DISCLAIMER- I make no profit from this story, this is purely for entertainment purposes. Characters and certain dialogues of the NCIS and Percy Jackson universe belong to their creators respectively.
“Come on Alec help me turn them in. We can close this together. Imagine how far up well get promoted!”
“No! You don’t understand Damien. You know the other guys told me you would do this. Try to get inside my head, turn me away. But I won’t let it happen! I will not betray my brothers!”
“Alec your “brothers” are selling drugs on a US navy ship! Their corrupting you! Come on man, you’re my brother. What happened to semper fi? We are supposed to fight for our country, not against it!”
“you. don’t. get. It.” THUD!
NCIS intro…
At the office
“Come on Tim. Just show us already”.
That was the first thing Ellie Bishop heard when entering the bullpen. Full of curiosity, she walked up to where the 4 boys who crowded around something.
“Show us what?” she asked, looking at the brown package. “It’s the new Firebird laptop. McGee bought the last one.” Explained Palmer. “Wait as the Firebird?!”, Bishop was starting to get excited too. I mean who wouldn’t? it was a Firebird!
“Really Probie? You too? 2 of them are more than enough” Tony said and whoops! Found a person who wouldn’t.
“Wait Percy. You’re not excited?” McGee asked, seeming genuinely surprised.
‘No, I’m excited for you. Not for the laptop.” Replied Percy. “I don’t need a fingerprint scanner, and extra storage, my laptop works fine without it. So, I’m happy with mine”.
“Lieutenant Roberts isn’t” Gibs says, walking out of nowhere as usual. “Grab your gear. Dead lieutenant in Norfolk.”
The rest of the agents quickly grabbed their stuff and followed Gibbs to the elevator.
“Oh! Wow. Ok. Good luck! So, I’ll…I’ll just stay here than …”
“You do that Palmer”, was the only reply the poor ME assistant got before the doors shut close and left him alone in the Bullpen.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-
At the crime scene
Snap! Snap!
“’k boss, all done here.” Percy said, taking the last photo of the body and standing up.
“Where did McGee go?” asked Bishop.
“Ahh Mc-sea-legs! Well, he got a little seasick” Sounds of puking and dry heaving interrupted Tony’s speech. “As you just heard. He’s a bit under the wheather today”
“Nonsense. The weather is quite splendid today Anthony!”
“Not for poor Timmy back there Duckman” Tony replied.
“TOD Duck?” Gibbs asked impatiently, sending his best get-back-to-work-glare to the rest of the team.
Kneeling down, Ducky bent down to examine the body.
“Well, judging by the early stages of rigor mortis and the barely warm body temperature, I would say our lieutenant was killed barely 4 hours back.”
“COD?” Asked Gibbs.
“Blunt force trauma to the back of the head. The wound suggests the murder weapon could be anything from a baseball bat to a hockey stick. Miss Sciuto will be able to determine that”
“Good work duck. Rest of you finish up here and head back to the office.”
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-
NCIS headquarters
“Sitrep!” barked Gibbs as he entered the bullpen, effectively cutting off his team’s banter.
All agents gathered around the plasma, and Percy started off, stealing the clicker from a now pouting Tony. “Lieutenant Damien Roberts age 27, joined when he was 18, got along with everybody, and had nothing but praises and glowing recommendations.”.
Stealing the clicker back, Tony continued, “Roberts has no family, parents died when he was 12 in a car crash, his sister, Casandra Roberts and he bounced of foster homes to foster homes. Numerous foster parents said they were well behaved and caused no trouble. The only reason they kept changing homes was because Casandra and Damien refused to be separated.”
“I did some digging and found out that the lieutenant did not really get along with everybody. Or rather, somebody did not get along with him.” Bishop gestured at Tony to click. “Meet Alec Smith, one of the men in Damien’s unit. Apparently, Alec didn’t like Damien’s easy-going attitude and how everybody liked him. Something he had never achieved in his 6 years with the unit. By the way Gibbs, nice tie”
“ok. Good work. Bishop, McGee go check out Roberts’s house. Dinozzo, Jackson go find Lieutenant Alec Smith.”
As Gibbs walked into the elevator on his way to Ducky, he heard a chorus of “on it boss!” that never failed to make him smile.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-
In the car
“So where are we going” Tony asked Percy, as the cruised the streets of DC.
Percy checked his phone, “Well according to Smith’s records, he currently works at Jerry’s Motor Oil Services.”
“Ok. Let’s go pay him a visit” Tony said.
Percy winced. “That was such a cliché.”
Opening the sunroof, Tony slipped on his glasses, knowing that Percy was the only one could be himself in front of and not get criticized for it. “It’s not a cliché, it’s a Classic.”
“Oh right. Because a boomer such as yourself would know.” Replied Percy with such an innocent face that the devil himself may have pardoned him. Of course, anyone who new Percy well enough knew *that* face was a whole load of crap.
