Maya grinned, “Yay, you sorted stuff out with Ziva.”
Tony nodded, “Yup, and things were looking up with Megan too, because when I arrived home that night I decided I needed to take our relationship to the next step.”
“Marriage?”
“No, not quite that far, yet…
Tony cautiously knocked on Megan’s door. His talk with Ziva had made him realise how much the women in his life meant to him so he decided to show Megan just how much he cared about her.
She answered the door in the light blue satin pyjamas he had brought her, and her fluffy yellow robe, “Hey, I didn’t think you were coming over tonight.”
“I can go if you want me to,” he teased starting to walk away.
She grabbed his arm and pulled him into a passionate kiss, “Does it look like I want to be alone tonight?”
“Hmm…” He replied as he kissed her back, “Maybe.”
She laughed and pulled him inside.
“I got you something,” he said making her grin as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a bunch of CDs. “Frank Sinatra, Linda Ronstadt,” he listed as he showed them to her.
“What are these? Why are you showing them to me?” She asked him curiously.
“A whole bunch of these,” he continued. “Well if you look on the back they all have one common song which is-”
She looked at the back of one of them, “I’ve got a crush on you.”
He grinned. “Every one of them, now go on open the Frank Sinatra case, you need to check if the CD is actually in there, because you know Abby came round the other night and you know how she likes to mess up my stuff.”
She glanced at him with a glint of apprehension in her blue eyes before opening the case. Inside he had taped a key.
Megan gasped, “Is this what I think it is?”
“A key to my apartment.”
She leapt up and wrapped her arms around him, “Oh my god Tony, thank you so much.”
He laughed, “Well I figured since you’re spending so much time there anyway it’s about time you had your own key. I debated waiting until I took you out to dinner next week and putting it in your champagne glass, but I’m not sure how hygienic that would be.”
She grinned and kissed him again, pulling him towards the bedroom.
* * *
Tony took the next day off, telling Gibbs by email that he was sick when in reality he spent the day in his apartment with Megan. They watched all his favourite movies and for the first time since he and Sasha broke up he felt… content. Megan was all he wanted and needed. She understood his movie references, laughed at his jokes and took him for him. She didn't seem to want to change him. Of course she didn't like his co-workers, (well just one co-worker in particular), but you couldn't have everything in a relationship. Tony found that as long as he didn't mention work around her, Megan was happy.
* * *
Tony woke up bright and early the next morning to the smell of bacon, eggs, and coffee drifting down the hall into his room.
He quickly sat up and pulled on his pyjama pants before he made his way into the kitchen where he found Megan serving up breakfast.
“Wait a minute!” Maya exclaimed, “Why weren't you wearing any pants?”
“Huh?”
“Why did you have to put your pyjama pants on when you woke up?” Maya asked.
“Because I wasn't wearing them,” Tony explained.
“Why?” Maya repeated.
Tony gulped, “Well I shared the bed with Megan when she stayed over because we got cold but then I got hot so I took my pants off.”
Maya raised her eyebrows.
Tony looked away, “So anyway after I got up that morning I went into the kitchen to find Megan making breakfast…”
Megan was standing over the stove when he walked into the kitchen. He went quietly over to her and wrapped his arms around her.
She grinned, “You seem to be in a good mood.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I have the most beautiful woman making me breakfast and coffee.”
“Which idea do you like more, the fact that I’m here, or that I’m making you breakfast and coffee?”
“Hmm… you know, that’s a hard one …can I get back to you on that?” He joked as he took a seat at the table.
“Did you want breakfast?” Megan replied holding the plate just out of his reach.
He put on the saddest puppy dog eyes he could, and when that didn’t work he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto his knees. Now he had breakfast, and a beautiful woman in front of him.
She laughed, grabbed a forkful of food, and fed it to him. They took turns feeding each other until the plate was empty. After that they continued to kiss and make out.
“Can we start every morning like this?” Tony asked when they finally parted.
“Maybe,” Megan replied, “If you’re lucky.” She paused to look at her watch, “But that’s it for now because if I don’t leave I’m gonna be late for work.” She started to get up but Tony pulled her back and glanced at her watch. He quickly kissed her before standing up, almost making her fall over before he caught her in his arms.
“Have a good day at work,” he said before he rushed out the door, realising he was late. He made a quick call to McGee to let him know he was on his way, who told him to meet them at an old warehouse, which they suspected was being used as an automotive chop shop.
* * *
By the time Tony arrived at the automotive chop shop the team had turned it into a crime scene. As it turned out the car wasn’t the only thing they had been chopping, because when Ziva opened the smaller cooler in the shop she found something she definitely wasn’t expecting… a severed head.
Maya gasped, “A severed head?! You mean, like, a head… just a head… without a body?”
