"As far as we can tell, the only thing that brought these people together is how they were taken apart," Tony said, looking over the reports as the team waited in the squad room. "In addition to Marilyn Torrance, we have a nineteen-year-old runaway from Florida. He was shot. Thirty-year-old prostitute. She was strangled."
"No next of kin on either of them," Ziva added. "Wade Carlin, twenty-six-year-old Georgetown graduate from Michigan."
"He broke off contact with his parents after his girlfriend dumped him six months ago. They thought he was Jack Kerouac-ing around the country," McGee finished.
"When in fact he was stabbed to death a few weeks after the breakup," Tony muttered with a sigh.
"All missing persons cases. All have led to nowhere."
"Until now," Tony replied with a smirk. "Gloria Grady. Age seventy-two. Ducky says she was the first victim. Blunt trauma. Only one relative, her son, Len Grady."
"He was at James River," Ziva said, recognizing him as Morgan frowned, just listening and trying to work things out herself.
"With a bouquet of flowers," Tony tacked on.
"Lilies. For who?"
"No record of any Grady at James River. Could be under a different name," McGee suggested as Tony hummed.
"Could be a friend."
"But lilies. They're feminine. The kind you give to a woman," Ziva said as McGee spoke up.
"Like your mother." He paused when they looked at him. "Grady's mother. I… I don't know your mother."
"Could be visiting his trophies," Tony offered.
"Fits the classic profile. Thirties. Single. White," Ziva said as McGee spoke up.
"We should tell Gibbs."
"Yeah? Why don't we wait 'til he gets out unless you want to be the one to interrupt his meeting? Campfire's over."
"I'll go," Morgan said, drawing attention to her as she took the file on the man from Tony. "I suggest bringing him in or getting ready to. Gibbs will want to see him."
"Yeah, sorry, did you not hear me? He's in a meeting."
"And this is a potential break in the case," Morgan said, giving him a sharp look. "He'd want us to move, not twiddle our thumbs waiting for him to finish up. It's why I said I'd go since none of you want to interrupt."
She said nothing more as she walked out of the bullpen and made her way up to the Director's office, the team watching her go as Tony muttered under his breath.
"Touchy."
"Something is definitely up with her and Gibbs," Ziva said giving him a look. "She didn't look happy about Mann being there."
"Aren't they old friends?" McGee asked, having seen how they got along on past cases.
"Friends are nosy," Tony informed him, moving back to his desk. "Mann probably knows more than we do."
"You think Morgan would tell her?"
"I think she has more of a chance of hearing about it than we do," Ziva replied. "Besides, don't you have a different problem to worry about McGee?"
He sighed nodding, knowing he still hadn't figured out what was going on with Abby and begrudgingly let the matter drop. "Gibbs wants us to check with her too."
Ziva rolled her eyes. "I'll go."
"And if you find anything?" McGee asked. "A-About Abby, I mean."
"Yes, yes. We'll see."
Len Grady turned out to be a rather good lead. He was a jack of all trades and they were able to connect him to at least two of the victims they'd ID-ed so they went to go get him. Morgan was left in the bullpen begrudgingly as the others went out to pick the man up. Gibbs could tell she was exhausted this late in the day after no sleep the night before and it shouldn't be hard to grab the man and have a quick look through his home. So he'd told her to say and look further into things. Her mind was buzzing with ideas on this case and given how helpful her usual out-of-the-box ideas were, he wanted her to focus on those for a moment.
She wasn't thrilled to be side-lined but wasn't sure how she'd handle being stuck in a car with him for a few hours after their last discussion. So, she stayed and after grabbing yet another energy drink to try and help keep her awake, she went back to looking into the victims. She was doing a more extensive search on who they were, what connections they could have, and this nagging feeling in the back of her head that this all felt a little… off. They still hadn't figured out the connection between the mausoleum and everything, and that gave her a thought.
Before she could put the thought into action though, she jumped, whipping around to Mann who'd finally emerged from the Director's office and had set a wrapped sandwich on her desk. Morgan hesitated before nodding and muttering her thanks for the food, not having noticed how hungry she was until now, and making a note to see if there was a connection between the Dalton family and Len Grady to check later.
"How'd… How'd it go?" She asked Mann as she pulled up a chair on the opposite side of her desk to eat her own meal.
"What? With the Director? Fine. Was just letting me know I had permission to stay on the case and…" Mann paused, lost in thought for a moment before continuing. "And making suggestions about placement after my service in CID is up in six months."
Morgan stopped, mouth frozen open mid-bite, before closing it with a slight frown. "You didn't tell me that."
