"Mitjo"

Chapter Four: DJ Turn it Up
14x22: BeastMaster

*Trigger warning*

Isana was always in a happy go lucky mood, no matter what day it was, it was rare if she wasnt humming or singing to tunes when she walked in the bullpen, this morning may have been the first time everyone saw Isana come in with an attitude, she humphs over to her desk scrubbing at a stain on her paints. One shoe in her hand.

"And sexual harassment." Torres was handing his file to Mcgee as Isana humphs down in her chair.

"Sexual harassment training, really? Did you even learn anything?" Quinn mutters as Mcgee looks at Isana who is focused on the stain on her pants, she lets out a sniffle and Mcgee is now studying her.

"If you make a pass, never harass."

"That is not a thing." Mcgee mutters not taking his eyes off his desk buddy.

"Did you even take the class?"

" Please.I taught the class." Nick smirks.

"Oh, right. Yeah."

"No, he actually got up in front of the room.The instructor lost her voice and asked for volunteers."

"Was she hot?" Quinn asks as Nick raises his brows with a playful smirk. "Case closed."

"All right, we are almost done with these in-service training reports."

"Almost?"

" Uh, we just did six classes in three days." Bishop speaks up.

"I'll have my files for you in a second Timothy." Isana's voice was cold which now caused everyone to look at her, she had managed to come in with a flawless look on her face. No one could  tell she had been crying like a infant, or that her mascara was running down her face in a big wet heps, snot was bubbling from her nose. No she looked the perfect stature or perfection.

"Yeah, because our senior field agent screwed the pooch." Quinn continues trying to regain the focus away from Isana you could tell she didn't want to talk about it.

"Look, I'm sorry; human resources used to keep track of all the scheduling.It's not my fault that they changed the system and made it my responsibility."

"So, we're pretty much saving your job." Torres quipps.

"Well, the point is, we're getting caught up."

"And?" Bishop asks as Mcgee gets up from his chair.

" And we won't have to face any penalties."

"And?" Torres speaks up.

"And thank you for saving my job. Seriously. But"

" Nope. No buts." Nick mutters.

"We still have to do the O-CAT."

Everyone groans, even Isana.

"What is that, like, animal safety?"

" No, it's pepper spray training.Every couple years, we all have to get recertified.Yeah, which includes getting sprayed." Bishop explains.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'll go easy on you guys."

"Oh, no, no."

" No, this is your fault."

"No, you don't get to spray on us." Everyone was speaking at the same time.

"Who else is gonna do it?"

" You want help?" Gibbs asked Santering in.

" Uh, we're okay."

"No way."

"What?" everyone speaks all at once again.

"Suit yourself. Grab your gear."

"We got a body?" Mcgee asks.

" In Rock Creek Park." Gibbs answers before stopping by Isana's desk he sighs and helps her get her boot back on before she grabs her backpack and stands up following him out the door.

//

Mcgee, Quinn and Bishop were looking over the body and taking notes while Isana, Gibbs and Torres were talking with the night patrol officer and her horse Jasper.

" If there was a fight, Jasper heard it first. That's the only reason I stopped to listen.We trust each other's instincts." Gibbs was patting Jasper while Isana was admiring the horse. Animals had a liking to her, they always liked her and she always liked them.

"Does that include finding dead bodies?"

"For everything. Trust makes mounted police work possible.They're flight animals.

They run when they're scared." Dawson the officer says.

"How does that work in the big city?"

" Well, it doesn't." Gibbs responds

"Right.We train them to follow their riders.It could take years.But a mounted officer can do more than ten on foot.From crowd control to P.R.people are more willing to approach someone on a horse."

"How does the horse feel about that?" Torres speaks up

" Well, they're social animals." Dawson Chuckles at Jasper who is nudging Isana's hand for a pet. She ignores him and he nudges into her side. Before doing the same to Gibbs.

" Damn, Gibbs. Seems like opposites attract, huh?"

Dawson chuckles. "You bring treats, Agent Gibbs?"

" What's in your pocket?" Torres nods towards his pocket

" Just leftover breakfast, but it's not vegetarian, Jasper. I am sorry about that." Gibbs pulls out a bag of Jerky.

" Thanks, Dawson." Isana speaks as her and Jasper leave.

"Well, now we know that horses don't like jacket jerky." Nick speaks up as Gibbs opens the bag handing a piece to Torres, he turns to Isana offering her a piece and she shakes her no before pulling the two men back as another horse comes barreling towards them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa."

