Hung Out to Dry: Part One:
Antonia DiNozzo
Abby and Ducky were already waiting for her and Gibbs when they pulled up to the diner twenty minutes later, sipping on coffees and in the midst of a heated debate about the merits of using earlobe prints for identification purposes.
"Good morning lab rats," trilled Toni as she plopped onto the plush green vinyl of the opposite diner booth; Gibbs slid gracefully in beside her and reached across the table, pulling Abby's coffee right from her cupped hands. He took a long drink and grunted a "Hello."
"Same clothes as yesterday, Gibbs," Abby wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Who's the lucky lady?"
Toni snorted.
Breakfast was a fun affair. It was full of quips, teasing barbs, blueberry pancakes and crispy bacon. As Toni suspected, Gibbs announced the addition of new member of Team Gibbs - one Caitlyn Todd.
After Gibbs picked up the tab the ladies separated, heading to the strip for shopping and pedicures. Busy as they were the two women were steadfast friends and often went shopping or out for drinks and as Toni browsed through racks of designer clothes she found herself idly wondering if soon Kate would be joining her and Abby for sleepovers and movie nights.
"How do you feel about Agent Todd, Toni?"
"I don't know yet; I hope it goes better than it did when I first joined."
"Have I ever apologized for that."
"Not this week." Both women threw their heads back and laughed, but Toni knew Abby wasn't truly at fault. She rubbed people the wrong way, played to their idea of her instead of pushing to prove them wrong; there were a lot of people - even a few people at NCIS - that wondered how such a silly little girl could possibly be a federal agent.
Toni stepped over the threshold of her apartment again hours later, exhausted, and laden down with shopping bags which were tossed - as all things were - on the glass table before going through her nightly routine. By ten o'clock she was sound asleep in her bed.
The next week and a half are run of the mill. Toni catches up on paper work and gets ready to welcome Agent Todd by clearing out the desk that will be hers and enlisting Gerald, Ducky, Abby, and even Gibbs to host a "welcome to the team" lunch together on Todd's first day; she can see how bemused they are by Toni's effort, but truly Toni just wants to be liked by the older woman. Her teammate. And being the new girl can be hard!
Everyday Toni is at work by 06:00 coffee placed on Gibb's desk, her second chai tea of the morning set precariously at the corner of her tidy workspace. She leaves work on time every night, bar one, but even then is home and asleep by 10:00pm. Alas, it was never meant to last.
The call comes in a little after midnight, and Gibbs - surprise - wasn't answering his phone. Toni does her best to fit herself into a pair of tan straight leg pants in the dark. She finds a black wrap-around shirt and (she hopes) matching pumps, before digging her purse out of the pile of bags on her table and flying out the door in record time, tying her long hair back in a very messy ponytail as she hightails it down the stairs, her keys dangling from her mouth.
When she pulls up to Gibb's house soon after leaving her own, she sends up a prayer that he isn't asleep. As if he isn't crotchety enough when he's awake. She checks his basement first, and that is luckily where she finds him; a rerun of some old football game is playing on the small television on his workbench. Gibbs is busy working away at his boat. "We got a call," Toni says without preamble. "Quantico. Marine got killed in an exercise."
He looks at her for a moment as if to will her away. "How?"
"Night training jump. Guy's chute didn't open. Boat's coming along." Toni toys with the idea of descending further into the basement, but something about Gibbs's current aura has warning bells ringing in her head. She remains planted at the bottom of his basement steps.
"His reserve chute failed to open?"
Toni hesitates. "I don't know."
Gibbs says nothing.
"I tried your cell; I tried your hard line, too. I see you, uhh, didn't want to be disturbed." Toni doesn't know what else to say. He's ripped his phone off his wall, and his cell is submerged in something looking suspiciously like either brandy or polyeurethane.
"Don't ask."
"...I wasn't planning to," she lied.
"You call Ducky?"
