Tony sighed as he sat at his desk. He was exhausted. With Gibbs being in the hostage room, Tony had taken the lead on the Meyers case. Emotional rollercoaster. And it's not like he hasn't taken the lead before. He has. Several times in fact. It's just, every other time he was the Lead Agent on those cases; it was because Gibbs was at some sort of conference or otherwise occupied. This case, however, was his first time taking the lead on a case with Gibbs not only present and accounted for, but in the same damn building the case was taking place. Sure, Gibbs was held hostage for roughly 5 hours, along with about 5 students, by another student.
With a bomb.
Strapped to his chest.
Though technically Kody, the kid with the bomb, was a hostage as well, so really, what did Tony have to stress over? It's not like his boss couldn't handle himself, and whatever happened in the room. Who cared if the whole time Tony was freaking out (on the inside at least) because the object of his attraction, and dare he say it affection, for the last (what? Five years now?) Was a not-so-invited guest in the hostage room?
Swiveling in his chair, Tony sighed again. He had paper work to avoid and Tetris to play. Gibbs could yell at him later. Speaking of, Gibbs had been sent to the Director's office when they arrived back at the NCIS building, 5 minutes ago. Tony didn't foresee a happy ending.
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs shouted from the top of the stairs. Tony inwardly winced. Now he really didn't foresee a happy ending. Mainly for himself.
"Yeah, Boss?"
"Get up here. Now!" And without waiting to see if Tony was moving, Gibbs headed back to the Director's office. Tony sighed, yet again, and heaved himself out of his chair. Walking around his desk he caught the looks from McGee and Ziva, (who had moved onto other credit lists, also avoiding their reports). Slight concern mixed with joy. Concern that he might be in trouble, for some reason, and joy…because it wasn't them being sent to the Principal's office. Tony took the stairs two at a time and strode pass Cynthia into Jenny's office, stopping short when he entered and noticed all the occupants.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Tony almost shouted in his surprise, eyes wide. Realizing that he just said that not only in front of his Boss but his Boss' boss, he quickly straightened and looked directly into the eyes of the man he just yelled at.
"And here I thought you'd be happy to see me."
"You two know each other?" Said the man and Gibbs respectively, overlapping one another. Before Tony could answer either man, Jenny spoke up from her position standing behind her desk.
"Gentlemen," she said firmly, catching the attention of all men present. "Colonel O'Neill is here requesting the help of NCIS, your team specifically Agent Gibbs"
"And why is a Colonel in the Air Force requesting the help from NCIS?" Gibbs asked, enunciating each letter carefully. "And why my team specifically?" Jenny was about to answer when the Colonel spoke up first.
"I'm requesting NCIS because it, technically, is your jurisdiction. Your team specifically for two reasons, 1) I need competent people on this. And considering the circumstances, the people who would be doing this, instead of you, are complete morons. 2) Your team has one Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo." Gibbs shot a look over at Tony. Tony just tried not to fidget under the sudden attention. Instead he tried to turn it back on the man opposite.
"Jack, what's going on? What's 'it' and the 'circumstances'? And most importantly, why me?"
"We have a marine who has escaped from a high security Federal Prison. Since it's high security, and he escaped, I'm not trusting the people watching the place to bring him back. They let him get out, how do they expect me to believe they will get him back? The escapee is Colonel Robert F. Makepeace."
"Son of a bit—"
"DiNozzo!" Tony mumbled a quick 'sorry boss' before speaking to Jack.
"How did he get out? What about the other rouge NID agents? Are they still in prison?" Tony's questions were fast and starting to run together and tinged with a tiny bit of panic. Jack was walking closer to Tony as he spoke.
"Tony, calm down. This is another reason I brought this to you."
"What? So I can follow all the breadcrumbs he leaves directly to my door? Or to yours? To Daniel's, Sam's or Cassie's? I don't know if you remember, but I clearly remember the threat he made when you arrested him. Sure it's taken about 4 years but he's already completed phase one."
"Hey!" Gibbs shouted, startling Jenny, and drawing the attention of Jack and Tony to him. "We obviously need to start from the beginning on this one. We're getting nowhere if you two are the only ones understanding the magnitude of the situation. Let's take this to one of the conference rooms, shall we?"
"After you," Jack motioned with his arm for Gibbs to lead the way. So he did, followed by Jack and with Tony bringing up the rear. Jenny blew out a breath as the men left. This was going to be one interesting case.
McGee looked up just in time to see the three men leaving the Director's office. He motioned to Ziva and they watched as the men headed down the stairs, then as they disappeared down the hall towards the conference rooms. They exchanged curious looks before turning back to their reports.
"So who wants to explain to me what the hell is going on here? Besides the escaped Marine, how do you two know each other? How does DiNozzo know the man in question? Why was he arrested? What is the NID? And last but not least, what threat?" Gibbs practically growled out the questions. Which would have been intimidating to anyone who wasn't Colonel Jack O'Neill, who had faced parasitical 'Gods' on almost a daily basis. Tony looked to Jack, eyes pleading him to do the talking.
"I've know Tony here since he was born. Practically raised him. He knows Colonel Makepeace because he happened to be on base when I arrested him. He was arrested for treason. Reasons are classified." Jack quickly added noticing Gibbs was about to ask another question. "NID stands for National Intelligence Department. There's not much I can say about this organization, because what they do is classified, however shady it is, it's still classified. Makepeace was a rouge member, along with a few others. I had to go on an undercover mission to catch them in the act. Which leads to the threat. As I was arresting him, he said that when he got out, which should have never happened, he was going after the people I cared for most. My team and Tony." Jack glared over at Tony. "Whom Makepeace would have never known about if he hadn't just shown up!"
"Wait, wait, wait. It's my fault, now, that he'll most likely come after me? Who was it that retired Off-wo…elsewhere without informing me? For all I knew it was a permanent thing. That's what Daniel said, and the General sure as hell wasn't budging on the letting you back. You weren't coming back. I wasn't in the loop on the 'master plan' to not freak out a little, that I'd never see you again. And Daniel was a mess too. Like I wasn't going to go there, and try and fix things. Anything. Even if the only thing I accomplished was convincing Daniel what you said wasn't true!" Tony was breathing heavy from his unexpected explosion of pent up anger towards Jack.
"Feel better now?" Jack asked calmly. "You've been holding onto that for awhile now, haven't you?"
"Well I never had the opportunity to blow up at you at the time. What with you being captured shortly after, then keeping Daniel's…stepson safe, Daniel going MIA and every other thing going on over there. Circumstances denied me the chance. But I'm sure you got enough of an explosion between Daniel and…well just Daniel. Teal'c probably just raised an eyebrow and Sam, well she really couldn't do anything, you being her commanding officer and all." Jack and Gibbs both snorted their disagreement. Tony eyed them both in turn. First Gibbs, then settling on Jack.
"What?"
"Couldn't explode because he's her commanding officer? That's like saying you can't at me. Which would be a lie, since you have and will again, no doubt." Gibbs stated.
"And how many times has Carter disagreed with something I've said and spent hours, it seems, arguing with me about it?" Jack added. Tony just cleared his throat.
"Anyway…back to matters in the present." Gibbs and Jack smirked. "When did Makepeace escape?" Tony asked, going into professional mode. Well, as professional as Tony ever got. Gibbs was in for quite a ride, considering Tony got his joking, cocky, flirtatious qualities from Jack.