Conversations
This chapter happens during Knockout 6x18, as Ziva, Vance and McGee head back to DC. It follows on themes from the other season 6 chapters I've posted in the last week, but reading them isn't as critical to understanding this chapter as having seen the episode is.
Also, I'm not really a fan of JIBBS, but elements of it keeping making their way in because I think that's what certain situations would make Gibbs think of. Just saying.
Gibbs frowned as he left autopsy. When he added Abby's information to Ducky's questions about the victim's lack of a military background, he came up worried. Turning away from the elevator, he walked briskly down the hall to the stairs, flipping open his phone as he went.
"David," Ziva answered crisply.
"Hey," he answered. "Can you talk?"
Ziva paused at the other end, glancing up at Vance and McGee where the men sat debating something to do with computers while they waited for their flight back to DC. "Sure," she answered, standing and walking to the plate glass window as if she were just stretching her legs.
"I just talked to Ducky," Gibbs told her. "There seems to be some question about this case being in our jurisdiction at all."
Ziva waited for a question, not sure if she should tell him how she'd been ordered to sedate and stow a man while Vance took in a hooker.
"Does this case seem legitimate to you?" he asked.
A smile crossed her face. "You didn't get the whole story out of Abby?"
Gibbs smirked. "Got the parts she knows. The parts about evidence. Still wondering about the parts about subterfuge."
"I do not know the details, Gibbs," Ziva answered honestly. "He has been friendly but obscure. He has known these people a long time, but the origins of his relationships with them are not clear." She turned slowly to glance at Vance. He certainly seemed relaxed and engaged talking with McGee, but there were plenty of people in the spy game who were good at keeping secrets. Secrets. She realized the connection. "You are thinking of Jenny," Ziva said softly.
Gibbs' breath caught, just enough that she could hear. "Yeah," he said, exhaling slowly. "At least we both knew her well enough to know when something was wrong."
Ziva nodded in agreement, then answered aloud. "And Jenny trusted us. I do not know who Vance trusts."
"And even then, she..." he trailed off, remembering.
She what? Ziva wanted to ask. She kept her father's death a secret, and then her own? She put our people undercover secretly? She knew it was still too soon to revisit those moments.
"She used the agency for her own purposes," Gibbs finished his own thought.
"Perhaps you should ask him his intentions yourself," Ziva said softly, still watching the man in question.
"The direct approach?" Gibbs asked wryly.
Ziva chuckled. "Why not?"
"Alright," he said, resolved. He paused before adding, "Is there anything else I should know?"
She held her breath. He'd given her moments like this periodically since they'd talked about Kort. If she let herself answer, it would all pour out. Rivkin wasn't who she'd thought he was. Her fathers orders seemed less and less reasonable. Mossad was operating on American soil without license. Her mouth was full of the words.
"Okay, then, Ziver," Gibbs said slowly. He snapped his phone closed, worry flashing in his eyes as he headed out of the stairwell and into the bullpen.
