SUMMARY: Sequel to "The SecDef Cheats." Lt. Col Cassidy moves in to NCIS and this will mean for Abby in the long run. McAbby, Drama/Romance/Angst
RATING: T - Adult subject matter, rare mild language, killer smooching.
A/N: It ended up being two chapters. Hopefully you'll like this one... And if I'm really lucky, I can knock out the last chapter tonight.
REVIEWS: I am always trying to improve my writing, so all constructive criticism is welcome. I would also like to thank you in advance for any reviews you might wish to leave. They really are a great boon to a writer's ego and gives you a huge incentive to live up to your expectations.
Chapter 21
The light of dawn had just started filtering in through the skylights of the Navy Yard gym, but the place was already very alive with activity. The visiting group of tactical guys were busy at work on the weights, each trying to out lift the other. There were a few sailors jumping rope, several guys on the heavy bags, and a couple of men grappling on the mats. The head trainer was hanging over the ropes around the ring as two men in full fighting gear went at it and he coached them through the moves.
As Ziva entered the gym she inhaled the familiar aroma of aggression and it took her back to her days in the Israeli Army. She looked around the expansive facility in search of her target. When her eyes found the speed bags she had to fight the sense of awe as she watched the woman there, beating at the bag in an unforgettable rhythm. She had seen that cadence before, and while it had thrilled her then, this was something else entirely. The woman hit at the bag in the steady and familiar pattern with a grace and elegance she had never thought possible.
Ziva had gone to one of the famous Israeli boxer Ronel's matches as a girl, and by the time she had entered the Army he had begun training some of the specially picked recruits. Ziva had been fortunate enough to train with the man for a week before she was skirted away for other training. And though she recognized Ronel's distinctive speed bag routine, she had never seen it performed with such style and precision. She thought that it looked like the rhythm was no different than the woman's own heartbeat with her flawless cadence and motion.
Walking towards the rope area, Ziva watched as the woman slowed the rhythm down and then began a completely different cadence with a seamless transition. As she took one of the ropes down from the wall, Ziva realized that this match was liable to be more like a painful learning experience. She had already stretched and ran from the NCIS parking lot to the gym as a warmup, but jumping rope had always helped to center her before stepping into the ring.
Starting slow, Ziva worked her way up to the lightning fast rhythm she had always enjoyed using with the ropes. Feeling all of the anxiety and stress and tension of the week melting away with each revolution of the rope, Ziva finally felt ready for anything. As she slowed down the rope and finally looked around she found the woman standing to her right with the headgear in her hands.
"You make that look easy." Lt. Col. Cassidy nodded at Ziva as she blushed from the praise. "Do you need to warm up anymore, or can I tell MacNamara to finish up playing with the rookies?"
"Ah, no… I'm ready when you are." Ziva turned and hung the rope up. When she turned back around she had the protective gear tossed her way.
"I'll get the boys out of the way… Come on up when you're ready." Ziva watched as the Colonel walked over to the ring and addressed the man hanging over the ropes. When he turned she recognized him as the gym master, Chief Petty Officer MacNamara.
Ziva grabbed up her bag and walked towards to the ring with all of the gear. She watched the two men in the ring break it up and pull their headgear off as they listened to MacNamara explain to them what they needed to work on. She then took the hand wraps out of her bag and fastened them around her hands and wrists before slipping on the other protective gear. When she finally looked up, one of the men from the ring was standing before her with a pair of boxing gloves.
"You're seriously gettin' in the ring with the Colonel, huh?" The young sailor asked in earnest as he slid the gloves onto her hands. She simply nodded her head and he asked, "So, you do know that the only thing that kept the Colonel from bein' a Golden Gloves at the Academy was that she was a woman, right?"
"I was under that assumption, yes." Ziva thought for a moment and then had a question of her own as he laced and taped her gloves. "Have you seen her box before?"
"Well, I watched her take out the number one guy from the Seabees unit in less than two rounds… After that, I wasn't about to get in the ring with her." Ziva was really beginning to regret having agreed to that one condition.
Ziva slowly made her way to the ring, dreading the butt kicking she was about to receive the whole way. As her foot made contact with the final step, she leaned down to slide in between the ropes. Before she actually made it onto the mat itself, a booming voice from behind halted her in mid-motion.
