The end of the weekend found everyone in the bullpen much more bright-eyed and alert than usual- especially for a Monday morning. Ziva came in bearing coffee for her teammates, handing Tim his cup with a happy "good morning, McGee," and placing Tony's on his still-unoccupied desk.

"Thank you, Z."

"Of course. And how was your weekend?" she asked.

"Much needed," the junior agent admitted, taking a sip of his drink and feeling the caffeine get to work. He'd slept hard for pretty much the majority of the time they'd had off, and because of this he felt better than he had in a while.

"You do look better rested than usual," Ziva noted. "You have been looking tired recently."

McGee decided to politely ignore the digging that he knew she was trying to do, instead responding by holding up the coffee she'd just given him and saying, "this is definitely helping."

He appreciated her subtle concern, but even more than that, he appreciated the way she chose to investigate when she did feel some sort of concern for him. The former Mossad agent tailored her interrogation tactics to her friends just as well as she did for suspects; where she outright threatened Tony and followed him into the men's bathroom to get him to talk about his problems, she employed extra doses of kindness and subtlety to essentially trick Tim into such a confession. In all the time they'd known each other, McGee had gotten better at detecting these efforts, though he knew if she decided to make him talk, she could. And would.

Before Ziva could continue her line of questioning, DiNozzo stepped off the elevator, humming to himself as he did, bringing a wave of energy to the bullpen. He put down his bag behind his desk and picked up his coffee, turning to Tim with raised eyebrows, still humming. McGee answered by pointing to Ziva, and the senior agent finally stopped, and turned to his benefactor.

"Thank you very much," he smiled. "My turn tomorrow."

"You seem to be in a very good mood for a Monday, Tony," she responded. Tim, grateful that her interest had been taken off of him, rolled his desk chair away from his computer and faced DiNozzo.

"Well, I had a very good weekend," Tony said, tone still light.

"Better than Friday night?" Ziva asked. One corner of McGee's lips involuntarily quirked up and the junior agent turned back to his computer to hide it.

This remark finally caused the older man to stop and look back and forth between his friends. "Well I don't know about you, Zee-va," he began, drawing out her name to maintain his playful tone. "But I consider it the weekend the moment I get off work on Friday."

"Well it's Monday now," Gibbs interjected, walking through the bullpen, holding a new case file up for his agents to see.

"We got a case, Boss?" Tim asked, standing and grabbing his badge and gun.

"Dead CPO found in a park in Fairfax," Gibbs replied, grabbing his own things.

McGee sighed. A murder was usually the roughest type of case they dealt with, and it was never fun to have to investigate a death first thing Monday morning.

Tony looked out the windows at the still-cloudy sky as they walked to the elevators.

"At least it's not still raining."

…..

Thankfully, though the radar indicated that it was going to pour on and off for the entirety of the week, the weather held while the MCRT processed their crime scene.

Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a scene at all. There was only one individual to question, and that was the park ranger who had found the body. DiNozzo pulled out a notebook from the back of the crime van as Ziva, McGee, and Gibbs began sorting number cards and preparing to take photos.

The park ranger in question was a rather portly and genial older man who liked to talk. While talking to witnesses could sometimes be tiring, Tony liked questioning this particular type of individual; they gave information freely, didn't act suspicious, and tended to share lots of details.

"I saw the blood and the gunshot to his forehead and immediately called 911. I didn't touch anything except his shoe," the ranger added quickly. "His foot was in the creek and his shoe looked like it was about to come off and float away, so I moved it out of the water just a bit to save it."

"Great, thanks for that. So he was laying exactly like that, but with the other shoe on?" DiNozzo gestured to the body.

"Yeah. I've never seen a dead body before outside a funeral. I bet you get used to it in your line of work."

"Unfortunately, yeah."

"I just took this job a few years back to do something with myself after I retired. I didn't think I'd be finding someone shot. This is a nice park."

"How big is the park, exactly?" Tony asked.

"It's the biggest in Fairfax. 220 acres of land, and five different hiking trails. Lots of creeks, too."

"How many entrances are there to the park?"

"Just two. The road you came in by, past the first entrance? It's the main road, and if you keep following it you'll eventually get out through the park and leave from the other side."

"Ok. And remind me what time you found him?" DiNozzo inquired, still scribbling notes.