Tony gulped. He forgot the gruesome details of this case. Sure Maya saw more things them other kids her age would see, but it was always worse when it was in a story, because then her imagination could run wild.
Maya seemed to sense his concern because she snuggled closer to him, “Don’t worry Dad I can handle it. It just shocked me, that’s all.”
Tony nodded, “Okay kiddo, but let me know if you want me to stop.”
Maya shook her head, “I’m okay, really. Anyway what was everyone else’s reaction to the head? I bet it was kind of a shock?”
“Yeah it was,” Tony replied, “But the one who seemed the most affected by it was Ziva.”
As Tony helped McGee and Ziva process the scene, he noticed Ziva wasn’t her usual self. She seemed quieter and was staring down at the head.
“First severed head?” Tony asked her, “Mine was a motorcycle accident in Baltimore. I thought I was just picking up a helmet.”
Ziva shock her head, “Trust me; it’s far worse when you know the person.”
Tony felt his mouth drop, “You knew someone who was beheaded?”
Ziva nodded, “A friend. He infiltrated a Hamas cell in Ramallah. They sent his head overnight express.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t…” Tony quickly apologized.
“That’s when I decided that I’d… I’d never be captured alive,” Ziva explained, before walking away to take more photographs, like she was supposed to be.
Tony turned to where Ducky and Jimmy had just arrived, and while Gibbs and McGee showed Ducky where they had found their latest… victim. Jimmy was struggling to get the stretcher out of the ME Van.
Tony watched as Jimmy finally managed to get the stretcher out of the van, before he walked over to where he was standing with a satisfied look on his face, and informed him he wouldn't need the stretcher as there weren't enough body parts.
Maya laughed, “It’s good to know that even in the most gruesome cases you had a sense of humour.”
“Well sometimes you need it to help you get through the day, with those kinds of cases. That, and a great girlfriend helps too.”
“I bet. But how do you keep in touch with that great girlfriend during the day when you’re working a case?”
“Well I called her constantly during my lunch breaks, but there was another way to keep in touch without Gibbs even suspecting anything.”
Maya raised her eyebrows, “Do tell.”
* * *
Tony grinned as he read Megan’s latest email not even noticing the figure reading over his shoulder.
From: RyanM
To: DiNozzoA
Subject: RE: Hi
Hello Troublesome T
Oh, my day has been long and boring. Nothing compared to this morning, we will have to do that again, but next time we can do it the other way round so I get breakfast made for me for once. Or you could do one better by coming and rescuing me. I just finished a consultation with that lieutenant you brought in last week who was accused of drug smuggling. He flirted with me the entire hour and even when I told him I was with someone he continued to hit on me. Now I’ve just got off the phone with his girlfriend who told me to back off. The guy’s not even that attractive! Please tell me you’re having as bad a day as I am.
Love Megan xxx ooo
“Who is ‘Troublesome T’?” A voice behind him asked.
Tony turned to find, (not that it surprised him), Ziva leaning over his shoulder reading the email. “Do you mind? I’m trying to read my email here,” he snapped at her.
“Not at all,” she replied, “May I call you ‘Troublesome T’?”
“Only Megan and I call him that,” Gibbs told her as he walked into the bullpen, coffee cup in hand.
Tony winced, “Didn’t think you were going to say anything about that, Boss.”
Gibbs ignored him and changed the subject, “Who owns the car with the head in the trunk?”
Tony shrugged. “We don’t know yet.”
Gibbs glared at him. “You’re readying your email and you don’t know yet?”
Tony quickly found what he’d been working on before he’d emailed Megan and showed it to his boss. “We traced the VIN to a Mercedes dealership in Riverdale, which sold it two weeks ago. The registration’s temporary and hasn’t been processed by the DMV.”
“We called the dealership. They don’t open for another twenty five minutes.” Ziva added walking back over to her desk.
“The car’s registered to an Epsilon Corporation.” McGee added as he entered the bullpen. “I just found it; I had to hack into the DMV’s processing computer.”
“Is that legal?” Tony asked.
“I doubt it.” Ziva replied.
“I wonder what the penalty is.”
“Less than reading your emails on my time, Troublesome T.” Gibbs pointed out.
Tony gulped then turned back to McGee who was bringing up his finding on the plasma. “Corporate address is in care of Sean Oliver, Attorney at Law. Two two five Sheraton Street.”
Ziva grabbed a pen and paper. “Phone number, McGee.”
“When they answer the phone, what are you going to say, Officer David? Hey, we found your car. Anybody at Epsilon missing a head?” Gibbs pointed out before turning to Tony. “Tony, take Ziva with you. Go.”
“I thought you said you had a plan so not even Uncle Gibbs would find out you were emailing Megan during work time.” Maya pointed out.
“I didn’t say the plan worked.” Tony pointed out. “But for once I didn’t get myself slapped.”
