A/N Thank-you everyone who has left reviews for the last chapter or faved/alerted. Also much gratitude to Faldo for beta'ing this chapter which like the last has had some pretty major revisions to it so if you spot errors they're mine.
Briefly wanted to comment on a review left by a guest. I don't usually get to thank everyone individually for their reviews due to download restrictions though if someone asks a specific question or drops me a PM I'll try to answer questions, but obviously I can't with guests, so bear with me folk. Okay, so why do people make such a big deal out of Tony and Jimmy's friendship? While I can only speak for myself, in Bounce where Remy Grant comes to Tony with new evidence that he was wrongly convicted of fraud, there were some understated but extremely strong clues. Tony asked Jimmy to meet him in the evidence garage and it was implied that this was not a one off but one of many that occurred during his time in charge of the team several years before. Tony filled him in on the status of the case and there was a mutual respect between them that isn't evident with any of the rest of the team and their interactions with Tony. They treat him like he's the village idiot. Jimmy offered advice and rather than joke or deflect it because it was advice that he didn't want to hear, Tony accepted it as one would from a peer, even acted on it. Neither was joking around as they often to as a defence mechanism and it implied to me that this was a firm friendship and has been for some time. There are other clues but for me, this was the clincher.
Rising to the Bait
Chapter 36
After getting the ladies taking care of with a strawberry shake and a brownie for his daughter who loved her chocolate, and a cappuccino and blueberry muffin for Megan, he grinned at their blissed out expressions. Tony was pleased he'd brought Tia's nanny along so they could organise to be at a separate table. He had no intention of letting Very Ordinary Sacks anywhere near his child – even in the same store was too close, as far as he was concerned. Yes the guy had saved Gibbs ass and he knew he should be grateful and all that crap. Honestly though, he still hadn't come even close to forgiving Ron for setting him up without telling him when Mike Macaluso escaped.
The guy's overweening desire to capture the escapee and earn brownie points with the big bosses ended up costing Special Agent Bernie Jones his life and almost killing Fornell. Tony really liked Bernie, he was a good guy who thought he was guarding Tony's six and had been totally unaware that Sacks had leaked their location to a mafia snitch. Plus, he was also pissed about Fornell, who almost died as well and that was before Emily and his daughter became inseparable - he was even less forgiving now.
Not as if there wasn't enough danger already in being in law enforcement, without abject stupidity being allowed to by overriding common sense. It had been a damn stupid plan to capture Macaluso anyway. He and Jessie had managed to do it without even a drop of blood spilled by the good guys. It just had taken a little imagination, flair and panache, none of which Sacks would ever possess – Very Ordinary Slacks indeed!
This would be the first time he'd run into VOS since he gave him the slip after the shootout at the FBI safe house practically ten months ago. Tobias had been so pissed off with Slacks, he'd sent him off to work cold cases in the New York Office for over six months. The equivalent of being sent to Siberia but he was back in DC now and Tony wasn't thrilled that he now owed him one, so to speak. Damn it, why was Gibbs such a stubborn fool and why did it have to be Slacks who rode in to the rescue? Life sucked sometimes.
Tony smirked, as he saw Slacks arrive and cool his heels waiting for Fornell out the front. Nope, there was definitely no love lost on either side. Tony giving Very Ordinary Slacks the slip and then setting up a sting to recapture Mike Macaluso had definitely not made him any more popular with the fibbie. Okay, this was going to be awkward and he didn't see why Fornell had insisted that they needed to meet. Not as if they were going to end up hugging and painting each other's fingernails or something. He'd rather rip them out – Ron's that is!
As Tobias arrived and got out of the generic dark blue company sedan favoured by federal agencies for its blah-ness, Ron appeared to be having a slight disagreement with his boss. Fornell looked implacable and simply motioned for his agent to follow him into the coffee shop, entering and giving Tia a friendly grin. As he passed by, he tousled her hair, chuckling as she tried to restore order to it with a pout. C'mon Tobias, no one messes with a DiNozzo's hair!
He headed back to the table in the corner and sat down, nodding in appreciation for the three steaming cups of coffee Tony had the waitress bring when he saw him pull up outside. As Sacks sank down into the last remaining seat, Tony smiled at Fornell and nodded curtly at Sacks.
"Okay Tobias, what was so damned important that we needed to meet here."
