This takes place shortly after EJ Barrett and her team arrived from Rota, Spain. This fictional story contains a description of not too graphic violence, some mild profanity and a mention of sex. Rated T just in case. While this is primarily a NCIS story, it will become a crossover in the fourth or fifth or sixth? chapter. It kind of depends on how I break them up.
Disclaimer: The normal one. Somebody else owns everything and I'm not getting anything.
NCIS ~ ~ NCIS ~ ~ ~ NCIS ~ ~ ~ ~ NCIS~~~~~NCIS
"We have lots of lovely paperwork all afternoon, Ziva. Don't be late." Tony loved to tease the female member of the team and smiled broadly as without a word she turned abruptly and sauntered off to go people watching along M Street on her way back to work.
Ducky bit on the last bit of sandwich in his hand, absently shaking his head a little at the other agent's antics. Tony had spent the last 10 minutes belittling his fellow team members, something he so enjoyed doing, and downing his big lunch at the same time. Nobody could argue that the man didn't have a good appetite and while he was heavier than in his college days, he did manage to keep himself in pretty good shape.
The ME just wished that DiNozzo wouldn't speak with his mouth full, but if Kate couldn't ever break of him of the habit then he was sure Timothy and Ziva would not be successful either. As for he himself saying something, well, he knew which battles to fight and which ones to leave alone.
Ducky watched DiNozzo for a few seconds, noticing not for the first time the way the man hid his own troubles. Not many knew about the verbal altercation DiNozzo had had with the Director or how he'd fled to the gym to work off his anger, but Ducky knew because he'd treated the man's scuffed knuckles and wounded ego. Vance hadn't been happy with his budding relationship with Special Agent EJ Barrett, but neither Ducky nor Tony knew exactly why it was such a problem. Yea, he'd broken rule #12, but it was a Gibbs rule and not a DiNozzo rule and they were not on the same team so it didn't apply anyway, not really. So in a nutshell they weren't on the same team, they were both unmarried adults and they'd not missed a single day of work.
One thing Tony hadn't done was ask Vance how he knew about the relationship. It wasn't that he didn't want to know because he did. In fact he suspected the man had audio and video surveillance everywhere. Informants and secret spies too. Ducky though suspected Vance's attitude had to do with Tony's job performance and his desire to head a team of his own. Not that he hadn't had a chance to do just that, but he ended up turning down the Rota assignment that EJ eventually accepted. In doing that Tony forfeited his chance, at least for a while.
The team at the Navy Yard had been his for over four months and he'd done very well. Sure there had been some missteps and a few rocky moments with Ziva and McGee, but they'd made it through. He's made it through. He'd closed some cases and they'd all testified in court and all had been right with the world. Okay, not great, but right didn't have to be great. Right could be okay. Right could be that everyone left for the weekend satisfied that they'd done a good job and put a few bad guys behind bars. Then Ziva got in trouble and he started doubting things. Ziva doubted things. McGee doubted things. Abby doubted things. Maybe everything wasn't right with the world. In fact nothing had been right after that.
Oh yea, he'd been surprised when Gibbs not only came back, but that Jenny Shepard had let him come back and the bottom line was that he harbored unresolved resentment toward both Jenny and Gibbs, even all this time after Jenny's death. And yea, he did and always would feel a little guilty about that.
But back to when Jenny was still alive. Offered the Rota job, he'd considered and dismissed the idea thinking that Gibbs would never be 100%, would have to retire again and then the position would be his... again. But no, Gibbs was as good as ever, better in some ways and both McGee and Ziva had been thrilled to have him back. Ecstatic even. Another slap in Tony's face and he hadn't exactly regretted turning down Rota, but after Jenny was killed he did have doubts about his place in the NCIS world of Leon Vance. And only knowing that Gibbs would have to give up his field position when he turned 55 had kept Tony from requesting a transfer to someplace else.
Then EJ had shown up and Tony got a little bit of delight from her antics with Gibbs and Vance giving her the lead position in the hunt for the port-to-port killer. And to top it off she was attractive and attracted to him and Tony had not hesitated to bed her. Did he do it because he was attracted to her too? Did he do it to get back at Gibbs? Did he do it because he knew Vance would be pissed? Did he do it because in the back of his mind he hoped it would somehow tarnish her career? She was younger than him. She was a team leader. She was heading up a major investigation. And even though she had stood up to Gibbs, had she shown her best judgment when she had slept with him? Did he want to knock her off her game and then Vance would see that she wasn't so great and he could be a team leader in parallel to Gibbs, McGee and Ziva? No, Tony never thought that far ahead.
As for good judgment, Vance didn't think DiNozzo had shown any, but as far as Tony knew the director hadn't confronted EJ, only him. He called his judgment into question and brought up many of the questionable decisions Tony had made over the years and there were plenty. He reminded Vance that he'd taken over the team in the absence of Gibbs and had then been offered his own team, the Rota team. Vance told him that as long as he was Director that it would be a cold day in hell before Tony would get a team of his own or an undercover assignment. Tony had stormed out to lick his wounds, going first to the gym and then to visit Ducky where he'd spilled his guts.
Later in the week while EJ slept, Tony had ground his fist into the sheet covered mattress and thought about how to get around Vance since he couldn't go through him. The man and Gibbs weren't on the best of terms though over the years they had had their moments, but Tony wasn't on the best of terms with Gibbs either at the moment in time and he still resented him coming back from Mexico. It was something that he knew would be with him always and he just tried every day to keep it from interfering with his job. The SecNav was not only their boss, but he and Vance were friends so going directly to him wouldn't work and Tony could only hope that sometime in the near future either Vance or the SecNav would move on to a different position. Or retire and be gone for good. At least then he'd have a new person to approach about a team leader position or a solo assignment or another undercover gig, hopefully with a beautiful woman.
EJ had stirred in her sleep at that moment and Tony had spooned behind her pushing all other thoughts and feelings out of his mind. Sex was a good temporary substitute for almost everything that ever ailed Tony DiNozzo. When he couldn't have sex food helped too.
End of part 1
Thank you for reading.
