Tony gave the second styrofoam cup in his hand a last questioning glance. What the hell. He had bought it so why waste it now? He sure wasn't going to drink it. The way up the stairs seemed longer to him than normal and he briefly wondered if that was, what a walk of shame felt like. For him, it felt more like going to the principal's office.
The door was left ajar, so no point in knocking. Hadn't he slammed it shut not two hours ago when he had stormed from Gibbs' office like a mad man? He took one last deep breath, hoping it would give him some encouragement – it didn't – and pushed the door open with his shoulder.
Gibbs sat at his desk, bent over paperwork and barely acknowledged Tony's entry. The younger agent noted that his long-time boss even had his glasses on. Gibbs didn't acknowledge his presence that is, until Tony put the coffee down in front of him.
"Thanks, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, still not looking up.
Tony sighed. His boss sure wouldn't make this easy for him. But he hadn't expected him to.
"This is a peace offering, as I know you don't want me to apologize."
Gibbs slammed his fist down on his desk suddenly looking at Tony with a piercing glare, a move Tony had experienced countless times. Didn't make it any less intimidating, though. "Damn right I don't, DiNozzo."
Tony winced, before scratching the back of his head nervously. "Okay, I deserved that, I guess."
"You guess? Questioning my loyalty and integrity wasn't one of your smarter moves, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, only then grabbing his coffee and taking a sip.
Tony had the audacity to risk a small smile. "Yeah… you see Boss, this is the first time it's not us against the rest of the world. You have to admit, we were like Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid…" Tony mused, "or maybe more like Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in Spy Game… great movie. Always been underrated-"
"DiNozzo!"
Tony quickly stopped and took a seat in front of Gibbs instead, taking a long sip from his own coffee. "I really need that file, Boss. This guy working in the hangar?! Omar Healy?! Nowhere to be found, we put a BOLO out, but… Ltd. Jennings is the only lead we have on this case, boss. Only there's nothing about him but that sealed file. Something doesn't add up here and unlike McGee I don't like mysteries."
"I told you" Gibbs had visibly calmed down now, "that I'm working on it. But the SecNav hang up on me, when I called him during his granddaughter's dance recital."
Tony nodded solemnly.
"Just out of curiosity, Tony, why didn't you have McGee hack into it?" Gibbs asked, leaning back in his chair.
Tony let his eyes travel across the office for a moment, before settling on Gibbs again. "I had." He grudgingly conceded. "But three minutes into it he said he couldn't do it." Gibbs just raised his eyebrows and Tony continued. "Something about a firewall the size of Montana, back-up server systems and some McSmartass I didn't quite get."
Gibbs frowned for a second, but before Tony could call him up on it, he changed the subject. "How's your Probie doing?"
"Don't get me started, Gibbs! This kid has no idea what he's talking about half the time. He's being deliberately irritating and my three year old son would eat healthier than Cohen does!" Tony shook his head. "But he's a friggin' genius" he quietly admitted. "A socially and emotionally retarded genius. Beat McGeek's record in tracing a phone call by 2.3 seconds."
Just then, Gibbs' phone rang.
"It's 2000, Boss." Tony remarked.
"Means it's 0600 in Tokyo, DiNozzo. Now get lost, some of us have work to do." Gibbs mockingly scolded him while reaching for his phone.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Tony had moved his chair in front of the big screen, clicking through picture after picture. First the ones from the body, second the ones they'd made where Nelson had presumably been killed. Not far from some storage hangars at the airstrip, almost right next to the waters edge. So what was he missing? He quickly dug his cell phone out of his pocket and started dialling.
"Yamaste my friend, you have reached Riley's Fountain of Knowledge. What do you seek?"
Tony inwardly cringed. "Hey Riley, you found a match for those tire tracks yet?"
"You are lucky. I did." Tony could her the blonde lab tech gloating from his end of the phone. "A dark blue SUV."
Tony frowned. "Hey do you know which colour?"
"The video camera caught the car reflected in a puddle on the ground."
"A license plate?"
"I'm sure there's one, but I can't tell."
"What do you mean, you can't tell?"
"I can only work with what I got. And believe me when I tell you, the 80s just called and they want their security system back."
Tony almost groaned in frustration. This could not be happening. "I thought I called the Fountain of Knowledge?"
"Sorry Dude, you've just been patched through to Too Freakin' Bad."
"Yeah. So a dark blue SUV-"
"Could also be black, it was hard to tell in the puddle. I mean that's actually highly unlikely. But possible."
Tony rubbed through his hair frustratedly. "So a dark blue, maybe black, SUV. That's what? Every third car in North America?"
"Actually it's-"
"Save it, Riley. Oh and Riley?"
"Yeah, Dude?"
"Cut back on the damn grass." Tony angrily shut his cell phone. This was going nowhere.
He leaned back again, watching the photos pass over the plasma. There was something there, he just had to find it. Three guys meeting. Two of them military personnel. But they're meeting on a civilian airstrip on a late afternoon.
His musings were interrupted by his phone once again ringing. Quickly checking the caller ID he smiled to himself. "Hey Gina. I told you not to call me at work. What if my hot girlfriend caught us?"
Ziva's exhilarating laugh carried over the phone. "What are you doing?"
"Still working on the case." He admitted sheepishly.
"You mean obsessively staring at those pictures?"
"You know me too well, Officer David."
