Title: Dílis Go Bragh
Author: xxCabalinaxx
Fandom: NCIS
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize does not belong to me.
Summary: JenGibbs. "I asked you, Jethro, when we were in Paris, if you ever wanted children. You said no. That's why I left."
Author's Note: It hasn't been updated in a very long time, but this story has not been abandoned. I am in the process of slowly reediting all of my stories and working on new chapters. Also, a new link has been added in my profile with pictures that go along with this story. I think it helps to have visual aides so I like to provide them for readers as well.
NOVEMBER 2005
It was a quiet day. Or, at least it started that way.
Gibbs sat behind his desk, sipping from his coffee every now and then while surveying his team.
McGee was sitting at his desk, Ziva standing next to him looking over his shoulder at a report they were finishing up that was due to him within the next hour. They'd been working on it since they came in that morning. The case had been fairly simple. A petty officer dead because he couldn't pay back the drug money he owed and had ended up paying with his life. The case had taken too long to solve though in Gibbs' opinion. With a lack of evidence, they had not been able to arrest their murderer until one of his accomplices had slipped up during interrogation.
DiNozzo was playing a game on his computer, glancing in Gibbs' direction every now and then, trying to see if the grey haired agent had noticed. Of course he had noticed, but Gibbs would let the young Italian think he had him fooled for a few minutes longer; a minor reward for getting his report done early at some ungodly hour of the night.
The clock in the bottom right corner of his computer monitor blinked as the digits shifted to '13:00'. Gibbs tipped back in his chair and locked his fingers behind his head. Alright, enough was enough. This was getting boring now. They, mainly he, needed something to do. There was always something to do. Why, today or all days was there no case to-
"Yeah, Gibbs."
The other three members of the best team in the navy yard looked up from their various tasks. They waited as Gibbs scrawled something on a post-it note and nodded. Still listening to whoever was on the line, Gibbs pulled a set of keys from the drawer. As he clicked the phone shut the pieces of metal flew through the air. "DiNozzo, get the truck."
Tony caught the keys as he stood from his computer, slipping on his coat at the same time in one fluid motion. "Got it, Boss. Where we going?"
Gibbs glanced down at the post-it. "Oak Hill Stables. Dead petty officer was found on one of the trails."
The LEO's already had the driveway to the riding stable and a good portion of the area taped off when the NCIS truck pulled up. Gibbs drove the truck up the drive way, which was at least a quarter of a mile long, and parked it smack dab in the center of the parking lot. Stepping down out of the truck, Gibbs' eyes scanned the scene. The lot wasn't big and could only hold thirty cars or so at maximum capacity. And most of that space was taken up by the NCIS trucks and the multiple police cars.
The head agent and his team made their way over to the police chief in charge. "Agent Gibbs?" The former sniper nodded. The police officer stuck out his hand. "I'm Officer Landon Parker."
Gibbs eyed the outstretched hand and took a sip of his coffee. "What happened?"
The cop was clearly uncomfortable and a little out of his element dealing with Gibbs. "Umm, a girl was riding through of one the trails in the woods and found a dead man in the middle of the path."
"Where's the girl?"
"She's over there." Parker gestured to the general area of the massive barn. Gibbs wanted to smack the guy. If he caught one of his agents being that vague and just generally unhelpful when it came to something important about a crime scene, he would have chewed them out without hesitation. And most likely would have added a few head slaps for good measure.
Thankfully, Gibbs didn't have to search for the witness. There was a large pasture to the left side of the barn and perched on the top wooden rail was a teenage girl. She looked to be in her late teens; slender frame, dressed in a pair of jeans with black knee high boots, and a light blue sweater on top. Standing next to her was a decent sized dark brown horse with it's nose resting on the girl's shoulder.
Gibbs nodded absentmindedly at the police officer and left Ziva and McGee to deal with getting the LEO's off his crime scene. Gibbs smirked to himself and sipped at his coffee when Tony fell into step behind him as he walked over toward the girl.
The girl had been resting her head against the horse's nose and both of them looked up as Gibbs and Tony approached. The horse swung his head toward the agents and pinned his ears back against his skull. The girl reached out and grabbed hold of the bridle and pulled the horse's head toward her. "G, be nice." While she soothed the horse by running her fingers over his face, she lifted her gaze and met Gibbs' eyes head on. The senior field agent was shocked at the vibrancy of her green eyes. He'd seen those eyes before, he just couldn't place where.
