Well, ok, this story is longer than the others, rounding off at about eight pages. Guys, I swear I'm trying to write them as long as possible, but they don't want to cooperate for me.
Also, I got a lot of good feedback regarding my question from last chapter, how do you think Tony and Gibbs met, just about all of you said that they probably met during a case, The Greek Me was very specific, believing that it happened during an undercover case. Demonic-blackbird pointed out that how Gibbs always picked his team after working a case with them, which is a very valid point that I have to agree with.
This is by far the earliest I've been up in months. Damn my best friend had to go and decide that she wanted to get married, so now I get to go downtown and watch them get their marriage license. Ok, ok, I wanted to go, but still! I go to bed at this time, and now I'm up and ready to face the day! It's... weird.
*Hands brownies to UnstoppableForce,* This chapter is also dedicated to you. You know why.
Nine
It didn't take long for Burley to show up at McCane's apartment. After that, he and Tony pulled the Marine into their car and drove back to the Navy Yard.
The last time Tony had headed up to Washington, he couldn't help but stare around like a tourist. This time, he leaned against the window and slept. Gibbs had interrupted his nap that morning. His head hurt. Well, actually his head hurt after it slammed into the bunk. Now it pounded after the beating he took from McCane.
The bastard decked him in the nose, sending Tony to the ground. After that it was a blur of fists and legs. Tony wasn't really sure how he managed to take McCane down. But the next thing he knew, the very big Marine was handcuffed to his table leg and blood was dripping in his eye. Otherwise he looked perfectly fine. Tony had a hard time standing on his own, but he wasn't going to let Gibbs know that he got lucky.
Burley smacked one of the bruises on his arm to wake him up. Tony's eyes jerked open in a mixture of shock and pain. "We're back," was all the blonde man said.
Grumbling, Tony pulled himself out of the car. He made sure to slam the door. He wasn't particularly fond of the agent, but right now it took all of his will power not to pull out his gun and shoot the man dead for that little stunt. Careful of his aching body, he opened the backdoor and grabbed onto the giant Marine. With Burley's help, he pulled McCane out of the backseat and dragged his semi conscious body into the NCIS lobby.
When he saw who the security guard was he almost groaned. When he was here before, it took him a ridiculously long time to convince the security guard that he really was a cop and not a fake. And of course, knowing his luck, the guy standing behind the desk was the same one as before. Somebody upstairs hated him. Only logical explanation.
"Hey Henry," Burley said as they neared the metal detectors.
Henry stepped up, chuckling warmly. "Well I'll be damned, didn't know ya had it in you, Stan."
Burley shrugged, still smiling. Tony almost groaned. "He didn't," he said a little breathlessly. McCane wasn't exactly light.
Henry turned to him as though he just noticed that he was there. Then he tilted his head with a confused look on his face. "Don't I know you?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "Detective Anthony DiNozzo. Last time we met, I held Agent Gibbs as a sex slave for twenty-four hours?" He still hadn't forgiven the old man for that.
That finally clicked in Henry's head, as his face lit up and his smile widened. "Oh yeah! Hey, what are you doing here? You did that?" He lightly chuckled. "Wouldn't have expected that."
"But you can believe that Burley did it? I'm bigger than he is!"
Burley scoffed. "Yeah, fatter," He said under his breath.
A part of Tony thought of glaring at that. But then he discovered a better punishment.
He ducked out from under Corporal McCane's arm, leaving Burley to lug all of his dead weight alone. The blonde agent struggled to keep him upright. Grinning, Tony walked over to the security desk to get his visitor's pass. Henry kept glancing back at Burley and McCane, but Tony pretended not to notice.
Once they were all set they headed towards the elevator. Tony made sure to keep a good distance between himself and Burley. The older man glared at him as they approached the elevator. He glared when they stepped inside. And the entire time they rode up to the appropriate floor, Burley glared.
After they stepped onto the floor, Tony didn't know if Burley was still glaring or not. They went separate ways. Tony went to find that bastard, Gibbs, while Burley went to drop McCane off in an interrogation room.
Ah! There he was.
Tony saw the old agent near his desk staring at the plasma screen television that separated Burley's desk and Langer's old desk. And he wasn't alone. As Tony approached he realized that it was Ducky, NCIS' medical examiner.