"It's okay. Jody only attacks criminals." The officer on the horse explains.

"Yeah, I always knew the ladies always loved the bad boys."

"A, you're not as cute as you think you are and B, Jody's male." Isana speaks up as the officer smiles bashfully and nods.

"He's named after one of our fallen park police officers." The officer pats Jody lovingly

Torress bends down looking under the horse.

"What are you doing, checking?" Gibbs mutters as he laughs.

"No, I'm just not a horse person, okay?"

"That's all right. They're not horses. They're cops." the patrolman smiles before he and Jody leave. The trio met up with the others.

"Okay, what do we have?"

" Well, there's footprints around the body." Quinn explains.

"Untraceable, but it shows there was two attackers."

" Found a cell phone case, but no phone, and $500 cash in the victim's wallet."

"Mugging interrupted by Mister Ed?" Torres jokes.

" Well, it was late and the park was closed."

"Exactly, so what was our Marine doing here in the first place?" Bishop quipps with a shrug.

" Agent Gibbs, over here!" Dawson yells for him; he turns to look at her before turning back to his team.

" Let's widen the search area." he says as everyone walks off in the opposite direction minus he and Mcgee they walk over to Dawson.

Everyone split up into groups of two Torres and Isana with Quinn and Bishop, after working with this team for almost eight months she had learned to like everyone, Gibbs was his usual self just like before. Bishop was sweet, she found out she was gay and had been on a few dates with a lovely lady. Quinn was just sassy and didn't care, she lived with her mom so dating was a little tricky, Mcgee was the same old Timothy just mature and practically married almost.

She kept in touch with a lot of Emails from Tony, then there was Nick or Nicky as she liked to call him, they still had this love hate relationship, but only sometimes did they actually truthfully hate each other, it was rare if they were nice to each other but it was also rare if they were mean, it was more of an over  protectiveness especially on Nick's part, he only let Isana or Ana call him Nicky, anyone else would get scolded or shot. Potentially both.

She only let Nick call her Ana because no one else really wanted to; it was their thing and no one wanted to feel his wrath. Nick had her contact photo as the one from her computer with her Motijo, who she  loved dearly, that dog was her everything, he was her first pet, given to her by her father.

"So you okay? Haven't talked all morning."

"I just had an accident. I am okay now Nicky."

"You dont seem okay?"

"Would you just let it go please? I don't want to be made fun of for it, not for this, not today." she was practically crying as Nick stopped in his tracks.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He soothes her as she takes a breath reeling back all the tears.

"Its Mitjo, he likes to go for stroll in my neighborhood everyone knows him, he doesn't attack unless commanded by me, he's the friendliest, gentlest thing ever, today I was hunting for him to bring him back inside before work, neighborhood kids found him, clingy to life,he had been shot with so many pellets from a pellet gun.  I loaded him up in my car took him to the vet, I lost one of my shoes in the process, had to get my back up pair from my trunk. I called Leo hysterical, he just told me to take my time coming in, and before you say, it's just a dog, that dog has been through every single painful thing I dealt with in my life and I can't live without him, I refuse.." she was on the verge of breaking down again as Nick just hugs her which was new he never hugged her or anyone for that matter. But there was something about Isana Pachelecki that was different that everyone else

//

"The lesser spot-nosed monkey, native to West African forests." Bishop pulls up a photo of the Monkey on the screen.

Nick laughs "Now, that's a cute animal."

"They were the source of the skulls found at the crime scene." She winces at the sad look on Nick's face.

"Not so cute."

"Our victim, Gunnery Sergeant Tanner, was single and had a spotless record. He was part of Marine Corps Forces Africa. Just spent three months in Liberia, where his unit was sent to train wildlife rangers."

" I've heard of that. U.S. Marines teach non-lethal raid tactics-- flash-bangs, rubber bullets." Isana speaks up.

"Apprehending poachers is a dangerous business."

"Well, these monkeys aren't endangered, but they're part of the illegal animal trade and sold as pets."

"Not dead ones. Why the skulls?" Nick asks.

" Maybe they're a message."

"Revenge for Marine involvement in Africa?"

" Well, that still doesn't explain why the guy was in the park with a wallet full of cash." Nick grimaces before speaking again. "Maybe the skulls were his."

"What? Why?"

"Skulls are valuable. There's an entire American subculture obsessed with bone collecting." Mcgee explains.

"How do you know that?"

