Repast

Tony blearily opened his eyes, blindly reaching for the phone so as to shut off the infernal racket it was making. Blinking at the clock, it read 1am. Grabbing the phone, he answered groggily. “Yeah.”

“Mhm. Mhm.” He mumbled. “Be right there. 10 minutes tops.”

Dragging himself out of bed and throwing on his clothes not bothering to pay any attention just grabbing the closest thing to hand. It wasn’t until he arrived at the crime scene that he looked down at himself and realized he’d grabbed a neon green shirt that he only wore clubbing never to the office and a pair of tight black skinny jeans that he usually wore on dates.

Blushing lightly and telling himself to get over it before anyone noticed, he climbed out of the car and trotted over to McGee. “What do we got, Probie?”

“Family found dead around the dinner table. Very little sign of struggle. Likely staged.”

“Alright begin taking photos. I’ll sketch while we wait for Ducky to show up. Have Ziva bag and tag when she shows up. Keep Gibbs away from any LEOs no matter what.”

First Ziva showed up, moving to her task with ease. Then Gibbs who nodded approvingly at the progress they were making. Finally, Ducky and Jimmy arrived the van making a terrible screeching noise as it approached the curb.

Cringing, Tony yelled. “Do you need to use the brakes that hard, Jimmy? They’re not designed to be hit with an anvil.”

Ignoring Tony’s comment, Ducky headed into the house and approached the crime scene. “They appear to have died while enjoying their evening repast or been staged to look that way. It reminds me of this one time a new widow brought her husband in complaining that he’d fallen asleep at the table and wouldn’t wake up. ”

Sighing, Gibbs cut in. “The bodies, Ducky.”

“Hm. Oh what?” Ducky muttered under his breath deep in thought.

“Our case. Did they actually die while eating their repast? What can you tell me?” Jethro asked impatiently.

“Well I won’t know for sure until I get them back to the lab, but initial look appears to indicate they ate dinner around 7pm and did not leave the table afterwards. Probably time of death is between 7pm and 10pm.” Ducky stated matter of factly.

Tony grumbled under his breath. Why couldn’t this have been called in at 10pm instead of 1am. At least he would have still been awake then instead of looking forward to a number of sleepless nights ahead of him.