Ducky was really Dr. Donald Mallard, but for some reason he preferred the name of a John Hughes' character. Although Tony doubted that was how he got his nickname. He was an older short fellow with a thick Scottish accent. They didn't have a good first meeting, but the more time Tony spent with the man, the more he grew to really like him.
But he held onto his anger for being dumped off alone at Quantico as he strode into the bullpen. He stood behind Gibbs for only a split second before he wheeled back and whacked him in the back of the head.
Gibbs spun around, fire in his eyes and veins throbbing in his temple.
Tony knew that the man before him could very well kill him. In fact, he was sure that Gibbs was secretly a homicidal maniac who got his kicks killing cops. And Tony wasn't exactly up to par at the moment. His body was screaming at him in agony that an ant could probably kick his sorry ass right about now. But despite the fact that his knees were knocking against his other, Tony held Gibbs' gaze with a glare of his own.
"If you're gonna kill me, I might as well go down fighting." He shrugged.
Gibbs stepped into his personal space again, still glaring. Tony wanted to look down to see if the man was holding a knife. It would be the man's style to stab him in the bullpen for a well deserved headslap.
What rule said that you should never go anywhere without a knife? Was that number ten? No! It was number nine. He didn't know how he did it, but he just kept staring in Gibbs' cold blue eyes.
He stepped into Gibbs' personal space and kept his voice low. "Don't you ever," he put extra emphasis on ever, "leave me like that again. I am not one of your agents." He shook his head. "Don't for a second think that you can treat me however the hell you want."
It was a blatant mimic of Gibbs, and if Tony knew it, then Gibbs sure as hell knew it too. But the younger man figured that the only way for Gibbs to take him seriously, was if he acted like Gibbs.
After another minute or two of their glaring contest, Gibbs backed up, slightly nodding his head. "Ok."
Tony nodded in response. "Alright."
Over Gibbs' shoulder, Tony saw Ducky watching on with his jaw to the floor and his eyes threatening to pop out of his skull. Tony smiled.
"You find anything useful when you were at Quantico?" Gibbs asked, completely ignoring the conversation they just had.
Tony nodded, immediately going into business mode. "Yeah, I found Julia Chike."
If he thought he was going to get a reaction out of that, he was wrong. "You figure out she's a hooker?"
"She offered me her services," He said with a smile.
"You accept?"
Tony laughed. "You really think I need to pay for sex, Gibbs? It's like you don't know me at all."
"She tell you anything useful, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, exasperated.
"She was with another woman the night that Karen Taylor was murdered." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gibbs' eyebrow quirk. "And yeah, she was a Marine. Corporal Pam Darklin. But if there's more to the story, you're gonna have to ask Agent Burley."
"You didn't interview Corporal Darklin?"
Tony turned with a bright—albeit completely fake—smile on his face. "I was trying to find Corporal McCane, Gibbs."
Gibbs glared for another second before he turned back to the plasma. Julia Chike's arrest history was spread across the screen. "What was she doing on a Marine base this morning?"
"From what I could guess she was living there."
"She has no family in the Marines. And she's a prostitute. Why would a Marine be housing a prostitute?"
"Pretty Woman," Tony blurted out the second Gibbs finished speaking. He turned to face the older man. Gibbs was staring at him like he had two heads. "The movie. Richard Gere hired a hooker, played by a very young and sexy Julia Roberts, to be his permanent escort for a week."
Gibbs shook his head. "Why?"
Tony shrugged. "Chick flick, what do you want me to tell ya?"
They were silent for a while. Tony watched the wheels spinning around in Gibbs' head. Eventually he moved around Ducky and started walking away. Tony followed close behind. "Where we headed?"
"I need to figure out if Stan talked to Corporal Darklin."
"I would hope he did, I told him all about her."
"Yeah well," Gibbs said under his breath. "He screwed up the original canvas."
Tony couldn't deny that. "Hey, while you're doing that, how about I interrogate McCane?" He put on his brightest smile. It wasn't fake either. He would love nothing more than to get in that room and get revenge for that prick beating him.
Gibbs scoffed. "You even know how to interrogate someone, DiNozzo?"
"You ever gonna stop doubting me, Gibbs?"