“Yeah that is weird. Anyway so what happened when you and Ziva, your ever faithful partner went to Epsilon?”
Well…you see that even though I was dating a lawyer I had very low opinions of lawyers. Don’t ask why, I blame Gibbs.”
* * *
“I hate lawyers.” Tony complained as they waited in reception at the attorney Sean Olivier’s office.
Ziva looked at him curiously. “Isn’t Megan a lawyer?”
“Megan’s different.” Tony pointed out.
Ziva raised her eyebrows. “How?”
“She works for JAG, she’s on our side, and she even got me out of jail.” Tony listed.
“How do you know this man hasn’t helped people like yourself out of similar situations? Or that Megan hasn’t helped people that aren’t worth helping?”
“Megan’s not like that.” Tony defended.
“How can you be certain?”
Before Tony could reply the receptionist interrupted by letting them know it was okay for them to go in now.
The entered the office to see a beautiful brunette woman sitting behind Sean Oliver’s desk. Tony looked around confused why would Mr Oliver not meet them himself and didn’t the receptionist say he was ready to see them?
He glanced at Ziva who shrugged looking as confused as he was. The woman walked over to meet them.
She held up and hand. “Sean Oliver, what can I do for NCIS today?”
Tony tried to hide his shock as he shook her hand. “I’m Special Agent DiNozzo. This is my partner Officer Ziva David.”
“We recovered a stolen Mercedes registered at Epsilon Corporation at this address.” Ziva explained.
“Well they are one of our many clients. I’m sure they will appreciate finding their car” Sean replied.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that.” Tony said. “The car may have been involved in some criminal activity prior to the theft, Ms Oliver. We’ll need to speak to your client about this.”
Sean folded her arms. “First define criminal activity.”
“We’re not prepared to disclose that kind of information right now.” Ziva told her.
“Then I’m sorry I can’t help you.” She replied. Tony rolled his eyes but Ziva stared at the woman.
“Why is that?” She asked.
“Attorney client privilege.” Tony explained.
Sean nodded. “It prevents me from divulging any information without my client’s permission. I’m ethically bound to protect their rights.”
Ziva raised her eyebrows. “Even if they may have committed a crime?”
“If you believe that, you would have come here with a search warrant.” Sean replied coolly.
“Oh, we didn’t think it was necessary.” Tony explained.
“So I’ll assume you’ll try to get one now?” Sean asked.
Tony nodded as they turned towards the door.
“Great. Then I look forward to seeing you both again.” Sean said as she shut the door behind them.
“Megan would never have done that.” Tony told Ziva.
Ziva raised her eyebrows. “Sure.”
“Wow sounds like talking to Sean Oliver was a big waste of time. And you’re right Megan is nothing like Sean.”
Tony nodded. “You see why I hate lawyers. Luckily I got Megan to pull some strings and we returned 24 hours later with a warrant and Sean had all the files ready and processed. But as we were going through the files we realized Sean had had time to cleanse them before she got them ready for us. We came up with another address for storage for Epsilon and went to investigate…”
* * *
“It doesn’t look like anybody’s here.” Tony said as he knocked on the door to the second storage facility that Epsilon had.
“All right, what do we do?” McGee asked nervously.
“We have a warrant.” Tony pointed out.
Ziva nodded but McGee hesitated.
“Uh, no. Not really.”
“What is your problem, Probie?” Tony asked him.
“Well, the warrant only covers Epsilon’s files.” McGee pointed out.
Tony pointed to a window on the second floor. “Can you see inside that window?”
McGee shook his head.
“So for all you know, there could be files in there, yes?” Ziva asked catching onto Tony’s plan.
“Technically, yes. But we could be obfuscating the warrant.” McGee told them.
“You know what that means?” Tony asked Ziva.
Ziva shook her head. “No, not at all.”
“Good. Neither do I. Pick the lock.” Tony ordered her and she immediately obeyed much to McGee's dismay. They walked through and saw it was sparse, but there were machines in there and the team wondered what they were used for. They opened up a freezer in the back and discovered it was full of human body parts.
Maya gasped. “A whole place full of human body parts…Why? Why would someone do that?”
Tony hugged her close. “I really don’t know kiddo I really don’t know but Abby discovered that one of the sets of remains found in the storage freezer belonged to the missing Martin Roussad. When you’re Uncle Gibbs asked Sean Oliver about it she admitted that Commander Ross had supplied the body parts and then Uncle Ducky tricked the Commander into coming and helping him identify the parts we found and once he was in autopsy we burst in and arrested him.
“So once again you got the bad guys.” Maya said impressed.
Tony nodded “Then I got to go home to my beautiful girlfriend who was waiting for me.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
While discovering an illegal automotive chop shop, the NCIS team stumbles upon a severed head of a Marine, hidden in one of the cars from the shop. When they find possible suspects, the team will have to find the rest of the body and find the murderer.