AN:

This chapter is kind of long so if you like to read chapters in one setting like I do I felt it was only fair to let you know that this chapter is over 4000 words long.

With that... please enjoy! :)

Ghostly Clues

File 2:

"Like we said before. That's all we know…" Mrs. McColan said wringing her hands together anxiously as her voice shook. She was sitting across from Special Agent Ziva David, who was doing some follow up questions as Tony searched the girl's room. Gibbs and Tim were out scouting the surrounding area for possible places the girl could have been picked up. "We caught her sneaking out a couple times… we grounded her and she promised never to do it again." It was clear that the news of her daughter's death hit her hard. Hands still shaking she curled them into her sea-foam colored skirt.

"Though knowing her she probably figured one last outing wouldn't hurt." Mr. McColan said gruffly his grey eyes distant as his right hand gripped the fabric of his jeans tightly. The pull of fabric revealed a glint of metal showing just above his shoe. Ziva noted that the man had had a limp as he walked in. An amputee it seemed.

The experienced agent tried not to let it get to her. Tried not to imagine what kind of turmoil the man must be suffering to learn to live with a new limb only to have another piece of his life wrenched away, while still in recovery no less. It shouldn't have been hard after all their cases and her past, but it was something she found surprisingly difficult not to ponder. She couldn't let herself feel too much for the family, after all, it was a rule, one of about a billion of Gibbs unlisted rules, to never get personally involved in a case. Though, she mused, Abby would say that there was nothing wrong with sympathizing, as long as it didn't blind you to the evidence. The Israelite assumed it was one of Abby's own rules.

So deciding not to dwell on the tragedy Ziva simply nodded with understanding.

The mother just shook her head, as it fell, her face falling behind her auburn hair in despair. Her husband's arm was resting protectively over her shoulders and tightened his grip on her left shoulder squeezing lightly. It was the least he could do to keep her grounded. "Do you have any idea yet what happened to her?" The man asked his jaw tight as he held back his no doubt turbulent emotions.

Ziva shook her head. "I'm sorry but I can't disclose any information, but trust me when I say we will do all we can to find out what happened to your daughter."

"Yo." Tony said walking down the stairs a small book in his latex-gloved hands. "I found Merry's diary. It may help us figure out what she did when she snuck out."

The grieving mother took in a shuddering breath. "If it will help."

"It will." Ziva said then stood wiping her hands on her slacks before she held out her hand to the two. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Mr. McColan pushed himself to stand and took her hand. "Thank you. Thank you for taking my daughter's case."

The following Day:

Danny Fenton was walking with his friends down the street laughing at some joke Tucker just told when his ghost sense went off. His laughter stopped immediately and he looked around seriously for the source. His legs were bent ready to send him sprawling into a nearby bush. The area was calm though and the few people who were around weren't startled in the least. "Where's the ghost?" Sam finally asked.

Danny relaxed a bit. "I guess they were just flying by." He stepped into the bush they'd stopped in front of, dropping out of sight, and after a flash floated out as Phantom. "Better safe than sorry though. I'm going to do a quick sweep to see if I can't find it."

"Sound's good." Sam nodded in approval. "We'll meet up with you at the Nasty Burger for homework later."

"We'll see you there man. Call us if it gets dicey." Tucker waved as he and Sam started walking away, certain their friend could handle things.

Danny hovered slowly through the air following the faint feel of the ghost into an alleyway. There he saw a girl curled in the corner shivering. "Can I help you?" He asked his guard up. He'd been played a fool one too many times by ghost pretending to be in a state of distress to just assume that she was seriously upset.

The figure flinched their glowing shoulders tensing. As the ghost turned its body to look to him their eyes widened. It was a girl, the ghost, about his age with pale bluish-gray skin, grey hair, and hollow yellow eyes. Danny stared, his breath catching as he took in her features. He'd know that face anywhere. Her image was all over the TV. She'd gone missing nearly a month ago. "Merry?" He whispered. There was a hollow cry as her face twisted with fear and pain, then before his eyes, she vanished. He couldn't even fill her presence anymore. He spun around, the alleyway suddenly feeling frightening. "Merry!" He cried hoping she'd return and talk to him. Tell him what had happened. The more popular consensus at school was that she had run away.

Seeing her as a ghost and remembering the feeling that closed in on Danny's stomach when he heard that scream told him that that wasn't the case.

