A/N- Sorry if I made it seem like a six month lapse between Gibbs visit and the next chapter. I Just wanted a holiday scene to empthasize how far Tony has gone down the path of melancholy despair since Ziva's wandering off.
Gibbs' grabbed Tony's arm as they reached the parking lot and he made to move towards his car,
"Nuh uh" he told him, leading him away, "Vance had a tracking device put in my car this morning"
He heard his senior field agent stifle a groan as he realised what was coming,
"We're playing musical cabs again, aren't we boss?"
Gibbs didn't answer, but ahead of them, sitting just outside the Navy Yard, barely visible in the darkness of the night, sat an idling taxi. Breaking into a jog, both men slid into the back of the vehicle and buckled in as Gibbs gave the man an address.
He kept an eye on the traffic around him, making sure that they weren't being tailed. So far, Vance hadn't been able to keep up with the new system dubbed by Tony as 'musical cabs'. Gibbs had been sure to regularly change companies, never use his own name and always pay with non sequential notes, but sooner or later Vance would find a way to track his team.
And then they would have to come up with a new method.
Knowing that this train of thought only led him to frustration and anger, Gibbs turned to Tony expecting him to start a conversation or make a movie-reference, being one of the few people he knew who would attempt conversation with the former Marine sniper.
But it had been a long time since Tony had made polite chit-chat with him.
At the moment, DiNozzo had his head back against the head rest, his eyes closed, definitely not sleeping, likely he was avoiding the world.
The world that had given him Paula, Jeanne and Ziva only to take them away again.
There were times now when Leroy Jethro Gibbs could hate Jennifer Sheppard for coming between him and his senior field agent.
Yes, the Tony prior to her days as Director had been more interested in one night stands than proper relationships.
Yes, the old Tony had been more interested in having fun than being serious.
But damn if DiNozzo hadn't been one of the best agents to have ever come through NCIS. He had been passionate about his work, insightful in ways other agents hadn't been and one of the few people with as much integrity as Gibbs himself.
Jenny had taken that away when she'd placed him undercover and forced him to lie to an innocent woman. Paula's death had taken away his mischief and joie de vivre and Ziva...
Gibbs would have bet his eyes that Tony's mobile was in his pocket, set to silent for all calls not from Ziva David's phone. His senior field agent was waiting for a call that would never come, waiting for Ziva to return his life back to him.
Gibbs hated Ziva, not because she had lied to him, or abused his trust, but because she had left one of his few friends cut adrift from the world, unable to see or hear anything that wasn't from her lips.
Which was one of the reasons that Gibbs had granted her request without a second thought.
Turning down into a deserted street, Gibbs withdrew a twenty from his wallet and handed it to the driver who was happy to be receiving the astronomical tip and thus didn't question the odd actions of his passengers. Climbing from the vehicle, both wincing as softly falling rain greeted them, they looked up and down the street for the next pre-ordered cab. This one was parked before a bar, and from a different company from the last taxi. When they hopped in the driver was interested in conversation, but after being stonewalled for five minutes simply gave up, chalking the matter up to the rudeness of Americans.
There were roughly eight different cab companies in Washington and somehow, though the distance between the Navy Yard and their destination was usually a short trip, Gibbs made sure that they used every last one. Creating maximum confusion for Vance was one of the few pleasures allowed to Gibbs these days and he was determined to squeeze every last bit of fun from the experience.
Tony had remained mostly silent during the cab rides, but when he saw where they were and realised it was their final stop, he looked to Gibbs in confusion.
"What are we doing at the hospital boss?"
Gibbs exhaled as he climbed the steps to the front entrance, not sure if he wanted to tell DiNozzo now, or wait until the situation could be explained properly, even if it held the element of a nasty surprise.
"Boss?"
Tony stood at the bottom of the steps, looking up at him with a hint of his former stubbornness. In return Gibbs gave him his renowned glare,
"Just because we're not at work doesn't mean I won't slap you DiNozzo, move!"
Truthfully, Gibbs hadn't head-slapped DiNozzo since before Aliyah, but he was sure that before the night was out he and Tony would be returning to their former work relationship.
