Friday August 5th, 2011
NCIS HQ Squad room – Late afternoon
"Hey McZombie!"
Aw crap... Had he really gone off nodding again?
He scraped his throat and sat up a little straighter in his desk chair. Blinking his eyes, he tried to refocus on his monitor.
"I wasn't sleeping..." He winced. It had left his mouth without thinking...again. How many times, already, had he blurted these few words out before? Come to think of it; he'd spewed more nonsensical phrases at the most inappropriate occasions. Like...needing a haircut when all Gibbs wanted, was to have a word in private with...Allison Hart. He groaned.
"I know you weren't sleeping, McDaydreamer. But, hell!, you sitting there for the last half hour with your eyes wide open staring at that screen..." Tony craned his neck to get a better look at Tim's object of focus, "...very empty screen..." He frowned. Uh-oh. This didn't look too good if Probie was staring at a blank desktop!
Tim pushed himself up from his chair, suppressing a yawn. "I'm going for some coffee. Anyone?" He looked at Tony and Ziva, Gibbs having left earlier for places unknown.
"Since you're buying..."
Tim rolled his eyes. "I'm not buying, Tony; merely offering to fetch some..."
"Either way – a macchiato for me."
"...from the vending machine... Zee?"
"A latte for me, please Tim." Ziva sweetly asked, already diggin into her purse for some change, at which Tim waved his hand, letting her know not to bother.
As he sauntered out of the bullpen, his mind took him to that cold case he was currently working on.
One August morning, a stargazer was found dead at Riverbend Park, a cell phone clutched in his lifeless fingers and a bullet hole in his head. The man, a marine based at Quantico, was known as an avid stargazer. He was well liked and had no troubles whatsoever; none financial, nor relationally.
Tim had read the file and had learnt nothing new. He'd gone down to the evidence locker for the cell phone and after working on it, he'd found...nothing. Absolutely nothing out of the extraordinary.
There had been no witnesses and there was no evidence pointing to a suspect.
Nor had there been a gun near the victim and thus suicide was excluded. Yet, the autopsy report had shown that the 30 caliber bullet had struck the unfortunate man end-over-end. Weird. Very very weird.
This afternoon, McGee had decided to call it an early day. He'd made no headway in this case and nothing additional was coming to him. Usually, an idea would strike at some later point, when he was least thinking about a case. As a result, he'd been in the act of shutting down his computer by closing all open files on his desktop. And then, as the files were being saved before closing, he'd just sat there...thinking. Or zoning out, as the others kept calling it. He knew Tony didn't like it when he did that. Ziva rarely showed any worry if he did that. Gibbs...was merely annoyed when it happened and usually brought him back with a head slap,...his patent solution to almost anything.
"McGee... Tim?"
He was so violently jerked back to the present that the latte he'd been holding in one hand, waiting for his own coffee to finish running, spilled from the cup onto the floor.
"Wha...? Oh, Ziva! What are you doing here?"
She looked at him strangely, and a little concerned. "You were gone for so long just getting coffee we were wondering... Are you all right?"
"Oh, sure. Er...I'm so sorry. Let me get you another latte..."
"It's fine, Tim. I simply wanted to make sure you were okay." She still looked doubtful and let her gaze follow him as he took his coffee to the nearest table and set about cleaning up the mess with a paper towel.
"You don't look fine to me." She pressed on.
Tim frowned as he tried to explain to her why he was walking about rather preoccupied.
"It's this cold case I'm working on, Zee." He tossed the paper towel into the bin with a little more force than necessary and then turned to look at her, throwing his hands up in annoyance.
"I just get nowhere on this one. Why can't I find anything?"
"Some cold case are doomed to stay that way, Tim. Perhaps this is one of those? Just let it rest. No use getting yourself so worked out because of it."
"Worked up, Ziva. Oh, I know, I know. It's just...Oh, never mind." He flapped his hands indicating the discussion was over. "Let me get you another latte."
"I already told you it was fine. There's no need..." But he'd already punched the button and the beverage was running.
- -.-. -. . .
Riverbend Park – Night
"This looks a nice spot, Tim. What d'you think?"
Tim halted and took a good look around and, more importantly, above him. Then he nodded his approval and dropped his backpack on the grass.
"Yep. Super!"
They made short work of spreading out the blanket and opening a bottle of wine.
"First things first: a toast...to our 6 months! Okay, it's not champagne, but I trust this will do just as fine."
Maxine, pursing her lips, made a show of giving the ticket on the bottle a close scrutiny. Then she laughed and clinked her glass against his. "An excellent little wine, Tim."
They both enjoyed the last of the sunset on this hot summer night, taking sips from their glasses and eating some delicious sandwiches Maxine had prepared earlier for this special occasion. In fact, as soon as Tim had called her with his invitation to join him on some meteor watching, she'd packed some stuff for their romantic night together.
It had been a while since Tim had last lain on the summer grass staring at the night sky. This time, there was a dual purpose to the stargazing. This was as good a time as any to combine business with pleasure, he thought. His idea was to picture himself in the victim's situation... What had happened on that fateful night? If he could bring his brain to a relaxed state, a solution might spring to mind.
They watched the sun set and, when the last daylight had faded, the stars had become more distinct. At this distance from the city lights, the starlit sky was stunning, even if there was still too much light pollution to see the Milky Way with the naked eye.
They'd talked for a long time about their relationship, plans, anything. Now they just lay together, peering at Perseus, hoping to catch those shooting stars. Now was the peak season to see the Perseid meteor showers at their best. Time to enjoy the show.
