Warnings: None Disclaimer. I don't own the NCIS characters - only Elizabeth - I'm only borrowing them, and I promise to return them in minty fresh condition when I'm finished.
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Successor - part 06 Tony's second thoughts
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I learned a lot of things about Elizabeth in a short space of time. One, she's seen almost as many movies as I have, although the people in the movies she watches tend to have more clothes on than in the ones I watch. She can play up to four games of chess simultaneously. Note that I didn't say she can win any of them. I lost fifty bucks to her over that little mistake of mine. Although by the time she'd paid off her co-conspirators who had helped set me up, she probably didn't have much of the fifty left. But to her it was the principle of the thing.
She also didn't bluff. Now I'd like to be able to say that I learned that about her during a game of strip poker with her and Abby, but the truth was a little more embarrassing.
Gibbs had sent the pair of us off to follow up on a lead, which turned out to be a dead end. We'd had to drive about fifty miles to get there, only to find that the guy we were supposed to interview had died about a week earlier. There weren't even any suspicious circumstances for us to follow up on, so all we could do was hop back in the car and head back to Washington. Neither of us were particularly happy about it, and I was even less happy about the fact that Gibbs had given Elizabeth the keys to the car. He hadn't let me do any driving for over a week, ever since the incident with me, a pretty pedestrian walking past, and a couple of hundred dollars worth of damage when I'd backed into a wall. I'd tried to tell him it hadn't been my fault, I mean when a woman wears a low cut top with breasts as big as hers...but anyway, it was one thing Gibbs doing the driving instead of me, it was another thing when it was Elizabeth. At least with Gibbs you knew you'd get where you were going quickly enough.
I'd tried coaxing Elizabeth into at least letting me drive on the journey back. Pointing out to her that she'd already done enough driving for the day and trying to make out like I was doing her a favor by taking over. She didn't fall for it and just told me to shut up and put my seat belt on.
Okay, let me get this clear. I do not have a problem with women drivers. Some of my best friends are women...who drive. But what bugged me about Elizabeth was that she was just so...so damned cautious behind the wheel. She never broke the speed limit...not by more than a few miles an hour. She always waited until a road was well clear before crossing a junction. Heck, she even slowed down at an amber light instead of speeding up to get through before it turned red.
So we were on a good road and Elizabeth was being her usual careful slow self, and I was getting more and more frustrated and so I started commenting on how she really could speed up a bit because everybody else was passing us out and if she didn't hurry then we'd just get stuck in rush hour traffic and hey she could overtaken that car if she'd just put her foot down and now there was a line of oncoming traffic and we'd be stuck behind somebody driving even slower than her for ages now. I must have gone too far because she growled at me that if I made one more comment about her driving then I was going to have to walk back to the office. And that shut me up...for all of five minutes.
I didn't even say anything really bad about her driving...honest. It was just something along the lines of how the car really wouldn't fall apart if she went over the speed limit for a while. And that was it. She pulled into the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. "Okay DiNozzo, that's it. Get the hell out of the car."
I started to laugh, but it sort of died away as I saw the look on her face. "Aw come on Elizabeth, I was only kidding."
"Get...out...of...the car before I do something I'll regret." I could see by her face that she wasn't messing around, so I quickly unlocked the door and scrambled out, thinking that she was just bluffing, she wasn't really going to make me walk all the way back. And then just as soon as I'd shut the door, she revved up the engine and was gone, leaving me staring after her in disbelief.
Did I mention already that she has a bit of a short temper when she's driving? It's probably about the only time I hear her swear so much in such a short space of time. To listen to her you'd think that she's the only driver who obeys the rules of the road. Mind you, she's probably right. But anyway, she certainly looked as if she was obeying the rules of the road as she drove off and rounded the corner a few hundred yards away.
For a few minutes all I could do was stand there watching, waiting for her to change her mind and stop the car. Then I figured she'd have gone too far to just stop and reverse and was trying to find a safe place to turn around. Then I figured that she wasn't bluffing and I'd have a long walk ahead of me. I tried phoning her, but she didn't answer. Of course that was probably more down to her not wanting to answer the mobile while driving and not so much that she was pissed at me. Then I remembered that she had a hands free set and I figured that it was because she was pissed at me.
