𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 ━━ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐳𝐳𝐨

TWELVE | tonguing a guy

A month and a half flashes by. A month and a half of cases. Cases ranging from pranks gone horribly wrong to fugitives escaping prison in search of vengeance.

None of which involve the bastard who took over Autopsy one faithful day.

"What do you think you're doing?" I snatch the phone out of Tony's greedy hands, pressing it against my ear. "Hello?"

"Hello, Evaline. Miss me?"

Oh, God.

When I slam the phone against its headset, Tony jumps back in surprise. "Wrong number," is the first thing that spews out of my mouth.

"Aren't you going to yell at me?" He slips off his sunglasses. "If I'd done the same thing to Kate, she would have hit me."

"Maybe I'm not in a hitting mood."

Instead of waiting for whatever else he has to say, I grab my bag and head towards the elevator.

"Hold on."

Looking back, I see Gibbs at the top of the stair. He slowly makes his way to the main floor.

"Chris Pacci was murdered." He announces.

Kate glances over at her desk. "The agent that sits behind me?" All that's left is an empty chair.

"One of our own?"

The drive to the crime scene is completely silent. Even Tony doesn't say a word, which is a very difficult task for him.

Gibbs steps aside to speak with the detective, leaving the rest of us with the body. When he hears word about a fire alarm on the fifth floor, he silently turns to me and Tony.

"We're on it."

I follow behind Tony, up the five flights of stairs.

Easier said than done.

"Who was on the phone?" Tony asks.

"I told you already." I glare daggers at the back of his head. "It was a wrong number."

Of course, he doesn't believe me.

We are about to walk in through the door when I notice something on the ground.

"Blood trail on the next set of stairs." I call out to Tony. Carefully, we head up to the next floor.

"Looks like whatever happened started on the sixth floor."

We follow the blood marks back down to the fifth floor. There's bloody smudges on the fire alarm, meaning Pacci's the one who pulled it.

There's more blood stains on the wall, the elevator buttons, and a puddle of blood right in front of the elevator doors.

"God. Can you imagine what he must have gone through before. . ." The words stop in the back of my throat.

When we return to headquarters, Kate and Gibbs search through Pacci's desk. And he sends me and Tony to visit Pacci's home.

"Will you just talk to me?" The sudden outburst startles me. "What is bothering you so much to the point where you've been silent the entire day?'

"Tony, one of our agents was —"

"Oh, cut the crap!"

My mouth opens slightly, but nothing comes out.

The next morning, after conducting the autopsy, Ducky removes a microchip containing surveillance photos of a woman from the past two days.

Kate visits the hotel again, this time finding an NCIS-issued camera at the bottom of the stairwell.

Special Agent McGee stops by to deliver a cold case file Pacci had asked him to withdraw. An civilian car accident involving a lieutenant commander's scheme of credit fraud.