What could have/should have/would have happened if Kort had decided to confront Tony instead of trying to blow him up. You know, this little thing called 'professional courtesy'
Tony looked up curiously when the elevator opened, fully prepared to go back to finishing the reports so he could go meet up with Jeanne for lunch. He blinked and stood up in surprise when Trent Kort walked off the elevator.
"Kort, what are you doing here?" He demanded, not even bothering to be polite to their visitor.
Gibbs looked up in surprise. He'd never heard Tony be so rude to anyone before, not without good reason, anyway. His mother's side of the family was upper-class English, after all. He also thought the name 'Kort' sounded familiar, probably somebody Tony complained about over the years after an undercover op. He blamed his still spotty memory for not being able to remember more clearly.
"Ah, that's no way to speak to an old friend, now is it?" Kort drawled, coming to a stop in front of Tony's desk.
"Kort, we are so far from being friends... and we had an agreement, that you stayed away from me at work." Tony was not happy. In fact, it was more like a legally binding contract...
"Yes... well, that agreement was also that you would stay away from my ops."
Tony was confused now. "I haven't gone anywhere near any of your ops." He defended. He would remember, Abby had a program that would flag any of the ops he went on that Kort was involved in. CIA tolerated the program because Kort's superiors knew better than to ever put the two of them within five miles of each other. Professional courtesy could only lessen the damage so much.
"Oh? Jeanne Benoit ring any bells?" He asked sarcastically.
Tony looked confused for a moment before his face cleared with realization and anger. "He's a CIA asset. You're his handler." He turned to glare up at the Director's office.
Kort merely nodded and waited for DiNozzo to finished his thoughts. "Which means the whole op was unsanctioned. McGee!" He snapped out, and turned to the confused computer expert. The whole team was watching in confusion.
"Yes?"
"Check these files. Find out why this guy isn't flagged." He said, writing down the file numbers and handing it over.
"Ok... flagged for what?" Tim asked, already doing it. He had no idea what was going on, but he had a feeling that he would find out the sooner he followed instructions.
"Flagged for being a person of interest to another agency. I assume you have a more complete file than what I was able to find?" He asked Kort. He hadn't gone into this op blind, he'd done his homework. Or so he thought... Kort handed it over, looking amused.
After he read it for a moment, he reached for his phone, only for it to ring first. He made a face and bared his teeth in frustration when he saw who it was. "Jeanne! Hi, I was just about to call you!" His voice and his face did not match, at all. He looked tense, while his voice was light and happy. "Yeah... yeah, oh. Um... you didn't tell me your father was meeting us for lunch today." He chuckled nervously even while he glared at Kort, who shrugged and made a 'oops' gesture. McGee was staring at him in horror, having read enough of the file, and Gibbs moved him out of the way to read the file Tony asked him to look up.
Tony grabbed a note-pad and scribbled hastily. 'What did you tell him?' he demanded. Kort gave him a Look that made him glare harder.
"Uh, no, that's fine. Um, listen, I was going to call to tell you that there was an emergency at work, and I'm not going to be able to make lunch. Yeah, I was hoping to postpone to tomorrow if your free, or..." He trailed off and listened for a moment. "I know... I know, I will make it up to you. Yes. Alright, see you tomorrow, then. Yeah... love you, too." As soon as the phone was off, he snarled at Kort. "You told him everything about me?"
"His daughter told him about her new boyfriend, and he asked me to check him out. I wasn't expecting it to be you." Tony glared again and punched some numbers into his phone. "Ziva, call security. Have them bring my car around and search it for any... surprises." He said while he waited for his connect.
"Ok... what kind of surprises?" She asked, picking up her desk phone.
"The kind that go Boom and make a mess. If they find anything... consider your life made miserable." He warned Kort, who looked amused again. Nobody noticed Jenny Shepard stepping out onto the mezzanine above the agents heads, watching and listening in curiosity. Tony also wrote out a note for McGee, having the orders in writing would protect him from any potential backlash the orders might cause, to shut Jenny Shepard out of the NCIS computer network until this was resolved. This way, McGee could honestly say he was following orders, he had them written down to prove it.
"Hey, Samantha. It's Tony DiNozzo... No, I'm not on an op for your boss." He laughed after a moment then cleared his throat. "Hey, listen, um speaking of your boss... I need to talk to him. Now. Please, this is urgent. Rouge director's and inter-agency... toe stepping urgent." He said. "Thank you, Sam, and tell your brother that it was my pleasure to help out." He explained to his team really quickly while he was put on hold. "Samantha, the SecNav's secretary. I've been on an op, since a few weeks after you left for Mexico, Gibbs. Jenny assigned me to it, and I had no idea that the main target was a CIA asset. Kort, here, we are lucky decided to come in and talk to me, he usually just tries to blow me up when he thinks I'm in the way of his op. Yes, sir." He suddenly said into his phone.
