Tag to S4 E4


Gibbs listened stoically, but mentally he was laughing.

Ziva thought she could read Tony like a book. She didn't know that he practically breathed lies.

Gibbs knew that Tony was telling the truth about the date with the beautiful woman, and Tony lied on purpose about the car... a red corvette happened to have been the car he drove while undercover in Philadelphia. That, and when he would have been old enough to get his own car, he was a disowned kid in military school, he only went to college because he got a full ride scholarship for sports. Otherwise, he was planning on going straight into the military.

He'd seen pictures of Tony's first car, it belonged in a trash heap.

Tony must have missed the egg on his shirt, too, and Ziva clearly missed the fact that the shirt was the same one Tony wore the day before.

That was how he knew that Tony had a hot date the night before. He also knew that something was going on between Tony and the Director, but he didn't know what, and he knew it wasn't good.


Later, when he questioned Tony on just how close he and Jenny had gotten while he was gone, he had to walk away before doing or saying something he would regret when Tony so blatantly lied. The only saving grace Tony had right now was that he didn't even try to hide it. If he'd tried to hide it...

Walking into MTAC later on and seeing the op happening on the big screen that he was told 'you don't need to know', he knew that Tony was involved in something right now, and it was probably off the books. He could only hope that Tony had adequate back-up, or that he told him what was going on soon. Or at least before it was too late and something happened to him.


"It was Franks who hit me." Tony said, sitting on the steps in the basement.

"Yeah..." Gibbs said with a sigh.

"He hit his protective agent from behind, and left protective custody so he could set himself up as bait with a bogus tape. If you hadn't gotten there in time..."

"He didn't just hit his protective agent. Tony. He hit you." Gibbs corrected. He didn't say anything to Franks at the time, and now he was kicking himself for it, but he also knew that Tony would have found an apology gift as soon as he went back to his apartment, whenever that would end up being considering the 'relationship' he was in at the moment, although with everything going on between Tony and Jenny, and the fact that Tony wasn't talking about his girlfriend.

"Yeah... and then he went back to Mexico after shooting a guy in cold blood and hitting a federal agent over the back of the head as if nothing ever happened." Tony said wryly.

"Not as if nothing ever happened. As for hitting you, there will be an apology present in your apartment when you go back." At least, there better be. But if he knew Franks, and he liked to think he did, then there would be.

Tony looked up, but didn't say anything else.

Gibbs glanced over at him and sighed, putting down the tool in his hands and filling a jar with bourbon along with his coffee cup, and handing Tony the jar. "Tony, I did not say anything, not because I didn't care. I honestly don't know why I didn't say anything." Gibbs said quietly. "And... I know you turned down a promotion to Rota." He didn't look at Tony.

Tony's head shot up and he stared at Gibbs for a moment before huffing. "I told her to keep it between us." He muttered.

"You didn't take it?" He would have thought Tony would take it, Gibbs had come back pretty abruptly, after all, and Tony had been having a bit of a hard time adjusting back to not being in charge anymore.

"My place is here." Tony murmured, and Gibbs studied his face, looking for any sign that Tony was lying, but either Tony was really trying to hide it tonight, or he was honestly telling the truth.

"Alright. You did a good job today, Tony." He went back to his boat. "And you'll be careful with whatever Jenny has you doing?" He asked casually.

Tony huffed again. "Never could hide anything from you, could I? I'm being careful." He promised.

"You have good back-up in place? A good contact if things go south?" He pushed.

Tony was silent for a moment. "The Director is the only one who knows about my involvement in this whole thing." He finally said quietly, and Gibbs froze. "If things go bad, you'll be the first one I call, no matter what the Director says about it, but right now I can't tell you anything." His eyes and voice were pleading for Gibbs to drop it.

"I want you to signal me every time you leave the building to work this op. Every time you go to meet with your 'girlfriend', I want you to call me first. You don't need to give me details just yet, but I want to know when you're working it." He ordered.

"Yes, boss." Tony acknowledged.

"And Tony... make sure you run Ziva through some extra courses on reading body language." He commented wryly, and Tony laughed with a grin on his face.