Fate and Family

[lit_gal]

I reworked the first chapter, and now here is the second.

If you are reading this going WTF, you can go back and read the Snapshots story. You can also just hang in there and find out what is going on with Tony, who is also very confused.


Tony is a detective trying to prove himself at NCIS.  Gibbs is a bastard. 
And the smirking guy in the coffeeshop?  Well, he's something Tony never
expected.


Chapter One: Tony meets an interesting man... things go downhill from there.
Chapter Two: It's NCIS. A dead body is manditory, as are Ducky's stories



The drive was unmercifully long and silent, and as they pulled up beside a park full of police, Tony still wasn’t sure he had a job after today. This was a particularly spectacular screw up on his part. However, a body meant that someone deserved justice and until Gibbs actually fired him, Tony would do his best to bring justice for the victim.

Gibbs slammed on the brake inches from a sign, and Tony’s seatbelt locked up for a second as the motion threw him forward. By the time Tony had gotten his seatbelt unbuckled, Gibbs was out of the car and striding across the park.

It’d been a cold and wet spring, and some of the trees hadn’t yet decided to bloom, giving the park an ugly bareness, even if the green grass and spring flowers had made their appearance. This felt like the scene of a murder. Of course the yellow tape everywhere helped with that impression.

Tony got out and the coronor’s truck pulled in behind them. Gerald offered a quick nod, but Tony trotted after Gibbs.

“… exactly how we found him,” the local cop was saying. Gibbs didn’t even acknowledge having heard. He studied the horizon with such detail that it was easy to believe he’d once been one of the Marine’s top snipers.

“How’d you know he was one of ours?” Tony asked as he looked past the local cops to the body lying beside a park bench. One arm was bent at a grotesque angle, but Tony couldn’t see any uniform and the body was face down which meant the dog tags were probably under the body.

Gibbs flicked Tony a quick look before focusing on the cop.

“Military issue shoes,” the cop said. “After I saw that, I lifted the body enough to spot the dog tags and I called you guys.”

“Good eye,” Gibbs said. Tony blinked in shock. That’s all it took to get a ‘good eye’? Tony had killed himself for a ‘good’ anything, and so far he mostly got head slaps.

“The scene’s all yours Agent Gibbs.” The cop gave a nod and called out to the others standing around. “Let’s clear out. NCIS has the scene.” Without much comment, the local DC cops headed for their cars.

“Huh. I thought they’d fight for jurisdiction,” Tony commented as he followed Gibbs under the yellow tape.

“They know better,” Gibbs commented before headed straight for the body. Tony was on the verge of making a smart-alec comment about every sane being in the universe knowing better than to fight with Gibbs, but Gibbs offered a curt, “Find out where Lieutenant Liber is stationed.”

“On it, boss,” Tony said as he started to turn back to the car.

“After you sketch and get pictures,” Gibbs said. “I’ll bag and tag.” Which translated meant that Gibbs didn’t yet trust Tony to know what was important enough to bag. Yep, this day was going wonderfully.

“Oh my. What do we have here?” Ducky asked as he crossed over the grass, clucking with his tongue as Tony headed back to the car for the camera.

“Ducky, we haven’t processed that piece of ground,” Tony pointed out.

“Yes, we have. There’s nothing there,” Gibbs contradicted him. “We have a body, Duck.”

Tony ducked his head at the rebuke and headed for the car at a good trot. At least Gibbs was curt with everyone, not just him. Ducky didn’t take it personally as he crouched down next to Liber, leaving Gerald to prepare the body bag and stretcher.

“Now Jethro, don’t ask me the impossible as soon as I arrive,” Ducky was saying as Tony returned. Taking Gibbs’ word that the most direct trail was clear, Tony started working the scene clockwise. He would get general area shots first, and then get close ups of any debris Gibbs’ tagged later.

“I need to know time and cause of death.”

“And the young lieutenant is quiet torn up. I cannot answer either of those definitely until we get back to autopsy. The answer does not change if you growl at me more, Jethro. Young Lieutenant Liber died between 1 am and 4 am, and I have no idea which of these various wounds proved fatal.”

Tony glanced down, and the carnage was enough to make his stomach churn. Hell. He’d seen a lot of bodies, but the lieutenant looked like someone had taken a dull chainsaw to much of his upper body. His left shoulder up to his neck looked like raw meat and his left side was completely torn open. Tony was pretty sure he was seeing internal organs through the slices.

“What does that sort of damage?” Tony asked.

Gibbs gave him one indecipherable look and started walking the scene with the numbered markers for collecting evidence.

“That is a good question,” Ducky said. “Something dull inflicted many of these wounds, although a sharp knife was involved for part of the process.” Ducky used a gloved finger to gently probe one of the deep slices. “Human beings have a shocking disregard for their fellow human beings. Gerald, I have learned as much as I can here. Help me place him in the bag.”

“Yes, doctor,” Gerald agreed.

“Gerald, do tend to the hands and feet first. Those require bagging.”

“I left the bags in the truck, doctor. I’ll go get those.” Gerald headed back for the truck.

Tony felt a sympathetic pang. Working under Gibbs or Ducky was hard because the older men never seemed to make mistakes. Tony started photographing the various angles and measuring off distances to add into his sketch of the crime scene. He just wasn’t sure this was their crime scene.

Ducky stood and seemed to take a long time staring at their body.

