DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NCIS OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS!
COPS: THE NCIS EDITION
Ch. 3
They arrived at the scene to find the area already taped off by the LEOs. The detective in charge approached wary of the cameras and noticing Gibbs' eye roll chose to ignore them as well.
"What do you got for me?" Gibbs asked his notepad and pen ready.
"Lieutenant Kevin LaPage. Took quite a beating but eventually went down. Your M.E. showed up about five minutes ago. He'll surely be able to tell you more. Got two witnesses waiting with my partner."
Gibbs nodded as the other man spoke. "Thanks we'll take it from here," he slapped the notepad on his leg.
Looking across the scene he delegated the assignments. "DiNozzo bag and tag. Ziva shoot and sketch. McGee background and witness statements."
Tony examined the location of the body mired in the residual mud of a recent storm. "Uh, Boss?" he hesitated glancing at his shoes.
"Problem?" Gibbs asked as he walked to Ducky already preparing to pack his instruments.
"No. No problem," Tony muttered his reply under his breath, "Just a thousand dollar pair of shoes about to take a natural mud bath."
Gibbs smirked hearing his agent, but kept on walking.
Ziva hid a smirk of her own. Tony checked out her footwear and shook his head at her.
"What?" she asked suddenly defensive.
"Well, I don't know what you're laughing at. Unless you have a telescopic lens to get the shots Gibbs wants."
"Oh!" Ziva frowned wishing she had worn more sensible shoes, but they wouldn't have matched the cream colored outfit she picked.
Tim pushed past them chuckling glad he'd foregone dressing up after all. He stooped down to use his personally enhanced fingerprint scanner to bring up all the information on the lieutenant. It beeped but displayed no information. He tried a few more times before Gibbs barked, "Hey! What's the hold up?"
"I'm not sure," Tim answered nervously not wanting to admit to tampering with the equipment in case it was the cause of the malfunction. "It should be giving me the details faster."
"Why's that?" Gibbs stared at his young agent already knowing he'd tried to improve the hand held thingamajig.
"I just thought," McGee began to explain looking up at his boss.
Gibbs held up his hand, "I know." He tilted his head toward the witnesses indicating Tim should go, quickly. When he hesitated, the icy stare that normally would've frozen him in his spot got him moving posthaste.
Gibbs was about to ask Ducky about his preliminary findings when Ziva shrieked, "TONY!"
"What?" the senior field agent complained struggling not to lose his shoes as he worked his way carefully through the worst of the muck.
"You are getting mud all over me," she chastised him.
"I didn't ask you to walk so close to me," he said petulantly.
"HEY!" Gibbs yelled gaining their attention long enough to silently put an end to their bickering.
Stooping down Gibbs asked, "So Duck what do you have for me?"
"Besides my condolences?" the M.E. quipped.
Gibbs chuckled, "Yeah, besides that."
Ducky allowed his assistant to relay their findings. Thankfully Jimmy hadn't gotten wind of the news they were going to be on TV. But as he reported and saw the camera focusing on him he began to stutter and sweat to the point Gibbs sighed and look to his friend for help.
"Mr. Palmer," Ducky addressed the younger man.
"Yes, Dr. Mallard," he answered automatically to his mentor trying to look at him and not the camera.
The kind M.E. gave him a nod of confidence that Jimmy took to heart. He took a breath and started again. "Time of death was approximately two hours ago. The fatal blow will most likely be determined as the injury to the side of his head here," he pointed out the open wound above the left ear.
Gibbs gave him a nod and clapped him on the shoulder. He stood up watching Tony processing the less mucky grounds and Ziva finishing her pictures.
Tim finished his questions of the witnesses and released them. Getting a good look at his teammates he smirked but felt for them all the same. Only wanting to put their best foot forward they really had gone beyond what was sensible for their jobs.
He couldn't judge them knowing he'd tried to impress with his computer skills and could only hope whatever was wrong with his scanner could be repaired. He knew he could still get the information on his computer; it would just take more time than normal.
