This is a story I spent all day working on. I wish to thank the man who saved a father and his daughter after jumping into the water 20 feet below in 40 degree's water. I also wish to say 'Human's can do so much good, not only bad.'

Thanks! 10K story!

I don't own NCIS, I wish I did, but that is okay.

"Human beings have one of the most unusual habits call self preservation. Typically that means one human will save themselves and leave the rest to die. It is not the case for every human being. Mother's protect their children no matter what the cost. Father's protect their family with only the truth of their love. Yet it is the random strangers who come and do the one thing that makes a hero in our eyes. Protecting or saving another human's fragile existence.

For a few people that could almost anything. You can ponder it, believe what you say when you tell yourself what you would do if that situation arrives, but you won't know the true answer until it actually come and you must make a choice.

To those of you who are hearing this and say, 'I'd do the right thing, I'd save the other person' are you sure? A few of you will believe that you would save them, a complete stranger without a second thought, but you have to think about this also 'Do you really want to leave the life you have?'"

DiNozzo Junior, though everyone always called him Tony, looked at his boss, Agent Gibbs, as they drove from the murder scene of a Petty Officer found at a broken down complex. Neither had spoken nor the two Agents in the back avoiding his constant glances to the back to check on them.

"Boss," Tony began only to be cut off by a knot forming in his gut telling him now was not the time to begin talking, he swiftly threw that down. Now was the time to talk. Now was the time to confront his superior. "What was that back there?"

Agent Gibbs said nothing as he swerved to miss a car. It didn't take Tony much amylase to realize his boss was ignoring him-again. He shifted his gaze to try and catch the youngest agent on their team, Timithy MeGee, and all he saw was the man's eyes dart to look out the window again. His team wasn't going to stick their heads out to be bitten off by a wild and furious Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

"Boss, we seriously-" Gibbs swerved causing Tony to shift and his head hit the window causing a loud 'thunk' to resonate in the small speeding car on the road as they turned to head back to the Naval Yard. "GIBBS!" Tony shouted for the first time causing everyone, Gibbs glanced, to be surprised by his outburst. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Driving." Tony had nothing to say as he looked at his boss and he paused long enough for the tension between them to grow.

"That is no answer, boss, that's being a coward and hiding behind some lame ass excuse, you know it." Gibbs didn't respond again, but the lines around his eyes and mouth tightened with fury. Tony realized quickly what his boss was playing at and he didn't like it, not one bit. Gibbs was pulling his own rules to fit whatever was happening to him; The fourth rule in Agent Gibbs' book was 'The best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself. Second best? Tell one other person – if you must. There is no third best.'

With a defeated sigh Tony went silent as they finished their drive back to the NCIS building where they would file the report, send the evidence down to Abby, the body to the Morgue, and all of them would most likely pull an all-nighter to find a clue to what happened to their Petty Officer. Only, Tony had a gut feeling he wasn't going to like what they would first find; no one would believe what they would find.

They barely had arrived in the parking lot and stepped out when Gibbs turned to look at DiNozzo and watched the Agent gently rub the area he hit his head, by the slightly stinging look in the minute flinches Gibbs felt slight remorse for what he did.

"Go to Ducky, DiNozzo." He said before he turned and walked to the doors and headed straight to the elevator. Ziva looked Tony with a gaze of some sort of hurt-predator that was strong enough to make his spine tingle.

"I do not think that was the smartest of plans, Tony. If Gibbs wishes not to talk, then, as you're people say it, 'Don't mess with fire if you do not with for it to grow'." Ziva looked at him before MeGee opened his mouth only to stop short of words and he rushed after their boss, he could still feel the tension; the tension that once lay with Tony and Gibbs grow between Tony and Ziva.

"'Don't play with fire if you don't wish to be burned', Ziva." Ziva nodded, she could see the connection to what he was saying, and he turned also.

"You should hurry; Gibbs will be expecting you to work." Tony nodded his head and he headed in with her to go talk to the Doctor of the house.

"Ziva," Tony said as they neared the building and front doors. "Something's up and I have a gut feeling we're not going to like it."

"I feel it too, Tony." Ziva said with a side glance. "Gibbs seems to think it is nothing, but… something made his cold, it does not bond well." Tony nodded with her, the feeling was mutual, that must also mean McProbie also felt it.