"Well I've just come from a meeting between your director and mine, as I said. Seems he wants Ron here to fly over with him and Rivkin's body and explain in person why his Kidon assassin is coming home in a pine box with some extra holes that nature didn't intend." Fornell stated baldly.
Sacks tried not to cringe, probably because of Tony's presence but he couldn't help the querulous edge to his response. "What? Why? He can't do that, can he?"
"No but he can request that Director Hutchins order you to, since you work for the FBI, not him. Not that he has a leg to stand on…ask DiNozzo here."
"Bastard tried to make me go too. Had to get myself a lawyer to get him to back off. What possible reason did he offer up for demanding Sacks go prostrate himself at Eli David's feet?" Tony asked incredulously.
"Two reasons, actually. Said that Eli insinuated that you manipulated Ron into killing Rivkin because you were jealous he was Ziva's lover." He ignored the loud inelegant snort. "And then he informed us that they had some super important operation that they needed Mossad's assistance in carrying out. Said Ron needed to take one for the team." Fornell explained, while Sacks looked queasy.
"So pretty much the same stuff he used on me to get me on the C130," the NCIS agent mused. "Not exactly inventive, is he? No prizes for guessing where the crap about being jealous is coming from.
"Not sure whether to laugh at how ludicrous it all is or arrange a nice stay for her at the funny farm in a padded cell since she clearly delusional. My lawyer laughed so much she pulled a muscle and that made her mean, er meaner. She's already mean, as in two Bs for bastard mean."
He started to laugh. "The guys at Metro hate her guts. The unies call her the Pit Bull and the Dees refer to her as BeWitch and that isn't a reference to a sixties sitcom. Vance damn near needed a colostomy bag after she ripped him a new one. I almost felt sorry for him." He sobered up slightly. "What did your director say?"
"Told him if Director David was so damned concerned about his officer, he was welcome to talk to Special Agent Sack, and he was welcome to do it at the Hoover building and Ron would have proper legal representation when he did." Fornell replied with satisfaction. "It was awesome!"
Tony doubted that was all he'd said by the smug look on Tobias' face.
"Oh and Tony, Director Hutchins wanted me to ask you the name of your lawyer. Looked as if she was giving Vance the mother of all migraines."
"It's M. Alison Hart," Tony appeared contemplative and shot a glance at Sacks. "Might not hurt to have a chat to her, just in case Leon gets Sec Def to apply some political pressure. Sec Nav has already had a word in my delicate shell-like ear, tried to convince me to 'take one for the team' but I sicced Ms Hart onto him and that put paid to that." He looked well pleased with himself, before he tossed over one of her business cards.
Sacks mumbled his thanks rather grudgingly, Tony thought.
Fornell clapped him on the shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry, Ron. You've already been cleared, unofficially, so you have nothing to worry about which is what the Director Hutchins and I both told Director Vance. You followed my orders and accepted procedures. Still, Tony's right, it might be a good idea to go home and call that lawyer just to be on the safe side. She's got a fearsome reputation and she'll watch your back if they start playing politics. Go home, give her a call. I'll let ya know if I hear anything okay."
Still looking worried, Ron nodded and stood up to go. "Okay. Thanks for the coffee and the referral, DiNozzo. See you Boss."
He grudgingly held out his hand and equally reluctantly Tony shook it briefly, wiping his hand on some napkins after Sacks left. Fornell watched him, bemused.
"Be nice, Tony. Ron saved Jethro's ass."
"Yeah, yeah I know! And I was nice…I was on my best behaviour. I didn't call him Slacks or VOS and I gave him my nice lawyer's card. What more did you expect? Okay he saved Gibbs and I'm grateful since I want to kill him myself. But the guy still got Bernie Jones killed, you got shot and I nearly was kidnapped by mafia goons. And we both know how that would have ended up. Not to mention he tried to arrest me twice for murder. Did you think I'd embrace him and adopt him as the brother I never had 'cause Hell will freeze over before that happens." Tony exclaimed heatedly.
"Guess not," Fornell snarked. "To be fair, I tried to arrest you for murder twice, too."
"Yeah but the difference is you didn't actually believe I but he still thinks I killed Rene Benoit."