"I think it's my turn, David." She turned to find Agent Gibbs at the bottom of the stairs in everything but the head gear. "You get to sit this one out."
Ziva smiled and let the older man pass her as she held the ropes open for him. "Whatever you say, Boss."
When she saw the Colonel turn around to find Agent Gibbs in her place, Ziva saw the woman smile.
"Why Gunny, if I knew you'd be willing to step into the ring, I'd have asked you a while ago." Lt. Col. Cassidy taunted the grizzled Marine.
"If I didn't think you could hold your own, I wouldn't." Gibbs turned and put his hands out for MacNamara to glove him up for the match.
The Colonel stretched her neck from side to side and asked, "So, how many rounds do you want, Gunny?"
"How many rounds for what? I don't fight for rounds."
"Well, I wouldn't want you to lose too much face around here, so just let me know how long you can go before you get too winded." Gibbs gave a sideways smile as he finally turned back around.
"Before I get too winded?"
"Well, yeah… I wouldn't want to put you down too soon. You know, make you look bad in front of Agent David." She cracked a devilish grin as Gibbs shook his head at the jibe.
Gibbs walked to the center of the ring and knocked gloves with the woman when he said, "Tell ya what, first one to lose their sea legs buys breakfast."
"You're on." And so was the fight.
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"I know you said loser was buying breakfast, but does that mean you also get to choose the location?" The Colonel was looking down at her plate as she tried desperately to name the unrecognizable concoction in front of her.
Gibbs simply split one of slightly slimy looking pieces of obviously boiled dough with his fork and plopped it into his mouth. As he chewed the bite he watched Lt. Col. Cassidy give him a look of utter disgust.
"Trust me… This is good stuff, and it's the only place in D.C. you'll find 'em, too." Gibbs smiled at the woman's scrunched up expression. "You at least gotta try it."
"I sure hope it tastes better than it looks." She took her fork and slowly pressed it into one of the pieces of dough. Even more slowly she brought the morsel up to her mouth and hesitantly placed it on her tongue.
Just as she closed her mouth around the bite, it was immediately shot into her napkin and the whole scene left Gibbs laughing as the Colonel quickly tried to wash away the taste.
"Oh my God! What is that? Sauerkraut?" She sputtered and spat.
"Of course it is."
"Gunny, I'm Irish, the only thing we do with cabbage boil the tar out of it… We don't pickle anything, other than our own livers." She continued to try and drown the flavor out of her mouth as Gibbs chuckled.
In a gesture of compromise, Gibbs took half of his dish and switched it out with half of the items on her plate. "Fine, I'll take all the sauerkraut ones… You can have all the potato & cheese ones."
She poked at the things he had transferred to her plate with great suspicion. "What the heck is this stuff anyway?"
"They're called varenyky… They're kind of like Ukrainian perogies. I got hooked on them on an assignment a few years back. And it never occurred to me that you wouldn't like sauerkraut or I'd have ordered you just the potato and cheese ones." Gibbs ended his description by plopping another large bite into his mouth.
Lt. Col. Cassidy slowly took a small bite from the remaining items on her plate, but this time she actually got to chew it up. "Okay, you're forgiven now… This is pretty good, even if the texture does take a little gettin' used to."
Gibbs chuckled at the way her accent slipped in. "Maybe I knocked a few screws loose after all." When she regarded him with a confused expression he explained, "You're Southern is showing."
She wiped her mouth with the napkin and chuckled, "Oh yeah, that happens whenever I talk with my mother. She called when I was on my way in this mornin'."
"Little early for a civilian, isn't?"
"There is no such thing as too early for my mother, and I'm convinced she was born in Navy Nurse Whites." She took a quick drink and continued, "Mom is still up before dawn every morning, and she hasn't been on a full time duty station since before I was born. I think it was just how she was raised, and the only thing that's changed in all that time, is now she goes to bed a little earlier."
Gibbs nodded and then remarked, "So, this really is a family business for you, huh?"
"Oh yeah! Other than my Daddy, they're all in or have been in. We're not real creative, I guess. Been that way in my family for so long, it's almost funny."
