A/N: Alright… So I decided to give Tony a break for a little while. I decided not to torture or hurt Tony in either way in this fic or maybe just indirectly. So who shall I pick on in this one? I know, I shall have a go at Gibbs…
(Gibbs stands back and does the Gibbs stare while sipping a coffee)
Abby: Ooh how exciting… Somebody's daring to go at Gibbs. Isn't it exciting Gibbs?
Ziva: Someone has guts
Gibbs: It had to come sooner or later
Tony: Ha! Now somebody else gets a turn.
McGee: Easy Tony, don't forget stories can change in an instant
Tony: Shut up Probie.
Chapter one: Shoulda stayed home
Ziva sat down and watched Tony go through some of his mail. Tony almost made a federal case out of getting some mail. She looked at McGee who was looking at Gibbs' empty seat. It was unusual that Gibbs wasn't there yet.
"Maybe he's with the director or something McWorrier," Tony suggested and waited for a response.
There was something stirring in Ziva's gut. She stood up from the desk and walked to the stairs to ascend to the offices. She was going to see the director to find out. If it was true that he's in a meeting then they'd know for sure.
"Have you tried his cell phone, McGee?" Tony asked as he sorted through his mail. "Better wait till Ziva comes back first," he said. Perhaps it was nothing. But, Gibbs had suddenly left early the day before. It was something that had rarely happened.
"Who died and made you Boss?" McGee asked venomously. It was hard to believe that Tony was taking it upon himself to take the reigns.
"I really hope you don't end up regretting those words Probie," Tony said as he stood up and walked over to McGee's desk. "You better hope that that line doesn't ring true," he accentuated the point.
"Look, I didn't mean anything by it," McGee quickly backtracked from his previous words. "It's just a saying ok?" He furiously defended his own words.
"Think before you speak McUnthinker," Tony checked his watch and pursed his lips. It was definitely unusual for Gibbs to be running this late. He tried to sound positive and wasn't even sure if that was coming through in his voice.
Ziva had entered the bullpen quickly stood in front of the senior field agent's desk. "Tony," she said to get his attention. "He is not with the Director and Director Vance had called in sick," Ziva gave the quick rundown.
"How about Gibbs? Did he call in sick as well?" Tony asked.
"No, he did not," Ziva said for a moment.
"Hm, McGee… Try Gibbs' cell," Tony immediately took the role as team leader at his Boss' absence. It was something that he always did if Gibbs wasn't around. "Ziva, try his home phone and put it on speaker if he answers," Tony ordered.
"On it," Ziva said as she began dialing up the number on the phone.
"His cell is switched off," McGee told him.
Ziva put the phone on speaker and Tony stood up and approached her desk.
"Hello?" Gibbs said on the other end. "Who is this?" He asked.
"Hey Boss," Tony said loudly and cheerfully. Gibbs sounded alright. "Was just checking to see if you were alright since you're not at work yet," he thought that it was unusual for him to take time off.
"I had some personal business to take care of Tony," Gibbs responded after a bit of a pause. "Our team has been taken off active duty for the next couple of days or until further notice," Gibbs added.
"Right," Tony responded. "Just we get worried when you don't call. Director Vance isn't in either… Is there something we need to be doing?" He asked. He was starting to sound like Abby.
"Yes, I know Director Vance called in sick. I'll be there in an hour alright? And, Tony, don't call me again to ask me why I'm not there. As for something to do… Well find something Tony since you've been at NCIS long enough to know things or do you need me to hold your hand?" Gibbs said before hanging up.
The loud click made Tony take a step back. Whatever personal business Gibbs was talking about it sure sounded urgent. "Being taken off active duty, is that not unusual?" Ziva asked as she studied the reaction from Tony. This sure didn't seem like usual actions to her.
Tony thought for a moment. This just had an odd feeling about it. Could it have been something terribly wrong or was his mind just playing tricks on him? The hell with that he thought, he had at least a couple of hours left with being in charge and without a superior officer being around. Tony's grin grew wider.
"Well?" Ziva asked after a moment of silence. "What are we going to do?" She looked at the senior field agent for instructions.
Tony stopped from saying something. It was unusual that they weren't already working on a project of some sort. He realized that this time, he had to fish for something for the team to work on. He opened Gibbs' draws to look over some old case files. He placed one on McGee and Ziva's desk. "Alrighty then," he said. "These are folders pertaining to the Chamberlain Disappearance case. I want you to see if there was anything that could have been missed," Tony explained as he gave them work to do.
"Hey Tony," Abby yelled from halfway across the floor as she approached at a quicker than normal pace. "I haven't seen Gibbs this morning. I had to come up here and get my own cup of Caf-Pow. You know how annoying that is. I have to stop work, come up and get my drink, go back down and start work again. It's annoying. Why isn't Gibbs here?" She asked.
Abby always managed to send Tony's head in a spin when she got worried about someone from Team Gibbs. "Don't worry Abs," Tony told her. "We just spoke to him on the phone, he's just running late that's all," he said.
"Oh alright," Abby acted somewhat more subdued. "What are you doing?"
"Working on the Chamberlain disappearance case," McGee answered for Tony as he brought up the file pictures on the plasma screen.
"Hey," Tony looked at the picture closely. "Doesn't Mrs Chamberlain look like Meryl Streep to you?" He joked. "Well a much younger Meryl Streep anyway. Like late eighties or something," he said.
"I do not know of this Meryl Streep," Ziva shook her head. "So, what was this case about?" She asked Tony.