"And you haven't told me why you're holding back with Gibbs," Mann tacked on, making Morgan grimace and go back to her food as Mann sighed. "Look, I've been trying not to think about it, okay? You know how it is. Once your service is up, things get harder to deal with. I've… been offered a few positions at various places, especially with what happened with Shariff—"
Morgan stiffened slightly but soon relaxed, able to push aside the brief flicker of the man's smug face in her mind.
"I just haven't properly sat down and worked through my best options yet," Mann said, smiling at her. "Though I appreciate you asking. Were you worried?"
Morgan shot her a glare, making her chuckle.
"Gibbs is rubbing off on you. They all are and I'm glad. It's about time someone broke through to you."
"You already did," Morgan grumbled but Mann shook her head.
"I had a passing fancy, is all. You were interesting, gruff, a challenge. I liked that and did a bit of poking and prodding. We became friends and I considered… Well, I considered pushing a bit more but by then I'd begun to see that you weren't ready for it."
That surprised her, making Morgan's stomach flip and twist. She hadn't thought that Mann had feelings for her at any point. She took all the teasing and nosiness as her trying to be friends but this conversation was now making her second guess everything. Mann had noticed how she'd shifted and lightly punched her shoulder.
"Stop it. Like I said, you weren't ready and it was a passing fancy. The fact you didn't even know just proves my point. The military doesn't always leave room for you to figure out romance and given how deep you dove into it, it's no wonder you're such a hot mess with Gibbs."
"I'm not—" Morgan groaned, setting her sandwich down and dragging a hand down her face. "God, am I that oblivious? You a-and Gibbs, and who knows how many others."
Mann chuckled. "You are the most oblivious, especially back then. The thing is, you've changed. You're opening up here with NCIS and it's thanks to that, that you actually have a shot at something good. Gibbs is good. I don't know why you're not taking a chance with him when he's practically throwing himself at you."
"It's not that easy," Morgan grumbled, leaning back in her chair and tipping her head back. "I don't even understand it. What am I supposed to do when I don't even know how I feel about this?"
"What'd he do anyway?" Mann asked, snapping open a soda can with a look at Morgan. "He made a move, obviously, but he doesn't seem like the open confession kind of guy."
Morgan's expression pinched into a grimace, trying to work out what to say because despite how close she and Mann were as friends, she hadn't told her a lot of her problems.
"I… Y-You know how the military is," Morgan started, looking back at Mann uneasily. "How… How things change when you're out of it but you can still… still see and feel it sometimes? Like you never left."
Mann nodded, understanding that and seeing how broken her friend was. Not that she hadn't known but the extent of which had never come up. Mann never pushed Morgan and that was part of why they would never work. Morgan needed someone who pushed just enough to get her to talk and Mann would instead step back and let it go. Gibbs was different.
"I had a bad week," Morgan muttered, gaze turning down to her palm where a light scar remained from the knife she'd caught while struggling mentally. "I was on medical leave after what happened with… with Shariff."
The name tasted foul in her mouth but she'd worked through this in therapy and was able to continue.
"I-I… I struggle when I'm without work. It all gets to be a bit much and between the memories Shariff brought up and my usual outlets not working, it got to the point where it was dangerous. Gibbs dropped by because I hadn't answered my phone and found me like… like that. He didn't want me on my own and let me stay with him."
"PTSD," Mann murmured and Morgan nodded, petting Russell who'd dropped his head on her lap in comfort.
"Among… Among a whole host of other things but yes. I can usually deal with it. I'm medicated and I have regular appointments. It's never affected my work or my job but when I'm off…" Morgan ran a shaky hand through her hair. "It gets to be too much."
"So he looked after you?"
Morgan nodded but sheepishly looked away. "I… I woke up from a nightmare. One of those where I'm not fully aware. I thought he was… I attacked him and panicked when I came to. It was… I-I was at my lowest point in… in a long while."
Mann's heart broke for the woman in front of her and what she was sharing. A part of her felt as though she were intruding, as though she was unworthy of hearing this but Morgan felt the opposite. Morgan felt that she should've told Mann a long time ago especially if she'd had feelings for her. Feelings that went ignored for so long. Morgan felt guilty for not taking that friendship years ago, for not accepting it as what it was and just allowing herself a proper friend. Her having the opportunity now felt like too little too late, but she wanted to share. Mann had been there for her quite a few times now and she'd been the start of her opening up. Mann deserved to know.
"I was going to leave, to quit NCIS because I thought… after attacking Gibbs and how badly things were going…"
"You thought you were a risk to the team," Mann muttered, recognizing the guilt immediately. "Christ, Morgan."
"He kissed me," Morgan finally admitted. "Told me I mattered. To him, to the team. That he'd never let me go like that and I didn't… I still don't… I don't know what to do."
"He's got shit timing, that's for sure," Mann offered with a scoff as Morgan dragged a hand through her hair with an exhausted sigh.
