Hello folks, Here's your next chapter! Just quickly before you read, i've had a few people ask me who Special Agent Blake is, we have never seen her before, she is a completly new character! she has a history with Gibbs and DiNozzo which will be explained as we move through the story. Their past will be told in a series of flash backs from either Gibbs, Tony, Hannah and Abby's memories, some chapters may include 1 or 2 flash backs and other chapters maye be a whole flash back sequence! I'll make sure to make it clear at the begining if there if a flash back coming up!
Anyhoo, enjoy!
Chapter 4
As Gibbs and Abby stared at the plasma screen in disbelief, Tim and Ziva exchanged a look of puzzlement.
"Boss?" Tim said tentatively.
"But that can't be her!" Abby spluttered. "Can it?" She turned to her mentor seeking conformation.
"Looks like her." He said simply.
"Yeah, but it can't be…it just can't be."
Silence filled the lab for a few moments. "Boss?" Tim took a step closer to the lead agent watching him carefully. "What's going on?"
"That," Abby was the one to answer him. She thrust her hand towards the screen her finger pointing at the face that has drawn such a reaction from them. "Is what's going on, Tim."
"Who is she?" Ziva asked.
"She used to be on this team!" Abby exclaimed.
Ziva turned to Tim, her eyebrows raised. "Before my time." He told her.
"She was here before Kate." Abby said typing furiously at her keyboard. "She trained Tony."
"Hey." All except Gibbs jumped slightly at the sound of Tony's utterance. "I resent that."
"Just except it, Tony." Abby retorted. "Uh, Boss-man?" She turned to their leader after receiving a ding from her computer. Gibbs stepped back to her screen and looked over her shoulder. She had pulled up the woman's driver's license. "According to this, Hannah never worked here." Gibbs squinted at the screen. "According to this, she's not even Hannah." Sure enough next to the woman's photo was the name Katherine Jones.
Gibbs turned his gaze back to the plasma screen. He watched as 'Katherine' looked up from the man whose lap she was astride. Her face fell at a lightning speed when she clocked eyes on his senior agent.
"Boss, she's made me, what do I do?" Tony asked. The surveillance footage flittered around slightly as he adjusted himself in his seat.
"Sit tight, DiNozzo, let her come to you." Gibbs instructed.
"Boss, I'm not sure that's a good idea-"
"Just do it, DiNozzo." Gibbs interjected, his voice hardening slightly.
"Gibbs, what happened? I thought she transferred to the Hawaii field office? Wait…do you think she was like too upset about what happened that she didn't want to be an agent anymore? I mean I know it was a tough case and all and the whole…" She glanced over at Time and Ziva, choosing her words carefully. "…you know…didn't help, but I never thought she would leave, let alone change her name and go and work in a…"
"Abby." Gibbs called to her, interrupting her ramblings. "I don't know what happened."
They watched as, after a few moments, 'Katherine' slid gracefully from her customers lap and stood by his side for a second whilst the man slipped a folded note into the hem of her hot pants. She bent at the waist and planted a kiss on the man's face. As she straightened she turned her head to Tony and started a slow teasing walk over to him. The video shifted again.
"DiNozzo, sit still." Gibbs barked.
The feed stilled again and the watched as the woman stopped in front of Tony.
"You look lonely." She began. "Let me keep you company." She twirled around quickly so her back was to him and lowered herself slowly onto his knee. Tony's eyes were drawn to the exposed flesh of her back. Trailing down her spine from her neck to around midway down was a line of small Hebrew letters, her left shoulder sported a treble clef and a six petal flower sat on her lower back. She turned in his lap so she was sat sideways, her legs dangling over his and she wrapped an arm around his shoulders pulling herself close to him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She murmured through gritted teeth into his ear.
"I was going to ask you the same thing." Tony murmured back at her keeping a smile fixed on his face.
"Don't get smart with me, DiNozzo." Tim and Ziva exchanged a look at her impersonal use of his last name. "I know it's been a long time since we've seen each other, but even I know that you would rather die than resort to wearing glasses when you got old. You're on surveillance." It was not a question.
"You going to blow my cover?" He looked up into her face. In the years since he'd seen her she hadn't really changed. Her face showed no signs of aging, her hair looked as good as he remembered and her light grey eyes still held their air of mystery.
"That depends, you going to blow mine?" Before he could answer she took his chin in her free hand and turned his face slightly away from her. As she lent down to kiss his cheek she spotted the earpiece. She reached up behind to the back of her head and removed the slide holding back her curls. She allowed them to fall down around her face creating a curtain behind which he gently pulled the device from Tony's ear and slipped into her own. She then took hold of Tony's left hand and raised it to her mouth and planted a kiss on his palm. "Hello, Jethro." She whispered into the comms clipped to Tony's sleeve as she placed his hand on her cheek.
