Life Changes and New Futures

by DiNozzo and Gibbs addict

This is a different Rota story to the other one I'm writing. For this one Tony once again takes promotion and moves. When he meets his new SFA a new friendship is born, but because he thinks she's been treated badly by the director he attempts to repair the damage done. Does he succeed and what will become of their future relationship? Set Season 4, but is AU.

2. Chapter 2

Life Changes and New Futures.

Chapter 2.

In the end it was six months later when everything changed for the team because of everything that the director was trying to push them into helping her with. It seemed that she'd got a vendetta against an arms dealer called La Granouille or 'The Frog.' Which they found out was because of his alleged involvement with the death of her father. As even though the death had been ruled a suicide she was convinced that he was responsible for it. Via McGee Tony had also found out that Jenny had put a new agent onto Balboa's team. The rumour was that this new agent was doing the undercover job that Tony had been earmarked for. A rumour also started that The Frog was also trying to set up a pipeline via Rota. Hearing that Tony guessed that it wouldn't be long before Jenny came knocking on their door for help once again. In the end he was proved oh so right about it. Because just a few weeks later she called him to say that she was coming over to have a meeting with him.

Just before Jenny's arrival Tony clued Natalie into everything including the way that to try and persuade him to do the undercover op, Jenny would always insist that they had private meeting in her office. So he asked Natalie to be present even if Jenny asked her to leave. Because this time he wanted to make sure that he wasn't alone with her and also so he could get evidence on what the plan was. Of course Natalie promised him that she would be there right by his side. So when Jenny did arrive and said that she wanted to talk privately to him in the office, as Natalie made a move to follow them Jenny said "That doesn't include her." In a very snide way. But the two of them stood their ground as Tony said that Natalie was his second in command and if whatever she wanted was to include the team he wasn't going to make decisions without her opinion as well. For Jenny's proposal it was that she wanted a couple of members of their team to go undercover. One to go undercover as a dock worker at the docks and the other one to be undercover with the private jet airline that The Frog used. When Tony asked her about them getting replacements for those team members that would be missing Jenny told him that they wouldn't be getting anyone. So Tony left it with telling Jenny that he and Natalie would have to talk about it and then get back to her about it. Then later on after work that night he and Natalie talked about it all. Not only did the two of them not like the idea of being two team members down and having to still continue in their duties. Not only that they could also be in trouble if the worst did happen and the two undercover agents got into any trouble at the same time, because they wouldn't have enough team members to be able to get to them both and provide help. So in the end the two of them agreed that because of everything feeling so very hinky about the whole op, they ought to take it to the assistant director to see what he said about things. Especially with the two of them knowing about Jenny's previous relationship with the Sec Nav they didn't feel safe with taking it to him.

So that is what the two of them did and assistant director Leon Vance ended up going to them and meeting with them. He agreed that the two of them should remain as a team to turn Jenny down for the op. They would set up bugs in the office and work it as their own undercover op, but he would of course be in the office next door listening to everything that was being said. Not only that he would chose a moment to walk in and would see if she would then explain anything about the op to him when they did say no to him.

While they had Vance in the office, Tony also managed to get a private talk with him over Natalie being passed over for the job. When Vance bought things up saying that perhaps with Natalie being carer to her mom Jenny was probably thinking that Natalie wouldn't be able to cope with the job and that was why she'd turned her down. But then Tony explained to him that her brother Christian had encouraged her to go for it because they could organize things for her being able to do the job. Not only that he had met Christian and they had talked and had told him that they didn't want her to miss out on promotions and things with her career. So he had told her to say at any interviews she had that she had to say there were plans in place so that she could fulfil her job requirements. What Natalie actually didn't know was that Christian did actually have plans in place if she did ever get a new job, so what she said in interview was the truth even if she didn't know about it. Thinking that it could possibly have something to do with numbers falling when she took over as team lead temporarily Tony had gone over them himself and found that the solve rate had risen when she took over the job. He then explained that when he talked to her about things she had told him about applying for the team lead job and that Jenny had told her that the job had already been taken. He also knew that when Jenny said it, it had been ages after Sec Nav's niece had turned the job down and it had still been quite a while before she'd then offered him the job. He also added that he'd observed her do the job before he came in and took over himself. Seeing that and also knowing how well that the two of them worked together he knew that she was more than capable of doing the job. So with that Vance promised Tony that he would look into everything for him.