The team was stunned silent. "Blow him up?" Gibbs asked Kort dangerously. He remembered now... Tony had come back from an op a few years ago with a ruptured ear drum, some busted ribs, and burns all along his back. Tony's only explanation was to complain about a CIA operative named Kort, who he complained liked fire and explosions a little too much. He also remembered that the two agencies actively tried to keep these two away from each other.
"It was once."
"Five times." Tony cut in suddenly and went back to his conversation. "Yes, sir. That is why I am officially reporting the Director of NCIS for misuse of government resources, abuse of power, and anything else that can be found after a thorough investigation." He said into his phone. Gibbs signaled to a nearby agent, who was listening in shock.
"Get security to meet us near the Director's office." He told the other man. He thought he saw movement from the corner of his eye and glanced up to see Jenny disappearing around the corner to her office. "McGee, how far have you gotten to shutting her out?" He asked.
"She's not going to be able to access any computer in the building, not even a personal one. She is also completely locked out of her office. I activated the lockdown procedures on it, the ones used for when sensitive information is being discussed. Nobody is getting in until SecNav says otherwise." He said, proud of himself for thinking of it.
"Good job, McGee." He said, clapping a hand on his shoulder and going to stand by Tony, who was finishing up his phone call.
He took a deep breath. "Jenny Shepard is officially under investigation, and is to be held in interrogation until SecNav himself gets here with Assistant Director Vance."
"Five?" Kort demanded to know, and Tony sighed with an eye roll.
"You stay here." Gibbs told the team and went upstairs to meet the MP's that were now waiting for him. Not exactly who he told the junior agent to summon, but... he was going to have to learn who that agent was and who his team lead was. This was good thinking. And they got here fast...
"Per order of SecNav, Jenny Shepard is under investigation and is to be held in the interrogation rooms for now. One of my agents has already locked her out of her office, so lets go before she gets any ideas." He informed them while he led the way.
"Yes, sir."
Luckily, Jenny hadn't had time to try and do anything or go anywhere, she was too busy arguing with Cynthia about being locked out of her office. Cynthia knew nothing about it, all she knew was that the light had come on beside her computer to signal that lockdown procedure had been initiated. Stepping into the small outer office, Gibbs cleared his throat. Jenny looked up at him and inwardly cringed, but smiled for him, anyway. He wouldn't do anything, she knew he still had feelings for her from Paris.
"Jethro, can I help you with something?" She asked, straightening herself up hastily.
Gibbs looked at her for a moment. "Yeah, you can follow these MP's quietly, and without causing a scene. You are officially under investigation, and will be kept in Interrogation Room One until it is complete, depending on what is found..." He shrugged.
"Under investigation for what?" She asked coolly, angry.
"Abuse of authority and misuse of government resources for a start. For your sake, I hope the investigation doesn't turn up anything else." He motioned to the MP's, who flanked her. One put his hand on her shoulder and started walking, forcing her to start walking as well or be knocked over.
Cynthia sat quietly. "Sir?" She asked, shaken.
"The SecNav and Assistant Director Vance will be here as soon as they can be. Once they get here, McGee will open her office again. Don't worry, I don't think you'll be in any trouble for anything she did. If they ask questions, answer honestly." He advised, and she nodded her agreement before she started pulling up some forms needed for Vance when he arrived. She still had a job to do, and most of that job was anticipating her boss's needs before they knew they had needs.
Three hours later, Vance, Secretary of the Navy Clayton Jarvis, Gibbs, and Tony were gathered in the Directors office. Gibbs and Tony were just glad that Kort had left not long after Jenny was taken to interrogation under guard. What they were not happy with, was that the CIA agent had indeed left Tony with a bomb in his car. Why he decided to actually be professional this time instead of simply trying (and probably succeeding this time) to blow Tony up was actually making Tony slightly paranoid.
"This is a mess." Vance muttered, looking at the hasty report written up by the computer guys tasked with tearing apart the now former Director's digital life. The hard-drive on her personal computer had been torn apart, her work computer was in the process of being given the same treatment, and all her accounts were being hacked. McGee reported that Rene Benoit was flagged as being a CIA person of interest, but was then unflagged. He was able to trace it to the Director's computer.
In the meantime, several teams had been sent to her home to see what she had there. Despite the short amount of time, they had already found all the evidence they needed of her using NCIS to further her own agenda.
From what they had already found, she was obsessed with Rene Benoit, international arms dealer. Why, they had been unable to find out... yet. There had been vague mentions so far of a possible connection between the arms dealer and the death of Shepard's father, but nothing concrete. As far as any of them knew, though, her father had killed himself.