He rushed home, shifting back to Fenton as he landed in the bushes outside of his house. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his friends. "Guys. You'll never guess who I just saw." He felt his voice tremble in his throat his body shaking uncontrollably.

Outside of the Cheese King, he'd never met a ghost that he associated with a previously living person and he only barely made that connection. Having never met the man in life. Sure, there were stories of Poindexter but the association of a student from the 50's was so distant he hadn't ever wrapped his head around that one. So Poindexter was just a ghost, nothing more. This was the first ghost he'd encountered that he'd known- well that he'd at least been somewhat aware of- in life. It shook him to the core. He pushed open the door as he spoke. "Merry McColan."

"What about her?"

Danny's head snapped up at the unfamiliar and gruff voice. His eyes met steel gray. "Wha- W-who are you?" Danny stuttered.

The man grabbed the phone from Danny's hand and spoke into it. "He'll call you back."

"Hey!" Danny reached for his phone as the man snapped it shut, effectively ending the call. "That was important!" Danny snapped.

"Danny." Maddie said and Danny glanced behind the man to see his Mother and Father sitting on the couch looking worried. Another man standing by the coffee table looked to him with scrutiny. "Be a dear and come sit down."

Danny frowned. His mother was talking slowly her smile forced. Not sure if he was in trouble or if these men were upsetting her he decided it was best to listen. The man that took his phone glanced at it an irritated look on his face. Sighing the older man grabbed Danny's shoulder and wordlessly placed the phone in the boy's hand. Danny took it uncertain and sat down next to his mother. She placed a hand around his shoulder, draping her arm across his back, and his confusion grew. "What's going on?" He asked fiddling with the phone in his hands, letting it roll unpredictably in his fingers. "Am I in trouble?"

"No sweetie." Maddie said squeezing his shoulder.

"Then…" Danny looked at the man with the scary eyes and the pepper white hair. He felt a shiver run through him as he let out an involuntary noise he could only describe as a squeak of fear. Danny wasn't sure he wanted to get to know this man.

The stranger's eyes narrowed slightly. "I am Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. This here is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. My team and I are here investigating the disappearance of Merry McColan."

Danny felt a twinge of relief but forced it behind a sliver of disappointment. "Special agent? Like FBI?" Was he really getting scared by some government lackey? He wasn't even a ghost hunter (thankfully) from the sounds of it.

The other man, Agent DiNozzo seemed to tense at this. "Actually NCIS." Danny blinked at the man incomprehensibly. Said man sighed in response. Ruffling his immaculate hair, the man straightened. "No one ever knows who we are." Nodding to Agent Gibbs the man continued. "We are a part of the Navy Criminal Investigation Service. We investigate deaths related to Navy officers."

Danny blinked again his face openly confused. "Merry was in the Navy?"

The brown-haired man's body fidgeted slightly as he held back a laugh. "No." Agent Gibbs said seriously, stilling Tony's mirth with a glance. "Her father is though." Plus, she was found in a Navy supply truck but that was need to know.

"I see." Danny said. "So you came to find out who killed her?"

Agent Gibbs features went stone hard immediately. Danny was startled and shrunk into the couch surprised that the stern man could manage to look more intimidating and so quickly too. The sense that a ticked off tiger was standing before him with its fangs bared flashed through his mind momentarily as the man spoke. "That's not public knowledge." He said a growl in his voice and Danny swallowed roughly. Silently he wished he was dealing with Skulker at the moment instead of this man. "How do you know she's dead?" He demanded leaning forward. Danny swore he saw a raging aura of fire towering over the man. Radiating the sense that he was ready to pounce.

Maddie and Jack looked to Danny surprised. "Danny?" His mother's voice was quiet with worry. His father's was contorted with confusion.

"I…" Danny shivered. It hurt to think his mother might be questioning his innocence. "I saw her ghost today." The truth slipped out. Danny couldn't lie, he was too thrown by this strange agent. It made no sense, he'd been telling white lies for months. Dodging the GIW for nearly just as long. Yet, he felt that if Gibbs caught the lie the metaphorical sense that he'd swallow him whole might become a reality. Not only that, Danny didn't want to keep his encounter with the girl a secret. Not in the least.

Scarily enough the man's face only got harder. "You expect me to believe that?"

"You saw a ghost!" Jack asked excitedly. "Where!? When? Was it fully corporal or was it more like a shadow?"

"Later." Gibbs snapped effectively quieting the excitable man. Jack didn't even pout he just snapped his jaw shut and nodded an affirmative.