" He dated Abby." Gibbs walks in.

"Ah."

"I'm not saying the guy killed the monkeys himself, but maybe he brought home some souvenirs to sell. And then things went bad." Nick continues.

"Phone records night of the murder."

"Uh, victim's missing cell phone has since been turned off or destroyed, but the last three calls were from the same person: Phoebe Spitz."

"Pick her up."

"Well, Abby says Miss Spitz is already on her way in." Mcgee continues as everyone furrows their brows.

"Abby?"

"Yeah, apparently, she and Miss Spitz are friends; they spoke this morning."

"About what, skulls?" Gibbs mutters walking off.

" I have no idea, boss. Abby said she'll explain later."

"Tim, got your message and picked up those pepper sprays. I'll have everybody sprayed and done by the week's end." Clayton speaks up as Isana rolls her eyes as the smirk on his face.

"You're a lifesaver, Clayton. Thank you."

"Wait. What's happening?"

//

"Look All I'm saying is I don't trust Reeves to spray me with anything let alone Pepper Spray so why don't we spray each other. Then we can kill two birds with one stone and not give Timmy the satisfaction." Isana closes the door to the car Her Gibbs and Nick had arrived at Horse training center where officer Dawson had just dropped off Jasper.

"I will let you spray me in the face. I trust you..." Nick says with a shrug as Isana smiles.

"Really?"

"More than Reeves Yeah?" He smiles at her genuinely and she looks bewildered but smiles anyways. This was a newer side of Nick and she didn't know if she should embrace it or ignore it probably the second seeing as he wouldn't show this side often or in front of the others.

"Bishop and McGee went to the victim's apartment. All they found was his laptop." Isana reads the text from her phone tucking it away. They walk towards Dawson seeing Jasper and another horse kicking two giant balls.

"I'm assuming this only makes sense to horse people?"

" Police horses have to train. Pushing the ball teaches them to push a crowd, and the banging gets them used to city sounds."

"You off duty?" Gibbs asks Dawson.

" Yeah, but I usually stick around to help train the horses. And I heard you wanted to talk about recent park activity."

"Yeah, crime patterns. Anything new? Unusual?"

" Like animal trafficking?" Dawson asks as Gibbs nods.

" It's looking that way."

"Disgusting. Can't say we find a lot of tusks and furs laying around, but I would gladly sift through crime reports if it helps catch them."

"Yeah, great." Gibbs says simply nodding.

"Horses are not dogs, man."

"You don't miss a thing." Dawson smirks.

"No, I'm saying, cats and dogs I understand, but anything bigger than a person, I mean, it's just not a pet."

"That's right. They're livestock, Nicky." Isana speaks up as Dawson's radio bleeps.

"This is Officer Cole. Hold me out at Bingham Road and Fern Trail. Suspicious activity. One suspect is in custody."

"That's near your crime scene." she presses a button on the side of her radio. "Backup en route." before looking at everyone else again. "You drive, I'll point the way." She says as everyone runs towards the car, they pile into the car Isana and Torres in the back seat, their knees touch and she moves her leg back slightly feeling the electricity travel up through her body. She bites her lip feeling the sudden rush of Heat rake over her body before shaking her head calming her racing heart, they arrive at the scene piling out.

"Cole, copy."

"Um, I think they left." a voice calls from a nearby bush they run over seeing a man handcuffed to the bench.

"Who the hell are you?" Nick asks.

" Under arrest, I think. One minute this officer busts me for smoking a joint, the next he handcuffs me to this bench and takes off on his horse."

"Why?"

" I'm pretty sure they were chasing someone, but I am kind of high." the guy shrugs as gunshots are heard off the distance everyone draws their guns.

"Shots fired, shots fired." Dawson says into her radio running off.

"Stay here with him." Gibbs says to Isana and Nick who nod.

//

"I appreciate the update. Okay. Officer Cole is at Washington General with two chest wounds.

Doctors have their hands full." Nick puts his phone back on the receiver while talking to the two women who walked in with tears in their eyes.

"Any word on the horse?"

" Yeah, he's being treated at the stable. I don't understand how you guys are so emotional over a horse." He smiles a bit walking over to the pair who are wiping their eyes and noses.

"A,I grew up on a farm and horses are beautiful animals."

"And B, these tears are the end of pepper spray.Boom" the two chuckle as he nods.

"Oh so Like Ana and Mitjo...Wait, you guys let Reeves do it?"

"Hell no." Quinn speaks up.

