"Oh my baby! I am so happy you're finally released!" Mrs. Schmidt's nearly cried as she threw her arms around her smiling son. He winced in pain as Mr. Schmidt pulled his wife back.
"Hold on, Mom, I'll just be a moment. I have to speak to Special Agent Gibbs." His mother nodded and then wiped away her tears as she finally let go of him. He moved away from her and towards Gibbs, who sat on the bench in front of McGee's ICU room. He stood up once Curtis got to him, "Special Agent Gibbs." He acknowledged, standing in attention as soon as he was in front of him.
"At ease," Gibbs smirked.
"I just wanted to thank you personally for taking down that bastard who kidnapped me."
"Not a problem. But it wasn't me. Thank Officer David."
"Where is he?"
"She," He corrected, smirking at the fact that he had just called Ziva a man. If she was here, he would definitely have been sent back to emergency surgery, "And…" his senses were kicking in. He heard the elevator door open, "There she is." The sailor looked in shock at the gray haired man and then shot his eyes to the elevator doors, where Ziva David came walking out, her hair pulled back into a tight bun, dressed in a white cotton dress and boots. Gibbs turned around and let his eyes bulge out for just a moment, "Ziva?" he questioned, looking her up and down. He had to bite back the whistle that was going through his head. He hated to admit it, but she looked hot. He wanted to smack himself for thinking that. Horrible, he knew.
"Gibbs." She acknowledged, "I have come to speak to Doctor Pitt. Where is he?"
"Sorry, Ziver, but you have to talk to Chief Officer Curtis Schmidt first."
"Officer David. I would personally like to thank you for bringing down that bastard." He repeated, smiling a dazzling smile at her. She let her eyes falter for a moment, looking down at the ground before nodding.
"Yes I…." She could feel the guilt welling up. She almost couldn't take it anymore. She had just been so wrong, so horribly wrong in everything that she had done that day; she almost could not take it. At all, "Gibbs I cannot take this anymore." She suddenly blurted out, turning to him, "It is my fault McGee is in there, yes? Because I was too concerned for Tony's safety, yes? Oh Tony…" She thought back to him. She was losing it, she was, and she couldn't stop herself, "I have to go Gibbs." She muttered before she quickly moved past her boss and the sailor.
"Uh….sir?" Curtis asked after a couple of moments in silence.
Gibbs just patted his shoulder, "Be good, sailor." He nodded, "and I don't expect to see your name up in NCIS again, only if you're applying for a job."
He smiled, "Yes sir. Thank you for saving me. You have no idea how thankful I am."
Gibbs just nodded and then saluted him a goodbye before he shook his head and looked into McGee's ICU room, where Abby still sat by his side, holding his hand in hers. I'm gonna get coffee. He thought before he disappeared towards the vending machines.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Director Vance called Tony into his office about two hours later, demanding that he needed to come in as soon as possible. Groaning, Tony left his apartment, got into his Mustang, and drove to NCIS headquarters. His feet seemed to be moving slower than usual, nevertheless, he made it up to the Directors' office before he had the chance to possibly hate him anymore.
"You wanted to see me, Director Vance?" He questioned as he closed the door quietly and slowly behind him.
"Yes, Agent DiNozzo, take a seat." He gestured to one of the chairs in front of him. Tony looked behind him and then took the closest seat. Vance grabbed a file off of his desk and then walked around to the other side of the table. He set the file down, "How's Agent McGee doing?" He questioned, staring down into him, the toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth.
"McGee's doing well." Tony said, "Well I mean, he's still in a coma, but Dr. Pitt said he was doing just fine…for his state." Normally he would have thrown a joke in there, but Ziva not only broke up with him, but he also just hadn't been feeling like throwing his normal jokes in there. Not since his wonderful time as an Agent Afloat. He'd have to thank Director Vance for that.
"Well DiNozzo, I called you in here to discuss your work ethics."
"What about them?" He questioned. He had been filing in his reports on time, even sometimes before Ziva and McGee, he was always on time to work, he barely ever made movie references anymore…what did he do?
"I've noticed their improvement from the time that Jenny Shepard was Director and from my time as Director." Tony just stared at him, as if motioning him to continue. Realizing he wasn't going to say anything, he continued, "Your reports have been outstanding, and your interrogation techniques, observation techniques, and all around techniques have increased…significantly. And after reviewing the case you took over for Gibbs a couple of weeks ago, I have finally made my decision."
"Thank you, sir," He said, nodding his head, unable to keep the small smile forming on his face. Vance mirrored the smile, yet it was larger.
"Which is why I'm promoting you," Tony gulped as Vance continued, pushing the manila folder closer to the senior field agent, "A new team. Your own team. San Diego. What do you think?" Tony just stared down at the file, unable to even breathe, "Now I know that Jenny Shepard did the same for the Rota team in Spain, but this is different, DiNozzo. You have changed since then, otherwise I wouldn't be promoting you."
"Director Vance I…"
"Think about it and then tell me your decision. You have 72 hours."
"Where have I heard that before?" he mumbled as Vance shoved the file towards him before standing up and walking towards his desk, leaving Tony at the table, "I would carefully consider it, Agent DiNozzo. Change isn't a bad thing."