Gibbs stopped about four feet from the girl and stood directly in front of her. Now that he was closer he took in the details that he hadn't been able to see before. She was slim, very slender. Not petite, she was probably around five feet, six inches tall. She had long, slightly wavy dark brown hair that she had pulled back into a low ponytail at the base of her neck. "You the one who found the body, I assume?"
The teenager shot Gibbs a somewhat dark look. "Found? No. Witnessed? Yes."
"What do you mean 'witnessed'?" Gibbs slowly asked, raising an eyebrow.
She slid down off the fence rail and leveled them with a blunt look. Gibbs had been right. She was five-six. "Like I would tell those LEO's anything. I told them enough to get you guys here."
Gibbs chuckled. "Smart kid." He let his blue eyes run over the girl and the horse. He had some basic horse knowledge, enough to identify the horse as a gelding, bay, and probably around seventeen hands tall. He was a bit on the lanky side, so he assumed the horse had at least some Thoroughbred blood in him. And the little bugger was giving Gibbs one hell of a dirty look. Those ears had come up a little, but Gibbs could still hear teeth grinding under the background noise.
Keeping one eye on the horse, Gibbs leant up against the fence next to the girl. "So, you got a name?"
"Yup."
Gibbs couldn't help but smile. The girl had spunk. "You want to tell me what it is?"
"Angela. And you're Agent Gibbs. He's Very Spcial Agent DiNozzo. And somewhere around here are Agent McGee and Officer David. Ducky and Palmer will get here eventually, but Palmer is really bad with maps so it might be a while." She kept her face tilted down ward and scuffed the tow of her riding boot in the dirt.
Gibbs and Tony shared a surprised look. "How do you know all that?" Tony asked.
"My mom works at NCIS. I know how things work. You guys are the MCRT. You get all the fun cases. A dead body at a horse stable qualifies under 'fun cases'."
Gibbs nodded slowly. Alright then. "So what really happened?"
Angela was quiet for a few minutes. She shifted from one foot to the other. It was hard for her to stand still anymore. She stared at Gibbs, then at Tony, at her surroundings, her horse, everything. It took a while for her to settle again. She barely put pressure on the leather reins in her hand and the gelding instantly stepped closer to her, lowering his head and letting her hold him close. "There's a path through the woods that leads to my house from here. Mom dropped me off early this morning on her way to work and I forgot my cell phone in my room. I was going to take Gunny for a hack through the woods and go home to get it then come back here until Mom came to pick me up after work."
She had started out strong, sounding almost detached from reality, but Angela's voice got softer as she moved further into her story. She buried her face in Gunny's mane and wrapped her arms around the gelding's neck. Gunny whuffed softly against her sweater.
Gibbs waited until Angela had gotten a hold of herself and lifted her head again. Her pale face was flushed and her eyes were rimmed with red. She wiped her face and looked up as Ducky's NCIS van pulled up next to it's match. The older medical examiner stepped down and looked around, confused at the lack of activity. Spotting Gibbs, Ducky walked over to the small group.
"Well Jethro, I know I am good, but not good enough to autopsy a body that does not exist." Ducky said.
"It does exist. It's just three miles into one of the thickest trails around." Angela told the ME.
"Three miles?" Tony asked as Ziva and McGee came up with Palmer. "Boss, we don't really have to walk that far do we?" The Italian agent looked imploringly at Gibbs.
Gibbs glared at Tony. "Yes, DiNozzo, we will if we have to walk so suck it up."
Angela brightened a bit and snickered at the look on Tony's face as he said, "But Boss, my shoes!"
"DiNozzo," Gibbs growled.
"Shutting up, Boss."
Angela smiled and laughed softly, but it quickly died when everyone turned to look at her.
"Who's she?" Ziva asked.
Angela pressed back against the fence and shifted so she was mostly behind Gunny. She seemed to shrink in on herself, causing Gibbs to frown slightly. "She's our witness. Angela, can you keep going and tell us what happened?"
Angela closed her eyes briefly and slowly nodded. "My instructor, Gail asked me to ride a few horses for her because they weren't going to be used in any lessons today. I got done with them and then went out with Gunny. We were at my house by twelve-thirty cause that was when I called Gail to let her know I had gotten to my house safely and was on my way back to Oak Hill. I took a different trail back. It's longer and has more straight patches. I wanted to do some galloping.
"Who's Gunny?" McGee asked.
