Chapter 7
DISCLAIMER: However much I wish it was so, I do not own these characters. I'm going to simply let them play for a little bit and then put them back a little happier.
WARNING: Slash story - you have been informed!
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Tim McGee stopped back at his desk before heading home at 9:30pm. Franklin was still sitting at Gibbs' desk and Ziva was still muttering in Hebrew at hers. Neither one of them looked happy. Tim quickly shut everything down and grabbed his things to leave.
As he straightened up he found Franklin looking right at him. He inclined his head at the senior agent as he swallowed deeply. "Agent Franklin." He said in greeting.
"McGee." Franklin nodded his head in response. "Have a good night."
Tim gulped. "Thank you Sir, goodnight." He quickly responded as he all but ran to the elevator. He heard Ziva complaining as he waited for the elevator to come.
"Why is McGee allowed to leave?" She asked Franklin angrily.
"Because Agent McGee did about four times the amount of work you did today, David!" He testily replied. "He's starting work on his second month of reports! Have you even finished the first week yet?"
"Yes! If you did not keep handing them back to me I would probably be done with the second month by now!" She snottily replied.
"Well, If you learned from your mistakes and actually figured out how to write a report, you wouldn't have to keep re-doing them!" He sarcastically snapped back at her.
Tim was relieved to hear the ding announcing the elevator had arrived. He was about to dash inside, when he realized someone was exiting. That someone, being the director.
"Ma'am! I thought you had left for the day." McGee asked her.
"I did Agent McGee, but I have some more work to do. Is that alright with you?" She replied with an amused expression on her face.
McGee turned red and stuttered out, "Y-yes, Ma'am. "Sorry. Ma'am!"
She raised an eyebrow as Ziva's bickering increased in volume from the Bullpen.
"I DO know how to make a report! In Mossad…" She started.
"THIS IS NOT MOSSAD, OFFICER DAVID!" Franklin roared at her.
The director sighed as she turned towards the Bullpen saying, "Goodnight Agent McGee."
"N-night ma'am." McGee mumbled as he dove into the elevator as the doors were closing.
Tim slumped against the back wall of the elevator, supremely glad he had managed to slip out before Ziva escalated further. He knew the director was going to tear her a new one. Normally, he would be only too happy to witness that, but his guilt over the Grant case and all the mistakes he had made by following her, compelled him to stay as far away from her as he could. He was already ashamed to be associated with her and he was likely going to have this ass handed to him by Tony when he got back and found out about Renny Grant. He was determined to keep his head down and do his job, better than he had been. He sighed deeply as he made his way to his car wondering if he would still have a job this time next week.
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Jenny Shepherd sighed as she exited the elevator in Tony's apartment building. Her agent escort was waiting in a chair in the lobby. He rose as she walked towards him. She heard him say into his Comm link, "Bring the car around." To her driver.
"Home now, director?" He asked her.
"I'm afraid not Greg, I need to get back to the Navy Yard." She answered him.
"Right away, ma'am."
They stepped out and into the car as it came to a stop by the front door. She did not say anything as they made their way back to the Yard. She ran her evening with Tony and Jethro back in her mind. Apparently the situation with Ziva was spiraling out of control. Just thinking about the lies she had concocted around the truth angered Jenny all over again. She had hoped that her time here would have softened the arrogant edge Ziva always carried around, but it had only seemed to heighten it. Jenny did not understand it, it seemed to be more than simple jealousy, it was almost like a compulsion. She had to prove she was the best, she had to be the center of attention. Tony's personality alone blew that right out of the water. Not to mention his professional and educational qualifications. Things Ziva just refused to accept. She knew Ziva had an above average IQ, but it amazed her how willfully blind she could be. Ziva was a good fighter and could sneak around almost as undetected as Gibbs, but her own personality shortcomings made her unpredictable.
Correction: She was entirely predictable. It was guaranteed that she would react with anger to any situation she was not in control of, and to be proved wrong was just asking for her to break a bone or worse. Jenny sighed deeply as she gazed out the window of her SUV at the DC night. She had thought that getting Ziva away from Mossad would help her. She had been astonished when Ziva had rescued her in Eastern Europe to learn she was only in her early twenties. The level of viciousness and detachment she had shown when dispatching Jenny's attackers was usually only present in someone who had been doing that for decades.
Jenny did not want to give up on her after everything she had learned about her, but she was making it extremely difficult. She ran over what would happen in the next few days and felt very tired. Ziva, if she still had a job, would be very unhappy with everyone involved. Jenny just hoped the situation could be salvaged and that there would be no casualties as a result. She was snapped out of her thoughts as they pulled up to the front door at the Naval Yard. She told Greg and her driver to go home, she would be staying here tonight as she made her way into the building.