"He'd been hinting at it for a while, I realized. Little things. Bringing me drinks, checking in on me… He only just started calling me by my first name around the rest of the team. I noticed but I was… I was hoping I was wrong."
"You don't like him?" Mann asked, leaning back in her seat in slight surprise. "You two get on pretty well though. More than I've seen you with anyone else, even me."
"I like him but I don't know if… if I want that," Morgan tried to explain. "It's… I-I don't hate it but I don't know what to do. If something goes wrong—"
"Don't think of that," Mann grumbled. "Shit's bound to happen, Morgan, whether you two get together or not. Honestly? Your Director was up there grilling me about Gibbs like he's after me. Wasn't too subtle about it but the point still stands. Gibbs and you work together and no matter what, how you two interact will change and will affect those around you. You might make a stupid decision or five or twenty but I think that's worth having a bit of joy in your life, don't you?"
Morgan eyed her desk, silently wishing she had a proper drink instead of just the energy drink on the table. "I don't know. I… I guess but I don't know the first thing about any of this. He's had wives. I'm hardly someone he should be pining after in the first place. I'm not worth his time and—"
"Okay, none of that," Mann said sternly, leaning an elbow on the desk and prodding her shoulder. "You might not be social or romantic or whatever you think comes along with being in a proper relationship but if anything, Gibbs isn't good enough for you, got it?"
"How can—"
"Don't question it, just accept that you are worth a million Gibbs' and if he ever breaks your heart, you come right to me and I will kick his ass all the way to Afghanistan. Got it?" Mann declared firmly. "This isn't about him. This is about you and what you want. If you want him, then you stop twiddling your thumbs and take a chance. You've fought terrorists, for God's sake, and you're going to let some smug, silver fox jerk you around by your heartstrings?"
Morgan went pale then, spotting something over Mann's shoulder, and before Mann could question what was wrong, someone cleared their throat behind her.
"Smug?" Gibbs asked, brow raised as Mann turned around, slightly startled and wondering how much he'd overheard.
"Yeah, smug," she huffed, managing to rein in her surprise and giving him a sharp look. "You want to fuck around with her, then you better bet I'll be on you if you screw it up, Special Agent Gibbs."
"Noted," Gibbs hummed, glancing at Morgan who looked about ready to melt into the floor in shame and embarrassment.
He considered teasing her but whatever had happened between her and Mann was none of his business and had obviously made an impact. He'd let her off this time and just nodded toward the hall.
"We've got Led Grady in interrogation if you two want in."
Morgan and Mann stood with McGee in the observation room as Gibbs and Ziva went to try and crack Led Grady. They weren't getting very far either and Morgan's brows were furrowed as they questioned his appearance at the cemetery.
"You went to visit her," Gibbs informed him, reminding him that he'd been seen by Ziva and the others at the cemetery.
"Brought her flowers," Ziva added as Grady feigned ignorance.
"My mother's at the cemetery?"
"What's left of her. She was dismembered."
"Look at his mind spinning," Mann muttered as McGee hummed.
"He's trying to figure out how to play him."
"Don't know why," Morgan grumbled. "He was seen at the crime scene with no reason for being there other than his dead mother, who he shouldn't have known was there. That alone is incriminating and he's not very good at pretending to be ignorant of that."
"I didn't do that," Grady pressed. "I took care of my mother. I fed her. I cleaned up after her."
"You must have been praying for it to end," Ziva mused before the man slammed a hand on the table and shouted angrily.
"I loved my mother!"
"Past tense," Morgan muttered, making McGee frown.
"But she's dead."
"Yes, but he already claimed he was waiting for her to come back. People who are truly close to their family are more likely to still use present tense until they've given up hope of them being alive. He loved her but if he was truly angry about what Ziva was saying, he would've said he still did."
"Maybe you were right the first time. It must have been like putting down a dog. Only no one ever noticed. Getting away with it must have been the most shocking part," Ziva mused as Gibbs continued and they started pulling out photos of the other victims.
"And a new career is born."
"You did it again and again. Kelly Camarda, Wade Carlin, Marilyn Torrance. Gloria Grady."
"Something's not right," Mann pointed out as Morgan hummed in agreement.
"What do you mean?" McGee asked.
"He looks relieved."
"All of these people were chopped up? That's disgusting. What kind of person do you think could do that? I mean, you're looking for a monster. What do you want me to say? It's not me," Grady declared as Gibbs got up and left. "What now? Want me to do a lie detector test or something?"
"You just did," Ziva replied as Gibbs entered the observation room to hear what the rest had to say.
"He's telling the truth," Mann informed him.
"You think I'm wrong?"
