Tony and Jess passed the rest of the day sitting on his couch, reading the news, napping, watching bad "issue of the week" movies on Lifetime (during which they turned off the sound and provided their own dialogue, ala "Mystery Science Theatre 3000"), and eating mostly junk food, with occasional forays into vegetables. They hadn't seen each other for over a year, so there was a lot to catch up on.
Jess described her team up in Barrow, using words like "likeable" and "committed" and "focused" before finally admitting that, brilliant as they were, they were about the dullest bunch of scientists she'd ever met. She'd tried playing a few jokes on them to lighten the mood, but her attempts at humor were not particularly well received.
"You think I'd have learned by now that jokes don't work unless everyone understands it's a joke," she said, shaking her head.
"Yeah," Tony agreed. "My learning curve is slow on that particular skill too."
Jess went on to say that she suspected her boss' willingness to grant her emergency leave was as much to get her off the base for a while as it was to give her the time off she'd requested.
Tony told Jess about his recent missions with Ziva and then spent another hour or so trying to make her understand that Ziva's put downs were just normal partner banter and the fact that she'd had a dinner party without him wasn't that big of a deal. They argued about it for a while – loudly – with Tony defending himself and, much to his surprise, defending Ziva as well.
"Jess – I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself. And I can certainly hold my own with Ziva."
"I know," she said, with a frustrated sigh. They'd had this argument before – about Kate. "You can, but you never do. You just take it and play the nice guy and move on."
"What do you WANT me to do?" Tony said, with a frustrated sigh of his own. "Take a swing at her? Body slam her to a wall?"
Jess rolled her eyes. "No, tough guy," she said. "I want you to fight back." She smiled, slightly. "Like you do with me."
"Yeah," Tony said, with a small smile of his own. "But I know the outcome with you. I'm not always sure about Ziva."
Jess opened her mouth to say something else, but Tony cut her off.
"It's a GAME Jess," Tony said, in a voice that indicated the discussion was over. "It's just what we do. Let it be."
"Excuse me?" she said, raising her eyebrows and challenging him to continue.
"Let. It. Be." Tony repeated, deliberately.
They stared each other down in angry silence for about 20 seconds, and then simultaneously broke into a really bad rendition of The Beatles' "Let it Be", with both of them trying to sing harmony and neither one of them succeeding. They dissolved into silly laughter and apologized to each other, but neither one of them considered the topic closed.
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
After another good night's sleep, they woke up early on Monday morning and lay in bed, watching the shadows disappear as it got lighter out.
"You have to go to work," Jess said, stating the obvious.
"Yeah," he said. He looked at her. "Come in with me. Meet everyone. Say hi to Ducky. I'll snag you a computer and you can check your e-mail or do whatever."
"You just want to keep an eye on me," Jess said.
Tony raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Is that a problem?"
"Nope. I have no problem with that at all. As long as your boss doesn't mind," she said as she headed to the bathroom. "I'll be out in a minute."
"Take your time," Tony said. "I'll make coffee." And then, under his breath, "Bring coffee and the boss doesn't mind."
By the time they walked into the bullpen, McGee, Ziva and Gibbs were all at their desks. Gibbs looked up and started to say something, but cut himself off when he saw Jess.
"Hey boss, sorry I'm late. I brought coffee …" Tony said, as he set a travel mug in front of Gibbs, and offered one to each Ziva and McGee.
"Thank you …" Gibbs said, a bit taken aback. He stood up and straightened his jacket, then squinted a bit. "Do you want to introduce us, DiNozzo?"
"Boss, McGee, Ziva," Tony began, "this is Jessica Kennedy. She's a friend of mine – an operations specialist out of Barrow – visiting for a bit. I thought I'd bring her in to see the little place we all call home."
Jess reached out to shake Gibbs' hand. "Tony talks about all of you … a lot. It's nice to put faces with names."
"Nice to meet you, Specialist Kennedy," said Gibbs, formally.
"Jess, please," she said with a smile, and then turned to her right. "You must be Tim," she said, shaking McGee's hand. "And, of course, Ziva," Jess said as she stepped over to shake Ziva's hand.