It was then that Tony got a phone call... from Jeanne. "Hey, Jeanne." He greeted, confused but making sure not to project that into his voice. The others couldn't hear her side of the conversation, but they could see the look on Tony's face and hear his side. "I see. *sigh* Jeanne... I was hoping to have this conversation tomorrow, in person." He finally muttered. His shoulders were slumped in resignation. "No... no I'm not denying any of it. Jeanne, I never wanted to hurt you. And I'm sorry you got involved in any of this." He said quietly. He froze after a moment of listening and looked down with his eyes clenched shut. "No. None of it was real." He murmured, and lowered his phone when she hung up.
The other men in the room were silent. "It was very real, wasn't it. You let yourself fall in too deep." Vance murmured. It was a risk with long-term covers, especially ones that ended up being so personal as long-term seduction.
"I tried not to. Jeanne... she wanted to take our relationship further, but I wanted to keep it slow. I mentioned it to Jenny, because she was my handler for the op. She kept pushing me, and pushing me to get closer and closer. She refused to believe me when I said Jeanne didn't know anything about her fathers business... She was always on my case about how little progress I was making. And then, McGee and Ziva... they kept second guessing and questioning almost every order I gave them, and weren't doing their work like they should have been. Jimmy was the only one that... Going to see Jeanne... became my escape. The one bright part of a stressful day... if I hadn't met her for an op, I think a relationship with her might have actually gone somewhere."
"Nobody ever told me there were problems with the team." Gibbs almost yelled, deciding to discuss the rest of that statement with Tony in private. The other two were stunned.
"I went through the records, the case closure rate for your team only dropped one percent in the time Gibbs was in Mexico." Vance said. Tony chuckled bitterly.
"Yeah, no thanks to them, they didn't do much more than complain that I wasn't Gibbs. Then, they were complaining that I was trying to tell them what to do. Nevermind the fact that I was team lead. How you came back didn't help." He glared at Gibbs accusingly.
"I haven't seen any of this." Gibbs was confused, but he winced and looked appropriately apologetic when he thought back to how he announced his return to the team.
"They keep it to a minimum when you aren't around."
"Considering the circumstances, I think I would have been surprised if you didn't fall in too deep." Jarvis said, and gave Gibbs a Look that clearly said 'sort out your team'. Gibbs nodded his understanding.
Tony snorted a laugh. "She was looking at apartments for us to move in together. The other day, she was talking about getting a house, but I think somebody talked to her, because she apologized for moving so fast, and listed out good apartment neighborhoods instead." He muttered. And the three other men with him realized just how deep in it he was.
"I think we can add dereliction of duty and negligence to the list of charges against Jenny Shepard. She should never have allowed it to go this far, let alone pushed for it." Vance suggested, looking around at the others. They nodded their agreement.
"Tony, your going to come stay with me for a few days while we sort this out, ok?" Gibbs said, but everyone knew it wasn't a suggestion.
"Yes, Boss." Tony mumbled, laying his head on the table, cushioned by his arms. He was so tired... running this op, on top of his day job wasn't too hard, honestly it was just like having any other relationship. But there had been a few bits of it that required him to be out doing actual undercover work, like at the airport the other day. And, she thought he was a college professor, college professor's have fairly regular hours, unlike NCIS agents who might get called in at way-too-early-o'dark in the morning for a homicide or terrorist alert. All those excuses, making sure nothing was out of place when he went to see her, having to duck and hide the few times he'd walked into the hospital where she worked and seen somebody he knew... dealing with McGee and Ziva's attitude at work...
He'd been relieved when Gibbs came back, because it actually cut back on his workload considerably.
Didn't mean he wasn't mentally exhausted.
Vance took pity on him. "Why don't you go lay down on the couch, get some sleep, you look like you need it." He suggested, and that couch did look pretty comfortable right now... He mumbled his agreement and moved to collapse on it, he was dead to the world in moments.
They watched him for a moment, then there was a knock on the door. Instead of calling out and risk waking up DiNozzo, Gibbs got up to answer the door. "Yes?" He asked, surprised to see Cynthia there.
"Um, sorry to bother you, sirs, but I thought you should see this." She moved into the room with a file in hand. "I remembered glancing through the hour logs to make sure everything was as it should be, and to make sure they were signed and dated properly before taking them back to HR to be filed, and I remembered thinking how odd this was. I meant to get somebody to check through security logs to make sure it was right, but never got around to it until a few hours ago." She handed the file to Jarvis, who glanced through in concern.
"This is DiNozzo's time logs..." He whistled lowly. "He was in the office, or at a crime scene, almost twenty hours a day. Anybody willing to bet the four hours he wasn't, he was with Jeanne Benoit?" He asked the room, although nobody wanted to take that bet. "There are a few days he managed to go home at a reasonable time, a few days off here and there when the whole team was given time off, he must have been with her then, too."