Tony scowled and Fornell heard his muttering about an unimaginative cretin who couldn't investigate his way out of a wet paper bag, if his life depended on it. Swallowing a smirk he replayed an earlier comment.
"VOS?" he quizzed, curiously.
Tony grinned. "Yeah, Very Ordinary Slacks."
Rolling his eyes, Tobias changed the subject. "Tony, Hutchins wanted me to let you know that if things get too hot for you at the Naval Yard, you have a job with us. Said due to the exigent circumstances, he could probably swing it so that all your secondments and joint cases with us over the years be counted in lieu of serving probation. Said you might have to serve a mandatory four weeks, if at all. Keep it in mind if Vance becomes too much of a problem."
Tony looked surprised. He'd decided to go back to NCIS a few months ago because of all his accrued leave and seniority made it easier to get away and spent time with Tia when needed – and it was needed. He'd decided to revaluate that decision at the end of six months. Now there was a distinct possibility he might be forced to revaluate his position a lot sooner than he'd planned, given his talent for pissing of TPTB. One of the issues of jumping ship had been not wanting to serve a probationary year, so this was pretty great news."
"Thanks, Fornell."
"Hey, wasn't my idea. You've had a standing invitation from moi practically since you joined the MCRT – this was all Hutchins idea. And he informed me of it within earshot of Leon."
"Well thank him for me and tell him I will consider it. If that other stuff with Tia and the medical file goes to plan, then I might be able to squeeze in a celebratory trip to Disneyland with her. If I start a new job I wouldn't be able to swing any time off for a while.
"Disneyland?"
Tony gave a grimace. "Tia heard Abby say she'd take her to Disneyland if everything panned out but I vetoed it and now she's pleading with me to take her. Ready to shoot Abby!"
They exchanged amused looks. "You think that's such a good idea?"
"Megan and Jessie would be there too. And no doubt Abby would insist on coming along as well. I think four of us should be able to protect her. Mel, understandably was pretty protective of her, wouldn't let her got do stuff like that. Actually, I'm surprised with all she's been through that she wants to go somewhere with so many strangers."
Fornell nodded at they both stared fondly at the little girl who was licking gooey brownie crumbs off her fingers and chattering brightly at Megan.
"So DiNotzo," Tobias changed the subject. "Tell me what you meant about the lap top? You mentioned something not adding up?"
Smiling over at Tia who sat amid several large bunches of the fragrant flowers they picked up at the flower shop earlier who was now engaged in using her straw to suck the last little bit of milky ice cream out of the bottom of the glass. It reminding him of a time when the team was stuck in the middle of peak hour traffic and Gibbs had seized his drink, flinging it out of the window in aggravation because he'd been doing the exact same thing. He held up his hand showing five fingers to signal he would only be another five more minutes and she gave him a thumbs up.
Calling for a refill of coffee for them both, Tony proceeded to explain precisely why it was that didn't add up.
Rising to the Bait
"I don't understand, Brad. You're saying that Mel's seizure was caused by the doctors reducing the dose of her anticonvulsant medication? Why?"
Brad Pitt sighed. "Because of the side effects, Tony. There were some indications that her liver wasn't coping with the dosage they had her on and they decided to see if they could cut it back some."
"So obviously they can't since she had one. So what does that mean? Is she going to have more seizures? Is her liver going to fail? She's supposed to be coming home soon. I don't want Tia to see her mother having seizures – it's too hard on her...on both of them."
"Look, this is really not my area, Tony but there are other options. Different drugs, combinations of drugs that we can try. It is too early to tell. And it seems that Melissa has another UTI which combined with the lower dosage may have contributed to the meds being less effective than they should be. Let's wait and see how she is over the next couple of days."
Tony groaned. He was fast becoming fed up with the reoccurring urinary tract infections that kept setting Mel back. He understood that it was a common complication of being catheterised but it seemed every time they made progress, a UTI would leap up to bite them on the ass, so to speak. Striding down the corridor to where Tia was waiting with Megan and one of the nurses, who was chatting to the little girl, he grinned. They had spent so much time on the ward that everyone knew and loved Tia.
"Hey Chloe, how goes it?"
"Hi Tony. Just having a few minutes breather. Tia's just telling me about her artistic cat."
"Yeah, strange as it sounds it is true. Tia, next time we come in you'll have to bring in some of Luna's works of art to show everyone."
