Disclaimer - The show NCIS and its characters are the property of Bellisario. All original characters do belong to me however and may not be used without my permission.
Tony sat back in his chair; he was bored, very bored. The team had just solved their last case the previous day and Kate was filing the paperwork right now. McGee was busy typing away at his computer; Tony was thinking about asking McGee about it but his better judgment told Tony that he really didn't care, so he refrained from asking.
Kate entered the bullpen just then and sat down at her desk, she noticed Tony was watching her and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Tony couldn't help but grin. "Nice skirt…" he noted.
Kate gave Tony a look of disgust. "Quit imagining what's underneath."
Tony laughed, "Don't flatter yourself."
"Incase you forgot, I heard you asking McGee about it that one time," Kate said glancing at McGee, who looked up when he heard his name spoken.
"What's that Kate?" McGee asked as he raised his head.
"Hey Probie, remember that time when you saw what was underneath Kate's skirt?" Tony was watching Kate as he spoken, grinning like an idiot.
"Uh… I didn't- Hey Gibbs."
Tony cast a glance over his shoulder and saw Gibbs entering the bullpen and sitting down at his desk with a cup of coffee and a file in hand. "Get your gear," he said, "A marine and his girlfriend were found murdered this morning."
"Any suspects?"
"Not at the moment."
Tony grimaced when they entered the apartment, blood was all over the place and the mutilated bodies of victims were in plain view. He swore he recognized the female victim, she was covered in blood but still she looked…
"What's the name of the victims again?" Tony asked eying Kate. "I wasn't listening," he felt he had to explain.
"David Kessler and Nikki Thompson," McGee answered instead.
Instead of making a comment to McGee about how he was asking Kate, Tony froze. Yes, he knew the victim. Both victims actually, he had dated Nikki less than a year ago and David… he couldn't really remember, he had just heard the name before.
Kate noticed Tony go pale when she mentioned the names, "Tony, you ok?"
"Uh… yeah," he lied.
"Get to work," Gibbs said before Kate could press further. Once Gibbs had assigned tasks to the trio, they got to work and didn't speak much, except for the occasionally banter that was common among the group.
Tony was assigned to taking pictures; he took pictures of the drags marks of blood in the rug, pictures of the bodies, and what the alleged murder weapon was, a knife. The bodies defiantly had stab wounds in them but they wouldn't know for sure what the cause of death was until Ducky examined the bodies.
When they were done Gibbs told them to take the samples to Abby and the bodies to Ducky. The group did as they were told and during the long drive back to the office, Tony couldn't get the image of Nikki's blood stained, lifeless face out of his mind.
He hadn't dated Nikki for very long and when he thought about it, their relationship was based on sex; as a matter-of-fact they spent the majority of those three weeks together in bed. Not that Tony was complaining; Nikki was very talented.
Kate glanced over at Tony and noticed a goofy grin on his face. "What are you so happy about, Dinozzo?"
"Just thinking…"
"Let me guess, about sex?"
Tony turned to look at Kate, "You know me so well."
"Think about sex later, Dinozzo," Gibbs stated, "This case is important, we have no suspects or witnesses, and until we see Ducky and Abby; we don't even have a case."
"Yes boss."
"McGee, do a background check on Kessler and Thompson, Tony take the samples to Abby, Kate, you and I are going to see Ducky."
Tony cursed quietly to himself, he wanted to do the background check. It was he who knew the victims after all. Once Kate and Gibbs had left the bullpen, Tony approached McGee and said, "What do you say you go see Abby and I do the background checks, Probie?"
"But Gibbs said…" McGee paused for a moment, as he thought the suggestion over, "Sure."
"Great."
Tony sat down at his desk and began the search. It hadn't taken long for him to find the information on David, he got a copy of what he found and then searched for info on Nikki. He was surprised by what he found, he and Nikki had talked much about personal matters.
"Tony, where's McGee?" Gibbs said, startling Tony.
Without tearing his eyes away from what he found he muttered, "With Abby…"
"Why?"
"Cause I told him I was gonna do the background checks."
"Why is that?"
