WELL-SCHOOLED IN MURDER

Chapter 6

Tony removed the headset connecting him to the elevator and stood, facing Gibbs and his guest.

"Col. Ferragamo, this is my SFA, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. DiNozzo, this is one of the kids' father…."

Tony stuck out a hand and shook the colonel's. "Call me Tony. And you're Dante's dad, right?"

Col. Ferragamo nodded. "May I?" he asked, pointing to the headset.

With a quick glance at Gibbs for the ok, Tony nodded, moving aside to let the colonel in to the table. "Of course."

Looking at the picture on the screen, the colonel's eyes teared up a bit when he saw his son. He donned the headset. "Miss Gracie? Vince."

Tony looked skeptical. "Pfft. Vince? What happened to Colonel?" he muttered under his breath, not realizing that he sounded like a jealous little kid.

"I think she's known him a little longer than she's known you, DiNozzo," Gibbs said with that half-smile of his, enjoying watching his SFA pout, and try to act like he wasn't eavesdropping on the conversation.

"…..Yeah, it was a short seizure, less than five minutes. Janine has the exact timing, I didn't have anywhere to keep track of it in here," Gracie told the colonel, explaining his son's seizure and subsequent nap. "There was a new thing this time, though. The rigor didn't relax when he fell asleep. He'd grabbed my sleeve during, and couldn't release it." She held up her arm with the ragged shirtsleeve. "Ended up having to cut my way out because I couldn't move too far."

The colonel winced. "I'm sorry 'bout that, Gracie. Give me the bill, and I'll…"

Gracie waved him off. "Please. With what I get on me during the day, I know enough not to wear anything that's 'dry-clean only' or 'fancy-smancy.' This was nothing irreplaceable, believe me, Vince," she said with a laugh.

"But still… you ruined your clothes because of my son…."

Gracie was already shaking her head. "I consider it 'in the line of duty,'" she stated firmly. "These things happen. No big deal."

The colonel reluctantly agreed to let it go with a sigh. "What about everything else? Everything ok - except for being stuck, that is."

"I guess," Gracie said with a shrug. "Even if it wasn't….nothing anyone can do about it."

Sensing Tony lurking behind him, Col. Ferragamo decided to end the conversation. "Ok then, hon. Everyone's doing their best to get you all out of there. I won't let them stop 'til you're all safe."

Gracie smiled shyly. "Thanks, Vince. Talk to you soon."

"Yes, you will." Unashamedly, he kissed his fingers and pressed them to his son's picture. "Thank you for taking care of my son, Gracie. I know he's in the best hands." Taking off the headset, the colonel reached out and traced his son's figure on the screen, silently wishing everyone safe, especially his son. Determinedly stepping away from the screen, Vince the Dad turned back into Col. Ferragamo, the… well, the colonel. "What do you need from me? What can I do?"

Gibbs motioned the colonel to walk with him, and DiNozzo followed. "There's nothing we can do right now but wait, colonel. We've got an FBI bomb squad checking out the building as we speak, we'll know more once they've finished their sweep."

The trio stopped several yards away from the command center. "What do we know," the colonel asked. "Anyone claiming responsibility?"

Tony and Gibbs shared a look. "We don't know anything at the moment," Tony said grimly. "There's been no further contact since the original call about the bomb came in."

"Agent David is with T.A.R.U., tracing that first call, but it's been slow going. Whoever they are, they've got a pretty sophisticated set up." Gibbs shrugged. "I'm waiting for my other junior agent, Tim McGee, to return. He's our tech guy."

"If anyone can find these guys, our McGeek can," Tony said confidently, cringing at the head slap from Gibbs. "Sorry boss." He rubbed the back of his head. "Could we not tell McTechno-babble I said nice things about him? I don't want him to get a big head or anything."

"You mean, like yours?" Gibbs asked with a raised eyebrow and another slap to the back of Tony's head. "You're on elevator duty. GO." He and Col. Ferragamo watched Tony amble back to the command center. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the colonel was worried. "Colonel, I assure you my team is the best at what we do. Agent DiNozzo wasn't lying when he said Agent McGee was the best with the computer stuff."

Colonel Ferragamo turned to Gibbs. "If that were your child in that elevator….would you be telling the same story?"

Gibbs paused for a moment to think about his daughter Kelly, who'd been killed 20 years ago when she was only 8 years old. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he spoke. "My….daughter was killed….murdered, a little over 20 years ago, along with my wife. Cartel hit while I was overseas," he said, a faraway look in his eyes. "If anyone could have protected my family….it would have been my team." He looked the colonel in the eye. "They may look like kids, and they may act it most of the time," he smiled. "But you won't find a smarter, more talented group of 'kids' anywhere. That's a guarantee, colonel."

