Title: Strings.
Author: Andréa
Summary: A 6-year-old girl is the only witness to her parents' murder. While investigating the Navy couple, the NCIS team needs to keep the girl from being taken too, and keeping themselves from getting too attached to the nervous, strange behaving girl.
Spoilers: Maybe? Dunno just yet.
Rating: PG-13
Category: Drama, angst, suspense, romance.
Pairing: Kate/Tony eventually (obviously)
Disclaimer: No, they're not mine
A/N: I had this idea when watching 'The Ties That bind' for like the tenth time, what a rock on movie! -g-The plot is basically the same of the movie, but I'll try to change and adjust it according to the fic and NCIS plot :) I have been working on this for a LONG while now, but never really had the time to sit still long enough to type the whole chapter.
I love NCIS -which pushed me into writing a fic for it- but I love Kate/Tony even more, so, in no circumstance you're gonna see anything other than Kate/Tony here. I'm completely against Kate/Gibbs, but I do respect those who like them; what else can I do :) I do enjoy the thought of Abby/Gibbs, but that's all. No other pairings for me other than Tate. I really don't care who any of them ends up with, so I'm not sure what's gonna happen with them here. But be sure of Tate! As much as I can add to the fic without screwing it up -g-
Also, and IMPORTANT, English is not my native language, and even though I have written lots of fics already it won't keep me from making mistakes here and there. So feel free to point them to me and I'll fix them!
AND MORE IMPORTANT: A big thanks to Gili, who doesn't watch NCIS (yet!) but her moral support and kind words made me want to write just for her! And she's gonna read this fic because I told her to. You rock my socks XD
Other than that, if you care enough to read this, be nice enough to review! lol
and ENJOY.
P.s: my favorite Gibbs line will ever be: "Are you two done?" -g-
The setting sun was sweet as its weak orange-ish light touched softly the windows, reflecting on the faces of the room occupants, happy, pleased faces smiling at each other. They seemed relaxed; it would make things easier. He liked when people were calm and controlled. Especially if he was controlling them. A small smile spread across his face at the thought of finally getting what he wanted. They had something that belonged to him and he wanted it back.
He had had too much trouble already -worthy trouble- to get where he was, to find this place and these people and now he barely could keep the excitement at bay. He had lost a dearly beloved because of his carelessness back at the old folks' house but he wouldn't let the thought of going back to prison stop him from using his knife once or twice if it was needed. He was anything but a coward and the sight; smell of blood was too much to give up. There was no feeling better than the one when he buried his old buddy in the guts of a person. The way it entered the flesh, cutting it sharply, making no noises other than the softly flowing of the crimson liquid. God, there was nothing even similar to that.
As he stared at the couple sitting on the comfy looking sofa, he couldn't wait to use his knife again; and a little use of his hands too. He would cut the woman first, he decided, but only after tying the man first, or his hands at least. He knew what a man was capable of doing in order to protect his family, he knew that very well; he had a family once.
Realizing that the sun was nearly gone and the shadows of night danced across the place now, he got ready to do what he came here to do. It was easy and simple; kill the folks, get what is his by right and leave before a single soul could notice something was going on.
Easy and simple. He had done that countless times before.
He grinned at the unaware future victims. Show time.
Kate showed her ID to the cop guarding the entrance as she tried to pass through the thick crowd that still manage to gather even at 10 o'clock on a chilly evening. She wondered briefly who would dare to try a robbery or murder on a secure neighborhood like this. It was a family looking house, two story, white picked fence and the obvious sign of a child at the sight of a bike lying quietly on the green grass near the bricked wall of the front door.
At the nod of free pass from the cop, Kate only hoped that whatever kid lived there it wasn't in the house during the murder and had yet to come home. Even so the thought a child coming home to their dead parents was oddly more comforting than the thought that they had seen all, had suffered too, or worse, was just as dead. The ambulance parked near the crime place didn't always mean someone was alive, but this time Kate deeply hoped there was.
As she stepped up the front stairs, she caught the sigh of a small figure wrapped in a plain hospital blanket, being examined by a EMT; she couldn't help herself but say a short prayer for the little girl's life. Though, she thought with bitter sarcasm, what a lucky having her parents taken away.
