Title: Seems Like Old Times
Summary: It was just the two of them again and it seems just like old times.
Disclaimer: NCIS is not mine. I'm just borrowing the concepts and characters for a little while.
Spoilers: 8.01 Spider and the Fly and casual spoilers/references for many other different episodes.
A/N: I respectfully borrowed some dialogue from the episode written by Gary Glasberg.
Many thanks to GibbsRules for giving this a read through! All remaining mistakes are mine.
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Ziva is in Miami following up on a lead.
McGee is doing likewise in Canada.
And, I'm here.
Alone.
With Gibbs.
I can't remember the last time it was just the two of us working alone together for this many days. Yes I do. The last time it was just the two of us, it was those few days over a year ago now when we went to Arizona to work the Patterson/Risi case. But this seems so different to back then.
And familiar too. Almost like those long months when it was just Gibbs and me. Before Kate came along.
But even this is different from that time as well. We have a team; they're just not here right now.
Hell, I don't know what I'm thinking….
Those months when it was just the two of us were some of the hardest of my career. I'd only been with Gibbs just over a year when Blackaddder left the team after that near disastrous mission in Spain.
I'd never been so scared in my life when I'd heard that explosion. I thought I'd lost the best person to come into my life since my football coach in college.
But, I've come to know better since then. Somehow he always seems to escape Death's clutches.
Not too long after we got back to the States, it was suddenly just the two of us working the cases. If it hadn't been for Abby and Ducky, I think I would've completely lost it during those seemingly never ending days, weeks, and months of being a two-man team. I'd never worked so hard nor been so constantly exhausted in all my life.
That was until Gibbs left us – retired to Mexico, went on hiatus, or whatever he wants to call it. Those long months of being Lead Agent…
Working with a team that only wanted Gibbs back. A team that barely, if at all, respected or tolerated me. A team that followed my orders grudgingly because they thought they knew better than the agent promoted over them into the lead position.
It's no wonder Jenny was able to convince me to do that undercover op for the La Grenouille case. It'd been nice to be needed and respected for my abilities. If I thought working a two-man team with Gibbs was difficult, working what was essentially two jobs 24 hours 7 days a week was nearly impossible.
Somehow, and I'm not really sure how, I did it. And still I nearly lost everything when the team found out about my double life. Losing my beloved Mustang and nearly my life was nothing compared to their open disdain for 'lying' to them all those months. Somehow they seemed to forget that I was following orders.
Why is it every time I follow a Director's orders, that I nearly lose my life? Observe and report had been the most recent order from a Director and this time it not only nearly cost me my life, but it seemingly has cost Franks his.
Franks who sprung that trap and took a bullet for me. One of Gibbs' oldest friends was possibly dead and it was all my fault.
I should have spotted the trap. I shouldn't have let Franks distract me from following Rivera. I should have…not followed orders.
Right.
Like that was ever going to happen. Gibbs had headslapped 'following orders' into me so many times in the beginning that it would be impossible to ever not follow an order from a superior.
He's also been trying to headslap 'focus' into me, but given my scattered thoughts lately, it's obvious I haven't quite learned that lesson yet – if I ever will.
What was the point of this particular stroll down memory lane?
That's right. Gibbs and I working as a two-man team again – at least temporarily.
This whole thing with Reynosa and Rivera is wrong somehow. Personal. Against Gibbs.
But why?
Why would a Mexican drug cartel want to go after Gibbs? An old case perhaps? My gut says yes, but it's also telling me it's something more.
The question is: do I even want to know?
The last time I tried to help a teammate when they were in trouble, it didn't end so well. Of course this time I almost got shot and killed as opposed to beaten and having my arm broken. So what really is the difference if I help or not?
Either way I always get someone killed.
Maybe Franks isn't dead. Maybe there's some clue on that video that I've missed…
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Gibbs walked up to Tony and realized that he was watching that damn video of the ambush again. He knew DiNozzo felt guilty for what had happened and figured it must have brought up other memories his senior field agent would probably rather forget. He was worried that this time Franks really had managed to get himself killed, but he still didn't want DiNozzo to dwell on the past or take the blame.
"Watching it again is not gonna change anything," he said.
Tony never took his eyes off the screen as he almost absent mindedly replied, "It was a trap."
"Yep," Gibbs agreed.
"Now look," he says pointing at the screen while working the video's remote controls. "Rivera gives a signal. All hell breaks loose. He knew we were following him. We walked right into it."
Gibbs said the only thing he could in this situation, "Let it go DiNozzo."
Now if only he could get Tony to accept that this whole thing with Franks was not his agent's fault.
No. The only one to blame for this whole mess was him.
And he was determined to fix it.
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The end.
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A/N: The 8th season premiere gave me the impression that only Vance, Abby, and Ducky knew the whole story behind Reynosa's desire for revenge – so I went with that for this story. It ended up going in a completely unexpected direction than I had originally intended…
Thanks for reading!