Pretty weak title.. But still I hope you like it :) I'm happy with it.
Before you start reading; I wrote this in November last year, so sorry if there are a few things that aren't current to the show, when I wrote it it was.. The idea struck me on the way back from my science lesson. It was one of those things that made me wonder 'what would happen if...?' and then I wrote. It was fun to write, but may not be in character all of the time, and pretty unrealistic because could the team really pull a prank on Gibbs? And what would happen if they did?
Essentially a team fic but hints at Tiva of course :)
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
When Special Agent L J Gibbs walked into the squad room this morning, he immediately sensed something was off. For starters all his agents had arrived before he had; that never happened. It wasn't rare for Ziva to be at work before him and occasionally McGee, but today they were accompanied by their other co-worker and the senior field agent of the team. Tony DiNozzo, known for late being every day.
He didn't move into view. He stayed in the doorway of the stairs. He looked down at his watch which read 6:30 in the morning. This was strange.
He observed his team again from the distance. Ziva was sitting on Tony's desk next to him. Tony seemed to have a scared-slash-excited and happy look on his face at what ever it was Ziva was sharing. Ziva was wearing a smile the whole time. Then he saw McGee walk over with a happy, congratulatory look on his face.
For the first time he couldn't put his finger on what they were talking about. They had no current case they were working on, and nothing to warrant being excited, scared, or overly happy.
Gibbs chose this moment to make his presence known. Everyone broke apart, going back to their respective desks - no one said a word. Now he was closer he observed each member closer than before.
Tony had his usual goofy grin plastered on his face and looking adoringly at Ziva. McGee was happy and didn't seem to mind the interaction between his co-workers which he would usually find more disturbing. He was acting as if it happened every day. He turned to look at Ziva. She was the most different. He noticed, as her hands were flying at continuous speed over her keyboard, that she was wearing two gold rings around her left ring finger. One held an elegant diamond and the other was a plain gold band. Gibbs recognised these as an engagement and wedding ring.
He looked in slight discreet alarm as he looked at his other agents; Tony first, paying particular attention to his hands. Nothing. But when he studied the rest of his senior agent he noticed a long silver chain hanging from his neck - that looked as if it came loose from under his shirt, which he currently wore with the two top buttons undone and no tie - with a ring identical to the one on Ziva's finger hanging from it.
Ziva looked up and met Tony's adoring gaze and returned it with a soft sweet smile.
"Now?" he asked.
"Now," she replied.
Gibbs watched suspiciously as they both stood from behind their desk and stood in front of Gibbs' desk. Tony wrapped her arm around Ziva's waist and pulled her close to him, "Gibbs, we have something we would like to tell you," Tony stated with a huge smile on his face which was mirrored by a similar smile from Ziva, "We rang everyone else last night when we found out, but you didn't answer your phone. Ducky, Palmer, Breena, their kids, Abby, McGee, and Jessica already know. But we thought it would be better that you hear it from us rather than someone else," He added.
Palmer, Breena and their kids? They weren't married yet, and they didn't have children yet and who the hell is Jessica?
"Tell me what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs said flatly as he tried masking his confusion.
"After multiple months of trying we are - well, Ziva is - pregnant again!" he said excitedly.
"With your baby?" Gibbs said sceptically.
"Yes," Tony said the smile never leaving his face.
"Since when have you been dating?" he questioned.
"Gibbs, we are not dating anymore. We have been married for four years next month. You walked me down the aisle," Ziva said her smile faltering a little.
"'Pregnant again'?" he asked.
"Yes, we have a three year old daughter, Jessica." Tony replied.
"Palmer isn't married yet," he stated matter of factly.
"Yeah he is boss. He has been married for eight years, it's where Tony and Ziva finally admitted they had the hots for each other," McGee explained to their boss, "Granted they were both drunk and they slept together drunk," He felt the need to point out.
"You really love bringing that up don't you McLonely," Tony said.
"What changed over night?" he murmured to himself. He moved his mouse over the time bar on his computer. The date read the 15th of April 2020 Last night when he went to bed he was sure the date was the 31st of March.
"Boss are you okay, you don't look too well," Tony said as he watched his boss' façade crumble with intense confusion. He looked around his desk. There were pictures of a small girl that looked a lot like Ziva, "That your daughter?" he asked.
"Yeah, Jessica DiNozzo," Ziva smiled.
He stood from his desk, "If anyone needs me I'll be down in the Abby's lab," he said. Tony and Ziva exchanged a worried glance.
"Gibbs, um... Abby left to follow a bigger dream of hers. She now runs her own forensics lab," Ziva explained, "She left not long after our wedding,"
"I'm going to see Duck," Gibbs said. He needed to get away from his team. Something was hinky.
"Ducky retired two years ago. And don't bother trying Vance, he stepped down after a whole team was killed in a terrorist attack," Tony said seemingly understanding that his boss was having memory problems.
"I think you should visit the doctor, Gibbs. Your memory is playing up again," Ziva said as she ran a hand down her abdomen.
"My memory is fine," Gibbs replied.
