"What we got?" Gibbs yelled carrying a cop of coffee, his breath visible in the snowy, cold air. He walked up to Tony and McGee standing next to a body of dead marine, dressed in fatigues.
"A Lance Corporal Joshua Mohr, Boss." Tony answered, pointing towards an open wallet laying about 10 feet from the body, "I would say mugging-gone-bad, money and cards missing, but ya never know, he does have a single GSW to the forehead, seems a little violent for a robbery."
Gibbs knelt down and Tony followed him, "No powder burns, the bodies been moved." Gibbs stated, looking at the snow around the body, it had been disturbed. He took a large gulp of his coffee, "I'd really like to exit wound, where's Ducky?" He said, standing up and looking around.
Tony rose, "Where's my wife?"
"Where's Jimmy?" Tony and Gibbs looked towards McGee, he shrugged his shoulders, "Just seemed a little rude to leave him out."
Tony blew into his fists, then rubbed his hands together trying to warm them up, "The Marines and Navy really need to start posting signs on base stating: 'Don't go to Rock Creek Park, You might die!' This is getting ridiculous, what is this, the fourth one this month?"
McGee let out a small chuckle, but quickly stopped at Gibbs stared at him as he finished off his coffee, "Oh, it's not what you think, Boss, it's just that, in my latest writings..."
"Oh lord, a new book?" Tony asked, not thrilled.
"No actually, it's a script for a NCIS mini-series."
The news piqued Tony's interest, "Nice! But please tell me it's on cable."
"Yeah, Showtime."
"Good!" Gibbs chimed in.
"Boss?" Tony asked, a little confused.
"I don't have cable."
"Heh." Tony turned after hearing the ME truck coming to a stop.
Ducky got out of the truck, "Sorry, Jethro, Mrs. DiNozzo got us lost."
"What?" Ziva said, walking up behind Ducky, he turned flashing her a smile, "It was actually, Mr. Palmer."
"I wasn't even driving, Dr. Mallard." Palmer stated.
"You gave me the map."
"We didn't use a map, Doctor, we used the GPS."
"Then why were we late, Mr. Palmer?"
Palmer looked at Ziva, then silent backed away, "I'll get your bag, Doctor."
"Ducky, I want to see the exit wound, ASAP." Gibbs said.
Ducky nodded and moved over to the body, kneeling next to it as Palmer came up behind him, setting his bag down.
"Why are you guys late?" Tony whispered to Ziva.
"Sometimes a girl has to pee...two, three, four times." Ziva whispered back, "So, in a way, it's kinda your fault we are late." She grinned.
"I would say he's been dead maybe 3-4 hours...Mr. Palmer, a little help."
"Of course, Doctor." Palmer moved around to the other side of the body and helped Ducky turn over the man, the back of the man's head was gone, blown out.
Tony stepped forward, he looked at the wound, "Boss...does that remind you of anything?"
"He's got something carved into his back." Ziva said, pointing at the bottom of the man's jacket.
Ducky lifted the bottom of the man's jacket and pulled up, "27" was carved into the man's back.
Ziva quickly turned away and started retching. Ducky turned as Tony moved over to Ziva, placing his hand on her back and slowly started to rub up and down her spine, "Awww, the joys of motherhood." She looked through her legs at Ducky, looking worse for wear, "And tribulations, my dear."
Ziva stood, wiping her mouth. Tony brushed her hair behind her ear, kissing her ear, "You okay?" She quickly nodded.
"Still having morning sickness?"
"No, just some smells get to me, it is really w..."
"Normal." Ducky smiled, "Your senses are heightened, that's all, by the way, how far along are you again?"
"15 weeks." Tony answered.
Ducky smiled, "Awww, do you know the sex of the baby?"
"Yes." Ziva smiled back...and there was a long pause.
"Are you going to tell us?" Gibbs asked.
"Nope, Tony wants to be surprised."
Everyone looked at Tony, "What? I love surprises. Heh."
"Tony, McGee, 1000 feet perimeter, lets see if we can find the bullet, shell casing."
"He was dumped here, Boss, there's no blood spray and we all know from that large exit wound what killed him." Tony turned to McGee, "What was Lance Corporal Mohr's specialty, McGee?"
McGee pulled his iPhone from his pocket, "MOS 0317, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, they just returned from disaster relief operations."
"In English, please." Ziva hoped.
"He's a sniper, Ziva." Gibbs answered.
"And whoever killed him is a failed sniper." Tony added.
"Why do you say that?" McGee wondered.
"You need 28 hits out of 35 or you fail to qualify on the range, anything less than 28 and you're out of Marine Scout Sniper training, McGee."
"Hence, the 27. So, whoever killed Mohr blames him for failing...and we're on it, Boss, come on, McGee." Tony gestured for McGee to follow him and he did.
"Great." Gibbs sighed, "Just what we need, another DC sniper."
Gibbs stepped off the elevator and moved over to the bullpen, Ziva was sitting at her desk. McGee was standing in front of the plasma clicking through documents, "What you got, McGee?"
McGee clicked, bringing up three service records, "All three scored 27 on the range, Gibbs."
"You didn't find out which one was partnered with LCP Mohr?"
"His instructor is in Afghanistan..."
