Sandblast [part 1]
...
3rd Person POV:
In the bullpen McGee watched with mild incredulity as Tony stood there pouring sugar into his coffee cup from one of the giant dispensers you would find at a café.
"One and a half teaspoons of sugar is not sweet McGee." Tony told him as if it were obvious, letting the white crystals continue to pour into his coffee.
"I've seen many of my people pour three ounces of sugar into a one ounce of espresso." Tony continued, giving the sugar one or two big shakes to prompt it to fall faster. McGee looked at him in confusion.
"Your people being….long islanders?" he asked, turning back to his filing while Tony finally closed the sugar up.
"Romans." Tony corrected, placing the sugar inside the cabinet McGee was working on.
"Inventors of the grain harvester, the arc, modern plumbing." Tony grinned, picking up a small container of travel cream and shaking it vigorously.
"I'm really regretting making you watch that show on the history channel." Claire muttered, watching him sugar up his drink.
"Plumbing, huh. Well now every time I flush I will think of you, Tony. You and your people." McGee quipped. Claire snorted out a laugh, quickly she quickly covered up with a cough. Tony playfully narrowed his eyes at the them, still shaking his cream.
"I would ask you to explain that, but I really don't want to know." Ziva commented with a frown as she placed her bag down at her desk.
"And I definitely don't want to know what you're doing." She added, eyeing Tony as he continued to shake his arm back and forth vigorously.
"Making cappuccino, Ziva." He showed her the cream.
"And educating Probie about what Italy has contributed to the world. Oration, Italian chinema, sports cars.." he sighed wistfully.
"Gold chains and chest hairs?" she added teasingly. Tony ignored her.
"Pasta in all its sexy shapes and sizes." He grinned, mixing his drink before putting a lid on it.
"The Chinese invented pasta." Claire corrected, sipping her drink. Tony's grin died as he stared wide eyed at her.
"Communist era propaganda." He deflected weakly.
"Tony, we both sat through the show…" Claire pointed out.
"I think you fell asleep during the part where they talked about pasta."
"You fell asleep. Snoring and everything."
"I. Don't. Snore."
"You do on occasion…" McGee and Ziva shared a grin of amusement as the two continued to bicker about pasta and snoring.
...
Shortly after getting the call the NCIS team pulled into the Army-Navy club's golf course where a colonel, who had been golfing with his son, was blown up in a sand bunker. The agents stepped out of the van to see the crime scene already crawling with army men.
"Looks like we're late to the party." Tony mused. Gibbs flashed his badge, leading the others under the crime scene tape.
"Assume a 100 meter blast radius from the sand trap." Gibbs informed the team.
"It's called a bunker, boss. Not a sand trap." Tony instantly corrected. Gibbs turned to stare at him, causing Tony's heart to stop for a beat.
"Blast radius of 100 meters, got it boss." He quickly corrected, avoiding eye contact.
"McGee, you got the woods. I got the far side." Tony instructed, already heading in his designated direction. McGee paused, making a noise of hesitance. Everyone turned to look at him curiously, Gibbs walking back.
"What McGee?" he spat. Tim blinked nervously.
"Uh poison ivy boss. I…I just…I look at the stuff and I break out." he explained with a wince. Gibbs shrugged.
"Don't look." with that, McGee reluctantly headed for the woods.
...
Claire's POV:
Ziva and I followed after Gibbs to the blast site.
"The Zakkas will be busy today." Ziva mused. I frowned shooting her a confused look.
"Zakkas?"
"Orthodox Jews who volunteer to collect body parts from terrorist attacks." She explained, glancing over all the parts lying around the grass. As Gibbs knelt down to examine the bunker a voice came from behind us.
"Agent Gibbs?" he turned and spotted the woman in army drab holding her hand out towards him.
"Lieutenant Colonel…Hollis Mann. Army CID." The woman introduced, pausing for a beat as Gibbs turned to face her. My eyebrows shot up at the pause. The two stared at one another stoically and I made myself scarce….yet remained within earshot to overhear what was sure to be an interesting conversation.
"I believe your director called..."
"She did." Gibbs held out a hand towards the two of us.
"Ziva.."
"Ziva David and Claire Conners. I know." Colonel Mann cut off his introduction with a nod. Ziva and I shared at glance. Colonel Mann obviously did her homework.
"Army criminal investigative division has excellent intel." She elaborated, ignoring the stare Gibbs was giving her.
