Skeletons Revealed

Premise: What if Mac and Diane were sisters and Mac was the one to avenge Diane's murder.

Saturday, July 27, 1996

0425 Hours

Pier Seven

Norfolk, VA

The USS Seahawk had been in port for the past twenty four hours. Lt. Diane Schonke was walking off the aircraft carrier after her skeleton crew watch. She was going to the apartment she kept in Arlington to meet her husband Peter Schonke. She was going to need his help in dealing with a troubling matter from her time on her duty cruise. She was hoping to get it out of her way quickly as she was finally assigned to a land duty. That being the case she was eager to fulfill the agreement she and Peter made of starting a family as soon as she was assigned land duty.

Diane had volunteered to be on the last skeleton crew watch because Peter was away from the apartment that day and evening. He was a Secret Service agent assigned to the Presidential Detail. That night he was away with President Clinton on a campaign trip. She hoped to surprise him when he returned home in the morning. She had a red lingerie outfit in mind, satin sheets and no reason to leave the marital bed.

Unfortunately those plans were never going to come to pass.

1030 Hours

Pier Seven

Norfolk, VA

As Lt. Commander Harmon Rabb of the Navy's JAG Corps, climbed out of the JAG sedan, was speaking with his wife on his cellphone. "Yeah I'll see you when you get here. Too bad we didn't know before we left the house this morning, we could have saved Gibbs the ride over to pick you up. Yeah I love you to."

Harm hung up his cellphone at that point as he waited for his partner Lt. Caitlin Pike to come around from the passenger side of the car to join him.

They were at Norfolk on the report of a dead female Navy lieutenant.

They walked over to the car where the dead body of the lieutenant had been found. They saw that there was a full body bag on a stretcher. They first encountered an irascible man who was chewing on an unlit cigar. He was portly and balding. He looked up from his notebook and seeing Harm and Cait said, "Lookie, lookie here comes JAG,"

Harm and Cait shared a look. As they approached the man, they saw the NCIS badge clipped on his belt who stuck out his hand and identified himself as, "Agent Turkee." (He pronounced it Tur-kay.)

Harm replied and introduced himself, "Lt. Commander Rabb and this is my partner Lt. Pike."

Before Turkee could reply to that, another pair of people came over. One was a man who was a fit 39 years at 6'2" in height with ash blond hair, with gray sprinkled throughout, cut short and parted in the middle. The other person was a shapely tall female, 29 years at 5'9" with strawberry blond hair cut short framing her lovely face. They both acknowledged Harm and Cait with looks that spoke of easy familiarity and Turkee with looks that were something close to loathing.

Turkee spoke first as he said, "Gibbs, Austen so glad you got here so soon. I only called you ninety minutes ago."

NCIS Special Agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Meg Austen Rabb acknowledged his greeting with a grunted, "Turkee." They pronounced the name Turkey, after the bird.

Gibbs continued as he asked, "What was so urgent that you had to call us off our double murder case?"

Turkee responded acerbically, "When I checked her cellphone, I saw that you were one of her In Case of Emergency contacts. That's why I called you. Come over here so you can identify her."

Gibbs, Austen, Rabb and Pike followed him over to the stretcher with the body bag. Before he opened the bag he flipped open his notepad and went through the victim's pedigree, "Lieutenant Diane Schonke, ne. Mackenzie.."

Before he could continue, Harm went over to the body bag and jerked the zipper open. When he saw the face he slumped in distress. Meg came up behind him and looking over his shoulder said, "Oh Diane!"

Gibbs also slumped in dismay.

Cait was the only one not in the know as she asked, "You guys knew her?"

With a sigh Gibbs reached for his cellphone. This was a call he so badly didn't want to make. As he waited for the other end to pick up he answered, "She's my sister in law."