"No, not yet;" He gave her an annoyed look, which spiked her temper. She was appreciating his shortness less and less. "I was trying to get a hold of you."
"Give me your cell," Gibbs demands. Toni holds it out for him as he passes her by on the stairs. He snags it none too gently. Toni purses her lips but says nothing. If he wants to be a grump she knows by now to simply keep quiet and keep out of his way.
"Coming, DiNozzo?"
"Asshole," she mutters. Then louder, "Yeah. I got the li-" she's plunged into darkness. "The light. DICKHEAD!" she yells and doesn't care if he hears her.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Gibb's bad mood is only darkened further when they pull up to the scene to find the NCIS mobile response unit is already there and ready to work. Fortunately, before he can think too much on their tardiness they're met by a marine to fill them in on the Sergeant's manner of death.
"He impaled an SUV?" DiNozzo exclaims in horrified awe.
"Like he was laser-guided, ma'am," the Marine says after glancing at her sceptically. Agent DiNozzo visibly sighs and Gibbs can feel a growl bubbling up in his own chest. Between her age, her attitude, and frankly, her gender, people rarely take his SFA seriously, which is just as annoying - if not more so - for Gibbs than for DiNozzo, if only because he was the one who had to put up with her after each incident. The more DiNozzo was treated as the young, ignorant blonde she appeared to be, the more she took to that role, and while the duplicity had been constructive on more than one case, God did it give him a headache!
Attempting to diffuse the situation before she could start in on the dumb blonde act, Gibbs takes over the questioning. "Where are the other jumpers?"
"Over there, sir," the marine indicated with none of his earlier hesitance. He pointed out a group of exhausted and upset looking men. "They landed in the drop zone 400 meters north of the road."
"Just one stick?"
"Yes, sir. I guess the Jump Master held the others back when the victim's chute didn't open."
"Did you secure the paraloft and the aircraft?"
"Yes, sir. I also have the Marines who didn't make the jump under guard at the hanger."
"Yeah, put them with the others," Gibbs snapped. "Just keep 'em all separated."
"Yes, sir."
"These the witnesses?" Gibbs asks as they approach two shaken teenagers. The young girl has tear tracks on her cheeks.
"Yes, sir."
"My dad's gonna kill me," the girl cries to the medic, or anyone that'll listen. "He's on duty, and he doesn't know that I took his SUV."
They spend a few moments speaking to the witnesses before Toni struts off toward Ducky. Gibbs thinks she certainly put more sway into her hips than was strictly necessary, but the marine beside him doesn't seem to share his sentiments. He sighs at the man's incompetence. The juvenile male witness continues to snark at him and Gibbs can feel the vein on his forehead throbbing as the interview continues.
Gibbs sighs again and thinks of his bourbon and his boat.
Donald Mallard
"Hey Duck," Toni greets.
"Toni, my dear," Ducky says as he begins to ascend the ladder erected for him to get to the Sergeant. He can see she's not in the mood for conversation and so he begins to fill the silence with inane chatter about a party he threw for his nephew and the pinata he'd hung. Toni listens raptly from below.
Ducky is still up on a ladder examining the deceased when Gibbs finally makes his way over to the two. "What do we got, Duck?"
When Ducky swings around to mumble a 'hello' he sees immediately what has the dear girl hovering below him in such a subdued mood - Gibbs appears to be irate. Ah, Toni, we're in for a long few days. "Oh, abrasions. The tree must have slowed him a bit. Purple discoloration - neck's broken, I'd say. Hardly surprising given the rapid descent followed by the equally rapid deceleration."
"Witnesses over there said he groaned after he decelerated."
"It's possible," Ducky tells Gibbs. Below Ducky, Toni's head shoots up toward Sergeant Fuentes; she flinches. "I won't know until I do the autopsy."
"DiNozzo, stop standing around; go photograph something."
"Aye aye Bosszilla." Toni tenses up the moment the words leave her lips, but Gibbs doesn't give her a head slap. He doesn't even look her way. Instead, he goes about putting gloves on his hands and examining the victim's chute. Ducky can't help a little smile escape his lips at the apt moniker.
