Tony DiNozzo wouldn't call himself an expert on Gibbs and his relationship with the Director. In fact, he would struggle to say he understood anything about it at all other than the few brief pieces of information he's managed to gather over the years. And that he found it
What he does know is that Gibbs values loyalty and looking after your own more than almost anything else. Jenny had been his partner once upon a time, and it didn't take an ace detective to see that she was still important to him, whether it be because they were more than friends or otherwise.
It's why it didn't sit right with him when Jenny had all but dismissed him and Ziva as her protective detail after the funeral. He might not have the infamous gut that his team leader did, but Tony knew something did not feel right.
"We should call Gibbs."
Ziva looks at him, clearly surprised at the suggestion.
"I thought you were enjoying your free day?" She asks.
And truthfully he had been at first, but after their terse phone call with the redhead he knew something was wrong.
"The Director is hiding something," He says, "Something that she doesn't want us to see, which means it's dangerous and if I had to guess, I think it's something to do with Deckers death."
"Grieving, perhaps?" Ziva suggests, though he can tell her heart is not fully behind it.
"Doubt it. She was fine when we first got to the funeral and then suddenly decided to send away her detail? She saw or heard something when we were there."
Ziva considers it for a moment, bobbing her head side to side as she weighs out the possibilities and Tony prays that she'll back him on this.
"Calling Gibbs won't be good if she's not in any real danger." Ziva points out fairly.
"I know," Tony says, because he was more than aware of that fact, "But if she is in danger and we don't call it'll be even worse."
Thankfully for him, that's all the persuading Ziva needed to hear.
"Call him."
He's dialing before she even finishes speaking.
Having been an agent for the better part of her adult life, Jenny Shepard had given her death thought on more than one occasion. After all, there was never any guarantee of safety when doing field work and certainly not when they had been undercover while overseas.
Still, as the minutes tick by she find herself thinking more and more about her prospective death. Call it her gut instinct, but part of her knows that like Decker, she likely won't be making it out of this predicament alive.
If her time on earth was running out she's at least satisfied to know her five point plan had worked out. After pouring years into the agency as an agent she managed to become Director. The first female Director, no less. It was an accomplishment that would put her down in the books no doubt.
But when she thinks of her personal life and all the things she hadn't allowed herself to have part of her becomes terrified of dying. There were too many things she regretted and now she had no time to fix it.
But she was doing this to protect him, the man centered around her biggest regret of all.
"Not to late to tell him, you know."
Mike Franks was an the last person she ever thought she would ally herself with, but she knows if there's anyone willing to go off the record to protect Gibbs it would be him.
"Pardon?" She's partially stunned that he managed to know exactly what she had been thinking.
"Gibbs," He replies gruffly, "There's still time to tell him about Decker and whoever is hunting you down."
Right, of course he had been referring to Decker and not the onslaught of feelings she had been wrestling with over the last few hours.
"I'm keeping him out of this," She tells him firmly, "My mistake, my mess, my price to pay."
Mike snorts, "He's already in this, in case you didn't realize. What happens if you fail, huh? Then everyone is as good as dead because he would still be in danger and not even know. And I'm not taking the fall for his lady getting killed."
"Failing isn't an option, and I'm not asking you to take the fall if something happens."
There's a lot to unpack with his statement and she's not even willing to give him the satisfaction of addressing the lady comment. She hasn't been his in a long time, if she every was his at all.
"You were on his team, yeah?" Mike asks, "Means you must have been good. I'm trusting his judgement cause he wouldn't have kept you around as long as he did if you were stupid."
From what she knows about Mike Franks it's the closest thing she'll ever get to an approval.
"That mean you're ready to move then?"
They can only hide in the motel for so long before someone deciphers their whereabouts.
"Yeah," He picks up his gun from the table only to pause for a moment, "Just so you know though, there's still time to tell him about what you thought I meant earlier too."
It was obvious then, why she's going to such great lengths to protect him.
"Lets move."
The second that Tony's name flashed across his cell phone screen he knew something happened. One glance at the clock and he knew that for them, it was still early in the day and that there would be no reason for a phone call.
"Gibbs." He answers.
"Boss," Tony greets, "How's the east coast serving you?"
It's a standard quip for his senior field agent to have but Gibbs can clearly hear the slight uncertainty in his tone.
"What's wrong DiNozzo?"
The line is silent for a moment and it only serves to churn the feeling in his gut even more.
"It's the Director, boss." Tony explains, "She dismissed us for the remainder of the trip."
"She dismissed you?" He repeats.
"Yeah, said we should go enjoy the sights while she takes some time to herself."
Gibbs huffs, "She's the Director, she doesn't get alone time without security."
Reckless as usual, then.
"I don't know what's going on with her but I'm telling you boss, something is wrong."
"Gut feeling?" He asks, though he already knows the answer.
"Yeah, gut feeling." Tony agrees.
He's silent for a moment and weighs out what to do in his head. There's 2,500 miles worth of distance between them and he doesn't even have a guess on where she could have gone.
"I'm gonna have McGee trace her phone," He settles on, "He'll send you her location and you'll try and tail her. You stay reachable, you got that?"
"Copy that," Tony affirms, "What's the plan here?"
A good question that he really didn't have an answer too.
"Buying a plane ticket, for starters."
A/n: I've decided to take on another multi-chapter piece. I'm tweaking the timeline of events for judgement day, just to make it so the phone call with Tony is earlier than the diner, and it'll give Gibbs time to fly out to CA before the shootout, so keep that in mind when reading. R&R.
As always, Ali