Disclaimer : I own nothing, but the typos. Oh and the OCs.
Warnings : Rated T for language and some sexy thoughts from Tony.
Author's Note : Thanks to everyone who has read, favorited and followed so far. And many thanks to those of you reviewing. I appreciate you sticking with me as I take forever with updates.
I hemmed and hawed a lot about posting this chapter. Gibbs and Kate may come off a little OOC, but it was the best I could reconcile with how I feel the characters would be without Tony. I found that Tony humanized Gibbs and kept him honest, so I think he would have been a lot shadier had he not known Tony. If the chapter upsets you, I apologize. But like i said, I thought long and hard about this chapter and that's been part of the reason for the delay in writing. To me, it just feels right.
Anyway, enjoy.
-oooooooo-ooooooooo-ooooooooo-
8:18am – Metro Police Station – Washington, DC – Judiciary Square Neighborhood –
"So what brings you all the way down here this fine morning, Agent…" Tony pretends to forget his former boss' name, but his heart nearly beats out of his chest "…Gibbs?"
The dachshund by Kate's feet growls at him, low and quite ferocious. Something bubbles up in Tony's chest and he isn't sure whether it's burning hatred for the hellhound that sent him here or a gratitude to the mutt for giving him a peek into this life. So Tony simply ignores the dachshund, who gives up and marks his territory on the reception desk.
Gibbs remains stock-still, trying to bore a hole through Tony with his glare. But after being on the receiving end for nearly 12 years, Tony finds himself surprisingly immune. What used to send him into a panic attack is now nothing worse than going toe to toe with a nasty suspect.
Bossman, you're on my turf now.
Tony cracks a grin. "Oh, I get it. You two are here to make good on that promise for interagency communication, huh?"
"You stole evidence from my investigation, Detective." Gibbs hurls the word like an insult, but Tony has never been prouder to wear the badge.
His smile broadens. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Agent Gibbs."
Gibbs steps closer until his nose almost touches Tony's. The reek of stale coffee and halitosis makes Tony's eyes water, but he holds his ground. Up close, he never noticed how the lines of Gibbs' face crack against his rough, dry skin and make his eyes sink into his skull. Tony recognizes what Gibbs is for the first time: a man who spends too much time running to keep the demons from nipping at his heels. What was once terrifying is now tragic.
Gibbs clenches his teeth. "Care to explain how a copy of our reports went missing from my ME's office?"
Tony catches himself before he laughs. So that's how Hibbard got his hands on the info, he turned a social call with Mallard into a burglary. Maybe the crafty bastard deserves a date with Andrea Sparr after all.
Tony shrugs. "Those reports were on my desk when I got here yesterday. I figured you decided to play nice for once, sir."
When Gibbs' muscles tense, Kate slides between them and says: "If you wanted them legally, you should've made a formal request."
"I didn't realize it worked that way, Agent Todd," Tony replies. "I thought we'd share information so we could lock up the bastard who killed our vics faster. Isn't that what this is all about?"
When Gibbs' eyes narrow, Tony is pretty sure that he hit a nerve. Working a case opposite his former team grants Tony a surprising clarity that shows him the Gibbs-way is nothing more than a blockade to other LEOs trying to do the same job. He can't help but wonder whether any killers went free because of the runaround he used to give the law enforcement alphabet soup.
"It's about results," Gibbs growls.
And Tony finally gets it. "Yours, not mine."
When neither agent replies, Tony nods slowly. The doughnuts and coffees in his hands suddenly weigh thousands of pounds. He should've seen this coming, should've known what he was doing.
Tony wrinkles his nose in disgust. "And you're here because you need something, don't you?"
While Gibbs remains stone-faces, a tiny flicker in Kate's eyes gives them away. So they wouldn't be here unless the Mulroney case went cold.
Behind the desk, the rookie watches Tony as he waits for the all clear to kick Gibbs and Kate the hell out of here. His hand hovers over the phone, ready to call for back-up.
Sighing, Tony debates whether he should play his old game: tell them to submit their formal request and give them the address of the deli across the street or send them files with redacted portions citing national security.
