Chapter 10
Gibbs sat at his desk, his eyes fixed on the image of Ari that was pulled up on his screen, McGee was busy on the phone trying to put a name to the dead body in the morgue, Liz was in a meeting with the director, finalising her secondment to NCIS. Gibbs looked over to the two empty desks in front of him and sighed. Tony had been wrong he did care that Kate wasn't sitting at her desk, that it was now a stranger occupying her space but unlike Tony he understood that death was a part of life and that lying down with the dead achieved nothing, that the best thing for them and for yourself was to live and remember and sometimes to avenge.
"Gibbs!" he heard sighing at the voice, wondering when Farnell would get here, knowing that he would. Gibbs refused to look up until Farnell was standing glaring down at him
"We have a dead body that might be connected to Ari" Gibbs said calmly as he looked up into the glaring face of Farnell
"I know, what I don't know is why I didn't know straight away" he snarled, bending down and into Gibbs's face "I thought we had a deal, that you would work with me, answer to me" he continued angrily.
"Nope" Gibbs said carefully, his eyes glinting, enjoying the look of frustration and confusion on Farnell's face
"Yes we did, you agreed in your damn basement" Farnell ground out angrily
"Nope, I just said I would see you tomorrow and I have" Gibbs said getting up from his chair and crossing to the elevator, knowing Farnell would follow him.
"You bastard" Farnell said on a quiet and angry breath
"Yep, just ask your ex wife" he said grinning, knowing Farnell hated any reference to the fact that he had married Gibbs's ex wife when he had warned him not to. Gibbs watched as Farnell reached over and hit the emergency stop button, the lights blinking off for a second before the dimmer emergency lighting came on
"I trusted you" Farnell said angrily, Gibbs turned and levelled a cold stare at him
"No you tried to use me, you tried to play me" he said, his voice cold and without inflection, somehow making it seem so much worse "Your mistake, my gain" Gibbs added, his face almost breaking out into a grin before he hit the start button, knowing that Farnell would hit it again to stop the elevator, watching calmly as the other man did so.
"What the hell does that mean?" Farnell asked, watching and hating the control Gibbs always seemed to have
"You need me to find and stop Ari" Gibbs replied his eyes glinting with the power that knowledge gave him "because you can't"
"What the hell makes you think that?" Farnell asked trying to backtrack, realising that this had been Gibbs's plan all along, that Gibbs had had no intention of ever leaving NCIS, but had needed to know just how much leeway he had, and Farnell had played right into his hands.
"Because you came to me" Gibbs said, hitting the start button again, and calmly leaning against it so that Farnell couldn't stop the elevator again, staring at Farnell
"Ari is mine" Gibbs said just before the doors opened and he stepped out of the elevator and into the reception foyer of the NCIS head quarters, not looking back as he exited the building in search of coffee, but knowing that Farnell stood staring after him.
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Gibbs stood in the line impatiently as the woman in front of him debated with her friend whether she wanted a tall double latte or an iced cappuccino. Gibbs wished people would put some thought into it before they got to the assistant, and held up everyone else with there indecisiveness. Finally she made up her mind and the pair moved off to find a table, Gibbs looked at the pimply faced youth serving him and wondered if he was even old enough to drink coffee, let alone serve it. After he placed his order for his favourite black coffee and Abby's Caf Pow he turned as was his usual habit and surveyed the people around him, many he knew from the NCIS building, others were suits from the offices and shops in the area. This was a popular coffee house and one that was always busy, his eyes scanned the room one last time before he started to turn back to the counter but he paused mid action as he spied Tony sitting in the corner, his back to the room, his head hunched over his cup. The boy serving him returned with his order and Gibbs absently took it from him before heading over to the table Tony sat at.
"Tony" Gibbs said quietly in greeting, not waiting to be asked but taking the seat opposite Tony, carefully placing the two cups he carried on the table in front of him. He settled back into the chair and then lifted his coffee to his mouth, his eyes never leaving Tony's face, wishing that he could make things right for the younger man.
"Boss" Tony said quietly, his eyes drifting to the Caf Pow on the table
"How come you never get the rest of us a drink?" Tony asked absently, twirling the empty cup in his own hands. Gibbs stared at Tony a moment before answering
"Just don't" he said as if it explained everything, and in some ways it did, it was just who Gibbs was, it was just what Gibbs did, something that others might never understand but that made perfect sense in the grander scheme of things.
"Yeah" Tony answered back, his eyes lifting to finally meet Gibbs' "I miss her boss" he said quietly, the pain in his eyes real and devastating, Gibbs calmly took a swallow of his coffee
"I know" he said as he put the cup down again "but do you think she would want this?" he asked quietly, standing and reaching for his cup and Abby's Caf Pow
He stopped beside Tony, facing the exit, not looking at Tony. "No one can ever replace Kate" he said softly, with that he walked out of the coffee shop and back to NCIS, leaving Tony sitting there nursing his empty cup as he thought about what Gibbs had said.