Not beta'd. Thanks once again to all for the wonderful reviews and to those who support my fics by reading, reviewing, favoriting, etc. Time to write is getting tighter with the holidays so close, so my updates will be sporadic. (Like they usually are!)We are also on the edge of an ice storm, so my power may be off indefinitely. A special 'thank you' to the guest who left such a lovely review last chapter whom I couldn't personally thank. And to the clueless guest who continues to read my fics even though they're labeled Tony centric, and then tell me how mean Tony always is to poor Tiny Tim. Maybe Santa will bring you a clue in your Christmas stocking.
Gibbs hoped like hell he could find a way to keep Jennifer Shepard out of his and Tony's life once she found out she'd been ratted out by them to the Sec Nav. And he hoped Davenport had the sense to not just outright tell her where the intel had come from. She had been pissing off a lot of other agencies by butting in on their own operations to nail Benoit, there would be no proof it was him if Sec Nav didn't divulge it. It sickened him to think of a woman with so much promise and talent, and one he had been romantically involved with, lost in the grip of a revenge nightmare. He truly knew the feeling, and had sympathy for her situation, to a point. He didn't use and abuse other people in his search for and killing of the man who had killed his wife and daughter. No one knew he had done such a thing other than Mike Franks, and Gibbs had no need to worry about the man ratting him out. Even Gibbs didn't know, or want to know, all of the skeletons in that man's closet.
But his gut was telling him differently, and with her still on the loose, there was only so much he could do about it but be vigilant. It was the only reason he had been hoping for her to be arrested and sent to jail. She would probably have gotten some sort of break for being non compos mentis and a former federal director to boot, and been sent to some fairly cushy minimum security facility along with a requirement to get psychiatric care. He understood why she didn't – she'd already put the agency under the glare of the CIA, FBI and probably the NSA for interfering with their own hunt for Benoit. Trent Kort had been livid to find Tony popping up every time he turned around while out with the arms dealer, and was ready to blow his cover himself, but feared Gibbs' wrath even knowing the man was miles away in Mexico.
Gibbs knew that Tony knew he had to watch his six when he wasn't around, already having suffered her ire enough times to realize she would chew him up and spit him out for what she considered the ultimate betrayal. Tony was aware now that Gibbs had trained her, and he was afraid of what Gibbs could do given enough motivation, so it stood to reason a woman scorned and fired and tutored by the former Marine was someone to be very wary of. He had brought his Sig with him out of habit, in fact, had not let it off his body except to sleep since he'd become Shepard's undercover lackey. And then it was under his pillow. It irked him royally that even though he was done with the dirty ops, he still wasn't done with the mastermind behind it. He kept his guard up and ears open while he made some lunch, hoping Gibbs would be home soon to join him. His ex-boss pulled in just as he was putting the finishing touches on a multi-decker sandwich and stuffing it into his mouth. He heard the door lock behind the man, a strange noise in this house, but he wasn't surprised.
"You keep it locked, even when I'm here." Gibbs ordered as he walked into the dining room. "JAG gave her the 'option' of resigning. She won't get another government job, but I don't think she cares. She'll still hunt Benoit, and when she's put him in the ground, she'll go for you."
"I know, Boss." Tony answered quietly, putting down his now unappetizing sandwich. "I'm sorry. I – you know what I mean."
Gibbs reached round behind Tony's head and landed a slap, the first one in many months, but a pretty gentle on.
"Not about Rule #6, Tony. It's about being sorry for something you had nothing to do with. You have no way to control her, neither do I. If I'd been here, I would have known she was up to something and could have helped her."
"You couldn't have talked her out of this, Boss, no one could, she's past that point."
"You're right, I couldn't have, but I could have helped her track him down and let her have a poke at him."
"You would really let her kill him and then just walk away?"
Gibbs' face got stormy at Tony's accusation.
"I have learned to pick my battles, Anthony, some of them are harder to fight than others, but that doesn't mean I won't fight them if it keeps someone else from getting hacked to death." He pointed a callused finger at Tony to make sure he was paying attention. "She's not going to win this one, Tony; I can't change what's happened so far, but I can make sure her rein of terror doesn't spread any further. I'll deal with it, in the mean time you make sure you're not vulnerable. That means no running, no going anywhere by yourself until I get a handle on her. And I will her under control, I'm just not sure how, yet."
"What do you think she'll do when they tell her she has to resign?"
"Well, I'm pretty glad right now I'm not working for the agency anymore, they can't make me sit through that and try to peel her off the ceiling. I don't think she gives a damn about the position anymore anyways, or she wouldn't be conducting this Frog hunt. She's just using it to her advantage for the tech and manpower. After today, I don't know where she'll go, she probably has a network outside of the agency that'll help her, voluntarily or otherwise." Gibbs sighed and rubbed his face with both hands, "Doesn't matter, I really don't care what she does now, I just won't have her coming back for you or me for getting her canned. She nails an international arms dealer, power to 'er, she's just not going to do it on agency time and money. Or coercing team leads into helping her."