On the day that Jenny came back for their answer. Once again as Natalie went to go with Tony to give her their answer, Jenny tried to stop her from going along as well to see Tony privately. But he stood his ground saying that the two of them had made the final decision together, not only that it was also Natalie's job to be there as his second in command. Of course as soon as she got the answer no she was off on a tirade trying to make them take the op on. As per he and Natalie's prior agreement Tony said "Jenny you're not giving us any agents as back up and I'm not going to be putting any of our agents in danger. I'm sorry director but it just isn't happening." Right on the cue Vance then walked into the office saying "What's going on here?" While Tony and Natalie were trying to explain about what was going on. Jenny first of all attempted to blame the two of them for insubordination and that they were presuming what was going to be happening in an authorized op. But when Vance told her that there was nothing on record about the op and they had the proof that both Natalie and Tony were doing what they could to protect their team, she changed tack to try and say that she'd not asked them to do anything of the sort. After a couple of minutes tense silence Tony and Natalie were then for a shock. Because right there and then on the spot Vance took Jenny's creds and gun off of her placing her under suspension from duty pending an investigation.

A couple of weeks later Vance was back again and first of all spoke to Tony saying that he couldn't go into to much detail because of the on-going investigation. But it had seemed that for some reason Jenny had thought that Natalie was her competition. So because of that things had appeared in Natalie's file, which had been checked out and proved to be false and now also taken out of her file to. If the two of them hadn't reported her for what was going on and Tony hadn't bought up the things he had. Because of what was in her file she most probably wouldn't have got any further than SFA in her career. As because of what was in her file it would have knocked her out of the running for a team lead job right away. So far in the investigation it had also shown them that Jenny had made a few mistakes and had bought in some big changes in offices that had not been needed. The only offices that had been left unscathed were New York, DC and there in Rota. The only thing that had happened in DC was the agent she'd got to do the job that she was trying to get Tony to do had been discovered and had now also been dealt with. The reason for coming to see them was that because of everything that had happened so far. There was a plan to clean the offices up and to bring in some very big changes across the board. In the bigger NCIS office's they were planning on having two MCRT teams, so that whichever team was on duty would always have a back up team in place. The first offices where this change was happening was going to be in New York and there in Rota. He wanted to Tony to keep the team there as the number one team and head it up. While as part of her compensation package for what had happened to her, they wanted to offer Natalie the chance of heading up the number one team in New York. As yet they weren't sure about how much they could actually reveal to her. But as the other part of her package NCIS would be paying for an apartment in New York and would also be paying her moving expenses, as well as there also being a monetary pay-out as well. They had also been in touch with her brother which they were going to keep quiet about and between them all they were sorting things out for her moms care. As the family also trusted Tony so much they also wanted to make sure that he did keep in close contact with her. So that if anything did happen to her mom at anytime, they wanted him to be the familiar face that would be able to go and tell her what was going on. So if anything did occur at anytime then Tony was to get to New York as soon as he could, but also let him know what was happening as well, because he was now stepping up and becoming the new director at NCIS. As they finish the talk Tony also asks him that if it is possible and Natalie of course did take the job, could he take some leave and help her with her move as well as helping her to find an apartment, which Vance does agree to him doing.

After speaking to Tony Vance then saw Natalie and gave her the job offer and then left with some thinking time about it. It was a very difficult decision for her to come to and she did certainly talk to everyone about it. Especially with her mom because she also finally admitted to her that she had fallen in love with Tony. Her mom then told her that she should truly follow her heart and do what she felt she needed to do. If it was to take the job then she was to do that. But if it was to stay there and tell Tony how she truly felt about him, then she was to do that. But if she still wasn't sure about telling him the truth about how she felt. Then perhaps what she should do is take the job and give it something like six months. If she did still then feel the same about him. Then she should come home and tell him the truth and if by any chance he did also have feelings for her to, then the two of them would decide on what they wanted to from that point on. So in the end that's what she did, she took the job and decided that she would give it six months and if she did still feel the same way for Tony then she would be back to talk to him.

Three months later:

As Natalie took her seat in the bullpen for the first official day of being head of the new MCRT team, she found that she was feeling both nervous but also excited about it. Especially as with everything that had happened over the last few months with her move from Spain and everything it had felt like it had dragged on time wise and like they would never actually get to this day. Along with all of that she had also hand picked all the members of the team herself, which had also become a team of five. Liam was her SFA and had come from Marseille to them. After FLETC he had worked the European desk in DC before joining his first team at the Great Lakes office, it was then at that office he'd got his experience of undercover work. He went to Marseille as what was to a temporary assignment as SFA when that team's one had been injured. Even he had become a party in the Jenny Shepherd debacle though. Because after returning back to the Great Lakes following the Marseille's SFA return. He'd then gone onto apply for other SFA jobs and had never even got to interview. They'd also got Charles who preferred to be called Charlie. He had just completed his Probie period with Vance in San Diego. Then finally they had Bethany who was going to be their Probie after having only just completed at FLETC and this was her first posting as an agent.

