Disclaimer: same as Chapter 1.
Author's notes:
- A very angry Ziva here… Please check your accident insurance and wear a medieval armor before reading! xD
- "The Sword of Damocles" is an anecdote popularized by Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC): Damocles, obsequious courtier of Dionysius II of Syracuse, was offered by his king to trade their places. He eagerly sat on the throne but realized too late Dionysius had arranged for a sword to be hanged above his head by a single horse tail's hair. Damocles finally begged the king for his permission to vacate the throne. This anecdote became an expression of living under constant fear.
- Tony's age is based on actor Michael Weatherly's.
- Mike Tyson (b. June 30, 1966) is an American boxing champion.
- Syndactyly is a medical condition in where two digits or more are being fused together (from Wikipedia).
Chapter 48: A deflagration
Four days later, at NCIS…
"Okay, Ducky; we're here at your request, so tell us what's going on!"
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was showing off his usual arrogant, authoritative self to hide his unease: his gut was telling him that something was off and it would spell trouble for his team. Ducky had asked to meet him at the autopsy room with Tony after work but – and the Scotsman had been adamant about this – neither Ziva nor Abby were invited to come along. In fact, Ducky had practically begged Gibbs to not mention their meeting to the girls, otherwise they would all have to suffer "dreadful consequences"; their Team was already on the razor's edge and another scandal in the bullpen would sign their death warrant for sure – or worse, show them the door. Ducky had also said this situation called for discretion (ruling Abby out) and calm (thus, excluding Ziva) and he would hate himself for the remaining of his days if the young agents' careers were ruined simply because Gibbs made it one of his rules to follow the simplest instructions.
The silver-haired man had frowned at those words: he could count on the fingers of one hand the times he had been rebuked by Ducky, the most mild-mannered man in the world. He never seemed to be put-off by Gibbs' brusqueness – in fact, he would carry on telling stories about his past experiences as if nothing worthy of importance was happening, including the Team Leader's exasperation for results that were ten seconds late. If Ducky had asked for his complete discretion, then it was certainly for a serious matter: the elderly M.E. was not the kind to raise false alarms just for the fun of it.
Gibbs had then told Tony they both would stay at the bullpen to work on cold cases, in the hopes of reinstating the demoted Senior Agent in Vance's good graces. Tony had moaned a little at the thought of doing overtime, since he had a date with a woman met in a bar, but one cold glare had instantly stopped his whines. Ziva had offered her help but Gibbs had declined it, stating she was working hard enough and should not be involved in cleaning up Tony's messes. The ex-Mossad had narrowed her eyes a little at those words, but she had grabbed her backpack and left the bullpen without insisting. As for Abby, she had been too happy to flee home: Peterson had filed the paperwork for his complaint against her and the Lab Rat lived under a sword of Damocles, fearfully waiting for the fatal moment when the Director would summon her to his office. Consequently, Abby had decided to remain as quiet as possible, coming to work before everybody and leaving once the coast was clear. Even though she was certain Gibbs would get her off the hook, it was strategically wise to keep a low profile until the whole matter would be sorted or, even better, swept under the carpet like it had been done with her previous shenanigans.
Gibbs and Tony had gone down to Autopsy the minute after Ziva and Abby had left the building; but Ducky was not the only one waiting for them: Jimmy Palmer was also present, as well as a young man seated on Ducky's chair. Jimmy was standing next to the stranger and he looked positively furious, his eyes flashing in anger behind his glasses and that was an unnerving sight: the Gremlin was not known for having an aggressive nature.
"Would it kill you to say 'hello' to Doctor Mallard, Agent Gibbs?"
"Now, now, Mister Palmer!" interfered Ducky. "I'm in charge of this meeting and I don't want it to end before we can even start, so please keep your eloquent vehemence under control."
"Yeah, why don't you get lost and hide in Ducky's office, Palmer?" asked Tony, annoyed at this criticism towards his mentor.
"Not this time, DiNozzo, and it's useless to glare at me, Agent Gibbs. I'm here at Doctor Mallard's request and nothing will make me budge from this spot!" answered the assistant, one of his hands resting on the unknown man's shoulder. Tony thought Jimmy looked like he was ready to defend his mysterious guest at all costs and, in other circumstances, it would have been comical. As if a Gremlin could stand against two seasoned federal agents!
