A/N: Thanks to everyone following and reviewing this story! It's really wonderful!
On that note, some people have reviewed to point out where I've made a mistake or used a British or Aussie term instead of the American one -I'm an Aussie, and sometimes I forget the American term or I simply don't know it. So please feel free to point these out, I appreciate the help. :)
McGee had been correct about the girls' reaction.
The case the team were working had been solved by mid-morning, and Tony had decided to 'help' Xander learn his new job by having him do all of his post-case paperwork. Tony had then proceeded to loiter around Xander's desk all afternoon, distracting and annoying him as much as possible, before pointing out mistakes in the paperwork and making Xander redo it all. Xander had tried to take the harassment with good humour, but eventually his patience was wearing thin. He was frustrated and could feel a headache coming on. When one of the tic-tacs Tony was throwing landed in his ear, Xander snapped.
"DiNozzo, quit it!"
Tony grinned innocently.
"Is there a problem, Harris?" asked Gibbs mildly. He'd been sitting at his desk on and off through the afternoon, and Xander had no doubt he knew what was going on. And if Tony was messing with him so blatantly in front of the boss, then Gibbs wasn't going to stop it. So complaining wouldn't get Xander anywhere.
"No, no problem. Just some difficulty concentrating," Xander muttered, still glaring at Tony.
"Good," said Gibbs. "Because if you need more practice, you could always finish Agent David's paperwork too."
Xander stifled a groan. Gibbs wasn't just letting Tony get away with the hazing, he was adding to it!
"Actually, I have already completed mine," said Ziva. She got up to lean against the front of her desk. "I do hope you'll finish Tony's work soon though. I don't want to be kept waiting too long."
"Waiting?" Xander asked.
They heard the elevator ding and Abby bounded into the bullpen.
"Xander! You're coming out for drinks tonight! No arguments," she announced.
Xander groaned. "Abby, I'm not really up for it tonight. Rain check?"
"No way mister. Especially since you didn't invite Ziva or me last night."
"Invite?"
"Right, and it was totally not fair that you and Tony and McGee got to do your 'male bonding thing' without Ziva and I. So you are coming tonight, and I don't care if you've already told them everything about yourself, you'll just have to tell it all again." Abby emphasised her point by crossing her arms and glaring at Xander, daring him to turn her down. He suddenly lost the energy to point out that it wouldn't have been a 'male bonding thing' if the two women had turned up as well.
"Fine," he conceded. "I'll come."
"Good!" Abby gave him a grin to rival one of Tony's.
"He won't be going anywhere until that paperwork is done," Gibbs interrupted.
"Aww, Gibbs!" Abby turned to the older man. "Please can he finish it on Monday? Just this once?"
"Nope, reports have gotta be done, Abbs, you know that. However..." Gibbs leaned back in his chair and looked over at Xander and Tony. "I suspect it would go a lot quicker if DiNozzo actually helped complete his own paperwork."
Abby's mouth dropped open. "Tony! You're making Xander do your work?"
"It's a Probie's job, Abby," Tony replied, not even slightly apologetic.
"Abby. Palmer and McGee will be waiting for us," said Ziva. "Why don't we go on ahead and let these two finish up?"
"Good plan, Ziva!" Abby declared. She wagged a warning finger at Tony. "If you two take ages to finish up here, I'm blaming you!" They headed out.
Now that Tony had been motivated to get the reports finished, he managed to work quite well with Xander, and a mere twenty minutes later they were done. Tony grabbed the pages from the printer and dropped them on Gibbs' desk.
"That's everything Boss, so I'll just take Probie Number Three here and we'll be off... have a good weekend!" Tony motioned for Xander to hurry up and they headed for the elevator.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs barked. Tony paused.
"Boss?"
"Next time I see you throwing food or candy of any sort, I will keep the promise I made last time."
Tony frowned in confusion. "Last time?"
"You and Kate had a food fight."
"Kate, wow." Tony appeared to think, then realise. "Oh! Peas?"
"Peas, DiNozzo."
"Got it, Boss!"
Xander followed Tony into the elevator, surprised to glance back and see that Gibbs was grinning. He turned to Tony as the doors shut.
"Uh.. dare I ask?"
Tony chuckled. "Kate was my partner from some years ago; we got into a food fight across the bullpen. Gibbs said if we ever did it again he would join in."
"With peas?" That didn't sound so bad.
"Canned peas, Probie. Still in the can."
Xander laughed. Gibbs had a decent sense of humour under that grumpy facade.
"So Kate's on another team now?"
Xander had thought it an innocent question, but Tony stiffened and there was a brief flash of grief across his face. He didn't answer until the elevator doors had released them into the open space of the carpark.
"Kate was shot by a terrorist." Tony's voice was steady but subdued.
"I'm sorry," Xander offered, painfully aware of how much he hated that phrase when offered to him.
"Don't be, it was a long time ago now. Word of warning though: don't bring her name up with the others, and especially not with Ziva. That's a sure way to ruin a good night with bad memories."