Ziva laughed again. "Clear the screens, Tony, I have a visitor here."
"What kind of visitor? And what do you mean 'here'?" He turned around in his chair, expecting to see her right behind him. Again.
"In the elevator, Tony" she told him, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Her words were met with the typical *ding* sounding through the by now empty squadroom. He remained seated behind his desk, when she walked into their area of the squadroom. Tony immediately had to smile, when he saw that she carried a bundle of limbs and blankets pressed against her chest, their son's face hidden between his blanket and her collarbone. When Ziva herself had ascertained that the screens were indeed blank, she bend down and whispered something to Ben.
Apparently awakened from his small nap, he immediately craned his neck to look for Tony, scrambling from his mother's arms. "Daddy! Daddy!" He run up to his father, and Tony couldn't help but grin when he saw that Ben was already in his light blue pyjamas. Catching him mid-stride Tony settled Ben against him.
Ziva strode up to him, Ben's blanket still grasped in one hand, and leaned against Tony's desk. "He missed you."
Tony cocked his eyebrows. "He missed me?"
"Yes" Ziva said, as if daring him to disagree. "He was completely insufferable." She was glad that Tony could not see her entirely due to the dim light of his desk lamp, or he would have known that she was slightly exaggerating.
Ben looked up at his father with big eyes. "Daddy, anaxnu missed you." Tony could have sworn he heard Ziva mutter a quiet 'traitor' under her breath.
"You *both* missed me? That's good, 'cause I missed you, too."
"Anaxnu had lasagne for aruxat erev and Maddie v-yesh lo sham! And we watched 'Finding Nemo'!"
Tony smiled tiredly at his son, stroking gently over his curls. He could always tell when a) he had spent too much time away from his son, or b) Ben was tired; he always mixed up his languages. And today, both seemed to apply.
"Wait, wait, wait, when did you have lasagne?"
"Yesh lanu aruxat erev!" Ben looked at him with big eyes.
"Ben I don't understand a word you're saying." Tony pretended, pricking his son softly on various places all over his little body. "Is there a button here somewhere that I can press to change reception?"
Ben squealed loudly, barely able to say "for dinner, Daddy, for dinner", between his giggles. Tony seemed satisfied as he let him off the hook and instead moved Ben in his lap, till both of them were comfortable.
The younger of the two turned to Ziva, giving her his version of the lost puppy look. "Anee tzameh." He sweetly said. But before Ziva could react, Tony addressed his son. "Hey, now what are you supposed to say?"
Ben seemed to think for a moment before smiling at his parents. "Be'vakasha. Pleeease."
Ziva reached into her bag and handed Ben his bottle. "Toda."
"Al lo davar." Tony reached for the blanket in Ziva's hand and arranged it around his son. The way he knew him, he would be asleep within minutes now. He and Ziva were silent for a few minutes, not wanting to disturb their son. When Tony made a quick grab for Ben's bottle and one of his tiny fingers made its way into his mouth, Ziva dared to speak again.
"How is it going?"
Tony shrugged carefully. "Any slower and we'd be moving backwards." He gently stroked over Ben's back. "Thanks for coming by, Ziva."
Ziva smiled and leaned down towards Tony. She cupped his face with one hand and pressed her lips to his in a quick kiss, before leaning back again. Tony caught her hand in his, caressing her knuckles for a moment. "I don't deserve you." He whispered
"I know." She smiled sweetly, her voice equally quiet. "Just make sure you never forget that."
Tony huffed. "Like I could."
Ziva turned around to quickly survey the dimly lit desks. "You and McGee had… a disagreement?"
"Why?" Tony was immediately wary.
"Nothing. I just-"
"Did he say something, when he picked up Maddie?"
"No, Tony, he didn't." Ziva tried to placate him. "Just that normally, when you are working so late, McGee stays with you, no?"
Tony folded quickly under her scrutiny. "Well, maybe a little disagreement."
Ziva just raised one eyebrow, so he had to elaborate.
"I… I made him hack into Nelson's file and he couldn't do it. I mean he's McGeek, McMIT, Mc-"
"I get it, Tony."
"Yeah. So he couldn't do it and maybe I kind of suggested that Cohen might be tech-savvier than McGee. Maybe he should do it."
"And?"
Tony shrugged. "And nothing. McGee lectured me about the moral incorrectness of such action on the Probie's first day…"
Ziva huffed. "What?" Tony immediately wanted to know, maybe a little too loud as Ben started whining right away. "Hey… shsh…." Tony rubbed his back comfortingly and hummed a small melody.
When Ben had calmed down and most likely fallen asleep again, Ziva only whispered. "Nothing, Tony. I just think McGee might have been right."
Tony just gave a non-committal grunt and focused his attention on Ben again. "What do we do now?"
"How about going home?"
Ziva swivelled around to face Gibbs, mere feet away from them. "How long have you been standing there?" She asked with a smile, as her former team leader stepped closer.
"Not long. Watched you from the railing", he pointed upwards, "didn't want to get the little one all excited again."
"What about the Middle East threat assessment you wanted to go trough with me?" Tony asked, already dreading the answer.
"Tomorrow, DiNozzo." Gibbs pressed a soft kiss to Ziva's cheek. "Now get the hell outta here."
I know it's not much, but I hope you liked it... By the way, what do you think of Cohen and Riley?