So I meant this to be kind of a one off, but I figured it was equally fun to have them all team up in the field, so this basically continues right after Ellie and Ziva get the call with Gibb's possible location.
This is pretty similar in terms of the general vibe of everybody on this show should just get married already, but I left Ellie and Nick getting together for next season.
Tony could see the girls laying prone on the side of the hill surveying the factory before them. It stood out against the horizon at least half dozen stories tall with hardly a window in the place. It was going to be a nightmare finding Gibbs in there.
Nick jumped out of the car and made his way over to Ellie keeping his body low and hopefully out of view of anybody looking for them.
Tony laid himself down beside Ziva catching her eye with a smirk. "Fancy meeting you here." She smiled back at him.
"Near as I can tell he has seven men with him." She said turning her attention back to the building. "Four doors going in, that means one for each of us."
Nick reached into his pocket pulling out comms and passing them to the girls, "McGee and Jack are in MTAC stealing satellite time from the NSA so let's do this quick before they catch on. Torres Triple Play?" he said looking at Ellie for confirmation.
"No, there's four of us." She said clicking the safety off on her gun.
"Even better you can stay here and not get shot." He quirked his head to the side smiling at her. He knew she wouldn't listen but part of him hoped he was wrong. But Ellie quickly rolled her eyes at him.
The comms crackled in their ears followed by McGee's voice "Thermal imaging is hard to do in a building with this much metal, but it looks like one guard at the second floor fire escape, two bodies in a room just beyond that, and maybe half a doze more in a room even further down the hall." Tony looked at the team lying to his right.
"Well at least they're not expecting us." He said a tinge of sarcasm in his voice. "How are we playing this, Rule 44 or Rule 45." He heard a distinctive 'pfft' from Ziva and Ellie at that.
"Neither, Somalia." Ziva looked to Torres and Bishop who seemed to have at least some sense of what she was referring to.
"Gibbs is the bait, I am the wildcard, you are asleep" she turned to look at Torres and Ellie before continuing "Ellie is Gibbs, and Torres is cover fire."
A sharp nod passed down the line between them.
With the go ahead from Vance in MTAC and clearance from McGee that no one was near a window to see the approach the four made their way over the hill and to each of the four doors. Ziva had taken the one with the guard after winning the argument with Tony that she was quieter with a blade. On the count each of them breached their doorways.
Tony, Ellie, and Torres cleared the bottom floor and met at the bottom of the staircase. With a nod and a couple of gestures, they made their way up the stairs to find Ziva standing at the top a body at her feet. "Okay, I really like this girl" Nick muttered before catching an elbow in the rib from DiNozzo.
Bishop moved into position in the doorway of the room across the hall from where Kassar was supposed to be holding Gibbs. Torres made his way further down the hall outside the door where the rest of the men were waiting.
Ziva nodded to Tony "Just like old times" she whispered.
"We are so never doing this again." He whispered back. She nodded in agreement putting her gun in her waist band and quietly pushing the door open.
"Kassar, let him go. This is just between you and me." She made her way slowly into the room arms raised looking down the barrel of the gun Kassar had aimed between her eyes.
"Uh, also me!" Tony mutter entering the room in much the same way but with a limp a pool of blood evident on his shirt.
Gibb's eyes widened watching his two former agents walk into the room. "Guns on the ground" Kassar yelled out "knives too." The emptied their weapons caches laying them all on the floor and kicking them towards the opposite wall.
"You all right DiNozzo!" Gibbs called out his eyes trained on the growing mark of blood on his shirt centered over his liver.
"Never better boss," he said with a forced smile "just re-enacting Saving Private Ryan." With that Tony slumped to the ground beside the door.
"Kassar,' Ziva said pulling the barrel of his gun and his attention off Tony and back onto herself. "Things have changed since we last met."
Kassar narrowed his eyes at her, "You, me, and factory full of bodies you dropped. Seems about the same. I spent a lot of time getting to know you Ziva, you're family, all dead, your friends, they don't last long either. Seems that I'd be doing the world a favor getting rid of you."
Ziva moved her way around the room forcing Kassar to rotate towards the door. "Probably," she agreed "Unfortunately not everyone agrees with you, and now you are going to die, a final name to add to my ledger."
"You are unarmed, you're partner is bleeding out on the floor, and your boss is in no position to walk much less fight."
Ziva nodded. "Yes, that is all true. But Gibbs he has these rules, some of them are complete garbage, but there are some redeeming ones. Never involve lawyers, always work as a team." Ziva came to rest against the far wall as Kassar came to stand in front of the open doorway.
"You're team is bleeding out, and tied to a chair. I don't think that one applies." Ziva nodded her head to the side.
"My team, sure. His team on the other hand." Ziva said nodding towards Gibbs before glancing behind Kassar at the open doorway. Kassar spun to face the door taking his gun off Ziva.
Tony kicked him in the shin as hard as he could the bleeding out a ruse to appear non-threatening, before a bullet came flying out of Ellie's gun through the side of Kassars head. Tony jumped up and ran to Gibbs slicing open his restraints, as Ziva collected one of her guns from the floor and made her way to the doorway.