"Kaaaate" That voice of I-am-so-glad-to-see-you-here of Tony's broke her from her thoughts and back to the most times harsh world they called reality and looked at him.
"Hey." She greeted as she stepped inside the house and joined Tony by the couple's bodies. She looked disgusted for a moment and felt herself pulled to look away from the mutilated bodies, from the blood painted floor and walls. She wondered briefly -as she watched Ducky go on his work- how he could look at this kind of thing day after day and not feel sick.
Noticing her reaction to the scene, Tony looked down and said in a quiet voice, "This is so not my idea of a Friday night out." A lame attempt to let her know she wasn't the only one shocked.
"It isn't." she answered just as quietly. "Where is Gibbs?"
Glad to have the subject changed even for a little while, Tony was happy to answer, "Talking to the lady who called he cops." And he pointed at the direction of what looked to be the kitchen, and there was Gibbs on the door professionally talking to an aged woman. He looked up just as Kate and Tony were looking back and politely dismissing the woman he soon joined them.
"What happened?" Kate asked eyeing Gibbs carefully.
"According to Mrs. Weezer, she saw a man inside through the window when she came to bring some cookies she had made for Olivia, apparently the daughter of the murdered couple, and called the cops before he could see her." Gibbs read from the notepad. "They're both from the Navy, that's why we were called." He added in an after thought.
"Robbery?" Tony gave his guess.
"I'm not sure." Gibbs was silently for a couple of seconds then sighed deeply before turning to Ducky and speaking again. "What do you got?"
"It looks like they both bled to death. The young officer here," Ducky crouched and moved his hand over the female body, "was stabbed two times as far as I can see. One on the stomach, "He pointed to the Navy officer's middle and then to her throat, "And one long cut on her neck."
"It was the neck stab that killed her?" Tony asked, doing his best not to look directly at the woman's body, which Kate noticed and found somewhat comforting; the fact she wasn't the only one sickened by that was a good thing.
"Probably, unless she was, for some reason, dead before that."
"And Commander McCole?"
"Stabbed to death too. His wrists are tied up so I'm guessing the murderer must have tied him to keep the strongest person controlled."
"Can you tell how long they've been dead?"
Ducky considered the room, the heat inside, the warmth -or lack of- of the bodies. "They're not really cold and the blood is still fresh. They've not been dead for too long, I'd say about...a couple of hours, three hours tops. Wasn't the killer here when the cops arrived?"
"Yeah," Gibbs started, his voice one of lamentation, disappointment. The killer was there and the cops let him get away. "He got shot while running. The cops didn't catch him."
"They let him get away? What kind of... slouchy cops are they?"
After Ducky's words the room fell into an eerie silence, only the labored breath from all occupants heard; no one dared to say word,cared enough to say anything. Yes, what kind of cops where they to let their killer get away so easily like that? As Gibbs pinched the tip of his nose clearly thinking, processing all Ducky had said, he licked his lips. Gibbs was silently for a couple more seconds then sighed deeply before giving them their tasks. "Kate, take pictures of the scene and DiNozzo, I want you to collect anything that may look like evidence."
Tony and Kate nodded and as Gibbs left, they shared an understanding look. This wasn't one of those cases for the weekend; not that there was a good case, but it was much harder when there were kids involved.
Kate sighed as she snapped her latex gloves on and ran a hand over her forehead. "This is not gonna be easy." She muttered.
Tony looked at her as she took the camera off the bag. "No, but at least we can do something, we can find the bastard who did this and bring him to jail."
Kate's eyes left the camera and turned to him to meet Tony's and during the four seconds their eyes locked and he gave her one of his bright smiles, she felt a wave of warmth wash inside. "Yeah." She whispered and shaking her head to clear her thoughts she went back to taking pictures.
Tony watched her for a few more seconds before going back to his own tasks of collecting evidence. They had a lot of work to do and focusing on his job instead of the well-being of his partner was more important in the moment -a little less important than Tony dared to admit- not to mention Gibbs would eat his kidney if he had the smallest thought DiNozzo wasn't doing his job as he was told.
