Disclaimer: Characters aren't ours; we just like to play with them for a little bit.
Summary: Things take a turn for the worse when Tony disappears from a crime scene, can they save him before too much damage is done. Rating will change later for adult themes and situations.
This is our first joint story so we hope you enjoy it.
Watching, Wanting, Waiting
Chapter 1
The cool morning air brushed his face in a soft gentle stroke as he stepped out of the car, glad for his life as Gibbs had been driving. Tony walked closer and closer towards the crime scene with his camera ready when the smell reached him, the rotting flesh of the corpse burning his nose. Being an experienced investigator, Tony wouldn't admit to feeling a little queasy upon seeing the crime scene. The body of the dead marine was sprawled out, looking as if he'd been running at the time of his murder. The facial expression that he wore was one of fright, not something you would relate to the guy, who was quite big in muscle. A typical marine some would say. Tony tried to recall an appropriate movie scene to keep up the small talk with his colleagues Ziva and McGee, the latter who Tony often referred to as 'probie'.
Tony walked around the corpse taking photos from all angles of the body, sighing as he thought that the man looked around his age, about mid 30's. He walked cautiously around the perimeter taking pictures of the few foot prints that had been left. Whoever committed the crime had been experienced as there had been no finger prints at the crime scene and all the evidence they had found so far didn't even seem to point to anything that they could use. Of course, they would have to get Abby to check over it before deeming it useless.
Tony strolled over to Gibbs and Ducky, who were crouched over the body. Palmer stood close to Ducky but was far enough from Gibbs to stop the shaking fear. Tony let out a small chuckle about this, luckily for him nobody heard, Gibbs would kill him for laughing at a crime scene. His soft laugher was cut off by Gibbs' voice.
"Ducky, you got a time of death for me yet?" Gibbs asked his voice laced with professionalism.
"I would say that it would have been about 4 to 5 hours ago." Ducky replied with the same professionalism.
"Cause of Death?"
"You will have to wait until after the autopsy for that, Jethro." Ducky replied.
Tony studied the area again before walking back towards the car. If he was honest, the case seemed a little strange; he just couldn't put his finger on what it was. As always in the car ride back to headquarters he made an inane reference to a movie, thinking how much Gibbs' driving was similar to that of someone in the movie the fast and the furious.
Arriving in the bullpen tasks were split up, everyone set about working, trying to find anything of value to report. Tony easily got bored and started throwing paper balls at McGee while he thought Gibbs wasn't watching. After another 'Get back to work' from Gibbs, Tony went about calling the marine's friends and co-workers, seeing if they knew of anyone that held a grudge against the marine. McGee was looking into the marines bank records, tracking what he had spent and where he had been. Ziva was working on the motive and helping both Tony and McGee.
Down in the lab Abby was working on the trace evidence that had been collected, there wasn't much of it, but it was all they had at the moment. She had found a few hairs on the remains of the clothes found on the marine's body, she was just waiting on the results. She was hoping it would lead to the killer.
Ducky had had more luck with the autopsy and called Gibbs down to tell him the results. Gibbs stormed into the autopsy on the war path; obviously the case wasn't going well. Though, Gibbs storming in wasn't unusual.
"What ya got for me, duck?" Gibbs asked gruffly.
"The poor boy died in pain, it took several minutes to bleed out." Ducky who was standing by the body pointed to two stab wounds on the body's chest. "One of them punctured a lung, while rather painful he would have survived, the other was the fatal wound." Ducky pointed to the other wound which was just above the heart, "This nicked an artery causing massive internal bleeding." Ducky took a moment before he carried on with the rest of what he found, his face was solemn. "I also found friction burns on his wrists, mostly likely caused by being tied up rather forcefully judging by the amount of bruising." Gibbs looked at the dark purple of the bruising that snaked around the marine's wrists; there was some on the ankles to.
"Anything else, Ducky?" he asked calmly taking in the sombre expression of the elderly ME.
"Yes, I'm afraid that it seems the poor boy was raped shortly before he died, there is some tearing and some internal bruising." Ducky finished.
Gibbs nodded briefly and made his way back up to the bull pen, maybe, his team had solved part of the mystery by now.
***
He gently brushed his finger across the photograph of one very special agent; the agent had caught his eye a couple of weeks ago at a different crime scene. He was enticed by the way the agent walked and looked, so cocky and sure of them selves. He hated that, he needed to destroy it. He had in the past and will do again; he smiled slyly as he added more pictures to his collection. Some of the pictures were his favourite, the ones of his target at home.
Extinguishing the candles around the room, he locked the door behind him. No one was allowed in that room, not even his family. They would never know about what he had done and was going to do again, he didn't even care that he was lying to them, it was just something he needed to do, it was for the better anyway. He needed to break people like the one he was watching. He'd tell his family he was going away on another business trip.
Setting the trap for the agent was proving to be difficult, the one this morning hadn't worked as the agents were quick and efficient, and also the older one seemed to be watching his target more this time. Maybe, next time he'd have his chance…
***
The sun was setting as they got the next call, another body had been found. The mood changed instantly, they could be connected which meant they could have a serial killer on their hands. Grabbing their gear they rushed to the most recent crime scene. Maybe, if they got there in time then they could possibly catch the killer snooping around, most serial killers liked to see the reactions of the people who found the bodies and possibly even look like they were helping. Though, those types of killers were the hardest to catch and were methodical down to the last detail.
"DiNozzo, perimeter and sketches; McGee, photos, Ziva, bag and tag."
They all nodded in reply, Gibbs could see the exhaustion in his team, they'd been work for 16 hours straight already as the call out this morning had been early. He went looking for the officers and witnesses knowing that his team could handle the scene.
Again Tony found himself walking cautiously around the crime scene taking measurements, he couldn't help but feel someone was watching him, he'd felt it a little at the other crime scene but it was stronger now. Hearing a light rustling from behind he turned quickly around, upon seeing nothing he looked around.
This crime scene was different to the other; this one seemed more frantic almost. With the sun having set about an hour ago visibility through the forest on the edge of the crime scene was practically zero. Taking out his flash light to examine something on the ground he found that a foot print had been left, heading deeper into the forest. Seeing that the team was close by he stepped further in, not noticing that at that moment the team had their backs turned on his position.
After the first few meters of finding nothing but thick trees and dead leaves on the ground, he decided that going back where Gibbs could see him was the best option, Gibbs would be pissed if he went missing right in the middle of a supposed serial killer case. Doing a full one-eighty while pulling his gun out of its holder as he heard the rustling again he came face-to-face with a man, similar build to him just a little taller. Before he had the chance to speak the man came at him, dodging the attack, the man stumbled into the tree.
"Freeze, NCIS." Tony ordered. However the man didn't listen and charged at Tony again, this time Tony managed to get a hold of the guy and pin him to the ground. Bringing the guys arms around his back he started to read the guy his rights. Being occupied he didn't notice the other shadowy figure creeping up behind him. Just as he was about to the get guy up, he was struck by a solid object on the back of his head and the world dissolved around him.
The last thing he remembered seeing was the spindly fingers of the trees around obscuring the attack away from his team and the quarter crescent moon now hanging in the sky, his last thought was that Gibbs was going to be pissed but had his six, with that the moon and stars blurred and everything became dark.
TBC