"And he's unavailable, yeah, yeah, no that one too well, Tim." Gibbs moved to his desk, sitting down, "How many are still in the Marines?"
"Two, a Lance Corporal Jonathan Hogan was dishonorably discharged two years ago, but he's off the grid, no wife or kids, no family, his parents died when he was kid. He hasn't held a job or paid a tax in nearly 20 months."
"Merc?" Ziva suggested, "Assassin?" Gibbs eyes travelled to Ziva, "What? It was just a guess."
"And you might be right."
The elevator dinged, the door opened, Tony stepped out holding a large brown paper sack, a McDonald's sack and hot fudge sundae. He moved over to Ziva's desk, sitting the sacks down, "Okay, a pastrami on rye, two pickles, a large fry from Mickey D's, extra salty and a hot fudge sundae, extra fudgy...and, oh yeah." He dug into his jacket pocket pulling out a can of soda, "And a diet coke."
Ziva smiled, "Thank you."
Tony moved over, joining McGee by the plasma, "Is this the dirtbag? He looks like one."
"Looks like it, the other two Marines are both in country, Afghanistan."
"Good, what's the address?" Tony said, moving to his desk.
"That's the problem, Tony, he doesn't have one."
"I knew that was too easy."
Ziva moved over to the middle of the bullpen, eating her hot fudge sundae, "Have you checked to see if he used the credit card?" She asked between bites.
McGee squinted at her hot fudge sundae seeing something red, "What is that?"
"I think it is called picante sauce, I think." She said, taking another bite.
"On ice cream?" McGee looked at Tony, then Gibbs, who both just shrugged. His eyes moved back to the ice cream, watching Ziva dip a french fry into her ice cream.
"You should see what she does with duck sauce and tapioca pudding, McGee."
McGee just stared at Tony like he was crazy.
"Heh." Tony stood up, moving over to McGee, "The Lance Corporals credit cards?"
McGee shook his head and moved to his computer and started typing, "Wow, we actually got a hit, it was used this morning at a Sunrise Motel in Triangle, Virginia, that's like 2-3 minutes from Quantico."
Gibbs shot up from his desk, "Lets go." He moved around his desk, he stopped in front of Ziva's desk as she grabbed her coat, "Stay. Eat."
Ziva didn't even argue, she just sat down in her chair.
Tony grabbed his coat and stopped next to Ziva's cubicle wall, extending his hand to her. She took a hold of it, squeezing it. His fingers slipped away as she turned and watched him disappear into the elevator.
McGee ran out of manager's office and climbed back into the passenger's side door, "He's still in there, room 112 and the clerked ID'ed his photo."
Gibbs quickly parked the car, "Tony, get the back."
Tony nodded and jogged off around the side of the motel as Gibbs and McGee moved to the front of room 112's door.
Gibbs stood to the side and pounded on the door with the back of his hand, "Federal agents."
the indistinguishable sound of a shotgun pumping action made Gibbs grab McGee and jump to the ground as upper half of the door was destroyed with one shot.
The man kicked at the bottom of the broken door and stepped through it, he pumped the shotgun hard. He began to raise it to fire again.
"Yo!" Tony yelled, the man started to turn.
The man was struck on the side of his head with the butt of Tony's handgun dropping him face down on the sidewalk.
Tony slammed down with his knee into the back of the man, yanking back his arms and cuffing him as quickly as he could, "Gibbs, McGee!"
"We're fine." Gibbs answered.
The man began to fight back as Tony cinched up the cuffs, slamming his forehead into the sidewalk, knocking him cold, "Asshole! My wife would've killed my ass if I would've died!"
Ziva was laying on the couch, her feet in Tony's lap, she let out a soft moan as his hands seemed to hit all the right spots. She lifted her head from arm rest, smiling. She let out a small laugh, "How long has it been?"
"13 days."
"Awwww, I'm sorry, I just haven't been in the mood."
"I know, it's okay."
Ziva scooted up until her butt was onto of Tony's lap. She tried to sit up, but failed, making her laugh. She covered her face with her hands, trying to muffle said laughs, but he grabbed her wrists and lifted her so she was sitting on his lap. She smiled and kissed him, "Guess who's getting lucky tonight?"
"Ummm, hmmm, well, let me think, hmmm, I dunno, could be anyone. Give me a second, I'm sure I'll get it."
Ziva rolled her eyes.
"Heh." Tony leaned forward kissing her, his right hand moved up, touching her left breast. He quickly pulled it again, "Sorry."
Ziva grabbed his hand, placing it back on her breast and kissed him.
There was a knock at the door.
Tony's head fell back, he let out a groan.
Ziva quickly kissed up, climbing off his lap, "Don't move, I'll be right back." She moved over to the front door opening it.
"Ziva!" A woman's voice called out.
"Aunt Nettie?" Ziva squinted seeing her Aunt Nettie and her Uncle Amit, she stepped outside, trying to close the door as much as she could, "What are you doing here?"
Nettie took Ziva in her arms hugging her, "Why do you think, the baby!"
"Yay!" She expressed happiness through clenched teeth, she pulled back, looking distraught, she laughed nervously, "Tony...we have guests."
Author Note #1 - Damn, now I want hot fudge, minus the picante.