Oh my gosh. I am so sorry that I took forever to post this. I know I have been promising it. If you read my other fic you know that my computer totally died. I just got all my files and now I'm posting this. So I hope you enjoy.
Well I thought of this one day and couldn't decide if I wanted to write it down and when I did decide to it was all of a sudden the end of August. So I figured I'd better write it fast so it's up before season 6 starts.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS. As much as I love these characters they belong to CBS and Donald Bellisario and all those wonderful people.
Note: This begins right after Judgment Day. Normally I'm not a huge fan of stuff that acknowledges that episode as part of the timeline but I do agree that the split up of the team makes for a great storyline. Well anyway, enjoy. The whole thing should be posted quickly as I will try to get it all written in a few days. Please review.
Chapter 1: The Split
Tony Dinozzo walked to his desk on autopilot. He couldn't think straight. His mind was still reeling from the thought that he would be stuck on a big, grey, cold, boring, metal ship for the next 6 months. And then who knows. Maybe Vance would decide that Tony loved boats and stick him on another one, and that would be his life. Then there was McGee. The poor probie was just starting to be less of a probie and less geeky and start to be a really good field agent. Cyber crimes would ruin him. And Gibbs. Poor Gibbs. He would have to train a whole new team of completely incompetent probies. They would be even more proie than probie! Tony was quite sure that they would have to be replaced every few months as Gibbs started to kill off too many brain cells from his headslaps. Ziva. What could he even say? She would go back to Israel and Mossad and probably end up on more suicide missions than he wanted to think about. He knew she must have been on them before, but now was different. She was different. NCIS had forced her to see herself and her life in a completely new way. He wasn't exactly sure how Mossad and her father would take that.
Ziva walked down the stairs slowly, her head hung low, her chin almost resting on her chest. Gibbs would be driven insane by his new team. They would all be comatose, or concussed at least by the end of the first two weeks. And McGee was going to cyber crimes. He had it easiest, but that didn't mean it wasn't still terrible. He would be able to come see everyone, he was only on a different floor. But he was a great investigator with an instinct and an ability that would be wasted behind a desk. He had worked so hard and he deserved to be out in the field. And Tony would be stuck on a boat with little contact for six months. And knowing Vance he would probably just end up shuffled from ship to ship for the rest of his career. She did not think Tony would be too fond of living on the USS Ronald Reagan. And then she would have to return to Tel Aviv and Mossad. She would probably be dead in a year. For the first time in her life the thought of that scared her. There was still so much she wanted to do and to say and now was not the right time. Emotions were high and every word took on a melancholy tone.
Gibbs could not help but repeat to himself over and over "I will fix this. I will fix this." He was determined to get Tony off the ship before Vance moved him again in six months. He knew McGee would be the easiest to get out and the most help in getting the others but he still felt obligated to save him from desk work as soon as possible. Then he had to get Ziva out of Israel and back at NCIS before one of her missions for Mossad killed her. He knew that the liaison position was the only reason she was still alive. That and the fact that she was one of the best officers Mossad ever had, but even he wasn't sure she could go back to that life anymore. Oh, and there were his new probies. They would have to go. They were probably very untrained and very sloppy. He would not allow his team to be sloppy. And Tony. Tony would be stuck on a ship. That could prove tricky, but possible. They were like his family and he would not let Vance divide and destroy his family.
McGee and Abby sat in her lab thinking. They had run every possible outcome by each other. Only one of them looked good, and it was the least likely: Gibbs would somehow manage to get everyone back. They sat in silence taking in the gravity of their situation. Silent tears began to pour down Abby's face. McGee scooted next to her and put his arm around her shoulders turning her face into his shoulder and chest. He held her as her tears escalated in racking sobs. It wasn't supposed to be this way. McGee was still the probie to everyone, but he wasn't that naïve. He knew that Tony would probably be stuck on ships until he resigned and that Gibbs would probably retire again and this would probably be the last time they ever saw Ziva. Abby began to realize the same things and as they sank in she cried harder and clutched at McGee's shirt as if he would suddenly disappear, too. He rocked her back and forth and tried to sooth her. He placed a light kiss where her pigtails and bangs parted, then he laid his head down on top of hers. They stayed like that for a while until Abby got her resolve back and decided to figure out how to keep them here. She quickly enlisted McGee's help.
Note: The next chapter will begin three months later. I will try to cover all the locations so there will be D.C., USS Ronald Reagan, and Tel Aviv. I have plans and I think I will stop when I do finish that basic planned story line. But it should be good for a while. I have some chapters written but I'm not done yet. I'll keep writing and posting them. I'm gonna have to be quick though if I want it up before the new season starts. Sept 23! Yay! Anyway, please review and let me know what you think.