Chapter Text
Four years. Four years since Ellie left NCIS. A lot had happened since she left: the case in Alaska, Gibbs' departure, Jess and Parker joining NCIS.
Nick thought he had healed over time, forgotten their story that had never been able to begin, he who had spent so much time working to forget her, all those evenings he spent drinking in the dark, brooding, rehashing memories and moments spent with her. He even thought he had succeeded when he started dating Robin, Jess's sister. He didn't think about her for a while, trying to invest himself in and cherish his relationship with his new girlfriend. But after a few months, Nick could no longer ignore his memories.Robin finally realized that she would always be Nick's second choice and decided to talk to him about it. They discussed it at length and decided that it would be best for both of them to end their relationship.
For Nick, it was like going back to square one: he had hurt Robin, who was dear to him, started drinking excessively again, and on top of that, he saw Ellie everywhere, even in his dreams. She had haunted him for so many years and he couldn't take it anymore.
~
That morning, the entire NCIS team was working on cases under the gentle rays of sunlight streaming through the windows of the main room, illuminating all the offices on the floor. Agent Parker's team was reporting on the latest case they had been working on, taking care not to dwell too much on the paperwork so as not to spend hours on it.
Knight joked around with McGee, occasionally making comments to refocus on the latest papers that needed to be handed in. Kasie had come to help them in her spare time, sometimes teasing Jess about one of her jokes. Only Nick remained slightly apart from the others, with an impartial expression on his face.
It had only been a few weeks since he had broken up with Robin, but he still felt a certain unease towards Jess, who understood Torres but couldn't accept that he had broken her sister's heart, especially when the reason was that he couldn't forget his former teammate.
Nick snapped out of his thoughts when he realized that Jess was watching him out of the corner of her eye and that McGee had spoken to him.
“Yes, you were saying?” he said casually. McGee raised an eyebrow and sighed slightly, but without a hint of annoyance. He replied in the same tone: “I was asking if you were done with the last three pages of the file, because it really feels like you're not listening to us, now.” Nick looked at the blank page on his computer and replied affirmatively to his colleague, acting as if nothing had happened. It's best to ignore paperwork at NCIS and put off doing it until the last minute. Before McGee could respond, a notification from Parker popped up on everyone's phones:
We have a body.
---
After Parker sent them the address, they went to Anacostia Park, where they found the body of their victim.
“Our victim is none other than Owel Williams, according to the papers found on him,” Parker began. Jimmy examined the Marine closely and made an initial observation: “We can see that our victim was shot three times in the chest and that he has marks on his body, indicating that he fought back or defended himself against his attacker or attackers.” He looked up at Parker, taking care to ignore Torres and McGee, who were taking photos and collecting evidence for Kessie to analyze in the lab.
“He must have been there for a day or two, if you ask me.” Parker looked at him with his usual expression (the one he had when they found a dead body or heard bad news), but this time with more concern.
“And no one noticed? I mean, in a park like this, and the body was exposed for everyone to see, no one saw it?” Jess said, frowning.
Good question" Parker replied with a scowl.
He signaled to the investigators to recover the body and return to conduct all necessary analyses on the victim and the suspicious fingerprints around the body and the search area.
Knight, seeing that something was wrong, asked Torres if he had seen the same thing she had:
“Don't you think Parker reacted strangely earlier?” Nick looked at Jess curiously. “Don't you think you're imagining things? He's always like that.” She frowned a little more. “Yes, but this time there was definitely something more, as if he was worried or... preoccupied with something.”
The two agents watched their supervisor get into one of the agency's cars, his features tense, his eyes lost in space, as if he were thinking about something, a missing piece in the huge puzzle that was forming in his mind, a piece that the two agents could not know without the ulterior motive of the person who had built it.
After returning to the agency and placing the body in the operating room so that Jimmy could make a diagnosis and determine the time of death, the NCIS special team met to review the information about their victim.
“Our marines is the Chief Petty Officer Owel Williams, 33, married to Elena Williams, who reported that her husband did not return home the day before their wedding anniversary.” Nick couldn't help but comment, “Yeah, well, telling her that her husband is dead isn't exactly the best wedding anniversary gift.”
