As the applause continued, Gibbs couldn't any more proud of his team and he knew that they deserved every bit of the award they received.
As soon as the applause died down, the President gave a small nod of his head towards the director indicating that he was finished. Jenny smiled politely and made her way to the front of the stage.
"I'd like to thank the President of the United States for coming today" she said and turned to the President "we all very much appreciate you coming and thank you for the medals"
The president nodded and made his way off the stage and sat back down on his front row seat, followed by Kate. As the ceremony continued, Kate gave a quick glance over at Tony and smiled, a gesture that was gladly returned. Tony then turned from Kate back to Brian who was still standing in the corner of the room. Brian turned to notice Tony staring at him and quickly put his phone away in his pocket. He prayed that he hadn't been blown because everything he had planned counted on nothing going wrong. Brian glared evilly at Tony and made his way to his seat next to Kate.
"Where were you?" Kate whispered turning to Brain.
"None of your business" Brain snapped.
Something in Kate's gut told her that Brain was bad news but the President trusted him and that should be good enough for her so she turned back to the front just as the final NCIS agent received their medal.
After the ceremony, one by one everyone made their way out of the room and back to their desks. The President and his detail were invited in the director's office for morning tea but Kate politely declined saying she'd rather have something to eat with her old team. As the President, the director and Mark made their way towards the director's office, Brain tagged along slowly grinning to himself. Because Kate being separate to the President was only helping his plan to unfold and gave him one less person to worry about getting in his way.
As Kate, Tony and McGee made their way down the stairs towards their desks; McGee paused for a moment and turned around noticing Ziva taking her time. McGee stopped and waited for her to catch up.
"What's wrong Ziva?" McGee asked.
"Them" Ziva mumbled indicating Kate and Tony with a quick flick of her head.
"Them?" McGee repeated "what's wrong with them?"
"Don't worry McGee you just wouldn't understand" Ziva pouted and pushed past him and walked towards the elevator past Kate and Tony.
Kate noticed Ziva leave and turned to McGee who just joined them. "What's wrong with her?" she asked.
"Nothing, headache" McGee lied trying to give Ziva some privacy.
"umm ok" Kate said and started to walk towards Gibbs's desk but before she could take another step, Tony wrapped his arms around Kate's waist and swung her around, lifting her off the ground. McGee smiled as he watched Tony wrestle and Kate struggling to get free, laughing like a school girl in the process. This was something totally different to what he used to see when Kate was working for Gibbs. McGee took a seat at his desk and began eating his sandwich while Kate and Tony continued to muck around, all unaware that Brain was watching them from the upstairs balcony.
He had used the excuse of needing to go to the bathroom to get out of the room. All the praise and happy people in the room were making him sick and watching Kate acting like a love struck teen wasn't helping the matter especially the fact that if she was caught by the President, he'd only smile and kindly remind her not to do that while she was on duty. Just the thought of what was going to happen made him grin and he reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone. He then dialed a number and slowly brought it close to his ear to hear it ringing but as soon as he was going to hang up, someone on the other end picked up.
"You idiot" brain whispered loudly and angrily "I told you not to pick up...I don't care if you forgot...don't you dare get cold feet on me now...no you listen to me. I've been planning this for years. This is the best chance I've had and you are not going to screw it up for me now, do you hear me? Everything is going according to plan now get into position" and he forcefully hung up, slamming his phone shut and shoving it back in his pocket. He took one more look at Kate and Tony, muttering 'Oh God' and made his way back to the director's office so he'd give himself an alibi.
McGee laughed as Tony picked Kate up by the waist and watched as they tumbled to the floor, laughing because Tony had lost his balance with Kate's constant wiggling.
"Are you sure you should be doing that?" McGee asked Kate looking over his desk at her on the floor "considering you are on duty as the President of the United States detail"
Kate gave a small giggle and begun to softly push Tony away from her while he was trying to kiss her all over the face.
"Tony," she giggled "McGee's right...we need to stop"
Tony sighed and sat up against his desk while Kate got up from the floor and straightened her suit.
"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to the bathroom" and with that she turned and walked away but not before letting out another little giggle as she left. McGee sat there looking at Tony.
"Have fun?" he asked sarcastically.
"You know I did" Tony said, rather proud of himself that he could reduce Kate to rolling on the floor laughing while on duty.
