A/N: Maybe it's just me, but that Port-to-Port killer storyline on NCIS kinda sucked, especially the resolution. I am also no fan of EJ Barrett. Blech. If they want another female around, bring back Abby Borin from the Coast Guard instead, or hey! Emily Prentiss! Thank you for the kind reviews and there will be Hotch in this storyline as well as the other BAU team members, but Hotch will figure in more prominently than they will. However, on the CM side, this is really more Emily's story. I am especially curious to hear from the NCIS fans to see if you feel I've gotten Team Gibbs right and from everyone on the story and interactions themselves. Please leave a review if you can. I'd love to hear the feedback.
The body was found in a dirty alley in Southeast DC. The surrounding neighborhood was filled with shuttered stores and the few that remained open had seen better days. A few pedestrians milled about, but more out of suspicion than curiosity. These were white strangers in their neighborhood. Even worse, white law enforcement strangers.
Emily stepped out of the car and looked around. While the NCIS agents were all in their regulation windbreakers and caps, she wore her Marc Jacobs black wool coat and Diane Von Furstenberg dark gray suit. Large Chanel sunglasses covered her eyes from the bright winter sun and if anyone had gotten close to her, would have smelled her pricey perfume and body lotion. In other words, she looked expensive and very out of place.
She trailed behind Gibbs as he walked over to where the local police had taped off the area. Gibbs paused and held the tape up for her to pass underneath. Emily gave him a small smile. That tiny interaction did not go unnoticed.
"He held the tape up for her," Tony squeaked out. "For a fed. Gibbs."
"Well, maybe he was just being a gentleman about it," McGee said doubtfully.
"This is Gibbs!" Tony shot back. "I don't think the word "gentleman" is in his vocabulary."
"I disagree," Ziva replied as she fiddled with her camera. "I have observed Gibbs acting very courtly to women in the past."
"If they were 80!" Tony exclaimed. He gestured in the direction Gibbs and Emily had taken. "Never to someone as young as that and never someone from another agency, especially the FBI. Not on the first day. Hell, first hour of meeting her."
"Maybe he just likes her," McGee ventured. "You said yourself you thought she was pretty."
"Even if Gibbs liked her, his idea of flirting is a series of grunts." Tony was working himself up in a fine lather, thrown by this side of Gibbs he hadn't seen before. "He's not…polite!"
"DiNozzo!"
"On your six, boss!" Tony threw Ziva and McGee another worried look and hurried forward.
McGee watched their teammate jog off and then turned to Ziva. "So, what do you think has gotten into Gibbs?"
The former Mossad agent shrugged her shoulders, not particularly interested in Gibbs sudden discovery of manners. "She is pretty. Maybe he is just flirting." She walked towards the alley, leaving a befuddled McGee.
Did Gibbs even know what flirting was? the young man wondered to himself.
In the shaded alleyway, her sunglasses were unnecessary. Emily pushed them back on top of her head, pulling most of her hair away from her face. Only a few bangs wisped against her forehead. Gibbs watched her from the corner of his eye, noticing the angles and curves of her features. Emily crouched down next to the body, careful to not disturb any evidence that might be there and frowned.
"What do you see?" Gibbs asked quietly. This will tell him how good of an agent she was or could be.
"Obviously he wasn't killed here," Emily murmured as she examined the body. "Not enough blood for the number of stab wounds." She tilted her head slightly to the side to look at the wounds from a different angle. "They appear to be delivered from a downward angle, or at least some of them were. The UNSUB is right-handed." She frowned and shook her head. "It's too staged, yet not in any way to demean the body or show remorse. He's staged it to make it appear as if the victim has fallen down here, but that's not what happened." She gestured to the blood stained poem and white rose that had flecks of blood on it. "There's almost a theatrical air to it all."
Gibbs nodded. She had hit on every point that had bothered him about each of the crime scenes. It had felt staged, but made to look like it wasn't. "Phony," he said.
