Chapter 2: Dead Marine

It was normal day at the bullpen when Timothy McGee came to work that morning. He arrived early to run his usual diagnostics of his computer system, while he sipped his coffee and grinned at the casual banter between Kate and Tony, the later commenting about this Doctor Who episode he had watched just last night. Kate rolled her eyes at Tony just half listening to him, grinned at McGee and saluted him with a nod before sitting down and booting her own computer.

Tony's mouth kept moving, but between McGee and Kate he did not find a captive audience. His excited chattering ended abruptly with Gibbs' arrival and a well placed slap on the back of his head, making him jump in his seat as their boss strolled in firm steps to his own desk.

"Gear up, dead marine."

Grabbing their own backpacks with gear, each agent filled a line and followed their leader out of the bullpen, exchanging friendly barbs here and there.

It was a fine morning and nothing could change that.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The case seemed quite straightforward. They arrived at the crime scene where a Lexus had crashed against a tree, its driver leaning against the wheel obviously dead. Gibbs ordered a search of the perimeter, as the heavy snow which had fallen early in the morning could have corroborated with the accident, but there was no indication of that being the case. Despite the snow accumulated on the sidewalks, the road had been cleared and salted before the Lexus lost its direction and zigzagged towards the old fir.

According to witnesses' accounts, the man had been alone and apparently unconscious when he lost control of his Lexus and dead once he finally hit the tree.

They busied themselves as little bees doing their assigned jobs, while Ducky and Jimmy arrived and did the usual exams in the body. The car door was opened, thanks to a Good Samaritan who walked by and decided to contaminate the crime scene touching the neck of the driver looking for a pulse.

He almost pissed in his pants when he found none.

Gesticulating and shivering, he described what he'd seen in exaggerated mimes to Kate, who was nodding here and there and scribbling notes. McGee as always was on photo duty, carefully documenting the car and the scene with his Canon AOS. He stepped out of the way so Ducky could start the initial exam, walking to the other side of the car to check the contents of the glove box.

"What's the COD, doc?" Gibbs asked, his black coffee releasing steam in the cold air.

"It's early to tell, Jethro." Ducky gently touches the head of the stiff, turning it aside "There are initially no entry or exit wounds, no scratches as far as I can see and the rigor mortis hasn't settled in. I would guess that, due to the elements involved, the sudden loss of conscience and the lack of visible marks it's some kind of unknown malaise. Possibly a heart attack."

"A heart attack?" Gibbs frowned, looking at the corpse. "That guy can't be over thirty."

"I know, my dear friend." Ducky stood up took his gloves off, signaling to Jimmy to take over and remove the body from the car. "That's why I need to investigate this further. This man is surprisingly fit and healthy for a dead man. There is absolutely no visible cause for his passing."

Gibbs took a deep breath and unconsciously squeezed harder his coffee cup, feeling a tension headache lingering behind his eyes.

"Dig deeper, Ducks. Once you have the autopsy done just let me know what you find."

"Sure." He then turned and started to help his disgruntled assistant to close the body bag over the dead man.

Gibbs looked up and found McGee frowning at the contents of the glove box, staring at the receipts he had uncovered in there.

"Anything worth a look in there, McGee?"

The young agent startled, looking at Gibbs with bright green eyes still glassy from whatever land he had been. Finally he met Gibbs' gaze and started talking, in an excited hurry.

"Apparently Sergeant Collins was a Starbucks aficionado. I've found fifteen receipts of coffee shops, each from a different Starbucks. And he ordered the exact same thing in every single one of them."

"Really?" Gibbs sat on the driver's seat, trying to gauge the mindset of the dead marine. He started touching the panel with his gloved hand. "What did he order?"

"A Grande Macchiato with Caramel Syrup."

"Did the coffee kill him?" Gibbs asked throwing an amused glance to his green eyed agent, who opened his mouth like a fish.

Gibbs could almost see the wheels turning in his agent's mind, trying to find an appropriate answer and finding… none.

"I don't think so." He finally answered very slowly, afraid of a reprimand.

"Then dig deeper." Gibbs started sliding his hand under the wheel looking for anything that might have caused the accident. "I don't wanna know how he took his coffee. I wanna know why he's dead despite being in perfect health."

"Okay… I'll keep looking." McGee bit his lower lip, going back to the tedious work of tagging and bagging the things the glove box.

Gibbs tried to hold a sigh as he glanced at the focused way his junior agent worked. Young, fresh between the ears and painfully shy, Timothy McGee had been a recent addition to the team that desperately needed someone tech savy. Meeting him during a case in Norfolk had been a chance meeting; sweet talking the Director that the young man was fit to be part of the MCRT, that's all on Gibbs's doing and it had been a strike of genius to snag him before he was found by any other team leader.

Thinking about that, Gibbs frowned a little as he recalled that McGee had actually requested the assignment in Norfolk, despite it being way beneath his abilities and potential. The kid was way overqualified to be a paper pusher in a dusty bin in a crumbling naval office, so upon meeting him and seeing what that kid could do with computers, it was just a matter of time until Gibbs had the kid under his tutelage.

Now if Gibbs could only mold the kid into his standards and help him get over his shyness…

"I think I've found something here." McGee said as he unfolded a piece of paper, showing its contents to Gibbs.

The older man stared at the slip of paper, giving a small nod to the younger one before grabbing the paper in the evidence bag.

"It's a phone number. New York area code."

"That's a start."