So I thought about my options. Sit around here and wait for Elizabeth to change her mind and come back for me. I somehow figured that hell would freeze over before she'd do that. Maybe try and hitch a ride with some gorgeous blonde...only the traffic seemed to have died down considerably over the last few miles and I could be waiting a long while for that to happen. So I went for option three and started walking. I knew there was a town only a few miles down the road so I figured I'd be able to pick up a bus or hire a car there.
Of course just my luck, it started to pour down rain only a few minutes later. I pulled my jacket up around my ears and trudged miserably on. I guess my luck wasn't too bad though, because when I rounded the corner, the car had been pulled in to the side of the road and Elizabeth was sitting in it and waiting for me.
I admit that I was half expecting her to wait until I got up close to the car and then drive off again...okay, that's more like something that I'd do. But she probably felt that she'd taught me enough of a lesson...or maybe she just figured that it wasn't worth while the explaining she'd have to do to Gibbs if she did return to the office without me. The paperwork alone would be a bitch. Anyway, I tell you, she let me back in the car and zoomed off without a word and let me tell you that I kept my mouth shut for the rest of that journey. Although I admit a part of me was wondering just what would happen if she was driving with Gibbs as a passenger and I couldn't wait until that happened.
But for the most part Elizabeth and I got on pretty well. The more we worked together, the more I trusted her to watch my back, and more importantly, to watch Gibbs's back. And I was really glad that Gibbs hadn't made any noises about transferring her again, and then came a day when everything changed.
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It was an ordinary investigation on an ordinary day. I don't even remember what the case was about now, some thefts or something. I just remember that we'd got a tip that a certain warehouse might be where our bad guys were hiding some of their loot. Elizabeth had wanted to call for backup, but I pulled rank on her, telling her that our source wasn't the most reliable, and that Gibbs wouldn't be terribly happy about us calling in reinforcements if the place was deserted. As it happened, I was right, but I wished later on that I'd listened to Elizabeth and hadn't insisted that we go in, take a quick look around and then decide whether we needed back up.
So we went in, and it didn't take us too long to realize that our source had been lying through his teeth. The place looked as if he hadn't been used since Gibbs was in the marines. To be fair, I didn't say "told you so" to Elizabeth, and to her credit she didn't slate me for believing an unreliable source. She did however insist that we check every area of the warehouse before reporting in.
"Just cause it looks deserted doesn't mean it is," she told me. "Where better to stash stolen property than somewhere that looks as if nobody's been here for years, right?"
I went along with her suggestion and not just because it meant climbing all sorts of ladders and things to check the upper levels. Being the gentleman I am, naturally I let her go first. Being the lady she was, she only threatened to poke one of my eyes out if I stared too much.
We'd checked most of the ground floor and were making our way along some walkways to get to an upper level, when we saw him. Now he could have been just some bum who'd wandered in from off the street to get a bit of shelter, or he could have been the perp we were looking for. He was too far away to tell. But one thing we could tell was that when he saw us he started running, and naturally we ran after him.
The warehouse had been abandoned for a long time, I know that now for a fact, but then all I knew was that I just needed to run a little faster and maybe I could catch the guy. I could hear the metal walkway groaning beneath me as I ran, Elizabeth was about ten or fifteen feet behind me. I remember that I'd glanced back to see if she was keeping up with us. And then, only a fraction of a second after I'd turned my head away, I heard the sickening crash of twisted metal coming from behind me, and when I looked back...she was gone.
Just like that...as quickly as between one breath and the next. I skidded to a halt and looked at the gaping hole behind me where the walkway had been only a few seconds before as I'd pounded across it. For an instant it was as if all the sound had been sucked out of the universe and there was just me and my heart pounding. And I felt sick to my stomach in a way I hadn't felt since that day on the rooftop when Kate had been shot, only this time was worse, because this time it was my fault. Elizabeth had been my responsibility...I was the senior member of the team and I should have been looking out for her...and I'd failed her...and I suddenly knew just how Gibbs had felt when Kate had died, and why he'd been so adamant about not having a team around him...because when they died and you were to blame, the guilt was unbearable.
I found myself on my knees, still staring at the gap and Elizabeth's name on my lips.
And then it was like somebody flicked off the mute button and I could hear the creaking of the walkways and above it I could hear a voice calling...no, make that yelling my name.
"Tony!"
"Elizabeth," I gasped, hardly able to believe it as I slid forward on my hands and knees until I was able to look down into the gap. About four or five feet down, I could see Elizabeth's face, white as a sheet, staring up at me, as she clung like a limpet to what had been the floor of the walkway.
