Disclaimer: no legal rights to NCIS, no money being made.

Beta: Mike91848. So all mistakes are mine.

Warning: This is AU alternate universe and a continuation of my story Unconquered.

A/N: An ode to steadfast Fan Fiction writers everywhere

Triumph

Go thru life from start to finish

Have a bite, ride a bike

Breathe the air, declare

Life is livable

Glean the mind, write some words

Some enjoy, few implore

Write some more, please

Un-resist-able

Go thru life, start to finish

Write, excite, delight, share

Spurn dissension and craftily aired

Anonymous objections, beware

Ig-nor-able

By Magusta68 8/2015

DETERMINED TO HOLD

Chapter One, Tongue in Cheek

Previously on NCIS

Tony lunged at him with the last of his waning adrenaline strength and reached for the Ringleader's arm just as the pistol came around and smacked him in the face.

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Twelve hours later, morning.

"Well look what the feline dragged in," started Ziva snippily as she watched DiNozzo saunter in from the elevator and take his seat. No matter how many times she was told she always got it wrong and the clue finally sunk in to some of them that she used the wrong words on purpose.

"Good morning, Boss, Ziva," greeted Tony. He ignored Tim as he turned on his computer and started reading his email.

"You're almost late," noted Gibbs not looking away from a file he was reading.

When McGee opened his mouth to speak Tony raised his hand in warning without turning around.

"There's no reason other than work related dialogue that needs to be spoken between the two of us, McForked-tongue."

"Fine with me," stated McGee as he went back to blowing in his cup before taking a sip of coffee. His laconic reply suggested a total lack of interest in the subject.

Aw crap, what now? Gibbs, sensing a pending disturbance, bemoaned the loss of quiet as he looked up from his reading material to peruse his junior agents. When he got his first look at DiNozzo who had turned to glare at McGee, Gibbs called out in surprise.

"What in the blazes happened to your face, DiNozzo?"

Tony involuntary raised his bandaged hand to his right eye than winced in pain. "Oh, this? Ran into a door?" he flippantly replied and grinned at the three staring faces.

"Looks like a fist shaped door to me, Tony. You've got some shiner going." McGee had gotten up to get a better look.

"Yeah, well, what do you know? Just back off, McFraudulant."

"Hey!" complained McGee, "Quit with the name calling. I..."

Gibbs interrupted Tim before he could start to whine. "DiNozzo, what happened? Your face, your hand? Do we need to follow up on an assault of a Federal agent?" Tony knew Gibbs wouldn't drop the subject until he got a satisfactory answer, which McGee happily supplied.

"He was babysitting, Gibbs," blurted McGee with a touch of gleeful humor.

"Babysitting?" Gibbs knew he should have gone for coffee.

"Yes, I was babysitting if you must know and on my own time so not undercover, Boss, I know that's what you're thinking. And thanks, McGee, for showing up and all the help you..."

"Tony, for the tenth time, I told you I already had other plans that I probably couldn't get out of. Sarah was...she...well you know Sarah."

"Were you running away from an irate boyfriend, Tony?" Ziva rudely interrupted McGee's sputtering as she sat at her desk smoothly in control.

"Ziva," he countered, "you know I don't swing that way since you maintain such a close watch on my, ahem, extracurricular activities.

McGee snickered, which got another glare from Tony. "What are you laughing at, McPhony?"

"That is not what I meant, Tony." Ziva interrupted, highly indignant that he had done it again and caught her off guard; misconstruing her words into something obscene as though she cared about what he did in his bedroom or more likely his bimbos' bedrooms.

Gibbs watched as Tony, the master of deflection, worked his magic and the other agents forgot the bruised face and band-aided hand as they dissolved in outrage at his mocking words and tease aimed at them. But he wasn't fooled, what was Tony hiding now? Gibbs decided to wait for a private moment to attempt to get the whole story. Right now, a coffee run was his objective since there was no threat of a pending enemy attack, just DiNozzo and his usual shenanigans...babysitting damage, really, Dinozzo?

As Gibbs left the office he overheard McGee continue to badger Tony and he just shook his head as he beat his retreat.

"Which one did that to you, Tony?" asked McGee pointing to his discolored cheek.

"If you had been there it wouldn't have happened but I'll tell you anyway, Mc...Whatever. Ringleader had the honor of whacking me in the face and Escape Artist bit the hand."

Tony smiled at the memory, those little guys were so cute in their baby-ness, energetic antics even though he always seemed to inadvertently get in the way of a thrown foreign object or get chewed on by painfully erupting baby teeth.

"Are you serious?" Came Ziva's strident, disapproving voice. "Ringleader, Escape Artist? Tony, are you working an undercover ops again?" 'Without telling us' was not spoken out loud but heard anyway in her tone.

