I own nothing.
"Tony, Ziva, come on" Gibbs commanded as he grabbed his coat. The two agents frowned, but followed him. It was afternoon, they were about to head home. Nonetheless, this wasn't exactly a first time. They got new cases every hour of the day.
"Where we off to, boss?"
"Lieutenant Matt Walters. 28 years old. Neighbours called in after hearing two gunshots. Walters was on his long service leave, but chose to stay on base."
When the three arrived at the scene, they were shocked to discover the dead marine, lying bleeding on the carpet. But that wasn't the shocking part. Next to the dead body was a teenage girl, looking around 15 - 16 with a tearstained face. She was wearing skimpy clothing, and it immediately went through everyone's head what they thought happened.
The girl looked up at them, and jumped back, shaking roughly.
"Sweetie, what's your name?" Ziva asked, kneeling in front of her. The girl just stared blankly at her, not showing any sign of running. Ziva stood and walked back over to the others.
"We have to take her in. She's a suspect" Tony muttered lowly.
"She's just a kid!"
"Yeah, and I'm guessing she ain't here to watch a movie"
"We don't believe that" Ziva snapped, then looked at Gibbs, who had his eyes on the girl, who stared, unwaveringly back at the older man.
"We don't believe that" He confirmed, and moved toward her. "We have to take you back to an interrogation room. Come on" He held out a hand to help her up, and she took it, standing.
"Here" Ziva said, holding out her coat. The girl took it and wrapped it around her, offering a slight smile.
Ducky arrived soon after, and began examining the body.
"Well Duck?"
"This fellow died approximately 40 minutes ago, from the second bullet, which pierced the skull.
"Self inflicted?"
"I'm afraid not, Jethro" Gibbs turned his eyes to the girl, who was sitting on a nearby chair, waiting to be taken back to NCIS HQ. He sighed.
"Get this body back, do a further search. I need to know what happened here"
"Can I make a comment?"
"Sure, Duck"
"If she did shoot him, why didn't she run?"
"Good point Ducky"
Back at the NCIS interrogation room, Gibbs, Ziva and Tony were watching the girl from behind the glass.
"I don't believe she did it. She's so young, to already have murder on her hands?"
"Hard Candy, Ziva."
"What?"
"It's a movie, abo-" Gibbs slapped him over the back of the head and made his way into the interrogation room.
"Hey, you gonna tell me your name?" She looked at him, and shook her head.
"From how it looks here, it looks as though you might have killed that marine. Doesn't mean well for you" She stared at him, unmoving.
"Can you talk, or do you just choose not to?" Still nothing. Gibbs sighed, and pushed forward a file.
"How did you know Matt Walters?" No response. Gibbs stood and headed for the door.
"Wait" One word. But it stopped him in his tracks.
"What?"
"Can I talk to you without being watched?" Gibbs chuckled and motioned for Ziva and Tony to leave the viewing area. The tapes still ran.
"Now, talk"
"Matt was my brother."
"What's your name?"
"Alice Taylor. Matt changed his name before entering the marines. He had a tense relationship with my parents. I think sometimes he entered the marines just to get away from them. We kept in contact, you can check his phone records, there will be a call to the same number every Saturday at 8pm. Anyway, he called me today, about an hour before you found me, and told I needed to come over, he needed help. Said he'd fallen in with a bad crowd, and he needed to see me. When I got there, I found him like you did. I ran outside, to see if I could find anyone, all I saw was a black car with no plates driving away"
"Could you ID the car?"
"No. I'm sorry"
"It's alright. Listen, we still need to treat you as a suspect until we have evidence to prove otherwise, can you stay here, would you like a lawyer?"
"I can stay here. I don't need a lawyer" Gibbs smiled thankfully and headed down to Ducky.
"Ah, Jethro. I'm just beginning my examination" They both headed over to the body.
"She talked. Says they're brother and sister. That she found the body"
"And do you believe her?"
"Yes"
"But you need proof"
"That's why I'm here, Duck"
"There was no murder weapon recovered from the scene, the killed must have hidden it, or ditched it."
"Or taken it with them" Gibbs added.
"Well well, what have we here" He said as he uncovered the corpse.
"What?"
"This here, this is a bruise" He moved, placing his hand over the faint mark. It matched.
"What does it mean, Duck?"
"It means your girl is looking more innocent. Matt Walters was restrained. By a man. She either didn't do it, or she had an accomplice"
"It also means that there were at least two people"
"Yes"
"Good work Ducky" Gibbs headed to Ziva and Tony next.
"Boss, I've got something" Tony said, turning to the screen.
"Our mystery girl is Alice Taylor, Matt Walter's sister. Walters changed his name before joining the marines"
"Already know. She told me"
"Oh"
"Anything else?"
"She has no alibi for the time of the murder. But nothing else"
"Ducky believes there were at least two people at the time of murder. Someone restrained Walters physically."
Abby was next on the list of course.
"Got anything Abs?"
"Well, I didn't find anything leading me to conclude the sister did it. That's good isn't it?" Gibbs looked at her with no expression, and she sighed. "Rechecking"
"Thanks, Abs"
When Gibbs arrived back at the interrogation room, he found Alice sitting in the corner, her eyes shut, and moving her head gently to a silent song. She looked up as he entered, and fumbled to her feet.
"Did they find anything?"
"Ducky found bruises on your brother's arms, there were at least two people at the scene when he was shot"
"I don't get it. He was so nice to everyone, I don't know why anyone would want to kill him" She stopped suddenly, and blinked. "Oh no, I can't believe I didn't realise it before! Gibbs, I know who did this"
"Who?"
"The car, I recognise it now. It belonged to another marine, I saw it outside the house alot, and one time I caught the guy watching Matt. Just sitting in his car watching. He did this?"
"Can you take us to his house?"
"Well, no, I never went there. But I could ID him, I think Matt said he lived close"
"I'll be right back"
Gibbs was raiding the house of the marine with a team of NCIS agents. They didn't want to take this lightly. He had released Alice, and had an agent watching her from a distance.
When they got inside, Gibbs went to the basement. He knew people usually hid their true selves in the basement. As soon as he got down there, he was running back to his car, driving manically to Alice's house. The agent had fallen asleep, and Gibbs ran inside, gun pulled. The marine was holding a gun to Alice, and she was shaking, barely clothed.
"Drop your weapon" Gibbs commanded, and the marine turned to him. He turned to Alice with the gun, but was lying on the floor in his own blood in seconds. Alice ran to Gibbs and shook.
"He wasn't after Matt, he was after me. He set him up, that phone call was just to get me there. Matt must have tried to stop him. He'd been shot through his side, he was dying. Matt tried to save me Gibbs"
"I know, its alright. It's all over now"
The accomplice was arrested two days later in two towns over.
Three days later, Matt Walters was honoured posthumous for his service to his country, and the NCIS team attended his funeral.
"When you have a brother like Matt, it's hard not to be upset when you lose that. I don't think Matt would've wanted for us to grieve to long after his death. He kept me safe, with his life. He honoured, and protected this country bravely, and we're all thankful to him for that. Thankyou all for being here today. Thankyou to Agent Gibbs and his team, without you, I might've been buried in this next plot. Thankyou"
Gibbs smiled warmly, and Alice hugged him tightly.
"I have to go, I've got another case Alice"
"It's alright. Go save the world"
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