A/N: I don't own NCIS, CSI, or any other known entity. This goes somewhat along with "It's Not My Time," but it's not required that you read it before you read this. Michael "Mike" Keppler is from CSI, and I don't own him. Ryan Sparks, however, is mine. This is just a quick one-shot, and I hope you guys enjoy this. It takes place in Philadelphia, before Tony joined NCIS (or Baltimore, for that matter), and centers mostly on Tony. Hopefully, this can sustain you all until I start posting "It's Not Over." ;) Enjoy, and please review. :D
Bones
His heart sank as the phone rang, signifying another early callout. He grunted a few responses, along with a few choice words, before finally rolling out of bed and getting up. He changed quickly, throwing on a button up shirt and slacks before strapping his badge and gun to his hip. He picked up his keys and cell phone, walking out of his bedroom as the first few fingers of dawn stretched in through the spaces between the blinds. He sighed heavily, walking out the front door after grabbing his wallet, determined for an early stop for tea.
He rolled up to the crime scene, ducking under the tape with his tea in his hand and turning to the uniformed officer, Jenkins. He was a young kid who probably had not been on the job that long and clearly had never seen a crime scene like this. Jenkins was leaning against a tree as far away from the scene as he could get while still doing his job, clutching his stomach.
"You okay, kid?" the older gentleman asked, looking at Jenkins.
"Yes, sir," the officer replied automatically.
"Trust me, kid. It gets to all of us our first time. And the gory ones are the worst."
"Yes sir."
Another officer strode over to them, smirking. "Hey, DiNozzo," he said.
"What's the deal, Roberts?" Tony replied, turning to the sergeant who had arrived.
"Jenks and I got the call out about a possible dead body. We rolled, found this." Roberts nodded his head toward the scene. "Secured the area, called you in, held the witnesses. You know, the normal deal."
"Yeah." Tony patted Jenkins' shoulder, walking with Roberts to the scene.
They looked at the body, a young man mutilated. The skin had been pulled back, but was still hanging on. The muscles were peeled away from the bones, but were hanging on underneath the skin.
Tony shook his head, sighing. "I hope to God this kid was dead when that happened," he said, looking over at Roberts.
"I hope so too," Roberts replied. "Anyway, I'm gonna take the kid outta here, if that's alright with you."
"That's fine. I'll wait for the CSIs and everything. There's enough of us that we'll be fine."
"Alright. See ya later, DiNozzo."
"Take it easy, Roberts. Tell Jenkins I'll check in with him later."
"Alright." Roberts walked away, heading toward the young officer leaning against the tree. As Tony watched them walk away, he saw his CSI walk up. Tony smirked.
"Hey, Keppler," Tony greeted as the man walked up. They briefly shook hands.
"DiNozzo," Mike replied.
"Listen, no more of that reverse forensic shit, huh?"
"Hey, it worked, so why are you complaining?"
Tony chuckled. "I'm gonna go talk to the witnesses. I'll let you know what I find out."
"Alright." Mike set to work as Tony walked away, heading over to the witnesses.
*~*~*~*
The next day, Mike and Tony were discussing the case at Tony's desk while the detective was working on some paperwork for some of the dozen other cases that littered Tony's area.
"So, we got a match on a set of fingerprints on the briefcase," Mike said.
"That's good," Tony said, looking up.
"Not really. It's a link to an unknown case in Pittsburgh."
"Great." Tony inwardly groaned, looking back at the work splayed out across his desk. "I take it they're bringing up the case file?"
"More like files," Mike corrected. "They've got a serial."
"Even better," Tony snorted.
Mike smirked in amusement. "You really do hate working with others."
Tony looked up. "You don't?"
Mike shook his head. "More heads, more ways to interpret, better chances of finding the killer."
"This from the guy who tried to use me as the victim."
"Again, DiNozzo, it worked. What's it matter?"
"It's just messed up, man."
Mike chuckled. "You just wait. One of these days, you'll realize I'm a genius."
Tony laughed. "Yeah, right."
Another man, plain clothes but business, walked up to the desk, carrying a file box. "Detective DiNozzo?" he asked.
"Yes?" Tony asked, standing. The man put the box down on the desk.
"Detective Ryan Sparks, Pittsburgh PD." He extended his hand, and Tony shook it.
"Tony. This is Michael Keppler, my partner from the Crime Scene Unit."
Ryan and Mike shook hands. "Ya'll pair up like that?" Ryan asked.
"I was his partner, but just transferred to CSU," Mike explained.
"They haven't assigned me a new partner," Tony replied.
"Can't say I blame them."
"Shut your pie hole. What do you guys have, Detective?"
"Just Ryan," he said. "Serial killer. My lab's sending up their findings, but I doubt they're going to be much help right now. We got about the same stuff as you. Just fingerprints on the murder weapon."
"Anything stand out?" Tony asked.
"Nothing really. The victims were all young men, no signs of sex, bodies peeled back to the bones while they were still alive."
"Always consistent?"
"Why don't you read the damn case files, Detective DiNozzo?"
"It's Tony, Ryan, and I'm not trying to ride your ass or anything. I'm just asking questions."
Ryan sighed, sitting against Tony's desk. "I'm sorry. I've had this case for a few weeks and I'm spinning my fucking wheels."
"We'll find something," Tony assured him. "Let's look at your evidence and our evidence, and we'll piece it together."