Kassars men flung up out of their chairs and whipped the door open, Torres dropped half of them before they even knew what was happening. The rest backed up into the room taking turns returning fire. "Uh guys, a little help here!" He called out towards the other end of the hall where Ziva and Ellie were peering out from their respective positions. The return fire forced Nick back into the room as Kassars men advanced into the hallway. Gun shots echoed through the hall as Ellie picked off one and Ziva took the other.
Torres grunted as a bullet from the last guy caught him in the arm before hitting him back squared between the eyes. "Clear!" he yelled out the pain evident in his voice.
He stumbled out into the hallway coming to rest against the wall, glancing down at the wound in his arm. "You guys good?"
The four of them poured out into the hallway. "Yeah!" Gibbs called back. "Let's go."
The five of them made their way back out of the building pushing open the front door the light nearly blinding them as the exited.
Cops cars and ambulances had long since surrounded the building. Gibbs was waving off EMT's left and right and Torres had grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled the bullet out his own arm when they're backs were turned. Insisting that now he didn't have to the go to the hospital.
Tony and Ziva sat on the hill watching people swarm around. Ziva watched the EMT's making exasperated gestures at each other. "Great, now there's two of them."
Tony nodded "Yeah, I bet Vance loves that." He moved to the side nudging her shoulder so she looked up at him. "I looked for you, you know that right." Ziva looked away from him and down at her feet.
"I know." She said uncertainty in her voice "I'm sorry I didn't let you find me." A single tear rolled down her cheek.
He looked down at the top of her head reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his chest and laying a kiss on top of her head. Then he stood up to stand in front of her, before getting down on one knee and taking one of her hands. "Ziva David, will you marry me? You are not allowed to say no."
She let out a chuckle before nodding her head. Tony stood up pulling her to her feet and wrapping her in a kiss like the one they had shared in Israel all those years ago.
Across the parking lot Gibbs smiled over at his agents.
Bishop and Torres gave each other knowing looks. "You think they wish they'd done things differently?" Ellie asked turning to look at Nick, whose arm was now carefully wrapped in gauze. "They lost all that time together."
Nick looked appraisingly at his new bullet wound. "I think sometimes people are more afraid of losing what they have than of not getting what they want." It was a loaded statement "I understand that."
Ellie sat beside him quietly, yeah she supposed she understood that too. Looking over at Tony she thought back on their time working together. Of him looking heartbreakingly at her necklace in his desk drawer everyday for years. She turned to face Nick steeling herself "I think what they had was gone the minute they fell for each other," He turned to face her raising his eyebrows slightly "and there's no use trying to get that back. Sometimes you just have to keep moving forward." They stared at each other for a minute before Ellie stood up from beside him and walked over to the cops gathered around Gibbs.
Back in the bullpen, the mood was electric. McGee had moved back to his old desk for the time being, Torres never used it anyway. He and Ellie were sat behind her desk talking animatedly with Jack and Ziva. He glanced over at Tony sitting behind his desk who met his eye with a smile. "McNerd I better not find any weird stuff in my desk!" He called over to him.
"I would never disrespect you like that Tony!" He called back smiling.
Gibbs surveyed the room around him. Jimmy, Kacie and Vance had all taken up residence at chairs they stole from other peoples desks. Just like old times he thought to himself watching Tony and Ziva make faces at each other from across the room. He caught Jacks eye and she smiled at him. Nah, better than old times, new times.
He hit the button on his computer shutting it down and started making his way towards the elevators. "You leaving boss?" He heard Tony shout from behind him.
"I don't have enough steaks in my fridge to feed all you people!" He shouted without turning around. "I expect everybody at my house by four, Tali and Senior included!"
With that he disappeared onto the elevator the doors closing behind him. The ghost of a smile imprinted on his face.
The next evening Gibbs house was as raucous and packed as it had been in years. Vance had brought his kids over, McGee, Delilah, and the twins were there with Jimmy, Breena, Victoria, and Ducky who had come into town for the occasion. Ellie and Torres showed up with Kacie. Jack had been there most of the day helping him cook. And lastly Tony, Ziva, Tali and Senior came in after a run to the airport.
They sat spread across the entire bottom floor of his house. Tali running in circles with Victoria. Ziva and Ellie were talking animatedly in the corner. Tony appeared to be having a much more serious conversation with Torres. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Jack slipped down into the basement. After a moment he followed suit.
"Too loud for you Jack?" he questioned making his way down the stairs.
"I just happen to know this is where you keep the good bourbon." She said grabbing a second mug for him off the shelf. "I see you finished your boat." She mentioned nodding to the monstrosity occupying most of the space.
"Yeah, had some time last night to wrap things up." He said grabbing the mug she offered him and taking a swig. All the footsteps up above were shaking dust down out of the beams in the ceiling. He clinked his mug against Jack's. He looked over to the back of his boat where in carefully painted black letters in read Family. He thought this one, he just might keep.