Tony paused as he stared into the morgue and spotted the body of their late Petty Officer. It was a 22-year-old woman with soft chest nut brown hair and her eyes where an alarming color of hazel that stood out and open to bore into the ceiling. Tony did not find that comforting as he grabbed a glove and slipped it on to close her eyes, he really didn't want to be staring at them. As he reached over to place his hands over her eyes, it might be a hassle to push them closed to do how stiff the body was being frozen and all of that.

"Petty Officer Julian Bryan, been missing since last month of the day of your ships department; long time to be missing, Julian." He placed his hands over her eyes and he nearly jumped as he felt the lashes move under his palm not of his accord. "What the hell!" he quickly removed his hand and he stared at the open eyes looking into space, glazed over with death-as Ducky had said but from a picture he had looked at Ducky had been surprised to see that even in life her eyes held their present stiff corpse look.

"Man these eyes are freaky. " He placed his hands again over her eyes and again he felt them flicker a small, but very real, blink. "Either I have a severe concussion or you're a zombie."

"Who's a zombie, young Anthony?" Doctor Mallard asked as he entered the room fully attired in his scrubs to begin dissecting Julian.

"Why the blinking Petty Officer, Ducky." The pausing and raising of Ducky's brow was enough for Tony to know that Doctor Mallard didn't believe him. "I'm serious!" Ducky shock his head as he motioned for the man to sit and lay down for a short time being.

"Anthony, you've been working hard, you really must take better care of yourself, and our Petty Officer has been frozen. She is dead; I checked her liver temperature myself." Tony frowned and he looked at Julian's body, her eyes still wide opened but… they no longer looked at the ceiling, they stared at him.

"Ducky?" his voice dropped his tone shallow and he felt frightened by the hollowed look that resonated at him.

"My dear boy, you really-" Ducky paused as he heard the tone and he rushed to the man's side. His eyes went wide as he stared at the eyes that looked at Tony, their gaze not moving, the lids not even twitching as she didn't break contact. "Tony! Have you no sense of respect for the dead?!" Ducky could have shouted as he reached out and closed her eyes.

"I swear, Ducky, I didn't do that."

"Tony, are you sure you are feeling all right, I can always tell Jethro to make sure you take a quick nap before you head back to work." Tony didn't look at him but he looked at the body as the lids opened again and the eyes no longer were on him but on Ducky.

"You know, I think that hit to the head in the car might have actually given me a concussion, Ducky, cause I'm sure dead bodies don't stare at people." Ducky sighed as he motioned with his hand and he looked at the dead girl as he began to say, "No, Anthony, they don't" but all he said as he looked at the eyes now trained on his own face was, "Oh my."

Tony walked up to his cubical, opened the file cabinet to his clothes-the spares he kept in case they spent all night on a case- and he turned and walked over to his bosses table with the lump in his throat tighter then it had been when he slowly made his way out of the Autopsy room.

"Boss." He began weakly, a sure indicator that something was wrong. "Our Petty Officer is alive." MeGee, Ziva, and Gibbs looked at him as his skin paled more and he walked back to the elevator and pushed the down button.

"Tony!" Gibbs shouted as he and the teams rushed over to look at him. "What happened?"

Tony didn't respond as the door dinged, with a quick rush forward he leaned again the back, his team came in with him. All concerned looked on his clammy and un-DiNozzo attitude. No one spoke as they felt the elevator head down to visit Ducky and their supposed 'dead' Petty Officer. As the door swooshed open and Tony stepped out and head to the door, he paused to look at the body and Ducky, a shiver running his spine and his team caught it.

"Tony?" Gibbs asked again. "What is going on?" Tony barely shrugged and he headed inside the room.

Ducky turned around and he was mildly surprised to see the rest of the team come in. The team, who looked behind Ducky, was surprised to see Abby looked down and looking sick to her stomach at the body.

"Gibbs," she said weakly. "How could anyone do this to her?"

"Ducky?" Gibbs said pushing past DiNozzo as he set the clothes on of the tables. "Tony couldn't speak; what is going on?"

"Jethro," Ducky said looked at the body covered in a thermal blanket. "Petty Officer Julian Bryan was alive!"

"That's impossible, her body was to cold and she was frozen stiff when we found her." Gibbs looked at the eyes staring up at the ceiling. "No one can live if that happens."

"That isn't always the case, Jethro, some human minds shut down the body slowly to self preserve itself, and her body did just that! Yet I have never seen the heart return to life and the brain to still work to this magnitude!" Gibbs looked at Ducky as he turned to Julian's side again. "Jethro, she's alive, but whatever damage that happened while her body was shut down is unknown at this time."

