The Nightclub.
Disclaimer: None of the characters associated with NCIS belong to me, and I'm not using them for any profit.
Synopsis: A new case brings back memories for Tony, memories that he'd rather keep hidden.
Tony DiNozzo sat at the bar, a glass of water in front of him, engrossed in a book. He looked up to see Kate Todd and Jethro Gibbs approaching him.
" Hi guys!" He called.
" Hey!" Kate replied. Gibbs didn't respond.
They sat down on the stools either side of him. Kate ordered water, Gibbs ordered coffee.
" So," Tony asked, " What's up?"
Before Gibbs could respond, Kate had snatched up Tony's book. He tried in vain to grab it back, but she was too quick. She looked at the cover and laughed, "' The DaVinci Code'? Not to complicated for you, Tony?"
Tony snatched it back, scowling, " I do read, Kate!"
" What? Porn magazines?"
" Cut it out you two!" Gibbs interrupted, " Kate, stop baiting DiNozzo. DiNozzo, stop reacting."
" Yes boss." They chorused.
" So," Tony said again, " What's up?"
Tony always came to this same place for his breakfast, if Gibbs and Kate were there too, it meant something was about to happen. Generally, one or both of them needed a favour, which usually meant Tony getting into trouble, usually dangerous trouble.
" We got a call ten minutes ago. Three bodies were found in a nightclub. All three were marines. You had breakfast yet?"
" No."
" Okay. We have something to eat, and then we go, okay?"
Ten minutes later, they arrived at a nightclub, Tony eating his last slice of pizza.
" Did we have to get pizza, Tony?" Gibbs asked exasperatedly.
" Of course." Tony looked horrified at the mere suggestion that they might not have got pizza.
They entered the club. The first thing Tony noticed was how familiar it was. He'd been here before. He went outside and had a look at the name of the nightclub. As he read it, memories came back to haunt him. He ran to the roadside and threw up in the gutter. Gibbs rushed over and bent over him. " You okay?" he sked.
" Yeah." Tony relied, wiping his mouth, " Think so."
The local cops and ambulance men had gathered round and Gibbs waved them off.
" What the hell was that DiNozzo?"
" I... Long story boss."
Ducky and Kate came running over.
" You okay Tony?" Kate asked worriedly.
" Yeah." Tony responded, trying to sound offhand, secretly glad she cared so much.
" I'll be the judge of that." Ducky placed a hand on Tony's forehead, " No temperature. This isn't a bug, is it Anthony?"
Tony sat in the back of Ducky's van. his head in his hands, trying to block out the memories that were trying to overwhelm him, threatening to make him throw up again. He groaned. Kate sat down beside him, and he laid his head on her shoulder. She put an arm round his shoulders. Gibbs sat down on Tony's other side, a stern look on his face.
" So, what happened?" he asked.
" The nightclub. I've been here before. Brings back some pretty unpleasant memories. Case I worked a year before I joined NCIS." He swallowed hard, " Can we... talk about this some place else?"
" Sure." Gibbs got up, " We've finished in the club, let's go round to your place."
They entered Tony's flat and Tony quickly went round tidying thinks up. Then he finally allowed Gibbs into his front room, which, to Gibbs' eyes, was still a mess. Tony, however, seemed pretty satisfied with it's state. It appeared that this was actually the room at its tidiest. Gibbs sat down on the sofa, a plush white leather object. He looked around, impressed with the décor. The walls were a bright white, a huge flat screen tv lined one wall, a huge window overlooking DC took up the outside wall. It was the penthouse suite in a luxury block of flats. Gibbs hadn't known Tony had this kind of money. He guessed it was an inheritance from his father.
Tony came in with two beers. He handed one to Gibbs who accepted the cold drink gratefully. It was a hot day, and Tony's air conditioning hadn't really kicked in yet. Tony collapsed next to Gibbs. They sat for a while, staring at the blank screen in front of them.
" Wanna watch a movie?" Gibbs asked. He knew Tony was feeling uptight, didn't want to press him. He'd find out what the matter was when Tony was ready to tell him. If it wasn't tonight, then so be it. Gibbs had a hunch he would still be there in the morning.