"You might say that Ziva but then again, probably not."

"Well, what does that mean? What is it, Tony, yes or not?" Ziva was holding onto her temper with care. Tony knew she did not like being kept out of the loop especially when she thought she might have been a better fit and not only was she kept out of the loop but Tim seemed to know all about the operation and even an always suspicious Gibbs appeared unconcerned.

Tim looked at the senior agent with a frown. It was the beginning of the week after a nice weekend off, well possibly except for Tony's, couldn't they all just get along?

"Tony, why don't you tell Ziva what you were really doing."

"I WAS BABYSITTING!" Tony emphasized again in exasperation. He didn't elaborate further, just turned back to his computer hoping the subject was closed. Ziva's stormy look he could sense behind his back indicated otherwise.

Tim knew Ziva wouldn't let it go. It seemed her aim in life recently was to pester Tony to death for a reaction. "He really was babysitting and guarding a set of triplets, Ziva. Lonnie, Ronnie and Donnie Vigil, the FBI Director's thirteen-month-old great grandnephews. They seemed to have taken a shine to Tony from the last time he babysat."

"The last time he babysat? You are kidding me, no? I know you must be lying, who in their right mental processes would allow Tony who acts like a ranchy child himself to babysit three small children especially not the FBI Director or the Governor, or next it will be the president, himself. Ha!" She laughed derisively.

"I think you mean raunchy, Ziva, and that's kind of disgusting putting raunchy and child in the same sentence that way, it's..."

"It would be better for you if you remain quiet, McGee!"

"Careful, David." Tony warned her off still not looking away from his computer. Whatever was going on with her was between him and her. Leave McGee out of it.

"What, Tony? We are just having a normal conversation, are we not? The kind that you like filled with meaningless words and rabidity with x-rated movie references and immature jokes of women's acrobatics from an iron bar. What is wrong with that?"

Tony turned around and shared an amazed, confused look with Tim.

"What?! What have I said wrong this time?" asked the annoyed female Agent.

Tony recovered first.

"Rabidity? Are you saying I have rabies of the mouth, Ziva?"

"Hardly, Tony," McGee scoffed. "I think she means ribaldry."

McGee then turned to Ziva correcting her without thinking of the consequences. "I think what you also meant to say, Ziva, was pole dancing rather than acrobatics from an iron bar although in the literal sense, it could be considered acrobatics and an iron bar could be in use though usually it's stainless steel or sometimes even aluminum mixed with copper for the color..."

Disbelieving looks from the other two agents had Tim reconsidering what he had just said especially when Tony got that mischievous twinkling look of future teasing ammunition in his eyes. Tim hastened for damage control seeing his future beset with pole dancer trinkets showing up on his desk in a daily reminder of DiNozzo's crazy ribald humor.

"Not that I engaged in pole dancing or watch it myself...Look, I did a paper on the benefits of steel versus..."

Ziva interrupted him in sour annoyance. "I know what I meant to say, Tim, and I have told you before, your bad habit of correcting my English is not appreciated!"

"Sorry, Ziva. I meant no offense."

Before McGee could turn away, however, Ziva's curiosity got the better of her and she asked begrudgingly, "This ribaldry? What does it mean, Tim?"

Tony advised her with a mocking grin, "Look it up, Ziva," and she turned away with a huff.

He knew she was taking a class on understanding the idiosyncrasies of the English language and looking the word up would distract her. His mission to redirect would be accomplished and the subject of his injuries downplayed and dropped. Except McGee surprised him and wouldn't let it go.

"I'm sorry you got hurt, Tony, but look, you're acting childish. I told you that I probably could not help you this weekend, you know Sarah, she'd kill me if I didn't show and I'm more afraid of my sister than I am of you," Tim joked but he was somewhat serious, too.

Tony didn't see the humor. "McGee, don't lecture me," cautioned Tony, "cause the shoe may be on the other foot someday. You weren't there! You should have been but you weren't. I couldn't keep them corralled by myself, they were all over the place. Have you ever seen a jungle gym monkey bar in the playground? Well, that was me. I was climbed over, under and above and beyond. Even little Grimy, who I thought was my friend, dragged me around just because he's the only one who figured out how to get up on his two hind legs and toddles and falls all over the place."

Tim rolled his eyes and couldn't help laughing as he listened to woebegone Tony as he played up his ridiculous tale.

"His two hind legs? Tony, come on, he's not a baby animal and they're just a year old, how hard could it be? Admit it, you love the little guys.

"Your point, McGee? And they're thirteen months not twelve and a few months premature so that extra month makes a big difference in their motor activities. And yeah, I love the little triplet guys, I love the triplet mother, I even have an abiding affection for the triplet father but...I got gnawed on with some sharp little pointy teeth, spit up on, kicked in the groin and whacked in the head with a toy plastic gun and changed so many poopy diapers that I can still smell the odor under my fingernails. So, just keep your unsolicited, and wrong, opinions to yourself, Mc..."

