The First Redhead
Author's Note: Sorry about the late update everyone. I have been stuck with the late shift from 2-10:30 pm the past week and I have just been too busy and exhausted to update. I am thrilled by the response that I am getting to this story! I hope this chapter is just as good. Please let me know what you think. Enjoy
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or Major Crimes or any of the ideas and characters associated with either show.
Finally Our Time
Sharon shut her door and blinds before thinking better of herself and locking the door. She turned around to see him standing in front of her desk taking in her office. She looked him up and down and had to admit that he looked good. Just as handsome if not more than the first day they met in the VP's office. His hair had turned silver, but it suited him and made him look sexy. He had stayed in shape and from his past in the Marine Corps, she wasn't too surprised.
"So according to one of your team," she said as she approached him, "His name is Very Special Agent Anthony Dinozzo. Does that make you Extremely Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs?"
He smiled and tilted his head to the side a bit before looking down at her, "Dinozzo is the only 'very special' one, and I am going to have to talk to him about hitting on my former girlfriend."
"I was wondering why the other two rolled their eyes when he brought out that line," Sharon giggled as he nodded.
"That would be Dinozzo…You look good, Sharon," Gibbs said softly as he looked at her.
She was wearing a dark blue dress that barely kissed the top of her knees, and a black blazer over the top. Her hair was lightly curled at the bottom and fell perfectly around her face. If time had touched her, it had done so with kit gloves. She looked just as gorgeous if not more than that day in the VP's office.
"So do you, Jethro," she smiled softly, her eyes sparkling as well.
"I didn't know that you and Jackson stayed in California," he said, "I remember hearing that the two of you got married after college, but that was it. How is he?"
"We actually got divorced a few months ago," she sighed, but he noticed how she didn't seem to hold any regrets about it.
"What happened?" Gibbs asked as he watched her shake her head and move to sit on her couch.
"After we got married, I started to see who he really was," she patted the couch for him to sit down, "He started drinking and gambling, and before I knew it, he was out more than he was at home. He left me with piles of debt and I had had enough. We separated 20 years ago, and I finally pulled the plug when I decided to adopt my son, Rusty."
"Well, you have definitely been busy," he chuckled, "I would have never thought that Sharon O'Dwyer would grow up to be a cop. I could see the lawyer part…you always did like to argue."
She smacked his arm lightly, before propping her arm on the back of the couch and resting her head on her hand.
"I heard about Shannon and Kelly," she said softly, "I thought about flying out to the funeral, but I figured it wouldn't be appropriate."
"I would have liked to have you there," he tilted his head, "I would have had somebody there that was on my side."
"I'm guessing your father was there," she hummed.
"With a new girl on his arm," he said stoically, "but we worked it out. I am actually thinking about having him move out here with me."
"I'd love to see him again," she smiled.
"He always did love you," he took her hand in his, "What do you say that we catch up later tonight at my place?"
"Are you asking me on a date, Gibbs?" she said with mock surprise, "We only just saw each other a few minutes ago."
Chuckling, he squeezed her hand, "And what if I am? I figure I better ask you now before Dinozzo makes a move."
"I'd love to, Jethro," she says quietly, "I just have to text Rusty and let him know."
"Okay," he stands up and reaches in his pocket for his notepad and jots down something before he hands it to her, "Here is my address."
She takes it from his hand and he helps her up from the couch, "What do you say we catch a murderer?"
"Right behind you, Captain," he smiled.
"You better keep up, Gunny," she teased back before walking to her door and unlocking it.
As they exited the office, they could see both of their teams scatter from around Tao's desk. Mike quickly shut his laptop and turned to look at Sharon and Gibbs. The two leaders looked at each other and each raised an eyebrow as they silently agreed to get to the bottom of whatever this was. While her team took their seats and faced the murder board, his gathered next to McGee's computer and waited for Gibbs to come closer to the screen.
"Whatta we got?" Gibbs asked as he came closer to him team and peered down at the computer screen.
"According to the fingerprints that Ducky ran from the body, our victim is Naval Petty Officer Carlos Macias. He was on leave for a week and a half before he was supposed to report for duty yesterday morning," Bishop rattled off as she clicked the mouse and watched as their victim's picture appeared on the screen.