"No, but he was relieved when you connected her with the rest of the bodies. He has no feelings about them at all."
"Doesn't mean he wasn't involved."
"Maybe. But that doesn't look like a man who feels trapped. That looks like a man who knows he has a way out. There's something much worse than Len Grady out there. Only he knows what it is."
"Morgan," Gibbs spoke up, drawing her attention away from the man she was frowning at on the other side of the glass. "Thoughts?"
Morgan eyed him for a moment before turning away. "Mann's right. He doesn't feel trapped but I don't think it's because there's someone else he's working with. He just knows there's no way to connect him to the others. Our evidence is circumstantial at best and he knows that. Our only connection is him to his mother. We might be able to convince a jury but with his sob story about caring for her and her running off…"
"He'll walk," Gibbs concluded sourly and she nodded.
"There's a connection we're missing between him and the others. That's why he's confident. He knows we have nothing and he could fib his way past a lie detector easily. He doesn't hold any feelings for the other victims because they never mattered to him. The differences in cause of death were probably just circumstantial. He's got a quick temper when something happens to someone he's passionate about like his mother. They're crimes of passion but the passion isn't aimed at them. It's at whatever they touched that he thought was his."
"If he cared about his mother then, why kill her?" Mann asked as they stepped out of the room and back into the bullpen.
"She trapped him. He was forced into doing whatever odd jobs he could because everything he had in his life was controlled by her. Unintentional or not, she threatened his life every day because of his obligation to care for her. Something snapped and he let it out on her. She was probably his first but once he felt that relief of her being gone, doing the others and dealing with her body would've been easier."
Mann hummed, cracking a smile at her as Morgan went to her desk to gather her things to leave since they were done for the night. "Mm, you're good. Should've stuck around the CID more or, you know, actually gone for a criminal justice job instead of the army."
Morgan scowled at the thought, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "No. I like the army."
"You like the structure," Mann argued lightly. "It's why NCIS works for you. It's a mix of both. Let's go out for drinks."
Morgan turned to her with a raised brow as Gibbs frowned over at them from his desk. "I have work in the morning."
"So do I," Mann replied with an easy-going smile. "Just a couple. Like old times."
"Fine," Morgan gave in, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder as Russell got up and followed them to the elevator.
"And you can tell me more about you and Gibbs," Mann tacked on, making Morgan flush.
"M-Mann!" She snapped but the woman chuckled, completely unbothered by the woman's complaints and sending Gibbs a smug smirk as the elevator doors closed.
Maybe this would get them moving a little faster.
"We've got to push Grady harder to tell us what he knows," Mann said as she stepped onto the main floor with Morgan who was rubbing at her temples with exhaustion written all over her features.
"You can tell Gibbs that then," Morgan grumbled as they walked. "I still think he's working alone."
"Well, I can prove that he's not acting alone," Mann insisted as they moved into the bullpen and Gibbs looked them over with a raised brow.
"Rough night?" He asked, making Morgan groan and drop into her chair heavily as Russell happily plopped down on his bed next to her.
"We just went out for a few drinks," Mann said with a shrug but Morgan shot her a glare.
"That was not a few drinks."
Mann cracked a smirk and Morgan scowled as Tony approached Gibbs hesitantly with the paperwork he had.
"Trying to run down Grady's van. No luck so far."
"He was on foot when you apprehended him," Mann stated as Tony folded his arms.
"So, what did he do with his ride?"
"And when did he do it?" Mann added as Ziva spoke up.
"After he spotted us at the cemetery."
Mann let out a bark of a laugh. "What? He just happened to be visiting? There's no such thing as coincidence."
"Well, he wanted information," Ziva suggested.
"He was there to watch us," McGee added.
"But he got there as quickly as I did," Mann pointed out as McGee and Ziva stood to join Gibbs at his desk. "So how did he know about the investigation?"
"He's got a friend on the inside."
"Uh-huh. One person's a psychopath. Two people's a conspiracy. So who is he talking to? Grady doesn't leave here until we know everything about him. You start with yesterday and you work backward."
The team looked at Gibbs, waiting for his instructions and he said nothing for a moment before waving them off.
"Go."
"Forensics?" Mann suggested to him and he nodded, starting to get up when McGee cut in.
"Boss—"
"Yeah?" Mann piped up, making Morgan snort.
"Your ego is showing."
Mann rolled her eyes but stepped away so McGee could warn Gibbs about Abby.
"Um, if you're going to go see Abby, I think you should know she's going through something and I'm not…"
"Not going empty-handed, McGee," he said, getting up and calling out. "Morgan, bring Rus."
Russell perked up at his name, glancing at Gibbs and Morgan before she sighed and stood, gesturing the dog to come with them and stepping into the elevator with an annoyed look.
