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attackfishDisclaimer: If I owned Avatar or NCIS, I would be in my bunk for all eternity.
Summary: When one of their own is suspected of murdering a Navy lieutenant, the NCIS team rushes to find the truth and clear Zuko's name.
Author's Note: I wrote this for the ATLAland crossover challenge, but I'm pretty sure that's defunct now. Warnings for silliness.
Fire and Brimstone
“What do we have, Duck?” Pakku asked, and Iroh made a face as Sokka’s camera flashed right in Mai’s eyes and she grabbed it out of his hands.
“Hey!”
“You don’t get this back until you stop-” she snapped, and Iroh cleared his throat.
“It’s hard to say, really, as she’s still...” with one hand, he prodded the Lieutenant’s shoulder, lifting it up to show the smoke, “Smoldering.”
“No kidding,” Toph gagged, voice squeaky from pinching her nose. Next to her, Mai fanned the smell away from her face with her NCIS hat.
“Smells like my gran-gran’s roasted whale-moose.”
At that, Iroh’s assistant lost his breakfast all over their crime scene.
“As I was saying, I’ll know more once we get her back to the lab. Do try to be more careful nephew, and it wouldn’t kill you to add something a bit more wholesome to your diet.”
Zuko ignored him and grumbled as he slid the body of the bench and onto the gurney. “Wait,” he said, catching sight of the unburned side of her face, “I know her, last night we-”
Iroh saw his nephew gagging again and quickly spun him around, away from the body. “Well, Lieutenant Jin,” he remarked to the body, “I’m sorry we have to meet again under these circumstances.”
~*~
“What’ve you got?”
“The last call on her phone was to Senator Long Feng. Now her records show she was stationed out of Ba Sing Se for year before she was transferred here, and she volunteered on his opponent’s campaign, but other than that, there doesn’t seem to be a connection.”
“Zuko says he walked to her cab around eleven.”
Pakku rolled his eyes. “Can’t you nail down the time any better?”
Mai just looked at him. “It’s Zuko.”
“Then did you at least ask Turtleducky if he was telling the truth?”
“He just got his own apartment last week. Iroh has no idea when he came home.”
“Toph?”
“Nothing!” she shouted into the phone from her desk, “I’m getting bounced around Long Feng’s office by a bunch of interns! No, Damn it, that’s NCIS, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, yes it’s a real agency! Look, I just want to talk to the senator!”
“That’s some coincidence, don’t you think?” Sokka said, putting his feet up on his desk, “I mean about the new apartment.”
Mai glared at him and fingered her shuriken. “If he were going to use it to set fire to pretty young Lieutenants, I don’t think he’d have told us all he was getting one.”
“Plus he wouldn’t have puked all over our crime scene,” Toph added, playing with the phone chord. “No, don’t you dare put me on... hold. Just wait, when you get back on the phone, miss I’m-just-an-intern Joo Dee, I’ll drop a boulder... No, I’ll drop a mountain on your head.”
“You can’t earthbend through a phone line.”
“Watch me.”
“Watch this.” Sokka grabbed the phone and whistled tunelessly until Joo Dee picked back up. “Listen, my sister’s a lawyer over at the JAG office, and if you keep jerking us around, I’m going to call her up, and she’ll drop a subpoena on your boss so fast his head’ll spin, and I bet he wouldn’t be very happy with you then, would he? Oh, Hello Senator.”
Pakku’s face went white and he quickly jerked the phone out of his hand.
“Can you really do that?” Mai whispered while their boss talked.
“Uh, I don’t think so?”
“Well then, aren’t you going to call your sister up and ask her?”
“Um, Katara’s a med student.”
Pakku’s hand stung when it hit the back of his head. “Mai, Sokka, canvas the neighborhood. Toph, track down that cab.”
~*~
Which was how Mai found herself staring at a nondescript door in a grungy apartment building. “What is it?”
“This is Zuko’s place,” she said hoarsely, “I just finished helping him move in.”
“He lives a block from the crime scene?” Sokka yelped.