Tony grabbed the mouse from her hand before clicking again, "When he didn't report for the roll call, his CO reported him missing and that's when the local police found him."
"I ran his financials and phone records, Boss," McGee took over control of the mouse, "Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for a call from an unregistered number that came from a burner phone that was made the night that he died."
"Do we have a time of death?" Gibbs asked.
Julio raised his hand and waited for Sharon to nod in his direction, "Ma'am, Doctor Morales called and he said that he should be ready by the time you get down there."
"Alright, thank you, Julio," she said as she turned to the murder board, "Do we have anything on this burner phone?"
"I can find out where it was purchased based on the serial number on the phone," Tao supplied, "but unless they were stupid enough to pay with a credit card, then we are stuck."
"Maybe the place will have cameras," Flynn said as he leaned against his desk.
"And maybe pigs will fly and hell will freeze over," Provenza grumbled from his desk, which earned him an eye roll from Flynn and a chuckle from Julio and Mike.
"Let's track down the shop that sold the phone and see if we can tie any of this to our serial killer," Sharon addressed her team.
"Dinozzo," Gibbs started.
"Get in contact with the CO and see what he can tell us," he said as he sat down at an empty desk, "on it boss."
"Bishop," Gibbs called out.
"Talk to family, friends, co-workers and see if he had any problems with anybody," she nodded and pulled out her phone.
"McGee," he said as he walked towards Sharon.
"I'll work with Lieutenant Tao to track down the store and then call Abby and see if she has anything for us," Tim said.
Gibbs nodded before following Sharon out of the Murder Room and towards the elevators that would lead them down to the Morgue. Gibbs pressed the button and they waited for the car to open before he gestured for her to go first.
"You have them trained well," she laughed and lightly bumped his shoulder with hers.
"They know that I don't want them to be dependent on others," he said simply.
The ding of the elevator had them both stepping off and Sharon leading them to an area full of scrubs. She grabbed one and tossed it at him before she started putting on hers. He looked down at the blue green fabric in front of him before looking back up at her.
"Do we have to wear these?" he asked, still turning it over in his hands.
"Yes, Jethro," she giggled, "Just put it on, and stop being a big baby."
"Is this really coming from the girl that didn't want to wear the plastic aprons in Ms. Barton's Chemistry class because they made her look fat?" he teased, but began putting on the scrubs.
"No," she turned around and silently asked him to tie the strings in the back, "This is coming from the woman that didn't want to wear those aprons all those years ago."
"Well," he finished tying her in before tying his own, "This woman still looks good in anything."
The sound of somebody clearing their throat made the both of them turn to the doorway to the autopsy room where Dr. Morales stood.
"If the two of you are finished playing verbal grab ass," Morales said with his usual snark, "I do have a dead body for the two of you to look at."
Gibbs looked down at Sharon before turning back to Morales, "What can you tell us, Doc?"
"I've got some bad news actually," Morales said as he looked Gibbs up and down before looking at Sharon.
"What kind of bad news?" She asked.
"The body does match a serial killer, but not the one we are most recently looking for," Morales supplied hesitantly, "The stab wounds and their pattern are consistent with those of Phillip Stroh's previous victims."
"He's back in LA?" Sharon gasped before pulling out her phone, "I have to call Rusty."
"Sharon," Gibbs turned back to her when he heard the panic and concern in her voice, "What's wrong?"
"Stroh has tried to killed Rusty for putting him in prison, and he escaped a couple of months ago," she frantically dialed, "He could be going after Rusty…and he's not answering!"
"Come on, Gibbs headed back to the elevator and pressed the button for the garage, "I'll drive, you keep trying to reach him."
Sharon continued to dial Rusty's number in hopes of getting an answer, but every attempt was met by a pre-recorded message. As they got into the car, Gibbs floored it and Sharon was sure that he was trying to break every single traffic law ever written, but at the moment he was getting her to Rusty. They pulled up in front of the College building just as the students were flooding out. Sharon instantly spotted Rusty and ran to him, Gibbs hot on her heels.
"Rusty!" she yelled as he turned to her and saw that something was wrong.
"Sharon?" he looked at the man standing behind his mother and then back to her, "Who is this? What's going on?"
"Rusty," she pulled him to her, "I've been trying to get ahold of you for the past 20 minutes."
