Chapter 1
"McGee, stop blubbering about your stupid date," interrupted NCIS special agent Tony Dinozzo, when he decided that he had heard enough.
It was early Monday morning, and Dinozzo was greeted with a strangely happy McGee at his desk. True enough, McGee had a date, which was a rare occasion for him. McGee was endlessly ranting on about his date with a girl he met at a technology convention, and how "wonderful" she was. Dinozzo was happy for the guy, but he was admittedly more jealous than happy about it. He could not see how nerdy McGee got himself a date on a Saturday night, while he was stuck at home watching the Godfather series for the sixteenth time in a row, alone.
"No, continue, McGee. You were up to the entree, were you not?" Ziva ignored Tony, pushing her chair forward, with her head tilted towards McGee, obviously immersed in her colleague's date, which very rarely ever took place. She gave Tony a glance and added, "Tony's just jealous."
McGee beamed in response, obviously delighted that he had annoyed his colleague for once, instead of the other way around, which happened quite often, and was admittedly more embarrassing each time. Tony stared right at Ziva, more than annoyed that she had pinned him right. He was about to add a snide comment, but was interrupted by their boss, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
"Grab your gear," Gibbs announced. "Dead marine." He swung past them all; with his much needed morning coffee in his hand. He drank the last of it, before chucking it hastily in the bin, which was filled up to the very top with the empty coffee cups he had only acquired over the last day. He grabbed his gun from his desk drawer, and was already headed for the elevator with his three agents barely ready. They quickly rushed for the elevator, and luckily for them, they made it before the doors closed.
It took a few hours to reach the location, even with Gibbs' driving. They had reached the hotter part of Washington; a rather dry forest. Tony, at once, went off on a full on rant about the hot weather, while taking photos of the crime scene and the dead marine. Ziva was busy tagging the evidence. Nothing, however, could dampen McGee's mood, which was still in its full mode as it was a few hours before. Gibbs, unpleased at his lack of progress, called him over.
"Just what do you think you are doing, just standing there?" Gibbs asked.
"Well, uh, boss, I was just –"
"What, McGee? Enjoying the sunshine?" Gibbs retorted.
"No, not at all, boss," McGee answered honestly. "I'll – I'll get to work now."
He could feel his whole face burning with embarrassment. He could feel Gibbs' glare, and looked down his feet to avoid eye contact. Both men stood there, beside the body.
Gibbs said, "Well, what are you doing standing here then?"
"Oh, right. I should –" McGee stuttered. "I should go. And uh, do work."
He shuffled off awkwardly. Tony had heard the whole conversation, and was rather amused by it. He was chuckling to himself, while taking the last of the photos. It seemed as though McGee's mood was dampening, while Dinozzo's mood was lightening up.
It wasn't long before Ducky; the medical examiner arrived, with his assistant Jimmy Palmer trailing behind him. He sighed at the sight of the body lying on the dry ground.
"So, what do we have here, Jethro?"
"Dead marine," Gibbs answered, "a couple of Canadians decided to camp out here for the night, and woke up to find him lying here, from their tent there," he said, nodding towards the blue tent. "Ziva and Tony are going to talk to them, and ask a few questions."
"I see," Ducky said meaningfully. He bent down to examine the body closely. "Well, from what I can gather here, he died last night, like you mentioned. I would estimate it to be around midnight to two am, to say the least."
"Okay. Anything else, Ducky?" Gibbs queried.
"Looks like the poor fellow bled to death. Several knife wounds here, here and here," Ducky pointed to the marine's torso, with Gibbs' eyes following. But –"
"But it didn't happen here. No signs of a large amount of blood here," Gibbs seemed to be thinking the same thoughts as Ducky.
"Yes, that's right, Jethro. I believe our marine was murdered," he responded gravely. "Come to think of it, I recall a case like this before. It was in Iraq, where a young couple brought a young man..."
Ducky's voice trailed off in Gibbs' mind. He was launching into one of his long-winded stories again. Gibbs' mind was of course, somewhere else. He surveyed the place and area around him. It wasn't strange to leave a body at a forest; he had seen it a dozen times. However, to leave a body at such an open space, without much trees to cover the murder up, it seemed strange.
He decided, or perhaps, his gut told him that whoever it was, he or she was in a hurry, or inexperienced. His thoughts were soon interrupted by call of his name. Tony and Ziva were running towards him. 'Oh, what now,' he thought to himself.
"Boss, I think we lost McGee," said Dinozzo, who was using a tree for support, seemingly tired out from running, breathing heavily.
"What? How the hell did you lose him?"
"Well," Dinozzo started to explain, "he saw some footsteps along the trail, and thought he might follow them. And I said, 'McGoo, you're going to get lost.' But he went on about some scout thing that he did when he was thirteen, and how he's good at this stuff. So I let him go."
"We started calling for him, but no answer. We've looked everywhere, Gibbs, but he's nowhere to be found! I mean, with Tony's bad sense of direction, I doubt we'll ever find him," Ziva said.
McGee was going to get it when they find him. That is, if they find him. With that, he set Ziva and Dinozzo off to find McGee. Little did they know, among the forest somewhere, Special Agent Timothy McGee, their latest recruit, was held under hostage.