"Was Davenport pissed at me?"
"He wasn't happy. He just needed to know why you did it and why you didn't come to him about it. I set him straight, he was good with it. Pissed at her even more, though. But he couldn't arrest her, it would jeopardize all the other agency ops trying to nail him, not to mention their agents undercover. He went for the best deal he could get; having her sign her retirement papers and blackballing her from ever working for the government again."
"Not even cleaning toilets and emptying trash cans?" Tony joked, referring back to what she had threatened them with if they didn't go along with her nefarious activities.
"Not even that. And she's on a government watch list if she tries to use any computers or employees to get intel."
"Wooo, she's gonna be gunnin' for bear, Boss."
"I know..why I told you to watch your..."
There was a knock on the door, more polite than the last visitor, but Gibbs motioned Tony to stay seated while he checked.
"Finish your sandwich, I'll be back." he instructed, and headed for the entryway, grabbing up his Sig from the hall table before unlocking the door and cracking it open to see Ducky peering in on him.
"Oh my, things must be rather grave if you are locking your door and greeting guests with your Sig Sauer."
"Gonna have a rabid redhead on the loose very soon, Duck, you might as well know." he locked the door behind the man and set his weapon back down on the table, and Ducky followed him into the small dining room.
"Ahhh. Director Shepard. I take it things aren't going well with her now that you have come back to thwart her ambitions."
"She's been sacked, getting a new director."
"Oh!" the M.E's eyes went wide with surprise. "Well, I can't say she didn't have it coming, and neither can she. There were some extenuating circumstances, however, but yes, it's certainly for the best all around, especially for you, young man."
Ducky patted Tony's arm affectionately as he went by him to sit at the table.
"Help yourself to a sandwich, Duck, I'll put the kettle on."
"Thank you, but no sandwich for me, I've just eaten, but a cuppa is always acceptable. Any idea as to who may be replacing Ms. Shepard?"
"Not a clue." Gibbs answered around a bite of rolled up roast beef he'd snagged from the sandwich fixings. "I'm sure Davenport will be extra careful who he lets sit in that chair next. Still, he can't look around forever. He has someone in mind but he wouldn't say."
"No matter, whomever it is, we must learn to adjust to them, just as we have directors in the past."
The kettle boiled and he got up to make his tea, just as used to helping himself at finding his stash of drink and cup tucked away in Gibbs' cupboard. Tony had been the one to make sure there were Ducky's favorite tea and biscuits in the mostly bare cabinets, liking the hot drink himself as much as coffee and knowing all too well what it was like to be left to drinking Gibbs' gawdawful brew. He brought out a package of chocolate wafers, known to be some of Tony's favorites, though with Tony, basically anything chocolate was his favorite.
"So, Duck, besides speculating on what the ex-director is going to do and the who the new director is going to be, what brings you by this time of day? Not that we mind your company."
"Yes, of course, well, besides checking to see how Anthony is mending, and if he is back to eating again, which I see that he is, I came to tell you that Abigail is in quite a state over you being back and not 'at work', and Anthony being suspended. I think it would behoove you to either phone her soon or visit her at work to calm her down. The director -er, the former director of course won't take her calls, and I'm afraid that she will find herself on the wrong end of Ms. Shepard along with the rest of us. You don't need yet one more of her fires to put out, as you well know."
"Alright, Duck, let me get something in my stomach and I'll head over there. Been needing to talk to her anyways, she's a big part of this whole 'let's drive Tony into the ground so he'll go bring Gibbs back' movement. I don't want her to think she's won, or that she even had any right to instigate it. 'Cause I've got a pretty good feeling that even if she didn't push the button to start it, she amped up the volume every chance she got."
"Indeed. And Anthony...you should understand, or at least attempt to understand, that she did not set out to hurt you intentionally. You know as well as I that she is a results-driven young woman, and that sometimes she doesn't see the collateral damage one can inflict in their single-minded pursuit of their ultimate goal. She was not even aware that she was being cruel. Not that that is any excuse whatsoever for her abominable lack of good judgment where a friend is concerned. I just think that you should perhaps not take it very deeply to heart. She was consumed with her need to have Jethro back in our lives, and well, we all have our more regrettable moments that occurred while we were perhaps not completely in our right minds."
Tony gave a small but sincere smile to the older man, knowing what a peace-maker he was, and how he despised any rifts or hard feelings among the team members.
"I'll consider it, Ducky. Right now it's all too raw, I need some time to decompress and sort through it all, decide what gets kept and what gets tossed. Not gonna be able to take up where I left off with her before the big boat blowup."
"Certainly, and a good idea, too. May I suggest something? And I won't be offended if you both think it's a perfectly awful idea, but I really don't think you will, at least Anthony won't."
"Ducky?" Gibbs eyed him impatiently.
"Yes, of course, well..it occurred to me on the way over here, actually..."
Sorry for the short chapter, wanted to get one out before the storm in case I couldn't post for a while. What do you think Ducky's idea is?