Two years after Kate's death, Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo disappeared. No one, not even Gibbs or Abby, could find a trace of him anywhere. The only thing he left behind was a letter of resignation on Gibbs desk. In this he wrote that he couldn't stay in DC anymore or work at NCIS sitting across from Kate's desk, while it was occupied by someone else. He apologized for leaving with out much notice, but he had to go. Tony wasn't stupid when it came to computers, he had managed to change his identity and hide the fact that he did so very well. The night he left, he boarded a plane for the west coast and never wanted to look back.
"C'mon Logan, admit it, you're afraid of heights!" Max teased.
Logan sighed, staring out the window. He turned around to face her.
"If I were afraid of heights, do you think that I would live in a penthouse apartment?"
"Ok, good point. Well then why else won't you come to the Sky Needle with me?"
"Its not that I'm afraid of heights, it's that I'm afraid of rooftops." He sighed, turning back towards the window.
She stood there confused. Afraid of rooftops? That was ridiculous. Who is afraid of rooftops and yet not afraid of heights? She smiled slightly. He always had to be complicated, didn't he? She walked over to him and stood by his side.
"So why are you afraid of rooftops then?" She asked, more seriously than her other questions.
"It's a long story."
"I've got time."
He continued to stare out the window, not looking directly at anything, just staring off into the distance, towards the east, towards what used to be home.
"It had to be about fifteen years ago when it all started. Back then I lived on the east coast; I worked in DC as a federal agent for NCIS. It was my second year there and this woman Kate was hired. She was an amazing woman. She was smart, beautiful, a lot like you actually." He stopped, remembering her, how she looked, how he felt about her. How it felt to see her dead on that rooftop, how it felt to have her blood on his face. He shook his head to try to clear those memories from his head.
Max didn't know what to say, he had obviously been very attached to her, and she could see what just talking about it was doing to him. She put a hand on his shoulder. He jumped at her touch, but then continued his story.
"She….Kate was a great agent. We worked along side each other for almost two years. I wasn't the same person then that I am now. I was a womanizer, a skirt chaser. It wasn't until it was already too late that I realized how much I cared about Kate. I got some form of the plague through a contaminated letter. Y-Pestis I think it was called. I was the only one who was sick, but she stayed by me in isolation. It was then that I realized that I really loved her. I was determined to tell her, but I was sick. Two weeks later she died."
"What happened to her?"
"She was shot in the head by the man we had been hunting down for the last year and a half." Logan answered quickly, knowing that he hadn't fully answered the question. He wasn't sure that he could.
"Logan, that doesn't explain why you're afraid of rooftops. Please, just tell me." She said quietly.
He sighed. It wasn't that he couldn't remember any of it, he did; he remembered all of it like it was yesterday. He closed his eyes and lowered his head.
"We were on a rooftop when she died. She had just taken a bullet in her Kevlar vest. We thought that was it, we thought we were safe. But Ari" He grimaced at that name "the guy we were hunting was on another roof and he shot her. One second we're standing there joking about how she just had a close call and the next she's lying on the ground dead and I had her blood and brain matter splattered on my face."
He heard Max gasp behind him.
"Oh god, Logan, I'm so sorry." She said.
They stood there in silence for a while. She wasn't sure if there was more to the story that he wanted to tell her, and he wasn't sure if he could continue with out breaking down. He continued though it hurt him to remember his past life.
"Two years after she died I left. I couldn't work there, in that office, haunted by the memories of what happened to her. I still feel bad for leaving with out warning, but I knew that they would all try to convince me to stay. So I came out here, to where my mother's family lived. I changed my identity so they couldn't find me, and started over."
"Wait, changed your identity? You mean you weren't Logan Cale back then?" She asked, shocked that he would do that.
"Nope" He replied calmly. "I mean, Logan is my real middle name and Cale was my mother's maiden name, but my name back then was Anthony DiNozzo, Tony for short. But he doesn't exist anymore, hasn't existed for over ten years."
There was a long pause before either of them spoke. Logan wasn't sure what else to say and he was glad he could finally tell someone about his past. Max was trying to accept that Logan wasn't who he said he was.
"Did it work?"
"Did what work?"
"Changing your identity, running from your past, did it work?"
"For a while, yes. Until my relentless boss found me. I explained the whole thing to him, and he actually understood. Said he didn't blame me for leaving, he quit not too long after." He smiled at the last memory he had of his boss and closest friend.
"How did he find you?"
"He found some of my family that he hadn't already interrogated and came to Seattle to talk to them. He saw one of the Eyes Only broadcasts and recognized me immediately, convinced my family to tell him where I was since he already knew I was here."
Max stood there for a while, taking in everything he had just told her, then she smiled. "So there's more to you than I thought? Not only are you the mysterious Eyes Only, but you have a secret past life. Logan Cale, or should I say Anthony Logan DiNozzo, you never cease to amaze me." She said, hugging him.
Please R&R, thanks. I may or may not write another chapter from when Logan is on the Sky Needle at theend of AJBAC.