"I was merely a witness to a whole new universe of foul language." Reeves pops up from his desk in the back.

"Oh, yeah. Quinn has a potty mouth."

" No, it was Ellie who raised the bar to Olympic heights."

"Ah. Even I blushed."

"Well, I know six languages. It's easy to get creative." Bishop mutters as Quinn laughs. "What happened to Izzie and Mitjo?" she nods to Nick whose face turns a bit stunned like he spilled a secret he wasn't supposed to tell.

"You know something? Is that why she was sad this morning?"

Before he could speak, Reeves walked over. "The international desk keeps getting calls from the Liberian embassy. The ambassador wants to meet with Director Vance."

"Uh, what for?"

" They haven't given me a reason. Just keep telling me it's urgent." he walks away up the stairs towards Vance's office.

"Huh. Well, what happened at the park?"

" Well, Gibbs is talking to the only guy who might be able to tell us something." Nick walks over to his desk. As Quinn sits down at her own.

"What Happened with Mitjo?" Bishop asks again as Nick looks around.

"Ana found him shot, with what looked like a pellet gun or something and had to rush him to the Vet, she has been on the phone for a few hours trying to figure out what to do for him. It's bad, they said they don't know if he will make it."

"Aww poor Mitjo,"

"Poor Izzie I Mean I can't imagine that happening to my cat, I would lose my mind." Quinn says as Everyone nods, truth be told Nick already had a plan to cheer Ana up if things went south.

//

It was the lovely time, the time for Isana and Nick to spray each other in the face. Nick was trying his hardest to be gentle even volunteering to go first Clayton had to be witness, and after Isana sprayed Nick in the eyes and they waited the allotted time before pouring milk over his face, it was now her turn, she wasn't scared, she just had been having a hard week, with everything going on with her boogie she wanted to be under all her blankets crying.

She had tried to hold it together for now it was touch and go and Mitjo was on his second surgery, the pepper spray didn't sting as much as her heart did or her tears. She was so hurt and in so much pain nothing else seemed to matter. He patted her eyes quickly after pouring the milk in it, her hazel eyes meeting his brown ones, his were more knitted, concentrated, trying to inspect her for any pain, both hands pressed to the side of her face, he was over protective of her, she was his partner after all and he needed to protect her, every inch.

"I'm okay Nicky."

He simple nods leading her back inside by the small of her back, they did it. Few hours into  the morning, so no one could question what they were doing, Isana was applying her makeup, she came into work barefaced, Nick could easily tell she had been crying over Mitjo, probably all night barely slept, she was covering all that up, all the puffiness and bags with makeup leaving her flawless and beautiful, not that she wasn't before.

Officer Cole succumbed to his wounds at the Hospital leaving behind a very depressed horse, Jody isnt eating and if he  didn't eat soon he  would die, the only other person that Gibbs had seen nurse a horse from depression besides his daughter was Isana who was basically his child, she had always been an animal lover, always taking time to get them to trust her and love her but also to get them to trust themselves and love themselves.

She was depressed herself, they found out that the monkey skulls were used for making something called Bushmeat, and then they found more animals in a cabin that were cooked like the monkeys. All the meat came from a small village in Liberia the problem was there was an outbreak of Ebola virus happening in Liberia while the batch of bushmeat they had were not contaminated the next batch would be and it was up to them to stop them.

"Still raises a lot of questions."

" And we got answers. And maracas." Torres shakes the maracas as Abby takes them from his hands.

"Ah! They had them at the pawn shop."

" Oh, you owe me $10." Nick sasses to Abby as Isana pulls out her wallet giving him ten bucks. "Oh, Abby will explain." he mumbles to Gibbs who had his usual pointed look.

"Oh, I gave, uh, my maracas to a friend of mine."

"No, uh, explain the other thing." Isana speaks up as she nods.

"Right. So, I finally tracked down the parking stub from the Marine's car to a parking garage by a pawn shop downtown."

"Here." Torres hands her the drive from the camera they took from the parking garage.

"We checked it out.Tanner pawned a guitar the night he died. Deposit for a new apartment."

"Explains the cash in his wallet."

"Also explains how he found Nelson. Got security footage from the parking garage.Can you fast forward to 9:47 p.m. please?" Isana asks as Abby nods.

"Yep. And there's our stoner. And Gunnery Sergeant Tanner walked right by him."

"Yeah, he bumped into him in the parking lot. Purely by chance." Nick says.