The field descends into a somber quiet for sometime as the lot of agents at the scene focus on their given tasks. The peace is broken only for a moment, by Gibbs, who's finished examining the dead marine's parachute. "Looks like a number of his shroud lines failed from natural wear. Enough of those go, chute doesn't catch air. It tootsie-rolls; puts you down like a roman candle," Jethro trails off thoughtfully for a moment. "Still got his reserve chute on. Why didn't he pull it?"
"Hey," Toni calls out eventually, just as Ducky finds himself descending his ladder. She's jogging toward them, Caitlyn Todd walking more composedly behind her. "Look who I found!"
Ducky's first impression of Agent Todd had been a positive one. She been professional - assertive, yet open, and he looked forward to working more closely with her. She stood next to Toni now; their strong, confident postures were unknowing mirrors of the other, though Agent Todd was dressed slightly less fashionably in a grey business suit and skirt, her shirt and heels a similar shade of red. Todd's hair was pinned half back. It occurred to the Doctor for the first time just then how much the two women resembled one another.
Both were sharply dressed and petite, neither women exceeded 5'5, even with their heels. While they each had wide set large, round eyes, strong narrow jaws and high cheekbones, Kate's were a lighter jade, while Toni's favored hazel. Kate was a brunette, freckled; Toni had dirty blonde waves and other than a few small moles, her skin was blemish free. Alone, either one of the beautiful, young woman would have looked out of place in this field surrounded by marines and federal agents, together they were a beacon of 'otherness', but each held their head up, their jaws were set, and they paid no heed to the judging eyes of the male agents working around them.
"MPs weren't gonna let her pass," Toni huffed.
"I got my Sig and badge, but HQ didn't issue my photo ID. I -" she glanced passed Ducky toward the body. "God, is this for real?"
Same empathy, the ME thought. "Unfortunately, my dear, it is."
It wasn't until Gibbs shoved a pair of gloves at Agent Todd, "Put 'em on." that Ducky realized he'd joined them.
"Ah, your first crime scene with us as an NCIS agent, Caitlin. Hey, Toni, let's take a team photo for posterity."
"Forget posterity," muttered Gibbs. "Sun's gonna be up soon." He shoved a box at the brunette. "Welcome to NCIS." Kate pulled a pair of boots from the box Jethro handed her and shot him a questioning look. He pulled out an extra NCIS cap and put in on Kate's head. "Put 'em on. Can't work a field in high heels."
"Toni's wearing heels." Kate points at Toni's feet and Toni lifts up her pant leg to show off her black kitten heels. Gibbs just roles him eyes and walks away while Kate calls, "And anyway, how did you know my size?"
"Depends on what kind of work your doing, right Kate? Personally, I don't think I could work a crime scene without them."
"Your mind, DiNozzo, runs the gamut from X to XXX."
"Well, yeah."
"Photos, Tony!" Shouts Gibbs, motioning Caitlyn to follow after him.
Ducky frowns; he begins to mull over Gibb's bad mood once more when suddenly, it comes to him. "Oh, dear, I should have realized the time of year," he says as he and Toni begin making their way back toward the car still holding their victim. She passes him a questioning glance. "It's the anniversary of his most recent marriage. Every year, ex-wife number three gets drunk on their anniversary and calls him. Repeatedly."
She frowns, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout and eyebrows pulling together to form a small 'w' in her forehead. "Listen Ducky, not to sound unsympathetic to Gibbs, but why doesn't he, uh, change his number?"
"I have no idea. In case you haven't noticed, Gibbs is a man of more questions than answers."
Gibbs and Kate return rather quickly, with Kate donned in her new boots. Her hair tucked up into her NCIS cap. Toni snaps a photo of her, winks, and says, "Hot." which produces a generous snort of Ducky, who then crawls into the backseat of the car just in time to hear "OW, Gibbs!"