So he lay there on a blanket under the nightly expanse, hands laced behind his head, with his girlfriend by his side: them and the starlit night sky; what else does a man need to be happy?
But Tim wasn't yet ready for the fun, thinking back of what the skies would've looked like at the time of the marine's death. He thought about the man having lain there in possibly the same way those years ago...revelling at the sky up above.
Her voice shook him from his reverie.
"Oh look, Tim! Did you see that?"
He followed Maxine's pointed finger skyward but of course the shooting star - what else could it be? - was already gone.
He looked at her and smiled. "Missed that one."
"Oh look! There's another one!"
Now that one, he hadn't missed it as it zipped low across the dark firmament. An earth grazer, that one!
"I wish..." He started. "Nah...not gonna tell you."
She gave him a playful punch in the arm. "Heyyyy!"
"One shouldn't reveal one's wishes, Max." He laughed and leaned in to kiss her.
In this case, however, his wish had a somewhat more sinister meaning; it was for a solution to this case that had been praying his mind and he didn't want to share this wish with Maxine. She might not take it too kindly. Wishes, when with your sweetheart, should take you to more romantic spheres.
He was confident, though, that he'd have another chance to make a wish. Yeah. That kind of wish... The romantic type.
So Tim continued to gaze up at the night sky, trying to make sense of the senseless death of a marine.
And Maxine scanned the dark dome overhead, a soft smile on her face, thinking back to their first meeting and when she'd given him to understand he was not her type. Well, that turned out differently!
She turned her head towards the man lying next to her. She frowned. Something seemed off. He should've been more relaxed, flaunting his youthfulness, the ageless features, and, above all, over the moon to be spending such a nice summer night with his girl. And yet, there was this tenseness in they way he lay there, grim faced, his otherwise full underlip now a thin line.
She'd known him for six months, now, and he'd slowly opened up to her, letting her in. His previous experiences with the other sex had left him very shy, very wary and rather shunning any budding feelings towards a girl. But this? This had nothing to do with their relationship. At least, that's what she hoped. She'd keep an eye on him and with that, she directed her eyes skyward again.
Tim's thoughts took him from the meteor showers to constellations to...dead, stargazing marines... What were the conditions, circumstances of the sky on that particular night? If he put himself in the victim's situation, would he be able to get an idea about the man's thoughts during his final moments?
What had the investigators missed?
He felt the tension lift and his brain got more relaxed. In fact, he became so much relaxed...his eyes dropped close.
Maxine watched another meteorite shoot past Perseus and continue its swift descent towards Earth. She turned to face her boyfriend to tell him, finding him sleeping like a baby, his chest rising and falling as constant as a metronome. So, whatever was bugging him, he'd loosened up enough to fall asleep.
She shook her head. Men.
If they'd truly thought they'd have the park to themselves, that night, they'd soon prove wrong.
Suddenly the quiet was disrupted by a loud bang. And then another, soon to be followed by yet another one!
Tim was brutally shaken awake and lifted himself to lean on his elbow, looking blearily around till the cobwebs had cleared, paving the way to alertness.
That was it!
Yeah! That was exactly it!
Without hesitation, he scrambled to his feet and stared at the brief fireworks display. Maxine, slowly rising to a sitting position, looked up at him slightly concerned.
Another sound could be identified; celebratory gunfire! A dolt was shooting straight up into the sky to celebrate...whatever. Tim knew it was done. What goes up, must come down. He chewed the inside of his cheeks and squinted as he thought about this and what it could mean. Was this possible? What if...His eyes widened as he brought his eyes down to look at Maxine.
"That's it!" He went down on the blanket again and planted a quick kiss on Maxine's cheek. "I wonder if it could be possible..."
Maxine was confused, and rightly so. What was he blabbering about?
"Tim...?"
"Imagine this: a stray bullet tumbling from the sky to hit that marine?"
"Tim? What marine? What are you talking about?"
Tim gave her the broad lines of the cold case which had him so preoccupied.
"You see? I had a similar situation playing Call of Duty. I fired had a shot but it went way off target and yet I gained points. When I 4D-viewed my kill by ghost cam in theatre mode, I found it had hit the enemy on the other side of the building. I could never have aimed for that enemy. No way. And yet, that bullet had made a direct hit!"
"Yeah? And? What has this case of yours to do with Call of Duty?"
"It's the same all over." He shrugged impatiently. "Okay, not exactly the same except for it being a stray bullet. I can't say for sure what really happened. I'll have a chat with Ducky on Monday. There's no rush. But look at it this way. Whoever fired that bullet never had the intention of killing anybody with it. And yet, it did just that."
He could tell from Maxine's face that she was thinking, too. After all, she had more than just a little experience with gaming. She was one of the best. And this situation was, in her opinion, very interesting.
So Tim carried on with his lecture.
"A 30 caliber bullet, shot strait up at 2700 ft/sec, goes up to about 9000 feet, then loops back to the earth. Wind resistance makes it hit the earth at about 300 ft/sec about 49 seconds after it was shot. Enough to kill a man standing in the wrong place at the wrong time...well, for that marine, that is."
He let out a huge sigh. There was no foul play after all. It was just another freaky accident.
They both lay back down on the blanket and held inner hands, trusting this freak event wouldn't repeat itself there and then.
And then...there! A streak slicing the expanse! Tim grinned: time to make that wish while he still had that chance. He rolled over and hugged Maxine closer, eliciting a giggle. They still had the night and could still make the most of it, so why not spend it "sous la belle étoile"?
~ The End ~