"What happened?" he gently wrapped his arms around her as he listened to the fear in her voice.
"We have reason to believe that Stroh is back in town," she pulled away from him and watched as he tried to keep the emotions from his face.
"I told you that I'm not going to let him rule my life, Sharon."
"I know that Rusty, but there is no way that I am not going to put protection on you while we know that he is back and killing again," she gestured to Gibbs car and started walking towards it, "I know that this is not what you want, but I don't plan on letting Stroh get away this time."
Rusty nodded and looked back to the man that was still silent beside Sharon, "Are you part of my new security detail?"
Gibbs let one of his customary smirks slide across his face before he looked to Sharon for an explanation. She rolled her eyes before bumping her shoulder with his.
"This is Special Agent Gibbs," she said softly, "He works for NCIS here in LA and he was helping us with this case before we knew it was Stroh."
"Before?" Gibbs unlocked the car and opened both the passenger side and back doors on his car, "I thought we agreed this was a joint investigation no matter what it turned out to be, Captain."
"Jethro," she waited for him to close their doors and walk around the car to get behind the wheel, "I know what we agreed, but we have been chasing this man for years…I really want to take the lead on this."
Gibbs started the engine and pulled out onto the street and headed back to the office, "I never wanted to take the case away from you, Sharon. My team and I are at your disposal."
"Thank you," she gently placed her hand atop his and left it there.
Rusty sat in the back and continued to watch as his adoptive mother and this Special Agent Gibbs comfortably sat in silence. He could tell that there was some kind of history between the two officers and Sharon obviously trusted this man, and there was something about him that made Rusty think that he could trust him too. By the time they made it back to the Murder Room, both teams were working to find out what was going on.
"It turns out that our vic gave Stroh a hard time about hitting on a girl in a bar," Flynn said as he gestured to footage that was cued up on Buzz's laptop.
"It turns out that a few of Macias' shipmates remembered him getting in a fight with Mr. Stroh last night, and they said that was the last they saw of him," Bishop said as the two leaders watched the footage.
"Lieutenant Tao and I tracked down the store that sold the burner phone, and we have the footage cued up," McGee brought his laptop down in front of them and hit play.
"So the place did have cameras," Sharon hummed.
"They also had flying pigs and a frozen doorway to hell in the back, Ma'am," Julio said while looking at an irritated Provenza.
"It turns out that a woman bought the phone," Tao laughed at the look Provenza was shooting Julio and a chuckling Flynn, "We briefly talked to her and found out that she was Macias' mistress."
"Have we put out a BOLO for Stroh yet?" Gibbs asked as her turned to his team.
"Yes boss," Dinozzo said as he stepped forward, "LAPD put out quite a few a couple of months back, but we put out a new one and included the military bases in the area. The local police are looking for him in a 30 mile radius of where we found the body and a 10 mile radius of that bar."
"We also talked to some of Macias' family and everything really does point to Stroh," Sykes added, "Everybody liked him and his wife had no idea about the affair, so this all looks like a crime of opportunity instead of something premeditated."
"Well, thank you, Sykes," Provenza rolled his eyes before sitting down at his desk, "I think you just blew this case wide open."
"Lieutenant," Sharon lightly scolded without looking away from the screens in front of her, "Did we get anything from the lab?"
"Everything was clean," Tony said as he looked to McGee for clarification.
"Abby called and said that it looked as if everything was wiped down and whoever did this made sure not to leave any trace evidence," McGee rattled off.
"That is definitely his MO," Flynn said from his desk.
Just then, Bishop's phone rang and she answered, excusing herself from the rest of the group.
"Let's get this video outside the bar cleaned up and see if we can get those shipmates in to get there official statements and get a few witnesses in case we do catch Stroh soon," Sharon said as she turned towards her office.
"They've spotted him!" Bishop yelled as she hung up the phone and ripped a piece of paper off of her note pad, "He was near 4411 Los Feliz Blvd."
Every member of Major Crimes turned to look at Sharon as Bishop held out the address. Gibbs looked around at her team watching her with concern in their eyes. He looked back at Rusty and thought the kid was about to be sick.
"That's where you and Rusty live, isn't it Sharon?" Gibbs said as he watched her nod before swallowing hard and looking at him.
