To Die Standing
Chapter 2
As puzzled as McGee and Tony were, by the next day everything was forgotten. How many times have they had close calls, after all? No one was perfect, and it is ultimately up to fate and luck to keep them alive and breathing day after day. Morning brought a new day, with its challenges. Computers turned on, passwords typed, elevators resonating their ringing sounds as the agents went to their respective floors. Coffee. Quick breakfast. People ignoring each other–they do not know each other anyway, being on separate teams. Papers, telephones ringing, false alarms, jokes, prank calls–why are they going through this nonsense? Beepers, cellphones, spouses calling in, family calling in–this is no place for personal business! Take it outside! Another call–a new case; they were to drive about twenty miles out of the city to investigate a murder scene.
" How do they know it's a murder scene?"
" Because it's kind of hard to hang yourself by the back of the neck on a nail on a telephone pole."
" What the hell?"
" Don't ask. I don't know either." Tony shrugged.
More McGee jokes, until they arrived at the scene. Gibbs was oddly patient, though when Tony continued his name-calling even when the car stopped, Gibbs snappishly told Tony to cut it out and get to work. Ziva, wearing her hat with her hair tucked in, blinked in the sunlight and flexed her gloved hands before fetching her camera.
" Ooh." She exclaimed nonchalantly. " That can't be comfortable." The man was, indeed, hanging by the back of his neck on the pole by something. Like a jacket on a hook. This certainly smelled like foulplay to her.
" Marine lieutenant, was about two weeks into his month off. Wonder what he did to piss whoever it was off."
" What makes you think he pissed anyone off?"
" Well I don't know for sure, since Ducky's not here, but I'll bet it's not that easy to hang someone like that."
Ziva stepped closer to the corpse. " Leeches!" She muttered under her breath, spotting the black parasites on the pale, dead skin. " I hate leeches."
" You scared of them?" Tony grinned.
" No, I did not say I was scared of them." Ziva replied, annoyed. " But hey, if you love them so much, why don't you take them?"
" Bag them." Gibbs told Tony before he moved to interrogate the witnesses. " They're evidence."
This time Tony grimaced. " Ew. Why me?"
Gibbs gave him the familiar stern look.
" Right." Tony grinned sheepishly. " On it, Boss."
Gibbs turned and walked away.
" I can't believe you actually asked him that." Ziva shook her head. " After all these years!"
" Yeah, well, I don't like leeches." Tony grumbled. He could not believe he asked Gibbs that either, but then he had not been thinking at the time.
" Scared?" Ziva grinned.
" Would you like to switch?" Tony asked with fake sweetness.
" Hey, he specifically told you." Ziva held up her hands, with the camera in one. " Not getting in the way of that."
" Yeah, well, you're just chicken." Tony scowled at the sight. Ewwwww...
" Sure thing, Tony." The camera clicked.
The leeches were alive. They wiggled and flipped from head to toe and did little cartwheels on the skin before settling in. As Tony pulled the leeches off, a burst of blood welled from the puncture hole.
" Huh." Tony gave Ziva a puzzled look, disgust forgotten for the moment. " Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't dead people, you know, not supposed to bleed?"
" Guess it depends on how long he's been dead." Ziva's camera clicked as she took another picture. " Maybe Ducky could explain what's going on."
Ducky arrived with palmer, heading straight to business as usual. He pressed his gloved hand on the man's throat as if checking for a pulse.
" How odd." Said the old man. " He's still bleeding. And there's a pulse, too."
Ziva and Tony exchanged a look.
" Does that mean he's still...alive?" McGee asked nervously, while Gibbs looked at the corpse in alarm. What if the man was really still alive? They would have to call the ambulance!
" No. He's dead." Ducky shook his head. " He simply has a pulse. He is decaying already." He stepped back, gesturing to Palmer.
" Wait..." McGee blinked. " How is that possible?"
" He's a zombie!" Tony grinned, his teeth flashing bright white in the sun. " He's going to suck your blood, McDonald. It's for that book you're going to write about him. He's out to get you."
" I was not going to write anything about him." McGee scowled at Tony.
" That was lame." Ziva opined to Tony. " You're losing your touch, Tony."
" Well he's not alive, definitely. He's been dead for more than three days, from the looks of it." Ducky replied. " Hm. How peculiar. I think this will be quite an interesting autopsy."
Ziva's ankle gave out suddenly and she staggered to the side to recover herself. Tony turned to her, grin widening.
" What, Zeeva, are you scared of the zombie?"
" Get real," Ziva snapped.
" Boss," McGee suddenly approached. No one had noticed he was even gone after Tony's remark. " Found this scrap of cloth. Not sure who this belongs to."
" Bag it." Gibbs replied impatiently. " You don't need me to tell you everything!"
" Er, right, Boss." McGee ducked his head and went away again.
" Or maybe you're actually a necrophiliac." Tony went on. " Since you're falling for the guy. Get it? 'Falling'?"
" DiNozzo, get the rest of those leeches out." Gibbs commanded, cutting him off abruptly. " David, if you can't stand up straight go home and take care of things until you can."
" I'm fine, Gibbs." Ziva said rather solemnly.
Gibbs gave her a brief look before turning around to speak to another inspector. Ziva stepped away from the corpse to get more pictures of the surrounding area.
" Alright, fine," Tony muttered to himself. " That was kinda lame. Sorta."
oO
More phone calls, scanning files on the computer. Marton Reslon, age 26, was a marine since he was 21 and had been promoted to lieutenant for about 2 years. No history of any criminal activity before or after he became marine, nor was he ever reported to be a drug addict. No one within the navy that were on bad terms with him, so it must be on the outside.
" I'm starving."
A lot of the time the work was boring. It was simply compiling information to sum to a proper conclusion, and getting that information will take as long as it needs to, no matter how much one tries to rush it. Of course, it would be nice if Ziva helped out, but for some reason today Ziva seemed content to rest her head on the table for five minutes for every two minutes of work. Once the boss gets here, Tony was definitely going to tell on her if she does not clean up her act.
McGee was much more sympathetic. " Ziva...are you okay?" He asked.
Ziva jerked up. " I'm fine." She stared intently at her computer and began scrolling down vigorously. Tony doubted, even with her photographic memory, that she was able to actually understand anything that was on the screen. McGee obviously thought the same thing.
" Uh...okay," He gave Tony a questioning look, which Tony ignored.
A few seconds of silence elapsed. The two men were so confused that once again, when Gibbs arrived, it took everyone by surprised.
" What do you have?"
" Uh," Tony proceeded to recite everything he had learned. At the end, he was met only with Gibbs' blank stare.
" That it?" Gibbs demanded. " That's all you got for me? Ziva, go home until you can see without going cross-eyed." He said to her shortly, startling Ziva, who blinked, almost owlishly, at her desk. " Hurry up and get me more. This is not going to help us get the killer! Come on!" He grabbed his coffee. The team sat there, still, and he looked at them all in turn. " Do I have to bring a club?"
At this, McGee and Tony instantly sat up, at attention. Ziva rubbed her eyes, wondering whether she was actually cross-eyed. She was about to get back to work, but Gibbs suddenly slammed his own coffee on her desk. Before she could react, he was walking away. Clearly the coffee was a way of saying 'Go home or else'. Funny how she could now read so much of Gibbs' intentions.
With the other two focused on their own work, Ziva glanced uncomfortably back and forth, before slowly getting up and getting her coat. She did not touch the coffee as she left her desk, nor did she say good bye. Tony looked up when she left, but throughout the entire time both he and McGee had been silent.