Title: It's All About The Timing
Pairing: Tony/Paula, Tony/Abby, McGee/Ziva
Characters: Just about everyone.
Rating: K+
Genre: AU, Drama, some Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Suspense
Cat: Het
Spoilers: Bury Your Dead and Grace Period
Warnings: None.
Summary: After a blow to the head, Tony realizes the importance of timing and taking chances when they're given.
Author's Note: Written for iheartGibbs for the NFA Secret Santa 2013. I used a bit of creative license and combined these two prompts (sort of): All I Want for Christmas – team story based around a holiday theme. Any genre.
Beyond the Ordinary – Something AU, not necessarily holiday themed. The sky's the limit.
Chapter One
Tony sat up, rubbing the back of his head. Man, that was some hit. It felt like someone had pistol whipped him from behind. . . He rolled his eyes as he realized that was likely exactly what had happened. But he wasn't claiming to be a writer or anything – that was McGeek's territory. He smirked to himself as he thought of how very wrong his novelist friend had been about the events that occurred in his books mimicking real life, or was it the opposite way around? Either way, he doubted McGoo was upset about how things had happened.
He blinked to clear his head. Why was he thinking about McGee right now? He'd obviously just been assaulted by someone or something; he needed to get off his ass and figure out who or what that was, because he wanted to yell at them for messing up his hair, if nothing else.
He gave his hair a self-conscious smoothing, then pushed himself to his feet, immediately regretting that decision. "Whoa," he said, wobbling and then stumbling his way over to a metal bench, where he collapsed. "I feel like a Weeble." He moved into a sitting position. "Except they don't fall down." He took the opportunity he had to gaze around. "Where the hell am I, anyway?"
Before him was a river, separated from him by only a few yards of pavement and a metal fence. He turned, taking in the rest of his surroundings and made a noise of discovery. "Of course. Navy Yard. That . . . makes sense." He frowned as he thought more about it. "Except we moved to Quantico. So why would I be here?"
"There you are!" A breathy female voice sounded behind him, and he froze, sure he was hearing things. "Come on, Gibbs is waiting." He didn't move and she continued. "Tony? You okay?"
He finally turned to face her and resisted the urge to rub his eyes like a little kid, instead saying, "Paula? What . . . How . . . Aren't you dead?"
She gave him a look like he'd lost his mind (and Tony was progressively feeling more and more like that was a very real possibility) and shook her head, holding out her hand to him. "If that's your way of getting out of work, not gonna fly. Like I said, Gibbs is waiting. We got a case."
Tony still felt like he was living in a dream world, but he took hold of Paula's hand – which was warm and very much that of a living person's – and allowed her to pull him to his feet. He grimaced as he stood, sure he was going to feel like passing out again, but was surprised to find that he felt fine, like he hadn't just been clobbered like some dirty perp.
As they walked back to the NCIS Headquarters – which were still very much in the Navy Yard – he couldn't shake the feeling that life as he knew it was going to look a lot different once he walked through those doors.
"Boss?"
"Yeah, McGee, I know. This doesn't look good."
Gibbs stood from his squatting position, a leather ID card holder in his hand. The outside of it was sticky with blood-covered snow, and when he flipped it open, the card inside confirmed his worst suspicions.
NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.
Tony and Paula walked into the squad room, Tony gazing around as they entered, expecting to see gray walls and faces of people he hadn't seen in years, but the walls were as orange as the last time he left work and the faces the same familiar ones he saw day in and out. Except Paula. He still couldn't make sense of that.
"About time, DiNozzo," Gibbs' voice sounded, and Tony felt relieved that he hadn't changed from what he remembered. "McGee's waiting for you downstairs, Abby's lab."
"I thought. . ." Tony pointed back towards where he and Paula had just come. "Paula said we had a case."
"Saying Gibbs was waiting was a hell of a lot faster way to get you back to work than telling you to go see McGee and Abby," Paula said, giving him a pointed look. "And since I didn't see any coffee cup near you, I'm assuming you in fact did not go to get coffee."
Tony just stared at her, trying to make sense of what was going on – he went to get coffee, someone whacked him and he passed out, and now he was living in some alternate reality where Paula was still alive and Ziva was . . .
"DiNozzo." Gibbs' voice cut into his thoughts and Tony nodded, heading for the elevator. He'd use the trip downstairs to try to wrap his head around what was happening, and he just hoped he wasn't walking into something even weirder than what he'd already experienced.
"It's gotta be Santos," McGee said, hanging on to the handle above the passenger side door as Gibbs sped through the streets of Annapolis, where Tony had been undercover the past few days. When he didn't check in with them and they received no answer from his cell phone, McGee traced the cell and it had led them to an alley, where they'd found the cell and Tony's ID, but no Tony.
"Ya think, McGee?" Gibbs responded, giving the wheel a brisk yank as he turned a corner. "We know where he's been hiding out, but haven't had a reason for a search warrant. And now, we don't have time to waste." He pulled out his cell phone, glancing back and forth from it to the road, causing McGee to pale as he thought about all the ways this could end. Gibbs punched in a few numbers, then held the phone up to his ear, waiting for an answer, while McGee let out a sigh of relief that Gibbs could focus his attention back on the road. "Hey, Tobias," he said after a few moments. "Remember that favor you owe me?"
Tony let out a breath as he entered Abby's lab and found it exactly as he remembered, along with the two people standing at the computers in the center of the room. McGee looked like he'd put a few pounds back on and he had that buzz cut that made him look like a 15-year-old, but he was still the McGee Tony knew and harassed on a daily basis, so that made him breathe easier. He figured the best plan of action would be to act like nothing was out of the ordinary, because to everybody else, nothing was.
"Hey, Probie," he called out as he joined them. "Paula said you were waiting for me."
McGee rolled his eyes as he turned to him. "Yeah, for like an hour. Sure takes you a long time to grab a cup of coffee."
Tony waved off McGee's annoyance. "Catch me up."
Abby started babbling off the facts of the case and Tony made mental notes of what the case was about, since he'd had no idea prior to coming down here. Once she was done, Tony winked at her and grabbed McGee, leading him to the elevator.
As they waited for the car to arrive, Tony decided to ask about the missing member of their team – though he wasn't too surprised she wasn't there, given her condition. "So, how's our favorite ninja?"
But rather than getting all giddy about it like McGee was known to do when Ziva came up, he just looked confused, his brow furrowed as he turned to Tony. "Who?"
It was Tony's turn to look incredulous. "Uh, Ziva?"
McGee shook his head. "Still not following, Tony."
Tony blinked once, in disbelief. "Come on, Probie. She's your wife." If McGee was just trying to make him look like an idiot, he was doing a pretty . . .
"I think I would know if I were married, Tony, especially to someone with a name like Ziva." McGee raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. "Did they put something in that coffee, like drugs of some sort?"
Tony covered his internal freak-out with a smile and a forced laugh. "Ha, yeah, very funny, McGee. You know, I almost had you going." He waved a finger at him as the elevator finally opened and they stepped inside.
"Sure you did," McGee responded, choosing not to question the other man.
As the doors closed and they headed back to the squad room, the smile on Tony's face disappeared. First Paula reappeared from the dead, now Ziva wasn't even someone the one person who should know her best – her husband – was aware of. . . Tony wasn't sure what had happened when he passed out, but somehow, it seemed he actually was in an alternate universe.
And he didn't know how he was going to get back.