Title: Other Life Forms
Summary: The team tries to solve the murder of a Marine in her own home, which appears to have been carried out by Aliens. Meanwhile, something is wrong with McGee and Ziva and Tony want to know what it is.
Point of View: Ziva
The bullpen always seemed too quiet until Tony came in. With McGee clattering away on his keyboard at two hundred miles being the only sound in it until then, it was only natural. Usually we would be chattering away already, but Tim had seemed a little… withdrawn lately.
So I tried to make conversation, but that is something I am not very good at.
"So, McGee, how is your grandmother?"
"Fine."
"That's good."
After a moment of that awkward silence, I tried again.
"It's been very warm out for this time of month."
"Yup."
Thankfully, Tony came to my rescue.
"Morning Zee-Vah." He said to me.
"Morning."
"How's it going, McGoo?"
"Fine."
Tony shared a glance with me. I was glad I wasn't the only one who saw this. I was about to try "Small talk" again, but Gibbs interrupted me.
"Dead marine, 41 Sunset drive."
We grabbed our gear and followed Gibbs to the elevator.
Ten minutes later, we arrived at a small cozy little house in the modern style. The front porch was painted blue, the house white, and the front door red. It even had a picket fence, though it was brown and not white.
Walking through the front door revealed a rather gruesome scene. A white female of about twenty six, with long brown hair, average height, brown eyes, and large feet was dead on the ground, still in her pajamas.
In blood all over the walls were strange symbols that I did not recognize, surrounding English words. They said: "We are coming. We will get you. Beware, Earthlings."
"Earthlings?" Tony questioned. "Are they saying they aren't human?"
"It would appear so." I said.
"Hey Tim." Tony called. "Look at this, I bet its right up your alley!"
McGee smiled weakly. "It would probably be cool if not for the dead body and the blood."
It was the longest sentence he said all day. So, I was happy.
I surveyed the crime scene, when I spotted a bloody foot print. "Gibbs!" I called. "We got a footprint!"
Gibbs came over to check it out, and I snapped a picture.
Just then, Ducky and Palmer arrived. "Ziva, my dear! Great discovery!" Ducky said.
As he adorned his rubber gloves he launched into a story about how someone had put fake bloody foot prints on the ceiling when he was in college, or something like that.
"TOD?" Gibbs asked Ducky.
"Ah… about five hours prior to now." Ducky replied.
"Cause of death?"
"From what I can see, it's probably one of these stab wounds, around here." He said, gesturing towards the woman's stomach.
"McGee, who is she?"
McGee who had just scanned her print, promptly replied "Sergeant Nancy Altman." Before returning to strange quiet nature.
After that, pretty much the noise, besides Ducky's ramblings and Tony's usual crude jokes, was the sound of pictures snapping.
Later…
Point of View: Gibbs
The elevator let out its usual ding! As it stopped on my floor, and I stepped out. I could hear Abby's music already, the usual scream techno whatever.
"Abby!" I called over the music. "What have you got?"
"What?" Abby yelled back.
"What do you have, Abs?"
Abby picked up her remote control and turned down the music. "What did you say?"
"What have you got?"
"Oh! Plenty!"
"Like what?"
"Olive!" Abby called, and Olive emerged from the other room.
"Hello, Gibbs." She said as she walked towards the computer. I nodded to her in return.
I didn't really know what to think of Tony's daughter. I was aware they were close, and that was good. She reminds me of a not goth Abby.
Abby pulled me to the front of the room, and Olive began displaying what information Abby was talking about on the plasma, so she didn't have to move back and forth, like she usually did.
"First of all, I matched the footprint to a work boot from rockport, size twelve."
"Thanks Abs."
"No problem, but there's more. They found this…" she said, gesturing to a beat up old cell phone, which was charred as though it had been set on fire. "… at the crime scene. It was in the oven, cooking away. Once we got it working we recovered this…"
Olive hit a button and a video popped up on the plasma. Sergeant Altman pulled out the phone, and pointed it towards herself.
"I can only pray this will reach the safe hands of authorities. I will be dead soon, and I'm assuming you wish to know why. Petty Officer Jeff Daniel and I have been in a relationship for a while now, and he isn't very stable…" a crash sounds in the background "mentally at the moment…" and the camera falls to the floor and the video went black.
"Wow. That practically laid the whole case out for us. Nice job Abby."
"Don't thank me, thank Olive and her magic fingers. You should have seen how fast she repaired this thing." Abby says.
"Keep up the good work, Olive."
Olive smiles and nods. "Thanks."
Later…
Point of View: Tony
I kicked in the front door of the Petty Officer's house.
They still had no idea why the crime scene was staged to look like aliens, but once they got this guy, they would find out.
"Clear!" Ziva called from down the hall, and I looked into the kitchen. "Clear!" I returned.
"Got him!" McGee called, and we all headed towards him.
The man was in his bathroom, the walls were covered in writing.
WE WILL GET YOU
Written over and over and over again. The guy was freaking out from under McGee's grip.
He was pushed against the wall, hands cuffed behind him. "No!" he screamed. "They'll come back for me! They'll get you, and they'll save me!"
Ziva and I share confused looks until Tim says…
"Looks like we just discovered why the crime scene appeared to be aliens."
"Oh god." I say.
This guy thinks he is with Aliens.
Later…
Ziva and I sit in observation, watching as Tim enters the room and sits down across from Daniel.
"Why did you kill Sergeant Altman?" Direct approach.
"They wanted me to!" Petty Officer Daniel cried.
"Who wanted you to?"
"The aliens."
"There are no Aliens, Jeff."
"There are! They will get you too! They make me kill you just like they made me kill her!"
"Thank you, Petty Officer." Tim said, standing and leaving to come to observation.
"He needs a psych eval, get someone down here."
"Tim, what's up with you?" I ask.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh come on, McGee." Ziva says. "We all can see something is wrong. What is it?"
"My uh… my girlfriend broke up with me. I really liked her." He says.
"That's rough man, I'm really sorry."
"I'll get through it."
"We will help you, Tim." Ziva says.
"Thanks."
The psych eval reveals Petty Officer Daniel is schizophrenic. Not a big surprise.
We pretty much had the case wrapped up in a bow and delivered to us, thanks to Sergeant Altman and her quick thinking.
Case solved.