𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 ━━ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐳𝐳𝐨

FOUR | not your type

"Good morning —" A sneeze interrupts my greeting, "agents."

Tony and Kate look up at the sudden action. Once she realizes it's me, Kate looks away. But Tony's eyes are trained on me.

"You coming down with something? 'Cause you look like hell."

"A woman loves to hear that, Tony." Kate defends me while I'm too busy battling a cough.

He reaches a hand up to his tie, gently pulling down on the knot. "You want to, uh, tell the doctor about it?" His gaze rakes over my body.

"You guys ready to go?" Gibbs to the rescue.

I drop my purse at my desk and pick up the go-bag, throwing a thumbs up in his direction.

"Uh, all set. Uh, yeah. . ." Kate grabs her coat and bag. "Duck and Jackson are already on their way — oh!" When she comes to a stop in front of Gibbs' desk, she accidentally knocks over his coffee cup.

"Now she's done it." I run a frantic hand through my hair.

Completely frozen, she stares down at the cup for a few moments. "Oh, God. I'm sorry." She bends to the ground to clean it. "I. . .what do you put in your coffee?"

"Coffee."

"Okay. I'll just go down the hall and get you another cup —"

"That's not coffee."

Bag in hand, Gibbs steps over the spilled liquid.

"Meet you in the truck." Is all he says.

The calm before the storm.

"I've never experienced Gibbs without his morning coffee." Tony whispers once our boss is out of sight. "Evaline, Kate, we're in uncharted waters here."

Agent Timothy McGee, the one called in the case, stands to the side with a mask over his mouth. As Ducky gives his preliminary observations of the body, we divide up the work.

Kate's on pictures, and Tony and McGee take measurements, and I am left to sketch.

The sky turns dark, and it's already night by the time we're done.

"We have to keep the crime scene under guard until it's released by Gibbs." Tony informs the young agent, who passes me the last box of equipment.

McGee obliges, "I'll let security know."

"Gibbs wants NCIS to remain in control."

"So I should stay here?"

"Mm-hmm." Tony hums in confirmation. "We'll get you relieved as soon as we can." I jump out, and he closes up the back doors.

Shivering from the cold sea breeze, I tug on the ends of my jacket. "You're terrible, Tony. Making the poor guy stand out here in the cold."

"I'm only doing it because I can." He smirks maliciously. "Bet you were a lot of fun in college."

"I'll have you know I rushed in college, so I was a lot of fun."

"Is that so?"

The next morning, we go back to Norfolk, joined by McGee, to discuss Ducky and Abby's findings. A tattoo on the victim's arm reveals that he was a submariner.

"What if the body was put into acid, not only to dispose of it but to —"

"But to make certain that it couldn't be identified?" Kate completes Gibbs' statement.

"Maybe the murderer didn't want us to know —"

"To know the submariner was dead." I take over for Tony.