Ryan nodded, glancing over at Tony. "It's always been consistent," he said. "Knife's always been left at the scene, but even that's almost always been the same."
"Almost always?"
"The first time he used a different type of hunting knife."
"From home?"
"Maybe."
"Any unique trace?"
"No, and it's an untraceable knife. All the knives have been bought and paid for with cash. There's nothing unique about the victims."
"They're different people," Mike said. "Did they meet up somewhere common?"
"No," Ryan said.
"Meet anyone common?"
"No."
"Pass through somewhere common?"
"If they did, they paid cash, and it wasn't in Pittsburgh."
"Maybe it was somewhere else," Tony said. "With someone else. What were the guys doing before they died?"
"Two were at work, and the other was at home," Ryan said.
"Phone calls? Emails?"
"Nothing except each of them had an online friend, who used AOL instant messenger and a free email account."
"Untraceable."
"Maybe we could…" Mike began.
"If you say 'reverse forensics,' I will shoot you," Tony said.
"…try tracing the phone number they're hooking up with."
"DSL line that we can't find who it belongs to," Ryan said.
"Internet protocol address," Mike replied.
"What's that?"
"Always good to have a geek," Tony said, smirking as he turned back to one of Ryan's case files.
"Each internet access site is given a particular number," Mike explained, ignoring Tony. "You can track these numbers to find the location of where the person is sending the emails from. This'll give us a geographical profile to go on."
"You can do that?" Ryan asked.
"It's still somewhat new technology, but yeah. Give me a few hours."
"Better you than me," Tony said as Mike disappeared back to the lab. "Now, Ryan… let's grab some coffee while we look for something else…"
*~*~*~*
A few hours later, Tony and Ryan walked into Mike's lair, otherwise known as the lab. "You get something?" Tony asked.
Mike grinned. "All the emails from that account were sent from the same address," he said.
"I wish my people had thought of that," Ryan said.
"Hey, no one thinks about computers that much," Tony said. "Let's run this down and see what we get."
"I can't believe you could track it down from a Goddamn set of numbers."
"I never would've gotten it either," Tony said as he ushered Ryan out of the lab. "Thanks, Mike."
"No problem," Mike replied.
*~*~*~*
As the day wound down, their man was secured behind bars, after confessing to the two extremely pissed off detectives in interrogation. All that was left was to cross the T's, dot the I's, and let Mike run the fingerprint comparisons to prove they had their man.
"A Goddamn set of Goddamn numbers," Ryan muttered as the two detectives relaxed at Tony's desk. "Why the hell couldn't I have figured that sooner?"
"Because you'd have to know it exists," Tony replied. "Don't beat yourself up over it, Ryan."
"How many people could've been saved that torture if I had found it sooner?"
Tony sighed. "How long have you been doing this job?" he asked.
"About six months," Ryan replied, looking at Tony.
"A word of advice, then? Don't let these cases get to you. You'll know what to do next time. But if you let things like this tear you up every time they happen, you'll never survive in this game."
Ryan let out a deep breath, dropping his head back to his shoulders. "That's good advice," he said.
"That's what my partner told me when I first started working here," Tony replied with a gentle smile. "It's getting over the first one that's hard. It gets a lot easier with time. You'll be fine, though." He slid a business card out of its holder, scribbling a number down on it. "You need anything, even if it's a person to bounce stuff off of, you give me a call, okay?" Tony handed the business card to the other man. "Day or night."
"Thanks," Ryan replied, taking it.
Mike walked into the area, and Tony's head immediately turned to him. With a quick nod, Tony immediately smiled. "We got him," the detective explained. Ryan smiled wide.
"One more scumbag off the streets," he said.
"It was great working with you, Ryan," Tony said, standing and extending his hand.
"You too, Tony," Ryan replied.
"We'll hold him until you guys charge him."
"Fair enough."
"Take care, kid, and good luck."
"Thanks. You too, Tony."
"No problem."
*~*~*~*
A few torturous days were the basis for a friendship, and the longer distance part had ended when both of them were transferred to NCIS on the Navy Yard. Tony sat back against the cushions of Gibbs' couch, his thoughts reverting back to that week they had met. He had seen a nice, eager, young kid in Ryan Sparks that day.
It had sucked to see the eventual downfall.
Mel Grainger's phone call had snapped a small part of him that he had somewhat buried away. Hearing from her, Ryan's sister, that he had died… it was almost too much on his already fragile mind.
Ryan had gone down a dark path after a while, getting heavy into drugs and alcohol. Tony couldn't say that he completely blamed Ryan. A few years prior to his death, Ryan had gotten severely beaten on the job, and almost lost his life. After finally being cleared to come back to the agency, his entire team was killed in a car accident while he followed behind them.
It was something he could never quite recover from.
Tony sighed, closing his eyes. Philly felt like a lifetime ago, but he could still remember that case as clear as day. Remembered the haunted look on Ryan's face as he realized that there had been one stone he hadn't turned, and it ended up being the answer. Remembered what it was like to work with Mike.
Another man who had fallen.
Tony shook his head. Mike's demise was a year ago. Ryan's was last night. He never thought he'd be the one to live the longest of them all. He never thought Ryan would slide down the slope he did. And as he sat in the dimming light of the day, he knew that the best way to honor his friend's legacy was to not follow down that same path, no matter what.
The End.