Chapter 2

Tony sighed and stretched as the plane rolled to a leisurely stop at Los Angeles International Airport. He turned his phone on as he grabbed his carry-on and jacket from the overhead bin. There was just one message on his phone, from Bishop.

How's LA? Hope u get back soon we got a case and gibbs is being crazy. Think he's missing headslapping u :) haha but hurry back!

Tony laughed and texted back

Well LA currently looks like the inside of a plane… Sorry bout the case but I'll probably be here for a while. Hopefully he'll go after mcgee with the headslaps instead of u good luck

Tony hit send, swung his bag over a shoulder, and exited the plane. He was annoyed that he had to wait a few minutes outside the plane for his planeside-checked bag, but at least it was faster than waiting by the baggage claim.

Once his bag came out, Tony quickly popped up the handle and dragged it behind him as he headed towards the exit of the airport. As he walked, he again got strange looks because of the weapon holstered on his hip. He shrugged them off easily enough, it wasn't often these days that people walked through airports carrying guns without also being handcuffed and dragged away soon after. Still, he liked it better when people looked at him with respect because he was an officer of the law, not a potential terrorist.

Looking out the glass doors of the airport, he saw that the sun was shining brightly- a major improvement over cold, snowy DC. Putting on his sunglasses and a bright smile, he headed outside.

G Callen was standing outside the doors, leaning seemingly casually against a wall, checking his phone. In reality, Tony knew he would be using his phone's camera to inconspicuously check out the surrounding area. As he approached, G put his phone in his pocket and stepped forwards to greet him.

"Hey, Tony. Good to see you again," Callen said, reaching out for a handshake.

"G! Nice to see you've managed to get through the past seventeen years alive and mostly well. I see you still have that facial problem though- you're just not as good looking as me," Tony replied as he warmly grasped G's hand and used it to pull him into a brief hug.

"In your dreams." G laughed as they walked to the car. "I'll always be better looking than you- and I can say it in more languages."

"Well, the languages part is certainly true, but it only means that you can lie about your appearance in more languages," Tony lightly teased as he slid into the passenger seat of the car.

"Yeah, I can lie about my appearance in more languages: by saying that you are better looking than me, I would be lying." G started the car and pulled out of the parking lot at Gibbs-level speeds.

"Okay, okay you win," The DC agent gave in. After a moment, he asked, "So why am I here?"

"Sam is out on medical leave; we are an agent down," G's hands tightened on the steering wheel as he replied.

"Yeah I know. Gibbs did inform me of that and Abby said he got shot but that it wasn't too bad. But that still doesn't explain why I'm here. I wasn't sent here to help out when you got shot a while ago. Why is it different now?"

G sighed. He looked much older than he had seventeen years ago; more so than just natural process of aging. Probably a part of this was due to the fact that his partner had been shot, but that was not all of it.

"Honestly, I have absolutely no idea. Director's orders, but that's all we were told. Well except for Hetty most likely, but she knows everything. If I had to guess, Vance is going to hit us with a major undercover op. You done much work undercover since we worked together?" G questioned.

Tony shoved back the memories of the former director and her undercover assignment for him.

"Eh. Sometimes, but not as much as I used to. I don't think Vance believes I actually can do undercover work. He doesn't have much faith in me at all; I think he would prefer it if I were dead or not working for NCIS anymore," Tony admitted.

G looked at him sharply. "You really think that?"

"Based off of everything he's said to or about me, yeah." Tony sighed.

"How stupid is he? You wouldn't have been on Gibbs' team in the first place, let alone lasted, what is it not, thirteen years?"

"Yeah. He thinks I'm just a spoiled rich brat."

"Has he never read your file? Seen everything from your cop days or the stuff about your dad disowning you? He knows that Gibbs doesn't stand for fools or anyone even slightly below his standards on his team. How does he think you got on his team and stayed there?" G was incredulous. "He's a damned idiot if he truly believes that about you."