But a tiny part of him has the undying urge to lead them up to Tim's office while prattling off every case detail. Blind loyalty to Gibbs, he finds, is something that doesn't disappear given a different life, an alternate reality, another dimension, whatever the fuck this place is. After twelve years of having his former boss' six, Tony would still follow him to the bowels of hell.
One last time, for old time's sake.
To make himself feel better, Tony tries to believe that he and Sparr will catch the murderer in no time if they have some help other than Tim. Not to mention, he and Sparr have next to nothing. So if Gibbs and his team have the same, together they might just end up with something.
Tony gestures towards the rookie with the doughnut bag. "They're okay, Officer."
"Are you sure?" the rookie asks, squinting up at him as though Tony just used some sort of code.
"Yeah, get back to…" Tony rolls his eyes at the corner Playboy peeking out from underneath case files "….work."
"On it, sir."
With the tilt of his head, Tony leads Gibbs, Kate and dachshund towards the elevator. To his credit, Gibbs appears to be shocked that a lowly detective is presenting the case like a seasoned investigator, not cowering in the corner like an unweaned recruit. When they hit the squadroom floor, Tony leads them down the hall in the direction of Tim's office. The dachshund's nails scritch-scritch along the tile floor.
"I didn't know NCIS had a K9 unit," Tony quips. The dachshund gives a low growl and Kate rolls her eyes. "What's his name anyway?"
"Goliath," she says.
"And here I thought he looked more like a Twinkle-Toes."
Goliath stops dead in the hallway to give Tony a menacing stare with bared teeth. After a snap of the leash and a "knock it the hell off" from Kate, he drops his head and obediently trails the trio.
Tony jumps to the head of the group, pushes the door to Tim's office open with his shoulder. The frenetic sound of typing stops abruptly, but the soft jazz music continues to hang in the air.
"I was wondering when you'd get back, Tony. You were gone so long that I had to get started with station coffee." Tim cringes, then repeats, "station coffee," like it's a fate worse than death.
Tony instantly regrets bringing Gibbs and Kate up here without warning. So he plasters the broadest grin that he can on his face as he deposits the coffees and doughnuts on Tim's desk.
"Hey Tim, you'll never guess who I found in the lobby."
Tim glances up from his computer monitor. "Who?" The sight of Gibbs and Kate wipes the smile straight off his face, making his eyes go wide and his mouth gape. He jumps to his feet so fast that he nearly falls flat on his ass. Every trace of confidence is gone when he mumbles: "Nice to see you again, Kate. Boss, I mean, sir. No, sorry. Gibbs."
Gibbs cracks a small smile as he appraises Tim's office set-up that looks more appropriate for an intergalactic space station than a police station. He silent studies each and every inch of Tim's desk as the younger man blushes ferociously, looking like he wished the floor would swallow him right now.
"Nice office, McGee. You're doing well for yourself. Head of computer forensics for Metro, great work," Kate says sarcastically.
Tim drops his eyes to his desk.
Gibbs whacks the back of Kate's head, hard. The back of Tony's own head develops a sympathetic ache, although he is sure that he's never had some sense whacked into him here.
"Miss having you on the team, McGee," Gibbs says quietly. "You were a good agent."
Tim manages a small smile. "Thanks, Boss."
Gibbs matches it. "Haven't been your boss in almost a decade, McGee."
"Right." Tim nods. "Gibbs."
For a long moment, Gibbs and Tim's eyes lock in some sort of silent conversation. If Tony didn't know any better, he might think it was his former boss' way of apologizing. Sadness wells up in Tony's heart and he finds himself wishing that he heard the same words just once.
Nice work. You're a good agent, a great man.
Just some sort of show of appreciation for his years of dogged determination and hard work.
Eventually, Kate clears her throat.
Tony springs to life. "Did you find anything yet, Tim?"
When Tim breaks Gibbs' stare, he meets Tony's eyes as though to ask are you sure about this? Tony doesn't know whether to shrug, shake his head, or say that he's never been more sure of anything in his life. So he just hands Tim his coffee. Tim nods carefully as though he's trying to make up his mind.
After taking a slow sip, Tim grins like a mad scientist. "I cracked the code."