"I don't think Russell will fix everything, you know."
"Never said he would but we all know he'll soften her up a bit. Besides, she makes a mean hangover cure."
Morgan wrinkled her nose but they stepped out into forensics not a moment later with a large Caf-Pow for Abby, who smiled upon seeing them.
"Gibbs!" Her smile faltered at the sight of Mann though. "And Lieutenant Colonel Mann."
Russell bounded over to her then, drawing the small smile back as she knelt and ruffled his fur.
"Russell too? Something going on that I don't know about?"
"Yeah," Morgan muttered as she leaned heavily against a table full of knives. "Gibbs said you have a hangover cure?"
Abby gasped. "You went drinking without me!"
Morgan winced at the volume of her shout and jabbed a thumb at Mann. "She dragged me out."
"Abby," Gibbs cut in, though he looked rather amused by the whole thing. "The case?"
"Right. Yes." Abby grabbed a few things from one of her cabinets and fridge, mixed them into a beaker, added some Caf Pow, and passed it over to Morgan.
Morgan eyed it uneasily, having multiple reservations about what was in the concoction and the fact that Abby had just thrown it into a beaker without washing it first. When Abby went to take it back though, Morgan grabbed it and begrudgingly downed it; coughing when she finished with her eyes watering while Abby smiled and turned to the table of knives.
"Can I interest you in some knives?"
"W-Water would be preferred," Morgan choked out. "Christ, what was that?"
"Secret recipe. You're welcome," Abby huffed as Morgan went to fill the beaker with water from the sink and Abby looked at the tools on the table. "I've got kitchen knives, pen knives, pocket knives, Swiss Army knives. Razor blades, Exacto blades, scissors, saws, scalpels, hedge clippers, an adze, an awl, a fish scaler, and even a golf-hole cutter."
"All recovered from Grady's pig sty?" Mann asked, but Abby didn't respond to her and just looked at Gibbs before continuing.
"Reflected in the care he used to maintain his cutlery. There's dings and nicks and dull edges. None of these correspond to any of the precise incisions used to dismember the corpses. For such a slob, he certainly is careful when it counts. There wasn't a single trace of human blood anywhere."
"Human blood," Mann caught.
"Our boy Grady is something of a carnivore. From the remnants on his silverware, I could pretty much tell you every meal he had for a week. Liverwurst, knockwurst, pastrami, roast beef, rack of lamb. Which leads us to… this," Abby said, pulling out an evidence bag from the freezer and tossing it onto the table before them.
"The pork chop from his freezer," Mann identified.
"Probably his next meal. When I blow it up, it gets real interesting," Abby replied, showing them the image on screen.
"It matches the incisions on the bodies."
"Tool mark analysis isn't as precise as say fingerprints or ballistics, but I can conclusively tell you that none of the blades in Grady's possession carved that pig."
"They're a butcher," Morgan breathed, drawing attention to her as she abandoned her beaker by the sink and hurried over to the computer; quickly typing away.
"You gonna share with the class, Morgan?" Gibbs asked.
"Yeah, so the thing is, I was looking up connections yesterday when you went to go get Grady. There's been something nagging me about the fact that we could only connect Grady to his mother and no one else. Right before we left, I had a thought that I didn't get to follow up."
"A thought about butchers?" Mann asked but Morgan shook her head.
"A thought about the connection Grady had to the cemetery," she concluded, bringing up a familiar ID photo.
"Natalie Dalton?" Gibbs questioned.
"Someone had to know the crypt was available," Morgan pointed out. "Someone had to be the connection between Grady and the cemetery and…"
"A butcher," Mann muttered, seeing that her workplace was a butcher's called Le Cochon. "Where is that located?"
"Within twenty blocks of Grady's place," Morgan said, popping it up on a map. "Small boutique shop for privacy. Social media shows they're dating."
"And she didn't tell us?" Gibbs snapped, frustrated with the woman.
"It was before we knew Grady was a suspect," Morgan pointed out. "She probably didn't think anything of it but it makes sense. Grady took care of his mother for controlling his life. Then when he finally had it figured out, people began to do things to upset him. Talk to her for too long, look at her for too long. He knew he could get away with it and her working at a butcher's with a freezer made it easy to store the bodies until he found the place where her grandfather was kept."
"Giving him an easy hiding place to leave them," Mann muttered. "I'll tell the others."
Gibbs nodded as she started for the elevator. "We'll meet her at the shop. We don't know if she's aware or not."
"I'll start packing the car," Morgan said, making to tell Russell to stay but Abby stopped her.
"Actually…" She hesitated and then changed her mind. "Never mind. You have work to do."
Morgan didn't move, realizing that Abby wanted her to stay and she and Gibbs stared at her until she gave in.