"Um…" for the first time he looked at Gibbs and was even more startled to find the death glare he was receiving. "Well I know… I mean I knew Nikki." Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "We use to date."
"I see, well what have you found?"
"Nothing suggesting anyone would want to kill them," Tony said turning to the computer screen, "Kessler's been a marine for ten years but has never been too involved with things. I don't think anyone respected him a whole lot, but it doesn't seem like anyone would want him dead because of it.
"As for Nikki, she's a doctor, Um… Nikki was a straight A student throughout grade school, high school, and university, hmm, I didn't know that," Tony muttered shaking his head, "It doesn't suggest anything suspicious. She has a clean record."
"What of their personal lives?"
"Um… Nikki's mother was a lawyer and her father was a doctor… didn't know that either… um… she's an only child… no children… no ex husbands… hey, there's a lot I didn't know about her."
"How long did you date?"
"Three weeks, but it was only about the sex."
"I see… go on."
"Well I don't know what else there is too say, we didn't really talk much, we just- Ow!" Tony exclaimed when Gibbs smacked him upside the back of the head.
"I mean about David."
"Oh…" Tony said nurturing the back of his head, "Well… he was engaged to a woman named Alexandria Woods-" That name sounds familiar, Tony thought- "for a year and broke up after she caught him cheating on her with her best friend… Nikki Thompson…"
"The angry ex-fiancée," Gibbs muttered.
"Yeah, I guess the two of them went to a lot of couple counseling before hand, so clearly they had problems."
"What have you got?"
Tony glanced over shoulder to find Kate joining them. "Apparently Kessler had an affair with Thompson while he was engaged to her best friend."
Kate nodded, understanding what that meant. "So we may have a suspect."
"I want the two of you to go see Miss Woods and question her," Gibbs ordered them, "I expect you to be back within the hour."
"Will you call us when you get anything?"
"Yes Kate."
Once Tony had gathered the information needed to locate Alexandria, he and Kate were off. They were quiet at first, which was odd because usually they were arguing about something. Kate could tell Tony was deep in thought about something and she was right, Tony was busy thinking about where he had met David and Alexandria before. He couldn't place it and that bothered the hell out of him.
"Tony, is something wrong?"
"No… just thinking…"
Kate shuddered at the thought of their earlier conversation, if seemed this one was headed straight to the gutter as well. A grin spread across Tony's face when he heard her shudder.
"What?" Kate asked noticing the grin, "Actually, never mind, I don't care."
"Sure Kate," Tony laughed, "You want to know what's on my mind just as much as I want to know if you're a thong girl."
Kate rolled her eyes and looked forward, "You're such a pig."
The drive was short, since Alexandria lived in a small apartment complex just down town. The neighborhood was unclean looking and had a dark persona to it, but it didn't bother Tony and he headed for the buzzer.
He scanned and found the words '207… … … Woods' beside a button near the bottom. He pressed the button and loud buzz rang out, not long passed before a cranky voice demanded, "Hello?"
"NCIS, Special Agent Dinozzo and Todd, we're wondering if we could ask you a few questions."
Immediately the buzzer went off and Tony quickly opened the door, "Ladies first."
Kate rolled her eyes. "Such a gentleman," the sarcastic tone in her voice was unmistakable. Tony smirked and followed his partner into the building.
It didn't take long for them to find the room that read 207, Tony knocked on the door and as they waited, Kate pulled out her badge and held it up. The wait was short and a woman in her mid to late twenties wearing a bathrobe greeted them, her brown hair that was cut to her chin was damp. She looked familiar to Tony, only he remembered her having longer hair.
Then it clicked, he remembered where he had met David and this woman before. Nikki had invited him to their engagement party; that was his and Nikki's last date before the breakup.
"Anthony?" Alexandria's eye widen, "When I heard Dinozzo, I didn't realize it was you."
"Alex, long time know see."
"You two know each other?" Kate asked giving Tony an odd look.
"He use to date my best friend Nikki."
