Maybe it was catching. Maybe whatever had made his former Director go mad had spread to him. Because for a minute there, he thought he heard Rene "The Frog" Benoit tell him, Anthony D. DiNozzo, that he wanted to come in from the cold, and wanted Tony's help to do it. Maybe he was still in bed at Jackson Gibbs' house, snuggled under that down comforter and quilt and dreaming a wild and crazy dream. He stared ahead out the front car window, his face contorted just a wee bit while careening thoughts went through his head, and didn't actually know how long he had been out of it when the man beside him roused him out of his stupor.
"You do not believe me."
"I – I don't know what I believe. 'Cause frankly, just half an hour ago I was just sitting minding my own business and having a wonderful breakfast in Stillwater PA with a guy who means the world to me, and now I'm shooting down the highway in a souped up Lincoln Town Car with an international arms dealer who tells me he doesn't actually want to kill me, he wants to defect to the other side. Still trying to process it all. Kind of early yet and I never was a morning person."
"You know from your involvement with Shepard's black ops that there are several agencies vying to bring me in for various transgressions. If something should 'accidentally' befall me, and I am carried out of their establishment in a body bag, it is nothing to them. All the better in fact, no messy trials and appeals costing so much money to the taxpayers of what ever country I land in. I have lived a full and 'interesting' life, but I would prefer not to die quite yet. Nor do I wish to spend the rest of my life in solitary confinement even in your lovely United States of America. I am assuming I would be a guest at Git Mo.
"So I have a proposition for you and your agency. I understand that at the moment things must be in a bit of an uproar with Director Shepard's departure and a new director not yet seated. Or perhaps they have found someone by now, it does not matter, they will still all be adjusting to the new circumstances. So we will drive to the Navy Yard, you will bring me into NCIS where I will be given some sort of immunity and refugee status in exchange for my naming names and divulging various operations of business people similar to myself. I will find a safe haven and live out my days there, without retribution to myself or Jeanne from government agencies of any country, and hopefully any enemies, old and new that I have made during my years in commerce."
"You really think it's going to be that easy, that just like that, you can walk away from years of dealing arms to some of the worst governments that ever evolved?"
"I do not think it, I know it. I have done my homework. And believe it or not, I have contacts on the other side of law enforcement agencies not unlike you, and even better, within governments themselves. I have friends in the State Department. If I decide I want to give up my current lifestyle in favor of something a bit less – challenging – I will have no problem getting assistance in doing it."
"Then why ask me, ask somebody who cares that you don't get to rot in prison for treason and the rest of the laundry list of 'transgressions' you're wanted for!"
"You were readily available, and like I said, I trust you to get me to my destination. Not to mention that you could use a bit of unbridled admiration and praise from some of your co-workers and it would certainly impress your new director."
"I have no weapons on me, Renoir, I left my Sig back in Stillwater."
"You have the back-up strapped to your ankle."
Well, yeah, an arms dealer would probably know all the places federal agents and criminals carry surplus weapons, Tony grumbled to himself.
"It's like a pea shooter, Renoir, if you know it's there, then you know the caliber and rounds. Not gonna be able to fend off the sort of fire power and mob that would be after you."
"I have other weapons with me. And ammunition."
Of course he does. What was I thinking?
"Not like I have any choice in it, is there?"
"There are always choices, Anthony, it's just that there are some that are not worth making. I am giving you a gift, whether you realize it now or not. It would seem to me that you should be looking at this now all quite differently. I am not going to gruesomely murder you as you once thought, and you are going to get a well-deserved hero's welcome at work the next time you report for duty."
"Hmmm..." was all Tony had to offer at what seemed like a giant platitude to him. He wondered if Jackson knew that he was missing yet, and if he'd called Gibbs, or if the man was going door to door in town to see if someone had invited the pleasant young visitor in for coffee and muffins. It didn't really matter, he decided. Even with a BOLO out on the car, Benoit probably had enough artillery stashed in the Lincoln to fend off the entire PA National Guard. He would never allow himself to be taken by one of the other federal agencies or LEOs pursuing him, so there was no point in putting innocent lives in jeopardy by causing some wild showdown on the way back to D.C. Tony was glad he had taken the battery out of his phone and left it disassembled on the living room table at Jackson's place. It was just one more easy way to be tracked and cornered, and he was so not in the mood for a firefight today.
ncisncisncisncisncis
"What do you mean you called him to ask him what was going on, Abby, I distinctly told you not
to call him, what were you thinking?"
Gibbs' voice had risen an entire octave with his anger rising several levels higher as he towered over his Goth lab tech.
"I was thinking that – you just didn't want me talking to him 'cause he was still mad at us all for the way we treated him and we didn't deserve to talk to him now."
"You don't, and at this rate I'm not sure you ever will, he was supposed to be off the grid until this mess gets taken care of and you go and piss him off more by trying to pump him for information you have no business knowing!"
"I'm sorry, Gibbs, but things are getting too crazy around here for me and no one will tell me what's going on and I'm getting really scared! I know I say and do the wrong things sometimes, Gibbs, we
all do, but I didn't know he was hiding out, I thought he was just still on suspension!"
Gibbs watched as the tears gathered in Abby's eyes, and angry as he was at her, he still took a moment to understand where she was coming from. She was a creature of habit and continuity, and it was extremely difficult for her to adapt to change as readily as some of her co-workers. And lately the changes had been huge, and one right after the other, and they involved people she considered her second family. She was right, even while she had been wrong. She had been left behind to flounder, without even McGee or Ziva to try to help her piece together why her present world was disintegrating around her. Even Ducky's steadying presence had been denied as he worked in the grip of helping recover and identify remains from a Naval training accident. Before that, he had purposely cut himself off from the rest of the team until they were ready to indeed work and behave as a team once again.
