A/N: Hello again, it's been a little while. Hope you haven't grown too annoyed with me. Anyway, here is the second chapter of this story which is once again titled after something from Casablanca. Hopefully you won't find it too cheesy, but I couldn't help myself. For those who are interested in my other stories, I will be working on them soon, I promise. :)
Replies to reviews: First of all thanks to everyone who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story. It really warms my little heart (and it probably is pretty little since I'm only four foot nine). To Andi, MHL, and VG LittleBear I am very excited for Jeanne's return as well and hopefully it will be a good arc.
Thanks to Acrwdof1, VG LittleBear, and Guest for your comments regarding protocols for visitors to a federal buildings. As mentioned I was hedging on the fact that the guard might assume Jeanne was one of Tony's lady friends.
VG Little Bear: Yes, Benson and Simms are OC's. If there are already characters with these names in the NCIS world I am not aware of it and will change the names post haste. Not sure if they will return.
Guest: I have not seen any pictures showing Jeanne with a wedding ring but I have been trying to hold off on looking at too many spoilers lest I hype myself up too much. A few weeks ago I had a stress dream about what was going to happen on several CBS shows and decided that I'd been thinking about them just a wee bit too much. Oversharing aside, what I write is most likely going to greatly differ from what the official writers of NCIS create.
Disclaimer: Well, I own three seasons of Criminal Minds now, so yay, but still no NCIS.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.
As Time Goes By
In reality McGee and Bishop's elevator ride did not lead them to coffee but rather ended abruptly one floor from their own and upon the doors wooshing open Time unceremoniously grabbed Ellie's arm again and shoved her into the first empty conference room he found, glancing around suspiciously the entire time. Ellie watched Tim close and lock the door with an urgency that usually followed someone spilling Gibbs' coffee or forgetting Abby's Caf-Pow…basically anything that got in the way of the team's various caffeine addictions.
"McGee!" Bishop protested again, fixing him with a look that was clearly questioning his sanity.
"That was close." He said, exhaling loudly while he tilted his slightly so he could peer through the tiny window in the door.
"McGee, who was that woman and why are we hiding out in the dark?" McGee glanced up at the ceiling lights as though he'd only just noticed that they weren't on and flicked the switch. Bishop looked pointedly at his current position, plastered against the door, and he straightened self-consciously.
"Ellie, you really, really don't want to know." He warned her, shaking his head vehemently, but she persisted.
"Try me." Ellie said in a hard tone that made McGee profoundly sorry for Jake on a bad day. He looked around desperately for an excuse and pressed his ear to the door.
"Oh, you know what, I think I hear Abby–"
"Hmm, I wonder what Gibbs would think of Tony's visitor, I should go tell him." Bishop made a grab for the door which McGee quickly intercepted, once again plastering himself to the surface.
"No! Ellie, you can't." McGee begged, grabbing her by the arms once again apparently in the hope of stopping any further attempts to escape. Bishop merely raised her eyebrow and after holding her gaze for ten seconds, Tim quickly caved.
"Fine." He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "So, Tony kind of dated Jeanne for a while." Tim delivered the words with the air of a man telling Gibbs Starbucks was going out of business.
"And I'm guessing it didn't go well?" Ellie asked, her expression clearly questioning why Tony's former girlfriend had McGee running scared.
"You could say that." He hedged and then at Ellie's disdainful expression quickly added. "She was also the subject of an undercover op he was running." Bishop's mouth fell open for a second.
"Oh, that's not good." She said, sounding slightly in awe. McGee nodded sagely, his panic having mostly evaporated given the opportunity to disperse some good gossip.
"Tell me about it." After a few moments of silence Bishop unexpectedly poked him in the upper arm.
"Ow, Bishop!" He whined.
"Why haven't I heard anything about this before?" Ellie asked, sounding suitably annoyed. McGee glared at her for a moment while he rubbed his arm.
"It happened years ago, around the time Gibbs retired." Ellie gasped dramatically.
"Wait Gibbs retired, when?" Tim swore sharply.
"Oh man, I'm dead." He moaned to himself.
Jeanne stared, once the shock and panicky nervousness had fled she couldn't help herself. At first she hadn't noticed it so much, with his voice, so shockingly familiar and those green eyes that stared back into hers as though they had never stopped, she thought he hadn't changed at all. Now she realized, slightly shocked, he looked older. It was silly really. Of course he was older, nearly a decade had passed. It was natural for there to be new lines around his eyes and for his body to be a little less lithe than it was before.
