Notes: I have no excuse for the lateness of this chapter. It has, literally, been sitting on my hard drive for close to 3 weeks. Hopefully, we can get back to a regular schedule of posting before the new season starts, and we won't have to run over too much into it.
I completely blame the last part of this chapter on my love for the Gibbs/Abby 'ship. grin It isn't a super-'shippy scene, more friendship, but I just couldn't resist. Also, in case anyone doesn't know for whatever reasons, DB stands for dead body and AFIS is Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems. I hope everyone is enjoying the VS so far, and I promise you that Kate's death will be dealt with more later on, for those who were wondering how it played into the season.

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, anything that closely resembles NCIS, or AFIS. Also, the character of Jonas Quinn, while he doesn't not exist in the NCIS world, he was a character on the SciFi series who replaced Daniel when Michael left the show. I just saw the episode where Daniel "dies", and I harbor just a slight bit of anger towards Jonas. mutters under breath about stupid aliens and their dang radioactive devices

Gutted

By ForensicFreak

Tony hung from the cord wrapped around his waist, wondering what God he had pissed off this time to deserve a punishment like this. Not only was he suspended a few thousand feet above the ground, but he was surrounded by blood and, literally, guts. What had originally started out as a suspected accidental death, had now become a priority 1 murder investigation. Petty Officer Jonas Quinn was found by some hikers hanging down a ravine where he had apparently been bungee-jumping. From the top of the ravine, it looked like he had gotten himself caught in the cords, and choked to death before he could get himself untangled. But when Gibbs made Tony repel down the ravine himself to collect evidence and help send the body up to Ducky, he had found the young man's stomach cut wide open, his internal organs spread across the wall of the ravine.

"Gibbs, this is disgusting. Why don't you just make some new agent do this?"

"Because, Dinozzo, this is a sensative case. And with the evidence all over the walls, I don't want some rookie screwing this up."

Tony sighed, knowing he wasn't going to win this argument. As he signaled for them to lower the body bag, he manuvered himself closer to the body. The closer he got, the worse the smell was. "Oh, this is so disgusting..."

3 showers and a fresh change of clothes later, Tony sat down with the Petty Officer's file. As he started to read, Gibbs blew by him on his way to Abby's lab. "Hey, wait up boss. What's up?" Closing the file he ran after Gibbs, catching up to him easily.

"Abbs has our results from the analysis of the blood on the cord that was holding up Petty Officer Qunn."

"Great. When's she gonna have our--"

Gibbs stopped suddenly, and Tony barely stopped from smashing into him. "Where do you think you're going, Dinozzo?"

"I thought I was going with you to check on the results."

"No, you are going to read through the Petty Officer's file and then start finding out where he's been stationed at. After that, we're going to pay a visit to his CO."

"Okay, boss." Tony replied, slightly puzzled as to why Gibbs was being such a hardass. Usually, they would all go to the autopsy and get the results together. He could understand Gibbs not wanting him at the autopsy; he hadn't exactly smelled the most pleasent after spending a few hours in the hot sun with a rank DB. Shaking his head, he sat back down and started to read through the file, trying not to think about the empty desk across from him.

"Abby, what've you got for me?"

"Nice to see you too Gibbs." Abby joked, turning down her music. "The blood from the cord, it matches Quinn's. I'm still running the bloody fingerprints Tony found through AFIS. If there's any matches, they should be turning up soon."

Gibbs nodded. "Nice work." Leaning against the edge of her desk, his voice dropped to a near whisper. "How are you doing?"

"Fine. It's a little easier to deal with now." Abby looked away. "The fibers you found on Kate's body? I've got them analyzed. Nothing out of the ordinary, just everyday white fibers. They could be from anything and come from anywhere." Noticing Gibbs's disappointed look, she glanced down at her desk while blinking back the tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's not your fault. If there was nothing to find on those fibers, then there was nothing to find. Don't blame yourself."

"I just wish I could do more. It's not fair! This shouldn't have happened to her..." Quietly cursing as the tears started trailing down her cheeks, she felt herself being pulled from her chair and into Gibbs's arms.

They just held each other, both still mourning the loss of their friend.