"Then you can use it to support our investigation." he muttered, leading us towards the edge of the scene. Ziva and I trailed in the back, making notes about the crime scene while watching Gibbs and the Lt. Colonel talk.
"Joint investigation." Colonel Mann corrected as she fell into step with Gibbs.
"With Army in the lead. Its not the Navy-Army club, it's the ARMY- Navy club." She emphasized pointedly.
"Yea, but that is a dead marine at the Army-Navy club." Gibbs countered, pointing to the torso of the victim. Colonel Mann bit her cheek as Gibbs walked off.
"I had EOD's sweep the rest of the sand traps." She informed Gibbs once she had caught back up with him. I certainly admired her persistence. Most people would be attempting to chew out Gibbs by now.
"Bunkers." Gibbs corrected. I smirked at the irony of that comment. He was trying really hard to get a rise out of her.
"Excuse me?"
"They're called bunkers, not sand traps." Gibbs elaborated. Colonel Mann closed her eyes in annoyance.
"The colonel's son said he saw what he thought was a spider web in the bunker." She continued on with her overview of the scene.
"Trip wire?" Ziva inquired from where she was examining the ground nearby.
"Possibly, there's not much to go on with this one." Colonel Mann nodded to the charred sand.
"We've got a lot of land to cover." Gibbs nodded silently.
"18 holes on a golf course." he commented, standing opposite from her but still in her personal space. I watched silently with a frown at all the conflicting body language signals that were going on between the two. It was so angsty.
"Do you wanna divide them up?"
"Sure, we'll take the crime scene. You and your people can take the other 17 holes." Gibbs informed her snarkily, turning to face the woman. She grinned wryly.
"You're not taking away my crime scene, end of story. But if you ask nicely I might just give you the body." Colonel Mann told him with her own taunting grin. Ziva and I continued to glance back and forth between the two, equally intrigued and weirded out by the chemistry going on between them. Gibbs tilted his head in thought.
"Well…..I don't really have to ask. My ME got here first." He pointed out Ducky who was hopping out of his own van. Colonel Mann crossed her arms.
"Ok, if this is going to be a pissing match then you better bring an umbrella." She informed him sternly. Gibbs bit back a grin as they stared one another down. The few seconds of charged silence followed until someone finally broke it up.
"OH HO! I got some good news boss!" Tony shouted eagerly as he came jogging towards the group. He slowed and frowned as he stared at the new woman with the boss.
"Did I miss something?" he asked me under his breath as he passed.
"Gibbs just found his fourth ex-wife." I muttered, still eyeing the duo uncomfortably. Tony shuddered minutely.
"What do ya got, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, turning away from the colonel.
"I found this off the next tee. It was outside of the blast radius; the wind must have carried it. Looks like part of a detonator." Tony held up the piece of black material for them.
"I checked the neighboring tees myself." Colonel Mann frowned at having missed something that significant.
"Well maybe you should have checked the trash cans." Tony grinned pointedly.
"Looks like a hole in one boss." he added cheekily as he placed the piece into the evidence bag. Gibbs grinned at him.
"Nice work." He complimented, taking pleasure in the Colonel's put out expression.
...
Back at the office I stood in one of the side rooms, monitoring the interview with the son on from the camera feed. Tony sat with him in one of the conference rooms, taking Josh's statement. We felt it was best to have a one on one talk to ease the boy's nerves. Also, this way I could 'stare' at him and analyze his body language without making him feel uncomfortable.
"I can't believe he's gone." Josh murmured in disbelief. He was bandaged and banged up, having been near his father when the blast went off. Poor kid.
"It's like I hear myself say that, but I know it's a stupid thing to say." He huffed. Tony looked up at him.
"It's not stupid, Josh." Tony assured him softly, going back to writing down the statement.
"If you told me he was still alive….that what I saw was a trick, I….I think I would believe you." Josh continued, staring blankly at the table. He looked over at Tony, his eyes wide and vulnerable. Tony softened, seeing the terror and heartbreak in the young man's eyes.
"Maybe we should finish this tomorrow." He whispered in concern. Josh swallowed and shook his head.
"I'll be at Princeton tomorrow." He explained.
"Dad wouldn't want me to miss my first day of classes." Josh mused quietly. Tony nodded.
"Okay." He agreed in understanding.
"You saw a spider web in the bunker you said?" Tony continued, looking up at Josh for confirmation.
"Yea….at least I thought so. Until my dad hit it…..I should have said something….." Josh huffed, getting more worked up as he went.