She realized after another minute of unabashed staring that it wasn't so much his physical appearance as his demeanor that surprised her. There was a guarded quality to those bright greens eyes now that hadn't been there all those years ago. Weariness engulfed his entire body. Jeanne briefly wondered if her sudden appearance was the reason behind it all but quickly brushed it off. The shock of seeing her had most definitely not put deep shadows of exhaustion beneath his eyes.
"Jeanne, why are we here?" Tony asked suddenly and Jeanne jumped at the unexpected sound of his voice.
"I wanted to talk." Tony let out an incredulous huff of laughter.
"Talk. You want to talk?" He deadpanned. "Let me tell you Jeanne, if you wanted to whale on me for a while you didn't have to buy me coffee first."
"Do you really think that's why I'm here?" Jeanne asked quietly, curious to know if he actually thought she'd go through all this just for a chance to yell at him. Tony shrugged nonchalantly, or as much as his faux-relaxed posture would allow him.
"Based on past experience, I would say that it's a likely scenario."
"You think I'm that petty?" She asked, knowing she shouldn't feel hurt but helpless to stop his bland tone and pointed words from affecting her.
"I think you've earned it." Tony responded lightly, stirring his drink with a dedication that a large hazelnut coffee didn't merit. Jeanne was glad to note that at least his taste in beverages hadn't changed.
"I'm pretty sure that falsely accusing a man of murder used my free pass for a temper tantrum." Jeanne said with deliberate evenness. It was worth it to see Tony's head pop up in surprise.
"Wow, well aren't we being candid today?" Tony observed, his tone bright despite the expression that clearly said this particular topic was not welcome.
"Like I said, I just want to talk." Jeanne said, realizing that if she allowed him Tony would keep deflecting her questions with the same ease with which he held his damn gun. "It's been a while…" She sighed. "And we didn't exactly part at a good place." She squirmed uncomfortably. Tony gave her a grin, the one that stretched across his entire face and used to dazzle her with its delight, but today didn't reach his eyes and made him look every bit the hardened agent he was purported to be rather than a mischievous professor.
"Mm, well I hope this has been everything you hoped and dreamed it would be." Tony offered with a finality that suggested the conversation was over. He plucked up his now empty cup and blindly tossed it towards the closest trash can with a quick, fluid movement, before rising to his feet. "Now if you'll excuse my boss barely tolerates me when I'm working let alone when I take unauthorized coffee breaks."
Jeanne grasped his arm just as he turned to leave and he stared down at her hand warily as though it might suddenly sprout fangs.
"Have coffee with me next Tuesday." She saw Tony begin to object and she interrupted him before he'd gotten a single word out. "We don't have to come to the same place or anything…please." Tony sighed and ran his hand over the top of his hair again.
"Fine, I can manage about twenty minutes around 10:30." Jeanne nodded, not really sure what to say now that she'd made an appointment–date?–with her ex-boyfriend.
"Thanks." She decided would do. "I'll see you then." Jeanne realized she was still clutching his forearm and squeezed it somewhat awkwardly before letting go. Tony gave no indication that he'd heard her, having turned his attention to his phone, and after a few more moments she turned to leave.
Eventually Tony looked up from the archived texts he'd been reading in favor of actually responding to Jeanne and watched her retreating form head for the café's exit. He sighed. It appeared he'd be having some dental issues in the near future.
After about twenty minutes, McGee decided enough time had passed that they could safely return to the bullpen without either experiencing Tony and Jeanne's inevitable blow up or incurring Gibbs' wrath at finding two-thirds of his team missing.
"So, was he actually in love with her?" Bishop mused as they peered around the cracked door on the off chance that Gibbs should walk by. She found the whole Jeanne situation incredibly intriguing especially when she considered what she knew about Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. To a certain extent she supposed it made sense that the sometimes cocky but often unsure man would fall so hard for a woman despite the inevitably disastrous outcome.
"Ziva thought so." Tim replied cryptically. He made a motion with his hand and they started back down the hall towards the elevator.
"And what did you think?" He stayed silent for so long Bishop was certain he wasn't going to answer her but then he sighed, his thin shoulders slouching inwards.
"I honestly don't know. I mean at first we thought she was just one of the many, many women he talked about back then." He frowned at the disapproving look Bishop gave him. "Don't look at me like that, you didn't know him then. He was always 'dating' a different woman every other week and bragging about his awesome nights in great and often graphic detail. It was hard to think of Tony settling down for any woman." McGee was silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. "Although this was before we knew that he'd been engaged." He acknowledged.
