Remember (Book One of The Avengers Reports)

Chapter Five (Picture of Tony DiNozzo)

Here we go! Dedication goes to KatieGuinn (again) for winning and guessing the POVs: Jane Foster in New Mexico, Bruce Banner in Calcutta! Good going!

And enjoy Chapter Five!

 ***

NCIS Navy Yard

Washington D.C., Capitol of the United States of America

"What’ve we got?" Gibbs demanded, walking back into the bullpen.

McGee instantly snapped from his trance of looking at his computer. "I’ve been pulling everything we’ve had on Mark Sears," he replied.

"And?" Gibbs asked expectantly.

"His record is spotless," McGee replied, pulling up Mark’s ID on the screen. "Just like his wife, he was involved in the military. An army lieutenant, honorably discharged only two years ago."

"Sounds like he wasn’t home that much," Gibbs remarked.

"Which was why whenever her husband wasn’t home and she was, Lieutenant Sears was always over at Commander Jenkins’s house," McGee told him. "But here’s the kicker."

He pressed a button, and three schedules pulled up. "These are Mr. Sears’s, Lieutenant Sears’s, and Commander Jenkins’s deployment schedules," he explained. "Notice anything?"

Gibbs examined each schedule carefully, and he seethed. Even Ziva, who had been paying attention to her phone call, looked up and was shocked. "Even when both Mr. Sears and Commander Jenkins were on deployment, Lieutenant Sears was always at home," she realized.

"And I’ve pulled the living bills on Commander Jenkins’s house," McGee added. "Each payment said there were two people living there whenever Commander Jenkins was gone."

"And the Commander lives with her brother?" Tony asked.

McGee smiled. "Bingo."

"Get Nat up here," Gibbs ordered, walking back to his desk. "Tony, take her with you."

Tony frowned. "Why not me and Ziva?"

"Because if he sees his two interrogators," Gibbs replied slowly, "he might assume the worst. If you take Natasha, he might think of it as just a few more questions."

Tony nodded and reached over to his phone.

"And Tony?"

Tony looked up as he dialed Natasha’s number. "Yeah, boss?"

"Try and see if you can talk to Natasha about what’s been bugging her."

Tony grinned. "You got it, boss."

As he watched Tony explain to Natasha what was happening, Gibbs leaned back in his chair, thinking. Natasha had reacted oddly to when she had said Mark Sears hadn’t killed his wife and the Lieutenant. She had acted as if she hadn’t even said it at all. What the hell is wrong with her? he wondered.

***

"For a woman that wasn’t home very often," Tony commented, pulling up to Ryan’s house, "she had a pretty sweet house."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Tony," she sighed. "Only you would have thought of that."

"Hey, come on!" he protested. "Don’t deny that you would’ve, too."

Natasha looked out at the house. "I would’ve been impressed," she replied, "had you said it was a ‘pretty sweet mansion’ instead of a ‘pretty sweet house.’"