"Cynthia, make sure he's been paid appropriately for all this time, include the time he would have spent on the op. Since this was unsanctioned, I don't think he would have gotten the hazard pay all our undercovers get. And then put him down on the books as having a month mandatory vacation, starting in the next few days. Put it down as half-pay." Vance instructed, and she nodded while grabbing a notepad off of the desk so she could jot the instructions down. When agents were forced to take vacation time, they didn't usually get paid at all because forced time usually meant they had too much overtime on the books. For him to be getting half-pay anyway, Shepard must have really done a number on him.
"Should I send somebody to his apartment to get clothes and things, and take them to your house, Agent Gibbs?" She asked after glancing at the sleeping man on the couch. In the past, she knew Tony spent quite a bit of time at Gibbs house, especially after a hard undercover assignment, or whenever he was physically injured. It hadn't happened since he got back from Mexico, though.
Gibbs blinked. "I would appreciate it, but you don't have to." He answered. Vaguely, memories of time looking after DiNozzo while he was injured, or just mentally exhausted from an op drifted through his head. Just how much had he missed and forgotten?
Cynthia merely smiled. "Some of his things will be waiting in the living room when you get there." She promised. She took the files and went downstairs after pulling out the key to DiNozzo's apartment from the locked safe under her desk. Every agent left a copy of their key there, in case of emergency. Every agent also gave another copy to somebody on their team, also in case of emergency. The fact she was trusted with the keys was a big responsibility, and honor for her. Even Gibbs left his house key there, although Gibbs didn't see the need to lock his door.
Ever.
"Agent Balboa!" She called to the first agent she saw that wouldn't seize the opportunity to leave a prank of some kind behind in Tony's apartment. Some of them would.
She also knew that Balboa wasn't busy right now. His team had been going through cold cases for the past few days while they waited for something to break on a... project they'd been working on. He turned and gave her a smile in greeting. "Yes?" He asked.
"Would you mind running to Tony's apartment and taking some clothes and things over to Gibbs house for them? He's exhausted, and I don't think either of them should deal with it right now. They're still up trying to figure out what Director Shepard has been doing." She confided. She knew full well that news of the unsanctioned op had already spread, everybody knew all about it by now. They didn't know all the details, of course, but they knew Tony was involved and Shepard was under investigation for abuse of authority over it.
"Yeah, sure. It's not a problem." He smiled and took the key when she held it out.
"Thanks, just leave them in the living room, that would be fine."
"Will do." Balboa tipped an invisible hat to her and strode away towards the elevators after calling to his team that he would be back in a bit, running an errand for Cynthia. She shook her head and made her way to HR so she could make sure Vance's instructions for Tony's time log were carried out. One of the new interns from Accounting was there when she went in, and he did not like the idea of carrying out the orders she was given. She put the fear of Director's secretaries into him quick enough, and made sure he understood it was not his decision to make, nor did it have anything to do with him.
"I'll take care of this myself." Cindy promised as she took the file, with the note stuck on the folder. "Thank you, Cynthia." She said, and got to work while Cynthia went back to her own job.
She knocked and let herself in this time. "Agent Balboa is getting Tony's things. One of the Accounting interns was hanging out in HR and tried to quote all kinds of rules and nonsense about why Agent DiNozzo was not going to be paid what he has earned, I sent him off." She said with a sweet smile as she went to check the coffee machine. Seeing that it was empty, she refilled the water and switched out the filter, putting more grounds in. "Director Shepard knew her coffee, whatever else you might have to say about her. I think she had these beans imported straight from... somewhere. I can't remember." She shrugged. Once the coffee machine was on and earning it's keep, she got another note pad. "Do you gentlemen want anything in particular to eat?" She asked.
They looked around at each other, and Gibbs suggested. "We could always get a few pizzas, DiNozzo might put one away by himself." He mused, eyeing his SFA with a critical eye. Now that he was looking... Tony looked like he'd lost some weight recently.
Jarvis shook his head. "There's this new Italian place, oh, about fifteen minutes from here. They do delivery. We can order from there, get a variety. They do pizza, along with the... usual Italian fare." He waved a hand dismissively. "And I hear it's run by Italian immigrants, so you know it'll actually be Italian." He said.
"Sounds good to me." Vance said with a shrug. Gibbs nodded. "Cynthia, do you know the place?" She nodded and was already scribbling away. He smiled, he was definitely going to keep her on, she did a good job. "Call and order whatever you think sounds good. Nobody here has any dietary restrictions?" He checked after a moment, wanting to be sure. Gibbs and Jarvis shook their heads. "Agent DiNozzo?" Vance asked Gibbs, and again he shook his head.