"Okay Daddy. Hi Uncle Brad. Can we go see Mama now?" The little girl was dancing up and down with impatience.
Brad tickled her lightly on the belly. "Sure A.J. let's go."
When they entered the room, Tia ran to the bed and gently climbed up to give her mother a hug and a kiss. Tony nudged Brad. "She's a lot more with it than I expected. Especially after yesterday. Did you see her tracking Tia?"
"She's done that before though?"
"Yeah, not for a while. And it's like she more aware or something. Looks like it might be a good day today. I thought seizures made you sleepy?"
Brad nodded. "They do Buckeye but it's been nearly 24 hours. I wonder…"
"What? What are you thinking?"
"Nothing Tony. I was just thinking out loud."
They turned to the bed and watched as Tia, holding her mother's hand began to rattle off everything that she'd been doing since her last visit several days before. She was telling Mel about the book she was reading and offered to read to her.
"It's called Black Beauty and it's all about a horse a long time ago in England. Ducky comes from there and Daddy's mama too. Daddy's going to take me there one day and maybe you can come too. Would you like me to read to you?"
She squealed excitedly. "Mama squeezed my hand, Daddy. Does that mean she's ready to wake up now?"
Tony felt a glimmer of excitement too. Hand squeezing was definitely new. Mel had good days where she was more aware and would track people around the room with her eyes. They'd tried to get her to communicate with eye blinks – one for yes and two for no but with no luck. Of course by now, Tony was well aware that what seemed like a squeeze could be just a random contraction of muscles. It was important not to get too carried away.
Looking at Brad inquisitively, they approached her bed."
"Mrs Cooper, My name is Brad and I'm a doctor. Do you know who this little girl is? If you do, squeeze my hand.
For several long agonising moments there was nothing. Then it happened. A tentative squeezing action. Glancing at Tony, Brad asked, "Mrs Cooper, who is it?"
Mel frowned and everyone waited. Finally she moved her mouth but nothing happened. Brad patted her hand. "It's okay, Mrs Cooper. You're just waking up. You were in an accident and been in a coma. It's going to take some time. We can try again later. You just rest now and let Tia read to you."
As Tia rummaged around in her backpack to retrieve the book she had already read twice, Mel followed her movement. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh."
Everyone jumped. Tia was beside herself with joy and wanted to call Jessie immediately. Tony explained that she was driving and they could talk to her later when she got back. He also explained that Mel was really tired after trying to talking and squeeze their hands so they had to let her rest now.
Looking sad she asked. "Doesn't she want me to read to her, Daddy?"
"Yes Baby, you should read to her but don't ask her to talk now, okay. She can rest and listen to the story."
"And later, will she talk to me some more?"
"Yes Sweetie, I hope so. But your mama's brain was hurt really badly and it takes time to heal. We need to be patient, okay?"
As Tia climbed back onto the bed and snuggled in beside her mother. Tony dragged Brad into the corner of the room. "This is a good thing, right?"
"Yes, Buckeye a good thing. What I was wondering before is if the anti- seizure meds have been masking Mel's improved level of consciousness. When they started reducing the dose to ease the strain on her liver, her alertness improved. Need to talk to Dr Gelfand – get his opinion since this is his bailiwick."
"So what do we do now?"
"Now we consult the experts and figure out if this is related to the meds or was just a coincidence of timing. And we do some tests but it sure looked like she understood what we were saying and was trying to communicate with us. If this continues, you might need to rethink your plans about bringing her home. Rehab is a logical next step… but first let's just wait a few days and see."
Tony nodded. He knew that as exciting as Mel's progress was, that it was just a tiny step along the path and there was no guarantees. This might be as good as it got, or it might be the first of many steps to recovery. There was no way to know and that was the aggravating thing about her injury. It was all a wait and see game.
"Yeah, I know Wolverine. We'll try not to get our hopes up too high. Can I ask you to do me a favour?"
Rising to the Bait
Tony strode along the hospital corridor and slipped into the stairwell to head towards the medical wing where Jethro was recovering from surgery on his knee. According to Ducky, Rivkin had done a number on it and while it wasn't great before, now it was a disaster that would take months and many hours of physical therapy to rehabilitate. Of course Tony and Gibbs both knew, even then it would never be one hundred percent. If he was lucky he'd pass a physical to allow him to return to field status.