~*~
“She asked me if I wanted to make a little money on the side, and I said sure,” the airbender patted his skybison. “So she told me to show up at six. Anyway, the whole time, she was on the phone saying things like ‘you know exactly what I’m talking about,’ and ‘unless you want the whole world to know...’ and when we got to the building, she told me to come back in an hour, and when she didn’t show up, I waited for a while and left. Look, I’ve told you everything I know, can I go now?”
“So you left her at the same building you picked her up from.” Toph ignored the last.
“That’s what I said.”
“Aww, damn.” The Air Nomad stared at her, scandalized.
~*~
Hamma shot a sidelong glance at her subordinate. “You have a woman, with a Firebending boyfriend, murdered by a Firebender, ritually laid out with said boyfriend’s semen inside her, found a block from his apartment, after a witness says he dropped her off there. Why haven’t you arrested him yet?”
Pakku glared. “Because it’s not him.”
“And what are you basing that on?”
“My gut! I know the kid!”
“Arrest him.”
~*~
Ty Lee frowned, her lip jutting out, arms around her friend. “It doesn’t look good, Mai, there’s no accelerant, no nothing, this was done by a Firebender.”
Mai pushed her off. “Rerun everything. You’re wrong.
“Hey, I didn’t say it was Zuko!” Ty Lee defended, grabbing her hand.
“Well he’s the one sitting in a cell right now!”
~*~
The secretary waved them into the senator’s office and Toph flopped down into one of the chairs, propping her feet up on the desk. Pakku didn’t bother to wince, but the senator did. “Just before she died, Lieutenant Jin was on the phone with you, and according to witnesses, saying some... suspiciously threatening things,” her boss started.
The senator bristled. “What are you implying?”
“Nothing really,” Toph grinned. “Just that we want to know what it was about.”
“She must have been talking to one of my interns.” Long Feng’s eyes didn’t leave the road dirt and mud settling onto the polished surface of his desk. “Besides, I was under the impression you already had your murderer.”
Pakku rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands. “Really?” he snarled, leaning in, “from what we heard, it sounded like she was talking to you, and her family seems to think she had proof you were funneling money that should have gone to payments to disabled soldiers, including her little brother, into your own pocket!”
“We saw it,” Toph said without irony. “It’s good.”
“If you had any real evidence, I’d already be under arrest.” Pakku just smiled.
~*~
“Your uncle told me to ask you if you were alright.”
Zuko scowled at her from the shadows. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s worried about you.”
“Yeah, well he sh-”
Mai tried to force her face into some sort of expression and failed. “ And I think you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about?” his unscarred eye bulged. “I’m locked up here, and the team thinks I killed... And Jin’s dead...” All of a sudden, he stopped shouting and the air spilled out of his chest. “Jin’s dead.”
Mai’s eyes were slits in her face. “The team does not think you killed her, and we’re going to get you out of here.”
Zuko tipped his head down so she couldn’t see his face in the gloom. “Easy for you to say.”
“Sokka wanted me to give you this,” she whispered, and he reached forward, her hands brushing his as she passed him the harmonica through the bars. “Thought it was funny.”
~*~
Ty Lee burst into the team office, braid pounding her pink clad shoulders. “I found phosphorus! I found phosphorus! The fire was set with a match!” The other NCIS teams whirled around to stare at her, but she didn’t notice.
“That’s great,” Sokka said, trying to get her to stop crushing his ribs.
“And I found rock fragments in the cuts on her neck!” She seized Mai. “She was killed by an Earthbender, it couldn’t have been Zuko!”
Pakku grabbed the phone.
~*~
“You can’t just burst in here!” the youngish senator with the glasses cried. “This is a meeting of the Senate Ethics Committee! We’re being broadcast live on CSPAN!”
“Then we’ll have a whole bunch of witnesses who can confirm we did this properly,” Mai deadpanned.
Sokka turned to the camera. “Oh, hi, policy wonks!”
“You almost got a member of my team charged with murder!” Pakku roared at Long Feng. “I don’t really care who’s filming this!”
“Um, boss, Zuko’s not actually part of the team, he’s Turtleducky’s assistant-” Mai elbowed Sokka hard in the ribs.
“He’s part of the team,” Toph bent the metal cuffs extra tight.