"Not that I can remember." He murmured, brow furrowed as he tried to think.
Cynthia smiled softly. She wasn't surprised he still had holes in his memory. "I'll call down to Dr. Mallard and make sure." She promised. None of them even considered waking Tony up to ask. He really looked like he could use it, after all. When she left, all three sighed and went back to the reports.
Reports that were still coming in.
This was going to be a long week.
One week later, they finally had all the information. Jenny Shepard blamed Rene Benoit for the death of her father, and wanted revenge. Whether he actually had anything to do with her fathers death or not, that was something only the arms dealer himself could say, as there was no evidence to the contrary. However, she was determined that he killed her father.
It was for this reason, and this reason alone, that she sought out the directorship of NCIS, as it gave her access to resources she would not have at any other position. From there, she bribed and blackmailed information out of various contacts she'd made around the world, including some guy (his superiors were not happy with him...) at the CIA who sold her the complete file the CIA had on him. She knew full well that the daughter knew nothing of her fathers activities, the CIA had her flagged as an innocent. A potential liability on Rene's part, but otherwise she had nothing to do with any of it. She also knew that the CIA had an op in place already.
That they'd had one in place for years. For now, they were directing his activities through Trent Kort to suit American interests, but they were almost ready to take him out of the picture completely and shut down his entire operation. The CIA, when told by Kort, had not been happy to hear that NCIS was sticking their noses in where it didn't belong. They were willing to 'forgive and forget' though, as long as Jenny Shepard was properly dealt with.
The fact that Jenny Shepard knew all of this, and still sent Tony in undercover, was just another mark against her. The Benoit family was threatening to sue NCIS for the heartbreak Jeanne suffered when she found out. (They weren't quite sure how they were going to manage that one, but they would figure out something.) The Legal department was talking to their lawyers, and almost had an agreement worked out so that Jenny was the only one being sued, and not the agency. And most certainly not Tony DiNozzo.
Tony had been sent on vacation two days into the investigation, they ended up making him stay just long enough to make sure he was properly interviewed, paperwork was done, statements were signed, etc. Once they had everything they needed from him, Vance handed him a plane ticket to Hawaii and an envelope with information on a few touristy things he'd been signed up for, and told him to have fun exploring the islands and to enjoy himself, soak up some sun, and to try to leave law enforcement stuff to the locals. He'd even called ahead to the NCIS field office in Pearl Harbor and made sure they knew Tony wasn't allowed anywhere near the offices, although he also asked them to keep an eye out for the exhausted agent.
Before he left, he was made to promise that he would call Gibbs and/or Ducky at least once day to check in, and to bring back a few souvenirs.
They hoped that he would get the rest he needed, and that the time away would help him process everything that happened with Jeanne. Break-ups in real relationships were difficult enough, a break-up in a relationship that wasn't real but you had come to love the target anyway? According to Ducky the day before Tony left, he'd had to get Jimmy's help to drag Tony out of the funk he'd fallen into, and try to get him to see that this wasn't all his fault. He was only doing his job.
That didn't seem to make him feel any better about what he did to Jeanne, for some reason.
So, yes. They were all hoping that plenty of time in the sun would do him some good.
By now, Jenny Shepard was officially fired and awaiting trial, and Leon Vance had been promoted. He was leaving the investigations involving his predecessor to the agents under him, as well as IA and JAG while he tried to sort everything out that Jenny had been doing while in office. Dr. Mallard had come up to his office to speak with him privately and told him of something Jenny had only recently become aware of, and then informed him as the only licensed medical practitioner in the building.
She had cancer. She'd been told that it was too far spread, and had been given a year. She'd declined treatments, as she didn't want to go through that pain for something that wouldn't really make a difference in the end. She'd instead talked about hanging on to her position for as long as possible. It was his professional opinion, that she was planning on going out with a bang, as they said.
Ducky didn't know what she could have been planning, but now that he knew about her obsession with Rene Benoit, he was able to offer up his opinion that she was going to use Tony to lure him out into the open, somewhere where she could easily get at him, and then take him out herself. If he managed to take her down with him... they got a few of the psychiatrists to speak with her, and they all agreed with Ducky's assessment.
However, now that they knew she was sick, that was something else to take into account when she went to trial. Because she would go to trial, no matter how long she had to live. It was just a matter of what kind of facility she was sentenced to. Abuse of authority was very serious, after all. Especially in a law-enforcement/semi-military setting like a federal agency. And the fact that she pulled an innocent civilian woman into the mix...