"Should you really be doing that?" McGee asked with genuine concern in his voice.
"Doing what?" Tony replied not sure what McGee was talking about.
"Lifting Kate up," McGee explained "you know with your injury and all"
"Oh that," Tony exclaimed "nah its fine I can walk a short distance without the cane so lifting Kate is no problem"
"Whatever you say" McGee mumbled
At that moment Tony and McGee looked up to see Gibbs coming down the stairs accompanied by Tony's father. McGee looked at Tony and saw a look of anger and hatred in his eyes, something was going to go down and McGee would be right in the middle of it.
"So what you two are buddies now?" Tony snapped walking up to Gibbs and Antonio.
"Son don't get mad at……." Antonio started but was interrupted by Tony.
"YOU DO NOT GET TO CALL ME SON" Tony yelled and then directed his attention to Gibbs.
"WHAT THE HELL GIVES YOU THE RIGHT GIBBS," Tony yelled "YOU KNEW I DIDN'T WANT TO SEE HIM YET YOU BROUGHT HIM HERE"
Gibbs stood gob smacked at Tony's reaction, he had known that Tony wouldn't have taken it well but he didn't expect his reaction to be this bad.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs replied calmly "this is an important time for you; I thought it would be nice if you had some family there for you"
"This man is not my family," Tony said a lot more calmly "and this is none of your business"
"DiNozzo I make it my business if it affects somebody on my team" Gibbs said staring Tony straight in the eye. Tony stared straight back and said just loudly enough so only Gibbs could hear "I may be on your team but you have just lost my trust and my respect"
"As for you," Tony continued turning to his father "get the hell out of my life and stay out"
With that Tony turned his back on the two men and went and sat back down at his desk.
Gibbs and Antonio just stood there trying to hide their emotions because neither them wanted to show anybody how much Tony's comments had hurt them.
"Where's the President?" McGee asked feeling the need for a change of subject.
"Uh with Abby and the Director," Gibbs replied still shaken "Abby is showing him how each of her machines works"
There was an awkward silence where only the sound of Tony typing on his keyboard could be heard before Gibbs asked "Where's Kate and Ziva?"
"Kate went to the bathroom and I think Ziva went outside for some air" McGee replied.
Gibbs grunted in acceptance and turned to Tony's father.
"Thanks for coming anyway" Gibbs said and shook Antonio's hand.
"It was my pleasure" Antonio replied and headed towards the elevator.
Tony rolled his eyes and started hitting the keys on his keyboard harder.
"Umm Agent Gibbs" Antonio said.
"Yeah" Gibbs replied walking over to where he was standing.
"Is there something wrong with the elevators?" Antonio asked pressing the elevator button again.
"No why?" Gibbs answered.
"Well I've pressed the button 3 times now and nothing has happened" Antonio explained.
Gibbs pressed the elevator button and just as Antonio had said the elevator didn't come.
"That's ok I'll just use the stairs" Antonio said and gave a small smile before heading over to the stairs.
"McGee call maintenance" Gibbs snapped and sat down at his desk wondering how the hell the day could get any worse.
Standing outside NCIS was a small group of men holding guns and deep in conversation.
"Has everyone got the plan?" one of the men said.
All the other men nodded except one who asked "The plan is good but I have one question"
"What would that be Nick?" the man snapped.
"How do we get into the building?" Nick replied.
The man who looked like the leader of the group sighed and slapped his hand with his face before explaining "Brian said its all sorted ok, just trust me"
Nick nodded and followed the men as they walked straight towards the front doors and the waiting security guard.
"Can I help you?" the security guard said suspiciously.
"Yeah," the leader replied "Agent Brian Jones sent us as back up protection for the president"
"ID" the security guard asked.
The leader fiddled around in his pocket and pulled out a perfectly manufactured fake ID. The security guard nodded and moved out of the way for them to enter.
The leader and the rest of the men entered the building and made their way up to the NCIS squad room. Their plan was falling into place perfectly.
"Gibbs" Tony said finally been forced to talk to Gibbs.
"Yeah DiNozzo?" Gibbs replied.
"My guns gone" Tony exclaimed looking in his drawer.
Gibbs and McGee opened up their drawers to and were shocked to notice that their guns were missing as well.
Before they had a chance to process what was happening a bunch of men burst into the room carrying guns and started shooting.
