(AN) Hello, and welcome to Chapter Two of How the Elf Lord Made New Friends. I hope you all enjoy, and remember to Read and Review.
In this chapter, Gibbs and the team begin their investigation.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS; all characters and locations are owned by CBS and Bellisarius Productions.
Chapter Two
A New Investigation
Ziva was sitting at her desk in the bullpen, trying to relax and take her mind off of recent events: it had been four years since she had been captured and tortured in Somalia for four months; two years since the murder of Mike Franks at the hands of the Port-Port Killer; ten months since the Navy Yard bombing and four months since the murder of her father and Director Vance's wife at the hands of llan Bodner, whom Ziva had recently tracked down and killed. Ziva wasn't sure how much more she could take, but she was glad she had people who cared about her.
The agent looked up as the elevator pinged, followed by Tony and McGee entering the squadroom.
"No, really, you, McGeek," cried Tony in shock, "You now have normal, non-geeky, non-basement dwelling friends?"
"Yes, seriously, Tony," replied McGee in exasperation, "The guy's a navy lieutenant and his wife's the head analyst for a tech company."
"What is going on?" asked Ziva; smirking as she walked over to the two.
"McSociable's been getting to know his DOD girlfriend's friends and has made friends with non-geeky people." informed Tony, who sounded amazed.
Ziva put her hand on McGee's forehead. "Hmm, feels warm." she said teasingly.
"Oh, come on, is it really that shocking that I can make friends outside of the computer or work?" asked McGee while rolling his eyes, "I've been getting to know Delilah's friends. Also, I've stopped playing that game."
"Well, I am happy for you, McGee," said Ziva, "It is nice to know that it is going well with the DOD agent."
"Yeah, but it's just odd," teased Tony as he stood in front of his two friends, "It's like somebody becoming friends with Gibbs; you know: lonely, brooding, builds boats in his basement while drinking bourbon and-
But Tony suddenly stopped as he saw the horrified looks on McGee and Ziva's faces. Tony then felt a familiar cold chill down the back of his neck. "Annnnnnd he's standing right behind me, isn't he?" he asked nervously.
"Would you like to finish that list of compliments, Dinozzo?" asked a familiar, gruff voice.
Tony turned around and smiled sheepishly at Gibbs, who was fixing him with one of his famous hard stares.
"No, boss." replied Tony.
"Good," replied Gibbs before walking over to his desk and grabbing his gun and badge, "Grab your gear. There's been an aggravated burglary at a navy lieutenant's house; one of the robbers was shot, let's go."
Tony, McGee and Ziva slung their backpacks over their shoulders and followed Gibbs to the elevator.
The team soon arrived at the Dalys house along with Ducky and Palmer. The house was surrounded by two LEO's and two ambulances. The group walked up to the front door, and Gibbs gave a firm knock. After a minute, the door opened, and Audrey Daly peered out at the group.
"Mrs Daly: Special Agent Gibbs; I'm with NCIS," informed Gibbs, flashing his badge, "We're here about the break-in."
"NCIS," cried Audrey in surprise before spotting Tim. "Tim?"
"Audrey?" said McGee, sounding equally shocked, and looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Wait, you two know each other?" asked Gibbs in shock.
"Delilah introduced me to them earlier." explained a baffled McGee.
Tony and Ziva just looked at each other in complete bewilderment.
Audrey allowed the team to enter, and after getting introduced to Kevin, Tommy and Emma, the team split up to do their various jobs: McGee took Emma and Tommy through to the dining room so that he could interview them; Gibbs was interviewing Kevin and Audrey and Tony, Ziva, Ducky and Palmer went through to the study where the body was. Tony removed the balaclava. Ziva then snapped several photos of the dead intruder. The man was middle-aged and had greying hair.
"How unlucky does McGee have to be to make new friends, who then get attacked and terrorised in their own home?" lamented Tony.
"The world can be a very cruel place, Anthony," stated Ducky as he began examining the body, "Fate is a very cruel mistress."
In the living room, Kevin was just finishing explaining to Gibbs what had happened. "You have to understand, Agent Gibbs, I didn't want to kill anybody," he said in a nervous voice, "But I had to defend my family."
"That's perfectly understandable, Lieutenant," said Gibbs, "It was self-defence. If it were my wife and daughter, I'd have done the same."
Audrey then explained to Gibbs what had happened from her point of view. Kevin held her tightly. When the brunette talked about the men trying to tear her clothes off, she choked back a sob, causing Kevin to rub her back and make hushing noises.
"Do either of you know anybody that would want to hurt you?" asked Gibbs gently.
"No," replied Audrey, "I can't imagine anybody that would want to hurt us; we're well liked in this neighbourhood."
"Is there a chance these guys might come back?" asked Kevin in a terrified manner.
"They might if this is personal," informed the silver haired agent, "I'm going to place my three agents on protection detail. You already know Tim, so you can trust me when I say that we will do everything in our power to ensure your safety."
"Thank you, Agent Gibbs." thanked Audrey.
"Just doing my job," replied Gibbs before looking at Kevin, "Lieutenant, do you have any clue as to what they were looking for on the Navy Mainframe?"