"Were she and Ziva close?" Xander asked.
Tony snorted. "No. They never met. But the bastard that shot Kate was Ziva's brother."
Xander was surprised, and Tony caught the look. He chuckled, shaking off the serious thoughts.
"That's a long story Probie, and not one for tonight. Come on, better get moving before Abby decides to murder me in some untraceable way." He grinned.
Tony gave Xander a lift to the pub where the others awaited them. Xander stared out the window at the dark streets with interest, trying to see if there were any unusual shadows lurking about. Baltimore had it's share of demons, and he supposed there would be some here too. Nothing like Sunnydale's population of course, and not even anything like what Los Angeles or Cleveland had, but there would no doubt be some.
He had actually encountered the local vampire population in Baltimore on a number of occasions -only once or twice a year, but enough to remind himself why he carried a sharp stick and a dagger. On most of those occasions he'd stumbled across a hot young vamp, seducing it's meal in the alley behind a nightclub. Most had been fledglings, newly turned and consumed by their bloodlust, and therefore so preoccupied with their victim that they didn't pay Xander any attention until it was too late. He didn't plan to become any sort of demon hunter or vigilante, especially with only one eye and no backup, but when presented with such easy pickings he had to act. He would never willingly leave a victim when there was a chance to save them.
So the lead-less pencil he carried around had actually served it's purpose a few times. Not many, really: he didn't need all his fingers to count them, but still.
When Tony parked outside the pub, Xander still hadn't seen anything to indicate demon activity. He wasn't terribly surprised. Likely, the population here was subtle, or maybe they were an 'early morning' rather than a 'late night' crowd. He'd mention it next time he emailed Giles, see if they had any information on the area.
"This is our usual haunt, Harris," Tony announced, grabbing Xander's attention. "Quick enough to get to after work, but far enough from the Navy Yard to avoid a bar full of people we recognise."
The pub was nice enough, probably renovated a handful of years ago, unlike the older bar Xander had worked at in Baltimore. Tony led him straight towards the back, and Abby squealed in delight when she saw them, dragging Xander to a seat beside her. Tony went to fetch them each a beer while Xander patiently submitted to Abby's interrogation on his love life, favourite movies, childhood aspirations and music tastes, with other light-hearted questions and comments thrown in from the rest of the team. Much laughter and several beers later, he threw back a question about Abby's gothic style that he'd been dying to ask, and was relieved to find she didn't worship vampires, nor did she want to be one. This turned the conversation to the supernatural -without any further prompting from Xander -and sparked what was apparently an ongoing debate between Abby and McGee.
"I still don't understand how you can believe in aliens and magic and superstitions Abby! You're a scientist!"
"I don't understand how can you deny it outright Timmy! With jobs like ours, you should have learned to keep an open mind." Abby's argument sounded sensible enough but her grin suggested that deep down, she really hoped it was all real. Tim snorted as everyone else watched them in amusement. "New discoveries are being made all the time! There's lots out there we don't know about yet."
Tony interrupted. "Ziva believes in the supernatural, don't you, Ziva?"
"I do not believe or disbelieve, Tony. I was simply taught not to dismiss anything without proof," she replied evenly.
"How do you prove that something that is apparently beyond nature doesn't exist?" asked Tim in exasperation.
"Palmer!" Abby turned to the assistant medical examiner. "You'll agree with me. I'm sure you've seen things come through autopsy that you can't explain."
"Uh, well yes, all the time..." Jimmy stammered.
Abby cheered. "See? I knew it!"
"But I generally put that down to my own inexperience, and then Dr Mallard usually explains them to me," Jimmy finished.
Abby was undeterred. "Usually, but not always. Which is exactly my point."
Tim shook his head. "Abby, just because there might be something we can't explain, doesn't mean there isn't a perfectly mundane explanation. It just means we didn't find it."
"What about you, Agent Harris?" asked Jimmy.
"I only believe in things I've seen with my own eye," Xander replied with a grin.
"Gear up! We've got a dead dependant. DiNozzo-"
"Gas the truck, on it Boss."
"Harris, you part of this team?" Gibbs threw back as he walked out of the bullpen, Tony & Ziva right on his heels. Xander hurried to grab his newly-issued weapon and holster, and his backpack, and jog after his teammates. How the hell did they move so fast?
The deceased was the teenage daughter of a Navy Captain. She was found in the laundry room, on the basement level of the hotel they were staying in. At the scene, DiNozzo sketched, Ziva looked for evidence to bag and tag, and Xander was handed the camera and told to photograph everything. Preferring to take too many photos than risk missing something, he took the order literally. Several hours later, they were back in the bullpen. Gibbs walked in with a fresh coffee.
"What've we got?"
Tony jumped in first as they gathered around the plasma. "Emily Gray, 15, daughter of Navy Captain Joseph Gray and his wife Carol. The Grays have been staying at the Crowne Plaza for two months while Captain Gray is assigned to a three-month temporary position at the Pentagon. Mrs Gray is currently in Massachusetts visiting friends. She's on her way back now."