He lets the silence hang dramatically as he takes another sip of his coffee. Tony is about to head slap his friend himself until he understands what Tim is doing: letting Gibbs and Kate know that Tim and Tony are in charge, that they're playing by his rules now. Gibbs waits patiently while Kate shifts her weight.
She lets out a huff. "And what do you have, McGee? Or do you expect us to beg for it?"
Tim makes a couple of clicks to transfer the recipes on the monitors behind him. Goliath lets out a lazy yawn before he curls up around Kate's feet.
"That's it?" Kate scoffs. "You are showing us how to make halibut and – "
"What appears to be normal recipes are anything but," Tim interrupts. "I used a program that…." When Tim launches into his geek speak, Tony lets him ramble on about cyphers and decryption programs and letter exchanges and who the hell knows what the rest of it is. Tony expects Gibbs to tell Tim to get to the freaking point, but their former boss remains silent. At the end, Tim hits a button and the text behind him blurts from a simple grocery list to one that is much more nefarious. Tim finishes with: "Chicken penne is actually a recipe for plastic explosives and halibut is – "
"A dirtbag's guide to making a car bomb," Tony finishes.
Tim nods seriously. "And it isn't good."
Kate crosses her arms. "Why? Can't people just look this up on the internet?"
"Yes and no," Tim says, leaning back in his chair. "Given that whomever came up with this recipe figured out a way to make explosives out of everyday, relatively untraceable, items. It would make the bombs a lot more difficult to identify. Not to mention, they'd be a lot harder to screen for."
Gibbs makes a face. "It's something terrorists would kill to get their hands on."
Scrubbing his hand across his face, Tony sinks into one of Tim's extra chairs. He reaches for the coffee he bought hours ago and takes a deep sip. It's long cold and sickly sweet, but he drinks it anyway.
He glances up at Gibbs. "We showed you ours. Now, show us yours."
Amusement dances in Gibbs' eyes as he reaches into the pocket of his coat. He pulls out a jump drive that's identical to the one in Tim's computer.
Tim eyes it suspiciously. "Where'd you find that?"
"In our dead petty officer's living room." Gibbs blinks. "Why?"
"No reason," Tim says as he takes it.
He uses a plastic bag to remove the jump drive from his computer before replacing it with the one Gibbs gave him. After a few clicks, he accesses something on the computer.
"What are you doing?" Kate asks.
"Just running a quick scan to make sure this doesn't destroy my machine." Tim's eyes jump to her. "Have you two tried accessing it yet?"
"No, we brought you a piece of evidence that we never even looked at." Kate rolls her eyes, puts her hands on her hips. "Of course, we did, McGee. Abby and Cybercrimes are still trying to break the encryption on the original. That's just a copy."
Tony cracks a half-smile. "That you just carry around for shits and giggles?"
"Just in case," Gibbs says. The in case we got lucky and ran into Tim here goes implied, but unspoken.
Tim seems to get it too because he cracks his knuckles before he gets to work. After a few clicks, several documents pop up on the screens behind him. But every word of text is gibberish. Another couple of clicks and some typing that sounds like Tim's trying to murder his keyboard, then the documents switch line by line into a list of semi-coherent words. When Tim makes another click, a program pops up on the screen to start running.
"This might take a while," he says quietly.
While Gibbs nods, Kate makes a face. Before either of them have a chance to reply, Tim breaks into a sneezing fit. He covers his nose with his hands and tries to smile apologetically.
"The dog," he murmurs, his voice nasal. "I'll be right back. I need to grab some tissues." He starts to leave, but pauses by the door. "Hey Tony, can you help me with the tissues?"
Flabbergasted, Tony double-takes between Gibbs and Tim. When he shoots his friend a look as though to say you'll need some help by the time I'm done with you, Tim jerks his head towards the hallway. Against his better judgement, Tony holds up his index finger in a one minute motion.
Gibbs bobs his head at Tim when he and Tony leave. They head down the hallway to the men's room. When Tim ducks inside, he holds the door open with his foot for Tony to follow. Rolling his eyes, Tony follows Tim into the poorly lit, linoleum palace.
