Ok, so I meant to write this on Monday night and post it yesterday, but I didn't feel like it. Then I had half of it written yesterday and was going to finish but then remembered that the NCIS and NCIS LA finales were on last night and of course I HAD to watch those. And OMG! Did you see them! I won't give anything away in case you haven't, but holy crap! How can they end the shows like that and expect us to wait all freaking summer! They were so awesome though! But still, OMG! Lol, anyone else feel the same way?
Anyway, this chapter is a little longer and will be continued in the next chapter. Thanks to everyone who read last chapter and especially those of you who reviewed! I love the reviews you guys leave! Every single one of them! Especially when you point out that I've forgotten about something. I'm very good about forgetting things, so it's nice to have you guys remind me what I'm doing. And of course I love your suggestions! And thoughts!
WARNING! This chapter DOES contain underage drinking. I DO NOT in any way condone underage drinking OR drinking and driving!
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT! The idea for this chapter came from smush68! Thanks so much for sharing your idea!
When Amelia and Luke arrived at the bonfire there were about thirty people there already and the fire was going strong, which was a good thing since the temperature was dropping very quickly. They all stayed rather close to the warmth coming from the fire. Someone had brought a few cases of beer and was passing them out, but Amelia politely declined.
"You don't drink?" Luke asked as he popped open his own bottle. Amelia shook her head,
"No. My brother drinks a lot, more than he should, so I don't like to drink," she told him. Luke nodded,
"That's cool. Personally, I love beer," he said, taking a long drink. Amelia laughed at him as more of their friends walked up to them.
"It's so cold!" the girl known as Casey said, jumping up and down in place to prove her point. Her boyfriend Michael walked up behind her,
"Then stand closer to the fire," he told her, moving her gently towards the flames.
"Want a beer?" Luke offered. She made a face,
"Ew, no, beer is gross! Besides, someone has to be sober and take care of your drunken ass," she said teasingly.
"I don't get drunk," Luke told her.
"Sure, whatever you say." The subject was dropped and the small group drifted around, talking to various people and dancing. A few hours had passed since they arrived and the fire was still going strong. As Casey had predicted, Luke was well on his way to being drunk.
"Let's go for a walk," he said to Amelia, slurring his words.
"Sounds like a good plan, but let's leave this here," she said, taking the beer out of his hands and giving it to someone to get rid of. She figured a walk in the cold night air would do him some good and get him closer to being sober, that way he could actually drive her home. The two of them walked toward the edge of the clearing they were in, towards the dark woods, walking slowly so that Luke wouldn't fall over. As they walked he rambled on about anything that came to mind, causing Amelia to laugh at him.
"I hate to break it to you, but you're definitely drunk," she told him.
"No. No way, I am not drunk," he slurred.
"Ok, whatever you say." While she did not drink herself she had no problem with others who chose to drink. The group she had grown up with in New York tended to drink on several occasions, despite the fact that they were all underage, and she was used to it. They walked through the woods for a few minutes; the only light was from the moon in the sky, which wasn't all that bright. They had stopped for a minute so that Luke could look at something that had caught his attention. It was quiet where they were, though they could faintly hear the music coming from the bonfire. All of the sudden Amelia heard rustling in the bushes behind her. Turning around she examined the trees carefully but didn't see anything. The sound stopped for a minute before it started again,
"Do you here that?" she asked Luke.
"Hear what?"
"The rustling, someone or something is in the bushes over there."
"I don't hear anything. There's nothing there," he told her.
"Yes there is. C'mon, let's go back," she was a little frightened about what could be in the trees and she would rather not find out what it was.
"Not yet," Luke protested. She took his arm as the rustling got louder and closer,
"Luke c'mon. I want to go back! You seriously can't hear that?" As she spoke a figure burst through the trees, charging right for them. Amelia screamed and tried to move out of the way, pulling Luke at the same time. But Luke was much bigger than her and their reaction time was a lot slower than it normally should have been. As a result the figure that had come from the trees ran straight into them, knocking them over before falling on top of them. The fall seemed to sober Luke up a little and he quickly pushed the person off of them and jumped up, pulling Amelia up along with him.