Following his comment, Tony spluttered weakly, glared at Percy, and then proceeded to change the radio channel to some foreign language sports channel, just to get him back.
Percy’s laughed a full, joyous, belly-laugh. A sound only a few were got the privilege to hear, and Tony thanked his lucky stars for the umpteenth time that he was one of the few.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-
At Jerry’s Motor Oil Services
Percy and Tony walked in the small warehouse-like store and spotted Alec quickly.
“Lieutenant Alec Smith?” Tony called out.
“Not a lieutenant anymore. I’m retired.”, Alec replied as he turned and walked up to them.
“Noted” said Tony mildly. “I’m NCIS special agent Tony Dinozzo, That’s special agent Percy Jackson. Were here to ask you questions regarding Lieutenant Damien Roberts.”
“Damien? What did that guy do know?” Alec replied quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly, Percy thought.
“Nothing”, Tony said shortly, “He’s dead.” Percy waited patiently, trying to gauge Smith’s reaction.
“What? Wow. I mean I’m not exactly sorry the guy’s dead, but he did save a lot of lives.”
“You’re not sorry that he’d dead?”, interrupted Percy, sharing a glance with Tony.
“Well…ok I’m going to be honest with you..he..he dated my sister, broke her heart too.” Alec said.
“Oh?” Tony said, he was clearly skeptical but played along, nevertheless. “And whats your sister’s name”
Now jittery, Alec replied “Elizabeth Smith”
“Elizabeth Smith? Alright” Tony murmured scribbling down her name on his notepad. Talking the lead Percy asked Smith, “When’s the last time you saw lieutenant Roberts?”
“On the day he broke Elizabeth’s heart, that would be about this time last year. I confronted him and gave him a black eye. And I know,” He placed his hands up as if to avoid any protests “I know that doesn’t look good for me, but I was just doing what any big brother would do.”
“Now, unless you kind officers want anything else, I have to get back to work” Alec finished stiffly and walked away.
“Agents! Were agents not officers!” Tony yelled out but Smith was already gone.
Turning back to Percy, Tony said, “He’s lying”. Percy hummed in agreement. “He’s definitely hiding something. We should check out the girl next. I’ll call Gibbs.”
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-
Autopsy
“Mr. Rogers, I see you have been in quite good health. I wonder who would want to take that away.” Ducky mused, as he expertly handled a piece of tweezers inside of the dead man’s body.
“Someone who didn’t like him very much” replied Gibbs, popping up seemingly out of nowhere.
“Ah! Perfect timing as usual Jethro.” Countered Ducky. “Exceptionally nice tie, I must say it suits you. But back to the case, my initial theory was right. I had found some fibers of nylon on our lieutenant’s wound. It is clear that the murder weapon was most likely a sports racket of some kind. Mr. Palmer has just gone to give the samples to Abigail. Actually, this reminds me of case I had worked on. It was about a young girl who had by mistakenly hit her brothers head while playing with her mother’s tennis racket. If I remember correctly….”
Swoosh! Autopsy’s doors closed. And Gibbs was gone.
“Oh! Mr. Palmer your back! I was just telling Agent Gibbs a fascinating story about a brother who had died by mistake at his sister’s hands or sister’s racket, as it would be in this case….”
Labby (Abby’s lab)
Gibbs’s ears bled as he walked into Abby’s lab and into the abyss of blaring music.
“Abbs!”, he yelled at her. Turning from she was she was dancing -dancing? Did what she was doing even count as dancing? – she pranced off and turned the music off.
“Oh. Hey Gibbs! Ooo nice tie!”
Gibbs sighed. Why was everyone going after his tie! “Again, with the tie- you know what I don’t want to know” he said exasperated. “Whatcha got Abbs?”
“Right”, Abby replied, getting back on track. “The nylon fibers definitely came from a squash racket. Only one specific company makes their rackets with this type of nylon: Dunlop.”
“Can you find out what racket model?” Gibbs asked.
“I can do better than that. The murder weapon was a DUNLOP Precision Elite 7.0 Squash Racket” she announced proudly. “It’s a pretty old model, so they don’t sell it everywhere. In fact, there is only one warehouse in D.C that sells these anymore. Even better, they don’t deliver. So, if you visit that warehouse and get me a list of people who bought this racket recently, I’ll be able to…”
“Trace the items back to their owners.” Gibbs finished off for her.
“If facial rec. from the CCTV doesn’t work, yes.” Abby confirmed.
“Good work Abbs” Gibbs said, pecking her cheek lightly before walking out of the lab.
Abby skipped back to Major Mas Spec and switched on her music again.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-On the way to the warehouse
“McGee?” Gibbs asked sharply.