"The park opens at 7:30 AM every morning. Rangers get here at 6:30 and do rounds on the trails to make sure everything is good for hiking before folks get here. I was just starting my rounds, so…about 6:45?"

"What time does the park close?"

"At dusk almost every day, whenever that is. Hours are longer during this time of year, so usually we close around eight, but we close a couple hours early on Sundays, so we were closed by 6 yesterday evening."

The senior agent glanced through his notes and, satisfied, thanked the man.

"Honestly, I'm just glad I'm the one who found him. We get school groups here for field trips, you know?"

Tony nodded and handed him his business card. "Call us if you find anything else. We'll fax you for a signature on your witness statement in the next couple days."

The park ranger thanked him and headed off to see to the rest of his duties.

DiNozzo walked over to where his coworkers were combing the scene for any evidence.

"Park ranger found him around 6:45 and called the cops, who found his wallet and his military ID and called us," putting his notebook in his back pocket, Tony looked down at the body before asking. "We have a name for this guy?"

Ziva was holding the victim's wallet in her gloved hand and opened it to show the driver's license inside. "Chief Petty Officer Seamus Moore."

McGee snapped a picture of the body, which was lying at the edge of a small creek a few yards off of one of the park's longer, more remote hiking trails. The man's feet had been in the water, and because of it, the bottom of his pants and his shoes were completely soaked. Tim got another picture, this time of the lone shoe placed next to CPO Moore.

"Our witness moved that shoe because it was about to fall off and float away," Tony said.

"The water's higher because of the rain from the weekend," Gibbs added, staring out at the rocks in the creek and taking note of the moss lines on the rocks compared to where the water level was now.

Ziva looked at the victim's clothing. "His shirt is damp, but I think that is from the rain overnight, not water levels from the creek. The blood that is on his head is hardly washed away."

"No blood anywhere else nearby," McGee agreed, nodding. "If he died here within the past twenty four hours, it wouldn't have rained enough to wash away all the blood that comes from a head wound."

"We need Ducky to tell us when he died to be sure, but it would make sense then that he was dumped here after being killed somewhere else," Ziva concluded.

"Honestly, it would make even more sense if someone killed him and dumped him in the creek itself, to wash away any extra evidence," DiNozzo said.

"Luckily for us, it appears that isn't the case," Ducky called, carefully making his way off the path and over to the crime scene.

"I'm sorry we're late," Palmer added, carrying all of the M.E. supplies. "It was hard to get the van close enough."

"That's the other thing," Ziva began, examining the body's placement. "You cannot drive a car on this hiking path, and we are a ways away from the beginning of the trail. If someone killed Moore elsewhere, they would have had to drag or carry him over the trail. It seems like a lot of work."

McGee, having finished taking photos of the surrounding area, returned to watch Ducky and Palmer work. "Well there isn't much of anything around here to go from."

"Which is why Officer…"

"Moore."

"Moore, is going to have to tell us what happened himself," Doctor Mallard responded as Palmer took a liver probe.

"Time of death would be about…eighteen hours ago," the assistant M.E. concluded.

"I quite agree. Rigor mortis has not yet began to recede from this gentleman's muscles. Which means we will have to work together to turn him over, Mr. Palmer."

Jimmy spread a tarp out next to the victim so that they could turn him over without contaminating any possible evidence on the front of Moore's street clothes, which consisted of a simple dark t-shirt and a pair of light wash jeans.

"Oh my," the elderly M.E. said as he further examined their victim's head wound. Gibbs leaned over to see what evoked this remark.

"Close range shot," he concluded, to which Ducky nodded.

"The powder tattooing on his face indicated that much, but this exit wound confirms it."

"That's more evidence that he was dumped here," Tony suggested. "He's facing the creek. So unless someone was standing in the creek when they shot him, he wasn't facing the creek when he was shot. And we know that they couldn't have been in the creek-"

"Besides the obvious that no one murders someone while standing in water up to their ankles if they can't help it?" Tim quipped.

"Well yeah," DiNozzo rolled his eyes. "But the water is higher this weekend. If Moore were standing at the edge of the water when he was shot, then someone either had to come up behind and around him to shoot him, or walk across the creek and shoot him face to face. He would have seen someone come up around him from the side, and if the water was higher and rushing this weekend from the rain, no one would have been able to run across and take him by surprise from the front."