They stopped in the middle of a long corridor. Like just about everything else that Tony had seen, it was painted a bright vibrant color, namely orange. He thought it was an interesting color choice, but he decided not to actually voice his thoughts for once. Gibbs turned and tried to glare him down. Tony almost rolled his eyes. One of these days, Gibbs was going to act like a normal person and not try to turn everything into a staring contest.
"Fine." That was all Gibbs said. One word, before he turned and started walking again. Tony's smile widened.
"Impressive."
Tony swiveled around at the sound of Ducky's voice. He wasn't even aware that Ducky had followed them. "What's impressive?"
Ducky stepped closer, his eyes downcast. "I've known Jethro for many years, Detective. In all that time, I have never met anyone who even thought about slapping him like that. That alone is a considerable achievement, but that he lets you take an interrogation…" the older man trailed off.
Tony didn't really understand why that was impressive. He understood the slap thing. But that he got to question a suspect? "What? Gibbs doesn't let his agents in interrogation?"
Ducky finally looked up into his eyes. "It took Stan three years before Gibbs allowed him into interrogation. Agent Langer was barely allowed in the observation room."
Tony's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. It made sense, he knew that. You don't send a rookie to get a confession. But three years was a pretty damn long time. Still, he shrugged. "I'm a cop." He assumed that when Burley and Langer first showed up at NCIS, they had never worked in law enforcement before. It made more sense to make them wait.
Ducky nodded. "Yes, a cop that he's only known for a short period of time."
"Three months."
The older man gave him a look. "Be reasonable, Detective. In that time, he only worked with you for a handful of days. What was it? Two? Three?"
Tony tensed. "Felt like longer." He turned and started walking. He only hoped that he was heading in the right direction.
Not really surprisingly, Ducky followed behind him. "What happened at that butcher shop, Detective?"
At that point, Tony wanted nothing more than to run away. But through the use of some serious will power, he refrained. "It's in the file," he said as monotonously as possible.
"Which I read. It's all very technical."
"It's a report, Doctor, not a novel."
He felt a hand wrap around his elbow to stop his retreat. He spun around to be met with a very sympathetic medical examiner. "How long did it take you to write that?"
He shrugged. "Twenty minutes. I'm a slow typer." It was true. Tony actually whizzed through that report. He refused to take a break, didn't so much as stop to play a card game once. He just forced his fingers to keep typing, even when they cramped on him. Or when he had the urge to throw up. He knew that if he stopped at any moment he would never be able to finish it.
"Detective, I understand that what happened to you is tragic. Believe me, I have been through some pretty traumatic events myself. But I guarantee you, it gets much easier to handle if you talk about it with someone."
Tony stood and listened to Ducky as he talked. He tried to act patient, and maybe a little grateful. But inside he was holding in his anger. He didn't know why Ducky thought he could say anything to him. They weren't friends, they weren't even colleagues. They met each other a handful of times. Sure, Tony found himself normally liking the elderly gent. But right now he was having a flashback of the first night they met. Tony had wanted to slug him that night.
"Do you know where I can find the interrogation room? I should really get started."
The sympathetic look left Ducky's face. He sighed heavily before he turned and walked away. Without giving Tony the directions.
He was starting to think that was common behavior with NCIS personnel. First Gibbs left him at Quantico with nothing but a name and a street, and now Ducky was leaving him with nothing but a headache and a clenched heart.
.
His chest ached. He had been running for a while, trying to catch some teenage punk who "lived" by Tony's apartment complex. The second that Dennis had flashed a picture of Jamie Taylor the kid took off.
And damn he was a fast runner.
Dennis wasn't out of shape by any stretch of the imagination. He was an athlete at heart. But unfortunately, he was also getting older. He needed to hit the gym more often. His cardio was lacking.
He reached out, his fingers grazing the punk's worn denim jacket. But he wasn't close enough to get a good grip. Only a few more steps, and the kid was his.
He heard the sirens before he saw the car. His car. Coming to a halt only a few feet in front of the kid. The punk slowed to a stop, but from his body language it was obvious that he was planning on trying another escape route.