"'RIBALD," Ziva interrupted triumphantly as she read the meaning of the word from her online dictionary.

"'Referring to sexual matters in an amusingly rude or irreverent way.' I take it back, McGee, and thank you, this is the correct word." She felt more than justified in her observations.

"That is exactly why I do not believe anyone would allow Tony to babysit an infant much less three infants, therefore, you are lying, Tony. Admit you escorted the homely niece and we will let it drop."

Tony just raised his brow, shrugged and turned away shaking his head. He was not in the mood for any more hassling or haggling from her in the office or out of it for that matter. A few months ago Gibbs had been in MTAC and had sent the three of them on a case. Ziva had made the mistake of haranguing him in the field regarding his decision to send her back with evidence. He had cut her off sharply by abruptly walking away but later in the docking area back at the navy yard things had come to a head.

"When I give you an order and Gibbs is not here, it's your duty to follow it. That's part of your job description, Ziva, or have you forgotten?"

"Your order was redi..." She tried interrupting.

"Therefore, I am issuing you your one and only verbal warning to not let it happen again because the next step will be a written reproof to go into your permanent record and you know what that means."

"Yes, I know what it means, Tony!" she said nastily. "I could lose my job and that is just what you want, is it not? So afraid that I will bypass you in your abilities to..."

"You're a broken record, Ziva. You've been warned." And he again turned his back and walked away.

Since then things had been strained between them more than ever but they managed to keep the friction under the wire with the appearance of a strong team and Gibbs was pacified with their continued success at solving cases.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

Tim didn't get what was going on with these two. The team had hit its stride in solving cases, Gibbs appeared... not unsatisfied, and things should have settled down from their stormy beginnings. And yet. He watched Tony in perplexing silence go back to tapping at his computer and Ziva frowning in frustration at Tony's lack of response, what was he missing that kept the two of them at such odds?

Tim didn't have a clue but Tony had his reasons. He'd toned down his teasing especially with Ziva and he bent over backwards to maintain professionalism and not get in a haggling match with her over personal things or who was right or wrong on worldly matters, still, it seemed, she did everything she could to argue a point. She could get in her snipes but at least now she knew better than to do it in the field.

He had made it a point not to share every hour of his life with his teammates and what he did on his off duty hours away from the office was none of their business. Tony had made the mistake of getting overly friendly with some he worked with in the past and had been badly burned for his efforts so in the six months he'd been Gibbs' SFA, he and his teammates were still mostly just coworkers and had their own lives outside of work and that's the way he liked it.

As far as any outside interaction with the Boss, there was an occasional cowboy steak dinner and beer at Gibbs' house where they talked mostly shop, nothing personal. After showing up at Gibbs' house six-months ago in one of his more stupider inebriated moments and spilling his guts about fathers, chain-sawed pianos and ruined water-sports careers to, he was sure, an un-captivated audience of one, he was determined to not embarrass himself or Gibbs again in his maudlin sloppy reminiscence. So duty and job were always first order of business and what they talked about.

It had taken a while but the optimism he had felt in that basement seemed to have bore fruit with Abby. They had talked a little bit, shared some common interests and she had apologized for jumping to conclusions about him and he had said sorry for being a smart mouth to her. They had gone clubbing together, not as often as she would like but a couple of times until he felt less wary of her.

What had surprised Tony the most, though, was that he and McGee in spite of being as different as night and day had managed to form a budding friendship and spent time together outside of work when they didn't have dates or other commitments. They found themselves working out at the same gym and doing swimming laps together, an occasional pick-up game of basketball though McKlutzy was really bad at it, a movie marathon night with Abby or a video game challenge that took up most of the evening were some of the things they had done together and were still doing.

Tim and Tony's private thoughts were interrupted when after a few minutes of welcome silence, Ziva got up from her chair to casually approach Tony. Obviously, she just couldn't let it go.

"If you were in fact babysitting, Tony, you could have asked me. Since you asked Tim and he was not available, I would have welcomed helping to take care of the little ones."

Surprised, Tony looked up at Ziva and thought she almost sounded as though her feelings were hurt that she had been excluded but was that also accusation in her voice that she had been left out?

Feelings hurt from being excluded? He didn't believe that for a minute. Accusation for overlooking her help, oh yeah!

Tony groaned loudly. "Thank you, Ziva, for the offer and I'll keep it in mind if there's a next time, but, now, can we let it go at that and get back to work?"