Shocked by the feat Danny swallowed, he was trapped, the frightening glare holding him in place. Tony silently pitied the kid, just a bit, even if he didn't believe him. It wasn't easy being under Gibbs scrutiny. "I- in an alleyway a few blocks away from the mall on the way home. She was crying- I- she was crying..." Danny looked down realizing that was what she was doing. "I asked her if she needed help." He swallowed licking his lips as he glanced up to see those silver eyes boring into him. He looked down at the cellphone now resting in his lap repressing a shudder. Though from the glare or the memory he wasn't sure. "I –I recognized her face when she looked at me. She looked so scared." His body was trembling uncontrollably now. "She didn't say anything- she just screamed." His fist tightened around his pant legs.

"Danny?" Maddie asked worry lacing her voice as he went silent.

Danny shook his head. "She screamed and then she just... vanished." He looked up his gaze meeting the man before him. His eyes were wide and his brow knitted together in worry and confusion. "I've never had a ghost do that to me before…"

"I don't believe this." Agent DiNozzo said sounding irritated as he mumbled to himself. Something about something in the water. Gibbs ignored his partner and stared Danny down.

Danny stared right back the worry morphing into a silent challenge. His eyes as steady as his body wasn't, Gibbs couldn't help but feel a bit impressed. It wasn't every day someone could counter him in a stare down. He saw a resolve in the kid's eyes that screamed honesty. "Look." Gibbs said sliding further back into the lazy chair across from Danny the angry tiger vanishing in a flash. The change in the man's mood didn't escape the notice of DiNozzo, who looked on, his brow razing slightly, with surprise. "I know this town has a thing for hauntings- but you can't really expect me to believe you saw this girls ghost."

"Why not?" Danny asked his voice cracking slightly. "I see ghost every day. The school's a hot spot you know."

"That's true. In fact, me and Mad's have been looking into it as of late." Jack Fenton nodded a hand on his arm from Maddie stopped him before he went on a tangent that would certainly irritate their guest.

Gibbs spared the married couple a momentary glance, daring them to say more. Turning his attention back to their son he sat forward and pressed. "You see ghost every day?" Danny nodded. "How do you normally react to their presence?"

"Uh…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck with his hand unable to look directly at him. "I usually run away…" The lie was so habitual it slipped out naturally but Danny still had to avert his eyes, worried this stranger would still see through it.

"Then how could you have gotten close enough to tell this thing- whatever you saw- was a ghost, let alone that it was Merry?" Gibbs pressed.

"I…" Danny hesitated. "I didn't… I didn't think she was a ghost at first." He swallowed, looking down again, hearing how weak the lie sounded in his own ears but there was no way he could say he sensed her. That he originally thought she was a threat. Actually, he frowned a moment, wondering if she, in fact, WAS a threat. He had very little experience with newly formed ghost. Those steely gray eyes drug him out of his worry's and bit out all the courage he had to continue the fib.

Jack nodded seeming to accept it. "A fully corporal phantom can trick the eyes."

Gibbs watched as the boy in front of him bit his lip nervously. The kids right hand was rubbing at the back of his neck. 'He's lying.' Gibbs decided.

"It's a nice story." The agent pressed. "But unfortunately ghost don't exist."

Fist tightening Danny glared at the man. Feeling insulted for some reason. "I know what I saw!"

The two got into a glaring contest that neither one wanted to lose. Tony wasn't sure if what he was seeing was real. Hardened criminals turned to blubbering fools under that glare but the boy reciprocated it in kind. It sent a shiver down the man's spine.

Finally, Agent Gibbs rubbed his brow and let out a sigh as he leaned back looking up to the ceiling in what looked to be a silent prayer. His eyes went back to Danny with a stern gaze, less accusing and more thoughtful and searching. The difference was so great from the look of certain accusation he was getting before that Danny felt like a physical weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Okay…" Gibbs said slowly deciding he needed to approach this differently. "Say I believe you saw this ghost."

"Boss?"

Gibbs held up his hand stopping Agent DiNozzo as he pulled out a small notebook. "Where did you see her?"

"An alleyway." Danny said his body visibly relaxing. "Between the bowling alley and the laundromat- about 6 blocks from here." Danny felt a sliver of relief washing through his gut. It was like Gibbs was giving him a second chance and with it, there was the possibility that these men would not flat-out write him off as a liar, a crazy ghost fanatic, or worse, a killer.

