Chapter 31: The Work's Just Started
Disclaimer: What do I want for Christmas/Hanukkah? NCIS, of course!...Because I don't own it!
Author's Note: Another chapter that only serves one purpose- To lead up to another chapter.
The two cars pulled into the grocery store parking lot and pulled up along side each other. Gibbs rolled down his window and Ziva rolled down hers so that they could speak between the vehicles.
"I'm gonna go talk to Justin Spencer's mother, you two need to call Abby and Ducky before they have panic attacks, got it?"
"On it, boss," Tony and Ziva answered simultaneously. Gibbs gave them a glare, but they pretended that they didn't notice it.
Gibbs shook his head, rolled up his window, and drove away to speak to Justin's mom.
Tony checked his cell phone and smiled, "Hey, they must've got the tower back up! I've got service."
"That's good. Who are you going to call?"
"Why don't we just put it on speakerphone?" Tony offered. Ziva nodded in agreement and Tony dialed Abby's number.
"Abby Scuito, forensic scientist extraordinare. How my I be of assistance?"
"Hey, Abby."
"TONY!!!! Tony, you're okay- I mean, are you okay? Is Ziva okay? Is she there? What's going on?" Abby asked, almost too quickly to understand.
"Abby, Abby, we're fine," Ziva assured her, smiling at Tony.
"ZIVA!!!! You're okay! I was so worried! DUCKY!!! Ducky! They're okay! They're on the phone! Here, come here! I'll put it on speaker!"
They heard the phone switch over to speakerphone and Tony said, "Hey, Ducky."
"Ah! Anthony, I see you've survived your night in the storm."
"Yeah, we made it through okay. It snuck up on us though. We didn't even know anything was going on until Ziva saw the funnel cloud-"
"You actually saw the funnel cloud?!" Abby shrieked.
"Yeah-"
"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Do you know how lucky you guys are?!"
"How did you not get injured?" Ducky inquired.
"A kid whom we had met earlier invited us into their storm shelter. We spent the night there," Ziva replied.
"Oh, Ziva, I didn't know you were there. I'm sorry. Good morning, Ziva," Ducky apologized.
"Better than the night was, Ducky," Ziva smiled.
"So, what are the two of you going to do now?" Ducky asked.
"We don't really know. Gibbs is going to talk to Justin's mother...I'd really like to go back to the hotel and get a good sleep...on a bed," Tony replied.
"What did you sleep on last night?" Ducky asked.
"A bench," Ziva replied.
"A bench, nothing! You spent most of the time asleep on top of me! It's no wonder I'm sore!" Tony teased.
"Awww! Ziva slept on Tony! Guys! That is seriously cute!" Abby cooed.
"Yeah, whatever...It was seriously painful," Tony feigned anger.
Ziva stuck her tongue out at him and he mocked her.
"I don't even have to be there to know that the two of you are arguing," Ducky laughed.
"We're not arguing. We're..."
"Flirting," Abby offered.
Tony and Ziva were silent, with the exception of Tony's futile attempts to form words.
"Aww...you two will make such a cute couple...," Abby laughed.
"ABBY!" Tony and Ziva both shouted.
"You know you would!"
"Now, Abigail, we really should allow Anthony and Ziva to continue with their work," Ducky called.
"...Okay...," Abby sighed.
"Goodbye, Anthony, Ziva," Ducky spoke.
"Bye, Ducky."
"Goodbye, Ducky."
"Bye, guys!"
"Bye, Abby," they said simultaneously.
"See! You two already act like a couple!"
"Goodbye, Abby," Tony said bluntly, hanging up his phone.
Gibbs and McGee left Justin's house. Talks like that one were always better than having to tell someone that their loved one was dead. They had given his mother the name of the hospital he was in and the room number, then Gibbs had gave her his card and left. The woman was sobbing tears of joy onto her daughter's shoulder.
When they got in the car, Gibbs's phone rang.
"Looks like the phones work again," he commented before answering.
"Gibbs."
"Were you planning on ever calling me, Jethro?" Jenny's sharp voice scolded.
"Once everything was wrapped up, yeah."
"So, you didn't think it was important to tell me that you had found and killed the suspect, or that you had found Justin, or that two of our agents were trapped in a tornado?!" her voice rose angrily at the end of her statement.
"We had to be sure that David really was our killer, first. After the shootout-"
"Shootout?"
"Yeah. After the shootout, we got distracted. An officer was shot, I had to make sure he was okay. Then we found out about the storms. We left this morning at sunup. We haven't exactly had time to call, Jen. Besides, DiNozzo and Ziva are fine."
