Author's Note: There is a Zive POV for all of this that my bestie is writing. I'll post up a link to that when I post up the next chapter :)
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Tony buckled himself into the uncomfortable seat that he would occupy all the way back to DC from Tel Aviv but his gut was telling him he'd need....no....he'd want to rip it all off soon. He wasn't wrong as he looked towards the open end of the carrier to see Gibbs doing his "take this puppy up" hand motion.
"One short, boss?" he asked nervously, looking around for Ziva.
"Nope." Gibbs was never one for explanations.
As their carrier began to shut, Tony strained to see past Director Vance just in time to see Ziva's face, with a stunned expression, turn to hide the tears. All he could see was her neatly tied hair and the backside he recognized all too well. The carried shut and he saw the last of the back of her head as he fought back the tears. He just decided to sleep, he couldn't say a word. What was he going to tell Abby...McGee...Ducky..? Gibbs sure as hell wasn't going to tell them.
Tony looked across the aisle at his boss, asleep but not peacefully like on their flight to Panama*, he looked troubled, as if he was having a nightmare. He looked to his side to see the director, toothpick between his lips, head bobbling a bit to one side, eyes closed but still intimidating. 'How do they do that...' Tony thought to himself, making faces to mimic theirs, attempting to be vicious, fierce but clearly that bugged someone because--
"DiNozzo! What are you doing?" Gibbs looked at him as if he was a monkey doing tricks, "You look stupid..."
But he didn't want to stop, made that face right at his boss. He couldn't understand why the death glare had no effect this time. He just looked into this boss's eyes and said in a clearly mocking voice, "I thought I'd try to understand what the seat does to everyone close to it, sir. Just trying to see what 'no man left behind' means to those on the big seat, sir."
Gibbs expression softened but he didn't say a word, he just leaned back and closed his eyes again. No further objection? No head slap? Ziva wasn't coming back...and Gibbs felt guilty. Hurt, maybe?
The plane ride and the trip back to NCIS was a blur to Tony, but it all caught up to him when he found his friends all waiting for him and Ziva. As he watched their smiles fade as he told them that Ziva would not be returning and as everyone went back to their desks and labs, Tony wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed.
He didn't even bother telling Gibbs, if the man knew everything, he would know. He muttered a halfhearted goodbye to McGee and looked over to Ziva's empty desk for only a split second before briskly walking out.