"Look, it's not something that you can fix in the classic Gibbs' hit-and-run style or, or just because you brought Russell, okay?"
Russell shifted closer to her, letting her run a hand over his head as Gibbs cracked a small smile.
"We've got time, Abs."
"It's stupid. It's just… a guy," she admitted, giving them both looks as Morgan frowned slightly and Gibbs just waited patiently. "I'm not going to start spilling my guts just 'cause you keep standing here."
Morgan didn't know the first thing about relationships so she felt rather out of place trying to give Abby advice here but apparently, it wasn't needed as the floodgates swung open and Abby huffed.
"All right, apparently I am too much for him," she said, moving into her office as Gibbs scooped up her drink and Morgan and Russell followed. "Can you imagine that? Me? And it's not what you think. It's not all this. He likes… He likes small women. I got dumped because I'm too… too big. Don't even bother with the…'No, it's him. He's too small.' Or 'If he can't accept you for who you are, then it's his problem thing.' He just doesn't think that we could make it work. And I've done everything I can to try to convince him that he's wrong." She paused for a moment, staring at the image of the man on her screen. "So I guess I'm just going to have to accept it. And let it go."
The image vanished with a click of a button and she turned, getting up and giving Gibbs a hug.
"Thanks, Gibbs. You always know what to say."
Morgan stared at him, rather dumbfounded as he sent her a small teasing smile over Abby's shoulder. Then, Abby let him go and grabbed Morgan in a hug, making her grunt and grab the woman in return as she steadied them to prevent them from falling over.
"You too, Morgan. I love Russell, but having you to talk to really helps too."
"I didn't say anything," Morgan muttered, but Abby didn't care, pulling away and squishing Russell's happy face.
"Doesn't matter, Morgan," Gibbs said with a hum, glancing at Abby as he put her drink down and Russell returned to Morgan's side. "If you need me to deal with him, just give me a name."
Abby smiled easily at the offer of threatening the man while Morgan just looked between them in confusion before Gibbs called for her to hurry up and meet him in the elevator.
The team entered the boutique butcher shop rather calmly despite what they were there to do. Russell quickly started a sweep of the main lobby of the place under Morgan's watchful eyes as Gibbs addressed the woman behind the counter working on a piece of meat.
"Miss Dalton."
She turned, recognizing Tony and cracking a small terse smile. "I thought you said you didn't need me."
"What's your relationship with Len Grady?" Mann asked, wanting to hear it from the woman herself.
"Lenny's my boyfriend. Why? What's going on?" She asked, noticing now that they were all rather grim-faced.
"You told Grady you spoke with us earlier?"
"Yeah, I mentioned it," Dalton admitted, removing her work gloves. "Is this about the investigation? Where is Len?"
"In custody," Tony said as Mann explained.
"We suspect he's committed at least five murders."
"That's impossible. Len would never hurt any…" She trailed off, as though now second-guessing that fact. "Five?"
"At least," Ziva said with a nod.
"Where's your freezer?" Gibbs asked nodding toward Morgan and Russell, who was now waiting eagerly at her side, eyeing the backroom door. "They're going to see full access to the shop."
She showed them to the backroom and freezer, doubtful of their success but the second she did, Russell was all over the shop. If there was human blood or remains here, he would find them. Tony and Ziva went into the freezer though, coming back out just as Russell let out a bark.
"Nothing in here, boss," Tony said as McGee went over to the saw blade that Russell had alerted to.
"Just pork, beef, and lamb. Did Russell find something?" Ziva asked and McGee nodded with a firm frown in place.
"Human blood."
Dalton turned slightly pale. "Human?"
Russell was already barking again though and Morgan pulled him away from a padlocked freezer box near the door as Gibbs gestured to it.
"What's in here?"
"It's a freezer I use for overflow to store geese and turkeys in the holidays," Dalton muttered, worried about the fact that Russell had alerted to it.
"Got a key?"
She handed over a key from a nearby drawer, questioning them as Gibbs opened the padlock. "What kind of evidence did you say that you found in my grandfather's crypt?"
No one answered her as Mann questioned her instead.
"Does Grady have access to your store?"
"He's here all the time. Look, this can't be happening, okay? There must be some kind of—"
The freezer was empty but the blood smears inside were plain to see and Russell's barking proved they were human. It made Dalton gag and she hurried over to a sink to vomit as the evidence proved their point.
From there, they brought Dalton back to interrogation to question her and see if there was any connection between her and the murders but upon speaking to the distraught woman, it was seemingly apparent that she'd been fooled and didn't know about it. They'd brought Grady in to watch from the other side of the window and he finally admitted it was him and she had no part in it. It didn't take long before he was finally providing answers to the team.
Marilyn Torrance was drowned in her pool.