"Jethro, Anthony, please take a seat. I trust you haven't mentioned our meeting to Ziva or Abigail?"
"No, I've made sure they went home before we came," answered Gibbs while sitting down on a stool. Tony chose to sit nonchalantly on one of the metallic slabs usually reserved to corpses. "So, let's cut the chit-chat and tell me what's going on, Ducky."
"For a starter, tell us who this guy is!" said Tony with a move of his chin towards the man seated close to Jimmy: his face looked vaguely familiar but the Senior Agent could not recall his name. "I ain't keen on talking business in front of strangers."
Ducky and Jimmy exchanged a knowing look, and then the elderly M.E. answered with an unusual amount of steel in his voice: "This young man's name, Anthony, is Samuel Wilson and he has been working here at NCIS for the past four years. To be precise, Samuel is a computer technician and he has been specifically assigned to supervise audio and video communications at MTAC."
Tony paled a bit at those words, and he took a better look at Sam. The feeling of déjà vu increased and then his eyes widened as he recognized the scrawny 'geek' he had roughened up a bit when he had invaded MTAC to talk with McGee through a screen. What on Earth was he doing here, did he want to complain about him? No, he would not dare! The guy was a weakling and he would not have the balls to speak against a Senior field Agent.
"I see you have recognized our guest, Anthony, although I am surprised you haven't identified him the second you've stepped inside this room."
"It's probably due to the fact MTAC is under constant dim light for a better resolution of the images on the screens," said Sam.
"And also, because DiNozzo would think it below him to remember the face and name of a 'geek'," added Jimmy venomously. "After all, it took him ages to remember mine!"
"Mister Palmer..."
"Will we ever get started? What's all this about, Ducky?" barked Gibbs.
"I am coming to it, Jethro, if you would have the politeness to let me talk!" answered the older man firmly. "I am not one of those suspects you drag in interrogation rooms to wipe your feet clean on; nobody, not even you, walks over me. Now, as I was saying, young Samuel here works at MTAC and a disagreeable incident happened a few weeks ago. According to Samuel, he has been forced to give Anthony access to MTAC, regardless of Director Vance's strict orders that no member of Team Gibbs was allowed to be in contact with Timothy for the duration of his mission abroad."
Gibbs instantly jumped on his feet; one look at Tony's guilty face confirmed him that Wilson was telling the truth. Growling at his Senior Agent, he asked with a harsh tone:
"You deliberately ignored Vance's orders? Are you crazy? You're under probation for the next four months and yet, you keep on acting the fool right under the Director's nose. Talk about begging to be fired!"
"C'mon, Boss! It's no big deal..."
TWACK!
"OUCH!"
"Of all the stupid things! Good grief! As if I don't have enough on my plate with Abby's childish attitude and Peterson's complain, now I also have to deal with your stupidity! But whatever possessed you to go behind my back and act so rashly?"
"To answer your question, Jethro, it would be best to let Samuel tell his story," said Ducky.
Sam looked very uncomfortable, but Jimmy's hand on his shoulder grounded him and he knew he could count on his support, as well as Doctor Mallard's; the affable old man had been outraged after hearing Sam's revelations about what had happened at MTAC, right after his return from the New York conference. Doctor Mallard had a long experience of military expeditions in foreign countries and he knew too well the damages inflicted on soldiers' mental health by bad news from home: fearing that McGee would become discouraged and suffer from a consequent lack of concentration – with fatal consequences while evolving in a war zone – the M.E. had encouraged Sam to confront DiNozzo, regardless of Gibbs' reputation for ferociously defending the ones he considered his favorites. Doctor Mallard had guaranteed his full protection and that had decided Sam to come clean. Ducky may be old but he was still a formidable adversary and no one, not even Gibbs, could overlook this fact.
"Director Vance ordered me to take a break while he was on line so I went to fetch some coffee," said Sam. "After a moment, he told me I could go back to work so I got the door opened and right after that, I was jumped at and roughly shoved inside the MTAC room by Agent DiNozzo."
"Oh, the poor sweet baby! Aren't we fussy, fussy, fussy?" said Tony with a mocking tone.
"Keep quiet, Anthony!" shot Ducky back. "Your usual negligence towards other people won't save you from trouble."