As Kate took pictures of the bodies before they were to be bagged, Tony searched for the crime weapon -most likely a knife- anywhere near the bodies, but found none. "Why would the murderer take the knife with him?" Tony asked aloud, hoping Kate would listen and share her theories with him.
The flash of the camera stopped immediately and the woman behind it licked her lips, looked out into space while thinking about the question. In normal circumstances they would let the crime weapon behind, leave it wherever they were standing, unless it was a premeditated murder then the person behind it would wear gloves or clean the knife so it wouldn't hold any fingerprints or would take the weapon with them; but he was stopped by the cops arrival -not early enough to stop him from killing this young couple, Kate had to add in a bitter thought- so with the hurry to get away before he was caught it was most likely to forget the knife and run, unless... "He wouldn't." She said finally, with a hint of that satisfied, victorious smile Tony knew so well. "Unless the knife was his."
Tony joined in with his own smile; half proud of Kate's great skills, half glad they had come down with the same conclusion. "Did anyone get a hold of his face? Anyone who can ID him?" Kate opened her mouth to say something, but decided against and only shrugged. "If not," Tony went on, now looking at the stab marks on the male victim, "Do you think we can find out the kind of knife used from the marks and trace it down to the killer?"
"There is a chance, kind of difficult, but a chance. We can ask Abby."
Tony nodded and went back to find evidences -any evidence- as Kate did the same, taking pictures now of the place. If they were lucky the wouldn't need to find the knife, if they were lucky enough someone had seen the guy's face and had IDed him and if so, all they needed to do was track the bastard down and hope he'd stay in prison for the rest of his life.
"Kate!" She as so focused on her task of taking pictures and wondering of kind of monster would do that, especially with a child in the house that she didn't hear Gibbs approaching and only when he yelled her name she was brutally taken away from her reverie. "Yeah?" She turned to him trying as best as she could to hide her startled face.
Gibbs eyed her for a second, studying her, before finally speaking, "How good are you with kids?"
Kate was surprised to say least, and as she lowered the camera from her face she wondered just what exactly was on Gibbs' mind. "Ah..." Not really sure what to answer -because truth be told, she had no idea if she even was good with kids- she put a hand on her hip to buy some time as she thought of what to say. "I babysat when I was young but that's basically it."
"Good enough. You go talk to Olivia..." Gibbs took a quick look at the notepad to make sure the name was correct, "Olivia McCole. The couple's daughter."
"Didn't you say you were going to talk to her?" Kate asked already taking her latex gloves off.
"I tried. She won't say a word. I thought that maybe if a woman talked to her -you- we could get something off her."
"I have my way with girls. I can talk... to... her." Tony started but at the hard glare Gibbs gave him he started faltering at the end, and decided that it had been a bad idea opening his mouth.
"She's a frightened 6 year old girl, DiNozzo, not one of you horny hot looking women." And kept on staring at him, half daring him to say something back, half making a point it wasn't negotiable.
"Of course she isn't. Sorry, boss." Tony's comeback was quick and he soon was back to his job. Kate would have laughed out loud if it weren't for the situation, although she did manage to give Tony a delighted smile when their eyes met.
"You talk to her. And don't let her fool you; she looks younger than she is." Gibbs took the camera from Kate and directioned his talk to Tony, making a clear point Kate was dismissed. She left the room just quick enough to hear the rest of the conversation. "I want you to gather everything when you're done and send all you got to Abby."
"Sure thing, Boss."
She couldn't remember another time she had to interview someone so young, especially trying to explain to a young little girl why all that was happening, why she had to talk about her dead mom and dad. While she was hoping the girl hadn't seen anything, or heard anything, she was still expecting that she'd help solve this and get the killer a death penalty. And as she caught sight the girl standing in the far corner of the front yard, Kate felt a cold inside; no, she never had interviewed a child before, not in this circumstance. She wasn't sure she was the right person to do that now, to try doing something correct to end up screwing things up.
