NCIS - Coincidences :Ch. 4 - Ice Melt:

Chapter Four: Ice Melt

Slumping onto the bed that took up the vast majority of her apartment, Rebekah recalled all that she had learned in the last seven hours. Of all of the information she had consumed, the one thing that stuck out the most was that Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was as tenacious as a bulldog when it came to solving mysteries. Every article she had found, the majority of them published online only, had told of how the man had solved a number of murders and other crimes, along with his team. They also pointed out that, although he had won a number of commendations for these feats of justice, he was rarely spoken of. In fact, Rebekah had been unable to find a single article that included a statement from the man himself.

It all boiled down to one thing: she was doomed. Her freedom was at an end and the anonymity she had gained by moving so far from home was about to be destroyed.  There was little doubt in her mind that the man would find out the truth and that she would be shipped back to Indiana without any preliminary questioning.

Allowing herself to fall back onto the bed, her hands going to her face to rub at her tired eyes, Rebekah considered her options. Fake IDs were not easy to come by, even when you knew how to get one. And one that can pass the casual glance was even harder. She'd been lucky, finding that idiot from her old school. Even though he'd missed two essential elements of the ID, he'd managed to make it convincing enough that no one had noticed it until now. Something told her she would not be able to get that lucky this time. Another issue was finding a landlord who was dull enough to rent an apartment to a minor without realizing it. Contrary to popular belief, slumlords were notoriously picky about the people they rented to. And the last issue was lack of monetary resources.

Of all the problems facing when it came down to it, the money was the biggest problem. All of her meager belongings could fit inside of a suitcase. But to have the ready cash to buy a bus ticket and rent a place to live would take her, at least, three months.  In that time, Gibbs could easily have discovered every dark secret in her past. It wasn't like she'd been trying to hide herself all that hard.

Four hours later, a knock at the door woke her. Getting to her feet, Rebekah cautiously approached the door, as though it would open suddenly and monster would grab her. There was the sense of being a small child again, facing the boogeyman for the first time after deciding you were too old to run to your parents every time you were scared. Facing one's fears was not always easy.

The knock came again, this time followed by a loud thump directly on the other side of the door. Footsteps told her that, whoever had been was leaving. When she heard the front door bang shut, Rebekah opened the door and stared out into the dark hallway. There was no sign of anyone having been present, until she looked down and spotted the package.

Kneeling to pick up the package, Rebekah's gaze took in the empty hallway and the top of the flight of stairs. Nothing moved, not even a rat. Her thoughts began to settle down as her heart rate followed suit. No one was standing there, waiting to grab her; it had only been the mailman.

Standing back up was a little harder than she had anticipated, her knee did not want to function at all and she realized she had forgotten all about the wound. Forcing her joint to respond, she got to her feet with the package securely held beneath her arm and turned from the open door, pushing it shut with her hip. Reaching the counter, she set the package down and dug through the drawers until she found a pair of scissors.

There was no return address on the package and she had a small sense of fear as she slid the tip of the scissors beneath the tape and began to slice through it. Once the tape was split, she took a deep breath and released it slowly before peeling back the flaps to reveal what was inside.

When the light hit the enclosed item, a small squeak escaped her throat and she backed away, tears standing in her eyes as she began to shake her head. Before the panic had completely set in, Rebekah's gaze went back to the unlocked door. The chain from the door guard was dangling beside the door and the deadbolt was turned to the unlocked position. Ignoring the screaming pain in her knee, she rushed over to the door and bolted it, slipped the chain into place, and turned the lock in the handle. Once this was finished, she leaned against the door and slid to the floor, the tears streaming down her face.

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was no longer her biggest worry.

*

It never failed to amaze him that DiNozzo thought it was a good idea to mess with a former assassin. Standing at the top of the stairs, looking down into the bullpen, Gibbs waited for the eventual result of his senior field agent's actions. A hand fell to the top of the handrail just as Ziva walked through the elevator doors and DiNozzo ran back to his own desk. Looking over at the Director, he smirked at the shout that floated up to where they stood.

"Leon," Gibbs greeted, ignoring the argument that was going on below them.

"Gibbs," Vance handed him a manila envelope, his eyes focused on the antics of the two agents in the bullpen. Gibbs didn't have to look to know that about twenty harassment rules were being broken.

With a nod, after a cursory glance in the folder, Gibbs stood and made his way down into the bullpen, entering just as Ziva was finishing with DiNozzo. Judging by the look on her face, there would be other repercussions for the man.  

"Got a dead sailor, gear up," Gibbs ordered as he walked through the bullpen, intentially disregarding the looks that passed between DiNozzo and Ziva. McGee was the first to join him in the elevator while the other two continued their spat on the way there. He was tempted to leave them behind, but decided against it. If he did, there might not be an NCIS to come back to.

Snow had started to fall again, aiding in the haste that was required for the crime scene examination and evidence collection. Ducky joined them, with Palmer close behind, as they pulled up to the crime scene.

"I do not care what you thought you saw, Tony, it was of none of your concern," Ziva snapped even as the doors opened and everyone got out.

"Ducky, what've we got?" Gibbs asked, glancing back to make sure that everyone was doing their job.

"A Lieutenant Roy Evans, the officer there," Ducky pointed to a police officer standing near the crime scene tape, talking to Ziva, "found the victim's ID nearly three yards south of here on a routine patrol."

"Time of death, Duck?" Gibbs walked toward the body, looking down at the bloody mass that used to be the man's hands, "What happened to his hands?"

"Jethro, slow down, would you?" Ducky laughed slightly before kneeling down beside the body and looking over his notes, "Tentatively, I would say this young man died within the last twenty-four hours. Give or take a few, considering the weather lately."

"Tentatively? That doesn't sound like you, Ducky," Gibbs stated before looking over the immediate area, "Did our friendly officer find anything else while he trampled through the crime scene?"

"Not that I know of," Ducky responded, "As to his hands, his fingers were removed postmortem. We have not found hide nor hair of them."

"All right, get him back to the Navy Yard," Gibbs stepped away to speak with DiNozzo, stopping when McGee shouted from the other side of the taped off area.

"Boss, I got something here," McGee stood where he was, waiting for them to join him.

Once everyone was gathered around, he began to speak again, "I found this while I was digging through the snow." The tip of his boot was situated at the edge of an older photograph. The faces were obscured by snow, but the uniform was unmistakable. Waiting for DiNozzo to snap a photo, Gibbs lifted the photo by the edge with a gloved hand and stared long and hard at the faces. One in particular popped out at him and a sense of dread filled him.

"Take this to Abby, identify each person in this photo, NOW," Gibbs ordered, shoving the picture into an evidence bag and shoving it at McGee before turning and moving back across the crime scene.

"Boss?" McGee called turning away as Gibbs spun and looked at him, "On it boss."

Gibbs watched him run through the snow, up the slight incline, and enter the car before turning back toward the crime scene and Dr. Mallard. Ducky and Palmer had the Lieutenant Commander's body up on the gurney and were preparing to wheel it back through the freshly fallen snow to the crime scene vehicle.

"Jethro, are you riding with us?" Ducky asked as Gibbs approached.

Nodding, Gibbs walked past and opened the rear doors of the vehicle, waiting on the two of them. He was beginning to get agitated at how slowly the gurney was moving through the snow, but there was little that could be done to change that as the snow was beginning to come down harder. He simply hoped that his long-held belief in there being no such thing as coincidences turned out to be untrue.