Frankly, Tony wasn't so sure if it was such a good idea. His bad judgement call on Ziva and back-up was a big one – she had way too much influence at NCIS and she wasn't even an agent. She'd never sworn allegiance to NCIS or the United States and now that Rivkin was dead, she was gunning for Ron Sacks and him. The shit was going to hit the fan since she'd gone running to Daddy. She'd already left several vitriolic messages on his phone, accusing him of masterminding the assassination of a highly valuable Mosssad resource because he was jealous.
Honestly, Ziva was a few sandwiches short of a picnic if she thought that he was genuinely jealous of her dalliances with Kidon assassins. How she ever got an idea like that he couldn't imagine because he'd never given her pause to think he wanted to be in a relationship with her. Oh sure he'd flirted with her but hell he did that with everyone, not just her. It was a way to bleed off tension and stress hormones, just like the joking and practical jokes help lighten the mood and made people feel better.
It wasn't like Ziva was some blushing ingénue; according to her, she was trained to seduce people that may be useful for the job. Anyway, she had offered herself to him in the aftermath of the FUBAR Domino mission and he turned her down…okay technically he'd ignored her opening gambit. He'd made out he was too angry to notice, but he had effectively turned her down.
Locating Gibbs' room he knocked, not that his boss would bother with the social niceties but his 2IC was naturally courteous. His parents servants had brought him up to be courteous. Saying please and thank-you, sorry, hello and goodbye didn't cost anything extra to be polite. It sure helped grease the wheels of social relationships, though.
Receiving a grunt – well the Boss was a functional mute after all, Tony pushed open the door and saw Gibbs glaring at him. Probably not at him specifically since he didn't actually know it was him on the other side of the door. He guessed Gibbs was pissed off at the world for how his trip to talk to Ziva turned out. He was probably in a fury that Rivkin kicked his Marine ass, although he did have insider information – Ziva and those damned dossiers she compiled for Ari coming back to bite them on the ass, again. And thanks so much, Jenny Shepard!
"Hey Boss, how's your knee?"
Scowling at him he growled, "I'm fine."
Rolling his eyes, Tony scowled back. "That's good because now I can kick your black and blue ass." He saw Gibbs eyes shoot wide open in surprise.
"What the hell were you thinking, you moron?" He ranted working up a head of steam. "If you'd taken Bella with you, this probably wouldn't have happened. She'd have shot him before he stuffed up your knee. As it is, now I'm beholden to Ron Slacks. How could you put me in that position? You know damned well how I feel about the suit." He growled fiercely when he mentioned the FBI agent.
"Honestly Gibbs, they're your freakin rules but you're too pigheaded or just plain stupid, probably both, to follow them yourself. Let's see... Rule 8: don't assume, double check. Then there's Rule 11: never get personally involved in a case and how's that working out hmm? And then there's the friggin one that you never follow – Rule 15: always work as a team. If you wanna be a god damned hero, a lone wolf then go and work for the CIA as a spook.
"As the SSA of the major case response team you of all people should know that there is no I in team. When you break Rule 11 you always go rushing off alone to be the big badass hero and end up dragging everyone else into the mess. Grow up and nix the saviour complex!"
"Damn it, DiNozzo…" Gibbs barked, furiously as someone knocked loudly on the door and came it without waiting for an invitation.
Shooting a furious look, the one that Tony recognised as 'this isn't over by a long shot' look at him, Director Vance came barging into the hospital room also unhappy. He glared at Tony and Tony felt like he was caught in the cross hairs of two lasers.
"Good, you're here. Want to talk to you both." Leon barked. "When do you get out of here, Gibbs?"
Gibbs shrugged, snapping at the director irritably. "Later today, Leon. And I'm fine…thanks for asking."
Ignoring the intended jibe, Leon brightened markedly. "Eli wants an explanation and the chance to question you about how it happened. You and I will accompany Officer Rivkin's body back to Tel Aviv, Gibbs. The flight leaves at 1800 hours – be there. It's time to take one for the team."
Tony shook his head in amazement. Who the hell did friggin Eli David think he was?