"Tony!" she yelled again, even as I reached down and yelled at her to grab my hand. But she was too far down and my hand dangled uselessly in the air as she tried to reach it. Letting go of her grip, even with one hand, had been a bad idea and she slid a little further down.
"Hold on," I yelled at her and rolled back out of the way, pulling frantically at my belt. Finally I had it in my hands and slid the end through the buckle to create a loop. Then I lowered it down towards Elizabeth, yelling at her to grab the loop and I'd pull her up. Even I as leaned towards her, I could felt the metal I was lying on start to dip a bit and I knew that if I didn't hurry then we'd both end up in a broken heap on the floor.
So I reached down as far as I could with the belt and Elizabeth grabbed the loop and as soon as I saw that she had a firm grip, I started pulling, and then said a silent prayer of thanks that I'd worn my good quality hand made genuine Italian leather belt that day instead of the cheap and nasty plastic imitation leather one that I often wore.
It seemed to take forever as I pulled and Elizabeth climbed, but finally she was close enough for me to grab her by the hand and half pull, half drag her onto the walkway. I had my arms wrapped around her and was telling her "It's okay, it's okay. I've got you."
She was shaking like a leaf and saying "Oh shit, oh shit," over and over again. I don't know how long she was like that before she made some comment along the lines of "If you make any comments about my weight..." Except she was still gasping for breath so it didn't come out quite as smoothly as that, and I could see unshed tears in her eyes as her breathing started to calm down a bit.
So we were sitting like that for I don't know how long, and then we felt the walkway underneath us start to creak and groan and so we sort of scrambled over to where it joined the wall, figuring it'd be a bit more stable. And I'm still holding Elizabeth, and she's still shaking, and now I'm shaking as well, cause all I can think of was how this was all my fault and if she hadn't been able to grab a handhold then she'd be lying on the floor below as dead as Kate was.
And I knew then exactly where Gibbs was coming from...how the guilt cut like a knife right through you...and how you'd do anything to avoid feeling it again.
So we finally managed to get to our feet and climbed down to ground level, and neither of us making any jokes about looking in the wrong places. Heck, neither of us were saying anything much at all. Elizabeth just curled up in the passenger seat, staring out the window. I was barely able to keep us on the road, my hands were still shaking.
Once back at NCIS, I pulled rank and told Elizabeth to get Ducky to check her over while I reported to Gibbs. I could tell that she was still shaken by the incident, because she didn't even raise a token protest. Normally she'd buck any attempt by me to play the senior agent card, mainly because she'd been a field agent as long as I had, but today she just did as she was told.
And then I went straight to Gibbs and told him that I wanted Elizabeth off the team and now.
Gibbs just sort of looked at me and said; "An NCIS agent is for life, not just for Christmas. What the hell happened? She jump on your hat again?"
I tried to explain to Gibbs just why I'd changed my mind about Elizabeth but I could tell I wasn't making much sense, and I guess he figured that something was up, because he told me to grab my coat and we headed out for a nearby bar, somewhere where we could talk without being overheard. And I just kept babbling on about how he was right and I'd been wrong and the sooner Elizabeth was somebody else's responsibility the better, and how I didn't want her to end up like Kate and for the first time since Kate's death we were talking...I mean, really talking.
I know that we'd talked about Kate before, at her wake we'd all drunk toasts in her honor and told stories about her life until late in the night, but never before had we talked about her death, and how it had affected us. And I told Gibbs about how the smell of blood made me sick and he told me how he hadn't worked on his boat since that day, and Ducky joined us later on and he'd been hurting as well but like the rest of us he hadn't been able to talk about it.
And it was nearly closing time when Gibbs finally said, "Look, if you really want Elizabeth off the team, then I can put the paperwork through in the morning. But a guy told me once that danger is part of the job we do and we can't keep looking over our shoulders, and worrying that people we care about and work with are going to get hurt. And he also said that we can't blame ourselves when they do get hurt. It goes with the territory DiNozzo and we have to get used to it."
Man, I hate it when he twists something I've said back on me. I hate it even more when he's right. And I knew he was right and that if I asked Elizabeth then she'd say it had been her responsibility to look out for herself and besides, she'd had my back not the other way round.
So Gibbs never filed the paperwork, and Elizabeth stuck around, and when we stood shoulder to shoulder and took down Ari, I knew that we were almost a team again. And when McGee's computer task force gig was finished and he wangled a transfer back to Gibbs's team, that only sealed the deal.
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Ceindreadh