"Boss," Gibbs didn't turn around to look at Tony but he watched Julian's eyes flicker to Tony's face and then they froze to the Agent as if something was trying to spark behind her eyes. He felt everything slowly lose focus as he stared at Julian's eyes on Tony with at blank hollow look that slowly grew into something else. Dark. Angry.

Then a shrill snarl ripped from her still closed mouth that resonated in her chest causing everyone to pause and stare at her. Something had caused her to become aggressive and it had something to do with Tony's appearance.

"DiNozzo have you ever seen Petty Officer Julian before?" Tony shook his head but seconds later responded out loud.

"No, Boss, this is my first time."

Julian again growled but it dimmed down to a whine before she went silent and her eyes drifted from Tony's to Gibb's. He watched as she continued to stare, the hollowed eyes returned, at his face. She was trying to figure out who they were and at that moment Gibbs understood why she had responded that way to DiNozzo.

"What did you do when you came down here and found out she was alive." Gibbs questioned sternly.

"I thought she was dead, her eyes were opened… I tried to close them." Gibbs nodded, not breaking his contact with Julian, as he took a deep calming breath.

"DiNozzo, you frightened her. She assumed you were one of her assailants trying to blind fold her, she was responding to that by trying to appear frightening in her current condition." Tony let out a slight 'ah' sound before he back away behind MeGee and Ziva.

"You're right, Jethro, she would assume we were all out to get her, crowding the room like this." Ducky spoke and he turned, stepping into the staring contest between frozen victim and NCIS Agent Gibbs, causing another growl of protest to rip through Julian's chest making Ducky step to the side again. "Oh dear, she seems to hate us all."

"Not hate, resent." Abby said for the first time proudly raising her chin. "You all crowding around her like bad guys and staring at her! No wonder she thinks we're the ones who did this to her!"

Gibbs nodded slightly, Julian's eyes changed slightly, relaxing, but something in them caused Gibbs to think something was up. Her eyes saying something but her mouth unable to speak it out loud; this was her desperate attempt, her only form of communication. He stepped forward and crouched to get a better look into her eyes as the room fell silent.

"Have we found anything?" he said to Ducky, hoping something could help them.

"Nothing, Jethro, I found no evidence of rape, assault, or anything on her. No mark that she was abused, no mark that anything other than her attacker freezing her. Gibbs didn't like that sound, it meant that if she had died they would get off scot free.

"Well find me something to catch those bastards!" Gibbs yelled as he stood up and rounded on his team. "They are not getting away with what they did to her, you hear me?!"

"Yes, boss." All of them said rushing from the room.

While the team was working on gathering information and checking all hits they received Julian was carted out of the morgue and to the hospital for further treatment and care. The ambulance, unsure on how act with their practically frozen patient-as Ducky had put it- made the team worry that by some horrible twist of fate that the victim would die from unsure hands. With suck worry Director Vance gave Ducky permission to travel, and assist, the medics if any problems arise.

Tony paused in his works, remembering how feral Julian had been to him, and he rubbed his eyes to destroy any thought of sleep. Though the yawn that came from his mouth made him nearly wish they had some evidence to lead them to help.

"DiNozzo," Tony looked at Gibbs. "You tired?" Tony sheepishly nodded as another dislocating-yawn erupted from DiNozzo's lips.

"Yeah, Boss." Gibbs looked as if he was about to laugh before he took a sip from his cup of coffee and he sat it down with a disgruntled slam.

"Get me some coffee while you stretch your legs then." Tony nodded with a mild laugh and roll of his eyes; setting out to do the task he was issued. Gibbs needed coffee, that is code for 'Get him coffee or all hell is breaking loose'.

The trip to the coffee pot was not as long as Tony would have liked it to be, but he was more awake then he was before and the smell of the strong black, and disgusting, coffee made him wonder something that he felt nagging in the back of his mind. 'Why had she responded now? How long had she been unthawed? Why put her where she had been?' Slowly as he turned and headed back, a cup of strong untainted pure evil coffee in his right hand, with more growing thoughts that added to the confusion he was feeling each passing second.

"Why unthaw her now?" his mind was unfocused as something brushed his shoulder spilling some coffee onto his hand making him yelp and pull back, his eyes shot up and he turned to look at the apologizing Agent before he spotted something behind him on the wall with 'X's' marking off each day that went by.

