Chapter Text
Chapter 1
March 2003
“Grab your gear,” Gibbs called over his shoulder as he headed towards the elevator. Not once did he look back to see if his teammate followed.
Tony was up on his feet and bag swung over his shoulder, even before Gibbs could stop talking. He had managed to clip his Glock to his side in the run. He met up with Gibbs as the elevator pinged on the floor.
“What do we have?” Tony pressed the basement button.
“Dead Navy corpsman. Found in Rock Creek Park,” Gibbs replied as they exited the elevator and made their way over to their sedan.
Tony nodded as he got into the passenger side at the same time as Gibbs slipped in behind the wheel. He didn’t even blink as Gibbs pulled out at his typical neck breaking speed. The normal fifteen-minute drive was completed in eight.
When they got out, Tony scrunched up his eyes and reached for his sunglasses. The glare of the sun was something to take note of.
“Late night, DiNozzo?” Gibbs asked as he saw the younger man donning the dark glasses.
“Late, yes.” Tony shook his head when he saw Gibbs’ frown. “No drinking, and no sexy times, Boss. Met with an old friend and stayed up way too late over coffee and biscotti.”
Gibbs nodded. He’d seen DiNozzo hungover before, and he had to agree, his junior partner looked tired, but that was it. Gibbs grunted. “Photos and sketches. I’ll do the talking.”
“Roger that.” Tony yawned as he swung the camera over his head and headed over to the cordoned off area. He smiled when he saw Gerald already on scene. “Let me guess, you got to drive?” Tony grinned as he knelt next to the man. He really liked Gerald. The medical examiner’s assistant was one of the first people who made him feel welcome at NCIS when he started working at the agency just over a year ago. They’d become great friends.
Gerald turned and smiled. “Doctor Mallard was engaged in a call and since we all know he doesn’t use his phone while he’s driving, I got us here in time, but more importantly, in one piece.”
Tony chuckled, but became serious and shook his head. “What do we have?”
Gerald sighed. “Twenty-four-year-old Navy corpsman, Tom Bradshaw. From what we can tell, cause of death seems to be manual strangulation. But…”
Tony nodded. “Yeah, I know. You’ll only able to give us a definite cause of death after the autopsy had been completed.” Tony got to his feet. “Let me get back to my work.” He nodded to Gerald and started taking photos of the body and the surrounding area.
Tony looked around for any signs left behind by a possible suspect, as well as signs of a struggle and anything else that didn’t belong in the environment they found themselves in. He found a nice shoe print, which he photographed, but by the tread pattern on the sole he had a feeling that it wouldn’t bring them closer to their killer.
The only thing that he did find that was strange, but which did fit into the environment, was a dead pigeon. A headless dead pigeon, to be exact. It looked like a rock pigeon, but other than that, there wasn’t much Tony could say about birds. Tony shrugged and took photos of the bird. For a moment he wondered if he should call Ducky over for this victim, but then he rubbed the back of his head. He wasn’t in the mood for one of Gibbs’ slaps. His senior partner had started slapping him on the back of the head and even though Tony had thought of it as being funny in the beginning, now it was starting to piss him off.
Tony pushed the negative thoughts down and shoved the camera back into its casing before he took out his pencils and sketch pad. He loved doing the sketches of the scene. He knew he had a great eye for detail and had the ability to accurately estimate distance. Tony took a few steps back and started sketching what he saw. He always did a general sketch of the area, sometimes it looked more like a landscape scene than a real crime scene, but he couldn’t stop himself. The sketches of the area surrounding the body itself were more crime like, and always contained all the necessary distances and other pertinent details they required. For one or another reason he even indicated where he found the dead pigeon in relation to their dead corpsman’s body.
Back in the bullpen Tony started working the case. He gathered all of the personal, as well as the financial records of their dead corpsman and looked for anything that might point them in the direction of a possible killer. When he found nothing, Tony did a search on the different social media platforms, but the only thing he learned extra was that Bradshaw played the saxophone. He found a few clips posted by friends and from what he heard, it seemed that their dead sailor played pretty well.
By the end of the day, they had made zero progress and Tony was dejected. It had been a while since they had nothing to show on a case at the end of a working day. Gibbs’ mood had darkened, and Tony’s head ached from the various slaps he received at the lack of their progress made.
At 2100 Tony had enough. He slowly packed up his stuff and switched off the light on his desk. Gibbs had left over an hour ago and Tony had been happy to see the back of him. His hand found the back of his head and he gently rubbed the sore spot.
“You should tell him to stop.”
Tony nearly jumped as the voice spoke up behind him. He turned and smiled. “It’s nothing.”
Gerald shook his head. “It’s not nothing, Tony. Agent Gibbs has no right to slap you like that. It is assault, and assault of a federal agent at that.”
Tony snorted. “And who do you think is going to dare and arrest Gibbs for that?” He shrugged. “I know I have to talk to him, but things had become so crazy, there was no time.”
