If somebody walked by and intervened when Ziva held a gun to Tony's head while they were in Israel?
Hebrew
Gibbs was walking with Vance and Director David down the hallway when they heard shouting, some Hebrew mixed with English from up ahead. The three men glanced at each other in concern before they started walking faster towards all the noise.
"Eli?" Vance asked, wanting to know if the Mossad Director at least had some idea of what was going on.
"I have no idea." Was the answer. "Through here." He said, opening a door at the end of the hallway and gesturing for the Americans to go first.
All three froze at what they saw. A Mossad officer was trying to drag Ziva David away from Tony DiNozzo, while another was crouched over Tony where he was laying on the floor. The other officer was clearly making sure he was alright and trying to act as a shield in case Ziva tried to use the gun in her hand, a gun she was still pointing in Tony's general direction.
Ziva was alternating between yelling at the officers who'd gotten between her and her current target in Hebrew, and yelling at Tony about Micheal Rivkin in English, while the officer in front of her was yelling back at her in Hebrew. The officer on the floor alternated between his own comments towards both her and his partner in Hebrew, and trying to talk to Tony in English. Tony was arguing with him about letting him get up.
"Stop!" Eli barked, unable to believe what he was seeing. The events were clear from where he was standing. Tony DiNozzo was injured, unarmed, and lying on the ground while another officer tried to shield him, while Ziva was being dragged away from him, gun in hand.
The fighting Mossad officers froze, while the one on the ground with Tony visibly relaxed, and started helping him up now that the danger was past. He still kept himself between Ziva and the NCIS agent, though. Tony looked tense, and was eyeing Gibbs, who looked like he was about to learn how to actually spit fire. Gibbs kept his silence, though.
For now.
"What is going on here?" Eli asked, dangerous. "In English, for our guests, please." He added when the officers started speaking in Hebrew. He wasn't sure how much Hebrew the Americans knew, if any, beyond greeting phrases. He held up a hand and shot his daughter a glare when she went to speak. As she was involved, he didn't want to hear from her, not yet.
"Ah, yes, sir. Sorry. We were leaving for our next assignment when we found them. Agent..." He stopped to glance at Tony, realizing that he had no idea what the American agents name was. He only knew he was an agent because his badge was on his belt.
"DiNozzo. Agent Anthony DiNozzo." Tony said quietly.
"Thank you. Agent DiNozzo was on the floor with Officer David standing over him, pointing her gun at his face." The officer said quickly.
"I demanded that she back away, she refused. She told us to leave, that it was none of our concern. I got between them and pulled her away, she resisted and started yelling about how he murdered Officer Rivkin?" The other one took over the explanation. The two glanced at Tony, uncertain, but they also knew that he would not be roaming about their headquarters so freely if it had truly been cold-blooded murder like Ziva's rant had been making it out to be.
"It was self-defense." Tony insisted, not looking at Ziva, instead he was watching his boss, and trying to decide who Gibbs was angry at, him or Ziva. "I went to speak with Ziva about... something that came up in a case, and found him there, instead. I moved to arrest him under suspicion of the murder of a federal agent, and he fought." He didn't know why he was defending himself to these two, but he supposed that it would be better to have all the facts out there, especially with Vance right here. He didn't want to be the reason relations between Mossad and NCIS broke down over this.
"And it was Officer Rivkin who broke your arm?" One of them inquired, tilting his head. Tony nodded.
Eli breathed in and out several times, trying to regain control of his temper. He glanced around at where he knew the security cameras for this area were, and barked orders. "Take Ziva to a holding cell to calm down, and then have the security tapes looked at." The two officers nodded their agreement and moved to flank Ziva, who protested. "Ziva. Do not shame me further." Eli hissed, and she allowed herself to be taken away with a glare towards Tony, who watched stoically. "Did she hit your arm, at all, Agent DiNozzo?" Eli asked, and Tony shook his head.
"No offense to you, sir, but I'm really not enjoying your country." Tony quirked a small grin in Eli's direction as Gibbs moved to his side.
Eli huffed a laugh. "No, I do not imagine you would be." He shook his head and gestured for the Americans to follow him back to his office, where he, Vance, and Gibbs had just come from while they discussed the situation Rivkin's death at Tony's hands caused.
Vance and Gibbs were arguing for them to just drop it, that Tony had gone to that apartment to do his job, and had continued to do his job admirably the entire time he was there. Grudgingly, Eli agreed to drop the matter. And then they left his office to go for a walk after leaving instructions for Ziva and Tony to be found and brought back to the conference room the American agents had been allowed to use during their stay. That was when they heard the disturbance.
"Leon, if she comes back to NCIS after this, she's not coming back to my team." Gibbs told the Director straight up. "Not after that display." His team needed to be able to trust each other at all times. It was clear that Ziva no longer trusted Tony, she just tried to kill him. And Tony would never trust her again, if he ever did. He was very slow to trust, and once it was gone... Tony looked at him, startled, but didn't say anything.