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As gratifying as it had been to intimidate Agent McGee, Jenny was not looking forward to refereeing this.
Agent Balboa had joined Agent Franklin when he and Ziva had started to get loud. Fortunately, they were the only three still on the floor at this time of night, so Jenny was their only audience.
She stood behind the partition at Ziva's desk and watched the argument unfold.
"If this were Mossad, I would be.." Ziva started as she stood up angrily behind her desk to face Franklin and now Balboa who had appeared behind him.
"You would be what, Officer David? In charge?" Franklin scoffed as he walked around Gibbs' desk to stand in front of Ziva's desk.
"No one would put you in charge of a bathroom! Oh, wait! You can't even do that! Every man in this building is aware of your obsession with the men's room!" He laughed.
"I don't think Papa David is stupid enough to put you in charge of lunch! Isn't that why you're here? You had too many mistakes and were causing him too much embarrassment." Franklin leaned in over her desk and spoke in a low voice, "I have a lot of contacts in that part of the world, Miss David, and I know this is your last chance and you're about to blow it!" He finished with a smirk on his face as he straightened back up. Balboa placed a hand on his arm and shook his head, silently telling him to back off.
"YOU KNOW NOTHING!" Ziva screamed at him, her face turning an impressive shade of red. "THAT IS ALL LIES! MY FATHER IS NOT EMBARRASSED OF ME!" She was breathing hard and her hands were clenched at her sides to keep from drawing her gun and shooting him.
Jenny had heard enough. "Officer David!" she snapped out as she stepped around the partition. "Go up to my office, right NOW!" She emphasized her order by pointing up the stairs and staring directly into Ziva's angry eyes. It took a few seconds, but she saw the cold fury inside Ziva that was ready to strike, back down to a slow simmer.
Ziva slammed her chair back into the table behind her and stalked up the stairs. The director and both lead agents watched her retreat. When she slammed her way into the director's office, Jenny looked back at the two men. She noted that Balboa had a worried expression on his face and Franklin actually looked contrite.
"Director, I'm sorry, I went too far." Franklin said, while sighing deeply. "She just knows every button to push!" He frustratingly said.
"Ted, I understand. You've both had a very long, tedious day. Go home, both of you. We'll discuss it tomorrow." Jenny replied
"With all due respect ma'am, we are not leaving you here alone with her!" Balboa stated.
"No, ma'am!" Franklin agreed. "We'll wait until she leaves."
"Gentlemen, I've known Ziva for years, I will let her calm down and then send her home. I think seeing you both when she comes out of the office might set her off again." The director replied.
"Ma'am, we're not leaving you unprotected with a foreign assassin! We'll keep out of sight when she comes out, but we're not leaving until she's gone." Balboa firmly stated as Franklin nodded beside him.
"Fine, but make sure you stay out of sight!" Jenny replied as she turned to go up to her office. It was too late and she was too tired to argue. Plus, she wasn't entirely sure of Ziva's state of mind right now. It might be best to have back-up.
She took a deep breath and then entered her office.
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Ziva was pacing from the conference table to the couch and back again, very quickly. As soon as she saw the director, her temper blew.
"Who does he think he is? He cannot talk to me like that! He does not know anything! He is, he is…" She agitatedly spat out.
"He is a supervisory agent who is your superior, Officer David! We have had this conversation several times. Perhaps Agent Franklin may have gone a bit far.." Jenny started before Ziva interrupted her again.
"A bit far! He has insulted me and my father and Mossad, and, and.." Ziva trailed off as she flopped down on the couch. Jenny was surprised to see her run out of steam so quickly, she seemed to fold in on herself.
Jenny crossed the room and sat in the chair next to the couch. She watched as many emotions played over Ziva's face and was surprised when embarrassment seemed to be the one she settled on. Jenny kept quiet and waited for Ziva to ask what she seemed to be struggling with herself to ask.
After almost five agonizing minutes for Ziva, she finally asked in a small voice, "Is it true?" while looking down at her hands.
"Is what true, Ziva?" Jenny asked in a quiet voice.
"Is my father embarrassed of me? Did he just send me here to get rid of me?" she mumbled.
Jenny sighed deeply and replied, "No, Ziva. Your father is not embarrassed of you, he loves you very much. He only has your best interests at heart, that's why you're here." Jenny had leant forward and placed a comforting hand on Ziva's knee.
Ziva brought her head up and Jenny was surprised to see confusion and uncertainty on her face.
