Today was the big day. Gameday. They had been practicing all week, and even though Tony preferred more time, he was proud of what they had all accomplished. The game was being held at a local gym, not the one they had practiced at, and many government officials were attending. Including SecNav. Director Vance sat next to him as well as the Director of the FBI. Thankfully, they were given the bathrooms as locker rooms.
"Alright. This is what we've practiced for. We can't let the FBI kick our ass. We got this." Tim looked like he was about to throw up in the corner, Ziva and Abby were hyped up, and Gibbs was just being Gibbs.
"Remember the plays? The name? How to play in general?" That resulted in a head slap from Abby.
"We're quick learners, Tony. Besides, you and Gibbs taught us. We should be okay to win this thing!" Tony nodded. He was still worried about his knee but didn't want to mention it to anybody. Ziva looked over at him, she saw him take some ibuprofen earlier and suspected that it was a precaution for his knee. He chased down criminals and his knee has been fine, this should be no different. Right?
The sound of the scoreboard rang throughout the gym, signaling that it was time for them to make an appearance. They fixed their jerseys. Tony was #8, the same as he was during his school days. Ziva was #12. Abby was #27. Tim was #13. Gibbs was #2. Seeing as this was a government "tournament", the jersey's had NCIS on the front as well as the number but had their last name on the back. It was something Vance gave them the other day. They all made their way out of the bathroom and towards the gym. There were a bunch of people in the bleachers. They all looked wide-eyed at the number of people and slowly made their way over to their bench. Vance saw them coming and made his way over to them.
"How are you feeling about this?"
"Would have preferred more time, but we're ready." Vance nodded and patted Tony and Gibbs on the back.
"You got this." With that, he went back to his seat. Tony looked over at the FBI's team. Their team consisted of Tobias Fornell, Ron Sacks, Brent Langer, and two other male agents that they didn't know. Fornell and his team saw that they had arrived, and they all made their way over to them.
"Gibbs."
"Fornell."
"Hope your team's ready, Gibbs. Both my lead boys played. They've taught my other two. My newest agents, Lucas Montgomery and Mason Jones." He pointed to the two that they didn't know. The two men gave them a nod. Tony couldn't help but snicker.
"You're not the one ones that played." He said under his breath. Only Ziva could hear him. Both Sacks and Langer looked appreciatively at her and she couldn't help but want to punch both of them in the face. The only person that could look at her like that, was Tony. Not that she would admit that. Tony noticed them looking at her and unconsciously stepped in front of her, giving them a glare. They sent him one back.
"DiNozzo. Shouldn't you be in prison?" Sacks taunted.
"Haha. Maybe you won't be talking smack when we wipe your whole team out." The pair laughed.
"You really think that you can beat us. Last I checked, your team wasn't really the basketball type." His gaze went over to Abby and Tim. Tony quickly jumped to their defense.
"They might surprise you, Slacks." Sacks' jaw clenched.
"For the last time, it's Sacks." Tony smiled.
"Like that's any better." Fornell finally jumped in as anyone in the room could feel the tension between the three.
"Alright, that's enough. Get back to the bench and warm up." The four FBI agents went over to their side of the gym and started stretching. Fornell turned back to them.
"Hope your team does well today, Gibbs. No harm no foul when one of us wins." Gibbs nodded and shook his hand. This was all for fun, yet their agents were treating it as life or death.
One Fornell was a good distance away, Tony turned to look at his team, his family.
"Alright, huddle up." They moved into a circle, listening closely to Tony, even Gibbs.
"Don't listen to them, we got this. Now, we don't have any replacements on the bench since Ducky's playing in a golf tournament, and Jimmy's on vacation. That means we're playing this entire game ourselves." He let out a slight sigh. Their first game and they wouldn't be able to take a break, at least until halftime.
"Don't let that deter you. We chase criminals for a living, Abby you bowl with nuns. We can handle a little game of basketball." They couldn't deny that Tony could be good at pep talks.
"We got this." They all nodded at him and smiled. They could do this. Tony looked around the court and noticed that Fornell's team were shooting shots and practicing for the little time that they had left.
"Alright. Let's go on our side of the court and shoot some shots." They nodded and all of them made their way over to the right side of the court. A cart of basketballs was wheeled over to them and they each took one. The game didn't start for another 20 minutes, they could have a little more time.
When the scoreboard made another buzzing noise, they knew that it was time. They made their way back over to the bleachers and Tony gave them one last rundown of everything. He prayed to whatever god that would listen that his knee wouldn't act up.
