Alice Story part 2

Once A Hero

"Good morning, Gibbs. McGee... Todd," Shepard greets us as we walk over to her at the dining area of a party that a jumper just crashed, with his dead body. Ziva had to physically pushed Shepard out of the way, because Tony and Ziva were here protecting Shepard. It's sunny outside today so I have my sunglasses on, making Shepard unable to see the look I just gave her for hesitating on my name.

"Director Shepard," Gibbs greets her.

"Our gate-crasher was a marine. Sergeant Brian Wright. The hotel was in lockdown and he wasn't a registered guest. He took a dive from up there somewhere. Sec-Def staff are worried that it was an attempt on the life of their boss."

"Are you worried?" I ask her.

"IF it was an assassination attempt, he's a lousy assassin. He used his body as a weapon and missed by seventy-five feet. Ducky's doing the preliminaries. I've got Tony liaising between Metro and hotel management. And we have a witness. Andy Nelson. Ziva's with him. He's an aide to a congressman. Nelson claims he was attacked by the deceased on the sixth floor before the incident."

"DO you believe him?" Gibbs asks.

"HE works for a politician. What do you think? I'm officially handing over. I've got my own fires to put out. This happened in our backyard. It's making a lot of people nervous. I'd appreciate a quick result on this one," Shepard demands of us to rush the case before storming off.

"The question is, did he jump or was he pushed? Guess that's what we're here to find out," McGee asks us.

"Go," Gibbs orders him.

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"Enough. It's okay," Nelson waves the paramedics away as we walk up to them, I push my sunnies up onto the top of my head.

"Mister Nelson has been explaining how he got injured," Ziva explains to us as we walk over to the inside the hotel.

"HE just came at me. He hit me. I fell down and he ran away."

"Did you see him fall?" I ask him.

"I just got out here. I was down in the lobby to report it when he fell."

"Why were you on the sixth floor?" Ziva asks him.

"I was delivering a briefing paper to a defence contractor in one of the suites. Norforce systems. I was walking towards the elevator."

"Did you see him before?" Gibbs asks him.

"Every day. Congressmen Getz," another man introduces himself. We just look at him as Gibbs shakes his hand and he adds, "Well not the deceased, just sad souls like him. The homeless."

"Unconfirmed," Ziva reminds him.

"And a war veteran or we'd be talking to Metro Police and not NCIS, agent..."

"Special Agent Gibbs and he was a marine," Gibbs introduces himself.

"We need to do more to help the ones who come back broken," Getz says attempting to make a big man of himself.

"Yeah, you do. Before we have to," I agree with him making him give me a look.

"Let's get that x-rayed, Andy. Unless Agent Gibbs has more questions about this unfortunate incident," Getz says to Gibbs before leading Nelson away to go get his head x-rayed.

"Did I miss something?" Ziva asks in confusion.

"The congressman thinks our marine was crazy and jumped," Gibbs explains to her before we make our way out of the hotel to the crime scene where Tony is eating the food turned evidence.