"All this means is that he was killed elsewhere and dumped here, which is what I said five minutes ago," Ziva reminded him.

The senior agent held up his hands. "Just ruling everything out."

"We still don't know why someone would carry him all this way up a trail just to dump him a few yards away where any hiker could see him," McGee pointed out. "Also, whoever it was left Moore's wallet, which means they wanted him to be identified."

"Or they're not an experienced killer and just didn't think to remove all possible evidence."

Gibbs turned to Tony. "Did the ranger say anything about cameras by the entrances?"

"There are only cameras outside the ranger station by the entrance."

"If someone drove through after the park was closed, they would have had to go past those cameras. DiNozzo, with me," the team leader said. "McGee and Ziva, help Ducky and Palmer load up and put the evidence in the van."

"We'll meet you back at the Navy Yard," Ziva nodded. Tim handed her the camera and the meager two evidence bags they'd acquired: one containing the victim's wallet, and one containing his single removed shoe. McGee then helped Palmer gently lift the body onto a stretcher and the two men carried CPO Moore towards the M.E. van.

…..

About an hour later, Tony and Gibbs reentered the bullpen, where the other two agents were hard at work. McGee was typing away on his computer and Ziva stood close by, examining the information that he was projecting onto the flatscreen.

"What've we got?"

"Ducky is working on the autopsy now. He said he'd call if he found anything. McGee was able to get more information on Moore," Ziva said.

"Moore worked on the USS Normandy," Tim informed his boss, pulling up records to display on the TV. "He'd been transferred there just a couple months ago after spending a while on the USS Reagan, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific."

"Why'd he transfer?" Tony asked.

"I spoke with his MCPO, and she said that Moore wanted to be closer to home full time. He called in some favors to be moved."

"Family?" Gibbs asked.

"Just one long-term girlfriend. The woman I spoke with didn't know her last name, but said that Moore had been living with her for the past few weeks until he could get a home on-base."

"Do we know the address or have any contact information for the girlfriend?"

"The Master Chief Petty Officer is getting the address for us."

After a pause, Tony asked. "Did we find a phone at the scene?"

"No phone and no keys," McGee said. "Did the ranger camera's tell us anything?"

"Someone must have interfered with the cameras last night, because they were out when we got to the station. The rangers were trying to get them back on."

"What time did the cameras go out?"

"They said their recording stopped around 6:30 yesterday."

"That's consistent. Moore was killed yesterday afternoon. The killer drives around, trying to figure out what to do with him, and goes to the park," Gibbs said.

"The main gates are closed at night and locked. But if you know how to pick a padlock you could probably get through. And the ranger station has a toll bar, but those are pretty easy to lift by hand if you really want to. The killer cuts some wires to make sure the camera doesn't nail them, and then they go to the trail furthest from the entrance and dump the body and run," Ziva finishes.

Tony opened his mouth to add more to this theory, when the agents were interrupted by McGee's phone ringing. He answered on the first ring and after a small amount of words were exchanged, he turned to his teammates. "Ducky wants to see us in autopsy."

"All of us?" DiNozzo asked, surprised. "He must have found something big."

This was further suggested by the fact that Palmer was not in the autopsy lab when the agents arrived; instead, Ducky was by himself, his expression inscrutable, which was in and of itself concerning and out of character for the usually cheery doctor.

"Something wrong, Duck?" Gibbs asked.

"I don't know about wrong or right, but to be quite honest, I'm not sure how to describe the situation," came the vague reply. Ducky turned to the body of CPO Moore, who was placed on his stomach with a sheet covering his back. The agents expected him to point out something around the grisly head wound, but instead, the sheet was pulled down to reveal two thin, identical scars resting on either side of the man's spine.

Chills went down McGee's neck, and he couldn't help but be acutely aware of the two scars on his own back.

Gibbs looked up at Ducky. "What did you tell Palmer?"

"I suggested they were from an old injury or surgery, perhaps on the lungs, although I had to pretend not to be sure. I'm not going to be the one to introduce him to that part of the world if I can help it."

Tim nodded absently, still silent, still staring at the body in front of him. It took him a few moments to become aware that everyone else was staring at him, at which point he cleared his throat.

"Well, I guess this opens up a lot of new questions," Tony supplied in an effort to take the attention off of his friend.

"Do we know of any hunters currently moving through the area?" Ziva asked.