The whole day went by in a haze; Gibbs was trying to work out what happened. His team was always in sync - and today was no different; just that Gibbs wasn't in sync with them. Tony and Ziva married. For four years. One kid, the other on the way. Palmer married with kids. How long did he sleep the previous night that made him skip of his life years?
Despite what his team said he made his way down to Abby's lab and she wasn't there. Some other person was there; the person that just the day before was the person that works around Abby's lab rather than in it.
He visited Ducky too; sure enough Palmer was doing the autopsy, and Ducky was no where to be seen. Gibbs asked him about family life and how marriage was treating him. He got genuine happy replies.
Even Director Vance who would be the one person who that would make Gibbs finally believe he had lost his mind wasn't there.
He never doubted himself, but now he wasn't sure.
When he came back from his coffee run, it was different again. Ziva was clearly pregnant. She was showing off her baby bump that was clear through the top she wore. Tony was knelling on the floor in front of her slouched figure in the desk chair. Rubbing his hand over the bump. Ziva looked tired. Like she could fall asleep at the click of the fingers, and it also looked as if Tony's hand rubbing even, smooth, gentle circles around her swelling belly was lulling her to sleep.
Something was off. Nothing could ever change that quick; he had been gone half an hour.
Gibbs sat at his desk as he did earlier that morning after the momentary panic that crossed his mind when he checked the date again, seeing it had skipped forward at least five months.
He heard the ding of the elevator and heard the scurrying of footsteps. When he looked up he saw Abby. A visitor's pass was pinned to her top, laying eyes of Ziva first.
"Oh, my god, Ziva, you're so big," she gushed. Waking Ziva up and allowing Tony to help her up. Ziva beamed at her friend as she drew her in for a friendly hug.
"Gibbs!" Abby squealed, "I haven't seen you in ages," she said throwing herself at him.
"Yeah, Sure Abs," he said unsure of what to think, "Why did you leave NCIS?" he asked as he returned the hug.
"I have told you this before Gibbs, I wanted to see what else life offered. What else was out there for me. Don't worry. You're still my favourite and I still love you," she said.
Then her straight face cracked and she began to laugh before turning around and addressing the rest of the team, "Sorry, guys I can't do it,"
McGee was the next to break. Then Tony and Ziva joined in as well.
"Would anyone care to share?" Gibbs asked.
"April Fools," Tony, Abby, and McGee said at once.
"We got you good, didn't we?" Abby asked.
Confusion and minute anger was evident on Gibbs' face, "Don't worry Gibbs, I didn't know much about this until last night. I really didn't see the point in fooling someone on a one day, when you could do it any day of the year. Tony said that on the first of April everyone is gullible," Ziva said, misreading Gibbs' face, "Can you help me get this thing off me now?" she asked Tony, turning he back to him. He reached under her loose fitting top and undone the straps holding the pregnancy padding in place and Ziva held it to her it to her while they were talking.
Gibbs wasn't sure what to do, "You're not married, you're not pregnant, and you don't have a kid. Then how the hell did you get photos of a kid that looked like you?" he asked Ziva.
"They are pictures of my sister," Ziva smiled, "Can I please have them back now?" She asked holding out a hand. Gibbs passed her photos back and she returned them to her desk.
"You're not leaving?" Gibbs asked Abby.
"No, and Ducky hasn't retired either," Abby replied, "oh, and Palmer isn't married yet,"
"How did the dates on my computer change?" he then questioned.
"McGee did something, I'm not 100% sure what," Tony said, "Vance is still here too,"
"How the hell did you pull it off?" Gibbs asked silently impressed that his team fooled him although he would never let it show.
"It played in our favour really," McGee said.
"We told Ducky to have the day off; that this would be terminated if we got a case and we would ring him," Tony explained.
"The director?" Gibbs asked.
"Flew out to Israel last night for an emergency meeting with my father over who knows what," Ziva said.
"How do you know that?"
"Cynthia told me. She asked me if he was okay,"
"Abby?" Gibbs said.
"The guy in my lab is the guy who I don't like - the floater who would replace me if I were sick," Abby replied.
"Ziva planned how we would do this. She has been watching your routine for the past few days," McGee said, "Although it wasn't hard to work out what it was,"
Gibbs looked between his four agents before he walked to Tony whacking him on the back of his head, "Don't do that again," Gibbs said. Giving Ziva and McGee one too, "Get back to work, there are cold cases waiting to be solved," Gibbs said began to walk out.
He paused and turned back to his team, "By the way; Right now it's fourteen-hundred, it's bad luck to fool someone after midday," he said as he made the final steps to the elevator an hit the button.
"Oh, on. We're going to be here all year aren't we, he's going to starve us," Tony exaggerated.
"Well it was fun while it last," Ziva said once he was gone.
"I don't know, I could get used being married to you and having babies with you," Tony replied. Ziva smiled back.
There was still so much about the two of them that Gibbs didn't know. They looked at each other, lost in each other's eyes, lost in the moment, the moment between make believe and reality. Because the reality was that they never could be together; the make believe was that they already were.
So, yeah, Gibbs isn't stupid and probably wouldn't fall for it, but still...
It's a day (or two - depending where you live) early but I wanted to post it now so it would be out on April the 1st.
Review Please :D