“No.” Gerald placed his hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Do not make excuses, Tony. That is not right and it’s definitely not fair towards you, or Gibbs for that fact.”
Tony knew Gerald was right. “I will speak to him tomorrow morning.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” Tony grinned.
“Okay.” Gerald gazed at his watch. “I think both of us have worked long enough, let’s get out of here.”
“Agreed.” Tony grabbed his bag and the two friends headed to the elevator.
“How was dinner with Penelope last night?” Gerald inquired as they waited.
Tony smiled again. “So good. I can’t believe that it’s been almost four months since we last saw one another. But, I understand, the BAU is even busier than us.” Tony glanced up at Gerald. “I’m sorry you missed out. Penelope would’ve loved seeing you as well.”
Gerald laughed. “Until I’m done with my exams, I’m not going out. Not even for Penelope, and you know how much I like that woman.”
It was Tony’s turn to laugh. “What’s not to love about her?” He continued to smile as he thought of his friend and computer analyst of the FBI. He’d first met Penelope Garcia when he started out as a detective in Baltimore. The killer he was after, turned out to be a serial killer, and with the blessing of his Captain, Tony contacted the BAU and that’s how he met the sparkling Penelope. They’d clicked and now three years later they were best friends. She also helped smooth things over with the head of the BAU at that time, Jason Gideon. The man was a bit of a prick, but Tony had to admit, he was good at his job.
“The BAU still head hunting you?” Gerald grinned when Tony rolled his eyes.
“They don’t want to accept no for an answer.”
“You can’t blame them, Tony. You are one of the best out there. It would be a massive gain for them to have you on their team.”
“I’m not a profiler, Gerald. You know that. I’m an investigator. It’s in my blood.”
“No. Don’t try and bullshit me, Tony. You might be an investigator, but you’re a profiler as well, and you know that. How do you think you manage to solve so many cases? I don’t think anyone here took a proper look at your file, but you became one of the youngest detectives in the police force and what about your record for collaring serial killers? What, five serial killers nabbed by you? The only reason you became an agent was because of Danny. You are great at what you do, but you’re wasting your time here, Tony. Don’t get me wrong, I love working for NCIS and I know you do too. But don’t let your talent go to waste. You know what goes on in the heads of all these crazy bastards. If I was you, I would seriously consider their offer.”
“I’m not ready.” Tony shook his head. Gerald sounded like Penelope. He was grateful when the elevator finally arrived, and they got in. Gerald was right. The only reason why he joined NCIS was because of Danny’s betrayal. He needed a clean break, and what better opportunity than start working at NCIS. He loved working here, and he wanted to stay longer than his normal two years before he moved on again. He ignored Gerald’s comment on wasting his talent. He was still doing what he loved to do – catching bad guys and bringing justice for the victims and their families. But he also knew Gerald was right about one thing. If he wanted this to work, he would have to talk to Gibbs. The head slaps had to stop.
Unfortunately, Tony got no chance to talk to Gibbs the following morning as they got involved in a domestic dispute matter which ended up as a murder-suicide. It took them more than a day to wrap things up. In the meantime, the matter of Corpsman Bradshaw remained open and unsolved.
By the end of the week, they still had no leads. The shoe print, as expected, belonged to an everyday Nike running shoes, even the size was average. The only way to link it to the killer would be to find it in the killer’s home. Gibbs was grumpier than normal and even Ducky stayed out of his way. The only one who still dared to come close enough, was Abby. Tony couldn’t help but to sigh as he thought about Abby.
In the beginning she had struggled to warm up to him. She went as far as to ignore him whenever he was alone in her lab. He had to use all his patience with her, but she had finally stopped her nonsense and now they were friends. Most of the time. Sort of. It was difficult to explain. It gave him a headache to think about it.
Abby was always bubbly, and Tony had no problem with that. He however had a problem with her when she started shoving her nose into his business. This time it was the same. She’d kept on badgering him who he went out with. And it didn’t matter how many times he told her it was a friend; she didn’t stop asking. She even went as far as to demand Gibbs to order Tony to tell her with whom he was. That, in turn, had Gibbs turning on him and in no uncertain terms told him that until the Bradshaw case was closed, he better not be going out on silly dates, getting hungover and not doing his work.
It had made Tony steam with anger and he was about to explode when they got a call and they went off to another crime scene.
Now, a month later they still had no clue on who killed Bradshaw. The body was released to the family, the funeral took place and now Tony stood with the file in his hand, ready to box it. It had become cold. He wasn’t happy with it. Gibbs fumed about it, but there was nothing either of them could do. Tony placed the file in the box, labeled it correctly and personally took it down to records where he booked it in and signed the necessary documents. He’d already made a note in his diary to check the box out in five months’ time to have another look. Until then, they had other cases that needed their attention.