"C'mon, Ducky, it wasn't even a shove! I just pushed him inside because I wanted to talk to McGee and since Vance wouldn't allow me to do so, I cut a few corners to get a connection."
"You've assaulted a fellow employee, Anthony; one of your own colleagues. According to the NCIS book of rules and regulations, that's a First-Rate offence!"
"Are you kidding me? He can hardly be called a colleague; he's barely a geek!"
TWACK!
"Talk to me, Wilson," said Gibbs with an icy voice, while Tony was rubbing his skull in the earnest while stars were flashing beneath his eyelids, closed tightly against the pain.
"The communication with Agent McGee was still running, and Agent DiNozzo seized the opportunity to talk with him... or, should I say, to taunt him. Firstly, by making comments on his appearance; secondly, by stating that the other team members didn't miss Agent McGee and they didn't need a computer tech for their investigations - conveniently omitting the fact that Team Gibbs has been assigned to filing cold cases since Agent McGee has left for Afghanistan. Thirdly, Agent DiNozzo affirmed that Miss Sciuto was back at her lab and having a blast whereas, at the time, she had her suspension prolonged for six weeks by Director Vance. And, last but not the least, Agent DiNozzo boasted about he and Agent David being involved in a romantic relationship."
The sound of a pin dropping on the autopsy room's floor could have been heard after this painful confession: Gibbs was agape; Ducky was frowning disapprovingly in the general direction of Tony; Sam looked the Senior Agent straight in the eyes, as if he dared him to contradict him but Tony was too busy with his hurting skull to notice; Jimmy, his hand still on Sam's shoulder, looked positively furious and only the fact he had given his word to Doctor Mallard that he would keep his anger under control stopped him from giving Tony a piece of his mind.
"You... You told McGee you were dating Ziva? Are you nuts?" asked an appalled Gibbs.
"Yeah, especially since it is common knowledge that David would rather eat garbage than date you, DiNozzo!" interfered Jimmy.
"It seems to me your illegal 'conversation' with Timothy has been nothing but a long string of lies, Anthony. Perhaps you could grace us with an explanation for your behavior?" said Ducky with a no-nonsense look on his face, as if he was admonishing a troublemaking student in a lecture hall.
Tony was starting to feel very ill at ease, and it was not from the two head-slaps he had received in less than a minute. Gibbs was glaring at him with the intensity he usually reserved for child-molesters and this time, Tony knew he could not count on Ducky's support to take the heat out of the situation. The Senior Agent was also starting to feel resentful towards Sam the whistleblower: if he had kept his mouth shut, like he ordered him to do so, all this mess would have been avoided and no-one would have been the wiser! But no, he had to open his yap-trap and, considering Jimmy's hostile attitude, Sam had probably confessed to the Autopsy Gremlin in the first place, who in turn had ratted him to Ducky. A nice display of solidarity between geeks!
"Well, Anthony? Can you explain why you told such blatant lies to Timothy?"
Tony shrugged; to tell the truth, he did not exactly know what had prompted him to jump at Sam and force his entry in the MTAC room. A lying part of his brains wanted to convince him that he had been genuinely concerned about his absent partner; a larger part, filled with ego, was telling he wanted to see for himself if McGee was truly faring well in Afghanistan since it was notorious that only he, Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, had the qualifications for missions in war zones. A third part, very tiny but much more truthful than the others, was whispering that Tony had felt instant jealousy at the sight of a healthy, happy Tim on a MTAC screen; unable to cope with his colleague's success, Tony had hurled lies in the vain hope to diminish Tim's accomplishments and he had almost failed, until he had pretended to be Ziva's man. A light had been extinguished in Tim's eyes, and yet the young man had refused to take the bait, just muttering a few words of politeness before switching off the communication.
"I dunno... I was just teasing."
"TEASING?!" repeated four incredulous voices in unison.
"Well, yeah... I do it to Probie all the time, ya know? And just because he's away in Afghanistan, it doesn't mean I have to stop, right?"