"I do not understand." She said.
"I know, Ziva, I know, and that's the problem. I know you are intelligent and learn quickly, I just do not understand your inability to see that someone may know more than you and could teach you something!" Jenny replied with a frustrated air.
Jenny stood and started pacing herself as she continued.
"I know that chain of command is a very important part of Mossad training, but you seem to disregard it here without another thought! I know you have seen and experienced many things, but you do not know everything and there are people here who could teach you valuable lessons!" Jenny again sighed deeply as she resumed her seat in the chair.
"You fight tooth and nail against Tony, who could teach you so much about reading people and many other things, but you disregard him as unimportant and treat him as such. Ziva, you of all people should know that you can't judge a book by its cover, you have to look beyond the surface to see what's really going on inside!" She looked at Ziva, but could not tell if anything was getting through, but she continued on anyway.
"That's why you're getting the hostility directed at you from Agents Franklin and Balboa and pretty much anyone else who has seen the way you behave towards Agent DiNozzo. They are good investigators and see Tony for what he really is: one of the best agents we have to offer. The impression you give off is that you are better than everyone else and they are not worth your time. Well, I've got news for you, you're not, and those people you dismiss so easily? They could teach you a great deal, if you just get over yourself and start listening!" She said in a hard voice.
"It's not only Tony, your behavior towards Agents Franklin, Balboa and McGee is unacceptable! Gibbs seemed to be the only one you listened to, but I saw you pushing back with him too on occasion. Agent McGee, who is also your superior, could teach you so much about computers, but you believe your Mossad training is above all others and you have learned everything you need to from them. Well, their training involving tact and humility must be nonexistent, because you don't have any!" She again sighed when Ziva seemed to start tuning her out.
She leaned forward and forced Ziva to look at her directly.
"Ziva, we are fast approaching the point of no return. If your attitude and work ethic does not quickly improve, your position will be terminated and you will be on the next flight back to Israel. Do you understand me?" Jenny asked sternly.
Ziva swallowed and replied, "Yes, director. I am quite tired, may I go home to rest and start again tomorrow?" she asked.
Jenny searched her face, but a blank mask had descended over her features.
"Yes, you are dismissed until 0800 hours tomorrow morning." the director replied.
Ziva nodded once and then got up and quickly left.
Jenny watched her go with many thoughts running through her mind. She was now not sure the plan she had with Jethro and Tony was feasible. Ziva was being pushed to her limits and was about ready to crack, it may be time to call in other reinforcements.
Jenny's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door.
"Enter." She tiredly called out.
Agents Franklin and Balboa both walked into her office.
"Everything okay, ma'am?" Balboa asked.
"For now. Has she left?" She asked them.
"Yep, went from your office to the front gate in about five minutes." Franklin responded. "I don't know how much longer I can stand to work with her without wringing her neck." He said while running his hand through his hair.
"Switch it up." Jenny replied. "Vince, you take over the lead with Ziva tomorrow and Ted, take over with McGee."
"Yes, ma'am." Balboa replied, while Franklin just looked relieved.
"Agent Balboa, you are not to repeat anything you heard on the floor tonight to anyone, do I make myself clear?" She asked him with a stern look.
"Yes, ma'am." He quickly replied.
"Fine, Vince, you can leave, Ted, stay a minute." the director ordered.
"Yes, ma'am, night ma'am, Ted." Balboa said to her while giving Ted a good luck, man look on his way out, closing the door behind him.
The director got up and went to sit behind her desk while indicating Franklin should sit in a chair opposite.
"Tell me what you've heard about Officer David from your contacts." she asked him.
He let out a huff of breath, "Pretty much just what I said down there: She was messing up ops because of her, I'm better than you attitude and daddy sent her over here as punishment because she embarrassed him."
"Have you shared this opinion with anyone else on the floor?" the director asked him with a sharp look.
"No, ma'am. Like I said, she just pushed all the right buttons and I went for the jugular to shut her up. It's been a long day." He finished, while looking directly back at her.
"I know she's difficult to deal with, but I'm hoping some of what I told her gets through. You both were over-tired and I think you both pushed each others buttons." She replied with a wry smile.
"Go home and get some rest. I don't think McGee will give you any trouble tomorrow." She told him.
"Yes, ma'am." He replied as he got up to leave.
"Agent Franklin?" Jenny called out as he reached the door.
"Ma'am?" He asked as he turned back around to face her.
"What I told Vince goes for you too. I don't want to hear any scuttlebutt on what your contacts told you about Ziva circulating, you keep that information to yourself." She ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." He nodded his reply and slipped out the door, closing it behind him.