Kate slowly turned her head to look at Tony and she raised both eyebrows. "You. Use. To. Date. Thompson?" she asked slowly; she couldn't believe it even though it was defiantly plausible considering this was Tony.
"Um yeah… I thought I told you…"
Kate looked back at Alex. "Where here investigating the murder of David Kessler and Nikki Thompson."
Alex's eyes widen and she began to wobble, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she tumbled backwards. Tony caught her before she hit the ground and he looked up at Kate.
They entered Alex's apartment and Tony laid her down on her sofa and tried to wake her up. It didn't take much for her to wake up and when she did she broke down into tears.
"Let me get dressed first…" she sobbed heading for her bedroom.
Tony got comfy on her couch but Kate remained standing, she did not feel comfortable in this apartment at all. Something was off.
Alex emerged from her room a few minutes later with grey jogging pants and a white t-shirt on. Sitting on the far side of the couch away from Tony, she invited Kate to sit. But Kate declined and took out her PDA.
"Ok Miss Woods, we need to ask you a few questions, how long were you and David Kessler involved for?"
"Three years."
"Engaged?"
"One year."
"Why'd you break up?"
"Um…" Alex glanced at Tony, "He was cheating on me…"
"With who?"
"Nikki… why?"
"Just answer the questions, your best friend Nikki or another Nikki?"
"My best friend, Nikki Thompson… but something tells me you already knew that."
"Were you two close before her death?"
"Yes, not for the first few months after I caught her and David, but we sorted through our problems and we came out better friends. How'd she die?"
"She was murdered."
"By who."
Tony spoke up for the first time since Alex had returned to the room, "That's what we're trying to find out, did Nikki or David have any enemies?"
"Not from what I know, everybody loved them. They were an adorable couple."
"Cuter than you and David?"
Alex glared at Kate and nodded, "Yes."
"Did you ever think of getting revenge?"
"I think it's time you left," Alex stood up and walked to the door, "Please leave."
"We'll be contacting you again soon," Kate said approaching the door, she went to leave and paused, "Miss Woods, don't leave town."
Tony followed Kate to the door and looked back at Alex, she was looking out a window with her face buried in her hands. "Kate, I'll be a minute…"
Carefully, he approached Alex and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Alex… you ok?"
"How would you be if someone just told you your best friend was murdered and they're treating you like the main suspect?"
"Angry, I guess." He paused, "How've you been?"
"Ok… I haven't seen you in a while, did you and Nikki stay in touch?"
"No. Three weeks wasn't very long to get to attached."
"I was told that you two spent a lot of time in the bedroom," Alex looked at Tony, smirking.
Tony laughed. "Yeah we did."
"Do you always fuck 'em and dump 'em?"
Tony rubbed the back of his head not sure how to answer the question. "She dumped me actually…"
"Oh."
"Do you want to go get dinner sometime, and you know, catch up?"
Alex smiled, tears overwhelming her again. "Sure… that'd be great." Alex led Tony to the kitchen and grabbed a pen; sloppily scribbling her number onto his hand, "Call me."
Tony smiled at her and left the room that was defiantly odd. Usually there'd be tons of flirting before he got a number but Alex gave it up immediately, probably because they were going out more as 'friends'.
Kate was waiting in the hall impatiently tapping her feet, "You get her number?"
"Yeah…"
"Thought so… you know she could be a murderer."
"I doubt it, she was upset."
Kate growled, "Yeah, she cried for a minute and then was fine."
"You should have saw her after you left… she cried a little."
"Only a little? Her best friend since high school was murdered and all she can do is cry a little. Seems suspicious to me."
"How do you know they were-"
"I scanned her profile."
A/N: I hope you like it, it'll get better I swear and the case isn't a big part of the story to be honest (well it sort of is, but its not the main focus) and it not like I'm an actual investigator so it's not going to be perfect. Also, if the characters are out of character too much sorry, I've only just started watching NCIS a few weeks ago and its easier for me to write using my own original characters, I just had to get this idea out there cause it's been bugging me.
Also note that I don't have a beta reader so any mistakes I made are my fault entirely, basically I beta read it myself but I probably missed a bunch of stuff.