Gibbs looked like he was going to punch his agent square on the face but after a long, shuddering sigh he opted for running his hands on his face in an attempt to clear his mind. The situation was grave, dangerous and utterly stupid, but not desperate yet; no-one apart from five men knew about Tony's lies to McGee, meaning there was still a change to correct the situation before it would reach Vance's ears or, worst of all, Ziva's. Sam seemed to be a reasonable man and, with a little luck, he could be persuaded to give them access to MTAC without the Director's knowledge – like sneaking in the room as soon as Vance would be finished with his weekly meeting with Tim. Then, Gibbs would drag Tony in front of the screens and force him to confess his lies to McGee. His youngest would be very cross at this revelation, but at least he would not do anything reckless to show Tony that he was as much a man as the Senior Agent pretended to be.
Out of the blue, Sarah's words jumped inside the Team Leader's mind: "There goes another brilliant example of your teaching, Agent Gibbs!".
Holy God, she had been right on all accounts! Gibbs had overlooked Tony's mean teasing for years as long as it did not interfere with the solving of cases but he would have never imagined, not even in a thousand years, that his adopted son would push the harassment to the point of deliberately lying to an endangered colleague, just to make sure he would remain the unchallenged 'star' of NCIS. Gibbs had noticed years ago that Tony had a pathological fear of being left behind: a character trait he had acquired in his childhood, after his unreliable father had forgotten him in motel rooms several times, just to be free to court the ladies. Tony had explained this after several persons had reproached him his attention-seeking, his relentless teasing of McGee and his tendency to take all the credit for other people's work; however, the Senior Agent was not a child anymore: he was forty-two years old and it was high time he changed his attitude!
"You really thought we'd swallow such a lame explanation as that? You're pitiful, DiNozzo," said Jimmy.
"Now, look here, Gremlin..."
"It's Doctor Palmer to you! And I don't buy it for a minute that you lied to McGee just because you were in full pseudo-Big Brother mood and wanted to tease him. Sam told me in full details how you criticized his appearance, denigrated his work in Afghanistan before saying that you and David were an item. You lied to McGee simply because you're jealous of him, and that's no fresh news; in fact, you've been resenting him since the day he had the misfortune to be recruited by Gibbs. Little did McGee know, at the time, that he would be working for a team of brain-haters!"
"Mister Palmer, this is enough. I am certain Anthony has finally realized the errors of his ways."
"I doubt that very much, Doctor Mallard! DiNozzo is Gibbs' favorite, just like Abby, and thus he will never acknowledge his wrongs... Especially not to McGee! Otherwise, it could ruin his 'cool' image and nothing matters to him more than this Superman image he's parading around NCIS. Very Special Agent Tony 'DiNavel' is indeed Gibbs' true heir... The Super-Alpha-Males, the Rough and Tough, the Hard Nuts who always get away with it and never forget to leave apologies to wusses like Tim or me. By the way, do you know how the guys at Cyber-Crimes spell your name, Agent Gibbs? They do it this way: "G" is for Galling, "I" is for Inconsiderate, "double B" is for Double Bastard and "S" is for Selfish!"
"Mister Palmer!" exclaimed Ducky, surprised at this explosion of anger.
"Sorry, Doctor Mallard, but I had to get this off my chest. It wasn't bad enough that Agent Gibbs' callous attitude had driven Tim away from the States; no, Agent DiNozzo had to discourage him from afar, as well!"
"Get out of here, Palmer!" roared Gibbs, but Jimmy did not flinch.
"No, I won't. I only obey to Doctor Mallard and, considering yours and your golden boy's past actions, I'll never be scared of you again. Respect is earned, Agent Gibbs, and you cannot obtain it by terrorizing other people. You should have learned this truism a long time ago, instead of pretending to be above reproach because of your Marine training."
Silence fell on like a cloak made of lead. Tony's unease was increasing by the minute: if geeks like Jimmy or Sam were no longer afraid of Gibbs, then his protection won't be enough to spare the Senior Agent from an explosion of anger coming from Volcano Vance. Ducky sighed heavily; this kind of conflict was aging him and he could ill afford to waste the few years he had left to live! Sam was squirming on his seat, secretly wishing they could reach an agreement so they could all go home and Jimmy shared the same feeling in spite of his anger. Breena was waiting for him and he had better things to do than to stay in the unwanted company of Gibbs and DiNozzo.
"Look, Jethro, this meeting was not set up in secret for us to throw loud accusations at each other's face," said Ducky in a placating tone. "What matters right now is Timothy's well-being and the unique way we have at our disposal to rectify the situation is to talk to him via MTAC. Maybe Samuel will agree to grant us a short amount of communication time in all discretion, provided he will receive a full apology from Anthony for his blatant disregard towards the NCIS rules concerning working relationships between colleagues?"
