Boston- NCIS
Gibbs was looking around the airport, after they had grabbed their bags, and the five of them made their way to a grizzled looking detective who was holding up a sign that said "NCIS".
"Are you Detective Vince Korsak?" Gibbs asked.
"I am."
"I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, this is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Special Agent Timothy McGee, Dr. Donald Mallard and Officer Ziva David."
Korsak eyed Ziva for a second. "This your liaison officer?"
"Yes." She said, eyeing him suspiciously.
He looked at her, trying to place the accent. "You're Israeli?"
"Yes." Her tone was impatient.
"Mossad then." He said. "I can show you the way to your hotel if you want."
"Sounds fine." Gibbs muttered, glaring at Korsak. He was taking up their time by questioning Ziva. He showed them to their hotel, which was just down the street from the Boston PD station. In the lobby, Gibbs ordered them to come back within ten minutes, meeting in the lobby. It wasn't hard. They were all on the same floor. Gibbs' connecting door led into Ducky's room, which he didn't mind.
Tony wasn't as happy, because his connecting door led straight to McGeek's room, which he didn't appreciate at all. Ziva didn't have a connecting door to anyone, as they were a party of five, and she was across the hallway from Gibbs.
Gibbs threw his suitcase on the bed, before grabbing his backpack and walking into the carpeted hallway, where Ducky was waiting.
"Honestly, Jethro, it took you that long?"
Gibbs glared at him, and they headed downstairs, where Korsak was still evidently waiting for them. When they were all assembled, Ducky asked.
"Excuse me, Detective, but has your medical examiner done the autopsy yet?"
"No, I specifically requested that Dr. Isles wait for you to do the autopsy and Dr. Isles was willing to assist." He said. "Now, I'd like to warn you, the cops I work with in Homicide can be a bit unpredictable. They are for the most part, professional, but are a little out of control."
"Gee," Gibbs said deadpan. "I wonder what that's like."
Tony and Ziva exchanged a look. Then they all walked through the light misting of rain and Korsak led them into the Boston PD building, up to the Homicide department. In there, there was one woman, and three other men.
"Everyone, I'm back." Korsak announced, walking in, followed by Gibbs. They all turned and looked. Gibbs looked them all over, not for the first time wishing he had Kate with him to profile these people. There was a colored man in his early thirties, a young man in his late twenties with dark hair and eyes, an annoying handsome man in his mid-thirties, and a woman in her early thirties, with unruly dark hair and dark eyes that resembled the young man. He quickly said. "This are Special Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo and McGee, Dr. Mallard, and Officer David."
Everyone said their hellos. Korsak said. "Now are you going to continue to stare at them, or are you actually going to introduce yourselves?"
The colored man introduced himself as Detective Barry Frost. His partner was the dark-haired woman, Detective Jane Rizzoli, who clearly carried a lot of baggage. The arrogant man was Detective Darren Crowe, the younger man a patrol officer, Frank Rizzoli, who was Det. Rizzoli's younger brother. Korsak looked at Jane and said. "Detective Rizzoli, could you please take our visitors down to the morgue to see the body."
"Sure." She agree cautiously, in a low, hoarse voice that Gibbs wouldn't have imagined. She led them downstairs, not wanting to take the elevator, to the morgue, where a woman with light brownish-blonde hair stood with her back facing them. Her figure was slim, almost reminding him of… Kate. A look at McGee, DiNozzo and Ducky, told him that he was sure they felt the same. And then, Dr. Isles turned around.
"Hello." She said, in a warm voice that Gibbs had almost forgotten. "I'm Dr. Maura Isles."
But no one noticed that she had spoken. Gibbs was tongue-tied. A quick glance at McGee and DiNozzo was enough. They both looked stunned, while Ducky looked stricken. Gibbs could suddenly almost picture Kate in the moment- but he didn't have to. Because a woman, whose only difference from Kate was the shade of her hair, could give him everything he needed.
Jane sighed. "And these are the feds from Washington."
Hearing the contempt in her voice was enough to bring Gibbs back into focus. But she appeared just as surprised as he did to see these four strange men all staring at her with looks of pain on their faces.
Gibbs stepped forward. "I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. These are Special Agents Timothy McGee, Anthony DiNozzo, Officer Ziva David and Dr. Donald Mallard, who'll be doing the autopsy with you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." She said calmly. Gibbs was taken back to a memory that had long evaded him after the coma.
She glared at him fiercely. "Look, don't dismiss me like that! Okay? I earned my jockstrap!"
This SS agent deserved to be taken down a notch. He stood up, watching her carefully. "Yeah? Does it ever give you that empty feeling?"
This threw her off guard. "What?" She asked.
"Your jockstrap!" He said, suppressing a grin.
"No." She said firmly, and he swore he could have drowned in her eyes. "Like some species of frogs, I grow what I need."
She certainly had balls, and she was just the kind of person that Leroy Jethro Gibbs could fall in love with. Shame she wasn't a redhead.
He inhaled sharply, and Maura- he'd already stopped thinking of her as Dr. Isles- looked up, concern etched on a face he knew all too well. "Are you alright, Special Agent Gibbs?"
"Dispense with the 'special agent' stuff, okay?" He said. "It's Gibbs. This is DiNozzo, McGee and Ziva."
