Payday
Chapter 1
Funerals were never, ever easy on the team, especially on Tony DiNozzo.
Starting with Kate Todd's funeral, and going all the way to the one the week before for Jackson Gibbs, Tony hated them. In his way, he moved on after the funeral, looking forward while remembering the good times he had with the person in question.
Part of his moving on involved doing something fun for himself, usually some kind of movie marathon at his apartment. It worked with Kate, Paula, and Director Shepard, but the last couple of years had been especially rough on the team and himself.
Although Ziva was alive and well, in Israel, her absence felt in a weird way like a death to Tony. And, the memories of the memorials for Jackie Vance and the Navy Yard bombing victims were still fresh in his mind.
If he was truly going to move on from this chain of ordeals, something big and positive was needed.
He settled for a guy's day out with Tim McGee and Jimmy Palmer, and Tony had just the place in mind:
Baltimore.
Vance gave the entire team a couple of days off, and Tony's self-proclaimed "Three Musketeers" got out of town.
"I'm totally on board," gushed Palmer.
"But we have no idea of what Tony wants to do," said McGee, whose eyes betrayed his own enthusiasm.
"Come on, McPuter, you can put away the McXbox for one night," Tony said, trying to seal the deal. "We won't do The Wire/Dirty DiNozzo tour of Baltimore. We're gonna have fun..."
Tony pulled an envelope out of his top desk drawer, and pulled out three tickets. "Box seats. Camden Yards. Orioles vs. Yankees."
"Alright!" Jimmy squealed. McGee quickly came around after finding the seat locations online. "Okay...it's baseball, and they're great seats. I'm in."
"And we'll go to my personally recommended five-star steak house afterwards," Tony added. "Be at my house, 8 o'clock tomorrow - or stay here and help Gibbs sand wood."
By mid-morning the guys were in Baltimore, and started their 'Man Day' at Fort McHenry, where McGee gushed over the history saturating the former fort.
Then, they went to the aquarium, where all three guys gushed like kids over the fish, the sharks and the dolphin, and observed which fish looked like themselves - and the other team members.
They followed up with tours of historic ships; a ride on the water taxi; tours of some local museums; and a few games at a well-known bowling alley, with just enough time to get to Camden Yards for the game.
They topped it off with a dinner at one of Tony's favorite steak houses, just a few blocks from Camden Yards.
It had been a long, long day, and one with more fun than any of the three men had enjoyed in years, and as a bonus, they could sleep in. So, Tony took his time driving back to D.C.
"Wonder what the girls did today?" Palmer asked. "Breena wouldn't say much."
"Abby didn't say much to me, either, and Bishop didn't tell Tony a thing," McGee said. "Wish Delilah could've been there."
"Bishop said more than that," Tony added. "'Girl stuff'. And Abs said she'd call Delilah early in the morning."
"After work for Delilah," said McGee of his girlfriend, who took a job working for the NSA in Dubai. "Ducky had some seminar to go to, Jimmy?"
"Prior commitment up in Boston," Palmer replied, as Tony pulled off the interstate into a truck stop.
McGee and Palmer headed straight to the restroom, while Tony went straight for the soda machine.
"Make it count fellas. I'm not stopping again before we hit Washington," he yelled their way.
Tony took his soda, grabbed a candy bar, and walked to the counter. Behind the cashier, a small flat-screen showed a commercial for the Maryland Lottery.
"Last day," the lady blurted out. "Drawing's tomorrow night. Up to $32 million."
"Dollars?" Tony blurted.
"It sure ain't pennies," she replied. "Couldn't hurt. It's just a couple of bucks."
Tony DiNozzo thought why not? and handed the woman a $10.
Tony played the jersey numbers for the starting lineup of the Ohio State basketball team he started on his senior year, the one that lost to UCLA in the national championship game.
And, he totally noticed McGee and Palmer sneaking up behind him.
"Yelling 'boo' won't work, Probie and Autopsy Gremlin," Tony said, scratching off the final number.
Palmer stopped in his tracks. "I wasn't gonna say anything," Palmer protested, as McGee slapped him on the shoulder blades
"Neither is throwing away money on that," McGee said, pointing to the piece of paper in Tony's hand. "It's a guaranteed money loser, Tony. You know the odds aren't in your favor."
"It's only a couple of bucks," Tony said. "It's a one-time thing, anyway. Just having fun."
"I had an uncle who played the lottery, every Tuesday," Palmer said, as the trio left the store and walked to Tony's car. "Won $1,000 one summer. Brought himself a nice fishing rod and banked the rest."
"Doesn't sound like much of a nest egg," Tony said, as the guys piled in the car.
"That's the only time he ever won. We think he wasted the rest of his winnings playing the lottery."
"There you go, Tony" said McGee, as Tony left the truck stop and headed towards the south exit onto the interstate. "Just in case you had any ideas that you might actually win something."
"Relax," Tony replied. "If - and I emphasize IF - I win anything, I won't throw it away or waste it. Like my partner when I worked for the Peoria PD, who asked to 'borrow' a couple hundred bucks on PowerLotto."
"Don't tell me you gave it to him," McGee said.
"No sir," Tony continued. "Got some other uniform to spot him a fifty, with the promise of splitting the earnings. They even agreed on the numbers; my partner ended up buying dinner for a woman he was interested in. She couldn't care less, but took the free meal, skipped out afterwards. Next day, the numbers were announced and the other uniform thought his proverbial ship had come in. Except my partner spent all of the money on the woman."
"Bet that went over well with the brass," Palmer said.
"Their fist fight didn't," Tony said. "Last I heard, Harvey was running a bait shop somewhere outside Galesburg. The lesson, my fine Probie and Autopsy Gremlin, is if you spend someone else's lotto money on a woman...she better be worth every penny."
"And she better stick around," McGee deadpanned.
"That, too," Tony cracked.
The Three Musketeers headed south, back towards Washington, and another day off before getting back into their regular routine.