What would happen if Ducky and Maggie Clarke kept in touch after the events of the Season 12 episode "So It Goes?" What would happen if Maggie came to the United States on a visit and met the rest of the team?
This is going to be a rather long story - as it stands, we're looking at fifteen chapters at least. I'll have updates posted as often as I can, barring complications from work and grad school and writer's block. So bear with me, gentle readers.
Disclaimers, etc. I do not own the NCIS characters. Certain real-life towns and cities are mentioned, for a bit of verisimilitude - but this is not to imply that NCIS-level capers are a regular occurrence in those places, of course.
Chapter One: X Marks the Spot
Vienna, Virginia, March 3
"All right, guys, let's start bringing in that backhoe!" Dan Connors yelled over the noises of grinding winches and rumbling construction equipment.
The backhoe started beeping as it backed its way across the makeshift gravel parking lot and onto the acre of muddy, mostly-cleared land on the edge of town: the future site of Gleason and Associates' new office complex, according to the big plywood sign.
"Bring her in there," Connors pointed to a patch of muddy ground and mulch that had been marked at different intervals with little orange flags and spray-painted X's.
The backhoe rumbled into position and started digging steadily away at the marked spot.
Too cold to be doing work like this, Connors thought miserably as he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. Too cold and wet and gray and nasty. Excavation work was best done in the spring – real spring, with warm weather and sunshine – but the property owners and the future occupants had been chomping at the bit to get this one started, between all the delays with the planning board.
Oh, well, he'd treat himself to a few beers once the shift was over, and a big basket of onion rings to go with, and…
"Hang on, the hoe brought up something," the second foreman said.
Connors frowned as he signaled for the hoe operator to stop. The hoe's bucket had deposited something on top of the slowly increasing pile of dirt. It looked like…what was it, a bundle of garbage? Old debris from a past construction job?
On closer inspection, it was a long bundle of something wrapped in dirty plastic sheeting secured with duct tape.
"Go see what it is, Bobby," Connors said.
One of the workers pulled out a pocket knife and used it to peel away some of the duct tape and sheeting, and suddenly backed away. "Oh my God!"
"What the hell's the matter?" Connors asked.
Bobby turned around, pale with fright. "There's a skeleton in here!"
The rest of the construction crew hurried over and huddled in to get a look.
The plastic had peeled away to reveal what was definitely a human skeleton with its arms – or what had been its arms – folded loosely across its chest. And what had been the skull had been smashed to pieces.
The skeleton had some pieces of dirty metal hanging from a chain around its neck, and a few more pieces of metal, some of them with frayed ribbon attached to them, lay loose inside the skeleton's wrappings.
Connors took a deep breath. He'd been a petty officer on the U.S.S. Granville before going into construction. He knew what those pieces of metal were.
"Call the cops. And tell them to call NCIS."
xNCISx
More to come. Reviews welcome! Keep it civil, though.