Honor Bound - The team investigates the murder of a female officer, and uncovers a web of lies and deceit. Story four of the Joy Buchanan series. Follows A Geek walk into a bar, Entertaining angels unaware and Intermezzo. Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.
I feel pretty
I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty, and witty and gay,
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me today. I feel charming,
Oh, so charming--
It's alarming how charming I feel,
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe I'm real.
West Side story – I feel pretty lyrics
The alarm clock starts playing soft music, waking up the slumbering man on the bed. It is playing an old Broadway song, and his sleep-fogged brain tries hard to connect the melody to the lyrics.
I feel pretty,
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty, and witty and gay,
And I pity
Any girl who isn't me today.
He smiles against his pillow, and slides his hand to the left side of the bed. And he finds it empty, which immediately makes his smile disappear from his face. He raises his head from his pillow, and looks to his side. The sheets are slept in, and the mark of a body is still on the bed. The mark of a head is still on the pillow, along with a long curly brownish strand of hair, which he delicately collects with his fingers and throws on the floor. He pulls the slept in pillow to his face, and is assaulted by the faint smell of sweat and peaches, which immediately gives him a morning wood.
Down boy, he says to himself.
The music is still playing.
I feel charming,
Oh, so charming--
It's alarming how charming I feel,
And so pretty
That I hardly can believe I'm real.
Since Special Agent Joy Buchanan joined NCIS's Major Case Response Team four months ago, that was usually how Special Agent Timothy McGee would wake up. They had been working non-stop on several cases, and her insights had immediately made her an invaluable asset to the team, however things were still restrained.
Tony still made up variations of his name, and Buchanan corrected him every single time she heard him butchering McGee's name.
Ziva handled with Buchanan with a little bit of reserve and a lot of respect, both women recognizing in each other the survivor gene.
Gibbs had a hawk's eye on his agent, just watching and waiting to see for any sign that she might be slipping or losing it. The ghost of what had happened in LA still lingered, and the Gibbs' reserved attitude towards his new agent lead other agents in the agency to treat her with reserve as well. She was tolerated and respected, even feared, but had not really been welcomed in the ranks of NCIS.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
McGee, however, was in seventh heaven. For the very first time since he started working at NCIS, he had a partner who acted as if he had an equal value in the equation, not only a sidekick. She listened to his suggestions, weighed his opinion and corrected his mistakes with a firm, but not bossy, hand.
She valued his skills in computing sciences, but forced him to exercise and apply his investigative skills more than ever.
In the last month alone, he had cracked the case with his deduction skills three times, which brought a rare compliment from Gibbs and friendly taps on his back from DiNozzo. She just smirked at him and shook her head and went back to her computer.
She suggested they start training martial arts to keep fit, and was not afraid of kicking his ass to the mat if he thought his superior size was an advantage. He didn't mind being pummeled by a pint-sized woman, as long as she ended up lying on the floor on top of him. Or he on top of her, it doesn't matter.
On a personal level, they sat down shortly after their encounter after she went to visit him in his house. She explained that she had no problem with this … whatever they had… but it must not mess with work. They tactically agreed not to tell their coworkers anything, but act professionally during working hours. What they did on their off hours was their problem. If anybody asked, they would shrug as if it was no big deal.
He mentioned again the matter of protection with her and watched her face cloud a little. She mentioned she had been hurt, badly hurt, and her periods were so out of order that she had to take heavy hormonal doses just to regulate them, and also so she would not be crippled by the cramps. She took his hand and slid it against her skin on her arm, where the hormonal implant was located. The chances of her ever getting pregnant were slim, and if she ever did get pregnant, she would have to be considered as a high risk pregnancy. As they both had been celibate for so long before they met and were regularly tested at NCIS, they mutually agreed to rely on the implant and on their devotion to each other.
The sex was incredible. Despite the severe mocking that McGee had endured from DiNozzo during his years at NCIS, he was indeed a healthy male with a normal libido. DiNozzo never really understood that, given the right circumstances, with the right partner, a willing partner, McGee would respond to his biological drive and act like any other red blooded male.