"I don't deal with hunters anymore," Gibbs said. "I'll ask Fornell if he knows anyone who took credit for any recent killings."

"The director might know," Tony said, only half-joking, not hearing the doors to autopsy swoosh as they opened behind him. "I wouldn't put it past him to keep hunting even after everything that happened in the past year."

"Is that right, DiNozzo?"

"No sir it is not," the senior agent replied before awkwardly turning around to face Vance and greet him properly. "Director."

"For the record, I informally stopped hunting when I got married. And I officially stopped hunting when McGee was discovered to be alive," Vance said without prompting, nodding to Tim respectfully. The junior agent and Ducky, were the only two in the room who'd never hunted flightlings themselves, and even Ducky knew quite a bit about hunting, from assisting Gibbs in patching up many flightling-related wounds over the course of their friendship. Feeling everyone's discomfort, McGee decided to speak up.

"Listen, I know you guys just started hunting because you wanted to avenge me. Which I'll always be super grateful for in a weird way. And Boss….and Director….you've told me before that you only ever killed flightlings who were actively killing people. Those flightlings needed to be stopped. I'm okay with it. And I appreciate the fact that you all retired from hunting last year. But you don't have to be uncomfortable. I'm really not bothered by it. We need to talk about it if we're going to investigate this guy's death."

"You are a noble individual, Timothy," Ducky complimented as everyone's mood eased up. "Thank you. And thank you for coming down here, Director. I thought you might be interested to know about this."

"I am," Vance agreed. "So the question is, was Moore killed by a hunter? Or did the person who killed him even know he was a flightling? This might be a normal case where the victim just happens to be a flightling."

"Since his wings weren't out when he died, it is safer to say that he was not caught in the act of attacking humans at his time of death. Although unfortunately, because we can't see the color of his wings, I have no way of determining what kind of flightling Petty Officer Moore was."

McGee walked over to the table that held all of Moore's clothing. "This shirt doesn't have any cuts in the back, and he wasn't wearing a jacket. He probably wasn't intending on flying when he died."

Ducky turned to Jethro. "You are most likely going to have two lines of inquiry for this case: one in which this man was killed for being a flightling, and one in which he was killed for any other reason."

"The first motive has to stay secret, of course," Vance said. "Leave any flightling-related evidence off the autopsy report and your case reports. If you run into any walls because of it, I'll help cover you," he looked down at the body once more. "'Makes me wonder how many flightlings are a part of the military. It seems like a difficult thing to hide when you're living in close quarters and have to get physical exams on the regular."

When he was finished, Vance looked up at the agents and medical examiner. "I'll ask around with some old contacts as well. Let me know if you need help with anything."

Gibbs nodded. "Thanks, Leon."

After Vance left, Ducky turned back to the agents. "I've never done an autopsy on a flightling in my life. Luckily, Timothy has taught me quite a bit about flightling anatomy and medicine during the past year."

"I just appreciate you wanting to learn," McGee replied.

"I am listed as your proxy physician," Ducky said with a warm smile. "If I don't know all that I need to know to properly treat you in an emergency, what kind of a physician would I be? Although I admit I could always learn more."

"I don't know much outside of the Darwin book I gave you and my own experience," Tim said. "Victoria could tell you a little more, but she's not a doctor either."

"Ah yes," the good doctor nodded. "It is my understanding that she is in town now? I would love to meet her in person."

"I'll talk to her tonight and she if she can't help, or maybe find a flightling who is also a doctor to put you in touch with."

Gibbs checked his watch. "Alright. Ziva, see if you can't get someone from the Reagan who knew Moore on MTAC, and try and talk more to sailors from the Normandy. See if anyone would have a reason to kill him. DiNozzo and McGee, get the address to Moore's girlfriend and talk to her."

Tim followed Tony to the elevators, his mind buzzing with questions. As unfortunate as it was, part of him hoped that Moore was killed because of some personal conflict, and not because he was a flightling.

McGee had encountered many flightlings who had deserved to be stopped by hunters, just over a year before. But the fact that he wasn't sure whether Moore "deserved" to be hunted, or if he even was hunted, weighed heavy on his mind.

He wasn't sure why it bothered him so much this time.

…..

A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone for their lovely reviews thus far! You all have been very generous with your kindness and support. I love y'all. 3