A/N: Co-Written by Shelbylou
Special Thank You goes out to Tigyr for her awesome help with this story, as well.
March 8, 2010
"Mornin' Boss. Ziva" Tony greeted Gibbs as the younger man strolled into the squad room early Monday morning with his ever-present cheeky grin in place.
"DiNozzo." Came Gibbs' calm greeting in response as he sat behind his desk, scrolling through his emails.
"Good Morning, Tony." Ziva answered back from behind her own desk as she, too scrolled through her emails.
"Hey, isn't McRomeo due back today?" Tony asked as he sat down behind his own desk and fired up his work station.
"Tony, why do you ask questions that you already know the answers to?" Ziva asked in a mix of confusion and aggravation."
"Because, Zee-vah! It helps me focus on what I can use on him as ammo and how much of a hard time I can give him when he gets here!" Tony snarked back at her.
"Will you ever miss the opportunity to give McGee a hard time?" Ziva implored helplessly.
"Why would I wanna do that? It was a wedding he and sister went to with their folks, right? I'll bet he caught the garter! Just wanna start putting that bug in his ear about his future wife and what he should be looking for. We all know his track record when it comes to what he's been looking for in women leaves a lot to be desired." Tony said with his Cheshire cat grin.
"Tony, McGee does not need advice about women from someone who never dates the same one for more than three months!" Ziva reminded him. "And what does a garter have to do with a wedding?"
"American wedding tradition, Ziva" Tony answered flippantly. "Not something you would be familiar with."
"How could you not notice how unhappy McGee was to be going in to this wedding, Tony? And why do you find it acceptable to tease him about such personal issues?" Ziva asked with more than a hint of annoyance in her tone.
"Hey! Maybe, Sarah caught the bouquet! Now, THAT' will really give McBigbrother grey hair, won't it?" Tony's tangent changed lanes for a minute, as if he hadn't even heard Ziva's words of protest. "Wait! Whattaya mean he wasn't happy about going?"
"You done?" Gibbs asked as he calmly interrupted the exchange. The look that accompanied the question didn't match the words
"Not really, Boss, but when you put it like that; I guess I am." The younger man admitted with a grin. The grin quickly came off as he processed the silent question on Gibbs' face.
Tony knew one of those when he saw one. This one was asking how anyone who worked within the same office space could have possibly missed what Ziva had just reminded him of. The fact that his teammate was not only unhappy about going to a wedding; but for once in his life; he hadn't even tried to hide how he felt had become aire apparent in the proceeding weeks and the boss' silent question now ended Tony's attempt at humor on the subject immediately
Tim had explained what was going on to Gibbs when he'd put in for the time off three months ago in order to go to this wedding for a family member of one of his father's CO's. The passage of time did nothing to the ties that bound Tim's father to his CO through life; once they'd served together. The McGee kids knew that. Tim had explained to Gibbs how they hated it at times like these, but they understood it and bucked up; did what was expected and moved on. Tony's incessant harassing Tim about escaping the grunt work of NCIS to fly away to the other side of the country had eventually worn Tim's defenses down to the point where his emotions became easier to read in his eyes as the days went on and the conversations about his upcoming trip became commonplace.
The boss could see that there were Tim refrained from elaborating on parts of the trip, choosing instead to minimize all discussions on the matter to the best of his ability. Gibbs knew that Tim's parents were so insistent that their son join them that they had even paid for his and his sister, Sarah's plane tickets, so Tim wouldn't have to. The young man had made mention of having every intention of paying them back for both tickets, as soon as his current book project was finished and accepted by his publisher. Since this wedding was taking place clear across the country in California, neither Tim nor his parents had wanted to drive that far, even with all of them taking turns at the wheel, the idea of that much of a car ride was daunting and uncomfortable.
Tim hadn't been able to hide the fact that he hadn't been too happy with the idea of flying, either. Apparently, plane landing always stressed him out. Actually, while he'd long hid it from the team, he hadn't been able to hide it from his boss during the course of their conversation about the trip. How the Team Leader had never caught on to that before had surprised the Gibbs when he finally had caught on to it, promising the young man that his secret was safe, at least, until the others caught on for themselves..
The young agent was considerably unhappy to be going to this family affair in the first place. The very last place on earth that Tim McGee had wanted to be was at a wedding. Two people committing to a lifelong partnership based on love and trust and mutual interests and attractions; yeah, Tim really didn't want to be there. Only respect for his parents' good name kept him civil and obedient and packing his bags and getting on that flight; his hand being forced in the matter, doing nothing for his mood about the whole ordeal.
With the especially hellish track record Tim had with women and the inevitable pain he'd hidden so well, but everyone on his team knew was there, it had been easy for even Gibbs to sympathize with his plight of having to suffer through a wedding. With his military background, it was just as easy for the Team Leader to completely relate to the requirement for Tim that this was.
Gibbs had been kind enough to let Tim know he would have his first day back in D.C. off, so he could spend as much time with his folks as possible. The Team Leader had told him to report in by 0900 tomorrow morning and hadn't clued the rest of his team in on that decision yet. While it was sort of amusing to watch DiNozzo prepare for McGee's return to work, like it was some kind of extra important mission, being fully stocked up on things to tease the younger man about when he did get back; Gibbs found it more refreshing to have information about his youngest agent's life that his Senior Field Agent did not; even if it was something as small as not coming in when the others expected him to.