"There was nothing you could have done." Tony assured sternly. Josh sent him an annoyed stare.
"That's another stupid thing people say." He grumbled. Tony pursed his lips in though and shrugged.
"Well I got a million of them." He grinned, leaning back in the chair.
"You should ask my coworkers they'll tell ya." He added. I laughed lightly, watching the interaction with a grin. Tony continually protests that he's bad with kids but he truly does have a gentle side. Plus his continued humor tends to ease the tension. I continued watching as Josh stared at Tony before nodding minutely.
"Ok what else you got?" he asked.
"Everything happens for a reason." Tony shot off, he grimaced and shook his head in a 'its such a stupid saying' manner.
"Yea that would have pissed me off." Josh agreed.
"But you could do better." Not one to back away from a challenge, Tony scrunched his face up thoughtfully.
"When your time is up…your time is up."
"I hope you got more skills than that." Tony grinned, leaning forward.
"In the immortal words of Elvis Costello….Oh! accidents will happen." He looked at Josh with wide eyes, gauging his response. Josh laughed bitterly.
"Yea I probably would have stuck my fist through your skull if you had said that." He nodded with a tight grin, some of the tension easing away.
"Soft skull actually." Tony muttered distractedly.
"Except this wasn't an accident was it?" Josh commented, staring at Tony, wanting the truth. Tony's easy demeanor dimmed.
"No." he whispered honestly.
"You know I thought we were fighting them over there so we didn't have to fight them over here." Josh huffed tightly. Tony didn't answer.
"Maybe they need more help huh?" Josh muttered distractedly. Tony eyed him, worried about the meaning of the boy's tone.
"Look you just worry about Princeton ok? We'll find who did this." Tony assured.
"Like you found Bin Laden?" the boy pointed out. Tony had no response. After a beat of silence Tony gathered up his papers.
"I think that's all for today. The agents outside will escort you out to meet up with your mom downstairs. Josh nodded silently before making his way out the doors. Once that door had shut I made my way in from another entrance-way.
"I think we should keep an eye on him." I commented distractedly, staring over at the door Josh had just left. Tony's eyebrows shot up incredulously.
"You don't seriously think he had anything to do with this do you?" I turned to look at him. I quickly shook my head, realizing how that must have sounded.
"No of course not. I just meant in general with this whole situation. He's supposed to be leaving for college tomorrow, but I don't think that plan will hold out. I just don't want him to make a quick decision out of revenge." I explained, taking a seat next to him. Tony nodded absently.
"I'll check in on him." he assured. I smiled at him, to which he eyed my face in confusion.
"What?" he asked warily.
"You were really good with him. It's nice to see that side of you every so often." I nudged his arm teasingly. Tony rolled his eyes but I caught a glimpse of a blush before he turned his head away from me.
"Let's head on downstairs." He cleared his throat and quickly made an exit. I grinned in amusement as I followed him out.
...
3rd Person POV:
Down in the bullpen, McGee was pulling up photos they acquired from the Army-Navy Club before the bombing.
"There it is." he announced, finding the photo they were looking for.
"Okay good, punch in on that." Colonel Mann requested as she stood next to Ziva. McGee did so, zooming in on the car in the background that she had pointed out.
"An entire license plate." Tim mused.
"I'll update the BOLO." Ziva told them, heading back to her desk.
"BOLO for what?" Tony questioned as he made his way towards the desks, Claire trailing behind.
"When we cleared the course we marked down everyone as they left but we don't have any record of this '99 Toyota leaving. The owner's a groundskeeper at the club." Colonel Mann explained.
"He could have used an old service entrance and snuck out before we covered them all." McGee added helpfully.
"Nice catch McGee." Tony praised.
"Um actually it was my catch." Colonel Mann corrected before turning towards McGee again.
"Let's see if we can get an address on this." she instructed, not noticing Tony's mocking once she turned her back. Claire reached over and smacked him scolding.
"Does Gibbs even know she's here?" he muttered sourly. Sharing a look with Claire he quickly picked up his desk phone. Claire glanced around and spotted a familiar figure up on the balcony above them.
"Uh Tony." She poked at his shoulder but he swatted her hand away.
"Yea, Gibbs."
"Hey boss, DiNozzo here." He muttered lowly so not to be overheard by the Colonel. From the balcony behind him, Gibbs frowned. He leaned on the ledge, staring at the back of Tony's head.
