Okay. So I would have had this up like, two days ago but I was too busy writing the end of the story.
Don't freak out on me...we're not even close to the end yet. But I had a massive brainwave while watching Batman Returns (Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, 1992) on Sunday I just had to write it down before I forgot. I'm sure you other writers will understand...XD
Not much Tony-Ziva interaction in here except for my shamless use of a Princess Bride quote...but there is that talk with Ducky I hinted at.
I apologize for any mistakes...my grammar-Nazi feature isn't working today and I don't know if I caught everything.
Oh, and as a heads up for those of you who haven't watched it yet: Spoiler alert warning for Capitol Offense (6x03) at the bottom.
We got to the crime scene faster than the truck, though Ziva and I had stopped for breakfast. She was back to her own suicidal driving habits; I spent most of the drive with my eyes shut tight. Last night seemed forgotten, and we were back to normal: bickering like children over candy.
"I wish you'd let me drive," I moaned. "Or I'm going to die of a heart attack before I hit forty."
She chuckled and patted my arm. "You are such a turkey, Tony."
"Chicken," I replied automatically, before realizing what I had said. "Wait…hey!"
We got out of the car and looked around. The neightborhood was nice, aside from the bright yellow police tape surrounding the house in front of us. Clean lawns, painted shutters, BMW's in all the garages. All it needed was a creepy mansion on top of the hill and it would be just like the Suburbia in Edward Scissorhands...minus Johnny Depp and his garden shears.
"You the Feds?" a voice asked, and Ziva and I turned to see a police officer walking up to us.
"Yes. Special Agents DiNozzo and David, NCIS," I said, pulling out my badge and flipping it open for him to see.
"The bodies are in the living room," the man said, gesturing. "Our ME estimated the time of death to be about four days ago."
I heard the truck, with Gibbs and McGee inside, pull up behind me. "Good. We'll take it from here, Officer…?"
"Marshall. Leonard Marshall."
"Okay. Thanks Lenny."
"Help McGee with the truck," Gibbs said, gruffly, coming over to me. "Ziva, with me."
"Could you get my bag for me, Tony?" Ziva asked, following Gibbs into the house.
"As you wish," I said, looking her straight in the eye and praying to all the holy powers that she hadn't seen The Princess Bride.
"Tony! Truck! Now!"
"Right boss," I said, turning away from Ziva and walking over to watch McGee unload.
"Aren't you going to help me?" the younger agent asked, struggling with the equipment.
"I'm supervising. It is my duty, me being a Senior Field Agent and all."
…
The crime scene was very self explanatory. The bodies of two Marine wives, Debbie Baker and Lisa Anderson, were lying in the living room, both in jumbled and awkward states, suggesting that they had been thrown to their final resting places. Blood was all over the wall, the floor, and the furniture, as well as three bullets.
"Where are the other two?" McGee asked. I looked at him. "I mean, there are five bullet wounds. Shouldn't we be able to find two more?"
"They could still be lodged in the bodies, Timothy," Ducky said, coming through the open front door to join them.
"Find them, Duck," Gibbs said, coming in from the kitchen after talking to the cleaning lady who had discovered the bodies.
"I'd have to get them back to Autopsy first, Jethro. Be patient."
"Time of death, then. The LEO's ME estimated four days."
"Then what do you need me here for?"
"Don't believe what you're told―"
"―Always double check," Ducky, Ziva, McGee, and I finished for him.
Gibbs was silent…I wasn't sure if he was happy that we remembered his rules or upset at being interrupted. Then he spoke to Ducky. "Tell Tony what you find out. I'm going to go out and talk to the neighbors across the street. McGee, you come with me. Ziva, Mrs. Hernandez is in the kitchen...Escort her home, please."
"What about me, boss?" I asked, noticing I hadn't been given a job to do.
"Help Ducky."
And then he left, followed closely by Ziva and the maid, conversing quietly to each other in Spanish. When I was alone with the ME, I finally noticed that someone was missing.
"Where's Palmer?" I asked, looking around.
"He is under the weather today, I'm afraid," he responded. "So I'm a little understaffed." Ducky pulled the liver probe out of the first woman's stomach. "Time of death for this one is about four to five days ago."
I wrote it down.
"And the other one?"
Ducky bent over the second woman and there was silence for a couple of seconds.
"Same time."
"Alright."
I watched Ducky through the window as he pulled out his gear from the back of the ME truck, and an internal debate raged inside me. This chance, the chance I'd been hoping for…had just landed in my lap. Palmer out sick, Gibbs, McGee, and Ziva away…
"Let me help you with that, Ducky," I said, coming up to him and assisting him with the gurney.
"Ah, thanks you, Tony," he said. "One never quite appreciates someone until they're gone."
"I hear that, Ducky," I said ruefully, my mind flashing back to Ziva again and those four horrible months I spent at sea not talking about her, worrying about her…dreaming about her…
It took us about ten minutes to get the two women into the back of the ME truck, and I saw Gibbs coming out of one of the neighboring houses and wave me over to him.
"Baker and Anderson were close friends, according to the neighbor," he said. "Both of their husbands are deployed in the same unit over in Iraq." Gibbs sighed. "They were due to come home in a month. When we're done with the crime scene we need talk to Vance…Those Marines need to come home for this."