They took their positions on the court. Both teams were at the center circle. Fornell's team on one side, them on the other. Tony and Sacks were placed further back as they were both the point guards. Gibbs and Fornell were in the center about to jump ball, something both teams couldn't help but joke about. They were all silenced with a glare. The ref tossed the ball into the air and Gibbs jumped at the first opportunity, grasping the ball in his hands, and passing it to Tony. They had the first possession. Team Gibbs made their way to their positions as Tony made his way down the court. He could see that Ziva was guarded by Langer and could see that he was barely paying attention to the game itself, instead choosing to look at her cleavage. Ziva took that to her advantage and bolted from him, creating an opening for the pass. Tony saw this and gave her a smooth pass. She caught the ball and started her dribbles. She got close enough to the goal to take a clean shot. The ball went through the hoop and Team Gibbs was awarded two points. As they all made their way to defend, Tony ran closer to Ziva and gave her a high-five. That was his ninja.
As Sacks made his way down to their position, Tony went to defend. From what the team could see, Tony was as good at defense as he was at offense. He made it to where Sacks couldn't even get a clear view of his team. Tony made a quick maneuver with his hand and stole the ball from him. He ran down the court, dribbling the ball, and jumped. He dunked the ball before half of their team was at the half-court line. He sent a taunting smile their way and made his way back to his team. Team Gibbs: 4 Team Fornell: 0.
The first quarter went by quickly, mainly with Tony and Ziva teaming up together and gaining more points. Sacks and Langer had managed to get a few shots in, Gibbs managed to as well. They looked at the scoreboard, seeing they were still in the lead by quite a few points. 26-14.
Tony patted each one of them on the back and couldn't help but smile. They were doing well for their first-ever game, and with pretty good opponents. In better news, his knee was perfectly fine to keep playing.
They went over their next game plan and made their way back onto the court. Tony turned his head to Abby and Tim. It was their turn to shine. The ref and Ziva were standing outside the line. Ziva passed him the ball and ran down the court to join the team, trying to get open for a shot. Tony ran down the court and looked at Abby and Tim. Tim was heavily guarded by both Montgomery and Jones. He looked over at Abby and noticed that she was somewhat open. He waited till they made eye contact and shot her a bounce pass. She grabbed ahold of the ball and performed an almost perfect layup. Abby ran over and gave him one of her miniature hugs and ran down the court again.
As Langer made his way down the court, Sacks and Langer switched in position, for now, Ziva made her way towards him. She was good at guarding and distracting. She managed to make Langer look in the total opposite direction and stole the ball from him. Tony ran over beside her, making sure that she had all the assistance that she needed if it was needed in the first place. Instead of going for the dunk as Tony had, she backed up a little bit until she was behind the three-point line. She shot the ball upwards and the ball went around the rim not once, but twice, before going into the net.
"Yeah, Ninja!" Tony yelled as the ball went in. She had been lethal with her three-pointers. Taking down not only his statistics but Gibbs' as well, when they were both in their prime. She was killing it.
By the time half-time came around the scoreboard read 37-23. They all made their way back to their "locker room" and took gulps from their water bottles. Tony couldn't help but smile at his team.
"This is great. This is better than great." He moved to sit beside Ziva, probably sitting a little too close than was necessary, and went on about how Sacks and Langer finally shut up.
"Alright. When we go back out there, I want to run "Sig". I want to give everybody a chance to score. It's not just about the points, it's about fun. Abby, McGee, I want both of you to try your best to get free. Tim, you did better with layups during practice. You gotta get close to the goal." McGee nodded in acknowledgment.
"Abby. Keep doing what you're doing. Who knew bowling with nuns gave you that much strength. But you have to be careful, you already have two fouls on you, we don't need anymore." Abby nodded and went back to her CAF-POW!
Tony turned to look at Ziva and Gibbs.
"Ziva, I need you to keep Langer and Sacks of me. They've picked up on me whenever I get to the line. Remember that screen I showed you during practice?" She nodded.
"I'll signal with my head which way I want to go. Block them from following me. But you don't need any more fouls either." She had a total of 3 fouls, five and you were out of the game. All of her fouls had been on Langer, how had gotten too close for comfort and she pushed back. They called it a foul, she called it sexual harassment.
"Gibbs, keep Fornell away. He's been giving signals to his team. Make sure he can't see what we are planning." Gibbs nodded. They all looked up when the door to the bathroom opened. Vance walked through and gave them all a nod.
"Good job out there. Keep it up." He gave Tony a pat on the shoulder and walked back out of the room. That was quick. Tony looked around the room and smiled.
"We got this." He looked over at Ziva and looked into her brown pools. She gave him a small smile, which he returned, starting to get lost in her eyes.