While it was most unusual for the boss to give one of his team members an entire day off like this, Gibbs had known it would help get Tim back into the swing of things. Unbeknown to him, the boss had given him the extra time partly in hopes that he would be able to come back from whatever black mood this shindig was bound to put Tim in.
Even as Gibbs refused to give into Tony's push for answers, just now, the boss didn't regret giving Tim the extra time off. The kid had rarely gotten to go home, in all his years on the team and this was the perfect time to give him some of that back; even if it was just one day. The chances of the rest of the team pushing for the same leniency from now were more than Gibbs wanted to deal with and he could foresee it becoming a headache he didn't want or need; but when push came to shove, the boss just hadn't been able to deny his youngest agent this chance to adjust back into things a little closer to normal than one would expect the 'hard-ass' Leroy Jethro Gibbs' to accept.
It had been a rare weekend off for the team. There had been no tip line duty, no emergency case thrown their way, and no off duty problems with anyone on the team. All of them had been truly grateful for it; but none of them had been more grateful than Tim because of this responsibility to his family. But Monday had come quickly enough.
"That stack of cold cases isn't gonna get done on its' own, DiNozzo." Gibbs now threw out there as he himself set his attention back to the open case he'd been studying before Tony's arrival. It was time to get them back on course before irreparable damage was done to the team's attitude toward each other.
As the squad room became quiet, with the three of them becoming engrossed in the case they were working through; the morning wore on and before they knew it, lunchtime had arrived and they took advantage of the quiet state of their caseload and went out to lunch together.
****NCIS****
After lunch, work once again resumed quietly on into the first two hours of the afternoon. This time, the silence was shattered a mere two minutes after they'd settled back into their chairs after they came back from a coffee break at 2:30 and turned back to their work when Ziva audibly drew in a sharp breath, while her eyes remained glued to the television between Tim and Tony's desks. It always remained turned to the national news while they were at work.
Tony and Gibbs looked up from their reading and watched as Ziva eyes remained fixed on the TV. Across the screen in typical big black lettering was the breaking news story of the hour:
BREAKING NEWS:
AA Flight 405 from Burbank, California crashes in Colorado wilderness.
A News Anchor Woman was reporting from behind a studio desk while in the upper corner of the screen, a video was being shown of thick black smoke billowing everywhere within the frame of the picture. Tony forced himself to pick up the remote from the place where they kept it and turned the volume up and they could now hear what she was saying:
AA Flight 405 from Burbank, California to Denver, CO has crashed in the wilderness area of the Tenderfoot Mountain just 3 miles east of the town of Dillon. The area is more commonly known to locals as the proposed Porcupine Gulch Wilderness Area, just 69 miles west of Denver.
The Boeing 757-200 left Burbank at 10:15 AM Pacific Time and crashed thirty minutes ago at 12:00 PM; almost two hours into the 2 hour and 18 minute flight to Denver.
With a refueling scheduled for its' layover in Denver, authorities say that they are thankful the fuel tanks were not filled to capacity before the flight departed from Burbank. It has also been reported that the flight was only half-full of its' normal 200 passenger capacity. The flight manifest has not yet been verified by the Airline.
"The control tower at Denver's Airport has reported that they lost contact with the plane as it was beginning its' approach to the mountains this morning,
The Airline Pilot Association was able to report that the plane appeared to have strayed off course, possibly because of the poor weather that had unexpectedly arisen. Officials are investigating reports that the plane was flying through a storm, with flashes of lightning, as it neared the mountains just 65 miles from the airport and may have been hit by lightning before crashing.
Local police report that there no eye witnesses have been reported as to any signs of trouble from the plane before it crashed
The plume of smoke can still be seen rising from the trees and the crash has been confirmed by reconnaissance flights sent over the area by the US Air Force.
It has been confirmed by aeronautical specialists that lightning, as an electrical force, cannot be the sole cause of an accident, but a sharp change in wind direction or an air pocket linked to lightning when a plane is near the ground could cause a crash. This has authorities speculating that unexpected wind shear may have been a factor in the crash of the flight.
An airline spokesman said an investigation would be launched into the exact cause of the crash.
While no photos have been released until all families of the passengers can be notified, authorities are saying that this crash has happened in an area consisting of over 8,100 acres (over 12 square miles), which has them extremely concerned about difficulty they may have in reaching the crash site. These concerns are very realistic due to the remoteness of the area; limited access, no maintained trails and little recreational traffic have helped keep this wilderness area relatively undisturbed.
It is been speculated that none of the 100 passengers have survived, based on observations made of the Air Force as a result of their reconnaissance flights over the crash site. NTSB is enroute and will not comment on that speculation until they have arrived at the scene and have more first-hand information to share with the public.
They are asking that any relatives of passengers on this flight to report to the ticket counter at their nearest airport for confirmation of their family member's flight information.
We will bring you more information on this horrific crash as it becomes available.
**********BREAKING NEWS*******
Ziva's face lost all color and she sat down in her chair in shock. Tony looked from the television to Ziva and back again. Looking at Ziva again, he suddenly felt his gut twist agonizingly. No! It couldn't be!
"Ziva?" Tony asked with grave concern, dread and denial all mixed together.
At Tony's tone of voice, Gibbs turned his attention away from the heart-stopping news footage and report in front of him that had his gut clenched in fear, and looked at his newest 'Agent'.
"Ziva?" the boss asked with some authority in hopes of grounding her before she completely succumbed to whatever she was experiencing at the moment.
In a voice that shook with emotion she was fighting damn hard not to let show; Ziva told them what they needed to hear.
"That is McGee's flight."