"What about you?" She asked Ducky. Gibbs realized with a stab of pain and jealousy that Ducky knew much more about the woman in front of him than he did. He had done the autopsy on Kate, he knew her inside and out- more than Gibbs himself knew about Kate. "Should I call you Dr. Mallard?"
Gibbs knew that Ducky was in agony, watching this woman who was Kate, but so obviously wasn't Kate. He had bonded very closely and very easily to Kate. Gibbs had watched it, but had felt no threat from his longtime friend. Ducky had been the first to comfort her after the y. pestis incident. "Ducky, please." He said, grinning, the pain in his eyes all too evident to Gibbs.
Maura smiled. "If I'm allowed to call you Ducky, then you can definitely call me Maura." She turned to the rest of them. "That goes for the rest of you too."
"It will be my pleasure, C-." Ducky stopped himself, already annoyed by his little slip up. "It will be my pleasure, Maura."
Gibbs decided to intervene. "Much as I'm loving the introductions, I'm heading upstairs." He turned to Rizzoli.
"Detective, who was the first at the crime scene?"
She didn't even blink. "I was. Detective Korsak and I were."
"Do you have photos? Evidence, even sketches of the scene?"
"All of the above. I'll take you to the evidence locker, where we were keeping everything." Rizzoli led him down the hallway, and away from Dr. Maura Isles.
"So what was with your weird look to Dr. Isles?" Rizzoli asked, watching him, as she hunted in her pockets for the key to the evidence locker.
"What do you mean?"
"It's like your entire team, minus Officer David, looked like you were in complete pain." She commented.
"And I suppose, Detective Rizzoli, you'd know all about pain." He muttered, watching her.
She turned, her eyes flashing. "Actually yes." She held up her palms, where two identical marks were, two identical scars, barely faded. When she flipped her palms over, there were matching marks on the back of her hands too. "Want to compare scars?"
"Sure." Gibbs was nonchalant. "I have plenty. How'd you end up with those?"
"Long story." She said, searching through the evidence lockers.
"Yeah?" He was unimpressed. "What happened?"
"Met a bad man, we had a disagreement."
"A disagreement? Funny, I've ended up in a few of those, it's safe for me to say. Nothing good ever comes out of a disagreement, right Detective?"
She glared at him, before handing him the box of evidence collected. "No, Special Agent Gibbs, nothing ever does."
"So what happened? You said it was over a disagreement. What kind of disagreement?"
"The kind that ended with me being pinned to a dirt floor with a scalpel through each hand." She said, clearly in pain at the memory.
"Ah" Gibbs said. He didn't elaborate, he just asked. "What's the story with your ME?"
"Maura?" Rizzoli's head popped up, as she glared at him curiously. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm just curious. She seems like an interesting person."
"Yes, your Special Agent couldn't keep his eyes off her. In fact… as I said, none of your team were able to stop looking at her, which surprised me. What captures your attention about Maura?"
"Nothing."
"Bullshit." She replied, glaring at him.
He glared back, fixing her with his usual glare. She refused to be intimidated by the gruff fed, who was only mildly more frightening than Korsak- who scared her about as much as the dogs he kept bringing home with him.
Gibbs rolled his eyes, and picked up the box. "Our forensic scientist, Abby Sciuto will be flying here tomorrow, to work with your scientists."
"Understood." She led him back up to the brick tank, where he managed to engage in conversation with Korsak.
Meanwhile, she made it back down to the morgue, where Dr. Mallard- Ducky and Maura were already starting on the autopsy. McGee, DiNozzo and Officer David were already watching.
"So what's the story with your boss?" She asked the nearest agent. DiNozzo.
"Boss man?"
"Yeah. Is he always such a bastard?"
"Pretty much." DiNozzo grinned. "We're all used to it."
"Maura." She said.
DiNozzo looked up, staring at Maura, as Maura looked up. How painful it was to restrain from teasing her! But this was not Kate. His friend, his partner. This was a stranger.
"What?" Maura asked calmly.
"Special Agent Gibbs was asking after you."
"What? Why?" Concern caused her voice to go higher, much as Kate's had done.
"I'm not sure." Rizzoli shook her head.
But it was reason enough for Tony to exchange a look with McGee. Boss man still loves Kate. It was on both their minds. Tony had never had direct confirmation. But it was enough to see the way Gibbs had acted after Kate's death. But what would always haunt Gibbs, Tony was sure, was the uncertainty of Kate ever loving him back.
McGee and Tony had both felt like brothers to Kate, and she had felt like a sister to them. They had missed her for a long time, even if Ziva had continued to fill her desk. He wondered what Jenny would have thought of Kate. A competitor for Gibbs' affections?
McGee was staring at Kate. He missed Kate, God he missed Kate. He could almost laugh at the thought of what they'd been through in their brief time on the same team. He remembered how she'd been the most welcoming to him. She hadn't really treated him like a rookie, but as a friend.
DiNozzo finally cleared his throat. "We don't really have to watch, do we?"
"No, no of course not. I can understand if autopsies aren't really your thing."
"Thanks." McGee said. But while he and Tony were incredible eager to get away, Ziva wasn't. DiNozzo finally left, accompanied by McGee.
It wasn't watching the autopsy that bothered them, it was watching her.