Dennis grabbed his shoulder and slammed him into the hood of the car. Lea climbed out from behind the wheel, her gun already drawn and aimed at the kid's head. Dennis threw his hand up for a reason he couldn't fully comprehend. It wasn't going to stop a bullet. If she fired, all that would change would be that he lost a finger or two. But the kid would still be dead. "Put that thing away! You even know how to use that?"
She glared at him. "I do know how to fire a damn gun, Detective," she sneered his title. She already pointed out that she was still mad that he hung up on her earlier.
"He's a kid."
"That's why I'm not shooting him!"
"What the hell is this?" The kid screamed, pulling the two siblings out of their argument. "Get the hell off me!"
"I don't think so," said Dennis. He pulled out his cuffs and attached them to the punk's wrists. "Why don't we start with your name."
"Bite me!"
Dennis reared back and slammed the kid into the car again. Next to him, Lea cringed. "Why don't we try that again," he said in a dangerously calm voice. "What's your name?"
The kid panted heavily for a few seconds before he finally started talking. "John Tearburn."
"Well, Mr. Tearburn, wanna tell me why you ran?" He spun the kid around to glare at him better.
John looked like he hadn't bathed in years. His teeth were more than just yellow, actually they looked kind of green. His clothes were dirty, covered in holes and slashes. Dennis was surprised to find the kid's light brown hair was relatively short. His skin was tanned, evidence of all the days he spent outdoors. If he cleaned up he'd be a good looking kid.
John refused to meet his eye. Instead he stared at Lea. "What the hell happened to your ear?"
Lea tensed up slightly, andDennis knew why. The same case that made Dennis a detective took a chunk out of his sister's right ear. Tony shot Neal Ellerbe because he grabbed Lea with the intent to kill her. However, his aim wasn't the best and his bullet ended up grazing her. It was a painful memory for all involved and they really didn't like talking about it. Or even being reminded of it.
It was the last straw.
Dennis grabbed the kid by the throat and squeezed. John squawked. The cop moved in close so his face was only inches away from the kid's face. "I am not going to ask again. Why the hell did you run?"
"Look I didn't do nothin'!"
Dennis squeezed tighter, John gasped, trying to pull air into his lungs, but failing.
"Den!" Lea screamed, moving closer to the two of them. She pushed Dennis' hand away. John dropped, gasping hard. Lea put a hand on her brother's chest, her face full of betrayal and anger. "Calm down."
She turned back to the kid. "I don't care what you did or didn't do. What I care about is the teenage kid who's been kidnapped. And I have a feeling that you know why."
"I don't!"
"Then why'd you run?"
The kid was quiet for a while. But the more that Dennis watched, the more he realized what the problem was. The kid was damn scared. "What are you running from?"
"Look," John said, near hysterics. "Jamie was gonna talk to you, and look what happened to him? I ain't goin' out like dat."
"Talk to us about what?" Dennis asked.
John chuckled. "I ain't tellin' you!" He sobered. "Look, I don't wanna get dead too."
Lea stepped forward again. "Jamie was your friend, wasn't he?" She waited a few seconds for an answer. John stayed silent, but his expression was answer enough. "We don't know if Jamie's dead or not, but if he's not, then we need your help to save him. Or are you gonna let your friend die to save your own sorry ass?"
He glared, although it didn't hold too much venom. "What if he's already dead?"
"Then don't you think you owe it to your friend to help bring his killer to justice? You said that Jamie was gonna talk to us. He was brave. He was gonna do the right thing. What about you? You willing to do the right thing? Are you willing to be brave?" She paused, searching his face. "For your friend?"
Dennis couldn't lie, he was impressed. He knew he made the right call by calling his sister. She was still only a rookie, but she was tough. She had to be, with him as an older brother. But he still had no idea that she knew how to talk to people like this. It made his chest swell with brotherly pride.
"He didn't tell me everything." John still refused to look them in the eye, but he was talking. That was definitely something.
Lea nodded. "Ok, what did he tell you?"
"Dat he saw somethin'."
Dennis shook his head in slight confusion. "What?"
John finally looked up at them. His eyes were glazed over with fear and unshed tears. "A murder."
Was anybody expecting that? Raise your hand if you saw that coming! Well, I hope you liked it. Bad things are gonna start happening soon. Are you ready? Talk to me!
Bob