"Very," Emily replied dryly as she craned her neck to read the poem:
"A rose, a rose, white and pure
Sitting still in a sea of light, soft and demure.
Betrayal and lies, it does not show.
My rose, my rose, I leave you to forever grow."
Emily grimaced. "And a lousy poet."
Gibbs smothered a smile, mentally adding another point in Emily's favor. The poem did stink, even Gibbs knew that.
"Were the poems found at the other scenes the same one?"
"No, but they were just as bad. And meaningless."
"Oh, but poetry can mean so much more to the actual poet, Jethro!"
Emily stood and turned around towards the jovial, accented voice she heard. She saw a short, older man wearing wire-rimmed glasses carrying a medical bag. He was followed by a younger man, also in glasses, carrying two more bags. The older man stopped before her.
"Hello, I don't think we've been introduced, my dear," he said with a smile.
"Dr. Donald Mallard, Medical Examiner meet SSA Emily Prentiss of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI," Gibbs said. "That other guy over there is Dr. Mallard's assistant, Jimmy Palmer."
"It is indeed a pleasure to meet you, my dear," Ducky said as he enthusiastically shook Emily's hand. "I myself have studied forensic profiling and would love the opportunity to talk to you about your work."
"Uh, of course, Dr. Mallard," Emily replied with a smile. Really, it was hard to resist him, he was so adorable.
"Ducky, my dear. Everyone calls me Ducky, especially my friends and I hope we will be friends."
Her smile grew into a grin and the men around her couldn't help but notice how it seemed to brighten up the dark alley. Her gaze shifted over to Palmer and she shook his hand, saying her name again. The young assistant looked nonplused for a moment, not used to people going out of their way to acknowledge him, but he grinned at the friendly woman's gesture and shook her hand.
Gibbs watched her as she interacted with his team and as she continued to examine the crime scene. He could already see that there wasn't going to be any new information from this crime scene, but he wanted her fresh eyes to look it over without being prejudiced by anything they had. That was why he had hustled her out here without even bothering to show her the casefiles. One, he wanted to see how good she was and two, Gibbs wasn't stupid and was willing to let someone who came at things from a different angle offer potential insights.
What he hadn't counted on was how seamlessly she seemed to slip into working with his team and himself. It had been less than two hours, but she had exhibited a comfort level with them, with him, that outsiders never seemed to find so quickly, if ever. And truth be told, he had found himself relaxing around her. There was definitely something about this woman that drew people in, including himself and made them feel…he wasn't sure. Warm? At ease? His famous gut was telling him that Emily Prentiss was something pretty special and he found himself intrigued.
"Time of death, between 10 pm and 3 am," Ducky announced as he removed the liver thermometer. "Timothy?"
McGee crouched down and used his portable fingerprint identifier. He picked up the victims hand and placed the index finger onto the pad of his machine. The fingerprint was scanned and it began to run through the military's databases. After a few minutes, a name popped up.
"Corporal Dennis Finch," McGree read aloud. "Based at Little Creek. He worked in the motor pool. A Sergeant Bailey was his CO. "
"DiNozzo, finish up here with David and McGee. Prentiss, you're with me." Gibbs wheeled around on his heel and headed back to the car, Emily following him with her own long strides.
"Little Creek?" she asked as she smoothly slid into the passenger side and clicked her seat beat securely.
Gibbs hid a small smile when he noticed how she had kept up with his quick pace. Even now, there were times where DiNozzo had to jog to catch up to him. McGee was constantly trotting in his wake and even Ziva hadn't completely mastered the Gibbs quick walk. Agent Prentiss had smoothly matched his gait practically stride for stride. "Yeah. I want to find out what Finch was doing here in Southeast DC." He pulled away from the curb, this time with less urgency and aggression than he had before.
Emily hid a small smile, noticing the slightly relaxed set of his shoulders. She knew Gibbs didn't completely accept her, but he didn't radiate as much hostility as he had before. She'll get through to him yet.
