Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or anything associated with it. No money is being made from this work. Also, I messed around with the NCIS timeline. So, there will be familiar elements, they just may not be in the order, or context from the actual show.
Fiction (n) – invention or fabrication as opposed to fact.
Chapter 2: One Year Earlier – Tobias Fornell's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Tobias Fornell was having a bad day.
His car was in the shop.
His daughter had called him old-fashioned.
His favorite tie had a spot on it.
His daughter had called him old-fashioned.
His caseload was growing exponentially.
His daughter had called him old-fashioned.
His boss had just given him a new money laundering case.
His daughter had called him old-fashioned.
His alimony check hadn't been sent yet.
And, his daughter had called him old-fashioned.
'Ok.' He thought to himself. 'Time to prioritize.' As Fornell was getting ready for the day, he mentally began crafting his to-do list. 'Once the cab takes me to get my car, I'll run by the post office and then drop off the tie and some suits at the cleaners. After I get some coffee, first thing I'll do is go through the case files and funnel some of that load off to the new rookie Sacks. After lunch, I'll start digging to find out everything I need to know about this POI, Anthony DiNozzo Sr. And, sometime in between all of that, I'll Google what the hell it means to call someone "a salty Susan".'
With this plan of attack in mind, Fornell walked out of his house and started his day. Everything was going pretty well, and he was mentally checking things off of this to-do list, until he started digging into the DiNozzo case.
Fornell's Case Notes:
- Anthony DiNozzo Sr. is a serial spender and a serial dater, but he's not an embezzler. He has friends in high places, and friends in low place, but when those friends meet, he makes bad decisions.
- DiNozzo went in on a business plan with two former marines, Lieutenant Michael Graves and Lieutenant Alex Holders, and the plan turned out to be one massive and convoluted pyramid scheme with a side of money laundering.
- As a result of some poor planning, poor leadership, and poor ethics, one of the marines (Graves) ended up dead, one (Holders) ended up on the run, and DiNozzo ended up with a hit out on him.
- Being shot at is what probably spooked DiNozzo the most, and is probably the only reason he brought the case to us. (Fornell scratched that part out. He was trying to remain impartial.)
- DiNozzo Sr. agreed to testify against everyone and everything in exchange for being placed in Witness Protection.
- Problem 1—his four-year-old son Anthony DiNozzo Jr. DiNozzo loves and values his son, but he loves and values his own butt even more. (Fornell scratched that part out as well. Being impartial was hard.) DiNozzo wants the kid in Witness Protection as well, just not with him. He feels that it would be a bit much to have to constantly be looking over both of their shoulders.
- Problem 2—separating the father and son would be unprecedented in this situation, but the only way DiNozzo would talk was if the kid was taken care of…and as far away from DiNozzo as possible. (Fornell was going to have to redo his notes because of all of the scratch outs.)
- Problem 3—the kid definitely had to have some sort of protection seeing as he both saw and spoke to all the member of the embezzlement group.
- Problem 4—the kid was currently in some holding room at the FBI. No one knew for sure if it was Holders who had put the hit out, so DiNozzo was holed up in some fancy hotel and the kid was here.
- Problem 5—he was going to have to call Gibbs.
AN 1: "POI" = person of interest
AN 2: Thanks to everyone for all of the kudos and comments!