Gibbs was surprised by the change in the boy as his defenses seemed to suddenly vanish. "Did you see anything else?"

"No." Danny shook his head. "Just the girl. It kind of freaked me out… I rushed home after I saw her…" Danny felt a flush of embarrassment redden his cheeks at the admission. Though, the adults in the room could never guess at how shameful it felt for the ghostly hero to admit that the encounter had frightened him. Gibbs studied the boy a moment. The boy either changed his strategy as quickly as Gibbs had or he was telling what he believed to be the truth.

Gibbs scribbled the info down in the small notepad before he snapped it shut. Scrutinizing the boy before him once again. If he was telling the truth, he wondered why he was so defensive before. He thought of the conversation and tried to suppress a grin. A possibility coming to mind. Testing the theory he accused the boy. "You don't want us to know why you were in the alley." Danny looked down his legs beginning to bounce.'Bingo.'Deciding that was enough Gibbs moved on.

"I see." He said ambiguously. He didn't care what the boy was doing, it had nothing to do with their case.

There was one more thing he had to clear up, though, before they left. "Were you aware that this girl had a crush on you?"

Danny's head shot up like a bullet his eyes going wide with surprise. "W-what?" This news was unexpected. Danny didn't think any girl gave him much thought. His cheeks reddened at the implication. Tony tried to hide his laughter at the boy's reaction.

"We found her diary." Agent Gibbs continued pulling out said book as he flipped it open. "It has a lot of you in it."

"Isn't that kind of invading her privacy?" Danny asked. Then stopped as he saw the confused irritation cross the man's face. "I mean… just because she's dead doesn't mean she doesn't deserve to be treated with respect."

"I'm not going to go read it off a soapbox." Agent Gibbs retorted. "We're trying to find out what happened to her. Outside of complaining about the "crappy" school system here and a few odd stories about ghost you're the only person she writes about in detail."

"That's kinda creepy." Danny said slowly frowning in thought. "I didn't even know her. I mean I saw her around school sometimes but I only was able to make a link between her face and her name when the missing posters started popping up."

Gibbs and Tony shared a look. "So you didn't know Merry?" Agent DiNozzo asked.

Danny shook his head. "Not really. No."

Gibbs let out a long sigh. "Alright. I think that's everything." Blinking in surprise Danny watched as the Special Agent stood up and held his hand out to his parents shaking theirs firmly. Then he held his hand out to Danny. "Thank you for your time."

Danny stared at the offered hand a moment his mind reeling. He wasn't sure whether Agent Gibbs suspected him of murder or not. Nervously he took the man's hand. "I hope you find out what happened to Merry." Danny said sincerely.

"It's my job to solve these kinds of mysteries." Gibbs said curtly.

Danny let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, smiling broadly at the agent before him. He somehow felt that Merry had nothing to worry about. "Good. Maybe if you help solve her murder she'll be able to rest and we'll have one less ghost around here. God knows we don't need anymore." Gibbs just stared at Danny for a moment, not glaring, more observing. As if he was trying to process the boy's existence. It lasted long enough for Danny to start fidgeting uncomfortably. Then without a word the man turned and headed for the door.

"That's a nice sentiment." Agent DiNozzo quipped. "Too bad ghost don't exist."

Danny just grinned at the agent in a slightly amused and somewhat mischievous manner.

Tony froze, momentarily disturbed by the boy's expression. 'What kind of face is that?' He wondered before his boss's voice cut through with a sharp: "Tony!" Gibbs' bark broke him out of his unexpected staring contest.

'Man that kid can hold a gaze.' Tony thought uneasy.

"We'll be back if anything comes up to bring your statements into question." Gibbs said opening the front door. "Tony, let's go!" The field agent scurried out the door per his superior's orders. Danny watched them leave a slight smile still on his face before it fell as an unease crept up into his stomach. His mom pulled him into a hug telling him how proud she was of him.

Once on the street, Tony found a relaxed pace next to his boss. Pretending to be cool about the experience. "So…" Questions were rattling through his brain and he couldn't shake the feeling that Danny wasn't… right. He also didn't want to accuse Gibbs of believing in ghost but he seemed to be taking the kid's statement at face value.

Gibbs came to a sudden stop. "What is it DiNozzo?"

"What was that about?" Tony asked. "It's rare for you to just leave things like that."

"My gut's telling me this isn't where we need to be."

