spare chair in her lab. He rotated through the pictures from the crime scene again and again, trying to get as much out of them as he could.

He started when Abby tapped his shoulder. "That was the Director, he needs to see you in his office."

Gibbs shut the file and rubbed at his eyes. His legs had long since cramped up, and he needed more coffee. "I don't know how you can tell the phone is ringing with all of this screaming," he said. Abby smiled knowingly but just continued filling in lines on a piece of paper. Gibbs stood up. "Anyway, this should be good,"

"Good luck!" Abby shouted after him as he swept out of the lab.

Jethro took his time making his way up to the Director's office, and when he finally reached it, the handle turned under his hand and swung open to show Vance making his way out of the office. Gibbs gave a fake smile. "Sorry it took so long, I had to stop for coffee," To prove his point, he took a sip from the mug in his hands. It was too hot and burnt at his throat, but he worked to swallow it and keep his expression neutral.

The director raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, just held the door open for Gibbs. He stepped through, and was surprised when Vance didn't follow him.

"This doesn't concern me," Vance said simply, and shut the door behind Gibbs.

More confused than ever, Gibbs looked around the deserted secretary's office. There was soft light seeping under the door to the director's office, and he knocked on it. He took another drink from his coffee, and waited with mild curiosity for the door to be answered.

"Special Agent Gibbs," He had to look down quite a bit to be eye to eye with the girl he'd seen earlier, with the Director. He placed the strong accent as Swiss-German as she went on, "I'm Agent Tess Lahe, I work with the CIA -" she produced her badge, and then motioned to the man, who was standing a respectful way away from her, but took a step forward when she paid him attention, "- and this is Agent Kale Davenport."

Kale muttered a soft greeting and showed Gibbs his own badge, before pocketing it and fading back into the shadows, leaning against the wall.

Tess continued on. "I understand that, a couple of days ago, you were given a case concerning the death of Petty Officer Jacob McCoy, correct?"

Gibbs nodded. Petty Officer found dead on a Naval ship. Just another day in the NCIS offices. "The case was pulled within twenty minutes," he remembered. "We didn't even get a chance to get to the crime scene." Luckily, the team had been working extra hard and they had gotten their leave time down to fifteen minutes, so they would hopefully never have that problem again.

Tess remained unfazed. "Yes, I understand. But, you see, Officer McCoy was on lease to NCIS from the CIA to gather information on another Marine. I want you and your team to find out who killed Officer McCoy, because I'm inclined to believe that it's the person I'm looking for."

Kale stepped forward again, and said, just as softly, "And even if they're not, he or she still murdered a CIA agent, so it would be a huge help to us."

"Why can't your people do it?"

Tess's eyes narrowed. "How is that any of your business?"

"When it concerns my team, it becomes my business."

"Your director has promised me that you are the best, and so I expect the best from you. He has contact information for Agent Davenport and myself, so I think we are done here, unless you have any more questions?"

"What was his real name?"

Tess stared at him blankly.

"Officer McCoy's. You said he was undercover – what was his real name?" Gibbs didn't know how much of an answer he expected going to get. The identity of a CIA agent was secretive enough, much less that of one that was undercover. People have been shot for less, or so the rumors went. The more he thought about it, the more he doubted that Kale Davenport and Tess Lahe were the real names of the pair standing before him. But he figured he'd find out anyway, if he had Abby run a DNA check on him.

"That isn't important," Tess said, and she sounded honestly dismissive, not just like she couldn't tell Gibbs. She waited for another instant before turning on her heel and leaving the room.

Kale stepped forward again. "She doesn't mean it like that. This operation is just important to her. McCoy was one of our most well trained agents, so his death is very shocking and disappointing. The body should already be in your morgue, or should be arriving shortly – we called it up just a couple of minutes ago from Langley,"

Gibbs didn't say anything for a long while. "This isn't going to be easy," he predicted.

"I'm sorry we can't give you much information," Kale apologized. "And we're going to be overseeing the investigation. We'll be very unobtrusive; I can promise you, it's just agency policy and all of that."

"I think it's only fair to warn you that a lot of people on my team, my forensic specialist in particular, do not work well with someone looking over their shoulder,"

"So we've heard," Davenport said, not unkindly. "But like I said, it's just protocol. We don't have any reason to mistrust your team, but we have to stay with the evidence at all times. And, more importantly, the body. His family is going to be expecting him for his star ceremony later this month, so the it's in our care for the time being."

"Planning a ceremony before you even know how he died?"

Davenport stared at him like Gibbs had grown another head. "He was killed in active duty," Kale said slowly, "He didn't do anything wrong."

"I wouldn't count it out."

"Do you have reason -"

"There's always a reason, if you dig far enough. If this guy was helping NCIS, I want him to be innocent and honorable as much as you do, but I wouldn't count it out." Honorable Marines had proven to be cold-blooded killers, devoted wives have been black widows and best friends had been backstabbers. Literally and figuratively.

Kale paused for a long while, but then seemed to let it go. "Regardless, we just need you to treat this like any other case, and if you need anything, just ask us and we'll see what we can do."

"What can you do about Agent Lahe?"

Kale let out a huff of laughter, and then a long sigh, suddenly looking worn and tired. He ran a hand over his eyes. "She's… abrasive, I'll admit. But she's a good agent, one of the best working in the agency today. She knows what's at stake with this."

Gibbs looked Kale directly in the eye. "What is at stake with this?"

Kale gave a half smile. "Goodnight, Special Agent Gibbs," he said, on his way out the door.