Ziva took over. "There was blood on the corner of a table in the laundry room, the swab I took is with Abby. I didn't find any other potential murder weapons. There are no security cameras in the laundry but the hotel gave us the tapes from the elevators. There is footage showing Emily travelling down to the basement, going back up, and then travelling down again an hour later."
"Probably to move the load from the washer to the dryer," added Tony.
"The Captain also mentioned his daughter had a boyfriend named Greg but they'd broken up a few weeks ago," finished Ziva.
"Does Greg have a last name?" Gibbs asked.
"The Captain didn't know it."
"She owned a cell phone, according to her father. We could probably find Greg's number in it," Xander suggested.
"But we didn't find the cell," replied Ziva. "I went through everything in the laundry and their suite. I even tried calling it."
"DiNozzo, contact Emily's school, see if they can tell us who she spent time with. If the school doesn't know this 'Greg', maybe her friends do. Ziva, find out who else may have been in or near the laundry around that time. Harris, find that cell phone." He walked off to visit Ducky and Abby.
Xander looked at his teammates helplessly.
"How exactly am I supposed to find her cell?" he asked.
DiNozzo grinned. "By going to the basement, of course."
"The basement?"
"Go sit in the peaceful silence of the basement, meditate upon the problem, and wait for the answer to come to you," Tony intoned.
Xander raised an eyebrow in disbelief but both Ziva and Tony had completely straight faces, and turned back to their own desks. He stared at them a moment longer.
"I wouldn't let Gibbs come back and see you still standing there," Ziva advised after a minute. Xander shook his head, hesitated once more and then headed for the elevator.
The doors opened into the basement level and Xander groaned in relief. Of course. The basement. Where McGee and the cyber crime unit were housed. DiNozzo had only been half pulling his leg.
McGee was typing busily with headphones on and jumped when Xander touched his arm to get his attention. He pulled the headphones off.
"Sorry," Xander apologised.
"It's fine." McGee hurried to reassure him. "What brings you down here?"
"Gibbs has ordered me to locate the cell phone belonging to a girl that was murdered this afternoon. Tony suggested I ask you for help."
"Well, it only works if the phone is still on..."
"It is," Xander replied. "Ziva called it several times; it would ring for a while before going to voicemail."
"Then sure, hang on." McGee tapped at his keyboard for a moment. "Okay, what's the number?"
Xander read it out. McGee tapped away again.
"Okay, just about have it... it is... at the corner of Headland St and Archer Rd. The Crowne Plaza Hotel, or very close to it."
Xander groaned. Would he have to search the entire hotel? McGee picked up on the reason for his disappointment and chuckled, wishing him luck. Xander trudged back up to the elevator.
An hour later, he was riding the elevator from the lobby to the bullpen for the third time in a row. This time the doors opened to reveal an unamused Gibbs waiting.
"You'd better not be wasting time playing with the elevator, Harris," he growled. Xander just smiled.
"No boss, I was just timing how long it took for the lift to get here." He held up his watch.
"And?"
"Sixteen seconds, every time."
"And you're going to explain how this is helping you find that cell phone?"
"Well, yeah." Xander hurried past Gibbs to the bullpen and brought up the hotel's security footage on the plasma. "I was checking the elevator footage to see if Emily had her cell with her when she went to the laundry. It's in her hand the first time, but not the second. But while I was comparing them, I noticed that the second trip took longer. The first time she only took 17 seconds, but the second trip was 23 seconds long."
"So?"
"So, you might allow for a difference of a second maybe, but six seconds? That's several floors."
Gibbs got it. "She wasn't coming from her own apartment." He strode out of the bullpen again. "Ziva, with me. And Harris?" he called back. "Good work."
Tony looked at Xander in awe.
"What?" he asked, not understanding.
"Gibbs complimented your work," Tony replied in an impressed voice. "And it's only your second week."
Xander shrugged, still not really understanding what that meant, but pleased nonetheless.
After that the case had moved quickly. It turned out that Emily had been sleeping with a married man she'd met in the hotel lobby, whose room was several floors above hers -they'd found her cellphone under his bed. When his wife had figured out what was happening, she'd followed Emily to the laundry room to confront her. The woman had confessed after being presented with the facts in interrogation. She hadn't meant to kill the girl, but when she'd shoved her angrily, Emily had fallen and hit her head on the table. The wife had panicked and left without checking if Emily was still alive.
Xander had done his share of the work in closing the case, and Gibbs had accepted his report at the end with a vague grunt. The boss hadn't said anything else to Xander about his performance on his first case, but Xander got the feeling that Gibbs was satisfied and possibly even happy with his efforts. And for the first time, Xander started to feel like he really could make a difference here. Not in the sentimental directly-change-someone's-life-forever way perhaps, but definitely in the having-something-to-contribute-way. Which was exactly what he'd been looking for.
Yeah, ok, I borrowed some of the details of the case from another show I love... but that elevator thing was awesome and I've wanted to use it in something ever since I saw it! Call it a homage.