Not long after Natalie's arrival Liam was the next in and as he came out of the elevator a man came out carrying a really big bunch of flowers in his arms. Natalie was then very surprised when they came in her direction. She was then even more surprised when it actually turned out to be two big bouquets of flowers. One bunch was from her mom and sister, while the other bunch had come from Tony.

Over Tony she had already sort of guessed that he did most probably have feelings for her as well. Because it had just seemed that when he came to New York with her to find the really gorgeous apartment that she'd got and when he also helped her with the move, they had just grown a lot closer to one another. On his final night with her he'd cooked them a really gorgeous meal that they'd eaten together up the dinning table in candlelight. And as she watched him as they ate she could see it in his eyes that there was something there and he had feelings for her too. After the meal they'd lit the fire on her patio to have their drinks together and they ended up lying on the outdoor sofa together as they had the drinks. As they laid there together she had really loved the feeling of their bodies being so close together and the warmth that was coming off the both of them. Even so the two of them still didn't confess how they felt to one another. Then the next day when he left she managed to hold onto her emotions right up until he had finally gone, then she dissolved in tears. Since him leaving they had of course kept in touch with each other via phone calls, texts and E mails. Which of course when she got anything from him she couldn't help the smile that would appear on her face. Of course both Jess and her mom would keep in touch as well via calls from Jess and E mails with E mails from her mom. And they would also always tell her when he'd either been round for a meal with them or even if he'd just called in on them to make sure that everything was ok. Which also made her suspicious about him having feelings for her because she guessed that he wouldn't have done all that and kept in touch with her family otherwise? But she did also love knowing that he was at least keeping an eye on things for her because she knew that it was going to be a while before she was going to be able to get home again to see them all. So with getting the flowers she then powered up her computer and the first thing that she did was send them all an E mail to say thank you to them for the flowers. And as things went for that first day they didn't end up getting any cases come in. This meant that they had a chance of going over everyone's paperwork in their files to make sure that it was all in order and correct.

When she got home at the end of the day Natalie was in for a bit of a surprise because she had already decided on having a good soak in the bath. Then she was just going to put some sweats on and order in a take out. Not long after getting home though her doorbell rang and when she went to it there was someone there with a giant basket full of stuff. When she'd signed for it and had taken it over to the table to open it, she first of all found a note from Tony saying that he hoped it would be handy after hopefully not a long first day. Then on the bottom of the note was a phone number with instructions to call it when she was ready to eat and they would bring it round for her as his treat.

As she then opened the basket she was amazed to find that it was filled with hair care products, bubble baths, shower gels and body creams along with some gorgeous big fluffy towels and a big fluffy dressing gown as well. She then found another note pinned to it saying that he hoped it was the right size, which of course it was. She then got into the bath and did have a very gorgeous soak and while she was having it she started sending out the thank you thoughts to Tony for it all.

After getting out of the bath and wrapping herself up in the sweats and dressing gown she then called the number for the food. She was then very surprised when the Italian feast turned up because it was from the nearby restaurant that she and Tony had discovered during her move in and had become a favourite of theirs. But she hadn't got a clue as to how he'd managed to organize it all, because she knew that the restaurant didn't do take out. When she'd had the meal she then got herself a hot chocolate and then Tony a call. They had a really good talk, but because of him working out the time difference he told her that didn't she ought to be heading for bed before long. Then because of the way the two of them then fell into their usual joking manner over what he had said, she eventually did say that she was going to head for bed. As he wished her goodnight, she said that she would be thinking about him and that he was to also have a goodnight when his came along. They then said "Goodbye." To one another and both did audible sighs at the end of it. Just before ending the call finally she also came very close to saying "I love you Tony." But something stopped her from doing it. What she didn't also know was that after she'd left he was keeping a close eye on her family for her and that very morning he'd had breakfast with Jess and Dionne. Not only that the two of them had also kept up the sign language lessons with him that he and Natalie had begun, and now he was able to keep up a really good conversation in sign. So that morning when Jess was out of the way he and Dionne had talked and she had managed to get it out of him that he was in love with Natalie. She had then told him to not waste time and to tell Natalie how he felt about her and that he did also have her blessing for a relationship with Natalie. So like she had done after they'd ended the call he whispered "I love you Nat."

A/N: So here we are with a new chapter which I hope that you enjoy it. And for now the couple are apart and will they find their way together, you'll jus have to wait and see, I know I'm rotten aren't I? Thank you to everyone that has favourited and followed the story as well as the reviews I do really enjoy getting them all! xxx. D.