"I can do it now," I offered. "Ducky's short a man today…I can help him back to NCIS and then talk to Vance."
I don't know what made me offer my assistance to Ducky. Up until two seconds ago I was still undecided, still ripped apart by the situation. But it seemed like the perfect opportunity…and I half expected Gibbs to roll his eyes and tell me to do something different, maybe send Probie instead, but he just nodded.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Hey, Ducky!" he called to his friend.
"Yes, Jethro?"
"Don't leave just yet. Tony's going back with you."
"Thanks boss," I said quickly, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice. I didn't want him to start suspecting anything.
"When you get back, tell Vance I'm going to need MTAC," he added.
"Right boss." I jogged quickly back to the truck and hopped in the passenger side. "Let's go, Ducky," I said, shutting the door.
As he began to pull the big truck out of the Baker's driveway, I began to have second thoughts. I was easier and easier for me to think of reasons not to talk to him, to keep my feelings for Ziva locked inside. Nothing good could come of it, I reasoned. I was just being stupid. It would be better not to. I would regret it. I might shock Ducky into a heart attack by acting so out of character.
But it will make you feel better.
No it won't. I'll just feel as horrible as I do now.
If you keep things locked inside like this, you're going to explode.
That only happens in movies.
You might not get such a perfect chance like this…
"Hey…Ducky?" I asked, uncharacteristic tentativeness leeching through my words. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course, Tony. What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" I said quickly. "Nothing's wrong. What makes you think something's wrong?"
"You aren't acting like yourself today."
"Yes I am."
The ME laughed. "Come on, Tony. We know each other too well for that. I can tell when something is bothering you."
Damn. Not a good idea…not a good idea…not a good idea…
Just say it, you idiot!
"I'm just…" I trailed off, not knowing how to start. It was weird, not knowing how to say something. Usually I had the opposite problem.
"Just what?"
"I don't know where to start," I confessed.
"The beginning is as good a place as any."
"That's just the thing, Ducky. I don't know when it started…" I ran my fingers through my hair. "Maybe it was when Vance split us up…maybe it was when we went undercover…maybe it was when I first met her. I can't tell."
Ducky was silent for a moment as he put my words and my actions together. "Ah," he said. "I see where this is going."
"You do?" I asked hopefully. "Good. Because I'm having trouble with coherency on the subject."
"I understand completely what you mean…When I was a lad living in Scotland I met this lovely girl by the name of―"
I let the ME ramble on for a while until we had reached NCIS. If he was talking, then that meant I didn't have to. "What do I do, Ducky?" I asked, interrupting him in the middle of his story about him and some chick named Harriet and their whirlwind summer romance in the brisk countryside of his homeland. "It's eating me from the inside…I don't know how to handle it."
"Does she know how you feel, Tony?"
"No…and I'm afraid to tell her. She might kill me."
"Nonsense. Ziva may be an assassin, but she's still just another woman when it comes to this sort of thing."
We stopped this conversation to unload the gurneys and wheel them in to Autopsy.
"Listen, Ducky," I said as I made my way to the doors. "Do you think you could keep this between us? I rather no one else knew…especially Gibbs. You know how he gets when you break on of his rules."
"Your secret is safe with me, my dear boy, though I think you shouldn't worry. Gibbs may be hard, but don't let him and his rules stand in the way of your own happiness."
I thought about that as I pressed the button on the elevator that would take me to the squad room. The talk with Ducky had been short (on my part) but it made me feel better. I now had someone to look to for help, someone I could trust. The pressure inside me was a little more relieved.
I almost ran into Vance as I stepped out of the elevator.
"Tony," he said. "Where's Gibbs?"
"Still at the crime scene, sir," I replied. "I came back early to help Ducky."
"What's the status?"
"Um…the victims were Lisa Anderson and Debbie Baker, found on the Bakers' living room floor. Discovered by the housekeeper. Been dead about five days. Husbands are deployed together in Iraq, due to come home in a month. Gibbs wants me to ask you to ask to have them come home early."
Vance stared at me. "Does he now?"
I nodded. "Almost a direct quote," I said.
"Almost?"
"I paraphrased to make it seem like he actually asked for permission."
"That's what I thought. Who are the Marines he wants?"
"I was just about to figure that out…" I said, heading towards my desk.
"You do that. "
As soon as I sat down, my cell phone rang.
"Tony DiNozzo," I answered, typing fiercely.
"What have you got?" Gibbs asked.
"A dirty apartment and a '66 Mustang," I responded without thinking.
"On the case, DiNozzo."
"Right. Sorry boss. Running down the list right now."
About five seconds later, the monitor beeped, signaling that the search was done. "The names are Taylor Anderson and Chuck Baker, boss," I said. "Both snipers, 32 years old. Served together since '98…and they graduated from the same high school in Arkansas. Looks like they did everything together, boss."
"Get a hold of them, don't tell them why…this sort of thing needs to be done in person," Gibbs said. "Has Ducky found the other bullets yet?"
"Not yet, sir…we just got back ten minutes ago. Find anything else in the house?"
"I don't know yet, Tony."
And then the line went dead as Gibbs hung up on me.
Typical.
I felt so bad for Gibbs in the episode yesterday, with his friend betraying his trust like that...what a stupidface that guy was...