Knowing DiNozzo would follow him, from sheer habit if nothing else. Gibbs led the way to the psych ward where Ziva was now being kept, her mental condition being diagnosed as more serious than her physical injuries.
Even though it would be months, if not years, before she recovered maybe half of her previous abilities.
As he had promised. Trent Kort was keeping watch in the corridor, seated in one of the many hospital chairs, nursing a coffee and a gossip magazine. Gibbs suspected that he was pretending to be nothing more than a civilian visitor, giving him the element of surprise in case enemies came a-calling. It was a ruse Gibbs had himself pulled many a time, though with much more success than the CIA agent before him. Certainly with his silver hair and non-descript clothing he blended in much more easily, Kort on the other hand managed to look like a soldier even when he was dressed casually, causing those around him to avoid meeting his gaze.
Kort looked up at the exact moment Tony spotted him and every resentment they held against each other flared up within them.
"What is he doing here?" Tony demanded, looking to Gibbs with the faintest of accusations. Before he could reply in the hope of containing the situation, Kort spoke up.
"What's the matter DiNozzo? Not happy to see me? Surely you're not still grumpy from the last time I worked with NCIS?"
Tony scoffed, ignoring the Gibbs glare. "Fortunately no...If I got grumpy every time you lied, cheated or screwed over an agency...well let's just say there aren't enough hours in the day to handle your treacheries"
Unable to come up with a witty reply, Kort settled for the general curse,
"Bite me, DiNozzo"
Gibbs watched as Tony turned his face away to hide his triumph, his eyes resting on the room before them- and he froze.
Gibbs and Kort watched with interest and concern as Tony stopped breathing. He stepped closer to the window, his nose just touching the glass as he looked in at the unrecognizable body that Kort had brought back to America.
He moved so suddenly that Gibbs barely had time to register the situation before he was throwing open the door and flying into the room. Worried that he might try to interfere with the machines that kept her alive, Kort and Gibbs followed. They needn't have worried; Tony had stopped dead at the side of the bed where the woman's hand rested above the covers. Gently, he reached down and lifted it into his own,
"Ziva?"
How Tony had recognised her when even Gibbs and Kort hadn't been sure was a mystery. One that couldn't be contemplated in that moment because Ziva David was stirring. Moving slowly so as to prevent as much pain as possible, like a newborn kitten, Ziva's head turned towards the sound of Tony's voice.
"Tony?" she rasped through her bruised and battered throat, her eyes tearing at the effort she made to open them. Bending down closer to her, allowing his face to be thrown into illumination by the bedside lamp, Tony nodded.
"It's me Zi, I'm here"
Gibbs wasn't sure if the movement of Ziva's mouth was a soundless cry of pain or an attempt to smile.
"I'm not in Africa?"
Tony shook his head, "No...you're in Washington, at Bethesda Hospital with me"
"I'm safe then" she whispered, before turning her eyes away from the light and falling back asleep. Her hand stayed in his however, her fingers curling as much as they were able in the bandaging. Looking around himself for a chair, Tony pulled one over and settled himself down, his very stance daring someone to try to move him. His gaze was so fixated on Ziva's face that Gibbs doubted he even heard him and Kort leave the room.
"Well...wasn't that sweet"
The way Kort spoke the words reminded Gibbs of the time Kelly had tasted Kim Chi, she'd seen him eating the pickled cabbage and had been determined to enjoy it herself, but she had detested the taste and hadn't been able to keep her emotions from her face.
"She's recovering though" Gibbs pointed out as he and Kort made the trip to the nearest coffee machine, Kort nodded churlishly in agreement.
"Yes fortunately. Another week, perhaps less and she may even be able to give a statement"
Gibbs frowned as he removed his paper cup, taking a quick sip of the scalding hot liquid,
"I thought you took out the bastards that did this to her?"
Kort threw him a predatory smile, "I took out that one's responsible for torturing her...but not the ones whose actions put her there in the first place"
It took all of his concentration to swallow his coffee and even then he had to hope the tears in his eyes were the result of the scalding and not from the knowledge that one of his team members had been betrayed.
And if he remembered correctly, there were very few people who would have known where Ziva was going.
Perhaps Vance's obsessive tracking of his team was about to make sense.
Ziva and Tony all next chapter. With maybe a bit of McGee