Jenny got up and locked her office door while dousing all the lights in the office. She kicked off her shoes and stretched out on her couch after setting her phone to wake her at 0300 hours and left it on the coffee table next to her weapon, pulling the afghan down to cover herself.
Time for a new plan. She thought as she drifted off to sleep. She had a few hours before calls needed to be made.
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Tim McGee picked up some Chinese food on the way home and ate it sitting on his couch, staring at his TV. He sat for a half hour after he finished just staring at the screen, but not seeing anything. He was fortunate to get home in between storms. The lightning and thunder started up again as he was getting out of his car and it was now pouring down rain again. The weather matched his dreary mood perfectly.
He could not believe everything that had changed in just the past two days.
He was appalled at some of the things he had done and said over the past year. He had done some digging on his lunch hour and was astounded at the level of Tony's education. He had graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ohio State in all three of his subjects and had been offered a full scholarship from Johns Hopkins to study medicine. He had basically been given a free ride to become a doctor on a subject that was a minor for him.
He had also had offers to join the Master's degree programs at several prestigious universities. Like Stanford, Yale, Cal-Tech, Harvard, even Oxford and yes, MIT too. He had decided on Northwestern and while working for the Peoria police he had finished his Criminology Masters in two years, also graduating Summa Cum Laude.
He had then moved to Philadelphia and joined their police force and went to Penn State, starting his Computer Forensics degree that he was just about to finish his Masters in at Georgetown. He had also become the youngest officer ever to make detective, after the successful take-down of a big-name crime syndicate that he had been instrumental in.
He had then moved on to the Baltimore PD and finally gone to Johns Hopkins where he finished his Criminal Psychology Masters, also Summa Cum Laude.
He had been stunned at the depth of information he was able to find, just by removing his head from his ass. He really had been blinded by his own arrogance. He had tried to discuss his findings with Abby, but she was no longer speaking to him, and if he wanted to ever be able to have children, he needed to stay out of her lab for the foreseeable future.
Tony was a wonder. His IQ was 183, 43 points higher than Timothy's own and well into the super genius range. He had an eidetic memory that went a long way to explaining his encyclopedic knowledge of movies. He had participated in a study at Johns Hopkins about how the mind worked and he had been classified as an associative thinker. His mind was able to pull seemingly inconsequential facts together into a big picture. It was also sometimes called free thinking because the person's mind was constantly wandering, making connections.
That explained his uncanny ability to solve cases. He was just as intuitive about a case as Gibbs was, that's why they made such a good team. Tim made a mental note to look into Gibbs' background too, he may not be an associative thinker, but he must also have some pretty impressive gray cells to do the work he did and usually be a step ahead of Tony.
He wondered what Tony would do to him when he found out about Renny Grant. Whatever it was, he deserved it. His arrogance had nearly cost a man his life. Maybe he should just resign.
No.
That was the coward's way out and he needed to prove to Tony that he was willing to change and learn from his mistakes. He realized that Tony had so much to teach him. He would be a fool not to take advantage of all that knowledge and experience, and he was done being a fool.
He realized now that Tony had been trying to toughen him up so he could handle things when he or Gibbs were no longer there. He thought back to the first case they had worked together at Norfolk and he chuckled to himself. He had almost thrown up on the crime scene, that would not happen today. He also realized that Tony's jokes and pranks had kept the darkness from eating him alive. He probably would have eaten his gun without Tony's distractions.
Tim sighed deeply and scrubbed his hand over his face. He hoped he would be able to repair all the damage he had done by listening to the wrong person. Not only was Abby mad at him, Ducky had been decidedly cool towards him and Palmer had stared daggers at him when he had gone down to autopsy earlier to get some information on the Bryan case for Balboa.
He clicked off his TV and got up to put away his leftovers and head to bed.
He had a lot of reports to get through and he wanted to be as close to finishing as he could be when Tony came back on Saturday.
He set his alarm and fell into bed. The last thought he had before falling asleep was to morosely wonder if Tony had chosen replacements for him and Ziva yet.
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Ziva David drove home, again on auto-pilot. This time, though it was not a suicidal dash through the streets, but a rather sedate one. She had a lot to think about.
She had known Jenny Shepherd for almost four years. She had met her on a joint Mossad-NCIS black ops mission in the Ukraine to take out a Ukrainian war lord who had already killed six Marines and was supplying Hamas with Russian weapons. Jenny had been undercover to find out where the war lord was hiding, but the people she had hired to take her there covertly had sold her out and eight of the war lords muscle was waiting for her at the meeting site.
