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“Probie! Stop staring at her ass and do your damn job.” Franks barked.
Tony sighed. He couldn’t wait for Franks to retire. He would lead his team differently.
He wasn’t even doing anything wrong. People opened up more when they felt comfortable and he’d simply been doing some casual flirting as he took her statement in an attempt to make sure that she didn’t leave out any critical details. Franks knew that; the man was just captious.
Still Tony wrapped up the conversation and moved onto the next interview. They really needed more members on the team, but Franks chased them all away with his fault finding tendencies. Of course, they weren’t the MCRT for nothing, but it was too much work for only two people no matter how amazing they were.
Not that he could get Franks to see that. Despite being the man’s SFA for three years now, Franks still called him Probie all the time and rarely listened to a word of suggestion that Tony offered in relation to how to lead the team. It was annoying, but Tony knew that Franks would be retiring soon and he just needed to last it out.
It was pretty obvious that some of Franks’, less than legal, side operations were eventually going to get the man booted from NCIS, though they’d probably give him the option of retiring peacefully due to his tenure and the good work he’d done. Don’t get him wrong what Franks was doing was good, but it was still technically illegal. Tony tried not to let the laws prevent him from doing the right thing, but that didn’t mean that he was unaware of the consequences of breaking those laws.
The only good thing that came from having Franks as a boss was that when the chips were down he would take the fall for any infractions that Tony committed in the course of solving the cases or helping with his side operations. He didn’t expect for Franks to quit before his dealings came to light. Of course, Tony didn’t exactly blame the man when the brass refused to listen to him regarding the Khobar Towers' bombings.
Politics had been interfering in their cases more and more frequently and that had just been the final straw for Franks. With Franks leaving, Tony became the leader of the MCRT, but a team of one wasn’t much of one. Due to the politics, Tony ended up being loaned out to the FBI and sent undercover first at Peoria PD then Philadelphia and finally Baltimore.
He uncovered corruption at the top level at each police department much to his disgust. However, unlike Franks it just made him more determined to bring the fuckers down. He wasn’t going to let politics prevent him from catching the guilty suspects.
Of course, his name was starting to make it’s rounds at the various police departments, so it no longer made sense to send him undercover. He was still to head the MCRT and Director Morrow had ordered him to find at least one Probie to help him, so that he could take on active cases again. In the meantime, he worked cold cases with the occasional TDA or assist from other teams.
It was actually one of those cold cases that led to him finding his first permanent member for the MCRT. While a Marine was deployed overseas in Operation Desert Storm, his wife had witnessed a murder. She’d come forward to testify and do the right thing and been placed under protection.
She, her daughter, and the protection detail had all died and it had never been solved. Oh everyone was sure that it was somehow related to the case she was testifying for, but they hadn’t been able to find proof. Tony had pulled it knowing that it had to suck for the Marine to come home and find out they were dead and have no idea why.
The story had pulled at Tony’s heartstrings and he’d known that he had to find the proof. Of course, it wasn’t easy to find out information on a cold case like this. He started by contacting the Marine, one Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
He looked up the address and headed over. He knocked on the door and heard, “It’s unlocked. Come in.”
”Gibbs?”
“Downstairs.”
Tony made his way down the stairs to see a gruff Marine busy working on a boat. “Who builds a boat in his basement?”
”Me.”
“I have a few questions for you.”
“Who are you?”
“NCIS Agent Anthony DiNozzo.”
“NCIS, huh? Why are you here?”
“I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about Shannon and Kelly’s death.”
“I don’t think I can be of much help. I wasn’t even here when it happened.”
“I think you can. You see I’ve gone over the case file with a fine tooth comb and it’s pretty obvious who everyone suspected of killing your wife and daughter.”
“So?”
”I know you were in Mexico not long after your wife and daughter died. I think you found out something.”
“If I had, don’t you think I would have reported it?”
Tony eyed the Marine before shaking his head. “No. If you had proof you would have taken matter into your own hands. You tried to find the proof, but didn’t succeed. You found something though. What was it?”
Gibbs glared at this NCIS agent who dared to enter his sanctuary. When it had no effect, Gibbs grunted, “Fine. Wait here.”
Tony moved over to the boat, slowly feeling along it and recognizing the workmanship behind it. He heard Gibbs returning and turned to face the doorway, keeping his questions about what Gibbs planned to do with the boat to himself.
“Here.” Gibbs thrust a folder into Tony’s hand.
Tony took it and started flipping through the information. He found a bullet that was too damaged to be able to match with notes as to where Gibbs had found it. “These are really good, you know? You should join my team at NCIS. I could use someone like you.”
Gibbs just grunted.
Tony mostly ignored Gibbs’ silence. “Now, let’s solve your wife and daughter’s murder and finally bring justice for their deaths.”
Gibbs just stared at this lively NCIS agent and wondered what he had gotten himself into. Still he wanted to see Shannon and Kelly’s killer brought to justice. Hell, he’d wanted to kill Pedro Hernandez himself out of revenge, but by the time he’d figured out who had actually killed Shannon and Kelly he’d had too much time to think and he knew that Shannon would be disappointed in him if he killed Pedro in cold blood, so he’d saved the information he’d found and tried to pass it through the proper channels to bring him to justice.
This NCIS Agent was the first person who actually seemed willing to listen to him. DiNozzo. Gibbs wondered what would happen now.
Gibbs had another two weeks before he needed to report for duty, so he could indulge DiNozzo’s fantasy for now and go back to his normal life afterwards. No harm, no foul and all that.
Tony got Gibbs a temporary badge and together they sorted through the evidence that NCIS had. Gibbs shook his head at the NCIS file. It was so obvious that everyone knew Pedro Hernandez had killed Shannon and Kelly.
They were just lacking the evidence to prove it. Gibbs was glad now that he hadn’t had access to this back when Shannon and Kelly first died. He would have been so frustrated and tempted to take things into his own hands.
DiNozzo, however, took the new evidence Gibbs had provided and ran it down to Abby to see if she could match it against the bullet that killed Shannon and Kelly. He then proceeded to create a bunch of other leads from the cold case file and Gibbs’ notes that Gibbs would never have thought of. Gibbs would never admit it, but he was impressed with this agent.
The guy was already the youngest MCRT lead and it was pretty damn obvious why. Of course, even if they could prove that Pedro Hernandez killed Shannon and Kelly things would still have to be worked through the political system in order to charge him. At least, Mexico actually had an extradition treaty with the US so they stood a chance, but they’d have to be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hernandez had done it.
Mexico wasn’t just going to give up one of their citizens on spurious evidence. Gibbs shouldn’t have doubted, though. With Tony leading and teaching Gibbs investigative ways as they went along they easily had enough evidence to lock Pedro Hernandez away for a really long time.
By the time they had everything squared away, Gibbs had worked a deal out with the Marines to serve out the rest of his time as an NCIS agent. The investigation had brought life back to Gibbs. He’d just been going through the motions as a Marine.
Now, he could really see himself being an NCIS agent and bringing justice to all the Marines that continued to serve their country by making sure that their dependants were protected and that he got justice for any deaths like Tony helped him get justice for his dead wife and daughter.
Unlike the Marines which had felt bittersweet ever since losing his wife and daughter, at NCIS he was actually making a difference. For the first time in a long time, Gibbs had hope again.