"Do you think I'm happy that someone kidnapped him and he doesn't have his phone on him for me to track him 'cause I made him so mad at me he broke Rule #3? It's Tony we're talking about, and maybe I was stupid and selfish and made bad decisions but I would never, ever want to see him get hurt, or – or..." She shuddered and dropped herself into Gibbs' arms. "Please don't let there be an 'or' to this, Gibbs, I need to tell him I'm sorry and that - I'm sorry. I took my anger and frustration at you out on him, and I made it seem okay for Ziva and Tim to do the same thing. He was always so good at absorbing whatever you threw at him that I just expected him to do the same for us."
"He never absorbed anything from me, Abby, he let it bounce off him most of the time, like ping pong balls off a brick wall. That's why it's hard to get his attention sometimes, he's learned to tune a lot of stuff out, and now he's in the habit of it and doesn't even realize he's doing it. It's why people think he's ADD. Always got something going on inside his head so he doesn't have to hear the crap going on on the outside. Not the issue right now, though. Somehow we've gotta figure out who's got him and why."
"Gibbs, I heard Fornell say he thinks it might be Jenny. But she would never do such a thing, she would never hurt one of us, no matter how weird she got!"
"She already hurt Tony, Abs, making him work her undercover jobs without any back-up! No one puts an agent or detective in that sort of position, it's the lowest, most cruel thing a boss can do to a subordinate. Ducky said he came back rough sometimes, banged up from whatever mission she had him on. She didn't care then, she sure as hell isn't going to care now that we got her fired and black balled."
"Fired? Balboa said she resigned! You guys got her fired? Why, Gibbs, she was.."
"Did you hear what I just told you, Abby? She was conducting an unsanctioned black ops. Using Tony as her undercover agent with no back up. And before you ask why he did it, she didn't give him a choice! She told him it was either him or the others. Do you know how long it would take for Ziva to be recognized by someone on Benoit's payroll? Or one of his customers? How about McGee going in there fresh off a year as a field agent? No undercover experience, little to no surveillance work. Ducky would have been dissecting him on one of his tables, that is if anyone had found his body after they tortured and killed him. Don't ask me to feel sorry for Jenny 'cause I won't, she made her bed, and they offered her the best deal she could ever hope to get; resign willingly or face federal charges and prison time. She took the best offer. And if she can't walk away and be happy with what she's got left without coming back for more of Tony's blood, then that puts her in everybody's cross hairs, and I can't do a damned thing about it. And I don't care anymore. I want Tony back here and safe and away from all the crazy people I went and left him with when I didn't realize what I was doing. If Jenny's got him, she knows damned well what I'll do to protect him. She's either not worried about it, or she didn't think it through before she grabbed him. Either way, I don't care, I just wanna find him."
"Alright. Nobody told me any of that, how am I supposed to help you or not do stuff I'm not supposed to do if nobody tells me what's really going on? I knew something wasn't right with her, I just didn't know it went that deep. I can't think about that now, anyways, I need to think of a way to trace Tony. Damn him for not letting me put that implant in him after that crazy waitress made off with him in the sewers."
"Not relevant now, Abs. Need real solutions I can work with. Tobias has his people working on it, BOLOS are at all the major airports and train stations, border crossings, the usual. In the mean time, my father is grilling everyone in town to see what they know, and he's due to get back with me any minute. I've also gotta go meet the new Director, Sec Nav's orders. I'll call you if I hear anything, in the mean time, call McGee and explain things to him, I haven't had a chance to call him yet."
"Got it, Gibbs."
"And Abs? When we do get him back, this isn't over yet – we all are going to have a collective discussion about what happened and why, and work on making sure it never happens again. Ever. Because we all had a part in it, myself included."
"Okay." she answered quietly and nodded, pigtails bobbing.
Gibbs gave her a small but encouraging smile and headed up to the Director's office, hoping like hell he could get the formalities over in a hurry and get back to finding Tony. Surely the SecNav understood what was going on and how he didn't need to be pulled in one more direction while he was searching for his abducted agent. The entire agency was a hive of activity with any agent who wasn't working a hot case trying to find leads regarding Tony and the former Director's whereabouts, with orders to report anything they found to Fornell and let him decide if it was credible enough to pass onto Gibbs.
Striding into Cynthia's office, he gave her a quick half-smile, wishing he had time to stop and commiserate with her for what had happened to her boss, but it would have to wait for now.
"Go right on in, Agent – er, Mr. Gibbs." she directed him, not sure how to address him at the moment.
He made his way into the Director's office only to find it empty, but hearing voices, he followed them to the adjoining conference room. Phillip Davenport was on talking on his cell phone, and next to him sat a man Gibbs had never met before. Someone stood in front of the window, his back to all of them, arms folded and deep in thought as he looked out over the river and traffic below. No one seemed to know that he was there, or care, and he was about to tell them just what he thought of them wasting his precious time when the man at the window turned around and smiled at him. Sec Nav took his phone away from his mouth long enough to introduce the two of them.
"Jethro Gibbs, meet your new Director."
For a split second Gibbs thought he was seeing things, that the man in just introduced to him as the Director only looked like someone he had worked with not very long ago. And suddenly, in spite of every damned thing that had gone wrong the past four months, and kept going wrong today, one thing was finally going right, and Gibbs felt a surge of hope flood through him. Perhaps things weren't so bleak after all.
"Hello, Jethro." Tom Morrow held out his hand to Gibbs. "It seems DiNozzo has gotten into a bit of a situation again. Hope you plan on coming back as Team Lead and don't mind working with a Homeland Security reject."
"Don't mind at all, Tom. Good to have you back."