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 5: One Year Earlier – A Familiar Face

The next day Gibbs entered the bullpen 30 minutes early. He was wearing his favorite sears outfit, and he had two cups in his hand—one a large coffee, the other a small hot chocolate. He walked to his desk, signed in to his computer, and began [slowly] checking his messages.

15 minutes later, Gibbs looked up when he heard the elevator ding. McGee and Ziva were getting off, chatting about some movie Abby had dragged them to see the pervious night. Gibbs grunted and went back to [slowly] responding to his messages.

30 minutes later, the elevator dinged again. This time, however, when Gibbs looked up, he didn't see anything. For a moment, he was puzzled. But then he heard quick footsteps and high-pitched voiced saying "Mista Jefro! Mista Jefro! I's here!" Gibbs chuckled. He might not be able to see Tony, but he sure could hear him.

"Hey buddy! You ready to get to work?" Gibbs asked as the kid climbed into his lap.

"Uh-huh!" Tony replied ecstatically. "Mista Toby gots me a SCIN badge an evryting!"

"Good job buddy!" Gibbs replied. "Ok, so today we're going to be looking through a lot of pictures, and if you see anyone that looks familiar, you let me know, ok?"

"Uh-huh" Tony replied. Then he pulled a tablet and a pencil out of his backpack and exclaimed "I even gots a not-pad so's I can make notes in da case pile"

Gibbs decided that McGee was only allowed 5 cackles today. He was already down one. Gibbs rolled his eyes at his probie, grabbed the binder of mug shots, and begin going through them with the kid.

Tony had the best intentions, but he was 4 and he had the attention span of…well…a four year old. So after much wrangling, Gibbs had resorted to bribery. He promised the kid that for every book of pictures that they went through, he would buy him a hot chocolate. Still, the kid was bored with a capital B.

So, Tony did the only logical thing a four year old could do. He started asking questions.

"Are des all bad guys?"

"What did dat guy do?"

"Why dos dat guy hab a picter on his face?"

"Can I gets a picter on my face?"

Gibbs tried to keep the answers as PG as possible.

"Yes, they're all bad guys."

"That guy stole a lot of…candy…from some…candy…sellers."

"That guy has a picture on his face because he's an idiot."

"No, only bad guys get pictures on their faces."

Finally, somewhere in between McGee's maniacal cackling, Ziva's methodical knife-cleaning, and Tony's moaning about wanting more hot chocolate, they came across a picture that shut Tony up with a quickness. Gibb's had been zoning in and out of the conversation with the kid, but quickly became alert when the kid's ramblings suddenly stopped. He looked at the picture that Tony had stopped at, and covertly gave McGee a heads up to start looking into the man who's picture they'd stopped on.

"Ummm…Mista Jefro?" Tony asked confusedly. "I fought you said des were all bad guys."

"They are all bad guys buddy." Gibbs replied assuredly.

"Nu-huh. Dis isn't a bad guy. Dis is my docta. He's Docta Louis. He cleans my teeth. See!" Tony replied, smiling widely, and showing of his clean teeth.

'Well…hell.' Gibbs thought at he gazed at the profile picture of one Stephen Holders, brother to ****.

Gibb's Case Notes:

- The guy was a dentist who invested in DiNozzo's pyramid scheme

- The money he invested was for drug dealers

- Tony didn't pick the guy out because he was a bad guy, but because he knew who it was.

- Problem 1—Gibbs now had to explain that Dr. Louis was a bad man and that if Tony ever saw him in public, he should come find Gibbs immediately.

- Problem 2—The guy had a list of Tony's allergies, his medical history, and his contact info.

- Problem 3—Gibbs needed coffee.

- Problem 4—If Gibbs got coffee, he would have to get the kid a hot chocolate.

- Problem 5—Gibbs was going to actually have to have a conversation with the kid about his chocolate addiction.

- Problem 6 – McGee was going to have a permanent tickle in his throat if he kept cackling so much.