Chapter 1
"What do you have, DiNozzo?" Gibbs barked as he stormed back into the squad room, a fresh cup of steaming hot coffee in his hand. He took a sip, deliberately scalding his tongue.
"We got some DNA from the skin underneath the victim's fingernails, Abby is running it through the system as we speak. Ducky thinks he might have gotten sloppy or someone could've interrupted him, however, as of yet we don't have anything to link him to the other murders yet, save for his MO of course," DiNozzo answered, grabbing the remote control from his desk and pulling the photo of their latest victim up. They had chased the guy for almost three weeks but he'd always seemed to be one step ahead of them – until a fourth body had turned up the day before and they had finally gotten a lead.
"Ziva, could you get anything on the victim?"
She began rattling off the facts about the young woman but he only listened half-heartedly. Something was bugging him about this victim, a strange sense of familiarity. He stared at deadly pale skin and the freckles dusting the bridge of her nose as the Israeli changed the picture on the screen.
"He seemed to have been her boyfriend, there are a lot of photos with him that date about four months back, however, after that there's nothing on him. I guess they broke up. It's a long haul, but I think it would be worth bringing him in for questioning unless Abby finds something…," she trailed off. "Are you alright, Gibbs?"
He was still mesmerized by the picture on the screen, not so much by the man with their victim, but by the woman herself. Suddenly he could place his sense of déjà-vu. Her eyes were of a vibrant forest green, almost identical to the redhead's working away in her corner office one floor above them.
The special agent squared his shoulders and shook himself out of his state almost violently. "Yes, Ziva," he brushed her off brusquely. "I'm going to Abby's. You two look into her last days, find me anything unusual!"
He entered the lab just as one of her machines binged and Abby turned around to scamper over there to look at the results.
"Gibbs!" she exclaimed happily, almost running over to him. "I knew you were magic! Your powers brought you here in exactly the right moment, I just got the results back myself, I haven't even had the time to call you yet!"
"Abby, breathe," he ordered gruffly and handed her usual Caf!Pow over. She grabbed it gladly and took a long sip before she spun around and pulled a file up on her computer. "Gibbs, meet former Lieutenant Jonathan Lee, dishonorably discharged from the Navy in 2002. Ducky found his DNA under the victim's fingernails, there's a strong chance he's your guy." She began typing away on her keyboard until a map of the tristate area appeared on the screen. "It seems he lives not far away from Alexandria, I'll print out the address for you." The Goth smiled happily.
Gibbs nodded. "Good work, Abs." He leaned forward to kiss her cheek, then he turned to get his team and pick up this guy.
"DiNozzo, David, you go around the house, look if there is any other entrance. McGee, you'll come with me, we take the front," Gibbs instructed shortly before he watched how Tony and Ziva carefully get into position, then he forcefully knocked on the front door.
"Jonathan Lee, open the door!" He waited for a few seconds, then knocked again. "Federal Agents!" They heard an angry scream from within the house then he kicked in the door.
"NCIS, freeze! Jonathan Lee, you're under arrest for murder in four cases." Suddenly they saw a person sprinting down the stairs from the upper level, trying to get to the front door and flee. McGee and Gibbs sprinted after him, catching him on the porch and knocking him to the ground before he could so much as reach his car.
The younger agent slapped his cuffs around their suspect's wrists, roughly pulling him up again and reading him his Miranda rights. "Good work, McGee." Gibbs nodded in acknowledgement as they put him into the back of the van and headed back to the Navy Yard.
"Director?"
"Yes, Cynthia?" she asked, looking up from the file in front of her.
"Agent Gibbs and his team are back, they have a suspect in custody. I don't know how his lawyer found out about it already, but he just came up demanding to speak to his client," her secretary informed her.
Jenny sighed. "Send him in please, Cynthia."
The younger woman nodded and opened the door to a middle-aged man, maybe a few years older than she herself, clad fancily in a black suit with a bold tie. "Director Shepard, I am Winston Matheson, Mr. Lee's lawyer," he introduced himself as she reached out her hand for him to shake and then mentioned to the conference table.
She nodded and took the seat opposite him. "If you don't mind me asking, Mr. Matheson, how did you find out so quickly that my agents took your client into custody?"
"He called me as one of them banged on the door and yelled 'NCIS', that's when I got on my way here. But now I would really like to speak to him."
"I will take you down to our interrogation rooms personally," Jenny said trying to get on his good sight before Gibbs would do something to offend him. He got up and let her walk in front of him whilst she led him through their headquarters until they reached interrogation. She opened the door to the observation room and let him go in first, then she turned to the glass. What she saw almost made her throw a fit.