"Are you ok?" he asked, looking her over. She nodded nervously and they looked at the person who was still lying on the ground. Amelia moved closer slowly,
"Hey, hey are you ok?" she asked, nudging the person a little but keeping her distance. He didn't move, "Hello?" Luke moved in front of her and gently flipped the person over. Amelia gasped at what they saw. The man had blood all over the front of his body and there were stab wounds visible on his arms.
"Oh my God," Luke said, pulling Amelia away as if the man would suddenly jump up and attack.
"Is he dead?" she asked fearfully, trying not to look at the body.
"I don't know, but we have to call the cops," he said, pulling out his phone and making the call. After calling, they quickly made their way back to the clearing, warning the group that cops would be there soon and they should probably clear out, though they didn't tell anyone why they knew that cops would be there soon. People quickly grabbed what was left of the beer and began dumping water on the fire before taking off for their cars. As Amelia and Luke were about to get in the car they saw flashing red and blue lights pull up behind them.
"Crap," Luke said, still slurring his words slightly.
"Don't talk," Amelia told him, "They will be able to tell that you've been drinking. Just let me talk to them." A cop came up and knocked on their window, which Luke rolled down,
"Are you the kids that made the call?" the officer asked.
"Yes sir," Amelia answered, "The guy is through the woods over there," she told him, pointing.
"Alright, well we are going to need you to stick around so we can get your statements," he told them. Amelia sighed a little; she had really wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Seeing the man had frightened her greatly and all she wanted at this point was to go home and curl up under her blanket, hopefully forgetting about what she had seen.
"Sure," she sighed. Neither of them really wanted to stick around, but having no choice they sat back in the car listening to music and staying warm while waiting for someone to talk to them. Amelia found a small case of water in the back seat and began forcing it down Luke's throat, trying to hide the fact that he had been drinking and then about to drive. They had been sitting there for about ten minutes when someone finally knocked on the window again and signaled for them to get out of the car. The pair got out of the car, instantly missing the warmth the heater had been providing. Without the roaring fire the clearing was much colder. The officer who had knocked on the window now faced the teenagers,
"I need you to tell me exactly what happened," he told them. Amelia spoke up,
"We went for a walk in the woods and we were stopped looking at something. I thought I heard something but Luke hadn't heard anything. But I kept hearing rustling. Then that man came stumbling out of the bushes and fell on top of us. I tried to talk to him to see if he was ok, but he wasn't answering and when we turned him over," she trailed off, remembering the blood that covered the man.
"Did he say anything to either of you?" the cop asked. They both shook their heads no. "Ok, well it turns out the man was a marine, so we are turning the case over to NCIS, they will probably want to talk to you," he told them as a few more cars pulled up to the area.
"Why did we have to talk to you then?" Luke asked rudely, still slightly drunk.
"Sorry officer, ignore him," she told him, giving her friend a small shove.
"What were you all doing out here tonight?" he asked. It was obvious to anyone who walked through the area what they had been doing out here, but he thought it might be interesting to see what excuse they came up with.
"None of your business," Luke spat. Amelia rolled her eyes,
"We were just going for a walk," she shrugged. The cop looked at her skeptically,
"In thirty degree weather, in the middle of the woods, twenty miles from town?" Amelia just nodded and starred at him. "Whatever, you're not my problem anymore," he said as he saw a new person approaching them.
Gibbs and his team had gotten the call of another marine that had been found in some woods by a couple of teenagers and they had quickly gathered their gear and made their way to the outskirts of town. Upon arriving at the crime scene Gibbs went to talk to the officer in charge, leaving Tony, Tim, and Ziva to work amongst themselves. They were collecting all of their equipment out of the truck when Tony looked over across the clearing,
"Hey, isn't that the Boss's kid?" he asked his teammates, looking closer. Tim and Ziva quickly looked at where Tony's attention was.
"I believe you're right Tony, that does look like Amelia," Ziva agreed.
"But what's she doing here?" Tim asked.
"Only one way to find out," Tony said as he began walking across the clearing. On his way he noticed the smoldering remains of the fire and several beer bottles that had been left. It was clear to him that there had been some type of party there and he wondered if Gibbs' daughter had been involved in said party. As he got closer he saw that Amelia was standing with a boy a little older than her and an officer. He heard the officer say they weren't his problem anymore as he approached,
"You the Feds?" the officer asked.