"This is about the dinner I left you out of, is it not?" Ziva spoke softly to avoid others, even McGee, from hearing her taunting words and smirked triumphantly when she saw the wince quickly hidden. At least she had gotten under his skin by causing him the ignominy of supposedly being unwanted and un-missed at that dinner.

Ziva thought back to how she had given the others the impression that she could not reach him by phone to invite him to dinner and the others had believed her but of course that was a lie. She had deliberately left him out and the others seemed to enjoy themselves even though he wasn't there. Now, she didn't know what galled her more, Tony's lack of reaction and apparent disinterest or that he had said nothing to her about it and seemed unaffected by what some would refer to as her deviousness but she was fighting for her survival and her place on the team.

Deep down, she knew that most of the tension between them was still that issue of her involvement with his father. Nothing seemed to thaw that coolness and since he wasn't reacting to her subtle sexual advances or sometimes more overt ones, her only alternative was to try and make him feel alienated and apart from the team and giving her the opportunity to become closer to Gibbs and McGee along with Abby, Ducky and Palmer.

Tony's voice rose in phony shocked surprise. "Dinner? What dinner?" He looked around Ziva to address Tim. "McGee, do you know anything about a dinner that I wasn't invited to attend?"

"Noo...ooo." Tim answered sounding puzzled. "I don't think...wait, are you talking about Ziva's dinner party last month, you weren't invited? She told us you declined her invitation, prior commitment you couldn't break...just like the one I couldn't break, by the way." He had to throw that in.

"Nope, didn't decline, wasn't invited."

"You weren't invited? Oh." McGee cautiously replied. Tony didn't sound upset and not even the slightest degree of petulance had crept into his voice but was he hiding hurt feelings? Tim looked over at Ziva kind of sadly. What was there to say? He and the others had taken her at face value and believed her lie. They had had a great time and the food was good but one member was missing and missed. McGee was stumped for words. Was that bit of spitefulness on Ziva's part the reason for the animosity between the two of them?

No, that alienation had begun long before last month's dinner.

Ziva noted the pity call from McGee and didn't like it. She did not need his pity. What was he pitying her for? She hadn't meant for Tony to blurt it out like that, it was to remain their secret. Again, she had blundered by bringing it up in the first place but Tony angered her so much that sometimes she didn't know what she was saying. She was failing to uphold her Mossad training.

"You feel it necessary to bring up something that happened over a month ago, Tony, are you that insecure? Are you trying to cause friction between myself and McGee, to make him take sides because of your lack of confidence?" Ziva was backtracking furiously, again put in a position by Tony DiNozzo to defend herself and her actions.

Tony held up his hands, denying her accusation. "Ziva, come on. You brought it up, I'm assuming to embarrass me. Sorry if it backfired." Ziva wanted to wipe that well-used smug look off his face.

"And to be honest, I'd forgotten about it, you know, more concerned with that bullet hole in my arm rather than missing a dinner party that I wasn't invited to. The only reason I'm bringing it up now is because you just reminded me of it." The smirk was gone, serious mien taking its place. Ziva belatedly realized that Tony was not amused, probably had never been.

"Reminded you of what, DiNozzo, something case related?" And they all knew it wasn't a no-for-an-answer question. Gibbs had appeared out of nowhere and Ziva was hard pressed not to show any reaction.

"Actually, no, the dinner party..." Tony started but Ziva quickly jumped in.

"...of the cold case we are working on, Gibbs. Two of the suspects had dinner together the night before the homicide. We need to recheck their alibis."

Good save, thought Tony, closing his mouth with a snap. It would have been petty and childish to have to go to Gibbs about not receiving an invite to Ziva's dinner party back when it happened, now, it would have been just petty revenge and he could imagine Gibbs' glare of contempt at his whining. If he hadn't cared enough to complain back then he certainly didn't now but Ziva didn't know that and it kept her on edge.

"Well!?" Gibbs glared at them all as he passed by en route to his desk.

"On it, Boss."

"Working on it, Boss."

"Right away, Gibbs."

The chorus of voices followed by scurrying back to desks and computers was immediate and Gibbs sat down with a satisfied grunt, recess was over.

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Tony DiNozzo glanced surreptitiously at his coworkers before outwardly immersing himself in the cold case with a sigh of relief. He had Ziva on the run, McGee wasn't paying attention and Gibbs was alert but had not caught on. But his thoughts were not easy and it had nothing to do with the Director FBI or the Governor's Ball for that matter.

He wasn't a hypocritical bureaucrat or as Ziva once said, a buttock kisser and he wasn't trying to favor attention from the higher ups. It was a personal matter whatever 'it' was and it was really nothing as yet, plus, he had no choice since he didn't know what it was about just that someone was in trouble. He'd wait as long as he could or at least until he was contacted before he went ahead and tried to find out for himself what was going on.

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