"We found your DNA under her nails," Gibbs snarled as he got up from his chair and violently placed a photo of victim number four in front of their suspect.
Lee took it into his hands and turned it over a few times before he put it back on the table. He shrugged his shoulders.
"You gonna say something?" The special agent prowled around the table as he suddenly slammed down his in front of their suspect. "What made you do it? Was it because they dishonorably discharged you? Or is it something deeper, some childhood trauma you never got over? Did mommy not have enough time for you?" he asked cynically.
"What is it with you, Agent Gibbs? Some kind of inferior complex?" Lee taunted him back. "Afraid you won't be able to protect that woman on your team?" he paused. "Or is there somebody else? Some looming mistake in your past," he guessed, watching the fire spark in his eyes.
"You bastard," Gibbs growled, pulling him forcefully out of his chair, images of Shannon and Kelly, of their bloody corpses playing in his mind. He pushed Lee up against the wall of the interrogation room, pressing his forearm against his throat. "You better tell me what you know and why you did, now, you hear me?" he whispered threateningly as the door was ripped open and Jenny stormed into the room.
"Special Agent Gibbs!" she screamed as Matheson as well as DiNozzo and McGee came into the room after her. "Unhand your suspect, now!"
He immediately took a step back and let their suspect fall to the floor as he turned to her, his blue eyes bright with fury. "Care to tell me what you're doing here, Jen?" he growled but she wasn't looking at him anymore.
"Mr. Matheson, I must apologize for Special Agent Gibbs' behavior," the redhead began but was interrupted as Lee picked himself up from the floor.
"I'm pressing charges! I'm gonna sue you, I'm gonna sue this whole goddamn agency!" he yelled, his face flushed with rage, but his eyes still cool and calculating.
"I would like to talk to my client now, Director Shepard," the lawyer answered, placing a special emphasis on her title as he glanced in Gibbs' direction. "I'll let you know what we'll decide," he said coolly.
Jenny looked defeated for a moment until Gibbs grabbed her arm to drag her out of interrogation, his glare murderous. She drew herself up to her full height, clearly battling the need to rip him a new one in front of his agents. "My office, now, Agent Gibbs!" she managed to press out between clenched teeth before she walked out of the room, Gibbs hot on her heels.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he snapped at her as soon as he'd slammed the door shut.
"What the hell was I thinking?" she repeated incredulously. "What were you thinking? It hasn't been a month since I last warned you off!" she screamed back. "This is a PR nightmare!"
"I don't care what it is," he gave back in the same volume. "He might get off just because you stormed in when you did!"
"His lawyer was standing behind the glass, if anything I saved you from an even more serious lawsuit!" She glared furiously glared at him. "And you should better care what we look like!"
"That's what you get for being a politician, Jen," he snarled. "You should've stayed a field agent, doing what you were good at!"
"Preferably under you, being your probie forever?" she bit back. "You just can't stand the fact that I'm your boss now," she accused him.
"I can't stand what you've become! The old Jen would've never kept me from putting a murderer behind bars, but you're too busy chatting up lawyers and senators to actually care!" he flung at her. "Morrow would've never done this!"
"Maybe because you never gave him a reason to! You've undermined my authority since I came back!" Jenny yelled at him.
He stared impassively at her for a few seconds. "I'm gonna get my confession now!" he announced, getting up.
"You're doing no such thing, Special Agent Gibbs. You'll go down to your desk and pray that they won't decide to press charges or I'm not sure what I'll do!"
Gibbs looked at her, his jaw set in a grim line before he stormed out of her office. She was acutely reminded of their argument a month ago that had ended pretty much like this one.
She buried her face in her hands. All of this wouldn't be so hard if she actually didn't know what she would do if they sued him, but alas, she knew. She'd always known – she'd break him out, because that's what she did, whether it was stealing a boat whilst they were undercover or covering for him again and again as director.
She felt like screaming but had to focus on not shedding the tears that slowly gathered in her eyes as she mentally took stock of their conversation. She'd always break him out, but it seemed he didn't even understand anymore that she'd always have his back.
First of all, thank you to everybody who left a review for the prologue, they are highly appreciated. Secondly, I am sorry that this chapter is so fragmented but I needed it to further set the scene for the actual plot of this story that really picks up at the end of this chapter/the beginning of the next. I hope you all still enjoy reading the story :)