Vance had a lot to sort through right now, either way. And Gibbs taking his team off the roster for a while wasn't necessarily helping any, either. But, Agent DiNozzo had brought up a few points that made him think that there were some serious underlying issues within that team. Issues that needed to be sorted out, someway or other. So, Gibbs took his team off the roster so he could take care of it without having to deal with investigating a crime on top of it. He'd heard that the techs in the Evidence Garage called security down to Autopsy after being startled by all the yelling coming from there, so it was safe for him to assume that the issues were worse than he initially thought. He never would have thought they were bad enough for half the team to be suspended for insubordination, though...
The first thing Gibbs did after seeing Tony off at the airport, was to track down Jimmy Palmer. From what Tony said while telling them how he let himself fall in so deep, the ME's assistant was the only one that really stood by and supported Tony while he was gone.
"Palmer, you got a moment?" He asked, because Palmer wasn't one of his, and Ducky had berated him more than once about how he scared the boy.
"Huh? Oh, um, sure, Agent Gibbs. What can I help you with?" Jimmy asked, confused about what was going on.
"What happened with my team while I was in Mexico?" He asked, bluntly.
He watched in interest as the confusion cleared off the assistant's face to be replaced by anger, concern, doubt, and apprehension. "Did Tony say something?" He asked slowly.
"He mentioned after Kort's visit that the team wasn't pulling their own weight, wasn't taking him seriously, and wasn't following his orders. Then I looked through the time logs. Tony practically lived here while those two would come in late, leave early, take long lunch breaks..."
Jimmy nodded. "It's all true, Agent Gibbs. Dr. Mallard and Abby's attitude probably didn't help, either." He muttered.
"What?!" Gibbs demanded dangerously.
Jimmy made a face and struggled for a few moments over how to tell him. "Dr. Mallard... I think he was just angry with how you left. He... kind of took it out on Tony a little. Abby... well, it might be easier if you looked at the security tapes from her lab." He didn't see it much, he was in the autopsy most of the time, so him and Dr. Mallard were a little disconnected from the goings on at NCIS, unless somebody came down to gossip a little. Not many people were up for standing around in the autopsy room just to gossip.
Gibbs got a look on his face and left. He went straight to the security offices for NCIS and demanded to see footage from inside Abby's lab during the months he was in Mexico. He spent the next several hours watching, although he made sure to fast forward the times when nobody was in her lab, or Abby was in her lab alone.
Frankly, the shrine she put up for him was just a little... disturbing. To say the least. Some of the conversations she had with McGee and Ziva made him angry. Tony was telling them what to do because he was in charge! He wasn't on a power trip, he was in charge and trying to do his job. And he also watched as Tony would walk in behind them and listen during their conversations before walking right back out and announcing his presence as he came back in, pretending he never heard a word.
He watched Abby accuse him of trying to be Gibbs, 'Your not Gibbs!', and then once Tony seemed to have gotten a handle on things and started doing things his own way, it changed to 'that's not how Gibbs does things!'. The 'in training' sticker, though... that really made him mad.
Of course he wasn't in training, his training ended the moment Gibbs told him 'you'll do' and walked out of MTAC to leave for Mexico with no intentions of ever coming back.
What was that woman thinking, she knew full well when he recruited Tony that Tony was his replacement when he someday retired. She knew that! So why was she giving him so much grief when he was trying to do the job he was trained to do! With a growl, he got up and went back to his teams desk area, where he practically took his remaining team members by the ears (not literally, that would see him in a 'inappropriate touching' or whatever they were called seminar with HR faster than he could blink. Or they might write him up for abuse towards his subordinates. Come to think of it, he was amazed they hadn't said anything about him head-slapping DiNozzo.) and dragged them to Autopsy.
"Gibbs, wha-" McGee protested as he was herded towards the elevator, where Gibbs jammed the button for autopsy.
He herded them inside, and commanded. "Stay!" He then disappeared back upstairs, where he gathered Abby and practically dragged her down to autopsy as well.
"Alright, tell me exactly what happened between the four of you and Tony while I was in Mexico." He demanded, wanting to hear it from their view. He already knew exactly what happened from others and from security footage, he wanted them to tell him now.
Ducky immediately looked ashamed. The other three looked confused and a little defiant. Palmer looked pleased, he had a feeling that Tony would be getting a phone call as soon as this meeting was over.
"I fear I let my emotions get the best of me, and I took my anger about how you left out on young Anthony. I was short with him when he came down, I did not even notice when he stopped coming down just to chat. Mr. Palmer has since opened my eyes and I have tried to make it up to him." Ducky truly was ashamed of his behavior, but even he had not realized the true depth of how Tony was affected by that period of time until he learned about the undercover op he'd been doing for the Director.
Gibbs eyed him for a moment before deciding that Ducky was sincere and there was no need to berate the older man, he already knew what he'd done wrong and taken steps to making it right.