"That's the address for my Condominium," she answered weakly.
"Dinozzo, Bishop, go meet with the patrol officers and bring this son of a bitch in," Gibbs baked as her lead Sharon into her office before ushering Rusty in as well.
The rest of the occupants of Major Crimes began grabbing their coats as well and following Tony and Bishop, except for Buzz and McGee.
"Uh…what are you guys doing?" Bishop asked as she turned around to face the determined detectives.
"We are going to make sure that we nail this asshole once and for all," Provenza growled and led the way to the elevator.
When they all arrived, Stroh was long gone, but they had found out that he had been inside the building and may have gone up to the Captain's Condo. They didn't find anything except for a video of him avoiding the cameras and standing outside her doorway. Other than that, there was no sign of him, and they were forced to come back empty handed. The murder Room was quiet when they got back, and Rusty and Gibbs were sitting at a desk talking about something when they all got back.
"Patrol lost him when we got there, and it looks like he went up to the Captain's floor but he never entered her condo," Julio said as he threw his jacket down.
"Where is the Captain?" Tao asked as he scanned the room.
Gibbs just tilted his head towards her office and they all turned when the door opened and Chief Taylor came out.
"I see we didn't get him," he said without even trying to hide his disappointment.
"We'll get him," Flynn growled back.
"Just make sure you do it quick," Taylor pointed back to the Captain, "We can't spend much more money on protection."
"Is that how the LAPD works?" Gibbs jumped up and walked straight for Taylor, coming to stop within an inch of his face, "You guys don't protect your own unless your ass is on the line too?"
"Agent Gibbs," Taylor took a slight step back, "Let me remind you that Major Crimes is in charge here and as Chief of-"
"And let me remind you that I don't work for you," Gibbs interrupted, "You won't have to worry about spending money on protection for Captain Raydor and Rusty."
"We aren't going to let her go back to her place without protection," Taylor scoffed.
"Good to know you care," Gibbs hissed, "They won't need protection because she has my team and I to do that. Plus, her team seems to be well beyond capable, unlike your patrol officers who were too busy relaxing in their cars to keep an eye on this guy."
Sharon finally came out of the doorway to stand next to Gibbs and brought her hand to rest on his shoulder. He was tense, but he wasn't out of control. He knew exactly what he was doing and saying, and he would let Taylor know that he meant business.
"As you can see, Chief," Sharon cut in before it could escalate any further, "Rusty and I will be just fine."
"I want Stroh found, Captain," Taylor said before he strode out of the Murder Room.
"Well," Sharon took a deep breath and turned to face everyone, "Why don't we call it a day. We can't do much and anything that we start now we would have to finish in the morning anyways."
"Where are you going to stay, Captain?" Sykes asked gently.
"You and Rusty can stay with me if you want, Sharon," Gibbs offered as he grabbed her jacket from inside her office and brought it to her along with her purse.
"Is that okay with you, Rusty?" she turned to her son.
"Uh, sure," he said, "We won't need like, a security detail again, will we?"
"Nobody is going to get to either of you with Gibbs under the same roof," Dinozzo joked before feeling a slap to the back of the head, "Just trying to tell the truth, boss."
Gibbs ignored him as he helped Sharon into her coat, "I can have one put on the both of you if you feel you need one."
"No thank you," Rusty quickly answered, "I am perfectly fine staying with you."
Gibbs nodded and Sharon said goodbye to her team before the three of them started to head for the elevator.
Rusty felt somebody grab his arm and turned to see Dinozzo holding him back, "Do me a favor. I need you to see if you can find out how he gets the boats he builds out of his basement. See if you can see any patchwork or anything down there," he whispered.
"What are you talking about?" Rusty asked confused.
"Gibbs," Tony whispered again, "He builds boats in his basement, but none of us know how he gets them out. If you could find out, I'll give you twenty bucks."
"Tony!" Bishop broke in, "You can't bribe him!"
"Come on," he turned to her, "Aren't you even a bit curious?"
"No," she replied simply.
Both McGee and Dinozzo shook their heads and said "Liar" at the same time. Rusty walked back towards the elevators and couldn't help but wonder how somebody goes about building a boat in their basement, but apparently, he was about to find out.
TBC…
Again sorry for the long wait! Hopefully my schedule clears up soon.