Ziva had shadowed her and was her only back-up when they had immediately killed the CIA agent traveling with her. Ziva had stepped in right away and had killed all of the war lords lieutenants before they had known what was going on. She was able to get them both out of the Ukraine and they had traveled together back to Israel.
She had immediately liked Jenny, which was very unusual for her, and they had stayed in touch after the mission. They had even met up occasionally in Paris, Madrid, Cairo or wherever they were to just talk, have a meal or even shop together. Jenny was the first real female friend she had ever had. That was why her betrayal at backing DiNozzo had hurt so much. She had thought Jenny was on her side.
She had not managed to get inside before the rain started pouring down again, so the first thing she had done after getting home was to take a long-hot shower.
Franklin's words kept echoing in her head though.
"I don't think Papa David is stupid enough to put you in charge of lunch!"
"Causing him too much embarrassment."
"This is your last chance and you're about to blow it!"
She wanted to hit or break something, but she was unbelievably tired, she just didn't have the energy. She finished her shower and got ready for bed.
As she lay in bed, her mind kept going over everything that had happened in the last few days. She had known, in the back of her mind, that Tony was not to be trifled with, yet she had pushed him and it had come back to chew her. She thought of all the ops she had worked just before coming to DC and realized that, yes, she may have not been doing her best. She had killed instead of arresting suspects in the last half dozen cases she had worked there, and the problem was, she didn't care. She had felt nothing killing those people.
Even having to kill Ari had not fazed her all that much. Jenny's offer of a liaison position with NCIS had come at the right time. She knew she was teetering on a collapse, but hadn't realized at the time that she may have already gone over the edge. Her father turning this liaison position into a mission had left her cold inside. Jenny trusted her, she didn't want to ruin that bond, but she didn't want to disappoint her father even further. The information she had sent him so far was declassified and virtually useless to Israel. So far he had not questioned the content, but it was only a matter of time.
She really enjoyed being here. No one was watching her every move and she didn't have to worry about bombs or terrorists, at least not too much. The safety here was something she had never experienced before and she liked it very much. She had fallen back on old habits when she had tried to separate Tony from the team with her dinner party and had paid dearly. She hadn't been observant enough and did not know that Tony and Gibbs were in a relationship and it had cost her a large portion of Gibbs' trust.
She had been sloppy and miscalculated, something Franklin and Jenny had also pointed out to her tonight.
Perhaps they were right.
Thinking rationally now, she realized that her plan to use Gibbs to take out Jenny and Tony would not work. Gibbs was not fully healed and no matter what he did, Tony and Jenny would both talk to him and correct him on the lies she had told him. He would then be even more furious with her than he had been after that party. She would have to try and stop him, but it might already be too late, he had all day today to put into motion whatever he planned.
She felt tears on her face and turned on her stomach to bury her face in her pillow. Her machinations had probably cost her the one truly safe place she had ever known. All because she hated to be wrong and let her pride dictate her actions. She had lost everything.
After about ten minutes her tears stopped and she slipped into a restless sleep.
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Jenny's phone awoke her at 0300 hours. She stretched and turned on the lamp next to the couch. She had plenty of time to make her call in MTAC, but she first had to take care of a few things. She sent texts to Tony and Gibbs telling them both to hold off on their plans, something had come up and she would talk to them later today.
She then went to her private bathroom to freshen up. Fifteen minutes later she emerged from the bathroom looking put together again. She walked over to her desk and retrieved a large envelope from a locked drawer that had been couriered to her last week and left the office.
She scanned herself into MTAC and startled the two techs who were working the board and were currently watching a movie on the big screen. They had obviously not known she was still in the building.
"Director! Ma'am, we uh, we didn't know you were here. It won't happen again, ma'am." Tech Owens stuttered as he scrambled to get the movie turned off.
"I'm sure it won't." She replied with a wry smile on her face. "I need you both to clear the room and do not come back in or let anyone else in until I've come back out, is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am, but won't you need someone to run the board ma'am?" Owens asked her.
"Mister Owens, running the board was one of the first jobs I had at NCIS, I think I can manage." She replied with a smirk that turned into a serious expression. "Now, clear the room, please." She ordered.
The two techs scrambled to comply and Jenny quickly found herself alone in MTAC.
She went over to the board and quickly typed in what she needed before going to stand in front of the big screen. The blue screen was quickly replaced with the inside view of an office with someone sitting in the desk chair looking back at her.
"Good morning, Director Shepherd, to what do I owe the pleasure?" The man asked.
"Good morning Eli." She replied with a serious look. "We have to talk."
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TBC