“Yeah boss?” said McGee, wondering what made his usually silent boss or “functional mute” as Tony often described him, speak up.
“Why does everyone think my about my new tie so much?”, Gibbs asked the younger agent, apparently overcoming the internal battle he had seemed to be having.
McGee was surprised at the honest question. “Well boss, everyone knows you don’t really like change, so sometimes even the smallest of changes from you tend to…”.
“What McGee? Spit it out!”.
Sighing McGee turned properly to look at Gibbs. “Tend to make us weary of you. Like we just don’t know what to expect.” Explained the writer, his strong understanding of the English language helping him phrase what he wanted to say.
McGee both mentally and physically prepared himself for the head slap that sure was going to come but surprisingly he felt no twinge at the back of his head. He glanced up at Gibbs who was looking thoughtfully at the road, not that McGee could be sure. Reading Gibbs was like looking at a ball, no matter what angle you looked from it still looked the same.
Realizing there wasn’t going to be any more conversation, McGee looked out his window and got lost in his thoughts.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-In the warehouse
Walking in step with each other, McGee and Gibbs looked around the warehouse for the manager. The warehouse itself was quite big, with huge crates stacked up against each other, sterile floors and air that smelt like an airport bathroom. McGee had been to enough of warehouses as a kid, watching his dad walk up and down the aisles then right up again. “Always buy in stock Tim”, McGee recalled his father telling him. That’s when McGee started to hate warehouses. Because all the ‘stock’ would get pushed into his bedroom, taking up all the place.
McGee was shaken out of his musings when mid-thirty’s man in a tweed suit walked up to them, what a second, tweed suit?! Percy and Tony will have a field day with that one!
“Stephen Lange. I heard you were looking for me?” the man spoke in a very crisp British voice, the type of voice that usually indicated a no-nonsense person.
“Yes. Special agent Gibbs” Gibbs tilted his head to McGee. “Special agent McGee. We have a few questions we’d like to ask you.”
After getting a nod from Lange, McGee asked him. “Do you have any CCTV camera?”
Lange snorted. “We’re a warehouse. What do you think? Why? Do you need access?”
“That would be preferable, yes” McGee replied.
“Hmmm follow me” Lange said that began walking at a brisk space towards the checkout point, obviously expecting them to follow. And really, what choice did they have?
Matching his speed, both Gibbs and McGee followed the man. Just as abruptly as he had started walking, Stephen stopped. “Here” he said, handing McGee an iPad.
McGee silently flipped through the camera’s recordings until he reached the day one single ‘DUNLOP Precision Elite 7.0 Squash Racket’ was sold. The face that he saw on the tiny screen was quite surprising.
“Boss!” McGee called out, showing him the picture that came up. “This is James Davis; he was one of men in Smith’s unit.”
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-Back at the Bullpen
“So, what has Damien dating Smith’s sister got to do with Smith getting hit by racket Davis owns?” Asked Percy.
“Maybe Smith got mad at him for breaking his sisters heart and asked Davis to kill lieutenant Roberts? Though Gibbs is still interrogating Davis” Replied Tony.
“Already done. He said nothing” stated Gibbs walking into the Bullpen with McGee.
“Nothing?”
“Nope” this time it was McGee who had answered. “He just kept saying “We will overcome””
“We? So, there’s more than one person. That’s no bueno.” Replied Percy.
“Maybe” McGee responded. “Or maybe it was all Gibberish. Tox results show he was high on something at the time of the murder.”
So far during the whole conversation, Bishop had sat quietly. She replayed what they had said again in her head and that’s when it hit her. She jumped up suddenly and pointed at Percy. “Wait! Go back. You said Damien dated Smith’s sister?”
“Yeah” said Percy. “We even checked up on Elizbeth she confirmed it. Didn’t spend too many tears on it though.”
“Of course, she wouldn’t! Lieutenant Roberts couldn’t have dated Smith’s sister!”
Being the extremely smart person he was, Percy replied with a highly intelligent “Huh”.
Bishop huffed in frustration. “Here look!” she displayed the pictures McGee and she had taken of Alexander’s house. “Look at these books. Their titled “How to “come out” in the Navy” and “Ten reasons to keep your sexuality a secret in the Corps”.”
Seeing they were not convinced yet, Bishop tried again, “And you know all those past girlfriends the sister talked about? Well, I dug a bit deeper, and it turns out Damien has never even dated much less have a girlfriend. The only person he actually dated was a boy in high school. Smith lied to you. Robert couldn’t have dated his sister because is gay.”
The revelation struck everybody.
As usual Tony was the first to break the silence. “Well Damn!” He whistled.
Suddenly an officer ran into their workspace. “Agent Gibbs?” He asked. McGee pointed at Gibbs.