Or maybe she was only trying to take the responsibility off her shoulders and not be the one pointed at if she did screw things up with that child. She shook her head hardly; come on, Kate, you're better than that, she whispered mentally. She had protected the president; she could deal with a little girl. She could do it and if she couldn't... well, Caitlin Todd, it is too late now, she thought as the murdered couple's daughter looked up and straight to Kate's eyes.
"Hi." Kate crouched down so she would be at the girl's eye level and gave her a smile. "My name is Caitlin Todd, but you can call me Kate. Every one else does." The girl just kept staring cautiously at Kate and pulled the blanket tighter around her. This wasn't starting good. "What's your name?"
The girl bit her lip and looked over Kate's shoulder, as if making sure no one was there and said, in an almost inaudible whisper, "Liv."
"Liv," Kate echoed as if tasting the sound of her name and smile again. "It's pretty. Is it like short for Olivia?"
Liv nodded and this time gave the smallest of smiles, but enough to make Kate happy they were getting somewhere. "Like Kate." She added then, in a tiny whisper but soon her eyes were down and her smile was gone, as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn't.
"Yeah, like Kate." She said brightly in a resultless attempt to get Liv to talk more. The girl was biting her lip so hard that Kate was sure it would break the skin anytime soon. "What happened to your head?"
Liv immediately lifted her head and looked at Kate, then slowly moved her eyes around, looking anywhere but Kate's eyes. "I fell."
Kate lifted her hand and reached out to touch Liv's forehead, take her bangs out of the way to look closely at the cut. Olivia flinched from the touch, but just lightly, startled by the gesture she wasn't expecting. Taking it as cue, Kate took her hand away and only pointed at it. It was still too soon to try any bodily contact with her, she realized. "How did you fall? It earned you good four stitches."
Olivia opened her mouth a little, no sounds coming from it, though, as she clearly was thinking about what to answer and if she should answer. Pressing her lips together she bit her lip again -apparently a nervous habit, Kate mentally noted- and opened her mouth once more, ready to speak, but this time her lower lip started quivering and soon her lips joined together into a pout and she started to silently cry instead; or that what it seemed, but Kate didn't see tears or hear sobs or even the usual glimmer of tears a person was about to cry carried on their eyes, especially her, with such blue eyes. "I..." she managed, but as if in a lack of what to say she gave Kate that baby face, which meant she was about to fall apart into tears but was holding on tightly no to.
Kate felt her heart break right then, that red part of her body used to beat herself into life, to rush blood in and out, to make her feel -sometimes feel things she would rather not feel- that little piece of her broke into tiny pieces from seeing such a small young being have its life ripped away, finally seeing how hard it was for her, how strong she was trying to be; when in fact she didn't need to, because keeping her innocence intact and all the hurt and pain away was the adults jobs. It was their duty, and only theirs to hug her and whisper sweet words, to tell her everything would be all right, everything would be perfect, she'd be safe and happy again.
It was the adults the duty to keep all the lies firmly wrapped in a beautiful satin package with the always present ribbon on top. God, Kate thought, what a bunch of lies children were raised into, how hard it must be for the parents to keep their kids happy.
"Oh, sweetie..." She tried to keep her own tears at bay and did something without thinking first, without thinking if Olivia would accept it, or is she would pull away, scream at her. But in a thoughtless impulse Kate hugged the kid so tightly that even if she wanted to escape she wouldn't be able to. And to Kate's big surprise, she didn't. She hugged Kate back just as tightly, letting the medical plain blanket fall to the ground, hitting the still wet from the earlier irrigating green grass, making no sound, joining the silently sorrow of her inexistent tears.
TBC
Note: Yeah, I forgot about McGee o0. How weird, because I actually like the guy.
Okay, obviously I'm not really good with this cop thingy. I always wrote more romance and such, never cared to play with the whole case. So yeah, this is my first. I'll try to be as real to the show as I can and not screw case details.
I'm working on chapter 2 already. It might be posted soon, or it might not. It will always depend on my free time and my muse and mood lol I have the whole thing in my head but putting it into words is always harder -sigh- and reviewing always helps too XD