A.N. Hi guys! I'm back! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to receive those emails saying my story was added to favorites, or was on story alerts, or was reviewed… It is really incredible to think my drabbles are being read by people all around the world (531 from 42 countries up to this point to be exact!), and that some of them actually like it. I feel like jumping up and down screaming!!!

Anyway, crazy fit aside, thank you very much for your advice, it now says AU on the summary and I will keep writing this story. Please keep the advice coming, I will listen to (almost) all of it.

As previously mentioned, I don't own anything even remotely NCIS related, but I don't own much of anything either, so please don't sue me, it'll cost you more money than you'll get.

Chapter Two

The bullpen was quiet, the three younger MCRT agents working in silence at their desk. Ziva was trying hard to focus on her cold case, which dealt with a fifteen year old murder of an elderly woman in Arlington County. It had been turned over to NCIS because she had been strangled with the dog tags of an MIA marine, but no one had ever been arrested, no connection had been found between the victim and the marine and no signs of the latter were to be found as Ziva browsed his financial and social security records. She sighed, disappointed by how ineffective her day was threatening to be.

McGee looked up from his own cold case, one about a gunnery sergeant's suspicious suicide. He was suddenly startled by the calm of his co-workers. He smirked, thinking it couldn't last. He gave them ten minutes to start getting in each other's face, fifteen to gang up to tease him. And frankly, he wouldn't mind it. He hated working cold cases, the memory of the unavenged deaths bothered him more than he would ever admit. It made him face the fact that they couldn't make everything right and that some killers were just never caught. It hurt his idealised vision of NCIS. Much like in his video games, he enjoyed the simple role play of the villain and the hero, and it hurt to realise the hero wasn't infallible and the villain sometimes won. He wasn't so naive as to not realise that long before he joined NCIS, however it helped to recreate this romanticised version of his work in his writing. Actually, now that he thought about it, this was probably one of the reasons he had written Deep Six in which the team was always the hero and always succeeded...

Gibbs was watching his team from the railing near MTAC. He caught Ziva's exasperated sighs and McGee absent-minded glances around the bullpen. Tony's back was to him and he could see him alternate between working his case and playing hit-the-Taliban. He smiled to himself. He knew they'd much rather be out in the field, but seeing them calm and settled at their desks allowed him to breathe in a way open-cases did not. Not wanting to dwell on why he was so uneasy when he sent them out on missions, he turned around to visit Abby in her lab, searching his pockets for a few dollars to buy her a CafPow.

Gibbs had been listening to Abby's rambling for nearly 45 minutes when Vance called him up to his office. Planting a kiss on her cheek, he left her to her CafPow-induced hyperactivity, took the elevator to the top floor and walked straight into the Director's office, passing a blasé Cynthia.

"What do you want, Leon?" he asked as the 'Toothpick' turned away from the window to give him a stern stare.

"SecNav called. There is a case you and your team have to take, although I would have argued against it, had it been my choice, but we have a few senators pushing hard for it." He twisted his head to one side with annoyance. "Some cases hit too close to home..."

"What is it, Leon?" When he didn't answer straight away, he added impatiently, "Come on, if you need us on a case, we don't have all day!" What's going on now? He thought. What have those screwed up politicians done again?

"As you know, the army and navy work in close cooperation with civilian arms and tactical equipment manufacturers. One of these companies, DNAE, has had an unusually high proportion of suicides and missing people in the last few weeks, which has lead some of its personnel to fear for their safety."

"How is that our jurisdiction? As you said, this is a civilian company."

"That's where the... er... hinky part starts." Vance was slightly ashamed Abby's colloquialism was the only word that seemed to fit. "The CEO of DNAE is one Anthony DiNozzo Senior, the D and N of DNAE I believe." Gibbs' eyebrows rode up to his hairline, widening his steely eyes in surprise and disbelief.

"You I don't believe in coincidences, right?"

"Yes, I know you don't, and in this instance you would be right, Gibbs," Vance sighed. "Apparently DiNozzo Sr knows all the right people, and particularly those to call to get senators to pressure SecNav into assigning this case to your team. I told him of the personal connection between MCRT and DNAE but he says his hands are tied. You have to take this case, and I have to tell you this is a direct order."

Vance rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. Sometimes he couldn't stand the political manoeuvres his job forced upon him. On such days, memories of field work on crime scenes or undercover looked remarkably appealing...

"Oh, and before you ask, you can't enquire as to the nature of the equipment the DNAE is working on. It's need to know only, and it seems the DoD has decided you don't qualify," he added reluctantly. "I'm sorry"

Gibbs stood for a moment, going over the situation in his head. He didn't really mind not being informed about the equipment; McGee could tell him anything he needed in two hours, three if the files were well secured. No, what bothered him was that he was going to shove Tony's father right in his face and ask him to be objective about it. He didn't know much about their relationship, but as far as he was aware, things were far from peachy. Tony had once told him he'd been disinherited at 12 and sent to military boarding schools from a young age. That didn't scream strong father-son bond. Hell, he'd known Tony for seven years and he'd hardly even mentioned his father. Uh uh, this was not going to be good churned Gibbs' gut.

Vance watched as Gibbs' features hardened before he turned back to the door. He paused in the doorway for a second.

"I hope this bloody doesn't hurt Tony and you'd better wish so too, because if it does, I promise you all these fancy people won't be able to hide behind their pricey suits when I come for them," Gibbs threatened, meaning every word of it.

Vance didn't answer, as he couldn't very well say he thought it'd be justified, as the director of NCIS. Yep, sometimes he hated the restraints of his job. Feeling his agreement nonetheless, Gibbs stormed out of his office, worried and fuming.

Tony was having fun killing Taliban's on his computer when Ziva IM-ed him. "Gibbs!" he read, causing him to instantly jump up from his slouched position, close the game, take off his earphones, scramble for his cold-case file and slam it open.

He looked up innocently at his boss when Gibbs stopped in front of his desk, but was still met by an icy stare and a head-slap. Well, I should have expected it, he thought, disgruntled. Nothing escapes the eye of the Jedi master. What he still did not expect, however, was Gibbs walking over to Ziva and hitting her the exact same way.

"That was for warning him," he answered her startled eyes, throwing his thumb over his shoulder in Tony's direction. Oh yeah, we really got ourselves a Jedi master.

Having restored discipline and more importantly attention, Gibbs turned to the rest of his team.

"We have a case," he declared. Before they could grab their gear, he added "Ziva, background on DNAE. McGee, find out what they're working on for the army at the moment. It's classified, so make sure you're not caught. DiNozzo, with me. Don't take your stuff." And with that, he marched to the elevator, not looking forward to the much needed conversation he was about to have there.

A.N. So there was this one review that said I shouldn't continue this story since it doesn't fit the last episode. Please know that, first of all, I'm in France and haven't seen that episode yet, and that at least 7 people enjoyed the first chapter, so I'll keep going as long as someone reads what I write and appreciates it. Till next time, take care!