Wade Carlin was stabbed when he came in for a sandwich.
Kelly Camarda, a prostitute he strangled.
And the nineteen-year-old runaway from Florida was just a nobody he shot.
Worse yet, he kept them in a freezer for over a year and only now decided to try moving the bodies. He needed the space because he was going to kill again… he had killed again. They needed to find the van. The thing was, Gibbs had a hunch and had Dalton let go, silently wondering if Morgan had the same hunch or if she'd been caught up in other things and had missed it. Mann had been adamant about there being a partner in this situation but Morgan had seemed to push for it being a one-man job. So, when the van was finally spotted and called in, he dragged Morgan and Russell with him and left Mann behind.
Morgan was less than pleased, having avoided being in the same space alone with him this whole case. Her stomach was twisting itself into knots just sitting in the passenger seat and her hand was quickly combing through Russell's fur. Gibbs remained stubbornly quiet, hoping that she might give in this time instead of him having to try and pry answers from her. It was a long shot, given he often gave in first with her but he thought he'd try a different tactic.
"You think Dalton was working with him," Morgan finally spoke, choosing avoidance instead of speaking about what they both needed to.
Gibbs let her. "You don't?"
Morgan pursed her lips, reaching a hand up and dragging it through her head; the streetlights catching on her pale skin and the dark bags under her eyes. "I… I don't know."
"That's not like you," he commented, knowing she was lacking sleep and struggling with their own personal issues but much like him, she wasn't one to let that affect her work.
"I just… I'm confused by… by a lot of things," she begrudgingly admitted, closing her eyes shut in frustration before turning them toward the window.
"Us, you mean."
She let out a short scoff of a laugh. "It all comes back to that, doesn't it? God, I can't even pull it together for a case."
"We can take a step back," he offered, hating the bitter taste the words left on his tongue but feeling that he had to offer that much, for her sake. "Go back to how things were. I can let it go and—"
"No, you can't," she cut him off, surprising him slightly as she finally looked at him head-on. "It's the one thing I know about this whole…" She gestured between them. "Thing. I'm shit when it comes to… to recognizing deep feelings or relationships and things but I'd like to think I know you enough to know you won't let your feelings go just because I can't figure my shit out."
They stopped the car at a red light and Gibbs went quiet, unsure of what to say because this was her, admitting she knew what was going on and beginning to understand how things were working. She was figuring it all out right here and now and if he tried to jump in, he worried that it might derail her thoughts and drag this out further than it needed to. This was the tipping point and he needed to let her take that first step.
"I don't know if Dalton is involved because I don't understand what was going on between her and Grady," Morgan muttered as the light turned green and they crawled forward. "Before I would just… I wouldn't let anything cloud my judgment. It was always facts. Facts said that Grady lost it with his grandmother's control. Facts said he killed those people and used her shop to do it. Facts said that there's a chance she could be involved because how could you not know what was happening in your own shop?"
They pulled the car to the curb as they spotted the van in a parking lot as reported and Morgan took an extra second to stare out into the night with a frown.
"But facts don't matter do they? Not when emotions are involved."
"They do," Gibbs pointed out. "Facts are the basis of any good, solid case but emotions are what provide reason. Anger can cause uncontrolled actions, grief can lead even the kindest people to revenge."
"And love can cloud your judgment and cause you to do something stupid like help a murderer," Morgan tacked on, getting out of the car with Russell on her heels as Gibbs saw the biggest reason for her hesitation.
He got out as well, flicking on a flashlight as they headed toward the van in the foggy street, giving Morgan a glance.
"I'm hardly a murderer," he joked lightly, drawing her mildly annoyed glare toward him as they came up to the back of the van and Russell let out a low growl.
A noise from inside silenced them and Morgan shushed Russell before he could bark and give them away as Gibbs drew his firearm. He nodded toward the van and Morgan nodded, holding the back of Russell's harness and reaching for the door handle. She pulled it open and allowed Russell to bark freely at the blood-covered woman inside dismembering a corpse.
"Drop the weapon," Gibbs said calmly and Dalton put the knife down and lifted her hands, eyeing Russell as he pulled against Morgan's hold.
Gibbs put his gun away and drew out his handcuffs, wrapping them around the woman's wrists and having her take a seat on the curb. He called the rest of the team so they could collect evidence and take the van in. The case was closed and done with and once they showed up and everything was taken care of, he summoned Morgan back to his car with the offer of taking her home. She didn't fight this time, knowing their conversation wasn't done as much as she wished it was. So, once they grabbed their things from headquarters, they got back into the car and Gibbs started things this time.
"You're worried what happens with us will change things, making work more difficult," he said, and Morgan sighed softly.