"Thanks G. I highly doubt he read my file, or maybe he just read what he wanted to see. Wouldn't be the first time someone did that, someone who should have known better," Tony murmured, his thoughts drifting to Ziva doing just that. "Anyways, it's going to be weird talking to you in English instead of Spanish this time."

G chuckled, "And being in the US, not Columbia."

"And having backup inside the country that could actually get there in time if anything happened."

"Always nice," G agreed. "Although that op was surprisingly easy, compared to other things I have- and probably you have- done."

"Very true," Tony responded, and the pair slipped into an easy silence.

A bit later, after getting stuck in LA traffic for a while, they reached the OPS center. Henrietta Lange was waiting for them.

"Agent DiNozzo," she greeted, reaching out her hand for a handshake. "I've heard quite a bit about you."

Tony cracked a smile as he shook her hand, "All good things, I hope."

Hetty's expression darkened slightly. "That will remain to be seen."

Following Hetty, he and G walked inside the OPS center.

"Pretty nice place you've got here," Tony commented.

"Yes we do. Bit nicer than normal workspaces," A man with shaggy blond hair responded. "Marty Deeks, LAPD liaison. You must be Agent DiNozzo."

"Nice to meet you," Tony said as the two men shook hands. "And please, call me Tony."

"Okay then, Tony. I'll introduce you to the rest of the team. You already met G and Hetty-who, by the way, knows everything, so don't try to hide anything from her- and me, of course. Follow me, please," Deeks continued as he led the way up the stairs. "Sam, of course, is not here right now, but I'm assuming you guessed that already. My partner, Kensi, is also away for the moment."

Tony detected a bit of sadness and resentment in his voice as he said that, although the detective hid it well.

Deeks continued with his quick tour. "Down there's our desks and wardrobe stuff for undercover ops. Up here's the techie stuff that we're usually not allowed to touch. Do you do a lot of undercover work?" Not even pausing to allow Tony to answer, he carried on speaking. "Nell, Eric!" He called out as the reached the tech room. Gesturing to another guy, this one wearing beach shorts and a colorful Hawaiian shirt and a short young woman sitting at a bank of computers, he announced "Eric Beale and Nell Jones, this is Agent Tony DiNozzo from DC."

The woman-Nell-swiveled her chair around. "Hi, Tony. Nice to meet you. You're the guy that's filling in for Sam?"

"Yeah." Tony replied, feeling nervous. He wasn't so sure how the LA team would respond to having a random agent come in to take the place of one of their own, no matter how temporary the placement. He hoped they wouldn't be too hostile, as that would make it more difficult to do his job. So far, they'd seemed nice, but they had a lot of practice pulling off undercover work.

"Cool," Nell said, turning back to her work.

"Hi, Tony," Eric said, standing up and walking over to him for a handshake. "So you're from DC? Do you work with Abby Scuito?"

"Yes, I do. She works pretty closely with our team back home, actually. Why?"

"Oh, um, long story," Eric mumbled. "Do you, uh, think that you could pass along a message from me when you head back?"

"Sure," Tony said easily, raising a brow. "But couldn't you just send her a message on Facebook or something?"

"Well, yeah, I guess, but…." Eric scratched the back of his neck nervously. "It's kinda….I mean I wanted…."

"It's fine, I gotcha," the DC agent reassured him. "It's no problem."

"Thanks, man," Eric said, looking reassured.

Deeks tapped Tony's shoulder. "G looks like he wants to talk to you." He said, gesturing towards the office area downstairs.

"Right, thanks," Tony offered the detective a brief smile before heading down to talk to the lead agent.

"Hey, Tony. I wanted to talk to you about…." G trailed off as Eric let out a loud whistle. "Dammit," he muttered, starting to jog up the steps. "The whistle means we caught a case, by the way."

Tony followed him up the stairs to where the rest of the team had already assembled in front of the big screen.

"Okay, people," Eric said. "LAPD found a group of murdered sailors, Vance wants us to check it out."

"Okay," G said. "Tony, Deeks, let's go see what we've got."