"Ah Director." Tony stuck his bib in. "Gibbs isn't medically cleared to fly. After breaking bones, especially long bones, it will be at least 48 hours before a doctor will consider clearing him to fly- particularly a long haul flight. The chances of suffering a fat embolism is too high and is potentially fatal. There's no way possible he can be on that flight, Sir." Tony informed Leon who should have known this already and he was sure he did. He was just trying it on to see if Gibbs would go without putting up a fuss…unlike him.
Vance scowled at Tony, probably wishing he'd had this conversation without his presence – well tough.
"Then perhaps you'll reconsider and escort Rivkin's body back to Israel, instead. Like I said, I need someone to take one for the team and Eli specifically invited you, DiNozzo."
"On receipt of legal advice I'm respectfully declining that overwhelmingly generous offer, Director."
Tony refused him calmly yet again. And would keep on refusing until he got tired of asking. Old Tony would have been so desperate to win Gibbs' approval he never would have stood up to Vance but that was before he had Tia. Everything had changed now – she was the only one he cared about not letting down.
Gibbs glared, "Why would Director David want to talk to DiNozzo? He wasn't even there, Leon."
"No but he sent you there. Ziva is claiming that DiNozzo was jealous of her boyfriend and wanted him out of the way so he set you up."
Tony snorted. Deluded – the whole damned family were head cases. "And if you follow that logic then, since Abby found the link to Ziva on Tabal's laptop that makes her jealous, too. Did she want to start a lesbian love affair with the Israeli ninja? Or perhaps she wanted to begin a three way ménages à trois with her, Ziva and myself? No wait I know, she was lusting after Michael Rivkin and wanted to break them up. Sounds like the plot for a bad B grade movie – how can he take this seriously?"
"Shut up DiNozzo," Gibbs snarked before staring at the Director. "He does raise a good point Leon.' Switching topics abruptly, he stared at Tony. "Tobias says you think that there was something fishy about the laptop, DiNozzo? Sit rep!"
"Well yeah, Boss. It smells… just like the death of Sherman and Tabal stinks to high heavens. How likely is it that someone wipes everything on Tabal's computer but stupidly neglects to wipe off the data that leads us back to Ziva's apartment? Not very, in my not so humble opinion." He paused, much to the annoyance of both men.
Gibbs glared at him. "So how do you explain it, Sherlock?"
"Someone's setting her up, Boss and Rivkin's the prime suspect as far as I'm concerned." Seeing the sceptical looks on their faces he raised his hand to forestall their objections.
"Look, I think that Rivkin switched his own laptop with Tabal when he killed him and made it look like a suicide. So why, when he wiped all the useful Intel. from the hard drive, didn't he ditch the internet connection data too? Why leave it on there and don't say accident. But think about it… what it did achieve was point out her duplicity and bring her under suspicion within the agency.
"That's not all though. Ziva had been withholding information from us for months that she was involved with him – working and sleeping with him actually. She was evasive and secretive and she was obviously keeping him appraised of the situation in LA. Yet she didn't disclose the Rivkin mission to NCIS ever, even when directly questioned. Director David didn't either. The Israeli Embassy never told us about Rivkin and Ziva's operation as we would have expected them to since she is supposed to be liaising with us."
Leon narrowed his eyes, partly in frustration because he was still at a stalemate over the trip to Israel. But he was also trying and failing to see where DiNozzo was going in his speculation and that pissed him off. He didn't appreciate a cop running mental rings around him. He was smarter!
"And your point would be?" He demanded, his fuse was about ready to ignite.
"That the Israelis, obviously didn't want us to know about Rivkin but neither did they want it known that Ziva was his handler."
"Ya think, DiNozzo."
"Yeah, Gibbs I do. Which is obviously why I said it. You know that verbal response isn't just annoying and disrespectful of you but also downright passive aggressive. Might explain three divorces. I'm just saying, you might want to work on that. Anyway to get back on track, why then after all the trouble to conceal their association from NCIS, did Rivkin deliberately 'out' her when Gibbs was in LA?"
Both men looked at him in confusion.
"When Callen lured him into a trap and you burst in to arrest him, he told you he was Mossad. You wanted confirmation, not unreasonably in my opinion – Rule # 8 and all. He got Ziva to vouch for him. Why did he blow her cover?"
Vance looked irritated. "To vouch for him."