"I know...no thanks to you. I am the director of NCIS and I am getting my news through Ducky and Abby. That is not how it is supposed to work, Jethro."
"I'll remember that, Jen."
"It would be in your best interest to do just that."
"Anything else?"
"What are you doing next?"
"Getting out of Arkansas, preferably."
"How soon?"
"As soon as possible."
"I'll schedule a flight for 1900."
"Sounds fine. I'll go tell DiNozzo and Ziva."
"Good."
"Bye, Jen."
"Goodbye, Jethro."
The cars pulled up alongside each other again, but this time they exited the vehicles.
"We fly out of Little Rock at 1900 tonight," Gibbs stated.
Tony looked around and watched some people helping to clean large items of debris out of an elderly couple's lawn.
"I can't leave yet, Boss," Tony said.
"What was that, DiNozzo?"
"I can't leave this town like this."
Ziva discretely squeezed his fingers, encouragingly; he looked down at her and saw his own stubbornness reflected on her face and he corrected himself, " We can't leave this town like this. We were in the middle of this, too...I just...I don't think..."
"It would not be right for us to leave just when the work is starting," Ziva voiced the words he couldn't find.
"You'll take care of this yourselves?" Gibbs asked, realizing that they were too stubborn to back down.
"We'll pay for the flight home and our hotel room for tonight out of our own pockets," Tony confirmed and Ziva nodded in agreement.
"Take care of it," Gibbs said, "We've gotta go back and get our stuff from our rooms back in Russellville; then we'll go straight on to Little Rock. You need anything?"
"Uh, yeah, actually...," Tony rummaged around in his jacket pockets and pulled out a set of keys, "Since we'll probably be flying into BWI, I'll need someone; preferably not McGee; to drive my car back to my house."
"How are you guys gonna get home?" McGee asked as Gibbs took Tony's keys.
"We'll catch a MARC from BWI," Tony shrugged.
"That all you need?" Gibbs asked.
"Yeah."
Gibbs and McGee climbed back into their car and drove off.
Ziva leaned into Tony's side and he casually wrapped an arm around her.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"We help," he replied.
"Where?"
"...Good question."
They walked over to the disaster response tent and found a worker.
"Hey, we want to help. Where do we need to go?" Tony asked.
"Well, we need more kitchen workers, she can go-"
"Don't finish that sentence. She will not like what you are going to say. Considering she's probably in better physically condition and could do more than I can, I'd say: Where do we need to go?" Tony said.
"Alright, alright. Ummm...we've got a house out on Jackson Road that was hit pretty hard, you'd probably get some work done out there," the worker offered.
"Sounds like a plan. Back to Jackson Road!" Tony announced as he led Ziva back to the car.
A.N.: Any guesses what house on Jackson Road has been damaged?
Any guesses who else will be working on the house when Tony and Ziva get there?
I had planned on getting this chapter finished and posted before the new episode came one, but this went down.
Timeline: 1700 Tuesday 16 December 2008
Phone: Ring!
Me: Hello?
Josh: Hey, is Emilee there?
Me: This is Emilee.
Josh: Oh, hey! Me and Sean are over here behind Dean's house sliding down Devil's Backbone (read: the street that runs down the steepest hill in town, lined with telephone poles, trees, and ends with the baseball field fence). If you and Zach wanna come over. Bring, like, a trash can lid or something.
Sean: (in the background) Hey!
Josh: Oh, bye, Sean!
Sean: (in the background) [Screaming]
Josh: Oh! Oh. Oh, that's the ditch...So, if you guys wanna come over...
Me: We might.
Josh: Okay, see ya.
Me: Bye.
Needless to say, we went. We were sliding on a sled, two skateboards (sans wheels and trucks), a trash can lid and [in Mac's case] an empty dog food bag.
IT WAS AWESOME!
Mac landed in some person's carport, Sean launched off of a pile of frozen leaves, I hit a gigantic oak tree, Nathan hit Josh!...Did I mention that there was no snow...It was the result of one of the worst ice storms in the past quarter century in Arkansas.
And we took sleds to the top of a hill nicknamed Devil's Backbone and slid down.
School's out again tomorrow and we're all going back!...But tomorrow, I'm wearing boots instead of slick-soled shoes...
So, this chapter's for my ice-sliding friends: Josh F., Stephanie, Sean, Josh L., Nathan, and Mac.
...I think I left my hollowed-out-soccer-ball helmet on Devil's Backbone...guess I have to go back!