They ate in companionable silence for a little while. As the Colonel looked up from her plate, unable to finish all of the varenyky, she caught sight of the raising flesh beneath Agent Gibbs' right eye and winced. She had not meant to land that punch quite so hard, but her immediate instinct after having blocked the left hook was to use the opening on the right with a tight left jab. As soon as she landed the punch she knew he had not been prepared for it and she watched with concern as he staggered backwards a few steps before finally shaking the cobwebs away and holding up his hands in surrender.
As she watched him finish up his plate she sipped at her orange juice and then asked, "Are you sure you don't want some ice for that, Gunny?"
He shied away from her glance for a moment and then came back with, "No… I think I'm man enough to handle a little mouse."
"Like I said at the gym, I really didn't mean to come at you like that. I'm usually able to control my punches and I just kind of got car-"
Gibbs held up his hand and shook his head. "No apologies are necessary, really. Just one more demonstration as to why I should never underestimate you, Colonel." Her smile told him that she understood and accepted his explanation.
The next voice came from behind the Colonel, "That sounds a good lesson for me, too." They both turned to see Director Sheppard standing there. "Especially since I think I got the bigger black eye out of the deal."
Both Marines stood up and Gibbs reached for another chair to bring to the table for the director. "Jen… Would you care to join us?"
Her sly smile led the Colonel to believe that Gibbs might have been doing a little backroom plotting of his own. "If the Colonel has no objections?"
Lt. Col. Cassidy moved to let the woman pass and said, "None at all, Ma'am."
All three took their seats and Gibbs gestured for the waiter to bring some more coffee to the table.
"I see you're still coming for the varenyky, Jethro… Never could pass them up when we were assigned in Kharkiv either, as I recall." Director Sheppard let Gibbs know that she was well aware of his attempt to control the situation by bringing the Colonel to her normal Friday morning breakfast stop.
"Well, you know me and sauerkraut. Plus it was closer to the gym than the diner, and I owed the Colonel breakfast." Gibbs gave Jen the transition she needed to clear the air with the Colonel.
However, before the director had a chance to make those amends, the Colonel spoke up. "I'm not sure which one of you thought this was going to work, or that it was even necessary, but this little ploy is actually somewhat comical to me." The two exchanged surprised looks and were about to deny any wrong doing when she continued. "Look, I knew coming in to this deal that some toes were gonna get sore, and some egos were gonna take a beating, but I've got a thick skin, and I probably knew more than anyone what and who I was gonna be up against. So, I'm not offended or put off by anything that's gone on. And I most certainly do not need any apologies from you, Director Sheppard. All you were doing was trying to protect your own, and considering the climate in which you attained your position, I can totally understand why you felt like you had to do that."
Though everything the Colonel had said up to that point shocked both Gibbs and Director Sheppard, the next thing to come out of her mouth would leave the director rethinking a great many things to come. "I'm only gonna ask you for two things from this point out… One, that if something I'm doing or you think I'm doing doesn't make any sense or makes you feel threatened or whatever, that you come to me first so we can talk about it rationally."
Jen grinned and shook her head. "I think that sounds like a fair request… And the second thing?"
"Huh?" The Colonel paused for a moment to consider where her train of thought had been taking her. "Oh yeah…" She took a piece of paper from her sweatshirt pocket and handed it over to Jen without saying another word to her. Instead, she stood up and proceeded to excuse herself. "And if you'll both excuse me… I've got interviews scheduled for this morning, so I really need to get going. Gunny, any time you feel up to hittin' the ring with me again, I'll promise to take it easier on you."
Gibbs smiled and shook his head. "Don't you dare… If I'm gonna get it handed to me, at least I can rest better knowing there's a better Marine than me at NCIS doing it."
The Colonel stood ramrod straight and gave Gibbs a smart Marine salute. "Semper Fi."
"Hoorah."
Gibbs and Jen were both laughing at the Colonel's exit when Gibbs realized that Jen had yet to read the piece of paper the young woman had handed to her. "Are you gonna let me know what her other condition was, or what?"
"Oh!" Jen pulled out her glasses and looked down at the paper. She found a series of directions to an address in Bethesda and the following words: Sat. 1800, very casual. She looked up from the note at Gibbs and said, "I don't understand."
When she saw Gibbs' broad smile rise on his face, she knew that she had been had. "You want me to pick you up on the way, or did you want to drive yourself?"