Tim grabs a paper towel, then blows his nose.
"Did you really need help for that?" Tony asks, clearly annoyed.
"No, but I needed to see something,"
Tony cocks an eyebrow. "And what's that?"
Tim just blows his nose again. Sighing, Tony crosses his arms and slumps against the bathroom door.
"I thought you were allergic to cats," he says.
"Anything with fur or feathers." Bleary-eyed, Tim stares at him over his paper towel. "And scales, apparently. I didn't find out about that until last year after Matty brought home Myrtle the Turtle."
Tony hazards a grin while Tim tries to become responsible for deforesting half of Virginia with his use of every paper product in the bathroom. After a few long minutes, he rests his head against the wall for a better view of his friend.
"What happened between you and them anyway?" Tony blurts out.
Tim stops dead. "Between who?"
And Tony knows his friend stalling. "You and NCIS."
Screwing his face with disgust, Tim shoots his paper towel for the trashcan, but misses by a mile. It ends up in a ball at Tony's feet, limp and used and discarded.
"It's a long story," Tim mutters.
"According to you, we've got nothing but time."
Tim hugs his arms to his chest and drops his gaze to the floor. "I spent almost a year on Gibbs' team. We constantly worked around the clock. I was spending more nights at the office than I was at home. It felt good like I could change the world if I just put in a few more hours, just catch one more suspect."
Tony nods, remembering that intoxicating feeling all too well. "We all feel that way, Tim."
"But it never felt like enough for Gibbs, you know. It was like if we worked for twelve hours, he expected sixteen. Two all-nighters in a row, but he would expect three. Nothing was ever enough."
"We've all had a superior like that."
"But it was more than that." Tim smiles sadly. "We were working a case with this crazy Israeli bastard who – "
"Ari Haswari," Tony whispers.
Tim blinks. "Yeah, how did you know that?"
"I remember reading something about him the paper." Tony half-smiles as he tries to cover. "But whatever he did must've been terrible, if you left a job because of it."
Thankfully, Tim is too lost in his own mind to press Tony. His eyes take on a far off look as though his memory takes him somewhere he doesn't want to go. "We were working a case, a nasty murder. And I got voted to drive the evidence back to NCIS since I was the probie and all. Anyway, Haswari jumped in the car when I stopped at a red light and pulled a gun on me. We ended up at an abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere. He tied me to a chair and beat the shit out of me to find out exactly how much NCIS knew about him and his plan."
"And?"
"Nothing." Tim lets out a hollow laugh. "We knew absolutely nothing, so he cut me loose. Dropped me off downtown the next day with the promise that he'd see me again real soon."
A lick of fear dances down Tony's spine as he realizes how close Tim came to being Kate in this world. Even though Tony doesn't have the heart to ask, Tim still rambles on.
"While I was gone, the team figured out that Haswari was planning to intercept a predator drone. Long story short, he got his hands on one a few days later after we ended up finding his hideout. While Kate and Gibbs went to hunt him down, I had to try to hack a stolen predator with a third rate laptop."
Tony presses his lips together. "That doesn't sound good."
"I managed to pull it off, but not before that crazy bastard winged me with a sniper rifle." Tim clasps his right hand over his left shoulder. "I hid under the car until Gibbs and Kate chased him off. Even though it was just a graze, sometimes, I can't help but think another foot over and…" He swallows hard "…I wouldn't be here. Matty wouldn't…" Tim looks away. "And do you know what Gibbs said after he found me?"
"Somehow, I don't think it was 'good job.'"
"'Back to work. We do whatever it takes to catch the bastard.'" Tim shakes his head. "I'd just been abducted, had the crap kicked out of me and shot in the period of a few days. I did what the job expected me to do. I went back to work with a GSW, one eye almost swollen shut and a couple of loose teeth. But that was the day, I realized I didn't want to work like that anymore."
"And that you'd live longer behind a desk?"
"Yeah. Gibbs put Haswari down a few weeks later and I transferred the heck out of there." Tim manages a pathetic smile. "G-d, I can't believe how much I'm complaining about this."