Seeing the truth in Gibbs' eyes, and knowing the man is a fellow marine, Col. Ferragamo gives Gibbs his blind trust. He held out a hand to shake Gibbs'. "Then that's good enough for me, Gunny."

With a small, half-smile, Gibbs answered, "Oo-rah, colonel."

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As he returned to the command center, Tony could see some activity going on in the elevator. When he put on the headset, he could hear the final lines of a childrens' activity song.

"…if you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it, if you're happy and you know it, touch your toes….."

"Awwww, I missed it," Tony said lightly, hoping to keep everyone onboard the elevator calm. "Can you do it again so I can play?" He chuckled as the 2 children who were awake smiled and said 'yeah!'

With a groan and a smile, Gracie said, "I think eight verses is enough!" She glared at Tony. "What other song can we have Agent Tony play with us, guys?"

"'Owny-Pony!" giggled Adina.

Gracie shook her head again. "Sorry, Deen, but we don't have enough room to do the Hokey Pokey." The little girl pouted. "Besides, Kyle was on his feet way too long earlier, so we want some sit-down games we can play, so his legs don't hurt, right?" Gracie admonished gently, smiling when the girl nodded.

Adina turned to Kyle. "Ay-ul's 'urn a pit a sawn."

"That's nice of you, Deeny, letting Kyle have a turn to pick a song. What do you think, Kyle, have a song you want to do?"

Tony smiled, watching Gracie interact with the kids. He had to admire her - not only for taking on Gibbs - but for the work she does. Here she was, basically trapped by a bomb in a small, metal box, with three severely disabled children, and she was managing to keep them all as calm and happy as possible, like nothing was wrong. And the fact that she was beautiful didn't hurt! Tim and Ziva would probably think her fairly average-looking, with her long, dark blonde hair and dark blue eyes, average body type. In fact, they'd probably wonder why Tony found her so attractive. But he didn't see 'dark blonde hair' - he saw burnished gold with streaks of honey. As for the 'dark blue eyes,' they reminded him of twilight, just before night. And the 'average body…..' - well, his own body found nothing average about it! Gracie's yell brought him back to the present. He saw her staring at the camera with a raised eyebrow, as if she knew he'd been daydreaming. "Sorry," he chuckled, embarrassed.

Giving him her half-smile, she said, "'s ok. Deeny just had a question for you." She turned to the young girl. "I don't think Agent Tony knows any of our songs, kiddo, so he may not be able to sing with us."

True, Tony didn't know a lot of kids' songs, but he was willing to give it a shot. Hell, he'd been a kid once. "Tell you what, sweets," he addressed Adina, "Why don't you start the song, and if I know it, I'll jump in, ok?"

Over happy cheering, Gracie said "Tony, you don't have to sing along, it's ok." She shrugged. "It's in my job description, not yours."

"Hey, I can't let you guys have all the fun, can I?" Tony joked. "I mean, you've met my boss, right?" he laughed.

"Problem, DiNozzo?" Gibbs' voice came from behind, surprising him. As usual.

"Uh, no, no boss. Just uh, telling Gracie….uh….." He saw the smirk on Gibbs' face, the raised eyebrow. "….what a great guy you are to work for. Great. Great guy….. Bu-u-u-u-u-t…. I don't need to tell you that, boss, cuz you already know how great you are, cuz you're the boss, and bosses are bosses cuz they're great, and I'm just shutting up now, boss." Tony winced, waiting for the head slap. When it didn't come, he opened one eye and saw Gibbs just standing there, smirking. Looking behind himself at the monitor, he thanked God that there were impressionable children around to keep him from getting slapped.

"Wrap it up for a minute, DiNozzo," Gibbs murmured. "Bomb squad's on it's way out. They found something."

The tense moment of silence on the other end of the line told Gracie that something was going on, something they didn't want her to know about. "Tony? Tony, what's going on?"

Tony looked at the screen, lump in his throat, sick to his stomach. He couldn't say anything, not yet. Not until he knew exactly what they were dealing with. "I have to go talk to my boss for a minute, ok? But uh… but you guys keep singing, and when I get back….I'll, I'll join in, ok?" He ripped the headset off, dropping it on the table, forcing himself to ignore Gracie calling after him. He turned and raced after Gibbs, needing to hear what the bomb squad had found.

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A/N - Sorry for the shorty chapter. Kind of feeling my way to the big scene, where we find out what's really going on and why. Congratulations to Mandielouluvsewe, who's name will be used in some way in this story for giving me the idea for why someone wants to bomb the school. Don't worry, you'll be a good character, not evil. Unless you want to be evil, then I can figure something out…..

DISCLAIMER: The usual stuff about having no part of NCIS, CBS, etc., and about getting no benefits from the aforementioned parties in any way, shape, or form still apply. No elevators were hurt in the making of this fanfic.