Gibbs looked across at his team and its newest member. Angelina Vendazzo, Dazzle to her friends (and Tony) had joined NCIS â€" and Gibbs' team - from DC's local law enforcement several months ago, after Caitlyn Todd's murder, and was settling in and fitting in with equal ease.

Gibbs' contentment with Kate's replacement was growing by the day. Tony tormented her, McGee looked up to her, Abby loved her, and Leroy Jethro Gibbs himself looked at her with pride and a certain sense of fondness. 'Certainly not your typical federal agent' he thought, inwardly smiling as Tony baited her and she refused outright to tell him where her latest tattoo was.

Dyed black hair, dark gothic makeup â€" which she'd assured him was toned down for work! - and a tattoo creeping from under her sleeves and neckline â€" she was something else, she really was.

Laughing at DiNozzo's wild guesses, she was still smiling as she picked up her ringing phone with a cheerful, 'NCIS, Agent Vendazzo'. Seconds later, the smile froze and drained away, taking away every last drop of colour from her face with it. The loudness emanating from the phone's speaker, along with the sheer, naked terror trying to invade her impassive expression, had Gibbs on his feet and moving in mere moments.

Dazzle slammed the phone at the desk, missing the cradle entirely the first couple of times, sending paper, pencils, keyboard, files and reports flying wildly to the floor. Eventually the smashing yielded silence, simply because the phone had given up and died.

Gibbs was in front of her now, amid the debris still raining around Dazzle's desk, and his quiet 'Vendazzo!' grabbed her instant attention. However, he didn't expect her reaction.

She paled even further, if that was possible, and burst into wild, desperate flurries of what he assumed was Italian, shielding her face with her arms and practically cowering.

Tony, who had also snapped his head up at Gibbs' voice, shot to his feet, and a whispered, 'Oh, Christ...' reached his boss' ears. Shifting his attention to his second in command, he said impatiently, 'What is it, DiNozzo?!'

'Boss...' Tony's voice was urgent and low. 'You might wanna back up, like, quickly. Like, right about now?'

For once, Gibbs took the advice. Backing up to his desk, he grabbed his phone and called Ducky. 'Duck? Emergency. Bring your sedatives, too. Bullpen'. Hanging up in his usual abrupt manner, he turned his attention back to the scene in front of him.

Tony was kneeling by Vendazzo â€" out of arm's reach, his Marine instincts noted â€" murmering softly in Italian, a reassuring tone to his voice. Vendazzo appeared to be having quiet hysterics.

Distracted by Ducky's arrival in the bullpen, he looked over as the older M.E. quietly assessed the situation, then sighed and pulled a loaded syringe from his medical bag. Approaching Dazzle's desk, he murmered quietly, 'Now, Angelina my dear, don't be alarmed, this is simply a sedative to calm you a little, as you appear significantly distressed...'


With Dazzle sleeping off a major sedative dose in Ducky's morgue, Gibbs refocussed and rapped out, 'DiNozzo! With me'. Ensconced in his usual favourite conference room, as always, heedless of the need of others for the elevator, he enquired, 'So exactly what the hell was that about?'

Tony didn't â€" wouldn't â€" meet that steely blue gaze.

'Couldn't really say, Boss...' he mumbled. Gibbs' demand for him to spill was loud and strident.

'I know you know something, DiNozzo. Now damned well tell me!'

Tony's claim that he knew nothing gave way to one of it not being his place to tell, and a pleading request to ask Ducky instead, before stuttering into silence. Eventually he raised his eyes to Gibbs' face, and said, 'You're not going to be happy, Boss.'

What Tony had been able to pick out of the babbled, hysterical Italian Dazzle had been spouting was pretty simple. Ugly, but as a LEO and a federal agent, something he'd seen many times before. Angelina Vendazzo appeared to be a victim of paedophilia, incest, child abuse and rape at the hands of her father.

Gibbs' face had gone from cool to full-blown Ice Age by the time Tony finished describing what he'd concluded from Vendazzo's panicked dialogue. No-one in the world â€" or for that matter, out of it â€" was going to hurt one of Leroy Jethro Gibbs' people and get away with it. Not a chance.

Gibbs stormed out of the elevator and into Abby's lab, and the Goth forensicist felt the tension in the room rise abruptly as she absorbed his expression. Her favourite silver fox was more than angry â€" he was livid with rage and someone would pay for it.

Tony followed him into the lab, closing the door behind him. Spotting the remote, he muted the music, and then looked warily at Gibbs.

'Bossman?' Abby's voice was hesitant and her usual cheery disposition had temporarily vanished.

'Abs, I need to know who just called Vendazzo's phone, and I need everything you can tell me about her family and personal history, and I need it yesterday.' Gibbs' voice was icy, but his expression softened a little looking at Abby's confusion. 'Abby! Trust me, you don't want to know why until you have to, okay?'

'Okay, Gibbs. I'm on it!' With that, she whirled, restarted the music, and a flying cloud of pigtails and labcoat headed for her computers.

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In the morgue, Dazzle was waking up. Under Ducky's careful scrutiny for the last half hour, she'd slept away the effects of the sedative and was waking far sooner than expected.

'Adrenaline will do that, I suppose...' the M.E. mused, before moving to her side and speaking to her.

'Angelina, my girl, it's time to wake up. How are you feeling?'

Hearing his voice, her eyes snapped open and showed a momentary disorientation before she sat up and stretched. 'Hey, Ducky, what am I doing down here?'

'Ah,' said Ducky, momentarily at a loss. He was saved by Gibbs' entrance into the morgue, and an impatient cry of 'Duck?!'.

'I will be back momentarily, my dear. Just stay here and take your time waking up.' With that, he vanished from his office into Autopsy.

'She's just now waking, Jethro,' he told the former Marine as he entered the morgue to find Gibbs pacing impatiently. 'Unfortunately, she does not appear to recollect the incident that occurred earlier and led to her presence here. However, as I was called to treat her when she became distressed, I feel I am entitled to the whole story.'

Gibbs glanced at Tony, before sighing and pushing himself up to sit on an autopsy table. He explained the incident in the bullpen â€" the phone call, Dazzle's extreme reaction to it, and the hysterical outburst in her native tongue. 'DiNozzo tells me that what he gathered from that is that it was her father on the phone and there's ... a history of abuse there.'

'What exactly did she say, Anthony?' asked the doctor.

Tony shifted uncomfortably, and then seated himself on the other end of the table Gibbs was currently occupying. 'It's not exactly palatable, Duck,' he warned.

'I understand, Anthony. This isn't prurient curiosity, but a desire to assist with Angelina's well being, both mental and physical.'

'Okay, then...' Tony sighed. 'She was kind of hard to make out â€" she started sobbing when Gibbs called her name â€" and my Italian isn't what it used to be, but... she was saying, 'daddy, don't, it hurts, don't touch me, I don't like it' and then something I didn't quite catch, and then she started saying...' Tony took a deep breath and gripped the edge of the table so hard his knuckles went white. 'She said, 'daddy, don't put it in me, it hurts so much, please don't...' and then she was just sobbing her heart out until you got there, Ducky. I tried talking to her, English and Italian, but it was like she didn't even hear me.'

Ducky's face had gone white, and a whispered, 'Dear God...' fell from his lips. Collecting himself somewhat, he locked eyes with Gibbs and said softly, 'Jethro...'.

Gibbs' reply was equally soft. 'He'll pay, Ducky. Oh, will he pay'.