“Agent Gibbs. I was told this message needed to be delivered to you ASAP. Lieutenant Conner Sherman has been detained in Quantico for possession of drugs”
“Lieutenant Conner Sherman”, Percy muttered. He scrunched his eyebrows up trying to find the connection. “Oh! He’s one of the men in Smiths unit”
Turning towards the officer, who was still waiting, leg bouncing nervously he said, “Thank you officer”. It was a clear sign of dismissal.
Tony thought out loud: “4 men in a unit. One’s dead. One has the murder weapon. One claims to have beef with the victim. One is arrested for drug possession. This is starting to look like…”
“Murder on the Orient Express!” finished Percy with wide eyes.
Also sporting wide eyes, Tony turned to Gibbs. “Boss I think it’s time we broke rule number 1.”
Gibbs raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused. “You ganna screw me over Dinozzo?”
“What? No! the other rule number 1. It’s time to let our suspects know we have the upper hand”
“But we don’t” said McGee naively.
“But we don’t let them know that” Percy said grinning at Tony…who grinned right back.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-Interrogation
The 3 lieutenants, Alec Smith, Conner Sherman, James Davis, sat straight in their chairs, stewing for their interrogation. Alec, being the pompous person he was, put on a cocky face full of false bravado. On the other hand, Conner and James sweated nervously, looking like kids sent to the principal.
The door swung open, and Percy and Tony walked in.
Putting on his best false cheery face, Percy greeted them, “Alec! Whats sup my man? Oh, how you doing Conner? Hey James!”
Alec stood up. “I want my lawyer.
“Aww but we didn’t even charge you with anything!” Tony exclaimed, leaning down on the table on his elbows.
Alec flushed but stood his ground.
“Tell you what, we’ll make a little deal…well except you don’t really have a choice in it. Me, and my very happy partner” Tony gave a little wave. “who is by the way very happy to put you jerk faces into prison, are going to talk for now. And then after that you will talk. So, sit” Percy’s voice had gradually changed from false friendliness to hatred.
Alec reluctantly sat.
“Good. So, tell me now, did you kill lieutenant Damien Smith because he was gay or because he got too close to your little drug ring?” Asked Tony. All the suspects were surprised at his bluntness.
“I had nothing against him for being gay! I swear! He wasn’t supposed to be killed. He was supposed to join us…” Protested Conner Sherman desperately.
“Shut up, Conner! Keep your damn mouth shut!” interrupted Smith vehemently.
“Oh? Hiding something Smith?” Percy asked with a smirk.
“I want my lawyer!”
“Mhmmm nah. Still didn’t charge you with anything” replied Tony, clearly enjoying himself as much as Percy.
Suddenly Smith exploded. He launched himself over Percy and even managed to get a punch in before agents came rushing in the room and handcuffed him.
Percy grimaced as he touched his split lip that was bleeding. He looked over at Smith, his lip making his grin seem effortlessly evil. “Well, I guess we’ll have to add ‘Assaulting a federal officer’ along with “Lying to federal officer’ and ‘illegal drug trafficking’ to your list of offences, huh?”.
————————————————————–Time skip—————————————————————-Back in the Bullpen (after a long day’s work)
“Soo, I guess the world is safe from one less drug ring” Said Bishop, switching off her computer.
“Until one more comes and replaces it” Percy snarks back. “But seriously though, who starts a frickin drug ring on a US Navy ship!?”
McGee snorts. “You know what my dad would have said? He would have said, ‘The world is turning more into a circus every day. The goal is to be a viewer not to join the circus of madness’” He puts up a fake deep voice when he quoted. “Dear old dad. Your words of wisdom are really something” he says only half teasing.
Everyone laughs and then Percy apologizes. “Sorry guys, can’t join for beers today, I’m taking my lovely fiancée to dinner”
“Were not going out for beers today, McGee agreed to show me the ropes on his Firebird” Bishop said already getting excited at the prospect.
“Ah about that! McGoo, can I borrow your laptop? Zoe says she really wanted one and I was hoping to…”
“Didn’t you say it was ‘a piece of junk’ Dinozzo?” Said Gibbs emerging from nowhere and also getting ready to leave.
“Ah, boss well you see…”
And the whole group erupted in laughter again.
Bishop replayed what they had said again in her head and that’s when it hit her. She jumped up suddenly and pointed at Percy. “Wait! Go back. Did you say you’re taking your fiancée out for dinner?!”
Percy grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I did. I proposed yesterday. Figured I’d postponed the announcement to after this case.”
“OMGGGG!!! PERCY!” Abby squealed and jumped over to hug her friend. After her, Percy got hugged and wished by everybody including the janitor! No not the one that pulled a gun on the team last time, a new one!
As everyone cheered and celebrated, Director Leon Vance stood on top off the staircase and looked down at his agents wondering how on earth he had managed to get so lucky.
Claire Voyant 