"Special Agent Blake." Gibbs answered.
"Get you agent out of here." She ordered. "I will not risk him blowing my cover."
"Can't do that, Hannah, we have an investigation to run." He told her shaking his head.
"I don't care about your investigation, Jethro! I have worked too damn hard to let this fall apart now." She paused for a second. "I'll come to the Navy Yard tomorrow at 0800. Just get DiNozzo out of here." With that she pulled the earpiece from her ear and replaced it in Tony's. She climbed from his lap and stood in front of his expectantly, her hands resting on her hips.
Sighing, Tony pulled his wallet from his jacket pocket and took out a ten dollar bill, he folded it once before he reached forward and slipped it into the hem of her pants to join the others already there.
"God." She said as she watched his hands carefully. "I forgot what a lousy tipper you are." She turned without another word and disappeared into the groups of people in the club.
"DiNozzo." Tony jumped out of his thoughts when Gibbs sounded his voice loudly in his ear. "Come home."
"Oh God, Abby, stop it." Tony demanded. For the fifth time in a space of an hour he had lifted his gaze from his computer screen to find Abby's eyes fixed on him, an uncertain look on his face.
"I'm sorry, Tony; I just…how was she? Did she look good? I mean not in what she was wearing because that's…not that she didn't look hot, I'm sure she did but-" The Goth rambled from her position perched on Gibbs' desk.
"ABBY!" Tony bellowed. He regretted it instantly when he saw the hurt look on his friends face. "I'm sorry, Abbs, I'm just…" He trailed off.
She slipped off Gibbs' desk and clumped over to him in her towering boots. "I know." She said as she moved around his desk to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders hugging him from behind. "Did you feel anything? When you saw her?"
"Good morning." McGee called out before Tony could answer. He stopped in front of Tony's desk and looked down at him closely.
"What?" Tony sighed.
"Nothing." Tim carried on past and settled himself in the chair behind his desk, depositing his backpack on the floor next to his seat. He shot a few more curious glances at his partner as he powered up his computer. Abby stayed where she was, her arms clasped around Tony's neck.
The elevator dinged as the door opened and Ziva stepped out carrying a cardboard tray loaded with paper cups. She stopped in front of Tony's desk and removed one of the cups of coffee, placing it next to his Mighty Mouse stapler.
"Thanks." Tony offered as Ziva smiled at him, holding out a Caf-Pow to Abby.
"You are welcome." The Israeli said as she headed to Tim's desk. As she handed him his coffee she leant forward slightly and said in a low voice "Did you ask him?"
"Not yet." He told her in the same hushed tone.
"Ask me what?" Tony demanded from across the bullpen.
Cursing the agents superb hearing Tim looked over at him. "We wanna know who she is?"
"Who?"
"The woman, last night."
"She-"
"She used to work here then she left." Tony said cutting off the forensics specialist behind him. "That's all you need to know." He turned back to his screen and continued his typing. Tim and Ziva both looked to Abby, their eyebrows raised. She avoided their gaze, chewing on her bottom lip as she cast her eyes downwards to look at her watch.
"It's nearly eight, Tony, you sure you wanna be here?" She asked softly in his ear.
"Abby." He said through gritted teeth. "Don't you have work to do in your lab?" Abby stood up, releasing her arms from Tony's neck and stepped around to the front of his desk to face him.
"I haven't seen her for like eight years, Tony."
"Well I'm sure you can wait a little longer." He told her without looking up from his screen.
"Aren't you even a little excited to see her?" She asked him softly.
"Saw her last night, Abbs."
"Yeah, but you didn't really get a chance to talk…you know…about-"
"There's nothing to talk about." He snapped at her rising from his seat. He was about to excuse himself and escape the shocked looks of his team members at his outburst when the elevator dinged once more. The sound drew the gaze of all four pairs of eyes. The doors slid open and the cause of Tony's tension stepped out. She was almost unrecognizable from the woman they had seen on the surveillance feed the night before. Her blond curls had disappeared and were replaced by poker straight flowing locks which had been tied neatly back into a single pony tail. The tattoos they had glimpsed were covered by the smart black pants suit she wore teamed with a simple white shirt under the jacket to which was pinned her visitors pass.
"Hannah!" Abby squealed as she moved as quickly as she could towards the woman in her platforms. The pair stumbled slightly at the force of the hug Abby threw around her old friend.
"It's good to see you too, Abbs." The woman laughed returning the hug. As they parted Abby delivered a not-so-gentle punch to her arm. "Ouch!" Hannah clasped the spot Abby had hit with her opposite hand.