Despite Buchanan's initial reservations and shyness on their encounters, they found a synchrony and a satisfaction both agents never imagined possible to achieve.
For the first time ever, Joy was comfortable in being nude with a male who, as incredible as it might seem to her mind, had no judgmental attitude towards her scars. He revered them as banners of her strength, and had no qualms about telling her that.
McGee, on the other hand, was with a woman who had no qualms about saying that she wanted him, the geek, both sexually and emotionally, and she had no reserve about having her desires known and demanding them to be met immediately.
He, even during his very dry years, had occasional encounters, and even had some eventual encounters with Abby, which always left him physically satisfied and emotionally empty, as she would always go back to her I love you like puppies philosophy and they would be back to square one. He always ended alone, and she was back with the newest flavor of the month.
Buchanan, however, did not have sex for four years. Either due to her very demanding job or her scars, McGee wanted to know, and asked her one lazy Saturday morning, after they made love.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
He slides her hair out of the way of his kisses, and slowly moves his mouth along the soft curve of her spine, feeling the faint ridges of the beatings she received as a child under the sensitive skin of his lips. "Why?" he murmurs against her skin.
She tenses.
"I'm not asking about the scars. I'm asking why you waited." She looks at him, curious to know where he is leading this conversation.
"Why did you wait four years for …" he wiggles his eyebrows "… you know." She lies on her back and studies his face, trying to figure out how much of the story she should tell him.
"He was a friend." She starts slowly. "A good friend. A profiler as well."
McGee is supporting his head on his hands, his elbows on the pillow, looking at her.
"We danced around each other for a few months. We approached it slowly and when finally we…" she looks at him and smiles "we did it, he couldn't see me past my scars."
She wets her dry lips, and her eyes are vague, fixed in some memory of the past.
"He would look at the scars and keep on imagining the trauma and the pain and … he could not understand how I could function, because, according to all psychology books he had read till then I should be a vegetable, or at least, a very deranged person."
McGee keeps looking at her with attentive eyes.
"The relationship went sour then. I couldn't stand how he looked at me, as a case study that should be picked apart and analyzed and he couldn't help himself. Because that's what he was trained to do. It was ingrained in him to pick a person apart and put together the pieces in order to understand them, and he couldn't figure me out like that," she looks at McGee, "every time he tried to put me together; the pieces wouldn't fit. The puzzle wouldn't be complete, there would be pieces lacking or more than the ones necessary to fix it."
"He was very clinical about things, and he did not accept any spiritual explanation I gave him." She smirks, "he tried to argue several times with dad about how God was the opium of people, but he never won the discussion with him."
She pauses and fiddles with the duvet covering her breasts.
"I don't," pause, "remember much. Of that time." She looks at McGee, "what I do remember are some flashes, glimpses of darkness, emptiness and pain; and a foul smell in the air that would impregnate your clothes, your skin, sometimes," she nervously fidgets on the bed, "your very soul."
"But when I met dad, and mom and the guys, they changed me. They literally prodded until I came out of my shell, and until now they were my support net in everything."
"You really love your family, don't you."
"They are the only reason I am alive today."
They would always meet in his apartment, as hers was still a mess of boxes and mismatched pieces of furniture. Sometimes they would simply stay up until late at night, talking about the case or having dinner, and she would walk Jetro whenever he was too busy to do it himself.
But sometimes she would simply look at him with a fixed expression in her eyes. If they were alone in his place she would walk up to him, give him her hand and lead him to the bedroom, where their moans and gasps would fill the air.
Sometimes he would catch her staring at him with the same expression at work, and he would hiss "Joy", she would blink, and the expression would be gone and her professional mask would be back in place.
Their staring at each other didn't go unnoticed at the office however.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
"Probie, I had enough of your making goo-goo eyes at each other. Spill" says DiNozzo, when the curiosity got the better of him and he had to resort to desperate measures, cornering McGee in the men's room. However Joy had prepared him for this exact situation.
"Tony, move."