“Oh,you can say it,” Jess said with a grimace. Parker brought them back on track: “Anyway, from what we know, he didn't seem to have any problems with his wife, no enemies or people he didn't get along with, and he was the best Marine according to his teammates and friends.” Nick continued, “So we have no leads on a potential enemy? Unless it's someone he didn't tell his loved ones about.”
“Except that he did have something,” replied Kasie, who was coming out of the service elevator. “I unlocked his phone to see if there was anything that could help us with our case, anddd”
and you find something ?
"Not something, but someone. (She displays the conversations from the phone on the screen.) It turns out that Owel was talking to a certain Elon Giraldo, and I can tell you that their exchanges were far from friendly."
“The boss will kill you if you don't give him back what he lent you.” “I swear, if you don't come back, I'll find you and break your neck for disrespecting the boss.” “You'll see, you little shit, you'll regret it.” “You can always beg not to be tortured and to have a quick and painless death.”
“Well, we could say they adore each other, true friends,” Nick said ironically. “Oh yeah,” Jess added, “and this Elon guy, do we know where he is?” “23 Anacostia ** **,” Kasie replied with a big smile. “You're the best, Kasie.”
“I know,” she replied with a wink.
Jess and Nick went to the address Kasie had given them while McGee discussed with Jimmy what the body of Quartermaster Owel had revealed about the investigation.
“So, any news?” asked McGee. “Yes, I just removed the three bullets from our quartermaster, and I sent them to Kasie for analysis. I also noticed that he had a fractured left tibia and clavicle, probably caused by a baseball bat.”
- So our victim was injured before he was killed?
“Exactly, added to the fact that there were a few hours between the time he fought and the time he was killed.”
“How long?” McGee asked him. “I'd say about three hours, but if you want more information, you should go see Kasie. By now, she must have finished the initial analyses.”
“Okay, thanks Jimmy,” McGee said with a smile. “By the way, I wanted to ask you, does Williams happen to have a tattoo of a sword in a semicircle with the numbers 8-2-6-8?”
“Yes, why?” asked the doctor. “I don't know why, but Parker mentioned it when we were in the car. He seemed, how can I put it... worried? Lost, even? At the time, I didn't really understand, but I didn't dare ask him. I was afraid he might...”
“ That he might be offended ?” Jimmy finished. “Yes, he was acting really strange. It was quite disturbing, even downright creepy,” McGee grimacing. “Jess told me the same thing earlier. She said he seemed distant and preoccupied, and that ever since he saw the body, he'd been distracted and hadn't even noticed that he'd burned himself when he spilled coffee on his hand,” Jimmy replied after a moment's thought.
After a few seconds of hesitation, he spoke again. “I think Parker knows this guy, maybe even has a direct connection to him.” McGee, who had just replaced his smile with a pensive look, contemplated the corpse lying before his eyes. “That's what worries me.”
He looked up to see Jimmy watching him with the same expression. The problems were only just beginning; and the secrets were not yet ready to be revealed.
---
Jess and Nick, who had just arrived, stood in front of Giraldo's house: it was made of red and blue bricks and had beautiful windows with teal shutters, although one of them was broken, which didn't seem like a good sign. After ringing the doorbell and getting no answer, they both sensed that something was wrong and decided to break down the door.
They both knew that what awaited them inside would not be pretty to see, but they did not expect to find the house turned upside down: broken objects and windows, blown circuit breakers, overturned furniture, as if someone had broken in and searched for something important, water covering the floor of the entire ground floor, and the highlight of the show: a body lying motionless and silent on the living room floor, covered in blood, with a female silhouette but disfigured by deep cuts, and three bullets lodged deep in the chest.
“Oh, holy shit,” Jess exclaimed, covering her nose. “Whoever did this must be a real psychopath to go this far.”
“The body is cold, but she can't have been here long,” Nick said without looking at Jess as he examined the woman on the floor. “She must have tried to defend herself, judging by the color of her fingers, but to no avail.”
Nick stood up, lost in thought as he tried to understand the current situation: two dead people were connected to the same man they were looking for, one of whom had been found in his home. Jess interrupted his thoughts.
