We Will Be Remembered

Hellfire

They tried the grocery store first, because Tony figured the Dragon was more likely to visit that than any of the other shops.

Everyone's gotta eat, right?

"Go pick out a snack," Tony instructed Ziva as they walked inside.

She rolled her eyes at him but wandered off down a junk food aisle.

Tony approached the older gentleman behind the register.

"Can I help you with something?" the man asked, peering at Tony over his glasses. The little gesture reminded him of Gibbs.

"Yeah..." Tony pulled out his phone and showed the man the picture of the Dragon. "Have you seen this man before?"

The man stared at the picture for a few long moments. "It's possible." He met Tony's gaze. "Do you have a better picture of him?"

"Sorry, no."

The man examined the photo again. "It's hard to say for sure, but there used to be a boy who lived around here, looked a bit like that. Hard to say for sure. That had to have been... fifteen years ago, about? Haven't seen him around recently."

"We think he's been moving around in recent years." Tony slid his phone back into his pocket. "Is there anything else you can tell me about this man? Or the boy?"

He removed his glasses and rubbed them with the bottom of his shirt as he thought. "Used to come here with his mother. I think she and his little brother were killed in a house fire. Right around the time he stopped coming around, actually."

That was something to go on. Family died in a house fire fifteen years ago.

And made a lot of sense with the MO.

"Thank you for your help."

"Sure."

Ziva returned, arms occupied by a bag of Tony's favorite chips and a package of chocolate-covered donuts.

Tony started to get out his wallet but she gave him a dirty look. "You already paid for lunch," she said.

"Just trying to be nice."

She got out her own money and paid for the snacks while Tony waited awkwardly, making a face at the older man when he accidentally made eye contact. 

He was all too aware of the fact he was walking around with the living embodiment of hellfire.

***

Ziva tore into the donuts as soon as they got back in the car.

"Hungry?" Tony teased.

She gave him the evil eye. "So what if I am?"

He shrugged.

Good.

"So what did the store owner have to say?" she asked, picking a crumb from her jeans.

"He didn't recognize the man in the picture, but he thought maybe he looked like a kid that used to live around here fifteen years ago."

"Name?"

"Nope, but I have something almost as good. The owner said that the boy's mom and brother died in a house fire. So all we have to do is look up house fires that happened here fifteen years ago, and bam. We have the Dragon's name."

"You'd better get looking, then."

He gave a dirty look of his own as he got out his phone. "You know I hate doing searches on my phone."

"Too bad you didn't think to bring a laptop."

"Oh please. McGee's the only person who carries a laptop around."

She doubted it, but she was too tired and fed up to argue.

***

The Dragon's phone buzzed.

He looked at the screen, and his pulse immediately jumped.

Someone had accessed his family's file.

Someone was reading up on the house fire that took his family from him.

Someone now knew his name.

He typed a command into the app, and stopped dead in his tracks when the results came back.

Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David weren't dead after all.

He'd have to fix that.

*****

Uh oh, the Dragon's on to them!

What's going to happen next?

Stay tuned....

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