Disclaimer: I can offer you cookies and we can all have a merry ol' time pretending I do own NCIS, okay? Sound like a plan?
I am completely surprised at how much buzz I have been getting about this story. Reviews/Alerts/Favorites, its all enough to make me continue writing, so if that's what you were going for, I applaud you!
I am going to try and make the beginning of each chapter a bit inside Ziva's head. So the questions are going to be ones she has asked herself and so on. Is that a dumb idea? Let me know what you think.
FIGHTING YOUR DEMONS
CHAPTER 2: Similarities.
~*~
Can you fight it; push through your worries and move on? Can you be stronger than you ever were when the time comes?
Her mind was on autopilot. She didn't notice Tony walking beside her all the way to the car, and she didn't notice the fact that he had actually let McGee drive. Questions rolled inside of her head, bouncing this way and that and she felt a headache forming in both her temples.
She had always been good at closing herself off from the world, but that would always bring her within the depths of her mind; a place that no longer seemed safe to her.
--
"McGee!" Tony shouted as soon as he stepped out of the truck. "This is why I never let you drive!"
McGee stared at him dumbly, obviously not getting his reasoning. "Why is that Tony?"
"Because!" He threw up his hands in exasperation. "Because you're Probie."
McGee shot him a lopsided grin. "Ah. I see. So you're saying that you don't like anyone else to drive but you?"
Tony glared at him, merely slamming the door once Ziva had finally emerged. He had been trying to get some sort of reaction out of Ziva. She usually chuckled at his remarks to McGee but today she showed no sign of having heard him.
McGee grabbed the bags from the back of the truck just as Gibbs pulled up in the car.
Gibbs quickly hopped out of the car after shutting off the engine. He immediately started towards the crime scene, which was sealed off by yellow tape and had Naval Officials milling about. "McGee, bag and tag. DiNozzo, sketch. Ziva, shoot." He rattled off as they ducked under the tape.
Ziva nodded pulling the camera out of the bag and walking towards the body. She sucked in a breath as she saw the girl. Her legs were crooked and her arms lay sprawled above her head. The right side of her face was swollen with a purple bruise and blood was matted in her hair, but the thing that shocked Ziva was her eyes. They were open wide, the brown eyes no longer shining; they held an innocence about them that reminded her of someone.
She shook herself from her thoughts and began to snap photos of the girl, trying to ignore the way her eyes seemed to haunt her.
"What do you got?" Gibbs asked a few minutes later as he walked up after talking to Lieutenant Dalton.
"Petty Officer Callie Steele." McGee said, handing Gibbs the bag that contained her I.D. "Age 19."
Tony spoke up, taking over; "It appears there was a struggle." He pointed to the turned up dirt around the body; his foot hovering over the ground.
Ducky showed up just as Ziva walked away from the body taking pictures of the surrounding area. "There are two sets of footprints. One looks to be about a woman's size 7 combat boots; and the second set is a slightly larger pair, the shoe seems to be some sort of running shoe, not navy issue." Her voice was low and lacked emotion. As she stated this she snapped photos placing the yellow "3" right over top of it.
Gibbs stared at her for a few second before turning to Ducky who had just removed the liver-probe. "T.O.D Duck?" He questioned.
"Around 0500h it would seem." Ducky softly tilted the woman's head to the side checking the bruise. "This bruise wasn't issued long before that. See the discoloration around the edges." He signaled to the outside of the bruise. "It was a rather hard blow; the bruising started immediately after it was given and it knocked her to the ground."
"Was that the cause of death?" Gibbs questioned quickly before Ducky could go into anything further.
"Ah, yes, cause of death." Ducky shifted his body peeling aside the woman's jacket. "This would be the cause of death." He revealed the wound in the Petty Officers abdomen, "But the blow to the head didn't help the matter." Ducky stared at the wound a moment longer. "It appears to be a knife that caused this." He mused to himself. "This reminds me of a time-"
"Duck." Gibbs stated abruptly, leveling the man with a hard gaze.
Ducky looked up at Gibbs for a moment before returning his attention to the body. "Jimmy get the gurney." He announced to his assistant as he stood up.
Gibbs rounded on his team; McGee was putting the evidence bags in the truck, Tony was staring at Ziva with a look Gibbs knew all to well, and Ziva was aimlessly wandering about, taking photos of things Gibbs had seen her take a few photos of already. "Ziva." Gibbs shouted at her, and she looked up at him shock on her face. "I want you to go interview him." He nodded toward a man who was standing not far from them; he had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a blank look on his face as he stared off into the distance.
