~Epilogue~
~Bullpen, the following week~
"So DiNozzo, you got a recommendation for me yet?"
"Yes, Boss. I was just waiting for her to confirm she was interested. I only heard back a little while ago. Don't even need to do an interview."
"Is that so?" Gibbs asked doubtfully. "McGee good with it?"
Tony nodded, pulling open a desk drawer and sorting through the personnel files he'd spent the week reviewing. He pulled one out and set it on the desktop.
"So, are you planning on keeping me in suspense, or are you ready to tell me who your recommendation is to join the team?"
Tony walked over and handed him the personnel file with a smirk. "She's looking for a move back to HQ. I think she'll be a great addition, and as an added bonus, we already know you don't make her cry," Tony joked.
Gibbs rolled his eyes. He opened the folder and nodded with an approving smile. It looked like Cassie Yates would be heading up from Norfolk to join the team soon. "Good choice, Tony." The younger man beamed as he headed back to his desk and sat down.
"Oh, hey Fornell," Tony greeted as the FBI agent exited the elevator and approached the bullpen.
"I see Gibbs is keeping you here late, DiNoteso," he snarked good-naturedly. "I don't see McGee; you in the doghouse for something?"
"You here for an official reason, Tobias, or are you just here to wind Tony up?" Gibbs asked from his desk.
Fornell sobered. "The former. I thought you'd both want to know Ziva resurfaced finally. She was apprehended last night just outside the Israeli embassy grounds. She's being held on charges of espionage."
Gibbs watched Tony carefully for signs he was upset over the news or dwelling over Ziva's plight, and saw none. He seemed to be taking it in stride.
"Her father pitching a fit?" Gibbs asked.
"Oh, yeah," Fornell drawled. "He's pushing the State Department hard for deportation," Fornell added. "Hard to tell which way they're going to lean at this point."
"Any news on Vance?" Tony asked.
"The investigation is still ongoing. At best, he'll get forced retirement…at worst, jail time."
Tony nodded. "Thanks for letting us know, Fornell."
"Yep. Anybody up for a bourbon or three? I'm buying…Jethro?"
"Nah; not tonight, thanks, Tobias," Gibbs said.
Tony shuddered melodramatically at the thought of Gibbs and Fornell's rotgut.
"Alright, I'm gone. Don't keep the kid here all night, Jethro," Fornell called as he walked away. "It's Friday night, ya know."
Tony grinned and looked at Gibbs expectantly, almost bouncing in his chair.
Gibbs suppressed a smile at the younger man's antics and made a shooing motion. "Get outta here before I change my mind."
As Tony snatched up his backpack and disappeared into the elevator within seconds, Gibbs pondered the recent upheaval and the changes it brought.
He shook his head at all the duplicity, and where it got them. A series of betrayals, lies, and omissions going back years; Vance's, Ziva's and his own had set recent events in motion. Even Tony had hidden things from them all. He could have lost Tony and McGee both in Africa because they'd all kept things from each other. He had lost Ziva; to her anger, resentment, and her divided loyalties. But there was no sense brooding over things that were out of their hands. Ziva and Vance were no longer in the picture.
There was still fallout to be dealt with. There would be for some time with Vance under investigation and a new director coming in, but not all the changes were bad. They were moving on better than before and there was an absence of tension in the bullpen that he hadn't realized was there. Tony was more settled and focused. McGee was more self-assured and assertive. His agents were working together better than ever, and both men already had a rapport with Cassie.
Yes, after the drama and intrigue of the last six months, there was something to be said for fresh starts.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
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