Trauma Queen: A NCIS Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty Six

Body number three stared up at me from the black tar of the parking lot. She was young, probably no older than twenty two, and had her wrists cut down the vein. I crouched down and looked at the left side of her neck; the letter "A" was carved hastily near the center. I took a photo of it up close before proceeding to take some of the marks on her arms. To me, they looked like defensive wounds.

I sighed as I walked back to the car. Three murders in less than two months that were all seemingly related.; it seemed that we had a serial killer on our hands. Just as I was sliding into the driver's seat, Tim came over to me.

"You all right?" He asked, worry clear on his face.

I shrugged. "It just sucks, you know? Seeing all these girls who are so young die like this? It's just so sad. What kind of monster could do this?"

Tim put a hand on my shoulder. "I know. The faster we catch this guy, the faster he stops hurting people."

I nodded. "That's true."

We hopped in the car and drove back to headquarters with all the evidence to give Abby. So far, the evidence we'd collected on these cases were not even close to helping. There were no finger prints, no hair or clothing fibers, nothing. It was making Abby increasingly frustrated and she hadn't been herself in a few days.

When we got in the elevator to go to Abby's lab, I rested my head on Tim's shoulder and he wrapped an arm around my waist before kissing my temple. I closed my eyes and sunk into him; he always knew just how to help me relax. 

As soon as the elevator doors slid open, I heard the familiar sounds of heavy metal music. I hoped that Abby was feeling a little better today. When I walked inside, I saw her looking through some spectroscopic data and had crime scene photos across her table. There were also five Caff-Pow cups strewn across the room.

"Abby?" I said. She didn't turn away from her work. "Abby!" I yelled.

She turned around and immediately jumped up. "Sorry!" She turned off her music. "Do you have anything for me?" 

I saw dark circles under her eyes and the whites of her eyes were completely bloodshot. She looked like she hadn't slept in a week. "Yeah, we have some new photos and evidence. Are you okay?" I asked as I placed the evidence carefully on her table.

She nodded. "I'm fine. Well, no, not really. But, I'll be okay!" 

"How much Caff-Pow have you had today?" Tim asked nervously.

"Not enough." She signed off on the evidence and began sifting through it. 

"Do you want any help?" I offered. I knew she needed to rest and I hoped that if she let me help, she could do just that.

She shook her head slowly. "No, thanks. I'm all good. Thank you though. You're too sweet." She wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed me into her body. I laughed as I hugged her back.

"Let me know if you need anything okay? And please get some rest," I said, letting go of her and walking back towards the elevator. 

"I'm worried about her," Tim said to me once the elevator doors closed.

"Me too. Should we tell Gibbs?" I asked. If anyone could get through to her, it would be Gibbs.

"Definitely."

As we walked back to our desks, I made sure to mention to Gibbs that he should go talk to Abby at some point today. He nodded in understanding and went back to his work. I sat down behind my computer and rubbed my eyes. It was time to figure out who was going on this murderous rampage.

I began sifting through digital copies of the crime scene photos, searching for any lead I could find. All the girls were young. They all had a letter carved into their necks. They all were beautiful, but that was arbitrary. The M.O. was exactly the same for all three murders. 

After twenty minutes of no new ideas coming to the surface, I decided to grab some paper and a pen to write down my ideas. Sometimes seeing everything written down helped. I divided the page into two columns, known and unknown. 

Known                                                                            Unknown

All women                                                                      Gender of killer

All young                                                                         Knife type used

Wrists cut down the vein                                          Relation between victims

Left handed 

N, I, A carved, respectively

All blonde hair and brown eyes

I stared at my last point in the "known" column. All of the girls were blonde with brown eyes, a rare combination. If the killer was a man, then he might have been trying to kill people who looked like an ex-lover or a family member. It was likely then that he had done some sort of violent act before, but that was only an assumption. 

Just as I was about to stand, Gibbs' cell phone rang. Within a few seconds, we were all grabbing our gear and heading to the scene of a fourth body. The drive over was silent and I could feel the tension in the air. We hadn't had two deaths in one day before this; at least not since I had joined the team. Gibbs sped through the streets and didn't take a single turn with his foot on the break. 

It wasn't even five seconds after we arrived on scene that we all scurried out of the car. I took out my camera as we made our way to the body and sighed when I looked at her. Blonde hair and brown eyes. Wrists cut vertically. I knelt down on her left and saw an "M" cut into her neck, similar to the others. Looking at the carving more closely, I noticed that the blood wasn't completely dry. 

"Gibbs," I yelled. "The blood on her neck isn't dry. The killer could still be around here somewhere."

Gibbs snapped his head to look at me. "Dinozzo. David. Start searching for evidence East of here. McGee. Cahn. Go West."

Tim and I ran off to the right and scanned the ground for any sort of footprints or blood. My heart pounded in my chest at the idea of coming into contact with the killer. I knew I wouldn't be able to shoot them, not after the last time. 

"Naomi, look at this," Tim said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I saw him stopped and kneeling on ground about ten feet behind me. I walked over to him, my hands shaking, and knelt beside him. On the ground was a cell phone, covered in blood. I felt a chill go down my spine. "Could it be the killer's?"

"Quite possibly." He took out an evidence bag and I took a few pictures of it before he put it inside. "Let's keep going."

I nodded and followed him through the woods again, scanning the ground more vigorously. Along the way, I found a shoe print that was fairly large and looked like some sort of boot. I took a few pictures at varying angles before we headed back to Gibbs. When he saw us with an evidence bag, he jogged over and immediately started asking questions that neither of us really had answers to. After this discovery, I knew we would have a very long night ahead of us.

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A/N: Sorry this chapter is kind or boring. I felt like I just had to get something out this week before finals hit me. I'm going to try to finish this story in five or so chapters, but I have ideas for a sequel for it! Also, if you're a fan of Marvel, you should check out the first chapter of my Tony Stark fic, Affinity!