a/n:

Damselfly: Chapter IV

Gibbs' day had been particularly dirty and his only reprieve was the minute ride up in the elevator. He hadn't had his usual morning-work coffee yet, usually by this time he'd have had consumed 10. But not this morning, nor this afternoon. It did not improve his mood, so his team better have something that was of use, or he knew three heads that were going to roll.

He left the elevator like a force not to be reckoned with. The Agents that filled the path from the elevator to his office, scurried from his path. He stepped through the threshold and Tony shot from his seat, the plasma remote in hand. "You're back, boss." The Senior Agent so keenly observed.

Gibbs put his firearm in his top drawer before he shoved it shut roughly. "It looks that way, doesn't it, DiNozzo." He growled hotly. He thought about giving his Agent a head-smack, but didn't because he knew that with the mood he was in, he'd probably give the younger man a concussion- something that he didn't have time to deal with.

"Right." Tony winced as he glanced at Kate behind her own desk before he looked back at Gibbs who was glaring hotly at him. "We did in fact, do out jobs." He winced again, not able to stop it before he continued. "Ducky got an I.D. on our dead Marine and I pulled his service record." He clicked the remote and a service picture came up on the screen. "This is Commander Jeff Reynolds, 52. He joined the Marine Corps. at the age of 20. His specialty is Explosive Ordinates Disposal. He had four tours under his belt, with two purple hearts. He has since then become a training officer for other Marine Bomb Techs. He has not disciplinary actions in his record or flags and was even coming into a promotion of becoming a Captain. He was married for 20 years to Sheila Reynolds and they have a 15 year-old daughter. They had just recently gotten divorced; almost seven months ago; Sheila got full custody of their kid." He finished and there was a deathly beat of silence, one that Kate could not have jumped onto fast enough in Tony's opinion.

"I spoke with his unit." She drew Gibbs' gaze and Tony felt relief that it was directed at someone else, something that the female Agent didn't quite agree on, now when it was directed at her. But she continued, "They basically all said the same thing: Reynolds was a good guy, a great Marine; he was good a what he did and he knew how to teach others to do it. And, as Tony had said, the Commander didn't have any listed complaints against him."

There was that silence again as she finished, but it was even longer this time because of Tim. He was a wreck at any given day when he was put under the harmful spotlight of Gibbs' glare, but this was even worse. He knew that Gibbs was not in the mood for his stuttering mess, but Tim was not able to help the fact that he stuttered for a moment before he was able to finally get anything worth understanding out of his mouth. He licked his lips and swallowed. "I-I went through the Commander's phone records and there was nothing that looked unusual; phone call's to his daughter mostly. His bank-records, on the other hand, were another story." He paused for just a second, taking a breath. "There has been major activity in his savings account this last month. He's moved everything he's had around. Most of his money went into his daughter's college-fund account, the rest went to paying off the mortgage on his wife's house, and to various charities. His accounts were completely empty as of two days ago."

There was once again another beat of silence for which the three Agents were silent and the shadow that had accompanied Gibbs form the elevator was seemingly growing darker by the second.

Tony spoke once again when no one else would, drawing that glare. "I spoke with Lt. Haune again after you left, Gibbs. And with documents from the Command Post, confirmed that there was, in fact, no training exercise scheduled to go down in that field where the victim was found. It's not part of the Base's contract that they were allowed to use that area in Cumberland. In fact, I pretty sure that the Commander knew that, so there's no reason why those two Marines should have even been down there, boss."

"They were, DiNozzo. And I want to know why!" Gibbs snapped.

"Right, boss." Tony agreed.

"Well, if the Commander didn't know that they were supposed to be out, he would have thought that it was just a normal training exercise." Kate started, speculating. "So, then he never would have had the need to suspect that the devices, were, in fact, very real."

"Ghost orders?" Tim asked. "Maybe the Commander did know, but someone went around the channels and somehow found a way to get him out there, off-guard. It'd look just like an accident, a training exercise gone off the rails wrong." He speculated himself.

"Ducky found a piece of one of the devices embedded in Reynolds flesh, it was a landmine." Gibbs said, finally. "If this was a set up, there was no one that this bastard would have known which Marine, if any, would step on it."