Summary: When one of their own is suspected of murdering a Navy lieutenant, the NCIS team rushes to find the truth and clear Zuko's name.
Author's Note: I wrote this for the ATLAland crossover challenge, but I'm pretty sure that's defunct now. Warnings for silliness.
Fire and Brimstone
“What do we have, Duck?” Pakku asked, and Iroh made a face as Sokka’s camera flashed right in Mai’s eyes and she grabbed it out of his hands.
“Hey!”
“You don’t get this back until you stop-” she snapped, and Iroh cleared his throat.
“It’s hard to say, really, as she’s still...” with one hand, he prodded the Lieutenant’s shoulder, lifting it up to show the smoke, “Smoldering.”
“No kidding,” Toph gagged, voice squeaky from pinching her nose. Next to her, Mai fanned the smell away from her face with her NCIS hat.
“Smells like my gran-gran’s roasted whale-moose.”
At that, Iroh’s assistant lost his breakfast all over their crime scene.
“As I was saying, I’ll know more once we get her back to the lab. Do try to be more careful nephew, and it wouldn’t kill you to add something a bit more wholesome to your diet.”
Zuko ignored him and grumbled as he slid the body of the bench and onto the gurney. “Wait,” he said, catching sight of the unburned side of her face, “I know her, last night we-”
Iroh saw his nephew gagging again and quickly spun him around, away from the body. “Well, Lieutenant Jin,” he remarked to the body, “I’m sorry we have to meet again under these circumstances.”
~*~
“What’ve you got?”
“The last call on her phone was to Senator Long Feng. Now her records show she was stationed out of Ba Sing Se for year before she was transferred here, and she volunteered on his opponent’s campaign, but other than that, there doesn’t seem to be a connection.”
“Zuko says he walked to her cab around eleven.”
Pakku rolled his eyes. “Can’t you nail down the time any better?”
Mai just looked at him. “It’s Zuko.”
“Then did you at least ask Turtleducky if he was telling the truth?”
“He just got his own apartment last week. Iroh has no idea when he came home.”
“Toph?”
“Nothing!” she shouted into the phone from her desk, “I’m getting bounced around Long Feng’s office by a bunch of interns! No, Damn it, that’s NCIS, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, yes it’s a real agency! Look, I just want to talk to the senator!”
“That’s some coincidence, don’t you think?” Sokka said, putting his feet up on his desk, “I mean about the new apartment.”
Mai glared at him and fingered her shuriken. “If he were going to use it to set fire to pretty young Lieutenants, I don’t think he’d have told us all he was getting one.”
“Plus he wouldn’t have puked all over our crime scene,” Toph added, playing with the phone chord. “No, don’t you dare put me on... hold. Just wait, when you get back on the phone, miss I’m-just-an-intern Joo Dee, I’ll drop a boulder... No, I’ll drop a mountain on your head.”
“You can’t earthbend through a phone line.”
“Watch me.”
“Watch this.” Sokka grabbed the phone and whistled tunelessly until Joo Dee picked back up. “Listen, my sister’s a lawyer over at the JAG office, and if you keep jerking us around, I’m going to call her up, and she’ll drop a subpoena on your boss so fast his head’ll spin, and I bet he wouldn’t be very happy with you then, would he? Oh, Hello Senator.”
Pakku’s face went white and he quickly jerked the phone out of his hand.
“Can you really do that?” Mai whispered while their boss talked.
“Uh, I don’t think so?”
“Well then, aren’t you going to call your sister up and ask her?”
“Um, Katara’s a med student.”
Pakku’s hand stung when it hit the back of his head. “Mai, Sokka, canvas the neighborhood. Toph, track down that cab.”
~*~
Which was how Mai found herself staring at a nondescript door in a grungy apartment building. “What is it?”
“This is Zuko’s place,” she said hoarsely, “I just finished helping him move in.”
“He lives a block from the crime scene?” Sokka yelped.
