Title: Out of Uniform

Rating: PG for now

Spoiler: Season One Shot One Kill

Author's Note : Sorry for the long delay. I can't promise I'll finish this soon(you know the grind-work,home,etc)and I'm actually gonna be extremely busy for the next 2 weeks at least. Also, I'm working on buying a lap top. The one I borrowed from hubby was over 12 years old and was on its last legs. I borrow hubby's other comp.-you think for a person who has two etsy stores, moderates 4 "tribes" on tribedotnet and has a blog that she would own her own flipping computer but no the rest of the family all have their own including ipods. Something wrong with that-but I digress- back to the story.

Thank you all for the reviews, alerts, favorites. I appreciate you taking the time to do it.

The elevator doors open on the floor of where Autopsy is. Gibbs is here to see if Dr. Mallard or more commonly known to Gibb's team as Ducky. Hoping to catch a break through Ducky's many years of experience.

Ducky had arrived over two and half hours ago and quickly started on the autopsy. Knowing his friend, Gibbs, was anxious to find out any new information that would push this case forward.

"Hey Ducky. Got anything for me?" The doors from autopsy slid back together as Gibbs walks towards Patterson's body.

"Good morning Jethro. Sorry I couldn't come in sooner but I needed to make sure Mother wasn't going to cook anything in the oven until I came back." Gibbs starts rolling his eyes knowing where this is going.

"She has a tendency to start a meal and forget about it. Which reminds me last week Mother..."

"Ah, Duck." An impatient Gibbs walks towards Ducky.

"Oh yes Jethro, you need results." Ducky puts down his clipboard and begins circling Patterson's body.

"I'm sure more than just you needs results." Gibbs stares at the Medical Examiner but Ducky ignores his companion and continues on.

"There were multiple deep puntures on his torso and back done by a serrated knife." Ducky points out the wounds with a gloved hand. He places a ruler in the punctures to show how deep the knife wounds are.

"The fatal blow was the first puncture to his heart, severing an artery. Death came within a very few minutes. Time of death was around 23:30 two days ago as I said the other night."

"Thanks Duck."

"Jethro, there's more."

"The person who did this must have known he was dead from all the blood loss but continued stabbing Patterson even after he died, randomly and visciously." Ducky points to the wounds.

"These were all post mortem inflictions." Ducky walks over to his wall of x-rays to show Gibbs his findings.

Walking next to him, Gibbs asks, "How many stab wounds?"

"37."

"I say it was personal." They both walk back to the body.

"Personnel yes but it seems this started with small cuts first to the legs and arms. Then deeper cuts closer to the torso."

"So this was torture too." Gibbs continues studying the lacerations.

"I would say so. I found rope burns around his wrist and ankles. Clearly , the pooling of blood at those areas shows that he was bounded with his hands above his head while tortured."

Gibbs lets out a small sigh of tension. This case gets worse by the minute.

"The crime scene where we last saw the Sgt. was the place they just dumped the body."

Taking a breath , Ducky continues on. "I've also found some powder on his hands and sent that up to Abby."

Ducky picks up his clipboard and lifts a sheet of paper up to look at the sheet underneath it.

"Anythings else you can tell me Duck?"

"Jethro, I also found bruises on his hands, face, arms and torso that are at least 24 to 48 hrs old from his time of death. It seems Gunnery Sgt. Patterson was in a fight before his murder."

"Thanks Duck."

"Good Luck Jethro."

Gibbs leaves autopsy while pulling out his ringing phone and looks to see who's calling-Abby.

Sorry so short but I will try(try being the word) to post another chp.(yes, its all written) tonight. Thanks again for reading.