"What? No way in Hell will I..."
TWACK.
"You're right, Ducky. We have to keep this silly matter between ourselves and Sam here is the only one who can help us out; the main thing is, we have to keep Ziva and Abby in the dark. Ziva simply cannot know about Tony lying about a so-called relationship! Otherwise, even I won't be able to control her reactions and her Mossad training can do some terrible damages. And Abby won't be able to control that waggling tongue of hers: sooner or later, she will let the information slip and here again, Ziva would go on a murdering rampage and it would spell the end of our team. Ziva must not hear a word about Tony's lies, are we all clear?"
"But what if she already knew?" asked a feminine voice behind Gibbs' back.
The five men gasped in a same voice: Special Agent Ziva David was standing on the threshold, her lovely face carved in granite and her eyes flashing like twin obsidian stones.
"What if she had heard every word you've said for the past ten minutes?" asked Ziva in a low, dangerous voice. Tony stopped rubbing at his head as he noticed the heavy-looking stapler and the large paperclips his colleague was holding in her hands.
"And what if she was so angry that she would be past the point of hearing her boss' orders, or anybody else's for that matter?"
Jimmy and Sam yelped in fear.
"David, no! Listen to me!" roared Gibbs. "Ziva! ZIVAAAAAAA!"
A tornado later...
"Great, just great!" grumbled Jimmy as he was unsuccessfully trying to pry the stapler out of the still-fuming and broken computer screen. "That was the last thing this autopsy room needed: being completely trashed by a pissed off Mossad assassin!"
"She has a good aim, though; otherwise, we would all have ended up dead!" said Sam while taking off a scalpel that had been thrown in a wall. The sharp blade had been twisted by the impact and was completely useless for any kind of post-mortem work.
"Gentlemen, please!" said Ducky, lifting his eyes from his patient. "Could you not waste time in tidying up things here a bit?"
"Sorry, Doctor Mallard, but Agent David has made such a mess... It will take us hours to clean this up and I'm not sure we'll be finished before the next morning shift."
Ducky sighed as he tabbed some cotton saturated with antiseptic on Tony's cut eyebrow. It was his smallest wound but the Senior Agent groaned as if he was being flayed alive.
"Take it easy, Ducky! I don't want my looks to be ruined by scars. How will I chat up the ladies?"
"Your looks should be the last of your worries, Anthony," answered the M.E. "Right now, you should think long and hard about how this whole catastrophe could have been avoided if you had acted like a true colleague instead of a college clown constantly preying on freshmen."
A neon light from a damaged ceiling lamp flickered and then died in a last burst of electrical sparks; the four remaining men jumped slightly at the sound, to resume quickly to their respective tasks.
"But Ducky! I don't wanna be disfigured!"
"Will you stop complaining?" asked Jimmy while picking up an electric saw that had fallen on the floor. "You're supposed to have endured martyrdom during your heroic actions in Somalia so a few bruises won't kill you."
"Yeah, count yourself lucky Gibbs has managed to stop David by reminding about your little trip down in Africa to rescue her!" added Sam. "Otherwise, you could have been killed."
"You think I'm alive?" countered Tony. "Look at me, I'm a mess!"
Sam glanced at the Senior Agent and made a small grimace; Tony was indeed looking as if he had fought twelve rounds against Mike Tyson and lost: bloodied nose, cut eyebrow, hair shortened by a flying scalpel, a black eye, cut lower lip, broken cheekbone and only a desperate dive on the floor to avoid sharpened items had saved his right ear from being severed. Not to forget the multiple bruises he had sustained from being repetitively kicked and a finger that had almost been twisted out of its metacarpal. All in one, Tony DiNozzo was no longer the dashing Senior Agent who had entered Autopsy a moment ago but looked more like the survivor of a plane crash. His arrogance, however, was still intact and he barked in the general direction of Sam:
"Then again, what do you care, tech geek? You've had your revenge for me roughing you a little, so sit back and enjoy the show!"
"Anthony, calm down while I'm tending your wounds."
"I'm not the kind of guy who kicked downed people, DiNozzo," answered Sam calmly, while picking up the plastic pieces of a printer. "And I fail to see the humor in this situation."
