I stumble out of the passenger seat of the car, trying not to trip over the dry leaves sprawled across the ground.

"That is the last time I'm ever letting you drive." I shoot a glare in Kate's direction.

Since Kate's photo ID hasn't been issued, I show mine and get the two of us into the crime scene.

"God. Is this for real?" She sees the body that has literally impaled an SUV, splattering his blood almost everywhere.

"Unfortunately, my dear, it is." Ducky stands perched on a tall ladder as he checks on the injuries of our dead Marine Corporal. "Welcome to your first crime scene with us, Caitlin, Evaline."

"The new girls." Tony chuckles amusingly.

"What about Air Force One?" Kate brings up the events from two weeks ago.

Ducky shakes his head. "Doesn't count. You were in the Secret Service, and you were a private investigator." I slip on the pair of gloves Gibbs hands me. "Hey, Tony, take a team photo for posterity."

"Forget posterity. The sun's going to be up soon." Gibbs cuts in. "Welcome to NCIS." He holds open a shoebox with a pair of working boots.

"How'd you know my size?" Kate lifts one of them up.

"Put 'em on." Gibbs adjusts an NCIS hat on my head. "Can't work a field in high heels."

"Try me."

To help Ducky examine the body, I venture into the vehicle with my legs still dangling outside. Of course, I should have realized my mistake sooner.

A flash goes off behind me, and I snap around to see Tony with the camera in his hand.

He nods his head in approval. "In that outfit, you could definitely be the NCIS poster girl."

By the time morning comes, the four of us are on a Navy base camp. Specifically the one our dead corporal trained in.

After talking with the troop's commanding officer, Gibbs starts handing out orders "Tony, Evaline, shoot and sketch. Especially the static lines." We stand behind the aircraft. "Kate and I will start the interrogations."

Tony goes in first, holding out his hand to help me in.

But I step in myself.

"Jumping's gotta be so cool." He gushes in awe and admiration.

I take out the camera. "It is."

"You've seriously jumped?" His brows practically touch his forehead.

"Like it's hard."

Back in headquarters, we split up so that Kate and Gibbs go down to Autopsy and Tony and I stick around with Abby.

"Woah." Since getting recruited by NCIS, this is my first time down in the forensics lab. "I totally vibe with the paintings." I look around the room. "Chagall with a touch of Manson family."

Abby, the team's forensics scientist, squints at the painting, her head tilted to the side in thought. "That's the most perfect way to describe it."

"Got the tox screen results yet?" Tony interrupts our art session.

"Yup. Right over her." She leads to her desk. "The victim tested positive for Percocet and Vicodin. Double your pleasure, double your fun." The monitor mounted on the wall provides a microscopic view of the blood cells.

I try to understand the numbers on display. "What percent are we looking at?"

"Point-one-seven. He was slow-juiced like a koala bear." Weird comparison, but alright. "My guess is that he popped right before he dropped." She makes a guess.

"The Marines in his string probably knew." Tony suggests.

I toss around a rubber band ball. "Have you checked out the reserve chute yet?"

"Yeah, it was perfect. All he had to do was pop it."

"Reflexes were probably slowed down because of the opioids in his system." I balance the ball on the top of my hand before throwing it up in the air again.

"Opioids?"

My nose scrunches up at his confusion. "Are you sure you were a cop before this?"

"What I don't get is that when you jump, you pump adrenaline." Tony points out. "And if your main chute doesn't open, it would really kick into high gear." He crosses his arms over his chest.

Rounding the corner, I stop in front of Tony. "How come he didn't use his reflexes if he had them?" I question.

He pauses for a moment, stumped at my immediate response. "I. . .don't know." I smirk in victory, although it just means we're confused about another aspect of the case. "Moving on to the shroud lines of his main chute."

"Right." The three of us walk through the sliding doors and further into the lab. "I've got fiber disintegration. But not from textile fatigue." She flashes the blue light over the worn out strings. "It's fluorescing as some sort of cleansing agent, but that didn't cause this kind of damage."

I look closer at the pieces. "Looks like it's been melted." I mention.

"I haven't tagged it yet," Abby witches off the light, "but it was definitely an acid that shredded the lines holding three hundred pounds of jumping Marine."