“Nick, we have a bigger problem,” she said, stepping toward him. “I found the woman's bag in the living room, and her papers indicate that she is Captain Hannah Myers.” “ Jess looked at Nick with a serious expression. ”That means we have two dead Marines connected to Giraldo," he finally replied breathlessly, almost whispering.
“We need to call Parker,” said Jess, who was already taking out her phone. “Did you find any trace of Giraldo?” Nick finally asked her.
“No, no trace, and yet I've looked everywhere,” Jess replied with a hint of frustration in her voice, her shoulders tense and her fists clenched, revealing exactly how she was feeling at that moment, the sight of the corpse bringing back old demons. Even though she said otherwise, Nick knew she still hadn't gotten over that one day.
“Hey, it's going to be okay, mh?” he tried to tell her, trying to reassure her, gently sliding his hand down her back to calm her. She gave him a little smile and a grateful look.
“Thanks, Torres, but don't worry about me, I'm fine,” she turned to face him, partly to look away from Captain Myers's body. “You're a true friend, Nick.”
Nick feigned shock and looked at her with a fake hurt expression. “Friend? Just a friend? I thought I was your best friend!” Jess looked surprised at first, but then laughed softly. “Oh, come on, why would I need to specify that when everyone knows that YOU are my best friend?”
They looked at each other with a softer expression on their faces for a few seconds, despite the fact that Jess had just typed Parker's number into her phone to warn him about the horror in their suspect's living room.
“We'd better go outside for now,” said Nick, gently pulling Jess by the arm. She looked at him calmly and nodded, already talking to Parker to warn him of the current situation.
Once outside, they both took a deep breath, as if they had been holding their breath while they were still inside the house.
Nick watched the agent beside him, who had resumed his stony expression, as if what they had seen in the house had never happened. He knew he shouldn't dwell on what had just happened because he knew very well that, even though Jess didn't show it, seeing Captain Myers' body reminded her of the fact that she hadn't been able to save her friend Beth, who had died in a similar way. And what was most troubling for Jess was that she knew it was going to happen, but she still hadn't been able to save her life, the precious life of her friend.
She had told Nick everything a few months ago when the whole NCIS team had gotten together to go to the bar for a few drinks. She had told him when he had walked her home, even though they were both drunk. Since then, even though he knew she hated it, he had tried to “protect” her from any information about this type of murder.
" So what do we do now?" Nick walked down the steps from the landing and glanced at the fence, noticing fresh drops of blood he hadn't seen when he arrived. He moved closer to take a better look when he saw something, or rather someone, in the corner of the house watching them, silent and scrutinizing.
A shiver ran down his spine, and in one swift movement, he lunged forward at full speed to grab the hidden figure, throwing himself on top of her and eliciting a shrill scream. She struggled with all her might, eliciting muffled grunts from Nick with each blow she landed; she was agile, strong, and quick in every movement, forcing Nick into a humiliating position, which, had Nick not been so full of himself, would have made him congratulate her for putting him in a position of weakness.
Jess, alerted by the sounds of struggle, immediately rushed to Nick's aid, grabbing the young woman who had just attacked his teammate and holding her firmly so she couldn't move. The young woman with reddish-brown hair and jade eyes glared at them, silently threatening them.
“I hope you know that assaulting a federal agent is a crime, right?” Jess looked at the woman with a strange expression, her gaze unsettling and with a glint she couldn't explain, her jade eyes scrutinizing the slightest movement of the two agents, which made Jess shiver slightly.
The two federal agents exchanged a knowing glance, and, as if they were connected, Nick and Jess acted simultaneously: one changed position to expose the young woman's wrists and the other handcuffed her.
Parker and the others finally arrived about thirty minutes later, carrying the body into the living room, collecting evidence, and taking the young red-haired woman to the agency.
She had her questioned by agents Knight and Torres, who eventually left the interrogation room perplexed, heading toward Parker.
“What's going on?” he asked them. The two agents looked at him impassively, but you could almost sense their concern.
“We think we're going to have to go a little further than Washington.” Parker frowned. “What do you mean by that?” Parker said, not knowing where this was all leading.
“We're going to have to investigate in Colombia.”