Not yet.
Vance snorted. "I'm wondering what kind of charges I can get pressed against her. Since she's technically only a liaison officer, NCIS doesn't even pay her salary. Well, we pay the difference between what Mossad pays her, and what an agent at her rank would be paid." He amended. "But, she assaulted an American Federal Agent, who, it can be argued, is here on a diplomatic assignment. I might be able to swing some sort of legal action, but whatever punishment that comes will probably be here in Israel. I'm going to have to report this incident to SecNav, and I think I can safely say he's going to consider her liaison position to be non-existent after this." He assured Gibbs. If she came back to States with them, she wouldn't have a job with them.
Did agents fight and beat each other up from time to time in a fit? Sure. It was a regular occurrence, actually.
Which was why, those agents were given harsh penalties and punishments if those fights occurred outside the training rooms, and outside of the supervision of one of the combat instructors at the Yard. Even then, the agents both had to be able to return to their regular duties afterward, or they penalized as if they did fight outside the training room. One of his predecessors set it up that way, knowing that they worked a high stress job, and sometimes tempers flared to the point where words just wouldn't cut it. This was dangerous for a bunch of highly skilled federal agents, so they made sure it was company policy for any 'grudge matches' to be supervised.
If things still weren't settled by a good clean fight, then other actions might need to be taken through the agents team lead, or support staff within the building. If need be, agents had been transferred to other field offices in the past.
However...
Throwing an injured man to the ground, and holding a gun to his head? That was so far outside of acceptable bounds... if she were an American citizen and a full employee of NCIS, Vance would have slapped her with a suspension while IA decided if they wanted to charge her with Assault on a Federal Agent, and anything they could possibly think of.
Inside the Director's office, Eli collapsed into his desk chair and rubbed a hand down his face. "Why did I ever have children?" He muttered. First Tali was killed when she was still young, then everything with Ari... and now Ziva attacked a foreign agent in their own headquarters. Well, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. He turned to his computer and switched to the buildings internal security feed. As director, it was his job to know everything that happened in his agency, so he had full access to security from his computer. While the officers got the tapes pulled from Security, he would watch it all from here so they could start going through the diplomatic mess Ziva just created.
"Agent DiNozzo, you have been very quiet." He said, glancing up at Tony, whose side Gibbs had not left, and whose silence was beginning to concern Gibbs. Tony had earned his respect earlier in the interrogation room when he turned the interrogation around on him, and got him to reveal some things that he had not intended on ever revealing.
"Uh, yeah, I've just been thinking." Tony said. He just wanted to go home.
"Don't think too hard." Gibbs teased lightly, a small smile aimed at him to remove the sting from the words. A hand settled on the back of Tony's neck and squeezed, causing Tony to close his eyes and sigh quietly. Gibbs hadn't touched him like this since before Mexico. It was one of the only sure ways of calming him down when he was stressed out or over-thinking something. Head slaps were for getting his attention back on topic.
Tony rolled his eyes after a moment. "I knew Ziva didn't take Rivkin's death well, I mean..." He huffed a laugh and made a vague motion with his hand, but didn't continue. "But... she heard everything that was said in the interrogation room. I don't understand... I thought we were partners, friends. Why would she...?" He asked. "In her apartment, sure. Ok, I'd just killed a guy in there. Doesn't mean I like that she did it, but... but here, after hearing everything in there?" He sounded lost, and Gibbs hand squeezed lightly.
He turned his back to the Director's and focused on Tony, even going so far as to back them up to the far side of the room so the two of them could have some privacy. Vance tactfully drew Eli's attention away from his agents, recognizing this as a conversation neither of them really needed to hear. "You know none of what she did is in anyway your fault. Rivkin, you were doing your job. He's the one who attacked you, right? And he's the one who stayed in America after being ordered to leave. Ziva's attitude right now, is not your fault." Gibbs emphasized with a light pat on the back of Tony's head before his hand went back to it's spot on the back of Tony's neck.
"But, I had to have done something, right? It's clear she has no respect, I'm not sure if she even likes me, otherwise why else would she... I mean, I know I act the clown, do you think I took it too far? Is that why she... she wouldn't have done that if she ever trusted me, would she? I mean, was it something I did or didn't do?" Tony was trying to make sense of this in his mind, and Gibbs let him talk, just like he did that time when Tony was in custody by the FBI.
Unlike then, he didn't just give him a light head slap to get his head back in the game.
"She is a highly trained officer in Mossad, and we trained her to be one of the best investigators in NCIS. If she couldn't see you after all these years, than she was willfully blind. That's on her, not on you. You and I both know full well why you act the way you do sometimes, and there is nothing wrong with that." Gibbs said, his dark tone of voice promised that somebody was going to be in pain soon if he had any say in it.