"Thanks," Kate says hesitantly.
Caitlyn Todd
Toni DiNozzo is...something else. Too young, too eager, too cocky...and yet oddly refreshing; Kate found herself likely the quirky flirt against her better judgement.
The sun was just rising when Ducky said his good-byes the others, climbing up into the NCIS van that would take him back to his morgue, the man sat himself right beside the cadaver, waved them good-bye, and Toni shuts the van door for him before the trio is on their way to Gibb's car to take them to the base.
Kate slides right into the back seat, not wanting to step on DiNozzo's feet in the first hours of her first day of her new job. She is beyond surprised when the woman slides in beside her in the back, and gives her what Kate's sure Toni thinks is a winning smile. Kate is charmed despite herself.
"Don't you want to sit up front DiNozzo?"
"Kate, listen; if you never listen to another word I say again, heed this now. NO ONE wants to sit passenger when Gibbs is driving." Toni stares right into Kate's eyes for emphasis. After a solemn moment she continues. "Besides he's in a terrible mood, and I thought we could use the time to get to know one another better. Do you have any questions on the case yet?"
"Uhh, not yet; thank-you Toni." And Kate finds that she means it. She prides herself on being honest enough with herself to know that she doesn't like to be questioned, hates the learning curve. Somehow DiNozzo doesn't make Kate like a less than skilled agent, just new. It makes Kate feel more relaxed.
"Cool. Then, do you like music? Gibbs is going to get in this car any second now so your options are one of my earbuds and the best of Carole King, or absolute silence."
"Carole King."
"A wise choice."
Gibbs opens the door just as the opening notes of "It's too late" began sounding in Kate's ears. He shoots a questioning look at his SFA through the rear view mirror, but DiNozzo's already looking out the window, bobbing her head to the music. The only sign Toni gives that she's at all aware of her surroundings is a tightening of her fists against the door and the seat beside her when Gibbs starts the engine. Kate joined her in clawing for purchase seconds later as Gibbs peeled out onto the main road and whips around in the direction of the marine base. She never wants to ride shotgun if Gibbs is driving.
The marine base yields some results. Sergeant Fuentes was on painkillers for a clavicle injury, slowing down his reaction time, which could explain why he hadn't pulled his reserve chute. His men appear appropriately upset, and no more jumps would take place until the conclusion of the case.
Kate also learns more about her new team. DiNozzo is apparently an adrenaline junkie. On their arrival at the plane hanger she'd immediately bypassed all the marines in favor of the plane, which surprised Kate, though she didn't know why. Toni had gone on and on about how much she'd love to jump, until Gibbs effectively shut her up and she proceeded into the plane to compete her photographing.
Gibbs she finds, is a good liar, a great investigator, and an excellent teacher. He leads her to her own conclusions on Sergeant Fuentes's injury and the probability of his taking pain meds. She finds herself feeling more and more hopeful that this job will be a good fit.
Toni leaves her and Agent Gibbs behind with nothing but a quick, "see ya, Boss, Kate!" once they get back to NCIS and Kate thinks she'd better learn to stop being surprised, as Gibbs sure isn't. He doesn't even look particularly irritated that she's ditched them to do God knows what - though it's hard to tell with Gibbs. Regardless, she follows the man to autopsy where Ducky fills the two in on the long list of injuries the poor marine sustained, including a slowly healing hairline fracture to the clavicle. It was looking more and more like Kate was getting a cut and dry case on her first go with her new team. Maybe she'd even be home for supper...
Thanks for the support guys! Hope you like this one! It's still a bit slow going while I flex my word muscles for the first time in ages, but I hope I'm picking it back up. This one definitely wrote itself more quickly than the last one at least! Part 2 will be coming soon, but I wanted to get something out to you guys, and I think breaking them up into two - at least for now - will help me continue knocking them out. Thanks for the reviews; they made me feel really good. Love and Pixie dust. 3