~*~
“She asked me if I wanted to make a little money on the side, and I said sure,” the airbender patted his skybison. “So she told me to show up at six. Anyway, the whole time, she was on the phone saying things like ‘you know exactly what I’m talking about,’ and ‘unless you want the whole world to know...’ and when we got to the building, she told me to come back in an hour, and when she didn’t show up, I waited for a while and left. Look, I’ve told you everything I know, can I go now?”
“So you left her at the same building you picked her up from.” Toph ignored the last.
“That’s what I said.”
“Aww, damn.” The Air Nomad stared at her, scandalized.
~*~
Hamma shot a sidelong glance at her subordinate. “You have a woman, with a Firebending boyfriend, murdered by a Firebender, ritually laid out with said boyfriend’s semen inside her, found a block from his apartment, after a witness says he dropped her off there. Why haven’t you arrested him yet?”
Pakku glared. “Because it’s not him.”
“And what are you basing that on?”
“My gut! I know the kid!”
“Arrest him.”
~*~
Ty Lee frowned, her lip jutting out, arms around her friend. “It doesn’t look good, Mai, there’s no accelerant, no nothing, this was done by a Firebender.”
Mai pushed her off. “Rerun everything. You’re wrong.
“Hey, I didn’t say it was Zuko!” Ty Lee defended, grabbing her hand.
“Well he’s the one sitting in a cell right now!”
~*~
The secretary waved them into the senator’s office and Toph flopped down into one of the chairs, propping her feet up on the desk. Pakku didn’t bother to wince, but the senator did. “Just before she died, Lieutenant Jin was on the phone with you, and according to witnesses, saying some... suspiciously threatening things,” her boss started.
The senator bristled. “What are you implying?”
“Nothing really,” Toph grinned. “Just that we want to know what it was about.”
“She must have been talking to one of my interns.” Long Feng’s eyes didn’t leave the road dirt and mud settling onto the polished surface of his desk. “Besides, I was under the impression you already had your murderer.”
Pakku rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands. “Really?” he snarled, leaning in, “from what we heard, it sounded like she was talking to you, and her family seems to think she had proof you were funneling money that should have gone to payments to disabled soldiers, including her little brother, into your own pocket!”
“We saw it,” Toph said without irony. “It’s good.”
“If you had any real evidence, I’d already be under arrest.” Pakku just smiled.
~*~
“Your uncle told me to ask you if you were alright.”
Zuko scowled at her from the shadows. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s worried about you.”
“Yeah, well he sh-”
Mai tried to force her face into some sort of expression and failed. “ And I think you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about?” his unscarred eye bulged. “I’m locked up here, and the team thinks I killed... And Jin’s dead...” All of a sudden, he stopped shouting and the air spilled out of his chest. “Jin’s dead.”
Mai’s eyes were slits in her face. “The team does not think you killed her, and we’re going to get you out of here.”
Zuko tipped his head down so she couldn’t see his face in the gloom. “Easy for you to say.”
“Sokka wanted me to give you this,” she whispered, and he reached forward, her hands brushing his as she passed him the harmonica through the bars. “Thought it was funny.”
~*~
Ty Lee burst into the team office, braid pounding her pink clad shoulders. “I found phosphorus! I found phosphorus! The fire was set with a match!” The other NCIS teams whirled around to stare at her, but she didn’t notice.
“That’s great,” Sokka said, trying to get her to stop crushing his ribs.
“And I found rock fragments in the cuts on her neck!” She seized Mai. “She was killed by an Earthbender, it couldn’t have been Zuko!”
Pakku grabbed the phone.
~*~
“You can’t just burst in here!” the youngish senator with the glasses cried. “This is a meeting of the Senate Ethics Committee! We’re being broadcast live on CSPAN!”
“Then we’ll have a whole bunch of witnesses who can confirm we did this properly,” Mai deadpanned.
Sokka turned to the camera. “Oh, hi, policy wonks!”
“You almost got a member of my team charged with murder!” Pakku roared at Long Feng. “I don’t really care who’s filming this!”
“Um, boss, Zuko’s not actually part of the team, he’s Turtleducky’s assistant-” Mai elbowed Sokka hard in the ribs.
“He’s part of the team,” Toph bent the metal cuffs extra tight.
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Date: 2010-12-19 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 07:50 pm (UTC)