"What was that for?"
"No phone calls, no letters…eight years, Hannah!" The Goth exclaimed.
"I know, I'm sorry, Abby." Hannah admitted sheepishly. "I should have got in touch. I just…" She caught sight, over Abby's shoulder, of DiNozzo sat behind his desk. His eyes quickly darted back to his computer screen. "I needed to separate myself from this place." She added quietly.
Abby let out a small sigh. "I understand." She said giving Hannah a smile which she returned. "Come here. I wanna introduce you." She grasped Hannah's hand tightly in her own and spun around dragging Hannah with her around the partition and into the team's area. "You already know Tony." Abby said with a comical tone to her voice as she pulled Hannah past his desk. "This is Very Special Agent Timothy McGee."
"Hi." Tim said, holding out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you."
"And you." Hannah said shaking his hand and scrutinizing his face. "You look kind of familiar, have we met before?" She asked him.
"He's also Thom E Gemcity, author of Deep Six." Abby pointed to a copy of McGee's novel which sat on a shelf behind Ziva's desk. "Which is based on this team."
"That's where I know you from. Your picture's on the back of the jacket. I'll have to bring in my copy, get you to sign it for me." She grinned teasingly at him. Tim's cheeks flushed red and he gave a small nervous laugh.
"It's not based on this team." He told Abby exasperatedly. "It's not." He said turning to Hannah.
"And this," Abby said turning to Ziva. "Is Probationary Special Agent Ziva David."
"Hello." Ziva said holding out her hand just as McGee had.
"Hey, how long have you been at NCIS?"
"Almost six years." Ziva told her.
"Six years?" Hannah repeated, puzzled. "And you're still a probie?"
"I was a Mossad Liaison Officer when I first started here." Ziva explained. "I have only just recently become an American citizen and a full time agent."
"Mossad?" Hannah mused. "Why the change, if you don't mind me asking."
"I do not mind." Ziva said. "Even though I was not welcome here at first-"
"Her brother killed Kate." Abby cut in.
"Half-brother." Tony called from his desk.
"Who's Kate?" Hannah asked.
"Kate?" At this Tony rose from his desk and sauntered over to the group. "Kate is the agent who took over from you." He said pointedly. "Secret Service. When we first met her she was protecting the President."
"Of…" Hannah feigned ignorance. Tony ignored her attempt to riel him. "Why did he kill her?" She asked the group at large when Tony refused to answer her.
"He was a terrorist." Ziva said simply.
"She shot him." Abby added.
"Who?"
"Her brother."
"Half-brother." Tony said again.
"Why did you shoot your half-brother?" Hannah asked perplexed.
"Because he was trying to kill the Boss-man."
"Why?" Hannah was getting more and more confused.
"Because he was a terrorist." Tony said. Hannah looked at Ziva, her eyebrows raised in disbelief.
"He needed to be stopped, so I killed him." Hannah was stunned at the lack of emotion in her voice when she spoke the last part.
"Wow." She said after a short pause.
"See? You missed all the excitement, Hannah." Tony smiled smugly at her. "Maybe if you hadn't run away when things got tough you might have been around for it."
"Don't start, DiNozzo." Hannah warned him.
"Wait, if you hadn't left then we wouldn't have needed a new agent which means Kate wouldn't have joined which means Ari would never have shot her, which means Ziva would never have turned up and we wouldn't be here now." By the time he finished his tirade his voice had risen significantly.
"Look, what is your problem, DiNozzo?" Hannah snapped. "I'm sorry that we had to meet again like this. It's not exactly easy for me either."
"I'm just sorry we had to meet again at all." Tim, Abby and Ziva had all taken a step back to further them from the inevitable explosion.
"I'm only here 'cause I don't have a choice. You might have blown my cover last night. I have worked damn hard over the last four months to get where I am in that club. I am not just going to lie down and let you ruin my op!"
"Oh, come on, Hannah, we both know you do your best work lying down!" Tony said his voice dripping with malice.
A silence fell over them all at Tony's last words. Hannah's mouth was slightly agape and she looked as though she were about to lash out and hit the Italian.
"DINOZZO!" Each and every one of them jumped when Gibbs' voice hollered from the top stairs to MTAC.
"Yes, Boss."
"BLAKE!"
"Yes, Boss…Gibbs." Hannah mentally kicked herself for the slip of the tongue.
"Conference room." He descended the last few steps at double pace and marched past them heading towards the elevator. "NOW!" He bellowed when he realized they weren't following him. The entire office was silent. Each person in the room watched and Hannah and Tony followed Gibbs into the elevator and the doors slid closed.