"How long to find the acid and check the rest of those chutes?" Tony asks.

"Well, I'm flying solo today, so at least a day." She shrugs slightly.

Tony sneaks a glance in my direction. "Would it go faster if you had an assistant?"

"Oh, definitely."

"Looks like you've got a job to do." Without another word, he walks out of the lab.

"Sucks for him because I have always wanted to try out forensics." I slip on the extra white lab coat as well as a pair of glasses.

We get straight to work. Gibbs sends Kate down to join us, so it's just the three of us in a lab full of chemicals.

Once we get a piece off the fried ends of a line, Abby mixes it into a solution before projecting a defined microscopic image.

"Carl Sagan time."

The computer beeps rapidly as she tests the unknown substance.

"Sulfuric acid!" We finally get an answer. "That would chew the shine off a trailer hitch."

Once the guys come back, we give them our verdict on the damaged chutes.

"Why didn't you take to me this fast?" Even through the lack of light, the hurt expression on Tony's face is clear as day.

"You're like a piercing, Tony. It takes a while for the throbbing to stop and the skin to grow back."

After stating our theory of the saboteur's DNA left behind on the nine chutes, Gibbs brings in Lieutenant Bud Roberts, a lawyer from JAG.

"Did you. . .is that a new chair?" Tony slowly rises from his desk, closely examining my new leather desk chair.

I nod my head. "Mm-hmm. Just a little gift from the President on my transfer." To brag just a bit, I spin around in the chair.

"That can't be the one with the. . .massagers." He quiets down when I hold up a remote. Specifically, the remote that controls the massage settings.

"Want a go at it?" I cock a suggestive brow.

"R-Really?" He stammers out, surprised at my kid offer.

To prove that I'm being serious, I get out of the chair myself and step out of the way, letting him sit in the chair.

Once he does sit down, however, I press a special button on the remote.

"Aye!" Tony jumps out of the chair, his hands on his butt. As soon as he recovers from the little mishap, he turns around. "Well played, Evaline. Well played."

That afternoon, Tony signs up for his first — and probably only — jumping class. Kate, Gibbs, and I standby to watch.

"How was that?" Tony stands up.

The three of us make our way towards him. "Very ladylike."

"As graceful as a swan."

Afterwards, we check each of the four corporals' lockers. I'm in charge of Sergeant Fuentes' locker, and the other three split.

"Got something." Kate pulls out a cardboard box full of shaving equipment.

One by one, she picks out each item and sets it aside.

"Brass-stripper solvent." Gibbs holds up one of the containers. He attempts to read the contents, but the writing is too small.

He just hands it off to Tony, who confirms one of the main substances to be sulfuric acid.

Kate heaves a sigh. "Ramsey's locker."

Gibbs orders for the Corporal to arrest him and read him his right before taking him back to interrogation in NCIS.

"What if Ramsey was set up?" Gibbs brings up another side to the situation. "What if. . .what if he's innocent? What if he's telling the truth?"

Tony looks up from his report. "Well, we'll know in 24 hours after Abby gets the results from the DNA test, but I wouldn't bet on it."

"Yeah, well, I don't like sitting on my ass, waiting for a DNA match." He grabs his coat.

"If Ramsey really is innocent, that leaves us with two possible suspects. We've got Corporal Dafelmair and Brinkman." Kate slips on her gun holster.

"Don't forget about Captain Faul." I correct her. "He's got a key to the paraloft." Thankfully, my bag's all packed and ready to go.

"Where do you think you're going, bubba? You've got a report to finish."

The talk with Captain Faul goes by smoothly, but it goes nowhere seeing as he had an alibi for the day of the chute sabotage.

Apparently, before getting the chutes into evidence, someone switched out the real reserve. And the secondary chute had been soldered into place.

Unlucky number thirteen.

Luckily, Dafelmair confesses to the crime before he has to go down with a damaged chute.

On another note, Tony got to jump for the first time.

"Here." I hold out an ice pack. "You could have died tonight, you know." Tony chuckles but takes the pack.

"Yeah, so?" His eyes shut, the cold pressing into his aching skin.

I shut off my computer and grab my bag. "Goodnight, Tony."