It was time to head back into the court and play through the second half of the game against the FBI. They started the third quarter the same as they did the first. Teams had switched goals so they had to go to the left instead of the right.
The fourth and final quarter being with NCIS still in the lead 46-32. They were dominating the FBI Tony noticed that Sacks was sending him a glare, something that wasn't abnormal, but something was different this go-round.
As Tony made his way to the goal, he jumped up, ready for the layup when a foot collided with his right knee. Tony fell to the ground in pain. He heard the ref's whistle blow and saw Ziva's face in front of him. He grasped at his knee, trying to will the pain away.
"Dammit. This isn't happening again." He said it so quietly that only Ziva could hear it.
"Tony. This is not your fault." He shook his head and made to get up, only stopping when Ziva's hand pressured his chest back to the ground.
"Ziva. I have to get back up." Ziva sighed.
"Do you think you can?" Tony swallowed down the pain and gave her a nod. She helped him up and the first person he made eye contact with was Sacks.
"Hey Slacks, that's a foul!" Sacks gave him an evil grin, telling him all that he needed. Everything was on purpose, he meant to do it, meant to hurt him. He was sick of this bullshit. He ignored the pain in his leg and made his way over to him, ready to punch him in his smug face. Gibbs and Tim held him back from going any closer. Tony looked over at the ref and at Fornell.
"You really just gonna let him get away with that?!" Fornell has always been someone in his good book, seeing as Gibbs trusted him. He would lose all of it if he sided with that asshole.
"DiNutso, you alright?"
"Am I alright? Am I alright?! You're guy just performed one of the biggest intentional fouls out there." He could see Fornell sigh.
"Sacks. Off the team. Go." Tony's jaw clenched as he saw Slacks walking off the court. Another player on their bench made his way over to them, intent on taking the place that was now vacant. The ref looked over at Tony.
"Can you play?" Tony didn't even hesitate to nod. He wasn't going to let them down like he did his teammates in college.
"Tony. You are injured. There is no way that you can play the rest of the game." She could see the fire burning in his eyes. Could see that he had no intent to squander. He wasn't going to back down.
"I have to. We don't have any other players on our bench. If I don't play, the rest of you can't either. We wouldn't have enough players. I can do this, seriously." Ziva reluctantly nodded at him, moving to stand beside him. Gibbs and McGee finally let go of his arms and watched as he put pressure back on his leg. Tony winced as it straightened out. He took a deep breath and took a step forward. He walked with a slight limp, but he would have to deal with that.
He signaled that they could resume the game and made his way over to the line, waiting for Ziva to pass the ball in. She did and made his way, slower than usual, up the court making his way to them. He saw that Gibbs was open and passed him the ball. Gibbs stepped back and shot the ball from the three-point line. It went through the hoop and bounced on the court as it hit the ground.
Fornell's team regained possession and made their way to their side. Langer passed the ball to Fornell, which Tony intercepted. He took the fast break and ran as fast as he could to the goal. He looked at the scoreboard and noticed there was only 5 seconds left of the game. He made it to the goal and with every last ounce of his energy, jumped up and dunked the ball through the net. As he fell to the ground, the scoreboard rang out that the game was over. Ziva ran over to him and helped him onto his feet once more. He put his arm around her shoulder, trying to balance out his weight. He had a smile on his face though, one that he was proud to wear. He looked over at Vance. The man gave him a nod, Tony gave him one back.
They did it. They beat the FBI. He looked over at the woman currently helping him stand. She looked back at him and smiled.
"We did it, Tony."
"Yeah, we did." Abby ran over and gave him a hug. Gibbs patted him on the back and McGee gave him a nod. Tony placed a kiss upon Ziva's forehead and smiled when her eyes went wide. Fornell came over to them and shook their hands, not leaving before he could apologize to Tony about Sacks. Tony shook his hand and they made their way out of the gym to the locker room to change and gather their things.
Gibbs, Abby, and McGee seemed to already have left the room when Tony came out of the stall in fresh clothes. Ziva was waiting for him, sitting on one of the benches. He smiled at her.
"Are you okay?" He sighed and nodded.
"Yeah. Just gonna need some ice and some ibuprofen and I should be all good." He walked, well limped, over to her and sat down next to her. She heard his sigh in pain as he sat and bent his knee.
"Would you like me to drive you home?" He thought it over. On the one hand, he didn't want to hinder her, but on the other it was Ziva. In his apartment. They could have dinner and watch a movie and just talk.
"Please." Ziva gave him a smirk, silently telling him that she knew what he was doing.
"Then let's go." She helped him up and they walked out of the bathroom, out of the gym, and towards the rest of the team.
They were a family. They work well together and there's never a man left behind, not even on the court.