"Yeah, but... maybe I took it too far?" Tony asked.
"You. Did. Nothing. Wrong." Gibbs reiterated. "There is nothing you took too far. If she could not see you, that is on her." He repeated himself, something he generally hated doing, but seemed to do a lot with Tony sometimes.
Tony looked down. "What now?" He asked, glancing back up. He looked remarkably like a little boy who didn't know what to do after getting in trouble and was asking his father for help.
"Now, we go home after the Director's figure out what they're doing, and we find a new member for our team." Gibbs said quietly. Ziva was the only one they hadn't picked themselves.
It hadn't been long after hiring Tony that Gibbs realized that his new agent had some serious trust issues. There had been a few agents before Kate, they hadn't lasted more than a few months with him. In part, they just hadn't fit with what Gibbs was looking for in his agents. He had two stages they had to 'pass' to be considered a member of his team, if they could handle him, and if they could gain Tony's trust. Even a small bit of it.
Gibbs managed to scare them all off before they ever reached the second stage.
Kate was the first one that Gibbs knew would not scare off, and she hadn't. In fact, Tony was the one who recommended she stick around, which was how Gibbs knew she'd passed Tony's test. McGee, he just hung around until Tony finally laid the transfer paperwork on his desk to make Tim an official part of their team, and not just an occasional asset to the team. Ziva was the first agent in a long time that had not passed both tests.
She was forced on them by Jenny, and her Mossad training meant she didn't scare away, but Tony never fully trusted her. Not like he came to trust Tim and Kate. That doesn't mean he didn't come to trust her over time. Which made this whole thing worse in Gibbs opinion.
If DiNozzo had never come to trust Ziva, he would not be taking this betrayal so hard. He would not be taking her lack of trust or regard for him so hard. He would not be trying to figure out where he went wrong like this.
It didn't help that this had been such a rough few years, either. First, Kate dies. Then, he gets framed for murder. Gibbs got blown up and ran off to Mexico with no more than a 'you'll do', which apparently his two team members took to mean that he was passable. So, Tony got sucked into Jenny's vendetta with 'the Frog'. Gibbs came back from Mexico for Ziva, no explanation, no nothing, and didn't even bother to call Tony to let him know he was coming or to make sure her current team leader even knew there was a big problem. The way he came back for good, oh, yeah, that didn't damage Tony's trust in him at all, that didn't blow a big hole in their relationship.
Then, there was the blow-up (literally, Tony's car...) when the Frog himself came to town to see his daughter, and Jeanne found out that Tony was a federal agent sent to spy on her father through her. He knew that Tony had let himself fall for her, he was pretty sure everyone knew it. Then Jenny died, and that was all on her. None of that was Tony's fault, not when he was following her orders and she went out there to die. Of course, the new director didn't see it that way when he sent Tony away and reassigned their team, putting everyone except Tony in positions where they could hunt for a mole. Being Agent Afloat might as well have been Tony's 'time-out'.
Tony was the only one Gibbs was actually pushing to get back, not that it did any good, because Vance refused to bring him back. Gibbs had finally ended up going over Vance's head and taking it straight to the SecNav, who had actually read Tony's file and agreed with Gibbs assessment of how Jenny died, and that Tony's talents were wasted playing cop on a ship.
And now this... this had been a rough few years. It seemed like just when things were starting to calm down, something else happened that threw everything up in the air, and made things tense both at work and at home.
"When we get home, I'm going to put in paperwork for you to have a week off. Take the time to work some things out in your head, relax, give yourself time to get back in the game. You can take your room at my house." He squeezed Tony's neck again when it looked like he might protest. "I'm gonna treat this as you coming back from a rough undercover assignment." He promised, knowing that Tony couldn't protest that. He always needed a few days to truly get himself together again.
They learned that the hard way after Tony came back one time, insisted he was fine, and then almost snapped another agents arm in half when he was startled.
"Come on." Gibbs said, and used to the hand across Tony's neck to propel him forwards, back towards the Director's who were hashing out the political nightmare Ziva caused them. They were trying to work out what to do about it in a way that wouldn't create a lot of backlash for Mossad, and so that NCIS didn't lose face, either, for just letting it go. He was pretty sure Vance was about ready to call SecNav, let him deal with the politics of this situation.
Eli knew that he needed to punish her somehow, and it needed to be big and public enough that other agencies wouldn't think that kind of behavior was the norm with Mossad officers. That would lose any or all inter-agency cooperation they had world-wide. But, he also didn't want to make it too public that it sent the wrong message to his own officers.
Vance wanted the maximum punishment available, and he wanted it to be as public as was humanly possible, which was quite a bit considering media and whatnot.