"Was he really that bad?" She asked quietly, finding it hard to reconcile the man who hid his relationship with Zoe from them with the oversharing playboy McGee described.
"It seemed like it at the time, but I guess in retrospect it was probably just a lot of big talk to cover up how lonely he felt. I mean when he was with Jeanne they were always talking or he was disappearing to see her under the guise of doctor appointments and crap. He was with her way more than necessary to sell his cover. Ziva was sure he'd gotten the plague again, actually a little bit funny since Jeanne's a doctor." Bishop's eyes narrowed, clearly not sharing his amusement, and he cleared his throat nervously.
"Anyway," He continued hurriedly while he punched the up button for the elevator several times. "He never really told us anything specific about Jeanne, which might have had something to do with the fact that he was undercover but he didn't even brag about the sex. Well, not purposefully at least."
"Well, there's a sign of love if I've ever heard one." Ellie muttered sarcastically.
"You know how Tony is. He even planned a vacation for them, although I don't know how he thought he'd ever get Gibbs to sign off on the time." Tim punched the button for their floor.
"I thought you said he was in Mexico for four months, it seems like he'd be pretty understanding if Tony needed a break. And I got the idea Gibbs was a lot more easygoing in those days." Tim scoffed.
"I don't know if you've noticed this, Ellie, but Gibbs is more of a 'do as I do unless I say not to do it and even then you still might get a headslap because I feel like it' kind of guy."
"You never answered my question, you know." Ellie reminded him as the elevator car slowed to a halt.
"I gave you a very in depth and informative answer." McGee countered, slipping through the now open elevator doors.
"But you never said–"
"Oh crap, Gibbs is gonna kill us." McGee whimpered as he surveyed Tony's empty desk.
"I didn't really think he'd go with her." McGee murmured in a shocked and slightly awed voice.
"So what, you thought they'd have a serious and most likely very personal conversation right here in the bullpen?" McGee thought that perhaps Ellie had been spending a little too much time with Tony; his penchant for sarcasm was clearly rubbing off on her.
"Yeah, but at least he would be relatively safe up here." Tim was already imagining how they would find Tony's disassembled body parts in the next few months. Maybe it would take even longer, Jeanne was a doctor after all, who knew what she could do with chemicals.
"Come on McGee, she didn't look particularly nocuous to me, I hardly think she's going to harm him." Bishop assured the other agent. "If anything, she looked a little sad."
"Oh sure, you weren't there when she accused him of murdering her father." McGee said, shaking his head at Bishop's naivety.
"Wait, what?" McGee stopped his pacing at Ellie's exclamation, seeming to realize that he had once again said more than he intended.
"It's ok, he was cleared of all charges." Tim assured her quickly. Bishop held up a hand.
"Wait, so Tony's undercover girlfriend whom he accidentally fell in love with said he murdered her gun-running father?" Bishop let out a sound half-way between a laugh and a sigh, thinking this situation couldn't get any weirder. "This wasn't the same time he was arrested for chopping off somebody's legs, right?" McGee took a moment to look up from his quickly unraveling nerves and frowned.
"No, why would they be related? That was a completely different case."
"Silly me." Bishop muttered as Tim went back to his pacing. The sound of the elevator doors opening and closing had them both glancing up.
"Oh, thank god." McGee said rather fervently as Tony strode to his desk. "Where were you?" He demanded, sounding quite a lot like Tony when he was worried but trying not to show it. Tony didn't respond immediately, instead choosing to secure his gun in the desk drawer.
"Just went to get some coffee, McGee." Bishop took a step towards the pair but McGee made a discreet waving motion to hold her back. He missed her very obvious eye roll and increasingly frustrated expression.
"So, everything's ok?" Tim questioned hesitantly, as though he really didn't want to know but thought it was one of his duties as third highest in command.
"Everything's just peachy, Probie." Tim nodded and started to turn but stopped with an expression that suggested he was about to practice some major martyrdom.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about–"
"You can talk on your own time, McGee." Gibbs drawled as he breezed in with his normal cup of coffee. "Dead Navy SEAL in the Potomac, gear up." Tony and McGee had never looked so relieved to hear there was a dead body waiting for them. Bishop shook her head at the two while she gathered her bag and could be heard muttering something about 'men' and 'communication problems' which the other agents happily ignored.
A/N: Should anyone be worried I do not intend to do any character bashing in this fic although at times I might call a few characters on the carpet for their behavior. I also want to assure people that I'm not trying to be too hard on Tony but I do want to be realistic about his character and past as well as how the other characters in the show view him.