"Hey DiNozzo!" he shouted, without the phone. Tony slowly looked up in confusion before spinning around to find Gibbs with the director. Gibbs waved with his cell in hand.
"That…that's weird cause I thought you were still in MTAC." Tony chuckled in embarrassment, still on his desk phone.
"Why didn't you warn me?" Tony muttered out the side of his mouth. Claire smirked.
"I did try." Tony scowled.
"What do you want?" Gibbs asked.
"We.."
"..just found an unaccounted for vehicle. From the Army-Navy Club." Colonel Mann shouted over Tony, causing everyone to feel uncomfortable with her taking charge on their turf. Gibbs promptly made his way down to join them.
...
After being sent home for the night Claire slung her bag beside the door as she entered her house, Tony close on her heels. She slipped off her shoes, tossing them by the wall under the coat rack.
"I was surprised Gibbs let us go home earlier for the night. Usually he would bite our head off if we suggested going home before midnight." Claire commented, heading straight into her kitchen to grab a water.
"Tony do you want anything to drink?" she called. Tony fidgeted from his spot in the hall by the door.
"No, I actually need to be heading out. I have plans tonight." He explained, glancing down at his watch. Claire peeked her head around the door frame.
"Oh with who?" she inquired. He hadn't mentioned anything about plans to her. Tony shrugged.
"Just with a friend. I told them I would help with something." Claire frowned curiously, fulling walking into the living area. He was being vague.
"Do you need any help?" she continued.
"Nah, guy stuff." He quickly assured her. Claire nodded, not fully satisfied but didn't want to push.
"So where did you say you were meeting him?" she asked curiously, taking a sip of her water. Tony instinctively opened his mouth to answer her but caught himself. He frowned.
"I didn't." he reminded her pointedly. Claire shrugged with a grin.
"Is this really a secret errand for a certain director?" she asked seriously. Tony bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. Claire sighed and made her way towards him. As she approached he opened his arms and held her, nuzzling her hair as she pressed her face against his chest.
"..are you sure I can't help?" she asked quietly. Tony internally sighed at how small she sounded. He hated hiding things from her.
"I'm sure. It's just something I need to take care of." He whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Claire nodded. Backing away she smiled tightly.
"I won't hold you up then." Tony nodded, the lump in his throat preventing him from commenting. As he turned to open the door she spoke up.
"Are you planning on going home after or should I expect you back here?" Tony stared at her for a moment as he thought about it.
"I'll be back. But don't feel like you have to wait up, it might be a while." He explained. Claire nodded, waving as he finally left. Walked over to the window and watched as he drove off. This whole thing with the director was getting old and as of late had been much more frequent. He was out at least once a week doing who knows what. Something was wrong about all this and she didn't like feeling as useless as she did. Biting her lip, Claire waited for him to be well out of sight before walking back over and grabbing her shoes. Maybe she could get some advice from an outside source.
...
Claire made her way to Gibb's house, not at all surprised by the lack of a lock on the door. She made her way towards the basement where the light was on. However, at the sound of voices she slowed, peering around the door frame to spot Gibbs and Colonel Mann who was out of her fatigues and actually dressed up. Claire's eyes widened in mild horror as she watched Colonel Mann shed her coat while walking to get the beer. But that wasn't the disturbing part. Gibbs had taken the bait and leaned over to stare at the woman's backside and legs in the skirt she was wearing. He quickly jerked his attention back to his boat as Colonel Mann turned. Claire couldn't even concentrate on what was being said as Gibbs turned to the side, crouching to paint the back of his boat. Colonel Mann momentarily paused her sentence as she caught sight of Gibb's ass. Claire shuttered and quickly exited, not wanting to stay any longer. It was just to disturbing to watch. Getting advice would have to wait for another time.
...
Across town at a café Tony sat across from another woman, a laptop in front of him.
"This hypothesis states that the transplanting of embryonic cells is independent of their new position in the embryo." He dramatically read off from the laptop.
"The Mosaic Hypothesis." Jean Benoit answered with a grin.
"I'm sorry, I'm going to need a complete answer." Tony pestered pointedly.
"What is the Mosaic Hypothesis." She sighed with a grin, appeasing the man. Tony smirked, closing the laptop.
"Correct. Hot and smart, the female version of me." Tony mused, leaning back to sip on his coffee.
