Author's Note: Thanks again to all those who reviewed, but, sorry I don't have a chance to reply to everyone individually right now, gotta go cook some dinners. I will try to catch up tomorrow, but no promises...

But yeah, thank you so much!

Chapter 4

DiNozzo stared at the space where the – what had Sheppard called it? A Jumper? In any case, he stared at the space where the round, flying ship had disappeared, unable to quell even his inner geek, as small and timid and nearly dead as it was.

"Do you think I'll get a chance to fly one of those?" he asked, turning to the person nearest him. To his glee, it was McGee. "I mean, seeing as I could, if I had to."

McGee scowled at him, but it wasn't the probie who answered. "I'll tell you what, DiNozzo," Gibbs told him, coming up behind him. "Tell me what's going on here, and I'll see if I can talk Sheppard into it for you."

Ziva joined them with a smile. "You seem to be talking him into plenty as it is, Gibbs." She glanced at her team mates. "What do you want us to do now?"

Gibbs didn't even seem to think about it. "Ziva, help DiNozzo with questioning the marines who are still here." He didn't look around at the men staring over at them, wondering why the agents were still here. "McGee, you and me, we're back at the body. Dr… Biro is it?" The woman nodded, jumping slightly at being addressed. But she was the last remaining doctor, though she had one nurse with her as well. "We'll need you at the body before we can move it."

Watching his boss go with McGee and the doctor, DiNozzo grabbed the notepad from his pocket, where he had shoved it when Lorne had stormed off, hand at his holster. He had only been half way through interviewing the already angry major when the man had snapped, turned, drawn his gun and started shooting at the sergeant he had probably killed.

Hoping they didn't have another encounter like that, not without Sheppard here, DiNozzo took the lead in covering the ground to where the marines were still standing around, looking like lost, confused – but still all too menacing – pit bulls.

When they saw the two agents though, that seemed to change.

"What did you say to Major Lorne?" one marine demanded, striding forward, his face contorted into a snarl.

DiNozzo stopped, a perfectly normal response when confronted with a pissed off marine. Ziva stopped beside him, crossing her arms and mimicking Tony's glare.

"Nothing that would make him shoot someone," the agent snapped, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it should have been. He was not suicidal. "Can you think why he would shoot one of his own men, Corporal…"

He was searching for a name, and the marine knew it. Smirking, the man crossed his arms and refused to answer. Ziva's eyebrows rose, and it was obvious she was getting ready to dress him down. Sheppard's command or not, she was not about to let some smart ass American marine disrespect her.

One of the other marines saved his comrade. "He's Corporal Reilly, sir," the short, stocky marine answered, scowling at the mentioned man. "And there is no reason any of us could think of as to why Major Lorne would shoot Holt."

"And you are…" DiNozzo asked, deciding to keep the notepad closed unless he needed to really remember something. These guys were anxious enough as it was around them.

"Sergeant Farrell, sir."

DiNozzo nodded. "Did Holt and Lorne have any disagreements recently? Any arguments? Anything that could make Lorne snap?"

Farrell shook his head, denying it. A few others went so far as to shift angrily, disagreeing completely, it seemed. "No, sir," Farrell told him firmly.

DiNozzo nodded. "What about Lorne and Ranger?" he asked softly. Again, the sergeant firmly denied it.

"No sir. Everyone here… I mean, you have the odd argument. Of course you do, with so many people living and working together, breathing down each other's necks twenty-four-seven. But it would never go that far. Definitely not that far."

Reilly stepped forward again. "Major Lorne is a good man," he interrupted. "He didn't kill Ranger."

"But we all saw him shoot Holt," Ziva reminded him. "Not exactly the work of a man who is right in the head."

Reilly growled and stepped forward, but Farrell stopped him before he could take more than one step, shaking his head at the NCIS agents. "You're right, ma'am. Lorne can't be right in the head, not seeing as he did shoot Holt. But the major is a good man. If he shot Holt, there has to a very good reason. But I cannot believe he would kill Ranger."

Ziva nodded, knowing these men would not tell them any differently. She swept her gaze over the men behind Farrell and Reilly; a few shifted under her stare, and one refused to meet her eyes, but they held their ground, and held their friends' backs.

Catching Farrell's eye again, she shifted her own feet, drawing herself up. "Tell me about command under Colonel Sheppard, Sergeant."