"Me too," added Jimmy as he retrieved a severed hand from the floor. It did not belonged to a victim of a murder case; he had borrowed it from medical school to show it to Doctor Mallard, as the hand presented an interesting case of syndactyly. Luckily, it had not been damaged by the hurricane from Israel so Jimmy would be able to return it promptly, as he did not need any more trouble in his life. Breena had not been pleased at all learning over the phone that her fiancé would have to stay at work longer than expected...
"All right, Anthony, I'm all done," announced Ducky after having finished applying the last butterfly bandage. "But you are coming with me; I do insist that you undergo a complete check-up and I will drive you to the hospital."
"But, Ducky..."
"No discussions, Anthony! It is not the time and place! And spare me from your usual 'tough-guy' act and that nonsense about real men not needing medical attention. Gibbs would approve of me staying on the cautious side about your health and besides, you are in no shape to argue."
"Quite right," muttered Jimmy, staring at paper clips that had been stuck in a filing cabinet. Ziva had a good aim and a great throwing arm, for sure; she could apply for a pitcher's position in a baseball team!
Tony groaned a bit for form, but he nonetheless accepted going to the hospital with Ducky. The M.E. had his entries at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and he could feed to the inquiring staff a cock-and-bull story explaining Tony's injuries without raising suspicions. Besides, considering Ziva's state of mind, it was hazardous for Tony's health to remain in the same building as her. Ducky grabbed his coat, his car keys, and turned towards his assistant who was busy straightening an overturned dissection table with the help of the computer tech:
"Mister Palmer, Mister Wilson, I do realize cleaning up this room is a herculean task considering the circumstances and I am truly sorry to leave you do the heavy job. But I trust you to understand that Anthony needs to go to the hospital after having being used as a human punching ball by Ziva. Also, I trust your discretion about what has recently happened here."
"But, Doctor Mallard, what about the damage here?" asked Jimmy. "How are we going to explain the broken computer screen and the printer? The scalpels embedded on the furniture? What about the damaged neon light? We'll have to ask maintenance for a replacement. And the impact on the refrigerator's door? The files that had been thrown all over the place? Not to forget the destruction of your office chair and the shelves that had been torn off the walls!"
"Even though a lot of people at NCIS don't like to come down at Autopsy, you'll still have problems to explain this," confirmed Sam.
Ducky put on his coat with a small smile: "Dear me, it must be my age. Young lads like you would not believe how clumsy a man can become once he has reached his senior years. I will just have to explain to Director Vance that a series of unfortunate events, caused by a bout of balance disorder, has caused me to break a few things at Autopsy; he won't be too happy with me, especially with his own worries about budget, but seventy-eight years of charm will probably ease our Director's dissatisfaction."
"You'll do this for me, Ducky?" asked Tony, his eyes filled with renewed hope.
"No, Anthony: I will do this for all the members of Team Gibbs. You see, you are seriously lacking of what is called esprit de corps, or the ability of a group to reach its goals by maintaining solidarity between its members. Consequently, there's no place for diva attitude, usurpation of credit or attention-seeking. Timothy knows quite well about this esprit de corps and so do I; but alas, Abigail and you are still struggling to learn it and the both of you won't amount to anything as long as you fear being replaced for the title of 'Jethro's favorite', and using every means necessary – including calumnies – to remove a competition that has never existed in the first place. This kind of behavior is damageable for the whole team but firstly, to you, Anthony. "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on". Good old Shakespeare was right about this: jealousy prompts us to make fools out of others, and at the same time we make proper fools out of ourselves. You are a good agent, Anthony, but you will never be promoted to Team Leader until you stop this permanent belittling of beginners and intellectuals. I would hate to think you have already hit the glass ceiling so early in your career, just because the idea of not being the number-one in every field is unbearable for you. Now, think about this while I drive you to the hospital; more precisely, think about the apology you will present to Timothy, for having lied to his face about your imaginary romantic involvement with Ziva."
Jimmy and Sam watched sadly as the M.E. helped the Senior Agent to walk out of Autopsy; indeed, DiNozzo had hit rock bottom and being almost torn to pieces by David was only a prelude of the problems he would have to face in a close future. The hinges of the Autopsy room's revolving doors had been damaged during the fight and made an awful squeaking sound, like a grotesque imitation of a death knell.
TBC...