"Sorry; I just don't know." answered Kevin earnestly.
McGee then entered the living room with Tommy and Emma, who both ran over to their parents.
Gibbs then followed McGee through to the study area where the others were waiting.
"Tommy and Emma said they woke up when they heard loud noises, so, they ran downstairs where they were soon grabbed, dragged down to the basement and tied up," informed McGee, angry at the thought of what his friends had been put through, "They were all wearing gloves, so there's no hope of getting a DNA match off of the zip-ties."
Gibbs then walked over to Ducky. "What you got for me, Duck?" he asked.
"Cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the chest," informed Ducky, "Time of death was approximately 20:10PM. I shall know more when we get him into autopsy. Mr Palmer, kindly fetch the gurney, will you?"
"Yes, Dr. Mallard." replied Jimmy before getting to his feet and exiting the room.
The rest of the team walked through to the living room. McGee approached Kevin and Audrey; Tommy and Emma were cuddled up with them on the sofa.
"I'm sorry you guys had to meet the rest of the team under these circumstances," apologised McGee before pointing to the others, "You've already been introduced to Gibbs. These are my other friends: Tony Dinozzo, Ziva David, Donald 'Ducky' Mallard, and the guy coming in with the gurney is Jimmy Palmer."
Palmer smiled as he pushed the gurney through to the study area.
"That's alright," replied Kevin, "It's very nice to meet you all. Tim's told us so much about you."
"Oh has he," smirked Tony, lightly ribbing Tim in the side, "Well, it's nice to finally see the Elf Lord interact with real people for once."
Gibbs turned to his three agents. "You three are on protection duty; there's a chance these guys might come back," said Gibbs, "And, Dinozzo, don't let the kids watch Jaws; Leon wasn't too thrilled when you let his kids watch it."
"What's this about Jaws?" asked Audrey.
"Our director got me and Tony to babysit his kids," informed Ziva, giving Tony an evil grin, "Tony let them watch Jaws. They had nightmares, and our Director was less than impressed."
"Ouch," winced Kevin, "But, I can't say I blame him; kids shouldn't be watching stuff like that for that exact reason; there's some stuff they're just not ready for. So, if you're going to show the kids a movie, nothing above a PG rating."
"Yes, sir." answered Tony before saluting Kevin, which caused him to blush.
After they were finished, McGee decided to escort the Dalys to the hospital so that they could get checked out.
A bit later on, Ducky and Palmer were in autopsy examining the body of the robber, who was now lying on a table; wearing nothing but underwear.
"Burglars are the lowest of the low, Mr Palmer," said Ducky, "All they can think about is robbing and hurting whoever gets in their way. I once stayed at a house in Thailand that was broken into by robbers; they were determined to get whatever they wanted."
"This is why I always lock the doors at night," stated Palmer, "Breena thinks I should get a burglar alarm, but I told her that they're too much hassle."
"That they are, Palmer," said Gibbs dryly as he entered the room, sipping a cup of coffee, "What you got for me, Duck?"
"Well, Jethro, as you know, our robber here was shot in the chest. The bullet is a 9mm slug that fractured his thoracic cage and pierced his myocardium. His teeth have rotted, and if you look closely, you'll see puncture marks up and down his arms. Our burglar was a drug taker. Abby will soon be able to reveal his identity."
Gibbs peered closer and saw a large mass of tiny puncture marks running up and down both arms.
Gibbs' phone rang. He quickly answered. "Yeah, it's Gibbs." he said.
"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs," came Abby's excited voice, "You need to get down here now. I've found plenty of stuff."
"On my way, Abs." replied Gibbs before hanging up.
The silver haired agent walked out of autopsy.
Over in the forensic lab, Abby was sipping on a cup of caf-pow when Gibbs walked in. "Gibbs!" she cried in excitement before standing up, "Did you meet McGee's new friends; are they okay?"
"Shaken up," replied Gibbs in a slightly impatient manner, "Thought you had something for me, Abs?"
"I do," replied Abby before walking over to her computer and typing away, "So, I managed to ID the scumbag robber. Meet Harry Jeffords; forty-five; arrested multiple times for possession of drugs, breaking and entering, aggravated assault and sexual assault."
Gibbs looked at the image of Harry Jeffords that had appeared on Abby's computer screen.
"There's more," continued Abby, "Mr Jeffords is a member of the Cobras; a violent drug cartel operating in Washington D.C., and led by Victor Rodregez."
Abby clicked her mouse, and the image of Harry was replaced by the image of a middle-aged man with short grey hair and a grey beard.
"This group is currently being investigated by the FBI," informed the forensic scientist before turning to Gibbs, "How is McGee's friend mixed up in all this?"
Gibbs wanted to know the answer to that as well. The senior agent gave Abby a light kiss on the top of her head before giving her his caf-pow.
(AN) And that was Chapter Two of How the Elf Lord Made New Friends. I hope you all enjoyed, and remember to Read and Review.
And yes, I can confirm that Fornell will appear in this story due to the FBI's involvement.
Until then, this is TimeLordMaster108 signing out.