"He recognized him."

"Probably from the same photo you did, Gibbs." Isana speaks up.

" Also, Tanner's been studying those poacher files for at least three months."

"He must have followed Nelson all the way to the park." Abby explains.

"Where is he now?"

" No permanent address. He does live in a tiny mobile house." Abby continues.

"What about his accomplice?"

" The guy who shot Officer Cole and the horse does not show up on the video." Torres says as Gibbs sighs..

"But I might have a lead, and straight from the horse's mouth. Someone had to say it."

//

"Heads up, gang. We got a truck."

The Ncis unit found themselves at a busy market trying to catch their bad guys, it was too open which was making Nick nervous. Isana just wanted to break some ribs because well no animals should be mistreated.

"McGee, you three have the street."

"It's a busy place."

" Not ideal for a takedown." Bishop mutters from Next to Nick, Isana was getting ready, whether she liked it or not she was gonna have to chase someone.

"Wait on my signal."

"Bishop, Torres, move. Izzie lets go. "

Gibbs bangs on the back of the truck, announcing their presence as Isana was already in the truck, she moves from behind a box pushing one guy out onto the street the other was trying to fight her and she simply shoves him head butting him as he goes down she tosses him out of the back too, before hopping down seeing them being cuffed.

"I think she dislocated my shoulder." one guy whines as Gibbs looks at Isana.

"Sounds like she needs a raise." he says simply as she scowls at men.

//

"Now, that's just, um that's just beautiful. Park police said he was born this morning and that they named him after fallen officer Cole.'' The team were looking at photos of the baby horse that was born this morning.

"Mm. Cole the foal."

"Just." Nick rubs his eyes.

"Who's crying over a horse now?"

" Oh, come on. It's pepper spray, come on."

"Nick, that was five hours ago." Clayton comments as everyone laughs.

"Nick. Got great news."

"What's up, Tim?" Nick turns to look at him eyes still red.

"Um You know what, never mind."

"Come on, tell me. What's up?" Nick smiles his best grin.

"Okay, um It's a, it's kind of a funny story, really. The, uh, the OCAT training.I just came from HR. Turns out they, uh, they mixed up the dates. We're not due until next year."

"We didn't have to get sprayed?" Nick asks as everyone's jaws on the floor.

" Oops."

"Oops?" Isana mutters.

"Okay, Reeves, hand it over." Quinn says as Reeves stands up and reaches over the barricade, he retrieves four bottles of pepper spray.

"I'm sorry, Tim, but I am an independent party." He hands each person a bottle.

"What? What are you doing? No. Oh, come on. That's funny. Very funny, very funny."

"Any last words before we take this outside?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, come on. This-this is not my fault." Mcgee whines as everyone shoves him outside he gets sprayed in the face four times before Isana goes to the stables with Gibbs, he convinced her to leave Mitjo's side that he had someone watching over him, which he did. A certain partner by the name of Nick was watching over Mitjo.

She had managed to get Jody standing; it took her all night when Jody started eating but then she had fallen asleep in the stables, her head in Gibb's lap while he munched on a carrot.

"Well, what do you know? Good to have you back, pal. What changed, huh?" Dawson looks in the stable seeing GIbbs and Isana. " Gibbs, you've been here all night? What did you do?"

" What?"

" He's eating.Tell me what you did. I could get you a coffee or an aspirin. That's a mighty hard floor." she laughs as Gibbs patts Isana waking her up she squints one eye the other open seeing a blurry image of Dawson.

"Morning Dawson." She chirps, stretching Gibbs helps her up and she walks over to Jody. "Well look at that someone was hungry. He just needed a buddy." she smiles at Dawson. "Gibbs was here for me cause I needed a buddy."

"Well, you know, Jody could also use a ride, if you're up for it." She says as Gibbs looks to Isana/

"What do you think?" he asks Jody who neighs. He laughs. " Okay."

"I will leave you two to it, I am going to check on my friend." Isana collects her coat from the floor. "It was nice seeing you again Dawson," she nods " Jody." with that she slings her coat over her shoulder and leaves.

When she gets to the vet they explain how stable Mitjo is they managed to get all the pellets out of him and that he would be okay, and that her boyfriend had been here with him all night, she was confused at that statement when they walked her to the room where they were holding Mitjo there on the couch as an asleep Nick Torres, she just smiles and snaps a photo sending it to the girls group chat. That Nick Torres was something else and she was starting to hate him less and less.

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