"They were both targets, maybe?" Tony voiced. "Or maybe one would just be collateral damage."

"You know I hate maybes." Gibbs growled at them. "Assumptions make me sick."

The Team winced, but that lead to what had to be said next, and what the female Agent was dreading, and wondering why she got stuck with it. "The other Marine," Kate said with hesitation as she stood from her chair, a folder in hand. "Was Petty Officer Shelby Jackson Gibbs." Tony pressed the remote and Reynolds picture was replaced by Shelby's. Kate continued with the same amount of hesitation as she glanced from the plasma to Gibbs before going back to the folder in her hand. "He joined right out of high school at the age of 18. His specialty is scout sniper. He's been on one tour. He got back ten months ago and was assigned to the Cumberland Base when he requested a transfer to E.O.D. Unit. He had been training under Commander Reynolds since then." She paused for a moment before continuing, "I talked with the other Marines that trained with the PO, and with Reynolds, they all said the same thing: He was a nice, didn't make trouble. They never saw him with a girlfriend. He lives off-base in Stillwater, Pennsylvania."

This time, Tim didn't give himself enough time to stutter, by started with his report the second he knew that Kate was finished. He knew that Gibbs was pissed, but letting him stew in the silence would make things even worse. "There's nothing out of the ordinary with the PO's phone records, or savings history." It wasn't much and it didn't really help them, these two Marines were clean thus far, there was something that they were missing, and it wasn't helping their chances with Gibbs.

And Gibbs didn't look happy. "Abby found traces of modeling clay on the pieces of the bomb that were collected." He reported, his tone matching his expression; hard.

"Modeling clay?" Tim said in confusion, a mistake on his part because now Gibbs was focused in on him, he looked back rather anxiously and frozen.

Tony winced again, and spoke anyway. "You thinking that it was part of the bomb, boss?" He asked.

"It's looking that way." Gibbs said.

"More flash than bang?" Kate must have said something wrong because Gibbs' gaze zoomed in on her like a snipers laser.

"Flash?" He growled. "A Marine is dead, Todd. My son is in the I.C.U.! Does that seem more flash to you than a bomb?" He shouted, demanded.

Kate may have been in the Secret Service, protected the President of the United States of America, but anything she did or would have encountered there was nothing compared to Gibbs on a good day, but now, now she was actually frightened. She fought not to pale or baulk. "No, Gibbs." She told him.

"Good." He said through his teeth. "Not find something that we can use to find this bastard!" He barked at his team.

"Um, we haven't interviewed the Commander's ex-wife yet." Tony was quick to say. "Kate and I will do that now." He looked at Kate with a pointed gaze, and the two scrambled for their gear and were quick to get to the elevator. It would be late when they got there, but the long drive would be worth it to get away from Gibbs, even if the meant leaving Tim hanging in the wind. That was exactly where Gibbs' gaze went when his two Agents' back disappeared around the corner.

Tim looked up at him and swallowed, angry that the two of them left him alone. "I'll, uh, I'll go check and see how Abby's doing with the processing." He almost tripped from his chair to his feet as he walked, nearly ran, to the back elevator and down to the sanctuary of her lab.

That left Gibbs, alone in his office, though the bullpen was filled with Case Agents. His company, a Service picture of his son up on the plasma. Jackson had been right, Shelby looked a lot like him when he was that age, though his hair a little lighter, a near reddish-brown, even with a Marine hair-cut. But something that stood out more than that, were his eyes. They weren't an ice-blue like his own, like he may have wished them. Instead, they were a peacock-green. It was the main reason why Gibbs had pushed him away after the death of Shannon and Kelly; because they were his wife's eyes, and his daughter's eyes. Every time the older man looked at his son, he was reminded of them, of what he had lost and could never get back.

Gibbs was finally able to tear his gaze away from the screen, from his son. He needed to do something, had to do. He knew what it was, he should have done it to begin with while he was at the hospital- but things had gotten out of hand, going places that he had tried to burry. But, still, he needed to talk with his father.

chapter IV end-