By the time the two directors worked out a solution that they both felt they, and their agencies/governments, could live with, Gibbs had emptied the coffee pot in the office at least three times, and even Tony was on his second cup of coffee. The two agents had merely stood to the side, the only time Gibbs hand left the back of Tony's neck, grounding him, was when he went to refill his coffee cup.
When Vance glanced over, he was pleased to see that DiNozzo looked more settled, and figured he could expect to see a leave of absence request pass his desk once they got back.
"Leon, I will keep you informed." Eli said after Vance signaled to his agents that they were leaving. "Agent DiNozzo, I hope that your next trip to my country is more enjoyable for you. Agent Gibbs, I thank you for looking after my daughter, and apologize for any trouble she's caused." He said, reaching out to shake the American's hands.
Tony acknowledged the Directors words with a nod of his head, but didn't say anything. He doubted he would ever return to Israel unless it was for work, and even then, he would have no need for that. His team was a criminal investigative team, so they didn't have much to do with anti-terrorism efforts, even though they'd taken out their fair share of terrorist cells over the years. They didn't do much foreign relations either, unless one of their cases crossed international borders.
Eli didn't say anything more, instead he showed them out of his office, where an officer was waiting to escort them out of his building, where a driver would be waiting to take them back to the military airfield, where their plane was waiting to take them back to America.
On the plane, Tony was pushed onto a bench, and Gibbs sat beside him, leaving the other bench free for the Director to claim. As soon as they were in the air, Gibbs practically ordered Tony to sleep, and it wasn't long before his head was tilted sideways and resting on his bosses shoulder.
Vance pretended not to notice anything, knowing that Gibbs would not be pleased about it being pointed out, not when he was in Papabear mode.
He was almost glad things worked out like they did, although he wasn't happy with Ziva's actions in attacking his agent. And he knew that Gibbs would probably shoot him if he ever said any of this out loud.
"I will assign some-"
"No." Gibbs cut him off. "Send us files. We pick the new agent for our team. That's the best way to go, Ziva was forced on us, and look how that turned out. Tony won't trust anybody else after this, it needs to be somebody we pick." His arm had wrapped protectively around his agents shoulders, and he stared Vance down.
Vance studied the two of them, knowing that Gibbs in Papabear mode wasn't a Gibbs to be argued with. He sighed. "Very well. I'll put some personnel files together for you to go over. How long are you making him take leave for?"
"A week for now. We'll see where he is after that." Gibbs answered, looking down at Tony.
"He going to be at your place?"
Gibbs nodded. He was worried. This wasn't the first partner to betray Tony, not at all. His partner in Baltimore ended up being dirty, and there was always something that happened in the two departments he was with before that to make him move on. There was a problem with one of the agents on Gibbs team when he first joined, she didn't last much longer, though, as she was fired. Even Gibbs had betrayed Tony's trust. Several times over the years, in fact.
When he left and retired to Mexico, for one. The way he came home from Mexico and just tossed Tony aside like he did without explanation or even a 'good job'. He wasn't exactly there when Tony was going through everything with Jeanne, instead he was angry with Tony for not telling him about the op, without even considering that Tony was following orders. For once. Everything that happened with Jenny... the way she used his agent and he either didn't notice or didn't care enough to pay enough attention to notice... The way he treated Tony sometimes on an almost daily basis anymore.
Honestly, he was shocked that Tony was still around. Gibbs hadn't been there nearly as much as he used to be, as much as he should have been.
He was worried about how this latest thing was Ziva was affecting him.
He debated with himself over whether or not he should take a few days to be with him. He knew that Tony would start brooding, and then he would start over-thinking the entire situation, and then the self-blame would start up again no matter what Gibbs would say when he came home from work. Tony would have had hours with those thoughts running through his head, making it more and more difficult for Gibbs to get through to him.
"I will take the week as well, otherwise he'll start thinking too much if left on his own." He said absently, looking down at his agent. Tony would be able to help with the boat, or maybe he should start Tony on a project of his own. Over the years of staying with Gibbs whenever he was injured or needed to get his head on straight again, he'd become pretty good at woodwork himself. There were times when he needed Gibbs' help with something, but he was pretty good at it. In fact, he'd made his TV stand in his apartment while he was staying with Gibbs after Kate died. It was solid, and well-made, if a little rough around the edges.
Leon studied him for a moment. "Alright. As soon as we land, we'll go into the office long enough for you to fill out paperwork, then you and DiNozzo can go home." He instructed. Gibbs nodded.
He was glad those officers were walking by, and got between Ziva and Tony. He had a feeling that if they hadn't, he would never know any of that happened. Tony would go back to his apartment, sit and brood, and come to all wrong conclusions that her actions were somehow his fault.
That just couldn't happen. He would lose Tony DiNozzo if that happened.
That just couldn't happen.