"Oh…so you think I'm ready for the exam tomorrow?" she asked with an amused grin, bypassing the compliment he had given her. Over the past month the two had grown from acquaintances to friends. The man had literally show up at her hospital one day and from there had gradually wormed his way into her life. However, as of late she had been getting attached to him on a more romantic level. How could a young single woman not notice how attractive he was?! And Tony oozed charm, but what she was most intrigued by was the heart he had buried under all the goofball antics. She wanted to know him better, but he wasn't picking up on any of her hints. That and he seemed to be a flirt naturally, so for now she was just being his friend and wait for an opportunity to open up relationship wise.
"I have 20 bucks saying you're gonna set the curve." He assured her kindly.
"Okay that's good to hear. Because that means…I get to ask you some questions." She hummed thoughtfully.
"Fire away." He nodded for her to continue.
"Alright how's a uh….how's a kinda cute, very charming guy like you who does some bad impersonations.." Tony chuckled, ignoring the compliment.
"I don't know…what that means…but I thank you." He muttered in a godfather accent, getting Jean to giggle and hopefully away from her flirting.
"….manage to stay single for so long." She finished, staring at him intently. Tony stared at her in stunned surprise.
"Oh you're….you're gonna ask a real question…that's a real question." He rambled uncomfortably, unprepared for something so serious. They had steered clear of these types of conversation so far but he figured he couldn't keep it a superficial friendship for long. At least not for what the director wanted from him.
"Um…what are commitment issues." He answered with an easy grin. Jean laughed.
"Uh uh, not buying it." She denied.
"Really? And why is that." He asked her curiously. Usually that would do it for other people.
"In the last hour…"
"Yea?"
"…at least a dozen hot coeds have walked by. Your eyes haven't wandered once." She pointed out to him seriously. Jean snickered at Tony who was now wildly looking behind him for these coeds.
"Really?" he hummed, hoping to joke his way out. He hadn't been noticing other women in that way for a while now.
"Well obviously yours have." He shot back teasingly. Jean laughed in surprise at his implication.
"Don't get your hopes up. I'm a very um…traditional girl." She muttered, taking a sip of her coffee. Tony stared down at his own drink, taking care not to notice her eye contact. This needed to remain platonic.
"Well so was Anne Heshe." he shrugged, getting her to giggle again.
"You still haven't answered my question, Tony." She insisted, not letting him avoid the question as he would like.
"Okay…okay.." he conceded, settling into his seat as he seriously thought about his answer without giving up too much about his real life.
"Well I suppose that I am patiently waiting for the right girl." He answered honestly, a small smile flitting across his face as he thought of one particular girl that was back at home.
"Do you think you'll ever find her?" Jean asked, staring at him with a hopeful smile.
"I'm getting more and more confident by the day." Tony answered distractedly. Jean grinned and nodded, pleased with his answer. But what she didn't understand is that Tony's thoughts had gone to another woman. One with black hair and eyes a darker blue than Ms. Benoit before him.
...
Claire shifted slightly as she heard the front door open and close. As the footsteps neared her bedroom door she lazily dropped her hand to the underside of her bed frame, where she stashed one of her guns. Eyes still closed she grasped the weapon.
"Unless it's Tony DiNozzo, you had better leave now or risk getting your head blown off." She sleepily called. A low chuckle was heard from the other side of the door.
"It's me. I come in peace." He joked, slowly opening her bedroom door. Claire peeked one of her eyes open and grinned lazily. As Tony made his way into the adjoining bathroom to change she tilted her head to look at the clock on her nightstand.
"You're back earlier than I thought you would be. Everything go ok?" she inquired. Tony turned off the light before slipping into bed behind her. He tugged on her shoulder insistently. Claire laughed groggily and obliged, rolling over to snuggle into his chest.
"It went well, just ended earlier than planned." Tony explained, not elaborating further. She nodded.
"So, it went well?" she hummed in concern. He grinned thoughtfully, thinking back on Jean's question.
"Yea…it went pretty well." Tony assured, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Claire nodded and smiled, snuggling closer to his chest. The two lied there in silence for a moment.
"Want to hear something interesting?" he hummed in response to her question.
"Gibbs and the Colonel lady were checking each other out in his basement. Checking out one another's asses to be specific." She grinned at Tony noise of disgust.
"Why would you tell me that?! That's just wrong." He grumbled, smiling as her drowsy laughter rang out and vibrated on his chest.
"I'm sorry." She hummed halfheartedly, drifting right back to sleep. Tony rolled his eyes fondly before drifting off to sleep shortly after.