Angela took hold of the Thoroughbred's bridle and swung her horse's head around. "Gunny." She introduced. "Also known as Dílis Go Bragh, 17.1 hand Thoroughbred gelding, nine years old, brought here at age three after retiring from racing 'cause he totally sucked ass at it."
She said it so matter of factly that they all had to crack a smile. "Keep going Ang. What happened next?"
Angela held her palm flat under Gunny's muzzle and the horse automatically started licking. She seemed to draw some comfort from his's rhythmic motion and continued on. "When we were galloping Gunny stumbled and almost went to his knees and I fell off. When I got up I saw three guys a ways off in the trees. They hadn't noticed me. It was two against one. The guy getting hit had a military uniform on.
"I was a little freaked out. I probably should have screamed or something, the trails are all on private property, but when one of the guys saw me and started coming toward me all I wanted to do was get out of there. I think he was drunk cause he wasn't walking straight and seemed like he was looking next to me instead of at me. The two guys said something that I couldn't hear and one pulled out a gun."
She closed her eyes and took in a couple deep breaths. She tried to picture it all in her mind, trying to relive the nightmare. "Six shots. I heard them try and shoot a couple more times but they were out of bullets. Dumbasses. I got back on Gunny and came back here. I told Gail what happened. That was a fun conversation. She called the cops. I went back out there with Casey and left him out there. Checked the uniform. Navy. The cops were pulling in when I got back. I told them it was a Navy uniform and they called you and here we are."
All members of the NCIS team were admittedly shocked. But none of them were surprised when Angela started to shake slightly and tears welled in her eyes.
It was Ducky who broke the silence. "Oh you poor dear." He maneuvered himself in between Gibbs and Angela and rested and gentle hand on her shoulder. Tony subtly pressed his hand against Gunny's chest and asked the horse to back up a few steps, giving the doctor some room. He gently slid the reins from Angela's hands and held them in his own.
"It must have been quite a shock to encounter something like that while on territory that you believe to be safe," Ducky said. "Were you hurt when you fell?"
Angela wiped at her eyes half-heartedly, looking over at Tony and Gunny. She was a little surprised the horse hadn't bit the agent. Gunny seemed to be just as surprised by that fact. He was just staring at Tony and sniffing at his jacket. "No, I'm fine," She finally answered to Ducky. "I landed on my shoulder and my side. I'll probably just be sore for a couple days. It's no big deal, I fall off all the time." There was a distinct hitch in her voice.
Ducky was not convinced but let the subject be for the time being. "Then my suggestion is that you go home and get some rest."
"Can you give us a number so we can call your parents?" Gibbs asked.
Angela shook her head. "Don't have a dad. And I already called my mom. She said she'd be here within an hour. I called her after the cops called NCIS."
"Boss," McGee started. "We've gotta go get the body. Those guys might come back."
Angela shook her head. "Casey's there. Don't worry about it." Angela wrapped her arms around herself, looking nervously in the direction of the driveway every few moments.
"Who is this 'Casey'?" Ziva asked.
A big, black SUV pulled up the driveway and stopped next to the NCIS trucks, sending dirt and gravel pieces flying. Angela let out a noise and shoved her body away from the fence, her green eyes locked firmly on the vehicle.
Tony looked worriedly from the person getting out of the back seat of the SUV, to Gibbs, and back. "Umm, Boss, what's the Director doing here?"
Angela took off running and practically slammed into the Director, wrapping her arms around the redhead's torso and holding on for dear life.
The team's shock level grew greatly when Jenny wrapped her own arms around the young brunette with just as much ferocity.
The two women stood there for a few minutes. Jenny pulled back slightly and looked down at Angela, smoothing the stray whisps of hair back from her face. No one could see or hear what they were saying, but eventually they broke apart further and started walking towards the group, Jenny's arm wrapped around Angela with the young teen's head resting against Jenny's shoulder.
Jenny pressed a light kiss to Angela's hair as they walked. She had been avoiding this day for six years and now that it was finally here, she felt like she was going to be sick. This was not how she wanted to reveal to Jethro the real reason why she left him long ago. But, there was no turning back now. "Well," Jenny started off. "I guess you guys have already met, but I'll do introductions anyway. Guys, this is my daughter Angela."
There was silence and Angela pressed closer against Jenny'side.
Finally Tony said, "When you said your mom worked at NCIS, I thought you meant as a desk work person or something. But the Director? Damn kid, you got some friends in high places."
Eveyone except Gibbs laughed and Angela broke away from her mother to throw her arms around Tony in a hug.