" Sure," Tony replied, " What do you wanna watch?"
He crossed the room to his extensive DVD collection. Gibbs followed, and bent down to look at titles.
" How about..." He didn't really know the first thing about movies, " You choose, Tony."
About two hours later, Tony switched the tv off, after introducing Gibbs to Pirates of the Caribbean. To Tony's surprise, the older man had really enjoyed it. Gibbs turned to Tony.
" Okay," He began, " What was that about, back at the 'club?"
Tony looked at the floor, " Like I said, an old case. Well, not that old I guess, about three years ago, the year before you recruited me." He sighed, " A body was found at the club. The guy was really bad. Someone had hacked him up with a machete. I got the dubious honour of taking photos of the scene and the body. It was, gruesome, to say the least. It freaked me out. My partner, Detective Frank Biggs was about ten years older than me, so I had to do all the grunt work. He used his experience as a lever to get me to do all the hard work. He always used to tell me how experience meant he was the better investigator, how it meant he should get the important tasks.
"Anyway, I got saddled with the task of luring the killer out into the open. We'd seen murders like this, all the victims were similar, there was a link between all of them. They were all the same type of guy. Brown hair, brown eyes, kinda good lookin'... You can see where this is going."
Gibbs nodded, " Carry on."
" Yeah. So, I got stuck as bait. And it worked. He came up behind me, got my gun from my holster, dragged me round the back. He found my wire, ripped it off, crushed it. He stuck a gag in my mouth, tied my hands, and shoved me into the boot of his car.
" Frank went of to stake out the guy's house, so he took me back to the club. The one place where no one was looking for me. The guy's name was Ronald Parks. He was so, so normal. I didn't understand why he did it. I still don't understand. I was so damned scared, I couldn't stop shaking. He... he got out his machete and..." Tony couldn't speak then. Instead, he rolled up his sleeve to reveal a web of random scars, reaching up to his shoulder, " They're all over my back, too. It gets worse. When they found us, I could hardly stay awake. Frank came in to negotiate, find out what the guy wanted. He didn't want anything. Just wanted to kill. He got Frank too. " Tony's voice became a sob, " He killed him, tortured him, right there, right in front of me... I..." He stopped then, tears streaming down his face. Gibbs leant over and hugged him, holding him close, like he would a child. At that moment, to Gibbs, Tony seemed like a small child on need of some love.
" I didn't get on with Frank that well, but he was my partner. My friend. I liked him. I even respected him in some ways. And that bastard Parks hacked him to death. I made sure he went away for a long time. He's never comin' back. He died in prison, two weeks before he was due to be executed. I almost felt sorry I didn't get to see him die." Tony's voice hardened, the sob almost completely disappearing, " That bastard deserved the harshest punishment he could have."
That night was a hard one for both Gibbs and Tony. They had ordered pizza and sat watching movies until two in the morning. They both went to bed, Tony let Gibbs sleep on the sofa after copious warnings not to damage the leather, to which Gibbs replied with an indignant, " You dropped pizza on it!"
As it turned out, Gibbs didn't get much sleep that night anyway. Tony's sleep was plagued by nightmares, and Gibbs had to get up every five minutes to calm him down and reassure him that everything was gonna be alright. Finally, Tony seemed to settle down, but Gibbs couldn't. He lay on the sofa, trying to imagine what it must have been like for Tony, and wondering how the kid could have gone through that and come out the other side the man he was. He grinned. You could always count on DiNozzo to come through all right. Nothing much managed to get the young man down.
That morning, when Tony ambled into the kitchen to get him breakfast, he found Gibbs already sitting down, a piece of toast in his hand, a glass of orange juice in the other. Gibbs grinned at him and he couldn't help laughing at the way his boss was already at home in Tony's flat. When they'd both calmed down and got over their hysterics, Tony asked, " What's up, boss?"