It was summer, it had been exceedingly hot for the last few days with no wind to stifle the heat and only three days ago there had been a major power outage that lasted more than half a day that made many restaurants close due to spoiled meat and other food products.

"You're kidding!" Tony cheered as he rushed off back to his cubical and he slid to the front of Gibbs' desk, the man raising his brow with mild humor as the child like glee on his Agents face, before the coffee cup was set gently down onto the wooden table. "Boss, April 1st of this week there was a power outage for half a day, most food places complained because their meet went bad, their freezers turned off, boss, that's why they dumped her off. She was already 'dead' when they did it so they didn't have to worry about her telling anyone." He took a deep breath, trying to regain his spluttering words being cut off as he spoke. "Boss-"

"I hear you, DiNozzo." Gibbs said with a grin. "Good work, now go tell Abby!" Tony nodded and left to the elevator bouncing on his heels.

"Wonder how he figured that out." MeGee said standing slightly to see where Tony came back from. "How'd he get that?"

Though as Gibbs reached his coffee he noticed that it was only half full and he slowly felt his veins extend, "DiNozzo!" he shouted, though the man was no longer there. "He spilled my coffee."

Ziva chuckled as she turned to look at Tony's desk then to face Gibbs, "Will you hold that against him even though he now gave us an estimate as to how long she has been in that building and when she might have been in the freezer?"

"Nope, but he's going to get me a new cup when he gets back here." Gibbs laughed then and he went back to work.

Abby had stepped out of her lab as Tony entered, her music still blasting, and he noticed a picture of Petty Officer Julian Bryan on her screen. It was a before and after picture of her. Her before picture showed her high cheek bones, thin rounded lips, high arched eyebrows, and sculpted jaw firm with her nervous clenched teeth. This was the only picture of her that they could find that didn't have her in the background or in some hideous outfit.

He turned his head slightly to look at the after photo of Julian on the slab ready to be cut open and investigated by Ducky. Her cheeks were slightly sunken in, her eyebrows were in need to be plucked, her lips were round and full- her bottom lip was very attractive and kissable, Tony mused- he skin was a shade tan but it was olive in a small way. The photos, too many people, would have looked the same, but Tony knew women and he always made sure to see the details in them. Something about Julian's before and after just didn't sit right with him the more he looked.

The older Julian looked to be a D-cup, newer Julian around a B-cup. The pictures of Julian with her friends showed she was smaller than five-foot six-inches, but the one they found was five-foot eight-inches. Her hair, her eyes, her lips, her hour glass figure, her breast size, her gaze… none of it matched the picture.

"Tony!" Abby's shout caused Tony to swirl around and make him look at her with a goofy grin.

"Yes, Abs?"

"Don't look at her as if she's someone you're thinking of sleeping with." Abby gave him a displeasing frown, her hands on her hips, her torso leaned forward, and her eyes in a glare. "She's a victim, no matter how hot she is.

Tony chuckled, "I know Abs; the more I look the more flaws I see, the more flaws I see the more different our Petty Officer Julian Bryan and the Frozen Julian Bryan are." Abby gave him a confused looked before she turned to her computer and began messing around with it. She laid the picture on top of the other and a buss came from the speakers.

"Tony," Abby said with a haunted look in her eyes as she looked at Tony and the screen behind him. "Our Petty Officer isn't our Petty Officer; I don't even think she is a marine at all."

Gibbs frowned at the report that Abby had ordered Tony to give him while she searched for any clues on their recent clue. It was his gut feeling that something was when he stepped into that building and how he reacted while processing the scene, but now… now his whole team just stepped into his worst nightmare.

"MeGee, Ziva, I'll heave over to Bethesda and tell Ducky what we just learned, you find anything out of who our 'framed' Petty Officer is." He heard the chirp of understanding from them both as he stood up and began walking to the elevator when he spotted Director Vance waiting near it, his hand keeping it open.

"'Bout time, Gibbs." Vance said stepping in after Gibbs. "What have you found?" Gibbs quickly explained the situation and he watched Vance go silent before he turned to the wall to think. "Gibbs, if Petty Officer Julian Bryan was trying to fake her death, she nearly succeeded." Gibbs didn't say anything. "I'll explain to SECNAV what just happened, but you need to find out who she is and why they chose her, got it, Agent Gibbs."

"You don't need to tell me that, Director, I all ready have my team on it."

Okay I am fixing this part, so this story is now a chapter story