"Among other things," she breathed. "I couldn't even help with this case because I questioned things with us."
"You helped plenty," he countered. "You knew about Dalton before any of the rest of us and questioning new things is fine. You don't have to be a soldier anymore, Morgan. You don't need your uniform ironed to perfection, your body in peak physical condition, your work perfect with all the T's crossed and I's dotted. You're not in the Army anymore just as I'm not in the Marines. NCIS allows a bit of leeway."
"But I don't," Morgan pressed, jaw clenching for a moment because it was frustrating.
She would love to be able to relax fully, to have an off-day where she could just collapse on the couch and do anything but be so tense and focused all the time. She couldn't though. Her mind wouldn't allow her and that was why she was in therapy in the first place. She needed structure and projects and fitness. The Army had provided that for so long and now she had NCIS but it was hard to pull herself from the rut that growing up in the Army put her in. This meant that things like relationships and love weren't on her mind until now. It meant she struggled with anything that would upset her own personal status quo.
"Okay," Gibbs said simply, drawing her eyes toward him as he pulled the car up to her building and shut off the engine, giving her his full attention. "Then, at least let us do it together."
Her brows furrowed in confusion and he cracked a small smile.
"You can work yourself into the ground when you're not paying attention, trying to be that perfect little soldier. Thing is, when you've got someone who likes you…" He reached over and lightly brushed a smudge of something off her cheek, making her jaw go tight though she didn't pull away. "They tend to want to have a part in that. You fumble, forget to dot that I, cross that T, then I will do it for you. You need a break but can't because of all the shit you've got going on in that head of yours, then I'll pick up the slack. When I start to go too far in a case, you do the same for me. That's how a relationship works. Your judgement can get clouded but I won't let it and neither will the rest of the team."
He pulled back and turned away, letting out a small sigh himself as he sank back into his seat and closed his eyes.
"I won't force you, of course. If you're not interested, I'll back off… and not just because Mann threatened me."
The car went quiet and he waited, giving her an out, a chance to leave and drop the conversation completely or to even say "no," she wasn't interested. She didn't leave though, just sat in silence for a while with her gaze out the passenger window. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see her expression or if she was working her jaw back and forth or clenching her hands around the fabric of her pants; if Russell was watching her with those big, sad brown eyes because she was upset.
"I don't," Morgan finally said, making him open his eyes as she frowned down at the dash in front of her uneasily before looking over at him. "I don't want you to back off."
He blinked, stunned as she hastily turned away and brought a hand up to cover her mouth, almost surprised by the response herself as her cheeks flared pink.
"Christ," she murmured into her fingers. "Fuck. This is… I-I mean…"
Her fingers were digging into her cheeks as her eyes flickered over Russell, unable to stay still.
"Morgan?" Gibbs breathed, hope fluttering in his chest in a way he hadn't felt in so long.
She turned back to him, lowering her hand and opening her mouth to try and say something more before grimacing slightly and glancing away again briefly.
"I don't…" She winced again, struggling with the words. "I don't dislike it. I-I don't think, anyway. I just… I'm… I-I'm scared."
That wasn't the confession Gibbs expected but now that she'd said it, it was like she couldn't stop.
"Sorry. T-That probably sounds like a shitty thing to say but I don't…. I don't know what else to tell you. I'm terrified. I've never… I don't even know… God, a relationship? It feels insane. I don't know the first thing about, about dating or dinner or anything, and with you being my boss, on my team—God I don't even want to know what kind of shit they're going to come up with." She shook her head of the thought and pulled a hand through her hair, tugging on the strands as Russell pushed himself further into her lap with her rising anxiety. "I just… I don't want something to happen because we… I don't want the team to be—God, fuck the team." She turned to him with a hint of desperation. "I don't want something to happen to you because of me. Because I decided to be selfish a-and, and take this chance to—"
"To finally let go?" Gibbs offered, the words falling from his lips feeling not quite right but close enough that Morgan fumbled to continue.
Her gaze drifted downward again, a hesitation to them that he never wished to see ever again because Morgan was strong and confident and—God, she is just—He reached over and clasped a hand to the back of her neck, pulling her forward and pressing his lips to hers once more. It wasn't like last time. It wasn't a desperate attempt to get her to see he cared or to boost her self-worth. It was because she was beautiful in that moment, in that second of insecurity when she'd taken a risk to step out of her comfort zone and admit she was scared. What's more, she pressed back. She leaned into the kiss, uncertain at first before it was like she'd been starved all her life. She needed this and it was only now that she realized it.
They pulled away, staring at one another with varying emotions bouncing between them before Morgan sank back into her seat with a hand once again over her mouth. Her entire face was flushed now, making Gibbs smirk as she stared back at him with wide eyes.
"So… dinner?"