An hour later they ran into the bullpen, about half an hour late. Kate looked up at them in surprise as Tony said, " Y'know, if you'd let me drive, we wouldn't have got lost. I know the way from my apartment to here."
" Is that so, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, " So how come you're always late?"
Tony glared at him as he sat down at his desk, then at Kate, "What are you looking at?"
As they tried in vain to dig up something on their murdered marines, Kate leaned over to talk to Tony, " Did Gibbs really get lost?" She asked, smirking.
" Nah." Tony replied, " He stopped for coffee. Wouldn't let me get anything." He added grumpily.
Kate laughed, " Seriously?"
" Seriously."
" Huh." Gibbs looked up and she quickly moved back to her own desk and began typing again, more furiously.
Gibbs got up, grabbing his coat and gun. He beckoned to Kate, " We're gonna have a look at that club again, DiNozzo, stay here, go see what Ducky's got."
Tony nodded, grateful that Gibbs wasn't going to make him go back to the club again. He got into the lift to see Ducky, and got out feeling slightly nauseous and dizzy. He guessed it was the heat, this summer was turning out to be pretty hot. He entered autopsy, and was almost overwhelmed by the smell of dead bodies.
" It's this heat," Ducky explained, " Makes them rot faster, and I had to have them out on the tables for the autopsies."
" Yeah." Tony leant against the cool wall outside autopsy, having thrown up for the second time in two days.
Ducky put a hand on his shoulder, " How do you feel?" He asked.
" 'M okay." Tony said in a tone that told Ducky in no uncertain terms that no, he was not alright.
Ducky sighed, " Anthony... What's the matter? This wouldn't usually effect you in quite that way."
Tony sighed. He really didn't want to talk about it. His head was swimming, his throat and head hurt, and all he really wanted to do was find out the results of the autopsies.
" Not right now, Ducky. I promise I'll explain when all this is over. But right now I need those autopsy results."
"We'll need to go back into autopsy to look at the x-rays." Ducky said.
Tony nodded, " 'K."
They stood in front of the x-rays, both of them with grimaces on their faces. It smelt really bad. Tony looked at Ducky and made a face. Ducky looked back and made a face at Tony. They both laughed, and, feeling more at ease with each other, turned back to the x-rays.
" So," Ducky began, " Your three marines. Well, I must say, they are a sorry lot. All three had their throats cut." He made a violent gesture across his own throat and an example, " Then, a bullet was fired into each of them." He turned to Tony, " This is your territory really. I didn't find much else. They've been dead approximately 56 hours ago, so probably late the night before you found them. Also, I found shards of glass imbeded in their feet. I sent them up to Abby for analysis. Cause of death was the slashed throats. In fact, this reminds me of a case in Seattle once...
" You were in Seatle?" Tony asked.
" I've been a lot of places, Tony. I've had a great many years in which to do so!"
Tony laughed, and threw him a mock salute as he left.
He bounced into Abby's lab ten minutes later, armed with a carton of Caf-Pow! and a PDA. The first sound he heard was loud rock music, then he could hear Abby talking excitedly to someone over the telephone.
" Agent McGee?" He asked when she had hung up.
" Don't be so nosy, Tony." She said, " And yes, if you must know, it was."
Tony grinned, then, getting back to business asked, " You got anything on those glass shards Ducky sent up?"
She swung round, and scooted her chair over to sit in front of her computer where she brought up the page with her results on.
" Looks like it's just normal glass, Tony. Sorry. You know, the type you get in just about every window in the state."
Tony frowned, " I didn't see a broken window anywhere."
Abby looked at him, " From what I heard, you weren't in their very long."
" I have an excellent memory Abbs." Tony looked affronted.
She punched him playfully, " Sure."
He pretended to storm out, head held high, then turned back at the last minute and gave her a grin and a wink. She shook her head and laughed.
Tony looked up from his desk to see Kate and Gibbs come back. Kate look exhausted. Gibbs, on the other hand, hadn't broken a sweat. Yep, he was definatly glad Gibbs had spared him the horror of that club! Kate slumped down at her desk and looked over at Tony.
