13 Years Ago: Part II

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"The healthiest response to life is joy."
-Deepak Chopra

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This year had welcomed much change to the NCIS team, firstly Sophy who had secured her position, and not long after they were face by with another new member. But it wasn't just any member though; a Director. He'd joined them after the sudden retirement of now ex-Director Leon Vance, why he had retired no one really knows and is still a pending mystery. He was replaced by a young man, Alan Jones; and he looked like a spitting image of Leon, though minus maybe twenty years.

On the Director's first day Ziva could feel his nerves as he walked by, it was like a ticking time bomb for goodness sakes, there was no way she would've missed it and she was pretty sure she wasn't the only one who had noticed it. He had clearly found it hard as he settled within the agency and it was sort of sad as she watched him struggled, she knew how that felt, being rejected. But she wasn't going to let her sympathy waver her assumptions though, and she didn't know how the others felt, but she wasn't ready to watch some unknown smug come into power. No, she'd put him through tests before she would give him the authority to order them around.

Ziva had convinced Abby to hack into multiple of interrogations that were conducted by the Director himself so she could familiarize herself with his style. She found herself surprised, that he indeed had the skills to successfully acquire information from suspects; his approach was like luring a mouse with cheese. She settled on two options, he was either a good person and only used his skills when needed or he had an ulterior motive, the chances of the latter were slim but she just had to make sure.

She had shared her suspicions with Tony, and the two agreed to play him, they watched him very closely throughout the first week. They made sure they had established their power within the building, and he seemed to have gotten the hint because he kept his eyes on everyone else but their team.

After two weeks of observation, they had came to an agreement that he wasn't up to anything suspicious and decided it was safe to pull out the first of many tricks to come. They started with something easy just so they could dunk their toes in the water and test how hot it was.

She had suggested a classic; one that had became a tradition after the first time Abby had pulled it off on McGee many years ago. They arrived early one morning and had switched the Director's keyboard with a rigged keyboard and when activated by touch would release soapy foam all over the desk.

They were all in the bullpen when the Director arrived and headed upstairs, he hadn't the slightest clue as to what was he was in store for. A few moments later he made his way down the stairs foam all over his hands and suit. He marched right into the bullpen and stared at Tony, his stare of course useless compared to their past leaders. The attention of the whole office were on the two as Tony sipped his apple cider innocently like a child pretending he hadn't broken the priceless vase and was surprised when the Director hadn't shouted at him or lashed out at him, instead he wiped off the foam and held his hand out and congratulated Tony. Tony smiled and accepted his hand.

Ziva and McGee began to laugh, as the Director smiled at Tony and left. Tony was still oblivious to the fact the Director had successfully pranked the king of pranks. She walked up to him; she felt sorry for him so she bit her lip to stop herself from bursting out in a madness of laughter. She leaned up to his ear and whispered two words, "Your drink", she gave him a little kiss and tap on the cheek, because she knew he would need it when he realized he'd been humiliated in front of everyone.

Tony's smile faded and his cheeks flamed fire red as he lifted the lid of the cup and found his drink stained blue. His head jerked up and his gaze followed to the top of the stairs to find a smirk plastered upon the Director's face. The anger in his eyes showed it all and she was sure he would've cracked, but instead he laughed, a real hearty laugh that revealed his blue teeth, "You're on Director!"

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A/N: Geez Louise! I've been writing all the sad stuff, I found it hard to make everything happy again. Review on your way out!