Ziva nodded her head briefly before wandering towards the man.
"Boss, do you really think that's a good idea?" Tony questioned, staring at his partners back.
"Yeah, I do, Tony." Gibbs stated with a sure voice. "Because you're going with her."
Tony smiled at him; a brief lift of the corner of his lips before he took of after her.
--
"Lieutenant James Dalton?" Ziva questioned as she neared the man, she had gotten his name from one of the Naval Officials but she wanted to make sure.
"That's me." He nodded at her.
"Officer Ziva David, I just need to ask you a few questions." He nodded again. "But first, I need you to tell me what you saw."
Dalton sighed before answering. "I was walking around this morning, the sun hadn't fully come up yet, so it was still kind of dark. My vision isn't great to begin with and at some point I must have veered off the path because the next thing I know I stumbled across…" He stopped himself from finishing turning his head away from the body and from Ziva.
"Petty Officer Steele." Ziva supplied watching his reaction; he flinched but other than that he gave no recognition.
"She was already dead." He choked out. Ziva tilted her head to the side a bit but didn't say anything. "When I came across her, she wasn't breathing." He supplied as further explanation
"So you were just wandering around?" Ziva questioned changing the subject but storing the information for later, one eyebrow was raised at the man before her.
"Yeah. I just needed to clear my head." He stated, his eyes finally returning to her. Ziva typed something onto her handheld just as Tony walked up.
"Do you do that often?" Tony asked as he stopped.
"Yeah. Whenever things become overwhelming." Tony scrutinized the man, something felt off.
Ziva glared at Tony when he butted in but she quickly regained herself. "Was anything out of the ordinary this morning? Did you think anything was suspicious?"
"No." Dalton swallowed thickly. "Everything seemed fine."
"A girl is dead, Lieutenant." Tony spoke harshly. "I don't think that constitutes as fine.
Ziva elbowed him, but she didn't use any of the force she usually would. "How well did you know her, Dalton?" Ziva questioned as she watched him flinch again.
"Not very well. I had seen her around a few times but I never spoke to her more than a handful of times." He gazed at the ground. "She was a sweet girl." He admitted quietly.
Ziva couldn't stop herself from nodding, that had been her first thought upon looking at the girls body. Her wide eyes seemed to hold that innocent doe-eyed expression that Ziva had become accustomed to while she had grown up.
It was with those thoughts that Ziva realized how Callie Steele's eyes were hauntingly familiar. "Tali was a sweet girl." Ziva whispered quietly to herself as she realized that Callie and Tali had similar eyes.
Tony's gaze shot to his partner, concern apparent on his visage as he heard her soft spoken words. "Ziva?" He questioned softly, completely ignoring the guy they had been questioning. Just as he was about to reach out and grab her shoulders she seemed to shake herself out of whatever it was that was consuming her.
Ziva shivered slightly as she went on with her questioning; "Did you hear anything at all?"
"No, nothing." Dalton answered, his stare focused solely on her. "I wasn't really listening to anything though. I was lost in my thoughts."
Ziva nodded mutely before turning away. "I think we're done here."
Tony stared as she began to walk away, he wondered if she was aware that her feet were moving at all, she seemed so lost. "We'll be in contact." He announced to the Lieutenant before following after her; intent on telling Gibbs his suspicions about the man, and making sure Ziva was going to be okay.
~*~
I am not sure how I feel about the outcome of this chapter. I have to say I am not very good at describing things so I hope the crime scene/investigation will be up to par. I will get a bit better as I go on I hope.
HOLY CRAP. I did not even mean to make Callie and Tali rhyme. I made up Callie and all but I didn't even think about how it was going to be so similar to Tali. Heh. I guess my brain works quicker than I seem too. I started to write this Friday, and then I headed off to work, got home at eleven and watched some TV before attempting to sleep. Woke up Saturday morning, wrote a bit more of this, before going to work. I got off late again on Saturday but then I went over to a friends house so I didn't work on it again until Monday after work. So if it is choppy and doesn't make much sense I am sorry. My dang life keeps getting in the way. **Sigh**
Oh. And my friend and I made up an interesting scenario for an NCIS episode [we tend to do this with our favorite shows] it guest starred Ryan Reynolds; and it made me go into a giggle fit. ^^ If you would maybe like to hear about it let me know; I've been thinking about posting it on my LJ but I am not sure if I will.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter + my mini rant.
Love,
Rae.
