A/N Hey guys, thanx for all the follows and favourites and reviews.. Now I warn you.. this chap is a filler, so its short and has very little conversation.. at the end of this chap though I have a a little plan of what's to come in the story and I've already started to write it... so enjoy guys!
Home sweet home, thought Tony bitterly, as he entered his apartment. The realization soon dawned on him that tonight would be the last night he slept in his own bed for a long time. Tony padded towards his bedroom, removing his shirt- as he walked bare chested to his wardrobe he felt a familiar pressure on his chest.
It was the necklace Ziva had gotten him from Israel years ago when she went to visit Rivkin. The yinyang necklace was his lucky charm and he barely ever took it off.
*Flashback Begins*
Tony lay in his hospital bed after getting a through and through flesh wound in his right arm. McGee sat at the foot of the bed as Gibbs and Ziva walked through the door.
"You got shot.. again," Gibbs said slowly, "I need coffee," he mumbled, leaving the room with McGee on his tail.
"You should be glad it was only a flesh wound," Ziva said.
"Glad? I was wearing my lucky necklace," Tony replied.
Ziva chuckled looking at the yinyang necklace she bought him, around his neck.
"Still think its lucky huh?" Ziva smiled.
"Well Zi, I'm me, and I'm alive ain't I?" Tony countered.
*Flashback Ends*
Tony lay down on his soft bed and drifted into a deep sleep, inwardly flinching about what he accidentally revealed to Ziva in his momentary outburst.
Meanwhile the rest of team Gibbs stood in the same position as when Tony left them. Not having an idea what to do they all turned to GIbbs, who was undoubtedly starring daggers at Director Shepherd. After about about 10 minutes she also turned to Gibbs, only to see him starring coldly at her. Gibbs rounded on Jenny.
"How long have you known Tony was leaving?" Gibbs asked Jenny clearly aggravated.
"I swear Jethro, I only found out half an hour before you," Jenny said slowly, trying to calm Gibbs down.
"Bull Jen, when did you really find out?" spat Gibbs.
Hearing the tone of Gibbs voice, Jenny taught the best thing to do was walk away, a method that proved sufficiently effective when she had done so in Paris, so she turned around and began to walk back to her office.
"Director shepherd!" Gibbs said with a raised voice.
The cold harshness in Gibbs' voice, made Jenny Shepherd stop dead in her tracks, turning around to a broken team Gibbs, she looked Gibbs straight in the eye and said.
"You tell me Special Agent Gibbs, you're the one with the gut feelings."
And with that she stalked up the stairs into her office, though she could feel everyone eyes looking from Agent Gibbs to her. She felt a little guilty, she hadn't meant for her words to sound so bitter, especially when Gibbs and the team were hurting so badly.
With one last glare in her direction Gibbs moved to take his seat in the squadroom, taking it as a cue the rest of the team followed suit.
Abby was the one who broke the awkward silence, "So now what do we do?" she asked Gibbs, in soft voice as though she was seeking advice from her father.
"Abby, do I look like I honestly care?" he replied angrily, either not hearing or ignoring the childishness in her voice.
Abby just stood up and walked to the elevator.
"I thought you actually cared about your team," Abby replied as the elevator door clinked shut.
McGee opened his desk looking for something, anything to do. It's been so long since I actually opened my top draw, McGee thought. As he scrumaged through its contents, his mind kept replaying what had just occurred in the bull pen between Tony and the rest of the team.. Tony's hesitance, Ziva's anger, Jenny's compassion when dealing with Tony, Gibbs's indifference... His hand hit a smooth but hard surface and upon looking down he spotted a frame in his draw, he dusted the dust off and saw a picture of his team, his original team.
McGee smiled as he saw the picture.
Gibbs was in the middle of everyone, he had one arm around Tonys neck, and the other around Kate's waist. Tony had his right hand in McGee hair ruffling it. Abby, McGee, Tony, Gibbs and Kate were holding one another like family rather than a team, each with a radiant smile lighting up their face.
All the men in the team wore, black suit coats a white shirts and grey jeans and black converses, their ties undone around their necks. Whilst Kate and Abby wore knee length black strapless dresses with different colour wedges.
Gibbs was happier when Kate was around, Timmy thought to himself.
He opened his draw again to look for a spare copy of the photo in the bottom of the draw. When he finally found it, McGee packed up his back pack and walked past Gibbs' desk placing the photo frame on it. Gibbs didn't look up, so McGee headed to the elevator to give Gibbs some privacy.
Gibbs did nothing as McGee left, but when he was gone Gibbs picked up the frame and registered what he was looking at. He smiled as he looked at the photo, remembering the day that photo was taken.
He absent mindedly looked at Tony's empty desk. He no longer had his SFA; his partner of 7 years was gone.. beneath all the anger at Jenny, Gibbs felt somewhat betrayed by Tony... But Tony is a grown man and knows what he's doing, he's moving on, and so should we, Gibbs thought to himself.
As he picked up his bag to go home, Gibbs spared one more glance at Tony's vacated desk, and instant memories of Tony leaning back on his chair with his legs up, eating Chinese takeaway and teasing McGee came to mind.
"Easier said than done," Gibbs growled to himself.
A/N donnneeeeee.. um.. also next chapter I'm skipping ahead a few months to Baghdad with Tony's new unit, so I'll introduce them all together as they are at that point and then I'll do flashbacks about how they met 'n' stuff. Meanwhile I'll show how Team Gibbs is dealing with the DiNozzo departure toot toot.. That way I can get to the Tony coming back and dealing with everything part oh oh oh and keep in mind that Tony does have a sister in my fic.. I'll get back to that later!
R&R as always xx