Tony grinned, leaning onto Ziva's desk. "So, how many have you had, Ziva?" he asked.
McGee shook his head from across the room and Ziva grinned. "That is a competition I have no doubt that you will win Tony, and as odd as it may seem, McGee and I are not interested in hearing about the multitude of relationships have been involved in and how you can match every, single one to a movie!" The sentence ended harshly.
Tony grinned back and began to walk cockily around the bullpen. "Well you see now Ziva, that isn't exactly accurate. There was this one girl, Tanya-"
To the others immense relief, Gibbs chose that moment to walk in and grabbed his gear. "I don't want to hear it either DiNozzo." He threw the keys at his Senior Field Agent. "Gas the truck. We've got a rape and beating in Norfolk, possibly related to the Oden case. Let's roll."
As the team jogged after him to the elevator, Tony passed between Ziva and McGee. "I'll finish that story at a later date."
He ran faster into the elevator and behind Gibbs before Ziva could batter him.
She smiled slightly and stamped on his foot.
As the team clambered out of the truck, Tony was still complaining. "I didn't know your crazy ninja skills went so low as to step on my foot." he whined.
Ziva spun and stopped suddenly, punching a pressure point on his stomach, causing him to double over and wheeze. "Hardly one of my…crazy ninja skills." she whispered in his ear, laughing and stalking away.
Tony's eyes watered as he attempted to straighten up, mocking McGee's grin and trying not to think about what Gibbs would say if he had seen that situation unfold. By the time he had regained full bodily movement, the others were nearly at the door to the nice wooden house. The baby blue and white paint was very neat and the full garden had a heap of massive trees in the yard, one of which was the host of a really big and elaborately carved tree house. He ran up and pushed past Ziva to the front next to Gibbs, who pointedly ignored him, but seemed to like the woodwork.
Gibbs rapped on the door, holding his badge ready.
It opened to a woman in bright purple fisherman's pants and a green singlet. She was very pretty, with long, nutmeg hair and pretty blue eyes, currently haunted by a dark shadow. She seemed very nervous and jumpy, but held up. "Hello?" she asked.
Gibbs showed her his badge. "I'm Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS. These are agents Tony DiNozzo, Tim McGee and Officer Ziva David. You called about a raping."
The woman didn't respond. She was staring at space, seeming to be having trouble comprehending something. Gibbs looked back at his agents. McGee was looking about the same as the woman, somewhat torn between confusion and happiness. Tony looked worried. Only Ziva was behaving normally, and she exchanged raised eyebrows with Gibbs.
Tony spoke before his Boss could. "It wasn't you, was it Leigh?" The immense concern in his voice was clear.
Leigh snapped out of her zoned out state. "Um..yeah..no. No. It wasn't me. I'm not a marine Tony." she said, more exasperated than anything else.
At her words, the anxiety left Tony, and a small measure of it left McGee as well.
Gibbs just started to get frustrated.
At that stage, a man walked on scene. He had olive toned skin, black marine cut hair and dark brown eyes. He looked and sounded distinctly Spanish. "I'm sorry, this has been a bit of shock for my wife. Her name is Leigh, I'm her husband, Alejandro Rodriguez."
Gibbs took in his appearance. "Marine?" he asked. It sounded more like a statement, but the man answered anyway, pointedly ignoring both McGee and DiNozzo.
"Lance Corporal, sir." he replied.
Gibbs nodded. "Where's the marine I'm looking for?" he asked.
Alejandro nodded. "Right this way sir. We think she's in shock at the moment." he said, subconsciously putting a protective arm around his wife as he started to lead Gibbs further into the house.
Leigh broke away from his grasp and suddenly spun to face Gibbs. "Could you leave your team outside please?" she pleaded. Alejandro said nothing.
Gibbs nodded. It could pass for a request because too many people probably wouldn't be too good for the victim psychologically, but he didn't think that was the reason. It was something more.
Either way, he ordered his team to stay put and motioned for Alejandro and Leigh to lead on.
Gibbs looked around at the neat house. It would cost a fair bit of money on a private's salary. They were probably still paying off the mortgage.
A high pitched scream suddenly pierced the silence.
Alejandro leant down and kissed his wife on the cheek, whispering something in her ear and walking away, in the direction of the scream.
Gibbs smiled slightly. "You have kids?" he asked, although it was pretty obvious.
Leigh smiled as well. "Yeah. That was our baby boy, Jarred. He's only a couple of months old. We also have a seventeen year old boy that we haven't heard from in yonks, and tweeny twins. Do you have kids?"
Gibbs' smile faded. He saw Kelly in his mind… "No."
Leigh seemed to see through the harsh words, but left it at that, not wanting to bring uup painful memories.
Silence surrounded them to the living area.
On the white couch, a beautiful blonde haired, green eyed woman sat with a blanket around her shoulders. The blankness on her face said more than words could muster. Leigh went and sat beside her. "She arrived at the door at five this morning, naked and bloody and crying her heart out. She told me that someone had raped her, and she hasn't really moved since. I've been with her since she got here." she said.
Gibbs nodded, but didn't sit down. "I'll have to let my forensic scientist and medical examiner to look at her." he said.
Leigh nodded.
Gibbs moved close enough to Leigh to whisper. "We should continue this conversation out of her company." he 'suggested'.
Leigh nodded and called out. A second later, what Gibbs could only presume was her daughter arrived. "Imogen, this is Special Agent Gibbs. He's here to help Amber. Could you stay with her while I talk to him, please?" she asked.
Imogen nodded and came over silently, while Gibbs and Leigh walked out into the kitchen.
They both looked over at the girl sitting on the couch and her charge. "Her name's Amber Crawley. She's a Private First Class. Obviously, she must be on leave. We were best friends from primary school, all through elementary. She visits occasionally, but the kids don't know her all that well. She's a bit inappropriate." she began without prompting.
Gibbs asked the question with his eyes.
Leigh pursed her lips. "She's a bit of a slut." Seeing the disapproval on Gibbs face, she tried to elaborate. "She has reason to! Sort of. Well, it's not really a reason. I-"
Gibbs cut her off. "Where do my agents come into this?"
Leigh seemed grateful for the solid facts to talk about. "Ok, this is partly the reason I was talking about. Anyway, um, me and Alejandro are high school sweethearts, but Amber was with someone before even we got together. They were really steady for five years, but then, her guy broke it off. She was devastated. He was shunned. I stayed friends with him and her. She started cutting herself, getting really depressed, but I never told him. He was already hating himself for it too much. then Amber just sort of, went really slutty, got whoever she could, and that was everyone. I don't know, he was really depressed. He never should have broken it off." she babbled.
Gibbs raised his eyebrows. "One of my agents?" he asked.
Leigh nodded.
He sighed and nodded in comprehension. "DiNozzo." he stated.
Leigh looked taken aback and shook her head. "Tony? No way."
"It was Tim."