" You'd better have something!" She growled, " He's going nuts! We didn't find a thing over there!"
Gibbs came over, " We could use an extra pair of eyes." He said to Tony. He actually looked apologetic. Kate was surprised, " Tony... what's going on." She looked between the two men, " Well?"
Gibbs gave Tony a questioning look. Can I tell her? Tony nodded. Gibbs waved Kate over to his desk. Then he whispered something to her. She looked over at Tony, a sad look on her face. He gave her a small smile, and she smiled back, reassuringly this time. He sighed. Why did it always take something like this for her to be nice to him?
Gibbs and Tony sat in the bar, both ordered a pint of beer. They stared at the drinks. They drank the drinks. The bartender, a friend of theirs gave them both a refill. They stared at the drinks. They drank the drinks. As the bartender was filling the glasses up again, Gibbs turned to Tony.
" There has to be something we've missed!" he exploded, slamming a clenched fist down on the table. Tony looked round as a few patrons stared. Most of them were regulars, and used to the two men. They turned away almost immediately. A few stared at them until Tony waved them away sharply. They went back to their drinks, leaving the pair alone again.
Tony sighed. He was sitting in the back of Gibbs' car, sandwiched between Kate and Ducky. For once, Gibbs was driving far below the speed limit. It was starting to worry Tony. Especially because it was hot, he didn't want to be there, and with all the people crammed into the damned car, it was getting hotter! He wanted to get wherever they were going as soon as possible so he could get out of the car. And damnit, if that meant driving above the speed limit, then so be it! But, the policeman in him kicked in, and he couldn't bear to let Gibbs get away with breaking the law, so he kept silent.
An hour later, stuck in a traffic jam, with Gibbs getting more and more impatient, and the other two getting more and more cranky, Tony began to feel like he was going to become claustrophobic if he had to spend another minute in the car. Thankfully, it wasn't long until they got to their destination, the crime scene. But once there, Tony changed his mind, and had to be coaxed out of the car. He really didn't want to be there. On the other hand, he knew the club better than any of them.
Tony stepped into the club, and felt the memories gush back, filling his brain, making him want to cry out. The pain of the machete hacking away at his flesh, the sight of his friend being killed, the face of the killer. They invaded his mind, blocking out all his other thoughts, taking over. He shook his head and came back to the present. Gibbs was giving out orders.
" Kate, take the back of the club, kitchens and so forth. Take Ducky with you. Tony, you're with me."
" Gibbs," Kate started, " We've been over every inch of this place! What do you expect us to find that we haven't already found?"
" We didn't have DiNozzo with us the last time. He knows the place better than us, and he has better vision and better instincts than you, Agent Todd! Now hurry up!"
Kate and Ducky left, a bewildered look on Ducky's face. Kate stopped Ducky when they were far enough away for the others not to hear them. Then she told him about Tony's previous experience in the nightclub. Ducky looked horrified.
" Who would do that to young Anthony?" He said.
The club suddenly seemed different to him, darker, the walls seemed to close in. It seemed soiled somehow.
Tony and Gibbs started scouring the club for any clues. They were about done when Tony straightened up from under a table, and asked, " You did look upstairs, right?"
Gibbs looked at him, " There's an upstairs?"
" Er, yeah."
" Oh." Gibbs actually looked abashed, " Where?"
Tony looked around, " You see that door over there? Behind that."
A grey door stood over in the shadows. Gibbs and Kate stood staring at it, surprised that they'd missed it, slightly embarrassed. Tony, taking the lead, gun out, opened it. He swung his gun round.
" Clear."
They walked up the staircase behind the door, emerging onto the top floor of the club.
" It's reserved for, uh, private parties." Tony said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Gibbs nodded, slowly. They looked round, checking for people.
" Clear." Tony.
" Clear." Gibbs.
" Clear." Kate.
Ducky looked round, " Something bad happened here."
Tony nodded.
They found what they were looking for shoved under the tatty looking sofa in the middle of the room. Tony pulled it out with a flourish, shoving it unceremoniously into the recorder. They slumped onto the sofa to watch it.