His gaze turned to the other three, and his glare deepened when none of them looked at all ashamed or like they even cared.
Abby was the first to break under his glare. "He was trying to take over! He kept pretending to be you! And he wouldn't bring you back to us!" She whined. Gibbs glare deepened in disbelief.
"Taking over? Pretending to be me?" He echoed. "He was doing his job! The one I trained him to do! I left him in charge, you had no right or authority to question that." Gibbs roared. "The last thing a team lead wants or needs is a team that won't follow his orders, especially in the field or in front of other agencies and LEO's." His glare switched to McGee and Ziva. "And believe me, he will be asked why he didn't put you two on report for insubordination." He promised.
Jimmy moved towards his small desk area and pulled a file from the bottom drawer. "He did write them up. It just never went anywhere." He said quietly, and handed it over to Gibbs, who flipped through it and glared at nothing when he realized what must have happened and why none of these were actually filed. It was a ploy by Jenny to drive Tony further towards Jeanne.
"What is all this?" He asked them dangerously.
"He was playing at being in charge, we were putting him in his place." McGee said boldly, continuing with that belief despite everything Gibbs had just said.
"He is your superior officer!" Gibbs shouted, he loud that the employees above them in the evidence garage heard him. "He is and was in charge! When I am not around, he is in charge, whether I am on 'sick leave' or not!" He knew full well that Jenny had never filed his retirement package, instead she'd put him down as being on paid sick leave. When he first found out, he was angry, but now he just couldn't bring himself to be. It would have been much more difficult to come back if he had to come out of an official retirement. McGee and Ziva cringed back when he yelled. "What, did you think that one of you could do a better job? McGee, you're a Junior Agent, barely off probationary status! David, you're not even an agent! You're a liaison officer who shouldn't even be on my team because of the security risk you pose! DiNozzo has been my Senior Field Agent and second in command since before Kate joined us!" He breathed hard for a moment and looked at them, furious.
"I expect better. From each of you once Tony returns from vacation. There will be no more disrespect. Tony is the best agent I have ever worked with, he's been an exceptional Senior Field Agent for years, an excellent partner in the field, and he was an excellent team leader while I was gone. Despite the attitude, insubordination, and disrespect from his team, an unhelpful director who was using him for her own personal agenda, and running an undercover operation at the same time. Do you all understand me?" He demanded of them, glaring full force. None of them thought to disagree, despite any personal feelings or opinions they held of Tony.
"In the meantime, you two are suspended for two weeks for insubordination, and you will be attending remedial classes on the chain of command in the meantime." When they stood there gaping, he snapped. "GO! I don't want to see or hear from you for the next two weeks!" After they scurried out, he shot Abby a disappointed glare, and left without another word.
He went straight to the Director's office, handed the new director the file with all the write-ups for McGee and Ziva, informed him of his team's suspension, and asked for the rest of the week off. He told the director he had some personal stuff to work through, he suspected that Gibbs was going to sulk around in his basement (hmm, he should maybe head over there to see if the rumors of a boat down there were true) and think over how things with his team got so bad.
So, now his top MCRT team was out of commission for the next two weeks. He already had some work lined up for Gibbs when he came back on Monday, but with two of his team on suspension and the third (who also happened to be the mans second in command) on mandatory vacation, he couldn't exactly run an investigation with just him. Well, Vance supposed that he could assign a couple TDA's and somebody else's SFA could probably step up and fill DiNozzo's spot until the two were back, and then the SFA could continue until DiNozzo himself came back, but he didn't feel the need to. He had enough work set aside to keep Gibbs busy.
He almost cackled at the thought of what Gibbs would be coming back to, but kept it to himself, he didn't want to scare Cynthia, after all. That woman was turning out to be a godsend.
(There were a few times when he'd wondered if she was telepathic, or if she'd been hanging out with Gibbs after work. He just didn't see how she was so good at knowing what he wanted, almost before he knew he wanted it, otherwise. When the coffee ran out (he really, really liked the blend that Shepard had imported), she'd been right there with a new box, and told him that she hadn't cancelled the order for more, merely changed it to be in his name, and with his bank information on the bill.
He'd looked at how much it cost, but decided that it would be worth it to have good coffee on hand. He didn't think he could tolerate going back to normal cop-shop coffee, just a few cups of this good stuff had spoiled him forever, it seemed. Oh well, he was the director now, he figured he could afford to treat himself to a little something like decent coffee at work. The trick now, would be to keep Gibbs from drinking all of it. Hmm, maybe he should charge Gibbs for every cup of his coffee that the other man drank. That way he wasn't going broke trying to feed the other man's caffeine addiction. He would much rather go broke feeding his own caffeine addiction.)