“What’s wrong, Ducky?” Tony asked, knowing full well that he was risking a full-blown story. While Ducky’s stories might run a little long, Tony really appreciated the fact that one person on the team always had a warm smile for him. The stories were worth the price.

“The poor man had a rather brutal end,” Ducky said sadly.

Tony looked around at the scene. Grass was ripped out of the ground, a sapling had been broken at the base and the small decorative fence around it scattered, and the ground had divots from where rocks had been before someone picked them up and started lobbing them. “Yeah, but where’s the blood?” Tony asked.

“Not as unusual as you might think,” Ducky commented. “We rarely discover how such blood goes missing, but in one remarkable case Jethro and I worked, it turned out there was a truck parked in the middle of the fight. The death blow came in the back of the truck, and the victim bled out in it. Afterwards, the criminal tossed the poor midshipman out like so much garbage. While Jethro found the truck, the perpetrator had taken bleach to the vehicle, so Abby and I could only testify that a large quantity of blood had been in the bed of the truck. We were unable to get genetic testing on any of it due to the degrading effects of bleach.”

Tony let the words flow over him.

“My boy, you do see quite distracted. I know we haven’t known each other long, but if there is something troubling you…”

“Got them,” Gerald said, returning with the special bags used over victims’ hands and feet to prevent evidence from falling off.

“Excellent, yes, quite so. Do get our lieutenant prepared for travel,” Ducky said. Tony worked his way to the north, anxious to avoid any discussion of what might be troubling him. Unfortunately, Ducky followed, leaving Gerald to do the heavy lifting.

“As I was saying,” Ducky said as he followed Tony’s steps precisely. The man knew his way around a crime scene. “If you have some problem troubling you, I find that speaking of it is a sure way to exorcise the demons that haunt you.”

Tony pressed the button so his tape measure snapped back into the casing. “Only my coming case of unemployment,” he said.

Ducky chuckled. “I assure you that Gibbs is unlikely to fire you. Believe it or not, he has warmed to you faster than to any of his other seconds. He only appears gruff.” Ducky patted him on the arm.

“And I only appeared to be flirting with his son,” Tony pointed out. “And in my defense, I didn’t know Gibbs had kids.”

“Oh.” Ducky took a step back. “Given that Sam is heads over heels in love with his young co-ed, I assume you mean Dean.”

“Gibbs has two sons?” Tony found that mildly shocking. It was hard to image Gibbs getting married at all, much less staying married long enough to father two children. From the research Tony did, the man seemed to be a confirmed bachelor, and nothing in the official records had mentioned sons.

“Indeed. He adopted both not long after joining NCIS. Dean has caused more trouble than you can imagine. One Halloween, Dean decided to prove that ghosts were real. The young scallywag broke into NCIS using his father’s credentials and set up an entire mystical trap in my morgue. When I came in the next morning, I was quite startled to find occult symbols drawn on every surface and both Dean and Sam fast asleep on one of the morgue tables. The story Dean made up… the boy has a creative mind that could serve him well in a career such as the arts.” Ducky shook his head and laughed fondly. “I doubt anyone but Jethro could have handled those two, and they really were quite good for him.”

Tony rubbed a hand over his face, but when Gibbs glanced over from the far side of the crime scene, Tony grabbed his camera and started taking shots. Several featured Gerald moving the body onto the black plastic of the body bag, so they were of relatively little investigative use, but doing something was better than having Gibbs accuse him of slacking off. “Well, I don’t think getting caught hitting on the boss’s son is a great career move,” Tony whispered.

Ducky patted him on the arm. “I suspect Gibbs is less concerned than you might think. He’s well acquainted with Dean’s penchant for practical jokes. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if young Dean saw a picture of you in some file and set out to annoy his father by luring you into a date. It would be very in keeping with his love for trouble.” Ducky shook his head. “Every gray hair on his father’s head came from one of Dean’s infamous pranks. I’m afraid even Director Morrow has been subjected to one or two of them.”

Tony wasn’t sure what to think about that, but the stab of disappointment surprised him. He didn’t want to think of Dean treating him like some pawn to push around in some game with his father. And boy was he messed up in the head if he was upset about flirting with Dean and even more upset at the thought that the flirting wasn’t real.

“You’d better have the scene sketched,” Gibbs warned as he walked past.

“On it, boss,” Tony sang out cheerfully. Ducky shook his head, a small smile still on his face before he headed back to the lieutenant.

“I believe those two shall be just fine,” Ducky said far more loudly than really necessary. “They will find who did this to you, lieutenant.” Crouching next to the body, Ducky offered that reassurance and a pat on the arm before he zipped up the body bag. While not as obviously strange as Sciuto, Ducky certainly had his quirks. Gerald didn’t even blink as his boss had a conversation with a dead and mutilated lieutenant.

The whole conversation about families shelved for now, Tony focused on doing the best sketch he’d ever done in his life. As he worked, he kept taking pictures, ignoring the itch on the back of his neck where he could almost feel someone watching. If Gibbs was watching and trying to make up his mind about whether or not to fire Tony, then it was time for Tony to put on a new mask—one of pure efficiency. He could be the best damn second in the world. He just needed time to prove it. Hopefully Ducky was right and Gibbs would chalk that mess in the coffee shop up to one more of Dean’s pranks.

Tony tried really hard to avoid thinking about how much Dean sounded like the sort of man he would like to know. Nope, efficient Tony thought about work and nothing else.