"What about Rule number 39?!" Tony asked and began to tick off his fingers. "You can't tell me this isn't coincidental. Our first suspect being the son of ghost hunters. The town claiming to be haunted. The kid saying, he saw a ghost. The ghost excuse is just too convenient. Besides, there were points when that kid wasn't able to look you in the eye. He was lying."

"True." Gibbs said. "He lied about running from ghosts, about why he was in the alley, and about thinking it wasn't a ghost at first, but he wasn't lying to us about seeing something. As of now, it's the only lead we've got. So we should check out that alley."

"Still… that kid gives me a bad vibe." Tony said. "Plus, we didn't even ask him for an alibi."

"Don't need one."

"But-"

"I feel like we won't find anything connecting him to our vic outside of this book." Jethro Gibbs said lifting the diary. "It states clearly that she never talked to him, that she was convinced he didn't know who she was. He confirmed that he had little awareness of her prior to her going missing."

"He was talking about her when he walked in." Tony said.

"She's all over the news." Gibbs countered.

Tony shut up, realizing that Gibbs had made up his mind to look elsewhere. Tony silently decided to keep tabs on the kid. Just in case. Gibbs' gut was usually right, but this time Tony's gut was screaming something fierce. Something just wasn't right about that boy.

"Forget about the kid." Jethro said seriously catching on quickly to his agent's thought process. It was easy to guess. Gibbs also felt there was something more to Danny Fenton, but he wasn't there for Danny. He was in Amity Park for Merry. "Focus on the case."

Tony worked his jaw a bit before he obediently followed his boss to the alleyway that sent the case flying.

Ziva sighed as she and McGee sat in a small hotel room. Abby's face on the screen of McGee's laptop. "So Merry's body was found dumped in a small supply truck as it was coming onto the base. The only reason we even know that Merry is Merry is because she was carrying her school ID card and dental records confirmed her identity."

"Right." McGee said.

"I'm analyzing some weird substances found on her clothes as we speak but there's almost no evidence on this end." Abby pouted a bit.

"We've been over this already!" Ziva said barely hiding her frustration.

"Well, something must have happened to get Merry's body all the way from Amity Park, Illinois to Washington DC." Abby said in a huff. "If you guys do your snooping thing you just might find something!"

"Well, where are we supposed to "snoop", as you say, if we have no point to start from?" Ziva asked.

"You could start at the school." Abby suggested. "Kids tend to be more perceptive than most give them credit for. Someone might have heard something that could give us a clue as to why Merry may have been out that night."

"True, but school's out for the day. We won't be able to talk to any students until tomorrow." McGee said covering his head with his arms. "Gibbs is not going to be happy if he and Tony get back only to find we've done nothing."

"Well… why don't we take a walk around town?" Ziva suggested. "See if we can't find the places the kids hangin and maybe talk to them today."

McGee stared at her blankly for a moment. "She means 'hangout.'" Abby clarified for McGee.

"Oh. Right. Good idea."

"Really?" Ziva asked Abby. "It's hangout? That makes no sense."

"Its slang Ziva it doesn't have to make sense." Abby said grinning. "But trust me. It does."

"I think Tony was saying something about a Burger place earlier. That could be a good place to start." McGee said as he headed for the door.

"A good place to start or a good place to satiate your hunger?" Ziva teased.

McGee paused then blushed. "Both." He made for the door almost passing off his desperate retreat as an urgent stride. "Let's just get going."

The Israelite followed with a smirk after closing the laptop.

AN:

This is the longest "Chapter" I've ever written.
I could have broken it up a bit... but it all felt like it went together... besides I was trying to keep the number of chapters in this story down...
though lengthening the chapters in order to do so might be cheating... I mean it was a one-shot idea that I wrote a little over a year ago... and I changed the end here...
I had originally just had the interaction with Gibbs and Danny. (I greatly edited/extended it) Writing the interaction between the two was fun but I feel like I focused too much on Danny's unease and Gibbs glaring too often...

Then I ended it kind of ambiguously with the team going to the alley and suggesting that they were going to meet the ghost... leaving it up to the reader to imagine what happened next... but after fleshing it out and adding more detail and clues I felt that ending was unfair... whoops...

I just opened another story... *sigh* Well, I guess since I plan on catching up on all of my writing in December you guys can expect me to spam FF. Well... that is if I don't psych myself out of doing so... I did warn on my profile I would probably start new story's...

I don't know exactly when I'll update again but I feel like it'll be in about a week. I have that much written. Then after that it'll probably be 2 weeks and I'll be out of school for brake!