Speaking of Cynthia... "I have the final reports from the lab over all the evidence taken from Director Shepard's home, as well as the final reports from the computer guys, and here is the first report from the instructors over-seeing Agent McGee and Officer David's remedial training. I have already emailed copies of the evidence reports to Secretary Jarvis's office." She laid everything out on his desk as she said what it was. And then she picked up his coffee mug and refilled it before leaving as quickly as she came in.
Oh, yeah. She wasn't going anywhere.
The next time Anthony DiNozzo walked in the doors of NCIS, he was tanned, his grin was easy and real, he looked well rested, he looked like he'd gained some much needed weight, and he was bearing gifts.
Naturally, the first place he stopped was at Gibbs desk to drop off the promised souvenir's, as well as report in to his direct superior, and then he was off to report in to Vance and find out what happened with Jenny while he was gone. Because it was supposed to be vacation, everybody at NCIS that he was in contact with during the past month was forbidden from telling him anything about the investigation into her activities. He had been told about Ziva and Tim's punishment, and he was relieved that something had been done, although he wasn't really sure if it would fix anything. After reporting in to Vance and finding out what happened with the former director, Vance was given his own souvenir's, and then Tony had to answer for an incident that the Pearl Harbor office had called Vance about, two weeks into his vacation.
"Drug traffickers, Agent DiNozzo? What were you doing to get held hostage by drug traffickers, during a raid on their hide-out by local law enforcement, when you were supposed to have nothing to do with law enforcement while you were there?" Vance asked dryly.
"It wasn't my fault." Tony said plainly, pointing a finger in Vance's general direction. Behind him, Gibbs coughed, although it sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "I was just going for a jog, minding my own business, and suddenly I was in the middle of a fire-fight between police and a group of thugs. I just happened to be closer to the thugs than I was law enforcement."
"Uh-huh." Vance shuffled the report he'd been sent on the incident in question. "Tell me, Agent DiNozzo, do you always carry your side-arm plus backup when you go for a jog? And a knife?" He asked dryly.
"Uh, yeah." Tony said slowly, trying not to fidget. "I've worked law enforcement for years, I've been on plenty of undercover ops, I've taken down the Mob in Philly. I've learned to always be armed." He shrugged, like it was perfectly normal. "And I never go anywhere without a knife. Boss would take me to the mats if he found out I did." He jerked a thumb behind him at Gibbs, who made a noise of agreement.
Vance let that line of questioning go, he'd worked undercover before, he supposed he could understand that. "And you regularly run in abandoned, out-of-the-way industrial complexes in strange cities?" He asked next.
"Er- yes?" Tony had no idea how to really explain that one in a way that Vance might buy.
"And you didn't hear the gun-battle until you were right in the middle of it?" Vance asked again. By this point, Tony was making a very large effort to not turn around and stare at his boss incredulously. He didn't think he'd ever heard his Boss express so much amusement before. Sure, he'd laughed, but never like this. Honestly, though, his boss sounded like he was dying or something, with how hard he was having to work not to laugh.
"I had headphones on, I didn't hear it over the music." Tony answered promptly.
Vance raised an eyebrow. "None of the LEO's on the scene report seeing you with any kind of music device, or with headphones." He pointed out.
"I- uh... lost them? When Thug 1 and Thug 2 grabbed me?" Vance gave him a 'do you really think I'm buying this?' look. According to the police report, no headphones or music device had been found anywhere near the scene, either.
He sighed and dragged his hand down his face. "How did you even find out about the drug raid, DiNozzo?" He asked. Tony just grinned.
"It's my DiNozzo charm." He said simply. Vance sighed and looked to Gibbs for help, but Gibbs just raised his arms in a 'don't look at me' pose.
"You know what? Forget it, just... go. Get back to work." He said tiredly. He didn't have the energy to deal with it right now, not after the month he'd had putting out Jenny Shepard sized fires. Tony mock-saluted him and left, whistling. He dropped Cynthia's present on her desk with a smile and went on his way.
"Gibbs..." Leon said, warningly.
"He's the best at what he does, Leon. Although, he is a trouble magnet. Always has been, probably always will be." Gibbs said fondly, and left to go see how his team was interacting. Tony had brought souvenirs back for Tim, Ziva, and Abby even, despite how they treated him recently.
Vance still had no idea just how DiNozzo got involved in that situation.
Cynthia chose that moment to come in with a new stack of paperwork for him, leftover from everything with Jenny. Momentarily, he almost found himself wishing that Kort had just done what he normally did and tried to blow DiNozzo up, at least then he would have less paperwork right now. As quickly as the thought came, it went. As much as he hated paperwork, he hated losing agents under his command even more.
Elsewhere...
Trent Kort got off the phone with a buddy in NCIS and grinned. If changing things up once in a while caused this much chaos, he was going to have to do it more often.