"Shalom," Ziva said.
"Na'im m'ode," Jess replied.
Ziva looked at her with surprise. "You know Hebrew?"
"Just enough to be dangerous," Tony said, shooting a 'behave' look at Jess. "And I mean that in the literal sense."
Gibbs was about to ask Jess a question when Ducky came in.
"Jethro … a moment, if you please …" he began. He stopped when he saw Jess standing near the center of the room.
"Miss Kennedy!" he said, with obvious delight. "How lovely to see you again! Anthony didn't tell me you were coming." He walked over and took her hand in both of his, and then gave her a warm hug.
"That's because Anthony didn't KNOW," Tony said, sending a friendly glare in Jess' direction.
"Give it up, Tony," Jess returned automatically, smiling at Ducky.
"Ducky … it's good to see you," she said.
"I believe I owe you a night at the opera, my dear," Ducky said. Gibbs, McGee and Ziva all looked expectantly at the coroner.
"I met Miss Kennedy during Tony's convalescence at Bethesda after his bout with Y Pestis," Ducky began to explain. "We chatted …"
"At length …" Jess added, to everyone's amusement.
"… about opera," Ducky finished, with a smile and a glance towards Jess. "'Der Rosenkavalier' is playing later this month, if you'll still be here."
Jess looked at Tony, then back at Ducky. "I don't know exactly how long I'm staying. I'll have to let you know."
"Boss …," Tony began. "Is there a computer somewhere that Jess can use? Just to check e-mail and do a couple of quick searches? My laptop is still evidence in that murder investigation."
"Sure," Gibbs said with a small smile. "She can use mine. I'll be in MTAC all morning."
"Thank you," Jess said, sitting down as Gibbs held out his chair for her. "I'll try not to mess it up at all."
"I'm not sure I would notice if you did," Gibbs said, as he took his coffee and headed up the stairs to MTAC. He glanced back towards his desk when he got to the top of the stairs, a move that did not go unnoticed by the rest of the team.
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Four hours later, Gibbs came out of MTAC and headed down the stairs. DiNozzo was standing at Gibbs' desk, looking over Jess' shoulder at whatever she was working on; Ziva and McGee were at their computers, working.
"Find what you needed?" Gibbs said to Jess.
"Yup," she said, instantly saving the screen and popping a disc out of the drive. "Thanks."
She stood up and moved away from his computer, with Tony quickly returning to his desk. Gibbs smiled.
"I didn't mean you had to instantly vacate my work station."
"No problem," said Jess, returning the smile. "I was pretty much at a dead end anyway."
There was a pause as they stood and looked at each other.
"So …," Tony broke in, with barely contained amusement. "What's up in MTAC?" McGee's and Ziva's eyes turned towards Gibbs and Jess.
"They're doing a drill here tonight and tomorrow morning," Gibbs said, just barely hiding his annoyance. "When you leave tonight, power down and pack up anything you don't want someone to see. There will be hazardous substance trainees here tomorrow, going through every inch of this place to see how long it takes to biochemically secure an office environment."
There were groans all around.
"Of course, the upside," Gibbs continued, "is that no one needs to be here tomorrow at 0700. The office will be secure and off-limits until 10am."
"In that case," said Jess, glancing back at Tony, "you are all invited to Tony's house tonight for dinner." Tony looked to the ceiling in a "heaven help us" gesture, a grin on his face. "Ducky, Abby, Palmer, everyone," Jess continued. "Everyone," she said deliberately, indicating to both Gibbs and Ziva that this was mandatory, not voluntary. "Dinner is at 8. Someone, please, bring wine."
"I'll call downstairs and let them know," McGee said, clearly pleased with the invitation. "I'll bring dessert."
Tony looked at Gibbs and Ziva. "Seriously, guys, you will see more different types of pasta in one place at one time than you ever have before in your life. Do not make me eat it by myself."
"I wouldn't miss it," Gibbs said with a smile.
"Excellent," Jess said, smiling in return.
Gibbs then sat down, grabbed a few files, and told everyone to go to lunch.