They all seemed surprised at the question, standing up straight, losing some of that defensiveness. Even Tony was shocked, but he held his tongue for once, not allowing the marines to question the agents' own solidarity.

"What's that got to do with Ranger's death?" the sergeant asked cautiously, suspiciously. Ziva held his curious stare.

"Just answer the question."

Farrell took a moment to answer. "It's different," he admitted, shifting uneasily. "But he's a good commander. For Atlantis, he's a great commander. Just don't tell him I said so. The colonel pretends to have an ego the size of Texas," he added with a small grin.

Ziva didn't share the smile. "He always seemed far too laid back, too easy going to be in charge of something as important as Atlantis."

Tony only just stopped himself from groaning beside her. Reilly didn't hold himself back though, growling again, and glaring down at her. Even Farrell looked angry about the suggestion.

"No, ma'am," he told her in a hard voice. "He isn't. He keeps a tight rein, or at least, tight enough. Everyone knows their place on Atlantis." And by everyone she was sure he meant the soldiers. She very much doubted McKay understood where he sat in the great scheme of all things military. Farrell continued. "He trains us hard, but he trains us well. He might be easy going, but he's not as laid back as he likes to make out."

Ziva nodded again, backing down. "Thank you, sergeant. If there's anything else you need to tell us, please do."

She grabbed DiNozzo's arm and all but dragged him away. Only when they were out of ear and eye shot of the marines, did she let go. Tony halted instantly, his face incredulous.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" he demanded. "Those marines are obviously wired on something!"

"Exactly," Ziva told him calmly, knowing he would understand when she explained it. "At the moment they aren't acting like most marines I have met."

"Yeah," DiNozzo snorted, as if it were another of those most obvious things in the world. "One of their men is dead, and another's close to it."

"I know that!" she snapped. She wasn't an idiot. "But come on. This is an entirely different galaxy, Tony. These men are better trained than this. Sergeant Farrell was not angry, and disrespectful, like Corporal Reilly. I did not expect them to be any different from Farrell, under Sheppard, but I had to make sure."

"Why?" It was said with some snap, but at least DiNozzo was calming down as he began to understand.

"You heard what Sheppard said to Gibbs. About something being wrong here. I had to make sure he was not just being biased like most officers are about their men." She looked at the corner they had just rounded, as if she could see around it and watch the marines still there. "But I believe him now, when he says that something really is wrong here."

"There are more signs of a struggle over here."

Gibbs looked up from studying Ranger's body – or rather, from studying Dr Biro who was studying Ranger's body, and making notes – and glanced over at where McGee had been covering the entrance and the first few bunks.

Standing, he walked over, relieved that McGee had finally seen what Gibbs had noticed when he had walked in. It took years to become as good as he was, but the probie was well on his way.

It was just times like this that he wished McGee would be on his way a little faster.

McGee looked up as his boss came over, and pointed at the bunk nearest the door. The blanket on the bottom bed was dishevelled, a magazine tossed aside, laying carelessly on the floor and open at the centre. "I think someone was dragged off this bed in his downtime."

Gibbs thought it as well as McGee, but just nodded, letting the probie learn. Encouraged, Tim walked forward between the bunks, to the centre, picking up on even the smallest detail, stepping over the bloody footprints. "There was a bit of a fight, small enough not to attract any attention." From anyone with a loose bias, in any case. "One of them got knocked over into this bed."

He was over the other side of the room, before one of the bunks. He pointed to the floor, where a black scrape marked the white linoleum from a small, round indent in the floor to under the black stopper of the leg of the bunk bed. It had been moved, not far, but far enough to matter.

"Good," Gibbs acknowledged. "What happened next?"

McGee looked around. "I don't think it was a long fight," he admitted, looking over to where Ranger lay still on the floor, rigor well and truly set in. Dr Biro was hardly even looking at the body now, listening in on the two agents and their conversation. "This bed, and the one over there have been moved as well," he said, indicating the bed next to the one they stood at, and the one on the other side, two beds up. "So they fought at least a few more feet. The other marine got in the killing blow, Ranger fell, and bled out."

Gibbs nodded, agreeing with the theory. But there was one thing McGee had missed out on in his initial theorising. Walking back to the first bed, Timothy frowned. "So who does this bed belong to?"