Tony read through the notes and to get the summary of the case. "They were at a campground one night when during the preparation for the barbecue their child went missing. No body, no ransom," he sifted through the case.
"That was when they suspected murder," McGee continued. "Of course the lack of the body and evidence the case quickly went cold," he read through some of the notes as well. There had been a whole lot of speculation from authorities and NCIS but nothing had eventuated. "Nothing new had turned up," McGee said.
"Oh, that's so sad," Abby said. "I have to get down to my babies and continue working or the other teams will start riding me," she put in before heading out of the bullpen.
"It was a difficult case?" Ziva asked. "Must have been difficult for the parents," she commented as she looked at the pictures carefully.
"It was difficult. As for the mother, the media quickly turned on her. They said she was handling it too well," Tony thought for a moment. Since they were off active duty he couldn't suggest that they go to the field and canvas the area.
"What do they suggest happened to the child?" Ziva asked.
"As I said, speculation was rampant and some ideas were so ridiculous that they were quickly dismissed," Tony said as he read through. "Bring up the last known photograph of the baby, Probie," he ordered and McGee pressed a couple of buttons on the remote to show the picture of mother kneeling next to the child and in a loving embrace. "Some had even suggested that the child in this photograph taken three days before the disappearance was already dead," Tony said as he looked even more closely at the photograph. Unfortunately it was just too blurry to tell. The husband who took the photo didn't have a very steady hand.
"Have they sent the original photograph to be enhanced?" Ziva asked.
"Yes," McGee answered the question. "Unfortunately any enhancement still didn't make it clear enough," he shook his head and moved on to the next picture.
They were typing away on the computer trying to track down the people that were at the campground from four years ago. It wasn't an easy task. They all looked up together as one when Gibbs walked out of the elevator. Gibbs adjusted his jacket collar and looked around before walking into the bullpen.
"Good Morning Boss," Tony greeted as he watched Gibbs sit at his desk.
"The hell it is," Gibbs said coldly. "What are you three working on?" He asked them. "Don't you dare tell me you've been doing nothing all morning," everyone could tell there was a dangerous edge to his tone.
"We've been looking over a four year old cold case," Tony stood up and gave his boss a questioning look. "The Chamberlain case. About the child who vanished at the campground. I know we're not on active duty but I thought that we'll have to interview a couple of people and I think we need to… take… a," Tony's voice trailed off as it seemed that Gibbs had stopped listening.
Gibbs nodded. "Do what you have to do, DiNozzo," he said after a pause. "Get that sorted out. Get outta here," he barked.
Tony grabbed his gear and walked towards the elevator with Ziva and McGee in tow. The three of them turned around to see that Gibbs hadn't moved. "McGee you're staying here with me," Gibbs ordered. "Do you lot have a problem with following my orders now? Get outta here and McGee you stay here!" Gibbs shouted.
Tony and Ziva made their way to the elevator. "Gee, I wonder if he got off on the wrong bed this morning," Ziva wondered out loud.
"I think you mean out of the wrong side of the bed, Ziva," Tony halfheartedly corrected her English. "Perhaps his personal business didn't go as well as planned," Tony stated the obvious. He felt bad that McGee was there to take the full brunt of Gibbs' mood while they weren't there. The uneasy feeling returned. Something felt very, very wrong.
"McGee," Gibbs barked across the bullpen. "I need you teach me some of that stuff you do with the computer," he said.
"What do you need to know," McGee asked him curiously. He'd never asked for a computer lesson before.
"I need to access the file department so I can transfer a couple of files to another computer," Gibbs explained what he wanted done.
"Sure," McGee began showing him things. "You can use your email account to pass on the files," he said.
"How about if I don't want to use my work email?" Gibbs asked him.
"Well you can easily create a free email account by downloading and installing yahoo messenger. Then you can use that," McGee explained.
"Do I look like a tech person to you McGee?" Gibbs snarled.
"Not at all boss," McGee answered as he went to the yahoo page and began downloading the messenger. "I mean… Not that you couldn't be, I mean, if you wanted to you could," McGee began tripping over his own words as he tried to backtrack over them. "I'll install it for you now, Boss," he said as he watched, Gibbs watch him.
Gibbs rubbed his ear. "Is this going to take long McGee?" He asked impatiently as he began to fidget a little.
"Now, there you go," McGee rubbed his neck nervously. "I'll just fill out these questions for you quickly and create an email account for you," he explained the steps as he went along. "See? Now, you click on the compose button. Type the email address you wish to send it to," Gibbs rubbed his ear again and waited for McGee to continue explaining as he went along. "Of course, then you go to attach and it'll give you an option to search the computer for the file you're after," McGee said.
"That easy?" Gibbs asked. "But what if the folder I'm after is in the database?"
"Well you have to extract the folder from the database and then attach it from your computer," McGee explained.
"Can I do this from any computer?" Gibbs asked.
"Well if that computer has yahoo, you can use your name and password to access your yahoo account," McGee answered. "There," McGee said.
"Thanks McGee," Gibbs said as he cricked his neck and McGee watched him double time it up the stairs. McGee swore that he was moving at a quicker than normal pace.
A/N: Hope this is a good beginning and keeping people guessing. This was inspired by a movie. So the idea isn't so original.
Gibbs: Now why doesn't that surprise me?
Tony: Something wrong Boss?
Gibbs: What are you doing DiNozzo?
Tony: Sitting back with my feet up, relaxing my feet and enjoying somebody else copping the author's wrath for a change.