Tony rolled his eyes. Just because Tia liked Vance's children and Jackie had been making him play nice, didn't mean that he had much respect for him. "Yes he needed SOMEONE who could vouch for him. But he could have given you Director David's name as a contact or even Officer Bashir, at the Israeli Embassy. Why Ziva? He placed her in an awkward situation when there wasn't any real reason to do so. That plus the laptop and he was setting her up."
"So Ziva's innocent?"
"No, Director Vance, she still lied about her connection to Rivkin. She's been dodging her work duties to meet with him, and undoubtedly keeping him apprised of our investigations with terrorists and was at the least an accessory after the fact for murder. That hardly sounds like innocence to me, Sir. In fact it is a pretty damned serious crime if you're charged with being an accessory. Get you a pretty long prison sentence if your convicted but that won't be a problem for Ziva, will it Director, 'cause how likely is it she'll be charged?
"I guess the families of the terrorists or the federal agent that inconveniently got in the way when Rivkin was spying on us will just have to suck it up and take one for the team. We can't upset Eli David now, can we? Murder and attempted murder are just minor inconveniences to him and justice is only important if it concerns him and his. But you do have to admire him, he stands up for his own, even when they kill innocent people, so yeah he really believes in loyalty to his people, no matter what. Guess everyone has to have a least one redeeming quality.
"But getting back on point, do I believe that she was involved with Tabal as part of the terrorist cell? No it's ludicrous and the set up was clumsy and beyond stupid. Her connection and loyalty was to Rivkin."
He paused then purely for dramatic effect. "You know, if I was undercover and someone did that to me, I'd bust their chops, Sir. Oh hang on a minute… I did when Trent Kort tossed me to the wolves with Rene Benoit."
"So why Tony, why set her up?" Gibbs demanded.
"Why would he want to discredit her with NCIS – I don't know since they went to a lot of trouble to get her into the agency. Maybe he was following orders from Eli because for some reason he suddenly wanted her to return to Israel and was making sure we knew what she'd been up to. Maybe he hoped she'd be kicked out except there isn't much chance of that, is there?" He asked Vance pointedly.
"Maybe Rivkin wanted her to go home and raise a new generation of little Israeli ninjas with him. Who knows why? But getting her to vouch for him and the sloppy set up with the laptop says it wasn't a coincidence – apart from there being no such thing as coincidences, no one is that dumb, Boss. Oh it was deliberate alright." He declared emphatically.
Shortly afterwards, Tony had slipped from Gibbs room. The atmosphere was tense in there. Not surprising, after his blocking Leon's ass kissing move to drag the Boss to Israel. Then there were his rather pointed comments that the director wasn't putting the interests of his agents first or even second. Added to the fact that his hiring legal representation had gone down like a lead balloon with the head of the agency and he was keen to make his escape.
While everything he said was the truth, it hadn't won him any popularity competitions and Gibbs was also pretty pissed because of the ass kicking he'd delivered over his failure to follow protocol. Add to it his dig about the passive aggressive comment of Gibbs' and he wasn't winning fans but honestly he was so damned tired of that 'ya think,' DiNozzo/Fornell/McGee when the Boss was trying to put you down or big note himself. It was petty and rude!
Leaving the floor and headed back downstairs to Tia and Mel, he called Ducky to give him the heads up on Vance's latest plan to dragged Gibbs over to Tel Aviv to kowtow to Mossad's Director David for his part in the death of Rivkin. Honestly, if Gibbs had just the good sense to have let Eli's pet assassin kill him so Leon could stay in Mossad's good books, it would have made the director's life much easier. Tony seriously doubted that there would have been as much as a ripple let alone the histrionics from Eli, prompting Leon's chicken without a hrad routine if Slacks had gotten there too late to stop the Kidon assassin killing Gibbs. He could easily hear the sounds of the body being swept under the carpet and the crocodile tears over Gibbs' mistake.
At least Ducky could and would thwart the director's idiotic plan by the simple expedient of ordering Gibbs not to fly, putting it in writing and making it an official part of his personnel and medical records. Once it was documented, Tony's lawyer would be able to stop Vance attempting any sneaky manoeuvres to get his own way. He was convinced the woman only ate her meat raw and still drawing breath.
Leon felt it was really necessary for someone to take one for the team – well the buck should stop with the big boss – he could always offer up his own balls in supplication. It was after all, why the director got paid the big bucks although Tony strongly suspected that Eli owned them already.