"Yepp, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo," he said, pulling out his badge to prove it. Upon hearing Tony introduce himself Amelia spun around, shocked to see the man that had been at lunch earlier.
"Great, they're all yours," the officer said, walking off without a second thought. Tony rolled his eyes but turned to the two teens standing in front of him, focusing on Amelia,
"Does your dad know you're here?" he asked her. Amelia glared at him,
"No, Gibbs does not know that I'm here." Luke looked at her,
"Who's Gibbs? Where's your dad?" he speech was less slurred than it had been, but it was still obvious that he had been drinking. Tony sighed and looked around for Gibbs. Spotting him by a path that led through the woods he called out to him,
"Hey Boss!" Gibbs turned, "You might want to come over here."
"Who's that?" Luke asked again. Amelia rolled her eyes,
"Just shut up," she snapped. Tony looked at her strangely but she simply ignored him. She had a feeling she was going to be yelled at soon, and it was all that stupid dead guys fault. She shuddered at the thought of the dead marine and crossed her arms in front of her.
Gibbs heard Tony yell for him and when he had looked in his direction he was shocked to see his senior field agent standing next to his daughter. Turning from the officer he had been talking to he made his way across the clearing. As soon as he got there he starred at his daughter,
"What are you doing here?" he asked coldly. Amelia felt her defenses go up, not so much because she was scared of Gibbs, but because she felt that she had to disagree and argue with everything he said.
"Going for a walk," she said simply, keeping up with the excuse she had told the officer earlier. Gibbs raised an eyebrow,
"Want to try that answer again?" he knew his daughter and this boy standing next to her had not just gone for a walk.
"No."
"I think you should Amelia."
"No thanks." Gibbs was getting frustrated with her so he turned to the boy,
"What were you guys doing out here?" he asked, hoping for a different answer.
"Just going for a walk," Luke said, as normally as he could, not wanting to get in trouble.
"Then would you care to explain why there is a huge pile of smoldering firewood and beer bottles lying around everywhere?"
"Dude, I don't know, someone forgot to clean up their mess I guess," Luke told him. Gibbs sighed, why couldn't people just give straight answers when he asked them questions?
"Ok, one of you needs to tell me exactly what happened tonight. All of it," he told the two teens standing in front of him. Neither one of them spoke up, knowing that as soon as they did they were going to be in trouble. He looked at his daughter, maybe he couldn't make the other kid talk, but his own daughter was going to listen to him. "This is not about you; this is about that Marine who died back there."
Tony watched as Gibbs and Amelia starred at each other. It was impressive, he thought, no one could really out stare Gibbs, but he figured if anyone could do it, it would be his daughter. He was almost a little disappointed when he saw Amelia give in and look away,
"Fine," she muttered. Gibbs almost smirked, but kept his expression hard,
"Good, now tell me what happened." Amelia sighed,
"We were here for a fire, but me and Luke got a little bored, so we decided to go for a walk through the woods. We had stopped to look at something and I heard some rustling coming from behind us but when I turned around there was nothing there but I kept hearing it. All of a sudden that man ran out of the bushes and ran right into us, knocked us to the ground. We tried talking to him but he wasn't answering and when we flipped him over we saw," she swallowed a little, "We saw all the blood," she cringed as she told the last part. It really had scared her, especially being knocked to the ground by the man.
Gibbs listened as she retold what happened earlier, noticing how it had seemed to scare her. Once she finished he nodded,
"DiNozzo, go put them in the car, we can drive them home after we process the scene," he told his senior agent calmly. Tony looked at him oddly; he had expected his Boss to go flying off the handle at his daughter. After all, he clearly had no idea she had been here, she was alone in the woods with a boy he didn't know, she was at a party where there had obviously been drinking going on, and they had no idea if she herself had drank anything. As he walked them over to the car he thought to himself that it's always calmest right before a big storm. He had a feeling that a huge storm was on its way.
So what did you think? Are we looking forward to this big storm? I sure am!
SO leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter and what you would like to see happen next!