"No, you won't leave this men's room until you tell me what is going on between you and probette."
"She will still get back at you for that, Tony."
"I'm not afraid of her."
"You should be, she has four brothers, you know. And they were, according to her descriptions, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The kings of the pranks, I would watch how I take my coffee from now on."
"You think she would put something in it, like Ziva did on Halloween?"
"I know she will get back at you. After all, the Buchanans' family motto is "don't get mad, get even"."
"Uhm, ok, thanks for the warning, but you are changing the subject. What is going on between you two?" Tony wants to know, curious.
"Ok, I will tell you," Tony looks gleeful "only if you tell me what is going on between you and Ziva," Tony's face shuts down immediately.
"There is nothing going on between me and Ziva," says Tony with a straight face.
Liar, liar, pants on fire, McGee thinks.
"Then there is nothing going on between me and Buchanan," says McGee with a smile on his face.
"Nothing,"
"Nothing,"
"Nothing like me and Ziva," Tony asks.
"Why, is there something going on with Ziva, Tony?"
That shuts Tony up, he loves Ziva but he is too afraid of her to spill their secrets like that.
"No, nothing." He lies.
"So then it is nothing," says McGee.
"Uhm…" Tony takes a step back; McGee washes his hands, dries them, and walks out of the men's room.
As Tony didn't get any hint from McGee, to his utter frustration, he assigns Ziva to get some answers.
During a case, both women had to stay on a stakeout in the car, waiting for the signal from the rest of the team. Ziva would glance at Buchanan, who was placidly waiting for hours without showing a sign of impatience. Ziva sees her move on the seat uncomfortably and pounces. "So, you and McGee, you are getting along well."
"He is a great agent, with huge potential," Buchanan answers in a monotone voice, her eyes on the warehouse they are watching.
"He likes you a lot." Ziva is fishing for information.
Buchanan glances briefly in Ziva's direction and smiles. But she keeps silent.
"He is a very good man, and good agent and," Buchanan turns to look at Ziva "he deserves the attention and care you are giving him." Buchanan studies Ziva.
"I just wanted you to know,"
"Thanks,"
"I think…"
"What do you want to know, Ziva?" Buchanan asks directly, never being known as someone to mince words.
"Are you sleeping with him?" Ziva wants to know, and immediately regrets it when she sees Buchanan's defenses going up and her eyes turning into ice. The air in the car becomes artic cold.
"If you are really that interested in him, why haven't you slept with him yet? You have known him for years." Buchanan wants to know angrily.
"That's not it," Ziva tries to fix the mess she made, and Buchanan looks at her angrily. "I worry about him, and he is my friend, and also a team member, Gibbs' rule number twelve says…"
"Ha, rule number twelve," mutters Buchanan.
"What, you don't obey Gibbs' rules?" Ziva wants to know in an astonished tone of voice.
"That's not it," answers Buchanan with a grimace. "I just don't think they are set in stone." Pause "they should work more like guidelines, not like rules."
"Why?" Ziva wants to know, curiously.
"Because sometimes things change. People change." Buchanan returns her eyes to the warehouse.
"I only have one single rule, all the others are not important when compared to this one." Ziva's curiosity is piqued, as Buchanan never speaks her mind like that when they are with the rest of the team.
"What rule would that be?"
"Whatever happens," Buchanan looks in Ziva's eyes, and tries to convey all the seriousness of her rule "don't die."
Ziva is deeply disturbed, and looks back at the warehouse. She does not ask any other questions of her teammate. Later, Ziva is surprised when Buchanan breaks the heavy silence in the car.
"Ziva," Buchanan calls softly and waits until she looks at her, "he keeps the monsters at bay."
After that night, Ziva never asked Buchanan or McGee any other questions about their relationship ever again.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
She never stayed until morning, always going home to change for the work day. McGee gives a very male, very satisfied smile, stretches his muscles and leaves the bed, getting ready for the new day, anxious to see his partner again.
It was going to be a great day.
Reviews are food for my soul and make my day a brighter day.