"I don't blame you at all, Tim. If I had gone through the same thing, I probably wouldn't have lasted as long as you did."
Hugging his arms to his chest, Tony shares the fleeting sadness that he is sure Tim shares. But Tony knows that he lasted much longer than the year that Tim spent being worked to death. Because, in a previous life, he did. Twelve years of his life gone and Tony will never get them back.
"Do you think we should get back?" Tony asks suddenly.
Tim nods. "Yeah, they should be gone by now."
Tony's mouth gapes. "Gone? What?"
Without giving Tim a chance to reply, Tony bolts down the hallway to Tim's office. The closed door sends Tony's heart straight into his gut. He eases it open to find a dark, empty office. The blue screens of the trio of computer monitors blaze in the darkness behind Tim's desk. When Tony draws closer, he makes out the words Error – File Not Found.
"Son of a bitch," he says.
There's a low growl at his feet when Goliath glances up from his interrupted nap. Of course, Kate and Gibbs abandoned the hellhound at the first chance they got. He nudges the dog with his foot and Goliath gnaws on the top of Tony's sneaker.
While Tony unleashes a string of expletives, Tim catches up. When he flicks on the lights, the entire office is bathed in an off-white glow and the sight turns Tony's stomach. Gone are the neat piles of files and papers on Tim's desk to be replaced by a haphazard mountain of pages. A few of his drawers are open with their contents obviously picked through.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Tony grouses.
Tim just shrugs. "Par for the course with those two, I'm afraid. Don't worry, they didn't get anything."
Tony's eyes widen. "You knew they were going to do that?"
"You don't work for someone without knowing what they're really like," Tim replies, smiling.
"But they took our jump drive."
"It was just a copy. We got more from them than they took from us." When Tony makes a go on motion, Tim takes to re-organizing his desk while he talks. "They brought me the original jump drive from their case, so I was able to download all of the information and install a keylogger that'll give me backdoor access into whatever computer they use to examine the data."
Tony puts his hands on his hips. "But what about the decryption program that you ran?"
Tim makes a face at a paper before he chucks it in the trash can. "It was a dummy program that ran on a loop until they left. I would've been genuinely surprised if they were still here when we got back." He shrugs again. "I guess people never do change."
"Sometimes they do."
"Not Gibbs and Kate." Tim settles back into his chair. "But the good news is that I just need a few hours to figure out exactly what they have." When Goliath lets out a yip in his sleep, Tim quirks an eyebrow. "Should I call animal control to get rid of him?"
Tony shakes his head. "I'll figure out what do with him. Riley has been begging for a dog for ages."
"Suit yourself."
Tim gets back into his computer. Tony settles into the chair across from the desk to polish off the rest of his coffee and his doughnuts while Tim works.
His phone rings. "DiNozzo."
"Heya, Big D," Sparr comes across the line, sounding almost chipper. "You'll never guess what Hibbard found."
He cocks a grin when Tim glances up. "Oh yeah?"
"We got an ID on John Doe."
"And what about your not-so-suicide?"
There's a throaty laugh. "Hit a wall, I'm afraid. So I've got Fisher and the boys sitting on a potential perp's house, waiting for him to come back so I can question him. Have you got anything on John Doe?"
Tony meets Tim's eyes and makes a face. "If you got an ID, you've got more than us…I mean, me. What's the vic's name?"
At that moment, the first line of text from Gibbs' jump drive transforms from gibberish to a name and a phone number. Michael Perkins, 302-555-8917.
"Michael Perkins."
"You've got to be shitting me." Tony is instantly by Tim's side. "Run that name, McGee and get me an address for that guy."
And that's when Sparr launches a rant in Tony's ear about how he had better not be keeping something from her, about they're partners and meant to have each other's backs, about how they're supposed to be on the same team. Tony listens the best he can, apologizes over and over while he watches Tim bring up an address for Rock Creek Park. He relays the information to Sparr and begs her to meet him in the garage.
Tony is halfway out the door, still on the phone when Tim stops him. Turning back, Tony believes that there is more to the lead than originally thought.
But Tim stands there, holding out Goliath's leash. "The dog can't stay."