And then, he couldn't help it, he stood up and turned around, "Ziva." He suddenly burst out. He gulped as Director Vance turned around, arching an eyebrow.
"Excuse me, Agent DiNozzo?"
He let his mouth flap open for a little bit, unable of what to say. He hadn't meant to say that, he really hadn't, "Uh…and…McGee and Gibbs and Ducky and Abby." He finally finished, covering up for his mistake. He mentally slapped himself, "What will they think?"
"They will hopefully accept your decision to move forward with your life. You can't stay with them forever. You will lose them all someday, Agent DiNozzo. Remember, this is a once in a lifetime chance."
Tony groaned and snatched the file up, starting towards the door as he mumbled quietly, to himself, "I've had enough with 'once in a lifetime' chances."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Dr. Pitt." Ziva called as she spotted him from down the hall. He turned his head towards her and then started through the crowd of doctors and nurses, heading in the direction of the Israeli woman.
"Ziva, correct?" She wrung her hands together.
"Yes. I was…I just wondering…"
"About Agent McGee?"
"Actually…" She sighed, how was she going to do this? "I was wondering if you still possibly had the record for…May 10th, 2005?" She had memorized the date. She wasn't even there, but she had remembered the date. Memories of Jeanne flew back to her.
"For?" Pitt knew. He just didn't want to say it. He wanted her to say it.
"Tony." She said, exhaling deeply. She had said it, "I need to know."
"You don't?" he questioned, and she shook her head.
"No. I need to know."
He nodded his head, "I'll see what I can dig up. Wait here."
Ziva looked around and spotted a chair sitting up against the wall. She took a seat, unable to determine what exactly was going through her mind. Tony. She had made a mistake, she knew that, and she wanted to get back together with him, but she knew that it was best for the entire team that they weren't together. She loved him. She would admit that. She had been stupid. She had nearly dedicated her life to him, she had thrown herself at him, placed her life in his hands, depended on him, relied on him and now…she was pulling it all back in at the last moment but still holding on to the one part that Tony didn't know he was holding onto.
She didn't know how she was going to face him every day for the rest of her life…there would be too much tension. But did she seriously think that they were going to get married? That Tony was seriously ready to be that committed to life? To her life? Sure, he was a 'new' Tony, per say, but he was still Tony. And Tony was afraid of commitment. Maybe not as much as he was then, but he was still afraid. But one day he was going to get older, and women just weren't going to flock all over him anymore, and he was going to have to settle down. He had to accept the fact that his own mortality was coming up, and he had to act if he wanted to be with someone, if he wanted a 'Mrs. DiNozzo' in his life.
Suddenly, a cup appeared in front of her eyes, and the smell of fresh green tea shot through her nostrils. She looked up and into the blue eyes of Leroy Jethro Gibbs. She took it, giving him a small turn of one lip up before taking a sip and sitting back in her seat. Gibbs said nothing and then took a seat next to her.
"You know, Ziva," He started, after sitting in silence for a while, "There are moments in life where you will mess up, where you will regret what you did, where you'll blame yourself for something that wasn't your fault." He didn't look at her, he just continued to stare at the wall in front of him, "And then you realize that it's not your fault, and you couldn't have done anything to prevent the mistake from happening. You just have to trust yourself enough to know the difference between when you screw up and when you protect the people you care about." Gibbs turned and glanced at Ziva, who was staring at him, for a moment before taking a sip of his coffee.
"Gibbs I…"
"I'm not mad at you, Ziva." He said, "Or disappointed. You were protecting Tony." He patted her knee, and she looked down at the sound of his name, absentmindedly playing with the hem of her dress, "I understand. Then you have to remember who you care about the most. And then you make your decision."
It was at that moment that Dr. Pitt decided to come out, medical record on hand. He approached her, "Here you go, Ziva!" He handed her the file, and she quickly tucked it under her arm, so that Gibbs couldn't see.
"Thank you." She mumbled before quickly standing up. Gibbs just gave a small smirk when she didn't look, "Goodnight, Gibbs." She said, "Please call me when he awakes, yes?" She asked as she started away.
"Ziva," He called, standing up. She paused and turned her head, staring back at the former marine, "If you wanted to check up on DiNozzo, you could just ask."
Ziva just looked down at the file and then started towards the elevator, not even nodding back at Gibbs. She pressed the down button for the elevator, and then waited in front of it before pulling out the medical file and skimming through it. The elevator doors chimed open and she walked in, pressing the garage button and then heading down. Figuring that she'd finish it up later, she closed it and then the elevator doors opened to reveal the garage and none other than Anthony DiNozzo standing there. Her heart skipped a beat as she glanced up at him, refusing to meet his eyes. She moved past him quickly, a shiver running through her body as her shoulder brushed up against his as she nearly bolted out of the elevator, leaving Tony to stare after her.
He shook his head and looked down at the file that was in his hands. With Ziva acting the way she was, the San Diego team was starting to look better and better every time he opened it. The elevator doors closed again in front of him, and he sighed. He wasn't going to have the talk with Gibbs about this now. Not until he finished reading the file and made his decision. Over pizza and some beer. He needed some calming down. Oh yeah, and after he moved all of his stuff from Ziva's apartment back over to his.
He wondered briefly how much moving truck rentals cost.