Dr Biro had been listening with some interest. "Isn't it Corporal Ranger's?" she asked in a somewhat nasal tone. Gibbs swallowed a chuckle at the good doctor's predictability.

"Not every dead person is the person who was attacked, doctor," the older agent instructed the woman. He bent over the bed, looking through everything. McGee had already photographed everything, so he moved it aside, relying on memory and technology both. Carefully, but with some speed, he sorted through the belongings, looking for a name, for a second marine involved in this whole debacle.

"Aha," Gibbs drawled slowly, standing up straight when he found an envelope under the pillow. When he pulled it out, he skimmed over the words – at a distance – before handing it to McGee.

"A love letter," the younger man said out loud, sounding kind of surprised. "Dear Jimmy."

"Not Jimmy," Gibbs declared, holding out the envelope for McGee to see the addressee. "Sergeant James Holt. The man Major Lorne shot."

"Oh my God," Dr Biro exclaimed from where she was kneeling on the floor. Gibbs personally didn't think it was that far of a leap. Holt had to have something to do with this, unless Sheppard had really bad taste in second in commands.

McGee seemed to share his opinion, turning to the doctor. "Actually, we should have guessed. It had to be either Lorne or Holt, nothing else fits."

"What?" Dr Biro asked, looking up. It took the two agents a moment to realise she had turned back to her study of Ranger's body. "No, I wasn't talking about that, though it is strange, I mean, did Holt kill Ranger and Lorne knew, or did Lorne kill Ranger, and Holt -."

"We know, doctor," Gibbs interrupted before she could get carried away. She looked the type of person who let her words run away with her. "So what's got your back up?"

"What? Oh. I just took Ranger's temperature. It's extremely elevated."

Moving over to her, McGee frowned at his boss. "He only died an hour or so ago." Probably an hour and a half, Gibbs thought.

Biro gave him a disparaging look. "I'm aware of that, thank you, Agent McGee. But his temperature is at 101.2"

Even Gibbs' eyebrows rose. "He was running a fever?"

"That's my guess. But for it to be at that point now, imagine what his temperature was when he was alive. This was one sick boy."

"Is it catching?" McGee demanded, flinching as if to take a step back.

Dr Biro shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted, standing up. "But if it is, jumping about isn't going to help you any now."

The seat made a soft dull thud as Woolsey fell into it, his face pale and shocked. Even more so than it had been when Sheppard had requested that Gibbs and his team handled the investigation into Ranger's demise.

But then again, this was something else.

"Major Lorne what?"

Sheppard nodded tiredly as he sat down in one of the chairs opposite Atlantis' commander. The man had demanded an explanation for why one of the marines was bleeding to death, while the military's 2IC was in cuffs. Sheppard hadn't even had a chance to remove his vest, or his P90.

"The way things are looking," Sheppard continued. "Either Holt or Lorne killed Ranger, and then Lorne tried to kill Holt." And me. "But he isn't in his right mind. I know Lorne. I've known him for three and a half years now. There's no way he's a killer."

Woolsey shook his head. "But you said he tried to shoot you, Colonel Sheppard." Ever the man to point out the obvious at the wrong times. "In his right mind or not, it will be hard to deny he's not the person who killed Ranger. Even more so because he isn't apparently in his right mind."

Sheppard leaned forward. "I don't care. Something's going on there."

"How can you be so sure?" Woolsey demanded. "Killers hide amongst neighbours, friends, family, for years, without being detected."

"And what, Lorne just decides to snap now?" the colonel asked wryly. "No, there's more to it. Lorne wasn't acting like Lorne."

"What did Agent Gibbs have to say?" Woolsey asked, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes.

"Nothing, yet," Sheppard told him. "He's still at the alpha site, collecting evidence or whatever. Dr Biro's with him, and she'll autopsy Ranger's body when they bring it back here. I left Sergeant Roberts to watch over things."

There was silence for a moment, before Sheppard shook his head and stood. "I'm going to get out of this vest, and then when Gibbs gets back, we'll talk to Lorne. Do you want to be there when we do?"

Woolsey looked surprised that the colonel had offered. But he shook his head. "No. Just let me know the details when you've finished." His jaw tightened. "I want this sorted out as quickly as possible, Colonel. The last thing this base needs is a killing spree."

I'll try to post tomorrow night, but I've got school, then work, then soccer, then school, and then study, so we'll see. No promises on this but.